Movie-goers have assembled, as Earth’s mightiest heroes are back for their second team effort in Avengers: Age of Ultron.
The follow-up film has already earned $187.7 million in its opening weekend at the box office, making it the second-largest box office tally for an opening weekend, next to the first Avengers film, which made $207.4 million in its opening weekend.
All the familiar faces from the last film are back, including Captain America (Chris Evans), Iron Man (Robert Downey Jr.), The Hulk (Mark Ruffalo), Hawkeye (Jeremy Renner), Black Widow (Scarlett Johansson), Thor (Chris Hemsworth) and Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson).
Age of Ultron picks up where Captain America 2: The Winter Soldier left off. We find the team on a mission to obtain Loki’s staff, which is being held at a Hydra stronghold. Once the staff is secured, Tony Stark and Bruce Banner study it and find the staff houses an energy similar to a living consciousness. Stark wants to use this energy to create Ultron, an artificial intelligence program designed to protect the world from any alien threat and end the need for the Avengers Initiative. Stark uses the staff’s power to give life to Ultron, but Ultron has a very different idea of what global peace entails.
Ultron (James Spader) is cold and calculating, wanting nothing more than to destroy the Avengers. The team must find a way to destroy Ultron before he brings about the destruction of the entire human race.
The film has a good blend of action and comedy, with plenty of both. Audiences will be on the edge of their seats, as well as laughing out loud throughout the movie. It also has a lot of character development. For the first time, audiences will actually get to know Hawkeye as a character.
The film also introduces a few new characters into the Marvel Cinematic Universe. In addition to Ultron, one of the Avengers’ most dangerous adversaries in the comics, audiences will get to see Quicksilver, Scarlet Witch and The Vision for the first time. Movie-goers have seen Quicksilver before in X-Men: Days of Future Past, but this is a different version, since both Marvel Studios and 20th Century Fox own the rights to the character. This version of the character, played by Aaron Taylor-Johnson, is a little more grown-up and a little less wise-cracking. These new characters are full of surprises, and definitely add an interesting dynamic to the Avengers.
Overall, Avengers: Age of Ultron is a solid addition to the Marvel universe, and fans and casual viewers alike will definitely not be disappointed.
