Of all the movies in the MCU this has always been one that weirdly falls under the radar I find. I never see people talk about Age Of Ultron, I think in part because it’s seen as the worst of the Avengers movies (of the Infinity Saga anyway), but also because it had the least impact on the overall storyline and felt the least like a milestone as well. I really feel it’s a shame though, don’t get me wrong the other Avengers movies are definitely stronger but there is a lot that this film has to offer and some of it actually works pretty well. So without further ado, let’s discuss the penultimate movie in phase 2, Avengers: Age Of Ultron.
Despite the film being all about technology and AI, as well as him being the creator of the movie’s threat, Tony Stark feels almost sidelined here compared to the other Avengers outings. In fairness that is the case for quite a few of the Avengers though, but it actually works quite well in creating a better team dynamic, spreading the focus among all the Avengers more equally with members like Hawkeye and Bruce getting more focus this time around too. That isn’t to say there isn’t some great stuff with Stark though, in fact some of what they do with his morals and motivations is fascinating and in some ways it’s kinda a shame it couldn’t have been done in an Iron Man dedicated film on its own. Mainly this all comes down to his vision of the future, his desire for peace and his passionate belief that the creation of Ultron is the key to that future. I wish we could’ve maybe had a bit more build up to it, but by itself this is a brilliant idea and it shows how Tony thinks; he very much wants peace and isn’t a man of weapons anymore, but his attitude toward weapons and funding the army still warps how he approaches his innovations. There’s a lot less comedy from Tony in this film as well, which usually would be a bit of a negative for me because I love how funny he is, but in this case it’s for the best because the situation is so serious and is arguably all his fault as well.
As I briefly mentioned earlier, Bruce Banner is given more of a presence in this film as he did in Avengers Assemble, which is great because there’s so much potential in him that wasn’t explored (and still isn’t to be honest). There’s more emphasis this time around on his scientific knowhow as well as establishing more of a working dynamic between him and Tony. It’s clear that between Avengers Assemble and Age Of Ultron, Tony and Bruce have worked together a lot, not just on the Ultron project but likely on a lot of other ideas too. Tony’s knowledge of tech and Bruce’s knowledge of genetics makes for a dream team, and it’s awesome that we actually get to see a bit of that rapport in action here. I’ll also mention Natasha here as well because she’s given almost nothing in regard to actual substance, but the one thing they did try was to establish a relationship between her and Bruce. The Natasha and Bruce relationship is very strange to me, it comes out of nowhere it feels like and it comes across extremely superfluous as well. I will at least say it was always going to happen that two avengers would fall for eachother, and it’s cool they tried to go with an unorthodox couple, but it doesn’t work at all and feels very forced into this movie. It does at least add another benefit for Bruce though, in showcasing more of how he feels and his post-Betty approach to love.
Thor is another character who feels less present this time around, however it makes a lot of sense given that the villain of Avengers Assemble was his own brother. That being said I do like some of the subtle hints they made to set up the worthy Captain America moment in Endgame. Speaking of which, Captain America is here too, but his presence is even more pointless than Thor’s weirdly. In Caps case though it’s less frustrating, mainly because he will both be the focus in Civil War the following year and I also don’t really care much for his character anyway.
Hawkeye was the one avenger who was sidelined the most in Avengers Assemble, and while he still doesn’t get the spotlight he deserves in this one either, we do get a lot more at least and we get a bigger insight into who he is and the life he leads. In particular we are introduced to his secret family, not only does this give him way more depth, but it also gives us a reason to care about him and to want him to come out of the movie alive. Honestly because of this it’s pretty surprising I think that he did, it would’ve made sense for them to kill him off here and introducing the family being an attempt to make that more impactful than it would’ve otherwise been. Instead however these characters are used purely to develop him and to create more aspects of his character that we want to learn more about. That’s the main thing I get coming out of this movie, a sense that there is more to explore with Hawkeye, meaning that he leaves much more of an impact after this than he had otherwise.
Definitely the most interesting thing to come out of this film for me though is Vision. Jarvis was never THAT interesting of a presence, he was basically just the Alexa of the MCU, but this is the film that showcases more of his personality and inevitably turns him into an actual presence. I love that they show us how powerful AI is, but then how AI mixed with genetics is something even greater through the creation of Vision in the third act. Paul Bettany is a great actor too, it was really cool that this movie could allow him to be a proper character and what he does with vision over the films that followed was really fascinating IMO.
