During
the heyday of "Buffy The Vampire Slayer," I was an active advocate for
studios to pick up on the wonder that was Joss Whedon.
Watching
"Avengers: Age Of Ultron," it feels like that is exactly what we were
asking for when we asked for him to be in charge of our pop culture. And
I mean that in both positive and negative ways.
Joss
Whedon has a great ear for clever dialogue, and that can be a wee bit
of a curse. There is something about the way he writes that can make it
feel like he's afraid to fully engage in some of the bigger emotion.
When you're doing 22 episodes of a television series, you can take one
episode to shift the tone to something darker, more somber, and it feels
appropriate. In a 140 minute film, you can only find moments to
downshift, and when it's surrounded by non-stop wisecracks, it can feel
glib or insincere. That's also true when you have this many characters
you're trying to serve. Characters who have had several movies worth of
set-up can afford to be given less screen time, sketching in new details
quickly. With new characters, though, growth can seem artificial or
forced. Whedon knows how to create a character arc, but juggling seven
or eight of them in one movie would be a challenge for anyone to pull
off with anything approaching grace.
Also,
before we continue, a quick note about why I would publish this second
look at something as gigantic as "Avengers: Age Of Ultron." When I read
critics who I know are smart and reasonable people dismiss a film like
this outright, it reminds me of how I've seen mainstream media treat
genre my entire life. People refuse to engage with movies, and then they
call those movies poorly written or shallow or somehow lesser.
It
makes no sense, and it is one of the ways I know who I can or can't
take seriously. If you won't engage any text fully, then you're not
doing your job. If I sit down to see "Holy Motors" or "Pather Pachali"
or "Thor: The Dark World," I approach every one of those films the same
way, open to the experience and ready to engage the film on its terms.
When something is as gigantic a cultural juggernaut as "Avengers: Age Of
Ultron" is and there are critics who check out completely, I think it's
even more important to make the case for what these movies do well.
-- Bruce Banner
The
storytelling in "Avengers: Age Of Ultron" is basically done in one of
two modes. Either it's a set piece, or it's people standing around and
discussing exposition. There is so much exposition in the film that they
bring in characters who do nothing but help shovel through it. The
moments in the film that work best are the ones where they manage to
balance action, character, and story progress into one graceful whole.
There
are two major set pieces that play back to back set in Africa. The
first deals with Ulysses Klaue (Andy Serkis), who runs a highly
successful black market out of a landlocked shipping tanker. I really
like Serkis when he's allowed to actually appear on-camera as a real
human being, and he makes a great impression in his extended sequence
here. He deals with the twins first, and he seems like he rolls with the
whole idea of super powers pretty well. His introduction to Ultron goes
less well, and when he loses his hand, it's a shockingly funny
accident. It's interesting that the most violent reaction to anything in
the film by Ultron is when he is compared to Tony Stark. Very clearly,
this movie deals with each of these characters at war with themselves,
and none more overtly than Stark. Ultron and Jarvis are the two parts of
Stark given physical form, and it's in-character for Ultron to be
offended by the mere suggestion that he is part of Stark in any way.
There's
some pretty naked franchise seeding going on in this scene as well,
with careful mention being made of the brand on Klaue's neck, the
Wakandan word for "thief." When we meet T'Challa (Chadwick Boseman) in
"Captain America: Civil War," I have no doubt he's going to be looking
for the vibranium that Klaue surrenders to Ultron, and he's going to
want answers about what happened to it. It's going to give him a really
strong motivation during his introduction, and should make it
interesting when Serkis shows up again.
The
Twins hurt the Avengers here, and when people complain that Ultron's
not a strong enough villain, they miss that he's not the only
antagonist. At this point, Wanda is the one the Avengers should truly
fear, since she seems to be able to pierce their defenses immediately
and in a way that leaves them truly wounded. What I find interesting is
how her attempts to hurt Steve Rogers only seem to clarify his place in
the world for him. Yes, he missed his chance with Peggy (Hayley Atwell),
and a "normal life" no longer seems to be an option for him, but if
that's the worst thing Steve has rattling around inside of him, no
wonder he's Captain Freaking America. I thought for sure his visions
would have more to do with the way he failed Bucky, especially since I
think that's going to play into "Civil War" in a very direct way.
