The Film Thread

[coda]

I may take a stroll to the local picture house to watch this as I fancy seeing an OTT blockbuster and have been taken in by the hype. The problem is I haven't watched Thor, The Hulk or Captain America. I have only seen the first Iron Man film, is this likely to detract from my enjoyment/understanding of The Avengers?

Eh, I think seeing the origin films for the characters would be better than not. But I suspect you'd enjoy it more than enough if you went in blank, no doubt they will do some sort of recap at the start.

I would say, though, that all those are worth a look if you've got the time. They're all decent films, the weakest of the lot is Iron Man 2, and all of them are to 1 degree or another in some way disappointing (usually weak third acts, even the first Iron Man has that issue), but they are all good turn your brain off fun.

If you don't though, the things you'd want to know from each film that I can recall...

Thor - The old Nordic gods were in fact a race from another planet, Asgard, who could travel the universe (to other 'realms' of the World Tree, Yggdrasil) and appeared as gods to humans with their powers. Thor is destined to be the next king of Asgard, and his brother, Loki, resents him. It turns out that Loki is in fact an adopted brother, he's actually the son of some baddies, Frost Giants, which leads him to further jealousy. Thor is cast out of Asgard and stripped of power, for fostering war through vanity (and with Loki manipulating the entire thing), ends up on Earth, falls in love, is redeemed, regains his power and deals with Loki, who is lost to the void... but in doing so Thor cuts himself off from Earth forever.

Captain America - During World War 2 the Nazis sought to create a supersoldier, and half-**** it up, creating the Red Skull - a high ranking Nazi soldier turned into a superhuman but horribly disfigured. The Skull is obsessed with the occult and discovers the story of the jewel of Odins trophy room, the Tesseract - a cube with mystical powers. He finds it. Being so Nazi that not even the Nazis really want him he gets his own division and uses the cube to develop powerful weapons, eventually becoming so powerful he decides to go on his own with his army and ditch the Nazis. Meanwhile, the US decides to develop their own supersoldier, perfecting the original German formula and turning a feeble but noble young man into a supersoldier. He eventually stops the Skull (with help from his mates and his indestructible shield) but in the process crash lands in the Arctic and is frozen, only to be found in the modern day. The Tesseract also falls into the hands of the US, more specifically S.H.I.E.L.D. ...

Incredible Hulk - Bruce Banner becomes the Hulk in an experiment to perfect the super soldier serum once again. He goes on the run. He comes back seeking a cure. He doesn't get a cure. His girlfriends dad, his former boss, wants to capture him. He beats a baddie, and goes on the run again.

Iron Man 2 - Tony Stark becomes a nuisance for S.H.I.E.L.D., they help him out, he develops a new suit as his old one was killing him, it turns out S.H.I.E.L.D. had a brilliant female operative keeping an eye on him, who turns out to be Black Widow.

I think thats about all the grounding/details you need from each film, but as said ideally you'd have watched the films. But you should be alright.

Saying all that theres a distinct chance that even people who have seen all the films and know the comics inside out are going to miss bits and bobs in the film, Whedon is a big comic man and will be hurling nods to this and that throughout.

Cheers Chindie

[Ingram85]

I may take a stroll to the local picture house to watch this as I fancy seeing an OTT blockbuster and have been taken in by the hype. The problem is I haven't watched Thor, The Hulk or Captain America. I have only seen the first Iron Man film, is this likely to detract from my enjoyment/understanding of The Avengers?

Eh, I think seeing the origin films for the characters would be better than not. But I suspect you'd enjoy it more than enough if you went in blank, no doubt they will do some sort of recap at the start.

I would say, though, that all those are worth a look if you've got the time. They're all decent films, the weakest of the lot is Iron Man 2, and all of them are to 1 degree or another in some way disappointing (usually weak third acts, even the first Iron Man has that issue), but they are all good turn your brain off fun.

If you don't though, the things you'd want to know from each film that I can recall...

Thor - The old Nordic gods were in fact a race from another planet, Asgard, who could travel the universe (to other 'realms' of the World Tree, Yggdrasil) and appeared as gods to humans with their powers. Thor is destined to be the next king of Asgard, and his brother, Loki, resents him. It turns out that Loki is in fact an adopted brother, he's actually the son of some baddies, Frost Giants, which leads him to further jealousy. Thor is cast out of Asgard and stripped of power, for fostering war through vanity (and with Loki manipulating the entire thing), ends up on Earth, falls in love, is redeemed, regains his power and deals with Loki, who is lost to the void... but in doing so Thor cuts himself off from Earth forever.

Captain America - During World War 2 the Nazis sought to create a supersoldier, and half-**** it up, creating the Red Skull - a high ranking Nazi soldier turned into a superhuman but horribly disfigured. The Skull is obsessed with the occult and discovers the story of the jewel of Odins trophy room, the Tesseract - a cube with mystical powers. He finds it. Being so Nazi that not even the Nazis really want him he gets his own division and uses the cube to develop powerful weapons, eventually becoming so powerful he decides to go on his own with his army and ditch the Nazis. Meanwhile, the US decides to develop their own supersoldier, perfecting the original German formula and turning a feeble but noble young man into a supersoldier. He eventually stops the Skull (with help from his mates and his indestructible shield) but in the process crash lands in the Arctic and is frozen, only to be found in the modern day. The Tesseract also falls into the hands of the US, more specifically S.H.I.E.L.D. ...

