This weekend was fucking insane. I went to a martial arts cinema conference on Friday. Not only did I get to meet Bey Logan (he was the opening keynote and participated in a panel about the film industry from the marketing/distribution side of things) I got to debate him on the merits of MMA after my presentation. He's exactly as cool as you'd think/hope he'd be. Over the course of the day, I got to talk one-on-one with him about half a dozen times and I lost count real fast how many times in a conversation he'd ask me if I'd seen this movie or that movie and I'd have to say no. The man has seen
every fucking martial arts movie ever made! It's also just cool to have been able to shake the hand that pulled Bruce Lee's lost footage from
The Game of Death out of a vault so that the world - and, more importantly, so that
I - could see it
Sounds awesome, man. Glad you had a good time and got to speak with him.
I also ended up going on a big Marvel kick. I watched Iron Man 3 and Thor 2 for the first time, rewatched The Avengers, and then watched The Avengers 2 for the first time.
I was surprised at how little I remembered from The Avengers. I barely even remember what my response to it was. I think I was pretty lukewarm, which I have to imagine was because of how little I knew/cared about the characters. Rewatching it having seen and loved Thor and Captain America 2, I found myself fucking loving it. I might even like it more than Captain America 2. It felt like every scene was better than the last. That huge set-piece on the submarine/airplane thing was spectacular (although, for me, Thor seems to suffer from Superman syndrome in that I don't find it plausible that he'd have a difficult time with anybody/anything, including The Hulk) and then the finale was phenomenal (loved RDJ going through that wormhole with the nuke).
It's just so much fun. And it, more than pretty much any comic book movie that tries to stuff in many characters, succeeds in giving every single hero his/her moments to stand out and shine. It was a great culmination of the phase one movies. So many good scenes and not just the action, but the scenes where the characters interact with one another.
I particularly loved the dynamic between Ruffalo and RDJ (and they continued with it very well in the second movie) and the tension between Evans and RDJ (which builds well to Civil War). My favorite scene might very well be when they all start getting on each other's case in the Helicarrier, right before Loki makes his escape. Banner talking about his attempted suicide, Stark and Rogers talking shit to one another, Thor complaining about humans not being as civilized as he thought them to be, etc. Great fucking scene.
The action was great to boot. The one thing I'd say that got on my nerves is that some of the quips/one-liners were a little forced or just downright lame. For example, when Stark says, "I'm bringing the party to you guys." and then Scarjo says, "I don't see how that's a party.." completely unnecessary line.
Loved all the actors in their roles though. Renner had a thankless part of course but his fight with Johansson was pretty legit and they obviously made up for it by giving him a much more substantial part in the sequel.
After that, I went to Iron Man 3, and I loved the hell out of it. Before the next Avengers comes out, I'm going to do a proper run through of literally every Marvel movie that they've made since Iron Man in chronological order so I have everyone/everything fresh in my head, but after loving Iron Man 3, I was tempted to rewatch the first two (I remember literally nothing about either except Mickey Rourke from the second one talking with an accent). Didn't people say Iron Man 3 sucked? I don't know what could've possibly bummed people out. RDJ was hilarious, as usual, and his PTSD freakouts were great, especially being paired with that kid (loved that moment at the end). I also liked the Guy Pearce angle, I was loving Favreau in the beginning (did he act in the first two?), and the ending was shocking and awesome.
I found it to be good...but moderately good. I wasn't overly impressed. I thought there was great stuff in there (RDJ is phenomenal in all these films), the interaction with the kid was enjoyable, the early sequence establishing Pearce as the villain in the flashback to '99 was cool, but then a lot of it just didn't come together for me.
The final battle- where you have all those different Iron Man suits battling on Tony's behalf, is a key example of something that on paper sounds so badass, but ended up being executed in a way that seemed confusing/loud/and messy.
Oh and don't get me started with Ben Kingsley. That bait and switch basically annoyed me because I thought they made those Mandarin viral videos so cool and had such an air of menace and mystery around the character that what they ultimately do can only strike me as squandering a big opportunity for a few cheap laughs.
In the end, I view it as an improvement over Iron Man 2, but a significant downgrade from the first.
Same thing with
Thor 2.
