Avengers: Age of Ultron

How do you make a sequel to the third highest grossing film of all time, in a genre that has over-saturated the market, while maintaining global audience interest? Simple. You assemble the Avengers. And having Joss Whedon as the writer/director on your team doesn’t hurt.

Everyone knows about the Avengers by now. If you happen to have been hiding under a rock, the Avengers are the superhero team of Iron Man (Robert Downey Jr.), the Hulk (Mark Ruffalo), Thor (Chris Hemsworth), and Captain America (Chris Evans). Along with Black Widow (Scarlett Johannson) and Hawkeye (Jeremy Renner), they are the heroes There are a few rotating supporting heroes in the mix as well, but really too many to list. The 2012 spectacular shattered expectations and records to the box office tune of over $1.5 billion worldwide. In the film world, this creates a daunting task; the dreaded sequel. Look at James Cameron for example. He’s the mastermind behind two of the greatest sequels in film history (Aliens, Terminator 2), yet he’s still losing sleep over his Avatar sequels (which have grown to three films being written simultaneously by the way).

Challenge accepted. Joss Whedon is a genius. He has grown from a writer with a cult following (Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Firefly) to the man putting all of the moving parts together in the biggest film franchise in cinematic history. I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again; Marvel has knocked it out of the park with their vision, and will continue to do so for years.
Age of Ultron picks up where we left off in 2012. The Avengers are traveling the world protecting the innocent and fighting evil organizations bent on global domination. Enter the Maximov Twins, Quicksilver (Aaron Taylor-Johnson) and Scarlet Witch (Elizabeth Olsen). Quicksilver can move at lightning speed (not nearly as cool as the same character in X-Men: Days of Future Past), and Scarlet Witch can control minds with her powers. She gets inside Tony Stark’s mind and convinces him to create Ultron, an artificial intelligence superhero, supplanting the Avengers and making them unnecessary. It’s a very lazy and cynical move on Stark’s part, but shows the toll that saving the world can take on a man.

Enter Ultron. Voiced exquisitely by James Spader, the artificial intelligence takes robotic form and begins concluding that the true path to peace is through the elimination of humanity, and that needs to start with the Avengers. Makes sense to me. And a great summary for a purebred action film.

By way of dazzling special effects-laden action sequences, the Avengers create an A.I. ally of their own, and take on Ultron and his army of drones in a finale that would make Michael Bay blush.
Contrasting the sequel with the original, we get a look at the next generation of Avengers. New characters take on more visible roles, possibly sending some of the originals off to green pastures in the near future. We have more bantering between the members that is typical of Whedon’s style and the action remains fully kid-friendly.

The film plays it safe. Sticking to tried and true story arcs and character pathways. I don’t blame Whedon for keeping the tone light and not straying down the natural path of darkness that inevitably shows itself in so many sequels. He sticks to what works, likely the work of the overseers at the studio, but the action is the point. I know Whedon is capable of more, but I feel like he was held back, or he just got tired and lazy.

Nevertheless, the film will be a massive success. It will pick up where Furious 7’s record-shattering April box office draw left off, and spark the summer bonanza that in my opinion may make 2015 one for the records. Avengers: Age of Ultron is a lot of fun, and it paves the way for a multitude of potential directions for the future films. There are already no fewer than ten upcoming projects slated and/or in the can over the next five years, and this summer’s Ant Man will determine whether audiences are willing to take a leap away from the more well-known heroes. I say yes. I find myself growing tired of the big three (Iron Man, Thor, Captain America), but alas, I keep coming back for more, just like you will.

Not as good as the original, but sequels rarely are. See it for the marvelous visual effects. 7/10.