Avengers: Age of Ultron (2015)
Directed by Joss Whedon
When Tony Stark tries to jumpstart a dormant peacekeeping program, things go awry and Earth’s Mightiest Heroes are put to the ultimate test as the fate of the planet hangs in the balance. As the villainous Ultron emerges, it is up to The Avengers to stop him from enacting his terrible plans, and soon uneasy alliances and unexpected action pave the way for an epic and unique global adventure.
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57 films that influenced Avengers: Age of Ultron
What critics say influenced Avengers: Age of Ultron
As you likely recall, Skynet was a self-aware synthetic intelligence that forced Earth into a nuclear winter starting with 1984’s “The Terminator”.
BRUCE: …“The Matrix,” “The Terminator” and all of it’s sequels.
On a thematic level, Ultron is quite fascinating, especially in his assessment of the human race and how its biggest problem is nothing less than itself (a theme that has been interwoven into numerous sci-fi films in the past, ranging from Robert Wise’s The Day the Earth Stood Still, to James Cameron’s The Abyss).
Mark Ruffalo’s Bruce Banner is apparently now hooking up with Scarlett Johansson’s reliably badass Black Widow, yielding some retro-style banter — but even that thread is given a non-resolution that seems to half-assedly echo “Empire Strikes Back” but ultimately exists to simply set up fodder for some later installment.
As I was preparing to see "Avengers: Age of Ultron," I came across a curious fact: Every movie in Phase Two of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, from "Iron Man 3" to now, includes a scene in which someone's arm gets hacked off — an homage to Luke Skywalker losing his lightsaber-holding arm in "The Empire Strikes Back."
Marvel majordomo Kevin Feige recently revealed that every Marvel movie has a specific homage to “The Empire Strikes Back”: a minimum of one character or random victim will have their arm lopped off.
The sequel searches for a darker tonal shift, a sort of “Empire Strikes Back” for the Avengers.
On a thematic level, Ultron is quite fascinating, especially in his assessment of the human race and how its biggest problem is nothing less than itself (a theme that has been interwoven into numerous sci-fi films in the past, ranging from Robert Wise’s The Day the Earth Stood Still, to James Cameron’s The Abyss).
But the conversation happened all the way back in 1927 with “Metropolis,” again in 1951 with “The Day the Earth Stood Still” and then again and again with “2001: A Space Odyssey” (1968), “Star Wars” (1977), “Tron” (1982), “Blade Runner” (1982), “Short Circuit” (1986), “RoboCop” (1987), “Star Trek: Generations” (1994), “The Matrix” (1999), “A.I.
The title entity, given life through the use of an alien contraption rather than as a result of a scientific breakthrough, isn't that different from Star Trek: The Motion Picture 's V'Ger, except Ultron (whose voice is provided by James Spader) is a 9-foot high robot bent on "cleansing" the Earth whereas V'Ger was a little bigger.
As designed and played, Bettany’s character is visually beautiful, eerily contained, the latest in a line of otherworldly cinematic wunderkind that stretches all the way back to “Metropolis” in 1927.
But the conversation happened all the way back in 1927 with “Metropolis,” again in 1951 with “The Day the Earth Stood Still” and then again and again with “2001: A Space Odyssey” (1968), “Star Wars” (1977), “Tron” (1982), “Blade Runner” (1982), “Short Circuit” (1986), “RoboCop” (1987), “Star Trek: Generations” (1994), “The Matrix” (1999), “A.I.
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Returning as the director, Whedon (most famous for Firefly , Serenity and Buffy ) has compared this Avengers sequel to Westerns like Rio Bravo (1959) where groups of people defend their town from outsiders.
There’s quotable dialogue, delivered with the deadpan camaraderie of Howard Hawks ("Bringing up Baby," "Rio Bravo’), and scenes that evoke earlier classics without feeling too obviously like homages.
Each character gets to do their thing, American exceptionalism is invoked and, in a completely unexpected turn of events, the plot ends up borrowing elements from 1990’s Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles .
This reminded me of Uma Thurman’s Poison Ivy and her red mist mind-controlling pheromones in Joel Schumacher’s “Batman & Robin.”
Protecting civilians was already a theme in the first Avengers movie, but it’s even more prominent here, perhaps in response to criticism of DC’s Man of Steel on this point.
One can't wonder if this is Joss Whedon giving a big middle finger to Zack Snyder's Man of Steel , which seemed not to care much about puny humans becoming collateral damage as interplanetary gods smashed up the place.
There's a pointed emphasis on avoiding the kind of collateral damage for which Man of Steel 's finale (and for that matter the Avengers Assemble finale) was so heavily criticised, with the team talking up the importance of keeping civilians safe amidst the smash-happy chaos.
What “Age of Ultron” also has is a sense of fun, which persists even when things go kablooey — not always the case with other superhero films (yes, I’m scowling at you, “Man of Steel”).
I have to think this obsessive, specific humanism is in response in part to the disappointed horror levelled against Man of Steel--it's too meticulous, too flagrant, to be accidental.
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But the conversation happened all the way back in 1927 with “Metropolis,” again in 1951 with “The Day the Earth Stood Still” and then again and again with “2001: A Space Odyssey” (1968), “Star Wars” (1977), “Tron” (1982), “Blade Runner” (1982), “Short Circuit” (1986), “RoboCop” (1987), “Star Trek: Generations” (1994), “The Matrix” (1999), “A.I.
“Avengers: Age of Ultron” will probably be the second-biggest Hollywood release of 2015 (after the J.J. Abrams “Star Wars” relaunch), so the answer provided by the Invisible Hand of the market would seem clear enough.
But the conversation happened all the way back in 1927 with “Metropolis,” again in 1951 with “The Day the Earth Stood Still” and then again and again with “2001: A Space Odyssey” (1968), “Star Wars” (1977), “Tron” (1982), “Blade Runner” (1982), “Short Circuit” (1986), “RoboCop” (1987), “Star Trek: Generations” (1994), “The Matrix” (1999), “A.I.
In fact, he's the most intriguing character in the film, following in the footsteps of HAL 9000 of “2001: A Space Odyssey.”
BRUCE: But surely you’ve seen movies like “2001: A Space Odyssey,” “Colossus: The Forbin Project,” “WarGames”…