Review of Avengers: Age of Ultron (2015) by Ahnehnois — 06 May 2015

It's really kind of boring and derivative at this point. The first one had its issues, but at least it was novel; we hadn't seen anything like it. Age of Ultron throws a lot of stuff at you, but it all feels regurgitated from the first one, and overly commercialized, with product placements galore. Joss Whedon's gone corporate.

There are so many characters that the few attempts at development aren't successful. The camp of it, the fake-looking CGI and the very comic book-y costumes, just doesn't play that well any more. And guess what, there are some more MacGuffins coming!

The titular villain never really leaves a mark, simply for screen time issues. Not that James Spader isn't entertaining, but if you want a real exploration of AI, check out Ex Machina. This movie tries to leverage the idea, but there isn't enough substance there. There are also a lot of people doing fake Russian accents at this point, which is not good.

On the positive side, every now and then there's a laugh line, and the setup for a civil war between the superheroes suggests that maybe future movies will have some more intrigue. Who are you rooting for? This one's mostly just CGI battles. It feels like filler. For a movie that cost almost $300 million, that isn't good enough.

Also, one female character is briefly captured and spends approximately five minutes of screen time not kicking ass, and a female and male character talk equally about how they want to have children and can't, so therefore this movie is a misogynistic rant from noted misogynist Joss Whedon, and if you watch it Marvel Studios will take away women's right to vote and institute mandatory sexual slavery of all women at every Marvel-watching household in the world. Or not.

(No, seriously, some people are attacking this movie because of these minor inoffensive plot points. Look it up.