Is it time for us nerds to start anticipating THE AVENGERS, directed by Joss Whedon?

Full (main) cast was revealed at Comic-Con yesterday:

http://cache.gawkerassets.com/assets/images/8/2010/07/500x_hr_the_avengers_1.jpg

Samuel L. Jackson as Nick Fury
Robert Downey Jr. as Tony Stark
Clark Gregg as Agent Coulson
Scarlett Johansson as Black Widow
Chris Hemsworth as Thor
Chris Evans as Captain America
Jeremy Renner as Hawkeye
Mark Ruffalo as Bruce Banner / Incredible Hulk

Thor and Captain America movies are shooting now. No word on whether they'll try to squeeze in a standalone Hulk flick with Ruffalo first, or just consider this a cast change from the Edward Norton version. Jeremy Renner as Hawkeye will probably be pretty cool. No Hank Pym/Ant-Man in this, which calls into question Edgar Wright's standalone Ant-Man movie.

So. There it is, then.

Renner as Hawkeye is pretty inspired.

i know he's been straight for years, but pics of robert downey jumping around like an idiot at this thing are reminding me how crazy it is they've basically rested this whole enterprise on his shoulders.

U.S. Nerds

has there ever been a movie on this kind of action-fantasy ensemble scale before?

http://media.smashingmagazine.com/cdn_smash/images/asian-movie-posters/destroy_all_monsters.jpg

An Avengers movie with Black Widow as the sole female member?! And played by Scarlett Johansson? Bah! I want She-Hulk, Scarlet Witch & Wasp!

And who the heck is "Agent Coulson"?

a character introduced in the Downey Iron Man movies

this looks like it will be a glorious clusterf--k of a movie.

a character introduced in the Downey Iron Man movies

I guess he was in the second one, as I've seen the first one and can't remember any agents... Anyway, instead of him couldn't they have cast at least one more woman? The Avengers haven't been a "one token female" type of group since the 60s or something, and Black Widow is rather boring as a character. (And I can't even remember her being in The Avengers?)

Christ, I sound such a nerd! But I really do like The Avengers more than almost any other Marvel title, and I hope they don't screw up this one.

"sound like such a nerd"

where is the super friends movie, starring the Wonder Twins?

http://liberty92.files.wordpress.com/2007/12/wonder-twins11.jpg

Coulson was in the first Iron Man movie.

Would die of joy if Jennifer Jason Leigh joined this as the Wasp

Especially if the movie were in 3D so I could experience a tiny Jennifer Jason Leigh buzzing around my head

Sorry, no Hank Pym probably means no Janet, either. But why can't we have Ms. Marvel?

ok this cast is awesome and if joss is back to his best this will be the best film ever but it will just end up sucking and making me wish he was hit by a bus once serenity/angel finished.

Joss Whedon can suck a bag of dicks, as the cool kids say. This will be a 3hr movie with 30 mins of plot and 2.5 hours of painful dialogue and faux lesbians.

Def voting for The Black Widow and Thor to lez out

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XZ1uHu0ixbw

ughhh whedon

shouldve let dan slott have a go at writing it, bout time he branched out

Filming kicking off.

Feige on Hulk.

Cleveland mayor's office issued a memo last week detailing street closings for the shooting period here. Some of them are going to be VERY disruptive, right in the heart of downtown on some major streets.

my ILM buddies are working on this but I don't have too many details yet. I'm a little skeptical but we'll seem

see

Captain America was solid boilerplate, but it sometimes felt like it was in a big hurry to be over, just to set up the transition to the Avengers.

here's the aftercap teaser, only cam versions are online

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BnTI_D0zzBM

liked the "woo" at the end!

Woo!: The Movie. 2012, in 3-D.

the first comment on that page is otm...

The biggest mistake made by the 70's TV series and both movies is they don't allow Hulk to have a personality and substantive dialogue. Hulk is a character in his own right who in the comics goes on adventures and interacts directly with allies and adversaries. In the filmed versions, Hulk's role is mostly limited to angry rampages and chases. Hulk may speak in a childlike manner, but he's not a mindless brute.

uh there are plenty of comics where Hulk is a mindless brute

but yes HULK SMASH

but yeah, from what limited hulk I've read, he's also funny and gets dialog and stuff. does normal, non fight-scene stuff while he's the hulk.

http://superevil.org/wp-content/uploads/2006/11/kochalkahulk01.jpg

oh crap, totally forgot how to insert images.

<image>http://superevil.org/wp-content/uploads/2006/11/kochalkahulk01.jpg<;/image>

i give up.

http://superevil.org/wp-content/uploads/2006/11/kochalkahulk01.jpg

...is what I think you wanted

I like to think the rain hides the tracks of Hulk's tears.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v0hCCTwlaYg

http://i.annihil.us/u/prod/marvel/i/mg/c/70/4ba975c0eb3f7.jpg

http://twitter.com/#!/drunkhulk

Joss Whedon be blowin' shit up all over downtown Cleveland. Chris Evans is on set today doing the Captain America thing.

The likelihood that this is going to be a Skrull invasion plot is looking pretty good. All of the bad guys in the fight scenes are in motion-capture suits, and a lot of reaction shots from both actors and extras have been to things that are clearly going to be SFXed in later. One photographer captured what appears to be a crashed Skrull ship:

http://img12.imageshack.us/img12/526/img3049k.jpg

http://img803.imageshack.us/img803/1951/2779289.jpg

Plus some kind of exotic weaponry being examined by Captain America:

http://img851.imageshack.us/img851/8792/2776755.jpg

http://img840.imageshack.us/img840/1001/29972924613260208802815.jpg

And a dude in an overlooking office building captured this Captain America/Thor vs. the motion capture army fight scene yesterday:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VOOFJBHcm3k

Sam Jackson has wrapped on the Cleveland/Northeast Ohio locations and left town already. Chris Evans and Chris Hemsworth are here for the duration, Scarlett Johannson is supposed to show up today, and Marvel will not comment on whether Robert Downey will be here or not. Monday night, they start night shooting on another location downtown, which they're dressing to look like Stuttgart, Germany.

If it's a Skrull invasion, I wonder if this will be based on Ultimates Vol. 2, then? I mean, the characters in the movie are pretty much the same as in that story (minus the Wasp), and movies based on Mark Millar comic have proven to be quite popular in the last few years.

I think it will be pretty close. Sam Jackson's Nick Fury is clearly the Ultimates version, and all the new character costumes seem to mirror their Ultimates versions pretty closely.

Trailer!

http://gawker.com/5848611/the-avengers-a-special-kind-of-club

Gotta say, my city looks pretty good on the screen!

So, yes:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bGt-saFvkNk

ok fine

Stuff, it blows up.

and they have a Hulk. It's like having a cow, only more.

well
it sort makes me feel better about having spent time watching Thor and Captain America

no Skrulls though it would seem...

Maybe that's what those bad-guy ships are full of. Yeah, I'll go see this.

I don't want no Skrulls/a Skrull is a guy who can't get no love from me

http://backlashmag.com/backlashblog/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/tlc-noscrubs-1.jpg

Definitely looked better than Battleship or that G.I. Joe sequel, but low bars both.

This lays out the baddies probable identity pretty convincingly. SPOILERS obv
http://www.bleedingcool.com/2012/02/05/lokis-army-revealed-avengers-superbowl-trailer-know-who-they-ish/

how old is Gandalf in this one?

it's the skrulls guys. cosmic cube is also involved somehow

this whole thing is really just a "how-long-can-we-milk-this" franchise experiment, so of course they went with something that would have a multi-movie story arc

So Loki and friends teaming up with the Skrulls then? Seems a bit much

slocki and friends teaming up with the skrulls then?

You know what I never got about comics? I get that folks like Thor ain't human, or that Spider-Man, say, is a mutation, or that Iron Man is wearing armor and Hulk is Hulk and stuff, and that's why they don't get hurt, or heal fast. Even Batman has a masochistic streak; he seems to get off on injury. But Hawkeye and Black Widow are humans who wear no armor. How do they throw down without getting broken in two?

kinda laughed at the epic reveal of these goobers in their halloween costumes

michael fassbender is. in. everything.

not that the trailer is ever any good predictor of a superhero flick, but this looks like it might be rather swell.

wait IS that michael fassbender?

no

which dude do you think is fassbender. wtf mate

Fassbender IS...Black Widow.

which dude do you think is fassbender. wtf mate

― RudolfHitlerFtw (Hungry4Ass), Monday, February 6, 2012 7:06 PM (5 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

the bad guy talking to tony stark. c'mon, it looks a lot like michael fassbender.

or, what ned said.

*blink*

Fassbender is so much better looking than the dude who plays Loki that it is not even funny.

oh, tom hiddleston. yeah i can kinda see that actually.

This lays out the baddies probable identity pretty convincingly. SPOILERS obv
http://www.bleedingcool.com/2012/02/05/lokis-army-revealed-avengers-superbowl-trailer-know-who-they-ish/

Have those Simonson pages been recoloured or something? That's not how I remember them looking like...

But Hawkeye and Black Widow are humans who wear no armor. How do they throw down without getting broken in two?

Geek explanation: Hawkeye uses ranged weapons and rarely does hand-to-hand combat (at least not with superpowered beings). Black Widow has been given some kind of chemical treatment that makes her heal faster and age slower (in the comics, she was born in the 1930s).

Non-geek explanation: readers/viewers like to have a badass normal character or two among the superpowered ones, it's easier to root for them.

We endorse Iron Man's use of technology to enhance the capabilities of the human body. However, his capitalist individualism is inexcusable. A collectivist army of Iron Men would be of greater use.

Yeah Tuomas, there was a recent omnibus of Simonson's Thor work that was recoloured.

I was kinda wondering, is this the first time any movie has done the shared universe thing so common in comics, i.e. have characters from different franchises appear in the same movie? Because the only other examples I can think of that are even close are parodies like "Abbott & Costello Meet Dracula", in which the parody character is clearly not the same as the original character.

Hmm, now that I think of it, I guess Aliens vs Predator and Freddy vs Jason are shared universe movies. I haven't seen the former, but in the latter it's certainly implied these are the same Freddy and Jason as in their respective franchises. And Kevin Smith has featured his own shared universe in most of his movies, with Jay and Silent Bob tying them together.

