This weekend, we went to see Avengers: Age of Ultron (2015). I remember when I used to rush off to watch a film on opening night, but after all the kids came along, we were lucky for a long time if we even saw a film in the theaters. For us to be able to see this film on opening weekend was a nice minor accomplishment. Some of our friends started booking their tickets a month in advance. Two weeks out, I was relieved to purchase four tickets for reserved seats at a nearby AMC theater. Reserved seats? That recline? We need to come to this theater more often!
I’m not about to delve heavily into the plot — I figure half of you know everything you need to know, and the other half only wants a short summary because ya just don’t care that much about comic book movie properties. As you could probably tell from the 1,001 trailers, sneak peeks, and tv spots, the Avengers have reunited to fight a villain of their own creation — Ultron. And there are even more characters, such as Falcon, Rhodes, Maria Hill, etc. And newly introduced characters, such as Scarlet Witch, Quicksilver, and the Vision. And connections to upcoming films, like Captain America: Civil War in 2016, Thor: Ragnarok, in 2017 Avengers: Infinity War Parts 1 and 2. The more I watched each of these commercials, sneak peeks, and tv spots, I started to get worried. When you have so much going on, there’s an increasing risk of over-stuffing the story.
What did I think of it? Yeah, overstuffed. So many character introductions and plot twists and battle sequences and Marvel tie-ins. It’s too much. It’s too much everything. Don’t get me wrong — you can watch this film and enjoy the time, but it’s not as good as the original Avengers film from three years ago. Personally, I don’t care how many more superheroes Disney could have added to this tilm — Captain America: The Winter Soldier blows this film out of the water in terms of quality and tightness. The film was trying to be everything, but sometimes less is more. Yes, you can sit and watch the film and enjoy yourself, Winter Soldier raised the bar so high, it’s tough to follow. This film was just too much. The action scenes were awfully frenetic and a little jerky. So many characters and their individual little storylines, callbacks to past events and hints to other films. And then the climatic final battle was just like the first film, only instead of thousands of Chitauri alients, we have thousands of Ultron robots.
Because of this, I’m worried about what’s going to Civil War next year. At last count, they’ve taken this 3rd Cap film, and now have 16 main characters. It’s basically Avengers 2.5. With the Russo Brothers in charge, I’m hoping they can keep it all under control.
Avengers: Age of Ultron (2015)
