Film Review: The Avengers

The Avengers. Rated M (action violence). 142 minutes. Written and directed by Joss Whedon. Based on the Marvel comics by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby.

Verdict: A truly joyful and joyous cinematic smorgasbord of laughs, action and an outstanding ensemble at play.

In precisely the same way as an all-you-can-eat smorgasbord is likely to satisfy every appetite, so too does Mr Whedon’s (Buffy the Vampire Slayer) Marvel superhero mash-up that gleefully ticks every ‘superhero action movie’ box on its way to a dazzling final confrontation between the invading alien Chitauri forces and our team of superheroes.

When Thor’s (Chris Hemsworth, pictured above, left) adoptive brother Loki (Tom Hiddleston) hijacks the Tesseract (an energy source being developed to supply Earth with an abundant supply of energy), he uses it to create a portal connecting Earth to outer space – where his Chitauri army are waiting to attack.

With the impending battle likely to decimate the human population, Strategic Hazard Intervention Espionage Logistics Directorate (SHIELD) director Nick Fury (Samuel L Jackson) assembles the Avengers – Natasha Romanoff/Black Widow (Scarlett Johansson), Dr Bruce Banner/The Hulk (Mark Ruffalo), Tony Stark/Iron Man (Robert Downey Jr), Steve Rogers/Captain America (Chris Evans, pictured above, right), and Thor – as the only hope of surviving the impending slaughter.

It is an unmitigated delight to watch this outstanding ensemble (which also includes Clark Gregg’s Agent Philip Coulson and Jeremy Renner’s Clint Barton/Hawkeye) at play in roles that fit them like gloves, while production designer James Chinlund’s (Requiem for a Dream) superb contribution includes a spectacular Helicarrier (SHIELD’s state-of-the-art flying aircraft carrier) and the Chitauri’s brilliant, giant fish-like spaceships.

Working perfectly in sync with Mr Wheldon’s fine (and unexpectedly hilarious) script, cinematographer Seamus McGarvey (Atonement, The Hours) and editors Jeffrey Ford (Captain America: The First Avenger) and Lisa Lassek (The Cabin in the Woods) bring extraordinary levels of skill to the proceedings – especially the big, action set-pieces which are often astonishing in the breadth of their vision and the pace at which they unfurl before us.

With a sneaky post-credits snapshot of the impending sequel, now is the time to familiarise yourself with the Marvel Universe if you haven’t already – even if it is difficult to imagine how much better it could possibly be.

This review was commissioned by the Geraldton Newspaper Group.

Film Review: Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows

Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows. Rated M (violence). 129 minutes. Directed by Guy Ritchie. Screenplay by Michele Mulroney and Kieran Mulroney.

Mr Ritchie absolutely cements his directorial reputation with this sequel to his high-octane Sherlock Holmes (2009). With the exception of the writers, the cast and creative team that ensured the first movie was as good as it was are back onboard – and the result is, mostly, quite magnificent.

If the Mulroneys’ dense screenplay is darker than the first instalment, it succeeds beautifully in escorting us both further and deeper into the film’s enthralling visual environment and the characters who inhabit it. The overall pacing, however, feels uneven and places too much emphasis on the big action sequences – spectacularly achieved though they are.

On the eve of Dr Watson’s (Jude Law) wedding to his beloved Mary (Kelly Reilly), Sherlock Holmes (Robert Downey Jnr) is investigating a number of bomb-blasts that are targeting high-profile members of politics and society. When he suspects that the destruction may be the work of his great foe Professor James Moriarty (Jared Harris), Holmes and Watson find themselves fighting for their lives (and the lives of everyone close to them) as Moriarty steps up his plan for the destruction and domination of Europe.

Mr Downey Jnr (pictured) takes his brilliant Holmes into another realm altogether – flawlessly capturing the detective’s wild eccentricities and idiosyncrasies in another virtuoso performance. Dr Watson gets a bigger slice of the action this time and Mr Law makes the most of every opportunity. Mr Harris (Lane Pryce in Mad Men and the son of the late, great Richard Harris) is perfectly menacing as the evil tormentor Moriarty, while Ms Reilly’s feisty Mary and Stephen Fry’s Mycroft (Sherlock’s brother) are hugely entertaining. Noomi Rapace (The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo and Ridley Scott’s Alien prequel Prometheus – currently in production) is excellent as the mysterious fortune-teller Madam Simza Heron who discovers that she, too, is a target of Moriarty’s henchmen.

