That's what many were expecting AoU to be...just look at all the hype until a day ago...off the charts. Every new tv spot/little clip was analyzed to death.
That doesn't change the fact that 80% range is more than "nothing special." Plenty of movies rest in that range that people hold higher than movies in the 90% range (just as plenty of movies in the 90% range are disliked by many). People get hyped for every big movie these days and expect and hope for it to be the best thing ever made.
It's not really gonna be until months/years from now that the "legacy" of the film is figured out anyways. 80% range means people could end up holding it higher than The Dark Knight or hate it more than Thor 2 when the dust settles.
AoU gets a lot of things right. The best thing that can be said for this "Everything AND the kitchen sink, and then fuck the kitchen sink blow that shit up" Marvel slugfest is that it's fun. Let's get that out of the way right from the start. The movie, for the most part, delivers the fun.
It's very interesting to watch the film balance a multitude of characters, drawing upon every last drop in the MCU well, while handling what is seemingly a never-ending unravel of various story elements. This would normally be a car wreck waiting to happen. Thankfully, none of this is all that nonsensical; it's fairly straightforward to the point of being anything but profound. Whedon has managed to find the right blend of character balance and plot without the structure crumbling under it's own weight. Which brings me to the next point of the matter, the tone of this little action figure boom boom fest (cause let's face it, that's essentially what most of these MCU flicks boil down to).
One thing AoU has over it's predecessor is a better sense of tone and visual aesthetic. This is coming from someone who doesn't think much of the first Avengers film, so keep that in mind. For some reason, Avengers looked a bit too shiny for my tastes; too much like a kid shot it while playing with his action figures. I'm crazy, I know, but it just didn't feel very "filmic" to me. This is where AoU excels; it looks and feels like Whedon has taken a more cinematic approach to his storytelling. This doesn't necessarily imply "dark and gritty" because that's where the cool place to be is, according to TDK. I just get a sense that this particular outing feels more at ease with the world the MCU has built; more lived-in with the colors a bit more muted (where they were really damn bright in the first film) and an overall "washed out" look. This is the better looking film of the two...
...Unfortunately this doesn't do anything to help some of the CGI which, if we're being honest with each other, just won't stop feeling like fucking CGI. Sometimes to the point of being eye-roll inducing. While there are moments when the film is definitely aware of how absurd it is, none of that helps with the suspension of disbelief in some scenes where even Michael Bay would nod his head and go "Yup, that's how you get it done, son. There's no way that person's head could've been crushed in that particular instance because FUCK GRAVITY!" Whedon gets carried away here far too many times, not the least of which is the rather abysmal opening action scene.
Yes, the opening action sequence is a damned cartoon. There's no sense of "LOOK, IT'S THE AVENGERS! OH JOY!" it's simply "Damn, look at all of this CGI." Ouch. The Winter Soldier was on to something in that first act. Too bad it shat the CGI all over the bed by the end as well.
Some of the best action sequences come at the midway point (The Hulkbuster scene is the crowd-pleasing highlight of the entire film) and...that's about it. The action isn't anything we haven't seen before, to be perfectly honest. But this is coming from someone who puts films like John Wick and Dredd on the god-tier level of action filmmaking, so take it with a grain of salt (or take it if you're on the same page as I am, in that regard). Call me old, but this stuff is really starting to bore me when it's a nonstop CGI free-for-all.
AoU is at it's best when the lightshow stops and everything slows down to give these characters time to interact and engage in...wait for it...conversations! Yes, I was actually more interested in the dialogue and the character beats than I was the action scenes. Scarlet Witch's power is used to wonderful effect to
get inside the character's heads and mess with them on an emotional level...and it was only used once!
The entire second act is dedicated to slowing things down and giving characters some development, but unfortunately this isn't the most effective structural decision to use in, well, just about any friggin' movie. It's more interesting to see Tony without his Iron Man armor, fighting with himself over what is and isn't the right thing to do for the world than it is to watch him flying around zapping one CGI robot after another. Hawkeye is given a nice bit of development, albeit a little "out of left field" with some of his reveals, but he isn't the centerpiece some people here thought him to be.
