Hello everyone and welcome back to MCU Rewatch Month! Today’s movie is Avengers: Age of Ultron, marking the near end of Marvel’s Phase Two. If you missed it, our previous recap was for Guardians of the Galaxy, which you should definitely read to keep up with our place in the MCU thus far. Now let’s jump on into Avengers: Age of Ultron and remember, spoilers are ahead!
Avengers: Age of Ultron premiered on May 1st, 2015 and made a worldwide gross of $1,405,413,868. It’s the eleventh film in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, is rated PG-13, and runs for a total of 141 minutes.
“Doesn’t matter what you did, or who you were. If you go out there, you fight, and you fight to kill. Stay in here, you’re good, I’ll send your brother to come find you. But you step out that door, you are an Avenger.”
Clint Barton, Avengers: Age of Ultron
Recap:
The movie begins with the Avengers attacking a Hydra facility in Sokovia, seen at the end of Captain America: The Winter Solider, where Loki’s scepter is being held. Baron Wolfgang von Strucker has been illegally experimenting on two of his volunteers, Pietro and Wanda Maximoff, who have gained special abilities from the scepter – Pietro has super speed and Wanda has telekinesis and telepathy. Wanda uses her abilities to force Tony Stark to see the deaths of the other Avengers and Earth itself. The twins get away as the Avengers take Strucker into custody and reclaim the scepter.
Tony and Bruce Banner discover the gem inside the scepter has artificial intelligence which could be used to complete Tony’s “Ultron” program – a global defense protocol. During a party at Stark Tower we see a few familiar faces, such as Sam Wilson, who has been tracking down the Winter Solider, and Rhodey, who has been working with the War Machine suit. While the party is going on, Ultron awakens and destroys JARVIS and attacks the Avengers. Ultron escapes with the scepter and begins building more drones in his new headquarters, Strucker’s old Hydra base. He also recruits the Maximoff twins, who blame Tony Stark for their parents’ deaths.
The Avengers figure out that Ultron plans on getting vibranium from arms dealer Ulysses Klaue, and confront him and the twins at Klaue’s base in Johannesburg. Wanda uses her powers to create visions in Thor, Steve Rogers, Natasha Romanoff, and Bruce. Bruce turns into the Hulk and rampages Johannesburg until Tony stops him with anti-hulk armor.
The Avengers have been shaken by the hallucinations and their is backlash against the Hulk, so Clint Barton brings the team to a safe-house, being his family’s farm – he’s had his children and wife hidden from SHIELD data for protection. Thor leaves the farm to find Dr. Erik Selvig for assistance in understanding his hallucination, where he has seen the Infinity Stones. Nick Fury shows up at the farm and brings the Avengers together once more. Meanwhile, Ultron has gone to Seoul to visit Dr. Helen Cho, a friend of the Avengers who has been developing “the cradle,” which builds synthetic tissue. Using the cradle, the vibranium, and the gem from Loki’s scepter, Ultron goes about creating a body for himself. When he begins to upload his mind into the cradle Wanda is able to see his thoughts, where he plans on global destruction. The twins leave Ultron just as Steve, Nat, and Clint attack. The join the Avengers to help defeat Ultron, Clint gets the cradle to bring to Tony, but Nat is captured by Ultron and brought to his Sokovian base.
The Avengers turn against each other when Tony begins uploading JARVIS, who wasn’t killed by Ultron but hiding in the Internet, into the cradle’s body. Thor returns and uses his powers to activate the body, bringing to life Vision. We learn that the gem inside the scepter, and now Vision, is the Mind Stone, one of the six Infinity Stones. The team, now including the Maximoff twins and Vision, head to Sokovia for the final confrontation with Ultron and to find Nat. Ultron has used his remaining vibranium to create a machine that lifts part of the city into the sky, hoping to get it high enough to crash it downwards, causing global extinction. Bruce finds Nat, but she pushes him into a large hole, saying that she needs “the big guy.”
The team struggles to fight and protect the civilians until Nick Fury, Maria Hill, and Rhodey show up with some old SHIELD agents and a helicarrier to bring civilians to safety. Pietro is killed while protecting Clint and a child from Ultron’s bullet fire and Wanda abandons her post protecting the machine to get her revenge on Ultron. One of Ultron’s drones then activates the machine, where Tony and Thor must rush to overload the machine and implode the city before it hits Earth. Vision saves Wanda from going down with the city and kills Ultron’s final body. The Hulk leaves Nat on the helicarrier and flies off in a quinjet.
