The Avengers

Four years ago, as the credits for Iron Man finished rolling, the audience was treated to an extra scene featuring Samuel L. Jackson as Nick Fury asking Tony Stark about the Avengers initiative. At the time, I remember thinking that they could not pull off an Avengers movie. I mean how many years was there talk of a Justice
League movie that never materialized? Yet as time progressed and more Marvel movies came out the movie was becoming more and more of a reality. Fast forward to last night, when after years of anticipation, I finally got to see the superhero ensemble movie, The Avengers.

It was almost impossible not to have incredibly high expectations because all of the hype surrounding the film. So as the lights dimmed, the only thing that I hoped for was that the movie would at least be  fun. The Avengers did not disappoint, it was an incredibly exciting ride for the duration of the film. Joss Whedon did a fantastic job of giving each character their due screentime (outside of Hawkeye maybe). And what truly amazes me is how he catches the Avengers symbolism of the American experience: Captain America representing our patriotism, Tony Stark, our greed and love of capitalism, Black Widow representing immigration and the realizing of the American dream, Thor, our love of Mythology, and Hulk, representing our destructive power. Of course, the Hulk steals pretty much every scene that he is in, yet what was pleasantly surprising was Mark Ruffalo’s portrayal of Bruce Banner’s quirky, tortured, and ultimately socially awkward character. It was the best representation of the Hulk that the we have seen on the screen.

As wonderful as all of the characterization and the action sequences are (and believe me they are wonderful), the movie is surprisingly funny. And not just chuckle funny, there are points in the movie that where I laughed harder than I have in a while (for those of you who have seen it, think Loki’s “speech” to the Hulk). Whedon also works in at least three references to The Lord of the Rings, which was a welcome addition to all of the fanboys in the audience. I think that Joss Wheedon deserves kudos, for both his scriptwriting which contained such snappy dialogue, and for his direction which kept the film moving at a very even pace. The Avengers is arguably the most faithful and fun comic book adaptation ever, can’t wait for the next one.

I declare this…the summer of superheroes

]Wow, we have The Avengers coming out… The Dark Knight Rises and the Amazing Spider-man.  Ladies and gentlemen… the nerd trifecta.

Tom Hiddleston on why Superhero movies are important.

This was an article I came across whilst stumbling. It is written by Tom Hiddleston, who many of you will soon recognize as Loki in Thor and the upcoming Avengers. He highlights that superheroes are necessary because they are a part of our modern mythology. Go ahead and read for your self.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/filmblog/2012/apr/19/avengers-assemble-tom-hiddleston-superhero

Total Recall

As far as late 80′s movies go, Total Recall was one of my favorite. In fact, I still think it stands as one of Schwarzenegger’s best films. When I heard that they were making a remake, I was a bit skeptical. Watching the trailer though gives me a bit of hope, it looks like the film will be a bit more faithful to Phillip K Dick’s vision of a bleak future, in which one could implant memories as opposed to experiencing the events themselves. Judge for yourself.

How Transformers got screwed…

Now, I am one of the few people that I know that will freely admit to loving the Transformer series (outside of the 2nd one, because it was slightly racist).  Mainly because it took the spirit of the cartoon and brought it to life.  That being said, I can understand why many did not like it; its not a deep movie, and requires no higher thought to enjoy.  But that is not my issue here, my issue is that visually the film is one of the most impressive I have seen.

The filmmakers took vehicles, turned them into robots, and back with flawless results.  They managed to do it complete with moving parts.  Not only did they accomplish this, but the scene in which two robots are fighting on the freeway, using their tires like hockey players skating on ice, is awe-inspiring.  Yet in spite of all of this, somehow the academy would not bestow the best visual effects Oscar on any one of the three movies.  Now I can understand in this last year, because what Rise of the Planet of the Apes did with motion capture was pretty impressive.  But how could it be possible that the original Transformers lost best visual effects to The Golden Compass of all movies?  A movie which in itself is pretty terrible.  Sure it had polar bears fighting…how quaint.   I guess we should just ignore the fact that Transformers had multiple robots fighting while simultaneously transforming into cars, and all of it looking virtually seamless.   Somehow though, people thought that a talking bear was far more impressive.

I’m not arguing that Transformers should have been awarded best picture, but come on people give the movie its due.  It was one of the most visually impressive looking movies of the last 15 years.

The Hunger Games

It was almost two years ago when a student approached me, and told me that I needed to read a book.  It was called The Hunger Games, and it was set in a dystopic future where children were forced to hunt and kill each other for sport and amusement.  I finally agreed to read the novel, and by the time I was twenty pages in, I was hooked;  I made it through all three novels within the month.  Needless to say, as the movie approached my expectations grew exponentially.

The movie did not disappoint.  That being said, the movie works far better as a supplement to the novel as opposed to just standing on its own.   Having read the novel, it was quite refreshing to see events that could not have been seen in the novel because of its first person narration.  The change from first person narration to third added a bit of depth to the already intriguing story. Unfortunately, because of its supplemental nature,  those who only go and see the movie, without reading the book, may find themselves confused by many of the plot details (although the director does a fair job with exposition).  Conversely, those who have read the novel may get a bit  deeper of an understanding of the world created through the trilogy of novels.

Many people will object to some of the slight changes that were made.  I would like to remind them that detail must always be taken out when transitioning from print to screen.  The question is “Did they get the major elements and tone of the story right?” And this film did.  I for one, cannot wait until the sequel.

Why can Superman fly?

Now this question didn’t bother me until quite recently when I was talking comic books with a friend: why can Superman fly? More specifically, why can Superman fly vertically and hover? It doesn’t make any logical sense. But let me explain: For those of you who don’t know the mythology, Superman derives his power from our yellow sun. His home planet of Krypton played host to a red sun which is why Kryptonians didn’t have any superpowers on their home planet. When Kal-el (more commonly known as Clark Kent) ended up on Earth, the yellow sun eventually gave him powers: his skin became impenetrable, he obtained the ability to shoot heat from his eyes and he was granted super strength (which is why he can “leap tall buildings in a single bound”, he is able to generate enough force defy Earth’s gravity for a short amount of time.) The problem is that none of these powers would allow him to fly for any length of time nor would he be able to take off vertically. Yes, he could run fast enough that he would generate lift, but in that scenario he would have to be running to take off. Yet as we have seen time and time again, he can take off vertically, and even more surprising, he can hover, which really doesn’t make sense. Are we to believe that Superman’s powers include the ability to place a layer of electromagnetism beneath him at any given time?

Perhaps this is why when Superman was first created, he did not have the ability to fly. Yes, he could still leap tall buildings in a single bound, but there was no flight. This makes far more sense to me. But since they gave him a cape, and let’s face it, capes really only look great in flight (or opera), they had to have him fly. Ah well… I guess this mystery will never be solved.

As an added bonus, here is the first picture of Henry Cavill as Superman: