Age of Ultron -- first reaction
So went to see Avengers Age of Ultron tonight...
First off, for those who haven't seen it yet, there is a scene mid credits but there isn't anything at the very end so once you see the mid credits one you're good to leave.
One guy had brought his little boy - couldn't have been more than four (the kid got super stoked to see Thomas the Tank Engine in the Ant Man trailer), which why. The movie didn't let out until 10:30 which is way late for a kid that age to be out, and a 2 and a half hour movie is probably way too long for someone that young to sit still and stay engaged. (And considering somewhere around the one hour mark the kid started loudly telling his dad he didn't want to watch the movie anymore.... yeah. Not exactly putting that guy up for parent of the year.)
Aside from that, the theatre was almost completely full and it was mostly geeks - I love seeing a geeky movie with an audience of mostly geeks, always have that "I am amongst my people" feeling.
Trailers we got were the aforementioned Ant Man, some fight picture called Southpaw, a new Terminator flick, and the new Star Wars. How I knew I was definitely in a theatre full of geeks - a certain character's appearance at the end of the Star Wars trailer actually got applause.
Overall impression, I loved it. Not as much as the first one but really that was one of my favorite movie experiences of all time so it would've been hard to match.
I went in mostly unspoiled as I stopped looking for spoilers a while back so some of the things that surprised me might have been out in the ether for a while now.
I was super happy with all the team banter and how it was obvious they've been working together a lot since the last film. I absolutely loved Tony's and Bruce's friendship - I even liked how they handled the Hulkbuster thing (throwing in the dialogue about Bruce and Tony working on "Veronica" together at Bruce's behest helped a lot with that.)
Bruce and Nat's relationship did surprise me a little (that's one of the things I think might have been out in the ether that I missed the spoilers for) but not in a bad way. I loved seeing how comfortable they were with each other, considering where they started in the last film. It worked for me and I'm all for it continuing in future movies.
There was a lot more Hawkeye in this than the last one which was awesome. Also to have him be the ONLY Avenger that Wanda didn't manage to mind whammy was a nice ironic turnaround from the last one too. So there was Hawkeye snark and getting beat up and basically once or twice just being the humanity of the team... I was happy. Also there was at least one scene with him in something sleeveless that I may have said "ARMS" out loud. Because.
Him having a wife and kids had me blinking for a second or two until I remembered that the Hawkeye in the Ultimate Universe had a wife and two kids - before they were killed. At which point I started to worry that they'd die, but (ironically, given Joss' penchant of killing characters) when I remembered who had written the script I stopped worrying about that. Joss I trust enough not to do such a blatant fridging of women and kids.
Of course, that was the point that I started worrying that he might kill off Hawkeye instead... which meant I had very mixed feelings when it got set up that it looked like Hawkeye was going to die - and then he killed Quicksilver instead. I mean, yay, Clint's not dead, but really Joss? REALLY? Can you not do one movie and NOT kill off a character? At this point that would be more surprising, really.
I liked what we got of Wanda and Pietro, and I definitely recognized their characterization from the comics I remember reading way back when with them in so that was nice. We didn't really get as much character stuff with them as I'd like, but given the number of characters I suppose something has to give and I admit to much rather having more character moments with the original Avengers. Still, considering Joss killed Pietro off, it would've been nice to have got a little more with him. Wanda at least it looks like we'll have a chance for more in future movies.
(As an aside, I wonder if the reason it was Quicksilver who died was because he's also in the X-Men movies and the whole which group of characters do the twins belong to thing. Since DoFP didn't actually use Wanda, maybe this is Sony and Marvel's way of splitting the baby a la Solomon')
Spader was great as Ultron (and I loved how Tony's PTSD fears got tied into why he was trying to create Ultron in the first place. And how his coping mechanisms for same haven't really changed -- his reaction to being kidnapped in the original Iron Man was to build himself a suit of armor, which eventually became building himself 47 suits of armor, to... making a suit of armor for the world as he put it.)
My favorite bit is probably the fact that JARVIS is Vision. Okay, I know he actually said he wasn't JARVIS, but come on, he sounds like JARVIS, he was created from JARVIS' program... he gives sass like JARVIS... I'm going to continue to think of him as at least partly JARVIS. Just y'know, more.
And the moment that probably got the biggest reaction in the theatre was when Vision picked up Thor's hammer. That? That was just perfect. (As was Vision commenting on how well it's balanced later on)
The ending with most of the original group gone or leaving and a new set of Avengers starting training I loved as well - it definitely felt like a callback to when the group had its first big turnover in the comics. Also the new lineup being Rhodey, Sam, Wanda, Vision, Natasha and Steve... Yeah I can totally get behind that. Throw in Bucky and maybe Mockingbird....
Speaking of SHIELD, I can't be the only one who expected to see Coulson on the helicarrier with Maria and Fury, can I?
All in all, it was a lot of fun, awesome battles, great character beats, lots of sass and snark in the dialogue, but lots of heart too and I can almost guarantee I will be seeing it at least a few more times in the theatres.
