Film Review: Avengers: Age of Ultron
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If I had to pick a word to describe Avengers: Age of Ultron, it would be epic. The movie is epic in run time (2 1/2 hours), scope (we travel to three countries), characters (all the original Avengers are back plus 4 familiar faces and four new characters) and plot developments. And it’s not hard to see why Joss Whedon and company would want to up the ante. After all, the first film is the #3 highest grossing film of all time not adjusted for inflation. But with the expectations and outsized nature of the story comes a weight that even the most quippy of quips can’t really shake. So while Avengers: Age of Ultron is very entertaining, the movie sort of falters.
What’s interesting about Avengers: Age of Ultron starts at the beginning trying to act like a mid slice pilot of a TV show, dropping you into a massive battle with the Avengers as they locate and recapture Loki’s septre. It’s a jaw dropping set piece although it doesn’t quite let you settle into the film, so much as trade upon your understanding of these characters and their past situtations. We are quickly re-introduced to the twins Quicksilver (Aaron Taylor-Johnson) and Scarlet Witch (Elizabeth Olsen) who provide our heroes with some challenges, in Witch’s case getting inside the minds of our heroes. Her machinations have a direct cause in Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr.) to create Ultron (James Spader), an AI that he hopes can be a suit of armor around the world, but instead comes to life and turns his evil gaze on humanity. As his power grows the Avengers find themselves having to fight like never before.
It was during the opening scene that I understood much of the discussion of why people consider these movies to be $200 million tv shows on the big screen. This is not meant to be a slight against the film, but its tough to not feel like you’ve had to have seen every Marvel film previously in order to gain entry. More importantly, this movie had a tie in with Agents of SHIELD, which is both a good marketing ploy but a tough thing to constantly do. In many ways this movie is the film Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest so desperately wanted to be; a film that could tie a surprisingly fun jaunt to its epic conclusion. However, when you expect greatness just good enough is tough to swallow.
The main issues I am having with the film have to do with the script and how it chooses to employ its many facets. We all know that Joss Whedon isn’t returning for the next Avengers films and it not hard to see that he gives this movie everything he can. However, Avengers might have needed a bit less. The Marvel brand succeeds on imbuing humor within its tales and the one liners and comedy are definitely woven through the film to varying degrees of success (there’s a moment in the third act that will slay every audience). Ultron in particular gets a well deserved infusion of comedic timing I was not expecting and with Spader’s voice, Ultron flies off the screen. Many of the quips feel a bit weary, not just because the characters are being put through but because they just can’t sustain it, gifted as the actors may be. This gets into a bigger discussion of how the subplots are deployed. The character beats in Avengers: Age of Ultron are all there, and many of the actors run with them (Chris Evans and Chris Hemsworth continue to be the secret glue that keeps these movies rolling). We even learn more about Black Widow (Scarlett Johanssen) and Hawkeye (Jeremy Renner), two of the most secretive folks on the team. However much of what is revealed is employed with such a heavy hand. Even as an equal opportunity Avengers shipper (Thundershield is the one I captain the most) I felt the love subplots were used like a club and even the future relationships that are derived from the comics felt like I was being told what would happen rather than made to feel like it would be organic. Combine that with so many characters, clunky introductions of the twins and Vision, I felt almost as beat down by these additional character details as the Avengers did by the many robots they had to fight.
Speaking of fighting, the set pieces in this movie are incredibly massive and smartly, the movie doesn’t shy away from showing us the devastation these battles cause the regular people caught up in them. For that the movie deserves much credit even if you don’t fully understand just how they’re going to solve the problems at the end.
In the end, even with the problems Avengers: Age of Ultron has, it manages to find just the right strings to pluck to send you through the tale on an enjoyable ride.
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