Stephan Hammond It is an exhilarating, distressing, funny and profound film, with one of the more memorable film scores in years,

Aneesa Wardle The story, direction, characters, and writing/dialogue is akin to taking a tranquilizer shot to the neck, but everything else was so well done.

Darin One of the film's great tricks is that, for a time, you think it will go down a rabbit hole of unrealistic glorification.

Walter Sloane Mostly, the movie is committed to the value of a good time.

DCfan I saw Ultimate Avengers two years ago on the same week end as the second one. I just found both of the movies massively insulting to the Marvel Universe. The First and second movies were just plain tedious because apparently in this universe when the war was over, Bucky doesn't become the Winter Solider but instead he retires and steels Steve Rogers wife/girlfriend. Oh but it doesn't stop there Hank Pym is more or less like Scott Lang in this universe because he is a massive jerk to the avengers and his main priority is his wife and only his wife for example in the first mission when the avengers were in trouble and he heard Janet scream. But in the end Ant Man makes a good sacrifice. He was about to break the building down and not worried about the other avengers. In the second movie he was the same except that this time when his wife was hurt he threaten to throw Captain America out if he didn't leave. The Hulk was just a mindless brute like in the MCU and the reason why Betty divorced Bruce was because of the Hulk. Speaking of I didn't really find Betty a nice woman in these films because of that. Thor, Iron Man, Wasp (Apart from the fact she looked too much like Hope Pym and had darker skin colour), Black Panther and Black Widow were just themselves. Speaking of Black Panther in the second movie we get introduced to him, I found this one just too bloody and brutal when a General stabbed his dad and when the General got stabbed a couple of times but wasn't even dying. I also found it just plain stupid that Iron Man was wearing the War Machine Armor. If you are an Avengers fan I would recommend you don't waste your money on these movies. You might be disappointed. My overall score 4/10 for both movies.

Matthew Kresal Before the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) became one of the biggest franchises on the planet, there was the Ultimate Marvel range of comics that would establish many of the foundations upon which the MCU would be built. Before the MCU had released Iron Man, let alone the first Avengers film, Marvel would take another crack at bringing them to the screen. The result, based on The Ultimates by writer Mark Millar and illustrator Bryan Hitch, was the 2006 animated DVD release Ultimate Avengers. Judging it on both its own merits and what was to follow, how well does it hold up? In some places, quite well. The animation looks fantastic for the most part as it works quite hard to capture the spectacular Hitch illustrations that made the comic some brilliant. While it never quite manages to attain the almost photo-realistic nature of The Ultimates best moments, there's plenty of good results from its efforts including the opening Second World War battle sequence and elements of the lengthy final battle sequence. In some places though the animation suffers from mixing traditional 2D efforts with 3D elements such as the battle sequence between the SHIELD Helicarriers and the Chitauri ships which never quite looks as good as it ought to while even some of the traditional animation looks clunky such as a shot of Captain America and Nick Fury walking through a cemetery about halfway through the film. On the whole though, the animation might be the best thing about the film.Somewhere that Ultimate Avengers has more mixed results is in its voice casting. It's perhaps inevitable that, given the mammoth success of the MCU franchise, that comparisons will be made with the current actors filling the roles. That's especially the case with Nick Fury as it was The Ultimates that modeled the character on Samuel L. Jackson and that led to him being cast, with the film keeping that in mind though the voice is by actor Andrea Ware which can be oddly disconcerting at times. Beyond that, there's some good casting choices including Marc Worden as Iron Man, Michael Massee as Bruce Banner and Nan McNamara as Betty Ross. Some have moments where they work and then don't including Justin Gross as Captain America who does pretty well as a team leader but seems out of place when he's trying to play the quieter, character driven moments. Others meanwhile don't quite work at all such as the over-the-top Olivia d'Abo as Black Widow or the aforementioned issues with Ware's Nick Fury, though it isn't clear if that's down to the performances or the direction. All of which helps or hurts the film, depending on circumstances.Where the film is the most let down by is in its adaptation of its source material, especially in its pacing. Bringing a twelve issue comic book series to life on screen is no easy task to begin with and, indeed, I initially saw this before reading the source material. What's clear from having now read the source material is that the writers of this film liked the ideas being presented more than perhaps the content of the comics themselves. There's moments when its quite faithful (the opening battle sequence), times when the writers are adding sequences (the Chitauri attacking a SHIELD satellite and space shuttle for example) or completely changing and dumping plot points (Iron Man's identity is a secret to SHIELD and the team for much of the film, the timing of the Hulk's rampage is shifted and the film is also guilty of completely skipping over the breakdown of the Pyms marriage that is a major subplot in the middle of the comic).Some of that is forgivable given the 70 minute running time and one has only to look at DC adaptations such as Justice League: The New Frontier or All-Star Superman to see that a project can still work like that. It might even have worked here except that Ultimate Avengers tries to have its cake and eat it too since it can't quite decide whether to be a loose adaptation or a faithful one. There's no real time for character development despite all the moments being presented as the emphasis is placed increasingly on action sequences and spectacle with the film rushing from one moment to the next. As a result, the pacing is all over the place and by the end of 70 minutes you're wondering if a plot has actually unfolded and if you should care about the characters at all. It's almost as if the film, despite its PG-13 rating, isn't sure if it should appeal to kids who might be watching or adults who are fans of the comic with the result being that the film doesn't quite work for either audience.Perhaps then it's fair to say to called Ultimate Avengers okay but disappointing. While there's some good animation and performances here, there's times when especially the performances don't work. As an animated film, it can't quite figure out who it's target audience is with results that don't quite work for either younger viewers or older ones. Above all else perhaps, judging it as an adaptation of The Ultimates, it either tries too hard or too little depending on the scene at hand which leaves what it does here a mixed bag of good moments and frantic pacing. In the final analysis then, Ultimate Avengers might be ultimately disappointing more than anything else...

