Movie Review: Avengers: Age of Ultron

This is really hard to believe but Jenn and I haven't seen a movie in theaters at all this year. A lot of that has to do with buying the house which has taken up a lot of our life. We absolutely love the movies so it was time to make amends for that and what a better way to start the year of movies then to go see the follow-up to the excellent Avengers movie, Avengers: Age of Ultron.

To take in the spectacle of Avengers: Age of Ultron we decided that we needed to go big and go to The Island Cinema in Fashion Island. A luxury cinema with huge comfy chairs and food delivery service. Jenn and I met at home and drove over to Fashion Island to have dinner and then go see the 6:30pm showing of Avengers: Age of Ultron. We ate at Blue C Sushi a revolving sushi restaurant where the sushi comes on conveyor belts. We had a couple of different rolls before heading over to the theater. At the theater we ordered popcorn and drinks and had them scheduled to be delivered right before the movie started. 

So how was the follow-up to The Avengers? We both thought it was great. If you aren't caught up with the Marvel universe then know that Age of Ultron follows the continuing storyline of not only The Avengers but also the three Iron Man movies, two Captain America movies, and two Thor movies. So there's some homework to do before truly understanding how far this Marvel universe has come since the first Iron Man movie in 2008.

Unlike The Avengers which had to introduce us to a lot of the superheroes (Hulk, Black Widow, and Hawkeye) this movie jumps right into a pretty great battle sequence with all The Avengers showing off their powers. The entire movie is quite the spectacle. No expenses were spared in making this movie. There are about a half dozen action scenes that were all tremendous. One scene in particular with The Hulk and Iron Man battling it out (not really a spoiler it was in the trailers) was tremendous. It's one of the best fight scenes in a super hero movie I've ever seen. I absolutely loved it. 

The one negative I have was that Age of Ultron wasn't as story rich as the first. You have a fantastic villain voiced by James Spader but otherwise this movie felt more like a setup for the next Marvel story arc then it did an amazing stand alone movie. Don't get me wrong I was more then entertained for the two and half hour run time but it didn't leave the same impact as the first movie. Not necessarily unexpected as I do love a good origin story. At the end of the day though Age of Ultron was a fantastic movie. It's the definition of a good popcorn summer blockbuster. It had the right mix of comedy, action, and drama that had both Jenn and I happy from start to finish. It also did a great job getting me even more excited to see what's going to come next in the Marvel films especially in next year's Captain America movie.