There's nothing new about how I feel towards the superhero/Marvel trend of releasing comic book based movies every couple of months. I'm sick of it. I'm sick and damn tired of seeing these movies. I'm tired of watching their trailers, I'm tired of seeing all the impressive CGI that is being/has been developed to make these movies more and more visually impressive... I'm just over the comic book/superhero genre. I'm over it. Every time I see one, I swear to myself that it was the last one. I don't get excited for them like I used to. I don't count the days until I get another look into a world that was only two hours long. I'm over it. I'm trying to keep myself from becoming entirely disillusioned with the thought that I will, one day, still make it as a screenwriter. Every single time I see another one of these movies coming out, I realize that the original script/idea is dead. Unless I've adapted an obscure comic book, no one really gives a shit anymore of what original ideas I have written down on paper. They just want Iron Man. Or Thor. Or Ant-Man (God knows why). So, I'm over it. Yet, like an Alzheimer's patient, I still manage to end up at the theater to watch the next one. And here's what pisses me off - they're all not bad. I'm serious. Minus, like, Thor 2 and The Hulk and maybe some sort of Superman film... they're all put together very well. I mean, hell, Guardians of the Galaxy was one of my favorite movies of last year. It's just not fair. I have the utmost respect for Joss Whedon and if they're going to keep pushing out Avengers movies, then I'm glad they have someone capable to pen the script and direct the film. It's just infuriating that he keeps making decent movies and people keep seeing them because this trend isn't going to go away for a very long time-- if ever. I mean, once the actors from The Avengers finally get sick of playing these heroes, Marvel will freaking reboot the series all over again with younger more up-and-coming actors. They will literally never end. Ever.
So, Avengers: Age of Ultron... what can I say unbiased about the movie? I can't bash the movie because it wasn't bad in the slightest. I can't praise the movie because then I'm perpetuating this endless cycle of asses in seats to watch these movies. So, I guess I can just tell you what was good about the movie and what wasn't and let you decide for yourself. First, off, there is a lot of good, I hate to say. The biggest praise I can give the film is the chemistry of the actors and the characters. It's not like the first film where they're all getting to know one another and there's little tiffs here and there and everyone distrusts everyone and all that. Now, they know each other, and like each other. They get along well, they can poke fun at each other, and they genuinely seem like friends. What's also good is that somehow, with 187 different characters in the movie, Whedon ends up giving ample time to [almost] everyone and giving them character. They're not just superhero names... they're people that we, as an audience, care about. With the exception of Thor-- because I don't think even Joss Whedon knows what do do with him in the mix of all these other heroes-- everyone is pretty well defined. Even Hawkeye (Jeremy Renner) is given ample time in the film so that we don't just think of him as a weird, bow-and-arrow-only addition to a super human team. (He is, by the way, my favorite Avenger. Just so you know.)
James Spader, who voices Ultron, is also fantastic in the film-- like almost everything he's ever been in. He's got a perfect blend of black humor and psychotic in his voice that lends to a pretty sophisticated villain. Even if he's a weird CGI robot who is supposed to represent the antithesis of Tony Stark, Spader still brings his own brand of weirdness to the character. Tom Hardy already showed us with Bane that a good actor can bring a hell of a lot to the table with just the sound of his voice. The humor is perfect. The movie, while I guess is fun and exciting, is actually pretty hilarious. While I can appreciate a Christopher Nolan dark and foreboding Batman film, the Avengers need to be funny. They need to be able to interact with each other like people do... like friends do and give the audience some comic relief without being too stupid. Whedon is able to walk this line with finesse.
As for the negative of the film, well, let's see-- Ultron's motivation is a tired movie trope. Artificial intelligence is born, evolves, realizes that humans don't accept the gift of life and therefore in order to sustain a perfect Earth, humans must be eradicated. It's been done countless times and, to me, is tired. It's also not a great enough motive to base an entire character around, but Whedon is even clever enough to use this old idea and not make it seem hackneyed. Elizabeth Olson's character is pretty badass-- her "Russian" accent is not. The death and destruction and smashing of buildings and robots gets pretty old after awhile because there's too much of that in summer blockbusters. You get together some good people to fight bad people and shit is gonna get destroyed. After awhile, there's really nothing new to blow up. There's just different locations. Which brings me to the question-- really, what's the difference between an Avengers movie and a Michael Bay movie? (Obviously, I'm not talking about The Rock here, either. That movie is GOLD.)
Think about it. Is there really a difference between Avengers and Transformers? You've got some good mech-heroes paired with tough human heroes. You've got bad mecha-heroes hell bent on destroying the Earth... mostly from space. Is this any different? Not really. So, why do I find myself enjoying Avengers and mocking Transformers? As I was watching Iron Man and Captain America and Thor and Hulk and Black Widow and Hawkeye rapidly fight and subsequently destroy things around them, I realized that I actually gave a shit about these people. I didn't want to see any of them get killed. The one thing that separates the two films is the writing. It's easy to blow up buildings and have epic CGI fight sequences, but it's difficult to care about the fighters in question. If Shia LeBouf was fighting Megatron or if Optimus Prime was trying to save Mark Wahlberg's daughter from death and it went completely to shit... I don't think I would care. I'd applaud Bay for having the balls to do something like that, but really it would be okay with me. If anything happened to any one of the Avengers, even though I'm sick of the films, it would probably sting a little bit. So, that's what will keep me from being entirely disillusioned from my screenwriting dream-- even though there's really nothing original to be seen for, probably, the rest of our lives... good writers can still exist and make sure to take secondary source material and make it good.
See the movie or don't see the movie. It doesn't matter. It's going to gross a billion dollars and make way for a cavalcade of sequels and spin offs and prequels and TV shows. But, if they're going to keep churning them out like some sort of super assembly line, I'm glad they've got a writer/director who is capable of not making me hate myself every time I forget I'm sick of the genre.
B
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