Avengers: Age of Ultron (2015)

[ddddeeee]

Can I still be pissed off about it? Because, yeah, it pisses me off.

It really doesn't help that I found Whedon wrote Vision to be a smug asshole.

He'll prob pick it up later it just won't have the same weight it would have before.

I loved every scene with Vision.

[4815162342]

Dude-Bro Quicksilver.

 

More like a Continental Chav Quicksilver

[Sam]

I'm finding all the 'Cap should've or could've lifted Mjolnir' stuff amusing. He couldn't and at the end of the movie he even justified Vision picking it up jokingly along with Tony to Thor for them to save face.

No amount of analysis on Evans' face while he tries to lift it will change that. That's the definition of reaching.

"Elevator's not worthy" Love that whole scene with the Big Three, I want more of it.

The fixation around who can and can't, should and shouldn't lift Mjolnir, most of it jut seem like a specific version of obsessive power level discussion to me. 'My favorite is better than your favorite'

[Kvikk Lunsj]

I really didn't like Thor sidequest in the middle of the movie. 

[WhiskeyTangoFoxtrot]

Eh... Canonically, Vision I don't think ever picked up the hammer, so I wasn't really expecting him here to. But I was pretty annoyed with the movie by that point, that that basically broke me. I'm sure I would've been more okay with it if I didn't think Vision came across as a colossal d-bag. Sure would've gotten over it quicker. Also. If the entire movie was better.

So, okay. I might be harping on that point a bit, but it was the crowning cherry on an overall sundae of shit.

Edited May 3, 2015 by WhiskeyTangoFoxtrot

[4815162342]

The only of the main Avengers who I could see ever picking up the hammer is Cap. Him moving it a fraction indicated that he could one day pick it up, he just has to advance from a man between two worlds to a man with a clear vision for the world he is in. I think that's what will happen in Civil War to some extent.

[Blankments]

Vision picking up the hammer was both the best moment for me; and the best moment for my audience

[Jawa]

Unlike most of you, I haven't been following the marketing very closely for the last couple months. In fact, I don't even think I saw the final trailer. So I felt like this was the first Marvel film in a long time that I went into with a fresh set of eyes (the last probably being Iron Man 2, which I enjoyed and find underrated here). 

 

I enjoyed Age of Ultron too, but I was a bit let down. Maybe that's just because the first film had built up such anticipation by doing something completely new in bringing all these characters from separate movies together. Off the top of my head, these were my problems with Age of Ultron:

 

I was utterly confused for the first 15 minutes of the film. Why are the Avengers after Loki's staff? How do they even know where it is? Why is this a mission that the six of them chose to take on, rather than just Iron Man and War Machine or something? We never really understand what their "status" is as a team. Have they been going on missions together often since the first film? Do they all live at Tony Stark's Avengers tower? Apparently not Hawkeye, since he has a family. But what about Thor? What's he been up to since returning to Earth? Maybe this didn't bother anyone else, but it bothered me. We aren't really clear on what their situation is going into the story.

 

In fact, many things that happen aren't given adequate explanation. How did the MIND gem give Quicksilver and Scarlet Witch their powers? Or did they already have powers when Strucker took them in for experimentation? How did Strucker get ahold of Loki's staff? 

 

Also, weren't all the Iron Man suits destroyed at the end of IM3, followed by Tony retiring from being Iron Man? They never even mention that, which was, you know, the ending to one of their movies. Obviously, he'd have to don the suit again in this film, but there's literally zero buildup to that and all of a sudden he has an army of Iron Man suits patrolling the world.

 

Ultron was not a terribly interesting villain. So much more could have been done with him. I wanted to see him start off as good and then turn against Stark as the film progressed. He had one of the laziest motivations of any Marvel villain yet, with very little backing it up. Ultron also has access to all this technology, INCLUDING THE GODDAMN INTERNET, and chooses to send robot mooks after everyone instead.

 

Thor's sidequest made no sense. He also somehow had even less to do in this film than in the first. What did he even need Selvig for?

