Review: Avengers: Age of Ultron (2015)

In Avengers: Age of Ultron, Tony Stark tries to jump start a peace-keeping program, one that would free the Avengers of their duties and instead everything would be handled by an army of Iron Man-like droids. However, things go awry and Stark’s experiment results in the creation of villainous Ultron who threatens to dismantle everything the Avengers have worked for and attempts to execute his own terrible plans. Avengers: Age of Ultron is the long awaited sequel to 2012’s The Avengers and picks up right after the events of Captain America: The Winter Soldier.

I think it’s fair to say that Age of Ultron is Marvel’s most ambitious project yet and it’s one that most definitely delivers. Boasting a large cast of returning members – Robert Downey Jr, Chris Evans, Chris Hemsworth, Scarlet Johannson, Mark Ruffalo, Jeremy Renner and Samuel L. Jackson – as well as some new additions – Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Elizabeth Olsen, James Spader – Age of Ultron juggles with a bigger, more broader story than the first one and succeeds in doing so. Age of Ultron is enjoyable, entertaining and varies perfectly between dark and light tones, it’s the sequel I was waiting for. The film welcomes a somber, more darker tone than it’s upbeat predecessor which brings a new-found dose of conflict to the entire thing and it’s something that always kept me interested in the movie.

As the villainous Ultron, James Spader is excellent. His work extends only to voice and motion capture work but he does a marvelous job of bringing Ultron on-screen. Ultron is both sinister and menacing, one of the franchise’s best villains. The rest of the cast are great as well. The set-pieces are stunning to say the least, the film’s final act is even a step-up from the first film’s Battle for New York, the action is well-orchestrated and always left me entertained. The script is both the film’s biggest weakness one of it’s strengths. While the movie stays coherent and compelling for the most part it does stumble occasionally. Many of the film’s scenes felt disjointed, and many parts under-cooked, and since there is already a large amount of stuff in the movie I’m won’t be surprised to know if much if it was lost in the editing room.

However this is only a minor misstep in an otherwise fun and thrilling ride and Avengers: Age of Ultron is a bigger, badder, better sequel to The Avengers.The comedy and light-heartedness is still there but there is much more at stake now and the darker, more ominous tone brings a new level of excitement and complexity to the film.

7.5/10

-Khalid