"Avengers: Age of Ultron" is even better than 2012's "Avengers"

Rating: 9/10 (1 May 2015)

Marvel has pulled off something INCREDIBLE – something unprecedented in the annals of American cinema! They have assembled the parts of four different movie franchises into a combination franchise – and it's a huge, HULKing success! Almost a decade ago, when I first heard of Marvel's plans to make separate movies about the Incredible Hulk, Iron Man, Captain America and Thor, and then bring them all together in an "Avengers" movie, I admit that I was a bit skeptical. I said to myself, "Self, that's a lot of time, effort and money towards a single goal. I hope, for their sake, these movies don't suck." I watched and waited to see if they could IRON out the details, and MAN, did they! The 2008 Hulk movie (2003's "Hulk" wasn't part of this grand plan), the three Iron Man movies and the Captain America and Thor films (two each) and 2012's "Avengers" have made a combined total of over $2.6 billion – in the U.S. alone! By the hammer of THOR, that's a lot of money! More importantly, these nine films (ten, if you count Marvel's "Guardians of the Galaxy") have averaged 7.4 stars on IMDb.com and an 82% audience rating on rottentomatoes.com! And now, writer/director Joss Whedon, the CAPTAIN of this culminating franchise, has given us a blockbuster that may break box office records in America and all over the world! Is Whedon's "Avengers: Age of Ultron" (PG-13, 2:21) worth all that? For the details (but no spoilers), and our official Movie Fan judgment, read on. The AVENGERS have ASSEMBLED! "Avengers: Age of Ultron" (as part of this grand plan for the Marvel Cinematic Universe) picks up on the cues and clues left us in "The Avengers". As the 2015 episode opens, Iron Man / Tony Stark (Robert Downey, Jr.), The Hulk / Dr. David Banner (Mark Ruffalo), Captain America / Steve Rogers (Chris Evans), Thor (Chris Hemsworth), Black Widow / Natasha Romanoff (Scarlett Johansson) and Hawkeye / Clint Barton (Jeremy Renner) are racing through the woods in the fictional Eastern European country of Sokovia, to a secret research laboratory where they hope to reacquire Loki's scepter. As we learned from the previous film, that staff has tremendous power and can't fall into the wrong hands. And in the right hands, it could be very beneficial. There's a rare stone within the scepter and that Stark realizes he can use to power Ultron, the artificial intelligence project that he's been working on. The idea is that Ultron would function as a global defense system to keep the world safe from aliens with bad intentions. "Peace in our time," Stark calls it. The problem is two-fold. "Peace in our time" was the phrase used by British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain after he got Adolf Hitler to sign an agreement not to attack England and we all know how that turned out. Secondly, these guys have apparently never seen any of the "Terminator" movies, in which a defense technology called "Skynet" was supposed to keep earth's inhabitants safe and we all know how THAT turned out.
When Ultron becomes self-aware (much more quickly than Skynet did), he makes himself a body out of spare robot parts, starts sounding like James Spader talking through a bad cell phone connection and decides that the best way to save the world is to exterminate humanity. Uh-oh. It takes all the Avengers to slow him down for a minute or two. Ultron, he of the high intelligence in the digital format, can escape into any computer in the world – or all of them. Besides that, he has help. A pair of genetically-enhanced twins, Quicksilver / Pietro Maximoff (Aaron Taylor-Johnson) and Scarlet Witch / Wanda Maximoff (Elizabeth Olsen), have a personal beef with the Avengers and are more than happy to help Ultron destroy them. Quicksilver makes Superman look like an old man with a walker and Scarlet Witch can move objects by waving her hands and can get inside someone's head more effectively than any woman I've ever met. Ultron uses their particular set of skills to significant advantage, but he hasn't told them that he has a little more on his high-tech mind than just getting rid of the Avengers. But the good guys have help too. Several characters from previous films in the Marvel Cinematic Universe show up to lend a hand. I'd love to tell you who they are, but my policy is to not reveal anything that you can't learn from the trailer or the movie poster. I'd also love to tell you what we learn about several characters' back stories and the surprising developments involving some of the characters in the present, but that would spoil the fun! And "Avengers: Age of Ultron" IS a lot of fun! This movie contains all the elements that made the first film work so well, but never gets repetitious. This movie even enhances those elements. We get more character development, more character conflict, more humor, superior visual effects and, most importantly, an even better story and even better action sequences! What's not to love? The visuals are stunning, the action sequences are intense and creative, and there are more laughs in this movie than in many so-called comedies I've seen. The humor is not only perfectly balanced with the action, it's perfectly timed. This film will leave superhero fans and action movie fans alike wanting more, and more is on the way. We're going to have a chance to see "Ant-Man" in July. "Captain America: Civil War" arrives next May, "Guardians of the Galaxy 2" and "Thor: Ragnarok" in 2017, and "Avengers: Infinity War – Part 1" in 2018. For now, "Avengers: Age of Ultron" gets an "A".