Review: "Avengers: Age of Ultron"

Director: Joss Whedon
Runtime: 141 minutes

"This doesn't make any sense," remarks Hawkeye (Jeremy Renner) to Scarlett Witch (Elizabeth Olsen) during the climax of Avengers: Age of Ultron. But whether or not it makes sense shouldn't matter. What matters is whether or not enough of this is engaging at all. When Joss Whedon assembled the Avengers for the first time in 2012, he reinvigorated Marvel's cinematic universe. Yet now, at the end of Phase II of Marvel's master plan, Whedon has let quite a bit of wind out of the sails. 

Solo adventures for Captain America (Chris Evans) have been the most recent standalone films before both Avengers films. Yet after Captain America: The First Avenger, Marvel was looking a bit weary post-Iron Man. Going into Avengers 2, Whedon is picking up after last year's shockingly good Captain America: The Winter Soldier, which has understandably set expectations higher. And this time, earth's mightiest heroes merely sharing the screen just isn't enough. Rather than close out Phase II with a brilliant end, Age of Ultron comes across as an extended denouement. 

When Age of Ultron opens, we're witnessing the end of the insidious Hydra organization. Once the Avengers dismantle the group's last fortress in eastern Europe, they start looking forward to a world at something resembling peace. Eager to make this dream into a reality, Iron Man/Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr.) expands his Ultron program, a team of cyber soldiers designed to act as a shield for the planet, as well as an agent of peace on the ground. Things go south, however, when Stark's technological meddling creates genuine AI, which takes on the form of an android (James Spader) who claims the Ultron name for himself. With the corrupted AI on the loose, the next step is inevitable: the rise of the machines. Well, it would be inevitable if there was even an ounce of tension present on screen.

A good villain is a terrible thing to waste, but that's exactly what Age of Ultron does. Spader does a wonderful job of voicing (and providing motion capture work) Ultron, but the hulking metallic fiend registers only as powerful, but never threatening. Ultron's strength grows, but the danger he poses is stagnant. At every turn, the Avengers stop Ultron to some degree. Ultron never leaves our heroes broken. He simply runs away to plot his next move. With Ultron's seemingly limitless technological capabilities, the world's machinery should be turning on the Avengers. Instead, it most plays the neutral card, and Iron Man and co. go on their merry way chasing the demon robot across the globe.

The featherlight plotting wouldn't feel like such a weakness had Whedon been able to better sort out his cast. By now, Stark's snark is played out, and Thor (Chris Hemsworth) and the Hulk (Mark Ruffalo) have settled into solid supporting roles. Despite his bland, all-American boy scout attitude, Evans' Captain America has emerged as the most reliably engaging lead from the franchise. When paired with Scarlett Johansson's Black Widow, it becomes all too clear who really deserves to be at the head of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. 

And then there's Renner's Hawkeye, who has always felt like the sixth wheel of the ensemble. Whedon tries to change that by taking us behind the character's mysterious black-ops facade, but what comes to light only makes him blander. Compare this with the frustratingly-brief peeks at Black Widow's upbringing, and Age of Ultron's priorities only seem more out of whack. As for super-powered twins Scarlett Witch and Quicksilver (Olsen and Aaron-Taylor Johnson), the former is wasted in a potentially cool role, while the latter barely holds a candle to Evan Peters' perfectly-utilized take on the same character in X-Men: Days of Future Past.

So even though the number of plates that Whedon has spinning is impressive, watching this act again is starting to grow old. Just when Marvel seemed ready to move forward, Age of Ultron falls back into old habits. Spending time with these characters still has its pleasures, but this super-sized super-hero flick is, sadly, as bland as many of the standalone films in the series that paved the way. It's a dandelion of a blockbuster; with just the tiniest breeze, it all scatters to the wind with little consequence or merit. 

