Avengers: Age of Ultron
May. 18th, 2015 10:40 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
next_to_normalMuch like the film itself, this post has become far more sprawling and unwieldy than it was ever intended to be, so I might as well post it now before I lose the plot completely. I reserve the right to change my mind on some things once I manage to see it a second time.
Yeah, I am not surprised the original cut was 3 and a half hours long. And I know "longer is better" is not the conventional wisdom for filmsbecause we humans apparently have the attention span of a gnat, but I would TOTALLY have sat through it and probably would have enjoyed it a lot more than the version we got. Not that I didn't like it, but it definitely felt chopped up in places (sorry Thor, who knows what was going on with your subplot) and the character moments needed more time to breathe.
Frankly, I think every Marvel movie could cut down the fight scenes by about half - but I know that's not going to happen, so if we are mandated at least 40 solid minutes of CGI battle sequences, I'd rather the movie be long enough to accommodate all the character moments.
Despite my Marvel love, I'm not huge into action films in general, so I may be biased, but it seems more and more silly with every film that Marvel insists on sticking to the same format. Is it any surprise that EVERYONE seems to think the party scene, which is just the Avengers sitting around having fun and being funny, is the best scene in the movie? Guess what - we will totally watch an ENTIRE MOVIE of that! I would wager that at least 50% of Avengers fanfic consists entirely of the team just living together and doing domestic shit like movie nights and team dinners and Tony building robots to clean the house rather than conquer the world, so CLEARLY there is a market there, lol. For me, it has always been about the characters first and foremost, and I would watch these characters in pretty much any genre you can think of (which is one of the reasons the Cap films tend to be my favorites, because they are willing to experiment with tone and subvert genre expectations). (Also: Chris Evans.)
Even having seen it already, the entire gag with everyone trying to lift Mjolnir was hilarious and perfectly displayed the characters' differing personalities and senses of humor. And it would've been fine if it was just a funny throwaway scene on its own, but then to actually have a payoff with Vision proving himself worthy by lifting it easily made it a thousand times better.
"Jane's better." Hee! I mean, if you've got to lampshade the absence of two of your main characters' love interests, at least you can do it by reminding us that these ladies have WAY BETTER THINGS TO DO than sit around being arm candy for their superhero boyfriends, and making the superheroes in question compete over whose girlfriend has the more impressive career.
I have seen some complaints about "oh, they couldn't even get Gwyneth and Natalie in for a cameo during the party scene?" and look, if you want Jane, sure, why not? I mean, THOR'S barely in the movie, but whatever. Jane could've been there. (Though, let's be honest, the person you REALLY want at that party is Darcy.) But Pepper? Pepper absolutely could not be in this movie. Because if she was, this would be a whole different thing. Do you think Tony gets away with building a homicidal robot on Pepper's watch? HALE NO. Pepper's gotta be so far out of town she doesn't even know it happened until it's over. Even then, I'm a little worried for Tony - he's gonna have to do a lot more than just give her a farm to make up for this one.
Tony
Speaking of Tony, I think this article does a great job of putting his actions in this film into the context of his larger character arc. (I don't totally agree with his interpretation of some of the other characters' arcs, but Tony's is spot-on.) The thing about PTSD is, you don't just ~get over it. It's a thing you just live with, and some days you cope better than others. And what I love even more than Iron Man 3 actually addressing Tony's trauma is the fact that doesn't just go away in the span of a two-hour movie. Tony's in a much better headspace at the end of Iron Man 3 and the beginning of this film - the armor is clearly just a tool to him now, not a crutch or a security blanket - but Wanda's vision is enough to knock him right back to that place where he is using his inventions to build a wall around himself and the people he loves - and ultimately, the entire world.
In one of the reaction posts I read, someone mentioned that Tony is now a full-fledged supervillain. Which... yeah, kind of. I mean: homicidal robot. And of course, this is all leading into Captain America: Civil War. Despite the overloaded cast, the title suggests that it's still Cap's movie, which sort of automatically puts Tony in the role of antagonist. But Tony is the BEST kind of villain - one who has good intentions and absolutely 100% believes he's doing the right thing.
I think there's a misconception that Tony doesn't have an arc in Age of Ultron because he doesn't learn anything, since his solution to accidentally creating a murderbot is to double down and do the SAME THING again, only, you know, less murdery. Which would be frustrating, if the lesson Tony needed to learn was "don't create murderbots." But it's not. (Don't get me wrong - "don't create murderbots" is a valid and appropriate stance, I just don't think that's something Tony didn't already know, lol.) Tony's arc isn't about him learning a lesson or becoming a better person - he's already done that. That arc culminated with The Avengers. This is about Tony backsliding, falling into old habits of inventing out of fear, thinking he knows better than everyone, and always looking for a shortcut. AND HE'S PROVEN RIGHT, because Vision turns out to be a good guy and Ultron wasn't reeeeeallly his fault, it totes was the Mind Gem! So Tony is set up now to be in a position where his hubris leads him directly into Civil War.
