+ Most Undeserved Hit of the Year
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| Most of the Marvel superheros are back for action on this poster for Joss Whedon's Avengers: Age of Ultron |
The Avengers are back at it, when the artificial intelligence within Tony Stark's global defense system runs amuck in a spree of destruction.
Avengers: Age of Ultron is the sequel to The Avengers (2012), the second Avengers film, the franchise that gathers the characters for Marvel's individual superhero franchises, Iron Man, Captain America, Thor and friends. It is written and directed by returning helmsman Joss Whedon (Much Ado About Nothing (2012)), based on The Avengers comics by Stan Lee (Epic Illustrated (1980)) and Jack Kirby (Sandman (1974-76)).
The plot here makes a virtue of trying to be all places at once, meaning that it wants to build some type of progress onto each of its many characters, but as a consequence it feels like it is no place really. The colorful, fun, pompous spark of the first Avengers film gets lost here in a sequel that attempts to exceed the first film's originality in every department.
Avengers: Age of Ultron does have a bit of fun, (Don Cheadle (Flight (2012)) makes an appreciated dent in this languished department), and impressively detailed CGI effects, which are guaranteed to have been impressive if seen in 3D, as they seem designed for. But when seen in 2D, which most will do when they revisit this film after its initial release, the magic of all that work is also very limited.
The few good things about this superhero mega-movie regretfully drowns in an ocean of uninteresting destruction coupled with ugly, grey locations and sets, the lovely Elizabeth Olsen (Ingrid Goes West (2017)) and Aaron Taylor-Johnson (Albert Nobbs (2011)) wasted in non-characters with Russian accents, a terrible villain (I dare you to locate any of James Spader's (The Watcher (2000)) charisma in the robotic bore that is Ultron), pointless dialog and - naturally - gross overlength. Avengers: Age of Ultron is a seriously disappointing sequel.
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The Avengers/Avengers Assemble (2012) or, Farty Latex Suits: Gather!
Alien: Resurrection (1997) or, Queen of the Goo Massacre! (writer)
Cost: 316 mil. $ (gross)/267.4 mil. $ (net) + 180 mil. $ (marketing)
Box office: 1,405.4 mil. $
= Big hit
[Avengers: Age of Ultron premiered 13 April (Los Angeles) and runs 141 minutes. Filming took place in Bangladesh, Johannesburg, South Africa, Seoul, South Korea, Italy and in the UK, including in London, from February - August 2014. The massive 316 mil. $ cost of the film was diminished drastically by a 50.7 mil. $ UK tax cut. If the colossal marketing budget is drawn into the calculation, the film only ranks as a box office success. It opened #1 to a 191.2 mil. $ first weekend in North America, the 3rd biggest ever up to that point, not beating The Avengers' 207.4 mil. $ or Jurassic World's slightly bigger 2015 opening. It enjoyed another week as #1 and a total of 5 weeks in the top 5 and grossed 459 mil. $ (32.7 % of the total gross) domestically, where it was the 3rd highest-grossing film of the year. Its 2nd and 3rd biggest markets were China with 240.1 mil. $ (17.1 %) and South Korea with 78.2 mil. $ (5.6 %). It became the 7th highest-grossing film to date and the 4th highest-grossing of the year worldwide. Deadline.com has calculated the film's net profits to 382 mil. $, also figuring in marketing costs, home video, VoD and TV earnings, making it the 4th most valuable film of the year. The next Avengers movie, Avengers: Infinity War, comes out in 2018, directed by Anthony and Joe Russo. Avengers: Age of Ultron is certified fresh at 75 % with a 6.7/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]
What do you think of Avengers: Age of Ultron?
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