What to Expect from THE AVENGERS - Post-Set Visits

 

The Avengers is a film I’ve been waiting for since 2008. With one line delivered by Samuel L. Jackson playing his comic book counterpart Nick Fury at the end of Iron Man, “I’m here to talk to you about the Avengers initiative,” Marvel Studios launched the imaginations of a thousand fanboys like me everywhere. This is the first Marvel film that Walt Disney Pictures will be distributing (not publicly apparently, thanks to Paramount Pictures). The mere idea of taking six different superheroes and placing them together in one film has never been accomplished before (right, George Miller?) and, thanks to the ownership of Disney, now it can be done! In the past few days, many major movie sites have posted their set visits from last year just before the release of the film. Rather than having to read all of the posts, why not let GeekTyrant (specifically ME) do all the work for you? Here are the points from the set visits that I feel are the most important. The following info comes from Collider and AICN

-          The film will explain why Natalie Portman is not in the film.

I finally got to show Thor to my mother a while back and she really enjoyed the film but she ended up mad for the exact same reason I did – the film has no closed ending. One of the most frustrating things about Thor is that it simply ends on the promise of Jane Foster (Natalie Portman) continuing her search for Thor and Asgard and Earth are now disconnected. Heimdall (Idris Elba) says quite clandestinely, “There are other ways of getting to Midgard”. An obvious reason that Natalie Portman is not in The Avengers is because she was pregnant at the time of filming (and still found time to go promote No Strings Attached and Your Highness). However, Chris Hemsworth has revealed that there will be a few lines written in the film that will clarify “why she’s not Thor’s focus in this story.” 

-          Asgard could make a reappearance.

One of the most dazzling things about Thor was the film debut of Asgard (which justifies anybody who bought a ticket in IMAX 3D… or Tree-D). The Realm Eternal was given a bright introduction but was separated from Earth when Thor had to destroy the Rainbow Bridge to save the Frost Giants of Jotunheim. But once Thor and Loki are together on Earth, a hint of Asgard may still remain. From some sources, Odin is mentioned in dialogue but no word yet on whether Anthony Hopkins may make a surprise cameo appearance. Hopkins has only made one film since Thor, a small indie drama called 360, so schedules could’ve worked out.  Still, even if Asgard doesn’t return in 2012, it most certainly will in 2013 with Thor 2

-          Could Loki be redeemed?

The character of Loki (Tom Hiddleston), as established in Thor, is that of a tragic villain. All of his life he had been trying to step up and be the equal to Thor in his father’s eyes, but that all changed when he discovered his Frost Giant parentage. Loki then began a plan to have Thor removed from Asgard so no one but he could take the crown when Odin fell into the Odinsleep. Once Thor returned, Odin disavowed his step-son and Loki descended to Earth. In The Avengers, Loki is a full-fledged villain out to rule Earth, but from the look of some set photos taken, he might not be far behind from turning over a new leaf. It’s certainly a goal of Thor’s, because he feels that the Avengers want to harm Loki rather than simply take his power away from him.

-          Phil Coulson gets his time to shine.

Certainly one of the key threads in the Marvel Cinematic Universe is S.H.I.E.L.D. Agent Phil Coulson, played by the talented Clark Gregg, an original character initially invented for Iron Man. When the character proved popular, he reappeared in Iron Man 2. While on the set of that film, Gregg learned he was headed for New Mexico. When he asked why, he was told it was the centerpiece of Thor and he had just been cast. He’s also been in two direct-to-Blu-Ray Marvel short films – “The Consultant” and “A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to Thor’s Hammer” – and voiced Coulson in the new Disney XD animated series Ultimate Spider-Man.  In The Avengers, Coulson finally gets to be involved in the action and fight alongside Earth’s Mightiest Heroes. Calling the character “the world’s most persistent bureaucrat, a secret ninja assassin and the guy that wrangles the rock stars at Lollapalooza,” Gregg seems to be enjoying his role as much as the fans. In a world with giant mechanical weapons that walk, temporal-misplaced super soldiers and thunder gods, not much seems to faze Agent Phil Coulson. 

