Avengers: Age of Ultron

rowe

rowe

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(If there's already a thread, my apologies. I didn't see one, though.)


I saw this one Sunday morning with the wife and some in-laws, in 3D. Without spoiling anything, I think I like this installment slightly more than the first one. (The first was still awesome, though.)

On a side note, James Spader killed it as Ultron. ^_^


Has anyone else watched it yet?
 
Us Brits were lucky to get it early. It came out for us on 23rd April.

I saw it on the 24th.

I really enjoyed it. I think that the first half hour was a little bit rushed though... Ultron was just an idea in one scene, and then 5 minutes later he was already owning. I'd have enjoyed seeing Ultron's development a bit more.

Other than that I really enjoyed the movie. Ultron was very entertaining. Quicksilver and the Scarlet Witch were quite good too. Vision was great.

I much prefer the solo movies on the whole, but Avengers 2 was a lot better than Avengers 1.
 
It's not as good as the first film, and the film creaks when having to set up future instalments, but I still really enjoyed it. Plenty of Whedon wisecracks are always fine with me.

What it gets right are the characters, with the same excellent character moments and dialogue we got in The Avengers. It's just a blast spending time with the characters. I wish we'd got a bit more of Ultron (great performance from Spader), I thought he was easily the best MCU villain yet, bar Loki.

Hawkeye's family and picture-perfect house in the country was maybe a bit much but it was worth it for the reactions of the other Avengers - plus it meant we got Linda Cardellini in the film.

I have to admit really liked the whole Black Widow-Banner thing, mainly because of Ruffalo and Johansson's excellent performances.

The Thor in the cave stuff was easily the iffiest part of the movie. Not surprised to learn it was heavily edited down Stellan Skarsgard was probably left wondering what he was doing in the film at all.

Natalie Portman and Gwyneth Paltrow should have been billed as Sirs Not Appearing In This Film

All the Avengers vs all the Ultrons - what the Burly Brawl wished it had been. I was giddy with glee at the shot panning around with them all fighting.

Favourite moment in the film - Vision picks up Thor's hammer, moment of complete bewilderment from everyone else.
 
it's sad that the only way they could think of to develop Banner's character was to ship him with Black Widow making for some awkward scenes that didn't need to happen

pls don't do this again
 
ribbit said:
it's sad that the only way they could think of to develop Banner's character was to ship him with Black Widow making for some awkward scenes that didn't need to happen

pls don't do this again
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I didn't find it that bad, personally, but I know there have been mixed feelings towards it overall. :lew:
 
I think it suffers from the Matrix Sequel Effect. We've seen it (the team up) before, so it doesn't quite have the same cool effect it had three years ago when it was new. Not that I didn't enjoy it, it was still an excellent and enjoyable film, it just didn't quite live up to its predecessor.

My biggest issue is how it felt completely inconsequential in the grand scheme of things. In terms of the larger MCU, it will (probably) have no effect other than to introduce the new heroes to the audience - something that could definitely have been done elsewhere - and also bring the Infinity Gauntlet to the table. At the end of the day it was largely the same film as the first one. Villain wants to cause havoc; Avengers fight and get beaten; Avengers turn on each other; Nick Fury saves the day; Avengers win the final battle. I felt a lot of Ultron's grand plan, while justified, was a bit overly convoluted (was Andy Serkis really that necessary?) and his little army of minions served no other purpose than to give the rest of the Avengers something to do in the final battle. I also thought there were a few too many one-liners, which started to grate on me a little after a while.

It was great seeing the team back together though. They have a brilliant chemistry and dynamic on screen and that's what people pay money to see. It's those character dynamics that carry the film in its otherwise potentially dull moments. I was surprised by how much I liked Quicksilver and Scarlet Witch (Elizabeth Olsen's Russian accent isn't so great however), especially after Evan Peters had been so good in Days of Future Past last year. The Quicksilver/Hawkeye thing was fun and probably one of my favourite things about it. And I thought that humanising Hawkeye a bit more was a smart move. It made him, and by extension the rest of the Avengers, more human. I'm still a bit unsold on the Romanoff/Banner relationship. I think there needed to have been a little bit of a thing to establish it in an earlier film rather than suddenly throwing it in there. Also the CGI on the Hulk during the lullaby moments was pretty shocking!
 
Andy Serkis as Ulysses Klaue (Klaw) is helping to set up the Black Panther franchise where Klaw is a very important antagonist. Klaw loses his hand in the scene in the Avengers 2, and that'll likely set him up for getting his prosthetic hand blaster thing in the future.

klawd.jpg

They also namedrop the fictional African state of Wakanda, and it is important because of the vibranium which Ultron was constructing his new body from (and Captain America's shield is also made from). The vibranium comes from Wakanda, Black Panther's country.

It's useful build up to help introduce Black Panther. I suspect that Serkis as Klaw will return as either the primary antagonist, or an important antagonist in the Black Panther film we're expecting in 2018.




I think that my issue with Black Widow in the Marvel movies is that she is too 'good'. She isn't stabbing people in the back or being mysterious. She's less interesting in that way.
 
I get all that, but it felt like a very forced link to Wakanda in terms of Age of Ultron. It felt like quite an unnatural progression to even need to go there.

I think that's the problem with Black Widow. She's there to be the 100% good character. I think there's room for expansion, but she's only ever given a supporting role in other character's films. She needs to have her own standalone film to really explore the character, but that sadly doesn't look all that likely.
 
