Avengers: Age of Ultron (2015)'s comments

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lachyas

By now it's abundantly clear that I'm not in the target audience for Marvel films, which is fine, but I quite enjoyed Guardians and Cap 2, so there was really no reason for the second Avengers film to not offer at least something of value. Sadly, this was just a huge disappointment. Probably more telling was that the people I saw the film with, all of whom loved the previous instalments in this franchise, also left feeling underwhelmed.

I'm not sure what people are seeing here. The action is fairly unremarkable and generic, with individual scenes blending together with few standout moments and the film eventually doing what all Marvel films do and descending into a CGI destruction porn spectacle with an arbitrary race against the clock to save the world. Again. Meanwhile the overarching storyline is nothing new and, in broad strokes, could have been lifted from any number of previous superhero movies. I don't know whether all the comic book source material is overwhelmingly similar or it's just how it is being adapted, but this is by far the most risk-adverse and cliched Marvel movie to date.

None of that is overly surprising, but the real killer here is the dialogue. I've never heard so many forced attempts to be witty in a film; it's like every second line needed to be this quip or piece of hilarious banter between the team and, whilst some of these work, for every joke that lands ten fall flat on their face, with the result that everything feels extremely forced, rather than letting the dynamic between the Avengers flow in a more natural way. This comes at the cost of character development, which is disappointingly sparse; it feels like all the Avengers come out the other side of the events here more or less the same as how they came in, other than perhaps a romance subplot with about as much chemistry between the players as those in Fifty Shades Of Grey. Given the possibilities raised by the mental manipulation powers, this is a huge wasted opportunity.

It's a real pity as well, because the cast is phenomenal: Johansson is coming off her career-best performance in Under The Skin, similar can be said of Renner in Kill The Messenger and Ruffalo in Foxcatcher, and Olsen and Spader are very strong additions. These are seriously talented people, not just big names, but they're given absolutely nothing to work with. I can't think of a single scene that required any degree of acting talent to the point where it couldn't have been performed by any number of lesser actors. Spader's antagonist in particular is just the next entry in a long line of utterly forgettable Marvel villains, forgoing the menacing presence promised by trailers to become another mouthpiece for Whedon's quips, and the strength of the twins as characters is diminished by their spoiler

which was far too rushed and under-explained.

Of course the film is going to make a billion dollars and criticism is just going to be waved away as 'haters gonna hate', which is one of the most damaging things you can possibly say to film discussion. It's a shame, because there's a lot to discuss here, particularly given that Whedon himself has admitted to feeling tired and worn out while making the movie. It remains to be seen whether this will be reflected in general audiences after one too many superhero blockbusters, but I have no doubt that given time this will be seen as one of the weakest instalments in the Marvel franchise behemoth. Which is saying something.

9 years ago

MrDoog

Predictably uses the usual, worn out Marvel formula whereby each hero gets their allotted time to showcase their bag of tricks in taking down yet another flimsy generic army - yet it still falls short of the distinctly average super hero movie standards.

It was far too long and bloated.
The jokes fall flat, I think I chuckled once near the beginning.
The twins' accents were hilariously bad.
The love story didn't work.
Hawkeye's scenes and general presence was surplus to requirements.

The whole loud thing was more tedious than fun and felt devoid of any heart and soul. There have been worse mcu installments to date, but this is supposed to be their flagship release. Definitely the last marvel movie I waste money seeing in theaters. That said, i'm sure fanboys will lap it up

9 years ago

DisneyStitch

Somehow watching the opening fight sequence you can tell that it won't be as fun as the first Avengers, a feeling that persists all the way to the mid-credits bonus scene. The movie suffers from too much plot and it rushes through so many plot points in rapid fire succession that you can't help but feel as if they put far too much into it.

Ultron would have benefited from more screen time and the Avengers are being slowly defeated by the problem of having way too many characters on screen. The Marvel universe works pretty well with each Avenger having their own love interest, enemies, and sidekicks in their own individual movie series. However, throw all of them into one movie and the mixture totally implodes. Based on the ending scene of the movie it looks like things are only going to be more crowded and overstuffed in future films.

The first Avengers did what it intended to do very well. It allowed each Avenger to shine, introduced the problems with having all of them in the same room, and gave a great apocalyptic scenario with the suave villain Loki in charge of it. Age of Ultron tries to copy the same formula but with twice as many characters and a villain that is nowhere near as much fun to watch as Loki.

