Age of Ultron: Roundtable (with spoilers!)

Jen: I saw Avengers: Age of Ultron for the second time this weekend, and enjoyed it thoroughly!  But I know many of my fellow writers at Geek Girls Inc. did not feel the same way.  Admittedly, my comic book pedigree is not as strong as it could be - I primarily got to know both Marvel and DC characters by watching the Super Friends in the 1980s and Batman: The Animated Series and the X-Men cartoons in the 1990s.  Also, I enjoy a movie with great action sequences, even if I have to check my brain at the door - so I asked my fellow GGI staffers what they thought were the pros and cons of Age of Ultron.

Lindsey:  Here are my thoughts on Age of Ultron:

• Stunts & special effects are of course stunning
  
• I dig Banner & Natasha, but why do female characters have to always be a romantic lead?
  
• Is that the farm house from the walking dead?
  
• Majority of extras were women and minorities
  
• Sound effects from Star Wars
  
• Elizabeth Olsen is the best actor in her family
  
• Tony Stark carries yet another film
  
• The typical snark
  
• Hawkeye is still pretty lame and an unnecessary member of the team
  
• James Spader can do no wrong
  
• A few bits for the fanboys and fangirls (such as Wakanda)

The whole movie is basically summed up by this quote from Hawkeye: “The city is flying and we're fighting an army of robots. And I have a bow and arrow. Nothing makes sense.”

It's a fun action film, but not as good as the stand-alones.  Which shouldn't be a surprise.

Brooke:  Cons: several weird attempts at humor that fell flat, the ultimate supercomputer villain who had no reason to actually fail, the forced all-American-family-man Hawkeye story, the further stereotyping of Black Widow, and super long action scenes that were overly destructive.

Joelle: Con - 0% Loki!

Lauren: Pros: Just about everything - I even like the way they changed the creation stories for both Ultron and Vision (despite the fact they are not Comic Canon) to make sense with the MCU movies that have come before.

Con: I feel this movie suffers from "middle child syndrome." It seemed like a action-packed pipeline set to connect the movies before this, to all the next crop of movies leading up to Infinity Wars.  I think many moments didn't "land" because they were meant only as set-ups and Easter eggs for future films and they didn't serve the Ultron movie at all. It struggled not to be the prequel to Cap 3/Civil War rather than a single story on its own. Something I know bothered Joss, and ultimately drove him to leave MCU directing.

Meg: (Trigger warning: Unpopular opinion!!) Joss is gone?? Thank god! 

Pros: Awesome action sequences, engaging storyline even for those with only a barely-passing knowledge of the Marvel Universe, and Scarlet Witch is the bomb dot com! 

Cons: Black Widow, uppity woman, gets put back in her place; some weird all-American domestic scene; Joss Whedon's hi-larious yuks thrown in gratuitously; Ultron wasn't the most fun villain.

People more familiar with Marvel: does Ultron always talk like a sarcastic turbodouche? Or is talking like a teenager in desparate need of a swirly part of his character?

---

Lauren: I think they were trying to have him mirror they more egomaniacal aspects of Tony's personality.  And no - he is usually more robo-flat/maniacal like DC's Brainiac.

Meg: I figured-- but it would be nice to have a cold-scary-unfeeling robot as a foil to the plucky Avengers, instead of more Stark snark. I do love me some scary, unfeeling robots.

Lindsey: Thank goodness I'm not the only one who sees the Avenger movies as simply connection films to set up stand-alones!

What are your thoughts on Age of Ultron? Sound off in the comments!