Age of Ultron Avengers: Age of Ultron Fan Review Thread (Spoilers) - Part 1

[Mjölnir]

Did you miss the part of my post where I said I think this (av2 being overrated) is the case?

people sure love to instigate and instantly antagonize around here

I was referring to this statement: "it should help to reinforce some of these unpopular opinions, things that people won't think or say or believe because their praising this movie more than it deserves to be praised."

That statement is clearly about educating people that either are wrong or are hiding things because they like the movie more than it deserves. That's no less instigating wording than what I wrote and the tone of it does not get altered by you writing what you think somewhere else.

I'm breaking down the sentence and I don't see any other interpretations than that people have the wrong opinions or that they are too stupid to understand what you do.

 

[AVEITWITHJAMON]

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

I don't usually rate movies on a numerical scale but I'll say this. guardians, cap2, iron man1, & thor were all better movies than av2. i enjoyed all those movies more than this.

Excellent review, this pretty much sums up my thoughts, there is a not a single point you make that I can disagree with, very well thought out.

 

[Mjölnir]

Excellent review, this pretty much sums up my thoughts, there is a not a single point you make that I can disagree with, very well thought out.

You gave the movie an 8 and yet a review that has nothing but negative things to say sums up your thoughts?

 

[First Avenger]

I get the feeling that sometimes people like something but they almost don't want to show it so they rely only on the negative parts.

 

[AVEITWITHJAMON]

You gave the movie an 8 and yet a review that has nothing but negative things to say sums up your thoughts?

And as I have said before, I tend to rate CBM's a little higher due to being a fan. I rated TDW and IM3 8 and 9 respectively when I first saw them, those ratings have dropped significantly on re-watch. And my review was straight after the movie so the things that bugged me hadn't had a chance to fester yet. I still enjoyed the movie and will try and see again at the cinema, but after thinking more about stuff that hugged me and disappointed me they have become stuff that I really hate within the movie. There was still plenty I liked however. I just haven't seen a thread to list them yet.

 

[Mjölnir]

And as I have said before, I tend to rate CBM's a little higher due to being a fan. I rated TDW and IM3 8 and 9 respectively when I first saw them, those ratings have dropped significantly on re-watch. And my review was straight after the movie so the things that bugged me hadn't had a chance to fester yet. I still enjoyed the movie and will try and see again at the cinema, but after thinking more about stuff that hugged me and disappointed me they have become stuff that I really hate within the movie. There was still plenty I liked however. I just haven't seen a thread to list them yet.

I just wondered since that review would make me think the grade was 3-4 out of 10. But you explained now that you liked plenty of stuff so then the grade makes sense and I take it you meant that the review summed up your grievances rather than your total view, which would make sense.

As for listing positive things this thread would be one of a few possible ones (and maybe you already did, I don't remember your review).

 

[Mjölnir]

I get the feeling that sometimes people like something but they almost don't want to show it so they rely only on the negative parts.

Yeah, that seems to be the case at times and even some professional reviewers can say that they like a movie and then spend half or more of the review talking about negative things. That's poor communication skills to me as it doesn't get across the feeling that the reviewer obviously had, as if the negatives were that prominent then it should have been a bad movie.

You can see the opposite at times as well, and I found John Campea's semi-rant about some of his peers reviews on Age of Ultron pretty funny. He talked about how some spent almost the entire review listing things they liked, only to end with that it wasn't as good as the first and then give a negative mark. I think he was right in that if you just don't like the movie that's fine, but to give it a negative mark just because it's not as good as the first is an insanely high threshold (talking about reviewers that gave high grades to the first one).

Not that reviews matter in the sense that you need to get worked up by them, positive or negative. Just another opinion among the rest.

 

[drod1985]

I get the feeling that sometimes people like something but they almost don't want to show it so they rely only on the negative parts.

I get that feeling too. They're just comic book movies, guys. No need to be ashamed of your enjoyment. It's why we're all here in the first place.

