The Longest And Most Meandering Review of Age of Ultron You Will Read
After several conversations with henpecked about the limitations of Tumblr and the way Tumblr's structure discourages in-depth critical thought, I decided I really wanted to move this to LJ.
I kind of want to move a lot of things to LJ. But we're going to start with this. Obviously a lot of spoilers under the cut.
Originally posted here
Though other parts were much better.
With the caveat that it took me a second or third screening of Avengers before I really enjoyed it-- I remember being a bit ambivalent about it the first time I watched it. I would say overall I enjoyed this one and thought it had more good points than bad, but I don't think it was as good a movie as the first, largely because I think it failed at creating a compelling and cohesive narrative in some places, and the first Avengers film has a very solid and consistent narrative through-line. It was one of those cases where the success of the first had removed some limitations and the lack of limitations meant that it got sloppy. This seems to be the general problem with a lot of Marvel things-- the second Iron Man movie is sloppy, the second Thor movie is sloppy. Cap 2 is really the only one to buck the trend of the second installment not being sloppy.
There was also an editorial choppiness to it-- some points didn’t get resolved, some scenes felt like they jumped around too much without making narrative sense. I understand that a LOT of the film got cut, and it felt like a lot got cut.
Also a small caveat that I think I remember the order of everything that happened in the movie but I'm not 100% sure.
The movie starts weak. Up until they reach the farm, the movie is very unfocused, very uneven, and tries to do too many things. The dialogue relies too heavily on blatant exposition and the threads of the story go in too many different directions. There is a turning point, though, and I'd put it at "sometime while they are at/when they leave the farm" for want of a better specific moment.
After that, the story becomes much more cohesive and turns into a really decent ensemble film. With the caveat that the whole premise of having to save a floating city seemed kind of stupid and over the top-- to me, oddly more over the top than having a city get atacked by aliens. It just seemed super bizarre and like something where the creative team must have decided they had to raise the stakes, but didn't know how to top "aliens and nuclear attack AT THE SAME TIME."
Floating city aside though, the sequence and what the characters go to in that sequence is very good. But it does feel a lot like a "fill in the blank threat." I feel like it could have been tied more specifically to the plot of the movie by raising the stakes of Sokovia being Wanda and Pietro's home that they're protecting. In the actual event, that doesn't come up. It should really be evidently raising the emotional stakes for them; there should be a more pointed link between their betrayal of Ultron and his choice to go after Sokovia.
I'm also frustrated by our (American creators', and I’m claiming this for more than the creators of this film because it’s a trend) propensity to use real places when they are American or "glamorous" locations like London or Paris or Moscow, but when we need a random Eastern European city, it's a made up one. I'm not sure if it's a fear of getting the location wrong and offending someone or an ethnocentrism that makes media creators believe these places don't actually exist or are interchangeable. We may get the geography of our own cities (New York, DC) wrong, but we don't even bother with real cities for places that sound remote to us.
Overall, I enjoyed the initial Strucker segment. It was cohesive and made sense and had a clear goal. It also was a good introduction to the twins and a great first segment to show the team working together but also to start expanding on Clint's character. Clint, overall, was great in this, and I'll say more about that in a bit.
I would have liked to see more about the lullabye. How was it developed, how did they realize Natasha could do this? Is it a thing only Natasha can do, or did she volunteer for it? It seemed like a cool concept, and in my own fic, Nat and Bruce developed strategies for her to get him de-Hulked (they involve quoting Camus) so I buy that they could do it, but where's the backstory? I think that could have added a lot to developing their relationship.
I have to say, I laughed all the way through Tony's vision. I felt bad for the other people in the theater because it just was so over the top and everyone else was silent but I really couldn't help laughing. It was just a ridiculously melodramatic scene.
After that, I felt like the whole story started to go in too many different directions.
I have one comment on a line in the movie that I haven’t seen too many people mention but that I felt was troublesome from a stereotype perspective and out of character for the person saying it-- it really bothered me that Hill was given the line “he’s fast and she’s weird.” First off, this is our first introduction to what Wanda does. For people who aren’t familiar with her powers, “weird” hardly explains it, while “fast” is a very good descriptor. Of COURSE Pietro’s speed is easier to quantify, but come on, give me something better than “weird.” It also buys into a kind of reducing-women-to-crazy trope, which of course I’m not keen on. Put in the mouth of Hill, who’s a character who has been shown as being very supportive of other women, it doesn’t seem in-character at all. I could see one of the men saying it, not really thinking, because it’s a stereotype a lot of even really decent men buy into, but it doesn’t make sense for Hill, and it’s reductive of our first exposition re: Wanda’s identity.
