Avengers Assemble!

Hello, this is Tom Kane, the voice of the professor. From The Powerpuff Girls. And you're listening to Movie Meltdown. Oh, I love it so. Oh, no.

What if I don't get my official Red Raider Carbine Action 200 Shot Rage Model Air Rifle? It's showtime. The following feature has been rated R by the Motion Picture Association of America. It is intended for mature audiences and parental discretion is advised. Our nuclear reactor.

Pumping out one million kilowatts of power. Five more cooling in the containment chamber. To your stations, we have a movie meltdown. Don't wait, because all the money, all the women, even all the comic books in the world, they can't substitute for that one person. I don't know all the comics in the world.

Trust me, true believer. What's up and welcome to Movie Meltdown. I'm Brian. I'm Patrick. I'm David.

And we're coming to you live via digital recording from the danger room, we decided. We were trying to remember what we called this last time we were in Patrick's subterranean attack mode bomb shelter movie watching facility. Hey, hey, hey, when zombies take over the world, you'll be glad you have a place to go that has a projector. That's true. And just in case you didn't watch the second Avengers movie, extra pairs of shorts.

We need to just line all these sofas with plastic. It needs to look like Dexter's about to kill somebody in here. That's the way my whole house looks. What are you talking about? That's for practical purposes.

I mean, you just got to plan ahead. All right. So before we get into it, we thought aside from our Avengers ridiculousness that will ensue, I'm sure, our little intro geek activities for the week would be, I'm assuming by now we've all gotten through Daredevil? I'm halfway through my second pass. I'm actually only on episode four, but I think that's enough.

That's enough. It's your house, but get out. Is it four or five? Four or five has a real nice ending. There's several of them.

I fell asleep through the end of it, so I don't know. Shut your face. Are you serious? I am very serious about that. Only because I work a lot.

Well, that's my thing. I usually do on most movies, so I don't know. I have to go back and watch it. I just saw The Kingpin for the first time. Okay, okay.

So I think it's episode three, maybe. Yeah. There's... significant well early on there is something significant i thought then episode two which you've seen and then there's something i thought significant then if i thought it's episode four so you're about to see like the other to me like holy f kind of yeah you know showing just how brutal dark gritty and I think I know what you're talking about. I kept waiting for Steven Seagal to be Daredevil. He was just breaking so many arms and wrists.

He's like the new Steven Seagal. Well, you like it because he pops out and he's like, I'm the goddamn Daredevil. Are we going to go right there? Do we need to throw the spoiler alert out on this one? I guess we won't go too deep.

I can stay within spoilers. Why? Everybody else has seen it. My thing is, The comic's been out for like 50 years. There you go.

What am I spoiling? Not everybody's. Wasn't it in the Ben Affleck movie? It's exactly the same, right? Oh, man.

Yeah, I think I could stay, at least with Daredevil. Yeah. Ultron's going to be tough. We're doing full spoilers. We'll give you the heads up later, but yeah, it's going to be full spoilers.

It's full frontal on Ultron. But Daredevil, it's mostly story driven. It's not like it had a twist. It would be tough to ruin Daredevil. It's got a few key moments.

That would Surprise, he gets the suit. You may think that. After a while, I'm like, I'm pretty sure I've seen pictures of him in the suit. I kept going, he really needs to hurry up and get the suit so I can quit calling him Dread Prior Roberts. Because that's all the entire time.

It was so funny going to, I went to C2E2 a couple weekends ago in Chicago, which is a big comic book convention for people who don't know. And I'm telling you right now, There was a ton of Daredevil cosplay, but 99% of it was the simple black pants, black tee, black bandana, some rope. There was like two people that were actually dressed as Daredevil. Everyone else was like, oh man, I can do that. That simple black attire he did for like 11 episodes.

As they're ripping a curtain off mom's basement window. Where'd this curtain go? Shut up, mom. I'm putting on my head grip. Yeah, it was, it's kind of become the new lazy cosplay.

Like for real, definitely. Sometimes I appreciate those even. More that like are so half-assed. You're like, you know, I appreciate your mental amount of effort you put into this. Sometimes it's better than somebody who tries kind of hard, but still doesn't really nail it.

I kind of like more that just sort of puts the t-shirt on. It's like, kind of dressed up right. You know we rant about this a lot because I mean you know I help out some friends at conventions so we're hanging out like all weekend just people watching essentially you know and it's fun to watch like the different levels of commitment. You know some people will be so decked out until you look at her shoes. And they're wearing, like, some sneakers.

You know, it'll be like Thor, like, full-on armor cape. Thor didn't have Nikes. And he's wearing some, like, white K-Swiss. Like, you couldn't do the shoes? You couldn't do some shoes, too?

Because we would sit at our table. There's been several times now where we will sit at the table with the mics, and she will just critique. And it's almost always shoes. She will be like, what is this sandals bullshit, girl? I'm like, you've got a full-on outfit going, and you wore flip-flops.

Get the fuck out of here. That's the easy stuff. You don't have to make it. That's the one where you can kind of you know, maybe quote unquote cheat, you know, just buy them, just buy the shoes. You know, you don't have to, no one's expecting you to like soul a shoe, you know, to be authentic.

Just please cobble this for me. Groot didn't wear Crocs. I'm pretty sure Groot didn't wear Crocs. They were green. That's cool, right?

You grew a whole fucking tree into a costume and then you put goddamn Crocs on. It's interesting you brought that up at C2E2. They have some national level, you know, cosplay contest and the person that won was Groot. That was a very impressive costume. Eight-foot-tall, amazing-looking Groot.

Again, he just had a twig taped to his head. Hey, guys. I'm Groot. Just a bunch of mulch. He just, like, did, like, spray glue all over his body and rolled around in mulch.

I'm Groot. Fucking up the one line. There was one line! Right. I'm totally Groot.

Wait, that's not. No, wait a minute. Hey, guys. I'm Groot. Groot is I.

Be like the Yoda Groot. Groot. So, I don't know. I mean, just overall, Daredevil, I'm like, again, we've kind of entered into a whole new level. Just in general, I'm like, I, and this is how I knew, because I don't, I'm kind of hit and miss on TV shows anyway, and, like, definitely, like, I'm not the marathon-ing through.

Like, I know that's everybody's favorite thing to do now, but I'm just kind of like, the few that I actually watch regularly, I kind of do try to hit that night and be like, oh, yeah, that's on Tuesday. I'll try to be home and watch that. So it's like most of the ones I'm watching. Which iZombie is awesome, by the way. Is it good?

I really like it. I'm making a point to be home to watch iZombie. Got you. And I think I've said it before, but that chick, way hotter as a zombie. They show the flashback episode from the pilot, and I'm just like, oh, zombie girl.

Like, all of a sudden, she gets all pale and white hair and dead, and I'm. Just like, oh, now she's hot. Brian's secretly gone. This episode brought to you by the Suicide Girls. If they want to spy, I mean, that's all they do is sell out now, so if they want to kick in some cash, I am all for that.

I liked it when it was just emo chicks taking pictures of themselves. That's before they sold out. Anyway. I have to pick that interesting side note. Because, you know, it was like, all to build up on that, you know, I was just like, I don't know on this.

I just have a feeling this is a cash in. So you tell me it's good. I'll have to, I zombie. I get, well, see, that's, that's the thing. It's, um, Oh, uh, Rob Thomas who did Veronica Mars, which.

I still to this day, I think is one of the best written shows ever period. And, um, it's really close like there's times that i'm like this is just the gothy veronica like it even has like this like voiceover stuff that is straight up exactly the stuff that used to kick in in the middle of veronica mars and i'm just like that's half the reason i think i'm so attached to it but i do like that they took because again zombies how much can we beat the hell out of zombies at this point uh about five years ago you know we were already at the point of like good god there's a lot of zombies but it found this new weird spin on it that I guess is in the comic. But to me, just in general, like approaching it as a story, the fact that they've put this weird twist on it where like, and again, it's so convenient, but real world, the fact that she found a way to be around brains.

All the time. Like that's kind of awesome. Like nobody's done that in something other than this before. And then the fact that, Eating the brains gives. Her this weird connection to the person that she just ate their brains.

Oh, it's almost. Like she eats their memories. And then, well, she has these weird flashes in her head, so now like, there's a cop that's investigating that first one. Now we can solve a crime. That thinks that she's psychic.

Oh, my gosh. And she's like, oh, shit, now I have to pretend like I'm psychic. Interesting. So, yeah, there's several different parts of it. And I'm like, this is a cool spin that, like, I didn't see coming and is done pretty well.

Yeah. I can see where that almost has a Shaun of the Dead kind of play. Yeah, because it's fun, but it does have some dark moments. They so far have not been afraid to introduce a character and then off them pretty quickly. And I'm like, wow, that's not always done on TV shows in particular.

So yeah, it's been kind of an interesting run. So I like that. Not Daredevil, but that nice side note there. It's still based on a comic. Comic fanboy geek talk.

But yeah, that's what I'm saying. That's one of the few that I'm like, okay, I'll try to actually sit. Down and watch it. But I knew Daredevil was something special when I was actually like, shit, I need to watch another episode. I don't ever do that.

It doesn't happen anymore. The few that I've watched on Netflix in a row, I'm just like, oh my god. It's so grueling to me that it's 12 to 15 hours worth of time logged in. I'm like, I just finished this so I can stop watching them. And I'm not like that with Daredevil.

I was like, Oh my God, it's almost over. What the hell am I going to do then? I want more. I need more goddamn Daredevil. Anything for a reason to watch it again.

I'm watching it with the girlfriend now, but you know, like I probably would have watched it a second time anyway. I think it was, I absorbed it. I think I would, I found out, you know, usually I'm, I'm good about stuff like this. Like the day it comes out, being on it and something happened where someone posted something on Facebook or something about Daredevil. And I was just like, Holy F I missed it.

Like, It had been out for two or three days, and I was still behind the times. I know. Why even try? I watched all 12 episodes in three days. It was like four episodes a day for the weekend, and I was just like, oh my gosh.

Again, I would have called you out for that, except when I started watching Daredevil. I was like, oh, that's not bad. Four a day, I can deal with that. I guess to really get into it now, I feel like the. The storytelling was so much richer than any of the other Marvel experiences to this point.

Like, you know, when you have 12 hours to elaborate on a pilot instead of like one and a half, two, you know, which is why, you know, he does spend so much time in that, you know, black attire. Like, you know, you have to kind of keep in mind this entire project is the pilot. It's not like the first couple episodes are the pilot and we're going to get into it. Like, He's a complicated character and he has complicated villains. And so they took the time to fully elaborate.

Which is genius and which is the way it should be. Hell's Kitchen is such a big deal anyway. Yeah. You know, I mean, now, man, I mean, things you could do with a Spider-Man cameo or a Punisher cameo now is just. Worth everything.

Like, it's just like, oh my God. They're like two episodes. Why? The infamous scene at the end of episode two, which is just literally like, I don't know if it's given... an homage or a middle finger to Oldboy, but either way, man, I was just like, where's the Punisher? Where's Frank Castle?

This is the perfect atmosphere and environment. And why isn't he played by Bane? Oh, no. Did you hear who wants to do it? Who?

Oldboy from Mad Max. No, Bane. Was that him? Tom Hardy. Tom Hardy wants to be Bane.

Wow, I really did hate that movie, didn't I? Because you blocked out the best character. The best actor. You're going to get me ranting, dude. Bane is not some white English dude.

It bugged me before I even sat in the theater. South African. We're going to get that straight. South American. He's like Brazilian, I believe, right?

Isn't the actual Bane from Brazil? I have no idea. I'm just making shit up as I go along. Anyway, that dude would be he's pretty good and just about everything i've seen him and he's pretty damn impressive so. Yeah stoked yeah that uh i've told most people to like you know people that maybe aren't in the comics you know people i'm trying to you know bring over it's like you know if you watch daredevil just do me a favor and watch two think of it as a movie watch two because when you get to.

The end of that second one. Those first two alone, if you're not hooked, you're not going to be hooked. But you're probably going to be hooked. I think it works because it's kind of not comic book-y, just the way that it's set up. I mean, it spends so much time hanging out in the law office.