 

[AVEITWITHJAMON]

I just wondered since that review would make me think the grade was 3-4 out of 10. But you explained now that you liked plenty of stuff so then the grade makes sense and I take it you meant that the review summed up your grievances rather than your total view, which would make sense.

As for listing positive things this thread would be one of a few possible ones (and maybe you already did, I don't remember your review).

Well I also said in my review it will sound like I disliked the movie but I actually enjoyed it, there was just a lot that disappointed me and that's the stuff that stuck with me. And as I said in the review also, everything I liked had a 'but' to it and that in itself was disappointing.

Loved the opening action sequence, unfortunately the rest of the action in the movie didn't live up to it. SW and Hawkeye were great, Thor was good but I would have preferred him going toe to toe with Ultron at the end. Loved the cameos in the party especially WM and Falcon. Loved WM getting In on the action. Loved everything with the Vision, they pretty much got him perfect, one of my favourite scenes was Ultron's and his at the end. Loved him saving Wanda as well. Loved all of the visions SW gave the team as well. I actually liked QS as well, but his death felt forced, and Hawkeye joking next to his body minutes after he died really annoyed me as well. This is a thing in all MCU movies and it pisses me off and is why their death scenes lack impact.

I think my biggest problem with the movie is the little things I loved, but the big things disappointed me a lot.

 

[Mjölnir]

Well I also said in my review it will sound like I disliked the movie but I actually enjoyed it, there was just a lot that disappointed me and that's the stuff that stuck with me. And as I said in the review also, everything I liked had a 'but' to it and that in itself was disappointing.

Loved the opening action sequence, unfortunately the rest of the action in the movie didn't live up to it. SW and Hawkeye were great, Thor was good but I would have preferred him going toe to toe with Ultron at the end. Loved the cameos in the party especially WM and Falcon. Loved WM getting In on the action. Loved everything with the Vision, they pretty much got him perfect, one of my favourite scenes was Ultron's and his at the end. Loved him saving Wanda as well. Loved all of the visions SW gave the team as well. I actually liked QS as well, but his death felt forced, and Hawkeye joking next to his body minutes after he died really annoyed me as well. This is a thing in all MCU movies and it pisses me off and is why their death scenes lack impact.

I think my biggest problem with the movie is the little things I loved, but the big things disappointed me a lot.

That's cool, I didn't mean that you had to explain yourself on that. I was just curious about the grade in relation to the comment on the review.

Although personally I give low grades if the negative things with a movie are what sticks with me, but there aren't any rules for reviewing. I also think that while I do acknowledge the bad things in movies I enjoy I do prefer to discuss the positives to a greater extent as sticking with the negatives affects my enjoyment.

 

[AVEITWITHJAMON]

That's cool, I didn't mean that you had to explain yourself on that. I was just curious about the grade in relation to the comment on the review.

Although personally I give low grades if the negative things with a movie are what sticks with me, but there aren't any rules for reviewing. I also think that while I do acknowledge the bad things in movies I enjoy I do prefer to discuss the positives to a greater extent as sticking with the negatives affects my enjoyment.

Again, my review came literally straight after I came home from the movie, so the bad things didn't have time to fester. As a big Hulk fan I was especially disappointed by his role though.

 

[Hunter Rider]

Again, my review came literally straight after I came home from the movie, so the bad things didn't have time to fester. As a big Hulk fan I was especially disappointed by his role though.

Hulk's role specifically or Banner as well?

 

[Frodo]

The film has gotten overwhelmingly positive reviews, so I really don't see this hate or negativity that fans keep bringing up as directed towards the film. The reaction to the film hasn't been like MOS where you have people fundamentally disagreeing about whether the film was good or not.

Even among normally super critical fanboys, there hasn't been the type of divisions with other recent comicbook films. Most of the reviews seem to fall between an A+ and a +C. Even the Screenrant podcast which probably gave the most negative review i've heard, still basically thought it was okay. If anything most of the negativity and heated discussion the film has gotten had to do with the debate over Whedon and Black Widow.

The debate about AOU seems to really be one between those who loved it and those who thought it was just okay. Maybe there's bit of tension because neither side can understand why the other side loved it or didn't love it , but all in ,it seems that everyone , fanboys included , seem to like it .

