“Star Trek Beyond” Review

Premise: While on a rescue mission, the U.S.S. Enterprise is attacked and shot down by raiders led by the mysterious Krall (Idris Elba), who steal a dangerous artifact and take most of the crew prisoner. Now it’s up to Captain James T. Kirk (Chris Pine) and co. to rescue the Enterprise’s crew and find out what Krall has up his sleeve.

I’ve been one of the rebooted Star Trek franchise’s most ardent defenders for a long time. I think the first one is a stroke of genius nearly equal to Wrath of Khan and Undiscovered Country, and I had a great time with Into Darkness despite its flaws. I get why hardcore Trekkers wouldn’t like them, but I think J.J. Abrams made two movies that were true to the spirit of Star Trek while giving them a more action-oriented, Star Wars-esque flair. So Star Trek Beyond, this time directed by Justin Lin of Fast and Furious fame, had my attention from the get-go. The first Sabotage trailer was a misfire, but after that the marketing found its footing and has gotten me really interested. After seeing Star Trek Beyond, I was very much satisfied, and while it probably won’t be in my best of the year list or anything, it’s a really enjoyable movie and a highlight of the summer.

The best part of Star Trek Beyond, like its two predecessors, is the stellar cast. Getting replacements for the likes of Shatner, Nimoy, etc. was supposed to be impossible, but each crew member is pitch perfect. Chris Pine’s Kirk has always been a different beast than Shatner Kirk, a cocky young maverick with a lot of heart but much to learn. It’s been a lot of fun to watch, but here he really grows into his role as Captain Kirk, extraordinary leader. But the standout for me has always been Karl Urban as Bones. He’s always been a welcome presence in these films, the loyal friend to Kirk, the doctor with the terrible bedside manner, and the voice of reason all wrapped into one. He’s a delight! The rest of the crew all get their moments to shine, with Chekhov (played by the late, great Anton Yelchin) getting more to do than in either of the previous films. It was a nice sendoff for a terrific young actor cut down in his prime who will be greatly missed.

There’s another character in the film who pleasantly surprised me; Jaylah, an stranded alien played by Sofia Boutella. When she first popped up as Samuel L. Jackson’s right-hand woman in Kingsman, I thought she was solid but wasn’t sure if she had much of a future as an actress. I was absolutely wrong. She was great in this, playing off the cast really well (especially Scotty) and once again being a capable fighter who can kick some serious ass. I can’t wait to see her in The Mummy now!

Beyond also does something that Star Trek 09 and Into Darkness didn’t do; it made the story small. At its heart, this is a survival story about a few people trying to save their friends…with a creepy artifact that could destroy the universe as a MacGuffin. It’s not as action heavy (although, as befitting a Justin Lin film, the action is great!) as the previous films, focusing more on the exploration aspects of Star Trek, along with the usual banter between the cast that I’ve come to know and love. It still sticks to the general tone of the Abrams helmed-films, while going off in a new direction that I think worked very well.

As for weak points, the clearest is the villain, Krall. Idris Elba gives a fine performance, but the character is not a very strong one, especially in contrast to Benedict Cumberbatch’s Khan. We don’t learn his motivation until very late in the film, and while the reveal was good in theory, I think it would’ve been more powerful if it came at the midpoint. He also falls into the trap that Star Trek 09‘s Nero did; he’s forgettable. Nothing he does really stands out, he’s just sort of a generic doomsday villain for much of the film and has no depth. That said, Elba’s acting goes a long way in making him more bearable. Getting a terrific actor tends to do that.

There were also some periods where the film dragged on too much. There are definitely a lot of fun scenes with Kirk/Chekhov, Spock/Bones, Scotty/Jayla, but sometimes they went on for too long or repeated themselves. A bit more variety in their scenes and the film would’ve been greatly improved.

Star Trek Beyond is pretty much exactly what I wanted, a really fun adventure with the characters I’ve come to know and love. It’s got a good mix of action and exploration/survival, terrific humor (Simon Pegg was one of the writers!), and brings you back to a universe that’ll take your breath away. Not Wrath of Khan quality, but a satisfying watch nonetheless.

