Spotlight and The Big Short

You might be wondering why I have chosen to write a double review on these two very different movies. 

Although their stories are different, they do share common themes. A large and very recognisable cast, which means a lot of characters to get to know, a lot of names. A complex (and not exactly riveting) subject matter. A lengthy running time. One I loved and one I didn't. Here's my reasoning for why. 

Let's tackle Spotlight first. 

 http://spotlightthefilm.com/

A movie based on a true story about child abuse and the Catholic Church doesn't sound like it will be fun. And upon seeing the trailer for the movie, one of my friends commented that it was in poor taste as the filmmakers were making money out of a horrible situation.

Whilst I agree with that on some level, I also think that you can't deny that the paper that reported on the scandal, The Boston Globe, also made money out of it. But the purpose of the article was to bring the public's attention to this epidemic of dirty priests and those who cover up for them. The film is doing that too, but on a much more global scale. 

So, a film about child abuse within the Catholic Church and the paper that broke the story. Why should you go and see it?

The subject matter is handled extremely well. It's not subtle, but then it can't be when this is the story they are telling. But it's handled sensitively. 

The other reason you should see this movie is because despite being filled to the brim with recognisable actors, they're all excellent. They all lose themselves in these characters and I honestly couldn't fault a single one of them. It's a sterling cast and a film not to be missed. My only niggle (and it really is a tiny nitpick in an otherwise blemish free film) is that the actors didn't really attempt a Boston accent. And the ones that did had mixed results at best. I think as The Town is one of my favourite movies, I have been a little spoiled where accents are concerned, and it definitely doesn't effect the overall message of the film or how good it is. 

On to The Big Short

http://www.thebigshortmovie.co.uk/

The two films are quite similar in the sense that they were potentially quite dull subject matters, Spotlight focusing on the journalism industry, and The Big Short on banking, and both films have a lengthy running time of over 2 hours. But whereas Spotlight handled it's story brilliantly and thoughtfully, creating a layered story with tension, The Big Short felt like it was having to explain things to the audience all the time. And like they were annoyed that they had to do that. 

An approach like that doesn't work for me. It doesn't get the audience on side, it just makes them annoyed, and feel a little stupid. Or at least that's the effect it had on me, and I work in the financial sector. 

The main difference between the movies is that Spotlight doesn't try to glamorise the facts of the case, it's not sexy and it doesn't try to be. The Spotlight team work out of the basement. They live in homes that seem fitting for the jobs they do. I'm not saying Spotlight wins points over The Big Short because it represents "real" people. I know there are two sides to the coin, and that the rich people depicted in The Big Short are also based on people who actually exist in the banking world. Both films are based on horrific real events, but while Spotlight handles the subject sensitively, The Big Short rubs it in people's faces. You might have lost your home but look how much these already rich people made off the back of that. Oh and these guys are the heroes of the story because they saw it coming. There's a very sour taste left in your mouth when a movie does that to it's audience. 

The cast also didn't work for me with The Big Short. They didn't really gel with one another, and why was Brad Pitt even in there? It's like someone said "hey, we need another big name" and they just pulled him out of a hat. None were particularly convincing as banking experts. Which made the whole 'dumbing down' exercises even more unnecessary. 

Ultimately my advice here is to go and see Spotlight. It's a better film, better acted, with likable characters, drama, tension and even the occasional laugh. 

You should also stay and read the sum-up in the end credits. I spotted my home town on the list of places where cover ups involving priests was discovered. One of my friends called it blood chilling. That could not be more accurate. I've never been so happy that my parents weren't religious in my life. 

Spotlight 9 out of 10 / The Big Short 4 out of 10

Viewing Dates - Spotlight 29th January 2016 / The Big Short 6th February 2016
UK Release Dates - Spotlight 29th January 2016 / The Big Short 22nd January 2016

Cast Overview Spotlight:
Mark Ruffalo ~ Mike Rezendes
Michael Keaton ~ Walter 'Robby' Robinson
Rachel McAdams ~ Sacha Pfeiffer
Liev Schreiber ~ Marty Baron
John Slattery ~ Ben Bradlee Jr
Brian d'Arcy James ~ Matt Caroll
Stanley Tucci ~ Mitchell Garabedian
Billy Crudup ~ Eric Macleish

Director ~ Tom McCarthy
Writer ~ Josh Singer and Tom McCarthy

Cast Overview The Big Short:
Ryan Gosling ~ Jared Vennett
Christian Bale ~ Michael Burry
Steve Carell ~ Mark Baum
Marisa Tomei ~ Cynthia Baum
Adepero Oduye ~ Kathy Tao
Rafe Spall ~ Danny Moses
Hamish Linklater ~ Porter Collins
Jeremy Strong ~ Vinnie Daniel
John Magaro ~ Charlie Geller
Finn Wittrock ~ Jamie Shipley
Brad Pitt ~ Ben Rickert

Director ~ Adam McKay
Writer ~ Charles Randolph and Adam McKay (Screenplay) and Michael Lewis (Book)

Adventures In Fangirling - What A Difference A Day Makes

In a strange twist of irony, the song At Last has just* shuffled it's way onto my iTunes playlist. It couldn't fit this article better.

