WARNING!!!
The following Post contains spoilers for ‘The Avengers: Age of Ultron’.
If you have not yet seen the film, then stop what you’re doing right now and go
see this amazing film first because I will be discussing the key points of the
film in great detail. If you don’t want to have the film spoiled (and hopefully
the always spoiler-y internet hasn’t already done that yet for you), please
refer to my Spoiler-Free review of the film, whose link will be provided below.
Also I apologize in advance for the low quality of some of these pictures
as they were rather hard to find given the fact that the film has just recently been released.
(http://rimoviecorner.blogspot.com/2015/05/the-avengers-age-of-ultron-2015-review.html)
I didn’t do a Spoiler Post for the first ‘Avengers’ film
simply because that was when I was first starting out on this blog back in May
2012. And even with that said, looking back on the film I probably wouldn’t
have even done one as I feel that Coulson’s death was the only real ‘spoiler-ish’
moment in the film. So instead, my first one was for ‘Iron Man 3’ and since
then, I’ve done a Spoiler Post for every major superhero film save for ‘Thor:
The Dark World’, because I felt that there also wasn’t much spoiler-heavy
material to talk about in regards to that film, and ‘Man of Steel’, because I…
forgot to do it. But now we come to the latest Marvel Cinematic Universe film,
‘Avengers: Age of Ultron’. It’s the true definition of a sequel that expands
upon its predecessor. More awesome characters, more amazing action sequences,
and another unforgettable main villain. And of course, like always, there were
certain things in the film that I just couldn’t talk about in a non-spoiler
review. I mean, unlike most of the internet nowadays, I for one prefer not to
spoil things in my reviews unless it’s a spoiler post. So with that said, let’s
delve into some of the biggest moments in Marvel Studios’ latest superhero
epic, ‘The Avengers: Age of Ultron’.
BEST MOMENTS
One thing that can’t be denied about both ‘Avengers’ films,
and MCU films in general, is that they’re always going to be full of funny and
memorable moments/dialogue. But while, for some strange reason, I’m starting to
find that some people are actually starting to get annoyed by that, I’m not one
of those people as nowadays I much prefer a fun, light-hearted superhero film
over a dark and brooding one (I’m looking at you ‘Batman v. Superman’… and
basically almost all of DC’s upcoming films). And while these films have
primarily been light-hearted affairs, it’s not like they haven’t done any
legitimately serious moments. Take for example in this film when Scarlet Witch
and Quicksilver are talking with Ultron about when their home was destroyed. Or
how about the death of Peter Quill’s mom in the beginning of ‘Guardians’? Or
Frigga’s death in ‘Thor: The Dark World’? Or Groot’s sacrifice in ‘Guardians’
(and no, I don’t care about the fact that he’s resurrected at the end of it.
That wasn’t my point.)? In my opinion, the MCU has done a great job of
balancing serious moments with moments of levity. And of course, Joss Whedon in
particular has really shined in capturing that perfect balance, while also
giving us plenty of memorable moments due to his great writing. Here are a
select few of my personal favorite moments from his latest foray into the MCU…
*The running gag involving Cap’s opposition towards the use
of language (Tony: “For gosh sakes watch your language!” Fury: “Woah ho ho, you
kiss your mother with that mouth?”)
*The whole scene where the other Avengers try to lift Thor’s
Hammer but to no avail. Cap almost lifts it, causing Thor to make a very
concerned face, but of course he doesn’t manage to lift it either.
*During the Hulk-Iron Man fight, Tony, in the Hulkbuster
suit, smashes an elevator on Hulk. Hulk then proceeds to spit out a tooth,
causing Tony to quickly say “I’m sorry!”
*“You didn’t see that coming?”- Said by Quicksilver twice to
Hawkeye and once by Hawkeye to Quicksilver
*Multiple funny moments from Hawkeye (more on his expanded
role later)
*The first
being when his mind is nearly taken over by Scarlet Witch; “Already tried the
mind-control thing. Not a fan.”
*The second
being when he’s with Scarlet Witch during the final battle; “The city is flying
and we’re fighting an army of robots. And I have a bow and arrow. None of this
makes sense.”
*Finally,
when Hawkeye’s all by himself after Quicksilver has run off with Scarlet Witch;
“No one would know, no one would know… “Last I saw, Ultron was sitting on him,
the bastard will be dearly missed. I miss him already!”
I can go on and on, but you get my point. Once again, the
master of dialogue delivers when it comes to great superhero film dialogue and
‘Age of Ultron’ takes its place among the top 3 funniest films in the MCU, the
other two of course being the first ‘Avengers’ and ‘Guardians of the Galaxy’. And
that, ladies and gentlemen is why I love the MCU because it knows how to have
fun.
