Avengers: Age of Ultron

The latest in the series of superhero movies, Avengers: Age of Ultron, came out in April 2015 and brought our favourite band of superheroes and spies back together. Considering the success of the previous Avengers, and the fact that Wheddon is back directing, you’re pretty much guaranteed to get a decent film. But is it actually a good film, or just another superhero action flick?

Unfortunately, it’s not looking good. While the plot is definitely interesting, and the characters are as engaging and exciting as previous, there’s just the overwhelming feeling that they’re trying a little bit too hard to be the funny, cool kids on the block.

We meet the group as they try to stamp out Hydra bases, primarily in Germany, and at this particular base there is an important person. Unclear exactly who or what, but important in some way. Then we encounter the two mutants – oh wait, sorry, not allowed to use the term ‘mutants’ because that’s owned Fox (who create the X-Men films). We encounter the two… genetically modified people who just so happen to have the exact same powers as Quicksilver and Scarlet Witch (Magento’s children) but definitely aren’t them. The film then continues on, with Stark accidentally creating Ultron which proceeds to go on the usual robot ‘only way to make everything good is to kill everything’ rampage. Scarlet Witch begins to poison the minds of the Avengers, before the duo team up with Ultron and generally wreak havoc. Once they realise what Ultron is actually planning, they change sides and we have the big end battle. I’ve skimmed over some subplots but that is essentially the main stuff.

Sounds fine, apart from the not-mutant people (seriously why couldn’t they have just created completely separate characters and be done with it?). You add in some cool fight sequences, a couple of amusing one liners, a bit of background on the main cast and their inner turmoil caused by the Witch and we’re away. So why did I leave the cinema feeling disappointed?

Firstly, as Fox used Quicksilver in their most recent X-Men film, a comparison is unavoidable and unfortunately Aaron Taylor-Johnson just wasn’t quite as good as Evan Peters, who brought the cheekiness of the comics to life. Also why was Taylor-Johnson huffing and puffing away like he was winded? His power is to move really fast, getting winded from it kind of defeats the purpose…

I must say that learning a bit of the backstory of Black Widow was fantastic, and I so desperately want to see a spin off of her origins. Hawk-Eye’s backstory was a little weak, as was Iron Man’s, though Thor was entertaining enough. I don’t believe Hulk really got much screen time or character development, which is in itself a shame as Ruffalo is doing a fantastic job at making Hulk more likeable and relatable than he has ever been.

The Avengers may suffer from an over-abundance of characters that are important, you want to know about all of their backstories, right through from Thor to Nick Fury, and there simply isn’t enough screentime available to give you all the information you’re looking for.

And finally the biggest bugbear that I took away from the film. Not everything has to be a joke. It’s like Wheddon took a look at the script and decided that for every five lines of dialogue there had to be a witty retort or one-liner. The first Avengers was excellent because it had those moments of comic relief scattered through the narrative and they felt natural. Here they were shoved down your throat with the force of Thor’s hammer, and this just made them less and less funny each time.

So what did it do well? The action itself was, as usual, spot on – everything from the normal fight scenes to the ‘dream’ sequences some of the characters experienced were fantastically well shot. Andy Serkis makes a welcome but brief appearance and adds an undercurrent that is missing from the rest of the movie. James Spader is the perfect fit for the voice of Ultron, and some of his dialogue is fantastically creepy (the ‘got no strings’ lines stick out particularly for me). Paul Bettany does well, though suffers from a lack of explanation.

So all in all? Well, I’m struggling.

The main question I keep coming back to is would the sequel ever be able to live up to the first Avengers? Considering how much I raved about that when it came out, and it’s still one of my go-to films if I want something entertaining but not taxing (along with Guardians of the Galaxy), would anything short of stupendous impress me? Probably not.

But if I want stupendous, and you’ve got that director with that cast, I should get stupendous. And I still don’t get why they insisted on using Quicksilver and Scarlet Witch. Just create different characters, seriously.

