Avengers: Infinity War reaction (spoilers)

As I sit in the movie theater waiting for the usual end of credits scenes that Marvel likes to put in their movies I sit in shock at what I just watched, unable to really think straight all I can this is wow. Marvel pulled out all the stops in this the latest Avengers Movie. The best possible scenario played out for thanos, not only were the Avengers completely separated they weren't even on speaking terms making picking them apart that much easier.

From Iron man's unwillingness to make a phone call to his unwillingness to go home regroup and gameplan... Obviously if they did this in the first place there would be no need for two movies and I wouldn't be writing this post but I digress.

Thanos got everything he could ask for, the avengers all separated, easy access to the infinity stones(though the soul stone kicked him where it hurts) and no one who could really stop him, like all his wishes came true... Not cool... Really glad Thor got a badass axe and the use of both eyes, if only he could've finished of Thanos but alas.

Oh the questions so many questions... What happens next? How? Why? Are the guardians really gone along with Spiderman, Wanda, vision, black panther, Bucky, Dr. Strange, falcon, and even Loki??? Marvel can't just kill them all like that can they? I mean they just did but will they really stay dead?? How is there supposed to be a Spiderman sequel with no Spiderman?? How does marvel continue screw with us like this??

Obvious answer is just wait for the next installment of infinity war and everything will work itself out. How they'll do it? It's marvel it'll be fucking amazing!

Man do I love super hero movies, marvel did yet another amazing job putting this thing together and deserve all the credit they always get... I can't wait to see what happens in the next one but first we get another fun adventure with everyone favourite non hero Deadpool which I'm super excited for, oh and that gap between marvel and DC is just getting wider.

Wonder woman: Review

First reaction: wow I'm starting to think DC might just be getting it.... Just a little... Maybe... After nearly falling face first with Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice and then d with Suicide Squad, it would appear as if DC is finally starting to get on its feet.


   The question still remains, is DC trying too hard to be like Marvel?!?! I say yes and no at the same time. Yes because of how they're making their movies and whose in them. I also say no in that I believe that DC realizes that they will never be Marvel... Marvel is ridiculously far ahead of DC in the movie making department and DC (I hope) knows that.

   Wonder woman is by far the Best DC has done in recent memory. Everything about this movie is awesome! Ok maybe not everything, but just about everything. Chris Pine did amazing and I loved the end fight scenes. Gal Gadot did an amazing job as wonder woman continueing her strong performance from Batman V Superman. Ye

   Yes the movie has its rocky points and points where you wonder "does this really need to be in this movie" then it all comes together and yes they belong there, unlike Dawn of Justice where you felt like a ton of the movie could've been cut out Wonder Woman Didn't really have that issues which shows DC is learning.

   Overall well done by DC and all involve with this movie and I'm building excitement now for Justice League where we will see if DC keeps progressing. Discuss.

X-Men: Apocalypse Review (Spoilers).

I wasn't going to write about this movie but I'm surprised to see a lot of "It wasn't THAT bad" opinions going on.  May I present, a dissenting opinion.

IT WAS GREAT!

Ha, just kidding, this movie sucks.

I really liked X-Men: Days of Future Past for two reasons.  It mixed the old cast with the new in a "this is not entirely fan service" kind of way, and it retconned the godawful X3: The Last Stand.  (Christ even the title of that movie is shit).  It was also an enjoyable all around movie with solid themes, good acting....etc.  But yeah, it fucked up the continuity of the X-Men movies so badly that it's starting to rival its own source material.

Now X-Men: Apocalypse comes along, decides to fuck with the continuity even more, and just lose all sense of what made previous X-Men movies good.  Hell, the X-Men movies have been better at villains than Marvel's total control of the MCU, so it had that going for it too.

