Joss Whedon to direct 'The Avengers'

[CeeKay]

Robert Downey Jr. and Nathan Fillion in New Avengers Promo (during Castle's credit sequence)
They really should get Nathan into The Avengers somehow. 

oddly enough.

[Bullwinkle]

Robert Downey Jr. and Nathan Fillion in New Avengers Promo (during Castle's credit sequence)
They really should get Nathan into The Avengers somehow. 

oddly enough.

OMG, he would be perfect for a Greatest American Hero reboot.

[PeteRock]

Robert Downey Jr. and Nathan Fillion in New Avengers Promo (during Castle's credit sequence)
They really should get Nathan into The Avengers somehow. 

oddly enough.

OMG, he would be perfect for a Greatest American Hero reboot.

Just thinking the exact same thing.  I actually have the entire original series on DVD and now am considering revisiting it. 

[Blackjack]

Early reviews are mostly blah, blah, blah in a good way 
http://www.eonline.com/news/avengers_early_reviews_are/310346

[Purge]

He'd make a good Henry Pym, IMO.

Funny, I didn't see the posts above (due to page cutoff).

I think he'd also make a decent Mr. Fantastic (the name of course would suit his burgeoning ego)

[CeeKay]

the Quinjet?

[leo8877]

Reviews are good!

http://www.rottentomatoes.com/mobile/m/marvels_the_avengers/

[CeeKay]

Reviews are good!

http://www.rottentomatoes.com/mobile/m/marvels_the_avengers/

just over a week! 

[rickfc]

Mondo posters for Alamo Draft House















http://collider.com/the-avengers-mondo-posters-thor-iron-man/161929/

[CeeKay]

Thor kinda reminds me of James Hetfield.

[metallicorphan]

why has there not been a Hawkeye movie?,i know he featured in Thor,but he did not get nearly half as much screen time as Black Widow did in Iron Man 2

EDIT:oh and which HULK movie are they basing this HULK off?(unless they are ignoring those two films)

[CeeKay]

why has there not been a Hawkeye movie?,i know he featured in Thor,but he did not get nearly half as much screen time as Black Widow did in Iron Man 2

it wouldn't surprise me to see him get one if fans react well to his character.  he is getting his own ongoing comic book series this summer which may help.

EDIT:oh and which HULK movie are they basing this HULK off?(unless they are ignoring those two films)

I believe the Edward Norton one, since that had Robert Downey Jr make a cameo as Tony Stark in it.

[CeeKay]

rest of the review. 

[CeeKay]

free movie poster for 12:01 am IMAX viewers:

http://www.imax.com/extras/news/1201-imax-giveaway-marvels-the-avengers/

[PeteRock]

Holy hell.  Our local theater is doing an Ultimate Avengers Marathon showing all prior movies leading up to a 12:01am screening of The Avengers.  I'm not sure my bladder can take it.  Starts at 11:30am on Thursday afternoon.  Odds are I'll do my own marathon at home over the next week or so and then just catch The Avengers in the theater.

I'm thinking about doing the 3D IMAX showing, but I was hoping for the following morning and the website only lists May 11th as the next available date after the 3rd.  

Perhaps those tickets aren't on sale yet.  Just not as big a fan of such late nights as I once was. Especially with no one to go with as the wife is in Korea until the 13th.

Edit:  Nevermind.  Our local IMAX theater seems to only be showing Wrath of the Titans, not The Avengers.   

Maybe IMAX will offer it the following week.

[metallicorphan]

EDIT:oh and which HULK movie are they basing this HULK off?(unless they are ignoring those two films)

I believe the Edward Norton one, since that had Robert Downey Jr make a cameo as Tony Stark in it.

ah,that's right,because it should of been after the credits scene,but i am guessing Robert Downey Jr casting made it so it had to be shown in the actual movie before the credits started to run

[PR_GMR]

Got my ticket for Thursday at midnight! Wooooot!

[hepcat]

Got my ticket for Thursday at midnight! Wooooot!

In NYC?  Will you be packing?

[farley2k]

I actually bought a ticket for a Friday afternoon showing.  It has been years since I cut work to see a movie. 

[PR_GMR]

Got my ticket for Thursday at midnight! Wooooot!

In NYC?  Will you be packing?

What do you mean NYC? I live in Baltimore. I visit NYC from time to time.

[Blackjack]

Holy hell.  Our local theater is doing an Ultimate Avengers Marathon showing all prior movies leading up to a 12:01am screening of The Avengers.  I'm not sure my bladder can take it.  Starts at 11:30am on Thursday afternoon.  Odds are I'll do my own marathon at home over the next week or so and then just catch The Avengers in the theater.

