Like The Avengers, it was also directed by Joss Whedon(best known for creating Rex from Toy Story, and also creating the TV shows Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Firefly.) Age of Ultron is the eleventh MCU movie, and so we really don't need to go into background detail or anything. In that way, it's kinda similar to Serenity, the movie-sequel to Firefly: You don't necessarily have to know the characters already to enjoy the movie, but it doesn't hurt.
The season two Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. episode immediately before the events of the film reveal that Coulson's team was responsible for tracking down the coordinates of the HYDRA base we're visiting right off the bat. Except for Hill, none of the characters know that, so dramatic irony because #ItsAllConnected.) We open in a fortress somewhere in Eastern Europe near a place called Sokovia. One of the new HYDRA heads is Baron von Strucker, and he and Dr. List have been conducting human-experimentation research with Loki's scepter. So the Avengers have been called in by Maria Hill(Cobie Smoulders) to recapture the scepter. There's a ton of great banter all throughout; mostly at Steve Rogers/Captain America's(Chris Evans) aversion to Tony Stark/Iron Man's(Robert Downey Jr.) swearing.
Example, Stark crashes into the fortress: "Guys, let's talk about this..." Many HYDRA soldiers point their weapons at him. He then tases all of them. "Good talk." One of the HYDRA soldiers: "No it wasn't..." Or Thor trying to comfort Banner post-fight: "The gates of hell are filled with the screams of the victims!" He pauses on seeing Banner's horrified expression. "Not the screams of the dead, of course...No, no, wounded screams. Mainly whimpering and much complaining, tales of strained deltoids and.. gout." "Ya know, sometimes exactly what I wanted to hear isn't exactly what I want to hear."
Natasha Romanoff/Black Widow(Scarlett Johannson) has to calm the Hulk(Mark Ruffalo) back into Dr. Bruce Banner after the fight. Basically, they recapture the scepter, but Clint Barton/Hawkeye(Jeremy Renner) gets injured. Strucker probably escapes or something, being HYDRA and slimy like that. And it's particularly funny that he tells everyone not to surrender during the attack, then whispers to List, "I am going to surrender." There are new players in the mix, though; twins Pietro and Wanda Maximoff(Aaron Taylor-Johnson and Elizabeth Olsen), aka Quicksilver and the Scarlet Witch. (We first saw them in the Winter Soldier end-credits scene; he's capable of incredible-quick movements, she is telekinetic and can get inside people's minds.)
Once back in NYC at the renamed Avengers Tower, Hawkeye gets patched up by a brilliant surgeon named Dr. Helen Cho and Hill explains who the twins were. They volunteered for Strucker's experiments; they were orphaned when their apartment building was blown up when they were ten by a rogue Stark missile. (They were hoping to get revenge on Tony.)
Good quotes from this sequence; Hill ends a long scientific explanation with "...He's fast. She's weird." When Cap asks why the city of Sokovia was bombed, Hill answers, "It's nowhere special. But it's on the way to everywhere special." And when she wonders why they would volunteer for experimentation, Cap dryly says, "Who'd be crazy enough to let a German scientist experiment on them in order to protect their country?" "We're not at war." "They are."
Stark and Banner go behind the rest of the team's backs in using the scepter to create a "suit of armor" around the world, called Ultron. There's this victory party where Tony and Thor brag on Pepper and Jane, ending with Thor's "But Jane's better," everyone tries to lift Mjolnir(Steve almost lifts it, to Thor's alarm), and Natasha flirts with Banner. Steve watches their conversation, saying they seemed great together. "And as the world's leading authority on waiting too long: Don't." The artificial intelligence program Ultron(James Spader) kills JARVIS(Paul Bettany) and uploads itself into one of Tony's drone suits, causing massive havoc and stealing the scepter(again). From there, Ultron heads back to Sokovia to Strucker's base in order to murder Strucker, build an army and upgrade himself. He/it seeks the twins as allies in taking down the Avengers and bringing "peace in our time". They go to Africa to meet with an arms dealer named Ulysses Klaue to buy vibranium. Having figured out that's likely what Ultron's plan was, the Avengers show up to try to stop them. It doesn't work out so well. Ultron escapes with the vibranium and Klaue loses an arm.
The Scarlet Witch causes everyone to hallucinate; but dreams are very difficult to describe in real life, much less in film-fiction. So I'll just say that they're all bad; basically everybody dies violently. Cap finally gets that dance with Peggy, and Natasha has a flashback to the Red Room where she was trained. (If you've seen the first season of Agent Carter, you understand even more how bad a place that was. #ItsAllConnected.) Hulk smashes Johannesburg to smithereens, so Iron Man has to stop him; more destruction of property ensues.
(After one punch left the Hulk spitting out teeth, Tony says, "I'm sorry." It's hilarious.) Anyway, Hawkeye tases the Witch while commenting, "Already tried the whole mind-control thing. Not a fan." Quicksilver then rescues her and they escape. Another good Ultron quote from earlier: "Everyone creates the thing they most dread. Men of peace create engines of war; invaders create avengers; people create...smaller people? Uh...children!" And after slicing off Klaue's arm: "Oh, I'm sorry. I think that'll be fine."
With the whole world's media having a field day with the Iron Man-Hulk fight, it's time for Earth's Mightiest Heroes to hide out for a bit. So Hawkeye takes them to his secret hideout farmhouse where he...lives, I guess, when he's not saving the world. Anyway, there we meet his wife Laura(!) and his kids(!!)
