Avengers: Age of Ultron

[redfiona99]

Technical thing: I dig what they were trying to do with the Hawkeye scenes, that he's the human one, the ordinary everyday one, but their choice to completely change the cinematography style for the Casa Hawkeye-Family scenes was a bit much.

Writing thing 1: Oh dear god the terrible writing for the Banner/Black Widow scenes. And it is only the scenes where they're interacting that don't work so I'm not going to blame the actors. The Bruce + Stark scenes work, the Black Widow and Hawkeye scenes work, the scenes where they're on their own work, so it's not that the writers can't write them. It's just the combo. They have less chemistry than the noble gases.* I could have done without the whole nonsense.

Writing thing 2: Much like with the Insight Programme thing in Cap 2, bringing up the question of whether the Avengers are more trouble than they're worth and then not going anywhere with it is frustrating. Obviously they're doing it to set up [spoiler] but argh! I thought the scene where Ultron didn't kill Dr. Cho could have led to something interesting. A villain who only targets the heroes and minimises damage to civilians could have been very interesting.

Personal thing: Could we not find one damn South African actor to play Klaue? Hollywood, you actually have a South African actor for once. Maybe use him? This is not a dig on Andy Serkis who I love and does a much better South African than most non-South African actors but seriously ...

Since I know Wakanda is a moveable feast, I don't expect them to make it clear where it is. And possibly Klaue is hiding in South Africa, but possibly, just possibly, make that clear so I'm not trying to figure out why the putatively Wakandan police are wearing South African Police insignia and why one background building has a South African flag painted on its front.




Ultron: James Spader does an amazing job. Especially as, unlike most of the mo-cap actors, he can't really use body language because he's playing a robot, so he has to do most of it with his voice. And of course he can do it because James Spader is a damn good actor and has one of those voices. I mean, this is James Spader who has been magnetically weird in a wide variety of roles** so robot should be easy for him.

The other thing is how much what Ultron says sounds like Tony both in the phrasing and in the tone, to point where I'm not sure that they didn't get RDJ to loop some of the lines. Whatever they did, it's magnificent, and it makes it quite clear that Ultron *is* Tony's monster.

Baron Stucker: Who does not have the 'von' I keep giving him. Someone seems to have told Thomas Kretschmann to tone it down and it does work a lot better. I loved the electro-monocle, and that he was being sneaky. I also loved minion number 3 whose response to "This was a good talk" was "no, it wasn't." I want minion number 3 to live a long and happy and Hydra-free life.

The Twins: Who are going here despite turning into good guys just so I can gush. At length.

I shall go with Quicksilver first. Who doesn't get his "name" in this either. I think they did a really good job because I do not care about comics Quicksilver but I care, unexpectedly deeply, about this Pietro Maximoff. Like seriously, Marvel fandom, we have used up our 'bring a character back to life' chip one film early. And it's not just me. I went to see this with P and his friends and A, who was sitting next to me, went 'noooooo' when it became obvious that Quicksilver wasn't quite quick enough.

Actually I thought that was brilliantly well set up, as well, with the funny bit with a random police officer accidentally shooting him, because we know he's not invulnerable and then he's really not.

For all that people complain Joss Whedon has a thing for damaged, mentally-unstable girl ninjas, this was the most stable Scarlet Witch I've ever seen. Even when Quicksilver dies. I was expecting a 'no more mutants' moment, but except for a minor power explosion, there wasn't.

And I love that they've kept the essence of the characters (our hatred and anger made us strong but there are limits to what we will do for revenge, that being the difference between them and Daddy Dearest) but translated it into a universe where they can't be mutants. Because yes, signing up for dangerous medical experimentation to get your revenge is very them.

My two favourite Twinses scenes were the ones where they explain why they're doing what they do, because OMG Aaron Taylor-Johnson can act even when putting on misc. Balkan accent number 3, and Wanda is right there with him. The other one is the one where the Twins realise that Ultron is planning bad things and Wanda just immediately comes up with a damn good plan (with an excellent assist from Dr. Cho) and knows that Pietro will go with it.

An honorary mention should go to the end shot where an obviously saddened but still alive and functional Wanda is ready to kick tush. Did I mention she's the least damaged Wanda I've seen?

Hawkeye: I really liked the Hawkeye film, as did everyone I went with. I'm not sure if the amount of Hawkeye was a response to complaints about his lack of non-evil screentime in the first Avengers films, but I approve. I am, however, reasonably sure that his on-going soreness from injury (even after leet tech that I want in the real world) is a response to the criticism about how invulnerable heroes are boring (and that the two "normal" humans really ought to take more damage). I love that he does wince at appropriate moments even though he's supposed to be good as new, because muscle damage takes ages to heal properly.

Oh Hawkeye and the Hawk-family, even if I refuse to believe anyone calls their wife "ma'am" on the phone!! And Mrs. Hawkeye totally being able to straight-facedly lie to Iron Man makes me gleeful. I also loved his way of dealing with mind-altering mutants.

But most of all I loved the look on Hawkeye's face when he sees the kid, and despite having his yet another own kid on the way goes and tries to rescue him because it's the right thing to do and *flail* Hawkeye rocks.

Iron Man: Oh Tony, you've got issues.

And they appear to be trying to make those issues more understandable than they are in the comics.

Because, you can see his point that the world shouldn't have to depend on x number of Avengers to shield it from extra-terrestrial threats. And his idea makes a sort of sense. (Although I'd have expected someone like Tony to at least have heard of 'I, Robot' and the law of unintended consequences.) Which is good in re: Civil War, if they’re doing that properly.

