Warning: Spoilers!
The sequel to “The Avengers” (2012), “The Avengers: Age of Ultron” had its cinematic release on Friday, May 1.
AoU has been hyped up since it was first announced, and fans had very high expectations for the film. After “The Avengers” huge box office success, fans had no doubt that the sequel would be just as much as a hit.
The movie had a lot to live up to, especially since it followed movies such as “Iron Man 3”, “Thor: The Dark World”, “Guardians of the Galaxy”, and “Captain America: The Winter Soldier”, which most Marvel fans absolutely adore.
For some, the film did not disappoint at all, but for others, it was a huge flop.
“It was a very amazing movie and it shot me back in my seat,” said an anonymous student.
As a long-time Marvel cinematic and comic book fan, I disagree. While there were amusing one liners and running gags (language!), the characterization of the team was off, and the overall plot line was incredibly rushed and sloppy. The film seemed to jump from fight scenes faster than I could keep track.
The actual emotional aspects were thrown in last second as shown in sudden romance between Bruce and Natasha. Where did that come from?
When “The Avengers” was first released, it was made clear that Black Widow was not there to be the girlfriend of a team member, but to be her own character. That suddenly changed within about 10 minutes of this movie. Romance is always a fun addition to a storyline, but not when it is completely out of character.
“Bruce and Natasha really didn’t have a lot of chemistry and honestly made me feel super uncomfortable,” said junior Winnie Zheng.
There were a few new additions to the team in this film. Three fan favorites – Vision, Quicksilver, and Scarlet Witch – fought alongside (and even against) the original team, which was satisfying, but not done in a particularly accurate way.
Due to legal issues with Sony, Marvel was not able to explain that Wanda and Pietro Maximoff are Magneto’s children, which is completely understandable.
What is not understandable is the erasure of the twins’ Jewish background and thrown together characterization. It was like they were completely new characters and not the beloved twins we know from the comic books, especially since Wanda lost a lot of the wit and general independence she usually has.
Thankfully, Hawkeye had a much larger role in this film and was more accurately depicted from the comics. Clint Barton has always been one of my favorite Avengers in the books and movies alike, and I was proud to see him being just as clumsy and funny as he was supposed to be.
What threw me off about Clint, though, was the introduction of his wife and children. That storyline seemed to be there for only two reasons: to gain sympathy from the audience, but also to clear the way for Bruce to be in love with Natasha. A lot of fans, myself included, prefer Clint and Natasha as a pairing over Bruce and Natasha, but writer Joss Whedon disagreed.
That brings me to my next issue: Joss Whedon.
I am and always have been a huge Whedon fan. I have the entirety of “Dr. Horrible’s Sing Along Blog” memorized, a box set of “Firefly”, and grew up with “Buffy the Vampire Slayer”. I was so happy to hear that Whedon was returning to write for AoU, but I have never been more disappointed in a writer.
Whedon seemed to completely ignore the character development in the past three films and instead pretended like they did not happen at all. This would have been fine if it did not result in general out-of-character behavior from the team as a whole. And let’s not mention the lack of Agent Coulson, who is very much alive.
After this film, Whedon will officially not write for Marvel again. Fans were so infuriated by Whedon’s writing and characterization that he was even forced to delete his Twitter account to avoid hate.
I could go on for hours about what I did and did not like about the film, but overall, it was just not what I hoped it would be. All I and many other fans can do now is pray that “Infinity War” will not be the same.
How did you feel about AoU?