Hello and welcome to another one of my movie reviews. This is the big one! This is the film that I’ve been looking forward to probably the most in 2015 besides Star Wars (possibly)! I can’t contain my excitement for this film, so once again you are warned; spoilers will be present!
The long anticipated IRON MAN 5…sorry, I mean AVENGERS: AGE OF ULTRON! Once again the team assemble for a film to fight the evil forces of Hydra; apparently they were all too busy to help out during Captain America: The Winter Soldier. What they weren’t prepared for were two new super-villains; the twins, Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver. And before Tony Stark realises it, Scarlet Witch plants an idea in his head that leads to the creation of Ultron; an artificially intelligent robot given life from Loki’s sceptre, who unfortunately has thought that destroying all of humanity is the key to it’s evolution. Ordinarily this wouldn’t be a problem for the Avengers, but Scarlet Witch (in association with Ultron) with mind control turns the team against each other, and it has become increasingly harder to fight Ultron together. As we watch Ultron’s evil plans unfold, we wonder who can stop him and learn not fret and not to swear gosh darn it!
When my friends and I saw the offer to watch Avengers: Assemble, Captain America: Winter Soldier and Avengers: Age of Ultron (at midnight on the dot) on Wednesday 22nd of April at the Glasgow Science Centre IMAX for only £21, we immediately booked the seats a month in advance! I don’t think besides Alien, my friends and I have went to a movie marathon like this before, so were excited! Yes we all are going through the busiest time at college or university, but what the hey; it’s worth it!! The last time I was here was for Gravity and it was superb; isn’t as good on a TV screen, so was definitely hoping for the best for these three films. And it was brilliant! Our seats were in the middle to left so was a great view and I’m so grateful that they were comfortable and spacious because we had to sit in them for seven hours (exactly) to watch all three! The screen is massive to point that you don’t need 3D effects because you have to turn your head to see different parts of the film; I would say that the 3D effects made it more visually pleasing but would have been fine without them. And the sound…oh the sound! It made me shiver with joy hearing even the quieter sounds and made my palms sweat during the loud action packed scenes! Am I the only one whose palms sweat at the IMAX? Anyway, IMAX is by far my favourite cinema!
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I remember going to see Avengers: Assemble with friends at Kilmarnock Odeon back in 2012 and even although we feel cinemas are money snatchers when it comes to 3D viewings, we felt this film merited it! We had high expectations when we entered and were left gobsmacked once we had seen it; it was and still is one of my 10/10 films! And it was twice as brilliant at the IMAX; felt like I was seeing it for the first time especially when the bloody sceptre goes through Agent Coulson again. As far as Captain America: The Winter Soldier, it wasn’t as good as Avengers: Assemble, but was great seeing again on the big screen (click here to read my full review at Kilmarnock Odeon). On top of the three films, IMAX gave us all an exclusive A3 poster for free; pretty awesome (you can see it below).
If you don’t know, you can actually purchase prelude comics for the Avenger films, which gives you a little background info before seeing the film. And when I say little I do mean little; but you do get your money’s worth since there are additional older comics added related to the film. This is the first time I’ve tried this but thought I should give it a go before Age of Ultron. After a whole comic depicting the events of Avengers: Assemble, the Age of Ultron prelude links with it and Winter Soldier mainly focusing on Baron Von Strucker/ Hydra’s work with Loki’s septre, Quicksilver & Scarlet Witch recruitment and how they gained their powers. The prelude ends with the after-credits scene in Winter Soldier, so not much info, but was kind of expected; it would have ruined the film if it gave too much away!
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Age of Ultron was brilliant! End of review! Only joking; there were one or two things I can be nit picky about but overall it was another gobsmacker. I was hoping to see more of Baron Von Strucker; not too much as this was Ultron’s film, but it would have been good to have seen him at least put up more of a fight. The whole relationship thing between Hulk and Black Widow came completely out of the blue and seemed rather forced. …And the Russian accents got a bit distracting. That’s it; lets get back to the good things about this film! So far Loki and the Winter Soldier have been the only villains in the Marvel Cinematic Universe to be any good, but now I think Ultron has taken the top spot. His human-like reactions and comments were hilarious, the CGI was brilliant and the voice acting from James Spader was great too. I thought he could have maybe been slightly more fearful than humorous (especially at the moment after Quicksilver gets it), but nether-the-less he’s brilliant! I was wondering how much reference to Pinocchio there would be and I’m glad with the small amount they used. In any case Ultron’s character acted more like an evil twin of Tony Stark rather than his son. Now, coming back to the death of Quicksilver, it was inevitable that someone was going to die but Marvel ingeniously gave more backstory to Hawkeye than any other film he’s been in, consequently making us think he was going to be the first Avenger to be killed off. But nop! The Marvel universe decided to kill the unofficial member of the Avengers. I personally would liked to have seen more of him but I guess two Quicksilvers can’t be allowed to coincide in cinemas (his character is in X-Men too). Quick in, quick out. As surprises go, I did expect that Hawkeye would have survived, but I didn’t expect Vision appearance to be that great, as I hadn’t heard anything prior. I thought he was going to be a villain and then he was brilliantly deemed ‘worthy’ to be an Avenger; thought the party scene where the gang try to lift Thor’s hammer was just a funny little addition but acted as a reminder to the quote “Whosoever holds this hammer, if he be worthy, shall possess the power of Thor”. Everyone in the cinema was gasping, laughing or slightly clapping when Vision handed Thor his hammer. Stan Lee’s appearance at the party also got a few laughs and applause – as always Stan Lee is hilarious in his scenes.
