AVENGERS: AGE OF ULTRON  3.0***

 

        To begin with let me say that this Avengers movie is so over the top and has soooo much going on constantly, that it’s like trying to chug a gallon of your favorite milkshake in a matter of minutes or like thrill riding the biggest and fastest roller coaster for 2.5 hours non-stop. It’s just toooo much !!!!

 

After an ass kicking opening action sequence with all the Avengers, it becomes a story about Tony Stark (Iron Man) and Bruce Banner (Incredible Hulk) wanting to follow through on a world peacekeeping program they have designed: “The Ultron Program”,  that would maintain peace world-wide forever . But things go horribly wrong  in the course of creating the super, self-thinking (artificial intelligence) robot named Ultron.  Instead of wanting to provide world peace, Ultron decides to destroy the world.  As a result the Avengers must reassemble and stop Ultron and his legions of cloned robots.

 

The characters and the interaction among them; Iron Man, Thor, Captain America, The Hulk, Hawkeye, and The Black Widow are back and doing what they do best: trade one liners and bicker while they throw down with the bad guy. It's a real kick to see Robert Downey, Chris Hemsworth, Chris Evans, Mark Ruffalo, Jeremy Renner, and Scarlett Johansson in these iconic roles that fit them like gloves.   Samuel L. Jackson is back as Nick Fury, a part he was born to play. Newcomers Aaron Taylor Johnson and Elisabeth Oleson are Quicksilver and The Scarlet Witch, mutants with very special powers who start out on the wrong side, but like so many of the misguided in the Marvel Universe, eventually see the light. James Spader is the actor inside the robot Ultron  and does a good job especially with voicing the at times menacing  and at other times charming sides of  Ultron. But the problem and it is a BIG one is that Ultron" is supposed to be one of the most dangerous and merciless enemies in the Marvel universe and, instead, he is too charming when he should be really kick-ass frightening with the result that his villainous potential is wasted.  

 

There is not really a story here with a lot of great surprises.  Instead it is just a string of events that lead to another string of events. And  we  have the same pattern of a story. A villain that has an evil plan and needs to be stopped. This is not a problem as long as the movie keeps the viewer invested with other subplots and the villain is truly menacing. Here, the only thing it has going for it other than seeing our heroes interact, is one action scene after another that all feel kind of the same. In fact, the action is so bloated and loud at times, that after a while it  becomes exhausting and boring.  Part of it is that Ultron’s robot army is just not seen as a menace. While  there sure are a lot of them  they seem weak and no real threat to the Avengers.  

 Well, from what I’ve said so far you  probably think that I did not enjoy the movie. But I really did, actually, I had a lot of fun with it. But fun is not the only thing I look for in a movie. A movie can be fun in a lot of different ways. This movie did it with its great and vivid action scenes (though too repetitive), the dynamic CGI, the snarky and smart dialog, and an almost compelling though rushed villain.

All things considered, Age of Ultron is a very good escapist action film  which could have been sooo much better.

It is rated “PG-13” and, in my opinion, should be seen in IMax 3D for maximum enjoyment.( if you are in the Raleigh area I highly recommend the Imax downtown rather than the pseudo Imax at Cary Crossroads )

 

Clark