Likes:
-Fun action sequences! Not only seeing stuff blow up, but it was cool to see the team working together. For example, Thor hitting his hammer on Cap's shield to create a giant shockwave, or Iron Man shooting beams to reflect them off the shield. Apparently Captain America won the popularity contest. Anyway, there was plenty of blowing stuff up too, from Hulk barreling through a bunker or the city of Sokovia being leveled. Yeah, about that... (Appendix 1)
-New characters! While the existing characters may not be at their best, most of the new characters shone. Scarlet Witch was by far the spotlight stealer, with her awesome powers and strong personality, I really loved her! Of course, the over analytic in me thinks this may have something to do with one of the film's only other strong female characters reduced to a mere love interest. (WAY more on that later!)
Vision was another breakout star. He may have had few lines, but he certainly made each one count. Paul Bettany seems to be an excellent choice to play the worthy android, and I look forward to seeing his portrayal of the character in later movies.
Quicksilver was a character with a quirky persona that Aaron Taylor-Johnson certainly brought to life. He definently was an attention grabber when onscreen. Plus, he had that hilarious moment when he tried to grab Thor's hammer.
Though she played a smaller role, Dr. Helen Cho was also an interesting character, if only because of her new tech that will probably come into later movies, and her understandable fascination with Thor. Finally, that brings me to Ultron! I...don't really care about him. Unlike most fans, I have nothing negative nor positive to say about the titular villain. He was just kind of... there, and evil for the sake of being evil. Anyway, back from on the fence and to the positive!
-Hilarious humor! That was redundant. Anyway, I'm just gonna go ahead and list some of my favorite jokes from the movie.
Vision was another breakout star. He may have had few lines, but he certainly made each one count. Paul Bettany seems to be an excellent choice to play the worthy android, and I look forward to seeing his portrayal of the character in later movies.
Quicksilver was a character with a quirky persona that Aaron Taylor-Johnson certainly brought to life. He definently was an attention grabber when onscreen. Plus, he had that hilarious moment when he tried to grab Thor's hammer.
Though she played a smaller role, Dr. Helen Cho was also an interesting character, if only because of her new tech that will probably come into later movies, and her understandable fascination with Thor. Finally, that brings me to Ultron! I...don't really care about him. Unlike most fans, I have nothing negative nor positive to say about the titular villain. He was just kind of... there, and evil for the sake of being evil. Anyway, back from on the fence and to the positive!
-Hilarious humor! That was redundant. Anyway, I'm just gonna go ahead and list some of my favorite jokes from the movie.
- "Language!"
- "Jane is better"
- "coughTESTOSTERONEcough"
- "I'm always picking up after you boys"
-Great scenery! The film was shot literally around the world, and the movie really is gorgeous. From the Wakandan mines to the chapel where the majority of the final battle took place, there is always something, pretty or no, to look at.
-Set up for future movies! From the tension between Stark and Cap, to the not so subtle Wakandan location drop, there was PLENTY in this film to get me hyped for future flicks. Especially Captain America: Civil War, which I have hereby dubbed Avengers 2 1/2.
-Development for Hawkeye! While I did and do ship Clintasha (Appendix 3), I can forgive it not happening cinematically because of his adorable family. The depth added to his character by making him the "average Joe" of the team that keeps them together was a great addition. He was the one exception to my aforementioned "existing characters not being at their best" thing.
-Avengers caring more about civilians! They actively worked to get all innocent citizens out of Sokovia before it was leveled, unlike some superhero films. *coughSUPERMANcough* Random and doesn't really matter, but eh. I want to numerically represent how much I love this movie, despite its shortcomings.
-Avengers caring more about civilians! They actively worked to get all innocent citizens out of Sokovia before it was leveled, unlike some superhero films. *coughSUPERMANcough* Random and doesn't really matter, but eh. I want to numerically represent how much I love this movie, despite its shortcomings.