Any other examples like this?

According to TVTropes Reservoir Dogs and Pulp Fiction are supposed to be in the same universe, with characters named Vega apparently being brothers. That sounds like a pretty weak link though, and it doesn't explain why this universe has pairs of charactes (Mr. Blonde/Pumpkin, Mr. White/Winston, Mr. Brown/Jimmie) who look exactly like each other.

Lots of John Hughes films set in the fictional Shermer, Illinois. I'm sure he's not the only director to do this?

Lots of John Hughes films set in the fictional Shermer, Illinois. I'm sure he's not the only director to do this?

Well yeah, many directors include small winks like this in their movies, but what I was thinking was a bit stronger shared universe, i.e. one where actual characters are shared.

Whit Stillman did this a bit

Do you want to elaborate on that? I'm not familiar with his movies.

I'll just quote from wiki

The Last Days of Disco was loosely based on Stillman's experiences in various Manhattan nightclubs, including Studio 54. The film concerns Ivy League and Hampshire graduates falling in and out of love in the disco scene of Manhattan in the "very early 1980s". It concludes a trilogy loosely based on his own life and contains many references to the previous two films: a character considers a move to Spain to work for American ad agencies there after meeting with the Barcelona character of Ted Boynton, and Metropolitan's heroine Audrey Rouget reappears briefly as a successful publisher, as do a few other characters from that film, as clubgoers. In 2000 Stillman published a novelization of the film, The Last Days of Disco, with Cocktails at Petrossian Afterwards.

Kind of want Whit Stillman to direct a Marvel movie now.

Yeah, lots of writer/directors do this but as a studio/producer driven thing this is kind of unique -- none of these characters have shared a director among their solo movies.

http://www.imdb.com/character/ch0027458/

the big difference/unique thing about the Avengers is that the franchise has been engineered in reverse - in every other case I can think of, subsequent characters/films have been spun off or refer back to the initial movie. this is the first instance where each individual character was deliberately introduced solo - in their own vehicle - and then brought together later for an ensemble film. this has never happened before afaict.

Freddy v Jason and Alien v Predator are different imho, they were created separately, they were not initially developed as existing in the same universe.

then why is there an alien ship in predator?

you mean alien skull in predator 2?

kevin smith did this with his gay 'askewniverce' or w/e

ya that

i think you meant the predator ship in Alien

kevin smith did this with his gay 'askewniverce' or w/e

not really, Jay & Silent Bob tie everything together and they are central characters in the first film, Clerks. this is different from how the Avengers franchise is structured.

lame
http://static.entertainmentwise.com/photos/Image/290212_avengersassemble580s.jpg

Someone contact Photoshop Disasters stat. We've got a bleeder.

I always hated how the Marvel movies have the heroes constantly removing their masks so that you can see the famous actor's face. Iron Man looks cool with the helmet, but not with Robert Downey's head sticking out the suit; Tobey Maguire's face + Spider-Man's suit looks just silly. I wonder if it's because, A) the actors demand their faces should be shown during action scenes too, or B) the movie makers think people can't emphasize with a hero unless he has a human face (completely ignoring the fact that people emphasize with characters like R2-D2 too)?

Can you imagine if they'd done the same thing in the Batman movies?

true of that poster but i dont remember that happening all too much in the first iron man flick... maybe at the end?

but i think a big part of that, when it happens, is just like, we're paying $30mil for a big movie star, kinda doesnt make sense if we dont show his or her face during the big scenes

the avengers poster should absolutely be a fucking alex ross painted thing ala ralph mcquarrie, how could anyone have fucked that up?

and in batman at least you can see part of his face, as opposed to irie man or spiderman

lol @ irie man

The views of Stark's face from inside the helmet seem like a necessity-driven thing developed for the movies. They've adapted it cleverly into the comics, showing him controlling the Iron Man armor in a sort of V.R. environment.

That really is the worst poster. It seems dated, like it could be a late 90s movie.

The views of Stark's face from inside the helmet seem like a necessity-driven thing developed for the movies. They've adapted it cleverly into the comics, showing him controlling the Iron Man armor in a sort of V.R. environment.

― Steamtable Willie (WmC), Wednesday, February 29, 2012 10:32 AM (6 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

ya i remember noticing that, pretty clevs

(of me)

Irie Man

http://smartassradio.com/wp-content/gallery/site-images/irish.gif

just need some red and black in there

irie man would be jamaican iirc

thats what im sayin

my "lame" was directed at the title change more than anything, though it isn't a great poster. Alex Ross sucks tho

was this thread's title changed too?

it's a UK only change. No need in this case

but i think a big part of that, when it happens, is just like, we're paying $30mil for a big movie star, kinda doesnt make sense if we dont show his or her face during the big scenes

I wish they'd at least try to justify it, though. Okay, in the Spider-Man movies his mask gets torn off, but in both Iron Man movies the heroes and villains open the helmet in battle situations for no good reason at all, even thought they're up against enemies with projectile weapons that could hit their face. The "view inside the helmet" already provides you with shots of the actor during the fight scenes, making them open the helmets just feels unnecessary, and makes the fights look less cool.

the avengers poster should absolutely be a fucking alex ross painted thing ala ralph mcquarrie, how could anyone have fucked that up?

^^^totally agree

i think it should have been done by tom of finland

you think everything should be done by Tom of Finland

http://www.imdb.com/character/ch0027458/

― A Little Princess btw (s1ocki), Thursday, February 23, 2012 10:22 AM (6 days ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

whoa never spotted this

xpost The otherwise unrelated (author of the books aside) Out of Sight and and Jackie Brown share a universe; Michael Keaton is in both as FBI ace Ray Nicolette.

"ace"

Also xpost: They need to remove the masks to sell the movie, ie Look who's in it! Vs., I dunno, Dolph Lundgren or something. Though on this front Ruffalo gets hosed. Wonder if people will go into this expected Bana or Norton Hulk?

i wouldn't worry about that

http://www.hotflick.net/flicks/1998_Out_Of_Sight/998OOS_Michael_Keaton_002.jpg

Who's worrying? I want a movie where Bana, Norton, and Ruffalo all play the Hulk.

They could call it "Hulks."

you know who got hosed actually, are Ant-Man/Giant-Man and Wasp

suspect they might be alluded to in some fashion

oh yeah, the moviegoing public is gonna be outraged about that xp

xpost The otherwise unrelated (author of the books aside) Out of Sight and and Jackie Brown share a universe; Michael Keaton is in both as FBI ace Ray Nicolette.

― Josh in Chicago, Wednesday, February 29, 2012 12:07 PM (4 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

they sorta share a universe with the cancelled karen sisco AND justified, too!

I AM OUTRAGED THAT THIS FILM DOES NOT INCLUDE MY FAVORITE CHARACTER, WIFE-BEATING PSYCOPATH HANK PYM!

prob 3:10 to yuma too

last i heard, antman was looking to be developed as a full fledged cgi property?
i'm sure avengers 2 will feature reboot spiderman; only reason he's not in there is not as a sop to tradition but because they're cycling actors

Who is the villain?

Can you imagine if they'd done the same thing in the Batman movies?

― Tuomas, Wednesday, February 29, 2012 8:40 AM (3 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

the part in iron man 2 when downey is breakdancing in the suit was so awful because it was a real dude wearing a clumsy suit rather than slick cgi

I was pleased to be able to recognize the ruff in this, thanks to ilx's love for him

nah, Sony have the rights to Spider-Man, Fantastic 4 and X-Men. They can't use him

Who is the villain?

― Inevitable stupid samba mix (chap), Wednesday, February 29, 2012 12:17 PM (2 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

society

Sloki

XD

mmm, right you are re: sony; i forgot

and now that you remind me, Edgar Wright is supposed to be doing the Ant-Man movie but that's been talked about for years and doesn't seem any closer to happening

i am PRAYING for modok to show up
maybe don rickles

New trailer btw:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NPoHPNeU9fc

I hope they spend 20 minutes with a Nick Fury origin story, so we can find out how he got his eyepatch.

mail order iirc

that trailer is pretty awesome

the ruffaloface on hulk is cracking me up

Ruffalo seems too mellow to hulk out

http://i.imgur.com/cxP9Z.jpg

I want them to do a mo-cap movie where actors play everything, including trees and buildings. It would be so surreal to see inanimate objects imbued with human characteristics.

is the title of the movie Avengers Assemble now?

nah, Sony have the rights to Spider-Man, Fantastic 4 and X-Men. They can't use him

― Number None, Wednesday, February 29, 2012 12:19 PM (5 hours ago) Bookmark

sony has spiderman, fox has x-men & FF

Who has The Punisher now?

yo is that robin in this next to the guy from cougar town

you just now know that? you need to read your sister blog, the "all the avengers news fit to paste" one

It's only called Avengers Assemble in the UK afaik. Prob cos of
http://scifimafia.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/12/The-Avengers-Peel-Steed-Champagne.jpg

It still has Avengers in the title though! I don't get how that title is less confusing.

http://i.imgur.com/cxP9Z.jpg

― goole, Wednesday, February 29, 2012 1:07 PM (4 hours ago) Bookmark

lol at this btw

who knows how studio execs/marketing people's minds work really?

Maybe they could make it AV3NG5RS

eh?

eh?

I'll just wait for AVENGERS 2: THE AVENGERING

AV2 AVENGE THIS

"Avenged!" (with Liam Neeson)

Alternatively: "Avenge Harder."

I'll Always Know What You Avenged Last Summer

looks great! i like that they're including some of the less well-known avengers, like hawkeye and scarlett johannson.

