Avengers: Age of Ultron

There comes a time in many superheroes careers when they face a threat that isn't from another dimension or planet, isn't out to conquer the Earth or make it a part of some vast interstellar empire. Sometimes, the threat comes directly from home, and its born of the misguided dreams of those close to the heroes, and culminates in something terrible that could end all human life in a stroke.

That is what happens when the Avengers return to the big screen with Joss Whedon at the helm and face the sentient machine intelligence known as Ultron, who will stop at nothing to pacify humankind in pursuit of his warped goals.

The main cast of the film has the Avengers returning in full force, but each changed in subtle ways. For Captain America (Chris Evans) the change comes from having faced down his best friend Bucky in The Winter Soldier and having helped topple S.H.I.E.L.D. in order to save the world from a secret HYDRA threat. For Iron Man (Tony Stark), there's the whole rediscovered purpose in his mission as a hero and billionaire/inventor from Iron Man 3. As for the rest of the team, well they are shown as dealing with their own various problems. Bruce Banner (Mark Ruffalo) is dealing with finding his place on the team, as Hulk and also dealing with the romantic advances of Natasha Romanov. Natasha (Scarlett Johansson) is her usual epic self, and also as stated before, is in something of a flirtatious relationship with Bruce Banner, while Hawkeye (Jeremy Renner) is up to his usual tricks, cracking wise, being a master of the bow and proving that you don't need superpowers to be an effective crime fighter.

New-comers to the Marvel Cinematic Universe are legion, so I'm going to focus on the one's that play a central role in the film. The first are Wanda Maximoff (Elizabeth Olsen) and her brother Pietro (Aaron Taylor-Johnson), known to all comics fans as the Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver. They start out on the wrong side of the conflict in the movie, angry at the Avengers for bringing more destruction to their tiny (and fictional) European homeland of Sokovia, when dealing with a minor threat at the start of the film. Along the way they realize that they are in fact in the wrong in choosing sides in the conflict and defect to the Avengers, proving themselves in battle and worthy of the trust of Earth's Mightiest Heroes.

James Spader steps up the camera in a big way, providing both the voice and motion capture for Ultron, the sentient machine that has a major God-complex and seeks to pacify Earth by destroying humankind. Ultron (Spader) makes use of Biblical scripture in his villainous monologues, citing Scripture in order to justify his mission to help humanity by destroying it. Spader does an amazing job bringing the character to life, in ways that previous media (all cartoons by the way) could never have done. Even though the villain appears for just this one movie, he leaves a major mark that will affect not only the Avengers, but the entire MCU (Marvel Cinematic Universe) itself.

The final major new-comer to the MCU is Paul Bettany, known as the voice of Tony Stark's AI "butler" J.A.R.V.I.S., now stepping into the role as the Avenger Vision, also sentient machine created by Ultron in the comics to be the next step in AI life. Bettany doesn't appear until the film is nearly done but he is so utterly amazing in the role that it doesn't matter that his screen time comprises the very last bit of the story, it is worth it. Vision's powers are shown throughout the final parts of the film, including the ever classic ability to phase through objects and it looks so cool and real. Just goes to show what Hollywood movie magic is capable of.

Joss Whedon does an amazing job once again of taking Marvel Comics premier super-team and putting them up against impossible odds. The cast was superb, with all the newcomers doing a spectacular job. Special effects once again blew me away as always and the different locales used to advance the story, from Europe to Africa to America, just utterly astounding.

Avengers: Age of Ultron gets high marks for bringing Earth's Mightiest Heroes up to bat again and driving it all the way to home with a script that left me begging for me, an awesome cast, special effects galore (but that didn't take away from the story) and a soundtrack that was in one word: super. Highly recommend this movie to anyone and everyone who loves superheroes and the Marvel Cinematic Universe.