Avengers: Age of Ultron [DVD]

Another notch for Marvel Cinematic Universe Success. Avengers Age of Ultron continues to spread forth an amazing collection of actors together in a phenomenal sequel to the Avengers. Joss Whedon does a marvelous job not just once but twice.After the Captain America 2 Winter Soldier and Agents of SHIELD Season 1 in which the offshoot Nazi Terrorist group HYDRA is still in existence, promoting terrorism into the 21st century and using SHIELD and the governments of the world to in order to rule the world. Avengers 2 Age of Ultron brings the Avengers to destroy HYDRA, but they are manipulated into creating a peace keeping initiative that blows up in their faces. Ultron, the artificial intelligence created by Tony Stark to prevent alien threats like Avengers or world threats like Captain America 2 turns on them and intends to destroy. This is more than just an action movie for the sake of action, but brings to mind the importance of fighting the good fight and the limits of power. Its nice to know more things about the Avengers as they develop in the face of their new enemies and their own demons. Its nice to know that a few years living in the 21st century that Steve Rogers still misses his dreams of a normal life, or how Natasha Romanov was trained as an assassin and robbed of a life she still wants, don't get me started on Clint Barton and of course Tony Stark's ambitions. They are friends but they have a chance to be a family and more as they fight to save the world.All this and more is just amazing. Nice to welcome back the old but also some new faces. As well as see plenty of great action. Some people complain about some stuff. The movie isn't as fresh as there is a feeling of 'sequelitis' as there is feeling to make the movie relevant. I won't go into specifics but I do believe its a little exaggerated. Joss Whedon also has said that he wanted to do more, bring more heroes and continue to develop things well into the next couple of films. Both of course didn't happen.Still this movie is really good and well worthy of a Blu-ray and Digital Copy.

This is a good movie, but not a great one. All of the elements are there for it to be great in terms of plot, yet somehow it doesn't quite execute. I think perhaps it never gives the viewers a sense of impending doom and without more drama it's tough to get emotionally invested in what's happening. This is still a solid effort with great action, acting, and characters. The action may tie that of the first film, but I don't think it tops it. As a film I give this 3.5 to 4 stars.The blu-ray presentation is solid, but not as good as the first film. Specifically, I found the use of 3D in this movie to be underwhelming. The effects were minimal and sometimes it didn't even look like 3D. Considering how good the 3D was in the first film, I was very surprised that it wasn't better here. Maybe it isn't fair to judge them against each other, but it is difficult not too and the first movie set a very high bar. I would also give the 3D presentation 3.5 stars and 2d gets 5 stars.So the question you're probably asking is how I give an overall rating of 5 stars when I've rated the individual parts lower. Simple: this movie is priced to be an INCREDIBLE VALUE! A 3D collection for less than $30 on release day is unheard of! I've been buying 3D movies for 4 years and this one cost the least by far. At $20 it is a no brainer and worth every penny. It's almost like Disney understands the small shortcomings in the film and went overboard by pricing it accordingly.This is a good movie and a great value! I would encourage anyone that likes action or superhero films to pick it up. It makes for a great evening of movie watching and the price is right!

Am I the only one who thinks this is just a very expensive prequel to Captain America:Civil War?Anyway, I greatly enjoyed the origin of the Vision and the voice of Ultron. I still think it's a shame that Hank Pym was not involved in Ultron's creation, but I've got to admit that Stark's obsession with technology would be a likely source of Ultron's genesis.I had the sense of rushed plotting in some ways. Baron strucker leaves the Marvel franchise ignominously and too quickly. The Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver are not well-developed enough int he final cut (although the Blu-ray EXTRAS help with this). Captain America, Iron Man and Thor are too well known as "commodities" to be consistently interesting here. They don't really grow or develop -- nor do they need to. They simply are who they are.I would have preferred the Avengers reckon with how Phil Coulson survived (in TV's Agents of SHIELD) than to see Nick Fury reappear. There is also a bit of a deus ex machina feel every time Fury's involved in the plot. I find that ironic because int he las movie he seemed to take a certain amount of pride that he wasn't a god (deus) like Loki. Times change a man, I guess?But Hawkeye, Bruce Banner, and the Black Widow come into much sharper focus here. This was very welcoeme. There finally seemed to be a reason for Hawkeye to be one the Avengers. And his interactions with the Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver were particularly effective.Stan Lee's cameo was genius. Falcon and War Machine put in fine guest appearances. Someone needs to give Anthony Mackie (Falcon) his own movie.The true highlight of the film for me, though, was the origin of the Vision. In case there are people who have not seen the film at all, I won't dwell on why each moment the Vision was ont he screen was so well done. But let's just say this -- Paul Bettany was perfect.I look forward to his next appearance.In the EXTRAS, take a look at Thor's cut scenes. I understand why some people would have been confused, but I would have preferred them to be in the film. IT sure made Thor's sudden RE-appearance in the film make more sense.