13 Movies to Watch After You See Avengers: Age of Ultron ~ Cinenus

PBS

This weekend you’re going to do your duty as a movie fan and see Avengers: Age of Ultron, right? It’s not that it’s an essential piece of cinema, maybe not even for the enjoyment of the rest of the continuing Marvel Cinematic Universe, but it will be the thing to talk about all next week and you’ll want to have an opinion on whether you found it to be either a sufficiently exhilarating superhero blockbuster that represents the comic books entertainingly well enough or an exhausting, sloppy mess without a hold on its subplots or narrative pace.

And regardless of where you fall, you’ll want to share in some additional suggested-viewing recommendations from yours truly. These are good talking points for those water cooler chats about the movie (show off your knowledge of cuttlefish!), but mostly they’re here to assist in your appreciation of or desire to move on from the Avengers sequel. I’ve selected movies that deal with similar themes and movies that directly informed or led to elements of Age of Ultron, plus some titles AoU simply reminded me of and that I think are worthy of mention.

As usual, the contents of the following list of movies to watch now may contain SPOILERS for this week’s new release.

Ex Machina (2015)

There’s a better movie about the creation of artificial intelligence currently in theaters, and it’s this character-driven feature from Alex Garland. You know how in AoU the development and discussion of A.I. was so swiftly and slightly addressed? Consider Ex Machina an appendix to fill in the essential info and drama the Avengers movie is missing. You may also wonder how it is that Tony Stark of all people didn’t go with a sexy robot (though he and Bruce Banner both have sexy female computer systems revealed later).

Pinocchio (1940)

Robots love “Pinocchio.” Carlo Collodi’s novel was a favorite of Johnny Five in Short Circuit 2 (along with “Frankenstein“), and now we’ve got Ultron (voiced by James Spader) singing and quoting “I’ve Got No Strings” from this classic Disney animated version. But the reference isn’t totally apt. As the franchise continues, Vision should be the one who relates more to the wooden puppet who wishes he were real. For another nice, direct bridge between Pinocchio and robots, also see A.I. Artificial Intelligence.

Modern Times (1936)

Two of the heroes in AoU are played by actors who’ve previously played Charlie Chaplin in a movie: Robert Downey Jr. in the biopic Chaplin and Aaron Taylor-Johnson very anachronistically as a boy in Shanghai Knights. So, the silent film star deserves representation on this list. Here’s one that appropriately deals with the evils of machines. Not quite robots let alone A.I., but a fair equivalent 79 years ago.

The World’s End (2013)

With the wrong done to Edgar Wright by Marvel (you can bet he’ll be represented when we do an installment of this feature for Ant-Man), he gets a shout out and an extra push for this movie, his last (for a while thanks to the Ant-Man time consumption) and one that shares a few things with AoU. I don’t want to spoil exactly why it’s relevant except to say that there are evil robots commanded by a central villain with motives sort of similar to Ultron’s.

Blackhat (2015)

Want to see Chris Hemsworth in another movie from this year where the insides of computers are also visualized? I don’t love this latest film from Michael Mann, mainly due to how it’s shot, but I can say there’s not really anything like it. Anyway, the Avengers probably could have used the powers of a black hat hacker on their side against Ultron. They came close, in the scene where, as FSR regular Dan Schindel notes, “Thor cosplays as Hemworth’s character from Blackhat.”

Less Than Zero (1987)

Want to see Downey and Spader clash in another movie, from almost 30 years ago? The former gives probably his first truly great performance in this Bret Easton Ellis adaptation as a young drug addict, while the latter plays a dealer who drags him further and further into Hell to make up for a debt. Ultron is a decent villain, thanks to Spader’s personification, but he’s got nothing on the evils of Rip.

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