First off, for those who haven't seen it yet, there is a scene mid credits but there isn't anything at the very end so once you see the mid credits one you're good to leave.
One guy had brought his little boy - couldn't have been more than four (the kid got super stoked to see Thomas the Tank Engine in the Ant Man trailer), which why. The movie didn't let out until 10:30 which is way late for a kid that age to be out, and a 2 and a half hour movie is probably way too long for someone that young to sit still and stay engaged. (And considering somewhere around the one hour mark the kid started loudly telling his dad he didn't want to watch the movie anymore.... yeah. Not exactly putting that guy up for parent of the year.)
Aside from that, the theatre was almost completely full and it was mostly geeks - I love seeing a geeky movie with an audience of mostly geeks, always have that "I am amongst my people" feeling.
Trailers we got were the aforementioned Ant Man, some fight picture called Southpaw, a new Terminator flick, and the new Star Wars. How I knew I was definitely in a theatre full of geeks - a certain character's appearance at the end of the Star Wars trailer actually got applause.
Overall impression, I loved it. Not as much as the first one but really that was one of my favorite movie experiences of all time so it would've been hard to match.
I went in mostly unspoiled as I stopped looking for spoilers a while back so some of the things that surprised me might have been out in the ether for a while now.
I was super happy with all the team banter and how it was obvious they've been working together a lot since the last film. I absolutely loved Tony's and Bruce's friendship - I even liked how they handled the Hulkbuster thing (throwing in the dialogue about Bruce and Tony working on "Veronica" together at Bruce's behest helped a lot with that.)
Bruce and Nat's relationship did surprise me a little (that's one of the things I think might have been out in the ether that I missed the spoilers for) but not in a bad way. I loved seeing how comfortable they were with each other, considering where they started in the last film. It worked for me and I'm all for it continuing in future movies.
There was a lot more Hawkeye in this than the last one which was awesome. Also to have him be the ONLY Avenger that Wanda didn't manage to mind whammy was a nice ironic turnaround from the last one too. So there was Hawkeye snark and getting beat up and basically once or twice just being the humanity of the team... I was happy. Also there was at least one scene with him in something sleeveless that I may have said "ARMS" out loud. Because.
Him having a wife and kids had me blinking for a second or two until I remembered that the Hawkeye in the Ultimate Universe had a wife and two kids - before they were killed. At which point I started to worry that they'd die, but (ironically, given Joss' penchant of killing characters) when I remembered who had written the script I stopped worrying about that. Joss I trust enough not to do such a blatant fridging of women and kids.
Of course, that was the point that I started worrying that he might kill off Hawkeye instead... which meant I had very mixed feelings when it got set up that it looked like Hawkeye was going to die - and then he killed Quicksilver instead. I mean, yay, Clint's not dead, but really Joss? REALLY? Can you not do one movie and NOT kill off a character? At this point that would be more surprising, really.
I liked what we got of Wanda and Pietro, and I definitely recognized their characterization from the comics I remember reading way back when with them in so that was nice. We didn't really get as much character stuff with them as I'd like, but given the number of characters I suppose something has to give and I admit to much rather having more character moments with the original Avengers. Still, considering Joss killed Pietro off, it would've been nice to have got a little more with him. Wanda at least it looks like we'll have a chance for more in future movies.
(As an aside, I wonder if the reason it was Quicksilver who died was because he's also in the X-Men movies and the whole which group of characters do the twins belong to thing. Since DoFP didn't actually use Wanda, maybe this is Sony and Marvel's way of splitting the baby a la Solomon')
Spader was great as Ultron (and I loved how Tony's PTSD fears got tied into why he was trying to create Ultron in the first place. And how his coping mechanisms for same haven't really changed -- his reaction to being kidnapped in the original Iron Man was to build himself a suit of armor, which eventually became building himself 47 suits of armor, to... making a suit of armor for the world as he put it.)
My favorite bit is probably the fact that JARVIS is Vision. Okay, I know he actually said he wasn't JARVIS, but come on, he sounds like JARVIS, he was created from JARVIS' program... he gives sass like JARVIS... I'm going to continue to think of him as at least partly JARVIS. Just y'know, more.
And the moment that probably got the biggest reaction in the theatre was when Vision picked up Thor's hammer. That? That was just perfect. (As was Vision commenting on how well it's balanced later on)
The ending with most of the original group gone or leaving and a new set of Avengers starting training I loved as well - it definitely felt like a callback to when the group had its first big turnover in the comics. Also the new lineup being Rhodey, Sam, Wanda, Vision, Natasha and Steve... Yeah I can totally get behind that. Throw in Bucky and maybe Mockingbird....
Speaking of SHIELD, I can't be the only one who expected to see Coulson on the helicarrier with Maria and Fury, can I?
All in all, it was a lot of fun, awesome battles, great character beats, lots of sass and snark in the dialogue, but lots of heart too and I can almost guarantee I will be seeing it at least a few more times in the theatres.