Avengers: AOU - conflicted thoughts ahoy.
- The premise annoyed me and I knew it would going in; Tony Stark should be at the TOP of the list of people who are genre-savvy enough to be aware that creating Skynet is a bad idea. Yes, he's being manipulated by Scarlet Witch, which covers the Watsonian perspective; from a Doylist perspective it still annoyed me. Also, I had liked the fact that Tony's arc through the Iron Man movies is basically Learning How Not To Make Bad Life Decisions, and I felt this was a step backwards. (Also, yes, I know Iron Man is very popupar, but I am sick of all the movies being All About Tony Stark, and it makes me sad in advance for CA3.)
- I once heard someone say of Avengers "Joss Whedon's hatred of adults getting along with each other is showing again", and sadly that's out in spades in this movie. Intra-team conflict just makes me a sad panda, and a lot of this felt unnecessary.
- It feels like Joss Whedon hates Steve Rogers. In the Cap movies, he comes across as stubborn and strong-willed, but willing to listen to reason; in the Avengers movies, his characterisation feels obstinate and mulish solely to give Tony Stark someone to argue with.
- The plot was a hot mess. More than any other MCU movie, this one felt very much constrained by external pressures of what it had to set up next.
- Way too much stuff got resolved off-screen. (Thor's vision re the stones, and Jarvis in the "internet nexus" (lolwhat) in particular.)
+ I was squeeful about seeing Rhodey and Falcon at the party; I liked the way it drew in elements from the standalone movies.
- I was less squeeful about it later when they wind up being the replacements and it's clear they're only there so the audience remembers who they are when the big reveal of the 'new' team happens at the end.
- Also, where the hell are Pepper and Jane? Hill lampshading the sausage-fest does not actually make it better. Would it have killed them to have them there for the party scene, at least?
- The hammer scene at the party was a bad idea, because there's no reason Steve shouldn't be able to lift the hammer. They do the cute fakeout with it shifting, and Thor suddenly paying attention, but let's face it: Steve Rogers is a better man than Thor. If you're talking 'worthiness', there is no way Thor gets a nod from the hammer and Steve doesn't.
- I am not averse to Natasha/Bruce, but the way the movie went about it just felt very forced. They had very little actual chemistry, mostly because we never get to see them interacting outside of Natasha's actual pursuit of Bruce.
+ That said, I looooooooved Natasha's "I adore you - but I need the Other Guy" moment, heartbreaking as it was.
- I liked Clint's family, but again, it felt artificial - this is the third movie he's appearing in, and we only now find out he has a family? Hello, retcon. (And if he has a family, why the hell is he still an active field agent? That seems like just asking for trouble.)
+ I loved the twins, and I am really happy to see Wanda presumably taking a more central role in upcoming stuff. Pietro's death was absolutely pointless, a Whedonism that felt totally gratuitous, but at least if one of them had to get fridged I'm glad it wasn't Wanda.
+ I like the upcoming lineup a lot, although having Rhodey there without Tony might be kind of weird.
* Also, what's with the retirements? I get that they're making room for new Avengers so they don't wind up with a comics-style ensemble of 40+ people, but Tony and Thor in particular both felt odd; they've both recently committed to their roles as Avengers (Thor explicitly at the end of Thor 2 and Tony implicitly by showing up at the start of AOU despite having already kinda-retired at the end of IM3) and bundling them out of the way now felt entirely Doylist. The sudden insertion of Hawkeye having a family, in this light, felt to me like it was just there to justify his retirement too. (Frankly I'm surprised he didn't die, given his wife is pregnant and we saw him looking at a family photo, pre-final-showdown.)
+ Vision is awesome. \m/
- I'm going to miss Jarvis - and why wasn't Tony grieving? At least a bit? That felt massively out of character.
- James Spader did a great job as a villain, but boy, was he ever wrong to play an AI. He sounds entirely too human. Creepy and awesome, sure, but not remotely AI-ish.
+ I loved the action sequences, I loved the pretty, I loved the visualisation of the Maximoffs' powers in particular.
