Pirates, Band of Misfits should tide you over this weekend.

I thought Norton declined, not got the boot? It's been awhile, so the mind might be a little fuzzy.

More reviews hitting this week, and they continue to be glowing.

97% on the tomatometer

Really trying to limit my expectations because I don't want to be disappointed, but it's getting harder and harder.

Ew.

TMI

That's what she said

I don't think it was either

I think Norton wanted to be paid like ... umm ... Norton.

The movie people decided that since 80% of the Hulk was going to be CGI that paying full price for a spot appearance wasn't financially sound.

jmo

The one comment I'm seeing over and over is that Hulk is the star of the movie, and that Ruffalo has done the best work yet as Banner, that the CG characterization was great, and that they got the Hulk as a character right for basically the first time.

I have a confession... I've already seen it several times...

It's pretty awesome. Completely met my expectations for the film. I only wish it were 3+ hours long.

They did a very good job of playing out each hero's little quarks and nuances. And they did an outstanding job at showing all the little bantering and fighting and ego friction between the heros too. I think that was the most enjoyable part of the movie, seeing the interactions between them. They nailed that to a tee with regards to the comic books. It felt like there was a lot more depth to most of the characters. Especially Hulk. Hulk really was one of the highlights of the film. I thought this movie did a better job at that than even the Incredible Hulk did.

Choreography was top notch. They actually fight like you'd envision reading the comics. Including some "combo moves" taking advantage of several of them. Several "Holy SHIT did you see that!?" moments that will have you grinning ear to ear.

Loki was great as the bad guy. I thought they did better at showing his sneaky pure evil side than they did in Thor.

It was a little over 2hrs, that felt like 15 minutes.

I don't see how anyone could be disappointed with it, from the hard core nerds to those with no comic book experience. Not without a few faults, which I won't give away. But overall probably the best comic book movie yet...

Is Marvel Planning a Standalone Hulk Movie for 2015 After All?

It’s officially Avengers week, and fans aplenty are counting down the hours until the midnight reveal of Joss Whedon’s superhero team-up pic on Thursday/Friday at midnight. Not only is this the first time fans get to see all their favorite Marvel superheroes come together onscreen, but we’ll get our first look at Mark Ruffalo’s iteration of the Hulk. Early word on the film has had many singling out Ruffalo’s performance, and the Hulk character in general, as one of the highlights of the film.

Most critics and fans have been singing high praises of Whedon’s take on the character, yet when Steve asked Marvel Studios President Kevin Feige if a new standalone Hulk movie was in the cards, Feige claimed there were no plans at the moment. However, it appears the overwhelmingly positive reaction may have convinced Marvel to change their tune, because another studio exec recently said we might see a standalone Hulk flick as soon as 2015. Hit the jump for more.

First off, let’s go back to Feige’s response to Steve’s inquiry about a new Hulk movie:

“…Every time I see a good take or a good storyline or read some good pages, I think, ‘Oh should we make a movie about this?’ But with the Hulk we’re gonna play it very carefully. We had varying degrees of success on those first two movies, so we’re not gonna say, ‘Oh we did it! Another one!’ We’re gonna be smart about it and play it out. There are no plans right now to do another Hulk. Hulk might be just the special guest in Avengers movies, who knows?”

I was a bit surprised by Feige’s response at the time, mostly because I didn’t expect them to sign an actor of Ruffalo’s caliber and simply use him as a supporting player. Feige even went so far as to tell Huffington Post that they put “everything they had and everything they were going for into Hulk’s appearance in Avengers,” so he’s in the mindset of “mission accomplished at this point.”

Cut to an enormously enthusiastic reaction to Whedon’s Hulk, and now other execs at Marvel are seeing dollar signs. Speaking with Forbes (via The Playlist), Marvel Entertainment’s President of Consumer Products for North America, Paul Glitter, noted that they were “pleasantly surprised by the phenomenal response,” to Avengers Hulk, and hinted at what’s to come for the character:

“If the Hulk’s successful turnaround continues, Glitter says Marvel will ‘spin him off to a stand-alone [TV] program next year,’ supported by a big budget franchise movie in 2015.”

The Hulk TV series is already a project we’ve known about for quite some time. Guillermo del Toro and Battlestar Galactica producer David Eick have been working together to develop the original story of Bruce Banner in his mid-20s, and Jeph Loeb, head of Marvel Television, recently confirmed that the live-action show is in active development at ABC.

Marvel has yet to reveal release dates beyond 2014 (Captain America 2 and an Untitled Marvel Film are slated for early 2014), so this is the first we’ve heard of their plans for the deeper future. It’s important to note that Feige is in control of the creative side of the studio, so Glitter could very well have misspoken or jumped the gun. Still, I’ve heard nothing but great things about Ruffalo’s Hulk and I’d be more than happy to see him carry a film of his own.

