Please remember 47!!!!!!
I hate reading plot points and surprises in movie reviews. For some reason, over the last few years, reviews of books, TV shows and movies contain long synopsis of the plots, giving away details and developing storylines. You won’t find that here. In fact, just listing many of the stars of the movie gives away several surprises.
I enjoyed the first Avengers movie and if you did, I am sure you will like the second. I gave the first one 3.5 stars out of four, and I give this 3 stars. As with all of these movies I feel the fight scenes go on a bit too long and some plodding, near the middle of the picture, slows down the pace. Marvel Studios has caught on to the fact that it’s not just the action sequences we find interesting but the character development and interaction between the super-heroes are important.
This is definitely a Silver Age movie, meaning the characters, including Ultron (created by Roy Thomas) all come from the 1960s. Of course they are modernized with today’s special effects, which is a major part of the movie. Robots used to look phony, but now they can look so real. Originally, in the comics Ultron was created by Henry Pym, the Ant-Man. Well, his movie isn’t out yet so they had his creator be Tony Stark and Bruce Banner. Also, in the comics, Ultron-5 is made of the strongest metal in creation, adamantium, also invented by Henry Pym. (Actually that too was thought up by Roy Thomas!) However, I believe adamantium is being used in the X-Men movies (owned by Fox) and cannot be used here. So Ultron uses vibranium, which can only be found in the African country of Wakanda, home of the Black Panther. Once there we get to meet the Panther’s first Silver Age enemy: Klaw.
There are, as I can count them, eleven super-heroes in the movie and that may begin an overload. Certainly we want to see the main stars, Robert Downey Jr. (Iron Man); Chris Evans (Captain America and perhaps the standout here); Scarlett Johansen (Black Widow) and so on but Jeremy Renner as Hawkeye shines unexpectedly here. Two new characters who are introduced, the Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver and, just like their original introduction in X-Men #4 they at first seem to be villains. The Vision also debuts.
Mark Ruffallo stands out as Dr. Bruce Banner and the Hulk is getting to look and move more and more like him. I also believe that in the movies, the Hulk is a better supporting character than the star of his own movie.
For those of you watching Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. you can see how a few plot points fold into this movie. On last week’s S.H.I.E.L.D. once Coulson discovers the whereabouts of Baron Strucker (another villain created in the 1960’s) he sends in the Avengers. Well, that’s how the movie begins. Sadly, Agent Coulson does not even have a cameo.
I don’t want to reveal more because I feel it would give away a lot of the surprises I had. My only disappointment is that after watching the hugely long credits at the end there was no final extra scene.
Oh, The Age of Ultron is 47. He first appeared in Avengers #55, August 1968.
