My critic side would've given this a 4. My inner nerd that's seen all but two of the MCU films in theaters would've given it a 5. So I pleased both sides. And if you're a fan of the MCU you'll be probably be pleased with this film too. Also, look at this slick poster by artist @kazoomori up there.
I don't know if I'm going to review it fully until I see it again, there's just so much to process. But what I will say is...CAPTAIN AMERICA WAS WIELDING MJOLNIR LIKE A EXECUTING A FINAL SMASH AND ANT-MAN PUNCHED A LEVIATHAN INTO OBLIVION AND WE'RE GETTING ASGARDIANS OF THE GALAXY!
Superhero films seemingly come out every month, but over the past seven years none have built an empire as big as that of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. 'Avengers: Age of Ultron' is now the eleventh film in this series. It's starting to seem like with age, the films get better, or, at the very least, keep the same level of quality that Marvel has enjoyed over this ride. Even the weaker films in the series, such as 'Iron Man 2' and 'Thor: The Dark World' are well worth at least one go around. Then you have films like 'Iron Man' and 'Captain America: The Winter Solider' which are a under shadowed because they'll be compared to the two Avengers films we now have. Finally, we get to those Avengers films I just mentioned. 'The Avengers' was a blast and I saw it a few times in theaters opening weekend in 2012. With the universe expanding ever since, 'Avengers: Age of Ultron' was looking to be another capable sequel. It's a good follow-up to last years Captain America sequel and the smash hit that 'Guardians of the Galaxy' turned into. It's also a good way to (basically) close out Phase Two of Marvel's superhero film plan. 'Avengers: Age of Ultron' isn't going to be received as well as the first film, but it does show that Marvel is starting to at least get a little more serious with it's films, and that's a good thing.
'Avengers: Age of Ultron' takes place after the events of 'The Avengers,' 'Iron Man 3,' 'Thor: The Dark World' and 'Captain America: The Winter Soldier.' The Avengers -- Tony Stark, Steve Rogers, Thor, Bruce Banner, Natasha Romanoff, and Clint Barton (Robert Downey Jr., Chris Evans, Chris Hemsworth, Mark Ruffalo, Scarlett Johansson and Jeremy Rinner) -- raid a Hydra outpost under the control of Wolfgang von Strucker, where they have Loki's scepter and also twins, Pierto and Wanda Maximoff (Aaron Taylor-Johnson and Elizabeth Olsen) aka Quicksilver and The Scarlet Witch. Pierto has superhuman speed, while Wanda can manipulate minds and control energy blasts. The team captures Strucker, while Stark gets the scepter. Stark and Banner discover that the stone in Loki's scepter has artificial intelligence and the two use it to make Stark's "Ultron" defense program. Out of nowhere, Ultron (James Spader) becomes sentient, believes it must destroy the world, to cleanse it, and kills J.A.R.V.I.S. Ultron proceeds to attack The Avengers during a party at Avengers Tower, while they celebrating the successful mission. The team begins to then search for Ultron, while Ultron is building an army of robot drones. This leads to one of many confrontations between The Avengers and earth's latest threat, Ultron. The group must band together, despite the hopeless looking scenario and personal inner turmoil, in order to save earth from destruction once again.
This film was two hours and twenty minutes and to me, it flew by. Nonetheless, this is a daunting film for those not "into" the superhero genre or question the quality of the films being put out as of late. I really did enjoy the film and want to give it another watch, because I know I probably missed things. I'm going to try to avoid comparing it to the first film as much as possible, because it really is quite a different feel to it after all the events of Phase Two that have happened. I liked the story overall and it really felt more real, though in the same vein as all of Marvel's previous films. The structure is largely the same, but the content is vastly improving. The humor is there, bur a lot more limited and when used works well. The emotion, especially a few moments during the final act, are unexpected and done well too. Ultron felt like a much bigger threat than the Mandrin, the Winter Soldier or Malekith and that adds a lot to the film. While a lot of the time it seems like Ultron is figuring the whole "villain" thing out, there's no doubt his powers are formidable and his overall plan is maniacal. We also have the first bit of adversity that The Avengers, as a whole, experience. Getting to see them work though some adversity, in what would otherwise be a "normal day going to fight Ultron," is another reason why the overall story and writing has improved.
