Why The Justice League Movie Didn’t Work... For Me

Isn’t it ironic that I was both listening to Ironic today (because I could hear my neighbour singing it really out of tune) and that my last film review over a year ago was for Wonder Woman. Which was by no means a perfect film, but which was so much better than Justice League. 

Now I’m aware that Justice League had issues from the start. Director Zack Snyder having to abandon the production for personal reasons and Joss Whedon taking over. Production that massively overran due to said unforeseen issues. And then extensive reshoots as if the production schedule wasn’t long enough. 

All of these are evident in the film, not least because of Henry Cavill’s face having been very badly CGI’d in almost EVERY scene he’s in. I mean he basically had to reshoot all of his scenes bar one it seems. That’s excessive even for a film with this many problems. 

Of course I don’t need to talk about my feelings towards Zack Snyder or Joss Whedon as I think my reviews of both Man Of Steel and Avengers: Age of Ultron speak for themselves on that front. But I do feel I have to address the elephant in the room, which is that this is basically Avengers but in the DC universe? Alien army invasion, team of heroes need to be brought together to fight the army, they don’t get on, but then (spoiler alert) they come together anyway to save mankind. There’s even a line in the movie about the team’s billionaire Tony Sta... sorry, Bruce Wayne “finally playing well with others”. Mmm where have I heard that before? 

I know it was written by the same man who wrote Avengers but come ON. That’s no excuse for him seemingly having only one idea and re-working it for a different group of heroes. 

But the main reason it didn’t work for me is the complete lack of care I felt for the characters. Not wishing to sound like a stuck record (because I’m pretty sure I said that I didn’t care about Clark/Superman in my lengthy Man of Steel review), but one of the reasons Avengers Assemble works is that you have already established most of the heroes in their own movie (not bitter about Hawkeye AT ALL). Even Black Widow, who might not have had a stand alone film, had a huge role in Iron Man 2, establishing her character straight off the bat. 

With Justice League we’ve had a Superman movie that turned the beloved character of Clark Kent into an afterthought, Batman V Superman in which the only likeable character was Wonder Woman, and a Wonder Woman movie that was basically a female version of Captain America: The First Avenger. Hardly a basis for getting to know the team before they become a team. 

In Justice League they try (and fail) to cram three other characters back stories into about half an hour of screen time (woo 10 mins each!), then the big bad shows up, Bruce tries to rally the troops but Superman is dead and everyone else apart from Barry (whom I love) hates him, then they somehow overcome their obstacles really quickly and form the team, but then the end still manages to drag on for another hour. 

They waste the Thimyscirans, they objectify Diana far too much, they underdevelop every single character, so you just don’t care what happens. At the end of the film if the world had blown up I would have just rolled my glazed over eyes and turned off the TV. 

To sum up, I definitely won’t be switching allegiance any time soon. And I certainly won’t be adding Justice League to my DVD collection. 

Also, the poster is ugly AF. 

Guardians Of The Galaxy Premiere

After the disappointment of The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Premiere earlier this month, I thought that now might be a good time to reflect on the Guardians Of The Galaxy Premiere, especially as I just got around to publishing my thoughts on the movie.

The premiere was held on 24th July. Two days before my 33rd Birthday. It was a beautiful sunny day, very different from the wet and cold November day for the recent Hunger Games premiere.

My photographer friend and I sat in Leicester Square with our usual premiere picnic and Ice Cream, and I got to open my presents from him a whole two days early. One of which was the Lego Hawkeye below. 

We were moved into the holding pens outside the Empire and waited patiently for the stars to arrive. We then heard the surprise news that two Avengers were also coming to the premiere, at which point I became ridiculously nervous thinking I might finally see Jeremy Renner and have nothing for him to sign. 

I had nothing to worry about as the two "Avengers" were actually one Avenger, Chris Hemsworth, and the director Joss Whedon. I would have loved to get something signed by Joss as I have long been a huge fan of his, but regrettably he spent little time with the crowd owing to the fact that he was recovering from knee surgery. I am still hopeful that one day I will get my chance to shake his hand or get his signature. Which was something I did manage to get from Mr Hemsworth for the second time. What can I say, he clearly just likes me. 

