X-Men: Apocalypse - SPOILER POST

“Everything they built will fall! And from the ashes of their world, we’ll build a better one!”

(WARNING: SPOILERS)

Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice SPOILER POST

“Black and Blue. Fight Night. The greatest Gladiator match in the history of the world. God vs. Man. Day vs. Knight. Son of Krypton vs. Bat of Gotham.”

(WARNING: SPOILERS AHEAD)

Ant-Man: SPOILER POST

WARNING!!!

The following post contains spoilers for the film ‘Ant-Man’. If you have not yet seen the film, please instead refer to my Spoiler-Free review (the link will be provided below) as I will be talking about some of the major points of this film in spoiler-y detail.

(http://rimoviecorner.blogspot.com/2015/07/ant-man-2015-review.html)

In the days leading up to the release of ‘Ant-Man’, I’ll admit that I wasn’t really sure if I was going to do a Spoiler Post for this particular installment of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. This is because at the time I figured that after the epic events of ‘The Avengers: Age of Ultron’, there probably wouldn’t really be that much to talk about in regards to this film, sort of like 2013’s ‘Thor: The Dark World’ compared to the other MCU film of that year, ‘Iron Man 3’. But, in the end, there actually is quite a few noteworthy things to talk about in this, the final installment of the MCU’s Phase Two. Namely this is in regards to some major implications towards the future of the franchise. And of course I’m happy to see that ‘Ant-Man’ turned out as successful as it did with critics and audiences given all of the unfortunate bad publicity that it got following the whole Edgar Wright incident when he dropped out of directing the film, which he had worked on since 2006, due to creative differences with Marvel. Hopefully at the end of the day this film managed to make a good chunk of its biggest critics eat their words because it turned out just fine even without the fan-favorite Wright directing it. So now that I got that intro out of the way, let’s start talking about some of the biggest elements to Marvel Studios’ latest superhero adventure that I just couldn’t delve into that much in my original spoiler-free review.

FAVORITE MOMENTS

I guess you can say that this is becoming a recurring topic in these MCU Spoiler Posts of mine. I’ve always praised the MCU for perfectly establishing a fun and light-hearted atmosphere while also perfectly balancing the epic action with humor and heart and ‘Ant-Man’ is no exception. So today it’s time to highlight some of my favorite moments from ‘Ant-Man’;

*As noted in my original review, Michael Pena is easily the biggest standout of the entire film as he has many of the best lines in the film. Of course there are the montages where he talks about how he came across major tip-offs in which he provides the dubbing for any major character in those scenes (including good old Stan Lee in his usual cameo). But then you also have some other hilarious moments involving his character Luis, like when he helps save a guard (who he had knocked out earlier) from the Pym Technologies building before it explodes and his first scene in the film where he tells Scott Lang that even though “his girlfriend left him, his mom died, and his dad got deported”, at least he got to “keep the van”. I’ve heard quite a few people now complain that the character is nothing more than a stereotype but I think the character is much more than that. I mentioned the whole ‘dragging a guy out of a building before it explodes’ thing, right? I don't care what anyone says... Luis is awesome!

*Scott’s daughter Cassie (Abby Ryder Fortson) also gets some highly memorable bits of funny dialogue. The first is when her father visits her at her birthday party and she goes to tell her mom, Scott’s ex-wife Maggie (Judy Greer). Cassie then tells her dad that her mom “was so happy, she choked on her drink.” The other funny line from her is when she’s with her mom and her new stepdad Paxton (Bobby Cannavale) after Scott uses the Ant-Man suit to break out of jail. She asks Paxton if “he’s looking for her dad”, to which he responds by saying yes and that he’s just trying to keep Scott safe. She then tells him that she hopes that he doesn’t catch him. Epic Burn!!!

*Of course you can’t go wrong with a training montage and ‘Ant-Man’ has a pretty memorable one, from Scott getting freaked out by ants resulting in him quickly reverting back to normal size and getting stuck in the backyard (this happens twice by the way (“That was much more frightening a few seconds ago”)) to the famous scene from the trailer where Hope van Dyne teaches Scott how to punch… by punching him in the face (“Were you aiming for the hand?”). What else can be said but, “That’s how you punch”?

*When Hope and Hank got out of Pym Technologies with the help of Hank’s ‘keychain’.

*During the first major action sequence between Ant-Man and Yellowjacket in a helicopter, the two of them end up getting stuck in a briefcase as it plummets down to Earth. Yellowjacket declares “I’m going to disintegrate you” but before this, Ant-Man accidentally activates Siri on Darren Cross’ IPhone, who translates that into “Playing ‘Disintegration’ by The Cure”. Cue epic fight scene backed by ‘Plainsong’.

*Speaking of epic action sequences, the film’s climax is definitely one of the most unique climaxes in the entire MCU… and it takes place within Cassie’s room. This of course leads to many hilarious moments in which the action sequences that look epic at ant-sized scale aren’t really that major when viewed from a distance. This includes the famous shot from the trailer when Yellowjacket is run over by Thomas the Tank Engine. Thomas is then later blown up to gigantic size by one of Ant-Man’s ‘Pym Particle discs’ and crashes through the house. One of Scott’s ant allies also gets hit by one of the discs and by the end of the film, Cassie apparently adopted it as a pet.

There are still a few more moments that I didn’t mention here, but we’ll move on for now so that this doesn’t go on forever…

SCOTT LANG/ANT-MAN

One of the major reasons why I was really looking forward to this film was how it was going to give us a different kind of superhero lead compared to the others that we’ve seen over the years, like Thor or Spider-Man. Scott Lang doesn’t have any special superpowers; he’s just a regular guy who at the beginning of the film is down on his luck having just been released from prison as he now tries to turn his life around so that he can be there for his daughter Cassie, whom he can see only if he can provide child support according to Maggie and Paxton. But obviously, due to his criminal background, he has difficulty keeping any jobs… he even gets fired from Baskin-Robbins (because “Baskin-Robbins always Finds Out!”) This is also the first major MCU film to place emphasis on a ‘father-daughter’ relationship (two in fact… we’ll get to the other one in a second). Sure, Cassie doesn’t actually play that big a role in the film but that doesn’t mean that she isn’t vital to Scott’s character arc. His motivation to be with his daughter again legitimately helps him become better at using the Ant-Man technology, primarily in regards to effectively communicating with his ant allies. Because of all this, Scott ends up being one of the most relatable leads of the MCU to date and Paul Rudd does a terrific job in the lead role.

