Review 345: Avengers: Age of Ultron

Avengers: Age of Ultron is an extraordinary sequel, one that amps up the ante in so many unexpected ways, introduces new and interesting characters, delves deeper into our titular characters and a sure sign of a bright future for Marvel.

When Tony Stark (Robert Downey, Jr.) tries to jumpstart a dormant peacekeeping program, things go awry and Earth’s Mightiest Heroes, including Iron Man, Captain America (Chris Evans), Thor (Chris Hemsworth), The Incredible Hulk (Mark Ruffalo), Black Widow (Scarlet Johansson) and Hawkeye (Jeremy Renner), along with the support of Maria Hill (Cobie Smulders) and Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson) are put to the ultimate test as the fate of the planet hangs in the balance.
As the villainous Ultron (James Spader) emerges, it is up to The Avengers to stop him from enacting his terrible plans, and soon uneasy alliances and unexpected action pave the way for an epic and unique global adventure.

The plot is a stock of visual and storytelling genius, at the core of it is a story of death, but it also doesn't forget about the characters and their interactions and their differences and their teamwork and that is ultimately what makes these two Avengers movie tick, the characters and their dynamics and this film is about what kind of paradigm can that sustain. Can these people actually stand each other? The thing about The Avengers is that it's comprised of this team of hers who would be leaders in their own world and then all of a sudden they are put into a team situation where one of them has to lead and the others have to follow e.g. there is still a loose chain of command, no one in the team is technically in charge but when a battle breaks out and they need structure, Captain America has no qualms about organising a team approach.

The Avengers are a unit now, it's not growing pains anymore. It's now more internal conflict and these people trying to operate as a team.    

Naturally we have some new characters introduced in this film such as Pietro Maximoff/ Quicksilver (Aaron Taylor-Johnson), Wanda Maximoff/Scarlet Witch (Elizabeth Olsen), Vision (Paul Bethany) and of course Ultron. These characters are fun, intersting and add verity and interest to the Avengers universe, it gets bigger and we get inside the heads of the characters more which I really enjoyed.     

A major theme in Avengers: Age of Ultron is that we create our own destruction: Hydra's experiments with Loki's sceptre is what brings The Avengers to their doorstep. Tony's ambition to create a peacekeeping program, leads to the awakening of Ultron.                                                                          And finally Ultron's vanity leads to the creation of the one being who can stop him: The Vision. Ultron even says it himself "Everyone creates the thing they dread".

Another theme in this film is the price you pay when you try to do the right thing: Again and again Tony makes the same mistakes in his attempts to secure the world and he pays for every one of them. Cap even says it before the final battle, being a hero comes with a price and they might not come back alive as they are facing a villain who's one and only desire is to kill everyone and this movie shows that no matter how hard you try you just can't save everyone, there is a sacrifice and innocent people do get sacrificed. Innocent people do get caught in the Avengers affairs.

Another theme in this film is the thin line between being a hero and a monster: Avengers: Age of Ultron is about the Shades of Grey: Villains who see themselves as heroes and heroes who, despite their best intentions, cause more problems then they solve. It presents this compelling question: Do the Avengers want to help people or do they want to save the world? They are two very different things but we use them as interchangeably as we do ruling and destroying in a lot of superhero stories. Helping people is reactive but saving the world is bigger. That implies that you only act when there's a threat to the entire planet or else you're working towards something more perminant. Something preemptive which is what Tony wants to do when he and Bruce create Ultron. "Peace in Our Time" as he puts it. A blanket sollution to a new problem that maybe the Avengers can't always solve: Threats from abroad aka beyond our planet.

In the first movie, Earth's Mightiest Hero's were up against one clear and present threat but beyond that, they can't agree amongst each other what exactly the mission is. Is to fight evil and whatever form it may take tirelessly and selflessly giving of yourself until you have no more to give? Or is it to focus on the short term but create a long term way to eventually get out, live a life, be a human being as Tony learned in Iron Man 3. Ultimately, the film decides that both ways are extreme and unrealistic as both result for our heroes in detachment from their fellow man and losing perspective and forgetting what they were fighting for in the first place.

The film also explores the classic theme of A.I. going rogue: Initially the Ultron program starts as a global peacekeeping program that's meant to replace The Avengers. Unfortunately, Ultron goes haywire and seeks to eliminate humanity thereby representing the ultimate example of A.I. applications gone wrong: intelligence that seeks to overthrow the people who created it. Because of his programming Ultron can't tell the difference between saving the world and destroying it.
He see's humanity as being part of the problem and proceeds to destroy years of evolution and culture and rebuild it "Better" believing his genocidal actions are for the benefit of mankind.

Returning Writer/Director Joss Whedon's direction is superbly precise, the action is exhilarating, the pacing is just astonishing, the cinematography is beautiful, the special effects are outstanding, the score by Brian Tyler and Danny Elfman is terrific, the production design is fabulous, the costumes are exquisite, the locations are stunning, the sound effects are fantastic, the stunts are eye-poping, the make up (especially for the Vision) is amazing, the tension is killing and the ending was brilliant.

