Up and Coming Weekly is a weekly publication in Fayetteville, NC and Fort Bragg, NC area offering local news, views, arts, entertainment and community event and business information.
Issue link: http://www.epageflip.net/i/514143
MAY 20-26, 2015 UCW 19 WWW.UPANDCOMINGWEEKLY.COM The Avengers: Age of Ultron (141 minutes) made my brain happy. There's action, humor, good acting, a coherent plot, a connection to the other ten films set in the Marvel Cinematic Universe — and I loved it. However, I do not pre- tend the things I love are f lawless, and as good as it was, it could have been better. Am I greedy? Is it asking too much of Joss Whedon to deliver an action-fantasy comic book movie starring an ensemble cast telling an epic story AND remem- ber that he can write complex female charac- ters? Spoilers to follow! Evidently, yes, it is. Two Incredible Hulk movies, three Iron Man movies, two Thor movies, and two Captain America movies behind us, and we still don't have Black Widow (Scarlett Johansson) starring in her own films. I get that her not wearing a mask would make a solo film more expensive, since producers couldn't use a dirt cheap body double (Iron Man) or fill-in with CGI (Incredible Hulk). But it's starting to piss me off that I can't buy Black Widow merchandise when all the male Avengers are readily available in a variet y of formats (even stupid Hawkeye). Not to mention, the entire back story of this complex and multi-layered character was reduced to an empt y uterus and a big Hulk " baby " t hat she sings a " lullaby " to. I love Joss W hedon, I t hink he does great t hings w it h female characters, but he dropped t he ball here. And t he comment s some of t he male cast members were mak ing about t he character didn't help. This brings us to Linda Cardellini, who I t r y to love, even af ter her aggravat ing t urn in Mad Men. In and of it self, hav ing her hidden away popping out babies on a farm is not terrible. The issue is t hat in a f ilm f illed w it h dudes doing ac t ion st uf f, we get Black Widow play- ing den mot her, Cardellini play ing a literal mot her, an errat ic Scarlet Witch (Elizabet h Olsen), and a st ric t ly background Maria Hill (Cobie Smulders). I am not say ing t hey aren't doing any t hing — I am say ing , t ake a look at all t he st uf f t he men are doing , and ask why t he female plot lines so of ten revolve around facilit at ing or react ing to all t he st uf f t he men are doing. The f ilm begins in Sokov ia. The Avengers raid a Hydra out post where t hey encounter t w ins Piet ro and Wanda Ma ximof f (Aaron Taylor-Johnson and Olsen), who are def initely not mut ant s due to some copy right issues. Iron Man (Rober t Dow ney, Jr.) f inds Lok i's scepter during t he t w ins' escape and prompt ly enlist s Dr. Bruce Banner (Mark Ruf falo) in some mad science. Ult ron ( James Spader) is t he unintend- ed result of t heir experiment, and he's ever y- t hing a super v illain should be. Imagine Iron Man, if Iron Man was even more of a sociopat h. James Spader does a f rank ly fant ast ic job of channeling Iron Man's ev il side, capt uring Tony St ark 's inf lect ion and tone in ever y scene. In bet ween scenes w it h Ult ron (a genocidal k illing machine created by t wo Avengers to begin w it h), t he Avengers k ill so many people I can't wait for t he government to crack dow n on t hem in Captain America: Civil War (for t hcom- ing). Hulk 's rampage, and Iron Man's ef for t s to stop Hulk f rom rampaging , alone probably resulted in a ton of collateral damage. Overall, it was fantastic. But that doesn't mean I didn't notice the amount of narrative twisting required to assemble all the elements and the glaringly obvious plot holes. Now playing at Patriot 14 + IMAX. HEATHER GRIFFITHS, Contributing Writer. COMMENTS? Editor@ upandcomingweekly.com. 910.484.6200. The Leading Edge In Contemporary Living MOVE IN TODAY! AddisonRidge.com • 910.227.3775 Welcome to the Boys' Club The Avengers: Age of UIltron (Rated PG-13) by HEATHER GRIFFITHS