The
film's single greatest failure involves Thor, and it's a shame because
Thor has one of the most interesting dangling story threads in the
Marvel Universe right now. One of the things that is most clever about
"Thor: The Dark World" is how Loki ends up on the throne of Asgard
without anyone realizing he's done it, and that includes Thor. "We are
all dead. You are a destroyer, Odinson." The basic thrust of these
scenes involving Heimdal (Idris Elba) is that Thor's done something to
doom all of Asgard, something he cannot name, and there's a way to pay
that off. There should be something eating at Thor, something he knows
is not right that he can't name. Yes, Loki looks like Odin at this
point, but Thor should feel there's something wrong after their
interactions. It should be nagging at him, eventually leading him back
to Asgard for "Thor: Ragnarok." All of that is fumbled and lost in the
actual execution of the Thor scenes, though, and I feel bad for
Hemsworth. He is so perfectly cast that when he is given room to simply
be Thor, he makes it effortlessly charming. His reaction in that moment
where Captain America slightly moves Mjolnir is enormously subtle, but
speaks volumes. I suspect that Hemsworth is a real actor who just
happens to be wrapped in the body of a Norse god, and seeing him
sidelined for this entire film, it becomes clear what a waste it is.
It's fitting that this set piece ends when Hawkeye stops Wanda by
hitting her in the forehead with an electrified arrow, preventing her
from using her powers on him. "I've done the whole mind control thing,"
he says, directly referencing his own fumbled character arc in the first
film. "Not a fan."
Wanda
and Pietro limp away from the fight, just as dented by it as the
Avengers are, but before they go, Wanda makes one last stop. Again…
she's the one to fear here, not Ultron. "I want the big one," she says,
and she gets him. When we see the Hulk, he is on a tear, heading for the
city, out of control. This is the second big set piece in Africa, and
one of the biggest action sequences in the entire film. One of the
biggest gripes I've heard about this film, and this scene in particular,
is that people simply don't care if they're looking at computer pixels
punching computer pixels. I guess I can't argue if someone simply hates
digital effects as a whole, but I also don't really understand. Yes,
these scenes were accomplished using character animation on live-action
plates, but you're still looking at a scene involving characters. And
what happens between these two characters here is fairly pivotal. Tony
calls in Veronica, the fail-safe that we heard him mention earlier, and
it's clear that this is an option designed by Tony and Bruce to put the
Hulk down. It is the worst-case scenario. One of the small things I
found interesting was how quick Tony is to pull the trigger. It's clear
that he takes the threat of the Hulk seriously, and when you see what a
blind rampage looks like, it's clear that he should take him seriously.
This
is a key moment in Ultron's plan, but the way the film moves, you'd
never know that this is something Ultron did with purpose. He wants to
make the world afraid of The Avengers. He wants to tarnish them. But
why? If he's already planning to create an Extinction Level Event, why
worry about what the world thinks of the Avengers? It's almost like
Whedon thinks in terms of season-sized arcs, and trying to do that all
in the space of two and a half hours means you do everything at a
gallop. You ride by so fast that none of it sticks. I can see the idea
of an evolving plan, but in two hours, it evolves at light speed. One of
the reasons all of these films end with people running around and
fighting over some glowing doodad on a roof or in the sky that's going
to do some vague something that will be bad is because studios worry
about complex storytelling on a spectacle scale. They need international
audiences to be able to watch these films and absorb them without
worrying about the fine points of language. When you're telling a story
that moves as fast as these stories are required to move, it works
"best" when it's simple. "There's a bad thing. If you put it on a roof
and turn it on, bad things happen. So the bad guys want to do that. And
the good guys want to stop it. The end."
"You don't think they need me."
"I think they do. Which is scarier."
"I think they do. Which is scarier."
-- Clint and Laura Barton
One
of the most interesting notes in Joss Whedon's "Don't Blame Me"
promotional tour for "Avengers: Age Of Ultron" was the notion that
Disney was dead set against the entire detour to the farmhouse. Laura
Barton (Linda Cardellini) is Hawkeye's big secret, his wife who lives
off the grid and under the radar. She doesn't even exist in his official
SHIELD paperwork, which is why Ultron doesn't know about her, making
their farmhouse one of the few places he wouldn't know to look for any
of them.
The
real purpose of this scene is to show what it is that they're fighting
to preserve in the movie. When your characters are billionaires and rage
monsters and super soldiers and gods, it helps to sometimes introduce a
bit of normal-scale humanity. While I love the Matt Fraction version of
Hawkeye in print, I'm fine with the idea that Whedon went in a very
different direction. Laura Barton knows the value of having a human
being on the team because she knows that it connects the Avengers to
human frailty, something that is important when you're fighting for us.
Clint is the only one who gets seriously hurt in the opening fight,
after all, and it was the death of Coulson in the first film that gave
the Avengers their real push into the fight.
