After the major success of 'Avengers Assemble' ('The Avengers' in the US) it was only going to be a matter of time before a sequel was announced. After 'Iron Man 3', 'Thor: The Dark World' and 'Captain America: The Winter Soldier' Marvel and Disney announced their next film; 'Avengers: Age of Ultron' which was to be loosely based on the same comic.
Say what you will about the Marvel Cinematic Universe but personally, I think ever since Disney brought the rights to the MCU after 'Avengers Assemble' the only success they've had is 'Captain America: The Winter Soldier'. 'Thor: Ragnarok' came at a close second but it never reached the same hype as 'Winter Soldier' did despite the amount of views that the trailers received within twenty-four hours.
'Avengers: Age of Ultron' is another example of one of the many misses Disney have had with the MCU.
The story starts off with the team in Slovakia as they try to take down Barron Von Strucker's (Thomas Kretschmann) lab where he's conducting illegal experiments. Hidden in the castle-based lab is the sceptre that Loki had used on 'Avengers Assemble'. As they take down the lab, we a greeted with two new super-characters; twins Wanda (Elizabeth Olsen) and Pietro Maximoff (Aaron Taylor-Johnson).
Of course the Avengers being the Avengers are able to take down the lab; despite the twins getting away and Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr) suffering nightmares (due to Wanda's ability to mess with minds) from the first film.
It isn't before long that they're back at Stark Tower and are celebrating their latest successful mission. Meanwhile Tony Stark and Bruce Banner (Mark Ruffalo) are in the lab and decide to build an A.I. (Artificial Intelligence) but do eventually turn up to the party a little while later. It isn't before long that the party is interrupted by a new Big Bad; the new bot (which they've named Ultron, voiced by James Spader) that Stark and Banner have built suddenly comes to life during that time.
Everyone is understandably angry with them...more with Stark than Banner as Stark had clearly came up with the idea first and recklessly jumped into it without thinking of the consequences. After the brief battle in the tower, they immediately try and find ways to try and stop Ultron from taking over.
During a battle in a city square, the Maximoff twins also reappear. Once again, Wanda demonstrates her ability to mess with people's mind and can also move objects with her mind. Pietro has the ability of super-speed. Despite their powers and abilities, their comic book codenames (the Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver) aren't even mentioned once in the film.
When the original trailer for 'Age of Ultron' dropped, so many people- myself included- were surprised at how dark the film looked in the trailer. The two trailers that followed showed even more of a darker film than the first which got everyone talking. However, I was a little hesitant; after all, Disney had already fooled everyone with 'Iron Man 3' about how dark that was going to be and it ended up being anything but dark.
Sure enough my hesitance had paid off; 'Age of Ultron' ended up not being the dark and serious film that had been promised on its trailers. Instead we ended up with an unwanted action-comedy with a villain (normally a badass in the comics) that made kiddie-fart jokes. Understandably the fans- myself included- weren't pleased.
Another thing that angered me with this film was the whole character rights argument that had surrounded the Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver. Up until that point, the rights to them were with Fox since Fox owned the rights to the X-Men film franchise at the time. Also Quicksilver had been used and mentioned quite a bit in the films as well as Scarlet Witch's name being briefly mentioned on 'X2: X-Men United'. They ended up having to share the rights to the Maximoff twins and- as a result- their origins in the comics had to be altered as they were Magneto's children so no mention of him or the X-Men or the word 'mutant' was to be allowed in the film. And as a huge fan of Magneto, I find this an insult to his character.
Cue in a lot of confused none-comic book fans when 'X-Men: Days of Future Past' came out a month or so later and saw Quicksilver alive and well.
Also, 'X-Men: Days of Future Past' had done the scary-A.I. thing so much better. At least they kept the final boss-fight joke free and serious unlike on 'Age of Ultron'. And people wonder why I'm worried about Disney taking on the X-Men films...
Over all, what should've ended up being an obviously darker film than 'Avengers Assemble' ended up being the exact opposite of what everyone was expecting. I still haven't forgiven Disney and Marvel for what they did to Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver...and I'll never forgive them for deceiving everyone with the trailers. Despite having it on home-release- and I do like it, if only for the Scarlet Witch, Quicksilver and The Vision- this is my least favourite of the MCU films (as well as 'Iron Man 3').
If it weren't for the Scarlet Witch, Quicksilver and The Vision, I would've just pretended that this film doesn't exist and that Thanos had basically snapped it out of existence during 'Avengers: Endgame'.
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