IRON MAN & CAPTAIN AMERICA: HEROES UNITED - REVIEW


In 2014, Marvel Animation followed up their Iron Man/Hulk team-up animated feature with Iron Man & Captain America: Heroes United, another Avengers duo movie.

Using the same 2-D wrap technique which gives 3-D characters a more "drawn" look, the film sees Captain America and Iron Man discuss their respective fighting styles before Hydra, led by Red Skull and Taskmaster, invades Tony Stark's training facility and not only steals some of his more destructive technology but captures Captain America himself as well. Iron Man, with the help of trusty artificially intelligent assistant Jarvis, sets off on a rescue mission while Red Skull reveals his evil plan to Steve Rogers. The goal being to build an army with the exact same physical strength and fighting moves (and shield) as Captain America. Taskmaster, using Stark's stealth suit, would then mimic all of Iron Man's moves and, once the world is force-fed the Super Soldier Serum, Red Skull would then easily gain full control.

The plot is far better than the Iron Man & Hulk: Heroes United movie's as it makes full use of Hydra's iconography and boasts two of Captain America's best villains which makes for some cool fight scenes. Adrian Pasdar returns to voice Iron Man and, once again, he does a decent job despite not sounding quite as much like Robert Downey Jr. as Mick Wingert did in Frost Fight!. Captain America is voiced by Roger Craig Smith. The texturing on the characters and the backgrounds is improved in this movie and the opening and closing title sequences are fab. That said, this style of animation still makes everything look like a video game cut scene: the characters lack movement on their faces and everything looks under-shaded. On the plus side, that's not too distracting during the surprisingly well choreographed action sequences and the designs are all around really good.

An improvement on the last movie, there's still something lacking from the Heroes United animated franchise suggesting that maybe this new technique needs a little more thought. This Iron Man/Cap team-up is a fun watch, though, as it's action-packed and colourful enough to warrant a peek.

Not bad.

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