“Avengers: Age Of Ultron” is finally out and it’s another really good movie in the Marvel Cinematic Universe but it’s far from the best. I will get into SPOILERS towards the end, but for now will remain as SPOILER free as possible.
The movie starts off where the Avengers are now officially a team and they are working together to fight some remnants of HYDRA. Although Tony Stark has good intentions, he creates Ultron and the Avengers must work together to defeat Ultron and his army before they take over the world.
For me, the movie was good, but it wasn’t great. Although I enjoyed it, the original Avengers movie was better. Maybe it’s because the original Avengers movie was such a big event having four characters coming together from four different movies and we had never seen anything like that before. Now we are used to seeing them all together and I was hoping that Ultron was going to be The Godfather: Part II of Avengers sequels, but it wasn’t.
I will say that for the most part, I really enjoyed the story and especially how they incorporated the Ultron story into the movie. Most of these actors have been playing these roles for several years and it shows that they get and understand their characters. The end battle was great! I was originally worried that having 10 Avengers fighting together would be to much but they did a fantastic job.
Without a doubt, Ultron is a fun action packed movie but it does kind of drag in certain areas and I think that is what most people are having issues with.
I think that a big issues is that the run time for Ultron is 2 hours and 20 minutes. This movie could have done with a better editing team because I could have easily cut out 20 minutes of this movie and it would have been a better movie, well, to me anyway. Another big problem is that this film relied way too much on one liners. And they were basically hit or miss and there were a lot more misses this time around.
Character development in a movie is important. A lack of character development can ruin a movie. But too much character development, especially in a movie that should be action orientated, is not good either. There is way too much romance going on in this movie. When it works, like in Empire Strikes Back, it makes the movie a better movie. When it doesn’t, like in Attack Of The Clones, it makes a bad movie even less tolerable.
Overall I enjoyed it, but like I said, it could have been better. I would rank “Avengers: Age Of Ultron” a 3.5 out of 5.
Just a reminder to everyone who hasn’t seen the film yet, there is only one post credit scene when the movie is over and it occurs within a few minutes once the end credits role. Don’t stay till the very end because you will be disappointed.
SPOILERS:
- The one thing that I could not stand and felt dragged down the movie the most was the dumb Beauty And The Beast like scenario between Black Widow and The Hulk. I hated that. The “Lullaby”…. yuck. Anytime these two characters were in a room together, I knew we were going to get this lame lovey dovey forced romance story where Scarlet Johansson spoke for 90% of the time and Mark Ruffalo looked confused or didn’t have much to say. I would have cut all of those scenes out of the film and then lit them on fire. LOL I gave this movie a 3 out of 5 and if they cut this part out of the movie, I would have easily given it a 4 out of 5. That is how badly this part ruined the movie for me.
- As I had mentioned, Ultron was a great villain. I will give Whedon a lot of credit on this one, he pulled off a difficult task. I think most directors would have made him the “Kill! Destroy!” Robbie The Robot type of Ultron or more of a Terminator but he gave Ultron a real snarky arrogant personality. Ultron kind of reminded me Patrick Warburton (Kronk) from The Emperor’s New Groove. Not the goofiness, just his booming voice and his confidence in his words. But I loved his arrogance and it just blew my mind when he finally got the vibranium and he quoted from the Bible saying, “This will be the rock that I will build my church on.” That just left me with such a big smile on his face because I could not believe he just said that.
- Speaking of religious overtones, there were a lot of them in this movie. Ultron was basically Satan and he no longer wanted to serve but rule. When Vision is asked, who’s side Vision is on, he says, “I am, I am.” And that was right out of the Bible when Moses first met God. Ultron says to Vision at the end, Stark wanted a savior, not a slave. To me that was very similar to how the people accepted Jesus. Most wanted a warrior and instead they got something totally different that was willing to sacrifice Himself for humanity’s sake.
- That they had the Mind Stone hidden in Loki’s scepter was brilliant. It made me think that maybe Ultron was right about humanity blowing their chance, if he was able to discover that hidden Infinity Stone in a few minutes and no one else was.
