This action/adventure movie is chock full of shits and giggles and that in my humble opinion is what the first Avengers film was missing. Comparing the two films, Age of Ultron succeeds on far greater levels that Avengers ever did. That may be due to less pressure on Whedon because in truth he did it already. He's already brought the greatest collection of super heroes to the big screen anyone has ever seen. Granted he still needed to bring the bang (which he did in ridiculous ways), but Age of Ultron couldn't possibly be worse than the first one so he had nowhere to go but up and up is just where Joss went. The cast is pretty much the same this time around with a few cool cameos thrown in for good measure. Robert Downey Jr. reprises his role as Iron Man, Chris Hemsworth is back as Thor, Scarlett Johansson is the Black Widow again, Mark Ruffalo plays Bruce Banner/The Hulk, Chris Evens plays Steve Rogers/Captain America, and Samuel L. Jackson is back as the one eyed Nick Fury. Also joining the cast this time is James Spader who adds quite the frightening element to the villain Ultron, and Paul Bettany who plays Vision (one of my favorite heroes from my childhood).
Tony Stark is delving into artificial intelligence because he's still somewhat anxiety riddled from his missile guiding shenanigans in the first Avengers. He wants to build an iron shield around the earth to defend it from all comers, so there won't be a need for The Avengers anymore. He needs Loki's scepter to aid in that process, a process which fails miserably. Tony's creation would be called Ultron and when he comes online he immediately attacks Jarvis (removing all competition) and begins to craft a plan to destroy mankind with an extinction level event. It's that event that's kind of hard to swallow but the point is made that mankind is destined to destroy itself because it's in our nature. I don't mind Ultron's plan so much because the skirmish between Iron Man and the Hulk was worth the price of admission alone. It was hilarious, ferocious, ridiculously violent, and all around wonderful. It makes up for Ultron's hokey event. Bottom line is there was a far more concrete story with great 3D and graphics than there was in the first. Cohesive plot? Cute love story? Shits and giggles? CHECK ALL THE BOXES!!!
Flying in on the cameo carpet is War Machine played by Don Cheadle and the Falcon played by Anthony Mackie. Those two characters along with Quicksilver played by Aaron Taylor-Johnson and the Scarlett Witch played by Elizabeth Olson. Three out of those four will formulate the new Avengers. Now War Machine and Falcon together is unprecedented. Two talented Black actors in a major franchise like this gives me hope that diversity is FINALLY coming, which is definitely a good start. Now interestingly enough not everyone who worked on the first movie came back for the second. Alan Silvestri, the man behind the heroic theme of the Avengers passed on scoring the sequel. Picking up the scoring duties here are Danny Elfman and Bryan Tyler. Not that you could tell the difference between Alan's score and what Danny and Bryan did. They basically scored the film using Silvestri's musical cues from the first film. Same heroic and dramatic themes Silvestri blessed the first film with are all throughout this film. Honestly if I were Silvestri I would demand a check be cut in my name. All in all though, Avengers:Age of Ultron is a must see, loud, fun spectacle that's worthy of repeat viewings so I may see you on line if not at the theater.
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