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Edited by Mrph1 on Jul 29th 2024 at 3:09:00 PM
That is probably exactly what Whedon thought, actually. That's kinda his philosophy. I may be paraphrasing slightly, but he said something to the tune of: "Make it dark, make it brutal, but for the love of God, follow it up with a joke."
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He kinda tried to love potion a girl one time, didn't he?
edited 1st Jun '15 7:30:09 PM by Zarek
"We're home, Chewie."![]()
I am the biggest power rangers fan ever, and even I realize that Power Rangers villains, by and large, stopped being threatening after parents wrote angry letters about Zedd being scary.
Perhaps a difference of opinion. Some villains have been better than others. Venjix for example.
And hey, even wimped out Zedd still wiped the floor with Tommy.
Anyhow, this is a Marvel thread, let's focus on Marvel stuff. Like more Loki.
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You know, that's fine. You have your opinion. Other people, however, have a different opinion.
Movie Ultron is scary because he sounds human. He's a big, hulking robot, he should have a robot voice and say things like, "Affirmative," right? Nope! He sounds like James Spader and he says things like, "And also...yeah."
Because of that, we're left with a character who is on the one hand robotic and on the other hand human, creating a creepy juxtaposition. Look at his need to have an audience — he genuinely wants Quicksilver and Scarlet Witch there! He doesn't want them to leave him! And he becomes concerned when Scarlet Witch stays to kill him, saying that she herself will die.
Movie Ultron is unlike any other evil robot because of how human he acts.
He is more terrifying than EMH Ultron by far.
EDIT: Man, did I get ninja'd. I was responding to splash.
edited 1st Jun '15 7:31:46 PM by alliterator
I don't see how you can ever say Ultron was a threat in this movie, because at no point did it seem like he could actually hurt the heroes in any way. He just seemed like an enormous inconvenience.
"Hey, Tony, wanna go get a sandwich?"
"I'd love to Pepper, but Ultron's kinda trying to "exterminate humanity" or something. I wasn't really listening."
My various fanfics.
x6 Well, then, you must be incredibly displeased with all the other superhero movies because none of them are quite as campy as Batman and Robin.
...Well, actually, as far as campy superhero movies go, the Adam West Batman movie is about a zillion times better.
edited 1st Jun '15 7:35:58 PM by spashthebandragon
I've got fanfics for Frozen, Spectacular Spider-Man, Crash Bandicoot, and Spyro the Dragon.I don't see how you can ever say Ultron was a threat in this movie, because at no point did it seem like he could actually hurt the heroes in any way.
Well, I mean, he killed Quicksilver, so he did hurt the heroes.
But that's also something that every superhero film has a problem with. Like, I didn't believe Ronan was going to kill any of the Guardians. Or Loki was going to kill any of the Avengers. That's...not really the point of those movies.
edited 1st Jun '15 7:34:15 PM by alliterator
I dunno if I'd call Ultron particularly human in general - though admittedly all the characters in the movie suffer from similar issues. There's more to being a human character than having a human humor response.
My favorite Ultron scene is the scene where he's activated, and he looks over human history and has a subdued but anguished response to what he's doing, his confusion over what he is and what he feels he has to do to deal with the situation. This is the scene in the movie where he's the most human, and he never really reaches this level of personality again - even though he barely says anything (in comparison) in those first few moments.
edited 1st Jun '15 7:34:44 PM by KnownUnknown
I mean, I don't want movies to be exactly like Batman and Robin. But, like, that's the tone I want. I don't enjoy superhero media that really takes itself seriously, because it's not serious. It's fucking ridiculous. That's not to say there can't be drama- Spectacular Spider-Man is another of my favourites, and it gets pretty dramatic, but it still has an overall light tone.
Pretty much everything in the MCU is good to me, and especially the ones that go hard for one-liners and witticisms.
edited 1st Jun '15 7:37:09 PM by Mukora
"It's so hard to be humble, knowing how great I am."I dunno if I'd call Ultron particularly human - though admittedly all the characters in the movie suffer from similar issues. There's more to being a human character than having a human humor response.
It's a juxtaposition of human responses and robotic thinking. He sounds human, even though he is decidedly not. I mean, this is one of my favorite bits of dialogue:
Ultron: Everyone creates the thing they dread. Men of peace create engines of war. Invaders create avengers. People create…smaller people? Uhh. Children! [chuckling] Lost the word there. Children. Designed to supplant them. To help them...end.
Wanda Maximoff: Is that why you've come? To end the Avengers?
Ultron: I've come to save the world! But, also...yeah.
See, I think Ronan was the best MCU villain, purely as a threatening force. He was the only Marvel villain where *nothing worked*. They tried shooting him, they tried brute force punching him, Ronan could not be stopped. There was a genuine sense of peril because Ronan wasn't getting his shit stomped in every other scene and he wasn't cracking wise. He was an omnicidal religious zealot who *bathed in the blood of his foes*, and that was *before* he got the weapon of ultimate power! So when the Guardians were able to use the aforementioned weapon of ultimate power against him and destroy him, there was a genuine sense of victory, because he was a great obstacle that had been overcome, rather than a melodramatic nuisance.
My various fanfics.![]()
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Oh, I love Ronan, too. But I never saw him as a threat. For that, I would have had to think that the characters were in danger of dying and I knew they weren't.
If Gunn pulled a Serenity and randomly killed off one character near the end, then I would have found him threatening.
edited 1st Jun '15 7:43:27 PM by alliterator
x7 Yeah, well, Spectacular Spider-Man did a much better job juggling its humor and drama than Age of Ultron (In fact, I've really struggled to make Carnage threatening in my Spectacular fic without being too dark because I don't want to stray away from the tone of the show).
edited 1st Jun '15 7:46:05 PM by spashthebandragon
I've got fanfics for Frozen, Spectacular Spider-Man, Crash Bandicoot, and Spyro the Dragon.Oh, Groot hardly counts. He was always going to pull an Iron Giant.
edited 1st Jun '15 7:46:21 PM by ultimatepheer
Ronan was just so...boring, though. Which, don't get me wrong, works well in GOTG. When the main heroes are as ridiculous as that, having a Big Bad who is actually just a generic BBEG actually kinda works as good juxtaposition when they play off each other, like with the dance-off scene.
But on his own? He's just kinda..."Dark Lord." Like, he is the most Dark Lordy character ever. The only part of him that isn't hugely cliche is his goal being a sorta revenge quest for wrongs done to his family, which is actually usually more of a hero thing than a villain thing.
"We're home, Chewie."

edited 1st Jun '15 7:29:24 PM by kkhohoho