Greetings, True Believers! Avengers: Age of Ultron was released in North America this past weekend and we have assembled Earth’s Mightiest Reviewers to share their visions about the good, the bad, and the ugly. And if you’re in the mood, here’s an early review we had from our Man in the UK, Kelvin Green!
Now let’s get down to it boppers!
— Brooke Brewer – ? stars
So everyone is going on about the Avengers: Age of Ultron, and about how it sucked, or conversely, is the latest incarnation of the Buddha. Well caca on all that noise. So you want a pathetic scientist harboring a muscle bound monster inside him? This movie has that. You want a guy that can make impossible shot with almost preternatural accuracy? We got that. You want a hot girl in a form fitting black costume, with red(ish) hair that kicks ass? Check. Do you want an all American white bread character? Got it. Do you want a plot about the world being in danger and it takes a team of singularly unique individuals to come together and save it? We got that is spades babe. I’m of course talking about The League of Extraordinary Gentleman.
[EDITOR’S NOTE: Wait, what?]
But before we get into all that awesome, it’s time for backstory! The League of Extraordinary Gentleman was originally a miniseries that spawned two more minis, and at least two graphic novels, and was written by Alan Moore. The concept is pretty basic. Set in the Victorian era, the team is made up of characters you only know about from school required reading lists. I would have called them The Public Domain Avengers myself.
About the film itself; The League of Extraordinary Gentleman (hereafter referred to as LXG for simplicity, and because this was a sell line.) hit theaters in 2003. It was meant to be the first of a franchise, but do to general critical panning, and low returns, the idea was scrapped. Fun facts, this movie caused Stephen Norrington to quit directing. Sadly it was also Sean Connery’s final performance in a leading role.
[EDITOR’S NOTE: Okaaay, that’s interesting and sad but…]
Our film starts with a war machine rolling through… Um, downtown London? It quickly removes one poor bobby from the genepool by running over him cartoonishly, and no doubt earned him a place on the Victorian era’s version of A 1,000 ways to die. The tank smashes into the Bank of London. (I guess there is only one.) Enter out main antagonist. He’s husky, wears something on his face, and has an accent you can’t quite place. So he’s basically Bane. Victorian era Bane tells his goons to kill everyone but one, to tell the story, then passes on all the gold, just to show he has truly nefarious plans. What he’s really after is the blue prints of Venice.
Cut to Africa to meet a forgettable character there to meet Alan Quartermain (Sean Connery) to deliver some much needed exposition, and to get the movie officially started. Alan is retired though, and isn’t fazed about a world war. You know that old thing. Fuck the world, I’m retired. Now get out of my reading light. Until the Beagle Boys decide to show up. You can imagine what happens next. General anarchy and ass kicking. So with no place left to read the newspaper, Alan decides to go to London for the vague meeting of vagueness.
Sean, I mean, Alan, meets the mastermind behind the meeting of vagueness, a creepy guy who gives his name as ‘M’. M tells Alan about the LXG which has apparently existed in various past incarnations, and serves to flesh out the universe for Easter egg hunters.
It is here we meet Finding Nemo Captain Nemo. He and Alan snark at each other for the sake of drama, and then we meet Rodney Skinner, the invisible man. Or an Invisible man, since Fox couldn’t get the rights to the original character, nor the right to call him ‘the’ invisible man, which is strange as all these characters are public domain. Lastly enter Mina Harker for even more tension, and to fill the much needed position of token chick. Next they go to collect Dorian Gray. Why? Fuck if I know. Oh yeah, and Tom Sawyer joins the team, because reasons.
Blah blah blah, establishing dialogue. Rodney is an ass, Alan is a sexist, Mina is a feminist, etc. What follows next is actually a descent chase scene with Alan and Sawyer trying to catch Mr. Hyde. Now there is a line where Alan says “This big monkey has terrorized the Rue morgue for months. Imagine what he’ll do to the enemy.” Which is kind of similar to what Stark said to Loki “We have a Hulk.” E.g. we have a big muscle character that will give us the edge over the enemy. This line was cribbed by the Avengers, clearly.
I will pause here and say I love Mr. Hyde. Yes, in the book he was an ass and curb stomped an old man to death [EDITOR’S NOTE: Not to mention raping the Invisible Man to death…]. But he is great in this. Okay, fan girling is now over. Un-pause.
