Why didn't people like Age of Ultron?

[Shadyside]

I could never understand why people think this movie was forgettable or boring. I actually found the first Avenger movie to be dull as soon as they got into the Helicarrier. There wasn't really anything much to the movie except bring the team together, have some conflict in the group, and then conveniately save the day at the end. Ultron actually had much better character interactions, themes, conflicts, and presentation. This video does a decent job at what I am trying to say.

 

[SupahEwok]

It was kinda dumb, but most Marvel movies are kinda dumb, it's mainly a matter of which form of dumbness a viewer is willing to go along with.

 

[Johnny Novgorod]

I don't remember anything about it except thinking I'm not going to remember anything of this.

 

[Gordon_4]

I liked Age of Ultron just fine, James Spader was a hoot and I ended up liking their version of Quicksilver a great deal.

 

[Dwarvenhobble]

From what I remember (I quite enjoyed it) but the main criticisms of others were:

Shippers - were mad that they set up then broke up Black Widow and Bruce Banner

perpetually offended Feminist - were upset that Black Widow got Damselled and had to be rescued by Bruce Banner

Perpetually offended hypocrite Feminists - were mad Chris Hemsworth didn't have any shirtless scenes for them to "Totally admire his body in a higher way than you manchild pissbabies can understand that's totally not sexual or lusting after him or anything".

Hardcore Marvel fans were annoyed because despite being set in Doctor Doom's home town basically the finale never had him appear at all.

 

[Dalisclock]

I liked it fine. It just felt like it didn't quite live up to movies like Winter Soldier or the first Avengers or Infinity War.

It was basically middle of the pack for me, as far as the spectrum of Marvel movies go.

 

[Bedinsis]

It's the only Marvel movie I've seen. I disliked it because it felt like it was more interested in pointing out all the ways it connects itself to the various other movies in the series instead of making me emotionally engage with itself. Or rather it didn't give enough interest to the second task since I didn't.

 

[Hawki]

I had to look up where AoU is on my MCU rankings (it's #16, out of 23 films). In a way, that sums up a lot about AoU. I had to look up something to remind myself how I feel about it...or not.

I think that's the problem with AoU. It simply exists. It doesn't really tell us much about the characters, and when it does, the farm scenes feel out of sync with the rest of the movie. Ultron is a fun villain, but personally, I prefer the 'coldness' of machines from, say, the Matrix or Terminator, to his antics. There's also a bitter taste in the film that Sokovia is devasted by Tony's screwup, and it's only later that this is drawn attention to, in what feels like disaster control (from a narrative standpoint).

Ultron is a popcorn film. And fair enough, most MCU films are popcorn films. But if we assume that the Avengers installments are big, narrative-shifting entries, then Ultron feels like the odd one out. I've commented that Civil War feels like Avengers 2.5, and it's a far better film because the stakes are more intimate than "evil robot wants to destroy the world because reasons."

 

[XsjadoBlayde]

The villain was made out to be - to use the cringy parlance of its country of origin - a "badass" who would pose a proper threat to the group, but turned out yet another total useless disposable disappointment. He just sent all his clone mates to do everything for him too, the lazy fuckwit. It all got solved in a hail of weightless cgi yet again. Which isn't something I felt with civil war.

 

[BrawlMan]

The villain was made out to be - to use the cringy parlance of its country of origin - a "badass" who would pose a proper threat to the group, but turned out yet another total useless disposable disappointment. He just sent all his clone mates to do everything for him too, the lazy fuckwit. It all got solved in a hail of weightless cgi yet again. Which isn't something I felt with civil war.

I think that's the problem with AoU. It simply exists. It doesn't really tell us much about the characters, and when it does, the farm scenes feel out of sync with the rest of the movie. Ultron is a fun villain, but personally, I prefer the 'coldness' of machines from, say, the Matrix or Terminator, to his antics. There's also a bitter taste in the film that Sokovia is devasted by Tony's screwup, and it's only later that this is drawn attention to, in what feels like disaster control (from a narrative standpoint).

These reasons. A lot of the phase 2 Marvel films are not that good. Thor 2, Iron Man 2, and AoU. I prefer most of DC's output over most of Marvel's phase 2.

 

[Jarrito3002]

My issue with Ultron was the dialogue. I was at a moment in time where Joss Whedon snappy dialogue was annoying to me. Like I like there were some really good jokes and zingers in their but when 80% of everyone is snappy sassy person it just homogenized the characters too much.

I did like Ultron but he deserved at least two movies but sine Thanos was the big push for SummerSlam they can't happen so AoU just got stuck in the middle. At least its ending had the biggest impact in plot going into third phase.

 

[laggyteabag]

I think it was the general feeling of it being unnecessary.

Avengers 1 was cool because we finally got to see all of these characters on-screen at the same time, after 5 films worth of buildup.

Avengers Infinity War and Endgame were cool, because we finally got to see the payoff of the Infinity Stones, and Thanos, after about a billion films worth of buildup.

Age of Ultron was just a sequel. It was just the Avengers coming together again. There was no real buildup, there was no real payoff, there wasn't really much of a twist to the normal MCU formula, and there weren't any cool gimmicks. It just ultimately felt like "Avengers made a lot of money, lets make another one". The same can also be said about a lot of the other mediocre MCU sequels.

