200 Movies, 1 Woman, 1 Blog

The Avengers, 2012, USA

I’m STILL on a buzz from seeing this movie last night. It was thrilling, funny, and a real good time. There’s a reason it made more in its opening weekend than any other movie in history. Mark my words: it will end up making more money than Avatar did. The bar for summer blockbusters has been set VERY high. I definitely need to see it again, since I missed some of the dialogue and one-liners because of all of the laughter in the theatre.

For those of you living under a rock, The Avengers is an ensemble superhero movie featuring Thor (Chris Hemsworth), Captain America (Chris Evans), Iron Man (Robert Downey Jr.), the Hulk (Mark Ruffalo), Black Widow (Scarlett Johansson, in the token female role) and Hawkeye (Jeremy Renner). They must work together to fight against Loki (Tom Hiddleston), who is trying to rule mankind by commanding an alien army. And that’s all you need to know about it going in!

One surprising highlight of the film was Ruffalo. I’ll be the first to admit that I am not a fan of the Hulk as a character. I found Hulk terrible, and The Incredible Hulk was passable at best. I was actually disappointed when they cut Edward Norton, because I did like his interpretation of the character, but I understood why it was done, considering the fact that Norton is notoriously difficult to work with. I can say, firmly, that they made the right decision because Ruffalo is, far and away, the strongest interpretation of the three. I really like that they’ve moved away from the “I don’t like myself” crap from the first two Hulk films, and that this incarnation of Bruce Banner appears to accept himself and his powers. The character also had a sense of humour about himself and others, which the previous two seriously lacked. I actually WANT to see Ruffalo in a Hulk-centred film.

As expected, Black Widow was mostly around to offer some token female eye candy. I’d suggest they make a movie about the character, but I fear that Johansson would make it woefully dull. I just couldn’t get invested in her character. To a lesser extent, I felt the same way about Hawkeye. Renner’s character suffered from poor character development (or: no character development), but he did about as much as he could with the character. I can see Hawkeye having an interesting back story.

I saw the film in 3D on an IMAX screen. I was fairly impressed with the 3D, particularly in the second half of the film. I was actually nauseous towards the end, which can be seen as a good thing or a bad thing, I suppose. It highlights just how realistic the 3D looks….but being nauseous isn’t fun! The visual effects were amazing, and the film was fun to look at.

If you haven’t seen The Avengers yet, check it out! Be sure to remember to stick around after the credits because there are TWO scenes after the credits. I won’t say a word about them, because it’s best to be pleasantly surprised by them.

I’m almost disappointed to know that the “team” won’t be getting together in all of the Marvel superhero films. I think the audience has been thoroughly spoiled by The Avengers. I’m always excited to see another superhero offering, but Iron Man 3 can’t possibly be as cool as The Avengers was.

Watching this movie has made me wonder, yet again, why I don’t read comics. I LOVE superhero movies and the stories behind all of the characters, but I haven’t really read any of the comics. I suppose it’s because I don’t know where to start. Can you pick up the latest issue and start from there, or is it best to start from a particular storyline? Or just read some of the more popular storylines before heading to the contemporary issues?

Captain America, 2011, USA

This is a superhero film… with a twist. Instead of taking place in the modern day, this film takes place during World War II.  As someone who has been fascinated by that time period for years, I was very eager to see it.

Steve Rogers (Chris Evans) is short, skinny, and sickly.  He’s also desperate to defend his country.  After being rejected by the army numerous times, Dr. Abraham Erskine (Stanley Tucci) chooses him for a special project.  He is injected with a serum that makes him stronger, and exaggerates his personality.  In other words, he becomes more courageous and more compassionate.  Steve becomes Captain America, and, at first, he’s forced to perform at war bonds fundraisers and troop morale boosters.  But when the unit containing his best friend, Bucky (Sebastian Stan) is captured by the evil Red Skull (Hugo Weaving), Steve must actually become Captain America and rescue the soldiers.

