2015 has, more or less, been the year that Hollywoods box office kickstarted and accelerated away from the curb again. Star Wars: The Force Awakens has just crucified all box office records, taking well over half a billion dollars worldwide in its opening weekend. The fourth Jurassic Park movie, Jurassic World, was a surprise sensation, as was Furious 7 - neither film could have been predicted to exceed $1.5billion worldwide based on the performance of the franchise beforehand. Avengers: Age Of Ultron snuck in with a slightly more anticipated $1.4billion, while the Minions spin-off movie also exceeded a billion dollars worldwide. Given that avalanche of moviegoing and the quality of those huge popcorn flicks, its somewhat heartening that Hollywood is still also delivering crapulence to the multiplex on a regular basis. The more things change, the more they stay the same. Now, if youre of a mind to do it, you can find things to complain about everywhere: fortunately, I really havent had to look that hard to find examples of terrible moments in cinema this year. There were the usual godawful, inept scenes in films this year, but also terrible high concepts; unrealistic plot points that ruined our suspension of disbelief; thoroughly bad ideas and cringeworthy execution of ideas. Strangely, horribly, 2015 also gave us some of the worst examples of homophobia weve seen in cinema in years: stupid, offensive films from people who really should have known better. It should go without saying that here be spoilers: navigate these waters at your own risk...
20. Avengers: Age Of Ultron - The Moment Where Theyre Friends Again
I'm one of the few who think that A:AOU (the acronym sounds like a lonely whale) was a worthy sequel to 2012s first Avengers flick. Of course, the way the Marvel Cinematic Universe is going, every film is a sequel to the last, making the half billion that Ant-Man (Ant-Man!) raked in this year a little more understandable. Now everybody and his monkey knows that next May, Marvel are bringing us Captain America: Civil War - an adaptation of the comics storyline that saw Steve Rogers and Tony Stark heading up rival factions in a hero versus hero conflict that saw genuine casualties. Their first team-up saw Cap and Shellhead nearly come to blows over a simple personality conflict well, the Age Of Ultron sees the two of them given a genuine reason to clash, as Starks unilateral and thoughtless use of the technology in Lokis sceptre to give himself a leg up in his Ultron initiative ends up creating a batsh*t insane artificial intelligence that tries to murder the human race. Naturally, Stark remains convinced that history will show that he did the right thing needless to say, Captain America disagrees, and it actually gets physical at one point, before they all agree to stick together to fight Ultron. The stage is perfectly set for their conflict in next years Marvel event movie except it isnt, because in Age Of Ultrons coda, Stark and Rogers are shown to have gone back to being best buddies again, the conflict draining out of their relationship as though it was never there to begin with. Its pointless and unnecessary to have this scene of unaccountable reconciliation between the two. It makes no sense given the events of the film, it adds nothing to the ending, and it actively lessens the impact of next years serious collision between the two men. Its an unusual misstep for Marvel, not to mention Joss Whedon.
Professional writer, punk werewolf and nesting place for starfish. Obsessed with squid, spirals and story. I publish short weird fiction online at desincarne.com, and tweet nonsense under the name Jack The Bodiless. You can follow me all you like, just don't touch my stuff.
