Some say too many cooks can spoil the broth, but when you have Hulk, you can throw all that out the window. The long-awaited sequel “Avengers: Age of Ultron” hit theaters May 1, and the action was definitely worth the three-year wait.
Thor, Captain America, The Hulk, Black Widow, Hawkeye and Iron Man return, and some special guests become new additions to the Avengers lineup. Our numerous super heroes serve up villains on a hot plate of justice in a variety of fashions.
“Avengers: Age of Ultron” doesn’t skip a beat in jumping right into the action, with the opening scene cutting straight to our heroes kicking butt harder than the 1996, NBA champion Chicago Bulls.
In “Ultron,” the Avengers beefed up their arsenal with several new abilities, such as Tony Starks ‘Sentry Mode’ Iron Man suit and The Hulk’s destructive wrath.
The story picks up with our team looking like a much more cohesive unit than what we saw in the first “Avengers,” but that’s not to say they don’t have a few black sheep that love to go against the herd.
That role is, of course, played by Tony Stark, who discovers a new technology that could possibly protect the world without the need of heroes. Stark decides to proceed with his program without telling anyone except science companion Bruce Banner. With the aid of Banner’s remarkable intelligence, the two scientists test the age-old theory of playing God to create an artificial being with a deranged mind of its own.
Thus, Ultron is born.
As far as Marvel movie villains go, Ultron takes the cake. Unlike Loki, who is enthralled with the thoughts of pure domination, or Magneto, who follows a strict code of allegiance to his kin, Ultron’s actions are more comparable to the thought process of The Joker from “Batman”. Like The Joker, Ultron speaks in riddles, doesn’t hesitate to step on his comrades back to get what he wants, and has a major complex about the complacent, “safe” society we live in.
The blockbuster film brims with action at every turn, but unfortunately, there are a few aspects of the movie that the copious amounts of action can’t fix.
One problem is that Marvel has once again revised the timeline of a key role, Quicksilver, who was also in the film “X-Men: Days of Future Past.” Marvel seems to have no problem using two completely different versions of this hero in the two movies, with one Quicksilver being American-born and from the 50’s, and the other being Russian-born in a much more recent time. It’s these types of blaring inconsistencies that anger generations of viewers who actually read the comic books and watched the cartoons, which can probably be accredited to the franchise’s steady aim at a younger, more profitable market.
The fact that the powers that be are so willing to change the background of these characters removes a huge amount of substance from the film. It’s as if they couldn’t think of a better idea for their movies than placing gaping irregularities just so the numbers roll in at the box office.
Other than that, I was giddy in my seat for most of the movie. The introduction of the hero Vision filled me with a wonderment I hadn’t felt since I first saw Venom on the silver screen. Not to mention the jaw-dropping awesomeness of The Hulk and Tony Stark going head-up in his Hulk buster suit, which was 1,000 times more entertaining than another “Fight of the Century” we were promised.
With all this in mind, I give “Avengers: Age of Ultron” a solid 8.5 outof 10. It’s definitely worth at least two, maybe even three trips to your local movie theater.
