Avengers (Spoilers)

[Stofsk]

Dude, Tropic Thunder?

Dude, came after Iron Man?

[Aaron MkII]

Balls.

[Stofsk]

They were fairly contemporaneous releases though, it must be said. Iron Man was May 2008, Tropic Thunder was in August, just a few months later. In any case, both films were huge successes and I'd say they each contributed to RDJ's rising star. But just as a strict matter of chronology, Iron Man was the film that started the rise purely by virtue of coming out first.

[Galvatron]

That's why I said I hope he doesn't make the mistake of thinking he's above Iron Man now. He needs to remember where his bread is buttered.

[Stark]

Entitled, much?

How could he possibly need to care where his 'bread' is 'buttered' when he has probably made hundreds of millions of dollars in the last five years? I mean can even he waste that much money?

TBH I hope he decides to take more roles that involve him actually acting and develop himself professionally.

[Galvatron]

Entitled, much?

Yes. RDJ's purpose in life is to entertain me no matter how much money he makes.

[Stark]

Luckily you can just endlessly rewatch the movies he's already made with the same performance for the rest of your life. Hopefully he can actually grow as an actor.

[Galvatron]

He can make as many Soloists and Due Dates as he wants, as long as I continue to get a new Tony Stark fix every two to three years.

[Havok]

HOLY. FUCKING. SHITBALLS.

BEST. MOVIE. EVER.

[Nephtys]

I really don't tend to like Superhero movies. Something about them narratively just doesn't stick to me, and is more pandering to the familiar than not. That said, I enjoyed Iron Man greatly though since it worked as a general movie, not specifically a superhero one.

This movie though? I /really/ liked it. They had great pacing, and nothing ever seemed to drag. There were only a few lame lines or parts that knocked me out of my enjoyment, but they were brief. I did think they overused a few specific attempts at humor though.

I'm rather surprised they found enough for Hawkeye to do, that didn't feel terribly contrived. Romonov definately had a lot of her own moments too. Nobody seemed to really outshine anybody else. Iron Man and Captain America got the most screentime, but Hulk had the most events revolve around him, and Thor was the one who was most dynamic in what he did, so it worked out.

Random Observations:
- I can't believe they put in that goofy flying Carrier. It worked somehow, though I eyerolled hard when they used the adaptive camoflage. Maria Hill looked and acted perfect though!
- Agent Coulson's fanboyism was pretty funny. Though it still seemed ambiguous if he really died or not? Since Fury's trick seemed to suggest not?
- An arrow USB drive that turns off computers? WHAT?
- The first scene looks like someone redecorated Stargate Command. Then put their lathes and metal cutting tools in it.
- What were Hawkeye and Widow trying to accomplish anyway with that VTOL's minigun? It's already been shown that it's not too useful against Loki. Hilariously as well, the plane looks almost identical to the Skyranger in the X-COM remake.
- Captain America commenting about 'one god'. Despite talking about THOR.
- Also give a medal to that F35 pilot who uses his plane as a hulk decoy. That was pretty neat.
- Whedon continues to focus camera shots on bare female feet. It's in Firefly, Buffy, Dollhouse, and now this.

[CaptainChewbacca]

Couldn't resist.

[madd0ct0r]

who's aunt robin?

[Dartzap]

who's aunt robin?

Character in How I Met Your Mother

[madd0ct0r]

next question. what's that?

[Stofsk]

It's a lame tv show that people still watch (apparently).

Guys, don't let's turn this into a pic spam thread. If you find a funny picture and just HAVE to share it, make a thread in testing for it.

[Vympel]

It's a lame tv show that people still watch (apparently).

STFU you're lame.

[Stofsk]

no u

[PREDATOR490]

It was already suggested earlier in this thread Hawkeye was brought in to replace Iron Man if RDJ didnt turn up. It could be the film makers being cautious or an indication grumbling is taking place. Given how much face time he is recieving and the CGI he commands on screen I wouldnt be surprised if the film makers want him out before he starts asking for more. Wouldnt be the first time an actor has literally snapped at the hand that feeds them.

[Ahriman238]

Was I the only one bothered by Hawkeye's quiver that swaps out arrowheads? Somehow it seemed more likely to break, taking up as much space, and generally being less practical then just having multiple specialty arrows.

I didn't actually feel that Black Widow was shoehorned into the story, she fought well, had her drama with Clint, and faked out Loki.

The scene where everyone is arguing and the camera focuses on the scepter did remind me of LotR, the council of Elrond when the Ring fuels hatreds to divide the council. I don't know if it was actually screwing with their minds, or just a reminder that Loki was manipulating the situation to his benefit. From where I stand, the Avengers had good reason to be pissed off at Fury, but had no reason to start having four arguments all at once, especially given how many times Natasha, Steve, and Fury all try to intervene to keep Bruce from being upset.

I do think there arguments and divisions were genuine enough, Steve thinks Tony is selfish, Tony and Thor should be upset over the weaponry, etc. It just seems too convenient to Loki that they'd decide to have all of these issues out right then and there. Albeit, I have been to family dinners that ended up like that, one issue bringing up many issues and everyone forming their own knots of discord.

