Your number’s up

It says something about “What’s Your Number” that I saw it two weeks ago and am only just posting the review.

Riding on the post-Bridesmaids wave of female led comedy, this rom-com sees Ana Faris realise that after having slept with 20 guys she now falls into a magazine’s bracket of women who will never get married. Through a fairly contrived set of circumstances she teams up with Chris Evans (not being Captain America this time) to try and track down her all of her exes in the hopes that one will now be right for her.

It’s a shame that this was filmed before Bridesmaids and released after it, as they both have the same joke in the opening scene. And the comparisons to Bridesmaids (which I have reviewed before) don’t stop there. As with Bridesmaids there are some funny moments (though not as many) and the film falls apart in the last thirty minutes. Maybe it’s because that’s when it goes down the rom-com cliché, but as with Bridesmaids the ending left me cold.

Chris Evans is largely there for women to look at, but I won’t complain as Ana Faris (who is quirkily attractive) runs around in her underwear for a lot of the film. Evans doesn’t do much, and the numerous comedy cameos as Faris’ exes don’t last long enough. The real star is of course Faris, who once again proves her comedy chops, and shows herself to be an extremely good physical comedienne – which is no mean feat.

I found the cop out ending a bit too convenient, and it almost washed over the moral that people should love you for who you are. All in all it’s not terrible, it’s not great but it’s better than expected.

Geeking Out

So yesterday the first full trailer for The Avengers came out. 


I was waiting with baited breath (as I'm sure all were all geeks everywhere).


Whilst I'm sure that it could have been more, just seeing Thor, Iron Man, Captain America, The Hulk, Nick Fury, Hawkeye and Black Widow sharing the screen was enough for me. There wasn't too much hinted at a villain apart from Loki, however The Skrulls seem to be the popular theory.


There were some great lines from Robert Downey's Tony Stark, my favourite of which being "Dr. Banner, your work is unparalleled, and I'm a huge fan of how you lose control and turninto an enormous, green rage monster." Awesome.


Bring on May 2012.

House of Wax

I spent Sunday at Madame Tussauds (which I always struggle to spell), for my friend Laura’s birthday. It was great fun despite the fact it was insanely busy. Apparently tourists love a wax model - who knew?

Of course the highlight for me was the Marvel Superheroes exhibition, which I’d been to before but still enjoyed as if I was a little school child. Once again I saw Iron Man, Spider-Man, The Hulk, Wolverine, Nick Fury and Mrs Fantastic. This time though Captain America was there, so I got to add another photo to my ever increasing list of photos of me with superheroes.

It’s a great day out and the 4D show at the end is loads of fun.

Also, I got to punch Justin Beiber in the face, but that’s another story.

One of these men is an American icon, the leader

of the Avengers and a symbol for hope, liberty,

truth and justice. The other is Captain America.

Oh Captain, My Captain

As I gushed quite enough about The Avengers on Tuesday, today I’ll keep my focus entirely on the actual (non-Avengers) parts of Captain America.

Let’s start off with the fact that it’s good. It’s not Iron Man good, but it’s almost Thor good, way better than some of the Spiderman or X-men movies that have been out in the last ten years, and a country mile better than Green Lantern.

Chris Evans manages to cast off his default wisecracking persona to bring humility and valour to Captain America. I know I said I wouldn’t mention the Avengers, but the character Evan’s portrays will play off against Tony Stark and Thor excellently. And whilst he’s great as Cap, he’s almost better as Steve Rogers, the plucky weakling who’s determined to not get pushed around by bullies. Here we see some excellent CGI, as Evan’s head is superimposed onto the body of a scrawny man-child. It jars a little at first, but that’s only because you know what Chris Evan’s should look like. If he had been an unknown, it would have appeared a lot smoother.

The supporting cast is solid. Sebastian Stan is breaking Hollywood as “Bucky” Barnes, Rogers’ best friend, and I wonder if seeds are being sown for an eventual “Winter Soldier” appearance in the next Captain America film. Dominic Cooper is suitably suave as Tony Stark’s father (or Grandfather, not sure of the timelines on this one), although his accent slips a couple of times. Tommy Lee Jones continues to sleep in Tupperware and gives good support as Steve’s army drill sergeant and Stanley Tucci consistently chews the scenery as Dr Erskine.

