The Avengers

 'If we can't protect the Earth, you can be damn sure we'll avenge it!'

Let’s face it, The Avengers just had to be good. Because if it didn’t live up to the expectations placed on it, the entire geekdom may just let out a collective sigh of disappointment so massive I’m not sure the universe could take it. 

Okay, I’m exaggerating. Slightly. But we, the geeks, wanted this to kick some serious ass very very badly. We wanted it to swagger into cinemas with the arrogance of Iron Man and obliterate all other comic book flicks with a power akin to a Thor hammer swing or a Hulk smash. We wanted it to…be…really good…like…Captain America? I’m sorry, I don’t have any Cap puns. We wanted to come before our Demigod and Unofficial Elected President of the United Nations of Nerd Sir Joss of Whedon©, get on our scrawny little knees and say ‘You did it. Well done, sir. Well done.’ Quite simply, we wanted this superhero movie, a culmination of several other superhero movies, to be so super-ly super that even the most super-ly elitist Marvel fanboys could put down their comics, venture out of their secret lairs, watch it and say ‘Cross my heart and swear on Stan Lee, that was fucking super.’

Well, let out a sigh, comrades…a sigh of relief, because The Avengers would have to be the super-est mothertrucking superhero film of all time. Of all time! It is a complete triumph for writer/director Whedon, Marvel Studios and the comic book film genre. It’s got your set pieces, your eye-popping effects, your lots of shit blowing up, and everything you want in your big dumb action flicks without being, well, dumb. It’s got your classic good vs. evil, minus the cheese, add additional modern pop culture references (how very Whedon-esque…) It’s got fantastic one-liners and numerous moments of ridiculously good comedic timing, it oozes cool and it is fun, fun, FUN. It’s got everything you want from a superhero movie, all delivered with levels of panache and bravado that make all lesser efforts of the genre look like a daggy Mini, ready to be crushed by this big, brash tricked-out Hummer.

Aside from all the bells and whistles, and supersuits, and submarines, Whedon’s script packs a punch in itself. The plot is basic (as an action plot should be) but well executed and full of wit. Loki has assembled an ugly, intergalactic army to wage war on Earth, and only the uniting of SHIELD’s finest (Black Widow and Hawkeye), a few special, shall we say, ‘independent contractors’ (Iron Man, Cap, and Hulk) and another Asgardian on the side of the good guys (Thor) has any chance of stopping him. Whedon has done a fantastic job to write each character well, staying true to their iconic traits and idiosyncrasies, while also remembering that this is a film about the assembly of a group, and a group of strong personalities and clashing egos at that. These guys are not about to instantly sit down to tea and crumpets together, and many of the film’s best fight scenes (of which there are many, all hard-hitting and wonderfully choreographed) are actually Avenger vs. Avenger. Once the group does band together, all the character setup of the prequel films as well as the first half of this one pays off, as every character has an important role, and the failings of one hero can be balanced out by the strengths of another (Iron Man’s arrogance being tempered by Cap’s practicality and military mindset, Hulk and Thor’s brute strength and rage contrasted by Hawkeye’s clinical calmness).

Having already had a film (or in some cases two) each to get into character, the cast all deliver comfortable and entertaining performances. Two who have grown into their roles particularly well are Robert Downey Jr as Tony Stark/Iron Man, who has now set the bar for all smartarse-y wisecracking heroes to come, and Tom Hiddleston as Loki, who is equally adept at mischievous and malevolent, and also put in some fine comedic work and facial expressions as the punchline (or sometimes punching bag) for the heroes. New to the role of Bruce Banner/The Hulk is Mark Ruffalo, who provides the best film incarnation of the character yet, rejuvenating the Hulk from a brooding dullard and a CGI’d joke back to a funny and thouroughly kickass Marvel favourite, who in my cinema got the biggest laughs and the biggest cheers. By the time the film gets to the climactic final battle on the streets of New York City, every character has a special place in the audience’s heart. And what a battle it is. Taking everything big, bold and explosive and amplifying it even more, it is (pardon the use of the ‘S’ word again) a super-sequence of action excellence; a visually jaw-dropping, pulse-quickening thrill ride that gives the film the ending it deserves.

Sequel, please.

9/10

Review: The Green Hornet

With bizarro French director Michel Gondry at the helm and, in Seth Rogen, a leading man who doesn’t exactly scream ‘action hero’, I had high hopes for Green Hornet to be a more off-kilter version of the Hollywood action comedy. Disappointingly, Hornet very much plays it safe, taking the post-Iron Man angle of an equal ratio of explosions and laughs, adding a little more crudeness (no surprise as Rogen also co-wrote the film with his Superbad partner Evan Goldberg), but forfeiting the wit and cool factor that made the man in the red suit such a hit. The jokes are funny, but not fantastic, the action occasionally spectacular but mostly average, and the film fun for a single viewing but disposable on the whole.

After the death of his newspaper owner dad, lazy playboy Britt Reid (Rogen) decides to make something of his life by becoming a fake criminal/masked vigilante who calls himself the Green Hornet. Even though Rogen is the titular hero, we’re spared from having to buy him and his less than svelte physique as an ass kicking crime fighter because, as any good hero should, he’s got a trusty sidekick. As well a being good with a spanner and making one hell of a coffee, Kato (Jay Chou) can slow down time in his mind and kung fu the shit out of anyone.

