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May. 4th, 2019 10:33 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
shadowkat1. New tv and console have turned out to be a great success. It's sort of like having my own personal movie screen. The Avenger's Age of Ultron looked amazing on it.
What did I get? TCL '55 inch 4K UHD from Best Buy -- was on sale. Saved about $150.
In my 20s? I had a tiny television set that my parents gave me. And I graduated to a 20 inch box set. My landlord's space heater blew it out in 2005 or 6, so we got a 32 inch, (I was in my 30s at that point) and gave $100 towards it. (That was the old apartment, which had a drop down ceiling and black mold). At 52, I have 55 inch, a much bigger and nicer apartment. . Feeling very grateful for everything that I have in my life at the moment. (And no that's not just the tv. I'm being general here.)
2. Re-watched Iron Man, The Avengers and The Avenger's Age of Ultron today -- I'd recorded them last weekend. (They look like they are on the movie screen on new tv.). Upon re-watch, I realized something -- the Avengers - Age of Ultron is weirdly the better film. Not great action sequences, but far better character moments and plot structure -- also I appreciated it more after seeing everything that came after it.
Of the three films, Iron Man is by far the best -- mostly due to Jon Favreu's direction, which is clean, and well-paced. It also works well as a stand-a-lone, and it's focal point is very different that most superhero flicks up to that point. Prior to Iron Man -- superheros had secret identities, and were sort of doing it as a hobby or as vigilante's. They also had a clear romance and family focus. And the main struggle was trying to keep their normal life and hobby separate.
Iron Man sort of changed all that. In it, we meet a guy who was a weapon's manufacturer and didn't care about anything. He was somewhat narcissistic, very self-involved, and a bit of a spoilt brat. Albeit a charming one. Then he gets taken by terrorists and his eyes are opened, he's forever changed by the experience, in part because he's almost killed by one of his own bombs. Karma kicks him in the chest, literally.
Almost losing his heart sort of causes him to rediscover it. And the story is about him seeking redemption. That's the through thread in all the stories -- these are characters who are seeking redemption, for making the choice to be a hero, often for the wrong reasons. They sought power, it blew up in their faces, and now they are trying to make amends. And it is in a way a commentary on our own society, in particular the US who started two Wars...that are unending, and have caused more collateral damage than imagined. It's no accident that Iron Man starts out in Afghanistan. And Stark discovers that his company is selling his arms to the US military and the terrorists at the same time.
This theme is repeated in Ultron. Stark creates Ultron in an attempt to shield the earth from alien threats from the sky -- Scarlet Witch gives him a Vision of the Endgame -- of the threat coming from above and killing all his friends. Ultron is supposed to keep peace, but Stark was raised by a weapons manufacturer whose view was peace could only be held with guns. It's a point of view that is held by huge percentage of the US population and the world. Whoever has the bigger gun wins. We keep the peace with violence. Ultron finds this idea reprehensible and decides okay, I know, I'll just do away with the Avengers (they are obviously the problem) and why stop there? Lets do away with the violent species they represent. If we want peace, we kill everyone. It's not that far from Thanos' perspective, which is peace is achieved by reducing population. Randomly take out half the population and voila, peace. Peace is only achieved through death, violence, and pain -- or war.
A theme echoed by both Thor, and Captain America: the First Avenger -- who initially share this view. Except Captain America is beginning to wonder if the War will ever end, Fury states it won't. And Thor has realized, the hard way, the War does not make things better -- there's a lot of collateral damage. Stark has begun to figure this out as well -- there's so much collateral damage.
It's one thing the Marvel films do well -- they show the collateral damage.
In each film it is clear that the individual Avengers have fully embraced their calling as well superheroes, but they don't actually see themselves as heroes. In Ultron they call each other monsters. Monsters attempting to redeem themselves, if somewhat clumsily. The only one who has a family and a life outside of the Avengers appears to be Hawk-Eye (aka Clint Barton) and it is top secret. No one knows about it. His identify isn't the secret, his family life is. It keeps them safe. Thor and Captain America have given up trying to have a personal life or normal life at all.