Relative newcomer Hayley Atwell manages to be a believable love interest, managing to make the character an attractive and appealing match for Rogers by playing on her strengths rather than making her weak and helpless. Then you have Hugo Weaving, giving an epic panto villain level performance as Red Skull (I’m sure we’ve not seen the last of him).

The film itself is a great balancing act. Book ended by Cap being discovered and thawed out in the present day, the majority of the film is (naturally) set in World War 2. After Rogers gets the Super Soldier Serum he becomes a poster boy for War bonds and then through a somewhat contrived (yet still entertaining) turn of events, he ends up leading a rag-tag team on covert missions against Hydra. Interesting side-note, in possibly the greatest attempt I’ve ever seen to establish an organisation as evil, at one point in the film Hydra is disavowed by the Nazis. That’s right, THE NAZI’S THINK THEY’RE TOO EVIL. Brilliant.

There’s lot’s of cross over with Thor (the same energy cube that turns up at the end of Thor plays a big part in this film), and overall it’s good watch with some solid action scenes.

Although it is primarily all set up for The Avengers.

(sorry).

The wonder of nostalgia

I said yesterday that today I was going to review Captain America, but I had such an awesome time on Monday night that I had to jump the queue and focus on “Super 8” first.

Thanks to the lovely people at Sky Movies, I was treated to a special screening of Super 8 at the Paramount London Head Office in their private screening room. The cinema itself was underneath London and had maybe 40 seats in total. All in all it was a pretty special experience.

And the setting only added to my enjoyment of one of the films I’ve enjoyed most this year. Directed by JJ Abrams, Super 8 is a loving homage to the Spielberg films of his (and my) youth.

Set against the backdrop of 1980, Joe is a recently bereaved teenager who, with a group of friends, sets out to make a zombie movie. His best friend, the movie’s director Charles, manages to convince local girl Alice to be a part of the movie, much to Joe’s delight, and the motley crew head out to shoot some late night scenes, when the evening takes a different turn…

Feeling like a hybrid of ET, The Goonies and Jaws (with a bit of Close Encounters thrown into the mix), the film feels like you are watching a Spielberg film from the eighties but with 2011 special effects. And that made me love it. I’m not sure if a 12-year-old would feel the same way about the film that I did, but for me, that sense of wondrous nostalgia for the films of my childhood had such an emotional resonance with me that I was completely involved to the plot and the characters. Abrams clearly loves these movies too, and the film he’s constructed highlights that affection. You get the sense that he’s making the film he wanted to see when he was in the eighties, although now he’s got the production values to do it expertly.

And the production values are magnificent. The train crash sequence alone stands out as being the best train crash committed to film in years (it may be too early to use the word ever but I’ll be interested to see how it stands up in a few years), focusing on the peril of the central protagonists as they (somewhat unbelievably) escape unscathed as the chaos unfolds around them. And then there’s the magnificent night time scenes of the small town being overrun by the military, which look excellent and give you the real sense of “other” invading a loving community.

The themes of maternal abandonment and paternal distance run throughout, as does the sense of a young man trying to come to terms with his grief and move on. There are some clichéd points, such as the star-crossed lovers, but again, these conventions are so established it’s hard NOT to buy into them, especially when they’re done so convincingly.

The fact that the cast are all relatively unknown helps you to focus on the story being told rather than being wowed by “stars”, and I can envisage a lot of the cast (especially the kids) having long careers ahead of them. Joel Courtney is great in the lead role of Joe and is the lynchpin of the film, and Elle Fanning (Dakota’s little sister) gives an astonishingly nuanced performance as Alice…it seems the Fannings have all been dosed with a Captain America style serum that gives them all outstanding acting abilities. Kyle Chandler (from Early Edition, remember that?) completes the main cast as Joe’s Dad, giving a layered performance as a man haunted by grief who can’t connect with his son, allowing you to flick between hatred of the character and pity for him.

Overall, I cannot recommend this enough, definitely the first “five star” blockbuster of the year, and I’m sure come December it’ll be high up on my favourite films of the year as well. Abrams deftly suspends disbelief, making any cliché or unbelievable moments work within the context of the film, and again this lends it to feel like the Spielberg films I love from my youth. Some people criticised him for copying Speilberg’s style, but I thought I felt like more of a loving homage, especially by the time you get to the end.

Once again, I’ll state that I think I’m EXACTLY the target audience for this, so would love to know what younger viewers felt. I only hope it fills them with the same sense of wonder that Spielberg’s films used to fill me with when I was a kid.

Definitely one I’ll be picking up on DVD for a second watch. Mint.