Most of the characters in the film take a step back in their character progression, actually - Bruce and Natasha, certainly, with their tentative attempts to live in the world rather than isolating themselves, only to end up with Bruce once again off the map and Natasha back to being all about the mission, after toying with the idea of giving that up for a normal life.
I can see why that makes people unhappy, to see these characters regressing, but it's realistic. We don't always move forward in life. And, of course, from the franchise perspective, it's the middle of the trilogy. There's still a lot of ground to cover, so it makes sense that Phase 2 would end with many of our heroes in a less happy place than where they started it.
Tony and Bruce
I'm actually really intrigued by the relationship between Bruce and Tony in this one. I mean, we all love the Science Bros, the last Avengers ended with the two of them riding off into the sunset together, and the post-credits scene in IM3 indicated that they were still hanging out, which ought to be a good thing. Bruce is coming out of his shell, after his years of isolation, he's making friends and doing science again. But what we see here suggests that it's actually not as good for either of them as it might seem? I get the sense that while Bruce appreciates Tony's acceptance of him (and the Other Guy), it also creates an incredibly imbalanced relationship. Tony accuses Bruce of just "rolling over" when everyone's mad about Ultron - though apparently Tony didn't have a problem with Bruce's spinelessness when he completely steamrolled Bruce into using the Mind Gem to create Ultron in the first place.
Bruce is obviously a guy who avoids conflict, and given Tony's generosity and friendship, you can see why he'd just go along with whatever Tony suggests, despite his own misgivings. But the last thing Tony needs is a yes-man. He needs someone who holds his worst impulses in check - he needs a Steve who's not afraid to challenge him on whether they SHOULD do something when Tony only considers whether he CAN, or a Pepper to say, "I love you, but you are ten kinds of crazy and this is a terrible idea." And I wonder if it's not only the Hulk that Bruce sees as dangerous when he decides to fly off by himself in the quinjet.
Bruce and Natasha
So, Bruce and Natasha. I don't have any theoretical objection to the pairing - I actually came out of The Avengers kind of shipping them, and when the rumors started that this pairing would happen in Age of Ultron, my first thought was, "Yeah, that makes sense." And yet, somehow, the execution of it just didn't work for me? It feels an awful lot like it's just happening because there was a memo:
NATASHA: Hey Bruce did you get the memo about how we have a deep relationship and burgeoning tormented love?
BRUCE: Memo? What memo, I didn't get any memo! Who sent this memo, where did it come from, when did we even have time to hang out when I was living in Stark Tower and you were taking down SHIELD in DC --
NATASHA: Look, we established in Cap 2 that as an efficient operative I'm willing to occasionally take weird orders without questioning them. I GOT THE MEMO. WE HAVE A BURGEONING TORMENTED LOVE. THIS IS MY LIFE NOW.
BRUCE: I .... okay.
(skygiants' entire summary is hilarious, btw.)
Never in this film did they have as much chemistry as that first scene when Natasha recruits Bruce, walking that fine line where they both know she's manipulating him, and he sort of toys with her, too, but he's willing to acquiesce because he respects her effort. Here, Natasha seemed to come on too strongly - for someone who is supposedly so good at reading people and seducing people, she mostly seems to just make Bruce uncomfortable with her flirting. And I don't know, maybe that was intentional? Like she's deliberately NOT using her spy skills to seduce Bruce, because she wants it to be real, but... non!spy Natasha doesn't have much game, lol? But that doesn't quite ring true, because we have seen that Natasha is fully capable of being real and genuine with people - obviously there's the long-established relationship with Clint, but we also saw it happen in real time during the course of Captain America:The Winter Soldier as she bonded with Steve. And I wonder if it's less about Natasha not being comfortable with real emotions and more just that Joss doesn't know how to write her having them. Of all the things, this is the one I most wanted to pay attention to in a rewatch, because I feel like I missed something, and I want to know if it's really not there or if it's just buried.
I did like that Natasha was the one who made the "lullaby" work with the Hulk, precisely because it was such an echo of their scenes from the first movie, both Natasha's initial persuasion to bring Bruce in and then her frantic efforts to talk him down when he first turns into the Hulk. It makes the most sense - the only person we've seen Bruce bond with more than her is Tony, but the lullaby requires trust, and Tony CAN'T be the one to calm the Hulk if he's also going to be the one to bring him down forcefully if necessary. And maybe it's a little stereotypical with Beauty taming the Beast or whatever, but this is entirely within Natasha's skill set, moreso than anyone else on the team, and I don't think there's anything wrong with acknowledging that Natasha DOES have specific talents because she's a woman - that she was trained in a very specific manner because of the way women are perceived. It also makes sense that Natasha would want to face her fear from the first film - the Hulk is the only thing that can make her quake with fear, because he is pure brute force (where she is woefully outmatched) and none of her skills in manipulation or seduction are of any use. So I can totally buy that she would want to take on this challenge, and that it would bring her and Bruce closer together as a result. It's just the romance that's clumsy.
