Right, first post, something relevant before this becomes old hat
Ago Of Ultron Review:
Firstly, this will be a spoiler review, so if you have not seen it, then unless you are like my other half, and love spoilers, don't read this.
Secondly, I watched this film about a two weeks ago, so i have almost definitely got something wrong, if i have, then let me know and ill rectify it.
Right then, I'll begin
First Impressions:
In a word, Spectacular. I loved this film, it had everything i could have asked for in an Avengers squeal: the action, the comedy, the drama, the death, the obligatory nick fury action moment. It introduced the new characters in a good light for each one (the new ones being quicksilver/Pietro Maximoff, scarlet witch/Wanda Maximoff, The Vision, Ultron, Ulysses Klaw, there are probably more, i cant remember). Ultron was a good choice as the villain, and although they introduced him differently to everyone's expectations, it did work. it happily sets up the phase 3 films and overall it just is an enjoyable film.
The Avengers themselves:
Where do i begin, well, with my favourite avenger i should think, which is, to no surprise of the people that know me, Hawkeye. Now, a lot of people have told me he is useless and not a real superhero, but them I say: stuff it. in this film he is not only a better character (as he isnt mind controlled), but is more pivotal to the plot itself. admittedly, I wasn't a huge fan of the fact he wasn't in anything since the first avengers, and this goes a way to rectifying that, but i wasn't too pleased about the whole "Barton farm". that being said, it did work and it did drive the film forward, as well as setting up other future films (civil war, being the main one). the comedy with hawkeye made the character more like the character in the comics, the best part being towards the end, where he draws his bow and starts rambling about how he could have hit quicksilver and no one would know. they built him up, throughout the entire film, as though he was going to die, and thankfully, to me at least, he didn't.
Iron man, well, he started it. I kid, but he doesnt learn does he? I watched a video recently, from a guy on youtube called Mr Sunday Movies (an excellent source of comic information), and in this, he points out that in every iron man film, the villain is of tony starks' creating. Obadiah Stane: got jealous and stole his tech, Ivan Vanko, got jealous, and stole his tech, Aldridge Killian: got jealous, DIDNT steal his tech, directly at least. this is the same with ultron. In their first encounter, Scarlet Witch bewitched stark into seeing the avengers dead, whcihc caused him to go behind all their backs to make an A.I. whcih then became ultron. GOOD WORK STARK. however, redeeming factor, the new armour, looks amazing. look like the bleeding edge armour (model 38), first appearing in
The invicible iron man issue number 25, from the 2010 run. of course, the best stark moment was left until last in this review. MOTHER F***KING HULK BUSTER. the Hulkbuster, or model 14, appeared in this film, after scarlet witch did her thing and "whammied" the hulk. obviously, everyone saw it in the trailer, detracting from it slightly, but only very slightly. first appearing in
iron man issue 304, the hulkbuster does what it says on the tin, busts the hulk. first in a line of -buster armours (i might do a separate post on the iron man armours), it is one the most iconic comic book armours to date, and to see it on the big screen is a dream come true for any fan of marvel. the fight between hulk and hulk buster was easily in the top moments in the whole film.
right, i need to get back on track now, someone more down to earth, someone very much grounded, lets see, Thor
Thor had a surprisingly limited role in this film. why? who knows, maybe its because loki was so big in the last one, linking him in to that one more, maybe chris hemsworth wanted a slightly lesser role in preperation for Ragnarok, maybe, just maybe, marvel had a contractual dispute with Mjolnir?
who knows, anyway, thor was ace in this film, overall. the best part was him, with cap's shield. cap stamps on his shield, making it jump into the air, then thor bludgeons it with mjolnir, and it takes out like 15 ultron robots. the only problem is that thor just disappears for the film, and then appears again and suddenly knows everything about the infinity gems? shoehorned, or coincidence? ill you decide. (p.s. i was annoyed that there was a lot missing from the relfecting pool scene, and in all honesty, it added very little than to slightly set up ragnarok, but thats about it)
next, the sentinal of liberty, captain america. caps performance in this film was ace, he had the humour,he had the seriousness, he led well, he took orders well. he did good. there were a couple of hints to civil war in the film, most obviously, when they create vision, cap and stark literally trade punches (very fun to watch), a more subtle one would be the wood chopping scene where stark and cap are discussing having their asses handed to them. at the end of the film, he is left in control of the avengers, and what could be his own branch of S.H.I.E.L.D? maybe? or its just training camp for avengers, all in all, good job buddy.
black widow and the hulk: first off, no. i didnt like their relationship thing, not at all, not my thing, however, i can see that it was a better option than going along the scarlet witchXquicksilver route (that happens, in there ultimates universe verisons, the maximoffs are incestuous, not cool). hulk smashes stuff in the this film, and he smashes alot, including stark, so, no complaints on him as a solo character, equally, the black widow/red room stuff, very cool, and adds alot of depth to her, but, i still cant get over their weird thing. black widow ends up part of the end avengers and hulk is, well, good question, we don't know. it says that the quinjet landed near fiji, but that doesnt mean the hulk was on it, so he could be anywhere, on earth, under the sea drinking pina coladas with namor, or in space, who knows.
