AVENGERS: AGE OF ULTRON - Growing Pains

Director: Joss Whedon
Writer: Joss Whedon
Cast: Robert Downey, Jr., Chris Evans, Chris Hemsworth, Mark Ruffalo, Scarlett Johansson, Jeremy Renner, James Spader, Elizabeth Olsen, Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Paul Bettany, Samuel L. Jackson, Don Cheadle, Cobie Smulders, Anthony Mackie, Andy Serkis
Runtime: 141 mins.
2015

The Avengers: Age of Ultron is immediately different than its predecessor: it opens with a bang and a crackle. Scene 1 has the Avengers careening through a snowy wood, laying the ever-loving beatdown on a host of HYDRA thugs. Far more engaging than the dank exploding bunker opening of The Avengers, Age of Ultron shows the group at the height of camaraderie and teamwork. We see definitively that the Avengers are back. For now.

So begins the first of many comparisons between this game-changing series' first and second installments. The comparisons are unavoidable, occasionally unflattering, and often enlightening. Age of Ultron is a movie about growing pains. It's droopier, gloopier, stuffier, and a great deal more complex than the original. So if you're looking for more of the same thrills of discovery and wonder, you might be disappointed. Rightly so. Not everything can be a beginning, and the honeymoon phase has to end sometime. Joss Whedon seems to know this better than anyone, and gives us an Age of Ultron that has a handful of flaws, numerous successes, and never stops challenging the viewer.

Which is better? Everyone will benefit if we put that question to bed right now. Age of Ultron is a step forward in development, which means change has to happen, and change can be hard. But that doesn't mean fresh newborns are inherently better than awkward adolescents.

The film surrounds the titular Ultron, a wayward secret creation of Tony Stark's that was intended to be a peacekeeping force. As happens, Ultron defies his purpose--or rather, reinterprets it. What's more peaceful than a world without humans? Thus the Avengers set out to take him down, a team already fractured by Tony's betrayal, only to be further beaten down by Ultron's mind games.

Ultron lashes out against his creator because he is a petulant little boy. He spouts philosophy and theology like a teenager who has just discovered Kant and Nietzsche and maybe a little Kierkegaard. His childishness makes him only slightly better than the typical Marvel fare of mediocre villains, but that childishness fits well in the grand scheme of a movie that is surprisingly thematically complex. Ultron asks grand questions about God and life, then sends waves of robot minions to wipe the floor with our heroes. This is comic book soap opera heroism in its finest cinematic form.

Whedon leans into the comic bookiness hard for his last effort in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. In addition to the pop philosophy grandstanding, there are massive setpieces and new characters that defy anything we've seen yet in terms of scale and pure comic-y imagination. Whedon doesn't wield the power of wanton destruction lightly, however. Destruction and explosions abound, but a great deal of the movie is spent watching our Avengers desperately scramble to clear civilians from the area and find a safezone for their fistfights, a crucial humanist quality that makes Age of Ultron feel like the mirror antithesis of Zack Snyder's heartless destruction porn, Man of Steel.

That's why we keep coming back to see these movies. Their heart is why they've taken pop culture by storm. We love these characters because they are dynamic, real people. Joss Whedon clearly has a hell of a lot of fun staging the action in Age of Ultron (which is always good and frequently excellent), but it's apparent that his highest priority and real joy comes from throwing these beloved characters into conversations and altercations that push them, morph them, and refine them. What does Cap think of Tony's actions? How does Quicksilver disrespect Hawkeye? What does Ultron have to say to Scarlet Witch? How does Bruce Banner handle the Hulk? This is Whedon's playground, and he revels in it.

Unfortunately, the revelry has to have a ceiling, and that ceiling is 141 minutes. The foremost complaint issued against this movie is that it is overstuffed. Too many characters, too many arcs. In the words of a friend, the entire movie feels like rising action. I can't argue with any of this. Every character has at least one strong signature moment, and most have beautiful snippets of characterization, but it's clear that some of our beloved heroes are more sidelined than we might like.

Tony sets the plot in motion, but his role is mainly reactionary. Cap has one especially kick-ass fight scene, but otherwise doesn't have much to do beyond general uprightness and inspiration. And for all you twenty Thor-lovers out there, I'm sorry to say that Thor's primary two contributions are electrocuting things to make them work, and a facile expositional subplot that is by far the weakest few minutes of the movie. Who knows, maybe he'll do something cool in Ragnarok.

That all may sound like bad news, but it's not. What it means is that Age of Ultron is actually a movie about Hawkeye, Black Widow, Hulk, Quicksilver, and the Scarlet Witch. If that doesn't sound appealing to you, take a moment to think back to a world when a movie with Captain America and Thor in it didn't sound that appealing. This was the general feeling before the release of The Avengers, and Whedon defied that feeling by making these characters crackle. He does it again in AoU. By the end of the film I actually liked Quicksilver and Scarlet Witch, my opinion of Hawkeye had been completely reversed, and my love for Hulk and Black Widow had deepened significantly. This is their movie, and I love Whedon for giving us that.

Hawkeye's role as the emotional center of the team is truly surprising, and Mark Ruffalo and Scarlett Johansson steal the show. The great thing about this movie is that we no longer have the sheer joy of discovering these heroes together, but it still manages to surprise us in quieter, subtler ways. That's why The Avengers was never better than my first experience seeing it, but Age of Ultron improves every time I give it more thought.

I briefly want to mention that even though Age of Ultron doesn't have the Wow Yow Kapow punch of the first movie, it corrects the two major complaints leveled against that film: the uneven quality and the lackluster cinematography. Age of Ultron's level of entertainment is consistent throughout--the film washes over you. And regarding the cinematography, I don't know what happened in the few years between the two movies, but Whedon has taken leaps and bounds forward as a visual director. The film is beautiful. Shot after shot after remarkable shot have been imprinted in my memory in a way that didn't happen with The Avengers. The camera swivels from a modern art sculpture to track incoming bogeys. The camera leaps from Avenger to Avenger as they zoom around a forest. The camera lingers on a close-up of Ultron's face to unsettle us with its robotic emotiveness. The camera observes with bated breath as Black Widow slowly approaches the Hulk, trying to talk him down from his rage. Whedon knows when to hit us with immense scale, and when to focus in on an eclectic little character moment. It's wide-ranging, engaging, next level stuff. I guess Whedon's been learning and growing right along with his beloved heroes.

Age of Ultron doesn't have the stand up and cheer moments of The Avengers. It doesn't have the gut-wrenching action and political commentary of Captain America: The Winter Soldier. It doesn't have the breezy comedy of Iron Man, or the in depth character study of Iron Man 3. It doesn't have the sheer raging sense of fun of Guardians of the Galaxy. But, like every other good Marvel movie, it defines itself by bringing us a take on the genre we've never seen before. Age of Ultron gives us the first most philosophical Marvel movie, as well as the one with the grandest comic book style. Reflections on the nature of growth, change, and human nature abound. I don't know if this movie will top anyone's list, but it hits us with hard character moments and chewy ideas; for that it has my respect and a solid place in my heart.

Age of Ultron is a most fitting send-off for Joss Whedon, whose time at Marvel has revolutionized the modern blockbuster, for better or for worse. Don't go into this movie expecting to be catered to, expecting the familiar, expecting a typical sequel. Go into this movie expecting something new. After all, every movie should aspire to give us something new. Thankfully, this one succeeds.

2.5 / 5  BLOBS