As has Scarlette Witch and Black Widow at this point. Black Widow wanted to have one with Banner, but she wasn't willing to just disappear with him -- she insisted on bringing out the big green guy and fighting -- which resulted in the Hulk leaving her for space. Then you have Stark, who attempts to tap out at the end, retire, live that life...yet, he can't. He's still the monster mad scientist at heart.
The Age of Ultron also neatly sets up the films that follow, which are in many ways far better but wouldn't exist without it. Ultron has a lot of hard work to do here -- it has to set things up, which is admittedly harder than wrapping them up, or for that matter middle chapters.
In Age of Ultron, Scarlett Witch gives Thor a vision, which when explored deeper, he discovers four of the six infinity stones -- he sees the reality stone, soul stone, mind stone, and space stone (which was in the tesserect). He doesn't see the power stone or the time stone, which are introduced in Guardians of the Galaxy and Doctor Strange. The Vision also tells Thor that he will take his people to hell, and they will all die because of him. (This comes about in Infinity War and Thor: Ragnorack).
Thor insists that the mind stone should be safe with the Vision, while he goes off to find the others.
There's lots of foreshadowing in this film, and it is full of dramatic irony, particularly if you've seen the later films. Clever. In some respects the films are more interesting after you've seen the later films, because character arcs and themes become clearer or more pronounced.
Another interesting tid-bit in Ultron, they set up Wakanda. Ultron hunts down Ulysess, who is the thug that is killed in Black Panther, and the arms dealer who steals technology and material from Wakanda via Killmonger's uncle and later Killmonger himself. He's also eventually killed by Killmonger. But clearly has been around for a long time. And done dealings with people like Stark and someone before him, with Stark's father. Both Stark and Captain America know about Wakanda, because that's where the steel for Captain America's Shield came from.
It's well done. What doesn't quite work are the action sequences, which much like the first Avengers film -- are hard to follow, jarring, and somewhat dull. Making me think that Joss Whedon just happens to suck at action scenes. Having watch Buffy, Dollhouse, Angel and Firefly -- yeah, I'd say this is most likely the case. All you have to do is watch Iron Man and Thor Ragnorack, not to mention Captain America - First Avenger, Infinity War, and Black Panther, and Doctor Strange -- to see the difference.
I hadn't seen Ultron since it was in the movie theater -- a long time ago.
How one views movies or anything really tends to change with time, or so I've discovered. I know not everyone loves these films, but considering I don't love all the films and television shows out there...I mean come on, I despised some of the flicks that were nominated for awards. Mileage it varies. (shrugs) Although I'm not sure people want to hear that or care. I get it. I do. But it's still terribly annoying when people don't love what I love --and feel the need to inform me of it, which they do. I get that. I do the same.
Whenever they do though, I feel the oddest desire to smack them on the nose, and say, "wake up you fool, can't you see this is really good and that, whatever it is you are squeeing about at the moment which I don't happen to like or be interested, is utter crap. I mean come on. You know I'm right about this. Get with the frigging program!"
But alas, the world would be incredibly boring if we all had the same taste. Also, it's not possible to be right about taste. Or wrong for that matter. There's no such thing as good or bad in regards to taste. Also taste doesn't define who we are since it's not really a stagnant thing anyhow -- or say that much about us really in the scheme of things except what is interesting us at the moment -- for whatever reason, known only to us, and sometimes not even that.
Sometimes I think taste is just well that taste. I'm never going to like brussle sprouts...and am always going to love chocolate apparently. (Well at least I think so.) That really says nothing about me one way or the other, except that I currently despise Brussel Sprouts and Love Chocolate.
What did I get? TCL '55 inch 4K UHD from Best Buy -- was on sale. Saved about $150.
In my 20s? I had a tiny television set that my parents gave me. And I graduated to a 20 inch box set. My landlord's space heater blew it out in 2005 or 6, so we got a 32 inch, (I was in my 30s at that point) and gave $100 towards it. (That was the old apartment, which had a drop down ceiling and black mold). At 52, I have 55 inch, a much bigger and nicer apartment. . Feeling very grateful for everything that I have in my life at the moment. (And no that's not just the tv. I'm being general here.)
