Age of Ultron: thinky thoughts

[inkvoices]

Second viewing of Age of Ultron was on Tuesday for thinky thoughts and third viewing was this afternoon for trying to memorize quotes and checking a few things for fic purposes *grins*. So I bring you further, hopefully more coherent, thinking. Be warned: SPOILERS FOR ALL THE THINGS. Also it’s kind of long and detailed, sorry not sorry

Comments

[happilydancing]

Holy moly, I love this! I have a lot to say to in your other post (the days slipped by and then I saw the movie and now I need to recover, haha), and have a lot to say about this AMAZING ANALYSIS. But gotta do the 2 hour drive home from work, but I know what I'll be re-reading tonight.

[inkvoices]

Heehee, well I'll get some sleep ready for chatter tomorrow then *grins*. Glad it's of interest to someone; I just had to get it off my chest lol.

[alphaflyer]

Whoa, that's a lot to digest. Don't agree with everything (where would be the fun if we did?) but will need to re-read when I'm more awake to disagree (or agree) articulately.

[inkvoices]

Words happened. It's a thing ;)

Good! I need someone to bounce off and iron my thoughts out :D And yeah, I need to sleep first anyway *grins*. I'm so excited people online are getting to see it now too so more chatter can happen.

[alphaflyer]

WHY ARE YOU EVEN STILL AWAKE??

[inkvoices]

There was Age of Ultron. Then I went for a meal for a friend's birthday. Then there were M&Ms. So I'm kind of wired Thankfully I can lie in tomorrow lol.

[hufflepuffsneak]

You picked up on a lot that I missed - I just want to see the extended edition to see if all of these interesting ideas paid off

[inkvoices]

Ooo, thinky thoughts chatter *gets comfy*

Yeah, my ears are too trained to the Firefly frequency and need to stop, but hey, they heard what they heard ;) Well, I had Saga and Margaret Atwood in there, Foucault wanted to join in *grins*.

1) Now that's a fascinating angle. I'd picked up on Tony being a contrast, wanting freedom from for everyone else but wanted freedom to himself to get there, to be able to do what he wants without 'a City Hall debate', but yes, Steve is also contradictions, wanting people to have freedom to but then cracking down on Tony when he tries to exercise that freedom. The individual vs team as well too... Wondering how this will feed into Civil War!

2) YES, from surviving to living. I may be making this up, but sod it, this is Natasha's arc for me :)

I think of this also in terms of Natasha is going for an escape plan here, she's saying all of them on flying Sokovia vs everyone else, kind of the same sacrifice play as Tony at the end of Avengers flying the nuke into space and Cap bringing down his

[hufflepuffsneak]

Natasha's arc is also about that to me (and as you said, choice). Going from being forced to constantly adapt to be whomever she needs to be/ what others want her to be, to being "herself" even if she doesn't know who that is. One way to read her sort of inconsistent writing across movies is that she's trying out different version of herself, for herself. To me, her hair represents this. It might be long, short, curly, straight, different shades, but it always red. There is always an integrity to Natasha, but outside of that she's changeable.

[inkvoices]

Yes, yes, yes, and the hair, that hadn't occured to me! Her hair as a externalised expression of the internal, that works for me :)

[scribble_myname]

This is big post that makes me very happy and want to see the movie and fic all the things. Seriously. I need to find a way to see this movie. Love the meta and still processing.

[inkvoices]

Wait, hold the phone, you're reading all the spoilery stuff and you haven't seen the film yet?! Nooo, go see the film!

Glad you liked the meta :) I need all the fic as well, and icons, ooo, I need icons. AND FOR YOU TO WATCH THE FILM ;p

[scribble_myname]

Can't. It'll be a long time before I do and I live for spoilers and won't watch a movie without them. Ever.

[inkvoices]

Aww, how come it takes so long? :(

With some things I really don't like spoilers, and with others if I get a few it's okay, but I don't go actively looking for them. And if people spoil me for who dies or big spoilers I don't like it.

How much is out of context for you then, I mean have you had an overview of the film or anything? Because if you want it I'm give you a plot summary, and if you want more detail on parts I could do that. Because film!

[alphaflyer]

So -- first of all -- WOW. Both for the thoughts, and the synopsis you did for scribble_myname.

Having written a fair bit on some of the character arcs, I'll focus on the "security" theme. The most fascinating thing for me was the interaction with foreign civilians, military and law enforcement to the Avengers' interventions. SO much parallel here to the general resentment of Western/US ideas of global security, even when it IS in the locals' interest. Having the "for your own protection, do X" delivered by robots is actually a spot of political sarcasm at its finest, but alas lost in the mayhem.

Global peace and security is not an end state but a continuum, which requires grassroots cooperation, not dictate. ("Mission accomplished" is, for many reasons, the paradigmatic cry of failure in this regard). Non-acknowledgement of that fact -- coupled with the belief that it is his job to achieve -- is Tony Stark's hubris; its understanding is Nick Fury's personal tragedy (that "trouble" quote). It's the ball you keep rolling up the hill, and

[inkvoices]

I got wordy *grins*. (If only I could get that wordy more often in fics

[alphaflyer]

Oh, oh -- you reminded me of what I thought was the unintentionally funniest line: "Strucker has been handed over to NATO."

Where to begin? That NATO has a detention facility? (Emm ... like ... where, and on whose authority?) That NATO would somehow have/take/accept jurisdiction over what amounts to a civilian arrest in a non-NATO member state? And all that without endless fucking sessions of the Atlantic Council in which the US will piss everyone off by suggesting the decision has already been taken, Canada would have to wait for instructions from Ottawa, France would make epically long and incomprehensible statements about something entirely different, Latvia, Estonia and Lithuania make a joint statement on membership expansion, and Turkey and Greece make it all about the potential impact on Cyprus?

Right up there with that wonderful statement in Godzilla, that NATO had taken jurisdiction over Tokyo. No wonder people on this planet are paranoid.

[inkvoices]

Bwahaha, yes, THIS. And then I was like, 'Oh, it's okay, he's dead now anyway.'