The Avengers: Age of Ultron (Now contains SPOILERS)

[SONICobra]

only thing that bugged me was ultrons mouth, I don't understand why his lips moved like they were made of rubber. other than that I pretty much loved it, really felt like the same experience I get from reading an avengers comic

[Matches Malone]

Anyone else feel that the ties and sprint to link things to Infinity War took away from this film. I get that it is part of a greater MCU but the time spent on linking a fundamentally very human conundrum to the coming story of 'cosmic magic stones' took something away for me. Would a general audience not have been in awe of simply the "gem from Loki's scepter" being what brought the Vision to life? Us 'insiders' could speculate and debate and have the same squeals of joy with the GA when Thanos rips it from him in a film to come.

How much better served would AoU and the fans have been with a small scene of Pym consulting on the creation of Ultron than the Selvig and Thor cosmic hot springs deal? You could have removed huge portions of film and simply had Tony using the retrieved scepter to get his Ultron project over the hump and then Vision lifting the hammer to show his noble soul. No need to belabor the mend gem (also Steve Rogers is a way better dude than Thor and totally could have lifted the hammer )

The Infinity stuff would be best served by matters within GotG, the Inhumans and maybe Thor harvesting the small seeds planted in the Avengers as opposed to the opposite. I am equally frustrated that, assumedly, the amazing story of Cap and Bucky will be sidelined to a great extent to make room for a Cap/IM throwdown and more groundwork for Infinity War

[nbr3bagshotrow]

Originally Posted by Matches Malone

Anyone else feel that the ties and sprint to link things to Infinity War took away from this film. I get that it is part of a greater MCU but the time spent on linking a fundamentally very human conundrum to the coming story of 'cosmic magic stones' took something away for me. Would a general audience not have been in awe of simply the "gem from Loki's scepter" being what brought the Vision to life? Us 'insiders' could speculate and debate and have the same squeals of joy with the GA when Thanos rips it from him in a film to come.

How much better served would AoU and the fans have been with a small scene of Pym consulting on the creation of Ultron than the Selvig and Thor cosmic hot springs deal? You could have removed huge portions of film and simply had Tony using the retrieved scepter to get his Ultron project over the hump and then Vision lifting the hammer to show his noble soul. No need to belabor the mend gem (also Steve Rogers is a way better dude than Thor and totally could have lifted the hammer )

The Infinity stuff would be best served by matters within GotG, the Inhumans and maybe Thor harvesting the small seeds planted in the Avengers as opposed to the opposite. I am equally frustrated that, assumedly, the amazing story of Cap and Bucky will be sidelined to a great extent to make room for a Cap/IM throwdown and more groundwork for Infinity War

Thought it worked fine.

[Matches Malone]

Originally Posted by nbr3bagshotrow

Thought it worked fine.

It worked but held Age of Ultron back from being a stronger and more solitary film IMHO. The additions made it feel like a slave to a larger framework.

[Luminous]

Originally Posted by nbr3bagshotrow

Thought it worked fine.

Agreed.

Side note: A thought on the Hulkbuster "victory" against Hulk. I didn't see Hulkbuster win that fight. It was pretty clear that if Hulk continued to be under Wanda's influence the fight would have continued and he would have ultimately won. However, after that building came down on both of them it was clear that once the Hulk came out of the rubble he was no longer being influenced. His eyes were no longer bloodshot and he was witnessing the horror in all of the civilians he had affected. To me it was evident that the so called "knock-out" punch afterwards was simply a quick cut of the movie and to add a little humor a la Hulk punching Thor in the first film.

We didn't need to see Black Widow come in and perform another lullaby. We didn't need to see the Hulk mope away and then add more running to the film by having someone go after him. The punch and cut to black is both humorous and to the point. Hulk is no longer a threat so let's show everyone licking their wounds on the Quinjet.

[kingdavidf]

Originally Posted by Matches Malone

It worked but held Age of Ultron back from being a stronger and more solitary film IMHO. The additions made it feel like a slave to a larger framework.

But honestly that's kinda what it is, it's like a mid season finale to a TV show... The first avengers was the end of one season.. The standalone movies going forward are just episodes leading up to the season finale which is Infinity War.

[kingdavidf]

Also, I can't be the only one who has set aside funds for a hulk buster after seeing the movie..I shall name it Veronica also lol

[nexus]

While I liked Avengers (9.0) better than Avengers 2 (8.5), on almost every level I think AoU was a better movie -- writing, acting, direction, cinematography, action, EFX. Really too much to go into unless writing a full review.

