Title: Avengers: The Age of Ultron
*ing: Robert Downey Jr, Chris Evans, Chris Hemsworth, Mark Ruffalo, Scarlett Johansson, Jeremy Renner, Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Elizabeth Olsen, James Spader, Paul Bettany and many more
Director: Joss Whedon
Language: English
Genre: Comic Books
Basic Premise
Superheroes have teamed up to save the world. Some of them accidentally create a monster whose idea of saving the world is to destroy the people living on it. Superheroes successfully defend humankind and destroy this monster.
In the process also linking up stories for the further development of the “cinematic universe”.
MovieNotes
The Theory of Movie Evolution - Once upon a time, stand-alone movies used to be made, then came the sequels and prequels which evolved into movie franchisees and now as a final logical step in the evolutionary chain, they have started linking together and transforming into cinematic universes.
Marvel started an ambitious project of recreating their comic book universe into a movie universe. Iron Man, Hulk, Captain America and Thor came together with SHIELD, Black Widow and Hawkeye to form the Avengers. The highly successful assembly of superheroes led to bringing in more superheroes and super-villains, creating inter-connecting plots, cross-referencing characters and events, planting Easter eggs across movies and has culminated in creating a larger than ever assembly. Only they are not going to stop as plans are afoot to bring in more and more characters into the Avengers group. Am not sure till how long the audiences would be able to keep pace with the ever expanding storylines.
Before I digress any further, back to the Age of Ultron [Aside - But they never reveal Ultron’s Age]
The film starts by throwing you into a fast paced, action packed sequence with all the Avengers playing their parts in their mission. The beginning itself feels like a good climatic scene. Only it is just a precursor to more action coming your way for the next two hours.
Key Message: People in highly critical roles should not try to abdicate responsibility. Otherwise even their best intentions might end up creating an Ultron-like monster. Also, the human mind is its own worst enemy.
Favorite Character Arc: I liked the development of the Hawkeye story. The character without any real superpowers and fights with bow and arrows against robots and software. (The irony of which is pointed out by Hawkeye himself).
Learning: How do you control the Hulk? (a) try to hammer sense into him, or (b) sing him a lullaby (an approach previously used in King Kong).
Favorite Line: “He is fast, She is Weird”. A very succinct description of the Twins; who for commercial reasons are referred to as “Enhanced” and not “Mutants” (because mutants are in X-Men movies, whose rights are held by a different studio)
Favorite Scene – The Avengers trying their hand at lifting Mjolnir and the look on Thor’s face when the hammer seemed to move when Captain America tries to lift it.
Nice to see Andy Serkis play a human character, although in a very brief role.
Some of the actors seem to be wanting to retire their characters out in this over-stretched out universe. But whether they continue or not, the Show will go on.
Rating – 7/10. This cinematic universe has become over-spread out and is becoming unmanageable for audiences. But good action interspersed with witty one-liners manage to keep the interest going on for the next installment.
Previously on MovieNotes – Furious 7
