Paul Bettany returns as Vision alongside James Spader's Ultron in Marvel's eight-episode Disney+ series, which brings the WandaVision trilogy to a close.
The new Marvel Cinematic Universe limited series, VisionQuest, not to be confused with the 1985 movie starring Matthew Modine (Stranger Things), is the last of the trilogy that began five years ago when WandaVision aired on Disney+. In that first series, Wanda (Elizabeth Olsen; The Avengers series) created a fictional life where she had a home in suburban New Jersey, Vision (Paul Bettany; Wimbledon) was her husband, and they had twin boys, Billy and Tommy, to deal with her grief over losing Vision. Next was Agatha All Along, starring Kathryn Hahn (Bad Moms), and later this week, VisionQuest will complete the trifecta.
You may remember that Vision was killed by Thanos (Josh Brolin; No Country for Old Men) in Avengers: Infinity War when Thanos removed the Mind Stone embedded in Vision's forehead to complete the Infinity Gauntlet. However, Vision's body was later rebuilt and reactivated, and he eventually went into hiding for fear that the wrong people would try to capture him and use him for nefarious means. While in exile, he revisits his prior life in order to try to understand the feelings he had for Wanda and people in general because, once rebuilt, the new Vision had no feelings. Living inside Vision are also other AI personalities, including E.D.I.T.H. (Emily Hampshire; Schitt's Creek), F.R.I.D.A.Y. (Orla Brady; Into the Badlands), J.A.R.V.I.S. (James D'Arcy; Dunkirk), D.U.M.-E (Henry Lewis; Peter Pan Goes Wrong), U (Jonathan Sayer; Peter Pan Goes Wrong), and Ultron (James Spader; The Blacklist).
The best part about VisionQuest is the cast. Bettany has been part of the Marvel Cinematic Universe since 2008, first voicing J.A.R.V.I.S. before physically portraying Vision beginning in 2015's Avengers: Age of Ultron, and it is impossible to imagine anyone else playing this character. As the series begins, Bettany is somewhat robotic, as is intended for the character, but by episode eight, we get the Vision we all know and love, the one with emotions who cares for humanity as if he really is human. Spader, however, steals the first four episodes because he not only has the funniest lines of anyone, but he also delivers them with the perfect tonal quality. He also plays the bad guy well, as he has with past characters, and he gives Ultron some complexity audiences might not expect from the Marvel villain. Hampshire, Brady, and D'Arcy are all terrific as supporting cast members, with Lewis and Sayer perhaps being the weakest links. Ruaridh Mollica (Witness Number 3) is also very good portraying Wanda and Vision's son.
The story itself begins well as the first four episodes build the plot, intrigue, and tension (and the humor, as mentioned earlier), but the second half of the limited series isn't as strong as the first. The humor is less prevalent by episode six, and the plot becomes more convoluted as additional elements are introduced. The addition of another AI robot played by T'Nia Miller (The Haunting of Bly Manor) muddies the waters, and millions of little nanobots being added made me want to groan out loud. As each new episode went on, I found the second half less interesting than the first, but I still wanted to see how everything would wrap up. The ending doesn't wrap everything up as well as I had hoped and instead gets a little too sentimental, which I'm sure won't appeal to every MCU fan. I do give props, though, to the set design and costume teams, as they did a good job overall.
For those who are computer geeks or who have a degree in a STEM-related field, this superhero-adjacent story is something they should enjoy, but for those of us who are not technologically gifted, the nomenclature can be a bit off-putting. And while this series does wrap up the WandaVision/Agatha All Along trilogy, I didn't find it as good as the first two properties, and I'm not particularly sure why we needed it, as I don't believe it gives us any insight into what is to come in Avengers: Doomsday.
While I didn't find VisionQuest as strong as WandaVision or Agatha All Along, the performances, particularly from Bettany and Spader, make it worthwhile for MCU fans and bring this trilogy to an interesting conclusion.
Grade: B
