A fun direct to video animated superhero movie that is even better than the first film.
This sequel to Ultimate Avengers: The Movie serves as both an Avengers film and an origin story for Black Panther. The movie begins on Wakanda, where Herr Kleiser, an evil alien shape shifting Nazi that Captian America fought during WWII (don't you just love superhero stories), kills T'Challa's father, the king of Wakanda and the Black Panther. This makes T'Challa become the new king and take on the mantle of the Black Panther. T'Challa finds Captain America for advice on how to stop Herr Kleiser, of which Captain America has little. However despite T'Challa's warning that outsides cannot go to Wakanda, Captain America and the rest of the Avengers (Iron Man, The Wasp, Giant Man, Black Widow, Thor) go to Wakanda to try to stop the evil Nazi. Meanwhile Bruce Banner is locked up and undergoing psychiatric "help" (by a man who hates and holds a grudge against him) because of his losing control of The Hulk in the last movie.
Where this sequel outshines the original is with the fact that this takes a deeper dive into who these characters are. This film does a great job delving into Captain America's PTSD, as well as his place as a man outside of his own time. Bruce Banner's story in this film is quite good and probably one of the best movie examples of how becoming The Hulk affects Bruce outside of being The Hulk. It also takes a good and thought provoking look at the personal consequences for losing control of The Hulk. Hank Pym (Giant Man) also gets a real character arc here that is handled quite well. Though he can still be a bit of a jerk, we can also relate to him and understand why he is this way. The character also gets the most effective emotional scene in this movie. This film also has great design work, voice acting and action scenes, making it a pure joy to watch for superhero fans.
This movie though could have benefited from a longer a run time. This film only runs 73 minutes and because of this, certain aspects can feel rushed. This is especially true of Black Panther's story, which definitely needed more time. Also because of this little time is spent with the villain outside of action scenes. Because of this he can come off as rather one note.
This is a delightful treat for Superhero fans.
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