SPOILERS!! Avengers: Age of Ultron story

[Hector]

IMO Hawkeye got the best acting parts...as I felt the Hulk/Black Widow scenes were kinda creepy and silly.

[Hector]

I don't think Avengers is going to catch Fast & Furious 7 box office tally.

[Hector]

Gorn, you are right about the good guys vs bad robots theme, it's getting a little tiresome...that's two movies in a row of the same concept...hopefully...Thanos will change all of that.

[monitor_ep]

Well I downloaded the movie off of isohunt watched the movie and then went and watched in that night in 3D. The 3D was just to much. I did make the mistake and went to one of those dinner and movie places. One of the problems is there is always somebody walking in front of you.

If you do not watch Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. then yes you will be a little lost. Since I watch EVERY comic book show I was up-to-date and what was going on. After the movie I had to explain to several people what happened before. Yes the movie was long and yes I wish they would have keep Quicksilver alive. After watching Avengers Age of Ultron enough times now, I do hope that all the cut scenes and alternate scenes will be included in the DVD. I really hope the they include the Grey Hulk scene! The scene that Disney wanted out was the Farm Scene but that was the set up for Civil War along with Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D. "Scars".

I do wish that they did include with the New Avengers Captain Marvel and Spider-Man but I can sorta understand why they didn't.

[spacecaps]

It is a fun film, but a bit disjointed. The script isn't the strongest, and you get a feeling that they pieced together fight scenes, and then inserted some "character development" here and there without really making it one smooth whole.
Don't get me wrong, I had a good time, but it's best not to think at all and enjoy the "good guys beat up robot army" concept. None of the "lead" Avengers get a really good scene (Thor, Iron Man, Cap), they're just "around", fighting robots.
Hulk and Black Widow get the best parts, both in quiet scenes and the action parts.
And some of those action scenes are so OTT, you have a hard time making out what is happening, which kind of defeats the purpose.

It's a good popcorn movie, but the first one was more balanced.
And here's hoping the Avengers finally get a memorable adversary in Thanos. Even though Ultron is my favorite, I still feel he didn't make that much of an impression.

I think you nailed it here. The whole movie felt disjointed. Yeah it was a fun ride but it took a long time to get where it was going. The fight in the beginning gave it a James Bond feel where you kind of knew it would have an overall tie in to the story but really nothing to do with the actual story. The scene with Thor in the water was out of know where and had more than a few people wondering what the heck was going on. Those Scarlet Witch "Fear" scenes reminded me of "A Company of Wolves", which is never a good thing. They kind of stopped the movie in it's tracks and not showing the Hulk's was a bit of tease since whatever the hell he was took the movie on a 30 minute side quest.

Fleshing out Hawkeye's character and giving him a family and such that none of his brethren knew about was almost like a bait & switch when he didn't die at the end. Then killing off Quicksilver after barley exploring that characters potential felt like a cop out. (Also, he was a better character in X-men) Speaking of X-men, "What, didn't see that coming" was regurgitated ad nauseam right on par with 1st Class's "Mutant & proud of it" line. (I know it's Fox, but still) How many times did the "It's my job" theme come up too? I also hate this thing they do in these movies where a character will bring up a point to another character during an argument and then later that character who had the point brought up to him will recycle that same line. Cap's "We win together" speech earlier to Iron Man was then repeated to Cap by Iron Man. Shoddy writing at it's finest.

I also thought Ultron was a little too human for a robot. At the end when he gets thrown out of the plane he says, "Oh for gods sake." That seemed like a terrible choice for an omnipotent robot to say. Not to get all theological but does that imply Ultron believes in God? I thought the whole character came off as too humanistic. I was expecting more of a futuristic murderbot and got a snarky James Spader making tongue in cheek quips instead.

Halfway through the movie I wondered why the Avenger's were even together as a team. They clearly didn't seem to like each other as a group. There's a lot of animosity between the members that could have been further explored instead of the "Will they won't they Hulk/Black Widow plot. Stark did some absolutely questionable things in this movie to the point where he could be considered the antagonist in the film and yet outside of Thro getting upset with him for the wrong reasons (losing the staff) and a very stern wood-splitting scene with Captain America, no one seemed to care that he and Banner were screwing around with something they were clearly told not to by everyone else.

