Feb 282015
 
four reels

Tony Stark’s (Robert Downey Jr.) need to find a way to defend the Earth leads to the creation of Ultron (James Spader), an artificial intelligence more attuned to destroying the planet. Iron Man, Thor (Chris Hemsworth), Bruce Banner (Mark Ruffalo), Captain America (Chris Evans), Black Widow (Scarlett Johansson), and Hawkeye (Jeremy Renner) team up to face Ultron, as well as the threat caused by two Hydra-created meta-humans, Wanda & Pietro Maximoff (Elizabeth Olsen, Aaron Taylor-Johnson). Things become more complicated with the creation of the artificial entity, Vision (Paul Bettany) who may save or destroy them all. With the world at stake, the Avengers need assistance from the remains of SHIELD, Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson) and Maria Hill (Cobie Smulders), along with James Rhodes (Don Cheadle) and Falcon (Anthony Mackie).

Joss Whedon does it again, brilliantly crafting an extravaganza that’s really a character piece. No one can work with ensembles like he can, making each line count, slipping levels of meaning into every interaction so that it feels like all of the characters have had complete and compelling arcs, even though most only have a few minutes of screen time.

Sure, this second Avengers outing doesn’t rival the first, but then that’s a high bar. The action is a bit much (quite a bit—I’d have exchanged fifteen minutes of crowd saving and building breaking for a couple more group discussions) and a few of the characters are slipping into their clichés (Captain America, Iron Man, Thor, I’m looking at you). No problem. There’s lots of heart, lots of wit, and fabulous new characters to take up the slack. Scarlet Witch, Quicksilver, and Vision are exactly what the franchise needed, and I’d be content with an entirely new Avengers team as long as several of these new characters are a part of it.

Ultron may not be Loki, but he’s an excellent villain, avoiding the dull, emotionless-but-with-a-tinge-of-anger AI stereotype and instead giving us a robot that’s off his rocker. He has issues.

I’m sorry to see Whedon leaving the Avengers’ directing chair. In lesser hands, this could have collapsed into a Transformers movie.

 Reviews, Superhero Tagged with:
Feb 222015
  February 22, 2015

Nominees for Worst Feature Film

  • Hercules
  • Left Behind
  • Noah
  • Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (Winner)
  • Transformers: Age of Extinction

 

Nominees for Most Painful Performance

  • Johnny Depp as Napping Guy in Transcendence
  • Kelsey Grammer as Guy Just Getting a Paycheck in Transformers: Age of Extinction
  • Mark Wahlberg as Overacting Abusive Father in Transformers: Age of Extinction
  • Megan Fox as Drunk & Confused Gal in Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (Winner)
  • Nicolas Cage as Under-acting Nicolas Cage in Left Behind

 

Nominees for Most Ridiculous Time Filler

  • Godzilla – The human soldier does…things
  • The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies – No, really, another orc getting stabbed
  • The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies – Every other frame
  • Interstellar – Earth
  • Noah – Let’s kill the grandchildren (Winner)
  • Transformers: Age of Extinction – Every scene with Mark Wahlberg

 

Nominees for Most Egregious Exposition

  • Dracula Untold – Voice over
  • The Giver – Voice over
  • Interstellar – Explanatory speeches masquerading as dialog. (Winner)
  • Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles – Turtles explaining the story
  • Noah – Recap of The Bible

 

Nominees for Most Disappointing

  • Godzilla
  • The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies
  • Interstellar (Winner)
  • The One I Love
  • The Tale of Princess Kaguya

 

Nominees for Best Song/Use of a Song

  • Come and Get Your Love – Guardians of the Galaxy
  • Everything Is Awesome – The Lego Movie
  • The Hanging Tree – The Hunger Games
  • Little Boxes – The Boxtrolls
  • Once Upon a Dream – Maleficent (Winner)

 

Nominees for Best Screenplay

  • Captain America: The Winter Soldier (Winner)
  •  Edge of Tomorrow
  • Guardians of the Galaxy
  • The Lego Movie
  • Predestination

 

Nominees for Best Character Creation

  • Beauty and the Beast – The Beast
  • Dawn of the Planet of the Apes – Caesar/the apes
  • Guardians of the Galaxy – Rocket
  • The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies – Bilbo/Thorin/Tauriel
  • Maleficent – Maleficent (Winner)

 

Nominees for Best Animated Feature Film

  • Big Hero 6
  • The Boxtrolls
  • How to Train Your Dragon 2
  • The Lego Movie (Winner)
  • Penguins of Madagascar

 

Nominees for Best Feature Film

  • Captain America: The Winter Soldier (Winner)
  • Guardians of the Galaxy
  • Maleficent
  • Predestination
  • X-Men: Days of Future Past
Feb 212015
  February 21, 2015

This is it. The end of the road. The final category. Once you’ve read this, you are done and are free to ignore the Oscars, Independent Spirit, and Razzies. Yup, awards season is over. Return to your homes. But first…

The nominees for 2014, Best Feature Film are:

  • Captain America: The Winter Soldier
  • Guardians of the Galaxy
  • Maleficent
  • Predestination
  • X-Men: Days of Future Past

And the winner is:

.

.

.

