Board 8 > Board 8 Ranks: The Marvel Cinematic Universe (PHASE 1)

(+) Yeah! (+)

swordz9 posted...

Hmm Mantis could possibly be my favorite. The MCU doesnt really have a ton of female characters I care too much about though sadly. Most are just kinda there for the most part to me.

Hope <3

And Ghost

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I'm going for the long shot and saying that Ant-Man 1 might be it

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I'll be so sad if it's Ant-Man 1, but I at least think Wasp should be falling before it

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Lightning Strikes posted...

Unless Im really misreading it, it can only be Ant-Man, Black Panther, or Doctor Strange because of the first perhaps only comment, and Id be shocked if it was either of the last two so soon.

Based on the way I think you're reading it, I'm not sure how you're including Ant-Man as a possibility but also discounting the first Captain America, Avengers, Guardians, or Spider-Man.

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Honestly if its one off it wouldnt surprise me if its Doctor Strange, I just dont think of it as a film people overtly love whereas I can see more polarizing opinions on AOU or Cap 1 (the latter I genuinely enjoyed when I rewatched it, dont really know why it might be my second favorite phase 1)

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Inviso posted...

Brie Larson is kind of a shit actress, I don't know why everyone was so crazy about Room.

worst take of the contest so far

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Lopen posted...

Okay y'all need to stop predicting GotG2 anywhere near here

Too many people have Ego high on their villain rankings for it to be at any risk of appearing until like 14

Well, I don't really know if that has a ton of bearing on it. The villains aren't really the draw of either GotG movie.

But I agree that Vol. 2 is not at all in danger yet.

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Think the hint meant first rep of a series on the list not necessarily first entry of the series so think Ant-Man and Wasp

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I could see the next movie down being Age of Ultron, First Avenger, or Ant-Man, but it's not gonna be GOTG2.

Age of Ultron would give me a 6 for 6 on predictions so far (I have Captain Marvel above it in the tiebreakers but whatever, close enough) so I'll guess that! It could be right, since we haven't lost an Avengers movie yet.

I don't really think it's gonna be Ant-Man either (and certainly not Ant-Man and the Wasp) so probably either AoU or Cap 1 imo

Aww man. I was hoping Marvel wouldnt drop so low.

Inviso specifically said a franchise loses one next, not simply a character. So it could be Avengers. Ill guess Age of Ultron next.
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Wow I'm kinda surprised GotG2 is kind of well respected here. My friend group hates it. Cap 1 is the movie we all love, so seeing the latter drop before the former will be really strange for me.

I also totally forgot AoU existed so it's probably that.

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i have never met someone irl that hates gotg, who are you hanging out with? literally everyone I know loves it (just not as much as 1)

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if AoU is on the table it BETTER be out first, anybody who ranked it higher than 15 owes me $1000

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Well I actually agree with them! We all really like the first one, but with the second one it just feels like they were trying way to hard to be funny and it just ends up being cringy

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To clarify, I meant better than 15. I do not think AoU deserves to be ranked better.

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It occurs to me now that Goose would fit right in to a Men in Black film.

Guess I'll chime in and say me ranking Captain Marvel second to last had nothing to do with Brie Larson or her comments about critics. She's a great actress, and anyone who disagrees can watch her performance in Room to be proven wrong.

As someone else said, I think the terrible amnesia plot held her and this entire movie back. It was the first time I left a Marvel movie without being excited to learn more about the main character and the section of the interconnected universe they inhabit. The script was one of the MCU's most bland, the 90s references tacked on with no payoff, and Carol's journey was boringly predictable. It was just a forgettable movie for me.

I'm excited for CM2 though, mostly because it has a new director. And I love Monica Rambeau from what we've seen in WandaVision so far.

ScepterOfLove posted...

Guess I'll chime in and say me ranking Captain Marvel second to last had nothing to do with Brie Larson or her comments about critics. She's a great actress, and anyone who disagrees can watch her performance in Room to be proven wrong.

As someone else said, I think the terrible amnesia plot held her and this entire movie back. It was the first time I left a Marvel movie without being excited to learn more about the main character and the section of the interconnected universe they inhabit. The script was one of the MCU's most bland, the 90s references tacked on with no payoff, and Carol's journey was boringly predictable. It was just a forgettable movie for me.

I'm excited for CM2 though, mostly because it has a new director. And I love Monica Rambeau from what we've seen in WandaVision so far.

Yeah, I don't care about Brie Larson one way or another. I don't think she's great, but I also don't think she's terrible. My biggest problem with Captain Marvel is that it felt like the kind of bland, origin story plot we saw a bunch of in Phase 1 (hence two such movies already being eliminated), but it didn't even have a proper origin story. Carol Danvers is already super powerful when we meet her, and the only struggle she really faces is that she can't beat Jude Law when artificially restricting herself to play by his rules. As a result, there's like, NO suspense in the entire film. Genuinely, it's like watching The Incredible Hulk with a slightly more interesting and witty lead.

