Brace yourself!! This is
the longest blog so far, there’s just so much to talk about, like why it’s
called The Avengers in America and Avengers Assemble, which is a good title,
but a title for the inevitable sequel. Apparently it’s because the Americans
think we’re retarded, somewhat bottle & kettle I think, as the upper crust pipe smokers and cockney chimney
sweeps we are, we British are either to inbreed or illiterate to distinguish
between a group of superheroes fighting the forces of evil, and a camp sixties
secret agent television series, or its subsequent big screen re-hash.
So to help prevent any
of your brains exploding from the concept that Uma Thurman isn’t in this one,
I’ve split the usual ramblings into easy to manage sections, so if it all gets
a little much you can have a nap halfway, and not get lost on your way back.
Marvel
Don’t go for that nap
yet, here’s the history lesson. Founded in 1939 under the name Timely Comics
the giant of panels and speech bubbles was born. By the 1950’s it had taken its
first alter ego in Atlas Comics, fighting crime and fleecing children
everywhere of their pocket money. It wasn’t until the early 60’s the identity
of Marvel Comics was assumed, named after Timely’s first publication. It was
here the publisher put on its cape and big boy pants, and became the legend we
all know and love.
Coincidently this was
also the time a man named Stan came to Marvel town, and with his friends Jack
Kirby & Steve Ditko created a collection of superheroes. A roster unlike
any other, although DC Comics would give it a bloody good go, a roster that
includes: Spider Man, The Hulk, The Fantastic Four, Iron Man, Thor and X-Men.
Marvel has always regaled
us with the adventures of its heroes through the medium of comics, but from
early on they ventured into the realm of the moving image. In the late 60’s
they licenced out its characters resulting in animated productions of
Spiderman, Thor, Iron Man, and their pre-Marvel creations Captain America and
Sub-Mariner.
During the 1980’s Marvel
also had its own production company, Marvel Productions, who with collaboration are
responsible for some of the most popular animated series of the decade,
including: Transformers, My Little Pony & G.I.Joe (or Action Force as it
was known on these shores)
In 1990 we received a
Captain America movie, but anyone who’s seen it will understand why it took so
long for the current comic book explosion. DC Comics had had some success with
the Superman movies in the late 70’s & early 80’s, and then again with
Batman in the late 80’s & early 90’s, however it wasn’t until Bryan Singer
gave us X-Men that comic movies took off, now every summer is littered with
superhero films.
The build up
Comic books are a fairly
standard source for movies nowadays, but as I’ve mentioned it wasn’t until the
success of X-men that the world of comics became so acceptable. Since then
we’ve not only had a slew of super hero movies, but comics, and graphic novels
have been used as source material for a number of other films, such as: From
Hell, 300, V for Vendetta & Sin City.
Marvel had already put
out a couple of films based on their most well-known characters in conjunction
with other studios, but it wasn’t until Iron Man that they made a live action
movie all by themselves. This is also where the first seeds of The Avengers
movie were sown. After the credits, something that would become a trend, Tony
Stark is approached by Nick Fury about the Avenger initiative.
The Incredible Hulk was
released the same year, a lose sequel to the 2003 Ang Lee film Hulk. After
re-acquiring the films rights from Universal Marvel were able to tie the series
into the grand scheme. The post credit sequence shows Tony Stark (Robert Downey
Jr) approaching Bruce Banner about the Avengers. Edward Norton, who plays
Banner in The Incredible Hulk, was originally going to reprise the role in
Avengers Assemble, but was later replaced by Mark Ruffalo.
In 2010 we get an Iron
man sequel which takes place several months after the events of the first film,
and directly before Marvels next film Thor. The post credit sequence shows
Agent Coulson in the desert, following up the discovery of Thor’s hammer.
Iron Man 2 also introduces us to Scarlett Johansson’s character Black Widow.
2011 brings us the last
of the run up films, Thor and Captain America. Thor as well as revolving around
the Asgardian, introduces us to Hawkeye. The final two films also lay a lot of
the ground work for Avengers Assemble, but you don’t need to see them to enjoy
the film, everything is made pretty clear.
Joss Whedon
if you don’t know who
Joss Whedon is you can’t call yourself a geek, he’s the man behind some of the
greatest Sci-fi & Fantasy series of the last twenty years. The creator of
Buffy the Vampire Slayer, its spin-off series Angel, Firefly, which may have
been short lived, but also spawned the excellent film Serenity, and most
recently Dollhouse.
As well as writing and
directing countless episodes of the aforementioned series, he wrote the scripts
for the original Buffy movie and Alien Resurrection, and co-wrote Toy Story.
He’s also not unfamiliar
with the world of comics, being a fan himself he’s made numerous comic
references within Buffy, for example when the character Xander loses an eye and
starts wearing an eye patch, he likens himself to Nick Fury. For anyone who
isn’t familiar with the Nick Fury character outside the recent marvel films, before the
introduction of the Ultimate Avengers comics Fury was a white man who had
fought in Vietnam. It was in the ultimate avengers, an updated retelling of the
Avengers adventures, Fury became black, who at one point is described as Samuel
L. Jackson with an eye patch, which is why it was so cool that Jackson was
signed up to play Fury in the new films.
Okay went a little off
track there, back to Whedon’s comic book credentials. As well as writing for
spin-offs of his own productions, he has also written for the X-men comics, so
he’s certainly familiar with the world of superheroes and the world of marvel.
So not only does he know his comics, he’s also well versed in high concept
production, he’s a skilled writer and an accomplished director.
Avengers assemble
This is the greatest
comic book movie ever made, and will take some beating, though it has
competition on its way later this year from Spiderman reboot, The Amazing
Spiderman, and the final part of Christopher Nolan’s Batman Trilogy, Dark
Knight Rises.
A film which technically
has taken a decade of build-up, and six other movies to get there. A movie I’ve
been creaming over since Iron man, and every instalment up to this point. A
movie that was every fanboys wet dream, a movie that was worth the wait, and a movie
rarer than a unicorn pimped out in leprechaun gold, a movie I would actually
pay to see again.
It’s got all the things
any fan wants to see from a movie of this nature, smack downs between the
various heroes, Iron Man vs. Thor and Thor vs. Hulk. As well as an epic, city
wide scrap between The Avengers, Loki & the alien Hordes.
One thing I can say for
certain is Hulk steals the show, big green gives us the two funniest moments of
the film. Moments where, and I’ve never experienced this before, even when
seeing a comedy, everyone in the theatre was laughing, and not just a little,
but a lot. Laughing so hard and long, I was starting to wish to myself that
they’d all shut up so I could hear the film, wishing while hypocritically
laughing myself.
Animated
Marvel have made a
number of animated movies based upon their characters, including two Avengers
movies. The best of these films are:
·
The Next
Avengers – The original Avengers are dead, at least most of them. One of the
survivors Tony Stark a.k.a. Ironman has spent the last 13 years in hiding, as
protector of the next generation, the child of the Avengers.
·
Thor: Tales
of Asgard – The first major adventure of Thor, Loki, Sif & The Warriors
Three
·
Planet Hulk
– After being exiled from earth, Hulk finds himself on an alien world where he
is forced to take part in gladiatorial battles.
And that’s me done.
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