Animation Revelation Forum

Release Date: May 1, 2015
Studio: Disney
Director: Joss Whedon
Aspect Ratio:  2.35 : 1
Starring: Robert Downey Jr., Chris Hemsworth, Chris Evans, Mark Ruffalo, Scarlett Johansson, Jeremy Renner, Elizabeth Olson, Aaron Taylor-Johnson, James Spader, Paul Bettany, Cobie Smulders, Don Cheadle, Anthony Mackie, Samuel L. Jackson

Plot Summary: When Tony Stark tries to jumpstart a dormant peacekeeping program, things go awry and Earth's Mightiest Heroes, including Iron Man, Captain America, Thor, The Incredible Hulk, Black Widow and Hawkeye, are put to the ultimate test as the fate of the planet hangs in the balance. As the villainous Ultron emerges, it is up to The Avengers to stop him from enacting his terrible plans, and soon uneasy alliances and unexpected action pave the way for a global adventure.

COMMENTS?

Wow, it's been a while since I've done one of these.

But no, this isn't better than the first. But no, this is hardly a trainwreck. If you enjoyed the first, you're likely to dig this one as well. There are issues in plot, but I'll probably wait until tomorrow til I get into them. You guys should see it first, though!

Just saw it. Thought it was better than the first.

Fun action movie and a good superhero team up. Particularly liked Ultron and

Spoiler

Vision

[close]

but the whole cast was pretty great. Lots of cameos, too.

Good swansong for Whedon, because I honestly don't think he could do another one of these.

Here's what was missing from the movie. (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ogx_24aoRpg)

Going to see it this afternoon with a friend I haven't seen in a while. Out of the blue, he texted and asked if I wanted to see it. Such is the power of the Avengers.  :thumbup:

Honestly, after seeing it, I just don't get most of the criticism. I'm with Desensitized, I thought it was great. As an action ensemble piece it's just as fun as the first movie, but this time the story feels more cohesive, rather than loosely stringing together set-piece battles. Also, I love Loki, but Ultron really topped him for me, with just as much wit and twice as much of a threat. He's easily one of the better MCU villains to date.

The movie isn't without flaws, naturally, but hardly any of them rose above the level of "nit-pick" for me, and once again, I could easily point out problems with most other MCU films as well that are similar. Sometimes people tend to focus too much on what's wrong with a film than what it does right.

I don't think that it's on par with Winter Soldier or DOFP,  but I honestly found it to be just as good as GOTG, which is saying a lot.

I'll elaborate more on my thoughts later, but overall:

This was a fun as hell movie with a bit more nuance than the original, and I loved just about every minute of it. I hope that I can get a chance to watch it again, soon, to see how I feel about it on a repeat viewing.

I wouldn't say it was one of the best, but then, on further reflection I wouldn't put the first one at the top either. The Avengers movies are pure fun team ups and this one outdid the original in pretty much every way in that respect.

It's not perfect, no, but I'm glad with what we got.

Right, that's about how I feel. I just feel that a lot of people get blinded by the spectacle of the first movie and end up forgetting that it was far from perfect to begin with. No matter what, this wasn't going to capture that same feeling twice, so people were more open to criticizing it, which is fine, but I can't help but feel that a lot of the negative reviews take relatively small problems with the movie and make them serm bigger than they really are. It's one of those cases where people over-praise the previous film and are overly-critical about the sequel. It was the same thing with TDKR, IMO.

Also, I now believe that it's safe to say that even if Ant-Man turns out to suck:

Phase Two > Phase One

Quote from: Dr. Ensatsu-ken on May 01, 2015, 07:23:18 PM
Also, I now believe that it's safe to say that even if Ant-Man turns out to suck:

Phase Two > Phase One

I agree. As a whole, these all feel like a step up from the Phase One films.

I actually don't think Ant-Man will suck. At worst it'll probably just be generic or average, but I doubt it will have any of the issues Iron Man 2 had.

Quote from: Daikun on May 01, 2015, 01:20:31 AM
Here's what was missing from the movie. (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ogx_24aoRpg)

:lol:

I don't expect it to suck, either. I simply mean that even in the off chance that it does, it won't be enough to detract from how good Winter Soldier, GOTG, and Ultron make Phase Two.

I thought it was fun, though the movie probably could have been a bit more serious.

Admittedly I was expecting it to be a bit darker than it was, but I think it struck a pretty good balance between fun and serious, myself, especially in the second act.

