![]() And Elizabeth Olsen's Scarlet Witch is spooky but ill-defined, with a vague range of powers that don't quite ring true. The wild cards are "the twins": Aaron Taylor-Johnson plays Quicksilver as a cocky, Adidas-wearing hood who's more fun than the version we saw in "X-Men: Days of Future Past", although his high-speed effects aren't as cool. Terrorist organisation Hydra is played for laughs, and like the first film the sequel is full of never-ending waves of faceless minions who stir no real jeopardy, existing simply to hurl themselves en masse into our heroes' cool-looking finishing moves. Many superhero movies suffer from a lack of compelling villains - Loki aside, of course - and in that department, "Age of Ultron" is a mixed bag. Andy Serkis grabs his scenes by the scruff of the neck as oily South African arms dealer Ulysses Klaw, exuding stocky menace without a trace of CGI in sight, but the film forgets about him almost as soon as he turns up. And themes and ideas are introduced and dispatched before they even register, like the dangers of artificial intelligence or a subplot involving Iron Man's peacekeeping drones proving none too popular with the locals.Īnnoyingly, the most menacing villain simply disappears. Captain America and Thor basically have nothing to do. A major late-stage twist doesn't really land because it isn't set up enough. ![]() Unlike other superpowered spectacles such as "Man of Steel", "Age of Ultron" gets you to care thanks to Whedon's signature combination of emotional drama and playful humour - extras taking selfies with Tony Stark, superhero slapstick, that sort of thing.īut inevitably, having so many balls in the air and plates spinning means that some balls and plates drop. Whether you find that exhilarating or exhausting will probably hinge on how much you care about the characters. But with its vast cast, ever-accelerating action and cameos from the wider world of Marvel, the film has to keep doubling down in a kind of spectacle inflation as it races towards its epic conclusion. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |