Avengers Age of Ultron thoughts
OK, I saw it tonight! Massive spoilers here under the cut-tags! I had a reasonably good time at the movie, but, er, you probably can't tell by the relative volumes of what's under the cuts? My main reaction was, it was fine, I didn't have a bad time watching, it kept flowing nicely, but I just didn't care much about it the whole time.
There were some decent action sequences but too many of them and they went on too long, and none of them managed to awaken any real emotion in me. Too much of the dialogue was snappy pat banter and instead of making me like the characters prevented me from connecting to them. The opening was an especially rough part for me because it was basically ALL CGI and lots of the CGI was distractingly bad? Also they only avoided the lame joke of "old guy Steve!" again by... hitting it and then hanging a lantern on how bad it was.
Wanda and Pietro lost my sympathy as characters at the whole taking your own terrible childhood pain and resulting (justified) hate-on for Tony Stark and turning that into... inflicting massive pain and destruction on many other children. In particular, deliberately unleashing the Hulk on a populated area is mass murder, and they didn't turn into good guys for me when they bailed on Ultron when they discovered he wanted to destroy the entire planet. Wanda kind of got me by the end mostly because her feeling Pietro's death was powerful and it let me kind of into her as a character, but I just couldn't find them at all appealing before then. I'm glad she's on the new team and hope they do more with her, but here I was underwhelmed.
Ultron was imo a really bad villain. I mean, I guess really the villain of this movie was Tony (more on that later) but he was just SO BAD. Emotionally inconsistent and undeveloped, his voice weirdly veered into jokey banter and back out and insanity and back out always for no apparent reason, and he was just hard to watch and it was impossible to get invested in any fight with him because of the million copies of himself, all of which could be destroyed fairly easily by any Avenger at whatever moment that was needed in any given scene.
I also just found the creation of the Vision to be totally implausible. I could juuust barely buy Tony under the influence of Scarlet Witch doing the stupid-and-arrogant move of making Ultron out of the staff, and I could juuuuuust barely buy Bruce Banner going along with him, although that requires me relying on the personal friendship suggested in IM3 that was not actually on the screen in this movie. I can EVEN buy an interpretation of Tony Stark who was so unable to recognize how his arrogance and desperation had led him to do something REALLY FUCKING STUPID that he doubled down on it and tried for a repeat.
But I cannot buy a Bruce Banner who listens to Tony saying "You're a mad scientist! Own it!" that second time around and says anything in response but "FUCK YOU I'M THE HULK!"
I was given no adequate reason to believe that the second time around was going to work better than the first time around except that it was much further into the movie, and I also don't even get why on a meta level you would WANT it to work, as the writer -- I mean, what is that saying to us as viewers? "Look, kids, Tony was RIGHT to act unilaterally and ignore his teammates' totally reasonable objections!"?
It was also unnecessary! Why not instead Tony gets the casket, and then DOESN'T go it alone? If he tells the rest of the team and they're all NO, BAD IDEA TONY, and he accepts that, and then the half-conscious Jarvis somehow connects to it and downloads HIMSELF into it as they all frantically try and stop it. Except of course then you don't get the obligatory scene of the Avengers all punching each other.
The award for most implausible exchanges definitely goes to Steve for his combo of relationship counseling Bruce Banner and for telling Tony he was going to miss him. Yeah, Steve. Sure. You'll miss Tony and his adorable habit of sneaking around behind your back creating world-destroying monsters! I can SEE YOUR PAIN NOW.
Hanging a lantern on the total lack of Jane and Pepper did not in fact make up for the total lack of Jane and Pepper. Would have liked more of Maria Hill.
The whole sequence at Clint's house, while it seemed kind of nice to me initially, has been bothering me more and more the longer I think about it. The idea of him having a family was nice, but it also felt... obvious? It made him feel oddly MORE a generic dude than before -- like, having a wife and kids and a house is not actually a substitute for characterization? And his wife -- wow, that woman is living some kind of horrifying nightmare, she's alone in an isolated house with two small children and pregnant, I don't see how she can even have a support network or so much as go out and talk to people because it would expose their secret, and clearly she's not even allowed to be angry that her husband abandons her constantly because his job involves actually saving the world.
