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Welcome to the main discussion thread for the Marvel Cinematic Universe! This pinned post is here to establish some basic guidelines. All of the Media Forum rules still apply.

  • This thread is for talking about the live-action films, TV shows, animated works, and related content that use the Marvel brand, currently owned by Disney.
  • While mild digressions are okay, discussion of the comic books should go in this thread. Extended digressions may be thumped as off-topic.
  • Spoilers for new releases should not be discussed without spoiler tagging for at least two weeks. Rather, each title should have a dedicated thread where that sort of conversation is held. We can mention new releases in a general sense, but please be courteous to people who don't want to be spoiled.

If you're posting tagged spoilers, make sure that the film or series is clearly identified outside the spoiler tagging. People need to know what will be spoiled before they choose to read the post.

    Original post 
Since Thor and now Captain America came out this year, I wanted to get what Tropers thought of the concept and execution of the Marvel Cinematic Universe in general. Personally I love the idea and wonder why this idea hasn't been seriously tried before. It sorta seems to me like the DCAU in movie form (And well, ummm, with Marvel), and really 'gets' the comic book feel of a shared universe while not being completely alienating.

Edited by Mrph1 on Jul 29th 2024 at 3:09:00 PM

Swanpride Since: Jun, 2013
#31626: Apr 30th 2015 at 11:33:56 AM

[up]Me neither...it's just something I noticed. Worked in this case, though.

dRoy Professional Writer & Amateur Scholar from Most likely from my study Since: May, 2010 Relationship Status: I'm just high on the world
Professional Writer & Amateur Scholar
#31627: Apr 30th 2015 at 11:39:28 AM

Then again, hordes of Ultronoids (whatever those are called, I don't care), hordes of Chitauri, functionally no difference in action scenes anyway, so...yeah.

Hmm, I wonder if the Ultron's army will have its own version of Leviathans, or whatever is that thing Hulk smashed down in one punch after the "I'm always angry" line.

I really did like that combination attack done by Thor and Hulk where Hulk ripped out and impaled Leviathan with a big chunk of metal, which Thor hammered down with Mjonir. It was awesome...like many things in that battle, really.

Yeah, basically this.

edited 30th Apr '15 11:42:25 AM by dRoy

Continuously reading, studying, and (hopefully) growing.
HandsomeRob Leader of the Holey Brotherhood from The land of broken records Since: Jan, 2015
Leader of the Holey Brotherhood
#31628: Apr 30th 2015 at 5:06:51 PM

So, I'll be watching Age Of Ultron in about an hour.

I'll be back with my take on it later.

Also, where's the thread for the movie?

One Strip! One Strip!
Tuckerscreator (4 Score & 7 Years Ago) Relationship Status: Drift compatible
#31629: Apr 30th 2015 at 5:33:50 PM

It doesn't seem to have its own thread.

Going tonight also to minimize chance of ruination by spoilers.

KarkatTheDalek Not as angry as the name would suggest. from Somwhere in Time/Space Since: Mar, 2012 Relationship Status: You're a beautiful woman, probably
Not as angry as the name would suggest.
#31630: Apr 30th 2015 at 5:44:35 PM

I'm still in school, unfortunately, so I don't think I'll be able to avoid spoilers for much longer.

Although I think I've figured out a bit just from reading the trope page.

The temptation was too great...

Oh God! Natural light!
KnownUnknown Since: Jan, 2001
#31631: Apr 30th 2015 at 7:30:51 PM

Saw Ultron. Pretty good, with issues. Talk about it tomorrow.

HandsomeRob Leader of the Holey Brotherhood from The land of broken records Since: Jan, 2015
Leader of the Holey Brotherhood
#31632: Apr 30th 2015 at 8:59:45 PM

Just got back.......

WHERE ARE MY SOCKS!!!! SOMEBODY HELP ME!!! THEY'VE BEEN ROCKED CLEAN OFF!!!!!!!

........

So yeah, I liked it.cool

Funny thing. Great movie, but I thought the first one was better. I think because, now that the initial awesomeness of the idea of the Avengers on the big screen, and done right is over, this one had to sail on its own merits.

It sailed damned well, but I still think the original was a little better.

I'll also go into more detail tomorrow because I'm fucking exhausted, but that's all I got to say for now.

One Strip! One Strip!
stingerbrg Since: Jun, 2009
#31633: Apr 30th 2015 at 9:01:35 PM

Got to see the film as a double feature with the first Avengers. It was good, and the crowd liked it. Didn't like the lack of a stinger, there was actually booing.

HandsomeRob Leader of the Holey Brotherhood from The land of broken records Since: Jan, 2015
Leader of the Holey Brotherhood
#31634: Apr 30th 2015 at 9:10:47 PM

[up]

Yeah, that surprised me too.

Even as I was leaving the theatre, I kept looking over my shoulder wondering if they were screwing with me.

That being said, while there was no post credits stinger, the mid credits stinger got a chuckle from me.

