Summer Movies: Avengers - Age of Ultron

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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