Avengers: Age Of Ultron - Controversial Flashbacks
- Feb 7, 2018
- 2 min read
A controversial part of Avengers: Age Of Ultron is the flashbacks caused by Wanda Maximoff. Tony Stark sees the aliens from the Battle of New York if they had won, and his team had died at his hands. Steve Rogers sees a ballroom that is also a warzone, and misses yet another chance to dance with Peggy Carter. Natasha Romanoff sees her strange ballet assassin school, and remembers her "graduation ceremony". And Thor sees a party in Hel where Asgard is dead.
Especially prior to Thor Ragnarok, people assumed these were setups for future movies. But I see them as the group's fears, and setup for motivations later in the film. I really don't think that Cap and Widow's flashbacks added enough to the film to justify their presence, but I can see how they motivate the characters' actions later. And Tony's vision is not a teaser for Avengers Infinity War as many believe - it's symbolic of Tony's fears, and PTSD from the Battle of New York.
Thor's vision is different. Late in the film, he comes out of nowhere and makes an important decision based on something he saw when he went searching for answers. But a lot of the explanation regarding this is cut - the original cut of the film was 68 minutes longer, and would have given much more depth to sections that weren't fully formed in the final cut, such as Thor's story. (It also would have added needless setup for Black Panther and Captain Marvel. So, the cuts were not all bad.)
I believe the purpose of showing Asgardians in Hel was to drive Thor to return to Asgard at the end and to explain why Thor is fighting Surtur at the start of Ragnarok. It (as well as the rest of the team's visions) could certainly have been simplified or changed entirely to cut down the film's already enormous run time, but it all plays a part in the film.
Check out Steve, Natasha, and Thor's visions below.
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