Pfft, whatever. The true Guardians are those in the future of Earth-691. :P

Supernova wins that contest. Sad that the entire Nova Corp were reduced to guys in ships. Were they too afraid of showing people with actual powers?

Am I the only one who likes Thor: The Dark World?

I enjoyed it quite a bit, I'd put it above several MCU movies.

Thor: Ragnarok on the other hand...

I've already rewatched everything, but Thor: Ragnarok and Black Panther a second time. I might as well put up my ranking up until GOTG for now.

1) Captain America: The Winter Soldier
2) Guardians of the Galaxy
3) The Avengers
4) Iron Man
5) Captain America: The First Avenger
6) Iron Man 2
7) Avengers: Age of Ultron
8) Iron Man 3
9) The Incredible Hulk
10) Thor
11) Thor: The Dark World

As we are not covering the multiple television series in this re-watch, I will just throw out that if you are so inclined, Agent Carter and Daredevil would premiere here respectively. I may rewatch those pilots but I have a pretty big backlog of new stuff to watch so we’ll see. Keep up the great posts everyone!

Avengers: Age of Ultron

Just saw Avengers 2 again and loved it.  I would like to pause and rewrite history for a moment.  I know Marvel studios will say Iron Man 3 started Phase 2, but to me Marvel hit a new phase starting with Winter Soldier.  If you look at movies going from Iron Man 1 to Thor 2, Marvel is very much in an inconsistent hit-or-miss phase.  But ever since Winter Soldier came out they have been very consistently making great movies.

Anyway here are my thoughts on Avengers: Age of Ultron.  If you haven't seen this movie yet, then please be aware that there are lots of spoilers below.

Plusses:

The action is awesome in this movie.  In fact I'd say it is the best action in any MCU movie up to this point.  There are so many great sequences.  My favorite is Hulk vs. Iron Man in the Veronica suit.  Sure it was tragically destructive, but it was also awesome and hilarious.  I love where Hulk spits out a tooth and Stark says, "I'm sorry".  There are plenty of other awesome scenes too: the opening sequence to get Loki's scepter, the chasing Ultron on the truck scene, and the ending scene on Sokovia.  There is so much great action that this would still be a fantastic action movie even without Hulk vs. Iron Man.  But the Hulk vs. Iron Man is like the cherry on top.

I love Ultron as a villain.  I like the idea of an unhinged robot who sometimes cant complete his thoughts.  James Spader does a great job, and Ultron is a worthy foe for the Avengers.

We finally get to know some stuff about Hawkeye.  They treat him as by far the least important character up until now, but we get to know more about him and his family in this movie.

There is a lot of foreshadowing in this movie.  Iron Man and Thor both have visions of the future.  (For some reason Cap and Black Widow had visions of the past.  Not sure why they were different.)  But Iron Man and Thor are there to set up Infinity War and also somewhat set up Ragnarok.  Then there is also foreshadowing of a lot of things about Black Panther and Vibranium.  "The most versatile substance on the planet and they used it to make a frisbee."  Also I know the comic book character Klaue (Klaw) is supposed to be missing an arm, so I found it interesting that Ultron rips it off here.  Speaking of Infinity Stones though, between the post credits scene here and Guardians of the Galaxy I really thought most of the movies from here would focus on Thanos and the Infinity Stones.  I guess there were just dangling the carrot only to pull it away for a few years.

Minuses:

There are a couple minor plot points that still haven't sat well with me.

1) Thor goes to Asgard at the end to find out more about why the Infinity Stones are popping up all of the sudden.  This is not remotely close to what actually happened in Thor Ragnarok.

2) I still can't make sense of that scene where Vision comes to life.  Everything up to that point says that Vision is going to be another evil robot, because Scarlet Witch put a hex on Iron Man.  Somehow he ends up being so "good" that he can lift Thor's hammer?  Although all of the dialogue after he comes to life suggests that the scene is supposed to be intentionally confusing.  (Not a great plan.)  I don't know.  I just don't understand what they were trying to do there.


In conclusion, while Avengers: Age of Ultron has a complex and occasionally confusing plot, if you just sit back, break out the popcorn and accept it as a really awesome action movie, then you are going to have one hell of a great time.

8/10

Jaws

I'm late to the party, but I just watched Iron Man (the first one), and I was both impressed and disappointed.

