Avengers: Age Of Ultron Blu-ray Review

Director: Joss Whedon

Starring: Robert Downey Jr, Scarlett Johansson, Chris Hemsworth, Chris Evans, Jeremy Renner, Mark Ruffalo, James Spader, Elizabeth Olsen, Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Samuel L. Jackson

Certificate: 12

Special Features: Never-before-seen deleted scenes / Making-of featurettes / Gag reel / Audio commentary

How do you follow one of the biggest films of all time? This is definitely one of the biggest questions director Joss Whedon had to face following the worldwide success of The Avengers. Whedon replied by making a film that is bigger in every scale, but is Avengers: Age Of Ultron better than The Avengers?

Age Of Ultron follows Earth’s Mightiest Heroes reteaming to battle villainous AI Ultron, which is created by Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr.). Ultron recruits the help of enhanced twins Quicksilver (Aaron Taylor-Johnson) and Scarlet Witch (Elizabeth Olsen) who help Ultron to tear the Avengers apart, from the inside. The theme of being a monster is very relevant throughout the film, with members of the team believing they are monsters. Scarlet Witch forces each member of the team to deal with the darkest fears, which not only shakes the team to its core, but also gives much needed back-story to many characters. Learning Black Widow’s back-story about The Red Room is fascinating to watch and makes you cry out for a solo Black Widow film. Age Of Ultron focuses on the darker issues that bubbling under the surface, putting the team under pressure they have never dealt with before. Unlike the first film, this entry into the MCU (Marvel Cinematic Universe) gives everyone a chance to shine, to show more of their characters, take a deeper look into the characters’ mental states and sets up future entries in the MCU.

Age Of Ultron boasts some of the best action scenes of the entire MCU. The opening sequence is a fantastic way of introducing the film, the Hulk/Hulkbuster fight lived up to the hype and the Seoul sequence was a great action piece set in a part of the world we don’t see too often. The fact that there isn’t a single action sequence in film set in America helps to make The Avengers a more global brand. Age Of Ultron also boasts the continuing great performances from its cast. Downey Jr. shines as always as Iron Man, showing why he is the center of the MCU, Chris Evans does a wonderful job of showing how he could take over the mantle of Marvel’s poster boy as Captain America and Mark Ruffalo continues to show why he is the best version of The Hulk we’ve seen in recent years. Hawkeye is given more to do in Age Of Ultron and Jeremy Renner takes full advantage of this by showing more charisma and more character to Clint Barton. For the first time, Thor is truly showcased of what sort of character he is. Whedon understands the character better than any of the past directors and Chris Hemsworth shows that he is more than just a six-pack and long blond hair. Scarlett Johansson continues to prove her naysayers wrong with another great performance as Black Widow and we see a range of emotions from the character that we’ve never seen before, making the character more relatable to audiences. The new additions to the cast, Aaron Taylor-Johnson and Elizabeth Olsen stand on their own and can go toe to toe with the original cast, not being intimidated. Out of the two, Olsen does the best job, Scarlet Witch is another strong female character and Olsen puts in possibly the best performance of the film. Paul Bettany finally steps out from the recording booth and onto set as The Vision. Bettany is wonderful in this role playing someone very naïve but probably the smartest and most dangerous member of the MCU to date. It’s going to be fascinating to see where Marvel takes this character. Finally there’s James Spader who plays the villainous Ultron. Spader captures the character of Ultron flawlessly, creating one of Marvel’s best villains ever. He mixes the evil that runs through his circuit boards with the humour that he obviously picks up from Stark in perfect unison.

Anyone who has ever picked up a Marvel Blu-ray will know how underwhelming the extras can be but Marvel does seem to be improving on them. For Age of Ultron, we are given a fantastic ‘Making Of’ featurette called From The Inside Out. It may only be 15 minutes long but it charts every aspect of filming and gives an inside look into the production of the film. You also find out certain things about the film that we always wondered about, for example James Spader was actually on set to portray Ultron using a motion capture suit so that he connect with the actors and also give them a frame of reference too. You can also spot how heavily pregnant Scarlett Johansson was during the making of the film (my guess is about five months) and how they shot around it. The Blu Ray also showcases what is set to be the most important part of the MCU, The Infinity Stones. In the featurette, The Infinite Six, they give a guide into what the Infinity Stones are, how many there are, what stones have shown up already, what’s still to come, more about Thanos and where the whole MCU is leading up. This is great informative featurette for audiences who aren’t aware of the comics and need that help for where the MCU is going. The last featurette shows off the global adventure that the cast and crew went on for Age Of Ultron. It shows the filmmakers actually going to real places to film the big action scenes like Johannesburg in South Africa, Seoul in South Korea and using both Italy and London to shoot the scenes on Sokovia (fun fact: part of the final battle was shot on an abandoned council estate in Hendon).

We always knew there was an extended cut of the film made that Joss Whedon wanted to put out. Sadly that isn’t on the Blu-ray, but you do see scenes that were cut from the film. These scenes do a great job of filling in some of minor plot holes audiences had with the film, including how did the twins know to go to the church to find Ultron in the beginning and more explanation into the cave that Thor enters. We also get extended versions of scenes including the scene where Hulk and Black Widow have a deep talk at Barton’s home. The full scene gives a deeper meaning to their relationship and would probably have been the best scene in the movie, which makes it disappointing that half of the scene ended up on the cutting room floor. While we sadly don’t get an answer to who that woman disrobing we saw in the cave back in the second trailer was, we do get the obligatory Gag Reel, which is another fine effort showing off Johansson struggles behind the bar, Erik Selvig flirting with students and Thor and The Vision getting very close together.

So is Avengers: Age Of Ultron better than The Avengers? No, but it is one of Marvel’s strongest entries into the MCU. The action sequences are a joy to watch, the character development is a lot juicer as we delve deeper into the characters’ minds, still has great humour for everyone to enjoy and helps set up future films like Thor: Ragnarok and Captain America: Civil War perfectly. The Blu Ray extras are also some of the best Marvel has ever done but you do always wish for more. Age Of Ultron is an enjoyable yet darker foray into the Marvel Cinematic Universe and shows why Marvel Studios are still leaders when it comes to the superhero genre.

Avengers: Age of Ultron is available on Blu-ray and DVD on Monday 14 September. You can order it here.