Tag Archives: the Avengers

A (Partial) Visual History of Iron Man Armor in the Movies

Posted on by

As a huge fan of the MCU’s Iron Man (the image below this text is from my collection) I had never heard of the Stan Lee Museum Popup, though luckily someone a bit more fortunate was able to attend past these pictures to me.

Below are replicas of various Iron Man armors from the films.

Mark I – Iron Man (2008)

Mark II – Iron Man (2008)

Mark III – Iron Man (2008)

Mark VI – Iron Man 2 (2010)

Mark XLII – Iron Man 3 (2013)

Mark XLIII – Avengers: Age Of Ultron (2015)

Mark XLVI – Captain America: Civil War (2016)

Thodey’s armor, despite being based on Iron Man, is visually a different beast entirely with a more purposeful, military thrust more interested in form following function, making Stark’s suit gaudy by comparison.

War Machine

And while the statue’s based may say ‘The Avengers’  War Machine wasn’t in that movie (though he did appear in the Iron Man movies, Avengers: Age of Ultron and Avengers: Infinity War).

And I’m guessing this variant of his suit is either from Iron Man 2 or 3 (I thought it was bulkier in  Avengers: Age of Ultron and Infinity War.

Advertisements

Black Manta or Black Man-Duh

Posted on by

I understand the moviemakers sometimes have to sacrifice accuracy for realism when producing something based on a comic book because what looks good in a drawing doesn’t always translate well to real life (which is why we’re likely to NEVER see a comic-accurate Scarlet Witch in the Avengers movies).

That being said, the goal should be as close to comic book accurate as reality will allow.

And the recently released photos of Black Manta from James Wan’s upcoming Aquaman movie? It misses the mark by quite a bit.

Manta’s helmet from the comics is particularly odd in that in the ways it’s typically depicted it’s too ovoid and flat to hold a human head.

The likelihood that this was made possible by the lower half of his face extending into the neck of the suit, while the ‘saucer section’ only contained the upper part of his face.

Black Manta’s helmet as (seemingly–after all, this could just be a prototype) depicted in the Aquaman movie? It’s a full helmet, which means the weird dimensions that made is so iconic aren’t (unless it were comically–pardon the pun–massive) possible.

And that’s a shame because the DCEU needs to keep it 100 because people are losing faith and one way to begin to get it back is depicting these characters as accurately and faithfully as possible.

Spider-Man: Homecoming – Trailer 3

Posted on by

Cutting an effective trailer is a strange mix of art and science and too much of either can ruin it.

And they’re more important than you think.

Part of what saved Suicide Squad was the  trailer, which (unfortunatel) made promises the movie itself didn’t quite live up to, was so well-received by movie goers.

By the same token, they can give away plot points that might better be left uNSAIDs (such as when Doomsday was revealed in the Batman V Superman: Dawn Of Justice trailer).

Though just so no one thinks I am picking on the DCEU, there was a scene from the first Avengers when the Hulk saves Iron Man, who’s falling after having ‘delivered’ a nuclear weapon to the Chtauri.

It wasn’t a spoiler but it did reveal a scene that would have been better served seen first in the context of the movie.

And speaking of ‘scenes that would have been better served seen first in the context of the movie’ the trailers for Marvel Studios/Sony Pictures Spider-Man: Homecoming haven’t crossed the line into spoiler territory, but they have revealed moments that would perhaps be better served by not beight first seen in the trailer.

Such as learning that Spidey’s uniform is filled to the gills with Stark-tech.


It doesn’t break the movie to learn this in advance–besides, hints were laid out in Captain  America: Civil War that this is not your father’s Spider-Man costume, so it wasn’t a huge reach.

THough it would have still been a pleasant surprise NOT to know about it ahead of time.

Marvel’s Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D. Are Back for Season 5!

Posted on by

If there were an award for Most Improved Television Series, the likelihood is high that Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. would be a contender, if not the winner.  It started life not sure what it wanted to be, and seemed to survive primary on the strength of Phil Coulson (Clark Gregg) who’s character had seemingly died in  2012’s The Avengers.

So, while it’s taken time to find its footing–arguably around the Second season–it’s developed into one of the best comicbook based series on television (seriously, if you haven’t watched since its first or second seasons you might want to give it a try because it’s really that good).

Though the bonus is that the series has been renewed for its fifth season!  Part of what aided in its renewal is the idea of story ‘pods’ by the producers, which is  a typical season consisting of three or four stories, as opposed to one or two,which has a curious effect of creating a faster-paced and much more enjoyable series.