- The Vision was this movie’s break out character, like The Hulk was in the Avengers. To me, Vision was always a huge part of The Avengers and to finally see him on screen was just an amazing moment for me. And having the Vision being able to lift Mjolnir was the holy crap moment of the film. You did see Captain America budge Mjolnir a few spaces during the party scene and I still think that Cap was able to lift it but didn’t want to freak everyone out by doing it. But loved the expression on Thor’s face when he saw Cap move it. That Vision is able to wield Mjolnir shows that he is completely worthy and has a good soul. That is why Thor had so much confidence in Vision at the end. It was no trick that Vision did, there is something inside of him that shows a pure heart.
- Vision rescuing Scarlet Witch was a nod to comic book fans. In the comic book, Vision and The Scarlet Witch eventually get married and to see him rescuing her at the end and both looking into each others eyes was a pretty big moment for me.
- I loved the Hulk and Hulkbuster battle in Wakanda. It went on much longer than I expected, and that was a good thing. I liked that Iron Man specifically went out of his way to scan for life forms before destroying a building he was planning on throwing the Hulk into during the Hulk/Hulkbuster fight. That seems like a response to all of the controversy that was raised during Man Of Steel where Superman was responsible for a lot of collateral damage. In Ultron, Iron Man tries to get the Hulk away from the people to continue their fight where no one will be harmed.
- From some of the images I had seen of the Hulk before I had seen the movie, I thought there might be a Grey Hulk, but I was wrong. He just had dust from debris all over him. Although recently I learned it was Whedon’s intention to make the Hulk turn grey while being mind controlled by Scarlet Witch, but Marvel told him to keep him green in order not to confuse people.
- The Twins, Quicksilver and Scarlet Witch, played by Aaron Taylor Johnson and Elizabeth Olson, were OK but their whole role in the film was a bit baffling and a bit unbelievable. Elizabeth Olson looks to much like her sisters and think they should have gone with someone else that didn’t look like an Olsen Twin. I liked this Quicksilver better than X-Men: Days Of Future Past version because he was at least vulnerable. X-Men’s Quicksilver was way to fast.
- Once Jarvis is gone and Tony can no longer assist him internally within his Iron Man armor, who is that female voice that replaces Jarvis? I have seen the movie twice and she definitely has an Irish accent. Something must have been cut out explaining who the new AI was that was helping Tony in the Iron man suit.
- No more Iron Patriot! It was good to see War Machine, but would have loved if he had a few minutes more of fighting side by side with Iron Man. Don Cheadale’s time on screen was so small as War Machine, that they should have just left him out.
- Loved seeing Steve (Captain America) and Sam (The Falcon) having a talk at the party in Avengers tower. You can tell that they have become good friends and that Sam is someone that Steve really trusts and it just reminded me so much of the comics.
- In the comics, Quicksilver and Scarlet Witch’s father is Magneto (X-Men). This movie totally changed that and made them receive their powers after being experimented on with Loki’s scepter and their father died during a bombing attack. Definitely more Marvel and Fox issues.
- I liked the idea of the satellite that stored Iron Man’s Hulkbuster armor was called Veronica. Whedon said it came about because in the Hulk comic, Bruce’s girlfriend was Betty. In the Archie Comics, the two girls always after Archie were Betty and Veronica.
- That Maria Hill “testosterone joke” fell flat and there were a few jokes that they should have left on the cutting room floor.
- Black Widow riding a motorcycle and yelling “beep beep” reminded me of Jake Lloyd in The Phantom Menace yelling “Yippee!” Shouldn’t have been in there.
- Ultron singing Pinocchio’s “Ive Got No Strings On Me.” I am pretty sure they cut out a lot of the story behind that. From what I read in the past, Tony would use his automated Iron Man Army, which he called the Iron Legion, as disposable and expendable AI robots. Ultron’s original form was one of the Iron Legion and he did not like the idea that Tony was treating his AI robots as slaves and if they couldn’t be fixed, Tony would just recycle them. Thus the strings reference was Ultron revolting against the puppet master.
- I like how Wakanda was brought into the story and it does pave the way for Black Panther to enter the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
- They added a whole load of character development to Hawkeye’s character by introducing his wife and kids. Yes it was nice, but a lot of that was not needed and should have been cut from the film. We definitely didn’t need to hear Hawkeye’s wife say that there was something between Natasha and Bruce. No way could she have spotted that in a few seconds unless she has powers too.
