 "Avengers: Age of Ultron")
Before I begin, let me confess that I am not a fan of the Avengers enterprise. While I have seen and read movies and comics about individual characters, all of them together seemed a bit, pardon the pun, comical. It is with great smugness that I say that Avengers: Age of Ultron, the sequel to the 2012 film, is an awkward congregation of American superheroes, and I say "American" with some emphasis. With mostly dumb jokes and mundane dialogues ("I totally support your avenging"), the film follows the basic plot of Frankenstein's Monster, which has anyway been done to death. Ultron, the artificial intelligence creature (how original!), created by Tony Stark (Iron Man, played by Robert Downey Jr), becomes a reflection of Stark's darkest side instead of a "peacekeeping program", and unleashes violence on the world. Enter 3D - buildings, bridges and entire cities come crashing down in uneasy clarity. Those who enjoy video games will have a ball. But halfway through the film, I realise that I'm unconsciously massaging my forehead because of the 3D special effects.
Coming back to the plot, if you haven't followed Marvel's Avengers before, you're unlikely to understand the film completely. There's ample self-referential jibing, though it is mostly unremarkable. Scarlett Johansson as the Black Widow and Mark Ruffalo as the Hulk bring their characters alive on screen, even with the romantic scenes that are done quite subtly. Johansson, who has a perpetually smouldering persona, at least tries with her acting skills. Ruffalo seems to be a good choice for Bruce Banner, the Hulk's alter-ego. His dialogue delivery is effortless and he brings out the humour out with subtlety. But, when the plot moves back to the larger picture, you realise how trivial these sub-plots are.
Those aren't the only things one can call ridiculous. Agreed that a superhero franchise demands a certain suspension of disbelief, but isn't it time these American superheroes moved beyond their very American vigilantism? There has been some evolution since the post-World War II and 9/11 eras, where the enemy is always the literal enemy of the state - Russians and Muslims, respectively. The film has a largely neutral villain in a robot, but the smaller negative characters like the Maximoff twins are very obviously European. And of course, all "crazy" research happens either in German or Korean laboratories.
The Vision makes its appearance in this film, and is the final saviour of the world and the plot. It is only in the last 30 minutes that the plot picks up pace. The Vision's "naivete", as Ultron calls it, makes him charismatic. The film also tries to look at the good versus evil narrative with more nuanced eyes, but nothing that stays with you after the film. The fact that these superheroes are nothing but glorified assassins is dwelt on, but not with enough depth or detail. The moral dilemmas too are pretty simple, not going beyond "this is what needs to be done to save the world".
Joss Whedon, the film's writer and director, seems to have kept all the most sardonic dialogues for Downey, who delivers them with the charm his fans love him for. Chris Hemsworth as Thor does a good job too. The biggest disappointment perhaps lies in Chris Evans as Captain America, who has not been able to shed his rom-com persona for this film. Even though the actors may have their moments in the film, I feel like I am watching a film that has given superpowers to the characters of Archie comics, in 3D.
The casual banter between these characters lends itself to laughter, especially the scenes with Downey Jr. But all I could think was episodes from The Big Bang Theory, a popular American sitcom, and its scientist characters who are huge comic book fanboys. Well, the only difference is that I actually remember scenes from the sitcom and my memory of the film is already beginning to fail.
