Avengers: Age of Ultron

[CarpeGuitarrem]

Conclusion? Disappointing. Last movie had Loki and an alien army with giant flying remoras, portals and a scary emperor with a throne floating in space. This one seems to have a robot. Stark has been beaten several times in similar suits, I don't see the threat. Maybe I'm missing something.

My general impression was "robopocalypse".

[KerfuffleMach2]

Spoiler

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Rumor is the easter egg will be Tony putting together a new Avengers, including Ms. Marvel and Black Panther. Color me excited.

Spoiler

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I knew there were rumors of a Black Panther movie coming. And a Ms. Marvel movie makes sense. A new Avengers team would also likely include Doctor Strange, seeing as his movie is being worked on now.

There's also rumors of them doing a Defenders movie. Mostly because of the various Netflix series they're gonna have.

[Thrudd]

A.) This is just the first teaser trailer. The first trailer almost never gives you much information about anything. There will probably be two more full trailers and lots of shorter TV spots that will give more hints at the story.

B.) I don't want the trailers to give away too much of the plot of the movie. Everyone already knows what it's about in general...it's about the Avengers fighting something evil/dangerous. The trailer tells us that the evil thing is a sentient robot (in case someone didn't know that already). Various shots show us there will be the same heroes we are familiar with, and a couple new ones. There will be fights and stuff blowing up. What else do you want from a teaser?

I see no reason why this won't be amazing. It's a Joss Whedon project, his first one was amazing. All the MCU movies have been good or better. Ultron is an awesome villain. I can't wait to see how they translate the new characters to the screen.

[Manga Shoggoth]

KerfuffleMach2:

You make some good points, but the fact remains that this trailer left me completely uninterested in the film, for the reasons stated. It doesn't matter that there is stuff on the internet that I haven't seen, or that there will likely be other trailers. This trailer has turned me off the film completely.

And it shouldn't have. I used to read the Avengers comic back when I still read Marvel wholesale. I used to think it was one fo the better titles as well. It deserves better than this as advertisement.

I don't think a teaser trailer should outline the narrative for you. It's supposed to tease you with evocative images and bits of dialogue, which this does.

It also shows a rather different tone than The Avengers, that this isn't going to be a wild party with fireworks and everyone coming together triumphantly, rather it's the dissolution of that.

I don't expect a full plot summary with footnotes, but a trailer for general consumption should show what the story is going to be about. I agree that existing fans probably will get something out of this (and, judging from the thread, obviously have), but all I can see is a lot of fights and nice CGI. This isn't enough to sell the film to me.

I like how you assume there is going to be a plot.

Well, I like to think the best of everybody...

I have seen Marvel film adaptations going back a long way. Even the Howard the Duck film had a plot. While I haven't seen much of the new crop of adaptations, they have been mostly well received. Given this, I would not expect a complete plotless mess here.

Well...what it is about is easy: Avengers vs Ultron. And...

Spoiler: Shhh

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The Avengers will win.

True, but I worked that out from the title. No trailer required.

After all, the story is older then dirt. A Man tries to create the perfect nonliving thing to serve and help and protect people....and it turns on them and becomes a menace. The story in the comics back in the '60's was not new as this story goes all the way back to mythology. And in the last century or so we have seen plenty of this story.

But this doesn't come across to me from the trailer. And that's the problem.


For those who want a slightly less lukewarm commentary, a slightly more eloquent friend of mine had this to say about the trailer.

[KerfuffleMach2]

But this doesn't come across to me from the trailer. And that's the problem.

See, I would have thought the whole thing with Ultron saying he has no strings anymore would kind of make you think of that plotline.

I don't think this should have cut out your interest in the movie. They always release multiple trailers for big movies like this, and the first ones are just little teasers that don't serve much other than grabbing your attention.

At least wait till the next trailer comes out.

[Tyndmyr]

I don't expect a full plot summary with footnotes, but a trailer for general consumption should show what the story is going to be about. I agree that existing fans probably will get something out of this (and, judging from the thread, obviously have), but all I can see is a lot of fights and nice CGI. This isn't enough to sell the film to me.

