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Tuesday, August 4, 2015

The Avengers: Age of Ultron Point-By-Point Review (2015, Action/Adventure/Fantasy/Science Fiction, Disney/Marvel Studios)

 

 

What Rocked:

  • Feels bigger; the scale is bigger, more locales are explored, a lot more heroes are involved (and in retrospect when Infinity Wars I & II come out, this will have nothing on the two-part third act), and the stakes are bigger. Loki wanted to rule the world like he always has, whilst Ultron wants to kill everybody and replace everyone with cybernetic beings.
  • No slow start. The very opening of the film sees the Avengers beating the ever-loving shit out of HYDRA goons. And the whole scene is awesome.
  • Contains a clever jab at Disney, in the form of a joke (that kind of runs its course a bit too much), that pokes fun at how they're still sensitive over coarse language cropping up in major film properties. If only you guys could witness how foul-mouthed much of your target audience actually is, Disney!
  • The pacing of the film seems better at times than in the first film, but at other times (yeah, no specific examples needed, just watch the film)...
  • Ultron is arguably more menacing as a villain than Loki, but he's a lot more one-dimensional. Loki has a huge inferiority complex and he's not irredeemably evil, plus he's leashed by Thanos. Ultron suddenly wants to pull a Skynet almost right out of the gate. And he hates Tony Stark. Still, I had the feeling that Ultron would have done far more damage than Loki had he been allowed to. And you know what? He did.
  • Quicksilver & Scarlett Witch. I liked them both. The former for his cocky wit and the latter for the sheer possibilities her abilities may bestow upon the franchise (much of what she is capable of in the comics is left intact in this film).
  • Hulk is one of the better developed characters in the film. In one scene in particular, the Hulk himself sees the destruction he (and Stark, don't forget him) caused and the fear he has struck in the hearts of bystanders. This causes him to feel remorse, and it is on full display. Then he goes through the same offhanded treatment he gave to Thor in the previous movie. Guess what that is. 
  • Avoids being a "destruction and special effects at the expense of bystanders' livelihoods" fiasco as seen in the lackluster Man of Steel.
  • The Hulkbuster vs. Hulk fight, while feeling a bit cut short in the end, was satisfying.
  • Hawkeye is no longer borderline useless. He actually does some damage this time around.
  • Captain America, thanks in part to the quite exceptional "Winter Soldier" film last year, shines brighter than he did in the first outing.
  • Johannson is as hot as ever as Black Widow. And she was pregnant through most of the filming!

What Didn't Rock:

  • The editing was clearly done in haste and to placate the fierce demand for a (condensed) theatrical release, some scenes were altered drastically or removed entirely.
  • Thor, aside from a few tricks pulled off with Mjolnir as per usual, does damn near nothing of note.
  • The action appeared too blurry, seemed far too closely shot at times (the first battle with Ultron comes to mind), and there are so many jump cuts I felt like I was watching a god damn Michael Bay film.
  • We see Black Widow trying to seduce Bruce Banner, hinting at a ship between the two, but we just don't feel it. Not to mention that considering what happened in the first movie (hint: Banner loses control of his Hulking out and almost does her in), it doesn't make fucking sense.
  • Ultron made a few too many jokes to be believable as a cold, determined, calculating AI. I know Joss wanted us to feel some human traits in him but they pushed that angle a little too far. It was hard to take him seriously at times. The "we all create the things we dread" scene, anyone?
  • Stark's role in, inadvertently I must add, making all the film's shit occur (though Banner's reluctant supporting efforts in letting the shit hit the fan could be considered for him a pass) barely gets mentioned nor taken to task. Sure, Thor hoists him up in the air in anger for his ambitions regarding The Vision, in light of what they produced previously in the film, but that's about all that happens.
  • Nick Fury shows up all of a sudden. The tens of millions they spent on shoehorning Samuel L. Jackson into the sequel, in spite of SHIELD having been dismantled previously (and if you're on top of the Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D spinoff, whatever remains of S.H.I.E.L.D. in the shadows is led by Coulson), could have been spent on improving the film in other aspects. So yeah, we didn't get an AoS crossover.
  • *MAJOR SPOILER -- YOU'VE BEEN WARNED* Quicksilver gets killed so unceremoniously and suddenly that it's a complete mystery as to why Disney & Marvel went to such great lengths to secure the film rights to use this character. And as it turns out, screwing the nail in the coffin further, is that this character isn't set to re-appear in the MCU for "quite some time." What the fuckery ensues.
  • Hulk is played more seriously this time around, and his character suffers for it. Although he does show some humanity at the climaxes of his rampages, the film portrays him in a darker way that kind of at times kills the excitement that he generated previously in the first film. At least he still smashes.
  • Twenty minutes or so is spent at the Hawkeye family farm out in the middle of nowhere. Although it's a breather episode in an otherwise frantically-paced film, it serves as a big tease that amounts to exactly the opposite of what it was teasing at (considering Joss Whedon's methodology in foreshadowing the deaths of his characters). And that's also when Nick Fury just suddenly shows up. The entire duration spent at Clint's getaway house served to divide the fanbase, big time.
  • The scene wherein Ultron comes to life for the first time, in particular when he's in the form of a holographic programming display (oh Hollywood, AI programming has come a long way from that. You silly Willies), is narmy as all hell.
  • Ultron's development is rushed.
  • Ultron is vulnerable to being pigeonholed by shutting off the internet. I'm not kidding. And that's just what happens, so of course he's not going to be as menacing as he is in the comics wherein he's pretty much invincible.
  • PLOT HOLE: As Ultron is trying to extract Vibranium from Ulysses Klaue (that's his name here), he gets interrupted by a swift appearance of the Avengers. They end up destroying the Ultron chassis present at the scene and though the Avengers are briefly side-tracked during this conflict, one can assume that they wrapped up loose ends here while Iron Man has to round up a rampaging Hulk. The hole here is this: how the fuck does Ultron manage to get the Vibranium he needed to assemble his doomsday device? Said doomsday device consisted of a huge (think long) column of vibranium holding up an entire city way up in the air. That's a lot of vibranium that he, based on what we see in the movie, never attains.
  • Based on word of god, we're not getting an extended cut that would, you know, work to correct at least some of the slights seen in the final product.
  • Did you know that Joss Whedon considers this to be a good product? That it's exactly what he wanted it to be? Yeah, don't let the door hit your ass on the way out, Whedon. You're clearly too creatively fatigued for the MCU at this point and I welcome the Russo brothers for any future instalment with which they're involved.
  • Should have been split into two parts: part one would have been to set up the events to transpire and be rectified in the second part (as well as establishing character developments and properly introducing and developing new characters), while the second part would see the important action and the inevitable climax to the storyline. Everything would have been developed better than what was seen in the final product.
  • A Carol Danvers (a.k.a, Ms. Marvel) and a Spider-Man appearance were cut. The latter is understandable though, given that the landmark deal between Sony & Disney didn't come to fruition until just shy of the release of the movie. But Ms. Marve/Captain Marvel was part of the early drafts of the film.
  • We're not going to find out who that mystery woman briefly glimpsed in one of the trailers is. Sorry guys. At least not in this messy film.
  • I still enjoyed the film.