It's the sequel everyone was waiting for, literally since the end credits of the last one:
After one of the most hyped up and biggest blockbusters of all time came out
Everyone was waiting what the second one was going to be.
Was it going to be bigger? Was it going to be better? Was it going to be funnier?
In some respects, yeah! It IS all those things.
In other respects, it's kind of hard to keep the 'wow' factor going after such a groundbreaking last one
Does that make it bad? ...No. Does that make it better than the first one?
I'd... It's... [Sigh] It's complicated.
Okay, let's look at this set-up: The Avengers assemble once again in order to get Loki's Scepter
Huh... They didn't meet up for all those other times the world was about to be destro----
It's a comic book, don't think about it.
But Tony Stark's mind is manipulated by another character called Scarlet Witch
who makes him see a distroyed future that apparently he's responsible for.
Like an idiot, he reads it as 'I didn't do enough', so he creates this computer that's apparently going to create peace in our time.
Oh, come on. He didn't think that maybe THIS is what would cause all those terrible things to happen?
Because, y'know, the audience is ten steps ahead of him on that.
But, whatever... He creates this computer program known as 'Ultron'
Ultron, of course, wants to create peace in his time, but in the way that he knows how:
By getting rid of everyone! Oops, forgot to overlook that glitch.
So now, ultron is trying to destroy the world by making tons of different versions of himself,
Trying to raise a giant city as a meteor, and smash it into the world.
And the avengers have to overcome their new mental problems, as well as new physical problems, in order to stop him.
So, yeah. Pretty weak plot, but again, the first film had a pretty weak plot, too. And that didn't matter.
We just wanted to see the Avengers get together, and fight, and work off of each other and say those great one-liners.
And in Avengers 2, we get all of that. Plus more, actually.
There's a wonderful scene where they've all been mentally ripped apart
and so they go to this cabin to try and get away.
It's easilly the best thing in the film, because we haven't seen anything like that before.
It felt like the Avengers were actually evolving as characters... and through a way they hadn't really done yet.
So, in some respects, it's exactly what we wanted. But in others...
Don't we want to see something we didn't KNOW we wanted? Like that cabin scene?
And don't get me wrong! I love that cabin scene! but why is there only one scene like this in the movie, and not more?
It's kind of weird, because the film does kind of feel like it's on repeat.
Here's all these action scenes, all these one liners and... They're good! They're well done, There's nothign wrong with them.
But there's nothing really new about them, either. The 'wow' factor from this is kind of gone because
because there aren't really any new avengers for them to interact off of.
I mean, Okay. There's this Scarlet Witch, and this fast guy. And they create this other one called The Vision...
And at the end, they indicate that there's even more being added to the mix, but
all these other characters had their own movies!
Half of these people are being introduced in this film! And the other ones,
they were just kind of side characters. We're not exactly excited to see them here.
Now, they're not bad, but they're no Thor, or Iron Man, or Captain America.
There's also a totally out of nowhere romance between Black Widow and The Hulk.
And it's... good. Again, not bad... but I'm not exactly going to lose sleep if I don't see them get together.
But again, it IS evolving the characters to a different place than when we started
I do feel like I found out more about these people after watching this film than I did after watching the first Avengers
That's something that was really missing in the last movie.
But with everything else, even if it's done good, the investment isn't quite as strong because we've kind of seen this stuff before.
A bad guy who doesn't see destroying the world as a bad thing
and he tries to make up some philosophical bullshit about why it's not.
People being hypnotized to do his will, the whole world about to be destroyed in one city
And again, I hate talking this way, because it's done well. In many respects, it's done better than the first film.
But it's not evolving anything that much.
And don't get me wrong, the audience had a fun time with this.
They were laughing, they were applauding, they were gasping, they were doing all the things that audiences are supposed to do.|
But when it was all said and done, there wasn't this standing ovation like there was at the first film.
Because the first film gave us a lot of what we never saw and really wanted to see
This gave us what we thought we were going to see. So it's hard to say, because
on the one hand, it is kind of better than the original.
We do learn more about these people, there is the wonderful scene at the house,
The action IS upped, there are more one-liners, we do see a lot more of the avengers together...
Hell, there's literally one scene where they're just hanging out at a party.
I could just watch THIS the whole entire time, they're so interesting.
I guess the real problem is... it's not an experience. It's a sequel to an experience
trying to clearly be better, and in some cases it is, but because we've already seen a lot of this before
it's not as much blowing us away.
But it's still a lot of fun. I definitely recommend it.
Does it have stuff that doesn't make sense, and are there elements that are clearly filler for other movies?
Sure, but so did the first one.
I don't think this is the groundbreaking sequel they were hoping for, but
at the same time, we didn't get a bad film by any means.
I think if they did want to blow us away, they could include a lot more, like why aren't the Guardians of the Galaxy in there?
Why isn't there a Spiderman cameo? You just got him.
Now, don't get me wrong, these are all tie-ins that maybe I don't understand, I mean...
the fact that any of this is happening in Hollywood is pretty amazing, so maybe they couldn't pull it off.
But that's the reason people weren't as blown away.
They wanted a lot more, and instead, they got a little more.
In many respects, I do like this more than the first one. Hell, I probably prefer watching this one to the first one.
but it's not the groundbreaking follow-up that I think audiences, as well as the studio, was hoping for.
But hell with what it isn't, and concentrate on what it is: A lot of fun and really enjoyable.
If you don't go in overhyped, and just want to see the Avengers be the Avengers, this is definitely a fun one to check out.
Assemble your team of friends, and take a look.