Review: "Avengers: Age of Ultron" is expert superhero spectacle with a voice and a heart
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Avengers: Age of Ultron is very, very much a Joss Whedon movie, and for that alone, I kind of love it. Beat for beat, moment for moment, Age of Ultron has a more specific sense of voice than most major superhero movies, even those in the Marvel universe. It is of a piece with what has come before, absolutely, but it is also strange, glib, imaginative, and supremely heartfelt in ways that make Whedon’s signature clear from beginning to end. His love for these characters and affection for the conventions that dictate their lives is obvious and sincere, but so is his joy in arranging those characters in unfamiliar patterns, or sending them in directions that interrogate who they are, or taking said conventions and undermining them with a gleeful wink. He is willing to push things dark, to focus on the small-scale and personal even in the midst of enormous action mayhem, but always with an eye for levity. That devotion to maintaining a sense of fun, no matter what else comes, has always been one of the most admirable parts of Whedon’s creative identity, and it is on full display here.
Review: "Avengers: Age of Ultron" is expert superhero spectacle with a voice and a heart
Review: "Avengers: Age of Ultron" is expert…
Review: "Avengers: Age of Ultron" is expert superhero spectacle with a voice and a heart
Avengers: Age of Ultron is very, very much a Joss Whedon movie, and for that alone, I kind of love it. Beat for beat, moment for moment, Age of Ultron has a more specific sense of voice than most major superhero movies, even those in the Marvel universe. It is of a piece with what has come before, absolutely, but it is also strange, glib, imaginative, and supremely heartfelt in ways that make Whedon’s signature clear from beginning to end. His love for these characters and affection for the conventions that dictate their lives is obvious and sincere, but so is his joy in arranging those characters in unfamiliar patterns, or sending them in directions that interrogate who they are, or taking said conventions and undermining them with a gleeful wink. He is willing to push things dark, to focus on the small-scale and personal even in the midst of enormous action mayhem, but always with an eye for levity. That devotion to maintaining a sense of fun, no matter what else comes, has always been one of the most admirable parts of Whedon’s creative identity, and it is on full display here.