It’s a bit of a turn in direction to follow up my last review (Birdman) with a summer blockbuster comic book flick but I am comic movie fan through and through and in the case of Avengers 2 I needed to get some words down.

*beware, there will be spoilers*

Despite what the fans say, the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) has had its highs and lows. After the sit up and pay attention moment of Iron Man we then smirked at Thor “Well that intro was nice, but gosh it got a bit standard after that”. But those lows were worth it because it was all part of a perfectly crafted plan leading up to the Avengers and I loved every moment of that. It was the kind of movie I never thought I would see in my lifetime. The idea that our movie economy would be able to make something like this happen was just preposterous. But Marvel has learnt a big lesson over the years, things like this make money, boats of money. Something that Sony is only starting to slowly realise (thanks for letting Spider-Man out to play).

Once Avengers got its (kind of) origin story out of the way I was looking forward to 3 years later when they would return as the fully formed team and when I heard the main bad would be Ultron I was looking forward to my Empire Strikes Back of the MCU.

But it wasn’t. Avengers 2 is good, pretty good even but it was meant to be more than that. It has truly spectacular moments, the “goosebumps” moment I like to call them. The first time a comic book movie that did that was in Spider-Man 2 (no not that one) when our hero stops the runaway train and for a tiny moment the movie fools you into thinking he might not do it, the struggle feels real and how the passengers react afterwards is comic book magic.
Avengers 2 had one or two of these, the wow moments. But they were mostly because of the spectacle of the effects than the writing.

So what was I actually looking for? Fear and hopelessness pretty much. Let me remind you of a moment in the Dark Knight Rises. It starts 8 years after The Dark Knight and we see a hobbling Bruce Wayne who’s reflexes aren’t what they used to be and more worryingly he doesn’t even want to be Batman anymore. With the introduction of Bane he needs to go back out into the city and I remember sitting in the cinema feeling fear for the character because I knew he wasn’t ready. When a movie can invoke those kind of feeling for a fictional character it’s doing something right.
In Avengers 2 I was expecting Ultron to be the true threat his character is described as in comic books or even in the trailers leading up to the release. I was building up a story up my head where Ultron viciously attacks early on and one of the Avengers gets bumped off, say Hawkeye or War Machine and the team is shaken to the core over it. They retreat and refocus. It would have straight away worried us the audience just as much as the Avengers themselves. Instead we got insert city here being attacked and turned into a doomsday weapon. A fine enough plot, but standard and with little personal cost.
The cost the movie wanted to use was the loss of Quicksilver, who while certainly impressed and charmed in the introduction time he was given, it wasn’t enough for us to exclaim at his valiant defence of Hawkeye.

A second idea I had and honestly almost expecting it was for the Hulk to either critically injure or kill an Avenger during his rampage. Again I was seeing War Machine as a victim here and it would have turned the Iron Man V Hulk fight into something very different and interesting. The conclusion near the end of movie would have had the Hulk being exiled into space for (maybe) the Guardians of the Galaxy to find.
We did get a self imposed exile which I do think worked very well. Watching a sad Hulk in the jet was a lonely sight harking back to the old tv show. The Hulk is meant to be lonely and filled with regret.

It’s been said by many critics that the weight of the MCU is present here and they’re right, it sure is telling that director Joss Whedon was forcibly aware that a lot of story is coming next and the writing in movie as a whole really just about survives this. While I am very interested in the continual nods to the Infinity Stones backstory (resolution coming in 2018!!) it did mean Avengers 2 had to end in a certain way for it all to fit and while this has been working so far, this time not just as much. There wasn’t enough cost in their victory, not enough to make them realise bigger things are coming soon.

I did enjoy Avengers 2 for what it was but I’m now understanding the problem of trailers more and how expectations are warped. You try to fill in the plot holes in your imagination in the months leading up and you’re given a safer version of your story and you can’t help but be a little disappointed.
Good movie, just could have been something special. Again… Empire Strikes Back kind of special.