-I left the theater feeling good! It's hard to explain, and while I may be VERY critical about my dislikes, I want you to know that overall, I enjoyed this movie. Slightly random, but I have come up with a theory: when you love something so much, you are more critical about it, because you want it to be at its best. For example, I pick apart more wrong in the Avengers, but not Hobbit: Battle of Five Armies. It's generally agreed upon that Avengers is a better movie, but I don't care as much about the Hobbit, so I don't think as critically about it. Randomness aside, brace yourselves, fair citizens. Winter is coming. I'm readying the big guns.
Dislikes:
-Brucetasha. Brucetasha. BRUCETASHA!!! No. No. No. NOOOOOOOO!!!!! Alright, let's get this over with. Bring me a soap box, fair audiance. Thank you. Ahem. The short answer to my opinion on their relationship is as follows: JOSS WHEDON WHAT THE HECK WERE YOU THINKING NO NO NOOOOO DO YOU KNOW HOW MANY TEARS WERE SHED WORLDWIDE? YOU COULD FILL THE ATLANTIC OCEAN! Now, to explain my opinion: It just doesn’t work. I shall present my points in a scholarly manner.
Point #1: Everyone ships Clintasha or Romarogers. Of course, Hawkeye has a family, so I’ll just ship them in some of the comics from now on. But that didn’t make it any easier wen I first saw the trailers. Plus, Nat don't need no man. (Appendix 4)
Point #2: Mark Ruffalo is 47 years old and Scarlet Johansson is 30. Heh. While it might not really matter, their apperance shows the age difference. The 17 year gap just makes their flirting scenes that much more awkward.
Point #3: There was no previous chemistry between their characters. Some could argue that there was that scene when she went to recruit him, but if we're judging by that, Clint and her had LOADS more flirting and interaction.
Point #4: It’s just super awkward! Their scenes are not well written! They are really forced! It’s terrible and we should just kick Joss Whedon out of the franchise for this! (Appendix 5) Oh wait, Marvel already did. The Russo brothers are doing Infinity Wars. I’ll pretend they did just because of this. Carry on! Ok, you can have your soapbox back. I’m done for now.
-The film's lack of strong female characters. We have Scarlet Witch, whose UH-MAZING, Dr. Helen Cho, who was a cool woman who created groundbreaking synthesizing technology, and Agent Hill, who spent the whole film at a desk job. Then, of course, Black Widow, who gets her own ranty point. Out of the four present female characters, only two actively fight with the guys. Dr. Cho is helpful with her tech, but Agent Hill is kind of just there. Not to mention Nat's weak characterization. So, that's one strongly characterized female character who fights with the guys. Yes, I understand mysogeny, "only guys can be heroes", blah blah BLAH! But with such an extensive catalog of characters to pull from, at least Marvel could introduce a few more female fighters!
Point #1: Everyone ships Clintasha or Romarogers. Of course, Hawkeye has a family, so I’ll just ship them in some of the comics from now on. But that didn’t make it any easier wen I first saw the trailers. Plus, Nat don't need no man. (Appendix 4)
Point #2: Mark Ruffalo is 47 years old and Scarlet Johansson is 30. Heh. While it might not really matter, their apperance shows the age difference. The 17 year gap just makes their flirting scenes that much more awkward.
Point #3: There was no previous chemistry between their characters. Some could argue that there was that scene when she went to recruit him, but if we're judging by that, Clint and her had LOADS more flirting and interaction.
Point #4: It’s just super awkward! Their scenes are not well written! They are really forced! It’s terrible and we should just kick Joss Whedon out of the franchise for this! (Appendix 5) Oh wait, Marvel already did. The Russo brothers are doing Infinity Wars. I’ll pretend they did just because of this. Carry on! Ok, you can have your soapbox back. I’m done for now.