It's
also important here to show that Natasha may have regrets or sorrows in
her life, but she's not the walking wounded. She has a healthy
relationship with Clint's family, and she has a place in the world. She
is not alone. She is not a monster because she can't have children,
something that people have misread in her conversation with Banner. What
begins as a sort of playful joke about joining him in the shower
becomes a conversation about whether or not they've missed their
opportunity to be together. She's pushed gently before this, but this is
the moment where they lay it out, no more vague flirting. Banner
doesn't believe he can ever be part of a relationship. Natasha, perhaps
moved by being close to Barton's family, is ready to run, ready to go
claim her piece of normal. Of course, her piece of normal would be with a
guy who is afraid he will turn into an actual rampaging beast if he
ever lets his heart rate race too high. Whedon's had plenty of
experience writing this dynamic before with Buffy and Angel, so maybe
that explains why he's able to quickly make it feel like this really
does matter to both of them.
"What did you dream?" Banner asks her.
"That I was an Avenger. That I was anything more than the assassin they made me."
"What are you doing?"
"Running
with it." She wants to at least try. She believes they might find some
way to be happy. She knows it won't be like anyone else's normal,
though.
Bruce
says something very important during the conversation. "Where in the
world am I not a threat?" That phrasing is important when discussing the
end of the film, so keep that in mind. He is equally precise when he
tells Natasha why they can't have the same things that Clint has. "Do
the math. I physically can't."
"Neither
can I," she tells him, and the way she explains what happened to her
after her graduation ceremony is dispassionate. Straightforward. She
thinks of herself as a monster not because she was sterilized, but
because of what that did to her, stripping her of the chance that she
would ever care about something enough to put it before the job. There
is plenty about this scene that is up for interpretation, but I don't
believe for a second that either the character or the filmmakers are
saying that people who can't or don't have children are monsters. This
is about whether Natasha has done enough harm in her time to ever be
able to balance that with doing good. It's about whether or not Banner
can ever control himself enough to live, or if he's going to spend the
rest of his life afraid of himself. It's the same thing Stark is
wrestling with during his conversation with Steve outside. The thing
that really rattled the Avengers is that they are having to confront the
idea that they really may not be a good thing for this world, and that
can't be easy for any of us to face.
"We're mad scientists. We're monsters, buddy. And we've got to own it."
-- Tony Stark
Oddly,
as the film accelerates towards its ending, I find myself less and less
engaged by it. One of the things I noticed about my own reaction is
that the third act of this film feels like a reaction of sorts to "Man
Of Steel" and the way that film's third act numbed audiences and
frustrated audiences who wanted to see Superman saving people. I
maintain that the fight in that film is a far less controlled thing than
that, more about Kal-El realizing his own abilities than serving as the
protector of mankind that the character eventually becomes. My biggest
problem here is that this swings so far in the other direction that it
renders Ultron almost toothless. The Avengers spend much of the film's
climax saving people, and while that is admirable, there comes a point
where it feels like we're going to see them load every single extra onto
a bus.
The
most interesting element of the final stretch of the film, by far, is
The Vision. His physical form is initially created to hold Ultron's
final consciousness, but because the Avengers manage to steal The Cradle
during the process, he becomes something very different. Banner's
incredulous question to Stark is a fair one when he says, "Ultron can't
tell the difference between destroying the world and saving it. Where do
you think he learned it?" Stark seems to be determined to be the one to
clean up his own mess, and that focus is what keeps him pushing. None
of them seem to anticipate whatever The Vision is in the end, and he
raises way more questions than Ultron ever does. While they refer to
Ultron as an artificial intelligence, it's important that Wanda can't
actually read Ultron's mind at all, while she is able to read The
Vision. It suggests that Ultron never makes the leap that the Vision
does from being a trick of programming into being something else,
something real. It's not just because of the Infinity Gem that is
embedded in the Vision's head, either. The Vision almost seems like an
already existing consciousness that was just looking for a host. He
arrives with such a complex personality that he is able to do something
no other Avenger can, easily lifting Mjolnir at a key moment in the
action. And again… watch Hemsworth in every single interaction he has
with the Vision. He is delighted by him, and it's such a real and funny
response that I have to give him special praise.
Both
Ultron and The Vision are birthed in the same place, and they are both
birthed by the same parents. It is worth looking at how different the
two of them are considering how closely their origins are entwined. The
Vision is Ultron's idealized version of himself, but with a radically
different mind driving things. It's interesting that Ultron would want
to be so very human in his final form considering how naked his contempt
is for humanity. I would think that something that truly hates humanity
would want to create a form for itself that left behind all the things
that define and limit us. Instead, it looks like Ultron was trying to
turn himself into something that is like the most perfect version of
what Tony Stark began with his first Iron Man suit. It feels like it's
more an echo of Tony's dream than it is something that organically began
with Ultron. After all, look at the colors in the Vision. He's got a
real strong streak of Tony Stark Crimson running through himself. He
looks like a human Iron Man suit, sleeker and more beautiful than any of
the suits could be. His first moments alive are marked with a lovely
haiku of a voice-over. "I'm not Ultron. I'm not Jarvis. I am… I am." The
amount of thought that goes on between those two very different
pronunciations of "I am" define what I like about the character. He is a
dream, shared by a creator and a creation, that surpasses both of them.
