I was super excited to see Age of Ultron. The trailers made Ultron seem truly menacing, and Whedon was back at the helm.

I came out of the theater mostly satisfied, but also disappointed that the movie was so bloated with characters and action scenes that didn’t really serve the story.

This was the first time I started to seriously question the benefits of movie serialization; and I’ve been questioning it ever since.

Just finished up The Avengers, and man I have to say I kind of forgot why I loved this movie so much. I always knew it was one of my top three Marvel movies, but I kept trying to tell myself why I was being foolish for it since 'it wasn't all that'.

I was wrong. This movie was amazing.

The special effects were outstanding and mostly hold up today, the action sequences are still out of this world (The battle of Manhattan remains one of the best superhero action sequences ever), and the soundtrack is near perfection, but that's not why I love this movie. You could take out the action and audio, and this movie would still be outstanding.

Why? The writing.

The dialogue was snappy and incredibly well done, the plot hit all the right notes, the character work was - again - absolutely phenomenal, the story had foreshadowing, thematic throughlines, tight structure, a combination of subtlety and bombast, humor, seriousness, tragedy, and everything in between. Joss Whedon balanced a half dozen disparate characters with deftness and wit, he managed to give every character something to do to better personify them without sacrificing the others, and he made them play off each other so well that it really is leagues above pretty much all other movie franchises out there.

Also, for anyone saying the banner/natasha romance was sudden in Avengers 2, I recommend going back to watch this movie. It's not overt, it's not blatant, but the budding romance is totally there from the first time they meet. It's kind of sweet.

I really don't have any complaints. like I said, the writing was on point, the character interactions and development were all handled well, the action was top notch, the score was a modern classic, the cinematography was somehow better than even Thor and Captain America, I loved everyone in the movie (even Loki), and....gruh!

What a truly wonderful movie. This is why the MCU is quite possibly my favorite movie franchise. Movies like this are why I'm so disappointed in DC for failing so miserably. I don't want to take potshots at them, it feels cheap, but when you have a blueprint for success and quality and you still muss it up, I have to question your ability to make films.

I guess the only 'complaint' that I have to address is that it's a little jokey. yeah, there are a lot of jokes, yeah it's a funny movie, but if you're the kind of person who thinks cracking a few jokes (especially coming from wisecracking folks like Tony Stark and Nick Fury) is bad? Then what are you doing watching superhero movies? Not only does it keep the audience with a hint of levity, but it serves to better show character.

Plus, being funny doesn't mean it can't also be serious. Tone is not a zero sum game. The movie is funny when it needs to be, somber when it needs to be, and tense when it needs to be. That's called balance.

Anyway, at this point I'm just sucking Joss Whedon's dick.

9.5/10

One of the highest film scores I've ever given. I think maybe a half dozen movies in history have gotten a 9.5 or more out of me. (no I won't list them, most of them are movies most folks don't like).

My ranking so far:

9.5 The Avengers
9.1 Captain America: The First Avenger
9.0 Iron Man
8.9 Iron Man 2
8.3 Thor
6.1 The Incredible Hulk

Gonna take a few days off while my brother keeps up. He and I are going to watch Phase 2 and Phase 3 together over the net. .

No problem.

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

Not to mention Ultron was voiced by James Spader. Talk about perfect fucking casting.......then talk about it being largely wasted.

So I did end up rewatching the pilots to both Agent Carter and Daredevil and it was a nice little reminder of days gone by for both. Starting with Agent Carter, right off the bat it just has a different feel to it from Agents of SHIELD. Whereas that is an ensemble show, this is Peggy’s show from top to bottom. And you could not ask for a better lead than Hayley Atwell (who should have been the Thirteenth Doctor!) and it’s still sad that this show got cancelled. The time period also helps to set the tone although unfortunately the backlot filming is appallingly clear for most of the episode. Agents of SHIELD had this same issue. ABC was just not throwing a decent amount of money at this experimental series and it shows on the screen.

Where the show does soar is the action with interesting fights where Peggy uses her environments to her advantage. Taking a thug down by stapler is a highlight in the pilot. Agent Carter also used the time period to comment on the sexism of the era. This was a highly regarded agent during WWII that many now consider to just be Captain America’s girlfriend. Peggy, not one to wallow, uses this to her advantage and it allows her to operate right under the noses. Her chemistry with both Dominic Cooper as Howard Stark (woefully underused) and James D’Arcy as Edwin Jarvis (perfect casting) gives the show a shot of much needed humor and camaraderie. The whole series (all TWO seasons) is available on Hulu if you have not had the chance to see this little gem.

Daredevil is definitely a completely different tone from both SHIELD and Carter. Marvel was definitely throwing money at this series as their plan was for a small screen version of the Avengers by having multiple series eventually crossover into a miniseries. The Daredevil pilot acts largely standalone (leading me to believe they filmed this first and left it relatively close-ended so they could still air it should the series not get picked up). Charlie Cox is well cast as the man without fear (here sporting an all black costume in his early days of crimefighting). Marvel series have excelled in one area: their villains are some of the best because they have time to evolve and don’t need to be shoehorned into a two hour film. We don’t see much of Wilson Fisk in the pilot but his presence is certainly felt as we’re introduced to his crime cabal that Daredevil will slowly dismantle over the course of the season.

Not so much an issue in this episode, but would be for the series going forward is that is it WAY too dark. There were times I had no idea what was going on as the fight scenes usually take place at night with no strong lightning. I don’t remember this being an issue for other Netflix series however it’s still a problem in the second season (amongst other things). The supporting cast are given a chance to shine with special shout-outs to Deborah Ann Woll as Karen Page (whose arrest for murder is what really kicks off the series) and Toby Leonard Moore as Fisk’s right hand man, Wesley, oozing sliminess with a dash of debonair and a touch of menace.

In the end, even though I’m woefully short on time to watch everything I need to, I was glad to rewatch both of these. It puts the larger MCU into context (Vanko makes an appearance in Agent Carter and the incident [from Avengers] is credited as allowing Fisk to rise to power in New York). This can also be a detriment as there are so many clips from Captain America: First Avenger used in the Agent Carter pilot. And then you have Netflix which barely likes to cover what’s going on in the MCU making it feel almost like a separate universe to the MCU at large. A friend and I joked that the Avengers tend to ignore anything going on outside Midtown even while the city burns during a gang war. Age of Ultron will be later today.

We're coming up to the string of films I don't own now. I'm hoping Sky will sort me out for most of them.

Full disclosure: I had to see Age of Ultron in the theatre twice. The morning of the first time, I was at my mom’s and the animals (two cats and a dog) set off my allergies. Desperate for anything I ended up taking Benadryl which hit me watching the film a few hours later. I could barely keep my eyes open for much of the second act. I was mad at myself but also was mad at the film for not keeping my interest. Something was off with it. I was disappointed as I had done a whole rewatch for it only to miss pieces of the film when it was finally released. I went back a few weeks later to try again. I remember still being disappointed. The film was all over the place, trying to be too many things instead of just telling a good story. On subsequent rewatches, it fared better and I liked it more so we’ll see what happens this time. See you on the other side!

Technically you only have to wait until April 7th as we’re doubling up on Captain America: Civil War and Doctor Strange to meet the new release date of Avengers: Infinity War

Highly unlikely that Black Panther will be available for streaming before Infinity War comes out. I know it’s still playing in some theaters so you might still have a chance

That's my bad for not broadcasting the schedule change earlier or more publicly. I updated the calendar this morning to reflect the hiccup.