A Visual Spectacle Well-Balanced with Story

Rating: 9/10 (24 April 2015)

As Marvel continues to dominate the movie industry and box office, their latest outing 'Avengers: Age of Ultron' certainly one-ups its 2012 predecessor with new heroes, allies, and a formidable foe that makes previous villain Loki look like a tamed kitten. Since this movie marks the end of Joss Whedon's directorial position for Marvel, he pulled off such an amazing move by making the original film's light-hearted moments turn a little darker, but never straying completely away from character development and nothing short of more screen time for each. It's like, Whedon wasn't trying to make everything from the last movie better with more destruction or mayhem, along with the appearance of new characters without proper explanation (he's not Michael Bay), instead he balanced those out evenly with better depth story-wise.
When a rogue AI known as Ultron (voiced by Blacklist's James Spader) declares extinction on humanity in order to bring peace to the world, the Avengers must reunite to stop this new threat as it threatens other parts of the world, along the way fighting their own battles inside and out.
I was blown away with the original Avengers movie, and its sequel doesn't disappoint as I was literally at the edge of my seat. Unlike the previous film, this now gives Jeremy Renner's Hawkeye even more development into what he can really do on screen, complete with clever one-liners and stylized action sequences alongside his fellow co-stars. Scarlet Johansson's Black Widow had some light shed onto her backstory, which doesn't distract from the business at hand, only an insight into emotional depth (including her fellow allies). Robert Downey Jr. still has his wits portraying Tony Stark/Iron Man when mingling with anyone around him, while new faces Quicksilver and Scarlet Witch proved to be quite the brother-sister team (done strikingly well by Aaron Taylor-Johnson and Elizabeth 'Liz' Olsen respectively). Now as for the titular character himself Ultron, James Spader basically shaped the character with an ominous, cunning tone crossed with wittiness that could make anyone shake in fear or have a tendency to laugh when in his presence. Which is kind of rare in past Marvel villains. The accompanying underscore of both Brian Tyler and Danny Elfman - in place of original composer Alan Silvestri - made the action sequences and scenarios look and sound more suspenseful, breathtaking, and epic to every degree. In the end, each hero that fought admirably left behind amazing twists and tragedies I did not see coming (though I won't spoil it there). In fact, I feel the need to watch it again for some reason.
My thoughts: Admittedly, a few loose ends needed to be cleared up since it causes the main story to feel pretty vague to understand when connecting them with a few notable subplots, but for a second round of Marvel movie crossover, Joss Whedon assembled what appears to be yet another superb entry into the Marvel Cinematic Universe.