Avengers; Age of Ultron

Went to see the latest Avenger flick when it came out on thursday. I'd been looking forward to more of the previous Avengers and related film action/humour mix and I wasn't disappointed.

All the previous characters make an appearance Iron Man, Thor, Captain America, Hawkeye, the Hulk, Black Widow etc, and with what is a pretty complicated plot line (for Hollywood blockbusters) a few new character are introduced to add the Marvel Universe crew detailed in the movie. Along with a passel of the supporting characters from previous Avenger support movies adding to the mix.

With the main protagonist being Ultron, it is no surprise that The Vision (my favourite Avenger from my childhood) makes an appearance to join the ranks and help fight the bad guys. Played by Paul Bettany, I was quite happy with the portrayal but thought the back story for the film of how The Vision is created a bit poor.

The whole film is slightly darker than the previous Avenger movies, with a part of the humour being a bit more on the black side, but there is still the slapstick and the buddy humour which helps you associate with the heroes.

James Spader is a genius choice for Ultron and his droll and dry delivery is a perfect foil for the gungho and right-on hereos.

The look of Ultron, which goes through several changes through the movie, is pretty good and a fair update of the slightly naff look from the comics, though perhaps a bit too anthropomorphised, but all good really.

The fight/action scenes are great throughout, from minute one right up to the end and the big climactic fight scene at the end actually had me smiling away to myself, really good cinema. The production team and Joss Whedon have got the formula for this type of movie down pat now and it's difficult to say where they have got anything wrong in terms of putting an enjoyable romp together.

The ingredients are all there for the geeks (including me) for spotting the references and other characters etc and stir in a dose of hard tech machines and weapons, a sprinkling of women in skin tight suits with guns and some pretty good dialogue, you've got a winner. The whole plot thing has of course been altered to suit the Hollywood/movie version of events and to fit into the two hour or so timescale of the movie but this is not something that bothers me.

No spoilers for those who haven't seen the movie but some of the additional characters added into the Marvel-verse are the Maximoff siblings Pietro and Wanda (Quicksilver and the Scarlet Witch) withe Wanda being another favourite from my childhood getting added to the Avengers, though the costume has been suitably watered down to make it more 'acceptable', though she does spend most of the film not an Avenger so the standard get up is OK. (There is a glimpse later on of her 'hero' get-up). 

The plot has time to get a bit of character development in too with Hawkeye and the Black Widow in particular getting a bit of depth built up and there is even a bit of a love story in there too which is an integral part of the Avengers comics from way back and again is fair enough, adding to movie mix.

The wind down ending is once again, getting a bit traditional in it's make up setting up the next movie in the series (The Avengers will return) with what looks to be a slightly different line up from the last couple. Tis is probably due to a couple of the actors getting a bit bored with the parts or just a bit older, but this is also in keeping with the comics which often have a different cast from series to series. There are after all a LOT of Avengers to choose from.

Still waiting for the 'Avengers Assemble!' though.

All in all a great movie and one which I thoroughly enjoyed. A recommended must see and gets the 9 out of 10 from the Warblog to go with it.