The Avengers Preview, Mk. II

The city is collapsing out of the sheer awesomeness.

When this blog was still young, we'd heard that Marvel was going to make an Avengers movie. I had the privilege to write a preview article for it. Here we are two weeks before the worldwide release of the greatest undertaking in comic-book movie history. Two weeks from this time the reviews will be out, you and your friends may have seen it, and a TON of people are going to be talking about it. Two weeks until Marvel's The Avengers comes out, and here's preview article Mark II.

If you think early reviews are anything to go on, then you'll be interested in reading this. If you aren't the kind of person who wants to hear anything about a movie before you see it, then this isn't the article for you. Also, how did you get here anyways? No, but really...

I see an awesome movie for you...
and millions of dollars for me.

Joss Whedon is one of my favorite writers and directors. He's also a huge Marvel fan. A lot of people could make an Avengers movie work. What sets Joss apart in my mind is that I believe he can make it work, and also make it amazing. My feelings about this movie were already very positive. After reading early reviews for The Avengers, I was left feeling extremely confident that The Avengers was going to be a good movie.

Did I have crucial plot points spoiled for me by a few poor reviewers? Yarp. Will that ruin the movie for me when I see it May 4 at 12:01? Not even a little. Today though the icing was placed on the cake, and it is yummy icing indeed. I'm generally a huge fan of the website RottenTomatoes. I rarely have an argument with the percentage a movie is given on their site. If you are feeling uncertain about how The Avengers is going to turn out, then hopefully this rating will put you at ease.

Can you say Hulk smash box office? How about great character moments? Good storyline? I hope you can. Otherwise...sorry. Here's what we can expect from this movie.

 Spoiler alert on.

You keep doing your thing, Thor, I'll just continue being awesome.

The Avengers is going to be a war movie. Ironman, Captain America, Hulk, Black Widow, Hawkeye, Agent Coulson, Nick Fury, and the rest of SHIELD are going to be defending Earth from a giant alien invasion. If any of these characters gets to say they are the main character, it's Captain America. Whedon has said he's telling the story mostly from his point of view.

I don't need you Tony.
F. Scott Fitzgerald and I are B.F.F.s

The invasion will be led by Thor's treacherous brother, Loki. The aliens have been named, but you'll have to get that information somewhere else, because I think this should be mostly spoiler-free. The end of Thor shows us that the cosmic cube (or the "tesseract" as Marvel Studios likes to call it) will be a key plot element, and Loki will be controlling the minds of a few of our good characters. Adding this to the tension that will be prevalent between the heroes that are brought together should lead to some epic hero versus hero battles. The trailers already show us that we'll get to see Thor, Ironman, and Cap all duke it out with each other. On an epic scale I would say this movie will be right up there with bow-ties and fez's.

There's going to be some really cool new stuff showing up in terms of technology and equipment. The SHIELD Helicarrier and Quinjet will be featured, and will function as the Avenger's base of operations. Speaking of which, we get a pretty good look at STARK Tower, also a new thing in this movie. Will it be akin to the Stark Mansion in the comics, and soon house the HQ of the Avengers? We'll see!

This...is...MY...GLORIOUS...MOMENT...in...the...movie...

The three "big guns" will all be getting new outfits. Thor loses his sleeves and wears a much smaller, lighter set of armor than he did in his film debut. The reason for this was that Joss didn't want to have the heroes look super flashy and steal the camera. By toning down the costumes, he allows us to focus on the story more. Captain America gets a new suit that's more in vein with the classic Captain America costume (skintight blue). Personally I liked the costume in TFA more, as does Chris Evans, but I guess to keep things fresh they had to do it. Expect to see lots of jokes and memes about Cap's helmet post-release. Ironman brings out a whole new armor in the form of the Mark VII. The armor will revert back to the original circular chest-piece, instead of the new triangle chest-piece that seemed to be such a huge deal in Ironman II. Joss had a couple things to say about this armor. About the circle chest-piece: "The triangle is a**." Thanks Joss. He said he likes the classic Ironman look over the new triangle. The team in charge of designing the new armor said Joss approached them early on and told them how much he loved the Mark V (The suitcase). He wanted to see the Mark VII have the same "cool factor". I guess we'll just have to see what that ends up being! Black Widow shows up in her normal, tight, black leather. Nick Fury is rockin' the eye accessories again. Agent Coulson will wear his ever-so-classy suit-and-tie.

New Man-Crush? I think so...

We see a couple new faces as well. Although Hawkeye made a brief appearance in Thor, he's going to get some real screen time hero as the master-archer SHIELD agent. Nick Fury is a key element to this story, and has also had very little (albeit important) time in the spotlight. As the head of the Avengers, expect him to get a lot of attention. His second-in-command will also debut. Agent Maria Hill is the by-the-rules character foil of Nick Fury, and we'll hope to see some good moments between the two of them. The Hulk shows up with a new actor in the form of Mark Ruffalo. Mark plays Bruce Banner and ALSO plays the hulk through motion-capture technology. Although not a new character to the story, we can also expect to see a brief appearance by Pepper Potts.

To say a lot in a little, early reviews say this (spoiler alert still on):

• Banner/Hulk steals the spotlight, and is fantastic

• Epic-ness on such a grand scale.... you'll wet yourself

• Joss is the invisible character. His humor and wit is all over the place, along with plot spins and great character moments

• You want a superhero battle? You'll get plenty

• Everyone gets their time to shine

• Loki is ridiculously menacing

• The third act of this movie is possibly the most epic third act of any movie, and alone is more awesome than all the lead-in movies put together

STAY DURING AND AFTER THE CREDITS

I shall say no more.

I hope you enjoy this movie as much as I know I'm going to. Expect to get a review on May 4!

Cobie Smulders? Yes please. Yes.
So good...

If you didn't know already...  The Avengers stars Robert Downey Jr. (Tony Stark/Ironman), Chris Evans (Steve Rodgers/Captain America), Chris Hemsworth (Thor), Mark Ruffalo (Bruce Banner/Hulk), Tom Hiddleston (Loki), Samuel L. Jackson (Nick Fury), Clark Gregg (Phil Coulson), Scarlett Johansson (Natasha Romanov/Black Widow), Jeremy Renner (Clint Barton/Hawkeye), and Cobie Smulders (Maria Hill).

Comments welcome!

Your friendly neighborhood Spiderman,

Zack

P.S. If you've been following our series Marvel's Expanding Universe, expect to see parts 3, 4, and possibly 5 next week. Part 3 comes out on Tuesday the 24th! Be sure to check out Part 1 and Part 2!