Theodore Andres

Mr. Muench

Cinematography

5/2/19

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Avengers: Age of Ultron Behind the Scenes

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The second Avengers movie and eleventh movie in the Marvel Cinematic Universe was released in 2015, it was the highest-grossing film of the year and is currently the fifth highest-grossing movie of all time. With a budget of over 400 million dollars, it has returned over 1.5 billion. 

But all of this success didn’t come out of thin air.

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Shooting for Avengers: AOU started 18 months before the premiere while work on the script and other aspects had been in the works possibly since the inception of the MCU in 2008. Giving Marvel executives seven years to the time and build up to this movie. This was truly a group of people determined to save the world, not just New York City. In the previous Avengers movie, Marvel got backlash for dubbing them the “Earth’s Mightiest Heroes” and only focusing on the United States. For this film, they shot and had scenes in South Africa, South Korea, Italy, England, and Bangladesh. I didn’t know how long and how much the crew had to travel, often without the main actors, for a two-hour movie.

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When we are making films in class we expect to get the filming done in a day hopefully, and a week at max if everything goes wrong. The amount of prep work and off the ball work involved in making this movie is very helpful in giving a new perspective on big-time Hollywood magic.  

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But a huge opening weekend and an all-time ranking in terms of money made don’t come without its problems. After the first Avengers film, and after Iron Man 3 two of the key elements in a second Avengers film were possibly missing. Robert Downey Jr. (Tony Stark/Iron Man) and Joss Whedon (Director) both had expired contracts and were cagey on coming back. After shooting had wrapped for Iron Man 3 and at Comic-Con 2012 both Joss Whedon and Robert Downey Jr. announced they would be coming back to work with Marvel. 

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I would recommend this movie. Avengers was very entertaining. The score throughout the film was very well done and a callback to the first one of the series. After Ultron got out when all the Avengers were scared and beaten the cinematography did a good job illustrating this sense of aloneness. That was a great use of pre and post-production to keep all the CGI looking real and not hindering camera movement because of the CGI, making an unrealistic scene fun to watch .

Avengers may not be the most sophisticated and plot-driven movie of all time, and it may be hard for older and younger audiences to get into. But if you enjoy good, fun action, character development, and great looking shots, this is appropriate for all ages.