HOPE VAN DYNE AND HANK PYM

The second, and most prominent, ‘father-daughter’ relationship in the film is between Hope van Dyne and her father Hank Pym. Early on, there’s shown to be some major tension between the two, especially after the loss of Hope’s mother (more on her later). Hank reveals to Scott that when he was kicked out of his company by Darren Cross, Hope was ‘the deciding vote’, though she came back to him later on after realizing the sinister intentions of Cross in his effort to re-create her father’s ‘Ant-Man technology’. But the most important aspect of their relationship in this film is how it addresses Hank’s reluctance to have Hope take on the mantle of Ant-Man. In the beginning, it is clearly established that Hope is more than capable, definitely more so than Scott, of being a superhero, having trained in karate (a little while after her mom ‘died’) and being much more familiar with Pym Technologies due to her being Darren Cross’ primary business partner. But as the film progresses, we eventually do learn of the major reason why Hank doesn’t let Hope wear the suit. And it is actually a pretty damn legit reason as Hank doesn’t want ‘the same thing’ that happened to her mother (I’ll delve more into that later on) happening to Hope. As I stated in my original review for the film, Evangeline Lilly may not have gotten that much to do in terms of action but that doesn’t mean that her character is wasted in this film. In fact, from what I’ve heard online, Hope’s role in the film would’ve been much less significant if the film did end up getting directed by Wright. So yes, there’s actually a major positive to Wright not directing ‘Ant-Man’; a much more substantial role for Hope van Dyne.

YELLOWJACKET

Boy those poor MCU villains can never catch a break when it comes to critics and fans negatively comparing them to everyone’s favorite, Loki. Earlier this summer, I did a post in which I ranked the MCU’s first eight major villains and ultimately defended the majority of them as being better than what most critics put them out to be. But as for Darren Cross, the main villain of ‘Ant-Man’, I unfortunately have to side more with the critics on this one. Cross admittedly is a rather one-note villain despite the interesting enough set-up of him looking to enact revenge against his former mentor, Hank Pym, for keeping the Ant-Man technology away from him, leaving him to have to try and recreate it himself. I mainly tribute Cross’ shortcomings as a villain to the fact that he’s not really in the film that much to be that much of a ‘threat’. He’s in the film but most of the runtime is instead focused on the protagonists. But as I’ve stated in the past, I really don’t mind that at all because I do think that one of the biggest strengths of the MCU is that their main characters have always been so well-developed to the point where these films don’t always need a ‘Loki-esque’ villain. But despite all of this, that doesn’t mean that I think that Cross is a ‘terrible’ villain.

Going off of what I said in that previous ‘Ranking the MCU villains’ post, one of the main reasons why I feel that most of the non-Loki MCU villains are better than people give them credit for is because at least the majority of them still manage to have a solid enough screen presence that I feel manages to at least make up for any other shortcomings that they might have. The only instance in which this didn’t work was Malekith from ‘Thor 2’, who was not only a majorly underdeveloped villain but also one that had absolutely no screen presence whatsoever. Despite the fact that Cross ends up being a fairly one-note villain, Corey Stoll at least has a solid villainous screen presence in the role. He does actually manage to be rather intimidating whenever he’s talking to one of the main characters, whether it be Scott, Hope, or Hank. And yes, that Yellowjacket suit is pretty damn badass. Sure, Cross doesn’t put it on until the finale but once he does, that’s definitely one of the film’s biggest highlights. So in conclusion, while Darren Cross AKA Yellowjacket may not be the absolute MCU villain of all-time, he is also by no means the worst. If I had to rank him alongside the other MCU villains based on my original rankings from earlier this year (which would now obviously include Ultron, who would be #2 by the way, following ‘Age of Ultron’), he would be ranked somewhere around 7 or 8.

FALCON

Taking the honor of being one of the best cameos of 2015 is everyone’s favorite ‘wingman’, Falcon (Anthony Mackie). Sam Wilson also made an appearance in ‘Age of Ultron’ but it was a very minor cameo as he only appeared in two scenes, the first being an brief appearance at the Avengers’ party in Stark Tower and the other occurring right at the end as he becomes one of the newest members of the Avengers. Thankfully he gets a much more substantial role in ‘Ant-Man’ as he partakes in one of the best action sequences in the entire film; a fight between him and Scott. Before the big heist on Pym Industries, Hank and Hope have Scott break into an old Stark Industries facility in order to find a Signal Decoy device that will help them out in their mission. But when Scott finally gets there, they all realize that it has since become the new headquarters for the Avengers, which we the audience first saw in ‘Age of Ultron’. Despite Hank and Hope repeatedly telling him to get out of there, Scott sticks to the plan and almost immediately crosses paths with Falcon. The two of them get into a brief fight but Scott manages to beat Falcon by sabotaging his wingsuit. As he leaves, Falcon embarrassingly tells whoever he’s talking to on the radio to not tell Cap about this. But this isn’t the last we see of Falcon in this film, as he later appears at the end of the film as part of one of Luis’ famous ‘tip-off montages’ in which Scott learns that Wilson is offering him a chance to join the Avengers.

JANET VAN DYNE

One of the major questions brought up by fans in the months leading up to the film’s release is whether or not Hank Pym’s wife Janet van Dyne AKA ‘The Wasp’ would be making an appearance in the film. While she ultimately doesn’t play a major role in the film, the story of what happened to her is a key scene in the film and arguably the most emotionally impactful as well. As stated earlier, this is why Hank doesn’t let Hope take on the mantle of Ant-Man despite the fact that she’s clearly more qualified than Scott. Hank eventually tells both Scott and Hope what really happened to her mother. Back in 1987 when Hank took on missions in the Ant-Man costume alongside his wife, she had sacrificed herself in order to stop a Soviet missile by going subatomic and disappearing into a quantum realm. So obviously, Hank doesn’t want to lose Hope like he lost Janet. It’s definitely a touching moment, allowing both Hank and Hope to reach an emotional catharsis after a considerable amount of time at odds with one another and I’ll even admit that I got a little teary-eyed during this scene… even if Scott ends up ruining the moment a few moments later by remarking how the two of them are re-connecting.

But did Janet van Dyne really die in the Quantum Realm? This is put into question during the film’s finale after Scott also goes subatomic in order to sabotage Yellowjacket’s suit to defeat him. He ends up in the same Quantum Realm and while he doesn’t come across Janet while he’s there, he does manage to get out by reversing his suit’s shrinking mechanism, allowing him to return to normal size. This of course leads to Hank beginning to wonder if Janet may still be alive, which given the fact that Scott managed to survive the Quantum Realm seems very, very possible. And quite frankly, I do think that Janet is still alive and that we’ll be seeing her sometime in the future. I may not be that much of a comic-book reader but I can definitely tell that the Wasp is a fan-favorite character amongst Marvel fans so I know that fans have been eager to see her make an appearance in the MCU. Plus, in the comics, she was also one of the founding members of the Avengers. Obviously the same distinction does not apply in the MCU but Kevin Feige has stated that there are plans to have her appear in future films. But while we may not yet know is Janet is still alive, we do know what will happen next for ‘the Wasp’. This of course leads me to the final topic of today’s Spoiler Post…

THOSE POST-CREDITS SEQUENCES

If we’re talking MCU post-credits scenes, then ‘Ant-Man’ arguably has two of the most important sequences in franchise history as both lay the groundwork for future events in the MCU. Going back to what I just talked about in regards to ‘the Wasp’, the mid-credits scene shows Hank giving Hope a prototype Wasp suit that was developed by both him and Janet, showing that he’s finally able to accept Hope taking on a superhero mantle after showing much hesitation earlier in the film. As stated earlier, Hope did not have much to do in the film in terms of action but that was fine because she was still just as important to the story, primarily in regards to her trying to reconnect with her father. But with that said, it’s definitely very cool that she’s now going to get to be a superhero as well in future MCU films. Though according to Kevin Feige, she won’t be appearing in the next MCU film, ‘Civil War’, because the character was cut from the story so that they “wouldn’t do her a disservice”. Yeah it’s a little disappointing, especially considering that Scott Lang will be in the film, but then again ‘Civil War’ does have a pretty big ensemble cast to the point where it can now pretty much be considered as an ‘Avengers’ film so it’s not really that big of a deal. So now I’m guessing that she’ll at least be in ‘Infinity War’. Either way, to quote Hope in this mid-credits scene, “it’s about damn time”.

