Avengers: Age of Ultron (2015) [Blu-ray]
Action | Adventure | Sci-Fi

When Tony Stark tries to jumpstart a dormant peacekeeping program, things go awry and Earth’s Mightiest Heroes, including Iron Man, Captain America, Thor, The Incredible Hulk, Black Widow and Hawkeye, are put to the ultimate test as the fate of the planet hangs in the balance. As the villainous Ultron emerges, it is up to The Avengers to stop him from enacting his terrible plans, and soon uneasy alliances and unexpected action pave the way for an epic and unique global adventure.

Storyline: When Tony Stark tries to jumpstart a dormant peacekeeping program, things go awry and Earth's Mightiest Heroes, including Iron Man, Captain America, Thor, the Incredible Hulk, Black Widow and Hawkeye, are put to the ultimate test as the fate of the planet hangs in the balance. As the villainous Ultron emerges, it is up to the Avengers to stop him from enacting his terrible plans, and soon uneasy alliances and unexpected action pave the way for a global adventure. Written by Marvel Studios

Reviewer's Note: Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman, October 3, 2015 -- A supposed "thinking man's" science fiction spectacular, Ex Machina posited the first artificially intelligent android as an attractive young woman named Ava. AI takes a distinctly different form in Avengers: Age of Ultron, namely the titular robot which looks a bit like something out of Attack on Titan (also recently redone as a live action film) crossed with the giant Sentinels from Marvel's own X- Men: Days of Future Past. There's another tie-in to the Sentinels, for Ultron, like those gargantuans created by Trask to take care of that pesky mutant problem, was created as a defender, but also like the Sentinels, is soon going on the offensive. There are a number of other X- Men analogs to Age of Ultron, perhaps indicating that the Marvel Universe is maybe more of a Multiverse where the same concepts and even character types get filtered through a slightly refracted sensibility. Despite an unavoidably overstuffed cast of characters, Avengers: Age of Ultron manages to delve into virtually all of its superheroes' stories, at times surprisingly artfully, while also providing the requisite amounts of spectacle and special effects wizardry. While that inherently overstuffed ambience leads to a slight feeling of bloat in this sequel, considering the number of simultaneously unfolding story threads that writer-director Joss Whedon weaves together, Avengers: Age of Ultron is a uniquely satisfying sequel that manages to overcome many of the obstacles that many franchises face in their sophomore slumps.

The film begins in media res, or at least in media proelium, for the mighty Avengers are in the midst of a major battle as they attempt to gain access to a Hydra base where some kind of nefarious engineering (genetic or otherwise) has been taking place. This opening sequence starts the film out with both a literal and figurative bang, offering quick vignettes that feature each of the heroes "doing their thing" as they dispatch various bad guys. It's also the first opportunity for Whedon to start injecting his sometimes cheeky humor into the proceedings, courtesy of throwaway one liners that are often silly and occasionally unnecessary.

As with many Marvel outings, the film is stuffed to the gills with various characters, many of whom sport alter egos. The heroes (lest anyone has forgotten) are Tony Stark (Robert Downey, Jr.), AKA Iron Man; Thor (Chris Hemsworth); Bruce Banner (Mark Ruffalo), AKA The Hulk; Steve Rogers (Chris Evans), AKA Captain America; Clint Barton (Jeremy Renner), AKA Hawkeye; and Natasha Romanoff (Scarlett Johansson), AKA Black Widow. At the Hydra base, we're (re)introduced to baddie Baron Wolfgang von Strucker (Thomas Kretschmann), whose experiments have resulted in two new "Enhanced" (to utilize the Avengers' own parlance), the Maximoff twins, Wanda (Elizabeth Olsen), AKA Scarlet Witch, and Pietro (Aaron Taylor-Johnson), AKA Quicksilver. That's not just a surplus of folks to keep track of, but also a lot of assumed identities, and it's notable that Whedon's screenplay is mostly "fuss free", delivering introductions and character development gracefully and without too much obvious exposition that distracts from the action or overall narrative.

