Avengers: Age of Ultron★★★★1/2
Let's save the planet
So many superheroes
Hello there, Vision
When Tony Stark and Bruce Banner try to jump-start a dormant peacekeeping program called Ultron, things go horribly wrong, and it's up to Earth's Mightiest Heroes to stop the villainous Ultron from enacting his terrible plans.
WARNING: Possible spoilers ahead.
First things first: I am a HUGE Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) fan, particularly the Avengers (both when they're together in a movie and when they're in their "own" movies). So I have been excitedly anticipating Age of Ultron since the last Avengers movie was released (regardless of the fact that it wasn't announced yet.) So much so, that—even though it only opened a week ago—I've seen the movie twice.
If you've been on the Internet in the past week, you've likely heard a variety of opinions on the movie. Some people love it, some people like it, some people are pissed at Joss Whedon for being anti-feminist and making rape jokes. Honestly, I think many people are taking things a little too seriously, particularly because this is a superhero movie that features characters who are, in some cases, very flawed.
How did I feel about the movie? The first time through, I loved it. I am super pleased with the expansion of Hawkeye's character—the sass!—and I think the Vision is a beautiful addition to the MCU, both personality-wise and physicality-wise. Plus, the way they got around the team not trusting his character was so very smart. (I'm being purposefully vague here, to avoid spoilers, but if you've seen it, or when you see it, you'll know what I mean.) I was just so excited to see all of these characters back on the big screen.
Upon second viewing, I was a little more picky about certain things. Do I still love it? Yes. It's definitely in the top 5 of my favorite MCU movies. The movie, unfortunately, falls prey to trying/having to do too much in too little time. A friend of mine mentioned that it seems like there's very little fat to trim off of the movie, and I agree—from the very first scene, it's go, go, go, go, go. I think this is caused, partly, by there being so many characters in the movie. The main team—Tony, Steve, Bruce, Thor, Natasha and Clint—are all there. The Falcon, War Machine, Maria Hill and other secondary characters are introduced. Multiple new characters are added. And I haven't even mentioned Ultron, or the other villainous characters yet. It's just a massive cast, and the MCU is only going to keep getting bigger. (I found this article, which breaks down the amount of time the characters got in this film, pretty interesting.)
I'm also not a huge fan of the way Natasha's character was portrayed. I just felt like there was too much departure from the way she was in previous movies, and her relationship with one of the other characters felt like insta-love. Could these changes have been slowly happening in the between time since we saw her last? Of course. But without that background, they felt sudden and strange.
Regardless, I did really enjoy the movie overall. It has a great amount of humor, characters I adore, and the action can't be beat. It made me excited all over again about the MCU—although I am dreading Captain America: Civil War. (Because spoilery reasons.)
If you're an MCU fan, you kind of have to see it. But I'd recommend it to pretty much anyone, even considering my nitpicky issues.
I just saw it last night and loved it!
ReplyDeleteOkay, so I definitely didn't get the "prima nocta" reference, and I tend to just gloss over things I don't understand for the sake of keeping up with the movie, but now knowing what that means I am not nearly as bothered by Tony Stark throwing in a comment like that as I am with seeing Jeremy Renner call Black Widow a "slut" and Chris Evans laughing along. (Nothing she does in this movie is remotely "slutty" anyway, I don't get it.)
There was so much going on, but I was also like "I never want this to end!" by the time we were like half-way through. Probably because it was introducing so much that I was feeling like I'm gonna need at least 5 more hours of this to satisfy all these stories for me.
My new favorite thing, though, is "Friday" (or "F.R.I.D.A.Y."?) because of the female Irish accent. Music to my ears! Hehe.
I loved the movies, plus the location of Sokovia is near my hometown (I wrote a cool post about that :D http://bit.ly/1Kr8xBu)!!
ReplyDeleteHowever, I preferred the first movie, honestly I don't know why, maybe it was more fun and less worries, or it was Coulson...I don't know. But I still plan to watch it one more time!
Loved it! Although like you, I found the same similar flaws. There was just so much happening and so many characters and I definitely had a moment where I wondered if I had dozed off or something because the Natasha love story thing jumped from Point A to Point B without any story. Overall it was a lot of fun, though... great humor and it didn't feel as long as it was.
ReplyDeleteI loved Ultron, but overall I still like the first movie better. It's hard to separate the first time viewing nostalgia from criticism, but the more I see it the more I can pinpoint what I don't care for in it.
ReplyDeleteNatasha felt different, I agree, and I just don't think the change was portrayed well though plausible. As for "non-feminist" comments within the movie itself, I just don't see it. Decisions were made for legitimate reasons and fit with the characters/their characterization, not gratuitous just for the sake of being so.
it did feel like it was trying to do too much, which I'm hoping the director's cut will remedy and make shorter scenes make more sense in larger context and everything flow better overall.
Don't get me wrong, I like my Marvel movies fun, but it almost felt too quippy at times! But I did love it :)
I've only seen it once, and I definitely want to see it again to be able to talk about it more in depth, but for now I'll try not to ramble your face off. :D
ReplyDeleteI am so torn about Natasha. I can get on board with the Hulk/Widow ship, but I completely agree it feels shallow, and completely random without any backstory. I also agree that a lot of her actions in this film felt very out of character compared to previous films (though I really loved her distraction of kissing Banner and then boot stomping him off the edge - that felt very Black Widow). I really loved what they did with Hawkeye in this. Not only with his side life, but just his character snark in general.
I like that Quicksilver and Scarlet Witch were present, but there wasn't a huge focus on cramming in lots of backstory about the. This movie was so crowded already, and I didn't feel like they overdid it with those two. As for Vision, I'm torn also. I loved seeing Paul Bettany embody Vision. I don't feel like Vision brought a ton to the movie, if that makes sense? I mean, I know he was an essential part of beating Ultron, but in that end massive fight scene, I feel like Vision takes a nap for a huge part of it, and I found that confusing. I need a second watch through for a better opinion though.
All in all, I liked it more than I was expecting. I was trying really hard to NOT get my hopes up incredibly high, because Avengers 1 was JUST SO GREAT. But I think it did a really great job of continuing and adding to such a huge array of characters.
I loved it!
ReplyDeleteGlad to hear it. :)
ReplyDeleteHow cool! What a gorgeous place.
ReplyDeleteI liked the first movie, too. Maybe it was the newness of the team? Or, like you said, Coulson. Or Loki. ;)
Agreed! I just feel like we were supposed to go with stuff we got little to no backstory for, which was a little jarring. But that's just nitpicking.
ReplyDeleteAgreed. That's a very Tony Stark thing to say, and it's much worse for the actors themselves to slut shame.
ReplyDeleteI want more, too. Director's Cut! I'm cool with a five-hour version.
And yes! Friday's going to be a lot of fun.
We're on the same page, unsurprisingly. :)
ReplyDeleteHaha, it's OK to ramble! :D
ReplyDeleteI am also unsurprised :) And I love that.
ReplyDelete