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18. Avengers: Age of Ultron
Total Score: 533 (TB30)

Whiskey Nick 7
NBIceman - 9
Corrik7 10
Cybat - 10
Johnbobb 10
Red13n - 11
Sheep007 - 12
XIII Rocks - 12
PrinceKaro 13
CoolCly - 15
Eddv 15
VengefulKaelee - 15
Mega Mana 16
ScepterOfLove - 16
MetalDK 17
MetalmindStats 17
BetrayedTangy - 18
Jesse Custer 18
TomNook - 18
ZenOfThunder 18
Anagram 20
Snake5555555555 - 20
StifledSilence 20
Illuminatusbubu - 21
Maniac64 21
Mr Crispy 21
Paratroopa1 - 21
GavsEvans123 22
HanOfTheNekos - 22
Inviso 22
Lopen 23
Raka Putra - 23

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mnkboy907 posted...

Based on the way I think you're reading it, I'm not sure how you're including Ant-Man as a possibility but also discounting the first Captain America, Avengers, Guardians, or Spider-Man.

Some people consider Ant-Man and the Wasp different from Ant-Man because it has two leads in the title. Not me!

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Whiskey Nick
(No write-up.)

NBIceman
Look, I understand why people dont like this one, I really do. Ultron is too jokey and nonthreatening. Hulk/Widow is terrible and completely without chemistry. Wandas accent is terrible. The pacing is pretty bad. And hey, I never took a film class at college (to what Im sure is the collective shock of everyone reading), but even I can tell theres a lot of weird editing going on in it. But Ive gotta say With the exception of Hulk/Widow, which is just indefensibly bad, none of that bothers me too much. Im a lot more forgiving of Joss Whedons worse tendencies because I tend to think his creations have enough good stuff that it far outweighs the bad, and AoU is no exception. I always forget just how many enjoyable parts it has until I rewatch it. Theres a ton of Hawkeye, who I love. Its the only film in the franchise where all of the Avengers just take a little time to hang out with each other, and those moments are a lot of fun. Hulk vs Hulkbuster is a really cool fight. And yeah, there may be too many jokes, but I dont mind that when most of them are still pretty funny. Its even got the best mid-/post-credits scene. All said, theres some movies lower on my ranking that just straight-up dont connect with me, where this one straight-up does. Its not a top-tier Marvel offering by any means, but I do think its way over-hated.

Corrik7
The beginning scene was cool. A lot of the debate among each other was interesting. The hint that Captain America could lift the Hammer that paid off in the end was awesome. Scarlet Witch was a welcome addition, though the Vision kind of ended up being a let down. Tony Stark's hubris creating the villain was needed in the universe to set him into check and this led to the angle that many other movies would feed off of. Ultron himself wasn't as strong as I expected and his robots seemed more like gimmicks at times than credible threats. A good movie though.

Cybat
I have always been a sucker for the big team-up episode, which is one of the reasons I got into comics in the first place. So even though this movie clearly has a lot of problems, especially when compared to the other three Avengers movies, I still enjoy it quite a bit. The long shot during the climax of all of the Avengers battling Ultron bots together is possibly the most comic-book-y thing in the franchise. Also, this movie does contain one of my favorite scenes in the whole franchise, which is the afterparty scene where all of the Avengers just hang out, make jokes, play with Mjolnir, and bond. We really need more scenes like this especially now that a new team of Avengers is coalescing.
But I would be remiss if I didnt mention some stuff that does not work at all. James Spader was a great choice for Ultron but the disconnect between his tone in the trailers and in the actual movie was jarring, and made him seem pretty unthreatening. Thors bath of foreshadowing was really weird and out of nowhere. And man, does the Bruce/Natasha relationship not work at all.
One last thing I will mention is that this movie is actually a huge turning point for the universe; a large number of things that happen after this can be traced back to some event in this movie. The ramifications of Starks arrogance and Sokovias destruction are still being felt today.

Johnbobb
Ultron is better than people give it credit for! James Spader is good! The pacing is weird. Paul Bettany kills it! Hulk/Widow is weird and bad. Vision just casually lifting Mjolnr like it's a fucking baton is one of the best scenes in the entire MCU hands down.

Red13n
This is the movie that has grown on me over time. I think it got a lot of flak because people wanted something more out of phase 2, some sort of epic conclusion. At this point, we knew phase 3 was going to be a thing, we even had a small idea of where it was going to go. Age of Ultron didn't feel like it was leading to this, but now that its had some time to digest, this movie really set a lot of the groundwork for future films, and I've come to appreciate a lot of the foresight they had in how it played out. We get Tony's obsession with protecting the world from threats they cant imagine, but also having to deal directly with his own failure. We begin to see the costs to the world the avengers bring, an escalation in power of opposing forces("Enhanced" is a term they seem already familiar with), and a world that doesn't see the Avengers quite as the heroes the audience sees at the time. While Ultron doesn't necessarily feel like he brought the highest stakes we might have expected from a team-up film, and I think alone its not the strongest of movies, I really appreciate how much of this film ended up mattering to the MCU as a whole.

