Avengers: Age of Ultron (released for digital download this week) is a big, noisy, flabby, CGI-filled mess of a film, with set-pieces that are ridiculously difficult to follow. Joss Whedon’s sequel to The Avengers makes the first film look like a quiet chamber piece.
The film’s most interesting moment is a relatively quiet fantasy sequence when several members of the superhero squad are temporarily brainwashed, and each has a strange vision (filmed and edited with a sublime dream logic).
The rest, though, is a series of comic book bubbles: SMASH! BANG! BLAM! KERPOW!
For example, the final battle, which takes place in a fictional, vaguely Eastern European looking place called Sokovia, has so much going on I had no idea who was where and where each of the superheroes was in relation to the others. Buildings collapse. Things blow up. An entire city is lifted off the ground and brought into the sky. There’s some sort of giant drill-thing. It’s filmed with swooping cameras (or swooping software, I guess), occasionally going into slow-motion for hero-shots, but it’s still chaotic and – unlike the choreographed action of Mad Max: Fury Road – it’s annoying and ultimately boring.
And amidst all the carnage there are Audis (the car of choice, apparently, in London, Johannesburg, Seoul, and Ruritania).
The Marvel Studios film gives generous room for advertisers to display their wares.
Here are some of the blatant product placements I spotted.
JOHN DEERE
RAID
RAID again and DORITOS
DR PEPPER (and DORITOS again)
AUDI
VOLKSWAGEN
SAMSUNG
ADIDAS
HARLEY-DAVIDSON
ROYAL PURPLE
Honestly I watched the movie and I didn’t see any of the advertisements. I am not saying that they weren’t there. I am pointing out that it far more subtle than some movies such as Transformers…They actually tried to weave it into the story and I can appreciate that at least. I adored that movie but I am a nerd and I love it. I appreciate your opinion though.
LikeLiked by 1 person
i tend to look for it in films because i pretty much expect it now. i think it was spotting the audi in four separate locations that intrigued me. i have no idea if people in Seoul drive Audis (I suspect not as there are in fact very few imported cars in Korea). I only saw the first Transformers, which was of course a 2 hour car commercial 🙂
LikeLike
The Last transformations one was just one big commercial. There is an honest trailer about it. You should check it out…its pretty bad.
LikeLiked by 1 person
lol whatever I loved the movie. I watched it recently. Even im not into sci fi movies but this one made me. Good points. I appreciate.
LikeLiked by 1 person