Hacker Cinema
Avengers: Age of Ultron
2015 · Film · 141 min
Part of The Avengers Collection
Directed by Joss Whedon
ActionAdventureScience Fiction
When Tony Stark tries to jumpstart a dormant peacekeeping program, things go awry and Earth’s Mightiest Heroes are put to the ultimate test as the fate of the planet hangs in the balance. As the villainous Ultron emerges, it is up to The Avengers to stop him from enacting his terrible plans, and soon uneasy alliances and unexpected action pave the way for an epic and unique global adventure.
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10 comments on Hacker News
It is only somewhat hokey.
I love a bad/earnest low-budget movie. I think they are often much more revealing about the nature of culture, cinema and art than -- to pick a single counterpoint -- really anything in the MCU except Age of Ultron [0].
There were plenty of things in that to like. I watched it only recently, I'm glad they made it, and I hope the people who make it continue to reject the big bucks.
[0] This is a hill I will die on. Almost everything in the MCU is pointless dross except James Spader as Ultron.
Quote: "Really, you’re genuinely worried about a robot apocalypse? You know Age of Ultron is just a stupid Marvel movie, right? Yeah, I know. "
Actually this is not Age of Ultron, this is exactly how this TV series - Person of Interest - is laid out. [ https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1839578 ]
I would comment as follows.
Iron Man - sort novel for setting marvel tone but mostly banal action movie
Iron Man 2 - banal action movie
Thor - banal action movie
Captain America: The First Avenger - particularly banal action movie
Marvel's The Avengers - banal action movie
Iron Man 3 - banal action movie, sort of interesting to see protagonist suffering PTSD anxiety from being a superhero
Thor: The Dark World - banal action movie
Captain America: The Winter Soldier - first interesting take. Patriotism is not the same as government obedience. Real fight choreography approaching a soft john wick.
Guardians of the Galaxy - Early rock and roll aesthetic pretty interesting
Avengers: Age of Ultron - banal action movie, perhaps mcu lowpoint
Ant-Man - superhero heist movie, literally deconstructs larger than life superhero tropes. I think thumbs up
Captain America: Civil War - by this point doing the mcu's own thing, which is novel, but probably not interesting outside
Doctor Strange - banal action movie
Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 - aesthetic still feels mostly fresh.
Spider-Man: Homecoming - super down to earth high school drama, frustrated working class villains suffering the fallout of superheroes, seems interesting to me
Thor: Ragnarok - great film, very genre savvy. Rare achievement to make godly strength brutes feel really engaging to watch. Taika Waititi is a genius.
Black Panther - pretty good. interesting aesthetic. directly addressing racial tensions.
Avengers: Infinity War & Endgame - Mostly fan service and not too surprising but honestly still novel.
Ant-Man and the Wasp - Ehhh I really don't remember
Captain Marvel - Beginning had some great hard sci fi imo. Thought the ending message of newly apotheosizied female not needing to prove herself to her evil male mentor was a solid take, whereas a classic "mano a mano" kind of showdown would be so typical of the genre
Spider-Man: Far From Home - Villain emphasizing themes of the power of deceptive media? heck yeah.
Wandavision - Really bizarre and interesting start. Unfortunately non-self-aware conclusion
Falcon and Winter Soldier - Active discussions of race and the problematic nature of superheroes being supremacists? Very good.
Loki - kind of a super cliche topic (time cops) that is also somehow really rare? eh.
honorable mentions for Logan and Deadpool for being just great; and the Amazing Spiderman for its excellent aesthetics despite terrible writing.
I've been doing vfx for 20+ years. So...
- watch a movie :
2020 Upside Down Magic
2017 The Fate of the Furious (visual effects artist)
2015 San Andreas
2015 Avengers: Age of Ultron
2013 R.I.P.D.
2011 Happy Feet Two
2011 Mars Needs Moms
2009 A Christmas Carol
2008 The Tale of Despereaux
2007 Enchanted
2006 The Shaggy Dog
2005 Constantine
2004 Hellboy
2003 The Matrix Revolutions
2001 Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within
- or a more recent TV show:
Another Life
Gabby and the Unsittables
Charmed
There's certainly other things I've worked on, but they're lost down the memory hole for good.
Your last point has been exactly my sticking point with most/all of these films. We went as a family to see Avengers: Age of Ultron, and about halfway through, my then-7-year-old son asked me when it would be over. It's just too much overstimulation, far too little plot. Star Wars: Rogue One was an identical film experience.
This article is kind of meaningless since an artificial general intelligence hasn't been achieved yet. The usual story that probably got more public traction with the introduction of "The Terminator" movie always assumes a self-conscious entity that had mountaints of data on humans to analyze and quickly concluded we must go, either because we're warmongers and are constantly causing trouble and havoc (Skynet), or we're not evolved enough compared to that artificial and much more developed organism ("Avengers: Age of Ultron"), or a mix of both ("Transcendence").
An article saying "chill out people, robots won't ever take over because they haven't so far" is missing the point by kilometers. Our robots are dumber than an individual ant and have zero concept of self, life, death, needs, or their own place in the world.
Age of Ultron is not available for rent because it is on Starz. This is similar exclusivity deal but with traditional premium TV channel. This happens with most movies. They are available for rent for a while on streaming sites, then can't be rented when on pay TV, and finally can be rented again after year or two.
Uhm, generally speaking you are correct. But you run into a lot of them going out to meetups. I'm trying to build a business, I can't just lock myself away in my basement and code away anymore, I have to get out and meet people. My general experience has been that there is always at least one person in the crowd who will be incensed that you are not using Angular/Lowdash/Underscore/React/Haskell/a particular ORM/something other than an ORM/what-have-you.
There's a certain type of person that needs their personal choices validated by seeing the same choices made by other people. The name for this type of person is "the majority". It's how we get people who think Ford Mustangs are the greatest or shittiest car in the world, when they are neither. It's how we get people voting Demican or Republicrat every year, in every election, across the board. It's how we get people who only drink Bud Light. It's how we get people who think Age of Ultron was the greatest movie ever.
For as much as technology peoples like to think they are rational, thinking, open-minded people, we can tend to be extremely tribal.
I've personally found that the best way to avoid those people is to actually be more outgoing, to be friendly and inviting and just someone that everyone wants to hang out with. Because then you can't get stuck with these randos.
> Isn't this the plot for Avengers: Age of Ultron?
It is. Also for Terminator Genisys.
I suspect it was a PR stunt that took a life of its own. These rich/famous people with zero understanding of the AI field got somehow convinced that they need to save the world from the highly improbable and they keep going, long after the movies ran.
It's ridiculous, of course. They might as well pledge funds for OpenTelepathy and OpenRemoteViewing.
A counter-example to the following point is that the recent "Avengers: Age of Ultron" movie included debate on contemporary transhumanism, although that could be Joss Whedon's writing influence:
"..a significant section of the public, having given up on attempting to understand the reality they are actually living in, have instead reasoned that they might at least be able to comprehend the sprawling, meaningless, but at-least-still-finite 'universes' presented by DC or Marvel Comics.."
Another reason for shorter copyright terms:
"..it is, potentially, culturally catastrophic to have the ephemera of a previous century squatting possessively on the cultural stage and refusing to allow this surely unprecedented era to develop a culture of its own, relevant and sufficient to its times.."