Avengers Assembled

It’s been a couple weeks now since The Avengers came out… so I think I've given you all enough time to go and see it, but in case you haven’t: SPOILER WARNING!!! If you do not want details on what happens in The Avengers, stop reading now and come back after you have seen it.

First off let me say that this is not a movie review. I’m not going to deconstruct it or make a recommendation, I’m going to tell you which bits I liked the most… and it’s difficult to do that because it is all full of awesome.

This movie was spectacular. Absolutely brilliant. It gave me everything I wanted and expected out of a The Avengers movie and if you stop to think about it, that is a massive achievement. I have been looking forward to this for a long time and hyping it up in my head to an absolute fever pitch. The fact that it delivered is almost miraculous.

My top 3 favorite things about The Avengers (in no particular order):

Avenger vs. Avenger fight scenes

I hadn’t thought about it going into the movie, but this is exactly what I wanted to see. Who would come out on top in a fight between Thor and Ironman? Or Captain America? There were a lot of these little team ups that gave me enough of a fight to excite while not definitively answering the question. That’s better because if it had then what would I discuss with my fellow geeks after the movie?

The Hulk

OMG! What a monster! This has to be the best that The Hulk has ever been portrayed in the movies. It must be quite hard for the screenplay to hit the right balance between the tragic nature of Bruce Banner and the awesomeness that is The Hulk smashing things. This movie pulls it off: I felt sorry for Banner while still thinking “man, it would be fun to be Hulk”. Mark Ruffalo is a new name to me… and he’s brilliant.

Joss Whedon: Nerd God

This movie is a great example of what can happen when you have a movie For Geeks, By Geeks. Joss is well known for his facility with an ensemble cast and this is no exception. Everything just works so well together, with the characters and the story constantly playing off one another. If I had to pick one highlight of this movie it is that Joss must now be the golden boy of the movie industry and if there was anyone who ever deserved to be handed a giant pile of money to make whatever he wanted it is Joss. I can’t wait to see what he does next.

 

So those are a few of my favorite bits of the movie… too many awesome moves and one-liners to relate… but you’ve seen the movie… so you know those too ^^.

-Odd

“I love fantasy. I love horror. I love musicals. Whatever doesn't really happen in life is what I'm interested in, as a way of commenting on everything that does happen in life, because ultimately the only thing I'm really interested in is people.” –Joss Whedon

Halo4 vs Democracy

The internet has been buzzing for the last few weeks with the news of the release date of Halo 4. Most of the time this would be of absolutely no interest for me: I’m not a huge FPS fan anymore (not since the original Unreal Tournament) but this release actually has an impact on the real world.

The date announced is November 6 - which doesn’t mean anything to us here in SA, but in the US it’s Election Day. This is a big issue because the incumbent (President Obama) made it in to the presidency largely due to an overwhelming majority of support from the young demographic, and that is the exact target audience of the new Halo game.

There are numerous conspiracy theories floating around that Microsoft (the publishers of Halo) have done this specifically to boost the chances of their preferred candidate (Mitt Romney). It’s debatable whether or not Romney is actually their candidate or even if they would be evil enough to try fudge the election… so I’m not going to go into that.

What I’m taking out of this whole episode is the massive (even harmful) effect that mass media is having on society. This release could have a definite impact on the election of the leader of the world’s current largest superpower. Am I the only one who sees a problem with this?

Since when does a leisure activity override choosing who’s going to lead your country? It’s insane! It’s a mass parallel to Nero playing the fiddle while Rome burnt, which is allegorical to the fall of civilization.

Signs abound that the society we live in is pushing us in the wrong direction. We’re leading completely unsustainable lives fueled by rampant commercialism and mass media on an unprecedented scale. Sure, no one could have foreseen the problems that we’re facing when all these systems were developed but we can see the dangers now… shouldn’t that cause us to reevaluate? Shouldn’t that make us change what we’re doing?

I don’t see any changes happening… I don’t see any political or social will to cause change… basically I see little hope that we can salvage much of the current society before it implodes.

So that’s my gloom and doom for the month… next time will be something more uplifting (I hope).

-Odd

“It has become appallingly obvious that our technology has exceeded our humanity” – Albert Einstein

 

The Avengers build up

So The Avengers movie is coming out this week here in SA, and I am looking forward to this movie more than I have for any movie since Tron 2. It is not just the collection of awesome superheroes present and not the fact that it's written and directed by the nerd-god that is Joss Whedon. The main reason that I'm so psyched for this movie is that it is the culmination of Marvel's attempt to bring comic book continuity to the silver screen with all it's twisted geekyness and ramifications.

This past weekend a few mates and I did an Avengers movie marathon to prepare ourselves for the new movie... so I thought that in the post this week, I'd give my favorite points of each movie:

Iron Man: Robert Downy Jr's portrail of Tony Stark is absolutely perfect. Smart, smooth, successful and totally embraces the coolness factor of being a super hero. Also: the suit... I couldn't think of a better look for it, but my favorite moment has to be right at the end when Black Sabbath's Ironman starts playing... gives me goosebumps.

 

 

 

 

The Increadible Hulk: Mainly, I was just glad that this was better than Hulk /shudder. Edward Norton does a great job of showing Banner's pacifist torment, but my favorite moment must have been Lou Ferrigno showing up as a security guard... lol

 

 

 

 

Thor: "...the mighty, Thor the brave! Crush the infidels in your way!" It must be difficult to play a Viking-God-Alien... but Chris Hemsworth hits the perfect balance of naivete and nobility. Favourite moment: "Then give me one big enough to ride."

 

 

 

 

Captain America: This is in my opinion the most difficult super hero movie to make. It could so easily become an American propaganda exercise. So my favourite part of the movie is that it didn't. It maintained integrity and avoided being overly patriotic while giving us what could be the most well crafted story of the series so far.

 

 

 

 

So now we wait for The Avengers. I've managed to stay mostly spoiler free so far - not an easy feat, I'll tell you.



Welcome to the Era of the Geek, everybody... you're welcome.

-Odd

"I'm a frustrated actor. My ... goal is to beat Alfred Hitchcock in the number of cameos. I'm going to try to break his record" -Stan Lee