I loved Vision but man did it take forever to get to him. It made me think Marvel was showing DC how Superman could be. (Isn't Ultron basically Marvel's Brainiac anyway?) Those fight scenes did go into Transformer territory with the hard to follow action. Also, again with the mass destruction of cities with zero to no consequences. That Hulk/Iron Man fight was on par with Superman/Zodd levels of distraction. Aren't we tired of seeing this? But hey, no casualties and Banner did feel bad about it so it's alright I guess. I just feel that no matter how good a Marvel movie is, they're just showing us the same thing over and over again. It's like when a rock & roll act in the 60's had a hit song and then recorded that same song as a follow up. If Avengers was "The Twist", AOU is "Let's Twist Again."

[Gorn Captain]

You make some good points.
The little trip Thor made to that pool of water, it felt very strange, and my wife asked "what's that all about?". Even when Thor returns, you are still a bit confused.

I kind of expected Witch to revive her brother. I mean, her powers are pretty spectacular, she could pull out the bullets, stop the bleeding. Now all we got was a "Oh, no!!!!!!" reaction. In real life, we try to save people with gunshot wounds, but not in superhero movies, I guess.

So they throw Ultron to his "death". Does that mean he is actually destroyed? He could build and rebuild himself easily enough before. If I were Ultron, I'd keep part of my consciousness away from the battle (in secrecy) and walk away afterwards, ready to fight another day. The "we got all of the robots!" is a bit naive, don't you think?

And also, pretending that "no civilians were hurt or killed during any of the battles", really, do any of us believe that?


Btw, Spacecaps, I think your proposed title "Avengers: Let's Twist Again" works really, really well...

[Hector]

Spacecaps makes a good point on comparing Superman vs Zod and Hulk vs Iron Man's Hulkbuster.

All the DC haters criticize the Supes/Zod fights for destroying downtown Metropolis with thousands of deaths.

Well, the Avengers showed even more destruction...yet no fatalities?

Please, lol...

[Earth 2 Chris]

I think people are wanting to find chinks in the, pardon the pun, armor. We lifted these films to great heights, now some want to watch them fall. I think they're jumping the gun.

http://www.boxofficemojo.com/news/?id=4059&p=.htm

Spacecaps makes a good point on comparing Superman vs Zod and Hulk vs Iron Man's Hulkbuster.

All the DC haters criticize the Supes/Zod fights for destroying downtown Metropolis with thousands of deaths.

Well, the Avengers showed even more destruction...yet no fatalities?

There may have not been fatalities, which is a stretch, BUT the difference is the few lines of dialog where Iron Man is concerned with actually, you know, protecting people. And then everyone, especially Banner laments the destruction, on screen. The lighter approach of the film overall makes the wanton destruction with unequal collateral damage more palatable, because they aren't really selling this as a hard reality with super-powered beings in it, as MoS did. It's kind of like our world, but not quite, going all the way back to WWII, at the very least.

Chris

[MIB41]

Just a little perspective on my part to all this. I loved the movie. I actually liked it better than the first one because it now had to seat itself into a real story as opposed to paste together introductions from one hero to another (which was really the big responsibilities of that first film). I think this installment certainly set the stage nicely for the next series of stories, so I went in with my eyes wide open on expectations. That being said, I was surprised the film did not beat the first one soundly opening weekend (domestically). The fans and general public had all of that good will from Avengers and Winter Soldier to pile into theaters for another ride. The first film was a novelty but also a unknown quantity that first weekend. No one really knew what to expect. There were expectations this time, plus the bonus of other successful films to fuel it. While the Derby and fight certainly cut into it, I'm not sure if that was enough to make it fall as short as what it did. Plus if those were big factors, I expected a more stabilizing drop in it's sophomore weekend from those who missed it for those reasons. And while 59% is by no means a bad drop, it did lean more on the side of less demand this go around. Overseas, this film is a juggernaut before Japan or China have even entered the ring. With those massive territories still to contribute, Ultron certainly has a good chance of beating the global tally from the first film. But I definitely sense some calming down here at home.

While we the fans can certainly enjoy the next round of story points, one has to wonder if the studios can keep the general public engaged with the inflation that comes with keeping the same actors, and trying to keep the material fresh without compromising the base. Which leads really to the next 500 pound elephant in the room - How long can the studios hold on to Downey Jr. and Evans? Downey is already working on an exit strategy while Evans seems destined to go down if we are to believe the course of the registration act story line. So there will be some interesting challenges to the brand as it moves forward over the next few years. And like so many of us have speculated, who knows what this does for the public's appetite to see the Justice League since Marvel will have exhausted every angle of this genre before DC has gotten one installment into the conversation. More than ever, I believe the results of this next Superman/Batman film will play big on how much Warner Bros invests on future projects. We've seen their long term plans, but that can all be scrapped if it looks like demand will dry up on them. Kind of sad they have placed the fate of the entire franchise in the hands of one director. Marvel has certainly done a good job of finding other talent to move these stories along.