BLACK WIDOW AND HULK- SPECIFICALLY BLACK WIDOW
Oh boy, in all my years of doing these spoiler posts, I’ve
never thought that I would delve into a subject as controversial as this one…
but here we go. Many of you have probably heard by now of the controversy
surrounding Joss Whedon and this film for its portrayal of Black Widow. You can
clearly see that just from some of the reactions on Twitter, as Whedon, who’s
always been known for his feminist views and for giving us plenty of great
female leads like Buffy the Vampire Slayer, has been getting a lot of flak from
feminists for the whole Black Widow situation, with some even calling him a
‘hypocrite’ (really?). There’s even been some people who have been sending
Whedon death threats, no joke. Whedon recently quit Twitter a few days ago but
while he says that it’s primarily so that he won’t be ‘too distracted by it’,
the backlash against him is still there. And it’s sad really that it’s led to
this. I mean seriously, if you didn’t like the film that’s fine but for god’s
sakes that doesn’t mean you should send the guy death threats. This just
highlights the sad truth of the internet; a lot of times it’s negative and also
harsh as f***.
So anyway, what’s all the hubbub around Black Widow? Well,
it hasn’t just been all about her role in the film. There’s also been the
controversy surrounding the lack of Black Widow in the film’s merchandise in
some stores. But as for what happens in the actual film, the controversy
surrounding the character mainly stems from the burgeoning romantic
relationship between her and Bruce Banner. Some people feel that this romance
comes out of nowhere but I disagree as I feel that there was ‘some’ development
of a ‘relationship’ between them in the first ‘Avengers’. After all, who was it
who first approached Bruce to recruit him to the team? And who was it who was
with him when he first transformed into the Hulk? That’s right, it was Black
Widow in both cases. I mean, sure, if you were to really look at it, there
wasn’t necessarily any ‘romantic’ development between the two in the first
film, per se, but it’s not like this new romance was completely out of left
field as some have claimed. I’m guessing most people were suspecting that she
would instead be more romantically involved with either Cap or Hawkeye. But considering
the fact that Hawkeye was revealed in this film to be married and that Cap will
probably hook up with someone else, hell a running gag in ‘Winter Soldier’ was
Black Widow’s repeated attempts at trying to hook up Steve with potential
dates, I think it’s safe to say that those two options are no longer valid.
But there’s more to this controversy than just her
relationship with Hulk, though obviously that has played a major part in the
backlash. There’s also the fact that, at one point, she is captured by Ultron
after the Avengers steal Ultron’s new synthetic body from him. The ‘damsel in
distress’ argument has been brought out for this scene but in all seriousness, it’s
not like she acts like your typical ‘damsel in distress’ during this part,
which is seriously over in like five minutes. She transmits her location to the
rest of the team and when Bruce comes to help her get out, she rebukes him
telling her to get away and has him turn into the Hulk (“I adore you… but I
need the other guy.”). After that, she goes right back to kicking ass with the
rest of the team. But then there’s the number one thing that’s been really
pissing a lot of people off and this occurs when the team is hiding out at
Barton’s home. Bruce and Natasha have a romantic moment together but then they
start talking about how ‘neither of them’ can have children. In Bruce’s case,
it’s due to the whole ‘him being the Hulk’ thing but Natasha tells him that she
can’t because she was ‘sterilized’ by those who trained her in the Black Widow
program. Because of this, she tells him that ‘he’s not the only monster on the
team’. And that, folks, is what causing all of this controversy online… the
fact that she uses the term ‘monster’.
Now, let me be very clear on this matter; I’m all for gender
equality, I really am. Quite frankly it is BS that Black Widow has been
generally left out of a sizable chunk of the promotional material for the film.
And I do want to see a Black Widow film. But as for what happens in the film
itself, I disagree with the idea that Black Widow was, quote on quote, ‘ruined’
by Whedon’s writing. After she more than proved herself to be a badass female
lead in previous MCU films, namely the first ‘Avengers’ and ‘Winter Soldier’, I
don’t see why it’s such a bad thing for her to start to yearn for a normal life
and a family, which we see from her relationship with Clint’s family as ‘Aunt
Natasha’. Contrary to popular belief, not all badass lead characters, female or
male, have to be completely ‘cold’ and ‘unfeeling’. No one’s perfect, so it’s perfectly
fine for Black Widow to show signs of vulnerability. In fact, this isn’t the
only time this has happened before in the MCU. What about when Loki started to
taunt about her relationship with Barton in the first ‘Avengers’? Or how about
in ‘Winter Soldier’ when it seemed like Nick Fury had died? Like how there were
signs of her relationship with Hulk in the first film, it’s not like this was a
completely new thing for her.
