First, some Real Life Stuff,
I've gone two months without posting anything on here, and it's seemed like so much longer than that. It's happened before, and never without good reason notwithstanding my lack of motivation. Being a grown up is tough sometimes, even if I'm admittedly not all the way there yet despite being on the precipice of 30 years old. Your priorities change without your permission. The money and time you used to spend on awesome things like movies and action figures now go to silly things like healthy eating and going to the gym (not that I go nearly as much as I should). And you only realize this when you get a second to sit down and think about the past weeks. My schedule doesn't help, in that many of the things I want or need to do can't be done in my waking hours. We did get ourselves a puppy though, which unfortunately coincided with my Mandi's health taking a turn for the worse, an example of the 'bad' of life arguably outweighing the 'good'. The weeks spent in adjustment to a new rebalancing of resources and priorities have exhausted me on different levels, but I find myself rallying now, not just because I have to but because I can. I don't mean for this to be any kind of complaint against life, just an inner monologue put into words. Hopefully I haven't scared off the 20ish people good enough to read my humble thoughts.
Enough of that though, let's talk about a guy with a bow and some arrows fighting an army of robots.
The Avengers may not be considered the greatest film of all time by most, and in my opinion Marvel has done better things since then. but it would be ignorant to say that The Avengers wasn't a milestone in the history of genre film making. The unifying of several marquee characters under one feature film with a cohesive plot, mesmerizing action sequences, and a generally smooth and light presentation was thought to be, and should have been, impossible. And yeah, a lot had to happen for it to work. A handful of films used as a foundation, a stellar cast of primary and secondary characters, a production company with the balls and resources to pull it off, and a director with the vision and the skill to put it all together. We watched, and we were grateful. However, when The Avengers came out, I wrote at length about the problem Marvel now had: How in the blue hell do they follow it up without being a disappointment?
Short answer: They don't, I'm afraid.
I said I'd wait and see what happens. Turns out, a lot happened. Iron Man 3 sent me on a love/hate spiral that I still haven't quite landed on. Thor 2 was what it was, a fine film that lost the magic of its predecessor. The Winter Soldier is in my mind the greatest film that Marvel has released. And then there was GOTG, which is pretty much The Princess Bride for a new generation. The three years in between Avengers assembling weren't hard to suffer through thankfully, but the sequel still had to live up to the original. It made a valiant effort, but like many sequels before it, the first one was better.
I will say this: just because the first one was better doesn't make this one less good. Avengers AOU is a good popcorn flick and one of the better Marvel films to date, with a direct, intriguing plot, effective use of established and new characters, surprises, nerdgasms, and one of the most charismatic evil robots you'll ever meet. The new additions of Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver were fresh and welcome, as were the cameos made by several characters established in previous stand-alone films (but I won't say who, it would spoil the surprise!). The cast was just as spot-on as they were in Avengers (heretofore known as A1, like the sauce), keeping what could be a very dark setting entertaining and easy to watch. The chemistry between so many major characters is surprisingly great, proving that the first film wasn't a fluke in that regard. And of course, the lead was taken by force by Robert Downey Jr., chewing up scenery like only he can. However, it says a lot when RDJ's spotlight could be taken from a guy's voice alone, but it happened here with James 'By God' Spader voicing the antagonist Ultron. Alan-fucking-Shore took this role and made it his by basically taking every trope that applies to evil machines, from the monotone voice to the humourless disposition, and tossing it out the helicarrier window. I may have truly disliked this movie if it weren't for Spader drinking Tony Stark's milkshake.
Another shout out goes to Joss Whedon for putting together a second film that should be impossible to do, more so with the added characters and side plots. From the cold open into a tracking action scene to the logistical nightmare that turned into a thrilling climax, this was another accomplishment under the belt of the patron saint of nerds. If he truly is done with the franchise then I will be sad to see him go. That said, there is a big slow point in the dead centre of the film that takes things down a peg. I understand the need for it, as it is well over two hours of movie, but when you have so many characters and so much potentially going on, it almost seems wasteful for, well, nothing to be going on. The film also does one thing that so many shows and films featuring ensemble casts pull that infuriates me to no end: it separates the group for no reason. Characters disappear to do their own thing, to accomplish basically nothing while hindering the group as a whole. Again, no details given for the sake of spoilers, and I know this is borderline nitpicky bullshit, but I see it all the time and it drives me nuts. Next thing you know, Cap's serum will wear off or Thor will lose his hammer, rendering him useless. I see the neutering or straight up writing off of characters a lot, and it just seems lazy to me. It's 'The Dresden Files' approach to supporting characters: you've got a legion of superpeople on your team, but 90% of them can't help you when you definitely need them to. With friends like that, no wonder Cap and Stark are about to get into a bitchfest.
And there's the big problem for me. I know what's going to happen next, and it's not even my fault. Last year, if not earlier, Marvel went out and released every intended movie project from here until forever like a bunch of jerks, and with additional thanks to the internet, the proverbial cat is out of the bag. Now, this wouldn't be much of a problem, except that AOU spent a good amount of time doing not much but setting up future events. Sure, there are a great many things that happen within the context of the movie, and are important to that context without looking outside of it. And like A1, it took from that which came before it to build on that context. But there was a lot of importance put on things that had no impact on what was happening in the film. From little things like the mentioning of a person or place that might make the ears of the comic faithful perk up, to whole scenes and subplots dedicated to those same people saying 'oh, that's gonna be good in Captain America 3' or 'that was a big deal in Guardians of the Galaxy, I can't wait until Avengers 3 in another three fucking years!' It took me out of the movie and turned it, if only for a minute, into a trailer for another movie we're at least a year away from seeing. That's what the stinger scenes at the end of credits are for. You've seen this movie, thanks for the money, now here's a taste of what's to come, see you next year. It's exciting, and it's worked for however many films that have been put out since 2008. Marvel is just too excited and has so much on the plate that they had to spend maybe 20% of a film people were already excited for...well, getting people excited for movies that were not this one. I'd have the same complaint about GOTG if it weren't so goddam great.
When I wrote about my feelings of dread in regards to the world post-A1, I mentioned the Superbowl Syndrome (TM), resulting from "sadness after witnessing the culmination of a significant amount of time and investment", basically a state of melancholy set in after Avengers wrapped up, and we had to start the hype machine all over again for AOU. The good news is that we don't have to start over again now. The bad news is that we should. Instead of being a culmination or conclusion to anything, Age of Ultron is just an extension of the hype started when the credits to Avengers rolled and our heroes had those shwarmas. We are in a holding pattern that will last at least another year until Captain America: Civil War comes out (AND I WONDER WHAT THAT WILL BE ABOUT /sarcasm), if not until 2018 with Avengers 3, which will only be part one of a film in two parts so really we'll have to wait until 2019 to get any kind of real resolution. At least I'll have Batman v. Superman to tide me over.
And hey, we've gotten some good times while we're waiting. Here's to a few more.
Knight Owl
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