Age of Average

‘Avengers Age of Ultron’ is the second Avengers film and last instalment in what has been dubbed as ‘Marvel Phase Two.’ In this film Ultron is an artificial intelligence created by the infamous Tony Stark, or as he is more popularly known, Iron Man. But, as you might expect due to the fact that he is an artificial intelligence and created by one of the smartest characters in any comic book universe, Ultron decides that the human race isn’t worthy to rule over the planet and so need to be destroyed. Naturally, he is the one to do this and again naturally the Avengers, the Marvel superhero dream team, are the ones to try and stop him.

Due to the overwhelming success of the first Avengers film ‘Avengers Assemble’ this movie had a lot to live up to. Unfortunately, a lot of the expectations were not met. The first Avengers film had it all; action, suspense and most importantly all the main characters in a film together which comic fans could only dream of a few years prier. You could say this film had it all as well; action, suspense and the famous team together once more. But that’s the problem; it was the same old same old. The same tricks and plots were recycled to create this film and it meant that you spend half the film feeling like you have seen it all before. Another big problem with this film was the inconsistency in the characters personalities to the first film. You can’t have a character fighting of villains single handedly in one film and crying for the help of their unnecessary love interest in the next without viewer questioning things.          

There were, having said that, some great moments in the film. For example the character of Vision played by Paul Bettany. As a fan, and personal, favourite I was sceptical about the addition of this character and whether he would live up to his high status amongst the marvel comic’s fans. Thankfully Bettany didn't disappoint and his interpretation of the character was better than even some of the biggest and loyalist fans could have hoped for. 

The ending of the film, while predictable, wasn't overly disappointing. The Marvel Cinematic Universe has found their formula and they have made it work to the almost dangerous point where it didn't really matter how the film had ended. They have us around their little finger and the sheer fact that they have made a film with our favourite characters means that the majority of the cinema will walk about feeling like they haven’t wasted two and a half hours, regardless of the content of the film. The fact is we have seen this kind of film again and again. But you can’t deny the good guy/ bad guy formula works. If it didn't Marvel wouldn't be making its continuous millions.