Avengers: Age of Ultron |OT| If you open this thread, you're an Avenger

Status
Not open for further replies.
I liked it better than the first. It was less "magical" so to speak because it was not the first time I saw them all together on screen, but as a movie I thought it was much better.
 
I think it comes down to this; if you enjoy Avengers 1 so much, you'll be disappointed with AoU.

AoU is basically A1 again with more action.

I don't think that's really true. AoU tries to be a lot more than just Avengers 1 again, but I think the execution really fell short. The script could have had a few more passes, and the editing really should have been improved. It's a messy film which was barely put together, and it was obvious they had more ideas than actual time to fit all that in. A very disjointed and unfocused film.
 
this... sounds awesome. Why would anyone be dissapointed with that.

Yup. Reading everyone's impressions about AoU is odd when those that complain about the film say it's just more of the same. I've seen it once and it's basically Avengers 1 on steroids. Can't complain too much with that.
 
I don't think that's really true. AoU tries to be a lot more than just Avengers 1 again, but I think the execution really fell short. The script could have had a few more passes, and the editing really should have been improved. It's a messy film which was barely put together, and it was obvious they had more ideas than actual time to fit all that in. A very disjointed and unfocused film.

To each his/her own I suppose. I do think the film could have used even a few minutes longer in total run time, but what's there is enjoyable and excitable action.

And really? The Script? The script/dialogue are one of the highlights of the film, and one of Whedon's greatest strengths.
 
I don't think that's really true. AoU tries to be a lot more than just Avengers 1 again, but I think the execution really fell short. The script could have had a few more passes, and the editing really should have been improved. It's a messy film which was barely put together, and it was obvious they had more ideas than actual time to fit all that in. A very disjointed and unfocused film.

To each his/her own I suppose. I do think the film could have used even a few minutes longer in total run time, but what's there is enjoyable and excitable action.

And really? The Script? The script/dialogue are one of the highlights of the film, and one of Whedon's greatest strengths.

I take it this movie has Whedon at his most Whedony?
 
I take it this movie has Whedon at his most Whedony?

Character moments and banter were top notch.

I think the biggest failing of the film is too much jumping around, that and making Ultron too human and jokey. He had the swagger and presence that Ultron needed, but he just didn't seem menacing enough - he seemed more like a angsty confused teenager.
 
To each his/her own I suppose. I do think the film could have used even a few minutes longer in total run time, but what's there is enjoyable and excitable action.

And really? The Script? The script/dialogue are one of the highlights of the film, and one of Whedon's greatest strengths.

I'm not talking about the dialogue, I'm talking about structure of the script. It's quite a bloated mess as it is, just way too many ideas. Going through more passes to trim it so that isn't so obvious would improve it. The other option would be just to go nuts and make a 3 hour film. As it is, the movie is halfway between the two - it feels like there are too many things going on without a focus, and none of those things feel as developed and fleshed out as they could have been.

In terms of Marvel action it's enjoyable. It's definitely no Thor 2. But definitely reminded me of pitfalls Iron Man 2 suffered from. The action also wasn't anywhere as exciting or well designed as Winter Soldier, so yeah the standards have been raised and I think AoU didn't quite meet them.
 
^ agree

I think AoU is a very fun romp, but it definitely didn't meet the standards that MCU as a franchise had raised for itself.

Specially after Winter Soldier.

Also the plotholes with the Infinity Stones and Thanos' angles
(with how the mind-gem was inside the sceptre all along, etc)
..... IDK idk.... I hope they are not flaking the big end-clash set up!!!!
 
Was just checking out Bettany's IMDB, when I noticed this.

captureznu7d.png
 
I don't think that's really true. AoU tries to be a lot more than just Avengers 1 again, but I think the execution really fell short. The script could have had a few more passes, and the editing really should have been improved. It's a messy film which was barely put together, and it was obvious they had more ideas than actual time to fit all that in. A very disjointed and unfocused film.

Didn't like it that much either, because of this. It was a mess sometimes and often it was really hard to follow the action, because they cut between locations and characters too fast.
Some parts also feel so constructed and disconnected from the rest.

