Not that you need reminding, but AVENGERS: AGE OF ULTRON is not a sequel to the 2012 Joss Whedon-written and -directed film that gave the moviegoing world a taste of just what Marvel Studios grand design was all about and what the studio was capable of. AGE OF ULTRON is actually the sequel to the four Marvel films that happened between the two AVENGERS movies (IRON MAN 3, THOR: THE DARK WORLD, CAPTAIN AMERICA: THE WINTER SOLDIER, and GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY), and there's nothing wrong with that kind of ambition. But the resulting film is actually a composite of three different types of scenes.
The first are hardcore action sequences, some of the most elaborate and dense I've ever seen, and while they rarely further the plot, Whedon has actually staged them in such a way that they feel like moments ripped right out of a comic book page. The poses, the way the heroes work together, combining their strength and powers to make a new type of assault on whatever villain they are defending the world from—in this case, our primary baddie is Ultron (voiced by James Spader), with a Starkian smarm that kept me off my guard in the best possible way. You never know what he's going to say next. Instead of simply spouting off villainous platitudes, he draws from the classics with commands like "Just stop!" as if he's being annoyed by a flying insect. The action in AGE OF ULTRON is epic, and, even more than the first film, the stakes and the threat against both humanity as a whole and individual humans in the direct vicinity of the battle seem far more real.
The second type of scenes in the new AVENGERS film are those that forward plot and character, without action. And perhaps not coincidentally, the characters who benefit the most from these moments are the ones without their own franchises—Black Widow (Scarlett Johansson), the Hulk (Mark Ruffalo) and most delightfully, Hawkeye (Jeremy Renner), whose personal life is blown way out into the open in completely unexpected ways. I love that Widow and Bruce Banner/Hulk have an emotional impact on each other and a bond that is both a blessing and a curse to a possible future together. When the members of this team get together is less stressful circumstances—such as a party sequence near the beginning of the film—it's pure joy to watch personalities emerge and evolve in a way that makes their battlefield teamwork more fluid. In fact, when character development sequences flow into action, AGE OF ULTRON becomes downright perfect.
The third are scenes that either pick up from, or will lead to, other films, and I have mixed feelings about these moments. While they certainly gave me a full-on charge of recognition and anticipation about where things are going, but they sidetrack the main story to such a degree that the entire film feels uneven—not wildly so, but you'll feel it nonetheless. The entire opening action sequence picks up where the last CAPTAIN AMERICA movie left off, with the assembled Avengers storming Baron von Strucker's (Thomas Kretschmann) eagle's nest to look for "enhanced" people and effectively destroy the last major bastion of HYDRA. That sequence is actually tremendous.
But other drop-ins feel squeezed in, like a throwaway line from a character I didn't even know was in this movie at the party to Captain America about his ongoing search mission (which presumably is for Winter Solider, to be a part of CAPTAIN AMERICA: CIVIL WAR, coming your way May 6, 2016), or a vision Thor has about Asgard that sends him back there at film's end (and presumably straight into THOR: RAGNOROK, November 3, 2017), or quick side trip to the African nation of Wakanda, homeland of BLACK PANTHER, July 6, 2018. Not to mention the appearance of another Infinity Stone, one of five that will form the cornerstone of the two-part AVENGERS: INFINITY WAR films (May 4, 2018 and May 3, 2019). You get the idea. It's cool, sure, but it doesn't help AGE OF ULTRON feel like its own entity.
What does work, however, are themes that are, in many ways, carried over from WINTER SOLDIER—the idea that the world is now in danger from within and without, and someone assigns themselves to be its protector, whether the world asked them to or not. This time around, it's Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr.) who is given a nightmarish vision of a world to come, in which all of his fellow Avengers are killed by an unseen force, and he is left standing alone with survivor's guilt. Of course, this vision actually comes courtesy of Wanda Maximoff (soon to be Scarlet Witch), one half of "the twins" along with brother Pietro/Quicksilver (Aaron Taylor-Johson, who was once Kick-Ass). Wanda's powers are a little indescribable; she seems to have telekinetic power, but more importantly, she can implant your worst nightmare into your head and it lingers for quite some time, effectively paralyzing you from acting or defending yourself. But Iron Man and Thor (Chris Hemsworth) seem to see something closer to an actual peek into their respective futures, while Black Widow and Captain America (Chris Evnas) get gut-wrenching images drawn from their pasts, and the Hulk just gets meaner.
The vision drives Stark to mess with the retrieved scepter of Loki, and work with Banner to create a "suit of armor around the world" with his Ultron project. But the hidden powers of the scepter kidnaps Stark's bodiless helper Jarvis (voiced by Paul Bettany) and becomes the robotic force of destruction known as Ultron. And the set up is all you really need to know, since the rest of the film is a sometimes-fluid, sometimes-stumbling series of scenes that involve fighting, rescuing, and resting up for more fighting.
Despite the light touches, everything about AVENGERS: AGE OF ULTRON feels more serious and dour, which in the context of this story and these hellish nightmares that a couple of the characters are dealing with seems appropriate. But the film's greatest achievement is Bettany in physical form as the Vision (whose name is given to him almost by accident), an android created by Ultron to be the perfect, most human robot on the planet. Ultron's plans are thwarted, and Vision becomes not a good or bad character but one whose philosophical code is pure and protective. Ultron's personality is born from Stark's paranoia and fear, while Vision takes the best parts of Stark and makes them better. It's a character I can't wait to see down the line in these films because I have no idea where his storyline might take us and Bettany is perfectly weird and angelic at once.
I'm not spoiling anything to say that, much like the first AVENGERS film, the team disperses at the end, only this time it feels more final (I know it's not, but it feels like it is). A big reason for that is that we get a glimpse of Avengers 2.0, and it's actually a major rush to know that the master Marvel plan seems to have a life beyond the original team members (and their actors' contracts). That closing shot is as close to genuine hope as these movies get at times, and Whedon knows just how to feed it to us and make it taste damn good.
With a healthy sprinkling of familiar faces in smaller roles (hello former agents Fury, Hill and Carter) and a few new characters played by the likes of Andy Serkis and Claudia Kim, AGE OF ULTRON sometimes feels like Times Square about 30 minutes before all the Broadway shows start on Saturday night, but there's also something of a graceful coordination going on that is admirable to a point. I'll need to watch it a couple more times to really examine the pacing and see if the dead zones and plot holes are as irksome as I remember, but mostly I really liked Whedon's apparent exit from the Avengers world. There are more of his touches here; that's a very good thing, and they will be missed going forward. But it's the film that also makes the idea of what's coming next something exciting. It reminds me of when I was a kid, waiting for the next comic issue of whatever hero I was fixated on that year. Nothing wrong with that feeling.
