Avengers: Age of Ultron

Theatrical Release Date: 2015 05 01 (USA)

UPC: 786936846690

Studio: Walt Disney

Summary: This sequel to the smash-hit comic-book epic The Avengers finds the iconic superhero team dealing with a threat of their own making: a sentient robot called Ultron (voice of James Spader), who was originally designed as part of a peacekeeping program. Since the events of the last film, Captain America (Chris Evans), Iron Man (Robert Downey Jr.), the Hulk (Mark Ruffalo), Thor (Chris Hemsworth), Hawkeye (Jeremy Renner), and Black Widow (Scarlett Johansson) have been working to take down various cells of a secret society of villains known as HYDRA. Their zeal to make the world a better, safer place inspires Tony Stark, genius billionaire and alter ego of Iron Man, to create Ultron in order to respond to additional threats that the Avengers aren't able to handle. Ultron, unfortunately, takes this directive way too seriously -- he believes that world peace can only be achieved by exterminating humanity, and he'll stop at nothing to accomplish this goal. The battle between the Avengers and Ultron is further complicated by the appearance of superpowered siblings Quicksilver (Aaron Taylor-Johnson) and Scarlet Witch (Elizabeth Olsen), who ally themselves with the homicidal android. Samuel L. Jackson and Cobie Smulders co-star as, respectively, S.H.I.E.L.D. operatives Nick Fury and Maria Hill. Joss Whedon, writer and director of the previous Avengers movie, returns in both capacities here. ~ Jack Rodgers, Rovi

Category: Action

Avengers: Age of Ultron

Format: DVD

Item not yet released. Pre-order this item now. Expected to ship on 10/02/2015

Violet LeVoit

"Hit the ground running" is a wildly inadequate way to describe the superheroic mayhem that assaults the audience within the first few frames of The Avengers: Age of Ultron: There are zinging bullets, crashing vehicles, blinding snow, flying bodies, heaving muscles, fiery explosions, and swirls of technology surrounding Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr.) inside the Iron Man suit. It's an entire Sistine Chapel ceiling's worth of activity, and when Stark utters an appropriate -- and unprintable -- summation of the chaos, Captain America (Chris Evans) responds with a comedic dart of a rejoinder that's just the right size to puncture the tension.

That skillful blend of thrills and repartee continues in perfect balance for the remaining two-plus hours, as Captain America, Iron Man, Hawkeye (Jeremy Renner), Black Widow (Scarlett Johansson), the Hulk (Mark Ruffalo), and Thor (Chris Hemsworth) must deal with the blowback that ensues when Tony Stark follows through on a modest proposal. Stark argues that his robot drones, combined with his super-intelligent computer program Jarvis (voiced by Paul Bettany), can handle the job of saving the world. So why not kick back and enjoy being ordinary people for once? It's a good plan, until one of the drones is invaded by the artificial intelligence known as Ultron (voiced magnificently by James Spader in the same creepy, dulcet purr he used to convince women to spill their secrets in sex, lies, and videotape). He's programmed to prevent humanity from stirring up trouble, and since we can't seem to stop doing this, his response is to exterminate mankind.

Most movie adaptations of superhero stories are about finding an angle to give the project legitimacy: make it grittier and darker (Christopher Nolan's Batman films), make it lighter and campier (Guardians of the Galaxy), strip out the extraordinariness (Hancock), ramp up the brutality (Kick-Ass), or simply expose the seams in the genre (Birdman). To do otherwise, to approach the source material as holy writ, leaves room for Watchmen-sized debacles.

Writer/director Joss Whedon, on the other hand, understands the essential nature of superhero comics so clearly that he can handle it straight, no chaser. As a screenwriter, his instinct for "enter late, leave early" keeps the scenes moving along at a lively but not breakneck pace, and he knows how to give the audience the catastrophic battles they crave while still pulling back for softer, more human moments before explosion fatigue sets in. But most importantly, he knows how to speak directly to the preteen self that yearns, via superheroes, for a simpler vision of what adulthood must be like: limitless power and privilege, chaste love, and a desire to do good in a world that hasn't yet been shaded with adult ambiguity and moral frailty. The Avengers: Age of Ultron is everything a popcorn movie should be, with a little Renaissance grandeur on the side. ~ Violet LeVoit, Rovi

Cast and Crew: Jon Favreau  Executive Producer 
Danny Elfman  Composer (Music Score) 
Stan Lee  Executive Producer 
Patricia Whitcher  Executive Producer 
Joss Whedon  Director 
Joss Whedon  Screenwriter 
Louis D'Esposito  Executive Producer 
Brian Tyler  Composer (Music Score) 
Kevin Feige  Producer 
Victoria Alonso  Executive Producer 
Alan Fine  Executive Producer 
Greg Talmage  Executive Producer 
Jeremy Latcham  Executive Producer 
Sean Cushing  Executive Producer 
Robert Downey, Jr.  Actor 
Chris Evans  Actor 
Mark Ruffalo  Actor 
Chris Hemsworth  Actor 
Scarlett Johansson  Actor 
Jeremy Renner  Actor 
Samuel L. Jackson  Actor 
James Spader  Actor 
Elizabeth Olsen  Actor 
Aaron Taylor-Johnson  Actor 
Thomas Kretschmann  Actor 
Paul Bettany  Actor 
Don Cheadle  Actor 
Cobie Smulders  Actor 
Stellan Skarsgård  Actor 
Anthony Mackie  Actor 
Hayley Atwell  Actor 
Idris Elba  Actor 
Claudia Kim  Actor 
Andy Serkis  Actor 
Julie Delpy  Actor 
Henry Goodman  Actor 
Chris Luca  Actor 
Brian Schaeffer  Actor 
Dominique Provost-Chalkley  Actor 
Isaac Andrews  Actor 
Gareth Kieran Jones  Actor 
Chan Woo Lim  Actor 
Minhee Yeo  Actor 
Bentley Kalu  Actor 
Julian Bleach  Actor 
Chris Beasley  Actor 
Vuyo Dabula  Actor 
Nondumiso Tembe  Actor 
Kabelo Thai  Actor 
Lele Ledwaba  Actor 
Mandla Gaduka  Actor 
Harriet Manamela  Actor 
Antony Acheampong  Actor 
Chioma Anyanwu  Actor 
Ingvild Deila  Actor 
Sunny Yeo  Actor 
Namju Go  Actor 
Mina Kwon  Actor 
Earl Kim  Actor 
Verity Hewlett  Actor 
Michael Matovski  Actor 
Alma Noce  Actor 
Riccardo Richetta  Actor 
Constanza Ruff  Actor 
Monty McLaren-Clark  Actor 
Julia Krynke  Actor 
Tony Christian  Actor 
Ian Kay  Actor 
Barry Aird  Actor 

Country: USA