329. The Avengers

329. (25 Dec) The Avengers (2012, Joss Whedon) 32



So this is what happens when you team up superheroes from films with disparate aesthetics. Though Whedon goes out of his way to show these powers are evenly matched, he's juggling too many characters to make the action meaningful. Relying on our knowledge of other Marvel films (and nearly giving me PTSD with flashbacks from the heinous Captain America: The First Avenger) isn't objectionable since this is part of a franchise, but there's no continuation of any arc besides everybody kind of becoming friends. We get more characters piled on, including a poorly motivated villain, the always boring Jeremy Renner, and the third Hulk in as many films. The action sequences are boring considering everyone's invincible and there aren't any true dramatic stakes. Like they really have the effects budget to blow up lower Manhattan.

The Bourne Legacy

Was it really important to continue with the Bourne trilogy that has attained a certain fandom over the last decade? Not really. Not considering the main players were all going to change.

The Bourne Legacy is more enjoyable if you look at it as a completely separate film. True, it tries to bank on the name of Bourne by running its story parallel to the third installment of the trilogy, but that is just a ploy to not having to explain the intricacies of the complex story (of the earlier films) and also a way to cash in on the trilogy. The annoying aspect of this, for the audience, is that if Bourne Legacy was totally detached from the earlier films and released under a different name, it would probably be exactly the same movie it is now.

So, Bourne Legacy runs like an average thriller. Having realized that it is not at parity with the earlier films within the first 15 minutes, I was able to enjoy it a whole lot more. It does have a simpler plot and Jeremy Renner's Aaron Cross might not have the same impact as Matt Damon's Jason Bourne, but he does manage to prove himself as a commendable action hero who just might carry the franchise on his shoulders.

Negatives aside, the film does work well as an action thriller. It's not as smart as the Bourne Trilogy, but is intelligent enough to rise above the average run-of-the-mill action film. Edward Norton and Rachel Weisz provide the necessary acting support to Renner's agent on the run and on the lookout for answers about the organization he works for.

The highlight of the film remains the climatic 20 odd minute chase through Manila. If you look at the big picture, the entire film is a chase movie, but the climax surpasses the hour and a half gone by before it. It might not have the big explosions and car crashes that are ever so present in Hollywood action films, but does have a certain in-your-face living-on-the-edge attitude that makes it all the more fun to watch.

The Bourne Legacy fails because by linking itself to the Bourne Trilogy is draws unnecessary comparison. It also ends rather abruptly hinting towards a sequel, which is surely not going to be as highly anticipated as this film. Still, the film makes for an entertaining watch and with a story that is simple to follow it's easier to enjoy it without wrecking the brain too much.     

Rating 3/5

THE BOURNE LEGACY

THE BOURNE LEGACY
Written by Tony Gilroy and Dan Gilroy
Directed by Tony Gilroy
Starring Jeremy Renner, Rachel Weisz and Edward Norton

Eric Byer: Jason Bourne was just the tip of the iceberg.

What do you do when the star of your successful film franchise no longer wants to make further installments? These days, the answer is simple. Reboot! Hence, THE BOURNE LEGACY, sans Matt Damon. The move away from the original plot of the series is justified by suggesting that Jason Bourne was never the only one of his kind. In fact, there are a handful of other super human types out there, walking amongst us and infiltrating some of the most guarded places on the planet. We meet one of these genetically enhanced individuals while he is training in Alaska. From under the icy water, he emerges half clothed, as if being born before our eyes. And with that, Bourne is reborn, or so director, Tony Gilroy, would hope.

THE BOURNE LEGACY gets off to a pretty slow start while the new face of the series, Jeremy Renner, as Aaron Cross, takes on the elements in Alaska. While he braves snow flurries and hungry wolves in a training exercise, Gilroy establishes that all this action is taking place at the same time as Jason Bourne’s last escapade, THE BOURNE ULTIMATUM, is coming to a close. Bourne’s antics have forced the government to not only abandon the program that made him, but rather abolish it altogether. This amounts to a lot of secret meetings led by Edward Norton (with one of the most ridiculous haircuts I’ve ever seen) that are meant to situate the viewer but only really serve to expose how convoluted the whole Bourne affair has gotten. It’s also rather tedious as well. It isn’t until Aaron realizes he is being hunted by his own creators that the actual action gets started.

Considering THE BOURNE LEGACY is a reboot, Gilroy relies far too heavily on past installments to establish the current premise. Renner holds his own as the new man on the lamb (as does the always impressive Rachel Weisz, as Renner’s love interest) but Gilroy doesn’t give him very much to handle unfortunately. The action sequences are fewer than you would expect and ultimately lead absolutely nowhere. Yes, the point is to have Aaron get away from his hunters but when Bourne got away, he did so with purpose. He was part of a bigger plan and his interaction with the other side was always engaging and twisted. Aaron is just running away and, while his attempts to flee do at times reach the thrilling heights we have grown to expect from the Bourne pictures, I’m not sure this is the legacy Jason Bourne would have wanted to pass on.

