Age of Ultron fails feminists

Despite one of Joss Whedon’s most famous quotes being, “Because you're still asking me that question” in response to being asked why he writes strong female characters, Avengers: Age of Ultron felt like backtracking.

In response to criticism of Age of Ultron, Whedon told Buzzfeed that “When you declare yourself politically, you destroy yourself artistically. Because suddenly that’s the litmus test for everything you do — for example, in my case, feminism. If you don’t live up to the litmus test of feminism in this one instance, then you’re a misogynist. It circles directly back upon you.”

Dear Joss Whedon, you can’t have your cake and eat it, too. Trying to explain feminist critique by insulting feminists is a surefire way to get feminists to ignore your movie entirely. Feminists are not out to get you, Joss Whedon. Feminists have identified a lot of valid issues with Age of Ultron, and throwing a fit because people don’t like the movie isn’t really a great way to interact with those critiques.

So, instead of an engaging superhero film that picked up where Avengers, Iron Man 3, or even Captain America: The Winter Soldier left off, Avengers: Age of Ultron felt like two-plus hours of Joss Whedon flaunting the budget. The action was there, but AOU also gave the characters a lot of down time, and some very bizarre backstories to boot.

Natasha and Bruce’s stilted, forced romance (if we can call it that) probably will not be winning any Oscars in the near future. Their relationship went from zero to sixty—casual colleagues to awkward flirtation between films, which was one of my main problems with this plot point. Avengers set up a much deeper relationship between Natasha and Clint, and also established the fact that Natasha is terrified not by aliens or the prospect of laying down her life in a fight, but of the Hulk. Little to no context exists for a romantic relationship between the two.

…Which brings me to my second point of contestation regarding the Bruce/Natasha relationship. Bruce tells Natasha that he can’t have kids because he’s a monster. Natasha replies that it’s okay, she can’t have kids either, because she’s sterile. This makes her a monster, somehow.

Natasha’s character, to me, is one of redemption, and it’s hard for me to imagine her dwelling on something such as her own infertility like she did in AOU. In both Avengers and Nathan Edmondson/Phil Noto’s run on the Black Widow comic, her character’s main driving force is about redeeming herself and atoning for the things she’s done and the people she’s killed. Age of Ultron could have been an opportunity to explore that more deeply, but instead the audience is forcibly reminded that Natasha is the only woman on the team, and when she’s not fighting the Evil of the Day, she’s thinking about babies. Instead of giving women an involuntarily sterilized character who is still strong and feminine, the viewer gets an uncharacteristically sentimental Natasha Romanoff implying that she’s not even human for being unable to have kids.

My other issue with this movie is that the creative team on this film took two canonically Jewish, Romani characters, whitewashed them, and then wrote them into the Marvel Cinematic Universe as volunteers for a Nazi organization. The MCU is already saturated with white characters. Age of Ultron didn’t do much in terms of giving larger roles to the few pre-existing characters of color, and whitewashing Wanda and Pietro Maximoff was both a lazy and racist casting decision. Actors of color exist, and representation of characters of color matters.

Part of what makes a movie good is being able to relate to the characters on the screen, but after a while relating to the same character traits isn’t enough. The audience is much more diverse than white guys named Chris, and it’s not enough to have one or two women and one or two characters of color and call it a day. These characters often have limited roles, and like Wanda and Natasha, are relegated to the damsel roles.

Age of Ultron may not have even passed the Bechdel Test. (Two named female characters, speaking to each other about something other than a man.) The film might pass, if you count Laura Barton and Natasha talking about Laura and Clint’s baby, but the fact that this pass hinges on a short conversation about a baby is a sad indication of how much women actually did in the movie.

For being such a self-proclaimed champion of the strong female character, Joss Whedon failed them in this film, and his rejection of all feminist critique is almost just as big of a failure. So much of being a feminist lies in learning, and much of learning lies in unlearning ingrained cultural values like racism and misogyny. Ignoring all criticism and throwing a fit about angry feminists is a good way to fail your audience, too.

But, well, there’s always Captain America: Civil War to look forward to, right?