Wednesday, April 22, 2015

Avengers: Age of Ultron Review

I've done reviews of several of the other Marvel movies, and while I don't plan on making a habit out of it, I do like to share some very short thoughts on the new Avengers movie.
And rest assured, absolutely no significant spoilers below.


Yes, I've talked before about how incredible it is to see all my favorite superheroes band together in one single film. In some ways it's almost become such a familiar occurrence, that I barely think of how awesome it is. For instance when Captain America shows up in Thor 2 - yes, it was cool - but considering how Marvel Studios has run things, it was almost expected. 

And that's really where we are, it's cool to see all of them. Literally all of them, in one movie. But do we really appreciate how amazing it is? And do we really appreciate how impressive it is to do that, and not have a movie that sucks? Because Avengers 2 definitely didn't suck. 

Yes, it was not as surprisingly good as Captain America: The Winter Soldier. And it wasn't as fun as Guardians of the Galaxy. But I feel that that isn't the idea of the Avengers movies either.  

The idea of the Avengers movies is to gather all of them, and have cool fight scenes and explosions and stuff. Have buildings collapse, have skyscrapers collapse, have entire cities collapse. Stuff like that. And all the while ALL OF THEM are looking cool, while doing cool stuff. And it's just so damn awesome to see the Marvel cinematic universe in this place, where it's familiar, expected and natural. And that's the strength of Avengers: Age of Ultron.

It's like reading a Marvel comic book, but in cinema.

Yes, I could talk about details, and there were tons of them in this movie. Interaction between Ultron and Vision, interaction between Hulk and Black Widow. Interaction between Tony and almost everyone else. Most of the stuff involving Hawkeye. It seems they wanted to round out a few characters a bit more than they have done in previous movies, and it works fairly well. But this movie is about seeing all of them together, and explosions. 

Ok, some details. Holy shit, Vision! I like. Hulk riding a Quinjet alone made an impact for some reason. Ending shows promises, but also challenges for Marvel Studios. Post credits scene somewhat boring, but not necessarily bad. Also, regarding Hawkeye, thank god they didn't follow Ultimates storyline, or I would never be able to drag my girlfriend to another Marvel movie. Ok, that last one may have been a spoiler. 

Marvel is at an impressive - and some what dominating position these days, and I just fear they won't be able to keep up the pace, and that they won't put as much effort into the "individual" movies as they have done so far. If they do continue to make an effort, I'll gladly accept the occasionally mindless, but still glorious action from future Avengers movies. 

2 comments:

Dan O. said...

It's still fun. However, by now, I am starting to feel a little winded with all of these superhero flicks. Especially now that they seem to be a lot like the others that come before them. Nice review Jon.

The Cure-all Pill said...

I'm interested to see where things go from here, since it seems they're beginning to wind down some charactes...e.g. Ironman, Captain America. How will this series look with Dr. Strange, the Vision, and Antman? That is what keeps me anticipating these things, the wiggedy whack of Marvel comics is beginning to enter the fray and it looks like it'll be a fun campy ride.