DVD Review: Ultimate Avengers 2
This is a cool sequel to Ultimate Avengers: The Movie. This time, the team is already together, the plot is more straight forward, and the art style seems much more consistent... and I mean consistently good. Unfortunately, The Hulk really takes a back seat this time around, which is too bad because watching him pound the crap out of anything and everything is pure bliss. Other than that, all the members from the first film are back: Captain America, Iron Man, Thor, Black Widow, Wasp, Giant Man, and Nick Fury. They also choose to add a new character, someone called the Black Panther, although he doesn't become a member of The Avengers.
The story this time around basically starts in Africa, in a place called Wakanda. This is where the Black Panther hails from, and we quickly find him getting killed... by some shape-shifting alien that was there trying to kill Captain America before good ole' Cappy got frozen in ice. Now, the Black Panther's son, T'Challa, must take over for his father, both as the hero of Black Panther and as king of his people. But as the alien creature doesn't seem to want to die by any normal means, T'Challa must seek out Captain America for information on how to take this creature down... permanently!
Of course, I'm not sure how much sense that makes, I mean if Captain America couldn't kill the dude, why would he know how to kill the dude? And yep, that's pretty much how the conversation goes, so T'Challa heads back to his land... but now the Avengers know about this shape-shifting alien, so they head to Wakanda to investigate. Unfortunately, the people there don't like outsiders... and I mean REALLY don't like outsiders. Soon after they land, T'Challa's people attack. You really wouldn't think it would be much of a fight since they only seems to have primitive weapons such as spears and arrows, and yet the Avengers get their butts handed to them!
Seems the natives aren't all they're cracked up to be! Well, at least something good came out of it: they now know why the aliens are going after Wakanda. Seems long, long ago, a meteor impacted there... a meteor made primarily of the strongest metal ever known, the metal that the aliens use for all of the construction needs, and that includes weapons and armor. On the down side, T'Challa is stripped of his kingly duties for allowing the outsiders in. Of course, like minutes after that, a giant alien ship from space starts engulfing the entire planet in some kind of force field. And when T'Challa attempts to call the Avengers for help, the elders destroy the communication equipment! Man, I hate paranoid morons!
As the aliens begin to invade Wakanda, all of a sudden we see hidden cannons pop out and start putting up a massive defense. Seems like maybe they'll be okay after all... oops, the aliens just took out the crashed alien ship that was powering all defenses. So much for that. Well, guess this is the end guys. Seems your Xenophobia will mean your extinction... but wait! Here come the Avengers anyway! Of course, fighting off the aliens is still going to be one massive challenge, especially considering how they have that super metal covering pretty much everything.
Ah, but then good ole dependable Bruce Banner makes a stunning discovery... gamma radiation makes the metal brittle. Quick, go get the portable gamma ray gun! Uh... sure... guess it's a good thing that had one of those laying around for emergency alien invasions. But now the question is will this even be enough? I mean, the globe is covered, you have a huge invasion fleet, and that danged shape-shifter just won't die, not even if you slice the guy to pieces. He just keeps pulling himself back together! It's gonna take some major teamwork to live through this one!
Just like the first film, people in the movie DIE! Yes, really die! And unlike the first film, I'm not just talking about random unnamed characters. You will witness actual death that will have an impact far into the next sequel, whenever they happen to make it. Of course, after watching the featurette about the Ultimates 2 comic, I see that this film is a really, really toned down version, even more than the first. And really, it didn't even sound like the Ultimates 2 story had anything to do with this Ultimate Avengers 2 story. But I'll tell you one thing, that featurette really makes me want to read The Ultimates.
Other special features on the disc include a first look at the new animated Iron Man film and the new animated Dr. Strange film. Both look pretty good from what they showed (though I suppose that's kind of the point). They also had a gag real, which took short scene clips from Ultimate Avengers: The Movie and added in some funny dialog.
Ultimate Avengers 2 was released by Lions Gate on DVD starting August 8, 2006. It features the voice talent of Justin Gross, Michael Massee, Marc Worden, Olivia d'Abo, and Andre Ware.
