the hammer of Thor
I forgot to mention I saw Everclear this weekend as part of the festivities, and found them to be pretty enjoyable. I'm not a huge fan, but I recognized a lot of their songs. The lack of "When It All Goes Wrong Again" did not go without notice, however. If nothing else, my young cousin Amber, for whom this was her first rock concert, enjoyed it. That's pretty cool.
So yeah. I promised a review of Ultimate Avengers. Given my icon and the sorts of things I talk about on a regular basis both here and in real life, you would assume I'd be there the day of release to pick this movie up. And you'd be right.
This is, after all, Marvel's first animated movie. And I do like me some Marvel. The prospect of animated versions of Marvel characters that had never had them before (Thor, Black Widow, etc.) was a tantalizing one. But more thanthat, I think deep down I was excited about this movie because of another show.
And that show is (the late, great) Justice League Unlimited.
I mean, Justice League Unlimited was/is an incredible program. The apex of superhero animation, if you will. Great as Batman: TAS was, there's just something about getting nearly every DC superhero together in one show and just going to town with that concept. It didn't hurt that the show had one of the sharpest voice casts in televised animation, nor that the writing on the show was better than most live-action fare. There's just something wonderful and pure and exciting about the show, and I am willing to worship prostrate at the feet of Bruce Timm as a result, because everything the man touches turns to gold. I am prepared to believe that his tears can cure cancer and/or death, too.
Still, as awesome as it is, it's not Marvel. And, as quoted from directly above, "I do like me some Marvel". With every episode of JLU I saw, I found myself wondering why someone didn't do a big love letter like this for Marvel's characters. When Ultimate Avengers was announced, I was giddy with anticipation that finally, we'd get some high-quality Marvel animation*.
Well...we're closer than ever!
Ultimate Avengers is not a bad movie by any means. It's good fun, and a great fix of superhero action. The opening sequence, featuring Captain America kicking Nazi tail in World War 2, is awesome, and there are lots of other great sequences as well. It's loosely based on the sublime Mark Millar/Bryan Hitch "Ultimates" series, which is probably one of the best superhero books on the racks right now. I say "loosely" because there's no way an accurate version of that series could be done and maintain the movie's PG-13 rating. In order to make up for what was cut out, the writers for the movie inserted some things from the original 616 universe Avengers, and the result is a mishmash of old and new that is designed to have a more family-friendly appeal than Millar and Hitch's work.
This is by no means a bad thing - I've never been very strict when it comes to direct translations between comics and movies. The main criticism most have of the movie is that it's not anything like "Ultimates" and therefore it's bad. I disagree. The movie works on its own merits, and if you ignore the fact that it's not anywhere near as epic or thought-provoking as "Ultimates" then it'll suffice.
So, now that we are judging the movie on its own merits rather than as an adaptation (which, again, it was never meant to be), we can see that what's here is pretty good. The animation ranges from excellent to merely good, though the character designs are pretty solid. It would have been nice to see some more consistency in the quality of character movement, which is something I hope that they will address with the upcoming sequel in August. The voice acting is pretty solid with the possible exception of Bruce Banner, whose voice really does not fit the character and seems a little too hammy. I like the fact that Captain America has a youthful voice, in particular, and even though the Iron Man voice kind of irritated me at first, it grew on me. The writing is also pretty good as well, and it doesn't insult the audience's intelligence, which is all I can really ask for in movies like this.
So that's the good. The bad is that it's far too short. Clocking in at about one hour and ten minutes, it spends nearly half that running time getting the team together. The climactic battle between the Avengers and the alien menace they were designed to combat is over within ten minutes, and that fight goes right into another one that's over even quicker. The entire movie seems to be all buildup and a rushed climax, and it could have definitely benefitted from another half hour to help develop the characters more. We learn all about Captain America, Hulk, and Iron Man, but I would be hard-pressed to expect any non-Marvel fan to tell me much about SHIELD, Thor, or the Wasp just from watching this movie.
Then again, if you don't know about those characters, this movie isn't really FOR you, is it?
It gets three star-type thingies out of five. I'd write more, but I'm tired.
