Current Quickie Mini Reviews
‘Ello my duckies! The end of the year is
upon us, and I was thinking that this is as good a time as any to take a look
back and reflect on the past twelve months. A while back, I did a preview of
Marvel films that were coming up, and I thought that since they have now been
released, I would back to do mini reviews of Avengers: Age of Ultron and Ant
Man. Fant4stic is out too, but I haven’t seen that one, so no review of that,
unless Santa thinks I’ve been a right little shit this year and leaves me a
copy in my stocking instead of a lump of coal.
Without further ado, let’s get
started. Cyoar!
Avengers: Age of Ultron
Following the massive success of the
first Avengers film, expectations for the sequel were sky high. We all asked
ourselves, “How could Avengers 2 top the first one?” The answer, unfortunately,
is that it could not.
That’s not to say that it doesn’t try
though. The typical sequel approach of more characters, more plots and more big
action setpieces is here, and all aiming to beat the first film on scale. I’m
torn on Ultron as I don’t mind the jokey, quippy Ultron that’s in the film, but
I would have preferred the more menacing, ominous one the trailer promised and
did such a good job of building up. Hawkeye getting more to do this time is
nice, having spent most of the first film brainwashed and crazy. Quicksilver
and Scarlet Witch don’t get a whole lot to do, and Quicksilver’s involvement in
particular suggests that Marvel are still mad about Fox putting Quicksilver in
X-Men first (The X-Men one’s better btw.) Vision is also shafted, but it’s more
justified in his case, as he doesn’t appear until near the end, and he does get
the best line in the film. It’s easy to imagine Joss Whedon giving himself a
big smug grin and a pat on the back after coming up with it, possibly stifling
giggles while watching the film afterwards until the line comes up.
The plot has an awful lot crammed into
the running time, as alongside the main plot with Ultron, there’s hunting the
last HYDRA forces in a conflict so effectively built up to in Captain America:
The Winter Soldier and skipped to the end of here, much like the Clone Wars in
the Star Wars prequel trilogy. (Which reminds me, Kylo Ren isn’t really a Sith
lord, he’s an actor pretending to be one. There’s your Episode VII spoiler.)
Unfortunately, this means Baron Strucker is killed off 20 minutes in to show
how badass Ultron is. Thor’s vision cave lake thing makes no sense as it is,
and should have either been expanded or cut entirely. The visit to Wakanda for
Vibranium is there primarily to set up Black Panther later, and also for an
Andy Serkis cameo, because you can never have too much Andy Serkis. Most of
all, there’s the much publicised romance subplot between Hulk and Black Widow.
The combination is a major crack pairing that comes out of nowhere, since their
only interaction prior involved Black Widow being terrified for her life as
Hulk rampaged after her. Not to mention that, for extra weirdness, this is
fresh off Winter Soldier, where she spent a lot of time with Captain America,
and Betty Ross isn’t mentioned at all, which one would expect Bruce to at least
think about as he was letting another woman close to him. Nevertheless, even if
the idea doesn’t work, I can at least appreciate what it was going for with
trying to create a bond between two emotionally broken people, and I absolutely
cannot condone the harassment from online feminists accusing Joss Whedon, who
has always been a prominent advocate of feminism and other social causes, of
being a sexist, misogynist monster and harassing him off social media earlier
this year.
The action and setpieces are the most
successful element of the film. These are great to look at and are very
impressive in their scale, with the highlight being the big grudge match
between Hulk and Iron Man’s Hulkbuster armour, although the climax does feel a
bit similar to the first film’s, except with armies of Ultron clones instead of
aliens. Then again, it does set itself apart with scenes of the Avengers
working together to save civilians caught in the battle.
The biggest problem with the film is one
that was hinted at earlier. There’s no tension, as the characters seem to talk
almost entirely in witty quips as opposed to conversations, which the bad guys
join in on as well, diminishing their threat. Even Ultron’s Pinocchio quoting
loses its intimidation factor. It’s funny at first, but it quickly gets
tiresome. At least the first film knew when to take itself seriously, a lesson
that’s been forgotten this time around.
Overall, Avengers: Age of Ultron is
rather disappointing, although considering how enormous the hype was, I’m not
sure if anything could have lived up to it. It’s still good, but it’s not as
good as we all hoped or expected it would be.
3/5
One last thing, that Star Wars spoiler
is the twist from Iron Man 3 and not a real spoiler as far as I know. However I
haven’t seen the film as of this writing, so I cannot confirm it is not real,
and if that actually happens, I sincerely apologise for spoiling Star Wars.
Come to think of it, Kylo Ren is played by Adam Driver – in other words, an
actor pretending to be a Sith lord, so it’s true, from a certain point of view.
Ant Man
Coming into the summer, expectation was
that Age of Ultron would be bigger than a very big thing indeed, whereas Ant
Man was seen as a disaster in the making following the highly publicised last
minute departure of director Edgar Wright, who had been attached for the best
part of a decade, and starring a hero only marginally less ridiculed in the
public consciousness than Aquaman, prior to his Game of Thrones inspired edgy
makeover for Batman VS Superman. Ironically, it turned out that Age of Ultron
wobbled, while Ant Man was a quiet return to form, a reassurance that
everything will be OK after all.
Ant Man’s moveset allows for some very
creative scenes, as regular settings such as a bathroom, the inside of a
briefcase or a child’s train set become unique and dangerous settings when he is
shrunk down, offering a new perspective which sets it apart from the other
Marvel films. He also has discs that are used to make things grow, and a lot of
fun is had with these as well.
Several plot elements are reminiscent of
Iron Man, such as the hero having a new ability granting suit, learning to use
their powers, the villain being a corrupt corporate executive, and the climax
involving the villain getting his own upgraded suit and duking it out with the
hero’s prototype suit. Surprisingly, it doesn’t feel as repetitive as it
sounds, possibly because it’s been a while since Iron Man, and Ant Man
approaches that plot in the context of a heist film, which Iron Man did not do,
and allowing Ant Man to set itself apart.
Alongside the creativity, the film is
also very funny, definitely Marvel’s funniest in my opinion. There are lots of
laughs to be had from side characters like Scott’s friends, plenty of witty
lines in the script and some comedy size shifting towards the end. There’s even
a bit of emotion involved, thanks to Scott’s bond with an ant he names Anthony and
his relationship with his adorable little daughter, desperately wanting to put
his time in prison behind him and be a good father to his daughter. Because of
this, there’s a feelgood factor attached to the film which will leave you with
a big smile on your face afterwards. When I went to see the film, I was
debating whether or not to go because I was not in a great mood at the time,
but by the end I was glad that I had chosen to go, as I felt a lot better and
enjoyed it a lot more than I thought I would.
Ant Man is on a smaller scale than the
previous films, which is no bad thing. It feels like a back to basics breather
before everything kicks off again in Civil War, and after Age of Ultron that’s
just what was needed.
4/5
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