Captain America: The First Avenger

Released in 2011, Captain America: The First Avenger is a film based off the Marvel Comics and is the fifth instalment of the Marvel Cinematic Universe (there’s recently been Iron Man, The Incredible Hulk and Thor released too) and is in anticipation of 2012’s The Avengers. 

I will say beforehand that I am slightly biased against Captain America, I never liked the comics and he was always my least favourite Avenger. This may have something to do with the fact that Captain America was created specifically as a patriotic figure for Americans to swoon over. I’m neither American nor patriotic, and this also may go a way to explaining why I disliked the newest film.

It begins as a pretty bog standard ‘weedy guy is transformed into super human’ story, and is in general quite entertaining, especially when presented with Dominic Cooper as inventor Howard Stark. The nagging little annoyances kicked in pretty quickly however, starting with officer Peggy Carter. That’s right – in the second World War apparently women served in the army as officers. Don’t be so bloody ridiculous, it would have been more realistic if she had been a nurse or something similar, but women were not in these sorts of positions in the 1940s, not to mention that she constantly goes against her superiors. It may seem a small point but it annoyed me all the way through the film, especially when considering that she is meant to be Captain America’s ‘love interest’, a love story that is incidentally almost non-existent except for some excruciatingly cliqued moments.

I must say Chris Evans does work well with what he is given, he gets all he can out of the frankly terrible script, and hopefully Joss Whedon will do a better job of it in The Avengers.  The CGI work on the character before he becomes Captain America (so when he is weedy, a foot or so shorter and generally less hot) is very clever, though I don’t understand why they completely got rid of the alter ego of Steve Rogers after Captain America is created. In the comics, he is more like Superman, with an alter ego that is pretty nerdy and weak. In the film however, everyone knows that Steve Rogers has become Captain America, there are no hidden identities or anything. Whether or not this would have improved the film I don’t know, but it would have stayed a bit more faithful to the comics.

The main problem with the film is, and it pains to me say it, Hugo Weaving as bad guy Red Skull, who runs a subsection within the Nazis. He’s not scary, interesting, impressive or anything an effective baddie should be.  Hugo Weaving tries, but his speeches are forced and cliqued, his henchmen are more akin to those from Austin Powers and the effects to create his ‘Red Skull’ look are laughable. It’s a shame really, the Red Skull has the potential to be a really good advisory, but he is executed poorly and the bizarre x-ray gun things that they wield are less scary than just plain stupid. It also doesn’t help that the backstory of Red Skull is barely alluded to throughout the film, you have no idea of his motivations or future plans, nor does he appear to have any real super powers.

It would probably help if the viewer thought Captain America was in danger at any point throughout the film, but he never even comes close to being injured by anyone, let alone his arch enemy Red Skull. With all superheroes they have a weakness, with Superman it was Kryptonite and Spiderman’s is… more or less anything. Captain America has increased strength, speed, healing, jumping, the whole shibang. One online reviewer summed it up pretty accurately as ” this movie is much better than any movie based on a ‘superhero’ whose primary power is hiding behind a shield should be.” Is Captain America really the best superhero America has to offer?

Now we come to the main crux of the film – the director (Joe Johnston) appears to have completely forgone with the concept of suspense and emotion. Did anyone blink an eye when his best friend died? I didn’t. I had to rewind the film to check that the two men were in fact the same person. None of the characters appear to have a connection with each other, and the ending line of  “I had a date” was so excruciatingly bad that even Samuel L. Jackson must have wanted to punch Chris Evans in the face.

To sum up: the script was bad, the action lacking, the technology laughable and not helped by the fact that Captain America is basically a walking American propaganda advertisement. Even the inclusion of big names such as Tommy Lee Jones and Hugo Weaving could not save this movie. It seems it was produced as basically and advert for the Avengers, they even have a trailer for the soon to be released film after the credits. I have to say though, it does look bloody fantastic, even if Captain America is in it as well.