Age of Ultron...

[ffutures]

...was pretty much what you'd expect - loud, lots of explosions, reasonably well plotted (though as in some other movies the main characters make most of their own problems) and fast-paced throughout. I'm not going to describe the plot in any detail, but here be spoilers:


In no particular order:

Wakenda is mentioned again as the source of Vibranium.
New characters are Wanda and Pietro Maximoff and eventually The Vision.
A surprising lack of black and/or female main characters fridged.
Having said that, Iron Patriot is largely marginalised and Falcon only appears briefly, with no part in the main action unless I missed something. However, it's mentioned that he's been off hunting for someone, probably Bucky.

Shipping news etc. - you heard it here first!
- Clint is secretly married (not to Coulson or Natasha) with children. They live on a farm.
- Natasha is flirting with Bruce and is able to talk him down after hulking out, possibly through hypnotic conditioning.
- Cap still appears to be alone.
- Pepper is still around but doesn't appear, ditto Jane Foster. Surprisingly, Eric Selvig does appear.

SHIELD is back in business to some extent. Fury and others appear, Coulson does not.

Tony drives off into the sunset near the end, implying that Iron Patriot will be Power Suit Guy in the next movie. I think I read that Downey does't want to play Stark any more.

Finally, Thanos is still interested in Infinity Gems, as seen in the only end-titles scene.



On the whole I enjoyed it, but Winter Soldier was better.

I've left out a lot here because it's even more spoilery. See it yourself if you want more, and please don't leave spoilers in comments, I'll delete them.

Comments

[jeriendhal.livejournal.com]

NO major character deaths, I guess? Given it's Whedon we're talking about here, I was pretty much taking it as a given that Rhodey was toast.

[ffutures.livejournal.com]

I didn't say that exactly - some characters introduced in this film don't make it to the end.

[whswhs.livejournal.com]

I've carefully skipped past your spoilers, as I won't see it for another eight days. I'm not surprised to hear that The Winter Soldier was better; that seems likely to be one of the high points of the superhero genre in film, in terms both of characterization and of theme.

[ffutures.livejournal.com]

Definitely - it's going to be hard for any superhero film to stand comparison.

[whswhs.livejournal.com]

The one that I still love, after quite a few years, is The Incredibles. It might seem curious that my single favorite scene in the whole film is the one where Helen is flying toward the island, and comes under attack, and we see her being calm and focused in a situation where her powers are almost no help; in that scene she's not just superheroic but heroic.

[ffutures.livejournal.com]

There's a lot to be learned from that film - most notably, that DC have failed to learn ANYTHING from it in their movies!

[turol.livejournal.com]

Just saw it, spoilers ahead.

Good but not as good as the first one or Winter Soldier. Iron Man and Hawkeye appear to be retired but the lineup in the end looked pretty good. Though I think Avengers is usually seven members so maybe one more. Ant-Man?

The way the trailers showed them trying to lift Mjollnir it was obvious someone else than Thor was going to do it but wasn't expecting THAT one...

[ffutures.livejournal.com]

Me neither. I think Iron Man will be out for the next couple of Avengers movies then back with another actor so that there won't be quite such an abrupt change. No idea who it'll be, presumably someone who can look a bit like Robert Downey Jr.