It's lame that they went for the "kewl" Matrix style Ultimate Marvel redesign of Hawkeye's costume, though. The original costume has a classic design, all they would've needed to do was tweak the horns of the mask and the tunic, as they probably don't look that good in live action:

http://media.comicvine.com/uploads/7/72631/1434080-hawkeye_01_super.jpg

What's even lamer is that in the main Marvel continuity Hawkeye now has the same stupid Matrix costume, most likely for cross-marketing purposes.

i agree about ultimate hawkeye being lame - thats a design thats really aged poorly - but i've always thought all his iterations were pretty lame looking. at least hes not wearing wraparound shades in this

they did go with one of the most overtly comic booky costumes ive ever seen for captain america though

http://i.imgur.com/KwgEq.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/DDkGZ.jpg

Yeah, Captain America is the one example where they could've modernized the costume a bit more. His helmet is especially goofy, as it makes his head look bloated in a weird way. Maybe they should've given him a hood instead of a helmet, like in the comics?

he sorta looks like an overgrown toddler now.

Captain America's costume looked great in his solo movie but the modern design is kind of terrrible

I dunno, I thought the helmet looked goofily big in that one too. Either he should have a hood, or a helmet that doesn't cover his whole head.

I guess the reason they didn't want to change Cap's costume too much is because he's the best known and most iconic of these characters?

Not really! I would say the hulk by far.

the hulk doesn't really have a costume to change though

That depends on how good Ruffalo looks in purple cutoffs.

Cap. America is a strict costume constructionist. He's all about tradition.

http://www.service-1.org/uploads/201110/10/imgs/captain-america-halloween-costume-for-women_600x400.jpg

if they kept hawkeye's loincloth it would have bene ridiculous.

But couldn't they find some way to obscure Renner's pudgy face?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ssLlczPnY6o&feature=youtu.be

http://io9.com/5893554/japanese-the-avengers-trailer-has-loads-of-new-footage-including-new-shots-of-the-helicarrier

Gwyneth Paltrow cameo at 0:16

http://i.imgur.com/oE59b.jpg oh mama

man that's a whole lotta 90s leftovers

ooh, exclusive Kasabian track

what the

glad to see some dude landed a job putting together 'the avengers' soundtrack

lol

i'm psyched about the new soundgarden song, i won't lie. i think....three? of the other bands have made at least one single i've enjoyed in the last few years.

I really don't think I should be looking at the soundtrack for a 2012 movie and thinking "the most appealing-looking song on here is the Photek remix of Evanescence"

yeah i didnt even know new soundgarden was a thing that was happening, so thats cool

thought about posting that pic in this thread the crow ost is the worst record i have ever heard

haha lol @ dom bashing the romeo + juliet ost in the third post

oh it totally belongs there (xpost)

"inspired by the soundtrack to Spawn"
but yeah, i thought of the crow thread IMMEDIATELY

Very Whedon-y

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1OJqPJRjHkE

joss whedon just could not resist giving her a wooden stake at the end, could he

i am pleasantly surprised that Clark Gregg has parlayed that bit part in Iron Man into an increasingly large role in 4 of these Marvel movies, i like that guy

i was trying to look up who that is, i've always liked him!

married to jennifer gray, founding member of the atlantic theater company. huh, i didn't know any of that

to me he was "dude who has been knocking bit parts in law & order and mamet movies out of the park forever"

yeah hes been mametguy to me forever

they should get mamet to do one of these marvel thingies

oh god not now

misfit superpeople defending the_west from its enemies, or is it... from itself?

lol

could totally see a mamet directed Checkmate.

Fuck you Hawkeye.... FUCK YOU
Fuck me, fuck you
FUCK ME?
Fuck you.
Fuck.... Jarvis, get this fucker out of my goddamn face
Fuck you sir
FUCK ME?

He'd just get accused of ripping off Bendis

o irony

Best comic book movie EVER

is Captain America nude

nah, no chest even

Ruffalo is briefly nude if that floats your boat

so this is getting released in other countries first yeah? all the people I know in HK are raving about it

Ruffalo is briefly nude if that floats your boat

from what I've seen he can't even chug his tug

It came out in the UK and Ireland today anyway

so, seriously: it's good?

does Thor show his hammer

I'm coming at it from the perspective of a comics fan, but the audience i saw it with seemed to love it too. It's Whedon, so it might be overly quippy at times but it's genuinely very funny. Kinda hectic, cos they're trying to give each character their due but they managed do so amazingly well. Most fun i've had at a big-budget summer movie in an age.

and there is a lot of hammer action

man, ScarJo in that interrogation scene

Rotten Tomatoes commenters running true to form

http://www.pajiba.com/seriously_random_lists/the-most-deplorable-comments-on-the-only-negative-review-so-far-for-the-avengers.php

fanboys are the worst fucking people

you're just saying that cause you hate microsoft

"The hammer is my uru mallet."

Just stick to rom-coms, bitch.

Lovely.

going to a prescreening next wednesday, yay

This was *stupendous* fun, not had a film experience like it in a long time: full house, whole audience tearing the place up as it went off, I thought the guy next to me was going to keel over such was his glee. Per Number None, many truly funny moments and a few brilliant one liners and visual gags. Terrific performances from nearly all the main players, Ruffalo needs a special mention for totally nailing Banner's character with pretty limited screen time (best movie Hulk ever too imo). I'm srsly thinking of seeing it again at the cinema, last film I did this for was Starship Troopers. (oh yeah, nice blink and you'll miss it cameo for a Whedon regular too).

been thinking of seeing it again myself. Ruffalo really is tremendous (thank god it wasn't Edward Norton) and the visual gags you're talking about destroyed at my screening too

Ruff's delivery of the line for his "secret" totally gave me the chills. Yr dead right, Norton would have shit the bed if he'd been involved with this.

Didn't think this was as good as the reviews led me to anticipate.

I thoroughly enjoyed this. After two poor outings they finally got The Hulk right.

This was okay for the most part, it clicked into Transformers-y incomprehensible mayhem mode towards the end, sadly.

The humour's done well, but I found it dragged a bit in places.

how was Tom Hiddleston?

He was very good - he has a particularly fine scene with ScarJo and gets to lay down a few excellent bits of monologuing. Certainly up to the high standard he set in Thor.

yes this wasn't great and if i didn't know wheedon had done it i wouldn't have been able to tell by watching really, there's just so much machinery that comes w/ this that it's difficult for anything even suggesting humanity to come out, it doesn't have that looseness of the first iron man movie, though it's never as flat as um every other marvel movie. i actually really really enjoyed the final battle, genuinely giddy at points, strong ditto to 'this movie gets hulk right'. ruffalo was good, hiddleston really was good, there are several moments where the standard superhero villain performance note is to go ott and he keeps it contained, an inside joke w/ himself. the moments he does go cackling evil are played as moments of weakness. eg that awesome moment w/ the hulk. the assemble the samurai sequence was really dull esp considering this was an avengers movie and i usually enjoy any assemble the samurai sequence. also the 'whenever superheroes meet they must FIGHT' rule was observed here, w/ weak returns.

I'm waaay late to this party, and I've only just watched Iron Man & Iron Man 2. Loved the shit out of both, RDJ just superb as always but it was the first Marvel movie that I've enjoyed for a long time.

Anyway, after seeing the rather giddy teasers at the end of both movies am now definitely going to go see Avengers.

Film's making ridiculous money already by all accounts.

this was my #1 pick in this little fantasy box office draft i'm in and i'm giddy at the basically guaranteed $400 mil+

no prize for winning i'm just a competitive dork

$178.4 million in non-US markets so far: http://gawker.com/5906119/the-avengers-has-earned-1784-million-and-it-hasnt-even-opened-in-the-us-yet

When Nick Fury said "The Tesseract is where it belongs" I was sorely tempted to shout out "It belongs in a museum!" but I'm not that kinda guy and also the cinema was full of youth who probably wouldn't have got the reference.

this was hell of fun btw

booked tix for imax 3d for friday night, psyched

where is this supposed IMAX in Dublin?

it's the 'isense' 3d showing at the odeon up at point village.

Agree with the boosters - fun+++, didn't flag, real laughs, ruffalo offers fine reading of the hulk and a well-balanced ensemble. Renner/Hawkeye the only meh-ish element for me.

is this renner person, like, a famous person

oh yeah, that screen is a wee bit disappointing. The whole isense business (it's meant to be a 3D sound thing) seems like sort of a con

well i'm prepared for that, i mean it's the point tbf

just as long as you're not going out of your way

nah it suits the group, so while we're headin that way etc.

Did i miss a standalone schlubby hulk movie btw?

nah the last one was Edward Norton, who was too much of a dick to appear in this movie

ruffalo hulk was so, so great.

this was really fun, super satisfying, and i would go and see it again, but I don't feel like this review is exactly wrong: http://www.popmatters.com/pm/post/157875-whedons-avengers-reaches-apex-of-averageness-true-believers/

Our local critic, a fan, is disappointed.

Everyone talks too much. The pace lumbers. The story clunks.

from whedon? what an utter shock

You notice all the little details that should have been invisible, such as the way Hawkeye never seems to run out of arrows

um actually he does

or how sparsely populated the streets of New York City are during an attack by an intergalactic army.

they run away! there are classic shots of people in new york streets running away from intergalactic attack!

Whedon's really cornering the market on "don't get me wrong, there were tons of smart, fun, exciting moments, but..." reviews this year.

Everyone talks too much. The pace lumbers. The story clunks.

from whedon? what an utter shock

― some dude, Tuesday, May 1, 2012 9:33 AM (6 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

this. whedon has lots of great ideas but he seems to have a hard time executing them effectively. i recently watched serenity and it wasn't terrible but felt like a lot of missed opportunities. i found myself enjoying the plotting but kind of re-directing the film in my head. the cheesy mise-en-scene had a lot to do with this--it looked cheaply lit and kind of underconceived. i wonder if that's just the low budget showing through (although, compare it to e.g. carpenter's assault on precinct 13 and you can see what a director can do with a few dollars and some crappy sets).

watched a boot of it yesterday cos i was stuck in the house. Enjoyed it.
Was struck with thinking that Hulk's inarticulacy in the common understanding probably had a lot to do with the actor playing him in the tv series being a deaf mute - Lou Ferigno. I know there was a point where the intelligence of Bruce Banner was present in the body of the Hulk, in the comic anyway, not sure how long that lasted.

& Captain America's wings just being drawn or whatever on the side of his mask. There have been live action things where they have been freestanding haven't there? Does seem a bit impractical.

What powers does the Black widow have? think I heard about her having similar healing properties to Wolverine/Bucky and her being young in the early Soviet Union but not sure what else. Is everything else training?