 

Next to arrive was another unexpected guest, Mark Hamill. Sadly, as neither myself or my friend knew he was due to make an appearance, neither of us had anything even remotely Star Wars related to get signed, so we had to make do with a photo of the legendary actor instead.

Before we knew it the stars of the movie had all started to arrive, and with only Bradley Cooper missing from the main cast of heroes, I had a pretty good shot at getting a good haul of signatures. Sadly, the only villain in attendance was former Doctor Who actress Karen Gillan, who despite my many attempts, just would not sign for me. 

My subscriber edition of Empire Magazine had only the villains on the cover, so from that point on I knew I wasn't going to be able to get anything for myself and made it my mission to get as many signatures for my buddy as possible.

 

Director James Gunn with host Alex Zane. 

Former Wrestler Dave Bautista, who at one point, the crowd was just chanting DAVE BAU-TISTA, DAVE BAU-TISTA at. Whenever I think of Drax I just hear that chant over and over again. 

 The very beautiful Zoe Saldana. Looking a lot less green here than in the movie.  

The man of the hour, Chris Pratt in his very tight trousers (I think my knack for spotting the men in tight pants is the thing I bring to premieres, in the same way that my photographer friend always manages to get a photo of an actress' behind).

 

Just when you thought things couldn't get more amazing, Vin Diesel showed up on stilts wearing an 'I AM GROOT' t'shirt!

Just before they all got back in their cars to leave, Chris Pratt took a moment to thank us all for being there. With all the camera crews packed up it was a genuine moment of thanks for us fans who had been standing out in the hot sun all afternoon. In all the premieres I've been to, I've never known an actor to do that and I hope it's something Chris continues to be grateful for as it was a lovely moment to witness. 

My only regret is that I didn't take my Star Trek: Into Darkness edition of Empire magazine as I probably could have gotten Zoe Saldana's signature for myself, rather than just for my friend, but I was still proud of the signatures I managed to get that day, even if they weren't for me.

All in all, a lovely day out, an impressive array of signatures and another round of cracking photos by Blair Holmes. Please do not use his photos without permission. Thanks for reading, and lets all hope the next premiere is more like this one than Hunger Games.
 

Thor: The Dark World Premiere

As many of my regular readers will know, I do enjoy going to the occasional film premiere, especially if it's a movie I am interested in, or a movie featuring one of my favourite stars. However, as I already managed to obtain the signature of Thor himself, Chris Hemsworth, at the Avengers premiere last year, I almost didn't go to the Thor: The Dark World premiere at all.

My main reason for not going was that my usual premiere companion and cinema buddy, was not able to take the day off work and accompany me. Without his camaraderie, home made sandwiches and photography skills, I just didn't think it would be worth it. But as soon as I got to work on the morning of the premiere I knew I had made a grave mistake. Firstly because it was not raining, as the weather woman (Carol on BBC Breakfast) had predicted. Secondly, as I was present at the Avengers and Iron Man 3 Premiere (and did Iron Man 3 stag), it just felt wrong that I wasn't there.

So I made a snap decision to take the afternoon off work and go to the premiere. I will admit that it was not the best idea I've ever had, because as an experienced premiere goer, I know full well that the best thing to do is go up to London early to get a good spot. I arrived in London at around 3pm, which meant that all of the enclosed pens where the fans are held, were all full. So the queue of people I was with were diverted into the center part of Leicester Square. Regrettably, despite there being poster covered banners and red carpet here, this was not an area the stars walked down as this was where the general public were being ushered in. I did however have a good view of the stage from where I was, just a far away view.

The first part of the premiere involved a vote for the 'Thor with the most Phwoar', a line up of Thor look-a-likes who were all vying for the public to vote for them.

After this we saw a precession of Lookie-Loki's, who were going to be judged by none other than Tom Hiddleston upon his arrival at the premiere. My personal favourite of the Lookie-Loki's was this person, who did a fantastic job on their costume...