 

Black Widow/Hulk romance came completely out of left field, especially when she has better chemistry with just about everyone else on the team, as well as Rhodes and Falcon. And what happened to Betty Ross? Isn't she Bruce Banner's love interest? Has the MCU just completely forgotten TIH/Liv Tyler? (Probably) I thought their love story was forced and added nothing to the film.

 

How did Thanos know about anything that happened on Earth in this movie? He wasn't involved in the story whatsoever. It was a cool mid credit scene, but how?

 

All this to say that it could have been much better. But I still enjoyed it, which is how I felt about at least a couple of the other Phase 2 films. I'd say it was the third-best Phase 2 film behind Winter Soldier and Guardians, and barely ahead of Thor 2. I've watched four episodes of Daredevil on Netflix, and so far it's much more compelling than this film, which had millions more dollars poured into it.

 

B+, which for a film that I should be giving an A+ to as a huge MCU fan, is meh.

[cheesypoofs]

There is a tremendous amount to love in this movie and is MARVEL'S Best Film to date.. "A".. The crowd was really into it as well...

Their best film to date? I'm just as big of a Marvel fan as anyone but I highly disagree. The editing felt too choppy to be their best film. It was a really good movie, but I wouldn't rank it above the first or the winter soldier after my first viewing.

[Sir Tiki]

Vision picking up the hammer was both the best moment for me; and the best moment for my audience

 

Yeah, that got the largest reaction out of my audience.

 

Saw this today at 11 am, and the theater was packed. I had fun (granted, two weeks of reading reviews beforehand had lowered my expectations considerably) and everyone watching it seemed to enjoy it. There were a lot of kids, including one 10/11 year old behind me who really liked quoting internet phrases and memes whenever something cool happened onscreen. After it was over there were discussions in the theater about the future infinity gems, so it's cool that on that level it's connecting with people and making them excited for the next film as opposed to just "I wonder what city they're going to blow up next time?".

 

Got trailers for Terminator, Tomorrowland, Ant-Man and Fantastic Four, all of which I hadn't seen. No trailers for Jurassic World, Mad Max, Batman vs. Superman or Star Wars though.

Edited May 9, 2015 by Sir Tiki

[Squaremaster316]

Choppy, poorly edited, overstuffed, undercooked, riddled with bad one-liners and half-baked attempts at drama, not to mention a staggering lack of continuity from previous films (Tony's retirement, Hydra infiltrating Shield) that make it reminiscent of a Brannon Braga project.  

 

As much of a filler film as Iron Man 2

 

* out of *****

Edited May 3, 2015 by Squaremaster316

[Impact]

I still think Civil War will start due to Captain saying language

[Water Bottle]

Choppy, poorly edited, overstuffed, undercooked, riddled with bad one-liners and half-baked attempts at drama, not to mention a staggering lack of continuity from previous films (Tony's retirement, Hydra infiltrating Shield) that make it reminiscent of a Brannon Braga project.  

 

As much of a filler film as Iron Man 2

 

* out of *****

 

LOL what?

 

Tony's retirement is why he created Ultron. So he can end the fight. It's why he quits again at the end of the movie. He's done.

 

But Hydra infiltrating SHIELD? What movie were you watching? They begin by raiding a Hydra base-they identify it as such. When they get the scepter, Rogers is like "well hopefully this means the Chitauri and Hydra problems are done." Later, Fury talks about how they don't have the resources they used to because SHIELD is gone and now he only has the Avengers. Finally at the end, they get the ship back and it looks like they just got it out of storage.

[Rorschach]

Not as good as the first but still really enjoyable. Ultron was a bit rushed though.

A-

[Mango]

I'm really mixed about this one. Not mixed on whether or not I liked it or not (I did, overall) but how much exactly I like it.

Definitely not a top tier Marvel film but not a bottom tier either. But even then I wouldn't call it "average" because there were actually a lot of awesome moments, but there were also some really boring or dumb ones. It did some things better than the first film, but some things worse.

Even as a fan of the MCU, one thing that has kind of erked me lately is how the shared universe concept, while allowing for some really fun storylines and ideas we've never had before in film series, at times things can start to feel very "TV-ish". And by that I mean, introducing a character or plot point and not to have it touched upon again for a while. Age of Ultron almost feels like a fuller middle chapter at times because of this, I feel. Each film is at the mercy of the previous one or the next one, which creates a great challenge for the filmmakers in creating one solid, tied up film. It's not necessarily a bad thing, it's just that certain things don't necessarily add anything to the film's.

