Avengers: Age of Ultron

So I finally went to see this newest Marvel `flagship` movie yesterday together with Nemesis.  Now, I always try to wait a few weeks so that the initial rush settles down, so in a theatre filled for only  a quarter, there was enough personal space to take in the movie.

Now, this is the almost end film of Marvel`s Phase 2 (Ant-Man is the complete closure) and we are working up towards the Phase 3 heavy hitters Civil War and Secret Wars, both very meaningful titles for a Marvel comic reader.

And the cracks are shown in this movie.  When there just is to much to do, and by the manipulations of the Scarlet Witch`s mental powers, the team is starting to fall apart and Tony, together with Bruce, decide to make an artificial intelligence driven defense force for alien invaders.  This however turns out to be a `slightly` unstable program, based on designs of Loki`s Sceptre, called Ultron (greatly voiced by James Spader).

The man-machine attacks the heroes, and forces their hands by having them face their innermost demons.  As more and more cracks in the teams armour appear, they do band together again after Thor learns about the true powers of the gem inside Loki`s swaggerstick, and the Infinity Stones.

In what is for now the last stand of the current Avenger line up, they manage to overcome Ultron and his diabolical plan, aided greatly by his former minions Quicksilver and Scarlet Witch, as well as by a reborn JARVIS in the form of Vision.

What I liked?

* Hawkeye FINALLY gets to be his sarcastic, whimsical self from the comics.  He even feels like the actual leader at times.
* Ultron and Vision are both greatly done.
* The Hulkbuster fight

What I didn`t like?

* Compared to Wave 1, if feels to me that Marvel takes some movies to serious.  I like my superhero films to be entertaining and colourful, not the dark and moody tones started with Nolan`s Batman series.
* Two Quicksilvers so far on the screen, still waiting for a decent one.

What I`m still munching over?

* The new team line up for phase 3.  Sure, Cap and Widow stay onboard, but the team is now made up of them together with Scarlet Witch, The Vision, Falcon and War Machine.  Potential sure, but it seems they lack raw muscle, even with the still to come as a member Ant-Man.

All in all, it is a spectacular movie, with a nice overlying plot and setting is up very well for wave 3, but on pure `smile on the face factor` I liked the first one better.

But for that, Ant-Man is on the way anyways ;-)