Avengers; Infinity War - A Review (ish)

Got to see the latest in the Marvel Universe epic Avengers; Infinity War on Friday. Treated to the movie for my birthday. I do love the fact that since the first in the series, the movies in the ten year saga have all been released on or around my birthday, which is nice).

There's probably not many out there that haven't seen the hype and stuff for Infinity War and being the latest and culmination in the line of the various story lines of Thor, Captain America, The Avengers and Guardians of the Galaxy plus the other spin-offs, the whole thing is pretty ballsy for the movie industry in it's encompassing plot and span.

Basically Thanos, the Arch bad guy,  wants to help the Universe by killing off half of everybody in the Universe so there's enough to go round and to do that he needs the six Infinity Stones (gems) to give him the power to do this. Obviously the hero's are trying to stop this, not least as one of the stones is in the forehead of The Vision, one of the Avengers. With the movie picking up from where the last of side plot movies Thor;Ragnarok left off.

The movie has most of the previous main plots and sub plot character in the movie, and that means there are a lot of fairly developed characters vying for screen time in the two hour slot. There are a couple of conspicuous absences with the most prominent being Hawkeye who has been a mainstay throughout the Avengers movies, probably away doing other movies but with rumours of a separate Hawkeye based movie in the offing.

As a result of the limited screen time some characters do get more time than others and though the Cap and his cronies seem to get a larger slice, it is very much Iron Man et al that seem to carry the larger part of the plot development. I suspect that Infinity War Part 2 (or whatever it gets called once made) this may be reversed as there's a couple of easter eggs hinting at this especially near the ending.

The limited time and the probable cutting room floor option has meant there are a few strange omissions from the storyline or just included action, I noted the Vision was through out the movie pretty wimpy in the fight scenes he's in (not much except the street fight in Edinburgh) but given he's got an infinity stone in his bonce he really doesn't actually do very much, especially in the big finale fight. A bit lame, but then I'm biased as the Vision was always my favourite character since the street fights against the Nazi's in Paris on the pages of a very early Avengers comic (yes, I do go back to the late sixties with my love of the Avengers).

The film has the expected has the expected big movie moments and probably because there are so many characters vying for your attention, I actually thought that some of the CGI settings eg Titan the old home of Thanos, were particularly eye catching and maybe upstaged some of the scenes though I'm not sure that's a bad thing given the grand sweeping scope of the movie, needs to be pretty epic.

The bad guys, Thanos and his fairly small (three I think) group of villains are pretty good though there is no explanation as to where the three stooges have come from ie no back story but these characters actually stand out pretty well in the crowd and are worthy of a bit of movie development (except the ones that cop it of course).

The film has the usual hordes of faceless minions but I noted the good minions of which there are a cast of not a few, do get to have a face (mainly in the guise of the cohorts of the Black Panther and his Royal Guard etc from the African realm of Wakanda where a fair bit if the action takes place) which is nice.

There is a very nice touch of character development and the directors, Anthony and Joe Russo, have played with the relationships of several of the characters between one another and is part of the main enjoyment of the film, there  are several huge ego's among the hero's and the interplay here is quite enjoyable. The Thor/Rocket team up here is particularly catching. There is even a bit of character development for the Hulk and he's maybe learning he needs to fight, not just smash but that maybe a bit in the future, watch that space for that one.

It is probably no secret that Avengers; Infinity War has a pretty hefty body count by the end of the movie and not to include any spoilers but though it's not exactly a superhero version of Hamlet, there is approximately half the hero's bite the dust, some a surprise and others very not. I do suspect that all might not be as dead as all that since several of the franchises already have sequels in the offing with Guardians of the Galaxy having part 3 due next year.

A slight side note of the fact that the studio's seem to be controlling the spread and content of images out there in internet land shows a good marketing and control which goes to prove they can do that. One thing I did note during the movie and a trawl through internet images for the blog confirmed that there are no 'milion dollar shots' in Infinity War, you know the lined up posed 'Avengers Assemble!' comic book style line ups that usually get picked and multi-shared. I don't know if this is deliberate or just curious.