Heh, yeah we were all chatting about that here a while back. I would've loved to, but I was taking last Friday off for my birthday and I think I'd realistically have to do two days off this week to do it and I just can't. It would've been nice to see those earlier films on the big screen one last time.

My mom and I went to the AMC Best Picture Showcase in 2007, and that was similar, although we left before the final film (Little Miss Sunshine) due to impending snow. If the Marvel event's like that, they'll give you a corded pass to wear to let you exit/re-enter the theater entrance in case you want to eat elsewhere or stretch your legs. So it's not like you're imprisoned in the theaters all that time, if you don't want to be.  

I'm hoping I can catch this either at a reasonable hour Friday evening or perhaps a Saturday morning show. I don't think I'm up to midnight shows anymore. I wish they'd do like they did for Indy 4 in 2008 (I think maybe for Iron Man as well that year), and have some 9 p.m. Thursday evening shows in addition to midnight ones.

Although northern Virginia's pretty safe, I don't much like walking around parking lots and garages at 2:30 a.m. if I can help it.  
===-===
And MovieFone has a little Q&A with Chris Evans:
http://news.moviefone.com/2012/04/27/chris-evans-avengers-interview_n_1459767.html?ref=moviefone
*He's an official Robert Downey Jr. fan. 

So this time around, Cap's a little more cynical, he's been through some stuff. I love the scenes he has with Tony Stark, where he challenges him to step up and be more of a team player. Can you talk about working with Downey?

I can't even say enough. He's an amazing, amazing, amazing person on and off set. As an actor, he's so giving. This very easily could have been the Iron Man movie. He's so capable of just dominating a scene. He owns the oxygen in every scene. He made sure to spread the wealth and made sure that everyone had a plot and purpose and everyone had substance.

There were a couple of scenes we had to work together and I was nervous, just because it's Downey and I have to chew him out, which is not easy to do. But he just has a way of giving you a thumbs up and you go, "God, that felt good. Thank God." He's just so supportive. It's so nice when you meet people you respect and they're great in person because it's such a letdown when they're not.

[Blackjack]

Nice Cinemablend interview with Marvel Studios Prez Kevin Feige:
http://www.cinemablend.com/new/Marvel-President-Kevin-Feige-Talks-Iron-Man-3-Future-30706.html

What are the future plans for Hulk?

There are not a lot of plans going forward. The plan was make an Avengers movie where people like yourself came out of it saying, “I love the Hulk!” If we’ve done that, that is a huge achievement.

We have, as you can imagine, many, many options with Mark Ruffalo, so we’ll start to figure out when and what that will be. We’ve announced the 2013 movies, we’ve announced one of the 2014 movies – the second 2014 movie is not going to be a Hulk movie. So we’ll see if and when we can put it together. Frankly, it took a lot of time to get this version of the Hulk. So we’re not going to turn around and rush something and undo all that good will.

So we’ll see, but the first step is being very encouraged and hoping that when the world sees the movie they react the same way to the Hulk.

*He seems optimistic about Ant-Man (in development 5 years now) getting very close to becoming a reality.
*He acknowledges concerns about "comic book movie" glut and would rather Marvel Studios stick to two films per year.
*They note Thor 2 will have a September 2013 release and Captain America an April 2014 release, and will be their first tentative steps out of the May-August summer comfort zone.
*Although Marvel got the Punisher film rights back, and is open to doing that with other properties, it seems like the various rights owners (Sony, Fox etc.) have other plans, including the reboots discussed here.

[Blackjack]

I'm now the same age as Joss Whedon (47). Coincidence? I think not.  

Chris Evans was on Jimmy Fallon's talk show and brought a dialogue-heavy clip that sort of fills out one of the trailer sequences. It's interesting to see that it's very much edited differently than the sequence in the trailer (the one with Thor laughing, which was probably edited into the trailer sequence from a different scene):

Avengers Clip: "Stop Pretending to be a Hero"
http://geektyrant.com/news/2012/5/1/intense-new-avengers-clip-stop-pretending-to-be-a-hero.html
*Clip is at about 4:40 mark of the video. Evans (with a beard for a film he's working on in Prague) is pretty amusing though, so you might watch the whole thing.  

I gotta remember that line:

Everything special about you came out of a bottle.

Although it's funny coming from a character with a drinking problem. 

[Blackjack]

I know there's a zillion reviews out there, but this CinemaBlend one caught my eye:
http://www.cinemablend.com/reviews/The-Avengers-5829.html

At my screening of Marvel’s The Avengers, the audience couldn’t wait until the end of the film before erupting in applause. In the midst of a massive action sequence in the third act of the story, the entire Avengers team, including Iron Man, Hulk, Thor, Captain America, Hawkeye, and Black Widow, assembled on screen and seeing them together was too amazing to ignore.

