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rttp: Avengers Age of Ultron: A decent movie that tries to do too much

It is the Iron Man 2 of Avengers films as in Marvel had unprecedented success with the first one then suddenly tried to do too much world building and shoehorning needless plots in the second at the expense of a solid film in it's own right. The biggest crime of both Iron Man 2 and AOE is they forgot to make a fun film like their predecessors. Who didnt come out of the first Avengers film fanboying over the various amazing Hulk moments, while you come out of AOE thinking damn he just killed a bunch of people during that fight with Iron Man.
 
My biggest problem with the film is that they never establish Ultron as a real threat. I don't mind the quips or his personality, but they needed Ultron to actually seem capable of winning against the Avengers. Instead, the first half of the movie establishes Quicksilver and Scarlet Witch as threats.
 
It's harder to critique than other MCU films just because of how inconsistent it is. There's some really great moments in it, but also a lot of weak stuff. When it shines, it's better than the first movie. When it stumbles, it's like watching Iron Man 2 or Thor 2 again.

It's just too much. Everything with Vision was perfect, Hulk vs Iron Man was cool, and I really liked the scenes with Hawkeye's family, but those three things don't belong in the same film. We should be getting Hawkeye's family scenes in a Hawkeye/Secret Avengers movie. The Thor stuff should have been the opening of Ragnarok. The Klaue stuff should have been the opening of Black Panther. The Natasha-Bruce stuff should have been... on the damn cutting room floor. The only subplot that actually works for me is pre-cursor to Civil War stuff.
 
Never made much sense that he had access to 'the internet' but didn't cause any issues at all. Just going about his day trying to upgrade his armour and creating a shit army.
 

DeathyBoy

Banned
It's harder to critique than other MCU films just because of how inconsistent it is. There's some really great moments in it, but also a lot of weak stuff. When it shines, it's better than the first movie. When it stumbles, it's like watching Iron Man 2 or Thor 2 again.

It's just too much. Vision was perfect and I really liked the scenes with Hawkeye's family, but those two things don't belong in the same film. We should be getting Hawkeye's family scenes in a Hawkeye/Secret Avengers movie. The Thor stuff should have been the opening of Ragnarok. The Klaue stuff should have been the opening of Black Panther. The Natasha-Bruce stuff should have been... on the damn cutting room floor. The only subplot that actually works for me is pre-cursor to Civil War stuff.

Not sure CW stuff works because Whedon doesn't try and portray Stark/Cap as friends. CW does.
 

Zelias

Banned
It tried to do way too much and Ultron never really felt like a threatening villain. It's a decent enough film but massively wasted its potential.
 

aadiboy

Member
I thought it was weird that an artificial being stronger than Ultron was created in the same movie Ultron was supposed to be a threat in. It was like if the Death Star and Starkiller Base were introduced in the same movie.
 
Marvel's got a big problem with their second movies: Iron Man 2, Thor 2, Avengers 2, Guardians 2 are all considered among the lower-tier because they try to do too many big hits from the first movie without considering what made the first movie successful and making a good standalone film. Winter Soldier was the only one to fix this slump because it was a completely different movie and not a rehash of the first.

I agree, they messed up almost all of their second movies. Winter Soldier is the only notable exception.

The CGI is kinda off too. I swear Avengers 1 looks better.

Its CGI definitely looks better.

Ultron is a better looking movie with respect to framing, lighting, depth, colors, but the quality of the visual effects took a hit in some places, presumably because they doubled it.

Avengers only had three major action scenes: Loki destroying the SHIELD compound, the hellicarrier siege, and the invasion.

Ultron had: the HYDRA raid in Sokovia, the party fight, the Ultron+twins/Hulkbuster fight in Africa, the Korea chase, the Sokovia end battle. That's a lot of action.

Probably. To be honest if I was the director I would have completely cut the Hydra battle, the non-Hulkbuster parts of the Africa fight and the whole Korea battle. I hate the fact that the first movie's most exciting moment was the Avengers finally assembling to battle an existential threat and in the sequel they assembled to assault a single fucking Hydra cell. Build up to the big moment Whedon! Don't shoot your load in the first five seconds!
 

ZeoVGM

Banned
Great movie that gets a lot of unfair hate.

Sad to see how so many people have turned against Joss.

Joss is my God. I'll always love his work. Can't wait for Batgirl.

Joss has always had a vocal minority that has disliked him. But in the case of Age of Ultron, is legitimately a flawed movie with some noticeable issues. I think Joss himself knows that as well.
 

ZeoVGM

Banned
Probably. To be honest if I was the director I would have completely cut the Hydra battle, the non-Hulkbuster parts of the Africa fight and the whole Korea battle. I hate the fact that the first movie's most exciting moment was the Avengers finally assembling to battle an existential threat and in the sequel they assembled to assault a single fucking Hydra cell. Build up to the big moment Whedon! Don't shoot your load in the first five seconds!

I don't agree with most of this, to be honest. The set pieces weren't the problem. It was the use of Ultron and having too many things happening at once. Cutting multiple set pieces out doesn't fix the movie's issues.

And that opening scene was perfect. There was no reason to "build up" to it. The entire point of that was to show the Avengers in action right off the bat, opposed to the first movie, which was pretty much all build up (naturally). It was meant to be clean up from Winter Soldier so I'm not sure what build up you needed for it.

And how do you cut the non-Hulkbuster fights from the Africa section? Scarlet Witch screwing with everyone's minds is what led to that in the first place so you would be eliminating the context.

The Korea scene likely could have been condensed or turned into something a bit different, however.

The only complete scene that truly could have/should have been cut is the Thor day spa scene. If Joss replaced that with more scenes throughout the movie that gave a bit more depth to Ultron and his relationship with the twins -- along with making Ultron more menacing -- I believe the reaction to the film would be a lot more positive.
 
Not sure CW stuff works because Whedon doesn't try and portray Stark/Cap as friends. CW does.

The problem is that people read too much into that one conversation they had outside of Hawkeye's home and act like that's the buildup to CW, when in actuality, there was no buildup.
 

Vampfox

Banned
I enjoyed it, but its definitly one of the weaker MCU movies. I'm glad Joss Whedon's not back for Infinity War - the Russo's do a far better job at balancing comedy and drama appropriatly, I mean did we seriously need Hawkeye saying "its been a long day" over Quicksilvers dead body ?
I wonder how long it will be before people turn on the Russo's the way they turned on Joss.
 
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