Mr. Hyde joins the team (Spoiler.) A lot of the movie is now the team milling about on the helicarrier Nautilus, generally clashing personalities. This part establishes that Jekyll can communicate with Hyde via reflection. Jekyll watches Dorian getting to second base with Mina (totally not creepy) and of course he has a crush on her. So does Mr. Hyde it turns out. So, basically an awkward science guy with a hulking monster personality, and they both have a crush on the token team girl. Where have I seen this recently?
But even more oh nos! Cause Dorian was a traitor and placed bombs on the Nautilus without being noticed through the power of plot devices. They survive and Hulk Hyde has his hero moment. Cue the feels. Poor Ishmael died, and his death leads to the Avengers LXG putting aside their differences, and pulling together for the greater good.
And for revenge.
The only ones who do anything useful though are Nemo, Hyde, and Rodney, who release prisoners, and place bombs respectively. Meanwhile Alan and Sawyer go after M who is revealed (again) to be Professor Moriarty.
The best part of the movie is when Alan knocks Moriarty to the ground and picks up a hatchet. Alan Quartermain was going to straight up murder that asshole, and that is awesome. But convenient explosion is convenient and Alan gets stabbed, while Moriarty leaps out the window, and glides to safety with his Batman cape, but gets pawn’d by Sawyer who has finally learned to shoot.
Cut to Africa for the funeral of Alan, because unlike the Avengers, this movie isn’t afraid to let a main character die. Till almost the end I mean. And sadly there is no end credit scene. I only add this to save you the waiting. Okay, this movie has so many issues. And it hasn’t aged well. It’s loaded with impossible action moments, awkward line delivery, and so much scene munching. But it does have some stupid charm.
[EDITOR’S NOTE: Kind of like Avengers: Age of Ultron?]
— Dave Hearn – 4 stars
I read some early reviews of Avengers: Age of Ultron and it wasn’t being well-received. I came to a conclusion, those guys don’t know what they’re talking about. I loved it. I’m going to see it again.
As a sequel, is it Empire Strikes Back or Godfather Part II, in that it may surpass the original? No, I don’t think so. But it also isn’t “less” than the original. I would put it on equal footing. As a link in Marvel’s movie continuity chain, it shines. Winter Soldier and to a lesser extent, Guardians of the Galaxy lead directly to this movie but someone who hasn’t seen those films can enjoy it all the same. But who wants to do that? Surely, the movie-going audience is beginning to see what life is like for comic book fans. Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. will be a different show next week because of the events in Avengers 2. Netfilx’s Daredevil spun directly out of the events from the original Avengers movie. All of this different media fits together to make a beautiful tapestry of nerdom and I am on top of the world!
The action is amazing! I had expected the fight between the Hulk and Stark’s “Hulkbuster” armor to be the highlight (it did not disappoint and, believe me, the trailers didn’t show you everything) but I was captivated by every visual effect. Captain America throwing his shield and kicking Hydra butt was just as engaging. And Ultron! James Spader faced a tremendous challenge following Tom Hiddleston as the movie’s main antagonist. Challenge accepted and done! He was amazing! I’ll admit I had my doubts but I was sold before Ultron even gained a body. I’ll never hear Ultron any other way now.
Stepping up his performance and his role was Jeremy Renner as Hawkeye. He was the emotional center and human grounding for the entire film and he was brilliant. The absurdity of a human with a bow and arrows teaming with Gods and Monsters for the greater good was even addressed in a way that made sense. I applaud Marvel for their decision to increase Clint’s profile in this sequel and I hope that continues.
The rest of the cast was everything you wanted them to be. I can’t really tell you anything new in that department. Evans, Downey Jr, Johansson, Hemsworth, Jackson and Cheadle are all reprising roles for which they are ideally suited and none give a bad performance. No one “phoned it in” and I felt they all hit the right notes. Ruffalo as Banner just reinforced my desire for another Hulk movie. We finally have the right actor and the right look for the Hulk. Let’s get this going!
Of course you’re going to see this movie. I know it, you know it, we ALL know it. Just don’t listen to the people that naysay this sequel, they’re wrong. Avengers: Age of Ultron is spectacular and a great night out.
