You could hardly ask for a more explosive start to a summer blockbuster season, especially one with the lineup we have this year. But Avengers: Age of Ultron does something a bit surprising, and it's something I'm not sure paid off. Only time will tell, but it seemed that Marvel Studios might have dictated the film's central theme in order to make a statement about its future productions. That is, the characters' oft-repeated sentiments that change is inevitable, change is necessary, and evolution is coming -- coupled with the film's ending -- certainly seem to be preparing the vast fanbase for drastic changes as our stars move on with their lives and new stars jump on board the superhero express.
I suppose this theme of evolution implies both hope and tragedy, which might be why this film is far more melancholy than most of the films in its universe. Make no mistake, you parents who take young children to these movies: This picture is violent, it is heavy (though not as dark as, say, The Winter Soldier), and it is wildly complex. Its ending has no shawarma, no festivities, and not even much closure. In fact, it's about as tonally opposite to Guardians of the Galaxy as Marvel could have made it. If you know me, you know I prefer darker flicks to lighter pics, so why didn't I rate Ultron higher? Because it's a bit of a mess.
If we want to dig into it and read that the tonal instability of the film results from its central bittersweet heart, I can appreciate the otherwise messy script. The sheer number of characters is considerably harder to swallow, though. We have our core team of six (-ish?), but then we see a constant flow of secondary characters from the other films that pop in for a few hot seconds (Nick Fury's presence did nothing for me this time around, guys, though Agent Carter can come back any damn time!), and then Whedon has the nerve to throw in new characters who deserve more screen time and script treatment than they are given. Quicksilver and Scarlet Witch are pretty fabulous, though neither gets much chance to shine until the last half-hour or so of movie time. On the other hand, though, one of this film's greatest successes lies in its greater appreciation for Black Widow and Hawkeye, though Ultron is probably the closest we'll get to a standalone film for either of them. Specifically, the tender moments between Black Widow and Hulk are charming, if a little forced.
Who else is new? Oh yes, Ultron, the weirdly sassy megalomaniac spawn of Tony Stark's hubris. James Spader's voice is nice and all, but come on. A supervillain? Hardly. This hunk of computer-generated junk is only dangerous because Joss Whedon's team made him look sleek and a little vampiric. Oh, and the character's consciousness can be omnipresent, which is pretty awesome. But for someone (something?) who has literally all the world's information inside his head, he has pretty basic plans for global destruction. Turn a city into a meteor, and annihilate humans with it. But does he use his supercomputer skills to try and cause chaos around the world, maybe even as a distraction for his foes? Nope. Except in his attempted creation of Vision, which is actually rather wonderful until the Avengers hijack him, essentially hobbling Ultron's master plan before the climactic battle has even started (what kind of plot device is that??).
The worst, though: Ultron isn't even interesting. I mean, we never ever think that he might be good (Stark, baby, you named your own computer Jarvis...does "Ultron" have any kind of sweet, familiar ring to it at all?). From the first moment we hear his voice, we know he's evil, even though that particular characteristic is never explained or qualified. As a full-fledged creation, he's strangely neurotic, so he often feels like a man in a suit. Which is just weird. Okay, I might be a little biased because I just saw Ex Machina and its AI character Ava is sympathetic, sweet, and totally ominous. Hell, even the Winter Soldier was a scarier villain than Ultron, if we're going for sheer screen presence. The Pinocchio song Ultron sings is a little unnerving, but it doesn't quite fit with the character (though it might have, had the filmmakers made him into some kind of Frankenstein's monster who became disillusioned with Stark).
Instead of interesting, our villain is a product of rotten computer programs, and he unleashes a legion of uniform robots that serve much like the Chitauri in the first Avengers. That is, bodies to be destroyed by the droves. This brings me to my main problem with the film: the action scenes. They're fast, they're furious, they're even pretty darn cool. But the camera is so shaky, the editing so sharp, and the attention to all the characters so uneven that I can scarcely keep track of which hero is doing what and where and why before another set piece explodes. Add to that the downright insane levels of complicated scenarios our heroes need to fix (much like the dwarves' inane plan at the end of the second Hobbit), and the plot becomes a nightmare that feels much to large for Whedon's hands. That's not to say there aren't a few nice moments, notably the opening sequence, and near the end when all the heroes gather in a crumbling church to fight off the horde in slow-motion. And for all the filmmakers' cleverness in making the team actually work together as a team, the camera and editing don't do much to help our awareness of it. Rather, we are bombarded with things smashing and sparking and breaking and the drama is just absent.
Maybe I'm just bitter because it felt more like a video game than a movie. Special effects are great, but when you sacrifice decent character development and plot points in order to show off a huge climax scene or some cool fight moves, I'm going to roll my eyes until a hero shows off his muscles.
That said, I loved the stupid thing. It's noisy, it's silly, it's messy, it's downright fun. Is it epic? Hell no. But (despite obnoxious popular claims of everything being "epic") how many movies these days actually are, even in the superhero tradition? What it is is a rollicking (if not quite swashbuckling) action picture with some of our favorite characters doing ridiculous things and looking great in the meantime. Parts are heavier than its predecessor, and yet the whole thing feels less consequential (as a direct result of the overblown fight sequences), and so it's a pretty spot-on sequel, as far as that goes. And its last gambit is one that deserves a little nervous consideration: Do the last few scenes mean that we might not be seeing much more of Hulk, Iron Man, Hawkeye, or Thor? Don't get me wrong: Disney is not going to let these bankables slip away. And I haven't been keeping track of the stars' contracts. But Hulk running away, Iron Man's odd send-off, Hawkeye's tender homecoming, and Thor's adventurous exit all smacked of finality in a way we have not yet seen. Our last moments were instead focused on the new Avengers: War Machine, Falcon, Vision, and Scarlet Witch, led by Captain America and Black Widow. It does make one wonder what will happen in Civil War and Ragnarok, if Hulk will get a standalone picture (unlikely), and if our current heroes will be reduced to supporting roles or even cameos in Infinity War.
But we still have a long damn time before all that.
P.S. There's an awkward little mid-credits scene that reminds us that Thanos is still a thing, and that he's pissed off about these Infinity Stones getting scattered all over. Does anyone else get the feeling that Marvel Studios is going for a Harry Potter thing where it's not until the last movie that the villains and heroes fight over control of a set of holy objects? Maybe if they spread the big plot points out a wee bit we wouldn't need two parts to the climax. Just a thought.
P.P.S. I think the film might have been stronger without Quicksilver and Scarlet Witch, simply because they distracted us from the dynamics of our core heroes. And because I think they fit in better with the X-Men than the Avengers. But both actors were great, and Witchy rocked in the climax. I guess if someone needed to die, I'm sort of glad it was a new person rather than one of our favorites. But is Quicky dead? That last shot of him next to Hawkeye was kind of bizarre, and in a movie where the villain can transfer his consciousness at will, I'm not counting anybody out.
IMDb: Avengers: Age of Ultron
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