Speaking of ‘Civil War’, finally there’s the post-credits scene, which was directed by the Russo brothers and will apparently be seen again in ‘Civil War’. The scene consists of Captain America and Falcon having finally found Bucky, which was their goal at the end of ‘Captain America: The Winter Soldier’, and debating what to do next. Both of them point out that they’re unable to contact Tony Stark due to ‘the Accords’, obviously foreshadowing the future conflict between Cap and Iron Man in ‘Civil War’. But of course because Falcon was part of a major action sequence in this film and at the end was shown to be looking for Scott Lang to ‘recruit’ him into the Avengers, he tells Steve that ‘he knows a guy’. So while we don’t yet know when this scene will occur in the next film, it definitely sets the stakes for what will be surely be another epic superhero film when ‘Captain America: Civil War’ hits theaters on May 6, 2016 to kick Phase Three of this grand Marvel Cinematic Universe. But for now, this sequence, and the entire film in general, closes out Phase Two of the MCU. Sure there may have been quite a bit of controversy surrounding this stage of the MCU from the Mandarin fake-out to the whole Edgar Wright incident but ultimately it ended up delivering some of the franchise’s greatest films to date.

IN CONCLUSION

Whenever I update my rankings list of the MCU, I don’t add in the newest film until after I’ve at least seen it twice. So now, having seen ‘Ant-Man’ twice in theaters, here are my updated rankings for the first twelve films of the Marvel Cinematic Universe;

12. Iron Man 2

11. The Incredible Hulk

10. Thor: The Dark World

9. Thor

8. Iron Man

7. Iron Man 3

6. ANT-MAN

5. Captain America: The First Avenger

4. Captain America: The Winter Soldier

3. The Avengers: Age of Ultron

2. The Avengers

1. Guardians of the Galaxy

Ultimately there are two main reasons why I can’t really put ‘Ant-Man’ in the Top 5. The first, as noted earlier, is that the main villain is rather one-note but as I also noted earlier, this has never bothered me as much as other people and I don’t even think that Yellowjacket is a ‘terrible’ villain. Like I’ve said in the past, I don’t hold the MCU villains to the ridiculously high standards of the internet in the wake of Loki’s turn as the villain in ‘The Avengers’. The only other problem that I have with ‘Ant-Man’ is that it starts off rather slow but thankfully gets moving once Scott first puts on the Ant-Man suit. All in all, ‘Ant-Man’ is another excellent entry in the MCU film. It’s sad that this film had to be overshadowed by the internet’s unwillingness to get over the departure of Edgar Wright, and unfortunately I have seen some people negatively compare the film to ‘what could have been’ with Wright, which is straight-up BS. But at the end of the day, ‘Ant-Man’ did not end up being the disaster that some predicted it to be. Marvel managed to move on from this initial setback and director Peyton Reed more than proves to be a solid enough replacement for Wright. As a result, ‘Ant-Man’ is another highly entertaining installment of this highly entertaining franchise and is definitely one of the most unique MCU films to date. Like I said in my original review, at this point it is foolish to have any sort of doubt about Marvel Studios because they obviously know what they’re doing. 

Terminator Genisys: SPOILER POST

WARNING!!!

The following post contains spoilers for the film ‘Terminator: Genisys’. If you have not seen the film yet, please instead refer to my spoiler-free review of the film, of which a link will be provided below, as I will be discussing key plot points and elements of the film in spoiler-y detail.

(http://rimoviecorner.blogspot.com/2015/07/terminator-genisys-2015-review.html)

Whenever I do a spoiler post for a film on this site, it is usually for a superhero film, having started with ‘Iron Man 3’ and most recently for ‘The Avengers: Age of Ultron’. I’ve only done one Spoiler Post for a non-superhero film and that was for ‘Star Trek Into Darkness’ in regards to the big ‘Khan’ reveal of that film. But today, I’m finally doing another non-superhero Spoiler Post and today’s subject is ‘Terminator: Genisys’, the fifth installment of a film franchise that many people feel should have ended after the series’ second entry, ‘Terminator 2: Judgment Day’. You can definitely tell that just by the reviews for ‘Genisys’, the under-performance of the film here in the U.S. box-office wise (thankfully it has fared much better overseas), and the overall uneasiness amongst film fans leading up to the film’s release due to the aforementioned feelings towards the franchise post-‘Terminator 2’. But, as you will recall from my original review for ‘Genisys’, I actually quite enjoyed it. Was it the absolute best entry in the franchise? No, not by a long shot. But of course what do you expect when James Cameron’s original two masterpieces were such hard acts to follow? Ultimately though I do feel that ‘Terminator: Genisys’ was a pretty darn entertaining sci-fi flick that perfectly balanced action and humor while also staying faithful to the legacy of the franchise’s first two installments. And it did this while also setting out on a unique new path brought on by none other than…

AN ALTERNATE TIMELINE

As I’ve no doubt stated in the past, one of my favorite films of the past few years has been the 2009 ‘Star Trek’ reboot, which made the bold move of creating a brand new alternate timeline. While this clearly was a controversial move in the minds of long-time ‘Star Trek’ fans, I for one was 100% supportive of this decision as I feel that the franchise can now move on in new directions without having to strictly adhere to series canon… and yes, I say that even after the last ‘Trek’ film, ‘Into Darkness’, proved to be even more polarizing amongst ‘Trek’ fans for its callbacks, though seriously not as many as ‘Trek’ fans claim, to ‘The Wrath of Khan’. Clearly the success of the ‘Trek’ films inspired Paramount when they developed ‘Terminator: Genisys’ as it too goes with the ‘alternate timeline’ storyline. The film opens up basically re-telling the original plot of the first ‘Terminator’ film but from the perspective of the future war. In the midst of the war against Skynet, resistance leader John Connor (Jason Clarke) learns of a plot by Skynet to send one of their Terminator robots back in time to the year 1984 to kill his mother Sarah, thereby erasing him from existence. John’s top lieutenant, Kyle Reese (Jai Courtney), volunteers to go back in time to save her. But once he gets into Skynet’s time machine, that’s when things start to change. Before leaving, he sees John being attacked by another ‘soldier’ (more on this character later) and before he arrives in 1984, he starts to have new memories of his childhood that are much different than what he previously remembered.

