“… if you have your heart set on watching Quicksilver, just watch X-Men: Days of Future Past.”

Avengers: Age of Ultron is the sequel to the wildly popular film The Avengers. Unfortunately, this movie seems to fall short of the accomplishments of its predecessor. Avengers: Age of Ultron finds our old friends, the Avengers, hanging out and drinking beers when Tony Stark accidentally creates a sentient A.I. (Ultron) who then takes robot form and tries to destroy the world. At least this movie has a storyline everyone can relate to.

The Avengers was such a great movie because we got to see this band of characters work together, after having already been introduced in their own respective films. The problem I have with Avengers: Age of Ultron is that the film doesn’t feel like an Avengers movie, instead focusing more on individual characters. This is in part caused by the character of Scarlet Witch who mind-fucks each of the Avengers in an attempt to tear them apart. I enjoyed the sentiment behind that idea, because even in the first film it was hinted that the Avengers didn’t get along too well. The problem occurs with the execution wherein each character deals with their own demons instead of dealing with things that would pit them against one another. I’m trying to tiptoe around this so as not to spoil anything major, so please forgive me. Anyway, it just felt like this was more of a movie delving into the terrible pasts/fears of these characters and then there were some action scenes just because. The best use of Scarlett Witch involved Bruce Banner, but unfortunately that just wasn’t enough to sell me on the premise. To add onto this point, the story then seems lacking. I suppose it is because each character is developed a little bit, but there doesn’t seem to be a cohesive storyline throughout. It is just a little bit of exposition, fight scene, some more exposition, fight scene, a little more exposition, another fight scene, then a fight scene that lasts for 40 minutes, then credits. I hate boiling movies down to core concepts like that (because no movie looks good when that is done to it), but that is all Avengers: Age of Ultron felt like to me. Avengers: Age of Ultron also introduces two new characters into the fold: Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver. I’ve already talked a bit about Scarlet Witch’s role in the film, so let’s talk about Quicksilver for a bit. For those of you who have seen the mid credits scene of Captain America: The Winter Soldier, you will know that Quicksilver and Scarlet Witch are twins. Usually, twins are able to play off of each other in roles such as this, but in this film Scarlet Witch seems to be the only one of any importance. Quicksilver seems to just be there to wear Adidas track suits and explain to people why Tony Stark is a bad man. I really disliked both characters in this film because I just didn’t care about them. I understand that they think Tony Stark sucks, but then they are just kind of okay with him. Their motivation and character arc are both really poorly done, and their acting wasn’t great either (seriously, what the fuck were those accents?). The one thing that Avengers: Age of Ultron did really well is that it made me care about Hawkeye, which is impressive because even at the beginning of this film he is insufferable. I’m not going to spoil anything about his character, but the beginning makes it clear that the Avengers really don’t need him. There is an instance later on in which Hawkeye gives a speech that makes me do a complete 180 and understand exactly why a character like Hawkeye is important. On the technical side of things Avengers: Age of Ultron is pretty good. I feel like a broken record spouting how good the effects are in every Marvel movie I watch, so I’ll keep this short. I just want to say that I appreciate that they finally got the effect of Tony coming out of his Iron Man suit to look right. So that’s a plus I guess. Other than that, everything was pretty good CG wise. It was strange to me that Ultron had a moving mouth. Other than it not making any sense (he’s made of metal, not rubber), it just looked weird to see metal that was supposed to be really strong bend like skin would. I understand that it helps us relate to that character, but come on he’s a bad guy. No one really needs to relate to him. I guess the last thing to talk about is the acting, and again it is pretty middle of the road. There were no terrible performances (except for those fucking stupid accents), and there was really only one stand out to me and that is James Spader who voiced Ultron. Other than that, everyone did what they were supposed to I guess. Funny enough, that is a great metaphor for this movie in general. It did everything that it was supposed to. It’s not a bad movie, but it certainly isn’t a movie that I would watch again and again. It just kind of exists. And if you have your heart set on watching Quicksilver, just watch X-Men: Days of Future Past.

Overall Avengers Age of Ultron is a movie that ultimately plays it safe. There is never any real feeling for any of the characters on screen, they all just kind of go through the motions and then the credits role.

I give Avengers: Age of Ultron a B