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Avengers: Age of Ultron |Spoiler Thread| Thanos Dies in This

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I did some reading on the Internet and apparently Thor DID see the mind jem in his vision/the unnecessary dream pool, but did not see Vision himself. I wish they had punctuated that a bit more during his vision. When there is so much going on, clarity is key.

Well to be fair dreams/visions are innately eclectic and there is probably stuff inherently derived/understood by Thor in the imagery we saw that we just saw as "well those are just the gems, what does that mean?"
 
I did some reading on the Internet and apparently Thor DID see the mind jem in his vision/the unnecessary dream pool, but did not see Vision himself. I wish they had punctuated that a bit more during his vision. When there is so much going on, clarity is key. Whedon, at times, is like your friend Chad who really sucks at telling jokes. He'll get to the punchline, but the build up will be a mess and the payoff will suffer for it.

I agree. It's a pretty messy movie in some ways.

I wonder what the crossover is between the people who 100% understood everything the first time through vs being big MCU fans. Reading leaks, hearing about storylines, recognizing characters before we've seen them (Vision in Thor's...vision...for example), etc. probably helps to fill in gaps and make connections that others wouldn't.
 

Rentahamster

Rodent Whores
I'm in the same boat as you, really baffled by people disliking this movie while liking the first one.

I'm just guessing, but it might be because seeing the first Avengers was a big, first of its kind event, which made it great. Over time, with more time for analysis and reading others' critical opinions, the flaws of the first movie become more apparent. Since Avengers 2 shares a lot of its pros and cons with the first movie, one might be more inclined to be aware of the cons when seeing Avengers 2, as well as not having the benefit anymore of the concept of a team-up movie being all that novel.

For the record, I liked both.
 

Sean

Banned
Very mediocre movie. Reminded me of a Michael Bay Transformers film to be honest with all of those forced jokes and bloated action sequences.

The movie did a very bad job at making me care about anything.

- The opening sequence just starts off with boom boom and no explanation. Really poor CG there too.
- Way too many jokes. If The Avengers aren't taking things seriously then why should the audience? It's supposed to be some high stakes scenario and Hawkeye is talking about his home renovation plans.
- Not really a fault of the movie itself, but knowing Marvel's upcoming plans for the next five years zapped all tension. We pretty much knew everyone was safe.
- Hulkbuster fight scene could've been really cool and fun, but whenever a part of the suit was destroyed a replacement would fly in immediately. Arm ripped off? No problem, here's a new one that flies in and re-attaches itself. That's lame.
- Focus on preventing civilian casualties was boring. Climax of the film is fighting cannon fodder robots in an empty city, it didn't feel epic like the battle of NY from the first movie.

The best part of the movie was the party with the hammer, wish there was more of that instead of one lame action scene after another. It's been a while since I watched the first Avengers but I remember liking that film a LOT more.
 
- The opening sequence just starts off with boom boom and no explanation. Really poor CG there too.

- Hulkbuster fight scene could've been really cool and fun, but whenever a part of the suit was destroyed a replacement would fly in immediately. Arm ripped off? No problem, here's a new one that flies in and re-attaches itself. That's lame.

About these two issues in particular, they clarify why they did the assault not long after it begins: to recover the staff. And any armor that would go up against one of the most powerful members of the Avengers would in fact need some way to repair itself quickly lest Hulk just rip it to pieces.
 
He knew from his visions that the Vision was probably the last hope in defeating Ultron. He mentions it after he charges the pod.
I thought it was more to do with finding a way to keep the gem from being corrupted and misused. If it was really to defeat Ultron, that's stupid. They could have beat him handily without Vision because Wanda would have no longer been mind fucking them.
 

c-murph

Member
Very mediocre movie. Reminded me of a Michael Bay Transformers film to be honest with all of those forced jokes and bloated action sequences.

The movie did a very bad job at making me care about anything.

