The Avengers

[bash]

Nah, I reckon the hulk v avengers thing will be out of the way really quickly, like in the 1st half hour of the film. IMO it'll be mainly hulk v Thor with Cap A (remember Roths going super soldier on Nortons hulk?)and Ironman chipping in (probably Hawkeye and Black widow contributing too). Hulk is defeated and banner in chains/sedated and under serious watch while loki the skrulls and Thanos start escalating a mega type threat. Then the rest of the heros will realise they need the hulks help and get banner back on side.

[rmoxon]

Nah, I reckon the hulk v avengers thing will be out of the way really quickly, like in the 1st half hour of the film. IMO it'll be mainly hulk v Thor with Cap A (remember Roths going super soldier on Nortons hulk?)and Ironman chipping in (probably Hawkeye and Black widow contributing too). Hulk is defeated and banner in chains/sedated and under serious watch while loki the skrulls and Thanos start escalating a mega type threat. Then the rest of the heros will realise they need the hulks help and get banner back on side.

The first half hour of the film?

It will take longer than that to set the whole thing up really.

You have to remember the last time we saw hulk he wasnt on the verge of a nervous breakdown (or well not like he needs to be anyway). They cant just throw all this stuff at the beggining of the film, if they do they might as well not include it at all.

[bash]

ok, 45 mins then

It didnt take long for Thor and his mates to start rucking with the snow giants and everyone knows what Hulk is about. He doesnt need ANY exposition. I mean even the Norton reboot got the exposition out of the way via the intro credits. I'll be very surprised if they waste time setting anything major up with the main cast. I reckong Robert Downy Junior will be winding Banner up, probably about banging Betty or something only to have it kick off all in his face big time. That doesnt need major setup dude

[rmoxon]

ok, 45 mins then

It didnt take long for Thor and his mates to start rucking with the snow giants and everyone knows what Hulk is about. He doesnt need ANY exposition. I mean even the Norton reboot got the exposition out of the way via the intro credits. I'll be very surprised if they waste time setting anything major up with the main cast. I reckong Robert Downy Junior will be winding Banner up, probably about banging Betty or something only to have it kick off all in his face big time. That doesnt need major setup dude

That doesnt sound exactly exciting though really.

People know what hulk is about but people who have only seen the films dont know him as a bad guy, they will need more reason to belive his characters actions than "Ironman wound him up so he went bad".

You also have to remember that Joss whedon is making this film, hes a guy who likes to deal with character development in the right way (and is also a massive fan of the comic), I cant see him just throwing the audience into it, he wouldnt allow that in his film.

[bash]

Well I just hope this movie doesnt end up like the Ultimates cartoon or comic. It wont work, the comics still have a lot of assumed knowledge going on, plus with the movies we've already had IM1 and 2, Hulk, Thor and Cap Am. The only thing that'll need setting up will be Sheilds presence and the threat(s)

The less said about the cartoons the better although the avengers would be a nice way to introduce Black Panther as well I guess. Its a shame War machine isnt going to feature either. If the threat is so huge then Marvel should really bring EVERYONE back which leads me to suspect this'll end up being another low key film. Forget Whedon, this should have someone who can handle the supposed scale like Bay or Snyder. Im not a fan of either director massively but they can deliver action.

[Neon Ignition]

Yup, the restrictions of the run time alone will ensure that no more than half the film will be spent on the Hulk as a villain. Everyone and there mum knows that he's not the bad guy so it's not a plot point worth labouring. The existing solo films already show that the comics aren't being treated as sacred when it comes to the film and based on the casting and known nuggets an overly long focus on Hulk will result in a rushed and messy ending.

The main concern is if they overly focus on Iron Man given the films popularity.

[bash]

Couldnt agree more, its also going through the grapevine that Marvel will push RDJ to the forefront because of his name and also because of how much they're paying him. I hope not. Personally Im thinking we'll see a hell of a lot of Sam Jackson too but that will be a good thing. We need a hard arsed ballsy Nick Fury pushing those guys around.

[Neon Ignition]

I think they'll make changes over the coming months to reflect the success of Thor and Captain America too to ensure they don't risk dedicating too much run time to less popular characters. Several story strands have already been axed and Hulk hasn't proved commercially viable enough to warrant masses of screen time in this. It'd be good is spread over multiple films but they've pretty much set themselves up to do it in 1 and Avengers 2 coming quite a few years later.

