Ultimate Avengers 2

by: Average Joe 2 years, 3 months, 3 weeks, 2 days, 15 hours, 33 minutes ago

Release Date:

8/8/06

Price:

14.99

Company:

Marvel/Lionsgate

 

For me the first Ultimate Avengers DTV (direct-to-video) movie was a move in the right step for Marvel. I am a BIG fan of the “Ultimates” series, especially Bryan Hitch and Mark Millar’s “The Ultimates.” Every time I pick up an issue of that book I feel as if I’m reading a big budget film. Millar’s writing combined with Hitch’s amazing art is truly something to behold. I’m sure every fan has thought “Geeze, I would love to see this turned into a full blown film!” Well, it’s nice to dream but the sad reality of it is that making a film on par with the scale of the books is just not something I see happening for one major reason...budget.

So since we’re probably not going to see a live action “Ultimates” film anytime soon, naturally the next best thing is an animated feature.

Now I’ve read all of the reviews from various news outlets that say Marvel/Lionsgate dropped the ball with Ultimate Avengers 2, and while I agree that the first one just seemed to be balanced better, and tell a better story, I can’t agree with all of the harsh criticism it’s been getting. The first DTV was great because, well, it vaguely depicted Captain American’s origin story which was fantastic, and because of the ultimate showdown (no pun intended) between The Avengers and the rampaging Hulk that resulted in broken bones, bruised egos, and Thor getting smacked right in the face with his own hammer (OUCH!).

While the first DTV was loosely based on the first few issues of “The Ultimates,” the second installment takes a different approach and tries to tell a completely original story, and introduce a classic Marvel character to the Ultimate Universe in The Black Panther and his native homeland of Wakanda, set in the jungles of Africa.

The plot of Ultimate Avengers 2 is simple. Despite watching The Avengers (and Hulk) seemingly vanquish the alien invasion in the first film, the Chitauri still remain a serious threat to the world. Instead of focusing their attack on NY, they have instead turned their attention to the very isolate Wakanda. After watching his father’s murder (in a pretty gruesome scene) at the hands of the Chitauri leader Klieser, Prince T’Challa becomes king of Wakanda and assumes the mantle of The Black Panther. Back in the States The Avengers have split up and gone about doing their solo thing. Hank and Janet Pym’s (Wasp and Giant Man) marriage is rapidly dissolving, Bruce Banner is now imprisoned at S.H.I.E.L.D and forced to watch footage of Hulk’s rampage over and over again, Thor is troubled by a vision he had predicting The Avenger’s death, and Captain America is haunted by his painful past, and pushes himself to the edge with his “work” (namely kicking all kinds of ass, even some Hydra agents in one particular scene).

When the threat becomes too much for the people of Wakanda, The Black Panther reluctantly contacts The Avengers and informs them of the situation. Traveling to Wakanda to help deal with the alien threat, The Avengers receive an extremely cold welcome that results in Giant Man being poisoned, and the team being told the only way he’ll receive the cure is if all of them leave immediately. Meanwhile, unknown to anyone a massive Chitauri mother ship looms over the planet and prepares for an attack. The Avengers are then told exactly why the aliens have invaded Wakanda, they are after the massive Vibranium deposit buried deep beneath the ground, that the people have used to forge their weapons (which also answered the question of how the hell the natives could pierce Iron Man’s armor with spears).

What I liked about this film was that it was an original story. I loved the first one because it was based on the initial storyline from the comics, it was like the comics had come to life on the small screen with just a few slight changes. Ultimate Avengers 2 offers up something different, but still enjoyable since it takes our heroes out of the big city setting, and places them in unfamiliar territory. While I enjoyed the character of The Black Panther (who is fittingly portrayed as a very stubborn, proud leader and can now turn into an actual panther), I wish more time was spent developing him and his back story. For me the stand out characters weren’t Captain America and Thor this time, but rather Iron Man and Giant Man who served as the film’s two biggest heroes at the end. I’d have to say my favorite part of the film was in a scene when Tony Stark and Jarvis entered Tony’s “armory” and we get to see the hundreds of Iron Man suits Tony has stashed away. The scene almost reminded me of a page from the “Batman: Hush” books in which Nightwing asks Batman which car they’ll be taking, and Batman says "pick one" only to reveal every single incarnation of the Batmobile we’ve ever seen. In fact in the scene I’m talking about from UA2 Tony does say "let’s pick one" as he walks down the stairs to a suedo James Bond-type theme....it’s very cool. I also enjoyed the intense action sequences, namely when T’Challa’s father is murdered by Kleiser, and when Cap and Panther take a pretty brutal beating at the hands of...yep, you guessed it, Kleiser (anyone noticing a pattern with this guy?)

My biggest disappointment with the film came in the lack of screen time by Hulk. Fans of the Green Goliath are sure to be disappointed because he’s probably only on screen for a total of 45 sec MAX. I found this to be odd because at point during the film Dr. Banner discovers that the Hulk’s gamma radiated body actually weakens the alien’s Vibranium armor….one would’ve thought this would’ve played into the Hulk getting some more smash time, but sadly that wasn’t the case.

I also both liked and dislike the use of the Chitauri aliens in this film. I liked it because it really did establish them as a serious threat in the film. We all believed The Avengers had stopped them the first time around only to discover all they really did was slow them down. I didn’t like them being used again because I figured since they were doing an original story and introducing “The Panther,” they could’ve used a different villain as well.

Fans of the first film are sure to enjoy the second installment. Despite the flaws I found with it, I don’t think it deserves all of the harsh criticism it’s been getting on the net. In my opinion I think most people wanted to see another storyline taken from “The Ultimates” books and brought to life in the same way it was done with the first Ultimate Avengers movie. I don’t know, maybe I’m just a sucker for Marvel animation, or maybe I just liked seeing Tony don the War Machine armor too much to give it a terrible review.