Uniquely Entertaining - Marvel at its Best

Rating: 7/10 (3 May 2015)

Avengers: Age of Ultron made its domestic debut this week and, without getting into any spoiler territory, I'll give you my first impressions. In short, darker and more serious than the first Avengers but it's still packed with plenty of humor, action and character development. I would call it uniquely entertaining because it is a different kind of film than its predecessor, but is no less entertaining. Synopsis
In Age of Ultron, Tony Stark's effort to 'put a suit of armor around the world' by combining artificial intelligence with his armor technology goes awry. Enter Ultron, a robot with more personality than you'd expect from a robot and a chaotic plan to bring 'peace' to the globe. The film is rated PG-13 for intense sequences of sci-fi action, violence and destruction, and for some suggestive comments. Firing on All Cylinders
This film finds the Avengers finally hitting their stride together, rather than hitting each other, and doesn't have to spend any time 'assembling' the team, as was necessary in the first film. The obvious benefit is this leaves more time for actual Avenging, character development and introduction of new characters. While the first 25-35% of the film was less engaging for me, since the characters' chemistry and jokes were coming off a bit flat, the film started hitting its stride about a third of the way through and then was firing on all cylinders from that point on.
Probably my favorite part of this film was how the characters were handled. There was significant effort put into developing each main characters' personality, motivations and fears such that I felt more invested in both the characters and the outcome of the film. The end of the world sure means a whole lot more when you care about the people in it.
I can honestly say that I think I laughed out loud at this film more than almost any other film that I've ever seen. Joss Whedon, the film's director, did a great job incorporating the actors' natural chemistry together into the characters' relationships. While the Avengers definitely still have their differences, their witty dialogue, quirky mannerisms and humorous facial expressions are incredibly entertaining and serve as welcome breaks during tense situations. This all-star cast seems like a fun group of people to hang out with, in or out of character. What Didn't Quite Work
Since this film was obviously created for 3D viewing and it has extensive CGI (including the main villain, who is entirely computer generated), some of the preliminary action sequences and scenes with Ultron took me out of the film a bit. By this I mean that they probably would have looked awesome in 3D, but because I was seeing the film in 2D, the occasional slow-motion action with something flying toward the screen just felt kind of weird.
It also seemed like there were several moments toward the beginning of the film where I could tell they were acting against a green-screen, as if they hadn't completely finished touching up the composite work. These are only minor complaints though, as you can tell, and the average moviegoer will probably not pick up on them.
Rating: 8/10
While my ratings are subject to change within a star or two pending subsequent viewings, I am giving Age of Ultron an 8 out of 10. Please don't confuse 8/10 with 80% (B-); 8/10 means that, overall, I REALLY LIKED IT!! To put it in context, here are some of my other ratings in recent years: The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers: 10/10 (the only film to ever achieve that recognition) The Avengers: 9/10 Inception: 9/10 Captain America: The Winter Soldier: 8/10 Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl: 8/10 Princess Mononoke: 8/10 Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol: 8/10 I'm not one of those who gives a 10/10 just because I liked something. Really, anything a 5 or higher means that I liked it more than I disliked it, so getting to the 7, 8, or 9 territory means that we are talking about a quality, entertaining film - at least in my book. So go check it out - I know that I'm going back to see it in IMAX next week!! Can't wait! Thanks for reading!