The grim mood and tone of the story (there are no laughs and Rachel McAdams’ fearless Irene Adler is ruthlessly dispatched early) feels as though we have been immersed in an intricately layered novel – with the ‘shadows’ of the title richly imagined and realised in Sarah Greenwood’s perfectly atmospheric production design and Philippe Rousselot’s cinematography.

But it is Mr Ritchie’s grand directorial vision for the film that ensures it rises above its momentary and fleeting flaws to become an enthralling adventure – and one that kicks off the 2012 cinematic year in commanding form.

This review was commissioned by the Geraldton Newspaper Group.

Film Review: Captain America: The First Avenger

Captain America: The First Avenger. Rated M (action violence). 124 minutes. Directed by Joe Johnston. Screenplay by Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely. Based on the comic books by Joe Simon and Jack Kirby.

Don’t let the title confuse you. While Captain America might be ‘the first avenger’ (he first appeared in comic form in 1941), it’s actually the fifth instalment in the Marvel Comics’ ‘cinematic universe’ which will culminate in next year’s eagerly-anticipated The Avengers in which each of the Marvel superheroes will finally appear together. (Fans should note that there’s a sneak peak at what’s in store in a snappy post-credits sequence.)

The set-up has been intense, with Robert Downey Jnr blitzing the field in Iron Man and Iron Man 2 (with Iron Man 3 underway), several attempts at getting The Incredible Hulk right (Mark Ruffalo gets the big green guernsey in The Avengers), Chris Hemsworth’s formidable Thor, and now Captain America.

It is 1942, and evil villain Johann Schmidt (Hugo Weaving) is in possession of a super-powerful energy source which he has refined into a weapon of mass destruction. To avert cataclysmic disaster when Schmidt unleashes his plan for world domination, the Americans have been refining their own creation of a “super-soldier” – hand-picking the skinny young try-hard Steve Rogers (Chris Evans) to become their Captain America prototype.

Johnston (The Wolfman, Jurassic Park III, and Art Director on the Star Wars films) does a solid enough job, even though Captain America suffers from a feeling of being over-edited – with the surprisingly clunky, jumpy action sequences, in particular, never realised with the same flair as those in either of the Iron Mans or Thor. The overriding sense is one of nervous anxiety that the whole thing is ultimately going to collapse into an unforgivable shambles.

What holds it together is Evans’ (Fantastic 4, Sunshine) star turn in the title role and an equally committed supporting cast including Weaving (whose metamorphosis into The Red Skull is a highlight), Hayley Atwell (a sublime Peggy Carter), Tommy Lee Jones (romping through as leader of the American Armed Forces, Colonel Phillips) and Dominic Cooper (perfect as Howard Stark). The digital trickery that reduces Evans’ to his pre-serum geek is brilliantly achieved – and one of the many occasions littered throughout Captain America when it is hard to believe your eyes. And this film has just enough of those moments to ensure it takes its rightful place in the Marvel superhero-dominated world.

This review was commissioned by the Geraldton Newspaper Group.

Film Review: Due Date

Due Date. MA 15+ (strong coarse language, drug use and sexual references). 95 minutes. Directed by Todd Phillips. Screenplay by Alan R Cohen, Alan Freedland, Adam Sztykiel and Todd Phillips.

Anyone even remotely familiar with Todd Phillips’s smash-hit comedy The Hangover (2009), will find themselves in incredibly familiar territory with his latest broad brushstroke, bromance-inspired road movie Due Date.

Wound-up architect Peter Highman (Robert Downey Jr.) is desperate to get home from Atlanta to Los Angeles in time to witness the birth of his first child. When his life, both literally and metaphorically, collides with that of Hollywood-wannabe Ethan Tremblay (Zach Galifianakis) – the two new ‘friends’ find themselves on a “no fly list”. Their only choice is to hit the road in a hire-car and travel across the US.

