So there’s "The Avengers: The Age of Ultron" to deal with this weekend, and, on the other
hand, there’s "The Avengers: The Age of Ultron" to deal with. In other words
there’s nothing else, at least for the next few weeks.

And it seems
that, more than the actual film itself, people were talking about how big the
film would do in its opening weekend. Would it break the all time opening
weekend for any film? The answer is…nope.

Thursday midnight screenings of the film made some $28 million – an all time record (for
Thursday midnight screenings). Then on Friday, the film grossed $84.5 million, making it the second biggest Friday opening of all time after "Harry Potter and
the Deathly Hollows Part 2."

But, as of this morning, when all the numbers came in, "Ultron" fell short, grossing some
$187 million, which is less that what the first "Avengers" movie in 2012 did, when it
opened with $207 million, which still holds the record for the all time biggest weekend
opening.

Despite its second biggest opening ever, some are actually calling "Ultron" a
disappointment because it didn’t break the record. Some analysts even
speculated that the huge hype and staggering amounts of money spent to see
the  Mayweather/Pacquiao championship
fight, along with the NBA and NHL playoffs this weekend, resulted in less people going
to see "Ultron" than expected.

They
forget that the film, which opened a week earlier in Europe, Russia, Asia and
South Africa, brought in another $340 million. If that’s a disappointment, then I don’t know what is. But some people are just never satisfied.

Is it just
me or does "Ultron" look exactly like every other bloody comic book super hero
movie ever made in the last ten years? Same characters, same pretentious villains who
wants to destroy the world for the same reason I can’t comprehend, same mass destruction,
and the same CGI overkill.

There are good brief moments here and there, a line here and scene there; Hemsworth and Renner
are standouts, with some good lines, and a self mocking spin on their characters. But Downey is so obviously bored, clearly phoning
it in for a big paycheck. Ruffalo looks
embarrassed and Johansson is just killing time. And I still can’t figure out
who that red skinned guy was supposed to be. James Spader, though, gave the
best performance in the film, and he’s all voice over.

The action
sequences were routine at best. How "Captain America: Winter Solider" worked
so well, but this one just goes through the motions, is a mystery to me.

And there are the new characters in the film, like Quicksilver and his sister, who can read minds. Now I recall there’s also a Quicksilver in "X-Men," right? So who’s this Quicksilver?  A new one, or the same one? And doesn’t the
Flash do the same exact thing he does – run really really fast? So why can’t
they get The Flash instead?

And then
there’s the sister who can read minds like the 38 other superheroes who can read
minds. Can’t they create someone with some
really original, unique super powers? For
example, like a guy with the ability to make every beautiful woman who meets him
want to have sex with him immediately? Now that’s a super power I would pray to
have.

And does every
superhero movie have to have the total destruction of a major city? How many
times have we seen that, and yet no one even thinks about how many hundreds of thousands
or millions of people are being killed? In "Ultron," Iron Man literally wipes out
half of Johannesburg, not fighting some villain, but actually trying to calm the
Hulk down who’s in a rage. They destroy an entire African city for that? What
the hell?

Now that I
have that off my chest, the other b.o. news this weekend is the uptick for the serious sci-fi movie "Ex Machina," thanks to rave reviews and
very strong word of mouth, with some people calling it one of the best sci-fi
films in recent years.

1) Avengers: Age of Ultron     BV     $187,656,000     
2) The Age of Adaline     LGF     $6,250,000         Total: $23,424,000     
3) Furious 7     Uni.     $6,114,000         Total: $330,539,000     
4) Paul Blart: Mall Cop 2     Sony     $5,550,000     Total: $51,186,000     
5) Home    Fox     $3,300,000     Total:     $158,132,000     
6) Cinderella     BV     $2,357,000     Total: $193,651,000     
7) Ex Machina     A24     $2,231,000     Total:    $10,868,000     
8) Unfriended     Uni.     $1,988,000     Total: $28,531,000     
9) The Longest Ride     Fox     $1,700,000     Total: $33,240,000     
10) Woman in Gold     Wein.     $1,681,000     Total:     $24,588,000     
11) Monkey Kingdom     BV     $1,191,000     Total: $12,482,000     
12) Get Hard     WB     $1,150,000     Total: $86,168,000