Character moments and banter were top notch.

I thought the banter was too much in this movie. I know you can expect that when watching a marvel movie, but there is never any sense of danger when the characters are joking around all the time.
 
Just arrived from the cinema. Best Marvel movie alongside TWS. There were some things i didn't like, mainly Ultron's portrayal but overall great movie.

I think it comes down to this; if you enjoy Avengers 1 so much, you'll be disappointed with AoU.

AoU is basically A1 again with more action.

Nope, i LOVED the first Avengers and still think AoU is a better movie
 
I just don't understand how people can hold up the first Avengers movie and then shit on this. It's better in almost every way, other than the novelty of seeing all these characters together for the first time.

There's a simple dialogue scene with Vision and Ultron that is absolutely beautiful. I believe that in 20 years it will be held in the same esteem as the 'tears in rain' speech from Blade Runner. It's not a perfect movie by any means, but there's a lot of great, yet flawed, movies.

*edit* This is (very) drunken hyperbole. It's a great scene though.
 
I just don't understand how people can hold up the first Avengers movie and then shit on this. It's better in almost every way, other than the novelty of seeing all these characters together for the first time.

There's a simple dialogue scene with Vision and Ultron that is absolutely beautiful. I believe that in 20 years it will be held in the same esteem as the 'tears in rain' speech from Blade Runner. It's not a perfect movie by any means, but there's a lot of great, yet flawed, movies.

i love Bettany Vision but lets not get carried away here :D
 
this... sounds awesome. Why would anyone be dissapointed with that.

Because the action is nowhere near as well done as it is in the first movie. Messy editing makes most of the fights seem quite cut down and unimpressive even though they seem to go on forever. Hopefully an extended edition can fix the problem.
 
The cinematography is a whole lot better than the first Avengers and generally speaking the action is shot much better. There were far more memorable beats to me in this one than there was in the first one. That said, the editing suffers a bunch so it is true that the action this time around has to compromise for a lot. It's clearly so that there's a much more focus on a personal story compared the first Avengers, but since it juggles quite a deal of subplots it still runs the risk of losing much of it's audience in the details. AoU is the kind of movie that wants to have it's cake and eat it.

... And I still love it more than the first Avengers in spite of that. I generally think that's a testament to how much quality goes into every single pivotal moment. It's admittedly a mess at times, probably more so than any other MCU movie, but that purely comes down to the fact that the movie isn't really allowed to breathe, which I'm generally willing to overlook due to how well done most of the elements are.

I get the sense that this is going to be Marvel's most polarizing movie to date, even though it's still generally a good film.
 
I get the sense that this is going to be Marvel's most polarizing movie to date, even though it's still generally a good film.

Pretty much this.

I found it better directed, visually improved and more confident as a film than the first...but ultimately less interesting. As much as I think he was at risk of becoming overused, this film sorely missed a decent villian akin to Loki. This is really frustrating as Spader did a great job with what he was given but I just didn't care motivation wise what was happening. After seeing it late last week my overarching memory of it was them fighting robots over and over.

For me it's a competent film...workmanlike. It ticks boxes. Did I have an OK time seeing it? Yep. Do I have any inclination to rewatch it? No. GOTG and TWS set a really good mark for Marvel in the last year and this feels like a backward step (albeit a small one from which they can rebound)
 
All in all I thought AoU was a good movie. Not great but still good. I only saw snippets of trailers before and wasn't that impressed by what I saw so I went in with medium expectations and came out thinking it was exactly what I thought it would be.

My main problem with the movie is basically the story. Not sure if spoilers are allowed here so I'll just tag it to be safe.

I really didn't like that Ultron, an AI designed to protect humanity, went from "protect mode" to "might as well kill them all" within minutes of the movie. At least it felt that way and maybe I even missed something but thinking back, that is exactly how it came across to me.
I also didn't like that the antagonist was never really a threat to the Avengers or that his army was basically a bunch of weaker versions of him. There was no real variety in the fights because of that. I mean the best fight in the movie was between Iron Man and the Hulk. That crown should be held by the final showdown if you ask me.