Ultimately if you really liked the film, and really enjoyed it, you shouldn't need justification for that based on what someone else's response to the film was. Its about your own enjoyment , and if you enjoyed it and had a good time at the movies, then it was worth seeing.

 

[AVEITWITHJAMON]

Hulk's role specifically or Banner as well?

Hulk, he may as well not have been in the final battle.

 

[Hunter Rider]

Hulk, he may as well not have been in the final battle.

Yeah, I felt they threw the budget into the Hulkbuster battle for both Hulk and Iron Man and kept the finale effects budget for The Vision to shine.

 

[AVEITWITHJAMON]

Yeah, I felt they threw the budget into the Hulkbuster battle for both Hulk and Iron Man and kept the finale effects budget for The Vision to shine.

I thought IM was In The final battle more than Hulk was as well. Hulk pretty much did nothing, same with the opening battle scene. He got one moment to shine but even at the end of that he was knocked out by one punch by a character who has only ever beaten him once in the comics. The IM love in, which I have never minded before, got to ridiculous levels in this movie IMO. And it all seemed that Hulk was sacrificed for that.

 

[Spitfire]

Hulk's role specifically or Banner as well?

I didn't like Banner or Hulk in AoU. Banners character seemed to regress instead of develop, and I think the Hulktasha story was a poor choice for both Bruce and Widow. Mark Ruffalos comments about Bruce being the weak love-interest are unfortunate - why should it be acceptable for either character (male or female) be reduced to this?

Yeah, I felt they threw the budget into the Hulkbuster battle for both Hulk and Iron Man and kept the finale effects budget for The Vision to shine.

I was wondering why Hulk felt absent except for the Hulkbuster scene. I think you may have the answer here. Doesn't excuse why Hulk didn't say a single word though.

 

[Mjölnir]

I thought IM was In The final battle more than Hulk was as well. Hulk pretty much did nothing, same with the opening battle scene. He got one moment to shine but even at the end of that he was knocked out by one punch by a character who has only ever beaten him once in the comics. The IM love in, which I have never minded before, got to ridiculous levels in this movie IMO. And it all seemed that Hulk was sacrificed for that.

Knocked out by one punch? He had a huge building collapse on top of him and was calming down. If that's the definition no one has ever been knocked out by more than one blow as apparently only the last one counts.

I didn't find IM to be larger presence than in the first movie. If anything I think Cap and Thor had clearly larger importance in comparison to IM than the ratio was in the first movie and this was probably the best superhero ensemble movie I've seen in dealing out things to do, maybe together with GotG. Hulk had a smaller impact in he final fight than in the first movie but more Cap and Thor more than made that up for me, but then again I think they are a bit better characters so that of course changes things.

The thing that surprised me was that Vision didn't have a larger role in the movie. He was fantastic but I almost feared that he would be some deux ex machina so my expectations were that he would be extremely central. I'm glad he wasn't on that level though.

 

[XtremelyBaneful]

I was referring to this statement: "it should help to reinforce some of these unpopular opinions, things that people won't think or say or believe because their praising this movie more than it deserves to be praised."

That statement is clearly about educating people that either are wrong or are hiding things because they like the movie more than it deserves. That's no less instigating wording than what I wrote and the tone of it does not get altered by you writing what you think somewhere else.

I'm breaking down the sentence and I don't see any other interpretations than that people have the wrong opinions or that they are too stupid to understand what you do.

I did not mean to sound like my opinions are superior if that's how it came off.

But I stand by what I said. This movie is overrated. How does a film become overrated? When it receives more praise from fans and critics alike, than it ought to. And that is my opinion with the case of av2. But, that doesn't mean there's anything wrong with people enjoying it for what it is. And the vast majority of people are.