There was too much exposition leading up to Ultron, the holographic balls and the CGI grid matrix to represent robot brains was annoying and I feel like that scene could have been much more chilling if it had been done with empty rooms and status displays. The whole montage of Bruce and Tony working before that seemed like a waste of time that could have been better spent on plotty bits-- not that it was unnecessary but it was awfully long for what it was. I liked that it re-established Tony and Bruce’s closeness and trust in each other but it went on too long. I did appreciate the number of different shirts we saw them in, though.
The party scene was cute but unnecessary for a large part, and kind of killed the momentum. I loved Tony and Thor arguing over whose girlfriend was more awesome, and that was a good way to write the women (played by actresses who did not want to sign on for the movie, from what I understand, so they weren't actively excluded) out while reminding people that they're still a very big part of things. I loved Rhodey and Tony-- there were a TON of Rhodey/Tony shippy moments in this movie which I was really stoked about. I usually think of Rhodey as being too much like an older brother to Tony for that to work for me as a ship but here I could totally buy it and it was really nice to see Rhodey getting that kind of love. Also excited to see Sam and Rhodey in the same scene!
(I will say right up that MAN there is a lot of stuff for a lot of different ‘ships in this movie. On top of the canon established ‘ships in the movie, there is a TON of Steve/Tony and a TON of Steve/Wanda and some good Steve/Natasha, Steve/Thor and Steve/Sam moments. There’s good Bruce/Tony and Rhodey/Tony as I mentioned. There’s the obvious Wanda/Pietro and Wanda/Vision but also some Clint/Pietro and Clint/Wanda and you could totally make a case for Clint/Laura/Natasha being a triad based on how obviously close . And a part of me totally wants to read Vision and Friday fic even though I realize that is TOTALLY NOT ESTABLISHED
I was originally planning on talking about what I would do differently, but this got too long. Feel free to ask if you want to!
I kind of want to move a lot of things to LJ. But we're going to start with this. Obviously a lot of spoilers under the cut.
Originally posted here
Though other parts were much better.
With the caveat that it took me a second or third screening of Avengers before I really enjoyed it-- I remember being a bit ambivalent about it the first time I watched it. I would say overall I enjoyed this one and thought it had more good points than bad, but I don't think it was as good a movie as the first, largely because I think it failed at creating a compelling and cohesive narrative in some places, and the first Avengers film has a very solid and consistent narrative through-line. It was one of those cases where the success of the first had removed some limitations and the lack of limitations meant that it got sloppy. This seems to be the general problem with a lot of Marvel things-- the second Iron Man movie is sloppy, the second Thor movie is sloppy. Cap 2 is really the only one to buck the trend of the second installment not being sloppy.
There was also an editorial choppiness to it-- some points didn’t get resolved, some scenes felt like they jumped around too much without making narrative sense. I understand that a LOT of the film got cut, and it felt like a lot got cut.
Also a small caveat that I think I remember the order of everything that happened in the movie but I'm not 100% sure.
The movie starts weak. Up until they reach the farm, the movie is very unfocused, very uneven, and tries to do too many things. The dialogue relies too heavily on blatant exposition and the threads of the story go in too many different directions. There is a turning point, though, and I'd put it at "sometime while they are at/when they leave the farm" for want of a better specific moment.
After that, the story becomes much more cohesive and turns into a really decent ensemble film. With the caveat that the whole premise of having to save a floating city seemed kind of stupid and over the top-- to me, oddly more over the top than having a city get atacked by aliens. It just seemed super bizarre and like something where the creative team must have decided they had to raise the stakes, but didn't know how to top "aliens and nuclear attack AT THE SAME TIME."
Floating city aside though, the sequence and what the characters go to in that sequence is very good. But it does feel a lot like a "fill in the blank threat." I feel like it could have been tied more specifically to the plot of the movie by raising the stakes of Sokovia being Wanda and Pietro's home that they're protecting. In the actual event, that doesn't come up. It should really be evidently raising the emotional stakes for them; there should be a more pointed link between their betrayal of Ultron and his choice to go after Sokovia.
