Non Super Hero Fan Watches Early Screening of Avengers Age of Ultron
I’ve spoken quite a bit about my overall disdain of the movie universe today as result of the deluge of super hero movies on display throughout the summer each year. But it would suffice it to say that I truly disdain the panoply of vapid super hero movies that are forced on us without restraint. Titan modern marvels hammering each other without impact or effect, over and over and over again isn’t my idea of a good time. Maybe its the lack of weakness? Maybe its the lack of character development or growth? Maybe its the THIS BIG BAD GUY just portalled in from XYSAVAGEAT and has the 12 CRYSTALS OF DESOLATION… stuff that is just awful in every way imaginable? No idea.
Don’t get me wrong, I dig mindless entertainment as much as the next guy. I love CGI for CGI sake. I could watch videos like this one of the transformers transforming all day long. But, watching a video of transformations assumes nothing. It assumes zero plot line or zero character developments of any sort. Its just CGI-porn – and that’s that. I’ve even done a few lists detailing out some of the best guy movie night fun for turning your brain completely off to. So I enjoy movie inanity just as much as the next red-blooded guy. But enter the Marvel Universe and I want nothing to do with it.
So what happens when you take one clueless Marvel loser, and throw him into the deep end of the Age of Ultron? Great question! I wondered that too. Now, to set the stage, I did see most of all the Iron Man movies (most being the operative word) and I think I heard what the story might have been about for the Thor Movie(s?). And I did see The Avengers #1 while riding in a bus going over the Andies Mountains at 18 thousand feet… cough. So I generally understood what happened there. (Giant space worms attack Earth through a portal – Ironman rides a nuke into space to kill the bad guys in a serious plagiarization of the movie Independence Day there ever was… or something.)
Basically the guy talking through his opinions about Age of Ultron is clueless is what I am saying. But really? What did I need to know going into the movie at the end of the day? The series isn’t high on plot or on any sort of important continuity that I can tell anyway. The most important thing this impacted was my understanding of the inside jokes that Captain America or Iron Man shot back and forth at each other throughout the movie.
Avengers Age of Ultron Overview
Basically let’s be honest, the only reason I watched the movie was because I was given an opportunity to watch it in advance of the wide-release. So what did I think? I will try and avoid spoilers, seeing as though its not out yet, and I really don’t want to ruin it for the faithful… but here is the plot overview at a high level.
Loki (Thor’s half brother, that bit was completely lost on me, maybe watching those movies could have helped some? haha.) – who happened to be the big bad guy in movie one… well his staff played a big part in this movie. The Avengers get their hands on it through lots of big battles and explosions. And then Stark gets the brilliant idea to build its AI into the brains of his iron robot sentinels. Cause, I mean, that makes sense. Welp, Stark (and Bruce Banner (The Hulk, if you care even less than I do about this stuff) to be thorough) inadvertently creates Ultron, a sentient robot that develops himself into a legion of bad guys and its all down hill from there.
The rest of the movie is a lot of explosions and chasing back and forth like you would expect from any Marvel Avengers movie. Over the last couple weeks I have seen no less than 10 to 15 click bait articles saying that the movie had an amazing twist and a crazy upside down jolt that would change the Avengers universe. And I think they are probably referring to Ultron’s method of attempting to destroy the earth… maybe? But ok, whatever. The last one had huge space worms coming through an intergalactic space portal. Alright. So this one was actually possibly smaller, though much more realistic.
But the movie had something I hadn’t seen from any other movie… and this something was something really special.
Enter Avengers Age of Ultron’s Secret Weapon – the Scarlet Witch
One of the early bad guys that very quickly got my attention in this movie was the Scarlet Witch. She and her twin brother Quicksilver basically stole the show in my opinion. Scarlet was played by Elizabeth Olson who was amazing in Martha Marcy May Marlene if you’ve seen it. Its actually quite riveting when you drop someone who brings amazing conviction and acting skills into the middle of a special effects romp. And she is riveting. Within the first 10 minutes I knew that the writers just HAD to do something big with her character, and boy did they.
Now, I’m not exactly clear what her super powers were, so I’m kinda vague on what exactly she did to the Avengers, but she sent them all sideways by hitting them all with some sort of bad super power LSD trip. And this causes the team to doubt their abilities as a team and their convictions in their entirety. And that was when the guy who couldn’t give a crap about super hero movies sat up and started taking notice. Because now instead of unbeatable gods pounding on each other incessantly, we had powerfully depressed and unsure heroes who wanted to quit and walk away. Now THAT is a movie I’m interested in seeing. That is a Batman like super hero that wears the cape even though its responsibility is extraordinarily difficult.
Quicksilver was also interesting and his powers were well used throughout. The duo basically set the whole of the Avengers team on their heels. And that was fun to see. So in that regard, I actually began to care again about the super heroes… even though I hadn’t fifteen minutes ago. The only other character that really had a fantastic plot line and arc was that of Bruce Banner. He really came to the forefront in this movie as he began to doubt his own involvement on the team and his own inclusion amongst humanity. Scarlett Johansson and Mark Ruffalo really did a very good job of investigating their edge of the hero map on this team. I was fairly fascinated by these two this time around.
To Sum Up…
It was a pretty good movie. I could ask why it went on for over two hours and twenty minutes… but I won’t. If I could just turn my brain off I could enjoy the story moving forward basically because the Scarlett Witch handed this movie something that the entirety of the Marvel hasn’t had in years which is, humanity. And by making these indestructible, unstoppable, characters beatable, if only for a moment, it made the movie worth while… in those moments anyway.
Why exactly can’t Hollywood make a Blackhawk Down Super hero combo? Or a Hurt Locker meets the Hulk? Or a… oh you get the idea. Never mind. Just go watch the movie when it comes out and let me know what you think. I’m sure you’ll absolutely love it.