The Road to the Avengers: The Avengers (2012)

Agent Coulson is dead! Long live Agent Coulson!
The first time I watched this movie I took it all in and mostly thought about everything that had been left out and hoped might make it's way into some future Avengers movie. You know, like Dr. Henry Pym and Janet Van Dyne (leaving out Vision, Scarlet Witch, Tigra and the Flacon for the time being). Now, I know that the sequel deals with Ultron which must include Pym and possibly the Vision, depending on how they spin the tale. I wonder if the will go the X-Men route and introduce new team members each time because then I guess I'm okay with the ones that have been left out because you can add in Pym and Van Dyne in number two. Now that I think about it, the Hulk is good and all, but what about She-Hulk? She is way cooler, plus instant cross-over with the rumored reboot of hte Faantastic Four, which I guess we need...because heaven's forbid we should accept mediocre sales and mediocre special effects. If they had given the Fantastic 4 movies the same level of attention (to be read as "budget") that they did the Avengers and it's prequels, we would already have 3 of them and a She-Hulk spin-off movie.
THe other thing the movie missed, and in it's defense very few movies tie-in other movies, was a super-powered Manhattan. Fury and the Counsel make references to other super heroes I don't know if you have read many Marvel comics, but when big things go down in New York City, Spiderman tends to turn up. And when really big things go down in the Big Apple, one or more X-Men tend to pop-up - not to mention that Beast left teh X-Men to join the Avengers and could be a nice tie-in. These could have been cameos...who wouldn't love to see the latest actor playing Spiderman or hunky Hugh Jackman in a minute or two of this movie? I don't need to explain this to Whedon who did right for the X-Men for a bit and knows how the Marvel Universe works.
I have a confession to make. Let me just take a deep breath first. Okay. I liked Mark Rufallo as Dr. Banner. I tried not to, while trying to not hate the character just because it's Raffalo. Dammit. This happned to me a few years ago with Tom Cruise.
Whedon left something out of this movie that was in every single one of it's prequels - a hint at what is to come and what super heroes it might entail. Thanatos coming to earth for the sport of it is strongly implied, but I didn't see any references to specific heroes, and I was looking for them. Certainly the scene after the credits was entertaining and I thik appropriate, but not helpful towards giving a hint.
The first time through, I thought they didn't give enough time to Captain America, and too much time to the Black Widow. This time through, I still think that they didn't give enough time to Captain America, but I liked that Black Widow was a key member of the team and proof that S/H/I.E.L.D. super spies are pretty much street level super heroes. So, who do you take away time from to give to Cap? No one. You add in 3 minutes to the movie. Are you listening Joss? You give him a minute and a half more on the helecarrier to counteract Tony Stark's tireade against him and team play and to discover and react to the "Phase Two" that Fury has in the works. And you give him a minute and a half more in the battle of Manhattan. You could maybe show some more fighting, but the best way to use this time, would be to show him acting as the commander - perhaps further orders to the first responders - but even more importantly, you show him saving/rescuing the bystanders both on the street and trapped in the buldings. What he needed was a chance to show that he is the opposite of Stark in many ways, but is already a super-hero both morally and physically. Can you think of a better answer to Starks statement that all Rogers is comes from a test tube? Show the mettle in the man, who wades in to the thick of battle, not because his ego says he can do anything, but because his conscious tells him that it is his duty to defend those that cannot defend themselves.
Of the six movies, this one is easily at the top of hte heat. I hope that Joss Whedon does more than just write and direct the second Avengers movie. I hope there are other super hero films in the works for him and his team. And I secretly hope that at some point one of them includes Warbird (who has Avengers ties of course).

The Avengers on IMDb

The Road to the Avengers: The Avengers (2012)

