Avengers: Age of Ultron, Review: Fan-fare

Overloaded, campy and ‘fancentric’, Avengers: Age of Ultron is the Marvel Comics and Studios’ counterpart of the Justice League of America, the other array of comic book heroes that have thrilled young readers for several decades now. Just as readers were thrilled to find Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, The Flash, Green Lantern, Aquaman, Cyborg, Firestorm and Element Woman (current line-up, different from original members) between the same covers of DC Comics, filmgoers will be awestruck to find Iron Man (Robert Downey Jr.), Captain America (Chris Evans), The Hulk (Mark Ruffalo), Thor (Chris Hemsworth) and others in the same film. It takes-off after the dissolution of the organisation called S.H.I.E.L.D, gives us an opening battle with no background, unleashes all its Hero and villain power along the way and, believe it or not, stops by to bring in romance and family, involving three of the Avengers.

After defeating villain Strucker (Thomas Kretschmann) in fictional eastern European country Sokovia, The Avengers get into a programme led by Tony Stark (Iron Man) and Bruce Banner (Mark Ruffalo) to build an android called Ultron, which would be so strong that it could even cope with situations like the alien attack from a space-hole, experienced in the past. It could also draw from J.A.R.V.I.S., Starr’s Artificial Intelligence robotic entity that exists in dematerialised form. During the process of creation, Ultron, in metallic form, takes command, destroys J.A.R.V.I.S. and attacks the team, which is partying at the time. It then escapes to the Strucker hideout and recruits the Maximoff twins, Pietro (Aaron-Taylor Johnson) and Wanda (Elizabeth Olsen), in its plan to wipe out the Avengers. Pietro is known as Quicksilver and can move in a flash (shades of Flash?) and Wanda is an illusionist who can load images into the minds of people and make them do crazy things, earning the title of Scarlet Witch. Ultron arrives in South Africa to buy Vibranium, a deadly substance, as part of its devilish plans, and heads to Korea to force Dr. Helen Cho (Claudia Kim) to give it a human body. It almost succeeds, but the Avengers arrive in the nick of time, and it has to getaway. Ultron does not have a human face, but it still has Vibranium, and its goal is decimation of entire cities. Avengers take him on.

Written and directed by Joss Whedon (Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Toy Story, Serenity, The Avengers Assemble), the film is based on comic characters created by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby. Whedon has layered the film with many distinct flavours. Of these, the technical details of information technology, artificial intelligence, bio-genetics and what-have-you might force you to google a hundred times during the show. Maybe the teens and twenties, or at least geeks and Avenger fans among them, will find the going smoother. The layer of romance between Bruce Banner (Hulk) and the Black Widow (Natasha Romanoff/Scarlett Johansson) strikes an easy chord, as does the closet family of Hawkeye (Clint Barton/Jeremy Renner). Another layer evolves out of dialogue. There are countless one-liners, but only a few are normal conversation—language is stilted and obtuse. Some quips are genuinely funny, some not so funny. Moreover, either because of playback issues or too many mixed tracks, several lines are not intelligible. When you look at the fight layer, you find a lot of hand-to-hand combat in a film driven by futuristic weaponry. Hundreds of drones mean a lot of repetitive visuals. Military and police keep firing bullets at android drones and even the super-heroes (when their heads are muddled), a completely fruitless exercise. After most battles, all of them inconclusive, the participants are shown at remote locations, which come across as jump cuts. And yet, visually, the battle scenes are stunning.

A playboy billionaire, taking charge of funding and running the Avengers’ operations seems only logical, and Robert Downey Jr. makes a good leader, even exhibiting a strong sense of humour. Chris Hemsworth (and his hammer) have many of the funny lines and is endearing, though his trip to England to meet scholar Erik Selvig (Stellan Skarsgård) and his subsequent immersion into his godly world does not convince. Mark Ruffalo is a dependable performer and gets ample opportunity to perform, in both manifestations. Chris Evans as Steve Rogers does not get a chance to show too much ‘Captaincy’. Scarlett Johansson brings glamour, spunk, pathos and romance. Jeremy Renner warms our hearts—it’s not too often that you see a super-hero as a father of three. Samuel L. Jackson as Nick Fury has little to do. Aaron-Taylor Johnson and Elizabeth Olsen play their parts well. Claudia Kim begins well but them hams it. In a not-so-well-defined role, Thomas Kretschmann comes across as part caricature. As the voices of the androids, Paul Bettany and James Spader successfully add human touches to the half-human forms.

Avengers: Age of Ultron has a screenplay that must have taken tons of research to put-together, as evidenced in its span. Most of the super-heroes get almost equal footage, which is why it is 142 minutes long. At times, one does feel that many of the elements in the script have been overdone. Fans, surely, will have no such complaints. Too many heroes, too many battles, too much technology, too much devastation, 3D...ok, you feel so, Avengers’ fans might well turn around and ask, but can you ever have enough of a good thing?

Rating: ***

Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rD8lWtcgeyg