Avengers

[Kalki]

Definitely watching this:

UK Trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xtt_L8VNjx8

[X-Vector]

That looks promising.

If the film is supposed to be a comedy, that is.

[fast-1]

Read the comic first before watching.

It looks great.

[FullMetalJacket]

I'm excited. This has been hyped up over the course of 4 years and 5 movies (Iron Man 1 & 2, The Incredible Hulk, Thor, Captain America). Each of those films has had a post-credits scene with some sort of Avengers tease. Personally, I think they've done a great job with each of those films so far.

[Thief]

I don't get it...why did they make Cap's costume look so bad? What was wrong with keeping the costume from 'The First Avenger'? He looks like a puppet.

Noticed Black Widow still doesn't have an accent. Guess that would be asking too much.

A real shame things didn't work out between Edward Norton and Marvel. Not saying that all scientists have a sort of designated appearance, but Mark Ruffalo doesn't look like any iteration of Bruce Banner that I've ever seen...just doesn't look right.

[FullMetalJacket]

Agreed, Thief. I preferred Norton's portrayal of Bruce Banner...and I preferred Captain America's WWII movie costume over his new one!

[Duke's New Chainsaw]

Only thing I don't like about Cap's new costume is the helmet.

[Damien_Azreal]

I really don't like the new costume either. It looks really cheap, specially when compared to the one from WW2.
And, I'm a huge Edward Norton fan... I would've LOVED for him to do this. I know all the stories about how difficult he can be to work with and blah, blah, blah. Don't care. He was up for doing this... really wanted to. Really sucks IMO.

Originally Posted by Thief

A real shame things didn't work out between Edward Norton and Marvel. Not saying that all scientists have a sort of designated appearance, but Mark Ruffalo doesn't look like any iteration of Bruce Banner that I've ever seen...just doesn't look right.

Even though I like Edward Norton as an actor he absolutely did not work for me as Bruce Banner and I found him f***ing annoying in the movie.

Wether or not Mark Ruffalo will be any good remains to be seen, however I always loved Eric Bana in this role; his portrayal of the Bruce Banner character was, for me, the only saving grace in the Ang Lee movie (besides Jennifer Connelly, of course).

[dan2091]

The way the director has been talking about this film makes me feel very interested. He kinda 'seems' to get the characters, and the things he's said about Hulk and how he's portrayed in here makes me moooore interested.

I really hope they make this right. I love superheroes movies, and I love when they become something more than just a comicbook film. Yeah!

[Kalki]

Hulk Smash: http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature...&v=P8ywuyGE8Y8

[Kalki]

Iron Man Vs. Thor

Loki Imprisoned

Captain America and Thor in Battle

[8IronBob]

Considering that there were parts of the movie filmed right here in our area, of course I would have to watch it. So I can't wait until another two weeks from now!

[dan2091]

Avengers is coming this friday, in here . I'm watching it on saturday though =/.

[Kalki]

Originally Posted by dan2091

Avengers is coming this friday, in here . I'm watching it on saturday though =/.

Same here. My own plans aren't set but there's a chance I may have to skip Friday and watch it on Saturday.

The U.S. release will feature a new The Dark Knight Rises trailer and may ease the longer wait.

[dan2091]

Trailers usually come late, in here. So I'm not keeping my hopes on watching the new trailer at the cinema till June, maybe, but if that was the case, saturday would be way more epic than it already seems .

[8IronBob]

Yeah, when it comes here, I'm most likely going to catch a Saturday matinee of the film for the most part. Seems to be the best thing I can do on such short notice.

[Kalki]

Ok I managed to catch a Friday evening show. And here are my impressions.

This is the most FUN Marvel movie made yet. Yep look out X-Men 2, move over Iron Man - they really hit the ball out of the park with this one. It will take time and several future viewings to see where I place it on my all-time fave comic book movie rankings but it's definitely upper tier. I really liked what Marvel did with the Thor and Captain America films but combine all of what they had with the wit of Tony Stark and toss in the awesomeness that is the Hulk and you have an incredibly entertaining movie. Bringing back Loki made obvious sense, he was one of the only Marvel villain movie characters with depth, was played ably by Hiddleston, whereas the lack of a strong villain has imo always been the Marvel movie weak point.

