Iron Man blasts into theaters this weekend and is expected to be quite a big deal. Not only does it kick off this year’s more serious super-hero movies and the summer season, but it’s the potential start to several franchises. Word has already been received that Iron Man 2 is in the planning stages, and the movie is a potential lead into an Avengers spin-off, uniting chrome dome with the Hulk and several other of the world’s mightiest heroes.
Iron Man isn’t the first member of the Avengers to make the bridge into movies. In fact, he’s quite late to the party. Fortunately, he’s a little better off than some of his predecessors, who suffered from low budgets, poor technology, and stupid decisions when adapting the characters to the big (or little) screen.
Iron Man is laying the foundation for the Avengers movie, so let’s hope they build off of that film instead of some of these others. They still make guilty pleasure viewing, but aren’t really the starting point for the franchise we’d all like to see come about.
Captain America
At the forefront of the Avengers is Captain America, the star-spangled hero. Cap was the perfect icon for the fight against the Third Reich and Nazi Germany, which is why it’s hard to figure out how his iconic enemy, The Red Skull, was transformed from one of Hitler’s right hand men to an Italian born for this 1990 film adaptation. Not that it really matters, because somehow the whole image of the Red Skull was completely screwed up and you wind up with a villain who is laughable instead of representative of pure evil on Earth. In the complete miscasting area, one of Hollywood’s best villains, Ronny Cox, somehow works his way into the presidency instead of playing the major antagonist. Although the production is just one bad move after another, Matt Salinger does his best to embody Captain America, but it’s just not enough; the bulk of the problems existed before the actors ever stepped on set. Ironically, the movie about America’s hero never saw a theatrical release in the United States, so your home video experience is about as good as anyone has ever seen the movie in this country.
The Incredible Hulk Returns
Following Captain America into battle, you get two of the Avengers with this movie instead of just one, and none of that bad Ang Lee aftertaste. Since this summer’s Edward Norton picture appears to be paying homage to the old Bill Bixby series, why not go back to that ourselves? In what was probably the best of the follow up movies, Dr. Banner appears to have found a cure for transforming into the green goliath. All of that changes when an old colleague turns up looking for Banner’s help, with a thunder god in tow. While the show was always good about maintaining the characters of Banner and Hulk, for some reason they get Thor completely wrong, relegating him to the status of a genie in a bottle… er, thunder hammer. Because of this he can be sent away and summoned whenever the plot desires. Still, you can’t beat too badly upon a movie that gives you the chance to see Hulk and Thor duke it out, then later team up to beat the bad guys. Avengers Assemble indeed!
Other Avengers possibilities: Ultimate Avengers (2006), Ultimate Avengers II (2006), The Invincible Iron Man (2007), Spider-Man, The Avengers (1998) – oops, wrong franchise.
Enjoy our Double Feature suggestions? and maybe we’ll use them in a future column.
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