* Besides the MTV Spidey cartoon, which was well-written, intelligent, well-acted, and immersive in a way few superhero cartoons are, and was immediately axed for more reruns of "Next". God, I hate MTV. Hate them so much.
So yeah. I promised a review of Ultimate Avengers. Given my icon and the sorts of things I talk about on a regular basis both here and in real life, you would assume I'd be there the day of release to pick this movie up. And you'd be right.
This is, after all, Marvel's first animated movie. And I do like me some Marvel. The prospect of animated versions of Marvel characters that had never had them before (Thor, Black Widow, etc.) was a tantalizing one. But more thanthat, I think deep down I was excited about this movie because of another show.
And that show is (the late, great) Justice League Unlimited.
I mean, Justice League Unlimited was/is an incredible program. The apex of superhero animation, if you will. Great as Batman: TAS was, there's just something about getting nearly every DC superhero together in one show and just going to town with that concept. It didn't hurt that the show had one of the sharpest voice casts in televised animation, nor that the writing on the show was better than most live-action fare. There's just something wonderful and pure and exciting about the show, and I am willing to worship prostrate at the feet of Bruce Timm as a result, because everything the man touches turns to gold. I am prepared to believe that his tears can cure cancer and/or death, too.
Still, as awesome as it is, it's not Marvel. And, as quoted from directly above, "I do like me some Marvel". With every episode of JLU I saw, I found myself wondering why someone didn't do a big love letter like this for Marvel's characters. When Ultimate Avengers was announced, I was giddy with anticipation that finally, we'd get some high-quality Marvel animation*.
Well...we're closer than ever!
Ultimate Avengers is not a bad movie by any means. It's good fun, and a great fix of superhero action. The opening sequence, featuring Captain America kicking Nazi tail in World War 2, is awesome, and there are lots of other great sequences as well. It's loosely based on the sublime Mark Millar/Bryan Hitch "Ultimates" series, which is probably one of the best superhero books on the racks right now. I say "loosely" because there's no way an accurate version of that series could be done and maintain the movie's PG-13 rating. In order to make up for what was cut out, the writers for the movie inserted some things from the original 616 universe Avengers, and the result is a mishmash of old and new that is designed to have a more family-friendly appeal than Millar and Hitch's work.
This is by no means a bad thing - I've never been very strict when it comes to direct translations between comics and movies. The main criticism most have of the movie is that it's not anything like "Ultimates" and therefore it's bad. I disagree. The movie works on its own merits, and if you ignore the fact that it's not anywhere near as epic or thought-provoking as "Ultimates" then it'll suffice.
So, now that we are judging the movie on its own merits rather than as an adaptation (which, again, it was never meant to be), we can see that what's here is pretty good. The animation ranges from excellent to merely good, though the character designs are pretty solid. It would have been nice to see some more consistency in the quality of character movement, which is something I hope that they will address with the upcoming sequel in August. The voice acting is pretty solid with the possible exception of Bruce Banner, whose voice really does not fit the character and seems a little too hammy. I like the fact that Captain America has a youthful voice, in particular, and even though the Iron Man voice kind of irritated me at first, it grew on me. The writing is also pretty good as well, and it doesn't insult the audience's intelligence, which is all I can really ask for in movies like this.
So that's the good. The bad is that it's far too short. Clocking in at about one hour and ten minutes, it spends nearly half that running time getting the team together. The climactic battle between the Avengers and the alien menace they were designed to combat is over within ten minutes, and that fight goes right into another one that's over even quicker. The entire movie seems to be all buildup and a rushed climax, and it could have definitely benefitted from another half hour to help develop the characters more. We learn all about Captain America, Hulk, and Iron Man, but I would be hard-pressed to expect any non-Marvel fan to tell me much about SHIELD, Thor, or the Wasp just from watching this movie.
Then again, if you don't know about those characters, this movie isn't really FOR you, is it?
It gets three star-type thingies out of five. I'd write more, but I'm tired.
* Besides the MTV Spidey cartoon, which was well-written, intelligent, well-acted, and immersive in a way few superhero cartoons are, and was immediately axed for more reruns of "Next". God, I hate MTV. Hate them so much.