The acting...  well what can I say, once again like The Avengers, it's a wonderful ensemble. Downey Jr. and co are all great once again. Their dynamics and the way they sort out their differences is so rich and interesting and the way Ultron brings out their inner demons and gets inside their minds is so dark and intriguing and shows us a dark side to these characters. That makes them a bit more interesting.

Whedon gives each Avenger a character arc. I'd like to examine them one by one.

Robert Downey, Jr. once again shows why he OWNS the role of Tony Stark/Iron Man.
Since the events of Iron Man 3, he realises that tweaking and making all these Iron Man suits still didn't work for helping with him cope after the Battle of New York left with PTSD. So now his focus is more on how The Avengers can make it so that there's no problem to begin with.

In a lot of ways not only is Tony the main protagonist in this film, but he's also, in some ways, the antagonist as he inadvertently creates the films titular villain and then works to stop it.
Tony is the character that refuses to let his mistakes torture him. He doesn't sit around lamenting his past like Bruce and Natasha. He is a futurist - he focuses on whats ahead and then tries to fix problems with his magnificent genius. 
That never gets him down no matter how many times someone grabs him by the throat in anguish. Tony just picks himself up and tries again until he succeeds. Which is a great moral to live by.
While the rest of the team struggles to find where they belong. Tony accepts who he is - even if all he'll ever be is a mad scientist.

Chris Evans is once again terrific as Steve Rogers/Captain America. Since the events of Captain America: The Winter Soldier, Steve has been left to depend on his Avengers teammates without the structure of military life. What makes his character so interesting, especially in this film, is that there's an underlying sadness to him as he is a freedom fighter who has nothing in his life other than the fight. No wife, no girlfriend, no family, no home, no day job to keep him occupied when he's not saving the world. Without the mission, Steve is nothing.
He doesn't go through much of an emotional arc, because quite frankly he can't, he has to stay centred and even tempered, no matter how much his team mates disappoint him.
Over the course of the film, Ultron tears the Avengers apart from the inside and turns the world against them and Steve has to be the glue that holds the team together.
At the same time, he's looking to understand where he belongs, not just as a soldier, as Captain America, but as Steve Rogers as a person.

Chris Hemsworth once again shines as the mighty Thor. In this film, we're presented with a Thor who's remind on Earth since the events of Thor: The Dark World and has begun to feel at home there and as a result of this, he considers Ultron's threat a personal attack.
At the same time, because he's an Asgardian, he's the only member of the Avengers who becomes aware of the bigger plot at hand. That there has been a devious puppet master who has been pulling the strings since the very beginning... but apart from a frankly bizzare jacuzzi scene, it gets so little focus it feels tangential.
He ultimately sees beyond the dilemma at hand and perceives the much bigger storm brewing on the horizon... 

Mark Ruffalo shows us once again that he is tailor-made to play Bruce Banner/Hulk.
He's grown since the first Avengers film, he's a bit more complex now and this film serves as a great psychological study of the character exploring the characters passions, his hang-ups, his aspirations and of course sciencing it up with Tony. The real meat however is the confrontation between Banner and the Hulk: Hulk is as afraid of Banner as Banner is afraid of the Hulk and they've got to come to peace with each other somehow.

Jeremy Renner, once again, aims high and hits the target as Clint Barton/Hawkeye.
A lot of light is shed on him since we haven't really seen him in any of the post-Avengers films. Since the Battle of New York, he's been a family man and spending time with his wife Laura (Linda Cardellini) and his two kids. The character is also better fleshed out here than in the first Avengers film. He's a loner and is a team player primarily because he sort of has to be. He's not really a company man. He spends the film speculating as to wether he should just call it quits and leave the world saving to the heroes with powers. But ultimately it's his humanity and clear perspective that makes him more valuable to the team than his incredible archery skills.

Scarlett Johansson is once again magnetic as Natasha Romanoff/Black Widow, we get to know her a lot more than in previous films, we see how she became the person who she is and how it haunts her. The inclusion of Hawkeye's family explains Black Widow's relationship with Hawkeye.
It is often implied that Hawkeye & Widow maybe a couple as onscreen they appear to share a lot in common and Widow processes a very soft spot for the Marksman which is a contrast to her usual cold exterior. This is when their relationship is shown in perfect clarity. Widow is not in love with Hawkeye, he represent what Widow can never have: a normal life. Her training to become a master assassin prevents her from doing so.
So Widow lives that life vicariously through Hawkeye and she'll do everything in her power to protect it along with her best friend. Her relationship with Bruce Banner is also poginet and enormously understandable.

Cobie Smulders is once again kick-ass as Agent Maria Hill, much like Cap, the collapse of S.H.I.E.L.D. at the end of The Winter Soldier has had a profound effect on her, now she's working at Stark Industries, but at the same time she doesn't really know who's a good guy and who's a bad guy and she's trying to figure that out throughout this film. She's not getting any sleep. She's doing all the work. She doesn't have the kind of manpower that she had in S.H.I.E.L.D. and instead working for Tony Stark at the Avengers's HQ and trying to keep everything running as smoothly as possible is an entirely different vibe for her.