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Sheep007
I think this is around the point in my list where I actively start enjoying these movies. Theres three clear tiers, with my top three being above all the rest, and everything above this in that entertaining film with a fair amount of great stuff in tier. So, yeah, I actually enjoy Age of Ultron. Ive heard a lot of criticism about this movie, but I kinda like it. Its messy in places, sure. I dont have a clue what Thors doing for most of it, but we already established I hate him and always will (please tell me that the Thor movies placed below this? They did, right?) so Im just happier with him out of the way. The first act of this is really strong: I like the start sequence, I like it whenever the nightmares come in, just because Im a sucker for those sorts of scenes, and I love Quicksilver and Scarlet Witch. That may be in part because Elizabeth Olsen is the most attractive main actor (Sorry, Mr Hiddlestone) in the whole MCU and puts a cute accent on top, but thats beside the point. These new powers are cooler and have more creative potential than everything introduced nefore, and I find mystical powers more interesting than the techy ones which most of the Avengers up to this point have. I also find Vision as a concept interesting, and Ill always enjoy Tony fucking up and having to do something to fix it. Furthermore, it manages to develop some of the background Avengers more: Clint becomes a lot more interesting in this movie and I love his dynamic with Wanda, while even though the Natasha/Bruce romance doesnt quite sell me, its a decent idea. The Mjolnir/party scene is really good too, it shows the entire group just pissing around, which is always going to be great with so much acting talent available. I wish there were more scenes like that, and it manages to add more character and worldbuilding than some entire movies do *cough* Ant-Man 2 *cough*. The pacing, however, is dreadful, Ultron is a mediocre villain (or rather a good idea with not-great execution) and the humour is a little toooo Marvelly/quippy for me to warm to, but I think other people have probably addressed all that, so Ill stick to mostly praise.

XIII Rocks
I feel like Avengers movies are kind of better by default to me, because I like almost all the characters involved and here there's simply...more of them and they're all handled pretty well here. I don't even take major umbrage with the Hulk/Widow subplot - I thought the chemistry between them was demonstrated in the first movie and it felt a natural continuation. Take my past love of the characters out of it and this movie hurtles downward, but it's still great seeing all these different characters on screen and interacting (the Iron Man/Cap chopping wood scene, for instance). That thrill still wasn't lost in the sequel, especially the scene where they all try to lift the hammer, even though it badly needed refreshing with new blood after this (and it was). I like the relative complexity of Ultron, Spader's performance, and the way he becomes a dark mirror of Stark, though a lot of that is more of an excuse to give the Avengers an actual chance to beat him (such as him waiting in Sokovia for them to arrive before enacting his plan). I originally thought it was silly to have Stark be responsible for Ultron but in hindsight this was a good call; the way this plays into his larger character arc from IM1 to Endgame was perfect. I like the scale of the action and some of the team moves and shots. And I like the way they used Hulkbuster.

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PrinceKaro
So Tony ends up in a frenzy fueled by what can only be described as a combination of a god complex and fascism where he derides to a create AI life from alien tech with the intent of creating an army of robots to enforce their will on mankind. Might as well just make him go full supervillain at this point.
The design of our metallic adversary is already a big stumbling point, he looks like some rejected micheal bay transformer that doesnt at all fit the character's personality. He's got this advanced and very disturbing mouth for no apparent reason other than it seems Ultron's primary concern was being able to orally pleasure a USB port.
The movie then takes the predicable skynet route until it goes completely off the rails in the final act, culminating in the most idiotic feat in the whole MCU. This is the scene where Thor throws a woman up to the floating island from a great distance while falling downward a full speed. Lets assume that Thor is absurdly strong enough to chuck this girl a good thousand feet upward with nothing to brace against (he isn't, or at least the MCU version isn't), the force would fucking kill a human being.
The big redeeming feature of this movie is the introduction of Scarlet Witch, the MCU is in great need of more female superheroes in general, and in very great need of those who aren't just generic kickass warrior women.
This was fortuitous, considering how this movie utterly ruined the character of Black Widow for the rest of her stay in the MCU. Yeah, let's make our sexy covert superspy suddenly get all emo that she cant be a mommy because oh no I can't use my vagina to make babies my life is incomplete and I'm a monster!
As problematic as this was, disney's response was to cower to the social media lynch mob and in every upcoming movie strip her of personality entirely and make her as boring as Hawkeye. And that, my friends, is pretty fucking boring.

CoolCly
I think this movie gets too much hate. I guess if you hate Ultron and/or hate Joss Whedons style of dialogue, theres no way you could like that movie, but I dont live in that world
I love Ultron. As soon as the there are no strings on me trailer came out, I was in love. This, and the RedLetterMedia video Ultron California, are works of art.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tmeOjFno6Do
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tf-_230SjbM
Ultron just works so well as a reflection of Tony Stark. Clearly youve never made an omelette.
I love the Scarlett Witch in general and I like her here. Quicksilver is good too, but their origin is a little shoddy. Baron von Struckers plans just dont make any sense. The post credit scene that introduced them implied he had some machinations and its just all swept under the rug a victim of this movies packed nature.
Thats definitely a problem with this movie. Theres too much. Thors vision quest goes nowhere. It all weighs down the movie.
But even though theres too much its pretty much all awesome.
The party at the beginning, Jarvis interacting with Ultron, the farm and Fury, creating the Vision, the floating Sokovia island. Quicksilver trying to step up in being a good guy. Hawkeyes speech to the Scarlet Witch is one of the best moments in the MCU. I love all this stuff.
I think the movie is done a REAL disservice by stealing Ultrons good body for Vision I like the giant robot army for everyone to fight, but not having a main body that can beat down the Avengers is a big loss for the movie. The robot army feels like paper and Ultron Prime wasnt much stronger. I think a stronger Ultron would have made the climax more impactful.
Overall, this is a good movie. But the way its so packed holds it back, and maybe it was a little to focused on humour. I wish there was a stronger Ultron.

