Avengers: Age of Ultron has gone down in recent history as the black sheep of the MCU, and many of the film’s failings are reflective of its writer/director Joss Whedon’s worst tendencies. Whedon was undeniably a big part of the MCU’s early success by helming the first Avengers to unprecedented success — a feat many at the time felt was impossible. That success didn’t carry over into the sequel, however, which received a mixed-to-bad reception from fans and critics alike upon release.
Of course, a blockbuster with the scale of Ultron is way bigger than any one person. There were many factors in the film’s lukewarm release, including creative disagreements between the studio and production team and the difficult task of balancing the franchise’s various solo series and plotlines. The MCU eventually found its footing again in Phase 3, and the immense success of Infinity War and Endgame wouldn’t have been possible without the groundwork that came before. Many of Age of Ultron’s failings were the inevitable results of growing pains.
Click the button below to start this article in quick view.
That said, responsibility must inevitably fall at the feet of the leader, which in the case of Ultron, was undeniably Whedon. As the writer/director of the MCU’s first crossover extravaganza, he had high level if creative control and stylistic influence on Phase 2 and the second Avengers film. In the end, that Whedon-factor arguably did more harm than good, as many of the movies shortcomings can be traced back to the worst aspects of Whedon’s creative style.
Whedon’s Black Widow Controversy Explained
For much of his career, Whedon was celebrated as a champion of feminist writing and strong female characters in series like Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Firefly, and Dollhouse. However, that reputation has since been significantly tarnished. A 2017 essay from Whedon’s ex-wife Kai Cole painted a picture of the man as unfaithful and emotionally manipulative — a persona Cole accused Whedon of trying to hide through dishonest writing.
In the wake of Ray Fisher’s accusations of terrible treatment on the Justice League set, many more of Whedon’s past collaborators and coworkers have spoken out about toxic work environments. Charisma Carpenter, one of the main stars of Buffy and the spinoff series Angel, was reported removed from the franchise after becoming pregnant against Whedon’s wishes. Carpenter’s character, Cordelia, was killed off in a storyline that at the very best can be described as rushed and disappointing.
All that is to say that Whedon’s early reputation as a feminist writer has come into conflict with many accounts of his actual behavior. In Age of Ultron, that contradiction takes the shape of Black Widow, a character’s whose whole role in the film feels anything but feminist. Throughout Ultron, Black Widow serves primarily as both mother figure and love interest for Bruce Banner: not only is she the Avenger tasked with calming the Hulk down, she’s even shown pouring Bruce drinks inexplicably behind the bar at the big Avengers party, literally taking on a serving role. Later, she tearfully calls herself a monster — not because of her assassin history, but because she can’t have children.
A plotline about Natasha’s dark backstory and the indelible impact it had on her life could have been fascinating. A character in her position would have plenty of reason to lament the life she couldn’t have: the life that was taken from her, and that her friend Hawkeye seemingly has. But the way Whedon writes the story in Ultron reduces a complex, empowered women to someone whose primary traits are being sexy, taking care of a man who literally can’t control himself, and wishing she could have babies. It’s a bad look, and one of the more problematic arcs in Whedon’s entire body of work.
The Black Widow & Hulk Romance Didn’t Work
Along with Black Widow’s questionable priorities came an awkward love story that felt anything but earned. Soap opera relationship drama and love triangles are trademarks of Whedon’s most famous works, and he’s often written them to great effect. Buffy, being largely a teen drama, thrives off its rotating relationship roulette, and Firefly sets up way more romance than you would think could adequately fit in fourteen episodes. In Ultron though, that penchant for quirky love stories feels entirely out of place.
The will-they/won’t-they of Black Widow and Hulk was so poorly received by viewers that Marvel sent the Hulk to space in Thor: Ragnarok and essentially the MCU continued like the whole relationship never existed. What was clearly meant to come off as a cute and touching relationship between two troubled characters came off feeling more like Buffy’s toxic affair with Spike in the later seasons of her own show – a plotline that was entertaining in the context of soapy TV, but which falls completely flat in an action blockbuster like Ultron.
The Avengers Sounded Too Quippy
For most of its duration, the MCU has faced the same repeated criticism that all the characters essentially talk the same. Terms like “quippy” and “focus-tested” have been thrown around a lot in reference to the particular style of MCU jokes and dialogue, and in many cases those accusations have been fair. The franchise has developed more distinct styles for its different series in recent years, but there was certainly a time when the Marvel was plagued by overly-jokey dialogue, and Age of Ultron may be the worst offender.
Whedon’s particular brand of snarky quipping has been a trademark of his writing for decades, and it has a definitive time and place. The first Avengers has some genuinely funny lines in that style, and the chemistry between the core cast makes their quick back-and-forth fun to watch. The problem with Ultron is that it takes that style and pushes it into every part of the movie. Tony Stark blows up a building, almost assuredly killing multiple bad guys? It gets punctuated by a snarky joke. Hulk begins violently rampaging through an entire foreign city? — another quip. Fighting a climactic battle with the fate of the human race at stake? More out of place jokes, mid-action.
Even Ultron, a malicious AI bent on mass destruction, constantly makes jokes that feel right out of Buffy — and thus undermine both his characterization as a hyper-intelligent life form as well as a sinister threat to mankind. In a confrontation with Ultron early on, Thor tries to avoid violence by saying that “Nobody has to break anything,” to which Ultron responds, “Clearly you’ve never made an omelet.” Not only does the exchange feel forced, but the groan-worthy nature of the joke itself actually detracts from the scene. This kind of unnecessary joking, which happens throughout, not only pulls tension away from the seriousness of those moments, it also lessens the effect of the actual good jokes, leaving the whole script feeling like an extended, homogenous blur with no moments of distinction.
Age of Ultron Tried Too Hard To Set Up New Stories
Whedon was heavily involved in all of MCU Phase 2, assisting in different uncredited rewrite and production capacities on films like Guardians of the Galaxy and Thor: The Dark World. Through his career, Whedon has often written with a comics story model in mind, integrating large character ensembles, spinoffs, supporting media and multi-threaded overarching plotlines. That structure is central to the very concept of the MCU, but it’s not always a good thing — as seen in Age of Ultron.
Simply speaking, the movie just has too much going on. From Hawkeye’s secret family plotline to Thor’s trippy visions, the love story between Natasha and Banner, building tensions for Civil War, multiple major new characters being introduced, and the actual Ultron story, the movie just bites off more than it can chew in the span of a feature film. Age of Ultron does more than any other MCU film to set up additional stories in the franchise, but it suffers severely under the weight of so many different plots — and its central storyline is underdeveloped in the process. The version that released in theaters was even less than what Whedon planned, with some content being cut including an extended dream sequence for Thor. Characters like Vision and Scarlet Witch took years to properly establish themselves, largely because the film that introduced them was too busy setting up five other movies.
Age of Ultron Had Many Plot Holes & Inconsistencies
On top of all these broader issues, Age of Ultron is littered with small plot holes and inconsistencies. How is Hulk so uncontrollable that the team needs orbital weapons to contain him, yet he possesses the physical and mental dexterity to fly a plane? Why do the Avengers go into hiding on Hawkeye’s farm when there are never any actual repercussions for Hulks rampage until the Sokovia Accords? Why does Ultron behave like a human villain? Where was Falcon? How is Vision actually created? The list goes on. The movie runs by so fast and covers so much ground that most of it feels unconvincing and/or unfinished. It may have led to bigger and better things, but Avengers: Age of Ultron is a far cry from the MCU’s best film, and it exemplifies many of Joss Whedon’s worst tendencies.
About The Author