review: Avengers: Age of Ultron
Okay, you're going to get the blurty version, since I've just gotten back from the movie.
Not Cap2 good, I think - a different kind of good, but still good.
I really enjoyed it. I wasn't sure I would, but it worked (within the framework of the MCU) and it was really good. The character development and dynamics were excellent, the reiteration of more characters than just the original six Avengers, the development of Vision as a counterpart to Ultron and, oh, just everything.
A friend said, after watching Avengers, that she thought it was very Joss Whedon, and while I didn't feel it so much while watching the first Avengers movie, I felt it was definitely like that in this one. Lots of snappy lines, recurring themes, and a dark thread running through it all the way. I admit, I was wondering if Clint was going to kick the bucket because they introduced his wife and family but they subverted that very nicely. In fact, I think the movie subverted quite a lot of the tropes I was expecting, which made for a nice change.
My big worry was that Maria wouldn't make it through the film, but it was thankfully averted. And while - again - she had only a handful of lines, they were all excellent, practical ones. Plus, interaction with Steve. I'm all for that. :D
The relationships - boy, did the movie implode a bunch of fan-favourites but the way they've developed the relationships there are good and more realistic than romantic, I think. I liked Clintasha, but there's something about Clint Barton, family man, that just hits me in the feels. And Clint and Natasha as besties, but Clint as a family man? Worked really well for me.
Natasha and Bruce, while not something I would have ever picked, works for me as well - particularly in the light of Natasha's history during the Scarlet Witch's headgames - the things that they made her in the Red Room and her admission to Bruce "We're both monsters." That whole discussion in the bedroom? With Bruce trying to fit what Natasha's telling him into his world framework? Amazing. And brutal. So sad that Banner ran off afterwards. So. Sad. Natasha was sad, too. But she stuck with the Avengers Initiative.
I like the Tony & Bruce dynamic (quite unhappy that Pepper wasn't there, and once again, they cut Jane pretty much out of the narrative completely) and I liked how it carried on from the Avengers - Bruce being all "FOR SCIENCE!" and Tony being "FOR THE PROTECTION OF THE WORLD!"
Ooh, plus, that protection of the world, twisted? That was good. Ultron as a darker, non-human version of Tony. The Vision as the inbetween version - neither quite human nor quite android... It's the same type of proposition as the Will Smith movie I, Robot where VIKI felt the solution for world peace was to regiment humanity so they couldn't step over the lines, and the 'rogue robot' with AI was the one that could see both the good and the bad in humanity and not just the bad.
PS. The way that Vision picked up Scarlet Witch just before the city was destroyed? COMICS OMG COMICS REFERENCE WHEEEEEE!
Steve and coming to terms with what he is - a soldier bred for war. First in the discussion with Maria after first encountering the twins, then in the flashback he has of Peggy and after-the-war and that final talk with Tony where he says that the guy who wanted a home and family and a normal life went into the ice all those years ago, and someone else came out. Oh my heart.
Plus all the cameos! Sam! Rhodey! Technician Guy! Selvig! (They needed more female cameos, dammit. Maria said it all when she coughed "Testosterone" into her hand during the party (where neither Pepper nor Jane were present ARGH)...
Probably the most disconcerting part for me was the scene cuts. They were very abrupt, and maybe that was supposed to mean something, but I didn't like it at all. I don't know who did the cinematography for this but I found it detracted from my enjoyment of the movie, from...whatever the first one was, to Steve opening his mouth just before the credits roll. WTF?
Age of Ultron as a movie is a lot more complex, more complicated, and somewhat darker than the others in the series - I'd say it is, in some way, the darkest of the MCU right now. Granted, it's also situated in a darker, more complicated world, but I actually enjoy studies of the darker side of human nature: the acknowledgement that heroes are also monsters - that we are human at our heart, no matter what technology and science can make of us.
And yes, there is still lots of room for me to move in my corner of the MCU - both in Maria's plot and character development, and in Maria/Steve and this makes me happy.
I'll probably go back and see at least once more. Maybe with friends so I can come out and discuss it.
