Avengers: Age of Ultron (May 1st, 2015)

[The Iron Koob]

I hope he stays dead. I hate when they undo things like that

 

[The Ween]

Yeah, I probably would have preferred they kill Hawkeye. He just never got any real traction as a cinematic hero. His moment with SW is probably the coolest he'll ever be (watch the Russos make me eat me words) and it might have had a bigger impact having Hawkeye die since he's appeared in three movies now than "easy come easy go" Quicksilver. Though I do feel an air of tragedy about QS dying when he DID have potential to be so much more.

He's clearly a tough character to write for though as his power has SO much application. They might have just decided to take the easy way out rather than risk having movies where he is stupidly underused like we saw with DOFP.

You're right, she's not the most expendable. Hawkeye is Black Widow was the only female in the team and she beat up Hawkeye in a fight...yup, he should be dead by now.

even though Renner's a cool guy, and his death would've been faaar more impactful than QS'.

 

[The Ween]

Those Russo comedians could turn Bieber into Wolverine.

 

[crows]

even though Renner's a cool guy, and his death would've been faaar more impactful than QS'.

it would have been pretty awful to kill him in the same movie where we find out he has a family...

 

[crows]

That's what made him popular with the fangirls. He should have kept that hair style for Thor 2. I like it. If it was up to me, the hair would get longer and spikier with each new film. Like Raditz from DBZ.

when will we ever get a dragon ball movie ah guys?

 

[The Ween]

Ween is going to come here and lay the smack down on you 2 clowns.

Yes....an arrow. His motivational skills are admirable. I'm sure he has a bright future as a coach or as a motivational speaker




Beating the Winter Soldier in a fight could do it.



She won't come here. She's too busy watching Chris Hemsworth and Mjölnir in the Vacation trailer

And I can lift it......because I'm worthy.

 

[The Ween]

it would have been pretty awful to kill him in the same movie where we find out he has a family...

I still have to wonder about all of that family stuff. I'll be curious to see if anything comes of it later.

 

[The Clown Prince of Crime]

when will we ever get a dragon ball movie ah guys?

It's probably really hard to do.

And I can lift it......because I'm worthy.

 

[Xenoburger_]

And I can lift it......because I'm worthy.

 

[Sachiel]

when will we ever get a dragon ball movie ah guys?

 

[ronri]

I think when all is said and done AoU is going to be a special Avengers movie when people look back on it. Just thinking that of all the villains that the team has/will be facing; Loki, Ultron, and Thanos, that Ultron is really the one true "Avengers" villain. Yeah Loki goes back to Avengers #1 the comic but I still see him as more of a Thor villain. Thanos is kind of an "everybody" villain. So AoU has this one true Avengers villain, AND it features two overlapping team rosters. And it'll be the only one with Quicksilver, who was a staple of the team for many years.

Obviously these movies are going to go on for however long. Ultron could come back, QS could come back. But to have this iconic group of Captain America, Iron Man, Thor, the Hulk, Hawkeye, Black Widow, the Vision, Scarlet Witch, Quicksilver and a couple appearances by Falcon and War Machine. That's *deep* and with so many characters going their separate ways, who knows if we'll ever see a team or movie like this again (outside of free for all deals like Inifinity Wars which will combine the Avengers with other full teams.)

I just want to bring this post back because I thought Khev made an awesome point until people started arguing about the ridiculous semantics of who's villain is who.

I think the films have really cemented him as an effective and recurring villain for Thor, who mainly serves to act as a catalyst for the formation of the Avengers (most iterations have him as their start-up villain IIRC). Think of it this way, Loki already existed on his own even without the Avengers. He's only an Avengers villain by virtue of his own folly for inadvertently uniting the heroes despite literally aiming to do the opposite. His motives aren't even related or directed towards the Avengers, as he's acting out based on his frustrations to do Odin and his brother.

What people don't realize with AOU is that Ultron served as the quintessential Avengers villain. You could argue that Tony made him and he's an IM villain but then you're disregarding the fact that the questions and motives behind Ultron's character lies in the failings and insecurities of the entire Avengers and not just Tony himself (he was born in a world where the Avengers already exist as a fully-functional team after all). If he was simply an IM villain, he would have been dispatched by Tony himself in the grand scheme of the moralistic conflict, but this was not the case. In fact, most of his interesting and nuanced interactions by the end was with the newest member of the Avengers, Vision, who serves as the positive counterpoint to Ultron's embodiment as the Avengers' self-created problem. This marks the middle point where the Avengers have truly proven themselves as "Earth's Mightiest Heroes". With Loki they prevented an alien invasion, with Ultron they literally prevented human extinction.