- The opening sequence just starts off with boom boom and no explanation. Really poor CG there too.
- Way too many jokes. If The Avengers aren't taking things seriously then why should the audience? It's supposed to be some high stakes scenario and Hawkeye is talking about his home renovation plans.
- Not really a fault of the movie itself, but knowing Marvel's upcoming plans for the next five years zapped all tension. We pretty much knew everyone was safe.
- Hulkbuster fight scene could've been really cool and fun, but whenever a part of the suit was destroyed a replacement would fly in immediately. Arm ripped off? No problem, here's a new one that flies in and re-attaches itself. That's lame.
- Focus on preventing civilian casualties was boring. Climax of the film is fighting cannon fodder robots in an empty city, it didn't feel epic like the battle of NY from the first movie.

The best part of the movie was the party with the hammer, wish there was more of that instead of one lame action scene after another. It's been a while since I watched the first Avengers but I remember liking that film a LOT more.

I'm sorry you don't like fun things.
 
Hopefully Marvel will learn a lesson from all of this and mandate the Russo Bros. test screen every bit of IW footage with me to prevent releasing another half-baked chicken pot pie. All the chicken, peas, carrots, etc could still come together to form something resembling tasty, but you'll sense something's wrong and end up with the sour-squirts.
 

guek

Banned
I thought it was more to do with finding a way to keep the gem from being corrupted and misused. If it was really to defeat Ultron, that's stupid. They could have beat him handily without Vision because Wanda would have no longer been mind fucking them.

They could have stopped him but not beaten him. Vision burned him off the net.
 
The movie is a train wreck and the worst part it repeated stuff from A1, big finale battle, Tony Stark saved the day in A1 with bravery, AOU he used his brain, Hulk Smash shit and was totally useless in A2, BW love connection was so damn forced, Hawkeye was just as useless as A1, Captain Leader still playing second fiddle to Stark, Thor got to shine once, he was the deciding factor in Vision's creation, Ultron was Ultra lame, A1 had it's flaws but i left that movie excited, this movie i wanted my money back..pile of shit..
 

Game4life

Banned
I'm sorry you don't like fun things.

No. The poster actually seems to have good taste for what is fun. See how easy it is to make stupid statements? Just because he/she did not like it does not mean the person does not like fun things. Plenty of people dont like AoU.
 

Blader

Member
- Not really a fault of the movie itself, but knowing Marvel's upcoming plans for the next five years zapped all tension. We pretty much knew everyone was safe.

I hate this complaint, especially since they actually DID kill off a hero in this one. That aside, I really don't understand where this sudden fascination with killing off lead characters in a blockbuster came from, or why Marvel movies are being singled out for it.

Spoiler alert: Mad Max doesn't die, Chris Pratt doesn't die in Jurassic World, the new kids in Star Wars don't die, James Bond doesn't die, Batman doesn't die, Superman doesn't die, and Indiana Jones doesn't die either.
 
I hate this complaint, especially since they actually DID kill off a hero in this one. That aside, I really don't understand where this sudden fascination with killing off lead characters in a blockbuster came from, or why Marvel movies are being singled out for it.

Spoiler alert: Mad Max doesn't die, Chris Pratt doesn't die in Jurassic World, the new kids in Star Wars don't die, James Bond doesn't die, Batman doesn't die, Superman doesn't die, and Indiana Jones doesn't die either.

maybe they have missed action movies for the last 30 years
 
X

Xpike

Unconfirmed Member
I hate this complaint, especially since they actually DID kill off a hero in this one. That aside, I really don't understand where this sudden fascination with killing off lead characters in a blockbuster came from, or why Marvel movies are being singled out for it.

Spoiler alert: Mad Max doesn't die, Chris Pratt doesn't die in Jurassic World, the new kids in Star Wars don't die, James Bond doesn't die, Batman doesn't die, Superman doesn't die, and Indiana Jones doesn't die either.

it's the fancy new way to shit on movies and tv shows "o they won't kill anyone where's the tension!", the Better Call Saul thread was also full of this. People don't realize that you can get tension from other stuff besides a cheap death, even Quicksilver died pretty quickly (heh)
 
I hate this complaint, especially since they actually DID kill off a hero in this one. That aside, I really don't understand where this sudden fascination with killing off lead characters in a blockbuster came from, or why Marvel movies are being singled out for it.

