Prior to watching the latest Avengers movie, I did the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) movie watching challenge. I didn’t exactly rewatch all MCU films in order per day but I did watch some of the important ones. One of them is Avengers: Age of Ultron.
Since I can’t do a review of Avengers: Endgame yet without including spoilers, I’ll write about Avengers: Age of Ultron instead.
Warning: Spoilers ahead.
♠ The Cast ♠
◙ Robert Downey Jr. plays Tony Stark / Iron Man
The genius, playboy and billionaire superhero.
◙ Chris Hemsworth plays Thor
Asgard’s god of Thunder
◙ Mark Ruffalo plays Bruce Banner / Hulk
The scientist who turns into a strong giant green monster.
◙ Chris Evans plays Steve Rogers / Captain America
The supersoldier who wields a vibranium shield.
◙ Scarlet Johannson plays Natasha Romanoff / Black Widow
A very skilled spy, trained in combat and espionage.
◙ Jeremy Renner plays Clint Barton / Hawkeye
Another skilled spy whose weapon of choice is a bow and arrow.
◙ Aaron Taylor-Johnson as Pietro Maximoff / Quicksilver
One of the Sokovian twins. His power is super speed.
◙ Elizabeth Olsen plays Wanda Maximoff / Scarlet Witch
The other twin whose power includes telekinesis and mind control or warping reality.
◙ Paul Bettany plays J.A.R.V.I.S. and Vision
The good sentient AI Tony Stark created which they then uploaded to an android body that became Vision.
◙ James Spader plays Ultron
The bad sentient AI Tony Stark created to supposedly protect the Earth but eventually decides to destroy humanity.
♠ Trailer ♠
♠ Synopsis ♠
The scene opens with The Avengers raiding the Hydra headquarters in the fictional country of Sokovia. It’s where Hydra scientists were experimenting on human beings using the Tesseract scepter Loki used before he was defeated and held captive in Asgard. During the attack, the only successful human experiments, the twins Pietro and Wanda Maximoff, fought the superheroes. Wanda messed with the superheroes heads while Iron Man went ahead and retrieved the scepter. Eventually the Hydra base was captured.
Upon getting the scepter, Tony Stark discovers there is actually an Artificial Intelligence (AI) inside it. He convinces Bruce Banner to work with him on using it on his Ultron project. He claims this will be the best defense of Earth against the Chitauri aliens Loki had brought, which the Avengers fought off in New York.
While the Avengers gathered in a party, without their knowledge, Ultron “awakens” and “kills” J.A.R.V.I.S. (Tony Stark’s very helpful AI), uses Stark technology to have a somewhat physical body to attack the Avengers and tells them it will eliminate all humans in order to save the world.
Ultron has now become a full blown sentient AI which then proceeds to create it’s own body and machine soldiers from the Hydra headquarters previously mentioned. The base holds all the Chitauri remains from the New York battle and thus is also the source of new technology. It recruits the twins and also begins to build a stronger body from the Vibranium it acquires. Combined with the synthetic tissue technology of the Avengers’ scientist friend, whom Ultron has controlled using the Tesseract scepter, she helps create Ultron’s new body. Eventually the scepter’s gem was taken out of it’s casing and put on the forehead of the non-conscious body. All that was left would be for it to download its data to the android. Wanda then senses Ultron through the created body and finds out its plan to destroy the world. This prompted the twins to rebel.
Meanwhile the Avengers caught up to Ultron and tries to stop him to get the invincible body it had created. The superheroes are able to acquire the android but Ultron captures Black Widow in the process. Tony informs Bruce that J.A.R.V.I.S. is “alive” and then decides to secretly upload it into the synthetic body while everyone else was occupied. He is found out by the rest of the team though and suddenly Thor comes around and activates the body. The new entity becomes Vision who is aware of the Mind Infinity stone on it’s forehead.
Long story short, Vision, the twins and the Avengers defeat Ultron before it could cause mass extinction from Sokovia.
