Praise4Media #66 - Avengers: Endgame

We finally come to the payoff to 12 years of Marvel films with Avengers: Endgame

Avengers Infinity War was a massive hit for Marvel, breaking the $2bn mark for the first time, Endgame would surpass it to become the highest grossing film ever, beating out Avatar (though still didn’t beat The Force Awakens in the US) and thank god that era’s over. It was a hell of an investment for Disney but one that paid off nicely, showing how far Superhero movies have come in the last 20 years.

And much with the rest of Marvel films, it was critically successful, 94% on Rotten Tomatoes with 8.42/10 average.

OK, this film is just over 3 hours long, the longest film I’ve done up to now is Batman v Superman’s extended cut and I don’t really desire to do a frame-by-frame plot dump for the opening hour. I’m gonna use this particular film to try something a little new. So, whilst this review may end up being on the shorter side because of this, I am looking to see if this is a worthwhile change because with all the changes going on at the moment, it’s getting tougher to motivate myself to do these anymore.

Praise4Media #57 - Avengers: Infinity War

It’s time, after a decade’s worth of buildup we begin the most ambitious crossover Marvel has ever put into film with Avengers: Infinity War

Infinity War is a movie adaptation of an event comic, not exactly the one it's named after but the concept in general. And not a personal, small story like Heroes in Crisis (come back next week for that) but a grand scale epic saga that brings together characters from across the universe. And it’s been building for a while, with the idea of infinity stones introduced properly in Thor: The Dark World (I know the tesseract predates, but this was the film where they were officially referred to as infinity stones) referenced in Guardians of the Galaxy and Doctor Strange and expanded on in Avengers: Age of Ultron.

Thanos was introduced as early as the Avengers, making his official debut in Guardians of the Galaxy, where his two ‘daughters’ had become prominent characters. There’s usually build-up to event comics too. Infinite Crisis built off Identity Crisis, Day of Vengeance, The Omac Project, Villains United, pages of Justice League, Superman and Teen Titans and the Rann/Thanagar War. Secret Empire built off a crossover called Pleasant Hill, and the events of Captain America

The Infinity duo of films will draw off just about every film in the MCU but here are some important things you could do with knowing before jumping in.

The Time Stone is part of Doctor Strange’s Eye of Agamotto

The Space Stone/Tesseract was supposedly on Asgard when it was destroyed, we see Loki gaze upon it briefly when he was enacting the plan, and it's safe to assume he took it.

The Power Stone is on the Nova Corps home world of Xandar

The reality stone/Aether is with the Collector on N.O.W.H.E.R.E.

The Mind stone is currently in the head of the vision, he laments that he still doesn’t know what that is

During the events of Civil War, Thor and the Hulk were absent as Tony Stark, Rhodey, Vision and Spider-man fought against Captain America, the Scarlett Witch, Black Widow, Ant-man and Hawkeye, the latter half are now wanted fugitives, with Cap giving up his shield after his fight with Iron Man.

Black Panther had a role in Civil War but uncovered the manipulations and ultimately agreed to help Cap with Bucky Barnes. With help from his sister, Shuri, Bucky has recovered from his mental conditioning and is now living in Wakanda

With the people of Asgard having escaped the destruction of their home and heading to Earth, Thanos’ ship shows up right behind them.

With the departure of Joss Whedon after the hell that was working on Age of Ultron (I imagine working on Justice League was just as pleasant) the Russo Brothers have stepped up as director. They directed both Winter Soldier and Civil War, showing they have a good grasp of believable action and can handle a large cast with multiple plotlines.

Christopher Marcus and Stephen McFreely are writing the screenplay. They also have done a number of Marvel projects including all the Captain America films and Thor: The Dark World. Some of the best and worst of Marvel then.  But here it’s do or die time, so let’s take a look at Avengers: Infinity War.

RageLite review - Thor: Ragnarok

After Catwoman, I need a bit of a palate cleanser, so let’s return to the Marvel Cinematic Universe and Thor: Ragnarok.

Of the Avengers characters who’ve had multiple solo movies, Thor’s have undoubtedly been the weakest. Whilst Loki remained one of Marvel’s strongest villains, the films themselves often felt bland and boring. This was particularly the case with the Dark World, which ended up being quite a divisive movie.

It’s all change for Ragnarok though. Natalie Portman, who allegedly hated filming the Dark World, is gone, and once again, we have a new director, this time Taika Waititi. The overall style and tone from the first two movies is to get a massive overhaul, but I’ll leave that for the review portion. Waititi’s past experience is in comedy, with his directing credits including “What we do in the Shadows” and “Hunt for the Wilderpeople,” neither of which I’ve seen but they’re both critical and commercial successes.

