5. Baron Wolfgang von Strucker’s Untimely Demise. I’m no comic book geek but even I was like, “damn,” after I saw von Strucker vanquished in the first third of the film! He is not only a key, formidable foe of Captain America in the comics, but he was also seemingly pitted as the Avengers next rival in the post-credits scene in Captain America: The Winter Soldier.
To say it was a short-lived rivalry would be a great understatement.
4. Black Widow and Hulk Romance. I don’t know. It didn’t ruin the film but it just felt kind of forced to me. Moreover, it was a shocking turn given how the Winter Soldier movie hinted at a budding romance between she and Steve Rogers. Oh well.
3. “The Commercials.” And I don’t mean the product placements of Apple’s MacBooks or iPods. I am talking the unnecessary teasers for follow-up films within the MCU. I know. I know. We have to get glimpses into future movies like Black Panther and Thor: Ragnarok.
But I just felt that the inclusion of Ulysses Klaw (a known Black Panther nemesis) and Thor’s Asgardian-influenced dream sequences could have been much shorter or removed from the film altogether. In a film heavy on characters, the removal or shortening of these scenes could’ve deepened other plotlines.
2. Not Enough Ultron. You’d think in a film with the Avengers’ chief adversary’s name in the title, this film would have lived up to it. My buddy even suggested that they should have named the movie the Days of Ultron, rather than the “Age,” since his rise and fall all happened “oh-so-quickly!”
1. Lack of Character Development. Much has been chronicled about the lack of screen time per character in Marvel’s Avengers: Age of Ultron. When you have so many characters in a movie, it is extremely difficult to create memorable moments on-screen.
Unlike the first Avengers, this film did not have the benefit of leaning heavily on character development garnered from previous stand-alone prequels like Iron Man I-II, The Incredible Hulk, Captain America: The First Avenger and Thor. Nor does it have the benefit of a Netflix series like Daredevil–which provides dozens of hours of character development.
Age of Ultron played more like an Ocean’s 12–entertaining but lacking some substance. It’s a case of simple movie math: less (characters) typically yields more (depth).
It may sound like I hated this movie after reading the list above. However, I actually enjoyed Age of Ultron quite a bit. “The five things that I hated” are just a handful of the things that I didn’t like.
But I am confident that Marvel will tighten things up with the Civil and Infinity Wars just around the corner!
@Sai Dawson Glad you agreed. And you nailed it on the Hulk-Widow romance. I felt it was not needed.
Good post -1,2,3 are directly a result of studio influence. A lot of Ultron character development was cut out per various media sources. Some scenes were shoe horned in to tie to future movies then edited down in such a way as to weaken their significance(Thor pool scene) or confuse the general audience
4 is all Whedon’s idea/ fault – I wish the studio would’ve fought to have that romance subplot removed since it seemed to come out of nowhere and didn’t really add anything to the story.
Hopefully they release a directors cut version on Blu Ray like they are for DOFP.