Avengers: Age Of Ultron (2015)

[dgwphotography]

Saw this last night, and I must admit to being underwhelmed.

With all of the Easter Eggs (Hugin and Mugin, et al), the care with how he morphed from scene to scene, the first Avengers movie was basically a love letter from Joss Whedon to the Marvel Universe. This latest installment was just typical dumbed down action fare.

That's not to say I didn't enjoy it. There were plenty of laughs and action, but I left the theater thinking, "That was it?" A forced romance a la "Beauty and The Beast" and action sequences that relied on subpar CGI (The CGI in the first 3 years ago was so much better) are just two of the things that stand out tat make this movie suffer in comparison its predecessor.

[Vic Sage]

my son and i loved it.

The best superhero movies are about relationships, just like good non-superhero movies. Here, when the team is working together, or when they bicker, or are just hanging out, you have a real sense that they're real people with these real lives. That's one of Whedon's best talents, to take the fantastic and make it feel natural. Alot of good stuff in this one with Hawkeye, and i liked the Widow/Hulk romance... it makes Hulk's presence on a team a bit more plausible. Pietro and Wanda could've used some more time, but what was there was solid. And The Vision was terrific... both the role and the performance. And Spader as Ultron pretty much steals the movie.

The numerous action scenes were well choreographed and exciting. CGI? yeah, i didn't notice a problem with it; it looked fine to me.

I'm seeing it again on Sunday, so maybe i'll have some other thoughts after that.

Edited May 1, 2015 by Guest

[dgwphotography]

Vic Sage wrote: I'm seeing it again on Sunday, so maybe i'll have some other thoughts after that.

I plan on seeing it again, in the hopes that there was just stuff I missed the first time around.

[Benjamin Grimm]

I gave it six stars. I enjoyed it, but I don't think I'll remember a whole lot about it after a few weeks have gone by. And I don't plan to see it again until I can do so for free, when it's on HBO or EPIX or whatever.

The Vision was cool. I really don't like Mark Ruffalo as Bruce Banner. (Bring back Art Carney!) I really don't have much sense of what makes a man attractive, but I'd think that Natasha Romanoff would prefer any of the other guys on the team to Banner.

I also suspect that if I didn't know these guys and their stories from decades of reading comic books, that I would have thought this movie was a hot mess.

[Edgy MD]

It's the strange nature of these films that, while one may leave me underwhelmed or overwhelmed or both simultaneously (this one did), I then end up having more sympathy for the previous one. They're like latter-day U2 albums in that sense.

[Guest John Cougar Lunchbucket]

I took the Pail to this one over the weekend, got in a 3D matinee with 4 other viewers in the whole room.

I found the fighting to be exhilarating and admired that they tried to provide some humanity to the guys but I just give up on making any sense of the rules for these things. The only way to solve problem X is a... nuclear heat shield! Okay! Whatever!

I also had an issue with the supposedly invincible bad guy summoning a billion flying robot soldiers who were easier to kill than zombies in The Walking Dead. wtf?

[nymr83]

John Cougar Lunchbucket wrote: I took the Pail to this one over the weekend, got in a 3D matinee with 4 other viewers in the whole room. I found the fighting to be exhilarating and admired that they tried to provide some humanity to the guys but I just give up on making any sense of the rules for these things. The only way to solve problem X is a... nuclear heat shield! Okay! Whatever! I also had an issue with the supposedly invincible bad guy summoning a billion flying robot soldiers who were easier to kill than zombies in The Walking Dead. wtf?

zombies, ninjas, robots, it doesnt matter - they all follow the same rules - a hundred of them together each die easily while one alone is impossible to kill, they are what the plot demands they be.

[Edgy MD]

Stormtroopers.