Ferrigno is mostly deaf but not mute.

was gonna say

i was checking the imdb credits a while back and ferrigno does the voice of hulk in this!

also if we're gonna get into a grey/green/red hulk conversation regarding the intelligence levels of banner/hulk we're gonna need to start talking peter david and this conversation gonna get NERDY

also holy shit at that bit of trivia

the original black widow is just a batman-type, no powers. Dunno whether they went with a Russian Super Soldier thing for her in the movie version.

sorry head still full of cold, he growls quite a bit in the tv series but I don't think he says anything coherent does he? Which isn't the same as him being a deafmute of course.
But I wonder if a more articulate actor might have made something else of the part. Method acted his way through the rage etc.

But she has that Nick Fury anti-aging serum thing, right?

xpost

you wanna hear Ferrigno talk watch Pumping Iron

King of Queens!

ok so yeah this was entertaining. plot is completely threadbare - loki steals tesseract, nick fury assembles avengers to get it back, they get it back - just enough to hang 3-4 massive action setpieces on. but the interaction between the avengers really greases the proceedings and, as pointed out above, it's a very funny movie. not in that usual "throw em some one-liner chuckles" way - the crowd at my screening was roaring with laughter + delight. absolutely recommend seeing it w/ an audience.

this thing's gonna make 900 gajillion dollars.

well, also 'loki allows himself to be captured / loki gets released'

it seems like they ought to have another one in the pipeline already

sadly, they have to do more sequels to the individual characters' movies first

the crowd at my screening was roaring with laughter + delight. absolutely recommend seeing it w/ an audience.

I wonder how much of this is just sheer delight that their childhood dreams are realized i.e. Hawkeye and Cap America interacting.

nah, it's really funny. I can't imagine most of the crowd at my screening had much familiarity with the characters beyond maybe seeing a few of the previous films

yup. my wife usually hates superhero movies but she was cracking up throughout. it's not nerd delight, it's general audience delight.

Ferrigno was also the voice of the Hulk in the Ed Norton joint.

I wonder how much of this is just sheer delight that their childhood dreams are realized i.e. Hawkeye and Cap America interacting.

It's this. It's basically a pr0n movie with all your favorite pr0n stars all getting their one-on-one scenes.

bears repeating: fanboys are the worst

going friday

It's basically a pr0n movie with all your favorite pr0n stars all getting their one-on-one scenes.

― jungleous butterflies strange birds (Eric H.), Thursday, 3 May 2012 17:25 (54 seconds ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

there are so many places that analogy breaks down

well, no. there's one.

jeremy renner looks so lame and miserable in this cast, hanging out with all the megafamous people with superpowers with his stupid little bow and arrow and mountain climbing outfit

well, no. there's one.

I know. Chris Evans' muscles aren't quite big enough. But work with it.

Th eidea of there being a second, US-only, after credits scene is baffling. I didn't stay for the first one (because the credits on this bad boy will be LotR length) but after reading what it was I wish I had.

watching the Chris Evans Captain America movie last night, I wondered whether Cap America was always such a bore in the comics. At least Evans didn't get much dialogue.

i thought the s******* scene was on the europe release - i felt bad for not staying all through the second batch of credits after the t***** scene

otoh, the rest of the credits do seem to have been >15 minutes of the advertised running time, so not all that bad

yeah, Captain America is pretty boring. I mean look at him

the cap movie gets a lot worse once he gets all superpowered and stuff, it seemed like his head on top of some other dude was altogether a better performance -- this wasn't the only reason but

If Hulk is this movie's MVP, Capt.Am is its albatross.

he does get one good line though

Refresh my memory. I found it hard to hear what he was saying when he was on screen.

"flying monkeys"

Hah, that one really DID slip by me.

No, the s******* scene is post-credits in the US only, although that does make sense then that there are credits after the one I didn't watch.

why would they do that? it seems like the world's worst thought out anti-piracy measure

I don't u********* what you are t******* a****

Presumably I'm guessing they thought only people in America would know what s******* is. Don't laugh. People have thought stranger things.

We're being secret about the post-credits stuff, like filmmakers want us to.

I didn't hate the Captain America movie but the ending was so rushed the takeaway became "see you at The Avengers!" Ironic considering it'd have the most dramatic ending of any of the pre-Avenger movies if not for the "nevermind he's fine" that immediately follows his self-sacrifice

Apparently they filmed the s******* scene after the movie had wrapped? It doesn't have any dialogue anyway

I dug captain america from a look & design standpoint, plus it is one of the darker marvel films - his best friend dies and "nevermind he's fine" is paired w/ the realization that his unrequited love is long dead. also idgaf about spoilers obv, these are superhero movies not les diaboliques.

and if you guys are actually starring out the word shawarma, you are a bunch of eff star star cunts

aw, you ruined it

I didn't hate the Captain America movie but the ending was so rushed the takeaway became "see you at The Avengers!" Ironic considering it'd have the most dramatic ending of any of the pre-Avenger movies if not for the "nevermind he's fine" that immediately follows his self-sacrifice

― da croupier, Thursday, 3 May 2012 19:20 (42 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

i liked that the self-sacrifice and the "he's fine" (which is ... kind of an odd way to read that?) were both scenes lifted directly from other movies

i thought 'shawarma' was the same as a doner kebab but apparently it is what british kebab shops often call a shish kebab, even though it is not a shish kebab

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/heat-vision/avengers-samuel-l-jackson-slams-ao-scott-ny-times-review-319966

skeletor i think

AO Scott is jaundiced imo

sick "jaundiced" burn a.o.s; ilx needs u now more than ever

get these muthafuckin critics off this muthafuckin etc

THE CROSSOVER YOU'VE BEEN WAITING FOR

Jaundiced! "Affected by or exhibiting envy, prejudice, or hostility," motherfucker!

pretty sure he meant jaded but jaundiced could work too

same thing, really. "jaundiced" is a good way to go, imo. i'm over "jaded".

well, or a similar thing, anyway...

absolutely recommend seeing it w/ an audience.

^^^^Seriously. Crowd ate this movie up.

This was about as good as these kinds of 'splodey skyscraper movies get. Very satisfying, other than the slightly clunky opening.

Hulk was awesome, easily the scene-stealer of the movie.

Fuck, even Scarjo was passable in this.

I enjoyed it, but AO Scott has a point re "hectic emptiness"

I guess, but I felt like Whedon's affection for the material allowed the so-called "hectic emptiness" to be positively buoyant at times.

I understand fatigue with this genre though.

really thoroughly enjoyed this. a great comic book movie, that understands what makes a good comic book (or at least a classic marvel comic book)

enhh - it goes kind of boilerplate and dull whenever it has to do cosmic - i mean, it works around that inasmuch as it makes loki a figure of fun and a failure at supervillainy - but there never seems to be all that much at stake, even when the interdimensional aliens start invading new york

huh, they gave them the same name as the ultimate marvel skrulls. i thought at first they were going to be skrulls but then they didn't do anything particularly skrullish and they kept using this name i never caught.

I figure they they just needed a generic alien name and didn't want to actually call them Skrulls in case they use them down the line somewhere

I don't know, the Ultimate skrulls, the Ultimate Nick Fury, Maria Hill from the Ultimates... looks kind of planned to me.

absolutely recommend seeing it w/ an audience.

^^^^Seriously. Crowd ate this movie up.

cuz it's A RIDE, eh

looking up the name of the ultimate skrulls just started me on a two-hour marvel comics wikipedia black hole

dr morbius have you seen this movie

Scotts review was only a thinly veiled brag about his superior film taste and intelligence. Who lets these reviewers review genres which they obviously despise? If I hated romcoms I am most definitely not going into the next Katherine Heigl romance fest with an open mind.

As a reviewer you should be more professional than this and not go into the movie theater prejudging the film because of the dollars it makes.

i think seeing this at 5pm with a mostly high school audience is likely to be an experience

Refresh my memory, Morbs, you've said before that you don't like actual irl amusement park rides, right?

well, he does read Dennis Perrin tweets.

Perrin tweet reax shots:

http://www.dailyhaha.com/_pics/roller_coaster_faces.jpg

http://www.awesomelol.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/completely_freaked_out_roller_coaster_ride_faces_18-550x411.jpg

http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-SpMEXv1j3_Y/ThGTCGWvbOI/AAAAAAAABwA/-YToOZlKAdA/s1600/roller_coaster_faces-16.jpg

http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_Qs_anG965tY/SL2Km03-5hI/AAAAAAAAChE/DNIrAGLhjwk/s400/DAL_0856_01.jpg

http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-n_Hv8M9x5zQ/To8Yk-LK2dI/AAAAAAAABOQ/jbxv_CfRop8/s1600/enhanced-buzz-25157-1317916226-40.jpg

you wanna hear Ferrigno talk watch Pumping Iron I Love You, Man

Anyway, yeah, I did the midnight thing last night and the crowd just loved it. All the laugh lines hit well, the visual gags all worked, etc. ( And, being the provincial rubes that we are, every time any of the Cleveland-shot footage showed up on screen there were cheers. ) Did not feel even remotely close to 2 hrs for me but i have a lot of patience for this stuff. Only bummer is thanks to riotous applause I missed Hulk's line after his climactic scene with Loki.

Both post-credits scenes hit BIG. (BTW that second one was filmed not only post-wrap, it was filmed after the UK premiere.)

I don't like actual irl amusement park rides that are "EXCITING," no.

I am hesitating seeing Bonjour Tristesse this week at the Film Forum WITH AN AUDIENCE bcz, you know, they will laugh through it. cuz it's about STUPID OLD NON-MARVEL PEOPLE of the PAST and their HEARTBREAK.

clearly A.O. Scott doesn't have a monopoly on thinly veiled brags about his superior film taste and intelligence

Can I suggest, Morbs, that if you have no intention of seeing the movie you just go shit up some other movie thread? If A.O. Scott wants to post here about the movie's shortcomings, he's welcome to. Because, you know, HE SAW IT.

stick to yr dance music scholarship, sexy

xp

yes, new universal ILX rule about posting in yr expertise threads only

bye

when i remember how i psychically knew that skyrim was the worst video game ever made and the struggle it took me to not constantly remind the people who were deluding themselves into enjoying it that it was awful, well, then i think i understand how morbs feels

I mildly liked Iron Man fwiw, but only a bare unshaven Evans torso would entice me for this.