2. Re-watched Iron Man, The Avengers and The Avenger's Age of Ultron today -- I'd recorded them last weekend. (They look like they are on the movie screen on new tv.). Upon re-watch, I realized something -- the Avengers - Age of Ultron is weirdly the better film. Not great action sequences, but far better character moments and plot structure -- also I appreciated it more after seeing everything that came after it.
Of the three films, Iron Man is by far the best -- mostly due to Jon Favreu's direction, which is clean, and well-paced. It also works well as a stand-a-lone, and it's focal point is very different that most superhero flicks up to that point. Prior to Iron Man -- superheros had secret identities, and were sort of doing it as a hobby or as vigilante's. They also had a clear romance and family focus. And the main struggle was trying to keep their normal life and hobby separate.
Iron Man sort of changed all that. In it, we meet a guy who was a weapon's manufacturer and didn't care about anything. He was somewhat narcissistic, very self-involved, and a bit of a spoilt brat. Albeit a charming one. Then he gets taken by terrorists and his eyes are opened, he's forever changed by the experience, in part because he's almost killed by one of his own bombs. Karma kicks him in the chest, literally.
Almost losing his heart sort of causes him to rediscover it. And the story is about him seeking redemption. That's the through thread in all the stories -- these are characters who are seeking redemption, for making the choice to be a hero, often for the wrong reasons. They sought power, it blew up in their faces, and now they are trying to make amends. And it is in a way a commentary on our own society, in particular the US who started two Wars...that are unending, and have caused more collateral damage than imagined. It's no accident that Iron Man starts out in Afghanistan. And Stark discovers that his company is selling his arms to the US military and the terrorists at the same time.
This theme is repeated in Ultron. Stark creates Ultron in an attempt to shield the earth from alien threats from the sky -- Scarlet Witch gives him a Vision of the Endgame -- of the threat coming from above and killing all his friends. Ultron is supposed to keep peace, but Stark was raised by a weapons manufacturer whose view was peace could only be held with guns. It's a point of view that is held by huge percentage of the US population and the world. Whoever has the bigger gun wins. We keep the peace with violence. Ultron finds this idea reprehensible and decides okay, I know, I'll just do away with the Avengers (they are obviously the problem) and why stop there? Lets do away with the violent species they represent. If we want peace, we kill everyone. It's not that far from Thanos' perspective, which is peace is achieved by reducing population. Randomly take out half the population and voila, peace. Peace is only achieved through death, violence, and pain -- or war.
A theme echoed by both Thor, and Captain America: the First Avenger -- who initially share this view. Except Captain America is beginning to wonder if the War will ever end, Fury states it won't. And Thor has realized, the hard way, the War does not make things better -- there's a lot of collateral damage. Stark has begun to figure this out as well -- there's so much collateral damage.
It's one thing the Marvel films do well -- they show the collateral damage.
In each film it is clear that the individual Avengers have fully embraced their calling as well superheroes, but they don't actually see themselves as heroes. In Ultron they call each other monsters. Monsters attempting to redeem themselves, if somewhat clumsily. The only one who has a family and a life outside of the Avengers appears to be Hawk-Eye (aka Clint Barton) and it is top secret. No one knows about it. His identify isn't the secret, his family life is. It keeps them safe. Thor and Captain America have given up trying to have a personal life or normal life at all.
As has Scarlette Witch and Black Widow at this point. Black Widow wanted to have one with Banner, but she wasn't willing to just disappear with him -- she insisted on bringing out the big green guy and fighting -- which resulted in the Hulk leaving her for space. Then you have Stark, who attempts to tap out at the end, retire, live that life...yet, he can't. He's still the monster mad scientist at heart.
The Age of Ultron also neatly sets up the films that follow, which are in many ways far better but wouldn't exist without it. Ultron has a lot of hard work to do here -- it has to set things up, which is admittedly harder than wrapping them up, or for that matter middle chapters.
In Age of Ultron, Scarlett Witch gives Thor a vision, which when explored deeper, he discovers four of the six infinity stones -- he sees the reality stone, soul stone, mind stone, and space stone (which was in the tesserect). He doesn't see the power stone or the time stone, which are introduced in Guardians of the Galaxy and Doctor Strange. The Vision also tells Thor that he will take his people to hell, and they will all die because of him. (This comes about in Infinity War and Thor: Ragnorack).