-          Bruce Banner hasn’t Hulked out in years.

Nobody in the Marvel films has had a rockier road to the Avengers than the Hulk. With the existential nonsense that roamed throughout Ang Lee’s Hulk, the film was a disaster to mainstream audiences who felt the film was too serious. Things seemed a bit brighter with Louis Leterrier’s The Incredible Hulk with more action and less talking. Audiences were delighted to see a film that not only paid homage to the comics and the famous TV series, but also to have the Hulk being heroic. They even accepted Edward Norton as a more believable Bruce Banner than the brooding Eric Bana. The film ended with the purposefully ambiguous shot of Norton beginning a Hulk-out with green eyes and a knowing grin, leading speculation whether or not Hulk would be a villain or a hero in his next appearance. However, in early 2010, things seemed to fall apart as Edward Norton was publicly removed from The Avengers. The week of Comic-Con, it was announced that Academy Award-nominee Mark Ruffalo had taken up the role of Bruce Banner. Fans weren’t quite pleased and were livid when Robert Downey Jr. stood on stage and jokingly said, “Reprising the role of Bruce Banner… MARK RUFFALO!” Ruffalo has since said that did him no favors and made the transition worse. However, even though the actor has changed, Bruce Banner seems to have stayed the same character from The Incredible Hulk and progressed to the point where, in The Avengers, Bruce has not become the Hulk in years. S.H.I.E.L.D. simply wants him for his knowledge in gamma radiation, which makes me wonder if they’ve pulled any strings to make him no longer a fugitive. Ruffalo and producer Kevin Feige have gone on record that this version of Bruce Banner is closer to Bill Bixby’s portrayal from the television series and that he is the first actor to portray both the Hulk and Banner in the same film (thanks to performance capture). 

-          Right time, wrong place.

One of my favorite quotes from Leonard Nimoy when he talked about directing Star Trek IV was how great it was to take these established characters and put them “out of time, out of place, out of sync with the time and place they’re in,” and it sounds as though Joss Whedon has accomplished this with Earth’s Mightiest Heroes. The biggest character out of place is obviously WWII Super Soldier Captain America as he’s just now been thrown into the 21st Century (per the end of Captain America: The First Avenger). Hopefully, the “fish-out-of-water” humor inherent won’t be as broad as Thor’s but enough to get a few chuckles. But you also see other characters not where they belong – Tony Stark is now in New York, rather than at home in Malibu; Black Widow was a “floater at Stark [International]” at the end of Iron Man 2 but now seems to be a full-fledged member of S.H.I.E.L.D.; and Hawkeye is no longer in front of a blue scre—I mean, New Mexico. 

-          This is S.H.I.E.L.D.’s show and you’re coming along for the ride.

S.H.I.E.L.D. made their first film appearance in Iron Man in the forms of Phil Coulson and a post-credit Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson). Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer had previously attempted to include Nick Fury but because Marvel refused to give up the character (Iron Man was in development) and he was replaced by the generic and expendable General Hager (Andre Braugher) who was quickly killed in the film’s climax. However, Jackson (as Fury) returned in a supporting role in Iron Man 2 and was featured at the end of both Thor and Captain America. Avengers will feature no more secrets and no more cliffhangers – just balls to the wall S.H.I.E.L.D. as intended by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby. Of particular interest to fans is the film debut of S.H.I.E.L.D.’s mobile headquarters, the Helicarrier. Kevin Feige has previously stated that a S.H.I.E.L.D. film would not be out of the question in the near future.

Marvel Studios's always good about starting the summer off with a bang and this year will their biggest yet. The Avengers is the culmination of the Marvel Cinematic Universe and hopefully it will only get much more expansive. Here's a video showing a timeline of the MCU (if you've been living under a rock or you just wanna watch the movies in sequence).

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