Mark Ruffalo

The Avengers: Age of Ultron

This is my favorite time for movies, even more so than the so-called Oscar season. Summer blockbusters might not be the most critically acclaimed movies, but they sure are entertaining, and with me that counts for a lot.

Marvel has proven successful in bringing the iconic heroes of comic book lore to the big screen. The Avengers franchise combines some of the most individually popular characters for one collective ensemble of awesome star power. 2012’s The Avengers was wildly successful, leaving little doubt that a sequel would be forthcoming. Last weekend I got to check out the highly anticipated sequel The Avengers: Age of Ultron, the first blockbuster of the season.

The sequel finds our heroes more comfortable with each other, as their shared chemistry reveals an amiable familiarity and easy rapport. Iron Man (Robert Downey, Jr.), Thor (Chris Hemsworth), the Hulk (Mark Ruffalo), Hawkeye (Jeremy Renner), Captain America (Chris Evans), and Black Widow (Scarlett Johansson) complement each other perfectly, and the opening scene highlights their collective strength. The movie begins with the Avengers attempting to infiltrate a base controlled by Hyrdra, the rogue sub-agency within SHIELD. Despite the aforementioned chemistry, the Avengers face a new challenge as they encounter two uniquely worthy foes. Hydra has trained a pair of orphaned twins to counter the Avengers. They are gifted with super speed and telepathy, respectively – and their initial salvo against the Avengers deals the crew a crippling early blow.

The opening scene was successful, because it was action-packed and wasted no time giving us what we wanted. However, the convoluted plot is introduced in the first fifteen minutes, and I found myself struggling to piece it all together. I’ll try to recount it for you, giving only the most pertinent details. Tony Stark and Bruce Banner had been working on new technology in the form of Ultron, an elite global peacekeeper with enhanced capabilities on par with the Avengers. When combined with an element from Thor’s home planet, Ultron comes to life ahead of schedule, but he has been corrupted with evil. He is not a peacekeeper, rather he seeks to destroy the planet – and the Avengers are no match for him. Ultron disables Tony’s trusted cyber soldier Jarvis, and he is hell-bent on going from a computer program to a physical being. The bulk of the movie follows the Avengers as they try to thwart his efforts and save the world.

Age of Ultron strives to give us a deeper insight into the insecurities and personal lives of the Avengers. Natasha has a thing for the good Dr. Banner. Hawkeye actually has a family, and perhaps Tony is the most layered of all. He feels guilty about having created Ultron, but his ego won’t allow him to completely abandon the technology or the ambition that allowed him to create it. The team becomes fractured, as vulnerabilities are revealed. For example, it’s not often that Captain America and Thor get their asses kicked, but the twins and Ultron prove too difficult for them, and even the Hulk. If they want to defeat their enemies, they will have to work together and trust each other.

The film’s first act simply captivated me with the action-packed fight sequences, but the plot details quickly became muddled. Admittedly, plot is secondary in movies like this – but it was confounding nevertheless. At first I thought it was dope, but by the time the credits rolled I thought the movie was just pretty good. The storyline was deficient, but the action and chemistry amongst the cast mostly made up for it. Of the recent Marvel entrants, I thought Thor 2 and Iron Man 3 were among the worst. Avengers: Age of Ultron is definitely better than those, and I put it on par with Captain America: The Winter Soldier. It’s worth checking out. Grade: B+

 

The Avengers

My mom reads my reviews, so I’ll censor myself a bit for this one.  Suffice it to say that the excitement I feel when I see a good movie trailer is akin to the adrenaline that coursed through the veins of the women who used to throw their panties on stage at Marvin Gaye et al.  When I saw The Avengers trailer, I didn’t throw my panties at the movie screen.  But I could have.  Oh yeah, I wanted to.

This is my favorite movie going time of the year.  The Oscar movies tend to come out some time in the fall, but it’s the summer (and early spring) that gives us the popcorn fare we love.  There was no question I’d be front and center for The Avengers, even if I couldn’t swing the midnight showing.  The excitement in my theater was nearly palpable, and we were all in for a treat.  If you’ve seen Iron Man, The Hulk, or Thor – you’ll at least be somewhat familiar with these Marvel mainstays.  The movie begins with Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson, Meeting Evil), head of S.H.I.E.L.D., a covert government organization charged with protecting American interests on domestic and global levels.   It picks up where Thor left off, as Thor’s (Chris Hemsworth, The Cabin in the Woods) nefarious brother Loki (Tom Hiddleston, War Horse) has obtained the tesseract, an otherworldly energy source that can destroy the planet.  He wants to harness its power and bring humanity to its knees, enslaving the populace.  Fury knows that he can’t stop Loki on his own, after witnessing him take out an entire room of armed security forces.  His first call is to the Black Widow (Scarlett Johansson, We Bought a Zoo), a spy who is already in the fold.  The other members of the team will require varying degrees of persuasion.  Starks (Robert Downey Jr., Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows) is in.  Thor comes forward of his own volition to battle his brother and fellow Asgardian.  Captain America (Chris Evans, What’s Your Number?) is a soldier who is accustomed to taking orders and as such, requires the least prodding.  Bruce Banner/Hulk (Mark Ruffalo, The Kids are All Right) is the most reluctant of the bunch, as he’s spent the better part of a year trying to keep his cool.  Rounding out the group is Hawkeye (Jeremy Renner, MI: 4), a recently rogue agent who was temporarily under Loki’s powerful spell.  Hawkeye and Black Widow are a tandem, bound by a shared mysterious past.  The movie highlights each hero’s skillset, and by the end they have accepted the values of teamwork and cooperation while forming an unbreakable bond.

The plot wasn’t terribly important, and it’s about what you’d expect: good guys unite to defeat the bad guy, whose wish list includes the subjugation of all mankind.  Some have an issue with the simplified plot, but I don’t.  I mean, it’s always a variation of the same theme.  I didn’t have a problem with the plot but I did have an issue with Loki’s reasoning that humanity’s natural desire is to be enslaved.  Quite the contrary, humans have an innate desire for freedom – so I thought writer Joss Wheedon could have tweaked that element a bit more.  It’s my only very minor criticism in a movie that was otherwise perfect.  What I enjoyed most about the movie was the interplay between each superhero.  Each character in his/her own right is capable of saving humanity, but it will take a concerted effort to defeat a foe as formidable as Loki, who has enlisted an entire interplanetary army to help him.  There was a natural chemistry among all the actors, and I can tell they genuinely had fun making this movie.

The Avengers succeeded where other superhero movies have failed.  Just because a movie is family-friendly does not mean that it has to be corny.  Spiderman 3 was horribly cheesy, and Superman Returns was equally bad, for similar reasons.  There has to be a middle ground between the darkness that Christopher Nolan brings to the Batman franchise and the corniness of those two aforementioned movies.  I believe The Avengers had the right balance of heft and fluff, if that makes sense.  It wasn’t all smiles and sunshine, as Black Widow has a shady past, Captain America is woefully out of touch, Thor is dealing with the worst form of sibling rivalry, Hawkeye needs redemption, and The Hulk is just trying not to spazz out.  The dialogue and interplay between characters was well worth the price of admission.  I think people should refrain from superlatives though.  This was not the best superhero movie ever made.  As long as Batman is still considered a superhero, that distinction remains with The Dark Knight.  That being said, The Avengers is a must-see summer blockbuster.  Grade: A+