Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. is a throwback to the action/adventure shows that I grew up with. Shows like Buck Rogers, the A-Team, The Six Million Dollar Man, or Knight Rider even.
Everything about this film is operating on all cylinders. It's funny, it's dramatic, and it never loses sight of what the audience wants from a Marvel Studios movie.
The opportunity to keep the film grounded in the neo-noir stylings that make the first two-thirds of the film work so well is simply tossed out the window in an inexplicable shift in tone and attitude that does absolutely nothing positive.
This isn't just a team-up; it serves to move everyone forward to a new dramatic place from which to launch the next round of Marvel Studios films, as well as providing a launching point for the starts of new franchises.
Jon Favreau approached Avi Arad with the intention of making it a comedy, but luckily opted to make Iron Man instead. Then, Incredible Hulk director, Louis Leterrier, was shown concept art and offered his services, but Marvel turned him down.
That score was markedly lower amongst White Supremacists, who objected to Idris Elba's casting as a black Norse god and attempted to organize a boycott of the film.It had no effect.
Not only is this film set six months after the first film, through later interactions with Fury, we discover that it is occurring at the same time as The Incredible Hulk and that Stark's father was a founding member of S.H.I.E.L.D.
Ok, so for reasons unknown -- ask Paramount, not me -- Thor , the latest on the Marvel Universe stable of movies, was released in Europe one week before its U.S. release.
Captain America was the first of Marvel's characters to get a second chance with what is, essentially, a hard reboot that completely ignores both of the television movies that came before.
This time around, though there were punches, new tech, new super-heroes, spectacular revelations about the deceased Howard Stark and a development in the relationship between two of the main characters, Tony Stark and Pepper Potts, I did not jump on my seat at the end of the movie.
