Captain America: Civil War is just around the corner, having its theatrical release on May 6. In the whole Marvel universe, Captain America’s movies has got me intrigued the most. Its not saying I don’t enjoy the others also but you know, less so. I’m on the record since its one of my earlier reviews to have really liked The Avengers as many people are, but the one thing I didn’t agree on was Loki was a good villain. Even though I still had a lot of fun, somehow it is not enough that I’ve had the desire to see it again, oddly, now that I think about it. Agree to disagree, right? You can read the review HERE, if you’d like. Regardless, in preparation for Civil War, I decided to catch up with both the Marvel movies, I missed last year. I’m guessing it’ll open up or set the stage of this movie and I think in the trailer I spot Antman, so I’m going to give that one a go soon also.
Let’s check this out! 🙂
Avengers: Age of Ultron (2015)
Director: Joss Whedon
Cast: Robert Downey Jr., Chris Evans, Mark Ruffalo, Scarlett Johansson, Jeremy Renner, James Spader, Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Elisabeth Olsen, Paul Bettany, Samuel L. Jackson, Don Cheadle
When Tony Stark and Bruce Banner try to jump-start a dormant peacekeeping program called Ultron, things go horribly wrong and it’s up to Earth’s Mightiest Heroes to stop the villainous Ultron from enacting his terrible plans.-IMDB
The market is completely saturated with superhero movies nowadays. Its why I didn’t care enough to go see Avengers: Age of Ultron in theatres. And why I didn’t see all those other ones including TV series. Thinking about it, I took a nice one year break (most of 2015) from it. Maybe there was like one or two older ones but I skipped most of the new stuff and its helped to maybe feel more into the mood of seeing it. Plus, The Avengers did so well that I wasn’t sure how Age of Ultron would do. It turns out Avengers: Age of Ultron is better in some ways than The Avengers. Thinking back and reading the review I wrote for it, its missing a lot of components that I felt was lacking in the first one the more I thought about the movie and Age of Ultron remedied it quite a bit. I won’t go into talking about the story components quite so much because to me, superhero movies are pretty formulaic and simple. They are entertainingly predictable and that’s okay because we want our superheroes to come out on top. We’re there to watch them struggle in taking down those pesky villains who just keep on coming around and causing destruction, but no matter what, they usually manage to take it down even if it comes with a few consequences.
One of the first issues I had with The Avengers was that they were a six person team, except Black Widow and Hawkeye always got cast in the background a lot seeing as they never got their own movies like the other four. Of course, Black Widow also did get a little more attention and she was then in Captain America: Winter Soldier so it made up for her lack of importance, in a way. But Hawkeye almost always was neglected and to me, I liked his character the best. Its nice to see that in Age of Ultron his lack of importance is remarked on and remedied. In Age of Ultron, he turns into something of a glue to the team and he knows that. It elevates the loyalty and trust he has to this team that he literally fights life and death on any mission. We got to see the two sides of him: Hawkeye and Clint Barton.
What Marvel does do best is to create a superhero that is not only an action film with spectacular CGI effects and all those crazy larger than life action scenes focusing on Avengers as a team and fighting those villains and getting out of trouble. The team dynamic is still there even under all their bantering and different views. Age of Ultron also managed to give a better balance in the importance of the character and really show their weakness and the fears they have turning them maybe more human but also giving them their own stories. Much to my expectation, the difference between what Tony Stark and Captain America start diverging and with Thor, who floats in and out of scenes links us to what the next Avengers will probably about and what all this means in that mid-credits cut scene. However, despite the heavy bits of the movie when the plot of flowing and danger is surrounding them and all those action scenes, there are still lots of moments tucked in between to give the audience a little laugh. That is the heart of Marvel: knowing when to let the audience just remember that this is a superhero movie and a fun one with a little humor.
Since we’re talking about the cast, its hard to not lead into the involvement of the new Avengers in the twin siblings that are known as Quicksilver and Scarlet Witch. I personally like Aaron Taylor-Johnson and Elizabeth Olsen quite a bit. I think they both have the acting needed to do this and their careers will do well. But then, I kind of like Aaron Taylor-Johnson as Kick-Ass and its hard to be like, “oh, but he’s also Quicksilver? Now you’re confusing me.” But, I like them and these two characters a lot and well…let’s keep this spoiler-free even if the majority of you have seen it. On that note, I can’t wait to see Scarlet Witch in Civil War.
The last bit I want to touch on is the villain. I’ve always had an issue with villains in superhero movies, except The Dark Knight trilogy. Like that dude in Thor: The Dark World comes to mind. I can’t even remember his name because he was so non-existent. I didn’t think Loki was a good villain even if some of you might think he was in The Avengers. Now, we come to Ultron. I mean, he’s AI, a robot and can pretty much infect the grid by implanting himself, at least thats what I understood. I want to say Ultron was successful and I don’t know, villainous. He is villainous but was he ever a villain that made you fear for the superheroes life even if you knew they would come out on top, even just slightly? He didn’t. Ultron is entertaining and even a little goofy and c’mon, not even the character design was scary after he found that robot to fit himself into. I mean, the first broken version in the trailers was a little bit more effective but this one, not one little bit. He reminded me of the villain in Robots, a fantastic animated film that you should see if you haven’t. But then, he wasn’t scary but I guess the excitement is in the vibranium making the planet fly and then the superheroes swooping in to save yet another nearly impossible day, right?
Before I enter into more spoiler territory, I’m going to end this write-up. Overall, Avengers: Age of Ultron was fun and entertaining. That’s what I’d expect. The action and humor was good. The story was cool. The characters, old and new Avengers and the sequence of events were nicely developed. Its nothing groundbreaking but I think I liked this one more just for Hawkeye having a bigger part and the addition of Quicksilver and Scarlet Witch. We spend a little more time learning about the characters that didn’t get their own movies pretty much and that is great. I liked it quite a bit. 🙂
Have you seen Avengers: Age of Ultron? What did you think of it?
Tranquil Dreams 