Post by Van Plexico on Feb 21, 2006 22:38:11 GMT -5
Okay, these are my preliminary thoughts about the movie and the DVD in general, after having just run out and bought it at lunch, and then watched it after class tonight.
The movie was better than I expected. Because it was based on ULTIMATES more than AVENGERS, I had my fears. I also worried that it would be dumbed down to the point that I couldn't relate to it.
To my immense relief, it wasn't that dumbed down. There were only a handful of cringe-worthy moments that disappointed me. At least twice that many times, I got actively excited and bounced around while watching it. I mean, hey, these are my boys (and girls) on the screen. I've waited forever to see them portrayed remotely well, and they were. So I was entitled to get excited about it.
Overall, I'd give the movie a "good-to-very-good" rating, considering it was an animated, straight-to-video feature, and based more on ULTIMATES than Avengers (though I liked the costume designs better in the movie than in the actual comic-- they're more like the classic looks, especially Iron Man and Thor... sort of.)
And then, and then, and then. The Special Features. The Avengers Assemble feature!
I did not expect what this turned out to be. I only got to watch the first ten minutes of it, because they were closing up the building and I was enjoying it on the big 19" monitor, but the ten minutes I saw were, by themselves, worth way more than the twelve bucks or whatever I paid Best Buy for the DVD.
We start with Avi Arad and some general comments about the Avengers. Okay, fine. Then we get an extended interview with Tom Brevoort, where he talks about things like how he first discovered the Avengers and what he thought of them. Unexpected, I say! (And Tom came to the book the same time I did, apparently-- in the 160s.)
And then! We get Kurt Busiek and George Perez, back and forth, in what becomes essentially a documentary of the making of AVENGERS volume THREE!! I was expecting Millar and/or Hitch, talking about ULTIMATES-- but we get instead this glorious set of interviews where Kurt and George basically brag on each other, and explain some of how they put volume three together. Volume three! They actually talk about the *good* run of AVENGERS, instead of ULTIMATES! How those guys got away with this-- whose idea it was to talk about Volume three-- I have no idea. But I'm awfully glad they did it.
Holy cow, that was great. Having Tom, Kurt, and George walk through the making of Volume three, the processes and so forth, with George explaining the art, etc... Exceptional. Wonderful. I could not be more pleased. And I've only seen the first ten minutes!
More thoughts later, and a full review coming for the AA.us site. Thanks to all involved. (And the movie was good, too. Ha!)