Movie Review- Avengers: Age of Ultron

Synopsis: When the artificial intelligence known as Ultron threatens to destroy the planet, the Avengers must work together and team up with new characters to save the world.

Initial Response- In my opinion, it’s not as good as the first and is much more predictable. However, it was still great and fulfills the Marvel Cinematic Universe standard, but not much beyond that.

Pros- It’s a Marvel Cinematic movie, which pretty much guarantees the action scenes, character angst, and witty one-liners we’ve all come to know and love. It’s entertaining and fun for the whole family if you have older kids, and is definitely worth the ticket.

Cons- Because Marvel’s been making Avengers type movie for a while now, it’s starting to get a bit stale. It felt a bit like they were just rehashing some things from the last movie. I’ll go into more detail on that in the spoilers section later.

P.S. To save you some time, I’ll tell you there is a mid-credits scene, but unlike the last movie there is no end credits scene. So you don’t have to worry about waiting through the whole credits to see a scene. There isn’t one.

Thus ends the spoiler-free part of the review. Spoilers ahead!

Graphic/Sexual Content- There is some swearing, nothing too horrendous though. They have a running joke through the movie where Captain America gets on to the other Avengers (specifically Tony) about language only to curse later himself. And Tony’s first line of the whole movie is literally, “Sh*t!!!” As for sexual content, the closest thing is an almost kiss between Natasha and Bruce. (Yes, they’re a thing now apparently.)

Major Annoyances- As I mentioned earlier, it felt like they were rehashing some of the elements of the last movie for a while. They start with a battle scene, they move on to angst between the members for the filler in between battle scenes, and then there’s a big battle at the end that lasts almost an hour. Maybe I’m just being picky, but it really feels like superhero movies in general are becoming more of a bland paste they crank out full of references to sate comic fans and goofy characters to sate others.

This is more of a personal thing, but I was sad that they revealed Clint had a family. I’ve shipped Clint and Natasha since the first Avengers movie and I was kinda sad to see that ship sink. #ripclintasha But, it was nice to see that at least one of the Avengers has a family because it shows the sacrifice the character has to go through to help save the world.

My next point ties to the last one, but I do NOT like the new romance between Natasha and Bruce. They are such polar opposites. I know the phrase “opposites attract” but they are opposite each other in interests and personality that I don’t think it could really work.

I’m just going to go out and say it…all of their problems could have been solved if Magneto was there. He could have destroyed the army of Ultrons with one hand and then used the metals in the rock to lower the floating land back down safely. I mean sure, his character is more tied with the X-Men, but it’s the same universe and his kids were there fighting anyways. (In case you are unaware, Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver are the children of Magneto.)

Ultron didn’t really cut it for me as the antagonist. He just fell flat and wasn’t as interesting as say, Loki. I mean come on, Ultron even used Loki’s scepter to mind control a doctor. Does this sound familiar? (Hint- It’s what happened in the last movie.)

Things I Did Like- Marvel had the guts to kill off a major character in their Cinematic Universe. This is pretty huge for any comic company because they are usually reluctant to completely kill off major characters. They usually resurrect them somehow, (i.e. Phil Coulson in Marvel Cinematic Universe, Jean Grey in Marvel Comics, Jason Todd in DC Comics… the list is almost endless), but it was actually surprising to me when they killed off Quicksilver. They were kinda hinting the whole movie that Clint was going to be the one to die, but Piedro saved him at the last minute at the expense of his own life. I actually liked that Marvel was bold enough to do so, but I still think it’s possible they’ll resurrect him because Marvel has a history of resurrecting characters. Or maybe they won’t because they’ll consider him a minor character and he’ll join Freya (Thor’s mom) in obscurity. Either way, I liked that part of the plot even if my reasoning is flawed.

I always like the witty one-liners. There weren’t as many good ones as the last movie, but they were still there and as entertaining as always.

Just the feel of the movie. I always like a good superhero movie, even if they are all similar in plot. Its still entertaining and worth the ticket.

Final Thoughts- Go for it. It was entertaining, and another generic Marvel movie that we all love. What I would personally like to see in the future is something new and unique, but for what we’ve got now, it was a great movie.

Rating- 8 out of 10

Stay cool and keep dreaming,

ThePhilosophicalFangirl

DC Characters vs Marvel Characters

Hello all! I have not been able to make a book review because I got sick. Some may ask, “Because you were sick, wouldn’t you have plenty of time to read?” The answer: Yes. However, I didn’t possess any new material to read, because I had planned to pick up a new book on Friday from my school library and write a review over the weekend, but I was sick on Friday so I couldn’t get a new book. Sorry.

So, I did the next best thing, a continuation of my DC vs Marvel thing that I’ve done before. Only this time, I evaluated IGN’s Top Comic Book Superheroes list to bring you all the data necessary to see who’s characters are better, Marvel or DC. Keep in mind this list does not take movies or television into account. Let’s find out.

Most of the list is Marvel or DC, with 84% of the characters on the list coming from one of the two. 42 characters from Marvel, and 42 from DC.

Well, that’s exactly even, so who’s to say which is better?

I then found the average rank for each, and here are my final results.

DC- 42 characters on list, average rank- 45.93 (rounded)

Marvel- 42 characters on list, average rank- 50 (even)

Other Publications- 16 characters on list, average rank- 60 (even)

So according to this, DC would be the best, with a rank slightly better than four over Marvel But, this list is made by only people. No perfect list exists. There’s no way to determine which is certainly the best. Look at the list yourself and come to your own conclusions.

