May 04 2015
Joss Whedon on the big moments in Avengers: Age of Ultron.
This half hour Empire Magazine podcast interview with Joss is the nearest thing you'll get to a director's commentary until the DVD comes out. Some of Joss' comments you will have read before but there's a lot of new material here (pairings, what Joss fought to keep in the movie, the cut scenes, the actual length of the original cut, the last line etc). A transcript can be found here (you'll see a lot of websites recycling the comments made in this interview).
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I'm still listening at the moment, but I just had to call out something he says early on about Black Widow's arc. There's been a lot of criticism and discussion regarding her romance with Banner and whether that hurt her character overall. The fact that, when push comes to shove (har har), she's still an Avenger first and forces Banner to become "the other guy." I think that really does show that she's not simply driven by a "need" for this guy. She's still there to save the world too. She just wants a relationship...like every other Avenger!
Honestly, I don't think the romance was handled perfectly. There are certain lines that seem a little out of character for her and I think there's too much going on in the film to really do this budding romance justice...but her desire to have a relationship is not by itself some detraction of her character.
SuperScuba | May 04, 09:05 CET
banner | May 04, 09:08 CET
jcs | May 04, 09:11 CET
And so he says his cut would probably be 2 minutes longer, but not more. So I still don't know what to make of the rumors about the extended cut. But I'd be very curious to know what those 2 min are.
In any case, this interview confirms that there were definitely several disagreements between Joss and the studio, a lot more than for the 1st movie it seems. It really sounds like the few issues I have with the film (that I loved) are a result of Marvel 's doings.
But then I think about how incredibly difficult it must have been to conceive this movie. And most of it works beautifully. I think it could have been an absolute classic if Joss was given more time and more freedom, but what we got is already wonderful.
Nico-Angel | May 04, 09:12 CET
After seeing the deleted scenes from the first Avengers, I think much of what was cut belonged that way. However, there was an extension to the security guard scene (played by Harry Dean Stanton) that I would love to see added back into the movie. I think it really adds another layer to what Banner is feeling at that point. I'm sure there are a few scenes like that for Age of Ultron...I would not be disappointed to hear about an Extended Cut (for real, not just rumors), but I won't hold my breath.
SuperScuba | May 04, 09:21 CET
And cutting Loki out still doesn't quite make sense to me. Regardless of whose decision it was, I don't see how it would have been a detriment to have him appear.
Trentaferd | May 04, 09:33 CET
banner | May 04, 09:47 CET
tomg | May 04, 10:03 CET
TallMichaelJ | May 04, 10:10 CET
gossi | May 04, 10:16 CET
jcs | May 04, 10:17 CET
[ edited by the ninja report on 2015-05-04 19:42 ]
the ninja report | May 04, 10:42 CET
While I'm very curious to see the Thor stuff that was cut...I'm not sure that plotline really belonged in this movie. I know they have to do SOME setup for future films, but having Thor completely leave for a while just seemed a bit too disconnected. I realize that it plays into the creation of Vision, so I'm not sure how they would have gotten around it, but I almost wish it was cut out completely and we could have spent more time with Widow/Hulk or the origins of Ultron (which were ZOOMED through and reduced some of the impact for me when he was first revealed).
SuperScuba | May 04, 11:04 CET
What is really astonishing to me that there appears to have been significant and ongoing pushback from Marvel on Joss's direction and vision for the movie. The script appears to have been set from early in the process. So there should not have been any surprises there.
The idea that Joss had to make major alterations to his film based on a bad reaction by a single focus group screening (as seems to be indicated by comments from Joss and others) seems incomprehensible. "Yes, you had the third highest box office of all time in your last film for us, but we prefer to take the word of a hundred random people who came in to get out of the rain."
It seems like a parody of the image of out of touch, idiotic, ossified Hollywood Exec decision making. But I guess that may be exactly how Disney will strangle the Marvel golden egg laying goose.
[ edited by RobynH on 2015-05-04 20:16 ]
RobynH | May 04, 11:15 CET
SuperScuba | May 04, 11:33 CET
I do agree the movie could have done with another minute or two, as there's a couple of things, from reading online and talking to my partner, people haven't quite picked up on well enough. But other than that it felt tight and I liked that a whole lot. Any movie over 2 hours is too long for my life.
gossi | May 04, 11:44 CET
http://www.empireonline.com/features/joss-whedon-avengers-ultron-secrets.
Simon | May 05, 05:15 CET
@theonetruebix | May 05, 09:22 CET
Grack21 | May 05, 12:48 CET