The Natasha/Bruce was unconvincing and also just irritating. I don't want Natasha's role to be centered on a magical ability to calm Bruce down, which I also don't want to exist period in anyone. And a giant FUCK NO to the whole sterilization thread. FUCK NO to a story about forced sterilization being crammed into two lines of dialogue, FUCK NO to that being centered as Natasha's major trauma and regret, and HELL FUCK NO to Natasha talking about the sterilization and then going straight from that to saying "still think you're the only monster" to Bruce as though the fact she can't have children is what makes her comparable to the guy who just destroyed a city. I realize that was not the intention but that is what landed on the screen. What the actual FUCK was up with that transition.
If Joss wanted a paralleling between Natasha and Bruce to serve as a foundation for their relationship and their mutual desire to run away together, how about starting from the gift of, you know, actual characterization that Cap 2 handed him. How about Natasha not being over how much damage she did and how much work she did for Hydra all unknowingly?
Actually what could have been amazing now I'm thinking about it is what if there were a connection between Natasha and the twins -- eg if some of the twins' training was derived from the Red Room or something like that, or if Natasha had maybe IDK participated in transporting the twins at one point thinking she was doing it for SHIELD but it was for Hydra, something like that -- so she could feel guilt over that instead. Anyway, really anything but what Joss did. Dear dude writers: lady pain does not always have to be related to lady parts or to romance, seriously.
OK, so all that said, I am happy with where the movie left us, and I'm obviously happy for my Sam/Steve OTP for which this movie was a totally unexpected gift that kept on giving. I was really gleeful when Sam showed up at the party (and the mention of him still chasing leads for their "cold case" <3) and then THE END whoooo YES WINGS shiny red-accented wings whoooo \o/
The one best moment in the whole movie for me was Tony going "please let it be a secret door please please -- yay!" which felt exactly true and also delightful.
Possibly Jarvis was my favorite character in the movie. I really felt it when he was destroyed by Ultron! I also liked the Vision.
I would also have approved of Thor's important moment of "In order to recapture my vision, I must now remove my shirt and bathe in this pool of water" except the scene was insufficiently well-lit and lingering. About ten minutes more would've done it about right.
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There were some decent action sequences but too many of them and they went on too long, and none of them managed to awaken any real emotion in me. Too much of the dialogue was snappy pat banter and instead of making me like the characters prevented me from connecting to them. The opening was an especially rough part for me because it was basically ALL CGI and lots of the CGI was distractingly bad? Also they only avoided the lame joke of "old guy Steve!" again by... hitting it and then hanging a lantern on how bad it was.
Wanda and Pietro lost my sympathy as characters at the whole taking your own terrible childhood pain and resulting (justified) hate-on for Tony Stark and turning that into... inflicting massive pain and destruction on many other children. In particular, deliberately unleashing the Hulk on a populated area is mass murder, and they didn't turn into good guys for me when they bailed on Ultron when they discovered he wanted to destroy the entire planet. Wanda kind of got me by the end mostly because her feeling Pietro's death was powerful and it let me kind of into her as a character, but I just couldn't find them at all appealing before then. I'm glad she's on the new team and hope they do more with her, but here I was underwhelmed.
Ultron was imo a really bad villain. I mean, I guess really the villain of this movie was Tony (more on that later) but he was just SO BAD. Emotionally inconsistent and undeveloped, his voice weirdly veered into jokey banter and back out and insanity and back out always for no apparent reason, and he was just hard to watch and it was impossible to get invested in any fight with him because of the million copies of himself, all of which could be destroyed fairly easily by any Avenger at whatever moment that was needed in any given scene.
I also just found the creation of the Vision to be totally implausible. I could juuust barely buy Tony under the influence of Scarlet Witch doing the stupid-and-arrogant move of making Ultron out of the staff, and I could juuuuuust barely buy Bruce Banner going along with him, although that requires me relying on the personal friendship suggested in IM3 that was not actually on the screen in this movie. I can EVEN buy an interpretation of Tony Stark who was so unable to recognize how his arrogance and desperation had led him to do something REALLY FUCKING STUPID that he doubled down on it and tried for a repeat.