I left my kids at home because this first viewing was just for me. 🙂
— Shawn Hill – 4 stars
If there’s a weakness to Marvel films, it might be that they’re starting to seem repetitive. One big summer crossover is a lot like another in the comics after all. This time we’ve traded the wormhole/stargate alien/demons unleashed on Manhattan by Loki for a cadre of Vibranium robots led by Ultron against the Eastern European land of Sokovia.
This is sort of familiar territory for action movie fans, as it’s probably not your first robot apocalypse if you’re any kind of nerd. (This is not to speak to the many children who may have yet developed that awareness at my showing; they seemed subdued to sleepiness and distracted by the food options as opposed to the film; parents, be advised: this is a drama, the laughs are all very adult).
Marvel’s genius isn’t in originality. Instead, it’s in outrageous genre combination; sci-fi plus romance plus thriller plus occult plus soap opera plus bildungsroman plus spies. They kind of have everything, and if you’ve seen it all before, you’ve probably not seen it this way, combined at this level, and with so many years of well-developed history just waiting to be tapped to answer any question that may come up.
Whedon knows that history so well he’s recombined it at will, giving us freshness amidst the familiar. When Scarlet Witch and Pietro emerge (orphaned twins described succinctly by Maria Hill as “fast” and “weird,” respectively), they’ve got nothing to do with Magneto or Chthon. Or even the Whizzer or Miss America or the Romani or the High Evolutionary. They’re instead Hydra experiments with Asgardian technology, and they’re Russian, and they’re angry. That’s quite close enough, especially when Pietro gets bored and takes off running and Wanda can make things explode when she’s not playing mind games.
We didn’t know how much we were waiting for Whedon and Ruffalo to make the first ever interesting MCU Hulk in the first film, and I certainly never expected that a romantic vibe would spring up between him and Black Widow before this one. Their interaction back then (also triggered by Loki’s staff) was an intense chase sequence on the Helicarrier that went more horror movie than action movie from Natasha’s perspective. So leave it to Whedon to turn that history of abuse into romantic tension this time out, and to make ‘Tasha the tentative pursuer to a reluctant Bruce.
We also find time in the battle for Hawkeye to assist Wanda and Pietro in switching sides, letting the three embody Cap’s Kooky Crew from Avengers #16 as well as Paul Bettany embodies … well, let’s just say we may not have Wasp or Yellowjacket, but we still have an Oedipal mystery unfolding, with James Spader voicing an updated and impressive Ultron who is a curvaceous and leonine answer to his cinematic forbears. He forms himself out of earlier models in Tony’s lab (so we get glimpses of the classic look as well) due to his own irrational drive for improvement. In fact, when first introduced to holograms of the psyches of Jarvis and Ultron in Tony’s lab, they look like nothing so much as two sonogrammed embryos floating in space. You’re hardly surprised when one starts to eat the other.
The details aren’t the same. But the feelings are right, and the movie also does its job in priming us for the more outlandish foes to come. We’ve accepted charismatic Norse gods and mad robots; we know some green, blue and pink ladies now. What remains to be seen is if future installments are capable of sustaining Whedon’s nimble balance between Earth and heaven, between the sublime and the ridiculous.
— Jeffrey Roth – 5 stars
I was trolled by Joss Whedon twice. I was trolled and it was glorious. The Avengers: Age of Ultron hits you fast and hard right from the start. We know the heroes, we know their stories, and Whedon spends no time having us get to know them again, he just puts us right in the action. The Avengers have been trying to recover the staff that Loki used in the first Avengers movie. While doing so, Iron Man is upset by what he sees, and decides that the world needs more from the Avengers than just Thor’s awesome pectorals, and embarks to create a world defense system known as Ultron. Of course things go horrible wrong, and the Avengers must face their most difficult foe yet.