Given the film ending, ie a bit of a cliff hanger or is it anti-climax (deliberate) one thing is for sure the franchise will go on and there will be many more Marvel Universe movies to come and loads more to discuss the maybe's and maybe's no in the coming movies. Hurrah!

Generally, given the usual gripes of an Avengers fan and that your never going to be 100% happy cause your fave character doesn't get a good showing in the movie, I thouroughly enjoyed the film and Avengers; Infinity War gets a resounding 9 out of 10 'Must See' from the Warblog.

Go and see the movie even if your not a Marvel Fan, the humorous bits are worth it.

Later

Ghost in the Shell - Review

I caught up with the recent release of the latest Scarlet Johannson fight fest movie, 'Ghost in the Shell' last week.

Based on the 1995 cult manga/anime title of the same name, GitS is a fitting release to go with the current plethora of cyberpunkesque films covering this genre at the moment.

The film plot does stay largely true to the manga title but with the usual clipping to make the story line fit movie (under two hour) timescale.

With Scarlet Johannson in the lead role as 'Major' a person saved from a terrible life threatening accident and her brain transplanted into a state of the art, one of a kind android body producing a less than organic cyborg who is trained as a assassin cum trouble shooter cum walking weapon. 

The main plot line starts off and follows Major and the rest of the 'anti-terrorist' team in tracking down the shadowy figure 'Kruze' and while doing so, she starts to have glitches and begins to question her identity.

The whole movie had me half thinking in terms of Blade Runner, and there are definitely obvious parallels that can be drawn between the movies with a few particular night time shots which were difficult to separate. I believe the movie has been 20 yrs in getting to the big screen and it would be likely had in been screened sooner than now, it would have been labelled as a spin off from the classic.

I found the film quite engaging and some of the supporting cast are particularly eye catching and characterful. Scarlet herself I though managed to pull off the role with reasonable effect and though reasonably pretty-fied to suit a Hollywood/mainstream release did move around in a fairly androgynous mode and avoided being a Black Widow clone fairly successfully with a hunched up plodding gait adoption which seperates her performance from the likes of 'Lucy' or 'Under the Skin' but Scarlet does look to be the go-to gal for this type of flick at the moment, probably due to likely box office pull.

There is not a lot else I can say around the storyline without major (no pun intended) spoilers if you don't already know the story, but many of the iconic images from the 1995 original have been retained within the movie including the lagoon fight with an invisible Major and the 'big boss fight out with the spider tank (which I thought really didn't fit well with the feel of the rest of the movie, but it was in the original so there nyah) and much robotic angst ridden self doubt through out.

I have no doubt that purist fans will have derided the movie, pretty much as always happens with this type of re-make/real life visualisation)  and in fairness, a lot of the moralisation and conceptual rationalisation is missing from the movie. I suspect this is deliberate to make the film more main stream acceptable. (Lots of ...tion's there).

One point to pick up on this release though is the likelihood of more Cyberpunk titles to come, not least the up coming Blade Runner 2049 which I believe is scheduled for October this year, so GitS at least paves the way.

A pretty good cyberpunk movie in all and enough eye candy to make it worth the trip to the cinema. 'Ghost in the Shell' gets an acceptable 7 out of 10 from the Warblog, go and see it if you have a couple of hours to spare.

Dr Strange - A Review

Managed to go and see the latest movie offering from the Marvel stable in the shape of 'Dr Strange' yesterday.

I had been looking forward to see this one as Dr Strange was always a favourite character of mine back in the glory comic days of my youth, though I never seemed to manage to get many of the comics at the time, mainly due to all the pot-heads had swiped them before I could get to the shop where I got my weekly/monthly comic fix.

With Benedict Cumberbatch as the lead, I was hopeful of a decent portrayal of the mystic character and I wasn't disappointed. The film is very well cast with Tilda Swinton (always playing the 'weird or intense character in a film she's in) as the Ancient One, Chiwetel Ejiofor as Mordo and Benedict Wong as Wong (funnily enough) who brings a good level of humour to the story. Solid bad guy place goes to Mads Mikkelsen who plays the main antagonist Kaecilius and does this suitably menacingly.

The plot of the film basically forms around the origin story of Dr Strange who is easily the initially least likeable Marvel character being an arrogant, self obsessed neuro-surgeon who has a life changing accident and manages to estrange (pardon the pun) all who are near him in the process and ends up seeking a cure for his injuries in Napal. There the adventure real begins.

