Review of Avengers: Age of Ultron (2015) by Miroslav G — 31 Mar 2016

Ah yes, the long-awaited successor to the phenomenon known as The Avengers. Naturally of course, there are going to be huge expectations surrounding a film of this magnitude, especially when taking into consideration how much of a financial and critical success the original was.

However, it seems that Avengers: Age of Ultron has left audiences mixed on their positions regarding the film. Some really enjoyed it, and regard it as yet another welcome entry into the Marvel Cinematic Universe canon while others aren't so keen to the film, and feel that it has been crushed by the weight of its own spectacle and is yet another weak entry to the MCU canon like some of the other Marvel Phase 2 films.

I seem to fall mostly in the latter category as I enjoyed the film to a certain extent and thought it was fairly entertaining throughout. However, like many others, I had huge expectations walking into the film and I couldn't help but feel underwhelmed and disappointed while walking out of the theater after the film was over.

The movie never came close to living up to expectations because it never really aspires to be anything more than simply just another derivative Marvel affair, only serving the purpose of keeping us entertained for 2Ã, 1/2 hours before we go home and ultimately forget all about it.

I mean, come on, this is, after all, an Avengers film: a team-up on a grand scale and anything short of spectacular is unacceptable, but the film just felt like a cluster of your typical Marvel conventions while also somewhat feeling like another set-up film for bigger and potentially better films to come; quite simply, it's a filler movie.

First of all, let me address that the trailers were very misleading, making the film look as if it were taking the series in a darker, more serious direction while that couldn't be farther from the truth.

To me, a darker direction was a welcome change and felt appropriate due to Ultron's seemingly dark character but that wasn't at all what we got. Speaking of Ultron, James Spader's calm, collected, and creepy voice perfectly suits the villain, but there's only so much he can do with just his voice.

The character started off as very promising, but his buildup was completely rushed and wasn't given the proper time and attention it should've been. He was unexpectedly sarcastic, witty, and wise-cracking instead of menacing, diabolical, malevolent, immensely powerful, and ruthlessly evil like he's portrayed in the comic books and as a result, never comes off as the least bit dangerous, threatening, or intimidating.

And most of time, he even came off as uncharacteristically goofy and over-the-top due to some of the humor the film was going for and by the end, was just a simple caricature of himself, spouting one-liners and being evil just for the sake of being evil like some bad generic villain out of a Saturday morning cartoon.

On top of that, the film is titled "Avengers: Age of Ultron" even though Ultron is defeated in the span of just a few days throughout the course of the film. You might as well rename the film "the minor inconvenience or nuisance of Ultron" considering that would've been a much more accurate title.

Plus, Ultron should've killed some or at least greatly overpowered the Avengers, subsequently making a big impact on the Marvel Cinematic Universe, raising the stakes for all future Marvel films to come while reshaping the foundation of the Marvel Cinematic Universe as we know it like the trailers promised, but Joss Whedon and Disney can't help but to treat everything like it's a joke.

Ultimately, Ultron is yet another disappointing, generically evil, and forgettable villain in a long array of subpar villains in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. It's quite a shame really, because we could've had an incredible villain in Ultron had they stuck to the comic book source material.

Speaking of the humor, while at times it was witty and spot-on, most of the time however, it came off as inappropriately placed throughout the film. I mean, Hawkeye cracking a one-liner almost immediately after Quicksilver's death is anything but appropriate, right? When your movie sacrifices dramatic heft for a quick, cheap joke or two, then it has a serious problem.

And that's mainly Joss Whedon's fault more than anyone else's due to his overtly comedic direction (hopefully the Russo brothers can prove themselves worthy successors to Whedon with Civil War and Infinity War like they did with The Winter Soldier).

The new additions of Quicksilver, Scarlet Witch, and Vision are all decent enough but never fully utilized like they could've been due to the film being cramped full with characters. The film just has so many things going on at once, too many characters, and all at such a rapid pace, trying to do too many things at once that there's almost no breathing room.

On top of that, the structure of the film just isn't very cohesive, featuring choppy subplots that have little to no explanation and that ultimately go pretty much nowhere with no payoff whatsoever, resulting in a muddled, disjointed, and inconsistent film.

And how come this film doesn't reference the events of Iron Man 3, Thor: The Dark World, or Captain America: The Winter Soldier? All three of those films played a pivotal role in shaping the Marvel Cinematic Universe during Phase 2 but the film pretty much acts like they never happened and doesn't feel at all linked to them (even the original Avengers film referenced and felt directly linked to the the events of the previous Phase 1 films).

The original Avengers line-up are all fantastic once again, but unfortunately have to fight for limited screentime throughout this clustered film. Interestingly enough, Hawkeye was the standout character of this film because he surprisingly had been given a substantial amount of character development and screentime, subsequently humanizing Hawkeye even further, making him interesting, and making us care for his character (so Hawkeye basically went from a useless character that we don't really care about to a useless character that we kind of care about).

So while Avengers: Age of Ultron is kind of fun and entertaining to a fault, it's not much else than a forgettable mess that falls flat of expectations because it never strives for greatness like some of Marvel's other entries, just being a passable film in the end.

It had so much potential but is ultimately a disappointment and clear step-down from the original Avengers film.