I thought I mentioned here already that I have a good friend who I discussed this movie with, and he had a blast with the movie and I told him how much I disagreed, and then when I proceeded to explain to him why I disliked it, his reaction was like "...hmm, I didn't really think about all those things. It was just a fun, awesome, kickass, action packed movie etc.." - that right there is an example of that statement I made which you were referring to, about a viewer not thinking about aspects of the film and enjoying it wholly. So I don't believe what I said was outlandish or of some sort of superiority complex, if that's you thought.

Perhaps he was more of a casual comic book movie fan and I'm more hardcore (which is why I was harsher, I believe that was the opening statement of my review), and that doesn't mean I'm more entitled to anything here, I'm saying that's maybe why my expectations were higher for the film. But again, either way, it'd be pleasing to see these unpopular opinions reinforced since most of the time it's not going to be around, since there's way more positive feelings about the film going around.

Excellent review, this pretty much sums up my thoughts, there is a not a single point you make that I can disagree with, very well thought out.

thank you, man. I really do appreciate it. I encourage you to post a review as well, if you haven't already.

I get the feeling that sometimes people like something but they almost don't want to show it so they rely only on the negative parts.

Who are these people you're referring to? Av2 has a 74% on RT, and an 89% from fans. The VAST majority of people liked it, just like IM3.

Those who disliked it for whatever reason, are very clearly in the minority. It doesn't make sense for them to just tell themselves to dislike it when most people enjoy it for what it is.

Yeah, that seems to be the case at times and even some professional reviewers can say that they like a movie and then spend half or more of the review talking about negative things. That's poor communication skills to me as it doesn't get across the feeling that the reviewer obviously had, as if the negatives were that prominent then it should have been a bad movie.

Just because a film ends up getting a positive review doesn't mean it won't come with it cons. No film has ever been perfect.

I get that feeling too. They're just comic book movies, guys. No need to be ashamed of your enjoyment. It's why we're all here in the first place.

But I didn't enjoy it. Not that much really. And it's not like I wanted to not enjoy it.

Before the film was released I heard rumors of the widow and hulk pairing and I hoped it was untrue, then I heard about the quicksilver death and I wanted to think the same. Then I saw the film and those parts of it definitely contributed to my lack of enjoyment of it.

 

[Mjölnir]

I did not mean to sound like my opinions are superior if that's how it came off.

But I stand by what I said. This movie is overrated. How does a film become overrated? When it receives more praise from fans and critics alike, than it ought to. And that is my opinion with the case of av2. But, that doesn't mean there's anything wrong with people enjoying it for what it is. And the vast majority of people are.

I thought I mentioned here already that I have a good friend who I discussed this movie with, and he had a blast with the movie and I told him how much I disagreed, and then when I proceeded to explain to him why I disliked it, his reaction was like "...hmm, I didn't really think about all those things. It was just a fun, awesome, kickass, action packed movie etc.." - that right there is an example of that statement I made which you were referring to, about a viewer not thinking about aspects of the film and enjoying it wholly. So I don't believe what I said was outlandish or of some sort of superiority complex, if that's you thought.

Perhaps he was more of a casual comic book movie fan and I'm more hardcore (which is why I was harsher, I believe that was the opening statement of my review), and that doesn't mean I'm more entitled to anything here, I'm saying that's maybe why my expectations were higher for the film. But again, either way, it'd be pleasing to see these unpopular opinions reinforced since most of the time it's not going to be around, since there's way more positive feelings about the film going around.
thank you, man. I really do appreciate it. I encourage you to post a review as well, if you haven't already.

Ok, if that wasn't what you meant then that's that. Intent is more important than what was said or what was heard.

As for overrated, that's not a word I personally use with movies so I wouldn't be the best to ask. I prefer to use that when it comes to things that can actually have an objective worth, like if a stock is overrated. A movie to me should have the reception it gets. If it entertains a lot of people then those people should say that they like it, while those that don't should say that they didn't. I don't see any other way that it "should" be.

And I don't begrudge you at all to have negative opinions about the movie, just so I don't come across as defending the movie against negativity. I loved it but that's not affected by that you didn't, and it can be fun to discuss different views even without the goal to change either person's mind.