The movie ends with a new Anvers base being run by Fury and Hill. We see Dr. Cho and Selvig bringing in their equipment to the facility. Thor returns to Asgard to uncover more of his vision and what is happening with the Infinity Stones. Tony tells Steve that he is taking a break from being Iron Man and Clint has retired and returned home to his family. Steve and Nat enter the training facility to assemble the new Avengers team, made up of War Machine (Rhodey), Falcon (Sam Wilson), Vision, and Scarlet Witch (Wanda).
We get one end credits scene which shows Thanos getting his gauntlet and vowing the retrieve the Infinity Stones himself.
Review:
This is another solid MCU film, but it runs into the same issue as Thor: Dark World in that it’s pretty boring at times. The main issue I noticed was the odd placement of comedic moments, the timing was all off. This movie desperately needed the comedy but it just felt odd when it hit, like it didn’t belong in the scene.
Another issue with the film was the forced romantic relationship between Bruce Banner and Natasha Romanoff. Coming after Winter Solider we have no indiction that Nat is looking for anything resembling a relationship, other than finding her own place within the team. Then, ten minutes into the film and she’s flirting with Bruce and asking him to run with her. It just felt so completely out of place in this movie, plus these two characters are the last people needing to be in a relationship. Bruce seems uncomfortable by the idea throughout the entirety of the film, adding to the awkwardness of the romantic scenes. While it forces some backstory out of Nat, that she can’t have children due to her training in the Red Room, it seems so weird that she’s blurting out her inability to conceive in a superhero movie. It’s all very out of place.
I was upset that they killed off Quicksilver (Pietro) in this movie as I thought he had a lot of potential in the MCU. The scenes in slow motion showing his super speed were really fun additions to the movie and his character played off the others, especially Clint, well. Maybe with the supposed time travel in Endgame we could see Pietro in the future of the MCU, but I’m no holding my breath.
Lastly, people had issues with the focus on Hawkeye (Clint) during this movie and the time the team spends at his farm. While it does slow the movie down, I think it’s needed as a place for the team to regroup and breath after their loss in Johannesburg. I didn’t mind seeing Clint’s family, it brings the characters down to a more human level and is a big part of Clint’s motivations in this film and in his future in the MCU.
Why is this Important?
This movie brings the Infinity Stones into The Avengers films, showing that the bigger battle will effect them in the future. Vision is created out of the Mind Stone and is now part of the team. W also get the end credits scene showing Thanos and his gauntlet, setting the stage for Infinity War. Thor has left to figure out what is happening with the rest of the stones, leading him into Thor: Raganarok. This is also the last time we see the Hulk until Raganarok. We also see the new Avengers team which will lead us and them into Captain America: Civil War. Lastly, we see more of Tony’s motivation to protect the Earth, as well as his fears still stemming from the Battle of New York in The Avengers.
Do I need this for Endgame?
I would say skip it and watch two scenes on Youtube: the first being the creation of Vision and Thor’s explanation of the Infinity Stones, the second being the ending scene where Thor leaves and Steve sets up the new team. Both will lead you into the next phase of MCU movies.
Rating:
I am currently rating the films as I watch them. The current ranking stands as:
- Guardians of the Galaxy
- Captain America: The Winter Solider
- The Avengers
- Captain America: The First Solider
- Iron Man
- Avengers: Age of Ultron
- Iron Man 2
- Iron Man 3
- The Incredible Hulk
- Thor
- Thor: The Dark World
I had a hard time placing this movie in my ranking. I think it’s a solid movie but ultimately the first Captain America and Iron Man are better films than Age of Ultron. The only thing this movie has going for it on a rewatch are Clint, the Maximoff twins, and the Infinity Stones., whereas the first Captain America and Iron Man are much more fun to rewatch.
And there we are, nearly done with Phase Two! What did you think of Avengers: Age of Ultron? Did you love it or hate it, let me know in the comments below. Tune in next time for the conclusion to MCU Phase Two with Antman!
Jen Pereira 