I'm like, it's kind of not a comic book. It's so light in its references. They're there. And when they're there, they're fun. Like, I forget the complete context with someone's someone failed, someone's getting ripped to shreds by his mob boss, and when a guy's making excuses, he says something like, unless the guy was wielding a hammer or flying in a metal suit, I don't want to hear it.

Something making reference to Thor and Iron Man. I was like, see, I dig that. I like that you acknowledge this is still in the universe, but not everything has to be fantastic, which it's not in Daredevil's realm. I think the genius part. Is that I think the very first episode there where they're talking about why they get such a deal on that space to put the law.

It's because the Battle of New York and like most people will not get that reference. But like for Marvel geeks, they're like, oh, my God, it's the same universe. Yes. You know, so I'm like, it is funny that. And at the end, they bring that back around where you see the shots of that happening.

And it is funny that that is such a monumental thing within the universe that it has all these little, well, not little, obviously, but it's still, like years later, it will have these after effects that have affected the entire city and the entire world as it goes on. Which is going to help it make a lot more sense in its overall universe whenever Civil War stuff starts to happen. Because it's... I'm sure it's going to be a bit different from the comics reading how they're going to do it, but it's still going to have to do with collateral damage. It's still going to have to do with these superheroes.

Yeah, you've got to fight at this level to stop these guys, but it doesn't mean that people are going to be happy that you just obliterated half their city. So it's like seeing how their actions in Avengers movie led to... all this crime and all this poverty, you know, it just, it's going to add so much more relevance when the civil war movie happened. Cause they're going to be able to name drop this stuff and just be like, well, look at, look at hell's kitchen. You guys completely like decimated a quarter of the city. And it's just, you know, it's all crime.

And, and speaking of hell's kitchen, not that I'm usually, uh, on board with this, but midway into the run of this series, I was just like, okay, for geeks out there who want a drinking game, every time they say the city, uh, I mean, Kingpin is going to give some people alcohol poisoning because it is so often that he goes on about his love for the city. A couple of times an episode, at least, there is a rant about the city. Just like, there's your drinking game. That's what makes it dark and gritty, though. It does.

But he's always so preachy about it, though. He's so not dark and gritty about it. Thank God it's Vincent D'Onofrio. He's so cool. Fucking you know going into it i was real skeptical.

I was skeptical too but when you see him and then you're reminded of like the cell and and those things you're like nobody could character act such a weird fucking character to begin with better it's just one of those super villains that it's like you need the best actor like it would it's either vincent d'onofrio like daniel day lewis and they couldn't get danny. Well you know and it's like i bulk up a little bit i i As the show was going on, and I was liking him as Kingpin, there was a part of me that... And I've done this with a bunch of other characters as just geeks stuff, probably from watching this. But immediately, I was just like, I want Kingpin to be bigger so I can see him interact with other superheroes.

I love the way he's acting so much. I want him to have a back and forth with Tony Stark slash Robert Downey Jr. I want him to have a back and forth with Chris Evans. That's what I think is so... exciting you know before we got the Avengers movies it was when we got them all individually we knew that they were going to come together like oh my gosh it's going to be so awesome seeing this guy and this guy and I'm already feeling that with Daredevil I'm like hopefully with season 2 we can work in some cameos or something because Kingpin is so great and he's so more relatable I don't want to say than the comic but the way that they really showed you both sides of the coin with him is just like I don't hate him I'm terrified of him, but I don't hate him, if that makes sense.

That's what I thought was. So good about it, is that they don't just make him a big caricature of a villain. You spend a couple episodes, and you really are kind of like, he's really not that bad a guy. He's a product of the environment. Again, it goes back to the whole battle in New York, and I'm sure his childhood was before that, but it is still, he's the product of his environment.

Again, trying to say a little spoiler-free, but you see that he wasn't a bad person when he was. Young and you also see how professional he is like everything and he never really gets himself he never really gets violent over business right the only time he ever loses it is when it gets personal right if you cross that line into somebody that he cares about do not embarrass him he will lose it but other than that like you never see he will have people killed for business reasons, but he still is not ever emotionally involved. It is just, it is business. And this is what I do in the city. But that, and like, that's such an interesting.

Performance because again, I think if you gave it to a lesser, everybody involved, lesser writers, a lesser performer, like they would just be like, Oh, he's a big dumb villain all the time. But like the fact that he kind of plays it so subtle in the beginning that you're like, this guy's not so bad and then when you see him lose it you're like oh oh. Shit yeah like that's he's the episode four yeah like i said same spoiler free but the first time you see him lose it man you know i used to think american history x had a shocking moment not anymore you have been two upped I want to like, to me, that was like a two up. I was like, wow. See, here's the sad thing is that part.

I didn't find near as shocking as other people that were telling me about it. I was like, were you talking about four when the, you know, they were like, yeah. And I'm like, oh, see, yeah. Well, I was, no, the sad part was like right before that I was calling it out. I was like, well, you're obviously good.

You're right there. Like I was looking at the framing. I'm like, well, the dude's right. So you're gonna. And like, so then when he did, I was like, of course, that's what you were going to do.

I'm like, Oh, I'm a horrible, evil person. So on a side note, Brian's a supervillain. That's possibly true. I just need that funding from the city. It reminded me of, you know, after seeing like Reservoir Dogs ages ago and you tell everybody about the ear scene, you know, and some people were just like, what?

It wasn't that bad. And you're like, what is wrong with you? Have you ever cut a person's ear off? And it was because it was kind of filmed that same way. It leaves, you know what's going on.

You hear what's going on. Yeah. But it leaves your imagination to really decide how disgusting this is. And apparently I have a vivid imagination because every time gore is filmed this way, I think it's insane even though you don't actually see a thing. There's some viscera.

There's some drippage, but you don't see it. But I was still just like, and it felt like the longest scene in the world. Watching it a second time, it's probably only about 20 seconds? But to me, it felt like three minutes. I'm like, oh my God, is this going to stop?

Is this ever going to stop? You're crying on the floor. Oh God, oh God, make it stop. So that's why I actually, because I'm sure, you know, again, someone's going to talk about the voice because there's a little bit of Batman. You mean?

I didn't think it was too bad. The Daredevil. Like, you know, with Daredevil, it was a little like, why are you doing it? Kingpin may come sense to me, though, because I felt like he's like the Hulk. He's just this dude that has this insane temper and brutal rage just beneath the surface, and it's just visible and audible.

You can just hear in his voice he wants to overreact at all times. So when you're giving him bad news and he kind of goes into that voice, it's almost like a red light flashing like B- Be careful with everything you're about to say and do because he might just snap. So I pardoned him on a voice. There was a couple times where Daredevil got a little growling. I'm like, you're a little boy.

You're a little boy. Quit growling. I feel like it's not so bad. Jump around and do your flips. I feel like when he did it, it was when it was people.

It was much more methodical. Batman seemed to just do it 24-7. I felt like Matt was doing it when it was people he was going to have to talk to in his regular life. It was cops. It was, you know, associates.

It was people where it's like, okay, he has to kind of hide his voice a little here where Batman just did it to everybody. People always call me out when I do it at work. Well, I mean, it, it was surprising. I think how much the weird mask, cause it seems like there's still so much of him, but I'm like, all right, you might not, you might not know. Like, To me, it almost was more the fact that, like, at first I was like, that's kind of awesomely creepy that it has no eye holes.

Like, he's not pretending. Like, he's just like, I can't, you know, it's. Totally covering my face. But it's worse than fucking Clark Kent because it's like, well, if you're blind and. My lawyer is blind.

I was, like, midway into him talking with people he knows. I'm like, okay, you obviously can't see through that thing. So, like, either you're magical psychic and you can. Like, know what's going on, which is kind of true. But on top of that, I'm like, if you're narrowing the field of who this guy could be in the real world, I don't know, that blind guy over there?

Who also seems to find the doorknob really easy? It does seem to be a giveaway. I know exactly where to go now. So finally, once the suit comes into play, I'm like, at least then you can't really tell so much, so that works okay. I'm still on the fence on the actual suit.

I'm glad that they're taking a long time getting to it, because I think the suit's retarded. But that's just me. I kind of think that it's gimmicky. I do think season two will see a revamp. I think what you're going to get Cause I feel like it's kind of general opinion.

Like, it seems like no one's very excited about the suit itself. And then, and I think they'll do a, you know, that was, you know, prototype number one. I think we'll get a different suit in season two. He just comes out in his little ninja outfit and it's like, you know what? Thank you.

Cause Iron Man, you need a fucking suit. But like this guy, like when Ben Affleck starts sewing and I'm. Like, yeah, you're blind and you're selling like, right. Let's just, I, I, I get your special, but you're, a blind person. So in a suit, am I the.

Only one though, that like when he does these fights and he's being thrown from building to building or running after people, am I the only one that wants him to be like, just stop and go like, where the fuck am I? I forgot to count. Was that North? Shit. My favorite actually is cause, and I almost like, I'm like, I guess they did this on purpose.

Cause there are several times when like, he'll come into the office as himself and his hair is not combed exactly right. And I'm like, that's pretty good. If that's on purpose, like that's an awesome detail. Cause I'm like, how would you ever fucking know? Like that's gotta be frustrating.

That is a direct reference eventually. Right. Doesn't she kind of call him out towards the end? I think so. Someone does something like, you know, does he say it?

I think he said, he's talking about people that, you know, ask blind people questions. He's like, how do you comb your hair? And I was like, And then later on when he came in, I'm like, it's kind of messed up a little. Just a little bit. Just enough that you wouldn't know the difference.

Everything has been so methodical in the Marvel stuff. So methodical that I'm sure this is all over. It's like people are going to know that his hair is actually a reference to the Hulk issue 4. See that girl? See that girl?

All I know is the intro scene has to be sponsored by Maker's Mark. It has to be sponsored by the same people who brought you the intro scene to Hannibal. Is it similar? It's pretty similar. Blood pouring over shit.

Oh, got you. Okay. Man, I dig it, though. I dig it. I want to see...

I usually don't care for his cliche bad guys. I'm pretty stoked to see Elektra, though. It's not confirmed at all, but when old Chinese girl went home, I was like, yeah, you go home. You go bring Elektra with you next time. Because, you know...

Well, here's something we haven't even started on yet, really. We talked about how brutal that fight was at the end of episode two, but the choreography, holy F, these fights go above it, like, for being realistic. Yeah, that's exactly what I was about to try to, like, differentiate there. Like, you know, the action in Avengers 2 is just, like, holy, like, I was not joking with that comment. I mean, I need to see it again just to, like, realize what I just saw.

The action is so fast and intense. You know, there is, like, That one at the end, it was just doing a 360 pan as they fought. I was just picking people to watch. I'm like, I can't watch all this, so I'm going to watch what Thor's doing. You know, it was like you have to pick someone because there's so much and it's so awesome.

That's how they fight in Mayberry, apparently. Daredevil just, man, the choreography. This is not just mindless beat-em-up. This is good. If any part of you has ever liked a martial arts movie, any part of you has ever liked some old John Booth stuff like this.

There he goes, pleading to the internet again. But it And again, as much as he's jumping around and doing all this physical stuff, it never feels unreal. It feels like somebody knows what he's doing. I love how he gets tired and he'll be leaning. He'll be leaning up against a wall or a car, and then just as he's about to get hit, then he pops back into form and dodges and goes back.

You see him... Getting fatigued, getting hurt. I mean, you really see him getting hurt. Oh, man. Again, not to spoil it, but you were talking about the second episode fight.

Like, to me, the one midway into the run with one of the other bad guys will say, that is brutal. Like, it is hardcore. So, I don't know. It's all just so well choreographed and pieced together. All of the fights are very real-world fights.

So, again, I give him credit for that, that it doesn't seem like a bad CG effect all the. Time that he's doing. Like, it feels like this guy or whoever, like it feels like it is a physical person doing it and it could happen. If you were that skilled at it, all of these things could actually happen. Right.

Bounce off of a fire escape and disappear over the building and you're like. That could happen. Off the wall kicks he would pull off. I'm just like, that's so... I'm not trying to be too unrealistic about this, but we'll watch a lot of martial arts and there's a lot of things in fights where you're just like, when would you ever really do that?