Grade: C+

Review: "Blackhat"

Director: Michael Mann
Runtime: 133 minutes

Exceedingly timely but sloppily written, Michael Mann's Blackhat applies the director's formidable style to a stagnant narrative populated by directionless characters. The nature of digital security is a rich field for storytelling, but it doesn't always lend itself to visually stimulating cinema. Though there's talk of hacking and computer manipulation in Blackhat, the film works best when Mann goes into full-on action movie territory. With the sound of guns firing and glass shattering, one is briefly snapped out of the borderline inert character drama.

To his credit, Mann does a solid job in the opening sequence, in which he visualizes the electronic pulses that take place in computer hardware that leads to the meltdown of a Chinese nuclear reactor. Chinese agent Chen Dawai (Leehom Wang) leads the investigation, and soon contacts his American counterpart, Carol Barrett (Viola Davis). But Chen has more on his mind that international cooperation. He wants his former roommate, convicted hacker Nick Hathaway (Chris Hemsworth) furloughed from jail so that he can assist in tracking down the source of the reactor hack. In addition to Hathaway's personal ties to the basic coding used to attack the reactor, Chen also believes that it will take a blackhat hacker to stop another blackhat hacker. 

Except that Hemsworth's Hathaway never feels like much of a blackhat at all. Greyhat or even off-whitehat would be more accurate. Hathaway puts up little resistance to the terms of his furlough, and mostly just does what he's supposed to. Early on, he defines himself as the sort of man who owns up to what he's done. His political and idealogical leanings are nonexistent, leaving Hemsworth with little to work with other than a hunky hero halfheartedly pretending to be an anti-hero. The actor likely spent more time maintaining his Thor physique than the script spent developing his character.

Despite the globetrotting that follows (Chicago, LA, Hong Kong, Jakarta), dramatic inertia sets in all-too-fast once the world's most insanely ripped hacker is sent on the hunt (probation officer in tow, of course). Blackhat's plot could have been accomplished with little more than people sitting behind computers, and forgoing the travel expenses. Were there some life or some sense of wit to the characters, the needless foreign excursions would be less of a problem. But Morgan Davis Foehl's script saddles every character with dialogue that is either functional or weighed down by tech-heavy jargon. 

The diverse, international cast (including Wei Tang as Lien, Chen's sister) should be a draw, but every cast member looks bored from the get-go. It's understandable why these actors would jump at the chance to work with a director like Mr. Mann, but the regret at signing onto this script is often palpable. Early on, one can catch glimpses of the actors latching onto the tiniest moments that allow them to be genuinely expressive. Sadly, those moments evaporate at a frightening speed. Viola Davis, who injects such vivacity into her roles merely by showing up, has never looked less engaged with her material. Hemsworth and Tang don't fare any better with their tacked-on, passionless romance. Their fling best summarizes Blackhat: stagnant, devoid of energy, and unconvincing. 

Were Blackhat striving to be a big, over-the-top action thriller, the story and these characters could have worked. But, because they're caught between mainstream storytelling and vaguely existential aspirations, the film merely lumbers along for a needless amount of time (133 minutes). The film is so heavy, and so dour that it's neither engaging as a serious-minded thriller nor as a gloriously overwrought tough-guy action flick.

Technical aspects are hit and miss as well. The film works best when it's reliant strictly on visuals, and not actually moving the plot forward. Standout sections include a brutal gunfight near a Hong Kong harbor, and a tense expedition that involves navigating through the destroyed nuclear reactor. Stuart Dryburgh's grimy digital imagery is at its best here, lending a haunting immediacy to footage of both action and ghostly stillness. Dryburgh handles the expected Mann images (modern skylines at dawn or sunset, speed boats piercing through waves, etc...) beautifully, but the things get iffy in some of the other action scenes. The first fight, set in a cramped cafe, looks like it was shot on an iPhone camera. Sound work is puzzlingly scattershot, with the ends of sentences often dropping out completely. Mann's slicing and dicing of Henry Gregson Williams' score is solid, though a bit too reliant on the same menacing tones. Editing keeps the action as clear as it can, though the smeary, low-res quality of some of the photography is sometimes too much to overcome. 

