April 2012
As the lead up to The Avengers movie I made it a mission to re-view all the modern Marvel Studios movies featuring the Avengers characters. What a ball! What a great time to be a superhero comic fan. Especially one like me that doesn't have the time to read many superhero comics any more.
Iron Man. (on DVD)I think Iron Man is a great example of the quintessential superhero origin film. This, as an updating of the forty or fifty year old origin story, is quite convincing. Stark as the weaponeer seems as comfortably believable now as he was way back then.
The movie looks amazing, with great production design, a believable Iron Man suit, great special effects, and exciting action sequences.
More over, the characters are brilliantly, fabulously realised by the main three actors in Robert Downey Jr., Gwyneth Paltrow and Jeff Bridges.
There's a couple of flaws of course. The first being the villain as the trusted family friend/surrogate father is a little too cliché, but probably necessary to keep the plot compact. The second being the terrible climatic fight scene. Superhero movies can often struggle to give the audience a payoff in the final battle, and IM did here. The metamorphosis of Obadiah Stane into an insane monster, when everything he had done up till that point had been underhanded and stealthy subterfuge, really grated. But, post battle, RDJr gives us a really killer post script.
To be honest, this movie has only gotten better with this, my third viewing.
I can't believe that in four short years we've come from this, Iron Man 1, had four other Avengers 'prequels' and that this year, 2012, it will culminate in an actual Avengers feature film! It's an astounding rise in popularity similar to what happened 40 odd years ago with the original comics from Marvel.
I really really like this as a continuation of Marvel Studio's Iron Man franchise. There's a suitably generous escalation in the deadliness of the fight scenes and protagonists, while still really continuing to keep it all close to Tony's heart, home and business, all of which are as integral to make up the character as the suit is.
That being said, we now have two movies where the super-powered threat/s are basically warped versions of the Iron Man suit. In IM2 it made for some really great chase and fight scenes, which were quite weak in the climax of IM1, but I really don't want to see an IM3 where I'm watching Tony go up against more arc-reactor powered stolen/copied Stark technology. It was great to see some honest to goodness Iron Man action and fighting though, which in retrospect IM1 seemed kind of lacking, especially in light of IM2's huge finale fight sequences.
There's no doubt the best part of this is still Robert Downey Jr.'s portrayal of the titular hero. This is best evidenced in the fact that the movie goes for a whopping 30 minutes before we finally get to a proper action/fight scene. He's getting this modern updated version of Tony Stark very right — keeping his playboy personality intact but still making him selfless and heroic.
All the leading players are very good in fact; Paltrow and Cheadle both very good, as are Rourke and Rockwell. Rockwell seems to be channelling a little Rick Moranis for most of his time, until the very end where there's a glare he shoots at Paltrow's Potts that, in an instant, totally changes his character to something very sinister indeed.
I do have some gripes though.
I wish they hadn't made the suit's updated chest light a triangular/diamond shape. In comics iconographic shorthand, diamond = Superman — circular = Iron Man. Regardless of whether or not the comics did this first or not, it's a poor idea.
I'm only two movies into this franchise and I'm already sick of seeing Iron Man versus a twisted or altered version of himself. I hope IM3 has an antagonist that gets his strength from something other than Stark himself.
And yes, the inclusions of SHIELD and Natasha Romanoff were completely superfluous – only there for the set-up of the Marvel Movie Universe continuity. But you know what? For me, that makes them very worthy inclusions after all because, as this nearly 10 hour re-watch so ably demonstrates to me, it's not a series of movies we're now experiencing, but an expanding universe and continuity. Let's make sure we make it work.
This was a fun bit of fluffy adventure. I was in a bit of a tired and goofy mood when I settled into the beanbag for this (yes, the cinema was decked out with beanbags!) and I think that's pretty much the right mood for it.
The one-liners are good and funny, the story's pretty obvious but with some funny twists, the character designs are nice and jolly, the animation's spot-on, and I laughed out loud on several occasions.
Unfortunately there are several slow bits in the meat of the story, which only feel all the slower because of the goofy over-the-top-ness of other parts. It's understated in a lot of it, which may have worked against it from time to time, but overall, a good fun romp.
There's a lot to like in this, but ultimately not enough to get it to the same level as the other four Avengers prequels.
I really like Bruce as a character in this new interpretation. I like how he's handling his plight (that is; being burdened with his alter ego) and trying to rectify that problem. His romance with Betty is really sweet and nicely handled too. I do think the hardest thing to get right with a screen adaption of The Hulk's whole mythology is the anger factor, and I don't think they quite got it right here either, in neither the anger's repressed state (Banner) or expressed state (Hulk). There just doesn't seem to be enough raw rage at the centre of The Incredible Hulk to ring true to the character/s. It shouldn't just be about heart rate, it's also about adrenalin brought on by emotion, most notably anger. It was an interesting twist they employed, but not quite right. Also, the Hulk persona was too clever and measured for my liking.
It seemed to me, as someone who watched The Incredible Hulk TV show, that this movie version, as well as looking to the comics for inspiration, channeled a little of the TV show's vibe, though there may have been a few too many in-jokes.
