SPOILER ALERT – The film starts off with immediate action, following the Avengers as they attack a Hydra (a behind-the-scenes organization that controlled SHIELD until it’s demise) base in the fictional city of Sokovia that turns out to have Loki’s scepter from the first movie in it, protected by Baron von Strucker and his small army of Hydra agents. The Avengers invade the base and obtain the scepter, although they encounter Pietro (Aaron Taylor-Johnson) and Wanda (Elizabeth Olsen) Maximoff, two superhumans who were under von Strucker’s supervision, who are called Quicksilver and Scarlet Witch, respectively.

The way that director Joss Whedon handled the introduction of the twins very well, except for the fact that because of character movie rights, he was unable to call them mutants (the term used for humans who have a specific genetic trait called an X-gene that allows them to have superpowers) in the film. Instead, he went for a “German science experiment” origin story, similar to the origin of Captain America.

When the Avengers return to the Avengers tower, Stark and Banner (Mark Ruffalo), known to many as the Hulk, try to create an artificial intelligence to help them save the world, but end up creating an evil robot named Ultron (voiced by James Spader) who wants to exterminate the human race. After practically killing JARVIS (voiced by Paul Bettany), Ultron attacks the Avengers and then escapes through the internet.

Ultron takes over Loki’s role from the first Avengers as the primary villain. He brings a much more dynamic personality, going from Loki’s “I just want to rule the world” mindset to a robot who thinks he’s doing the right thing, as he was programmed to make the world safe. Ultron thinks that the only way to have a completely safe world is to eliminate the humans and reset everything, using the meteor shower that made the dinosaurs extinct as an example.

Ultron travels to the fictional country of Wakanda (in a new body he made with materials taken from von Strucker after Ultron kills him) with the Maximoff twins to obtain vibranium – a fictional metal that makes up Captain America’s shield. After a fight with the Avengers, Wanda uses her hex powers and gets into the minds of Black Widow (Scarlett Johansson), Thor (Chris Hemsworth), Captain America, and even the Hulk, making him rampage through a city, practically destroying it, before being stopped by Iron Man in his Hulkbuster armor.

The fight scenes in this film were definitely a step up from the first Avengers, mainly because of the magnitude of these fights. Ultron fighting his “father” (Iron Man) in Wakanda, Hawkeye fighting the incredibly quick Pietro, and especially the fight between Hulk and Iron Man’s Hulkbuster armor. This time, the fight scenes aren’t solely in New York and they expand to other countries, although two are fictional.

After the heroes regroup at Hawkeye’s safehouse, Thor leaves to recuperate his thoughts after Wanda messing with his mind, and Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson) helps the Avengers create a plan to stop Ultron. Ultron travels to Seoul to create a synthetic half-flesh, half-vibranium body for himself. He also uses the scepter’s gem for the new body to power it. When Ultron begins uploading himself into the body, Wanda is able to read his mind; discovering his plan for human extinction, the Maximoffs turn on Ultron. Captain America, Black Widow, and Hawkeye find Ultron and retrieve the synthetic body, but Ultron captures Black Widow.

The Avengers have a little spat while Stark secretly uploads JARVIS to the body, and when Thor arrives and helps Stark finish the upload, he reveals that the gem on the body’s head is one of six Infinity Stones – the most powerful objects in existence. The body is born and adopts the name Vision, a half-man half-robot that is prepared to help the Avengers with stopping Ultron.

Vision was a great addition to the film, adding not just a new member to the team, but a new type of character, seeing as how Vision wants to destroy Ultron because of his desire to kill all humans, but still respects Ultron as another robot like himself.

The new team then rushes to Sokovia to stop Ultron from destroying the Earth by lifting up the entire city with a machine towards the sky in order to crash it to the ground with a large enough impact to cause global extinction, just like the dinosaurs. Banner rescues Romanoff, and the Avengers start fighting an army of robots created by Ultron, while Nick Fury and other SHIELD agents evacuate citizens.

In the midst of the battle, Quicksilver is shot by Ultron and dies, enraging Scarlet Witch to the point where she destroys Ultron. The Avengers finish off the rest of the robots, with Vision destroying the last one, and the flying city is destroyed by Thor in order to shatter the city into pieces so the impact doesn’t destroy the Earth. After the battle, Hulk leaves in an untraceable jet, fearing that he might hurt more innocent people, thus ending the romance between Black Widow and himself.

The film focuses much more on character development, especially with Hawkeye, Black Widow, and Hulk. Hawkeye’s past is finally revealed with the uncovering of his wife and children. His more sensitive sign is shown, as well as his slight reluctance to return to the Avengers after this last battle.

A very unexpected yet interesting relationship was between Black Widow and the Hulk. There is definitely some sort of love between the two, but Hulk feels that the relationship would not work because of his tendency to lose control of his “other self” and possibly hurt others.

Overall, the movie was definitely better than its prequel, but still not the best of the Marvel Cinematic Universe so far. Rating: 8.9/10