Come on. When would you really do that kick? That's just pretty. It's not functional. Somehow he makes those kind really functional.

There's stuff that seems so impractical when he'll flip upside down but then his foot will land on their head and i'm just like okay the fact that you could ever choreograph that right and not have supersonic bat powers is like would be impractical or impossible but like when he lands it and it totally annihilates that guy. I'm like oh that's awesome and it was great like in that hallway scene there's um he pulls one of those kicks like getting around the door and it's like that kind of stuff was like it makes sense You know, like he jumps, kicks off the wall, get on the door and turns it into an offensive maneuver. It's like this. This works. It's smart.

It's realistic. That's everything about it. It works. It's smart. It's realistic.

Daredevil. So. Up. That's our plug there for our Marvel super special. So we will take our break here, and we will come back and get into the Age of Ultron.

Want some music for your ears? Doo-Wop Shop makes it easy to rent for any event, business meeting, or special occasion. From PA systems to karaoke machines to just about anything that makes noise, you can rent it from the Doo-Wop Shop. In Louisville, find them either at their Highland Store at 1587 Bardstown Road or in the East End at 2915 South Hurstburn Parkway. And look for them online at DooWopShop.com.

Doo-Wop Shop. We're serious about music. Popcorn freshly popped and buttered. Mm-hmm. Look good?

Sure, it looks good, and it tastes even better. Get some now. Where'd you get your guinea pig? Happens to be the best damn candidate out of 600 volunteers. A secret experiment gave one man the strength of a hundred.

The rest of the world, he's just codenamed Captain America. And the power to save millions. The gerrysand experimental rocket ready to fire. And a target somewhere in the United States. Only he could defeat a superhuman madman.

We got a fella called the Red Skull heading up there out of him. All's we can hope to get in there is one good man. Trapped in an icy grave until fate released him to finish a battle started decades ago yeah he's still alive we don't know where he is or who he is now an evil genius is on the verge of global domination. Captain america you gotta help. Us and only captain america can stop him Ronnie Cox, Ned Beatty, Darren McGavin, Kim Gillingham.

Scott Pollan as the Red Skull, and Matt. Salinger as the Marvel Comics hero, Captain America. Hey, Misty, do you have your earbuds strapped in? I do not. Well, that's probably because you didn't go to tweakedaudio.com and get your tweaked audio earbuds because they're awesome.

I don't like things in my ears. You're the worst pitch person ever. I am. I have mine. They're awesome.

They're the wood ones. They're deluxe. Look at this shit. That's hardwood. I guess if I were to shove any implement in my ear, it would be those.

We don't recommend you shove anything else in your ear. That's kind of why we were hooked up with Tweaked Audio. It's the only thing we recommend you shove in your ear for medical purposes, really. If you damage your eardrum, you're doing it wrong, and we take no responsibility. Stop when you hit pressure.

You should only use Tweaked Audio. And when you do, you go to their website. You go to pay for it. You put in your code MELTDOWN. You'll get a discount and free shipping.

Is it better than 5% discount? Not that 5% discount that you were looking at in that catalog. The discount you will be getting from Tweaked Audio will be a hell of a lot better than the 5%. It's a third off. You get a third off.

Holy shit. If I had math, that would be awesome. And free shipping. Fuckin' A. You can't beat that.

And they're super fast. Not with a stick. I just went and got me some more, and it was like a day, and they were there. They were like lightning fast. Like the lightning on that girl's boobs over there.

Lightning move fast. Lightning move fast. You're welcome, Tweaked Audio. You can put that on your envelopes. Lightning boob fat.

And you're welcome. Faster than a geek size to lightning boobs. You're welcome. They're not going to like me promoting their item, are they? Actually, they have a pretty good sense of humor.

Tweaked Audio is kind of awesome. Just go to tweakedaudio.com. When you check out, enter the discount code MELTDOWN. Then you'll get 33% off and free shipping. Tweaked Audio.

Sounds better. Hi, I'm Leah Thompson. You're listening to Movie Meltdown. My God. This relationship, it defies all the laws of nature.

No, it doesn't. This is not what you think. We're just very good friends. Get more out of life. Go out to a movie.

I was designed to save the world. People would look to the sky and see hope. I'll take that from them first. There's only one path to peace. Their extinction.

I tried to create a suit of armor around the world. But I created something terrible. Artificial intelligence. It's called the Ultron Program. I'm sick of watching people pay for our mistakes.

Isn't why we fight so we can end the fight and go home? Well, you amazingly failed. Here we all are. There's nothing but our wit and our will to save the world. So stand and fight.

No way we all get through this. I got no plans tomorrow night. I'm always picking up after you boys. We can tear them apart. From the inside.

Alright, we are back. And Patrick's been abducted. We're not really sure. He wandered off and we haven't seen him. We're He said something about he had an appointment with a Mr.

Fisk. And then he made fun of his mom or something. I don't know what he did. Did he say he was going to go meet him at the restaurant or something? Pretty sure he'd be there.

Right after he said he loves Superman. He can't wait for Batman v Superman. It's his favorite movie. He knows it. We're basically just going to make fun of Patrick Till.

Maybe he resurfaces, but In the meantime, I guess we'll get going on the movie. So we actually, again, it's always shocking when geeks leave the house. We actually went out into the world and saw this movie. So that makes it for once the out on the town feature this week is Avengers colon Age of Ultron. The year is 2015.

Director Joss Whedon. The plot, according to IMDb, when Tony Stark and Bruce Banner try to jumpstart a dormant peacekeeping program called Ultron, Things go horribly wrong, and it's up to Earth's mightiest heroes to stop the villainous Ultron from enacting his terrible plans. Spoiler alert. No, seriously. I know this is a new movie, but we're going to go full in on this one and just reveal things you probably don't want to know about if you haven't seen the movie.

So go watch the movie. You have been warned. Where would you like to begin? I guess from the beginning. All right.

I think that's what I noticed going in is like Joss realized his money shot and just like, well, we're just going to start with that. Because, I mean, Avengers 1, we get that sweeping shot around the city that just watching them all fight and then that big hero shot of all of them together. And he's like, oh, no, I'm going to start this movie like that. So, I mean, you get that battle through the woods and it's just leaping from one to the other. And then we get the, like, it's not cool enough that they're all jumping.

We're going to slow-mo it so you guys can go, oh, cool. It's so cool. Yeah, so geeks everywhere just lost their shit. And I was just like, now he knows. Like, it's not that he didn't already know.

Now that I have your attention. I know I'm a geek god anyway, but, like, watch this. Like, before we even get through the intro scene here, yeah, you're. Going to lose it. I think to some degree that was...

I don't even think that was like about story writing and about, you know, it was more of like, OK, look, when this movie drops, it will have been like what four five years since the first one it's like we're gonna get you guys in that frame of mind real quick it's like you've been waiting for it here it is like right off the bat boom get the adrenaline going get your attention get the eyes dilated we're back. We're on like it never ended yeah I mean it did get right back into that and I think that's what I kind of took from it. Cause afterwards I remember like not, I don't know. By the end, it's like, I wasn't as overwhelmed as I assumed, I guess I would be. But I think it's because I was just right back into that mode.

And I think that in a way is like a good thing because I, I was, I think that first time I was so caught off guard because it's like, it was this culmination of everything for years that we'd never seen happen before. And then interactions were so good. Yeah. That like i'm like oh no. It all paid off really like you did it like.

You made it happen and it was awesome so it's. Like i think the other alternative would have been for it to suck but because it didn't by the end i was just like oh no that was good that was that was what i. Wanted like that was right back into it just like so i. Think that was my takeaway was more like i didn't have a weird different feeling because he did what he needed to do like he just kept it going at the level it was and maybe even improved upon it a little bit. So I think that was my like feeling going out of the theater.

It was just like, yep, that's what I wanted. Like he knows what he's doing. You know, it's like, there was a part of me about, you know, I'm sure we'll bring it up more, but there is, there's some dramatic pacing contrast. And it's not that the first one was ever like, you know, high then low, but you get a high and low in this. I felt like immediately it was like a big high, and what feels like a low because then the tones just brought down so much for a good 15, 20 minutes.

But it's, to me, there was like a much more tangible, like I think its function has changed. I think with the first Avengers, it was showing you, you know, the plan. Like, you know, you had all these solo movies and look, guess what? They're all here. We didn't have to waste time with pilots.

We didn't have to waste time with backgrounds. Just they're here. They're going to do it. You know, it's going on. Let's move forward.

I felt like the function for Avengers two, when I would guess will be at a function even more so for Avengers three is it's almost like this is the first chapter of a new book. Like it's like, okay, because there was so many, man, if you haven't read comics, you just have no idea how many Easter egg type things there wasn't. There was so many people, there was nothing in that movie was an accident. every person they talked to every location they went to all this stuff matters like you know i know it's his whole kind of running thing to kind of like emulate star wars and people getting their hands chopped off but you know the the dude that plays gollum right yeah wasn't it him and eric getting his hand chopped off he's he's a big deal he's a big big baddie later on he'll I assume being the Black Panther movie.

That wasn't an accident. It's not just some dude at a control panel. That was kind of his origin story in a way. He's going to do something with his hand, come back a big bad guy. The location they went to for the vibranium, again, that was another reference to Black Panther.

That's what I heard. I'd heard that one, if you go back, is planted way earlier than that. If you go. I think maybe it's the first Avengers, if not one of the Iron Man, but I think it's the first Avengers because they give... the Tony Stark, that like file of like, and he like throws all the maps up on the wall. And one of them is that location in Africa where they go, where it's eventually going to be how the whole.

Black Panther movie starts. And like how many years, because the black Panther movie is not coming out for what, like two or three more years. So it's like, how many years ahead were they planning that shit? Here's where, you know, Marvel universe can get real confusing right now, movie wise, but he's confirmed to be in the civil wars movie, which is technically the next. Yeah.

There's not a new Iron Man, not a new Captain America per se. They're going to be in it. They're calling it the next Captain America movie. I thought it was. Captain America 3 is how they're billing it now.

It's both of them. This is going to be their last solo-ish kind of run probably. But Black Panther is confirmed to be in that. So either he will debut in that, then get his movie, or they're going to come out about the same. Well, no, Civil War is next year, right?

I think it's that quick. Isn't Civil War like May next year? I thought the next Captain America was like next year sometimes. So I guess we'll get a glimpse at him in that. And then he'll get his full-on solo.

I think Ant-Man's going to be in that, too, which I thought was interesting. There's a lot of, like, they announced the cast for Civil War, and there was a lot of people in there I was surprised about. I was like, wow, you're rushing a lot of these guys right into it. Yeah, especially since we don't really have a lot of between now and then. Like, you've got Ant-Man, but that's kind of the big end of.

Marvel for this year. They've kind of shoved it all in the first half, so. It's interesting that they're going to be able to get to that level again without entering extra little side movies and whatnot. Look, it's Patrick. He's a horrible person.

Mr. Kent has joined us. Mr. DC. We went into 15 or 20 minutes on how much you love Superman and.

How Aquaman is the favorite superhero ever. Unless he's like, I'm the goddamn Aquaman. Oh, it's kind of funny. This is kind of worth mentioning. This is my friend's story, not mine, but it's still amusing.

So everyone's seen the picture of the Joker, right? I think I posted it. Stupid social networking. We haven't talked about it, so I don't know your guys' opinions. I'll say I'm cynical.

That's not anything new. I expected that. I was not impressed when I saw Heath Ledger's first picture as Joker. And I've heard this argument. I'm just going to say that.

I wasn't even going to get into, like, photo bashing because they're already backpedaling. I've already heard that they were like, oh, the tattoos were just having fun photoshopping. The tattoos aren't on them. And it's like, really? Because you didn't say that when you showed the photo to everybody.

Oh, I didn't see that. No. Harlequin's like actually. OK. Anyway, point being, me and some some friends at a convention, you know, we're like, you know, just talking trash about that photo and stuff.

And it was funny. I have a friend who, you know, had an artist table. He's doing his thing at the artist table, kind of drawing, whatever, you know, kind of not necessarily looking up in a weird way. You know, he's just doing his thing. And, you know, whoever walked up to the table before he could look up, you know, I was like, hey, so what do you think of that Joker photo?

