Going digital for Avengers Age of Ultron

Marvel's Avengers: Age Of Ultron..Ultron (voiced by James Spader)..Ph: Film Frame..©Marvel 2015

As I've aged I have become increasingly disenfranchised from the cinema. The generally overpriced sweets (£3 for a share bag of M&M's, come on that's a 200% mark-up from retail), the noise from other cinema goers and the excessive base that seems to be prevalent in all sound systems. These are just a few of the old man moans that I can now level at an activity I used to love.

Anyway earlier this year I ignored my usual displeasure and together with a host of other BC team members popped to Bluewater on opening day to see Avengers Age of Ultron. Honestly after the film I was underwhelmed but decided that I would buy the film, one to keep my Marvel film collection up to date and two so I could reassess the film in the more comfortable surroundings of my house. 

Now though there is the choice of which format to choose. In recent times I have opted for digital purchases due to a lack of discs and the convenience of digital titles. The fact I can watch on phone, pc, tablet or Chromecast makes buying from Google Play a no brainer in my opinion. I'm sure if I was an iOS user iTunes would be my preferred option but as I'm not it isn't. 

Marvel's Avengers: Age Of Ultron..L to R: Hulk (Mark Ruffalo), Captain America (Chris Evans), Thor (Chris Hemsworth), Iron Man (Robert Downey Jr.), Black Widow (Scarlett Johansson), and Hawkeye (Jeremy Renner)..Ph: Film Frame..©Marvel 2015

The great thing about getting a digital product was the fact the film was released a week early. The price of £9.99 for SD and £13.99 for HD was acceptable. I plugged for the HD version and got to watching. I watched the film on all my devices but the syncing was first class and jumping between 3 devices during one viewing left me with no issues. There is also the nice touch of pausing a scene and getting the actors names on screen. This almost eliminates the where is she from? Conversation that generally goes on after nearly every film.

There is of course a downside to digital; you don't actually ever have the product in your hand. What would happen if Google went bust? Would this copy of the film be mine or would my money would be wasted. These are questions I do not know the answers to but I'm sure if Google collapsed I would be worried about more than just my film collection. You can always download your purchases but that eliminates the multiple device flexibility. The other issue is the lack of features, there is no obligatory blooper roll, deleted scenes or audio commentary that will appear in the physical versions. This to me is not a worry but I'm sure some film fans will set this as a major reason to avoid this version.

All in all I'm very happy with the purchase, I will happily go to the cinema to see the occasional film but I have become accustomed to my choice of digital viewing. Now it's just time to watch it again and start my review.