Avengers: Age of Ultron
And for gosh sake, watch your language.
+: thematically deeper than its predecessor, gives all its characters at least something of an arc
-: busy, too breezy for its subject matter, repeated plot points
A lot of MCU Ages lasted longer than the Age of Ultron. The Age of Terrible Poster Design was well underway by this point (see the dubious photoshopping for Winter Soldier, for example) and the Age of Needlessly Darker-Than-The-Film Trailers reached its zenith here. If anything, this latter one’s reversed — promotion for Thor: Ragnarok suggested a somewhat frothier film than we actually got.
This is also the Age — which we are still very much in — during which the MCU decided to not-really adapt actual comic book storylines. Here was the most egregious example: the paper version of Age of Ultron involves time travel, a war between science and magic, and a bleak future in which Ultron really does mostly wipe out humanity. Suffice to say, it’s needlessly overlong and confusing, and the film rightly doesn’t follow this in the slightest, apart from maybe featuring Captain America’s broken shield at one point.
This was also, arguably, the end of the Age of Whedon. Having spent 20 years climbing from the ignominy of the Buffy movie to the zenith of The Avengers, it seems this was the point when the Iron Law of Stardom kicked in. Criticism began here, with a piece of Black Widow dialogue Twitter seemed to almost wilfully misread (the Red Room forcibly cuts out anything that might distract from an assassination mission, and Black Widower getting a forced vasectomy would also be horrifying — it’s not complicated). Since then, however, leaked parts of a former Wonder Woman script, accusations from Whedon’s ex-wife and the (not-really-his-fault) shambles of Justice League have tarnished the Whedon brand.
Before all that, though, this. Age of Ultron opens better than its predecessor, although its possible to see what irked people: for one thing, Whedon opens with what he probably thinks of as callbacks (e.g. the long take with the Avengers leaping in unison) but reeks a little of self-plagiarism and continues through the film. It also lays open the much more complex structure this film has (the action goes from Sokovia to New York to Johannesburg to somewhere unspecified in America to Seoul to New York to Sokovia); previous MCU films had success with the ‘starter villain’, but Baron von Strucker is a bit weak, too. The whole thing is great anyway, in large part because of several striking images: a Chitauri dream-invasion of Earth, a precursor to Batman v. Superman’s Knightmare sequence that makes much more sense; the Scarlet Witch’s creepy slasher grin and The Ring vibe; Bruce Banner de-Hulking in the snow.
From there, the resulting film is never bad, but it slides and bogs down gradually, until the final climax ends up dragging (although the absolute finale between Vision and Ultron is pitch-perfect and pure character work). Having started stronger than its predecessor, it ends weaker — Whedon employs every method through which you can tear apart a robot, but it still gets a little repetitive, and is still a bit too much like shooting Chitauri — which might be why the common consensus seems to be that it’s a worse film. I’d argue it’s about equal — in the end, Age of Ultron aims for a noticeably higher bar, and clears it with less finesse.
The film tugs at and questions every character (possible 1960s style title: Why Must There Be Avengers?). Black Widow and Hulk can’t buy the idea that they’re heroes, Captain America is horrified at the possibility of quitting, Iron Man is horrified at the possibility of not quitting, and Thor thinks everything is wonderful until he uncovers evidence for a vast cosmic conspiracy for the domination and destruction of the universe, which harshes his buzz somewhat. Pretty much everyone gets developed. By necessity, the film reaches conclusions, but not definitive ones — for the most part, the Avengers are necessary because Ultron-level threats will show up on the regular.
That Age of Ultron suffers a little from middle-chapter syndrome is not a huge issue. The biggest issue, really, is that Whedon sets some serious stakes — this is a massive fuck-up and problem for the protagonists — and then plays it too breezily. Stark is sent off in his self-driving car like a CEO being given a golden parachute; the film itself is a little befuddled about how much this is his fault — as the Scarlet Witch points out during her freakout, it’s technically hers, but Captain America seems to get angry at Stark every time.
“The Earth will crack with the weight of your failure”, Ultron promises. Not quite. The MCU remained a great deal of fun, but maybe it needed a breather. Maybe, just maybe, it needed to get a little smaller.
High Points: The Vision is a great character, who seems doomed to three bit-parts if the Infinity War trailer is any indication.
Low Points: the Seoul sequence isn’t bad, but it’s probably one action sequence too many (the final showdown also drags, but is necessary). Personally, I’d have made it a heist.
Curios: Avengers Tower was built from the truncated base of the MetLife building (see shot 14 minutes in).
Flagrant Product Placement: Audi are all over this, to the point where Hawkeye finds a more-or-less new Audi in Sokovia, the very place described in a later film as a ‘failed state’; John Deere tractors, motorbikes, tracksuits, monocles.
Connections to Elsewhere: whilst there’s a nod to Winter Soldier, it’s otherwise all about infinity stones, with the implicit nods they bring. Helen Cho might well present possibilities in a later film.
Stan Lee Cameo: Stan gets agitated about Thor’s alcoholic beverage and its exclusivity. This turns out to be an error. Fairly basic joke, not bad but easily ignored. (6/10)
End Credits: “Fine, I’ll do it myself”. Not really showing or telling us anything we didn’t already know. Luckily, also brief. (3/10)
8
Next: Ant-Man (2015)