I concur with recent comments made by Mark Ruffalo on two
major arguments. First off, that the relationship between Hulk and Widow was
more a case of her saving him than the other way around. But also, I agree with
what he said in a recent AMA on Reddit in that I feel that has been the big
deal that it is because we haven’t really seen a lot of female leads in these
films save of course for Black Widow. And yes, that is disappointing and we’re
still a few years away from the first major female superhero film of this
current age of the genre. But even with that said, it’s not like Marvel Studios
hasn’t been giving us awesome female leads; they have. Just look at May, Skye,
Simmons, and Bobbi in ‘Agents of SHIELD’ or Peggy Carter in, of course, ‘Agent
Carter’. All of those characters are awesome and then this film adds in another
badass female lead in Scarlet Witch. At the end of the day, I’ll say this; yes
it’d be really nice to see more female superheroes in these films, and if you
got mad at this scene in the film, I’m not holding that against you. But as is,
Marvel is still doing a really great job with their MCU heroines both in film
and TV. And the whole thing with Black Widow and Hulk’s new relationship? I
like it; I think it’s rather sweet and I’m interested in seeing how it all
plays out. Why this is such a big problem with many people, however, is beyond
me.
“Hey big guy… sun’s
getting awful low.”
A BIGGER ROLE FOR HAWKEYE
While I don’t entirely agree with this, it’s safe to say
that Hawkeye (Jeremy Renner) sort of got the short end of the stick in terms of
his role in the first ‘Avengers’. Most of his screen-time in the film was spent
under the control of Loki. In other words, until the final act when he was
finally broken free of Loki’s spell, he spent quite a lot of time away from the
other Avengers. With that said, though, he still had his own chance to shine
during the final battle and if you ask me I think he did, like when he took out
a Chitauri with a behind-the-back shot (I always love that part) or when he
fired an arrow at Loki, who caught it but was completely unaware that it was an
explosive arrow. But thankfully ‘Age of Ultron’ did give him more to do this
time around, namely due to the fact that he wasn’t separated from the other
Avengers for a good chunk of the movie. And as noted earlier, he contributed to
some of the best moments of the entire film like when he avoided getting
hypnotized by Scarlet Witch, commenting that he ‘experienced it before’ and is
‘not a fan’, or when he commented on the fact that they’re fighting an army of
robots and he only has a bow and arrow (“Nothing makes sense!”). His role in
the film also gets expanded through the introduction of his wife Laura (Linda
Cardellini) and their kids.
After the whole incident with the Hulk’s rampage in South
Africa, brought on by the mind-control powers of Scarlet Witch, the Avengers
are forced to go into hiding so Hawkeye brings them to his home where the other
members of the team finally learn that he’s married and has a few kids. This
was hinted at a couple of times before in the film but at the time Hawkeye kept
claiming that he was talking to his ‘girlfriend’. I liked this whole part of
the film as I felt that it did work in making Hawkeye a more interesting
character. Similar to the characters in ‘Agents of SHIELD’ and Peggy Carter in
‘Agent Carter’, this helps ground the MCU by high-lighting characters who aren’t
given fancy superpowers; people like us. Technically speaking, Hawkeye is one
of us; a regular guy that just so happens to possess a high-skill set living in
a world of gods, super soldiers, and gamma-engineered monsters. And that’s one
of the reasons why I love the MCU; because it takes time to focus on the little
people. After all, the first major tagline for ‘Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.’ was ‘Not
all Heroes are Super’ and this scene in particular helps give some genuine non-superhero
related emotion to this big-budget MCU film. I was already a fan of Hawkeye
before this film, despite his rather limited role in the first ‘Avengers’, but
thanks to ‘Age of Ultron’, quite frankly he’s become one of my new favorite
characters in the entire franchise.
“If you step out that
door… you’re an Avenger!”
SCARLET WITCH AND QUICKSILVER
The two biggest new additions to the cast for this film were
Elizabeth Olsen as Scarlet Witch and Aaron-Taylor Johnson as Quicksilver.
Johnson of course became the second actor in two years to play the character in
a Marvel movie following his ‘Kick-Ass’ co-star Evan Peters’ turn as Quicksilver
in Fox’s ‘X-Men: Days of Future Past’. Now right off the bat, I’m going to lay
this out there; I’m not going to compare these two Quicksilvers. I think both
Peters and Johnson did excellent jobs in the role in their respective films,
especially because they both handled the character very differently. In ‘Age of
Ultron’, because Marvel Studios can’t use the term ‘mutant’ because they don’t
own the rights to X-Men, the Twins are volunteers for a HYDRA experiment that
gives them their special powers. They’re referred to as ‘Enhanced’, which is
perfectly fine given the whole ‘don’t own X-Men’ situation. I also liked that
these two had some nice depth to them in terms of their backstory which also
sets up why, at first, they’re actually adversaries for the Avengers. They explain
to Ultron that, when they were younger, their home was destroyed by a shell and
that they were almost killed by a second shell that ultimately didn’t go off.
