Avengers 2 Discussion - SPOILERS EVERYWHERE SO STAY THE FUCK OUT

[jjreason]

First off, I love it. Superb entry in the main Marvel U pantheon, right up there with both Cap movies and Avengers 1. Even the trailers were good. We had SW, Ant Man, Batman/Superman and I'm not sure if there was one more or not. The SW trailer in 3D was remarkable - gives me significant hope the movie will actually look good in that format (they ARE doing it in 3D I have to assume, after that trailer?).

The dialogue was outstanding with the GoTG quality (& level of maturity) humour bites. Black Widow's bit about Bruce going hard on her made me frisky - we're so lucky her zipper slipped down that few inches toward the end there. Yummies.

It resolved well. They can very easily use Ultron again without having it be a stretch. Quicksilver on the other hand..... notsomuch. I like that it leaves the Vision & The Scarlet Witch with little interference.

Hulk vs Iron Man was worth the price of admission. Go to sleep go to sleep go to sleep had us laughing out loud.

Heck we even enjoyed seeing the girl from Freaks & Geeks show up - I don't think I had seen her in anything in the interim... it took me a minute to figure out where she was from. Interesting choice.

Because I feel like I need to suggest an area where maybe, possibly it wasn't quite 11/10 for me, I would say Cap seemed overpowered at times. They've fallen into this in the comic as well, so it's not unheard of - back during the early 2000s when Dan Jurgens was writing Cap & Superman at the same time (or possibly wrote Cap when he was done Supes) Cap was throwing his shield damn near into space which to me is too much. It's a tough line to walk & maybe they've made him a little too powerful the entire time, not just here... but him going 1 on 1 with Ultron for that length of time on the train had me wincing ever so slightly.

[vynsane]

freakin' awesome. not much time to process my thoughts right now, but the audience i was in was great - 75% of them audibly gasped the moment where Vision hands Mjolnir to Thor.

[Diabolical]

There's too much awesome to put into words after a single viewing.

Random thoughts:

I loved the comedy. Just as good as it was in the first one. Some of my favorites: the running joke about Cap calling out Stark for bad language, Hawkeye's rambling about shooting Quicksilver (Hell, Hawkeye had a ton of great lines) and the Stark/Cap/Thor discussion about why Vision was able to lift Mjolnir.

It felt like there was a ton cut from the flick but most of it didn't matter in the long run. I know Tom Hiddleston filmed a cameo that was cut and the bit with Thor and Selvig going to the cave was rather abrupt and lacked much explanation. Also, Ultron's second body created really fast.

Lots of talk about Strucker, yet he wasn't in it much.

Surprisingly, lots of Stark and not a ton of Iron Man.

Another great Stan Lee cameo.

You can easily see the groundwork being laid for the future (Civil War, Black Panther and Infinity War).
That is probably Cap's basic Civil War team at the end ("Avengers..." Credits) - I wonder who will be on Stark's team?

I really didn't see any subtle Easter eggs the first time around.

[jjreason]

I really enjoyed the Hawkeye character development, but you're right - they chose to include a big chunk of that instead of a few minutes more on each of the scenes you mentioned. I think it worked fine & wasn't left wondering about the water cave - although in retrospect I guess I likely should have. Where the hell was that supposed to be, anyhow? Norway? They got there & back pretty quick if so.

Bringing up Hawkeye - is he walking away at this point? Even more odd they'd devote that chunk of film to him just to see him leave at the end. They must have more in store.

[Diabolical]

I suspect that Hawkeye is walking away just like Iron Man and Hulk did.

[jjreason]

I assumed wrongfully that they were going to kill him off after introducing us to the family - just to make it hurt that much more. Thank the maker they didn't.

[Diabolical]

I assumed wrongfully that they were going to kill him off after introducing us to the family - just to make it hurt that much more. Thank the maker they didn't.

Yeah, Whedon practically slapped us with a sign that said "SOMEONE IS GOING TO DIE!" I think everyone expected Hawkeye. I did even more once they humanized him. I guess you could say "I didn't see that coming."

[Tom Foolery]

It was pretty hamfisted that Whedon was making Hawkeye the red herring. From his "I'm gonna live forever" line at the beginning to the moments with his wife (going on about the next home improvement project) etc it seemed they were setting him up to die.
If I hadn't been spoiled by the actual moment I would've been hand wringing like the people I saw it with me who were all convinced it was Barton's time.

[jjreason]

I fell for it pretty hard anyhow. It will be weird without some of the main heroes, but the flux is as big a part of the story as the heroes themselves. War Machine & Falcon will be a good matched set - I wonder if they'll skip ahead & make Falcon a new Cap during or after the Civil War - his costume almost suggested the possibility.

[anarky]

I'll post thoughts once I charge the phone.

And change my pants. At least twice.

[anarky]

First, Ultron was a truly great villain. Nice balance of logic and sheer insanity there. And Spader kicked ass in the the role.

Really liking Hawkeye more than I ever thought possible.

Now, to Vision. My jaw dropped when I realized he was not only going to be made partly of vibranium, but powered by the Mind Stone. And then he picked up Mjolnir. Holy shit, this guy's in a totally different power class from his comic counterpart.

I'm thinking this Vision is going to play some combination of Adam Warlock's and Silver Surfer's roles. His existence as he is now makes assembling the Gauntlet impossible. With one Stone, he actually could fight Thanos. And, with Surfer unavailable and Warlock questionable due to the time constraints leading into IW, he's the only guy we currently know of who could have any connection to the bigger cosmic picture.

Methinks Civil War is going to have to play out way differently, too.

Couldn't help noticing Klaw lost an arm. I wonder if there's a reason, and that reason is tied to Wakanda and vibranium somehow....

[jjreason]

Yep they've teased Wakanda a couple of times now, really excited about Black Panther at this point. Huge potential for overall story development there & he can be an awesome character if written well. It would likely be too much to ask to have Namor show up in that due to an ongoing war between Wakanda & Atlantis like the one that was happening during Hickman's FF.....

[anarky]

I'm not so sure it was just a tease this time, since they said the name of the country and a major scene took place in an unspecified African nation (though likely not Wakanda). My money's on Klaw replacing his arm with some experimental sonic gun, then heading back to Wakanda for more vibranium.

[Tom Foolery]

I liked that the SHIELD Agent from Winter Soldier that said No got some more screen time.

[vynsane]

an unspecified African nation (though likely not Wakanda).

pretty sure they actually did specify that it was South Africa.

yeah, the Hawkeye characterization was full-blown in this one, great moments centered around him. his psyche-up speech during the end battle to Wanda was incredible.

the fight between Hulk and Veronica was just great, just as awesome as anticipated.

and the triumphant return of the original Helicarrier! i guess i had figured it was decommissioned and scrapped for materials to make the three new ones in TWS.