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Ultimate Avengers: The Movie -Lion’s Gate Home Entertainment (2006)
Summary: When Captain America throws his mighty shield, all that choose to oppose his shield must yield! Plus, the other Avengers kick a lot of ass as well. My Thoughts:
They are Earth’s Mightiest Heroes. No, I’m not talking about the Justice League. While they are pretty mighty, the Avengers have self-proclaimed vast amounts of mightiness to brag about. For years I’ve been waiting for some sort of Marvel answer to the Justice League’s awesome series and we finally have it. Given the fact that this feature is a straight to DVD venture, I had some doubts about it. The commercials I was bombarded with on all my favorite channels were too tempting to let me pass it up so I laid down the cash for this edition. First of all if you’re confused about why this is called “Ultimate” Avengers, stop reading and immediately go to a comic book store and have a nerd explain to you what the Ultimate line is. Okay, I know that’s a lot of ask so I’ll sum it up very shortly. Basically, Marvel reworked a lot of their popular titles to make them more “up to date.” Instead of going horribly wrong like their other attempt (see: Rob Liefield’s retarded re-visioning of Captain America), the Ultimate line has some pretty strong writing and great re-interpretations of the characters. This movie takes its inspiration from the Ultimate line and has a few of the sequences from the comic. In the film, Nick Fury is in charge of a government organization called S.H.I.E.L.D. who is monitoring an alien presence that’s been on Earth since World War II. The great superhero from War World II, Captain America, is found frozen in the Artic and miraculously is brought back to the world of the living. In the meanwhile Bruce Banner, a.k.a. The Hulk, is working for S.H.I.E.L.D. trying to find the secret to the super soldier serum that made Captain America who he is. S.H.I.E.L.D. doesn’t have a whole lot of time before the aliens begin their plan for world domination or something (this is never made that clear). The Avengers are gathered to combat the threat and the great moments of the film are seeing the characters learn how to work together despite all their incredible differences. ****Spoiler Alert **** One of things that really got me to like this movie was the fact that the Avengers completely blow their first team adventure. There’s nothing like watching nearly invincible super heroes fuck up royally to raise the stakes on future missions. ****End Spoiler Alert**** Since this is an animated feature I figured that the violence and more adult aspects of the comic would be cut out. While it has been toned down, this is not entirely a child friendly flick. There’s enough on screen death to know that the aliens mean business. There was also a hint at Tony Stark’s eventual problems with drinking so keep the kids away from this one. The animation isn’t the best thing I’ve ever seen, but it is a lot better than I expected. It captures the look and the feel of the Avengers in its own style. It’s reminiscent of the X-Men: Evolution series and for good reason, since a few of the creators of that series worked on this project. My main thought during watching this feature for the first time was thus: Why the hell isn’t this a live action Avenger’s film? It’s about eight times better than the plot for the first X-Men and stands head and shoulders above super hero flicks like Daredevil. My guess is that with all the special effects needed to replicate the kind of showdown the team has with the Hulk, this film would cost more than all of the superhero films released in the last two years. The only problem I have with the film is that the basic structure of the plot is very similar to the Justice League Animated series first episode. Hopefully, that’s only a horrible coincidence. For those of you who are too into the comics to forget that this is an adaptation you’ll have problems so don’t even bother buying this. For the rest of us normal folks, you should like it. If you have any doubt about spending your cash on this one, buy it. There’s a great story, all kinds of super heroic action, and a fantastic 5.1 surround mix.
Extras: Unfortunately, there’s no commentary track on this edition. What you get is a trivia track that serves the same purpose. I’d rather have to listen to someone telling me the same stuff instead of having to read all this text, but it’s still a good substitution for a commentary track. “Avengers Assemble” is a featurette that’s a nice little look about the Avengers comic in a sort of broad prospective. There’s a lot of info about the reboot of the series that happened fairly recently for those who need to catch up on what’s happened in the comics. The other featurette “The Ultimate Voice Talent Search” is what happens when you solicit actors for your cartoon via the internet. It’s sort of a American Idol of okay to horribly awful audition tapes that’s worth a look if you like to see people make fools of themselves. The best one by far is the guy who reads the frightening line that Giant Man says in the comic before he nearly kills Wasp. If you put the disc in your DVD Rom drive a little quiz called “Which Avenger Are You?” will pop up. I’m proud to say that I’m Iron Man. After you find out which Avenger you sort of resemble in some vague way this feature is pretty much useless. There’s a bit of a sneak preview of the next Ultimate Avenger’s movie. Awesome! And lastly, there’s the teaser and full length trailer. Score: Film: 9.0 Extras: 7.0 Edition: 7.0 Retail Store Exclusives: If you happened to buy this edition on release at Target you got a CD Rom that contains the first issue of The Hulk. It’s nothing super special, but at least it’s something. If you purchased it at Wal*Mart you got a small sized comic book. The comic is neat and all, but I’m not sure it reaches the right target for the DVD, since it’s mostly talking and not a whole lot of action. Best Buy gave away some trading cards on release. I’m not too big on trading cards anymore so that one didn’t really impress me much. Circuit City gave away free candy... way to try guys. -Paul
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An
Overly Critical Nerd Nitpick: