Finally.

“Marvel’s Avengers: Age of Ultron” is the sequel to 2012’s “Marvel’s The Avengers.” The movie takes place a few years after the events of the first film, and the Avengers are doing what they do best: save the world. But when Tony Stark wants to design a program to help keep the world safe, it backfires and manifests into Ultron: an android on a mission to end the Avengers and purge the world of humans. So, naturally, the Avengers have to stop Ultron from enacting his plans of human extinction. And to cut to the chase: “Avengers: Age of Ultron” was good, and it was also great.

First off, major props to all of the returning cast members. It could have been easy to just wing the performances to get an easy paycheck. But these heroes are even better than before. They aren’t multiple solo acts that get brought together in the end. From the get-go, the movie starts with them interacting as a team, feeling like a true continuation of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Most notable of the returning cast is Chris Evans as Captain America, Robert Downey Jr. as Iron Man. With every on-screen appearance, Chris Evans is proving that Captain America is one of the best Marvel superheroes ever: he’s the most compassionate, the most loyal of the team, and a true leader. Regarding Downey Jr. as Tony Stark: Downey proves once again that he is Iron Man. Downey plays his role so well that it’s hard to distinguish whether he is acting or not. It’s so natural to him and seeing him interact with Evans’ Cap is really intriguing, considering their inevitable feud in next year’s “Captain America: Civil War.” Also worth mentioning are the new characters in the movie, particularly Aaron Taylor-Johnson as Quicksilver and Elizabeth Olsen as the Scarlet Witch. The brother-sister dynamic in the movie was extremely well done, making Quicksilver more of the hot-head and making Scarlet Witch more thoughtful. The way Joss utilized the twins were incredible, serving as a testament to Joss’s brilliance as a director of multiple personas and having them mesh together. Also new to the fray is Paul Bettany as the Vision. With an onslaught of new characters, it could have felt completely overstuffed. Fortunately, what they did with the Vision was truly great. He, along with the Witch and Quicksilver, were absolute welcome additions to the already vast “Age of Ultron” cast.
Another great thing, if not the best character in the movie, was James Spader as the titular villain Ultron. One of the biggest weaknesses of the Marvel Cinematic Universe is the villains. Besides Loki, there are almost zero memorable villains in the M.C.U. Enter Ultron, who is everything Loki is and isn’t. He has the same charisma that Loki invoked, but was way more threatening than the God of Mischief. Ultron had all the vernacular of Raymond Reddington and all the fearful demeanor of the T-1000. Certain lines he says in the movie sends chills down your spine and others make you chuckle. Ultron was the quintessential supervillain that the Marvel Cinematic Universe needed in order to compete with DC Comics, and also sets the stage for Phase 3, where Thanos is the supervillain to watch. Ultron was a joy to see, and Whedon’s direction made to be a more than threatening to the Avengers and proved that the stakes are high in this sequel.

Visually, the Marvel Cinematic Universe has not ceased to disappoint. “Age of Ultron” sports some of the most impressive visuals in the M.C.U. The movie has the most visuals in any of the Marvel movies (over 3000 VFX shots total) and they did not waste those visuals. From the great motion-capture for the Avengers and Ultron to a lot of the action sequences, Marvel steps up their game with the visuals to make the new Avengers movie a spectacle to watch. Even for people who aren’t the hugest fans of comic book movies can walk out the movie and say, if nothing else, that the film looked amazing and the action was fun. Speaking of the action, “Avengers: Age of Ultron” has some of the greatest action set pieces of the year so far. The Hulkbuster Iron Man vs. Hulk fight was one of the highlights of the film, blending great action sequences with fantastic and breathtaking cinematography. Again, as action is a huge part as to what makes a comic book movie great, this movie had to step it up. “Age of Ultron” delivered in spades.

As fantastic as this movie is, there is one glaring factor that brings the movie down slightly for me. This is the sequel to the comic book masterpiece “Marvel’s The Avengers.” And the biggest reason as to why that movie was so great was because of the fact that “The Avengers” was the first time we saw these characters on screen together. That was a huge moment in cinematic history. Unfortunately, “Age of Ultron” can’t quite replicate that feeling that I got during its predecessor. And that’s a hurdle that both “Age of Ultron” and the upcoming “Infinity War” will have to overcome.

Despite that issue though, “Avengers: Age of Ultron” proves that comic book films, while many would disagree, are fantastic movies. I love the heroes. It’s great seeing them back to doing what they do best and I welcome the new crew with open arms. It had an amazing villain, great he action and actually goes deeper with the story and characters than what we saw in past Marvel movies. The fact that Joss Whedon took time, effort and love to direct this onslaught of superheroes shows how much he cares about this movie, an ideal written off by many art-house directors. You’d think the Marvel Cinematic Universe would be running on fumes now, but it’s not. It’s still going and, with the help of “Avengers: Age of Ultron”, might have propelled to one of the greatest franchises in movie history.