So this was the new Avengers team huh, this is how Marvel has progressed since their blockbuster days? Wow! Talk about a downgrade. Honesty, I haven't been so bored in a movie since the last Marvel movie I saw, which was the equally boring Captain America 4, aka Red Hulk movie.
The generic plot is as generic as generic can be. The neo team have all been lured to a facility somewhere to execute each other on the orders of CIA director Valetina de Fontaine. It is here that they also discover Bob. They all work out what's happening and escape, only for Bob to get captured by de Fontaine, and Bucky Barnes to round the rest up later on. Bob turns out to be some God-like super being that de Fontaine is wanting to become the new face of Earth's defence. Problem is, Bob has inner issues that manifest into a dark version of himself called 'Void'. Bucky realises the threat and teams up with the ragtag bunch of bickering misfit antiheroes to stop Bob. Void pulls a Thanos move on NYC but the new Avengers manage to defeat him and restore Bob back to normal. All in a day's work for this scrappy A team.
So yeah, the plot is cookie-cutter guff. It's literally the plot of any action superhero movie you could think of, but insert a different set of superheroes. In this case the main roster is quite frankly awful. Personally I have no interest whatsoever in any of the Black Widow assassin characters or the somewhat chubby Yelena Belova. Bucky Barnes looks like a poor man's Ethan Hunt (MI:2). John Walker/Captain America? No idea who this was, didn't like the portrayal. Taskmaster is simply a previous main villain character (gender swapped) from an older movie. I like the continuity but using a character that was a main villain in a previous movie, to merely make them part of an alternate team in a later movie, weakens the character (and the previous movie) in my opinion. And finally Red Guardian is a wholly annoying character that isn't funny at all.
The start of the movie, with the team stuck in this facility, seems to go forever! Jesus it dragged so bad. Once we got away from that, it continues to drag with a whole load of exposition set within dull looking locations with a drab colour palette (this movie looks DRAB!). I dunno, this thing just seems to move from one gunmetal grey facility location to another. There is nothing to look at here, and it's all greenscreen and CGI of course. Totally synthetic and sterile.
Another issue is, despite what the director said, and what Disney said, I can't help but feel I need to have seen the various Marvel TV shows to fully know what's going on here. This movie doesn't feel like it stands on its own; you have the Marvel homework problem. But even if you have seen those shows I doubt that would have made this any better. The final product here just feels totally flat, like behind the scenes they have totally run out of ideas moving forward. There is nothing special here at all, no visual excitement, no exciting characters, a villain that is literally just a moving silhouette, no colour! The movie tries to be its usual funny Marvel self and fails with David Harbour coming across as infuriatingly annoying (for me). The fake crappy Russian accents REALLY grate in time. And was Valentina de Fontaine supposed to look like Republican Tulsi Gabbard?
Marvel has hit a wall, a creative wall. It seems the ride is over, nothing lasts forever, no matter how many times you dive back into the multiverse well. Captain America 4 felt like the franchise was running low on gas, a generic, somewhat political fluff piece that felt more like an obligation due to the Cap now being represented by a Black character. This continues the trend with a feature that feels like a desperate attempt to reenergise the franchise with a new Avengers team. Unfortunately, I don't think the majority really care anymore with many believing this entire saga ran its course long ago and this merely felt like a halfhearted reboot. The team are uninspiring, the action is lacklustre, the thrills are gone, the spectacle has become pedestrian.
3/10
No comments:
Post a Comment