But I cannot buy a Bruce Banner who listens to Tony saying "You're a mad scientist! Own it!" that second time around and says anything in response but "FUCK YOU I'M THE HULK!"
I was given no adequate reason to believe that the second time around was going to work better than the first time around except that it was much further into the movie, and I also don't even get why on a meta level you would WANT it to work, as the writer -- I mean, what is that saying to us as viewers? "Look, kids, Tony was RIGHT to act unilaterally and ignore his teammates' totally reasonable objections!"?
It was also unnecessary! Why not instead Tony gets the casket, and then DOESN'T go it alone? If he tells the rest of the team and they're all NO, BAD IDEA TONY, and he accepts that, and then the half-conscious Jarvis somehow connects to it and downloads HIMSELF into it as they all frantically try and stop it. Except of course then you don't get the obligatory scene of the Avengers all punching each other.
The award for most implausible exchanges definitely goes to Steve for his combo of relationship counseling Bruce Banner and for telling Tony he was going to miss him. Yeah, Steve. Sure. You'll miss Tony and his adorable habit of sneaking around behind your back creating world-destroying monsters! I can SEE YOUR PAIN NOW.
Hanging a lantern on the total lack of Jane and Pepper did not in fact make up for the total lack of Jane and Pepper. Would have liked more of Maria Hill.
The whole sequence at Clint's house, while it seemed kind of nice to me initially, has been bothering me more and more the longer I think about it. The idea of him having a family was nice, but it also felt... obvious? It made him feel oddly MORE a generic dude than before -- like, having a wife and kids and a house is not actually a substitute for characterization? And his wife -- wow, that woman is living some kind of horrifying nightmare, she's alone in an isolated house with two small children and pregnant, I don't see how she can even have a support network or so much as go out and talk to people because it would expose their secret, and clearly she's not even allowed to be angry that her husband abandons her constantly because his job involves actually saving the world.
The Natasha/Bruce was unconvincing and also just irritating. I don't want Natasha's role to be centered on a magical ability to calm Bruce down, which I also don't want to exist period in anyone. And a giant FUCK NO to the whole sterilization thread. FUCK NO to a story about forced sterilization being crammed into two lines of dialogue, FUCK NO to that being centered as Natasha's major trauma and regret, and HELL FUCK NO to Natasha talking about the sterilization and then going straight from that to saying "still think you're the only monster" to Bruce as though the fact she can't have children is what makes her comparable to the guy who just destroyed a city. I realize that was not the intention but that is what landed on the screen. What the actual FUCK was up with that transition.
If Joss wanted a paralleling between Natasha and Bruce to serve as a foundation for their relationship and their mutual desire to run away together, how about starting from the gift of, you know, actual characterization that Cap 2 handed him. How about Natasha not being over how much damage she did and how much work she did for Hydra all unknowingly?
Actually what could have been amazing now I'm thinking about it is what if there were a connection between Natasha and the twins -- eg if some of the twins' training was derived from the Red Room or something like that, or if Natasha had maybe IDK participated in transporting the twins at one point thinking she was doing it for SHIELD but it was for Hydra, something like that -- so she could feel guilt over that instead. Anyway, really anything but what Joss did. Dear dude writers: lady pain does not always have to be related to lady parts or to romance, seriously.
OK, so all that said, I am happy with where the movie left us, and I'm obviously happy for my Sam/Steve OTP for which this movie was a totally unexpected gift that kept on giving. I was really gleeful when Sam showed up at the party (and the mention of him still chasing leads for their "cold case" <3) and then THE END whoooo YES WINGS shiny red-accented wings whoooo \o/
The one best moment in the whole movie for me was Tony going "please let it be a secret door please please -- yay!" which felt exactly true and also delightful.
Possibly Jarvis was my favorite character in the movie. I really felt it when he was destroyed by Ultron! I also liked the Vision.
I would also have approved of Thor's important moment of "In order to recapture my vision, I must now remove my shirt and bathe in this pool of water" except the scene was insufficiently well-lit and lingering. About ten minutes more would've done it about right.
You can also read this entry on Dreamwidth (
comments)