I'll admit, maybe a little bit of fangirling
was going on over here in regards to 'Avengers: Age of
Ultron'. First, just the fact there is a second Avengers
movie on the way which all by its lonesome could cause some
shortness of breath. Then toss in some Ultron, AND The
Vision… OMG… and we're even going to get into the Maximoff
Twins. Sure, the latent comic book geek in me could
nitpick at Tony Stark creating Ultron as opposed to Hank Pym,
but the anticipation was sky high. Too high.
Anticipation which urged me to see this film in 3D IMAX which
was probably unnecessary, and too high so that the movie could
never achieve these grand expectations. Well… 'Age of
Ultron' did not meet these expectations, but it was a still a
good time at the show.
Our film opens with ACTION! Now I've heard some
complaints from some sources that they really needed some kind
of lead-in to this action, but if you happen to be a faithful
watcher of Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D… you kind of got a
lead-in… just saying is all.
The important things that came out of this action was the
retrieval of Loki's scepter, and the introduction to Pietro
(Aaron Taylor Johnson) and Wanda (Elizabeth Olsen),
particularly Wanda who put a Hex on Tony Stark's brain during
this action which will prompt Tony to do something very unwise
which will drive this movie. The twins hate Tony Stark…
like pretty much everybody in this fictional world, including
his teammates, with the possible exception of Pepper Potts and
maybe James Rhodes (Don Cheadle).
That unwise thing, along with the help of Dr. Bruce Banner,
would be extracting some Artificial Intelligence from Loki's
scepter, an intelligence that they don't understand even a
little bit, and putting it in a robot. It doesn't work
out well and Ultron (James Spader) is born. Well, I've
seen enough movies to know that if you give a robot a brain,
the first thing it's going to want to do is end
humanity. Everybody knows this. This is why we
don't give robots brains. Ultron, who is kind of a
wiseacre for a robot, wants to end humanity.
Surprise! And crush the Avengers in the process,
particularly Tony Stark. Whom he hates.
Stand in line Ultron.
The Avengers cannot allow that to happen, now
can they? Thus action of the highest order will ensue,
and some melodrama, and a lot of MCU universe building, via
references, for movies in which the scripts haven't even been
written for yet.
Not since 'The Phantom Menace' do I believe I experienced a
hype machine as forceful as the one Disney put on the tracks
for 'Age of Ultron'. Endless trailers, endless
clips, magazines, interviews, a bottomless pit of product
tie-ins… it was exhausting and I will admit that the media
blitz did etch away at some of my fangirling as now I just
wanted to see the thing and get it behind me. This
exhaustion was not helped by the movie coming a week early in
Europe allowing every single outlet to flood us with lists,
movie reviews, analysis and spoilers. Almost couldn't
even turn on the computer for a week… but finally it's over.
What did we get for our wait? We got a movie that was
frenetic and hectic and exciting and uneven and fun and busy
and overpopulated and funny and not funny… We got all of
that and more. We are comfortable with the characters we
will be watching for the next two and a half hours, because we
know that Hemsworth, Evans, Downey Jr., and Samuel L. can
handle these characters with the ease that Hugh Jackman
understands The Wolverine. ScarJo's Black Widow and
Ruffalo's Bruce Banner got some melodrama tossed their way
which might've worked for some, but not so much for me.
And Jeremy Renner's Hawkeye got a little extra focus this time
around… even though his character… well, we could start a
separate essay on the problems with Hawkeye in this movie,
none of these problems having anything to do with Jeremy
Renner's portrayal of him. The Vision was badass, if not
somewhat rushed into service, but Quicksilver and the Scarlet
Witch were a little underdeveloped and are the poster children
for the unevenness that permeates through this movie.
Hey kids… don't listen to giant, silver, wise cracking robots
who you should know wants to end humanity. It's what
robots with brains do.