The crowd here loved it. Not being a huge comics fan (although I like many of Joss Whedon's tv/movies) and being surrounded by them, I was just sitting there the whole time trying to deconstruct it.

Morally compromised/ambiguous leader Nick Fury leads shadowy paramilitary group (consisting of a narcissistic billionaire technocrat, super soldiers, casualty of atomic experiments, 'god'—demigod?) against a rival, protogothy-looking demigod for control of a mysterious, potentially unlimited power source that also has the downside of potentially unleashing extradimensional monsters that trash NYC. The big theme of this movie = nuclear proliferation and terrorism.

And what is it with Hollywood's war on goths?

PS - I must be the least fun person to watch movies with.

Only bummer is thanks to riotous applause I missed Hulk's line after his climactic scene with Loki.

ha, same thing happened in my screening tho more like riotous laughter. after all the comic-book-iz-serious-bizness adaptations it was refreshing to see somebody have fun with the big hero/villain showdown.

stevie otm abt this being a comic book movie that gets what's great about comic books.

man, THAT'S a loaded statement

plz don't go fanboy on me

I don't give a damn about "expertise" (like five people here get paid for writing about film), I care about SEEING THE GODDAMNED MOVIE.

Many xps

paid, you might be overestimating

but morbius it's basically a screwball comedy, you like those, right

Haha, ok, bylined

Scotts review was only a thinly veiled brag about his superior film taste and intelligence. Who lets these reviewers review genres which they obviously despise? If I hated romcoms I am most definitely not going into the next Katherine Heigl romance fest with an open mind.

As a reviewer you should be more professional than this and not go into the movie theater prejudging the film because of the dollars it makes.

― Exile in lolville (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Friday, May 4, 2012 8:07 AM (4 hours ago) Bookmark

is that a c/p from rotten tomatoes

the funny thing is that scott didnt even pan the movie. he compares it to rio bravo!! if it wasnt for RT adding their little splooshed tomato graphic next to everything im sure nobody would've noticed that it was a 'bad' review

The whole RT rotten v fresh thing that makes no allowance for 'mixed' totally enables the full-diaper crowd.

Full-diaper crowd

In Germany he compels a crowd to kneel before him in mute, terrified awe, and “The Avengers,” which recently opened there to huge box office returns, expects a similarly submissive audience here at home. The price of entertainment is obedience.

this is one jaundiced motherfucker.

it's sad really because it they got a 100% metacritic score they were gonna make a sequel
now we're all gonna have to make do with Defenders in 2016 with megan fox as Valkyrie and andy dick as ROM spaceknight

The metaphor would've made more sense applied to a Nolan Batman movie, really.

Full-diaper crowd, y'all

I wonder if AO writes the obnoxious opening and closing paragraphs first or the actual review in between

to be fair the full-diaper crowd exists at both ends of the maturity spectrum

lol

Empty your diaper true believer

Now that's an untapped revenue stream the theater chains could exploit: vending machines with depends and huggies in the lobby!

hey can anyone confirm that fucking stan fucking lee is not cameo'd in this goddamn film?

afraid not

We can not. Now even the full-diaper crowd recognizes him when he shows.

does he at least get killed?

after stan lee dies his mummified corpse will be used as a prop in all future marvel films

surrounded by two buxom women and the ghost of kirby

http://i274.photobucket.com/albums/jj242/donaldparsley/ohnoes.png

^ love this guy

Stan's playing chess in the news clips near the end, claims none of it happened.

anyway this was fukkin sweeeeeeeeeeeet. funnest superhero movie ever probably, crowd was going insane. i always knew whedon had a great chance to hit a home run on this - its just sooo squarely in his wheelhouse, especially making the character stuff 'pop' in a movie this crowded. its so easy to imagine how this could've been a boring disaster, where the only thing you can appreciate is all the computing power onscreen (see: Battleship). everyone otm about hulk, ruffalo was awesome, scarjo was surprisingly awesome and Widow ended up being an interesting character

Pretty good! I was impressed that Whedon didn't suffer from the X-Men problem of too many people in tights and not enough dialogue. Every character had something to do. Whedon even had the lightness of touch to make Cap America's boringness work for him.

I could watch a whole movie of RDJ and Ruffalo bantering.

Demerits were few: the invaders from outer space were spectacularly underwhelming -- basically Return of the Jedi's imperial scouts on speeders; and the Thor-Hulk meet-cute.

I'm also confused by how powerful these Asgardians are supposed to be. If Loki's a god then how the fuck does he stay in a plexiglass cage? Unless he did it on purpose, which I suppose makes sense if he's the god of mischief or whatever.

I thought the first act had some fat that could've been trimmed, but I went along with it knowing it was setup.

traditionally the writers fudge their godliness according to the story's needs (thor goes toe-to-toe with iron man when he should be demolishing him) - but yeah loki allowed himself to be locked up in there, he could've escaped any time. I was pretty shocked at who Loki killed on the helicarrier!

Hulk sucker punch almost certainly the biggest laugh of the movie, along with Cap's punching bags.

for some reason the audience whooped at RDJ's Shakespeare in the park quip

Hulk sucker punch almost certainly the biggest laugh of the movie, along with Cap's punching bags.

My audience dug Hulk vs. Loki more than either of these.

the first Hulk punch is like an appetizer for the moment with Loki

Hulk vs. Loki got the crowd so worked up that I didnt hear what Hulk said after ("puny god" apparently)

post-credits SPOILER: there's no way THAT CHARACTER will look cool onscreen.

he's not a cool character that's for sure

yeah, he's gonna be tough to pull off for a lot of reasons. Though I thought the bit of his face we saw was cool!

hoping to fuck you guys are talking about MODOK
do not tell me yet

maybe producers can cast Tom Cruise for the teeth.

fingers crossed next movie is just extended Captain-Marvel-acid-trip/cosmic cube-sequence

or MODOC

Mobile Organism Designed Only for Killing!

so what would MODOK do, if his memory got too full?
he'd find the power source, and then he'd pick what plugs to pull

http://24.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_kvhnfe0JXg1qziacgo1_400.jpg

http://www.blogcdn.com/www.comicsalliance.com/media/2009/06/modokexgirlfriend3.jpg

ahaha who wrote that

Elvis MODOK is the best:

http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-SkgBeU7WL98/TWbn4huX5TI/AAAAAAAAAOE/eAV7gPfe_4I/s1600/MODOK02.jpg

http://goodcomics.comicbookresources.com/2007/12/06/ghost-of-van-lente-past-supervillain-team-upmodoks-11/

is MODOK shooting hamburgers at people there

I thought the first act had some fat that could've been trimmed, but I went along with it knowing it was setup.

ha, i found myself thinking 'i bet i somehow end up watching the three hour dvd cut'

Holy shiiiiiiit, this was fun. Recommended to everyone not named Morbius.

this was a lot of fun. great lines, enjoyable action (something that's largely been missing from these Marvel films imo - they too often descend into a CGI monster slugfest), some good character stuff tucked in the corners.

AO Scott's review is basically "this is pretty okay, except for all of the superhero stuff" which I guess is fine. Longworth's review is even stranger in that her issue is that we know they're not going to die. I kind of get it, but I think she's missing the point. Also she inartfully swears a number of times in the review, and it irks me that the Village Voice's film criticism has stooped to blog-level.

This movie was the signal to me that I really need to stop going to Marvel movies. Felt pretty assembly-line to me, save for a few bits of Whedon comic punch-up.

This was awesome. The Hulk was great. ScarJo was pretty good, and Renner is just a badass. Can't wait to see him in the upcoming Bourne flick.

May see this again just for the Hulk scenes.

i can't imagine this could be any better. that's both blessing and curse. it was a good time

re: final shot setup for the sequel with surprise baddie: i want to talk about this, worth creating a spoiled thread?

I don't really see the point. It's been released pretty much everywhere now, so if you click on this thread it's a given that it's at your own peril.

I think the smartest move Marvel could make to sustain this momentum, along with the inevitable Thor 2, Cap 2, Iron Man 3, Hulk #whatever, is to have a no-effects, plot-driven, script-driven Widow/Hawkeye movie firmly in continuity. A little Nick Fury cameo, Samuel-Jackson-as-Judi-Dench, but mainly an espionage film that expands the franchise beyond costumes and superpowers. A Marvel U film that involves the two non-powered Avengers would be cool.

Yeah, I'm ready to start talking about T****s too, in this thread or another one.

And Hulk-Loki was the biggest roomwide laugh I've heard in a cinema in a couple of years.

Aside from Hulk, if audience reactions to characters' first appearances on screen are an indicator of their popularity, the audience I saw it with LOVES Thor. When he landed on top of that plane*, they went nuts.

Might see it again tonight. It's playing a local drive-in on a double feature bill with John Carter, which people here seemed to like and I didn't see.

*sorry, "Quinjet."

this was as good as it could have been imo

I don't think that's true - a few scenes were straight garbage (worst offender being the Loki/Cap scene in Germany, which felt like a Team America outtake, plus the scenes that try to make Fury "dark" or whatever) and despite the ridiculous runtime there were still major plot holes (esp. the unexplained rift btwn Act 2 Hulk and Act 3 Hulk).

Big surprise that the two characters Whedon does the best job with are the lady asskicker and the rageful nerd.

Aside from Hulk, if audience reactions to characters' first appearances on screen are an indicator of their popularity, the audience I saw it with LOVES Thor. When he landed on top of that plane*, they went nuts.

what would the audience have done if after all that thunder, ominous stormheads, and threatening music there appeared....Storm?

Was this shot in 3-D? Or retrofitted? I've noticed that the vast majority of movie reviews now ignore the 3-D entirely, so I can't tell if it's something I should avoid or not, given it's rarely done wel.

I mean, even Roger Ebert has stopped complaining about 3-D in his reviews and doesn't note it anymore. I can't tell if that means he saw it flat, saw it in 3-D and didn't mind, or saw it in 3-D, hated the 3-D, but has given up noting that the 3-D was too dark, bad, etc.

it's a conversion job. One of the better ones i think

Which means 2-D is fine, I guess.

