Legion World Forums LEGION COMPANION The Anywhere Machine The official Avengers movie thread - SPOILERS

With Downey Jr. and Evans (and then Hemsworth) eventually running out of contract, it could be interesting to see who ends up in later Avengers movies.

The Iron Man movies have introduced War Machine / Rhodey, who already is appearing in an Avengers 2 trailer. (I would have loved Extremis-Pepper, but she got all cured at the end of Iron Man 3. Wasted potential!)

The Captain America movies have introduced the Falcon and the Winter Soldier.

The Thor movies have introduced Sif (and Agents of SHIELD) has shown her operating on Earth, sans Thor.

Avengers 2 will add the Scarlet Witch, Quicksilver and the Vision.

Agents of SHIELD is introducing Quake (Daisy/Skye) and Bobbi Morse / Mockingbird. (Who knows if Agent Carter will plant some seeds for potential future heroes as well?)

One of the Guardians of the Galaxy could cross over (although Chris Pratt is unlikely to be available, if he's going to be making Jurassic Park and Indiana Jones movies...).

Ruffalo, Renner and Johanssen seem to still have room in their contracts, to play Hulk, Hawkeye and Black Widow in future Avengers outings.

New movies (or Netflix series) on the docket will introduce Luke Cage, Iron Fist, Daredevil and Jessica Jones to the MCU, along with Ant-Man, Black Panther, Carol Danvers/Captain Marvel and Dr. Strange, as well as possible supporting characters (like a new Wasp).

There's actually kind of a bumper crop of heroes available to be Avengers in a post-Thor, Cap, Iron Man lineup!

War Machine, Quicksilver, Scarlet Witch and the Vision seem like solid bets, appearing in Avengers 2. Winter Soldier, perhaps a logical 'Cap' replacement. (The Falcon, less so, since War Machine is already on stage, and Black Panther seems a lock as well, and heaven knows we can't have too many black men on a team!)

If Ant-Man and Captain Marvel's movies sell, then they might also be locked in as well, although I could see Ant-Man being quietly swept under the rug if that movie doesn't at least pay for itself...

There could be a real 'Avengers Army' if they want to go that route.

Hulk, Hawkeye, Black Widow
Quicksilver, Scarlet Witch, Vision, War Machine
Winter Soldier, Falcon, Sif
Ant-Man, Wasp?, Black Panther, Captain Marvel

And then there's Spider-Man. Eh. I'm not in love with that property showing up, since it's pushing back movies about characters we haven't seen yet, for a character we've seen 5 movies about in the last thirteen years or so.

One week and counting until Avengers: Age of Ultron opens in theaters.

And, in a nice bit of cross-promotion, ScarJo will be hosting SNL that same weekend.

For all my misgivings about Elizabeth Olsen as Wanda and James Spader as the voice of Ultron (to say nothing of having an Ultron-centric Avengers movie in the first place, because I consider him the most overrated Avengers villain) I'm cautiously optimistic.

But I'm also not thrilled by the success of GotG, which I never saw because the trailer triggered my gag reflex, and the way it's likely to shape next phase of the Marvel Cinematic Universe (I think Thanos is the most overrated Marvel villain of them all, and the thought of a movie based on the Infinity Gauntlet makes me sick.)

I can't say I'm particularly excited about AoU myself, due to my own fatigue with superhero movies as of late. However, even looking past my own fan displeasure towards Hank Pym not creating Ultron, this movie just doesn't seem to be particularly interesting. The tone of the trailers makes it looks so downbeat and Man of Steel-esque, for a lack of a better word.

Fanfie, I did like GotG though. Why didn't you like that one?

The GotG trailer made it look to me like a smug, wink-wink, pseudo-ironic farce geared towards my generation, the Gen-Xers. I've always felt out of step with my own generation, so I didn't go see it.

Avengers: Age of Ultron opens tomorrow.

(Although I won't be able to see it til Sunday.)

I hope to see this thread filled to bursting with posts.

I saw it last night though Will wait a few days until more people have before posting my thoughts. All I'll say for now is it's fun, even for an occasional Avengers reader like me.

