"so you gotta ask yourself: 'do i feel avengery?' well do ya, punk?"
Quick&dirty reaction post, mostly positive, spoilery as hell of course.
• I've read what Joss said, about being able to relate to Ultron because pain can make us do incredibly destructive things, and my heart hurts for him - but I also fucking LOVE that Ultron is such a great take on the evil AI trope. He is made in Tony's image, and Tony's egotism and entitlement to power is taken into the darkest place possible, and that's AWESOME - because despite the creepy children's song, Ultron DOES have strings, and so does everybody else: there is no such thing as existence outside context. The strings tie us to families/communities/PAST SELVES; Ultron can't escape being an egomaniac (like Tony at his worst) any more than Tony can escape his past as a #1 arms dealer (a past that, incidentally, inspires/creates both Ultron and the new heroes/Avengers, and I for one love that it keeps coming back to bite him because he may be a hero now but he was once a merchant of death, and his peace robots SHOULD be pelted with rotten fruit). ANYWAY. Bottom line: nobody gets to live outside the narrative, even if they try to erase it (plus, erasure itself is an old trope; Noah gets namechecked and everything). And there's something quite... non-American-dream about it, about denying this fantasy of saying farewell to the past and getting a brand new start - be it the Gold Rush or Mad Men or what have you - and that feels very important to me.
• Speaking of the non-American-dream theme, while the perspective of the movie is still very much white & American & empowered, I'm really pleased that the locations were decidedly NOT: South Africa (or, apparently, a made-up country in Africa? oops, missed that bit), and South Korea, and the made-up country Sokovia in Eastern Europe that might as well have had "former Yugoslavia" stamped on it. (The language in all the signs was Serbian. Interesting tidbit: "Soko" means "hawk" in my language.) Plus, the description of Sokovia as "not itself important but in a crucial place between important forces" is a narrative I heard over and over again during the Balkan wars, from our local AND the international media, and there it is again as a nice fit to the story here: the inescapable context of narrative, impossible to deny even as Ultron physically detaches the place from the Earth in order to make it a weapon of extinction. (Personally, that image will haunt me for a good long while; ask me sometimes about the post-war media imagery of my former country, wherein borders got erased/faded out in innocuous things like weather forecasts on TV.)
And I LOVE LOVE LOVE that Steve, visually framed as he is by the American flag (his uniform/costume; actual flag on the Bartons' porch), recognizes that patriotism is NOT AN AMERICAN THING and should be viewed with the same respect and empathy no matter the smaller context of national belonging. His little speech about the Maximoff twins, "what kind of idiots would let a German scientist do experiments on them so they'd gain powers to defend their country?" is arguably MY FAVORITE THING IN THE MOVIE. It's the kind of statement that subverts the oversimplified narratives of riot/uprising, freedom fighters/terrorists, revolution/unrest that the news media uses to frame worldview according to national/corporate agendas that have little to do with objectivity. Plus, the wars around the globe are inevitably interconnected, through the Hydra network, Stark weapons on the market, etc. etc. Once again, THE STRINGS ARE INESCAPABLE - the evil is just the other side of the coin.
• I heard about the Natasha/Bruce thing before going in to see the movie, and I was READY TO LOVE IT and... alas, I can't, not the way their story is told here. And I'm pretty pissed that Natasha views her sterility as something that makes her a monster akin to the Hulk. But I did love the moment she goes "sorry, I need the other guy" and pushes Banner into the abyss to ~activate him. Also, after a movie full of characters trying to shed their strings and dealing with tons of pain in the process, WHY WE DON'T HAVE A BLACK WIDOW MOVIE is completely beyond me. Augh!
• The hammer thing was GREAT. The whole party scene was amazing. Maria coughing "testosterone!" was perfection.
• Just got reminded of Tony praying for a secret door and going "yay" quietly when the prayer's answered. GREAT moment.
• I love that Ultron is Tony's darkest timeline, but Vision is Jarvis, and I am forever charmed that JARVIS IS WORTHY. (Shhh, I don't care if he can lift the hammer just because he's made of vibranium plus infinity stone, HE WAS PAPA STARK'S TRUSTED BUTLER AND PEGGY CARTER'S FRIEND AND HE IS WORTHY.) Also: lovelovelove the moment Vision checks out Thor - who basically gave him life via lightning - and ~discretely grows a cape to look more like him. That was SO ADORABLE.
• Oh, I'm so sad that Steve is still kinda displaced (can't afford a place in Brooklyn! I know that feel, man) but super pleased that Sam has been helping him work the ~missing persons case.
• CLINT'S FAMILY. ♥ My relief over Clint's wife NOT asking him to quit his dangerous job of superheroism is TOO GREAT TO BE TEXTUALLY RENDERED.
• There were SO MANY JOKES and SO MUCH LIGHTNESS and I HAD MANY TEAM FEELS. Also appreciated that Ultron obviously had Tony's sense of humor. And THOR WAS HILARIOUS - hanging out on Earth has clearly been an interesting experience for him. &HEMSWORTH;
....there is much more to discuss, but I have stuff to do - might be back later with additions. YAY AVENGERS YAYYYY.
