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stgulikFinally saw Avengers: Age of Ultron!
I really liked it for the big, confusing mess it was. Major spoilers under the cut ...
Well, I have to admit, when they weren't battling their enemies, they were constantly arguing, to the point where you have to wonder if there's great dental or a matching 401(k) in being an Avenger. There can be no other compelling reason for them to want to work together.
Still, this movie would have to have been truly horrible to sway my deep affection for the Avengers, and Ultron was a not horrible.
Earth's mightiest heroes needed a big, big enemy to overcome. They got it in the form of the truly cool Ultron. Ultron is not only physically capable of destroying the earth, it (he?) is also a result of a major rift within the Avengers, which led to much of the aforementioned arguing.
But the Avengers and the X-Men, in the comic books, could seriously disagree with each other, and make big mistakes, and still stumble into doing the right thing. They're just humans who happen to be trained like heroes. I liked that aspect of the comics and I respect that they kept that going in Ultron.
One objection I read here on LJ was that Black Widow (Natasha Romanov) calls herself a monster because she is incapable of bearing children. When I finally watched that whole scene, I didn't think that was the reason for her self-assessment at all. She was trained from early childhood to be a talented, deadly killing machine. She had no choice. That reality is why she called herself a monster. The forced sterilization was just the ultimate example of having been fully, invasively programmed, to be nothing but an instrument. In the first movie, Clint asks her if she knows what it is like to have your brain ripped out and replaced by something else--to be unmade. She replies, "You know that I do." Now we know, too. She overcame much of her early cognitive brainwashing--notice she is practically family to someone else's kids--but it still haunts her.
The monster theme resonated with other Avengers as well. A few of them bandied that name about. I think Tony Stark flattered himself with that title, though. At least a monster doesn't know what it's doing. Stark was a full-blown meglomaniac. It was his fatal flaw. His intentions actually began to horrify me, and that's a first for Iron Man.
I'm not 100% sure where Thor went off to, and what he brought with him when he came back. Something about jewels? Most of his side plot was lost on me. Chris Hemsworth kind of mumbles.
Did you notice how much of a follower Bruce Banner is when he's not The Hulk? It goes much further than a simple desire to remain placid. All Stark had to do is talk really fast and ask lots of rhetorical questions, and pretty soon Bruce would go along with him and carry out whatever horrible idea Stark had next. I think that was part of the reason why he felt he needed to leave the group: he recognized not only his capability for violence, but his inability to stand up for himself. That was an interesting psychological element to me.
But Hawkeye and Black Widow are now arguably the most fully-developed characters in the series. Can't wait to see how they are treated in future installments.
All in all, good movie! I was very pleased.
I really liked it for the big, confusing mess it was. Major spoilers under the cut ...
Well, I have to admit, when they weren't battling their enemies, they were constantly arguing, to the point where you have to wonder if there's great dental or a matching 401(k) in being an Avenger. There can be no other compelling reason for them to want to work together.
Still, this movie would have to have been truly horrible to sway my deep affection for the Avengers, and Ultron was a not horrible.
Earth's mightiest heroes needed a big, big enemy to overcome. They got it in the form of the truly cool Ultron. Ultron is not only physically capable of destroying the earth, it (he?) is also a result of a major rift within the Avengers, which led to much of the aforementioned arguing.
But the Avengers and the X-Men, in the comic books, could seriously disagree with each other, and make big mistakes, and still stumble into doing the right thing. They're just humans who happen to be trained like heroes. I liked that aspect of the comics and I respect that they kept that going in Ultron.
One objection I read here on LJ was that Black Widow (Natasha Romanov) calls herself a monster because she is incapable of bearing children. When I finally watched that whole scene, I didn't think that was the reason for her self-assessment at all. She was trained from early childhood to be a talented, deadly killing machine. She had no choice. That reality is why she called herself a monster. The forced sterilization was just the ultimate example of having been fully, invasively programmed, to be nothing but an instrument. In the first movie, Clint asks her if she knows what it is like to have your brain ripped out and replaced by something else--to be unmade. She replies, "You know that I do." Now we know, too. She overcame much of her early cognitive brainwashing--notice she is practically family to someone else's kids--but it still haunts her.
The monster theme resonated with other Avengers as well. A few of them bandied that name about. I think Tony Stark flattered himself with that title, though. At least a monster doesn't know what it's doing. Stark was a full-blown meglomaniac. It was his fatal flaw. His intentions actually began to horrify me, and that's a first for Iron Man.
I'm not 100% sure where Thor went off to, and what he brought with him when he came back. Something about jewels? Most of his side plot was lost on me. Chris Hemsworth kind of mumbles.
Did you notice how much of a follower Bruce Banner is when he's not The Hulk? It goes much further than a simple desire to remain placid. All Stark had to do is talk really fast and ask lots of rhetorical questions, and pretty soon Bruce would go along with him and carry out whatever horrible idea Stark had next. I think that was part of the reason why he felt he needed to leave the group: he recognized not only his capability for violence, but his inability to stand up for himself. That was an interesting psychological element to me.
But Hawkeye and Black Widow are now arguably the most fully-developed characters in the series. Can't wait to see how they are treated in future installments.
All in all, good movie! I was very pleased.
