The Avengers Movie Thread

[Vee]

I don't think it's fair to say they weren't interested - I think it's just a case of his movie is the most recent, it was a big hit, and it led directly into Avengers so he just had a solo showcase. I think he needed more time to tell his story of adjustment, but I understand they plan to do that in his sequel as well. People responded well to Cap, and I think he works.

I do think the Witch and Vision will show up eventually. Their story is a classic Avengers romance and they are both even more important to the franchise in the last ten years than ever before. Plus there's the Magneto/X-Men connection, and Matthew Vaughn has managed to finally make the X-Men film franchise respectable with First Class. Hell, I'd put Michael Fassbender in old age makeup to play Magneto this time instead of McKellen opposite his kids.

I understand Edgar Wright may have a lock on doing Ant-Man. I'd heard several years ago that it was to be dual stories - Scott Lang as the Ant-Man of the 21st century, Hank Pym as the super scientist of the wacky 60s, but now I think with the Avengers franchise swinging they'll go traditional. I'd love to see Wright stock player Rafe Spall play Hank, especially since he's about to hit it big in Prometheus.

[Vee]

P.P.S. - as to that panel of Wanda and Carol in the Avengers vs. X-Men prologue, I honestly felt Carol was off her nut to force her to go there. That was, to my knowledge, literally Wanda's first official reunion with most of the Avengers since she came back to whatever passes for sanity with her. It was the wrong approach at the wrong time.

That being said, Wanda is very big right now. She's to play a huge role in the Avengers vs X-Men story, which is spanning 12 months and many books. The Avengers and Cyclops' increasingly isolationist faction of X-Men (sans Wolverine, who took Kitty Pryde and the students and some others to open the Jean Grey School and keep teaching as opposed to being 'warriors') are arguing over what to do about the Phoenix Force and its latest host. Cap is convinced it will doom the Earth, Cyclops thinks the Phoenix keeps coming back to rejuvenate the mutant race. It's a fair point given what Morrison did with it. And Wanda is supposed to enter the mix with this too, in some major way.

[DRW50]

I wish they would go with Scott Lang - mostly because Henry Pym's story is so steeped in misery (and I won't get into killing the Wasp so they could give him something to do - what a great reason to kill a 40 year character).

When I started reading comics, I was really into the Vision of the 60's through the mid 80's. I liked the idea of the Vision becoming a man. After John Byrne took all that away, and had Wanda go nuts, I just never saw a purpose in the character.

I guess Carol always goes with the direct mode, especially since she struggles with emotions. She and Wanda are both survivors, but also very damaged, with such complex histories. They're both very strong soap opera characters. That's probably one of the reasons I followed them around in comics.

So what is Wolverine doing with the Avengers while he's so busy with the X-Men?

[Vee]

Well, they undid what Byrne did to the Vision a few years before Avengers Disassembled. He's back to who he was.

Scott Lang is alive again thanks to the last Young Avengers mini that brought Wanda back into the swing of things, but his daughter Cassie died in the process, I believe. I love Hank Pym, actually, I don't think he gets enough respect. And IIRC Jan is not actually quite dead; he put her consciousness in the microverse, or something. I think she's just hanging around in some other dimension trying to slowly come back to life. I give it another year.

Wolverine joined the Avengers well over ten years ago after Disassembled, and I do like him there. He broke with Cyclops over Cyclops' new (and, IMO, reasonably valid) aggressive approach to the mutants' recent losses; when Norman Osborn's government agency (now defunct; Osborn was taken down by the Avengers when Cap returned from the dead) came after the X-Men, they were driven to take residence on an island just off San Francisco, a restored Asteroid M known as Utopia. It became their compound and island nation, and Cyclops decided they had to fight for their rights and survival, allying the group with Namor (the first mutant) and a reformed Magneto, who admired Scott's perspective. Logan went along with it until Scott insisted the students help fend off a Sentinel attack from the new Hellfire Club - he refused to allow the youngsters to be placed in the line of fire, even if he understood why Scott felt the need to arm and make the mutant race proactive. So he headed back to Westchester and he and Kitty opened up the Jean Grey School on the site of Xavier's.

"Wolverine & The X-Men" is actually a fabulous, fun book; the teachers, IIRC, are Wolverine, Kitty, Iceman, Beast, the Guthries, Rachel (who had just come back from space, and said she hadn't even known they'd left the school), Rogue and several others, but the focus is also on many of the students, including Grant Morrison's somewhat reformed Kid Omega and some new oddballs like Gladiator of the Shi'ar's son and the first benign young Brood hatchling. There's also Evan Sabahnur - the kid clone of Apocalypse, a sweet boy who was raised in a benevolent virtual reality program designed to mimic the upbringing of Clark Kent in the hopes of thwarting his geneology in favor of nuturing. He doesn't know what he is, but he has those Apocalypse carvings on his face.

