'Avengers: Age Of Ultron' review by Jake Boyle
The shoes to fill have never been bigger. Record-breakingly profitable, internationally adored and lauded by critics and fans alike. But enough about me. The first Avengers film was an unadulterated triumph, matching exhilarating action with charismatic humour and showing just how amazing the end result can be when four years are spent putting all the pieces together. Three years on from that and the universe has grown even more, and new additions looking to be added - all dependant on the success of this film.
What is perhaps most remarkable about Age Of Ultron is how immensely scaled up everything is, yet still able to remain cohesive and unrushed. For a film with over a dozen key characters, everybody gets enough time to shine, and the CGI destruction reaches truly insane levels at times, but never feels overwhelming in a bad way or incomprehensible. The action is jaw-dropping both in its enormity and in its seamless choreography - especially the group shots when we see Earth's Mightiest Heroes kicking ass in unison. The returning actors uniformly give performances of the incredibly high calibre they have been doing throughout the franchise, but the enjoyability of some characters is marred by the occasionally wonky characterisation. However, even when that does occur, the day is saved (as always) by Joss Whedon's inimitable flair for witty, inventive dialogue, be it through excellent running jokes, monologues, comebacks and one-liners. T-shirt manufactures can rest assured that there's another fifty or so quotes for them to print (even if they are going to keep excluding Natasha).
However, despite the brilliance of the dialogue, there are a small number of touching moments done quietly and silently - an impressive move for big-budget Hollywood fare. Mostly this works (Jeremy Renner is finally given the opportunity to give Hawkeye more depth, and Robert Downey Jr continues to nail the downplayed confliction he exhibited in Iron Man 3); however there's a romantic sideplot that does contains some sweet moments, but ultimately still feels awkwardly shoehorned in. It does still kind of work, however, and that hiccup is the biggest flaw the film has. The other new inclusions are all solid: Aaron Taylor-Johnson is charming, the introduction of Vision is gripping and James Spader is suitably menacing as the titular villain, and delivers the comedic lines sharply. The real joy, however, is in seeing the extended universe culminate in one place - small appearances from Anthony Mackie, Hayley Atwell and a criminally underused Idris Elba should delight anybody who's been following the whole Marvel story, and the last few moments before the credits tease of some truly spectacular things to come.
The pressing question for any sequel is always 'was it as good as the first film?'. And no, it must be said, Age of Ultron does not quite match up to the Avengers' first team outing, be that a slightly worse script, weaker uses of fantastic characters or simply the law of diminishing returns. However, being slightly worse than The Avengers is still a pretty difficult level of quality to obtain, and Age of Ultron certainly contains all the dazzling action and razor-sharp humour that you could possibly hope for. In no way is it a disappointment; quite the contrary - it's an invigorating, captivating, quick-witted thrill ride. Absolutely everything we were hoping for.
What is perhaps most remarkable about Age Of Ultron is how immensely scaled up everything is, yet still able to remain cohesive and unrushed. For a film with over a dozen key characters, everybody gets enough time to shine, and the CGI destruction reaches truly insane levels at times, but never feels overwhelming in a bad way or incomprehensible. The action is jaw-dropping both in its enormity and in its seamless choreography - especially the group shots when we see Earth's Mightiest Heroes kicking ass in unison. The returning actors uniformly give performances of the incredibly high calibre they have been doing throughout the franchise, but the enjoyability of some characters is marred by the occasionally wonky characterisation. However, even when that does occur, the day is saved (as always) by Joss Whedon's inimitable flair for witty, inventive dialogue, be it through excellent running jokes, monologues, comebacks and one-liners. T-shirt manufactures can rest assured that there's another fifty or so quotes for them to print (even if they are going to keep excluding Natasha).
However, despite the brilliance of the dialogue, there are a small number of touching moments done quietly and silently - an impressive move for big-budget Hollywood fare. Mostly this works (Jeremy Renner is finally given the opportunity to give Hawkeye more depth, and Robert Downey Jr continues to nail the downplayed confliction he exhibited in Iron Man 3); however there's a romantic sideplot that does contains some sweet moments, but ultimately still feels awkwardly shoehorned in. It does still kind of work, however, and that hiccup is the biggest flaw the film has. The other new inclusions are all solid: Aaron Taylor-Johnson is charming, the introduction of Vision is gripping and James Spader is suitably menacing as the titular villain, and delivers the comedic lines sharply. The real joy, however, is in seeing the extended universe culminate in one place - small appearances from Anthony Mackie, Hayley Atwell and a criminally underused Idris Elba should delight anybody who's been following the whole Marvel story, and the last few moments before the credits tease of some truly spectacular things to come.
The pressing question for any sequel is always 'was it as good as the first film?'. And no, it must be said, Age of Ultron does not quite match up to the Avengers' first team outing, be that a slightly worse script, weaker uses of fantastic characters or simply the law of diminishing returns. However, being slightly worse than The Avengers is still a pretty difficult level of quality to obtain, and Age of Ultron certainly contains all the dazzling action and razor-sharp humour that you could possibly hope for. In no way is it a disappointment; quite the contrary - it's an invigorating, captivating, quick-witted thrill ride. Absolutely everything we were hoping for.
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