The new trailer for The Avengers hit the web today and I must say overall I’m pleased. It captures a nice taste of the dark grit that everyone is shilling for after the success of The Dark Knight, but doesn’t let go of the tongue-in-cheek geek humor from the earlier parts of the Marvel series. Plus, how can you not have a good joke tossed in when Robert Downey Jr. is there?
There was one other nice moment, although completely tossed in at the end as if they forgot it in the original cut, which was finally seeing Mark Ruffalo as The Hulk. I’m worried that overall he won’t play a very big part, but we’ll wait and see if that fear plays out.
What do you think of the trailer? Get excited to see the full flick?
Posted 3 months, 4 weeks ago at 10:53 am. Add a comment
If I just act like nothing is blowing up behind me, maybe it will all go away.
Rating: 6 out of 10
Yes, this is yet another comic book superhero movie. Yes, this is another Marvel comic big-budget franchise trying to get off the ground. You might start to wonder why you should bother seeing any of these if a new one just hits the screens one month later. First off, it definitely helps to be a comic book fan from the start, but beyond that, in terms of pure movie magic and box office trending, this newest chapter gets a little boost from being the last in a long line of films leading to a culminating epic fanboys have been frothing over for years now…The Avengers! But, I’ll dip more into that later, for now, let’s look at the throwback hero of the group who takes us back to a time when heroes were not only cheered for their strength, but also for their conduct.
Captain America: The First Avenger details the transformation of a skinny kid named Steve Rogers into the national icon (and medically-induced super-soldier) known as Captain America. Rogers is created into this new evolution of man in order to combat Hydra, the deep science/black arts division of the Nazi army, led by a ruthless tyrant named Johann Schmidt, who is more frighteningly referred to as The Red Skull (you know, cause his face fell off and such). Captain America must prove to the people who gave him his powers, and to himself, that he was the right man to do the job of saving the world from utter annihilation.
I had fairly muted expectations going into this movie, mainly because Captain America is essentially a retro-hero, a classic clean-cut good guy with no character flaws. He always does the right thing, or at least attempts to, no matter the cost to himself. It flies in the face of everything we have been seeing in terms of comic book heroes over the last decade. The grief and anger of Batman, the drunken power trips or Spider-man, the ego and pride of Thor; all these traits give the characters layers that assist in making them human, someone the audience can try to relate to. Captain America really doesn’t have any of those flaws, but here’s the surprise…they made it work anyway. The opening thirty minutes of the film we see Steve Rogers pre-magic-roid-juice, where he is a ninety-pound poster boy for the “Before” shot in workout ad campaigns. In those early scenes his struggle is how to find a way to match his frail muscles outside with his unbreakable drive inside. We find ourselves in the hopeful spot of routing for the little guy (and I mean really, really little, like me in high school) and those opening scenes help pull the crowd in, hopefully holding them there through what comes later.
Once we lose the physicality of the “before” picture and it’s replaced with superhuman “after” shot, it loses a bit of the charm. Chris Evans should take no blame for this, in fact I think he was cast perfectly. He held on nicely to the innocence of his smaller self and truthfully brought to life the heroic nature of those comics from the late 40′s and early 50′s. The real downfall was that he didn’t face any real obstacle after he got his new physical form. We never really felt he was ever in any real danger because he could basically accomplish anything that came to mind, no matter how insane.
On the topic of the shield, our iconic piece of comic book memorabilia, I was torn on it. I liked the design and the fact it could get scuffed up, dirtied and otherwise sullied, but I would have appreciated one scene where we got to see him learn to throw it. Within one scene of him picking it up for the first time, he was chucking it around like a world-class discuss champion, fully expecting it to return to him, instead of wondering how the hell that worked. The minor flaw sort of mirrors the bigger issue that the latter half of the movie was really just a long montage of Captain America jumping, swinging, shield tossing and otherwise being heroic (lots of it in slow motion). The heart fell out of it and the movie descended into flashy colors and catch phrases.
In terms of the cast, as I said before, Chris Evans did a hell of a job and I look forward to him building up the character even more, hopefully with more internal struggles in movies to come. Sadly gone after the first thirty minutes, Stanley Tucci was wonderful as Dr. Abraham Erskine , the scientist behind the super-serum, which made the man out of the molehill. Tucci worked in such charm and natural flavor into his German accent and characterizations, I really wish he could have stayed on screen much longer.
