This is it. No more origin stories. No more unlikely heroes come together at the last minute: it’s on. The Avengers are an established team, and they’re back to kick a whole planet’s worth of arse in The Avengers: Age Of Ultron. In case you’re wondering, it’s practically perfect.
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Avengers: Age Of Ultron has almost finished its run in Aussie cinemas, but there’s still a chance for you to go see it if you haven’t already. If you have, share your thoughts in the comments section!
Editor’s Note: This review contains spoilers. If you want a spoiler-free review before you go see the movie, check that out on Gizmodo.
The story of Age Of Ultron is nothing new.
Tony Stark posits the idea that The Avengers can’t be fighting every threat that comes to Earth looking for a fight, so he creates an artificial intelligence called The Ultron Program. As soon as Ultron achieves consciousness, things start to go wrong. Ultron fries JARVIS, uploads himself to the cloud and starts to replicate in metal bodies all over the world.
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Ultron’s mission is “peace”, and his interpretation of peace is to destroy the warmongering Avengers, before then eradicating human life on the planet for their sins.
Humans have been creating movie robots that want to destroy humanity for decades. The coolest thing about the story this time around is how the concept is made fresh and fun by Ultron and his army of empty Iron Man drone suits.
Despite the fact that this is all pretty much Tony Stark’s fault, the film is revolves around the whole team, rather than just Iron Man as with the first Avengers film.
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It’s great to see more attention paid to the team as a whole. Hawkeye plays a much larger role, and Captain America clearly emerges as the leader and creamy moral centre of the team.
The Avengers aren’t just arse-kicking superheroes in this film. It’s more than just a team of good-looking people looking forlorn while Nick Fury barks cliched orders at them. They get to interact with each other and start forming real relationships, rather than fighting all the time like they did in the last film. Bruce Banner and Tony Stark work together as lab buddies and also get into an amazing fight (HULKBUSTER!). Black Widow and The Hulk get into a relationship. We meet Hawkeye’s family and figure out why Quicksilver and Scarlet Witch want The Avengers dead. Everyone has so much more to do in Age Of Ultron. Just on those last two: Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver are fantastic additions to the team, but Aaron Johnson can’t hold a candle to Evan Peters’ Quicksilver in Days Of Future Past.
It’s also nice to see how all of these characters interact with the rest of the Marvel universe. There are tonnes of cameos in Age Of Ultron. Even minor ones make you smile. Like the nerdy computer tech who refused to launch the Hydra Insight Helicarriers in The Winter Soldier. He’s now one of the lead techs on the new S.H.I.E.L.D Helicarrier. The only stars who fail to lend cameos to the film are Emily Van Camp (The Winter Soldier), Natalie Portman (Thor) and Gwyneth Paltrow (Iron Man). They’re talked about, but never seen. It would have been perfect to get everyone back in the mix, even just for a few scenes, but it was not meant to be.
It’s really enjoyable to watch a superhero movie that isn’t an origin story. We’ve seen all of these people get together for so long that watching them fight side-by-side is like nerd porn. Despite the fact that they’re a fully-fledged superhero unit and start out on top in Age Of Ultron, the Avengers still have a serious fight on their hands once Ultron achieves consciousness and builds himself a body. It’s only when the team creates Vision using the Infinity Stone found within Loki’s sceptre that they start to get the upper hand.
Cue the largest and craziest robot versus Avengers battle you’ve ever seen.
The arrival of Vision into the franchise is excellent, and it’s great to be reminded of the Infinity Stone storyline and fold Guardians Of The Galaxy into the larger Marvel Cinematic Universe. Plus, because it’s a Joss Whedon movie, somebody we like dies. It’s just how it goes.
It’s not all serious faces and explosions, though: there are also more Whedon-esque laughs in Age Of Ultron than ever. This movie is so much fun!
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The best thing about Age Of Ultron is what it means for the broader Avenger-verse. With Guardians of the Galaxy now in play, it’s the whole galaxy versus Thanos and his ever-growing Infinity Gauntlet. The first part of Avengers: Infinity War — the next movement in the Avenger-specific sequence — doesn’t happen until May 2018: three years from now. Between now and then we’re going to see Captain America and Iron Man face off in the Civil War, and bring the Ragnarok storyline to life in the Thor franchise, which will be super-interesting.
What’s amazing about Age Of Ultron is the last three minutes: how in one swift stroke, the film goes from farewelling our existing heroes to welcoming new ones: the New Avengers are happening in the Marvel Universe, and that’s awesome.
Sure, the New Avengers are all different (there’s no Ben Grimm, Spiderman, Luke Cage or Wolverine in the Marvel Cinematic Universe), but that’s ok. It’s a new team of superheroes we get to watch kick-ass in future titles. Plus from a Hollywood perspective, it also means we’re likely to see more cameos from the New Avengers now that they aren’t made up of some of the most expensive stars in the business.
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The last line of this review is so hard to write. So many great things happen in this movie. There are cameos all over the place from previous Marvel films; puzzle pieces that fit into place beautifully and a twist that actually made me yelp when I saw it in the theatre (#nerd). I can’t encourage you enough to go and see it.
If Marvel never made a movie again, this would be the perfect place to cap it off at. Marvel will make more movies, but that doesn’t stop this one being any less incredible, especially if you’ve read the comics. Seriously. Go see it.
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Comments
38 responses to “Avengers Age Of Ultron: Australian Review”
Who wrote this?
