Good morning, everyone. Welcome to the next post in my series covering the Marvel Cinematic Universe. This post will be about the Avengers sequel subtitled: “Age of Ultron”. Directed by Joss Whedon, this movie has all of the Avengers from the first movie come back: Iron Man, Captain America, Thor, Hulk, Hawkeye, and Black Widow. This time, the villain is Ultron, voiced by James Spader. It also features Samuel L. Jackson as Nick Fury, Don Cheadle as James Rhodes/War Machine, and Anthony Mackie as Sam Wilson/Falcon. We also get introduced to Wanda and Pietro Maximoff (Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver), played by Elizabeth Olsen and Aaron Taylor-Johnson, respectively. Let’s now get into detail on how this movie went down.
After the Marvel Studios logo pops up, we see Loki’s scepter in the Hydra facility and the two “miracles” (mutants in the comics) hold hands as they get prepared for the Avengers’ arrival. We then see our heroes fighting some bad guys from Hydra in Sokovia as they make their way to the facility. After the hero shot, Iron Man flies to the building and gets hit by the force field protecting it. Tony Stark says “Shit”, causing Captain America to say “Language” (a running gag in this movie, by the way). The reason the Avengers are here is because they are trying to get Loki’s scepter away from Hydra. Baron Wolfgang Von Strucker tells his guys to not surrender, but he says that he will surrender anyway. During the confrontation, Clint Barton (Jeremy Renner) gets injured by a Hydra laser. Meanwhile, Stark disables the force field protecting the facility and he gets in and knocks out the guys in there. He gets out of the suit and finds a secret passage that leads to the scepter. Outside in the snowy forest, we see Black Widow (Scarlett Johansson) calm Hulk down to Bruce Banner (Mark Ruffalo). Cap knocks out Von Strucker while Stark gets the scepter. Before Stark grabs it, Wanda Maximoff (Elizabeth Olsen) gives him a vision of all of his Avenger friends dying. After the title pops up, we see everyone flying in the Quinjet back to Avengers Tower in New York City. After they make it to the tower, Clint gets medical attention and gets healed up. Maria Hill (Cobie Smulders) gives Steve Rogers (Chris Evans) more information about the Maximoff twins, which we will see more of later. Stark and Banner decide to study the scepter while at the tower. They find an artificial intelligence within the scepter and use it to create Ultron, which in theory could help save humanity. Stark and Banner (the Science Bros) work on this for many hours over the course of a couple of days. Before the party starts, JARVIS (Paul Bettany) says to Stark that he’ll work on the Ultron project. As soon as they leave the room, Ultron (James Spader) wakes up and takes over JARVIS. This Ultron studies a lot of stuff and thinks of saving humanity by destroying all of it and starting from scratch. Meanwhile, at the party, there are some shenanigans with everyone there. Stan Lee tries a strong drink after talking with Thor (Chris Hemsworth) and gets carried out of the party after trying it. Banner and Romanov talk for a little bit with each other, as does Rogers and Sam Wilson. Later, everyone (except for a couple of people) tries lifting Mjolnir to no success at all. Rogers gets to move it a little bit, which makes Thor nervous, but he doesn’t get it. Thor says to them that they are not worthy. We then see a couple of Ultron bots attack the Avengers after Ultron says that they are all killers (and referencing Pinocchio). The heroes take care of the bots, but then Ultron wakes up a whole bunch of bots in his plan to evolve. He also takes the scepter with him.
