Avengers: Age of Ultron is a 2015 American superhero
film based on theMarvel Comics superhero team the Avengers,
produced by Marvel
Studiosand distributed by Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures.
It is the sequel to 2012's The Avengers and the eleventh installment in the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU). The film was written and
directed by Joss Whedon and features an ensemble cast that includes Robert Downey
Jr., Chris
Hemsworth, Mark Ruffalo, Chris Evans, Scarlett Johansson, Jeremy Renner,Don Cheadle, Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Elizabeth
Olsen, Paul Bettany, Cobie
Smulders, Anthony
Mackie, Hayley Atwell, Idris Elba, Stellan Skarsgård,James Spader,
and Samuel L.
Jackson. In Avengers:
Age of Ultron, the Avengers must work together to defeat Ultron, a
mechanical artificial intelligence bent on human extinction.
The sequel was
announced in May 2012, after the successful release of The Avengers. Whedon, the
director of the first film, was brought back on board in August and a release
date was set. By April 2013, Whedon had completed a draft of the script, and
casting began in June with the re-signing of Downey.Second unit filming began in February 2014 in South Africa with principal photography taking place between March and August
2014. The film was primarily shot at Shepperton Studios in Surrey, England,
with additional footage filmed in Italy, South Korea, Bangladesh, New York,
and various locations around England.
Avengers: Age of
Ultron premiered in Los
Angeles on April 13, 2015, and was released on May 1, 2015 in North America, in
3D and IMAX 3D.
Upon its release, the film received positive reviews and has grossed over $1.1
billion worldwide, making it the second
highest-grossing film of 2015 (behindFurious 7)
and the 8th highest-grossing film of all time.
Two sequels,Avengers: Infinity War – Part 1 and Avengers:
Infinity War – Part 2, are scheduled to be released on May 4, 2018, and May
3, 2019, respectively.
PLOT
In the Eastern European country of
Sokovia, the Avengers – Tony Stark,Steve Rogers, Thor, Bruce Banner, Natasha Romanoff, and Clint Barton – raid a Hydra outpost led by Baron Wolfgang von
Strucker, who has been experimenting on humans using the scepterpreviously wielded by Loki.
They encounter two of Strucker's experiments – twins Pietro, who has superhuman speed, andWanda
Maximoff, who can manipulate minds and project energy – and
apprehend Strucker, while Stark retrieves Loki's scepter.
Stark and Banner
discover an artificial intelligence within the scepter's gem, and secretly
use it to complete Stark's "Ultron" global defense program. The unexpectedly sentient
Ultron, believing he must eradicate humanity to save Earth, eliminates Stark's
A.I., J.A.R.V.I.S., and attacks the Avengers at their
headquarters. Escaping with the scepter, Ultron uses the resources
in Strucker's Sokovia base to upgrade his rudimentary body and build an army of
robot drones. Having killed Strucker, he recruits the Maximoffs, who hold Stark
responsible for their parents' deaths by his weapons. Together, they go to the
base of arms dealer Ulysses Klaue in an African shipyard to obtain vibranium.
The Avengers pursue them, but Wanda subdues the heroes with haunting visions,
causing the Hulk to rampage until Stark stops him with his anti-Hulk armor.2
A worldwide backlash
over the resulting destruction, and the fears Wanda's hallucinations incited,
send the team into hiding at Barton's safehouse. Thor departs to consult with
Dr. Erik Selvig on the meaning of the apocalyptic
future he saw in his hallucination, while Romanoff and Banner plan to flee
together after realizing a mutual attraction. However, Nick Furyarrives
and encourages the team to form a plan to stop Ultron. In Seoul, Ultron forces the
team's friend Dr. Helen Cho to use her synthetic tissue technology, vibranium,
and the scepter's gem to perfect a new body for him. As Ultron uploads himself
into the body, Wanda is able to read his mind; discovering his plan for human
extinction, the Maximoffs turn on Ultron. Rogers, Romanoff, and Barton find
Ultron and retrieve the synthetic body, but Ultron captures Romanoff.
The Avengers fight
amongst themselves when Stark secretly uploads J.A.R.V.I.S. – who is still
operational after hiding from Ultron inside the Internet – into the synthetic
body. Thor returns to help activate the body, explaining that the gem on its brow
– one of the six Infinity
Stones, the most powerful objects in existence – was part of his
vision. This "Vision" and the Maximoffs accompany
the Avengers to Sokovia, where Ultron has used the remaining vibranium to build
a machine to lift a large part of the capital city skyward, intending to crash
it into the ground to cause global extinction. Banner rescues Romanoff, who
awakens the Hulk for the battle. The Avengers fight Ultron's army while Fury
arrives in a Helicarrier withMaria Hill, James Rhodes and S.H.I.E.L.D. agents to evacuate civilians. Pietro
dies when he shields Barton from gunfire, and a vengeful Wanda abandons her
post to destroy Ultron's primary body, which allows one of his drones to
activate the machine. The city plummets, but Stark and Thor overload the
machine and shatter the landmass. In the aftermath, the Hulk, unwilling to
endanger Romanoff by being with her, departs in a Quinjet,
while the Vision confronts Ultron's last remaining body.
Later, with the
Avengers having established a new base run by Fury, Hill, Cho, and Selvig, Thor
returns to Asgard to learn more about the forces he
suspects have manipulated recent events. As Stark and Barton also leave, Rogers
and Romanoff prepare to train new Avengers: Rhodes, Vision, Sam Wilson,
and Wanda.
In a mid-credits scene, Thanos,
dissatisfied by the failures of his pawns, dons a gauntlet3 and vows to personally retrieve the
Infinity Stones.
CAST
Paul Bettany as J.A.R.V.I.S. and Vision
Still, these are just two ideas among the many
competing for our attention, alongside stories of love, bravery, friendship,
betrayal and more. Age of Ultron is packed with brilliant, memorable sequences
which tell those stories, delivered through a mix of a stellar cast,
mind-blowing effects and a truly superb script. The only problem is that
there's just too much of all of it. Ultimately it's a film with so many great
characters, plot threads and ideas, but because of the sheer volume of content,
the whole never manages to transcend the sum of those parts.