On an unrelated note, one minor gripe that I had with the movie was how Thor's sub-plot clearly had little to do with the main story. It was just build-up to Ragnarok. I also felt that, as fun as they were, we really didn't get enough of Scarlett Witch, Quicksilver, or Vision to get attached to any of them (but Vision himself was a really well-done character).

Oh, and since nobody mentioned any of the extremely quotable lines from this movie, here are some of my personsl favorites:

-"Language...." (It was a cute running gag)

-Tony's exchange with Ultron in Ulysses's base: "He beat me by 1-second!"

-"That's a great idea. Let me tell you all about my evil plan."

-Hawkeye's quip about how ridiculous this whole movie's scenario is as a nod to the audience: "None of this makes any sense."

Just to name a few.

Ultron's dialogue. Just so good.

But yeah, I can see wanting it to be darker. It was a bit darker in some places, but as a whole it was basically More Avengers. I think the previews played up the dark stuff a bit too much.

All the visions and sub-plots from the visions seem to be for tying in to upcoming movies. I think what was more important in this specific one was that it shook them up and caused a problem. Tony and Steve apparently getting closer as friends, Thor worried about his home, and so on seem to be setting up for Phase Three.

By the way, did any of you have the audience react to the teaser during the credits? I thought that was a really simple but powerful one.

It doesn't tell me anything that I don't already know, but yeah, I liked it. It does a good job of letting you know that Marvel really means business with Infinity War.

I'd put it right in the middle of Phase 2. And if you consider that I like The Dark World more than most, that should give you an idea of how much I ultimately enjoyed the thing.

I had problems with both in terms of some seriously dumb bits of writing, but overall I still enjoyed IM3 and TTDW quite a bit. There was no bad or even sub-par P2 film so far, IMO.

I might as well update my current MCU ranking for the movies:

1. Captain America: The First Avenger
2. Captain America: The Winter Soldier
3. Guardians of the Galaxy
4. Iron Man
5. Avengers: Age of Ultron
6. The Avengers
7. Thor
8. Iron Man 3
9. Thor: The Dark World
10. The Incredible Hulk
11. Iron Man 2

Iron Man 2 is the only MCU film to date that I downright dislike. Hulk was an early MCU film and suffers from things that plagued many earlier superhero movies in general, but ultimately it was still pretty fun on a brainless level.

Everything else ranges from fairly good to excellent.

If we're going to rank them:

1. Captain America: The Winter Soldier
2. Captain America: The First Avenger
3. Guardians of the Galaxy
4. Iron Man
5. Avengers: Age of Ultron
6. The Avengers
7. Iron Man 3
8. Thor: The Dark World
9. Thor
10. The Incredible Hulk
11. Iron Man 2

As a whole I think they're getting better. I expect Ant-Man to probably rank around the Thor movies. Good, but not my personal favorites.

One of the major problems people seem to have with the film is Black Widow's characterization, which for the most part I don't get. I don't see why Natasha flirting with Bruce was such a problem, since she wasn't weakened as a character otherwise. She still kicked ass throughout and was still mostly her own person, just while being attracted to someone else. It's not like she was only referenced briefly and contributed little, like Pepper and Jane,

I do agree with the criticism against Natasha calling herself a monster as she can't have kids anymore. That was messed up.

I thought it was pretty clear in Winter Soldier that she had deeply embedded personal issues that she never brought up. Seems to me someone like Bruce who had the same problem on a more in your face level would really relate to her. And they did. I didn't see any problem with their relationship because they really did mesh well together.

As for her flirting . . . Uh, it's kind of her thing. She's done it since her first appearance.

I didn't interpret it that way at all. It wasn't the fact that she couldn't have kids that she considered to make her a monster. It's what they put her through to get to that point during her training as an assassin that she seemed to be referencing, from what I got out of that scene.

And yeah, the people who are complaining that Natasha having romantic feelings for someone else devalues her character are really stretching on that one.

One criticism that I do agree with is that the ending, while spectacular in terms of set-piece moments, was bloated in terms of story and characters. It was really rushed, and if you knew absolutely nothing about Vision going into the movie, you'd wonder who the hell he was supposed to be and why he was such a major player for the final battle with Ultron. Granted that, there were still plenty of things that I personally really liked about the ending of the movie, but it did start to feel a bit reminiscent of how unfocused IM2 was (though nowhere near as bad as that film got with its sub-plots).