Score: B+

June 2016 Movie Rundown

I wanted to do full reviews of all these movies, but life happens and you get backed up. Oh well, summer movie season will do that. Now that it’s over, I thought it’d be a good idea to give my quick thoughts on all the movies I saw this June (minus TMNT: Out of the Shadows, which I got to review in full). Here they are, from best to worst.

Finding Dory

When I first heard that Pixar was making a sequel to their 2003 classic Finding Nemo, my first reaction was “ummm…okay?” Don’t get me wrong, Finding Nemo is an all time great animated movie, and I had confidence in the abilities of the Pixar crew. It was just kind of strange that they would choose to make Finding Dory before Incredibles 2 or Cars 2 (oh wait, that happened…). Well, the I am glad to say that this investment paid off; Finding Dory is a great movie.

To answer the question “can Dory carry her own movie?”, yes, yes she can! From the first flashback of her as a toddler to the final frame, you are with Dory the whole time, rooting for her to find her family. She’s an immensely sympathetic character, even more so than in the first movie. Moving her center stage could have been a swing and a miss, but it actually ended up making her even more likable. And who could go without mentioning the vocal talents of Ellen DeGeneres. Ellen is so damn funny and once again brings so much to the character that I cannot imagine anyone else in this role. If there were a best vocal performance Oscar she’d win it hands down.

Another thing I appreciated was Pixar’s decision to not just rehash the plot of Finding Nemo. The plot kicks off when Dory remembers where her long lost parents lived, so she, Marlin and Nemo go to a California marine hospital to find them. It might sound like a carbon copy, but trust me, it’s not at all. The setting is a lot smaller in scale, but is a nice change of pace from the whole Pacific Ocean. The basic plot points are similar, but still have enough to set them apart that they feel fresh. It also doesn’t go the full Cars 2 route and change too much. Finding Dory strikes the right balance, being readily identifiable as a sequel while changes enough to stand on its own.

Dory also has a nice supporting cast to back her up. We get old favorites like Marlin and Nemo, and cameos from Crush the turtle and Mr. Ray. But there’s also plenty of great new characters. The standout is Hank the octopus (Ed O’Neill), who unlike most fish in the hospital who want to eventually return to the ocean, wants nothing more than to spend the rest of his days in Cleveland! He’s very funny, and the relationship between he and Dory adds a nice layer to the story that separates it from the original. There’s also the injured whales, Destiny and Charlie (Kaitlin Olson and Ty Burrell), and sea lions Fluke and Rudder (Idris Elba and Dominic West reuniting from The Wire), who add a lot to the comedy and are just as entertaining as anyone in Finding Nemo.

Is Finding Dory as good as Finding Nemo? Of course not. Finding Nemo held together better as an overall story; the second act of Finding Dory gets a little repetitive (lots of backtracking!), and the plot’s more predictable this time around. I also would have liked a few more gutbusting laugh-out-loud moments. However, the movie is so entertaining that I hardly cared at all. Finding Dory is a sequel done right, flipping the perspective to an erstwhile sidekick and making her a great protagonist in her own right. It also recaptures the magic of the original while still having the courage to go down its own path. A great movie that’ll surely be one of the summer’s standouts.

Score: A-

The Conjuring 2

I was late to the party on The Conjuring, having seen it just a few months ago. I’m not a big horror fan, and while there are some that I love, I have to wade through a sea of crap to get there. Well, The Conjuring was a diamond in the rough, my favorite horror film since The Descent and among the best films of 2013, period. So here comes The Conjuring 2, a movie I normally wouldn’t be excited for, but it had a pedigree that few horror films can hope to possess.

The film has a simple premise; Ed and Lorraine Warren (Patrick Wilson and Vera Farmiga) travel to England to investigate Hodgson family’s house for paranormal activity. But like the first one, director James Wan milks this premise for all the scares it’s worth. It doesn’t have as many “oh shit” moments, but Wan uses his hallmarks to build the tension to a fever pitch. The music, the cinematography, the sound design, and everything else all add up to a pretty scary experience, one that proves that atmospheric tension mixed with the right amount of jump scares is the best way to go.