I'm also frustrated by our (American creators', and I’m claiming this for more than the creators of this film because it’s a trend) propensity to use real places when they are American or "glamorous" locations like London or Paris or Moscow, but when we need a random Eastern European city, it's a made up one. I'm not sure if it's a fear of getting the location wrong and offending someone or an ethnocentrism that makes media creators believe these places don't actually exist or are interchangeable. We may get the geography of our own cities (New York, DC) wrong, but we don't even bother with real cities for places that sound remote to us.
Overall, I enjoyed the initial Strucker segment. It was cohesive and made sense and had a clear goal. It also was a good introduction to the twins and a great first segment to show the team working together but also to start expanding on Clint's character. Clint, overall, was great in this, and I'll say more about that in a bit.
I would have liked to see more about the lullabye. How was it developed, how did they realize Natasha could do this? Is it a thing only Natasha can do, or did she volunteer for it? It seemed like a cool concept, and in my own fic, Nat and Bruce developed strategies for her to get him de-Hulked (they involve quoting Camus) so I buy that they could do it, but where's the backstory? I think that could have added a lot to developing their relationship.
I have to say, I laughed all the way through Tony's vision. I felt bad for the other people in the theater because it just was so over the top and everyone else was silent but I really couldn't help laughing. It was just a ridiculously melodramatic scene.
After that, I felt like the whole story started to go in too many different directions.
I have one comment on a line in the movie that I haven’t seen too many people mention but that I felt was troublesome from a stereotype perspective and out of character for the person saying it-- it really bothered me that Hill was given the line “he’s fast and she’s weird.” First off, this is our first introduction to what Wanda does. For people who aren’t familiar with her powers, “weird” hardly explains it, while “fast” is a very good descriptor. Of COURSE Pietro’s speed is easier to quantify, but come on, give me something better than “weird.” It also buys into a kind of reducing-women-to-crazy trope, which of course I’m not keen on. Put in the mouth of Hill, who’s a character who has been shown as being very supportive of other women, it doesn’t seem in-character at all. I could see one of the men saying it, not really thinking, because it’s a stereotype a lot of even really decent men buy into, but it doesn’t make sense for Hill, and it’s reductive of our first exposition re: Wanda’s identity.
There was too much exposition leading up to Ultron, the holographic balls and the CGI grid matrix to represent robot brains was annoying and I feel like that scene could have been much more chilling if it had been done with empty rooms and status displays. The whole montage of Bruce and Tony working before that seemed like a waste of time that could have been better spent on plotty bits-- not that it was unnecessary but it was awfully long for what it was. I liked that it re-established Tony and Bruce’s closeness and trust in each other but it went on too long. I did appreciate the number of different shirts we saw them in, though.
The party scene was cute but unnecessary for a large part, and kind of killed the momentum. I loved Tony and Thor arguing over whose girlfriend was more awesome, and that was a good way to write the women (played by actresses who did not want to sign on for the movie, from what I understand, so they weren't actively excluded) out while reminding people that they're still a very big part of things. I loved Rhodey and Tony-- there were a TON of Rhodey/Tony shippy moments in this movie which I was really stoked about. I usually think of Rhodey as being too much like an older brother to Tony for that to work for me as a ship but here I could totally buy it and it was really nice to see Rhodey getting that kind of love. Also excited to see Sam and Rhodey in the same scene!
(I will say right up that MAN there is a lot of stuff for a lot of different ‘ships in this movie. On top of the canon established ‘ships in the movie, there is a TON of Steve/Tony and a TON of Steve/Wanda and some good Steve/Natasha, Steve/Thor and Steve/Sam moments. There’s good Bruce/Tony and Rhodey/Tony as I mentioned. There’s the obvious Wanda/Pietro and Wanda/Vision but also some Clint/Pietro and Clint/Wanda and you could totally make a case for Clint/Laura/Natasha being a triad based on how obviously close . And a part of me totally wants to read Vision and Friday fic even though I realize that is TOTALLY NOT ESTABLISHED
I was originally planning on talking about what I would do differently, but this got too long. Feel free to ask if you want to!