MMT Guest Review of ‘AVENGERS: AGE OF ULTRON’ (Darryl King)

Happy Sunday MMT Family!  I’m extremely happy today for two special reasons. First, my team “Walkin By Faith” to date has raised $3,110 towards Walk MS and we had a great time at the event yesterday.  I want to thank everyone who has donated and sent words of encouragement during this year’s campaign. And for anyone who still wishes to send a donation, we are collecting them online at www.teamwalkinbyfaith.com through June 30. Secondly, we have a very special guest reviewer today for the Avengers: Age of Ultron – Mr. Darryl King.  Darryl is a video director, film writer, and was manager of the historic Sound of Market Records – which was the largest indie record store, located right here in my hometown of Philadelphia, prior to its closing last year.

Darryl is also an avid comic book/movie lover and, since I am not as well versed as he on the Marvel universe, I jumped at the chance to share his review of the film with you. So according to Mr King, with only slight spoilers,

“The second installment of the Avengers franchise is very ambitious, filled with much action and plenty of the standard Joss Whedon comedy and rotating shots of heroes battling. Overall the movie is good but lacking – particularly in the story development.

Whedon’s original cut of the film was over three hours and the final product slightly shows the plot holes with what was probably taken out – and hopefully that was the issue. Whedon was burdened with a different purpose the second time around. The first Avengers was geared around bringing together all of the diverse heroes/heroines with their own franchises into one singular film.

But this time, the burden may have overwhelmed Whedon as weighed down not with an original Avengers story but to tell one that would ultimately lead into an adventure that would nurture all of the up and coming Marvel franchises/films. It’s that burden that bogs down the greatness of this film. Perhaps this is the real reason Whedon is stepping down – because the ultimate Vision (no pun intended) of the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) is still the brain child and the direction of Kevin Feige. Perhaps this is the same reason Edgar Wright left from directing the Ant Man film. So now, it is under this context that I offer my “two cents” of the film.

With the purpose of this film being to set up the MCU future, “Avengers 2” isn’t really the “Age of Ultron” as it is the movie just starring Ultron. The movie strives to tell us more about the lives of Black Widow and Hawkeye, while providing us choppy but very dynamic and powerful action scenes – without much of the explanation for us to care. Perhaps the true composition of the movie was left on the cutting room floor. The star of the film is the Vision, who arrives after half of the movie. The reason Marvel has been so good over the years is because we have always been privy to the growth of each character – rarely was it (depicted) off-screen or taken for granted. “Age of Ultron” either doesn’t show plot developments, care about them or is quite clumsy with how it executes them.

For example, it tries to show growth of a relationship (? or not) between Bruce Banner, aka Hulk, and Natasha Romanov, aka Black Widow, without establishing said reality. Or how about lazily throwing in the back story of the twins Scarlet Witch & Quicksilver – so much so that there is no reason to believe why they volunteered to experimentation, and no considerable reason and believable context for their change of affiliation.

Ultron was evil but not quite evil enough for me. He went from barely formed robot to full-scale, physically developed evil protagonist in the difference of one scene. The movie gives us some good revelations (Infinity stones), but it also took for granted the viewers comic book knowledge with lack of exposition, especially with Thor’s storyline.

In the end, the movie reminds me of a wonderful meal (Avengers 1) that was sooo good the first time that you can’t wait to have it again. But when you eat it again… it is still very good just not as good as the first time. Still, I will go see the movie again because it is good and enjoyable, but could have been as great as Marvel’s best – Avengers 1, Captain America Winter Soldier, Guardians of the Galaxy, and Iron Man 1.

All in all, the movie works as a great advertisement for the up and coming Marvel movies – Civil War, Black Panther, Infinity Wars and Thor Ragnarok – but would have been better if Whedon was just allowed to tell an Avengers story. Maybe the best movie still has its parts left on the cutting room floor.”

Wow, I could not have gone as in-depth as that – even with a month of MCU study! I will quickly say that I also enjoyed the film, even though it was very bloated – but as Darryl explains it was functioning as a setup for future Marvel films to come. I also had to check myself while viewing, as I didn’t hear/make the Wakanda connection (Black Panther) until after the film – so I was more than a little disturbed that the Hulk (slight spoiler) was acting a darn fool on the continent of Africa! 😛

A HUGE MMT thanks to Darryl King for sharing his thoughts with us. Well, MMT Fam, if you saw the film, or are planning to see it, you know what to do! Share your thoughts in the comments section, and let us know what you think of Darryl’s summary of the film.

Until next thought, Thomasena