'Avengers: Age Of Ultron' Review

Avengers: Age Of Ultron is a blast. I can guarantee that you will have a very fun experience watching this film. The film starts with a bang and the momentum never drops. I of course am a big Marvel fan, but I was blown away literally every 5 minutes or so with humorous dialogue, character development, or a mindboggling action sequence. Avengers Age Of Ultron is in fact a very light hearted film just like the original despite the very dark foreboding trailers. I was laughing and enjoying myself quite often throughout the movie and for parents reading this review the only thing that I think is potentially scary for young children is Ultron and there is relatively little language that actually becomes a hilarious gag throughout the film. I have noticed prior to domestic release that this film had very mixed positive reviews and I think I can acknowledge the reasons why reactions are mixed but some of the reviews have stated that the film wasn't able to capture the magic of The Avengers, but I really disagree because the magic is captured in the opening scene of the film sure this one doesn't have the build up to the team because they are already a team functioning and working together.The highlights of this film are really the character relationships and development, the stunning visual effects, the intelligent screenwriting, the acting and the mindblowing action. Joss Whedon really is quite gifted in that he can assemble a large ensemble cast, develop all their characters and even establish very fun and inventive character relationships. One aspect of the character relationships and development that I really enjoyed was seeing all of these characters interact once they are adjusted to this new team dynamic. Joss Whedon truly knows how to handle all of these characters so I'm sad to hear he is leaving the Marvel Cinematic Universe but I think he deserves to take a break after all of the time he as put into The Avengers and Phase 2. The acting in the film is incredible and readers of this review may be surprised to hear that Hawkeye has a much larger role in this film and I must say the Jeremy Renner really managed to step up to the task and gave an incredible performance. But, regardless of that this is still "everyone's movie," each of the Avenger are given their own moments to shine in the spotlight and there is no character that is placed into the shadows because of it. Robert Downey Jr. is as charming and enjoyable as ever in the role of Tony Stark, Chris Evans continues to really embody Steve Rogers onscreen, and Chris Hemsworth gives what may be his best acting yet but that wasn't a surprise because of their solo films. Mark Ruffalo and Scarlett Johansson who also like Jeremy Renner didn't receive a solo film are also given quite a bit of screen time together and I really like the chemistry between their characters. The new additions are welcomed with open arms as Elizabeth Olsen and Aaron Taylor-Johnson both provide great performances as Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver but Paul Bettany was amazing as the Vision. This came as a surprise to me because I was aware Vision would be a difficult character to transfer from the comic books to the movies. Another incredible performance was of course James Spader's motion capture and voice performance for Ultron. He embodied what I'm sure many will consider Marvel's best villain yet. The standout action scenes were the Hulkbuster fight and the climactic fight towards the end of the film but all other action sequences are great and very fun as well. Also there's a few brief appearances from supporting characters in Marvel's earlier films. This film certainly sets the roots for the future of the Marvel Cinematic Universe and has the most enjoyable Stan Lee cameo yet and the best post credits scene yet. I can say with confidence that my initial reaction was the best I have ever had for a Marvel film so I deem that this is definitely the best Marvel film yet.

Spider-Man is being added to the Marvel Cinematic Universe

Spider-Man is now officially going to be added into the future Marvel Cinematic Universe. 

The official statement from Marvel stated "Under the deal, the new Spider-Man will first appear in a Marvel film from Marvel's Cinematic Universe (MCU). Sony Pictures will thereafter release the next installment of its $4 billion Spider-Man franchise, on July 28, 2017, in a film that will be co-produced by Kevin Feige and his expert team at Marvel and Amy Pascal, who oversaw the franchise launch for the studio 13 years ago. Together, they will collaborate on a new creative direction for the web slinger. Sony Pictures will continue to finance, distribute, own and have final creative control of the Spider-Man films.Marvel and Sony Pictures are also exploring opportunities to integrate characters from the MCU into future Spider-Man films."

