Avengers 2: Age of Ultron - Seriously

[MetalPSI]

So, the wife and I finally got to see it last night.....here are some thoughts and observations:

 

 

The Good:

 

- Enjoyed the final set-piece scene quite a bit. Yeah, it was another army of generic bad guys to Smash, but the idea of creating your own meteor out of a city to hasten along an extinction level event was a nice departure from the usual bad-guy-wants-to-destroy-the-world scenario. Didn't realize the importance of the church and the do-hickey inside until I remembered Ultron's comment from earlier in the movie on how the elders built it in the middle of the city, making it crucial for his plan . All in all, an excellent final scene.

 

- The down-time at Barton's "safehouse" was a good way to consolidate previous events and to further character development. Enjoyed it and virtually all of the interactions between the main characters.

 

The Bad:

 

- James Spader is a talented, witty, sardonic character actor with a great voice. Sadly, at some point it was decided that he should supply more then just the voice of Ultron, but the personality as well. I didn't think it worked, AT ALL. Perhaps largely due to the missing development of Ultron as a character, but the -script and Spader's treatment of it made the mad Robot come across like a heel from a late-night wrestling show in a run-down American Legion hall. Loki was infinitely more palatable in the first movie, and perhaps in large part because we already had an understanding of him from the previous Thor film. In this one, we got an alien AI that goes from being the intended sentinel of humanity to it's destroyer in about three milliseconds. There you go, instant world-destroying bad guy. Again, it just seemed hollow and empty, and I really couldn't buy it.

 

The Ugly:

 

- Really, enjoyed 75% of the movie and thought it was well constructed (outside of Ultron), but I couldn't help feeling like I did watching Kingdom of Heaven in the theatres; that there were large, crucial chunks of the movie missing and my understanding/enjoyment of the movie hinged on my imagination filling in those missing pieces. I HATE that. BTW, for anyone who has ever seen both theatrical and director's cut versions of KOH, you know what I mean...they are totally different movies, with the director's cut giving you much more background and understanding of the characters and their motivations.

 

With AOU, I felt like I went to go see a Four Act Play, left for intermission after Act I and returned as Act 3 was about to get underway. I understand that as far as editing goes, scenes that develop backstory are always the first to go, but they shouldn't be if they leave the main antagonist as a hollow, one dimensional bad guy. As some have noted earlier, the transition from Ultron leaving Avengers HQ shortly after his "birth" via the net, to meeting with the Romanoffs in the church (with new body and all) was way too abrupt. Clearly, we missed something important in between. Of course, the decision on how and what to cut largely falls on the Director and the Editor, but I can't imagine Joss Whedon really thought a three hour movie was going to be what the studio wanted, so a large portion of the blame falls on him for the bloated plot having to be shoe-horned into a clunky, final edit. I suppose they always could've cut out a few more superfluous action scenes and kept more of the storyline intact, but that wouldn't appease the studio who wants to keep as many expensive 3D sequences in as possible. And now, Marvel will have a whole new built-in revenue stream as loyalists and fellow fanboys clamor for what will hopefully be a more satisfying Director's Cut when the Blu-Ray is released. Genius really.

 

All in all, a B- from me. I'll happily view the Director's Cut when its released, but I won't be buying any more tickets to watch this one in the theatres. Unlike Captain America: Winter Soldier (which was a near perfect superhero movie that I saw three times in the theatre), this movie won't be getting any more of my money.

 

 

 

Great review with some good insights.

 

 

I really enjoyed the movie as I don't really put a lot of demands on the genre and willfully blind myself to some glaring plot holes. It's all good fun and great entertainment. But one thing made me almost laugh out loud, which was the idea that lifting a city into the air and dropping it is going to cause an extinction event.

 

The Chicxulub meteor impacted the Earth with an estimated speed of 30000m/s, the city afloat in AoU (if suspended from 1km) would impact at approximately 500m/s. Kinetic energy is proportional to the square of the velocity so if you do the math, the city's kinetic energy on impact would be 0.03% of the Chicxulub meteor.

 

Chicxulub had an estimated yield of 130 000 000 mega tons so at 0.03% that leaves the city impact with a yield of about 0.5 mega tons - hardly extinction level (I wouldn't want to be under it though).

 

I know there are holes in the reasoning and maybe I am missing something completely but I thought it was kind of funny.

