Movie Review: Avengers 2

Because despite the subtitle, it never really became the Age of Ultron. Though it could have.
The TL;DR review is: it's a good, solid movie. Entertaining. Treats superheros like real people.

That's the real trick and it's one that Marvel has pulled off more than it hasn't. It has stumbled, badly, depicting gods (Thor and Thor 2), possibly because religion makes people in New York and Hollywood break out in hives.  But Marvel has done well depicting the more human characters.

Each of the characters feels like they have lives, have history, with each other and with the world.  They aren't archetypes, with the possible exception of The Hulk, they're people with power.  Sometimes pretty flawed people and that's where the good drama comes from.

The bad drama comes from the bad guy since we haven't really had a well-done Marvel villain yet. 

The villain this time comes from Tony Stark*, it comes from his arrogance and his fear. That's a great combination. His fear causes him to want to create a superweapon, which is ironic since he spends a good chunk of time denying that he's a weapons manufacturer.  And then he does it again, late in the movie.  His arrogance causes him to act without discussion with anyone besides easily-manipulated Bruce Banner.**

I was really impressed with Chris Evan's Captain America. Showing someone who's good, decent, moral and a born leader is really, really hard.  Most shows can't even get leadership right, confusing it with bullying, shouting and wearing a suit.

The Hulk is once again shown as being a serious threat to his friends, to civilians, to buildings.  Kind of retreading familiar ground there, though his fight with Iron Man is probably the movie's highlight.

Hawkeye and Black Widow get some hasty retcon to get rid of that sexual tension from the first movie.  Now they're just friends. It's a bit clumsy but it's not worth getting worked up over.  It is nice seeing them like and respect each other, Black Widow is also in on the big secret about Hawkeye's wife and family.  Those scenes at the farmhouse are very humanizing.

But Black Widow has decided she has 'green fever'***  and has set her cap on Bruce Banner. She's the only one who can talk the Hulk down when the fight is done. She has some good moments when she opens up and stops flirting. Good vulnerability there. Which is met with rejection for reasons that are either wise or stupid.  Depending on if we keep the continuity from the Hulk movies, if so, yeah....no sex for Banner.  And none for the Hulk unless Captain Marvel shows up as Carol Danvers in full-on nigh invulnerability mode.

It's interesting how Captain America and Hawkeye end up being the moral and emotional center of the Avengers.  They aren't the most powerful, though Cap does keep Ultron distracted far longer than I would have though.  We don't see much vulnerability from Cap but Hawkeye gets shot, beat down and befuddled.  And still they chose to charge towards danger, to protect the innocent.  In that context, Hulk and Thor aren't really heroes. Heroism requires sacrifice and risk.  Hulk just breaks things. Thor is immortal and is just...doing stuff. Chasing scepters, hanging out, fighting.  Black Widow treats this as a job, though she also clearly views it as some thread of redemption (touched on better in Avengers 1).  Iron Man seems to be Avenging out of narcissism and peer pressure.  And fear, can't forget fear.  Iron Man sees the invasion of earth over and over again, just as in Iron Man 3 and it haunts him.

Anyway, we're into too many words territory and then some but let me touch on two more characters and bash the plot a bit, then I'll let you go. 

Two new 'people with power' are introduced here as well as one...different: Scarlet Witch and Quicksilvers are twin siblings from Eastern Europe, that much continuity has been preserved. But the comic backstory with Magneto and the X-men belongs to Sony. Odd how Quicksilver can be in both but, eh, I think I prefer this character more. Though the Xmen had more fun with Quicksilver's powers, I think.

Both Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver are survivors of war, blaming the death of their parents on Tony Stark, who's company made the shells that collapsed their house. Now this is a bit like blaming Samuel Colt for everyone ever killed by a revolver, it's childish logic. Guilt belongs to those who use weapons, not with those who create, make or, yes, even sell them.  Guns and shells don't DO anything on their own.****  But it motivates them to volunteer for human enhancement experiments that don't kill them, unlike the other volunteers.  As the movie says, Quicksilver moves fast and he's immune to the friction moving fast should cause.  He sometimes seems to experience time flow differently but this is apparently not on all the time. Somehow moving fast also allows him to destroy metal robots with a punch without shattering his own bones.  Shrug. Stupid but not too annoying.

Scarlett Witch is given more explainable powers, at least to me. She's a telekinetic who moves things with her mind. She can also read minds, memories and cause people to see things. Or not see things, like her and her brother. She may also be able to control emotions, we don't see exactly what she does to the Hulk but it sure horks him off.  All understandable psionic abilities unlike 'hex bolts' and 'probability manipulation' and 'magic', which even Marvel can't figure out in the comics.


Finally we have The Vision, though he doesn't explicitly name himself. He's created by a combination of Ultron and Tony Stark with a dash of Thor's godly power.  An artificial life form, but like Ex Machina, one that does not lock people in a bedroom and abandon them after toying with her emotions.  Ahem.

Let me touch on the plot lightly, because it might be the weakest part of the movie.

So, as I understand it, the movie opens with the Avengers beating heads of a bunch of high tech solider, probably Hydra agents or Hydra dupes.  All fallout from Cap. America 2's plot.  The Avengers show up, looking for the scepter Loki used in Avengers 1, which contains an Infinity Stone*****, relevant for the UR-arc of the Marvel movies so far.  

The twins, Quicksilver and Scarlet Witch, join in the defense. Hawkeye gets shot. Scarlet Witch puts the whammy on Tony Stark and she lets him take the scepter since she wants him to destroy himself with it.  Not sure why she didn't just kill him, she was inches from his head and she's a telekinetic but...eh.