-The film's lack of strong female characters. We have Scarlet Witch, whose UH-MAZING, Dr. Helen Cho, who was a cool woman who created groundbreaking synthesizing technology, and Agent Hill, who spent the whole film at a desk job. Then, of course, Black Widow, who gets her own ranty point. Out of the four present female characters, only two actively fight with the guys. Dr. Cho is helpful with her tech, but Agent Hill is kind of just there. Not to mention Nat's weak characterization. So, that's one strongly characterized female character who fights with the guys. Yes, I understand mysogeny, "only guys can be heroes", blah blah BLAH! But with such an extensive catalog of characters to pull from, at least Marvel could introduce a few more female fighters!
-Natasha's characterization. Yes, she gets her own point. So, in short, Nat spends the whole movie fawning over Dr. Banner or locked in Ultron's prison. She does fight in most of the action scenes, but that doesn't negate the fact that her character was reduced to the whimpering damsel in distress. It really hurts me that the previously only female Avenger was weakened in character because another girl was brought in. I also would like to take this opperitunity to go on a small tangent. Now, I was reading reviews of this film to help prepare my own thoughts, and see if there was anything I missed. I ran across one post, https://avengersfangirl.wordpress.com/2015/05/02/✰avengers-age-of-ultron-review✰/ , that raised an excellent point. To paraphrase, Joss tried to improve Nat's character to have some of her inner struggle of believing she's a monster. But instead of being a monster for killing thousands of innocent people, she's made to be a monster for not being able to have children. I appreciated the perspective from that post, as I had not thought of that before. Go read her review and her thoughts on that topic, because I completely concur. Done yet? Good. 'Cause those are the rest of my opinions on Nat's character in this film.
-Most of my dislikes points are related to the way the female characters are portrayed or the lack of them. This is just sad Marvel. By the way, if you haven't already, go watch THIS SNL skit by Scarlett Johansson snarking at Marvel's lack of female driven movies. It gives me life that there are signal boosts like this and the hashtag #WheresNatasha to let Marvel know where they need to improve. Back from the tangent, time for my overall thoughts.
Overall Thoughts: I. Loved. ALL OF IT!!! Well, most of it. The action was great, the humor was on point, and while it didn't quite live up to the hype, I went in not expecting it to. My main issue is with the characterization of the few female stars, and the direction Joss Whedon chose to take the plot. Just read appendix 5 for extra rantiness. Anyway, if you're a Marvel fan and haven't already seen AoU, WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU!!! I mean, go see it! If you're not a Marvel fan, watch the other ten movies and then go see it. You can thank me later. ;)
Love,
Vera
Appendix:
-Most of my dislikes points are related to the way the female characters are portrayed or the lack of them. This is just sad Marvel. By the way, if you haven't already, go watch THIS SNL skit by Scarlett Johansson snarking at Marvel's lack of female driven movies. It gives me life that there are signal boosts like this and the hashtag #WheresNatasha to let Marvel know where they need to improve. Back from the tangent, time for my overall thoughts.
Overall Thoughts: I. Loved. ALL OF IT!!! Well, most of it. The action was great, the humor was on point, and while it didn't quite live up to the hype, I went in not expecting it to. My main issue is with the characterization of the few female stars, and the direction Joss Whedon chose to take the plot. Just read appendix 5 for extra rantiness. Anyway, if you're a Marvel fan and haven't already seen AoU, WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU!!! I mean, go see it! If you're not a Marvel fan, watch the other ten movies and then go see it. You can thank me later. ;)
Love,
Vera
Appendix:
- Set up for Civil War is brutal. It mostly involves stuff being blown up, citizens dying, and the government taking the heroes to court.
- We're all band geeks, so we came up with this: "Band is to Jane as Strings is to Pepper. Both are good, but Jane is better."
- I have a crazy head canon theory I'll be posting sometime on tumblr when I have the time. (By the way, go follow my tumblr at verathefangirl.tumblr.com.)
- In an interview for the first film when asked why Black Widow was not involved in any romance, Johansson responded "There's no time for romance. We've got (stuff) to avenge." Have I mentioned that I ABSOLUTELY LOVE HER!!!
- He ACTIVELY FOUGHT against Clintasha just to make fans angry. Don't believe me? Look it up. He REALLY did no favors for this film. Well, you can only catch lightning in a bottle once.
