Avengers: Age of Ultron- Grading & Discussion (spoilerific)

[Aldo]

Ultron did have motivation though. He was designed to be a peace keeping robot. After giving himself form he came to the conclusion that the only way to achieve peace was to destroy the one obstacle in the way, humans.

That, coupled with Spader's amazing voice work (did he do motion capture too? I can't remember) made him my favorite villain alongside Loki.

 

[Enterprise1701]

Y'know, I guess I understand now why Thor didn't recognize the gem on Loki's scepter as an Infinity Stone. I suppose Thor already knew that the Tesseract was the blue Space Stone and didn't expect that the yellow Mind Stone would be housed in a blue casing.

 

[Mudd]

I gave it a "B." Of course no one much was hurt when all those buildings fell down - it's a Marvel comic book movie.

 

[BeatleJWOL]

it's interesting when people die/give us dirty laundry
[yt]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PDBOwPORHGU[/yt]

 

[Trekker4747]

Y'know, I guess I understand now why Thor didn't recognize the gem on Loki's scepter as an Infinity Stone. I suppose Thor already knew that the Tesseract was the blue Space Stone and didn't expect that the yellow Mind Stone would be housed in a blue casing.

In "Dark World" it didn't really seem like Thor really knew about Infinity Stones and what they meant and could do, Odin had to explain the importance of the Aether.

 

[Jedi_Master]

I finally got to see Avengers 2 Saturday evening.

I gave it an A-. The villain was excellent, unstable and hateful and pyschopathic. James Spader's voice over work was absolutely perfect, and if Ultron was given a little more screen time he would have been the best Avengers villain.

I can see the complaints about how much material was crammed into the movie - trying to hinge all the parts of the third phase of the MCU and what not, but this movie was still quite good because of the focus on the characters. The relationship between Bruce and Natasha, the pain in Tony's face as he contemplates what the illusion given him by the Scarlet Witch, the back story of the twins, the secret life of Clint Barton, on and on and on all add up to make this film feel deeply personal. I felt emotionally engaged in this film, which is a change from the first Avengers.

The action set pieces were also quite well done - the opening attack on the Hydra base and the Hulkbuster fight were the best in my opinion. I also liked the effort and attention given to getting civilians out of the line of fire. That was a nice change.

So overall it was just a hair off the amazingness of the first Avengers film, and I would be happy to see it again in the theaters and purchase it as soon as it comes out.

 

[Greylock Crescent]

I saw this Friday night (actually early Saturday morning) and was very much underwhelmed by it. I liked the attempt to focus on the characters ... but that was drowned out by over long and cartoonish (and, quite frankly, boring) action sequences.

What kept the film the the "B" range for me (B-, actually) was the fact that, for a moment, I was actually worried that Barton might not survive the final battle.

Otherwise, despite the attempted justifications, the various endings (Hulk & Iron Man deserting everyone) felt rushed and forced. And I never found Ultron to be particularly interesting. Loki had far more relatable motivations.

It was a fun movie but, ultimately, more hollow than the first. Better than IM3, not as good as CA:TWS

 

[CorporalClegg]

Saw it last night.

B- for me. I found it to be fairly mediocre.

The only real bright spot was Spader. His performance outweighed the scope of Ultron's dialogue by quite a bit. The character him(it)self was pretty flimsy.

The wearenotxmen twins were just there to remind us that they're not X-men. I thought their presence was completely superfluous. In fact, I thought that of most of the cast.

Usually Whedon is excellent at juggling a large cast, but here I though most of the characters were there just for the sake of it or because they had to be. Hawkeye and maybe Stark were really the only ones who seemed to have any real purpose. Everyone else was just there to fill a manufactured role in the ridiculous climax.

And it was ridiculous. Heck, the whole plot was pretty absurd and messy.

All-in-all, middle of the road for an MCU film.