 

 

 

 

This just gave me such a nerd chubby, you have no idea.

 

I also found this laughable, but was funny to see how others in the theater were riveted to their seats

 

How far up did the city get then?

 

 

 

 

I guess I need to hand in my pocket protector! My first calculation was for the city dropping from 10km not 1km so no big deal there. However 0.03% of 130 000 000 mega tons is 39 000 mega tons (not the 0.5 mega tons I have above - sorry about that) Extinction level? I would guess yes.

 

But since I have a healthy sized foot in my mouth now, The Chicxulub meteor was estimated to be 10k in diameter and I'm guessing the city was maybe 1km across and suspended 1km. It would then land with a speed of 140m/s with a mass 1/10 of Chicxulub with a yield of 280 mega tons. Extinction level? maybe

 

Neat!

 

 

 

 

Nah, I don't agree it would be. Big hole, yes. X? No. Doubt it would block out the sun worldwide

[Mr Sneeze]

So, the wife and I finally got to see it last night.....here are some thoughts and observations:

 

 

The Good:

 

- Enjoyed the final set-piece scene quite a bit. Yeah, it was another army of generic bad guys to Smash, but the idea of creating your own meteor out of a city to hasten along an extinction level event was a nice departure from the usual bad-guy-wants-to-destroy-the-world scenario. Didn't realize the importance of the church and the do-hickey inside until I remembered Ultron's comment from earlier in the movie on how the elders built it in the middle of the city, making it crucial for his plan . All in all, an excellent final scene.

 

- The down-time at Barton's "safehouse" was a good way to consolidate previous events and to further character development. Enjoyed it and virtually all of the interactions between the main characters.

 

The Bad:

 

- James Spader is a talented, witty, sardonic character actor with a great voice. Sadly, at some point it was decided that he should supply more then just the voice of Ultron, but the personality as well. I didn't think it worked, AT ALL. Perhaps largely due to the missing development of Ultron as a character, but the -script and Spader's treatment of it made the mad Robot come across like a heel from a late-night wrestling show in a run-down American Legion hall. Loki was infinitely more palatable in the first movie, and perhaps in large part because we already had an understanding of him from the previous Thor film. In this one, we got an alien AI that goes from being the intended sentinel of humanity to it's destroyer in about three milliseconds. There you go, instant world-destroying bad guy. Again, it just seemed hollow and empty, and I really couldn't buy it.

 

The Ugly:

 

- Really, enjoyed 75% of the movie and thought it was well constructed (outside of Ultron), but I couldn't help feeling like I did watching Kingdom of Heaven in the theatres; that there were large, crucial chunks of the movie missing and my understanding/enjoyment of the movie hinged on my imagination filling in those missing pieces. I HATE that. BTW, for anyone who has ever seen both theatrical and director's cut versions of KOH, you know what I mean...they are totally different movies, with the director's cut giving you much more background and understanding of the characters and their motivations.

 

With AOU, I felt like I went to go see a Four Act Play, left for intermission after Act I and returned as Act 3 was about to get underway. I understand that as far as editing goes, scenes that develop backstory are always the first to go, but they shouldn't be if they leave the main antagonist as a hollow, one dimensional bad guy. As some have noted earlier, the transition from Ultron leaving Avengers HQ shortly after his "birth" via the net, to meeting with the Romanoffs in the church (with new body and all) was way too abrupt. Clearly, we missed something important in between. Of course, the decision on how and what to cut largely falls on the Director and the Editor, but I can't imagine Joss Whedon really thought a three hour movie was going to be what the studio wanted, so a large portion of the blame falls on him for the bloated plot having to be shoe-horned into a clunky, final edit. I suppose they always could've cut out a few more superfluous action scenes and kept more of the storyline intact, but that wouldn't appease the studio who wants to keep as many expensive 3D sequences in as possible. And now, Marvel will have a whole new built-in revenue stream as loyalists and fellow fanboys clamor for what will hopefully be a more satisfying Director's Cut when the Blu-Ray is released. Genius really.

 

All in all, a B- from me. I'll happily view the Director's Cut when its released, but I won't be buying any more tickets to watch this one in the theatres. Unlike Captain America: Winter Soldier (which was a near perfect superhero movie that I saw three times in the theatre), this movie won't be getting any more of my money.

 

 

 

Great review with some good insights.