One thing that separates the Conjuring franchise from much of the horror is the presence of capable actors, and they once again give it their all. Just like in the first film, Patrick Wilson and Vera Farmiga are terrific. They play the Warrens so well, have such good chemistry, that I’d go to see The Conjuring 3, 4, 5, 6 just to see them interact. They could look for poltergeists in space, in the hood, wherever, and I’d believe it because of them.

Where The Conjuring 2 falters is precisely what the first film avoided; indulging in cliches. It’s not to the point of ruining the movie, mind you, but for a non-horror fan like me they can easily wear on you. I’m fine with jump scares, but they need to be used sparingly in order to work. This film has a lot of them, and they’re not always well placed, sometimes being used where a subtle music piece or a creeping buildup would do the trick better. There’s also a period in the second act where the film drags for too long, slowing the pace to a crawl. Luckily, it comes roaring back for the finale, but the lull is noticeable.

While it doesn’t equal the first Conjuring, The Conjuring 2 is a solid horror sequel, with a lot of scares, great performances, and another star turn by director James Wan. If/when The Conjuring 3 is announced, I will be a very happy man.

Score: B

Warcraft

Given the track record of video game movies (e.g. CRAP), I’m a little surprised that I was looking forward to Warcraft so much. Maybe it’s residual affection for my pre-teen WoW days, but I had a lot of hope that Warcraft would be the movie to bring video games to the screen the right way. The marketing hasn’t knocked my socks off, but a lot of the casting intrigued me, I love director Duncan Jones (Moon, Source Code), and I’m always up for a good fantasy epic. So was Warcraft the first great video game movie? No, and I can definitely see why it got a lot of negative feedback. But I enjoyed it nonetheless.

Warcraft tells what’s basically a first contact story in a fantasy world; orcs and humans meeting for the first time after the orcs’ world is torn apart, and coming into conflict when their cultures clash. Except it’s more Dawn of the Planet of the Apes than Independence Day. The stuff with the orcs is by far the best part of the movie, thanks to showing that not all orcs are evil, but that they’re a race just as complex as humans. You have evil orcs like the sorcerer antagonist Gul’dan, but you also have heroes like Durotan who just want to protect their people and live in peace. The portrayal of the orcs is the main reason why, despite all its flaws, I’d like to see a Warcraft movie franchise; you don’t need them to be uniformly evil like in The Lord of the Rings, and can explore how they interact with the archetypically “good” races.

Beyond the orcs, Warcraft sets up an engrossing fantasy world. While watching this movie, I got flashbacks to my twelve year old self exploring Azeroth and remembered all that I loved about the games (even though I sucked every one of them). You might get a Tolkien vibe at first glance, what with the humans, elves, dwarves, etc., but it’s a different breed entirely. Just like Middle-Earth, there are so many stories to tell in this world, whether they’re adventures about saving the world or tense political dramas.

Some of the acting, particularly in the orc camp, is great. The standout is Toby Kebbell of Dawn of the Planet of the Apes film as the orc hero, Durotan. Out of all the characters, I was with him most of all. He sees Gul’dan, the man who plunged the orcs’ homeland into chaos, trying to rule over the survivors and does not like what he sees one bit, trying his best to save as many as he can. Other actors that brought their A-game include Dominic Cooper as Llane, King of Stormwind; Paula Patton as Garona, a half-orc sent employed by the humans as a spy; and Robert Kazinsky as Durotan’s best friend Orgrim.

However, there were other actors who I thought were completely miscast. From what I’ve seen of Vikings, Travis Fimmel is a good actor, but I didn’t think he was right for the role of the Sir Anduin, the main character on the human side. It’s not that he was bad, but something felt a little bit off, like his character should’ve been a supporting one rather than a main player. I would’ve preferred seeing King Llane take on the protagonist role, since he was a much more interesting character. Ben Foster, another great actor, felt very out of place playing a mage more suited for the likes of an older actor. However, the only actor that was outright bad was the young man playing Foster’s apprentice. He felt like a cut-rate Harry Potter meets Peeta, wooden and unprepared for such a big film. Sorry guy, but this wasn’t your time to shine. Maybe next time.