Saw a bit of it in an on-line bootleg but it looked so interesting I decided not to watch anymore until the DVDs come out so I can see it in its full glory.

Thanks, Harbi. I look forward to your elaboration on your thoughts in the next few days. Given my mixed feelings about how the movie might turn out, it's encouraging to me that you liked it.

I snuck out during work today and watched it. Like Harbi, I don't mind waiting through the weekend before I start speaking at length so as not to possibly spoil anyone. Because there are certainly a TON of spoiler-worthy moments, most of them very cheer-worthy.

Like Harbi, I found it to be a ton of fun, and to go one step forward, I pretty much loved it. As a lifelong Avengers fan, I can easily find a few things to nitpick here and there, but for the most part they did an amazing job from start to finish in providing an exciting, great movie that was chalk full of characterization. They also nicely mixed the intensity with some light-hearted scenes and great dialogue.

Several characters, especially those you might not think, had some wonderful moments.

Thanks, Cobie.

I got to see it this evening, so I can get to play with the other kids! post too!

Now it took someone else dropping out for me to go to it, as spandex movies don't really do much for me. But I thought it was a lot better than the first one. You can really see the effort from all concerned. The effects budget must have been huge.

Thanks, Thoth. Well, no negatives yet. This is certainly encouraging.

Just saw it. Unfortunately, in 3D, which was more distracting to me than anything, but that's my own fault for buying the wrong tickets and showing up at the theatre too late to swap them out.

(Non-spoilery) stuff I liked included some nice examples of teamwork, particularly between Thor and Captain America, once even calling back to their first encounter (where Thor hits Cap's shield and it creates a massive shockwave, only this time it's a deliberate stunt to knock a bunch of enemies back).

Also liked how concerned the team was with civilians and avoiding collateral damage.

Ultron, in the comics, has often been a bit over the top in his hammy supervillain dialogue. James Spader's delivery of the much more casual, even sometimes conversational, or witty, dialogue really served to humanize the character, which may or may not be 'accurate' to the comic portrayal, but, IMO, was flat out necessary to a compelling movie antagonist.

Previews included Fantastic Four, Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, Star Wars: the Force Awakens, and Ant-Man. I will obviously see all of these movies, eventually, being a comic / sci-fi geek, but the only one I'm *really* looking forward to, freakishly, is Ant-Man...

I saw the movie today.

Some things I liked (I'll try hard not to include spoilers):

--Wanda and Pietro: virtually everything about them, especially the Eastern European accents.

--Hawkeye's secret life. The film acknowledges that a guy with a bow and arrow doesn't seem to have much to contribute to the Avengers, yet--as another character puts it--they need him.

--Ruffalo and Johansson: We learn more about their characters than previously, and what follows feels natural and not forced. I think these are the two most likable actors in the movie.

--The ending, which parallels one of the key chapters in Avengers history.

--Spader as Ultron. This ranks up there with casting so bizarre it just works: Spader's "about to come unglued" delivery humanized Ultron and, in turn, made him scarier.

Some things I didn't like:

--Typical summer blockbuster fare: building collapse, cities are destroyed, the world is threatened, things smash and blowup . . . yawn. Even worse: Most of the trailers were for films which showed the exact shame spectacles.

--The action and dialogue were somewhat hard to follow at times. I felt like I was trapped in a video game where you have to keep shooting and there's no time to breathe.

--Certain plot developments happen too rapidly and in a forced manner. Clearly, the film makers wanted to get in as many Avengers-related characters as possible, but it got to the point where the film seemed to be tripping over itself to make certain events happen.

All in all, I'm glad I get to go see an Avengers movie, which at one time would have been unthinkable. There is a level of quality sustained in terms of how the movie ties in with and builds off of previous movies. In terms of plot, though, I felt I'd seen it all before.

By the way, after over 40 years as an Avengers fan, this was the first time I heard the pronunciation of "Pietro." According to the film, it's pee-ay-tro. I've always thought it was pee-eh-tro.