Eddv
Only thing I care about less than Tony Stark is his fucking armor.

VengefulKaelee
Ultron is definitely the star of the show here, and James Spader's charisma completely carries the movie. Also appreciated is the actual characterization of Hawkeye, and the scenes towards the beginning where the Avengers were just hanging out and being themselves (in particular the scene where everyone's drunkenly trying to lift Thor's hammer is low-key one of my favorite MCU scenes). There are too many mindless action scenes for this to be anything great overall, but it's still an engaging, if not spectacular, comic book movie.

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Mega Mana
First Scene That Comes to Mind: Hawkeye's speech to Scarlet Witch

Age of Ultron is a movie with a TON of great scenes. The raid on Strucker; Iron Man's hex-induced vision; Ultron awakens; the hammer pulls; Ultron speaks with the Avengers; the Hulkbuster armor; Hawkeye's safe house; chopping wood; the highway chase; Vision is born; Sokovia rises; the team-up shot; a man with a bow; Quicksilver's moment; Vision and Ultron talk. There are so, so many great moments that it's odd that the whole just doesn't... feel great. The Black Widow and Hulk stuff in particular, both together and individually, are tough to enjoy or speak on.
Ultron is fascinating. He gets both better and worse with every rewatch. He is a fantastic funhouse mirror version of Stark, seeing the world's ills and wanting to take everything on himself, constructing new versions and improvements of himself at every opportunity, imprinting on young upstarts, heavy daddy issue rage, and lots of quips. He goes overblown genocidal maniac towards the end, but for the most part, he's very sins of the father. A better Stark villain than both Hammer and Killian.

The introductions of Ultron, Vision, Scarlet Witch, Quicksilver, and the Bartons are all wonderful. The action is great. Hawkeye gets a great spotlight after a single do-nothing scene in Thor and half-the-movie mind controlled in Avengers 1. The Avengers spending a lot of time getting people out instead of just non-stop fighting was a nice touch. It set up a lot of things to come and, between the hex-visions and the Vision's origin, it is more essential viewing for the Infinity Wars double-feature than probably any other MCU movie. This movie is the shape of things to come.

ScepterOfLove
(No write-up.)

MetalDK
The only thing I thought that was memorable in this film was near the end with Hawkeye talking to Wanda to help her regain her confidence, and Vision speaking with the last Ultron bot about humanity

MetalmindStats
Id hardly call more Avengers a bad thing, even if this ones individual scenes and sequences do have a habit of veering off course, and even if its villain and plotting in general do tend towards the inane more often than not.

BetrayedTangy
This movie is a mess. For everything it does super well it also does something horribly wrong. Things like the hammer scene, Hulkbuster fight and some pretty solid character moments keep this movie watchable for me and I really think they deserve more credit than they get. However I think one of the biggest crimes this movie commits is how hastily they try to stitch together the lore. Which leads to the movie attempting (and failing) to make a good Ultron story while setting up Civil and Infinity War. This is so frustrating, because it completely wastes Ultron as a character AND fails to make us really care about Wanda or Vision. I feel like most casual fans went on a hiatus at this point which I would say is completely justified.

Jesse Custer
This movie feels more like a series of end credit sequences intended to tease and set up future events in the MCU than an actual movie. In fact, I cant think of any other MCU movie that planted more seeds for the future than this. Just to name a few, Age of Ultron gave us Wanda, Vision, Klaw, and the Hulkbuster suit, teases of Caps broken shield, Cap wielding Mjlnir, the Infinity Gauntlet, and the premise of Thor: Ragnarok, and thats probably just scratching the surface. The problem is Age of Ultron spent so much time building the future of the MCU that it often loses sight of telling a coherent and compelling story with developed characters (with a couple limited exceptions, most notably Bruce, who actually got a meaningful story arc).

Thats not to say Age of Ultron didnt have some strong moments. In particular, I liked the part where Ultron crashed the Avengers party to catch them by surprise, and the part near the end where theyre all fighting together looks great. But Age of Ultron strikes me as a movie thats only worth watching once to fully appreciate everything it sets up, and doesnt warrant a rewatch because its simply not that exciting overall.

TomNook
Not that memorable of a movie, but it was fine. It was nice to get more screentime of some of the slightly neglected heroes.

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ZenOfThunder
My girlfriend tapped out of this franchise after this one. It's pretty bad. I still joke around about Thor being like "yo I gotta wade into a pool of water and scream for a little bit just write me outta these next few scenes."

Anagram
I went into this movie with low expectations, and they were met. I remember how the end battle sequence is supposed to be this epic team-up of all of the heroes as they show off their stuff, and its just noise.