While it owes a considerable debt to John Hughes’ Planes, Trains and Automobiles (1987), in which Steve Martin and John Candy lit up the screen with their hilarious cross-country travails, Due Date, similarly, succeeds largely due to the performances of the magnificent Downey Jr and Galifianakis (who also stars in The Hangover). Without their absolute dedication to the task at hand, Due Date would more than likely have fallen flat on its flabby face.

As is often the case with these kinds of storylines, much of the comedy is derived from the catalogue of opportunities on hand when two mis-matched, self-absorbed individuals find themselves trapped in each other’s company, dealing with the results of often extremely complicated situations and mis-understandings. There are fantastic cameo appearances from Danny McBride as a Western Union employee and Juliette Lewis as a drug-dealing mother of two, whereas the subplot involving Jamie Foxx as Peter’s friend Darryl, is just a time-wasting diversion from the main game.

Peculiarly (especially with the wealth of talent on show) Due Date appears to be much longer than its 95 minutes, although the saggy pace is buoyed by a spectacular sequence in Mexico, a poignant scene on the edge of the Grand Canyon and a catastrophic series of events while Tremblay is ‘asleep at the wheel’.

So while we wait for The Hangover Part 2 (which is currently in production), Due Date is a perfectly guilt-free way to indulge in our enjoyment of Mr Phillips’ blokey, coarse, get-me-there-on-time shenanigans.

This review was commissioned by the Geraldton Newspaper Group.

Film Review: Iron Man 2

Iron Man 2. 124 minutes. Rated M. Directed by Jon Favreau. Written by Justin Theroux. Based on the Marvel comic books by Stan Lee, Don Heck, Larry Lieber and Jack Kirby

The art of making sequels to immensely popular films is a complicated affair. It can be extremely difficult to define precisely what it was that captured the imaginations of audiences around the world the first time, and, more often than not, it will be the filmmakers' blind faith in expecting it all to work equally as well the second time around that can leave a sequel struggling to make its own unique impact. While Iron Man 2 works well on a number of levels (chiefly the spirited performances and its abundant tongue-in-cheek humour), its failure to advance the story or the visual imaginings in meaningful ways (like the Superman, Spider Man and Batman franchises did), renders it immediately second-rate, before it eventually goes on to drown in its own conceit.

The main problem, as is so often the case, is the script. Actor/writer Theroux (who has one other screenplay, Tropic Thunder, to his credit), simply fails to elevate the story beyond this messy, derivative and imagination-starved incarnation. There are certainly hints of some interesting possibilities (such as the fact that the element that keeps Tony Stark/Iron Man alive is rapidly killing him by poisoning his blood stream), but they are abandoned within minutes. This is, after all, a determinedly 'feel-good' popcorn crunching affair. Sadly though, all we're left with is an incredibly old-fashioned 'might of the US Armed Forces' analogy that manages to not only deflate our expectations, but also to slide into an awkward, mind-numbing slump at the critical half-way mark from which it fails to recover.

Billionaire businessman Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jnr) is on top of the world. Stark Industries has created the 'Stark Expo' – a year-round technology expo which, apart from providing him with his own personal playground, allows Tony Stark to shamelessly flout his wealth and success. His Iron Man suit is now the envy of the US Government, and his fiercely competitive rival Justin Hammer (Sam Rockwell), is beside himself with jealousy. Meanwhile, in Moscow, Ivan Vanko/Whiplash (Mickey Rourke, pictured) – whose father worked in collaboration with Stark's in the engineering of the Iron Man's arc reactor technology – is using the identical blueprints to create his own version of the suit. Once it is complete, Vanko is determined to use it to avenge his father's treatment at the hands of Stark Snr, while destroying Stark Jnr and everything he stands for.

Problematically, the sequel never lets us know what it is, exactly, that Tony Stark stands for. Downey Jnr continues along on the same playful route as he did in the first instalment which, over the course of two hours, just becomes boring. With the exception of some cute interaction with Pepper Potts (Gwyneth Paltrow), there's nothing to either dislike or like about him. In a film about him, in which we're supposed to acknowledge him as the champion we all cheer for, it renders the whole thing kind of pointless. Fatefully, Favreau (who directed Iron Man) fails to bring new cinematic vigour (other than a fantastic Monaco Grand Prix sequence and some impressive Stark Expo action) to the whole affair. The climactic sequences only serve to remind us how much better Iron Man was. The camera ends up just being too far away from the action – resulting in Iron Man appearing to be nothing more than Tinkerbell on steroids.

