Ahoy, squirts! Quint here. Okay, time to start breaking down that big ol' honking Marvel panel piece by piece. We have to start with Avengers: Age of Ultron. They showed footage. Holy moly, did they show footage!
Remember when Latino-Review wrote about the Avengers 2 script and described the party scene? Guess their source was right on the money because that scene started off the footage.
The Avengers are in Stark Tower, lounging around, having some drinks. Tony Stark, Rhodey, Cap, Thor, Hawkeye, Bruce Banner, Black Widow were all there. Thor sets his hammer down on the table and takes a seat. They're debating about the hammer and Thor is telling them it can only be lifted by he who is worthy (or she, for that matter). “If I lift it do I get to rule Asgard?” Thor replies, “Yes, of course.” Smirk is full on when Stark tries and fails. He only tries once and says, “I'll be right back,” and returns with his Iron Man gauntlet on. He tries really hard this time to no avail.
It cuts to both him and Rhodey (with a War Machine gauntlet on) pulling, sparks flying from the taxed mechanics of the armor piece. “Are you even pulling?!?” Hawkeye gives it a shot, Banner does as well and is exerting himself so much that he's yelling and suddenly everybody is looking at him nervously. He laughs and backs away, hands up.
Thor's got a shit-eating grin the whole time... and then Cap gives it a shot. The hammer budges ever so slightly. We're talking millimeters, but it makes a scraping sound on the glass and Thor's smirk drops.
Everybody laughs, Stark says something about how it's probably some kind of Thor fingerprint recognizer. Thor shoots back that he prefers to believe that everybody else is just unworthy.
Then they're interrupted by a high frequency sound that has them covering their ears ala Superman being contacted by Lex Luthor.
”How could you be worthy? You're all killers.”
What I can only describe as Frankenstein Ultron limps out of Stark's lab. He looks like a stroke victim, arm hanging loosely to his side, face half broken.
”You want to protect the world, but you don't want it to change. There's only one path to peace... your extinction.” Widow pulls her gun, Thor grabs his hammer and Ultron throws out an arm and a couple of what looked like Iron Man armors fly through the wall right, at his command, heading right at camera.
We're out of that scene and we see a bunch of melancholy shots of war torn parts of the world. Hawkeye is scoping out some devastation as Ultron's voiceover begins.
”I had a vision: the whole world screaming for mercy. Everyone tangled in strings. Strings...”
We see more shots of busted, run down Ultron, Quicksilver running (only a flash, naturally), Scarlett Witch on her knees in a pile of rubble, screaming, Nick Fury in his civilian clothes looking worried, a shot of Andy Serkis (human, not CG!), a pissed off Thor grabbing Tony Stark by the neck and hoisting him up and then... the Hulkbuster. I'm not sure if this is how the Hulkbuster armor works in the comics, but it seemed like Iron Man is in his regular suit and gets into the Hulkbuster, so it's armor on top of armor.
They're on a city street and Hulk throws a rage punch at Iron Man who flips a car up and block the punch with it, pissing the Hulk off even more. There was a shot of Hulk smashing Hulkbuster Iron Man against a wall and one more of Hulk throwing a punch that Hulkbuster catches with his hand.
One other really cool thing... You know how Ultron's speech is all about strings? The music playing in the background throughout this footage underlines Marvel's parent company. It's a creepy version of Pinocchio's “I Got No Strings.” And the footage ends with a fully rebuilt, intimidating and functioning Ultron... not the wreck we've seen up till this point, but shiny, silver and ready to rumble... looking at the camera and ending his speech with “There are no strings on me.”
I know it sounds kind of cheesy, but trust me when I say it works a charm. Like goosebumps level works.
The footage had a bit of a tag that should raise some eyebrows. After it cuts to black, it fades up on Cap's shield broken in two. A distressed Tony Stark looks at it and then looks up to see all of his fellow Avengers crumpled on the ground, defeated.
If I were a betting man I'd say this is an illusion, much like how the stinger at the end of the early Thor 2 footage was Loki cutting Thor's hand off.
But still, great imagery. And, I have to say... I love The Avengers a whole lot, but I am still disappointed with the photography in it. It's pretty flat and overly bright, giving it a TV vibe. Not so much here. Age of Ultron looks like a goddamn movie! Inky blacks, much more mood and tone than anything in the first film.
I'm officially pumped out of my mind for this movie. Good job, Marvel!
-Eric Vespe
”Quint”
quint@aintitcool.com
Follow Me On Twitter