We get more good performances out of the main cast. Spader was tremendous as the voice of Ultron and it really lent to the overall feel that he was a legitimate bad guy. I liked Hemsworth's Thor in a film like this, because a feature film of Thor is hard to pull off without the aid of Hiddleston as Loki. In The Avengers, Thor doesn't have to have the burden of being the main guy and can become better suited for his "time to shine" moments. Renner as Hawkeye was another good role to me. He was really a sixth man to the team in the first film, whereas now he's an unsung hero, with a frankly, surprising element to his life that added depth to his one-note character. Evans is fitting into his role as Captain America better and better each film, Johansson as Black Widow is still pretty good, Ruffalo's Hulk film (he'd better get one) can't come fast enough and Downey Jr. as Tony Stark is still a blast. The two newcomers, Aaron Taylor-Johnson and Elizabeth Olsen as the Maximoff Twins are really good as well. Johnson, while not having the eye-popping Quicksliver scene Evan Peters had in 'X-Men: Days of Future Past,' had a much better role in the film as a whole. On the flip side, Olsen as Scarlet Witch was awesome and I really loved the way they took her powers and translated them to the screen. The Vision is also introduced, I liked him, but I don't want to talk much about him, cause I went in not even knowing he was going to be in the film. Cameos of Don Cheadle as War Machine, Anthony Mackie as Falcon, Cobie Smudlers as Maria Hill and Samuel L. Jackson as Nick Fury were awesome and they all even had major moments in the film. There's a litany of other cameos, characters and references to previous films, but I really don't want to spoil all the surprises in this.
The action is a huge part of any superhero film and 'Avengers: Age of Ultron' has some of the best bits of it to date. Now don't get me wrong, the hand to hand combat of the 'Captain America' films and the technology wars in the 'Iron Man' films are awesome, but The Avengers films always take it all to the next level. This is because in battles we get to see The Avengers combining their powers in unique ways to tear through the hordes of bad guys and robots..or each other. Whether it's Thor smashing his hammer against Captain America's shield or the wicked awesome fight between Stark's "Hulkbuster" suit and a rampaging Hulk, the fights just seem bigger. The CGI to go along with the majority of these fights is spot on. If there's green-screen being used, and let's be honest, there is, at this point I'm barely noticing it. Iron Man flies effortlessly across the screen, Hulk's skin looks about as rough as the side of a mountain and Scarlet Witch's energy blasts are amazing. I also like the fact that the fights in cities mean something, it's not just the destruction of a city, a bunch of people's deaths are implied and we move on. Iron Man and Hulk's fight levels part of a city and we're shown hurt people and people effected by what was going on. In the final act, the team needs to evacuate a whole city, in the process we are shown people in fear, escaping and genuinely concerned for their well being. I like that everyone is affected by what's happening, not just the people fighting to stop more bad from happening. (Looking at you 'Man of Steel.')
'Avengers: Age of Ultron' is the "start" of the summer film season and once again Marvel has put out a really good and fun film. While it might not have all the charm and impact 'The Avengers' had, 'Avengers: Age of Ultron' improves in a quite a few ways. The characters have grown, the action is bigger, the story is nice, the villain is good and like all Marvel films, it keeps setting up for more action down the line. We even get our annual Stan Lee cameo. We he ever have a bad Marvel cameo? If you're a fan of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, you're gonna go see this film. If you're new to the genre, I'd suggest seeing at least 'The Avengers,' 'Iron Man 3' and 'Captain America: The Winter Soldier' before this one. Because at this point, with the MCU, you'll need to start seeing most of whole picture, not just bits and pieces of it. Nevertheless, 'Avengers: Age of Ultron' is quite worth the watch and is probably the best big budget film of the year so far.
It has been a long awhile since I hunkered down and did some reviews. Never fear though, over the next week, and end of 2013, I'll be doing my best to get this blog up to 100 total posts. I know it's a lot of work on my part, but if you keep reading, I'll keep writing. Deal? Deal. Onto to main attraction. Now I haven't seen all that many movies actually IN the theater this year. But, ever since the current crop of Marvel, and really superhero in general, movies have been hitting theaters, I've made a point to go see them. Thor: The Dark World is no different as I'm a huge sucker for Marvel movies. Thor has always been a sneaky like of mine, and everything I was reading said that this was overall a better movie than it's predecessor. Chris Hemsworth, Tom Hiddleston and Natalie Portman reprise their roles in the last big comic book movie of 2013. And I must say, it wasn't bad.