Apocalypse is a villain I've wanted to see in a "Marvel" movie mostly because I think Marvel villains have been terrible so far.  (Along with Thanos and Venom.....What? What are you talking about?  Venom has not been featured in a Spider-Man movie yet.  I THINK I would have remembered that).  I mean, Whiplash?  Yuck.  Red Skull?  Nazi.  Loki?  Daddy issues.  Ultron?  Stupid.  Fuckin Baron Zemo?  He's in Civil War.....I guess.  The Sam Raimi Spider-Man movies?  They all personally know Peter Parker and are defeated by their own hubris.  Even Venom......SHIT.

Apocalypse in X-Men: Apocalypse desperately needed a monologue.  For reals.  Yeah he has one while launching all the nukes into space but it's just "I'm evil bow before me mere mortals for I am the one true god blah blah blah."  He always had a....genocidal tone in the comics and was pro eugenics and.....yeah okay.  Can't really go there without an R rating but you know what I mean.  This was diet Apocalypse.

Captain Grumpy Pants.

Also, his ability to grow into kaiju size only happened in his mind fight with Xavier.  Lame.

I have more issues with the rest of the characters.  It was obvious Jennifer Lawrence wanted nothing to do with this.  She was not going to put on that blue make-up for more than 3 scenes tops.  The dialogue had to point this out and Mystique's reasons for not being blue were "I'm hiding"....."despite also being the Mutant and Proud person that a lot of people look up too and saved a president and  mutants are more accepted in this time why am I doing this?"  It's dumb as shit and flies in the face of her character.  There is no reason for Mystique to be here other than, it happens to be Jennifer Lawrence.  Apocalypse should have disintegrated her.

The new-ish characters are fine.  I liked Sansa Stark as Jean Grey.  Cyclopes kid was fine (I don't care enough to look up his name).  But....why did the movie spend so much time establishing these characters when we already know who they are?  It was a ton of wasted time and I find it funny that the basics where explained, but Jean Grey's Dark Phoenix bullshit is glossed over?????  What the fuck?  That was cheap, cheap, cheap.  I don't even care if that is a spoiler.  Fuck that noise.

Miss Grumpy Pants.

This movie commits a cardinal sin in being boring.  Nothing happens for an extremely long time so that new characters, who are also old characters, can get backstory.  New characters who are not old characters, like Psylocke, gets maybe three lines of dialogue and....thanks for stopping by I guess.  Also, she's the only one who is still evil in the end in case fuck it.  I don't care.  Angel, who is sorta old but that movie got retconned, is a douche and MIA at the end.  Storm is fine and oddly enough, I LIKE this characterization of her.  Funny how we get a cool Storm character now that Halle Berry has nothing to do with her.  I'd watch that spinoff.

The two big ones, Xavier and Magneto, are fine.  James McAvoy is my favorite as I don't think he's ever been in a bad role (Yeah I liked Wanted fucking fight me).  Micheal Fassbender can do almost no wrong, that one wrong being Prometheus which fuck that movie while I have a chance to say so.  Xavier is basically the Professor X we all know and love finally.....which has the downside of making him boring.  Yes he rekindles his love with Moira but come on.....

APOCALYPSE DOESN'T HAVE HIS POWER AND THAT'S WHY HE WANTS TO SWITCH INTO HIS BODY YET XAVIER LOSES IN THE MIND FIGHT?!?!? Did everybody miss this?  The mind battle is in Apocalypse's head, I think, even though it shows the school and Jean Grey jumps in.  Xavier gets his ass kicked because, apocalypse is better at everything, but in the universe this CANNOT HAPPEN.  It's the reason Magneto wears a helmet.  Xavier should have been able to jump into Apocalypse's head and immediately put him into a coma.  How can Apocalypse fight Xavier in his own head, or if it is actually in Xaviers head, IF HE DOESN'T HAVE THE SAME POWER GODDAMNIT this is stupid.  Literally every other mutant and human has no control over Xaviers god like powers.*

*There is a distance thing hence Cerebro and the airport scene in Days of Future Past, but Xavier is close enough to the battlefield one would think.  Actually, he's in the Blackbird....which is doing what during that final fight?

