Avengers: Age of Ultron

Walt Disney Pictures

One thing that cannot be argued when it comes to Avengers: Age of Ultron is the tremendous amount of pressure it has riding on it. It’s the All Star Game-like event of Marvels cinematic universe, a format that has taken over cinema, not just financially but has also influenced studios to take the same approach. Because of all this, it shouldn’t come as a surprise that it Age of Ultron comes off as a movie under a lot pressure.

Needless to say, there are a lot people to please and a lot of expectations, so director Joss Whedon goes for broke. Of course the action is extended but a story is attempted that has the ability to satisfy the usual fans but also those that may not be so fond of what Marvel has been doing. While Whedon’s attempt is valid, the result is that the film as a whole is just too big to sustain any type of focus.

Age of Ultron waste no time getting into the action as the Avengers are found in Sokovia attempting to secure a familiar item to the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU), the scepter that Loki has used to wreak havoc in the past. Featuring very similar big scale action from previous entries, this rather long sequence has all the previous players but it is also here that a couple of new faces make their way to the franchise in the form of Wanda (Elizabeth Olsen) and Pietro (Aaron Taylor-Johnson) Maximoff, twins that have been used to Hyrdra’s advantage, against the Avengers in this intro, because of their special abilities.

Of course though, the Avengers come up victories, safely securing (other than at the expense of several Hydra faithful’s) the scepter. It is when they arrive back to the states that the team really runs into trouble and have only their selves to blame. Attempting to create artificial intelligence for some time, Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr.) and Bruce Banner (Mark Ruffalo) discover that the technology that the scepter possess is likely the missing piece to the puzzle. Things don’t go as planned though when this A.I., known as Ultron (voiced by James Spader), not only becomes immensely powerful but quickly turns against them.

The reason Ultron is immediately a villain so to speak, is where Whedon attempts to add some weight to the story. Following an entertaining, Oceans 11-like moment that features the Avengers celebrating after their triumph in Sokovia is when the team first meets Ultron who is quick to point out their arrogance. Other than brief references in the Iron Man series and Thor, this is really the first time that this group of heroes have been directly accused of arrogance and this thought of being too big to fail. Ultron, a product of A.I. created by members of the Avengers, may even be proof that he is right, relating to the idea that you can’t expect to play God and not be greeted with consequences.

Going along with this concept and Ultron’s questioning of what the Avengers stand for is the idea of change and how it relates to making the world a better place. What are we willing to change or sacrifice to make things better? Ultron touches on this when posing a similar question that accuses the Avengers of not being willing to change or sacrifice to change the world. This motivation of Ultron’s is also connected to the idea of humans not evolving and being a race that is only harming itself, reaching a Transformer-ish feel. These interesting beliefs of Ultron become somewhat under developed though as it doesn’t appear to emotionally rattle the Avengers all that much.

Another storyline that hasn’t been explored before in the MCU is a romance between to members of the Avengers. In the Age of Ultron it is revealed that Bruce Banner, or the Hulk, and Natasha Romanoff (Scarlett Johansson) have been involved in a romantic relationship but due to Banners condition, something he is struggling to control in this entry, a committed relationship isn’t realistic. Banner doesn’t let Romanoff in, so to speak, because he sees himself as the Hulk not as a man who becomes the Hulk.

The dialogue between the two never reaches the emotional level it could and therefore the chemistry between Ruffalo and Johansson leaves some to be desired but this doesn’t pertain to how satisfying it is to see Romanoff turn the Hulk back to Bruce with a simple lullaby. We all have that person(s) in are life that just fits us, is capable of bring us back down to earth and reminds us that we are human for the good and the bad which is what this lullaby fittingly represents as it pertains to the relationship between Banner and Romanoff.

All of these storylines and interesting ideas, while underplayed slightly, are also hindered by the heavy, plentiful action sequences. Age of Ultron is never able to establish any kind of flow or identity when it comes to plot or the themes within as it constantly switches back to long sequences of lack luster, sometimes pointless action that’s main concern is including everyone and being extremely large in scale. And when I say everyone I mean everyone. For this, credit is due to Whedon for achieving this balancing act of including all the different pieces but even so, because of everything happening it is still easy to quickly lose focus when witnessing these moments and the film in general.

So when the credits begin to role and the mid-credit scene happens and the credits start up again and as you finally walk out of the theater, feelings of admiration for the ambition involved are unfortunately accompanied by pity. While Age of Ultron is as big as it was billed, it’s hard not to feel a little bad for the people involved (Whedon mainly) as it doesn’t feel like a movie that was ever given a chance to have its own personality.

What made Marvels last two entries, Captain America: The Winter Soldier and Guardians of the Galaxy, not just good in their own realm but entertaining cinema in general is that they were able to establish some kind heartbeat, some kind of rhythm that made them hard not to like. It’s hard to believe that this Avengers franchise, with its massive foundation and roots, is able to stray too far away from being much more than a movie that is as much a brand. And while the interesting ideas are in small doses, Age of Ultron’s restrictions are the main take away.

Grade: C

Review written by Brad Shawgo. Visit his blog, ShawGoesToTheMovies, for more great film reviews and movie posts.

Published on 6/2/2015 10:42:41 PM