Well, Loki was more of a comical villain which lends to more humor. Ultron looks like he is going genocidal on humanity (no surprise there) and the characters are having bigger issues than simply coming together. Like Stark feeling responsible for Ultron.
I am excited for the movie and curious to see why Hulk and Iron Man are fighting.
I more meant that it would be best if it did not end wit him committing suicide after getting too deep into the mind of a psychopath.
Ledger did not commit suicide, he ODd on medicine that individually are used to treat common problems but dangerous when taken together. The theory that preparing for the Joker role drove him to suicide has yet to be proven.
I also highly doubt that portraying Ultron would drive Spader off the deep end. Have you seen some his other works like Reddington from The Blacklist or Robert California in The Office? Crazy, eccentric psychopath. Ultron would most certainly not be the first crazy character he portrays
It promises to bring three things that I've really wanted to see in the Marvel universe:
1. A truly terrifying villain that is genuinely threatening
2. Action sequences with actual stakes to them, as opposed to just boring lightshows which take time but are not even remotely compelling
3. An actually interesting Iron Man story
Well, Loki was more of a comical villain which lends to more humor. Ultron looks like he is going genocidal on humanity (no surprise there) and the characters are having bigger issues than simply coming together. Like Stark feeling responsible for Ultron.
I am excited for the movie and curious to see why Hulk and Iron Man are fighting.
My guess is simply Ultron taking over the Iron Man armor.
I'm normally lukewarm on super-hero plots involving Iron Man, but this one looks like it could deliver. I'm interested. Spader as Ultron helps, since I like him as an actor.
I love Loki in the Thor movies, but let's face it: he was basically phoning it in for The Avengers. He was there to serve as a generic bad guy while the film focused on the struggles and personality conflicts of getting the team together. No fault in Tom Hiddleston's performance or anything; it was just the way the movie was structured.
But every indication is that Age of Ultron is gonna be all about, well, Ultron. The team's together now, so we get a villain-driven piece next. Pretty much like The Dark Knight following Batman Begins. I don't give a damn about Ultron as a character - he sure as hell isn't a Joker or Lex Luthor or even Magneto - but that might actually be a good thing in a way. Blank slate, no baggage. I'm excited to see what they do. James Spader is a phenomenal actor who can put on an affect of cold, inhuman malice like no other. But also heartfelt warmth - it's why his Alan Shore was so compelling. Just speculating here, but with the Pinocchio allusions in the trailer, could that duality come into play in this movie too?
I'm also curious to see how they untangle the continuity snarl of Quicksilver and the Scarlet Witch in a world without mutants.
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I love Loki in the Thor movies, but let's face it: he was basically phoning it in for The Avengers. He was there to serve as a generic bad guy while the film focused on the struggles and personality conflicts of getting the team together. No fault in Tom Hiddleston's performance or anything; it was just the way the movie was structured.
Which would have been fine if he were remotely threatening. Loki is supposed to be the god of trickery, and yet even when his plans work exactly according to plan (like his plan to kill Thor), they don't manage to accomplish anything.
And he certainly couldn't physically threaten the Avengers. Captain America was able to hold his own with him and... Well, we all remember how well he did against the Hulk.
Which has really been a problem for all villains Iron Man has faced except the first. Ultron, in a refreshing change of pace, seems to be a villain we can take seriously.
Posting since its already out here in PH (took my kids to watch it).
Short answer is they loved it.
I thought it was well done, it had so many good one liners and you can clearly see the cast is comfortable around each other at this point, the way they handled it seemed really natural and family like.
Ultron was amazing, the trailers really fail to show how the character is handled, there is this childish whimsy about him that makes him so much more macabre, i really dont have much in way of comparison... maybe Jack Nicholson level psychotic with Good Jim Carey level funny?
The twins where ok, i mean the avengers didnt seem surprised or anything, they showed nothing except of "enhanced? whats the power?" and thats it.
Strutters is killed way to easily early... almost makes me think they will say the scene was staged and that they didnt actually kill him, i hope so.