I really loved the first half of the movie.  It was funny, and Evans makes Steve Rogers very likable.  At the middle point, there is what appears to be an ending to the movie.  I was just waiting for the credits to roll at that point, and never really recovered after that.  As a result, the second half felt like it dragged a little bit.  It felt repetitive.

Another great thing about the film were its connections to other Marvel Franchises.  Howard Stark (Dominic Cooper), Tony Stark’s father, is a supporting character in the film. It was nice to see what their relationship was, knowing that Steve Rogers and Tony Stark would be working together in the “present”.

I enjoyed the film, but I do think it’s the weakest of the three Marvel offerings this summer.

The rest of the post contains spoilers for the end of the movie:

I really didn’t like the fact that they brought Captain America to the present.  I understand that they need to do so for The Avengers, but why not do it off screen?  I hate that any sequels will now have to take place in the present.  I don’t want to see Captain America fighting in the Middle East.  I want to see him fighting Nazis in World War II.  They could have brought him to the present at the end of a trilogy.  Viewers of The Avengers don’t need to know how he was brought to the present right away – only that it happened at some point in the film timeline.

I just think there was a ton of potential for more stories taking place during World War II.  The setting was the most intriguing part of the film. Now that it is gone, Captain America feels like any other superhero.

Sunshine, 2007, UK/USA

Recommended by: Deepayan

This post contains mild spoilers regarding the tone of the movie.

This was a wonderful movie. The last thirty minutes are definitely the weakest moments of the movie, but it’s still an intense science fiction and psychological thriller. One of the things I love about science fiction is how it looks at humanity, and the human thought process. Sunshine definitely does this.

In Sunshine, a group of eight people are on a ship headed to the sun. They have a large weapon (or payload) with them, that is meant to revive the dying sun. They are close to the drop off point when they receive a distress beacon from the original ship sent to do this mission. When they go to rescue the potential inhabitants and take their weapon, disaster strikes in a number of ways.

The movie features an ensemble cast including Cillian Murphy, Rose Byrne and Chris Evans. The movie also features Cliff Curtis, who also acted in Trauma; a show that I enjoyed…until it was cancelled. Curtis was by far my favourite actor on the show, so I was thrilled when he appeared in the movie.

One of the best aspects of the movie was the way it looked at death and sacrifice. Is killing someone or leaving them to die okay when all of humanity is at stake? Or does doing that remove one’s humanity, thus, negating the very thing you’re trying to save? It made me think about how I’d react under the same circumstances. I have a terrible fear of death, so it’s impossible to know how I’d react when I’m facing certain death. I’d like to think I’d sacrifice my life to save humanity. Another idea that is presented is the importance of human life when faced with destruction. In order to preserve human life, human life becomes secondary to a mission. It’s kind of a sad thought, but it also makes sense.

I did have a problem with the last half hour, as I stated earlier. The change is very abrupt. It goes from being a brilliant psychological thriller to a slasher movie. The intensity remained, but some of the heart didn’t. I think that the ending could have been achieved without resorting to slasher horror. I do realize that the idea of isolation and despair is being examined towards the end of the movie, but was it really necessary? I think it could have worked without it. In fact, I think the movie would have worked far better without it.

The special effects were so beautiful. I watched it in HD, and I’m very glad I did. The shots of the sun were amazingly realistic. The movie was a fairly low-budget movie, but Danny Boyle sure does a lot with a limited amount of money. This is Boyle’s first science fiction movie, but it still felt like much of his other work. I’ve noticed that he tends to examine human nature quite a bit. This movie was all about human nature and how we react in extreme circumstances. It was very thought-provoking, and I wish I’d watched it with someone just so I can have a discussion about it afterwards. I am sure I will watch it again someday, because it was such a joy to watch.

I actually really love science fiction. I haven’t watched enough of it over the course of this project. I love artwork that depicts science fiction or fantastical elements (which explains pretty much every computer wallpaper I’ve ever used), and I love science fiction literature and movies. Anyone have any recommendations?