Ultimate Avengers 2: Rise of the Panther
Monday, 21. July 2008, 17:27:34
The follow-up to Marvel Animations' Ultimate Avengers-movie based off on Mark Millar's The Ultimates-comic is not based on Millar's work at all. As far as I gather, this decision was related to Millar's second arc on the comic not being done yet when the sequel was in production. Still, the movie shows several hints of developments in the The Ultimates 2-comic despite having vastly different premises and plots.
Less dark than the comic, the movie is still surprisingly willing to delve into darker themes. Where the second novel in the comic series made Thor's questionable divinity into a major plot-point, we're here as the viewer explicitly shown that Thor and the gods of Asgard are indeed real and that Thor is helping mankind against his father's will. (Odin states in this movie that mankind has abandoned their gods, so the gods have also abandoned them. Thor takes a different view to the latter half of the statement.) That's a daring choice in a movie otherwise fully focused on science-fiction, not fantasy, and I applaud the guts of it despite missing the arc of doubts surrounding Thor's claims to godhood.
The movie's plot is a far more direct follow-up to the first movie than the book did to the first book. Where the first Ultimate Avengers-movie was little more than a direct adaptation of the first Ultimates-book, this one sports an original plot that furthers the old one, which actually increased my interest as I was watching - I genuinely had no idea where the plot was headed.
As it turns out - nowhere particularly original. It was still a good ride there.
The characters are very well portrayed. Some characters are utterly redundant in the eyes of the plot - Bruce Banner, for instance, has only one plot-function that could easily be performed by any of the four other geniuses in the cast of characters (the Pyms, Betty Ross and, of course, Tony Stark) - but they are all a welcomed sight, and they're all done rather well. In fact, Bruce Banner has what are probably the by far most iconic scenes in the movie. Also, by keeping him around, you feel closer in touch with the first movie, as well as keeping a red thread going if they ever make a sequel.
Some things are lighter - like the Pyms marital difficulties - but they're still there, which impressed me. The villain is freaky and interesting (when in doubt, go Nazi), and the addition to the cast actually works well. The Black Panther is a good character who's made integral to this story in a very functional and smooth way. His introduction is charismatic and engaging, and you do not mind this character stealing screen-time from the old ones. However, at the end of the movie, I feel he's cut short, and we never really get a worthwhile payoff to his arc in my opinion. This is too bad. There's also the mysterious panther-power that's never explained - is this something primordial and magical like the powers of Thor?
The movie, like its predecessor, looks really good, and the animation is less static than in DC's effort of Superman: Doomsday or the classic Batman Animated Series-movies. It's nowhere near as fluid and alive as, say, a classic Disney-feature, but it's less rigid than the current DC counterparts I've seen who, while also pretty, can sometimes seem a tad too much like still pictures with moving mouths.
Nice, worthwhile entertainment that makes me hope they'll make a third one and bring some of the plotpoints from The Ultimates 2 into it now that it's readily available. A weak 7/10.
Less dark than the comic, the movie is still surprisingly willing to delve into darker themes. Where the second novel in the comic series made Thor's questionable divinity into a major plot-point, we're here as the viewer explicitly shown that Thor and the gods of Asgard are indeed real and that Thor is helping mankind against his father's will. (Odin states in this movie that mankind has abandoned their gods, so the gods have also abandoned them. Thor takes a different view to the latter half of the statement.) That's a daring choice in a movie otherwise fully focused on science-fiction, not fantasy, and I applaud the guts of it despite missing the arc of doubts surrounding Thor's claims to godhood.
The movie's plot is a far more direct follow-up to the first movie than the book did to the first book. Where the first Ultimate Avengers-movie was little more than a direct adaptation of the first Ultimates-book, this one sports an original plot that furthers the old one, which actually increased my interest as I was watching - I genuinely had no idea where the plot was headed.
As it turns out - nowhere particularly original. It was still a good ride there.
The characters are very well portrayed. Some characters are utterly redundant in the eyes of the plot - Bruce Banner, for instance, has only one plot-function that could easily be performed by any of the four other geniuses in the cast of characters (the Pyms, Betty Ross and, of course, Tony Stark) - but they are all a welcomed sight, and they're all done rather well. In fact, Bruce Banner has what are probably the by far most iconic scenes in the movie. Also, by keeping him around, you feel closer in touch with the first movie, as well as keeping a red thread going if they ever make a sequel.
Some things are lighter - like the Pyms marital difficulties - but they're still there, which impressed me. The villain is freaky and interesting (when in doubt, go Nazi), and the addition to the cast actually works well. The Black Panther is a good character who's made integral to this story in a very functional and smooth way. His introduction is charismatic and engaging, and you do not mind this character stealing screen-time from the old ones. However, at the end of the movie, I feel he's cut short, and we never really get a worthwhile payoff to his arc in my opinion. This is too bad. There's also the mysterious panther-power that's never explained - is this something primordial and magical like the powers of Thor?
The movie, like its predecessor, looks really good, and the animation is less static than in DC's effort of Superman: Doomsday or the classic Batman Animated Series-movies. It's nowhere near as fluid and alive as, say, a classic Disney-feature, but it's less rigid than the current DC counterparts I've seen who, while also pretty, can sometimes seem a tad too much like still pictures with moving mouths.
Nice, worthwhile entertainment that makes me hope they'll make a third one and bring some of the plotpoints from The Ultimates 2 into it now that it's readily available. A weak 7/10.
By cryonic101, # 28. July 2008, 08:04:22
By Loki Aesir, # 28. July 2008, 11:58:20