I haven't written a proper review. I wrote my thoughts when I came home after watching it twice but it was more my general impressions. As said I did love the movie but I have no problems saying that it had some flaws. Pretty much all movies do so nothing to shy away from and for me the flaws did not weigh heavily enough to stop me from being highly entertained.

To comment on some negative things I thought Ultron was great and an unusual character, but it would have been fun to see him fight the Avengers more himself. Thor's vision quest was cut down too much and some things in there only made full sense to me when I heard what the scene was about when they shot it (Thor going into the pool, being possessed by spirits in the water and Selvig asking them questions). While I liked that he movie kept a high pace it could have slowed down a bit more at times so I'd be all for an extended cut. Probably some more minor stuff that I don't recall at the moment.

But those things did not outweigh that I thought the action was the best in any superhero movie, the ensemble had the best chemistry in any superhero movie and I think all of them got interesting things to do. Of course there's a lot more positive details than that but I think that says enough without me going on too much about it.

 

[drod1985]

I hear you, Baneful. But the movie being "overrated" is your opinion about the general public's opinions, it's not a fact that people need to be enlightened to. Unless there are technical blunders (i.e. out of focus shots, poor lighting, general production errors), there's nothing factual about a review. Art is completely subjective, what one person interprets as a flaw may be another person's favorite moment.

Personally, my opinions align pretty well with this...

As said I did love the movie but I have no problems saying that it had some flaws. Pretty much all movies do so nothing to shy away from and for me the flaws did not weigh heavily enough to stop me from being highly entertained.

To comment on some negative things I thought Ultron was great and an unusual character, but it would have been fun to see him fight the Avengers more himself. Thor's vision quest was cut down too much...

While I liked that he movie kept a high pace it could have slowed down a bit more at times so I'd be all for an extended cut...

But those things did not outweigh that I thought the action was the best in any superhero movie, the ensemble had the best chemistry in any superhero movie and I think all of them got interesting things to do.

...especially this bolded part. I enjoyed the hell out of AOU as well. While I think there are some slight tweaks that could've made it better, I'm pretty damn grateful we got this film.

 

[AVEITWITHJAMON]

Knocked out by one punch? He had a huge building collapse on top of him and was calming down. If that's the definition no one has ever been knocked out by more than one blow as apparently only the last one counts.

I didn't find IM to be larger presence than in the first movie. If anything I think Cap and Thor had clearly larger importance in comparison to IM than the ratio was in the first movie and this was probably the best superhero ensemble movie I've seen in dealing out things to do, maybe together with GotG. Hulk had a smaller impact in he final fight than in the first movie but more Cap and Thor more than made that up for me, but then again I think they are a bit better characters so that of course changes things.

The thing that surprised me was that Vision didn't have a larger role in the movie. He was fantastic but I almost feared that he would be some deux ex machina so my expectations were that he would be extremely central. I'm glad he wasn't on that level though.

Actually Hulk wasn't calming down, he very clearly got visibly angry again when he saw the cops with their guns approaching, then the punch came. And exactly, a huge building collapsing on him wasn't enough to knock out, but a single punch when he was getting angry again was? That was just crap.

And I found IM overly and horribly dominant In this movie. He gets his vision before anyone else after he is the first the break into the castle once he himself takes down its defences. Makes Ultron and convinces Banner to help him. Is the only one to walk out of the first Ultron fight unscathed and actually beats him. Then proceeds to stop the Hulk, something Thor was unable to do in the first movie or Abomination was able to do in TIH. He figures out where Ultron is each time, then also comes up with the plan to stop Ultron and manages to instigate it. He sets up the academy at the end and walks away from all the crap he caused totally unscathed and without even a bad comment against him at the end of the movie. I am sure I am missing stuff as well but the IM love in just got to ridiculous proportions for me. It made the character annoying and I have never felt that before.

Oh and Baneful no problem your review was great and I have already written mine thanks.

 

[XtremelyBaneful]

Ok, if that wasn't what you meant then that's that. Intent is more important than what was said or what was heard.

