Can five very different and individualistic superheroes come together and save Planet Earth?
And if they cannot save us, can we be sure they will Avenge us?
By now, I am sure, you have seen the buzz if you have been anywhere near the internet within the past week or so. The opening salvo in the Summer Movie Season has been launched, oddly enough a little early, making over $178 million US overseas opening weekend, breaking opening weekend records in countries like Brazil and Mexico, and projected to make over $150 million US this opening weekend in America.
The movie I am talking about, of course, is The Avengers.
Every superhero movie that has been, and is being, made is surrounded in controversy. One of the first big internet explosions about The Avengers was Disney hiring Joss Whedon as the Writer/Director.
You may be familiar with Joss, he is the mastermind behind such TV series as Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Angel, and Firefly, the driving force behindthe episodic internet mini-series Dr. Horrible’s Sing-a-long Blog, and big screen Writer/Director for Serenity and The Cabin in the Woods.
The Marvel fandom went into an uproar but were quickly silenced by Joss’ fans and supporters; the same people who desperately (and still do) want him to write and direct the Wonder Woman movie.
The second was the lose of Ed Norton (American History X, Fight Club) as The Incredible Hulk. Many people saw this as a betrayal, a giant snub, and a huge break with the tradition of the current actor portraying the character in a same time line, team-up sort of movie like this.
I, for one, thought Ed Norton did an excellent job in The Incredible Hulk and was slightly leery of the hiring of Mark Ruffalo (Just Like Heaven, The Brothers Bloom). Do not get me wrong, Mark Ruffalo is a great actor; my hesitation had more to do with Ed Norton being replaced than Mark Ruffalo’s acting skills.
That was to be the only replacement though, all the other actors have reprised their roles for The Avengers.
Robert Downey, Jr commends every scene as Iron Man, Scarlett Johansson as the deadly and beautiful Black Widow, Chris Evans as the powerful super soldier, and original Avenger, Captain America, Chris Hemsworth as the demi-godly Thor, Samuel L. Jackson as the no nonsense Nick Fury and Clark Gregg as fan favorite Agent Phil Coulson.
For music lovers, you will be very pleased with the soundtrack, composed by Alan Silvestri.
Opening night is great for movie lovers, especially at a midnight show. The audience is there because they are fans, because they expect greatness, because they cannot wait another second more.
We laughed, we cried, and in the end I do not believe there was a person in the theater who was not like a child discovering their love of roller coasters for the first time.
“Let’s go again!”
I cannot recommend The Avengers enough. This is a must see, even if you are not that big of a superhero or comic book fan.
What Joss did was open the door to geek fandom a great deal wider, everyone should walk through.
I read it on the internet and heard it while leaving the theater, audience members saying this was the BEST super hero movie ever.
I am inclined to agree.
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Five college friends, two couples and a pot smoking genius fifth wheel, head out for a weekend at a Cabin in the Woods high up in the mountains by a lake. These are some of the basic ingredients for a horror movie, which the characters themselves acknowledge, the twist is, this is a Joss Whedon film…
From the very beginning, with its Robert Rodriguez/Quentin Tarantino Grindhouse title card, The Cabin in the Woods runs smooth as silk with its writing and pacing on target like a…holy crap that is a hot redhead in her underwear (Thank you Joss and where the hell do you find them?)…
In all seriousness, there are times, especially in the first half of the film, I lost myself in the story and its traditional horror film genre feel, and then the tension is broken a little and I am reminded that this is a Joss Whedon co-written and directed project.
Then I remind myself that Joss is well acquainted with horror.
You are not sure who Joss Whedon is?
Maybe you have watched one of his TV shows: Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Angel, Firefly, or Dollhouse.
Maybe, you have watched his Firefly sequel/series continuation film Serenity.
Or maybe you are familiar with the extremely popular internet release Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog he wrote, directed and co-produced during the last Hollywood actors’ strike.
I know, maybe you have seen his name mentioned because Joss Whedon is the writer/director of the upcoming summer blockbuster movie The Avengers?
Not to mention he wrote Toy Story and Titan A.E.
There is a reason he made io9’s “Science Fiction and Fantasy Creators Who Became Their Own Genres” list. You get the point.