Thor insists that the mind stone should be safe with the Vision, while he goes off to find the others.
There's lots of foreshadowing in this film, and it is full of dramatic irony, particularly if you've seen the later films. Clever. In some respects the films are more interesting after you've seen the later films, because character arcs and themes become clearer or more pronounced.
Another interesting tid-bit in Ultron, they set up Wakanda. Ultron hunts down Ulysess, who is the thug that is killed in Black Panther, and the arms dealer who steals technology and material from Wakanda via Killmonger's uncle and later Killmonger himself. He's also eventually killed by Killmonger. But clearly has been around for a long time. And done dealings with people like Stark and someone before him, with Stark's father. Both Stark and Captain America know about Wakanda, because that's where the steel for Captain America's Shield came from.
It's well done. What doesn't quite work are the action sequences, which much like the first Avengers film -- are hard to follow, jarring, and somewhat dull. Making me think that Joss Whedon just happens to suck at action scenes. Having watch Buffy, Dollhouse, Angel and Firefly -- yeah, I'd say this is most likely the case. All you have to do is watch Iron Man and Thor Ragnorack, not to mention Captain America - First Avenger, Infinity War, and Black Panther, and Doctor Strange -- to see the difference.
I hadn't seen Ultron since it was in the movie theater -- a long time ago.
How one views movies or anything really tends to change with time, or so I've discovered. I know not everyone loves these films, but considering I don't love all the films and television shows out there...I mean come on, I despised some of the flicks that were nominated for awards. Mileage it varies. (shrugs) Although I'm not sure people want to hear that or care. I get it. I do. But it's still terribly annoying when people don't love what I love --and feel the need to inform me of it, which they do. I get that. I do the same.
Whenever they do though, I feel the oddest desire to smack them on the nose, and say, "wake up you fool, can't you see this is really good and that, whatever it is you are squeeing about at the moment which I don't happen to like or be interested, is utter crap. I mean come on. You know I'm right about this. Get with the frigging program!"
But alas, the world would be incredibly boring if we all had the same taste. Also, it's not possible to be right about taste. Or wrong for that matter. There's no such thing as good or bad in regards to taste. Also taste doesn't define who we are since it's not really a stagnant thing anyhow -- or say that much about us really in the scheme of things except what is interesting us at the moment -- for whatever reason, known only to us, and sometimes not even that.
Sometimes I think taste is just well that taste. I'm never going to like brussle sprouts...and am always going to love chocolate apparently. (Well at least I think so.) That really says nothing about me one way or the other, except that I currently despise Brussel Sprouts and Love Chocolate.
no subject
Date: 2019-05-05 02:15 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2019-05-05 07:49 pm (UTC)Also, Feige really did know what he was doing -- because both Captain America - Winter Solider and Iron Man 3 set up Age of Ultron. And do it well. And Ultron cleverly sets up Civil War, Thor Raganorak, and Infinity War.
What's interesting is they do work as stand-a-lone's, all of them, but far better watching as a series. Infinity War, Age of Ultron, Guardian Galaxy 2, Captain America Civil War, and Thor Raganorack don't. And you need someone who can handle convoluted plot mechanics, a serial thread, exposition and great fights scenes, without relying too heavily on campy jokes and self-referential humor.
The Russos, really can do that -- as seen in Winter Solider, Civil War and Infinity War. Jon Favreau also struggles with convoluted plot mechanics and complex fight scenes -- he like Whedon goes for showy, video game where the motion is blurred, while the Russo's make it personal, and come up with some cool ideas or twists on old films. Like in Winter Solider -- they escape a car on Cap's shield and the car door.
But Whedon...relies a bit too heavily on camp and self-referential humor. It began to get on my nerves mid-way through the Avengers. Some of it felt out of character.