I managed to take a video of Mr Hiddleston being interviewed and judging the contest. If you can hear over the fangirls he comes across very well, but I always think this of Mr Hiddleston, having seen him be interviewed a number of times. Apologies for the screaming, it wasn't by me for once!

As I was too far away from the action, with only my iPhone to rely on, I decided it would be better for me to video the main interviews rather than trying to take pictures. The best I did, picture wise, was when I took these images of the main screen as Kat Dennings arrived:

But as you can see, they're not great. The next person to be interviewed was Thor himself, Chris Hemsworth.

Followed by unexpected guest, and head honcho of assembling the Avengers, Joss Whedon. *I love that someone says "oh no" when Joss says he can't say anything about Avengers: Age of Ultron, come on lady, you really thought he would?

That brings me to the end of my premiere adventures. Next time I will make my mind up earlier, be more prepared and hopefully get some signatures. But until then, here is a giant Mjolnir in the middle of Leicester Square...

Much Ado About Nothing

http://muchadomovie.com/

When I saw the poster for Joss Whedon's Much Ado About Nothing, featuring Alexis Denisof and Amy Acker, my first thought was that it was a poster created by a fan. A mock up. A fake. It was only when I saw the trailer that I started to think maybe it was a real movie. And one I would definitely want to see. 

I kept checking my local cinema listings and eventually found the film was showing at Brighton's independent cinema, The Duke of Yorks, and I asked my ex housemate to join me. When we flat shared we started Buffy night, which quickly became Buffy and Angel night, then after we'd moved into our own abodes we watched Firefly, Serenity and now we're on Dollhouse. Maybe we'll finish up by watching Avengers? So of course, she was my go-to person for a new Joss Whedon movie. 

The idea to make the film apparently came about because every summer, Joss invites a group of friends to his house and they all sit around reciting Shakespeare. And on this particular occasion Joss decided to film it. So we have the usual mix of actors who've all worked with Joss before, performing one of Shakespeare's best known plays. A word to the wise, if you've seen Brannagh's version, this is very different to that. 

We still have the same basic story, Leonato (Clark Gregg), is visited by his friend Don Pedro (Reed Diamond) with his brother Don John (Sean Maher) in tow in handcuffs. He asks Leonato if he, along with two of his officers, Benedick (Alexis Denisof) and Claudio (Fran Kranz), can stay at his home until they can deal with Don John's treachery. However, as soon Claudio lays eyes on Leonato's daughter Hero (Jillian Morgese), he immediately falls for her. A wedding is soon arranged between the two and with love being all around, it prompts Leonato, Don Pedro, Claudio and Hero to match Benedick with Beatrice (Amy Acker), Leonato's niece. The two have a history of loathing each other so it's quite the challenge. Meanwhile, Don John, with the help of his allies Comrade (Riki Lindhome) and Borachio (Spencer Treat Clark), devises a scheme to destroy Hero and Claudio's love and break them apart. Will he succeed? Will Benedick and Beatrice ever manage to say a kind word to one another? 

If you don't know the answers to these questions already I heartily suggest you give Mr Whedon's version of Much Ado a go, as it was very different from previous adaptations I've seen, whilst remaining very faithful to Shakespeare's original text.

I am unsure if the actors chosen were merely round at Whedon's house for the annual Shakespeare reading or if he actually planned in advance to cast them in their respective roles. Whichever scenario is true they are all well suited to the parts they are playing here, with Acker and Denisof seeming to take particular relish from all the verbal sparring with each other, and both surprising me with their dedication to slapstick. The only problem for me, as with anything I see Denisof in, is believing his accent! As I watched him on Buffy and Angel for so long and truly believed he was English, I now always struggle when I hear him perform in his native tongue, to believe that it's his real accent. But I'm sure I'm alone in that and it didn't spoil the film for me, it was merely a distraction. 

