Tony is creating an artificial intelligence system to defend the whole earth from alien invasions and accidentally gives it sentience using one of the infinity stones. Predictably it immediately gets the wrong end of the stick and decides that protecting the earth means something different from not getting people killed. As soon as we get to that point it's boring, but the argument about what Tony is doing and why is actually quite good.
I feel like Marvel is actually pretty good at generating interesting premises and then terrible at resolving them in thematically resonant ways. I mean, usually the resolution is just, "Let's punch it out!" I feel like Winter Soldier and Black Panther get away with "Let's punch it out!" because there's such a rich relationship between the combatants and because there's this element of not knowing who to trust and having to fight your friends, and also because they don't shirk on resolving the other elements once the climactic battle is done. But omg, Vision is such a dumb resolution to the Age of Ultron premise. He's my least favorite character in the whole MCU because I can't get over that.
(It occurs to me, having written that Winter Soldier and Black Panther both have "this element of not knowing who to trust and having to fight your friends", that they are both miles away better than Civil War, where that is the actual literal premise. Not sure if you've made it to Civil War yet, so I'll go light on the details, but: the debates are interesting if underdeveloped, and there is a scene or two where I buy into the pathos, but overall "the Avengers are fighting each other!" just comes across as more "the Avengers are having a water balloon fight in the back yard, isn't it fun?" and way, way less heartbreaking or unnerving than anything in BP or WS.)
no subject
I feel like Marvel is actually pretty good at generating interesting premises and then terrible at resolving them in thematically resonant ways. I mean, usually the resolution is just, "Let's punch it out!" I feel like Winter Soldier and Black Panther get away with "Let's punch it out!" because there's such a rich relationship between the combatants and because there's this element of not knowing who to trust and having to fight your friends, and also because they don't shirk on resolving the other elements once the climactic battle is done. But omg, Vision is such a dumb resolution to the Age of Ultron premise. He's my least favorite character in the whole MCU because I can't get over that.
(It occurs to me, having written that Winter Soldier and Black Panther both have "this element of not knowing who to trust and having to fight your friends", that they are both miles away better than Civil War, where that is the actual literal premise. Not sure if you've made it to Civil War yet, so I'll go light on the details, but: the debates are interesting if underdeveloped, and there is a scene or two where I buy into the pathos, but overall "the Avengers are fighting each other!" just comes across as more "the Avengers are having a water balloon fight in the back yard, isn't it fun?" and way, way less heartbreaking or unnerving than anything in BP or WS.)