Avengers: Age of Ultron

[Mr Mystery]

No spoilers.

Or I'll spoil your face with a ride-on lawnmower

[Tzeentch's Dark Agent]

I saw it last night, very good. I don't know why a few of the things were in the film, they kinda broke the pacing of the film for me, but overall, a pretty good film.

[Mr Mystery]

I was impressed.

Best bit? When punch ups are going on, the action is easy to follow - none of the BLUROFACTION nonsense Hollywood usually seems to favour.

[Paintingplasticcrack]

I went to see it last night on 3D IMAX. Very good, but a bit lacking in the Hulk dept though. Sets up Civil War and the Infinity Wars nicely.

[eldargal]

Saw it last night, really enjoyed it, can see why people are upset about Black Widow's characterisation but honestly I don't think it was as bad as some people were saying. Scarlet Witch was great, Vision too.

Also saw the Ant-Man film trailer, my reaction being:

It looks so bad lol, so very, very bad. Even putting aside the fact they are killing off the female founder of the Avengers off screen to give angst to a male character who isn't even the main star of the film it just looks awful.

[Mr Mystery]

I'm kind of looking forward to Ant-Man now. Looks like it might be good fun.

[eldargal]

I'm not, thought it looked terrible lol. dull, unfunny and just really really dumb.

[YorkNecromancer]

Saw 'Avengers 2' last week when it came out. Thought it was lovely. No real themes, it's not about any big ideas, it's not remotely close to literature. It's just a fun, switch-your-brain-off piece of destruction porn.

I have to say as well, I'd honestly watch an entire film of the Avengers sat around doing nothing and chatting. All the best scenes were the ones where they weren't fighting; the party scenes were easily the best bits of the film for me. These are some really interesting people, and their interactions are a lot more fascinating than any explosion.

Ultron was a fine villain as well, which is something Marvel films often miss (Looking at you, Malekith the Generic. HOW do you waste Christopher Eccleston's infinite capacity to be terrifying, Marvel? Have you not seen 'Shallow Grave' or '28 Days Later'?!). Have to say, though, I did keep comparing Ultron to Samaritan from 'Person of Interest'; got to say, the Avengers are bloody lucky they weren't dealing with Samaritan. They'd have no chance if they were.

Also, I really liked the Widow/Hulk scenes. Johannsen and Ruffalo have the most incredible chemistry, and the relationship actually made sense for both of them. Yes, there's some severely problematic issues with Widow's SPOILER'I am incomplete without a child' angst arc, and even more with SPOILER Hulk becoming her sort-of surrogate baby, but they actual gave her quite a lot of things to do, and more of a personality this time.

I think the film also had a few issues with its black characters (namely reducing War Machine to a punchline and including Falcon to 0.04 second cameo) but hopefully that's something which will be remedied in future films SPOILER especially given the final line-up of Avengers at the film's close.

So yeah, I basically really liked it; the issues that were there seem to largely be part of the systemic problem of Hollywood issues as much as anything else.

'Ant-Man', on the other hand, looks like an absolute piece of sh!t. How is that crap getting made instead of 'Runaways' or an actually GOOD 'Punisher' film? It's beyond me. The Avengers have The Vision now. They need more fruity heroes like they need Ben Affleck playing Tony Stark.

[Mud Duck]

York, is that what the problem that everyone is having with the way she was/ is written? I guess that I see it more as a SPOILER 'she's had the one thing that made her female, the ability to create new life, and replaced with only the 'ability' to kill, or a more 'male' trait.' Remember the guy that she shot in the flashback, I'm guessing that he was her father or a close male relative that she may have been ordered to kidnap in the first place, think of it as a 'breaking of ties' too everything and everyone outside of the Academy (whatever the name). You are no longer a person, you are a tool. Everything that you do is in the interest of the State. The State is Mother. The State is Father. The State is Everything. If that makes any sense.

[DarkLink]

And considering that they brought it up right as contrast to Bruce Banner was being emotionally distraught over not being able to have kids... The movie had very strong themes about whether or not the fighting the Avengers did was a good or bad thing, or if they deserved the chance to have a home and raise a family. Captain America's bad dream was all about how he didn't think he could return to a home life with family and kids after so many years of fighting. Stark's whole motivation was to allow the Avengers to all retire. Given that context, and the fact that most people would probably consider it to be pretty messed up to sterilize people to make them more "efficient" at their job and that being raised in such a manner might have long-lasting emotional impacts, I would say that you're reaching a bit. A Michael Bay movie this is not.

The all-white guy thing is definitely standard hollywood status quo, though.