- When the Hulk flew off in the Quinjet at the end, it could have laid the perfect foundation for a Hulk solo movie and that would have been Planet Hulk. They kind of ruined it by having Nick Fury telling the Black Widow that his people found something near an ocean. But after seeing it a second time he does say that there was a stealth mode on the jet and he wasn’t certain if it was the jet. So who knows. Maybe he did take the Quinjet into space, went into a wormhole and ended up on the other side of the galaxy or universe.
- I thought Samuel L Jackson was great in this and this was my favorite Nick Fury movie.
- During the point where the Avengers are preparing to go after Ultron, there is a scene where you can see Thor and Vision talking in private. Wonder if that will be shown in another movie about what was being talked about?
- Even though Quicksilver died in the movie, I don’t think he will remain dead for good. That Hawkeye took his dead body with him means it was taken for a reason. Plus his cells are very fast and they could, maybe, heal themselves. Also The Infinity Gauntlet can bring people back from the dead. He’ll be back.
- I’m kind of surprised that the Hulk didn’t say any words in this movie. You also can tell that The Hulk has some of Banner’s intelligence if he was able to get on the Quinjet and know that he had to leave the team behind for their own good.
- Was kind of surprised that Captain America and Iron Man left on good terms. Thought that with them having problems was going to lead to even larger issues in Civil War. Scarlet Witch did have a good line comparing Ultron to Tony and that Tony sometimes thinks he is doing what is right for everyone that he doesn’t see that he may be doing wrong.
- The new Avengers that Cap forms really is a motley crew. Captain America, Black Widow, Vision, War Machine, Falcon and Scarlet Witch. Wouldn’t be my first choice. That’s what happened when Marvel properties are scattered among different studios. Would have been nice to have seen Captain America, Spider-Man, Vision, Scarlet Witch and Wolverine. But that aint happening….yet.
- Cutting out Caps last line of “Avengers Assemble” in the movie was kind of cruel to comic book fans by Joss Whedon. The first time I saw it, I thought it was funny, but the second time I saw it, I was kind of annoyed that he did that. He definitely did that to mess with the fans. Mission accomplished, Joss.
The new A.I Stark loads up is called F.R.I.D.A.Y – there’s a brief scene of him digging out a drive with her on and loading it up.
Thanks! I must have missed that….twice!
Was going to comment with that but was beaten to it. I agree though that the scene was not as obvious as it could have been. He is essentially sifting through “disks” as if he is picking which of his AI’s he wants to put in the suit and he picks Friday. The scene is incredibly short and if I remember right, though it’s the main focal point as far as what’s on the screen at the time, there is dialog happening between other characters at the same time that you essentially pay more attention to.
Of everything you said that was a “negative” type comment, I have to agree with your War Machine comment especially. His scenes felt very forced… as if they didn’t really need his help but were contractually obligated to give him X minutes of screen time.
Thanks! Again cant believe I missed that scene twice. It probably was very quick.
I was so glad to see that War Machine armor and then blink and you miss it. Plus I dont know why they wrote him as being desperate for attention.
This is what I love about movies is that everyone has a different perspective and appreciation for how a movie is made. The first Avengers great and I think you are right, was fun to see them all together that first time. Joss accepted the challenge here with characters everyone knows and not just from the first film. This is a unique thing to have characters in a sequel that all have their own individual films to build their stories. So what Joss did is add depth to the characters that you don’t know so well for standalone movies. Loved the Hawkeye stuff, but the BW/Hulk stuff was a big miss, I think for everyone. After watching Spader on The Blacklist I’m convinced Ultron was 90% Raymond Reddington.
The one liners were mostly a hit for me but I’m a sucker for Joss Whedon. Call me crazy, this was better than the first but only by a hair. I know I sound like I’m off my rocker but it was great to see them accept who they are as heroes. Sure, there might have been some more holy s#it moments in the first but this one had more depth and emotion. Again, just my perspective but I loved the movie and I am ready for Civil War, the Russo brothers have a giant challenge ahead of them.
I’ve got to agree with you here. I too fell for every one-liner and thought they were a great way to bring some “quick laugh” humor to the film. I too felt like this one was better than the original but like you, by just a tiny bit. As for the Black Widow & Banner stuff… even as a girl I have to agree that it was just unnecessary. Honestly I think the lullaby piece would’ve been fine… having one person who can calm him from his rage. But the romance side of it made BW very ditsy. Her quick/sharp wit replaced with googoo eyes. But, that aside I thought it was truly fantastic.
The one one liner that I didn’t like was the testosterone comment that Maria Hill said. Just her line, it was just delivered so poorly. Think if they didnt have her coughing and intentionally looking for a laugh, it would ahve been better. I thought Tony and Thor were funny in that scene especially when Thor ended it by just saying, “Jane is better.” I think all of Downey’s funny lines were good as always. Think they pushed the watch your language joke a little to much.
Glad to hear that you weren’t crazy about the Hulk/Black Widow stuff. Most critics seemed to enjoy that but I really rolled my eyes whenever they brought that up. And of course with me being a comic book fan, I kept thinking, where the hell is Betty? I did like that she pushed him out in order for the Hulk to show up. And I did see it a second time and every time she says, “Hey Big Guy,” it just annoys me. lol
Ultron is smart right? So why would he not have sent a robot away to a safe place where if the worse were to happen, he would at least have a body he could transfer to?
BW/Hulk could have been fine, but it was forced and they don’t have a natural chemistry with each other. Personally though, I did enjoy the background stories on Hawkeye and BW both. It added a lot of depth to their characters. What does bother me is everyone criticizing Marvel for not having more female hero’s. That’s just an easy cheap shot. When everyone knows that Captain Marvel is in development, Agents of Shield mostly revolves around female leads, and scarlet witch was introduced in this film. Marvel knows who their audience is, and while there are fan girls out there, most ladies I know are not bursting at the seams to see super hero movies. Yes they are intrigued to see Avengers, but they aren’t dying to see it either. With all the being said it would be nice to see BW merchandise though :-)
Another little easter egg was that when Tony was picking a new AI there was one that said Jocasta, who in the comics is also brought to life, and I believe at one point Ultron tried wanted her for a bride.
Why did Ultron even bother to keep Black Widow alive? Just one of those lame plots where the villain doesnt kill someone right away so it gives time for the hero to rescue them. I think having to kill all of those robots was a response that people had issues over the first movie in which all of the Chitari died. Neither one made real sense.
Another thing I was thinking today, why would Thanos intentionally give Loki an Infinity Stone? Isn’t his whole goal to collect them? He has one and gives it away? Makes no sense, other than it’s a movie.
Thanks Jared for saying what you said about Hulk and BW. I totally agree. It was forced and it was just weird that a character like BW would be so concerned about having a relationship especially while the world is about to end. It was just so out of character for her. I like Hawkeye but the whole back story annoyed me. Mostly because it seemed like he was being paid peanuts by SHIELD and I assume Tony Stark for risking his life. And then when Tony finds out, it would have been nice if he gave him a million dollars instead of just fixing his tractor. I did like Hawkeye’s speech to Scarlet Witch, but her emergence as an Avenger was ruined because we already saw it in the trailer.
I think DC still has the best female super heroes in Wonder Woman and Supergirl. Unfortunately Fox has the rights to Jean Grey, Storm and Sue Storm. I think those are Marvel’s best female superheroes. I really dont know to much about Captain Marvel but she is supposed to be in a way like Wonder Woman, meaning her strength and she can fly. I’m just Scarlet Johanssoned out. Every time she talks in Ultron and Winter Soldier it comes off as condescending to me. Maybe it’s not her fault but how she is being written. Captain Marvel was supposed to be in this movie but her scenes were replaced by War Machine shooting down those robots and at the very end, she was going to be part of the new team. That is a tough one. I would have liked to have seen her in it, but yeah, by introducing her without a real origin story would have confused people. I guess at the very least they could have introduced Carol Danvers at the party. And maybe she would have shown up fighting the robots and Stark could have said, what the hell, and she could have said, Ill tell you later. Then her origin story could have been a prequel.
I’d also love to see Black Widow on Daredevil. Growing up, that was how I was introduced to her, in the Daredevil comics. I would even hire a different actress. I think people would understand.
That is interesting about Jocasta. I really wonder if I nodded off at that point because I do not remember Friday or Jocosta. But Friday definitely sounded Irish to me. lol
I just heard today that Universal still owns the rights to the story Planet Hulk, so it would be difficult to get that movie made, but not impossible. Universal could co-produce and be given a smaller percentage of the gross. I have heard that the Hulk might be in Guardians 2. I also heard that Iron Man was supposed to be in the first Guardians and maybe the second. I kind of doubt that either one of them will be in it though.