I really loved the motivation of the antagonist Blonsky which eventually drives him to be The Abomination. Very well portrayed by Tim Roth. Although, as I said before, I do get annoyed that the super villains powers are again related directly to, bastardised from, misuse of, the hero's powers/origins. It's OK to go outside this! Similarly, I wish they hadn't included the references and ties to the super soldier serum/program. I do understand why it was done, as it harkens back to the whole building of a Marvel continuity, but this is not the best way to do so.
This movie was pretty good. As always it's really the alter ego and his dilemma that's ultimately the more interesting story. The punctuations of violence throughout the story are good and well done, though in themselves not all that interesting.
Thor's a very likeable movie, with a likeable, easy humour, and likeable, amiable characters, but it's not without some flaws that still really irk me.
I still find the romance between Thor and Jane totally unbelievable.
I still find Loki's motivations muddled and unclear.
I'm still disappointed with the final battle with The Destroyer. It feels so half-baked and underdone. I expected so much more from both with the warriors three and Thor himself.
I still believe it was a horribly missed opportunity to not have Thor actually GO AND GET his hammer to prove himself. It's a very weak character turn around for Thor. I know he's willing to lay his life down for friends and strangers, but the lead up to that where he should be learning to be humble doesn't hold any weight whatsoever. Really, he's never been afraid to sacrifice his life for the greater good – that's been proven in Asgard many times — that's not a surprise. He's already brave, giving and loving, it's the fact that he's full off himself that needed to change, and I don't think it did.
On this, my second viewing of Thor, one of the main positives that hit me was: geez it looks good! I love the design and look of it. It was nicely, slightly flamboyantly shot, although a lot the angled shots are a little annoying in their superfluousness.
(My original review of Thor can be found here.)
This was my third time watching CA:TFA and I still really enjoyed it. It really shows off the intrinsic strength of a lot of the Marvel heroes: Their humanity, even above their heroism.
(My original review of Captain America: The First Avenger can be found here.)
Wow. That was incredible. And overwhelming! So overwhelming in fact that I know I'm going to have to see it again very soon just to really get a grip on it.
I've been pretty much waiting for this movie all my life. After a childhood and teenagehood of live action adaptions of comics that simply disappointed bitterly time and again, the existence of a movie like this, with basically eight super heroic or villainous characters (PLUS an invading alien armada) fully and expertly realised, just never seemed possible. In fact, I refused to believe it was actually genuine until the last frame of the credits rolled. And even then I thought that maybe it had all been a dream.
This film really is built on the characters and their interplay. Well the non-action segments are at least. Then again, there's fabulous interplay between the characters during the action scenes too! It's a great ensemble piece with all of the mains getting a chance to shine, and most of the bit players too. The character scenes and interactions were spot on, revealing and enlightening. That being said, not everyone had an actual character arc. Really only Iron Man did, being the only one who seemed to have been set up with something to prove. Loki and Banner a little. Although I shouldn't mistake playing out one's motivation as a character arc in Loki's case, or the revelation of anger-management techniques in Banner's.
As far as character surprises are concerned, I think Black Widow was the biggest. I don't know if it's Scarlett Johansson's acting ability, if she was directed by Whedon differently to the rest of the cast, or if it came from the script, but BW was the only character who looked like she was actually doing something truly heroic – pulling courage from inside her to do things she found physically draining and literally frightening. She was a great one to watch, humanising what may have otherwise been quite devoid of that fragility.
The movie looked amazing. There was no pulling of any punches during fight scenes and action sequences, and there were plenty of them. Even with so many action and fight scenes each one was different and each one was bigger than the last. Finally! The technology and skill is really here, or just about here, to make a comicbook New York slugfest so close to believable. There was impact, speed, volume and scope. In my mind I'd have to go all the way back to 1980's Superman II to get the same feeling of a real fight happening in a real New York, or maybe 1984's Ghost Busters, and these didn't have the volume or quite the scope.
I think one of the most important aspects of this movie, and one of the things that's helped it be so successful, is that it is so much in the style and personality of Marvel comics, and that it's not trying to be something else. That personality (mostly the characters and their relationships and interplay) is what made Marvel comics the hit they were in the 60s, and it's working a treat again here too.
Are there flaws? Of course there are. The biggest one being Samuel L. Jackson's performance. He was lacklustre to the point of being embarrassing. Was he trying to be so cool and laid back that it came off as couldn't-be-bothered, or was it that he just couldn't be bothered?
Regardless, if you have any affection for superheroes you will love this movie, surely. The more I think about it the more I want to go and see it again really soon to relive the visceral experience of what amounts to a real live superhero battle, and more so, a world where superheroes actually exist.
I said I'd been waiting to see this movie nearly all my life, and that I wouldn't believe it actually existed until I had seen the very last frame fade away. Well I saw it and it was so damn good I still don't believe it actually happened.
Since writing the review above I've seen The Avengers for a second time. I know a lot of people are happily seeing it a third and even fourth, but I think I'm content now until I get to watch it again on DVD. To be honest I was slightly bored in the down time between action sequences. That's not to say that they're not as good as I first thought, but rather that they're oh-so-good the first time that they lose some of their impact and charm the second.
I know I'm going to love watching this when it hits DVD, but until then, I'm happy.
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