The "Uncanny" title proper is also fun, but very different, focusing on Scott's team on Utopia Island, the heavy hitters who chose the militaristic, proactive side of the mutant debate. It's basically the X-Men meets The Authority, and heavy on the critique, I think, of their methods. They choose to take on massive world threats both to show their strength and prove they can be respected as seriously as the Avengers, as they've often saved the world with much less of the credit. The team is, IIRC, Scott, Emma, Namor, Magneto, Illyana, Colossus (who is now the host for the Juggernaut, and barely able to control himself), the sentient Danger Room cyborg, Hope the mutant messiah (and potential new Phoenix Force), and a very reluctant Storm, who agreed to keep an eye on the team's moral scale for Scott. (Storm is also an active Avenger at the moment! But she abstained from the Avengers' side of the current Phoenix debate, much to her husband's disapproval.)

This is probably a PM geek conversation soon. Incidentally, Carol Danvers' title is relaunching - she is taking the mantle and costume of Captain Marvel, officially, as Marvel once again goes after that copyright.

[DRW50]

Geez I can't believe they killed off his daughter in bringing him back. It reminds me of Survivors. Oh well. I haven't read most of those in a long time, so thanks for the details.

[Cheap21]

Its too bad Idris Elba is playing Heimendal in Thor's films bc I really think he'd be a great choice for the Black Panther in A2

And Im all for Yvonne Strahovski as Ms. Marvel

[Vee]

Interesting Joss Whedon interview on the writing of the film, and handling the Hulk and Cap:

Off of what he says later in the piece, I have heard the DVD will have 30 extra minutes.

[Ann_SS]

I love Idris, so talented. He was great in The Wire and has been fabulous in Luther. He deserves more prominent roles.

I had no idea that Thor 2 was on the way: http://www.nytimes.com/2012/05/07/movies/marvels-the-avengers-top-box-office-record.html?_r=1&hp

[marceline]

I saw this yesterday and loved it. Unfortunately I ended up in the third row of a 3D screening and spent the last third of the movie trying not to have a stroke but still enjoyed the film. I've never seen the previous movies (Thor, The Hulk, Captain America) because honestly I'm not big fans of those characters but I was still able to somewhat understand the references to past adventures.

One thing Whedon excels at is adding humor to action and suspense and it worked like a charm on the audience in my theatre. Yes there was patter but I didn't think it was excessive and like someone said above RDJ's Iron Man is all patter, all the time. This movie even made me like The Hulk and I've always thought Hulk was just a one-note, boring character. I really liked Ruffalo's version of Banner. He added a real sense of sadness to the character. In fact I think the film did a great job of showing that thread of sadness that runs through all the characters' lives.

I'm going to see it again sometime this week so I can experience it without the throbbing head pain and nausea. LOL!

[quartermainefan]

This was pretty good. I thought Chris Evans really figured out the part with this movie. There was one line fairly early on, I forget what it was exactly, where he was meeting Banner and The Widow on the hanger deck, and he just just exuded the whole Capt America thing with the "Sir" and the politeness and the confident walk. I guess the best ones were clearly Iron Man and The Hulk. Thor was basically a glorified guest star but what can you do with Thor when you have The Hulk who can do the exact same thing only more entertainingly? Hulk vs Loki was the best part of the movie, it actually made me laugh. Really enoyable, and much better than the solo movies except for Iron Man 1.

[Ann_SS]

This is exactly why I dislike 3D. LOL! I hate those glasses and I have gotten the slight headache from watching it. I love regular IMAX, but I got nauseous at the beginning of Ghost Protocol when the camera keep swinging around.

[Cheap21]

Ive never seen a 3D film in the theaters. I get a headache just from sampling 3D for 5 minutes at Best Buy. I dont think I could last 2 hours

[Ann_SS]

I said "never again" after suffering through two hours, 42 minutes of Avatar in 3D. I almost left the theatre after an hour and 30 minutes. I was disoriented with a dull throbbing headache after. When I got home, I turned off the lights and burrowed under my comforter. I give a lot of credit to people who can watch 3D movies with no problems.

[Toups]

Finally saw the movie (in 2D....I'm swearing off 3D except for the next two Avatars) today and I loved it too. The battle sequences in NYC was one best I've ever seen - I loved the teamwork. Hulk smashing Loki, after his speech, was definitely the funniest part of the film. Hulk punching Thor out of the frame was hilarious too. LOL I like Mark Ruffalo as Banner/Hulk too and thought he was definitely better than Ed Norton.

Going into this film, I liked Captain America the least - I didn't think his movie was that good. But I enjoyed him in this movie.

ScarJo as Black Widow was great - she was another character who improved in this film from their last (in Iron Man 2).

Great work by Joss Whedon!

The only real downside was the score by Alan Silvestri - I also didn't enjoy his Captain American score. There was nothing memorable that I'd want to listen to it again.