Ultron himself has flashes of brilliance and some amazing dialogue, and James Spader plays it to perfection when given the chance, but in the end it falls short of that "memorable villain" status we all would've like to have seen. He's just not used enough and, like everything else in the movie, is just CGI trickery with absolutely no sense of weight or tactile menace. There's something a little underwhelming about him that I can't quite put my finger on, which is generally the weak link to these movies, to be sure.
Overall, everything ties together rather nicely in the home stretch, with certain elements playing out in satisfying ways and your usual winks and nods to what we can expect in the future. All of it got a big "yeah, so what?" from me in terms of Marvel's plans for the MCU. I can't help but feel this is the ultimate form of "production line" filmmaking.
This is, without a doubt, a blockbuster we've seen before. The good news is, when the movie takes the time out to make jokes and be a bit self-aware in it's absurdity, it IS really fun. Of course a lot of these moments are handed off to RDJ, but that doesn't mean he gets the best lines. The best lines actually belong to Hawkeye and Ultron, and that's rather refreshing. This is the stuff I want more of from this movie, but it's just too damn busy to give me enough of it. GotG is one such film that constantly delivered that level of exhuberant energy, and it's the most fun MCU film out there for it. AoU gives it in healthy doses, but can't compensate for the CGI overload that it suffers from at times.
In the end, it's good to spend time with these characters again and see them up against a bit of a brick wall, even if the outcome is all too predictable. The stakes aren't high enough (they never are), because we don't feel the emotional weight that a good film spends time setting up in the first act (here's looking at you, DoFP, you magificent comic book film, you).
AoU is a film that relies far too heavily on it's well-established bag of tricks to ever feel like anything other than "another MCU movie", but when it's entertaining, it's REALLY entertaining.
Yeah I expected mid 80s or high 80s to begin with. A movie like Avengers isn't going to get another 90 or so unless it actually raises the bar like the first one did, which I haven't been expecting AoU to do.
I expect big things out of Civil War / Infinity War though oops
Yeah I expected mid 80s or high 80s to begin with. A movie like Avengers isn't going to get another 90 or so unless it actually raises the bar like the first one did, which I haven't been expecting AoU to do.
I expect big things out of Civil War / Infinity War though oops
For the people that already watched the movie, a yes/no question:
Does it feel like the universe changed after the events of Avengers + Winter Soldier? Or are people back to their merry lives despite Aliens & Helicarriers?
If a movie gets 3/5 stars, is that a "D" rating to you? To me, THAT is "average", not near failing.
Beyond even that, there are literally dozens of great films hovering around 60% or lower on Rotten Tomatoes. Even RT themselves state that a score of 60+ is a "fresh" rating.
Granted, Blade 2 is at 59% and "rotten"... and yet I adore that move more than the majority of 90+ scoring films.
For the people that already watched the movie, a yes/no question:
Does it feel like the universe changed after the events of Avengers + Winter Soldier? Or are people back to their merry lives despite Aliens & Helicarriers?
cant wait for them to do infinity gems.... i wonder if they are going to add in silver surfer or adam warlock some how as they seemed to play a big part in the comics.
So for the people here who have seen it, how's the 3D? I can't make sense of that Reddit topic, as it more less seems to just be a discussion of 3D in general.
Pacific Rim is at 72% and that's easily the worst movie I've seen in cinema. A high rating doesn't mean you can't find a movie boring, a low rating doesn't mean you can't be entertained.
cant wait for them to do infinity gems.... i wonder if they are going to add in silver surfer or adam warlock some how as they seemed to play a big part in the comics.
For the people that already watched the movie, a yes/no question:
Does it feel like the universe changed after the events of Avengers + Winter Soldier? Or are people back to their merry lives despite Aliens & Helicarriers?
I would equate
A - excellent
B - good
C - okay
D - meh
F - bad
Which is more reasonable than A = good and everything else is varying degrees of bad, which is what the post you responded to was getting at.
It's further complicated because RT's percent score isn't a rating of the films, but the percentage of "favorable" reviews. So right now 83% of the reviews for Age of Ultron are favorable. I don't know how that translates to the scale we are talking about now.