Warcraft also something in common with another controversial movie that I happened to like, Batman v Superman; a disjointed and clumsy narrative structure. It felt like there was a lot more story to tell, but the studio/filmmakers were worried about going over two hours and cut too much. A lot of plot points are glossed over too quickly, and the exposition, while necessary to a degree, was too thick for my liking. The movie also loses a lot of steam in the third act, mostly because of a few plot developments that took away my reason for caring. Disappointing, especially after all the great set-up in the beginning.

Overall, I liked Warcraft, but I wanted a lot more. That said, I feel there’s more to tell, and thanks to it doing gangbusters overseas I have hope for a sequel to do it better. I understand why a lot of people would dislike this movie, especially if they have no interest in fantasy. But for me it was a fun time at the movies, a decent introduction to a world worth revisiting.

Score: B-

Free State of Jones

A civil war movie about whites and blacks teaming up to buck the Confederacy and establish their own mini-state? Based on a true story? Starring Matthew McConaughey? Sign me up! I was always excited for Free State of Jones. It had an impressive cast, the trailer had one me over, and it portrays a period of history that is tragically underused in film. So, obviously this movie was going to be great, right?

Before I get into this, I did not hate Free State of Jones. In fact, there were elements that I thought were great, especially the acting. Of course, Matthew McConaughey is great in it. We’re now past the McConassaince and are now in the Age of McConaughey, where all the Fool’s Golds have been washed away and replaced with The Lincoln Lawyer and Dallas Buyers Club, and in Free State of Jones McConaughey proves his star has not dimmed. Gugu Mbatha Raw (Belle, Beyond the Lights, Concussion) also continues her rise, and Mahershala Ali (Predators, the last two The Hunger Games films) gets his chance to be in the spot light. I hope this movie’s poor quality doesn’t prevent him from getting more big roles, because he really deserves them.

One of the things I’ve heard about Free State of Jones is it has no story. That’s not true; it has a thousand stories. Seriously, this movie is so overstuffed. It seems like every character has a story to tell, even when we really don’t need to hear them and they could be in the background. This lack of focus means that the film isn’t nearly as moving as it could have been, feeling more like a second-rate History Channel special than an actual movie. It’s a great example of a film that’s too ambitious for its own good, trying to be an epic and getting carried away with its much too wide scope.

It pains me to say that Free State of Jones is one of the most disappointing movies of the year so far. I was hoping for Oscar season five months early, but instead I felt like I was back in the dump months. Well, at least the actors kept it from being a total waste.

Score: C

Independence Day: Resurgence

Independence Day: Revenge of the Fallen! Independence Day: The Phantom Menace! Independence Day: The Quickening! All fitting titles for a film of this quality.

No beating around the bush with this one; Independence Day: Resurgence suuuuuuuucks! I had some hope for it after seeing the first teaser, but all my hopes for a dumb fun action movie went up in flames as soon as the movie started.

I’m not gonna pretend that Independence Day had a great story or Shakespearian writing, but those elements were at least tolerable and didn’t get in the way of the fun. Resurgence, on the other hand, is one of the worst scripts I have ever seen put to screen. The worst part of the film, if I had to pick one element, is the dialogue. Where the Independence Day had some quotable one-liners, this one made me want to rip out my eardrums whenever someone opened their mouth. Especially painful are the attempts at comedy? I may go hard on Michael Bay’s Transformers humor, but ID: R makes those movies look like The 40-Year-Old Virgin. I audibly groaned whenever one of those stupid characters tried to give me a chuckle, and I’m still doing it even a week later. UUUUUUUUGH!

The plot and the world created for this film is also nothing short of horrendous. Yes, the first film was cheesy and didn’t have a great story, but it was believable enough that I could sort of relate to it. Here Earth is basically a hyper-futuristic world that feels more like Coruscant than anything feeling at home in this franchise. Nothing ever feels real, not the relationships, not the battles, not even the way humanity’s able to survive! Seriously, how do you fight back against a spaceship the size of a country! You don’t! You’re gonna die! Accept it! And the ending? One of the most pathetic sequel hooks this side of Maze Runner.