And the trend would continue here, Thor Ragnarok would go onto make $890m on its $180m budget and scoring a 92% Rotten Tomatoes rating with an average 7.52/10 and an 89% audience rating with a 4.2/5 average. All these figures exceed the previous Thor movies, but is it worth the reception, here’s my take

Marvel Month - Mini Review - Thor: The Dark World

Ah, we return with another Thor movie and it’s the worst rated movie of all of them. By the time of this review coming out Thor: Ragnarok would be in cinemas, given the trailers it looks to be quite a substantial change in direction for it with more of a Guardians of the Galaxy-eque feel, and yes, we’ll get to those movies. And also, a notable absence of Jane Foster and her cronies and we’ll definitely be getting to that. Still, the movie was financially successful enough that a sequel was green-lit and ultimately the reviews aren’t that bad. It’s still better rated than Batman v Superman… I’m just rambling, let’s take a look.

Marvel Month - Mini Review - The Avengers/Avengers Assemble

Next up in Marvel Month, it’s Time for Avengers assemble

I’ve already done a review of that, and a lot of my complaints still stand is it goes into *sigh* its 4^th season, that said I have seen improvements. But this time we’re looking at the other Avengers Assemble

Known as The Avengers in the US, the title was changed to not be mistaken for the British The Avengers, the Nostalgia Critic did his review on that and I have no unique perspective to cover it as I’ve never seen it, it’s a little before my time.

But Avengers Assemble was a massive gamble for Marvel, with a hefty $220m budget, a large cast and the pressure of being that movie everything was all building up to, this movie blew everyone away, meeting their expectations and of course, for Disney, who had recently acquired Marvel, made over $1bn at the box office, $1.5bn to be more precise. This is also the first Marvel movie I ever watched, at the cinema with my soon-to-be uni housemates.

But 2012 was a way away, does it still hold up, let’s take a closer look.

Marvel Month - Mini Review - Thor

Well, it’s time for another movie that isn’t an Iron Man one, and who better than the God of Thunder himself, Thor. Released in 2011 this movie earned nearly $450m on a $150m budget and has a 77% rating on Rotten Tomatoes But let’s just dive straight in shall we?

After a series of rash decisions lead Thor to reigniting a war with the frost giants, Thor is banished to Midgard, Earth, to relearn what it is to be worthy. But with S.H.I.E.L.D. laying claim to his hammer and Loki making claim to the throne of Asgard, it will not be easy for Thor.

Guilty Pleasures #27: Samuel L Jackson Month - Avengers: Age of Ultron

It’s Samuel L Jackson Month

And yeah… I’m cheating a bit with this one, since Jackson barely appears but screw it, it’s my review blog and I say this counts! So, yeah, it’s the Avengers

Yeah… The Avengers was my first Marvel Movie. And I f*cking loved it. But that’s not to say it was entirely flawless, the first half or so can kinda drag and the way the Chitauri are defeated is kinda dumb but it’s 2 hours of entertainment. How long is this movie again?

2hrs 21 minutes

Goody! Yeah, despite making over a billion dollars, again, this movie has received a fair amount of critical backlash and some of it is kinda undeserved and I’m here to defend its corner, I’m not gonna tell you it’s a perfect movie, there’s no such thing and this isn’t even close. I also have a message for most of the critics of this movie but that’s for later, let’s dig into 2 hrs 21 minutes of Avengers: Age of Ultron

4 issue Test #24 - The Mighty Thor

Yeah... me using variant covers might become a thing, still it's one of the best-looking so far

When the God of Thunder became the Goddess of Thunder the move was marked with controversy. Sure, female superheroes are not many and move helps balance that, but is the right way? There’s no easy answer to that, despite what some people think. Here’s my view. Making Thor a woman (in the same way they made the Punisher black for a few issues) would’ve been a mistake because it's a stupid plot-line with an instant reverse button if things go wrong. Making a woman Thor is what Marvel actually did. Just like they made a Hispanic Spider-man (Miles Morales), a Black Captain America (Sam Wilson) etc. It’s not ideal, especially in the latter case where the man in question already had an alter-ego (the Falcon). But I’d take that over changing a character because universe reset – yeah, I’m talking to you DC Wally West!