Spoiler alert: Mad Max doesn't die, Chris Pratt doesn't die in Jurassic World, the new kids in Star Wars don't die, James Bond doesn't die, Batman doesn't die, Superman doesn't die, and Indiana Jones doesn't die either.
Not to say you are necessarily wrong but it could speak to problems with how these films build dramatic stakes. If a film relies on deadly situations and the viewer can disconnect and see through the illusion, is that not a problem with the film?
 

Fj0823

Member
I really despise posts like this. There was another in the thread where a poster "felt sorry" for anyone who didn't watch the movie with a smile on their face the whole time.

Gimme a break.

He has a point though, I also feel Sorry for people that needs everything to be serious business. I like to be able to sit back and smile.

I have a huge collection of Comics and even though their stories often get very serious. I think the tone marvel gives to their movies is the same they gave to their heroes at the begining.

By that I mean, they cheer you up, they are heroes, saving the world, making you smile, giving you hope if just for a couple of minutes. Its true that comics sometimes like to go with dark serious stories, but the core of superhero stories is to be fun.

That is the reason most of the people love marvel and are a bit iffy on DCs approach. In my opinion, mo st heroes not named Batman or maybe daredevil need to have a cheerful movie

That's what super heroes are for me, and I too feel Sorry for everyone that wants everything they watch to be a serious tragedy
 
A criticism only lobbed at MCU films.

dat persecution complex. it's also been heavily thrown at man of steel and star trek 2. this shit's monotonous no matter the company making the film.

either get imaginative with these big cgi explosive setpieces or don't even bother anymore. it's been 6 years since avatar and say what y'all will about the film itself but nothing's really topped that in terms of large scale CGI action sequences. winter soldier and guardians of the galaxy ending battles were so similar lol.

the best sequences of both films were the elevator scene and that mohawk guy's arrow resepectively.
 

JdFoX187

Banned
Not to say you are necessarily wrong but it could speak to problems with how these films build dramatic stakes. If a film relies on deadly situations and the viewer can disconnect and see through the illusion, is that not a problem with the film?

My problem with the film goes back to Ultron. The entire movie, they're talking about how dangerous he is and how they don't know how they can stop him. He's supposed to be this menacing evil robot that requires the entirety of the Avengers to face him. Yet every time they meet, he's bested easily. Even at the end, which was supposed to be tense with how they're going to manage to save the city/world, they're all just mowing through his clone bots with no difficulty whatsoever. It's all Saturday morning cartoon business -- hence no tension. Hell, I found Malekith more menacing and dangerous than Ultron.

A criticism only lobbed at MCU films.
To be fair, the final CG battle was definitely shoehorned into Guardians of the Galaxy and Captain America the Winter Soldier
 
I was a bit put off that there was no immediate fallout from anyone concerning Ultron. Like no one outside of the avengers asked who made it. Tony didn't ever apologize for creating Ultron, who ended up destroying a whole city.

I guess there is a throw away line where Tony says he'll pay for a building that's under construction, but really, just throwing money at things fixes everything?

Maybe they'll cover it in civil war. Hell I would think what went down in AoU alone would kick start the need for registration. Would have been great to see the world react to the city being literally torn apart by something the avengers created.
 

bob_arctor

Tough_Smooth
Wait. I'm not going to argue with everything else you said, but this? Having a big climactic battle at the end of a superhero action movie is a bad thing? What?

There was nothing climactic about that final battle though, that's the problem. No stakes, no tension, the only hint of impact--Quicksilver's death--snubbed by a corny ass one-liner. Terrible. I liked Hawkeye's pep talk to Wanda, but it was way heavier and serious than the action on display, creating this odd mismatch in tone for me. I wish things were as bad as Hawkeye tried to make it seem because then I would actually give a shit.
 
k so, my "review".

I feel as though my criticism will be much harsher than the average fan's. But it is what it is (my opinions).

Let me start by saying what I said in the unpopular film related opinion thread, in that this movie felt very much like filler.
whether or not this has to do with the rumors of av2 originally being the infinity wars and av3 being the civil war could definitely explain this reason of filler, but i don't know if it's true so that's that. just gotta go with with what we know. So what we know is...
The first phase of the MCU spanned for 5 years. 2008-2012. Phase 2 is 2 years shorter, from 2013-2015.