Finally, the acting is atrocious. I may have been worried about the casting of the poor man’s Chris Hemsworth, Liam…Hemsworth, but he gives one of the less embarrassing performances. Jeff Goldblum’s back, but not with a vengeance, phoning in it so visibly that you can see the “fuck you, pay me” rolling off his lips. Maika Monroe follows up her star turn in It Follows by not doing much of anything. But the saddest display of acting, especially since I love Star Trek: The Next Generation is Brent Spiner. He’s so goofy and over-the-top that, in a film full of bad performances, he stuck out for all the wrong reasons. Everyone’s lines failed, but his fell the hardest and fastest. The one saving grace in the film is Bill Pullman, who still projects enough presidential toughness and grace to give the movie and ounce of dignity.

Also, no Harvey Fierstein! You can’t do that!

As far as I’m concerned, Roland Emmerich is at the top of the Hollywood shit-list. He took his masterpiece and gave it one of the worst sequels I have ever seen, and the worst movie of 2016 so far. We’ll always have Independence Day, but now this shit is burned into my memory.

Score: F

April 2016: The Jungle Book Kills It

Okay guys, we’re almost to Summer. We’re almost out of the transition from the dump months to the blockbusters, and let me just say…this April was not great. Not terrible by any means, but there were definitely some tough ones. However, like any month there was one movie that had me over the moon. Take a guess which one? SPOILER: It’s not The Huntsman.

The Boss

Oh, Melissa McCarthy, why can’t even movie you do be Bridesmaids? When you’ve got a good movie to work with (The Heat, Spy, the aforementioned Bridesmaids) you’re hysterical. But Tammy? Ugh. Identity Thief? Meeeeeeeeh. The Boss looked like it was gonna be the typical bad side of McCarthy; unlikable woman goes to jail, get released, tries to work her way up in the world by being a horrible person and doesn’t learn anything. Did I guess correctly? Yup!

It’s not that The Boss is totally devoid of laughs. It’s definitely better than Tammy. But it’s just like every other bad Melissa McCarthy movie. Like I said, her character’s unlikable, she does horrible things to people who don’t really deserve it, we’re expected to laugh, we don’t. McCarthy is very likeable, and her work with director Paul Feig shows it. But she needs to be more discriminating when picking projects, maybe stop being directed by her husband, Ben Falcone. Above all, stop playing this type of character! I want to like you, not watch you get mauled by rabid dogs.

Score: 4/10

The Jungle Book

Until a few months ago, I was only mildly looking forward to The Jungle Book. However, after seeing some trailers and getting a feel for how it was going to be, they got my dollar immediately. And trust me, it was money well spent. Directed by Jon Favreau (Iron Man, Chef), The Jungle Book remakes the classic Disney film, expands on what made it so wonderful, and creates a fantastic movie filled to the brim with heart, laughs, and excitement.

Every time I see great visual effects, I think to myself “how they can top this?” Well, Jungle Book just may top them all. Almost the whole movie is CGI, and yet it feels so real, so seamless. After a few seconds I believed I was really looking at a tiger, a panther, a bear, a pack of wolves, whatever. The world Disney has created here is a living, breathing creation, proving just how far visual effects have come over the years and how just how immersive they can be.

But what really gave the movie its charm were the performances and characters. Baloo (Bill Murray in one of the best his best roles) and Bagheera (Ben Kingsley) are awesome mentors for young Mowgli, the former fun, carefree and lighthearted, the latter serious and protective, both well meaning and only wanting what’s best for the young man-cub. Idris Elba plays Shere Khan to perfection, making him a profoundly threatening presence that the original version couldn’t quite rise to. Even newcomer Neel Sethi was a pretty good Mowgli. He still has some growing to do as an actor (he’s, like, ten years old), but I believed him as the character and he did a good job interacting with an all-CG world.

Finally, we get to director Jon Favreau. Favreau has always been a great director. Iron Man, Chef, and Elf show his talent for storytelling as well as his range. However, The Jungle Book might be his masterpiece. After this, he can do whatever he wants if he couldn’t already. A Star Wars movie, perhaps? A guy can dream.

Score: 9/10

Hardcore Henry

I’ve got to admit, even as a big action fan I was very worried going into Hardcore Henry. The trailer didn’t wow me. The first-person gimmick has failed before (Doom, anyone), and even then it’s usually only lasted a few minutes at most. How could you keep it up for an hour and a half? The basic story of a cyborg trying to save his wife from waves of baddies with the help of badass Sharlto Copley (District 9) could be fun, but it’s pretty small-bore stuff. However, as I settled into the movie I ended up really enjoying Hardcore Henry.