Now also available on that other site!
• I've read what Joss said, about being able to relate to Ultron because pain can make us do incredibly destructive things, and my heart hurts for him - but I also fucking LOVE that Ultron is such a great take on the evil AI trope. He is made in Tony's image, and Tony's egotism and entitlement to power is taken into the darkest place possible, and that's AWESOME - because despite the creepy children's song, Ultron DOES have strings, and so does everybody else: there is no such thing as existence outside context. The strings tie us to families/communities/PAST SELVES; Ultron can't escape being an egomaniac (like Tony at his worst) any more than Tony can escape his past as a #1 arms dealer (a past that, incidentally, inspires/creates both Ultron and the new heroes/Avengers, and I for one love that it keeps coming back to bite him because he may be a hero now but he was once a merchant of death, and his peace robots SHOULD be pelted with rotten fruit). ANYWAY. Bottom line: nobody gets to live outside the narrative, even if they try to erase it (plus, erasure itself is an old trope; Noah gets namechecked and everything). And there's something quite... non-American-dream about it, about denying this fantasy of saying farewell to the past and getting a brand new start - be it the Gold Rush or Mad Men or what have you - and that feels very important to me.
• Speaking of the non-American-dream theme, while the perspective of the movie is still very much white & American & empowered, I'm really pleased that the locations were decidedly NOT: South Africa (or, apparently, a made-up country in Africa? oops, missed that bit), and South Korea, and the made-up country Sokovia in Eastern Europe that might as well have had "former Yugoslavia" stamped on it. (The language in all the signs was Serbian. Interesting tidbit: "Soko" means "hawk" in my language.) Plus, the description of Sokovia as "not itself important but in a crucial place between important forces" is a narrative I heard over and over again during the Balkan wars, from our local AND the international media, and there it is again as a nice fit to the story here: the inescapable context of narrative, impossible to deny even as Ultron physically detaches the place from the Earth in order to make it a weapon of extinction. (Personally, that image will haunt me for a good long while; ask me sometimes about the post-war media imagery of my former country, wherein borders got erased/faded out in innocuous things like weather forecasts on TV.)
And I LOVE LOVE LOVE that Steve, visually framed as he is by the American flag (his uniform/costume; actual flag on the Bartons' porch), recognizes that patriotism is NOT AN AMERICAN THING and should be viewed with the same respect and empathy no matter the smaller context of national belonging. His little speech about the Maximoff twins, "what kind of idiots would let a German scientist do experiments on them so they'd gain powers to defend their country?" is arguably MY FAVORITE THING IN THE MOVIE. It's the kind of statement that subverts the oversimplified narratives of riot/uprising, freedom fighters/terrorists, revolution/unrest that the news media uses to frame worldview according to national/corporate agendas that have little to do with objectivity. Plus, the wars around the globe are inevitably interconnected, through the Hydra network, Stark weapons on the market, etc. etc. Once again, THE STRINGS ARE INESCAPABLE - the evil is just the other side of the coin.
• I heard about the Natasha/Bruce thing before going in to see the movie, and I was READY TO LOVE IT and... alas, I can't, not the way their story is told here. And I'm pretty pissed that Natasha views her sterility as something that makes her a monster akin to the Hulk. But I did love the moment she goes "sorry, I need the other guy" and pushes Banner into the abyss to ~activate him. Also, after a movie full of characters trying to shed their strings and dealing with tons of pain in the process, WHY WE DON'T HAVE A BLACK WIDOW MOVIE is completely beyond me. Augh!
• The hammer thing was GREAT. The whole party scene was amazing. Maria coughing "testosterone!" was perfection.
• Just got reminded of Tony praying for a secret door and going "yay" quietly when the prayer's answered. GREAT moment.
• I love that Ultron is Tony's darkest timeline, but Vision is Jarvis, and I am forever charmed that JARVIS IS WORTHY. (Shhh, I don't care if he can lift the hammer just because he's made of vibranium plus infinity stone, HE WAS PAPA STARK'S TRUSTED BUTLER AND PEGGY CARTER'S FRIEND AND HE IS WORTHY.) Also: lovelovelove the moment Vision checks out Thor - who basically gave him life via lightning - and ~discretely grows a cape to look more like him. That was SO ADORABLE.
• Oh, I'm so sad that Steve is still kinda displaced (can't afford a place in Brooklyn! I know that feel, man) but super pleased that Sam has been helping him work the ~missing persons case.
• CLINT'S FAMILY. ♥ My relief over Clint's wife NOT asking him to quit his dangerous job of superheroism is TOO GREAT TO BE TEXTUALLY RENDERED.
• There were SO MANY JOKES and SO MUCH LIGHTNESS and I HAD MANY TEAM FEELS. Also appreciated that Ultron obviously had Tony's sense of humor. And THOR WAS HILARIOUS - hanging out on Earth has clearly been an interesting experience for him. &HEMSWORTH;
....there is much more to discuss, but I have stuff to do - might be back later with additions. YAY AVENGERS YAYYYY.
Now also available on that other site!