DC's first animated movie was based off their most popular character and tied directly to their current popular TV series. I am, of course, speaking about 1993's Mask of the Phantasm, which was a success, despite having such an abbreviated production schedule. This movie inspired several more Batman movies, which I will get to eventually. But first, I decided to review Marvel's first animated movie, Ultimate Avengers, which didn't come out until 2006. It was directed by Curt Geda, Steven E. Gordon and Bob Richardson, starring Justin Gross as Captain America, Grey DeLisle as Wasp, Michael Massee as Bruce Banner, Marc Worden as Iron Man, and Olivia d'Abo as Black Widow.
Even though Marvel had successful cartoons in the '90s about Spider-Man and X-Men, the company sold away the movie rights to those characters to avoid bankruptcy. I'm not sure if those movie deals included animated versions, but I do find it telling that Marvel's first venture into this direct-to-video medium avoided their most popular characters. I also found it interesting that Marvel chose to not tell the original stories of these characters, but a revamped origin story based on the Ultimates series. The Ultimates was started in 2002 as a way to draw in new readers by telling new stories without being tied down to the large and complicated Marvel continuity. Everybody was redesigned and got a more modernized origin story, which provided the perfect plot for new audiences this movie could reach. And it did work for me, at least. I knew very little about these characters in 2006, and this movie educated me fairly well — but only about these alternate versions of the characters. It would have been nice had they been able to tell a story exactly like this while still keeping it in the main Marvel universe.
After recently re-watching this movie, I was surprised at how similar it is to The Avengers. Nick Fury gathers together Earth's mightiest heroes one at a time, allowing us to become acquainted with their powers and personalities, then they all fight an alien invasion. And it even happens to be the chitari in both movies. But unlike it's live action counterpart, Ultimate Avengers did not have the luxury of four complete origin movies for each of its characters. So everything had to move pretty fast here. And since they had so many characters and so little time, they decided to focus mainly on Captain America, which I think was a nice choice. But maybe that's just because I like Captain America so much. Then again, this movie was one of my first exposures to him, so it's probably responsible for a lot of my enjoyment in the character. I loved Captain America's origin story in this movie — especially the fact that it was tied to the chitari threat later in the film. The movie also did a great job with showing Steve Rogers awake and adjust to the new world — something I felt like the live action movies kind of skimped out on. So for this, I will award one point.
But now I have to take a point off for the redesign of Thor. I don't like anything about him in this movie. I hate his costume that is lacking a beautiful red cape, I hate that his hammer is half an axe, and I hate that the biggest battles he can find to fight are those against whale poachers. Really, Thor? There isn't anybody else causing a bigger threat to the planet? I also didn't like how Nick Fury kept implying that Thor was not really the god of thunder, but just a delusional super-powered being. Was Fury right, or was he just unable to accept that Thor actually was from Asgard? This movie never explained, and it bugged me. Now, I know that this movie is just an adaptation of a comic book, and most of my complaints about this new Thor should be directed at that book, and not the movie. But it still made me mad and pulled me out of the movie, so I'm going to have to take a point off.
I'll now drop the score to a 4 for a pretty big plot hole. Unlike the live action movies, this Nick Fury was initially hesitant to recruit the superheroes. He also has a hard time getting some of them to join. He has to twist Captain America's arm to get him to help, then is turned down by Thor and Iron Man twice — once as Tony Stark and once as Iron Man. Not only was this a waste of time in a 70-minute movie, but it set up a pretty big contradiction. When Nick Fury gathered the Avengers into the war room to explain the chitari threat, Iron Man shows up for no reason whatsoever. And nobody bats an eye. Was their a missing scene planned where something happened to Iron Man that caused him to change his mind? And was there another one to explain how Thor showed up conveniently at the final battle? The most annoying thing about this is everybody knows Iron Man and Thor are going to join the Avengers — they're on the DVD cover for crying out loud! So don't waste time with them saying no, then randomly saying yes and showing up at the most convenient time.
Another scene that I think was hurt by the time constraint was the destruction of the SHIELD helicarrier. We never saw it before it blew up. Nobody we cared about it ever set foot on it, so watching it crash into the ocean had no emotional impact at all. It also really hurt that this scene came right after the entire Avenger team disbanded after failing their first mission and then reunited without any prompting from anybody. People just randomly showing up is a main theme of this movie. We're down to a 3 now.
Of course, everything in this movie is building up to the final fight, and I do have to say the animation and action work very well here. And in a pleasant twist, the true danger at the end wasn't the chitari, but the Hulk — something I wish they would've done in The Avengers. I absolutely loved the moment when the battle is over, all the aliens are dead, but the Hulk is still going strong and violently turns on his teammates. He is large, he is out of control, and he is unstoppable. Plus one point.
And for my final point, I have to reward my favorite moment in the entire movie — Hulk picking up Thor's hammer. In some versions, only Thor is able to lift his hammer, but I liked this one, where it is simply a very, very heavy hammer. And what really made this moment was the build up to it. Hulk was on a rampage, and then Thor shows up with his great soundtrack (as much as I didn't like this Thor, I did love the choir music that constantly played behind him). And for a moment, it looks like Thor will be able to subdue the Hulk. But in a moment that surprises even him, Hulk lifts Thor's own weapon and uses it to knock him out. Fun stuff.
So we'll end with a perfectly average 5 for Marvel's first animated direct-to-video movie. Having never actually read the source material, I can't comment on the accuracy of this adaptation. But it was an overall fun, yet slightly flawed movie. I think it was too short and a bit repetitive in places. But it did do well enough for Marvel to start making some more of these animated movies, including a direct sequel to this movie, which I will be reviewing soon.
Final score: 5
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