Magneto is okay but weird.  Did anybody really see him trying to live a quiet life in Poland after Days of Future Past?  Yeah.  No.  Also, Apocalypse bringing him to Auschwitz was a little on the nose.  Plus....what exactly was he doing during that final fight?  Ripping up the earth from Cairo to...destroy Cairo only?  Or was this Man of Steel like terraforming the entire Earth which by how long it was taking, would have taken years.  I assume he was building Apocalypse's base in which to launch his wars but....this is dumb.  And in that final, FINAL fight when he betrays Apocalypse, why is he still throwing earth at him instead of dropping a building on him?  You know, like the baseball stadium he picked up IN THE LAST MOVIE.

First Lieutenant Grumpy Pants.

This movie is a mess.  It's boring.  Nothing makes narrative sense.  The movie makes a big deal out of Xavier going bald (wha????????).  Cerebro is AGAIN used against the X-Men.  Jean Grey doesn't try to murder everybody when going full Phoenix.  Nightcrawler is on the team when nobody knows who he is in X2.  There is a Wolverine cameo......I ALMOST FORGOT.

That whole Stryker detour is there only to justify a Wolverine cameo and it's bullshit.  Why is this scene in the movie?  It has nothing to do with Apocalypse, it REALLY fucks up the continuity even more, it should have been cut for a shorter less boring movie, and even the actors seemed to be spinning their wheels.  The writing in the Weapon X scene is fucking garbage.  Nobody can use their powers on the helicopter because of a MacGuffin and NOBODY sees the stowaways just hanging out in the back?  Get, the, fuck, out, movie.  Jean Grey can't hide them there.  She can't!  ITS IN THE MOVIES OWN RULES I AM NOT NITPICKING.  And when they do get to the base, still nobody finds them until they have already tried to open the cell door.  (There isn't a camera pointed at THAT door?  Really?).  Also, that base is in Canada.  How did they get home?  Also, also, at the end of Days of Future Past, it's shown that Mystique is impersonating Styker WHY?  Fuckin.....what.....why?  That went no where.  No, fucking, where!!!!!!!!!

This makes me "General Grumpy Pants".

This movie isn't quite as bad as X3: The Last Stand but it tries.  It really tries.  A for effort.  It's funny that Days of Future Past would bring so much hope to a franchise that really only wanted to fix that one movie and do nothing else.  Why even tease Apocalypse if you're not going to give a shit about it?*  Bryan Singer made X-Men good, left it, X-men got shitty until the very underrated First Class, then Singer came back, made one good movie, then made it shit again.  This franchise needs an extended break.  Maybe then, somebody can make a fucking X-Men movie with Gambit in it.

*Here is a nitpick.  Why did the movie completely abandon the Age of Apocalypse storyline from the comics?  I know they didn't want to use more time travel, even though the comics treat time travel like a drunk starting a knife throwing circus act with his wife, but why not?  If the movies wanted to stay grounded, which they did a very poor job of in this movie, while also not giving a shit about continuity, what's the point?  Why not go all out?  Make a movie that is nothing but alternate timeline shit.  I'm not saying this would make a good movie, but there is potential for a better one.

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3 Footnotes:

1.  The Quicksilver scenes were cool.  I'm not entirely sure how he found out Magneto was his dad but that is the least of my complaints.

2.  I could sum up this movie in one sentence.  "Jubilee has a cameo and doesn't even shoot any fucking fireworks".  It's perfect.  She's in the movie for Jubilee fans, all two of them, then doesn't even get to show her power.

3.  X-Men movies ranked, including spinoffs.

Deadpool (I'm counting it).
X2: X-Men United (dumb name)
X-Men: First Class.
X-Men
X-Men: Days of Future Past
The Wolverine

big drop.

Wolverine: Origiiiiii.....hmmmm, wait.

X-Men: Apocalypse
Wolverine: Origins (forgot how bad this was)
That time I shit my pants and it looked like Magneto's helmet.
X3: The Last Stand.

5 Problems I Have With Captain America: Civil War

Before I get to complaining, I thought Captain America: Civil War was okay.  They did a good job with Black Panther, every character other than Captain America and Ironman was just fine, and the movie handled a large cast shockingly good...most of the time.

