There, I said it. I’ve been sitting on this take for years and have finally gotten permission to get it off my chest.
The Marvel Cinematic Universe has captured our imaginations in three different decades across 30 movies with a revolving door of hundreds of characters who cycle in and out for one another.
We’ve seen the best of the best from it like Avengers: Endgame, the Black Panther saga and Thor: Ragnarok. We’ve also seen some of the absolute worst like Iron Man 2, pretty much every other Thor movie and *sigh* The Eternals.
Somewhere in the middle of all those highs and lows lies Joss Whedon’s Avengers: The Age of Ultron.
Not only is this movie the most maligned Avengers title — which makes sense considering its counterparts — it’s also constantly downplayed in the grand scale of the MCU. It’s one of the movies people love to hate. It’s currently ranked 26th out of the 30 MCU movies on Rotten Tomatoes.
Of course, this film definitely has its warts. But was it really that bad? I have my theories as to why people are so turned off by it.
Some critiques are reasonable. What Joss Whedon did with Natasha Romanov’s character in the film is unforgivable. The Black Widow went from the team’s top spy to… Bruce Banner’s caretaker? That didn’t make a ton of sense. Plus, the romance on top of that felt forced.
Also, why was this movie so funny? Don’t get me wrong — one of the best parts of the MCU is that it doesn’t take itself too seriously. We like the jokes and the light humor from our heroes. But in a movie like this where the stakes are so high and the end of the human race is a potential risk, maybe fewer Ultron quips would’ve given more weight to the movie.
The death of Quicksilver is also inexplicable. He’s the fastest man alive and has been running circles around everyone the whole time, but couldn’t dodge bullets while saving a life? FOX’s Quicksilver was better.
But, those critiques alone shouldn’t be enough to cause people to turn so quickly on this film. There are other MCU films with far worse plot points and less interesting characters.
My other theory here is that this movie is just the middle child of the MCU. And you know how things get for the middle child.
It doesn’t give people the nostalgic feeling Phase 1 did because it’s not the beginning of it all. It isn’t as precious as Phase 3, which unequivocally has the best MCU content to date. Heavy hitters like Captain America: Civil War, Black Panther, and both of the final Avengers movies were part of this phase. Oh, and did I forget to mention that they introduced Spider-Man to the MCU here? Phase 3 is absolutely the pinnacle of the MCU. It’s a slam dunk.
However, to get to that slam dunk, somebody had to throw the lob, right? That’s where the Age of Ultron comes in. People complained about how much content Whedon stuffed in this film, but the ripple effects from it all are still reverberating throughout the MCU.
This was our introduction to both Vision and Wanda Maximoff, who has officially become the Scarlet Witch. Those two are the stars of Phase 4 — there’s no question about it.
From Sokovia’s destruction, we got both the Sokovia Accords and Baron Zemo at the center of Captain America: Civil War. Because we got that, we also got an amazing introduction to Chadwick Boseman’s Black Panther which has been a bellwether franchise for the MCU. Speaking of Black Panther, Ulysses Klaue also made his debut in this film.
If you’re a fan of Thor: Ragnarok — which, pretty much every MCU fan is — you need to be grateful for Age of Ultron, too. Without Hulk leaving on that Quinjet at the end of the film, he never makes it to Sakaar and we never get that movie. We also don’t get his son, Skaar, in She-Hulk which means we probably wouldn’t be inching closer to the World War Hulk plotline everyone seems to be so desperate for.
I say all this to say, yes, this movie absolutely had its warts. And some of them are ugly warts. But as time has passed, it’s become pretty clear that Age of Ultron is still a foundational piece in the MCU’s canon and it’s going to be for quite some time.
It deserves credit for that. Let’s give this movie its flowers.
