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| Avengers: Age of Ultron (2015) |
Weirdly, I'm going to start this review by discussing the villain. Not the norm for me, but it makes the most sense in this context. Ultron was a really compelling villain for this story. I like how, unlike other A.I. villains we get in other movies, Ultron is not a creature of logic. He has emotions and he has flaws, just like a regular character, and that's always going to be more interesting than other 'emotionless A.I. takes control' stories that we've gotten in the past. James Spader was the only choice for this role. He absolutely nails this performance. He has the soft, robotic fluency in his natural voice, but he can also deliver the more comedic, threatening and even sombre moments completely naturally as well. It's the perfect balance, and his connection to the Maximoff twins is really nice; I love how Ultron almost requires an audience, and it makes sense considering who his creator is. Quicksilver and Scarlet Witch are given great introductions in this movie, and their arc throughout is great to watch, as well. I like how, even after they turn against Ultron, they're still not 100% on board with the Avengers, nor should they be given what's been established about them. Aaron Taylor-Johnson and Elizabeth Olsen give great performances throughout, and the chemistry they have with each other is spot on. I also love their powers as we see them in this movie. It affords them to do different things with the action scenes than we've gotten in that past, and that kind of variety is helpful for a franchise this many movies in.
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| James Spader as Ultron |
Speaking of which, the action scenes are really great to watch in general. The opening fight scene with the Avengers on a routine mission is an excellent way to set the tone, the first fight with Ultron and the Maximoffs is a fantastic showcase of how perfectly matched the two sides are, the Hulk vs Hulkbuster fight is just iconic, the chase in Seoul does slow down a bit, but is still entertaining enough, and the final fight against the Ultrons in Sokovia is excellent. It's got a unique setting, it gives each Avenger their moment to shine, the stakes are real, and even though it essentially amounts to the same 'Avengers fight a horde in a city' climax that we got in the last Avengers movie, there's enough here to make it feel fresh. Also, and this would become commonplace in the MCU, but I love how each Avenger's personality comes through while the fights are going down. It would be so easy to get the actors into their costumes and just have them fight, but the dialogue throughout is nice in not only adding in each character's personality into the scene, but also to add the occasional moment of levity. The comedy in this movie is really great in general. The odd joke falls flat, but the majority of them are excellent. There are a lot of highlights, of course. The gout, 'Boom, you looking for this?', anything surrounding Mjolnir, 'Nobody would know', 'Language', I could be here all day doing this.
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| Elizabeth Olsen as Wanda Maximoff and Aaron Taylor-Johnson as Pietro Maximoff |
What I'm loving more and more about these movies as they continue is that, and this comes back to the dialogue in the fight scenes, they're getting more and more character driven as time goes on. In the first Avengers movie, the plot basically happens and the Avengers get driven by the story. Here, the characters drive the story. Tony creating Ultron isn't just a catalyst to get the plot moving, but is also something that affects each character differently, and will have an effect on each of them moving forward. I'll touch on this more in a couple of movies from now, but in general, character-driven stories are always more interesting than plot-driven ones. Through this, we get a big focus on Hawkeye in this story, which was desperately needed. This movie does Hawkeye justice in a big way. We learn so much more about him, and maybe the fact that he's here for a longer time than the previous movie helps with that as well, but he has so many great moments in this that it strangely feels a lot like his movie. Talking of the characters, I do need to touch on the romance between Bruce and Natasha. I know this is an unpopular opinion, but I like it. It's weird, but I almost feel like Hulk and Natasha are closer than Bruce and Natasha are, which would make sense. They would need to find a way to calm Hulk down on the battlefield, Nat is the first Avenger both Bruce and the Hulk came into contact with, and through their supposed training to revert Hulk back to Bruce, they would had to have spent a lot of time together for a connection to be formed, and it comes through for the most part here. It does get a little forced at times, and those are the moments I take objection to. Can we please just kill the joke where a man falls face first into a woman's chest? It will never be funny.
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| Jeremy Renner as Hawkeye |
I will say that the film does jump around a lot, and it does affect the pacing a little. I almost feel like the movie could have been a little shorter, but I also don't really know what you could cut to achieve that. The first instinct would be to lose the 'Wanda gives the Avengers scary visions' scene, but not only does that give us insight into the characters, but without Thor specifically being spooked by what he saw, he wouldn't have gone off to the wade pool with Selvig (another scene that dragged a little) and he wouldn't have decided to create Vision. So, without any of those scenes we don't get Vision. And, I haven't mentioned him yet, so I'll say it here: the way they introduce Vision in this movie is perfect and Paul Bettany does an excellent job throughout. Helen Cho feels a little rushed as a character, and you really could have had her role filled by Maria Hill and not much would have changed. There was a point where someone brought her up and it was supposed to be a moment of 'oh, no', but instead I thought 'Who? Oh right, that person, yeah...'. I suppose you could remove the scene with Klaue, but not only would we then miss out on Andy Serkis' amazing performance, but we wouldn't learn how Ultron was able to obtain the necessary vibranium to make his plan work. So, I don't know. It does feel a little clunky in moments, but every scene has a purpose and serves it well. I think it's just a case of recognising what's actually 'bad' and what's just 'not that good'. And, as a sequel, yeah, it's not as good as the first, but it doesn't just tell the same story again, it shakes up the foundations of the team, and the characters are not in the same place by the end as they are in the beginning. Yeah... I like this movie.
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| Paul Bettany as Vision |
Avengers: Age of Ultron (2015) is a great movie, and it's worth another watch if you haven't seen it in a while. If you hate this movie with a passion, there's not much I can do to change your mind, but I know what I like. And I like this. 8/10.
Next, it's Ant-Man.
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