The plot here is fairly simple, a big fight looms over the horizon and everybody has to be ready for it and this doesn't offer many great surprises. The story is more character driven and it's entertaining to see a lot of these characters set aside their egos a bit and try to come together. Some moments were predictable but the dialogue was largely entertaining and you can see the Joss Whedon touch here and there. The film is technically very impressive, the 3D was excellent and used appropriately while I expect the effects were the best money could buy.

But the biggest stand out? Mark Ruffalo as Bruce Banner. Him and Whedon really nailed this character and he had a great arc. His monster half got the most laughs in the end fights and it's safe to say he stole the show. Of course RDJr is still clearly at the top of his game and practically holds the movie together. Cap and Thor mostly reprise their character arcs from their respective films and are effective. Vanilla heroes Black Widow and Hawkeye hold more than their own amidst the high powered action. Series regulars Sam Jackson and Clark Gregg (Fury and Coulson of SHIELD) support the cast and do a good job of it.

All in all, comic book fans should love this and it's a great start to a blockbuster summer at the movies.

[dan2091]

Awesome, pal! I just arrived home from buying the tickets for a show, tomorrow night! Can't wait.

[FullMetalJacket]

Thanks, Kalki.

Looking forward to this when it's released in the US next week. I have heard there's a scene after the credits, just like all the preceding Marvel films.

[dan2091]

Still can't believe this one's coming a week earlier than the US release, but Batman's coming a week later... =/

[Kalki]

That week is going to be torture for me.

Originally Posted by FullMetalJacket

Thanks, Kalki.

Looking forward to this when it's released in the US next week. I have heard there's a scene after the credits, just like all the preceding Marvel films.

Welcome. And yes there is one in the middle of the credits. I couldn't understand what I was supposed to be seeing - not that it's obscure per say but because I'm a little weak on my Marvel mythology so I had to look it up now that you mentioned it and I know what it was.

Spoiler:

show spoiler

Ok so no specific spoilers in here, sorry. It was a villain reveal, I just couldn't place which one. I had to look it up to know who it was. Still not saying who but you shouldn't be clicking a spoiler tag unless you've seen the movie.

[dan2091]

It was a wonderful movie! Quite funny and entertaining. I loved them, each one of the characters, even freaking Loki.

Hulk did it for me, and spelled what I could consider one of my favourite lines in movie history:

Spoiler:

show spoiler

I won't spoil it for you , but it's about his secret o_Ó!!!

Also I'm with Kalki as I didn't know who the villian was... Pretty interesting, though.

[Kalki]

Turns out there's a second post-credits scene for U.S. audiences:

http://www.comicbookmovie.com/fansit.../news/?a=58959

You need to have watched the movie to understand. Spoilers will follow. The scene features...
Spoiler:

show spoiler

... the entire team sitting down after the final battle and eating shawarma. It lasts for roughly a minute and features no dialogue, although Mark Ruffalo reportedly struggles to keep a straight face throughout.

It's a funny coincidence that I considered eating shawarma at a theatre stall right before I watched this movie (decided to go for McDonalds after the show). So the scene where Tony mentioned it resonated with me.

Pic:
Spoiler:

show spoiler

[dan2091]

Spoiler:

show spoiler

That is Incredible!!! I couldn't stop laughing when Tony proposed eating Shawarma to the team. LOL Thanks for the pic !!! :3 Shawarma's are awesome!

[Kit]

Nice write-up, Kalki.

Can't wait to see this. From what I've seen in the trailers they seem to be going in the right direction with the Hulk.

[FullMetalJacket]

Finally saw it. Flawless film!! Definitely going to be one for the blu-ray collection.

[Thief]

Saw this last night. While I enjoyed it a lot, I was a bit disappointed with the lighter tone of the movie, but hey, it is rated PG after all. The tone of the movie is very much comparable to the Fantastic 4 movies. Plenty of laughs, no real sense of danger that one or any of the heroes might die or even get seriously injured, no real sense of possible failure really. Nick Fury was too tame.

I also don't see what was so great about Ruffalo's Bruce Banner, not to say that it was bad or anything, but nothing stood out. He would mostly stand there with his hands clasped and talk a little quieter, making it seem that he was in a constant struggle to keep down the beast all the while not offering much of his intelligence as assistance to the team. That's not the Banner I know. The Banner I'm more familiar with wants nothing more than to get rid of the beast, yet knows that Hulk is a necessary 'evil' and bares that responsibility with regret and sadness knowing that death and destruction are only a few seconds of transformation away. Ruffalo's Banner had too much fear in him...made him look weak. Acceptance is closer to the Banner of the comics, but that would probably make for a less entertaining character.