For those of you still in the dark, lets just say we all asked for it, and now we going to get it.

edited 30th Apr '15 9:11:16 PM by HandsomeRob

One Strip! One Strip!
DrFurball Since: Jan, 2001
#31635: Apr 30th 2015 at 9:59:09 PM

I absolutely adored the first Avengers movie, but this one may edge it out. I loved how everyone got more characterization (especially Barton), the somewhat Darker and Edgier tone, the humor, and how none of the scenes felt like a waste, and how they all contributed to the movie, or future movies.

Is nobody else gonna discuss The Stinger? Fine, I'll do it myself! Is it just me, or does it look like the socket on the back of the Gauntlet already has a orange stone in it? And was the scene set in Odin'a vault?

HandsomeRob Leader of the Holey Brotherhood from The land of broken records Since: Jan, 2015
Leader of the Holey Brotherhood
#31636: Apr 30th 2015 at 10:23:02 PM

[up]

Yeah, that was great.

Well, he's finally doing something. Are y'all happy now?

One Strip! One Strip!
JRPictures Since: Nov, 2010
#31637: Apr 30th 2015 at 10:40:55 PM

Infinity War's gonna be insane.

Galadriel Since: Feb, 2015
#31638: Apr 30th 2015 at 10:57:12 PM

Just came back from watching Age of Ultron. First impressions:

I liked the characterization of Ultron. After so many AI characters with Blunt Metaphors Trauma and an artificially precise manner of speaking and lack of emotions, it was an interesting change to have an AI (later two A.I.s) that is very clearly an emotional being with a full understanding of the English language. And a liking for popular culture - really, the best thing about Ultron is that he genuinely comes across as a more homicidal Tony. Even his voice and intonations sound like Tony sometimes. You can really tell who created him.

The rationale behind Ultron's actions kind of reminded me of an episode of the X-Files where Mulder gets three wishes from a genie: he wishes for world peace and the genie removes all the people. Because Humans Are Flawed, so absolute peace - in the sense of zero conflict - is incompatible with free will. Lesson: if you're going to build an AI, give it a clear definition of "peace" that doesn't have a logical pathway leading to extermination of humanity or the removal of free will. Or use a different word.

Didn't really care about Vision before the movie, but based on it, I like him. He's like Data with more firepower (and a better understanding of English, metaphors, figurative language, etc). Amused that we were all predicting someone other than Thor would wield the hammer, but most guesses were Widow, Cap, or Hawkeye, and it turned out to be Vision. I would have liked if it were Cap, but this made sense as a reason for Thor to be willing to leave the Mind stone behind, and also made sense because Vision is a pretty wonderful person.

Speaking of characters I didn't plan on liking, Wanda. Given the different history and different powerset, I'm just going with this being a completely, utterly different character than the Marvel Comics one. Made perfect sense that she would change sides once she saw what was in Ultron's mind (really, Ultron, when you team up with a telepath, you should take things like that into account).

Not a huge fan of how they treated Black Widow, with the vast majority of her role in the story revolving around a romance subplot, and then her getting captured by Ultron. Yes, she had some good moments, but she deserved better.

Didn't like: Tony's use of "peace in our time". Everyone knows that was Chamberlain's quote. Everyone knows that when somebody uses it, that's an immediate and blatant signal to the audience that said person is wrong. That's why people don't use that precise phrase to in real life to describe their objectives. Tony is smarter than that: while it may give an accurate sense of his objective, he would not use that phrase.

I usually like Whedon's style, but the dialogue was also just too quippy and casual. A city is being destroyed, people's lives are in serious danger because of you, it just doesn't feel right for everyone to be tossing off one-liners left and right. In Buffy, lots of quipping in dire situations worked, because it fit and came across clearly as kids trying to cover up and/or deal with their fear. In AOU, it just made it feel like the Avengers were treating a life-and-death fight as some kind of game.

I get the sense that, after Marvel's first objective of "make tons of money" their second objective was "stick it to DC as hard as we can". The overwhelming focus on the heroes rescuing civilians made sense within the movie, both because, well, they're heroes, and because of the plotline of them needing to answer the question of whether they did more harm than good. But its contrast with all the kerfuffle about Superman's apparent relative lack of action to prevent civilian casualties in Man Of Steel made it feel like that focus was also in place to make DC look worse by comparison.

Also, Marvel was totally lying when they claimed there were 4 major female characters in the movie. There were two major female characters - Widow and Scarlet Witch - and peripheral appearances from Hill and the Korean doctor. Movie was full as it was, couldn't really have added more.

On the whole it was enjoyable, but not as good as Avengers or Winter Soldiers; probably third-best of Marvel films after those two. Can't put my finger on it, just felt like the movie was trying to hard...too many moments, and especially too many quippy lines that felt like they were written on the basis of "the fans will love this" rather than on the basis of strong story and characterization. In addition, between this and Avengers, Marvel needs to find a way to write endings to its big movies that don't involve the heroes tearing their way through hordes of week mooks; it's anticlimactic and gets a little tiring, and in two Avengers movies in a row it feels repetetive and uncreative. Ultron not as good a villain as Loki, but better than all Marvel's other cinematic ones except SHYDRA. I'd give Age of Ultron a 3.5 out of 5, maybe a 4.

