Welcome, ladies and gentlemen, to "Tales of the Longbox" here on Reaction & Review. Tonight, guys, I'm checking out an animated film from 2006. That movie is "Ultimate Avengers: The Movie".
Now, I do happen to remember a little bit about the Ultimate universe that Marvel ran from the mid-2000's. And when I say a little bit, I do mean that literally. It was essentially a different timeline separate from the main canon of Marvel Comics, which was also an attempt by Marvel to make the Ultimate universe well...somewhat more realistic and edgy, I guess. I don't remember all of the stories that happened in it, but I do remember stuff like Peter Parker was going out with Kitty Pryde of the X-Men instead of Mary Jane. I remember storylines like "Ultimatum", which turned out to be pretty fucking stupid. And I also happened to remember stuff like cannibalism, which happened quite a bit in the Ultimate universe. Don't ask me why, it's best you go read them for yourselves if you're really curious about that kind of thing.
But yeah, that's all I remember about the the Ultimate universe. Now admittedly, I don't know how much this movie is going to borrow from the Ultimate universe, if at all, or if it's just another origin story of how the Ultimate Avengers unite together. I don't know what this movie's going to be like, but I am still curious to find out. Now, on the off chance anyone may ask, yes, I have seen "The Avengers" MCU film that came out long after this movie, and I do remember mildly enjoying it. So, I'm hoping this movie is going to be unique in it's own way and, perhaps, maybe it'll turn out to be good.
That being said, though, I am setting my expectations low on this one. Because after watching "The Invincible Iron Man", I'm not expecting this thing to be amazing, let alone being good. In short, guys, in case you never read my review for "The Invincible Iron Man", it sucked massive throbbing dick. And this movie could possibly tread those lines of sucking as well. Now, I'm hoping that it doesn't, but considering that this thing came out a year before "The Invincible Iron Man", I'm not holding my breath on that. However, if there is any good news here, this movie is really short. It's only about an hour 10 minutes long. So, if this thing *does* suck, I can at least say that my pain will be short and sweet. Granted, I've said that about a couple of other films in the past, such as "Assault Girls" and "The Girl In The Shell", and, well, they were so awful that they ended up being on my Bottom 5 lists.
But hey, who knows? This movie could still somehow surprise me and wind up being decent. The only way I'm gonna find out, though, if it is decent at all, is if I shut up and I push play, and I'm gonna do that right now. So, without further ado, it's time to kick back, relax, and check out "Ultimate Avengers: The Movie".
4 minutes later
So, not only are there mutant lizards working on this secret missile weapon with the Nazi's, the general commander is also himself a mutant lizard as well, who apparently has regenerative abilities. You know, somehow, I think certain groups of people would find that to be historically accurate in some way. And while I'm not gonna give out my politics here, I am gonna say that these mutant lizards look sorta cool, at least. So, I guess that's something.
17 minutes later
I didn't think this was actually possible, guys, but somehow, Tony Stark's actor sounds just about as wooden, if not more so, than how he did in "The Invincible Iron Man". And again, I should stress that this movie came out a year prior to "The Invincible Iron Man". And yet, his actor sounds almost no different than how he did before. That is a fucking accomplishment that I don't think this movie ever intended to go for, but somehow, they succeeded. That is fucking sad and depressing, guys.
12 minutes later
Guys, I'm already loving Thor in this movie. I don't know what it is exactly, but god damn it, it's already oozing with charm, and I'm hoping it stays that way with him for the remainder of this movie.
10 minutes later
Wait, so in this movie, Hank Pym is called Giant Man instead of Ant Man? I mean...it does make sense, what with his ability to grow bigger and all. But last I checked, the guy can still control ants, as has been demonstrated earlier. So, if that's the case, then who the hell is Ant Man in the Ultimate universe? I understand that it's mostly a trivial point and that it really doesn't matter here, but I'm still really curious about it.
16 minutes later
So, it took the movie almost half an hour to reintroduce Thor, after how I mentioned earlier about how much I loved him in this movie. That is...honestly, really fucking disappointing about how under-utilized he's been throughout this entire movie. That's really fucking sad, when you really think about it.
The Review
Well, guys, that was "Ultimate Avengers: The Movie". Let me go ahead and shut the film off here...OK. So, what to say about this movie? Well honestly, guys, it's kind of a tough one here. I will say that the film did live up to being decent, which what I was hoping for anyways. But at the same time, it still leaves a lot to be desired here.
Why don't we start this review off proper here by first discussing the writing. Now, I mentioned earlier about how this movie has a very short runtime of 71 minutes. And that really is the biggest problem with this movie, as a whole, is that it's just really short. You only have so much time to introduce all of our primary characters, along with our story, which is really bare bones at best. Where a bunch of alien ships invade and Fury has to assemble a new team in order to stop this threat. That's really it for plot. And honestly, I'm perfectly OK with this. Because, honestly, when you're working an origin story, be it as a solo hero or team, you don't necessarily need an overly complex plot in order to introduce your characters. As long as you have a story that's easy to follow, then the build-up to your hero should also be decently developed as well. And for the most part, we do have that here. However, the short runtime is what dampers this film the most because, had this movie had gotten about 10-20 minutes more to work with, the film could've been fleshed out a whole lot more.
