With all the early excitement over Captain America: Civil War, you may have forgotten that around this time last year, many people were griping over Avengers: Age of Ultron — including its writer/director, Joss Whedon.
The hotly anticipated followup to the record-smashing, critically adored The Avengers received lukewarm reviews and a slightly smaller box office haul when it hit theaters last May (to be fair, it still brought in a massive $1.4 billion worldwide). But it didn't help that Whedon was openly critical of Marvel and the final cut, which created a defeatist narrative around the movie, he told Avengers star Mark Ruffalo at the Tribeca Film Festival Monday.
"People just ran with that and it became, 'Well, it's OK. It could be better, but it's not Joss' fault,' " Whedon said. "That isn't fair to the movie and to the studio and to myself. It was not the right move, because I am very proud of it. The things that are wrong about it frustrate me enormously."
Whedon also admitted that Ultron "didn't meet my expectations of myself" and he was "beaten down by the process" of making it. But he still managed to backwardly thank Marvel, which he has since cut ties with.
"I got to make, for the second time, an absurdly personal movie in which I got to talk about how I felt about humanity and what it means in very esoteric and bizarre ways for hundreds of millions of dollars," Whedon said. That Marvel let him "is so bonkers and beautiful. The fact that I come off of it feeling like a miserable failure is also bonkers, but not in a cute way. That becomes problematic. ... I took my first vacation ever after that movie. And I don't mean 'ever,' but the first vacation that was for more than two weeks in 25 years."
On a more positive note, Whedon added that he is working on a top-secret new project, which is a "departure" from his past work and "super good." We're inclined to believe him.
