Avengers: Age of Ultron

Avengers: Age of Ultron

Its spring time, it’s early in the month of May, fresh popcorn smell is in the air and the perpetually annoying sounds of hundreds of flip flops walking past me are all about. Well, it must be that time again where any movie just two summers ago that made even the slightest profit above the price of a McDonald’s Happy Meal comes out again to our cinematic doorsteps.

Its goal? Well to attempt to titillate, stimulate and hopefully recapture its original magic with the movie going audiences again in the form of Hollywood’s perpetual cash cow effort called the “interminable block buster sequel”. Such is the case with Marvels comic book Avengers cast in the title of “Avengers:  Age of Ultron”

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Once again we see Iron Man, The Hulk, Captain America, Black Widow, Thor and Hawkeye team up to save the world. What? Did you think they would do anything else like go after inside traders on Wall Street? Obviously I digress as the new story takes us on the journey of saving the world (again) only this time through the cause of one of the Avengers own mistake.

Without too much detail here, when we see Tony Stark trying to jumpstart an artificial intelligence that was dormant into some kind of peacekeeping program, things go terrible awry with global chaotic hell being cut loose. So, again it’s up to our mightiest super heroes to be put to the test again to save the planet from the newly created villainous threat named Ultron. Let the inconsequential, mindless, destructive 2 hours and 11 minutes mayhem begin.

Pros: If you were definitely planning to go the movies this weekend and you and your date have narrowed it down to the choices of “Get Hard”, “Paul Blart: Mall Cop”, “Child 44”, or the “Avengers”, then it’s a no brainer, the Avengers it is. It will hold your entertainment attention.

Also, as actors go I have always been a fan of James Spader. He’s one of the few actors that exude intelligence when he is acting and reciting his lines. He’s in this new Avengers film, but you want see him as he is the voice of the metal Ultron. If you don’t know who James Spader he has some limited success in films such “Stargate”, “2 Days in the Valley” and “Lincoln”. He has garnered more critical success on TV in such successful shows as “The Practice”, “Boston Legal” and currently “The Blacklist”.

Cons: Aaaaaaah where do I begin. Look, this movie is not bad, instead what it is its just bland with no one to really root for or have a visceral connection to. Loki in the previous film as the principle villain was a great counterweight to the well-intended Avengers heroes. He was someone who was equal parts debonair and charming and also devious and diabolical as hell. He was also quite deceptively good in making you the viewer subliminally think that there was the small possibility he might just end his evil ways only to surprise you (metaphorically speaking) by stabbing the audience in its viewing back.

Conclusion: During the creative plot development part of this film by the Disney Executives who produced this film, they appeared to give us an Avengers sequel here as if they could just roll out any old story that they could make up; just fill it with a lot of non-stop action and the audience will eat this up. Well, that may be true, but you can kill off a great franchise rather quickly when you don’t work to keep it fresh and miscast it (aka “The Bourne Legacy” and Jeremy Renner) or you can have a franchise that works well with the hard work of keeping it fresh and innovative thinking (aka the whole 007 James Bond series and Sean Connery, Pierce Brosnan to Daniel Craig).

I can't tell you not to see “Avengers: Age of Ultron”; you should see it if you like the cast and the characters from the original and their respective individual franchises. However, if you wanted to see it in the comfort of your home with a pizza delivery on the way, then that would be in my estimation the better call to watching this rather pedestrian effort.

3 Stars