So why can't I get a few things off my mind?  This movie got great reviews from the professionals so I can't help but wonder if this is a bit of fanboying or nitpicking or what.  Here are my five issues.

5.  Why did anything happen?

I know the impetuous is on governmental oversight but come on.  We all know the plot turned it into Martha Bucky.  It should have stayed on the Governmental oversight but that would have required a 3 hour movie.

Kudos for a Marvel movie FINALLY slowing down it's pacing at times...until the airport scene to the end...but it's a start.  It was mostly to give development to Black Panther, explain how the overpowered Scarlet Witch and Vision is secluded for the start, and to remind the audience that Cap and Bucky are just the best of friends (even though they shouldn't be).  All of that is fine, but some of those slower scenes could have been spent on the nuance of "how much power should the Avengers have"?  That is a cool question.  That is a similar question (albeit, extended to the entire Marvel Universe) to what the comic storyline is.  Why not explore that?

Oh, right, the MCU just wants to stay comic action for comic actions sake. Dare it to ask tough questions and Marvel wrongly points to the DC movies and laughs.*  Instead, we get Bucky the Martha plot device taking over the plot about half way through.  Couldn't, I don't know, couldn't Cap and Stark just....talk this over?  You're going to war over a dude who was brainwashed, Cap knows this, and, Stark just doesn't care?  No, Stark doesn't know.  So......oh god this is stupid.

*DC movies at least try to tackle tougher/headier/philosophical questions. Weirdly enough, those are often their best moments.  It's all the other stuff DC movies suck at.  

I KNOW they're being manipulated by "Totally Not Baron Zemo" but....how?  We get next to nothing showing him manipulating the heroes.  He just says at the end, "Yeah I totally did this."  Uh, okay.  Is Marvel so bad at villains it decided to almost completely ignore the villain from this one because they knew they couldn't do "Zemo" justice?  Ultron is a TERRRRRRRIBLE villain and he is ten times better than "Zemo".   I'm not even a Baron Zemo fan!  The fuck is this?  I may write a post JUST on Marvel's villain problem.

He's in this movie.  Get...the fuck....out.

BTW, the motivations for most of the other superheroes get basically one line of dialogue (which I thought was REALLY well done by the way) yet Captain America gets the entire movie and his motivation never seems to be more than wanting to help his bro.  He has NEVER been convincing in hating or not liking or even distrusting the governmental project that created himself.  Yeah, he's pissed he ended up in the future because he should....have....died when Red Skull's plane......what?!?!?!  The fuck does that have anything to do with the project that created YOU?

4. Tony Stark.

War Machine:  "Didn't you refuse to work with the Government before?"

Ironman:  "Well, that was before anybody died from my weapons."

(Still better reasoning than the NRA in my opinion).

Okay, I liked that Stark has a more human reason for suddenly embracing governmental oversight.  It actually made him seem right for once and, well, #TeamStark.

BUT, his character wouldn't linger on that for as long as this movie needs for a Civil War, a Civil War that is just as much his fault as Caps.  Tony Stark is still Tony Stark.  I can easily see him being upset after a mother tells the story about how her son was killed in their collateral damage but to have it haunt him enough to go through with everything in this....UGH, 2 weeks?  A month?  Again Marvel.  Why is it so hard to pinpoint a time frame in your movies?

Ironman wanted to get Shwarma at the end of Avengers 1.  Is this the same character now?

3. Vision and Scarlet Witch going MIA.  

...............When did this happen?  

A buddy of mine already pointed this out but, what were they doing through most of the airport scene?  Yeah, Vision shows up occasionally after he's done staring at the clouds.  Scarlet Witch is missing through almost all of it then has Team Stark Get Rekt.  I'm sorry but better fight scenes have their OP characters knocked out at the start by science/magic/whatever so that they have a reason to be missing for a bit and can turn the tide at the end.  Here, Scarlet Witch is just doing....something.  Vision, I assume, was just confused.

Maybe she took off to get a latte cause goddamn is this civil war stupid.

