It might be (should be) that they’re waiting for the beginning of Captain America : Civil War. If they do it right, the impact / stake raising at the beginning of that movie should be huge.
Relevant xkcd on dropping cities. Well, mountains, but who’s counting?
Saw the movie yesterday, and loved it. I’m not going to re-hash things that were said in the last 7 pages of this thread, here are some original thoughts that I didn’t see yet:
Loved:
[ul]
[li]“Sure, it’s crazy that some kids would let themselves get experimented on by a German scientists to save their country.”[/li][li]The fact that the use of Loki’s scepter for mind-control a la the first movie wasn’t forgotten, as it seemed for most of the movie that it might have been[/li][li]Ultron’s “Daddy issues” as revealed in the encounter with Klaw (yes, I know it’s spelled differently in the movie). It’s not QUITE the Oedipus complex with Pym that he had in the comics, but it’s close enough to give him more character than a simple killer robot.[/li][li]“They have the most versatile metal in the world, and they made a frisbee out of it?”[/li][/ul]
Didn’t care for:
[ul]
[li]The way Ultron’s lips moved when he talks was really weird, for a robot. It took me out of the picture a little bit every time that appeared. Logically, a robot’s speech should be coming out of a speaker, lip movement is needed for humans, who use the passage of air to express sound.[/li][li]Falcon was missing from the floating-city rescue, and that would have been a very appropriate situation to call him in.[/li][li]Hawkeye was very badly placed in the action scenes. In the opening raid against Strucker, he was very exposed, sticking up out of the jeep like that. In the fight against the horde of robots on the floating city, when everyone else can defend a swath of territory by swinging their weapons back and forth, he has to load up an arrow between each shot - robots could have easily gotten past him at those points. I like the character, and the skill set has its use, but not those ways.[/li][li]I wish there was a little more convergence between the MCU and the comics in this movie. There were a few things that could have been done which would not have been out of place - instead of “Sokovia”, why not Wundagore, where Quicksilver and Scarlet Witch were born and raised in the comics? Instead of Strucker, why not the High Evolutionary, who was in charge of Wundagore, and had some Hydra ties (he was a partner of Jonathan Drew, father of the eventual Spider-Woman, who was originally a Hydra agent - good way to get her involved). Instead of the new Korean woman’s tech for the Vision, why not a call back to the Professor Horton and the original Human Torch, who were hinted at in the first Cap movie? These are minor swaps that I don’t think would have over burdened the movie unduly.[/li][/ul]
One question - wasn’t there some scene in one of the trailers with some Asian woman, viewed from behind, arms outstretched? A lot of speculation about who that was? I don’t recall seeing that scene in the actual movie. Was that in there and I missed it? Does the scene/character have any major significance?
The mystery woman was going to be part of Thor’s “grotto/pool vision scene” but she got cut (along with apparently most of that scene, including a cameo from Loki) which Whedon was not happy about, but had to cut it to keep the flow of the farm scene, which he slightly preferred.
We don’t have a name for “pool woman,” but my guess is that she is the “Goddess/Lady” (I forget which term Thor used in the movie) who is the mystical/inhuman/otherworldly guardian of the pool - the one who decides if visitors get useful visions or get their brains fried.
I get the strong impression that a lot of the bare-bones feeling of the plot threads, especially regarding Thor, are actually tied up in those scenes, which we have been told are going to be included in the home release - including an alternate ending.
Whedon used Dr Cho instead of Horton because he’s very obviously trying to mitigate the white american sausage-fest as much as humanly possible given the constraints of the universe.
I wouldn’t be surprised if Wundagore was in that list of things (like the word “mutant” itself) that are absolutely off the table for the MCU because they sold off the X-Men. I did think it was interesting that (we’re seven pages in, so spoilers be damned) the X-Men now have a very interesting Quicksilver, with no Scarlet Witch in sight (the little girl in that movie is a younger sister, not a twin) and now the MCU has a Scarlet Witch with a handily dead Quicksilver. Divorces are messy messy things - they split the twins down the middle! 
If it’s the shot I’m thinking of, it’s part of Thor’s vision in the hot tub and got cut during editing. They will re-visit the sequence in Thor: Ragnarok I’m sure.
As for the rest, I’d bet that they went for Sokovia because it sounds more Balkany than Wundagore, which sounds like no place on this planet. As for Hawkeye, he said it best himself - “The city is flying and we’re fighting an army of robots. And I have a bow and arrow. Nothing makes sense.”
I seem to recall her character was excised from the final cut. Tough for her.
Did anyone else notice that when Stark booted a new AI - to replace Jarvis - he had a selection from which to choose? He chose one named ‘Friday’ but there was a chip there labeled ‘Jocasta’.
Which was a nice little double-reference. I wonder if the Jocasta interface sounds like Tony’s mother?
Any chance we get “Avengers: Age of Ultron: The Joss Whedon Cut” Where we get the 3+ hour long movie that Whedon first made/intended?
I don’t want to jump scene-by-scene in a deleted scenes section of the Blu-Ray because I’m lazy, why can’t they just have the theatrical release of the movie and also include the giant-ass release he intended?