I wont follow the whole film plot as a spoiler but needless to say, if you know anything of the comic-book history of the character the film includes a large degree very effective and brain melting psychedelic scenes and mind bending spatial jenga particularly during the New York combat scene, think the film Inception hear but just more mandala-like, Lots of Escher inspired impossibles are prevalent throughout these scenes, definitely worth seeing these in 3D as the 2D may loose some of the 'wow'.

The movie does not offer up any major surprises plot-wise though there are a great deal of internal nods and bumps, particularly in a dark humour kind of way.. A good sharp wit is evident through out and the screenplay does give the audience credit of a good dose of intellect to catch the humour. The very well done almost slapstick humour induced from Dr Stranges' cloak is particularly well done.

The usual end credit teasers are there as would be predicted and the Marvel Universe tie in with the bigger world is there with the next in line being the next in the Thor story line and the hunt for Odin. Should be good.

Thoroughly recommended film, enjoyable at several levels a definitely good escapism, 'Dr Strange' gets a solid 9 out of 10 'must see from the Warblog.

Captain America: Civil War

Went to see Captain America; Civil War on Saturday as part of a belated Birthday celebration from my siblings, and very fine it was too.

You can instantly see why the film has been dubbed 'Avengers 2.5' right from the outset with the character cast from where Avengers; Age of Ultron finished up, but it also (obviously too) with the carry-on from Captain America; Winter Soldier which forms the basis of the story line where it picks up where that movie left, with the Captain trying to get his old WWII buddy Buckie (aka The Winter Soldier) back.

The film is to be honest, a bit more 'grown up' in theme and plot line than any of the foregoing Captain America or Avengers movies. Without giving anything away, the whole movie has a serious theme running through the plot where it is noted that the previous exploits of the hero's have caused a lot of collateral damage and perhaps there is a price to pay for the hero's actions.

There is less CGI big visuals too, but still a considerable amount of action as is to be expected, but it is at a far more ground level status than previously. I do like the combat scenes early on with some nasty Merc types and these feature the cameo from Crossbones with some good old Avengers style beat-em-up action.

The Civil War when it comes is a long time building, more than half the film, and when it does take shape into conflict it is interesting, and does include some interesting bits including a spot appearance for Spiderman (a new casting which I think works quite well) and a nice twist of the AntMan/Goliath thrown in, but I felt a bit low key in flavour.

A very jarring note which I thought really didn't work (and my siblings and friends agreed) was seeing the Vision in a casual shirt and jumper and trousers get up, while relaxing. Duh! He's an android creation, I really don't think he needs to dress down somehow. Perhaps Mr Bethany (who I think makes a good Vision) didn't want to wear the green suit thing too much. There's also a faint glimmering of the Vision/Scarlet Witch romance hinted in the story too, but that just might be me.

The big climax battle between Captain America and Iron Man whens it comes is pretty good and fairly viscous and worth the wait but I'll not waste the outcome, you'll need to see the movie to find out, but the whole storyline builds to the conflict and it is quite whoa!

The movie is as I say, different from the previous movies and definitely a bit more dialogue heavy and there are a lot less of the humorous moments (though there are a few but pretty low key) and less 'clever' I would say but I think this deliberate given the premise of the story line.

All in all, we all enjoyed the movie (including my number 2 son who isn't a Superhero Movie fan at all) so it definitely merits the 8 out of 10 'worth watching' from the Warblog. 

Avengers; Age of Ultron

Went to see the latest Avenger flick when it came out on thursday. I'd been looking forward to more of the previous Avengers and related film action/humour mix and I wasn't disappointed.

All the previous characters make an appearance Iron Man, Thor, Captain America, Hawkeye, the Hulk, Black Widow etc, and with what is a pretty complicated plot line (for Hollywood blockbusters) a few new character are introduced to add the Marvel Universe crew detailed in the movie. Along with a passel of the supporting characters from previous Avenger support movies adding to the mix.

