Notes on Avengers: Age of Ultron
Marvel, must all your posters look the same?
Had a good time at the cinema, but not as much fun as watching the first Avengers movie. (Warning: Spoilers.)
1. Not enough wisecracks, clever ripostes or general drollery. In fact we cannot remember a single line from the movie. In the first there was a quotable in every scene. Perhaps this was to give the new one a darker tone, but the result not really dark, just murky. What sets Marvel product apart from the ponderous self-important superhero movie is humor. Wit, irony, self-referential banter and the awareness of the essential silliness of the superhero movie.
2. Villain not particularly scary, even with Spader’s voice. Ultron in comic books much scarier.
3. For villain to be interesting, audience has to feel conflicted about him, i.e. like him despite his actions. Prime example: Loki. We’re not rooting for Ultron even a little.
4. Fight scenes are confusing, badly edited and not very thrilling, the outcomes obvious. We do like how Wanda was portrayed (by Elizabeth, the Olsen who eats); she could’ve just stood there and announced what she was doing, but she didn’t.
5. He’s probably not dead. No one in the comic book universe really dies. (He’s not dead, he’s pining for the fjords.) We still think Cap can lift Mjolnir, he just didn’t want to hurt anyone’s feelings. Sucks to be good. Also being worthy to lift the hammer a useful shorthand to identify Vision as a good guy.
In real life, our cat Drogon is Vision because he can increase his mass when landing on furniture, thus obliterating paperboard bookshelf. Serves us right for buying cheap crap.
6. We don’t buy the romantic angle, probably because the movies have tried to pair off Black Widow with everyone.
7. Look, a hero with a normal life. Zzzzzzz.
8. The whole birth of Vision angle had too much explanation.
9. The simplest measure is: Were you happy when you left the theatre? Did you tell yourself, “I have to see that again!”?
Hmmm…no.
In all we get the impression that there were too many cooks. Making billions of dollars will not buy filmmakers peace, only interference.
10. If you hear yourself thinking: “This is the greatest disappointment ever, my life is ruined”, then you do not have what qualifies as a life.
Our Marvel movie rankings [covering only Marvel Studios-owned titles, not those licensed out to Columbia (Spider-Man) or Fox (X-Men and Fantastic Four), allowing the characters to occupy the same universe]
1. (tie) Avengers, Captain America: Winter Soldier, Guardians of the Galaxy
4. Iron Man
5. Iron Man 3
6. Avengers: Age of Ultron
7. Captain America: The First Avenger
8. Thor
9. Iron Man 2
10. Thor: The Dark World
P.S. The aircon needed a break so we went to the mall to soak up theirs. Saw Age of Ultron again and like it better. Not everything is enhanced by 4DX–the rocking makes us sleepy.
Answers to questions you might be asking, unless you wandered onto this site purely by accident >>>
May 10th, 2015 at 15:25
The trailer, with the slowed down Pinocchio soundtrack (“I have no strings on me”), had a darker, more apocalyptic tone than the movie itself.
May 11th, 2015 at 13:58
Didn’t enjoy the movie that much because I just finished the Daredevil series. It’s so much better than most of the MCU (it’s up there with Guardians of the Galaxy and Iron Man in the top 3).
May 11th, 2015 at 19:30
I was in the same mood when I saw Age of Ultron — I felt like I watched nearly three hours of mayhem. (With a lot of good-looking actors/actresses at least.)
But I have to admit that watching it a second time (another set of friends roped me in) made me see how the dots are connected better. The movie made me how one event connected to another, and I enjoyed it much better.
That said, the Hulk vs Hulkbuster should’ve been cut completely (it’s the one set piece that really have any connection to anything) and the the battle scenes went on too long (but then I always have a complaint about that).
For what it’s worth, here’s my Marvel movie rankings:
1) Captain America: The First Avenger (pro: had the most heart and the best last last line [“I had a date”]; con: faceless minion battle at the end)
2) Iron Man
3) Thor
4) (three-way tie) Iron Man 3, The Avengers, Captain America: The Winter Soldier
7) Thor: The Dark World
8) Iron Man 2
Did not watch: The Incredible Hulk
May 12th, 2015 at 07:35
Ang taas ng testosterone ng lista mo! My list would include The Amazing Spiderman (the Andrew Garfield reboot) and Spiderman 2 (Tobey) dahil hindi ako mahilig sa muscles at type ko ang pagka-feel good nila. And Hulk ni Ang Lee–which I had to watch a second time because I turned into the Hulk when I first saw it with a bunch of noisy IS kids behind me. Pangit yung CG kasi mukha siyang Shrek but I liked it.
May 12th, 2015 at 10:42
ricky: Ay, list only covers Marvel-owned titles, not those licensed out to Columbia (Spider-Man) and Fox (X-Men). Since they own the stuff they can build a shared universe like in the comics.