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Van Plexico
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Van's ULTIMATE AVENGERS DVD Full Review
« Thread Started on Feb 23, 2006, 10:49pm »

[This review was written at the request of RevolutionSF.com and is now posted there, as well: http://www.revolutionsf.com/article.html?id=3063 ]

ULTIMATE AVENGERS DVD: The Power and the Glory, Sort Of
by Van Plexico

Anyone who grew up a Marvel fan in the Seventies or Eighties knows all about disappointment when it comes to seeing our favorite characters and stories translated to the big (or little) screen.

For most of our lives, the thought of a Marvel property on television or film instantly brought about an involuntary wince, a gag reflex, an aversion or downcasting of the eyes in shame.

Face it, friends: Everything Marvel touched, in live-action or animation, turned to crap.

Then came the X-MEN movie, and the SPIDER-MAN movie, and their sequels. Suddenly, Marvel wasn't such a joke anymore, outside the pages of their comic books. Suddenly, Marvel properties seemed cooler to a whole new audience. A much bigger audience.

Suddenly, Marvel had a license to print money.

With that money and popularity, Marvel has started to exercise its influence, to a much greater degree, on the actual writing and production of its features. This is what we would call a Good Thing.

The latest fruits begot of this new arrangement: ULTIMATE AVENGERS, Marvel's first straight-to-DVD animated release. While based primarily on the ULTIMATES comics series by Mark Millar and Bryan Hitch, it's as close to a genuine AVENGERS movie as we're likely to get for some time, and is in fact a tiny bit closer than one might expect to that source.

The ULTIMATES series, which sought to modernize the entire Avengers mythos and make things much grimmer, grittier, and over-the top, certainly had its bad points along with its good. Longtime fans might well complain that the characters were transformed into exaggerated charicatures of their former selves-- drunken womanizer Tony Stark, wife-beater Hank Pym-- and they would be right. Still, the level of the writing was such that even the most die-hard old-timer had to admit the thing represented quality.

Thus it is probably not a terribly Bad Thing that Marvel chose the ULTIMATES storyline as the basis for this animated feature. The fact that they then softened it all up a bit, blending in more than a little of the traditional Avengers look and feel, only helps.

Add to that one additional fact: At its core, the film is about Captain America as a man lost to his own time, and finding his way in the modern world, clinging to his old ideals in the face of modern complexities. This is entirely as it should be. The fact that the filmmakers, for the most part, carry it off gives a heart and a soul to what otherwise could easily have been a joke of a movie, full of sound and Nick Fury but signifying little.

All the bells and whistles surrounding that story are nice, as they should be. We get some nice battle sequences between the not-terribly-cooperative Avengers and their first set of foes, and then a fantastic action sequence near the end, involving the Hulk. This is what Avengers fans signed up for, and they should not be disappointed by that final act of the movie.

The animation is not particularly smooth, but the characters look right--and closer to their classic looks than they appeared in ULTIMATES -- and the voice work, for the most part, is acceptable. The music is probably one of the high points-- it sounds at least as good as the scores of most of the big-budget Marvel movies, if not better, with a grand, sweeping theme that conveys the power and the glory of Earth's Mightiest Heroes.

The real gem on this DVD, however, is the "Avengers Assemble" documentary under "Special Features"-- and I don't just say that because I run the Web site of the same name. This twenty minute set of intertwined interviews gives us a look into the thoughts of Tom Brevoort, Joe Quesada, Mark Millar, Kurt Busiek and George Perez, as they discuss the conceptualizing and executing of AVENGERS volume three, ULTIMATES, and NEW AVENGERS. The exchanges between Busiek and Perez, in particular, are worth the price of the DVD by themselves. George Perez's sheer enthusiasm for the Avengers and for comics in general is enough to make even the most jaded fanboy and fangirl want to drag out their long boxes and dig into the classics.

Is this a perfect movie? Certainly not. Is it better than we had any right to expect, from a direct-to-video, animated feature, based on a series (ULTIMATES) that probably offended as many Avengers fans as it pleased? Oh, yes.

Get it, enjoy it for what it is, and then stash it away and keep waiting for the day when we finally get that long-dreamed-of, giant-budgeted Avengers: The Motion Picture. And, in the meantime, go dig out all those old Perez AVENGERS issues and revel once again in the power and the glory that is Earth's Mightiest Heroes.

Van Plexico is Webmaster of the AvengersAssemble! site, http://www.avengersassemble.net. He possesses many Avengers-like qualities, including the hipness of Captain America, the self-restraint of Henry Pym, and the sobriety of Tony Stark.

« Last Edit: Feb 25, 2006, 12:25pm by Van Plexico »

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Re: Van's ULTIMATE AVENGERS DVD Full Review
« Reply #1 on Feb 27, 2006, 1:02pm »

I agree with Van's review, with many of his same feelings. I thought the voice actors were good -- none of the silly "gruff" characters like we've seen with Wolverine and the Thing over the years. I personally did not care for Hank Pym -- too much of a departure from the classic characterization. However, as this film relates to the Ultimates, it was an able homage. The battle with the Hulk was particularly good.

And to also echo Van, the interview portion of the DVD was top-notch, and a strange yet welcome addition to the film package. In regards to Quesada's comments on the New Avengers, in his theory I think his points were good (the Avengers has always been Earth's Mightiest Heroes, so why can't mighty heroes like Spider-Man and Wolverine be in the book?). I just don't care for the way Bendis has written this concept...

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Re: Van's ULTIMATE AVENGERS DVD Full Review
« Reply #2 on Feb 28, 2006, 2:50am »

If it were not for the intense hunger that Avenger fans have lived with for years, this film would be simply a kids movie. Thor: his hammer, now an axe; Pym: cocky, what happened to the insecurity?; Captain America: Bucky DOESN'T die!, seriously; Bruce Banner: I don't even know where the Hulk's alter ego is going. Wasp, Hulk, and Iron Man: pretty close. All in all, I own it, will watch it again. But I will re-echo the echo: extras were good and I find myself STILL eagerly awaiting the next DVD installment. But will things get "better" or "worse" for long-time Avenger Fans? I also must echo that if the present is any indicator of the future; Marvel movies will only get better.

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Shiryu
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Re: Van's ULTIMATE AVENGERS DVD Full Review
« Reply #3 on Mar 3, 2006, 9:42am »

Haven't seen the DVD (and doesn't look like I will see it anytime soon), but, relying on the comments above, it seems fairly interesting, expecially the section with Busiek and Perez ! I enjoyed that part of V3 a lot, and I also like a lot reading about the BTS events, so it sounds great !
I will try to look for it on ebay or amazon in Europe (to save the postage from the States), with a bit of luck I'll eventually find it at an honest price.

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Van Plexico
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Re: Van's ULTIMATE AVENGERS DVD Full Review
« Reply #4 on Mar 4, 2006, 9:50pm »

There is a short preview of the sequel movie, which seems to involve another longtime Avenger joining the ranks. I'm not quite sure what to make of it.

We didn't really have a bigtime Avengers villain in this one, and I can't really tell about the sequel, either. But these are based on ULTIMATES, and that's pretty much been true there, too. Who've we had there? The Hulk... the Skrulls... these sort of Anti-Avengers currently in the book... No sign of Kang or Ultron (sort of) or anyone like that. So I guess it shouldn't be surprising from the movies, either...

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