the rest of them, were also very good, bar one. falcon, WHAT WERE YOU DOING, SON?
yes, the star spangled man with a plan askes you to go look for his bff, but you dont keep doing that, when an entire city is lifted nearly above the atmosphere to be dropped down again. sorry, i dont like the lack of falcon, just for him to have a line or two in the party and turn up, albeit with a cooler costume, right at the end. war machine, two things: one, get the original armour back, or at least go a bit more comic-like and have the mini gun and rocket pod on your shoulders, and two, good job, actually, with the rescue operation, nice save.
the twins, were, actually, better than i thought they would be, however, scarlet witch was a bit of a wimp for the most part, but quicksilver was spot on. the soure of their powers i wasnt keen on, but, i get why they had to do that, DAMN YOU FOX! but, alas, they added what they needed to, and scarlet witch will be back in civil war (that i will do a post on). i wanst happy with quicksilvers death, that happens, im sorry, but, it served it purpose so, eh, ill let it slide.
finally, vision, stile the whole film, as in he walked out with it and we had to wait 20 minutes to get it back. im kidding obviously, however, easily best character in the film. although not in it for long, the character was so intruging, and you might have missed it, he does the whole "imma stick my hand in your chest" thing like in the comics, so that was good to see. he adds humour to a degree and sets up that he might know of thanos, right at the end of the film where he "destroys" the last ultron bot (ill get to that)
black panther, spider man and captain marvel, WHY. they were all rumoured,to the point they reference wakanda and vibrainium for about half an hour, and captain marvel was set to appear at teh very end with the new avengers, but they were cut out. i guess i can understand, considering they are introducing alot of them to civil war, but still, would have been good
Ultron:
ultron was, well, where do i begin. the dialogue, was incredible, it fit james spaders voice like a glove and his plan was very cool. "i have a thing about meteors" ive seen alot of people complain about how human he is, and there are a few things i agree with, but he is an A.I that was chitauri in design but was manifested and moulded by stark, so it makes sense he is sassy and very human, for a robot. the one thing, especially after seeing the concept art, that i hated, was his overall design. i read somewhere that someone compared him to megatron from the transformers films, and i can see that, but thing i didnt like the most was, the eyebrows and the teeth, he doesnt need them. also, they should have had him like in the comics, open, fixed mouth, with the light behind it indicating that he was speaking.he should also have had a much more menacing appearance. you know what, the ultron bots, look more like ultron than ultron did. if they had gon for that, maybe made the frame bulkier, then that would have worked alot better
post credits scene:
pointless. there, i said it, you can quote me on saying it. i didnt like it. yes, we needed to see thanos get the guantlet, but they could have explained that as a flashback in one of the infinity war films. i wanted, now this was never going to happen, but i wanted a scene where it opens on a news paper from cover, saying something like "avengers save the day" and have J.K.Simmons return as J. Jonah Jamerson, slamming the newspaper on the desk, bellowing "i dont want this crap, I WANT PICTURES OF SPIDERMAN" not likely i know, but i guy can dream, right?
overall:
i loved it, but it was by no means perfect, id give it a sold 9/10, as it was literally the best movie i have seen in cinema to this day, but with hindsight, i can see the flaws in it. nothings perfect but this is damn near close.
well, thats it folks, my review done. i will undoubtedly do more, on old and new films (i recently purchesed alot of comic films for very cheap so need to watch and probably review) as well as try and possibly post weekly about the new secret wars marvel series, as it comes out, but dont hold me to that
if i missed anything, or you want to ask me anything, write a comment on this post and ill try and answer you as soon as.
see you guys soon
As you may, or, may not be aware, in the current marvel comics, the character of Thor has been dubbed unworthy of carrying the hammer, Mjolnir, due to a battle with nick fury during the original sin event (I might do a post on that series). In the mean time, there has to have been a Thor, and there has. Spoiler, by the way, if you haven't read any of the all new Thor series, specifically issue 8. In issue 8, Thor (odinson) confronts lady Thor, proclaiming he knows who she is, as agent Roz Solomon, who was introduced in the God of Thunder series prior to this, is an agent for S.H.I.E.L.D, and a sort of love interest for the Odinson. whilst confronting lady Thor, Roz appears and starts talking to them both. whilst this happens, lady Thor takes her leave back to her chambers in Asgard. Once she gets back, she throws Mjolnir out the window, to fly about. After this happens, the armour on her dissolves revealing the identity of who lies beneath, and it is...
Captain Americas' suit looks very similar to that of the AoU (Age of Ultron) one, which is by no means a bad thing. personally, I favour his Winter Soldier suit, followed closely by the AoU suit.
Falcons' new suit we saw for all of about 3 seconds at the end of AoU, and here we get a much better look at it. It looks a lot closer to his comic book suit. The black and the red work alot better then the overly military look he had last time, as well as the white and red from the comics. I also look forward to see if they make the wings red as well (even though i watched AoU again last night, I cant remember).