Avengers: Age of Ultron (Whedon) 2015

We finally hit what I like to think of as the mid point of the Marvel Cinematic Universe Infinity Series with Avengers: Age of Ultron. After taking an adventure in space with the Guardians of the Galaxy, we are back on Earth now, and start off right in the midst of an Avengers mission, assaulting a Hydra base tucked away in the mountains of Sokovia. 

The team is searching for Loki's scepter, missing since the end of the last Avengers film, and still containing the Mind Stone that came from the Tesseract back in Phase 1. During the assault that opens the film, they find the scepter, along with two new "enhanced" people, namely Wanda (Elizabeth Olsen) and Pietro Maximoff (Aaron Taylor-Johnson), defending the facility where it's located.

Following the assault, Bruce Banner (Mark Ruffalo) and Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr.) try to determine what is in the jewel at the top of the scepter, running experiments and ultimately waking an artificial intelligence being named Ultron. Tony had developed the idea of using Ultron as a protective shield for the world against invasions like they fought off during the Battle of New York, but once it wakes, Ultron has different ideas.

As with the first Avengers film, we see some in fighting amongst the group in this film, but also see them really starting to work together as a team. The non-fliers get picked up by their flying counterparts to reach different areas of a battle and they communicate throughout the battle, asking for help and offering tips about where their enemies lie.

Even with this teamwork, we get a glimpse inside the minds of some of the characters, with the aid of Wanda Maximoff, aka Scarlet Witch. She forces the Avengers to face some of their deepest fears and realize that while the world may see them as saviors on the outside, they are still conflicted beings on the inside.

Unlike the first Avengers film, Age of Ultron did not receive any Academy Award nominations.

This film is definitely an integral cog in the machine that makes up the MCU and required viewing for anyone interested in understanding the high level storyline that makes up the rest of the series.

​​8 out of 10

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Get Ready for Endgame

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