Now, I may be a total Marvel Universe geek and have seen all the previous films, but I personally think someone who’s inexperienced with the independent films or previous Avengers film would be able to understand the majority of Age of Ultron. All the characters have a good portion of cinema time to show off who they are and their abilities; important info from the events of the first Avengers are stated, the ‘worthiness’ of the hammer is said subtly through the Avengers party scene, and other references to the previous films. I’d say it’s definitely better to watch after seeing the previous films to understand the little jokes and info (like Thanos, mentions of Jane and Pepper), but can be watched and understood without seeing previous films…but come on – who hasn’t at least watched Avengers: Assemble!? I had high expectations for Age of Ultron as I did for the first Avengers, but there was a part of me that wasn’t sure if it would beat it, but I was wrong. I left overly satisfied with it and have come to conclusion that it is not a lesser film to Avengers: Assemble, but in fact equal to it! At the end of the film (before the credits) Captain America says, “Avengers…A…” and obviously what he was about to say was “Avengers…assholes!” which will start Captain America: Civil War releasing on the 29th April 2016!
Of course we stayed for the after credits scenes; we sat for seven hours (exactly) so weren’t giving up there. The first clip was of Thanos grabbing the infinity gauntlet and saying, “Fine, I’ll do it myself.” He couldn’t get the staff so looks like he’ll be getting off his backside and finally doing something. My only thought is what will happen to Vision when/if Thanos nicks the yellow infinity stone from his head!? I’m concerned he won’t make it. We heard before that there was nothing at the very end but stayed anyway, and there was something; a message saying that the Avengers will return…really!? Had no idea! Before then the next few Marvel films we’ve got are Antman; another addition to the Marvel Universe on the 17th July 2015. Then two 20th Century Fox films: the Fantastic Four remake on 4th August 2015, and Deadpool (rated 15, minimum) on 12th February 2016. The next Avengers film is unofficially Captain America: Civil War, but officially is Avengers: Infinity War Part 1 set to release on 27th April 2018. It’s then we’ll hopefully see all the current members of the Avengers again and a few additional heroes including the Guardians of the Galaxy probably. So far only four out of the six infinity stones (which fit in Thanos’ Infinity Gauntlet) have been revealed: the Tesseract (Captain America: The First Avenger), the Aether (Thor: The Dark World), the purple stone (Guardians of the Galaxy) and the yellow stone (in Vision’s head). I’m going to predict that the next two will be revealed in either Thor: Ragnarok, Guardians of the Galaxy 2 and/or Infinity Wars Part 1.
The IMAX cinema is the best; loud sound, massive screen, good seats – brilliant! How many times is Marvel Comics going to beat DC Comics; the Arkham Knight game does look amazing, but wasn’t overly enthused with the new Batman vs. Superman trailer. Marvel is becoming unbeatable in the film front and I’m not as bothered about Batman vs. Superman as I was when it was first announced. Anyway, Avengers: Assemble – my hundredth time watch and still AMAZING; Captain America: The Winter Soldier – not as amazing but still great; and Avengers: Age of Ultron – ULTRA AMAZING! Now need to wait…or go and see it again before it finishes at cinemas! Until next time, Avengers A…
GLASGOW SCIENCE CENTRE IMAX – 10/10!
AVENGERS: ASSEMBLE – 10/10!
CAPTAIN AMERICA: WINTER SOLDIER – 8/10
AVENGERS: AGE OF ULTRON – 10/10!
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I certainly agree that Avengers: Age of Ultron can make sense to viewers that haven’t previously watched the other movies. Very good review, I would personally state that Avengers: Age of Ultron was much better than Avengers: Assemble, due to the camera effects, CGI, Battle Scenes with Iron Man and the Hulk for example. The movie had a bit of everything. Action, Comedy and Romance. Also Interesting seeing Black Widow’s character explored more on the big screens as well. Ultron! What a character! I thought it would be difficult to top Loki, but Marvel certainly surprised fans, and developed a great character.