Snake5555555555
One of the MCUs few colossal misfires, what shouldve been the bigger, better sequel to Avengers ends up petering out in misguided character moments and a villain that falls short of his comic appearances. I actually like Spader as Ultron, hes at once sinister and snarky, but the material he is given is weak and his status as a premiere, well-known Marvel villain is MIA as the movie turns to generic robot nonsense. There are scenes I like: when the Avengers are each trying to lift Thors hammer, Hulkbuster, and Vision is extremely well-realized here. All in all, AoU encapsulates the worst growing pains of phase two. Theres the lack of confident direction in its lead characters, as Iron Man is back to his suits and Widow gets a confusing love plot with Hulk, as New Avengers are quickly shoved in something akin to a hail mary panic throw in case things start to fall through. Theres the boring villains centered in generic locations with cookie cutter motives. And lastly, theres an uneven shaky tone as the MCU tries to have its cake and it too with both humor and world-shattering gravitas which doesnt always gel together. An Avengers film should not be this uneven, but in some ironic inversion it still leads the charge for the next generation, but instead of being the shining example, it instead became a blueprint for how not to present these films going forward, and well, the MCU was all the more stronger for it.

StifledSilence
Imagine perfectly casting Spader as Ulton but putting him in a really boring and preachy movie that serves as nothing more than a bridge to Civil War. All the explodeys cant save this movie. I will say, however, the scene where everyone tries to lift the Thor Hammer with a crazy name is wonderful and would place high on a list of top MCU moments.

Illuminatusbubu
What a waste of an Avengers movie. After the first Avengers movie, you would hope much more from a crossover movie. What we get instead is a lackluster villain and a thanksgiving-like get together where the Avengers seem to be there together out of obligation and then go separate way when its all over.

Maniac64
Man was this a disappointing follow up. There were a lot of great elements here from Ultron, the opening avergers party, Vision showing up, the mind stone reveal. But it just didn't work. I also didn't like how they intro'd and handled Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver, though it did make for some nice development for Hawkeye.

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Mr Crispy
Age of Ultron wants to raise the stakes from stopping aliens from taking over earth to preventing human extinction, introduce new characters, and lay some more groundwork about the Infinity Stones for the Infinity Gauntlet arc. But it's just hard to care about any of it. I actually skipped this until about the time Infinity War came out and I could catch it on cable, and I don't really feel like I missed anything too important, just checking off points on a list to set up for future films like iterating the character and Infinity Stone counts.

There's a lot of outright bad or disappointing points tanking Age of Ultron hard. Backpedaling on Tony's character development from Iron Man 3 is disappointing enough, but "Let's put the AI controlling the alien army into our automated defense system built to defend against said alien army." is simply indefensible Bubsy level of WHAT COULD POSSIBLY GO WRONG???? After all the build up of Hydra in Winter Soldier, it just gets unceremoniously sweeped under the rug so Marvel Studios doesn't have to feature them in any more movies going forward. The whole concept of Bruce and Natasha is simply the worst pairing in the MCU (even if they did interact with each other some back in the first Avengers), and is probably more to get rid of Hulk before Civil War.

Ultron wasn't bad (probably around the middle for MCU villains), but Wanda and Vision aren't very interesting. Some people think Age of Ultron gets too jokey, but it never really bothered me (other than the prima nocta line coming off as just creepy). The running gag of teasing Cap about being all "language~" is goofy, but the running gag of Rhodes telling war stories only for everyone else to be "So?" amused me. Everyone getting drunk and trying to lift Thor's hammer is a bit dumb, but it does tease Cap being able to use it in Endgame which actually was kind of cool.

Paratroopa1
It's surprising that in a series of films as vibrant and exciting and fast-paced as the MCU, one of the Avengers movies would be such a joyless, dull slog as this one. It's dark, brooding, overwrought, and not very much fun - it feels like they spend nearly the entire second act of the movie just being sad at Hawkeye's house. The villain's dull, the action scenes are uninspired, and the stakes feel weirdly weightless despite what's happening. The movie focuses a lot on the heroes' traumas but they mostly just feel like low-grade stressed out by their weird visions more than anything. Still, it's fun to see all the heroes together, so I don't completely hate the movie, but I think the party scene where everyone tries to pick up Thor's hammer is probably the only memorable scene in the entire thing. This film has the tone and pacing of a DCEU movie.

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GavsEvans123
Avengers: Age of Ultron (because A few days of Ultron, like, a week tops doesnt sound nearly as impressive) is rather disappointing, and is inferior to the original overall, which I didnt rate too highly (spoiler alert assuming the first film hasnt dropped yet). Thats not to say that it doesnt try though. The typical sequel approach of more characters, more plots and more big action setpieces is here, and some aspects are better this time, to be fair.

Hawkeye got shafted in the last Avengers, but Age of Ultron makes up for it. He carries this film, with plenty of interaction between him and other characters, like Black Widow and the twins. Hes also seemingly the most competent member of the team here. This is likely the closest hell ever get to having his own film, and he makes the most of it.