(Tony, on the sight: "She must be an agent." On seeing the kids: "They must be...mini agents.")
Anyway, Thor leaves to find Dr. Selvig for help figuring out what his vision meant, and everybody else argues a lot; for such a peaceful farmhouse, it can hold a lot of tension. Steve and Tony have a heated confrontation while chopping wood, and Banner and Natasha have several tense conversations inside the house while deciding to run off together. Tony also fixes a broken tractor and gets lectured at by Nick Fury(Samuel L. Jackson).
Meanwhile, Ultron goes to South Korea to hypnotize Dr. Cho with Loki's scepter, in order for her to create synthetic flesh with Klaue's vibranium. ("The most versatile substance in the world...and the humans used it to make a Frisbee.") Wanda realizes that Ultron is planning to destroy all humanity, and they reject that idea, turning their backs on the insane devious murder bot.
Back in some-hidden-upstate-New-York-location at the farmhouse, the team decides to try going after Ultron again. Tony: "....how do we cope with something like that?" Steve: "Together." "We'll lose." "Well, then we do that together, too." Tony goes to Oslo to the NEXUS Internet hub to recover JARVIS, everybody else heads for Seoul, where there's a citywide chase and lots of mayhem. Wanda and Pietro help Cap save a ton of innocent people by stopping a train, and the casket containing the synthflesh being Ultron was trying to upload his consciousness into winds up inside the Avengers' Quinjet, but Natasha is captured by Ultron and taken to the city of Sokovia.
Back in NYC, there's a lot of confusion, but somehow or other JARVIS is uploaded into the synthetic body in the casket, where it comes to life with the Infinity Stone inside the scepter and some lightning help from Thor...it's kinda like Frankenstein. Everyone is rather stunned, and very frightened. "Who are you? Are you JARVIS?" "I am not JARVIS. I am not Ultron. I am..." The man-machine frowns, uncertain as to what to describe himself as. "Are...you on our side?" The being frowns again. "I am not sure is that simple. I am on the side of life. Ultron isn't." He then effortlessly picks up Mjolnir and hands it to Thor. Everyone is speechless for about ten seconds. "All right, then..." Hawkeye mumbles. "If he can wield the hammer, he can keep the Stone." Thor proclaims. Cap then gives orders to head out to stop Ultron and save Widow. The twins come along, too.
Because his thing is global extinction for humans, Ultron has created a machine of some sort of lift most of the city of Sokovia into the air, intending to use it as a meteor to wipe out humanity. (I have now realized that nothing about this movie makes sense unless you know the setting and previous events.) Banner rescues Widow, but as they're running away together she shoves him over a cliff to bring the Hulk, realizing that defeating the Ultron army is of more importance. "I adore you...but I need The Other Guy." Tony questions whether it would justified to vaporize the city - with them on it - as opposed to causing the certain death of billions if the meteorite-city drops. Just as they're about to decide that's the slightly-better of two really bad options, Fury pulls up in a Helicarrier(that Coulson built). They all get the Sokovian citizens into rescue boats(that look similar to the inside of those Chitauri whale-creatures). Hawkeye finds himself guarding the Scarlet Witch. Clint delivers possibly the best motivational speech of the MCU outside of Coulson, Fury or Rogers:
"This city is flying. We're fighting an army of robots. And I have a bow and arrow. None of this makes sense! Look, I don't have time to babysit. If you go out there, you fight to kill. If you can't do that, I'll get you brother to take care of you. But if you step out that door, then you're an Avenger."
As Cap says, from then on, "She's with us." There's an enormous battle with all Avengers assembled against of all Ultron in the church; the Avengers seem to be winning, most of the citizens are safe. Hawkeye spots one last little boy who needs to be saved, and he goes in one last time after him. Ultron has gotten control of a plane by now; and shoots at Hawkeye. Quicksilver jumps in front of him and takes the bullets, dying slowly from that point on. Wanda abandons her post in the church to rip Ultron's heart out; the city starts dropping after a secondary Ultron body turns the doomsday key. Ultron manages to get back into the plane until the Hulk throws him out, he sails along into some woodsy place and the Hulk flies off sadly into the sunset, leaving Natasha alone. The Vision has to find Ultron from wherever he landed. After they talk for a bit, Vision says, "Humans are odd. They think order and chaos are somehow opposites, and they try to control what won't be. But there is grace in their failings. I think you've missed that." "They are doomed!" "Yes...but a thing isn't beautiful because it lasts. It is a privilege to be among them." "You are unbelievably naive." Vision smiles. "Well, I was born yesterday." He then vaporizes Ultron with his laser eyes.
Anyway, the world's been saved again; Barton goes back to his farm and family to refinish floors, Stark goes...somewhere, Thor travels back to Asgard, and there's been this new base set up someplace in upstate New York to do...unknown stuff at. It's likely S.H.I.E.L.D.-related, since Fury and Hill are there, and there's Quinjets. Steve and Natasha talk about a new group that "aren't a team...yet, but can be whipped into one." They enter a hangar-type room and we see the New Avengers: Led by Steve Rogers/Captain America and Natasha Romanoff/Black Widow, with James Rhodes/War Machine, Sam Wilson/Falcon, Wanda Maximoff/Scarlet Witch and the Vision. The end.
This movie was enormous. It had a gigantic cast. And there was paradoxically much too much story and far too little. If this review is complicated...it's that kind of movie. Up next in July is Ant-Man, starring
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