With the main protagonist being Ultron, it is no surprise that The Vision (my favourite Avenger from my childhood) makes an appearance to join the ranks and help fight the bad guys. Played by Paul Bettany, I was quite happy with the portrayal but thought the back story for the film of how The Vision is created a bit poor.

The whole film is slightly darker than the previous Avenger movies, with a part of the humour being a bit more on the black side, but there is still the slapstick and the buddy humour which helps you associate with the heroes.

James Spader is a genius choice for Ultron and his droll and dry delivery is a perfect foil for the gungho and right-on hereos.

The look of Ultron, which goes through several changes through the movie, is pretty good and a fair update of the slightly naff look from the comics, though perhaps a bit too anthropomorphised, but all good really.

The fight/action scenes are great throughout, from minute one right up to the end and the big climactic fight scene at the end actually had me smiling away to myself, really good cinema. The production team and Joss Whedon have got the formula for this type of movie down pat now and it's difficult to say where they have got anything wrong in terms of putting an enjoyable romp together.

The ingredients are all there for the geeks (including me) for spotting the references and other characters etc and stir in a dose of hard tech machines and weapons, a sprinkling of women in skin tight suits with guns and some pretty good dialogue, you've got a winner. The whole plot thing has of course been altered to suit the Hollywood/movie version of events and to fit into the two hour or so timescale of the movie but this is not something that bothers me.

No spoilers for those who haven't seen the movie but some of the additional characters added into the Marvel-verse are the Maximoff siblings Pietro and Wanda (Quicksilver and the Scarlet Witch) withe Wanda being another favourite from my childhood getting added to the Avengers, though the costume has been suitably watered down to make it more 'acceptable', though she does spend most of the film not an Avenger so the standard get up is OK. (There is a glimpse later on of her 'hero' get-up). 

The plot has time to get a bit of character development in too with Hawkeye and the Black Widow in particular getting a bit of depth built up and there is even a bit of a love story in there too which is an integral part of the Avengers comics from way back and again is fair enough, adding to movie mix.

The wind down ending is once again, getting a bit traditional in it's make up setting up the next movie in the series (The Avengers will return) with what looks to be a slightly different line up from the last couple. Tis is probably due to a couple of the actors getting a bit bored with the parts or just a bit older, but this is also in keeping with the comics which often have a different cast from series to series. There are after all a LOT of Avengers to choose from.

Still waiting for the 'Avengers Assemble!' though.

All in all a great movie and one which I thoroughly enjoyed. A recommended must see and gets the 9 out of 10 from the Warblog to go with it.

The Hobbit; The Battle of the Five Armies - A Review

As my last post intimated, I have been looking forward to this movie a fair bit and managed to get to see it yesterday.

The title of the movie pretty much sums up what the movie is all about and most who will go a see it will have a pretty good idea of what the movie is all about.

As with all Peter Jacksons' LotR/Hobbit movies, it is credited as being 'based on' the works of mr Tolkien and as with any Hollywood blockbuster they've got to play about with things a fair bit to make it acceptable to the great unwashed. With that said and understood and knowing that the film was going to be an action-fest with characterisation and indeed the plot loosely based on the book I was happy to go in a watch a 'switch your brain off' entertainment film.

And all in all thee were no disappointments as Mr Jackson has delivered more of what he promised and the franchise goes out with a suitable bang.

No surprises with Smaug getting his just comeuppance at the hands of Bard the Bowman in the opening stages of the movie after he has torched most of Laketown. (I do like what they've done with Laketown and the look of the urban environment definitely tickles my terrain making juices).

The whole early piece of the movie sets up the situation nicely and still keeps the pace up while reminding everybody on what happened in previous episodes.

The mid part of the movie tidies up some of the set pieces which had been left un-resolved in the previous Desolation of Smaug. A particular favourite is the freeing of Gandalf from Dol Guldur, with some nice touches and cameo's here which are totally non-canon but good movie stuff.

The bulk of the rest of the movie is un-surprisingly the main action in the title and generally worth the wait though again the drift of the action has little to do with the battle as described by Tolkein (which doesn't go into a great deal of detail anyway) but goes the winded up hollywood story version instead which is a good visual feast.

