No spoilers
The new Avengers movie is a typical Marvel movie, solidly entertaining but not a ton of depth. I felt a bit weird after it because I love Joss Whedon. I expect to love everything he does. But while Age of Ultron is a good, fun movie, I didn't love it.
There are no glaring problems with it. No "what about these potholes" bullshit. It feels a bit too big at times. But it's paced well and there's never really a dull moment. It's got a lot of the Whedon-style banter. And each character gets their due, which is probably enough to consider the movie a success in and of itself. But I just didn't have that gut emotional reaction to it. Maybe it's just me and my Batman blinders when it comes to superhero movies.
Though speaking of Batman, I think that gets at the problem I have with Marvel movies. Batman has great villains; the Joker, Bane, Ra's al Ghul, etc. Along with Batman's status as a vulnerable non-god, the villains really help pull up his movies because they're interesting in their own right. Marvel doesn't really have that level of villains. Loki is entertaining but there's not a lot of depth to him. He just wants power. Ultron is snarky just like Tony Stark but he's just a robot who wants to destroy everything. Captain America: Winter Soldier found a way around the lack of an interesting individual villain by making a secret, evil organization (Hydra) the big bad. No one else really stands out from the Marvel movie universe.
I guess what I'm saying is that a superhero, and thus a superhero movie, is only as good as its villain. That or you need conflict within the hero or heroes themselves. Internal tension with the group helped make the end of the first Avengers pretty satisfying (same with Guardians of the Galaxy). While it's nice to see them (mostly) bonded as a team in Age of Ultron, it kind of removes some of the tension with the plot. The movie tries to ignite some of that tension with two new characters. But I guess it either wasn't fully effective or it was resolved too quickly for me.
Another issue is that while there's a fairly complete arc to this movie, it's just like every other Marvel movie in that it's really a set up for another movie. The reason this is a problem for me is that I feel like it hampers Whedon and the directors of the other stand alone movies. I can't say too much without getting into spoilers. But when you have to worry about putting these characters into another movie in a few years, that limits what you can do with the story.
In the end this is a good movie that I think most people will enjoy. I'll probably see it again. And I'm pretty consistent in needing time and maybe another viewing to come to a full conclusion about a movie. I don't think I'll learn to love it. But I'm confident that it will be entertaining even with a second viewing and beyond.
The new Avengers movie is a typical Marvel movie, solidly entertaining but not a ton of depth. I felt a bit weird after it because I love Joss Whedon. I expect to love everything he does. But while Age of Ultron is a good, fun movie, I didn't love it.
There are no glaring problems with it. No "what about these potholes" bullshit. It feels a bit too big at times. But it's paced well and there's never really a dull moment. It's got a lot of the Whedon-style banter. And each character gets their due, which is probably enough to consider the movie a success in and of itself. But I just didn't have that gut emotional reaction to it. Maybe it's just me and my Batman blinders when it comes to superhero movies.
Though speaking of Batman, I think that gets at the problem I have with Marvel movies. Batman has great villains; the Joker, Bane, Ra's al Ghul, etc. Along with Batman's status as a vulnerable non-god, the villains really help pull up his movies because they're interesting in their own right. Marvel doesn't really have that level of villains. Loki is entertaining but there's not a lot of depth to him. He just wants power. Ultron is snarky just like Tony Stark but he's just a robot who wants to destroy everything. Captain America: Winter Soldier found a way around the lack of an interesting individual villain by making a secret, evil organization (Hydra) the big bad. No one else really stands out from the Marvel movie universe.
I guess what I'm saying is that a superhero, and thus a superhero movie, is only as good as its villain. That or you need conflict within the hero or heroes themselves. Internal tension with the group helped make the end of the first Avengers pretty satisfying (same with Guardians of the Galaxy). While it's nice to see them (mostly) bonded as a team in Age of Ultron, it kind of removes some of the tension with the plot. The movie tries to ignite some of that tension with two new characters. But I guess it either wasn't fully effective or it was resolved too quickly for me.
Another issue is that while there's a fairly complete arc to this movie, it's just like every other Marvel movie in that it's really a set up for another movie. The reason this is a problem for me is that I feel like it hampers Whedon and the directors of the other stand alone movies. I can't say too much without getting into spoilers. But when you have to worry about putting these characters into another movie in a few years, that limits what you can do with the story.
In the end this is a good movie that I think most people will enjoy. I'll probably see it again. And I'm pretty consistent in needing time and maybe another viewing to come to a full conclusion about a movie. I don't think I'll learn to love it. But I'm confident that it will be entertaining even with a second viewing and beyond.
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