Avengers: Age of Ultron is a 2015 American superhero film based on the Marvel Comics superhero team the Avengers, produced by Marvel Studios and distributed by Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures. It is the sequel to 2012's The Avengers and the eleventh installment in the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU). The film was written and directed by Joss Whedon and features an ensemble cast that includes Robert Downey Jr., Chris Hemsworth, Mark Ruffalo, Chris Evans, Scarlett Johansson, Jeremy Renner, Don Cheadle, Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Elizabeth Olsen, Paul Bettany, Cobie Smulders, Anthony Mackie, Hayley Atwell, Idris Elba, Stellan Skarsgård, James Spader, and Samuel L. Jackson. In
Avengers: Age of Ultron, the Avengers must work together to defeat Ultron, a mechanical artificial intelligence bent on human extinction.
Cast:
Robert Downey Jr. as
Tony Stark / Iron Man
Chris Hemsworth as
Thor
Mark Ruffalo as
Bruce Banner / Hulk
Chris Evans as
Steve Rogers / Captain America
Scarlett Johansson as
Natasha Romanoff / Black Widow
Jeremy Renner as
Clint Barton / Hawkeye
Don Cheadle as
James "Rhodey" Rhodes / War Machine
Aaron Taylor-Johnson as
Pietro Maximoff / Quicksilver
Elizabeth Olsen as
Wanda Maximoff / Scarlet Witch
Paul Bettany as
J.A.R.V.I.S. and
Vision
Cobie Smulders as
Maria Hill
Anthony Mackie as
Sam Wilson / Falcon
Hayley Atwell as
Peggy Carter
Idris Elba as
Heimdall
Stellan Skarsgård as
Erik Selvig
James Spader as
Ultron
Samuel L. Jackson as
Nick Fury
Thomas Kretschmann and
Henry Goodman return as Baron
Wolfgang von Strucker and Dr. List
Linda Cardellini portrays Laura Barton, Hawkeye's wife.
Julie Delpy appears as Madame B., who mentors Black Widow into becoming an assassin.
Kerry Condon voices the artificial intelligence F.R.I.D.A.Y.
Avengers co-creator
Stan Lee makes a cameo appearance in the film as a military veteran who attends the Avengers' victory party.
Plot:
In the Eastern European country of Sokovia, the
Avengers —
Tony Stark,
Steve Rogers,
Thor,
Bruce Banner,
Natasha Romanoff, and
Clint Barton — raid a
Hydra outpost led by
Baron Wolfgang von Strucker, who has been experimenting on humans using the scepter previously wielded by
Loki. They encounter two of Strucker's experiments—twins
Pietro, who has superhuman speed, and
Wanda Maximoff, who can manipulate minds and project energy—and apprehend Strucker, while Stark retrieves Loki's scepter.
Stark and Banner discover an artificial intelligence within the scepter's gem, and secretly use it to complete Stark's "
Ultron" global defense program. The unexpectedly sentient Ultron, believing he must eradicate humanity to save Earth, eliminates Stark's A.I.
J.A.R.V.I.S. and attacks the Avengers at their headquarters. Escaping with the scepter, Ultron uses the resources in Strucker's Sokovia base to upgrade his rudimentary body and build an army of robot drones. Having killed Strucker, he recruits the Maximoffs, who hold Stark responsible for their parents' deaths by his weapons. Together, they investigate the base of arms dealer
Ulysses Klaue in an African shipyard to obtain
vibranium. The Avengers pursue them, but Wanda subdues the heroes with haunting visions, causing the Hulk to rampage until Stark stops him with his "Veronica" weaponry.
A worldwide backlash over the resulting destruction, and the fears Wanda's hallucinations incited, send the team into hiding at Barton's safehouse. Thor departs to consult with Dr.
Erik Selvig on the meaning of the apocalyptic future he saw in his hallucination, while Romanoff and Banner plan to flee together after realizing a mutual attraction. However,
Nick Fury arrives and encourages the team to form a plan to stop Ultron. In Seoul, Ultron forces the team's friend Dr. Helen Cho to use her synthetic tissue technology, vibranium, and the scepter's gem to perfect a body for him. When Ultron begins uploading himself into the body, Wanda is able to read his mind; discovering his plan for human extinction, the Maximoffs turn on Ultron. Rogers, Romanoff, and Barton find Ultron and retrieve the synthetic body, but Ultron captures Romanoff.
The Avengers fight amongst themselves when Stark secretly uploads J.A.R.V.I.S. — who is still operational after hiding from Ultron inside the Internet — into the synthetic body. Thor returns to help activate the body with lightning, explaining that the gem on its brow – one of the six
Infinity Stones, the most powerful objects in existence – was part of his vision. This "
Vision" and the Maximoffs accompany the Avengers to Sokovia, where Ultron has used the remaining vibranium to build a machine to lift a large part of the same-name city skyward, intending to crash it into the ground to cause global extinction. As the city begins to lift, Banner rescues Romanoff, who awakens the Hulk for the battle. The Avengers fight Ultron's army while Fury arrives in a
Helicarrier with
Maria Hill,
James Rhodes and
S.H.I.E.L.D. agents to assist in evacuating civilians. Pietro dies when he shields Barton from a barrage of fire, and a grieving Wanda abandons her post to destroy Ultron's primary body in revenge, inadvertently allowing one of his drones to activate the machine. The landmass plummets, but Stark and Thor overload the machine and shatter the city into pieces. In the aftermath, the Hulk, unwilling to endanger Romanoff by being with her, departs in a
Quinjet, while the Vision confronts Ultron's last remaining body.