No, no it shouldn't. This expectation is ruining movies. When shown trailers, people routinely say that they want to see more. This leads to trailers that spoil the whole plot, twists and all.

A good trailer IS one that leaves you wanting more, as this did.

Edit: As for info, the hulkbuster suit is not Ultron. They're visually very different. You've got hints of the team being angry at each other, and particularly at Tony(shades of Civil War), and obviously, yes, Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver are here. There's fun clues, without, yknow, laying out the whole plotline.

[Kitten Champion]

Well...what it is about is easy: Avengers vs Ultron. And...

Spoiler: Shhh

Show

The Avengers will win.

*Gasp*

It's like you've read the script!


Oh, edit:

No, no it shouldn't. This expectation is ruining movies. When shown trailers, people routinely say that they want to see more. This leads to trailers that spoil the whole plot, twists and all.

I agree. What's worse are movies now which are designed clearly to just connect-the-dots between trailer fodder scenes. Man of Steel (not to bring it up again, but it was particularly egregious in my mind) had some great trailers which, as it turned out, were really the best parts of the movie. There was this sweeping score, inspirational dialogue delivered fairly well, cool CGI, lots of action -- but when put into the full context of the narrative... well, it wasn't nearly as appealing.

[Eldan]

Of course I don't want trailers like that. But, well. This one is boring. It doesn't leave me wanting more, it leaves me wanting to see a different movie. It would have been better if they cut it down to perhaps 30 seconds of the robot scenes, instead of tacking on a ton of disconnected shots of things without context.

[Philistine]

I saw this in the other forum that I frequent.

Colour me unimpressed. If I was going to make a decision on whether to watch this film based on the trailer, then the answer would be a straight "NO!".

The trailer did show some clever things, and the slow "I've got no strings" in the soundtrack was really creepy. However the trailer failed to do something fairly important:

It failed to tell me what the film was all about.

Now, I could guess a good part of it as I did read the original Ultron stories, and have a reasonable idea of what the character is all about. However, without that knowledge the trailer is just a load of random, fast-changing clips.

Let's compare this with the MLP trailers for Equestria Girls and Rainbow Rocks (if only because they are the last two trailers I have seen):

• Both trailers hinted at the story. Not a complete precis of the story, but enough to know what I am going to watch.
• Both trailers had a scene that sold the film to me. (Ironically Spike - not my favourite character - was the hook both times.)
• I didn't need to have an in-depth knowledge of the series to know what is going on.

Yes, there were some fast-changing clips. However they were in addition to the bits that have you the information, not instead of.

The Avengers: Age of Ultron trailer was pretty much fast-changing clips and (admittedly good) CGI. Showcasing all the nice CGI and all the fight scenes mean nothing to me. I'm not going to waste several pounds and a significant chunk of my day on the promise of some pretty CGI and a load of fights - I need to have a reasonable idea of what I am going to see. It's coming to something when a trailer for a spinoff from the My Little Pony franchise ultimately aimed at children shows more depth than a film supposedly aimed at adults.

Or perhaps I'm showing my age. That's a possibility too.

You're... kidding? Speaking as someone who has no knowledge of (and little interest in) comics, this trailer told me plenty - it's just that the trailer ('s editor) expects the viewer to connect a few dots instead of spoon-feeding the audience a pre-digested plot synopsis.

Prime example: the creepy, down-tempo version of "I've Got No Strings" from Pinocchio, which you yourself specifically remarked on. Okay, well, this isn't found footage, so somebody had to make a deliberate decision to create that and put it in, and then have the main villain (obviously, given that it's the same voice which opens the trailer talking about how "everyone screaming" is "beautiful") directly quote it just after the lines are sung. Now, spend one second thinking about any possible reason someone might have for choosing that particular song, and those particular lines. Does that seriously tell you nothing?

[Manga Shoggoth]

You're... kidding? Speaking as someone who has no knowledge of (and little interest in) comics, this trailer told me plenty - it's just that the trailer ('s editor) expects the viewer to connect a few dots instead of spoon-feeding the audience a pre-digested plot synopsis.