MBunge This cartoon is an adaptation of The Ultimates by Bryan Hitch and Mark Millar, a re-imaging of The Avengers that came out early in the 2000s. It's not much of an adaptation, however, because the makers of Ultimate Avengers decided to make their characters likable, or at least not have them be psychopaths and raging douchenozzles. But when you take away the vulgar, trashy, sensationalistic twists Hitch and Miller gave to Marvel's classic characters, the simple fact is there's not a lot left. And given that mimicking Millar's art style in animation would be a costly and time-consuming process, the result is a movie that looks like an episode of G.I. Joe or He-Man. It's brief enough and has plenty of action, but there's no reason for this to exist instead of a cartoon flick about Stan and Jack's original creation.In 1945, as World War II winds to a close in Europe, Captain America (Justin Gross) leads an assault on a secret Nazi base and discovers aliens working with the Third Reich on a missile. It's launched, but Cap takes it out and winds up frozen in a North Atlantic iceberg. 60 years later, Cap is cut out of the ice as a specimen to help Bruce Banner (Michael Massee) in his attempts to recreate the Super-Soldier serum. Cap revives, however, and finds himself charged by General Fury (Andre Ware) with leading a team of super-heroes against the alien threat that's still around. He's joined by Iron Man (Marc Worden), Black Widow (Olivia d'Abo), Giant Man (Nolan North), the Wasp (Grey De Lisle), Thor (David Boat) and, eventually, Banner as the unstoppable, uncontrollable Hulk (Fred Tatasciore). The team initially fails, only to rally together to stop an all-out alien assault and then subdue their berserk, Gamma-spawned teammate.The fight scenes here are not bad and certainly more violent than you get in any Marvel cartoons on TV. The animation isn't anything to write home about and the voice work is unexceptional. The best written part of the story is how it manages to explain every member of the cast while avoiding exposition overload.The bottom line is, though, this cartoon was made for a mainstream audience. Which means it excised the adolescent "edge" and Jerrry Springer-type behavior from Hitch and Millar's original comics. With that gone and Millar's stunning but static artwork replaced by yeoman animation, what's left is pretty humdrum. When someone isn't getting hit, shot or ray-blasted, it all feels like one of those Marvel cartoons from the 90s and not a particularly good episode.A fan of The Ultimates isn't going to find this a satisfactory version of the comics. People who don't know what The Ultimates are would probably enjoy an animated movie that stuck closer to the original Avengers characters and origin. As something that's neither fish nor fowl, Ultimate Avengers is okay but it's easy to see why this rendition never really caught on with the general public. Watch it if you want. You'd probably be better off picking up the trade collection of the Busiek/Perez Avengers reboot after Heroes Reborn. If you don't understand what that means, ask a comic book fanboy.

Mars Ares I first heard of this movie when i bought Marvel: Ultimate Alliance. I saw the trailer for the second movie, and i found it interesting. I bought the first movie, this one, to give it a chance, and in all honesty i was very surprised. The animation is top notch, the music is great (Thor's theme is amazing), and its one of the characters are all well done. Aside from a few goofs, and the lack of screen time for Thor and Hulk, it was an okay movie. Now here comes the in depth criticism:Animation: 4/5. Its very well done. There are a few parts, like when before the last battle, Widow tosses that rifle to fury and it suddenly appears from his hand, as if it weren't thrown at all, that weren't animated perfectly, but thats the kind of stuff that no one ever notices.Voice Acting: 5/5. All actors did their jobs perfectly well. Each of the voices fit, and not a single one screwed up. The best actor of all was David Boat, Thor's voice actor. He did a marvelous job, and if they ever make a Thor movie, I hope he reprises his role.Story-line: 3/5. Although the theme of the movie, an alien invasion, is drastically overused, UA's story line is very good for a 70 minute flick. It doesn't feel rushed at any time, and leaves no things unexplained. Screen Time for characters: 3/5. Most of the movie seemed to focus on Black Widow, Giant Man, the Wasp, and Captain America. The others seemed to just show up and actually do something during the last battle. It really angered me to see Thor just have like 4 minutes of actual fighting, and the rest of his screen time devoted to dissing Fury's team. But hey, nothing is perfect.And here's the last part. While some people believe that the movie's characters should've been more 'Ultimate' Versions that Earth 616 versions, I say they shouldn't complain. Why ?? The movie is called 'Ultimate Avengers', not the Ultimates, and not the Avengers. So its obvious that there will be more 616 than ultimate. Especially since people are more familiar to the 616 versions than the new 'Ultimate' series.All in all, i recommend this title to anyone who likes super-heroes, and is a firm Avengers fan. It delivers as promised, and the sequel is just as good.