I went to see the Avengers this afternoon (more on that after the cut). There was about twenty minutes of previews in front of it. I just want to say a few things.
Expendables 2 - I haven't seen the first one. The only thing i could thing of when i saw van Damme was that he is a"maj" (i have no idea if that is how it's spelled, but think of the j in jacques and you have the pronunciation) in WoW. I don't really care for Sly, and sadly Statham makes movies that are hit or miss, but can i just say...Bruce and Arnold in a smart car = epic win. (Oh, and Chuck Norris with guns...kind of weird but i can get used to it, after all, he is a hunter.)
Prometheus - I have seen this preview about ten times (well...five or six) now and it still gets me so excited. The musical "scream" at the end is just...breathtaking. I know, some people might think it's annoying, but all it does is remind me of the old tagline from the original Alien films..."In space, no one can hear you scream." And scream the characters do.
Amazing Spider-man - Whining Spider-boy is more like it. But i cannot help but be intrigued by this preview. And i hate that. I always expected more from Peter than we were ever given, and i don't think a new actor in the role is going to help that.
Battleship - I hope this is good. They've got Aslan and a wanna-be Dee (from BSG), can they make me care?
Dark Knight Rises - This was the first time i had seen this version of the preview. I was pretty psyched by the end of it. There was the obligatory "flash a few seconds of all your favorite characters" in it, but Cat Woman/Anne Hathaway...i'm really intrigued. I wasn't sure that she could pull it off but i think that she's going to do better than Pfeiffer. But who is this bad guy? I don't think they even say his name in the trailer, or if they do it was too fast to catch. I thought Riddler was going to be in this one?
BRAVE - Another new preview, the second or third one i've seen for this film, and every time i see one i am dying to see this film. I actually cried today. Billy Connolly is so funny and Kelly MacDonald...maybe it's just because i loved her so much in Decoy Bride, but i am falling more and more in love with the characters she plays. I think she's finally coming into her own and i love how the accents are thicker than what's usual for Hollywood. Scottish is so sexy. I hope this isn't going to be a "marriage is horrible" thing (though i'd run away with her options, too) so much as a "be true to yourself" with "and your family" realized at the end. Gingers ftw.
And Avengers...
SPOILERS
So much better than the films that led up to it! I didn't actually see either of the Hulk films (part of the first one, as in 10-15 mins.) but i was pretty disappointed with Thor and Captain America and just wasn't feeling it with either Iron Man (partially because i still feel like they were ripping of Heinlein's Starship Troopers). But put them all together, spice it up with some more Johanssen and Renner, and what do you get? An amazing film. I mean, this thing could have fallen flat on its face like Transformers 3 did, but it didn't. Instead, it was awesome.
I feel like i need to start out with Renner. I have a friend who loved Thor and just gushes about him. I admit, i kind of liked him in M:I-4, but i always felt like something was missing. He never smiles, for one. Well Renner totally changed my mind in this. I know it has to be hard to seem so blank all the time, and this guy is awesome at it. Not to mention his scene with Johanssen had me just...in awe. So much emotion with so few words and in such a short amount of time. And he makes me love bows more than ever. I am now looking forward to Bourne Legacy and whatever else he's going to make next.
Secondly, Tom Hiddleston. This is the real reason i took the chance on this film and went to see it in the theater. If you haven't seen Wallander or War Horse, then as soon as you finish reading this then you better get to the nearest place where you rent movies and get them immediately. Buy them if you have to. They are that good, and he is that good in them. Let me just say that i don't usually go for the bad guys, or feel sorry for them when they're brought to justice, but Tom gave me plenty to sympathize with, kept the part from descending into completely corny crud, and made one of the most interesting villain speeches since Magneto (in X-Men 2, he was just a broken record by X-3, really).
So what did he say? That men are made to bow down to kings. And it was just...so right and wrong at the same time. This was one of a couple of times that God was pointed at as necessary and real and empowering in the film, and this one in interesting juxtaposition to what the villain was saying. See, we are all made to bow, not to Loki or any man, but to God. Some day we will bow down to him, all of us. But when Loki spoke out against freedom, that really bothers most of us in the world today, or so you would think. In reality, most of us are far too willing to give up our freedoms for a little security or the promise of life being easier, safer. And it connected with the commercial with the Marines that was before the film. That asked "Will you run towards danger?" Which of course made me think of the Doctor, who is a soldier whether he likes it or not (just like most of the heroes in this film), but it also made me feel as if i am heroic and a soldier for God in my own right. So when the old man stood up in the middle of a city in Germany and spoke out against what Loki was preaching...that really struck a chord with me. That was kind of glossed over but spoke to the entire heart of the film in a way. How quickly will we forget what happened in Germany less than a century ago? Maybe i am super aware of it because i just saw the Debt, which dealt with a post-WWII Israel, but it was something that i was instantly aware of in this scene and am a bit surprised that Whedon used in this film.
One of the things about this film, one of the problems it had to overcome, was having a group of people who were used to working alone, of relying on no one and all having huge egos, learn how to work together. In a way it was unbelievable just how at odds they were with each other, but this mostly worked, even though they started working together so quickly that it required even more suspension of disbelief. Whedon did manage to pull this off, though, but maybe that was partially because once everyone started working together it just worked. Kind of like magic. And even though there was a lot of reliance on CGI and a little too much helpless onlooker going on (though i suppose that is standard for the genre, Superman and Spider-man immediately coming to mind), it worked here better than i had ever seen it work in the past. Transformers 3 comes to mind again. I think this is partially because you expect soldiers to work together despite all odds, and at this point i expect Shia to be a superhero even though that's not really his type (he started out in children's comedy, let us not forget), but to see such intellectual and independent individuals become a team like this really seems amazing.
Finally...a reporter at the local paper gave this film only three stars and whined about Downey's sarcastic one liners being overused or some such. Really? I mean, this is why we love him so much. This is why we pay to seem him as Sherlock, Ironman, any character that he plays. We want the sarcasm. More please. Which is to say that all of the dialogue in this film was very tight compared to its predecessors, and in fact i felt that Ironman was adequately reined in compared to the past (the right amount of sarcasm). More face time, less suit, but an amazing finale for Mr. Stark. Have i said amazing?
Having said all this, i look forward to seeing this film again, films in the future that are more like it, and have this strange desire to watch Alan Tudyk in something. Oh wait, that's because i was comparing this film so much to Transformers 3 and considering that Whedon was at the helm i can't believe he wasn't popping up in the background.
Oh, and i can't believe i forgot...Agent Phil. ): So unexpected. He was a superhero in his own right. And this was the best Stan Lee cameo to date.
No comments:
Post a Comment