Astonishing X-MEN Unstoppable

First, I know that I am terrible at writing a synopsis, so here is a short description from the wikipedia:

•  In the following Unstoppable arc, Whedon wrote an adventure taking place on the alien Breakworld. The X-Men square off against the Breakworld leaders, who are intending to destroy Earth

First off it should be noted that yes they are animated but with what is described as "motion comics" so it has a very low frame rate and ridged movements.  But if anything it helps you to get back into the "feel"  of reading a comic.  That is, up to a point, then the rigid, limited number of frames is a bit distracting.  

Whedon's arc, it should be noted, began as a comic arc done with illustrator John Cassaday.  Here is what the Wiki had for a short description:

• In the ... Unstoppable arc, Whedon wrote an adventure taking place on the alien Breakworld. The X-Men square off against the Breakworld leaders, who are intending to destroy(ing) Earth 

That is basically the whole plot, sorry, I don't often give a complete movie description but when you can do it in two line, well,  

As simplistic as it sounds, Whedon's script is tense and moves fast.  The characters have depth that you can identify with.  The predicament makes sense and the final outcome is something that you can emphasize   with.  

I can not speak to extras because it was a rental but if you are an Avengers fan and even if you are not familiar with the comics that was the basis of these DVDs, I can almost bet that these "motion comics" will be good solid entertainment. I would rate the effort a 7

Review: Ultimate Avengers Vol. 1 & 2

Directed by Curt Geda
Voice cast
Justin Gross      as Captain America / Steve Rogers
Olivia d'Abo      as Black Widow / Natasha Romanov
Marc Worden    as Iron Man / Tony Stark
Andre Ware       as General Nick Fury
Grey DeLisle    as Wasp / Janet Van Dyne-Pym
Nolan North      as Ant-Man / Hank Pym
David Boat         as Thor
Fred Tatasciore  as The Hulk
Michael Massee as Dr. Bruce Banner
Nan McNamara  as Dr. Betty Ross
Jim Ward            as Herr Kleiser

This disk is the first of two and pretty much pulls a pretty conservative line for a plot. I haven’t seen the live action Avengers yet, but what I can see, seems to follow a very similar timeline. Plus if you catch the Avengers on Sunday mornings you will recognize the alien Chitauri. These alien beings are in fact backing the Nazi regime with the subjugation of the human race that they plan to accomplish by destruction of SHIELD satellite. Since SHIELD is all but hamstrung, Fury has the distasteful duty of trying to recruit superhumans that are at best difficult to deal with.

Fury has already recovered Captain America / Steve Rogers, but Bruce Banner / Hulk , Black Widow, Iron Man, Ant Man, Wasp and a person very likely unstable and who believes he is Thor.

Together they somehow have to work together and in the meantime defeat the Chitauri.

Being straight to disk, I mainly wanted to get an idea of what to maybe expect from the live action. Plus there was some curiosity as to how the DVD might compare to the weekly offerings. I have to say I was mildly surprised. The animation is not bad, seems to have something of an anime influence, the plot actually took chances with the characters that I never thought would take place. The extras are interesting and if not enough to make some happy, more than adequate.

I would give this first offering a grudging recommendation. Lets see how the second holds up.

Ultimate Avengers 2

Voice Cast
Justin Gross Steve Rogers / Captain America
Marc Worden Tony Stark / Iron Man
Andre Ware General Nick Fury
Grey DeLisle Janet Van Dyne-Pym / Wasp
Nolan North Hank Pym / Giant Man
Dave Boat Thor
Olivia d'Abo Natalia Romanov / Black Widow
Fred Tatasciore The Hulk
Michael Massee Dr. Bruce Banner
Nan McNamara Dr. Betty Ross
James K. Ward Herr Kleiser
Jeffrey D. Sams T' Challa / Black Panther
Mark Hamill Dr. Oiler
Dave Fennoy T'Chaka / Black Panther

As you can see, no big surprises in the voices and no big ones for the characters. I did notice some origin differences, but realistically there are characters here that were relevant 40 or 50 years ago and were at risk of being dropped. Hell I thought Thor was dated even in the 60s! Plus
a lot of them had not aged well through the 60s, 70s and so forth. So with this series and especially 2 you see some pretty major changes and even a character death!

In UA #2 we take a slightly different track to once again be introduced to T' Challa / Black Panther that really diverges from the Black Panther DVDs that I reviewed a month or longer. Here we have T' Challa becoming the Black Panther after Kleiser kills his father. Not so different, but Kleiser is not as he appears plus the Chitauri were not wiped out and they now have their sights set one Wakanda and if you follow the Black Panther and Avengers you know why, but I will pass on being a spoiler.

As usual no one gets along, everyone has their own agenda and even the couples aren’t happy, until they all MUST get the job done.

If you like the Ultimates comix they you’re going to love this. Pretty much all hand drawn and very well done. Almost NO CGI and then only when it works better and thank goodness for that!

The extras are excellent well worth a 9 and that is because I still would like to hear a commentary voice tract, The movie is a solid 8 for entertainment and animation, if that is your thing, you will enjoy it! And that gives the overall score to 1 and 2 to an 8 and from me I would say give it a go if you like comic and animation you will enjoy this. It is mainly for early teens, but I know the older fans are out there, cause I talk to em! So they would enjoy them as well.