The Avengers: Age of Ultron: The Should, the Could and the Empty

Where to begin.

How about the fact that Marvel now has so many characters and players in their cinematic universe, I can't be bothered to keep track of them anymore? No one dies (permanently), no one retires (permanently), and everyone somehow still works together. After all of the hubbub I heard about how The Avengers: Age of Ultron was supposed to be darker and more serious, I was wholly disappointed to see that this was not the case.

The Hulk still has control over himself (which still makes zero sense to me or anyone who knows the comic books' Hulk), people still keep trusting Tony Stark despite his consistent failings, and Steve Rogers is still super Golly-gee. I will say, however, that I enjoyed the backstory of Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver, as well as a more featured role for Hawkeye (which I'm curious why he has not appeared in films outside of The Avengers). Black Widow was also given more character, and overall I thought that the film worked great when those four were involved.

Alas, it was not meant to last. The reasoning behind Stark's creation of Ultron made little to no sense, then Ultron's maniacal rampage for the rest of the movie made less sense, then finally Vision's pureness of heart was never explained or justified. Thor is still the Legolas of Marvel: the pretty boy in the background with very little character beyond ale and muscles. And while I will not spoil who here, there is one death in this film (as in the first Avengers) that is fairly inconsequential and meaningless. In other words, nobody cares.

But back to the villain, Ultron. In the words of the late and great Roger Ebert:

"Each film is only as good as its villain. Since the heroes and the gimmicks tend to repeat from film to film, only a great villain can transform a good try into a triumph."

And with the Marvel Cinematic Universe, the heroes and gimmicks repeat many, many times. For me, the first Avengers movie's failing was that its villain was so weak. I really never felt any fear of him or what he would do, since he was little more than a fit-throwing brat being used as a puppet. With Ultron, the first AI in the MCU and being voiced by James Spader (who was excellent), I fully expected a meaner, scarier villain. Instead, what I got was a film that could not decide whether Ultron was Marvel's equivalent of the Joker, or just a robotic Loki. He often seems silly and non-menacing (like Loki), says "Oops," when he tears someone's arm off, and finally decides that the only way to save the human race is to kill it.

What?

This reason for global extinction is so incredibly slim, you could thread it through a needle. So much of this film is forced to work together so that it can set up Avengers 3 and Captain America: Civil War. This results in a general disinterest in the story, sort of like I experience when I saw Guardians of the Galaxy (loved the film, but definitely felt like it was just an origin story and the villain was throwaway). After Captain America: The Winter Soldier's fight sequences, I'd hoped that the MCU would feature more original fighting, but this was not meant to be. If you want great Marvel fight sequences, be sure to check out when I review Netflix's Daredevil within the next two weeks.

But of course, we all come to Marvel films to see godlike heroes fight awesome, CGI-powered battles with enormous set pieces and a flood of villains. This is where I was also disappointed: the visual effects. In the opening sequence alone, there were many shots where I thought to myself, "This looks like Neo fighting all those Agent Smiths in The Matrix Reloaded." Even the final sequence feature an overuse of strong lights and loud sound to drown out the fact that it did not look good at all. On a scale of 1 to 10, I'd give the graphics a solid Meh.

In the end, the fights were okay, the side character development was great, but the majority of the plot was thin enough to play rubber band guitar with. Themes of artificial intelligence and humanity as a virus on earth have done before and far better (see the excellent Ex Machina, 2001: A Space Odyssey, Kingsman: The Secret Service, Watchmen, etc.). Speaking of Watchmen, was I the only person who thought this movie was strongly influenced by it, especially with Vision and Ultron essentially mirroring two sides of Dr. Manhattan? No, just me? Okay.


Verdict: Although I'm sure that Marvel fans loved it, I can only say that you COULD see this if you have time to kill and a Michael Bay-like explosion fetish. Or just for the sake of keeping up with the MCU.