Avengers: Age of Ultron Review

I've done reviews of several of the other Marvel movies, and while I don't plan on making a habit out of it, I do like to share some very short thoughts on the new Avengers movie.

And rest assured, absolutely no significant spoilers below.

Yes, I've talked before about how incredible it is to see all my favorite superheroes band together in one single film. In some ways it's almost become such a familiar occurrence, that I barely think of how awesome it is. For instance when Captain America shows up in Thor 2 - yes, it was cool - but considering how Marvel Studios has run things, it was almost expected. 

And that's really where we are, it's cool to see all of them. Literally all of them, in one movie. But do we really appreciate how amazing it is? And do we really appreciate how impressive it is to do that, and not have a movie that sucks? Because Avengers 2 definitely didn't suck. 

Yes, it was not as surprisingly good as Captain America: The Winter Soldier. And it wasn't as fun as Guardians of the Galaxy. But I feel that that isn't the idea of the Avengers movies either.  

The idea of the Avengers movies is to gather all of them, and have cool fight scenes and explosions and stuff. Have buildings collapse, have skyscrapers collapse, have entire cities collapse. Stuff like that. And all the while ALL OF THEM are looking cool, while doing cool stuff. And it's just so damn awesome to see the Marvel cinematic universe in this place, where it's familiar, expected and natural. And that's the strength of Avengers: Age of Ultron.

It's like reading a Marvel comic book, but in cinema.

Yes, I could talk about details, and there were tons of them in this movie. Interaction between Ultron and Vision, interaction between Hulk and Black Widow. Interaction between Tony and almost everyone else. Most of the stuff involving Hawkeye. It seems they wanted to round out a few characters a bit more than they have done in previous movies, and it works fairly well. But this movie is about seeing all of them together, and explosions. 

Ok, some details. Holy shit, Vision! I like. Hulk riding a Quinjet alone made an impact for some reason. Ending shows promises, but also challenges for Marvel Studios. Post credits scene somewhat boring, but not necessarily bad. Also, regarding Hawkeye, thank god they didn't follow Ultimates storyline, or I would never be able to drag my girlfriend to another Marvel movie. Ok, that last one may have been a spoiler. 

Marvel is at an impressive - and some what dominating position these days, and I just fear they won't be able to keep up the pace, and that they won't put as much effort into the "individual" movies as they have done so far. If they do continue to make an effort, I'll gladly accept the occasionally mindless, but still glorious action from future Avengers movies. 

Masters of the Universe Board Game... In Norwegian

Yes, so I got invited to a facebook group for people who collected G.I. Joe figures in Norway. I didn't know there were more than 2-3 of us, but it turns out there is.
Come to think of it, I'm not that surprised. G.I. Joe - or Action Force - was a big thing here, and it had to leave a lasting impression on more than just me and my friend, Runar.
 

So, one of the guys contacted me and said he was collecting anything 80s, but preferably specified to Norwegian releases. He asked if I had anything cool lying around. I gave it a thought, and realized I actually had a very specific item he would appreciate. I had just been digging for treasures in the attic, and managed to find a vintage board game set to the Masters of the Universe universe. -_-

Anyway, it's not nearly complete, and it's missing box, lid and rules of play - in addition to several pieces. But the cardboard of the playing field looks to be intact, as does Castle Grayskull. The interior is made to be elevated an inch, and this function seems to still work. All though I didn't want to break anything, so I just left it lying flat on the floor.

You could play as the heroes, and I managed to find He-Man, Teela, Man-at-Arms and Stratos. When playing, you could end up literally stumbling onto villains, represented by square pieces, but of these I only found Mer-Man.

The more I look at this game, the more nostalgic I get. This was, for some reason, a big deal. It has obviously survived longer than my original collection of MOTUs.
I believe I could make some proxies for some of the missing pieces, and this could easily be a functional game. If my memories serve me well, it was far from the worst game I have played.
I have a vague sense of how we played this game, and regardless of its state, this has to be one of the coolest items I own.

Of course, the guy I was talking with wasn't particularly impressed, as he already had like five of these (among other seriously impressive treasures). But hey, we all have our thing, and that's great.

Here's some more pictures.