 

 

I really enjoyed the movie as I don't really put a lot of demands on the genre and willfully blind myself to some glaring plot holes. It's all good fun and great entertainment. But one thing made me almost laugh out loud, which was the idea that lifting a city into the air and dropping it is going to cause an extinction event.

 

The Chicxulub meteor impacted the Earth with an estimated speed of 30000m/s, the city afloat in AoU (if suspended from 1km) would impact at approximately 500m/s. Kinetic energy is proportional to the square of the velocity so if you do the math, the city's kinetic energy on impact would be 0.03% of the Chicxulub meteor.

 

Chicxulub had an estimated yield of 130 000 000 mega tons so at 0.03% that leaves the city impact with a yield of about 0.5 mega tons - hardly extinction level (I wouldn't want to be under it though).

 

I know there are holes in the reasoning and maybe I am missing something completely but I thought it was kind of funny.

 

 

 

 

This just gave me such a nerd chubby, you have no idea.

 

I also found this laughable, but was funny to see how others in the theater were riveted to their seats

 

How far up did the city get then?

 

 

 

 

I guess I need to hand in my pocket protector! My first calculation was for the city dropping from 10km not 1km so no big deal there. However 0.03% of 130 000 000 mega tons is 39 000 mega tons (not the 0.5 mega tons I have above - sorry about that) Extinction level? I would guess yes.

 

But since I have a healthy sized foot in my mouth now, The Chicxulub meteor was estimated to be 10k in diameter and I'm guessing the city was maybe 1km across and suspended 1km. It would then land with a speed of 140m/s with a mass 1/10 of Chicxulub with a yield of 280 mega tons. Extinction level? maybe

 

Neat!

 

 

 

 

Nah, I don't agree it would be. Big hole, yes. X? No. Doubt it would block out the sun worldwide

 

 

Last post on this... I promise.

 

A 10KM drop would yield 3900 mega tons (adjusted for 1/10th mass of Chicxulub)

A 1km drop yields 280 mega tons.

 

I have no idea if this is extinction level though I would guess the higher number would be. At least it puts it in the range of plausibility which I did not see coming at all. Again... neat!

 

[yoddler]

Wouldn't the giganto vibranium rod make a greater impact than just the land mass alone and wouldn't the super giganto jets make it fall at a greater speed?

[Chillax23]

Is it just me or did I miss:

 

 

the black panther? Or was he only to be revealed in civil war?]

 

[Mr Sneeze]

So, the wife and I finally got to see it last night.....here are some thoughts and observations:

 

 

The Good:

 

- Enjoyed the final set-piece scene quite a bit. Yeah, it was another army of generic bad guys to Smash, but the idea of creating your own meteor out of a city to hasten along an extinction level event was a nice departure from the usual bad-guy-wants-to-destroy-the-world scenario. Didn't realize the importance of the church and the do-hickey inside until I remembered Ultron's comment from earlier in the movie on how the elders built it in the middle of the city, making it crucial for his plan . All in all, an excellent final scene.

 

- The down-time at Barton's "safehouse" was a good way to consolidate previous events and to further character development. Enjoyed it and virtually all of the interactions between the main characters.

 

The Bad:

 

- James Spader is a talented, witty, sardonic character actor with a great voice. Sadly, at some point it was decided that he should supply more then just the voice of Ultron, but the personality as well. I didn't think it worked, AT ALL. Perhaps largely due to the missing development of Ultron as a character, but the -script and Spader's treatment of it made the mad Robot come across like a heel from a late-night wrestling show in a run-down American Legion hall. Loki was infinitely more palatable in the first movie, and perhaps in large part because we already had an understanding of him from the previous Thor film. In this one, we got an alien AI that goes from being the intended sentinel of humanity to it's destroyer in about three milliseconds. There you go, instant world-destroying bad guy. Again, it just seemed hollow and empty, and I really couldn't buy it.

 

The Ugly:

 

- Really, enjoyed 75% of the movie and thought it was well constructed (outside of Ultron), but I couldn't help feeling like I did watching Kingdom of Heaven in the theatres; that there were large, crucial chunks of the movie missing and my understanding/enjoyment of the movie hinged on my imagination filling in those missing pieces. I HATE that. BTW, for anyone who has ever seen both theatrical and director's cut versions of KOH, you know what I mean...they are totally different movies, with the director's cut giving you much more background and understanding of the characters and their motivations.

