Age of Ultron
So, I saw it. And now I have a couple quick thoughts, including one observation about Steve.
Overall, I found this movie sort of underwhelming in the character department, which is bad because that's the reason I enjoy these movies - robots are cool and all, but the human factor is what I'm in it for. The script was trying to do a lot of things, and it only did one or two of those things well. But my expectations were pretty low, to be honest, so I didn't dislike the movie the way I suspect some of you did.
As I said in a previous post, I was annoyed and disappointed to be spoiled beforehand for all of the following: Pietro's death (don't care), the one-liner about Bucky in which Bucky's name was not mentioned (I am choosing to believe that's because JARVIS is always listening and Steve and Sam know it), and the fact that Clint has a family no one but Nat knew about (which is bizarre but I rolled with it). I was also spoiled for the Bruce/Nat romance, which, okay, I don't really see a point to that, but whatever.
The thing I wasn't spoiled for, and I am REALLY GLAD, was The Vision being able to wield Thor's hammer. That was an awesome moment, which would have been greatly diminished if I'd known ahead of time.
Speaking of character notes - so, Steve has recognized the change in himself, yes? Did anyone else love the progression there? Steve has a vision of Peggy; fake!Peggy tells him the war is over and they can go home, and to imagine it; Steve pictures an empty ballroom. And then he tells Tony that the guy who wanted those things (home, family) went into the ice and 75 years later, something else came out. I kind of loved this on several levels, some textual and some subtextual, but I especially like that Steve has come to terms with the fact that he's as much a war machine as Iron Man, and that he has a particular path.
Things I liked:
- Avengers fighting together (OBVIOUSLY), and the way all of them are using Steve's shield, singly or as partners toward a goal
- JARVIS becoming The Vision fused with bits of vibranium and random elements of Ultron
- The way Ultron was the snarky, weird love child of James Spader, Tony Stark and JARVIS - seriously, that wouldn't have worked with anyone but Spader, I dare you to tell me different
- A tiny glimpse at Nat's training in the Red Room
- Hawkeye being funny ("No one would know", omg, I laughed)
- Hawkeye being all 'no more mind control for me, thanks!' Ahaha.
- The party, and Steve being able to budge the hammer
- The running joke about Steve and language, which of course resolved with Steve saying son of a bitch. This joke works so beautifully because Steve curses on-screen more than anyone else in the MCU, I think, and yet you see the opposite of that is pervasive even in fanon. So this pleased me greatly. (Also I love how much the Avengers all love teasing Steve. They tease with love.)
- Tony's vision - that his teammates die and Tony survives, and has to live with it being all his fault - contributed to him leaving the team. At least for now.
- The new Avengers lineup: Falcon, Scarlet Witch, The Vision, and War Machine. And Cap and Natasha in charge of beating them into shape. YASSSSSSSSSS.
- Tony and Steve parted on good terms. I was a bit worried about that. I guess they are saving all their real grr, arrgh for Civil War.
- Bruce being a fugitive and going off the grid again, and this time, in ways that they can't track. SHIELD will catch up with him eventually, but for now, some peace. Poor Hulk.
- Ah, the Infinity Stones make their explicit appearance. As does the gauntlet.
Things that basically made no sense:
- Clint is married? Really? I would much rather he have had a dog named Lucky.
- Thor had a vision with the water spirits in a cave in the what now? I have no idea what even happened there.
- JARVIS disassembled himself, and then he hacked into various computer systems and protected them from Ultron, or...something? What? IDEK.
- They shoehorned in every single character everywhere ever into this film but could not find a way to a) have Sam help save civilians and b) have Coulson make a dramatic appearance? (Yes, I've read the Whedon interview where he says, ridiculously, that the shows and the movies aren't in universe continuity, and I agree, he can go fuck himself.)
- Also on the topic of Sam, how do we go from 'Avenging is your thing' to 'hey, I'm an Avenger now'? A little transition here, please? Wasted character opportunities.