I like that, as with Sam as Nick Fury, they've cherry-picked some of the best bits of the Ultimates continuity (while avoiding the mean-spiritedness and gore), such as Hawkeye having a family. And it informs his choices,



The action scenes did seem a little rushed, and there were moments I wished I could slow it down and get a better look as so many people were on screen at once (the church fight, for instance).

I do feel like the story and characterization took a bit of a hit to cram in more robot 'splosions (I do understand that they wanted tons of explodable mooks so that Hawkeye, Cap, Quicksilver and Widow could get their licks in as well, and it not be all 'let's hide behind Hulk, Tony and Thor!' but still, too many!), and definitely want to see the directors cut Blu-ray, with the hour or so of footage that Whedon had to trim out.

Nice to see War Machine in action. Wish we'd seen more of Falcon, as well (and perhaps someone else, like Sif?).

Much to my surprise, I liked Elizabeth Olsen as the Scarlet Witch. She even had the accent down pat.

Aaron Taylor-Johnson was a pretty good Quicksilver.



I agree with He Who that Natasha and Banner got great character development and their respective actors were the most likable in the movie. Johanssen's delivery of the line, "You think you're the only monster on this team?" was, to me, the high point of the movie.

I disagree 1,000,000,000,000% percent with Set on Ultron -- I absolutely HATED everything about the way he was portrayed. Spader's voice was alternately wooden and wink-wink "ironic". Comic-book-hammy is one thing, but a lack of gravitas is just as bad.

There was also a general lack of urgency to the movie, and it was overall a far less smooth ride than the first one -- the action scenes were sloppy, the cinematography drab, and the editing poorly timed.

I also disliked this Hawkeye.

Yay! Fickles has been!

I wasn't that impressed with the Scarlet Witch & Quicksilver shown here. More in the acting than the character motivation which was OK. Over posing for each power effect from the witch (which should have had her being overrun in the later stages of the film). Pietro was a little better although ...



It was nice to see the Ultimates out of breath bit being used, and some antagonism with Hawkeye.

I liked the Ultimates version of Hawkeye more than the Avengers version, although there's room for someone with that sort of attitude on the team.

I wasn't terribly impressed that Hawkeye seemed to say that it's something Fury set up for him, implying that the relationship was in some way a sort of set up, even initially.

The bow and arrow approach to fighting looked ponderously slow in taking down bad guys though.

I don't think anyone was short changed in the action stakes.




It didn't have Loki in the back of a flatbed which caused my suspension of disbelief in the first movie to crash from the skies.

The thing about Johanssen is that her petite, girlish softness causes Natasha's antagonists to underestimate her.

I didn't want a cold, ruthless Ultron, either, although I think that would have been better than what we got. The villains from the original Transformers cartoon series struck the right balance between camp and genuine menace, IMO.

I totally bow to your wisdom on robotic personalities for that one Fickles.

What did you think of the Vision?

I thought Vision was okay. His voice should have been deeper, though.

I agree with Fanfie about



This Hawkeye is not the same Hawkeye as in the comic books, but I'm fine with that. It'ss fun to watch the characters take on a life of their own and explore directions the comics would never dare to take. The comics would never allow Clint to do what he has done here. (His relationship with Mockingbird went terribly awry, as comic book relationships tend to go.)

It was good to see one hero have a happy ending.

Unless it's a set up to what happened to him in the Ultimates. I do hope not.

I love 616 quippy Hawkeye, but since the cinematic Avengers are based around a *much* quippier version of Stark, I think having Hawkeye being a snark machine as well would just overdo it.



Graviton, I think. And yeah, felt more like a video game than a movie scene.

I was probably thinking more of a Green Arrow character questioning what the purpose of the Avengers was more than snarky Hawkeye, now I think of it. That was something Romanov and Pym possibly picked up on in the Ultimates, where the team were part of US foreign policy. It gave things an ominous undertone.

Graviton. Thanks. I thought I'd seen it somewhere. I wonder how I'd feel if it was my plot idea up there a bit blatantly. Was credit given?