"Avengers: Age of Ultron": a busy, overlong but entertaining spectacle
Well, it's official. The summer-movie going season is now upon us in rollicking, entertaining fashion with the new Marvel Comics action movie "Avengers: Age of Ultron" and if anything, if gives us indication that it will be a busy one. The oversized bigger-is-better movie has more of everything you want: superheroes, action, bad robots and more action and it's an enjoyable, if not overlong, busy spectacle for sure. When Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr.) jumpstarts a dormant peacekeeping program, things go awry and Earth's Mightiest Heroes, including Iron Man (Downey), Captain America (Chris Evans), Thor (Chris Hemsworth), The Incredible Hulk (Mark Ruffalo), Black Widow (Scarlett Johansson) and Hawkeye (Jeremy Renner), among some others, are put to the ultimate test as they battle to save the planet from destruction at the hands of the villainous Ultron (slimy and perfectly voiced by "The Blacklist's" James Spader). Directed and written by Joss Whedon, who helped bring the first "Avengers" film to life, "The Age of Ultron" lacks the kick-booty edge and accessibility of the first film, and it gets bogged down by a busy, often muddled storyline with little continuity from the other individual movies that many of these characters have had, but the action sequences along with the terrific casting of the hypnotically-voiced Spader help carry the film along nicely through its slower-paced segments. "Avengers: Age of Ultron" will be remembered as the weaker film in the series, unsurprising given that this has happened with some of the other Marvel films, including "Iron Man" and "Thor," though the second "Captain America" installment last summer was better than the first in that series. It has a penchant of wanting to please everyone, stuffing it with some unnecessary characters, including Quicksilver (Aaron Taylor-Johnson), the Scarlet Witch (Elizabeth Olsen) and JARVIS (Paul Bettany), none of whom really make a huge impact, plus there other unnecessary backstories that seems like padding (sorry, I just don't care about Hawkeye's family, just saying) or aren't that fleshed out. Downey's "Iron Man" is still my favorite and coolest of the Avengers, and his cheeky responses to just about anything still make me chuckle ("have you been juicing, you look puffy," he says to Ultron) and his sequence with the Hulk mid-film was a standout. The premise of "Avengers: Age of Ultron" is about evolving into a new age, which is ironic given that this "Avengers" doesn't evolve much and pulls few surprises; the action sequences and special effects are clearly the most memorable as it moves quickly through its overlong 141-minute running time, but Whedon could learn from this by trimming a few things next go-around. Don't forget the end-credits scene featuring another supervillain that will especially please the fan boy set.
No comments:
Post a Comment