It was a tribute to how entertaining the film truly was; a reaction to a wonderful payoff moment built up by well-crafted characters, witty dialogue and a thoroughly thrilling script. And I won’t be surprised if happens again and again once the movie is released worldwide.
...
As fun as the other Marvel movies have been to this point, the action sequences have operated on a small scale, and The Avengers does more than compensate. Seemingly taking on a philosophy of “go big or go home,” the action is not only pure spectacle, but perfectly paced and shot by Whedon, who makes frequent cuts so that we can see everything that’s going on with the different heroes. The final battle sequence between the superhero team and Loki’s army is better than all of the action in the other Marvel movies combined and multiplied by ten. It earns the buildup from all the preceding films by being the most epic title we’ve seen with these characters yet.
...
As a lifelong comic book fan, I walked into The Avengers with the highest hopes and deepest fears. A little over two hours later, as the credits began to roll, I turned to the friend sitting next to me, smiled and exclaimed, “They actually did it!” What Whedon and Marvel have created here is not just extraordinary, but one of the most entertaining and satisfying comic book movies yet.

[Razgon]

I just saw this.

Hulk rocks! No, seriously - Hulk..ROCKS! puny xxx indeed....

Anyways, Robin Scherbatsky?? Really? A worse, wooden, fake, horrible actor I cannot imagine in a thousand years. What a horrible casting error.

Iron man was fun, and the other guys were fine as well.

Loki didn't shine nearly as much as in Thor unfortunately, which is a shame, since I found him to be a terrific villain in that movie.

Anyways - it was okay, but not as awesome as I expected I'm afraid - It was a bit too convenient and easy all the way through and we kinda new pretty much everything that was going to happen..

well, except for Hulk - Hulk Rocks!

[PeteRock]

Anyways - it was okay, but not as awesome as I expected I'm afraid

Van Helsing does have a habit of causing unreasonably high expectations. 

On a serious note, glad to hear that Hulk gets his due.  But I'm hoping that Bruce Banner as well as his Hulk persona receive equally quality treatments as I find Banner just as compelling as his alter-ego.  I wasn't aware that Scherbatsky was in this.     But how much worse can she be than Liv Tyler in Hulk or Armageddon?

[Biyobi]

Anyways - it was okay, but not as awesome as I expected I'm afraid

Hmmm, you really liked Van Helsing, right?

Avengers is gonna rock!!!

[CeeKay]

looks like the movies are finally effecting the main stream comics.  Apparently Nick Fury recently lost his 'immortality', but in the process found his son named Nicholas Fury Jr.

meet Nicholas Fury Jr.:

Spoiler for Hiden:

Battle Scars

also, Agent Coulson has finally made an appearance in the comics too.

[CeeKay]

this guy is ready for opening weekend: http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=_SLHU9CCe_Y

[Razgon]

Anyways - it was okay, but not as awesome as I expected I'm afraid

Van Helsing does have a habit of causing unreasonably high expectations. 

On a serious note, glad to hear that Hulk gets his due.  But I'm hoping that Bruce Banner as well as his Hulk persona receive equally quality treatments as I find Banner just as compelling as his alter-ego.  I wasn't aware that Scherbatsky was in this.     But how much worse can she be than Liv Tyler in Hulk or Armageddon?

hehe, Indeed - High bars and all that ;-)

And yeah, Banner is pretty cool in this one as well, but no doubt about it, that Hulk is seriously well done in this movie. Iron man steals the picture a lot as well, but thats just Downey Jr. who is utterly charming in these kinds of movies for some reason. I actually really liked Black Widow and Hawkeye as well - They worked very well in the movie.

Scherbatsky (I havent looked up her real name) is such a big name from How I met your Mother, that my first though when I saw her was "But she is canadian! What is she doing there?" - Its probably just in my mind she's as typecasted as she is, but she detracted from every scene she was in since she is clearly lacking the class of all the other actors.

[PeteRock]

And yeah, Banner is pretty cool in this one as well, but no doubt about it, that Hulk is seriously well done in this movie. Iron man steals the picture a lot as well, but thats just Downey Jr. who is utterly charming in these kinds of movies for some reason. I actually really liked Black Widow and Hawkeye as well - They worked very well in the movie.

Glad to hear that Hawkeye and Black Widow weren't too overshadowed by the other characters.  Jeremy Renner can hold his own when given the chance, and Scarlett Johansen did a fine job in Iron Man 2, so it's nice that they don't fade behind more prominent characters like Hulk, Iron Man, Thor, etc. 

Scherbatsky (I havent looked up her real name) is such a big name from How I met your Mother, that my first though when I saw her was "But she is canadian! What is she doing there?" - Its probably just in my mind she's as typecasted as she is, but she detracted from every scene she was in since she is clearly lacking the class of all the other actors.

