Avengers Assemble

After years of build up through several movies, Marvel's Avengers movie (now called Avengers Assemble which is almost inviting the sequel in the title) is finally here. It arrives carrying a weight of expectation that few films could live up to.

Marvel have made a few smart choices in their recruiting for this film. Firstly, in Joss Whedon they have a director and screenwriter who is used to managing large ensemble casts (Buffy/Angel and Serenity/Firefly) and giving each character their own arcs and moments to shine. He manages all the characters who've capably led their own films well as well as incorporating the newer characters (Jeremy Renner's Hawkeye and Scarlett Johansson's Black Widow). So Robert Downey Jr's Iron Man is allowed to steal all the limelight (or even all the best lines) and this feels like a true ensemble piece - even Samuel L Jackson's Nick Fury and Clark Gregg's Agent Coulson are given their share.

The socond success is Mark Ruffalo as the third recent big screen attempt at the Hulk. Following Eric Bana's interesting attempt and Edward Norton's largely unsuccessful, Ruffalo is a great fit for Bruce Banner and finally makes the big green monster work for the big screen (plus he gets one of the best lines in the film).

The villain also works well with Tom Hiddleston's Loki returning from Thor to provide menace combined with wit and intelligence. If there's a disappointment it's that his much vaunted army of aliens are rather unimpressive - some of the visuals are good, but overall they're a bit characterless and end up as rather anonymous cannon fodder. The other main weakness is that there's maybe just a wee bit too much of the ego-clashing and fighting each other from the good guys before they actually gel - maybe one or two punch-ups too many. It does however produce a beautiful pay off in the closing battle with one particular Thor-Hulk moment.

Otherwise watch for some entertaining action, witty dialogue, a strong ensemble cast, some interesting interrrogation techniques by Black Widow and surprise early exit for one of more minor, but loved, characters. 

The Avengers has been an interesting cinematic experiment - building up over several years with different characters in separate films. The build-up has been mixed, ranging from the surprisingly impressive (Iron Man) to the disappointingly messy (The Incredible Hulk). The payoff is well worth it though- a thoroughly entertaining spectacle that comes very close to meeting expectations.

Overall - 8/10 With new offerings on the horizon from the big three superheroes (Superman, Batman, Spiderman), Marvel's team effort has set the bar quite high.

Superheroes and Gardeners

The Fantastic Four - Rise of the Silver Surfer - 2.5/5

The danger of raised expectations, eh? The first Fantastic Four movie got dreadful write-ups, but, whilst being a pretty bad movie, was surprisingly fun. This time round they've got better reviews, so despite being probably a marginally better film, it actually comes as a bit of a disappointment. It should be applauded though because whilst the trend for superhero flicks at the moment seems to be darker and longer, they've gone lighter and shorter - I mean jus how serious can you get about a bunch of people in skin-tight lycra (Makers of the next Superman movie take note).

Silliness aside, the main problem with the Fantastic Four is that the leading two members (Ioan Gruffudd's Mr Fantastic and Jessica Alba's Invisible Woman) might be nice to look at, but as characters they're as dull as dishwater. We simply don't care enough about the angst of these privileged elite members having to postpone their wedding in order to save the world again. Gruffudd (seen most recently as Wilberforce in Amazing Grace) is also saddled with some of the dodgiest CGI effects seen in a long time. He does at least have one decent moment - a great comeback to Andre Braugher's stereotypically macho general. Braugher himself (as fans of TVs best ever cop show, Homicide, will know - a very fine actor) does well enough with the limited part, but deserves bigger and better than this.

The film also lacks a realy decent villain - the planet swallowing dust-cloud threat lacks any form of personality, whilst Julian McMahon, returning as the defrosted Dr Doom is both utterly un-threatening and utterly predictable. Hence the final showdowns lack any real sense of pazzazz.

We should be thankful, therefore, for the criminally underused Michael Chiklis as the Thing and Chris Evans as the Human Torch. They add most of the humour and fun to the film, so much so that when the prospect of Mr and Mrs Fantastic going into retirement and the leaving a Fantastic Duo arises, most of the audience probably wouldn't be too heart-broken. Evans once again proves that he has real star quality and comes very close to making this his movie.

What stands in his way is the Silver Surfer himself - herald of the planet munching monster. Motion-capture performance by Doug Jones and voiced by Laurence Fishburne. He has the most complex character arc by a long way and also the coolest effects. As the final shot suggests, expect him to have his own movie before too long.

