Loki's out of the picture, but there's still
avenging to be done, so Marvel's top
team are back in action. This time round,
the superheroes have to fend off new
enemies Quicksilver and Scarlet Witch aka
twins Pietro and Wanda Maximoff who
are enhanced with super speed and mind
control ("he's fast and she's weird").
Scarlet Witch messes with Tony Stark's
mind, showing him a not-so-good vision of
the future, which leads him to experiment
with a peacekeeping artificial intelligence
programme. It goes awry to say the least,
and spawns new villain Ultron, who, voiced
by James Spader, manages to be intense,
creepy and sarcastically funny all at the
same time.
Age Of Ultron is heavy on the action
sequences, coming out all guns (and
hammers, shields and Hulk) blazing. The
Avengers fight the twins, they fight each
other, they fight Ulton, they have to deal
with another city under threat – it all
kicks off basically. Obviously, the visual
effects are spectacular, but it's the lighter
moments, like the one-liners in the midst
of these huge fights, that Joss Whedon
is especially good at. He's not afraid of
going for comedy – there's a great scene
in which the other Avengers attempt to
pick up Thor's hammer – which allows the
relationships between the characters to
shine.
With Whedon squeezing in a bunch of
new characters and plot points, the film
did feel slightly overstuffed. The Hawkeye
subplot could have been discarded,
and although Black Widow's flashback
sequences gave some interesting insights
into her character, they felt a little random.
Perhaps these threads will be pulled out
more in further Marvel movies.
Age Of Ultron is a supersized movie in
every sense – new characters, mammoth
action, cameos and science-y bits - so you
will need to concentrate a bit, especially if
you're not totally clued-up on all aspects
of the Marvel Universe, but you certainly
get a lot of bang for your buck.
12
Issue 75 / 2015
FILM
guestlist.net
Avengers: Age Of
UltrOn
Everyone's favourite superheroes have re-assembled to
save the world
