They Live panel discussion -- Roddy Piper, Keith David, Megan Foster

A couple days ago, Aintitcoolnews.com posted a wonderful panel discussion of Roddy Piper, Keith David and Meg Foster reminiscing about the now classic (but about to be remade) John Carpenter film They Live. They talk about Vince McMahon being upset at Roddy for leaving WWE to film the movie, the film being notoriously difficult to find immediately after its theatrical run and the infamous on-screen fight. Terrific stuff!


-Deceptisean

Assemble!

Today, I have seen The Avengers for the 2nd time.  That's right, I have seen it twice in a span of three days.  If anyone out there wants to go again, give me a ring, because I could do it, right now.  Forget everything you've heard the past little while, forget the over-analyzers and the people who are calling this film Transformers 3.  Those people are fools and their opinions should not be taken into account.  This movie is the real deal folks, you read a lot of bitching on this post about movies and with very good reason, but this one is the one to go and see.  You won't be disappointed.  Where do I begin?


When the movie was announced, I was skeptical.  Of course I was.  We've heard about team-ups before concerning comic books and they never seem to work.  X-Men?  Yeah, the films are getting worse.  That's right, worse.  Any attempt at imagination or innovation has gone out the frickin' window, it's the same drum that keeps getting banged each and every time.  If you want to know what X-Men First Class is about, just watch X-Men 1 and 2.  Same themes, same storyline, same boring crap.  Fantastic Four?  It's heart was in the right place and they weren't as bad as everyone says they were, but I didn't leave the theatre inspired or anything (a cloudy Galactus will do that to you.)  Justice League?  The live-action film got it's plug pulled, because no one could figure out how to do it, (you put a bunch of heads together in a Hollywood studio and what to do you get?  Sawdust).  So Avengers, no matter how quality the films were preceding it, I was not convinced all the characters could get the screen time they needed or deserved to have the audience give a damn about them.  In today's world, it just isn't done anymore. 


Well, I was wrong and I'm not afraid to put it into print here.  Everyone gets their moment, you get team-ups within the film, everyone gets a crack at the main villain, it's all there ladies and gentlemen, the film that you would want made about The Avengers was done.  I can't believe it.  I can't believe I'm writing this sentence. I would have thought it would have been another "yeah, it was good, but you know, they could have done this, this and this."  Nope.  No complaints.  No gripes.  It's an event picture.  You remember what it was like, lining up for Return of the Jedi or something and the anticipation was off the charts and you couldn't wait to get to your seat, grab your popcorn and wait for the flick to get started?  Where they're showing the trailers and you're like, get on with it, already?  This is this movie.  This is a bonafide, no-kidding, no schtick summer blockbuster.  Everything you would want, the characterizations, the plot, the spectacle, the action, the humor, the moments, it's all in there. 


This movie makes me want to flood Marvel with emails. I want them to reclaim Spider-Man, X-Men, Fantastic Four.  It is a crying frigging shame that these properties are not getting the treatment they deserve.  Marvel would elevate all of these films, believe me.  How awesome would it be to have Avengers 2 with Spider-Man joining the team?  It could happen.  It should happen.  Marvel has proven that a movie on this epic a scale can not only be done, but be done right.  I think there should be some sort of campaign to have Marvel grab all of their properties back.  It has to be done.  If they can do a movie this big, this good, this spectacular, then any other Marvel movie that is being made by another studio is nothing but a waste of everyone's time.  


So, go see this movie.  Again...and again...and again.  Support it loud and proud.  This is one movie that is deserving of every dollar it makes.  I can't wait for Avengers 2. 


Rating: a big time 5 out of 5.


- Stephenstein

Leading up to the Avengers

So, J-Man and Deceptisean have already talked about the five movies that lead up to this weekends mega-release, The Avengers, so I'm not going to go and write a big long dissertation about what I think of all the films.  A few lines should suffice.


Iron Man


A great origin story, Robert Downey Jr. nailed it and it was a pretty pleasing spectacle.  We only got Iron Man 3 times in this film, but all three times were pretty memorable.  We also got a bone thrown to comic fans with the stinger at the end showing Ultimate Nick Fury (aka Sam Jackson), but they couldn't possibly make an Avengers movie...the logistics would be murder!


Rating: 4.5 out of 5.


