Movie Review: Avengers: Age of Ultron

I feel very lucky to have been able to see this movie a day before it's release. I've been hyped for this movie for around a year now, and I'm happy to say that this is actually a rare case where a movie like this actually lives up to my expectations.

The Avengers: Age of Ultron is a really fun movie. Be warned, it's no art film. The direction is somewhat unoriginal. That's not to say it's bad, it's just not anything I haven't seen before. The plot follows our sextet from the last Avengers movie (and the movies before and since then), as they battle a rouge A.I. force built by Tony Stark/Iron Man that goes by the name of Ultron. I actually found Ultron to be a very interesting character; at points in the movie, the entire theater was laughing at his one-liners.

There are also three new heroes in the movie, two of which you may have seen if you stayed for the end credits of Captain America: The Winter Soldier. It is a bit of a spoiler, so I won't elaborate further on that.

The movie has some great action set pieces, with epic battle scenes as well as small, more poingant moments. Joss Whedon's screenplay is witty as ever, and the movie's acute sense of humor added to the experience. However, some of the jokes may not be as funny if you haven't seen the previous movies and I feel like if you haven't watched at least the first Avengers movie you should make an attempt to see it before watching this one.

The performances are serviceable, there aren't any that really stood out to me but there also weren't any that felt particularly bland or forced. One of my favorite elements, however, was the costume design. The costumes look downright epic, and for a superhero movie having great costumes is an incredible important element.

There were two things main things that I didn't care for in the movie: product placement and cliches. The product placement wasn't too in-your-face, but it's definitely noticeable even if you're not looking too hard (like when a character wears a brand-new pair of Beats headphones). Secondly, there were one or two spots in the movie that came off as really cliche. I won't go into detail because it is a bit of a spoiler, but it did take away from the experience a little bit.

Overall rating: 3.5 out of four stars. It's a great time enhanced by a great screenplay, sleek costume design and wowing effects as long as you can get past a few cliches. It's at least on par, if not better, than the first Avengers movie.

Reference scale:

Captain America: The Winter Soldier < Avengers: Age of Ultron < The Dark Knight