Where Avengers 2: Age of Ultron fails

.My wife and I shelled out the few dollars to see Avengers 2: Age of Ultron this last Sunday.  I know I am late to the game, that the movie had been already released, several months closer to home video, and in all likelihood, I would have bought it once released had my wife and I not been passing by a dollar theatre showing the film,  It was a quiet Sunday and an empty theatre.  No fan boys were present, only the few families living on a budget.

Disney and Marvel have done something quite amazing, though predictable, when you look at such franchise greats like Star Wars, the James Bond films, and more recently the Harry Potter movies.  They have built an interconnected universe much like a perpetual motion machine, a kind of domino set-up only requiring a tip to set the whole thing in motion.  They have a wealth of material in which they can use to develop Single character movies a la Captain America, Iron Man, Thor, which can feed into a larger, more comprehensive movie.  Even minor characters become fertile ground and find new life on the television,

Yet, it is this synergy which, if not properly managed, can lead to a massive world hollowed out and emptied out of any real substance. 

Age of Ultron begins with the Avengers attacking a Hydra stronghold located by some Eastern European country,  Baron Von Strucker Is the villain here and the creator of Quicksilver and the Scarlet Witch,  Based on the history of the Avengers, Hydra) And Baron Van Strucker, I expected something more meaningful here, and something with more substantial. 

The scene is anything but: Von Struker appears to be a simpering coward, So much so that even I felt shame for him.  The Avengers themselves appear to be engaged in a pointless slugfest, knocking around Hydra agents without any real purpose or plan.  I get that they were after Loki's scepter, but the scene lacked any real cohesion.  Eventually, Iron Man ends up with the scepter but not before being manipulated by the Scarlet Witch such that he has a vision In which he sees all the Avengers dead. 

What the vision means, we don't know.  In fact, whenever the other Avengers have visions, and most of them do, we really don't get the significance of the visions in the context of the story.  Captain America sees the effect of World War II ending.  Black Widow relives the horrors of her assassin's training.  Thor Sees a corruption of Asgard.  But none of it makes sense in the context of the story,

What else is never quite clear is just how bltron fits into the story.  He is created when Tony Stark's computer connects with the life gem attached to Loki's scepter.  After creating a pieced together body out of old and damaged parts, he immediately sets upon attacking the Avengers,  A somewhat strained conversation occurs between Ultron and Jarvis upon which hangs Ultras's whole motivation in the movie.  It is an old trope, to have peace, you have to get rid of mankind, starting with the heroes.  But it is never made concrete.

Running throughout the movie is the suggestion that Ultron desires to be like a real person.  This leads it to create a body where Vibranium Is fused with a synthetic body.  This body ultimately becomes the Vision when, after the Avengers have stolen the body, Thor strikes it with lightening.  If there is a play at words here, i.e, the Vision as Compared to the visions of the individual Avengers, it is too subtle to recognize and hardly strikes a tone.

And then there is the final act, the odd plan of Ultron's to create a new age of Earth by raising a large portion of the Earth and then dropping the same.  There are a lot of robots but no real threat.  There is not a cogent explanation of the threat or how the Avengers are going to stop it.  In the end, the Avengers vacate the land of its inhabitants and then blow it up before it can fall back to Earth. 

You'll expect a movie with this much action and stories of personal conflict to make you fired at the end.  But I wasn't exhausted at all.  Quicksilver may have died at the end, but the audience doesn't really care because there is no emotional investment,  Ultron is supposed to be scary, but he isn't.  I think he is supposed to be a little more like a General Grievous character, but comes off being too human if that is possible.

Even more disappointing is how the characters are used.  Some liberties are expected.  But the characters' back stories are changed so much as to erode the characters of the traits familar in the comic books.  They become unrecognizable and therefore unlikeable, which is sad, because character development was the one area that this film could exploit,  For example, the Hawkeye of the comics is notoriously aloof, unable to commit.  In Age of Ultron, he hot only has a wife but kids as well.  It is a story line best suited for Antman wasted here.

There is a discomforting oddness to the Hulk/Black Widow romance, mainly because there is no prior story to pull from.  We had no indication that these two were to be a couple Save for a short scene in the first Avengers movie.  The tete-a-tete between the two feels forced and insincere, something that might have been forgiven if actual history existed between the two,

Overall, Avengers II, the Age of UItron fails to deliver, which makes the burden of the upcoming Marvel movies slightly heavier.  However, I haven't given up on the franchise.