Everything I had hoped for, but not perfect

Rating: 8/10 (24 April 2015)

It's not perfect, and certainly not the best Marvel movie to date, but it's still everything I had hoped for (well most, at least). The story begins after the prologue at the end of Winter Soldier. The Avengers are converging on Baron Von Strucker as the last detachment of Hydra, who managed to obtain Loki's Sceptre (from the first Avengers). Stark and Banner's study of the sceptre reveals the dormant potential for artificial intelligence, and Stark decides to use this for one of his projects he pitches as a "suit of armour around the world". Unfortunately it's not quite what he hoped for, and Ultron is born with the usual machinations of a villainous AI; peace via the extinction of humanity.
Joss Whedon manages to weave in some more character development for everyone amongst the plot, from Romanov's ballerina background, to Barton's secret family. We see Stark still torn up after the alien invasion of the first movie, Banner and Romanov develop a fledgling romance, Thor fearing what the future may bring, and Rogers still missing Peggy. We also get a truck-load of cameos from previous movies. Sam Wilson, James Rhodes, Maria Hill, Nick Fury, Erik Selvig, Heimdall, and of course Peggy Carter all make appearances here or there. However this leaves distinct holes where obviously an actors unwillingness or busy schedule prevented them from appearing; it's noted that neither Pepper Potts nor Jane Foster are present, despite being romantically involved with members of the team, and the reasons why aren't particularly great. Then there's the new characters, most notably Pietro and Wanda Maximoff as twins Von Strucker experimented on, and Vision who is essentially Jarvis in a semi-organic form. Von Strucker himself doesn't have as a big a role as I anticipated, serving as no threat at all, and Ulysses Klaue is introduced briefly to set up the Black Panther movie.
On which note there is a hell of a lot of foreboding in Age of Ultron. Most obviously is the appearance of another Infinity Stone (or rather, re-appearance), as well as glimpses of the Infinity Gauntlet and Thanos himself. However somewhat less obviously is the amount of friction mounting between members of the team that will lead into Captain America: Civil War next year. It's starting to become very apparent who gets along with who, and more crucially who's at odds with who. Stark's actions are plenty enough to displease certain heroes, but also win over certain heroes as well. Lines are starting to be drawn in the sand. In short, I've never been more excited for either of the two 'Wars' on the horizon.
What did throw me off a little bit was the amount of humour present in Age of Ultron. Let's face it, the trailers made it seem like a pretty bleak and serious movie, somewhat in the vein of Winter Soldier. However there are jokes aplenty that serve to lighten the mood and stay in keeping with the general tone Marvel has adopted of late (for better (Guardians) or worse (Iron Man 3)). For the most part, the humour hits the nail on the head, like the running jokes of Captain America's disdain for bad language and the worthiness necessary to lift Thor's hammer, which each garnered a number of laughs. It does verge on the goofy every now and then, but at least it never goes full Trevor Slattery.
Unfortunately I will concede that every now and then it does undermine the tension and threat, most notably when it comes to Ultron. Did he really need some jokes to crack? It makes the threatening villain we saw in the trailers come across almost as a fumbling mess. It doesn't help that some of Ultron's best and most spine-chilling lines from the trailers were cut out of the movie entirely (including my favourite line; "People would look to the sky and see hope...I'll take that from them first"). Furthermore the decision to give Ultron lip-like movements around his mouth just doesn't quite sit right with me. I mean, his face is made of metal plating, I have no idea how it's meant to bend and pinch so freely to make that kind of movement possible. I can understand the decision though, as the alternative would be a mouth that doesn't move (which I personally think would look more intimidating), but a moving mouth certainly shows his evolution from the body he initially took from one of Stark's drones. On that note, I didn't like Visions look either. It looked grade-A goofy, and the pink and turquoise just doesn't work together as a colour scheme.
Age of Ultron is everything you might expect from Chapter Five of Phase Two of the cinematic universe. It fits in snuggly and acts as a great culmination of the movies before, and sets the seeds of movies yet to come. It's this connectivity between the Marvel properties that makes me love it all so much. They seem to have everything planned out and tease major developments well in advance. I think I may have literally squeed when the Infinity Gauntlet first appears. On which note Age of Ultron is the beginning of a vastly new era, with a whole new team of Avengers, a new status quo, and yes a hero does die, but I won't spoil who. I give Age of Ultron a thoroughly enjoyable 8/10.