Joss Whedon needs a hug; Would Recommend

Rating: 7/10 (24 May 2017)

'Avengers: Age of Ultron' is the second feature film in the MCU's 'Avengers' franchise and was directed by Joss Whedon. It stars Tony Stark Jr, Chris Evans and James Spader and is the story of Ultron(James Spader), a psychotic robot created by Robert Downey Jr and Bruce Banner to stop all wars before they even begin.
It was impossible for this movie to live up to the absurdly high hype that came of off 'Avengers Assemble' and the other MCU movies. It really was but I still feel that people were too harsh on Joss Whedon. Seriously, the guy needs a hug. He was bullied by movie goers because this movie didn't reach the heights of one of the best movies of 2012. I feel bad for the guy. He made a fun, action packed movie with a stellar cast and fun villain but was manhandled by smaller people? Oh children that's right I forgot the word there for a second. In all seriousness, this movie is very entertaining and fun is you can ignore the absurd plot and tropes carried over from movie to movie.
Speaking of absurd plot, the plot is absurd. The term 'Age' implies 2000+ years of something, not a week. The concept of Ultron was really cool and they could have made a very creative(and possibly, if they did it right, satirical) doomsday device that involved our mass reliance on technology and the internet. They do try to cram a LOT into one movie and fail miserably at it. It think this was a Feige issue and not a Whedon issue because he has said how many restrictions and guidelines he had to follow and that undoubtedly interfered with his vision for this movie. Something happens in this movie that should have meant a lot but it doesn't have as much of an impact as it should and therefore feels very wasted and like botched potential.
Right, let's get the obvious out of the way. Tony Stark is excellent as Roberty Downey Jr. Downey Jr is just such a charismatic guy and he makes Stark a very memorable character. This is only heightened by Chris Evan's much better performance of Captain America. There is more back and fourth between Evans and Stark than there was in the Korean War. Scarlett Johanson was good as Black Widow, as was Mark Ruffallo as Bruce Banner but the 'relationship' between the two felt so forced and contrived and had little to no buildup to make it successfully work. Chris Hemsworth was good as Blondie but I feel like his presence was neither necessary nor warranted. Jeremy Renner as good as Hawkeye and the wonderful producers at Marvel Studios decided we needed a reason to like him so that when he kicks the bucket in Infinity War we'll actually give one(I refuse to count that as profanity). Elizabeth 'Hand Wavy' Olsen was weak as Scarlett Witch as her 'superior acting method' consisted of doing stuff with her hands in the air and, occasionally forging an accent. Aaron Taylor-Johnson did better as her 'brother' Quicksilver but his purpose was to be there and not for anything else. Paul Bettany was great as his character in the movie and was a very welcome and entertaining surprise. Plus, dat hamma scene tho. Now for arguably the most controversial part of this movie, Ultron. I understand that Ultron wasn't as menacing as people wanted him to be but I appreciated Spader's approach to the character. Having him share similar qualities to that of his maker(Robert Downeyy Jr) was an excellent choice and gave further levels to the character. He was definitely one of the better MCU villains but that is like saying something is one of the better ways to get stabbed.
Once more, I adore Whedon's beautiful cinematography and his long, unedited tracking shots and stunning to behold. On the flip side of that argument, while some scenes(such as the opening sequence) were amazingly shot and edited, scenes such as the church scene were horrifically edited and were done extremely poorly. The effects were amazing and looked awesome(I wouldn't say they looked as impressive or cool as 'Avengers Assemble' but that is just my opinion). I do think the set design was pretty generic and they could have done quite a bit more with it to make it appear more lively.
This movie needed to provide some fun action, fun humour and set up ((37*(x**40)) + (π*407³)(Have fun maths nerds!) movies in the process. The action is very fun and arrives when it's needed. Amidst the incredible action, there is also deep, heartfelt character moments and some of them worked. The one liners were most funny but some of them were were very profanity filled and that is offensive to Cap/Disney. As for setting up movies, it does to that but it could have been done so much cleaner and work so much better. Another thing this movie had to do was involve stakes but it doesn't feel like it does that. This is a glaring issue with MCU movies and hopefully they'll fix this in 'Infinity War'.
The music was very good.
In conclusion, this movie is not as good as 'Avengers Assemble' or 'The Winter Soldier' or even 'Iron Man' but it is a very enjoyable movie and better than a lot of MCU movies. The cast is still stellar and Whedon proved he direct action competently with his other movies. If you want a fun way to spend your two hours, I will recommend you see this movie because it is very fun and enjoyable to watch.
7/10