Agent Coulson is dead! Long live Agent Coulson!
The first time I watched this movie I took it all in and mostly thought about everything that had been left out and hoped might make it's way into some future Avengers movie. You know, like Dr. Henry Pym and Janet Van Dyne (leaving out Vision, Scarlet Witch, Tigra and the Falcon for the time being). Now, I know that the sequel deals with Ultron which must include Pym and possibly the Vision, depending on how they spin the tale. I wonder if the will go the X-Men route and introduce new team members each time because then I guess I'm okay with the ones that have been left out because you can add in Pym and Van Dyne in number two. Now that I think about it, the Hulk is good and all, but what about She-Hulk? She is way cooler, plus instant cross-over with the rumored reboot of the Fantastic Four, which I guess we need...because heaven's forbid we should accept mediocre sales and mediocre special effects. If they had given the Fantastic 4 movies the same level of attention (to be read as "budget") that they did the Avengers and it's prequels, we would already have 3 of them and a She-Hulk spin-off movie.
The other thing the movie missed, and in it's defense very few movies tie-in other movies, was a super-powered Manhattan. Fury and the Counsel make references to other super heroes I don't know if you have read many Marvel comics, but when big things go down in New York City, Spiderman tends to turn up. And when really big things go down in the Big Apple, one or more X-Men tend to pop-up - not to mention that Beast left the X-Men to join the Avengers and could be a nice tie-in. These could have been cameos...who wouldn't love to see the latest actor playing Spiderman or hunky Hugh Jackman in a minute or two of this movie? I don't need to explain this to Whedon who did right for the X-Men for a bit and knows how the Marvel Universe works.
I have a confession to make. Let me just take a deep breath first. Okay. I liked Mark Rufallo as Dr. Banner. I tried not to, while trying to not hate the character just because it's Raffalo. Dammit. This happened to me a few years ago with Tom Cruise.
Whedon left something out of this movie that was in every single one of it's prequels - a hint at what is to come and what super heroes it might entail. Thanatos coming to earth for the sport of it is strongly implied, but I didn't see any references to specific heroes, and I was looking for them. Certainly the scene after the credits was entertaining and I think appropriate, but not helpful towards giving a hint.
The first time through, I thought they didn't give enough time to Captain America, and too much time to the Black Widow. This time through, I still think that they didn't give enough time to Captain America, but I liked that Black Widow was a key member of the team and proof that S/H/I.E.L.D. super spies are pretty much street level super heroes. So, who do you take away time from to give to Cap? No one. You add in 3 minutes to the movie. Are you listening Joss? You give him a minute and a half more on the helecarrier to counteract Tony Stark's tirade against him and team play and to discover and react to the "Phase Two" that Fury has in the works. And you give him a minute and a half more in the battle of Manhattan. You could maybe show some more fighting, but the best way to use this time, would be to show him acting as the commander - perhaps further orders to the first responders - but even more importantly, you show him saving/rescuing the bystanders both on the street and trapped in the buildings. What he needed was a chance to show that he is the opposite of Stark in many ways, but is already a super-hero both morally and physically. Can you think of a better answer to Starks statement that all Rogers is comes from a test tube? Show the mettle in the man, who wades in to the thick of battle, not because his ego says he can do anything, but because his conscious tells him that it is his duty to defend those that cannot defend themselves.
Of the six movies, this one is easily at the top of hte heat. I hope that Joss Whedon does more than just write and direct the second Avengers movie. I hope there are other super hero films in the works for him and his team. And I secretly hope that at some point one of them includes Warbird (who has Avengers ties of course).

The Avengers on IMDb

The Road to the Avengers: Captain America: The First Avenger (2011)

Of the comic that make up the basis for which the Avengers and it's prequels are based on, Captain America is the one that I loved as a kid After a few years of reading it, I was introduced to the Avengers and then the West Coast Avengers, which i doubt we will see a movie about. While following Steve Rogers as the Captain as he lived the nomadic life around the U.S. I was also collecting old comics from the early 70s when Captain America teamed up with Falcon. Somewhere in here, others portrayed Captain America as Steve Rogers lost his way. And so did I. I was a fan of Marvel's Paladin, our lawful good hero who did what was needed because it was for his country and every question he had he kept to himself because a good soldier doesn't question his orders. This was interesting to me, fighting for the system even though you are becoming disillusioned by the system. And then when you can take it no more, the hero removes himself from the system. I would have continued to read the series had it continued to follow Rogers as teh main character and shown me how a true patriot deals with a government that is less than it is supposed to be. Sure, they could have had someone else playing at Captain America, but that should have been in the background, as Rogers was the key. But, they didn't do that. You could go issues at a time without even a whisper of Rogers and then it would be a couple of panels about how he was out finding himself. Instead we got comics about fighting without any of the turmoil. I was genuinely sad the day I cancelled my subscription, especially so because I also ended my Batman subscription at the same time (Batman had just wrapped up the Year One storyline which I thought was brilliant, and went back to that 80s whack-a-doodle of the month format - they guy who ran the comic shop tried to get me to hold on a little longer because Year Two was about to start, but I couldn't do it) I had moved to the X-Men as my main Marvel title by this point, though I still kept getting the Amazing Spiderman. I actually stopped collecting those within another year as I had discovered Vertigo and Image comics and was reading a lot of one-offs and mini series by small presses. Pretty soon, I even stopped buying those and was putting all of my money into AD&D even when our group broke up to go to college because I was reading the pulp fantasy novels set in the Forgotten Realms and buying the books and maps to set my own games there which never properly materialized.
This movie had little to do with any of my memories of Captain America. This Captain is based on the updated story, with the updated costume. This Captain America is a soldier first and a super hero only incidentally because someone needed to step up and he could and did. I have read some of the modern Captain America related series - trying to get through that whole Dark Avengers thing and ultimately taking a break which has lasted about a year and a half now, because it was too many series pulling in too many directions. Captain America in these comics was okay. I completely missed the whole Ultimates thing in the Marvel Universe and have always intended to read it, but haven't yet, so don't what influence that had on this film, but I suspect little.
Watching Captain America rushing into a battle while firing away with his pistol is hard to get used to but ultimately I can accept this interpretation because He's a soldier first. The harder thing to accept is Chris Evans face/head attached to the skinny actor that played the pre-serum Steve Rogers body. That is just freaky looking and more than a little unsettling.
Ultimately, I liked this movie. The character of Captain America stays true to himself and like this whole solider-out-of-time angle that they bring us at the end. The comic book aside for a moment, this is also the most accessible film of the four in the series I've watched so far. They really should have had more of Rogers in the modern times at the end. He's certainly got to be upset that everyone he knew is dead or in their late 80s or beyond. It's also a little sad that the second most interesting female lead of the four films (after Gwyneth Paltrow's Pepper Potts) won't be making a return unless it's in flashbacks - I though Hayley Atwell as Agent Peggy Carter was one of the better characters I've seen so far in any of these films.

