Meant to be Beautiful: A Look Back at Avengers: Age of Ultron

The year was 2015. America was thriving under the compassionate rule of President Barack Obama. Wishing 'thoughts and prayers' was still a meaningful sentiment to express to someone going through tough times. And in Ontario, CA, a little fat boy was gearing up to see Avengers: Age of Ultron. Yes, the anticipation was palpable as Little Fat finished up his retrospective on the Marvel Cinematic Universe, put on his Captain America t-shirt, and traveled to his local IMAX theater in the hopes that the newest Avengers movie could surprise and delight as much as its 2012 predecessor. Indeed, it was hard for expectations not to be set impossibly high. Regardless of what the general public thought of the first couple of Phase 2 flicks, Marvel was riding a streak of successes with the recently released Captain America: Winter Soldier and Guardians of the Galaxy. When expectations are that high, it’s a little difficult not to be disappointed, and I suppose I should have figured that Avengers: Age of Ultron could have never lived up to the hype. Still, as we approach Avengers: Infinity War, I feel that now is the perfect time to take a look back at the movies Marvel has released in the last few years. So please, pop open a beer, grab those Doritos, and join me as I take a look at the fantastically weird outlier in the MCU.

Oh yeah. Things are going to get freaky.

What They Did Right

The Writing
There is nothing out there like a Joss Whedon script, for better or worse (don’t worry, we’ll get to the worse in a minute). There's something truly memorizing about the way that the man can turn a phrase, set up a meaningful payoff to a meaningless scene, and just otherwise spout out philosophical ideals with the same effort as I would put into reading a grocery list; the Whedon is just that good. Look no further than Ultron's diction. I know he gets a bad rap, but I think the manner in which he speaks is stunningly poetic. His words regarding the geometry of religion and referring to the Avengers as his ‘swift and terrible sword’ continue to stay with me years after I saw the film, and only in a Whedon script will you have two artificial intelligences debating about the futility of human existence.

The scene still gives me chills.

The most tragic aspect of the scene is that they both AGREE that humanity is doomed. It’s only Vision’s final line of ‘a thing isn’t beautiful because it lasts’ that separates the savior from the conqueror.

And the trivial scene I mentioned above? It’s this scene right here:

This may be my favorite scene within the context of the movie, simply because of how it influences the rest of the flick. In the moment, it serves as a fun little peak into how these people interact with each other outside the costumes and missions. Plus, you have that brief second where Cap is able to move the hammer (is it the darkness within that keeps Mjolnir fixed on the table or does CAP REFUSE TO PICK IT UP OMG!).

Bitch I'm coming for that throne.

Beyond that, we get a shortcut to trusting Vision; a character introduced waaaaaaay late in the second act of the film. With one movement of the hammer, both the audience and the characters that we love are like “Yup, this guy’s good.” And finally, you have Thor making the decision to leave the Mind Stone on Earth because Vision is ‘worthy,’ which will lead to Thanos carving the thing out of Vision’s noggin. Yes, the little scene about the Avengers giving each other shit about worthiness is just the gift that keeps on giving, as the consequences of that scene shall continue rippling throughout the MCU.

But seriously though, you can't just grab another man's hammer.

The Badass Villain

No, not Ultron. I could probably make a case for the Metal Madman, but I have a time table to keep  thanks to Disney moving Infinity War up a week. Beautiful bastards.

Not gonna be the only thing comin' early, let me tell ya.

So instead, I’ll go with who is probably the most sinister villain in the MCU:  Tony Stark. I know! Think about his arc up to this movie. Stark has made his millions selling weapons, then blows up people for using his weapons AS INTENDED and refuses to share his potentially life-saving technology with the rest of the world! The man shows no remorse in killing his enemies, never thinks that he’s in the wrong, and after he makes the mistake of bringing Ultron to life, THE MOTHERFUCKER REPEATS HIS MISTAKES without any regard for human life!

"I wonder how many babies I can fit on this thing..."

About midway through the movie, Stark has the choice to either walk away from creating Vision or echoing his experiment and creating, what could possibly be, a more powerful version of Ultron made out of Vibranium. Stark has no reason to believe that it will work out any better for him, but somehow convinces Banner that continuing with his work is the only course of action. Fortunately, AI Redux ends with the creation of Vision, so Stark never has to answer for his mistakes. However, this movie more than any other cements Stark as the biggest bad of the MCU.