4 issue Test #20 - All-New All-Different Avengers

For the first time in a Marvel comic, I haven't been able to find a blank variant, so I had to edit the background out, apologies if it looks sh*t like my DC ones

I suppose this is really the flagship title of the Marvel comic universe at the moment. Featuring some of the big name characters, all be it their new incarnations in some cases and written by Mark Waid, writer of two of my favourite comic series. Can this live up to that potential? Let’s take a look.

TV Retrospective: Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes Season 2 Episodes 21-26

TV Retrospective: Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes season 2 episodes 16-20

TV Retrospective: Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes season 2 episodes 11-15

TV Retrospective: Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes season 2 episodes 6-10

TV Retrospective: The Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes season 2 episodes 1-5

The Avengers: Earth’s Mightiest Heroes was renewed for a second season, but we’re starting to look into the Disney era of Marvel so let’s throw in as many characters as possible into this.

But with well enough written stories that isn’t necessarily a problem. Christopher Yost is still on the writing team and most of his work in animation is pretty good (Thor: The Dark World, we’ll get to maybe)

We’ve had a few hints of coming stories: the Kree, the Masters of Evil still being out there, the Skrulls, Kang’s warning etc.

So what does season 2 have to offer? let’s take a look

TV Retrospective: Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes season 1 episodes 21-26

TV Retrospective: Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes season 1 episodes 16-20 review

TV Retrospective: Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes Season 1 episodes 11-15

TV Retrospective: Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes Season 1 episode 6-10

TV Retrospective: Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes Season 1 episodes 1-5

With Avengers: Age of Ultron having come out only a few months back, it’s time I think to look at the Avengers cartoon

NO NOT THAT PIECE OF SH*T (Season 2 review coming when season 2 is done)

No, for this retrospective we’ll be looking at the full and complete run of Avengers: Earth’s Mightiest Heroes.

Because of the long season lengths and the fact that I have other shows I want to do retrospectives on I will do each series in 5 parts (so 10 overall) so let’s dive into the first 5 episodes of the series.

Guilty Pleasures #15 - Ultimate Avengers 2

When it comes to direct to DVD flicks, DC is leaps ahead of Marvel. Whilst DC has had its slip-ups (JL: War and Son of Batman being notable examples), Marvel haven’t really had much success. But these are a few I’d recommend as only a casual Marvel comics reader

Doctor Strange: a nice introduction to the sorcerer supreme with great moments for the character as he overcomes adversity to become the sorcerer supreme. There’s debate about the addition to his back story and I think it adds depth and emotional weight to the character. People very rarely are jackasses just for the sake of it.

The Hulk vs Series: Both Hulk vs Wolverine and Hulk vs Thor are very fun romps within the Wolverine/Hulk universe, with Deadpool appearing as part of the weapon X squad in the Wolverine one (voiced by Nolan North)

And that’s about it. There are a couple of decent ones I’ll cover in future Guilty Pleasure reviews, but those are the two that stand out to me. (Thor: Tales of Asgard and Young Avengers are in the line-up for some-when)

We also have the following which I’ll cover briefly

The Invincible Iron Man – Largely forgettable

Iron Man: Rise of the technovore – confusing

Iron Man and Hulk: Heroes united – Childish

Iron Man and Captain America: Heroes United – Childish

Planet Hulk – Decent-ish

But today, I’m doing Ultimate Avengers 2. In 2000 Marvel began the launch of the ‘Ultimate Universe’ imprint. It was a way of establishing characters without being hampered by decades of continuity, hopefully attracting new readers in the process.

It started with Ultimate Spider-man, still the most popular of the series (although it got a new titular character after the supposed Death of Spider-man) then Ultimate Fantastic 4 and X-men. But the Ultimate version of the Avengers came out initially in mini-series called Ultimates (1, 2 and 3) it was the original Ultimates book that drew the inspiration for Ultimate Avengers. (Given the synopsis from Wikipedia, it follows most of the story (minus the wife abuse storyline for Hank) folding in the Hulk plot within the Chitauri invasion plot) it was a decent success that a sequel was made, Ultimate Avengers 2

Unlike the original, Ultimate Avengers 2 is a unique story, it does not follow the plot-line of Ultimates 2, at all (largely because it hadn’t been fully written yet) and we have tagline: Rise of the Black Panther. Black Panther is a criminally underrated character in Marvel. I’d go into his origin, but this is more or less the subject of the movie.

For this review, bare two things in mind: 1) I haven’t rewatched Ultimate Avengers for this, so don’t expect me to latch onto continuity errors between films. And 2) the only Ultimates book I’ve ever read is the Avengers vs New Ultimates: Death of Spider-man tie-in book

With that out of the way, let’s dig in: