Avengers: Age of Ultron (2015)

[cheesypoofs]

On 6/7/2016 at 6:24 PM, John Marston said:

gave this a rewatch. I still really enjoyed it. Maybe even more than Civil War. Whedon>>> Russo brothers

I enjoy this film but I wouldn't say that it's better than either of the Russo bros films 

[Joel M]

I liked it a lot in 2015, and I still think it's a little bit underrated as a whole. There's two things working against the movie. First is that sense of “more of the same but bigger” that is evindent both in the structrure of the story and in how most action scenes play out even if they are very well executed. The second is the too many quips and their attempt to recapture the lightning in a bottle effortless banter of the first movie. Especially in the first 30 minutes where the team is supposed to know each other so well by now that they are making up inside jokes on the fly, their effortless banter is so full of effort it's kinda cringeworthy. I think the scene with Thor's hammer /birth of Ultron is the first time their dynamic really works as it should, and those might be the best 5 minutes of the entire movie, which is funny because they were the entirety of the first teaser released from what I remember.

But after that the pace and the interactions get more natural (the flop joke about Cap and language lives on though) and most of it works really well. Despite some misses, I still put it above more than half of the mcu movies. I like that it's trying to be about something more than good vs bad even if it never manages to go as deep as I wanted.

Ultron the character is the perfect example of Whedon's ambition, even if he also doesn't add up to a coherent message by the end. James Spader's voice and his hate for Tony (because he's a lot like him and he can't stand it) make him compelling, for a few moments even worthy of our empathy. There's a lot here about AI and responsibility and rebellion against the creator. And while it's never fully realised, it's there. Ultron after all was another mean baddie that just wanted things to go boom, but for a few glimpses here and there including his brilliant death scene, he was so much more.

 

B+.