Couple this with the fact that Iron Man had 2 films in the first phase, and as much as people try to argue he isn't the main character of the MCU, he definitely was in phase 1, I don't care what anyone says. Even if that's not what they intended, that's definitely the vibe they were giving. Cap1's end credit scene was nothing more but a teaser for av1, which makes me believe that while it is a good standalone film, it was essentially there to build up and set up for av1 - NOT in the same way as the iron man films were. that's the key thing here. thor was also a good movie, but the end credits has the message "thor will return in the avengers" - this line alone made the entire film feel like an amount up for av1 buildup.

TIH didn't do as well as the studios probably hoped, so phase 1 was really just iron man & his amazing friends, which ended with: the avengers.

now fast forward to the end of phase 2, which before antman, is av2. it almost felt like this film happened because it is a routine for marvel's phase to end with an avengers film. it did not feel organic.

it would've helped if there were maybe a few more sequels before the next avengers films. then the actual buildup would've felt like it had more merit. for instance, there is 1 iron man, 1 thor, and 1 cap movie each that happened before av2. which means each superhero went through 1 series of events before teaming up with the rest. i feel like i would've made more sense for them to have gone through a couple of solo events before they saw themselves teaming up with each other. which is to say, like how iron man had 2 films in phase 1, instead of him having 1, i'd rather all the rest have the same amount of exposure before the crossover.

and these are some of the things i've picked up from other reviews - the end of iron man 3 saw tony stark having an epiphany about being iron man but in av2, he's just being iron man like he always is. besides the 1 mention of the winter soldier in av2, there's no development of that story but i'll get into that later. and nothing reflects of thor's story - he just had his solo film and is right back to being with his team.

now, onto my analysis of the actual film. it starts off with an avengers action sequence...with barely any context. it's straight to the point but does not do much to explain how and why the heroes came together to do what they went to do.

similarly with av1, since I was not paying attention to the hype due to the lack of spiderman in the mcu, from watching the trailers I was under the impression that these heroes were coming together to face a fierce opponent. instead, they came together because of an army of superhuman proportion. now the same thing happened with av2. from watching the trailers, i was under the impression that ultron was going to be an extremely imposing threat, just on his own, but he wasn't nearly as menacing as he was made out to be in the teaser. this was basically another film about the avengers vs a superhero army - were those robots even supposed to have superhuman strength? cap was able to take on several of them on his own and hell, was even able to hold his own against ultron longer than he was when he was fighting loki. so is cap supposed to have some level of superhuman strength? that isn't made clear in the mcu, i know his powers came from something called the SUPERsoldier serum but I've been under the impression that it gave him peak human physicality. and if that is the case, I feel as though sometimes he is overpowered. and i'm not talking about that time he pulled that chunk of wood in half. that was cool. i mean how he's able to tear apart those robots and fight toe to toe with ultron.

ultron himself did not feel that menacing. he was a cool villain but he did not feel as much of a threat as he was made out to be. as a result, for me, it felt like the movie was dragging a bit.

i love that they did more with hawkeye this time around, but I hate that they wrote for him to have a wife and kids. not that there's anything wrong with an avenger and a superhero wanting to have a normal family (this ties into my complaint about hulk/widow), but they clearly made hawkeye and widow a thing in av1. but for av2 they just wrote him off as her bestie. i like romance, and I wish that it kept going strong with widow and hawkeye. they were a great match.

hulk and widow as a match felt god awful. so forced, so unnecessary. they was a clear mutual respect between these two characters by the end of av1, but no reason was there for them to become a couple. WHERE THE HELL IS BETTY ROSS?? GODDAMMIT. I hate how they're not doing anything with that character. recast her if you have to, but SHE is hulk's woman. she deserves to have a place in the mcu, and not be forgotten, and definitely not replaced with someone else like widow. ugh.