Quicksilver.... dies? I hope not. its heavily implied but considering we have Extremis and that Regeneration chamber thing (sorry im not a big comic fan i dont know who the Korean Doctor is supposed to be or why/how she is important).
Vision, well he was a mary sue really and thats all that matter, but he was funny, my god was he funny.
So we all saw the scene were capt. moves the hammer a bit with thor freaking out, and that was cool.
But then theres a scene where everyone is ready to go and then he gets passed the hammer with everyone looked shocked, by THE VISION!
Yep Vision can wield and even fight with the Hammer, theres a scene that goes
Vision: "That Hammer is Awfully Well Balanced"
Thor: "It needs to be, make it too heavy and it looses momentum on the swing"
All while looking so awkward explaining it.
Capt. and Tony also make a couple of funny quips about the Vision and the Hammer at the end of the movie
I honestly did not stay to see if there would be a second bonus scene i only stayed for the first because i had the kids with me but anyways the scene is basically a vault opening and we see the Infinity Gauntlet sans Gems, then we see Thanos putting it on and going
"Fine, I'll do it myself!"
Which is hilarious in so many meta-levels
So yeah thats my experience, sorry thats the best i can provide, i doubt ill see any questions until you guys actually get the movie but yeah if you ask ill answer
Edit:
Oh yeah its fun to see the movie casually dismiss Portman like completely, i would have liked a little Pepper in the movie but im fine with this since Portman wasnt on it.
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I saw it a few hours back. It was okay, but certainly not the best movie so far. I found the Vision to be somewhat overwhelming, to be honest. He just didn't do it for me.
Also, I don't really get why they felt the need to kill QS immediately. It just feels at this point like Whedon is unable to make drama in a way which doesn't include killing someone off in a cheap manner (see Coulson, Wash, etc etc). Furthermore, why did they make the Scarlet Witch this underpowered?
As for the post-credit scene:
I still can't take Thanos and his Ron Perlman level chin seriously.
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I saw it a few hours back. It was okay, but certainly not the best movie so far. I found the Vision to be somewhat overwhelming, to be honest. He just didn't do it for me.
Also, I don't really get why they felt the need to kill QS immediately. It just feels at this point like Whedon is unable to make drama in a way which doesn't include killing someone off in a cheap manner (see Coulson, Wash, etc etc). Furthermore, why did they make the Scarlet Witch this underpowered?
I certainly didn't think SW was underpowered. Not using her powers to her full potential, sure, but given it is literally the first fight she has ever been in she seemed pretty strong. I mean the rest of the avengers seemed to think she could solo guard the muguffin once the ranks were thinned a bit, so she's clearly strong.
Killing QS was a bit of a shock, but they were always going to have a death; they telgraphed the mislead to strongly elsewhere so he felt pretty likely. I mean warmachine was pretty much literally the only other option
As for the post-credit scene:
I still can't take Thanos and his Ron Perlman level chin seriously.
And for those wondering: The first scene you see after the credits is the only thing.
I certainly didn't think SW was underpowered. Not using her powers to her full potential, sure, but given it is literally the first fight she has ever been in she seemed pretty strong. I mean the rest of the avengers seemed to think she could solo guard the muguffin once the ranks were thinned a bit, so she's clearly strong.
So could Black Widow, but she's not even in the same league. I mean, we're talking here about the Scarlet "No More Mutants" Witch. Also: I don't remember, but she wasn't a psychic in the comics, was she? It felt like that was just in there to repeat the "nobody trusts each other" plot, again.
[quote]
Killing QS was a bit of a shock, but they were always going to have a death; they telgraphed the mislead to strongly elsewhere so he felt pretty likely. I mean warmachine was pretty much literally the only other option
The only reason to have to kill someone is because Whedon sucks at writing drama. It's very much possible not to kill someone, and it doesn't help that QS made some BS fourth wall breaking quip about it.
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We have laboured long to build a heaven, only to find it populated with horrors.
I certainly didn't think SW was underpowered. Not using her powers to her full potential, sure, but given it is literally the first fight she has ever been in she seemed pretty strong. I mean the rest of the avengers seemed to think she could solo guard the muguffin once the ranks were thinned a bit, so she's clearly strong.
