Age of Ultron–First Look

Avengers_Age_Of_Ultron-poster1Hey everyone! Welcome to the Mutant Amalgamation of Opinions on Avengers: Age of Ultron. Many thanks to Rachel Kays for writing up a review after staying out all night at a midnight premier. This is a first look, not a proper, criticizing review, so what follows is Guaranteed Spoiler Free!

We know that most of you probably haven’t seen the film yet, so this is just some general raving about how good it was. This is the general impressions of a few souls who were dedicated enough to out in the first 24 hours to see the film. If you’re planning to see the film in theatres, you shall not be disappointed. If you weren’t planning on it, perhaps we can change your mind!

“Can we hold them?”
“Sir, they’re the Avengers!”

Rachel Kays says: This Avengers movie starts shortly after everything left off. The newly assembled team is trying to recover important artifacts from a Hydra base and have pretty much figured out how to fight playing off each other’s strengths. However, the events of the New York invasion have stuck with all of our heroes, especially Tony Stark.

With Iron Man slowly becoming obsessed with ensuring his legacy will be a good one, he wants to try and ensure Earth is safe from any future alien attacks. But when our resident mad scientists start playing God without the consent of the team, something is bound to go amiss. The Avengers quickly learn the only way they’ll fix this mistake is together.

“I am Thor, son of Odin, and as long as there is breath in my body…I am running out of things to say, are you ready yet?”

avengers-age-ultron-captain-america-thorKatie Daniels says: Age of Ultron was, if possible, even better than the first Avengers. It’s exactly like you expect it to be, all while being completely different. In Age of Ultron there is life where there was death in Avengers. There’s levity instead of destruction. But at the same time it’s a much more serious film, with deeper, more personal consequences. In other words, it’s everything Joss Whedon promised us.

Avengers was all about bringing a team together–introducing heroes who, for the most part, had never met. By Age of Ultron they’re old pals, and the one liners do. not. stop. It is also one of the best 3D films I’ve ever seen. The first ten minutes are nothing but eye-candy, witty banter, and general awesomeness. From there it only gets more awesome.

“What’s the vibranium for?”
“I’m glad you asked that. Because I want to take this time to explain my evil plan.”

ultronJoel Parisi writes: “The city is flying. The city is flying, we’re fighting an army of robots…and I have a bow and arrow. None of this makes sense.”

So. Age of Ultron.

I have no idea where to begin.

Let’s start with an action-packed opening scene, because the movie did. This may not have worked in a first movie (I’m glad they didn’t try it), but it does here. We already know and (hopefully) love the characters, so it’s easy to get into right away. That great shot you’ve seen on the internet of the whole team mid-flight? Yeah, that happens in the first five minutes. Suffice to say, the rest of the movie just gets better from there.

But it’s not all about the action sequences, and I agree with Katie that Ultron may actually be better than The Avengers. And that’s simply because where Avengers was a non-stop romp… in Ultron, we get to see the team at their ease. I can count at least three times where the film deliberately slows down and pulls back a bit, showing us the heroes as they take their ease, kick back, and generally de-stress while exchanging witty banter. There are also some unexpected moments of tenderness between a certain couple (spoilers!).

The new additions to the team, Quicksilver, Scarlet Witch, and Vision, are handled pretty well overall, though I’m still not sure how I feel about some of Whedon’s endgame creative decisions…. But anyway, it’s nice to have heroes with some new skill sets to round out the Avengers even more.

Are you still reading this? Why are you still reading this? I can’t give you a proper critiquing review, because we’re not here for that. Just go see it for yourself and be blown away (again) by Whedon’s excellent writing.

“But I’m going back out there because it’s my job…. Stay in here, you’re good…. but if you step out that door, you are an Avenger.”

Jordan Smith writesThis never happens. I rarely give a movie five out of five, but I am seriously avengers-age-of-ultron-vision-posterleaning toward it right now. All the way home from the theater I’ve been waiting for the little minor quibbles to show up and make me knock off a half star. Nope.

It’s really difficult to talk about the movie without spoilers. What I’ll say is that what makes me the happiest is that the heroes felt human. I was worried when the film jumped right into “we’re the Avengers and we rock” for the opening sequence that the movie was going to just simply assume we didn’t need character moments. But then halfway through, it felt like things got serious as every character’s human side was put through the grinder before we moved on to the next spectacle scene, and then the big spectacle tied those moments in brilliantly.

Marvel knocked another one out of the park. I’m actually trying to figure out if I can justify the cost of seeing it again in a few days.

“Is that the best you can do?”
“You had to ask…”

Have you seen Age of Ultron yet? Feel free to share your thoughts below! Please, please, please NO SPOILERS out of consideration for everyone who hasn’t gone yet. If you haven’t seen it–what are you looking forward to most in the film? Do you have any questions for the reviewers? Feel free to speak up and converse!

And don’t forget–if you enter our writing contest you could win two tickets to go see this fantastic masterpiece, so be sure to check that out!

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