Avengers Age of Ultron written and directed Joss Whedon, starring Robert Downey, Jr, Chris Hemsworth, Mark Ruffalo, Scarlett Johansson, Jeremy Renner, James Spader, Paul Bettany, Samuel L. Jackson, Anthony Mackie, Cobie Smulders, Don Cheadle, Elizabeth Olsen, and Aaron Taylor-Johnson, then also throw in a few more people who had just a scene or two but are still connected with the MCU or are partial famous in their own right.
I've been waiting a long time for this movie to come out and it was worth the wait, completely. It's really hard to summon up what Marvel has been doing with their movies because it's so unlike anything anyone has done before. They aren't just making trilogies but making one whole movie experience and so far it's paying off in wonderful ways. Not that each movie is perfect but they've carefully crafted characters from the comics and use these characters to carry the story of the movie. These characters do carry everything and are perfectly cast.
This movie is basically just a bunch of action scenes mixed in with some dramatic exposition scenes. But the actions scenes are spectacular and the dramatic scenes are worth their entire weight. In fact I found the dramatic scenes even better than the action scenes as the actors completely sold themselves out to their characters and made those scenes worth while. I was really glad Whedon gave Renner (Hawkeye) a lot more to do in this film. Renner really stepped up to the plate and made Hawkeye into a more memorable character. The scenes where they go his family home really stand out as some great scenes for Renner as it deepens in his character a lot more and made me care about him because I never really cared for him in the comic. I just really like how Whedon and Marvel have made these characters into people I would like to hang out with after work and just talk with. I don't find too many movies where this happens as everything seems to be about the next action scene, the next special effect scene, the next spectacular moment, and nothing else. Characters fall to the way side with about eve movie released now-a-days. Marvel and Whedon understand dialogue and acting scenes matter. If you make the viewer care about the character no matter how insane, crazy, or ridiculous the story gets, the viewer won't care because the characters are what matter the most.
Enough can't be said for each actor and actress who helped to make these characters come to life, it is with their help these movies have become as likeable as they are.
Hands down my favorite scene in the movie is when Vision hands Thor is hammer. Whedon build this scene up from the beginning of the movie when everyone was trying to pick it up without success. Then so see Vision just hand it to Thor was stunningly amazing and Whedon let this scene play out with all the other Avengers also stunned by what happened as they had just been debating the purity or trustworthiness of Vision. Thor's hammer visual proved that without any dialogue needing to be said.
Other scenes or things I liked:
Iron Man's Hulk-buster armor and Hulk fight.
James Spader as Ultron.
Hawkeyes talk with Scarlet Witch on the floating island. I like it when characters acknowledge the craziness going on around them.
The whole party scene at Tony Stark's building, complete with all the cameos and perfect dialogue.
It was great to finally seen Paul Bettany finally get a body as he is
one of my favorite actors. Looking forward to seeing him in the next
movies.
Black Widow and Hulk's romance. Wouldn't mind seeing this explored a little more. There could easily be a movie here if Marvel has the guts to do it because I think it could be interesting.
The opening fight scene.