But, I liked it overall. All the core characters were there doing what they do best with excellent chemistry and charisma. ScarJo had some really great scenes and might be the stand out of the film for me thanks to her scene with Banner at the farm. Really fantastic acting on her part. I liked Quicksilver and loved Scarlet Witch. ATJ was actually quite good here! (Where was that enthusiam in Godzilla, man?). Olsen is as awesome as she is beautiful, I really hope she gets a chance to shine in Civil War. Ultron and Vision were alright. Vision was fun for a minute then kind of became Thor 2.0 so maybe in the next movie his character will be more unique. Ultron had about the same motive and logic for his master plan as a Transformers villain did, but at least he had some fucking personality. Still a far cry from Hiddleston's Loki, but solid enough.

I thought the last shot of the film with Cap starting with "Avengers!", takes a breath to finish the phrase only to be cut off by the credits was really funny.

Like I said, I'm still really mixed. Can't tell if it's C+ or B- range, maybe another viewing will help me decide how much I liked it.

[somebody85]

Woah kind of surprised to see a lot of the bad comments here. Also really really stunned to see some people rating this below Amazing Spiderman 2 last year. I saw it twice over the weekend, once in 3D Imax and once in regular 2D.

 

First time through in IMAX, I actually liked it better then the original. I still kind of do but my excitement dropped a bit with the second viewing. Leading up to it, my hype was sky high but I stayed away from all promo materials besides the released trailers so a lot of it was a complete surprise to me.

 

There's very little that didn't work for me overall and I can forgive it's flaws for how much fun it was.

 

But one big thing was Ultron. It seems like Scarlet Witch & Quicksilver caused more damage to The Avengers then he did. I wanted to see more of a buildup leading into him. I wanted to see him be created and then grow to hate the Avengers. And there were signs of this. In the beginning people are rebelling against Starks Iron Legion from protecting them from danger. It would have been cool to see this idea explored more and lead into Ultron.

After the South Africa set piece, the Avengers fly away defeated but it wasn't really at the hands of Ultron. They talk him up as this big intimidating force but up until that point in the movie, he hadn't been much of a threat. Colbie mentioned that he was going after the launch codes so maybe they wanted to protect the people but it was kind of thrown in as an afterthought. They really had no reason to hide. They had no idea of the army he was building. The only thing they knew about how dangerous he was, were from his words at Starks party and that he had gotten the vibranium.

But on the other side I didn't see The Avengers defeat him easily throughout the movie and I still felt an immediate sense of danger. Iron Man didn't win easily, he just defeated one of his many drones. Captain America nearly lost if it wasn't for the twins interfering and helping him. Black Window got thrown around. Thor was losing until Vision came in and saved him with the hammer shot. So he wasn't as weak as people are making it out to be but yeah they could have showed their loss a lot better in some of the fights. I would have liked to see him go against The Hulk and not just get thrown around. Or to have everyone face him and The Avengers get outmatched and actually need Vision.

 

I also didn't like Thors side story or the blonde woman with the kid they kept showing over and over again. You know the one who's kid Hawkeye saved at the end. I also felt there wasn't much of a big score like the previews indicated especially the original teaser. 

But besides that everything else worked for me besides some of the choppy editing.

 

Yes Ultons plan was dumb but isn't it always in comic book movies? The villain always needs the big gadget that the heroes need to stop in order to save the world. So nothing surprising there. Didn't find any of it to be TV filler like some are stating either. I thought Winter Soldier felt more like TV than this did. That was like a big episode of Agents Of Shield at points. And while Winter Soldier was great, it didn't really have a lot of the epic feel that this one did. 

 

I guess I liked the quick action shots because I loved the Iron Man vs Hulk fight. I don't get how anyone could call that part disappointing. My IMAX theater loved the go to sleep scene. I also liked Hawkeyes backstory, that whole scene made the team seem more human. I loved Black Widows interaction with his children and her romance with Banner didn't feel forced to me because of how she finds him in the original. And speaking of Hulk, he has never looked more realistic then he did here. 

