Avengers: Age of Ultron
Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures | Release Date: May 1, 2015 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
66
METASCORE
Generally favorable reviews based on 49 Critic Reviews
Positive:
36
Mixed:
12
Negative:
1
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
88
Chicago Sun-TimesRichard RoeperApr 28, 2015
Avengers: Age of Ultron is a sometimes daffy, occasionally baffling, surprisingly touching and even romantic adventure with one kinetic thrill after another. It earns a place of high ranking in the Marvel Universe. Read full review
88
Rolling StonePeter TraversApr 23, 2015
A whole summer of fireworks packed into one movie. It doesn't just go to 11, it starts there. Read full review
83
Charlotte ObserverLawrence ToppmanApr 29, 2015
Whedon has more on his mind than he did in the last one. The Avengers seem not just contentious toward each other but weary, sick of their brutal responsibilities. Read full review
83
Tampa Bay TimesSteve PersallApr 29, 2015
As usual, psychological anguish is a key element of Marvel heroes. Age of Ultron boasts a cast of actors that "serious" filmmakers would kill for, so the gravitas they're capable of conveying amid such outlandish fantasy is the franchise's stealth advantage. Read full review
83
HitfixDrew McWeenyApr 21, 2015
This is a movie that is almost exhaustingly large-scale, and Ultron's ultimate plan involves a crazy visual idea that Whedon makes sort of beautiful and eerie. It's got so much action that I'm going to bet some audiences go numb after a while. But in scene after scene, there are beats and stunts and poses that suggest that an army of comic book fanatics worked on this movie. Read full review
80
TimeLev GrossmanMay 1, 2015
If anything, Whedon’s writing is almost too sharp. The characters are so finely drawn and verbally quick (they name-check Banksy and Eugene O’Neill) that they seem to belong to a different universe than the cartoonish one they find themselves in. Read full review
80
The DissolveKeith PhippsApr 30, 2015
Whedon’s handling of the personal material is what makes Age Of Ultron extraordinary. Remarkably for a film so overstuffed, no character gets neglected. Read full review
80
New York Daily NewsJoe NeumaierApr 28, 2015
Avengers: Age of Ultron is a kinetic, wicked mix of muscle and magic. Look no further if you want a world of superpowered freaks and geeks. But be aware: It comes at a cost. Vaporized in the parade of action and characters is the wonder and simplicity of its first, superior entry. Read full review
80
CineVueBen NicholsonApr 21, 2015
With Avengers: Age of Ultron, Whedon doesn't merely hit it out of the park, he Hulk-smashes it. Read full review
80
The TelegraphRobbie CollinApr 21, 2015
It’s the interplay between the film’s many different characters, rather than the blow-up-the-world crisis they’re trying to defuse, that keeps you on the edge of your seat. Read full review
80
Total FilmRosie FletcherApr 21, 2015
Part horror, part love story, part morality tale, Age Of Ultron is a smart superhero smackdown that raises the bar once more. Read full review
80
The GuardianPeter BradshawApr 21, 2015
It’s all operatically mad, and the city-destroying final confrontation is becoming a bit familiar, but Whedon carries it off with such joy and even a kind of evangelism. Read full review
80
VarietyScott FoundasApr 21, 2015
The new movie is a sleeker, faster, funnier piece of work — the sort of sequel (like “Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan,” “Superman II” and “Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom” before it) that shrugs off the self-seriousness of its predecessor and fully embraces its inner Saturday-morning serial. Read full review
80
EmpireHelen O'HaraApr 21, 2015
Bigger and, yes, darker than the first, this is less air-punchingly gleeful but probably more consistent. Thanks to Whedon and the most charismatic, compelling cast you’ll find anywhere, Age of Ultron redefines the scale we can expect from our superhero epics but still fits human-sized emotion amid the bombast. Read full review
78
Austin ChronicleWilliam GossApr 29, 2015
It is the product of a machine perfectly evolved for the sole purpose of annihilating boredom, a machine whose primary weakness is the utter indifference of those uninitiated or unimpressed by this point. For the rest of us, it’s a hearty helping of fine. Read full review
75
Portland OregonianMarc MohanApr 30, 2015
As I sat slavishly (and needlessly) through the entire end credit roll, it was hard to muster anything more fervent than "Yeah, it was pretty good." Even a clean, white hate would have somehow been more satisfying. Read full review
75
St. Louis Post-DispatchJoe WilliamsApr 30, 2015
Age of Ultron has self-aware laughs, grandiose themes and the best effects that money can buy. But at this point, it will take true vision to plot the umpteen sequels without getting trapped in a time loop. Read full review
75
Miami HeraldRene RodriguezApr 29, 2015
Whedon knows this is all nonsense, but it can be great fun, too. Age of Ultron is all rush and sensation with little substance. But what a feeling. Read full review
75
RogerEbert.comMatt Zoller SeitzApr 29, 2015
In its lumpy-porridge way, this film makes a better case than any other Marvel picture for the notion that quarter-billion-dollar-budgeted, CGI-festooned slabs of multimedia synergy can be art, too, provided they're made by an artist with a vision, and said artist appears to be in control of at least part of the production. Read full review
