Over five years after its premiere, the second movie in the Avengers series, Avengers: Age of Ultron, found itself trending on Twitter last weekend. The trend seemed to build in popularity after a tweet by Twitter user @slythwalker_28 featuring four screencaps from the movie with the caption, “Can we stop pretending Age of Ultron is a bad movie??”
Fans added to the conversation, expressing their love for their favorite plot lines. There were allusions to fan-favorite scenes like Clint’s (Jeremy Renner) secret farm (or specifically, Chris Evans’ Steve Rogers chopping firewood in a tight blue shirt while on Clint’s secret farm), the budding “Brutasha” romance between Natasha Romanoff (Scarlett Johansson) and Bruce Banner (Mark Ruffalo), and the introduction of Wanda Maximoff/Scarlet Witch (Elizabeth Olsen).
This launched into a debate over whether or not Age of Ultron is a “good” movie; while some Marvel fans say it’s the weakest in the Avengers quartet, others passionately disagree. Here’s what Twitter had to say in defense of this under-appreciated movie.
Scarlet Witch/Wanda Maximoff has been a major topic of conversation for Marvel fans everywhere as later this week premieres her titular show WandaVision. While Ultron is the main villain in Age of Ultron, the Maximoff twins are a key component in his destruction. He enlists them to use their superhuman abilities against the Avengers team. The two successfully paralyze the team with fear and anger as Wanda plants deadly dream-like illusions into their minds, illuminating their worst nightmares and turning them against one another.
The Maximoffs eventually join the good side after discovering Ultron’s plan to eradicate human existence, but not until they have forced the Avengers into hiding. They become essential in the Avengers’ success against Ultron. In the final battle, Pietro Maximoff/Quicksilver (Aaron Taylor-John) saves Hawkeye’s life by shielding him and Wanda ultimately destroys Ultron by tearing out his mechanical heart, the power cell that keeps him operating.
Much of Age of Ultron’s criticism came from the movie taking on too much, which is a common problem for creators. Oftentimes, because of Marvel’s long legacy, the directors and writers are faced with an abundance of information, storylines, and references that they would like to include in the movie. It’s an issue of overambition and fan-service.
That being said, director Joss Whedon received a lot of praise for his work. In an Empire review of the movie, critic Helen O’Hara wrote, “Age of Ultron redefines the scale we can expect from our superheroes.” However, many fans disagreed and felt as though Ultron was lazily introduced, criticizing Whedon for making him a one-off character. Although expertly written with amazing dialogue and dimension, Ultron’s creation and then permanent destruction chronicled the movie.
Ultron is driven by emotion, having been devised by Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr.) out of his fear of intergalactic threats to the world and his incessant want to create “a suit of armor around the world.” Ultron has a deep care for the Maximoffs despite only having rescued them for recruitment into his Army. Even after she betrays him and joins the Avengers’ side, Ultron cautions her and says, “if you stay here, you’ll die.”
Age of Ultron introduced a number of storylines that were essential to the sequential movies that followed. The movie foreshadowed Captain America’s ability to wield Thor’s hammer which was later seen in the final Avengers installment, Avengers: Endgame. In Age of Ultron, this was one of the few times in the franchise where the Avengers and SHIELD squad are seen relaxing and casually partaking in each other’s company. After knocking back a few beers and some Asgardian liquor, the crew gathered around to see who was worthy enough to pick up Thor’s hammer, the infamous Mjölnir. Turns out, Steve Rogers was the only one who could make it budge.
The movie also led to the creation of Vision. As Ultron gains power and takes over the Avengers tower, he disables Tony Stark’s artificial intelligence system, JARVIS. The computer system later becomes uploaded into a human-like robotic body created by renowned scientist Helen Cho (Claudia Kim) until coerced by Ultron, along with the Mind Stone. Vision’s creation is ultra important to the rest of the series, he becomes a highly sought after commodity as Thanos (Josh Brolin) appears in a mid-credits scene and decides to capture the Infinity Stones himself.
The entire storyline also built up to the entire premise of Captain America: Civil War as the villainous feats of Zemo are allowed to go as far as they do because the Avengers are ripped apart by the Sokovia Accords, put into development after the large battle (located in Sokovia) to stop Ultron caused destruction in the country’s densely-populated city.
Avengers: Age of Ultron is not everybody’s cup of tea, but fans on Twitter built a strong argument as to why this underrated movie deserves a lot more credit than it is given. Not only is its content super relevant with the upcoming release of WandaVision, but its plot was heavily relied on in the future movies that followed it.
Avengers: Age of Ultron is available for streaming on Disney+.
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