One of the criticisms I had read was that 'Age of Ultron' did
little to further Marvel Cinematic Universe. What movie
did this guy see? Because it looked to me that this
movie was so dead set in furthering the MCU that it did so in
sacrifice to its own story. Did I need to see Ulysses
Klaue (Andy Serkis)? Sure I did since he's one of Black
Panther's number one villains, coming soon to a theater near
you. Thor literally leaves this movie to be in a
separate scene where he sets up his next movie.
Naturally we need to properly setup Captain America III and
Thanos makes a quick cameo for what I guess will be Guardians
II. I'm sure there was more. While director Joss
Whedon might've wanted a smaller, more personal film, I think
what we got was the mandate from upstairs to squeeze in every
possible reference for future projects as humanly
possible. The problem is that I actually noticed this,
which often took me away from the core of the movie.
Because my screen was so big and my sound was so crisp and
loud, I probably saw more in this movie than I needed
to. I could literally compile a list from the minute to
the major which highlight some of the issues I had with
'Avengers: Age of Ultron'… BUT… at the end of the day I still
had a great time at the show. This movie is still one of
the reasons we do go to the movies in the first place.
The thing is I walked in the theater expecting this to go on
top of my personal list of Marvel Movies, I wanted it to be
better than Winter Soldier… I walked out with this film being
a little further down on that list. But that's not going
to stop me from watching it again, and buying the Blu when it
comes out.
Lisa's Take
This movie was the first 3D and Imax movie that I have
watched. The previews were promising; Jurassic World looks
pretty spectacular with dinosaurs coming at you 360. The sound
was quite loud, almost deafening to my soft ears, but after
the opening action sequence I had adjusted. The IMAX
experience was interesting, and I don't know if it was because
the screen was so large, but the Hulk became normal sized,
which is to say relatively speaking he appears small. As one
who watched Avengers on DVD, I gotta say this was jarring to
see such a small Hulk. Like Chris, I'd be interested to see
how this appears on DVD for head to head Avengers comparison
and naturally the alternate ending.
So much has been hyped before the movie, so much analysis done
after the movie- see Chris's run down of the whole jam
packed movie. We have heard at length about characters not
given their due, plot holes needing further explaining, and
the general nitpicking of the MCU. First let me say that
neither me nor the other fans are coming at Marvel with
pitchforks. On the whole I, and the majority of nitpickers,
enjoyed the movie. It was entertaining, it tried real hard for
laughs (some jokes landed better than others), and it
definitely furthered the MCU. Was that person who said the
movie didn't further the MCU watching the same movie? In fact
I believe that is all the movie did. It set up Captain America
3, it set up Thor 3 Guardians 2, as well as Klaue in Black
Panther. So much setting up is done, it made me wonder- what's
my current pay off for watching this movie? My only reward is
to see Ultron defeated? There was team building and
awesomeness of the first Avengers along with a Shawarma scene
.
Ultron and his clones did seem to be evil enough to warrant
getting the Avengers together again. If nothing else, the
sheer number of clones would be difficult for one hero to
handle. Yet Ultron was also created by Stark technology, and
this division doesn't get the due in such a crowded movie,
which is a shame. I take it more division is coming in
Cap 3, 'cause naturally, we're heading towards a Civil War.
And therein lies my nitpicking- I don't feel like I got
rewarded for my loyalty. I am 10 movies, 43 SHIELD episodes, 8
episodes of Agent Carter, and 13 episodes of Daredevil deep
into the MCU- and for my investment (patience, devotion, and
faith) I get what? That I am to come back to see Captain
America train a new team, find out more about the Infinity
Stones in Thor 3, and wait till Guardians 2 for Thanos to
handle his business? So deep into the MCU, the novelty of it
all is gone. The bar is set (impossibly?) high by the previous
movies. Gone is the freshness of heroes in new peril, replaced
instead with some vague sense of déjà vu. Yes the movie is
still good, and yes the movie still entertains, but so far
into this I've come to expect more, nay demand a bigger payoff
for my continued investment. In the age of instant
gratification, I needed a more than just the Vision and Ultron
going towards a blinding light as my reward at the end of Age
of Ultron.