 

Any scene with Scarlet Witches fantasies was much darker then I expected Disney to go. I loved all of that especially Starks at the beginning.

 

I really hope the 3 hour cut makes it out on bluray this year though. I would love to see what was there because I have a feeling Ultron was developed more and there was probably some sort of scene between Scarlet Witch & Tony Stark that hashed their differences out. I also think there was more to the Avengers coming together at the beginning and more on how Tony came to be Iron Man again. None of that really made a difference to me though.

 

But to me this was a lot like the original, and nearly every action scene was better. The humor was the same. Hawkeyes and Natashas conversation while they are driving through the wreckage near the end reminded me of The Cabin In The Woods. They also did the whole camera pans around to each team member multiple times here that was so loved in the NYC fight. Not really sure what people were expecting. I guess different stokes for different folks.

 

8.5/10

Edited May 4, 2015 by somebody85

[The Panda]

I saw it a second time because I was out of it the first time I saw it, and it held up about the same.

 

The humor is funny enough at points but it's not as energizing as the first film.  There's a whole lot more action, yet in a way the action got monotonous in a been-there done-that sort of way.  The relationship building was nice, and I liked that we got more Hawkeye focus.  Ultron is the best part of the movie, he's really what gives it its life.  Overall it's not the best Marvel movie but not the worst ever, it's entertaining enough but never does much to stand out.

 

B

[Deathlife]

Vision picking up the hammer was both the best moment for me; and the best moment for my audience

 

Yeah, the audience in my theatre erupted when he casually handed the hammer over to Thor.

[JohnnyGossamer]

I think these Marvel Studios flicks work best when they're agreeably pulped out deconstructions of this now ubiquitous genre. I think I feel similarly about this one as many TDK fans felt about TDKR. Second viewing tonight, a bit too Marvel Studios in the final act but just enough Whedon buoys it. Even though I respect the hell out of the writing in Caps 2, it really reeks of TV guys directing a movie far too often. Actually, even Avengers, which I like a great deal, does as well. This one just need to slow down a little and a little more earned pathos and it would've been up there with Guardians for me. For now, I prefer Guardians of the Galaxy, Iron Man Three, Avengers and Captain America: The First Avenger. Really loved the supercharged, oversized pulp Whedon delivered on here. Very, very fun and comic booked out the max. B+/B.

 

I seem to have the opposite reaction than others after revisiting other Marvel flicks. The one thing even Thor: The Dark World delivers on is charm All of them seem to have it. Often, too much of it. But, I like Winter Soldier less and less with each viewing. I respect Iron Man more so than I adore. I do not like Iron Man 2. I really felt First Avenger, Guardians and Iron Man Three, for all their warts, gave a sense of pulp euphoria and wonder. I feel this one did that too. This one felt like a Indian Jones sequel, the first two at least, or a much better, more fun Dead Man's Chest. Both of which impart the pulpiness I adore in an uber-blockbuster.

 

I loved the final action set piece. I'm always confused by people with these. They're all pretty dumb CBM, including ALL of Nolan's Batman movies. These are big, loud, dumb, fun, charming movies. The scope and plot of Ultron's plan felt like an afternoon serial. Loved the way Vision ended him as well. Now, I just hope the Russos can give us something that feels more like cinema and less like a well-written, star-studded Agents of Shield with Civil War.

Edited May 4, 2015 by JohnnyGossamer

[Darth Homer]

Looking forward to seeing this again with my kids. Although I think TWS is a better film, I like the last act of AOU better. The big battle in TWS was kinda boring and somewhat betrayed the gritty conspiracy theory tone the movie was going for. AOU was at least consistent in tone from start to finish. Looking back, the whole Infinity Stones subplot was the most annoying part of the movie for me. Thor's mission was pointless and the mid-credit scene with Thanos told us nothing we didn't already know. Should have gone with an Ant-Man or Spidey tease instead.

Imagine if right as Cap was calling the New Avengers to assemble, he gets interrupted by SM swinging into the base saying "Got room for one more?" Cap looks at him and says "Who the hell are you?" Audience would have erupted

Edited July 15, 2015 by Darth Homer