It is established at the beginning, through narration by Reese, that he was born in 2004 after Judgment Day, which for the record has been reverted back to the original August 1997 date from ‘Terminator 2’. In other words, this film straight up ignores ‘Terminator 3’ and ‘Salvation’, which had Judgment Day occur in July 2004. But now his childhood is different as the world, for some reason, hasn’t ended yet and his younger self repeatedly tells himself about how ‘he can shut down Skynet before it is born’ and that ‘Genisys is Skynet’. He arrives in 1984 and basically goes through the same beats that we saw in the first film. He steals a pair of pants from a bum (“That son of a bitch stole my pants”) and rushes into a store to avoid the cops. But this time the cop (Lee Byung-hun) happens to be a T-1000, the liquid metal shape-shifting Terminator who can take the form of anything it comes into contact with. Before the T-1000 can kill him, however, he is saved by Sarah, who is not the scared and vulnerable young woman who Kyle was expecting to find based on what he was told by John in the future. Instead, she is already a badass warrior who just so happens to be protected by a T-800 Terminator. Slowly realizing that he is now in a new alternate reality, Kyle learns that in 1973, Skynet had sent a T-1000 (presumably the same one that the trio deal with in 1984) back in time to kill Sarah when she was a child. However, a as of yet unconfirmed party sent back a T-800 to protect her, who ever since has trained her in combat to prepare her for the impending apocalypse.

Now this new ‘alternate timeline’ storyline has been referred to by some of the film’s biggest critics as ‘lousy fan-fiction’. But you know what? ‘Star Trek’ basically did the same thing and you don’t see anyone complain about that (Oh wait…). The fact of the matter is that, as I noted earlier, I don’t mind this at all because I like the idea of re-writing the canon to allow for new storyline possibilities that may or may not go down the familiar paths that we had seen in the first two ‘Terminator 2’ films. If this new alternate reality wasn’t real then this would be nothing more than a remake of the first film. Maybe then it would be ‘lousy fan-fiction’ like those critics say but as is, it is by no means that at all. I for one am intrigued to see what happens now for this film franchise as it begins to uncover some of the mysteries that are established in ‘Genisys’, like who is responsible for sending Sarah’s T-800 back in time. I also like how this film challenges some of the pre-conceived notions of what we saw before, namely in regards to the relationship between Sarah and Kyle. As we know from the first ‘Terminator’, the two of them ended up falling in love, resulting in the birth of John Connor. But in this film, that future relationship is put into question. For one thing, Kyle learns about his fate from the other timeline; that he dies protecting Sarah, and also has difficulty coming to terms with the fact that he’s John’s father. Throughout the film, Kyle and Sarah have, to put it lightly, a rather strenuous relationship. I mean at the end of the day, they do get together but seeing how Kyle doesn’t die in this film, it’ll be interesting to see where their relationship will go from there, especially since they come across his younger self and even go as far as giving him the memories that the grown-up Kyle experienced while traveling through time.

ARNOLD!!

Whether or not you like this film, you cannot deny that one of the absolute best things in the entire film is Arnold Schwarzenegger’s heralded return to the franchise that made him a star. He may not be the absolute best actor in the world but that correlates perfectly to his role in these films as a robot that has difficulties trying to fit in with humans. Seriously just admit that you at least laughed once when the T-800 tried to smile. And you know what? For a 67-year old, Arnold still manages to not only kick major ass in what is easily his most iconic role to date but also continues to excel in delivering memorable one-liners (“Old but not obsolete!”). The fight sequence between him and the younger-looking T-800 from 1984 is easily one of the biggest highlights of the entire film. And hey, at the end of the film, he basically becomes a T-1000, having been thrown in a vat of liquid metal by the T-3000 AKA John Connor (again, more on him later) so it’ll cool to see how that will affect the character in future films. He also gets major kudos for the solid father-daughter relationship between him and Sarah, which ultimately is the heart of the film. This leads perfectly into my next point…

SARAH AND ‘POPS’

I’m just going to throw this out there… at the end of the day, ‘Terminator: Genisys’ doesn’t really carry the same emotional depth of the first two ‘Terminator’ films. I’m not saying this as a criticism of the film; it’s just that the first two films, especially ‘Terminator 2’ with the father-son relationship of John Connor and the T-800, were so successful in this regard. But ‘Terminator Genisys’ still manages to have some good emotional depth, primarily in the form of the father-daughter relationship between Sarah and, as she refers to him as, ‘Pops’. I loved the back-and-forth between the two in scenes where they have arguments, like when ‘Pops’ brings up the awkward point about how Kyle and Sarah, as he puts it, are expected to ‘mate’. And while of course he’s a robot that doesn’t 100% grasp the concept of feelings and emotion, there are times where he clearly shows how much he cares about Sarah. One notable example of this occurs when Sarah, Kyle, and ‘Pops’ hide out in the latter’s secret base and Sarah notices that he still keeps photos of her as a child and drawings that she made of them. And while I’ll admit that going in I already knew that this T-800 wasn’t going to die like in ‘Terminator 2’ (or ‘Terminator 3’), the scene where he appears ready to sacrifice himself was handled great from an emotional standpoint, especially when he tells Kyle to ‘take care of my Sarah’.

Sarah Connor is, without a doubt, one of the best female action heroines of all-time and that legacy is done justice once again in this film thanks to Emilia Clarke’s excellent turn in the role. Like Linda Hamilton before her, she does a great job in giving Sarah both her confidence and fearlessness in combat while also doing a perfect job in capturing the character’s vulnerability. In ‘Terminator 2’, Sarah’s vulnerability came from her past experiences in the first ‘Terminator’ film and her distrust of John’s guardian T-800. In ‘Terminator: Genisys’, this is shown primarily through her relationships with both ‘Pops’ and Kyle. Relating to what I talked about in my Spoiler Post for ‘Avengers: Age of Ultron’ in regards to the controversy surrounding the character of Black Widow, I feel that, contrary to popular belief, it’s perfectly fine for female action heroes to show signs of vulnerability because it shows that they’re human. Nothing’s perfect and a character that is meant to be ‘perfect’ isn’t always the best-written character. I know that right now a lot of people on the internet are raving about the character of Furiosa from ‘Mad Max: Fury Road’ but at the end of the day, that character has nothing on Sarah Connor and this film is 100% proof of that.