And he said that, like, thank goodness his head was on the way up as he started to give his opinion. because it was aquaman himself it was mamo like standing there like hey buddy what you thinking that joker picture he's like dude it's so neat oh you know he gave him some kind of mediocre thing but it's one of those things like knowing what he really thought is like yeah i don't i don't know if i would have told that dude right to his face either could have been like well it's nothing compared to that aquaman photo oh With your dreads and tattooed scales. He's still better than the aqua. Never mind. He is a big dude. That could be a bad segue.

We don't want to start DC bashing. It's not about that. I will. Okay, because I wanted to bring it up and because we're making fun of how much Patrick loves Superman and Batman. Superman.

You bleed. I feel like. You're gonna. Bitch. I feel like, I don't know how much it was conscious last time in the first Avengers, because I feel like there was almost a specific difference in the way that, because I was, I remember in Avengers feeling so like, relieved that even in the middle of this giant battle of New York, their main objective was protecting humanity.

And they spend so much time being like, all right, get them out of the bus. Get these people over here. Clear this street. Their job, number one, is protect humans. And then, okay, if we can kick some ass, that's good.

But first and foremost, get these people. Out of the way. I mean, the whole thing with the nuke. I mean, the fact that they were, the government was willing to nuke the city to end this thing. And they were the ones that saved millions of lives and But that.

Was timed so close that maybe that just happened to come out. But this one, being years later, I remember so much backlash on Man of Steel that he did not give a shit about people and they plowed through building after building in that city and he could care less he was throwing. Them through the building it wasn't like it was just him getting thrown he would like spin with someone and toss him through a skyscraper like you just killed people yeah you just killed that that's like a a biological bullet you just shot through if it's going fast enough to go through concrete windows steel you just threw a human bullet Blindly through that building. You killed people. Definitely killed people.

This being so many years later and after all that fallout that I'm like, I feel like they made such a conscious effort to be like, look how much we're trying to save people. Like, we're not stupid like Superman. We're like, I'm Iron Man and I'm getting these people out of this elevator. As he looked to the camera and saluted, God bless America. I saved people.

So, yeah, I feel like there were so many moments, especially in that big, in the Hulk battle, basically, where they're just like. For God's sakes, protect people. You know, they were just, it did seem almost like a conscious move. But one I approve of, actually. His first email son after that fight is to send them money.

Again, I think it's Joss being smart about it. He's just like, yeah, that's their job. They're heroes. That's what they're. There to do.

We don't need more anti-heroes dressed up like good guys. It's like we've got plenty of that. That's what really happened with Superman. He's kind of an anti-hero. He's a dude with a great big ego that seems to.

I'm not saying Superman didn't care about his own life, but in the comics, my impression was always that he cared about the Earth a lot more. He would die to protect it. Now it seems like he would fuck up your semi over his ego in a heartbeat. He's a dick. That was a douchebag, man.

He was a Canadian douchebag. It's a fine line. I think back on the Like the old, which was it, three that he throws the guy into the pinball machine? Yeah. But that one's so lighthearted about it.

It's so funny at that point. And I guess it also kind of helps because that Superman is so damn likable that it's hard to be angry at it. It is kind of funny. He makes a joke that's been working out. It's just funny at that point.

But I guess it's a fine line between messing up that dude's track. I think even as a kid, I feel like that wasn't bad because he messed him up the first time. He did beat the hell out of him. He did kind of beat the tar out of you. It's okay for Superman to throw you into a pinball machine.

Yeah. You know what I'm saying? Yeah, I'm sure it didn't feel good, but you didn't break anything. You were embarrassed. He embarrassed you.

He didn't beat you up. He didn't take your... $ 20, 000, $ 30, 000 vehicle and toss it up, you know, in the power lines or whatever he did with it. I'm trying to shut it down. They stuck through the truck, man. Those trees had lots.

Didn't he wrap the wires? He fucked up the utility company, too. Yeah, you just, some people don't have electricity. You know what? Canadians, and it's cold there.

And you know what, Superman? People died. Some old lady who was like huddled up next to her floor heater just died because of your ego over some waffles at some little shitty diner. So, not to get too off on Superman. Bashing.

But, I mean, that was my thing. I felt like it almost. Was a very specific, okay, we don't want to do that. Like, we don't want to be that. I've specifically set up this universe and these heroes to be just that.

And I feel like he totally delivers on that. Like, it really is. In all fairness, like, the very beginning of the first Avengers. I mean, when the Tesseract starts acting up, the first thing out of Fury's mouth is get everyone out of here. Like, that's their whole thing is they're getting...

You know, and that's the whole drama where, like, he does choose to salvage the weaponry or whatever, the alien weaponry, and they're all kind of put out by that because they're like, screw that stuff. People are going to die. And he's like, no, get it too. So, I mean, you know, they did have a lot of that in the first movie. But I feel like some of that stuff needs to be there because it's realistic.

Because not that, I mean, S.H.I.E.L.D. Is sort of a government agency, and he's still sort of working for the government. So, like, they're going to be, I mean. That's kind of the cool thing that you see coming to play in the Avengers when they're working on secret weaponry or you get the Captain America two where they're building this arsenal of weapons that can take out whoever they want at any point. Like it is sort of the government overstepping their bounds and like the government being super power hungry and like having a little more power than they need.

So it is interesting to see that sort of mentality and, butted up against like supernatural powers. They're like, yeah, but we have this power too. And we're trying to do something good with it. So we need a little of that just to maintain some sort of evil government realism, which we're obviously going to get, not just our country, just people in general, that you give them that much power and horrible things start happening. Yeah.

Going back to, you know, it was during the break, but we were talking about the fantastic four a little, just how I'm disappointed doom's kind of, falling to the wayside how amazing would have been that first location they would have went to would have been i felt like that area that went to i think they mentioned hydra while they're in that first place you know and stark is finding all the weird computer stuff like there's a part of me it's like this should be doom this is one thing like you're in some weird country like up in the mountains of these people with accents like this is doomed it should be doom here like you know yeah you made it hydra good for you but if you guys would have implemented doom this could have been like doom's layer could have been could have been fantastic instead of a weasley computer hacker no i felt like there was some it was much more story driven this time yeah there was just you know because of that big lull that happens after the very beginning like you get just like crazy epic fight right out the gate you know and it's like they chill out for a while like a long while like 15 20 minutes But it's like all of that stuff matters.

It's kind of like what I was saying earlier. It's like even to the point where like when Thor, well, you know, everyone kind of gets, you know, kind of dazzled a little and has some stuff happen where they see some stuff in their past and their future. That whole thing with Thor like sets up his whole movie. Like going back, you know, how this is going to set up the Civil War movie. This is going to set up the Infinity Wars movies.

Well, it also, well, and it's going to be setting up. everyone's movies really because even the hulk might get a solo movie now yeah but the way they ended this but the thor one that sets up thor is like this whole thor ragnarok thing is based on that vision he saw like that's why he spoiler leaves at the end because it's like he realizes after that he's got some shit he's got to go take care of which will probably have to do with another infinity stone but he's supposed to like go to like to the demon dimension or whatever based on that vision so there's a lot of stuff in there where like you know maybe if you're not a comic geek it might seem like pointless random details yeah but for you know people that are dorking out to kind of be into knowing his stuff like you i know i didn't mind i i was conscious that the pacing had really dropped but at the same time i was like oh but this is like sneak previews this is like hey guess what's gonna happen next guess what's gonna happen next guess what's gonna happen next.

They've decided to not even just make easter eggs anymore but everything's so hardcore. They're just eggs it's not easter they're just eggs i don't even feel like it drops is in a sense, like, like I was saying earlier, like, I feel like it just continues that pace, because truthfully, that's what I said about the Avengers the first time around, was the part that I love the most is the part that is so not what anybody, like, not what you would go in for, everybody wants the big epic battles and the cool action, sci-fi, fantasy kind of stuff, my favorite part of Avengers is when they all get on that ship, And they're flying around for, like, 40 minutes. And they're just talking. Taking shots at each other.

Taking shots. And I'm like, that is the movie. Like, the battle at the end is cool, but that is the movie. That is the heart of that movie is all of them being stuck together. All of them, like, just having, like, this battle of wills sometimes.

And that was always a big part of the comics. But weird camaraderie. That's when they're just hanging out. Yeah. Talking shit.

And honestly, I had it reading Anne Rice stuff, too. Like, I kind of feel like in a way. vampires kind of like superheroes in the same sense that like, you know, in, in comics and stuff, you have all these great people. And for the most part, you're probably reading, you know, a comic about just that one person you're reading about Peter Parker, you're reading about, you know, Clark Kent, you're reading about whoever it may be. And it doesn't, it doesn't resonate the same until they're around someone else on their level. You know, then when Superman is next to Batman and you're like, Oh shit, You know, what's going to happen here?

So I think, you know, comics in general, it's like that when, you know, you put a bunch of them in a room, you're like, oh my gosh, how would these guys interact with each other? And I think that's what Avengers did really well. Just, you know. Just so much. Joss Whedon is just so masterful with his dialogue and his humor anyway.

Taking those personalities, putting them together, and just letting them go. I'd watch Improv Night with those guys anytime. Just sit down and just talk, and I'm going to be completely entertained. Just like them being on the ship was the backbone of the story that the other part branched off of. I think he was genius in this one, making the backbone of the story.

Basically, Hawkeye understanding that he sucks. Like, helping us realize that even Hawkeye knows that he's just a shitty, worthless individual. Can we get into the spoiler then? Because on that note, someone... Well, no, I don't even have to make it a spoiler.

Someone does pass away in this movie. In Avengers 2? Mm-hmm. Who? Someone passes away, and I really...

I just saw it. After the movie was over... Were you not there? I can't remember. Are you being serious?

No, yeah. I thought you were being sarcastic. You really don't remember? Cut it out. Who?

It's... oh okay sorry so i couldn't figure out why this one kid and his girlfriend he flies away and he keeps running into godzilla and the wife's oh oh shit sorry sorry go back. I did think that was weird midway in it like i guess i knew it but i forgot and midway through they kept like brother and sistering it up and i was just. Like wait, that was just your wife last movie. No, but you know what? It's okay.

But you know what? It's okay. Yeah. Cause they're kind of like Lannisters. They are a bit more than brother and sister.

So it was kind of okay. To, I mean, that's what she said. They were kind of playing it like that. That like the way that they teased it a little, that she like, well only because they were so like, she, again, the Elizabeth Olsen chick is so fucking awesome. So like the fact that she puts this much in, like she wanted them to have been like, we were abandoned by everyone.

Yeah. All we have is each other so we're gonna be so close. That it's kind of uncomfortable and she did a great job so i mean there are a lot of scenes where they're holding hands there are a lot and she specifically was setting up so there are a lot of scenes where it's shot so that one is looking over the other shoulder gotcha that literally they've that we were watching each other's back you know like they were she was taking that much detail and putting it. Into god joss whedon just let him do the rest of the fucking movies it's killing. Him that's why he's not real is this i mean this one sounds.

Too much killed him like he's just like i don't want to do things i'm just like I'm out. Give it to JJ or somebody. Okay, give it to JJ. You know, I really thought that with that backstory, not that it's a backstory, but, you know, finding out Hawkeye has a wife and kid and all that kind of stuff. That he sucks.

You know, again, like, I have too many thoughts at once. So, you know, I was saying earlier, you know, this is really a transitional movie in my opinion. The first Avengers kind of felt like a conclusion in a way. You know, you watch a movie and you were kind of like, well, I don't really know where it's going to go from here. You watch Avengers 2, and you're like, I know about 10 different ways this is going to go from here.

There's a lot coming. And so with that said, I knew, I had read, I didn't get this from anybody, but I had read that every phase is supposed to be a different clique of Avengers. So going into phase two like this, the team was supposed to change up. It wasn't going to be Thor, Iron Man, Hulk, and Captain America all the time, which is why we got a transition. That's why I really thought it would have made sense if it would have been Hawkeye that just went home instead of killing anybody.