75
TheWrapAlonso DuraldeApr 21, 2015
It may well be that we’ll eventually stop looking at these Marvel films as discrete, individual experiences rather than chapters in an epic binge-watch, but even by those standards, Avengers: Age of Ultron feels like a solid but overstuffed episode, one more concerned with being connective tissue than anything else. Read full review
70
Arizona RepublicBill GoodykoontzApr 29, 2015
There is much to like about Avengers: Age of Ultron. There was much to love about "The Avengers," and therein lies the difference. Read full review
70
SalonAndrew O'HehirApr 28, 2015
I enjoyed Age of Ultron more than its predecessor, despite the fact that it’s almost exactly the same thing. This was probably a result of adjusting my expectations: I wasn’t sitting there waiting for Whedon to revolutionize the genre, or to turn an overdetermined comic-book movie into a Noel Coward comedy. He delivers a clean and capable entertainment, with a handful of distinctive flourishes stuck to the margins. Read full review
70
Screen DailyTim GriersonApr 21, 2015
Whedon and his large, capable cast (even larger for this follow-up) deliver enough adventure, laughs and flat-out spectacle to ensure that audiences will feel as if they have gotten their money’s worth, especially when Ultron zeroes in on the quiet humanity beneath the special effects. Read full review
67
Christian Science MonitorPeter RainerApr 30, 2015
The action sequences aren’t especially well designed, and the plot, such as it is, is essentially one catastrophe after another. Read full review
67
The A.V. ClubA.A. Dowd Apr 29, 2015
There’s so much ground to cover here—so many introductions to make, so much story to churn through, so many gargantuan set pieces to mount—that the movie never really finds room to breathe. Read full review
67
Entertainment WeeklyChris NashawatyApr 23, 2015
Still, my real beef with these movies — and this one in particular — is how same-y they’ve started to feel. Each time out, everything is at stake and nothing is at stake. Read full review
67
The PlaylistRodrigo PerezApr 21, 2015
For all its bluster, end-of-doom stakes, gravitas and super-seriousness, what Whedon’s movie does best is communicate its concern for the all the human beings touched by this story: the broken, nearly shattered heroes, their extended families and even the civilians caught in the crosshairs. Read full review
63
Philadelphia InquirerSteven ReaMay 1, 2015
The thing's a behemoth. And as the franchise thunders on, it's also becoming more and more a bore. Read full review
63
Washington PostAnn HornadayApr 30, 2015
As he did in the first “Avengers,” writer-director Joss Whedon avoids the fatal trap of comic-book ­self-seriousness, leavening a baggy, busy, overpopulated story with zippy one-liners, quippy asides and an overarching tone of jaunty good fun. Read full review
63
ReelViewsJames BerardinelliApr 29, 2015
Age of Ultron disappoints not because it's irredeemably bad but because it fails to achieve the level of its predecessor in nearly every facet. Read full review
63
Boston GlobeTy BurrApr 29, 2015
Ultron’s goals never make much sense beyond the basic kill-the-Avengers-and-destroy-the-Earth checklist, nor does he develop as a character over the long haul. He’s just a static baddie, fun to look at and handy with a quip but ultimately as dull as unpolished chrome. Read full review
63
Chicago TribuneMichael PhillipsApr 29, 2015
Entertaining as much of Avengers 2 is, especially when it's just hanging out with the gang in between scuffles (the "Guardians of the Galaxy" lesson, learned), Whedon’s picture meets expectations without exceeding them. Read full review
63
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Liam LaceyApr 29, 2015
Whedon can’t quite work the same miracle twice. Age of Ultron also bears the familiar stretch marks characteristic of middle movies in franchise series. Read full review
63
Movie NationRoger MooreApr 29, 2015
The thrill of the new, the delight in discovering how light on their feet and how trippingly the Whedon one-liners can fall off the tongue, is fading. A bloated blockbuster movie-as-commodity like Age of Ultron doesn’t herald the end of this franchise or genre. But you can see it from here. Read full review
63
Slant MagazineEd GonzalezApr 28, 2015
The film struggles against the rigid formula that typifies the Marvel universe, but only does so up to a point. Read full review
63
USA TodayClaudia PuigApr 23, 2015
Director Joss Whedon knows how to make a wryly funny, action-packed extravaganza, as he proved with 2012's "The Avengers." So why did he overstuff the 2½-hour sequel? Read full review
60
New York Magazine (Vulture)David EdelsteinMay 1, 2015
Though a mess by all conventional narrative standards, Avengers: Age of Ultron is a fascinating case study in the rules of “universe” storytelling. Chief among them is that a film may not be self-contained — it must constantly allude to worlds outside its own. Marvel fans want extra characters, extra subplots, in-jokes that pander to their supposed breadth of knowledge. They don’t want closure. Read full review
60
Wall Street JournalJohn AndersonApr 30, 2015
For those more concerned with what “The Avengers” movies do best — outsize spectacle and wry comedy — Age of Ultron has to be declared a victory.