Also, enough with the Thanos teases. This is the third movie to tease Thanos. I know they are setting up for Infinity War but this post credit scene did nothing for me because we have seen him so many times already.
Whedon, for all his flaws, actually wanted captain marvel and spidey as part of the new avengers team at the end of the movie
http://comicbook.com/2015/05/05/joss-whedon-wanted-captain-marvel-spider-man-in-avengers-age-of-/
I guess I’m just afraid that Marvel movies are becoming to corporate, and instead of giving fans what they want, are more focused on their 5 year vision for continuity instead of letting it grow a little bit more organically. What I mean is, yes it’s awesome that we have movies planned out for the next 5 years, but by doing so Marvel has limited themselves as far as what they can and can’t do (can’t introduce Captain Marvel at the end of Avengers because her movie isn’t scheduled to come out until 2018), whereas it would have been more than natural to introduce her and Spidey as members of the new Avengers. Oh well, I still really enjoyed the movie.
They could do a Planet hulk movie, in fact Mark Ruffalo thinks they might
http://moviepilot.com/posts/2015/05/02/mark-ruffalo-talks-about-new-hulk-movie-2902410?lt_source=external,manual
But I think a movie like that would be crazy expensive, for a property that only made $263 million worldwide (that figure would undoubtedly be higher for a sequel but still not as sure a thing as say Spider Man). Speaking of solo movies, I guess I’m a sucker for Black Widow’s character and would love to see her in her own movie, or perhaps she’s better fit in a TV series like Dare Devil (which was great).
I know you don’t watch Shield Joe, but I love what they’ve done with Mockingbird and am probably in a minority of people who are excited to see her get her own TV series. I think Black Widow would tear up a TV series for ratings (especially a la Dare Devil as opposed to a serialized show on network TV)
Yeah, I dont really know who to believe anymore. Whedon or Fegie. Someone isn’t being truthful. It makes no sense for them not to have had an after credits scene with Spider-Man, like that fake one that made the rounds, was actually pretty good. I think Whedon was cool in the beginning because Avengers was his baby, he got paid very little money for the first movie and it turned out to be the third highest grossing movie at all time. Disney and Marvel wanted him back for the sequel. He got paid more money but have a feeling they had him under a tighter leash knowing that they were paying him so much more this time around. I’m sure things he wanted in, like the grey Hulk, were shot down by Marvel. I originally heard that Whedon did shoot scenes for Captain Marvel in the movie but he decided against it, so I’m not sure who is being truthful. As comic book fans, you and I want to see all of that, but as a corporate decision, I think they are looking at the big picture and they feel why waste time and money on something people are going to see regardless just to satisfy the fans.
The way Marvel is set up with Disney is kind of a downer. We cant have the character and rides in Disneywolrd because of the deal with Universal. That new story that opened up in Downtown Disney is called Superhero Headquarters but it should be called the Marvel Store. Yeah, Disney kind of has Spider-Man back, but its for a limited time. It’s better than it was before but its still not the same as actually having him. Then there is FOX and the only way I see Disney ever getting those characters back is to just go out and buy FOX. Then they would get A New Hope in the deal too. I’m sure they are looking at that.
I will say though, it does seem that Feige is a fan and a lot of people working there are fans too. Like I heard one Easter egg that is in all of the Phase 2 movies is that at least one person loses there hand in all of the Phase 2 movies as a tribute to Luke losing his hand in Empire. Thought that was funny.
The good thing is it does sound like they are talking about a Hulk movie. So even though it wasn’t mentioned in Phase 3, they could surprise us. I was under the impression that once Marvel got the Hulk back from Universal, they got everything back. Lately I have heard from two different sites that Universal owns the rights to the Planet Hulk story. I kind of think that is true. I think they also own some of Sub Mariner and it is similar to the Scarlet Witch/Quicksilver thing where both studios can share him. Like I said, it is just confusing. I dont know if it is in Disney’s best interest to acquire everything back or just continue doing what they are doing. I have a feeling it will be done same day, but I wont see it. lol
I tried watching SHIELD, but just couldn’t get into it. Plus it didnt help that I had no use for them in the movies either. SHIELD was never behind the Avengers in the comics (I think). Tony could have brought everyone together himself without introducing SHIELD.