It used to be like, how can I just go and, dude, I'm just a human. I'm really precise. I'm really good, but you guys are going next level. I got a wife who's about to have a kid. I'm going to go over here and let's not kill off someone who was a huge surprise that I really, really liked in that movie.

I thought, I thought the new additions were fantastic. I thought Scarlet Witch was awesome. Scarlet Witch was pretty sick. I really wasn't sure if she was going to be good in a movie. I think they were smart to kill off Quicksilver because I think, and not that I like the X-Men movies, but I think the X-Men movies are going to take their Quicksilver more.

And I think it was very nice of Marvel to say, you all are the shitty little brother. If that's all you've got, we're going to let you shine. Well, they've got to keep Scarlett with it. She's too important to the bigger picture. Plus, if you're going to release Vision in a movie, you need Scarlett.

To get around, too. I'm like, she's so huge now. I'm like, you don't want to kill her off. How boss does she look in her final outfit, though? I mean, she was pulling crazy off.

Well, and after that little... God, there's so many moments. When Hawkeye had that little pep talk... What is it about slow motion? When she busts the door out in slow motion, just does that one shot off to the side without even looking.

I'm like, oh my God, she's killing it. While we're here, because that's the thing. I specifically, as we got to that little pep talk, it clicked and I was like, oh shit, do you know what this is? And it's funny because you're saying that he sucks. I'm sitting there and I'm going, this is like.

The Xander speech. Oh, wow. Nice. Did anybody watch all the way through Buffy? I'm watching Buffy again right now.

I'm in season two. Okay. I'm seeing it all, but I'm literally watching it again. I don't think it will spoil it because this is all stuff that you know. Xander's a fuck up.

Xander has. I just had the episode where like... They wouldn't let him help. Yeah. This one ends up with the zombie guys that bullied him in school.

And every time he runs into anyone, they're like, oh, no, we're good. You're going to get hurt. Go on. Like, I literally just watched that episode like three days ago. But as you go on, and it's, again, not spoiling anything, but everybody else that he meets, and even some of the friends that he starts with, continue to become more powerful.

And he, like, all of the Scooby group are, like. Supernatural powers. Freaking godlike, yeah, creatures. And he's a guy. And so by the end, and I went and found it because I was like, this is too close.

I was trying to figure out what it was that he said. And it's him like talking to Dawn, who's sort of dealing with the fact that she's not a slayer and she's not like, she's not, she's surrounded by all these people that are trying to save the world. And like, I'm just a dumb kid. And his, like his thing was basically like his comments about being surrounded by all these amazing people is like, how much harder is for the rest of us? And spending time with them, he's like, see my friends become more and more powerful.

They will never know what it's like to not be chosen, to not be special. And it's like, he even specifically said, like, to live so near the spotlight and never be able to step into it. And all of these are just like, I'm like, this is Hawkeye. I'm like, this is the same. And it's Joss.

Like, I'm like, he must be hitting that same, like, groove because it really is a thing when you're dealing with with supernatural characters versus being friends with humans it's like it's gotta be difficult and it really is interesting that he's sort of trying to explore that and then the more i thought about was like it's kind of like his position too like as you get into these it's like the writer director type person is the one that takes on the brunt of all the work and all of this and if it's awesome people love Captain America. People, like, you know, it's like, you're right there next to it. You're putting in all this work you don't get in the spotlight. Like, aside from the handful of, like, super directors, like, how many people know who directors and screenwriters are?

Like, nobody. So it's like, you're one step away. So in the end, if it sucks, it's your fault. But if it's awesome, it's the star's fault. Like, to me, it's like, you're that same thing.

Like, you're right there next to superstardom, but you're never really gonna get it unless you're Joss. Whedon, but. Even when you do make awesome movies, you still get slammed on Twitter for being a misogynistic, homophobic, racist, whatever all that drama is over the scene. I still don't understand how all the character development he has given Black Widow probably, I dare say, more than anyone else. Definitely.

Even though she hasn't had her own movie, between all the movies, the character development you've given Black Widow and that there is still... a group of ladies that still want to say that he's misogynistic. Of all people, him. Is there anyone who's written more strong female roles ever. Than Joss Whedon? What's his infamous quote he gave during, was it after Buffy?

Somewhere in there where someone was like, so why do you keep making all these things with strong female characters? And he's like, so why do you keep asking? There was something real witty he threw out like that. No, his comment was basically like, I just write good characters. A lot of them tend to be female characters. but that's not why I write them that way.

Like I write them because this is the story I'm trying to tell. These are the characters that I write. And a lot of them happen to be female, but like, that's not my starting point is like, let's have some bad-ass chicks. It's, this is the story I wrote. It just happens to be, you know, a lot.

And again, that's kind of the way you should write things at this point. We don't need token characters. We need well-written real characters. And that's, I don't know. Again, I think if anybody has shown people.

That you can do that, And specifically in that first Avengers, she is the character that shines the most. I still go back to the first Iron Man. Second. No, I still go back to the first. With Scarlet.

Where at the very end, she has a little fight scene at the hallway when she reveals. That's the second one. Was it? I thought she showed it. It's the second one because that's when everything goes haywire.

Oh, okay. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Because they start working in way too many Avengers plot tie-in points. Yeah, even because, let's be honest. Let's be real honest.

Hawkeye and Black Widow. Suck. Before these movies, no one cared. No. I mean, they were filler.

You might find that dude that liked them, but it's that dude that honestly liked them because no one else did. Exactly. Just kind of keeping it geek real. Like, these movies put them on next level. Period.

Black Widow was not important. I mean, yes, she was parts of plot lines and was usually a traitor. Yeah. Usually, like, yeah, she was a big deal because she just traitored. to Avengers, but she had not even a hint of the level that she's at now. And that's because of Joss.

So being upset that... She's. Still dealing with the traitor in the background and stuff. It's not just a cheesy comic book plot point. She's a real character and she's still dealing with that.

She's not just a piece of hot Russian tale. She matters. She is. involved in everything more than any other superhero in these movies and this little you know network of movies she is more involved than any other individual i mean she's been in iron man movies captain america movies avengers movies because she's. That damn character that she needs to be like she's the. Best part of them she always has handled her own Doesn't matter how bad scenes start with her.

That's the thing that bothers me is when he talks about women getting kidnapped or the people on the internet were talking about women getting kidnapped. And I'm like, wasn't she tied to a chair and answered a phone while killing someone? Wasn't that part of the plan? Wasn't that part of the plan? You can't tell me that there's ever been a female lead this strong before.

Who so much of the franchise sits on. And she has no powers. It's like the scene with Loki where everyone was like, you know, oh, she got all girly and cried when he started kind of like ripping her through the glass. Like, and that was part of the plan. She turned around right afterwards and smiled like, oh, it's about Hulk.

Thanks. That's what I think is genius. Again, her being the kind of person that she is, it's like, it's not that, oh, no, being a woman doesn't matter. Not only does it matter, she knows how to fucking use it to her advantage. She is that strong of a character.

She's like, there are a lot of people that she knows she can use that against them. And she does. And she just then takes people out in the process. Interesting side note for people that have not read the comics. The whole scene where they're all taking turns lifting Mjolnir.

Technically, it was, I believe, a what-if comic. It is a what if. Okay, there was a what if comic in the Ultron era where um she goes bad I believe I believe she ends up helping Ultron she picks up Mjolnir whatever happens with her power upgrade like she can actually pick it up so I thought it was funny that she didn't even try I almost feel like that was Joss nodding a little like we all know who can really pick this up so we're not going to do it not that she could have in this story because it was a what if comic but None of the other guys have ever picked it up in a comment. My favorite was just the little movement we got for Captain America. And the look on Thor's face.

That was awesome. That half second of Thor being like, oh, what do I do when he does? And then the elevator comment murdered me. Oh, my gosh. It murdered me.

But the elevator's not worthy. I love their bromance together so much. See, that's what I'm saying. All those scenes are, again, to me, what makes this movie. The party scene. is like the best scene.

Like, I know it's not a big dumb battle. I could care less. It's the most impressive stuff in the movie. It's always got that really cool jacket. It's like the same, but different, you know, like I, I promise, you know, and I admit it because I was the same way for me.

Like, you know, in the beginning of movie, it starts so hot and so high that one day they chill out afterwards. It felt, it didn't feel like a letdown, but you know, you feel that adrenaline going away. Like, Oh man, what just happened? but it doesn't matter when they start talking because the writing is so good. Either, you know, the storytelling is interesting because you know that these are little snippets of what's to come or their humor is just killing it. Yeah.

I mean, just like he just, their humor is so good. What I was more impressed with is the fact that, I mean that first Avengers, we already have all those characters that we're dealing with, but since then we've had several other movies that have brought in these other characters. So now he's working in all these side characters from the side movies and Along with the group that we're already dealing with. So when you've got, like, the... I like how they were arguing over their girls.

Oh, yeah. They were like. Jane's better. That's so funny. I also like how the transition of the individual characters is going over the three parts of the bigger picture, the faces, right?

Because just like Tony Stark, watching him from, like, pre-Iron Man... becoming iron man and becoming powerful but then ptsd iron man yeah i think is just phenomenal and seeing how that is going to play into building civil war is that is the when you step back it really isn't the fight for new york or the big hulk smash scene it's those things that are character driven and that's what will set marvel apart from everything else because it has to be the character story. I wonder if they'll put the put the glass in his hand finally. I want him to so bad. Because in a comic, again, for people who don't know, he becomes an alcoholic. He can't deal with his stress.

That's what they were supposed to do. With the first movie. And it was him, like, making some bad mistakes drunk. We kind of get that in the second movie. I mean, his drunken ramble, like, it's like a light version of it that he immediately comes out of.

But I'm like, we kind of see him lose it and he's not responsible enough to have the armor to the point that War. Machine's like, no, get out of it. I'm taking over. You can't handle this shit. So, I mean, we get a light version of that.

So, I don't know. To me, that almost, like, doing it again would almost be rehashing and just dragging it out into a longer version of it. I think Civil War is going to be a lot different than the comic book and I'm excited about that. It sounds like they, you were, googling stuff on superman earlier we were talking about how um the civil wars movie like they've uh they've released a cast like they've talked about yeah and like there's a lot of people i was like surprising me like hawkeye is gonna be in it hawkeye does come back at least for that shut your dude i like this hawkeye as much as i said no i have anything in the comic. I have to say i've hated hawkeye my entire life and then hated him even more since the first movies But Joss was absolutely genius to play off his humanity.

And it really rectified Hawkeye, I think, for everybody. I think Renner does a really good job with him. He does. If they gave it to somebody else, he might be forgettable. He's such a little tort, but he does so good.

And I liked him so much from 28 weeks later. Yeah. And that was my first... I don't know if he was even in anything else before that. That was my first time seeing him in something.

And. He was so endearing in that movie. When he died, I was really upset. Great spoiler, Jesus. Yeah, because you didn't spoil anything about Quicksilver.

We threw the spoiler away now. Oh, no. Civil Wars is going to be about the collateral damage, though, which is close. You can't do the epic level that the comic was. I get that.

I get this is going to be a one-movie story arc. This isn't going to be the earth-shattering thing it was in the comics. It sounds like it's going to be a one-on-one. They're going to choose a couple people on their side. But I think that's why we got S.H.I.E.L.D.

That's why, again, going about how this movie felt like so much of a setup for everything else, I think that very end scene is blatantly to set up for Civil War. I think it's almost going to be scene for scene attached because you got Captain America declaring who the new Avengers are. He had that whole shot with a couple of roster changes. And, I mean, how hard is it to see the blowback when, you know, Wakanda or whatever the place that the country has, Autovibranium, that fight with the Hulk wrecked that place. That, you know, the whole thing at the end with the whole city, you wrecked that place.

The UN or the world is going to want something done. You know, there's going to be, you know, some serious, serious blowback after Avengers 2. And, you know, I get the impression it's going to be something of an effect where, you know, now that S.H.I.E.L.D. is back, S.H.I.E.L.D. doing something where it's like, you know, you have to do exactly what we say at all times. And, you know, that's how issue one of Civil War started. It started with Rogers on a helicarrier.

You know, Hill turns around and is like, sign this paper. And he's like, no. And literally fights S.H.I.E.L.D., jumps off the helicarrier. That's issue one. And how did this end?

