Avengers: Age of Ultron Spoiler-free Review

I’m going to keep this spoiler-free as far as possible, although I will address certain structural elements of the movie. So if you don’t want your perception manipulated before you watch the film, then stop reading now.

Still here? Cool

I’d been waiting for this movie for a long time, and finally just had the amazing opportunity to view in in glorious IMAX 3D. Has the film been worth all the hype? The short answer is yes.

What you can look forward to

The way all of the fights are choreographed along with the special effects that compliment them is absolutely amazing. Considering that Marvel released a clip of it, I’m not really spoiling anything when I say that the most thrilling fight is between The Hulk and Iron Man’s Hulkbuster. This fight is raw, intricate and is going to make the Mayweather/ Pacquiao fight look like child’s play.

I also loved the humour and humanity of all the characters. There were some amazing one-liners and awesome situational humour as well. Joss Whedon deserves a lot of credit for making this work, and so do the cast for the way they handled the situational stuff. It’s rare to see this level of chemistry with such a big ensemble; but the Avengers cast definitely have it sorted.

This tone definitely made the film feel way more character driven. The first film was predominantly about getting the team assembled, so they were really boxed into either stepping up or hesitating; those were the two options. In Age of Ultron, the team is in place and relationships have been developed, meaning we get a chance to see where these go, and how they will ultimately impact the narrative moving forward.

What was kind of lame

The second half of the film dragged out a bit, and the climax was much more intricate than the first film’s. This meant that when we got to the climax, most of the audience was exhausted by the awesomeness of the first half, and had trouble following all the details of the rest of the film.

Next we have Wakanda. Why is Wakanda a place? I know this is straight out of the Marvel Universe, but even there they can’t even decide if it’s near Tanzania, Somalia, Kenya or Ethiopia. I just feel like the existence of this place in the universe perpetuates the “Africa is a country” idea that most westerners tend to have. But I guess Joss Whedon doesn’t care about that; too busy caring about feminism exclusively. I’m just kidding! Anyway, by the way, those scenes were shot in South Africa (where I’m from) which made me cringe even more. They could have nutted up and just made those scenes happen in a real city, somewhere on the African continent.

That’s all I’ve got on the film from a mildly spoiler-free perspective.

In the meantime, check out the trailer for Avengers: Age of Ultron below:

About the Author: Stephen is a marketing gentleman, and a film slut. Catch him talking about movies more than anything else on Twitter @thesnagel.