Ultimately, though, Iron Man 2's final conceit is that we wish we were having as good a time watching it as everyone obviously was making it. That we actually don't, and by a long shot, just doesn't seem all that fair. Let's hope they spare us from Iron Man 3 which, if you hang around until the end of the credits, seems highly unlikely.

Film review: Sherlock Holmes

Sherlock Holmes. 128 minutes. Rated M. Directed by Guy Ritchie; Written by Michael Robert Johnson, Anthony Peckham and Simon Kinberg; Released by Warner Bros in association with Village Roadshow Pictures; Cast includes Robert Downey Jnr, Jude Law, Rachel McAdams and Mark Strong.

At a glance: Robert Downey Jnr can do anything.

Beginning with A Study in Scarlet (1887), Sir Arthur Conan Doyle wrote four novels and fifty-six short stories featuring his 'Consulting Detective' Sherlock Holmes, who would be most famously portrayed (in 14 films) by South African born, English actor Basil Rathbone. Throughout Conan Doyle's 'Sherlock Holmes' canon (and the more than 200 dramatisations for film and television to follow), the pipe-smoking detective of 221B Baker Street, London, was renowned for his focus on logical thought, quaint philosophising and his unequalled powers of observation and deduction – not to forget his instantly recognisable cap, cape and cane.

Not any more. From the first frame, Mr Ritchie (who burst over the horizon in 1998 with Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels) dispenses with the mannered elegance and mild eccentricities of Sherlocks past and delivers, instead, a thrilling, white-knuckled ride through a post-modern Sherlock Holmes adventure so entirely of our time that it risks casting a museum-like pall over all that has gone before.

It is late in the 19th century and London's now iconic Tower Bridge is under construction. Master of the Occult, Lord Blackwood (a superbly malevolent Mr Strong), is sentenced to a date with the hangman for the death of a number women; but no sooner is he pronounced dead by none other than Dr Watson (Mr Law, who is finally back in form), he resurrects himself to resume his evil plan to lead his cult-like organisation to political domination.

More 007 than Hercule Poirot, Sherlock Holmes' forensically researched screenplay (two writers are credited with the story and three with the screenplay) is melded to the screen with absolute relish and conviction, and features a blisteringly good performance from Mr Downey Jnr in the title role. Referred to in Doyle's stories as a formidable 'bare-knuckle fighter' and someone who has used martial arts on more than one occasion to dispense with his foes, Mr Ritchie and his collaborators introduce their Sherlock to us from deep within the underbelly of a heavy-duty, industrialised Victorian England; where Holmes' peculiar eccentricities are first revealed through the methodology he uses to dispatch of his much stronger and physically capable opponents in a boxing match.

While it is unarguable that Mr Ritchie really needed a high-impact, box office triumph to re-ignite our faith (and Hollywood's investment) in him (Swept Away, anyone? Revolver?), he has fortuitously found himself in incredibly accomplished company, and in the meantime, has managed to rediscover his sense of humour which has been sadly missing from much of his recent ouput. Much of the credit for this revolutionary imagining belongs to Philippe Rousselot's (Oscar-winner for A river runs through it) fiercely stylised, monochromatically-inspired cinematography, the deliciously rendered detail of Sarah Greenwood's (Atonement) glorious production design, and Hans Zimmer's (Gladiator) ravishing score that appears, at times, to forge the high-octane pace Mr Ritchie has set for the film.

James Herbert's editing keeps the film moving swiftly with hardly a dull moment, and while audiences will be more than familiar with both the slow- and fast-motion devices used to accentuate pivotal plot points and reveals, here they are used with great efficiency and expert timing – particularly as Holmes solves the intricate web of crimes and their association to each other. Ms McAdams (the ill-fated Regina in Mean Girls) is a worthy adversary for our recalcitrant hero, and Kelly Reilly turns in a beautifully affecting performance as Dr Watson's long-suffering fiancée Mary Morstan. But it is Mr Downey Jnr whose performance is worth the price of admission alone. And yes, the heavily sign-posted sequel is already in pre-production.

This review was commissioned by the Geraldton Newspapers Group and was published in the print edition of the Geraldton Guardian.