KYLE REESE

In terms of respect/credibility, Jai Courtney has about as much respect from film fans as Shia LaBeouf or Sam Worthington… in other words, not very much. In fact, this makes ‘Terminator: Genisys’ the second instance in which Courtney has starred in a major film franchise in which the installment that he starred in was one of the worst-rated entries in the entire series, the other being ‘A Good Day to Die Hard’ and I’m pretty sure all of this makes some DC fans hesitant about his involvement in ‘Suicide Squad’. But I stand firm when I say that Courtney is not at all to blame for the shortcomings of ‘A Good Day to Die Hard’ and in response to some people who say that he ‘ruined’ Terminator too, let me be the first to say that this is not true. Contrary to popular opinion, I think Courtney did a fine job in this film. Was he the absolute best Kyle Reese ever? No, not at all, but I do feel that Courtney did a good job in the role as it was written in this film. In this film, Kyle Reese is basically the avatar for the audience as he traverses through this new alternate timeline trying to come to terms with what he’s dealing with. And ultimately Courtney was at his best when he was with Clarke and Schwarzenegger so at the end of the day, he serves his purpose in taking on this iconic role for the revival of the ‘Terminator’ franchise.

EVIL JOHN CONNOR?

It’s time to delve into what is arguably the most controversial element of the entire film, which first attracted controversy when many people (even director Alan Taylor) felt that it was spoiled in the film’s second trailer. And that is the reveal that in this film, John Connor, who is arguably the main protagonist of the entire series, has been turned into a Terminator by Skynet, effectively making him the main antagonist of this new film. Of course, as noted earlier, Kyle notices a mysterious figure grab John before he travels back to 1984 which then results in him ending up in a new timeline. After helping Sarah and ‘Pops’ defeat the T-1000 that’s after them, Kyle and Sarah travel forward in time to the year 2017 while Pops stays behind; in other words, he ‘takes the long way’ to reunite with them in the future. The two end up getting caught by the police but are then approached by John while they are in the hospital. All seems well, despite Kyle and Sarah questioning why he is there, until ‘Pops’ returns and shoots John, who then reveals his new Terminator form. Now he is the T-3000, having been turned into a Terminator by the mysterious figure who attacked him in the future through the use of Nano machines. He is also the only T-3000 in existence as any other attempts at creating this particular Terminator have failed as a result of the human subjects driven mad.

Now I’m not here to talk about the second trailer for the film and how many people feel it spoiled the big twist. Instead, I’m going to say this… as controversial as it is, I’m totally fine with this twist. I mean it’s not like the character of John Connor was ruined by having him be the villain in this film. It’s just an interesting new plotline that, to quote James Cameron, is “a riff against expectations” and also makes the threat a much more personal one for Kyle and Sarah to deal with given their connections to John Connor. As I stated in my original review, I’m also glad that this meant that Jason Clarke, one of the most underrated actors working today, had a much more substantial role than what the very first trailer for the film implied. At first I thought that John Connor would only appear in the scenes that took place in 2029 but thankfully that’s not the case. In fact I’m just going to say it… Jason Clarke has been the best John Connor to date, and yes that is even when taking the whole villain characterization into account. In early scenes before Connor’s transformation, Clarke does a great job in capturing John’s leadership qualities, which are most evident from his speech to his troops before they go off to fight Skynet. And after the big twist, Clarke ends up being a pretty darn entertaining and intimidating baddie, basically being like a much more advanced version of the T-1000 with the ability to regenerate and break apart into particles during combat, the latter of which produces a pretty cool visual for the action sequences.

Most badass 'walking away from an explosion' scene EVER!!!

MATT SMITH’S ROLE

And now to close off this Spoiler Post, let’s end by talking about the most notable secret of the entire film and that is Matt Smith’s (fresh off of his work as the Eleventh Doctor in ‘Doctor Who’) role in the film. Whereas the big ‘evil John Connor’ twist was revealed in the film’s second trailer, Smith’s role was kept secret up until the film’s release, which of course led to speculation over who he was playing in the film. The most common theory that I saw online was that he was John’s best friend Tim from ‘Terminator 2: Judgment Day’ which given the film’s decision to revert Judgment Day back to 1997 could’ve made sense. But in the end, he played a much different role in the film, one that will no doubt play a bigger role in the grand scheme of things because… he plays Skynet. Taking on the form of a super-advanced Terminator, the T-5000, he is the one responsible for turning John into a Terminator and it is implied that he has traveled through various timelines to get to this point. So obviously he’s the one who is primary responsible for the new alternate timeline and I think it’s safe to say that he will also be the primary villain for the rest of the series. Because while Kyle, Sarah, and ‘Pops’ destroy Cyberdyne and stop ‘Genisys’ AKA Skynet from going online, a mid-credits scene shows that Skynet’s primary core survived the events of the finale, meaning that Skynet isn’t defeated yet.

IN CONCLUSION

I know that I’m in the minority when it comes to liking this film. But having now seen the film twice in theaters, I am 100% serious when I say that this film is by no means as bad as critics, and the internet, are putting it out to be. Like I said before, it is by no means the best entry of the series but that’s just because the first two ‘Terminator’ films were so good that they set up insurmountable expectations for any subsequent entries in the franchise to have to live up to. But ultimately I concur with James Cameron in that this truly feels like the true ‘Terminator 3’. Ignoring the events of the original ‘Terminator 3’ and ‘Terminator Salvation’ and instead following off of the first two films, ‘Genisys’ does not go the same route of the former by pulling a shameless retcon that goes against what happened at the end of ‘Terminator 2’. Sure the ‘alternate timeline’ storyline is just as controversial but in my opinion that just made the story much interesting. Alan Taylor also deserves a lot of credit for almost perfectly recreating classic moments from the first ‘Terminator’ film save for a few cosmetic differences that are primarily due to that film being owned by another studio. So in conclusion, ‘Terminator Genisys’ may not be the absolute best film that has come out this summer but I still had loads of fun while watching it, which ultimately makes it one of the most underrated/underappreciated films of the year.

The Avengers: Age of Ultron: SPOILER POST

WARNING!!!

The following Post contains spoilers for ‘The Avengers: Age of Ultron’. If you have not yet seen the film, then stop what you’re doing right now and go see this amazing film first because I will be discussing the key points of the film in great detail. If you don’t want to have the film spoiled (and hopefully the always spoiler-y internet hasn’t already done that yet for you), please refer to my Spoiler-Free review of the film, whose link will be provided below.

Also I apologize in advance for the low quality of some of these pictures as they were rather hard to find given the fact that the film has just recently been released.

(http://rimoviecorner.blogspot.com/2015/05/the-avengers-age-of-ultron-2015-review.html)

I didn’t do a Spoiler Post for the first ‘Avengers’ film simply because that was when I was first starting out on this blog back in May 2012. And even with that said, looking back on the film I probably wouldn’t have even done one as I feel that Coulson’s death was the only real ‘spoiler-ish’ moment in the film. So instead, my first one was for ‘Iron Man 3’ and since then, I’ve done a Spoiler Post for every major superhero film save for ‘Thor: The Dark World’, because I felt that there also wasn’t much spoiler-heavy material to talk about in regards to that film, and ‘Man of Steel’, because I… forgot to do it. But now we come to the latest Marvel Cinematic Universe film, ‘Avengers: Age of Ultron’. It’s the true definition of a sequel that expands upon its predecessor. More awesome characters, more amazing action sequences, and another unforgettable main villain. And of course, like always, there were certain things in the film that I just couldn’t talk about in a non-spoiler review. I mean, unlike most of the internet nowadays, I for one prefer not to spoil things in my reviews unless it’s a spoiler post. So with that said, let’s delve into some of the biggest moments in Marvel Studios’ latest superhero epic, ‘The Avengers: Age of Ultron’.