Age of Ultron hits all the notes I wanted it to hit and then some. There was a lot of pressure on this movie, not just from the success of the first one, but from the success of the Marvel universe as a whole. Avengers opened us up to the world of hostile life far from Earth, and Guardians of the Galaxy showed it to us up close and personal. Also, we have the whole ‘every Marvel movie has been about infinity stones’ thing, which if you are not aware of this you need to go to google and educate yourself. Age of Ultron had to connect to these things, but it also had to deliver a cohesive story and retain its compelling characters. It did all of that. Joss Whedon is as big a nerd as us, and he has yet to become completely divorced from the knowledge of what we want. As I said, he spends no time in the intro letting us reacquaint ourselves with our heroes, and why should he? He knows we remember. He knows we want to see them beat the crap out of villains and each other, and he delivers it to us. Not only that, we want the characters from the comics to jump out at us and tell us who they are, and he gives us that too. The Avengers captures the essence of the shared universe that Marvel has created and shown it to us to prove to us that it works. It works so well, you guys.
I would also like to say that Joss Whedon is the type of filmmaker who should continue to make Marvel’s movies. Not that he should make all of them, but that his type of filmmaker, a filmmaker in touch with his audience, should be in charge of directing future movies. Marvel has shown that it is fairly adept at finding such directors, and Age of Ultron continues that trend. This is exemplified by The Vision’s inclusion in the movie. I did some cursory research before going in to Age of Ultron after The Vision was announced because I had no idea who The Vision was. After reading his backstory in the comics, I immediately understood that he HAD to be in the movie. This was obvious to me, but it’s something I think movie companies have ignored. DC has shown that it doesn’t make those intuitive leaps. It doesn’t take anything as a given, and yet Whedon took a lesser known character and put him in this big budget movie because he had to be. The Vision is tied to Ultron, so in a movie about Ultron you need to make the Vision. With all the other things going on in the Marvel universe, things that are so big they need their own movies to correctly expound on fully, a lesser director could have saved the Vision for another time. Joss Whedon didn’t, because he understood that The Vision comes with Ultron.
Now, Ultron himself was amazing as well. James Spader plays him extremely well as the psychopathic intelligence he was created to be, with something… not quite right with him. He provides plenty of menace and continues to raise the stakes throughout the movie. His henchmen, sidekicks, whatever, are just as intriguing, bringing more to the villain roles than just a shiny new metal face. They give the ruthless Ultron the sounding board he needs so that we can really get inside the why of what he does. In some respects, Loki in the first Avengers was wonton destruction dressed up in pretty language. Ultron has us questioning the very need for heroes, and if our heroes are the saviors they need to be or ultimately the monsters they fear becoming. This amongst more wonton destruction as well as fights between your favorite Avengers, and the tension definitely builds amazingly. Also, yay Hawkeye.
I was trolled twice by Joss Whedon. I was trolled gloriously, and it was because Joss Whedon knows I am his audience. He also knows what his audience knows about him, and it lets him play with us a bit. He has shown a great aptitude for knowing what we expect from a superhero movie, and he gives it to us with flair and style. He makes us laugh, squeal with nerd glee, and maybe even tear up a bit. He gives us Earth’s Mightiest Heroes, and the villains to face them. He does this, and he trolls us so hard at the same time and I love him for that. I hope to be able to see more of his work in this way. Or barring that, at least more of his influence across the Marvel Universe. If it wasn’t clear, GO SEE THIS MOVIE!
— Sam Salama – 4 stars
As an avid Marvel reader and, specifically, a huge Avengers fan and collector since an early age I can be the best and worst of critics for a movie such as Avengers: Age of Ultron. Much as I try not to, I find myself analyzing, almost dissecting the movie and its million details, left there for the enjoyment of Avengers connoisseurs.
With the first Avengers movie, which meant the culmination of MCU’s Phase One, I wasn’t happy that director and scribe Joss Whedon chose the Ultimate’s Chitauri as the big chaotic villains. However, the tremendous role of Loki, the obvious similarities and nods to Avengers #1 and their constant battles amongst themselves – almost an Avengers’ trademark – won me over.
In other words, I loved the first Avengers, and felt it nailed every main character, while giving us some really fun interactions between Loki, a perfect antagonist – a thousand times more original, playful and suitable than in the source material – and all our heroes, which were still getting to know each other.
As he himself pointed out, Whedon didn’t want the same Avengers characters to just reprise the roles the way they played them on the first one, while also having the clear intention of not featuring the same characters as the movies’ most important ones.
