I believe Marvel's time is coming. The end of the road is fast approaching for them; they've had a run of great movies, really great movies: Thor: The Dark World was fun and light-hearted, Iron Man 3 was surprisingly peppy in between the serious moments dealing with Stark as a human being, and Captain America: The Winter Soldier was one of the most solid spy thrillers I've seen in a long while.
But we're now entering the decline of the Marvel movie. We have peaked. And I can tell you that with complete confidence. No other Marvel movie will ever again be good. Because Avengers: Age of Ultron just set the God damn gold standard.
I should say, I'm not entirely sold with the movie. This is a caveat: for those of you who love Captain America as much as I do - his run, to me, is still the best quality, his movies keep a standard going that even Iron Man doesn't hit when you realise the subtlety Favreau and co. put into the sequels - you might be cringing at Whedon's continual mischaracterisation as the holier-than-thou lawful-stupid, "there's only one God, ma'am, and I'm pretty sure he doesn't dress like that" goody-goody we know he's really not. I'm sorry, that was a bit of a rant, and all in one sentence, but it does kinda bug me. Steve's scrappy, he's sassy, he spits in the face of impossible odds; Whedon gets that right, he gets the battle Steve right. But he's still going in completely the wrong direction in the quiet scenes. Heck, his first line is "Language!" as he chastises Tony for swearing in battle, it feels really wrong coming from the guy who spent all his life among soldiers.
But that's all. I'm done with the bad. Seriously, go see this movie. It was a surprise to me; I was expecting another Avengers Assemble, I've said before. And this was Winter Soldier level and better. I wouldn't call it a new favourite - you gotta get Steve right to be my fave, Mr Whedon - but it is amazing.
If you're after spectacle, it's a good movie. If you're after character, it's a great movie. If you're after more Hawkeye because dammit Joss you can't just introduce an Avenger as a mind-controlled Loki-drone in his effectively-debut movie that is not cool you sold us short man...
If you're after that, it's a seriously great movie.
Okay, for realsies review time (can you tell I'm still hyped about this movie?). Hawkeye is the best in this movie, and I mean the best. He's the father of the group and it's so great to see, he's not coralling them but there are new kids on the block - Elizabeth Olsen as Scarlet Witch is absolutely amazing, and I loved Aaron Taylor-Johnson's smarmy-yet-lazy overachiever Quicksilver, he felt so right and fit right into this movie - and he's the one to talk them down when things get really crazy. He's also that human element, and I mean that in a big way, but I'm saving that for a spoiler review later, maybe on Friday.
And I haven't even talked about Vision yet! Vision is so cool, kudos to Paul Bettany for bringing Jarvis to an in-the-flesh role, and for playing the hero so much in the film. Shhhh, you didn't hear it from me! No spoilers, remember?
Okay, little snippets. So, Hawkeye is really, really cool in this movie. You just... he's amazing. That's the best bit. Thanks to Scarlet Witch's involvement we see the Avengers transparent, laid bare; their secrets become known, their darkest fears, and it really sets the stakes for the film. There's a real Serenity, "anyone-can-die" feel to it, you get that right from the beginning, and it makes for some really heart-wrenching scenes. They're made even more so by the depth of character, and that's a shock when there are so many of them to get through.
Seriously, this is an all-star highlight reel of Marvel's history so far. Everybody comes back, we see Warmachine, Falcon, Stan Lee's in there somewhere, pretty much everyone who isn't dead or pretending is in Age of Ultron, and then some. It's a huge movie. And it deserves to be.
So yeah; sorry everyone, that's it. Show's over, we're done here. Marvel have hit their limit, and short of actually explaining to Joss that Captain America isn't some God-fearing Republican, we're not gonna get any better.
Plus, I can use a final paragraph to say Ant-Man looks terrible anyway. Tonally, it seems all over the place, and the comedy they've shown is weak. I hope it all comes together okay, but I fear our time with Marvel at the forefront of cinema is ending.
Actually, I do have one last thing to say: I don't know if this is DVD-worthy. Honestly, I'm still debating that in my head. I mean, it's an amazing movie, but is it too big? But that's a review for another time.
Adieu!
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