BEST MOMENTS

One thing that can’t be denied about both ‘Avengers’ films, and MCU films in general, is that they’re always going to be full of funny and memorable moments/dialogue. But while, for some strange reason, I’m starting to find that some people are actually starting to get annoyed by that, I’m not one of those people as nowadays I much prefer a fun, light-hearted superhero film over a dark and brooding one (I’m looking at you ‘Batman v. Superman’… and basically almost all of DC’s upcoming films). And while these films have primarily been light-hearted affairs, it’s not like they haven’t done any legitimately serious moments. Take for example in this film when Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver are talking with Ultron about when their home was destroyed. Or how about the death of Peter Quill’s mom in the beginning of ‘Guardians’? Or Frigga’s death in ‘Thor: The Dark World’? Or Groot’s sacrifice in ‘Guardians’ (and no, I don’t care about the fact that he’s resurrected at the end of it. That wasn’t my point.)? In my opinion, the MCU has done a great job of balancing serious moments with moments of levity. And of course, Joss Whedon in particular has really shined in capturing that perfect balance, while also giving us plenty of memorable moments due to his great writing. Here are a select few of my personal favorite moments from his latest foray into the MCU…

*The running gag involving Cap’s opposition towards the use of language (Tony: “For gosh sakes watch your language!” Fury: “Woah ho ho, you kiss your mother with that mouth?”)

*The whole scene where the other Avengers try to lift Thor’s Hammer but to no avail. Cap almost lifts it, causing Thor to make a very concerned face, but of course he doesn’t manage to lift it either.

*During the Hulk-Iron Man fight, Tony, in the Hulkbuster suit, smashes an elevator on Hulk. Hulk then proceeds to spit out a tooth, causing Tony to quickly say “I’m sorry!”

*When Quicksilver tries to grab Thor’s hammer but it ends up taking him with it.

*“You didn’t see that coming?”- Said by Quicksilver twice to Hawkeye and once by Hawkeye to Quicksilver

*Multiple funny moments from Hawkeye (more on his expanded role later)

            *The first being when his mind is nearly taken over by Scarlet Witch; “Already tried the mind-control thing. Not a fan.”

            *The second being when he’s with Scarlet Witch during the final battle; “The city is flying and we’re fighting an army of robots. And I have a bow and arrow. None of this makes sense.”

            *Finally, when Hawkeye’s all by himself after Quicksilver has run off with Scarlet Witch; “No one would know, no one would know… “Last I saw, Ultron was sitting on him, the bastard will be dearly missed. I miss him already!”

I can go on and on, but you get my point. Once again, the master of dialogue delivers when it comes to great superhero film dialogue and ‘Age of Ultron’ takes its place among the top 3 funniest films in the MCU, the other two of course being the first ‘Avengers’ and ‘Guardians of the Galaxy’. And that, ladies and gentlemen is why I love the MCU because it knows how to have fun.

BLACK WIDOW AND HULK- SPECIFICALLY BLACK WIDOW

Oh boy, in all my years of doing these spoiler posts, I’ve never thought that I would delve into a subject as controversial as this one… but here we go. Many of you have probably heard by now of the controversy surrounding Joss Whedon and this film for its portrayal of Black Widow. You can clearly see that just from some of the reactions on Twitter, as Whedon, who’s always been known for his feminist views and for giving us plenty of great female leads like Buffy the Vampire Slayer, has been getting a lot of flak from feminists for the whole Black Widow situation, with some even calling him a ‘hypocrite’ (really?). There’s even been some people who have been sending Whedon death threats, no joke. Whedon recently quit Twitter a few days ago but while he says that it’s primarily so that he won’t be ‘too distracted by it’, the backlash against him is still there. And it’s sad really that it’s led to this. I mean seriously, if you didn’t like the film that’s fine but for god’s sakes that doesn’t mean you should send the guy death threats. This just highlights the sad truth of the internet; a lot of times it’s negative and also harsh as f***.  

So anyway, what’s all the hubbub around Black Widow? Well, it hasn’t just been all about her role in the film. There’s also been the controversy surrounding the lack of Black Widow in the film’s merchandise in some stores. But as for what happens in the actual film, the controversy surrounding the character mainly stems from the burgeoning romantic relationship between her and Bruce Banner. Some people feel that this romance comes out of nowhere but I disagree as I feel that there was ‘some’ development of a ‘relationship’ between them in the first ‘Avengers’. After all, who was it who first approached Bruce to recruit him to the team? And who was it who was with him when he first transformed into the Hulk? That’s right, it was Black Widow in both cases. I mean, sure, if you were to really look at it, there wasn’t necessarily any ‘romantic’ development between the two in the first film, per se, but it’s not like this new romance was completely out of left field as some have claimed. I’m guessing most people were suspecting that she would instead be more romantically involved with either Cap or Hawkeye. But considering the fact that Hawkeye was revealed in this film to be married and that Cap will probably hook up with someone else, hell a running gag in ‘Winter Soldier’ was Black Widow’s repeated attempts at trying to hook up Steve with potential dates, I think it’s safe to say that those two options are no longer valid.

But there’s more to this controversy than just her relationship with Hulk, though obviously that has played a major part in the backlash. There’s also the fact that, at one point, she is captured by Ultron after the Avengers steal Ultron’s new synthetic body from him. The ‘damsel in distress’ argument has been brought out for this scene but in all seriousness, it’s not like she acts like your typical ‘damsel in distress’ during this part, which is seriously over in like five minutes. She transmits her location to the rest of the team and when Bruce comes to help her get out, she rebukes him telling her to get away and has him turn into the Hulk (“I adore you… but I need the other guy.”). After that, she goes right back to kicking ass with the rest of the team. But then there’s the number one thing that’s been really pissing a lot of people off and this occurs when the team is hiding out at Barton’s home. Bruce and Natasha have a romantic moment together but then they start talking about how ‘neither of them’ can have children. In Bruce’s case, it’s due to the whole ‘him being the Hulk’ thing but Natasha tells him that she can’t because she was ‘sterilized’ by those who trained her in the Black Widow program. Because of this, she tells him that ‘he’s not the only monster on the team’. And that, folks, is what causing all of this controversy online… the fact that she uses the term ‘monster’.

