The Avengers a review

For years, we’ve been treated to lots of superhero films by Marvel.

The trend starts in 2000 with Bryan Singer’s X-Men and amplified by Sam Raimi’s Spiderman Trilogy.

When Marvel set up their own film division in late 2007 (not exactly sure when) after the disappointing Spiderman 3. They gave us Iron Man directed by Jon Favreu.

What’s really exciting though, was the confirmation at the post credit scene of Iron Man of an Avengers film in the works.

Nothing makes Fanboys jizz in their pants quicker than that.

For 4 years Marvel gave us a series of films starring members of The Avengers and finally this year they brought everybody together!

Written and directed by Joss Whedon, the film is without doubt the best Marvel’s production yet (and the biggest). Rarely does a film has a perfect blend of wit, thrill, and heart like this (last year a film this excellent has to be Super 8).

Anyway the film picks up where Thor and Captain America: The First Avenger left off (with some allusions to The Incredible Hulk as well). Nick Fury and his team of scientists (led by Thor’s Dr. Selvigg) are attempting to dissect the Tesseract but unfortunately they open a gate that allows Loki to come to earth, takes control of Dr. Selvigg and Hawkeye and run away with the Tesseract (after a Deathly Hallows Part 2-ish prologue).

Who can help Nick Fury to recover the magical Tesseract and saves the day? Why The Avengers of course! But first he needs to get them to play along with each other.

Seeing these heroes fight each other are just pure joy. When they fight each other, the action’s are great and brilliantly scripted, thrilling and incredibly humorous as well. And when they finally work together, why it's just super.

All in all a perfect summer blockbuster, apart from the brainless aliens, and the slightly disappointing Silvestri’s score (compared to Captain America). All in all The Dark Knight and the Web Slinger has every reasons to be worried (money-wise). Despite being a really good film, The Avengers is sadly not one that induces urge for repeat viewings (my way to determine good films). On first viewing the film's great but when you sit and think back, well get ready to keep changing your opinion. 4/5

The Avengers by Alan Silvestri review

Here it is: The music to the most anticipated get-together of heroes in cinema ever since I don’t know, years and years! So how does the Score sounds? (ps: I haven’t seen the film)

Composed by legendary Hollywood Composer Alan Silvestri (Back to the Future, Forrest Gump, The Mummy Returns) who also wrote an excellent score for last year’s Captain America: The First Avenger .  When it was announced that Silvestri would also write the score to this year The Avengers I have nothing but anticipation.

All in all, this score is both an improvement and a step back from the aforementioned Captain America. Improvement, because it makes for an engaging listening experience throughout, whereas Captain’s score is a bit of struggle to get through in the first half (the second half redeems it though).

Having all these heroes which have their own musical anthems and worlds must be a super difficult task, however Silvestri solves that problem by writing a main theme to represents all the heroes as a single entity “The Avengers” .

The main theme for The Avengers is surprisingly simple but pretty memorable, though not as grand as Captain America’s march (and a little short for my taste). The theme brings to mind Silvestri’s work in The Mummy Returns, The A-Team, and a bit of The Delta Force. 

Overall Silvestri has done a pretty good job tackling this gargantuan of a score, even if it doesn't live up to what his Captain America's score promised (several cues from Captain America are used in the score as well , those with sharp ears would notice).

4/5

The Raid: Redemption review

So finally, an Indonesian Film recognised by the world and distributed by Hollywood (Sony Pictures Classic to be exact). An action film too! And it came from the team that released “Merantau” in 2009 which was excellent. Without doubt, I was excited to see this.

However (maybe due to several factors) I didn’t enjoy this film as much as I am supposed to. I mean, it has everything that I could possibly ask for, so why didn’t I enjoy it?

Anyway, the film follows the story of an elite police force who conducts a raid on a building in the slums of Jakarta. The building plays host to crime lord, Tama, his henchmen, and a bunch of thugs.

Long story short, the raid doesn’t go as planned and the squad gets killed off one by one leaving only few survivors who must find a way to escape from the building. But how? Why..by kicking, punching, and do some great martial art (silat) moves of course!

Overall, this is a great action film which I should like in theory but not in reality. Maybe me comparing it to super excellent uber cool “Drive” is the problem? Yeah, I guess it’s just an expectation issue.

One question though, what's the word "Redemption" doing there?

3/5 

Hunger Games: a review

This is pretty late, but better late than never. So here we are: “The Hunger Games” adapted from a bestselling novel of the same name by Suzanne Collins. The Book became a huge hit, much like two other popular Franchises which it often compared to, “Harry Potter” and “Twilight Saga”. So is it up for a comparison?

No. Again, just like “Twilight” and “Harry Potter” there is no point to compare the three, because they’re three separate thing. Each has their own merits, and their own shortcomings.

Unlike the two big franchises mentioned above (one I love, and one I feel nothing towards) I didn’t came to the cinema, with informations from the book’s pages etched in my mind. 

The Film tells the story of Katniss Everdeen a young girl who lives in the lower class district of Panem in a world torn apart by war. The ruling class held a survival game called The Hunger Games annually where 24 kids (male and female) between the age of 12-20 fight to the death, leaving only one victor. These kids names are drawn from a bowl so, if you’re unlucky, you’ll get picked.

Katniss’s younger sister, Prim is picked and being a good older sister, Katniss volunteered to participate in her sister’s stead. (To be honest, it’s a bit unfair pitting 12 year olds against 18 and 19 year olds don’t you think?)

Soon after, we are introduced to the character Peeta, a boy from Katniss’s district who also has a crush on her (hence the cringeworthy romance in the middle of Act 2). After they arrive in Panem and all the setups and expositions are out of the way, we enter the game and it is presented in an appropriately brutal way (which is what we all want). 

In its core, the film has a very strong political undertones that brings to mind ‘V for Vendetta’. Director Gary Ross has done a wonderful job at crafting the gritty world of Panem (lots of shaky cams here) it is a shame that he leaves the franchise, let’s just hope that ‘I Am Legend’ director Francis Lawrence could live up to the standard set by Ross in this film. 

It’s a really good film, dramatic, funny, entertaining. For a film with March release date, this film has really exceed expectations.

3.5/5

Insomnighta

Recently I've found myself unable to fall asleep before the clock strikes 4. Apparently tonight (or should I say this morning?) is no different.

Yesterday I showed some improvement, I was nearly lulled to bed by 11 but alas, adventure calls and I ended up reading through six chapters of Tolkien's classic "The Hobbit" (hours well spent I'd say)

As for today, I believe you could figure it out, I'm writing this post which actually keeps me awake rather than driving me to that blissful state of deep slumber in the summer (it's actually Fall here but for the sake of rhyming the words..plus it's summer on the western hemisphere anyway).

And the sound of the waterfall from the bathroom doesn't help. Honestly, I'm beginning to question the thickness of the wall between the bathroom and the (my) bedroom, I could practically hear every piss stream and (ehem) every single moans homo sapiens tend to make whenever certain rituals are performed.

Wow look at that, I wrote a post. Well folks, looks like you could expect to see more of me. It's been such a long time since I actually posted any reviews or text posts in general