Prime example: the creepy, down-tempo version of "I've Got No Strings" from Pinocchio, which you yourself specifically remarked on. Okay, well, this isn't found footage, so somebody had to make a deliberate decision to create that and put it in, and then have the main villain (obviously, given that it's the same voice which opens the trailer talking about how "everyone screaming" is "beautiful") directly quote it just after the lines are sung. Now, spend one second thinking about any possible reason someone might have for choosing that particular song, and those particular lines. Does that seriously tell you nothing?

As I have said before, I don't expect a full plot synopsis with footnotes. I do expect more than a creepy rendition of "I've Got No Strings" and a severe battering of rapdly changing scenes that distract me rather than engaging my interest. To me the trailer is a confused mess.

In media res works best when you have something after the flurry. It's hard to get that in a short trailer, and we don't get it here.

[TheThan]

The problem with throwing everyone into the avengers is that movies can’t handle a ton of people well.
We know that there are eight characters in the avengers plus five more potential recruits.

The Avengers

1. Captain America
2. Iron Man
3. The Incredible Hulk
4. Thor
5. Black Widow
6. Hawkeye
7. Scarlett Witch
8. Quicksilver

possible avengers

1. Falcon
2. Ant man
3. Wasp
4. Dr. Strange
5. winter soldier/Bucky Barns

That’s 13 potential characters. That’s a hard number of characters to handle in one film. While it’s not impossible to make them all felt in the film, it’s still 13 superheroes to have on screen at one time. There are so many characters to choose from that they could easily swap out Scarlett Witch and Quicksilver (personally I vote for Ms. Marvel and the vision).

Now I doubt that Falcon and Bucky will be in age of ultron. Bucky hasn’t had his story finished and Falcon had his wings ripped off (could be fixed though) but you never know. Another option is that they’re not going all of these characters in Avengers 2, and wait until avengers 3, which will probably be the infinity war. Unless they decide to go off the rails they’ve already laid down.

[Joran]

The problem with throwing everyone into the avengers is that movies can’t handle a ton of people well.

That was the best part of the first Avengers for me. Everyone got their moment to shine, everybody got a bit of screen time. The balancing act that Joss Whedon managed to perform, which by all rights should have been a trainwreck, impressed me greatly.

[Dusk Eclipse]

The problem with throwing everyone into the avengers is that movies can’t handle a ton of people well.
We know that there are eight characters in the avengers plus five more potential recruits.

The Avengers

1. Captain America
2. Iron Man
3. The Incredible Hulk
4. Thor
5. Black Widow
6. Hawkeye
7. Scarlett Witch
8. Quicksilver
9. War Machine/Iron Patriot

possible avengers

1. Falcon
2. Ant man
3. Wasp
4. Dr. Strange
5. winter soldier/Bucky Barns

That’s 14 potential characters. That’s a hard number of characters to handle in one film. While it’s not impossible to make them all felt in the film, it’s still 14 superheroes to have on screen at one time. There are so many characters to choose from that they could easily swap out Scarlett Witch and Quicksilver (personally I vote for Ms. Marvel and the vision).

Now I doubt that Falcon and Bucky will be in age of ultron. Bucky hasn’t had his story finished and Falcon had his wings ripped off (could be fixed though) but you never know. Another option is that they’re not going all of these characters in Avengers 2, and wait until avengers 3, which will probably be the infinity war. Unless they decide to go off the rails they’ve already laid down.

Fixed that for you, and yes he is in the Avengers list (despite not being one, at least in the MCU, not sure in main continuity) because we have seen him in the trailer and the leaked images.

You are right in being cautious, but personally I think it can work.

[TheThan]

Fixed that for you, and yes he is in the Avengers list (despite not being one, at least in the MCU, not sure in main continuity) because we have seen him in the trailer and the leaked images.

You are right in being cautious, but personally I think it can work.

Oops missed one.

Iron Patriot is a terrible name anyway.

[huttj509]

a) I bet they got a real good deal from Disney to use the song.

b) It's gonna be tough for me to watch the movie without hearing Red Reddington. I'm not sure this is a bad thing, as Reddington is awesome.

[TheThan]

a) I bet they got a real good deal from Disney to use the song.

b) It's gonna be tough for me to watch the movie without hearing Red Reddington. I'm not sure this is a bad thing, as Reddington is awesome.

