Alternate “Avengers” Awesomeness Amazes?

“And this is the bit where more amazeballs awesomosity is going to go…”

In the spirit of global collaboration and nerd-sharing, it behoves me to direct you towards io9.com, who currently have an alternate opening sequence for “The Avengers” posted on their site.  It’s a really interesting choice and I can absolutely see why it went the way of all flesh – I can’t imagine many fans digging the ‘unreliable narrator‘/alternate perspective direction that this opening implies, intriguing as it might have been…

If I know Marvel (and their dark corporate over-Mice, Walt Disney) this won’t be up for long but you will be able to peruse it at your leisure in a few weeks when Joss Whedon‘s superhero opus is out on DVD, Blu-Ray, digital download and can settle the question once and for all – how did this film and “The Dark Knight Rises” both manage to independently construct endings which pivot on wide-ranging moral choices selflessly enacted by rakish billionaires who moonlight as technologically advanced fighters of crime.

And no, h8t0rz, that doesn’t mean that Hollywood has no ideas.  Just not that many.

Meet Robocop’s new Big Bad…

If we must have remakes of every 1980s film possible – and this is a belief which Hollywood execs cling to as though it were a life jacket in the midst of a shipping disaster – I suppose it doesn’t hurt to have such retreads at least possessed of half-decent casts.

To which end, the creatively bankrupt souls proposing to lay siege to the glorious, bullet-riddled corpse of Paul Verhoeven‘s peerless “Robocop” appear to be seeking the services of Hugh Laurie as their villain.  Pretty inspired casting, if truth be told, as I’m sure that Laurie could bring more than enough low-key, well-spoken menace to the equivalent role that Ronny Cox played in the original, 1987 flick.

If Laurie signs on, he’ll join Gary Oldman, Samuel L Jackson, the in-negotiations Abbie Cornish and Joel Kinnaman as the titular ironsides law man.

The director is Jose Padilha, who previously brought you bleak-as-heck Brazilian cop flick “Elite Squad”, which at least indicates that the producers haven’t sought out a director who’ll toe the line and turn in a PG-13 bowdlerised version of the story.

Would it be too much to hope for that wiser heads on the production team enlist the great Kurtwood Smith for a cameo?

Related articles

• Robocop remake gets a “HOUSE” as a bad guy (geeksyndicate.wordpress.com)
• Gary Oldman Joins ‘RoboCop,’ Playing a Character Unique to the Remake (slashfilm.com)

“Avengers” review embargo – Disassembled!

It's a bullseye!

So, the embargo’s gone south and we can finally read what critics have made of Joss Whedon‘s eagerly awaited superhero flick, “The Avengers”.  Farrago or Thrill Ride? Clue? Happy fun times await you at the multiplex.

I’m kind of happy to see some moderately grudging points in the reviews I’ve read to date, because there’s no such thing as an absolutely perfect film and everything that I’ve read to date suggests that Joss Whedon has been able to step up to the challenge of filtering his own particular brand of nerdery into the very specific DNA of a summer blockbuster franchise flick, but not without some minor issues.

Wit married deftly to blazing action sequences, vivid and economic characters meshed with property-trashing spectacle and unexpected nuance woven throughout the default, eye-popping chaos of a Marvel Superhero flick – you can’t really ask for much more than that, can you?

“Avengers” premiere – early buzz leaking out…

Yep, not enough awesome in that pic.

So, there’s this small superhero flick opening in a few weeks – you may have read the odd post about it on this blog?

“The Avengers”  (or “Avengers Assemble“, if you live in a small and confused island in Northern Europe) had a glitzy premiere in Los Angeles last night and has prompted very positive early reactions from the jammy sods press types who were lucky enough to see it.

My personal highlight of the Tweet-fest,  from noted contrarian and geek critic Devin Faraci of BadAssDigest –

“AVENGERS is good enough to make me forgive IRON MAN 2“.

Yoink!  Not that “Iron Man 2” was that bad – that Monte Carlo fight scene kicks all kinds of booty – but it’s probably the biggest misstep in Marvel movies to date.  Another movie in a young series which ends with an extended action sequence which plays like a rejected pitch for a Rock ‘Em Sock ‘Em Robots movie is not my idea of moving the franchise forward – I’m guessing that the team dynamic of the Avengers squad may have something to do with Faraci’s reaction.

Joss Whedon, nerd-father rising. Haters to the left, if you please...

Your actual, proper reviews are still embargoed but I don’t see that state of affairs continuing much longer if this early buzz is any indicator…

 

 

New “Avengers” trailer, anyone?

First things first – it’s in German.  So, if you’ve ever entertained the notion of Scarlett Johansson having an even huskier, European accent – your Christmas has arrived early.

For everyone else, there are a few different sequences herein than seen in the earlier teaser trailer – the aforementioned ScarJo meeting Mark Ruffalo in pre-Hulk mode is new.

Scarlett. What else do you need to know?

There’s also a good sense of how sensitive, thoughtful, character-centric geek auteur Joss Whedon gets down when given the opportunity to blow things up:

Stitch that, Michael Bay!

There’s some seriously nice eye-candy for most viewers of this trailer, whether your taste runs to hot Nordic dudes swinging their hammers:

Imagine a Captain Hammer vs Thor battle. Oh, the possibilities....

Or bad-ass captains of industry out for a night flight:

This is, I believe, the Mark 3,987 Iron Man suit. Give or take.

It’s all kinds of sweet, even when you can’t understand a bally word those nice German voice over actors are saying.

I won’t lie – I’m super-hyped for this one.