 Today, I'm battling two hugely anticipated films that fell short for some people. I think there was good and bad for both the Marvel and DC camps. I'm going to talk about it today, but there was a clear winner here for me personally. At the end, you vote, you comment, you give me your voice and your opinion, and right now you listen to what I have to say, whether you agree or not. This is being forced upon you. You cannot click away. It's Marvel's Avengers Age of Ultron vs DC's Batman v Superman on movie feuds. There's no question that Ultron has the bigger lineup of characters on display, but maybe it's a quantity over quality thing we're going to find out. Robert Downey Jr., Chris Evans, and Chris Hemsworth easily fall back into their characters and Jeremy Renner gets far more time to shine. He's one of the highlights here for me as a more sympathetic character of the group. Scar Joe and Mark Ruffalo don't fare as well, getting one of the most forced relationships since Dan and Blair hooked up on Gossip Girl. We thought that line was relevant to the audience. That's watching this. Okay. That's why. That's why we're doing well. Newcomer Elizabeth Olson and her ridiculous accent is fantastic, and she's my girlfriend. I thought you all should know that we're going steady. It's a pretty big deal. Do people still go steady? I don't, I don't know. I don't even think I went steady when I was in high school, so this is really relevant. Man, this episode's touching on a lot of things. He's also new to the lineup is Quicksilver, played by Aaron Taylor Johnson. He's not very good, and yes, I did see that coming. And finally, the vision, who I thought was a really cool onscreen presence. There's a lot of good small roles from the past films, like Nick Fury, Falcon, Maria Hill, War Machine, etc. I can't think of any more. Batman v Superman as a smaller cast, like I previously stated, but perhaps the roles are more impressive here? No, not, not really, not at all actually. Ben Affleck as Batman slash Bruce Wayne is really solid though. I don't think many would disagree with that. Henry Cavill is once more an impressive specimen to behold, who is unfortunately a lot more wooden this time around. It seemed like director Zack Snyder was already bored spending time with this character, and that's a bit of a shame. I think he does have the acting chops needed. No, he's not as charming as Christopher Reeve. I don't know if anybody ever is going to be. Amy Adams and Diane Lane are very likable and certainly help keep the film grounded. It was nice to see Fishburne back too, even for the limited screen time he had. I expected more background from Alfred in this considering he was played by the amazing Jeremy Irons. What we got were some very small nuggets of information and not much to go on. Holly Hunter is always a welcomed addition, but here she seemed almost unneeded since her entire arc led to an extremely pointless event in the film. I guess that's as good of a place as any to talk about like Sluther Jr. I believe he is. Some people like this kooky, borderline insane personality, but it was just so damn cartoonish in an otherwise serious film. His motivations were confusing and just plain poorly handled. I know somewhere out there there's a four hour version of this train wreck, probably in Zack Snyder's basement. Probably would help explain some of these questions, but I mean this is what I have to work with right now. Wonder Woman's in this on occasion, just pops in here and there. She enjoys fighting and she's been doing it for a while. That's about all I got from her. Completely unnecessary, along with the shout outs to Aquaman, Cyborg, and Flash. Lex did a great job labeling those folders though, I'll give him that much. Nice sheen to him, nice polish. Everybody had their own little icon. Everything was in place. Back to villains, Spader does an awesome job voicing the menacing creation Ultron. Some will say he was too jokie, not near as dark as the trailers portrayed. That's fair, I suppose. It worked for me in the context of the narrative. It was mirroring Tony's personality. It would have felt out of place if he was just this totally corrupt evil persona. It would have been more awkward than when Jason Mesnak broke up with Melissa Mycroft on the series finale of The Bachelor, went with the runner-up instead off-camera. Who's writing this show? Nobody knows this. This is a bit of a mess all around, but you'd be hard-pressed to find someone who argues BVS has a more cool hair and story than Age of Ultron. Were there ties to further movies in the franchise? Sure. Did the movie move a bit too fast? I suppose. Is the title a tad misleading considering the Avengers took out Ultron in just a couple weeks, maybe an extended three-day weekend? Absolutely. However, Ultron's motivations were clear. The Avengers team was already established and working together. The quick side story of Thor's spa day nonsense was very short-lived and didn't take away from the main plot so I can forgive these instances. What I can't forgive is the mind-boggling events that unfold in Dawn of Justice. Batman and the villain Lex Luthor appear to have the exact same goal in mind, which is to kill Superman because he could possibly be a threat at some