#GotUltron?

Riddle: What do you get if a crack team of assassins, thunder Gods, scientists, genetically enhanced soldiers and the milky one from The Da Vinci Code get together and attempt to rid the world of alien threats indefinitely, through the creation of an artificial intelligence weapons system based on the glowy bit of a galactic stick? Answer: The worlds most sadomasochistic robot. Avengers: Age of Ultron is 2015's biggest blockbuster to date and let me assure you; by the time this sucker hits around 88minutes on the clock, you'll be engrossed in some serious shit!

When Disney obtained the rights to the Marvel franchise in 2009 for a measly $4billion, it sent ripples throughout the film industry. Why? Because they had a back catalogue of immense proportions and unlimited finance to make even the most obscure characters become legend on the big screen. The movies from this point onwards would combine child-friendly fantasy with the adult charm & wit we've become accustom to since the dawn of Pixar. Lucasfilm's purchase in 2012 has already completely reinvigorated people's faith in the Star Wars franchise ahead of December's The Force Awakens, and we've only seen 2 trailers. And, most of what we've seen so far has been heavy-breathing and sand. Oh, and Harrison looking like a bad ass. Chris Pratt hasn't even be announced as the new Indiana Jones yet, however I for one cannot wait to see how the next whip-cracking adventure unfolds with George Lucas miles and miles away sipping on piña coladas, unable to petrify any of our seeing-circles, ever, again. 

But, I digress. When heading to see Ultron on opening night, I roped in a "Marvelmaniac" (patent application pending) buddy of mine to join me so that if I had any questions about any one of the multiple characters/ universes/ dubious outfits, he'd be on hand to give me some perspective. But surprisingly, it wasn't anywhere near as convoluted as I'd expected. I had to be educated on the use of words like 'enhanced' as opposed to 'mutants' due to the rights held by Sony of the X-Men franchise and what not, but the story resonated with me far more than the whimsical origins tomfoolery of Avengers: Assemble. I've never been a big fan of the Thor story-arc and the Loki/ Tesseract/ Chitauri thing was a rather messy for me. What I felt Assemble lacked, Age of Ultron had by the bucket load which was great scripting combined with Director, Joss Whedon's stunning attention to detail and context for even the layman to grasp whole-handedly.

Welcome back Iron Man (Robert Downey Jr), Captain America (Chris Evans) Bruce Banner/ Hulk (Mark Ruffalo), Thor (Chris Hemsworth), Black Widow/ Natasha Romanoff (Scarlett Johansson) and Hawkeye (Jeremy Renner) who have since continued their work 'off the books' laying waste to quintessential Neo-Nazi terror movement, Hydra, and their weird experiments, this time involving Enhanced twins Quicksilver (Aaron Taylor-Johnson), Scarlet Witch (Elizabeth Olsen) and Loki's Staff which by this point, is the bane of everybody's life. According to my man, the brother & sister are depicted as Magneto's children in the comic books but we'll save that for X-Men 17. Even the likes of Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson) and Ulysses Klaue/ Klaw (Andy Serkis) are on hand (LOLZ) to add gusto to proceedings.

After the Avengers are "allowed" to re-capture the staff, Tony Stark wants to utilise its power to create an AI system which will protect the planet for good. But, when a jolly fun shindig at Stark Towers takes place involving some very funny scenes with Don Cheadle's crap party anecdotes and Thor's party piece of a Hammer; Ultron (James Spader) manages to corrupt the JARVIS system, does a bit of a Ra's al Ghul with the misguided epiphany of a madman that a safe Earth is a human-free Earth and makes himself out of buckets and crisp packets to escape and wreak havoc. Cue lots of superb dialogue, mind-blowing action sequences and the origins story of Paul Bettany's, Vision.

Many action movies have come and gone in the last decade which people have tried to forget about. Transformers 2, Pacific Rim, Mega Shark vs. Giant Octopus (?) in which the plot is so thin in places, that wave upon wave of special effects are plastered over the top to mask its poor craftsmanship. My pupils tend to dislike the feeling of playing the unlucky middle bearing in a Newton's Cradle. In Ultron, they're well thought out and there's no denying some of the brilliant cinematic work such as the introduction of the infamous Hulk-Buster as Iron Man rattles around a crumbling city wrestling with Hulk, after Scarlet Witch has infiltrated the minds of the Avengers to play puppeteer with their realities. Homage must also be paid to the personal battles conveyed by the super bunch during the movie too. Hawkeye and his yearning to be home with his family, the Captain A's lack of acceptance in the modern world and the 'Will they? Won't they?' flirting/ lullaby recitals shared by Banner & Widow throughout the course of the movie. With so much on offer in its frantic 141minutes, these vulnerabilities and character mini-arcs never feel rushed or an afterthought.

This can't be said for some aspects of the narrative though. Especially Thor and his visions involving Heimdall (Idris Elba) with cataracts at a sexy party, and the thunder God's urge to cleanse himself with electricity in a magic puddle hereby inspiring him to make a rather important decision, effectively preserving or condemning Earth as we know it. Small aspects as I said. Ultron is a slick and powerful foe with infinite access to the Internet and the tools necessary to create a vastly superior robot army yet spends an infuriating amount of time trying to gain nuclear weapon codes or better abs which seems rather pointless when we all know it would've been far more effective had he photo-shopped the Avengers in compromising situations and beelined them to the authorities via a wifi hotspot. 

I'm a huge believer in the trailers preceding a movie being part and parcel of an an evening out at the cinema, and whilst eagerly anticipating Avengers: Age of Ultron to begin, in swept the new Fantastic Four, Ant-Man AND TomorrowLand highlights which really hit it home for me. Not only am I also incredibly excited to see some of the other summer blockbusters right around the corner, but The Walt Disney Company with their endless resources and vast repertoire of newly acquired licenses, can deliver just about anything to fans of the Marvel Universe calling out for the celebration of their favourite villains and superheroes, competently and ingeniously. Avengers: Age of Ultron is one of the greatest action movies there is, period. The story, the cast, the directorship, the humour, the set-up for 2018. Star Wars; your move...

Avengers: Age of Ultron receives 5/5 Macho Man Randy Savages because of that bit when you see Samuel L. Jackson without his eye-patch on and can tell he's not faking it.