I think they should just leave hulk in avengers. Planet hulk would be great, but I think animated movie is enough.

I'd love to see a Planet Hulk/Joe Fixit Hulk storyline...

http://th04.deviantart.net/fs70/PRE/...y1-d2ybbs4.jpg

:whackit:

I'll be testing my IMAX Digital edition tonight at midnight. I'm expecting good things, since I like Whedon's work.

The ticket pre-sales have already eclipsed all of the Marvel movies combined.

I noticed today that the Regal cinema near me is opening a brand new screen called RPX this weekend with the Avengers of course. I guess its a competitor to IMAX with a huge screen and digital sound.......I might have to check this out.


http://www.regmovies.com/rpx/

Whoa.

Are you sure that's right? ZBecause the Spider-Man movies have made into the billions, worldwide at any rate.

Detailed review sans spoilers would be awesome, movie man.

That was my first thought.

It probably means the "Marvel" produced movies of the past few years. Iron Man 1 and 2, Incredible Hulk, Thor and Captain America.


Sony owns the rights to Spideman and FOX owns X-Men.

Ok, makes more sense.

Ah, good call.

The pre-sale tickets thing has been news for a while now. This is a story from 5 days ago:

It was very good. Not great, but very good. Maybe as good as it could be, given the screen time it had to split between characters, and between exposition/acting and action. And Joss went out of his way to give more time to Ruffalo, Scarlett, and Renner than most people will expect. The first 2/3rds was a little slow at times, but the last 1/3rd made up for it, and the 3D and giant screen definitely rocked the end battle. I enjoyed "Iron Man 2" and "Thor" but this was better.

Some thoughts.

1.) Loki got more screen time than I expected. He's a solid actor.

2.) Scarlett looks awesome, small titties and all.

3.) It wasn't quite "Iron Man 2-1/2", but Downey certainly got his fill of one-liners and screen time. (And it was nice to see Gwyneth again in her role.)

4.) Everyone got to kick some ass.

5.) Moving from one "character" realm to another was a bit jarring at times. You get some Iron Man banter, some Captain America flag-waving, some Shakespeare-ish exposition from Thor, some angst and "you wouldn't like me when I'm angry" type lines from Banner/Hulk. But, again, hard to balance such different characters and actors.

6.) When I heard Ruffalo was being cast as the third Hulk, I thought it was dumb. In hindsight, though, I think he did an excellent job and, frankly, he actually LOOKS more like the Hulk than Bana or Norton did (as Ruffalo is short and stocky and actually has similar facial features to the character).

7.) As much as I enjoyed the actors, characters, action, dialogue, and special-effects, the most pleasant--and pants-moving--surprise was a bit part. When she first came on screen I thought, "Whoa... who's that?!?" And every time they showed her--which wasn't often enough--I was more entranced. I thought, "No, wait... that isn't... is that... Holy crap, it is!" Who am I talking about? Cobie Smulders. Yes, that Cobie Smulders, from "How I Met Your Mother". She's a little on the thin side now, but is rockin' the Jennifer Connelly look, with a tight little ass and eyes you could fall into. I'll see it again just to see her.

http://www.spotlightreport.net/wp/wp...vengers002.jpg

http://img.ibtimes.com/www/data/imag...d-premiere.jpg

Yeah I'll be seeing this on Friday

Very good film!

My wife wants to take the entire family to this flick.

I'm still in shock!!!!!!!!

I brought it up earlier, but heres been some discussion about why this wasnt shot wide 2:35:1. Apparantly Whedon wanted to, but Disney wanted 1:85:1 which is more square looking. Maybe they did it to better accomodate the IMAX screens which are more square? Maybe JD can chime in on this?

When loading the film into the projectors, I did notice that it was Flat, which is unusual. Most "epics" are Scope. I bet releasing it in Flat is something Disney prefers, probably so that their DVD releases look better and larger on TV screens. (It has nothing to do with Imax, because the decision to release it to Imax theaters was only made very recently... hence the reason we're only running it for one week, because we have a prior commitment to "Dark Shadows" as do many other theaters.) Luckily, because I watched it on a real IMAX screen, it didn't make much of a difference; once the film started, I never even thought about the aspect ratio.

Scarlett's on "Jay Leno" tonight. I'm subjecting myself to that douchebag just to get a look at her. God, he's ****ing awful. I don't find Conan funny any more, and even the current Conan leaves turds floating in his bowl that are funnier than Leno. He sucks donkey penis.

Thanks JD. ROFL that Dark Shadows would make a better IMAX movie than Avengers?

