Thursday, May 10, 2012

The Avengers

Ratings: 8.0/10
Film Class: A
Genre: Action Drama

I kept telling myself, don't expect too much... don't expect too much... Because I was fearful of being let down. Given the flattering reviews, the much awaited hype, and it's overnight exemplary ratings on imdb, I thought that regardless of my expectations, the movie would nail a spot in my Top Movie List. 

It was the first movie I had to make a week advance booking but honestly thought there was nothing fantastic about it. Of course there were the "usual" awesome CG and cool superheroes anyone would love to see come together to fight against a common enemy. Not 1, not 2, but 6 of them tag teaming, bickering and b**** smacking the hell out of Loki, a powerful God-like being from the realm of Asgard. Asgard is another world where the "Gods", like Odin and Thor lives. So having Thor being one of the 6 superheroes fighting against is a little puzzling. I mean shouldn't they be on the same level? 

Perhaps the scheming intellect of Loki may exceed Thor's, but Iron Man's intellect surely matches Loki's. So in essence, Thor + Iron Man will give Loki more than just a fair fight. Before I start, opps already did, continue complaining about the plot, perhaps it's better I give a brief synopsis. 

Nick Fury, who leads a special organisation by the name of S.H.I.E.L.D, sets out to recruit superheroes to fight against a being from another realm, whom by know you already know as Loki because he had stolen a very powerful energy source and had "converted" several of Nick Fury's elite team to be on his side. The initial "Avengers" project was scrapped, from the end credit scenes of the other superhero movies like Iron Man, Captain America and Thor, but was re-initiated in this movie because of the current situation. 

*Major spoilers ahead* Nick Fury has no idea what Loki has planned, but yet decided to gather this "Avengers" team again to retrieve the energy source. Also, Thor wasn't part of the "plan", he just happened to be involved because his brother Loki is trying to mess up the planet of Thor's love interest, Natalie Portman, whom we sadly get to only see a still picture of. The supposed "twist" in Nick Fury's "masterplan" wasn't that much of a climax and seeing how the 6 superheroes hurl semi-humorous lines at each other made the movie rather "degrading". 

The script and plot stole the class of this high awaited Blockbuster movie. It felt, if I must say, rather kiddish. It's true that the "origins" of the superhero movies came from cartoons, but seeing and experiencing how that level was raised by the previous instalments, it was rather disappointing to have sat through a semi-funny, semi-classy, semi-cool, semi-intellectual "all-star" movie. The most disappointing bit of Avengers was how silly-like the ultimate evil villain was. 

Though every superhero was given a fair share of screen time, it acted as a double-edged sword because there wasn't much focus and character engagement was kept at a minimal. That said, there's still a slight focus veered towards Iron Man but I couldn't connect with any of them. 

To sum it up, Hulk was the class clown, Iron Man was the cool nerd, Captain America and Loki were part of a himbo cheerleading squad, Thor was the clueless Viking, Black Widow was the oscar winning actress, Hawkeye was the modern age Legolas, and Nick Fury was the muttering pirate. 

There's no after credit scene, only an early credit one. Unlike the rest of the instalments, you don't have to sit through the entire credits for that few seconds of extra footage. Just have to hang on a bit before the scene of "Thanos" comes up. I blatantly put his name down because if you're not a fan of superheroes, you'll prolly be clueless about who that purple faced guy was at the very end. 

You can find out more from the link:

That said, the link also mentioned that there's this scene about the superheroes sitting at a restaurant eating shawarma (mixed meat dish) at the very end of the credit roll. However, the only scene I saw was the word "MARVEL" splashed across the big screen over a red background. I'm curious to find out why I missed the scene out but probably won't want to sit through another 142 mins just for that. While I'm definitely getting Blue-Ray for this, I'm not going to give The Avengers a second viewing... 

I really hope that the sequel will come back with a vengeance and will prove that combining all 6 superheroes in a single movie would be "neater" instead of spelling "disaster". 

The Vow

Ratings: 7.5/10
Film Class: B
Genre: Romantic Drama

When a couple's love for each other is put to the test after a car accident, Leo (Channing Tatum) must try to win the heart of his wife Paige (Rachel McAdams), once more. Inspired by true events, as the poster claims and from the stills at the end, I shall go against the norm of my usual reviews by having a spoiler right at the start *major spoiler ahead*.. don't expect anything too "bombastic" - in a nutshell, expect anti-climaxes. That's realism for you. 

I'm glad the director didn't over exaggerate matters and the scenes from the trailers are almost as romantic as it's gonna get. I believe most viewers out there would be dismayed by Leo's lack of perseverance but that's just because we've all been influenced by the conventional happily ever after romance stories. 

I've never been a huge fan of Channing Tatum but thought this was one of his best on-screen moments with his convincing love for Rachel McAdams. And Rachel McAdams has once again bragged to her fans how versatile an actress she is... as the loving wife, and the doubtful victim. The narration wasn't very consistent, though strong, it felt out of place and "forced", simply added for the purpose of injecting some cool lines and concepts about the situation. However, they added no value to the already bitter-sweet moments.

Perhaps the one most important thing I have learnt from this film is that everyone changes, gradually. But given the circumstances, we'll all turn out the same way, either way.