So could Black Widow, but she's not even in the same league. I mean, we're talking here about the Scarlet "No More Mutants" Witch. Also: I don't remember, but she wasn't a psychic in the comics, was she? It felt like that was just in there to repeat the "nobody trusts each other" plot, again.
The avengers certainly treated her as a lot stronger than Widow, just a lot newer. *Shrug*. They could never do full-scale reality warping powers; way too much of a mcguffin. But I think her being new and not wanting to fight pulled her down, and she was still pretty powerful.
Killing QS was a bit of a shock, but they were always going to have a death; they telgraphed the mislead to strongly elsewhere so he felt pretty likely. I mean warmachine was pretty much literally the only other option
The only reason to have to kill someone is because Whedon sucks at writing drama. It's very much possible not to kill someone, and it doesn't help that QS made some BS fourth wall breaking quip about it.
uhhhh...yes, Joss Whedon is the only author in all of fiction to kill a character. Seriously; if you never make the audience feel like someone could die, even if it probably isn't a core principal, then where is the tension? I mean sadly we all know that Cap, Thor and Stark are in future films (in several cases because they are named for them); it was pretty unlikely they were going to kill fan-favorite widow, or the second woman in the entire universe. That left you Hawkeye and quicksilver, if you wanted to have a fatality, and Jeremy Renner probably has a much better contract.
And if you think "Whedon sucks at writing drama" then I'm not sure where you think he got his fanbase. Clearly someone out there thinks his dramatic writing is good. (Which is obviously not an uncritical endorsement; people think twilight is good and are sure as hell wrong.)
uhhhh...yes, Joss Whedon is the only author in all of fiction to kill a character. Seriously; if you never make the audience feel like someone could die, even if it probably isn't a core principal, then where is the tension? I mean sadly we all know that Cap, Thor and Stark are in future films (in several cases because they are named for them); it was pretty unlikely they were going to kill fan-favorite widow, or the second woman in the entire universe. That left you Hawkeye and quicksilver, if you wanted to have a fatality, and Jeremy Renner probably has a much better contract.
I never said he was the only one. It's just very much is his style of film-making by trying to up the ante by a cheap character-kill (see Wash and Booker in Serenity). And I think that in super hero films, the 'everyone can die' skit doesn't really hold up as well as in others styles of films to begin with. But even if you want something like that: sure. But don't make it as cheap as was done here. I hate to bring up the book, since it was pretty *****, but Super Girl's death in Crisis on Infinite Earths is a good example of how to do main cast deaths in cape films/comics.
Additionally: serious, debilitating injuries would have worked just as well here.
And if you think "Whedon sucks at writing drama" then I'm not sure where you think he got his fanbase. Clearly someone out there thinks his dramatic writing is good. (Which is obviously not an uncritical endorsement; people think twilight is good and are sure as hell wrong.)
I'm sorry, but I don't feel that I need to say "I think that" in front of each statement I make in a thread like this. It's very much implied.
Also, something that came to mind:
Why did Banner leave at the end? It came out of nowhere, since the tone of the movie was basically that he is better able to handle this stuff and there are now measures in place to stop him when he goes wild. And with Natasha and him sort of kinda getting together, there's less reason for him to go sulk-mode than ever.
Also: talking about the Black Widow: what was up with the tron-inspired led-strips on her suit.
Thirdly: This is the stupidest villain plan so far, because this is THE one which could never ******* work. That piece of land brought to even a height of 10 kilometres wouldn't do enough damage.
EDIT:
And if I sound overly negative, that's not my intention. There are certainly parts of the movie I really liked. However, there is a lot of stuff in this movie I they didn't really think through properly.
Why did Banner leave at the end? It came out of nowhere, since the tone of the movie was basically that he is better able to handle this stuff and there are now measures in place to stop him when he goes wild. And with Natasha and him sort of kinda getting together, there's less reason for him to go sulk-mode than ever.
Did we watch different films?