This means that all of Sony's planned Spider-Man films like The Sinister Six, Amazing Spider-Man 3, etc. are all scrapped. Marvel will likely recast the role of Spider-Man to distance themselves from The Amazing Spider-Man franchise, so sadly Andrew Garfield will probably not have the opportunity to reprise the role. The MCU Spider-Man movie doesn't currently have an official title just a release date. In the press release it does state that Spider-Man will be featured in other Marvel Cinematic Universe movies, likely Captain America: Civil War and Avengers: Infinity War Part 1 and Part 2. I am very excited for this and can't wait to see how this new Spider-Man will develop. However this pushed back four of Marvel's movies Thor: Ragnarok, Black Panther, Captain Marvel, and Inhumans. Here is the updated release schedule for the rest of Marvel's films. 

Marvel's Updated Release Schedule

Phase 2

Avengers: Age of Ultron May 1, 2015

Ant-Man July 17, 2015

Phase 3

Captain America: Civil War May 6, 2015

Doctor Strange November 4, 2016

Guardians of The Galaxy 2 May 5, 2017

Untitled Spider-Man film, July 27, 2017

Thor: Ragnarok November 3, 2017

Avengers: Infinity War Part One May 4, 2018

Black Panther, July 6, 2018

Captain Marvel, November 2, 2018

Avengers: Infinity War Part Two May 3, 2019

Inhumans, July 12, 2019

Marvel Press Announcement

 Today Marvel announced their Phase 3 lineup of films at a mystery press event! So the films announced are as follows:

Captain America: Civil War (May 6, 2016)- The lineup begins with Captain America Civil War. It will be released on May 6, 2016. Robert Downey Jr. was confirmed to reprise his role as Iron Man and the film will be based on an important comic book called Civil War that pits Iron Man against Captain America. Black Panther was also confirmed to appear in the film in some capacity. Chris Evans will reprise his role as Captain America.

Doctor Strange (November 4, 2016)- Doctor Strange was officially given a release date of November 4, 2016 even though it was highly speculated to be released in 2016. Marvel didn't announce who the Sorcerer Supreme would be played by but latest rumors suggest Benedict Cumberbatch is in negotiations for the role. but there have been rumors that Marvel is looking at several actors for the role so I'm unsure how credible that report is.

Guardians of the Galaxy 2 (May 5, 2017)- The release date of Guardians of the Galaxy 2 was moved to May 5, 2017 from the July release date given at San Diego Comic Con, probably due to the massive success of the film.

Thor: Ragnarok (July 28, 2017)- Thor 3 was given an official title and release date. It will be called Thor: Ragnarok and will be released on July 28, 2017. Chris Hemsworth will return and I'm sure Tom Hiddleston and Anthony Hopkins will as well.

Black Panther (November 3, 2017)- Black Panther is now officially confirmed for a November 3, 2017 release date after a rumor that it would be coming after the Age of Ultron trailer last week that did seem to have a Black Panther easter egg in it. It will be the first African American led superhero film. There is concept art for what Black Panther below.

Captain Marvel (July 6, 2018)- Captain Marvel will be released on July 6, 2018 after the first part of Avengers Infinity Wars.

Inhumans (November 2, 2018)- Inhumans will be released on November 2, 2018. It was probably greenlit because of Guardians of the galaxy's success of launching a comic book franchise that isn't well known.

Avengers Infinity War: Part One and Two ( May 2018 and May 2019)- Avengers 3 was confirmed to be split into two films and will be called Infinity War. I assume it will bring all of the Marvel characters together to defeat Thanos. A image was shown of Thanos wearing the Infinity Gauntlet with all of the Infinity gems in his possession.

Marvel's release schedule

Avengers: Age of Ultron May 1, 2015

Ant-Man July 17, 2015

Captain America: Civil War May 6, 2015

Doctor Strange November 4, 2016

Guardians of The Galaxy 2 May 5, 2017

Thor: Ragnarok July 28, 2017

Black Panther November 3, 2017

Avengers: Infinity War Part One May 4, 2018

Captain Marvel July 5, 2018

Inhumans November 2, 2018

Avengers: Infinity War Part Two May 3, 2019