2.  The Fight Scenes.

I am SO goddamn sick of the Christopher Nolan, rapid fire, shaky cam fight scenes.  It's especially atrocious in the first scene.  I.....have no idea who punched what.   The airport scene was okay because they actually toned the rapid fire edits back shockingly enough, but the final Cap, Winter Solider, Ironman fight went back to this and I thought Cap decapitated Stark.  He didn't, and hey.....

Fuck you directors/editors if that was on purpose.  Tricks like that are just to make the audience think they saw a thing and in slower edits, it works.  Not when you IMMEDIATELY show that didn't happen with the rapid fire edit.  There was no time to process anything.  A fake-out isn't very effective when it lasts less than a second.

(I knowwww a lot of people have just accepted this rapid fire editing as the way fight scenes/action scenes are now.  Even Mad Max:Fury Road did this at times, but not always.  We need more Bruce Lee's.  It could be SO MUCH BETTER).

1.  WHY WAS SPIDERMAN HERE?

I hate everything about this picture.

Unlike the rest of my Twitter friends, I actually like Spiderman.  Well....I did until the Clone Saga, and the holy fucking shit this is literally the worst story ever told One More Day storyline.  Anyway, regardless of his age, he's supposed to be awkward, annoying, and short sighted because he's perpetually stuck being a teenager.  Teens are dumb you guys.  Have you talked to one recently?

Spiderman plays a HUGE role in the comic storyline because he's kind of neutral while also being Team Stark.  He actually reveals his identity in an effort to stop the Civil War.  It's not necessary here as this movie altered the comic plot from "Superhero Registration Act" to "This is totally real you guys we swear UN oversight".  If he isn't going to be the sorta neutral party.....why is he here?

I know the answer to my own question (to appease comic fans sorta) but he's here because....the teams needed rebalancing after Cap won 6 vs 4?*  His CGI-ness really stuck out and while you can't really MoCap the absurdly agile Spiderman, it still seemed - WHY DID HIS COSTUME'S EYES MOVE?  Is his costume magic?!?!?!  I know Stark gave him one but no, nnnnnnno!  There is no science for, the fuck that is.  It drives me nuts.  His eyes should be static goddamnit.

*Vidya garme reference, whaaaaaaaat?

Although, for as "qwipy" as every MCU movie is, I didn't mind Spiderman slinging jokes and one-liners because that is kinda his thing.  Also, Marvel is owned by Disney, which also owns Star Wars, Spidey makes a Star Wars reference......

Captain America: Civil War is a fine movie, I swear.  But I kind of hate it.  Its got Jurassic World syndrome.  Why does this movie exist?  I'm so confused.

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Follow me on Twitter I guess.  Whatever.

Captain America: Civil War immediate reaction review

WARNING: IF YOU INTEND TO SEE THIS MOVIE AND PREFER NOT TO HAVE IT SPOILED DO NOT READ!!


OH. MY. GOODNESS!! I am thoroughly impressed, stunned, in anticipation of what's to come next! Marvel has seriously got this thing down so well its impossible not to love anything they put out (sans that awful fantastic 4 retry lol) I swear they're going to make me sound like a homer but damn Marvel just gets it! they know what buttons to push and when and they get it right 99 times out of a 100!

      Excellent job with integrating the Black Panther and now Spidey himself as well... I still love Paul Rudd as Ant Man that pick is still so absolutely brilliant on Marvels part, I liked the kid they picked to play Spidey but at the same time would've liked keeping the other one as well, his name escapes me forgive me its late and I'm lazy.... anyway Black Panther is going to be epic! cant wait for that movie to come out!! and now I want more dammit give us more!!!!

Friendly reminder than your friendly neighborhood Deadpool movie comes out on bluray and dvd IN 4 DAYS!!!

enjoy,
UtesAvsfan

AJ and Jason Discuss: Avengers Age of Ultron

SPOILER ALERT:  I'm pretty sure anybody who would read a discussion of Avengers Age of Ultron has already seen the movie, but here is your spoiler warning just in case.