Random Stuff
Action -- Most action movies have two or three big set piece sequences that the entire flick is designed around. A2 had at least five.
Fight design and fight choreography -- There were scenes that had the look of splash pages pulled out of comics, especially when you had multiple characters on screen at the same time.
Hulk -- Not only is the design improved over A1, there is more character range and development. Unlike previous directors, Whedon "gets" the character. Hulk is not just some raging big strong monster yelling "smash", it's a conflicted creature with the mind of a child trying to contain almost unlimited rage, pain and power. It's Frankenstein's Monster/Dr. Jeckle/Mr. Hyde/6-year-old all wrapped into one. And Mark Ruffalo does not get nearly enough credit for his portrayal of Banner. Compare him to Bana or Norton. Hands down I would say that Ruffalo delivers the best performance in the movie.
Hawkeye -- What a great job of "humanizing" an Avenger. Again credit to Whedon and the writers for adding that character dimension by giving Clint a secret family. Or "little agents" as Stark called them.
Vision -- From the minute he was "born" the character commanded the screen. Bettany was pitch perfect, and the fact that they used the actor vs. performance capture "humanized" the android.
Twins -- The powers and looks were nicely done. I preferred Pietro to Quicksilver but liked them both. And seeing as this is a spoiler thread, I think/hope the character will be back (he does have "regenerative" powers after all). I think Wanda's Avengers costume could use a little more design work.
Ultron -- Not as fun of a villain as Loki, but I thought it was very well done. I would have liked a design a little closer to the comic, but it worked fine. Spader's portrayal was fantastic and just some great lines. One of the things that always made Ultron one of the most frightening characters in comics when I was a kid, was the fact that no matter how much you defeated him the bastard would always have his program squirreled away somewhere. I'm glad they didn't do one of those cheap "the end?" twist endings where you see some little blip appear on a monitor or a little drive downloading a file somewhere.
Iron Man, Captain America, Thor/Downey Jr. Evans, Hemsworth -- All three actors inhabit those roles. (imagine how different this trio would have been with Cruise, Krasinski, and Hiddleston/Skarsgard--all of whom either had the roles at one time or were strong contenders). I also think these were the best costumes yet.
RDJ's lifts -- Downey is 5'9, but at times he looked to be a good three inches taller than Ruffalo and Cheadle (both 5'8"). There was one shot where his torso looked unnaturally disproportionate that just cracked me up.
Thor's Karate Kick -- Similarly, there was a pretty bad CGI-enhanced sequence where Thor is fighting 4-5 of Von Strucker's goons up in a tower and he does an unThorlike front jump kick that temporarily took me out of the action. Maybe he was influenced by RDJ's Bruce Lee t-shirt.
Black Widow -- never been a favorite Avenger for me, but ScarJo does a nice job.
Fury -- Should have been at least a couple of lines as to what the heck he's been up to. Obviously he's still got enough connections to scrape together a helicarrier, but with Coulson's merry band running around on TV, it would be nice to have a little more connective tissue. I'm sure it will be worked out in the next couple of years.
Hulk vs. Hulkbuster (Veronica) -- with much of the scene leaked/spoiled along the way this lost some of its punch so to speak. It was a great sequence for sure, but not really a surprise and to be honest I was hoping for something a little more epic. I also think there should have been tranq darts in the arsenal, which would have suggested that the armor alone would not have been enough to take down the Hulk, but the goal would have been to keep IM in the fight long enough for the drugs to take effect. But that's just me. Still a great set piece sequence.
Humor -- Again credit the director and writers for memorable lines and snappy dialogue throughout. The party sequence alone gave every actor time to shine. Stan Lee's cameo, Banner/Natasha, The Rhodey/War Machine war story was a nice little touch that most directors would have either taken out or not take the time to do, and of course the lift the hammer contest.
The B-Team Avengers -- With the three biggest guns gone, and the moral center on the farm, mostly a downgrade for now. However by the time Infinity War I rolls around expect to add Black Panther, Captain Marvel, Spiderman, Ant Man (maybe Wasp), and hopefully Quicksilver to the team. We may also see Dr. Strange. It would be so cool to have Classic Fantastic Four available. I would love to see Marvel and FOX work out a shared Classic FF/Ultimate FF deal similar to Pietro/Quicksilver. I know the chances are virtually nil, but we've got a couple of years so who knows.

[dechirico7]

Really loved the new characters.
I was kind of scared about 1/3 of the way into the movie, it got kind of boring with Ultron talking so much. lol. And the same joke over and over and over.....sigh.
Loved Scarlet Witch. I got all giddy when Vision saved her.

Oh and the sneak at the end....WE GET IT! Thanos is going to be in a movie....soon. GOT it! Was kind of hoping for something new. This is the third time he has been hinted at.

[wktf]

Loved this film! Saw it twice this weekend!