By George Kent
Avengers, Age of Ultron has been the most anticipated movie of the year, and has already topped the box offices in its opening weekend, but does it live up to the hype? Can any movie live up to the hype garnered by the first Avengers movie, directed by Joss Whedon, which was universally acclaimed made billions in the box office?

Whedon has returned for this film with his same blend of humor and action that worked so well for the first film, and has mostly recaptured the feel with Ultron. There are a number of exciting fight scenes, especially one in which Iron Man (Robert Downey Jr.), donning an enormous suit of armor battles the Hulk (Mark Ruffalo) in a crowded downtown area, complete with over-the-top destruction and sarcastic quips from Downey, of the kind that only seem to work with him. The humor in the film hits home every time, as Whedon seems to be able to effortlessly find humor that is universally funny, walking the line between predictability and obscurity while still keeping everything family-friendly. Viewers can expect to be falling out of their seats with laughter as long set-ups pay off in hilarious punch lines later in the film.

Ultron (voiced by James Spader), the movie’s namesake, is a formidable villain, but while perhaps surpassing Tom Hiddleston’s Loki in the first film in both humor and menace, his motivation is foggy, and his storyline hard to follow. One excellent choice, serving to make Ultron all the more intimidating, is to have him attack the team directly by taking out a core member early on. No one in the audience will see this coming (even hearing about it now won’t spoil the surprise, it’s that unexpected) and the loss is all the more effective because of it. It gives the Avengers motivation that the first film couldn’t achieve. This time, they’re actually avenging something.

The movie’s largest downfall is in its elongated second act, in which the Avengers take a break from the action to take a relaxing vacation in the countryside. Where the first film triumphed in its downtime due to the witty and entertaining dialogue between characters, especially the conflict between Downey’s Tony Stark and Chris Evan’s Captain America, Whedon seems to have exhausted all his material in this regard, and much of the argument between the two is repetition of previous points. The brevity conflict has been made up for with scenes of bonding between the Avengers, and these are some of the best in the film, but during battle scenes, coherent conversation seems to have been replaced with a series of witty-not-witty one liners.

During all this recuperation, Ultron goes through the motions in his evil plot to destroy the world. Surprisingly, the subject matter delves into the theological, debating the differences between AI and human and the relationship between creator and creation, but the plot becomes convoluted and devolves. This more involved theming could have worked had it not been in a movie that takes everything else (especially physics) so lightly. The audience will lose interest as Ultron travels from place to place to advance a plan that no one can understand for a reason that doesn’t make sense.

The second act also focuses an excessive amount on the character of Hawk-eye, played by Jeremy Renner. As a non-super member of the team, he is armed with a host of multi-purpose arrows which he fires with supernatural precision, but is still, at his core, just a dude with a bow among a team of ‘human gods.’ The movie doesn’t ignore this, and in fact takes it head on, discussing Hawk-eye’s membership in the Avengers, and justifying it quite nicely. Nonetheless, it feels a bit like an excuse to keep Renner in the series rather than an important plot point.

The inclusion of a new character, the Vision, was a smart choice. He is a fascinating character, that will surely be the topic of much of the discussion on the film. Also included are two new additions in the twins Scarlett Witch (Elizabeth Olson), a young girl with vague mind control/telekinetic powers, and Quicksilver (Aaron Taylor-Johnson), a guy who can run really fast. This character falls flat largely because of the recent adaptation of quicksilver in X-Men, Days of Future Past which has been acclaimed as one of the best action and special effects scenes of all time. Avengers tries to mimic this in a way, but mostly resorts to having Quicksilver speed by with  a trail of blue afterimage that leaves much to be desired. The Scarlett Witch is more interesting, as she enchants different members of the Avengers in order to tear them apart. It’s an interesting sequence, but makes no sense story-wise, and so becomes trivial quickly.

What the film loses in its second act, it makes up for in the third. The finale is a fantastic cathartic showdown between Ultron and the Avengers, and the action is awesome. It all ends with a thought provoking conversation between Ultron and the Vision, that will leave the audience pondering greater things. But if that’s not what audience members want to see, there are plenty of explosions that will make up the difference.

Age of Ultron is overall a positive experience, and Whedon and his dynamite cast his many perfect notes in both Humor and camaraderie, but the story and lag are enough to put it decidedly below the first film. Age of Ultron gets 3 out of 4 stars. It’s not a must-see, but anyone who loved the first one will have a great time.