Now, let me be very clear on this matter; I’m all for gender equality, I really am. Quite frankly it is BS that Black Widow has been generally left out of a sizable chunk of the promotional material for the film. And I do want to see a Black Widow film. But as for what happens in the film itself, I disagree with the idea that Black Widow was, quote on quote, ‘ruined’ by Whedon’s writing. After she more than proved herself to be a badass female lead in previous MCU films, namely the first ‘Avengers’ and ‘Winter Soldier’, I don’t see why it’s such a bad thing for her to start to yearn for a normal life and a family, which we see from her relationship with Clint’s family as ‘Aunt Natasha’. Contrary to popular belief, not all badass lead characters, female or male, have to be completely ‘cold’ and ‘unfeeling’. No one’s perfect, so it’s perfectly fine for Black Widow to show signs of vulnerability. In fact, this isn’t the only time this has happened before in the MCU. What about when Loki started to taunt about her relationship with Barton in the first ‘Avengers’? Or how about in ‘Winter Soldier’ when it seemed like Nick Fury had died? Like how there were signs of her relationship with Hulk in the first film, it’s not like this was a completely new thing for her.

I concur with recent comments made by Mark Ruffalo on two major arguments. First off, that the relationship between Hulk and Widow was more a case of her saving him than the other way around. But also, I agree with what he said in a recent AMA on Reddit in that I feel that has been the big deal that it is because we haven’t really seen a lot of female leads in these films save of course for Black Widow. And yes, that is disappointing and we’re still a few years away from the first major female superhero film of this current age of the genre. But even with that said, it’s not like Marvel Studios hasn’t been giving us awesome female leads; they have. Just look at May, Skye, Simmons, and Bobbi in ‘Agents of SHIELD’ or Peggy Carter in, of course, ‘Agent Carter’. All of those characters are awesome and then this film adds in another badass female lead in Scarlet Witch. At the end of the day, I’ll say this; yes it’d be really nice to see more female superheroes in these films, and if you got mad at this scene in the film, I’m not holding that against you. But as is, Marvel is still doing a really great job with their MCU heroines both in film and TV. And the whole thing with Black Widow and Hulk’s new relationship? I like it; I think it’s rather sweet and I’m interested in seeing how it all plays out. Why this is such a big problem with many people, however, is beyond me.

“Hey big guy… sun’s getting awful low.”

A BIGGER ROLE FOR HAWKEYE

While I don’t entirely agree with this, it’s safe to say that Hawkeye (Jeremy Renner) sort of got the short end of the stick in terms of his role in the first ‘Avengers’. Most of his screen-time in the film was spent under the control of Loki. In other words, until the final act when he was finally broken free of Loki’s spell, he spent quite a lot of time away from the other Avengers. With that said, though, he still had his own chance to shine during the final battle and if you ask me I think he did, like when he took out a Chitauri with a behind-the-back shot (I always love that part) or when he fired an arrow at Loki, who caught it but was completely unaware that it was an explosive arrow. But thankfully ‘Age of Ultron’ did give him more to do this time around, namely due to the fact that he wasn’t separated from the other Avengers for a good chunk of the movie. And as noted earlier, he contributed to some of the best moments of the entire film like when he avoided getting hypnotized by Scarlet Witch, commenting that he ‘experienced it before’ and is ‘not a fan’, or when he commented on the fact that they’re fighting an army of robots and he only has a bow and arrow (“Nothing makes sense!”). His role in the film also gets expanded through the introduction of his wife Laura (Linda Cardellini) and their kids.

After the whole incident with the Hulk’s rampage in South Africa, brought on by the mind-control powers of Scarlet Witch, the Avengers are forced to go into hiding so Hawkeye brings them to his home where the other members of the team finally learn that he’s married and has a few kids. This was hinted at a couple of times before in the film but at the time Hawkeye kept claiming that he was talking to his ‘girlfriend’. I liked this whole part of the film as I felt that it did work in making Hawkeye a more interesting character. Similar to the characters in ‘Agents of SHIELD’ and Peggy Carter in ‘Agent Carter’, this helps ground the MCU by high-lighting characters who aren’t given fancy superpowers; people like us. Technically speaking, Hawkeye is one of us; a regular guy that just so happens to possess a high-skill set living in a world of gods, super soldiers, and gamma-engineered monsters. And that’s one of the reasons why I love the MCU; because it takes time to focus on the little people. After all, the first major tagline for ‘Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.’ was ‘Not all Heroes are Super’ and this scene in particular helps give some genuine non-superhero related emotion to this big-budget MCU film. I was already a fan of Hawkeye before this film, despite his rather limited role in the first ‘Avengers’, but thanks to ‘Age of Ultron’, quite frankly he’s become one of my new favorite characters in the entire franchise.

“If you step out that door… you’re an Avenger!”

SCARLET WITCH AND QUICKSILVER

The two biggest new additions to the cast for this film were Elizabeth Olsen as Scarlet Witch and Aaron-Taylor Johnson as Quicksilver. Johnson of course became the second actor in two years to play the character in a Marvel movie following his ‘Kick-Ass’ co-star Evan Peters’ turn as Quicksilver in Fox’s ‘X-Men: Days of Future Past’. Now right off the bat, I’m going to lay this out there; I’m not going to compare these two Quicksilvers. I think both Peters and Johnson did excellent jobs in the role in their respective films, especially because they both handled the character very differently. In ‘Age of Ultron’, because Marvel Studios can’t use the term ‘mutant’ because they don’t own the rights to X-Men, the Twins are volunteers for a HYDRA experiment that gives them their special powers. They’re referred to as ‘Enhanced’, which is perfectly fine given the whole ‘don’t own X-Men’ situation. I also liked that these two had some nice depth to them in terms of their backstory which also sets up why, at first, they’re actually adversaries for the Avengers. They explain to Ultron that, when they were younger, their home was destroyed by a shell and that they were almost killed by a second shell that ultimately didn’t go off. And whose company was responsible for developing these weapons? Stark Industries, hence their initial resentment of the Avengers. I also want to add that this is a nice call-back to how, in the first ‘Iron Man’, Tony came to realize how much harm his company’s weapons were causing. And now, the past has come back to haunt him yet again.

Scarlet Witch is another badass female lead in the MCU, joining among the ranks of Black Widow, Maria Hill, and the female leads of both ‘Agents of SHIELD’ and ‘Agent Carter’. Her powers are a great new addition to the MCU and the visions that she inflicts upon the Avengers are pretty darn awesome in how they’re executed. Of course, the whole plot of the film gets into motion when she takes over Tony’s mind, causing him to see a vision of the rest of the Avengers defeated and a bunch of aliens about to invade Earth. This of course leads him to create Ultron as a means of better handling any future threats. Later on in the film, when the Avengers come across Ultron and the Twins in South Africa, where they are acquiring vibranium from arms dealer Ulysses Klaue (Andy Serkis, who may or may not return in ‘Black Panther’, which would make sense given that in the comics ‘Klaw’ is a regular adversary of Black Panther), Scarlet Witch subdues Thor, Cap, and Black Widow with her powers, causing them all to have visions. Cap envisions himself back in his original time after the war finally having that dance with Peggy (the feels, bro), Black Widow flashes back to her days in the Black Widow program, and Thor, who initially claims to be ‘mighty’ enough to not be overtaken by Scarlet Witch’s powers, sees visions of Asgard under peril, which are obviously meant to be a set-up for what’s to come to in ‘Thor: Ragnarok’.