Oh, and when you get around to seeing it, there's a discussion party on over at
endeni's LJ.
Not Cap2 good, I think - a different kind of good, but still good.
I really enjoyed it. I wasn't sure I would, but it worked (within the framework of the MCU) and it was really good. The character development and dynamics were excellent, the reiteration of more characters than just the original six Avengers, the development of Vision as a counterpart to Ultron and, oh, just everything.
A friend said, after watching Avengers, that she thought it was very Joss Whedon, and while I didn't feel it so much while watching the first Avengers movie, I felt it was definitely like that in this one. Lots of snappy lines, recurring themes, and a dark thread running through it all the way. I admit, I was wondering if Clint was going to kick the bucket because they introduced his wife and family but they subverted that very nicely. In fact, I think the movie subverted quite a lot of the tropes I was expecting, which made for a nice change.
My big worry was that Maria wouldn't make it through the film, but it was thankfully averted. And while - again - she had only a handful of lines, they were all excellent, practical ones. Plus, interaction with Steve. I'm all for that. :D
The relationships - boy, did the movie implode a bunch of fan-favourites but the way they've developed the relationships there are good and more realistic than romantic, I think. I liked Clintasha, but there's something about Clint Barton, family man, that just hits me in the feels. And Clint and Natasha as besties, but Clint as a family man? Worked really well for me.
Natasha and Bruce, while not something I would have ever picked, works for me as well - particularly in the light of Natasha's history during the Scarlet Witch's headgames - the things that they made her in the Red Room and her admission to Bruce "We're both monsters." That whole discussion in the bedroom? With Bruce trying to fit what Natasha's telling him into his world framework? Amazing. And brutal. So sad that Banner ran off afterwards. So. Sad. Natasha was sad, too. But she stuck with the Avengers Initiative.
I like the Tony & Bruce dynamic (quite unhappy that Pepper wasn't there, and once again, they cut Jane pretty much out of the narrative completely) and I liked how it carried on from the Avengers - Bruce being all "FOR SCIENCE!" and Tony being "FOR THE PROTECTION OF THE WORLD!"
Ooh, plus, that protection of the world, twisted? That was good. Ultron as a darker, non-human version of Tony. The Vision as the inbetween version - neither quite human nor quite android... It's the same type of proposition as the Will Smith movie I, Robot where VIKI felt the solution for world peace was to regiment humanity so they couldn't step over the lines, and the 'rogue robot' with AI was the one that could see both the good and the bad in humanity and not just the bad.
PS. The way that Vision picked up Scarlet Witch just before the city was destroyed? COMICS OMG COMICS REFERENCE WHEEEEEE!
Steve and coming to terms with what he is - a soldier bred for war. First in the discussion with Maria after first encountering the twins, then in the flashback he has of Peggy and after-the-war and that final talk with Tony where he says that the guy who wanted a home and family and a normal life went into the ice all those years ago, and someone else came out. Oh my heart.
Plus all the cameos! Sam! Rhodey! Technician Guy! Selvig! (They needed more female cameos, dammit. Maria said it all when she coughed "Testosterone" into her hand during the party (where neither Pepper nor Jane were present ARGH)...
Probably the most disconcerting part for me was the scene cuts. They were very abrupt, and maybe that was supposed to mean something, but I didn't like it at all. I don't know who did the cinematography for this but I found it detracted from my enjoyment of the movie, from...whatever the first one was, to Steve opening his mouth just before the credits roll. WTF?
Age of Ultron as a movie is a lot more complex, more complicated, and somewhat darker than the others in the series - I'd say it is, in some way, the darkest of the MCU right now. Granted, it's also situated in a darker, more complicated world, but I actually enjoy studies of the darker side of human nature: the acknowledgement that heroes are also monsters - that we are human at our heart, no matter what technology and science can make of us.
And yes, there is still lots of room for me to move in my corner of the MCU - both in Maria's plot and character development, and in Maria/Steve and this makes me happy.
I'll probably go back and see at least once more. Maybe with friends so I can come out and discuss it.
Oh, and when you get around to seeing it, there's a discussion party on over at
endeni's LJ.