So how many shot in 3-D films have there really been lately? The vast majority seem to be conversions.

Guess Prometheus is next big one

Amazing Spider-Man was shot in 3D. Had no idea Prometheus is 3D.

3D in avengers was exceptional imo, surprised to hear it was a conversion

I've heard it's a very good conversion, but I think the quality of any 3D varies greatly from theatre to theatre.

Why are all these films conversions? You'd think nu-3D has been around long enough that these projects would have been 3-D from the get-go. Unless conversions are significantly cheaper, in which case that makes perfect sense that they would cut corners.

Hulk Loki utterly killed our crowd, Hulk Thor got almost as big a laugh

I'm not sure. I wonder if it had to do with the tight schedule so they didn't have time to work out how to film everything on 3D cameras and it would be faster/cheaper to do it after filming.

http://www.slate.com/articles/arts/culturebox/2012/02/the_avengers_why_i_m_boycotting_marvel_s_movie.html

Just got back. It wasn't great but it was fun - the fact that I barely noticed that two-and-a-half hours had passed probably counts as some tremendous victory.

Man, Marvel is not fucking around. They've got the cross-platform process as streamlined as can be.

i know the navy is supporting battleship... do you think us military is supporting this film as well?

Might see it again tonight. It's playing a local drive-in on a double feature bill with John Carter, which people here seemed to like and I didn't see.
r u maryland? this is the double header at the drive-in outside baltimore, really wanted to do it.

Is there anything from the actual military in this film? xpost

i know the navy is supporting battleship... do you think us military is supporting this film as well?

I would support the military if they had The Hulk and Thor.

The entire movie's just a subliminal plea from Our Armed Forces for actual, real life, square mile-size helicarriers.

CAUSE THEY'D BE COOL.

anyway, thoughts:

1. OMG T***** AT THE END WAS ALEXIS DENISOF, IF ALEXIS DENISOF IS THE BIG BAD OF AVENGERS 2 I WILL BE SO HAPPY
2. joss whedon was freakishly perfect for this. he understood what a comic book adaptation like this would require in every way that joel schumaker didn't.
3. it had to have been so hard for him to not kill off anyone.
4. and yeah, this was as empty as it gets. like emptier than empty. completely meaningless. there was a minor diversion (NICK FURY HOW COULD U) and that disappeared after a second and then we were back to complete mindlessness. i don't think any movie has ever been this mindless. all the other ones that you could call mindless you could also make mad stretches for meaning because there's always room for interpretation. this movie is so filled to the brim that there's no room for interpretation.
5. haven't seen iron man 2 but i'm sure joss went out of his way to make black widow a Typical Joss Whedon Girl
6. what were the giant flying things in the climax? are they in comics anywhere? when i saw the trailer, i was hoping they went crazy with the norse and included Jörmungandr, but there's only one of him.

no explicit armed forces shit but a lot of yvan eht nioj

oh man had no idea that was Alexis Denisof

3. it had to have been so hard for him to not kill off anyone.

Recurring SHIELD agent/Cap Fan #1 Coulson died.

i thought denisof was the guy talking to thanos

oh really

that is extremely disappointing

i actually just chuckled at coulson's death bc yeah, that's all they're gonna let him get away with

Thanos 'twas Damion Poitier.

i actually just chuckled at coulson's death bc yeah, that's all they're gonna let him get away with

waaaay too much $$$$$$ on the line otherwise

as long as we've entered full on spoilertown -> i loved that when dude died he was all like "it's cool, i'm a plot poiiiiinttttt<kak>"

hah

I'd totally rather see a movie about Ruffalo Hulk than one about Downey, Jr. Iron Man

The movie earned Ruffalo is six pic Hulk deal.

"is" = "a", obv.

ruffalo hulk was one of the films major discoveries
also that might be the best things i ever saw scarjo in.
"how is that a party"

She's very good, yeah. Too bad they've pretty explicitly said she's not gonna get her own pic.

Agreed -- I can't remember the last time she did more with less dialogue.

She's very good, yeah. Too bad they've pretty explicitly said she's not gonna get her own pic.

Where?

I don't recall, I just remember reading an interview w/ her recently and it sounds like they're planning to keep her as a supporting figure in other heroes' pics.

"supporting figure" yuk yuk m i rit guys

I still want a Widow/Hawkeye espionage pic, Bond/Bourne style in the Marvel U, infiltrate AIM and steal back the Ultimate Nullifier or whatnot. Why won't they listen to me, I've been following this shit for 40 years.

They could take on Scorpio. #WhyNot

steranko all over everybody's keyboard

waiting for first appearance of hulkloki.gif in the wild

I think they'd consider doing a Black Widow movie - or at least a Black Widow/Hawkeye movie. Demographically they'll realise that putting Black Widow front and centre is a good idea. Also it could be a relatively inexpensive film with a built-in audience. As long as its not anything like Elektra.

who knows what kind of profit they could've turned with an agent coulson movie

elsewhere on the internet ppl have been claiming that clark gregg's contracted for future thor/iron man movies and so agent coulson's going to turn out to not really be dead after all (i really hope this is just fan wishful thinking because that would be the worst cop-out, even though i liked the character)

a black widow/hawkeye movie would maybe help to make hawkeye less phenomenally boring.

Clark Gregg is definitely signed up for Iron Man 3, I think it was announced before the Avengers release.

Hawkeye being brainwashed for most of the film didn't help his character at all tbf.

Heading towards a record-breaking $200 million domestic weekend btw.

Agent Coulson is a LMD.

or...The Vision

^^^ was my 1st thought when he died. A cheap out on one hand, but LMDs have been around for 45+ years, so not really cheating after all.

xpost

yh and tony stark makes a ref to LMDs early in the film

BUT STILL

i feel like coulson is gonna be a digital projection and will become a pseudo jarvis type thing for the stark tower/avengers mansion
but goddamn what if they DO make him the vision how awesome would that be

1) This was great
2) How awesome that Whedon, after so many close call, gets the box office record?
3) Is this summer, between this, "Hunger Games" and "Batman," predicted to be one of if not the biggest of all time?
4) Cobie Smulders is pretty! No wonder she got so much screen time.
5) Whomever did the makeup for ScarJo and Captain America deserves an Oscar for making them look like flawless gods.
6) Hilarious that at least half the movie is just our heroes beating each other up.
7) Hulk gets all the best lines.

8) Thank god we will not get a Sam Jackson Nick Fury pic.

(Fingers crossed)

That would be pretty sick, or rad, or however you kids say it.

xp to forks

The laughing at Hulk-Loki was so hard that I couldn't tell if Hulk said "puny god" or "demigod" after the money shot. The character's intellect level is conveniently variable and at first I thought he said "demigod".

Hunger Games won't count as summer, but this will. Batman will be big, though maybe not as big as this. 2012 should stomp 2011 in overall box office at this rate though.

This movie is unthinkable without RDJ.

A screenplay question, and I'm not saying this script is deserving at all of an Oscar nom, but if it got one, would it be for original or adapted?

Original, right? It features existing characters, but it is not adapting anything specific. But don't worry, it won't get nominated for that.

I kept thinking throughout that Iron Man totally holds it together as the most versatile problem solver. The others are all variations of smash/kick, but his character is the only one who is smart *and* strong.

I think The Dark Knight was considered an adapted screenplay

Was it?

By the way, the more they show of "Brave," the more I think it has the potential to be my fave Pixar after a couple of relatively meh outtings (imo). At the least, it looks gorgeous.

just checked and it was nominated for best adapted screenplay by the WGA

Avengers would definitely be adapted. Established characters are enough I think.

i was just thinking that Downey has kinda saved marvel. xmen was winding down and hulk was a bomb but iron man bridged the gap.
ten years ago, who woulda thought RDJ would save hollywood

when they first announced the avengers, i was like "they do realize that this entire billion dollar enterprise rests on the shoulders of robert downey jr" but hey so far so good

the avengers movie alone is gonna do a billion dollars in box office
funny that as a kid we all knew this would work and it only took 25 years for hollywood to catch up

If Prometheus and Dark Knight Rises are up to scratch this could be the best Hollywood summer in an age

what a disaster for nollywood

xpost Hell, it took nearly 25 years for Whedon to get a shot at something of this scale!

Forgot about Prometheus. And Brave will be big, as usual.

Thank goodness Hollywood will take all this money and spread it around smaller filmmakers and their modest, personal visions.

the avengers movie alone is gonna do a billion dollars in box office
funny that as a kid we all knew this would work and it only took 25 years for hollywood to catch up

― (Name Withheld to Avoid Hassle) (forksclovetofu), Sunday, May 6, 2012 4:27 PM (4 minutes ago) Bookmark

man, if this came out when i was 11...

yeah but RDJ was starring in Hearts and Souls and Only You

man, if this came out when i was 11...

If it had, it would been directed by Tim Burton or someone and featured lots of terrible costumes and limited effects. Thankfully, it took as long as it did, because this looked yowza.

Yeah, I think this would have been refried ass if it had happened before Marvel created Marvel Studios.

The friend I saw it with thought it was going to be Red Skull at the end. Which would have been awesome, but I see why they went with a universe-class villain to set up Avengers 2.

Also: post-credits FTW.

One theory is that it is actually a set-up for Thor 2.

Thanos was never a Thor villain, though. He's always been a cosmic/team-up villain.

marvel has a Guardians Of The Galaxy movie in the pipeline, which could act as a leadup to thanos in Avengers 2

Apparently he has been a Thor villain! I are wrong. I feel like he's a little too much of a heavy hitter for Thor 2, though.

Thanos was never a Thor villain, though. He's always been a cosmic/team-up villain.

and the envy of dentists across the multiverse.

Thanos seems to be a pretty big "all in" crossover villain, though, bigger than the Avengers.

I think some eagle-eyed dork spied the Infinity Gauntlet on Asgaard in "Thor" ...

Who's excited for the Adam Warlock movie?! Anyone? Anyone?

