Age of Ultron

I’m just gonna say it, Age of Ultron is the MOST underrated film in the MCU franchise. People fail to grasp the relationship complexities and the fact that if any film in the first three phases of the MCU is essential, it's this one.

Age of Ultron is responsible for setting up the entirety of phase 3. Like literally nearly every single movie that came after it. First up it set up Black Panther not by just merely mentioning Wakanda but by having Klaw deal in Vibranium. Obviously this movie also sets up Civil War, so very clearly. I really shouldn’t have to explain this one but I will; We start to really see the differences in leadership styles between Tony and Cap. Tony tries to plan for things that might happen, in turn creating new problems whereas Cap deals with things they way they are. At the party Sam also mentions their “missing person’s case” obviously referring to Bucky and the fact that Cap is looking for him thereby further solidifying that Bucky is the most important relationship in his life, he hasn’t let go of his war brother and he's not going to. AOU also sets up Thor: Ragnarok it launches Thor’s journey into Thor’s journey and accounts for his absence in Civil War having him leave earth to locate the rest of the stones. AOU also sets up one of the greatest moments in cinematic history when Cap lifts and wields Mjolnir. In Age of Ultron Cap moves the hammer, now for clarification Mjolnir can only be lifted if the one lifting it is worthy, there is no such thing as being half worthy or partially worthy, you can either lift it or you can’t. He moved it, which means he can lift it, period. Not up for negotiation, not up for debate, Cap could always lift the hammer, they set it up in AOU and didn’t pay it off until Endgame.

Bruce and Natasha’s relationship seems to be a strong point of conflict between fans, one I’ve never understood. Joss gave 2 people that feel like monsters a chance at love, and the reality is that they are actually a really great match. They both house a lot of guilt for the things that they’ve done, both have dealt with a certain lack of control over themselves, they both are looking for some level of redemption. One of the most controversial lines in the MCU and one that has prompted a lot of conversation about Joss himself is; “You still think your the only monster on the team” the problem is the generally public apparently lacks the ability to interpret what this line means, Natasha saying this is NOT saying that she's a monster because she can’t have kids, it IS stateing however that the Red Room’s intention was successful, they wanted to make it easy for her to kill and they succeeded resulting in a lot of red in Natasha’s ledger that she wants to wipe out (it's literally a callback to the first Avengers movie because Joss Whedon is a circular writer).

Okay now onto the Quicksilver hate; Quicksilver had to die because they didn’t have the rights to his character yet, but introducing just Scarlet Witch would not have worked. The way he died made perfect sense, he wasn’t “too slow” he sacrificed himself to save Hawkeye and the little boy he was holding. He acted as a shield on purpose, stop acting like he was too slow to save himself. He and Wanda are also new to their powers. Strucker straight up said that they weren’t ready for conflict, Quicksilver was an accurate depiction, and Aaron Taylor Johnson was perfect sooo go ahead and get over it.

I believe I've tackled every argument that attempts to tear down this beautiful movie, and if you still don’t understand why it's good and essential to the rest of the MCU then I really don’t know how to help you.