Some Assembly Required

And with the closing credits of Captain America begins the nine month countdown to May 2012 and The Avengers. It’s been widely publicised that the post credits sting features the teaser trailer for The Avengers, so it’s not a spoiler to talk about it.

A “teaser” in the truest sense of the word, it left me salivating for more. Seeing early shots of Cap, Thor, Fury and Iron Man all sharing the screen at once (and to a lesser extent Black Widow, Hawkeye and a Ruffaloified Bruce Banner), suggests that Marvel’s long term strategy has paid off.

And even if you don’t care for superhero films, and are less than enthused about the idea of The Avengers, you have to give them credit for the audacity of their planning. Not since the Lord of the Rings has a series of films been so well plotted, with the seeds of The Avengers being planted as early as 2008 in the post credit sting of Iron Man.

And when (ever) has a blockbuster featured so many stand alone heroes? Thor, Iron Man, Hulk and Cap have all carried their own films and established their own stories and now, to throw them all together in one huge blockbuster is actually much more groundbreaking that critics will dare to give them credit for. All in all, the epitome of what good planning can be, and emphasises how the comic book way of developing storylines can successfully translate to the big screen. DC should take note.

So what else can we take from the trailer? Well there was a brief shot of Cobie Smulders as Maria Hill, the Avengers assembled in what looked like a briefing room and a shot of Loki surrounded by what looked like armed guards, suggesting he’ll be a major antagonist (continuing on from the Thor sting). Plus of course Tony Stark making a quip about Thor – if they’re smart, they’ll know that the entertainment will come partly from the banter between characters. And in fairness, if anyone can do character banter it’s Joss Whedon.

All in all, very exciting.

I’ll do the full Cap review tomorrow, but in the meantime I’m more than a little excited about next May. It would be rude not to do a marathon of Iron Man, The Incredible Hulk, Iron Man 2, Thor and Captain America to get ready for it, wouldn’t it?


Avengers...Assemble!

Define "Restraint"

Define restraint:


There's been a teaser trailer for "The Avengers" out for nearly a week, and I'm refusing to watch it until I've seen "Captain America". And it's looking like that's not going to be until Sunday at the earliest.


I know it's a case of mind over matter and I'll kick myself if I cave, but I'm just itching to boot up to Youtube.


Only four days to go.


This is worse than trying to give up heroin (I would guess). 

Trailer blazing

So Monday saw the release of the new teaser trailer for “The Dark Knight Rises” followed by excitement at the few frames that show Tom Hardy as Bane. It’s not a bad trailer, but personally I would have rather seen a bit more from the new film and less clips from the previous two. That said the line “every journey has an end” did get me more than a little excited in anticipation of the conclusion to the Caped Crusader’s story.

Speaking of trailers, in order to combat the “rise” of Batman teasers (boom boom), Marvel have released the first full trailer for The Amazing Spiderman. I wasn't really a fan of rebooting the franchise so quickly after Spiderman 3 (which admittedly, wasn't any good), but as trailers go, it's actually pretty spectacular. Speaking of Marvel, I'm also guessing that they'll start teasing The Avengers pretty much as soon as Captain America’s cinema tenure begins to close. More than likely it’ll all tie in to the post credit sting of Cap… not long to wait now. I’m still predicting Stark or Fury thawing him out.  

And whilst all the talk this week seems to be revolving around the final instalment of Christopher Nolan’s Batman opus, another trailer has begun to do the rounds. Looking to replace a huge studio budget with originality, the mysterious MH trailer seems suggest something that might shake up the superhero landscape in a way that hasn’t been seen since Kick Ass. I’ll be watching eagerly for more on this project:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W10Td90t-Y8&hd=1

Sometimes just a little can whet the appetite for more…

Earth’s Mightiest Cartoon

I mentioned yesterday that I had been finishing up the first series of “Avengers: Earth’s Mightiest Heroes”. And what a season finale it was. After “X-men Evolution”, the rebooted “Spiderman” cartoon and the “Fantastic Four” I had all but given up on the animated Marvel stuff…none of it was reaching the glory days of the nineties when we had the excellent “X-Men” and the spectacular “Spiderman” running at the same time. See, alliteration can be our friend.