point. Why Lex Luthor even cares is such a perplexing thing to me. Superman didn't once interfere with his plans of anything. I know nothing about this kid. He's just, he's just effed in the head and he hates Superman. Then there's Batman, the world's greatest detective who didn't know that Superman had a mother. He didn't bother doing any background research on this guy at all. Figure out that he's Clark Kent. He can't figure out that this mammoth of a man puts on glasses and works at the daily planet. Are you kidding me? I can figure that out. I see that guy in the streets. I'm like, that's, that's Superman. Then there's a courtroom scene where all the innocent people blow up, leaving the man of steel standing around the corpses. An extremely powerful image that frames the man of steel for murder. Wiped completely useless in the next scene where they immediately tell you the bomber was the dude in the wheelchair. What was the point of it? What's the point of half the shit that happens in this film? I don't know. I'll never know until Zach unlocks that four-hour treasure from his basement and releases it to the public. Dream sequences are so random and perplexing. Comic people get it. Great. I didn't realize I was going to have to read through 30 years of comics to put this movie together, nor would I want to. Why the hell was the death of Aaron Taylor Johnson's Quicksilver more impactful than the death of Superman? And that's not a compliment to age Voltron. That just means it was less crappy in that aspect. It shouldn't have been such a cold scenario. Remember how impactful it was when Jean Grey died at the end of X2? I do. It was emotional as hell. Because they slow rolled the build up. They gave us a previous film with her. They let us know that she had these powers that she was ready to unleash. And then at the last second, they take it all from us. But then we get a glimpse in the water below, the murky depths of this phoenix starting to rise, which of course is ruined in X3. But the promise of something better is there. And we still have the weight of what has occurred in the face of Cyclops, in the face of Wolverine, in the face of Xavier. It's all there. But in Man of Steel, we don't have that. Batman was friends with him for all of five minutes because their mom's name is Martha. That's not a relationship. That's not a strong foundation. Wonder Woman was in the movie for five minutes. I think she met Superman for two seconds when he said she wasn't with him. God! Age of Ultron knows what kind of movie it is. A fun, silly, and occasionally emotional superhero flick that most ages can enjoy. Not just 5% of the population that remembers issue 17 of Man of Steel from 1992. Let's just move on to something that's a bit more pleasant for the BBS fans out there. This isn't all bad, but most of it is. There is no denying the great cinematography and choreography littered through BBS. Two and a half hours of beautifully shot action and spectacle. The moment when the Dark Knight goes beast mode in a building full of baddies is almost worth the price of admission alone. That is the best fight in a Batman film to date, no question, and it dwarfs anything from Age of Ultron. The fight between Stark and Banner is cool, but it's basically just a large amount of CGI clashing. When Batman drills a guy's face into the pavement, you feel that moment. It's raw and gritty and real. In contrast, the final duel with the Trinity against Doomsday feels lifeless, especially when Wonder Woman has almost zero characterization at this time. She's just smiling and jumping around in her little outfit doing her thing. I know nothing about you. The opening sequence in Ultron is fun at its best, giving us another tracking shot of our heroes dealing out damage left and right. The final stand brings them together one more time in an incredible 360 pan, as they hammer, blast, and smash their way to the end boss. The music in Avengers Age of Ultron was nothing special, but Batman v Superman had some very memorable songs by Hans Zimmer. It also had some not so great songs by Junkie XL, who is apparently never sleeping. He's done every film in 2015, and I'm sure 2016 will be the same. This guy's in everything. His electric guitar riffs were just too much and came across very campy. My opinion, of course, we all have them. Sometimes they don't always correlate. This show's called Movie Feuds for multiple reasons. Let's conclude. I don't care for cheaters. I don't like them much. And that's exactly what Warner Brothers is being with this DC franchise. They want to have their cake and eat it too by jamming in as much crap into one film as they possibly can to set up further installments. They should have just focused on the two leads in a great solo story. Marvel slow rolled this Avengers lead-up by giving big-character solo films first. That way they could focus the big ensemble pictures in a story that makes sense with some emotional investment in the cast. I've given you my thoughts. Now it's your turn. Comment, vote, tell me I'm right or wrong. And remember, this is more than just reviews. This is Movie Feuds. I am excited for a Batman solo flick directed by Affleck. Don't take that from me, Warner Brothers. Don't you dare ruin this again.