It has been a long wait since the first Avengers movie, but in that time we have had the chance to experience more of those characters throughout their solo outings and even some more of the Marvel family, through the Guardians of the Galaxy, but for a lot of people, The Avengers Age of Ultron is what they were really waiting for.

I won’t beat around the bush here, Avengers Age of Ultron is a fantastic movie, if you just wanted to know that, you can stop here and go see it. If however you want to know why, then read on. Since the events of Captain America: The Winter Soldier, The Avengers have been working together to clean up the remnants of Hydra and any other baddies along the way and the team has been working well together, but Tony Stark believes there is a better way.

Working alongside Bruce Banner, Tony believes that a series of AI driven robots could take the workload off the team and become a first line of deference, keeping all the people of the planet safe from threats both terrestrial and beyond; a noble goal to be sure, but what is the saying? The road to hell is paved with good intentions, well this road is going to be the bumpiest the Avengers have ever seen. What is great about the story here is that we get to know more about each of the characters, but not in what makes them do what they do, but about why they care, why they would risk themselves for others, but of course not everyone in the world is happy that the Avengers exist.

The cast of good guys from the first film returns, without Clark Gregg of course, but Robert Downey Jr, Chris Hemsworth, Jeremy Renner, Scarlett Johannson, Mark Ruffalo, Chris Evans, Cobie Smulder and Samuel L Jackson all add more depth to the characters they have all portrayed many times now, plus we get to see Don Cheadle, Anthony Mackie and Idris Elba all make appearances, but the show stealer is James Spader as Ultron. If you have seen James Spader in The Blacklist, then you will have an idea of what to expect from him as Ultron, but it is not as straight forward as the same character with a different look, Ultron is complex and yet simple, he refuses to acknowledge flaws that would make him seem more human, but uses humans to help achieve his goals and those humans are the twins.

The twins of course are Wanda and Pietro Maximoff, who we briefly saw at the end of Winter Soldier and while they align with Ultron, they also have their own reasons for fighting the Avengers. Overall, almost all the characters in the film bring both a sense of realism and also a levity that helps remind that this is a fun movie. The level of fun is helped greatly by the visuals we are given over the course of the movie, from the superhuman shots of Captain America to the amazing fight between Hulk and Iron Man that has been teased since the first trailer. In fact that fight is perhaps one of the best 1v1 fights I have seen on screen in sometime.

There are some scenes that are not driven by CGI, but by character and here Joss Whedon shines again. As we learn about the Twins, we get a greater understanding of who they are and what events have transpired to drive them to do what they do and this is not so we see them as pure evil, victims, etc. but so we see them as human, regardless of their powers. It is this character development that Joss Whedon has done so well over the years, which is why the shows he created have endure as they have. While the world is inherently comic book based, it’s the belief in the characters that sustains it and it is something this movie does really well.

It would be hard for me to give you a reason not to see Avengers Age of Ultron, the characters are either established and we know them, or they are new and we get to discover them and in both cases, nothing is forced nor is it something you could question, seeing characters like the twins or Vision come to life on the screen is equally a delight. We get a compelling villain who believes he has the solution to the problem, which is perfect as he knows little about humans, so seeing that rationality play out is really enjoyable. But best of all, we get a movie that moves along at a comfortable pace and offers up a fantastic movie going experience. For fans of Marvel this is one you can’t miss, for those who are on the fence about this, jump down into a cinema seat and enjoy the ride. 

Thanks to Walt Disney Pictures Australia for the advanced screening