Review: Avengers: Age of Ultron (2015)

How long have we been waiting for this movie? I think the world and his wife went out to the cinema this weekend to see the long awaiting sequel to 2012's Avengers Assemble (The Avengers to the US residents among us) - the cinema was packed out and we went to see the very late 2D version in the hopes that it would be a bit quieter.  No such luck!

Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr) tries to protect the Earth from alien invasions using the power of the Sceptre to create Artificial Intelligence in his robot army.  Unfortunately, things don't quite go to plan and its down to Iron Man, Captain America (Chris Evans), The Hulk (Mark Ruffalo), Thor (Chris Hemsworth),  Black Widow (Scarlet Johansson) and Hawkeye (Jeremy Renner) along with newbies Quicksilver (Aaron Taylor-Johnson) and Scarlet Witch (Elizabeth Olsen) to save the world....again.

Do you think there will ever be a superhero film in which the world is perfectly fine on its own?

So this was not what I expected, I expected a replica of the first Avengers but with a different storyline, I thought it would be just as playful and witty and off the cuff as the first, but it wasn't.  Initally, I thought it was a bad thing, I didn't understand why they weren't sticking to the tried and testing formula that worked so well for its predecessor and the likes of Guardians of the Galaxy.  Instead it took a tone more like the Captain America sequel, much more dark and in some ways realistic.  It has to be considered that going through these battles and wars with various monsters and bad guys would leave some psychological scarring, and this touches on that, particularly with Tony Stark (RDJ) and his fears for the Earth. 

We definitely got into their heads a little more than last time. One thing I really enjoyed was the amount of screen time Hawkeye and Black Widow got, they're easily forgotten and so it was a breath of fresh air to see them more.

It may not have been what I expected but that doesn't mean I didn't like it.  There were a few niggles that bothered me, the Russian twins god awful accents and the lack of Thor's biceps but nothing that ruined the film for me.  In fact, the inclusion of a bit of romance, a well kept secret and a developing bromance kept my interest peaked for the majority of the film, but what kept me well and truly gripped was Ultron.  James Spader's angry, calm, uber-intelligent robot just stole the show at every opportunity, took me the whole film to place the voice and I still found out from the credits but he was perfect.  He was the perfect villain.

As much as I enjoyed Age of Ultron, I too have my niggles about it. The romance was a little un-necessary I thought, and kind of came out of no where! The spoilerific (yes, I made that word up) ending which I won't go into detail fell flat, and I found myself glad it wasn't what the film had been hinting at from the very start!

James Spader as Ultron was brilliant! I wasn't bothered about Ultron in the slightest before the film, and I couldn't remove the image of The Office's Robert California until Ultron's reveal, and then I realised just how great the casting was. Still not a better villain than Loki I'm afraid!

There was nothing I didn't like about it, I may have preferred a few more comedy one-liners in there but I think that would have taken away from the overall goal of the film.  There was no messing about either, the opening sequence made way for a fast paced, non-stop, action packed superhero fest.

It was definitely darker, but the running joke about Captain America disapproving of swears never got old, and the scene with everyone gathered around Thor's hammer was hilarious! I'm trying my very hardest here to not make jokes about being able to raise Thor's hammer...

Great cast as always and a few surprise cameos (one that I hoped for didn't appear *sob*) made this just as good as the original but for different reasons. 

Seeing this in 3D IMAX made this an awesome experience for me, but I think the original is just that little bit better.

OH, and can I just say? Worst mid-credits scene ever. Tell us something we didn't know, Marvel!

Review: The Prestige (2006)

You're all aware that Jenna & I are making our way through IMDB's Top 250 list, which The Prestige is on. I've also been recommended the film multiple times after watching The Usual Suspects. I tried to get the family to watch it with me but the youngest won the vote and so I had to watch this with the cats the other night instead!  I hadn't seen this film for years (and fortunately couldn't remember what happened) so poor Allie has had to sit with this review in drafts for ages until I could find the time to watch it again.

The Prestige opens with its ending, as we see Hugh Jackman's character Robert Angier die after a magic trick has gone tragically wrong. We then see Christian Bale's character Alfred Borden face a trial for his murder. Makes sense, right? I thought so too. Oh, how I was wrong. The rest of the film steps back in time as we see the story unfold whilst Robert and Alfred read each other's journals. At this point we aren't even sure how they obtained these, but that gets explained later on.  Easy peasy...No point lying this is probably the third time I've watched this film and having forgotten the plot I was completely and utterly confused from 20 minutes in onwards!!

Once I realised that we had simply gone back in time a little, my confusion vanished (ta-da!) and the rest of the film was much more enjoyable. Hugh Jackman and Christian Bale did a fantastic jobs at playing these two leads and the feud between them felt real.  I was lucky, as the film went on I remembered bits from watching it before and luckily I remembered the ending pretty sharpish because my Dad stumbled home (pretty drunk) and promptly announced "oh is this the one with *Insert spoiler here*" "Yes Dad, thanks for that!" Nice one haha!