 

[Lapis Exilis]

Ultron did have motivation though. He was designed to be a peace keeping robot. After giving himself form he came to the conclusion that the only way to achieve peace was to destroy the one obstacle in the way, humans.

And how did he reach that conclusion? Why were humans to be destroyed? When did he ever even contemplate human nature and make a decision? He decided humans needed to be destroyed because he needed to be TEH EVILZ. Not very convincing for this viewer.

 

[Samurai8472]

AOU exhausted Whedon.


http://www.vulture.com/2015/04/how-age-of-ultron-nearly-broke-joss-whedon.html

The 50-year-old Whedon is usually a genial presence, his mind whirring and low voice purring, but he seemed exhausted on Saturday, barely able to speak above a whisper after months of postproduction and late-night editing had taken their toll. “This was the hardest work I've ever done,” he readily admitted, “and at some point, when it's that hard, you just feel like you've lost.”

Here he talks about arguing with Marvel about what to keep

“The dreams were not an executive favorite — the dreams, the farmhouse, these were things I fought to keep,” Whedon said of the horrific visions induced by Scarlet Witch and the rural sequence with Hawkeye’s family. “With the cave, it really turned into: they pointed a gun at the farm’s head and said, ‘Give us the cave, or we’ll take out the farm,’ — in a civilized way. I respect these guys, they’re artists, but that’s when it got really, really unpleasant.”

Later in post-production Marvel told Whedon, “‘We’re making a Captain Marvel movie and we’ve got Spider-Man as a property,’ and I’m like, ‘I’ve already locked my film you f**kers! Thanks for nothing.”

 

[Turtletrekker]

If an Avengers movie was exhausting, how much more tiring would a Star Wars movie be?

The rumor is that he is being courted to replace Josh Trank on the second anthology film. Being as it's rumored to be a Boba Fett film, and Boba is (in my opinion) the most over-rated character in the SW saga, bringing in someone like Joss would be one of the only things to get me interested in it.

 

[Aldo]

Ultron did have motivation though. He was designed to be a peace keeping robot. After giving himself form he came to the conclusion that the only way to achieve peace was to destroy the one obstacle in the way, humans.

And how did he reach that conclusion? Why were humans to be destroyed? When did he ever even contemplate human nature and make a decision? He decided humans needed to be destroyed because he needed to be TEH EVILZ. Not very convincing for this viewer.

When he first came online he was shown all kinds of news footage. A lot of it featured the Avengers, and others featured footage of wars and such. He originally just wanted to get rid of the Avegners. But he than felt he needed something bigger, which is why he went with the Island.

 

[JD]

If an Avengers movie was exhausting, how much more tiring would a Star Wars movie be?

The rumor is that he is being courted to replace Josh Trank on the second anthology film. Being as it's rumored to be a Boba Fett film, and Boba is (in my opinion) the most over-rated character in the SW saga, bringing in someone like Joss would be one of the only things to get me interested in it.

As much as I would love that, and as a big time Whedonite, I would absolutely love it, I do question if he'd really want to do another big movie so soon after AoU. He did Much Ado About Nothing as a pallet cleanser after the first Avengers, and I'm expecting he'll do something similar now after AoU, especially if he had as much of a hard time on this one as it sounds like he did.

 

[Hound of UIster]

If an Avengers movie was exhausting, how much more tiring would a Star Wars movie be?

The rumor is that he is being courted to replace Josh Trank on the second anthology film. Being as it's rumored to be a Boba Fett film, and Boba is (in my opinion) the most over-rated character in the SW saga, bringing in someone like Joss would be one of the only things to get me interested in it.

So getting an overrated director/writer to do an overrated character. I'm sure that'll go well.

I very much still prefer the rumor of the Tarantino Boba Fett movie.

 

[RoJoHen]

If an Avengers movie was exhausting, how much more tiring would a Star Wars movie be?

