Avengers Age of Ultron: The MCU Film with a Story
In life do we always cover up our problems or do we evolve by the problems we face?
Humans. We are all messy and terrible individuals. In a smaller scope most of us may not be able to be faithful to our loved ones and go ahead to cheat on them. Most of us may not have the will to live happily ever after. Most of us may end up divorcing our partners whom we had promised to love. Our flaws, our problems, our ignorance all one by one led to the downfall of every relationship in life. That is just the brink of the iceberg.
Throughout history war is no stranger to humanity. WW1, WW2 and the cold war were just the most famous of them all. Who were we fighting against within all these wars? Some alien species? A robot army? No. We had always been against ourselves. We were the bearer of our own sufferings. We too brought suffering to others. Even as recently as of writing there are ongoing wars within Russia and Ukraine and the Israel-Palestine conflict. If you were little and heard of these wars you may just ask yourself why can’t all of us just live in peace? Why can’t we just stop all this suffering? Why do we just cover up the issues of the past and present? Why are we so messy? Well, we can all just die to fix the problem. If humans are extinct then no more war. No more deaths. No more conflict. At least that is what Ultron had assumed.
In reality though, why don’t we evolve? Humans are not robots. We are emotional beings. The moment we do something wrong we may feel bad and know that we should change for the greater good. We are not idle programmes who just sit around and do whatever is being told. We can change. We can be whoever we want to be. Of course, that change may not be the best, but it could also be good too.
When I watched Avengers Age of Ultron the one thing that immediately came to mind is how it differs from other MCU entries. There were still visual heavy fight scenes, but the core focus of this film is more about the character’s story rather than the end of the world plotline. No longer do we have the typical united as one theme to carry the film but rather a whole new theme that is philosophical.
The first thing about the film which is great are the characters. Every character here actually has something to do thematically. They don’t just blast their weapons and kill bad guys; they are presented as real people with everyday problems. Tony Stark and Bruce Banner are the main highlights of the film.
Tony is presented from the start with this fear of not being able to save his friends and causing the world to be doomed. The truth is that he is still traumatised by the attack on New York and how he had nearly died trying to save everyone. This in turn creates a burden on his back. It seemed as if without him the world would be doomed. His ego takes over and no longer sees that working together is what truly makes every battle a success. So what does he do to overcome his fear? He goes ahead to create more bots and an entirely new AI to combat against the evils of this world. It is kind of like a Tony 2.0 whereby he is still able to defend but not risking his death as if he died then the world is also dead. Unfortunately, Ultron would prove that the world does not revolve around Tony. He is the central catalyst of everything that happens. It was his fear which created Ultron. It was him who had made the world more dangerous,not more peaceful. In the end he sees what his mistakes had caused and that instead of working alone to create something worse he could have worked together with his teammates to create something better and more peaceful. That is Tony’s arc and through the theme we see how Tony does not just build more walls to cover up the problem but rather he evolves to achieve his lesson.
Bruce Banner has the best Hulk storyline in the entire MCU. In this film, his fear is from him being afraid of the Hulk. The Hulk is an uncontrollable beast who sought after anyone he sees. All the innocence which may have been killed by him makes Bruce wonder whether he was a murderer or a hero? Sure, it was Hulk who accidentally killed them but in the end, Bruce is the Hulk so doesn’t that make him guilty? We first see Hulk as this uncontrollable beast which only Black Widow is able to control. Only she can calm him down. The whole reason why Bruce even helped Tony was because he knows that Hulk is uncontrollable and that by having a robot to protect everyone, he no longer needs to become the Hulk, so everyone is saved. Of course, his fear would finally come true as Wanda placed a spell on him which caused him to Hulk out and terrorize the city. This makes him a powerless and low confident person once more. He no longer sees himself as a hero but a murderer. He no longer wants to be the Hulk and just wants to run away from the terror he had caused which is exactly what he did.
Tony showed how humans were able to evolve beyond their mistakes while Bruce shows how humans would not grow but rather run away or build blocks to cover up their problems.
