Avengers: Age Of Ultron

There is no denying that this movie is awesome. It's certainly on par with the first film, but I can't be sure if it's better or not.

Acting on intel unknowingly provided by Team Coulson (a little bonus for anyone who's been watching Agents Of SHIELD), the Avengers raid a HYDRA outpost and retrieve Loki's staff. This not only puts them up against twin adversaries Quicksilver and Scarlet Witch, but Tony Stark finds the makings of an artificial intelligence that he and Bruce Banner could work into a peacekeeping program they'd been brainstorming for a while. Unfortunately for them and the rest of the team, the moment Ultron comes online, he sets events in motion that would either bring about humanity's evolution, or their extinction, and it doesn't matter which.

The team takes some pretty big hits along the way, thanks in no small part to Scarlet Witch's ability to mess with people's minds, which among other things sends the Hulk into a rampage. Luckily, Iron Man was ready with a Hulkbuster exo-suit. This fight was amazing. Tony also has to deal with the fallout from all of this as the one responsible for Ultron's creation.

Eventually Pietro and Wanda realize the error of their ways and join the Avengers to fight Ultron. Also joining them is the Vision, a techno-organic robot of Ultron's own creation. It turns out Loki's staff housed another Infinity Stone, which has now been infused into Vision along with the Jarvis program. To exemplify this, he's played by the same man who has been voicing Jarvis since the first Iron Man. (Plus he can lift Thor's hammer Mjolnir, which in and of itself is awesome.)

A definite plus is that we get some more character development to the two normal humans on the team, Black Widow and Hawkeye. Oddly enough, the film puts the kibosh on the idea that these two might have a thing going on (maybe they did in the past, but they certainly don't now). Natasha seems to have a thing going with Bruce Banner, and we learn that the Soviet program that trained her sterlized her when her training was complete. She can't have a family, in comparison to Banner who can't get close to people out of fear of Hulking out and hurting them. Speaking of which, Pepper Potts and Jane Foster are both given reasons for not being in this one, but Betty Ross hasn't been seen since The Incredible Hulk, and it wasn't until after seeing this movie that I started wondering why.
Clint is actually married with two (later three) children. He set up an arrangement with Nick Fury to keep them living off the grid, well away from any dangers of SHIELD, HYDRA, etc. The scenes with them are are really quite sweet and down to earth. All of that pathos gave me the impression that Hawkeye was going to get killed before the end of the movie. However, when the time came, Quicksilver took the bullets instead.

Ultron is a really interesting villain. He's far more human than I expected him to be, since he's a robot. He has a lot of Tony's snark and casual attitude, but he's still cold and efficient. From Iron Man to Ultron to Vision, it's like each one is a reflection of their sire. Iron Man wants to bring peace and keep humanity safe. Ultron sees that humanity can't be peaceful and so so the only way to achieve peace is to destroy it. Vision sees the destruction of humanity as inevitable, but that's all the reason he needs to defend it.

The final battle is nothing short of spectacular. Ultron raises a city into the air with the intent to send it crashing down back to the earth like a meteor. The Avengers are outnumbered by Ultron's robot legion, and need to not only fight them off, but evacuate the city's population before it either crashes down or gets destroyed before impact. Luckily, SHIELD is back with a brand new helicarrier (Theta Protocol - another Agents Of SHIELD bonus), and even War Machine gets in on the action.

I'm glad that supporting characters from the other characters' solo movies got a bit to do here. Heimdal appears in Thor's nightmare, Peggy Carter appears in Captain America's, and as stated before, Rhodey returns and is wearing his War Machine armor again. For whatever reason, Falcon doesn't take part in the final battle, even though he appears at the Avengers Tower party and again in the last scene. Why he didn't get to fight Ultron is anyone's guess. I was a bit upset that Quicksilver got killed, but at the same time relieved Hawkeye survived and made it home to his family. Also, I have a real bone to pick with Joss Whedon choosing to pull a Soprano with the last scene. Why cut to the credits in the middle of a battle cry? Just to leave us wanting more? Well, it worked, but that doesn't mean it didn't make people mad.

Any nitpicks I had with the movie were minor. It's still an excellent entry in Marvel's Cinematic Universe, setting up for bigger things to come and an ever expanding roster of superheroes.