They’re more-or-less robots. We saw Black Widow rip some circuitry out of one and then it died.
Meh. It’s never really made clear who’s behind SHIELD. Shadowy? Yes. But not American? I never thought so.
No commentary track needed, Denisof is actually in the credits.
That wasn’t circuitry coming out of the alien, that was her Widow’s Bite.
It’s worth noting that, in this universe, a guy who jumps around and bludgeons people with a shield was the single most devastating weapon we had against the Nazis.
Officially, they’re supposed to be the Chitauri, which are the Skrull analogues from the Marvel Ultimates universe.
I’m not entirely sure he demonstrated the ability to run such an operation; it’s possible that, upon mind-controlling guys who run competent and deadly military operations, he leaves all the details of small-group tactics to his disciplined strike force – and that, for any larger-scale work, he likewise leaves all the details to his incompetent zerglings: he simply tells folks what to do, and they figure out how to do it, and he honestly can’t think of an improvement either time.
That said, take 'em at face value and Loki’s actions in Germany maybe help explain his mindset: he makes a big display while declaring his reign, and some 95% of the crowd kneels in obeisance; one guy stands up to him – and, if not for Cap stepping in, Loki would’ve pulped him as an example to the others.
So if not for Cap’s arrival, it’d make sense for Loki to think a big display in NYC will spark insta-surrender from some 95% of the folks watching – but Cap does show up, and holds his own until Iron Man shows up to do even better before trading blows with Thor, all of which prompts Loki’s new approach: Plan A is to get Earth’s supers fighting each other by pissing off the Hulk in their midst; failing that, Plan B is to mesmerize Iron Man into fighting his buddies.
Either way, Loki figures simply getting 'em out of the way means he can repeat his Germany ploy in New York – this time with complete success, provided he’s uninterrupted by pesky supers. (He may well be incorrect, but he’d still be consistent.)
The Germany ploy was also a diversion while the mind-controlled minions stole the unobtanium. Loki also helped the theft by obtaining the iris/retina print.
Hey! It was iridium, a real, fascinating, (second highest density, highest corrosion resistance, and it comes from SPACE!), and exceedingly rare element. Don’t push Avatar “unobtanium” crap on the Avengers.
‘Unobtainium’ predates Avatar by half a century.
Hell, it predates the Avengers by about a decade.
The fact that he was after a mundane (if somewhat rare) substance indicates that the theft was another example of Loki’s tendency to do things the flashy way instead of the practical way.
The usage of the term in engineering is old, but wasn’t Avatar the first movie to use it as the actual name of an actual movie substance?
They used it in THE CORE.
One citizen is played by Lizzy Caplan, which should totally add to anyone’s reason to buy the DVD.
I agree with this - he did not expect resistance - while his main goal in Germany was the Iris - everything outside was for his own grandstanding (and to get captured to set the second part of his plan in motion).
I’m not familiar with that movie.
[Off to imdb]
Hmm. Now I’m even more adamant that the term shouldn’t be connected with the Avengers movie.
Fair enough, but the range of accents we heard in Fury’s teleconferences, and the fact that SHIELD was not (and easily could have been) flatly stated to be a U.S.-run outfit suggests that, in fact, it isn’t.
They were listed in the credits as the “World Security Council”. Though Powers Boothe & Jenny Agutter clearly ran the show. Hell, Powers Boothe is one of the few actors that could pull off telling Samuel L. Jackson what to do.
Casting news for Whedon’s S.H.I.E.L.D. TV show:
Agent Coulson is back! Maybe as a demon, knowing Joss. But probably as a resurrected agent, who didn’t really die.
Do we know that the TV show takes place after the movie?
honest complaint: the Gs Stark would feel shifting directions so violently inside that iron man suit would like, liquify him, i’d think.
His armor uses his patented repulsor technology to prevent that.
Yes, that’s the canon answer, and yes, it’s at least vaguely plausible. Uniform forces won’t hurt you; the problem is just that most forces aren’t uniform, at least in so far as they only act on your surface, not on your innards. If repulsor fields (however the heck they work) have a nonneglible penetration depth, they could transfer the forces closer to uniformly.
Nope. For all we know, it could take place ten years before Iron Man to iron out any casting problems.
Of course, I think Joss and company are really pushing for Cobie Smulders to join the show after How I Met Your Mother ends in May. So I bet it takes place post-Avengers.