There's also a lot of furor over sexism surrounding Natasha and the scene where she reveals her sterilization, and... I kinda can't be bothered to engage on it. I think most of the arguments are oversimplifying things - Natasha is not merely a love interest, and it takes some pretty selective viewing to see her that way (there's a difference between HAVING a love interest and BEING a love interest, and Natasha, IMO, is definitely the former); and the conversation about sterilization could certainly have been structured better, but COME ON, who really thinks the point of that scene is "infertile women are monsters"? This take on her character hits most of what I would say, as does this one pointing out that when you only have ONE female character, ANY story you give her is going to be problematic in some way because by default it has to represent ALL women.
Clint's family
I was never wedded to either Clint/Natasha or Clint/Coulson (lol), so Hawkeye having a secret family doesn't bother me. If anything, I was hoping for Mockingbird, but since they introduced Bobbi on Agents of SHIELD and gave her a totally different ex-husband, I'd sort of given up on that one. So, Ultimates family it is! (As long as they don't follow the Ultimates storyline, because if Natasha turns evil and kills Clint's family, I will burn someone's house to the ground.)
I actually kind of spoiled myself on the existence of his family, because early reviews were talking about how this movie was all about Hawkeye and how he had a secret, and also Linda Cardellini is in the movie but who she plays is a secret, so hmmmm maybe they're part of the same plotline, and I checked IMDB and her character's name is Laura, which is Clint's wife in Ultimates, so... yep. And I didn't really have any cognitive dissonance about it, like a lot of people seem to? Maybe it was a more shocking reveal if you hadn't put those pieces together, but to me it was kind of like, "Well, of course, if any of them is going to have a secret domestic life outside the Avengers, it's going to be the dude we know the least about." Granted, in the absence of ANY character development in the MCU, fanon has sort of substituted 616!Clint, and the white picket fence life doesn't really line up with that, but Jeremy Renner kind of has a way of playing Clint with the same laid-back, everyman attitude and offbeat humor, so it feels a bit like Fraction!Hawkeye, only married with kids? (I still want Kate Bishop in the MCU, though! And Pizza Dog.)
Jeremy Renner had suggested in interviews that we would find out what Hawkeye was up to during Winter Soldier (i.e. why he didn't come help Steve and Nat in DC), and I guess the answer is... with his family? I was hoping for something a little more detailed than that - I mean, his employer basically imploded, you'd think he'd have a reaction - but I guess we can assume that shit went down fast enough that he wouldn't have had time to get from Iowa to DC to help, and I kind of enjoy the idea of him sitting at home helplessly, watching it all unfold on the news and leaving increasingly agitated voice mails for Natasha, who is obviously not picking up the phone. Meanwhile, Laura's online, looking up the MCU equivalent of Obamacare because look, Clint, I'm very sorry about Fury and all, but there is no way this family is going without health insurance.
(Clint having a wife and kids also retroactively gives extra resonance to Natasha and Coulson being so concerned about him in the first Avengers, knowing that he has a family that needs him to come home.)
I love that Natasha has such a good relationship with Laura and is "Aunt Nat" to their kids. One of my favorite things about Natasha is how she's been portrayed as having deep but completely platonic friendships with both Clint and Steve. See, kids - men and women CAN be friends! (Which is why I get neither the shipper uproar over Clintasha being "betrayed" nor the insistence on slotting her into a "love interest" role, when she's explicitly resisted it - seriously, watch CATWS and tell me you've ever seen a character so determined NOT to be the love interest, lol.) I love that there's not an ounce of jealousy between Laura and Natasha; there's no suspicion that there's anything going on between the Black Widow and her husband, and any envy on Nat's part is purely the desire for a family, not wanting Clint.
I also just like seeing Natasha in that environment for a change. She's so much more playful and funny than fandom gives her credit for - she's not ALWAYS all business and completely terrifying. Seeing her be relaxed and happy with Clint's family adds that shading to her character.
Steve
Yeah, so Joss Whedon really doesn't know how to write for Steve, does he? I guess it's probably for the best that he doesn't have much to do in this movie, because I am more than happy to leave his character development to the Russos and Markus/McFeeley.
I know there is a lot of annoyance about how Steve was in the army so he is not a delicate flower and has heard cursing before, but the "language" joke didn't bother me - even if they did go to that well at least one too many times - because it's pretty clear that he's NOT actually the language police, going by Tony's incredulous reaction and Steve's "it just slipped out." I mean, clearly, this is so hilariously unexpected that the whole group cannot let it go.
I am more bothered by the fact that Joss can't seem to see any depth in Steve beyond being a soldier, and he doesn't seem to get that "always does the right thing" is not the same as "always follows orders." Like, this idea that Steve ~needs a war or is only comfortable in the army? That kind of made sense in the first Avengers because he'd just woken up and he was totally lost and alone in a new century, and he accepted Fury's mission because he needed to do SOMETHING besides mourn. But he's more well-adjusted now, and he was happy to walk away from the smoldering wreckage of SHIELD to go look for Bucky - until, presumably, he was called back because the Avengers needed him. The Steve of his solo movies doesn't stay to train the new Avengers because he's given up on having a family and he needs a war. He does it because the Avengers are the only family he has, and because he feels a sense of responsibility - SOMEONE has to protect the world, and lord knows it shouldn't be Tony, and it can't be Bruce or Thor.