A lot of people put this at the top of their lists, and for good reason...if they only watched Act 1, Act 2, and the post credits scene. All of that was awesome, but act 3 was pretty bad, maybe the worst act 3 in the MCU.

Pros:

Robert Downey Jr as tony Stark. I don't really need to say more here, this portrayal was spot on and the character was interesting and unique. Best casting ever.

Act 1's character introduction, imprisonment, and change of heart were all executed remarkably well. His friendship with Yinsen was meaningful and deep, his escape was well orchestrated, and his return to civilization was realistic.

Act 2's slow descent into self loathing and hatred of the person he's become as well as his attempts to atone for it are all great character moments but also full of some great action.

Pepper Potts was great, too. Seriously, she was such an appealing character.

Post credits stinger.

Cons:

All of act 3 was garbage. Stane was interesting and well realized in acts 1 and 2, but went full on 'villain monologue' in the grand finale. He suddenly seemed stupid, and it all seemed out of character. It's hard to be afraid of a villain who thinks he's hot shit when the only reason he poses even the slightest threat to Iron Man is because Iron Man had his power source taken away and he's on low battery.

Overall, I still give it a 9.0 / 10. Still an excellent movie overall. It's a superhero action blockbuster with something to say speckled with engaging characters and a game changing stinger.

Rankings so far:

9.0 - Iron Man

Vek once asked me what film I would take on a deserted island and Jaws was the first one that came to mind. I’ve seen it probably a dozen times or more and it’s held up every time. That prompted a “damnit” from him since he was thinking of the same film. We actually got a chance to see it on the big screen for its 40th anniversary. Definitely recommended. If you can see it in the theatre with people, even better

Welp, just watched The Incredible Hulk, and have to say I am disappointed.

For the longest time, I kept saying that it was my least favorite in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, but that it was still a good movie, but I may have been wrong. After watching it this afternoon, I've actually come to realize it really wasn't great. It wasn't good on its own, it wasn't good compared to the other MCU movies, and it's only barely better than the Ang Lee hulk.

Pros:

Emil Blonsky is a great character, he was played well by the actor, and remained interesting as Abomination.

Samuel Sterns was actually better than I remembered, kudos there. Good character.

Abomination is probably the only megapowered boss battle that actually felt like a fair fight once you got down to it. Well, I mean a threat. Few other MCU characters felt as threatening as he did.

The Culver University fight was pretty awesome, the bottling plant fight was decent, and the harlem fight had its ups and downs.

The cons:

The movie has virtually no impact or link to the rest of the MCU, the story on its own was okay but nothing special. yes, it sucks that it wasn't mark ruffalo. That matters. Unlike the other movies that at least have some link to the ongoing story, this has none. Even Thor: The Dark World had an infinity stone in it.

The audio levels were all over the place, like really badly. If I kept the volume up enough to hear the dialogue, then it blasted my speakers whenever the fight scenes happened or when random 'PTSD-styled' flashbacks popped up out of nowhere. Just really bad audio mixing.

about half the the movie is super dark. like, even on my TV I couldn't see half of what was going on, especially in the bottling plant and harlem action sequences.

The whole movie seemed juvenile compared to other MCU stuff, despite taking itself too seriously. In one scene a little girl was playing hopscotch...what is this, the 50's? In another, a military guy sees the RPG and goes 'sweet!' It just felt insincere, it felt immature, and it took me out of the film.

Not a single laugh. nearly 2 hours long, and not a single laugh. I know people like to bag on the MCU for having jokes aplenty, but I happen to enjoy some levity here and there. It's possible to make a movie fun while still dealing with important issues, I promise (they did that with Iron Man just two months prior, in fact.)

The romance just didn't work. Not gonna elaborate here, Liv Tyler and edward norton had no chemistry. Gamora and drax have more chemistry.

Entirely too many questions unanswered. Not entirely the fault of the filmmaker, but what happened to sterns? how did they capture and contain abomination? What happened to all the hulk blood that was never incinerated? Too many loose threads. 

Overall: 6.1/10

Though it had a lot of problems, I still really love a few things about this movie. Some good action, some great action, and some great character work (mostly Sterns and Abomination). Honestly though, with how little it added (Read: Virtually nothing) to the MCU and all the dangling plot threads it left hanging out, I actually think the MCU would be better without this. there's a reason this is the only blu-ray I never bought. 

Rankings so far:

9.0 - Iron Man
6.1 - The Incredible Hulk