Extended Ramblings About The Age of Ultron Pt. 1
Note: This is not a review of Age of Ultron. Not Really. If you want a review, you should go see it. It's pretty good. As good as the first one? Debatable. Very different than the first one, But it is good. What this is, is exactly what it says on the box. A collection of extended, somewhat disorganized, ramblings about Age Of Ultron.
Judging by the amount of money it made over the past several days, there is a fair chance that you've seen Avengers: Age of Ultron by now. So for the purposes of this article, we're going to assume that you've seen the movie and will be dealing with a spoiler or two getting down and discussing the bulk of the movie. So consider this a spoiler warning for the remainder of the article.
Spoilers Start Now!
There is a general feeling when it comes to sequels, especially action and superhero sequels, that the stakes have to be raised the second time out. After all we saw our hero survive whatever threat the first movie had to offer, and we know that he'll do it again easily unless this threat is bigger than before. This is why we went from the T-800 to the T-1000 to the T-X in the Terminator franchise, and why Superhero sequels in the 90s and 2000s tend to have more than one villain in them.
But the whole of Marvel is in a unique situation. Age of Ultron is not only a sequel to the The Avengers movie from 2012, but also to Winter Solder, and to Guardians of the Galaxy, and Ant Man is going to, in some ways be a sequel to Age of Ultron. But are we expecting Ant Man to up the stakes from Age of Ultron? Probably not. I bring this up because of the Thanos teaser at the end of the first Avengers film. See at the time we all assumed that meant Thanos would be the main villain for the second movie (i.e. this one) After all that's how these post credit teasers had been working. You tease the next movie at the end of the current one. But then we learn that Thanos will not be the villain for Avengers 2 but rather for Avengers 3. (And eventually, it turns out, for Avengers 3 and 4.) But we still have Avengers 2 to deal with, all the while we know that the REAL Big Bad of this franchise won't be showing up for another three years.
So this puts Age of Ultron in a bit of an awkward situation. The first Avengers was a big moment, because we finally saw everybody come together. The next Avengers will be a big moment, because it will be the event that this has all been leading to. But this one here in the middle? We've seen everyone all together and while it's always cool to see that again, we know it can be done, and the real amazing part of the first Avengers is that they managed to pull that balance off. We know that Ultron can't have any real lasting effect on anything because he has to get out of the way for Thanos to show up next time around. So in terms of hype, Age of Ultron gets stuck as the middle child of the series, while we twiddle our thumbs and wait for the really big movie to show up.
But that's all about hype and expectations going into the movie. Once your in there how does the movie really play out. One of the best things that the movie has going for it is that it's funny. That may not seem important, but trust me, that's very important. See the trailers leading up to Age of Ultron had very little humor in them. Several had none. They were dark, grim, and honestly it looked like you were in for a bit of a bummer going into the movie. This is not the Avengers that I knew. This is not the Marvel I knew. One of the reasons that Marvel works, that DC has yet to really grasp is that these movies are fun. Yes, they're cool and DC is trying really hard on the "cool" part, but they have yet to really grab a hold of the fun part. And from the look of the trailers I feared that they were making the movie more serious and Ultron more threatening by removing a bit of the humor. I love how Spader's voice brought that menacing ambiance to Ultron and that first scene between him and Jarvis was especially good, but I can't tell you how relieved I was to hear Ultron's first joke. (Even if it was that "forgot the world children" joke that was one of the few missteps in humor in the movie if we're being super critical. Just the fact that they were letting the character have humor was a relief)
And I promise I won't just have Marvel vs. DC things to mention here, but one more real quickly. One of the biggest complaints about Man of Steel, was how much the movie seemed to disregard human life in the assumed mass casualties that must have occurred during the final showdown between Superman and Zod. This is not how Superman would act, Superman would take the fight to the desert. Superman would ensure that all humans were safe, not recklessly destroy the largest city in the world. Well almost as a direct jab to it's competitor, Age of Ultron spent some time to make sure that every single citizen was safe. Captain America explicitly stated that it was important that all innocent lives be spared in this particular fight between the Avengers and Ultron.
We should also talk for a moment about Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver, or as the movie liked to refer to the characters, "The Twins." I would like to go back to a few of the first leaked photos of these two characters when they hit the web. Just some fan shots, probably taken on a camera phone of people who happened to see the movie being filmed. This is a textbook example of what proper lighting, proper camera angles, special effects, and computers can do. Because initially the character design for both of these characters looked dumb. Like really dumb. Like this might be the thing that derails the franchise dumb. But ignore that and look at the final product.
The Twins seemed like a bad idea. The Twins seemed like two more characters in an already overly crowded movie. And if you're adding in new characters anyway, why would it be these two. They're mutants, and now we have a whole snafu with X-men conflict. And their not even the most popular mutants. Why add these two? But again, look at the finished product. First of all they give Ultron someone to talk to, something that's critical for the movie. They also add a completely different type of character to the movie. Bad guys turning into good guys is a common trope, but not one that's been really explored in the Marvel Cinematic universe yet. We can pretty safely assume that Bucky will be back and eventually be an anti-hero of some kind at the very least in the future, but for now, that's not the case. What we have is a bunch of people who want to be good guys so they are good guys. Black Widow has a shady past, but by the time we get around to meeting her, she has seen whatever errors of her ways that she needed to and is now a full SHIELD agent. The Twins is really the first time we've seen somebody try both a villainous, and a more noble approach to achieving their goals.