♠ ArtGirl’s Review ♠
What could go wrong with a Marvel Cinematic Universe movie? Well it seems like they do more good than bad films, right? This time the story isn’t about aliens. Now it’s about advanced technology gone wrong. Find out what I think of this one and let me know if we share the same views or not. ^_^
◙ Characters & Story
After watching the first Avengers movie, for me this second one somewhat isn’t as awesome as the former. Still it is better than most of the non-Avengers MCU movies. I like how the characters are still as relatable as anyone we know. Even if the Avengers superheroes are way better than the average human, they are still people who care for our planet and humanity in general. It makes the story so much better if we can also understand the characters’ sentiments in this film.
What makes the story amazing is the use of AI technology. Imagine an advanced super computer machine system being sentient or can think on it’s own without the need to be programmed once it is activated. This scary scenario is explored in this movie. It does not deal with the threat of aliens that can destroy the human race; this time the villain is actually a man-made supreme AI called Ultron.
Here we see how an advanced technology that can be used for good can most certainly also be used for bad. Clearly AI in the form of J.A.R.V.I.S. and Vision is good for humanity but if it goes haywire and causes viruses or becomes something like Ultron then the world may be doomed.
Age of Ultron‘s storyline makes it worthy to be discussed and makes the movie intriguing. It’s more sci-fi than fantasy so perhaps I’m not that into it since it is much closer to the truth or the possible future life on Earth. It is a scary possibility. This is why I am not in favor of using AI that much. I love the internet but please never ever program AI’s to be sentient. I do not know how that can happen but do humanity a favor and don’t be stupid to cause our own demise. Pray and take heed to never have a Battlestar Galactica (2004) or Terminator future.
How can humans compete with something a million times more intelligent than a single human brain? We’d really need superheroes in order to defeat intelligent machines so it’s only right the Avengers can help save the day. Sadly, in real life, we do not have any superheroes. Think about it, what use would ordinary humans be against super computers or AIs more intelligent than any person? It’s a hopeless case if humanity do not combine forces to fight any evil sentient AI.
The Avengers is more far-fetched than AI technology so clearly I am not too happy with the movie. I feel like a non-genius Tony Stark wanting to fight the impending alien invasion only to be confronted by an evil AI. The film has an easy solution in the imaginary team of Avengers but in reality what do we have? Scientists and programmers/hackers are the only people who can fight any AI but what about ordinary citizens? We’d be left defenseless against robots and programmed machines. Personally I’d feel stupid if I’d have to fight against any android AI. I’d rather go back to being non-human thank you very much.
Anyway, at least Avengers: Age of Ultron gives us an amazing story of, “What if superheroes can save the world from bad AIs?” That is the only saving grace of the movie. It’s not too heart wrenching but it is enough to make us think what the consequences of our seemingly humanitarian actions can be. It may seem we are all doing the future a favor by creating AI, but our good intentions can certainly also backfire at some point and become harmful to our planet.
◙ Acting
As far as acting goes, all of them are convincing enough in their roles. Most scenes are lukewarm but can still ellicit some emotion out of the viewers. We see the characters’ fears, hopes and dreams which helps to somehow draw us into their world.
Actually it feels like the acting part was just added at the last minute because all we just focus on are the action scenes. Haha.
◙ Cinematography, Production Design & Music
For this part, well what can I say but everything looked and sounded amazing. There’s no point to discuss how great the costume, location, CGI, scenes and soundtrack are. It has all the fan service we can ask for so what’s there to talk about? Haha.
◙ Rating
Okay so from what I mentioned, let me rate each aspect separately.
- Characters & Story: 9
- Acting: 8
- Cinematography, Production Design & Music: 10
Based on the above, I rate the movie a 9 out of 10 stars.
How about you? Did you like the movie? Would you like to watch movies and get paid for it too (Marvel or not)? Haha. What do you think of the film? Share in the comments. 😊
Palabas In Da Past 