Movie Review: Age of Ultron

When I was 7, my dad gave me a pile of his old comics from when he was a kid. I had Captain Britain, The Defenders, and Dan Dare amongst many others, and I had a lot of favorites. The character that leapt off the page at me though, the character that stuck with me ever since; was the philosophical, maniacal robotic arch nemesis of the Avengers, Ultron.

You can imagine how excited I was when Ultron was revealed as the antagonist in the sequel to Marvel’s immensely successful The Avengers. When his actor was revealed as James Spader, with his gravelly southern voice, I was at first skeptical. I was expecting the announcement to be of an actor with a famously recognizable voice, like Malcolm McDowell.

The moment I saw that first trailer, all my fears were put to rest. Spader’s commanding drawl is so perfectly condescending, intellectually superior, even bored sounding, it fit the character wonderfully.

From that moment on, going into this one, I was excited.

I was not disappointed.

With every step forward into Marvel’s Cinematic Universe, it feels more like the spirit of the comics. From the very beginning, we see the Avengers working together as a coordinated team battling their old enemies Hydra. It’s fluid, and fun and incredibly put together visually. Each member seems to have been developed since the last film, both in the way they function within the team, interacting with their fellow members, and how they act on a personal basis. We see a little more of everyone here, more personal scenes, more fight scenes, more everything.

Most of all, this is a character based movie. It’s wall to wall action, sure, but everyone has their moment of drama, and the dialogue is well written for pretty much every personality involved. It isn’t just Iron Man starring the Avengers anymore, every character has screen time on and off the field of combat. 

Not an easy feat, considering they are juggling five popular main characters, and some major satellite characters too. While Downey Jr’s Stark is still the funniest character in the film, with comebacks and dialogue so sharp and well delivered it almost seems improvised, there’s also great moments from the supporting cast, Don Cheadle’s War Machine standing out in his scenes by far. Conspicuously absent amongst the ensemble are fan favorites (and eternal girlbait) Agent Coulson and Loki, however.

There’s great scenes of casual interplay between the Avengers. The snappy dialogue in hectic combat is even better in casual situations, with great scenes of macho competition, honest flirtation, and scientific ambition. It’s difficult not to love each of the Avengers, with even the less focal ones getting great scenes here.

No time is wasted on early exposition, or introducing characters we already know. The setup is here and ready from point one, and it doesn’t take long for the main plot to kick in after the brilliant opening scene. During a celebratory party in the Avenger’s tower, the first form of the titular villain shows himself. 

At first I was taken aback by the frank quirkiness of Ultron’s dialogue. There’s no technobabble or stereotypical ‘robot character’ dialogue, he’s very human. He’s cocky, even funny. I realized that the character, a product of alien technology mixed with Tony Stark’s automated Iron Army program, has taken on some of Stark’s personality traits, and shares his cynical, comical side. It works. Ultron is an enjoyable villain to watch, he talks like Stark, with his constant megalomania and superiority turned up to eleven. His first scene, analyzing the simple flaws in the existence of the world as we see it, is just brilliant.

By instantaneous access to all the worlds information, Ultron goes from birth to master plan in a matter of minutes, so it all kicks off pretty soon from there on, with a globetrotting series of events pursuing Ultron across the world. The story is kinetic, never staying in one place for long. The Avengers are dragged through a series of trials, facing more new enemies in the Maximoff twins, not named as such here but better known to comic fans as Quicksilver and Scarlet Witch. These two are more enjoyable than I expected, having never been a fan of either before. With some acceptable neutral Slavic accents, they form the basis of Ultron’s cadre of main antagonists. Quicksilver snatching arrows out of the air with his super speed and Scarlet Witch bending the minds of our heroes to show them their worst fears. With a team of heroes as powerful as the Avengers, turning them against one another has long been the classic way to deliver a challenge.

Quicksilver’s inclusion will inevitably be compared to the characters recent appearance in X-Men: Days of Future past, and I have to say, regardless of some fun visual gags, he isn’t half as exciting here. In DOFP, we saw incredible use of the characters super speed in a variety of ways, Age of Ultron’s Quicksilver is just not up to that standard, although he is well performed and enjoyable to watch.

The twin’s inevitable heel/face turn is one of the movies short order points, in my opinion, a little brief, and they are awfully quick to ally with a character that was revealed in a prior monologue to be the source of a lifetime of constant fear and oppression for the two. Also, without the twins as sidekicks, Ultron is the lone antagonist for most of the films runtime, and as great a villain as he is, there’s something video-gamey about the Avengers battling an endless supply of identical robot drones. These large scale battle scenes, all inclusive of almost every character, are a visual masterpiece, certainly, but they don’t have the urgency or intensity necessary in a lot of the situations. We know any member of the Avengers will defeat a hundred of these enemies in a scene like this, so there’s no genuine threat there. The real joy in the films battle scenes come from other sources, like the brilliant punch up between a pissed off Hulk and the long awaited Iron Man Hulk-Buster armour. This one is fantastic. Hulk is his absolute finest here, made genuinely scary by showing us that he isn’t just the strongest thing on the battlefield, but that he’s fast too. Iron Man attempting to stop the rampaging green menace whilst simultaneously trying to protect the undefended city and the populace around them is just great, and will be the main event of the film for many viewers.