Especially as DC then took the ball and ran with it, bringing out (arguable) one of the best animated series ever in “Batman”, followed up by “Justice League”/“Justice League Unlimited”, which until they ceased production I used to hold up as an example to anyone who said they weren’t making decent cartoons anymore. Then DC split into two different avenues of cartoon production. On one hand they were making the extremely child friendly “Batman: Brave and the Bold” and on the other they were created feature length animated movies that were entirely aimed at the adult market. Most of which are brilliant, especially “Batman: Under the Red Hood” and the two Superman/Batman movies.

So Marvel was left to try and fill the gap in the market for an ongoing cartoon series that wasn’t aimed squarely at five-year-olds. In my opinion the first real foray into this was the wholly underrated “Wolverine and the X-men”, which was cancelled after one series (disappointingly, it was just when they’d gotten to the Age of Apocalypse).

So I was somewhat apprehensive about “Avengers; Earth’s Mightiest Heroes”, partly because I was always more of a fan of the X-men than the Avengers, and also because it seemed like it was just another merchandising opportunity for Marvel to cash in on the wave of Iron Man, Thor and Captain America fever that they were hoping would sweep the globe. So colour me pleasantly surprised when I found out what a hidden gem this series was.

Firstly, it takes it’s time. This is a much overlooked and undervalued concept in television, especially cartoons. It really felt like the whole series had been plotted before they starting making it, and was all the better for it. The first five episodes (re)introduce the acquainted and unacquainted viewers to characters which they may or may not be aware of (bearing in mind that at the time of first transmission neither the Thor or Cap movies had hit cinemas). Characters like Ant Man, Wasp, Hawkeye and Black Panther were all given at least half an episode to establish them as heroes individually, before Thor, Ant Man, Wasp, Iron Man and Hulk formed the first iteration of the team in episode 6/7. Hulk leaves in episode 8, Cap gets thawed out in 9 and it’s not until the end of episode 13 that we first see the full team together, and that’s halfway through the series. And it’s not just the heroes. They set Loki up in episode 2 and throughout the series progress his machinations before he ends up being the big bad at the end of the season. Most members of “The Masters of Evil” get a whole origin episode, and Kang the Conqueror’s vendetta with Cap is set up from the very beginning. You really feel if shows like “The Event” and “Flashforward” had been plotted this tightly, they wouldn’t have been cancelled.

Secondly, the character development is great – a lot better than you’d expect from a superhero cartoon. Hulk can’t function as part of the team as he thinks they don’t trust him, Ant Man is a pacifist who doesn’t want to solve problems with violence, Hawkeye is in love with Black Widow and conflicted about her betrayal and Iron Man is trying his best to lead the team despite it being obvious to everyone (especially himself) that Captain America would be a better leader. The villains are well drawn too (some of them anyway). Wonder is conflicted by the fact he has to do evil in order to stay alive, and Ultron’s character evolves until he is in full-on, destroy the planet mode.

Finally, it’s just a bit more mature. Characters get killed (more often than not it’s off screen, but it does happen); with Black Panther’s father a prime example. The stories are action packed enough for children to enjoy on a superficial “look at Hulk smash” level, with enough ongoing story arcs and set ups for future episodes to keep more grown up viewers entertained. They’ve already set up stories for season two, which I really hope they make. Look forward to a Skrull invasion and finding out what happened to Bucky...

All in all, a great series that has really redeemed Marvel in the animated stakes. I can’t recommend it enough - it’s a really strong series.

But then, Hulk is strongest there is...

Thank God it's Thor's Day

I’ve been meaning to write about Thor for about a month now, and seeing as I’m due to be seeing X-men First Class this week, now seemed like the ideal time to do it.

I’ll set my stall out early by admitting that I’m a massive comic book fan and sometimes enjoy comic book movies more than they deserve (I’m actually quite keen on the first Fantastic Four…yes it’s light and fluffy but then so are the comics). That said, I really enjoyed Thor and think it stands up on it’s own.

The people I saw it with ranged from massive superhero geek (me), to a comic book fan who’d never read any Thor, to my wife who had no real idea who Thor was outside of Norse mythology. The fact that people from both ends of this spectrum enjoyed it highlights it’s broader appeal as a movie. Whilst the girls got to enjoy looking at Chris Hemsworth (who I’m reliably informed is quite tasty), I got to feel superior for noticing the references to Bruce Banner and Dr Strange (at least I think that was the Eye of Agamatto I spotted in the Asgard Trophy room).

The comedy element worked in the same way that it did in Iron Man, with my personal favourite being the throwaway line “is that one of Stark’s”. Although the repeated slapstick worked during the first part of the film, I was glad they dropped it once Thor’s character had developed a bit more.

