"Two hours of boredom and boobs add up to a sorry basis for the new Avengers," claims film critic Camilla Long. I have never been a person of culture review articles in free, usually bland newspapers, not even ones you have to pay for for that matter, but the title of this article really caught my eye. 'The Age of Stupid'? Points lost for lack of a decent insult.
After reading through this article I had realised one of two things: this woman really isn't a fan of action films, is she? Especially when it comes to the Marvel series.
She criticises the plotline of the story and expects each of these characters to be something of her own liking "...and the world's least charismatic character, Chris Evans, as Captain America". Obviously not knowing too well how each of these character have developed over time and how each of these characters are meant to be presented, I have to seriously have to admit this is not a great review of Avengers.
Don't get me wrong, I respect all sorts of reviews and criticisms: positive or negative. But if someone is going to be writing one, please, Sunday Times and other critics, make sure someone who actually understands the concept of the film, especially for something like the Avengers, before sending them in. As much as I would like to think Camilla Long is a good film critic and I respect her view, she shouldn't have been the one to review this film. She does not understand what is going on, what personalities the characters are supposed to have, the importance of each character individually, and what the ACTUAL aim of Ultron was.
Shortly after the introduction of her article, Camilla suggests that the 'final' film from the franchise that Disney owns will be 'Inhumans', "which I assume will refer to the actors, producers, directors and audience". Not quite, my dear. 'Inhumans' is set to be released 2nd November 2018, the final film of this franchise is to be 'Avengers: Infinity War Part 2' due to premiere on the 3 May 2019. And what's with the negative attitude towards the people involved with or interested in 'Inhumans'? Are you suggesting that because of your negative opinions towards people who enjoy the energetic and MARVELous action-packed superhero films? How boring.
After a very brief description of what the aim of the first thirty minutes or so of the film are about, she criticises the involvement of Aaron Taylor-Johnson's and Elizabeth Olsen's characters, Quicksilver and Scarlet Witch, calling them "tourists" from the X-Men franchise. Actually, it wouldn't surprise me if they had some connection to the X-Men. After all, those guys were involved were involved in the Ultron comics and even the Civil War ones (though they didn't play a big role in the latter). In pursuant to this, she attacks the storyline of the entirety of the film, yawning over Jarvis' and Ultron's war within the internet, which has a critically important role for the remainder of the film. After this she claims that "far too many stupid plotlines" and "far too many evil characters" have been thrown at us. This is a small exaggeration. Last I checked it was just Ultron, Quicksilver and Scarlet Witch for half of the film, or so, and the occasional battle between the Avengers (which had happened in the previous Avengers and, let's admit it, we all loved this fights). All of these fight scenes are supposedly constructing an "unloving" series. Sorry, Longy--I like that name, I'll use it--I've heard many opinions on this film and 99% of them have been positive ones, so that point, I'm afraid, has been nullified by the other viewers.
What's so wrong about the jokes, Longy? Action films + cheesy jokes = a brilliant, comical film. Especially when the villain joins in as well! Sure, serious villains are very cool, such as Heath Ledgers' Joker and, everyone's favourite, Darth Vader! But sometimes it's fun to have a villain with a small bit of comedy in him/her. Speaking of Ultron, Longy seemed to have no idea what this guy's aim was.
"[Ultron] is a machine who claims he wants to save human beings, but the only way he can think of doing this is to destroy them." That was NOT his aim, Longy. 'Peace in our time', a paraphrased Neville Chamberlain pre-Second World War phrase, echoed through Starky then Ultron, is quite an ambiguous phrase, is it not? Ultron seems to be the stronger and more narcissistic version of Tony Stark, but his view of peace in our time could have been one of many things. He has access to the entirety of the internet, so maybe he viewed us humans as these wretched creatures that seem to have an obsession with war and destruction--which, let's be honest, seems to be the case for most people, especially those in power cough. His aim may have been to eliminate humans in order to make peace because humans would most probably never go that far. He never said he wanted to save the humans, Longy, he said wanted to make peace on earth.
Despite all these negative reviews, there is one thing I would have to agree on, which is the case for many films I have viewed, and that is the CGI. During the first ten minutes or so of the film, the effects were somewhat on and off and didn't look right in certain places. however, the rest of the film seemed to produce rather beautiful looking imagery of landscapes, airships and suits of armour!
With all said and done, this is a poorly analysed review. It seems Camilla Long doesn't really have an understanding of the Marvel films and The Sunday Times should have told someone who has a good understanding of what is going on to review it, like I said previously. No disrespect to Longy, everyone has the right to put forward their opinion whether it be negative or positive, but, please, no more reviews on the Marvel films until I know for sure you have not fallen asleep in the middle of the film and mistook most of the film because you are unsure of what is going on.
My rating of the film: 4/5
My rating of the review: 1/5
