As Australia enters winter, the US is beginning their summer – and though seasonal shifts should be of no importance outside of the agriculture industry, in the cinephile world it means blockbuster film events will begin taking over cinemas around the globe.
The definition of what the blockbuster film has also changed, like the seasons; where once it was the kind of film that would create empty beaches like ‘Jaws’, now it is the big budget comic book adaptation. Soon, we will have DCs next dark, gritty, and looking for legitimacy ‘Batman Vs. Superman’, but beating them to the first film of the season is the (over-exagerates number) film in so many years from Marvel, 'The Avengers: Age Of Ultron'. And I don’t think I could keep my jaw off the floor for the whole of this amazing film.
Since the last time the Avengers assembled, quite a bit has happened. The events of 'Captain America: The Winter Soldier' (the film chronologically preceding 'Age Of Ultron') have led to S.H.I.E.L.D. being shut down, and The Avengers have graduated from a project to becoming their own fully functioning organisation. The film begins with our heroes retrieving Loki’s sceptre from what remains of the villainous Hydra in order to return it to Asgard with Thor (Chris Hemsworth). Before allowing this to happen, Tony Stark/ Iron Man (Robert Downey Jr.) and Bruce Banner/ Hulk (Mark Ruffalo) want to give the sceptre a final check in order to ensure that it is safe. However, upon discovering some form of intelligent life within the crystal that gives the sceptre its power, Tony and Bruce geek out and accidentally unleash a being that possesses one of Tony’s sentinels and vows to succeed in The Avengers quest for peace by wiping out the human race (no people = no war. Simple, really), Ultron (voiced by James Spader); creating some parallels with ‘Frankenstein’s’ parable on taking science too far. Will The Avengers be able to overcome the division in their factions over this event and unite to defeat a new and more powerful enemy?
With a nearly three-hour run time, 'The Avengers' should feel like a bit of a hard slog like the recent ‘Hobbit’ films did. However, every single minute was filled with a great combination of action and humour that made the film fly by fast. Not only should the actors be commended on delivering brilliant and engaging performances, but Writer/ Director Joss Whedon (creator of 'Buffy', 'Firefly', and basically the new Stan Lee) has definitely earned a worldwide round of applause for creating a compelling story, furthering character development, and knitting together the stories that have been developing in the other Marvel Studios releases into one logical conclusion. The man has proved once again that he is a master of creating fictional universes, showing that characters and story are equally as important, and one should not be sacrificed for the other.
The characters within the film have been given further development, allowing us to see new sides to the characters when their greatest fears are exposed to us due to the influence of new character Scarlett Witch (Elizabeth Olsen). Along with Scarlett Witch, the audience is introduced to her brother, Quicksilver (Aaron Taylor-Johnson), and Vision (Paul Bettany). When new characters are added to a new comic book film, they can either feel like they are just background fillers (like in ‘X-Men’), but these new recruits are inserted perfectly into the team without taking any of the focus away.
Mark Ruffalo as the longest serving Bruce Banner even feels like a new character as he gets a chance to develop past the brooding and geeking out with Tony Stark that occurred in the first Avengers film, with him becoming part of a romantic tension story that doesn’t feel forced. Even more impressive is James Spader’s Ultron, who manages to give Downey Jr’s Tony Stark a run for his money in the charisma stakes by being cool and delivering some great lines; this being understandable as Ultron is the monster to Tony’s Frankenstein.
One of the things that make Marvel adaptations much more entertaining than the ‘bad boy’ pretensions of many of recent DC adaptations is the humour that is injected into the film, with some great lines from all of the actors, and great running jokes involving Capatain America’s (Chris Evans) 1940s values towards bad language, and wielding Thor’s hammer. The film even manages to outdo ‘Man Of Steel’s destructive collateral damage by almost annihilating multiple cities across the world, which has been achieved by some of the most impressive special effects seen in a Hollywood blockbuster.
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All in all, ‘The Avengers: Age Of Ultron’ has continued to build upon its foundations and spectacularly makes up for the films that haven’t quite worked in this series. It is a bit early to crown it the film of the year, but it has managed to make it very difficult for any other movie to compete with it.
Four and a half Thor hammers.
'The Avengers: The Age Of Ultron' is in cinemas 22 April.