If you're a fan of Joss Whedon's other films and TV shows you may like to play a little game that my friend and I enjoy, 'when have they worked with Joss before' in which you name all of the Joss Whedon written/directed films and TV shows that the actors have starred in. For example Amy Acker appeared in Angel, Dollhouse and Cabin In The Woods before Much Ado. It's a fun passtime as Joss does like to use a lot of the same actors time and again. In this instance it works well. With the limited budget and time constraints (as well as having to film the picture in Whedon's house), I'm sure it helped that most of the cast knew each other very well beforehand. And it certainly worked well from the audience's perspective, because these characters are supposed to have a history, so it doesn't hurt that the actors playing them really do have one too. 

Although I do sometimes struggle with Shakespeare, Much Ado is one of his more accessible plays and Joss and his crew have worked to make this even more accessible via the setting, costumes and familiar actors in these well established roles. See it, even if Shakespeare's not your usual cup of tea! 8 out of 10.

Viewing Date - 22nd June 2013

UK Release Date - 14th June 2013

Cast Overview:

Beatrice ~ Amy Acker

Benedick ~ Alexis Denisof

Dogberry ~ Nathan Fillion

Leonato ~ Clark Gregg

Don Pedro ~ Reed Diamond

Claudio ~ Fran Kranz

Hero ~ Jillian Morgese

Don John ~ Sean Maher

Borachio ~ Spencer Treat Clark

Comrade ~ Riki Lindhome

Margaret ~ Ashley Johnson

Ursula ~ Emma Bates

Verges ~ Tom Lenk

Director ~ Joss Whedon

Writer(s) ~ Joss Whedon (written for the screen by) and William Shakespeare (Play)

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)

The Cabin In The Woods

Mini Review

http://discoverthecabininthewoods.com/

The Cabin In The Woods is the story of 5 friends, Dana (Kristen Connolly), Jules (Anna Hutchison), Curt (Chris Hemsworth), Holden (Jesse Williams) and Marty (Fran Kranz), who go to stay at a remote cabin owned by a family member. Once they get settled in they begin the usual rituals that unsupervised teens do, drinking and playing truth or dare. One of the dares is to go down into the cellar where a whole bunch of weird toys and furniture is found. Dana discovers a diary kept by a young girl who seemingly once lived in the cabin. When she reads it aloud, strange things start to happen.

Allow me to begin by saying that The Cabin In The Woods is not your average horror movie. *spoiler alert* But surprisingly, it does still follow many of the 'rules' concerning certain events that have to happen in horror movies, such as the characters who have sex being the first to die and one of the characters who you thought was dead coming back to save the last remaining girl. Plus all the characters fit the typical horror stereotype such as the jock, the slut, the brain, the virgin etc. But this time all of the stereotypical characters actually have a reason to be there. Now that's something I won't spoil.

From the moment you see 'the facility' you know that this is not going to be your average slash and scream fare. Film critic Roger Ebert apparently said of the film "The Cabin in the Woods has been constructed almost as a puzzle for horror fans to solve." And I think that he's put it perfectly. Horror fans will love the way the film conforms to the horror rules on the one hand, but then bends them with the other. 

One of the things I particularly loved about this movie was that it had writer/producer Joss Whedon's stamp all over it. From the actors involved (Fran Kranz was previously in Whedon's TV show Dollhouse and Amy Acker was also in Dollhouse and another Whedon show Angel) to the quips spouted by the characters, and even one the monsters, visible in the scenes at the end of the movie, was previously in his show Firefly. 

If you're looking for a film that turns the horror genre on it's head, look no further. 8 out of 10.

Viewing Date - 16th April 2012

UK Release Date - (Friday) 13th April 2012

Cast Overview:

Kristen Connolly ~ Dana

Chris Hemsworth ~ Curt

Anna Hutchison ~ Jules

Fran Kranz ~ Marty

Jesse Williams ~ Holden

Richard Jenkins ~ Sitterson

Bradley Whitford ~ Hadley

Amy Acker ~ Lin

Director ~ Drew Goddard

Writer(s) ~ Joss Whedon and Drew Goddard