A Few Thoughts on Joss Whedon’s Avengers

As I’ve watched and rewatched the MCU films over the past handful of years, enjoying them all to assorted degrees, I’ve been reassessing Whedon’s contributions, The Avengers and Age of Ultron.  This partly in response to Civil War, which I think retroactively schooled both Avengers films on balancing the huge ensemble.  While I still love to watch them, I now take more issue with them than I did with either upon first watch (spoilers for The Avengers and Age of Ultron.)

We’re gonna jump around a little but focus mainly on the characters.  For me, Whedon’s biggest win is Tony; it’s clear that he’s a big fan of Tony and writes him really well.  In Whedon’s hands, he’s absolutely the smartest guy in any room with a too-cool-for-school attitude, but he’s also really messed up and does crazily ill-advised crap.  The Avengers sees Tony step up to make a true sacrifice play, and Age of Ultron has him coming to terms with the enormity of his mistakes.  For my money, Whedon also comes through well with the Maximoffs.  I love Pietro’s cockiness and relish for his powers, mixed with his anger, and Wanda hits all the right notes (she’s maybe a tiny bit River, what with being a somewhat-off teenage girl with insane mental powers, but overall, she feels very much like her own character and is totally awesome.)

Cap is a tricky one for me.  Honestly, the vibe I get in The Avengers and Age of Ultron is that Whedon doesn’t entirely get Cap.  While he excels in the action scenes, both in terms of the take-charge leader stuff and being an absolute boss (all the Cap-Thor tag-team moves in Age of Ultron are so cool,) he comes across less like a person and more like an idea in the group interactions.  I feel like Whedon sees Cap mostly as a foil for Tony and so leans heavily on the “boy scout” persona that really isn’t Cap at all.  This is compounded by Whedon’s tendency to hit the V-for-Victory sentiments pretty hard.  Stuff like Cap being excited when he finally understands a pop culture reference (flying monkeys) or everyone else teasing him over the “Language!” thing in Age of Ultron makes him come off more like a fogey/square than he ought to.  I think The Winter Soldier and Civil War do a better job of incorporating Cap’s time displacement, including joking about it, in a way that feels organic to the character.

Natasha, Bruce, and Hawkeye are all toss-ups for me.  After largely shunting Hawkeye off to the side in The Avengers, Whedon makes up for it by giving him a lot more focus in Age of Ultron, although the whole “secret family” thing lays it on a bit thick for my taste.  Meanwhile, Natasha and Bruce are both off-the-charts amazing in The Avengers, but Age of Ultron totally fumbles them.  I’m not saying that angling them toward each other romantically couldn’t have worked, but the angsty will-they-won’t-they execution of it just doesn’t work for me.  It makes Bruce seem kind of pathetic and wastes screentime that could be spent on Natasha being awesome.

By my reckoning, Thor is kind of an afterthought in both movies – even though his own brother is the Big Bad in The Avengers – which bums me out ‘cause I love him.  Like with Cap, he gets good action bits (the aforementioned Cap-Thor tag-teams for the win, and his fight with the Hulk in The Avengers is great,) but as for the actual character himself, I don’t get the impression that Whedon has any interest in writing for him.  He doesn’t have much in the way of plot in either movie, and he straight-up disappears for a huge chunk of Age of Ultron.  Disappointing, because he’s so different from the rest of the Avengers and could I’m sure bring some great stuff to the team dynamics, but I feel like we’ve hardly had a chance to see him in that sense.

A Few Thoughts on Black Widow in Age of Ultron

After Black Widow was such a highlight of The Avengers (and Captain America:  The Winter Soldier,) many people felt disappointed by the handling of her character in The Avengers:  Age of Ultron.  For me personally, and not to take away from anyone’s feelings on the issue, I find the situation problematic but not horrific.  In other words, at no point have I been prepared to denounce Marvel and/or Joss Whedon, but they don’t get a free pass, either.  My main reaction, like I said, is “disappointed,” not “irate.”  (Natasha-related spoilers for Age of Ultron.)

There are several sticking points responsible for the general dissatisfaction with Black Widow’s treatment in the film.  1)  Her tentative will-they-won’t-they relationship with Bruce.  2)  The revelation, brought about by a Scarlet-Witch-induced vision, that she was sterilized as an adolescent at the end of her Red Room training.  3)  Her capture in the second half of the film, which requires her to be rescued by Bruce.  I’d like to look at all three, separately and together.

