"Better a fallen rocket than never a burst of light."
~ Tom Stoppard, The Invention of Love

Tuesday, May 5, 2015

Avengers: Age of Ultron (2015, PG-13)

Okay, so I’ve been salivating for this movie for so long, it was never going to live up to my geeky, sky-high hopes.  Despite generally juggling its huge ensemble capably, it feels crammed at times, and important things can get glossed over.  It’s also my least favorite Black Widow outing since Iron Man 2, which isn’t cool (quite a ways above Iron Man 2, but still.)  However, failing to be the Best Comic Book Movie Ever! doesn’t mean it’s not pretty great, which is why my biggest complaints are in the opening paragraph – I need the rest of the space to geek out.

Team Avenger has been together for a while now, rooting out pockets of Hydra members and searching for Loki’s mystical mind-whammy scepter from The Avengers.  When they finally track down the scepter, Tony sees its unlocked potential to facilitate the creation of legit artificial intelligence; he envisions an army of intelligent robots to protect the earth from supersized threats.  Because the creation of intelligent robots usually goes so smoothly, he winds up with Ultron, a crazy-powerful, genius megalomaniac who think humans have wasted their chance at existence.  In Ultron (and his accomplices, a damaged pair of powered twins,) the Avengers have a formidable foe who tests every inch of their limits.

First things first:  this movie has characters coming out of its ears, and I’m amazed at how well, by and large, it spreads the love between them.  All six Avengers get multiple moments to shine, action-wise and character-based (Hawkeye, who’s been underused in the franchise so far, gets a lot of focus in particular,) and the new characters are introduced thoughtfully.  The twins, speedster Quicksilver and queen of creepy mind-mojo the Scarlet Witch, are especially great – this Quicksilver is totally different from X-Men’s but equally awesome, and I love seeing the Scarlet Witch come into her own.  In addition, there are numerous smaller appearances and cameos from other characters in the Marvel pantheon, none of which really feel shoehorned in. 

Far and away, my favorite thing about the movie is the camaraderie between the Avengers.  As a team, they’ve grown by leaps and bounds since the first movie, and Avenger-teamwork gives me life.  They do a lot of partnered fighting, assisting one another in the field and playing off each other’s strengths (Cap and Thor for the win!) and it’s clear that they’ve done a lot to make the team inclusive for the Hulk.  They also just feel so much like a family, leaning on one another when they need it, talking through their issues, and ragging on each other like you can only do with people you love – there’s a running joke with Cap that I adore, and I could’ve watched an entire movie of them all hanging around trying to lift Thor’s hammer.

The action is mostly terrific.  I’m a sucker for creative combat, especially when it involves the clever use of superpowers, and we get that in spades here.  Cap flipping forward over the handlebars of his motorcycle and then throwing it at someone is just hardcore incredible, and Quicksilver and the Scarlet Witch do an excellent tag-team job on a train.  And because this is Marvel, all the cool fights and explosions are nicely balanced with humor, sweet tech, and grounding character moments.  No, it’s not everything I hoped it’d be, but it’s still quite the ride.

Warnings

Comic book violence, language, a little innuendo, and some thematic elements.

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