i like elizabeth olsen (she's so hot) and aaron taylor johnson, but frankly, their acting was not very good in this movie. my mother is a fob and i told her there would be two main characters in this film with accents and she'd have trouble understanding them. so we're watching the movie and the maximoff twins show up, having their scenes, but it wasn't until andy serkis's scene showed up when my mother asked "is this the character you were saying that has that accent?"

now with all this being said, notwithstanding that another version of quicksilver exists cinematically and i made a thread comparing the two, the way the character went out was lame. it should not have even happened. not just because he was a fresh new character to the mcu, but because the weight of his death wasn't even felt. the film quickly went on and transitioned. now, of course the film has to do this, but the part of the film where you'd see the weight of his death would be in scarlet's scenes. she had the breakdown where she went after ultron (and even after ripping out his "core" he didn't "die") later on we see her just becoming an avenger. i don't think it was stated how much time had passed at the end of the movie since the climax of the film, but regardless - she got over her beloved brother's death so quickly that his death felt very inconsequential to the film. it would have been better if it showed she was still grieving - moving on in some sort of way but not 100%.

and speaking of the climax of the film, why wasn't falcon there to help? war machine showed up to help, so why not falcon? the winter soldier *could* a viable reason here, but I feel like since he was already a part of the movie, cap would've contacted him about what happened after the party with ultron & such. falcon even said the avengers is not his world but his main objective is to help cap - and immediately, helping to fight ultron would've been just that.

I don't usually rate movies on a numerical scale but I'll say this. guardians, cap2, iron man1, & thor were all better movies than av2. i enjoyed all those movies more than this.
 
My problem with the film goes back to Ultron. The entire movie, they're talking about how dangerous he is and how they don't know how they can stop him. He's supposed to be this menacing evil robot that requires the entirety of the Avengers to face him. Yet every time they meet, he's bested easily. Even at the end, which was supposed to be tense with how they're going to manage to save the city/world, they're all just mowing through his clone bots with no difficulty whatsoever. It's all Saturday morning cartoon business -- hence no tension. Hell, I found Malekith more menacing and dangerous than Ultron.
Hot damn.
 
the best sequences of both films were the elevator scene and that mohawk guy's arrow resepectively.

Disco knows best. The elevator scene in Winter Soldier was baller as fuck. Close quarters combat. Cap leaping out of a fucking elevator like 34830592852905823 feet in the air. Dat music. Though I might give the best sequence to either Cap chasing Bucky or Cap fighting Bucky for the first time. Cap kneed that fucker through a CAR

Yondu finally giving a payoff for teasing the goddamn arrow the whole movie by just massacring everybody in sight with that shit is also glorious.
 

Oersted

Member
dat persecution complex. it's also been heavily thrown at man of steel and star trek 2. this shit's monotonous no matter the company making the film.

either get imaginative with these big cgi eplosive setpieces or don't even bother anymore. it's been 6 years since avatar and say what y'all will about the film itself but nothing's really topped that in terms of large scale CGI action sequences.

The complaint got increasingly common post- Lord of the Rings, due to studios increasingly shoehorning in mindless third-act spectacles.

Alice says hey
 
Disco knows best. The elevator scene in Winter Soldier was baller as fuck. Close quarters combat. Cap leaping out of a fucking elevator like 34830592852905823 feet in the air. Dat music. Though I might give the best sequence to either Cap chasing Bucky or Cap fighting Bucky for the first time. Cap kneed that fucker through a CAR

Yondu finally giving a payoff for teasing the goddamn arrow the whole movie by just massacring everybody in sight with that shit is also glorious.

cap chasing bucky was also really cool. it's the first time i was actually sold on captain america's power. that dent he made in the wall...
 

Game4life

Banned
Fun is only used as a defense when you can't think of anything besides "I liked it" to defend your position.

Apparently asking for a modicum of danger or threat in these movies to heighten the stakes is wanting the movie to become too dark, gritty, edgy and sapping out the fun. Lets all smile and accept that the earth is in perilous danger folks and just imagine that these heroes are putting up significant effort in fighting these villains even though they casually discuss furniture positioning and have one liners during their fights.
 