Then there’s Ghost Rider (who arguably hasn’t been done better) and Inhumans.

Suicide Squad – Review

Posted on by

Screenshot 2016-08-03 19.14.16

“David Ayer’s Suicide Squad is a better movie than either Man of Steel or Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice.  Which unfortunately isn’t saying all that much.”

By my reckoning the greatest problems with Man of Steel and Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice was that director Zach Snyder forgot–or choose to ignore–two important things:

First, both Batman and Superman were originally made for children.  Now, I can understand the drive to make them more acceptable to adults, but what I don’t get is why he had to alienate younger folk in the process.

Though by doing so he removed two of the things that made them (particularly Superman) interesting to their millions of fans, which is a sense of wonder and possibility.

And while Superman was never my favorite superhero, I also never though of him as a god, something that Snyder has fixated on and feels the need to bludgeon viewers over the head with.

Zach Snyder’s fingerprints are all over Suicide Squad as well, particularly his tendency to equate murkiness and dreariness with darkness of tone.

And I’m also not sure that David Ayer was a good choice for the material (especially considering his filmography, such as End of Watch and Fury, though to be fair he seems to get that this stuff is essentially silly, so nothing’s any more serious than it needs to be) though he seems acquit himself well.

What’s more problematic is that the story–also written by Ayer–is way bigger than it needs to be.  Deadshot, El Diablo, Captain Boomerang, Harley Quinn, Slipknot, the Enchantress and Killer Croc are like the Avengers composed of lesser versions of Hawkeye, with the exception of El Diablo, Headshot and the Enchantress.

Which isn’t to say that they can’t be lethal, but if you’re looking for someone to stop an evil that threatens the world they probably wouldn’t be the first group you’d call.

But there’s a more serious problem that directly links to Zach Snyder’s treatment of Batman in Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice.

Namely Batman, when he encounters Deadshot and Harley Quinn, he kills neither one. If you recall in Batman v Superman he was really keen on killing virtually every person that opposed him.

Here? Not so much.

It’s not a corner that half-decent writing couldn’t get themselves out of, though it’s also a place that Snyder shouldn’t have taken the character in the first place.

And I fully understand that the movie would have been quite a bit shorter if Batman killed off Deadshot and Harley Quinn, but it would have also been truer to what Zach Snyder was doing before the soft reboot of the DC Extended Universe, which Suicide Squad is the first movie in.

How StudioADI (Almost) Saved Alien: Resurrection

Posted on by

Jean-Pierre Jeunet’s Alien: Resurrection, along with David Fincher’s Alien 3, are considered–and rightly so–to be the worse movies in the Alien franchise.

In reference to the the former, that’s probably true, but doesn’t tell the whole story.  For instance, Joss Whedon (Serenity, The Avengers, Avengers: Age of Ultron) wrote the movie, and had a few things to say about the casting as well as how he final product veered from his screenplay.

Another point is that, despite the issues revolving around the casting or story–what’s the point of giving the Alien Queen the ability to reproduce like mammals do, anyway?  Not only is it oftentimes painful (which may aid to bond the mother and her offspring), mammals typically produce much less offspring than insects, which the Aliens essentially are.

So when the entire premise of your movie is a wash, it’s typically a bad sign.

That being said, studioADI handled a lot of the practical special effects–Ripley models, the full-sized Alien Queen, etc–and their work is easily the best part of the movie.

And while it wasn’t  not enough to save the movie, visually speaking, it came damn close.

X-Men: Apocalypse – Trailer 1

Posted on by

Screenshot 2015-12-10 22.51.01I have just watched the latest trailer for X-Men: Apocalypse, and it’s…okay.

It teases Apocalypse, his Four Horsemen, his origins and so forth but there’s a problem:  As far as superhero movies go, we’re in a time of wonders.

From the Avengers to Superman, some of the greatest in comics have, or will soon, pop up on either television or movies.

So this trailer had to up the ante somehow, to ensure that it’s sticks out from the pack–something the X-Men films never had to contend with.

Captain America: Civil War did it by the introduction of characters that fans haven’t seen before (The Black Panther) in a scenario from a renown storyline.

Superman v Batman: Dawn of Justice did it by showing two iconic characters in combat (credit it loses by seemingly giving away the entire movie).

X-Men: Apocalypse had to ‘Wow’ us to get noticed in such a crowded space, and it’s first trailer didn’t quite do it this time around.