Joss Whedon’s co-writer is Drew Goddard, Lost and Alias producer and writer as well as, I know I am on the fringe with this, one of my favorite films Cloverfield. (I cannot wait for the sequel!)
The Cabin in the Woods stars Kristen Connolly, as Dana, the hot redhead I mentioned before, and this is her first major role and the only thing I have watched her in so for.
Chris Hemsworth (Star Trek (2009), Snow White and the Huntsman), the demi-god Thor himself stars as Curt.
Anna Hutchison (Legend of the Seeker) is Jules.
Jesse Williams, another relative unknown, as Holden.
And, rounding out the five, is Fran Kranz (Dollhouse) as the pot smoking Marty.
The cast also includes Bradley Whitford (The Good Guys, The West Wing), Brian White (Moonlight, The Shield) and Amy Acker (Angel, Dollhouse).
The Cabin in the Woods is an incredible film, in many ways, it redefines the genre like Scream and Saw, remaining unique while paying homage to nearly EVERY horror film out there.
I am not going to go into this any further, you deserve to see it with fresh, untainted eyes.
I will say this:
If you love Joss Whedon and/or if you love horror films, this is a definite MUST SEE!
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Every year each District selects a teenage boy and girl to send to the Capitol as tribute to compete to the death in The Hunger Games. This year, in order to save her sister’s life, Katniss Everdeen volunteers. Wilderness survival is something Katniss knows very well, but to survive the games, she must learn to survive in a society alien to her own.
I have never read the books, though, I know a few people who have and their level of enthusiasm when this movie was announced has only been rivaled by the Twilight franchise. Maybe not a glowing endorsement for some, but, then again, I have not heard anything negative about Suzanne Collins’ trilogy, at least nothing remotely close to the scale of hatred surrounding Twilight.
For those who may not know, The Hunger Games is the first book in a trilogy of the same name by Suzanne Collins. The books center around a young woman, Katniss Everdeen, who volunteers to go in the place of her younger sister and ends up becoming a symbol for the exploited districts.
The first trailer I saw for The Hunger Games intrigued me and, since I am familiar with the buzz surrounding the novels, I decided to go.
It doesn’t hurt that Jennifer Lawrence, the actress who portrayed Mystique in X-Men: First Class, is cast in the lead as Katniss Everdeen.
The supporting cast consists of Stanley Tucci (Easy A, Captain America) as Caesar Flickerman, Capitol city’s biggest TV host, Elizabeth Banks (Spiderman 1, 2 & 3) as Effie Trinket, escort and chaperone for the District 12 representatives, Donald Sutherland (The Mechanic, Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within) as President Snow, and Woody Harrelson as Haymitch Abernathy, former winner of the 50th Hunger Games, now trainer and tribute representative for District 12.
Gary Ross (Dave, Pleasantville) directs and also co-wrote the screenplay with the author Suzanne Collins.
The soundtrack was expertly put together by T-Bone Burnett (O Brother, Where Art Thou?) and James Newton Howard (Do not know who he is? Really?).
Where does The Hunger Games fit into the genre of movies? I would put it into the Reality show/Blatant commentary on today’s society genre along with The Running Man and Gamer. While not as heavy handed as the latter and not as funny as the former, it does manage to bring some of the books feel to what is ultimately an all-ages Hollywood film.
At least that is what I have read.
I really enjoyed this film. The settings are extremely well done, I genuinely felt for the main characters, was even moved a little by the deaths of the evil secondaries, and I have moved the book series up in my ‘To Read’ list.
If you have even entertained the thought of seeing this film, go, now. If you were unsure, dragging your feet, loved the book and hate adaptations, or whatever reason keeping you from the theater I believe you are missing out on this film.
As someone who has never read The Hunger Games, I look forward to the inevitable sequel.
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While escaping a war he wants no part of, John Cater is transported to an alien world and into the middle of another war. Somewhere between the two planets, he will find his place in the Universe and a cause worth dying for.
When I saw the first trailer for John Carter last year, I was excited. It went down a notch when I found out this was a Disney production.
Sorry, yes, Disney makes great family-fare movies, but I will forever cringe when they do more adult movies because of their ‘Disney-fication’ of franchises. It may be irrational, but there it is.
