AVENGERS! REASSEMBLE!

OK. I’ll admit upfront that I’m a 57 year-old female who you would never expect to be sucked up into the mania of Marvel. Well, one weekend evening while flicking through my cable channels I spotted the first Avengers movie and since there was nothing else to watch, I figure I’d sit down and give it a try. Partly, because I wanted to see for myself what the brouhaha was all about. Well, never was I so happy to be completely wrong as I was swept away into this amazing world of superheroes! I have to admit I haven’t enjoyed a movie this much in a long time. So when the Avengers sequel hit the theaters I went so far as to purchase movie tickets online in advance for Avengers: Age of Ultron and that’s something, until now, I would never do. I’ve also heard such good things about the IMAX 3D experience that I didn’t want to get shut out on opening weekend.

Another thing that I enjoy about these Marvel films is, though I’ve never been a big fan of movie violence, that any action scenes containing violence are so sanitized that it it’s not offensive. Although you may see some blood, it’s not excessively gory to make you feel uncomfortable.

As far as the sequel goes, while I enjoyed it, I felt it didn’t live up to its predecessor. To start with the villain and his minions were weak at best. Besides, he's NO Loki! Ultron, as much as he’s supposed to be this super-intelligent being, never lived up to the expectations. Another thing I felt where the story missed, largely for me, was although Ultron had an intense hatred for his creator, Tony Stark, the film never expands on that. Actually, there’s very little interaction between those characters at all. I was expecting some kind of showdown that may have brought some clarity to the villain’s motives. It was pretty much a foregone conclusion where this film was heading before it was even close to getting there. Speaking of foregone conclusions, I really liked the appearance of Vision and would have loved to see more development of his character and perhaps, we will, in the next project.

Unlike longtime Marvel fans, I didn’t start out reading Marvel comics and I wasn’t familiar with all the superheroes so when new characters were introduced at the end of the film I wasn’t nearly as excited as many Marvel fanatics may have been.  Again, I’m a newbie but I feel, going forward, that too many superheroes will take away screen time from the main characters like Iron Man, Thor and the Captain and, in my opinion, the storyline may suffer. Despite my disappointment in the sequel, I just might have to take another crack at Age of Ultron as it may grow on me. Besides, watching five sexy (and not just in the physical sense) superheroes romping and stomping around in tights and metal in their fight for justice, I feel, is worth another look. 

Love Me Some Loki!