The Avengers: Age of Ultron opened this weekend, so you shouldn’t be surprised that I’m posting a review today. You also shouldn’t be surprised that I saw it twice. 🙂
On Saturday night, me and my BFF Danielle Monsch settled in at the iPic theater with our fleece blankets and cocktails for some 3-D fun. Then yesterday it was the Chicklets and I munching on popcorn at ten a.m. Truthfully, I’m glad I saw it twice. There is so much spectacle and fist-flying, building-crumbling explosions, I needed the second go-round to catch all the things I missed the first time.
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| It’s cocktail time! |
Age of Ultron drops us right into the heart of the action with our heroes going after Loki’s sceptre which they have tracked down in a Hydra stronghold. After emerging victorious, Tony convinces Thor to let him examine the sceptre for a few days to dissect it’s secrets. Tony and Bruce Banner then discover that the energy inside the sceptre closely resembles artificial intelligence, and work to transplant that energy into Tony’s Iron Legion (Iron Men suits without a person inside) to create the ultimate weapon against future alien invasions. Of course as what usually happens when working with substances you don’t understand, the artificial intelligence morphs, distorts, and becomes Ultron, a peace keeping robot who’s version of peace is annihilation of the human race.
And we’re off on a race to stop the destruction of mankind. Tony is snarky. Banner conflicted. The Cap is as dreamy as ever, and Thor is full of boisterous, Viking enthusiasm. It was rip roaring, good fun. Did I like the movie? Yes. Did I love it? No.
Wha??? Â you may ask. How could I not love it?
As I said, Age of Ultron drops us right in the middle of the action as if to pick up where the first Avengers left off. In my opinion that is the problem. What about everything that happened in Iron Man III, Captain America: Winter Soldier, and almost two seasons of Agents of SHIELD? There were too many unanswered questions right from the get go. In IR3 Tony Stark blows up all of his Iron Man suits and walks away. Why did he make a new suit? Why did he build the Iron Legion? How did all of the Avengers get called together again? Who made the call? Agent Coulson was on the trail of the sceptre, why wasn’t he there first? Or at all? And Nick Fury walked way from everything, leaving the tattered remains of SHIELD to agent Coulson. Where, why, and how did Fury make a new SHIELD without letting Coulson know? Am I supposed to forget something as important as story continuity and just roll with it because it’s the Marvel Universe?
If you are to ask a male comic book lover, the answer is yes.
How do I know this? I had the same issues with IR3 and CA:WS when no one came to assist the Avenger in need. In fact, it was as if the movies didn’t take place in the same universe when that has been the Marvel Cinematic Universe sales pitch, all of the movies are connected. But if you ask the men in my family, MCU is following the comic book style of story telling, where each hero has their own story line, and when there is a need for cross promotion, they come together for a special issue, or series of issues, then take off again on their own and don’t think of each other until it’s time for that next special issue.
But these aren’t comic books. These are movies, and I think that’s lazy writing. I even wrote blog posts about it in the past. And my sister believes the same way I do. An opinion that is so contentious in my family, my brother and sister didn’t speak to each other for a month after a heated argument about CA:WS.
I am a story teller. I write series. Continuity is everything, and my readers will know if I’ve left a stone un-turned or taken the easy way out if I written myself into a corner. That is when I need to up my game and work my magic. It’s what makes a good story great. But movie makers will make excuses: The movie was running too long, we couldn’t get that actor to agree on a contract, that element wasn’t that important.
But it is. At least to me those little details are important. Those details would have taken a good movie and made it O.M.G. fantastic. I say let’s do without a ten minute fight scene where not one but at least ten skyscrapers are turned to dust and shrapnel, and instead make it a five minute fight scene if it means you explain why Steve took a break from his search of Bucky to help out the rest of the Avengers. Answers please!
Now, am I saying don’t go? Of course not! Go. See. Enjoy. Just keep in mind you will be expected to accept a lot on faith. And in the long run, that’s not necessarily a bad thing. But it’s not a good thing either 😉
Avengers assemble!