Banner's arc for essentially the entire film is "I wish I could get away from all of this". Yea, he's happy and flattered that Widow is sort-of-dating him, but he thinks he is a monster. Every time he turns back from the hulk he feels less able to exist in society, more afriad of what he has done, or could do. He talks about running away, and she suggests running away together, and you can *see* that although he flirts with the idea he has no intention of going with someone else, but is still considering going alone.
Everyone else in the film thinks he is coping better, but he knows he isn't. I felt it was pretty high odds from the hulkbuster on that he was going to leave (or try)
Also: talking about the Black Widow: what was up with the tron-inspired led-strips on her suit.
Thirdly: This is the stupidest villain plan so far, because this is THE one which could never ******* work. That piece of land brought to even a height of 10 kilometres wouldn't do enough damage.
It was underplayed, but it was a continuation of the "shock gloves" effect from winter soldier.
And...I think you might be underestimating the damage that a several-kilometer hunk of rock is going to do. Was it overstated? Well...sure, it's a movie. They don't spend a lot of time calculating impact trajectories. But it would sure be enough to cause a nuclear winter. And remember, this isn't ultron's only plan of attack, it's his fallback; he's been trying to start a nuclear war, and creating an army of killer robots.
Why did Banner leave at the end? It came out of nowhere, since the tone of the movie was basically that he is better able to handle this stuff and there are now measures in place to stop him when he goes wild. And with Natasha and him sort of kinda getting together, there's less reason for him to go sulk-mode than ever.
Did we watch different films?
Banner's arc for essentially the entire film is "I wish I could get away from all of this". Yea, he's happy and flattered that Widow is sort-of-dating him, but he thinks he is a monster. Every time he turns back from the hulk he feels less able to exist in society, more afriad of what he has done, or could do. He talks about running away, and she suggests running away together, and you can *see* that although he flirts with the idea he has no intention of going with someone else, but is still considering going alone.
Everyone else in the film thinks he is coping better, but he knows he isn't. I felt it was pretty high odds from the hulkbuster on that he was going to leave (or try)
I felt that the Banner angst was pretty much resolved halfway through the final act. But yeah, maybe I feel different about it next time.
It was underplayed, but it was a continuation of the "shock gloves" effect from winter soldier.
And...I think you might be underestimating the damage that a several-kilometer hunk of rock is going to do. Was it overstated? Well...sure, it's a movie. They don't spend a lot of time calculating impact trajectories. But it would sure be enough to cause a nuclear winter. And remember, this isn't ultron's only plan of attack, it's his fallback; he's been trying to start a nuclear war, and creating an army of killer robots.
Yeah, didn't really understand how those were more effective than guns there either.
Eh, lemme do some back-of-the-napkin calculations. I estimate the rock had a 10 KM diameter and roughly a kilometre down, which gives it a volume of 1.05E11 metres^3. Average density of surface material is about 3,000 kg/m3. We saw the city get some mach effects, but that was late in the sequence, so it couldn't have been much more than mach 1.5 on impact, so let's say 500 m/s. That gives an impact energy of roughly 10^17 joules. That is an equivalent of 5*10^7tonnes of TNT. That's equivalent to Tsar Bomba, so while it would do major damage to the country of Fake-Eastern Europe Hellhole, it wouldn't have any noticable impact on a global scale.
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Yeah, didn't really understand how those were more effective than guns there either.
Eh, lemme do some back-of-the-napkin calculations. I estimate the rock had a 10 KM diameter and roughly a kilometre down, which gives it a volume of 1.05E11 metres^3. Average density of surface material is about 3,000 kg/m3. We saw the city get some mach effects, but that was late in the sequence, so it couldn't have been much more than mach 1.5 on impact, so let's say 500 m/s. That gives an impact energy of roughly 10^17 joules. That is an equivalent of 5*10^7tonnes of TNT. That's equivalent to Tsar Bomba, so while it would do major damage to the country of Fake-Eastern Europe Hellhole, it wouldn't have any noticable impact on a global scale.