A movie like Hardcore Henry doesn’t work without some kickass action, and oh boy does it deliver! The action is, well, very hardcore, bloody and gritty, and an absolute joy to watch for fans of the genre. The movie’s first-person gimmick could’ve been a big headache, but it ended up enhancing the experience. Granted, I understand why someone would get sick of it, but I considered the experiment a success. Also, I really was not expecting much from the story, but to my surprise I found myself feeling for our plucky cyborg. For someone who we never see, it’s easy to root for Henry along his trials, tribulations, and betrayals.

However, this is very much a movie for the video game crowd. If your opinions on video games are anything more than “eh, they’re okay”, then this is the movie for you. If you don’t care for them or are over 40, don’t bother seeing it. It pains me to say this, but the film’s low box office take is no surprise. I hope Hardcore Henry finds a bigger audience out of theaters. I have a sneaking suspicion that a cult audience is just what it needs.

Score: 8/10*

*If you’re over 40, then it’s probably gonna be 5 at best.

The Huntsman

Snow White and the Huntsman was an alright fantasy movie, nothing more, nothing less. I really didn’t care about seeing another one, but I tried to keep an open mind. There’s a lot you can do in a world like this and with these characters, and fantasy is possibly my favorite genre. But after seeing The Huntsman, my only thought is…why oh why was this movie made?

To get the one good thing out of the way, Chris Hemsworth and Jessica Chastain have really good chemistry. They’re both great actors, and I’d love to see them team up again in a better movie.

Everything else in The Huntsman is a massive pile of crap. First, I was expecting a prequel from the trailer. Turns out the movie is mostly a sequel! If you’re saying “but the evil queen died in the first movie”, well, they bring her back in the stupidest way possible, and it only goes downhill from there. The magical sister rivalry, stupid plot twists, and a heaping helping of fantasy cliches combine to make a story that’s both much worse than it could’ve been but could’ve made a great spoof movie if it were just *a little* sillier. Charlize Theron (great actress) phones it in as Ravenna, and Emily Blunt (even better actress) gives her only bad performance to date. Not even the visual effects are all that good. If you can’t even make your fantasy movie look pretty, you know you’re up shit creek.

Once again, why was this movie made? I have no idea who it’s for. Was there a mob of rabid fans clamoring for another Huntsman movie? Well, you guys blew it. Sorry.

Score: 3/10

Hopefully I get to finish up the month with Key and Peele’s hopeful magnum opus, Keanu. And next week, I get to see Captain America: Civil War! Awesome…

 

“Avengers: Age of Ultron” Review

The Avengers are back as a team once again, mopping up the remnants of HYDRA after the events of Captain America: The Winter Soldier. When Tony Stark/Iron Man (Robert Downey Jr.) has a vision that all of his friends and colleagues will die in an alien invasion, he creates a new artificial intelligence named Ultron (James Spader), who he hopes will be able to protect the world from intergalactic threats. However, Ultron is not the benevolent protector of humanity that Stark thought he would be, and is Hell-bent on destroying the Avengers for being a threat to “peace in our time”. Now it is up to the Avengers and a few new allies to stop Ultron before he can do any lasting damage.

The Marvel Cinematic Universe might be the most iconic film franchise of the 2010s, and for good reason. Most of the films have been terrific, and they have all been huge financial successes. The series’ crowning achievement is 2012’s The Avengers, the third highest-grossing film of all time and one of my favorite movies of all time. In fact, it’s one of only ten movies that I would give a 10/10. I’m not alone in my obsessive love for the first Avengers, so expectations for the sequel were sky-high. However, judging by a lot of the reviews online, you’d think it didn’t live up to those expectations. Most reviews have been good, but a few are calling Avengers: Age of Ultron unworthy of the Marvel name. While film is subjective, I couldn’t help but think some people set there expectations too high and wanted Age of Ultron to be the biggest and best movie of the series. However, I didn’t need Age of Ultron to be better than the Avengers. That’s a pipe dream for me. If it were a good movie, I would be satisfied.

