he's fast and she's weird.
because I'm eager to put some of my thoughts to virtual paper and I haven't fleshed out the next chapter of safe & sound (working title for my vampire story), I'll just talk about avengers: age of ultron.
I don't know how to feel about this film. on one hand, I was waiting for it to be over: it suffered from character and storyline fatigue, not unlike iron man 2, which I detested for that same reason. on the whole, there was no character development, and the plot appears to be recycled from its predecessor, except loki was replaced with ultron and the chitauri with ultron's army. characters were introduced only to serve as plot devices. good for setting up the next phase of the marvel universe and, okay, fanservice; bad for a bloated narrative. not to mention that with the exception of scarlet witch and quicksilver (to a certain extent), everyone was written in the same way in that they were snarky and witty; walking quip machines, basically.
I didn't feel invested at all in the characters. ultron didn't come across as threatening, like he could do real harm to our main band of superheroes. the same goes for quicksilver and scarlet witch, even in spite of the latter's mind manipulation. you just know that everyone will come out unscathed. there are no lasting consequences for anyone's actions, including the fact that stark went behind everyone's backs and wanted to use loki's sceptre in ultron's creation. [Spoiler (click to open)]likewise, other than wanda killing ultron as a result of such, pietro's death was just glossed over by the rest. barton should've said or done something, considering that pietro sacrificed himself for barton?!
to sum up the above two paragraphs, the trailers painted a much grimmer film. while I'm not expecting it to drip angst and darkly lit cinematography, avengers: age of ultron feels frivolous when it could stand to enter more hard-hitting territory, like the concept of meddling with the unknown. the existence of ultron and the twins is perfect fodder! and look, it can be extended to the likes of banner and natasha, the latter of whom underwent severe brainwashing to become what she is! and don't forget steve, too!
speaking of the twins. they (along with vision) were possibly the film's saving grace for me. god, I adored wanda, though her hand movements were kind of goofy at times. but I wish their relationship were better developed and portrayed in a more meaningful way. their love for each other didn't feel convincing enough. their motives were quite slipshod, too, [unless ...]unless it could be spun as that they sided with ultron because they thought that his plans simply involved killing stark (and the avengers by way of their association with him) until wanda saw into vision's mind and realised that nope, ultron meant to kill everyone and they won't stand for the murder of billions of innocents, having been orphaned by a similar, smaller initiative. ... was that made explicit in the film itself? if it was, then I retract this part. I would've liked to see wanda's hesitation in the climax explored in further detail. that gave her a semblance of depth, that she's still someone who was put under extraordinary circumstances and all that destruction outside is real and she was instrumental in it, for better or for worse. whereas pietro was just too chill with his powers and was sometimes snarky, and ... that was it for him in the personality department?
miscellaneous thoughts:
I don't know how to feel about this film. on one hand, I was waiting for it to be over: it suffered from character and storyline fatigue, not unlike iron man 2, which I detested for that same reason. on the whole, there was no character development, and the plot appears to be recycled from its predecessor, except loki was replaced with ultron and the chitauri with ultron's army. characters were introduced only to serve as plot devices. good for setting up the next phase of the marvel universe and, okay, fanservice; bad for a bloated narrative. not to mention that with the exception of scarlet witch and quicksilver (to a certain extent), everyone was written in the same way in that they were snarky and witty; walking quip machines, basically.
I didn't feel invested at all in the characters. ultron didn't come across as threatening, like he could do real harm to our main band of superheroes. the same goes for quicksilver and scarlet witch, even in spite of the latter's mind manipulation. you just know that everyone will come out unscathed. there are no lasting consequences for anyone's actions, including the fact that stark went behind everyone's backs and wanted to use loki's sceptre in ultron's creation. [Spoiler (click to open)]likewise, other than wanda killing ultron as a result of such, pietro's death was just glossed over by the rest. barton should've said or done something, considering that pietro sacrificed himself for barton?!
to sum up the above two paragraphs, the trailers painted a much grimmer film. while I'm not expecting it to drip angst and darkly lit cinematography, avengers: age of ultron feels frivolous when it could stand to enter more hard-hitting territory, like the concept of meddling with the unknown. the existence of ultron and the twins is perfect fodder! and look, it can be extended to the likes of banner and natasha, the latter of whom underwent severe brainwashing to become what she is! and don't forget steve, too!
speaking of the twins. they (along with vision) were possibly the film's saving grace for me. god, I adored wanda, though her hand movements were kind of goofy at times. but I wish their relationship were better developed and portrayed in a more meaningful way. their love for each other didn't feel convincing enough. their motives were quite slipshod, too, [unless ...]unless it could be spun as that they sided with ultron because they thought that his plans simply involved killing stark (and the avengers by way of their association with him) until wanda saw into vision's mind and realised that nope, ultron meant to kill everyone and they won't stand for the murder of billions of innocents, having been orphaned by a similar, smaller initiative. ... was that made explicit in the film itself? if it was, then I retract this part. I would've liked to see wanda's hesitation in the climax explored in further detail. that gave her a semblance of depth, that she's still someone who was put under extraordinary circumstances and all that destruction outside is real and she was instrumental in it, for better or for worse. whereas pietro was just too chill with his powers and was sometimes snarky, and ... that was it for him in the personality department?
miscellaneous thoughts:
- the cameos were delightful. I choked a little when peggy appeared. I loved agent carter so much.
- on the topic of agent carter, the series did the concept of the red room better than this. I was disappointed with what was shown here, basically.
- there was a part where vision and wanda had a Moment and I was so down for that, [because ...]because them hooking up was in the comics. plus, they're like, two of my favourite things that came out of this film? as if that isn't obvious by how much I keep talking about wanda. I now have a reason to look forward to the rest of the marvel cinematic universe (other than the two chrises).
- I love my miracle twins and all, but their accents, good god. on the other hand, I really liked andy serkis' accent??
- contrary to my complaining about pietro above, I actually ... have a soft spot for him, kinda. I did not completely hate aaron taylor-johnson in this.
- I loved the jittery movements wanda exhibited when she first appeared. too bad it only occurred once.
- edna mode would have a conniption if she saw that vision went for a cape.
- the romance sub-plot in which banner and natasha have found themselves entangled is ... meh ... you could take it out and the film would still go on as if there weren't any gaping holes in its plot.
- ultron wasn't the best MCU villain (that title still belongs to loki). he was certainly entertaining, however. what's not to love about a robot singing "I've got no strings" from pinocchio to himself?
- [re: baron strucker ...]YO. FUCK. never mind that he was played for comedic value (because like I said above, almost everyone was). I was livid that he was killed off. chalk it down to my bias toward thomas, but it also solidifies the notion that barring my miracle twins, the new characters are just plot devices, a means to an end. UGH. good night, sweet monocle-wearing prince.
- [in addition ...]I totally want strucker to be alive because thomas deserves the best in life, and it could totally be a possibility, seeing how characters in the marvel cinematic universe don't seem to stay dead ... which is also really annoying at the same time. again, there are no stakes involved, which makes it difficult for me to connect with the characters on an emotional/plot level because even if X dies, there's an 95% chance they'd be back in some way or another.
- [re: the team ...]I'm glad the team has undergone a reshuffle at the end because tbh I could do with a break from some of the characters for now. -coughironmancough- p.s. I laughed a bit when wanda appeared with voluminous, highlighted waves at the end. hehhe
- I miss the days when superhero films would have pop/rock/pop-punk soundtracks attached to them.