The Avengers: Age of Ultron is Live. Don't forget the Spoiler Tags, Damnit.Movies

[FoolKiller]

To see who we are talking about, here is the official Avengers cartoon clip introducing the Guardians of the Galaxy. The episode aired about a month ago and I saw toys for them in Walmart last weekend. Convenient timing I would say.

 

[UKMikey]

I just hope they give him a better voice than the tortured Aussie accent they used in the Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes cartoon.

Sorry for being late to the party (I... don't see how that's a party) but while everything that can be said about what to my mind is now the gold standard of comic book movies seems to have been said on this thread, I'd just like to point out that I believe Hulk's antagonistic actions towards Black Widow on the Helicarrier were due to Loki manipulating their emotions with his, er, magic staff. Look at the still caged Hiddleston smirk in triumph when he hears the big guy's bellowing down the corridor. Mischief is clearly afoot.

 

[GTboyz]

Avengers 2 teaser will be broadcasted with Agents Of Shield on October 28th.

Scratch that, it's leaked :http://www.cinemablend.com/new/Avengers-2-Trailer-Here-It-Spectacular-67847.html

 

[SlipZtrEm]

<- For when the above inevitably comes down.

Well now, Ultron looks suitably terrifying.

 

[niky]

Holy spine-tingling crapola... I'll never watch Pinocchio the same way again!

10 out of 10. Would watch this trailer again.

 

[MHPALA]

Mind blown. Can't wait to see how this is executed with Ant Man lurking a bit later.

 

[FoolKiller]

And fanboygasm.

 

[prisonermonkeys]

You can tell James Spader is enjoying himself.

 

[GTboyz]

I think Ultron's voice should be a bit more computerized like Jarvis. But it is terrifying now.

 

[prisonermonkeys]

You don't want to distort it too much. You lose the texture of the voice, and that's where the appeal of Spader in the role lies. It creates a real juxtaposition between Ultron's voice and physical form, which makes him all the more unsettling. After all, he's a murder-bot quoting a Disney song.

 

[CAMAROBOY69]

Excellent trailer. Never read any comics so these movies are always full of surprises and anticipation for me. Cant wait!

 

[FoolKiller]

Well, Disney released the trailer officially, so it is no longer a leak. That kind of screws Agents of SHIELD on their trailer premiere next week, though.

Marvel had the best possible response to the leak.

 

[sems4arsenal]

Yay HulkBuster, I am confused though, is the villian Ultron only without Thanos?

 

[prisonermonkeys]

Yay HulkBuster, I am confused though, is the villian Ultron only without Thanos?

The villain is Ultron. Joss Whedon chose him early on and very deliberately for two reasons:

First, Ultron fits the current state of affairs. SHIELD is in ruins and the Avengers are exhausted. The backstory here is that Stark creates Ultron to stand in for the Avengers while they regroup. Whedon wanted the film to have less world-shattering consequences and instead focus on a more personal, immediate threat so that he could test the dynamic of the team, and go new places with the characters. He did the same thing in the third season of "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" - after stopping a world-ending threat in the second season, the third focused on a threat to Sunnyvale High - and it's recognised as one of the best seasons in the show.

Secondly, Thanos is a massive villain - he has the potential to dominate the universe. He is also his own worst enemy, and that's going to take time to play out. The Marvel Cinematic Universe needs to be slowly exposed to him. Otherwise you wind up with BATMAN RETURNS - Tim Burton got stuck because he had to use Batman's most iconic adversary, the Joker, in the first film, so when it came time for RETURNS he didn't really have anywhere to go with it. It's the reason why THE DARK KNIGHT works do well; Nolan hot the origin story out of the way and established the characters and universe in BEGINS, allowing him to concentrate on the Batman/Joker dynamic in TDK. Thanos needs to be introduced gradually here.

 

[FoolKiller]

Yay HulkBuster, I am confused though, is the villian Ultron only without Thanos?

How much do you want me to spoil the overarching connection between Ultron and Guardians of the Galaxy/Thanos?

Ultimately the first Avengers introduced Thanos, opening the door for GotG. The Thanos story will likely be continued there.

 

[GTboyz]

Thanos would probably be the final villain, with the Guardians joining up with Avengers (hopefully)

 

[FoolKiller]

Thanos would probably be the final villain, with the Guardians joining up with Avengers (hopefully)

From what I know has been announced to be coming in future films I can guarantee it, and it will all come together. I wasn't sure how the connection was going to work until the phase 3 movies were announced and a supposed Captain America 3 plot was leaked.

 

[GTboyz]

So that civil war plot is just rumoured ? People were pretty certain of that hahaha

 

[FoolKiller]

So that civil war plot is just rumoured ? People were pretty certain of that hahaha

It was part of a leak. Seeing as how it was so close to the trailer leak I am willing to believe it. After The Winter Soldier I was positive we were headed in that direction. We've even met the agent responsible for assassinating Captain America (he got better).

 

[GTboyz]

Spiderman is one of the key factors in Civil War, shame Sony got the rights to Spiderman.

 

[FoolKiller]

Spiderman is one of the key factors in Civil War, shame Sony got the rights to Spiderman.

We are getting a huge gallery of unimportant characters in the comics that can play that role in the movies. There have also been rumors of a minor crossover with Sony. But I've heard the same about Fantastic Four.

But Civil War will be a launching point for something bigger. It could be played down to just Cap vs Iron Man. I imagine it will be an aftermath of Ultron. Stark is already questioning his role as Iron Man. If a creation of his threatens Earth he will sign off on some form of law. Cap will argue and it will play out using side characters and not the whole team. I suspect it won't be a universe wide event. Too many big names in one movie. That's a lot of big pay checks.

