MCU Filmathon - Avengers: Age of Ultron

To recapture the effect of the first Avengers movie would be near enough impossible, all that needed to be done was another Avengers film with just as much action and an even greater story to top their first outing. Considering the quality of Marvel sequels we've seen with Iron Man 2 and Thor: Dark World maybe not a lot would be expected with a sequel. But just like Captain America: The Winter Soldier - Age of Ultron is a worthy second installment for The Avengers.

The movie opens with the team assaulting the castle of HYDRA leader Baron Von Strucker (Thomas

Kretschmann) and find themselves against two of Strucker's experiment subjects, siblings Wanda and Pietro Maximoff played by Elizabeth Olson and Aaron Taylor-Johnson. Wanda being Scarlet Witch having the ability to warp reality and place visions inside peoples heads, as she does with Tony Stark who witnesses a time of absolute destruction which scares him dearly. Working with Banner, both use Loki's Scepter and create an intelligent form of A.I designed to protect Earth. Although upon Ultron's birth he interprets the World he is in differently to how Tony wanted him to view it, becoming hostile to the Avengers team and humanity. What I enjoy about this opening is the understanding we have of the villain. We witnessed the birth of Ultron and how he misunderstands the World he lives in. In a way it's quite sad and not long after that we see him take over one of Stark's damaged suits and we see him limp into meet the team for the first time. Unlike most villain meetings in Marvel we are scared by Ultron as he takes the form of a disfigured robot, also backed up by James Spader's brilliant movements for Ultron!

Every character have their own moments in the movie which is nice, but the movie spends a lot of time focusing on the actions of Stark and Banner which is no doubt setting up Civil War as the two do cause quite a lot of damage in their one on one fight. Also showing the first cracks in the team

since they assembled. Although Thor's little trip completely slows down the story and doesn't further the Ultron narrative yet it provides some insight into Thor: Ragnarok which seems a little bit pointless. It soaks up a lot of screen time and doesn't provide any useful information for the present story. Black Widow also gets more insight as we look into her past as she looks back on her salty and rocky road to becoming a Russian agent. This helps further her relationship with Banner and it was lovely to see the two connect throughout the film and sad to see the two never quite overcoming each other, like Banner who could never trust himself enough to get close to someone. Captain America also recognises that he is more out of his time and still coming to terms with the World around him. Joss Whedon finds that perfect balance between story and character arcs brilliantly (as he should he's amazing) as we are never lost at any point in the story. Apart from Thor's little detour but fortunately that doesn't divert our attention for long!

The silent hero of the first Avengers gets more acclaim in this one, Hawkeye is finally noticed and we

get a look into his private life as the team retreat to his family home, he also provides better assistance in the final battle and is probably the hardest working team member in that sequence. We also see the return of Nick Fury as well which was strangely handled. Something needed to be shown between the end of Winter Soldier and his reappearance at Hawkeye's house because it's bugging me to see him in one state and then another. Although I can't fault Samuel L. Jackson who did a marvellous job once again as Nick Fury!

There's no doubting this film has some great comical moments, some which will standout forever as some of the funniest moments in the MCU, although I reserve most of those moments to Guardians X-Men: Apocalypse he'll get a much bigger role in a different story!
of the Galaxy. Vision is late to the game as he enters the film late but Paul Bettany has a very commanding presence with him being mostly makeup and costume with the occasional CGI element to him. Also already having the voice of Jarvis he had quite a calm vibe about him. I am looking forward to seeing more of Vision in Civil War and Scarlet Witch who provides a lot of great moments in the film. As for Quicksilver, he was a great addition but obviously he just a secondary character and not a lot was made of him. Perhaps in

A worthy sequel that is strong in so many ways, Age of Ultron provides a lot of information for phase 3 and sets up Civil War quite well, watching this again got me really excited for the start of Phase 3 and to think it's only two months away is even more exciting!

I Salute you for reading! :)

First post in ages, jeeeeez what is up with me?! Well no more strange breaks like that I'm back posting now! :)