Hey everyone welcome back to Silver Screen Spectacle! Today we’re continuing our MCU Flashback with Avengers: Age of Ultron. The film was a massive hit, but the critical response even from audiences was more varied. While most people enjoyed the film, it was almost universally agreed that it felt pointless and a step down from the first film. Well, looking back this film was setting an insane amount of things up so how has it aged now that the Infinity Saga is over.
This is a rare MCU movie that just keeps getting better with age for me. Back in 2015, this was easily one of my most anticipated films of the year, but it took me three viewings before I was sure if I even liked it or not. Nowadays I see how important this film was to the overall story. So I want to start with my issues in what I still think is the weakest Avengers film. I felt they struggled to recapture that magic the first film had in its action scenes, they're still tons of fun but nothing chill-inducing for me. The Black Widow and Banner/Hulk romance is not a bad idea, but they never made it work in any of these films. Finally, as funny as I find this movie, the humor is occasionally a bit overkill with how non-stop it becomes.
Now let’s talk about what I love, which has only grown larger. I love this movie knows you are here to see the Avengers and just throws you right into the action. Introducing Wanda and Pietro with his eventual death gets handled much more strongly than I remember. However, Elizabeth Olsen’s accent is still a bit distracting. I think with WandaVison expanding on things I’ve grown more attached to their stories in retrospect. The party scene where they’re all just hanging out trying to lift Thor’s hammer is easily my favorite sequence. These characters are so interesting that I could just watch them talk for 2.5 hours. The farm sequence with Hawkeye is my second favorite sequence, and I feel like they really learned from the strengths of this part for Endgame. The ending battle is tons of fun with plenty of huge laughs, especially involving Hawkeye. This movie really is just nonstop fun scene after fun scene.
Paul Bettany does excellent finally getting to physically act with the introduction of Vision. I still remember the theater’s reaction to the scene where he lifts the hammer. James Spader’s Ultron is a more menacing villain than I remembered. He is still occasionally a little too jokey, but that doesn’t take away from his many exceptional moments. This was the last time Joss Whedon worked with Marvel, and it’s easy to see why. There was clearly a struggle in some scenes of what Whedon wanted to do creatively and what Marvel required. In terms of credits scenes, there is only one this time, and it’s easily one of the most pointless ones as it got retconned down the line. It shows Thanos getting an infinity gauntlet, saying he would do things himself finally. The problem is they changed this in Avengers: Infinity War, which changed the origin of the glove.
So overall, Avengers: Age of Ultron has grown on me considerably over the years. It’s still got its fair share of problems but now that I can see what Marvel was setting up this movie ties in nicely. So guys, that’s it for this MCU Flashback next time we’re wrapping up Phase 2 with Ant-Man. Hope you all enjoyed it and I’ll see you next time.
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