Him at a new S.H.I.E.L.D. facility with new Avengers about to get the blowback from everything they just did with Avengers 2. Like, I feel like this segues perfectly into Civil War. I mean, that's, again, what I think has been so well done with this whole, the whole series, at least from, definitely from Avengers, like from Avengers going into like Iron Man 3 and Captain America 2, you see like not only the overall story changing, but the characters readjusting as they go. So you get like the wormhole that opens up and we're exposed to this other super powerful life forms. So then you see, you already see like S.H.I.E.L.D.

Going, oh shit, what do we do? So we need to use this to make bigger weapons so that we can fight them. And then you see, even like you get to like Tony Stark going, I can't stop all of this. We need something bigger than me and bigger than all of us. So you see like all of this coming from like this whole arc, these last three or four movies that have been like, we're watching all of these people kind of readjust with these huge changes that again, if, if it were done a little sloppier, but like none of this would all fall apart, but it's all so smooth the way that everything sort of falls into place as they go along.

And like, everybody is changing everything. because of these previous events and it's not completely separate little movies it really is this overarching story that's tying into all these points yeah. It's not just there's character growth it's not just these static personalities that just get shifted around you know i mean it's how you know it's like you know someone that reads walking dead it's like you know if you were to grab issue one again rick grimes you would not even recognize that boy now compared to what you read of him now. I mean, you're already getting that from the movies. You go back and watch Iron Man 1, Captain America 1, Thor 1. These are completely different people already.

I mean, remember how ego-driven Thor was in the first one? Or Tony Stark. Tony Stark. But I mean, it's shockingly different to how they are now. Especially Tony Stark.

Again, Thor's just i don't know thor's always like so godlike that he doesn't factor in as much for me. I mean he's literally a god so it's hard to you know. He's always the one i'm least affected by but but again like robert downey jr has done so much with this what could have been a dumb comic book movie yes he's turned in some pretty amazing performances he set the. Bar so fucking high That it carried the whole goddamn franchise. It has.

He created this franchise, basically. I think that's what DC's recent casting with Suicide Squad was. It was like, hey, Will Smith. You know, hey, Jared Leto. It's like, you know, we need to take this serious.

We need big names like that. Not that that's everything, but, you know, it doesn't. hurt if you have people with charisma who can't act and integrity like I'm not saying I honestly don't know I'm not saying that Robert Downey Jr. has a stack of Iron Man comics from when he was a kid but I can tell he gives a shit I can tell he's probably read shit. Now more than that I mean he lived that Like, that's the thing. Like, I think I've said that before. Like, that first Iron Man movie is his life.

Like, it's him being a party boy and losing everything. Losing everything. That's why it worked. And, like, he really, like, this is pretty mirror image to, like, what he went through. You need a Tony Stark getting fucked up and then going home to the wrong bed.

That's what you need. Well, and then watching this, like, to power becoming a huge celebrity again so even when he gets to like Iron Man 2 superstar status that's what he was when he came back to Hollywood he was like you're right I'm a superstar I've been through hell and back and I'm glad to be on top again and I'm gonna like showboat as big as I can and I'm like again I'm like this is just his story like I feel like it's only these last two he's really kind of started taking it to new territory because the other two are so close to him that again it's kind of perfect casting on their part and just him delivering a good performance but yeah that was just so closely tied to his own story that we were all a little too familiar with probably for his comfort I.

Can't wait to see like when Doctor Strange comes out, I'm real curious to see Edward Cumberbatch interact with these guys. Because he'll be all over Infinity Wars. He's a big part of that. So it's going to be, it's just never ending anticipation. Like seriously, if you're a Marvel fan or now, it's never, even as you finish Avengers 2, you're still coming out just like, oh my God, Black Panther, Doctor Strange, Civil Wars.

You know, yeah, and like, you know, that end scene. I mean, you watched after the credits, right? Yeah, I do it myself. What was with no double stinger? What the hell is that about?

You know, did you wait for it? Yeah. Josh tweeted it. The people sitting in. The theater said, they said there's not anything.

But we all sat there going, just in case, let's sit here. I don't want everyone... He said something like, we couldn't do the shawarma scene again. It was too good. So he's like, I'm going to give you one at the half credits and you can go home.

But the one at the half credits is the same one from last time. Yes. It's almost the exact same one from the first half credits. The first one, it was pun-tastic, though. Because the whole thing, they still haven't talked about it yet.

But there is kind of like the endless from Salmon. There's these more God-type entities. And there is an embodiment of death And it's a very attractive woman. And the universe. And Thanos is very, very much in, I don't know what you're going to say, in love, but obsessed with this very attractive embodiment of death.

So if you recall that clip at the end of the first Avengers, that dude says to him, there's nothing here on earth. There's only death. And that's when Thanos turns around like, oh, really? You know, that's what that was. That was him like, death?

Did you say death? And this one is, you know, yeah, between... you know, Guardians of the Galaxy and Infinity Wars on the horizon now. It's officially going, look, he's fucking arrived. It's fucking time for you to watch Thanos. I mean, they edited him out of Guardians.

Apparently, James Gunn filmed quite a bit more of Thanos in Guardians, but I guess the collective was like, let's keep him just a little bit in there until he's going to be all over two movies. Let's keep it live. Yeah, I know they're smart to do that. Let's not overdo it this early on. Yeah.

I think the setup for Infinity Wars is going to be pretty interesting. I think, It is something, whether movie people care about comic books and geek stuff like that or not, I don't think anyone can argue that this is going to be historical. When has there ever been a time that so many movies have accumulated to one focal point? I mean, by then, there would literally be what? A dozen movies or whatever.

At least 12 movies that all story-wise, character-wise, cast-wise... all come together for this one... I mean, what do you do after this? I feel bad for comic book movies after this. After this is done and Infinity Wars is done, what movie is ever going to get you this excited again? The scale is so big, it's almost like, what are you going to do?

You just won comic movies. Everybody go home. It's over. We never have to make another comic movie again. I really hope Civil War ends with them all broken apart, though.

So they have to come back. Come back to fight Thanos. That'd be a good arc. Because, well, think about it. Because it's like, you're going to have all these other people, Doctor Strange, that need the limelight for a little bit.

And it's like, do we really need more Tony Stark? I mean, I want more Tony Stark. Don't get me wrong. I want Iron Man 4, 5, and 6. But I ain't going to get it.

So it's like, what if they break them all up? And you get your Black Panther and your Doctor Strange and whoever the fuck else. Ant-Man is going to be in it. Ant-Man is going to be the best goddamn movie of all time. Let's just throw that on the fucking ground.

That trailer that opened before this when I'm just like. That train scene is where it's at right there. I'm still like it looks better than I expected. But I'm still like on the fence. I'm just like. it could be good and then it could really, you know, I mean, it could, it could, I don't know.

He's the domestic abuser though in the comic, right? Isn't it Ant-Man? I don't know if it's the old one or young one. I thought it was Ant-Man that beats his wife. Oh, that's what bugs me about Ant-Man.

That's the Michael Douglas character. Okay. So it's, okay. I knew that one of the Ant-Mans beat on his wife a little and so I never really liked him. I was like, I don't, I don't want that in my comic books.

I don't need that in my comic books. I don't read for that. The other thing I was going to say that I was so impressed with is, and again, even just growth from one movie to the next, because in the first Avengers, how not only were they sort of bickering, but when they would get out there and fight, most of the time it was just them, well, literally they're fighting each other halfway into the movie, but even by the end, they're all kind of doing their own thing, just like, here's my awesome power, and I'm going to use it to take care of this guy. In this Avengers. the teamwork in Captain America is so amazing. He hit his shield like three different times.

Like one time he baseball hit it and just shot it around. One time he just hit it for the vibration. I was, I wanted Hulk to throw Thor or someone in the worst way. I was like, please, you know, do that Colossus Wolverine tag team. Someone, Hulk, pick up someone and throw them at something, please.

Just the fact that so many different attacks in all of the battles, like the one in the beginning and the one in the end, like, involves more than one of the team and i'm just like that's so impressive and again showing that they've kind of gotten over most of their bickering amongst themselves and like they are a team and they not only work together as a team but they battle as a team and like that was really well put together that that i don't know that there was that much thought into even the physical attacks that they. Were still working together definitely yeah i marked out for Every single one of those. Every time he hit the shield, I made some awkward geek noise. I always have mixed feelings taking my girlfriend to those.

She's like, I'm out of here. One of these days, I'm afraid to just, one of these days, she's just, I'm going to look over and she's just going to be staring at me, not even watching a movie, with just this weird look on her face. You're leaving me for Marvel. What am I doing? Thankfully, every time I geeked out to that, she'd just be smiling too.

I'm like, good. I'm allowed to be a super nerd for these two hours. Yeah, that was excellent stuff. Man, I mean, how about that Hulk fight, though? We've been talking about everything else.

It's been built up for a while now. They did a good job because of the buildup, I think. I think it was. Cool that they made sure that Bruce Banner wasn't involved. He even says, yeah, I know I helped build this.

So it didn't because the way they were sort of teasing it was almost like it was just Tony Stark going, one of these days he's going to go off. So I do like that even Bruce Bennett, and again, showing his character continually being like more and more paranoid of like, which all comes together in this. Like you do see it happen. And then I think that kind of goes into this new like weird offshoot story for Banner that like he's to the point now where, Not only does he, like, I don't think I can be part of the team, I don't think I can be part of humanity. Like, I have to isolate myself from the world.

Did he go to an island or did he go to space? They didn't say. Okay. He was talking about the island midway in, but that was when Scarlet was still attached. So when he took off, then it's like, now we don't really know.

That's where, again, that's where, you know, with the whole where does this go from here, it's not confirmed if he's going to have his own movie, but the rumors are circulating. That if he does have his own movie. You can go two routes with it. You can go Planet Hulk, which would be real interesting to see in a movie. I almost feel like it'd be like Guardians of the Galaxy.

It's going to be one of those ones where it's like, this is kind of a unique story. You're going to have to really tiptoe to get this right. They're going to get in trouble if they do it, man. My thing is that scene in Infinity Wars is... afterwards would be what's weird because Planet Hulk stuff happened after Infinity War. So if you give mainstream audience that level of growth for him to come back and be in full control, you know, just be mentally sound and shit as Hulk, that's kind of counter to some of the main stuff that's going to happen in Infinity Wars because Hulk's a big deal in the Infinity Wars.

I don't think they're going to have that Hulk storyline from the comic book Infinity Wars and Infinity Wars. I like, I have my own idea of what they should do and they should just do it. And it should be that he goes to space. He's a cameo in the guardians of the galaxy. There was a rumor that though, like in that, in that time, he figures out how to control the Hulk.

And so by the time infinity wars movie rolls around and they all come back together, that he can be like. Oh, that would, that would be kind of nice though. Like he comes back as planet Hulk, but he's always been kicking it with the guardians for so long that he's kind of, he's kind of still all right. He's not, Because he goes off and lands on this gladiator planet and learns to fight with a sword and a shield and he's wearing armor and he takes over the planet and comes back to Earth with his whole army. But that's where it gets weird because it's like Doctor Strange, Professor X, and a bunch of people are the ones that shoot him out into space.

That could go. Again, they would have to change just enough that it could it could then make it work in this universe, but it could potentially spiral off and mess it up in changing it just enough. I feel like no Hulk movie has ever made it, and you have to be very careful when they're treading on glory. I liked... Edward Norton.

I like the Edward. Norton one a lot. I wish he wasn't. The people don't. Geeked out.

Really? Did it not do well? Honestly, don't pay enough attention. Nobody likes it. To me, he works.

So well as the side character that trying to make him lead again could backfire and be like, wait, why did we like him in these other movies? Because it went two movies and really nobody cared. And then Avengers, they loved him. So I'm just like, maybe that's his best place is just keep him to be the big bad that you bring in to kick everybody's ass at the end of the battle. It's like, In every crossover animated film or comic book thing, anytime you put Hulk with someone else, it was always the same story.

Yeah, always. It was always the same story. It was just, you know, you're going to get three quarters of this is going to be filler. At some point, Hulk's finally going to snap. Everyone's going to try to beat him and not be able to do it.