John Carter was written and directed by Andrew Stanton, the writer/director of Wall-E and one of the main people behind the Toy Story franchise.
Taylor Kitsch plays John Carter and, while I have never watched an episode of Friday Night Lights, I did enjoy his brief appearance in X-Men Origins: Wolverine as Remy LeBeau, aka Gambit.
The beautiful and talented Lynn Collins is Dejah Thoris, Princess of Mars, who was also in X-Men Origins: Wolverine as Kayla Silverfox. Dejah is kick ass.
The CGI characters were voiced by such giants of the industry as Willem Dafoe (Spiderman 1, 2 & 3), Thomas Haden Church (Spiderman 3, Easy A) and Samantha Morton (Minority Report).
Pixar, of course, is the machine behind the special effects.
Special mention must also be made of Michael Giacchino for his work on the score. You may remember him as the mastermind behind the music in Lost, Star Trek and its upcoming sequel, Super 8 and 50/50.
Ok, brass tacks. Did I like this movie?
Yes! Do not believe the negative press. While this movie will not win an Oscar, it is a fun movie the audience, as well as I, thoroughly enjoyed. We all got the jokes the negative reviewers apparently could not and 75% of the audience stayed until the final rating screen just in case there was one of those additional end credit scenes.
The story was straightforward with a little twist to bring it home. The CGI was excellent as well as the costumes; I loved the designs. The music is great and I am going to look for the soundtrack to add to my library.
My verdict: definitely see John Carter film. It is essentially an all-ages film that does not strip things down to a kid’s ‘level’, so take your children of age as well.
As for the Star Wars prequels answer, well, I feel John Carter is a cleaner concept, with no annoying characters, cooler speeders, a more exciting arena fight and a better love story. The only things they have over John Carter are Jedi and lightsabers. You should make your own decision though.
I will be adding John Carter to my library when it comes out on bluray later this year.
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Possessed by a Spirit of Vengeance, Johnny Blaze transforms in the presence of Evil into the fiery headed, chain wielding, motorcycle riding Ghost Rider.
Let me begin by saying I hate the first Ghost Rider. As a kid, I loved reading Ghost Rider comics, especially the Spirit of Vengeance books, and I believe Ghost Rider 2099 deserved way more props and better treatment than it received.
Marvel missed the boat on the first movie; the story just did not click or resonate with the actual character or his origins.
On to 2012 and Marvel’s second attempt at a Ghost Rider movie; this time around, they recruited the co-directors of Crank, Crank 2, and, the greatly underrated, Gamer, Mark Neveldine and Brian Taylor.
Reprising his role as Johnny Blaze/Ghost Rider is Nicolas Cage staring opposite Violante Placido (The American) and relative newcomer Fergus Riordan who play the mom and son Johnny must protect in order to remove his ‘curse’.
Idris Elba (Prometheus, The Losers) rounds out team good as the French alcoholic priest Moreau.
Ciarán Hinds (John Carter, Lara Croft Tomb Raider: Cradle of Life) is Roarke, the Devil’s meat suit and Johnny Whitworth (Gamer, 3:10 to Yuma) as Ray Carrigan/Blackout.
Of note: there are cameos by Anthony Stewart Head (Buffy, Merlin (UK)) and Christopher Lambert (Highlander).
The script was written by Scott M. Gimple (FlashForward, The Walking Dead), Seth Hoffman (House, Flash Forward) and David S. Goyar (Blade Trilogy, The Crow: City of Angels).
With this group behind Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance, I went into the theater with high hopes, knowing full well the pooch may have been screwed.
I liked Ghost rider 2. I like the highly stylized Crank movies and appreciate what the directors did here, stuck with Nicolas Cage; they turned his crazy loose on the possessed and on the verge of sanity Johnny Blaze to tremendous success.
That said, not everyone will like this film.
The script is a little weak and the fights seem a little naive when it comes to how to handle this character.
Filmed in Romania and Turkey they gave this film a definite ‘end of the world’ feel with sets devoid of any other traffic or, really, inhabitants other than the cast except for a couple of city/interior scenes. (I will say this, the roads they used for the film make the ones around my current city of residence look like the bombed out potholes they really are. Good on you Turkey and Romania!)
