Avengers: Age of Ultron

After many months of not seeing a movie in theaters, I unexpectedly went to see the new Avengers movie on Free Comic Book Day at our local theater. This was right after learning the store we were trying to get free comics had changed locations. We still managed to get to another nearby store before it closed.

I’d been playing a lot of Marvel: Avengers Alliance on Facebook and Marvel Puzzle Quest on my phone. However, I wasn’t too familiar with the story outside of that. I knew more about the Marvel Universe from collecting the cards in my teens than collecting comics. My brother really got into comic books. Though I enjoyed Uncanny X-Men (Jim Lee/Chris Claremont era) and Excalibur, I was more into manga.

I read some reviews including one from the New Yorker saying Ultron was “about the NSA.” Then, I saw stories about Joss Whedon quitting Twitter because Black Widow was too “damsel in distress.” Even if she wasn’t as tough as usual, it wasn’t like the SNL sketch as a stereotypical girl in the city movie. I can’t say that either of those things are true or not. Artificial intelligence trying to destroy mankind is not necessarily the same as a government agency collecting information from people without knowing.

Maybe Black Widow wasn’t as badass as she could have been. The fact that she plays such a prominent role in the Avengers is important because she wasn’t a leading character before the Avengers (or Iron Man) movies. Her back story might be interesting enough for her own movie. However, I think part of being a good spy means you don’t really know where she came from or how she got there. It just might ruin the mystery if she did get her own film.

Overall, I enjoyed the film and found it interesting enough to watch again.  Apparently, the disastrous press tour was not enough to stop it at the box office. I don’t think bad press has really hurt them aside from having to issue apologies for those who might be offended. They may be taking the stance of any publicity is good publicity. It still gets people interested to find out what they said and who was offended.

I hope the next Avengers movie focuses on this: the Vision and Scarlet Witch relationship. My brother told me they were married with kids (weird since Vision is not exactly human). As Hawkeye’s character pointed out in this Avengers film, it’s very uncharacteristic for a superhero.  They kind of set up the characters at the end for West Coast Avengers. Also, odd since it ended with a new Avengers building in Upstate New York. I didn’t really read West Coast Avengers, I just vaguely remember the characters in it.