Age of Ultron is exciting, action-packed, and emotionally empty

Rating: 5/10 (3 May 2015)

Comic book films are often clichéd in their innovativeness. They are all wildly different, but all feel strangely similar, in their clanking, brawny, save-the-world-from-a-terrible-villain cesspools of ideas and characters. The thing that sets a comic book movie apart is usually one scene, be it a scene that depicts beauty, emotion, or simply an unusually awesome use of the all-seeing camera. In Guardians of the Galaxy, we had the scene in which Groot sends a cascade of glowing spores into the air. In The Dark Knight, we had the unforgettable interrogation scene (among many others), where we were exposed to the visceral world of insanity. In Iron Man, we had the "Tony Stark has a Heart" motif. Without these moments, these comic book movies would be what they advertise themselves to be: Simple, sexist, and action packed to the point of insanity.
Age of Ultron is that not-so-rare comic book movie with an intriguing setup, formidable villain, snarky humour, the optional dose of character drama, and women in tight clothing. It is well made and engaging, the camera-work is mostly seamless, the scene where Ultron is introduced is excellent, and there are a lot of fancy explosions. But Age of Ultron falls short of its better predecessors in a few keystone elements.
Firstly, it lacks a powerful scene. Most of the scenes are visually commanding, that is true, but there is no scene that makes the film memorable for its grasp of the human condition. There is the occasional goodbye, but these scenes did not inspire any sort of feeling whatsoever. I remained completely unmoved for the duration of the film.
Secondly, the final battle scene is not engaged enough. It keeps cutting away from the action to some random talking that no one cares about, not allowing the audience to immerse itself in the action that they paid for.
These elements notwithstanding, Age of Ultron is a good escapist film and James Spader's depiction of the robot Ultron is really darn cool.