AVENGERS: AGE OF ULTRON (2015) MOVIE NEWS & REVIEW

AVENGERS: AGE OF ULTRON (2015) movie

Genre             |  Science Fiction

Classification   |   M

Running time   |   142 minutes

Released         |   23 April 2015

cast

Robert Downey Jr. ... Tony Stark
Chris Hemsworth ... Thor
Mark Ruffalo ... Bruce Banner
Chris Evans ... Steve Rogers
​Scarlett Johansson ... Natasha Romanoff
​Jeremy Renner ... Clint Barton
James Spader ... Ultron
Samuel L. Jackson ... Nick Fury
Don Cheadle ... James Rhodes
Aaron Taylor-Johnson ... Pietro Maximoff
Elizabeth Olsen ... Wanda Maximoff
​Paul Bettany ... Jarvis / Vision
Cobie Smulders ... Maria Hill
Anthony Mackie ... Sam Wilson
Hayley Atwell ... Peggy Carter

director

Joss Wheddon

writer

​Joss Whedon ... (written by)
 
Stan Lee ... (based on the Marvel comics by) and
Jack Kirby ... (based on the Marvel comics by)
 
Joe Simon ... (character created by: Captain America) and
Jack Kirby ... (character created by: Captain America)
 
Jim Starlin ... (character created by: Thanos)
 
Roy Thomas ... (characters created by: Ultron & Vision) (uncredited)
John Buscema ... (characters created by: Ultron & Vision) (uncredited)

cinematographer

​Ben Davis

music

​Danny Elfman
Brian Tyler

film editor

Jeffrey Ford
Lisa Lassek

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box office result

Worldwide             $​​​1,405,403,694   

Australia                 $​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​30,969,152

North America       $​​459,005,868

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the best dialogue

Vision: I don't want to kill Ultron. He's unique... and he's in pain. But that pain will roll over the Earth. So he must be destroyed: every form he's built, every trace of his presence on the 'net. We have to act now, and not one of us can do it without the others. Maybe I am a monster. I don't think I'd know if I were one. I'm not what you are and not what you intended. So there may be no way to make you trust me.
[hands Thor his hammer]
Vision: But we need to go.

Nick Fury: [to Stark] You've come up with some pretty impressive things Stark. War isn't one of them.

[None of the Avengers can lift the Mjölnir, but Captain America moves it slightly]
Tony Stark: It's biometrics, right? Like a security code? "Whoever is carrying Thor's fingerprints" is, I think, the literal translation.
Thor: Yes, well that's a very, very interesting theory. I have a simpler one: You are not worthy.
[an attack occurs]
Ultron: [enters] Worthy? How could you be worthy? You're all killers. You want to protect the world, but you don't want it to change. There's only one path to peace... your extinction.

AVENGERS: AGE OF ULTRON (2015) MOVIE IMAGES

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AVENGERS: AGE OF ULTRON (2015) STORY SYNOPSIS

​​When Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr.) jump-starts a dormant peacekeeping program, things go terribly awry, forcing him, Thor (Chris Hemsworth), the Incredible Hulk (Mark Ruffalo) and the rest of the Avengers to reassemble. As the fate of Earth hangs in the balance, the team is put to the ultimate test as they battle Ultron, a technological terror hell-bent on human extinction. Along the way, they encounter two mysterious and powerful newcomers, Pietro and Wanda Maximoff.

AVENGERS: AGE OF ULTRON (2015) MOVIE REVIEW

Reviewed by Mark Geraghty   |   Review date 22 April 2015

​​Pop Movee Rating

Joss Whedon's AVENGERS: AGE OF ULTRON has everything audiences expect from a Marvel film, but it's more mature tone curbs the fun factor for Earth's Mightiest Heroes. Change is inevitable, so it’s no surprise that Joss Whedon has created a film that sees the Avengers from the last movie question their reason for being and whether they need a new approach to protecting the Earth. The answers don't comes as easily as they would hope and some soul-searching is needed to get them across the line against the rampaging Ultron.

Picking up in the middle of a mission to reclaim the alien sceptre that Thor's brother Loki used to create so much trouble in their last film, it's clear that the Avengers have been working hard to clean-up the mess created by the collapse of SHIELD, the world's secret protector, at the end of last year's Captain America: The Winter Soldier. Events get complicated when Tony Stark/Iron Man (Robert Downey JR.) gets his mind messed with by newcomer Wanda Maximoff/Scarlet Witch (Elizabeth Olsen); a genetically altered twin, who can manipulate minds and matter. Her brother, Pietro Maximoff/Quicksilver (Aaron Taylor Thomas) is - literally - no slouch either, enhanced with super speed and incredible strength. Their presence serve to reinforce an ongoing conundrum for the Avengers: that their work is never finished, yet it needs to have a finishing point. This challenge weighs heavily on Tony Stark and is the catalyst for the film's story.