The horror aspect of Ghost Rider is amplified immensely from the first movie but it still borders on Marvel’s adaptation of The Omen; a little too ‘graphic novel’ for its own good, a little too close to Ang Lee’s Hulk.
Special effects-wise I the loved the look and feel of Ghost Rider and his vehicles; this aspect was nailed 100%.
The soundtrack was also entertaining, points for the 80’s music.
As you may well surmise from this, there is a reason Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance is not, at the very least, the opening salvo of the Summer Movie Blockbuster season and was put in the much maligned ‘February Release’ slot.
Overall, fans of the comic book will be hit or miss on whether they like this film, really boils down to if they loved or hated Crank.
The casual moviegoer may not connect with this film but everyone should definitely rent it, especially when it hits the dollar kiosk and/or Netflix.
Everyone should be thankful Marvel listened to the fans and made an honest attempt for a better second movie.
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The January 2012 issue of Juxtapoz has an interview with the incredibly talented Audrey Kawasaki. Along with it, there are some pictures of her beautiful art. You should run out and buy this issue immediately before it disappears, like it did at my local B&N, or February 2012 comes in to take its place.
There is a reason she was my first choice for #ArtistWednesday!
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Stranger is a bounty hunter in the Mongo River Valley on Oddworld, a planet seven times bigger than Earth. He captures outlaws to earn moolah for a life-saving operation; along the way, he solves a mystery, defeats an army, and saves a race of people.
Not bad for a man with no name.
I played this game on the Xbox, a lot. I can tell this because booting up Stranger’s Wrath is like slipping on an old pair of shoes; they fit well, are comfortable and, since you have had them this long and taken care of them, they kick major ass.
I have mentioned Stranger’s Wrath before (Gamers rejoice! The Oddworld factory is back online!) and with good reason, any one I have ever met that played this game on the Xbox considers it one of the best games on that console.
Everyone else had just never heard of it.
Which is a shame, Stranger’s Wrath is a beautiful game, both artistically and functionally and, with the HD upgrade for the PS3, it is difficult to take yours eyes off the screen or tear yourself away from the fluid gameplay.
Stranger’s Wrath defies any one specific classification; it is a mix of first person shooters and third person adventure/fighting games with a dash of role-playing thrown in for good measure.
In combat, you have the option to smoothly, and quickly, transition from using a crossbow in first person to spinning helicopter punches, charges and head-butts in third and then back again. Yes, you can do that in many games now, but this was far less common, frankly nearly unheard, of in 2005.
Stranger hates guns; he uses a double barrel crossbow with live ammo instead. By live ammo, I mean they are living creatures you have to capture or buy that when fired, interact with your targets in many different ways. Some electrocute, some explode, some attack and chew, and some just piss off your potential bounty.
(Yeah, Chippunks are funny; they even make jokes while sitting on the crossbow, sometimes at your expense.)
The role-playing comes as you move about town, talking to the folks there, buying supplies to fit your individual needs, acquiring information, and solving problems out in the field during and on the way to the next job. This is not a Bioware product, so the interaction with non-player characters is limited response-wise, but then again the industry has changed in giant ways in just six short years.
The role-playing aspect even extends to the missions, with all of the options in ammo, fighting techniques and in-game traps, there are tons of ways to capture a bounty; you just get more moolah if they are alive.
A couple of the coolest things about the game design are Stranger can literally ‘shake off’ his damage and all of the knives stuck in him will fly off; the other bit of awesome is Stranger has a loping, four-legged cruising speed that is fun to do down the long canyons and hallways in this game. I have even run him around just watching the graphics and marveling at the character design.
The story is solid and entertaining with enough twists and turns to keep you guessing. While the gameplay may be easy at first, almost too easy, it is a great example of how to do a tutorial and the learning curve dramatically shoots up from there; the final Boss Battle can be one of the toughest you will ever face.
If you have never played Stranger’s Wrath, I highly recommend it. You will not be disappointed.
If you played it on the Xbox, I recommend picking this up in the PSN store for a little bit of nostalgia and a reminder of how good games are designed.