The Church

As far as actions set pieces are concerned, I have no problem putting the church scene up there with the Battle of New York. I’ve watch this movie at least a dozen times in the three years since its release, and I still have a hard time fully comprehending everything that happens during that fight. The 360 degree camera pan ensures that there is always something new to discover in that scene, whether we’re viewing Wanda’s newly discovered powers or the sweet, sweet moves of Steve Rogers; I still don’t feel like I’ve witnessed everything that fight has to offer. Even more than the original Avengers, this scene really shows the audience just how well these characters complement each other.

WEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!!!!

And while we’re on the subject of action, I’d just like to point out how beautiful most of the action in the movie is. Granted, CGI in the intro still doesn’t look like it’s finished, BUT, how ‘bout that Hulk/Hulkbuster fight? Or even the one-on-one stuff between Cap and Ultron? From South Korea to South Africa, the scope of this film is huge and it’s immensely satisfying that the action rises to meet it (even if the final fight is against a robot army).

Hawkeye

The forgotten Avenger, Clint Barton certainly became one of my favorites after this movie. Remember, the man spent the entire last Avengers being mind-controlled by everyone’s favorite Asgardian. This was the first time we got to spend the time with the man himself. We get to see his family and his children, and maybe come to the realization that he is fighting for something much more personal than the rest of the Avengers are. Cap’s fighting for his place in the world, Stark is fighting to protect his home, Thor is fighting for more screen time. Hawkeye is the only one that really has a reason to throw himself into the ring for something bigger than himself. Maybe that’s why he connects so intensely with the twins. Hawkeye and Quicksilver have this back-and-forth across the movie that, through only a couple of lines of dialogue, evolves into this mutual respect for each other. So much so, in fact, that Quicksilver is willing to become Swiss cheese by the end of the movie to save Hawkeye's life. If that isn’t love, I don’t know what is. No more is this familial perspective more a-parent (GET IT?!) than the scene shared between Clint and Wanda. I’ll let the scene speak for itself:

Nobody else on the team could have given that speech. From Stark it would have lacked sincerity, Cap’s speech would have focused on becoming a soldier, and Widow’s would have been much more manipulative. Only a father would have been able to make that speech to a scared child.

And that’s what I got. Don’t get me wrong, there is a lot more that I can through in here, but these beats are what most stand out as the highlights of this movie. Let’s face it, you’re not here to listen to me praise the movie anyway. Let’s go ahead and get to why you’re really slogging through this thing.

What They Did Wrong

The Quips

Dear Vishnu, would it really kill you guys to just shut the fuck up for like half a second? Like, would your internal organs liquefy and seep out of your unclenched rectum? Thing is, I’m mostly okay with Whedon’s humor, but much like Gunn in the latest Guardians movie, a lot of the humor was either unnecessary or didn’t land. Case in point, the ‘dining room talk’ from the final battle. In a TV sitcom? Sure. I would have no problem hearing Chidi and Eleanor argue about the necessity of a dining room, but it just felt really out of place during the climax of a major blockbuster.

Seriously, you need to watch this forking show.

Especially when you consider that the blockbuster was pegged as a much darker movie than its predecessor, the shear amount of jokes was overwhelming. You want to include humor in the party scene? Fine, I get that, everyone is drinking, having a good time. It's at home there. Hearing Stark spit out one-liners in the middle of a fight that levels Johannesburg and evokes images of 9/11 is a little… tasteless? Is that the best word for it?

"Please, just stop!"

The other issue with the quips is that everybody made them. If everybody is walking around cracking-wise like Tony Stark, why even unite the Avengers? What makes the Avengers great is that everybody brings something different to the table, not that everybody is working on their tight-ten for amateur night. Easily the biggest detractor of the overall arc of the story, the Whedon Quips are a fortuitous casualty of Joss stepping away from the universe.

Thor’s Magic Jacuzzi

“Hey, we already botched Thor’s second movie! How can we make him even more irrelevant in this universe?”

“Why don’t, and bear with me here, why don’t we throw him into an underground pool for no reason and then bring him back to offer a bunch of exposition that nobody gives two shits about?”

“My god, you are a genius! Have a bag of money!”

"ODIN DAMNIT!!!!!"

