What's the best superhero movie of all time?

While honourable mentions go to The Dark Knight, Avengers Infinity War and Thor Ragnarok, for me it comes down to one:

Avengers Age of Ultron.

It was a slow burner and took a while and repeated viewings for me to grow to love it, but love it I do. It's not without its flaws and a few minor changes would have cemented it as one of the all-time greats, but I still love it so much.

It gets an incredible balance right, balancing all the heroes including the new ones. Where the first film deconstructed what makes them heroes, this film deconstructs what could make them monsters and how in many ways they're fighting against their own nature. The humour is great throughout. The film also gives probably my all-time favourite scene in any of the Marvel movies; the birth of The Vision. The split between Cap/Tony, Thor's arrival, Vision's speech leading to him lifting the hammer... it's just pure joy.

James Spader as Ultron too was fantastic, and his performance really shone through. His final scene with Vision was just beautiful on both their parts.

The action in the opening scene, Hulk v Hulkbuster scene and much of the final battle was amazing too, particularly the circular shot with all the heroes against the Ultron army which, like the long tracking shot of all the heroes in Avengers 1 against the Chitauri, is why these movies are so great, and are pure comic books come to life.

I also love the Nat & Banner relationship. Their scene in Clint's house (and particularly the extended version of it in the deleted scenes) is fantastic. It ties in so well with the theme of the movie in how they're both 'monsters', and really speaks to why they're attracted to each other (unlike most, I didn't think their relationship just came out of nowhere, I think there was enough of a seed planted in the first film to allow it).

I'm a huge Joss Whedon fan anyway, so I probably am predisposed to like it. But it just got the balance between everything right in my opinion. Again, not without its flaws, but for me it still just edges out Infinity War.

Doctor DooM wrote: »

You know I rewatched Age of Ultron recently and thought much, much more of it than the time I saw it in the cinema (and was kinda disappointed in it).

It's kinda the trigger for the Avengers Disassembled thing I have only just realised they've been doing

I saw it three times in the cinema and even though I liked it, it hadn't lived up to Avengers 1. It was only through later watches at home that I really began to appreciate it. Like you said, the coming split between Steve and Tony definitely began in AoU. The beginnings of Vision & Scarlet Witch happened too, with Vision saving her when the city was falling.

I also loved the dream sequences Steve, Nat & Thor had, and while Quicksilver's abilities weren't used as well as the X-Men version, his character at least wasn't as annoying.

There are missteps along the way. Klaw's cuttlefish stuff fell really flat, Baron Von Strucker was wasted, the Korea chase sequence was good but not great and while I liked how they foreshadow Clint's death throughout but then Quicksilver dies, his death just felt off and kinda unexplained (in terms of how he moved Clint & the kid behind the car but he still got hit by bullets, or did he move the car in front of them...).