25 Days of Super Christmas - Day1

Marvel Watch: Avengers - Age of Ultron

So... I had the benefit and/or handicap of seeing Avengers: Age of Ultron in its third weekend of release.  As always, a little context:

I was never a big Avengers reader growing up.  I was far more into Uncanny X-Men for my Marvel team book of choice, but I was also not a reader of Thor, Iron Man and most of the rest of the Avengers line up of characters, and only dipped in and out of Captain America, a book I had certain opinions about when it came to tone and what I was interested in reading.  Most of what I know about the Avengers comes from reading Marvel Super Heroes Role-Playing Game supplements and character guides, and via comic dork osmosis.

Thus, I don't have as many conceptual ideas regarding Avengers as I might about lots of other characters, especially from DC Comics.  But Marvel was always better about balancing character and plot, and so the Marvel characters have tended to be fixed points over the years in ways that DC characters so often seemed to struggle.  But if you ask me "what's Wanda Maximoff like?", I can give you a basic idea, and feel fairly confident, even if I only ever owned a dozen or so comics in which Wanda appeared.

The movie has taken it a bit on the chin from clickbait articles and folks looking to weigh in, and I was under the impression this installment in the Marvel Cinematic Universe was likely to be something endured to make sense of coming MCU movies.

But, you know, I actually liked it better than the first Avengers movie.

A Change from the Comics I'd Be Okay with in the New Avengers Movie

I'm going to be away for the first two weekends of the release of Avengers: Age of Ultron.  I'm fine with this.  It's not like I think the movie looks like it holds that many surprises for us comic nerds with a passing knowledge of Marvel Comics lore.

I'm pretty much a fan of fidelity to the comics, and I think Marvel can attribute a lot of their success to sticking with the core conflicts and traits of their characters and universe.  But...

By just using his voice for the villainous Ultron, aren't we wasting James Spader?

Now, bear with me - but I think most of us have seen Pretty in Pink and realized the only character who isn't kind of a loser in the movie is Steff played by the incomparable James Spader.  I mean, sure he went about courting Molly Ringwald poorly and maybe got mad when she rejected him.  The guy has feelings, too, you know.  And when you watch it again - she's kind of an idiot in this movie, isn't she?  She unwittingly strings along Ducky from the age of 5 like she can't read human interaction any better than an ATM, and then goes for this Blane guy who clearly isn't comfortable with what passes for class differences in a John Hughes movie.*  But he is rich, so....  he's better than Ducky fersure.

Steff, meanwhile, moves on, throwing parties, hooking up with ladies who appreciate him, belittling anyone and everything in his path, and beating up Ducky when the need arises.

To my point, Steff is awesome.

The secret hero of "Pretty in Pink"

The Avengers: Age of Technical Difficulties

SHIELD Council as non-co-located videoconferencing victims.

Our own PaulT worked on this film recording audio, so if the audio is especially crisp and clear, you know it's PauT's special brand of audio recording magic.

Marvel Watch: Avengers (2012)

What are you going to say about Avengers three years later and with 90% of the world's population now well aware of the exploits of Earth's Mightiest Heroes?  We watched it to get caught up for Age of Ultron, but I am realizing it's been a while since I've seen Thor II, and I don't own a copy of either Thor for some reason.  No, really, I like the Thor movie a lot.  They're super fun.

Of all the Marvel movies, I'm still not sure this one is even in my top 4.  It counts on the fact you really don't care that Loki's plan makes no sense whatsoever in order to keep up with the movie, and Loki makes his escape in the opening sequence from the back of a pick-up truck, like there should be banjo music playing.  There are some choices made that maybe weren't the best in retrospect, and there's a lot of standing around on the heli-carrier.  I mean, a lot of it.

The thing is, despite what I think are some scripting problems, editing decisions that could have been made differently, and the fact it features my least favorite of Caps' costumes (I really dig what I've seen in the trailer for Age of Ultron), it's still got so many good parts, you can overlook the deficiencies and still like it quite a lot.  If nothing else, the actors are all very specific and on-point in their performances.  That sort of team-effort in a movie can be what makes the difference making your Star Wars franchise hum versus the endless sea of forgotten franchises that had teams but focused entirely too much on any one character (I still remember being surprised when I read as a kid that Star Wars was Luke's story.  Of course it is, but, you know, I thought of him as one of a bunch of people) or where the actors lacked chemistry.

Anyway, it's big-screen fun, and it really does tie in with the movies before and after so seamlessly - if you ignore the useless army of forgettable villains and their ridiculous scheme.  But it doesn't matter, it does give our heroes something to overcome and come together, and that's what the movie is all about.

Here's something we haven't talked about yet - Avengers: Age of Ultron

Here's that new Avengers 2 Trailer



Looks pretty snazzy, and like Superman/ Batman better not bring a knife to this gunfight when the JLA forms here shortly.

Of the various Marvel movies, Avengers still isn't my favorite.  Doesn't have to be, because that's a lot of movies and I've liked all of them to some extent or other.  Even both versions of The Hulk (don't judge me).  So I'm not going to act like a goon and pretend for two seconds like I'm not pretty jazzed about this trailer and the ones that preceded it.

You may recall that I wasn't (and am not) much of an Avengers reader when it comes to the comics, so I don't have too many preconceived notions regarding Earth's Mightiest Heroes.  In fact, I'm still confused about what happened to Monica Rambeau - Captain Marvel as she was in the first Avengers comic I ever read (she had a rad power set).*

Anyway, this looks like a pretty crazy summer blockbuster.  It's interesting to watch the Marvel U gel and become something long known by comic fans but unknown in almost any other media.  And these Avengers movies that pull the whole thing together are a pretty great idea.

So, what have y'all been thinking when it comes to Avengers 2 and the Marvel Cinematic U?

*I may have a comic with her in it that's sitting on my coffee table that I just haven't read yet.  Is she in Mighty Avengers?