@europe1, didn't you call this the worst superhero movie ever? I FUCKING LOVED IT! I loved
Thor and I actually think
Thor 2 was even better. The war angle was cool as hell and the attack sequence was amazing, Natalie Portman's arc with that London portal thing was cool, all of the shit with Loki - who I've hated (not in the good way you're supposed to hate the villain) every time out - was brilliantly conceived and excuted (except the ending, that was dumb, I wanted that story to end on the fantastic note it pretended to), and holy shit Kat Dennings was funny as fuck. I think I laughed at every single scene she was in. The writing was just fantastic (it probably also helps that I've been doing the American in the UK thing myself for the past year) and the comedic relief was not only hilarious in and of itself but it was integrated flawlessly with the action (her making out with the assistant is probably the hardest I've laughed in any superhero movie ever other than RDJ's
Point Break line in
The Avengers).
I enjoyed it. I didn't think it was as good as the first Thor (which I loved) but it was definitely fun and well executed.
One thing that seems to be a consistent criticism is that Malakief (spelling?) and the Dark Elves were horrendously dull villains. But I actually liked Eccleston's character. One thing you find with a lot of the villains in these movies is that they have a personal grudge with the hero to the extent that destroying said hero is one of the most significant items on their agenda/plan. What I liked about Malakief was that he really couldn't have given two shits less about Thor. Sure he hated the Asgardians on principle as they had thwarted his crew initially, but his objective was more just about snuffing out the universe in general so he treated Thor with almost a derisive neglect, more of a nuisance than anything else. And I thought that was a cool angle.
His stoic nature was also pretty cool. I liked Ronan from Guardians of the Galaxy a lot, too and I feel that the characters were relatively similar.
The Loki stuff was handled very well. In fact, the sequence where he and Thor are on the same page to trick the Elves into freeing Portman of the Ether, was so cool (the look of the planet that occurred on, the way it was shot, the way that Loki saved Thor and took the hit for him) was so well done that it did kind of diminish it when you saw that Loki hadn't in fact died.
Agree completely that Dennings was hilarious. Key example of someone gaining more success in the interim between two movies (thanks to her CBS show) and therefore getting an expanded role and more comedic moments to shine. I thought she was great. So funny.
Conversely, Skarsgard, who shows up in so many of these films, seemed labored and forced going from earnestly played character in the first film to bumbling comedic relief in this one.
It wasn't an excellent film, in my opinion. I wouldn't call it a top 5 Marvel movie. But it was definitely good. Would have liked to see a little more of Thor's friends.
Hemsworth is great and Portman seemed more comfortable in the role than she had been in the first film.
Unfortunately, the awesomeness stopped with The Avengers 2. That movie was just a massive fuck-up. All of the comic backlogs, all of the insane villains, and they go the AI route? I thought that was a stupid decision right there. Add to that the creation of another AI who I still don't really understand but who seems to be the smartest and strongest thing to ever exist (when he picked up Thor's hammer, I seriously considered just stopping the movie).
All of the ancillary stuff - Renner's arc, the Scarjo/Ruffalo arc, the Evans/RDJ arc, Jackson popping in, those freak twins - was on par and was working splendidly, but the core conflict was just dumb and the villain sucked. Also, the effects in the opening scene were hysterically awful. The first one is absolutely stunning, and the contrast just cracked me up. And the finale is so conspicuously redoing the first one, just much lamer. Hopefully they come up with some new/better ideas for the next one.
See I like that one. It was entertaining. Redundant of the first? Absolutely. Cringeworthy in its jokeyness at times? Definitely. But I was entertained throughout. Most of the stuff that you said was good- the RDJ/Rogers angle, QuickSilver and Scarlet Witch, Renner in general, etc. I thought was strong enough to counteract the bad.
And yes, Ultron was a pretty lame villain. He should have been threatening and he was not. In fact, Spader made him way too snarky when he should have been menacing.
I thought Hemsworth was awesome in this one. Had some really funny lines/moments in the earlygoing but they didn't seem forced or out of place.
Wasn't a big fan of Hulk/BW romance as it felt very much out of left field to me.
The big action sequence at the end was very repetitive of the first film like you said, but I liked it. The thing is these big battles are all about The Avengers crushing cans. Sooner or later they are going to have to give the fights more weight by making the threats more credible. In The Winter Soldier, Rogers faced serious adversity multiple times and characters who you'd think have a free pass to the sequels definitely seemed in danger. In The Avengers and The Age of Ultron, it's like these battles are all fun and games where the heroes wreck house.