Grade: C-

Review: "Rush"

Director: Ron Howard
Runtime: 123 minutes

The marriage of a Formula 1 racing story and Ron Howard, king of the middlebrow adult drama, is a head-scratcher on paper. Howard's films rarely dip into the sort of dangerous, even sexy, territory that defines the subject matter of a film like Rush. Yet even though this racing drama has its share of major faults, it certainly represents a return to form after 2011's dead-on-arrival rom-com The Dilemma. Most impressively, Howard even gets to show off his rarely seen stylish side.

If you're wary that Rush is little more than some lunkheaded racing drama, have no fear. Despite the subject matter, Howard and scribe Peter Morgan's story is as much a character-study as it is a cinematic adrenaline rush. After a brief mid-70s intro, the story proper kicks into gear at the top of the decade, quickly introducing us to handsome hothead James Hunt (Chris Hemsworth), and rival Niki Lauda (Daniel Bruhl). Both men prove themselves as skilled racers on the Formula 3 circuit, but it's not long before Lauda finds ways of cutting corners into the big leagues. 

Yet Bruhl's Lauda is no cheat, despite the many instances where Hunt calls him a rat. Rats, according to Lauda, may be unappealing, but they're also smart and determined survivalists. While Hunt drinks and sleeps around, Lauda spends time obsessing over the smallest specifications of his car, even showing his Ferrari-backed mechanics a thing or two about design. As Lauda keeps his nose to the grind, Hunt continues to live life to the fullest, until it starts catching up with his career. Lauda is an obsessive perfectionist, but he also has Hunt beat when it comes to playing the sponsorship game. 

Morgan's script may not contain many surprises (even if you go in unaware of a major late game development), but it does at least keep the simple narrative moving. Howard's directing, filled with some of the flashiest techniques in his entire career, more than keeps pace. Even when the Hunt/Lauda rivalry scenes become redundant, Howard and his editors never let the film stall. The director also deserves credit for his handling of the slick racing sequences which, despite their Tony Scott-inspired freneticism, never lose coherence. If anything, one could argue that Howard and Morgan wait too long before fully delivering a real racing scene.

That's not to say that there aren't glimpses of the sport, or its deadly consequences. Morgan's focus, however, seems to boil down exclusively to the rivalry drama. This would be perfectly fine, even great, if it weren't for the hollowness of Morgan's own writing. As stated above, the scenes that pit Hunt and Lauda against each other lose their novelty quickly. Both men may refuse to significantly change, but Morgan never gives enough heft to the reasons for their mentalities. Hunt's condescending remarks and Lauda's hard-ass attitude make for some fun exchanges, but somewhere around the midpoint you wish they'd find something else to say to each other. It doesn't help matters that Morgan opens the film with voice-overs from both characters as a means of establishing their backgrounds. It's an efficient way of covering each man's emotional history (both were disowned by their families), but it undercuts the drama that the film actually does show us. 

At the very least, Hemsworth and Bruhl turn in a pair of effective performances. Both do their best to elevate the table scraps Morgan has thrown their way, and each has his moments. They so successfully inhabit their respective personas that it becomes frustrating to see them tackle such repetitive material. Bruhl emerges as the stronger of the two, though that's largely due to the tragic fate of his character that allows some excellent make-up work to do part of the acting for him. Olivia Wilde and Alexandra Maria Lara are, likewise, effective, though they have even less to work with and a paltry amount of screen time.

The most satisfying "performance" ends up being Howard's work behind the camera. Aided greatly by glossy, stylish visuals from cinematographer Anthony Dod Mantle, Rush looks as vibrant and dangerous as the races at the center of the drama. Regular Howard collaborator Hans Zimmer continues his recent winning streak with surging score that avoids his recent bombastic tendencies. Sound work is, unsurprisingly, up to par, and the racing scenes sound as good as they look.