Incredible Hulk - Bruce Banner becomes the Hulk in an experiment to perfect the super soldier serum once again. He goes on the run. He comes back seeking a cure. He doesn't get a cure. His girlfriends dad, his former boss, wants to capture him. He beats a baddie, and goes on the run again.

Iron Man 2 - Tony Stark becomes a nuisance for S.H.I.E.L.D., they help him out, he develops a new suit as his old one was killing him, it turns out S.H.I.E.L.D. had a brilliant female operative keeping an eye on him, who turns out to be Black Widow.

I think thats about all the grounding/details you need from each film, but as said ideally you'd have watched the films. But you should be alright.

Saying all that theres a distinct chance that even people who have seen all the films and know the comics inside out are going to miss bits and bobs in the film, Whedon is a big comic man and will be hurling nods to this and that throughout.

Cheers Chindie

Great post chindie, spot on and really helpful summing up. Really can't wait for this to finally be shown now.

[PieFacE]

The problem is I haven't watched Thor, The Hulk or Captain America. I have only seen the first Iron Man film, is this likely to detract from my enjoyment/understanding of The Avengers?

I doubt it . I enjoyed the Brad Pitt film "seven" even though I hadn't seen 1-6.

They should have used the

That's class!

[CarewsEyebrowDesigner]

Lone Star is on bbc2 tonight. Chris Cooper ftw.

[ED]

Saw Cabin in the Woods. Went in spoiler free and it blew my mind. What a third act. Exceptional.

[briggaman]

Saw Cabin in the Woods. Went in spoiler free and it blew my mind. What a third act. Exceptional.

The third act really does go a bit mental. In a good way of course...

[Stevo985]

Watched "Dogtooth" today.

Mental. Really really really weird.

But also very good.

[theboyangel]

Over the weekend watched two, very different but enjoyable in their own way, films

Horrible Bosses - now I was expecting this to be terrible but it wasn't that bad - some very funny scenes and probably the best thing Jennifer Aniston has done!!!! (She was still out-hammed by Colin Farrell's character though)

It was dumb but fun!

The Troll Hunter - pretty cool Norwegian mockumentary in a Blair Witch style.

I hear there's (inevitably) an American remake in the offing.

[Stevo985]

Aniston is incredible in that film. She's been getting increasingly more attractive as she gets older. Can't wait until she peaks.

[AshVilla]

I agree

Aniston is maturing like a fine wine

I thought her sex appeal would dwindle with age but its actually the opposite she's in definite milf territory now

[CarewsEyebrowDesigner]

She was hotter during the first few seasons of Friends, when she looked like a human, not Hollywoods idea of what a human should look like. it's all been downhill since.

[villaboymatt]

I'd still would not kick her out of bed

[mjmooney]

Going back to this Avengers business... as you know I'm not particularly into this type of film, but I did like the comics when I was a kid, and I'm slightly surprised that it's taken them this long to start combining characters in films, the way the comics did.

How come the people making the DC franchise movies never did it? After all, The Avengers was just Marvel's answer to The Justice League of America. There have been films made of Superman, Batman (and Robin), Wonder Woman, Green Lantern and The Flash. All they needed to do was throw in Hawkman and Aquaman and they'd have a a JLA movie.

[villaajax]

John Steed > Captain America

[BOF]

Never liked Aniston. Dunno why. I just don't.

[mjmooney]

John Steed > Captain America

Well, yes. I wasn't even bothering to point out who the REAL 'Avengers' were. Let's draw a discreet veil over that ghastly movie version from a few years ago, and get back to my Diana Rigg fixation.

[villaajax]

John Steed > Captain America

Well, yes. I wasn't even bothering to point out who the REAL 'Avengers' were. Let's draw a discreet veil over that ghastly movie version from a few years ago, and get back to my Diana Rigg fixation.

Agreed.

[Chindie]

Going back to this Avengers business... as you know I'm not particularly into this type of film, but I did like the comics when I was a kid, and I'm slightly surprised that it's taken them this long to start combining characters in films, the way the comics did.

How come the people making the DC franchise movies never did it? After all, The Avengers was just Marvel's answer to The Justice League of America. There have been films made of Superman, Batman (and Robin), Wonder Woman, Green Lantern and The Flash. All they needed to do was throw in Hawkman and Aquaman and they'd have a a JLA movie.

I suspect partly it might be to do with the fact that the movie rights to those properties being spread across different studios. Marvel had some issues with that themselves (the films in the series have had different publishers and they've had some wrangling going on trying to sort it).

The DC franchises don't seem to grab people like the Marvel ones do as well. Sure, Batman and Superman have staying power with people, but Green Lantern and the Flash, and Aquaman... not so much.

Marvel took a big gamble with making the Avengers - it's not like Thor or Cap have the publics imagination either. But they pulled it off.

It's worth remembering that they managed it because they started up their own studio too - DC haven't done that, and I doubt they will. Their big names are locked up with other studios and they won't get them back, and I doubt those studios would work together, not least on such a big gamble (especially when the Green Lantern already flopped).

[AshVilla]

Sandra Bullock or Jennifer Aniston

[wiggyrichard]

Sandra Bullock or Jennifer Aniston

In a fight? Sandra.