4/30/2015

REVIEW OF AVENGERS: AGE OF ULTRON

2015 rating: *1/2
In the first AVENGERS, the villain was Thor’s personal albatross, and now Tony Stark’s invention is out to save the world by destroying it, or something like that… And while it took over half the original movie for the eclectic group to warm up to each other, now we begin with so much bantering camaraderie it's like hanging out with the popular kids after prom…

And there are about five jokes per minute, as if Robert Downey Jr’s quick-witted sarcasm was infected onto everyone else – even Ultron, Tony’s dominating Artificial Intelligence Robot, is full of wry wisdom: His nefarious motivation to do very bad things but unlike Loki, with an entire THOR film to catapult his dastardly menace, the titular heavy's purpose is completely forced and thoroughly confusing. Making the few good action sequences… like Hulk and Iron Man squaring off… impressive eye candy that lacks any rhyme or reason.

Stark & Ultron circa 1980's
With such an immense fan base, it’s pretty dangerous to not like THE AVENGERS. They are perfectly cast, and proved themselves a beyond-worthy franchise. The problem with AGE OF ULTRON is that the plot's as dull as the lame newcomers… including a mind-reading witch girl giving everyone surreal hallucinations; a blond-haired kid who runs really fast; and a red-faced crusader as strong as Thor, deleting the big guy's main asset.

And with so much excruciating downtime this time around, you would think the gang was saving up their energy… and for what, exactly? With all the jesting, where's the danger? The urgency? Robert Doweny Jr is once again the man of the hour, and he has a natural sense of humor, but he's overreached in constantly trying to please the audience. Meanwhile, Stark's lethal creation should be no laughing matter. Yet AGE plays out like The Rat Pack detonating an A-bomb, and not even that entertaining. 
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3 comments:

  1. AnonymousMay 1, 2015 at 5:44 AM

    This movies' reception from the blogs is all over the place, and I love it! I was not a lover of the first one...it was ok, but no where near deserving of the rapturous praise and fanbase. Like...no. I'll see this eventually, but I'm not super anxious to. Great review.

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  2. Ripper MadnessMay 2, 2015 at 12:34 PM

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  3. Ripper MadnessMay 2, 2015 at 12:35 PM

    It was awful. There was no focus. As I was thinking about it today it was too diffused. Too many characters to focus on so one doesn't care about any of them. Although JW tried to do that with Hawkeye by bringing in his wife and kids but that little family interlude just sucked life away from the rest of the movie. And please, if there is going to be a Hulk & Black Widow side love thing - make another Hulk movie or a Black Widow movie, blah! And Ultron...I have no words, he was lame. I knew Spader was the voice and it just made me giggle thinking about. it. Ah if they had only brought into the story line the father of Scarlet Witch & Quicksilver...ah but Fox owns the rights to that particular character - mutants vs. the Avengers...yes please.

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