That is about the same size as the lump of Rock that impacted in Yucatan just in time to wipe out the Dinosaurs. AS for how fast it was going, if it dropped more that 20 second it is probably going fairly close to its Terminal Velocity. You are seriousy underestimating how much damage it could do. If anything from what you have described this would be the only one with a guarentee of working as unless you managed to disingrate that lump you just risk lots and lots of smaller lumps coming down over a wider area still doing a hell of a lot of damage.
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Yeah, didn't really understand how those were more effective than guns there either.
Eh, lemme do some back-of-the-napkin calculations. I estimate the rock had a 10 KM diameter and roughly a kilometre down, which gives it a volume of 1.05E11 metres^3. Average density of surface material is about 3,000 kg/m3. We saw the city get some mach effects, but that was late in the sequence, so it couldn't have been much more than mach 1.5 on impact, so let's say 500 m/s. That gives an impact energy of roughly 10^17 joules. That is an equivalent of 5*10^7tonnes of TNT. That's equivalent to Tsar Bomba, so while it would do major damage to the country of Fake-Eastern Europe Hellhole, it wouldn't have any noticable impact on a global scale.
That is about the same size as the lump of Rock that impacted in Yucatan just in time to wipe out the Dinosaurs. AS for how fast it was going, if it dropped more that 20 second it is probably going fairly close to its Terminal Velocity. You are seriousy underestimating how much damage it could do. If anything from what you have described this would be the only one with a guarentee of working as unless you managed to disingrate that lump you just risk lots and lots of smaller lumps coming down over a wider area still doing a hell of a lot of damage.
Meteors impact with a speed of tens of kilometers per second. There is no way that that rock would obtain such a speed within the time frame shown, especially not considering how late the mach effects were shown. But even if this thing travelled at 1km/s when it impacted, which is entirely unlikely, it would have only an impact energy of 200 Megatonnes, nowhere near close to the Yucatan impact.
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It was pointless. We had just scenes that followed after each other in sequence, with nothing that constituted an actual story. There were no stakes in the fight scenes. The villain's character was nonexistent and his plan and motives incomprehensible.
There was one scene that actually worked, and it was a scene between Banner and Black Widow during a quiet moment about halfway through the movie. That's it. Something towards the end almost worked, and would have if the character who was in the scene had any development over the course of the movie. But that didn't happen.
Gone is the management of the characters and the finesse that made the first Avengers movie work. Instead we have nothing. This had to be the product of executive meddling. Each scene feels like someone going through a checklist, a way of filling the quotas for these characters to appear and have this many scenes rather than to actually create a coherent narrative.
The one good thing I can say about the movie is that I thought the twins were compelling and a good addition to the character roster. Hell, Scarlet Witch was a far more interesting villain than Ultron. She and Quicksilver should have been the focus. Also, hats off to Aaron Taylor-Johnson. I did not realize Quicksilver was Kick-Ass.
But yeah, I don't have any faith in the Marvel Cinematic Universe any more. Its cornerstone is the Avengers franchise, and if that doesn't hold weight, then what does that say about the franchise?
Trailer can be seen here
All I can say is that James Spader will carry this movie the way Heath Ledger carried The Dark Knight
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I am excited for the movie and curious to see why Hulk and Iron Man are fighting.
Just the voice and movements
I more meant that it would be best if it did not end wit him committing suicide after getting too deep into the mind of a psychopath.
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Ledger did not commit suicide, he ODd on medicine that individually are used to treat common problems but dangerous when taken together. The theory that preparing for the Joker role drove him to suicide has yet to be proven.
I also highly doubt that portraying Ultron would drive Spader off the deep end. Have you seen some his other works like Reddington from The Blacklist or Robert California in The Office? Crazy, eccentric psychopath. Ultron would most certainly not be the first crazy character he portrays
It promises to bring three things that I've really wanted to see in the Marvel universe:
1. A truly terrifying villain that is genuinely threatening
2. Action sequences with actual stakes to them, as opposed to just boring lightshows which take time but are not even remotely compelling
3. An actually interesting Iron Man story
I'm down.
My guess is simply Ultron taking over the Iron Man armor.
