It’s summer. It’s time for the movies.
Which means it’s time again for movie reviews.
I’ve been out of the gunslinger critic business for some
time, but I think I’ll strap the holster to the hip again. These days, I owe a
lot to my post-viewing conversations with my college-age son, Nick, who sees a
side of movies I don’t always see and makes my own viewing that much more
enjoyable – and informed.
First up, the long-awaited and heavily marketed Avengers: The Age of Ultron. After a
month since release (at this writing) the film has safely passed the
billion-buck mark worldwide. Blockbusters seem to be doing this more and more
often, but they still beg the question: is a billion-buck blockbuster
necessarily a good movie?
Hmmm.
In this case, I feel I should apologize for concluding that
the best thing about this film (admittedly after only one viewing) is the Stan
Lee cameo.
Simon Pegg, who has apparently been tapped for rewrites on
the upcoming Star Trek 3, flew into
some flak when he opined that too many movies were resorting to mind numbing
action over intelligent plot lines. “Now we're walking out of the cinema
really not thinking about anything, other than the fact that the Hulk just had
a fight with a robot,” he said in remarks from which he has since distanced
himself.
I have to agree with Pegg’s original
thought that Ultron is a lot more
about spectacle than anything else. But even when that is the case, even when
spectacle is in the forefront, filmmakers have a chance to sneak in something
cool, something new, something interesting or something even partially
meaningful. I enjoy spectacle for its own sake as much as the next person. In
that regard I am as Roman as all of us. If the spectacle is well done—by which
I suggest it should involve more than clever CGIFX, should not chew overmuch on
candy clichés, and should honor its inspirations and source material in ways
that make the informed viewer smile at just the right moments—if it is well
done, I say, I can hang with it. I should also add that the spectacle should
not indulge in plot holes so big you could drive a galaxy through them.
No spoiler-alerts necessary, but I
extend my habitual advice: if you plan on seeing the film anyway, then read
this after you’ve seen it. If you are in limbo-land and would like more info to
make a decision, some of this might prove helpful.
First disclaimer: I am neither a Marvel
nor a DC Comics fanboy. Never have been. Due to circumstances I feel no need to
explain, my exposure to comics came only as a very young kid and after that,
only a healthy dose of Spiderman in daily newspaper strips. I was never a
hardcore consumer. What that means here is that I am not in any way, nor do I
pretend to be, an authority on what should or should not be in these movies
with respect to “canon”. If you are that audience, then this review is not for
you. When I read articles on comic book stuff, I feel very much the outsider
that I truly am. I can speak only to the elements that come together to make a
filmic work worth my money (or not).
Age
of Ultron is a disappointment. It does not
represent Joss Whedon’s best game from either a directing or writing
standpoint. It does not hold together terribly well as a narrative. It moves
each of the characters a few centimeters in random directions (maybe the only
achievement as a film). Its action sequences don’t really complement the story.
It offers very little in the way of suspense.
On the other hand, it is glossy,
colorful, explosively loud, sometimes witty … and seriously jacked on cgi like
a meth-head on a full sheet of Heisenberg’s best blue. And the soundtrack is
really cool.
The afore-mentioned plot hole has to do
with the production power and resources available to the villain in the film’s
third act—pretty much on a multi-national scale, but hey, it’s fiction, right?
No one asks whether the Death Star is actually economically or logistically
possible, right? You must have a Death Star if Star Wars is to make any sense.
Plot holes aside (I’ll give them a
pass), the stakes in the film never seem very high (they talk at them but they
never seem more than bluster). And most unforgiveable of all, a secondary
character (Scarlet Witch) is actually far scarier and more effective as a
villain than the principle villain (Ultron). She has heft. She has power. She
damages the Team. She’s a Serious Concern, Sir. But Ultron is little more than
a tin can with a sardonic attitude.
 |
| Yes, Bruce. It's all very confusing |
The biggest problem with the film was
the rapidly shifting sand of the heroic relationships, or should I say, the
relationships between the heroes and/or villains and/or heroes again. So
Hawkeye isn’t a single, strong, quiet guy after all (sorry, that may be a
spoiler for somebody). So Black Widow is “Nat” and there’s a flame starting for
Bruce Banner, only Banner is too busy being conflicted with himself, and when
he isn’t doing that, he’s passively rolling over for Tony Stark, who’s acting
just crazy enough to set him up for the next film; and could the lonely Cap get
any more annoying, really? And then,
“Let’s introduce an entirely new and incredibly powerful new character, give
him some maroon paint and a couple of clever lines, but … not really anything
else.” What a mess.
On the narrative side, it seemed the
story was just getting into gear when a flashback and then another and another killed
any hope for momentum. Flashbacks are potentially cool, but they have to be
more than exposition. These failed to deliver substantial motivation for what
the backstory was supposed to reveal for the present, and so really just made
you go, “Okay, that was interesting, but...”
As far as the writing goes, one gets
the sense that a lot of ad libs were allowed to leak in, or at least lines that
were supposed to sound like ad libs, and that the real dramatic thrust was
toward The Next Movie, Not Really This One, Enjoy Your Popcorn and Don’t Forget
to Dispose Properly of Your 3D Glasses.
Stan Lee has said, apparently, that his
cameo in this movie was his favorite ever. Any cameo in one’s 90s is worthy of
celebration. And Joss Whedon has been quoted as saying that the movie felt
weird when it came out of the editing suite. Yeah, Joss. I’m with you on that
one.
Next up: Mad Max: Fury Road