 

With AOU, I felt like I went to go see a Four Act Play, left for intermission after Act I and returned as Act 3 was about to get underway. I understand that as far as editing goes, scenes that develop backstory are always the first to go, but they shouldn't be if they leave the main antagonist as a hollow, one dimensional bad guy. As some have noted earlier, the transition from Ultron leaving Avengers HQ shortly after his "birth" via the net, to meeting with the Romanoffs in the church (with new body and all) was way too abrupt. Clearly, we missed something important in between. Of course, the decision on how and what to cut largely falls on the Director and the Editor, but I can't imagine Joss Whedon really thought a three hour movie was going to be what the studio wanted, so a large portion of the blame falls on him for the bloated plot having to be shoe-horned into a clunky, final edit. I suppose they always could've cut out a few more superfluous action scenes and kept more of the storyline intact, but that wouldn't appease the studio who wants to keep as many expensive 3D sequences in as possible. And now, Marvel will have a whole new built-in revenue stream as loyalists and fellow fanboys clamor for what will hopefully be a more satisfying Director's Cut when the Blu-Ray is released. Genius really.

 

All in all, a B- from me. I'll happily view the Director's Cut when its released, but I won't be buying any more tickets to watch this one in the theatres. Unlike Captain America: Winter Soldier (which was a near perfect superhero movie that I saw three times in the theatre), this movie won't be getting any more of my money.

 

 

 

Great review with some good insights.

 

 

I really enjoyed the movie as I don't really put a lot of demands on the genre and willfully blind myself to some glaring plot holes. It's all good fun and great entertainment. But one thing made me almost laugh out loud, which was the idea that lifting a city into the air and dropping it is going to cause an extinction event.

 

The Chicxulub meteor impacted the Earth with an estimated speed of 30000m/s, the city afloat in AoU (if suspended from 1km) would impact at approximately 500m/s. Kinetic energy is proportional to the square of the velocity so if you do the math, the city's kinetic energy on impact would be 0.03% of the Chicxulub meteor.

 

Chicxulub had an estimated yield of 130 000 000 mega tons so at 0.03% that leaves the city impact with a yield of about 0.5 mega tons - hardly extinction level (I wouldn't want to be under it though).

 

I know there are holes in the reasoning and maybe I am missing something completely but I thought it was kind of funny.

 

 

 

 

This just gave me such a nerd chubby, you have no idea.

 

I also found this laughable, but was funny to see how others in the theater were riveted to their seats

 

How far up did the city get then?

 

 

 

 

I guess I need to hand in my pocket protector! My first calculation was for the city dropping from 10km not 1km so no big deal there. However 0.03% of 130 000 000 mega tons is 39 000 mega tons (not the 0.5 mega tons I have above - sorry about that) Extinction level? I would guess yes.

 

But since I have a healthy sized foot in my mouth now, The Chicxulub meteor was estimated to be 10k in diameter and I'm guessing the city was maybe 1km across and suspended 1km. It would then land with a speed of 140m/s with a mass 1/10 of Chicxulub with a yield of 280 mega tons. Extinction level? maybe

 

Neat!

 

 

 

 

Nah, I don't agree it would be. Big hole, yes. X? No. Doubt it would block out the sun worldwide

 

 

Last post on this... I promise.

 

A 10KM drop would yield 3900 mega tons (adjusted for 1/10th mass of Chicxulub)

A 1km drop yields 280 mega tons.

 

I have no idea if this is extinction level though I would guess the higher number would be. At least it puts it in the range of plausibility which I did not see coming at all. Again... neat!

 

 

OK, one more...

 

This is a cool site if you have a few minutes.

 

http://www.tulane.edu/~sanelson/Natural_Disasters/impacts.htm

 

"For comparison, the amount of energy needed to create a nuclear winter on the Earth as a result of nuclear war is about 8,000 megatons, ..."

 

Dropping a 1km asteroid 10km doesn't seem to hit that threshold but getting it 5 or 10km higher would do the trick.

 

I have no idea what the vibranium would add to the mix. I don't remember anyone mentioning what it would add to the impact.

 

I did really enjoy this movie.

 

* I am editing this in after the fact as I don't want to add another post on the subject.

