Marvel Avengers: Greatest Movie Ever

I’m loving what Marvel has been doing lately with their movies. Yes the Spider-man movies have been okay-ish, and sure they screwed up Daredevil something chronic, the Ghost Rider and Punisher movies were terrible (for me as comics they aren’t so hot either), the first Fantastic Four was alright whilst the second sucked, but the X-Men series has been pretty good, and whilst I hated the graphic novel I found the X-Men Origins: Wolverine movie to be pretty great in it’s own way. And though the Ang Lee version of Hulk was a confusing mess we’d rather forget ever existed, Marvel more than made up for it with the Louis Leterrier sequel The Incredible Hulk which was out last year. He really understood that the Hulk is a lame character that only ever turns interesting when the story is about his Dr Bruce Banner alter ego, even the TV series from the seventies got that, it was only ever really for a few minutes a show that the Lou Ferrigno incarnation of Hulk graced the screen with his presence. And even more than with The Incredible Hulk movie, Marvel really hit a home run with the Iron Man movie that came out earlier that same summer. It was the perfect comic to screen adaptation – the perfect story, the perfect cast, the perfect sprinkle of mega stars, and CG animations had advanced to the point where this whole thing was fantastic and yet completely believable. They’d finally cracked it, and just in time, cos things we’re just getting interesting…

Throughout the brilliant Iron Man movie there is some kind of federal agent whose continually trying to speak with Tony Stark, he keeps referring to his agency as ‘Strategic Homeland Intervention, Enforcement and Logistics Division’, those who are much more cunning than I might have picked up on this immediately, but I didn’t catch on until the very end when it gets referred to in it’s acronym form of ‘S.H.I.E.L.D.’. Aha, there’s our first clue as to this being something bigger than just this one movie. Then at the end, and even though I own the DVD I’m ashamed to say I’d never watched it all the way through the credits to get to a hidden scene and hadn’t come across this until just recently, the infamous Nick Fury himself (played by none other than the infamous Samuel L Jackson) presents himself to Tony Stark to talk about the ‘Avengers initiative’:

Exciting huh? And then I came across a clip that points out what appears to be Captain America’s shield on Tony Starks basement workbench, which is curious but sort of bizarre as their paths don’t seem to have crossed at this point. Is it just an easter egg to tease the fans or will it explain itself in a future movie?

Then at the end of The Incredible Hulk movie which was launched a month or so later the same summer, and was equally as good in its own right and Marvel had shown us that they’d got two straight movies right and that they’d finally figured out the winning formula, there’s a cameo by Tony Stark who talks to General Ross about how he’s putting a team together. I can’t find a good clip of this, but it’s not a hidden scene and it was actually in one of the TV trailers so I’m sure you’ve all seen it.

So that’s where we’re at now. We know that Marvel has figured out how to make killer adaptations of their characters onto the big screen and we know that they are leading up to The Avengers movie, which looks to be one of the most epic movies of all time. But what else do we know? I’ve scoured the web a little, and whilst my time is limited and my detective skills are possibly not what they once were, I think from what I can tell at lot of it is still shrouded in mystery and no one really knows exactly what is going down and when, or how, but I’ve uncovered some info:

We do know that Iron Man II is out next May and is currently in post production and stars amongst others Scarlett Johansen as The Black Widow, and apparently she’s been cast to continue that role in the Avengers movie and there’s talk of her possibly getting her own movie. But there’s not much secrecy left behind this movie, we all know it’s coming and you can see photos from the set and all kinds of other goodies out there, so lets concentrate on some of the lesser known movies in the pipeline.


Then it looks like Thor is next on the release list. As everyone knows Thor is an actual character of Norse myth – the god of thunder, son of Odin ruler of all the Norse gods, and brother of Loki god of mischief. And possibly because of this as a character he has never truly jived with me, the way that they tried to meld science fiction with classic fiction, I never had much interest in the character and barely ever bought a Thor comic, only really knowing him from his time with the Avengers and stints on crossovers. So I’m quite intrigued to see what Marvel does with this movie. The cast has already been assembled with Natalie Portman and Anthony Hopkins taking leading roles, filming starts in January and the release date is May of 2011.


Next on the release schedule it appears The First Avenger: Captain America gets the slot. It could actually make for a pretty damn interesting movie as his origins lie in World War II, I wonder if they’ll have him kicking Hitlers ass like in the early comics? No real cast information available as of writing this, obviously Samuel L Jackson as Nick Fury is rumored to be a cast member. Filming is scheduled to begin next summer and the release date is for July of 2011.


Then it gets a bit blurry, we have three movies scheduled for release in 2012, which looks to be the mother of all years for movie releases and could truly change the way movies work forever more, but the order of their release isn’t specified.


I guess the Ant-Man movie might be first. Ant-Man aka Henry Pym, aka Giant-Man, aka Goliath, aka Yellowjacket, aka Doctor Pym, aka The Wasp, aka Scientist Supreme is one of the most morphed characters in the Marvel universe, and by that I don’t mean shape shifting is a super power of his, but that over the years he has taken on many persona’s and characteristics, most controversial of all perhaps being the time he beat his wife. As of now the script is still being written and there is no cast information to speak of, but Edgar Wright of Shaun of the Dead and Hott Fuzz fame appears to be locked down as director which is somewhat tantalizing.


I imagine that next would be the Nick Fury movie as they don’t even have a director locked down. Obviously Samuel L Jackson is rumored as being cast for the role. All I can tell you is the short plot listed on IMDB “A daring amateur boxer from Hells Kitchen is recruited by the Army for some top-secret assignments. He soon is promoted to captain, where he puts together the First Attack Squad, a group of elite soldiers who carry out elite missions.“. Interestingly enough I’ve read stories involving this character my whole life but have never been exposed to his early years, unaware he was an amateur boxer from Hells Kitchen. I wonder if they’ll tie-in some relationship with Jack Murdoch – Daredevils dad, who was also an amateur boxer in Hells Kitchen I imagine around the same time.


And then comes The Avengers, the big one, the mother of all movies. This has to be the most insane blockbuster movie of all time. By then it would have had over a half dozen prequels, which while being blockbusters in their own right, were merely paving the way to set up this one. Every one of these ‘prequels’ was a star studded affair, and looking at the IMDB page they are bringing back every single one of them to star alongside each other for what has to be the most ridiculous epic movie to ever grace the silver screen. There is nothing on the actual plot, which is being penned by Zak Penn (The Incredible Hulk, The X-Men: Last Stand, Fantastic Four, Electra, X2), but from what I can gather they are basing the characters on the Ultimates version. Edward Norton as Hulk is only rumored to be in the cast, and there are also whispers in the winds that he may even be a villain. There is actually a release date of May 2012 listed for this movie, so it could be this gets released prior to the other two that same year.


So there you have it, some movies in post production, some about to go into filming, and some that are still drafting the screenplays. It’s truly epic what Marvel are looking to accomplish, and will accomplish. It’s sick, it’s nuts, it’s insane! This has the potential to completely change forever how we look at movies, how we interact with movies, and how they interact with us. And also it is making me drool!


And a little bonus I’ll tack here on the end. I’ve come across an IMDB entry for one of my personal favorite Marvel characters of all time Dr Strange. To me the great sorcerer never quite fit into the Marvel universe, just as with The Swamp Thing who never quite seemed right when he crossed with Batman or any of the other DC characters in a story arc, and with The Sandman they barely even tried (which is fitting to mention as the screenplay is by Neil Gaiman!). So this is likely a stand alone movie, hopefully brilliant in it’s own right, but who knows what these freakin geniuses will dare to accomplish.