Marvel's Avengers: Age of Ultron

SPOILER-FREE MOVIE REVIEW

Today, I shall be reviewing the sequel to the $1.5 billion smash hit, 'Marvel's Avengers: Age of Ultron'. Expectations were astronomically high when this sequel was announced. Many questions were asked too, such as "how are they going to top the first Avengers movie" and "how can they make it bigger". Let me just put how it turned out to you this way - they succeeded.

One major factor as to how they managed to live up to the huge expectations was that they stuck with the core team who made the first movie. Director Joss Whedon (who also wrote the terrific script)returned, as well as the cast we all know and love - Robert Downey Jr. as Tony Stark/Iron Man, Chris Evans as Steve Rogers/Captain America, Chris Hemsworth as Thor and the rest. Some interesting new cast members were introduced as well, such as James Spader as the voice of Ultron, Paul Bettany as Vision, Aaron Taylor-Johnson as Quicksilver and Elizabeth Olsen as Scarlet Witch.

With all these new characters announced, I started feeling a little worried that this movie would end up like how both Sam Raimi and Marc Webb's final Spider-Man movies were. Both suffered from the introduction of too many characters which jeopardised certain other characters' development as well as mess up the entire flow of the movie. With 'Age of Ultron', however, they got it spot on. Each and every character has adequate development and screen time, and I was absolutely relieved that they succeeded in avoiding making the same mistakes made in the past.

I was also heartened when I discovered that the duration of the film would be 141 minutes. I feel that movies of this magnitude should be at the very least 2 hour long to allow for enough time to develop characters as well as other story-related things. This brings me to the pacing of the film, and again they got it spot on. The movie flowed gracefully and the jump between action scenes and quieter, more serious scenes were good. The only qualms I had was the jump between the end of the final battle and the quieter portion that came after it. It felt a little abrupt and half-baked, leaving me questioning the outcome of that action sequence when the movie has already progressed to its concluding segment.

On to the story now, and it was fantastic. 'Age of Ultron' is quite simply a Marvel fanboy's dream - so many 'easter eggs' here and there as well as some accurate depictions of events that happened in the comics. The concept of the antagonist of the film being an Artificial Intelligence (AI) is very unique and intriguing, and together with the haunting and menacing voice of James Spader, Ultron becomes very, very memorable. Joy of joys for Hawkeye fans too, as he has a much bigger role in this movie. Joss Whedon also made this movie very, very funny. There are many more comedic moments in this film as compared to any other in the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU), especially 'Iron Man 3'. This comedic touch I felt was very welcome, and it added a lightness of touch to what was a pretty dark storyline.

The cast was terrific as usual, displaying terrific chemistry between each other - whether in happy or not so happy times. There's one surprising omission from the lineup of cast members, however. And that's Gwyneth Paltrow as Pepper Potts. I was very surprised that she didn't appear in this movie, given the ending of 'Iron Man 3' and how Tony and Pepper rekindled their relationship. Of all the new characters introduced, the one that was the most lovable in my opinion is Aaron Taylor-Johnson as Quicksilver. I was wondering how they would manage to top Evan Peters' brilliant portrayal of the fast-talking and fast-moving kid in 'X-Men: Days of Future Past'. In total honesty, they only managed to top that portrayal because of the former having far more screen time than the latter. However, he is still a very lovable character due to some things that occur in the movie (I shall not comment any further).

The soundtrack by Brian Tyler and Danny Elfman is absolutely fantastic. I really like how they blended the themes from the other MCU movies together with the epic Avengers theme by Alan Silvestri, with the theme from the 'Thor' movies being most prominent in it.

Back to the high expectations set for this movie, and not only did 'Age of Ultron' meet the expectations, it exceeded them. The only factor that doesn't make it on-par with the first movie is the abrupt ending. However, that doesn't take away the fact that 'Age of Ultron' is mindblowingly awesome. I feel like watching it again - this time in IMAX because the visuals are magnificent.

All in all, 'Marvel's Avengers: Age of Ultron' was an excellent sequel to the first movie, as well as a worthy climax to Phase 2 of the MCU. The added humour is welcome and the introduction of interesting new characters breathes new life into the franchise. I'm also pretty sure that 'Age of Ultron' will set new box office records worldwide. Definitely worth buying on Blu-ray.

9/10.