Avengers: Age of Ultron - Review

:: RATED "S" FOR SUPER-SPOILERS - READ AT YOUR OWN RISK ::

The Avengers are back. Set a few years later after the events of the previous Marvel movies like

"Thor: The Dark World" and "Captain America: The Winter Soldier", we see our favourite heroes back going after HYDRA once they discover the place where they hide Loki's scepter. There they meet the twins (also known as Quicksilver and Scarlet Which although they are never called with those names) who volunteer to experiment on them to get special powers, while he has super speed power, she has a more bizarre power, she can get into people's minds but cannot control them. That's the place we also see, for the first time, Stark's drones that look much like an Iron Man armour with different color palette. Inside the fortress, Stark finds an unfinished sentinel program and decides to complete it without telling anyone (with the exception of Dr. Banner aka. Hulk), then Ultron wakes up and creates a temporary "body" until he makes his "final form".
As he's an A.I. (Artificial Intelligence), he travels via internet and knows all the Avengers secrets including some unexpected past events like Black Widow's. We also get to know a little more about Hawkeye who has a secret family in a farm outside the county.
Step by step, we get to discover more about Ultron's plan, who only wants to save the planet by killing off humanity. He gets help by "The Twins" sharing their mutual hate towards Tony Stark until they discover his real intentions of erasing humans so only machines rule the world. The maniac robot also has a secret plan of creating a new indestructible body so he can be uploaded in but the Avengers manage to steal it and Stark continues with his plan and uploads Jarvis interface into it and The Vision is born.
Then the final battle begins, a bunch of Ultron drones and the big bad robot himself versus the Avengers with the help of Vision and the Twins. The Vision is able to disconnect Ultron from the internet so defeating him becomes easier with a few sacrifices.

The movie makes the return of the popular characters in a more deeply story than the original film against the robot/persona Ultron. While I still prefer the original design from the comic books, his persona is quite amazing, with a small touch of Stark's sarcasm but more evil, James Spader does the voice work and that was a great casting, he does a believable job making Ultron real. But, being an ultra-intelligent robot who can access anywhere, his intentions are soft and his thinking has been already used in other films, the typical "Humans are a virus to this planet, they must be exterminated so robots can rule the world" evil plan is too cliché, that's where the film fails...Loki (played by the amazing Tom Hiddleston) was the perfect villian (loved by everyone) in the last movie, he set the bar very high.

The entire cast from the previous Marvel films is back, from the funny (and now, acting secretly behind the rest of his team) Robert Downey Jr. to the now aclaimed and loved by everyone Chris Evans as Captain America (after "The Winter Soldier", he won the role and started being indispensable). Now including a small affair between the beautiful Scarlet Johannson as Black Widow and the shy Bruce Banner played by Mark Rufallo (still think his Hulk is just the best!). This new relationship-love cannot be more awkward and while they try so many times during the movie to be interesting and follow it, it actually doesn't feel real.
Who cannot forget the God of Thunder? Thor is back once more but his character has been underused with nothing new from his story expect some hints about his upcoming film "Thor: Ragnarok", his fighting scenes are the same as always, I actually was expecting to see more of him as he's one of my faves.

But if someone has been "upgraded" from the previous film, that one is Hawkeye. He has a much larger role and we also get to know some secrets from him including meeting his family in their ranch...he may be the only character in the entire movie who has some development.
As they said while making this film, there were going to be a few cameos but those actually felt quite short, including War Machine (very short, I actually expected to see more from him), Falcon, Nick Fury and a small appearance of Andy Serkis playing Ulysses Klaw, who will appear once again as a villian in the upcoming "Black Phanter".

There's also, aside Ultron, three new characters joining the Avengers. The Twins, also known as Quicksilver and Scarlet Witch; they are somehow interesting, while their reasons to be "bad" are somehow too simple and flat, their powers are just awesome, specially Quicksilver's with his superhuman speed, it's a real shame we'll never see him again as he dies trying to protect Hawkeye during the final fight...(I said Spoilers, remember?). Her sister may be more likeable but her powers are dull as she can only get into people's minds but cannot control them.
But the one who shines has to be The Vision, the creation by Ultron and finished by Stark himself with the core of his virtual assistant, Jarvis. The voice and looks of actor Paul Bettany are very well done into the new body of this superhero who can, surprisingly and very unexpected, lift Thor's hammer.

The action scenes and special effects are over the top, it has more fighting and action than evern including an amazing fight of Iron Man versus Hulk. The soundtrack sounds exactly the same as the first Avengers. If something feels different from the original has to be the comedy part and jokes as Age of Ultron doesn't have as much while tries to be have a more serious and menacing tone getting it perfectly.

This film is a bridge to what's coming out next, we see after the credits a small scene where Thanos gets the Infinity Gauntlet, where he will put all the infinity stones and become the most powerful creature in the universe. With a simple phrase "I'll do it myself", questions begin to fly asking if he was responsible for the events of Age of Ultron as well, we'll have to wait...

· What I liked: The entire movie is very enjoyable and fun to watch, the action and special effects are over the top and the last battle was a nice and unexpected surprise. The change to see your favourite characters again is amazing but...

· What I didn't like: ...some of them, like Thor, don't have that much more to tell or show. The relationship between Black Widow and Dr. Banner is something that doesn't fit well.

"Age of Ultron makes a great action movie with all your favourite characters/actors coming back with some great new aditions like The Vision. The plot tries and accomplishes to be darker and have a more serious tone but fails the epicness the first film had thanks to the new villian who, while does a great and realistic job, doesn't make that menacing and dangerous events like Loki did so perfectly."

9.2

:: Top Movies 2015 ::

1. Avengers: Age of Ultron (9.2)
2. The Imitation Game (8.5)
3. Cinderella (8.0)

4. Kingsman: The Secret Service (8.0)

5. Paddington (7.5)
6. Mortdecai (6.0)

Thanos will be back!