THE AVENGERS

THE AVENGERS
Written and Directed by Joss Whedon
Starring Robert Downey Jr., Chris Evans, Mark Ruffalo, Chris Hemsworth, Scarlett Johannson, Jeremy Renner, Tom Hiddleston and Samuel L. Jackson

Captain America: Stark, we need a plan of attack.
Iron Man: I have a plan. Attack.

Comic book movies or superhero movies or whatever you want to call them, all inherently have a very difficult task to accomplish. They all have to cater to a notoriously picky niche market, made up of detail oriented fanboys, while still remaining broad enough to appeal to the masses. They cost a fortune so they cannot afford not to attract the widest audience possible, but if they play it too broad, the fanatics will denounce the film and ruin any chance it has of making any money back. THE AVENGERS is the mecca of superhero movies. It reportedly cost $220 million to make. It features no less than seven iconic Marvel comic characters. And, given just how darn good it is, it actually stands the chance to become the biggest superhero movie of all time.

If you’re like me, the first ten minutes of THE AVENGERS might be a little bewildering. The script presupposes that you’ve seen all the Avenger related movies leading up to this one. As it turns out, I have, with the first IRON MAN (Robert Downey Jr.) and THOR (Chris Hemsworth) being my favourites.  Still, that doesn’t mean that they are always freshly at the forefront of my mind. So once I pieced together that Thor’s brother, Loki (Tom Hiddleston) was working with an alien race to take over Earth by harvesting the energy from what is known as the Tesseract, I was good to go. (I’m sure the history behind this premise is far more rich than I’ve just described but for casual Avenger fans like myself, this description is more than adequate to get your bearings.) What follows the initial and inevitable set up though is two hours of non-stop excitement with a surprisingly solid amount of depth and character study to make THE AVENGERS the perfect popcorn movie to kick off the summer.

It is Loki’s mission to force the people of Earth into submission by using great force. His belief is that freedom is the world’s greatest lie, that pursuing a life of slavery and worship unburdens the individual of feeling any sense of failure. Without any unique goals, there is only the common to pursue. You should know that Loki has a bevy of his own daddy issues to work out and vanquishing Earth is just his way of dealing with things. You should also know that Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson), the leader of S.H.I.E.L.D. (which stands for Supreme Headquarters, International Espionage, Law-Enforcement Division) is not going to just allow this to happen. So he enlists the help of six individuals, all of which possess a particular power or skill that makes them a definite asset to have in an intergalactic war of this magnitude, and dubs them The Avengers. Unfortunately for Fury, The Avengers are all also intense loners who do not play well with others.

Perhaps the greatest honorary Avenger out there is writer/director, Joss Whedon. Marvel entrusted a film they have been building up to for years now to a man who has built a reputation for creating deeply engaging yet still highly entertaining genre fare on television, like “Buffy the Vampire Slayer”, but whose only feature length film (SERENITY) tanked. Whedon is right at home here though and he has a seemingly easy time balancing the screen time between all these heavy hitters, from Chris Evans (Captain America) and Jeremy Renner (Hawkeye) to Scarlett Johannson (Black Widow) and Mark Ruffalo (taking over the role of The Hulk from predecessor, Edward Norton), while simultaneously juggling all of their individual arcs and development. The genius of Whedon’s work here is that he has them all subtly fighting against each other and against the idea of working together long enough to forget they were fighting so hard against themselves before any of this started. And when they start fighting together, that’s when THE AVENGERS goes from being a great comic book movie to being a great movie, period.

MISSION IMPOSSIBLE: GHOST PROTOCOL

MISSION IMPOSSIBLE: GHOST PROTOCOL
Written by Josh Applebaum and Andre Nemec
Directed by Brad Bird
Starring Tom Cruise, Jeremy Renner, Paula Patton and Simon Pegg

After seeing the third installment in the MISSION IMPOSSIBLE series, and after witnessing the self destruction of franchise star, Tom Cruise, over the last few years, I would have bet that the most impossible mission of all would be getting a fourth film made. And that is to say nothing of whether it would even be watchable. Yet here we are with a fourth film on our hands and it was created at the hands of a director famous for animated rats (RATATOUILLE) no less. Somehow though, not only does Brad Bird manage to reinvigorate a dying series in one grand sweep but he also succeeds in unleashing one of the most exciting blockbusters I’ve seen all year.