I’d watch the shit out of a 3 hour version of this movie
I’m sure if it doesn’t have that option on the home release, wait 3 hours for some super nerd with video-editing software to get their pixels in order and you can find it online somewhere all cut together. Hell, someone already did that with all the current MOVIES - took the movies and the cut-scenes (and I think they’re cutting in Daredevil and Agent Carter and SHIELD now too) and are laying them all out in chronological order. There was an article on io9 about it, I think.
It seems unlikely. They didn’t do anything like that for the first Avengers. And for big budget special effects heavy movies, there’s often no way to do a directors cut, unless you want to watch lots of scenes with actors wearing half their costumes, with various target dots glued to their bodies & wearing bright green clothing. And special effects that are the first pass of the CGI, so you’re basically watching a cartoon. They definitely try to do a few first editing passes long before they finalize the special effects.
What’s the difference between putting the scenes into the “deleted scenes” section of the DVD and putting them in the film? They’re the same scenes regardless, just on their own vs inputted into the movie
If you watch a lot of deleted scenes, from special effects heavy movies - Iron Man 3 comes to mind - they’re clearly not done - Downey is wearing half the IM suit, with target dots attached to it. Background that are supposed to be some cool tech are just green screen. Good enough for just showing an interesting deleted scene, but not good enough for a Directors Cut.
I guess it all depends on how late in the process the scenes were cut. Sometimes they’ve been through the full effects process, sometimes they haven’t.
I’ve seen all of the previous Marvel movies (but read none of the comic books), and this was the first movie where I really felt like I was missing background information. I just didn’t follow Ultron’s motives. And I was completely mystified by Paul Bettany’s sudden embodiment. After the movie, I read part of the Wikipedia entry on the Vision, but I’ve got to say that didn’t really clear things up.
The bottom line for me was that the balance between plot/character development and fight scenes wasn’t right. The introductory scene was fun but forgettable, but I thought the whole Hulk and Iron Man bit in Johannesburg could have been cut entirely. It wasn’t anything interesting or new - it was just more buildings being destroyed for no apparent reason. I left feeling like there were scenes missing that would have explained what was going on better, and based on this thread it sounds like that was the case.
I thought the best scene in the movie, hands down, was the revels at the beginning. Loved the camaraderie and my girlfriend is cooler than your girlfriend contest. I also thoroughly enjoyed the farmhouse scenes. Hawkeye’s character development in general was good - it provided a bit more insight into what he brings to the team.
I may have superhero movie fatigue. I really want them to stop brawling and use their big brains to solve problems on occasion. Man of Steel was by far the worst offender in that category (so. dumb.), but oh my god, why are we tearing robots apart with our bare hands? Or bows and arrows? Don’t we have technology solutions for this kind of thing? It’s exasperating.
The Hulk vs Hulk-buster fight was pretty much there as a set up for Civil War. That and to heighten Banners disconnect with the “other guy.” The death and destruction will be a key reason for the Registration Act. It won’t be the proximate cause, but it will be there as an example.
I don’t see why you needed the Wiki entry; Ultron makes it abundantly clear that he’s out to build a robot body with some of Doctor Cho’s synthetic flesh, and gets partway through before Stark (a) gets a hold of it, and (b) slowly and patiently explains to Banner that he’d sure like to put the Bettany-voiced artificial intelligence that is Jarvis into it.
(I’ll admit they maybe didn’t do a great job of spelling out why Ultron wanted to build a robot body with that flesh, but what part of what happened wasn’t clear?)
I don’t think they needed to cut anything in order to add more scenes, they could’ve just made the movie longer and i wouldn’t have complained one bit.
People love the “There are no strings on me” song inclusion because it’s creepy but it also tells you a ton about Ultron. He wants to be a real boy.
All these superheroes are patently ridiculous. (Hulk? That makes sense how?) But demented AI robot + doctor + Jarvis + Loki’s scepter + Thor’s lightning = Paul Bettany floating (? why is he floating?) around the room, magically changing clothes, with a rock in his forehead that seems to do stuff?
Super strength - understood. Super speedy - OK. Extra resilience - fine. But WTF is this new guy? It seems like they wanted a new character but were running out of good ideas for super powers. (“They” may very well refer to whoever made this guy up in the first place.) There’s just not enough back story or explanation for me to buy his existence, and there’s certainly no exploration of who or what he is.
As I told my wife, Vision is basically Marvel’s Martian Manhunter, only without the mind-reading.
(On edit: Wow, that’s a lot of alliteration. - I feel like Stan Lee.)
It’s a lot of steps, but I don’t get not understanding the through-line. But admittedly, his power set is incredibly comic booky in a way we hadn’t seen in the movies… they even went so far as to make Wanda into Jean Grey from the X-men in order to tone down her powers (because they are saving outright magic for Dr. Strange) but they went whole hog with the Vision.
Why can he fly? Why can he alter his density? (in the comics the former is because of the later)
I think the best way to think of him in this age is…he’s a sentient 3-D printer with a ancient powerful object in his forehead. What CAN’T he do?