8 years 11 months ago

Sandgrenbrygg

Yes, I did enjoy it, but still it felt a little unfulfilling.
This weird mix of cramming in too much and still many instances of telling instead of showing.
The first of the Marvel movies to feel more like a transportation to the next movies, than being a story of itself.
Still a fun, must watch movie, if you like the MCU.

9 years ago

FireFox1

Not as good as I hoped for.

9 years ago

ZEDG

Cliche ridden, forced emotion, unnecessary fight scene, too much nonsense, bloated and overlong. Targeted to younger fanboys. Not that great for everyone else.

9 years ago

Siskoid

More of what you liked from the first Avengers film, introducing several new characters, and moving the larger Marvel movies arc forward while also telling a complete story. If we're talking weaknesses, they lie in the former. I found the Infinity War stuff mostly intrusive and am already sick of the infinity gems showing up and getting their flash-tos every "episode". Probably because I have no love for, or interest in, the original Gauntlet stories. The time spent on that would have been used to buff up Ultron's characterization, as I don't think his Oedipal complex or screwy apocalyptic logic were set up very well. Murderbot shows up, is crazy, destroys stuff. Obviously, there's a lot more to it, but it sometimes felt like there were missing scenes where Ultron came to certain realizations. I'm also a little disappointed at how they changed (read: made generic) the Scarlet Witch's powers, but I understand it. The movie does a lot of things very well, however. Joss Whedon seems to understand the comic book format very well, and adapts not just the characters and story to the big screen, but the source medium's quirks as well. He knows how to isolate action moments, as if they were in separate panels. He uses slow motion to create living tableaux, or "splash pages". And he understands what made Marvel great, i.e. the mix of epic and mundane - of big super-powered fights and quiet character moments - the angst of the reformed monsters trying to do the right thing, and the sheer joy of working within a shared universe (there are a LOT of cameos and guest-stars in this one). And he understands how team books work. The focus is definitely on the Avengers who don't have their own movies, with Hawkeye finally coming across as a real person (and though his back story is entirely different, as an echo of the character I love from the comics). Whedon obviously brings his patented writing technique to bear, a technique best expressed by Quicksilver's quip "You didn't see that coming?", which usually manages to surprise, shock and/or delight. Especially important for old dogs like me who know where things are going because they know their comics lore. And of course, it looks awesome.

8 years 10 months ago

Jordan95

The sequel to 2012's breakout superhero hit, Age of Ultron obviously serves as a middle film in the MCU. Although the stakes are significantly higher than last time, some aspects feel a little underwhelming and inconsequential. Joss Whedon still proves adept at staging massive action sequences and giving his characters endless quips to throw at each other at even the worst of times, but taking into account that he has discussed several times that the making of the film exhausted him, it's ocassionally noticeable, as he includes, by necessity from the powers that be in the MCU, many character cameos and hints of future plots.

The weaker aspect of the film is definitely the inclusion of the Maximoff twins. Quicksilver made quite the impression with his powers and presence in X-Men last year with only 15 minutes of screentime, but here Aaron Taylor Johnson doesn't even come close to that. His weird and obviously forced accent doesn't really help him. Elizabeth Olsen fares better, although her accent also proves to be distracting.

Despite these flaws, the film still proves to be highly entertaining, although it doesn't quite reach the heights of the first film. The acting is once again great, with everyone fitting comfortably in their roles. Ultron, although a little wasted, is helped by Spader's menacing voice. One thing I particularly appreciated, especially compared to every previous Marvel film, is that the characters showed their vulnerability quite a bit more and for once, there was emphasis in evacuating civilians before unleasing a war in their midst. Whedon's VFX-assisted long takes once again make a couple of appreciated appearances, and Vision finally provides a cool flesh and bone role for Paul Bettany. His first scene was really one of the best scenes in the film.

9 years ago

neocowboy

Ultron you rapscallion, incorrigible!

Ultron, granted, was more unnerving in his 'awakening' state than his superior incarnation but it's James Spader so I can't say a bad word against Alan Shore.

Uber fanboy movie right down to the 'girls are into dorks' comment. Not that that is a bad thing, I'm not ashamed to admit I grinned like a infant when Tony broke out the Hulkbuster armour.

Fun. Mildly emotionally investing. Action that's not boring. A taste of what's to come. A comparable sequel to its predecessor .

9 years ago