Film Review: Marvel Avengers Assemble (The Avengers)

What a clunky title right? Happily, apart from that and another example of pointless 3D (joining the ranks of, well every film that's come out in 3D) there isn't much else to complain about with 'MAA', the film that finally ends the years long build up and throws Thor (Chris Hemsworth), Captain America (Chris Evans), The Incredible Hulk (Mark Ruffalo) and Iron Man (Robert Downey Jr.), as well as second tier heroes Hawkeye (Jeremy Renner) and Black Widow (Scarlett Johansson) together in one huge melting pot.

Continuing primarily from where Thor (the film) left off, Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson) is forced to call these heroes together when Loki (Tom Hiddleston) threatens to destroy the Earth using an energy source called the Tesseract.

Weighing in at a lengthy 142 minutes, Avengers Assemble (it's called The Avengers everywhere else, presumably us Brits would get it confused with the 1960's TV show of the same name?) is perfectly paced. Setting the scene with an explosive beginning that makes most action films finales look inferior, it slowly builds to collecting the heroes together, which results in some terrific face-offs between them all - there's some fan-boy wet dreams as we see the Hulk battle Thor, and Iron Man and Captain America have a bit of a scuffle.

No one was prepared to admit this was not the venue for the costume party

The action continues to build, with nary a dull moment to be seen leading to a colossal smackdown on Manhattan island, and of course, the inevitable post-credits scene (which some people still left before, will they ever learn?)

As it's Joss Whedon writing and directing you're pretty much guaranteed a brilliant combination of action and humour, and it has to be said, improves a lot on the solo films. Not knocking those films, for the most part they've been good fun, but this seemed like the culmination of them. It's nothing original seeing NYC the arena for a massive battle, but Whedon adds so much to it that the 45 minutes (this is a guess, it was a long old battle) fly by and it seems totally fresh, as well as gleefully mental as we cut from one superhero to another battling evil.

Whedon always has a knack for cracking dialogue, and since I was never a huge fan of the Buffy universe and I never really got into Firefly, I'm glad that there's now something I can enjoy of his that appeals to me (this and the excellent Cabin in the Woods of course.)

With a great screenplay comes great performances, with Robert Downey Jr. (as usual) standing out, and I also found Mark Ruffalo's Bruce Banner to be really quite something. Playing a slightly more unhinged version than Eric Bana and Edward Norton before him really added something for me, as well as the Banner's face being visible when you saw the Hulk.

A bit of a worry going into the film was Loki as the central villain, and while he does appear weak at times, it's clear he's under orders from someone else (again, hang around post-credits) so it works for me and Hiddleston does a great job expanding the role he started in Thor.

Whilst not affecting the quality of the actual film, it would be remiss of me not to mention the shoddy retro-fitted 3D job that was done on this. Slightly blurry at times, and totally flat, the dreaded 3D added absolutely nothing to this. But I wanted to see it in IMAX, and sadly 3D is the price you have to pay.

Avengers Assemble is the natural culmination of the story started in the original Iron Man in 2008, and the start of a new chapter that will continue (I assume) in Iron Man 3 and Thor 2. The bar has been raised considerably with Whedon's involvement (although if anyone can match it from an action/humour standpoint it's Shane Black, who is writing and directing the former), and I sincerely hope the next time the Avengers assemble, Whedon is the guy helming it all.

****
Whilst it's nothing original, the action and humour take it a mark above the solo outings before it. Brilliantly written and performed, and with some outstanding set pieces, this truly is the start of the Summer blockbuster season.

Film Review: Mission Impossible - Ghost Protocol

I'm not going to lie to you, I had no interest in seeing this film, and I'm still not entirely sure why I did, especially considering that I saw it in IMAX. Allow me to explain. The more and more weird things I heard about Tom Cruise (not to start controversy, or let someone's beliefs have any impact on a film review, but Scientology is a little odd), the harder I found it to watch him in things.