For $15 bucks, you cannot go wrong.
Rejoice fellow Gamers, Oddworld has returned.
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Hugo Cabret is a young orphan boy living in the walls of a Paris train station. Left there by his alcoholic uncle to fend for himself, Hugo takes care of the clocks and harbors a secret, something left behind by his deceased father, one that will lead him to adventure.
Adapted from the Caldecott winning book by Brian Selznick The Invention of Hugo Cabret, Hugo is directed by Martin Scorsese (Gangs of New York, Shutter Island) from the screenplay written by John Logan (Rango, Star Trek: Nemesis).
Weaving together history and fiction, this enchanting tale is as much an all ages movie, as it is a love letter from Scorsese, Logan and Selznick to the art of filmmaking.
Hugo has four stars of immediate note.
Asa Butterfield (Ender’s Game) is Hugo. A young actor, he does a great job with what is an emotional role, especially for one of his first major parts.
Ben Kingsley (Ghandi, Shutter Island) is turn-of-the-century director Georges Méliès.
Chloe Grace Moretz (Kick Ass, Let Me In) is Isabelle, Méliès’ goddaughter and co-adventurer of Hugo.
Last, but not least, Sacha Baron Cohen (Borat, Sweeney Todd) is the Station Inspector and he provides a flawless performance.
The sets are lively and colorful, at times reminding me of Amelie, The City of Lost Children, and elements of the Syberia games.
Hugo has gotten some recent commercial support, but I believe this movie will greatly benefit from word of mouth.
If you want to be enchanted, learn a little about early film and are looking for a great evening at the movies, I highly recommend Hugo.
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Hello! This weekend is another weekend off as the only movie opening is the new Twilight film.
Since they are not really my cup of tea, I am going to post at least one movie review over on The Examiner.
If you are looking for a movie, might I suggest Immortals?
Have a great weekend and thanks for stopping by!
~ Kev
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This week before Immortals, there were extended trailers for Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol, The Grey and The Avengers. Just when I was beginning to think of online trailers to write about instead, two emerged from the digitally brightened screen, Act of Valor and The Raven, and demanded my attention.
Act of Valor
Act of Valor is the ‘true story’ of a Navy Seal team and what happened on one of its missions. Filmed with unprecedented access and active duty Navy Seals, this movie looks to be the closest thing most of you will ever get to combat.
The adverts for this film began with the trailer being shown at the Battlefield 3 release party and a cross-promotional campaign offering free special in-game dog tags for those North American Gamers who view the trailer and have an EA account.
The screenplay is by Kurt Johnstad, the writer who adapted 300 and has written the original screenplay 300: Battle for Artemisia.
Act of Valor is co-directed by documentary film maker/stuntman Mike McCoy (Navy SWCC, Dust to Glory) and Scott Waugh, another prolific stuntman.
I am going to go out on a limb, after seeing the trailer, and say that this unconventional duo and crew could be the major move towards a new genre that blurs the line between fact and fiction, documentary and pure fabrication, that has been threatened by the proliferation of smart phones with cameras and, really, has been possible since the advent of the handheld movie camera.
Oh, one last thing, the Cinematographer is Shane Hurlbut, the Director of Photography for Terminator Salvation.
Who will join me on February 17th, 2012?
The Raven
As long as I can remember, I have always loved Edgar Allen Poe’s poetry and stories. Now the man himself has moved beyond being just a literary creator into the realm of film as a character himself.
What follows is a fictionalized account of Edgar Allen Poe’s last days where he assists in the pursuit of a serial killer who has patterned his victims’ demises after Poe’s writing.
I am going to focus on the positive here.
The Director is James McTeigue who also directed V for Vendetta.
I like V for Vendetta.
John Cusack (Better Off Dead, One Crazy Summer) stars as Edgar Allen Poe. Luke Evans (Immortals) stars as Detective Emmett Fields.
I am a huge fan of Cusack and Evans was good in Immortals.
Let us be realistic, I really like the trailer, I do not believe John Cusack needs to take a bad script and, though, there are an awful lot of TV/first time moviemakers involved and it has a release date of March 9th, 2012, I still have high hopes for The Raven.
Put raven trailer here
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