Audiences are stunned by ‘Age of Ultron’
May 15, 2015
The latest in the Avengers movie series, Age of Ultron, made its debut with astounding success on Friday, May 1. With it, the producers brought in many new and anticipated additions to the story, exceeding public expectations. Here is a list of some of the best additions to the Avengers.
Hulk Buster armor – a.k.a. Veronica
The latest armor featured in the Iron Man arsenal was featured in Age of Ultron was a massive addition. The infamous Hulk Buster armor, amusingly nicknamed Veronica by Tony Stark in the movie, made its debut in the latest addition to the series. Historically, it has almost never survived a battle, being ripped limb from limb by the opponent Tony is facing; however, in the latest installment of the Avengers series, Stark fixes this issue by having the armor deployed by satellite with a floating pod that watched over the battle, giving him replacement parts whenever the Hulk destroyed part of the armor, allowing Tony to win a battle against the Hulk.
In terms of reception by the audience, the effect was stunning. Designed as a modular addition to his regular suit, the Hulk Buster armor is deployed from space and assembled as it encases the regular armor. This is enabled by the Extremis, seen in the movie Iron Man 3. With this armor, Stark went arc-reactor powered iron fist to gamma powered rage fist in a showdown with the Hulk in probably the greatest fight of the movie.
Iron Man: “If I lift it, Do I get to rule Asgard?”
Thor: “Yes, of course.”
Iron Man: “I will be fair, but firmly cruel.”
The Vision
Another feature of the movie was the introduction of The Vision, a humanoid robot that is inhabited by J.A.R.V.I.S., Tony Stark’s electronic butler. While it was originally created by Ultron to be the final stage of his evolution to make himself a completely synthetic human, it was converted to good when Tony put J.A.R.V.I.S. in instead. In the comics, this android played a minor role, but in this incarnation of him, he was put to stunning use; with the mindstone infinity gem in his forehead, he could release unstoppable blasts of energy, as well as his classic power of intangibility.
As far as his reception by the audience goes, it was a little off. I would have liked him to have played a bigger role, because he was essentially the anti-ultron, creating a foil pair similar to the Batman and Joker foil. However, all we got from him was a few shots of him fighting, a couple lines of dialogue, and the finishing blow to Ultron. However, with the infinity gem in his forehead, he will likely play a much larger role in the future.
Ultron: “You’re unbearably naive.”
Vision: “Well, I was born yesterday.”
Quicksilver and Scarlet Witch
Quicksilver, or Pietro Django Maximoff, is a mutant with his twin sister Scarlet Witch, or Wanda Maximoff. Together, these two were some of the most anticipated characters in the movie. Quicksilver possesses the ability to move at supersonic speeds, and Scarlet Witch is essentially a telekinetic with some telepathic abilities. As new characters in the series, they were fantastic, but they did have some serious drawbacks.
Marvel, in making this movie, focused more on their status as Marvel Knights (the name given to all Marvel anti-heroes) than the fact that they are actually mutants. It claimed that they were experiments by a mad scientist, and that that is where they got their powers, instead of associating them with the Mutant Brotherhood. Finally, their biggest flaw was in their costumes. Costumes are a large part of what makes superheroes so enjoyable, and so when they replace Quicksilver’s green and silver suit with a grey, black, and blue Under Armour shirt, it is incredibly disappointing. The Scarlet Witch’s costume, admittedly, did need to be made appropriate for the big screen, but making it essentially just a red leather jacket was really lame. Otherwise, I found them to be a great success, and they played a great and entertaining role.
Ultron
The main antagonist of the whole movie was FANTASTIC. For the first time ever, I did not have anything bad to say about Ultron. The acting, inflections and tone of the diabolical robot came off perfectly, playing the role of the bad guy that is doing what he believes is right, trying to fix the world in the way he believes it must, but not doing it the right way.
In the movie, he was built by Stark as a way to create a world where the Avengers are no longer needed, but he believes that the only world where the Avengers are not needed is a world with no life, specifically humans. This, obviously, does not go over very well.
In playing his role with absolute conviction, James Spader made the genocidal robot come to life in a brilliant display of genius and power gone horribly wrong. With numerous memorable quotes and fantastic wit, Ultron is not a character that will be forgotten anytime soon.
“I can’t actually throw up in my mouth, but if I could I would do it”
-Ultron, Age of Ultron
If you do not agree with these views, feel free to offer your own! Just watch your language!
