How Civil War makes Age of Ultron a Better Movie

Captain America: Civil War (CW) performed well at box office and pleased fans and critics alike. It actually put the latest Big Event Marvel Movie, Avengers: Age of Ultron (AOU) to shame… but one thing you might not have noticed is that CW actually makes AOU a better movie. Granted this would mean watching films over again and out of chronological order, but as a Marvel fan that was probably going to happen anyway, wasn’t it?

The major conflict in CW is between Iron Man and Captain America, the breakdown of their relation provided an emotional core to the film (“He’s my friend…”) but seeing this play out adds context to the events of Age Of Ultron. Civil War also puts more weight into these friends’ feelings, as overall I think it handles characterisation much better. If you take all this with you when you watch AOU  again, you start to notice the bond between Cap and Tony more and you dread what’s coming. It also means that anytime in the film that they disagree you get a flash of that future as AOU borrows the emotion of CW.

People had problems with Black Widow in AOU, big problems. Personally, I felt I understood her and how she would have at least believed she had feelings for Banner… I did think we had moved past damsels in distress though. In CW, Natasha seems to to be back on form and she has a clear bond with both teams, illustrated by callbacks to her appearances in Iron Man 2, Captain America: Winter Soldier and Avengers. This bond allows her to see the argument from both sides and apart from Tony she’s the only sign that Iron Man’s team has a conscience/doubt about what they are doing. Bearing this in mind AOU becomes a transformative phase for Black Widow as she struggles with the monstrous things she has done in the past and looks for a reason to fight going forward. I could even go as far as to say her relationship with Banner was just a reflection of, or a metaphor for, how she sees herself, the Hulk leaving at the end of Age of Ultron becomes a new start for Nat.

Civil War lends a personal cost to the events in Sokovia, the fact that it in part prompted the accords shows how serious the situation was… yet there didn’t seem much time spent on this in AOU, you kind of assume that everyone survived and an already, mostly ruined down town disappears off the map but the world is saved, so no problem… seeing the future lets you see it in an all new light. It would have been a powerful moment to see the Avengers fail at saving even one person, the events of Civil War try to make up for this.

Having an extra film -full of content means we get to see more of the characters, naturally, but CW is also filled with little in-character touches (like the ones we saw in Avengers) and I wish we’d seen more in AOU. An extra two and a half hours of time with our heroes does mean we know them better and care for them more than we did before Age of Ultron, taking that with us means we see more rounded and familiar characters in the film (AOU) than we did the first time. On a similar note, these little touches also add to our picture of the team dynamic for the previous film.

I’m deducting points for this next one: Even through all the trauma and guilt that Scarlet Witch faced in Civil War, she didn’t seem to be thinking of her brother… it hasn’t been that long and there’s no sign of how she feels about losing him. Maybe she knows something we done and maybe we can pretend he’s still alive based on this “evidence”.

Watching Civil War you get more of a look at Tony Stark's character, and you see some themes that might not have been obvious before. CW highlights Tony's attachment to the team, and how much they mean to him, it's even clearer that he thinks of them as family... all of a sudden the vision of dead Avengers that Stark sees in AOU becomes more powerful and you can see how it could have made him panic and act irrationally.
Civil War also gives us a look at Tony's family, and he admits that he is still trying to cope with their loss, bearing this in mind and looking at other MCU films you can see that Tony has attempted to fill that void by becoming dependent on several different things, always replacing one with something new. In the first Iron Man movie he uses women, until his feelings for Pepper, a near death experience and discovering his weapons are sold to terrorists put things into perspective, then in Iron Man 2 he turns to alcohol rather than facing the problem. Iron Man 3 and things are slipping as he's dealing with his insignificance in the vastness of the universe. He focuses on his suits until he realises that isn't the answer and blows them up, he still calls himself Iron Man, maybe playing hero adds to his self worth and having Pepper seems like enough. Then AOU happens, he's terrified of losing his “family” and blames himself, and no matter what he has to be the one to put things right... this family bond is clearer after viewing CW. After abandoning Pepper to go play hero and nearly causing the end of the world in Age of Ultron, Civil War sees Tony with nothing left, except from that family and now he'll do anything to keep it together, even blindly agreeing to the Sokovia Accords and refusing to recognise that Cap is on a different mission. Once you know how much Stark depends on the Avengers, AOU makes more sense... an already fragile man sees that he is going to cause the end of the one thing that keeps him going... he might try anything to protect it.

There you have it, just like the Avengers themselves the movies are all stronger when they stand together.

Think of anything I've missed? Maybe you disagree? Let me know in the comments, and for more Marvel Content, including our Civil War Debate, check out the Marvel label/tag and our other blog posts!