Avengers Age of Ultron: The Strings on Black Widow.

Massive spoilers, obviously.

Joss Whedon described writing and directing this film as “exhausting” and that is also a perfect word to describe watching this film. It felt a lot more like a film that exists to set up the next hundred Marvel films that are scheduled rather than a stand-alone film or the end of the journey we followed through the Phase 1 films. It is a long film and apparently the DVD will feature a much longer directors cut which baffles me that this is the shortened version of that. As a result it is a bit chaotic, some bits feel lacking, and it seems more like a collage of Avengers characters a child might make in school.

It also suffers from what makes Marvel films Marvel films: Puns. It is full of them and they kill a lot of moments in the film. Everything is a joke, every character tries to be witty, and the worst thing is the villain even makes jokes; yes, a newly built robot has a sense of humour, despite him wanting to murder all humans. It honestly just made me roll my eyes the entire way through and made for annoying not enjoyable viewing. I can just imagine Joss, whose ego is so big he won’t even pay attention to the continuity of a show written by his own brother, sitting alone where he writes patting himself on the back at his incredible wit.

Moreover, there were a lot of plot points and character development that felt really out of place. The whole storyline of Hawkeye, making him a father with a hidden family and attempting to make him the glue behind the entire group, felt extremely awkward; it was trying to answer why out of all the avengers he was even there and it just felt like it really wasn’t a good enough answer. On top of that was the main thing I wanted to address: Shrek and Fi- sorry Hulk and Natasha. According to reports Joss argued that the love interest storyline was put in at Marvel’s request, because we all know we all watch superhero films for their romance. But I still feel like it had a big part in making the film less than stellar. Their relationship was not something set up in any other film; yes she went to get him in the first film but that was because that is her job, not as the film tried to shoe-horn in that it was always going to mean they got together – I cringed when Black Widow asked Fury if he knew all along.

There was as much chemistry between her and Banner as there was between her and all other avengers – which is a fair amount considering her flirty character. Being the only female in the group it seems very bad writing to make her flirt with every character, or to be the slight love interest with each character. It also doesn’t help change anyone’s view of women considering Renner, Hawkeye, has gone to great lengths to defend calling Black Widow a slut. You can try and argue she’s a fictional character but when those fictional characters reflect people’s attitudes on women, when they are one the woman in a group of five men, and when little girls and boys look up to this character then I will kindly tell you to fuck off and pay her more respect.

Each scene that tried to paint them as love interests distracted from high paced scenes or from Black Widow doing the things that make her the kick-ass woman she is. For instance, during a fight scene she pulls Banner out of harm and his face lands in her breasts. All I could think was how this film took two years to write, it presumably went through editors, and through none of that did so-called-self-professed Feminist Joss Whedon decide to give the only female avenger a bit more fricking respect. When the uncharacteristic words “I adore you” came out of Black Widow’s mouth did he stop and think that maybe she wouldn’t say that, especially not so soon. When she was stuck in a frickin’ jail and Bruce, in a sweatshirt, came to rescue the damsel in distress did he stop and think maybe this is really crap writing.

Some might argue that she was pregnant during filming so therefore she needed a way to be in the story less but I’m here to tell you that a quick read of this film’s trivia will tell you why that’s bull. Firstly, because she was pregnant when they started filming they tried to do as much of her scenes as possible. Secondly, they used three separate body doubles for her stunts so she could still be in the fight scenes that a trained assassin should be in. Thirdly, they used CGI to take out her baby bump for other scenes. Fourthly, did the apparently great Joss really not have any better ideas to write out a trained spy/assassin other than she gets captured so she can leads the Avengers to the villain? Could she not have gone on a mission to track down Fury? Could she not have gone to track down others to help? Could she not have gone to find what was left of Shield to help? I could keep going but you get the point.

Before I get onto the best female character in this film, largely written in for her cool powers, I will explain how this film deals with other women. A new character we meet is Helen Cho, an Asian scientist who is there to help Hawkeye and other stuff. She’s presumably a genius considering the technology she is working with but I want to mention her role in two fight scenes. The first one is at a party and as a doctor she is unprepared for fighting and so she gets saved by a male avenger and the next one when she fights back against Ultron she is erm saved by a male avenger. Empowering, no?

Then there’s the return of Maria Hill. Yes she fired her gun a few times but she was mostly there for exposition and once again, military trained and badass, was saved by… Nick Fury. Oh, Joss. We women really do just need men to help us even when we train for years to fight without them. During a party there was a cringe-worthy line about which woman is better: Pepper or Jane; but in the context of the film and it’s lack of respect for women it felt more like men trying to argue which model of car was more superior, and which one was better because they owned it.