The Avengers' mission at the Hydra base concerns retrieving that pesky scepter of Loki's which Thor wants to get back to Asgard as soon as possible. While the good guys are (of course) successful in their enterprise, there's a bit of interstitial anxiety when Scarlet Witch utilizes her mental control powers to momentarily port Tony into a hallucinatory whirlwind where he believes that all the other Avengers have met their fate. That's what literary types might want to call foreshadowing, and it's only the first of several such "prophecies" that haunt various characters going forward. Once the scepter is retrieved, Tony and Bruce put it through a bunch of tests back at Tony's lab, where Tony's AI helpmate J.A.R.V.I.S. attempts to figure out what's inside the glowing gem at its tip. Tony is convinced the scepter holds the key to completing Tony's long dreamed of Ultron AI experiment, one which Tony wants to complete to build an "iron wall" around the entire planet, keeping it safe from any and all threats.

That perhaps unwise bit of hubris leads to the central conflict in the film, where in a perhaps intentional call back to science fiction films of yore like Colossus: The Forbin Project, Ultron (voiced by James Spader) becomes sentient and builds himself (itself?) a body of sorts, taking out J.A.R.V.I.S. in the process, and coming to the quick conclusion that the Avengers are the problem, not the solution (along with a large swath of humankind, it should be added). An initial interchange seems to augur the quick defeat of Ultron, but the AI is able to "escape" into the internet, where its nefarious activities continue as it forges itself a new, improved robotic body in which it can wreak further havoc. In a not exactly surprising plot development, Ultron reaches out to the Maximoff twins for help in his quest for world domination.

There's a slightly rote feeling to some of the plot points and structural issues being ticked off by Whedon (a pretty predictable late shifting of allegiances, a tendency to try to hit action sequences at pre-allotted intervals), and with such a surfeit of characters to devote screen time to, the middle section of the film occasionally feels frayed, offering a series of vignettes. Whedon expectedly goes for the gusto in the film's hyperbolic climax, where a discovery of Thor's furthers an already complex mythology (and obviously points the way toward the next sequel), while the forces of good and evil battle it out with literally earth shattering results.

Despite a reliance on eye popping special effects wizardry, there's an almost Freudian (or perhaps given its rampant iconography, Jungian) subtext running through Avengers: Age of Ultron, especially once Scarlet Witch's telepathic control of the Avengers unleashes the fears of their darkest Ids. That allows for the most potent character beats in the film, while also perhaps making the case that a screenplay needn't be tailored to the demands of a stopwatch.

Avengers: Age of Ultron probably would have benefitted from some judicious editing in its somewhat unfocused middle section, but Joss Whedon proves yet again what a master he is at offering an embarrassment of riches in the character department, while never losing sight of an overall narrative arc (one predesigned to afford yet more opportunities for Whedon—should he choose to—to make another sequel). The principal cast, by now well ensconced in their various roles and fitting them to a tee, does great work and it's a testament to Whedon's screenplay that they each get their moments in the sun. Spader's also a lot of fun as the voice of Ultron, a kind of snarky robot who doesn't suffer fools (meaning humans and/or Avengers) gladly. While audio is a bit lackluster on this release, video quality is excellent, and taken as a whole, Avengers: Age of Ultron comes Highly recommended.


[CSW] -3.3- I rented this first and only watched the first hour before deciding to purchase the 3D version because I thought the outstanding special effects would be even better in 3D... and they were.

The Avengers franchise has turned into a Transformer movie. There was more rubble, dust, debris, smashed glass, overturned cars, falling building, explosions and noise than any other movie in cinema history. It was pure chaos. Honestly, I barely remember what the movie was about. Everything was moving so fast.
[V4.5-A4.0] MPEG-4 AVC - D-Box ?/10.


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