This 2-parter is the nadir of the series.
The basic springboard - that Ultron won, is sound, but almost immediately things stop making sense.
The action sequences are just silly and unbelievable. Because it's animation, they use the live-action characters in way that would be laughable in a live-action movie or series, because to the producers of this show, animation = cartoon = don't take anything seriously, like Bugs Bunny. So we have Hawkeye fighting off an entire horde of Ultron robots, who, fortunately, appear to be as delicate as tinfoil, and very sportingly, one by one, wait their turns to attack him. We have our heroes falling distances that would kill a normal person 5 times over, but our non-powered heroes get up without a scratch and aren't even injured or even sore. It's toon time! Marvel needs to learn from the DC animated movies, which are more realistic than their live-action ones.
The plot. Ah. Thanos randomly appears at exactly the right time, for no reason, right in front of Ultron, for no reason, and Ultron slays him in a second. A bit contrived, perhaps? Oh yes, sir. Clearly, this scene, which made no sense at all, was written just so they could cut straight to Ultron gaining the Infinity Stones & becoming all-powerful. It seems that Thanos now does Home Delivery. To call this lazy writing is generous. The writers have no respect for the audience, and judging from the glowing reviews many have provided, they were correct to take that attitude.
The Watcher. Sigh. The Watcher's speech has been slipping more and more into common American vernacular throughout the series, and now he's at the stage where he says things like "What the Hell?" and "Bit more than that". Jeffrey Wright should be hanging his head in shame. Despite his claims of research, he doesn't "get" the Watcher at all, and has all but ruined the character.
The Watcher also now frequently gets emotional, sometimes pulling faces that would make that infamous mugger, Shatner, wince. (because it's now Bugs Bunny Cartoon) The sight of him indulging in physical combat with Ultron just made me turn my head. This is not the character I have known for 50 years.
The attempt to make the Watcher into an emotional, physical, participating character in these shows was foolish and seems like hubris. I hope Jeffrey Wright had nothing to do with it...
The rest of the episode was peppered with things that didn't make sense or were totally unbelievable. They shoot the legs off the Zola-commandeered Ultron drone, so it can't walk (bullets - and even arrows - can smash super-tough killer robots just fine, apparently - I hope the US military takes note!), so now Natasha has to carry him. Fortunately, the robot, which should weigh maybe 300 pounds, must weigh little more than a lunchbox, because he barely slows her down, and she even manages some acrobatics while ascending the stairs. How? Oh, Audience Disrespect - it's a powerful script weapon. It's a cartoon, right? Don't take it seriously. Anything is possible. Then Hawkeye commits suicide for no reason, which results in a massive fireball explosion, which, luckily for us, doesn't even singe the Widow, but does neatly blow her clear. And so on.
Well, at least the *next* episode, which hilariously brings together characters whose *only* qualification is that they appeared in the previous episodes, was worse. Millions and millions of possibilities in the Multiverse, and the Watcher apparently only knows about the ones he showed us earlier in the series. To say that this demonstrates a lack of imagination is naïve. Lack of respect is what it shows. Lazy, lazy writing is what it shows. And we see you, guys. And we won't forgive you.
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