She's outclasses in a sitcom.  Not surprised she hindered rather than helped scenes in The Avengers. 

[pr0ner]

Who needs the quote from the review Blackjack posted when there's this from Roger Ebert!

"Comic-Con nerds will have multiple orgasms," predicts critic David Edelstein in New York magazine, confirming something I had vaguely suspected about them. If he is correct, it's time for desperately needed movies to re-educate nerds in the joys of sex.

[Blackjack]

Who needs the quote from the review Blackjack posted when there's this from Roger Ebert!

"Comic-Con nerds will have multiple orgasms," predicts critic David Edelstein in New York magazine, confirming something I had vaguely suspected about them. If he is correct, it's time for desperately needed movies to re-educate nerds in the joys of sex.

While it's funny, the fact is, Comic-Con has been all but taken over by the studios and most of the events are full of nerds, non-nerds and everything in between.   I don't think most people even mean "nerd" as an insult anymore. I think most of my pals would consider themselves nerds or nerdy, certainly Joss Whedon does. It's almost a badge of honor now.  
 
What I'm saying is, we're all gonna have multiple orgasms watching the Avengers, regardless of our nerdiness or lack thereof. So the theaters could get gross. Might wanna wear a raincoat?

Did anyone end up doing AMC's all-day Marvel Marathon? It bums me out but work stuff just wasn't gonna let me do that or a midnight show. If the Friday evening shows don't sell out early, I'm hoping to catch a show at a reasonable hour. If I wanna do IMAX, it'll probably have to be on the late side (8 p.m. or so).

I told my mom I'd take her to see a morning show Saturday. Her concern these days is, "Is it hard to follow?" "Hey it's just Iron Man, Thor, Captain America, The Hulk, Bullseye Hawkeye, Black Widow, and a few S.H.I.E.L.D. agents, and all their back stories and a common threat that brings them together. How hard to follow can THAT be?"  

[PeteRock]

...Bullseye...

How hard to follow can THAT be?"  

Very? 

[hepcat]

I like Colin Farrell.  I think he's one of the best leading men working.  But he was horribly miscast as Bullseye.  I don't know if it was the writing or if it was something Colin wanted to do, but he just came off as childish and ridiculous.  In the comics, he's a methodical hitman and that works great.  In the movie, I kept expecting the theme from Looney Tunes to play every time he exited a scene.

[CeeKay]

I think Blackjack is confusing The Avengers with the Dark Avengers, which had Bullseye masquerading as Hawkeye.  of course he cannot do that anymore, because he's dead.

[hepcat]

damn, i didn't even notice the flub.  i thought the discussion had turned to daredevil due to a previous thread mentioning a remake is in the works.   

[Isgrimnur]

I sure hope Joss gets around to directing the film before it hits theaters on Friday. 

[CeeKay]

I sure hope Joss gets around to directing the film before it hits theaters on Friday. 

he only had 8 hours, 26 minutes or so to GIT ER DUNN!

[Blackjack]

Didn't you hear Loki brainwashed Bullseye, but the procedure ended up turning him into a good guy??? It's like when Dwight suffered a concussion in that episode of The Office ("The Injury")  I'll fix it, but it's more fun to read you guys analyzing my dumb typo.  

The Wash. Post's Anne Hornaday was surprisingly rave about Captain America last summer (generally she's sick of comic book flix) and seems equally so about the Avengers, or at least Mark Ruffalo's performance...

Essay: ‘Avengers’ proves actors still matter
http://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/style/essay-avengers-proves-actors-still-matter/2012/05/03/gIQA3nwQzT_story.html

The biggest — and surely most delightful — surprise of the movie is Mark Ruffalo, a sad-eyed, soulful actor whose bona fides include lauded performances in such respected art-house films as “You Can Count on Me,” “The Kids Are All Right” (for which he was nominated for an Oscar) and “Margaret.” In “The Avengers” Ruffalo plays Bruce Banner, a scientific genius who, due to an early mishap with some errant gamma radiation, turns into the Hulk when he gets angry.

On paper, the Hulk doesn’t immediately look like the kind of material an actor of Ruffalo’s sensitivity and intelligence would be drawn to. In fact, many of Ruffalo’s fans — with visions of Nicolas Cage’s career dancing in their heads — first greeted the Hulk casting news with trepidation bordering on outrage (not Our Mark!).

But in “The Avengers,” Ruffalo infuses Banner and his big green alter ego with all the emotional truth and low-key, amusing nuance that have made his more “serious” performances so compelling. He’s still Our Mark — watchful, understated, vulnerable, oozing boyish sex appeal — just on a bigger canvas.