Story
Avengers: Age of Ultron brings the Avengers team together again – Iron Man (Robert Downey Junior), Thor (Chris Hemsworth), Captain America (Chris Evans), Black Widow (Scarlett Johansson), Hawkeye (Jeremy Renner) and The Hulk (Mark Ruffalo). The movie begins with them attacking the stronghold of Baron Wolfgang von Strucker (Thomas Kretschmann). Von Strucker has been using an ancient Asgard relic called the Sceptre to transform human subjects into superhumans. These superhumans include orphaned twins Scarlet Witch (Elizabeth Olsen), who can manipulate matter and control minds, and her twin brother Quicksilver (Aaron Taylor-Johnson), who can move at speeds faster than the eye can see. Together the twins are capable of testing the Avengers to their limits. Following a prolonged battle, the Avengers capture von Strucker and retrieve the Sceptre, but the twins escape.
Back at the laboratory, Iron Man and the Hulk are intrigued by the power of a crystal embedded in the Sceptre. They decide to use the crystal’s power to create the ultimate planetary guardian – an artificially intelligent robot called Ultron. Unfortunately their creation turns out to be a psychopathic robot that wants to destroy humanity. To stop Ultron and save the world, the Avengers must work with Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver.
Themes
Artificial intelligence; genetic manipulation and human experimentation; global annihilation
Violence
Avengers: Age of Ultron has intense sequences of action violence and some psychological violence. It includes battle scenes, chaos and mass destruction, many deaths, and some blood and gore. For example:
Sexual references
Avengers: Age of Ultron has sexual references and innuendo. For example:
- ‘What if you can’t get it up?’, ‘If we get through this I’ll hold your own’ and ‘Multiplying faster than a Catholic rabbit’.
- A man tells a woman that he can’t have children. In return the woman explains that she was sterilised in an initiation ceremony as part of an assassin training program.
- When talking about a man and woman who are attracted to each other, another man says, ‘They better not be playing hide the zucchini’.
Alcohol, drugs and other substances
Avengers: Age of Ultron shows some use substances including social drinking at parties.
Nudity and sexual activity
Avengers: Age of Ultron has a few scenes that show mild sexual activity and partial nudity. For example:
- Some characters kiss and flirt briefly.
- A man leaves a shower with a towel wrapped around his waist. A woman who is waiting for him says suggestively that she should have joined him in the shower.
- Women wear tight-fitting and revealing clothes.
Product placement
Nothing of concern
Coarse language
Avengers: Age of Ultron has some coarse language and name-calling throughout.
Ideas to discuss with your children
Avengers: Age of Ultron is the latest in the series of movies based on Marvel comic book characters.
It’s an action adventure movie targeting teenagers and adult fans of the series, with the usual characters, fast-paced action and computer-generated special effects. It’ll probably attract some tweens and younger teenagers, but it is definitely not recommended for children under 13 years. This is because it has violent and disturbing scenes, which include battles, mass destruction, many deaths and some blood and gore. We also strongly recommend parental guidance for children aged 13-15 years.
The main message from this movie is that when people work together as a team and support each other they can overcome overwhelming odds.
You could talk with your children about what the movie is saying about reckless scientific experimentation and its results.