Avengers: THE AGE OF ULTRON

[Dave (imported)]

It has finally hit a channel I pay for --

STARZ Channels (and the ENCORE Channels) finished showing Spartacus and Black Sails. This was so STARZ could begin this year's season of Black Sails. I don't watch Black Sails. I have no interest in it for some reason.

This isn't the comic book version of the "Age of Ultron."

This is a darker movie than any of the preceding AVENGERS and MARVEL Movies. It is a more thoughtful movie.

AVENGERS, THE AGE OF ULTRON is the second AVENGERS movie with that name.

A tiny list -- DON'T LET THE LIST SCARE YOU AWAY...

1) Captain America - The First Avenger

2) Iron Man

3) Iron Man #2

4) The Incredible Hulk (2008)

5) Thor

6) THE AVENGERS

7) Iron Man #3

8) Thor, the Dark World

9) Captain America, The Winter Soldier

10) Guardians of the Galaxy

11) THE AVENGERS, Age of Ultron (2015)

12) ANT MAN (2015)

Added: I've messed up the entire movie with that list. Ignore it when you watch the movie. Don't think of it as part of a larger story, think of it as a movie unique to itself. Look to the characters inside the story. Sorry. Somedays, my inner nerd is a putz.

This takes place after THE WINTER SOLDIER and the AVENGERS TEAM has lots of history battling Hydra before it starts.

They are still not quite a team in the sense that they all have fears and doubts and weaknesses. They struggle to be normal but not normal. They like all heroes (in the words of ULTRON) seek to create that which they fears. Soldiers fear war and so create bigger and better war machines. But I get ahead of the story.

Hydra has a base of operations in an Eastern European Country and is doing bad things with LOKI's Staff. The Staff contains an Infinity Stone and the Infinity stones have great powers. What this stone is and how its power is what this movie is all about.

It opens with a battle scene against Hydra and their base in Sokovia, Eastern Europe. There we discover that HYDRA has augmented humans -- The Maximoff Twins -- Quicksilver and the Scarlet Witch. At first enemies and then comrades. A duality.

When they get back to base, Tony Stark starts to play with LOKI's STAFF and the A.I. in the Infinity stone creates ULTRON, the living representation of Stark's wet dream -- a living robot capable of defending the world. ULTRON is Tony Stark.

And like Dr Frankenstein, Tony Stark discovers that Man was not meant to meddle with the creation of life.

James Spader plays ULTRON and it is scary to watch and listen to this new villain as he weaves a deadly web. As Ultron grows more powerful and sets out to cleanse the world of humans and start over, like a God kicking an anthill. On this rock, I will build my church and the rock is Vibranium. . . Our heroes fight like crazy to retrieve the scepter.

As the story progresses, something does exist that can control the Infinity Stone and it isn't ULTRON. It finds a way to become life and become what it was meant to be... It is VISION and he is a new AVENGER.

How it all ends is an imaginative and quite thoughtful story of what it takes to be humans na what it takes to be a hero.

There are no punches or fancy twists here. There is action, fear, doubt and more action.

BTW - During the Credits (like in most of the Marvel Movies), THANOS appears, He is unhappy with his creation. He takes up THE INFINITY GLOVE and vows to collect the six INFINITY STONES and remake time and space. That sets up the next AVENGERS movie -- THE INFINITY WAR.

[Dave (imported)]

We saw Three INFINITY STONES in the THOR movies -- The Tesseract, Loki's Staff, and Red Aether

We saw another INFINITY STONE in GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY -- The Orb

The INFINITY GLOVE made an appearance in the THOR movie.

THANOS was introduced to the world in GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY.

However, THE AVENGERS, AGE OF ULTRON stands alone as a movie even though it is set inside the Marvel Universe of Superheroes.

[Paolo]

Honestly, I have to confess, I am not a huge Marvel fan. I'm a DC geek.

I know, the shame of it...

[Dave (imported)]

This is Victor Frankenstein's monster with the brain of Tony Stark.

Quite a frightening figure.

[hopper44 (imported)]

I've seen all the movies on your list, enjoyed all of them except Thor, The Dark World. Wondering what the significance of the order of the list is. It looks almost in date order of when they came out, but Capt. Am. First Avenger came out somewhere in the middle.

[Dave (imported)]

AHA.

I missed that on the list I used to create my post.

Captain America - The First Avenger

occurs before all the other stories. It is set in WW2 and the rest are set either modern or near future.

As for THOR: The Dark World, it is definitely one of those stores that has a few "Scratch your head and say huh?" moments. It wasn't to be a love story for the ages (And doesn't succeed). It's high fantasy and Science Fiction at the same time. Actors like Christopher Eccleston and Stellan Skarsgard are wasted in their roles. I watch when its on and enjoy if but there's so many things wrong, it's eye-roll time.

However, I thought Iron Man 3 sucked the mighty hairy big one and won't watch it as a repeat.

Speaking of bad movies... After Howard The Duck showed up at the very end of GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY, the producers and Marvel promised that HOWARD THE DUCK (the movie) will never be remade or get a sequel. That original MARVEL universe movie of "Howard the Duck" is so hated and despised that one sighting of Howard created such rancor, that they promised "never again" ...

AVENGERS: The Age of Ultron is much darker and philosophical than the first AVENGERS movie.

One last thought -- when I watched ANT MAN, I thought the link made to Tony Stark and THE AVENGERS was slim and contrived.

I am hoping that when the GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY meet the AVENGERS it doesn't suck. I suspect that will happen in THE INFINITY WAR because of the way the characters are being introduced.

PS - I'm a nerd

[Dave (imported)]

I came back to this thread because I read a rumor.

What if Tony Stark's hallucination of the Avengers dead and dying is not merely his fears but a vision of the future?

What if it is a scene from Avengers: The Infinity War ?

What if this is the a motivation for Tony Stark to take on Captain America in Avengers: Civil War ?