Now I'll get more into this as I go into the characters, but I do want to start with the positives here involving most of them. Most of our characters are very well developed and have quite a bit of personality. The best developed ones are a tie between Bruce Banner and Steve Rogers. For Banner, it's mostly about him trying to control his inner rage as the Hulk. While with Steve, aside from him being assigned to lead the Avengers, it's mostly just him trying to adjust to life in modern times after being frozen for many decades. The best moments involving him is when he goes to see Bucky, or "Buck" as he's called in this movie, as he's grown older while Steve looks the same as he did from the 40's. And we also learn that he's married to Steve's girlfriend, who's also grown older as well. This stuff is honestly the best thing about this movie, because it really shows how much things have changed with Steve being out of commission for so long. And it's especially notable when he's visiting the grave of all of his fallen soldiers and that he's the only one still active. That stuff is really powerful, and it really makes me appreciate Steve even more than when I did back when I wasn't a huge fan of him. It really shows, at least to me, how far he's really come as a character.
Now as for the other characters, most of them, like I said, are very well developed and have quite a bit of personality. Our team consists of Nick Fury, who's character design would later be used as the basis for Samuel L. Jackson in the MCU films. Then there's Black Widow, who actually speaks Russian in this movie. We also have Tony Stark who's unfortunately still poorly voiced here, but I'll get into that once I cover the acting here. We also have Hank and Janet Pym, the latter being the Wasp. Hank though, admittedly, I'm still not sure when or how he ever got the name "Giant Man" in the Ultimate comics, or who took over the role of Ant Man during that time. Which again, I know is a very trivial point, but I still find it really strange that he would not use the "Ant Man" name for this movie, even though he can still control ants here.
But then that brings us to Thor. Good lord, talk about a disappointment! I mentioned earlier about how much I was loving his character in this movie. Well, shortly after his introductory scene ends, he himself just disappears for a good portion of the entire movie, up until the last 10 minutes of it. Which makes no sense at all, especially when you consider that every other character here has some semblance of screen time to work with. But Thor, for whatever reasoning, doesn't get that luxury. My theory is that, again, this film was working with such a short runtime that they could only work with so many characters at once. And had it not gotten stuck with only 71 minutes of runtime, then Thor would've definitely gotten more of a chance to shine here along with the rest of the Avengers crew.
But, besides that, guys, the writing here is still pretty decent for what they had to work with. So yeah, I'm not gonna sit here and dwell any longer on what could've been expanded with a longer runtime. Though with that said, that leads me straight into the acting. Now, for the most part, the acting here is really good...with the one exception being Marc Worden as Tony Stark. Yeah, he's back again. Although this is technically his first time voicing Tony, with the second being "The Invincible Iron Man". And I'm just gonna tell you guys straight up that, just based on the two performances I've seen from Marc Worden, the man cannot act. At least, not as Tony Stark anyways. The acting from him is the same wooden garbage that he gave out when he voiced Tony in "The Invincible Iron Man". Nothing about it has changed, and it makes me wonder who in the casting department thought he was a good choice in voicing a character like Tony Stark? It doesn't make any sense to me, but it just goes to show that this guy was a horrible choice to play Tony Stark.
But aside from him, guys, the acting is really good from the entire cast here. Same goes for the animation. Everything here is colorful from the palettes, and the art-style is very good, too. The animation itself is very well animated, and there's very, very little usage of CG here. Which is great, because when I compare this thing to "The Invincible Iron Man", I'm left wondering what the hell happened between that film and this, where the animation in that film looked absolutely horrible, while this movie's animation was really good? And mind you, both movies came from the same studio, which is Lionsgate. So it begs the question on how drastically the animation took a dip in quality from "Ultimate Avengers: The Movie" to "The Invincible Iron Man"? I really want to know this, and quite frankly, I don't think I'm gonna get an answer for that. But, regardless of all that, I should just stick with what we did get and be happy that the animation is really good here.
Sound-mix here is mixed fine, and the score here is pretty generic and forgettable. Not terrible, but noting you're gonna remember this movie by.
Ultimately, guys, with all that said, am I able to recommend "Ultimate Avengers: The Movie"? Yes, I can still most certainly recommend it. While the writing is pretty safe and Thor's character depth is severely lacking, the rest of the movie is still definitely worth checking out. Granted, I'm not totally sure if it's worth watching on repeated viewings, but I might give this film another watch at some point, if I'm in the mood for it. And if you, yourself, are a fan of Marvel, and you want something that's different that isn't from the Marvel Cinematic Universe, then I can certainly recommend this thing to you. Now, I am aware that there is a sequel to this movie. One in which that I won't be able to cover this marathon, as I have one more film from DC to finish off the marathon, but who knows? I may consider reviewing the second movie for next year's "Tales of the Longbox" marathon. But in the meantime, I think I'm gonna continue this animated superhero trend by checking out something from DC Comics. And I think I'm gonna go watch "Justice League War". It's been a little while since I last watched that movie, and I think it needs another viewing from me. So, I'm gonna go do that next once I get done with this review.
Anyway, guys, with that, we come to the close of another Reaction & Review. Until next time, ladies and gentlemen, take care, and I will see you all later. Peace.
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