I also have to agree with GregX that this movie justifies why Infinity War needs to be split into two parts. People complained that it was unnecessary and was just a move to make more money like with those YA adaptations splitting up their final movies into two parts or The Hobbit being split into three parts, but if you just look at how much happened in AoU,  it's easy to see that this is clearly not the case. The cast of these crossover movies are HUGE, and you need more time to properly develop the characters and story. Now, for the most part I still hold the opinion that AoU managed to do this just fine without much blunder, but I do hope to see a director's cut release on DVD/Blu-Ray with the 3-hour cut of the film that contains all of the other important scenes that were cut for time. While I completely understand why the movie had to be shortened, I do honestly feel that it could have benefited from more screen-time (one of the rare cases where more actually is more).

So, a friend of mine who I talked to saw the movie and actually agrees eith me that despite its problems, it's better than the first (or at least he likes it more), but that he's also not surprised by people being disappointed by it for two reasons:

-The hype for this movie was unrealistically high from the get-go, but since this movie didn't have the luxury of being the first major crossover of its time, people wouldn't be as forgiving of its faults as they were for the original, which makes a lot of sense to me.

-The marketing for this movie made people expect a darker and more serious film, which it really wasn't, and I have to agree that it was very misleading.

Still, we both enjoyed the hell out of the movie for the many things that it got right, and I'm happy to see at least someone else with a similar opinion to mine.

The film was fine. I enjoyed everything about it and had FUN watching it. Pretty great action sequences and some funny dialogue to boot. Also got a good bit of a laugh during the part where Cap was able to lift/budge Mjolnir. Also, good to see Hawkeye have some more development in this movie compared to the first one.

Quote from: Dr. Ensatsu-ken on May 01, 2015, 10:42:54 PM
I didn't interpret it that way at all. It wasn't the fact that she couldn't have kids that she considered to make her a monster. It's what they put her through to get to that point during her training as an assassin that she seemed to be referencing, from what I got out of that scene.

That is also my interpretation of that scene/line as well. Especially if those spooky visions were anything to go by where it did look like she went through some training from hell.

Captain America is officially the most popular Avenger, according to the world: http://www.ibtimes.com/avengers-age-ultron-numbers-reveals-captain-america-most-popular-hero-latest-marvel-1909294

Of course this only makes sense, since he's the best Marvel character of all time. I now have faith in humanity again.

Iron Man can go suck it.

As it should be.

I remember reading articles suggesting Marvel initially wanted to downplay Captain America's presence in the MCU due to fears that international audiences would hate his patriotism. How ironic.

Though, to be fair, this movie is being sandwiched in-between two big Captain America movies, since he was the last Avenger to have a solo movie in Phase Two (just a little over a year ago) and will also be starring in the first movie of Phase Three, so he's much more prevalent in the public consciousness right now than any other MCU character.

That said, he's still the best, so he deserves his time in the spotlight.

His patriotism has never bothered me. I liked him as a kid, too.

The character is just very admirable and likable, and it doesn't hurt that his movies were really good on top of it.

I thought I would hate Captain America before I watched his films. I figured he would be jingoistic and uninteresting, and The Avengers (which I saw first) didn't really do anything to change my opinion.

I was very wrong. Best non-Guardians character in the MCU IMO. Falcon and Black Widow (Winter Soldier only) come close.

To be fair, I think that his character comes off much better in The Avengers after seeing The First Avenger. Out of context, he would just seem like a prick who hates modern society and can't accept the modern world. In-context, it's brilliant character development, as he's clearly struggling to adjust to the fact that he's been completely removed from the world that he knew, and most of the people that he cared about have been dead for years, so he's really alone at the beginning of the movie. The key thing is that he's trying to cope with the situation, and no matter what he will never refuse to help other people.

Also, The First Avenger is directed by the guy who made The Rocketeer, and that's a fucking awesome movie that more people need to see. ;D

On another note, my favorite version of the character is in AEMH, just like how my favorite version of Spider-Man is in TSSM.

Cap still isn't my personal favorite, but he does easily have the most consistent solo films.

But you have to at least admit, Captain America has a way better theme song than any of the other Avengers: http://youtu.be/cVU4HURKEXs

Saw it last night; it was cool. I mean yeah, I guess I can see what people didn't like about it, but some of the criticism was just so absurdly overblown (this is far from being as bad as it was made out to be). Most importantly, it was fun to watch. For me, when it comes to these kinds of movies, that's priority numero uno.

I think I might still like the first one more, but with repeated viewings of this that could probably change. Surprisingly lost in all of this was how solid the humor was; "don't touch my pile" was definitely funnier to me than it should've been.