Later, with the Avengers having established a new base run by Fury, Hill, Cho, and Selvig, Thor returns to Asgard to learn more about the forces he suspects have manipulated recent events. As Stark and Barton also leave, Rogers and Romanoff prepare to train new Avengers: Rhodes, Vision,
Sam Wilson, and Wanda.
In a mid-credits scene,
Thanos, dissatisfied by the failures of his pawns, dons a gauntlet and vows to personally retrieve the Infinity Stones.
The Verdict:
Watch it, rent it, or don't bother?
Who am I kidding? You have to be crazy NOT to watch this one - DEFINITELY watch this one, folks.
Now that's out of the way, I'll weigh in a lot of things I loved about this film along with my own personal analysis since you guys tend to love to hear what I have to say on this Marvel Cinematic Universe.
The number one complaint that I have heard from a LOT of people is about how Ultron is yet another throw-away villain for the MCU. If you want to be black and white about it in terms of comics, that was the role that Ultron was given in comics until recent years. Ultron was a major villain but he was used mainly as a distraction to build towards bigger storylines. That is EXACTLY what part he serves here in his introduction in the MCU. Ultron is yet another "disposable" villain for the Marvel Cinematic Universe but he serves a plot device more than a threatening antagonist, who merely plants the seeds for further conflicts and drama in more upcoming films, namely Captain America: Civil War.
Interesting points established for the Marvel Cinematic Universe going forward:
Thor knew what the Stones are for - even went as far as mentioning that FOUR (instead of THREE) have appeared in the last few years, meaning that he is aware with what goes on in the Guardians of the Galaxy's end of Marvel Cinematic Universe.
The Mind Stone was in Loki's scepter all along, despite people have been arguing with me since the original Avengers film that Loki's scepter was NOT one of the Stones. Look who's wrong now, hmm?
JARVIS bonds with the Mind Stone to become the Vision = embodiment of life. I personally believe that with the Mind Stone, JARVIS/The Vision will play the part of
Adam Warlock in the Infinity War. If you don't know what that is then I suggest you do some research. I won't spoil that for you guys.
Hawkeye has a family and children, so we (old school Marvel fanboys like myself) can forget about Hawkeye hooking up with Mockingbird from Agents of SHIELD in this continuity. Seems like Marvel is going a completely different direction with those two characters' development entirety..
Notice that BOTH Captain America and Ironman were clearly targeted by Scarlet Witch's powers - which opens the door on what will have those two Avengers butting heads down the road in Captain America: Civil War.
Ulysses Klaw was introduced in this film, hence sparing the lengthy explanation and backstory in the opening moments of the upcoming Black Panther solo film. Speaking of Black Panther, his home nation of Wakanda was referenced as well as the source of the world's most powerful metal substance, vibranium. Marvel fans should remember that Captain America's shield is composed of this substance, thanks to Howard Stark in Captain America: First Avenger.
Almost all of the Avengers were sporting various StarkTech upgades and gadgets - Cap with a magnetic adapter for his shield, Black Widow with a multitude of new gadgets, etc.
It was ironic that Hawkeye plays the role of Batman and Green Arrow in Justice League: Unlimited in this film as the mere mortal among gods and monsters who keeps the team "honest" and level headed.
The Maximoff twins' origin is changed drastically from the comics - no ties to Magneto nor the Inhumans.
Tony Stark still dreams of a world encased in armor for protection, but still forgets that keeps everyone cold and forever in the dark from within.
New Avengers (or rather Secret Avengers) team established at the end of the film, consisting of Falcon, War Machine, Scarlet Witch, Vision, Black Widow, and Captain America. The latter two members serving as mentors to the new recruits as the new SHIELD facility backs this new team.
Hulk is possibly written out of the story to return as back-upp during the Infinity War Part 2 when the Avengers need more heavy-hitters against the pending threat of Thanos.
Dr. Helen Cho was introduced in this film - it makes me wonder if her genius-level son, Amaddeus Cho will be introduced in the MCU continuity sooner more than later.
In the mid-credits teaser, Thanos grabs an Infinity Guantlet (Kevin Feige has stated that there are more than one in the MCU) and says that he'll take care of it himself, teasing that he's going to get involved sooner more than later. If I were to speculate, I would guess he would have a bigger role in
Guardians of the Galaxy 2.
This was a minor Easter egg, but one of the alternate operating systems that Tony was thumbing through before the film's climax was JOCASTA. In the comics,
Jocasta was the name of the wife that Ultron built for himself who ended up destroying him instead and siding with the Avengers.