Pretty much this.

I found it better directed, visually improved and more confident as a film than the first...but ultimately less interesting. As much as I think he was at risk of becoming overused, this film sorely missed a decent villian akin to Loki. This is really frustrating as Spader did a great job with what he was given but I just didn't care motivation wise what was happening. After seeing it late last week my overarching memory of it was them fighting robots over and over.

For me it's a competent film...workmanlike. It ticks boxes. Did I have an OK time seeing it? Yep. Do I have any inclination to rewatch it? No. GOTG and TWS set a really good mark for Marvel in the last year and this feels like a backward step (albeit a small one from which they can rebound)

This pretty much sums up my opinion. I also think GotG was a better movie overall and AoU felt like wuite a step back. I haven't seen any of the Captain America movies since I'm not a big fan of the character but I might have to check them out since everyone is loving TWS.
 
I haven't seen any of the Captain America movies since I'm not a big fan of the character but I might have to check them out since everyone is loving TWS.

Definitely do. I'm not really a Captain America fan either and found the first enjoyable-ish but not stellar - TWS gave me a satisfaction of it being it's own movie instead of being 'stuff happening in MCU' (despite it also being that)

I remember more about TWS despite only having seen it twice (the last time being six months ago) than I do about AOU I saw a few days ago.
 
I still can't figure out the extreme love for TWS wich only had wonderful action and an average, predictable plot. Dialogues were so bad I could see the writers trying to imitate some well known spy movies, mixing them with the worst jokes in a decade and ending up looking like Whedon from the bizzarro world.

I mean, TWS is indeed really good, among the best Marvel movies just like AoU.
 
Eeeehh ... it was okay. The pacing was really weird and off and I guess the novelty of these characters on the big screen has somewhat worn off for me.

Ultron was a far less menacing villain than the trailers made it seem, but at this point that's almost to be expected.

Still, I can't wait for Ant-Man, Spidey, Panther and the Gauntlet endgame. So I guess they still have their claws in me.
 
No one should be worried about the RT score. What they should be worried about is that many long time Marvel fans, including total shills like me, were let down by the film. :)

Your comments in here are on point. Exactly how I felt watching it - there's just so much going on that it feels unfocused and manufactured to tie everything in the MCU together. I found myself slightly bored after
the opening action scene

I just don't understand how people can hold up the first Avengers movie and then shit on this. It's better in almost every way, other than the novelty of seeing all these characters together for the first time.

There's a simple dialogue scene with Vision and Ultron that is absolutely beautiful. I believe that in 20 years it will be held in the same esteem as the 'tears in rain' speech from Blade Runner. It's not a perfect movie by any means, but there's a lot of great, yet flawed, movies.

Come on, dude. No way.
 
Obviously he's talking about the one where they talk about humanity
I guess ?
Is that the same one ?
Probably that and it's the best dialogue from Ultron. I have to say I kinda hated how they treated him the first time I saw AoU but still liked that dialogue. After rewatching the movie he grew on me, you can still feel some parts missing but whatever.
 
AoU beats the first Avengers on character moments alone, IMO. Then you got the better cinematography and better action. I'm actually surprised at how polarised opinions are. The pacing and editing are a little sloppy, noticeably in the middle of the film, and there are loads of subplots, but I still really liked it.
 
I've been thinking about this movie quite a bit the last few days, since more and more friends have gone and seen it.. Unfocused is really the only way to name it.

It's not bad, it's sadly not that great either. We had a break in our viewing roughly at halftime. We went outside and started discussing what we've seen so far. Me and my friends all really liked it, but have wished for a little bit more exposition on Ultrons side. Nothing the second half couldn't fix though... Sadly in the 2nd half it became really apparent that they tried to put too much into the movie with too little time.

