140 Character Movie Review – #140RVW
Better than the 1st one? Guess so. VERY episodic – doesn’t stand on its own at all. Once again, all the best moments are dialogue scenes…
Spoiler-free Movie Review of Avengers: Age of Ultron:
I really don’t have a lot to say about Avengers: Age of Ultron. I was very excited to see it, thought it would be good and it was.
It was exactly what I expected. You may have to decide for yourself if that is worthy of praise. The film takes approximately zero risks.
Writer/director/franchise-runner/geek god Joss Whedon is making the smart choice hopping off the horse now. I’m not expecting these films to actually start getting worse, but there’s really little room for them to get any better. It’s a little hard to put into words why such a solid effort is not very satisfying. I guess it just lacks the element of surprise.
I don’t mean to suggest that the film is perfect as it most assuredly is not. It’s simply that it fails at nothing meaningful. There are all sorts of fanboy gripes and such, and you can pick apart the narrative for its flaws, but ultimately, who cares? It’s a comic book movie and they really can’t make a film with this lineup of heroes any better than this.
Particularly if you know the direction they are headed in. The stories they are working on adapting are completely joyless – great, but low on levity. The fun level of the Marvel movies is going to continue to drop sharply – hence the need for movies like Guardians of the Galaxy and Ant-Man.
By the way, why does Marvel get a free pass on simply filming the stories that were already comic books? I live to trash DC and Zack Snyder for simply making film versions of graphic novels, feeling that there’s really no point in doing so, but Marvel is even more guilty of this. They don’t even try to pass off their pictures as original in any form, but no one seems to call them on this. Personally, I seldom read these books back in the day, so I’ve really got no skin in the game; whereas I am hugely protective of the old Batman classics. Anyway, I’ve let this pass for too long, so consider yourself warned, Marvel…
If I were to get more specific, I guess I’d say:
- James Spader is a tool – that’s why he has a tool in his name. His voice is just not the right direction for Ultron, but it could maybe work if Ultron wasn’t such a fluid metal CG creation. Speaking of that…
- Ultron’s mouth shouldn’t move. It doesn’t make any sense. He’s a creation of Stark – he should move like Iron Man. He doesn’t. His face can actually give off expressions. That’s absurd…
- Jeremy Renner’s recent comments about Black Widow during the press junket made me actually root for Hawkeye to buy it. The character is never going to be as fun for me again until someone else is filling the role.
- The action being rooted in a slightly more earthly tale this time should help the climactic battle be more rooted in reality. But it doesn’t. It’s still wave after wave of faceless enemies. And the sheer amount of adversaries is just not credible. They’re everywhere. Everything appens so quickly in this one…
- Which is another issue. Condensing a long, multi-title arc into a film is always going to necessitate severe acceleration of the narrative, and it certainly does here. Ultron goes from impossible dream to villain in about 90 seconds.
- Loki’s scepter. Always with Loki’s scepter. Yawn. I hate Loki’s scepter, hate the ability to mind control people. It’s cheap and weak, and this whole massive, overreaching infinity stones thing is making me long for the simplicity of the first Iron Man…
- Despite my love of Guardians of the Galaxy, my interest level in galaxy-wide space villains can’t even be charted…
- Danny Elfman did some of the music, except for the themes he inherited. It’s good, if not up to his usual standards…
- When it comes to dialogue, Whedon is best in class. In fact, he teaches the class. And wrote the textbook…
- The action and effects are excellent, but honestly, that’s table stakes. The humanity, the relationships, the quiet moments – these are what make these films work. Most of the time I’m just biding my time during the action scenes unless they are next-level cool. I want that stuff, I do. But without the brilliant writing of Whedon and acting of the principals I’d be bored.
- After meeting Falcon (Anthony Mackie) in Captain America: The Winter Soldier, it’s kind of a drag that cool characters like him and War Machine (Don Cheadle) are pretty much kept on the sidelines…
- I’m happy that this film isn’t all about Iron Man, which was how it was headed based on the success of that character. Full credit to Kevin Feige for not pulling an X-Men and turning the whole series into Wolverine Fan Club.
- Similarly, while Hulk is smashy good times, they resisted the urge to follow the Louis Tully rule after the green guy practically stole the first Avengers movie. I’m impressed/astonished…
Avengers: Age of Ultron is a fantastic superhero movie. Period. We may never reclaim the early excitement and surprise of our first introduction to these characters, but there are beneficial trade-offs to be had in advancing their arcs. And they’re still heaps more fun than the Dour Cynicism movies…
Poster:
Trailer:
Bechdel Test:
Pass
The Representation Test Score: C (4 pts)
(http://therepresentationproject.org/grading-hollywood-the-representation-test/)
| Main Cast | Robert Downey Jr. Tony Stark/Iron Man, Chris Evans Steve Rogers/Captain America, Mark Ruffalo Bruce Banner/Hulk, Chris Hemsworth Thor |
| Rating | PG-13 |
| Release Date | Fri 01 May 2015 UTC |
| Director | Joss Whedon |
| Genres | Action, Adventure, Sci-Fi, Thriller |
| Plot | When Tony Stark tries to jumpstart a dormant peacekeeping program, things go awry and it is up to the Avengers to stop the villainous Ultron from enacting his terrible plans. |
| Poster |  |
| Runtime | 141 |
| Tagline | A new age begins |
| Writers | Joss Whedon (written by), Stan Lee (comic book) … |
| Year | 2015 |