[CaiusWickersham]

I had to use the font of all knowledge to find out what Shawarma was. Me thinks Stark was a bit concussed if he wants one of those....

Why would Tony need to be concussed to try a new gyro joint? I know some great gyro makers in Canton, Cleveland and Columbus. I'm sure there's plenty in New York.

[CaiusWickersham]

BTW: Did anyone else notice Hugen & Muinen flying by when Thor lands on the cliff with Loki?

Yes, yes I did. I would think, though, that tech-Odin has mechanical versions of his traditional beasts. Memory and Thought are his spy satellite networks.

Marvel needs to license Poets of the Fall for Thor's entry music.

[FSTargetDrone]

Wondering why there was no Pentagon support in making the movie?

Pentagon Quit The Avengers Because of Its ‘Unreality’

By Spencer Ackerman

May 7, 2012 |  11:50 am 

The Pentagon halted its cooperation with Marvel Studios’ blockbuster movie The Avengers because the Defense Department didn’t think a movie about superheroes, Norse Gods and intergalactic invasions was sufficiently realistic in its treatment of military bureaucracy.

Moviegoers and comic fans know that S.H.I.E.L.D., led by Samuel L. Jackson’s super-spy Nick Fury, is an international peacekeeping/global surveillance/crisis response/quasi-military organization. But its relationship with the United States is murky. And that basically stopped the U.S. military, which is normally eager to cooperate with the film industry on blockbuster movies, from teaming up with the Avengers.

“We couldn’t reconcile the unreality of this international organization and our place in it,” Phil Strub, the Defense Department’s Hollywood liaison, tells Danger Room. “To whom did S.H.I.E.L.D. answer? Did we work for S.H.I.E.L.D.? We hit that roadblock and decided we couldn’t do anything” with the film.

Well, almost anything. In the movie’s climactic Manhattan fight scene, New York National Guardsmen show up to try to help police and firemen contain — spoiler alert — the damage wrought by a cosmic invasion. The Defense Department allowed Marvel to film Humvees for the scene.

But attentive moviegoers may have noticed the U.S. military’s latest stealth jets, the F-22 Raptors and what looked like F-35 Joint Strike Fighters, aboard S.H.I.E.L.D.’s airborne helicarrier, an awe-inspiring, tilt-rotor aircraft carrier. (One assumes that thing has the runway space necessary for a Raptor take-off — and S.H.I.E.L.D. super-scientists fixed the jet’s oxygen woes.) The fighters were “digitally inserted” by the studio, Strub explains, not actual planes provided by the U.S. military.

Normally, the military loves to help Hollywood make mega-blockbusters. Iron Man got into a dogfight with F-22 Raptors in his first eponymous movie. The Navy provided the producers of the recent Act of Valor with unprecedented access to SEAL training missions and even let its secretive elite warriors act on camera. And the secretary of the Navy, Ray Mabus, even has a cameo in the forthcoming Battleship. (“I had a great time, although the director would probably recommend that I keep my day job,” Mabus told Politico.)

But the ambiguity around what exactly S.H.I.E.L.D. is provides a vexing complication. If it’s an American governmental agency, what kind of constitutional authority does it exercise over the military? If it’s an international body, as the movie text suggests and Strub determined, are U.S. military personnel and equipment on loan to it through some kind of United Nations Security Council resolution? The questions may seem picayune, but they’re precisely the stuff that can cause an image-conscious military to yank its cooperation from a movie.

The comics have fudged the issue for decades. Marvel now describes it as an “extra-government” body, although many takes on the organization have clearly emphasized its international character. Yet U.S. presidents have fired S.H.I.E.L.D. directors (Fury, Tony Stark/Iron Man) and appointed others (Norman Osborn/The Green Goblin, incumbent Steve Rogers/Captain America) — although that might operate by an informal international understanding, much like the U.S. appoints the director of the World Bank.

Either way, the ambiguity prevented the Avengers from assembling beside the U.S. military. “It just got to the point where it didn’t make any sense,” Strub laments. And now comic nerds have another data point to bring up during continuity debates about what exactly S.H.I.E.L.D. is.

[Nephtys]

...really?

So like. Heroic national guardsmen, and what is effectively a giant proxy for very obvious US armed forces, but super-hero-ized is insufficiently American? Particularly when in fact, one of the main characters is CAPTAIN AMERICA?

I mean, I guess all sorts of other countries tool around in F-35s, angled deck supercarriers, eagle and shield logos, and global military intervention.

[Mr Bean]

I mean, I guess all sorts of other countries tool around in F-35s, angled deck supercarriers, eagle and shield logos, and global military intervention.

I'm pretty sure those could just have easily been CHINESE F-35s and the eagle and shield is used by current ultra liberal socialist one Barack Obama so obviously those are communist as well.

The Defense department is a really... weird place that only stops getting strange once you go fully mad.

[PREDATOR490]

Fuck them, the armed forces would have achieved nothing regardless.
If they are going to throw a hissy fit because a super-hero movie is unrealistic... yeah...

GTFO... would be hilarious to just sideline America entirely for the next movie and use someone else for the military action. Of course... never going to happen.