The Incredible Hulk


Sorry sports fans, Ang Lee's Hulk is better.  Liv Tyler has zero screen presence and is overrated as a "beauty".  Also, why is Thunderbolt Ross such a douche?  I mean, he's Hulk's enemy in the comics, but he's basically a scheming, mustache-twirling villain in this one.  Also, only 2 Hulk appearances (I don't count the factory scene where you can see nothing or the scene where he's strapped to a table).  The fight with Abomination is nice, but for the amount of Hulk action, they may as well have thrown Lou Ferrigno in there with his Hulk makeup and saved 80 million.


Rating: 3 out of 5.


Iron Man 2


Ah yes, the movie where the main villain is the thing in Tony Stark's chest!  Whiplash is cool, but he does nothing, he builds his own armor or the drones for Justin Hammer to use, but is not seriously a threat at any other point in the movie.  Justin Hammer is in it for laughs, he's a buffoon.  War Hammer is cool.  Someone should have shot Pepper Potts though, she was annoying as piss throughout the entire film...she's been with Tony Stark for years, why does she choose now to bag on him?


Rating: 3 out of 5.


Thor


Another great origin movie that actually has more action than I expect out of an origin movie.  Everyone fits their parts to a T and hey, I actually like Natalie Portman in this! (okay, she's growing on me, but it's sad when you can't beat your greatest role which was as a 13 year-old).  I was impressed with the world Kenneth Branagh crafted (listen to me...crafted...you'd think I was some sort of professional critic or something) and generally enjoyed the hell out of this film. 


Rating: 4.5 out of 5.


Captain America


Wow.  This one blew away the competition.  A hero you can get behind, a really charismatic villain, the entire fate of the world hanging in the balance...this is like a great James Bond film without the hero trying to bang every chick on the screen.  Chris Evans knocks it out of the park as Cap and you can count this film as the one that really got me excited for Avengers.


Rating: 5 out of 5.

Other Marvel Super Team films?

So, we've seen Marvel's The Avengers that proves that a Marvel super-team movie can be done right. What other teams can be done in the Marvel film universe? The below is pure speculation and opinion on my part, but speculation and opinion can be fun!


West Coast Avengers

From left to right: Mockingbird, Iron Man, Wonder Man who is above Tigra, and Hawkeye to the right.

Created by Hawkeye after fellow Avenger Vision suggested that the Avengers expand their influence beyond the Eastern United States, the team initially consisted of Mockingbord, Tigra, Wonder Man, Iron Man (this is where he had the upside down triangle on his chest), and of course Hawkeye. They fought many Marvel villains, even the demon Mephisto. Film-wise, this cold be an excuse to highlight lesser-known characters while still having the star-power of Robert Downey Jr. to headline the movie for optimum box office performance (even though the Iron Man in this group was initially Jim Rhodes, not Stark, but I won’t tell if you won’t).


Force Works

Force Works, from left to right: Wonder Man, Scarlet Witch, Iron Man, Spider-Woman, U.S. Agent.

Force Works from the Iron Man cartoon, from left to right: Spider-Woman, War Machine, Iron Man, Century, Hawkeye, Scarlet Witch.

Formed by Tony Stark after the West Coast Avengers disbanded, Stark sought out heroes with the same philosophy he had (a view opposed by his Avengers mates) which was to prevent disasters before they occur rather than stop them when they happen. The initial recruits were U.S. Agent, Wonder Man, Scarlet Witch, Spider-Woman and of course Iron Man. Wonder Man was thought dead at the end of the first mission, so the alien known as Century took his place. The group used a supercomputer known as The Chaos Computer that took incoming information and predicted future events and Scarlet Witch used her hex powers of probabilities in order to prevent major world disasters. Force Works was actually featured in season one of the 90’s Iron Man cartoon, with Hawkeye replacing U.S. Agent. This would be a nice compliment to a West Coast Avengers movie if one were to ever be made. The team could be used to explore the idea of what would happen if the government had the power to predict and preventing disasters, planned terrorist attacks, etc. If Marvel ever had its Spider-Man related properties back from Sony, they could lead in with a Spider-Woman movie, and maybe a U.S. Agent movie with a strong appearance from Captain America to boost ticket sales. I admit, this one is an extreme stretch.


Invaders

The Invaders, from left to right: Torch, Captain America, Namor the Submariner.

