With the release of Captain America: Civil War on blu-ray recently, it would be easy to overlook another amazing instillment to Disney/Marvel’s MCU franchise!

In this less-than-action-packed short, we see what goes on with the Avengers team in their day to day lives. Specifically, when taking a Pegasus Airlines Boing 737-800 to a Mediterranean holiday destination. Why they wouldn’t just take the Avengers jet is beyond me. Why someone like Thor would choose to sunbathe in Turkey rather than say, anywhere else in the universe, is equally confusing.

But whatever! These guys deserves to have some fun, and I’m ready to buckle up for the Marvel equivalent of The Dingles Down Under!!

The first thing fans will notice is that the entire MCU cast has been UPDATED! I didn’t personally see anything about this in the media, but it would appear that all the contracts for Marvel’s key players have ended simultaneously leading to some bizarre, strange, brave new choices for our favourite heroes …

Though, it is troubling that no one besides Black Widow gets a single line of dialogue during this whole thing, and when she does speak I’m not sure it’s even the actress’ real voice. Weird.

I hope this doesn’t signify the first bumps in the road for Marvel’s otherwise perfect representation of the series’ comic book origins. I dunno about you, but my Avengers need to speak from time to time.

Special effects wise, things seem largely on point. I would say Age of Ultron and Guardians are still top of the heap for visuals, but this isn’t like that. This is the Avengers in their downtime, it makes sense to me they wouldn’t want to take their best costumes away with them.

This is a holiday, relaxing is #1 priority, not world saving. Sure, take the Toys R’ Us suits instead, be comfortable!

So the gang’s all set for their trip. However, things might not be as straightforward as they appear, as before the plane is even in the air, we see Loki is tagging along for the ride.

It’s great to see Thor and his brother making new ties, but why Cap and the gang would be ‘totes cool’ with this intergalactic mass murderer tagging along is something I hope Marvel clear up in a follow up movie. Because there were no real answers here.

I’m not sure who was in the director’s seat for this, but midway through we’re treated to the first ever animated cut-away in this mega franchise.

A la Kill Bill, this change in art-style gives us some much needed supplemental information for the story. Exits are located here, here, and here … Life jackets are found underneath your seat … In the event of a loss of cabin pressu… … Hmm.

That’s when it hits you, that this is actually just a Safety Video for patrons of Pegasus Airlines. What a disappointment. Just when I was beginning to feel emotionally invested, I see this is just some cynical death prevention nonsense, which isn’t something I feel emotionally invested in at all!

Even this guy in the cartoon segment looks ready to come to a sticky end. It’s that depressing.

Forget that I was on a plane myself when I saw this, I just thought it was awesome that we got to see a genuine movie premier as an in-flight movie. Though, I was relieved that I wouldn’t have to suffer through the miming of the Turkish Avengers through two potential Infinity War movies.

It’s also not as depressing as those awful Batman V Superman Turkish Airline ads. You know neither Bruce Wayne or Lex Luther would hesitate to bring down a commercial airliner if it suited them, it’s expected in the DCEU.

Additionally, it would have been odd if the first canonical appearance of Doctor Strange was exclusive to a third rate discount airline… that only really flies to one destination anyway. I mean just look at him teasing this baby with a life jacket!

Talk about sadistic. I wouldn’t want to be sat next to this guy during a nosedive. Sorcerer Supreme or not.

All in all, I wouldn’t recommend the Pegasus Airlines Safety Video, featuring the Avengers, for the simple fact that it is too distracting. I’ve flown all over the place and seen various safety preparations as a result. But even having seen this video five or six times during my most recently travels, I didn’t take the information in at all!

The janky costumes and ‘botched clone’ look of all the actors just stole my attention, and in the end, I could have died because of that. Not cool.

And don’t tell me it was because Black Widow was showing me to blow “here and here”, because it wasn’t.

Graeme

@FossilArcade