And frankly, I'm surprised that a few of you didn't know that the post-credits villain was Spoiler:

show spoiler

Thanos!!! WOOOO!!!

right away. I understand not knowing who it is if you're more of a Marvel movie fan rather than a comics fan, but if you are a comics fan - shame on you! That ugly mug is unmistakable. If the writers of the sequel are actually hinting at the Spoiler:

show spoiler

Infinity Gauntlet

story arc, then yeah, they've got a daunting task ahead of them. I really hope they can pull it off too because it'd no doubt be the best superhero movie yet (and possibly for a long time) if done correctly.

[Damien_Azreal]

I'm with you Thief.

I loved the movie. And personally, The Hulk has some of the best scenes towards the end. But Ruffalo's performance as Bruce Banner was not that great. It was good, but nothing amazing... and definitely not the shining performance in the film (like some are making it out to be).
Personally, Tom Hiddleston has the best performance.

But, Ruffalo's Banner was just okay. And I preferred Edward Norton's portrayal of the character much better.

[Kalki]

Originally Posted by Thief

I also don't see what was so great about Ruffalo's Bruce Banner, not to say that it was bad or anything, but nothing stood out. He would mostly stand there with his hands clasped and talk a little quieter, making it seem that he was in a constant struggle to keep down the beast all the while not offering much of his intelligence as assistance to the team. That's not the Banner I know. The Banner I'm more familiar with wants nothing more than to get rid of the beast, yet knows that Hulk is a necessary 'evil' and bares that responsibility with regret and sadness knowing that death and destruction are only a few seconds of transformation away. Ruffalo's Banner had too much fear in him...made him look weak. Acceptance is closer to the Banner of the comics, but that would probably make for a less entertaining character.

SPOILERS: Spoiler:

show spoiler

I'm familiar with Banner from several animated sources and he mostly comes across as fearful or regretful. Ed Norton's version of Banner did come to accept the Hulk as necessary at the end of IH, after playing the hunted fugitive for most of that movie. But that acceptance was there all throughout Ruffalo's performance.

Ruffalo came across as someone who had hit rock bottom in his struggle against "the other guy" (remember the part about spitting the bullet?) and emerged to accept it and use it. He was wary of what the monster within could do, because he can't control it but he had also embraced it as a part of himself from the get go. The Calcutta scenes establish this at the outset. Ruffalo plays the fugitive for maybe ten seconds, after which he puts on a calm, fairly confident manner in conversing with a government assassin. He knows he's not the one in danger here. I particularly liked the bit where he pretends to blow up in anger to frighten and trick BW into tipping her hand - usually it's she who outwits everyone else.

When Banner comes on board, you could see that quiet hesitation in him, like he's waiting for the cage doors to close but he never seemed afraid. When he talks about the team being a time bomb, he's mostly referring to himself. He uses his intelligence (with Stark's help) for the science stuff but when he detected ulterior motives he was also willing to become a risk to everyone in the vicinity, by refusing to leave so he could demand an explanation. This was a more empowered Banner than any version I've ever seen. His final line reveals that the Hulk always lay immediately beneath the surface and you can see that in Ruffalo's performance.

[dan2091]

Spoiler:

show spoiler

His final line is my favourite line.

[Kit]

Saw this the other night in 2D. Absolutely loved it.

Everyone of the heroes got the right amount of screen-time and the effects were aa*. The ending has me wondering - Spoiler:

show spoiler

I'm not overly familiar with Thanos; could someone sum up his powers/story arc.

I would have liked to have seen Captain America keep his old costume as he looked slightly out of place, but it's only a minor thing.

Overall I'm just amazed they managed to pull it off.

[Kalki]

Source: http://www.cartoonbrew.com/pixar/pix...-avengers.html

[ZuljinRaynor]

I really liked Ruffalo's performance as Bruce Banner. It was my favorite part. Tom Hiddleston is great though. So dreamy as Loki.

Black Widow and Hawkeye were the weakest part of the film. Black Widow had what, 5 minutes in Iron Man 2? And Hawkeye spends half of this movie in a role that makes you not care about him at all. Both were super BOOOOOOOOOOOORING.

Everyone else was great and when they argued it was super fun.

Loki was the best, though. Thor didn't have enough moments like from Thor.

