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.

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.

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.