For better or worse, Marvel Films has ushered in a new production method, planning out interlocking movies that form a universe all their own. With box office tallies in the billions, this is something other studios (Warner Brothers and Universal Studios) have been quick to embrace as the heroes of the DC Comics line are slowly making their way to the screen with an ambitious series of cinematic crossovers while the Frankenstein monster, Dracula, the Wolfman and other creatures from yesteryear will soon be lurking around in their own monster universe. If nothing else, Marvel Films is a well-oiled machine that makes no small plans and executes their films with a precision that has to be admired.
Their latest chapter, Avengers: Age of Ultron is their biggest production to date, sporting a budget of a quarter of a billion dollars and featuring appearances by every superhero they’ve introduced to date. It’s a crowd-pleaser in that it gives the casual viewer the sort of ear-splitting, kinetic action they’ve come to expect from films of this sort while providing plenty of in-jokes for the hardcore comic geek that’s pored over every issue of the corresponding funny book with the attention that was given to cracking the Dead Sea Scrolls. It’s a competent enough entertainment that in years to come it will be regarded as a fine place-saver on the way to grander adventures. However, there’s a sense of the mechanical that creeps in here, a feeling that director Joss Whedon, who also wrote the script, isn’t so much creating a joyous superhero epic as he did with the first Avengers as much he’s knocking things off a checklist of necessary events Marvel provided him so that all the cogs in its master plan will continue to mesh without interruption.
The film gets off to a shaky start with a visually confusing sequence that finds the Avengers – Iron Man/Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr.), Captain America/Steve Rogers (Chris Evans), Thor (Chris Hemsworth), the Hulk/Bruce Banner (Mark Ruffalo), Black Widow/Natasha Romanoff (Scarlett Johansson) and Hawkeye/Clint Barton (Jeremy Renner) – assaulting a castle in Eastern Europe in order to retrieve a mystical talisman. However, while doing so, Stark stumbles upon research regarding artificial intelligence that he appropriates for himself. Long wanting to put into place a global defense system to protect the world from alien attack, he puts this plan – code name Ultron – into action using this poached information. However, things soon go awry when this program achieves consciousness, constructs a body of its own and begins to speak like James Spader. With his directive being protecting Earth, he reasons that humans pose the biggest threat to the planet and reasons they must all be wiped out, obviously something the Avengers can’t allow on their watch. How two geneticallyengineered siblings they discover – superspeedster Pietro Maximoff (Aaron Taylor- Johnson) and his twin Wanda (Elizabeth Olsen) who has mystical powers – will factor into this crisis is anyone’s guess.
The requisite action scenes occur on schedule with three of the big throw-downs coming off as expected, repetitious blurs of action that are hard to follow, surprising as Whedon showed a far surer hand in the previous episode. Only a sequence in which Stark’s Hulkbuster goes toe-to-toe with the green monster provides a sense of humor as well as the horror that comes when superheroes raze your city. The main question the movie poses is if the world is better of with the Avengers – and by extension, the United States Military – or not. Whedon has it both ways, showing the massive collateral damage that occurs under the guise of a stable military presence, as well as the humanitarian aid it can provide. In a sense, the film fails to take a strong stance regarding the very issue it introduces.
While the action is muddled and the humor not as sharp as it should be, the quiet moments between characters succeed in giving the movie substance and a bit of heart. The budding relationship between Black Widow and the Hulk’s alter ego Bruce Banner is intriguing as it seriously explores the potential hazards of dating a raging monster, while the political and ethical debates that spring up between Stark and Rogers are timely as they sow the seeds for next years Captain America: Civil War. Still, there’s a sense creeping in here that Whedon and company are just going through the motions, something that needs to be shaken what with at least seven more films left in Marvel’s grand plan.
Contact Chuck Koplinski at ckoplinski@usd116.org.
