The Avengers are all back in a new big screen, big budget adventure “Avengers: Age of Ultron.” Time Warner Cable News’ film critic Neil Rosen filed this review.
The Marvel comic book superheroes who call themselves The Avengers are back in a new mega budget, big screen adventure “Age Of Ultron.”
They are indeed The Avengers and they are once again out to save the world. This time, their enemy, like all of the foes they seem to face, is bent on destroying the human race and civilization as we know it. His name is Ultron, a destructive, super powered A.I., who by cloning himself, is amassing an army of super intelligent robots to take over the world.
Ultron, as voiced by James Spader, spews forth many snarky comments and is made of seemingly indestructible metal.
Of course, it is up to The Avengers to stop this thing by all means possible. Back again are Robert Downey Jr.'s Iron Man, Chris Hemsworth as Thor, Chris Evan's Captain America, Mark Ruffalo's The Hulk, Scarlett Johansson's Black Widow and Jeremy Renner's Hawkeye – who, by the way, is an extremely boring character.
Writer/director Joss Whedon, who also helmed the last installment, has made a predictable, by the numbers comic book movie with over-bloated action scenes and a plot that is hard to decipher.
With an all-star cast like this, Whedon has to give each of the big name actors an obligatory solo scene, but it all seems so forced. In addition, the cast seems to be there just for the paycheck.
The CGI, particularly in regards to Ultron himself, who looks like a cartoon amongst human actors, is not very impressive. Plus, Spader's voice doesn't seem to gel with the metallic body it's housed in.
There are occasional one-line quips that are meant to be witty, but more often than not, fall flat. Incredibly expensive action scenes full of destruction go on for way too long with little context behind them, leading to overkill and boredom. It is noisy and tedious, reminding me in some ways of a bad Transformers movie, and at close to two and half hours, I could not wait for this thing to end.
Kids aged eight to 14 will not care about the movie's many deficiencies. But then again, that is who the movie's made for.
Neil Rosen’s Big Apple Rating:
One and a Half Apples