Writer/director Joss Whedon’s swan song in the Marvel Cinematic Universe manages to hit a number of high notes, but ultimately feels like a film much smaller than it should be as it serves as a bridge to other films and bigger concepts.
Avengers: Age of Ultron was supposed to be Joss Whedon’s victory lap. Instead it serves as proof that that the time for him to move on has invariably come.
The question is not whether the film is bad, or unwatchable, because it’s far from that, however, while this film looks like it spent its massive budget well, on the whole, it feels much smaller in scope, which by this point, it shouldn’t.
There’s a lot that works in this film, particularly the performances of the ensemble cast, whose chemistry is undeniable. Chris Evans, Robert Downey Jr., Chris Hemsworth, Mark Ruffalo, Scarlett Johansson and Jeremy Renner all feel like a real team, with the camaraderie at this point as genuine as could be, which helps to make the material they have to work with never feel as hollow as it actually is.
The same can be said, performance wise, for James Spader, who plays the titular antagonist, Ultron. In this clip, Ultron introduces itself to the Maximoff Twins, played by Aaron Johnson and Elisabeth Olson, with the right kind of flippancy and mild theatricality, deftly mirroring his creator, Tony Stark.
While Spader does villainy with the right sort of panache and aloofness, Ultron feels undefined as a character and a villain, which in turn exposes just how undercooked the plot of Age of Ultron is in the end.
Whether it’s fatigue on the part of Whedon, or having to serve too many masters at one time, from forwarding the Infinity Stones plotline that will finally come to bear in 2017’s Avengers: Infinity War (Part I), or next summer’s Captain America: Civil War, the film is far more preoccupied with foreshadowing future threats than dealing with the one at hand, which is supposed to be significant, but never feels that way.
That’s likely because everything in Age of Ultron feels self-contained, except the plot. All the action seems to only take place when the heroes are together, and when there is no action, the heroes are still together, and it both weighs the film down and makes it small at the same time.
This becomes an annoyance, when increasingly things that the viewer might want to actually see are often explained away with exposition, which in turn rob the viewer of key moments that would allow for more caring and a vested interest in what is taking place on screen.
Despite the films many shortcomings, the film redeems itself greatly with the introduction of the Vision, played by Paul Bettany. In fact, his very presence manages to lighten the load of the third act, and ends up being the only thing in the film that feels truly fresh.
Bettany plays the Vision with a relaxed piety, while also offering the best and funniest scenes of the film with Thor, serving as a pay off to a gag in the beginning of the film. Because the Vision is a creation of Ultron, who is a creation of Stark, Ultron and the Vision exist as two sides of the Stark coin, with Vision portraying the best of Stark, and Ultron portraying the worst. None of this takes away from the fact that Age of Ultron goes out of its way to present the true villain of the film: Tony Stark himself.
But that’s also the biggest missed opportunity. By showing Stark’s drive towards doing something “for the greater good”, we also see a dark side of Stark that is only ephemerally addressed in the film, probably in deference to Civil War. Despite creating the antagonist, Stark neither holds himself to account, nor does the team, save for a last-minute showdown that is almost instantly forgotten with the following scene.
It’s natural that expectations would rise with each new film from Marvel Studios, and rightfully so, which is why the half-measures Whedon takes throughout Age of Ultron end up disappointing so much. Even if this movie had to serve as a bridge, it certainly didn’t have to feel like.
All that said, this is a film that deserves to be watched on the biggest screen possible, because where there is a lack of story, there exists spectacle and bombast, and what better way is there to kick off the summer movie season?
Hashim R. Hathaway (Uncle Shimbo) is the host of the Never Daunted Radio Network, and proud father to NeverDaunted.Net. You can reach him on Twitter @NeverDauntedNet