Central to events is the creation of Ultron (James Spader), a program that Stark and Bruce Banner/Hulk (Mark Ruffalo) have created but not perfected. Discovering the gem from the middle of Loki's sceptre has an advanced technology that will allow them to complete their work, Stark and Banner attempt to upload the information into Tony's super-computer JARVIS (Paul Bettany) in their pursuit to create an embodied artificial intelligence. On cue, their experiment goes haywire on the night of a big party at Stark Tower where all the Avengers and other “Evil-battling” colleagues such as James “Rhodey” Rhodes/War Machine (Don Cheadle) and Sam Wilson/Falcon (Anthony Mackie) have gathered. Ultron announces himself by taking control of Tony's automated Iron Man-based peace keeper robots, launching a full-frontal assault upon the entire Avengers team. The seeds of doubt are sown when Thor (Chris Hemsworth) confronts Tony after discovering that he has used the stone from Loki's sceptre to create Ultron. The team must overcome their self-doubt and work together to stop Ultron from his plan to make humanity an extinct species.

The inherent challenge for Marvel is to make their films feel different with each new release because, fundamentally, the plot is always the same. In Age of Ultron, Joss Whedon attempts to change-up the Avengers with THE EMPIRE STRIKES BACK (1980) approach, where doubt about motivation becomes central to the main characters' development and drives both the narrative & plot forward. Whedon is almost forced into this because of the already-announced CAPTAIN AMERICA: CIVIL WAR (2016) film due out in 2016, but it does serve its own purpose in AGE OF ULTRON, as the team must confront personal demons that surface when Scarlet Witch gets inside each of their heads. This works better for some characters than others and Natasha Romanoff/Black Widow (Scarlett Johansson), Hulk and Clint Barton/Hawkeye (Jeremy Renner) are the main beneficiaries of this approach in terms of real character development. Like she did in Winter Soldier, Johansson smokes everyone off the screen whenever the story stands still long enough for two characters to engage in meaningful dialogue. Mark Ruffalo, who's no Johnny-cum-lately, manages to stay with her as the Hulk and Black Widow confront the circumstance of their situation, but, as someone once said, there’s nothing like a beautiful, talented actress to hold an audience’s gaze. 

If there's anyone to be critical of in the cast, it's Robert Downey JR. Despite his fan following, his Age of Ultron performance is similar to his Iron Man 3 one, where pithy one-liners are the mainstay of Tony’s dialogue and all his perceived “action” comes courtesy of the army of visual effects technicians employed to deliver the movie’s WOW factor.  There's no doubt that is must be hard to deliver a compelling performance that is confined by facial reactions within the Iron Man mask to visual effects that have yet to be conceived, but his portrayal of Stark is becoming very one-note.

Other than Downey JR, Aaron Taylor-Thomas never quite hits the mark as Pietro Maximoff/Quicksilver and, unfortunately for him, the audience has Evan Peters’ quirky tongue-in-cheek smart ass version of Quicksilver, as seen in 2014’s X-MEN: DAYS OF FUTURE PAST, still fresh enough in their mind to compare to Thomas. (The winner in the Quicksilver Heavy Weight title bout, by knock-out, is Evan Peters!) The remainder of the very large cast are solid and they know their roles well enough by now to play them without requiring a lot of direction.

Technically, Age of Ultron feels like a real step-up in quality from the first Avengers movie. Cinematography was a real problem for that film and Whedon has addressed this by bringing in GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY (2014) Director of Photography Ben Davis for AGE OF ULTRON. The benefits of using Davis are realized as camera set-ups run longer, there is more coverage of scenes, there feels as though there are less edits and the action feels more natural (or as natural as a CGI-heavy comic book-based movie can).

The AGE OF ULTRON score also benefits from the addition of Danny Elfman, one of the foremost film composers currently working. It’s unclear whether Elfman was brought in to work with Marvel-favourite composer Brian Tyler or replace him, but the film’s score has much greater depth than any music the studio has done for any of their releases. It’s a big improvement and a welcome addition to a film that is a grand spectacle on all other fronts.

The Marvel juggernaut rolls-on and, despite the darker more mature tone, Age of Ultron gives fans plenty to go on with. Movie-goers looking for 142 minutes of cinematic action-adventure won’t be disappointed either. And finally, don’t be disappointed by the absence of an after-credit Easter Egg; the mid-credit Easter Egg should be enough to keep franchise fans excited for the next four years!

AVENGERS: AGE OF ULTRON (2015) USEFUL LINKS

​Avengers: Age of Ultron - Wikipedia
​Avengers: Age of Ultron (2015) - IMDb
​Avengers: Age of Ultron (2015) - Rotten Tomatoes

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