Putting a film with him on instantly conjured up images of him jumping up and down on Oprah Winfrey's couch proclaiming his love for his new missus/detainee Katie Holmes, or banging on about "thetans" or "Xenu", it was as off putting as watching Mel Gibson in a film after you listen to his deranged answer machine messages.

And it's not just Cruise I have issue with. Co-star Simon Pegg really gets on my nerves now. Once at legend status in my eyes thanks to the likes of Spaced, Shaun Of The Dead and Hot Fuzz, but now thanks to Twitter (a real pain for shooting down your lofty opinions of the famous, just ask fans of John Cusack) I just find him a really grating character.

So these two things put the new Mission Impossible film pretty low down on my to watch list. But for reasons passing understanding, I ended up going, paying the extra £4 to see it in IMAX, and God help me, thoroughly enjoying it.

It's not that I didn't enjoy the other films in the series either, the first film was great, and the third one was a right laugh too. The less said about the woeful John Woo helmed second film, the better, though. But this 4th installment (even though it's one of those sequels that opts to drop the number) was surprisingly entertaining. Utterly ridiculous, but entertaining.

After a bodged mission in Russia that causes the Kremlin to blow up (told you it was dumb), Ethan Hunt (Cruise) and his IMF team Benji Dunn (Pegg) and Jane Carter (Paula Patton) are disavowed but are helpfully tipped off by the IMF Secretary (an uncredited Tom Wilkinson), and with the help of 'analyst' William Brandt (Jeremy Renner), the team go rogue to find the people behind it, and to clear their name, before an even worse atrocity occurs.

Cue the most over the top action set pieces you've seen in ages. And I don't mean that in a negative way, most of them are absolutely thrilling. Impossible (no pun intended) in real life, but on a great big IMAX screen they just look amazing. Not to give too many away, but highlights for me included the Dubai skyscraper sequence, and the sandstorm chase that followed, and the frankly mental automated car park face off between Hunt and the man behind the bomb, Kurt Hendricks (Michael Nyqvist, more on him momentarily.)

The cast are all likable, even the little guy. The first time in several years I could watch a performance of his without my mind wandering to his personal life (admittedly, this is probably because he hasn't done anything weird lately.) Pegg also doesn't grate on my nerves, and some of the films funniest moments come from him, in particular a great one liner after the aforementioned skyscraper sequence.

Patton is fine as the teams female member, and it's actually nice that no romantic subplot with her and Cruise is forced upon us. Jeremy Renner is particularly good, and most amusing as the quite grounded Brandt. He even gets to mention how ridiculous and implausible one of the many action scenes were. An interesting fact is that his character has been introduced to the series to replace Cruise when he decides he's done enough of the films.

There's also a couple of smaller appearances from Josh Holloway (Sawyer to the Lost fans out there) as the IMF agent whose death got the whole incident started (calm down spoiler whiners, it happens in the first scene of the film), and Anil Kapoor as the spectacularly sleazy Brij Naath.

One cast member that doesn't quite work is Nyqvist as Hendricks. It's a really poorly written bad guy, and I mean that almost literally, he barely has any dialogue at all, and the guy is a great actor. Very brief appearances, and a really undefined character when so much better could have been done. Anyone who has seen the original 'Girl With...' films knows how much Nyqvist can bring to the table, and he is utterly wasted here.

The director this time round (replacing J.J. Abrams, who still hangs round in a producer capacity) is Brad Bird, best known for his work in animation, starting with The Simpsons in its glory years then going onto The Iron Giant, before heading to Pixar to direct The Incredibles and Ratatouille. This is his first live action film, in fact and it really does not show. Everything is shot spectacularly, and when you look at it, the film pretty much is a live action cartoon, so may not have been that much of a stretch.

Ghost Protocol won't change your world, or make your favourite (or least favourite) film list, but it will entertain you for a couple of hours, but just remember to leave your brain at the door.

***
An entertaining two hours of action. Probably one of the stupider films to come out recently that doesn't include CG robots, but just switch your brain off and enjoy some stunning action sequences, and a little bit of plot if you want. Just a shame that the bad guy role was seemingly forgotten this time. True popcorn fare, for better or worse.