The Avengers: An assembly you don't want to miss

Four years ago, a little movie called Iron Man came out in theatres. It was mostly off the radar, but when reviews poured out proclaiming that the new age of superhero movies was here, audiences came to see what the fuss was about. They were greeted with an expertly crafted film with a special scene popping up after the end credits. Nick Fury, played by Samuel L. Jackson, announced to Tony Stark the beginning of the Avengers Initiative. Every fanboy in the audience knew that this meant: Marvel had just promised a full-fledged Avengers film. Everyone was skeptical, including me. Four movies later, and we have The Avengers, or the main ones at least.

From the very beginning, I was right behind the idea of an Avengers movie, but I had my doubts. This undertaking meant that Marvel, and later Disney, had to crank out enough good movies to keep audiences interested and establish enough characters to make a legitimate team. As the years rolled by, we were treated with Iron Man, The Incredible Hulk, Iron Man 2, Thor, and Captain America. If one paid enough attention, or knew the comic books, they would know how intricately intertwined all of these characters are. For instance, Bruce Banner, the Hulk, was trying to replicate the super soldier formula which Tony Stark’s, Iron Man’s, grandfather made for Steve Rogers, Captain America, when Banner got enough gamma radiation to become the thing he hates. But enough about my nerd-excitement, how was the movie?

 Without spoiling too much, Avengers focuses around gathering a team of superheroes, whom I’ve already listed, to defeat Loki, the brother and main villain of Thor. Loki has come to Earth with an army of aliens, and Nick Fury decides that it’s going to take much more than just one hero to stop the god of mischief. Fury sends for his chosen team, and we watch the trials and tribulations of this effort.

 The entire original cast returns for their superhero besides one, Edward Norton as the Bruce Banner/Hulk. When I heard about the casting change, I was wary. Norton was the perfect Banner in my eyes, embodying the emotional stress, scientific prowess, and general snarkiness that he should. To take his place is Mark Ruffalo. Ruffalo does a respectable job, and while I still believe Norton was the better Banner, Mark fits the character well. Robert Downey Jr. is just as perfect as Tony Stark/Iron Man as he was in his previous two starring roles. Chris Hemsworth makes Thor the lovable Asguardian we came to love once again. Chris Evans comes back as Captain America, and Scarlett Johansson and Jeremy Renner make their cameos characters as Black Widow and Hawkeye, respectively. And last, but certainly not least, is Tom Hiddleston as Loki. Returning as the villain from Thor, Hiddleston ramps up his mischievous activities and does a good job being evil. All of these actors do a great job, save some small gripes I’ve had with Captain America since his movie.

 What really sells The Avengers is the fantastic direction and writing of Joss Whedon. Whedon is no stranger to projects with several main characters, and his aptitude shines here. Every character, even the minor Hawkeye and Black Widow, has a role in Avengers. Not one hero took a backseat here. Sure, some had bigger parts than others, but none were put on the backburner. Whedon makes sure that every hero had an established personality and relationship with one another, and this helps you care about what happens to them. No matter which Avenger is your favorite (in case you’re wondering mine is Thor the hero, but Iron Man or Hulk the character), you’ll see them kick all kinds of ass. Action scenes are extremely well done thanks to Whedon and, having seen it in 3-D, I can say that if you have the extra two bucks, use it; it’s awesome. As a side note, Avengers is surprisingly hilarious. I found myself laughing a lot throughout the movie, and this is welcome with all of the serious action going on.

 All in all, The Avengers is awesome. It starts a bit slow because Whedon has to show how great he develops characters, but once it picks up, it gets explosive. A few minor gripes (why do I not like Captain America?) are not much compared to how much fun you’ll be having when you watch this movie. And be sure to stay after the credits for a reference very few will get, but be sure to look it up because it is bound to show up in a later Marvel adventure. 8.5/10

John Carter: Who knew Mars was this dull?

John Carter was never a truly thrilling idea to me. When trailers began to show up, I felt skeptical of how faithful it could be to the novel, for which I am not a fan of but have heard great things. John Carter came out with more and more trailers with Disney urging audiences to come and see the movie. The Edgar Rice Burroughs novels from which it is based upon contained 11 volumes, many of which Carter did not appear in, but Disney is determined. Throwing over 200 million dollars and one of their top directors, Andrew Stanton, into the project, they hoped for the best. Reviews started coming out and some were extremely positive while others tore the film down completely. Was my skepticism proven wrong? Somewhat.

John Carter is about an American civil war soldier named John Carter (Taylor Kitsch). After he wanders into a cave, Carter finds himself transported to Mars in the middle of their own civil war. If Carter wants to get some answers, he must stop the marriage of Princess Dejah (Lynn Collins) and the corrupted Prince Sab Than (Dominic West). Honestly, I remembered barely any of the names of these characters. I had to look all of them up online. The reason for this is that many of the characters in this movie are completely forgettable. Either that or it may be the fact that there are just so many people to keep track of besides the one name said at least once every ten minutes, John Carter. It’s a good thing that the actors do a good job of portraying these characters. Even those who provide the voice of the savage alien species have personality to them.

Unfortunately, John Carter suffers from some uneven pacing. Throughout most of the first half of the movie I was bored. Things were unexplained and left alone, coming off more annoying than intriguing. Things begin to ramp up later on, but I never found myself fully invested. John Carter is lucky enough to have an interesting lore to its universe. The depiction of the aliens is well done, but once again, many things are left unexplained. The trouble is that the movie can’t afford to invest more time into it with a runtime of over two hours. The film just barely has enough time to wrap up nicely and if there was added time, I’m not sure I’d be all that more invested.

John Carter’s dialogue is not what the problem is, it’s the action. Ridiculous stunts are preformed under the context that the gravity of Mars is to blame and I’m hoping most self-respecting humans would notice that that simply doesn’t explain it. Important characters are dealt with in a split-second and war strategy turns to “walk in and shoot them.” Stanton writes for what could have been a cool animated movie, but is shut down by the realism the film seems to embody. Stanton’s work with the direction is similar to his writing. He works best within the parameters of animation and he doesn’t make the transition as well as Brad Bird did with Mission Impossible. Over-the-top-ness can be a good thing, but not with a movie with such serious undertones.

John Carter was enjoyable to the part of me that liked blood, giant battles, and aliens, but when that was stripped away by how serious the film can be, I felt somewhat abandoned. John Carter is by no means bad, but it is quite forgettable and unfortunately boring. 6/10