Rush was, reportedly, a huge crowd pleaser when it played at the Toronto Film Festival, which is hardly a surprise. This is sleek and sexy entertainment that retains just the right amount of Howard's tasteful aesthetic. The film may drop the ball when it comes to the drama, but it never slides into tedium, thanks to Howard's flashy approach. Even if you're the furthest thing from a racing enthusiast, Rush has enough good qualities to make it an engaging, momentarily gripping, experience. Just don't expect it to linger much once the tires stop screeching.

Grade: B-  

Review: "Snow White and the Huntsman"

Arriving three months after Mirror Mirror, the other big studio Snow White film, Snow White and the Huntsman is drastically different in style and tone. Looking more like HBO's Game of Thrones, in comparison to Mirror's super bright, campy, family-friendly design, Huntsman is aimed at a slightly older demographic, one willing to take its fairy tales with a little more gravity. Yet despite individual pieces that are ultimately more successful, Huntsman isn't really an improvement over Mirror Mirror as it is, well, just different.


For the most part, the basic elements of the story are expected: a king makes a seriously bad choice in his second wife, who kills him and imprisons his daughter, only to determine that she needs to consume said daughter's heart to live forever. Thankfully, director Rupert Sanders and company help everything feel fresh with the rugged, lived-in medieval look. This is a lush world, one that feels more like it lives, breathes, and dies than the hyper-artifice of Tarsem Singh's film. And for a good half hour or so, everything comes together - despite fleeting blips - to create something rich, dark, and compelling.


Magnetic from her arrival on screen, Charlize Theron is wickedly entertaining as Ravenna, the evil queen holding Snow White (Kristen Stewart) as a prisoner, all while sucking the youth and beauty out of other captive maidens. Dressed in Colleen Atwood's sumptuous costumes, Theron embodies Ravenna with the icy heartlessness of a woman taught from birth that the key to a woman's success was her beauty, and nothing more. It's Ravenna's reign of terror that is the most enjoyable to watch, and the further the film gets from that, in the wildly uneven middle, the more it suffers. First-time director Sanders knows how to create some effective imagery and atmosphere, and when it all comes together, it can be quite compelling. Aside from Ravenna's scenes in the opening, the director also nails Snow White's nightmarish hallucinations as she stumbles through the Dark Forest during her escape from the Queen's forces. It's appropriately dark and unpleasant, and helps reinforce the idea of a more grown up world. Many fairy tales, were, after all, filled with extreme darkness, with everything from murder to suppressed sexual anxiety running amok, and Sanders' film reaches its high points when it taps into this. 


Unfortunately, the trifecta of writers don't keep up the momentum. Once Snow and the Huntsman (Chris Hemsworth) escape the Forest together, the movie becomes simultaneously rushed and sluggish. There's an entire plot thread involving Price William (Sam Claflin) and his desire to find Snow White, not having seen her since they were separated during Ravenna's brutal take over of the kingdom. It's not terribly interesting, and it distracts from the relationship between Snow and the Huntsman, who comes across as much more engaging. It feels like the film wanted to build some sort of love triangle, but then got tired of it and simply gave up without seeing through on any of it (yup, even in the end). The film also rushes into its climax, complete with an uneven war speech with lots of obligatory SHOUTING, and then next thing we know, Snow is all ready to go into battle (apparently it just doesn't take that long to learn how to wield a sword...in full battle armor...which was just lying around in her size...).


Thankfully the finale redeems some of this, although it doesn't carry the intrigue of the opening act. The grittiness comes through in both the real, actual battles and in the fantastical elements. The darkness and menace are always present as well, even when the film stumbles in execution. Even the film's one moment where it could potentially go into an overload of fantasy schmaltz, set against a magical forest populated with sprites and other creatures, ends with a moment of violence.


Snow White and the Huntsman ends up being a mixed bag, but it deserves credit for when it works. Some films are complete disappointments, but Sanders' film does come together with strong results. Had the middle built on the momentum of the first act, instead of squandering it, this could have truly built into a stellar big budget fantasy. As it  is, though, it's a mixed bag with a wide range of highs and lows that keep it from being the majestic, gritty epic it very likely has the potential to be.