I won't discuss the story in too much detail here because the film is a fantastic experience to watch for the first time, spoiler free. What was a shame for me was that I already knew that there was a huge twist, and so whilst I enjoyed the story immensely, I was also shouting across the room to my other half with my guesses for the twist. Admittedly, I worked it out, only right before the end though and even then I didn't work every detail out.  I can't remember if I worked this out the first time I watched it, I doubt I did, I think The Usual Suspects might have been a fluke!

The final 10 minutes were fantastic, and I would give a lot to view them again with a fresh pair of eyes. I couldn't believe how many subtle hints that I'd completely missed, just dotted throughout the rest of the film. 

This is a great film, the actors have so much chemistry and I even liked Scarlet Johannsen (I think she might actually be growing on me, yes I am shocked too!).  The good thing about watching this film again, is as Allie mentioned, you spot so much more, you notice things that are said and done that you wouldn't bother even thinking twice about the first time round.  Another factor for me was even when you know what is going to happen your loyalty for the characters shifts and changes throughout the whole film, one minute you love him and hate her, the next you like her but hate him, you are kept on your toes the whole time.

Firstly, I'd like to re-iterate how brilliant I thought The Prestige was. I would honestly recommend it to anyone, and I'm so gutted that I didn't see it when it first came out. You may not have praised it so highly then as it swiftly followed Batman Begins, which was such a high accolade for Nolan, could have made this one seem a little slow in comparison.  Secondly, I want to congratulate myself for reviewing this film without once referring to Batman, Alfred and Wolverine. You don't know how hard that was for me! (Oops!)

Amazing film, I cannot recommend it highly enough.  It is slow moving at times but keeps your interest throughout and the tension between the lead characters is so high you can't help but want to see how it turns out.

I can't fault this film, I love Nolan's work and this is some of his best.  Only makes me more eager to see Interstellar.

Review: Captain America: The Winter Soldier (2014)

I seriously can't believe it's been 3 years since Captain America: The First Avenger! I was so happy to see this on the weekend with my gang. I have to admit, I'm actually more of  a DC girl, and Cap isn't my favourite Avenger, but who doesn't love a good ol' superhero flick? I'll try to keep this spoiler free. Allie being the DC girl, I am most definitely the Marvel girl (and a sucker for Chris Evans in a tight fitting outfit!!) therefore my review may be slightly biased!! Got to see this with my Dad a week or so ago and I'm so glad I saw it at the cinema, there is so much more atmosphere there than in your living room with a cup of tea and a pair of slippers! (I'm rambling again!!)

I'm sorry to say that I wasn't a big fan of the first film, not to say I didn't think it was good, but the story just didn't grab me. I'm not overly excited by war films, and yes, I do understand that's kind of Cap's thing, but that's just me! I'd heard great things about the new one though.  Ooooh that hurts (you wait until the Green Lantern review missy!) I loved the first film, although I am a fan of war films in general so it hit two notes for me.  However, funnily enough the trailer for this film didn't grab me, I honestly thought it looked a bit rubbish, too cheesy and had overly set up jokes. Fortunately, my initial judgement was unfounded once I actually saw the film. 

Safe to say it didn't disappoint me. This was the perfect mix of action, funny one liners, and explosions. There were twists, some expected, one very much so, but some that took me by complete surprise too and I love that. Also, as much as I can't stand Scarlett Johanssen, we got to find out a lot more about her character, and the inclusion of Falcon was a great move too.  I agree, if we are talking about the same twist, I guessed it too, it was so bloody obvious!  Not a fan of SJ, nor Black Widow so her back story and life bored me totally but everything else made up for that, Cap (that beautiful, beautiful man!) was ace, I enjoyed the story (although as a non-comic book reader, there was a huge spoiler on the cover of my Empire magazine which was disappointing and killed one of the 'gosh' moments for me! 

There are plenty of easter eggs for the die hard Marvel fans; Black Widow's necklace was my favourite one, I may have squeed a little in the cinema! The main thing that disappointed me though was that the film didn't really set us up for Avengers: Age of Ultron, which I was expecting it too.  I don't think I would have spotted this unless you had told me Allie so my favourite Easter egg was the mention of Tony Stark having 'a closer look' at the turbines on the hellicarriers, referring to the scene in The Avengers. Plus Stan Lee's usual presence, this time as a security guard in the Smithsonian Museum.

Nonetheless though, I really enjoyed this, Oh, and as usual, make sure you stay till after the credits! They don't play with you like Iron Man 3 did, don't worry. Not just until after the initial credits either, you have to stay until the end of the rolling black and white credits as there are two extra scenes for you to enjoy!

One more thing! If anyone can find out how much Chevrolet paid for the crazy amount of product placement, I would love to know! Love it!

Action, adventure, good guy wins, bad guy loses and plenty of comedic one liners to keep it flowing.  Good shout Marvel :-)