I used to not mind Ultron, but I didnt like him as much this time, because his jokeyness and quips diminish all the tension that was so effectively built up for him in the trailer (which worked so well that it briefly turned slower, darker versions of classic songs and nursery rhymes into a trailer clich). We were promised the Terminator and instead we got Bender. That said, I did laugh at his exasperated Oh for Gods sake! near the end when Hulk jumps into his plane. The scenes that do try to play him more seriously clash tonally with him being silly in the rest of the film, like the groan-worthy little people bit that brings about mood whiplash mid-scene. Baron Strucker also disappointingly jobs to hype him up, like how that Mouth of Sauron type guy Loki was hanging out with in the Avengers jobbed to hype up fellow chump Ronan.

The romance subplot between Hulk and Black Widow is a crack pairing that comes out of nowhere, since their most notable previous interaction involved Black Widow being terrified for her life as Hulk rampaged after her. For extra weirdness, this is fresh off Winter Soldier, where she spent a lot of time with Captain America, and Betty Ross isnt mentioned at all, which one would expect Bruce to at least think about as he was letting another woman close to him. Nevertheless, even if the idea doesnt work, I can at least appreciate what it was going for with trying to create a bond between two emotionally broken people, and Lego Avengers at least foreshadowed it a little thanks to the benefit of hindsight. (On a side note, Lego Avengers is one of my least favourite Lego games because I think its too big for how simple the gameplay is, and the unlockables are unusually lame. I guess Travellers Tales wanted to make a point of using different characters from Lego Marvel, but the upshot is that Lego Avengers is left with D-listers at best, and the only notable names are the handful of brand-new characters who had debuted since the previous game, like Kamala Khan and Jane Foster Thor.)

The action and setpieces are the most successful element of the film. These are great to look at and are very impressive in their scale, with the highlight being the big grudge match between Hulk and Iron Mans Hulkbuster armour, although the climax does feel a bit overly familiar. Its too similar to the first film, except with robots instead of aliens, and its the fourth MCU film in a row to end with a giant thing falling from the sky. Then again, it does set itself apart with scenes of the Avengers working together to save civilians caught in the battle.

I mentioned it earlier with Ultron, but the biggest problem with the film is that because everyone talks almost entirely in witty quips, you dont feel the stakes. Its funny at first, but it quickly gets tiresome, especially when characters start being dumbed down from how they are usually (looking at you, Caps Language! running gag), although there are a few good ones here and there (The entire film was building up to Visions I was born yesterday line, and no-one can convince me otherwise). At least the first film took itself seriously in a few scenes, a lesson thats been forgotten this time around.

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HanOfTheNekos
Most of the MCU movies are watchable. I would say most are enjoyable, or at least neutral. I think two are actively bad. Depending on my mood, this is the better one.

Thats not to say a whole lot. The movie starts by forgetting everything done in previous films - people didnt go their separate ways. Tony didnt get rid of most of his suits. Banner isnt gaining control. Its like they ignored every movie between Avengers 1 and this one.

Ultron just kind of happens. His introduction sucks. His mouth is weird. Ulysses Klaw use is fun though. Why can Ultron just make bits of the road blast up? Like, what? Come on. And 4/5ths of his consciousness are uploaded into this new body (which is clearly Vision)... what does that even mean? Shouldn't the body be more conscious than Ultron at this point? He's an AI, can't he self-replicated? How does this even work? Seems kinda dumb.

They don't really sell you on the stakes. Ultron was a threat... but a very contained threat. How do you have an AI created by the Mind Stone put himself through the entire internet and end up contained to his own constructs? Is that hubris? I guess I got the part where Vision touched him and that supposedly cut him off from the greater network, but that feels kinda lame. Woulda made more sense for him to "show the Avengers what he could do" by hooking up to the network at the tower and blocking him off there.

Winter Soldier destroyed SHIELD... and Age of Ultron basically brought it back. What was the point? This movie should have been Avengers dealing with a world where the organization that created them had fallen, and how they hold up their own identity in a world where nobody trusts SHIELD, and wouldn't trust the Avengers Initiative, a part of SHIELD, anyway.

Why even do the whole HYDRA taking down SHIELD from the inside if you're going to just say "oh well that was the last of HYDRA, it was just von Strucker, they had an Infinity Stone but did nothing with it". At least throw us a curveball and show us that Strucker was behind Ultron in the first place. Make Ultron a result of HYDRA and make it be worth something. Bring back Red Skull or give us Madame HYDRA or something. Give us continuity. Not "oh here's one of the biggest bads in Marvel we can use him as a transitional villain instead of developing earth or Thanos more. Nah, you just get Ultron."

Like what the heck.

That was one hell of a rant, let's talk about some other things this movie didn't do well.

Whedon knew what he was doing. He set Clint up to die. He knew the audience would know it. Just to fakeout with Quicksilver... I guess we were supposed to have a lot of tension built up waiting on him to die... but they waited too long. The climax was already way past the tipping point... at that point, killing someone off is cheap. Avengers 1 was perfect with when it took out Coulson. This was... dumb.

