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PostPosted: Thu May 28, 2015 4:06 pm 
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AVENGERS: THE AGE OF ULTRON is plenty mediocre all by itself. But, seeing it within a couple of days of MAD MAX: FURY ROAD made it look even more like a dull retread.

Right from the first scene, the "exciting battle" is full of the kind of cartoonish CGI that is such an anathema to those with any sense of realism or proportion (which George Miller destroys with his real world stunts). And, really, what the @#$# is it with the Avengers spinning and twirling when they fight villains? Does doing a sommersault in mid-air really confuse their enemies? And, why do Black Widow and Hawkeye have the seeming ablility of flight even though they are supposed to be the 'down to earth' Avengers without magical powers?

I know, I know. You're not supposed to ask such mundane questions and just "check your brain at the box office and enjoy it". But, after all these superhero flicks, not to mention the enormous resources devoted to them, isn't it about time that Marvel ups their game, and not resort to their characters just strutting, posing and tossing out quips? If Joss Whedon never makes a genre movie again, it will be NO loss whatsoever.

As to the "plot", it's pretty standard issue stuff, which boils down to the Avengers having to set aside their issues and join together to save humanity - again. For a little while, it looks like ULTRON will spend a few precious moments to develop a COLOSSUS: THE FORBIN PROJECT-like theme of creating opposing World Defense superstructures. But, it's tossed aside way too quickly in order to have more posing, strutting and uttering of "witty" banter. And, did we really need to see the Avengers all assemble into a circle as they battle the baddies one more time? It looks like a superhero circle jerk.

To give it some credit, a few moments are given over to showing a more normal human side with the Hawkeye homestead sequence, but, it just makes the contrast all the more jarring between something resembling the real world versus the utterly phoney CGI landscapes of the bulk of the movie. Elizabeth Olson's Scarlet Witch isn't a bad addition, but, Spader's Ultron just looks like a slightly more organic Iron Man.

The "Marvel Universe" has devolved into the most expensive TV series ever created. And, the Avengers flicks are like the big Season Ending episodes where they all come together before splintering off into next season's sequels, reboots and origin episodes. And, then, inevitably, there will be AVENGERS III: Even More Strutting, Posing and Quips

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PostPosted: Thu May 28, 2015 7:53 pm 
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....Soooo, I take it you didn't like it? In all seriousness, the most interesting character for me was

Spoiler: show
Vision (or THE Vision?). He is the only character I have seen that can lift Thor's hammer besides Thor himself, but WHAT IN THE HELL is The Falcon doing in it!?? The ending lets us know that the Avengers will battle their most dangerous foe yet, THANOS, and UH OH, HERE COMES FALCON!!! He can...fly? That's it!?? Umm Thanos is one of the most powerful villains in the Marvel universe and all Falcon can do is FLY!?? That's like Batman's sidekick Robin joining the JLA to fight DARKSEID!!


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PostPosted: Mon Jun 08, 2015 7:04 pm 
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Agree with LA Connection 100%. And I liked the first one enough. Some of the stand alone movies are better than others, but this was worse than Iron Man 3 imho. That opening chase/fight scene was so bad it put me in a foul mood from the beginning.

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PostPosted: Tue Jun 09, 2015 9:17 am 
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WHOA!! Worse than Iron Man 3? Am I dreaming? I love Avengers: Age Of Ultron. The action scene at the beginning was okay by me. I didn't think it was bad (shrugs) and the stinger during the credits got me real excited for the next two (the last one split into two).


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PostPosted: Tue Jun 09, 2015 12:09 pm 
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I definitely preferred IRON MAN III to AVENGERS: Season Finale. At least it tells a complete coherent story. IRON MAN II, however, might be the worst Marvel flick yet in the modern period (and certainly the most disappointing coming off the superior IRON MAN I).

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PostPosted: Wed Jun 10, 2015 4:49 pm 
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While The Avengers movies seem like a television show to some, I think what people need to take into account is that the movie business is, well, a business, and like a business, the movie business aims to please its customers. In this case, its audience. While not everyone will understand why or even like the idea of The Avengers and especially multiple Avengers movies, I on the other hand completely surrender myself to rock 'em, sock 'em action by Marvel Studios all the way through and am loving every minute of it. I'm thrilled to have seen four of the toughest, coolest, most bad ass heroes in fiction on screen all at once. To me, it would be like if Blade teamed up with Buffy the vampire slayer and Van Helsing, or if Sonic The Hedgehog ran in a race alongside The Flash and Quicksilver. The Avengers movies (like the comics) are a collection of superheroes doing what they do best, together. What's wrong with teamwork? I say "the more, the merrier". The Avengers doesn't take away from any individual superhero's greatness. Rather, it only adds to it.


Last edited by HorrorTriviaMaster on Fri Jul 17, 2015 9:31 am, edited 1 time in total.

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PostPosted: Thu Jun 11, 2015 11:00 am 
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I agree that Iron Man 2 is worse than part 3. I just don't think Avengers 2 is quite as bad as Iron Man 2, but as bad as part 3.


HorrorTriviaMaster wrote:
While The Avengers movies seem like a television show to some, I think what people need to take into account is that the movie business is, well, a business, and like a business, the movie business aims to please its customers. In this case, its audience. While not everyone will understand why or even like the idea of The Avengers and especially multiple Avengers movies, I on the other hand completely surrender myself to rock 'em, sock 'em action by Marvel Studios all the way through and am loving every minute of it. I'm thrilled to have seen four of the toughest, coolest, most bad ass heroes in fiction on screen all at once. To me, it would be like if Blade teamed up with Buffy the vampire slayer and Van Helsing, or of Sonic The Hedgehog ran in a race alongside The Flash and Quicksilver. The Avengers movies (like the comics) are a collection of superheroes doing what they do best, together. What's wrong with teamwork? I say "the more, the merrier". The Avengers doesn't take away from any individual superhero's greatness. Rather, it only adds to it.


