What’s become obvious by now is that the Avengers spend their time cleaning up their own shit, all with colossal loss of life and property. Like, what was Thor doing barechested in that freaking pool? Why did Black Widow offer an earnest discourse on her involuntarily sterilization? What was Stellan Skarsgård doing in the film at all? Wait for the director’s cut, these questions will probably be answered. An hour was cut from the film during editing, so there were some subplots that were so truncated that they just lay in the film like a walleyed pike thrown up on the shore, gasping and flopping to no purpose. It handled its big cast well, each character was given an arc, and there was a lot of action interspersed with a good deal of quipping. As for Age of Ultron, it was pretty well a Platonic ideal of a superhero movie. But still, it’s weird that the two series are drawing plot coupons from the same hat. They don’t defend the planet, they defend a neighborhood. These guys are a lot closer to the streets than Thor or Tony Stark. I suppose there are limitations about what you can do with superheroes who aren’t particularly super. It keeps the special-effects budget low, I’m thinking. (He doesn’t wonder where, in the absence of slums, his high-rise dwellers are going to find their servants.) But yeah, it’s a little strange that in two comic book-inspired venues, the villains aren’t Galactus or Darkseid or even the Joker, but developers. Malcolm Merlyn wants to destroy the slums because he wants revenge on them, and Fisk wants to destroy slums so he can build high-rises and make a fortune. A primary villain with an interest in radical forms of urban renewal (check- and WTF?).Mysterious highly skilled member of a corps of assassins who turns up when the plot needs juicing.A dark avenger of the night determined to protect his community (check).But I can’t help but notice that Daredevil‘s plot is pretty well tracking the plot of Arrow. The urge to atone for past sins (his responsibility for his father’s death) by turning himself into a punching bag makes him more interesting than the usual crime-fighting hero. And I’m beginning to suspect that Matt Murdock isn’t merely a dark avenger of the night, but someone who’s got a sick compulsion to get himself beaten up on a regular basis (because that’s the best thing that’s going to happen to you when you take a little stick to a gunfight). I’m enjoying Daredevil, and Charlie Cox’s take on the character, the bravura action scenes, and Vincent d’Onofrio’s chilling portrayal of Fisk. What I’ve learned from both is a lesson in the limitations of the superhero genre, even if you gussie it up with A-list actors and a $250-million budget. I saw Age of Ultron, and I’ve reached Episode Seven of Daredevil, and so I’m pretty well experiencing a superhero O.D.
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