At The Movies Avengers: Age of Ultron

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Jon Phillips at openclipart.org

A is for Avengers: Age of Ultron

Brandon Carpenter '15, Video Crew

The long awaited sequel to 2012’s The Avengers has arrived, and if any of you have kept up with the news, you know that the sequel is by far the second largest domestic box office opening in history, right after the original.

Let’s get the rudimentary stuff out of the way. This is a PG-13 film, for violence, language, and a bit of rude humor. This film is the 11th in the Marvel Cinematic Universe and the 5th in “Phase Two.”

For those of you still blissfully unaware, this is Marvel Comics’ grand scale film adaptation of various comic franchises, namely Iron Man, Guardians of the Galaxy, Thor, Captain America, etc. If you have not seen at least the first Avengers film, I strongly suggest you do so. You should probably just watch a marathon of the entire movieverse.

Age of Ultron picks up partway through season 2 of the television series Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.. The Avengers deploy to Sokovia to retrieve Loki’s (Tom Hiddleston) scepter from a Hydra cell. The mission is successful, but Tony Stark (Robert Downey, Jr.) walks away from the engagement with a lot on his mind. This leads him to drag Bruce Banner (Mark Ruffalo) into a brainstorming session where they try one last time to bring their secret project for world defense together. After multiple days of failed attempts, they retire the project once again…Until it comes to life. Spawned without a moral compass, Ultron (James Spader) proceeds to steal the scepter and initiate his plan to annihilate the human race and start anew. His global presence forces the Avengers to play on his terms…But with Ultron’s secret assets in play, the team may tear themselves apart faster than his drones.

The Cinematic Universe is becoming increasingly complex, with the ultimate plot line yet to coalesce. But Age of Ultron does well to tie together the elements of the other Marvel films intended to link them together. With the conclusion of the Cinematic Universe’s Phase Two around the corner, (concluding with Ant-Man) Marvel is shaping up to deliver perhaps the greatest film saga in history, if they haven’t acquired that title already. That said, some fans were slightly less enthused about Age of Ultron in retrospect, although this may be due to the shock and awe of the first film. Nitpicking aside, the sequel delivers. Now assemble your respective crews and go see this movie!