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Edited by Mrph1 on Jul 29th 2024 at 3:09:00 PM
Yeah, this. People tend to say "MCU Ultron was so much more human and emotional than bland robotic bad guys," but it generally tends to feel like they're doing that by comparing MCU Ultron to villains who aren't Ultron. OG Ultron is very emotional.
If anything, imo I think they wasted James Spader a little bit. Whedon sometimes comes off as believing that being sarcastic and having a tragic backstory is all a character needs to have a personality, and Ultron is a really noticeable example of that - he's capable of quips, but doesn't really have emotions beyond "angry, bitter, and resentful."
Yeah, but that came off as kind of a fake-out. He gets this climactic new form, but then the Avengers shoot it and it melts instantly so the most of actual climax is instead him running away.
It's another one of those things that fed into the first two movies' "the Avengers are invincible once they fight together" concept.
Edited by KnownUnknown on Feb 28th 2021 at 3:01:23 AM
It kind of doesn't work with Tony Stark dead. MCU Ultron was like his comics counterpart in that he's defined by being an Evil Counterpart of his creator (Tony in the MCU, Hank Pym in the comics).
And while comics Ultron has been the Big Bad in stories without Hank Pym, he still mostly works best as a foil to his dad. Ultron basically embodies all of the inner demons Hank Pym spent his lifetime suppressing.
Edited by M84 on Feb 28th 2021 at 8:49:59 PM
Disgusted, but not surprisedIt helps that Tony doesn't really need a Killer Robot based on his brain to be a foil. He already had several in his own movies - Obadiah Stane, Justin Hammer, Ivan Vanko, and Aldrich Killian.
Disgusted, but not surprisedAt least MCU Ultron didn't also go full Oedipus Complex the way comics Ultron did - MCU Ultron never expressed any attraction to Pepper Pots, while comics Ultron has a weird fixation on Janet Van Dyne.
I wasn't kidding about comics Ultron being fucked up.
Edited by M84 on Feb 28th 2021 at 8:55:20 PM
Disgusted, but not surprisedComics Ultron meanwhile did end up killing Hank Pym. But he's in denial about it and believes they ended up in a Fusion Dance where he ended up in control (they did fuse, but the process killed Hank).
Then Hank Pym got his soul eaten by a spider demon. Because comics writers hate Hank Pym.
Edited by M84 on Feb 28th 2021 at 8:58:50 PM
Disgusted, but not surprisedHe has an extreme obsession with family.
Has kidnapped Vision, Wonder Man, and Scarlet Witch due to considering them all family.
Wonder Man's brainwaves being used to create his son Vision and Scarlet Witch being Vision's wife effectively makes her his daughter-in-law.
Huh Tony really isn't that interesting when you think about it. He doesn't really offer much of anything interesting to Ultron.
Actually now that I think about it, Tony is kind of a plot tumor or whatever is the right term.
He hijacked the Spider-Man movies with the 2 villains motivations stemming from him, having major involvement in Homecoming and despite being dead in Far From Home he was still a big deal as the film essentially centered around his legacy which removed Spider-Man’s own independence, making him sorta Iron Kid.
And now Ultron is effectively stuck to him unless the character is somehow majorly reworked so any possible future appearance he might have won’t majorly reference Tony.
Edited by slimcoder on Feb 28th 2021 at 5:08:41 AM
"I am Alpharius. This is a lie."I remember feeling for Ultron a few times actually in Ao U.
Maybe this was just the way I read the performance, but he seemed to earnestly like Wanda. When Wanda turns on him, he seems genuinely hurt by it, and when she confronts his mangled body later on, he tells her, very softly, that she needs to get away before the city falls.
Edited by GNinja on Feb 28th 2021 at 1:58:34 PM
Kaze ni Nare!
I'd agree with that.
I'd also give Kaecilius a bit of a shout. A little one. Maybe more of a squeak than a shout.
I actually don't hate Kaecilius because I think he has one of the best scenes in the movie. The scene where Strange has him tied up and he explains why he thinks the Ancient One is bad. I wish we'd gotten more of that kinda stuff from him throughout the film.
I feel like maybe I misread that scene or imagined something that wasn't really there because no one else seems to remember that scene at all. XD
Edited by GNinja on Feb 28th 2021 at 2:37:10 PM
Kaze ni Nare!Whatever faults AOU had, it is still miles better than the comic event it's name (and thankfully nothing else) was based on.
I mean, there have been many, many crappy events throughout the history of comics. But Age of Ultron is by far and away THE worst one I've EVER read.
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The problem with Marvel villains in phase one and two was that their motivations are spelled out but their personality and threat level tended to be inconsistent. It really came down hard with the Mandarin in Iron Man 3, because the entire point of that reveal was to undermine the build up of Ben Kinsley's charisma, and then we were left with someone still a physical threat but lacking the force of presence of the decoy.
With phase 3 the villains evolved just a little bit, I think some fell into more one-note motivations (ie the "angry ex-Tony Stark employee") but they were committed to being that force of charisma and major threat all the way to the end. That's why Hela worked as well as she does, and definitely why Thanos was so compelling.
It's basically following through with their character traits to the end rather than abandoning it for cheap jokes.
Comics are just words and pictures. You can do anything with words and pictures.