It's a Toho Godzilla movie. And we're going to bring out a girl to calm him down. I forget what his girl's name was, but that's how every single one ended. Every single one. You could not beat him.

They made it very clear. It's like, you know, Hulk versus Iron Man, Hulk versus Thor, Hulk versus Wolverine, Hulk versus Spider-Man, Hulk versus the Avengers. It doesn't matter. You can't beat them. That's why, you know, like I said, eventually Professor X, Doctor Strange, all these people got together and shot him off into space.

They're like, he can't be beat, period. He just gets more mad. He gets more strong, period. But I did like how they kind of put Black Widow in that role, though. Yeah.

And that really changed, like, you know, since his girl isn't in it. Which works so well with. what then becomes with their relationship. But it is nice that it worked kind of both. Of those angles. I wonder how far back that goes, though, because, you know, with her being the one that kind of recruited him, I wonder if it was that long term of a plan where, like, you know, she's going to be the one who goes get some, she's going to be the one he kind of trusts first.

Well, she's going to lead to this, which is going to lead to that. He also totally attacks her. Like, that's the only, like, disturbing scene in that first one is when, like, he goes after her and, like, that like watching her kind of deal with like, that's the point I thought we were kind of going to lose her as like a character that always seemed to be in control. That was the only time that she was like, I can't stop him. Like I can't do any.

So it is interesting to see again, sort of a character growth that like by the second one, she is the one that can, like she is the only one that comes in and is like, hey, all right, let's take it down a notch now. And she's gotten, again, she's in control of not only how she is handling the situation, but is so in control, she's bringing him down. You call it lullaby? Yeah. I think we need a lullaby.

I thought that was so well done. That was really well done. I've been saying, well, everyone's been saying it, Black Widow, Hawkeye, Hulk, these guys might not be strong enough to do movies on their own. Black Widow is. Black Widow.

I don't know about Hawkeye, but Black Widow is. I want like a Metal Gear Solid Black Widow movie. Why not? Yeah, I mean, but do that then. Do the Black Widow movie.

I mean, if you do it. Hawkeye shows up to help, and Hulk shows up to help. I mean, how? Done. You got my money.

I will go see it. If you do it as close to what they did with Captain America 2, because you just make it very real world. I mean, she's a human. She's an agent. Just send it in as a mission thing and have her be badass for an hour and a half.

And you can work in cameos, but she is a strong enough character. She can carry any plot like that. Because that'd be beautiful. Do Secret Wars and have Black... I mean, that's espionage.

That's her thing. Have it kind of focus on Black Widow and Avengers eventually coming together based on her story conflicts and stuff. That'd be awesome. I'm all for that. I'd have to go see it again.

I do want to say on the Hawkeye thing, and again, we've already touched on that spoiler, but they so set it up to off him right there. They pulled the classic cop slash war trope of like, anytime you're like, it's the cop movie you're watching, it's like, man, one week from retirement, sure hope nothing happens to me. Or the Gear in a War movie. Here's a picture of my girlfriend back home. I can't wait to get back home with her.

Ten minutes later, those guys are dead. So, I mean, like, as soon as they introduced the family and the wife and that little lovely house. I was looking so forward to it. And he was like, I'm going to remodel this room. And I'm like, oh, shit.

That room's never getting remodeled. I'm like, he is, they are, especially after his whole speech of. Like, I'm a regular guy. Right. There's no hope for me.

Like, I'm just like, oh. So, I mean, again, I almost have to give it to Joss for pulling back. On that and being like, here's the fake out. you think we're going to do what every other movie does. No, this young character that doesn't need to be killed. Screw it.

That's how I operate. Like he will, he has no problem killing off characters when he thinks they need to go. And like George R. Martin switched it up and was just like, Nope, this is how we're doing things. So, I mean, I kind of have to give him credit for not doing the most cliche thing that he could have done.

And let's talk about his wife. I've been saying forever, like, why is she not more stuff? Cause she is so, that's, that's the girl from Freaks and Geeks. Yeah. And for years I've been like, why are the two main kids who are so awesome in that show?

They're the ones that didn't become superstars. Like everybody else is huge now. And then like, yeah. So, I mean, just seeing, I mean, she's, I think I looked it up and she'd been doing some TV show that I hadn't watched. So I just was missing like her only other credit in the last few years.

But yeah, I'm just like, all right, bring her into more stuff. Because she was awesome on that show. I want to see her get more work. I don't know. That was just kind of an awesome little real world cameo.

I'm just like, good. She's doing more stuff again. I'm still a big fan for Grandma's Boy. I still think that movie's so good. But I mean, it's kind of up my alley.

It's a bunch of video game geeky gamer kids. Geeks. But yeah, her being all blonde. It's good stuff. I didn't recognize her at first.

I remember getting, like, halfway through the movie, and it's like, where do I know this girl from? It took me, yeah. Like, she came up, and I'm like, oh, look, she, wait a minute. It was the second of, like, I know her. Why do I know her?

And I was like, because I did just look her up recently, and I don't think I hadn't seen that she was in there, but, like, I'd seen a pic, because she was at, like, the TV land, just gave, like, Freaks and Geeks a, like, an award. Like, it was some sort of, like, bring the whole cast back together. And she, and I'm sitting there going, is that her? Cause I hadn't seen her in so long. Like she looks so different now from high school that I'm just like, so I had seen her just recently enough when they did that TV land awards.

And I was like, no, wait, that is her. So yeah, she's, she just needs to be more stuff. She's awesome. I don't know. The only other thing I was going to go into is the fact that they, again, it being so well developed in the real world and the overarching story that, Because again, this is the kind of stuff you don't see in dumb superhero movies.

The fact that they are concerned about what the press thinks about them. And we started seeing that in Iron Man 2, where you see him just eating up what a superstar he is. But then now we see the backlash end of it. They're like, okay, not only did we just trash this town, but the entire world saw it. And now we're going to have to deal with all the negative, not just press, but people are legitimately going to hate the Hulk, if not all of us.

I feel like it was tangible during the movie. I feel like, again, that's why I think this leads directly into Civil War, is that even though, as you mentioned, they're constantly getting people out and stuff, there was a part of me that's just like, when Iron Man has Hulk and he's eyeballing that skyscraper, I'm like... You're going to demolish a skyscraper. In development for this. You are about to obliterate a skyscraper in the middle of a city that has not been evacuated for this.

And I'm like, this has to lead into civil wars. This has to be... Like, they don't even. In the comic books, it was a school gets blown up with kids in it. That was the final straw.

You don't even need that, I think, right now. Between these three huge, between New York, Wakanda, and wherever that city was at then, that's plenty. The whole world is definitely going to be mad enough to be like, you guys need to step in line. Totally see that. That'll help so much for a Civil War movie.

Because you don't have to establish that, really. Yeah, you don't need the first 40 minutes. We've built all that already into the series. You don't even have to spend 40 minutes doing a dramatic, epic loss with a bunch of sadness or something. It's like, we know, just have it be the backlash from Avengers 2.

Be like, you guys killed this many people. You obliterated this much people. It's like, you know, sign these papers. You work for the government now. Basically, it's going to be Gary Shandling sitting behind a table going, you guys.

Well, they cast, oh, what's his name? Is it Martin? Who's the dude that played Bilbo? Oh, yeah. Sherlock Holmes with.

Yes. Martin Freeman. He's a Civil War. Yeah. So I assume he'll be a politician, government agent of some kind.

She's saying. We know he's not a superhero. He's a hobbit. But they already got Peter Dinklage on the X-Men side. Like, you can't get any smaller than that.

Jesus. He's awesome. I love Peter Dinklage. We need that crossover. The Dinkster.

So, I don't know. I mean, was there anything? I mean, we didn't really even go into Ultron much, but. I hated Ultron. Really?

I thought it was a waste of time. I had a lot of people, you know, when I geeked out after the movie, there was a lot of people that I talked to, and I was just like, Ultron was kind of a wuss. I was like, look, dude, he beat them in that first fight. Did you not get that? Did you not get the part where they retreated?

They ran to Hawkeye's house because they got their ass kicked. It's like, he won that first fight. There were a couple parts of it. The Ultron thing kind of let me down in three different areas. The first one is the, I didn't like his mouth movement.

And this is a more serious thing about how like, I I'm kind of let down that it's getting so CG and I wish that they had like Iron Man looked so good in the first and second one when it was really just something that Robert Downey was wearing with like, you could tell that like the big pieces armor were real and there were little blue parts for the, for the computer. And that's great. This is just like, what's the, who's fucking the guy from the episode three fucking the robot from star Wars episode three. Oh. Grievous.

General Grievous. Where it's just like, okay, so I mean like. Where he just looks like a transformer. Well, yeah, it's just like if I want to watch a cartoon, I'll watch a cartoon. Well.

I want you to attempt to use some kind of like a miniature or a something. I did just read that today. This has by far the most effects in any Marvel movie ever. Yeah. Guardians had the closest.

I see them gravitating away from the beauty that was that first Iron Man film and that first Captain America and I'm like, don't. It's so easy and I know that it looks amazing but like, you all built this whole thing on a foundation of good looking shit. Like you could just CG Captain America's outfit and have the green lantern. You could do it. And it would be, it would be cheap and it would be easy, but everybody would hate you.

The other thing about Ultron for me was you probably felt this with the comic books. I'm pointing towards David where when the whole Ultron arc was building, um, it was what we think of now as like the Thanos arc is building. Ultron building was the end of times and Ultron is the greatest thing of all time. And I felt that they did that really well with like the marketing behind the movie. But then the movie came out and it's like, actually, and this wasn't bad, but like actually the movie is about this character development and these people and their problems and we're building up for civil war.

And oh yeah, there's this Ultron. I agree. I feel kind of like they wasted Ultron. But for what they did, I do like the way that they worked it in. It was good.

I like that it wasn't Tony Stark just being crazy on his own. Again, I like that he's working with Banner. He's so convincing that Banner's like, all right, fine. You're right. We do need something.

I like the whole mad scientist speech. Yeah, but he's right. Again, that's taking this universe and he's like, we need a better plan and this could be it. If it goes right, this is it. It didn't go right, but I'm like, I do like the way that he built it up and the reasoning behind it was sound enough that you're like, yeah, it's kind of worth a shot.

I think it was a good way of getting Vision into the movie. I was going to say that ultimately, it's more like Age of Vision than Age of Ultron. The other thing that. Bothered me about that is like, well, if you're going to bring Vision into the movie and all the comic book people know who Vision is, Vision can snap his fucking fingers and Ultron's done. Or at least all Ultron's minions are done.

So like, are we bringing Vision in just to make him a bigger deal in later movies? Probably. But if you bring him in, like, fucking, you've got it. You've got Scarlet Witch and you've got Vision. The wars won.

Like, I don't know if they didn't give them the, like, list of magical powers, but you just won it all. There was this little comic book story arc called House of M where Scarlet Witch had enough and essentially pushed the great big reset button on the universe. Like, she is, like, Everything that Dark Phoenix was, everything that Professor X was, she's that and then some. I mean, it was all comic books being stupid and killing people off and doing stupid stuff, and they need a reason to set everything straight again. But she was the one that used to do it, so she gets the credit.

She was the one that was strong enough to alter reality. I mean, she's not just some little girl that just gets in your head. But I thought it was neat that Ultron was so much like Tony Stark. Yeah. I thought that was kind of a neat twist on it where instead of just being this kind of ambiguous Skynet in a body, it was more of like he was using his mannerisms and he was talking like him and was like upset about it.

Unless you've seen the black one. Kind of shut it back to Blade Runner a little to me. I was like the way he kind of hates his maker and wants to kill his maker. What I thought was cool and it's very obviously considering they quote it, but like the Pinocchio. Yeah, the Pinocchio.

Oh, yeah. That was. That could have been really silly. It made me think a little bit of the Itsy Bitsy Spider and Spider-Man 2, but it worked here. I was like, this is really cool.

I was like, number one, it's really convenient that you guys just bought that company. The higher-ups making this movie now own all of this property, so it's fine that you use that reference. And second of all, I was like, but damn, it kind of worked really good. Because it really is this creature becoming a sentient being, and him sort of dealing with that in the most messed up way that he can, which is just start annihilating people basically and, and becoming power hungry and that he can create his own army in the process. And again, it's for, for what it did.