60
The New York TimesManohla DargisApr 30, 2015
For a Marvel agnostic like me, the single most interesting thing about Age of Ultron is that you can sense that Mr. Whedon, having helped build a universal earnings machine with the first “Avengers,” has now struggled mightily, touchingly, to invest this behemoth with some life. Read full review
60
Los Angeles TimesKenneth TuranApr 30, 2015
The uncomfortable reality remains that although this movie is effective moment to moment, very little of it lingers in the mind afterward. The ideal vehicle for our age of immediate sensation and instant gratification, it disappears without a trace almost as soon as it's consumed. Read full review
60
New Orleans Times-PicayuneMike ScottApr 29, 2015
Age of Ultron -- for all the eye candy and mindless entertainment it has to offer -- stays safely within the franchise's established parameters. Here, there are no real surprises. Read full review
60
SlateDana StevensApr 29, 2015
Age of Ultron, then, shows what happens when an unstoppable force (Joss Whedon’s imagination) meets an immovable object (the Disney/Marvel behemoth). And the result is, indeed, paradoxical: a crashy, overlong, FX-driven blockbuster that’s capable of morphing, Hulk-to-Banner style, into a loose-limbed ensemble comedy about collaboration, flirtation, and friendship. Read full review
60
Village VoiceAmy NicholsonApr 28, 2015
[Whedon] wants to give us everything, and that he fits it all in is its own kind of feat. Age of Ultron is a middling film, yet it's so heavy with his sweat that it never feels like a lazy cash-in — which for a preordained summer megahit is an accomplishment. Read full review
60
Time Out LondonTom HuddlestonApr 21, 2015
Whedon has revealed that his first cut ran for well over three hours, and it shows: Ultron feels excessively nipped and tucked, barrelling from one explosive set-piece to the next, leaving ideas half-formed and character motivations murky. Read full review
60
The Hollywood ReporterTodd McCarthyApr 21, 2015
Avengers: Age of Ultron succeeds in the top priority of creating a worthy opponent for its superheroes and giving the latter a few new things to do, but this time the action scenes don't always measure up and some of the characters are left in a kind of dramatic no-man's-land. Read full review
58
IndieWireEric KohnApr 21, 2015
Whereas "The Avengers" felt like a reimagining of the paradigm for superhero movies, Age of Ultron has air of a rerun. Though impressively made and visually remarkable, it suffers from the hollowness that plagues so many blockbusters carrying the sense that we've been through this before. Read full review
50
New York PostKyle SmithApr 29, 2015
Whedon keeps approaching ideas, but every time he does so he leaves a flaming bag of dog poop on the doorstep, rings the bell and runs away tittering. Read full review
50
The New YorkerAnthony LaneApr 27, 2015
First, you try to understand what the hell is going on. Then you slowly realize that you will never understand what is going on. And, last, you wind up with the distinct impression that, if there was anything to understand, it wasn’t worth the sweat. Read full review
25
San Francisco ChronicleMick LaSalleApr 29, 2015
Supercharged and lifeless, frenetic and stone-cold dead, a barrage of action scenes that look fake, yet make you wonder if fake is the new real. Read full review
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