The Avengers go home, victorious. Stark is already fraying from the vision Scarlet Witch shows him. He analyzes the scepter and thinks he can use it to bring an AI to life to control his drone suits.  Ultron wakes up, kills Tony's Jarvis program and interrupts a pretty nice party. He steals the scepter and escapes into the internet. And then into a robotic-making factory inexplicably left intact back in the old Hydra base.  Not sure why all those weapons and robots weren't secured but...eh.

Ultron meets the twins ****** and agrees to be evil together and kill the Avengers. The Avengers go looking for Ultron and find an arms dealer in Africa. This is one of the plot's thinnest places. In theory, they go looking for known associates of a bad guy the Avengers just captured and whom Ultron killed in his cell. But Ultron wants to confront the Avengers with the twins, to mess them up and let her get into their head. So he must have wanted the Avengers to show up there. But he also wants the Vibranium to make his new, 'pefect' body (later The Vision). So it doesn't make sense to lure the Avengers there instead of elsewhere after he's secured the vibranium. But...run time would be too long so, eh.

They all fight, the Avengers get mind hoodoo'd, all but Iron Man and Hawkeye, surprisingly. Hluk goes berserk, Iron Man fights/stops him and together they destroy a big chunk of what I assume is South Africa. Awesome fight.  The Avengers fly home but they have to hide out, because Ultron knows all their old hideouts that were in the computer and because people are about to call for the arrest of Bruce Banner.. So they fly to a safe house Hawkeye knows about. He should, it's his house. His and his pregnant wife's and their two kids.  Character development ensues. Thor bows out, because he has very little character to develop and he has a brief side quest to link us to the Infinity Stones.  Nick Fury shows up and gives them a pep talk.

Tony Stark goes to Sweden, because the internet is no longer under American control. Instead, the Swedes have it. Shudder world, shudder.  He's looking for some secret ally that is try to prevent Ultron from getting nuclear does.  But Ultron is never shown trying to get the codes. So that comes out of nowhere. But..eh. It separates the team so the fight to come is tougher.

And of course there is a fight. This time in Seoul, which looks awesome by the way. Ultron is going to a scientist he met at the party (yes, really) to get her to make him a new flesh/vibranium body. He starts downloading into it but Cap, Black Widow and Hawkeye show up...all three normal humans with nary a chance of defeating Ultron. Thor or Iron Man would paste him, as-is, though Hulk is hiding or rather Banner is after South Africa.  Once Ultron starts downloading himself into a body with the help of the Mind stone, Scarlet Witch can read his mind and is horrified by what she sees.

Which is another thin spot in the plot. See Ultron was programmed as a peacekeeper, a global protector.  He decides that to protect the world, the Avengers are in the way.  Odd decision to come upon and it's not really explained except that the Avengers apparently don't want the world to change.  But...eh.  But what's not 'eh' is that Ultron now decides he wants to create an extinction-level event, which we all know from the movie Deep Impact, right?  So he wants to destroy the world, let humans 'evolve' out of the ruin...or not. Or maybe he wants robots to take over the world but since he's the only robot it would be a world full of him and...frankly, it's a mess.  He just....wants to destroy the world. So the heroes need to stop him.

Well they half do. They capture the vibranium body and take it back home but Black Widow gets captured but Quicksilver and Scarlet Witch turn on Ultron. So kind of a net win, power-wise.  

Back at the base, Tony Stark is trying to do Ultron part 2, this time with Jarvis driving.  Once again, without anyone else being consulted.  A fight breaks out, foreshadowing the stupid, stupid, stupid Civil War plotline in Captain America 3.  Thor shows up, breaks up the fight, wakes up the body, creating The Vision.  Because they need more firepower to defeat Ultron, according to him.  Though being a god of war and lightning and them being robots, this shouldn't be that hard for him.  But...eh.

So the big final fight happens, and it's a good, long climatic fight with lots of action and hard decisions and, yes, death.  Not only civilians buy the farm but Quicksilver dies protecting Hawkeye and a little boy.  Pretty good stuff, though Hawkeye seemed to be set up to die, with he happy home life and pregnant wife and impending retirement to come.  The death is not taken lightly and, assuming they don't fuck up the character's sacrifice like they did Agent Coulson's, it has weight.

Ultron's attempt to levitate a city and drop it on the earth is foiled, all of his robots are killed and he's flushed out of the internet.  Heroes go home, the end.

The movie goes from action set piece to action set piece with 'down' moments of character interaction to manage the rollercoaster of emotions.  It's not perfect and not as good as the Avengers 1 but it's solid and should entertain.  It's got a fine mix of humor, pathos and power.  Perfect for anyone who read comic books and dreamed.

Recommended.



*Not Hank Pym, who created Ultron in the comic. Which is odd since there's an Ant Man movie coming out, though Pym isn't Ant Man in the movie, either. Headache. 

** There's a scene where he accuses Banner of just being a puppy who rolls over and shows his belly whenever he's confronted.  But it's that weak-willed character trait that he relies on to get his help in making Ultron and the Vision. I don't know if the writing is supposed to be that deep but it's there if you look for it.

*** Which sadly means internet porn predicted this plot line well before the script leaked.

****Unlike Ultron, which does get up, move around and kill things. I'm not sure how much blame Tony Stark gets there, some, but not all. Ultron is a living being who chose his actions...though that starts off based on Stark's programming.  Again, not sure if this is intended depth or discovered.

*****The Mind stone for those playing at home.

******Not a porn title...yet  I'm hoping for Katie Morgan again but who knows these days.