My Opinion on Avengers: Age of Ultron

I'd give it a 6/10. Maaaaybe a 6.5. It wasn’t as good as I’ve been hoping for since the summer of 2012, but it was okay. Here’s why that 6.5 isn’t a 10:

Age of Ultron was written by Joss Whedon, whom I used to really like (most notably for Dr. Horrible, Firefly, and The Avengers), but I recently found out that he was being a whiny man-baby and left Marvel studios after getting bitter about pieces in the MCU that other people wrote and criticisms that people have given him (please correct me if I’m wrong; I may not know the whole story). Anyway, I’d read up a few things on Tumblr about it before I went to see it today, so I was expecting to be a little disappointed. What I wouldn’t have known if I hadn’t read anything on Tumblr was that the characters of the Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver are supposed to be Romani Jews but were whitewashed by Joss Whedon and written to be affiliated with HYDRA, which is a Nazi organization. Now that doesn’t make very much sense to me. Minus 2 points right there.

wanda and pietro in the comic books
image courtesy newsarama

i don't see a resemblance
image courtesy kdramastars

   

Now I watched the movie, and I was thoroughly entertained by it. There was action (of course) and some really great character development for Hawkeye. This made me really happy because I often feel like he’s an under-appreciated avenger and that he didn’t get enough screen time in the last movie. I was also really happy with the addition of Wanda, Sam, and Rhodey into the Avengers team at the end of the movie. It made me super excited for the next movie to come out. These are the components that made me give it those 6-6.5 points. 

The main thing that caused me to take away those 1.5-2 points is the way that Joss Whedon handled the characters of Steve Rogers and Natasha Romanoff. Steve wasn’t written very well in the first Avengers movie, so I wasn’t really surprised, but Joss Whedon’s writing really diminished since then if you’re looking at the way he wrote Nat. Neither of these characters got nearly enough screen time in AOU, and in both of the movies, it seems like Steve has only been used as joke material. Many of the jokes that he made in The Avengers were out of character, and in Age of Ultron, it seems that he was only used as the running “language!” joke throughout the film.

Natasha Romanoff is one of my favorite characters ever, and I’m really sad about how she was portrayed in this film. She didn’t have much screen time, either, and the time that she did get was either engaging in a really stupid and forced relationship between her and Bruce, or fighting in a way that was probably just there so the straight males in the audience could see how sexy her body is. The small bit of character development we did get regarding Natasha was in her backstory in the Red Room, and I guess that was pretty cool, but I feel like most of that was shown just so she could connect more with Bruce, and it still seemed pretty forced. 

Overall, I’d say that Age of Ultron was entertaining but disappointing. And frankly, I’m kind of glad that Joss Whedon left Marvel. 

Everyone Should Aspire to be Like Peggy Carter

Agent Carter is Marvel’s first female-led cinematic piece, and it certainly hasn’t disappointed so far. With at least five instances in Tuesday’s episodes that have shattered the Bechdel Test, I’m going to start expecting more from Marvel. None of their other TV/Movie productions that I remember besides Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D has passed it.

courtesy of Screenrant

Shortly after Captain America is frozen in the ice, Peggy Carter (Hayley Atwell) is working for Strategic Science Research (SSR) which is under the alias of a phone company. Although she is officially an agent, her all-male group of coworkers is extremely sexist to her and they harass her when she tries to defend Howard Stark (Dominic Cooper), who is wanted for treason. Later that day, Peggy gets lunch and leaves into an alleyway where she meets a man (it’s Jarvis omg) whose driver turns out to be Howard. He tells her some fun scary stuff that’s going down and the rest of the show is basically Peggy beating down the patriarchy of 1940s America while simultaneously saving the world.

One of my favorite things about this show so far is Peggy’s fighting style. While other Marvel women like Natasha Romanoff fight by punching and kicking and doing backflips, Peggy pretty much just whacks the dude with whatever she has on her until either he’s unconscious or she can pin him down. She also doesn’t do that completely overused superhero woman thing where they seduce some guy and then kill him while he’s not paying attention. Rather, she either storms in and demands stuff or just puts on a disguise to be trusted.

According to my grandma, the historical accuracy was on point. The clothing, hair, makeup, decoration styles, music, and basically everything else (I totes want Peggy’s red hat and lipstick now) were perfectly comparable to the actual post-World-War-Two era.

The plot was interesting and made you want to keep watching, and you’ll love it especially if you’re a long-time Marvel fan. I mean, Jarvis??? In the flesh??? Hanging out with Peggy Carter??? How fricking rad is that?? It also doesn’t rely too much on violence or romancey-type stuff to make it interesting; I think there’s a perfect amount of each.

Besides being about a super progressive 1940s woman, it also has more supporting disabled characters than most media you see nowadays. The only actually nice guy in Strategic Science research walks with a crutch, and another supporting character is mute. The only criticism I’ll give about this show is how overwhelmingly white the cast is. There was only one supporting person of color, and a few people of color in the background, so I hope to see more representation in future episodes.

Basically, everyone should aim to be as cool as Peggy Carter. Marvel, my standards have been raised. Don’t let me down in the future.