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Joss Whedon felt like a 'miserable failure' after Avengers: Age of Ultron

"The things about it that are wrong frustrate me enormously, and I had probably more of those than I had on the other movies I made"

Clarisse Loughrey
Tuesday 19 April 2016 09:21 BST
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The Avengers: Age of Ultron landed to mix feelings; though hardly disastrous in its delivery, disappointment still laced the air. It was a tough job to deliver something on par to its predecessor, with The Avengers welcoming a new dawn of the suphero epic; and the general consensus was director Joss Whedon's follow-up was far slighter in its wonders.

Whedon himself appears to agree with that sentiment; expressing his disappointment with Age of Ultron while speaking at this year's Tribeca Film Festival (via Variety), a festival which The Avengers had originally closed back in 2012.

"I was so beaten down by the process," he reflected. "Some of that was conflicting with Marvel, which is inevitable. A lot of it was about my own work, and I was also exhausted. I think that did a disservice to the movie and the studio and to myself. It was not the right way to be, because I am very proud of it. The things about it that are wrong frustrate me enormously, and I had probably more of those than I had on the other movies I made."

"But I also got to make, for the second time, an absurdly personal movie that talked about how I felt about humanity, and what it means, in very esoteric and bizarre ways, for hundreds of billions of dollars. The fact that Marvel gave me that opportunity is so bonkers, and so beautiful, and the fact that I come off of it feeling like a miserable failure, is also bonkers, but not in a cute way."


Whedon's certainly grateful of his time with Marvel, though it looks as if he'll be taking his leave of their cinematic universe for good. Also in attendance was Mark Ruffalo, who revealed he had begged Whedon to return for both Avengers: Infinity War movies; as well as a solo Hulk film and Thor: Ragnarok. "I’ve been begging him, and he said ‘I’ll never do it again'," the actor stated.

Eventhough Age of Ultron won't go down as the sure highlight of the Marvel cinematic universe, Whedon can at least be glad the film put into motion the events featured in the upcoming Captain America: Civil War. A film which, in turn, has been receiving rave reviews; with some declaring its Marvel's finest film yet.

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