- Are we finally free of Loki's Multi-Purpose Sceptre of Doom? Sigh.
Things I could have lived without:
- Tony being both pigheaded and dumb. Yes, I know, he's like that in the comics. But I don't like it when Tony is dumb because he's being stubborn in pursuit of his own agenda.
- I didn't like Bruce passively helping him be dumb, either.
- The 'my woman is smarter than yours' thing at the party. It was only saved by *cough*TESTOSTERONE*cough* from Hill.
- It's annoying to know the Maximoff parentage and yet not have it be a part of the MCU canon. I wish Fox would just sell the rights, but they won't, because a) Magneto's presence in this universe would have meant there could be no movie due to his metal-squishing powers, and b) the X-Men movies are a huge cash cow.
- Relatedly, Pietro is not as fun or interesting as Quicksilver was in XMDOFP. Alas. It's hard not to compare, and I resent them for making me do it, but I can't help it.
- Why does it matter at all whether Nat could have kids? Let me rephrase: I get why it matters TO HER; it is part of who she is and why she is how she is, actually. But I don't get why this had to be a character point in this movie, mostly because I don't get why she was romancing Banner. Was it necessary to have the romance to get to that bit of info about Natasha? There are about 5000 other things I really want to know about her. WHERE ARE THOSE PIECES OF INFO. I'm having trouble articulating why this bothered me. But it did.
- Too many robots. I felt like I was watching X-Men. I'm not sure I wasn't.
I'm probably missing stuff, but honestly, I didn't come away from the movie all excited and fannish. Mostly I came away relieved that the movie didn't screw up anything I care about, or kill any character I'm attached to. I'm assuming that we will see Thor and Iron Man back with the Avengers for Infinity War, but I'm not sure. The thing is, Thor has Ragnarok coming up, and Iron Man will be in Civil War (potentially pulling the team even further apart), so why did they go to so much trouble to set up the new Avengers lineup if the principle players are still in the game?
Now I can read back thru LJ and see what everyone else thought.
Overall, I found this movie sort of underwhelming in the character department, which is bad because that's the reason I enjoy these movies - robots are cool and all, but the human factor is what I'm in it for. The script was trying to do a lot of things, and it only did one or two of those things well. But my expectations were pretty low, to be honest, so I didn't dislike the movie the way I suspect some of you did.
As I said in a previous post, I was annoyed and disappointed to be spoiled beforehand for all of the following: Pietro's death (don't care), the one-liner about Bucky in which Bucky's name was not mentioned (I am choosing to believe that's because JARVIS is always listening and Steve and Sam know it), and the fact that Clint has a family no one but Nat knew about (which is bizarre but I rolled with it). I was also spoiled for the Bruce/Nat romance, which, okay, I don't really see a point to that, but whatever.
The thing I wasn't spoiled for, and I am REALLY GLAD, was The Vision being able to wield Thor's hammer. That was an awesome moment, which would have been greatly diminished if I'd known ahead of time.
Speaking of character notes - so, Steve has recognized the change in himself, yes? Did anyone else love the progression there? Steve has a vision of Peggy; fake!Peggy tells him the war is over and they can go home, and to imagine it; Steve pictures an empty ballroom. And then he tells Tony that the guy who wanted those things (home, family) went into the ice and 75 years later, something else came out. I kind of loved this on several levels, some textual and some subtextual, but I especially like that Steve has come to terms with the fact that he's as much a war machine as Iron Man, and that he has a particular path.
Things I liked:
- Avengers fighting together (OBVIOUSLY), and the way all of them are using Steve's shield, singly or as partners toward a goal
- JARVIS becoming The Vision fused with bits of vibranium and random elements of Ultron
- The way Ultron was the snarky, weird love child of James Spader, Tony Stark and JARVIS - seriously, that wouldn't have worked with anyone but Spader, I dare you to tell me different
- A tiny glimpse at Nat's training in the Red Room
- Hawkeye being funny ("No one would know", omg, I laughed)
- Hawkeye being all 'no more mind control for me, thanks!' Ahaha.