Also, there weren't really any new hero interactions. Sure, we got introduced to Scarlet Witch and Vision, and War Machine and Falcon basically made cameo appearances, but out of the proceeding movies, only the Guardians of the Galaxy were new, and they weren't even in the film. It was the same Avengers crew, and friends, basically.

Was Age of Ultron a better movie than Avengers 1? Maybe. Probably. But regardless, Avengers 1, and IW and Endgame just felt more special.

 

[Trunkage]

Ultron is a popcorn film. And fair enough, most MCU films are popcorn films. But if we assume that the Avengers installments are big, narrative-shifting entries, then Ultron feels like the odd one out. I've commented that Civil War feels like Avengers 2.5, and it's a far better film because the stakes are more intimate than "evil robot wants to destroy the world because reasons."

AoU was just set up for Civil War. It wasnt it's own thing first

Also *AGE* of Ultron? He was in control for a few days at most. That does not feel like an *AGE*

 

[Dalisclock]

AoU was just set up for Civil War. It wasnt it's own thing first

Also *AGE* of Ultron? He was in control for a few days at most. That does not feel like an *AGE*

I'm sure it was a complex metaphor for drone warfare or something, which could work if you turn your head and squint real hard.

 

[happyninja42]

I mostly found the movie entirely forgettable really. I'm sitting here trying to remember any details from it, and aside from the "lift the hammer" scene, there really isn't anything that sticks out as noteworthy.

Plus I really hated the fact that they went with one of the most cliche and annoying A.I. tropes. "Beep boop, I have been online 0.001 microseconds, and I have calculated that humanity must die...in order to save humanity. Beep boop. Processing evilness....process complete. Beep boop."

I just...no. Just, stop it. STAAAHP. Not only is it lazy ass writing from a fucking Final Fantasy villain, it's just boring to watch. Because from that point forward, you know the context of EVERY bit of dialogue that Ultron is going to spout. Nothing but cheap ass, nihilist 101 platitudes that make him sound more like the fucking Eurotrash band from The Big Lebowski.

There's probably a bunch of other criticisms I could point out, but that would first require me actually remembering anything of note about the film, which I just can't be arsed to do.

 

[Dalisclock]

I mostly found the movie entirely forgettable really. I'm sitting here trying to remember any details from it, and aside from the "lift the hammer" scene, there really isn't anything that sticks out as noteworthy.

Plus I really hated the fact that they went with one of the most cliche and annoying A.I. tropes. "Beep boop, I have been online 0.001 microseconds, and I have calculated that humanity must die...in order to save humanity. Beep boop. Processing evilness....process complete. Beep boop."

I just...no. Just, stop it. STAAAHP. Not only is it lazy as writing from a fucking Final Fantasy villain, it's just boring to watch. Because from that point forward, you know the context of EVERY bit of dialogue that Ultron is going to spout. Nothing but cheap ass, nihilist 101 platitudes that make him sound more like the fucking Eurotrash band from The Big Lebowski.

"Life... dreams... hope... Where do they come from? And where do they go? Such meaningless things...I'll destroy them all!"

-Kefka, FF6

I do find it interesting in Civil War that they went over a list of reasons the Avenger must run their actions by a government agency of sorts and Ultron was the only one that was really their fault. More specifically, it was Tony's fault. Ironically, the rest of them were the Avengers keeping shit from getting drastically worse. Particularly notable that they brought up the whole helicarrier thing in Winter Soldier, and that was a result of SHIELD being infiltrated with Nazis. But we're gonna blame the avengers for that one too, because SHIELD doesn't know how to run a proper background check

 

[MrCalavera]

I'm sure it was a complex metaphor for drone warfare or something, which could work if you turn your head and squint real hard.

And Winter Soldier did the same metaphor, but better.

 

[Samtemdo8]

This movie made me stop watching the MCU.

 

[BrawlMan]

I remember when Moviebob was praising AOU to hell and back like a Marvel fan boy, only change is mind in 2019. He claimed it was still better than some of DC's output, but that was a load of bullshit.

 

[happyninja42]

-Kefka, FF6

I do find it interesting in Civil War that they went over a list of reasons the Avenger must run their actions by a government agency of sorts and Ultron was the only one that was really their fault. More specifically, it was Tony's fault. Ironically, the rest of them were the Avengers keeping shit from getting drastically worse. Particularly notable that they brought up the whole helicarrier thing in Winter Soldier, and that was a result of SHIELD being infiltrated with Nazis. But we're gonna blame the avengers for that one too, because SHIELD doesn't know how to run a proper background check

Yeaaahhh....the Civil War thing is a bit messy in my opinion. Like, I don't actually have an issue with the basic idea of people with super powers at the very least having said stuff documented/registered. To me that's no different than someone wanting to own a gun, having to have it registered, so if it's ever used in a crime, they have an idea of where to start investigating. Seems reasonable to me when the things Marvel characters can do are equivalent to WMDs. But yeah, the examples they use in the film, are really flimsy. If every Marvel plot had been along the lines of Ultron, where it was "something we did that went wrong", then there would be more justification for it.

Good idea in my opinion, the Team Stark thing, just REALLY bad justification/rationale based on examples provided.