I suppose we should all be thankful that Joss is fundamentally incapable of not writing Snappy Dialogue, because at least Steve gets to be wry and snarky and isn't a total stick in the mud. Props to Chris Evans for doing his damnedest to find nuance in everything and trying to give his character some semblance of continuity because lord knows Joss isn't. MY BB, YOUR JOB IS SO HARD.
Wanda and Pietro
Speaking of Joss' failings as a writer (lol), I was fully expecting to HATE Scarlet Witch - and possibly Quicksilver, but mostly I was afraid of Wanda being another of Joss' damaged waifs, and of the sibling relationship having too much Simon/River to it, but YAY that was not the case, and Elizabeth Olsen is AMAZING. I still occasionally get creeped out by how much she looks like her sisters, which briefly throws me out of whatever I'm watching, but she's an incredibly talented actress and does a great job with this role. Can't wait to see more of her. (I really hope she can drop the vague eastern European accent in the future, though, since it wasn't particularly good or consistent.)
Kinda "meh" on Aaron Taylor-Johnson. He was mostly just there to annoy Hawkeye and then die tragically, so... job well done? I don't want to say I'm glad he died - and, admittedly, they managed to make his death fairly affecting for a character we'd only just met - but I'd already pegged him as "most expendable Avenger," and I wouldn't be particularly sad if we never saw him again. (Then again, I'm not especially attached to Quicksilver in the comics, so I'm less pressed than i'd be if they introduced someone I like, only to kill them off in their first appearance.)
I was not spoiled for Quicksilver's death, but totally called it anyway! (Askangearia, she was there!) Again, that was sort of just logic - I knew someone would die, and it couldn't be any of the characters who were supposed to appear in later films, so process of elimination, it's probably Pietro. I wasn't fooled by the heavy implication that Clint was going to bite it, though I did for a minute think that Ultron was somehow going to kill his family, because Joss Whedon (and also that Ultimates storyline). My other guess was that the "major death" I'd heard about was JARVIS, but that seemed like a cheat because (1) he's not really a person, and (2) he sort of comes back as Vision - neither of which prevented me from having SO MANY FEELS when Ultron claimed he killed him. GAH.
I am kind of fascinated by how WELL Paul Bettany fits as Vision. I suppose if they'd really wanted to, they could've cast someone else, but the whole Vision coming from JARVIS thing sort of dictated that it be Bettany, someone who was cast nine years ago to be a voice and nothing more (and who clearly didn't want more to do with the franchise than to show up and get his bag of cash). So I am impressed it all worked out as well as it did? Vision also looked incredible - more than anyone else in these movies, he truly feels like he just stepped out of the pages of a comic book.
James Spader was also great casting - you could not have found a better "Tony Stark's shadow self" if you had tried. I feel like I should have more to say about him, but he's kind of the least interesting part of a movie with his name in the title, so. I expected more "demon in the internet" shenanigans out of him, and I know they attempted to counter that by having JARVIS secretly fighting him, because otherwise he'd just take over all the nukes in the world and that would be the end of things, but still it felt like they could've done more with him than they did. And let's be honest, the entire plot involving dropping Sokovia was remarkably silly, but it's the kind of comic booky thing that you just accept its silliness and move on.
I kind of LOL'd a bit at how blatantly this movie seemed to be a response to the complaints about the large-scale destruction of superhero movies and the disregard for civilian casualties (particularly in Man of Steel). I did appreciate Tony trying to buy the building before he demolished it and his line about the Stark Relief Fund paying for the damage, but the whole thing in Sokovia was just so OBVIOUS that I couldn't help thinking, "Yes, yes, we get it - YOU CARE ABOUT THE CIVILIANS! Now can we please GET ON WITH IT?"
Thor
Thor was also in this movie. You may not have noticed, because Thor disappeared for a while to appear in a DIFFERENT movie, in which he went skinny-dipping with Eric Selvig and had visions of Marvel's Phase 3. If the rumors are true, and the Marvel execs were threatening to cut the farm scenes in order to make time for Thor's weird subplot to set up the Infinity Wars, then I'm glad we got what we did (as opposed to NO farm scene and lots more Thor), but it's REALLY sloppy and shows the problem with trying to service a whole universe AND tell a self-contained story in the same movie. But overall, I think the writers and directors in the MCU have done a pretty decent job integrating more moving pieces than should be possible, so I can forgive them, but I imagine things will only get more unwieldy from here.
I also should say that I LOVE the new team lineup and I hope we get to spend some time with them before Civil War blows everything to hell. I'm not bothered that they've abandoned the original team after only two movies - it's a thing that happens all the time in the comics, and we know the others are still around and will swap in and out as needed. Plus, there are still more characters to be added (CAROL DANVERS I AM SO READY FOR YOUUUUUU), and things would just be unbearably crowded if the roster weren't trimmed a little.
