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Avengers: Age of Ultron


Hi. I'm new. This seemed fun, so here goes. Minor spoilers below.

Avengers: Age of Ultron (2015)
Dir. Joss Whedon


I'm admittedly not the biggest superhero movie fan outside of Batman. But I'll usually give them all a shot when they do come out. Superficially, this flick is well done. The action sequences are amazing, they weren't afraid of color and they managed to avoid the digital wash problem of when there are simply too many things happening on screen at once. The fight scene between Iron Man and Hulk was my personal highlight.

Once you get past the fun factor though, there isn't much else to say. Originally, I was under the assumption that all of the single character movies leading up to this (Thor, Cap 2, etc.) all had to be watched to understand what was going on in this one. As if, this were a culmination. But that just isn't the case.

Hardly any past incidents are referenced and some, if not most, are just flat out ignored. That's not to say there isn't a story worth watching for, as Ultron in total -- was a pretty badass character. Despite the handling of his creation being problematic and unclear to say the least. And despite the fact that even though there are so many of him and he still finds a way to never really feel like a threat... And despite that he keeps Black Widow in a cage at one point. (I couldn't believe my eyes). He had character. Credit to James Spader for that, I guess.

Joss Whedon as a writer is too much. I get it. He's quirky. But he's so quirky that I have the urge to tell Iron Man to shut the hell up just by proxy. It's ridiculous. His overly snarky dialogue clashes with the events taking place so much and so often that I'd be remiss to just straight up not say anything. I mean, do I really have to use spoiler tags to describe what ends up happening here? I think it's a given that things are going to be blown up and destroyed. So you already know the deal. Let me explain then, how I felt watching this...

Think of a catastrophic event happening. Then think of like, policemen and firefighters running around like chickens without heads trying to save people. And then picture a veteran cop, who has been in situations like this before, turn around and say to another grizzled, veteran cop: "Ayy, we look like a couple o' FONZES in deez leather jackets, right?". As the other cop's pupils expand, and a thousand yard stare washes over his face, a woman burns alive in the distance. This is The Avengers 2.

FINAL VERDICT: It's better than the first Avengers flick by a long shot. Which I guess isn't saying much. But, it's worth a watch. I find Guardians of the Galaxy and Iron Man to still be Marvel's brightest moments thus far.