The rumor is that he is being courted to replace Josh Trank on the second anthology film. Being as it's rumored to be a Boba Fett film, and Boba is (in my opinion) the most over-rated character in the SW saga, bringing in someone like Joss would be one of the only things to get me interested in it.

As much as I would love that, and as a big time Whedonite, I would absolutely love it, I do question if he'd really want to do another big movie so soon after AoU. He did Much Ado About Nothing as a pallet cleanser after the first Avengers, and I'm expecting he'll do something similar now after AoU, especially if he had as much of a hard time on this one as it sounds like he did.

He has said recently that he wants to go back to doing original work on television. Joss Whedon likes creating his own universes with his own characters and stories. He doesn't like the constraint that comes with having to work with another person's world.

 

[Jedi_Master]

I can see how the immense pressure that is placed on the creative team of any Marvel film (particularly the big summer tentpoles) would be exhausting.

 

[Sistrin]

The Onion Reviews 'Avengers: Age Of Ultron'

http://www.theonion.com/video/the-onion-reviews-avengers-age-of-ultron-38524

 

[Locutus of Bored]

I thought the movie was pretty mediocre. I gave it a "B-". It's all over the place story-wise and seems like a series of disjointed vignettes rather than a coherent story. Ultron's motivation is lacking, Quiksilver was woefully underutilized, Vision needed more development and felt tacked on to the film, the doomsday plot is ludicrous even in a universe full of ludicrous doomsday plots, Falcon should have shown up with the Helicarrier (they explained why he wasn't there in the film, but it would have been a perfect set-up for his inclusion on the new Avenger's team had he been there), and the film just followed the same structure of the team being at each other's throats again before deciding they need to work together that the first film followed and that will be followed up again in Civil War.

Ironically, the thing that people seem most upset about: the depiction of Black Widow, is the thing I think is being the most overblown, at least in the film itself (Marvel's marketing of the character is atrocious), with lots of things being interpreted in the most negative light possible or taken out of the full context. Also, the idea that Whedon is suddenly a massive sexist after decades of creating female-driven genre drama featuring women with agency and assertiveness is ridiculous.

The film had its good points. The humorous banter was good, as usual, and some of the action sequences were fun. But overall I just found it rather disconnected and meandering. Maybe the hour of deleted scenes will help that when it comes out on Blu-ray.

 

[Gaith]

I found the whole Ultron stuff pretty bewildering myself. Tony casually tosses out that JARVIS isn't a smart or real enough AI to protect the planet in his discussion with Banner and I'm all, huh? Could he elaborate, please? Because JARVIS seems pretty damn smart to me, able to crack wise and pilot multiple suits at once. And then it turns out he's got a few other AIs on hand, ready to plug in and fly with?

Then we get your standard AI-gone-wrong trope with Ultron deciding to kill everyone, which, yawn, okay, but then he muddies the waters by talking about how humanity needs to evolve, and I'm going, well, which is it? Pick one! Does he intend to eliminate the chaff from humanity's wheat, or clear the way for enhanced and/or Inhuman individuals, or just simply kill everyone? If the idea is he's too young and overwhelmed with sentience to think clearly, maybe it was a mistake for the quintessentially self-assured Spader to voice him; maybe a child's voice would have been more appropriate and scarier.

Then the Widow/Banner flirtation... well, that didn't work for me in the slightest, either. Just don't see a hardened and haunted warrior like her falling for such a mild-mannered dude. Then again, I've yet to see any evidence that Ruffalo's Hulk really is "always angry" as he says. Norton had an inherently haunted look and had reasons to be pissed, reasons which are still more or less canon, but if he's still irked about, say, being separated from Betty, it would have been nice to have mentioned that. Like Locutus said, maybe the deleted scenes will help there. In the meantime, I agree with his

B-

 

[Mudd]

So, do all Marvel Universe romances end unconsummated, with the male superhero left alone in a robot aircraft to presumably crash somewhere in the ocean?