Kevin's Watch

We seem to be missing a small chunk of backstory between the last few movies and this one, vis a vis the Avengers Tower, the Legion, and Tony not being retired.

The opening sequence almost put me off, with the very earliest action scenes as they ride in looking extremely fake.

Why did Ultron need to build that first scrap body rather than just controlling one of the others?

Ulysses Klaw was made to seem like a big deal, but then he just disappeared after that one part of the film.

Barton has a wife and kids? Is that something he's had in the comics? I've never heard about it if so.

I'm not sure if I liked the way Ultron talks. He was very casual, very human.

Deus ex Helicarrier. Does this mean Fury's no longer in hiding? Why was he hiding for this long, if he could pull together this kind of stuff anyway?

I was surprised they killed Pietro off in his first film.

The Vision saving Wanda could point at them setting up their relationship from the comics.

The Vision and Scarlet Witch are a bit weird and powerful for these films. The MCU is edging up toward the point where it stops being as accessible to non fans.

The Avengers, as of the end of this film, are: Captain America, Black Widow, War Machine, Falcon, Scarlet Witch, The Vision, and probably Hawkeye. These are the people in play for Civil War (well, we don't know about Ant-Man or Spider-Man yet), with Stark likely turning to politics in his retirement from heroing.

1) A Black Widow/Hulk duology, or single movie with both of them. Banner off in the wilderness trying to hide and getting caught up in trouble; Natasha trying to track hmi down and getting caught up in related stuff because of it. Won't happen because they have their next five years already planned out.

2) House of M. I say set up Scarlet Witch/Vision, kill The Vision at the end of Infinity War, and have Wanda trigger the House of M event due to her grief. Use this event to fold the X-Men continuity into the Marvel Cinematic Universe (you could even handwave it to bring Pietro back to life).

I didn't have trouble following the story at the beginning. I just thought it was incredibly rushed. This is forgiven, since the actual Ultron story is much more interesting.

The main critique I have for this film is that it suffers from "transitional film syndrome". There is some build up, but there's also a whole lot of setting up for future films. Like the cameo of Klaw and Thanos at the end putting on the Gauntlet saying, "Guess I'll have to do it myself". It's an entertaining film in its own right, but it is also a huge "coming attractions" advertisement.

I thought they filmed a scene with Hiddleston, but I did not see Loki at all... maybe the US got Thanos and you other folks got a Loki bonus scene?

Maybe it's just me, but the Vision gave me a very Adam Warlock vibe... almost like they are combining characters.

I never saw Iron Man 3 but wasn't the Iron Legion something he developed at that time as backup for the Avengers? Also, the TV show with Agent Coulson has some run-up to the movie--they closed in on Strucker's location and are apparently the ones who called the Avengers to go in after him.

The scrap body was for dramatic effect.

I liked the way Ultron spoke, myself; that was merely James Spader infusing himself into the character. I didn't mind the voice at all but the way Ultron's mouth moved...ugh. I would have preferred a non-moving mouth, possibly with a little light flashing in it while dialogue is being spoken would be more realistic.

I guess he figured his cover story of "oops--I died" from Winter Soldier isn't needed any more. It is a shame that Phil Coulson doesn't get that luxury.

Yeah, I didn't see that coming, either.

Isn't Klaw going to the main bad guy in the Black Panter movie? He is already dealing in black market vibranium and Wakanda is the only place to find it. Besides, he is already a billionaire thanks to Ultron so he has the resources to do pretty much what he wants.

I presume that "crushing Earth" is the thing Thanos has realized that he has to do for himself. Why would that lackluster backwater planet concern him so much? It blipped on his radar only because Loki suggested it--presuming that the Tesseract didn't translate Red Skull to Sanctuary--but I suppose being 0-2 via proxies at this point aggravates him.

Incidentally, I now have vindication--Loki's Staff was confirmed as being the Mind Stone. What I didn't know, though, was that the crystal in the Staff was merely the housing for the Stone. Tesseract = Space (now in Asgard), Loki's Staff = Mind (now on Earth with Vision), Aether = Power (still in The Collection), and Orb = Soul (unknown but definitely *not* on Xandar; probably in Rocket's underwear drawer because *no one* will ever want to look there). This leaves only Time and Reality; I presume that Thanos has at least one of these in his possession already, which will make getting the others pretty darned easy.

I concur--decent plot and action here but primarily the vehicle for setting up Civil War and Infinity War parts 1 and 2.

Also, I agree with your assessment that Vision is, for now, pretty much taking the place of Adam Warlock, including wearing an Infinity Stone on his forehead as well as being an artificially-created being.

Now....did Vision kill Ultron or merely absorb his mind via the Gem? His personality doesn't appear to have a vengeful streak and he correctly identified Ultron as scared (at that time). This also sets up a potential variation of Adam Warlock/Magus in Vision/Ultron as a plot device for Infinity War: Thanos has the Gauntlet, Vision gets hold of it, Ultron takes over, and so on and so forth until Vision reasserts control.

If you really wanted to Deus Ex the people out of the city to safety then why not have Heimdall open the Bifrost and have everyone run through it?