Age of Ultron disappoints non-Marvel fans

By Sandy Grossman & Sandra Moore

Tiger Staff

3/5 stars

imageAvengers: Age of Ultron proves satisfying for die-hard fans, but suffers from introducing an overabundance of characters while simultaneously attempting to make them all seem interesting and three dimensional.  The much anticipated sequel to 2012’s The Avengers is riddled with half-baked subplots and distractions from the intended storyline.

The plot revolves around Ultron, an artificial intelligence created by Tony Stark and Bruce Banner with the purpose of protecting the world, yet goes rogue soon after its development and attempts to destroy the human race. While he has the capacity to use nuclear war codes and easily rob bank accounts he instead turns to destroy the world in an extremely unnecessary and roundabout manner. Yet paired with a non-menacing in sense of humor and a lack of three-dimensionality, he is simply not scary enough.

This movie seemed more like an opportunity to introduce new characters and set up future films for the Marvel Cinematic Universe. While it was an improvement on the limited diversity of the previous MCU movies, the amount of characters featured made the film seem overcrowded and left viewers confused.

 

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Tony Stark, in particular, had questionable actions that were never addressed. He was the one to push the creation of Ultron, and when that backfired, created Vision. Ultron killed hundreds of people, yet Tony is never held accountable for the creation of this monstrosity.

The romance between Black Widow and Bruce Banner seemed contrived, with no setup from any previous movies. Not only that, but Black Widow’s characterization was vastly different from any portrayal of her in any other movie in the cinematic universe, with many of her lines being pithy quips.

Instead of spreading itself thin through these sub-par side plots and weak attempts at characterization, Age of Ultron should’ve concentrated more on its main conflict, which suffered from these deviations.  Nevertheless, the movie with its numerous action scenes and one-liners makes for a fun, character-packed movie with cameos that comic-readers will love.