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

[Veknoid_Outcast]

Finally finished Ultron last night.

There's an expression in baseball, a "get-me-over" pitch. Basically it's a sub-par pitch thrown in a pitcher-friendly count that simply needs to get over the plate; the batter probably won't swing anyway. Age of Ultron is the MCU's get-me-over film. It's there just to get to the following movies.

Back when I first saw Ultron in theaters, I thought it was a borderline 7. Now I consider it a borderline 6. It's just so muddled, and padded, and weighed down with introductions and allusions setting up several future films at the expense of telling an important story in the here and now. I don't know who to blame -- Whedon or Disney, or maybe both -- but someone screwed up badly with this sequel.

There are some good things. Some of the special effects are nice. A couple of action scenes work, specifically the Hulkbuster battle (although I think this scene is gratuitous). Tony has some interesting character development, and his sparring with Cap leads to, probably, the best dramatic scenes in the movie: the post-party fallout, and the wood-chopping sequence. Speaking of that party, that represents Whedon's sense of humor and flair for group dynamics perfectly.

There are also a bunch of bad things. The plot is way too busy, and features far too many characters. The screenplay is as interested in setting up Avengers 3, Captain America 3, Thor Ragnarok, and Black Panther as it is interested in its own narrative. Ultron, as a villain, is a huge missed opportunity. Spader's voice acting is great, but the AI is written as a mechanical version of Tony Stark: glib and irreverent. I think Ultron as a cold, calculating Terminator-esque villain would have been far more intimidating. Also bad is the romance between Natasha and Bruce. This comes out of left field and is handled clumsily. In addition, the climactic battle against waves of disposable robots is just bland and boring.

In the end, I'm grateful to Age of Ultron for a few things: creating Vision; setting up Civil War, a far superior movie; and leading to Ragnarok, which essentially rebooted Marvel's weakest sub-series. In a perverse way, it's one of the most important movies in the MCU, even as it's one of the weakest.

6/10

Updated rankings:

GREAT
1) Captain America: The Winter Soldier
2) Iron Man

GOOD
3) Guardians of the Galaxy
4) The Avengers
5) Iron Man 3

DECENT
6) Black Panther
7) Captain America
8) The Incredible Hulk
9) Avengers: Age of Ultron

MEDIOCRE
10) Iron Man 2

POOR
11) Thor
12) Thor: The Dark World