Assembly Required (An Avengers review)

Well, it was all leading up to this, wasn't it? If you need a refresher, I've compiled a page leading to all my previous reviews here.

Poster by Matt Ferguson. Check out his deviantArt page here.

This is it. The big one. The one Marvel was building up to all this time, one that's taken five years, five films and about $1bn to pull together. Just the preparation for this has been something new for filmmaking - characters from different films interacting together in the same universe. We got glimpses of it in a few Tarantino-related projects (Vincent Vega from Pulp Fiction is the brother of Mr Blonde from Reservoir Dogs), but nothing on this scale, a world where a science fiction franchise, a monster movie, a swords-and-sorcery epic and a WWII-era pulp actioner exist comfortably side-by-side.

For the flagship title of this universe, and Marvel's only dog in the fight for best summer blockbuster, Avengers needed careful guiding. After all, otherwise you've spent five films leading up to a dud, and nobody wants that - not audiences, not executives, not the studios and certainly not the fans. Marvel scored a coup by getting nerd god Joss Whedon to both write and direct, but since Whedon has only one film credit to his name, and no experience with directing big-budget blockbusters, this was still a risk. A script is only as good as its direction, and while nobody was really doubting Avengers would provide high-octane action, the Marvel Studios films had a reputation for providing good plot and characters. That's quite a juggling act, and one that couldn't afford failure.

I've no doubt that Avengers is going to kill at the box office and make enough money that Disney could potentially give all its employees a vacation for a week. But has all that time been worth it? Find out after the jump.

All Night I Want the Young American (A Captain America: The First Avenger review)

With one more day to go until Avengers Assemble reach these shores, I've been covering the Marvel Cinematic Universe film by film. Having taken down both Iron Man films, The Incredible Hulk, and Thor, that leaves just one left. Ironically enough, it's also about the First Avenger.

Poster by Tyler Stout.

If Thor was considered a hard enough sell, imagine the headaches you'd get with making a film about Captain America. For one thing, the Captain has had two failed films made about him already. The first was an amazingly cheap 1979 two-hour TV film starring human airhorn Reb Brown in the title role, which contained a grand total of one fight scene and didn't feature the title character in his Evil Knievel-esque costume for over an hour; and the second was a more ambitious 1990 affair that only saw theatrical release in the USSR (no, I'm not making that up), and had the dubious honour of the son of J. D. Salinger playing the protagonist. Both of these films depicted Captain America as ineffectual weaklings who acted downright cowardly at times - not a good start.

Even if you ignore the track record, look at the character himself. He was designed as a propaganda figure by Joe Simon and Jack Kirby in 1941, as you'd imagine any character whose first cover featured him punching out Hitler, with a ridiculous uniform that has never exactly looked good in live action, which is something of a tough sell internationally (if they'd released a Captain America film in 2005 in Britain, when about half the population hated America, it would have been torn apart). Personality-wise, like Superman, it's often difficult to write for Captain America because...what the hell can you do? He believes in freedom, truth, justice, and keeping people safe. He's ridiculously well-mannered. Physically, he's nigh-superhuman, and he's a brilliant tactician. Bit of a dull character on paper, and not one that lends itself to Hollywood's usual three-act films that demand character arcs - what one could you give to the Captain that would stick?

Somehow, director Joe Johnston (the man behind the excellent Rocketeer movie), writers Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely, and actor Chris Evans found a way to make this work. How well? Stand at attention, soldiers, we're reviewing Captain America: The First Avenger after the jump at oh-right-fucking-now hours. Fall in!

I Wanna Be Your Sledgehammer (A Thor review)

Two more days until the UK release of Avengers Assemble, meaning there are two more Marvel Cinematic Universe films to look at. We've already looked at Iron Man and its sequel, plus The Incredible Hulk, so let's press on with the fourth film in the inventory.

Poster by Olly Moss.

Marvel faced an interesting challenge with the last two films before Avengers; how can we get Thor and Captain America on the silver screen without them looking silly? Of all the superheroes to adapt to film, they had to sell a guy in LARPer gear who spoke in Shakespearian prose and swung around a magic hammer, and a soldier in propagandistic American garb with little wings on the side of his head, to audiences across the world without getting laughed out the door. Thor was also high fantasy, a genre that has never really done well critically or commercially. For every Conan or Lord of the Rings that managed to strike a chord with audiences, you had an Eragon, a Dungeons and Dragons, and several dozen Krulls or Hawk the Slayers that bombed HARD.

At the time of its release, however, Marvel once again had good fortune. Prior to Thor's release, HBO had begun airing its epic medieval fantasy saga Game of Thrones, which pushed the original book's political intrigue and scheming amoral characters to the surface, and was picking up enough praise that fantasy looked like it would have a second chance of popularity. Thor itself sweetens the pill somewhat by putting a more sci-fi bent on it - the Norse gods are in fact an alien culture whose frequent visits to Earth resulted in worship from the locals - and setting a good deal of the film in contemporary America, but it still traffics in fantasy tropes, and it still grossed nearly $450m at the international box office. What with Game of Thrones  currently storming the ratings, maybe medieval fantasy's getting a second wind in pop culture.