Kevin Feige says some stuff

http://collider.com/kevin-feige-thor-2-iron-man-3-avengers-sequel-interview/158942/

yeah, i heard about that.
i was really thankful they didn't make this a movie that required you to see cap or thor cuz there's no way i was doing homework
was thinking a more personal one-on-one warren ellis style "get inside the minds of the heros" followup with infinity gauntlet and thanos fucking with them as they fight to come together as a team would be a good look
also FUCK A TESSERACT, THAT IS A COSMIC CUBE KIRBY 4 LIFE

be glad you didn't do homework like i did, thor and cap movies both assembly line prologues

yeah, they really did look like it

so why not cosmic cube btw? too comic book-y for this hip audience? so they decide to go wrinkle in time instead?

Captain America was OK.

i was just thinking that Downey has kinda saved marvel. xmen was winding down and hulk was a bomb but iron man bridged the gap.
ten years ago, who woulda thought RDJ would save hollywood

Forks otm here. I thought Thor was pretty good too.

they're both fairly entertaining assembly-line prologues, as far as such things go. especially CA.

Movie sucked and was no different from any other superhero movie - the end.

well when you put it like that...

when you went to see it like that...

one complaint i guess i had was how all these whipsmart awesome heroes kept having to ask captain america where they should stand for the next battle, because he's kinda lame really and whedon didn't seem to know what else to do with him.

Captain America is their leader though

Movie sucked and was no different from any other superhero movie - the end.

OTM. I don't get the raves for this at all.

difference from other superhero movie = it had all the superheroes

Captain America is the only of these loner dudes who is a team player, which is why he's the default leader.

OTM. I don't get the raves for this at all.

What the hell were you expecting? Maybe you need to see a truly shitty superhero music to recognize one done well. Might I recommend either recent "Fantastic Four?" "X-Men 3?"

yup, anyone who thinks this isn't better than the norm hasn't seen the real horrors that are out there

Spawn (1997): I think this might be one of the worst filns I've ever seen

(Hah, I meant superhero movie, not superhero music)

Though I will say the score to this was pretty boilerplate.

Forget it, Jake, it's Alan Silvestri.

a little overhyped imo. thought the second half (part. the final battle) was the best part. iron man good more than dark knight good (fun, exciting, POW POW POW, not a lot of ambition) i thought. liked black widow's expanded role.

a little long too.

dark knight's ambition was part of what spoiled it imo

they're not really comparable

agreed, this promised and delivered breezy fun, the ambition was in the scope and perfect delivery of that promise

they're not really comparable

well, yeah, cuz The Dark Knight is gross, boring, and interminable.

I have yet to see The Avengers but I whole heartedly agree with Alfred about The Dark And Dreary Knight.

There's room for both approaches.

dark knight was imperfect bc of the nolans' insistence on cramming messy half-baked high school-level philosophizing into their scripts.

and ethical conundrums. fuck ethical conundrums. joss whedon handled them better in angel.

wmc otm

but

avengers makes a better job of its approach

Up to this point, I agree, but after Nolan's Batfilms are all done I'm going to think of them as one piece probably, so I want to leave it open-ended in case he completely wows me with the 3rd act.

think that's fair too, yeah

This certainly was a Marvel movie.

yup, this was good. go give it your money.

i brought a very comics illiterate friend (and big ruffaho) to this, her reactions were "this is so nerdy!" (at loki's costume) or "there's always a big insect" or "look at their arms!" or laughing.

i don't know who the big villain reveal was in the credits but some dude behind me sounded like he was brought to completion at that moment.

ilx poster some dude?

ruffaho

If you want to understand who the guy in the end was, here's a link that explains it:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thanos

If you know who he is, it's the Marvel rip off of Kirby's Darkseid.

"The scepter Loki uses appears to contain the Mind Gem used by Thanos. [citation needed]"
^this is an interesting point!

kinda was bummed they didn't pick a differnet villain. loki is played out.

Loki is in the first Avengers story though and kind of convenient to have the Thor movie to set him up first though. I saw the movie today and thought the guy who played Loki was quite good.

As for other Avengers villains, I think Kang would be harder to pull off in a movie with the whole time travel angle. Ultron would work, but I think it would need to be setup in one movie and then used as the next villain.

That said, I would love for there be someway to do the Wrecking Crew, just to see a superpowered guy with a crow bar bash Thor or the Hulk.

The Korvac story would be one that could be adapted.

I don't know if they would or could do the Kree/Skrull War without being able to use the Fantastic Four, which I guess Marvel doesn't have the rights to do in movies right now.

I was like 11 or 12 when the infinity war came out so the ending for me was some teen boner time shit

"The scepter Loki uses appears to contain the Mind Gem used by Thanos. [citation needed]"
^this is an interesting point!

I could see that in retrospect, especially how Loki's scepter came up in the one scene.

The dude that played the Hulk and the Hulk got the best scenes. Don't know how they will pull of a Hulk 3...but man I would love to see Planet Hulk as a movie, even if they did it without Nick Fury and them all shooting him out there.

just watched iron man 2 for completion's sake i guess, spent the whole movie thinking don cheadle was gonna die because 1. he's the black guy and 2. he isn't mentioned once in avengers, is he? you'd think they'd at least have an explanation for why this extremely valuable person isn't helping them

war machine is a part of iron man canon

I think Galactus was in the crap Fantastic Four movie. Wonder if they still have the rights to him? I always liked the idea of this planet-eating celestial super-being who just shows up every once in a while, like Godzilla. Or Silver Surfer?

OMG T***** AT THE END WAS ALEXIS DENISOF, IF ALEXIS DENISOF IS THE BIG BAD OF AVENGERS 2 I WILL BE SO HAPPY

Ohhhhhh, THAT'S who he was. I saw Alexis Denisof's name listed in the credits and had no idea who he was in the movie because I didn't remember seeing him.

I saw Jenny Agutter's name in the credits but don't remember seeing her. Was she on that Council thingy with Powers Boothe? (Said "council" to inevitably be found corrupt/infiltrated by some villain, likely setup for Avengers 3, you heard it here first.)

Yes, she was on the council.

thx, I did the same thing as WmC when I saw her name in the credits

Two things: 1) floating fortress stupidest secret base ever and 2) what was Loki's plan for the Hulk? To hulk out and destroy the floating fortress? Or was that just a red herring?

(Also, and this is just Hulk lore, but why can no one figure out that he is indestructible and more or less infinitely strong?)

dude, don't diss the helicarrier. it's canon.

(also it allows them to exist independent of nations and law)

and have monkey knife fights

yeah, I took loki's plan to be enraging hulk in order to destroy the fortress and/or the avengers... which almost worked

biggest failing was the sudden + inexplicable turnaround of hulk from uncontrollable rage monster to valuable team player, but obv the movie is v rewarding if you just go with it so

he probably just talked things out with Harry Dean Stanton, got a whole new perspective on shit

dude, don't diss the helicarrier. it's canon.

I know they *needed* it, but it just seems like putting all your eggs in one very easy to take down basket. As the movie demonstrated.

I think they threw in Hulk hitting Thor to show that he was still a loose canon, just that his rage had been redirected toward the aliens. Hulk doesn't take things personally. Hulk just goes after what's bothering him the most. Then ... Hulk tired. Hulk rest.

Hulk smash plot holes.

Though per Loki/Hulk, don't they later identify his plan as wanting the public to seem him take out the Avengers, to earn him street cred? Though of course, up until this point, the only Avenger anyone knew was Iron Man (right?). The other folks kept to themselves, though of course, word of the Hulk had surely made the global rounds.

Thinking out comic book logistics hurts Hulk's head.

overthinking the plot mechanics of the avengers is not a rewarding exercise

For sure.

Great fun, agreed with pretty much all positive takes above and have little to add otherwise -- hardly any kind of be-all/end-all but a really fun entertainment that looks good and moves just as well. Gotta give credit to Whedon as director/co-screenwriter to work out how to give everyone the right amount of screentime.

Meanwhile:

http://www.deadline.com/2012/05/avenger-update-205m-record-domestic/

Story itself says current projection is 207.1 million. Crazy. But seeing as all the showings at the theater I was at last night were sold out or selling out rapidly -- and this was with three screens running it -- I believe it.

Nearly $210 million the first weekend in the US alone, right? What was the international tally? And did it open in Japan yet?

Yup to the first. (As I, um, just posted. :-D )

Int'l tally was something like $642+ -- and no, not opened in Japan yet, so god knows where this thing will finally top out at.

I usually go to morning shows when I have days off and the 10:40 a.m. showing on Friday was three quarters full, which, er, never happens.

it was funny to look at the weekend projections yesterday and see avengers w/ $200M and the next grossing movie at $8MM

keep in mind that $200M weekend gross for all movies playing in the US combined would be considered respectable box office

Meanwhile Edgar Wright keeps dropping hints:

http://twitpic.com/9hnn6t

scarjo's down for a black widow movie, and I imagine anyone connected with this behemoth is going to have some major hollywood pull for the next couple of years

www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/05/04/black-widow-movie-scarlett-johansson_n_1477199.html

er

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/05/04/black-widow-movie-scarlett-johansson_n_1477199.html

The cube where I saw this in Tupelo was only half full -- at the first showing of the day on opening day. But they had had two midnight shows the night before, and we correctly guessed that it wouldn't be as crowded at 12:30 p.m. on a school Friday. They have it on three screens in 2D and two more screens in 3D.

There was a line for the noon (first of the day) 2D screening here yesterday. Movie is firing across all demos, I guess: women, children, nerds, teens, older folks...

I saw Jenny Agutter's name in the credits but don't remember seeing her. Was she on that Council thingy with Powers Boothe?

― improvised explosive advice (WmC), Monday, 7 May 2012 13:53 (1 hour ago) Permalink

oh word that's awesome

I was kinda bored by this :(

my nephew's school sent home slips that parents could sign permitting their kids to get out of school early this past friday to go see the avengers. supposedly, more than half the student body got parental permission to do this.

The 3D show at the same time as mine Fri morning was sold out thanks to a couple of elementary school classes.

disgusting!!

I was kinda bored by this :(

― homosexual II, Monday, May 7, 2012 10:55 AM (42 minutes ago)

Could you elaborate? What was it missing?