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But every indication is that Age of Ultron is gonna be all about, well, Ultron. The team's together now, so we get a villain-driven piece next. Pretty much like The Dark Knight following Batman Begins. I don't give a damn about Ultron as a character - he sure as hell isn't a Joker or Lex Luthor or even Magneto - but that might actually be a good thing in a way. Blank slate, no baggage. I'm excited to see what they do. James Spader is a phenomenal actor who can put on an affect of cold, inhuman malice like no other. But also heartfelt warmth - it's why his Alan Shore was so compelling. Just speculating here, but with the Pinocchio allusions in the trailer, could that duality come into play in this movie too?
I'm also curious to see how they untangle the continuity snarl of Quicksilver and the Scarlet Witch in a world without mutants.
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Which would have been fine if he were remotely threatening. Loki is supposed to be the god of trickery, and yet even when his plans work exactly according to plan (like his plan to kill Thor), they don't manage to accomplish anything.
And he certainly couldn't physically threaten the Avengers. Captain America was able to hold his own with him and... Well, we all remember how well he did against the Hulk.
Which has really been a problem for all villains Iron Man has faced except the first. Ultron, in a refreshing change of pace, seems to be a villain we can take seriously.
--------
EDIT: New Age of Ultron trailer. https://www.facebook.com/avengers
This movie promises more of the backstory of Black Widow, which should prove interesting.
Short answer is they loved it.
I thought it was well done, it had so many good one liners and you can clearly see the cast is comfortable around each other at this point, the way they handled it seemed really natural and family like.
Ultron was amazing, the trailers really fail to show how the character is handled, there is this childish whimsy about him that makes him so much more macabre, i really dont have much in way of comparison... maybe Jack Nicholson level psychotic with Good Jim Carey level funny?
The twins where ok, i mean the avengers didnt seem surprised or anything, they showed nothing except of "enhanced? whats the power?" and thats it.
Strutters is killed way to easily early... almost makes me think they will say the scene was staged and that they didnt actually kill him, i hope so.
Quicksilver.... dies? I hope not. its heavily implied but considering we have Extremis and that Regeneration chamber thing (sorry im not a big comic fan i dont know who the Korean Doctor is supposed to be or why/how she is important).
Vision, well he was a mary sue really and thats all that matter, but he was funny, my god was he funny.
So we all saw the scene were capt. moves the hammer a bit with thor freaking out, and that was cool.
But then theres a scene where everyone is ready to go and then he gets passed the hammer with everyone looked shocked, by THE VISION!
Yep Vision can wield and even fight with the Hammer, theres a scene that goes
Vision: "That Hammer is Awfully Well Balanced"
Thor: "It needs to be, make it too heavy and it looses momentum on the swing"
Capt. and Tony also make a couple of funny quips about the Vision and the Hammer at the end of the movie
I honestly did not stay to see if there would be a second bonus scene i only stayed for the first because i had the kids with me but anyways the scene is basically a vault opening and we see the Infinity Gauntlet sans Gems, then we see Thanos putting it on and going
"Fine, I'll do it myself!"
Which is hilarious in so many meta-levels
So yeah thats my experience, sorry thats the best i can provide, i doubt ill see any questions until you guys actually get the movie but yeah if you ask ill answer
Edit:
Oh yeah its fun to see the movie casually dismiss Portman like completely, i would have liked a little Pepper in the movie but im fine with this since Portman wasnt on it.
As for the post-credit scene:
And for those wondering: The first scene you see after the credits is the only thing.
uhhhh...yes, Joss Whedon is the only author in all of fiction to kill a character. Seriously; if you never make the audience feel like someone could die, even if it probably isn't a core principal, then where is the tension? I mean sadly we all know that Cap, Thor and Stark are in future films (in several cases because they are named for them); it was pretty unlikely they were going to kill fan-favorite widow, or the second woman in the entire universe. That left you Hawkeye and quicksilver, if you wanted to have a fatality, and Jeremy Renner probably has a much better contract.