I don't think anyone on this board doesn't get that the film business is a business. I work in that very business as does LA Connection (I believe). But I don't think you get that a business is not there to "please its customers"-the main purpose of a business is to make as much money as humanly possible. In fact for publicly traded corporations like the parent company of every major studio, they are required by law to maximize profits for the shareholders. Making an actually good movie is incidental to many of the powers that be. So you liked Avengers 2, but a lot of people didn't. Does Marvel care? Nope because it's made billions of dollars around the world. Other than some half-hearted attempts to defend the Transformers movies as "stupid fun" I don't know a single person above 18 who thinks those are actually good movies-but they made billions of dollars.

And no one said anything about Avengers taking anything away from anything. If nothing else, the Marvel films have many examples of great super hero movies like the original Iron Man, and the first Avengers movie. I really like Thor and both Captain America films. But that doesn't mean I'm going to blindly like every movie Marvel makes just because super heroes are cool. And the idea that more is better (which it sounds like you're saying, but maybe I'm wrong), is just something we'll have to disagree on. The first Avengers did a good job of balancing what seemed like too many characters at first, and they made a fun movie. Then Avengers 2 decided to triple the amount of "characters" and suddenly no one and nothing mattered. It is the perfect example that more is less.

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PostPosted: Thu Jun 11, 2015 1:25 pm 
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To MEATFETISH:
While I (unfortunately) do not work in the movie industry, that was just my take on it that the movie industry was about pleasing customers, so if I am "off base", I have no personal experience in the movie industry which is to be expected. I think my first point was, even though people flock to see the stupid Transformers movies, they STILL flock to see them, do they not? Something about the Transformers movies pleases these people, or they wouldn't keep coming back. Supply and demand, and the very second that the masses fail to show up to the next Michael Bay movie, you can bet on it that something would have to change. There is a reason why people keep seeing bad movies like the Transformers movies. Maybe people love to make fun of them, who knows? Everyone is different. As for what my second point was, it was not necessarily "more is better", because that is not a "one size fits all" approach and CAN and HAS come off as really, REALLY stupid! (see: the Expendables movies). My point was that people who have something in common, working together can deliver more action. What's better: plain cheese pizza? OR pizza with cheese, pepperoni, onion and peppers? Weird analogy, I know, but you see my point? The Avengers films work FOR ME personally not necessarily because there is so many heroes together, but because in MY opinion, they compliment each other based on their likability factor. If there were a bunch of ragtag, loser superheroes fighting together with no thrills, I wouldn't care. What is more action packed? ONE single super hero battling evil villains, or a BUNCH of them? Again, just my opinion.


Last edited by HorrorTriviaMaster on Fri Jul 17, 2015 9:20 am, edited 1 time in total.

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PostPosted: Fri Jun 12, 2015 12:22 am 
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You guys probably won't like Jurassic World either. It's very much an "it is what it is" kind of movie... well done, in my opinion, but not for anyone searching for something deeper in their blockbusters.


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PostPosted: Fri Jul 17, 2015 9:30 am 
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I'm just suprised so many people don't like The Avengers: Age Of Ultron. I love it. I love probably all Marvel movies (except for The Amazing Spiderman 1 and 2, because they are part of a reboot of a franchise less than a decade old at the time the first one came out and are pointless!), so I do not blindly love every single Marvel movie that exists. I love Marvel movies in general. You don't have to like every Marvel movie that comes out. I don't. I'm just scratching my head over why so many people hate what I think is the best movie so far this year. As far as more super heroes being added to Avengers 2; Obviously, a few will not be coming back and the new ones are replacements. As for Jurassic World, someone spoiled the movie for me and I refuse to see it because it's basically like drinking a beer with a roach in it. The whole thing is ruined. The idea is that if I am going to see a movie, I don't have someone blab the details of it to me beforehand. I hate spoilers more than anything.


Last edited by HorrorTriviaMaster on Sat Jul 18, 2015 8:07 pm, edited 1 time in total.

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PostPosted: Sat Jul 18, 2015 1:28 pm 
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I liked Age of Ultron, but I found Ant-Man to be much more satisfying. It didn't attempt to be anything super ambitious, and wasn't burdened with juggling 100 characters at once. Even though it might not have been as technically good as Age of Ultron, it was a far more satisfying theater-going experience overall.


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PostPosted: Sat Jul 18, 2015 8:14 pm 
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cleazer wrote:
I liked Age of Ultron, but I found Ant-Man to be much more satisfying. It didn't attempt to be anything super ambitious, and wasn't burdened with juggling 100 characters at once. Even though it might not have been as technically good as Age of Ultron, it was a far more satisfying theater-going experience overall.


Think of the additional superheroes in The Avengers: Age Of Ultron as newbies in a large business to replace the old bosses. Every company eventually has to get new employees. There's no doubt that Tony, Bruce and the others are exhausted (at least for now) of kicking so much ass. The guys could use a break. If I had to fly up to a missile and guide it into a portal in outer space, I'd be worn out too LOL I agree that Ant-Man is amazing. It ROCKS!!!!!! Did you see both stingers?


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