Yeah, that's happened a couple of times now. It's all about which studio plans a release date first and then negotiates with Imax. Unfortunately, apparently, "Dark Shadows" was planned before "Avengers" (or at least before the "Avengers" people decided to talk to Imax about releasing it in their format). We ran "Lorax" for one week only before "John Carter" kicked it out; we ran "Hunger Games" for one week only before "Wrath Of The Titans" kicked it out. Both "Lorax" and "Hunger Games" have made a shitload of money, while both "John Carter" and "Wrath Of The Titans" flopped. That's the sucky drawback to an Imax theater being only one theater; you're stuck with the movie you've contracted.

I just read that Lou Ferringo actually did the voice for Hulk. How cool is that?

It was pretty good. Alot more humor in it than i thought.

Very insightful review.

It was entertaining, and I.almost forgot, Stan Lee has a cameo & there are post credit scenes. The first scene sets up for the next movie & the second one resolves a major plot point from the latter Parr of the movie. Hulk steals the show for sure.

Did you want him to give a review spoilering the whole thing?

Watched the second half again last night during the midnight IMAX premiere. I want to cover Cobie Smulders in Cool Whip and lick it all off.

Can you spoiler the second post credit scene?

I have a question I wondered if you guys could help me with. I want to take my son to see this, but he is not really familiar with these superheroes, so I was going to watch some of the prequel movies with him beforehand like Thor, Iron Man, Iron Man II, Hulk (2008 version w/ Ed Norton), and Captain America. My questions are (1) which of these movies are most related to this Avengers movie (do we need to watch them all, or just a couple of them?), (2) are there any others that I am missing that should be added to my list, and (3) what order should we watch themin, or does it matter? Thanks!

I would think that Thor and Iron Man would be the minimum. I would also watch Thor last as it seems to be the movie that is most like a prequel here.

comic books?

I'd watch Incredible Hulk, Iron Man, Captain America, and Thor. In that order.

And theres a scene at the end of the credits in each of the movies that You need to see.

I'd probably do Iron Man, Incredible Hulk, Iron Man 2, Captain America, then Thor. Iron Man 2, Captain America, and Thor are must-sees for the Avengers, while Iron Man and Incredible Hulk really don't have much to do with it. I'd still watch them all though just because they're damn good movies and they're ****ing superheroes, dude. Don't deprive him of the greatest part of a kid's childhood.

I thought Iron Man 2 was very meh compared to the first.

Sure. The second post credit scene is-

Okay ... ha! Maybe not a major plot point, but it definitely resolves an interesting question.and was unexpected IMO!

Pretty good movie. Nice appetizer for the Dark Knight Rises(which is the one I really want to see)

Agreed TDKR looks like a movie that will have a lot more depth to it than the Avengers. I don't think there's been a superhero movie that captures the epic action and all out fun of comic books the way that Avengers movie did. I give it an A for being able to do that to near perfection. However, in terms of story depth, you can pretty much sum up all the major plot points in ten words or less. Ha! No fears! I won't spoil it, but this really isn't a movie that can be spoiled. I do expect a much more complicated story to end out Nolan's Batman series. The best moments of the Avengers are also very cartoon-esque and slightly campy. But I love that about it.

**** there was a 2nd after credit sequence? I thought it was weird that I was the only person left in the theater so I left. I wish I would have stayed.

This was far and away the best Action Super Hero movie. TDK was the best Drama Super Hero movie. I won't rank one over the other because of how different they were.

For something that seems to me to be an impossible movie to make... Whedon absolutely nailed it. Great balance with the characters, great action, plenty of comedy but not too schticky... no complaints from me whatsoever.

Now that is a much better review.

I was impressed.

I think they used the Hulk right. He didn't have as much time in the movie as the other characters but they made the most of his time. I think the two biggest laughs were "hulk moments."

I think the only character that was misused or not fleshed out was Hawkeye. He didn't have his own movie and his screen time was limited. That said he's a guy with a ****ing bow and arrows. Meh, not much missed there.

They also did a good job of letting you know where everyone is on the food chain. Hawkeye and Black Widow are just every day humans who are skilled fighters. No real "powers" there. Iron man is super intelligent with all the cool toys. Thor acts like he's the god of thunder. Hulk is...on his own level. He's Poe playing tackle football with 6th graders.

They didn't try to make this the X-Men where everyone is a greek god. There are different personalities and ability levels and they do a good job of mixing and matching.

And for an acton movie, especially after 2nd viewing, there is character development. You wouldn't think there'd be time with all the characters you have to fit in but most of these characters evolve as the movie goes on.

For the genre it hit a home run. It knows it's an action movie and does that well without doing anything else poorly. Thats rare lately. There is no deep message or political point of view.