And that is how I imagine Thor’s arc in this movie was born. It’s depressing, especially in the face of Ragnarok, that Thor had nothing to do in this movie. Yeah, he learned about the Mind Stone and brought Vision to life, but as charismatic as Hemsworth is, there was no way that he could have made something out of what was given to him. What bums me out is that based on Thor’s vision about the fear of his power and destroying his homeland, I thought that there was going to be something marginally more substantial than ‘Thor takes a bath.’ Story goes that Whedon had a whole thing about Thor being possessed by the water spirits who would then speak to Skarsgard’s character, but the Marvel Creative Committee saw to the end of that (more on them a bit later). Even if Whedon had been able to incorporate his vision, I can’t say whether it would have saved Thor’s story. Like Hawkeye in The Avengers, Thor’s character was grossly underutilized and the movie is worse for it.

"I don't even know what movie this is anymore."

The Twins

You know what’s worse than hearing unending exposition? Hearing unending exposition from Kick-Ass doing one of the worst Eastern European accents that I have ever heard. I don’t know if it was the intent to make me cheer when Quicksilver died, but I certainly wasn’t shedding a tear that he wouldn’t be in any future movies.

"Oh boy, here I go killin' again!" - Joss Whedon

Marvel had an uphill battle with Quicksilver considering Fox had already given us a pretty great version of the character in X-Men: Days of Future Past. What Marvel gave us was… less than stellar. Quicksilver had ALL of the clunky dialogue and MOST of the terrible jokes, and just the worst accent. I don’t blame Aaron Taylor-Johnson, but damn am I glad he’s out of that role. As far as Scarlet Witch is concerned, she most certainly didn’t bother me nearly as bad as her brother and I actually found myself liking her arc in this movie. But once again, Marvel fell into the ‘tell instead of show’ trap. Instead of letting us see the twins trapped under the rubble, staring at Stark’s name, and fearing for their lives, we get Borat telling us about “Leetl piktour” that he looks at every day in just the worst accent. Imagine opening the movie with that scene I described, and then cutting into the battle in Sokovia opening that currently stands in the movie. We would have been emotionally connected to the twins from the beginning, before the movie told us that we should be. Sadly, I don’t write for these movies and now we all have to pretend to be sad that Pietro is corpsified.

Bonus! Now we don't have to sit through some of the... creepier story lines.

Final Thoughts

It’s really difficult for me to talk about Age of Ultron in such broad strokes. The movie is incredibly dense, and there is so much more that I could fit into either of the aforementioned categories. But we have places to go, people to see, and I have another seven movies to get through before April 27^th (you beautiful bastards) so I’ll try to wrap this up as quick as I can.

At the end of The Avengers, the I remember the entire theater cheering as loud as they could for the movie we had collectively experienced. In stark contrast to it's predecessor, the credits of Age of Ultron began to roll and a hesitant “should we clap?” clap slowly spread across the auditorium. If The Avengers was the defining stand-up-and-cheer movie of a generation, Age of Ultron asked you to reflect on the ‘heroes’ you were cheering for. These Gods. These Monsters. Age of Ultron is a mostly sobering look at price of protection, the repercussions of discovery, and ramifications of ‘saving’ the world. The shear ambition of this movie is impressive, and even with studio interference, it is clear that this is a movie that was meant to rest heavy upon the viewers' shoulders far after the initial viewing. Much like the titular villain himself, Avengers: Age of Ultron is a truly unique entry in the cannon. The MCU would never be the same...

Also, Scarlet Johansen is still really bad in this movie.

So where does Avengers: Age of Ultron rank in my list of MCU Films?

  1. Captain America: The Winter Soldier

  2. The Avengers

  3. Iron Man 3

  4. Iron Man

  5. Guardians of the Galaxy

  6. Captain America: The First Avenger

  7. Avengers: Age of Ultron

  8. Thor: The Dark World

  9. Thor

10. Iron Man 2

11. The Incredible Hulk

END

Thanks for reading everybody! I hope I was able to make you smile. Tune in over the next few weeks to see my thoughts on the rest of the MCU. My goal is to finish up these retrospectives the week before Infinity War comes out, but we'll see how that goes. I’m also working on another writing project that I’m pretty excited about; a project that will hopefully include all of you! Keep your eyes glued to your screens friends, and I’ll talk to you again soon.

Be kind to each other.

-James