Being a massive geek, I loved the Hawkeye cameo, even if it did feel INCREDIBLY tacked on – to the point that it became obvious it had been added after a later reshoot (or it at least felt that way). That said, it was a good way to introduce the audience to a character that will have a much bigger role to play in The Avengers…it’s just a shame that he didn’t get to have as much screen time as Black Widow did in Iron Man 2.

Speaking of The Avengers, I really think that it’s setting up to be a great film. Making Thor work in the same universe as Iron Man was always going to be the biggest challenge, as effectively you’re going from a normal guy in a suit to a God, and hoping that they fit together. The inclusion of Clark Gregg as Coulson helped to bridge that gap, and I can definitely see how it can work. Comparatively Captain America is now fairly easy to do, all that has to happen to him is to be frozen at the end of his film and thawed out by Shield/Stark (although having The Hulk accidentally break him out of the ice might be a good way to remind the audience that The Hulk is still around and will have a role to play next year).

Back to Thor, I thought the supporting cast was equally strong. I can always do with more of the awesome Idris Elba, and whilst I enjoyed seeing The Warriors Three, my brother-in-law (who had no idea who they were) didn’t think they were fleshed out enough (which I can’t argue with, I was seeing them with prior knowledge of their back stories). I thought the stand out performance was Tom Hiddleston as Loki, and think he’ll make an excellent villain for The Avengers (I personally hope it sees him masterminding a Skrull invasion).

As for the “sting” at the end of the film, I think having an appearance from Fury helps tie everything together for next year, and the reference to “unlimited power” is more subtle than the stings of previous films, but is infinitely more ominous.

Now to see what they do with Cap…

Getting ready for Thor's Day

I’ve been thinking about this summer’s big comic book movies, and Thor is far and away the one I’m looking forward to the most.

Be it the predicted tease introduction of Hawkeye, Anthony Hopkins thesping it up as Odin or the needlessly controversial appearance of Idris Elba (its 2011, surely we’ve moved beyond caring about the colour of a character’s skin?), there’s lots to look forward to. Speaking of Idris Elba, I can’t defend him enough. He was the biggest revelation in the wholly amazing “The Wire” and has recently been excellent flexing his deadpan chops in The US Office.

So for me, bring on next week.

I’ll happily watch the other three, with Captain America being the neat companion film to Thor to set up Joss Whedon’s 2012 “Avengers” movie, which I could not possibly be more excited about. Especially now it’s got How I met Your Mother’s Cobie Smulders as Maria Hill – really glad to see they’re bringing in another strong female character. Plus I do wonder if Alyson Hannigan introduced her and Joss, as she seems to be the missing link in their six-degrees of Kevin Bacon game.

Captain America’s also got some excellent looking CGI (skinny Chris Evans looks great on the trailer) and Hugo Weaving is always a top choice for a bad guy. I wouldn’t be surprised if the film ends with Captain America saving the day but in the process falling to his “death” in the frozen artic, only for the post credit sequence to be Samuel L Jackson / Robert Downey thawing him out in the present day.

X-Men: First Class is a bit of a weird one for me, as I love the X-men comics, but have yet to see a film that has properly reached it’s full potential. It’s either too much about Wolverine, or there’s too many needless characters running around (and not enough Gambit). I’m not convinced about James McAvoy as Xavier either, but am happy to be proven wrong. Michael Fassbender should be a good Magneto, and January Jones is inspired casting as Emma Frost. If any actress screamed “cold beauty” it’s her. And it’s always nice to see Kevin Bacon again.

Finally we’ve got Green Lantern, which I’m most dubious about. Partly because of the ropey trailer and partly because of the needless “complete CGI” effect when Ryan Reynolds becomes Green Lantern. I get that they want him to appear fantastical, but surely he could just have a costume! I just think it seems a bit pointless, which is exasperating as the character / Green Lantern corps have great potential for future films, and I think DC will probably red light / green light Wonder Woman and The Flash based on it’s success. And that’s a shame, as DC have got some great heroes that are worthy of their own franchises, and they need to start doing something other than Batman and Superman reboots if they’re going to keep up with Marvel, who are steaming ahead with three blockbuster films a year at the moment.

But that’s all speculation at the moment. We’ll see what Thor is like and go from there. And there’s less than a week to go until that.

Ultimately I wonder if I’ve been over-thinking all this? I say thee nay...