 

[GTboyz]

I see, hey wasn't Chris Evans contracts finished after Cap 3 ? That could be a sure sign Cap will be assassinated.

 

[prisonermonkeys]

Spiderman is one of the key factors in Civil War, shame Sony got the rights to Spiderman.

And Ultron was originally developed by Hank Pym, but here he is built by Tony Stark. Spiderman's role could be rewritten - if anyone could do it, Joss Whedon can.

I don't expect Civil War will play that big a role, the reason being that the films have to keep moving. Everything during "Phase 1" set up the characters, the Avengers and introduced the Tessaract. "Phase 2" has moved towards the Infinity Gems and elements of Civil War. Eventually that has to come to a head and the over-arching story needs to move on.

Whatever elements of Civil War are present will probably boil over in AGE OF ULTRON. After all, SHIELD is in disarray, HYDRA have been demonstrated to be alive and well, and now Stark has created Ultron. Everyone is dealing with different stuff; Captain America is missing the military structure SHIELD provided, Thor will have to deal with an Asgard ruled by Loki, Bruce Banner is coming to the realisation that Hulk is just afraid of him as he is of Hulk, Stark is dealing with his responsibility in creating Ultron, Hawkeye is probably trying to find something useful to do, Romanoff's backstory will be explored, and it remains to be seen as to what roles Quicksilver and Scarlet Witch play. So there is tension and conflict within the ranks of the Avengers, which is much stronger than the issues they had in the first film.

 

[Pezzarinho17]

I love and hate trailers so much! Marvel have done such a great job in allowing those with character knowledge to delve into what is in store in the future, as @prisonermonkeys has remarked on brilliantly. What they don't lose though is that each film has to stand on its own as a feature, not just a building block or test subject. You watch the trailer here and certain elements play out as you expect, but you are still wowed to see Iron Man facing off against the Hulk. Conversely, you then see Thor grabbing Iron Man by the throat, Andy Serkis in a yet unnamed but obviously main role, and you still wonder just what adventure Avengers 2 will be in within its own 2/2.5 hour window.

Can't stand this wait, going to bury myself somewhere in the Arctic for a while...

 

[prisonermonkeys]

I doubt Serkis is in a major role. Aside from the Avengers themselves, Ultron is the Big Bad, and Baron von Strucker looks to be taking on a secondary villain role. The Maximoff twins and Vision also show up. That's already pretty busy, and Whedon is smart enough not to insert too many characters.

I'm guessing Serkis will be introduced to set up "Phase 3"; it's been noted that he resembles Ulysses Klaw, a major villain to Black Panther.

 

[Pezzarinho17]

Yes, sorry I meant main role within the Marvel universe rather than Avengers AOU.

 

[FoolKiller]

Here is how I see things playing out long term.

In the comics, at one point Ultron is defeated and is floating through space as just a radio wave of consciousness. He finds a techno-organic group known as the Phalanx and merges with them. The Phalanx play a role in GotG stuff, so may be relevant in GotG 2. Ultron then starts causing trouble in Kree space (and the full Avengers GotG crossover begins). During this massive battle, that sees Ultron nearly defeating the Kree, Iron Man and other Avengers help out.

As the movies go, I imagine it being more about Ultron being defeated by being teleported through a wormhole into space, using one of the infinity gems (three are still out there) and then being found by the Phalanx or possibly Adam Warlock (who Ultron temporarily controlled at one point) and starting his conquest of Kree space. I imagine Earth heroes won't show yet, but it will renew the attention of Thanos to Earth. Multiple infinity stones are known now and Thanos will begin his quest to claim them. One is in Asgard, the tesseract. When he claims that one (Thor 3?) Earth will be warned by Thor and the Guardians and Avengers will be joined together.

Meanwhile, back on Earth, in the aftermath of Ultron, Tony Stark realizes what he has wrought. He was the first masked hero. His presence triggered the rise of them and as Thor said, signaled to the rest of the universe that we were ready for a new level of war. Stark believes himself to blame for two massive tragedies. He takes the idea of tracking potential threats that SHIELD/Hydra were using in The Winter Soldier, and turning it into a registration protocol. Cap reiterates his "this isn't freedom. This is fear," argument and the two have a falling out. They fight and all goes to hell. This will allow the writers to adjust for any lost actor scenarios by killing off characters or having them leave the country. It is possible that the sudden appearance of an alien ship could stop all the fighting.


The wild cards: Marvel still has a number of unannounced films. Following Agents of SHIELD I cannot believe that The InHumans won't play a role. They even have the potential to let Coulson become Captain Marvel (Mah-Vel) or Skye to become Ms. Marvel, and possibly having her father be connected to the InHumans and/or Kree in some way. There are a lot of blanks to fill in, but Ultron was never a villain that just ceased to exist.

 

[CAMAROBOY69]

The recent replies have been a great read. Very educational. Which also reminds me I need to watch GOTG. Hoping to watch it in the near future. Been very excited to see GOTG.

 

[FoolKiller]

The recent replies have been a great read. Very educational. Which also reminds me I need to watch GOTG. Hoping to watch it in the near future. Been very excited to see GOTG.

The BluRay is coming out very soon.

 

[prisonermonkeys]

Ultron was never a villain that just ceased to exist.

In the comics, certainly - but film is a different medium. You can't really have villains constantly recurring (especially when Loki and HYDRA already have a presence), because it feels a little cheap. It feels like there is no meaningful advance in a story, and it's easy to over-use a character and retroactively weaken them. And with each new Big Bad that gets introduced, it adds an extra layer if complexity to the story. If Marvel have an end-point in mind - you need to know where are story will end before you start it - then they need to tie off plot threads at some point. As one entity falls, another rises.