Taken individually, each subplot is handled fairly well.  Natasha’s feelings for Bruce don’t alter her characterization – she’s still tough, brave, and wry – and the plot is viewed through both characters’ perspectives.  She’s not treated like an object, and her wants are central to the storyline.  Similarly, while I don’t like the sterilization reveal, I don’t think it’s badly done.  It makes sense for Natasha to dwell on it after the Scarlet Witch has been playing with her memories.  Someone who’s used to hitting first wouldn’t take kindly to having been violated, and someone who’s so self-reliant would hate having her reproductive choice taken away.  It’s unfortunate that she reveals this in the same scene that she calls herself a “monster,” but I think that’s just bad timing; it’s all tied up in her Red Room days, the years she spent killing for the bad guys, and with the monster comment, I see her talking about past crimes, not the fact that she can’t bear children.  Finally, while it’s true she gets captured and subsequently rescued, she maintains her agency throughout, immediately rigging up a signal to the rest of the team so they can find her.  Besides, she only gets caught in the first place because she’s being a grade-A boss and cares more about the mission than her own safety.  Damsel, thy name is not Black Widow.

So, while each thread is potentially uncool gender-wise, all three are done in a way that maintains the integrity of Natasha’s character.  So, my qualms aren’t with the specific handling of any one subplot but the cumulative effect of the whole.  My problem is that there’s no way that one of the male Avengers’ main story in the film would have consisted largely of a romantic connection, the reveal that they’d been forcibly sterilized, and being captured/rescued.  You may see them with one (such as Bruce’s feelings for Natasha, of course,) but never all three.  I dare say you wouldn’t see the sterilization plot at all.  You’ll see fertility-issue stories sometimes with men, which generally tie into emasculation, the idea that a “real man” can “put a baby” in a woman.  It’s about prowess, not children, and I don’t think I’ve ever seen a plot where infertility is inflicted on a man against his will.   That violation seems reserved for women only.

In this way, it’s not any one thing.  It’s all of them together and the fact that this particular combination of plots would only happen with Black Widow.  That’s what I don’t like, because it makes her less “one of the six Avengers” and more “the girl Avenger.”  Yes, she’s a woman, and yes, that informs who she is, but I feel that Age of Ultron leans far too heavily on gendered plots where she’s concerned.  Here’s hoping for better in her next appearance.

Avengers: Age of Ultron (2015, PG-13)

Okay, so I’ve been salivating for this movie for so long, it was never going to live up to my geeky, sky-high hopes.  Despite generally juggling its huge ensemble capably, it feels crammed at times, and important things can get glossed over.  It’s also my least favorite Black Widow outing since Iron Man 2, which isn’t cool (quite a ways above Iron Man 2, but still.)  However, failing to be the Best Comic Book Movie Ever! doesn’t mean it’s not pretty great, which is why my biggest complaints are in the opening paragraph – I need the rest of the space to geek out.

Team Avenger has been together for a while now, rooting out pockets of Hydra members and searching for Loki’s mystical mind-whammy scepter from The Avengers.  When they finally track down the scepter, Tony sees its unlocked potential to facilitate the creation of legit artificial intelligence; he envisions an army of intelligent robots to protect the earth from supersized threats.  Because the creation of intelligent robots usually goes so smoothly, he winds up with Ultron, a crazy-powerful, genius megalomaniac who think humans have wasted their chance at existence.  In Ultron (and his accomplices, a damaged pair of powered twins,) the Avengers have a formidable foe who tests every inch of their limits.

First things first:  this movie has characters coming out of its ears, and I’m amazed at how well, by and large, it spreads the love between them.  All six Avengers get multiple moments to shine, action-wise and character-based (Hawkeye, who’s been underused in the franchise so far, gets a lot of focus in particular,) and the new characters are introduced thoughtfully.  The twins, speedster Quicksilver and queen of creepy mind-mojo the Scarlet Witch, are especially great – this Quicksilver is totally different from X-Men’s but equally awesome, and I love seeing the Scarlet Witch come into her own.  In addition, there are numerous smaller appearances and cameos from other characters in the Marvel pantheon, none of which really feel shoehorned in. 

Far and away, my favorite thing about the movie is the camaraderie between the Avengers.  As a team, they’ve grown by leaps and bounds since the first movie, and Avenger-teamwork gives me life.  They do a lot of partnered fighting, assisting one another in the field and playing off each other’s strengths (Cap and Thor for the win!) and it’s clear that they’ve done a lot to make the team inclusive for the Hulk.  They also just feel so much like a family, leaning on one another when they need it, talking through their issues, and ragging on each other like you can only do with people you love – there’s a running joke with Cap that I adore, and I could’ve watched an entire movie of them all hanging around trying to lift Thor’s hammer.

The action is mostly terrific.  I’m a sucker for creative combat, especially when it involves the clever use of superpowers, and we get that in spades here.  Cap flipping forward over the handlebars of his motorcycle and then throwing it at someone is just hardcore incredible, and Quicksilver and the Scarlet Witch do an excellent tag-team job on a train.  And because this is Marvel, all the cool fights and explosions are nicely balanced with humor, sweet tech, and grounding character moments.  No, it’s not everything I hoped it’d be, but it’s still quite the ride.

Warnings

Comic book violence, language, a little innuendo, and some thematic elements.