Not to mention the fact that physically both of the twins brings something new to the roster. See Captain America's fighting style is lots of punching. Hulk also just punches things. Iron man shoots people some, but does a lot of punching as well. Thor punches people with a hammer. Black Widow and Hawkeye shoot people. So we have a whole team made up of the super powers punchin' and shootin'.
The Twins, however each have an entirely different style of power. In both cases their powers are much more graceful, Scarlet Witch especially. Their powers are treated differently not just by the characters in the movie but by the movie itself. Whedon was clearly aware of this while making the movie. The action shots featuring the twins are different from any other character. They highlight the speed and the grace in movement in both characters. An impressive thing to keep in mind when you're trying to shoot an action sequence featuring eight different heroes and a swarm of villains.
Judging by the amount of money it made over the past several days, there is a fair chance that you've seen Avengers: Age of Ultron by now. So for the purposes of this article, we're going to assume that you've seen the movie and will be dealing with a spoiler or two getting down and discussing the bulk of the movie. So consider this a spoiler warning for the remainder of the article.
Spoilers Start Now!
There is a general feeling when it comes to sequels, especially action and superhero sequels, that the stakes have to be raised the second time out. After all we saw our hero survive whatever threat the first movie had to offer, and we know that he'll do it again easily unless this threat is bigger than before. This is why we went from the T-800 to the T-1000 to the T-X in the Terminator franchise, and why Superhero sequels in the 90s and 2000s tend to have more than one villain in them.
But the whole of Marvel is in a unique situation. Age of Ultron is not only a sequel to the The Avengers movie from 2012, but also to Winter Solder, and to Guardians of the Galaxy, and Ant Man is going to, in some ways be a sequel to Age of Ultron. But are we expecting Ant Man to up the stakes from Age of Ultron? Probably not. I bring this up because of the Thanos teaser at the end of the first Avengers film. See at the time we all assumed that meant Thanos would be the main villain for the second movie (i.e. this one) After all that's how these post credit teasers had been working. You tease the next movie at the end of the current one. But then we learn that Thanos will not be the villain for Avengers 2 but rather for Avengers 3. (And eventually, it turns out, for Avengers 3 and 4.) But we still have Avengers 2 to deal with, all the while we know that the REAL Big Bad of this franchise won't be showing up for another three years.
So this puts Age of Ultron in a bit of an awkward situation. The first Avengers was a big moment, because we finally saw everybody come together. The next Avengers will be a big moment, because it will be the event that this has all been leading to. But this one here in the middle? We've seen everyone all together and while it's always cool to see that again, we know it can be done, and the real amazing part of the first Avengers is that they managed to pull that balance off. We know that Ultron can't have any real lasting effect on anything because he has to get out of the way for Thanos to show up next time around. So in terms of hype, Age of Ultron gets stuck as the middle child of the series, while we twiddle our thumbs and wait for the really big movie to show up.
And I promise I won't just have Marvel vs. DC things to mention here, but one more real quickly. One of the biggest complaints about Man of Steel, was how much the movie seemed to disregard human life in the assumed mass casualties that must have occurred during the final showdown between Superman and Zod. This is not how Superman would act, Superman would take the fight to the desert. Superman would ensure that all humans were safe, not recklessly destroy the largest city in the world. Well almost as a direct jab to it's competitor, Age of Ultron spent some time to make sure that every single citizen was safe. Captain America explicitly stated that it was important that all innocent lives be spared in this particular fight between the Avengers and Ultron.
We should also talk for a moment about Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver, or as the movie liked to refer to the characters, "The Twins." I would like to go back to a few of the first leaked photos of these two characters when they hit the web. Just some fan shots, probably taken on a camera phone of people who happened to see the movie being filmed. This is a textbook example of what proper lighting, proper camera angles, special effects, and computers can do. Because initially the character design for both of these characters looked dumb. Like really dumb. Like this might be the thing that derails the franchise dumb. But ignore that and look at the final product.
Not to mention the fact that physically both of the twins brings something new to the roster. See Captain America's fighting style is lots of punching. Hulk also just punches things. Iron man shoots people some, but does a lot of punching as well. Thor punches people with a hammer. Black Widow and Hawkeye shoot people. So we have a whole team made up of the super powers punchin' and shootin'.
The Twins, however each have an entirely different style of power. In both cases their powers are much more graceful, Scarlet Witch especially. Their powers are treated differently not just by the characters in the movie but by the movie itself. Whedon was clearly aware of this while making the movie. The action shots featuring the twins are different from any other character. They highlight the speed and the grace in movement in both characters. An impressive thing to keep in mind when you're trying to shoot an action sequence featuring eight different heroes and a swarm of villains.
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