Can we talking about how the movie ends with Cap and Tony saying they will miss each other? There's no way the Cap presented at the beginning of the film wouldn't be pissed off at Tony. Everything is just tied up nicely between them.

God, there's a lot of bad writing in this movie.

Hulk vs Tony was fucking awesome though. Most of the other action was bad. Too much going on and not enough breathing room. There are serious pacing issue throughout the whole thing.
 
Not to say you are necessarily wrong but it could speak to problems with how these films build dramatic stakes. If a film relies on deadly situations and the viewer can disconnect and see through the illusion, is that not a problem with the film?

I think the slate has a little to do with it tbh. People rarely know what tension "is" on paper, they just know when they don't feel it. Knowing Luke wouldn't die in ESB (because hes the hero!) doesn't stop the gut-wrenching inevitability of the showdown with vader, the losing of his hand and weapon as he retreats lamely into an inescapable corner above a vaccum of nothingness. Thats a moment when you think HOW THE FUCK DOES HE EVEN ESCAPE THIS? Theres a moment like that in Iron Man 1 when Obidiah removes Starks arc for example. But yeah, I never felt anything close to that in Avengers. The story was too much of a mess.
 

XAL

Member
cap chasing bucky was also really cool. it's the first time i was actually sold on captain america's power. that dent he made in the wall...

The Winter Soldier cemented Captain America as a cool as shit character with awesome abilities.

First Avenger didn't really do a good job at selling me on Cap as a cool character that could lead the Avengers. Didn't help that he wore goddamn pajamas with a goofy neck hoodie thing/helmet in Avengers 1.

Winter Soldier is my favorite Marvel film to date.
 
cap chasing bucky was also really cool. it's the first time i was actually sold on captain america's power. that dent he made in the wall...

I agree. You see Cap wreck shit on the tanker and you go 'Oh...ok, he's playing a little harder in the paint this movie'. And then dat chase scene.

The dent in the wall with the shield. Cap fucking DESTROYING double doors like it's nothing. It's the first time you really see Cap go gloves off in terms of just how savage that fucker can be

Cap had a tougher fight with Winter Soldier than with Ultron one on one. Ultron was pretty weak sauce in this movie

Bucky owned his ass, dammit! :p
 
Anyone remember what kind of cool tag team moves different Avengers did with each other? I remember that one time Thor slammed Cap's shield in order to cause some sort of sonic boom effect. I love those kinds of moments in both Avenger's flicks.
 
Can we talking about how the movie ends with Cap and Tony saying they will miss each other? There's no way the Cap presented at the beginning of the film wouldn't be pissed off at Tony. Everything is just tied up nicely between them.

God, there's a lot of bad writing in this movie.

Hulk vs Tony was fucking awesome though. Most of the other action was bad. Too much going on and not enough breathing room. There are serious pacing issue throughout the whole thing.
I didn't really get any of the characters in the film. Agree on the action.
I think the slate has a little to do with it tbh. People rarely know what tension "is" on paper, they just know when they don't feel it. Knowing Luke wouldn't die in ESB (because hes the hero!) doesn't stop the gut-wrenching inevitability of the showdown with vader, the losing of his hand and weapon as he retreats lamely into an inescapable corner above a vaccum of nothingness. Thats a moment when you think HOW THE FUCK DOES HE EVEN ESCAPE THIS? Theres a moment like that in Iron Man 1 when Obidiah removes Starks arc for example. But yeah, I never felt anything close to that in Avengers. The story was too much of a mess.
Exactly, the viewer can know something as fact (like a character can't die) but a good film (conventionally speaking) can still make you feel something and temporarily forget that fact.
 

richiek

steals Justin Bieber DVDs
Ultron was basically a non-threat.

Winter Soldier felt like a fucking wreaking machine that could take on an army.

Actually Ultron owned Cap's ass in Seoul, especially when he lost the shield. Hawkeye even says to Cap that Ultron outmatches him.
 
Ultron in the jet is the dumbest thing I have seen in years. It looked like Thanos in the helicopter.

It looked like something done in post to solve a story issue. I just can't believe they wrote that down somewhere and said "this will look really villainous". Looked like Venom driving the damn truck.
 
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