James Spader gives a chilling, sinister, but at the same time offbeat and darkly funny performance as Ultron. He has quite a god complex and is incredibly self-absorbed, he see's the Avengers as being part of a problem, a more comprehensive in the world. He sees the world from a very strange, biblical point of view because he's brand new, he's very young.
What's interesting about him is that he's immature yet has knowledge of comprehensive, broad history and precedent and has created in a very short period of time a rather skewed worldview. Thanks to Tony and Bruce's programming as well as him browsing the internet he's gains the personality of a gifted but pretentious teenager which makes sense, with his personality being based on the internet. He doesn't think he knows everything, he knows that he knows everything which makes him into one hilariously conceited jerk. He thinks he knows best because he has all info at his finger tips but really he's the smartest dummy as he's really only good at two things: Destruction & witty comebacks.
He's like a Frankenstein, he's been made a Frankenstein, he's unintentionally become programmed to be a Frankenstein monster.
He thinks he has everything figured out after only a few short seconds of acquiring knowledge, but really he's full of rage and in pain.

Aaron Taylor-Johnson & Elizabeth Olsen are also strong as Pietro/Quicksilver and Wanda Maximoff/Scarlet Witch. They were both abandoned by their parents as children and they have had to grow up on their own in Eastern Europe defending and looking out for themselves and each other. They also both look to the other for guidance: Quicksilver is very overprotective of Scarlet Witch and has real anger frustration which results in him getting board because he has a short attention span.

Scarlet Witch, on the other hand, overly stimulated: She has such a huge amount of knowledge but doesn't know how to control it because no one has taught her how. She can connect to this world and parallel worlds at the same time parallel times...  and thats a pretty terrifying thought. She portrays all of these emotions with such raw power an depth.

I think Maria Hill describes them best when she puts it "He's fast & she's weird."

Another excellent addition to this enormous roster of characters is Paul Bettany as the Vision. Initially, he starts out as a far more powerful body that Ultron plans to download himself into or as he refers it "the next me". Unlike Ultron however, Vision is able to the beauty in humanity, due to their potential and imagination. I think that Tony describes him best when says he's basically Ultron only without the megalomaniacal aspects. He's polite, calm and thoughtful as well as omnipotent and totally naive. The danger and complexity of a android being born that is this powerful and created in a single second and the choices he makes morally to help the Avengers defeat Ultron are what make him such a complex and interesting character.

Another excellent, as well as overlooked, addition to the MCU in general is Kerry Condon as Tony Stark's new A.I., F.R.I.D.A.Y. now that Paul Bettany has been upgraded to an Avengers, her beautiful, warm, lovely Irish accent is a huge welcome addition to the Universe and gives her plenty of personality.

We even get some nice appearances from Don Cheadle & Anthony Mackie as James Rhodes/War Machine and Sam Wilson/Falcon.

Even though he's passing through, Samuel L. Jackson once again shines as Nick Fury, continuing his role as the leader, mentor & the ultimately the glue that keeps this team together. Which comes in handy when Ultron hits the team hard and attempts to tear them apart from the inside.

Andy Serkis, Thomas Kretschmann, Henry Goodman, Claudia Kim & Linda Cardellini round the massive cast, all of whom deliver fine performances. Oh and Stellan Skarsgård shows up reprising his role as Dr. Erik Selvig, his involvement, however, doesn't amount to much.

It does bother me to a small extent that Clark Gregg’s Agent Coulson is no longer part of the film cast. But then again, it’s not like we don’t see him every week (Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.).

However the beauty of having such a big, ensamble cast as Avengers: Age of Ultron has, it's both a blessing and curse: the upside is that they are all such great and talented actors with interesting, rich characters giving great performances, the downside however is that not all of them are given a chance to shine. For instance I felt that new cast members such as Kretschmann and Serkis left something to be desired but they're relatively minor/supporting villains so I can't really complain.

For instance with Kretschman's Hydra leader Baron Wolfgang Von Strucker: Whilst Kretschman plays the role with the appropriate amount of menace and sinisterism, his antagonistic character is more of a means to an end than an actual villain.

Also there's a subplot where Thor goes on a side quest to find out more about the vision Scarlet Witch   gave him and he goes for a bath in this weird jacuzzi to get this expository vision and Dr. Erik Selvig helps him and that’s the extent of his involvement.
This scene is necessary within the context of the larger cinematic universe to set up future films but it doesn't feels like it fits with the tone and pacing of the rest of the film.

I'm sure that there was no other way of firing that subplot more discreetly if they had to and if they had to and if they had to go all the way, then why not just leave it to a post-credit scene? It's worked in the past. I don't mean to nitpick or sound like I'm rewriting the film. I'm just suggesting.

At the end of the day, these are minor flaws and they in no way effect my enjoyment of this film.

Avengers: Age of Ultron is in a word: Awesome, 5/5.

The Anonymous Critic.