The heroes then have a confrontation because of Stark’s actions. As they think of their plan to stop him, we see Pietro (Aaron Taylor Johnson) and Wanda meet with an updated Ultron in Sokovia. Ultron then shows his plan to the twins. While in Sokovia, Ultron killed Von Strucker. Meanwhile, at the tower, Rogers is shown a picture of Von Strucker getting killed with the word PEACE written in blood. He shows this picture to everyone else. They then go through a whole bunch of papers. They find out that Ultron wants to get vibranium for his robot army. Ultron and the twins meet up with Ulysses Klaue (played by Andy Serkis) in South Africa. Klaue gets one of his hands chopped off by Ultron during the negotiations for the vibranium. The heroes then get to South Africa and fight Ultron and the twins, plus Klaue’s men. Each of the heroes get to showcase their abilities before Wanda gets into a couple of their minds. Thor sees a vision of his home and Heimdall (Idris Elba) and the Infinity Stones,, while Captain America gets a vision of him dancing with Peggy Carter (Hayley Atwell) after World War Two ended. Natasha has a vision regarding her past training experiences. These scenes are mixed in with each other. Hawkeye gives Wanda a shock arrow to prevent his mind from being messed up, leading Pietro to carry her away from danger. After Wanda recovers, she gets into Banner’s mind and he turns into an evil Hulk. Ultron lets him know of this and Stark gets on his way to stop the destruction in the nearby city of Johannesburg. Stark gets into the Hulkbuster suit and is able to knock out Hulk after a big fight between the two. There is still some collateral damage, but it could have been worse had Stark not intervened. They get back on the Quinjet as they recover from the battle and the mind damage. They head to Clint’s family home as a retreat of sorts to get away from the craziness of the city. We get to see Clint’s wife and kids in this scene. Thor then leaves to talk with Dr. Selvig about the hallucinations he saw while the rest of them stay at the house. Clint and Laura (Linda Cardellini) have a conversation about Clint being with the Avengers and the possibility of staying with family. We then cut to a genetics research lab in Korea where Ultron talks with Helen Cho and enslaves her to help him create the ultimate Ultron bot (made of Vibranium and the special tissue). After that scene, we see Banner and Natasha talk with each other about how they can’t procreate due to their problems. Banner can’t get too excited, while Natasha was sterilized while in training to become the Black Widow. After that quiet scene, we cut to Stark and Rogers chopping wood and talk about the fight and trying to end it. After their chat, Nick Fury confronts Stark in the garage/shed about how Stark is going to figure the situation out. Meanwhile, Thor meets with Selvig in London as they go to a pool in a cave where he sees more visions about the Infinity Stones and the end of Asgard. Fury gives the Avengers a lecture about using their wit and their will to save the world. Banner mentions Helen Cho and the lack of contact with her. Back at the lab, the Mind Stone is taken off the scepter and put in the new Vibranium robot. The heroes then depart the house and begin their plan to stop Ultron.
Wanda is able to get into Ultron’s mind. She then finds out that Ultron’s plan is to exterminate everyone on Earth with a big meteor dropped from the sky. The twins then betray Ultron, leading him to escape with the new bot and knocking out Cho and killing the others in the process. Captain America, Black Widow, and Hawkeye arrive in Korea to confront Ultron. They find it in a truck where Cap fights Ultron on top of it. Black Widow gets on a motorcycle to help Cap while Barton stays on the Quinjet. She gives Cap his shield back, and he continues to fight Ultron. Meanwhile, the Quinjet is chased by a couple of other bots. Cap and Ultron then fight in a train while Natasha gets the cradle containing the new bot. The twins help Cap fight Ultron on the train before he leaves it. Wanda is able to get the train to stop with her telekinetic abilities. Meanwhile, the cradle gets on the Quinjet while Natasha gets taken by Ultron. We then cut to Stark, Banner, and Barton with the cradle at the tower. Stark then gets JARVIS onto the bot even though Cap and some of the other heroes disagree. Thor helps with his Lightning and the bot pops out of the cradle. JARVIS is now Vision, who makes himself a cape and is able to lift Thor’s hammer before giving it back to him. Everyone then gets ready for the final battle in Sokovia. It starts with evacuating the people from the surrounding area. They are able to do that for the most part until a lot of Ultron bots attack the city. What follows is the heroes destroying those bots. Meanwhile, Ultron activates the meteor mechanism, which causes a major earthquake. Banner saves Natasha from the jail cell before they kiss. Natasha then pushed Banner down