Amph "On your left." - Captain America (Brave New World)

The only other movie between here and Avengers: AoU is GotG, right? Is it just me or have they done far less this time around of setting anything up for that? Winter Soldier--and IM3 and Thor:TDW--are very insular. The stinger for Thor is seemingly for either Guardians or Av3ngers, and IM's is just played for laughs. Now we see

Spoiler

Loki's staff and the twins, and what? What does that tell us exactly? What does Strucker have to do with Ultron? Are they covering it in AoS? This isn't going to be like the comics where you pick up the latest Avengers and the cover is splayed with "Age of Ultron!" and the issue picks up right where five other titles left off is it?

 

Yeah I was bothered by that at first, with Avengers she came across as dislikable but I dunno between AoS and TWS something just clicked and I liked her all of a sudden.

 

I think Iron Man 3 and Captain 2 did set up Age of Ultron, but we can't fully see it fleshed out yet.

It pretty well known on nerd boards that

Spoiler

Ultron is a born out of Stark tech. A rogue or corrupted Jarvis program.

which may have been a result of Tony Stark blowing up his armory. We don't know if the Winter Soldier will appear in Avengers 2, but after Cap 2, SHIELD may not be up and running and Fury still might be underground. Basically, the world have changed after Cap 2 and I think it will have an impact on Avengers 2.

 

I'm thinking AoS could possibly be the bridge to TWS to AoU, I don't see how else they are going to set it up if they are going to at all.

 

The screenwriters forgot?

 

I think it's got a fine set up. Were the Chitauri really set up in a big way for Avengers? Tony's destroyed his armory; Loki's replaced Odin; SHIELD is down; Fury's presumed dead and underground. That's a lot of set up for the new Avengers, isn't it? A big threat appears and things are really very, very different than they were for the first Avengers film. And they still have GotG to set up some more cosmic stuff if they want to. I think some set-up will happen in AoS, but I also kinda feel that they've done a good job putting the universe in a very, very different place for this next Avengers movie. I mean, that's a huge amount of change when you think about it: no Iron Man armory, No SHIELD, No Fury. All in all, I'd hardly call TWS or IM3 "insular." They have some huge things that'll have huge impacts on the larger universe come next Avengers.

I hope.

 

Spoiler: spoilers for Agents of SHIELD finale

Well considering SHIELD is being rebuilt under Director Coulson...

 

If only Agents of SHIELD knew the plot hooks it needed to lead into for Avengers: Age of Ultron and could build a season-long thing to coincide with the release of the movie (01-May, 2015) which happens to coincide with May sweeps and their season finale...

 

It seems like everyone in Phase II is getting screwed over.

 

The aliens in the first movie didn't need to be set-up. They were endlessly re-spawning video game enemies that ultimately weren't even that significant in the plot of their own movie. Next to know rationale for their actions or existence was ever provided. Given that they were just there to get beaten/blown up, zero introduction was exactly the right tone. Most of the set-up for the first film was about introducing the general public to these fairly obscure characters.

One hopes that for the second film, they move on to a story with an actual plot beyond "big stupid one hour action scene finale." That would require some sort of set-up. But I guess I wouldn't hold my breath.

EDIT: Also, the suggestion about the Avengers show seems highly unlikely. They've so far tried to keep even the other films in the series optional viewing. They're not going to make it mandatory to watch a full season of an hour long American television show just to understand what's happening in the movie.

 

Thor seems pretty happy.

 

That's because Loki has him fooled.

 

He has a different kind of screwing happening ...

 

When Agents of SHIELD began I didn't see it as a very I important part of the MCU, by this seasons end though I feel like those avoiding this show are actually missing out on important things that could effect future films. I didn't think AoS would incorporate the stuff from The Winter Soldier as brilliantly as they did. At first I'd didn't think it would work but having the HYDRA stuff I think they could develop some kind of Ultron storyline to help set up Avengers 2 alongside what already has been established. I never thought SLJ would have so much screen time in the finale and I hope they can somehow get the other big heroes to guest star. SLJ wanted to do it, I hope others do.

And that is wonderful! Wouldn't be like the comics if he wasn't fooled! It is Loki!

 

There was set up with the Thor and Loki feud and the introduction of the Tesseract during the WWII era. The motives of the the Chitauri were set up in the first meeting between Loki and the Other, which was that the Chitauri are a race of conquerors and Loki gets the Other and Thanos to start their invasion of the Nine Realms by going to Midgard first, in order for Loki to exact revenge on Thor. "Guardians Of The Galaxy" will further reveal Thanos's motivations.

No, not mandatory. But they're going to use the show to plant the seeds which word of mouth will help clue people in to the bigger picture.

 

What's so unlikeable about Maria Hill? She's great. She's no-nonsense and gets the job done.

 

Like like like like. I truly hope we have not seen(or heard) the last of Zola. I avoided all TWS spoilers so it was a pleasant surprise seeing that the character still lived...sorta.

 

I doubt it's Zola. Didn't Whedon or Fegie make a comment about how they want to make it so you don't have to watch the movies in between Avengers to get/understand/enjoy what's going on? Seems like a dude showing up and living IN really old computer equipment would something you wouldn't just get, naturally.

Now, indirectly, the fall of SHIELD I think will lead to Ultron being needed/requested/created. But I doubt Zola, directly.

 

From what I gather some of the Maria hate is in part blowback from the comics' Civil War arc, where she wasn't really likeable in that storyline.

 

I think you're on to something there. Without SHIELD to watch over everyone, and the Avengers only being able to be in so many places, what if Tony took it upon himself to create a solution that deals with these problems? Some sort of Ultimate cop. And so we get Ultron who probably thinks all humans are terrible and therefore need to die and there we are. That could be quite amusing actually if we see a hero Ultron with James Spader's wit.

 

Unless something changed from last August, it seems both Wright and Whedon are keeping Ultron separate from Pym.

Probably about right. Then afterwards, this would lead to a much larger Avengers Initiative which sets the stage for additional characters to join up.