The Hulk has a lot of character development here, and along with Black Widow and Hawkeye, forms the Avengers that we see a much more intimate side of. An emerging romance and personal secrets  are introduced that we hadn’t previously seen, and it serves to remind there’s a lot more going on here than just saving the world. 

Speaking of which, the exact peril the world is in, isn’t as clear as it perhaps could have been. Exactly what Ultron’s plan was I felt wasn’t all that obvious until the films finale. It feels at times like the storyline is moving to a time limit we aren’t really seeing. It doesn’t make it any less fun, but the real feeling of tension generated by threat through the second act just wasn’t there.

The film’s final act introduces a major hero in the form of one of the comic’s most mysterious, enigmatic characters. If you’ve made it this far without knowing who that is, I don’t want to spoil it for you. I’ll say he’s played beautifully, with just the right edge of childlike wonder and enlightened gravity that the character needs, by a brilliant British actor who has long deserved a role so big. One perfectly played moment in his first scene had the whole audience cheering, and you’ll know it when you see it.

Age of Ultron may not be the epic entry in the MCU it could have been. It serves to develop characters and move the whole story forward rather than end anything or bring it all together, but it’s sharply written, well put together, and has some truly enjoyable performances by characters both old and new. There’s so much going on in the MCU, with developments in this film leading to at least 4 separate future films, and it’s hard not to want to get involved in all of them. It’s just like reading the comics, you can’t read only one, there's too much fun to be had by diving right into the whole world.

Comic Review: Rage of Ultron

Marvel thought they were clever with last year’s wildly disappointing bait and switch event Age of Ultron, a time travel story that featured almost none of the titular character, but will likely go on to disappoint plenty new comic fans seeking to get in on the new movie of the same name.

It was undoubtedly time for a story that went back to the basics of one of the best villains Marvel has ever created.

The Avengers, Earth’s mightiest (and most profitable) superhero team, only have one true arch-nemesis, and Ultron is a character that deserves great stories, not cash in crossovers. Marvel’s OGN print, a run of one-shot hardback format graphic novels, have just released the story that Age of Ultron should have been. 

A dark and futuristic action packed story, filled with the brooding intensity of the father-son struggle that makes Ultron so interesting, Rage of Ultron chronicles the events following a grand defeat of the titular villain in a climactic battle. After nearly leveling New York in the battle, the Avengers think they’ve seen the last of the cybernetic terror when he is rocketed into space trapped in a broken Quinjet.  Hank Pym, Ultron’s creator and father, has become self-loathing and depressed over his relationship with his son. He desperately wishes to find love and worth in that which he has created, but in Ultron he finds only anger and hate. In his distress, he finds himself driven to create a weapon that can nullify cybernetic brainwaves, snuffing out Artificial Intelligence in a genocidal instant. This in turn forces the whole team to consider the worth of artificial life as true, or disposable. The Vision, Ultron’s own creation and therefore Pym’s grandson, is distraught that Pym can take android life so casually, and tension rises between these two founding members. It brings into question the concept of just how powerful Pym is when dealing with artificial life. He can create it, and just as easily he has the power to snuff it out, and seems prepared to do so.

Far off on the moon of Titan, serial misogynist and satellite Avengers member Starfox is drinking with a horde of beauties when a Quinjet crashes into the surface of the moon, and begins burrowing towards the world’s hyper advanced technological core. In minutes, Titan’s finest are overcome by Ultron’s power, sending Starfox hurtling across the solar system to Earth In search of help. 

Still amidst the repercussions of their argument, the Avengers are threatened with the arrival of the most powerful incarnation of the robotic villain ever seen, an entire planet repurposed and possessed to suit his apocalyptic intentions. Planet Ultron looms down over Earth, ready to begin the systematic conversion of all life in the universe to become one with Ultron. 

As huge as the scale of the story is, Rage of Ultron is chiefly a character driven story. It explores the fascinating relationship between father and son that exists between Pym and Ultron, and the conflicting love and resentment the two bear one another. The tenuous relationship that both share with The Vision is touched upon, as Vision is forced to compare himself to both Pym and Ultron and find he can truly identify with neither.

Although a short story, it has some truly brilliant moments, and is more worth your time than the ten issue adventures of a time travelling Wolverine that Age of Ultron turned out to be. Pym’s descent into hatred is believable, and Ultron’s voice is as brilliantly malevolent and utterly condescending as ever. The reveal of planet Ultron is a damn fine panel, and the use of the new Avengers team over the classic we’re growing tired of is a nice touch. We see the hard headed female Thor throwing her weight around at the discussion table, and Captain America’s new identity as Sam Wilson, previously the Falcon, giving the orders as the incumbent leader of the team. In the tradition of Ultron only being able to be defeated by characters he’s never encountered before (with the notable exception of Scarlet Witch, whose power is by definition improbable), an interesting development occurs when Ultron is faced with an entirely new power, but I won’t spoil that surprise.

The finale is maybe less grand than it could have been, and we’re left with some glaring unanswered questions regarding the resolution, but the ending is emotional. It isn’t a triumph of good over evil, it’s about an entity who was born of anger and hate attempting to understand itself. Right from the beginning, as Pym reminds Ultron that regardless of all the atrocities Ultron has committed, that he still loves his son, is pretty powerful stuff.

Whether you’re looking to remind yourself who the real daddy is when it comes to Avengers villains, or if you’re wanting to get acquainted with him for the first time in anticipation of the film, Rage of Ultron is the book to pick up. Just try not to read all his dialogue in James Spader’s voice.