It
makes sense that even once all the fighting is done, things ultimately
come down to The Vision and Ultron standing in a forest, quietly talking
about the end of things. All of the physical violence that happens in
that third act, all of the fighting and explosions and everything else,
means nothing compared to what happens in that last hushed moment.
Ultron tries to provoke The Vision, saying, "Stark asked for a savior,
and settled on a slave," but The Vision is unflustered, unconcerned
because he knows exactly who and what he is. As Ultron accepts what is
about to happen, he tells The Vision, "They're doomed."
"Yes,"
the Vision agrees, "but a thing isn't beautiful because it lasts."
Whedon might as well be talking about the Marvel Cinematic Universe
itself, because he knows that this narrative juggling act can't continue
forever. At some point, there has to be some sense of conclusion for
this story, and that's part of what defines a story. The ending is part
of the thing, and there will be an ending at some point.
But
this film is not allowed to be a conclusion, and that's one of the
things that I found dissatisfying about it. That sense of serving other
ongoing stories can be a good thing, but it can also make this feel like
a feature-length trailer instead of a story that works on its own
terms. While I think there are many moments in the film where Whedon
gets Hulk and Banner completely right, right in a way that only he has
managed so far out of all the films the character's been in, I think
there's a weird narrative gooch that takes place here, all in service of
a surprise later on. Remember Banner's line earlier in the film? "Where
in the world am I not a threat?" After the incident in Africa, the
answer appears to be "Nowhere." The last time we see Hulk in the movie,
he's sitting at the controls of a Quinjet, and he looks up, through the
canopy, at whatever lies beyond the horizon.
In
the early drafts of the film's script, it was made very clear that Hulk
was trapped on a Quinjet that had been programmed to leave the
atmosphere. He had a goodbye moment with Natasha, and their final
contact here feels like a goodbye. Hulk is tired of worrying about what
he is capable of doing, and he can't live his life that way any longer.
People have read the end of the film as saying that Hulk definitely
landed his Quinjet, but I think the opposite is true. The reason the
Quinjet doesn't show up on radar anywhere on the planet is because it is
no longer on the planet. The next time we see Hulk, he is going to be
somewhere else. My theory is that he'll appear in either "Thor:
Ragnarok" or "Guardians Of The Galaxy 2," and it will only be once we
reach the next "Avengers" sequels that he will finally return to Earth. I
don't believe they're going to do a full "Planet Hulk" movie, but I
think they're going to cherry-pick elements of that larger storyline and
use them in the midst of these other movies. The ending of "Age Of
Ultron" is confusing, but I think intentionally confusing. They want you
to be puzzle about where he is so that when we do see him again, it
will be a jolt. I just wouldn't be too terribly shocked if that took
place on a planet other than ours.
The
film's final images are an announcement that the status quo is no
longer the way things work in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, and I wish
Whedon had been able to drop even more characters into that image. You
can almost see the spot where Captain Marvel could have landed, but he
didn't have room to introduce her anywhere else in the film. If someone
as gifted as Whedon had as much trouble as he did figuring out a way to
use and fully serve each of his characters here while serving the
individual franchises and also setting things up for stuff still to
come, then that should be an indicator of just what a difficult task
this is. Marvel plans in broad strokes, and in doing so, I think they
set some pretty hefty challenges for their filmmakers. It will not be
easy to make things all work together over the course of the next four
years in a way that is satisfying both commercially and creatively. I
admire the focus of their ambition now, even if I don't think the Thanos
moment mid-credits makes any sense at all. Who is he talking to? What
was his part in this movie's events? What would Ultron's victory have
done to serve Thanos and his agenda? While I recognize that post or
mid-credits scenes are big parts of the Marvel signature, I wish they'd
either make sure they are genuine parts of the story or just drop them.
There are several from the various earlier films that make no sense at
all now, like the one in "The Incredible Hulk" or the one at the end of
"Thor," scenes that are retroactively erased by things we see in the
actual movies that came later.
When
I spoke to my kids a few weeks after the "Age Of Ultron" screenings to
see what stuck with them, they barely mentioned Ultron himself. They
were fascinated by The Vision and The Scarlet Witch, disappointed by the
death of Quicksilver,a nd still just as engaged as ever by the main
Avengers and their various wants and fears. Marvel gets so much right,
and there is so much talent involved, that even when I feel like "Age Of
Ultron" gets lost, it's interesting. But it is also an indicator of
just how unwieldy the story that's being told is becoming, and how hard
it's going to be for the studio to pull it all together.