I agree. It probably isn't as big an arc as it should have been, but given that they don't have, again, back to our reference earlier, they don't have 13 episodes to stretch it out over. Cause that's probably what this could have been. And it would have been awesome. Yeah.

Netflix series, which they've got three more coming, so we'll see. Well, they made their choice. They chose that Thanos and Infinity Gauntlet is going to be the big one. It's a six and a half hour movie. Even though things like Civil War were huge and a year long.

If you had it written out on paper and you're like, we want to do Ultron, we want to do Civil War, it's like, Thanos. And this was the fill-in, I think. I'm pretty sure I read that they wanted to go straight to Thanos. And Joss said, we're not ready for that yet. We need to get to it. let's go with Voltron now.

Just let him run Marvel. He doesn't want to. It's going to kill him. Do it. Who cares?

He will die in glory. Are you kidding me? People will know his name more than Gandhi. He's already a geek god. He is.

Think of everything he did for TV. I mean, that alone made him a geek god. And now what he's done with Marvel. It's like. And the fact that he continues to do...

Again, the cast keeps getting bigger. He not only keeps. It all straight. but they all interact perfectly together. In the middle of the scene with our old superheroes, you've got Falcon come in, and the back and forth with him and Captain are so good. I hate Don Cheadle.

I hate Don Cheadle. I hate Don Cheadle. He was so good in this movie with that fucking story, though. He's so much fun. It's all you need from him.

I wish we could CG him back into the first Iron Man, because now I'm just like, ugh. Nobody likes that guy, including Robert Downey Jr. So I'm like, let's just put Don Cheadle in all these now, which I think that's kind of fun because even as Robert Downey Jr. is sort of backing out of this, we've. Still got Iron Man. I mean, War Machine is Iron Man.

Come on. We still have Iron Man as the machine coming in to do what Iron Man needs to do for the practical purposes. Sadly, it's not Robert Downey Jr., but again, we're still filling the void of Iron Man with what is essentially Iron Man with a big gun. So I don't know. I think I'm more impressed with that, that not only that cast from last time, but now expanding all these side characters in and keeping it all not only straight.

But well thought out, continuing. To like improve the dynamic between the characters and still keeping the overarching story going. Like it's, it's so damn impressive, which is like, again, not to DC bash again, but on the flip, you know, The other thing, the other choice, the only other choice would have been to kind of go what kind of looks like a DC route of just introducing like eight people in one movie. And just throwing them out there. Which one is going to work better?

Like eight people you've seen in eight different movies coming together or eight people that show up at the same time and you don't know jack about them. So yeah, that's like what I've said before. I just said earlier, it's like in movie history, like. How hard would it ever be to recreate this again? What's even another story?

Another, yeah, another. Yeah, there's not. Anything that you could do this with again. I mean, somebody. Eventually will come along and try to do.

Something like this. I mean, the only thing I could think of is, like, supposedly this next X-Men movie is supposed to. Somebody would. Yeah. I mean, I guess comic industry is really the only thing where you really could.

Just because there are so many people. Again, during the break, we had our offshoot Star Wars story. I mean, Star Wars is a big enough universe. You could set up so many little side movies and then by the end have them all come into a big... I mean, there's enough geeks out there.

You could do another epic version of this. This is a lot of movies, though. I gotta say, this is a huge tie-in. I cannot wait for the DC box-out. I think when it's all said and done, it's supposed to be 22 movies?

Something like that. I'm gonna say it's almost two dozen movies by the time Infinity War 2 ends. That's a huge plan that's going pretty well so far. Billions and billions and billions of dollars. So I wonder if that means Avengers 3 is Thanos, because I just assume Infinity Wars, if you're doing two movies of it, that it would be two movies of Thanos.

It's Avengers 3 Part 1, Part 2, right? Yeah. Oh, is that? Okay. Yeah, it's both.

I had that confused. I thought there was a Phase 3 and then Infinity, but no, that makes sense then. Yeah, that's how it is. Yeah, so we are setting it up now, aren't we? It's about that time.

The next official Avengers phase is all of that. We've only seen three stones though. I believe the purple power one and guardians, the yellow ones in vision. That's mine. And then the snippet at the end of one of the Thors.

No, the red one is in Thor 2, The Dark World. Is that the one they give to the collector? Because at the end of one of the Thor movies, it shows a scene where. So you've seen four. Because there is a snippet where he gives two to the collector.

Does he give two? Okay. He gives two. And then one you don't see the powers for. And that is the time stone, which will probably be in your.

Is it Doctor Strange? Because there's technically six though, right? I have no idea. Because there's one on each knuckle, one on the thumb, but there's also one on the top of the hand. The gravity stone.

Is that what it is? I think so. So are you going to talk about the left-handed glove right here? That's what I was just going to say. If you look in the Thor movie.

The first one. Odin. Odin's brocade. Has the right hand. Odin has the right.

If you look, like at some point passing in a hallway, you see the right-handed infinity gauntlet with no stones in it. It had the stones. It had the stones. It has the stones in it. Well, it has colors, and they don't look like stones.

Just a place for those stones to go. Maybe it is, and people have speculated, but how much cooler does it make Ragnarok sound when at the end of this movie, not only is Thor thinking, hey, I've got to go and figure out why these people think I've killed them, but also, where the fuck. Is that glove? And the whole, why would the ancient elders of the universe... did they only have one hand? Why did they make one glove?

They really love Michael Jackson. And like, what's going on with Loki being Odin? Oh, we didn't talk about that. Loki had a scene cut. Yeah.

I heard they shot something and just took it out. Does anybody know what it is though? I'm kind of glad he did because Loki gets a lot of play. Loki, as much as I like him. And I love Loki.

Yeah, I love that character. See that, and that's what I was going to say I think is an improvement with this is I think we get a pretty, like at least, the James Spader version of, again, whether or not the overarching story, but I feel like he's a, he's a pretty decent villain as far as just the way he presents himself where Loki never really was. Like we almost didn't have a villain in that first one. He plays both sides. He's so likable in the way, again, like you forget that you're supposed to not like him.

He's Starscream. Yeah. Everyone has read a comic, you know, every time he's Starscream, he's going to take a shot at Megatron every, he's going to be his yes man. All along, but in the end, he's going to try to backstab you. So, yeah, it's like I felt like we didn't.

And then you get to the whatever those aliens are that come in. That's always my knock on the first one is like, I could care less about those. They're not characters. They're just something for them to fight. It's an awesome fight scene.

But I'm like, I could care less about those characters where at least I feel like Spader does a good performance with it. And we get a little bit of a real villain in this one. So it'll be interesting to see when we come around to the third one. He's a real villain. Like, it's going to be a real.

With Thanos being, from what I can tell, completely CGI. Yeah, I'm so disappointed. I really hope they change up somehow beforehand. I do, too. I hope that somehow before that last one, they get a guy in an outfit that they can enhance that looks at least close.

Well, you know who it is. What's his face? Oh, is he Cas? Thanos is played by... Yeah, since the first one, he's...

No Country for Old Men. The good guy. God, who's the guy? Old boy remake. Oh, Josh Brolin.

It's Josh Brolin. It's his face CG'd and his voice and he does the whole Smeagol thing and acts with the thing. So it is a physical person. It looks so CG on me that I thought it wasn't even a person. It's his face taken and put into a computer and then made bigger.

You can see his face looks like Josh Brolin, but it's CG'd. That's the thing I just heard that I didn't know was that Spader was there. Yeah. Like he circused it. Like he was on set with giant like red balls where the eyes are supposed to be for his character doing the performance.

I thought he just sat in a room and did the voiceover later, but he was on set. That's the kind of shit that makes it. And that's the kind of shit that I'm like, don't CG these people. Yeah. Like Indiana Jones worked real fucking well.

Not the fourth one. Worked real fucking well. And it's like, You don't need CGI. Okay, when the Hulk transforms and when you throw him through construction, we got a CG, right? When your arm's forced, but for the most part, oh, for the love of God, just make it.

Like these Star Wars movies are looking real good, and I bet there's some fucking sets, you know? I bet there might even be little models at some point, because that shit works. Just let the guy do them all, Joss. Joss, if you're listening, we'd really like you to finish out the set. Get a fucking senzu bean.

Eat that shit. Good to go. Why don't you become his personal trainer slash... I'll. Take care of you.

All of your nutrition is. I'll be his master Roshi. I'll be his master Roshi. I'll give you the acupuncture and the herbs. Be in his corner to take care of him.

I'll give you a room and you just go in there and don't come out and write your little stories. I'll just feed at the end of the day. And on that bombshell. And on that. Just picture that, Patrick.

Be prepared for some super fast, hard action. Like, seriously. I know I've said it like three times already on the podcast. Probably a dozen off. But the action is...

There's so much going on. So much. It's too much action. It's so intense that. You have to watch it.

I want to watch it. How many Avengers are there? Five? You got to watch it five times. I get on Blu-ray.

Like, I. Stop, rewind, pause. Exactly. I will probably absolutely watch every chapter multiple times until I feel like I got it. Because there's so much great stuff going on.

And where my eye was, I was very happy what I was seeing, but I was aware that there's like a third of the screen I can't focus on at the same time. And there's so much great stuff going on. Even from the trailer, I thought the first Kung Fu Panda jump scene was going to be stupid. And it felt so good. Even knowing it's coming.

When you're in the theater, yeah, you're like, what's going to happen? Even when it did it was funny like being in a theater and hearing like people audibly like you hear people like oh like you heard people like make noise to it and it's like how. Dumb is that but it's so marvel it's like did you see big hero six yes okay like the very first scene when he's like trolling the guy and they're doing the bot fights and his little bot does like the marvel and you're like i'm like oh that's fucking awesome oh my god this just made the whole movie for me. At least it makes me think of Power Rangers. Yeah.

I see people do that kind of pose. I think Big Hero 6 can be in Infinity Wars. That would be sick if it was like Thanos had them all dead and then that little guy. And he comes up and heals Hulk. Right.

And then Hulk beats him. He's like, my telemetry says that you have sustainable damage. Zero gamma rating. Camera rating 100%. Would this make you feel better?

He gives him a lollipop. Right? We can jump out a window. Hulk likes lollipops. I think so.

Alright. I think we've addressed our Marvel geekiness. I think geek out accomplished. Now I have to go see it again. Alright.

Alright. Otherwise, that about does it. I'm sure this geek trio will return in the near future. But otherwise, we shall return. Same geek feed.

Thanks for listening. Let me show you a place where everything's wonderful. We never lose a girlfriend. Well, you gotta be hard if you wanna fight crime. My hair, my abs.

Sometimes life gets dangerous when there's a new bad guy. But we're not scared, and I'll tell you why. Jarvis, drop a beat. Oh, yeah. That offends me.

Let me show you a world that's always appropriate. Cause I got my special stretchy pants. Where the only romance I. Want is one dance. And he doesn't even get it.

Where guys with goatees are friendly and science geeks are buff. No one needs a secret identity except like Widow who tears some bad stuff. There's no world like the Avengers where there's not much to avenge. Where radiation poisoning's a good thing and your wounds are magically mend. Welcome to a world of civilians who are all in mortal danger, but you never really see any die.

A world where Tony Stark created Ultron, because things are so perfect that we gotta make our own bad guy. And yes, there are some problems with S.H.I.E.L.D. Not this S.H.I.E.L.D. But their cover-ups are. Sloppier than what's beneath this pack.

Gross. So feast your eyes on a world so groovy that a female superhero can get her own movie. Guys, come on, you all have your own. Cause there's no world like the Avengers, where no one's really dead. We brought back Bucky, Bones, Coulson, Loki, and Fury, and fans don't feel misled.

And this movie's not out, but. We've all signed for a third. So you can bet no. One's dying in the Avengers world. Because you can bet nobody's dying in the Avengers world.

Excelsior. Cameo. This episode is a production of Movie Meltdown, produced and edited by The Oddity Studios, with opening music performed by The Empires. For more on how to sponsor or support the show, email producer at moviemeltdown.com. Talk hard!