Avengers: Age of Ultron Review

Courtesy of Marvel Studios

Marvel Studios has once again set the standard by which all other movie Universes will be measured against.  They've spent the last ten years building franchises from the ground up (Iron Man, Thor, The Avengers) all leading towards movies as-yet unreleased that may simply destroy the world with their awesome.

The Avengers: Age of Ultron movie brought us one step closer to the Infinity War movie Marvel Studios has been lording over our heads for years.  Like a kid who knows what he's getting for Christmas in June and can't touch it till that fateful day; Infinity War will be the culmination of events the Marvel Universe has been setting in motion for a long, long time.

But, let's focus on the present.

Courtesy of Marvel Studios

Avengers: Age of Ultron has a basic theme - we must protect the whole world.  Tony Stark, still dealing with the mental demons of the battle of New York, develops the framework of the Ultron program.  The Ultron program is meant to be a fully function A.I. designed to protect the world from threats too big for the Avengers alone to battle.

But, as we've seen with countless other A.I. movies and books humanity is judged to be an unworthy inhabitant of Earth; a cancer necessary to be eradicated.

Moving past the cultural undertones of this film and looking at just the fun parts, and there are plenty, we see that the witty banter is at a heightened level.  Whedon pulled no punches even making fun of Captain America's age with a joke about foul language,  There was the on-point humor of Tony Stark making us all remember why he's the most fun to hate hero we have in Marvel.

The new characters introduced: Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver (though he was already introduced in X-Men Days of Future Past - different actor) and though their history is different than that in the comics it is necessary to ensure a separation from the X-Men universe and the Avengers universe.  In the comics Magneto is their father.  We are also introduced to one of the most powerful, and completely undervalued characters, Vision (Paul Bettany).

In a year that promises to be epic in terms of monster hit movies (Jurassic World, Star Wars), Age of Ultron set a proper tone and a high standard by showing that on-screen chemistry and comedic timing can make a huge difference in the quality of a film.  I hope Snyder and Singer can pull of the same with 2016's next big comic movie installments.

Courtesy of Marvel Studios

One of the complaints about the first Avengers movie was that the only action came at the end and though it was outstanding the sequence was stunted.  Age of Ultron should leave no one wanting for action and the scenes we've come to expect from big-budget action movies.  The final chapter of the film is both stirring and moving.  Your heart will break and immediately be mended only to break again.

Marvel Studios has this franchise headed in the right direction and by using it as the sun in their universe of movies all other films are enhanced by its over-arching story line.

This is a can't miss in the theatres and should be seen multiple times to catch all the nuance of story playing out in each scene.  Enjoy!

This is your bin fodder movie review guru signing off!

Courtesy of Marvel Studios