A Major Disappointment

Rating: 3/10 (8 May 2019)

I'd like to preface this review by saying I am a really big Marvel fan. I have been for a long time, ever since the first Avengers movie came out. So when I say that this movie was a real disappointment, I'm saying that as a fan, not a movie critic.
The concept of this movie is a good one. Tony Stark tries to create an AI to protect the world from alien threats, but the AI goes rogue and tries to destroy humanity. But that's really all I can say is good about this movie. The concepts. The concept for Ultron is a good one. The concept for the Vision is a good one. The concept for the Battle of Sokovia is a good one. But this movie is more than a concept. And I have to judge it that way.
The execution of these concepts is incredibly poor. What are written as serious issues are played off as jokes and gags. The big problem with this movie is that they don't take themselves seriously, yet still expect us to care. Ultron's plan is to destroy all of humanity and create a better world inhabited only by machines. They build him up as this intimidating character that should be feared. His first appearance is actually one of the best scenes in the whole movie. It's intimidating, eerie, and leaves you uncertain on what the Avengers are going to do to stop him. However, all his other appearances are played off for laughs. Ultron acts more like a human than a heartless machine. Bad puns and unfunny one-liners completely undo what they built up this character to be, and as a result he is no longer interesting.
Now I'll admit that I'm not a comic book fan. The only things I know about these characters come from the movies they've appeared in. I don't know if Ultron is the same way in the comics as he is in this movie. Nor do I care. I don't care if he's like this in the comics because this movie isn't a comic. It's a movie. If this movie doesn't give me good reasons to care about this character, then I'm not gonna care what he's like in the comics.
Another thing that this movie does not execute well is the action. Like I said before, I really like the concept for the Battle of Sokovia. I really like Ultron's plan on paper. Unfortunately, it's a mess on the big screen. The special effects and choreography are fine, but the enemies they're fighting mean nothing in the grand scheme of things. As a result the action seems anticlimactic and futile. You don't care about what they're fighting because not only are they all the same, but they're nothing but machines. Pawns. Cannon fodder for the Avengers to beat up, blow up, shoot at, and utterly destroy without any moral consequences. I'm not saying you should be emotionally attached to every goon in these sorts of action movies, but the problem with making them machines is that they don't have souls. When a character kills a living enemy, whether human, alien, or even animal, it has weight because, like us, it was a living creature. They may have had lives, families, futures, you name it. No matter who they are, whether common thieves or terrorists, they are still human, and killing a living thing will always carry more weight than killing waves upon waves of robots. It's just not the same.
On top of that, there are SO MANY OF THEM. They kill one and it gets instantly replaced, and as a result it not only seems never ending, but after a while it gets stale and boring. That's the best way I can describe the action in this move: boring. I don't care about Ultron, I don't care about his robot goons, and I don't care about his plan. I wanted to, but these things are so poorly executed that I can't. I care about these characters, but I don't feel any tension because I know that they're not gonna die in this movie. Yes, I know Quicksilver dies. But not only do I know nothing about him other than he runs fast and has a tragic backstory, but the acting is so bland that I can't even pretend to care about him. When I think of this character I can't help but think of the Quicksilver I know from the X-Men movies and how much more interesting he is. His action scenes are entertaining, especially in Days of Future Past. I care about that character. But this Quicksilver gives me absolutely no reason to care about him. And so I don't.
Avengers: Age of Ultron is one disappointment after the other. Everything about this movie had potential. The story, the characters, everything. It all looked good on paper. But what we were given was a poorly executed, poorly acted, poorly planned movie that didn't know where to go with any of those ideas. I'm not gonna stop you from watching or even enjoying this movie. If you get enjoyment out of it then I'm happy for you. You got what you wanted out of it and I didn't. And that's fine. Maybe it just wasn't for me. But this is my opinion. This is why I didn't like this movie. I wrote this review because I want Marvel to do better. And since this movie came out they have done better. MUCH better. I want them to succeed. Because, as I said, I am a big Marvel fan. And all I want is for Marvel to do these characters and these stories justice.
Thank you for reading.