Iron Man

So, with Avengers 2 coming out in April 2015, it had to be done.  I have to rematch all 10 movies that have been released up to this point in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.  I might also have to watch through Agents of Shield as well.

It's going to be tough this! (That was sarcasm..)

So, Iron Man.  This is the movie that launched a phenomenon.  And, it is phenomenal!

Robert Downey Jr, it isn't that he is the perfect person to play Tony Stark, he IS Tony Stark.  He puts in an amazing performance that never once reminds you that he is an actor.  The Iron Man effects are also pretty seamless.  It is just real.  You never think to yourself that this is bad CGI or anything like that.  It is just really well done.

The villain is fantastic too.  He isn't too villainy until the very end.  The film has some some pretty funny moments too as well.  The comedy isn't really joke based though.  To give you an example, Iron Man dodges a booming power blast by a tank and returns fire with a tiny little fizzy missile.  Goodbye power tank.  It's humorous but it also highlights just how good the Iron Man technology is.

Many have raised the issue of why Iron Man?  Why did Marvel kick the whole thing off with Iron Man?  It really was a master stroke when you think about it.  Known by everyone but not known well by anyone but the die hard fans really.  Known enough that people would be tempted to see it but not so well known that everyone would have already made up their mind before going to see it.

Secondly, and more importantly, Iron Man doesn't have crazy super powers.  He's an intelligent weapons designer who built himself a suit.  Everything in the suit is believable and only 2 things stretch you a bit on the believability front.  Repulsor weapons, explained as an accidental discovery and the chest piece Arc Reactor.  So really that's only one thing you have to think about and giving such a detailed story watching the thing be built that uses a lot of words you don't understand, tricks you into thinking it's possible.  My point is, Iron Man is the most believable hero of the Avengers team (I'm not really counting Hawkeye or Black Widow as they don't get their own movies).  He is therefore the perfect hero to introduce this whole thing to the masses and then draw them in to get them watching the rest.  Start with Thor or Captain America and you wouldn't get the same effect.

To sum up, this movie is just very very cool.  It very much entertains.  I'm going to rank it at 85/100.

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles

Right, so I feel the need to start this one with a little reminder.  Film is primarily an entertainment medium.  A film must therefore be entertaining in order to be good.  So, it doesn’t matter how good the lighting is, who the director was or even what themes were addressed by the film, if it didn’t entertain, it’s not a good film.  So that’s why Atonement is such a terrible film.  It might have addressed one of the most important themes there is, how we deal with our sense of guilt and our objective guilt, but it didn’t entertain so it wasn’t a good film.
Now I’m aware that not everyone will agree with what I’ve just said.  If that’s you, I’d encourage you to read this helpful article.  http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/wrong?s=t
So, onto the main event.  Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.  This film was quite simply amazing.  It was awesome, it was superb.  It was brilliant.  I think, cowabunga says it all!
So, why was it so good.  It was thoroughly entertaining from start to finish.  It was funny throughout and it was a proper fighting turtle film.  There was just enough nods to the old 90s cartoon series to make my inner child giggle with joy.  But it was modern and updated enough that it didn’t feel dated.  The characterization of the turtles was excellent.  You really felt that they were each different in a way that you perhaps didn’t in the old nineties films.  They actually used their weapons to fight, unlike the second film of the nineties.  The story was pretty good and left ample room for sequel.  Handy as there is one in the pipeline.
I’ve seen Megan Fox in all the Transformers films she was in and in How to Lose Friends and Alienate People.  I’ve never seen her act well.  Not the case in this film.
So, do you like to laugh?  To you like to enjoy yourself?  Do you like to watch a film that will entertain you?  Then go see this film.  If you don’t love it then I think you need to take a long hard look at yourself.

Score 90/100

Lucy

Weird…..

That’s my review in a word.  This movie was weird.  If you’ve seen the trailer, you know the premise.  Humans only use 10% of their total brain capacity.  Imagine what would happen if we could access all 100% of that capacity?  Well now, thanks to Scarlett Johansson and this film, we know.  And the answer is, weird.

So, did I like the film?  Is it worth seeing?  I don’t know.  I just don’t know.

I LOVE the premise of the film, so massive points for that.  But it’s just too weird in places for me to get fully on board.  There’s also a bit of arty nonsense at the start involving switching between the film itself and shots of a cheetah hunting a deer.  Nonsense!

I suppose, if you push me, I did enjoy the film but I probably won’t watch it again.  I don’t regret seeing it but now having seen it once it’s probably not worth it again.  Like Edinburgh Castle, worth the £18 entry fee for one visit which I’m glad I’ve done, but I won’t pay to go back in.

On the plus side, there are some genuinely quite amusing bits, some laugh out loud bits as well.  So if you like the sound of the premise go see it.  If not, don’t worry so much.

But be warned….it’s weird!

