Whoa, it's been forever since I posted! Sorry about that. Graduation + job hunt + visiting family = not much time to write. But I've got a minute now, so I thought, what the hell, I might as well spill some thoughts on Marvel's latest creation.
Like everyone else, I rushed out to see Age of Ultron when it came out. And like everyone else, I was disappointed with the lack of post-credits scene (come on Whedon, why?!?). And, okay, in the end I loved it, because Black Widow! and Scarlet Witch! and Hawkeye finally gets some attention! (About time, too!) And Danny Elfman contributed to the score! How could you not love that?
But in the end, Age of Ultron just didn’t stack up to the other Marvel movies I’ve seen, and being me, I decided the logical thing to do would be to provide a comprehensive list of reasons why. Fair warning, THERE ARE SPOILERS HERE. So if you haven’t yet seen Age of Ultron, might want to hold off.
1. There’s too many characters and not enough time to focus on all of them. This, by the way, was an issue with the first movie too. But at least with the first Avengers, the focus was mainly on the main six, and at least we had multiple other movies on which we could base our knowledge of their characters. Sure, Hawkeye got left in the dust a little, as did Fury. But we had enough to go on to actually give a shit when Coulson “died.” I’m pretty sure I’m not the only one who shed a few tears for Coulson after his tangle with Loki. Whereas when Pietro bit it in Age of Ultron, I felt like I didn’t really know him, aside from the basic “bad character who turned good.” I was more affected by Wanda’s reaction to his death, than his actual death. Others kind of got shunted to the side as well - we don’t know much about Hawkeye’s wife other than, well, the fact that she’s Hawkeye’s wife - but Quicksilver’s death was the worst offense, in my opinion. That moment packed a punch, but it could’ve packed more of a punch if he’d been developed beyond “revenge-driven, hyper-speedy smart aleck.”
2. There’s too many plotlines and not enough time to focus on all of them. There were so many great moments in Age of Ultron. Finding out Natasha’s backstory. Meeting Clint’s family. Fury and Tony’s conversation in the barn. Vision carrying Scarlet Witch in his arms through the disintegrating city. Bruce and Natasha introducing their closeted skeletons to each other. The obvious bond between Natasha and Laura. Rhodey and Sam Wilson becoming Avengers, can we talk about the fact that Rhodey and Wilson are officially Avengers? But that’s all they were - moments. A lot of the plot seemed to be either cut short, badly rushed, or swallowed up in elaborate battle scenes. And speaking of which...
3. Too many spectacle-heavy fight scenes. The great thing about Avengers 1 was the way the film expanded on the more human moments even in the middle of an intense battle sequence. There was plenty of potential for that in Ultron, but out of all the fights I can only think of one that brought that personal, emotional punch: Wanda’s moment with Ultron. The rest of the fights, like Tony-vs.-Hulk, had emotional aftermath, but seeing Scarlet Witch rip Ultron’s heart out of his chest after his actions killed her brother? Priceless. I wanted to see more of that. I know people don’t come to Marvel movies for the touchy-feely moments, but there was plenty of it in the first film and it worked a hell of a lot better than the de-humanized CGI-fests that happened in Ultron.
4. The CGI. Oh, God. The CGI. Cracked.com has a great article about the issues with CGI in today’s films. And sadly, Age of Ultron hits just about every pitfall mentioned in that article. The worst offense is the camera movement. There were so many moments in Age of Ultron that felt “ungrounded,” because where the hell was the camera? Either they expect us to believe they shot that sucker on a GoPro attached to a space probe or - more likely - they got so caught up in the spectacle and what they could do with CGI that they forgot about making the audience forget that they were using CGI. Worse, there were several very real-looking city backgrounds over which was superimposed a very cartoon-y flying Iron Man. I’m all for using modern technology, but those shots reminded me more of Who Framed Roger Rabbit than the original Jurassic Park.
5. The lack of post-credit scene was a letdown. I know, I know. I’m not the first to complain about this and I won’t be the last. And it’s not really part of the movie, but it’s part of the experience, you know? Thor: The Dark World made the most of the post-credit scenes, as did Avengers and Iron Man 3. And while admittedly Guardians was lacking in this department, at least they tried. Sure, seeing Thanos grab the empty Infinity Gauntlet was a great mid-credit set-up…but this is Marvel. Sitting through the whole credits is part of the experience. Not cool to deny us that experience, Whedon. Not cool.
6. Thor was...where, exactly? I’m not saying he didn’t play a part, but I’m very surprise Whedon didn’t play up the whole “my brother is dead” angle. Especially considering the prominence of Loki’s scepter. This isn’t really a problem, per se. The story worked fine without it. I was just surprised they didn’t use that angle. I would’ve expected to see Loki in Thor’s Scarlet Witch-induced trance, or at least see his corpse the way Tony saw those of the other Avengers.
I know I’m nitpicking. I know a lot of these issues probably seem minor, especially the last two. And do I ever know how silly it is to think this much, obsess this much, over a single movie. But hear me out.
Marvel is known for their quality control, and their efforts to give the fans what they need (not, repeat, not necessarily what the fans want, because if they tried to keep up with that they’d be putting out another four or five movies per decade, which would definitely hurt said quality control). When that control slips, even a tiny bit, it’s noticeable in all the wrong ways. I’m not the first to think that the film felt rushed. And I’m definitely not the first to feel just a bit let-down by the whole thing.
Let me put it this way: when I walked into Guardians of the Galaxy last summer, I knew nothing about the Guardians prior to entering that theater. I actually went to see it just because it was a Marvel movie. And I didn’t expect to like it, and at first I didn’t, but I quickly fell in love. This wasn’t like The Avengers, which gave us a good handful of movies to get to know the characters before we saw them work as a team. Guardians was a true origin story for not one, but five characters - and yet we knew them, we loved them, by the end of the film. And perhaps this is because, as Honest Trailers so accurately pointed out, the film follows the Marvel formula.
But maybe it’s also because the CGI-heavy sequences in Guardians looked real. Maybe it’s because they didn’t leave the camera hanging out in space. Maybe it’s because they didn’t try to cram five hours’ worth of story into ninety minutes. Maybe it’s because they chose to focus on the main characters and let the side characters be just that, instead of trying to work in every single person’s motivation and backstory. Maybe it was because that was a kick-ass script that revealed just enough about each character to make you know them, love them, and fill in the rest for yourself - I don’t know if everyone experienced this, but in my theater there was an audible reaction when Rocket cried out that he didn’t ask to be created. And when Groot sacrificed himself? My God, there was hardly a dry eye in the place.
I’m not saying Age of Ultron sucked. It didn’t. There was a lot that happened in that movie that was really, really, absurdly good. But it didn’t pull my heartstrings like Guardians, Thor: The Dark World, Avengers, or either of the Captain America films. And I really think that it’s because Marvel needed to back off from the CGI spectacle and focus on what made the other films so great: the relationships between the wonderful and complex characters that they are known for creating.