As long as they have an awesome soundtrack I'm game.

[Solamnicknight]

I personally liked the trailer, I think they used the disjointed images to make the tone seem somewhat frightening and creepy. Also Ultron at least to me seems like a more threatening villain than Loki. Don't get me wrong, I like Loki. But, Loki was more of schemer and had some sympathetic traits, whereas Ultron being not human but very driven almost feels like a robotic eldritch abomination. Also consider this, being that he's a self replicating automaton, he doesn't need food, water or sleep. He won't tire and if you destroy one body he'll just build another one. The Avengers despite being superheroes are still living beings that are going to be hunted relentlessly by Ultron. Another thing to consider is that even if they beat Ultron it will be a bittersweet victory since the general public is not going to be happy that Stark built this monster that the avengers will probably barely stop. The general populace in the MCU is more than likely going to hate superheroes after this.

[Kaez]

The problem with throwing everyone into the avengers is that movies can’t handle a ton of people well.
We know that there are ten characters in the avengers plus five more potential recruits.

The Avengers

1. Captain America
2. Iron Man
3. The Incredible Hulk
4. Thor
5. Black Widow
6. Hawkeye
7. Scarlett Witch
8. Quicksilver
9. War Machine/Iron Patriot
10. Vision

possible avengers

1. Falcon
2. Ant man
3. Wasp
4. Dr. Strange
5. winter soldier/Bucky Barns

That’s 15 potential characters. That’s a hard number of characters to handle in one film. While it’s not impossible to make them all felt in the film, it’s still 15 superheroes to have on screen at one time. There are so many characters to choose from that they could easily swap out Scarlett Witch and Quicksilver (personally I vote for Ms. Marvel and the vision).

Now I doubt that Falcon and Bucky will be in age of ultron. Bucky hasn’t had his story finished and Falcon had his wings ripped off (could be fixed though) but you never know. Another option is that they’re not going all of these characters in Avengers 2, and wait until avengers 3, which will probably be the infinity war. Unless they decide to go off the rails they’ve already laid down.

I actually had to fix this for the second time.... Paul Bettany is confirmed to be playing Jarvis/Vision..... I MAY have it in the wrong listing but there will be 15 characters at least. I for one am excited to see what happens in the film.

[Ramza00]

The made the beautiful and sexy James Spaders voice all computer :(

[Scowling Dragon]

Im kinda disappointed in the Ultron Design. Its way to human with its lips.

Ultron has a quit Iconic always open mouth. I know it wouldn't allow it to fully emote, but it makes it creepier and alien.

I liked HulkBuster Iron Man allot though. Clear movements and separations. Unlike the Tranformers it moves in an understandable way.

[jedipotter]

Yep. That was Quicksilver. His mailbox said Maximoff, which is Quicksilver's last name.

Also, the credits list him as Quicksilver.

No, no 'Maximoff' is like 'Smith' in Romania, Latverea, or wherever in Europe he is from... And credits? The credits don't count

But this doesn't come across to me from the trailer. And that's the problem.

That is a good point. But remember that 50%(or more) of the people in the audience for this move know the basic plot details and are just going to watch them 'spin' it all in a movie. The other 50% of the audience are the followers who will watch anything 'good', for the simple reason that they have not seen it yet. And this trailer is for the second group: lots of 'wow' and 'fluff' to say ''you should go see this movie''.

So, what this trailer tells me, as someone who has no idea about Marvel Comics, or what an "Ultron" is.

In this movie, Iron Man's armour turns into an evil robot. Apparently, the robot grows bigger at some point to fight the Hulk?

Well, the Iron Man Hulkbuster Armor and the Evil Iron Man Armor are both directly from the comics, so they at least did their homework there.

[SaintRidley]

a) I bet they got a real good deal from Disney to use the song.

They didn't need to. They are Disney.

[BeerMug Paladin]

They didn't need to. They are Disney.

I'm pretty sure that was a joke.