When Marvel finally reacquires the screen rights for Torch and Namor from Fox, maybe they can do a flashback movie set in WWII with Captain America, the original Human Torch (who was an android), Torch’s younger self Toro, and Namor the Submariner who is Prince of Atlantis, banding together to crush the Axis powers.


New Warriors

The New Warriors, from left to right: Firestar, Nova, Night Thrasher, Marvel Boy, Namorita, Speedball.

I love the New Warriors. Debuting in 1989, the team was formed by urban vigilante Night Thrasher (a skate-boarding hero) made up of young superheroes to help him combat an escalating crime problem in urban centers. In my opinion he recruits characters far too powerful for his purposes, but they’re still awesome: Nova (a superhuman who’s part of an intergalactic police force), Speedball (who gains energy every time he’s hit), Namorita (cousin on Namor the Submariner with his powers), Marvel Boy (with the power of telekinesis) and Firestar (with the power to start and control fire). For a movie, depict urban crime to be way out of control a la Robocop with a generally nasty, mean spirited vibe taking control of streets, and goons with super-powered weapons and occasional superhuman abilities that overwhelm the cops. Enter the New Warriors who try their best to turn the tide while dealing with life and love within the group, and shunning government interference and S.H.I.E.L.D. tries to recruit them for their own purposes. The New Warriors would be the younger, more hip Avengers.

The Defenders

The Defenders clockwise from left: Namor the Submariner, Hulk (picking his noes?), Silver Surfer, Dr. Strange. 

Hopefully Marvel can get back their screen rights for Silver Surfer and Namor the Submariner from Fox for the most powerful team in the Marvel Universe. Originally summoned by Dr. Strange to battle supernatural threats, the Defenders consists of the Hulk (the most powerful mortal on the planet), Silver Surfer (one of the most powerful beings in the universe), Namor the Submariner (ruler of the oceans, which means he controls 70% of the planet) and of course Dr. Strange (master of the occult, which means he can deal with any supernatural threat). These guys can tackle anything, but also have fights we’ve always wanted to see on screen, like Hulk vs. Namor, or Hulk vs. Silver Surfer. Some gigantic threat would have to bring these dudes together, so the movie would have to be appropriately epic.



X-Men

The amazing world of the X-Men! 'Nuff said.

Can't recognize some of the X-Men characters and situations in the picture above? There's a good reason for that. After Fox’s 60’s/70’s reboot peters out and the next Wolverine movie fails, it’s high time for Marvel/Disney to buy this lucrative property back from Fox and reboot the living f*ck out of it. Seriously. Let’s do this franchise right for once. When Wolverine 2 and the X-Men: First Class sequel come out (they’re currently in production), we will be eight movies into a franchise that has clouded its own continuity needlessly with timelines that don’t make sense, wasted characters like Cyclops and Gambit, and absolutely squandered all of the wonderful stories like Days of Future Past to Onslaught to name a few, and villains from Apocalypse to the Sentinels. What happened? This is not the X-Men film franchise I envisioned when I was a kid dreaming of the possibilities of what an X-Men movie could bring. It’s time to do this right for a change, and apparently that can only happen when if Marvel gets their hands on their beloved X-Men again. And please, no more black leather biker outfits.


Fantastic Four

Fantastic Four, clockwise from bottom: Thing, Human Torch, Reed Richards, Sue Storm.

Speaking of doing something right for a change, Fantastic Four is in desperate need of a makeover, and not the forthcoming one from Fox. Dr. Doom’s story and his relation to the FF origin is epic. Galactus was totally wasted. The Inhumans will never be done now. Mole Man and his giant monsters don’t seem to be on the horizon. As much as the two existing FF films are fun to look at, they’re completely sloppy. Thing starts a tragedy of accidents on a bridge, the FF rescue everyone and are hailed as heroes? But they started the problem!? Later, Thing and Dr. Doom destroy a moving bus, and conveniently there’s nobody inside!? But it was moving. Wasn’t the driver at least killed? No, let’s start this over, and have Marvel do this and do this right.