Getting back to the real buzz around this movie, the next film in line for Marvel Studios is The Avengers, the first time any studio in the recent decades has tried to tie together a handful of other movie franchises into one single film. The Hulk, Thor, Iron Man, Captain America, Nick Fury, Hawkeye (who Jeremy Renner cameoed as in Thor) and Black Widow (Scarlett Johansson in Iron Man 2) will all assemble on screen for the eagerly anticipated culmination of Marvel’s long term film plan. The genius inside is they are using all the original actors who made these roles so popular (with the exception of Hulk, who was played by Edward Norton in the franchise film and now replaced by Mark Ruffalo). For me, as a movie junkie, this is where the franchise will become something truly special. Just to see all those actors on screen playing off of each other is immediately worth the price of admission (and maybe a box of Raisinettes too).
The End of the Page recommendation: Captain America is a light-hearted throwback to the heroes of before, but the back half of the movie doesn’t hold up the charm and warmth of the opening. Matinee on the big screen could be valuable though, just for the special effects.
Thoughts? Are you looking forward to The Avengers?
Posted 6 months, 2 weeks ago at 8:12 pm. 2 comments
This suit is powered by sheer will (and a fanny pack of 9-volt batteries)
Rating: 5 out of 10
Every trend in the movies goes through the same motions. They come out of left field when no one thought it would be a viable idea, then instantly becoming the most watched genre in years, finally over-extending itself to the point of pure silver screen saturation and the profits nose dive off the celluloid cliff. You can usually mark the first movie going over the edge by how far it pushes the genre out beyond the norm. For fans of the comic book genre, even knowing that Iron Man 3, Captain America and The Avengers are still on their way, this weekends superhero offering gave many pause, wondering if this was one spandex’d crusader too many. Did the curtain begin to fall?
Nope. Not quite yet.
Green Lantern tells the story of Hal Jordan, a reckless flyboy who is chosen by a magical ring to protect his planet from destruction. Never one to follow through on anything, Jordan must struggle to discover the hero he never imagined was waiting inside.
I was going to start with some of the struggles and hardships that this story and script had to work through, but really, let’s get down to the green, glowing tacks here…Ryan Reynolds. He is not just playing a superhero, the man actually is one. No matter how bad the dialogue, no matter how convoluted the script, no matter what crazy situation you put him in, his charm and nearly flawless ease on screen allows him to raise that bar a little higher. I’m not saying that all these things were necessarily terrible here, but they could have been and Reynolds still would have found a way to make it work. Following his career since the Van Wilder days, Reynolds has never failed to enliven each and every project and provide at least one or two solid moments of wit and enjoyment on screen. For his generation of actors, I believe he is the closest they will get to George Clooney, a man who can truly balance comedy, action and drama all while looking like he was born to play that part.
Now that we have that out of the way, back to the problems. With all the comic book movies capturing the audiences recently, most are earth-bound or at least set mostly in an environment we can all easily recognize. Thor was the first in the new battalion of superhero flicks to test the waters of magical landscapes and far away universes and it succeeded fairly well. Without that preceding it, Green Lantern might have suffered more by spending so much time in outer space, but Thor built a bridge to that arena (and then busted it at the end of the movie…*in-joke*) so Green Lantern flew right over and pushed even farther out into the cosmos. Instead, the surrounding characters and subplots became the weakest links. Sadly the first half of the movie had to do so much of the heavy lifting: establishing the universe, literally, and giving some foundation for all these new and outlandish creatures, while still getting enough time to bring in their human counterparts back home. Peter Sarsgaard pulled out some decent angst and rage, but was never given enough time to really fuel the fire. Even worse was Blake Lively, who was given absolutely no room to breathe in a virtually lifeless character. Her introduction as a fellow fighter pilot was painfully unnecessary and forced her to try and work her way back into relevancy, which might have worked if given time, but she really wasn’t. As for the arch-villain CGI cloud creature, Parallax, the effects were impressive, but the story behind him felt flawed and unstable, so he never brought a whole lot of weight or tension to the scenes.