Every character here also has their own arc. Captain America here has to test his ideals within the modern time period. He knows we should all work together and solve a problem. That problem must also be 100% solved. So, could any of it be achieved in the modern time? During WW2, it could be simpler due to how all he had to do was beat up some soldiers and he’d won the day. Now though there is a crazy robot on the loose which was created by a fellow teammate who refused to tell him anything about it and that robot is planning to blow up an entire city. The problem is beyond beating a bad guy more so on the emotionality of the team and the scope of the threat. There is a lot to go on and his ideals were always challenged by the world around him. In the end, he managed to achieve his ideals and that no matter how tough things get, the right way is always the way.
For Black Widow, she has to live with her traumatic past. She had done some terrible things like killing an innocent person, but the past is the past. She should not try and cover it all up. All she could do is live with it and move on. Life could bring her something better and sure enough it did.
For Hawkeye he acts as this kind of father/mentor figure who has to help others out in any way possible. We know that due to his superhero persona, he had already spent less time with his family. He may have already missed more than enough opportunities to watch his kids grow. Now he has to face off against rogue teens. So, as promised to his wife he would try his best to help out those teens as a father would to his child. By the end despite him being a guy with a bow and arrow he was able to inspire them to a greater future. Without Hawkeye, Wanda would not even be her character today. Even if he can’t help out his children, he would not just give up on sight, he would still try his best to help everyone who is needed.
For Thor he may not have the most impactful arc of all, but his one is still a nice touch. Here Thor has to learn to work as a team. Tony made a mistake, but does that mean he should be mad and kill him? He is proud that he is the only one who is worthy so what? Just because he is worthy does that make him more powerful than them all so he can do whatever he wants? When he does see his fear from Wanda’s spell, he truly witnesses how his team is important. The fact that he is not the strongest but realizing everyone is equal and that by working together only we could bring out the most powerful force. We can see how he did this with Vision as he does not allow his pride to take over and has Vision to use the hammer to attack Ultron.
Of course, how could I not mention Ultron as well. Ultron is one of the most fascinating villains of the MCU. His whole goal and motive are born from his programme of attaining peace. Unfortunately, Ultron does see that he needs to attain peace for humans, not just peace universally. As he sees it humans had never truly attained peace but only tried their best to conceal the conflict within like building blocks to cover up the problem. He knows that humans should evolve but they never do. Humans just like to stick to their usual selves. So instead of helping humans, killing them was the only way to truly instill peace. However, what Ultron did not know was that he himself was actually like all humans. Building blocks to cover up their problems. Instead of evolving to live with humans he is just killing them without actually solving the problem of peace. There will always be conflict and he himself is the central piece of conflict so how could he create peace if he is the one who created chaos.
With that in mind the film would go an extra mile for these characters. Instead of having them to have their own arcs, they would also act as catalysts or contradictions against each other to achieve their individual arcs.
Take Tony for example. His arc is about him overcoming his fear of him being powerless by working together in contrast with Captain America. He is the catalyst which pushes him towards his arc. He is the one who shows him how teamwork could save the day.
For Bruce, Natasha is his catalyst. His fear of killing others from something out of his control is in contrast with Natasha who is able to live with her past instead of fearing it.
For Hawkeye the Maximoff twins showed him his value. Him guiding Wanda to be an Avenger and him being a hero to save every life even if it cost his own which prompted Quicksilver to sacrifice himself for him. Quicksilver saw Hawkeye as a hero, and he too wants to be one.
For Ultron, Vision is his catalyst as Vision sees the world as it should be. Chaos and peace are unattainable, but we could slowly work our way towards a united peace.
It is truly interesting to see how each character is able to push one another. We also see how truly evolving is not just a person’s effort but rather the effort of an entire team of people.
If you have read most of my reviews, then you may know that I tend to praise the visual side of most movies and that is a case here as well. Film is a visual medium and if a film is beautiful and one which can be amazed by then it is definitely worth every penny and seconds to watch and experience it. This film perhaps had one of the most interesting visual takes of an MCU film. The color palette for example is not just its usual grey color palette but a mix of it to encapsulate each character’s emotion in that scene.
In conclusion, Avengers Age of Ultron is perhaps the most underrated MCU film as it contains one of the best stories of a superhero film. The theme is philosophical and thought provoking along with characters who all serve a thematic purpose in the larger story. My only hope now is for Ultron to return once more as the great villain he had always been.
Avengers Age of Ultron is now streaming on Disney Plus.
