Ultimate Avengers 1 and 2, Invincible Iron Man, Doctor Strange and now "Next Avengers".
The Avengers, Earth's Mightiest Heroes, have been defeated by the machine menace known as Ultron. Presumably the last survivor of that final terrible battle, Iron Man/Tony Stark takes it upon himself to hide the baby children of the Avengers in secret so that Ultron would never find them. He raises them hidden in a underground artificial paradise, constantly spinning them tales about the parents they never knew. Fast forward 13 years later and the children have grown up into fine youngsters, training their individual gifts but longing to find their place in the world. Following a surprise visitation by the Vision and an unfortunate accident, Ultron discovers the location of the Avenger's children and launches an all out attack. Separated from their mentor, Iron Man, and on the run, these "Next Avengers" must live up to their family heritage while dealing with their individual inner turmoil and teenage angst.
How good is the movie? This is my take.
First off, the story is very intriguing and engaging. There is a good amount of mystery and tension in the first act but the second part taking place in Ultron City falls a little bit into futuristic cartoon clichés. The story isn't as intense as the previous two animated movies, nor as character focused, but tries not to fall too far into the juvenile side.
The Characters, you either Love em or hate em. There children are typical kid hero character stereotypes. The irritating youngest brat(Pym), the hot headed slacker turned leader(James), the feisty girl with daddy issues(Toruun), the token African American for political correctness(Azari) and the cold aloof flirty one(Barton). Aside from the clichés their individual story arcs play out very believably. The inner turmoil faced by the heroes alludes to many common problems face by average teenagers nowadays, such as living up to one's parents' expectations and finding a sense of self-identity. These are very Heart warming themes that can appeal to young and old alike. Some of the dialogue may be a little too "saturday morning cartoon" for the older teenagers like myself but those are few and far between.
It is in the animation department where this otherwise great film suffers. The animation is very inconsistent here. The art varies from an intricate level of detail with heavy shadows to flat and cheap looking crap with no other detail other than the basic outlines and features. A number of animation short cuts are jarringly visible and the fluidity of the animation usually varies indirectly to the art detail. This leads the overall animation of the movie to have a budgeted look; more fitting for a TV series than a movie. The character designs had a strong American anime feel to them. Not as exaggerated as Teen Titans but more on par with Ben 10.
On a whole, Next Avengers was an enjoyable movie with themes that are easy to relate to and can be watched by an audience of any age above 7. If it were not for the sub standard animation(compared to other animated movies), I would have given this a higher rating. This was a decent direct to DVD show and i look forward to the next. NEXT PLEASE Marvel!!!