Tarzan (the Disney one)

So here’s a question for you.  Suppose you fell in love, would you leave England to live on an island with apes?
I love Disney films, pretty much.  However I’m finding it hard to review one.  The reason is that they are trying to be something very different to the average film that I might watch.  The basic idea of the modern animated children’s movie is to make a marketable film that kids will love and that their parents etc will enjoy.  I’ve got a lot of time for that.  The adults aren’t the target audience but the makers work hard to keep them entertained.  The cynical side of me says that a parent that enjoyed the in-jokes and pop culture references in the movie, is less likely to be opposed to the merchandise machine.  The uncynical side says it’s Disney’s way of being kind to the adults who are bored of the nonsense that is modern children’s telly.
Anywho, Tarzan.  I enjoyed it.  I really did.  I can’t say much in detail as i isn’t a film like that.  I think to try to analyse too much would almost rob a children’s film of it’s magic.  So I won’t.
On the upsides, I think the main characters of Tarzan, Jane, the big gorilla (Korchac i think?) and Tarzan’s mum gorilla were all brilliant.  I loved them all.  On the downsides, I think the rest of the characters didn’t really add all that much and, unlike other kids films where the side characters have big roles in the entertainment factor or story, in this one I felt they were just there to fill the screen.
The bad guy, Clayton, was voiced by Brian Blessed.  Need I say more.  I could happily watch wet paint dry for a month if that paint was voiced by Brian Blessed.
I really enjoyed it though on reflection, it didn’t feel quite so involved as other Disney or Dreamworks films I’ve watched and so I will give it 70/100.

King Arthur

King Arthur.  Knight of the round table.  Apparently not.  He was a Roman.  Interesting take on the tale that.

I watched this film for the second time last night and one the one hand, there isn’t much to say.  It is a perfectly serviceable sword based action film.  The time passed quicker than it would have done had I sat watching a blank wall for 2 hours and so on that basis, it was entertaining.

Now don’t get me wrong, I don’t dislike the film.  It’s actually really good.  The story is pretty good.  The way it’s done is pretty good.  There are really only two things that detract from it but we’ll start with the positives.

As I said, it’s a pretty good story.  It isn’t really epic, or grand or anything like and it does suffer from the modern delusion that because we are so obsessed with freedom today, everyone throughout all of time must have been too.  The backstory is also pretty good and involving.  Ray Stevenson, reprises his role as big man with stick and once again nails it.  Ray Winstone is fantastic.  Ioan Gruffudd is excellent, as are the other knights of the round table.  It really is pretty good.

So what is the problem them.  Why does my explanation of the positives not drip with joy you ask?  I’ll tell you why.  Clive Owen and Keira Knightly.  Clive is pretty terrible in this.  He just doesn’t seem like he cares.  How Arthur managed to inspire his troops to death and glory with that bored monotone drone, I’ll never guess.  This is one example where the quality of the acting actually detracts from the film as the Arthur that everyone talks about in the film, is not the man we meet in Clive Owen.

Keira Knightly.  She does well but she has a very steep hill to climb to persuade us that she is a Briton Woad savage.  I said to my dad, how surprised I was that a savage such as her had been sent to public school.  Don’t get me wrong, I don’t thing she acted badly, it’s just that she isn’t suited to the role and so can’t really convince us that she is who she says she is.

Oh, and why oh why does Stellan Skarsgaard sound so very American in this film when in the other films I’ve seen him in, some where he is playing an American, he sounds like he’s Scandanavian?  What’s going on there?

I can’t rate this film too highly and I can’t rate to low either.  A different actress, a bit more effort from Clive and this would have been a fantastic film I think.  I’m giving 50/100.

Iron Man 3

Let’s get one thing out of the way to begin with.  I love Marvel.  I love all Marvel movies.  I haven’t seen a single Marvel film that I didn’t enjoy.  In terms of entertainment and story telling they tick all the boxes that a good film needs to tick.

The first time I saw Iron Man 3, I wasn’t that impressed.  I enjoyed it, but I felt it was one of the weaker Avengers films out there.  For me, the best non Avengers, Avengers films have been Iron Man 1 and Captain America 1.  Certain plot developments in this film really annoyed me.  I have just watched it for the second time and I kind of want to re-asses my original thoughts however.

Once again, it is a film set in a larger story and so, whilst it has to be good in it’s own right, it also has to be assessed based on its contribution to the larger story.  And now, given what we expect the plot of Avengers 2 to be, Iron Man 3 is actually a really well done lead up to that.  I’ll say no more right now, but I expect that when you watch Iron Man 3 in view of Avengers 2, you’ll be forced to conclude the same thing.

Second time round, I really enjoyed this film.  Because I knew that the thing that was going to annoy me was coming, I was de-sensitised to it and so it didn’t annoy me this time around (there is actually some irony involved here but more on that later).  Given that, I found the film as a whole to be really good and actually quite brave for Marvel.  Iron Man isn’t really the hero, Tony Stark is.  We meet him in a bit of a post New York/Avengers melt down and so he is really struggling as a person, and as a super hero.  Actually, he spends most of the film, being the hero without the help of his suit of armour, thus answering the question of Captain America from Avengers.  “Big man in a suit of armour.  Take that away and what are you?”  The answer is an emphatic, ‘I am Iron Man’, given at the end of the film.  We see that Tony is in fact the hero even when he’s not wearing his suit.  In terms of entertainment, the House Party at the end is edge of the seat excitement stuff as we see all the Iron Man armours working autonomously to defeat the villains of the story.  So we are left with a question, if the armours can do it on their own, do we need Mr Stark at all?