Now the thing about Infinity War is that it's more likely going to be an Avengers movie/s by name only. We all know this will probably end up as the biggest crossover of all Marvel films, and keeping that in mind, it really cements the idea of Thanos being a universal antagonist that wants to conquer and destroy all life. He's literally flirting with Death for crying out loud. Unlike Loki who starts out in Thor, and Ultron who is only exclusive to the Avengers (will most likely remain that way), Thanos is essentially being hinted as a looming singular force across the entire Marvel cinematic universe. It makes sense too, as a lot of Thanos's stories revolve around universe/reality-ending notions that don't just concern the Avengers alone but also the other heroes, in which his motives tend to get pretty philosophical on an otherworldly scale.

Putting that into perspective, I think people might find themselves fondly looking back at AOU and recognize that the movie exclusively pits the Avengers with a tried and true foe (in comics history) that was stemmed from one of their own. Unlike Loki who already existed and had his motivations laid out from another hero's film, Ultron is literally a creation of the Avengers that we knew from the first movie, a programming that was designed to effectively act as their replacement until it deemed its creators as being part of the problem.

 

[crows]

 

[jye4ever]

Hey big guy... sun's getting real low...

And though I wasn't really following the series at the time IIRC Ultron also had a pretty big hand in Avengers Disassembled.

On another note I picked up a cool AoU poster for my son's room at TRU today (minus the autographs):

Cool 50's retro poster available for $15 off etsy: Avengers: Age of Ultron Retro Poster | GeekAlerts

Love this one:

Nice!

Our kids are very lucky!

My dad wasn't into any of this stuff, no Star Wars, comics, nothing!

Boo lol

That was HORRIBLE! And funny

Yes it was.

Yikes!

And I can lift it......because I'm worthy.

LOL

I still have to wonder about all of that family stuff. I'll be curious to see if anything comes of it later.

I think his wife was a LMD.

 

[Khev]

Nicely put ronri.

Nice!

My 70's/80's kid self still just cannot believe that I just watched a big budget live-action movie featuring every single character in this image, including Vision in the logo.

 

[jye4ever]

Khev,

At the core I believe that is why you and I are more forgiving of minutia issues, we lived during a time when the best superheros you could get was in the comics.

True that comics still remain the best interpertations for some of these characters and stories, but what an incredible time we are in nonetheless.

Remember when the best live action Hulk was in a TV show (Banner was great though).

You and I can appreciate this stuff.

This is why STM is such a classic, we believed a man could fly way back in the 70's!

Same goes to bringing us a darker Batman in 89!

But ever since Blade 1 it has been quite the ride hasn't it.

Shame they made Superman driving people to suicide.

 

[jye4ever]

Box Office Predictions:

Avengers: Age of Ultron will win this weekend by a whole lot, and really finding three other movies interesting enough to even predict is a chore. But back to The Avengers, it didn't open in the record fashion I predicted, clearly weighed down by playoffs, the draft, the fight, schools still not quite out, or the running time. Whatever the case, it's still earned nearly $700 million worldwide, so they are going to be just fine. Opening internationally first is starting to make more sense if you believe piracy hurts box office overseas. Domestically, this one is $40 million down against the original after five days so far, and even though it will add $82.3 million this weekend, it will still fall even further behind as the last one put up triple digits in its sophomore weekend.

 

[Khev]

Khev,

At the core I believe that is why you and I are less forgiving of minutia issues, we lived during a time when the best superheros you could get was in the comics.

True that comics still remain the best interpertations for some of these characters and stories, but what an incredible time we are in nonetheless.

Remember when the best live action Hulk was in a TV show (Banner was great though).

You and I can appreciate this stuff.

Yes, yes, and yes. I recognize that these are movies and the film buff in me likes it when they hit the "proper" cinematic notes and whatnot, but really I'm just like Chevy Chase watching beloved characters on a projector in the attic with tears in his eyes in Christmas Vacation. **** a messed up line or two or a botched edit here or there. Those heroes on screen are practically family!