Thor: The Dark World takes place after The Battle of New York which occurred in The Avengers. To begin, we are shown a battle of titans that took place eons ago. In this battle Oden's (Anthony Hopkins) father Bor, clashes with and defeats the plans Dark Elf Malekith (Christopher Eccleston). Malekith seals away a dark power, the Aether, and flees into suspended animation with a select few Dark Elves. Present day, Loki (Tom Hiddleston) has been returned to Asgard and is facing Oden. Due to the compassion of his mother Frigga (Rene Russo), he is speared from execution and sentenced to jail. While this is happening Thor (Chris Hemsworth), alongside Fandral, Volstagg, Hogun and Sif (Zachary Levi, Ray Stevenson, Tadanobu Asano and Jaime Alexander), are fighting a battle to bring peace to Vanahiem. Thus bringing peace to the Nine Realms, as the Biofrost has been reconstructed. Meanwhile in London, Jane Foster (Natalie Portman) is taken to an abandoned building by her intern Darcy Lewis (Kat Dennings). In said building, items have been breaking the laws of psychics. Jane goes off to explore on her own and is transported to where Malekith hid the Aether, and is infected. The Asgardians begin learning about the Convergence. A rare occurrence where all of the Nine Realms align, and portals connecting them appear at random. Malekith is awakened when Jane is infected by the Aether, and begins a quest to reclaim it from her. In the process we learn that he is trying to destroy the Nine Realms and bring the universe back into darkness. Thor, with help from Loki and Jane, must stop Malekith before the universe is destroyed.
This movie can easily be split into two categories. 1. Anywhere other than earth. 2. Out of place shenanigans on earth. Now I like comedy and laughing as much as the next guy, and Marvel usually has a pretty good sense of humor in their movies. But, this movie has way too much of it for me to take any scene taking place on earth seriously. Aside from the climax of the film. I was expecting fleshed out characters played by Kat Dennings and even Stellan Skarsgard. What I got were almost caricature's of what we got in the first movie. There's a ton of unneeded "comedy" between Kat Dennings and her intern, even though she's an intern. Haha? All the while Stellan is thrown into a bit where's he's turned into a crazy guy jailed after streaking. All of this is a distraction and I was not a fan of the way they portrayed the supporting characters on earth during the movie. On the flip side of this, the portrayal characters in Asgard, Svartálfar, Vanahiem and the rest of the Nine Realms is fantastic. Tom Hiddleston, as Loki, commands the screen in any scene he is in. I love Loki's character and it's probably (to me) the most well written role (albeit not a ton of screen time) in this area of the Marvel movie universe (aside from Iron Man). Natalie Portman, as Jane Foster, slips into the caricature mode when on earth. But while she is away, she is a great on-screen presence with Hemsoworth, Hiddleston, Russo and Hopkins. Speaking of Chris Hemsworth, he reprises is role as Thor very well, and is really growing into the character. Even getting a little bit of growth and digging a bit deeper into it with Dark World. There's not a lot of other standout or distracting characters. Christopher Eccleston is as good as you can get with Malekith I suppose. While Thor's team, alongside Idris Elba and Anthony Hopkins, are relegated more to the background as they focused more on Thor, Loki and Jane in this.
The action in Thor: The Dark World, and almost any Marvel movie is pretty fun. You have Thor absolutely demolishing baddies, which is part of the charm of his character now. Thor and Loki doing their best WWE impersonation and forming a tag team was cool as well. There's some cool set pieces throughout, and weaved throughout the story line there's enough mind numbing action to wet anyone's appetite. I'm pretty easy to please when it comes to things like action and comedy as well. So I know I'm always in for a good time watching these types of movies. Like in the above paragraph, the writing can be split into those two areas. But overall it does a much better job than the first movie. Sure the overbearing scenes set on earth are out of place, but even in that the story is progressed well. Meanwhile the characters and plot are engrossing when it comes time for a scene in one of the other realms. It's a tough job blending all the things going on in this movie. But it's presented well enough to not confuse the hell out of the audience. I really liked the way they dove into Thor's mind in this and gave him a bit more than "Thor, smash." Sorry Hulk, it had to be said. Meanwhile, Jane Foster goes from seemingly lost scientist in the first movie, to Thor's main squeeze in this. It nice to see they didn't forget about her despite only mentioning her in The Avengers. Finally Loki is given yet another dimension. We've seen the power hungry and the wanting to be ruler in Thor and The Avengers. We now have a Loki that's tapped into his emotions, and is a perfect blend of relateble guy, misunderstood genius and complete psychopath. It helps that Tom Hiddleston does a ridiculously good job of embodying everything the Loki is. The CGI looks good throughout. The pull in/out shots of Asgard are fantastic. As well as the funeral scene that was done beautifully. While the desolation of Svartálfar is oddly creepy. I didn't see it in 3D, but what really stood out to me, was there not being many points where I went, "There's where 3D would be if I was watching in it." The music and score are fine throughout, adding drama, tension, etc, when needed. There's a fantastic cameo that I won't spoil, alongside Stan Lee making his annual appearance. Both of which I enjoyed.