- The party, and Steve being able to budge the hammer
- The running joke about Steve and language, which of course resolved with Steve saying son of a bitch. This joke works so beautifully because Steve curses on-screen more than anyone else in the MCU, I think, and yet you see the opposite of that is pervasive even in fanon. So this pleased me greatly. (Also I love how much the Avengers all love teasing Steve. They tease with love.)
- Tony's vision - that his teammates die and Tony survives, and has to live with it being all his fault - contributed to him leaving the team. At least for now.
- The new Avengers lineup: Falcon, Scarlet Witch, The Vision, and War Machine. And Cap and Natasha in charge of beating them into shape. YASSSSSSSSSS.
- Tony and Steve parted on good terms. I was a bit worried about that. I guess they are saving all their real grr, arrgh for Civil War.
- Bruce being a fugitive and going off the grid again, and this time, in ways that they can't track. SHIELD will catch up with him eventually, but for now, some peace. Poor Hulk.
- Ah, the Infinity Stones make their explicit appearance. As does the gauntlet.
Things that basically made no sense:
- Clint is married? Really? I would much rather he have had a dog named Lucky.
- Thor had a vision with the water spirits in a cave in the what now? I have no idea what even happened there.
- JARVIS disassembled himself, and then he hacked into various computer systems and protected them from Ultron, or...something? What? IDEK.
- They shoehorned in every single character everywhere ever into this film but could not find a way to a) have Sam help save civilians and b) have Coulson make a dramatic appearance? (Yes, I've read the Whedon interview where he says, ridiculously, that the shows and the movies aren't in universe continuity, and I agree, he can go fuck himself.)
- Also on the topic of Sam, how do we go from 'Avenging is your thing' to 'hey, I'm an Avenger now'? A little transition here, please? Wasted character opportunities.
- Are we finally free of Loki's Multi-Purpose Sceptre of Doom? Sigh.
Things I could have lived without:
- Tony being both pigheaded and dumb. Yes, I know, he's like that in the comics. But I don't like it when Tony is dumb because he's being stubborn in pursuit of his own agenda.
- I didn't like Bruce passively helping him be dumb, either.
- The 'my woman is smarter than yours' thing at the party. It was only saved by *cough*TESTOSTERONE*cough* from Hill.
- It's annoying to know the Maximoff parentage and yet not have it be a part of the MCU canon. I wish Fox would just sell the rights, but they won't, because a) Magneto's presence in this universe would have meant there could be no movie due to his metal-squishing powers, and b) the X-Men movies are a huge cash cow.
- Relatedly, Pietro is not as fun or interesting as Quicksilver was in XMDOFP. Alas. It's hard not to compare, and I resent them for making me do it, but I can't help it.
- Why does it matter at all whether Nat could have kids? Let me rephrase: I get why it matters TO HER; it is part of who she is and why she is how she is, actually. But I don't get why this had to be a character point in this movie, mostly because I don't get why she was romancing Banner. Was it necessary to have the romance to get to that bit of info about Natasha? There are about 5000 other things I really want to know about her. WHERE ARE THOSE PIECES OF INFO. I'm having trouble articulating why this bothered me. But it did.
- Too many robots. I felt like I was watching X-Men. I'm not sure I wasn't.
I'm probably missing stuff, but honestly, I didn't come away from the movie all excited and fannish. Mostly I came away relieved that the movie didn't screw up anything I care about, or kill any character I'm attached to. I'm assuming that we will see Thor and Iron Man back with the Avengers for Infinity War, but I'm not sure. The thing is, Thor has Ragnarok coming up, and Iron Man will be in Civil War (potentially pulling the team even further apart), so why did they go to so much trouble to set up the new Avengers lineup if the principle players are still in the game?
Now I can read back thru LJ and see what everyone else thought.