As with Quicksilver, as I noted earlier, I liked that Johnson and the filmmakers took a different approach to the character compared to what we saw before in ‘Days of Future Past’. His running ability is portrayed as making him look like a blur which is a nice contrast to the 3,600 fps style utilized by Bryan Singer for ‘X-Men’. This Quicksilver is also more serious and angry, which makes sense given him and his sister’s tragic backstory. You also did feel a genuine connection between the two characters; I mean, it does help that Johnson and Olsen had worked together just last year in ‘Godzilla’, where it was clear that they did have good chemistry with each other. I also liked the general rivalry between him and Hawkeye early on. All of this helped make the crucial moment during the finale as effective as it was; I’m of course talking about when Quicksilver sacrifices his own life to save Hawkeye and a kid he was trying to protect. I think this scene was well-done, mainly thanks to the solid development of the relationships between both Quicksilver and his sister and also him and Hawkeye. And I’m fine with Quicksilver being the one who died in this film. Part of me thinks that maybe Marvel realized that it would be confusing to have two different Quicksilvers in their films so they [Marvel Studios] let Fox keep using Quicksilver in the X-Men films. It also helps that the ‘X-Men’ films haven’t actually introduced Scarlet Witch yet. I also liked the sweet little touch at the end of the film where we learn that Hawkeye’s new son has been given the middle name of Pietro, obviously a touching tribute to his fallen ally.

THE VISION

Though the award for best new character in the film is easily Paul Bettany, in his second major MCU role, as the Vision. Part of Ultron’s plan has him forcing a friend of the Avengers, geneticist Dr. Helen Cho (Claudia Kim), to build him a brand new body made out of the vibranium that he acquires from Ulysses Klaue. Once the Avengers find out about this, they take the body and Tony completes it by uploading Jarvis, who for most of the film was presumed to be destroyed by Ultron, into it. With the help of Thor’s lightning and the Mind Gem (AKA Infinity Stone) from Loki’s scepter, Vision is born. And how does Vision make his grand entrance into the MCU? By showing that he’s capable of lifting Thor’s hammer… that alone is worth it. Bettany has been a mainstay of the MCU since the beginning as Jarvis so it’ll be interesting to see how he’ll factor in the MCU now that he’s in the role of Vision, which he jokes about as ‘a role where he doesn’t just have to record some voice-over work in just a few days’ time’. Of course I’m also aware of the fact that, in the comics, Scarlet Witch and Vision had a relationship. And you know what? A certain moment in this film when Vision rescues Scarlet Witch could potentially be a hint as to what’s coming in the future for these two.

Ultron: “You’re unbearably naïve.” Vision: “Well… I was born yesterday.”

ULTRON

Ultron was definitely hyped up as a villain and the fact that he was being played by the badass James Spader didn’t hurt either. And as I noted in the review, overall I’d say Ultron was an excellent adversary for ‘The Avengers’. Spader’s ‘cool’ voice helped to give Ultron a very intimidating persona but something I didn’t expect was that Ultron was also going to be a really funny villain as well. Ultimately, you can thank both Whedon for his masterful work with the dialogue and Spader’s ability to make Ultron’s lines funny while maintaining the character’s generally serious persona. It’s sort of like with Drax in ‘Guardians of the Galaxy’; his overall persona was very serious in nature given the fact that he was out for revenge for the murder of his family. But because he was ‘too serious’, that actually resulted in some of the film’s most humorous moments from his misunderstanding of what a metaphor is to him literally calling Ronan to come to him and the other Guardians so that he can get his revenge on Ronan for killing his wife and daughter. As I’ve noted about a week ago, I’m not one of those people who holds the MCU villains to the high standards of the internet that were set by Loki. So because of that, I’d say that Ultron is the second-best MCU villain to date.

Tony: “What’s the vibranium for?” Ultron: “I’m glad you asked that, because I wanted to take this time to explain my evil plan… (Proceeds to blast Stark)”

OUT WITH THE OLD, IN WITH THE NEW

Black Widow says it perfectly in the film; ‘Nothing Lasts Forever’, and that is very much true in regards to how the film ends with us getting a first look at the new ‘Avengers’ team. Four of the main members of the team depart at the end of the film for various reasons. Hulk, immediately after the final battle is over, takes off in a Quinjet as he doesn’t want to endanger anyone else any further, especially Black Widow given their developing relationship. Hawkeye returns home to his family after promising his wife that this was going to be his ‘last mission’. Thor returns to Asgard in order to try and figure out the meaning behind what he saw in his vision induced by Scarlet Witch. And finally Tony leaves as well, leaving only Cap and Black Widow to prep the new ‘Avengers’ team; Falcon, War Machine, Scarlet Witch, and Vision. It’ll be interesting to see what the full lineup is going to be like for the next ‘Avengers’ film, which will hit theaters in 2018. Given the lineup of films that are set to make up Phase 3 of the MCU, other new additions may include, among others, Doctor Strange, Black Panther, Spider-Man, and Captain Marvel. But this doesn’t mean that this is technically the last we’ll be seeing from the other members of the Avengers. Of course Iron Man will be back for ‘Civil War’ along with Hawkeye and in an interview, Chris Hemsworth stated that the last three films on his Marvel contract were ‘Thor 3’ and ‘Avengers: Infinity War Parts 1 and 2’. But for now, to quote the classic song from Bob Dylan, ‘the times they are a-changing’.

FINAL SUM-UP

11. Iron Man 2

10. The Incredible Hulk

9. Thor: The Dark World

8. Thor

7. Iron Man

6. Iron Man 3

5. Captain America: The First Avenger

4. Captain America: The Winter Soldier

3. THE AVENGERS: AGE OF ULTRON

2. The Avengers

1. Guardians of the Galaxy

At the end of the day, I can’t really say that ‘Age of Ultron’ is ‘better’ than the first film. If I did have any complaints with this film, it is that there’s a very slight issue with pacing. The whole sequence in Seoul where the Avengers steal Vision’s body form Ultron could’ve easily been a part of the finale but when it’s over, we still have the final battle in Sokovia. But like with how the first ‘Avengers’ sort of had a slow opening, it doesn’t bother me that much. In the end, ‘Age of Ultron’ is yet another awesome entry in the MCU. The action sequences/visuals are incredible, the writing is spot-on and full of funny and memorable dialogue, and the ensemble cast is fantastic once again, reuniting us with our favorite returning heroes while also giving us a few new badass heroes and another unforgettable main villain in the form of James Spader’s Ultron. I did not go into this film expecting it to be ‘better’ than ‘The Avengers’; instead, I went into it expecting a fun-as-hell Marvel Cinematic Universe film and at this point, Marvel Studios has yet to let me down in that regard. I’ve said it before in my original review and I’ll say it again; why this film only has a 74% rating on Rotten Tomatoes is beyond me. It deserves a FAR better rating than that.