Ultimate Avengers

What a strange beast this is. Clearly - and explicitly - based on the brilliant Millar and Hitch comic 'The Ultimates', this cartoon refuses to shake off its mainstream Marvel heritage.

The Ultimate Universe has been the best thing to happen to Marvel for many a year, being a fresh imprint re-imagining all their characters back to 'day one' to hook new readers who might have been put off by the encyclopedic background knowledge needed to keep up to speed with events in the original comics.

The Ultimates were the new incarnation of The Avengers, Marvel's mightiest superhero group since the 1960s. Mark Millar took a much tougher, more 'realistic' and mature approach to the idea of a team of supersoldiers - treating them as 'weapons of mass destruction' - rather than just masked crimefighters and alien invader repellents.

The Ultimate Avengers movie - which could have been mind-blowing done live action in the style of Spider-Man or The X-Men - is a strange mix of the two universes, dumbing down Millar's story and making it more child friendly, but still keeping the characters of new Ultimate universe, with their cocky natures, bickering and inter-party feuds... although The Hulk doesn't get to eat anyone, which is a shame! The animation is pretty good, but not a patch on Bryan Hitch's artwork, which again gives the cartoon a very run-of-the-mill, sub-anime feel in the wake of its high calibre source material. The story and dialogue are also above-average for American cartoons, but could have been so much better ... the problem arises from trying to turn an adult comic back into a kiddy cartoon.

That being said, it still makes good viewing - even if it runs the risk of leaving both Avengers and Ultimates fans cold and disappointed - and a sequel is due out in July, taking the Ultimate Avengers to Wakanda, the home of The Black Panther.

I just read a review that declares Ultimate Avengers the "Best Animated Superhero Movie of All-Time!" I'll go one better. It's the best animated action movie of all-time, beating big boys like Titan AE, Transformers and The Iron Giant. Most sane people agree that it certainly beats any single episode of Justice League, X-Men Evolution, Batman or Spider-Man. Some want to compare it to these TV series and their entire run but that's apples and oranges. If Ultimate Avengers spins off in to a series, then there can be discussion.

As it stands now, Marvel's first animation effort set the bar quite high, not only for its future endeavors but for other companies and other studios. Ultimate Avengers proves that animated features don't have to talk down to a presumably child audience. You can set up characters and develop a story just like a live action film. The bonus being that once it's time for action, animation offers no limits. Ultimate Avengers proved this in spades. The alien battle and Hulk brawl were intense and spectacular. Setting them up, though, was what elevates this film past the other movies mentioned above. Marvel's live action movie experience bringing the likes of Spider-Man, X-Men and even Daredevil to the screen must have given them the edge. They've brought a remarkable animated world to life with Ultimate Avengers.

Being that I've read "the ultimates" beforehand and heard rumors that they were working on this movie at least 2 yrs ago; I was surprised when i actually got to see it.

The story revolves around Captain America, not entirely how he was made but during his times in World War II and his frozen "Demise". suddenly waking up in the 21st century with everything changing around him and an old alien threat looming in the mist an old school hero must call upon help from a new school team with the help of Nick fury (which i felt the person playing the voice of him was a bit bland but good all together). call upon Iron man, Wasp, Giant man, Thor, and Black widow to take down the opposing forces and from within as well.

The animation is evolved but not enough to satisfy most people but i will give them credit for bringing the team that did the ultimates to come in to work with the animation. the voice overs aren't up to standards but they will suffice to make the pace of the movie fast and furious right up to the climax...the story alone is taken out of the Ultimates and "Ultimate Nightmare" which is a side comic of the Ultimates during the time of an alien threat just bits and pieces though so don't expect too much. All in all the movie is good to match wits with a typical Saturday morning cartoon and I wouldn't be surprised if they do continue it to Saturday mornings but the movie is fast at times, the fights are pretty damn good but its not just a kids movie there are some scenes of violence that even i thought either can make or break this movie trust me someone will be bloodied up or broken...the story is typically straight from the ultimate series, and the voice acting could be better but this still a movie to watch...check it out!

Where to begin? Ultimate Avengers is simply one brilliant rendition of Marvel's (and Earth's) Mightiest Heroes. I've read different reactions and I've heard from both sides of this debate. Some serious Ultimates fans wanted this movie to be an exact reenactment of the comic book. Marvel instead made a conscious decision to infuse the old school Avengers in to the Ultimates mix. It was a masterful decision. The combination works very well. Gone are the overblown and, quite frankly, juvenile elements of the Ultimates. Having a horny Hulk or an outrageously abusive Henry Pym may work to capture the teenage comic crowd (which is exactly why the Ultimate Universe was created) but it doesn't play with main stream audiences. The title Ultimate Avengers fits because it's just that, a perfect meshing together of two separate universe of characters. The edge that made the Ultimates popular is still present but the characters that made the Ultimates possible in the first place still shine through. Captain America is perfect. You can really see why Marvel is lining up to give him his own live action movie. It'll be great, maybe even better then this masterful animated treat.

I like the fact that jealous DC fans are trying their frustrated best to find flaws and bash this instant classic. It's a sure fire sign that Marvel did their job and gave us one quality animated feature.

I do agree that the movie wasn't as "complex" as the Ultimates in that it did not have the heroes intermingled with politics like the comics did. That's a good thing, however. Infusing politics is going to divide your audience because not all of them are going to agree. Quite frankly, I get tired of movies that preach politics to me and would prefer sometimes to be transported into another world that doesn't lecture to me. Most moviegoers seem to agree, as the highest grossing movies of 2005 were STAR WARS, NARNIA, HARRY POTTER, FANTASTIC FOUR, etc. All fantasy films.

Some fools are trying to complain about this masterful animation? What are they talking about? Did they want a CGI movie on par with FINAL FANTASY from a few years ago? That's very unrealistic and that movie bombed bigtime. Personally, I thought the animation was excellent. I loved the way Cap's shield seem to glimmer in almost every scene. The battle sequences were phenomenal. I watched the movie with those "factoid" bubbles activated and they mentioned some interesting items about the complexity of the animation. The characters looked great. Iron Man looked ten times better then he does in the Ultimates book. Attempted bashers of this film should move on to another item. The animation is anything but a weakness.

I thought Ultimate Avengers was near perfect and really couldn't have expected more. Keeping the "Ultimate" BS to a minimum was a SEVERE improvement in my opinion.

A very good effort all around here and I hope they don't change one thing for Avengers 2.