'Avengers: Age of Ultron' Review: If That's What You Want to Call It

Age of Ultron might be one of the most thematically interesting superhero movies I've ever seen.  It's also one of the most unapologetically comic booky.  In that regard both Avengers films are in a league of their own.  Unfortunately, Age of Ultron fails to match it's predecessor as a source of excitement, but that's to be expected.  The Avengers was the first of its kind and its sequel is by necessity the second.

Director Joss Whedon was well aware of the pressures of following up The Avengers and his fears may have found their way into the film.  It begins with the team retrieving the scepter Loki used as the villain of the first movie from Hydra.  Most, if not all, of the team sees it as closure and they celebrate with a party.  Once all the guests have left the team sits in a circle and basks in their victory.  That's when Ultron strikes.  Ultron, a Frankensteinian monster of Tony Stark's creation, makes his first move while the Avengers celebrate their accomplishments.  I probably shouldn't put words in Whedon's mouth but I don't think anyone could blame him for fearing self sabotage.

I also have a theory that Thanos's hunt for the Infinity Gems
is a metaphor for Kevin Feige's quest to recover Marvel movie rights
but it's gonna take a few years to flesh that one out.

The metaphors in Age of Ultron are by no means restricted to the world inside of Joss Whedon's head.  This movie represents the rapidly changing world we live in like no other has.  Ultron is motivated by a desire to force the world to evolve.  In order to do so the machine regularly attempts to update himself.  Towards the end of the movie we see a new, larger version of Ultron tear apart the older version and take his place in mid-sentence.  When Tony Stark sees the bigger and badder Ultron he stares up in awe, taken aback in a rare moment of speechlessness.  Interestingly, in another case of self sabotage, Ultron's attempts to improve lead to the creation of The Vision, who ultimately deals the killing blow to the evil robot.

Despite featuring Thor as a main character, in Age of Ultron Norse mythology takes a backseat to the Greeks.  Two Greek legends have massive influence on the movie: Oedipus and Prometheus.  Oedipus is most famous for killing his father and marrying his mother.  The first part is what's most important in this case.  Ultron kind of created Vision, who proved his undoing, when Ultron's aim in creating Vision was to destroy humanity, including his "father" Tony Stark.  Of course, Tony didn't give birth to Ultron through traditional Sex-Ed 101 methods.  That brings us to Prometheus.  Prometheus is a Titan most famous for giving fire to the people.  That is often translated into creating life.  As previously mentioned, Tony's creation of Ultron is similar to Frankenstein, which is another story that is quite Promethean.  The connection to Frankenstein is even more obvious in the creation of Vision.  After taking the bulk of Vision from Ultron Tony tries to finish it by implanting his software butler Jarvis and turning Ultron's creation into a force for good.  The process is interrupted by the other Avengers, but then Thor finishes it by striking Vision with lightning, paralleling the lightning used to create Frankenstein's monster.

Thor helping create Vision plays into the theme of teamwork that's inevitable in a movie like this.  The decision to create Ultron was made entirely by Stark and Bruce Banner just went along with it, presumably because he generally tries to avoid conflict.  When Tony is defending his decision he asks how else anyone expected them to protect the world.  Steve Rogers replies "together."  The decision to create Vision was made by Tony and Thor separately, but it was still closer to resembling teamwork than Ultron's birth, and that teamwork created a good robot to oppose the evil one.  In the climactic final battle Ultron asks how the Avengers can defeat him and Tony says "Like the old man said, 'together.'"

When the battle is over and Tony Stark has learned the meaning of teamwork he apparently quits the team and in a year he will return to fight Steve in Captain America: Civil War.  He's not the only one who leaves.  Thor also departs so he can find out what Thanos is up to and who the hell knows what Hawkeye is doing.  That paves the way for the movie to end with the introduction of a new team made up of Tony's friend War Machine, Vision, Scarlet Witch, and Steve's friend Falcon along with Steve himself and Black Widow.  The last scene is a nice homage to a classic comic book Avengers moment and a good way to bring it back to the theme of change.  If there's one thing you can say about Age of Ultron it's that things change.

Previously:

Iron Man

The Incredible Hulk

Iron Man 2

Thor

Captain America: The First Avenger

The Avengers

Iron Man 3

Thor: The Dark World

Captain America: The Winter Soldier

Guardians of the Galaxy