-Deceptisean

Avengers (2012) review

Roll call: Captain America, Thor, Iron Man, Hulk, Black Widow, Hawkeye, Nick Fury! Marvel’s The Avengers is a tour de force action summer blockbuster that delivers. I’ve read a lot of reviews that seem to be written by people weary of the hype, or people over-thinking and over-judging the movie based on its impossible expectations. Make no mistake, The Avengers is an entertaining romp, taking advantage of the opportunity to examine how these characters, most stars of their own movies, interact with each other. As a result, you see Captain America’s 40’s behaviours rub Tony Stark the wrong way, Bruce Banner trying to keep his cool around the quipping Tony Stark, Thor fighting Iron Man, Thor fighting Hulk (and Hulk unable to pick up Thor’s hammer because he is unworthy to wield it), and you get the fun of learning a lot about these comic book characters come to life through the way they initially bristle at the thought of teamwork, then take to it after the sacrifice of a character that I’ll leave a surprise for fans of the pre-Avengers movies. Joss Weadon has done a fine job nailing all of these characters and making them all my favourites. You know The Avengers is well written when your favourite character shifts from scene to scene. Truth is, they’re all good, even Black Widow who was so terribly written in Iron Man 2 that I dismissed her. But her spy and interrogation techniques are done extremely well here.

I’ve read reviews that say Loki is downplayed and non-threatening as the main villain. So imagine my surprise when I actually watched the movie and saw that Loki was a threat throughout with Hiddleston playing the character with a lot of charming zeal and panache. His plan is total domination of the world under him, and he demonstrates it in an appropriately disturbing scene where he makes a city square full of innocent people bow down to him in subservience and is about to kill an old holocaust survivor for not doing so. Captain America saves the day and teams with Iron Man to fight Loki in a very cool scene.


Actually, there are a lot of terrific action scenes. That Cap and Iron Man fight against Loki is one, the aforementioned Iron Man vs. Thor and Thor vs. Hulk fights are others. The final battle is reminiscent of the final battle in Transformers: Dark of the Moon, but with characters you actually care about with their own moments that elicited laughs and applause at the screening I was at. Hulk really shines in these final scenes, and hopefully audiences’ favourable reactions to Hulk in this movie are an indicator that there will be another Hulk movie, preferably with Mark Ruffalo who’s brilliant as Dr. Banner. The alien invasion at the end is pretty threatening and looks hopeless until one Avenger makes a big move against the horde.

Full of fun character moments, inventive action scenes and moving scenes of redemption that make audiences really connect with the movie, The Avengers is the real deal. It is what summer blockbusters should be. The Avengers is not a shallow husk with lots of unemotional special effects. The Avengers is fun, spectacular and moving at times. You will not regret watching The Avengers.

5/5

-Deceptisean

The Road to The Avengers

No, this isn’t a long lost Hope and Crosby movie. I know The Avengers opened today in North America, but I thought I’d look at the movies that brought Marvel Films to this point. I’ve always found this plan, to seed a team-up movie by launching solo adventure films and hoping that each and everyone of them will be successful enough to create a 200 million dollar film that houses all of those characters, to be truly fascinating. I mean, what a gamble! Thor, Cap and Iron Man were never cultural mainstream icons with their own series everyone knew (like Hulk or Wonder Woman). But Marvel took great pains to launch films starring these characters and made them true summer blockbusters, grossing hundreds of millions of dollars. And the Avengers?? More laymen on the street knew what the Justice League of America was than what the Avengers were seven years ago. And yet here we are, with a movie titled The Avengers, starring Iron Man, Captain America, the Hulk and Thor about to make oodles of money at the box office and mark an indelible impression on everyone under the age of 12 for decades to come.

Iron Man (2008)

Marvel had spread a lot of their characters around to other studios, so when it came time for them to make their own movies under their own studio, they had the rights to adapt just their core Avengers characters. So, why not start with the most visually spectacular one? Iron Man is a terrific origin film (but concentrates all of its time on the origin). Stark is appropriately douchy with a secret heart of gold (played very well by Robert Downey Jr., who got a second wind in his career as a superstar from this movie). All of the armour works as fan service with their accuracy to the comics and excellent movie spectacle with their spectacular visuals. Inserting Iron Man into the wars of our time, like Afghanistan, was done seamlessly. And Stark's rivalry with industrialist Stane that culminates in a rousing battle between Iron Man and War Monger (a villain from the comics) was very entertaining to watch. Not having an actual Iron Man adventure and just concentating on the origin knocked this movie down half a point with me.