Captain America: The Winter Soldier

The Captain was fun and fast. The action worked and the plot was pleasantly twisty with the more unlikely elements hidden under all the razzle dazzle. It had more to say than most critics were expecting and put real effort into character development. The hook was the dialog. This might not have been a banner year, but the top films were strong, and this was the strongest.

 

Feb 212015
  February 21, 2015

The nominees for 2014, Best Animated Feature Film are:

  • Big Hero 6
  • The Boxtrolls
  • How to Train Your Dragon 2
  • The Lego Movie
  • Penguins of Madagascar

And the winner is:

.

.

.

The Lego Movie

The surprise of the year, The Lego Movie was smart and contains the best rendition of Batman on film. Yes, really.

Feb 212015
  February 21, 2015

The nominees for 2014, Best Character Creation are:

  • Beauty and the Beast – The Beast
  • Dawn of the Planet of the Apes – Caesar/the apes
  • Guardians of the Galaxy – Rocket
  • The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies – Bilbo/Thorin/Tauriel
  • Maleficent – Maleficent

And the winner is:

.

.

.

MaleficentMaleficent

A lot of impressive work in this category, but Maleficent is spectacular. Even the film’s detractors admit the altered Angelina Jolie was breathtaking.

Feb 212015
  February 21, 2015

The nominees for 2014, Best Screenplay are:

  • Captain America: The Winter Soldier
  •  Edge of Tomorrow
  • Guardians of the Galaxy
  • The Lego Movie
  • Predestination

And the winner is:

.

.

.

Captain America: The Winter Soldier

It was a battle of clever dialog and Cap edged out the competition.

Feb 212015
  February 21, 2015

Alright, so enough of the bad, and onto the good.

The nominees for 2014, Best Song/Use of a Song are:

  • Come and Get Your Love – Guardians of the Galaxy
  • Everything Is Awesome – The Lego Movie
  • The Hanging Tree – The Hunger Games
  • Little Boxes – The Boxtrolls
  • Once Upon a Dream – Maleficent

And the winner is:

.

.

.

Once Upon a DreamMaleficent.

This was a tight category, with some really good, in some cases surprisingly good (The Hanging Tree), nominees, but the goth version of Once Upon a Dream perfectly defines the film, plus, it is beautiful.

Feb 212015
  February 21, 2015

The nominees for 2014, Most Egregious Exposition are:

  • Dracula Untold – Voice over
  • The Giver – Voice over
  • Interstellar – Explanatory speeches masquerading as dialog.
  • Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles – Turtles explaining the story
  • Noah – Recap of The Bible

And the winner is:

.

.

.

Interstellar

This film talks where few men have talked before. If something could be said or shown, Interstellar says it. (For more, see Nolan’s 2001)

Feb 212015
  February 21, 2015

The nominees for 2014, Most Disappointing are

  • Godzilla
  • The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies
  • Interstellar
  • The One I Love
  • The Tale of Princess Kaguya

 

And the winner is:

.

.

.

Interstellar

Sure, I should have known it wouldn’t be very good, but I kept hearing how great it was. And you might not have my “Nolan warning.” Interstellar is OK, but massively oversold. Smart? Epic? Confusing? No. Just sappy and mediocre.

Feb 212015
  February 21, 2015

The nominees for 2014, Most Ridiculous Time Filler are:

  • Godzilla – The human soldier does…things
  • The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies – No, really, another orc getting stabbed
  • The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies – Every other frame
  • Interstellar – Earth
  • Noah – Let’s kill the grandchildren
  • Transformers: Age of Extinction – Every scene with Mark Wahlberg

And the winner is:

.

.

.

Noah – Let’s kill the grandchildren

Sure, others wasted more time (Looking at you The Hobbit) but none stood out so as an obvious insertion just to make the film longer. Why did Noah want to kill his grandchildren? Because otherwise, the film was much shorter. That’s it, and that’s why it won.

Feb 212015
  February 21, 2015

The nominees for 2014, Most Painful Performance are:

  • Johnny Depp as Napping Guy in Transcendence
  • Kelsey Grammer as Guy Just Getting a Paycheck in Transformers: Age of Extinction
  • Mark Wahlberg as Overacting Abusive Father in Transformers: Age of Extinction
  • Megan Fox as Drunk & Confused Gal in Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles
  • Nicolas Cage as Under-acting Nicolas Cage in Left Behind

And the winner is:

Megan Fox as Drunk & Confused Gal in Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles

Sure, they were all just terrible, but Megan brought something extra to the role–that she had no more idea what she was doing there than we did. Remarkable.

Feb 212015
  February 21, 2015

It’s the night before the Oscars, so it is now time for If I Ruled the Oscars 2014 (IIRTO for short). Yes, I can feel the excitement. Please advise affiliates we may run late. We have 10 categories to run through-5 Worst of, 5 Best of. Since we end with Best Picture, it’s only right to start with Worst picture. So let’s get right to it.

The nominees for 2014, Worst Feature Film of the year are:

  • Hercules
  • Left Behind
  • Noah
  • Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles
  • Transformers: Age of Extinction

 

And the winner is:

 

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles

They were all worthwhile–boring, pointless, laughable–but Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles went that extra yard. Senseless plot. Joke characters. Excessive exposition. Horrible acting, editing, and directing. Really, this film had it all.