And whose company was responsible for developing these weapons? Stark
Industries, hence their initial resentment of the Avengers. I also want to add
that this is a nice call-back to how, in the first ‘Iron Man’, Tony came to
realize how much harm his company’s weapons were causing. And now, the past has
come back to haunt him yet again.
Scarlet Witch is another badass female lead in the MCU,
joining among the ranks of Black Widow, Maria Hill, and the female leads of
both ‘Agents of SHIELD’ and ‘Agent Carter’. Her powers are a great new addition
to the MCU and the visions that she inflicts upon the Avengers are pretty darn
awesome in how they’re executed. Of course, the whole plot of the film gets
into motion when she takes over Tony’s mind, causing him to see a vision of the
rest of the Avengers defeated and a bunch of aliens about to invade Earth. This
of course leads him to create Ultron as a means of better handling any future
threats. Later on in the film, when the Avengers come across Ultron and the Twins
in South Africa, where they are acquiring vibranium from arms dealer Ulysses
Klaue (Andy Serkis, who may or may not return in ‘Black Panther’, which would
make sense given that in the comics ‘Klaw’ is a regular adversary of Black
Panther), Scarlet Witch subdues Thor, Cap, and Black Widow with her powers,
causing them all to have visions. Cap envisions himself back in his original
time after the war finally having that dance with Peggy (the feels, bro), Black
Widow flashes back to her days in the Black Widow program, and Thor, who
initially claims to be ‘mighty’ enough to not be overtaken by Scarlet Witch’s
powers, sees visions of Asgard under peril, which are obviously meant to be a
set-up for what’s to come to in ‘Thor: Ragnarok’.
As with Quicksilver, as I noted earlier, I liked that
Johnson and the filmmakers took a different approach to the character compared
to what we saw before in ‘Days of Future Past’. His running ability is
portrayed as making him look like a blur which is a nice contrast to the 3,600
fps style utilized by Bryan Singer for ‘X-Men’. This Quicksilver is also more
serious and angry, which makes sense given him and his sister’s tragic backstory.
You also did feel a genuine connection between the two characters; I mean, it
does help that Johnson and Olsen had worked together just last year in ‘Godzilla’,
where it was clear that they did have good chemistry with each other. I also
liked the general rivalry between him and Hawkeye early on. All of this helped
make the crucial moment during the finale as effective as it was; I’m of course
talking about when Quicksilver sacrifices his own life to save Hawkeye and a
kid he was trying to protect. I think this scene was well-done, mainly thanks
to the solid development of the relationships between both Quicksilver and his
sister and also him and Hawkeye. And I’m fine with Quicksilver being the one
who died in this film. Part of me thinks that maybe Marvel realized that it
would be confusing to have two different Quicksilvers in their films so they
[Marvel Studios] let Fox keep using Quicksilver in the X-Men films. It also
helps that the ‘X-Men’ films haven’t actually introduced Scarlet Witch yet. I
also liked the sweet little touch at the end of the film where we learn that
Hawkeye’s new son has been given the middle name of Pietro, obviously a touching
tribute to his fallen ally.
THE VISION
Though the award for best new character in the film is
easily Paul Bettany, in his second major MCU role, as the Vision. Part of
Ultron’s plan has him forcing a friend of the Avengers, geneticist Dr. Helen
Cho (Claudia Kim), to build him a brand new body made out of the vibranium that
he acquires from Ulysses Klaue. Once the Avengers find out about this, they
take the body and Tony completes it by uploading Jarvis, who for most of the
film was presumed to be destroyed by Ultron, into it. With the help of Thor’s
lightning and the Mind Gem (AKA Infinity Stone) from Loki’s scepter, Vision is
born. And how does Vision make his grand entrance into the MCU? By showing that
he’s capable of lifting Thor’s hammer… that alone is worth it. Bettany has been
a mainstay of the MCU since the beginning as Jarvis so it’ll be interesting to
see how he’ll factor in the MCU now that he’s in the role of Vision, which he
jokes about as ‘a role where he doesn’t just have to record some voice-over
work in just a few days’ time’. Of course I’m also aware of the fact that, in
the comics, Scarlet Witch and Vision had a relationship. And you know what? A
certain moment in this film when Vision rescues Scarlet Witch could potentially
be a hint as to what’s coming in the future for these two.
