I am not much for comic book movies. This is likely due to me not having read many of the superhero comic books. This causes me to not get many of the fanboy details, which in turn makes the films not much more that big action flicks with dudes wearing tights. I was however very impressed with the way Marvel developed Phase One of its Cinematic Universe.
By making separate films for the individual characters before assembling them all into an Avengers movie they not only continually built up hype for the franchise but they were able to develop each individual character before putting them into a film in which none of the heroes would get much screen time. The universe is bigger and better for the way they put it altogether. There are now rumors of a similar method being developed for the Justice League series and even the new Star Wars series. That sounds like a win-win to me.
So even though I did not see the Thor or Hulk movie and I felt that their other films, including The Avengers, was nothing more than a little bit of popcorn fun that I have no desire to see again, I’m making Marvel Cinematic Universe: Phase One – Avengers Assembled my Pick of the Week. They aren’t necessarily my cup of cinematic tea, but I’m all for the way they’re doing it.
The set comes with the Captain America, Iron Man, Iron Man 2, The Incredible Hulk, Thor, and The Avengers Blu-ray disks. It comes in a plastic briefcase that also contains a light-up Tesseract and case folders on each of the characters. Each movie includes extras like deleted scenes and audio commentaries though it seems most of those can be found on the original Blu-ray releases for the films. There’s also some trailers and the like for Phase Two of the series, which consists of individual films for Iron Man, Thor, and Captain America, the introduction of The Guardians of the Galaxy, and concludes with Avengers 2.
Also out this week that looks interesting:
The Bible: The Epic Miniseries: Depending on who you ask, the History Channel’s big budget series on the Christian’s Holy Book is either a collosal waste of time, a cheesy bit of fun, utter blasphemy, or the greatest bit of religious cinema ever created. Between all of that and the Satan that looks like Obama controversy, I’ve definitely got to give this a shot.
Hemingway and Gellhorn: An HBO biopic about Ernest Hemingway and his third wife starring Clive Owen and Nicole Kidman. I’m a huge fan of the author and I very much like the actors so no doubt this one is on my list.
Hammer Horror Collection 3: A nice little set featuring the films Dracula Prince of Darkness, The Legend of the 7 Golden Vampires, and Frankenstein Created Women.
Dirk Gently: I am severely deficient in my Douglas Adams knowledge. This series is based on his stories about the title character who is a “holistic detective.” Sounds fun.