[rmoxon]

Well I just hope this movie doesnt end up like the Ultimates cartoon or comic. It wont work, the comics still have a lot of assumed knowledge going on, plus with the movies we've already had IM1 and 2, Hulk, Thor and Cap Am. The only thing that'll need setting up will be Sheilds presence and the threat(s)

The less said about the cartoons the better although the avengers would be a nice way to introduce Black Panther as well I guess. Its a shame War machine isnt going to feature either. If the threat is so huge then Marvel should really bring EVERYONE back which leads me to suspect this'll end up being another low key film. Forget Whedon, this should have someone who can handle the supposed scale like Bay or Snyder. Im not a fan of either director massively but they can deliver action.

Whedon has never really had a chance at a big action film, but the comic is more about the characters than the action (Though it does have some great action as well) which is why hes a good choicem, plus he did well with the action scenes he had in Serenity anyway.

Also his favorite part of the comic is aparently the fight with hulk so you would hope he would do it justice.

The film is 2 hours and half, as crazytaxi says they will probabaly devote half the film to the hulk storyline, which is 1 hour 15 minutes, a much more realistic ammount of time for the plot to build up properly.

[bash]

I really hope Thanos is given enough time and space, if he ends up anything like Galactus in F4 2 AKA a pink cloud then there'll be hell to pay.

[rmoxon]

I really hope Thanos is given enough time and space, if he ends up anything like Galactus in F4 2 AKA a pink cloud then there'll be hell to pay.

Well i still think that if Thanos is in the film (and again it seems to only be speculatuion that he is), then he might very well just be set up for a sequel. You have the hulkj story and then thor seemingly going nuts, and then the discovery that LOki is controling everyone and turning them against thor, and theres also been talk of him summoning aliens and stuff. Thats enough story for one film.

The Thanos stuff surley just has to be set up for a sequel, if it even exists.

[bash]

I think the cosmic cube and loki is going to be heavily tied in with skrulls/thanos rather than just mind games amongst the avengers. I'll be surprised if hulk features as a threat for more than half the movie, he'll quickly be turned around as an ally Im sure. Or it could go the way Transformes 3 is where an invasion kicks in quite early into the movie. Or maybe that'll be Avengers 2.

[Neon Ignition]

I reckon they'll ditch the nuts Thor storyline too. They already have to explain his return to Earth and the solo film firmly established everyone knows he's the real deal.

[rmoxon]

I reckon they'll ditch the nuts Thor storyline too. They already have to explain his return to Earth and the solo film firmly established everyone knows he's the real deal.

I'll be disapoited if they ditch all these stories and simply go for an alien invasion type thing, a big part of an avengers film should be about their interactions with each other and their dynamics, it shouldnt be about an alien invasion. Loki manipulating people is a great avengers story, an alien invasion is not a great avengers story. The alien invasion stuff needs to just be Loki's final plan, all it should be is a climatic action scene.

To explain Thor being on earth all they have to do is say "we built this masive machine thing right here, and made a giant portal to asgard, and hes back, so get on with it and go be the Avengers now" its not a big thing at all really,. I dont see why they would have to remove story elements to acomidate it. In fact I wouldnt be suprised if hes already back at the start of the film and they just explain it with a bit of expositional dialogue.

Also everyone knows who he is, but the point is that Loki changes reality so people dont know who he is. Im not really expecting it to be done as well as in the comic, its fantastic how they did it, its done from Thors perspective and you end up as confused as he is when reading it, but it still should be there becuase as I said its the type of story thats great for the avengers.

[Neon Ignition]

I reckon they won't quickly explain away Thors return to Earth as at this point they'll have written the ending to Thor in the way they did to tie it to this or else it the ending events in that film would be pointless. Given we already know Captain America ends with him slightly pre-Avengers I think they'll have a simpler story for this where the first hour shows Loki manipulating events with Hulk and the others being reluctant to come together to do anything about it, the second half being very focused around the banter, inner workings of SHEILD and greater threat. If any of the other storylines survive I think they'll cover them in Thor 2, Iron Man 3 etc