Before going into the films antagonists I will also mention two characters who are technically here, but may as well not be. Firstly there’s Falcon, who after being introduced in Captain America: The Winter Soldier, has cemented himself as a good friend to Steve Rogers and is further shown to have great chemistry with him on screen. Then there’s War Machine who is basically here for no reason, yes he’s kind of Tony’s version of Falcon but we don’t need him to be in this as much. The main reason why they’re both here though is for the ending, where they officially become Avengers, solidifying them as part of the team for the foreseeable future. It’s a shame they’re not given more focus though because it would’ve been nice to see the journey of them becoming avengers, but instead it just kinda happens with little context or reason (not that they don’t deserve to be in the team, more that it just comes out of nowhere and is seemingly swept under the rug at the end of the film).
There are basically two sets of antagonists in Age Of Ultron, so to start with I’m going to discuss the lesser villains, those being Wanda & Pietro (the enhanced). Pietro is about as one note as you can imagine, but his powers are utilised pretty well overall and he’s interesting enough when combined with Wanda to keep the two of them as an engaging pair. Wanda on the other hand is much more interesting, in part because of the development she has after this for sure, but also in this movie alone I think she goes on a very interesting journey and comes out a very powerful, but emotionally vulnerable character. I find that the way her past has affected her (as well as being captured and experimented on of course) is really interesting, and opens up a great deal of potential for growth which is shown throughout this film as she goes from psychopath to hero by the end. Wanda is my favourite character in the MCU and she created an impact on me from the very beginning.
AI is more topical right now than ever before, and so in some ways this could be considered ahead of its time. Ok paper this is a storyline I should love, AI fascinates me personally a lot and I think it can be utilised in ways that could make for the most terrifying villain imaginable. The problem with how it’s handled here though is that the focus is put almost entirely on the entity of Ultron himself, and not the capabilities of it as an AI. Giving Ultron a body from the start was a mistake I think, because it removes the one thing that makes AI such a great villain idea… it’s invisible and everywhere. Granted those elements are still here, but are given nowhere near as much focus as it deserves with the robot body being at the forefront throughout. With all that being said though I do still like Ultron, he’s very much underutilised but for what he is he works alright, but it’s very easy to understand why he falls under the radar as one of the MCU’s more forgettable villains (considering he’s an Avengers villain anyway).
Now I’m done discussing all the characters I want to quickly go over one of my favourite scenes in this movie, that being Iron Man VS The Hulk. I’m not somebody who cares much about action sequences, and so fight scenes don’t exactly stand out to me unless they’re particularly well done. This is the best fight scene I think until this point I think, it’s just brilliant in every single way. Firstly there’s the context behind it, Wanda interfering with Bruce’s head and it turning him into a greater monster than ever before, it brings a real urgency to this scene and increases the threat of Wanda ten fold. Secondly it sees the introduction of Iron Man’s most unique suit, the Hulk-Buster, which is a nice addition given this movie doesn’t quite have the focus on Iron Man as expected and it’s also nice because by this point we were done with solo Iron Man movies too. Finally there was the writing and direction, it was all just really great, the perfect mix of tension and comedy that the MCU can be really great at when it’s at its best. In particular though I think it lasts the perfect amount of time, quite often I find action sequences go on way too long, but this is a perfect length where it remains tense throughout but we get a range of different locations and situations during the battle.
Finally I just want to give a shout-out to some of the direction at points in this too. Something else that doesn’t get nearly enough focus is Wanda’s mind games, but when it is in the forefront it’s absolutely brilliant. I think back to a particular scene during the battle against Ultron, where Wanda interferes with the Avengers’ minds and they all start hallucinating about their pasts. I loved how these scenes were directed so much, it was that perfect feeling that left you unsettled and questioning everything you’re seeing, but it never feels over-the-top or campy.
As mentioned before, I find Age Of Ultron to be the weakest Avengers movie (along with most others), but I also see so much good in it and very much feel like it’s unjustifiably ignored by many. The problem at its core is that it has no focus, there are two really excellent story ideas being told, but the film doesn’t know which to prioritise and suffers a lot because of it. On the one hand you’ve got the story of AI, an enemy that is unseen and is everywhere posing a threat to the modern day, technologically reliant world we live in. On the other hand you have the story of the enhanced, people being experimented on to become something beyond just super-human. Both of these are great ideas but deserved their own movies IMO, not even to say you can’t connect them because you very much can (shown through the creation of Vision), but the lack of focus on these stories means neither of them feel fully explored and therefore feels like wasted potential. But despite that it’s still good fun, there’s some excellent character development with a few of our Avengers and we get introduced to Wanda, my favourite character in the MCU to date.
⭐⭐⭐⭐
Writers' Room Reviews 