The only thing I do regret is that they really didn't establish Tony and Steve as BFFs leading the team together in such a way that Civil War actually feels like it's tearing them apart, rather than just another in a series of ideological disagreements between the two of them.
So... I am sure that I've missed about 8,000 things, so talk at me!
Yeah, I am not surprised the original cut was 3 and a half hours long. And I know "longer is better" is not the conventional wisdom for films
Frankly, I think every Marvel movie could cut down the fight scenes by about half - but I know that's not going to happen, so if we are mandated at least 40 solid minutes of CGI battle sequences, I'd rather the movie be long enough to accommodate all the character moments.
Despite my Marvel love, I'm not huge into action films in general, so I may be biased, but it seems more and more silly with every film that Marvel insists on sticking to the same format. Is it any surprise that EVERYONE seems to think the party scene, which is just the Avengers sitting around having fun and being funny, is the best scene in the movie? Guess what - we will totally watch an ENTIRE MOVIE of that! I would wager that at least 50% of Avengers fanfic consists entirely of the team just living together and doing domestic shit like movie nights and team dinners and Tony building robots to clean the house rather than conquer the world, so CLEARLY there is a market there, lol. For me, it has always been about the characters first and foremost, and I would watch these characters in pretty much any genre you can think of (which is one of the reasons the Cap films tend to be my favorites, because they are willing to experiment with tone and subvert genre expectations). (Also: Chris Evans.)
Even having seen it already, the entire gag with everyone trying to lift Mjolnir was hilarious and perfectly displayed the characters' differing personalities and senses of humor. And it would've been fine if it was just a funny throwaway scene on its own, but then to actually have a payoff with Vision proving himself worthy by lifting it easily made it a thousand times better.
"Jane's better." Hee! I mean, if you've got to lampshade the absence of two of your main characters' love interests, at least you can do it by reminding us that these ladies have WAY BETTER THINGS TO DO than sit around being arm candy for their superhero boyfriends, and making the superheroes in question compete over whose girlfriend has the more impressive career.
I have seen some complaints about "oh, they couldn't even get Gwyneth and Natalie in for a cameo during the party scene?" and look, if you want Jane, sure, why not? I mean, THOR'S barely in the movie, but whatever. Jane could've been there. (Though, let's be honest, the person you REALLY want at that party is Darcy.) But Pepper? Pepper absolutely could not be in this movie. Because if she was, this would be a whole different thing. Do you think Tony gets away with building a homicidal robot on Pepper's watch? HALE NO. Pepper's gotta be so far out of town she doesn't even know it happened until it's over. Even then, I'm a little worried for Tony - he's gonna have to do a lot more than just give her a farm to make up for this one.
Tony
Speaking of Tony, I think this article does a great job of putting his actions in this film into the context of his larger character arc. (I don't totally agree with his interpretation of some of the other characters' arcs, but Tony's is spot-on.) The thing about PTSD is, you don't just ~get over it. It's a thing you just live with, and some days you cope better than others. And what I love even more than Iron Man 3 actually addressing Tony's trauma is the fact that doesn't just go away in the span of a two-hour movie. Tony's in a much better headspace at the end of Iron Man 3 and the beginning of this film - the armor is clearly just a tool to him now, not a crutch or a security blanket - but Wanda's vision is enough to knock him right back to that place where he is using his inventions to build a wall around himself and the people he loves - and ultimately, the entire world.
In one of the reaction posts I read, someone mentioned that Tony is now a full-fledged supervillain. Which... yeah, kind of. I mean: homicidal robot. And of course, this is all leading into Captain America: Civil War. Despite the overloaded cast, the title suggests that it's still Cap's movie, which sort of automatically puts Tony in the role of antagonist. But Tony is the BEST kind of villain - one who has good intentions and absolutely 100% believes he's doing the right thing.
I think there's a misconception that Tony doesn't have an arc in Age of Ultron because he doesn't learn anything, since his solution to accidentally creating a murderbot is to double down and do the SAME THING again, only, you know, less murdery. Which would be frustrating, if the lesson Tony needed to learn was "don't create murderbots." But it's not. (Don't get me wrong - "don't create murderbots" is a valid and appropriate stance, I just don't think that's something Tony didn't already know, lol.) Tony's arc isn't about him learning a lesson or becoming a better person - he's already done that. That arc culminated with The Avengers. This is about Tony backsliding, falling into old habits of inventing out of fear, thinking he knows better than everyone, and always looking for a shortcut. AND HE'S PROVEN RIGHT, because Vision turns out to be a good guy and Ultron wasn't reeeeeallly his fault, it totes was the Mind Gem! So Tony is set up now to be in a position where his hubris leads him directly into Civil War.
Most of the characters in the film take a step back in their character progression, actually - Bruce and Natasha, certainly, with their tentative attempts to live in the world rather than isolating themselves, only to end up with Bruce once again off the map and Natasha back to being all about the mission, after toying with the idea of giving that up for a normal life.