Agreed.

I think they missed good chances in Avengers 2 to put more of that side of Black Widow out there. They could have explored her darker side more when they paired her up with the Hulk. They could also have put more emphasis on that when Scarlet Witch cast her spell on her and we got a peek into her past.

Instead MCU seem to use Black Widow to represent a strong female character and role model, and that is all. As a result she is reduced to only being a female action hero, and all good and caring. She keeps referring to the dark and questionable things that she has done in the past, but the audience hasn't seen any of this side. There's almost something quite Mary Sue about her. I don't hate her portrayal entirely, but I think they need to work on what they do with her, particularly since she seems to be spread across so many films.

As for other moments in Avengers 2... The Thor in a cave scene has been so heavily edited that its purpose in the movie seems to be obscured.
 
They may as well have just had Thor return and tell them they should trust Tony this time "BECAUSE EXPOSITION." It's a shame that they cut so much of that because it sort of cheapened the whole scene when Vision was created. And on the subject of Vision; he reminded me so much of Dr. Manhattan from Watchmen. I don't know if he was actually based somewhat on Vision, it wouldn't surprise me he was because they had a very similar presence.
Also those few moments just before Thor did return got me thinking about Civil War and the direction that might take. Obviously the comic was all about superhero identities; something which is less important in the cinematic universe since no one has ever really made any secret about who they actually are, and there aren't enough characters currently in the cinematic universe to really warrant covering identities up. So I'm thinking that maybe Age of Ultron will be a sort of basis for Civil War? Obviously Tony Stark was right in the end with Vision, but at the same time Cap isn't happy. I guess that there will be some continuing friction between them over the matter and the whole Ultron scenario and whether or not it was worth the risk. That issue will polarise several other characters, and we get Civil War.
 
That's a really good theory for the Civil War movie.

I hadn't thought much about it yet, but you're right. Secret identity isn't much of a thing in the MCU so far. Spider-Man is obviously different, but they haven't even introduced him yet and it'll not have much impact if they introduce him and several others just in time for the Civil War.
 
I suppose it could just focus on people saying there should be more control and regulations imposed on superheroes because of all the destruction they cause. Look at what happened in Wakanda when Iron Man took on The Hulk - surely someone must have been pretty seriously injured in that. Interestingly when they did that in Man of Steel, the internet was very pissed off. No one seems to care about it happening in Age of Ultron.

I just read an interesting rumour though that says it will turn out that The Winter Soldier killed Tony Stark's parents, meaning he wants him caught and brought to justice, but Steve Rogers wants him protected as a prisoner of war. The problem I see with that though is that it's more of a personal conflict between Cap and Tony, and it's hard to see why the rest of the Avengers would get so involved to the point they're willing to go to war.
 
Jack's Smirking Revenge said:
I suppose it could just focus on people saying there should be more control and regulations imposed on superheroes because of all the destruction they cause. Look at what happened in Wakanda when Iron Man took on The Hulk - surely someone must have been pretty seriously injured in that. Interestingly when they did that in Man of Steel, the internet was very pissed off. No one seems to care about it happening in Age of Ultron.
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1. Tony Stark makes his best efforts to keep the fight with the Hulk away from civilians, there's no effort to address this at all in Man if Steel. That's what people found annoying.
2. There are repercussions to that fight with
Banner on the run now
- again in Man of Steel, there were none (though it seems they may be addressing this in Batman v Superman)
 
Another thing is that you can sort of forgive it of the Hulk. The Hulk is known for his rampages, and the damage that is caused when trying to bring him down too. That's why they eventually got fed up of him in the comics and blasted him into space. Not that this sort of thing went down well either...

Hulk was doing a lot of damage to the city, but Iron Man was doing his best to avoid civilian casualties. He was able to stop an elevator from crashing to the ground and killing all of its passengers, all while fighting off the Hulk. When Iron Man consciously smashed the Hulk into a building he only seemed to do so after calculating whether or not there were any people in the buildings.

Superman, however, is not meant to be letting this sort of thing happen at all. Possibly thousands of people died in Man of Steel.


That's an interesting theory regarding the Winter Soldier, etc. I'd prefer it to be a bit wider than that though. That said I can imagine Winter Soldier having a role in it.
 
I loved Avengers 2. It was action packed, funny (especially the Thor's hammer bit), shows more of Hawkeye (considering he got largely overlooked in the first film) and begins to build up future films for Wave 3. Considering some actors contracts are up and a new team will be assembled for Infinity Gauntlet, it was bound to have that setting up for the future kinda feel to it anyway. I wasn't keen on the idea of Stark creating Ultron at first (because Hank Pym creates Ultron in the comics and IMO Ant-Man should of been part of the MCU since the beginning! :P ) but it worked. Considering large scale events, much like what happened in the film, were also factor in bringing in the Superhuman Registration Act in the comics (along with the secret identity thing), I wouldn't be surprised if this does lead into Cap 3: Civil War a lot. Especially as identities are not that big of a deal in MCU.

The MCU on the whole has been great so far, as has Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. and what I have seen of Daredevil. It's even got me back into comic books for the first time since the 90's. Secret Wars '15 man... fuck... :eek:

charliepanayi said:
Natalie Portman and Gwyneth Paltrow should have been billed as Sirs Not Appearing In This Film
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Hahaha yes! :wacky:
 
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