As for overrated, that's not a word I personally use with movies so I wouldn't be the best to ask. I prefer to use that when it comes to things that can actually have an objective worth, like if a stock is overrated. A movie to me should have the reception it gets. If it entertains a lot of people then those people should say that they like it, while those that don't should say that they didn't. I don't see any other way that it "should" be.

And I don't begrudge you at all to have negative opinions about the movie, just so I don't come across as defending the movie against negativity. I loved it but that's not affected by that you didn't, and it can be fun to discuss different views even without the goal to change either person's mind.

I haven't written a proper review. I wrote my thoughts when I came home after watching it twice but it was more my general impressions. As said I did love the movie but I have no problems saying that it had some flaws. Pretty much all movies do so nothing to shy away from and for me the flaws did not weigh heavily enough to stop me from being highly entertained.

To comment on some negative things I thought Ultron was great and an unusual character, but it would have been fun to see him fight the Avengers more himself. Thor's vision quest was cut down too much and some things in there only made full sense to me when I heard what the scene was about when they shot it (Thor going into the pool, being possessed by spirits in the water and Selvig asking them questions). While I liked that he movie kept a high pace it could have slowed down a bit more at times so I'd be all for an extended cut. Probably some more minor stuff that I don't recall at the moment.

But those things did not outweigh that I thought the action was the best in any superhero movie, the ensemble had the best chemistry in any superhero movie and I think all of them got interesting things to do. Of course there's a lot more positive details than that but I think that says enough without me going on too much about it.

fair enough. for the record as far as ultron's portrayal goes, i think james spader was awesome. everything in my review (despite it being negative) wasn't negative. I said i liked that they gave hawkeye more focus. and I dug the new characters. particularly quicksilver, I think his scenes may've been the best in the movie, which is ironic because that's what people say about quicksilver in dofp

i'd still disagree about them having the best chemistry as a team though. mostly cap's and stark's chemistry was great but everyone else's was alright this time around imo. but then again it's you, and it's me. you like/loved the movie, that's cool

I hear you, Baneful. But the movie being "overrated" is your opinion about the general public's opinions, it's not a fact that people need to be enlightened to. Unless there are technical blunders (i.e. out of focus shots, poor lighting, general production errors), there's nothing factual about a review. Art is completely subjective, what one person interprets as a flaw may be another person's favorite moment.

of course. i wouldn't have a reason to call it overrated if the film wasn't receiving acclaim in the first place. everybody who loved the movie got what they wanted out of it, but that doesn't mean I can't still say it's getting more praise than it deserves. one example of which is my friend that I explained who didn't watch the movie looking for more out of it than I did. and that's fine. again, I just higher expectations.

Personally, my opinions align pretty well with this...



...especially this bolded part. I enjoyed the hell out of AOU as well. While I think there are some slight tweaks that could've made it better, I'm pretty damn grateful we got this film.

We were always gonna get another avengers film, I'm not sure what you mean by this.

Oh and Baneful no problem your review was great and I have already written mine thanks.

okay cool, I guess it was on a previous part to this thread so I'll go look it up later.

 

[Human Torch]

Actually Hulk wasn't calming down, he very clearly got visibly angry again when he saw the cops with their guns approaching, then the punch came. And exactly, a huge building collapsing on him wasn't enough to knock out, but a single punch when he was getting angry again was? That was just crap.

Yeah,that finish was an incredibly lame ending to a good action scene.


In my review as well,I seemed to point out most of the negatives despite giving the film 4.5. I think the film is obviously flawed, but ultimately the fun and spectacle wins me over. And I think most people will agree with that. I think some obviously want to find the chinks in the Marvel armor and want to belabor the films weaknesses,but the film does have them.

 

[RedRose]

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

I don't usually rate movies on a numerical scale but I'll say this. guardians, cap2, iron man1, & thor were all better movies than av2. i enjoyed all those movies more than this.

This is a really good review. I am also disappointed. There was a lot to like..even love in this movie. But it was a big episode of the Avengers Assemble cartoon. I had thought the movies were becoming more sophisticated (Cap 2 def upped the ante) and this felt like many many steps back.