The highly anticipated sequel Avengers: Age of Ultron premiered May 1. As a film alone, and a sequel the film cer- tainly delivers. The plot revolves around the Marvel superhero team the Avengers fighting against the powerful and tacti- cal technological enemy Ultron, while at the same time exploring the mys- tery of a pair of super-powered twins.

In the film, the Avengers, which consist of the leader and patriot Captain America, the genius inventor Iron Man, the raging Hulk, the God of Thunder Thor, the for- mer assassin Black Widow and marksman Hawkeye, have been battling enemies for nearly a year now. Having been suffering from post traumatic stress disorder and fed up with all the chaos the team will likely have to face in the future, Tony Stark, aka Iron Man decides to create the pow- erful artificial intelligence Ultron. Ultron is designed to be able to globally handle any crime going on due to being synced throughout every technological system in the world, such as the Internet. However, due to his intelligence and design, Ultron becomes easily self-sufficient and comes up with the idea that the only way to save the world is to destroy humanity. Ultron begins to design thousands of clones of him and begins to terrorize the Avengers. At the same time he aligns himself with two super powered twins Wanda and Piet- ro Maximoff, who have their own vendetta against the Avengers. Wanda possesses psychic powers and the ability of telekinesis and Pietro has the power of super speed.

Aligned with the twins, Ultron uses their abilities to tear the Avengers apart “from the inside.” The Avengers are forced to deal with their inner demons and with each oth- er. Tony in particular deals with the fact that he created this powerful new enemy. At the same time, Ultron works to create a body he can permanently use, which eventually turns into the powerful hero The Vision.

Overall, the film is good and will satis- fy average moviegoers. The action is very pleasing, and the effects are certainly realistic. The way that director and writer Joss Whedon handles the film’s protagonists is very impressive and the development of the twins Wanda and Pietro is good as well. However, character development is still a flaw with its artificial antagonist Ultron. Not long after he is introduced, Ultron im- mediately begins his goal to annihilate the Avengers. The film does not bother to even develop him over time, or show him slowly realize his belief that humanity’s destruction is the only way it can be saved.

Even after his attack, one would think director and writer Joss Whedon would re- veal his motives, but even when he tries to do so, Ultron’s point does not really come across. Instead he spouts contradicting po- etic and philosophical lines that can confuse fans like myself. However, ordinary mov- iegoers probably would not be as confused as they simply see he’s a robot that wants to destroy the world. But as a fan of the comics, I was hoping they would develop this more and flesh out how this artificial intelligence would work in the real world or on screen. There is also the fact that he often comes off as silly with his constant puns. This is no surprise as this is a constant theme in Joss Whedon’s work, in which a supposedly serious villain is a comical joker. This can easily be observed in Whedon’s cult television show Buffy The Vampire Slayer. With all the news that was coming out before the film, particularly how Whedon stated this film would be serious as well as how serious all the trailers were, it was disappointing to see the most dangerous Marvel cinematic villain yet become this cliché wise cracking villain.

The development of Ultron’s motives and the not-so-dark tone I was expect- ing are the film’s two biggest flaws.

There is also the issue of missed opportunity and continuity. For one thing, it’s stated in several summaries that Ultron is created as a result of what happened in the Captain America sequel, in which the organization SHIELD is destroyed due to being corrupt. However, other than the open- ing scene in which HYDRA members are fought, there’s no mention of how Ultron is created so the world can continue to be