Three years and numerous sequels after the release of The Avengers, Marvel Studios brought the whole gang back together for one more rodeo. Joss Whedon returned to writing and directing duties, and most of the cast reunited, as well as several new additions. The result was what was supposed to be summer 2015's big event (until Jurassic World blew it out of the water), but the result was... well, a tad bit of a disappointment.
Avengers: Age of Ultron suffers from many of the same issues other sequels in the MCU had suffered from at this point. The belief that bigger equals better, and getting weighed down by having to set up more MCU films. Age of Ultron is not a bad film by any means, but it is a massive step down from the first film. The behind the scenes drama shows on screen, the story gets too busy, and it just doesn't come close to recapturing what made the first film so special. Whedon tries too hard here, and the result is fun, but messy.
The story begins in media res as the Avengers attack Hydra's last known outpost, led by Baron Von Strucker, in pursuit of Loki's scepter left behind on Earth after The Avengers. Right from the start, it's apparent that Whedon wants everything to be bigger in this sequel; the action sequences have way more going on, we get our big money shot of the gang all together less than five minutes in, and the very first lines uttered by the Avengers are...quips.
Yeah, this film definitely overdoes the Whedonisms. I defended their use in the first film, but Whedon absolutely hits it into overdrive here. From the language joke getting far played out, to Strucker's "I will surrender" gag, to Ultron itself. The film has a lot of trouble with too much levity. Many gags do work, but so many others fall flat because they don't fit the moment. And those quips absolutely wreck Ultron itself.
James Spader was an inspired choice to play the super-evil and insane A.I. program. His calm, concise voice soothes while he illustrates his plans for humanity's destruction. The character's introduction is pretty cool too; Tony Stark and Bruce Banner bring it to life thanks to the Mind Stone in Loki's scepter as a program that could make the Avengers obsolete. However, Ultron immediately loses its mind when it realizes that humanity is its own worse threat and "kills" J.A.R.V.I.S., Tony's personal A.I., before embedding its intelligence into the internet and Tony's Iron Legion suits.
This is a pretty cool re-imagining of Ultron's origins, and sets it up to be one of the MCU's most unique villains. Unfortunately, Whedon adds far too much levity to Ultron, making him a non-threatening child throwing a tantrum and injecting almost too much personality. Instead of being cold and calculating, Ultron is almost clumsy and far too easy to anger. If it weren't for its robot army and the Maximoff twins, the Avengers just wouldn't be necessary here. Sure, the same thing could be said for Loki, but Loki had endless cunning and trickery at his disposal, plus a grudge against the Earth (namely Thor). Here, Ultron has some sort of bitter grudge against Tony which isn't nearly explored enough.
Since I already brought them up, I'll shift my attention to the Maximoffs next. Pietro and Wanda Maximoff are honestly a bigger threat than Ultron if you ask me. It is their actions that nearly tear the Avengers apart in South Africa, as Wanda/Scarlet Witch uses her powers to screw with their minds. This leads to the movie's stand-out set-piece as Hulk, driven berserk by Scarlet Witch, goes head-to-head against Tony Stark in his Hulkbuster armor. Meanwhile, Ultron is easily handled by Iron Man after setting up Black Panther for about 5 minutes. It's just not threatening enough, the twins do all of the work. When they turn on Ultron, it never feels that threatening for the rest of the film. The Avengers never really lose control of the situation in Sokovia, and the only reason Pietro/Quicksilver dies is so that Marvel doesn't have to constantly bicker with Fox over the rights to the character. Quite literally splitting the kids after a divorce.
Unfortunately, the detriments don't end there. Perhaps the strangest new story added to the film is a sudden romance between Black Widow and Hulk. The two just don't have much chemistry, it had no proper foreshadowing, it completely erases Betty Ross from existence, and it once again is an excuse for Joss Whedon to write Natasha as vulnerable. Here, she becomes a damsel in distress as Ultron kidnaps her for no reason except as a plot device so Hawkeye could track down Ultron's headquarters. And there's one controversial dialogue exchange between Bruce and Natasha that had the internet fuming. While I'm sure it wasn't Whedon's intent, the order of lines DOES make it sound like Natasha's infertility makes her think she's a monster as bad as the Hulk. All that controversy could've been avoided if Whedon just avoided this romance altogether.
Oh, but the hits keep on hitting. The movie also has no idea what to do with Thor, shoving him into some weird tacked on sequence to formerly introduce the Infinity Stones to the Avengers, and sorta kinda foreshadow Thor: Ragnarok (although the final film wound up VERY different from Thor's nightmare). He does help with the creation of the Vision and he does have a fun running gag with Mjolnir, but otherwise, Thor is extremely out of place in this film, almost as bad as Black Widow.
Speaking of Vision, I can safely say it is the brightest spot of the film. Vision is played by Paul Bettany, finally playing a live-action role in the MCU after voicing J.A.R.V.I.S. for seven years. It's given by far all of the best dialogue in the film, including a fantastic final moment between it and Ultron where they discuss humanity's follies ("You're hopelessly naive." "Well. I was born yesterday."). Vision is by far the most interesting character in this film, almost the MCU's version of Dr. Manhattan from Watchmen.
Another Avenger that gets plenty of time to shine is, surprise, Hawkeye. After receiving the shaft in the last film, here he gets to play hero and underdog. He frequently mentions how out of place he is, and this grounds him as the film's audience surrogate. He also is the focus of a subplot where we learn about his family, and the entire sequence at the farm is just wonderful because there's no action. It's just the Avengers working out their problems and picking up the pieces, with some help from Nick Fury of course. In fact, the scenes where they all just talk are the best in the film. The party scene is proof that a two-hour movie where the Avengers just drink and chat would still be a blockbuster.
Other highlights include Tony Stark's sense of responsibility for saving the world almost consuming him, leading to his conception of Ultron and Vision. The cinematography is sharper than the last film, though everything is washed out and colorless. There are fun cameos from several characters, my personal favorite being the rebellious S.H.I.E.L.D. operator from Captain America: The Winter Soldier. And yes, there are a LOT of really cool money shots.
So yeah, Avengers: Age of Ultron is just an all-around disappointing sequel. It's bogged down by superfluous tie-ins to future films, a shockingly weak villain, and a forced romance that assassinates the Black Widow character (though she is redeemed by the Russos, Markus and McFeely yet again in Captain America: Civil War). However, the new Avengers are all welcome additions, Hawkeye gets plenty of time to shine, and the calm dialogue scenes are as sharp and funny as ever.
As far as comic book sequels go, it's far from the worst. But it was clear that Marvel Studios was having issues by this point. Studio interference troubled Whedon to no end; leading to him abandoning the chance to write and direct the third Avengers film. They had issues keeping directors for longer than two movies, and were losing creative directors like Patty Jenkins and Edgar Wright due to "creative differences". Things had to change, and Age of Ultron was the breaking point. So not long after this film, Disney totally severed Marvel Studios from the rest of Marvel Entertainment. Now, Kevin Feige worked for Disney, not Marvel CEO/evil tyrant Ike Perlmutter. And as we've seen since then, things have been somehow getting better for Marvel Studios.
Even though we've had another Avengers film, phase 2 was not over yet. Our next chapter brings the smallest Avenger to the fold in a controversial film. But gosh darn it, I like the thing even if it did lose a brilliant mind.
Next time: Ant-Man
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