And for parents I really can't think of anything I wouldn't want a 10 year old to see. There is violence (not graphic) but I don't remember any cussing or even mild nudity...

The movie is really sweet. Best superhero movie of this type I have ever seen. The comedy lines are terrific throughout with way too many to recall. The theater is laughing out loud quite often. I actually just saw it for a second time already (saw it at midnight) and even more interesting things turn up. It was hard to hear but the second time I caught how Tony called out one of the workers fooling around before they showed his scene. Also the Hulk is hilarious both as Banner and, asTony says, "a green rage monster." Good stuff.

I saw it mentioned before how this is not really comparable to TDK and I would say that's accurate. They are totally different as far as drama and the importance of the story. Also TDK tries to maintain as realistic a quality as possible. I cannot wait for TDK2.

You are right on about the "hulk moments." There are so many funny parts though. Many of which are subtle and easily unnoticed after one viewing. Did you notice any new ones like I did?

They really did a good job of mixing in funny lines/sequences between one liners and those driven more by dialogue/circumstances of the scene.

I'm a huge Hulk fan so of course I payed more attention to his character (as far as the small details go.) At first glance you might think he's the old TV Hulk. Lenny from Of Mice And Men painted green.

But he's not.

And I love how they took off from the last scene in the Norton Hulk movie. This is not an emo Bruce Banner who wants a pity party because he's cursed. He knows what he is and he's ok with that.

And if you really pay attention you can tell that Banner knows what Hulk does and Hulk remembers things that happened to Banner. When you keep that in mind while watching it makes the funny parts even better...

I didn't get the Hulk at all. One minute, he can't control himself and wants to smash the chick. Shortly thereafter, he's buddies with everyone (sans the Thor bit) and just wants to help out. I assume I missed some important plot element.

spoiler alert

Meh. I can do it in four: "Loki is an asshole". :D

CobieScarlettCobieScarlettCobieScarlettCobieScarlett... :hump:

There are a few muttered quick one-liners from Downey that get washed out in the audio and/or laughter. One I caught the second time around was...

He didn't really spoil anything, but I did notice that. In one scene, the Hulk is uncontrollable. In a later scene, he's very calm and almost rational. They didn't do a good job of explaining that. It's almost like the first scene was "early Hulk" and the later scene was "current Hulk". I guess you could rationalize it by saying, in the later scene, the Hulk was concentrating on the enemy, not simply bashing anyone around him.

I agree.. Avengers is the perfect comic fleshed out.. TDK is Frank Millers Batman fleshed out.. Both completely different styles..

They upped the bar again.. Makes movies like superman returns, green lantern, xmen 3 and the such look even worse..

Yeah, blind rage vs. tempered anger..

Oh, side note.. How bad is Marvel putting it to DC in hit movies..

If this were baseball, DC hits a homerun every now and then and strikes out the rest of the time..

Marvel is hitting doubles, triples and homeruns mixed in with singles and a K every now and then..

You must not have seen Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance.

That was one of the K's..

Seriously, though it is an anime or animated movie.. Go watch planet Hulk, it is on streaming netflix..

Uh Oh .....I hope this wasnt your theater JD? I agree though....projection at alot of theaters has gone downhill. I know ive went to get a manager a few times over the years and pointed it out. Tickets are too expensive these days to be a sheep and do nothing.



http://articles.boston.com/2012-05-0...ojection-movie


The venue was the Common's faux IMAX screen (or as my friend Brett calls it, "Lie-MAX"), for which customers pay an extra $6 per ticket. The theater was packed with fans; the opening credits were applauded. Every ironic one-liner was met with delirious laughter; every climactic donnybrook with cheers.

Did anyone notice that the projection framing was so off-kilter that all the actors' heads were cut off just above the eyebrows in every shot? Did anyone care that they were seeing only about 70 percent of the movie they'd been awaiting for years?

Nah. No one noticed. And that's why AMC, Regal, and the other chains will keep charging you exorbitant fees for movies that are under-projected, mis-framed and otherwise presented so poorly their makers would weep if they knew. Why should the theaters bother to do it right? They know audiences don't care, that they're too mesmerized by the 3D digital bread and circuses on the screen to understand that they're being ripped off.

Was anybody else surprised on how good Sam Jackson and Scarlett Johansson were?

I thought that they might drag the film down, but they didn't.

There were 2 things that I wish would have happened that would have made this the most badass movie ever. Both couldn't have happened, only one or the other...here they are, in spoilers, I'm not sure if we're allowed to post unmarked spoilers yet.

You are ****ing talking stupid crazy talk.. Eat some sugar and regain your senses..

LMAO