Avengers (Spoilers)

[Dartzap]

Today's utterly shocking announcement, the most improbable thing you shall ever read!

Avengers to be reassembled!

[mr friendly guy]

From what I've read the Mandarin is going to be the next villain, and they've cast Ben Kingsley for the role. It looks promising, but they'll probably have to make the ten rings technology-based for the character to work. And give him some actual clothing to wear.

Hang on a minute. They want to resort to the same "yellow face" stuff the Last Airbender pulled. At least get a Eurasian actor since the Mandarin is of mixed heritage. Although I bet you this being comics they will use a trick from James Bond and has the Mandarin use some tech to change his appearance so he can infiltrate the US.

Uh, technically speaking Kingsley is of mixed heritage. He's part something-European and part Indian. He may not actually be the Mandarin in any case.

Fair enough. I thought he was Jewish, which according to wiki he is of Jewish descent, but also fairly mixed. The Mandarin is supposedly a descendent of Genghis Khan and most likely has lots of Chinese ancestry while his mother was an English Noblewoman. So arguably he won't look the part. But like you say, he might not be playing the Mandarin.

[evilsoup]

Could the name 'The Mandarin' itself be considered offensive? It has a very Yellow Peril vibe... maybe they could use the character, but change the name? This would have the added advantage of annoying comic book nerds.

[Broomstick]

Also, there's apparently some kind of Word of God that says Coulson is in fact alive and he'll be back in Iron Man 3.

I'm pretty sure (and so is the spouse) that we saw Coulson walking across the bridge of the sky carrier near the very end. It was quick and subtle and very much in the background, but I'm more than 50% sure Coulson is still alive.

[Ted C]

Unless he carried a lot more arrowheads than shafts, he'd only have a limited supply of a specific type of arrow, regardless. And besides, how was he picking exactly the right arrow anyway? Considering that he has to reach behind him to grab an arrow, unless the quiver also popped the primed arrow or something there's no guarantee that he wouldn't just nab a dud, especially with a full quiver.

Muscle memory handles that well enough. Given the amount of things that a human can train themselves to do by feel alone, it's not a stretch that he could train himself to draw arrows in a specific order. There are other problems with the quiver, drawing the arrows in order isn't one of them. If you really want to care about the quiver, ask yourself about the arrowheads since they're only changed when he gives input. That thing, as it's visually implemented, is marvel's own Bag of Holding, to use a Dungeons and Dragons term.

Presumably he always draws from a particular position on the quiver, with the default head on the arrow just being a point. When he triggers the selector on his bow, the automation in the quiver switches to the specified arrowhead. He doesn't have to feel around in the quiver, it always feeds him an arrow from the same position.

[Ted C]

From what I've read the Mandarin is going to be the next villain, and they've cast Ben Kingsley for the role. It looks promising, but they'll probably have to make the ten rings technology-based for the character to work. And give him some actual clothing to wear.

They already are technological, so that's no problem. The Marvel Cinematic Universe has already established the existence of advanced alien technology, too.

[Broomstick]

BTW: Did anyone else notice Hugen & Muinen flying by when Thor lands on the cliff with Loki?

Of course.

[Broomstick]

I just hope RDJ doesn't make the mistake of thinking that he's risen above playing Iron Man or Sherlock Holmes. As an actor, he's extraordinarily lucky to be the star of two tentpole franchises.

As a long-term drug addict and convicted felon, he's awful fucking lucky to have been given an additional chance with Iron Man at all. Sure, he's a fantastic actor, but he's still having to rebuild trust in Hollywood after years of being a fuck-up. He not only needs the roles for the money, he needs to stick with them for awhile to show he's capable of going the distance and being reliable.

Keeping insanely busy with work is probably one of the best ways for him to stay away from the drugs.

[Broomstick]

From the mid 90's to the early 2000s, his career was almost non-existent.

That's also because he spent time in jail in 1997 and again from part of 1999 through 2000. Hard to get an acting job when you're behind bars and can't show up for rehearsal.

If it wasn't for Mel Gibson personally fronting the money for insurance on him his career would have been over by the early 00's and someone else would have been playing Iron Man.

