The Modern Prometheus
When The Avengers first came out in 2012, it was a novelty. The culmination of this grand experiment of treating blockbusters films like comic books or television, slowly seeding together a over arching plot culminating in The Avengers. Its sequel, Age of Ultron, isn’t as clear an endcap as its predecessor, though continues the terrestrial themes of the limits of heroism. With the announcement of Phase 3 we now know Ultron is at best the midpoint in another longer arch. But we already knew this intuitively, it's just how the game is played. This film has a lot of stuff going on, in the frame and narratively, the fact it didn’t come off as super bloated is amazing. It’s a little flabby, there is a Thor subplot that doesn’t really work, and it doesn’t have the same novel fist-pump moments as the first film but is perhaps a more consistent feature overall.
Looking back at the Marvel Studios catalog, there is a clear formula to them, as industrial products typically are. The best of this catalog, Iron Man (1,3) Captain America (1,2) despite always giving into spectacle and minute upon minute of action at least did a good enough job building emotional currency with the audience by dramatizing character effectively. All the spectacle and digital artistry doesn’t mean squat if the figments on screen don’t feel real. It’s why this features en media res opening long take felt so hollow. The Avengers strike at Baron Von Strucker, and it features a couple of nice combo attacks and a well done digital long take. But none of it really mattered to me it was fluff, enjoyable fluff but fluff none the less. The real heart comes in the partying afterwards.
The plot of Ultron on a macro level makes sense, going into the minutiae feels like getting lost in the woods a bit but that doesn’t really matter for the most part. In an interview with Devin Faraci (now of Birth.Movies.Death) Whedon laid out why I Ultron manages to work so well.
“ In a comic book movie you know there’s certainly going to be a big battle. And you know you’re in a franchise - you’re either going to see another of these movies or you’re going to buy another one of these comics. It’s very unlikely your heroes are not going to make it through [to the end]. So what are the stakes? How do you raise them?
The only stakes are emotional. The only stakes are moral. Can they get through this unscathed as heroes? Can they still be heroes? Can they call themselves that? Are they actually useful as a team? Or are they going to fall apart?”
With its gigantic cast(6 Avengers, 2 Maximoff Twins, an Ultron and a Vision) no one character is really allowed more than one tone to paint with but we get to see some shading on that singular color. Some of these shades aren’t nearly as interesting like Thor, who’s subplot seems to have been cut to the bone and is largely responsible for setting up the next Thor and Avengers features. Vision, played by Jarvis voice Paul Bettany, honestly shouldn’t have worked so well. He’s really really weird, like he was in the comics for the most part. They don’t really bother explaining power sets, he just dose things and it works because we see him doing things. There is a great spot that I won’t spoil that immediately seals this character.
Another out of left field inclusions is a budding relationship between Natasha Romanoff and Bruce Banner, a pairing that I don’t believe has been explored in the comics. In the context of the film however it actually works as these two people who see themselves as monsters slowly try to let one their guard down and find happiness and connection.
Whedon gives this cast just enough pathos that once there is a flying city, an army of robots, and all Hawkeye has is his bow and arrows, we’re emotionally invested enough to not care that this really doesn’t make a lick of sense.
Villains in the Marvel Cinematic Universe have not been their strong suit. Loki, the charismatic Tom Hiddleston, is the only real beak out character in the pack. Ultron, portrayed by James Spader, doesn’t have the empathic connection Hidleston has but contextualized as the evil subconscious of Tony Stark, his character makes sense and works. Spader acts as a Stark proxy, using his “Fathers” own lines against him. Sadly, the motion capture and animation teams did not translate Spader’s ability to stare through people.
Age of Ultron isn't the structural clockwork of the first film. It's bigger much bigger, hoping across countries with every set piece. The Avengers have globalized much to the chagrin of local cultures. The action is extremely destructive with two types. There is the CGI driven spectacle of destruction with computer generated fragments that just fill the screen and clutter it. It’s in these sequences that the traditional MCU style of action of shooting everything the same and finding it in the edit comes through and feels limp. The other is a more Whedon kind of action, it’s much tighter with close ups and extremely tight medium shots. These brief flashes as the actors try to defend themselves from explosions and actual prop debris, reinforce the humanity of these characters and this film.
Avengers other key superhero competition was Man of Steel, a film rightly derided for its dourer destruction. The finale to this feature feels like it was written in response to it, only multiplying it by 100. With its 141 minute run time (and a much longer initial cut) a lot of this can be attributed to the extended action sequence finale. You could have cut a bit of the setup but the movie would be much poorer for it. The Avengers final NYC sequence was great because it had both an understandable geography within the frame and it showed these characters acting like heroes; not claiming to be but consciously trying to help lessen the collateral damage. Putting on a suit doesn’t make you some hero, actually acting and trying is what makes you a hero. This final action sequence is really long and a bit tiresome but the conscious effort to clear the city and set up a limited field of combat pay dividends to the film. As an action sequence, the Hulkbuster v Hulk might be overall the most entertaining but is just spectacle compared to the finale.
This is by far from a perfect film, but these shortcomings are what make it interesting. Like most Marvel features I could do with less action and more sequencing like the one on the Farm but that just won’t happen in the current market place.
BITS AT THE END
OMG Julie Delpy was in a Marvel Movie!
I am Michael Mazzacane. You can find me on Twitter @MaZZM and at ComicWeek and NXTDayTV
