Is it time for us nerds to start anticipating THE AVENGERS, directed by Joss Whedon?

no

which dude do you think is fassbender. wtf mate

Fassbender IS...Black Widow.

which dude do you think is fassbender. wtf mate

― RudolfHitlerFtw (Hungry4Ass), Monday, February 6, 2012 7:06 PM (5 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

the bad guy talking to tony stark. c'mon, it looks a lot like michael fassbender.

or, what ned said.

*blink*

Fassbender is so much better looking than the dude who plays Loki that it is not even funny.

oh, tom hiddleston. yeah i can kinda see that actually.

This lays out the baddies probable identity pretty convincingly. SPOILERS obv
http://www.bleedingcool.com/2012/02/05/lokis-army-revealed-avengers-superbowl-trailer-know-who-they-ish/

Have those Simonson pages been recoloured or something? That's not how I remember them looking like...

But Hawkeye and Black Widow are humans who wear no armor. How do they throw down without getting broken in two?

Geek explanation: Hawkeye uses ranged weapons and rarely does hand-to-hand combat (at least not with superpowered beings). Black Widow has been given some kind of chemical treatment that makes her heal faster and age slower (in the comics, she was born in the 1930s).

Non-geek explanation: readers/viewers like to have a badass normal character or two among the superpowered ones, it's easier to root for them.

We endorse Iron Man's use of technology to enhance the capabilities of the human body. However, his capitalist individualism is inexcusable. A collectivist army of Iron Men would be of greater use.

Yeah Tuomas, there was a recent omnibus of Simonson's Thor work that was recoloured.

I was kinda wondering, is this the first time any movie has done the shared universe thing so common in comics, i.e. have characters from different franchises appear in the same movie? Because the only other examples I can think of that are even close are parodies like "Abbott & Costello Meet Dracula", in which the parody character is clearly not the same as the original character.

Hmm, now that I think of it, I guess Aliens vs Predator and Freddy vs Jason are shared universe movies. I haven't seen the former, but in the latter it's certainly implied these are the same Freddy and Jason as in their respective franchises. And Kevin Smith has featured his own shared universe in most of his movies, with Jay and Silent Bob tying them together.

Any other examples like this?

According to TVTropes Reservoir Dogs and Pulp Fiction are supposed to be in the same universe, with characters named Vega apparently being brothers. That sounds like a pretty weak link though, and it doesn't explain why this universe has pairs of charactes (Mr. Blonde/Pumpkin, Mr. White/Winston, Mr. Brown/Jimmie) who look exactly like each other.

Lots of John Hughes films set in the fictional Shermer, Illinois. I'm sure he's not the only director to do this?

Lots of John Hughes films set in the fictional Shermer, Illinois. I'm sure he's not the only director to do this?

Well yeah, many directors include small winks like this in their movies, but what I was thinking was a bit stronger shared universe, i.e. one where actual characters are shared.

Whit Stillman did this a bit

Do you want to elaborate on that? I'm not familiar with his movies.

I'll just quote from wiki

The Last Days of Disco was loosely based on Stillman's experiences in various Manhattan nightclubs, including Studio 54. The film concerns Ivy League and Hampshire graduates falling in and out of love in the disco scene of Manhattan in the "very early 1980s". It concludes a trilogy loosely based on his own life and contains many references to the previous two films: a character considers a move to Spain to work for American ad agencies there after meeting with the Barcelona character of Ted Boynton, and Metropolitan's heroine Audrey Rouget reappears briefly as a successful publisher, as do a few other characters from that film, as clubgoers. In 2000 Stillman published a novelization of the film, The Last Days of Disco, with Cocktails at Petrossian Afterwards.

Kind of want Whit Stillman to direct a Marvel movie now.

Yeah, lots of writer/directors do this but as a studio/producer driven thing this is kind of unique -- none of these characters have shared a director among their solo movies.

http://www.imdb.com/character/ch0027458/

the big difference/unique thing about the Avengers is that the franchise has been engineered in reverse - in every other case I can think of, subsequent characters/films have been spun off or refer back to the initial movie. this is the first instance where each individual character was deliberately introduced solo - in their own vehicle - and then brought together later for an ensemble film. this has never happened before afaict.

Freddy v Jason and Alien v Predator are different imho, they were created separately, they were not initially developed as existing in the same universe.

then why is there an alien ship in predator?

you mean alien skull in predator 2?

kevin smith did this with his gay 'askewniverce' or w/e

ya that

i think you meant the predator ship in Alien

kevin smith did this with his gay 'askewniverce' or w/e

not really, Jay & Silent Bob tie everything together and they are central characters in the first film, Clerks. this is different from how the Avengers franchise is structured.

lame
http://static.entertainmentwise.com/photos/Image/290212_avengersassemble580s.jpg

Someone contact Photoshop Disasters stat. We've got a bleeder.

I always hated how the Marvel movies have the heroes constantly removing their masks so that you can see the famous actor's face. Iron Man looks cool with the helmet, but not with Robert Downey's head sticking out the suit; Tobey Maguire's face + Spider-Man's suit looks just silly. I wonder if it's because, A) the actors demand their faces should be shown during action scenes too, or B) the movie makers think people can't emphasize with a hero unless he has a human face (completely ignoring the fact that people emphasize with characters like R2-D2 too)?

Can you imagine if they'd done the same thing in the Batman movies?

true of that poster but i dont remember that happening all too much in the first iron man flick... maybe at the end?

but i think a big part of that, when it happens, is just like, we're paying $30mil for a big movie star, kinda doesnt make sense if we dont show his or her face during the big scenes

the avengers poster should absolutely be a fucking alex ross painted thing ala ralph mcquarrie, how could anyone have fucked that up?

and in batman at least you can see part of his face, as opposed to irie man or spiderman

lol @ irie man

The views of Stark's face from inside the helmet seem like a necessity-driven thing developed for the movies. They've adapted it cleverly into the comics, showing him controlling the Iron Man armor in a sort of V.R. environment.

That really is the worst poster. It seems dated, like it could be a late 90s movie.

The views of Stark's face from inside the helmet seem like a necessity-driven thing developed for the movies. They've adapted it cleverly into the comics, showing him controlling the Iron Man armor in a sort of V.R. environment.

― Steamtable Willie (WmC), Wednesday, February 29, 2012 10:32 AM (6 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

ya i remember noticing that, pretty clevs

(of me)

Irie Man

http://smartassradio.com/wp-content/gallery/site-images/irish.gif

just need some red and black in there

irie man would be jamaican iirc

thats what im sayin

my "lame" was directed at the title change more than anything, though it isn't a great poster. Alex Ross sucks tho

was this thread's title changed too?

it's a UK only change. No need in this case

but i think a big part of that, when it happens, is just like, we're paying $30mil for a big movie star, kinda doesnt make sense if we dont show his or her face during the big scenes

I wish they'd at least try to justify it, though. Okay, in the Spider-Man movies his mask gets torn off, but in both Iron Man movies the heroes and villains open the helmet in battle situations for no good reason at all, even thought they're up against enemies with projectile weapons that could hit their face. The "view inside the helmet" already provides you with shots of the actor during the fight scenes, making them open the helmets just feels unnecessary, and makes the fights look less cool.