Rapid Fire Review: Age of Ultron

After a second viewing, AoU has solidified itself as my favourite Superhero movie just edging out TWS. I'll admit I didn't know what to think of it after my first viewing, but now I love every single bit of it. I'll break down what I liked.

• The first scene of the film is one of the greatest scenes in any Comic book movie, period. I was grinning like an idiot through the whole thing. All the action scenes in general were all spectacular and look like they're straight out of a comicbook. 

• Ultron was simply fantastic. If your a stickler for the classics and hate any attempt to alter s character you won't like Ultron. The fact that he didn't immediately think that humanity needed to be exterminated was refreshing and seeing his progression from trying to protect the world to trying to destroy it was great. It reminded me of Heath Ledger's Joker which portrayed the Joker as more than a psychotic killer, but an agent of chaos. A different take but still rings true to he characters for values. I also liked that he actually had emotions and wasn't a monotone piece of metal that hated humanity. He was equal parts menacing, sympathetic and funny sort of like Kingpin but more homocidal robot. 

• Hawkeye has the best lines in the film. "You better run", "The city is flying", "No one would even know." 

• There was a surprising amount of themes and symbolism. The Son of the Father, evolution, Vision being a pseudo Jesus, the Gods and Monsters motif. Tyeres a lot to deconstruct and is pretty profound. 

• Vision, Hawkeye and Quicksilver were the break out characters for me. I actually think Vision might be the most interesting character in the MCU.

• I like how it managed to further the plot of the MCU while having its own story. 

• I don't think any character was sidelined in the film when it came to development. Ironman's God Complex is developed as well his and Cap's friendship/rivalry. Hulk and Widow by far get the most character development and their romance feels natural as they play off the idea of them both being made into monsters. Thor takes it upon himself to hunt for Thanos. The Twins hatred of Stark and The Avengers is justified. A lot of people think it's weird they joined the Avengers but this quote explains everything. "Why would you want to save the Galaxy? Cause I'm one of the idiots living in it!" Do I even need to say anything about Hawkeye? 

• Only complaints I have is that it should have been longer because I still want more but it seems we'll be getting that in the extended cut. And I wish Quicksilver didn't die. I swear I read somewhere Alan Taylor Johnson has more movies on his contract? Can someone confirm?

• I love the new Avengers line up as well as Falcon and SW new costumes. Also I noticed that every new member can fly which sucks for Cap and Widow. 

Basically everything was ramped up to 11. Bigger set pieces, more action scenes, a darker more tense atmosphere, more character development and a more nuanced, layered villain. 9.5/10

• One more thing. Now that Thanos is resorting to doing things himself start saying bye bye to your favourite cosmic characters as well as Vision, because him having the Mind Stone on his head is basically a death sentence.