AVENGERS: Grade, Reviews, Discuss, DVD & Sequel **SPOILERS**

Discussion in 'Science Fiction & Fantasy' started by Captain Craig, Apr 20, 2012.

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How do you grade The Avengers?

Poll closed Nov 26, 2012.
  1. A+

    46.4%
  2. A

    31.8%
  3. A-

    9.3%
  4. B+

    5.3%
  5. B

    3.4%
  6. B-

    1.6%
  7. C+

    0 vote(s)
    0.0%
  8. C

    1.2%
  9. C-

    0.3%
  10. D+

    0.3%
  11. D

    0 vote(s)
    0.0%
  12. D-

    0 vote(s)
    0.0%
  13. F

    0.3%
  1. Sindatur

    Sindatur The Gray Owl Wizard Admiral

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    Heh, why do you care if you don't want to be spoiled :lol: Matter of fact, I'd think you would prefer the comfort of not knowing it was legit, in case someone blurts something out you don't want to know. I'm not looking, NOPE!!!!
     
  2. Captain Craig

    Captain Craig Vice Admiral Admiral

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    As a Hulk fan I'm enjoying all the pro-Hulk chatter by those who've seen the film already. Seems a sequel to Incredible Hulk isn't outside the realm of happening...just not till after an Avengers 2 it seems.

    That could mean 2015/16, also good timing for another soft-reboot cause thats 6-7 years post Norton film.
     
  3. Skywalker

    Skywalker Admiral Admiral

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    Feb 24, 2005
    Sadly, I've already been accidentally spoiled as to who is appearing in the post-credits scene. But that doesn't mean I want to see exactly how the scene plays out.

    Plus I got curious. :ouch:
     
  4. Roshi

    Roshi Admiral Admiral

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    Nov 22, 2004
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    Roshi
    Omigod! I saw it twice today and it's still awesome!
     
  5. Trekker4747

    Trekker4747 Boldly going... Premium Member

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    In anticipation of "The Avengers" due out here the first weekend in May I've watched the lead-up movies to it over the course of the last couple of week to re-familiarize myself with these characters and the movies they come from.

    The project for "Marvel's The Avengers" is probably one of the more ambitious ones undertaken by a movie studio(s) in decades if not THE most ambitious undertaking. Over the last four years Marvel Studios has taken some of the biggest names in their franchise -that they have the power to make movies for-, given them a movie with the hopes of culminating the characters into a big "event movie" of the superhero squad "The Avengers." This would prove to be something of a challenge given that their more popular heroes' movie rites were owned by other studios. If the early word is any indication this is a gamble where Marvel bet it all on 00, spun the wheel and won.

    It all -mostly begins with:

    Iron Man: When this movie came out I was very dubious. Iron Man -as far as I was concerned- was one of Marvel's "B-List" superheroes, not one who was too popularly known outside of comic-book circles and not being a Marvel fan I wasn't too familiar with him either. So I went into this with skepticism further compounded by Robert Downey Jr's reputation up to that point. The movie blew me away, not only did RDJ come-off perfectly cast as an egomaniac billionaire but the chemistry between him and Pepper Pots was just great. This was a movie that really helped to define the tone and intent of the Marvel movies. It's weakest point is probably in a villain but most of the movie focuses on setting up Stark and Iron Man and showing him to be genius industrialist billionaire he is. An A- movie.

    The Incredible Hulk: Something of a soft-reboot to Ang Lee's pretentious "Hulk" from a few years earlier. This movie dropped the notion of trying to be too deep, or cerebral and just brought the Hulk to the screen in the way he probably originally should have been. The movie still has some weak moments -mostly in a female lead- but overall I think it's because it's hard to make the traditional notion of Hulk an interesting and compelling character. When Banner "Hulks Out" he's just pure unchained rampage and not too much more (that is until he gains some control over it.) It's not a whole lot to work with but this effort comes out a touch better than the earlier one and better fits with the "Marvel Movie Universe" that was being established at the time. B-