Pretty sure this is a repost of the review Luke wrote for Gizmodo, back when the movie was actually released: http://www.gizmodo.com.au/2015/04/avengers-age-of-ultron-australian-review/
Odd
I actually preferred this guys performance as Quicksilver but the kitchen scene in DoFP was much better than anything A2 accomplished.
The depiction of quicksilver in DoFP is a closer representation of how he is in the comics, i actually preferred Evan peters rendition of the character far more even though i genuinely like Aaron Taylor-Johnson as an actor.
I feel the exact opposite to everything you’ve said.
Been reading Marvel comics for years & think his personality was spot on in Avengers.
Unless they’ve retconned QS as a pilfering, smart alec teenager recently.
I didn’t get the sense of impatience from Aaron’s character which is his predominant personality trait and it was very easy to see in Evan’s rendition.
From what i took of it that was the main difference, i also think it would have a little to do with the age difference between the age of each character.
I always thought of QS as this upturned nose, regal. snobbish, better-than-everyone type.
He can be impatient obviously, but the snobbishness seemed more important to me.
Both movies did a younger version than I am used to, I just think Avengers was more true to the QS I grew up with.
I don’t think I’ve ever seen him as regal?
I know he really doesn’t like it when people do things his way as he’s very impulsive so once he’s set on it he’s going to do it no matter what people say and often sees his ideas better than others.
if anything he came across as more snobbish in DoFP in avengers he just seemed to hate old people and be very protective (usually his protection is more towards his father) but scarlet witch was in place of this.
Yeah, I’m getting the impression of the many, many comics printed over the years featuring QS we read different ones.
His closeness & protection of his sister became so exaggerated that by the time Millar did The Ultimates it was borderline incestuous.
Haha probably a good point, Marvel seems to swap up personalities between universes etc
There was nothing borderline about it, particularly as the series went on. By the time we got to Ultimates 3, there’s even a flashback to Pietro and Wanda going at it while Wolverine (their possible father in that universe) watched on. Ultimate canon was pretty messed up.
@ashuramgs2sub
Oh, ha ha! I forgot about that. Loeb just went nuts when he took over from Millar, not a gram of subtlety in U3.
So dumb, great art by Madureira though.
@jimu
Yeah, I felt exactly the same way. Really enjoyed the art, but couldn’t stand what I was reading. I stopped reading anything Ultimate related not long after that. Too much of a ‘616 universe, but edgy as f&ck!’ vibe going on.
@ashuramgs2sub
Yeah, I think I bailed not long after, stuck with USM til Bagley left, grabbed any issues he came back for.
Ultimate comics started feeling less ultimate & more alternate.
I think this cover illustrates my point quite well:
oyster.ignimgs.com/wordpress/stg.ign.com/2013/05/Ultimate-Scarlet-Witch-and-Quicksilver-Comic-Book.jpg
Welp, that didn’t work :p
Is this movie even in cinemas any more? 😛
I saw all the toys for Avengers heavily discounted at Myer yesterday to make way for Minions merchandise. Sunrise, sunset…
The cat’s in the cradle and the silver spoon.
Yes we have no Banana’s.
*cries*
The trailer for minions looked great but I haven’t seen any of the Despicable Me movies. I should probably amend that.
Yes, yes you should.
Yeah, they ain’t shit.
What you talkin’ ’bout Willis?
They’re not
Practically perfect? Each to their own, but I found this movie to be a huge let down, and I assumed most people did aswell. I think it’s even reflected in reviews on Metacritic and IMDB.
I loved it. Easily my favourite super hero film.
Jinx.
I loved it. Definitely one of the best films this year.
My top 4 so far would have to be (in no particular order)
Chappie
Avengers: Age Of Ultron
Mad Max: Fury Road and
Kingsman: The Secret Service
I expect Jurassic World will round out my top 5 for the first half of the year.
Tak3n was by far the worst.
Wasn’t kingsman released last year ?
I’ll have to check when I get to work, but according to IMDB it came out here in February.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2802144/releaseinfo?ref_=tt_ov_inf+
Regardless i hear it’s a great movie, i should get around to watching it.
Can vouch for avengers and mad max, both are awesome!
also cannot wait for Jurassic world! i believe it releases tomorrow :S ?
I agree entirely. Of all the Marvel films this one was easily the one that made me most feel like it’s all just a huge cash grab. I enjoyed GotG a lot more than this. The characters in Avengers are starting to feel really stale too.
I don’t get the GotG love at all. Great movie but no way was it nearly as good as either avengers.
I agree with you. While I wouldn’t go so far as to say it was a let down. I would say that Marvel is starting to spread themselves very thin. This movie was almost boring, to me. Too much CGI. All the indications are that Wheedon didn’t enjoy the process.
I found it to be bland and average. Why? It was a middleground movie. It was afraid to do anything daring. It had zero stakes, a villain who went nowhere and no real risks. It existed solely to set up other movies. Never once were any of the pre-existing Avengers under any real threat, instead, only people we didn’t give a toss about. The movie again, had no sense of urgency, no stakes and no ‘danger’ about it. It was a truly ‘middle ground’ movie. Sure it had flashy effects, but it was missing heart and soul, which the first had plenty of. This was a movie made purely on ego and hubris.
Went in with High hopes but I was disappointed in A2…..
Then I saw Fury Road, no expectations. Surely 30 years between films, a long and troubled production, and no Mel Gibson, and Geoge Miller has to be in his 70s now surely it wont be great……
Oh, what a lovely day!
I know them feels. Fury Road blew me away. I went in with a full head of hair, came out lookin’ like a War Boy.
WITNESS ME!