Quote from: Avaitor on May 08, 2015, 11:20:04 AM
Cap still isn't my personal favorite, but he does easily have the most consistent solo films.

Man, I still want a solo Mark Ruffalo Hulk. Is that wrong?

I'd like one as well, but I recall Mark Ruffalo saying that he didn't want to do a solo film because he felt that the character was more interesting when interacting with the other heroes.

Personally, I could totally see a Planet Hulk movie working, myself.

No, I want one, too. I do hope that Thunderbolt Ross' inclusion in Civil War hints at Hulk getting more to do in between Avengers films, at least.

Oh, and I found this pretty cool rebuttal (http://thefilmfatale.me/post/118266751090/re-the-black-widow-brouhaha) of the Black Widow controversy from the film. I agree with a lot of her points, personally.

While I still liked the movie, some of the criticisms here are definitely warranted. (https://medium.com/@sady_doyle/age-of-robots-how-marvel-is-killing-the-popcorn-movie-1e21b231f73a)

While I am open to agreeing with many criticisms of the film, I can't help but feel that the author of that article is highly overreacting to this one movie. I mean, stating that Marvel is killing popcorn movies and that they don't care about their fanbase anymore? Does the fact that their two films from last year were both excellent examples of good popcorn flicks not count anymore for some reason?

And calling the first Avengers a stone-cold classic is, to me, giving that film way too much of a pass on some of its own failings. I've seen other people who dislike the movie give their criticisms and I actually agree with quite a bit of it; it's just that personally those things don't bother me as much as it does for them, and I also find various things that I love about the film. However, I just don't buy into these over-dramatic reaction articles that basically amount to nothing more than saying: "I hated this one movie, so now Marvel movies suck and they have destroyed cinema."

Such arguments hold no weight to them. Especially looking at last year, which saw the release of plenty of good non-Marvel popcorn flicks, such as Dawn of the Planet of the Apes, Edge of Tomorrow, and John Wick, to name a few.

As for the bit about the movies being formulaic, I agree with that, but that isn't exactly exclusive to Marvel. You could apply what the author said to numerous non-comic-book popcorn movies as well. It might not involve a superhero, but it's the same concept of good guy vs. bad guy.

The stuff about character arcs is something that I can't really address, myself, until I at least see the film a second time and can analyze it a bit better.

Regardless, I still strongly stand by my opinion that this is a flawed movie, but a superior experience to the original and a solid movie in its own right.

I saw Age of Ultron today. It was fun. I didn't like it as much as the first movie, which I found to be more fun. But it was good.

Ultron with swapped-out dialogue. (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tf-_230SjbM)

:lol:

A bunch of us rewatched this on New Year's.

Even better the second time around. I stand by my initial impressions.

This guy takes on Cinema Sins' video of Age of Ultron (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q5YWVne9pDE) and in the process dismantles a lot of the ridiculous criticism of the film others have made since it came out.

Yes, there were legitimate faults, he even points out some in this very video, but it really goes to show how so many people overdid their hate due to their overblown praise of the original movie. The original movie was not a perfect film.

Is Age of Ultron a perfect movie? No. But it's also not a mess, or incomprehensible. The backlash it got was totally unnecessary.

If anyone takes Cinema Sins seriously, I can't take them seriously.

I didn't like the movie at all, but Cinema Sins is complete garbage.

Does anybody else realize that Cinema Sins' videos are intentionally made to not be taken that seriously or am I the only one?

Quote from: Dr. Ensatsu-ken on May 26, 2016, 12:01:51 PMDoes anybody else realize that Cinema Sins' videos are intentionally made to not be taken that seriously or am I the only one?

You're far from the only person. See my comment from earlier. ;)

At any rate, I do agree with Desensitized about AOU. It's flawed, but so was the first movie. I still think that it was really fun for what it was, though.

Quote from: Dr. Ensatsu-ken on May 26, 2016, 12:01:51 PM
Does anybody else realize that Cinema Sins' videos are intentionally made to not be taken that seriously or am I the only one?

I think the main problem is that a lot of people do take them seriously and subsequently use their videos as justification for movies being "bad."

Quote from: Dr. Ensatsu-ken on May 26, 2016, 12:01:51 PM
Does anybody else realize that Cinema Sins' videos are intentionally made to not be taken that seriously or am I the only one?

I do, doesn't keep me from hating it. It just isn't funny at all to me.