Onto the villain and the irony.  The main villain in the trailers was billed as the Mandarin.  Bit of a spoiler here so look away now if you don’t want to see!

 

According to Marvel, the Mandarin is a villain that it is hard to do well in live action so they decided to make him an actor playing part to conceal the real villain.  So there is no real Mandarin.  The irony being that way he was presented before the ‘revelation’ actually worked really well and could easily have carried the grand villain of the film.  That title actually fell to Aldrich Killian.  Obviously not guy in a suit like no’s 1 & 2 but this time a genetically modified guy who melts stuff and breathes fire.  The trouble is, he just isn’t as good as the villain the Mandarin was before he was revealed as an actor.  And that is the annoyance of the film for me.

On second viewing, this wasn’t so bad and you can actually begin to see how he works as a villain.  He’s not bad actually as he is so different to Iron Man.  I still can’t really work out what he wanted though, what his grand plan was.  That for me is a bit of a shame.  But given that the pattern for the 2nd phase Marvel villains is that they are just there to keep things a bit exciting whilst the bigger story is developed I’ll overlook this for now. 

Overall this is a reasonable Marvel film.  It’s Marvel, so it is good but it isn’t one of the best Marvel films.  It’s entertaining.  It’s a good story, which I think will make a lot more sense after Avengers 2 is seen and it mostly well done, save the Mandarin annoyance.

I’m giving it 75/100.  If they’d stuck with the Mandarin as the villain it might have hit the high 80s.

Guardians of the Galaxy

It’s quite hard to write a second movie review right after the first.

It’s also hard to write a review of film in the Marvel/Avengers franchise.  Basically, each film has to stand alone be good in its own right, but you cannot avoid the fact that each film is serving a much larger and grander storyline that, we all assume, ends with Avengers 3.  In a sense then, phase 2 of the avengers story has a lot of work to do to be good.  Phase 1 launched it and we didn’t know about phase 2 or 3 at that point.  We all thought it would culminate in Avengers.  Then we discovered it wouldn’t.  So phase 2 has to add to the story without really concluding it.  This inevitably leads to a problem with villains.  This has been Marvel’s problem in phase 2.  You can’t keep using the old ones, it gets dull and if the heroes don’t actually properly beat them, they aren’t doing their job.  You can’t bring in the new ones in all their fullness too soon as we need to save them for Avengers 3.  So we have to introduce villains that you kind of know aren’t really all that bad.

So there’s the melty guy in Iron Man 3, the Winter Soldier in Cap 2, the elf dude in Thor 2 and Ronan the Accuser in GotG.  None of them have been the kind of epic villains you expect.

Introductions aside, let’s move right along.  I really enjoyed Guardians of the Galaxy for 4 reasons.  Star Lord, Rocket Racoon, Groot and Drax the Destroyer.  The 4 of them and the 4 of them together is a very entertaining mix.  They are all skilled and they all bring an element of humour to the film which keeps it light hearted and just fun all the way through.

Chris Pratt is excellent as Star Lord, the character we’ve never heard of, but apparently no one has so that’s fine.  Rocket is pretty funny and Drax is too in his own way.  Groot also has a few one liners, which despite being all the same, made me laugh a number of times.

It’s very funny at points, but not a comedy.  It’s a light hearted, space action adventure that is just a lot of fun.  It feels a bit like having a water fight with your best mates on a hot, sunny day in a massive field and throw in some HUGE super soakers!  Every one has a good time.

The story is hard to comment on.  It is clearly paving the way for Avengers 3 and so the purpose of the film is really to introduce people and objects into the bigger storyline that began with Iron Man 1.  As such, it is a necessary part of an epic story.  On it’s own, it could hold it’s weight, but it is slightly formulaic if you boil it down to it’s bare bones plot.  I don’t mind that, it’s a pretty good formula and the way the characters all meet is really a master stroke.  The villain does suffer from the above problem.  He is strong, in his way, but he doesn’t really do anything except loom menacingly.  In terms of it’s place in the wider story, without giving too much away, the Avengers are going to have to seriously up their game if they are to survive Avengers 3.  It introduces a world that none of them are prepared or equipped to face, alone or together, and so introduces threats that, at the moment, we have no obvious solution to.  It also develops The Collector a bit, but we still don’t really know who he is or what his agenda is.  Will the Guardians of the Galaxy ever meet or interact with the Avengers?  The post credits scene was a huge surprise and most people won’t get it.  Whether there is any significance to it, I couldn’t say.

Overall, this was a lot of fun, contributed well to the grander story and was well done so I am going to give it 85/100 .