So many things have to come together to really satisfy our visions of these characters. The cast, the premise, character motivations, abilities and ideals, the chemistry of the actors with one another, the designs, fight choreography, special effects, and these movies are just nailing so many of those elements. And for me this isn't Jurassic Park where it's "WOW dinosaurs, so THAT's what they might have really looked like," and then the novelty wears off or you only really care to see more dinosaurs if sequels are properly written. Now I'm not saying that outright poor writing will just get a total pass but rather that I'm *still* in "novelty" mode with these guys. It hasn't worn off. Everything that was amazing in Avengers 1, seeing everyone on screen together, etc., is just as strong in AoU for me. So it really rides on that tremendously. At the end of the day cinematically speaking AoU might be a sequel with obvious flaws like Temple of Doom or Batman Returns, but dammit it might just be *my* flawed movie. I'll take it. And I might scoff at Whedon's whining or some of his creative decisions but damn if he didn't contribute a hell of a lot to what we get to enjoy on screen today.

This is why STM is such a classic, we believed a man could fly way back in the 70's!

So much goes back to STM. I was watching The French Connection the other day and had to chuckle at how like 75% of the movie is just Hackman and Scheider "tailing" bad guys on sidewalks. Apparently that was big time police work in the 70's. You see a bad guy, you get out of your car and you discreetly follow him to see where he goes. Well how does STM open in Metropolis? With cops tailing Otis! So we go off about how cool the opening of TDK is ("it's like Heat!") or the opening of TWS ("it's like Zero Dark Thirty or Captain Phillips!") but once again STM did it first.

And as a kid that kind of freaked me out how casually Luthor just had the one cop grinded up under the wheels of the oncoming train. That kind of haunted me on my first viewing, off screen or not.

Same goes to bringing us a darker Batman in 89!

Indeed!

But ever since Blade 1 it has been quite the ride hasn't it.

Shame they made Superman driving people to suicide.

Yeah in the DC universe it's now the heroes and heroes' families that are disturbing kids instead of the megalomaniacal villains.

 

[The Ween]

Yup, and there's nothing wrong with that.

 

[jye4ever]

Yes, yes, and yes. I recognize that these are movies and the film buff in me likes it when they hit the "proper" cinematic notes and whatnot, but really I'm just like Chevy Chase watching beloved characters on a projector in the attic with tears in his eyes in Christmas Vacation. **** a messed up line or two or a botched edit here or there. Those heroes on screen are practically family!

So many things have to come together to really satisfy our visions of these characters. The cast, the premise, character motivations, abilities and ideals, the chemistry of the actors with one another, the designs, fight choreography, special effects, and these movies are just nailing so many of those elements. And for me this isn't Jurassic Park where it's "WOW dinosaurs, so THAT's what they might have really looked like," and then the novelty wears off or you only really care to see more dinosaurs if sequels are properly written. Now I'm not saying that outright poor writing will just get a total pass but rather that I'm *still* in "novelty" mode with these guys. It hasn't worn off. Everything that was amazing in Avengers 1, seeing everyone on screen together, etc., is just as strong in AoU for me. So it really rides on that tremendously. At the end of the day cinematically speaking AoU might be a sequel with obvious flaws like Temple of Doom or Batman Returns, but dammit it might just be *my* flawed movie. I'll take it. And I might scoff at Whedon's whining or some of his creative decisions but damn if he didn't contribute a hell of a lot to what we get to enjoy on screen today.



So much goes back to STM. I was watching The French Connection the other day and had to chuckle at how like 75% of the movie is just Hackman and Scheider "tailing" bad guys on sidewalks. Apparently that was big time police work in the 70's. You see a bad guy, you get out of your car and you discreetly follow him to see where he goes. Well how does STM open in Metropolis? With cops tailing Otis! So we go off about how cool the opening of TDK is ("it's like Heat!") or the opening of TWS ("it's like Zero Dark Thirty or Captain Phillips!") but once again STM did it first.

And as a kid that kind of freaked me out how casually Luthor just had the one cop grinded up under the wheels of the oncoming train. That kind of haunted me on my first viewing, off screen or not.



Indeed!



Yeah in the DC universe it's now the heroes and heroes' families that are disturbing kids instead of the megalomaniacal villains.

I meant "more forgiving"

 

[RIDDICK]

She's too busy watching Chris Hemsworth and Mjölnir in the Vacation trailer

And I can lift it......because I'm worthy.

Made my day, thank yall!