Review: Avengers: Age of Ultron
By Christine Petralia





Image courtesy of Walt Disney Studios
May 4, 2015
*Contains Spoilers*
While not as good as it’s predecessor, The Avengers, this sequel is quite fun, with a little bit of romance and comedy mixed in with a lot of action. It does run a little long at two hours and 21 minutes, but doesn’t drag and has a pretty decent plot. The usual characters shine, and expect a few of your favorite sidekicks from previous Marvel films, such as Falcon (Anthony Mackie) and War Machine (Don Cheadle). The film also introduces two new Avengers, the twins Scarlet Witch (Elizabeth Olsen) and Quicksilver (Aaron Taylor-Johnson). I particularly like this installment of Marvel’s superheroes because they all played really well off of each other.
The group raids a Hydra lab where they are working on experiments with humans with the scepter previously wielded by Loki (Thor’s brother). During the battle, the Scarlet Witch works her mind control on Iron Man (Robert Downey Jr.), where he sees all of his friends dead because of him. This spooks him. Once safely home with the scepter, Tony Stark asks Bruce Banner/Hulk (Mark Ruffalo) to help him complete his global defense system, Ultron (James Spader), using the artificial intelligence from it.
Ultron unfortunately believes the only way to save Earth is to destroy humanity. He starts with destroying J.A.R.V.I.S., Stark’s AI unit. Then he attacks the Avengers and heads to Sokvia, where Hydra was doing experiments. Ultron, who wants to get bigger and stronger and create an army to destroy humanity, recruits the twins to help him. The Avengers find him, but the Scarlet Witch uses her mind control to mess with the team.
Feeling defeated by a robot, the team heads to a ‘safehouse,’ which is really just Hawkeye’s (Jeremy Renner) home with his wife and kids. They formulate a plan with the help of Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson). Meanwhile, Ultron goes to Banner’s friend to create a better body for himself. They use her work along with the scepter’s gem to start uploading Ultron’s mind and plans into the body. However, the Scarlet Witch reads his mind and doesn’t like the plan, so they turn on him. The twins join the Avengers, who eventually steal this new being.
The new being is brought to life as Vision (Paul Bettany). He, along with the twins and the Avengers head back to Sokovia to stop Ultron from destroying the world. As some try to evacuate the city, others try to stop Ultron. But his plan is set forth as he lifts part of it up into the sky, with every intention of launching it back down causing global extinction. And just when they think they’ve failed, Nick Fury arrives with his mighty ship and other Avengers, such as War Machine and Falcon. Together, all successfully stop Ultron and evacuate the city. They do suffer one casualty as Quicksilver isn’t quick enough to avoid some bullets, but he does save Hawkeye and a child.
And then it’s time to reboot. A new Avengers facility is started in New York, run by Fury, Banner’s friend Cho and Erik Selvig (Stellan Skarsgard) (of Thor fame). Thor heads back to his planet, as he fears the forces have manipulated things there; Stark and Hawkeye retire; Banner flees, fearing he will screw things up with Black Widow; and the Captain and Black Widow stick around to train the ‘new recruits,’ including Falcon, War Machine, Scarlet Witch and Vision.
In the end credits, Thanos is seen taking the Infinity Gauntlet and saying ‘Fine, I’ll do it myself.’
We next see the Avengers all together in 2018 and then 2019. However, several I believe there are other Captain America and Thor films coming out before then, leading up to those movies.
I think my favorite part out of the whole film, besides the epic battle scenes, was the storyline about Hawkeye and his family. I believe Marvel doesn’t want to explore a separate film with just Hawkeye, which is fine, but I liked that his story was told. The Black Widow’s story is told a bit too, which was also great. I did like the romance between her and Hulk, but it made sense when he fled, as that’s his typical behavior.
It’s definitely worth it to see this film in the theaters just for the battle scenes alone.
Imagine you hit your 20s and never age. This is the story of Adaline, who at the age of 29 was in an accident that changed her life forever. She doesn’t age and struggles to keep a low-profile so not to raise suspicion, that is until she falls in love.
The story of a really rich young man who seduces a young virgin and brings her into his world of BDSM. Based off the book. Don’t get your hopes up, it’s just as good as the book and I’ll leave it at that.
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