MISSION IMPOSSIBLE: GHOST PROTOCOL is simply a non-stop blast of energy from start to finish. Drawing on his experience with the spy game (THE INCREDIBLES), Bird crafts a twisted trip for the viewer to get caught up in. His experience with the limitless genre of animation is directly applied to his intense and creative vision of the supposed real world. Of course, in real life, regular people don’t scale the biggest building in the world with their hands, but we can all agree this is pretty far away from real life. Audiences don’t want to watch Ethan Hunt (Cruise) and his team, - rounded out here by a hilariously endearing Simon Pegg, a stunning but not so intriguing Paula Patton and a solid, sexy Jeremy Renner - in reasonably tense scenarios. No, they want to see them in situations no one alive could ever get through but somehow still do. It isn’t about actual realism; it’s about finding out how far you can push implausibility and stopping just shy of that sweet spot.

Hunt is the perfect character for Cruise. He exhibits strength and smarts and does so with savvy. This is wear Cruise cruises. Hunt leads but he does so with few words and very little emoting. This is where Cruise usually crashes so its refreshing to watch him coast by on what he does best for a change. And as he leads his disavowed team on a mission to stop nuclear war from breaking out, he does so with a commanding stance and a reinvigorated sense of determination. It almost feels as though Cruise is not just fighting to save the world but he’s pushing it hard because he knows his career is on the line too. By the time he completes his mission, he has taken us on a ride so exhilarating, it actually had me getting flush from excitement and nerves. It is a mission both he and Bird can claim as accomplished with pride and as far as you’re concerned, it is well worth accepting.

The Hurt Locker

The Hurt Locker, 2008

Directed by Katheryn Bigelow

Nominated for 9 Oscars, won 6.

Synopsis: A new sergeant, Will James, has come to take over a an elite squad of roadside bomb disposal team after their previous sergeant was killed on the job. James is reckless and wild, and very different from their last sergeant. He shows himself to be unafraid and indifferent to life, death, and everything around him, except disarming bombs. His two subordinates, Sanborn (a strong, fierce man) and Eldridge (someone suffering post-traumatic stress after the death of their previous sergeant) are both just trying to adjust and deal with this new, wild, reckless man leading them. But war doesn't leave you indifferent. If anything, it leads you to caring too much, and thus trying not to care.

At least, this is what Ms. Bigelow shows us in her (almost) documentary-style film about bomb disposal soldiers in Iraq.

I settled down to watch this movie with my boyfriend. I was interested in seeing this film. I had watched the first 20 minutes or so in film class, and wondered about the rest of the movie. Being extremely oblivious to war (Iraq, Afghanistan, etc), politics, and the like, I wasn't sure how much of this movie I would understand, or even like.

But I quickly found myself transported into this world that I had no idea existed. I see just exactly how war is affecting everyone. How tricky it is to weed out the citizens you want to help, with the citizens who want to kill you. How much you can't get attached, and how much you have to block out in order to not bleed to death from the hopelessness of it all.

All Oscars it won for the technical side were well-won. Film editing, sound mixing and sound editing. Everything was so rocky and raw and real that I felt like I was there in Iraq, wearing the bomb protection suit, or in the Humvee with them. 

The cinematography was indeed, also, very good. Very shaky, and amateur, but on purpose. To not try to take anything away from what's going on. So you can't put a glamour on what you're seeing. This is real. You also saw so much of what they saw. How many places you have to keep watch over; balcony's, minarets, windows, everything.  All the people who constantly around, and just how poor Baghdad really is.

I really appreciated this movie because even though I wasn't sure exactly what was going on all the time, it didn't dumb down the movie to make it simple for viewers. It threw them into the life of these soldiers, where they weren't beginners. You jumped right in, and there was nothing to introduce you, which I thought was refreshing.

I really enjoyed this film because of the character of Will James. He was a complex character, and I really felt so much sympathy for, not only him, but all of the soldiers. It's just so sad what's going on over there. That war like this is going on.  It really taught me a lot about what's going on in the world, or at least in Iraq, and just how much the American soldiers do. Or how much they suffer, and how much this is affecting them. And just how much we take forgranted here. America, and Canada.

Rating: B+

Tom Cruise in Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol trailer

When Pixar's resident genius (as far as this blogger is concerned) decided to depart momentarily from animation and segue into action films, I was nervous.  When it turned out said action film was going to be the fourth installment of the somehow popular Mission: Impossible franchise, I was still nervous.  With story by Tom Cruise and J.J. Abrams, the film becomes ever more curious.  Each film since the first one has seemed sort of...useless, even with the addition of Phillip Seymour Hoffman.  However, in this we have both Tom Cruise and the heir apparent Jeremy Renner, who curiously doesn't get his name mentioned in the trailer, which is below.  Don't expect much Oscar love from this film though, not even in the technical categories.

Also co-starring Precious's Paula Patton, Lost's Josh Holloway, and Hot Fuzz's Simon Pegg.