Overall, I still give this a five rating because it brings us back to those true summertime carefree flicks that didn’t try to give more than we bargained for. People who say this is a failure because it isn’t Dark Knight are making unfair and outlandish comparisons. Director Martin Campbell (who helmed two of the more successful recent Bond chapters, Goldeneye and Casino Royale) wasn’t going for grit and bones, he wanted light, fun and entertaining for the few moments he had you trapped in the theater. In that context, and with the effortless abilities of Ryan Reynolds, they achieved their goal, albeit one set far lower than what audiences may have envisioned.
The End of the Page recommendation: Green Lantern may hold a little more light for the comic book enthusiast, but for the mainstream moviegoer, this is only a mildly flickering flame, not a bright light of the summer.
Posted 7 months, 2 weeks ago at 9:49 am. Add a comment
By kissing this hand, I hearby make you Queen of Comic-Con.
Rating: 7 out of 10
With comic book movies sweeping across the cinematic landscape like a dust storm across the Sahara, there was bound to be a point where the phenomenon was going to hit a gorge, somewhere the storm would falter and fizzle out. During the last golden age of comic book flicks, that Hindenburg failure was The Phantom (although personally I think most of the audience missed the tongue-in-cheek humor of it). This time around, we haven’t quite picked the rotten apple out of the planned line up yet, but there were many early on who cast their votes against this tale of a Norse god with magical roofing equipment. I was even on the fence myself until they attracted legendary Shakespearean Kenneth Branagh to the helm, which lent a sense of credibility really unseen in this recent comic crop. Did it work? Read on and see…
Thor is the fairy tale of a tempestuous prince (Thor) and his brother (Loki), both waiting for the day when one will become the new king of Asgard and protector of the Nine Realms. Thor is a fierce and bloodthirsty warrior longing for the days of battles gone by, where his father staked his claim in the legends of yore. Loki, on the other hand, is more mischievous and plays the games using his trickster magic instead of his fists. After once again rushing headlong into battle without thinking, Thor angers his father to the point of being banished to Earth with none of his godlike powers, where he meets Jane and her crew of storm chasers. Odin (Thor’s father) then collapses under the stress and anguish into a deep sleep, leaving Loki to run the realm. Now the tables are turned and Loki unfurls his true plan for Asgard and all the Nine Realms, including Earth, where Thor must stand up and reclaim his birthright.
Now that description has one major flaw, which really was part of the reason many were so skeptical before about how this film would turn out. A good deal of the story takes place in a magical kingdom far out in the universe above sparkling star clouds. All the comic book films were are used to in this go around have been about people with extraordinary powers, but all living here on our world, basing everything in our reality. Thor is the first in recent history to yank the audience back out to the realm of Superman and mythology. Some film critics were worried audiences wouldn’t follow the trend into the magical wonderland and lose connection with the characters. Well, that was a valid fear, but once the project fell into the more than capable hands of Kenneth Branagh, he did exactly what was needed and found a way to ground pieces of the film in more relatable themes; family discord, paternal acceptance and of course, true love. Sounds simple on paper, but I think it was an impressive effort to balance those themes with scenes of shiny kingdoms, multi-colored armor and big blue Frost Giants (who reminded me of angry background actors from Avatar). Bringing the movie together from that vantage point, the writers and Branagh were able to save Thor from becoming the first real stumbling block for the comic book genre this time around.
But Branagh’s success was not only in finding those relatable themes, but his casting of Chris Hemsworth as the legendary Norse god worked better than I could have expected. Stepping into those shiny boots and grabbing the magical hammer would be terrifying for any actor because it would be incredibly easy to be written off as a joke, but Hemsworth really brought something human out of the myth and played a tender balance between over-confident warrior and gracious visitor. For much of his screen time I felt Hemsworth pulled heavily from old films about King Arthur’s Knights of the Round Table, their valor, chivalry and bravery. By giving glimpses of those well-known archetypes, he helped overshadow the magic and spectacle of Asgard and its myths. Riding high in the clouds with Hemsworth were Anthony Hopkins (as Odin), Idris Elba (as Heimdall, the gatekeeper) and Tom Hiddleston (as Loki), among others. Hopkins again helped to lend some dramatic weight to the film and shined a little brighter than he has in his past few projects. He admitted in an interview to phoning it in recently, giving Branagh credit for forcing him back into pushing his limits. Elba was a controversial choice early on because some die-hard comic fans felt the changing of the original character’s race was kowtowing to political correctness or unneeded diversity, but whatever the original reasoning was, Elba brought a real stoutness and stoic resolve in each scene, proving his casting as worthy. Tom Hiddleston also did a commendable job as the mischievous Loki, balancing his devious nature with the true pain of someone who felt they had been betrayed as well, but the writing of his character left many holes and setups which never truly paid off.
