Step 1: Fully embrace this Avengers sequel in all its Marvel-ousness! Despite some minor flaws, Age of Ultron packs an expected and welcomed thrill-ride punch.
Step 2: Assemble the Avengers! Iron Man, Thor, Cap, Black Widow, Hulk, Hawkeye… this team is a well-oiled machine by now. They cut their teeth fighting Loki and the spiders from Mars in the first movie and by the time this one rolls around, it’s clear they’ve been on many missions together since the demise of S.H.I.E.L.D., fighting the evil Hydra and trying to reclaim Loki’s otherworldly scepter. Armed with writer/director Joss Whedon’s zing-worthy script, the Avengers now finish each other’s sentences, banter like married couples and have little nicknames for things like “code green” when they want Bruce Banner (the stalwart Mark Ruffalo) to turn into the Hulk (although he never, EVER wants to). Then, the testosterone flows as the boys quibble over who can pick up Thor’s hammer. The fact Whedon has kept us completely invested in these characters makes Age of Ultron even more appealing. While Whedon may have a few missteps in the story (especially between Natasha and Bruce), he shows us how these relationships have changed and deepened, for better or worse.
Step 3: Bring in new blood. Those Hydra peeps have been experimenting, using some of that extraterrestrial power to create enhanced humans… and so we meet Russian twins Pierto and Wanda Maximoff, aka Quicksilver and Scarlet Witch (finely portrayed by Aaron Taylor-Johnson and Elizabeth Olsen). As S.H.I.E.L.D. agent Maria Hill (Cobie Smulders) explains, “He’s fast and she’s weird,” but weird is sort of sugar-coating it a bit. Wanda can manipulate minds into seeing stuff – dreams? premonitions? — and ends up messing with some of the Avengers, including Natasha Romanov. We finally get to see a bit of Nat’s backstory, and it isn’t pretty. Scarlett Johansson does a nice job peeling back some of Black Widow’s toughness and showing her wounded side. As does Jeremy Renner, giving us an inside look at Clint Barton. Finally, that guy gets some quality air time.
Step 4: Create another great villain. Ultron is no Loki, but he’s pretty damn close to being the same kind of bad-boy bad. Charming, menacing, sometimes vulnerable, the all-knowing Ultron (played so very exquisitely by James Spader, who delivers some of the film’s best lines) is the kind of artificial intelligence we have been warned about again and again. Tony Stark (the always watchable Robert Downey Jr.), who is becoming increasingly irritating as time goes on, should know better than to create an entity meant to bring about peace but who finds out that humans are the ones causing all the discord, so of course, they must be destroyed. Those A.I. folk have a point; we do love our wars.
Step 5: Ask yourself… Do you find yourself tiring of what seems like the same comic-book scenarios over and over? Maybe Age of Ultron is laden with too many plot points, doesn’t have enough originality to differentiate it from the first Avengers and has superfluous set-ups for the next Marvel movies, including the expected tag in the end credits. But remember, Marvel has big plans for this universe, and we have to expect some kind of retread. I’m forgiving that way because the Marvel movie franchise reminds me of a long-running TV show in which some of seasons haven’t been as good as others, but it doesn’t matter because you’re already all-in and love the characters, complicated as they are, too much to ever give it up. Plus, you want to see how it will all end. Here’s the rub, though: Will it ever end? It doesn’t look like it anytime soon.
Step 6: Enjoy yourself. For all Avengers: Age of Ultron’s flaws, there’s still nothing better than those moments when they are indeed all assembled, kicking ass. And kick ass they do, in tent-pole action sequences delivered in spectacular fashion by director Whedon. Nope, I’m not getting tired of these movies one tiny little bit.