    Iron Man 2: Iron Man's unbridled success earned him the only Marvel Studio superhero to get a sequel before The Avengers. Unfortuantely the usually brilliant director Jon Favreau seemed to have his hands tied in this one by trying to begin the "official" setup for The Avengers, so that's what this movie brings us (the other movies just had teases in post-credit sequences.) At times this movies comes across as more of "The Avengers" prequel than it does an Iron Man sequel. Granted it spends a lot of time on Tony's/Iron Man's acceptance into the superhero squad but it's still there. RDJ still saves as does the chemistry between him and GP, but the movie still has a bit of that weight to it. It also is dragged down by a recasting of a character sort of altering the tone between the two characters. The movie also treats the subject of Tony's alcoholism and suffering from poisoning from the metal in the device keeping him alive a bit too lightly. (And even for a comic book movie, I thought him making a cyclotron, powering it, and creating a "new element", in his basement was a bit of a stretch. The movie also introduces us to another Marvel "superhero" with the Black Widow an elite government assassin who can kick ass and give you a boner while doing it. On more viewings I like this movie more than I originally did but I think elements of it could've been handled better. (Again, Tony's alcoholism issues could've been a touch-less slapsticky.) B

    Thor: Thor -as a character- was a hard one for me to get into. Given everything comic books presents us with it was a bit difficult to make Norse mythology jive with a comic book world mostly grounded in a ounce or two of the real one. If Thor was a child all of this time, how is he known about -as adult god/demigod- in Earth mythology? Thor et.al. speaks of the "nine realms" which seem to be planets... There are only nine habitable planets in the Marvel Universe? Again, this may all come from me not being a big Marvel (or Thor) fan but it was hard for my logic-mind to comprehend. None-the-less the movie presented the character well and established his origins and such pretty well too. The movie, I think, suffers from Thor's being banished to Earth for his brashness, dealing with being human/mortal, and his redemption and learning of humility to gain his powers back a bit too quickly. Thor seems to change his entire personality to the satisfaction of his father over the course of a couple of days. The movie also lacks a bit in that the "threat" isn't necessarily one to Earth but to an alien race, an evil one at that. But, it was enjoyable in the long run if not for Chris Hemsworth's performance but for Natalie Portman's. :) A-

    Captain America: A character I'd always written off as not much more than a relic of America's version of World War II propaganda that'd been forced into modern times. Frankly, I found him goofy. He throws a shield, he punches Hitler, what else does he do? The movie takes the character and builds a lot more character and background into him than had probably been spent on the other heroes. Set entirely during World War II the movie stays true to the origins of the character -even playing homage to his original purpose in the real world- while also doing the story of how Captain America is brought into modern day. The movie has warmth to it in CA's love interest and a fairly compelling villain. Between Thor and Captain America I'd say CA is the better of the Marvel movies that came out last year. Only Just. A-.

    It's been a long road but it's finally here either this weekend for some or next weekend of the rest of us. A movie that has to balance a handful of interesting characters that've been building up for the last four-five years all played by good actors and even with a small cache of secondary characters to make it even more interesting. I suspect this will all pay off, big-time, for Marvel in the end. Getting here has been a fun and enlightening ride as it made me interested in and fans of a handful of superhero characters I never gave much thought to.
     
  6. Captain Craig

    Captain Craig Vice Admiral Admiral

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    Dec 7, 2003
    Location:
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    Opening numbers are coming in from the international markets where The Avengers has just opened and they are very good!!
    Argh, I have to wait another 9 days to see this!! If this trend continues into the North American market next week it could challenge for the OW record, which I think is $162m by one of the last Potter films.
     
  7. Admiral Buzzkill

    Admiral Buzzkill Fleet Admiral Admiral

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    Mar 8, 2001
    Based on their previous films, they really should.
     
  8. PlainSimpleJoel

    PlainSimpleJoel Fleet Admiral Premium Member

    Joined:
    Jan 18, 2002
    Location:
    Melbourne, Australia
    Been on the other end of waiting for many movies. I think word of mouth will help those people who are undecided about the movie - push them to see it.

    Plus, I think in future years, Anzac Day could be a big day for movies to start here - as the cinemas yesterday were packed. Virtually every session was sold out, and massive lines. Not sure what sessions will be line today, but it should be packed again tonight and over the weekend. Could do at least $15 million by Sunday night.
     
  9. Enterprise is Great

    Enterprise is Great Vice Admiral Admiral

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    Maybe after the Avengers is a huge success they will.
     
