RATING: B+
"What if the world could be safe? ... Isn't that why we fight, so we can go home?"
These are questions among others, that Tony Stark/Iron Man has (and yes, he inexplicably has new suits, despite destroying all his technology in Iron Man 3) as he tries to start up an artificial intelligence to protect the world for them.
Of course, that doesn't end up working out too well for them.
The artificial intelligence--named Ultron--learns really quick, and he decides that the Avengers are a threat--and later, humanity itself. So, he starts his little crusade to basically turn the world into a giant crater.
And who stands in his way? Well, the Avengers, of course. We've got Iron Man, who's now essentially working behind his team's back; Thor, who's there to do some awesome hammer work and taunt everyone who can't lift his hammer; Hulk, who's still smashing; Captain America, who's still playing the team leader; Black Widow, whose main job now is calming down the Hulk; and Hawkeye, who actually has character development for once (something that was nonexistent in the first movie, and he hadn't appeared otherwise except in a cameo).
And then there's the newcomers. We have Quicksilver, and I still have a hard time getting over the fact that two actors are playing the same character in different movies (the other one being X-Men: Days of Future Past) with release dates this close. But he's still fun to watch. And then we have Scarlet Witch, who is an awesome addition to the team, even if her abilities are somewhat confusing at times.
So it's this group vs. Ultron and his army of clones.
This is a pretty good movie. It's got a pretty decent plot, and asks several questions worth asking, although it oddly doesn't contribute much to the "dangers of A.I." story lines that several types of entertainment have developed (Person of Interest, anyone?). There are some pretty darn cool fight scenes and destruction sequences, with the fight between Hulk and Iron Man in the Hulkbuster suit taking the cake.
Still, there are some flaws to this film, which sadly leaves it in the lower echelon of the Marvel Cinematic Universe movies (granted, even said "lower echelon" films are still very good). For starters, I felt the whole thing was sort of anticlimactic to a degree. Without giving too much away, Ultron is defeated a little too easily in my opinion after basically being described as a juggernaut for the Avengers (although perhaps they have to save that for Infinity War with Thanos).
Also, near the end, a key character inexplicably leaves the team. Hardly anything is given to suggest that said character would do such a thing, and yet he does, with really no word of his return. It leads me to think, perhaps, that the character's actor is retiring from the series and they just needed to find a way to write the character off without killing him.
Finally, we have the Vision. This was the guy that there was lot of hype for, the guy that everyone was excited to see in this film (it seemed). Well, he ends up doing... basically nothing the whole film. He just randomly jumps in and out of the action, only showing up when he sees fit, I guess. Basically, the Vision is a huge let-down after being treated like the next huge thing for the Avengers.
Despite a couple things that left me scratching my head, this is still a very entertaining movie and still keeps Marvel's streak going, even if this isn't the best of the bunch. The true test for Marvel will be the Ant-Man movie--if they can pull that off (and the trailer looked promising), they can probably pull anything off. I'm slightly skeptical about the bloated direction the series is going in, but I'm still excited for the rest of the upcoming movies. Time will tell if Marvel Studios can keep it up.
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