4.5/5


At the time this film came out, post credit scenes were fairly common. However, Iron Man was starting something ambitious: seeding a movie that seemed way too big to be produced and very far off time-wise, if it were to ever be made at all – The Avengers. To be honest, to most fans like myself, we all believed this would be a pipe dream. But there was the scene: Tony Stark arrives home to find Nick Fury of American government agency S.H.E.I.L.D. (now and forever appearing as his Ultimates version from the comics played by Samuel L. Jackson) telling Stark about something called “the Avengers initiative”).

Incredible Hulk (2008)

Coming out a mere month after Iron Man, this film was intended as a “reboot” of the Hulk character after the lackluster box office performance of the Ang Lee Hulk movie in 2003 (which I much preferred over this one). Banner (played by Edward Norton) is on the rub from “Thunderbolt” Ross, tried to find a cure for his Hulk alter ego, Emil Blonsky steals the secret of how Banner became Hulk and tries to duplicate it, becoming a giant ghastly monster (Abomination, a villain from the comics) and Banner must turn into the Hulk to stop him. Abomination looked like crap and wasn’t even recognizable to his comic character. The dude who helps Banner to try and cure his “Hulkness” is supposed to eventually turn into The Leader, a villain from the comics (which is hinted at in the movie and may happen some day – we’re still waiting). Some of the stuff with Hulk (when he actually appears on the screen) is kind of cool with comic-booky sci-fi weapons used against the Hulk, and Hulk’s child-like wonder at the world around him in the wilderness scenes with Liv Tyler, and Hulk’s casting as a hero at the end of the movie while battling Abomination. But ultimately the film has no story and is generally a jumbled mess. I remember walking away from this film with a sense that it represented the Marvel Universe very well, with Mavel references here and there like the fact that Stark Industries built the weapons that Ross uses against Hulk. But the film left me unsatisfied as a Hulk movie. It could have used a better story and more Hulk (he appeared in Ang Lee’s version a lot more than this version).

3.5/5

In the end credits of this movie, Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr.) tells Ross in a bar that the government is putting “a team together”. Stark appearing in a Hulk movie and mentioning Avengers which was first mentioned in Iron Man cemented that Marvel was serious about committing to this idea. Fans wondered, could it be?


Iron Man 2 (2010)

Iron Man is back! Stark becomes a overnight celebrity after revealing that he is Iron Man at the end of the last movie. He’s called on the carpet by the U.S. Congress for not sharing his Iron Man armour with the nation’s military. Meanwhile, Stark is suffering from metal poisoning from his artificial heart that he rigged up in the last movie. So, he sets out making a new element and revising his artificial heart. Also a problem: Justin Hammer (played beautifully by Sam Rockwell), a rival of Stark’s, hires vengeful Russian genius Ivan Vanko (Mickey Rourke, another amazing performance in this movie), to build him an armour that can rival Stark’s so that Hammer can sell it to the military. Vanko has only revenge on Stark in mind because he believes that Stark’s father stole technology from Vanko’s father, so Vanko inexplicably builds fetish whips that emit electricity and becomes the villain Whiplash from the comics. He appears twice in a movie that’s over two hours long and is inevitably defeated. Oh, and Rhodes, Stark’s military pal (played in the last movie by Terrence Howard and now played by Don Cheedle – the first major clash Marvel Studios had over money that actually affected casting), dons the War Machine armour from the comic books to team up with Stark to battle Whiplashe's final armour at the end of teh film.

This film was an overly long mess. There were a lot of ideas here about redemption, revenge, etc., but it all seems painfully formulaic. I can’t help but feel that there is an amazing movie here, but nothing really clicks. The wonder from the first movie is gone, and the villain barely attacks (Whiplash has two scenes). Amazing actors and performances by Sam Rockwell and Mickey Rourke are utterly wasted. And the shoehorning in of elements that are supposed to lead to The Avengers movie derail the movie Iron Man 2 movie you’re currently watching. Agent Coulson goes on about having to go to the desert which is supposed to lead to the Thor movie but at this point we don't care. Natasha Romanoff (the Black Widow from Marvel comics) is introduced sloppily. She’s a double-spy who blows her cover way too quickly, she’s given a bunch of fat, doughnut-eating security guards to beat up to supposedly show her fighting prowess, and then she dons a comm system to tell Iron Man and War Machine the painfully obvious (she tells them that they’ve killed all of the bad guy robots when they’re clearly strewn around their feet, and then tells them that something large is heading their way when they can both clearly see and hear Whiplash flying toward them). I don’t care how hot Scarlett Johansson is – so are a lot of women in movies. Black Widow is just plain useless in this film. Thinking back on Iron Man 2, it doesn’t seem that bad, but when actually watching it the painful boredom suddenly begins to creep in.

3/5

In the end credits of Iron Man 2, Thor’s hammer is discovered in the desert by American government agency S.H.E.I.L.D.


Thor (2011)

Thor, son of Odin and brother of Loki, lives in Asgard with all of the other Norse gods. Thor is manipulated by his brother jealous, less athletic brother Loki to provoke the neighboring frost giants into war with Odin’s kingdom. As a result of this and Thor’s incredible arrogance, Thor is banished to Midguard (Asgard's name for Earth) without his powers. He can gain them, and become worthy enough to pick up his hammer Mjorln again when he receives humility. Meanwhile, Loki sets about taking control of Asgard.

This was a great entry into the Marvel pre-Avengers movies. Chris Hemsworth breathes life and charm into the character of Thor, and the humans he befriends do a terrific job (Natalie Portman as the woman Thor falls for, Jane Foster, and Stellan Skarsgard as fatherly Erik Selvig). The Heroes Three, Thors childhood friends and charactes from the comics, are all noble and entertaining. Tom Hiddleston is terrific as Loki, and his plans actually are clever and make sense. Asgard is beautifully rendered here and the frost giants look spectacular. Probably the worst thing about this movie is Kat Dennings, most likely brought in to appeal to the jaded, cynical crowd, but she’s not in the movie enough to care. All-in-all, a great introduction to the Thor character. Just one thing though – he wears his trademark helmet once and it’s never seen again. Unfortunate. An overly long section of the film where Thor is on Earth with no powers knocks this movie down a half-point for me.

4.5/5

In the credits, Erik Selvig has been hired by S.H.I.E.L.D. to work on the cosmic cube found in the captain America movie (at this point that film had not been released). Nick Fury meets with Erik and asks to see the cube. Loki appears in a mirror reflection and influences Erik to agree with Fury, showing that Loki can indeed manipulate people from wherever he is and will shape the events of the forthcoming Avengers movie. Also, at the end of the credits the producers but up a James Bond style message saying “Thor will return in The Avengers”.

Captain America: The First Avenger (2011)

Released a month after Thor, this is the origin of Captain America as Steve Rogers (Chris Evans), a scrawny patriot during WWII, signs up for a super-soldier serum which gives him superhuman abilities. He becomes war propaganda tool Captain America, touring USO shows, but longs to fight in WWII. He eventually proves himself against Hydra, an offshoot of the Nazis lead by the Red Skull, and Captain America goes on to defeat Red Skull, capture the source of his power which is the cosmic cube, an artifact from Asgard, and saves the U.S. by plunging a death machine into the arctic with him inside. With his unusual metabolism and strength, Rogers is frozen until waking up in the present time.

I loved this entry of the pre-Avengers movies. Steve Rogers is excellently portrayed as an American patriot who is true of heart. Red Skull looks amazing. Bucky is here, not as a kid, but as a young soldier who, of course as he always has in the comics, dies in duty. Nick Fury’s Howling Mad Commandos are here, all really cool, without Nick Fury himself of course since that character is now re-imagined as a modern day Sam Jackson character. Dominic Cooper as Howard Stark, Tony Stark’s father, portrays the character terrifically here as Steve Rogers’ friend and working partner – sort of a fatherly figure at times. Captain America might be the most satisfying Marvel movie, if you don’t count the actual Avengers movie.

There is a statement at the end of the credits “Captain America will return in The Avengers”.

5/5

So there you have it. Not since Universal’s monster movies of the 30’s and 40’s has there been cross-promoting among movies and a universe of characters set up along multiple franchises like Marvel Films’ movies. It’s been a massive undertaking, one that could have collapsed at any time with some failed box office, or egos running out of control, or stars wanting more money. But it has all worked out. Very impressive. I look forward to what Marvel has in store for audiences in the future.

-Deceptisean

The Avengers - Movie Review.