Avengers: Age of Ultron; Directed by Joss Whedon. Starring: Robert Downey Jr., and Chris Evans.5/2/2015 IT'S BIG. IT'S MESSY. IT'S A LITTLE OVERSTUFFED AT POINTS. BUT OVERALL, IT'S AWESOME! Avengers: Age of Ultron was never going to be the masterpiece that the first one was, but it's sure as hell fun. As far as a sequel goes, it more than satisfies, and will deserve every penny it gets. If most of what I talk about in this review seems negative, it's simply because I'm sure you know the positives. Anyone who's been on board with this huge franchise since Iron Man, or anything else, will know the positives. All of what is good has been said before. That said, let's get into it. For anyone who hasn't been hiding under a rock for the last few years, you know exactly what makes a movie like this good. Great action, entertaining characters, and an overall a fun movie. That's all here, and it's all great. The visuals are just as spectacular as usual, and the way everything wraps up is epic. Just like the first one, it throws in some hilarious winks into the audience sighting its ridiculousness. That said,this is not as good as the first one, and I think that could be attributed to the tone. Sure it's all still fun, and the winking meta-narrative that fueled what originally came before works just as well, but the tone of this movie is much more grounded, similar to Captain America: The Winter Soldier. What's happening is still big idea, crazy, Avengers stuff, but it all feels a little choked by the tone. It doesn't help that there's a lot going on in this movie. While the main story is quite simple, as always a lot of the subplots that pop up seem to cloud it's effect; leading to the evil plan appearing to pop up abruptly. That isn't to say that the subplots aren't well orchestrated or set up promise for anything new. There's a quick diversion in Africa that seems to go nowhere, only till you realize it's longterm effects in both this movie, and the ones to come. One including Black Widow, and the Hulk pays off triumphantly with a big emotional end. The quality of them is not the problem. The problem here really is overstuffing the story to the point of detracting from what's mainly going on, which combined with a less bombastic tone leaves the film feeling a little bit bloated at times. But that said, the actors go all in. The main cast is great as always, striking up a good chemistry (especially with an ongoing joke on Captain America that's hilarious), and even the newcomers bend in nicely with Quicksilver and Scarlett Witch, easily being two of the most creative characters to pop up in one of these movies yet. The villain in this is also not as straightforward. He's ultimately not as memorable as Loki, simply because he's a little too laissez fair about his world destruction. This is probably intentional though, since his character is more based on him being unknowing of the consequences of his actions, rather than fully comprehending what he's doing. James Spader, who voices him, does give him some viable personality, and the sarcastic way he goes about taunting both the Avengers, and drawn out dialogue sections (that may seem odd), really makes him worth watching, especially as the movie culminates into its large, showy, fireworks ending. That ending is awesome, by the way. Avengers: Age of Ultron is one of those rare sequels that truly lives up to the hype. Sure it's more flawed then the first one, but it works overall as a great fireworks show, and is a greatly entertaining popcorn fair. I give Avengers: Age of Ultron an 8.5 out of 10. Written by Stephen Tronicek, Edited by Mia Rintoul.
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December 2017
CategoriesAuthorHello welcome to FilmAnalyst. My name is Stephen Tronicek, and I really like movies. This is a way to get my opinions out to people. Thank you for visiting. |