AJ

Okay, Jason. We've both seen Avengers 2 and we both have things we want to say about it. So let's start easy. Give me a score, 1-10 with 10 being the greatest movie ever created in the history of humanity, and give me 3 basic thoughts about the movie. 

Jason

Ranking a movie 1-10 is not easy my friend, so I'll go with a solid 7, the safest of all rankings.  I think Dr. Strangelove is the best movie ever made and a 10+, while Back to the Future is my favorite movie of all time, but probably an 8 because I'm weird like that.  7 is safe for Avengers: Age of Zingertron because I liked it, but I was also annoyed by a few things.  

I thought the direction was really, really good.  Joss Whedon can really frame a shot to look like a comic book panel, especially during action scenes.  The opening scene shot of the whole team attacking Hydra in the woods was great.  The final fight with the whole team in a circle fighting legions of robots was great as well.  Whedon also really shines during the quiet moments too like the scene where everyone was having drinks and taking turns trying to lift Thor's hammer.  However, I thought it was unfortunate that SO MUCH was packed into this movie that more of these great quiet moments had to be left out for non-stop action, although I realize how nitpicky that is and I should apply for a job with CinemaSins.

Two gripes I legitimately have are with the pacing and SickBurnBroTron, but I'll hold off on him for now.  The pacing is really odd.  Everything seems to happen way too fast, partly because of "I have more one-liners than Terminator Tron's" stupid plan, but also because of the 18 settings for the movie.  They're in New York! Now Africa!  Korea!  Eastern Europe!  It's hard to get a sense of where and when.  I'm confused on the timeframe.  Did these events occur over a few days, a week, several weeks?

What did you think of the movie overall and I'm curious if you have any thoughts on the pacing.  (I am aware I gave you two thoughts and went more in depth than "basic".  You can't tell me what to do!).

AJ

I liked the movie overall. I think a 7 is completely appropriate for it. It was a complicated film that had a lot of things to try to accomplish. They had to build off not only the first Avengers movie but keep in line as each of the main stars also had another movie of their own to develop their characters. It's a lot of balls to juggle at once and I think they did an admirable job of it overall.

My biggest gripe with the film was probably that they spent too little time on THIS film and too much time making call backs to previous films or setting characters up for what they're going to be doing in the future. The most glaring example of this was the Thor flashback, which we saw several times and was 100% about Ragnarok and not Age of Ultron. I understand the need to move characters along because they all have solo films to get to after this but the Avengers movies are about the Avengers being together. Devoting significant chunks of time to splitting them up only serves to defeat the purpose of the entire Avengers concept - they all have solo films, let them do their solo shit there.

A big to do has been made about the decisions regarding Hawkeye, his big reveal, and how it was handled. For me, I enjoyed it, appreciated it, and thought almost nothing of it beyond that. It was nice to see him get serious screen time and finally provide some layer of depth to a character making like his 5th appearance. The end.

The shit with Nick Fury, however, was pure nonsense. The guy randomly shows up at Hawkeye's hideout, NO EXPLANATION WHATSOEVER, and proceeds to drop random motivational bombs, including his whole "no fancy SHIELD toys this time, bros", only to randomly show up again later in the movie....with a fucking helicarrier. So...about that lack of SHIELD toys....

And yes, I absolutely have thoughts about the pacing. I completely agree with everything you said. You know they handled it poorly when nerds have been arguing on the internet for a week that they were in Wakanda for the vibranium or not. When people who are devoted to the movies aren't 100% where the movie is even taking place, you've made some mistakes along the way. It was very peculiar.

All of that said, there were things I definitely loved about the film. Scarlet Witch was excellent. Quicksilver, despite not being given much to do, was enjoyable to watch in action. The tiny moments always make big differences to nerds like me. I loved the small touches scattered throughout. Meeting Ultron for the first time and he was wearing the crimson cape was awesome, as it was a nod to the Crimson Cowl in the comics. I loved seeing Vision and Scarlet Witch interact, knowing they have a big future together. I loved more explanation of the stones and their importance and probably my favorite moment in the entire movie was during the credits when Thanos put on the Infinity Gauntlet. I remember being excited when they were making the first Thor movie and teased the Infinity Gauntlet. A million years and a complete Marvel explosion later, WE'RE FINALLY ABOUT TO SEE IT PAY OFF. YES.