But at the same time, Tony, stop digging yourself further into the hole you've made for yourself. One attempted robot intelligence is enough!

He's also the one who suffers most from having 'actress not appearing in his film' as his main squeeze because his fear fever dream is missing Pepper.

Captain America: Steve is obviously being saved for Civil War. But he does comes across as the most lovely and adorable superhero whose name is not Hawkeye. He is the voice of reason (which you need when Tony Stark and Thor are your team-mates). Like when he says that they are getting all the civilians off the rock, come hell or high water. Which I think is why the hammer respects him. I also suspect that he'd be more likely to be able to lift it if he wasn't thinking about it.

His nightmare is creepy because it can't happen and he knows it, and Steve's life gets bleak quite easily. I am entirely pro-Sharon Carter turning up (not just because Emily Van Camp yay) just to cheer him up.

Thor: I <3 Thor. He is also lovely. Mostly, because, as he's used to working in a team (like Steve), he can just fill in wherever he's needed, so he's med-evac, research dept and bulldozer as and when. I love that 'help, I need to know something' leads immediately to Selvig. Just advanced warning Marvel, if you kill off Selvig in Ragnarok, I riot. (While the rest of fandom imprinted on Darcy, I imprinted on Selvig.)

He also doesn't suffer from an absence of Jane because yes, 'my girl is the bestest' pissing contests are precisely his thing (and also I love that even just mentioning her he goes all *star hearts* in his eyes). Also, it's very accurate in that my supervisor, who is less of a big wig than Jane, is frequently so away that we're not sure which continent he's on, so her being somewhere, and Thor not knowing where is spot on.

Also, I just understand his nightmare, because it's the fear of letting people down and ... Thor hits the same parts of me that Boromir and Thorin hit. It's also very tailored to his character, because he comes from a martial culture so people dying is not going to phase him the way it phases Tony. Which makes sense given Wanda's powers, she's not creating the fears, she's just letting them run rampant past the defences people normally have to protect themselves from their fears.

Much though the scene with the hammer made me want to say "strange women lying in ponds distributing swords is no basis for a system of government," I just love that Thor accepts Vision without question the second he can see that he's holding the hammer. Thor has a heart the size of an ocean.

Black Widow: Like I said, all her non-directly Hulk scenes are fun, particularly when interacting with Mrs. Hawkeye. And even the scene where she shoves Bruce off a high object to get the Hulk is awesome, because yes, that's the Natasha I like. The needs musted. And I like that the film goes 'she's got damn good reasons', and doesn’t paint her as a villain for choosing the world over someone’s feelings. Because lots of films would have done.

I was less fond of the 'I too am a monster because I have no uterus,' bit but I suspect that might be me misreading a line. (Although it may also have been there to really press the Hawkeye is awesome thing.) And much like Steve, her worst possible thing has already happened, so that’s what she flashes back to.

Hulk: Who was the character that really suffered from being involved in the things I didn’t enjoy. Because I liked him in Avengers 1, but I mostly just wanted to smack him in Age of Ultron. Show some backbone, Banner. You don’t need to do something just because Tony thinks it’s a good idea and you think it could be interesting. (I know that that's his fatal flaw, and that I should be more sympathetic but ... argh!) And we don't need to see his nightmare because it's what happens - Hulk running wild in a populated area.

Nick Fury and Maria Hill: Of course Fury has a plan B. He has plans all the way down to ZZ Double Alpha. And Tony, for a guy who is supposed to be clever, sure doesn't get that Maria will always be working for Nick Fury.

Sam Wilson: Gets to be fun and carefully drop hints about the Winter Soldier.

Rhodey: Continues to get no respect. Why does Rhodey never get any respect?

Vision: Interests me. Mostly because I was never a huge Avengers comics fan (I am an X-girl) so I'm not sure quite what he is. But I know I like him immensely. Casting Paul Bettany helps with that ;) And I was amused that he took one look at Thor’s get up and decided that he too would have a cape.



One of my problems was that while Avengers Assemble felt very much like an end chapter, with an inherent 'but that's a story for another day' feeling at the end, which is fine and traditional, Age of Ultron felt like it was trying to be a capstone for the (Character): Film 2 films and set up the film 3s. Or, to paraphrase someone on Facebook, it felt like they were trying to stuff a 5 hour film into 2 and a half while also stretching a 2 hour film into a 3 hour film. At the same time. Which I know makes no sense but is still true.



It felt very much like 'people with your own films, disassemble' and left the Avengers in the hands of the B-team (much though I love Rhodey and Sam, and like Wanda and Vision).




As J said, it's possible that Thor is being sent off to link together the Earth-bound Marvel films with the space-set Marvel films, since he's the only one who can travel between the various realms and knows that the stones of power (or whatever they're really called) are not of this Earth.

By the way, J is the one person on the planet who wants an Ant-man film and is very, very excited about it, so I no longer have it in my heart to be completely curmudgeonly about it.



* Sorry I am chem. nerd.

** James Spader has been referred to as "thingy that plays creeps" by more than one housemate.

Comments

[opera142.livejournal.com]

I read Steve's nightmare as he feels like he's nothing without a war to fight. The first part, despite creepy mash-ups (is that spilled wine or blood), is uplifting a sad superhero sort of way. Like despite the horrors of war, people find love. Dancing and flirting and sharing drinks is still part of life. It's the second part: the war is over, and he's alone with nothing to do. That's his fear.

[redfiona99.livejournal.com]

Yes, I like that interpretation. Steve's war is never going to be over because he's the only super-soldier left standing and he's got (or thinks he's got) nothing left but the war.