I would equate
A - excellent
B - good
C - okay
D - meh
F - bad
Which is more reasonable than A = good and everything else is varying degrees of bad, which is what the post you responded to was getting at.
It's further complicated because RT's percent score isn't a rating of the films, but the percentage of "favorable" reviews. So right now 83% of the reviews for Age of Ultron are favorable. I don't know how that translates to the scale we are talking about now.
no. this is a dkr situation. It will take a ton of bank, not as much as the first one, and critical reception will be less positive....reception on neogaf will be mostly positive to mixed, and in a few months, people on neogaf will be saying it sucks.
Yes, I've always said that people need to take into consideration both the percentage score and the average rating, since it's technically possible a film could score a 100% but have an average as low as 6/10. The big number draws the attention though. Then you'll have some point to Metacritic and the disconnect between the RT % without realizing the average rating on RT usually matches up more closely to Metacritic's score (Age of Ultron at 72 on MC right now, compared to 7.4 average on RT, for example).
For the people that already watched the movie, a yes/no question:
Does it feel like the universe changed after the events of Avengers + Winter Soldier? Or are people back to their merry lives despite Aliens & Helicarriers?
I also feel this movies will be better received in non Western countries, where many of the quips will get lost and therefore the audience won't suffer from that cheesiness.
also, Asian audiences love big explosions Transformers style more than the west does these days...just like they dig 3D more.
I also feel this movies will be better received in non Western countries, where many of the quips will get lost and therefore the audience won't suffer from that cheesiness.
also, Asian audiences love big explosions Transformers style more than the west does these days...just like they dig 3D more.
I thought it was a good deal better than the first Avengers film. Whedon's direction was actually leagues above his previous outing, so well done to him. I also appreciated that while the plot was convoluted at times, that this film - unlike the previous film, took the time to actually develop the individual characters and their relationships with each other in a way that didn't feel perfunctory.
ILM's work was outstanding.
Ultron was a huge letdown of a villain, though. Talk about muddled motivation. Also, any sense of intimidation or threat he starts with is quickly undermined and evaporated as he turns into just another forgettable, light-hearted butt of a joke, saturday-morning cartoon villain.
So colour me surprised. I was expecting a film on par with the middling first one and got something better.
Whedon's script could do with a little more economical use of screentime, but what's there is much better than the first film.
3D was pretty much worthless outside of adding depth in the in-helmet close ups of Tony and his HUD.
Loved it, better than the first Avengers for me, so much marvel goodness like some said. It feels like a good sequel, improves on the formula, plays a little with it and overall it's just better directed. On the other hand, it's far from perfect and even though Whedon got better he could still make an arabian market in Cairo look empty.
His writing is still damn good regarding dialogues so the plot is the weaker part I guess, and by weaker I mean... it's ok. Good. A little messy near the end maybe? It definitely feels like some parts were cut and sadly the one that got hurt more is Ultron, maybe the PG 13 didn't help here. When compared to Loki he is a little less fascinating but the feeling of danger is higher here and well, he is a motherfucking robot. All the other heroes? Damn good. It's not a bad plot by any means, on par with the first one more or less.
Want to know what's the problem of AoU? The fact that Marvel announced all those movies after this. Also, the first one was a novelty. Personally I don't care about all this, it's just a thought I had.
Quick edit: CGI sometimes SUCKS. Like, The Scorpion King in the Mummy 2 levels of suckyness.
Want to know what's the problem of AoU? The fact that Marvel announced all those movies after this. Also, the first one was a novelty. Personally I don't care about all this, it's just a thought I had.
no. this is a dkr situation. It will take a ton of bank, not as much as the first one, and critical reception will be less positive....reception on neogaf will be mostly positive to mixed, and in a few months, people on neogaf will be saying it sucks.
Loved it, better than the first Avengers for me, so much marvel goodness like some said. It feels like a good sequel, improves on the formula, plays a little with it and overall it's just better directed. On the other hand, it's far from perfect and even though Whedon got better he could still make an arabian market in Cairo look empty.
