8/10

The Earth’s mightiest heroes re-asssemble in this sequel to the 2012 original, which went on to be the third highest grossing film of all time. When Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr) jumpstarts a dormant peacekeeping program, things go awry for the band of superheroes, including Iron Man, Captain America (Chris Evans), Thor (Chris Hemsworth), The Incredible Hulk (Mark Ruffalo), Black Widow (Scarlett Johansson) and Hawkeye (Jeremy Renner). They are put to the ultimate test as they battle to save the planet from destruction at the hands of the villainous Ultron (Voiced by James Spader). While ‘Age of Ultron’ falls just short of it’s predecessor due to some oversaturation in fight scenes, the film manages it’s own success exploring darker plot tones, as well as character backstories that we haven’t been privy to. Perhaps the most impressive thing about this film is that there are no fewer than ten main characters who we follow at all times and Director/Writer Joss Whedon always has enough substance to keep them all equally balanced. At the meat of all of this is a surprising bombshell for Hawkeye, a developing romance between Bruce Banner and Black Widow, and a new enemy who doesn’t feel pain like a human adversary. One of my problems with the film has to do with the ladder. Spader gives some solid line reads, and his material is enough to keep the audience laughing in a sadistic way. But the problem with using comedy in a main antagonist is that it diminishes his ability to effectively induce suspense into the audience for fear of the lives of our heroes. Ultron is a menacing force in the comic books, but there is just too much comedy in his on-screen dialogue that made me interpret him as a coward. It’s also a negative when compared to Loki in the first movie because we can’t see facial reactions on Ultron. So we never really know when he feels pain, or feels in trouble. It’s a handicap villain choice that the movie never worked itself out of. On the subject of action, the fight choreography is very well done, with a lot of nice picture definition to compliment the overabundance of characters fighting in any given shot. The green screen work feels non-existent. We all know it’s there, but everything is shot in such an excellent way that the backgrounds and sets never feel wooden. There are a lot of fight scenes in this film and that is expected. At times, it feels like one battle bleeds into the next because the last one never officially ended. This is a problem with the ‘Transformers’ films, and why their fight scenes drag down the pacing of the film. Luckily, that problem is never as persistent with this movie, but it does exist a lot more than it did in the first film. If i could point to one single problem why i rated this film lower than that one, it’s mostly in scene to scene pacing. It’s fine in the first two acts of the film, but the action shoehorns too much of a final act that should be more about looking forward to the next installment. The actor performances were all on par as usual. I noticed a little more out of Renner in particular in this installment. His line reads were a step up from his previous performance, and i wouldn’t be against seeing a Hawkeye only film. By any means necessary, every actor needs to be signed for as many installments as Whedon deems necessary. Downey is my favorite, but i am slowly being wooed by the boy scout honorable charms of Chris Evans stand as an on-the-ground leader. A small disappointment is in the lack of Nick Fury in the film. S.H.I.E.L.D feels almost non-existent compared to it’s big involvement in the first movie. ‘Avengers: Age of Ultron’ is a thrill ride for the whole family. There is nothing in the film that will steer you away from bringing the kids. There is violence, but the movie (like most Marvel films) lacks blood or gore. I would however stay away from the 3D version of the film. Not only does the 3D add nothing to the screen popping features, but it dims a lot of the night time shots. I’m not sure if it was the theater’s projector or what, but the definition of our characters were very rough on the eyes. I think a 2D projection will fix the eye straining problems that 3D usually carries with it. The comic book genre feels very crowded in 2015, but as long as The Avengers are on the marquee, we will all be saved from previous months movie blues.