"Age of Ultron" Smashes, Bashes and Thrills

Rating: 9/10 (3 May 2015)

"The Avengers: Age of Ultron" is officially the second "Marvel's The Avengers" movie, but nonetheless the 10th film in the ongoing Marvel Studios' "Marvel Cinematic Universe". All of the no less than six principal characters from the first team film are here, and screenwriter - director Joss Whedon does an admirable job of juggling them all for a mostly cohesive fantasy thriller.
The movie's plot opens with the team invading a terrorist stronghold, where renegade scientist Baron Strucker has been using an Asgardian artifact to conduct experiments on locals to turn them into superhuman agents of HYDRA. (This is the big-bad terror outfit that was officially felled in "Captain America: The Winter Soldier", but inevitably, these sorts of bad-folk social clubs have any number of splinter cells.) Iron Man (Robert Downey, Jr.) retrieves Scepter of Loki and figures out that it can jumpstart his team of robotic peacekeeping sentries. He works on the secret "Ultron" project with Bruce Banner (Mark Ruffalo) with the hope of creating a manageable robot army and allow their friends to retire from the superhero gig. (The particulars of what their health insurance and retirement plans might be are never dealt with, but would be intriguing for future filmmakers.) After several false starts, Ultron comes alive in secret, but apparently some bugs made his programming a little "off" and he wakes up angry. REALLY angry. "2001: A Space Odyssey" introduced HAL-9000 as an intelligent computer program that gradually becomes murderous over the course of months. Ultron leapfrogs the slow-burn angle and basically is homicidal from his first day of self-awareness. It's implied that mankind's history of war and oppression irrevocably convince Ultron that humans are the ultimate invasive species.
After "multiplying like Catholic rabbits" (quoth Samuel Jackson's patch-eyed Nick Fury), Ultron's legion of self-created robots starts invading world cities, looking for rare metals that can help him create a more advanced body as well as the super-weapon that will help him-- wait for it-- destroy humanity.
Naturally, the good guys can't have any of that. Soon, Captain America (Chris Evans) and the rest of the team are launching assaults to pull the plug on the rogue robot. At least for a while, they manage to be stymied by the Scarlet Witch (Elizabeth Olsen) and Quicksilver (Aaron Taylor-Johnson), two orphans of Eastern Europe's 1990s war conflicts. Olsen's character has psychic abilities that expose people's greatest fears, creating much of the angst that weighs heavily on the protagonists. In comparison, Taylor-Johnson's character is simply super-fast; a somewhat more mundane power in comparison, though he manages to make an emotional impact later in the film.
Surprisingly, romantic tension in the film comes from an unexpected coupling- Ruffalo's Banner and Johannson's Widow (aka Natasha Romanov). It's a Beauty and the Beast conceit that is thankfully given several lingering scenes of explanation in between the literally explosive goings on in the main narrative. Ruffalo's Banner has a tragic arc, desperate for an intimate relationship but relentlessly haunted by the threat of a Hulk rampage. Jeremy Renner's Hawkeye is revealed to have a wife and children living off-grid, and some downtime on his family's farm gives not only his character some needed spotlight (he spent most of the last film hypnotized) but also the other characters as well. Viewers would do well to pay attention to these scenes in particular, as they seem to sow seeds for developments in future adventures.
In keeping with Marvel's comics traditions, the heroes argue and fight among themselves until the moment of clarity comes for all of them who the real enemy is. This is facilitated by Paul Bettany as a new ally to the team, born from the efforts of several members. Other Avengers allies seen in some of the solo movies show up here as well, also hinting at future developments.
The climax is lengthy enough to be satisfying for its action scenes but also comes across as somewhat drawn-out in its execution. Look for the sacrifice of a key character at an unexpected moment, to the filmmakers' credit.
All of the actors manage to have sufficient spotlight- Downey's smart-aleck Tony Stark continues to be his defining modern role, Chris Evans' morally-centered Captain America has taken formal reins of leadership of the team, distrusts the notion of being at war with everyone and no one at the same time-- and is still mindful of bad language in mixed company. Chris Hemsworth's Thor has gotten more used to life among mortals.
Ultron is given a droll flair by "The Blacklist"'s James Spader. Spader as Ultron is enveloped in CGI animation (via motion-capture technology) just as Ruffalo is so enveloped for his stints as the Hulk. While the actor's real body is unseen, his personality makes intriguing what could have been a very generic role. On an interesting side note, pioneering motion-capture actor Andy Serkis ("Lord of the Rings", "Planet of the Apes") has a bit part here as an arms dealer, sans any CGI.
The film will make believers of this particular kind of action spectacle. Joss Whedon is given the herculean (Thor-ean?) task of making comic book stories like the Avengers look real enough to be appreciated by comics laypeople but fantastic enough for the fanboys and girls who are steeped in the lore. Here, he succeeds. It's not a perfect film, but like its protagonists, flaws are part of its appeal and the ending promises a bold new direction for the saga.