I can see why that makes people unhappy, to see these characters regressing, but it's realistic. We don't always move forward in life. And, of course, from the franchise perspective, it's the middle of the trilogy. There's still a lot of ground to cover, so it makes sense that Phase 2 would end with many of our heroes in a less happy place than where they started it.
Tony and Bruce
I'm actually really intrigued by the relationship between Bruce and Tony in this one. I mean, we all love the Science Bros, the last Avengers ended with the two of them riding off into the sunset together, and the post-credits scene in IM3 indicated that they were still hanging out, which ought to be a good thing. Bruce is coming out of his shell, after his years of isolation, he's making friends and doing science again. But what we see here suggests that it's actually not as good for either of them as it might seem? I get the sense that while Bruce appreciates Tony's acceptance of him (and the Other Guy), it also creates an incredibly imbalanced relationship. Tony accuses Bruce of just "rolling over" when everyone's mad about Ultron - though apparently Tony didn't have a problem with Bruce's spinelessness when he completely steamrolled Bruce into using the Mind Gem to create Ultron in the first place.
Bruce is obviously a guy who avoids conflict, and given Tony's generosity and friendship, you can see why he'd just go along with whatever Tony suggests, despite his own misgivings. But the last thing Tony needs is a yes-man. He needs someone who holds his worst impulses in check - he needs a Steve who's not afraid to challenge him on whether they SHOULD do something when Tony only considers whether he CAN, or a Pepper to say, "I love you, but you are ten kinds of crazy and this is a terrible idea." And I wonder if it's not only the Hulk that Bruce sees as dangerous when he decides to fly off by himself in the quinjet.
Bruce and Natasha
So, Bruce and Natasha. I don't have any theoretical objection to the pairing - I actually came out of The Avengers kind of shipping them, and when the rumors started that this pairing would happen in Age of Ultron, my first thought was, "Yeah, that makes sense." And yet, somehow, the execution of it just didn't work for me? It feels an awful lot like it's just happening because there was a memo:
NATASHA: Hey Bruce did you get the memo about how we have a deep relationship and burgeoning tormented love?
BRUCE: Memo? What memo, I didn't get any memo! Who sent this memo, where did it come from, when did we even have time to hang out when I was living in Stark Tower and you were taking down SHIELD in DC --
NATASHA: Look, we established in Cap 2 that as an efficient operative I'm willing to occasionally take weird orders without questioning them. I GOT THE MEMO. WE HAVE A BURGEONING TORMENTED LOVE. THIS IS MY LIFE NOW.
BRUCE: I .... okay.
(
skygiants' entire summary is hilarious, btw.)Never in this film did they have as much chemistry as that first scene when Natasha recruits Bruce, walking that fine line where they both know she's manipulating him, and he sort of toys with her, too, but he's willing to acquiesce because he respects her effort. Here, Natasha seemed to come on too strongly - for someone who is supposedly so good at reading people and seducing people, she mostly seems to just make Bruce uncomfortable with her flirting. And I don't know, maybe that was intentional? Like she's deliberately NOT using her spy skills to seduce Bruce, because she wants it to be real, but... non!spy Natasha doesn't have much game, lol? But that doesn't quite ring true, because we have seen that Natasha is fully capable of being real and genuine with people - obviously there's the long-established relationship with Clint, but we also saw it happen in real time during the course of Captain America:The Winter Soldier as she bonded with Steve. And I wonder if it's less about Natasha not being comfortable with real emotions and more just that Joss doesn't know how to write her having them. Of all the things, this is the one I most wanted to pay attention to in a rewatch, because I feel like I missed something, and I want to know if it's really not there or if it's just buried.
I did like that Natasha was the one who made the "lullaby" work with the Hulk, precisely because it was such an echo of their scenes from the first movie, both Natasha's initial persuasion to bring Bruce in and then her frantic efforts to talk him down when he first turns into the Hulk. It makes the most sense - the only person we've seen Bruce bond with more than her is Tony, but the lullaby requires trust, and Tony CAN'T be the one to calm the Hulk if he's also going to be the one to bring him down forcefully if necessary. And maybe it's a little stereotypical with Beauty taming the Beast or whatever, but this is entirely within Natasha's skill set, moreso than anyone else on the team, and I don't think there's anything wrong with acknowledging that Natasha DOES have specific talents because she's a woman - that she was trained in a very specific manner because of the way women are perceived. It also makes sense that Natasha would want to face her fear from the first film - the Hulk is the only thing that can make her quake with fear, because he is pure brute force (where she is woefully outmatched) and none of her skills in manipulation or seduction are of any use. So I can totally buy that she would want to take on this challenge, and that it would bring her and Bruce closer together as a result. It's just the romance that's clumsy.
There's also a lot of furor over sexism surrounding Natasha and the scene where she reveals her sterilization, and... I kinda can't be bothered to engage on it. I think most of the arguments are oversimplifying things - Natasha is not merely a love interest, and it takes some pretty selective viewing to see her that way (there's a difference between HAVING a love interest and BEING a love interest, and Natasha, IMO, is definitely the former); and the conversation about sterilization could certainly have been structured better, but COME ON, who really thinks the point of that scene is "infertile women are monsters"? This take on her character hits most of what I would say, as does this one pointing out that when you only have ONE female character, ANY story you give her is going to be problematic in some way because by default it has to represent ALL women.