a cliff before he turns to the Hulk. They both jump out and make their way to meet up with the rest. Stark's new AI friend FRIDAY (voiced by Kerry Condon) tells Stark that once the meteor gets high enough, it could kill everyone on Earth. Stark helps save a family with a bathtub while the rest of them fight against the bots. Wanda is nervous about the whole thing, but is convinced by Barton to be an Avenger. Once she opens the door, she takes care of the bots with confidence. Cap and Thor save a lady from falling down. After Thor destroys more bots, the main Ultron beats him up until Vision saves Thor while using Mjolnir. While all of this is happening, Stark is looking at the meteor from the air. A Helicarrier arrives with some small ships to help the citizens evacuate safely. War Machine arrives to help take down the bots along with Stark. All of the heroes get to the center of the meteor and protect the core by destroying all of the bots that Ultron sends to them. After the montage of the heroes taking down the bots, we see Iron Man, Thor, and Vision all attack the main Ultron before letting Hulk punch it to the sky. No Ultron bots are allowed to survive because of the core. Wanda tells everyone that she will guard it, including her brother. Clint and Natasha cruise in a car and stop near the ship. As Natasha calms down Hulk, Ultron goes on a shooting rampage. Clint goes back to save a kid and get him to the ship. As Clint guards the kid from gunfire, Pietro gets in front of them and gets killed in the process. Wanda then lets out a scream that helps take down the bots. Meanwhile, Stark gets under the meteor and tells Thor to meet him back at the core. Hulk puts Natasha on the Helicarrier, gets on the Quinjet, yanks Ultron out of it, and then flies off to somewhere in space. Wanda yanks Ultron’s heart from him as a metaphor for breaking her heart. Somehow, another bot gets to the core and sends the city crashing down to Earth. Iron Man and Thor help stop the meteor from doing that and a big explosion ensues in the air (they did have the courtesy to wait until Wanda is saved by Vision). Vision then destroys the last Ultron bot.
Clint returns home to his family while Stark drives to the new Avengers facility in Upstate New York. After a brief chat between Stark, Thor, and Steve, they each go their separate ways. Thor returns to Asgard while Stark drives away into “retirement” for a year. Rogers stays at the facility to train the new Avengers. As a tease, the movie cuts to the credits before Steve completes saying “Avengers Assemble”. The scene that occurs after the name montage is Thanos (Josh Brolin) saying “Fine. I’ll do it myself” while putting his left hand in the Infinitely Gauntlet. The movie concludes with a reminder that “The Avengers will return.”
This movie is still a lot of fun, but it is my least favorite of the Avengers movies. A weak point is that the movie has too many quips. Many characters, including Stark and Ultron, have moments like this. Some of them are funny as heck, but they overdid it in some places. I did like the running gag about people cursing and then being called out on it. I also liked the moments when Bruce and Natasha had time with each other, even though that ended with Bruce flying away and the relationship kinda ending abruptly the next time they see each other. James Spader performed Ultron very well, from the ugly first robot to the more evolved version. All of the actors played their parts well in this movie. The climax of the movie was kind of the same in terms of the heroes fighting a lot of nameless enemies that looked alike. The fight scene that I enjoyed the most is Hulk against the Hulkbuster. I also liked that Hawkeye’s family was shown in this movie. It was a sigh of relief that Clint was able to get back home after the battle was finished. It won’t be the last time that we see Clint with his family. This movie also includes more details about the Infinity Stones. Four of them have been shown at this point in the MCU: Power (purple), Space (blue), Reality (red), and Mind (yellow). We also get a tease of Thanos beginning his hunt for the stones as he grabs the gauntlet. Thanos will have to wait another 3 years before he gets shown again.
Overall, “Age of Ultron” is a fun watch. Despite its flaws, I still enjoy the heck out of it from start to finish. This movie was also the last one that Joss Whedon worked on for Marvel Studios as he needed a break after this one. The next two Avengers movies: “Infinity War” and “Endgame” would be directed by Joe and Anthony Russo. Next up in my MCU series is something of a much smaller scale: “Ant-Man” I’ll get that post out soon. In the meantime, I hope you have a wonderful day.
(Here are the videos from How It Should Have Ended on "Age of Ultron". The first two are the main episodes of HISHE about the movie. The third one is actually a highlight showcasing a LEGO recap by Brotherhood Workshop.)
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