And what the hell is with Banner and Widow? Who said "hey, let's go with this angle"? It wasn't natural. It made no sense when she was talking about running away with him. It was just plain dumb. And now Hulk had an opportunity to run away so that he can... randomly show up in Thor 3? Am I right? I bet he doesn't even show in Civil War. I guess we can eagerly await a stupid Planet Hulk movie, right?

The joke about Cap not liking bad language was drawn out too much. I completely get what people were saying about the humor in this movie. It didn't land. Something went wrong in the process of creating this movie, and I don't know what, but it felt so much like it was a Whedon movie that was trying to be itself and just couldn't fit the bill.

There were still some good lines, but even they felt weird and almost tone-deaf during the film.

I don't think I really got the deal with Tony this movie. They set him up, thanks to Wanda, to create Ultron... but why? Why did she do it? What was the point of her and Pietro anyway? They hated Stark, but cared about people. Why did they fuck around in the beginning of the movie? Why was she played to be weird but then wasn't that weird? Why didn't she and Pietro just kill Tony?

Let's talk about the good things:

1. Thor fucking kicked ass and saved this movie from being a complete disaster. The jokes surrounding people lifting his hammer, them returning to it at the end. His vision, him meeting with Selvig. His general combat. Him finding out that the Infinity Stones were in play and seeking that out. I am a little confused with why Thanos and the Stones would pop up in his fear vision anyway... that implies that he has some deep-set knowledge of it. But who is the purple man in the floating chair?

That's my entire list.

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Inviso
The issue I have with this movie is that it feels largely like action for actions sake. The film opens with a raid on a Hydra facility, which introduces Wanda and Pietro as two of three new Avengers joining the team in this movie. And then for reasons largely unexplained (I know theyre explained, but the movie does a poor job of it), Tony has more PTSD over events that he supposedly dealt with in Iron Man 3, and creates a robot to defend the world. But the robot, Ultron, goes crazy and determines that humanity is the only threat to Earth, and this happens so fast that his motivations are never given cause to build and explain themselves. Its like Tony Stark builds the movies villain, who is a villain solely to facilitate the plot of the movie. The stakes never feel developed enough to justify the level of hype this movie is supposed to inspire. Heck, even the face turn from Wanda/Pietro happens SO quickly that it feels tacked on. So, in essence, the only thing Age of Ultron has going for it is some kickass action, which again, is fine. Its cool, even. But this is just a very flat movie and lacks personality otherwise.

Lopen
"Hey, look at me. It's your fault, it's everyone's fault, who cares. Are you up for this? Are you? Look, I just need to know cause the city is flying. Ok, look, the city is flying, we're fighting an army of robots, and I have a bow and arrow. None of this makes sense. But I'm going back out there cause it's my job. Ok, and I can't do my job and babysit. Doesn't matter what you did, or what you were. If you go out there, you fight and you fight to kill. Stay in here, you're good. I'll send your brother to come find you. But if you step out that door, you are an Avenger. All right, good chat."

That right there is the one good thing I have to say about Age of Ultron. And you know I'm all about positivity. So I figured I'd start with that.

My broader feeling on the movie is that Age of Ultron takes what many people who are down on Marvel movies call a weakness in the MCU writing and makes it an actual weakness. EVERYONE in the movie is a quip machine. While I disagree this is a problem with MCU writing in general, it does actually hurt Ultron because what makes MCU writing work is the villain is generally taking things seriously so there's still some gravitas to things. Ultron is joking right along with the heroes in this one. And yeah people are like "well it's cause he's got Tony's personality" and that ain't an excuse man. I can't possibly care about what's going on in this movie cause nobody in the movie does. It's just an endless string of explosions and banter that eventually concludes and is completely unnecessary viewing. I guess it introduces Vision and Scarlet Witch, but you can just skip this and watch Civil War instead. Just grating to watch for me.

Raka Putra
My least favorite Avengers movie for sure. It just didn't really sell the hype of seeing the Avengers together and Ultron was such a random villain, I feel. Like he came and went in the blink of an eye compared to Loki or Thanos. I don't have much else to say.

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OUTLIERS:

Eddv - 57
PrinceKaro - 34
Johnbobb - 32
BetrayedTangy - 23
Lopen - 23
GavsEvans123 - 21
Mr Crispy - 21
VengefulKaelee - 20
HanOfTheNekos - 18
Illuminatusbubu - 18
Raka Putra - 18
Maniac64 - 17
Snake5555555555 - 17
TomNook - 17
Whiskey Nick - 17
Cybat - 16
ScepterOfLove - 16
StifledSilence - 16
Corrik7 - 15
Inviso - 15
XIII Rocks - 15
CoolCly - 14
Jesse Custer - 14
Red13n - 14
Paratroopa1 - 13
Sheep007 - 12
NBIceman - 11
Anagram - 10
Mega Mana - 8
MetalDK - 7
MetalmindStats - 7
ZenOfThunder 2

NBIce makes a BIG jump there and is no longer even in the bottom 5 for outlier scores, while Zen gets another spot-on to maintain his sole status at the bottom of the list. Meanwhile, Eddv further extends his lead by losing a third top ten member in the bottom 5 of the list, and Karo/Johnbobb duke it out for second place right behind him with similarly high placements.