[Tsyroc]

Also, there's apparently some kind of Word of God that says Coulson is in fact alive and he'll be back in Iron Man 3.

I'm pretty sure (and so is the spouse) that we saw Coulson walking across the bridge of the sky carrier near the very end. It was quick and subtle and very much in the background, but I'm more than 50% sure Coulson is still alive.

I missed that but they did plant the seed for there being LMDs at the beginning of the movie when Tony was trying not to take a phone call from Coulson.

Plus, they can't kill him. He's the principal at Spider-man's high school in the Ultimate Spider-man cartoon.

[YT300000]

I just hope RDJ doesn't make the mistake of thinking that he's risen above playing Iron Man or Sherlock Holmes. As an actor, he's extraordinarily lucky to be the star of two tentpole franchises.

As a long-term drug addict and convicted felon, he's awful fucking lucky to have been given an additional chance with Iron Man at all. Sure, he's a fantastic actor, but he's still having to rebuild trust in Hollywood after years of being a fuck-up. He not only needs the roles for the money, he needs to stick with them for awhile to show he's capable of going the distance and being reliable.

Keeping insanely busy with work is probably one of the best ways for him to stay away from the drugs.

His contracts since 2003 have also voluntarily included clauses withholding about half of his pay until the completion of the films, he's been very devoted to his Kung Fu training, and I'd wager that his wife and their son are pretty positive influences on his life as well. After 9 years of stability and steadily increasing success, I think that he's pretty much trusted nowadays - both professionally, and when he says that he's been clean since 2003.

[Broomstick]

And that's very much all too the good. If anything, being sober has immensely improved his acting. 9 years clean is a great achievement but the fact remains he's still at risk for relapse. He will always be at risk for relapse. I hope he doesn't, I hope if he does he gets himself right back into rehab and gets clean again quickly, and I hope he doesn't piss away his talent and career on addictions.

[Crown]

I have no idea where people are getting this RDJ angst from; from each interview he has given he has shown a remarkable self awareness of his shelf life (particularly in the action man role) and a great enthusiasm for the role. Short of them doing a Burton Batman to Schumacher Batman devaluation of Iron Man, or some burn out (new father with a toddler), he's in it for a few more years (he's been quoted as saying he can only see himself doing this for 6-7 years).

[CaptainChewbacca]

From what I gather about the Mandarin in the movie-verse is that Kingsley is going to play some businessman who is a leader of a cabal of similar individuals who call themselves 'The Mandarin' as a plural noun, and that they're the real source of authority in China.

Was a chinese power-suit ever in the comics?

[Ted C]

From what I gather about the Mandarin in the movie-verse is that Kingsley is going to play some businessman who is a leader of a cabal of similar individuals who call themselves 'The Mandarin' as a plural noun, and that they're the real source of authority in China.

Was a chinese power-suit ever in the comics?

No power suit for the Mandarin. He derived his power from a set of rings that were originally parts of an alien space ship.

[Gil Hamilton]

I have no idea where people are getting this RDJ angst from; from each interview he has given he has shown a remarkable self awareness of his shelf life (particularly in the action man role) and a great enthusiasm for the role. Short of them doing a Burton Batman to Schumacher Batman devaluation of Iron Man, or some burn out (new father with a toddler), he's in it for a few more years (he's been quoted as saying he can only see himself doing this for 6-7 years).

My impression is that Robert Downey Jr. really likes the role and wants to keep doing it because playing Iron Man really suits him, on top of letting him pretty much own every scene he's in and get all the best lines. He's one of the actors in the franchise who seems to have become a fan of it.

[Ahriman238]

From what I gather about the Mandarin in the movie-verse is that Kingsley is going to play some businessman who is a leader of a cabal of similar individuals who call themselves 'The Mandarin' as a plural noun, and that they're the real source of authority in China.

Was a chinese power-suit ever in the comics?

No power suit for the Mandarin. He derived his power from a set of rings that were originally parts of an alien space ship.

For a while in the 90s they had the Mandarin wear a sort of asian-style armor. It didn't have a helmet or boot-rockets or anything like that, as far as I can tell it was just metal plate. It was still an improvement over the silly robes they used to stick him in, and even the 'shirtless martial-artist' look he was sporting the last time I saw him.

[evilsoup]

Oh you guys.
He means power suit like what business types wear, not Iron Man style armour.
THough of course, that is also an option for the film.

[Lord Revan]

I saw it on tuesday and I have to say there's suprisingly lot of depth in there.

Take for example Black Widow's character, I mean she could just been a pretty woman in skintight suit and I suspect not that many people would have complained, but instead we got nice look at her motivations (as she put it "my ledger is on red and I want to wipe it clean") and also her typical MO and thanks to that why she's so scared of the Hulk, the Hulk is the only person there she can't manipulate at all, I mean she out-manipulated Loki by allowing him to think she had broken down. Her reactions to the Hulk (or even the possibility Banner might Hulk out) seem to be only times she actually looses control over her emotions.

Male cast have similar depth too obviously, but I singled Black Widow thanks to how easy to would have been to make her nothing but walking fanservice and lets face it most writers and alot people who goes to these kinds of movies would be straight men. Actually Coulson would be nice example of depth for the male cast having been either a minor character or cameo in the previous movies they actually give him quite a deal of character before his (possible) death.

[Jim Raynor]

Yeah, I also said in my review several pages back that I was really impressed with the way that Black Widow was handled. Avengers is an ensemble movie where almost nobody was neglected. Even Maria Hill, who was much closer to "look, hot famous actress in minor role!" had some implied character traits beneath the surface. It wasn't outright stated, but in just a few lines she showed herself to be Nick Fury's attempted conscience, and a professional who soldiers on with plans that she's not entirely comfortable with.

In other news, a disaster assessment firm has weighed in on how bad the Battle of New York would be.

[Civil War Man]

I mean she out-manipulated Loki by allowing him to think she had broken down. Her reactions to the Hulk (or even the possibility Banner might Hulk out) seem to be only times she actually looses control over her emotions.

I may be reading too much into it, but I don't think Loki (who, bear in mind, is the God of Mischief) was out-manipulated. Banner wasn't in much danger of transforming until Black Widow ran into the room and started hurling accusations at him in front of everyone else on the team. So her "manipulation" of Loki actually played right into his hands.

[Manus Celer Dei]

Question: Has there been any official explanation as to why Banner was recast? Norton was perfect in the Hulk movie so I was really disappointed when I heard he wasn't coming back. It's not like Ruffalo didn't do a bad job, his performance was fine (aside from his delivery on the "I'm always angry" line, which was perfect) but, well, I can't help but think Norton would have been better in the role.

Also, the Thanos reveal is basically the only time I've ever shouted "WHAT." in a cinema. The Infinity Gauntlet is still one of my absolute favourite Marvel events and Thanos is basically the best cosmic villain in Marvel's repository short of Galactus so I'm pretty excited to see where this'll lead.

[Jim Raynor]

Question: Has there been any official explanation as to why Banner was recast? Norton was perfect in the Hulk movie so I was really disappointed when I heard he wasn't coming back. It's not like Ruffalo didn't do a bad job, his performance was fine (aside from his delivery on the "I'm always angry" line, which was perfect) but, well, I can't help but think Norton would have been better in the role.

There are online articles explaining what happened. From what I remembered, Norton was a fan of the Hulk character and co-wrote the script for the 2008 movie. Some of his scenes were cut though, which led to him refusing to promote the film in the time leading up to its release (something that probably didn't help its eventual lackluster box office revenue). Marvel still wanted him back for The Avengers, but were unable to agree on a contract.

Marvel president Kevin Feige claimed that it was not about money, making a thinly-veiled insult toward Norton by saying that Marvel wanted an actor who had the "creativity and collaborative spirit" that the rest of the cast had. Norton's agent shot back, calling Feige a liar and claiming that he believed it really was about the money.

[FaxModem1]

So, has there been any official or unofficial reaction from Warner Brothers or DC? After all, this is one heck of a pie that they're missing out on. Or are they waiting to see how Dark Knight Rises and Man of Steel do?

[CaptainChewbacca]

What do you mean, Fax? Why would WB and DC need to 'react' to Avengers at all? Their efforts for a Justice League movie have been documented, but remain in development hell until they can get a good superman movie done.