Thor managed to rise to the challenge well enough, but does it still hold up on a second viewing? If ye be worthy, we're reviewing the Viking god of thunder's cinematic début after the jump.

New Coat of Paint (An Iron Man 2 review)

With three more days to go until the UK release of Avengers Assemble, that leaves three more Marvel Cinematic Universe films to review. Iron Man and The Incredible Hulk are down, so let's move on to the third.

Poster by Mike Saputo.

With The Avengers finally announced and moving forward as a project following Iron Man's strong box office opening in May 2008, Marvel were really beginning to lay the foundations for the film's May 2012 release. Samuel L. Jackson signed an unprecedented nine-picture deal to play Nick Fury in any films Marvel Studios produced. Thor and Captain America went into production, with the creative teams working together to create a world where modern sci-fi, high fantasy and WW2-era adventure could comfortably coincide. And, of course, we'd get an Iron Man sequel, both to show closer ties to Avengers, and because - financially speaking - Ol' Shellhead was Marvel's cinematic golden boy.

By the time Iron Man hit the cinemas, Iron Man's reputation in the comics was dire. Following the controversial Civil War event, Tony Stark now had a reputation as a mechanised crypto-fascist, imprisoning rogue superheroes in what I can best describe as Super-Guantánamo Bay without trial. He later became Director of S.H.I.E.L.D., and did such a bad job that when Norman Osborn, the Green Goblin, took over in his steed, this was seen as an improvement. But then, comic fans were treated to the sight of Robert Downey Jr. playing a deadpan dry-witted Tony Stark and building revolutionary technology in caves with a box of scraps, and Matt Fraction began his run on the title, taking a similar track. Fraction's run is often celebrated, often condemned, but as a comic reader relatively new to Iron Man (apart from the animated series and its kickass intro), I'm enjoying how inventive it is.

And it is this run that influences the film reviewed today, with Fraction working as a creative consultant, for better or worse. Does it hold up to the original? Let's find out after the jump as we dust off the armour and look at Iron Man 2.

Strongest One There Is? (An Incredible Hulk review)

With four days to go until the UK release of Avengers Assemble, I've decided to review the five Marvel Cinematic Universe films leading up to it, in order of release, one day at a time. Iron Man has already been reviewed here, so let's take a look at its sister film.

Poster by Marko Manev.

Cast your minds back to 2003, and the release of Hulk. Directed by Ang Lee and starring Eric Bana as the titular meek scientist-turned-green goliath, audiences had gone in expecting a rousing blockbuster of summer fun where Hulk smash stuff, and Hulk smash stuff a lot. What they got was a sombre, cerebral, brooding exploration of a brilliant scientist still reeling years later from his abusive past, who blows off steam through his destructive monstrous alter-ego. When put like that, it sounds like an arthouse film. It sounds like a comic Harvey Pekar or Daniel Clowes would write, published by Vertigo as a deconstruction of the Hulk concept. You can understand why audiences felt betrayed, especially since the marketing and advertising made them think they were getting just another dumb action flick.

Hulk was not a financial success, but it did brisk enough business to warrant a continuation of the franchise. Marvel Studios were in charge of producing the next film, which was a reboot, but one that picked up from where the original left off. They hired Louis Letterier, best known for directing Jason Statham vehicle The Transporter, to make it a more traditional "Hulk smash" affair, adhering close to the TV show and Bruce Jones' run on the character. Edward Norton signed on to play Bruce Banner, and ended up rewriting Zak Penn's script significantly (though he remains uncredited for it). Most significantly, Marvel Studios got Robert Downey Jr to make a quick cameo as Tony Stark, talking about "putting a team together". They were serious about putting an Avengers film together, enough that Stark Industries, Nick Fury and SHIELD even get quick mentions.

But what of the film itself? Make sure you're firmly behind lead shielding because we're looking at The Incredible Hulk.

Fresh from the Foundary (An Iron Man review - contains spoilers)

With five days to go until the UK release of Avengers Assemble, I've decided to review the five Marvel Cinematic Universe films leading up to it, in order of release, one day at a time. For the first review, it seems only right to go back to where it all started.

Poster by Jesse Phillips.

2008 was something of a red-banner year for the superhero film, and did this in a one-two punch. The first came from Iron Man, which surprised many critics by showing the broken beating heart behind its main character's titanium-alloy shell; this was a blockbuster that focused on the story and the characters rather than the visual effects (impressive though they were), and was rewarded for it, grossing $585m worldwide. It would have been the superhero film of the year, if that other superhero film hadn't come along and blown everyone's collective brains out.

Nevertheless, Iron Man undoubtedly started the deluge. Superhero films and comic book adaptations had been a license to print money for a while now, but with 2008, they really were earning that paycheck. Plus, you had that famous after-credit scene, both laying the foundation for a larger cinematic universe that had never been attempted before, and inspiring countless jokes about eye-patched spymaster Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson) turning up at the end of every film to recruit the characters for the "Avenger Initiative". Marvel have always been fortunate that their superheroes translate so well to film: X-Men, Spider-Man, the Hulk and Blade proved lucrative, whereas DC can only really boast Batman and Superman (Watchmen underperformed financially, and Green Lantern...we don't talk about Green Lantern).

With the preamble out of the way, get your arc reactors pumping as we look at Iron Man.