Avengers: Age of Ultron

[Edd Grayson]

Just saw it myself. Without giving anything away, I didn't think it was as good as the first Avengers or the more recent TWS and GOTG, but I enjoyed it overall, I can't say I was really disappointed. It's a good entry in the MCU as it stands, but not the best.

[The Joker]

Trying to stay clear of spoilers, but I see that Age of Ultron is gathering a general reception that isn't quite as warm as the first Avengers film. Looking forward to checking it out this Thursday night. Made an attempt to see a double feature of Avengers 1+2, but unfortunately can't get all friends together for a 4PM start time, but oh well. Guess the 7PM single feature is going to have to do.

[riddler]

agree with the last few posts; enjoyable for sure but a step and a half behind the first film.  Ultron wasn't overly threatening and not as fun as Loki.
My complaints (if you can call it that) is what I feared would be the problem with the first film: overcharacterization. I don't generally read avengers comics, I prefer the ones which stick to one or two heroes. I find the avengers comics to be too much endless fighting with very little of the characters out of costume. Part of the appeal of super heroes are that they are regular people with double lives but this film didn't show much of the heroes 'other sides'. Let's be honest the fight scenes dragged on too long much the same as the dark knight rises and man of steel.

Now the above being said, there was still quite a bit to enjoy. Ruffalo is really good as Banner. Vision an scarlett witch looked like they walked off a comic page.  I am very excited about the civil war and this one did start early elements of it; Stark and Banner keeping secrets and working on things without the rest. I did feel it gives a good set up for stage three and am quite excited.

[The Laughing Fish]

In the past, I used to dismiss the criticism over this scene and never took the accusations of Whedon being a mysogynist seriously. I thought this was supposed to show Natasha's sadness of being forged into a killing machine to the point her training tried to deprive her of having any shred of humanity. But after all the scandals involving Whedon that we've read over the past five years, and most importantly, poor Charisma Carpenter sharing her own horrible experience while she was pregnant behind the scenes of Angel, I now believe the criticisms of Bruce and Natasha's exchange in AOU are valid.

Carpenter, 50, was in her early 30s when she worked on the shows, which both premiered in the late '90s. A 2002 pregnancy led to more negative behavior from Whedon, she wrote, such as him "refusing" to take calls from her agents to share the news and calling her "fat" despite her only weighing 126 pounds at the time.

"Once Joss was appraised of the (pregnancy), he requested a meeting with me," Carpenter wrote. "In that closed-door meeting, he asked if I was 'going to keep it' and manipulatively weaponized my womanhood and faith against me. He proceeded to attack my character, mock my religious beliefs, accuse me of sabotaging the show, and then unceremoniously fired me the following season once I gave birth."

Carpenter has spoken in the past about how her pregnancy affected her time on "Angel," saying at a 2009 convention that she thought Whedon was "mad at (her)" and suggesting to Complex in 2018 that the production did not account for her pregnancy when scheduling the show. In her statement, Carpenter said that when she was six months pregnant, she was "asked to report to work at 1:00 AM" despite her doctor "recommending (she) shorten (her) work hours."

"Due to long and physically demanding days and the emotional stress of having to defend my needs as a working pregnant woman, I began to experience Braxton Hicks contractions," Carpenter wrote. "It was clear to me the 1:00 AM call was retaliatory ... Back then, I felt powerless and alone. With no other option, I swallowed the mistreatment and carried on."

https://www.today.com/news/charisma-carpenter-accuses-buffy-creator-joss-whedon-cruel-behavior-t208681

Joss Whedon not only has serious women issues, he seems to hate the idea of procreation too. What a vile, awful excuse for a human being.

[thecolorsblend]

Since we're at it, there's been plenty of speculation that Whedon has some sort of antipathy to romantic couples. The best example is Buffy's series finale, where Anya and Spike (both fan-favorite characters) were killed off. Now yes, Spike was eventually brought back. But that was to save Angel from cancellation. His original death in Buffy looks pretty final because it was intended to be final. Anya had been with Xander for a few years and same with Buffy and Spike.

Basically, the two romantic couples on the show had been split up IN THE FINALE, when there was nothing further to gain on a dramatic level anymore. Maybe you could argue that Spike sacrificed himself and died a hero, which somewhat redeemed him after some bad decisions he'd made and that justified killing him off. But killing off both Anya AND Spike in the finale was pretty controversial to a lot of fans. There was no obvious reason to kill off either character in the finale. But it happened anyway and fans were very vocal about that.

And now that I think about it, that seems to have been the first crack in Whedon's armor. Everyone noticed that the characters who died were in longstanding romantic relationships. And people wondered if that wasn't the reason they were killed off.

[The Laughing Fish]

It has been years since I watched Buffy and Angel, but I remember hearing Spike was supposed to get killed off in his first few appearances. The network strong-armed Whedon into keeping keeping him alive instead, because he became a huge fan favourite, much to Whedon's anger. James Marsters revealed Whedon had pushed him against the wall and promising he would kill him off the show.