Avengers: Age Of Ultron hasn’t actually hit theaters anywhere in the world yet, but the first smattering of reviews from the industry’s top critics began hitting the Internet over the past few days. On the whole, the reviews are very positive for what could be Joss Whedon’s final film in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, but they aren’t quite as unrelentingly positive as fans may hope. For most, there seems to be a whole lot to praise and a few clear issues to quibble with.
We’ve gone ahead and pulled out little excerpts from some of the more interesting and well-written reviews on the Internet. You can check out the portions we’ve highlighted here and then click on the link to read the critic’s entire review over at his or her actual outlet.
On Its Comic Origins/ Geekiness
#1) From Drew McWeeny’s B+ Review At Hitfix:
"And the action in the film is, honestly, some of the most direct-from-the-comics comic-book action ever captured on film. In the moments where it all comes together, like the sure-to-be-iconic Hulkbuster sequence, this is the very model of what Marvel's been chasing since day one."
Read the full review here.
#2) From Matt Singer’s 8/10 Review At Screen Crush:
"Toward the end of the film, three different characters team up to shoot Ultron, an evil robot hellbent on world domination, with their respective laser beams and in that moment I thought to myself, 'This is the nerdiest thing I have ever seen, and it’s going to make a billion dollars.' That’s cool."
Read the full review here.
#3) From Jordan Hoffman’s Ungraded Review At Popular Mechanics:
"I'm pretty sure this is the first time Iron Man is ever called "Shellhead" in one of the movies. It comes (from Black Widow) during one of the numerous high-energy action scenes that feels, at first, as though it will solve all the film's problems, but of course just leads to the next adventure. During the onslaught of superhero movies we've seen in the past decade, there hasn't been one that quite nails the feeling of sitting and reading a stack of eight comics in one sitting quite like this one."
[[ read ]]
here
[[ read ]] On It Being More Fun Than Great
#4) From William Bibbiani’s 7.5/ 10 Review At Crave Online:
"The Avengers still have a great dynamic, thanks to pitch perfect casting and snappy dialogue from Joss Whedon, whose script gives multiple opportunities to take a load off for minutes at a time and do team-building exercises. But then it’s back off to the races, zipping across the planet on mission after mission, all of which are so big and extravagant and entertaining so you might miss the fact that most of them don’t matter much."
Read the full review
here.
#5) From Matt Patches’ 3.7/5 Review At Esquire:
"Avengers: Age of Ultron is popcorn movie Soylent. In his superhero sequel, Joss Whedon takes the Avengers conceit—a sprawling ensemble of famous people fighting bad guys for two-and-a-half hours—and doubles down on action, sarcasm, and reference-heavy plot. Fan translation: Age of Ultron compacts an entire "Phase" of the Marvel Cinematic Universe into a single picture."
You can read the rest of the review here.
[[ read ]] On The Larger Marvel Universe
[[ read ]] #6) From Sean O’Connell’s 4/5 Review At CinemaBlend:
"Whedon understands what makes these dysfunctional heroes tick, and there’s an immeasurable delight that comes with seeing them in action, together, on the big screen. In the film’s closing moments, it’s evident that the Marvel Cinematic Universe is ever changing and perpetually growing. And so long as the movies maintain this level of quality, it’s a universe we’ll continue to enjoy revisiting time and time again."
Read the full review here.
#7 From Richard Lawson’s Ungraded Vanity Fair Review:
"We’re now reaching the end of Marvel’s Phase 2, meaning we’ve had 10 movies’ worth of build-up to the long-promised grand, space-traversing climax, and we’re still not there. We’re not even close! So what these stones have come to represent, the Marvel universe’s perpetually delayed epic convergence, is starting to get a little tiresome. Age of Ultron is snappy and exciting and well built, but the world it bangs around in has become awfully swollen and cumbersome."
Read the full review here.
#8) From Jenna Busch’s 7/10 Review For Legion Of Leia:
"The fact that Marvel announced its entire slate a few months back takes a lot of the impact away. If we didn’t know about a Black Panther film, the mention of Wakanda would have been mind-blowing. Instead, it fell flat. If you’re going to put it in as more than an "oh my gosh" moment, you have to do more than shove a fight scene in. We know who’s going to live and die in the MCU, considering the films on the way. We also know that Ultron isn’t ultimately going to be a threat for more than 2.5 hours. Not that you’d expect something the villain to win, but it’s a foregone conclusion that he isn’t even partially the big bad in the new films."
Read the full review here.
[[ read ]] On Comparisons To The First Movie
[[ read ]] #9) From Germaine Lussier’s Ungraded Review At SlashFilm:
"When compared to the first film, Age of Ultron is more even, constantly exciting and surprising. There are huge laughs, there’s drama, some real character development, and some absolutely crazy action. That consistency almost makes up for the fact the film lacks the "Wow" moments of the first movie and that brand new feeling we got the first time."
Read the full review here.
#10) From Helen O’Hara’s 4/5 Review At Empire Online:
"A few years back, making Avengers Assemble work looked daunting: bring together four franchise leads and two supporting characters, plus bad guy, and make it watchable for those without a PhD in Comic Book Backstories. Joss Whedon’s mistake was to make the job look so easy, and his reward was an exponentially harder task. Age Of Ultron makes its triumphant, giddily enjoyable predecessor look like a secondary school production of Our Town. The cast has swollen to enormous proportions (the roll call of Avengers and allies is now 18, counting cameos) and the action has gone truly global."
Read the full review here.
