Anticipating AVENGERS: AGE OF ULTRON

[beamjockey]

It's hard for me to imagine how it could be entertaining to watch the Avengers sit around for two hours guessing how old Ultron is.

Comments

[mmcirvin.livejournal.com]

Two years ago, Ultron was three times as old as Ann was when Ann was half the age of Nancy.

[al-zorra.livejournal.com]

Do you plan on seeing Ex Machina?

I'm curious as to what others think about it, or what it provoked others into thinking.

Watching Ex Machina and watching Wolf Hall's women isn't a contradiction, it turns out, as Ex Machina is all about men creating the perfect female, and, further, their generally unfound historical anxieties and terrors about women in general and their perfect female figure in particular.

This is why the conversation between Cromwell and Anne, after Anne is confined to wait out the conclusion of her pregnancy, is so far my favorite (ep 3, seen same weekend as Ex Machina) from Wolf Hall: “I was always desired, but now I’m valued, you see? And that’s different.”

Knowing what we know, these words are heartbreaking, whether or not we like this Anne Boleyn or not. It encapsulates the tragedy that is the history of women everywhere in all times, with very few exceptions -- valued only for her sexual desirability and reproductive capacity, never for being a person, and kept from agency and realized personhood by the interlocking prison systems of religion, economics and law.

It seems to me, whether or not the director and writer so planned, Ex Machina is also about these matters.

So was Her -- and that was even when there was NO BODY, only voice!

Love, C.

[beamjockey.livejournal.com]

Much as I enjoy superheroes punching supervillains, I am always up for a cerebral SF film, and reviews make Ex Machina sound intriguing.

[anton-p-nym.livejournal.com]

I'm guessing the real fun is watching how badly Ultron's guesses are off for the Avengers.

-- Steve didn't try the #HowOld twitterbot, himself. Probably a good thing; the way he's feeling today it might've led to an overflow error.

[beamjockey.livejournal.com]

Captain America doesn't look his age. And Iron Man's impassive face doesn't show wrinkles (though perhaps it might rust).

[neowolf2.livejournal.com]

[redbird]

Maybe it's a detective/puzzle thing, where they have to interview people who know Ultron, and sneak into records' offices, and once they're in that context, suddenly have to work out the age of everyone in the building....

[neowolf2.livejournal.com]

This is reminding me of that physics test question "how would one determine the height of a building using a barometer", and the various off-kilter answers.

(Go to owner of the building and say "Sir, if you tell me the height of your building, I will give you this fine barometer.")

[austin-dern.livejournal.com]

I'm just hoping the movie has more of those supervillains gathering under the Tower Bridge while wearing teddy bear costumes and begging Sean Connery to control the weather. I liked that part of the original.

[mmcirvin.livejournal.com]

There is, apparently, one film that entirely revolves around such a subject:

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0795546/

How Old Is Ann? (1903)

A large figure of a man seated behind a table reading a paper is first seen. On the side of the paper toward the audience, one can plainly read the words, "How old is Ann?" Turning the paper over this meets his eyes; he lays the paper down with a sarcastic smile and begins to figure with pencil and pad. After several attempts, he becomes excited and tears his hair. Scene 2 shows him in a padded cell. A large blackboard is hanging on the wall at the top of which are the words, "How old is Ann?" The inmate of the cell looks up and observes the words, and springing to his feet, and seizing a piece of chalk, he attempts to do the problem again, but fails and he tries to dash his brains out against the wall.

[beamjockey.livejournal.com]

Your powers of research are impressive.

[beamjockey.livejournal.com]

Apparently, this story-problem-- to which you alluded in the first comment here-- drove an entire nation insane.

Here's the story behind the story behind the film How Old is Ann?, from Munsey's The Scrap Book for August 1906, p. 1106.

[beamjockey.livejournal.com]

Sincerely hope you spread the rumor that Avengers: Age of Ultron is a modern remake of How Old Is Ann?