Adventures In Fangirling

Three years doesn’t seem that long really. But a lot can happen in three years. 

 

In 2012 I attended the UK Premiere of Avengers Assemble. It was my first glimpse of the Marvel cast in the flesh, and although I’d loved all of the Marvel movies up to that point, I had no idea how much my life was about to change.

In the three years that followed I have become one of Jeremy Renner’s many fanwomen around the world. I have also had the privilege of getting to know a number of other amazing women (and men) in his fandom. 

 

Three years ago I didn’t even know what fandom was. I had a tumblr but it was for random things like cats and movie quotes and some more cats. Now tumblr has become a humungous part of my life. I have a Renner blog (RenneredSpeechless.tumblr.com if you’re interested) and I spend most of my free time either watching his movies, looking at updates about him/his movies on tumblr or writing fan fiction about his characters. See how much can happen in three years?

 

In that time I have attended several public events to try and get another glimpse of the illusive Renner, but alas I have been thwarted at every point. Firstly, at the Avengers Assemble Premiere, he was the only member of the cast to not come to the section where I was standing, so I never actually saw him in the flesh the first time I was in his presence. The second attempt was at the 2013 BAFTA’s where he was presenting an award. I waited for more than 10 hours in the freezing February rain and snow and he got out of his car right in front of where I was standing, but somehow I missed him then too. 

 

Then came The Graham Norton Show, I waited again for a good 10/12 hours in the February freeze on the bank of the River Thames, but whilst I waited out back, his car left via the front exit of the building. The most I got was a 5 second video as he walked by the window in the studio.

 

Over the next two years I attended every phase two Marvel premiere, just on the off chance that he might be in the UK and might come, but no. I even went to the 2014 BAFTA’s just in case he was there (as his film American Hustle was heavily nominated), but he was not. Finally in the summer of 2014 I thought my chance had come as it was announced that Renner would be in the line up to play at Soccer Aid. I got there in time for the buses to arrive but sadly the players did not come and greet the waiting fans, so again, the most I got was a fuzzy picture from my seat (half way up the stalls in Old Trafford). 

Going to these lengths has caused one of my closest friends to label me a ‘stalker’, which understandably I found quite upsetting. I have found comfort in the friendships I have made with the other 'Renner Women’ that I have met through his fandom. As I said above, these are amazing women who are all uniquely talented, some are fantastically gifted at graphic design and have created posters that are so professional that IMDb used one of her images on their official Kill The Messenger page. Others have the gift of being tremendous writers, some of fan fiction like myself, others of full blown novels. Whilst a handful of them run the JeremyLeeRenner.com fansite which is a job in itself keeping us all updated with his upcoming projects. 

 

I recently had the opportunity to spend the weekend with two of my good friends in the Rennerdom, who accompanied me to a screening of Kill The Messenger. I was left completely awed by both the movie and the time spent with like-minded fans. Being able to spend the weekend with them, talking about Renner-related moments in our lives, and watching his movies with them was an experience I will never forget.

 

Now it is time for Marvel’s Avengers: Age of Ultron. The London premiere is tomorrow*. I have decided to cosplay as the Black Widow in the hopes that he might see me and I might, just might, get my moment with him. They are so fleeting and I know it will be a miracle if I can even say two words to him, but to see him, in front of me, now that really would be something to marvel at.

 

*I wrote this article on 20th April 2015 - it was originally published on Geek La Chic on 21st April 2015 - the day of the premiere.

New York Adventure - Day 2

As promised, no personal blogging here but a link to Day 2 of my New York Adventure, should your lazy Sunday require some light reading and looking at holiday snaps.


Here's a couple of movie related photos to whet your appetite. 

The Oscorp Building from Spiderman

Staircase inside the New York Public Library used in the first Sex And The City movie for Carrie and Big's (non) wedding

View of the street opposite the New York Public Library, where the wall of water came down in The Day After Tomorrow

Recent film fans will recognise this bridge from Marvel's Avengers 

(or Avengers Assemble in the UK). It's where the main battle takes place with the Chitauri at the end

 This building was used as the facade of the fictional "Pemrose building" in The Secret of My Success, as well as the fictional "Clamp Tower" in Gremlins 2

The Metlife Building was famously used as The Daily Planet building in the Superman movies. The flat roof is where Lois Lane's near fatal helicopter ride started

For the full blog and more photos visit my D&Ks NY Experience Blog using this link dknyexperience.blogspot.co.uk/2012/07/new-york-adventure-day-2.html.

Thanks for reading

Avengers Assemble

http://marvel.com/avengers_movie

Allow me to start this review by saying that I have never been a fan of comic books. As a girl who's brother is an extremely talented cartoonist and comic strip creator, this is not a good thing to admit. I have tried to get on board with them. And of course I can appreciate the talent of the writers and artists involved. I just don't enjoy it as a medium.