Helping to keep things grounded back on Earth were Natalie Portman (as Jane), Kat Dennings (as Darcy, Jane’s sister) and Stellan Skarsgard (as Erik, Jane’s teacher and physics partner). Portman has shown once again she will not be typecast as the indie darling and consider herself above the big budget blockbusters. She is adorable and relatable with an real ease on screen, but this was also not a big stretch for her talent. Dennings chimed in mostly as the comic relief and delivered line after line in her classic sarcastic style, helping to set a less serious tone for the rest of the film. As for Skarsgard, good stuff, but he wasn’t really given a whole lot to work with.
The true success here is that on the walk out of the theatre I mentioned to friends the numerous plot holes and unresolved questions, but when they asked, “So what did you think?” I was still able to respond, “I liked it.” The fun was there and the balance of comedy, action and drama was handled well, to which I give much of that credit to Branagh. In a lesser man’s hands, this film could have easily fallen into Fantastic Four territory, and let’s be honest, we all know how that came out.
The End of the Page recommendation: Thor is worthy of a good matinee viewing for big screen afternoon enjoyment. Don’t worry about the story too much, because it’s seems they didn’t either.
What did you think of the winged god of thunder? Let me know.
1 – This safety video shows what it was like in the good ole’ days, a time of purity, cheer and rabid wolverines in your pants. [via Today's Big Thing]
2 – Sometimes the people who make these prank or spoof videos without the knowledge of the people involved are walking the thin line between comedy and public abuse, but in this case, since the person they chose to mock is Gary Busey, the fine line they cross is between sanity and public safety. How they made it out of there with their spleens intact I will never know. [via FilmDrunk]
4 – There is a charity foundation for kids suffering from Proteus Syndrome, but it’s down at the moment. So until then I wanted to link to this site about the Alex Hoag Run, which is an event to honor the memory of an amazing boy who died due to complications from the syndrome. Please make the time to check this out and learn. [via Jon]
5 – Going above and beyond the recorded predictions, Iron Man tromped all over the box office this weekend with a $201 million dollar intake, making it the second highest opening for a non-sequel in history (only behind Spider-Man). Not bad for Robert Downey Jr. and crew. That kind of money can almost afford the amount they spent on WD-40 to keep the suit from squeaking during the shoot. Who would’ve thought? [via FilmDrunk]
6 – A gay teenager was voted onto the ballot for Prom Queen at his high school, but it turns out the school administration felt this was not legal in some fashion. Please stand back while I now put on my “shocked” face. [via Perez Hilton via WISN]
7 – This somehow feels absolutely perfect for a Monday morning strip (even though I didn’t post it until Tuesday morning, consider it Daylight Savings Day). [via Garfield Minus Garfield]
8 – Can San Diego really take more Ron Burgundy? Well those hep cats better figure it out soon, because he’s on his way. The whispers are flying around that Anchorman 2 will be made after Adam McKay finishes his current project. I’m not sure this is a comedy that can stand a sequel, but then again, it’s Will Ferrell, who would pretty much do the sequel to a Life cereal commercial. [via ComingSoon]
10 – The desperate souls behind Terminator 4 have announced they are shooting for a PG-13 rating. I know some people out there are going to be mad, but let’s face facts, they are praying for some serious box office revenue here and PG-13 movies will always beat the crap out of R ratings due to the availability of the whole family coming instead of just the older children. Plus, it’s McG, so we couldn’t have hoped for anything cool in the R rating anyway. I’m half expecting the whole movie to be a video game. [via FilmDrunk]
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Posted 3 years, 9 months ago at 7:00 am. Add a comment
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