This all comes true in Age of Ultron, which, albeit having a triple-sized spectacular dose of action in the forms of Captain America, Iron Man, and Thor – that certainly ups the ante from the previous Avengers movie to a point where you gaze at the screen in wonder of what the combined force of Earth’s Mightiest can do when working at full potential – puts the focus on further developing loved avengers such as Hawkeye and Black Widow, while also deepening the duality that comes from fighting human extinction alongside an ally that, unchecked, can tear whole armies apart. That exploration of the monster/hero fight of the Hulk persona was maybe one of the points where the movie, and Ruffalo, most excelled.
The exploration of Hawkeye, both as his own man and as sort of mentor for the misguided and out for revenge Wanda Maximoff, was an interesting choice, as it shows us that, in his “simple” humanity, opposed to teammates with superpowers, a lot of cool gadgets or simply enhanced, he maybe has more to lose than any of them, and therefore tries to be the heart that the team needs.
This may well be the point that Whedon tried to get across, and, though Hawkeye being in some ways the less powerful, more street level Avenger of the initial line-ups has been a classic point in the Avengers title for decades; I didn’t enjoy how, once more, as he did on the first Avengers movie, the director and writer went to the Ultimate version of Clint Barton to forge what is the essence of the character and what drives him forward: [REDACTED]. That’s not a Clint Barton that I felt particularly interested or invested in.
Thankfully, Hawkeye gives us lots of great battle sequences, some of his trademark quips (electro arrow to Wanda’s head included!), some doses of leadership and hey, even a “nice speech”!
So, for this, one, Whedon, I might let that arrow pass.
Maybe one of the strongest points about this movie, which almost marks the end of MCU’s Phase Two, is that everything it gives us is epic in scale.
Starting with the premise of the movie: the creation of Ultron (so creepily and perfectly portrayed by James Spader, with the help of some of the best CGI I’ve seen in robots for quite some time) as a peacekeeping AI gone wrong that, in its twisted and cold logic, finds that the total eradication and extinction of the human race as it is today is the only thing that will bring change, and therefore, peace.
Also, we are delighted with a globetrotting storyline, where a load of action sequences take the Avengers throughout the world, giving the whole experience a more global feel, something that many times is missing in US blockbusters, where it looks as if evil only looms on American soil.
There are, however, many more high points on this movie, as we get to visit Sokovia, birthplace of Wanda And Pietro Maximoff – a nod to Slorenia (the European country from the Balkans that Kurt Busiek had Ultron destroy way back when) – or the African nation of Wakanda, from where a soon to be avenger on the MCU, the Black Panther, is King. Wakanda is key in Ultron’s history, as it is rich in vibranium, the strange metal alloy that grows beneath its mountains and that the evil AI robot uses to upgrade itself and its army. It also gives a nice excuse to introduce the man who will become a classic Avengers and Black Panther enemy; Klaw; when in a delightful nod to fans, Whedon has Ultron cut off his right hand.
However, the best of the movie may very well be my favorite Avenger of them all: the Vision. His birth and introduction to the gathered Avengers certainly give us the most fun, impactful, surprising and beautiful scenes of the whole two hours and a half.
And seeing the android in action, displaying almost all of the powers we’ve grown accustomed to seeing him display on the comics, was just breathtaking. Amazing job, amazing colors, amazing movements…he is just going to be the boss on the Avengers franchise if Marvel Studios plays its cards right.
So yes, people, Age of Ultron has many reasons to be thoroughly enjoyed, popcorn and coke in hand. And, though it didn’t quite feel as rounded a movie as Avengers, and its ending isn’t its strongest point, it is one hell of a ride; one you definitely shouldn’t miss.
— John Yohe – 3 stars
Avengers: Age of Ultron is an almost-beautiful mess, and does exactly what I’ve never liked about superhero comics, which kind of drove me away from them for a long time: it gets bombastic. There is so much going on, and so many lead-ins to other movies, and so many characters, and just and over-the-top villain, that if things weren’t going at a full-tilt pace, you’d think this was a satire.
I don’t blame Joss Whedon, because from what I’ve been reading, his hands were tied by the Disney execs. Instead, I see him as Captain America, trying to keep things together and make sense while the super-powerful bad guys try to destroy everything.