[Gorn Captain]

I certainly don't want to see them fall. I'm hoping we'll get lots more Avengers movies.
I enjoyed both movies, on a popcorn sort of level, but liked the first one a little better. I feel that in the first one all the characters get a moment to shine, and I don't really feel that in Ultron.
And yes, maybe I'm a bit tired of falling buildings and swarms of CG enemy soldiers. Of superheroes bringing down entire blocks, and then saying "nobody got hurt" (like in the A-Team, when every bad guy just walked off with a minor bruise).

I think it's only logical that, after all these superhero movies, we start saying "been there, done that".
And to be honest, I wouldn't be gutted if the major roles got a make-over, and somebody else played the part. Even if Downey asks for a fortune, I'd say "thank you and goodbye" and let somebody else take over. It's still the characters that make the fans care, I mean, James Bond survived the loss of Connery and went on, right?

[Bruce Banner]

http://cheezburger.com/488453/superheroes-avengers-marvel-golden-age-of-ultron-posters?ref=leftarrow&siteId=91

[Earth 2 Chris]

^Those are nice. Those are obviously new art pieces done in a classic style, though. Way too "perfect" to be otherwise.

Anyone mention how we ALMOST get an "Avengers Assemble" at the end? At this point, they're just toying with us.

Chris

[C.H.O.A.M.]

I saw it this weekend.
While I liked it (and will be buying the blu ray!), I was disappointed for several reasons.
First, although it was action packed, a lot of the action was too frenetic and "Transformers" for my taste. One thing I loved about the first Avengers movie was that the action scenes seemed to be real people doing real stunts- the camera was mostly static, which allowed you to experience it, not be bombarded by it. That wasn't the case with AoU, and some of the shots looked like video games. This is the absolute WRONG way to go in my opinion. With a billion dollar cutting edge franchise, the last thing I want to think when I watch it is, "Oy, that looks fake" or "Wow. Loud. But what the heck is happening?" The poster for the movie had me looking forward to huge landscapes of Ultron's minions being decimated by our heroes, with camerawork allowing me to take it all in. That barely happened, if at all.
Second, although Ultron's "birth" and first appearence were very well done, I didn't care for his "Stark snark" human sense of humor. It was unnecessary and less than intimidating. The trailer made him look ultra creepy, and I was hoping for more of that.
Third, while I can (almost) understand giving Hawkeye and Black Widow more screentime and a backstory to justify their inclusion in this movie (although personally I would reduce their roles because they're basically useless, let's be honest: a spy/assassin and a guy with a bow and arrow? yeah, they risk their lives, they're only human, blah blah blah but c'mon: Thor, Hulk, Vision, Iron Man... lots of firepower there. But I digress) I felt there was TOO much time given to them at the expense of the Vision. I felt the same way about the Phantom Menace: there were some good things about that story, but too much time was spent on things nobody wanted to watch or cared about.
And about the Vision... he looked too much like an actor with red skin. I wanted a more "robotic" or "metallic" looking character, and his suit looked too much like all the other modern spandex material costumes. Plus I wanted more "Vision-y" actions like dematerializing and optical lasers. Yes I know there was a bit of that, but not enough.
Why are we back to a Hulk that doesn't talk but only grunts?
Also with all the urban destruction and chaos, how did hundreds or thousands of people not die?? Yes Iron Man thought to get Hulk away from crowds, but only after engaging him on a city street!
Now believe it or not I did like AoU. The Hulkbuster Iron Man was awesome (if a tad reckless) and what action scenes I could follow were loads of fun. The "try to lift the hammer" scene was good and the sound was incredible.
Let's hope future Marvel films stay away from MORE+MORE+MORE = BETTER$BETTER$BETTER and focus on a solid script and "old school" or practical action staging that engages the viewer rather than tramples them.

[phil]

I'm actually glad we haven't gotten an "Avengers Assemble!" yet. It always seemed stupid to me. Someone, or all of the current team, yell it when they are already gathered. That never made sense to me. I am only really familiar with the Avengers from the '60s and '70s so I don't know if they found a better way to use the phrase in the modern era. If it were used as signal that the team members were needed then fine. As a battle cry I think it's silly. As much as I dislike the phrase it's still far superior to The Invaders, "Okay Axis! Here we come!"

[libby 1957dog]

just saw this linked on another site ,and thought it was a good read and thought some of you guys might be interested to read it

http://birthmoviesdeath.com/2015/05/12/earths-mightiest-monsters-the-character-arcs-of-avengers-age-of-ultron

there's a bit of swearing in it by the way