Clint's family
I was never wedded to either Clint/Natasha or Clint/Coulson (lol), so Hawkeye having a secret family doesn't bother me. If anything, I was hoping for Mockingbird, but since they introduced Bobbi on Agents of SHIELD and gave her a totally different ex-husband, I'd sort of given up on that one. So, Ultimates family it is! (As long as they don't follow the Ultimates storyline, because if Natasha turns evil and kills Clint's family, I will burn someone's house to the ground.)
I actually kind of spoiled myself on the existence of his family, because early reviews were talking about how this movie was all about Hawkeye and how he had a secret, and also Linda Cardellini is in the movie but who she plays is a secret, so hmmmm maybe they're part of the same plotline, and I checked IMDB and her character's name is Laura, which is Clint's wife in Ultimates, so... yep. And I didn't really have any cognitive dissonance about it, like a lot of people seem to? Maybe it was a more shocking reveal if you hadn't put those pieces together, but to me it was kind of like, "Well, of course, if any of them is going to have a secret domestic life outside the Avengers, it's going to be the dude we know the least about." Granted, in the absence of ANY character development in the MCU, fanon has sort of substituted 616!Clint, and the white picket fence life doesn't really line up with that, but Jeremy Renner kind of has a way of playing Clint with the same laid-back, everyman attitude and offbeat humor, so it feels a bit like Fraction!Hawkeye, only married with kids? (I still want Kate Bishop in the MCU, though! And Pizza Dog.)
Jeremy Renner had suggested in interviews that we would find out what Hawkeye was up to during Winter Soldier (i.e. why he didn't come help Steve and Nat in DC), and I guess the answer is... with his family? I was hoping for something a little more detailed than that - I mean, his employer basically imploded, you'd think he'd have a reaction - but I guess we can assume that shit went down fast enough that he wouldn't have had time to get from Iowa to DC to help, and I kind of enjoy the idea of him sitting at home helplessly, watching it all unfold on the news and leaving increasingly agitated voice mails for Natasha, who is obviously not picking up the phone. Meanwhile, Laura's online, looking up the MCU equivalent of Obamacare because look, Clint, I'm very sorry about Fury and all, but there is no way this family is going without health insurance.
(Clint having a wife and kids also retroactively gives extra resonance to Natasha and Coulson being so concerned about him in the first Avengers, knowing that he has a family that needs him to come home.)
I love that Natasha has such a good relationship with Laura and is "Aunt Nat" to their kids. One of my favorite things about Natasha is how she's been portrayed as having deep but completely platonic friendships with both Clint and Steve. See, kids - men and women CAN be friends! (Which is why I get neither the shipper uproar over Clintasha being "betrayed" nor the insistence on slotting her into a "love interest" role, when she's explicitly resisted it - seriously, watch CATWS and tell me you've ever seen a character so determined NOT to be the love interest, lol.) I love that there's not an ounce of jealousy between Laura and Natasha; there's no suspicion that there's anything going on between the Black Widow and her husband, and any envy on Nat's part is purely the desire for a family, not wanting Clint.
I also just like seeing Natasha in that environment for a change. She's so much more playful and funny than fandom gives her credit for - she's not ALWAYS all business and completely terrifying. Seeing her be relaxed and happy with Clint's family adds that shading to her character.
Steve
Yeah, so Joss Whedon really doesn't know how to write for Steve, does he? I guess it's probably for the best that he doesn't have much to do in this movie, because I am more than happy to leave his character development to the Russos and Markus/McFeeley.
I know there is a lot of annoyance about how Steve was in the army so he is not a delicate flower and has heard cursing before, but the "language" joke didn't bother me - even if they did go to that well at least one too many times - because it's pretty clear that he's NOT actually the language police, going by Tony's incredulous reaction and Steve's "it just slipped out." I mean, clearly, this is so hilariously unexpected that the whole group cannot let it go.
I am more bothered by the fact that Joss can't seem to see any depth in Steve beyond being a soldier, and he doesn't seem to get that "always does the right thing" is not the same as "always follows orders." Like, this idea that Steve ~needs a war or is only comfortable in the army? That kind of made sense in the first Avengers because he'd just woken up and he was totally lost and alone in a new century, and he accepted Fury's mission because he needed to do SOMETHING besides mourn. But he's more well-adjusted now, and he was happy to walk away from the smoldering wreckage of SHIELD to go look for Bucky - until, presumably, he was called back because the Avengers needed him. The Steve of his solo movies doesn't stay to train the new Avengers because he's given up on having a family and he needs a war. He does it because the Avengers are the only family he has, and because he feels a sense of responsibility - SOMEONE has to protect the world, and lord knows it shouldn't be Tony, and it can't be Bruce or Thor.
