I saw Age of Ultron
I saw the second Avengers last weekend. For the most part I liked it, although I would rank it on the lower end of the assorted Marvel films. Mostly just way too much story/too many characters shoved in. But it also had some nice bits and some great sequences.
This was a more human take on Ultron than I'm used to, mostly as I liked the more robotic villian from the Silver Age/Bronze age comics. It's an interesting choice and I'm willing to put that down to "movie versions different than comic versions" and that's fine. I did really like the near temper-tantrum Ultron has about Stark, and Vision's remarks about Ultron hating Stark the most was cute.
Although he was one of the "far too many characters for one movie" I really liked the Vision. Still trying to decide if his holding the hammer was "awesome callback to earlier scene" or "needed a very quick way for character to gain trust gimmick". Maybe it was both.
I was happily surprised by Quicksilver and Scarlet Witch. They were fun and powerful in some nice ways. The scene with Quicksilver saving people from the crashing train was one of my favorite bits: Not only was it a "oh look we care about saving people" but it was done in a smart way, gave Cap a bit of leadership spotlight and made for a very effective special effects scene. (and yes, the "stopping the runaway train" scene in Spiderman 2 is also one of my all-time favorite super hero scenes: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jWaPPM0uKn0)
Regarding Cap I liked the whole 'bad language' running gag. I noticed how most of the other characters were doing it with a gentle laughing with Steve style...but Stark was a tiny bit of a shit about it. Nice bit of ribbing and character work going on there.
BUT....
The "seeing the heroes fight each other" is getting old. We've already had it in Avengers 1, and yes the Hulkbuster fight was done really well, but it's a plotline that's been done and just drags the movie down into darker territory it doesn't need to be in. The mind-tampering angle reallly just seemed to be an excuse to make them fight and snap at each other again.
Good thing we got to see heroes-being-jerks to each other for a second time before Civil War comes out! Yippee.
Assorted backstories: I thought the "Haweye has a whole family!" bit was kind of a weird surprise, and I wonder if it was there only to deflect Hawkeye/Widow shipping for the Banner/Natasha storyline. Banner and Natasha I thought was interesting, especially as the first time the characters met there was a scene of a terrified Natasha holding a pistol in his face. Banner's reluctance about it also made sense to me, not only becuase of his own massive issues, but also the distrust that would come from Widow hitting on you. She's a trained manipulator, including seduction when necessary, and that would cause some doubt.
I was very dissapointed there were no Agents of Shield tv cameos (other than a teeny tiny meaningless Hydra villian). They make a huge deal about how the TV series is part of the universe and then never put them in the movies in any way. Not even background. ~grumble~
And I've been reading how Whedon basically has it that Coulson is dead in the movies... ~bigger grumble~
Ah well.
A few admittedly-fanboy things I was really hoping for:
At one point in the Avengers history the team was just Cap, Hawkeye, Quicksilver and Scarlet Witch. I was kind of hoping there would be an homage shot or one fight that had just those four.
"Ultron, we would have words with thee..." Ohhh I would have cheered had that been there.
Also I was happy to see Shield doing cool stuff at the end, and War Machine doing stuff too. Would have loved more Falcon. Really, Falcon should just be in everything. A lot.
So that's my, somewhat disjointed, thoughts on Avengers 2. Overall still good, but a bit of a roller-coaster in quality.
This was a more human take on Ultron than I'm used to, mostly as I liked the more robotic villian from the Silver Age/Bronze age comics. It's an interesting choice and I'm willing to put that down to "movie versions different than comic versions" and that's fine. I did really like the near temper-tantrum Ultron has about Stark, and Vision's remarks about Ultron hating Stark the most was cute.
Although he was one of the "far too many characters for one movie" I really liked the Vision. Still trying to decide if his holding the hammer was "awesome callback to earlier scene" or "needed a very quick way for character to gain trust gimmick". Maybe it was both.
I was happily surprised by Quicksilver and Scarlet Witch. They were fun and powerful in some nice ways. The scene with Quicksilver saving people from the crashing train was one of my favorite bits: Not only was it a "oh look we care about saving people" but it was done in a smart way, gave Cap a bit of leadership spotlight and made for a very effective special effects scene. (and yes, the "stopping the runaway train" scene in Spiderman 2 is also one of my all-time favorite super hero scenes: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jWaPPM0uKn0)
Regarding Cap I liked the whole 'bad language' running gag. I noticed how most of the other characters were doing it with a gentle laughing with Steve style...but Stark was a tiny bit of a shit about it. Nice bit of ribbing and character work going on there.
BUT....
The "seeing the heroes fight each other" is getting old. We've already had it in Avengers 1, and yes the Hulkbuster fight was done really well, but it's a plotline that's been done and just drags the movie down into darker territory it doesn't need to be in. The mind-tampering angle reallly just seemed to be an excuse to make them fight and snap at each other again.
Good thing we got to see heroes-being-jerks to each other for a second time before Civil War comes out! Yippee.
Assorted backstories: I thought the "Haweye has a whole family!" bit was kind of a weird surprise, and I wonder if it was there only to deflect Hawkeye/Widow shipping for the Banner/Natasha storyline. Banner and Natasha I thought was interesting, especially as the first time the characters met there was a scene of a terrified Natasha holding a pistol in his face. Banner's reluctance about it also made sense to me, not only becuase of his own massive issues, but also the distrust that would come from Widow hitting on you. She's a trained manipulator, including seduction when necessary, and that would cause some doubt.
I was very dissapointed there were no Agents of Shield tv cameos (other than a teeny tiny meaningless Hydra villian). They make a huge deal about how the TV series is part of the universe and then never put them in the movies in any way. Not even background. ~grumble~
And I've been reading how Whedon basically has it that Coulson is dead in the movies... ~bigger grumble~
Ah well.
A few admittedly-fanboy things I was really hoping for:
At one point in the Avengers history the team was just Cap, Hawkeye, Quicksilver and Scarlet Witch. I was kind of hoping there would be an homage shot or one fight that had just those four.
"Ultron, we would have words with thee..." Ohhh I would have cheered had that been there.
Also I was happy to see Shield doing cool stuff at the end, and War Machine doing stuff too. Would have loved more Falcon. Really, Falcon should just be in everything. A lot.
So that's my, somewhat disjointed, thoughts on Avengers 2. Overall still good, but a bit of a roller-coaster in quality.