Review of Next Avengers: Heroes of Tomorrow (2008) by Steven Q — 29 Aug 2008

So far, every movie in the 'Marvel Animated' line has been really good (Ultimate Avengers 1 and 2, The Invincible Iron Man, and Dr. Strange, Sorcerer Supreme), so part of me didn't worry too much about this movie because of that, while other parts of me did, becuase this time it centered around kids. The 'Next Generation' of the Avengers.

While the other movies were aimed at teenagers and the cartoons were hard PG-13 (14A in Canada), this one was very clearly aimed at kids. There is no swearing, the violence is majorly toned down, and the main characters ranged from 6 years old to 16 years old. So those looking for the gritty teenage-rating violence of the other animated features, will be disappointed here.

However, it turned out a lot better then I expected. Sure, there were quite a few childish moments, and overall the entire thing was extremely predictable, but it was also a hell of a lot of fun. Most of the original Avengers has been killed by this total bad ass cyborg guy, and Tony Stark (Iron Man), takes their kids and hides them on a secret island, where he raises them as his own and trains them. During that time, the evil cyborg dude, Ultron, has started taking over the world. He ends up finding their hideout and takes Tony Stark captive and the New Avengers travel to Ultron's headquarters to take him down.

My favorite character, I'd say, would have to be Thor's daughter. I found her the funniest, trying to speak in the old language all the time, but failing horribly most of the time, and the stereotypical love interest she had with the bad boy Green Arrow rip-off wasn't TOO out of place, although it was predictable.

There were also a couple cameos that worked pretty good for this movie too, and the interactions between all the characters were pretty good.

The action scenes were also very well done. Not AS well done as in the others, but more then I expected from this kind of movie.

I would have much preferred to have another movie aimed at the teenager/adult range again instead of this one, but at the same time, I'm not really disappointed with this one either, just would have preferred something else.

I hear that the next movie being made in the 'Marvel Animated' line is a Hulk vs Wolverine movie. Now that one will hopefully bring the series back to the level of awesome that the other ones were at.