I suppose we should all be thankful that Joss is fundamentally incapable of not writing Snappy Dialogue, because at least Steve gets to be wry and snarky and isn't a total stick in the mud. Props to Chris Evans for doing his damnedest to find nuance in everything and trying to give his character some semblance of continuity because lord knows Joss isn't. MY BB, YOUR JOB IS SO HARD.
Wanda and Pietro
Speaking of Joss' failings as a writer (lol), I was fully expecting to HATE Scarlet Witch - and possibly Quicksilver, but mostly I was afraid of Wanda being another of Joss' damaged waifs, and of the sibling relationship having too much Simon/River to it, but YAY that was not the case, and Elizabeth Olsen is AMAZING. I still occasionally get creeped out by how much she looks like her sisters, which briefly throws me out of whatever I'm watching, but she's an incredibly talented actress and does a great job with this role. Can't wait to see more of her. (I really hope she can drop the vague eastern European accent in the future, though, since it wasn't particularly good or consistent.)
Kinda "meh" on Aaron Taylor-Johnson. He was mostly just there to annoy Hawkeye and then die tragically, so... job well done? I don't want to say I'm glad he died - and, admittedly, they managed to make his death fairly affecting for a character we'd only just met - but I'd already pegged him as "most expendable Avenger," and I wouldn't be particularly sad if we never saw him again. (Then again, I'm not especially attached to Quicksilver in the comics, so I'm less pressed than i'd be if they introduced someone I like, only to kill them off in their first appearance.)
I was not spoiled for Quicksilver's death, but totally called it anyway! (Ask
angearia, she was there!) Again, that was sort of just logic - I knew someone would die, and it couldn't be any of the characters who were supposed to appear in later films, so process of elimination, it's probably Pietro. I wasn't fooled by the heavy implication that Clint was going to bite it, though I did for a minute think that Ultron was somehow going to kill his family, because Joss Whedon (and also that Ultimates storyline). My other guess was that the "major death" I'd heard about was JARVIS, but that seemed like a cheat because (1) he's not really a person, and (2) he sort of comes back as Vision - neither of which prevented me from having SO MANY FEELS when Ultron claimed he killed him. GAH.I am kind of fascinated by how WELL Paul Bettany fits as Vision. I suppose if they'd really wanted to, they could've cast someone else, but the whole Vision coming from JARVIS thing sort of dictated that it be Bettany, someone who was cast nine years ago to be a voice and nothing more (and who clearly didn't want more to do with the franchise than to show up and get his bag of cash). So I am impressed it all worked out as well as it did? Vision also looked incredible - more than anyone else in these movies, he truly feels like he just stepped out of the pages of a comic book.
James Spader was also great casting - you could not have found a better "Tony Stark's shadow self" if you had tried. I feel like I should have more to say about him, but he's kind of the least interesting part of a movie with his name in the title, so. I expected more "demon in the internet" shenanigans out of him, and I know they attempted to counter that by having JARVIS secretly fighting him, because otherwise he'd just take over all the nukes in the world and that would be the end of things, but still it felt like they could've done more with him than they did. And let's be honest, the entire plot involving dropping Sokovia was remarkably silly, but it's the kind of comic booky thing that you just accept its silliness and move on.
I kind of LOL'd a bit at how blatantly this movie seemed to be a response to the complaints about the large-scale destruction of superhero movies and the disregard for civilian casualties (particularly in Man of Steel). I did appreciate Tony trying to buy the building before he demolished it and his line about the Stark Relief Fund paying for the damage, but the whole thing in Sokovia was just so OBVIOUS that I couldn't help thinking, "Yes, yes, we get it - YOU CARE ABOUT THE CIVILIANS! Now can we please GET ON WITH IT?"
Thor
Thor was also in this movie. You may not have noticed, because Thor disappeared for a while to appear in a DIFFERENT movie, in which he went skinny-dipping with Eric Selvig and had visions of Marvel's Phase 3. If the rumors are true, and the Marvel execs were threatening to cut the farm scenes in order to make time for Thor's weird subplot to set up the Infinity Wars, then I'm glad we got what we did (as opposed to NO farm scene and lots more Thor), but it's REALLY sloppy and shows the problem with trying to service a whole universe AND tell a self-contained story in the same movie. But overall, I think the writers and directors in the MCU have done a pretty decent job integrating more moving pieces than should be possible, so I can forgive them, but I imagine things will only get more unwieldy from here.
I also should say that I LOVE the new team lineup and I hope we get to spend some time with them before Civil War blows everything to hell. I'm not bothered that they've abandoned the original team after only two movies - it's a thing that happens all the time in the comics, and we know the others are still around and will swap in and out as needed. Plus, there are still more characters to be added (CAROL DANVERS I AM SO READY FOR YOUUUUUU), and things would just be unbearably crowded if the roster weren't trimmed a little.
The only thing I do regret is that they really didn't establish Tony and Steve as BFFs leading the team together in such a way that Civil War actually feels like it's tearing them apart, rather than just another in a series of ideological disagreements between the two of them.
So... I am sure that I've missed about 8,000 things, so talk at me!