Captain America: The First Avenger on IMDb

Sunshine (2007)

"You haven't seen Sunshine?" she said. "Oh, you'll like it. It's good."
I nodded and considered how nice it would be to watch a film I knew would be good.
The days passed, and finally the movie arrived. I took it along with some other films whose name I barely even registered because I was looking forward to Sunshine with such eager anticipation that you would never know that I had only read about this film the week before.
I entered the still house, quiet for a change, but stuffy from being closed up all day. I was alone except for the cat who had exactly the same thing on her mind as I had on mine, to get food and get it fast. I did the best I could to satisfy both of us without resorting to giving her the canned cat food that I so disliked the smell of  that I thought being faced with it might be enough to turn my hunger away.
Food and beverage ready, I sat down and fired up the ancient desktop that a lifetime ago had been a top of the line machine, or so I had told the girlfriend who would become the wife who would become the ex-wife. For what it is worth, it turns out I was right, buy the best machine you can afford even if it does more than what you need and you should be able to add minor hardware upgrades and make it last for four or five years instead of one or one and a half. Spending twice the money, but only as third as often works out great for long term personal economics. But the four or five years had doubled to over eight.
The monitor came to life as flashed with light, the familiar logo prevalent on nearly all American computers at one point and still on most. The monitor, new to me with a sleek wide screen almost made the whole system seem new. This felt perfect for a science fiction adventure.
The first trailer to play was for a slick looking horror thriller that implied the earth had succumbed to a zombie apocalypse. The second trailer was less subtle and outright flaunted being the unrated version of a horror movie, and the third openly bragged about being a zombie thriller - with the director's name flashed up and took me but a second to realize that it was the same director as for the film I was about to watch. I had the sudden feeling that I had made a horrible mistake. What if all of my excited anticipation had been for something that didn't exist?
I took a deep breath and a nice long drink of a cooling beverage specifically chosen by me to help forget about the day's heat and stresses. I could handle a sf thriller, after all hadn't Alien, one of the all-time great sf movies been a thriller? I pushed the hummus around in the bowl as I mused on this and then scooped it up with the broken off piece of flat bread and popped it in my mouth and hit play.
As Sunshine unfolded, it became first clear that this was hard science fiction. Characters were astronauts and scientists, not smugglers or space marines. It also became clear that the movie was taking itself seriously and not only was the acting of as high of quality as the setting, but so was the story. By thirty minutes in, as my meal was gone and beverages waning, I knew that no matter how this film wrapped up that it was fortunately nothing like the three trailers they had played before it as I had feared it would be.
The movie did wind itself up to a level of tension that had me eagerly awaiting each scene, tension due to both drama and action, both of which stayed true to the hard science core of the movie. The characters behaved like they would in this situation, which is for the most part with honor but we also some characters buckle under the stress and implode. There was nothing gratuitous or inappropriate about this film. The actions that were taken were the ones that needed to be taken in the context of both the film's setting and the character's psyche.
As the film climaxed and resolved, I realized that I had been needlessly concerned about the portents of the trailers. There had been an attempt to go after the same audience demographically speaking but not based upon genre. The silliness brought a smile to my face as I recalled the zombie I had watched over the weekend. I had not been dreading watching a film about zombies then. And of course she was right, I did like this film, thinking as I turned it off about the similarities it bore in both name and story the sf classic film, Solaris.