Grade: B-/C+

Review: "The Avengers"

You have to admire Marvel for their dedication. Over the past four years, they've poured a lot into building up the four distinct big players who make up The Avengers, as well as an array of smaller roles. So, with so many big characters set up, The Avengers faced the challenge of bringing a lot of larger than life personalities, the film needed someone at the reins who could effectively juggle all of the film's pieces. Enter Joss Whedon, beloved creator of TV shows Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Firefly. What Whedon achieves, thankfully, is a lively balance of comic book fan service and capable cinematic vision, even if it lacks anything to make it more than a fun ride. 


And, despite a 140 runtime that could have given us a bloated mess a la Transformers 2, Whedon actually moves the pieces of the plot with enough verve to keep the film from falling into indulgence. Though the opening is easily the weakest part, it doesn't last long and is at least efficient in setting up a critical part of the story, Tom Hiddleston's returning villain, Loki, last seen in 2011's Thor. From there, things generally get better and better, and even when the film stalls, it's never for long enough to really make an impact. Whedon's script isn't as smart or witty as it thinks it is, but it does do a good job of playing the characters off of each other. Particularly well-utilized are Iron Man/Tony Stark's (Robert Downey Jr.) clashes with Captain America/Steve Rogers (Chris Evans), two men who represent two very different manifestations of what America stands for. Less interesting is Thor (Chris Hemsworth), who fights with the above-mentioned characters along with Mark Ruffalo's Hulk. As these fights are kept purely physical, they do little to add to film's presentation of the Avengers as a bit of a rough-around-the-edges group. The two less flashy characters - Scarlett Johannson's Black Widow and Jeremy Renner's Hawkeye - are also less interesting in general, although at least Johannson has plenty to do, while Renner is sidelined for a great deal of the plot. More fun is Hiddleston as Loki, who actually brings a fun sense of menace to the role that seemed missing in Thor. His motivation is as standard as they come, but at least the actor gives the role some presence.


So even though it does a better job of handling its characters than the average summer spectacle, it still falls short in this department. Much is forgotten (though not forgiven), however, in the massive climactic battle, in which Manhattan is, as always, brought nearly to ruin. Though there are a few edits that puzzle, Whedon's staging of the sprawling battle covers all of the heroes so comfortably that the battle never grows tiresome. The stakes are never quite there - Whedon keeps things a little too safe - but at the very least it's always watchable, engaging, and throwing enough at you to hold your interest without becoming bombastic nonsense. What's really missing though, outside of one hilarious scene involving the Hulk, is anything memorable, either in the laughs or the drama. It's a fun ride, and certainly worth seeing on the big screen, but don't be surprised if you don't find much to talk or reminisce about a day later.


Grade: B-

Theatrical Trailer: "Snow White and the Huntsman"

To offset the dreary early spring season (at the cinemas at least), Hollywood has really been doling out the goods when it comes to promotional material for the summer's major aspiring blockbusters. The latest, and one of the best (though not quite as great as yesterday's masterful Prometheus trailer) is the theatrical trailer for Rupert Sanders' Snow White and the Huntsman. One of two Snow White projects being released this year (the other being this month's iffy-looking Mirror Mirror), Huntsman may lack a notable director at its helm (Mirror has Tarsem Singh), but it looks like it will be a vastly superior film. Tarsem Singh is known for having such stunning visuals in his films, so it's slightly awkward to see that Sanders' film, a grittier, more Game of Thrones-like take on the story, creates much more of an impression with its images. The richer, dark look looks extremely convincing, and gives the sense that this film has the stuff to launch a small franchise (which is Universal's hope). Throw in a wonderfully cast Charlize Theron, and all in all this looks like a winner.