Christoph Waltz as Chudnofsky

The martial arts in the fight scenes is impressive, but hardly better than that in Scott Pilgrim vs. the World. And Michael Cera is white. Forgive me if this is racist, but if there’s an Asian in a fight in an action movie, I expect that dude to be pulling off some serious Crouching Tiger shit, is all I’m sayin’. Even the freeze-framing/extreme slo mo, the only visually striking trick pulled out of Gondry’s hat, does nothing to get the pulse racing or the eyeballs popping. Because I saw it last year in Kick Ass. Most of the jokes succeed in getting a laugh, but they’re nothing but typical Rogen-isms, quips about boobs or sex or other juvenile double entendres that he’s good at because he’s done them in all his other films. Even Christoph Waltz, the actor who I was most excited to see as gang boss Chudnofsky, failed to be the scene stealer I had hoped. While his opening scene with the cameo-ing James Franco was one of the best of the movie and he had some other humourous moments, his character was not a memorable or unique villain. If you want to see Waltz in pitch-perfect form as a cold yet oddly charming European villain, you’d do better to watch his award winning performance in Inglourious Basterds.

And that’s the reoccurring problem with Green Hornet- everything it tries to do, someone has already done better. Throw in a complete miscasting of Cameron Diaz, hardly any use of the 3D format (I want my extra money back), and a draggy ending and things get even more disappointing. If you’ve got no expectations of it, perhaps Green Hornet would be a perfectly adequate fun popcorn flick. But my verdict: this is vanilla when it could have been something far more exotic.

5/10

Harry Potter and The Deathly Hallows Trailer #2

I am beyond excited for this movie, it looks like it's going to be amazing!

Scott Pilgrim vs. The World

'Scott Pilgrim, prepare to feel the wrath of the league of evil exes!'

If this movie sucked, I would have been disappointed beyond belief, because it literally had everything going for it to make it an instant classic: based on a fun comic series by Bryan Lee O’Malley, directed by nerd hero Edgar Wright (Hot Fuzz, Shaun of the Dead, Spaced) and sporting a cast spearheaded by Michael Cera as the titular Scott and featuring other cred-worthy names like Chris Evans, Brandon Routh and Jason Schwartzman. Thankfully, for my faith in pretty much everything, it didn’t. Not in the slightest. It was in fact the most fun I’ve had at the movies in a long time.

Right from the opening credits, Scott Pilgrim vs. The World forces the viewer to check your adult at the door and enter a world that’s part childhood fantasy come to life, part acid trip bizzaro land. It’s all neon colours and fuzzed-out rock’ n ’roll as we’re transported to snowy Toronto and introduced to lovable slacker Scott, his wickedly named teenage sort of-girlfriend Knives Chau, his band Sex Bob-Omb, his gay roommate Wallace and a host of other totally relatable yet totally entertaining friends and associates. To nick the title of the first book, Scott does indeed have a ‘precious little life’. That is, until he meets ‘that one girl, with hair like this’ Ramona Flowers, a rollerblading Amazon.ca delivery girl who manages to be cool despite being a carbon copy of every post-Daria deadpanning punk chick. Boy meets girl, they take romantic walks in the snow, they eat garlic bread, and everything is peachy. Except for the fact that he may have to defeat her seven evil exes if they are to have a relationship.

Now, in a fight your money would probably be on one of the six badass dudes/one badass girl and not the slightly built, dopey hat wearing bass player. But this is where Scott Pilgrim takes the biggest risk, and pays off in the biggest way. Scott can fight like Jackie Chan gone Tekken and fuelled by Red Bull and sugar. This is neither explained to the audience nor met with any surprise by anyone who witnesses these fights, and is basically the film’s way of saying ‘Leave reality now and don’t look back til this is done.’ This is escapist entertainment at it’s most exhilarating. As a movie it’s a classic tale of life in the young adult years and a more innocent take on young relationships - all filtered through an old school kung-fu film. But it’s also like watching a comic book come to life, running amok in an amusement park, spending a day at the arcade and attending the world’s loudest, most futuristic concert all at the same time.

Deathly Hallows Trailer

This. will. be. fucking. EPIC.

Toy Story 3

Pixar Can Do No Wrong

It’s been 15 years since the release of the ground breaking and classic original Toy Story, and 11 years since its first sequel. But even through all those years the brilliant ensemble of lovable characters and their adventures have never gone out of style, with the merchandise still selling, the lines still being quoted, and most of all the films still being watched and adored by children and adults alike. It goes without saying then that Toy Story 3 has been greatly anticipated by, well, everyone- young adults who saw the original at the cinema, teens who grew up with the DVD on repeat, young children new to the franchise and the parents of all of the above.

The original Toy Story was of course the first fully computer generated animated feature, and the first large scale production by the Pixar animation company. They’ve since become the dominant force in animated movies, their dazzling body of work never failing to capture the imagination of viewers of all ages. The reason their films are able to be enjoyed by grown-ups just as much as the young ‘uns is simple – they don’t treat their audience like idiots.

As time has passed in the real world, so too has it passed in the universe of Woody, Buzz and their colourful crew. Andy is now all grown up and headed off to college, leaving his loyal toys to be either stored in the attic or sent to the garbage. Through a series of totally believable and entertaining complications they don’t suffer either of those dreadful fates, but end up at the cheerily monikered Sunnyside Daycare Centre, overjoyed that they will be surrounded by eager children and played with for the first time in years.

Green Hornet Trailer

Looks like it will be a fun movie. Action. Comedy. Seth Rogen. CHRISTOPH WALTZ (the scene stealing villian from Inglourious Basterds). I'll be on that.