Review: Avengers: Age of Ultron
Walk it off.
Ahh Avengers. Probably my most anticipated movie of the year. There is one thing I need to talk about, but can't without spoiling, so I'll save that for last. Don't worry, I'll give a spoiler reminder.
After finally getting Loki's scepter away from Hydra, Tony (Robert Downey Jr.) along with Bruce (Mark Ruffalo) decide to use it to create Ultron. (James Spader) He's supposed to protect the world for the Avengers so they no longer have to fight. But of course, since they don't fully understand the alien technology, he grows too intelligent too quickly, and decides he wants to end the Avengers to save the world. He enlists the help of two enhanced humans who volunteered for Hyrda's experiments, Wanda (Elizabeth Olsen) and Pietro Maximoff. (Aaron Taylor-Johnson) Though after messing with the Avengers, they catch on to Ultron's dumb fuckery and decide to join them to help.
Unlike the first film, Hawkeye (Jeremy Renner) ends up being the heart of the film. He's what holds the Avengers together, and what eases the transition of The Twins becoming allies. Thor (Chris Hemsworth) unfortunately gets the Hawkeye treatment in this one. He doesn't have much to do, though he does bring Vision (Paul Bettany) to life eventually. The weirdest thing by far is Natasha (Scarlett Johansson) who while still remaining the badass we know has somehow transformed into an awkward school girl with a crush on Bruce Banner. It feels forced and throws her into damsel in distress territory, and that was just not cool. (Plus I thought she was with Hawkeye. She was wearing the arrow necklace in Winter Soldier. Nope. Just BFFs)
Age of Ultron was packed with actions sequences and flowed nicely. There was a lot more humor this time around. Ultron was a worthy villain. He was creepy, yet he said some of the funniest things in the movie. Ultron, The Twins, and Vision were definitely the highlights for me. (Everyone in my theater had nerdgasms when Vision lifted Mjölnir. Or when he sees Thor's cape and grows his own to match) We got to see some familiar faces, Rhodey, Nick Fury, Falcon, Dr. Selvig. They definitely upped their game, though the story with Natasha and the following complaint are what keeps the film from reaching total greatness:
***START SPOILER!***
The thing I was most excited about was The Twins. They're fascinating characters and Days of Future Past Quicksilver sucked, so I was so excited to see these two, TOGETHER in action. But what does Joss Whedon do? Kills Pietro. He dives in front of bullets to save Hawkeye and a kid. He could've just moved them out of the way. It was so poorly done and felt cheap. Whedon was so excited to bring these two in, why did he have to kill one of them? The Twins are the best when they're together. I know Marvel has done the death fake out thing so many times, but I feel like they should do it once more in this scenario. Stick Pietro's ass in that tissue rebuilding machine that Dr. Cho used on Hawkeye at the beginning of the film and bring him back for Civil War. You can't have Scarlet Witch without Quicksilver. You need both.
***END SPOILER***
Recommended: Yes
Grade: B+
Memorable Quote: "We waited two days for Tony Stark to kill us." - Wanda (Elizabeth Olsen)
SPOILERS
ReplyDeleteI think Whedon did that because he didn't have the balls to kill any of the main characters. I liked Vision the best, a shame that instead of his romance with Scarlet Witch we got this boring bullshit. Ruffalo was kinda terrible in this movie but that's probably because the story was so pathetic and he kept being an ass
Whedon gave this "pat yourself on the back" interview where he talked about using all the tropes to make it seem like Hawkeye would be the one that died. That pissed me off even more because it made his death seem even more pointless. I hope the people doing Civil and Infinity Wars undermine him and bring QS back.
DeleteSPOILERS
ReplyDeleteI'm actually one of those feels that the death of Quicksilver was a good thing, it gave the final action scene a level of threat that is hardly ever evident in any Avengers movie. Personally, I would have just sighed if they'd magically cured Quicksilver. I guess it's because I'm very much of an outsider to the Marvel world.
I did, however, like Hawkeye's development. That was good.
It feels like a waste for a new, heavily hyped character who has 20 mins of screen time. Plus it didn't make sense to me since he was out running bullets throughout the entire movie. If they wanted a death to mean something, it should've been an actual Avenger.
Deleteokay, i didn't read the spoiler part lol. but i do love that they upped their game for this film (i really liked the first film too tho). but natasha as a damsel in distress? boooo
ReplyDeleteIt kind of shocked me Whedon would write her this way tbh.
DeleteI haven't seen it yet, but I hope it's good. As much as I like most of the Marvel movies, I'm getting tired of so many of them. :/
ReplyDeleteI love the MCU, so I'm still just fine with them, though I'll probably skip Ant Man in theaters.
DeleteKilling off characters is Joss Whedon's thing. He had to get one more blow in there before leaving the director's chair. :) I didn't like it either. And I'm glad I'm not the only one who didn't like the Black Widow/Hulk thing. And I agree, I totally thought Widow and Hawkeye were becoming a thing after the last couple of movies. It felt like they just decided to switch gears there rather abruptly. Other than that, I thought this movie was quite fun. Can't wait to see it again.
ReplyDeleteIt came out of nowhere. Yeah, Whedon does love to kill people for shock value, and that drives me nuts. I do think Quicksilver has a good chance of returning. Hopefully the Russo's make that happen.
DeleteHappy to see your review of Ultron! I haven't seen the first one so I'm hesitant with the sequel for the mix reviews. After seeing Winter Soldier, I pretty much fell in fangirl love with Black Widow. For a female character having a love interest is cool but to make such a bad-ass like her only pursue a boy is just wrong. Good review!
ReplyDeleteGod, what they did with Widow in this film is so borderline offensive. I hope Civil War makes up for it.
DeleteThe movie did look like it was bound to kill a character, I guess Quicksilver was chosen because he was the "weakest link". He really did work best with his twin, but I guess his death was also something that would trigger Wanda to stay with the avengers. I agree with you on how this movie also treated Natasha, she was so awesome in the other movies but the Natasha here is so different. They could have still done the whole Bruce Banner thing but to change her personality to "fit" their arc? No, just no.
ReplyDeleteSee, I think Wanda and Pietro would've stayed with the Avengers anyways. So killing one of them was pointless, especially after they stressed how good the twins are together. It sucks that MCU now has Scarlet Witch, and Fox has their shit version of Quicksilver. They should be together. If they had to kill someone, they should've went with Hawkeye or even The Hulk.
Delete