The Avengers was also more a stand-a-lone. Ultron -- is set up in part by Iron Man 3 and Winter Solider, but it also sets up everything after it, with the exception of Spiderman and Strange.
no subject
Date: 2019-05-05 08:23 pm (UTC)What I love about the Russos, especially with Captain America is that they love giving Chris Evans close quarters fighting to showcase how extraordinary Cap is at hand-to-hand and why Cap inspires such awe. (The elevator fight in Winter Soldier is just the most obvious example.) It's so much more impressive than the CGI display of powers from a lot of the other Marvel heroes. Even as a Dr. Strange fanatic, I'm more engaged with the MCU version when he's trading snark with Stark or Loki than when he's zapping people.
no subject
Date: 2019-05-05 08:56 pm (UTC)Agreed on the Russos. In F/X's re-showing of the film, they interview the Russos on Winter Solider -- and they deliberately shot more close quarter fight scenes and more intimate ones to get across how Cap fights.
They do the best fight scenes of all the films -- mainly because they make them more intimate. A fight scene is a bit like a dance number -- it's better when you can see it.
no subject
Date: 2019-05-05 04:54 pm (UTC)And it is in a way a commentary on our own society, in particular the US who started two Wars...that are unending, and have caused more collateral damage than imagined. It's no accident that Iron Man starts out in Afghanistan. And Stark discovers that his company is selling his arms to the US military and the terrorists at the same time.
Even without knowing a thing about the character from comics, I was impressed with how cohesive they made his origin story, incorporating elements from the beginning but making it current and topical. One of the things I liked the most was the way it was embedded in current crises and took a POV. That's very different than a superhero being for "the American way" without ever defining what that is. That is without doubt one of the biggest differences with Marvel storylines -- it often takes jabs at systems not just "villains" exactly because the stories were always set in our world.
I don't know if you've ever seen Thuvia Ptarth's "Hey Ho" but it does an excellent job of looking at the military industrial complex running through MCU storylines: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1cHvdKHgpXg (You can find the vidder's notes on it here: https://thuviaptarth.dreamwidth.org/274968.html ) I find the final lines of "Someone's dread and darlin' boy has fallen on his saber" even more poignant once it was revealed that the boy in the Iron Man mask was Peter Parker. That little tidbit alone added an entirely new strand into generational legacies and what we learn from our "heroes."
How one views movies or anything really tends to change with time
I've seen Ultron several times but besides this being true generally, it's particularly interesting to see, as you said, stories in reverse. Because you're right that there are things made clearer later which make earlier stories more revealing.
no subject
Date: 2019-05-05 08:43 pm (UTC)I just watched "Hey Ho" vid and it makes the point that I was trying to make above even better. The movies really do comment on our militaristic industrial complex. As did the comics before them. Depicting over and over and over again -- how we just end up destroying ourselves. Iron Man 1 has the great sequence of Tony Stark showing off the Jerico Bomb, having a drink, getting in a tank and then being hit by his own bomb.
And Captain America -- has Steve Rogers go in to fight, he's romanticized it, and it's not until he's revived 50 years later that he realizes what he believed was...not real. And he's still fighting the same war, in another way, 50 years later. They just have bigger weapons and the bad guys are even more entrenched and far harder to find. Which makes him wonder just how clear they were before and how much was propaganda? The first film, Captain America - First Avenger -- goes nuts depicting the propaganda, in fact Captain America is part of it.
Each character in each film is a casualty of a society that wages war to achiever power. Until finally they run across a villain, who states -- hey, I know how to stop all these wars and achieve peace? I'll just snap my fingers and mercifully erase 50% of you from existence. And he does.
It sort of changes the stakes. Because suddenly it's no longer about killing the villain, but how in the heck do we save people from being killed?
no subject
Date: 2019-05-05 09:52 pm (UTC)I liked this comment that someone left on the vid a few years ago: "When I saw reports of Northrop-Grumman co-sponsoring a panel with Marvel (since cancelled due to public pushback), all I could think was, “Yep, that’s exactly what that one vid was saying.”"
no subject
Date: 2019-05-06 02:41 am (UTC)And Civil War is a well done film. Ironically, it is Tony Stark, former weapon's manufacturer who pushes for Accords. It's really about the consequences of the first two films -- in fact all the prior films lead up to it rather brilliantly and it sets up Black Panther and Infinity War, quite well.