And if you think "Whedon sucks at writing drama" then I'm not sure where you think he got his fanbase. Clearly someone out there thinks his dramatic writing is good. (Which is obviously not an uncritical endorsement; people think twilight is good and are sure as hell wrong.)
Additionally: serious, debilitating injuries would have worked just as well here.
I'm sorry, but I don't feel that I need to say "I think that" in front of each statement I make in a thread like this. It's very much implied.
Also, something that came to mind:
Also: talking about the Black Widow: what was up with the tron-inspired led-strips on her suit.
Thirdly: This is the stupidest villain plan so far, because this is THE one which could never ******* work. That piece of land brought to even a height of 10 kilometres wouldn't do enough damage.
EDIT:
And if I sound overly negative, that's not my intention. There are certainly parts of the movie I really liked. However, there is a lot of stuff in this movie I they didn't really think through properly.
Did we watch different films?
Banner's arc for essentially the entire film is "I wish I could get away from all of this". Yea, he's happy and flattered that Widow is sort-of-dating him, but he thinks he is a monster. Every time he turns back from the hulk he feels less able to exist in society, more afriad of what he has done, or could do. He talks about running away, and she suggests running away together, and you can *see* that although he flirts with the idea he has no intention of going with someone else, but is still considering going alone.
Everyone else in the film thinks he is coping better, but he knows he isn't. I felt it was pretty high odds from the hulkbuster on that he was going to leave (or try)
Also: talking about the Black Widow: what was up with the tron-inspired led-strips on her suit.
Thirdly: This is the stupidest villain plan so far, because this is THE one which could never ******* work. That piece of land brought to even a height of 10 kilometres wouldn't do enough damage.
It was underplayed, but it was a continuation of the "shock gloves" effect from winter soldier.
And...I think you might be underestimating the damage that a several-kilometer hunk of rock is going to do. Was it overstated? Well...sure, it's a movie. They don't spend a lot of time calculating impact trajectories. But it would sure be enough to cause a nuclear winter. And remember, this isn't ultron's only plan of attack, it's his fallback; he's been trying to start a nuclear war, and creating an army of killer robots.
Eh, lemme do some back-of-the-napkin calculations. I estimate the rock had a 10 KM diameter and roughly a kilometre down, which gives it a volume of 1.05E11 metres^3. Average density of surface material is about 3,000 kg/m3. We saw the city get some mach effects, but that was late in the sequence, so it couldn't have been much more than mach 1.5 on impact, so let's say 500 m/s. That gives an impact energy of roughly 10^17 joules. That is an equivalent of 5*10^7tonnes of TNT. That's equivalent to Tsar Bomba, so while it would do major damage to the country of Fake-Eastern Europe Hellhole, it wouldn't have any noticable impact on a global scale.
- H.L Mencken
I Became insane with long Intervals of horrible Sanity
All Religion, my friend is simply evolved out of fraud, fear, greed, imagination and poetry.
- Edgar Allan Poe
The Crafters' Rules Guru
Age of Ultron was bad.
It was pointless. We had just scenes that followed after each other in sequence, with nothing that constituted an actual story. There were no stakes in the fight scenes. The villain's character was nonexistent and his plan and motives incomprehensible.
There was one scene that actually worked, and it was a scene between Banner and Black Widow during a quiet moment about halfway through the movie. That's it. Something towards the end almost worked, and would have if the character who was in the scene had any development over the course of the movie. But that didn't happen.
Gone is the management of the characters and the finesse that made the first Avengers movie work. Instead we have nothing. This had to be the product of executive meddling. Each scene feels like someone going through a checklist, a way of filling the quotas for these characters to appear and have this many scenes rather than to actually create a coherent narrative.
The one good thing I can say about the movie is that I thought the twins were compelling and a good addition to the character roster. Hell, Scarlet Witch was a far more interesting villain than Ultron. She and Quicksilver should have been the focus. Also, hats off to Aaron Taylor-Johnson. I did not realize Quicksilver was Kick-Ass.
But yeah, I don't have any faith in the Marvel Cinematic Universe any more. Its cornerstone is the Avengers franchise, and if that doesn't hold weight, then what does that say about the franchise?