Avengers: Age of Ultron Ramblings
The more I ponder "Avengers: Age of Ultron", the more it feels like an escapee from a Mirror Universe. Sure, the Doylist explanation is that it was directed by Joss Wheadon, who would consider himself a coward if he didn't destroy continuity, but I have no ideas about what a Watsonian explanation for this would be.
So, there are several things which happen in Age of Ultron which are discontinuous with what has gone before. It's fair enough -- but notable -- if they are incompatible with what was done in the comics, but when it is also discontinuous with what happened in the previous movies, that's less acceptable. Not that any of the things that happened are impossible, but they are disconnected.
(1) Natasha Romanov and Bruce Banner Romance
This one is the most obvious, as it is very disconnected with the previous movies. It comes out of nowhere. What have we seen of Bruce and Natasha interacting previously? Well, the Hulk attacked her, that's about it. So why the heck is Natasha falling for Bruce? I mean, the in-movie explanation is nice, that Natasha fell for Bruce because he's not like the others she's surrounded with; he's nice, and a bit shy.
Possible Watsonian explanation: Natasha was afraid of the Hulk, so she decided she needed to overcome that fear, and while she was doing that, she got to know Bruce.
But they didn't say that. It would have only taken one line.
(2) The origins of Wanda and Pietro Maximoff
This is a comics discontinuity, so I didn't know about it until I talked with other fans. But when you realise what the differences are, it is a horribly racist kick in the teeth. See, in the comics, Wanda and Pietro were Jewish (or Jewish/Romani). The problem isn't that they weren't Jewish in the movies; that's fair enough. The problem is that they joined HYDRA! They joined up with NAZIs! That is worse than making Steve Rogers a member of HYDRA (and, yes, there was a comic where they did that).
It is as if TPTB said "What's the most contrary and offensive thing we can do with these characters? I know! We'll make them Nazis!"
This has definitely got Mirror Universe vibes.
(3) The origins of Ultron
This one isn't so much discontinuous as it is weak; a few things had to be hammered out of shape in order to make it work. Whereas, when someone told me the comics origin, that one made a lot more sense.
In the comics, Ultron was created by Hank Pym, who was passionately pacifistic. Presumably he was not as experienced with creating AIs as Tony was, so it's more believable that Ultron got out of control, interpreted its directives as "the most efficient way to ensure peace is to destroy humanity".
Whereas in the movie, Ultron was sort of created by Tony Stark, but also sort of not. Tony Stark has decades of experience in building benevolent AIs. He's not going to get his coding wrong. He's not going to release the the AI without testing it. He's just not going to create a world-destroying robot. He is too competent to do so. In order for a world-destroying robot to exist in Tony Stark's vicinity, Tony's work has to be interfered with, without Tony noticing or being able to prevent it. Tony has to be completely blindsided, he has to not see it coming, and he also has to be rendered helpless to fix it. So in the movie, in order for Tony Stark to "create" Ultron, Tony had to be attacked from two directions: first Wanda terrified him into carelessness, and then the malevolent AI from the Mind Stone got into Tony's system and... proceeded to be malevolent.
If there hadn't been a malevolent AI in the Mind Stone, Ultron would not have happened, no matter how terrified Tony was by the vision that Wanda gave him.
As I said, a few things had to be hammered out of shape in order to get Ultron to exist.
This entry was originally posted at https://kerravonsen.dreamwidth.org/1211528.html. (Comments
) Respond here, or respond on the Dreamwidth post, as you prefer. You can use your DW login or OpenId there.