Take that, two thoughts. 

Jason

Oh man, I forgot about the magical helicarrier.  That was some plot convenience if I've ever seen it.

Good points on much of the movie acting as a set up for future solo films.  I thought those scenes came across as padding in a movie that really didn't need it.  So much was already going on.  That said, I did like the decision to give characters who don't have solo movies, mainly Hawkeye and Black Widow, more screen time for character depth.  Hawkeye's scenes were handled well and I particularly like the line near the end of the movie where Hawkeye acknowledges how ridiculous it is that he is fighting robots with a bow and arrow. It was fun to see him have a sense of humor being on a team with overpowered weirdos. Family man Hawkeye was also less weird than I thought it would be and basically turns him into something like the "every man" of the group.  Someone to relate too....kinda.   

Black Widow's scenes, however, were more problematic.  Previous movies hint at Black Widow having a dark past in which she did things she is not so proud of.  Loki has a conversation with her in the first Avengers where she talks about having "red in her ledger" and Loki responds by questioning if she can truly make up for the terrible things she did in her past.  This is a classic redemption arc....which was thrown away in favor of being a sterile "monster"?  While much of the internet thought this was worthy of driving Whedon off of Twitter for, I hated it more for its continuity rather than some sexist statement (although it is a little sexist still since the whole wanting babies thing seems to come out of left field).  It's also small potatoes when the monster she is trying to relate too is a giant green rage ogre.  Not all monsters are equal.  

Side note:  Some people on the internet thought Whedon was being sexist with her being a damsel in distress but I thought it was okay.  Her kidnapping isn't the main focus of the movie, she's the reason the rest of the team finds out where Ultron is, and she basically saves herself so, whatever.  It's more a product of lazy writing than anything.  

I thought that most of the new characters were okay.  I agree with you on Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver,  even if Scarlet Witch's powers were vaguely explained.  Quicksilver is overpowered as hell so it was probably a good thing they killed him off.  Vision is okay but divorced from the comics, I bet many people think Vision IS Jarvis.  He also is a good way to help explain what the hell the infinity gems are while also keeping them purposely mysterious.  

But....there is one other new character who I thought was a huge disappointment.  Ultron was nothing what I expected and the biggest flaw in this movie for me.  Before I tackle this, do you have any thoughts on the villain?  I'm afraid of turning this reply into a 2,000 word essay.  

AJ

I guess it's hard for me say that Ultron was a disappointment. I never liked the Ultron comic book story line and was pretty comfortable with the fact that I wasn't going to enjoy this, either. His humorous little quips were classic Whedon and didn't really bother me much. Because this movie was going to be so self-contained, I wish they would have just gone straight ahead and made Hulk the villain. It would've skipped the waste of time Ultron story line, the GOD AWFUL Hulk-Black Widow romance, and would have set Hulk up PERFECTLY for the Planet Hulk movie...which is where he's going to end up anyway.

This movie was all about getting the main characters to Civil War, Ragnarok, and Infinity War in one piece. I understood why they had Ultron be the villain. It was a popular story line, it fit with Tony's maniacal obsession with protecting the Earth on his own, and it was easily contained to one movie. What happened instead was they ended up wasting a perfectly fine villain and turned him into more of a cartoon than he ever was in the comics. It's basically a repeat of what Iron Man 2 did to Whiplash.

One last point I wanted to touch on was you mentioning them keeping the infinity gems purposely mysterious. I hate this. We are not 3 Iron Man, 2 Cap, 2 Thor, 2 Avengers, and 1 Guardian of the Galaxy movies into the MCU, which has spent the ENTIRE TIME  building towards the Infinity War. When those movies start, I do not want to spend ANY time fucking explaining them. They've been dancing around them for TEN god damn movies by now and all we REALLY have is the scene with The Collector in Guardians explaining them. UNLESS EVERYONE WAS PAYING CLOSE ATTENTION, we're going to have to re-visit this shit in what will be WELL COVERED TERRITORY by the time Infinity War rolls around! I'M CLEARLY NOT PLEASED WITH THIS. Of all the AMAZING things they've done to setup this universe and these movies, this is BY FAR my longest-standing gripe with the plan as a whole.

