The Marvelous Marvel Rewatch (Now Playing: Avengers: Infinity War)

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Avengers: Age of Ultron

 

Just saw Avengers 2 again and loved it.  I would like to pause and rewrite history for a moment.  I know Marvel studios will say Iron Man 3 started Phase 2, but to me Marvel hit a new phase starting with Winter Soldier.  If you look at movies going from Iron Man 1 to Thor 2, Marvel is very much in an inconsistent hit-or-miss phase.  But ever since Winter Soldier came out they have been very consistently making great movies.

Anyway here are my thoughts on Avengers: Age of Ultron.  If you haven't seen this movie yet, then please be aware that there are lots of spoilers below.

 

Plusses:

The action is awesome in this movie.  In fact I'd say it is the best action in any MCU movie up to this point.  There are so many great sequences.  My favorite is Hulk vs. Iron Man in the Veronica suit.  Sure it was tragically destructive, but it was also awesome and hilarious.  I love where Hulk spits out a tooth and Stark says, "I'm sorry".  There are plenty of other awesome scenes too: the opening sequence to get Loki's scepter, the chasing Ultron on the truck scene, and the ending scene on Sokovia.  There is so much great action that this would still be a fantastic action movie even without Hulk vs. Iron Man.  But the Hulk vs. Iron Man is like the cherry on top.

I love Ultron as a villain.  I like the idea of an unhinged robot who sometimes cant complete his thoughts.  James Spader does a great job, and Ultron is a worthy foe for the Avengers.

We finally get to know some stuff about Hawkeye.  They treat him as by far the least important character up until now, but we get to know more about him and his family in this movie.

There is a lot of foreshadowing in this movie.  Iron Man and Thor both have visions of the future.  (For some reason Cap and Black Widow had visions of the past.  Not sure why they were different.)  But Iron Man and Thor are there to set up Infinity War and also somewhat set up Ragnarok.  Then there is also foreshadowing of a lot of things about Black Panther and Vibranium.  "The most versatile substance on the planet and they used it to make a frisbee."  Also I know the comic book character Klaue (Klaw) is supposed to be missing an arm, so I found it interesting that Ultron rips it off here.  Speaking of Infinity Stones though, between the post credits scene here and Guardians of the Galaxy I really thought most of the movies from here would focus on Thanos and the Infinity Stones.  I guess there were just dangling the carrot only to pull it away for a few years.

Minuses:

There are a couple minor plot points that still haven't sat well with me.

1) Thor goes to Asgard at the end to find out more about why the Infinity Stones are popping up all of the sudden.  This is not remotely close to what actually happened in Thor Ragnarok.

2) I still can't make sense of that scene where Vision comes to life.  Everything up to that point says that Vision is going to be another evil robot, because Scarlet Witch put a hex on Iron Man.  Somehow he ends up being so "good" that he can lift Thor's hammer?  Although all of the dialogue after he comes to life suggests that the scene is supposed to be intentionally confusing.  (Not a great plan.)  I don't know.  I just don't understand what they were trying to do there.


In conclusion, while Avengers: Age of Ultron has a complex and occasionally confusing plot, if you just sit back, break out the popcorn and accept it as a really awesome action movie, then you are going to have one hell of a great time.

8/10