 

After more thought, I found another obvious oversight on my part. If I assume the floating hunk of city to have a diameter of 1km or 1/10th the diameter of the Chicxulub meteor then the yield would de reduced by a factor of 1000 since volume is proportional to the cube of the radius, i.e. the floating city would have a mass 1/1000th that of the Chicxulub meteor.

 

So if the city falls from a 10km height the yield would be 39 mega tons and we're back to yes it's a big bang but not earth threatening.

 

 

 

[Bosco685]

[Comicopolis]

[Bosco685]

NORTH AMERICA: Early Weekend Estimates: 'Avengers: Age of Ultron' Eyes $78M Sophomore Frame; 'Hot Pursuit' Could Take $12.9M (Saturday Update)

 

Saturday Update: Disney reports that Avengers: Age of Ultron added another $21.34 million to its haul on Friday, representing a 75 percent drop from its opening day-plus-Thursday combo last week -- slightly sharper than the drop (-71.4 percent) Iron Man 3 experienced on its second Friday two years ago. To date, that gives Ultron $257 million in the domestic bank, putting it nearly 11 percent ahead of the pace of Iron Man 3 and 14 percent off the pace of the first Avengers. With Mother's Day coming up this weekend, plus last Saturday's deflated market due to the busiest sports day of the year, it's possible this weekend could bounce back a bit for the Marvel blockbuster. For now, BoxOffice is projecting a $78 million weekend.

 

Meanwhile, the movie has already broken $700 MM worldwide.

 

[kdoginohio]

Okay, I'm officially tired of Loki. Getting to the Lex Luthor factor of appearing in every Superman flick.

[MetalPSI]

Have to admit, at least Tom Hiddleston really seems to be having a lot of fun with it. Kinda thing I would be doing if I was involved.

[spidrvacc]

One of the things I like about the group of the actors they got to play the heroes and villians. They look like they love the characters and are enjoying playing them , more then just a role. Hugh Jackman you can tell loves Wolverine. Sure if he could stay young forever he would do that part forever. They all seem to love being them as much as they love to get the big paychecks.

[Bosco685]

One of the things I like about the group of the actors they got to play the heroes and villians. They look like they love the characters and are enjoying playing them , more then just a role. Hugh Jackman you can tell loves Wolverine. Sure if he could stay young forever he would do that part forever. They all seem to love being them as much as they love to get the big paychecks.

 

Bingo!

 

They are really into the roles - and doing it in such a way we can't help but throw more money at them.

[spidrvacc]

I can picture if you go to Hemsworths or Hiddleston house they have the Hammer on there wall or the Sceptre sitting by the TV . and I am sure you will find all Iron Man items all over Downeys pad., etc.

[Logan510]

One of the things I like about the group of the actors they got to play the heroes and villians. They look like they love the characters and are enjoying playing them , more then just a role. Hugh Jackman you can tell loves Wolverine. Sure if he could stay young forever he would do that part forever. They all seem to love being them as much as they love to get the big paychecks.

 

You'd be surprised.

[Bosco685]

Weekend Report - 'Ultron' Hot, 'Pursuit' Not

 

Avengers: Age of Ultron didn't plummet from the sky like that Sokovian fiefdom in the film but, with its $77.2 million 2nd week outing, it did drop 59.6% from its opening take of $191 million. Surprising amounts of Monday-morning quarterbacking this last week noted that Ultron could have become the new #1 film for all-time weekend box office if it hadn't been up against several sporting events that siphoned off eyeballs.

 

Even still the Disney/Marvel property has a lot to celebrate. Domestically it easily dominated the box office at the #1 position with a per theater take of $18K in 4,276 venues. That $77.2M is still the 2nd highest 2nd weekend gross, just ahead of the 2nd weekend of Fox's Avatar ($75.6 million), and is topped only by it predecessor, Marvel's The Avengers ($103.1 million). Ultron's domestic take to date ($313M) has also already surpassed the lifetime domestic cumes of Captain America ($177M), Thor ($181M), Thor: The Dark World ($206M) and Captain America: The Winter Soldier ($259M).

[Key Largo Comics]

Okay, I'm officially tired of Loki. Getting to the Lex Luthor factor of appearing in every Superman flick.

Loki isn't in the movie.

[Bosco685]

[Bosco685]

 

 

[comix4fun]

Okay, I'm officially tired of Loki. Getting to the Lex Luthor factor of appearing in every Superman flick.

Loki isn't in the movie.

 

 

[yoddler]