Spoiler for Number 17: Just like is happening with this place, this movie was one of the four movies following in the immediate aftermath of an Avengers film.

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It's gotta be Iron Man 3 or Ant-Man and Wasp

I'm betting IM3

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Inviso posted...

Spoiler for Number 17: Just like is happening with this place, this movie was one of the four movies following in the immediate aftermath of an Avengers film.

so... the three movies I would have guessed anyway?

hmmm.

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predicting Ant-Man and the Wasp again

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Oh good Captain America 1 doesn't fall yet.

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Thank God

I am owed $9000

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I forgot I placed Ultron that high up but then I remembered how many films that are just okay are below it and understood why. It's probably Iron Man 3 next over Ant Man 2 and that's a shame, but both have gotta be gone pretty soon anyway. Also, I would like to retract my statement regarding Elizabeth Olsen because I forgot Lupita Nyong'o is in the MCU when I was doing my Ultron writeup. Even the accent isn't enough, sorry.

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Wanna say IM3 drops, but frankly any film that isnt Far From Home might drop here

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i hate how predictable i am oh my god

i thought i had some pretty hot takes but my takes seem to have crashed into the ice for 70 years

EDIT: i definitely will not be maintaining my bottom position because I put way, WAY too much stock in the spider-man franchise

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My guess is Ant-Man and the Wasp next and Im okay with that!

Like I said, in retrospect Ultron is worse than Captain Marvel and I would never have had it over Thor. Its okay, but I dont think its better than that. I dont really have some of the commonly cited issues with it like the humour. It also looks much better than the first Avengers which is nice (the main problem with that film is that for such a huge film, it doesnt look great - even Cap 1 looks better). It has some really nice character work too, with one exception. I really liked what they did with Hawkeye in particular, and the bait-and-switch with his possible death (very much on purpose, Whedon described laughing while writing foreshadowing for a non-existent death scene). However, it has some big problems.

First, the fact that it seems more interested in setting up future films than in its own story. I wound up really wanting to see Civil War, Thor Ragnarok, Black Panther, and so on, instead of the film I was actually watching. Second, all of the action felt completely perfunctory and frankly very boring except for the Hulkbuster scene. Compare it to the action in The Avengers where every action scene has impact for the characters and story. Wanda worked but Quicksilver was boring, especially when you compare him to his Days of Future Past self from less than a year before. I also felt that compared to the other Avengers movies, this one felt like much less of a major story event. And boy, did they ever torch Black Widows character in this one. Its not the romance, that was passable by superhero romance standards, its the whole I MADE MYSELF INFERTILE ARENT I TERRIBLE awfulness. WANTING KIDS==GOOD WOMAN, this movie says...

So yeah, a mixed bag to say the least. If if wasnt for the strength of its characters, it would have been just another trash, cynical, CG-fest. Luckily theyre pretty damn good.

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Oh no

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Inviso posted...

(which worked so well that it briefly turned slower, darker versions of classic songs and nursery rhymes into a trailer clich).

"briefly"? i feel like i still see that overused trope in trailers all the time!

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10. Captain Marvel
11.
12.
13.
14.
15.
16. Avengers: Age of Ultron
17.
18. Thor
19. ???
20. Thor: The Dark World
21. Iron Man 2
22. ???
23. The Incredible Hulk

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Somehow Age of Ultron wouldn't be the last 2015 summer tentpole to get caught up in controversy over a heroine being shamed for not wanting kids...though honestly, has ANYONE really thought much about Jurassic World since 2015?

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Completely shocked that not only was Ultron not Eddv's 23 but it isn't even close. It's the whedoniest thing in the MCU that ever whedoned

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LinkMarioSamus posted...

Somehow Age of Ultron wouldn't be the last 2015 summer tentpole to get caught up in controversy over a heroine being shamed for not wanting kids...though honestly, has ANYONE really thought much about Jurassic World since 2015?

I mean, I did. Largely because I was like "Hey, that kid in Iron Man 3 was the kid in Jurassic World!"

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Told y'all things were going off the rails for me soon!

Gonna keep predicting AMatW until I have a reason not to, because I'm very surprised it's still hanging around. Didn't think anyone really cared about it that much at all.

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Well I think Wasp is the most neutral MCU film we have. There's nothing particularly special about it, but also really nothing wrong with it either so I could see it naturally landing around the middle of a lot of lists

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I'm a pretty easy person to please. IM2 and AoU are the MCU films that are actively bad. I think all of the others range from uninteresting to great, but I wouldn't say they're necessarily bad movies. IM2 and AoU just have bad writing, bad plots, bad use of characters, and as said before, the best part of AoU was when Thor realized the movie was a waste of his time and he left.

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Yeah Ultron is the only MCU film I actually dislike. Thats why I rag on it in so many of my write-ups. Even Hulk is just "well this was pointless" but it doesn't but me in any way. Like if it contributed anything of note to the other films I'd probably have it a bit higher even

I'd say the first film I actually LIKE on the list to any degree is Thor though. All the films below Thor (16) I don't really feel like I gained a lot out of seeing and wouldn't really make a point to watch again ever.

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