Avengers movie

...or Marvel's Avengers Assemble, as it's called over here in the UK - and as stated by the brief, and somewhat tacky-looking, title sequence at the beginning of this highly-anticipated summer movie. And, for me, the levels of anticipation were perhaps a little too high for this film to meet. My excitement over this movie had been dialled up to 11 so that when I went to see this last night I was slightly underwhelmed.

Now, I should be clear here, I liked the movie a lot. There was plenty of action, some witty one-liners and visual humour, great effects and a decent story that showcased every member of this superhero extravaganza. It's just that it didn't really make me want to punch the air and yell, "F*$# Yeah!" Perhaps a more stirring score would've helped? Certainly, I felt that Iron Man was a better movie (though the Avengers did have a more impressive final fight scene).

I also had to put up with watching this in 3D - the 2D version was shown either too early or far too late in the day at the cinema I went to. Still, at least the 3D effect was reasonably subtle. And, as is always my experience with 3D films, by about halfway through the film my brain had adapted so that I no longer noticed the effect (I was just left with the uncomfortable feeling from wearing the plastic glasses!).

There were some wonderful moments in the film - seeing Captain America leaping from car to car down mainstreet USA whilst explosions erupted around him, Hulk showing Loki who's boss ("Puny god!"), Black Widow 'questioning' Loki in his cell - and lots of gloriously over-the-top action. It was just what a summer action movie should be.

Pretty much everyone was given a chance to shine. For me, Tom Hiddleston did a fantastic job as Loki and I'm still impressed with Chris Hemsworth's portrayal of Thor (I love how he twirls Mjolnir around just before he flies away). RDJ is still the best man for the role of acid-tongued Tony Stark and Mark Ruffalo's fidgety, nervous Bruce Banner was probably the best version of the Hulk's pre-shirt-ripping alter ego to date.

Regarding the ending, I can see why some folk wouldn't have had a clue who the Big Bad shown post-credits was. He's only briefly shown - and he looks red as well, for some reason. No, he is not Hellboy nor Red Hulk. It's quite a bold move and Avengers 2 should be quite spectacular if this villain is involved (especially if he gains a certain golden gauntlet).

So, overall, a very enjoyable movie just not as incredible as I thought it would be. Still, it's a very impressive - and highly successful - act in emulating the comicbooks and bringing us this superhero movie crossover.

Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes

I'm a big fan of superhero cartoons - even if my wife thinks they're childish - but I often don't get to see a lot of the American output due to not having a satellite or cable subscription. Thank goodness for good ol' YouTube then.

Whilst browsing YouTube on my iPod, I first came across large numbers of X-Men: Evolution that Marvel have posted on the video sharing site. Amusingly (well, I thought so), in the description to these excellent X-Men cartoons, there's a note from Marvel to go and buy the episodes from iTunes. Why would anyone do that when they're able to watch these ones Marvel themselves have provided for free?

Anyway, after watching a few of these episodes, I noticed someone had (illegally) posted the recent Avengers: Earth Mightiest Heroes cartoons on there and so I had a look. And I'm very glad I did!

The series has obviously been created to ride the wave of interest associated with the recent Marvel movies, including the upcoming Avengers movie. Here, the animated Iron Man sounds quite like Robert Downey Jnr, he has a computer system called JARVIS, Captain America fights HYDRA in WW2 not Nazis and Thor meets Jane Foster who looks similar to Natalie Portman. It also uses a line-up close to that in the Avengers movie - Iron Man, Thor, Hulk, Hawkeye, Black Widow, Nick Fury, Captain America as well as Ant Man/Giant Man and the Wasp. And if the movie version can be half as exciting as this, it'll be amazing.

What I love about it is the way the show is organised and how a common series-wide storyline is woven into each episode.

It starts right in the middle of the action with the big four supervillain prisons - the Cube, the Vault, Big House and the Raft - shutting down, releasing all of the villains inside. So, it's a bit like the beginning of the New Avengers series in 2004 only multiplied by four! More worrying though, it also releases Graviton, a corrupt and very powerful ex-SHIELD scientist, who now has the power to command gravity itself. A number of individual heroes - Thor, Hulk, Iron Man, Ant Man and the Wasp (echoing the original Avengers as Cap and others heroes join later) - arrive on the scene and join forces to take down this single, city-destroying menace in a blistering two-part opener. Following the battle, they decide to remain together as a team to help track down the other 74 supervillains.

Then, instead of continuing onwards with the storyline showing the heroes rounding up the villains, the next five episodes detail some of the heroes' background leading up to the big breakout. Each features an individual hero (or both Ant Man and Wasp for the 7th ep) and explains what the heroes were doing before the series opener plus character origins, where required. These expand on many of the unexplained threads from the first two episodes and hint at who, or what, might have been behind the simultaneous mass supervillain breakout.

Again, in a way it mirrors Marvel's method in managing its movies. Each character in the Avengers is given his own movie (or two) to introduce the character and explain his background whilst throwing a few hints regarding the overarching Avengers Universe. The same occurs here but with 25-minute episodes instead of movies. It works extremely well, keeping things episodic whilst also having an ongoing storyline.

Of course, with the whole Marvel Universe at it's disposal there are plenty of appearances from other superheroes and supervillains. From Wolverine as one of Fury's Howling Commandos in Captain America's past to Kang the Conqueror who travels back from the future to ensure his timeline isn't wiped from existence.

The stories are engaging, the action wonderfully relentless and the voice acting is decent too. The only negative thing I would say is that the art and animation is sometimes a bit rough; it doesn't look as accomplished as DC's Justice League Unlimited, for example. Still, after watching the first batch of this Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes series, I'm hooked.

Avengers Movie

Large crossover events, where characters from a number of different comicbooks come together to fight some great evil, may be somewhat overused in comics nowadays but back when I was a teenager this idea was awesome. Skip forward a (ahem) few years and I remember being incredibly excited when Marvel announced they were going to do the same thing with movies. They were going to crossover a number of superhero films they were producing at the time and create the Avengers!

Iron Man, Hulk, Thor and Captain America would join Nick Fury, Black Widow and Hawkeye (and, ya never know, perhaps even the Wasp) together on screen to form one of my favourite ever comicbook superteams (I even have the t-shirt!). At the time, I was skeptical thinking it was all media buzz and would probably never come to fruition. However, it looks like things are going ahead and the film should arrive next year.

And, of course, as a couple of stepping stones to that event, I'm looking forward to the movie versions of Thor and Captain America; the first trailer for the latter is due to be shown tomorrow during the Superbowl.