[Ravian]

No, no 'Maximoff' is like 'Smith' in Romania, Latverea, or wherever in Europe he is from... And credits? The credits don't count

Dude quit the denial, he's a mutant speedster with silver hair named Peter Maximoff with an implied familial relationship with Magneto ("My mom knew a guy who could move metal") and a little sister named Wanda. You can say all you can about him being different from the comics, but the only way they could make it more clear this was Quicksilver was by hanging a sign around his neck saying "Hello, my name is Quicksilver".

Plus apparently he's going to be in X-men: Apocalypse, so we might as well get used to him. (Personally I rather enjoyed him)

[Dienekes]

Dude quit the denial, he's a mutant speedster with silver hair named Peter Maximoff with an implied familial relationship with Magneto ("My mom knew a guy who could move metal") and a little sister named Wanda. You can say all you can about him being different from the comics, but the only way they could make it more clear this was Quicksilver was by hanging a sign around his neck saying "Hello, my name is Quicksilver".

Plus apparently he's going to be in X-men: Apocalypse, so we might as well get used to him. (Personally I rather enjoyed him)

As someone who has never liked Quicksilver in the comics, tv shows, and whatever else I've seen him in. Yeah, he was pretty fun in DoFP.

[Kitten Champion]

As someone who has never liked Quicksilver in the comics, tv shows, and whatever else I've seen him in. Yeah, he was pretty fun in DoFP.

Yeah, Quicksilver's an arrogant **** of Namorian proportions. That's not some failing of bad writers, except for Ultimate Quicksilver who was truly abominable all-around, but just his basic characterization. You're not supposed to like him, he's there for writers to throw internal conflict and daddy-issues into their team comic. The only version of him I liked before DoFP was in X-Men Evolution and even then he was still kind of annoying, the voice actor simply gave him a lot of life.

The Maximoff family is a whole can of crazy which I'm kind of glad they left out. The X-Men films were already overcrowded with characters and subplots before adding really weird familial strife to the mix.

[Dragonexx]

Well I'm psyched. I admit I was thrown off a bit by an Ultron with expressions, but i can see it working. Might make it a bit creepier.

[jedipotter]

but the only way they could make it more clear this was Quicksilver was by hanging a sign around his neck saying "Hello, my name is Quicksilver".

Well...they could have cut to a little European village where all the humble townsfolk were just about to burn poor Wanda at the stake for being a witch, and have Wolverine save her and then say ''Hey Petro, now you owe me one...I need you to...''

Just saying...

[Manga Shoggoth]

I think they used the disjointed images to make the tone seem somewhat frightening and creepy.

They managed that on the strength of "I've Got No Strings" alone...

Yeah, Quicksilver's an arrogant **** of Namorian proportions. That's not some failing of bad writers, except for Ultimate Quicksilver who was truly abominable all-around, but just his basic characterization. You're not supposed to like him, he's there for writers to throw internal conflict and daddy-issues into their team comic. The only version of him I liked before DoFP was in X-Men Evolution and even then he was still kind of annoying, the voice actor simply gave him a lot of life.

The Maximoff family is a whole can of crazy which I'm kind of glad they left out. The X-Men films were already overcrowded with characters and subplots before adding really weird familial strife to the mix.

Spoiler: Spoilered because slightly off-topic

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While I have seen Quicksilver depicted as an arrogant jerk on occasion, it never seemed to be a dominating trait to me, and the occasions I remember had some (admittedly not much) justification. The worst I can accuse him of was being overprotective of his sister, and not liking normal humans much - understandable under the circumstances.

I suspect that this is because I am used to earlier portrayals of him - I am talking about back in the old Avengers days, when the team was Cap, Wanda, Quicksilver and Hawkeye. At that time the person holding the arrogant card was Hawkeye.

Ye gods I'm feeling my age now...

I don't recall Quicksilver showing any major arrogant tendencies until around the time I stopped collecting comics (around the original Wanda/Vision romance, and I seem to remember something about a relationship with Crystal and Johnny Storm being involved).

Can anyone with a better memory, knowledge of the interim period or the actual comics to hand comment on the character development?

[MLai]

Ultron still has that huge gaping open mouth in that trailer. I don't see Bay-Optimus/ Bay-Turtle lips.
I think I saw teeth at the end though, like the lipless grimace of a skull.