Now I know you have lots to say about Ultron. So hit me, dawg. 

Jason

Now that I think about it, I agree with what you said about the Infinity Gems.  I'm sick of origin stories as it is and I have a suspicion that Infinity War Part 1 is going to be the origin story of magic rocks.

I've been of the opinion that the MCU has had difficulty establishing any interesting villains.  They never seem to be that much of a threat to the heroes, their motives range from generic evil to revenge against the hero, and most of them exist due to the heroes incompetence.   Iron Man mostly fights other Iron Men instead of Whiplash or The Mandarin who was turned into a joke.  Red Skull is a Nazi.  Hydra just wants power.  Loki?  I have NEVER understood why this guy is so popular.  He's a whiny baby who is angry that his dad loves his brother more.  And...Loki is the best villain to date, which says more than I ever could.

Ultron was intriging because AI is usually depicted as cold, humorless, amoral, and logical to a zero-sum fault in movies.  It also didn't help that the trailers made him look intimidating as hell, like, "YES.  This guy is gonna give the ludicrously overpowered Avengers a real fight."  Instead, he was a wise-cracking, strangely under powered, hypocritical robot who monologued about evolution while simultaneously wanting to build himself a body.  Shouldn't the coldly logical robot, who has a coldly logical motive to end all war by killing everybody (Oh my Cthulhu, he HAS REAPER LOGIC), realize he's better off just jumping from robot to robot?  How can he claim to be a superior evolved being when he wants to make himself more human, while also wanting to kill all humans?

Also, I'm not trying to say a zinger-flinging villain can't be good, but with Ultron it went too far.  When the Hulk jumps onto the jet and Ultron says, "Oh god, what now", I couldn't help but roll my eyes.  I half expected him to raise his hands, look directly into the camera and say, "Can this day GET any worse", followed by a laugh track.  I get that he took on some of Stark's personality since he created him but...I think I would have prefered the stereotype AI character.  Ultron seems closer to Bender from Futurama rather than Skynet from Terminator.  

Oh, and Ultron got trounced by the Avengers.  Just like the aliens in the first movie, I never felt like he COULD win.  Obviously, we all know the heroes in a PG-13 comic book movie are going to win, but I want them to have to work for it a little.  Ultron is just another villain who doesn't pose a threat.  Hell, he gets his ass kicked during his reveal when The Avengers didn't have their gear, were completely taken by surprise, and FUCKING DRUNK.  If Ultron can't put up a fight then, what the hell is he going to do for the rest of the movie?  The Avengers are too powerful.  Thanos sure is taking his sweet time.  

I feel like I could write a novel about Ultron but I'll stop here.  Speaking of things getting long, we should probably wrap this up.  Any lingering thoughts?  Counter-points to my Ultron hate?  Reasons why Civil War is a sub-title to a Captain America movie despite having half the Avengers in it? 

AJ

I gave you the floor for Ultron. I don't have any particularly strong disagreements about what you said. A lot of nodding and "yeah, you tell em" went on while reading all of it. I will say Civil War is my favorite comic book story line ever and they had better not fuck it up but that's a rant for another day.

My last thought on Avengers 2 is that walking out of the theater, I liked it. It wasn't a slam dunk like the first one in my eyes but it accomplished a lot of its goals and as the second movie of a series it turned out okay. It was a good, solid, flawed comic book movie. I'm ready to close the book on this sucker so we can gear up for Mad Max next week!!

Jason

Agreed.  Ultron aside, I actually did like this movie despite spending so much time complaining about it.  It was fun.  Not as good as the first but not as bad as a few others in the MCU.  

And yeah, I am SO stoked for Mad Max Fury Road.  Till next time!

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