Agents Of Shield spoiler: So I guess we can concluded that Project Theta was the helicarrier, and Coulson needed all the bunkbeds and other supplies because the helicarrier was designed for - among other things - evac. Was expecting that plot to be something that panned out in the show rather than the movie, given how much time was spent on it.

Waited until the end of the credits in case Joss was lying about there not being a stinger. He wasn't. There's genuinely no stinger. Well, if Joss didn't have anything to add, no need to try to invent something that didn't fit. Still kind of disappointing. I've gotten accustomed to my Marvel stingers. Not spoiler tagging this, because it doesn't seem like it spoils anything, just prevents disappointment if people are waiting for it.

edited 30th Apr '15 11:03:35 PM by Galadriel

Ninety Absolutely no relation to NLK from Land of Quakes and Hills Since: Nov, 2012 Relationship Status: In Spades with myself
Absolutely no relation to NLK
#31639: Apr 30th 2015 at 11:01:53 PM

Just saw and loved Age of Ultron. My favorite part — the Hulkbuster actually lived up to its name. About time.

Dopants: He meant what he said and he said what he meant, a Ninety is faithful 100%.
KarkatTheDalek Not as angry as the name would suggest. from Somwhere in Time/Space Since: Mar, 2012 Relationship Status: You're a beautiful woman, probably
Not as angry as the name would suggest.
#31640: Apr 30th 2015 at 11:03:07 PM

[up][up] So, overall, like or dislike?

Oh God! Natural light!
Galadriel Since: Feb, 2015
#31641: Apr 30th 2015 at 11:06:30 PM

[up][up]

Not a fan of that, myself. Makes Tony too much of a Gary Stu, and he's already overexposed in the Avengers films as it is.

On the whole, I liked the movie (for me, 1/5 is "terrible", 2/5 is "bad", 3/5 is "okay", 4/5 is good, and 5/5 is excellent), but it didn't quite live up to my expectations.

KarkatTheDalek Not as angry as the name would suggest. from Somwhere in Time/Space Since: Mar, 2012 Relationship Status: You're a beautiful woman, probably
Not as angry as the name would suggest.
#31642: Apr 30th 2015 at 11:08:40 PM

[up] I see. What number would you give it? (Sorry if you gave a number in the spoilers - I'm trying to avoid them at the moment)

Oh God! Natural light!
stingerbrg Since: Jun, 2009
#31643: Apr 30th 2015 at 11:11:30 PM

[up]x5: On the Agents of SHEILD connection to Ao U: I figured Theta Protocol was setting up the new Avengers headquarters they're at at the end of the film.

edited 30th Apr '15 11:12:15 PM by stingerbrg

Galadriel Since: Feb, 2015
#31644: Apr 30th 2015 at 11:23:23 PM

[up][up]

Based on first impressions, I give it a 3.5/5. Said that in the spoilered part, but of course you can't read that until you've seen the movie.

Ninety Absolutely no relation to NLK from Land of Quakes and Hills Since: Nov, 2012 Relationship Status: In Spades with myself
Absolutely no relation to NLK
#31645: Apr 30th 2015 at 11:28:55 PM

@Galadriel: I'll take a bit of Tony shilling (and he gets plenty of flack and fuckups anyway) over even more Hulk shilling.

Dopants: He meant what he said and he said what he meant, a Ninety is faithful 100%.
AlleyOop Since: Oct, 2010
comicwriter Since: Sep, 2011
#31647: Apr 30th 2015 at 11:40:02 PM

Not a fan of that, myself. Makes Tony too much of a Gary Stu, and he's already overexposed in the Avengers films as it is.

It made the most sense for the story. He's the Avenger Bruce is closest to so it makes sense he'd be the one to trust for something like that.

edited 30th Apr '15 11:40:48 PM by comicwriter

Ninety Absolutely no relation to NLK from Land of Quakes and Hills Since: Nov, 2012 Relationship Status: In Spades with myself
Absolutely no relation to NLK
#31648: Apr 30th 2015 at 11:41:06 PM

I'm not a fan of how the Hulk is generally unstoppable in any fight, being at most momentarily inconvenienced before getting angrier and winning anyway through brute force. Him losing a fair one-on-one was something I'd been wanting for a while.

Dopants: He meant what he said and he said what he meant, a Ninety is faithful 100%.
KarkatTheDalek Not as angry as the name would suggest. from Somwhere in Time/Space Since: Mar, 2012 Relationship Status: You're a beautiful woman, probably
Not as angry as the name would suggest.
#31649: Apr 30th 2015 at 11:41:38 PM

Is this about the Hulkbuster? Because that does make sense.

At least, for Bruce to trust Tony with it. No idea how that battle goes, but I think there's probably a limit to what the Hulk can do, at least here.

edited 30th Apr '15 11:42:55 PM by KarkatTheDalek

Oh God! Natural light!
vandro Shop Owner from The little shop that wasn't Since: Jul, 2009
Shop Owner
#31650: Apr 30th 2015 at 11:49:19 PM

One thing that doesn't make much sense to me. Why doesn't tony deck Hawkeye, Black Widow and Captain America in full Iron Man armors?


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