There is nothing wrong with having a longer running time in an event movie that tries to be it's own thing, tries to set up the future of the next few movies, tries to conclude the last few years, and last but not least tries to introduce new main characters and a new villain.
Something has to fall short if the movie is too short and sadly they only pulled everything off just close to good.
The first one didn't have to deal with a new villain, new characters and managed to pull of the future set up and conclusion of phase 1 rather naturally - it is the better movie for it, even if the cinematography isn't as good.

Sadly I don't see them releasing a directors cut that clears a few things up and gives the movie some much needed breathing space. I believe around 30 minutes more runtime could fix the biggest problems I have with the movie.

If the Infinity Wars movies don't introduce their own new characters, take their time to build up the villain and have a real end to it, I'm pretty sure, they'll be the better movies for it.
 
I think it comes down to this; if you enjoy Avengers 1 so much, you'll be disappointed with AoU.

AoU is basically A1 again with more action.

I almost outright dislike the first Avengers, but I thought the second one was fantastic. Certainly flawed, but those flaws didn't bother me like the first movie's did. Opinions gonna opinion :P
 
The film isn't a masterpiece in film making but if you want to watch one of the most comic book comic book movies ever made its a hell of a lot of fun.
 
I was pretty disappointed by AOU. It never really held up to the quality of the first film, and there wasn't enough oppurtunity for whedon's cracking character back-and-forths (like that great hammer lifting scene). Still a good film, but not a great one.

James Spader was just incredible though, and made me miss the days of boston legal. Shame he's doing medicore rubbish like blacklist these days, he's wasted there.
 
I almost outright dislike the first Avengers, but I thought the second one was fantastic. Certainly flawed, but those flaws didn't bother me like the first movie's did. Opinions gonna opinion :P

Yeah I like how they got most of the bullshit out of the way. A lot of avengers 1 is really useless as fuck.
In AoU you have the party in the beginning then it's on.
 
I also didn't like that the antagonist was never really a threat to the Avengers or that his army was basically a bunch of weaker versions of him. There was no real variety in the fights because of that. I mean the best fight in the movie was between Iron Man and the Hulk. That crown should be held by the final showdown if you ask me.

Well, to be fair the best fight in the first movie was probably Iron Man vs. Thor. I don't there's anything wrong with the prospect of the best fight in the film not being the final battle, but the problem here was that the Avengers fighting
hundreds of small Ultron drones isn't particularly exciting
. It felt like the Avengers fighting the
Chitauri again, and I think they needed to do something different than another weak enemy army
.

I haven't seen any of the Captain America movies since I'm not a big fan of the character but I might have to check them out since everyone is loving TWS.

I cannot recommend The Winter Soldier strongly enough - I didn't really care about Cap either before seeing this film, but he's now perhaps my favourite Avenger. It does a really great job of showing his skills, it's a solid espionage film and the action scenes are amazing. Think of it like a Bourne film, only Bourne has the strength of five men. Also, Black Widow is really great in it, it introduces Falcon who's an excellent sidekick and it has perhaps Marvel's best villain yet. It will benefit you to watch Captain America: The First Avenger beforehand, but it's not essential.
 
Well, to be fair the best fight in the first movie was probably Iron Man vs. Thor. I don't there's anything wrong with the prospect of the best fight in the film not being the final battle, but the problem here was that the Avengers fighting
hundreds of small Ultron drones isn't particularly exciting
. It felt like the Avengers fighting the
Chitauri again, and I think they needed to do something different than another weak enemy army
.

Infinity War climax is going to be everyone fighting a bunch of mini-Thanos

Edit: didn't think your stuff was spoiler-worthy but I'll respect your edit
 
I cannot recommend The Winter Soldier strongly enough - I didn't really care about Cap either before seeing this film, but he's now perhaps my favourite Avenger. It does a really great job of showing his skills, it's a solid espionage film and the action scenes are amazing. Think of it like a Bourne film, only Bourne has the strength of five men. Also, Black Widow is really great in it, it introduces Falcon who's an excellent sidekick and it has perhaps Marvel's best villain yet. It will benefit you to watch Captain America: The First Avenger beforehand, but it's not essential.

God damnit, you had to compare it to Bourne, didn't you? Now I definitely have to watch it.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Top Bottom