The bombastic is what drove me away from superhero comics way back: the love of super-powerful villains and space ships and robots all just makes me lose my ability to suspend my disbelief. And I really really want to believe. The first Avengers is great, not so much for the story about the aliens, but for the story about the characters, the Avengers interacting with each other. That idea is now kind of…obvious.
Avengers: Age of Ultron begins with an assault on a Hydra fort in a poor eastern European country, because apparently The Avengers can just do that, invade another country if it’s harboring terrorists. Where have I heard that idea before? Oh, right. Us. But any explanation as to why and how the Avengers have gotten back together, for this mission, or for anything, doesn’t appear. Are they working for S.H.I.E.L.D.? No agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. are present. Are the working on their own? Is that not a little worse? And why, oh why, do they bring Bruce Banner along on any mission, because you know what? Hulk smash, and soon smashes another city downtown. Didn’t see that coming.
The biggest disappointment, for me personally, is this: When they announced all the coming Marvel movies for the next few years, Marvel execs were questioned about why there weren’t more female characters and why Black Widow didn’t get her own movie, and they said that her story would get developed in this new Avengers. That was a total lie. Instead, they took away the Black Widow/Hawkeye attraction, and almost ignored the sort-of attraction between her and Cap in Winter Soldier, and instead made her attracted to….Bruce Banner? Wtf?! Nothing Johansson and Ruffalo (both otherwise great) did could ever make be believe those two characters would ever be attracted to each other.
As for Ultron, I never liked that ‘character’ in the comic books, he was just too over-the-top powerful, and just…shallow. It’s a robot. And though I love James Spader, making Ultron into a hammed-up villain just borders on ludicrous. If Ultron is to be scary, keep him/it machine-like, cold and calculating. On that note, I never liked The Vision as a character either, and though Paul Bettany plays him perfect here, the character is another super-powerful one, that basically saves all their asses. Plus I never liked the Scarlet Witch, nor did I ever think her being attracted to the Vision (as the movie hints at for future storylines) was ever believable.
All of which when I see is listed here seems to point to an actual ‘two stars’ rating, and yet there is still some magic to be had, despite the bad, mainly in the actors, particularly, of course, and always, Robert Morton Downey, Jr., who just dominates every scene he’s in, and therefore has always been perfect for Tony Stark, who does out-smart and out-charm every other character, and is therefore perfect as a billionaire who also happens to have been an arms dealer as part of his business, at least in the past, which is how our own real-life billionaires operate, charming us even as they deal in things that make the world worse.
Chris Evans has gotten more confident as an actor, and here Captain American seems more confident, or maybe it’s me finally getting used to him acting with the big dawgs like Downey. In any case, he makes the perfect straight person to Downey’s humor, and still keeps his, and maybe our, dignity as we live in Avengers world.
All the main actors are great. Ruffalo is just really subtle—he has to be, since he’s not given many lines—Just watch him in scenes with Johansson, and how his facial muscles are working, showing us the thoughts and emotions racing around inside. Chris Hemsworth as Thor is another straight man to the comedy, but Thor has been pushed to the background in this story.
My favorite actor in the roster remains Johansson, maybe because I’ve seen her change the most in her career, from a fairly blank slate in Lost In Translation (which was perfect for the movie) to the extremes of facial expressions this movie, and maybe the widest range of emotions in any of the characters. If only, if only, they’d just give her a Black Widow movie of her own to really show her stuff.
It’s the chemistry of all the main actors, guided, I think, by Joss Whedon, that made the first Avengers so great, and what keeps Age of Ultron barely alive. Now that most of them seem to be phased out of the franchise, and now that Whedon is apparently bowing out, what’s left? That last scene showing the new line-up did not fill me with excitement. Instead, I thought, “Oh, wow, that looks very, very, contrived.”
This may be my bowing out of the whole franchise as well. I may still go for the next solo Captain America, if only because it will have the remaining characters I care about: Cap, Falcon, Black Widow, and Nick Fury (and Mariah Hill!). But really the feeling I get from the coming MCU onslaught is quantity over quality. I may be wrong. It’s happened before. Everyone else liked Guardians of the Galaxy. There was plenty of bombast there, and plenty here. At least GotG was coherent.