The Old Order Changeth (Avengers Edition)

Upon pondering some more, Avengers: Age of Ultron was faced with three huge tasks:

1. Make a cool/fun/exciting Avengers movie. Okay, well, they did it once, it can't be that hard again, right? What? They're only the second highest opening weekend grossing movie ever, after their insanely successful predecessor? DOOOOOM!

2. Lay the groundwork for coming MCU films, including Captain America: Civil War, Thor: Ragnarok, and, of course, the next two Avengers films. Which is …

… okay, you know how the second installment in every trilogy gets dinged for being a bridge story between the first and final installments (The "Two Towers" Syndrome), while having either the introduction or the thrilling conclusion to work with? Well, AAoU faced this in spades. More bridges to build here than Manhattan, people.

3. Ah, and this one is the kicker, because both the above are daunting, but this one is insane. AAoU also had to be a conclusion movie. After all, everyone has been talking about some of the MCU actors getting long in the tooth, or are indicating that this (or maybe their next) will be their final outing. No specific spoilers here, but AAoU had to serve that purpose for actors, characters, or both — in terms of tying off some story arcs, and introducing some new bodies to step in.

The old order changeth, yielding place to new,
And God fulfills himself in many ways,
Lest one good custom should corrupt the world.
— Tennyson

This is old hat in the comics, as the first big Avengers lineup change in the book demonstrated (shown below — and, please, folk, hold off on the spoilers just a little bit longer), but I'm trying to think of a movie series where it's happened (and happened to multiple characters at that).

It's little wonder that the second Avengers movie feels a little bit … crowded, if not chaotic, at times. They almost needed a trilogy for all the stuff they needed to do to get past the second one.

#ageofultron #avengersageofultron

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