Thor: The Dark World isn't going to be a movie that will convince people to jump on the Marvel bandwagon. Show them Iron Man 3, show them The Avengers, that's what draws people in. This movie bridges gaps, builds characters, and gives a lesser known character, in Thor, the time to shine. Full of action, humor (even though a lot is out of place, there's still great moments) and a capable story, Thor: the Dark World is a nice addition to this film universe. It'll tide the comic book fans over until the likes of Captain America: Winter Soldier, X-Men Days of Future Past, The Amazing Spider-Man 2 and Guardians of the Galaxy next year. While providing a capable, late in the year action movie, that people can go see over the Thanksgiving holiday. Did I mention that I love Tom Hiddleston as Loki? I don't think I did enough. Solid stuff Marvel, keep it up, and I'll keep watching.
This is my first time doing a DVD and/or Blu-Ray review so I wanted to pick a great (recent movie) with a quality (not quantity) amount of extras and things to go over. So this Blu-Ray dvd combo set, I'll be dammed if I couldn't find it in Blu-Ray packaging, of The Avengers seemed like a good place to try my hand at it first.
First off the commentary track, with Joss Whedon, is pretty damn awesome. From writing, directing and producing TV and internet shows including Dr. Horrible's Sing Along Blog, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Angel, Firefly and Dollhouse he's no slouch in TV fantasy. But look to what he's done on the big screen, helping pen movies like Toy Story, Thor, Captain America and The Cabin in the Woods, and it has Whedon all over it as well. As well as all this, Whedon is a life long comic book fan and he has an 8-issue series with Dark Horse called The Fray. So hearing the man behind all of the aforementioned giving little insights to thought processes, why he filmed what a certain way and all his thinking patterns regarding the writing and directing of the biggest Marvel movie to date, well, it's truly a treat.
Along with the Blu-Ray set you get another installment in the Marvel One-Shot series called, Item 47. Item 47, takes place after the final battle of The Avengers and follows the story of a down of their luck couple named Benny and Claire (Jessie Bradford and Lizzy Caplain) who find a left-over Chitauri gun (Item 47) and decide to start robbing banks with it. S.H.I.E.L.D. agents Sitwell and Blake (Maximiliano Hernandez and Titus Welliver) are assigned to track and receive the now active gun from the two, reminiscing about Agent Coulston as the mission begins. We are also informed that all the Chitauri guns are all "dead" so it's a wonder that the couple is even using it. I'll let you watch the rest of this short-film, but to say the very least it makes me wonder if we'll see these four in upcoming Marvel movies, including Iron Man 3 (2013), Thor 2 (2013), Captain America 2 (2014), The Incredible Hulk 2 (2015) and The Avengers 2 (2015).
There's a couple of really cool featurettes (A Visual Journey and Assembling the Ultimate Team), a gag reel (The first EVER one for a Marvel film) and deleted scenes that comes with this set as well. One featurette is on the DVD as well. The first is called "A Visual Journey." Chronicling the huge and unique set designs and all the different special effects and cinematography. The other, which is on the DVD as well is "Assembling the Ultimate Team" in which the all-star cast, including Robert Downey Jr, Joss Whedon, Chris Evans, Mark Ruffalo, Chris Hemsworth, Tom Hiddleston, Scarlett Johansson, Jeremy Renner, Cobie Smulders and Samuel L. Jackson, all talk about their characters and how this is one of the most start-studded movie of all time.
The deleted scenes all give more insight into characters like Maria Hill, Hawkeye and there's even a great scene involving Captain America. The gag reel is hilarious and give a great look behind the scenes and what the atmosphere on set was like. Would've been fun to spend a day on that set when everyone was there at once. Also the Second Screen experience, The Avengers Initiative, was cool as well. I synched up my movie with an app on my laptop and it offered a ton of extras such a videos, pictures, actor bios, behind the scenes shots, story-boards, comic book trivia and so much more. Watching with this added a ton of behind the scene stuff, even on top of the commentary I had just watched.
This was the best superhero movie of the year and the BluRay and DVD combo set did not disappoint. The commentary track is there and it's more than informative. The gag reel is hilarious while the deleted scenes are good, but rightfully removed. The featurettes are great watches and the Marvel One-Shot film, Item 47, is the best of the three released so far. The Avengers Initiative was also really cool to go through as well during the watch cause I've seen this movie a lot since it came out. This set is well worth the money and if you can get it in BluRay packaging more power to ya. This is a set you should definitely own.