  10. chrisspringob

    chrisspringob Commodore Commodore

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    Jan 12, 2003
    Location:
    North Ryde, NSW
    OK, I guess it falls to me to (sort of) run counter to the otherwise glowing praise:

    I enjoyed the movie, and thought it was fun and funny, but I don't think it measured up to its potential, in that the story felt paper thin. I mean, even in a comic book movie, you ideally want to have some kind of substantive character arc for the protagonist or protagonists. Even looking at, say, last year's Thor movie....that movie had a pretty clear character arc for Thor. It was meaningful to talk about where the character was at the beginning vs. at the end.

    In The Avengers, what are the character arcs? Stark learns that there's a benefit to working with others? Captain America learns how to deal with the modern world? That's extremely thin stuff. It seemed like they were going somewhere with Banner's efforts to keep the Hulk contained, but that amounted to nothing in the end. And, surprisingly, the story thread dealing with Thor's relationship to Loki was completely wasted.

    Don't get me wrong. I thought the movie had great Whedonesque dialog. But it still seems like there were some pretty big wasted opportunities here.
     
  11. Captain Craig

    Captain Craig Vice Admiral Admiral

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    How would you grade it chrisspringob?

    I can't say that while I've seen trailers and interviews I've thought about the arcs for characters. I want those development arcs in each solo feature, and they should be there. Since each character has had exposure the film need not really develop them, that's been done(more or less). Here the film should just establish why they are coming together and how they are going to kick ass. Even if that's thinly done, it's the spectacle that is important in this type film I think more so then character growth. They will do that back in the solo franchises which it seems is the beauty of how they've set this up.
     
  12. Admiral_Young

    Admiral_Young Fleet Admiral Admiral

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    Gotham
    Exactly. We're not going to get much character development in "Avengers" since there are still solo film sequels to come afterwards, any real development or furthering of arcs will have been left to the writer's of those films. So if you were going into the film thinking there would be some focus on that then I'm not sure what you expecting in the first place. This is a team up film. Think of the previous films as perhaps single issues and this is the first team up "crossover event" of the MCU :)
     
  13. Admiral Buzzkill

    Admiral Buzzkill Fleet Admiral Admiral

    Joined:
    Mar 8, 2001
    I thought Thor's "character arc" was trivial and by-the-numbers; basically, a little rough treatment by Dad and spending a couple of days eating diner food in the Southwest was enough to effect a transformation in his values and world-view. A little street fight with a fire-breathing empty tin suit and we're done. :lol:

    The only Marvel movie (not counting Spider-Sony) with a particularly strong script has been Captain America.
     
  14. davejames

    davejames Vice Admiral Admiral

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    Yeah, none of the Marvel movies have been particularly deep or complex. The "character arcs", if you want to call them that, were always pretty standard and by the numbers.
     
  15. superdeluxe

    superdeluxe Captain Captain

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  16. Scout101

    Scout101 Admiral Admiral

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    Aug 21, 2003
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    Wasn't really expecting anything much deeper than "Hulk Smash!"
     
  17. Sagart

    Sagart Fleet Captain Fleet Captain

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    Apr 3, 2001
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    Northern Ireland
    Just back from it. It's as if Joss Whedon went back in time to when I was 8 and planted a camera in my imagination. It was wonderful and everything I dreamed of for the Avengers on screen. Thrilling, funny and, yes, heartbreaking. Whedon pulls his Serenity trick of hitting the fans with a tragic surprise and sets up a truly epic ending. I can't wait to see it again. Oh, A+, in case you hadn't guessed.
     
  18. Roshi

    Roshi Admiral Admiral

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    Shoot To Thrill!

    Bring on third viewing!
     
  19. SonOfMogh

    SonOfMogh Commander Red Shirt

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    Nov 6, 2004
    Location:
    UK
    Saw this today, awesome!!

    Has to be my favourite superhero movie so far.


    Puny god!
     
  20. Harvey

    Harvey Admiral Admiral

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    Oct 8, 2005
    He already did that on Captain America: The First Avenger. But it seems like a wise thing to have him continue doing (although I expect Shane Black to be just fine on his own for Iron Man 3).