Again I'm happy with this and the film concentrates on the main characters individual actions and builds detail around these which all makes good cinema. I particularly like Thranduil here (very nicely played by Lee Pace) and is suitably haughty and Woodelf King-like (though his mount with the nudge bars is bit over the top), not my usual elf-disliking self.

All the cameo's are well done in fact and the cast throughout is well cast with Richard Armitage doing a good job of Thorin's gold lust and doesn't get too cheesy.

I also noticed some of the cut scenes.

There are a number scattered across the film and the locations are very picturesque and indeed again several are very cinematic. A good job there too, a couple being very Japanese art cinema inspired I'm sure.

Of course the bit everybody wants to see is the main action and the battle is well done but as said only a few scences have the 'big picture' particularly in the early opening stages of the battle.

Lots of epic action and big nasty monster types and all the evil protaganists are suitably bad and as ever in these things always seem to be better a killing folk.

All in all the troops depicted I liked the most were the Dwarves of the Iron Hills. I like the look of them and how they behaved in the battle.

Actually with that said, all in all the people that don't come out in a very good light all in all are the humans. In the film very small in number (compared to everybody else) and generally looking quite shabby compared to the more (I suppose stereo type racial cousins).

I did groan a bit when I saw (or more rightly heard the voice) of Dain when the Iron Hills Dwarves make their appearance, with the light relief character being in the form of Billy Connelly. Though I did get the joke of the 'Big Yin' playing a Dwarf, I would of been happier with someone like Ray Winston as Dain,



I can see the script for the character did sit with someone like Billy, who does what he kind of does now a days. But that's a minor gripe, I still liked the dwarves.

All in all, a thoroughly enjoyable romp with all the usual heart strings being plucked, heroic stoicism, self sacrifice, bravery, love, loss etc etc. All that you could want from an epic.

Once the dust has settled, this one gets a 9 out of 10 'must see' from the Warblog.

The Hobbit - The Battle of the Five Armies

Looking forward to see the Battle of the Five Armies which is released today.

The bit I've been looking forward to seeing since they started the whole Hobbit adventure. Going by the clips I've seen so far it looks to be pretty good, but what's not to like about massive battles on an epic scale.

I'm not going to let the slightly improbable multi-racial (not least to say vertically challenged) love interest get in the way of a good battle-fest.

Certainly bound to be a few ideas for scenario's etc from this the 'last' in the cycle of the LotR films. You never know though, some of the Silmarillion might get made into a film or two yet :-).

Edge of Tomorrow

Live Die Repeat

Went to see Edge of Tomorrow with Tom Cruise and Emily Blunt earlier in the week.

Without giving too much away, the movie is set in the near future with a recent alien invasion via an asteroid hit in central Europe, and a viral spread of the 'Mimics' who appear to be unbeatable until a battle at Verdun where the new Exoskelatal battle suit was deployed.

The movie starts with the introduction of Tom Cruise and and sets the scene for the intro battle where the Allied world troops are set to invade Europe from south of England and Mr Cruise is thrown into the deep end and the main plot thread is introduced where he gets to live a pretty violent 'Groundhog Day'.

There are several things in the movie which are not explained or don't hang together logically, but as it says in the movie itself; Why are the Aliens here, what do they want? Doesn't matter, we need to kill them anyway. Which I think is fair enough, it's a movie and it works in it's own universal setting.

The movie is pretty much action all the way through and although there is a minor sub-plot, but this really doesn't get in the way of the big guns and gribbly aliens at all.

Very apt for the anniversary of the D-Day landings the attack on France is very much a re-take of the Landings and looks the part and is pretty well done. There are several very obvious nods to past real history plus some pastiche scenes to previous movie genre greats.

The hardware is all very eye catching and believable, and I believe that Mr Plumridge of Old Crow Models was involved in the making of the movie, hence his suspension of the website et al for the last year or so as he has been working on the movie.

There are a small number of well ken't faces like Bill Paxton make appearances in cameo roles but the movie is driven by Tom Cruises' character all the way.

Thoroughly enjoyed the movie, as did my daughter who was quite surprised how engaged she got with the whole thing (given that she thought we were going to see X-Men, Days of Future Past), so a thumbs up all round.

Another 8 out of 10 movie score from the Warblog. Worth seeing if only for the Landings scenes and the hardware.