His writing is still damn good regarding dialogues so the plot is the weaker part I guess, and by weaker I mean... it's ok. Good. A little messy near the end maybe? It definitely feels like some parts were cut and sadly the one that got hurt more is Ultron, maybe the PG 13 didn't help here. When compared to Loki he is a little less fascinating but the feeling of danger is higher here and well, he is a motherfucking robot. All the other heroes? Damn good. It's not a bad plot by any means, on par with the first one more or less.
Want to know what's the problem of AoU? The fact that Marvel announced all those movies after this. Also, the first one was a novelty. Personally I don't care about all this, it's just a thought I had.
Quick edit: CGI sometimes SUCKS. Like, The Scorpion King in the Mummy 2 levels of suckyness.
Thanks for this, never thought of it in the context of knowing what comes next with all the films already being announced...I'm sure the suspense would have been a lot higher if we didn't know Civil War was coming next.
Shame about Ultron I was really hoping he'd be the villain to end all villains in the MCU, but as long as he's at least comparable to Loki I guess that's fine.
there are references to the events of Avengers 1 but it doesn't feel to me like the world really changed. I wanted to know if perhaps AoU did a better job at that. I mean, people acknowledging "yeah, aliens blew up New York, but you know, life goes on"
Thanks for this, never thought of it in the context of knowing what comes next with all the films already being announced...I'm sure the suspense would have been a lot higher if we didn't know Civil War was coming next.
Shame about Ultron I was really hoping he'd be the villain to end all villains in the MCU, but as long as he's at least comparable to Loki I guess that's fine.
The problem with Ultron is that you can't tell if he's insane on purpose or just stupidly written. I think that the studios cut some of his development so his actions are a little unclear, you never see what he is thinking, he just reacts in different ways. On the way home me and my brother had to put some pieces together to better understand him, this doesn't feel like it was made on purpose. I mean, we all know what's his mission, right? But it's poorly explained. I love sci-fi so I expected a lot more by Whedon's AI portrait.
But none of that hides the fact that Whedons film is simply out of sync with the universe that Marvel has been building since 2012. In many ways, Marvel has grown up and passed him by and his jocular take on the material doesnt just feel stale, it feels like a step back.
I believe it's in the trailer too, so not a spoiler I don't think?
I think the first Avengers movie was a bit more cohesive. This one feels almost like it knows exactly what it is to a fault, and some dialogue is there really just there to fill the time.
The problem with Ultron is that you can't tell if he's insane on purpose or just stupidly written. I think that the studios cut some of his development so his actions are a little unclear, you never see what he is thinking, he just reacts in different ways. On the way home me and my brother had to put some pieces together to better understand him, this doesn't feel like it was made on purpose. I mean, we all know what's his mission, right? But it's poorly explained. I love sci-fi so I expected a lot more by Whedon's AI portrait.
I think Ultron subconsciously crafted himself to resemble his creator, which would be Tony. His personality basically mimics Stark, albeit leaving out the more compassionate sections of his persona. The problem with Ultron is that he wants to destroy humanity, yet every thing he does implies that he wants to be just like them. His personality, creating a human-like body etc.
He lacks rationality and mentally I think he'd be comparable to a teenager going through puberty, constantly agitated and furious when he's compared to his elder counterpart. As said, he also tried to kill Jarvis out of fear, rather than tactics.
There are no strings on him, but in the end Ultron really just wants to be a real boy. He may be a highly advanced artificial intelligence, but his programming is as human as can be. He makes mistakes, showcases questionable judgement and is emotionally unstable.
Good, more in line with the one from the comics compared to Quicksilver in DoFP. That one had a fantastic scene and then nothing while this completely belongs to the movie.
@Scorpion Soldier
That's what I think too but the movie doesn't explain it very much, doesn't go into details.
Good, more in line with the one from the comics compared to Quicksilver in DoFP. That one had a fantastic scene and then nothing while this completely belongs to the movie.
I was really hoping he'd be the villain to end all villains in the MCU, but as long as he's at least comparable to Loki I guess that's fine.