[Commando Nukem]

I really want to see this.

Unfortunately I have to choose between this and Prometheus, and as an Alien fan... I gotta go with Sir Ridley Scott's film.

So i'll probably be catching this on DVD/Blu-ray, unfortunately.

[Kalki]

Gag reel: http://io9.com/5936468/the-avengers-...-lot-of-laughs

Hulk deleted scene: http://insidemovies.ew.com/2012/08/2...deleted-scene/

Loki - Barton extended scene: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VnpFY...layer_embedded

[Kit]

Apparently Jeremy Renner has made it clear he was disappointed with the amount of screen time Hawkeye got:

"At the end of the day, 90% of the movie, I’m not the character I signed on to play. I’m literally in there for two minutes, and then all of a sudden… All I could really work on was the physical part of it all, because that didn’t change. That was just the biggest challenge to overcome in playing the guy. Also, we’re pretty much introducing a new superhero character to everyone in a movie where there’s a thousand superheroes.So there’s not a lot of back story or understanding we can really tell about who Clint Barton is, or Hawkeye, and is he working for SHIELD or not. There’s a lot of unanswered questions, even for me. And I was OK with that. At least I was still in the movie. And I was glad for that.The closest thing I could really link to was Scarlett [Johansson's] character, Black Widow, because they have a history. And that definitely plays in the movie, I think. And obviously, you can’t go into too much just because there’s so much story to tell, but you definitely get a sense that they’re connected, and that there’s something really, really important that ties them together. And I could try to summarize it, but it can go a lot of places. That excites me, though, that there’s room for other things."

Personally I thought he was on screen just the right amount of time and didn't overstay his welcome.

Originally Posted by Kalki

Gag reel: http://io9.com/5936468/the-avengers-...-lot-of-laughs

Hulk deleted scene: http://insidemovies.ew.com/2012/08/2...deleted-scene/

Loki - Barton extended scene: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VnpFY...layer_embedded

Good clips. Have me intrigued to see the extras they add when this hits DVD.

[Damien_Azreal]

I agree that Hawkeye was borked.
He gets a five second cameo in Thor to setup his character. Then he's turned into a bad guy almost right away in The Avengers.
Only "coming around" for the big fight at the end of the film. It was pathetic use of a good character and a great actor.

Personally, I think The Avengers is incredibly overrated. It's a good, fun movie. But it's nothing great... nor does it transcend the "comic book movie" by any means.
And, mostly, it comes across as "Iron Man and Friends" instead of The Avengers.

I liked it. But, hell, I liked Iron Man and Thor way more.

[Kalki]

Originally Posted by Damien_Azreal

I agree that Hawkeye was borked.
He gets a five second cameo in Thor to setup his character. Then he's turned into a bad guy almost right away in The Avengers.
Only "coming around" for the big fight at the end of the film. It was pathetic use of a good character and a great actor.

His cameo in Thor was minimal but I thought he had a substantial part in The Avengers. Turning villain gave his character increased dramatic scope. His history with Black Widow gave him more emotional background than Thor with his repetitive brother-pleading. That he wasn't superpowered but managed to kick both SHIELD & the team's collective ass at one point made him larger than life.

If any character was borked in that movie, it was Captain America. He needed to have more screen time readjusting to his new world. The man out of time bit was given lip service and a one-liner.

I hope there's more deleted scenes in the movie to build on those character histories. Preferably put together in an extended edition.

[Damien_Azreal]

Personally, I thought his "history" with Black Widow felt rather tacked on in an attempt to make both those characters feel more important in the grand scheme of the movie.
I mean, seriously, compared to the other members of the Avengers... those two seem incredibly out of place.
Specially Black Widow during the final fight.
It felt weak to me. A cheap attempt to make the character feel more fleshed out and in depth then he actually was.

And yes, Captain America was really dull in the Avengers. But, he was dull in his own movie as well. It's like they don't know exactly what to do with this character. They get a fantastic actor for the role... and then... they give him nothing to do.

Like I said, I like the Avengers... but it's nothing amazing. It's a comic book movie, one I'd put on level with X2. And, as I said (in chat IIRC)....

Iron Man
Thor
Iron Man 2
The Incredible Hulk
The Avengers
Captain America

It's good. Not great. And Marvel have done way better films already. And, they even manage to release a better film shortly after The Avengers was in theaters.
The Amazing Spider-Man was a more focused and enjoyable film IMO.