* I am curious to see whether this kills MCU fandom the way the second Star Trek AOS movie killed its fandom. I suspect - and obviously hope - not, but the flurry of post-movie fic I was expecting hasn't eventuated. It doesn't entirely surprise me; I left feeling like I'd just watched a typical summer blockbuster - flawed but superficially enjoyable - not the next chapter in my favourite story.
+ YAY MORE FALCON PLEASE CAN WE HAVE A FALCON MOVIE NOW PLEASE.
- I once heard someone say of Avengers "Joss Whedon's hatred of adults getting along with each other is showing again", and sadly that's out in spades in this movie. Intra-team conflict just makes me a sad panda, and a lot of this felt unnecessary.
- It feels like Joss Whedon hates Steve Rogers. In the Cap movies, he comes across as stubborn and strong-willed, but willing to listen to reason; in the Avengers movies, his characterisation feels obstinate and mulish solely to give Tony Stark someone to argue with.
- The plot was a hot mess. More than any other MCU movie, this one felt very much constrained by external pressures of what it had to set up next.
- Way too much stuff got resolved off-screen. (Thor's vision re the stones, and Jarvis in the "internet nexus" (lolwhat) in particular.)
+ I was squeeful about seeing Rhodey and Falcon at the party; I liked the way it drew in elements from the standalone movies.
- I was less squeeful about it later when they wind up being the replacements and it's clear they're only there so the audience remembers who they are when the big reveal of the 'new' team happens at the end.
- Also, where the hell are Pepper and Jane? Hill lampshading the sausage-fest does not actually make it better. Would it have killed them to have them there for the party scene, at least?
- The hammer scene at the party was a bad idea, because there's no reason Steve shouldn't be able to lift the hammer. They do the cute fakeout with it shifting, and Thor suddenly paying attention, but let's face it: Steve Rogers is a better man than Thor. If you're talking 'worthiness', there is no way Thor gets a nod from the hammer and Steve doesn't.
- I am not averse to Natasha/Bruce, but the way the movie went about it just felt very forced. They had very little actual chemistry, mostly because we never get to see them interacting outside of Natasha's actual pursuit of Bruce.
+ That said, I looooooooved Natasha's "I adore you - but I need the Other Guy" moment, heartbreaking as it was.
- I liked Clint's family, but again, it felt artificial - this is the third movie he's appearing in, and we only now find out he has a family? Hello, retcon. (And if he has a family, why the hell is he still an active field agent? That seems like just asking for trouble.)
+ I loved the twins, and I am really happy to see Wanda presumably taking a more central role in upcoming stuff. Pietro's death was absolutely pointless, a Whedonism that felt totally gratuitous, but at least if one of them had to get fridged I'm glad it wasn't Wanda.
+ I like the upcoming lineup a lot, although having Rhodey there without Tony might be kind of weird.
* Also, what's with the retirements? I get that they're making room for new Avengers so they don't wind up with a comics-style ensemble of 40+ people, but Tony and Thor in particular both felt odd; they've both recently committed to their roles as Avengers (Thor explicitly at the end of Thor 2 and Tony implicitly by showing up at the start of AOU despite having already kinda-retired at the end of IM3) and bundling them out of the way now felt entirely Doylist. The sudden insertion of Hawkeye having a family, in this light, felt to me like it was just there to justify his retirement too. (Frankly I'm surprised he didn't die, given his wife is pregnant and we saw him looking at a family photo, pre-final-showdown.)
+ Vision is awesome. \m/
- I'm going to miss Jarvis - and why wasn't Tony grieving? At least a bit? That felt massively out of character.
- James Spader did a great job as a villain, but boy, was he ever wrong to play an AI. He sounds entirely too human. Creepy and awesome, sure, but not remotely AI-ish.
+ I loved the action sequences, I loved the pretty, I loved the visualisation of the Maximoffs' powers in particular.
* I am curious to see whether this kills MCU fandom the way the second Star Trek AOS movie killed its fandom. I suspect - and obviously hope - not, but the flurry of post-movie fic I was expecting hasn't eventuated. It doesn't entirely surprise me; I left feeling like I'd just watched a typical summer blockbuster - flawed but superficially enjoyable - not the next chapter in my favourite story.
+ YAY MORE FALCON PLEASE CAN WE HAVE A FALCON MOVIE NOW PLEASE.