Ultron: “You’re
unbearably naïve.” Vision: “Well… I was born yesterday.”
ULTRON
Ultron was definitely hyped up as a villain and the fact
that he was being played by the badass James Spader didn’t hurt either. And as
I noted in the review, overall I’d say Ultron was an excellent adversary for
‘The Avengers’. Spader’s ‘cool’ voice helped to give Ultron a very intimidating
persona but something I didn’t expect was that Ultron was also going to be a
really funny villain as well. Ultimately, you can thank both Whedon for his
masterful work with the dialogue and Spader’s ability to make Ultron’s lines
funny while maintaining the character’s generally serious persona. It’s sort of
like with Drax in ‘Guardians of the Galaxy’; his overall persona was very
serious in nature given the fact that he was out for revenge for the murder of
his family. But because he was ‘too serious’, that actually resulted in some of
the film’s most humorous moments from his misunderstanding of what a metaphor
is to him literally calling Ronan to come to him and the other Guardians so
that he can get his revenge on Ronan for killing his wife and daughter. As I’ve
noted about a week ago, I’m not one of those people who holds the MCU villains
to the high standards of the internet that were set by Loki. So because of
that, I’d say that Ultron is the second-best MCU villain to date.
Tony: “What’s the
vibranium for?” Ultron: “I’m glad you asked that, because I wanted to take this
time to explain my evil plan… (Proceeds to blast Stark)”
OUT WITH THE OLD, IN WITH THE NEW
Black Widow says it perfectly in the film; ‘Nothing Lasts
Forever’, and that is very much true in regards to how the film ends with us
getting a first look at the new ‘Avengers’ team. Four of the main members of
the team depart at the end of the film for various reasons. Hulk, immediately
after the final battle is over, takes off in a Quinjet as he doesn’t want to
endanger anyone else any further, especially Black Widow given their developing
relationship. Hawkeye returns home to his family after promising his wife that
this was going to be his ‘last mission’. Thor returns to Asgard in order to try
and figure out the meaning behind what he saw in his vision induced by Scarlet
Witch. And finally Tony leaves as well, leaving only Cap and Black Widow to
prep the new ‘Avengers’ team; Falcon, War Machine, Scarlet Witch, and Vision.
It’ll be interesting to see what the full lineup is going to be like for the
next ‘Avengers’ film, which will hit theaters in 2018. Given the lineup of
films that are set to make up Phase 3 of the MCU, other new additions may
include, among others, Doctor Strange, Black Panther, Spider-Man, and Captain
Marvel. But this doesn’t mean that this is technically the last we’ll be seeing
from the other members of the Avengers. Of course Iron Man will be back for ‘Civil
War’ along with Hawkeye and in an interview, Chris Hemsworth stated that the
last three films on his Marvel contract were ‘Thor 3’ and ‘Avengers: Infinity
War Parts 1 and 2’. But for now, to quote the classic song from Bob Dylan, ‘the
times they are a-changing’.
FINAL SUM-UP
11. Iron Man 2
10. The Incredible
Hulk
9. Thor: The Dark
World
8. Thor
7. Iron Man
6. Iron Man 3
5. Captain America:
The First Avenger
4. Captain America:
The Winter Soldier
3. THE AVENGERS: AGE OF ULTRON
2. The Avengers
1. Guardians of the
Galaxy
At the end of the day, I can’t really say that ‘Age of
Ultron’ is ‘better’ than the first film. If I did have any complaints with this
film, it is that there’s a very slight issue with pacing. The whole sequence in
Seoul where the Avengers steal Vision’s body form Ultron could’ve easily been a
part of the finale but when it’s over, we still have the final battle in
Sokovia. But like with how the first ‘Avengers’ sort of had a slow opening, it
doesn’t bother me that much. In the end, ‘Age of Ultron’ is yet another awesome
entry in the MCU. The action sequences/visuals are incredible, the writing is
spot-on and full of funny and memorable dialogue, and the ensemble cast is
fantastic once again, reuniting us with our favorite returning heroes while
also giving us a few new badass heroes and another unforgettable main villain
in the form of James Spader’s Ultron. I did not go into this film expecting it
to be ‘better’ than ‘The Avengers’; instead, I went into it expecting a
fun-as-hell Marvel Cinematic Universe film and at this point, Marvel Studios
has yet to let me down in that regard. I’ve said it before in my original
review and I’ll say it again; why this film only has a 74% rating on Rotten
Tomatoes is beyond me. It deserves a FAR better rating than that.
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