Sunshine on IMDb

The Avengers (2012)

All bow before the mighty mightiness that is Joss Whedon!
How long have I been waiting to watch this film? 10? 15 years? When did the first X-Men film come out? I've been waiting since then. I think I've secretly been wanting one since I saw that 80s-something Captain America movie and the David Hasslehoff film (made for television film maybe?) where he plays Nick Fury. I say secretly because both of those movies totally sucked, though I will admit here to the world that I've seen the Captain America movie twice. I didn't want an Avengers movie that sucked. So, we get that X-Men movie and it was pretty good, and I really liked the first Spiderman, so then I was all like, ya, now we can have an Avengers film.
Of course, I would have cast the Avengers differently - I don't mean the actors whom I am pretty much okay with - well let's say on balance I'm okay with them. I guess I really mean the line-up. Where's Dr. Pym? Where's his lady love, Janet VanDyne? It seems kind of weird to have an Avengers without Antman/Giantman/Goliath and the Wasp. At least they got Iron Man, Thor and Captain America, all of whom are essential. I'm okay with Hawkeye and Black Widow. I guess. Hulk? Not so much. I understand this venture is as much about a movie franchise as about anything else, so I understand why they want to tie their lines together. And I'm a big fan of the Iron Man movies - and I liked both Captain America and Thor. Heck, I even liked the Hulk movie. Both of them. The Hulk is not a franchise I'm terribly interested in, especially hearing that the next Hulk film will reboot him once again. But, you know what would really rock? A movie about Vision and the Scarlet Witch. You could bring Pym in through that, and that's how you beef up the ranks of the Avengers without the Hulk.
You know what I really liked about the Avengers comic books? You're really bring together already established heroes, so when they're together they have a whole bunch of baddies that allow for match-ups you would never see in the individual books. Plus, back in the day, it was not uncommon for the Avengers to cross paths with both the Fantastic Four and the X-Men. Throw Spiderman into the mix and you've got all the big names of the Marvel Universe. I know this leaves the Hulk out, but every once in a while you can use him as a foil for The Thing or for Thor. And lest you think I forgot about Daredevil, he can guest star in one of the Spiderman movies, and maybe even get a spin-off, but only after we've spun off several mutant teams.
Which reminds me, why the hell is there even one Ghost Rider movie? Now two of them! That is a crime against nature. There are so many worthwhile comics that can be made into film...like instead of giving me these crap Ghost Rider and Blade movies, give me something Alpha Flight flavored, please. Notice, I'm not hating on the Punisher movies. The Dolph Lundgren outing aside, they're actually pretty good, I just don't happen to really like the Punisher.
Okay time to actually get to the casting of the Avengers. Scarlett Johansson - really? She didn't suck as Black Widow, but the casting was a move not unlike casting Jennifer Garner as Elektra. They're both decent enough actresses, but so not the best choice for those roles. Or you know what while I'm on this subject, Halle Berry as Storm. Berry is competent and cute and everything, but so not Storm. Everyone knows that Angela Bassett should have been cast as Storm. She would have kicked ass! I guess now I've got to supply answers to the obvious questions of who I would have cast as Black Widow and Elektra. Elektra is easy - I would have cast Angelina Jolie. She's a little old now, but when Daredevil and Elektra came out, she would have been perfect. Then maybe Ben Afleck would have gotten together with her and Brad Pitt would have stayed with Jennifer Aniston. Oh the world would be a different place. For Black Widow, I wanted someone sulkier and silkier - I mean she is the ultimate femme fatale, not the dangerous school girl. Now that I think about it, I wouldn't even have used Black Widow, I would have stayed more true to the Hawkeye angle and use Mockingbird. I'm not trying to sneak out of answering this - I would have gone with Kate Beckinsale as BW.
The other actor I'm not fully on board with is Mark Ruffalo as Bruce Banner. Don't get me wrong, I like Ruffalo and he does a good enough job, but he just doesn't look like Dr. Bruce Banner. You know who would have been an inspired choice? Joseph Gordon Levitt. I'm not just saying that for my librarian, I really think he would be good.
I really liked this film. Except for the bit about Phil. Phil! What will we do now?

The Avengers at IMDb