DC’s characters may be better, but Marvel certainly has its own strengths.

Some of the rankings I didn’t agree with as well, such as:

Wally West’s Flash beat Barry Allen’s Flash, by a lot (41 places to be exact). And while I’m not sure I disagree, I’m not sure I agree as well. I’m not educated enough on Flash’s history to make a true call, but this was definitely a shock to me, that the second would beat the original. Someone was doing something right at DC, by improving the original. Hats off to you guys.

I was surprised Supergirl wasn’t higher on the list. She was 94th. I don’t know a whole ton about her, but I expected Superman’s cousin to be a bit higher on the list, especially when Superman was 1st.

While I don’t disagree, I wish Batman had beaten Superman. I can understand why he didn’t, because Superman embodies the superhero archetype, I like him more than Superman. Personal Preference.

Some of the rankings were shocks to me, even though as I look at them I agree.

I was shocked that Tim Drake beat Nick Fury. Nick Fury is a huge part of the Avengers and SHIELD, but the second best Robin (behind Dick Grayson according to the list) beat him? But as I thought about it, I realized that while Nick Fury has done a lot of cool stuff, and Tim Drake as done cool stuff as well, before he was even an adult. Both have been leaders of teams, but the main difference is Tim Drake did it younger. They were really close anyways, with Nick Fury right behind Tim Drake.

To be honest, I’m a budding comic book geek. I only recently started digging deeper into the comics. I’ve been coming upon it for years, starting with the Marvel Cinematic Universe and delving deeper after watching some TV shows. If anything in any of my posts about comics is not accurate, feel free to tell me so I can correct it.

I hope you enjoyed! Feel free to let me know what you think about all this in the comments or give me suggestions on your favorite story lines in comics that I could read next. Thanks for reading!

Stay cool and keep dreaming,

ThePhilosophicalFangirl

Marvel vs DC, Who Will Win the World’s Heart?

Please take note that most of the things I refer too will be within the last fifteen years, discussing only more recent developments for both companies.

Ever since the two comic companies were created decades ago, they have been rivals. Which begs the question, who will eventually win? Who will beat out the other to monopolize the comic industry? The obvious answer is, neither. Each will have their own strengths and weaknesses. Each have their own legion of fans to support them. But, with Marvel’s ever increasing strangle-hold on the cinemas, and DC’s increasing presence on television, one may wonder, what happens next?

Obviously both are comic book companies, and the comics are still popular, but in recent years a transition to other forms of media have been necessary for both companies’ survival. This article will focus mostly on these other forms.

Marvel holds an increasing power in the movie industry. With two movies a year regularly, fans are easily sated. DC has tried to strike back, with Man of Steel and The Dark Knight Rises, but neither one of those made as much money as The Avengers. Even the movie Iron Man, which was one of Marvel’s first in this new generation of movies made more than Man of Steel which came out five years later. Marvel also has the X-Men movies, which created many Marvel fans in the early 2000’s.

In contrast to that, DC holds more power in the television aspect. They have four adult shows out at the moment, Arrow, Constantine, The Flash, and Gotham, all running simultaneously. Marvel countered with Agents of Shield and the short series Agent Carter, but neither have been doing as well. Arrow, DC’s longest still-airing show has a higher rating on IMDb than Agents of Shield, Marvel’s longest still-airing show, with the scores being 8.2 to 7.5.

As for children’s television, Marvel has more series out at the moment in this aspect, but DC has a richer history of animated children’s shows. Some of the most successful for DC include Young Justice, Teen Titans, and the still-airing Teen Titans Go! which is a comedic spin on the Teen Titans. Marvel has Ultimate Spiderman, Avengers Assemble, and Hulk and the Agents of S.M.A.S.H. airing at the moment. If you compare these shows however, there is one major difference that could be an advantage to DC in the future years.

This difference is the lack of a younger generation of characters in the Marvel universe. DC shows like Teen Titans and Young Justice have younger characters that are more relatable to children and teens. I myself was an exclusively Marvel fan until I discovered the Teen Titans. Although this is a children’s show, I found myself drawn to it even as a teen because the characters are more relatable. Their angst and issues are much easier for me to identify with than those of adult heroes. Although Marvel does have quite a bit of younger characters in the X-Men movies, the fact that they weren’t the main characters made that aspect basically null. This lack of a younger generation of characters in Marvel universe could lead to a decreased fan-base in the next generation.

So if anyone out there reading this is a higher-up in Marvel or DC, here’s my advice.

DC- Lighten up on the TV shows and focus more on making movies. Do not lighten up too much on television, however, but don’t make too many shows. The ones you have now should suffice. (Except please make a Titans TV show, I still really want to see that.) Attempt to challenge Marvel in the movie industry by making movies on what they lack, younger characters. Exploit this weakness. A good idea would to make a Teen Titans movie, because many of the original fan-base is older, and would go see a PG-13 Titans movie, while you still have a younger fan-base due to the Teen Titans Go! who will come see it too. (If their parents let them.)

Marvel- Fix your weakness in the lack of a younger generation. Make teen characters more prevalent in your movies and television shows. Up your game in the television industry as well, these various Agent shows won’t cut it. You need a show featuring a more major hero. Perhaps do what DC did and make shows for characters that don’t yet have movies, like what they did with Arrow. Maybe a show for The Wasp or something. A Young Avengers show couldn’t hurt either.

Well that’s all for my nerd rant for now. Let me know in the comments what you think, and which you lean more too, Marvel or DC.

Until later, stay cool and keep dreaming

ThePhilosophicalFangirl