Well, consider me quite satisfied.

Let me make this perfectly clear; the first Avengers is a better movie overall. However, there are several things Age of Ultron does better. The character development has been stepped up in a big way. We got some more glimpses into the character psyches, what makes them tick, and most importantly what they are afraid of. There were also some specific details that I thought worked really well. When I first heard that there would be a Hulk/Black Widow romance, I was skeptical. However, even though it started out a little cheesy, it quickly won me over. I like seeing their interactions and how their hardships brought them together. In addition, the oft-neglected Clint Barton (aka Hawkeye) gets a lot more screentime this time around. You even get to meet Clint’s family, and the scenes with his wife let Jeremy Renner show the character’s emotional depth and give him the motivation to live to fight another day.

Age of Ultron also ups the ante in terms of action. The first Avengers film had a lot of great action, but nothing really earth-shattering until the final battle. Here, damn near everything is the balls-to-the-wall actionfest you want from a superhero movie. From the initial assault on HYDRA commander Baron von Strucker’s fortress to the final battle, the movie’s a non-stop thrill ride that left me thoroughly entertained.

Once again, all of the Avengers and their non-avenging allies have great chemistry. The battle banter between Iron Man, Captain America and co. is really fun and lightens the tension in any big battle. However, the most fun character interactions were probably the ones where they were just hanging out and having fun, especially when everyone tries (and fails) to lift Thor’s hammer.

If there’s one thing the MCU needs more of, it’s great villains. That’s not to say they’ve done a bad job with them, but they’ve been…inconsistent. Sometimes they get a Loki or Red Skull, other times they get a Malekith or Justin Hammer. That being said, Ultron…aw man, he’s awesome. He’s legitimately threatening, being able to go toe-to-toe with all of the Avengers simultaneously and whoop their asses, not to mention being super creepy. However, he’s also got a lot of black comedy up his sleeve, and I was laughing out loud whenever he cracked a dark joke. And don’t even get me started on James Spader’s voice-acting. That man is awesome.

As for the other new characters, I thought they added a lot to the movie. The Maximoff twins were my biggest fear. I thought they were unnecessary additions to the franchise when they were announced and didn’t like them in any of the trailers. Even for their first fifteen or twenty minutes of screentime I had a hard time buying them. But they slowly grew on me, and by the end I was rooting for them every step of the way. There’s also Vision, a humanoid evolution of Stark’s A.I. butler J.A.R.V.I.S., played by Paul Bettany. He’s near-invincible, exactly the kind of guy needed to go up against Ulton. He also might be the most serious character in the whole movie, and served as a great contrast of the more laid-back regulars.

However, just because I love a movie doesn’t meet I’m gonna ignore its flaws. Unlike the first film, Age of Ultron has some notable problems. The basic plot skeleton is very similar to the first movie, with the team facing a threatening adversary, some bickering between Tony Stark and Steve Rogers, and a climactic battle where the world’s survival is at stake. We even get Ultron hypnotizing a brilliant scientist just like Loki did in the first movie. It’s not enough to ruin the fun, and there are some legitimate surprises later on, but I would like to have seen Joss Whedon (who did an awesome job directing and with the script) and Kevin Feige take a few more risks.

There’s also some miscellaneous complaints that don’t neatly fit anywhere else. Even though Ultron is a terrific villain, his motivation could’ve been more fleshed out. It’s not really clear why he goes berserk, he just sort of does. Also, MINOR SPOILERS they wasted some potentially really cool characters. Baron von Strucker, who had been set up in the Winter Soldier mid-credits scene as a major threat, is killed of early on, and offscreen to boot. There was no reason to kill him and I wish he would’ve been saved for later films. Also, I love Andy Serkis, but his character really served no purpose other to get his hand cut off (I know it’s foreshadowing for Klaw, but it didn’t serve this movie at all).

So, Avengers: Age of Ultron is not as good as the first movie. Who cares? It’s still great. More character development, more characters, better action, and an awesome villain who gives Loki a run for his money all make Age of Ultron a must-see. Also, stick around for the mid-credits scene. It’s got some great foreshadowing.

Score: 8.5/10