My only reservation is that the story ultimately rests on Kristen Stewart's shoulders, despite the fact that the marketing has leaned so heavily on Theron. She's a capable actress, but her work in the Twilight series seems to have somewhat stunted her abilities. Let's just hope that Sanders (making his debut) and Stewart's cast mates can help bring out the best in her. To an extent, the movie really depends on that happening. Otherwise, this looks like a grand slice of big-budget fantasy filmmaking, with enough of its own look to not feel derivative (although that hulking creature with the horns does feel like it belongs in a Guillero Del Toro film; kudos for taking inspiration from a master, though). Also, that crazy sequence with Charlize flying around the room in the form of a million little knives (glass shards?) is outstanding. Consider my ticket bought.

Side Note: Kudos to Charlize Theron, who has this opening 1 week before Prometheus, in which she also stars.

Trailer Grade: B+/A-

Review: "Thor"

It's not an easy thing to convincingly portray one of Norse mythology's most important figures. In spite of this obstacle, relative newcomer Chris Hemsworth does an admirable and thoroughly convincing job as the Marvel-ized version of the haughty God of Thunder. It's a good thing too, because he's one of the few aspects of Thor, the latest set-up film for 2012's The Avengers, that comes close to godliness.

Opening with prologue that feels straight out of The Lord of the Rings, Kenneth Branagh's adaptation sets up the film's multiverse efficiently. Years ago, the terrifying Frost Giants threatened to plunge Earth into an eternal ice age, only to be stopped by Odin (Anthony Hopkins) and his army of gods (demi gods? super beings?). Now, in the present, Odin's son Thor (Hemsworth), in an act of foolhardy bravery slyly suggested by his trickster brother Loki (Tom Hiddleston), has torn apart the centuries-old truce. When Odin learns of his son's actions, he strips Thor of his power (including the ability to wield his mighty hammer) and banishes him to Earth. It's here when he - quite literally - runs into a trio of scientists, played by Natalie Portman, Stellan Skarsgard, and Kat Dennings.

And it's here, in the Earth-bound section of the story, that everything that's best about Thor comes together, even if the end result feels a bit slight. Whereas the opening is filled with portentous shouting matches, the Earth scenes introduce a vital sense of humor that very clearly lets us know that Branagh and crew aren't taking the whole thing too seriously. Thor's fish-out-of-water angle is executed with surprisingly fun results, thanks in large part to Hemsworth's completely convincing portrayal of a god completely out of his element. Along with Tom Hiddleston as the scheming Loki, Hemsworth's work is what makes the film the lightweight fun that it is.

Other performances aren't quite so entertaining. Natalie Portman gives minimal effort as scientist Jane Foster, while Stellan Skarsgard and Kat Dennings make for charming, yet inconsistent comic relief. A handful of minor characters from Thor's realm are played with nice effort, but feel like afterthoughts. Action sequences are iffy as well. While they aren't incomprehensibly edited, Branagh shoots them in close-up, resulting in fights that are loud, but somewhat hard to decipher, and rarely engaging. Credit should go, however, to the marvelous (albeit campy) costume and set design; Thor's home realm of Asgard is rich and fully realized. Yet unlike, say, the first Iron Man, Thor never reaches a point where it completely immerses you in its mythos. Despite a good-hearted nature, and some charming, earnest work from its cast, the whole effort feels minor, rather than godly.

Grade: C+/C

Behind the scenes of "Thor"

Okay, so the interview itself is kind of a joke ("How was the chemistry between you two?" "There was, uh, chemistry"), but Portman and Hemsworth are hilarious together. Portman especially seems so charming, it's a wonder she sometimes struggles to project charisma as an actress. Here's hoping Black Swan and Thor change that. That aside, I couldn't help but be distracted by Mr. Hemsworth (Kirk's dad in the opening of 09's Star Trek). We've all heard of stars bulking up for action roles, but JESUS CHRIST he looks friggin' HUGE; this makes fellow Aussie Hugh Jackman as Wolverine look puny. I think his biceps are larger than Portman's head.