Grow Your Own - 2/5

This years British comedy which is still attempting to follow in the footsteps of The Full Monty and tackle social issues whilst being funny. In this case the attempt is to address immigration through the medium of allotments. Which is not as daft as it might seem – its inspired by a real project in Liverpool that helped asylum seekers deal with their traumatic experiences by giving them allotments. A decent drama telling the true story of this project would doubtless have made a much better film as this one manages neither to be funny nor to really get to grips with the issues.

Its not without its moments and it certainly has heart. Benedict Wong (seen most recently in Sunshine) gives an amazing, almost mute performance as a deeply traumatised Chinese immigrant. What is lacking from the film and its British protagonists is a sense of backbone. This is a gentle, mild, inoffensive film whose British characters never seem to get much beyond mild concern. The problem is that some of the injustices it chooses to tackle are very offensive. The film finishes with an attitude which is almost like “It’s a bit of a shame that the nice Iranian doctor got deported and the Chinese man had his plot ripped up by the mobile phone company, but never mind ‘cos the African lad won the prize for the best plot, so its all right in the end.” Except it isn’t – huge injustices are done here and you want to see somebody actually get up and do something about it, not just moan over a cup of tea.

Its also rather curious, at a time when allotments are becoming trendy for environmental reasons, etc…, that the portrayal of the allotment community is so hopelessly old-fashioned. The less said about the cringe-worthily scripted romance with all its blossoming double entendres the better.

All in all, could and should, have done much better.

The Curse of Part Three

Spiderman 3 – 3/5

Its something of unacknowledged law that nobody ever makes a good third instalment to a superhero trilogy – Superman 3, Batman Forever, X Men The Last Stand all considerable disappointments and declines from the films that preceded them. There had been hopes that director Sam Raimi would buck this trend.

Well, it’s not a bad film, but it is a disappointing follow-up to the first two and the main flaw is that Raimi broke his own rule. After promising never to go down the multiple villains route, he succumbs here and has not two but three bad guys and there just isn’t enough room for all the different plot elements to breathe and it all feels a bit jumbled and overlong. In particular the relational aspects of the film are too rushed in their developing to work and the various romantic triangles that are formed lack credibility.

The most superfluous of these villains is Thomas Haden Church’s (Sideways) Sandman. Despite strained efforts to link him to events in the first film, he is only included because he is both Raimi’s and Maguire’s favourite character from the comics. His motivations never entirely work, his special effects are the ropiest and despite Church’s best efforts.

Venom, a creature formed when an alien symbiote latches onto Spidey and after he eventually rejects it attaches to his rival Eddie Brock (Topher Grace), is a potentially more interesting adversary but only emerges towards the end of the film.

The most interesting of the trio is the one we’re already familiar with – James Franco’s new Goblin. Here we already have considerable back story and thus his encounters with the webslinger carry the most emotional intensity and also the best action. His character arc is also the most interesting, although even here things a rushed with a clumsy speech by his butler needed to move him on at one point.

As for the hero himself, Tobey Maguire’s Peter Parker starts the film so smugly happy with life in general and himself in particular that you can’t wait for something bad to happen to spoil it all. Although is supposed to be a film about his inner battles, theres nothing really that hasn’t been included in the previous films and at times you wish he’d stop being so mopey and just grow up. Even under the influence of the alien, apart from a couple of really malicious moments, he comes across as more pantomime villain with ridiculous swagger than genuinely nasty.

The script is as heavy-handedly moralistic as in previous episodes. Other newcomers Bryce Dallas Howard as Peter’s classmate/possible new romantic interest Gwen Stacey and James Cromwell as her police chief boss are so underused you wonder why they were included at all. And some of the effects seem to have taken a step back since the last film – a fight scene amongst underground trains seeming particularly lacking in realism. And the final showdown is the same as previous films – Kirsten Dunst’s Mary Jane in peril at top of tall structure – only with more bad guys.

Despite all of which, it isn’t a bad film – it still entertains and amuses. Most of the action sequences work well, despite having nothing to rival Spiderman 2’s train sequence. There are also some nice comic touches – Spidey stopping to pour sand out of his boots after the first encounter with Sandman. As ever JK Simmonds is excellently amusing as Peter’s boss at the Daily Bugle. And, as mentioned, the new Goblin storyline is done very well, when allowed room to breathe.

With a bit more discipline and a few cuts, this could have been a very good end to the trilogy. As it is, it’s a perfectly watchable and entertaining, if overlong, effort, but disappointing in the light of what went before.