Ultimate Avengers II

Earth's mightiest heroes are back (already!) for another home video run following the success of the previous Avengers movie. The movie seems to pick up not-too-long after the first, with the heroes separated and doing their own thing. Bruce Banner/the Incredible Hulk is locked up for the tantrum he through in the first movie. Steve Rogers/Captain America is slowly becoming a loner, preferring to work missions alone. The Pyms, Hank and Janet, are experiencing some marital problems, and Thor has completely dropped off the radar. The heroes are reunited when the Chitauri return, led by Herr Kleiser, who was thought to have been killed by Captain America near the end of World War II. This time the Chitauri have their eyes set on the isolated African nation of Wakanda, ruled by T'Challa/the Black Panther.

This is the second movie in Marvel's animated line, and they have managed to make minor improvements over the previous. Unfortunately, they haven't made any attempts to improve on the animation style at all. So, the closer you see a character, the more hiccups and stiffness you see in the animation. Of course, the action scenes still look awesome, and we get some great battles out of Iron Man, Captain America, and Thor. Seeing as how the Hulk is restrained for the majority of the movie, we don't get the same raw power out of him that was exhibited in Avengers I.

The Black Panther was an excellent addition to the movie and made for an entertaining enough story. I have been interested in the Black Panther storyline since I first started reading up on him so it was nice to see him included in the latest Avengers installment. While the first movie's story was thin, this time around we are treated to more history and slightly more character development. My only major complaint with the story in Avengers II was the Chitauri...I think it's time to move on. There are plenty of villains/angry alien races out there. The only thought to cross my mind when I saw the Chitauri in this movie was: "Again?". I'm hoping that they try something fresh next time.

And, of course, its nice to see that Marvel didn't sugarcoat this movie down to a PG or G rating in an effort to appeal to the grade school crowd. They included enough action (even included a little brutality) to earn the movie a PG-13. All in all, this movie is better than the first, but not by leaps and bounds. Although, if the pattern continues, I think we can expect some real gems out of Marvel's animated line-up in the future.