Then there is Hawkeye’s wife. Through the film she is understanding, patient, and yes whilst she’s unhappy that her husband leaves her with the potential to die at any moment she is still respectful of his decision. But honestly? Fuck that. She has two children who are quite young and she is pregnant with yet another child; she lives in a remote place, who knows if her family or friends know where she is? She pretty much seems to live in witness protection raising two, soon to be three, children on her own. As much as the film tries to argue otherwise Hawkeye is the glue that keeps the team together, the actions he has done through the films could easily be replaced with someone else and he was even an impediment in the first film after getting his mind controlled by the ever annoying Loki. So instead his poor wife, as we see, gives birth to a little boy – who is weirdly named after a character Hawkeye met two seconds ago – and presumably she is left to raise him pretty much on her own; she has to get up on long nights to feed him, after going to sleep alone, and after struggling to put two loud, energetic children to bed.

So then that takes us onto motherhood and the Avengers universe. Let’s go with Black Widow who as the only female avenger up until Scarlet Witch, Wanda, was the film representation of women in a world of superheroes. So firstly let’s just take a quick look at how the male avengers have and might deal with children. So we’ve seen Hawkeye who put his family under protection but ultimately abandons them. It’s unlikely Tony would have kids as he is still pretty much a child himself. Captain America is still mourning the loss of Peggy enough to meet any potential mother of his children. Thor is busy dealing with his childish brother to have kids. Banner apparently can’t have kids because as we see in The Incredible Hulk, which IS canon, if his heart races too much he Hulks out which it does if he tries to have sex – let’s not get into what damage that would do to a woman shall we. So then we get back to Black Widow and the potential for children.

Sadly it is a potential that was long robbed from her by those who made her into an assassin; they felt that sterilisation was necessary and compulsory because children would be too much of a distraction and it would mean one less complication that might interfere with their murdering. So of course we learn about this in a sensitive talk, where her emotions about it are dealt with, where she is comforted by the person she tells, and in a way that doesn’t upset any infertile women who went out to the cinema to casually watch a film. Does. It. Fuck. In a very rare moment of telling someone about her personal life she explains that she is infertile, in response to Banner saying that he can’t settle down and have kids to abandon like Hawkeye has. She explains how she didn’t choose it and she, again in comparison to Banner saying it, calls herself a monster – then this goes unaddressed. The next thing after that is Banner suggesting they run away together. So she’s spilt her secret, said that it makes killing people easier, and compared herself to the Hulk, the part of him that he hates and his response was nothing.

Women who can’t have children deal with the loss of what having children might have been for them, that loss is a pain I can’t imagine. Then there is the added stigma that they face of being women who never have children, they deal with seeing children and mothers all around them, and any other complicated emotions that they go through. For instance, recently there was an article by a gay man about comments made about gay men having children through IVF and nowhere in the article was even a passing thought to women who fail to conceive through IVF and the pain that causes them. So now on top of all that an apparently Feminist Joss, someone who is very vocal about his support for women and feminism, has now called them a monster. You could try and argue that perhaps she meant that through not having a family she has more time to go and kill people which makes her more of a monster but considering the context & the conversation she says it in it seems unlikely. It was a huge revelation that was shrugged off and dealt with in a way that was, yes, pretty disgraceful.

On the other small, delicate womanly hand Scarlet Witch was amazing. She was complex, powerful and she brought a great female presence to the film. She stood on her own, strong and fierce, right up until the point where Hawkeye talked down to her – the whole film repeatedly called the Twins children one second and then had the Avengers hate and threaten to kill them the next – and told her to suck it up and fight. Yes, it led to an amazing moment where she began to fought for the avengers and honestly she really made an impact on the plot, *cough*morethanhawkeyedid*cough*, but it still didn’t stop a male avenger talking down to her. It also didn’t stop Tony referring to her as a Witch – meant to imply her nickname but was really just an excuse to veil calling her a Bitch. Thanks Joss.

We live in a world where Black Widow probably won’t get her own film; where Disney only put her on 2 out of 60 pieces of Avengers merchandise; where a handful of women exist in a film universe full to the brim of men. Representation is very important to how women see themselves in a world where they really do not see themselves as fully developed character on TV and in films. Not objectifying women is important in a world where we are bombarded with women’s breasts, long legs, and arses everywhere in a constant stream of reducing women to body parts. A feminist should know this, they should be painfully aware of this, and they should use whatever platform they have to work against this. As the outcry over Joss leaving twitter, ugh, showed he has a huge platform as a rich, white guy. So yes it was important for him to get this right and he really didn’t and it wasn’t a mistake, it wasn’t pressure it was being a man who still has misogyny in his bones; it was a man who likes to say he’s a feminist without putting the work in, and it’s a man who is not a woman and doesn’t recognise or experience the hundred and one instances of daily sexism women face. Get better, pay attention, and try again Joss. Unfortunately, women have to count on you.