‘Ultron’ Impresses…But Not Too Much (Film Review)

[rating=7.00]

The question I keep asking myself is whether or not it’s possible for a bar to be set too high.

I’ve made no secret in the past about my love for all things Marvel; as a comic book geek in high school, I longed for a day when studios would give us something that resembled the rich and layered worlds of comics on the big screen. When Marvel announced the formation of a studio to do justice to the live action versions of their intellectual properties I was overcome with joy and excitement. These feelings were justified and validated time and time again by their output and even the movies that weren’t great were still pretty good. To say that Marvel has set their own bar pretty high would be an understatement. Still, the elephant in the room has always been how long they can keep their momentum going. The bubble has to pop at some point, right? Surely there must come a point when they can’t deliver things like the used to.

While Marvel’s latest release, Avengers: Age of Ultron doesn’t quite cross that line, I left the theater wondering if that time wouldn’t come sooner than we anticipate. That isn’t to say that the movie is bad—far from it. However, as fun and exciting as the movie might be, I was a bit unsatisfied and couldn’t help wondering if that was really all there was to it.

This outing finds the gang—Captain America (Chris Evans), Iron Man (Robert Downey Jr.), Hulk (Mark Ruffalo), Thor (Chris Hemsworth), Black Widow (Scarlett Johansson), and Hawkeye (Jeremy Renner)—facing off against an advanced artificial intelligence, Ultron (James Spader, giving a phenomenal performance), who decides that the best way to follow his directive to “defend earth” is to do away with the Avengers and the rest of humanity. Along the way, we meet new super humans Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver (Elizabeth Olsen and Aaron Taylor-Johnson), who’ve been trained by Avengers/S.H.I.E.L.D. nemeses Hydra as a counter to the Avengers, as well as Vision (Paul Bettany, in an extension of his disembodied Iron Man role, Jarvis).

Things go more or less how you’d expect them to go and Age of Ultron offers very little by way of surprises. There’s nothing shocking like the death of Agent Coulson in the first Avengers or the Hydra takeover of S.H.I.E.L.D. in Captain America: The Winter Soldier; there are no earth-shattering revelations that change the way we look at our heroes. Boundaries are not pushed in any meaningful way. At least, not in terms of story-telling.

The look of the film, however, is unlike anything we’ve seen from Marvel so far, which is saying something considering how awesome all the films in the Marvel Cinematic Universe have looked. There’s a kind of grittiness to the way the film is shot, muting the feel of the world, which reflects the overall tones and themes of the movie. A sense of hopelessness and impending doom permeates the film which is mirrored beautifully in the way shots are set up and portrayed. Director Joss Whedon has really stretched his wings as a filmmaker and he deserves to be lauded for his efforts.

I just wish the overall narrative had matched the scope of his vision. Even at two and a half hours, the story feels needlessly rushed. Vision, Scarlet Witch, and Quicksilver are particularly shafted as none of them received the screen time or development they all deserve. Of course, their inclusion bodes well for their appearances in future films, but it felt cheap to introduce them here, when our focus should be on the team as we know it.

Which, I suppose, is sort of a metaphor for the film as a whole. While all of the parts of the film are pretty awesome and fun to watch, there isn’t much by way of substance to the film as a stand-alone. If anything, Age of Ultron seems to be a sort of bridge or weigh station on the way to the next phase of MCU movies. The cracks in the team that lead to the rift of next year’s Captain America: Civil War are beginning to show and there’s a lot of set up for the next big team up, Avengers: The Infinity War. In this sense, it’s absolutely vital to see Age of Ultron as you’ll most likely be lost without it but, unlike its predecessor, it doesn’t quite stand on its own two legs.

Whereas the original Avengers felt like the culmination of something big—the tying together of storylines to cement a universe after years of teasing and promises—Age of Ultron kind of just…exists. I’m not trying to argue against its existence, as I am perfectly pleased that it does. There was just a bit of soul I found to be lacking in the final product. Whedon has stated in interviews that the original cut clocked in at almost three and a half hours and, honestly, I kind of hope we get to see that at some point in the future. Maybe then the weaknesses in character and narrative development will work themselves out and maybe then it will be able to pass the bar it set for itself.

Avengers: Age of Ultron is in theaters now.

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