Strong Points of the film as a whole
Not quite as good as
Captain America: The Winter Soldier in terms of being my personal favorite MCU film but we get a LOT more character development here than we did in the original
Avengers.
Overall theme of destroying "monsters" of the world goes full circle in this film - both Avengers and Ultron tip the scales to see who is truly the "real" monster in this war to "save" the world from the other.
James Spader as the voice of Ultron resembles Tony Stark/Robert Downey Jr.'s natural wit and charm, but his arrogance and humor bleeds through the character as well as a mirror image of his rather flawed creator.
JARVIS/Vision becomes the light in the Avengers' darkest hour - reminiscent of the Matrix of Leadership in
Transformers: The Movie, especially after Thor's vision and prophecy.
The film gave a simple, yet effective reasoning for fan-service of pitting Ironman vs. Hulk.
Civilian safety was the Avengers' #1 priority in every battle. DC Comics/Warner Bros. need to take notes for their films - their heroes need to take responsibility for their actions.
Black Widow and Hulk have to be the most unlikely romance pairing ever on this team, but somehow it works.
The film takes place immediately following the previous week's
Agents of SHIELD tie-in episode after Coulson clued in Maria Hill on the whereabouts of Baron von Strucker. Speaking of Strucker, I think he faked his death or his son would take over HYDRA if Baron Zemo doesn't fill that role in
Civil War - either way I don't see Strucker out of the equation so easily.
NEW Helicarrier and NEW Avengers facilities - this means that SHIELD can properly train powered people: i.e. Sky (Daisy Johnson/Quake and the other Inhumans) I personally can't wait to see how this factors into future seasons of
Agents of SHIELD.
Iron Legion were a clever reference to Henry Pym's peacekeeper sentries in
Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes and to follow-up Stark's "house party protocol" from
Ironman 3.
Personal Criticism on film's narrative
There's one HUGE plothole between this film and
Ironman 3. Tony Stark destroy his home and all of his armors. Did he start over at the Avengers tower? Did he do so before or after the events of
Captain America: The Winter Soldier?
Exactly why was Maria Hill working for Tony Stark after the "end" of SHIELD when she was clearly still answering to Nick Fury off the grid?
Black Widow seemed to bond with Captain America during
Captain America: The Winter Soldier, much like how she bonded with Tony Stark and Pepper Potts in
Ironman 2, so why the sudden geek crush on Bruce Banner/Hulk now? I'm not really complaining but Black Widow is making that "slut" label hard to ignore for nit-picky critics. To be quite honest, Widow has been simply reduced to the role of a surrogate/filler Betty Ross in
Ultimate Avengers. To be fair, I did appreciate that after her three appearances in the MCU, she has finally shed some light into her backstory that held ties to the Red Room that was introduced into
Agent Carter.
The film spent a little TOO much time trying to "fool" the audience that Hawkeye was going to die that the film feels more about Hawkeye and Black Widow proving that they belong among these gods and supermen instead of more focus on the threat of Ultron. Ultron does NOT feel like a threat to the Avengers until maybe the latter half of the film and even then, Vision makes him seem pathetic in comparison.
To say that he was an advanced artificial intelligence, Ultron wasn't smart at all to be quite honest:
- He allows Black Widow to call the Avengers via Morse code.
- He trusted the Maximoff twins when they could have destroyed him whenever they pleased,
- Ultron was controlling StarkTech (namely the Iron Legion) so who said he couldn't have controlled ALL of Tony Stark's armors the same way? That being said, as much as I loved the sequence between Hulk versus Ironman, the setup was piss-poor. It would have made more sense to have Hulk fighting Stark as Ultron-controlled the Hulkbuster armor. Sue me, that's just my two cents as a comic book nerd.
Banner shouldn't be too shaken up about collateral damage if the Eric Bana
Incredible Hulk film is still canon to the MCU.
Ultron stole
ALL of Stark's sensitive files on the Avengers and SHIELD database (well, whatever's not in Fury's "toolbox" that Coulson has...). This makes you wonder who got a hold of that information by the time Ultron was destroyed and if he backed it up or passed that information along.
I know most people won't agree with me but the cinematography in this film compared to the original Avengers makes the action sequences look confusing and messy compared to the streamlined view of the original film.
Last but not least, it's rather ironic that this film recycles a lot of the same traveled ground as the as the original film - Nick Fury gives the Avengers the pep talk to when their spirits are crushed, Captain America calls the plan for battle in the climax, Captain America fights and holds his own against the film's main antagonist (like he has ANYTHING else to prove to skeptics? Like REALLY?), someone close to the team dies (in the original film it was Phil Coulson, in this film it's Quicksilver), and the team puts their differences aside for the greater good to save the day when it matters most.
Closing Thoughts
Age of Ultron is another blockbuster success for Marvel Studios in terms of box office ticket sales while simultaneously planting the seeds to further the expansion of their Cinematic Universe for the years to come. Much like it's predecessor, the
Avengers, it's a bit rough around the edges but it's a wild ride for all ages from start to finish.