Well, perhaps it was my own fault - I wasn't familiar with the backstory of the characters (hadn't read the comics, hadn't seen the previous movies), Loki didn't seem very threatening to me. I'm also extremely difficult to please.

As far as huge Summer blockbuster type movies, the last one I liked was Star Trek.

The 3D show at the same time as mine Fri morning was sold out thanks to a couple of elementary school classes.

lol and people were talking about the death of monoculture in the worst generation thread

the amazing thing about this making so much money is that it was the first week of may. which is always a huge weekend, typically the first big weekend of the year, but still nothing compared to the middle of july when everyone's out of school. made $50 million more than the next highest early may movie, spidey 3. probably still not as impressive as hunger games making $150 in mid-march tho

this is a big xp:

war machine is a part of iron man canon

― Mordy, Monday, May 7, 2012 8:19 AM (5 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

so... iron man is part of both the iron man and avengers canons, but war hammer is only in the iron man canon, so tony stark doesn't know anything about war hammer in the avengers canon? and wasn't the line already crossed when nick fury and SHIELD were major plot points in iron man 2?

comics are weird

looking back, i was kinda surprised how much of this movie took place on the flying ship. idk why really.

warmachine is part of the marvel universe so there is crossover in all elements
he exists across the board.
WM is more of a 70's/80's creation though and not really necessary to an avengers storyline by any means just yet. I imagine they figured to save some little money by not paying Cheadle to be in this thing.

but yes, comics are weird

people who follow comics more closely than me: are Rhodey and War Machine part of the Ultimates universe, seeing as the Iron Man/Avengers/nu-spiderman storylines seem to grow out of that universe?

iron man is part of both the iron man and avengers canons, but war hammer is only in the iron man canon, so tony stark doesn't know anything about war hammer in the avengers canon?

No, this isn't the case at all. The only "canon" is Marvel Universe Canon, but every character from every movie can't be in, or even referenced in, every other movie. It's crowded enough already.

xposts

Man/Avengers/nu-spiderman storylines seem to grow out of that universe?

Waaaaht? No.

they do though

well new spiderman is clearly based on the Ultimates storyline

lol war hammer = war machine, getting my character names twisted

my point in other words: i know that war machine wouldn't be in the film, i just figured they would mention him in some capacity to fill the plot hole. like, there's a huge battle going on in the city he lives in, someone should at least explain him away like they did with natalie portman

strictly speaking War Machine exists in all Marvel U canon like forks said, but some characters are kinda pegged to certain comics/miniverses. they can crossover, so like green goblin is primarily a spiderman villain but also shows up in thunderbolts and then in cross title storylines when he takes over (idr shield? whatever). other characters won't really make serious appearances tho so you'd generally only see WM in Iron Man and while he might be in the background of a big crossover like World War Hulk he's not going to get a lot of facetime in an Avengers comic, and if he's played by a big actor you can see why Marvel wouldn't just throw him in. similarly none of Thor's buddies were in the flick, i didn't see the Cpt America movie but if Bucky was there he wasn't here (of course maybe he died in the Cpt America movie?), no Dr. Samson or jenny hulk etc.

tangental thoughts re film canon: kinda thought it would be awesome if like fantastic four or x-men teams showed up at the end of the movie to help, or spider-man to cross promote new movie, but it's obv much harder to arrange actor schedules than to draw a new character on the page. they def need an avengers V x-men movie at some point tho that would be sweeeet.

lol and people were talking about the death of monoculture in the worst generation thread

Do keep in mind that these comics are and have been an aspect of the monoculture for literally decades. That's why I don't have a problem with all these superhero movies; superheroes, and in particular these superheroes, have been a staple of American popular culture for about as long as we've had popular culture. I mean, tens of tens of thousands of issues, hundreds of stories, all featuring these (and many more) characters ... it's kind of amazing, if you think about it.

well new spiderman is clearly based on the Ultimates storyline

― (Name Withheld to Avoid Hassle) (forksclovetofu), Monday, May 7, 2012 1:06 PM

The last Spider-Man movie I saw was the one with Alfred Molina in it, so somebody's going to have to get me up to speed on this. What Ultimates storyline? There are a lot of Ultimates storylines.

i was really impressed with the argument among all the heroes in the ship's science lab, very screenwriterly. reminded me of the negotiation/argument scene among the tribal chiefs in lawrence of arabia (if only because i had to watch that in a film class as an example of good multi-character conflict writing.

does he hook up with kitty pryde in the new movie?

new spiderman is clearly based on the Ultimates storyline

I know he can't be in the Avengers because different studios have the rights, but it seems like the new Spiderman is too angsty and Nolan-esque to hang with the Avengers anyway.

xp well the thor thing was explained when loki asked how much of odin's power it took to get thor on earth, or something. which i thought was a really awful copout seeing as the huge "tragedy" of the thor flick was that he was gonna be stuck in asgard away from natalie portman.

and they can't cross over with F4 and spidey and x-men because they don't own the distro rights

War Machine is a member of the West Coast Avengers, and the alien invasion took place in New York. So it's, you know, a jurisdictional thing.

other characters won't really make serious appearances tho so you'd generally only see WM in Iron Man and while he might be in the background of a big crossover like World War Hulk he's not going to get a lot of facetime in an Avengers comic

war machine was an actual avengers member at various points and has been in a ton of avengers comics

One of my favorite aspects of the crossovers is the manifestation of inter-hero prejudice, for lack of a better word. That is, even among other superheroes there's a slight disdain and distrust for mutants, even though Spiderman and Hulk, to name a couple, technically have been mutated by radiation themselves. I recall in I think it's Secret Wars that conflict and distinction showing itself in their complicated relationships. But of course, Secret Wars is the ultimate intellectual property clusterfuck.

xp well yeah - i meant classic Avengers. every D-list superhero has been an avenger at this point

War Machine is a member of the West Coast Avengers, and the alien invasion took place in New York. So it's, you know, a jurisdictional thing.

spider man was in the avengers too, right?

briefly?

http://images3.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20110101231512/marveldatabase/images/b/b0/Bova_Ayrshire_(Earth-92131)_001.jpg

i think spider-man has been an avenger a few times

wolverine also a perennial member iirc?

WmC, here's a breakdown of Brian Michael Bendis' storyline for Ultimate Spiderman: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ultimate_Spider-Man
the promo ad before the avengers basically followed it exactly; it's a pretty serious rewrite of the origin, much more emo and daddy issues

lol, this is crazy: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Avengers_members

spider man was in the avengers too, right?

― (Name Withheld to Avoid Hassle) (forksclovetofu), Monday, May 7, 2012 1:20 PM

Yeah, has been for years and still is. (The team led by Luke Cage.)

One thing in the comics though was Rhodey (aka War Machine) was actually Iron Man for a time when Tony Stark was battling alcoholism and that happened for a year or so and a few years before they started having him as War Machine in the comics.

^^^seems like the logical place for the Iron Man movies to go tbh

I still kind of think of the Bendis era Avengers, with Wolverine and Spidey and such, as some wacky experiment despite the fact that it's probably been 10 years now.

Saw this tonight, agree with a lot of stuff upthread - well balanced in backstory vs plot vs smashing stuff, snappily made for a long film, "Puny God" the best line in a film not short of great lines.

I also agree with the point about how there are a lot of well-put-together charming actors reading some well-written lines that exhibit character and move plot forwards, and then there's Mark Ruffalo, showing them how it's done. Possibly helped by the character - he really nailed the idea of a guy who's relaxed and funny and trying to make everyone he's talking to forget that he's a walking unexploded bomb - but there are by this stage hundreds of different angles for all of these characters (sadly all of the different angles for Hawkeye are massively dull - Jeremy Renner's intensity a very good choice here). But yeah, give Josh Whedon a performance like that and he'll give you a great last line as a capper.

I also really liked Scarlet Johansson in the movie, particularly the scene with Loki (featuring a word that would probably not have gotten past the censors if it wasn't as old as it was rude!). I agree that a straight up Black Widow + Hawkeye movie would be fun to watch - whether Jeremy Renner would have to make him interesting can be settled by seeing whether he feels he has to make Bourne interesting.

iirc alcoholism was going to be a big part of iron man 2 but they chickened out

you'd think RDJ would love all the nudge-nudge-wink-wink shit that storyline would offer

I also really liked Scarlet Johansson in the movie, particularly the scene with Loki (featuring a word that would probably not have gotten past the censors if it wasn't as old as it was rude!).

i was gonna mention this -- pretty funny that the dirtiest word in the thing was "quim". hiddleston ripped into it!

RE: The poster who earlier wondered whether the military had any involvement with the movie:

We couldn't reconcile the unreality of this international organization and our place in it. To whom did S.H.I.E.L.D. answer? Did we work for S.H.I.E.L.D.? We hit that roadblock and decided we couldn't do anything [with Avengers].

One of the next few posts will mention Transformers.

Whedon's decision to give Hiddleston one speech designed to give him "motivation" is a failure imo -- it's spotty writing -- but I was surprised by his well-calibrated intensity. Usually actors who go for Shakespearean fire look like Richard Burton-esque fools.

The other "I am impressed they slipped this in" moment was Tony Stark asking Banner if his methods for keeping it together included mellow jazz / bongos / a huge bag of weed.

I'm so used to Downey's MO that I laughed without noticing.

I would love to see security footage of movie audiences to identify the 5% who jerked forward suddenly because WTF Harry Dean Stanton?

.002% = wtf jerzy skolimowski?

DoD aside, the soldiers seen on the ground in the attack at the end were played by real-life Army reservists.

Baez, thanks for that.
I know dod is really involved in a lotta hollywwood these days

'these days' = 30 years at least

HEY PEOPLE WHO KNOW THAT CYCLOPS' DAD IS A SPACE PIRATE -

Was there a ref. buried in that first Fury meeting up w/ the shadowy org. who boss him around? I'm thinking a quick split-second mention of some kind of contingency plan that was gonna gonna supercede the Avengers Initiative, which then looked like it was a no-starter.

fwiw the hulk-loki moment got the most lols, but my favourite gag was when fury left the bridge and radar guy alt-tabs back into space invaders

it was GALAGA man