Marvel spoiled the biggest surprise in 'Avengers: Age Of Ultron'

Marvel ruined the biggest surprise of "Avengers: Age Of Ultron" roughly three weeks before the film's release.

Major spoilers below: Do not read any further if you don't want to know anything about "Avengers: Age Of Ultron."

Marvel

Ultron commands you to stop reading if you don't want any spoilers.

While there are plenty of fun surprises in the film, the introduction of Vision is arguably the biggest.

First, Marvel included a brief glimpse of a new face in its second trailer.

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And if the obvious pink skin and robotic features didn't give away the new character as The Vision, Marvel gave away the entire character just three weeks' before the film's US release.

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They also threw him into the official poster.

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The biggest problem about introducing Vision - rather than the other new characters like Ultron, Quicksilver and Scarlet Witch - is the role he plays in the film's turning point. 

Again, there are MAJOR spoilers below. Stop here if you don't want to know anything about the film.

For roughly half of the film, the AI menace Ultron is trying to build a newer, better version of himself. He constantly talks about evolution in the film, and his own evolution is a big part of it.

With a heap of vibranium, the same impossibly hard substance that makes up Captain America's shield, and help from a mind-controlled biogeneticist who can create self-healing tissues (don't ask), Ultron creates a seemingly perfect android - he needs a new body to inhabit, and this will be it. He takes Loki's scepter, which played a big role of the first "Avengers" film, and removes the Infinity Stone (important for the next "Avengers" movies), putting it into the android's head.

Unfortunately for Ultron, the Avengers show up and steal the android before he can fully upload his mind into the new body. Then, in the safety of Avengers HQ, Tony Stark and Bruce Banner allow JARVIS, Stark's AI personal assistant, to inhabit the android instead. With a little help from Thor's thunderbolt, the android awakens. It's startled by its own existence, but quickly catches up to what's going on. It doesn't want to kill Ultron, but it doesn't want the world to be destroyed, either.

This is The Vision.

Marvel

Since he's basically an enhanced, personified version of Stark's JARVIS, Vision takes the side of The Avengers. And that's very bad for Ultron in the end.

Having said all that, I don't think knowing about the surprise ruined the film for me. It didn't; I loved the film. But it definitely ruined some of the surprise. Vision's on-screen reveal is spectacular, but knowing it's coming gives away a major plot twist.

Marvel may have spoiled Vision because it wanted to boost ticket sales - at the end of the day, movie companies care most about getting butts into seats, not necessarily whether or not you have a great time once you're there. But Marvel didn't need to spoil a big part of "Age Of Ultron" like this; once the company debuted its first teaser in October, this film was immediately destined to become a box office record-breaker.

Marvel should have withheld these images: The Vision isn't the movie's biggest selling point, but he is its biggest turning point.