Film however is another matter entirely. There is a medium I've been on board with for as long as I can remember. And in fact recall that one of my (or possibly THE) first cinematic experiences I had was Bambi. An animated film. So on film I can totally get on board with cartoons, animation, comic book characters etc. This is why, although I've never read a Marvel comic book, I still consider myself a fan of the Marvel universe. And of Stan Lee. Who is of course a legend.

The only problem with having not read the comics is that I don't really KNOW these characters as well as those who have read them. Or as well as my 6 year old nephew who has taught me a thing or two about these characters since I watched Thor with him last year. 

Regardless of my lack of knowledge I was excited to see some of my favourite Marvel heroes, Thor, Iron Man and Captain America alongside some newer characters who have yet to have their own movies, Hawkeye and Black Widow, and even some of my less favourite characters such as The Hulk. 

So how and why does this band of misfits come together? Well to save the world of course! SHIELD head honcho Nick Fury has been running some experiments on a powerful cube of energy called the Tesseract (you may recall seeing it in Captain America: The First Avenger). This cube allows a gateway between worlds, which Loki uses to come to earth with his plan of ruling it. Nick and the team at SHIELD cannot allow this to happen and so call upon Dr Bruce Banner to help them locate the Tesseract, as it omits a low level of gamma radition of which he is the expert. When things at SHIELD's headquarters go from bad to worse it's up to the unlikely group of heroes, Iron Man, Thor, Captain America and Black Widow to put things right. But can they stop bickering amongst themselves long enough to fight their combined enemy and his army?

The first thing I want to say is that the key word in the title is Assemble. Not Assembled. So if you're expecting the characters you love, teamed together, fighting the big bad from the off, you'll be disappointed. Avengers Assemble is a slow burner, re-introducing the characters one by one, then introducing them to each other. To be honest, I loved this entire part of the film, Agent Romanoff bringing in 'the big guy', the Dr shaking hands with the Capt. Thor holding his own against the Iron suited Stark. And then Stark taking the p*ss out of all of them. The one-liners kept coming and the friction/camraderie really showed.

Whether you love or loathe these build up scenes, the waiting is worth it when they do eventually team up for the grand finale. This is where I was worried that writer/director Whedon would stumble. As a long time fan of his from Buffy (yes even all the way back to the Buffy movie) through to Dollhouse and Cabin In The Woods which he co-wrote and produced, I knew he could do ensemble casts until the cows came home. What I wasn't sure he could do was all out action. But I'm happy to say he pulls it out of the bag with a truly stunning end sequence in which each character has a part to play and a chance to shine.

Character wise, The Hulk was everything. He might have thought they were more of a time bomb than a team but he was undoubtedly the glue that held them together. Think about all his scenes in the movie and how things would have turned out without him. He was pivotal. Hulk also, surprisingly, got both the biggest laughs and the biggest cheers in the showing I was in. And the laughs for once were not for the way he looked on screen. The artists on this film have done a fantastic job of making The Hulk actually look like the man playing him, not just like a big green monster. Ruffalo's facial expressions are evident, which for the first time makes The Hulk feel human. I loved him, and he was my least favourite going in so that was quite a turn-around. I thought Ruffalo was inspired casting as Banner and Hulk and that he played both guys perfectly. 

I also loved the relationship between Banner and Stark and think this was helped immensely by Ruffalo and Downey Jr's on screen chemistry. First forged in their previous on screen collaboration in David Fincher's Zodiac. This lightbulb moment only occurred to me after I saw Avengers Assemble for the second time (on IMAX - HIGHLY recommended!) and was reflecting on how good their scenes were.

Avengers Assemble is not only an action packed spectacle, it's also genuinely laugh out loud funny and has a lot of character driven moments which make it what it is, an all round great film. Go and see it, more than once and definately make one of those screenings an IMAX experience. The sound and picture quality will blow you away. 9.5 out of 10.

Viewing Date - 26th April 2012

UK Release Date - 26th April 2012

Cast Overview:

Robert Downey Jr ~ Tony Stark / Iron Man

Chris Evans ~ Steve Rogers / Captain America

Mark Ruffalo ~ Bruce Banner / The Hulk

Chris Hemsworth ~ Thor

Scarlett Johansson ~ Natasha Romanoff / Black Widow

Jeremy Renner ~ Clint Barton / Hawkeye

Tom Hiddleston ~ Loki

Clark Gregg ~ Agent Phil Coulson

Cobie Smulders ~ Agent Maria Hill

Stellan Skarsgard ~ Professor Erik Selvig

Samuel L Jackson ~ Nick Fury 

Director ~ Joss Whedon

Writer(s) ~ Joss Whedon (Screenplay and Story), Zak Penn (Story) 

and Stan Lee and Jack Kirby (Comic Book)