A few days ago I wrote about my experiences over the last three years as a part of actor Jeremy Renner's fandom. For those who don't know, he plays the Avengers archer extraordinaire Hawkeye.

That story involved lots of missed opportunities and almost meetings with my idol. Whilst I can't yet tick a meeting with him off my list, I am now the proud owner of his autograph. And I didn't have to pay a despicable autograph hunter to get it. This prized possession of mine was earned by my own hard work and determination. The full account of which is to follow.

It started with a 4.15am start on Tuesday 21st April. Followed by a 5.48am train, a mis-read ticket, leading to a missed connection and a late arrival at Westfield shopping center in London's Shepherds Bush.

When I finally arrived at the scene of the premiere the doors had already been open for 15 minutes and 400 people were already lining the fan enclosures. My photographer buddy who accompanied me wanted to give up. We were at least six rows of people back from the barrier and had no hope of getting any autographs from the stars. 

I was gutted, and felt like my two hours of sleep the night before had been for nothing. But my brother told me to be resilient, and so we stayed. If nothing else I knew my friend would get some great snaps.

We met up with two other friends whom we'd first met at the Captain America: The Winter Soldier premiere around this time last year. They were in full cosplay as Marvel characters Mockingbird (aka Bobbi Morse - currently being portrayed on Agents of S.H.E.I.L.D. by Adrianne Palicki) and Jessica Jones (who will shortly be getting her own show as part of the Defenders series - of which the new show Daredevil is the first part).

Feeling a little under dressed I changed into my Black Widow costume and re-joined my waiting friends. We spent the next six hours chatting, eating things that would not make us bloat in our skin tight catsuits, hydrating and going for the occasional wander around the shopping center to stretch our legs. The strangest part of the day (thus far) was being asked by people if they could take my picture. For someone who's quite shy and retiring this is very weird and not at all something you get used to. But I suppose putting on the Black Widow suit really doesn't allow you to stay you. And it certainly doesn't lend itself to being shy and retiring.

Around 4pm our day took an unexpected turn for the better when my two cosplaying friends were spotted by a member of staff and given wristbands to a special cosplayers only pen. They told her they were part of a threesome and took me to find the lady with the power to put me in that pen and make my dreams come true.

In the space of 10 minutes I had gone from being six people back, in a pen that easily held 50-100 people, to being in an enclosure of 10 people. Not only that, but this enclosure was right next to the stage. My luck was finally starting to change, resilience paying off.

In the next half an hour we were told that we were the cosplay winners, although no contest had happened to my knowledge, and we were going up on the main stage, in front of not only the hundreds of people in the center, but the thousands watching on live streams around the world. This was not something I signed up for, and I was not handling it well. My friend dressed as Mockingbird took my hand as we marched up the stairs. I didn't dare allow myself to look around for fear of seeing all of those people staring back at me. I merely took a deep breath, and before I knew it we were walking off stage, being given a prize (a pair of Hulk hands which are going to my nephew) and heading back to the enclosure.

Within minutes Director Joss Whedon was on stage, swiftly followed by actors Paul Bettany, Mark Ruffalo, Chris Hemsworth, Elizabeth Olsen and then the man I had been waiting three years to see up close, Jeremy Renner came through the stage doors. Dressed in a sharp blue suit and shades (clearly his early morning appearance on Good Morning Britain not agreeing with him). It seemed to take forever for him to reach me as they took him to the opposite side first, the cosplayers would be last. In the mean time I managed to get another signature I was missing from my collection, that of The Hulk himself, Mark Ruffalo, who I admired long before he turned green. He partially signed my thumb too which was a thrill in itself. 

Sadly some non-cosplayers invaded our pen at this point, and I ended up crushed between them and the front row of cosplayers. I knew I would not get to speak to Jeremy or get a picture with him, but I was determined that after three years I would come away with his signature on my Sarah Dunn Bourne photoshoot cover of Empire Magazine. The magazine I'd tried to get signed on several other occasions and failed. I held it between two cosplayers on the front row and hoped for the best, and when I pulled it back through to me, there it was, the left handed squiggle of my favourite actor.

He climbed up on the barrier to take a selfie with one of the lucky lady Loki's who had won the cosplay contest. And although I wished that had been me, maybe I need to work up to that. Maybe in another three years I'll have a picture to go with the signature.

Until then I am more than content with seeing him up close and finally adding him to my collection of Marvel signatures, which is now just missing Ms Johansson. How ironic that I have seen her twice when I was dressed as her character, and twice I've come away without her seeing me and without her squiggle.

Oh well, Captain America 3 is out pretty soon right?

*I wrote this article on 21st April 2015 - it was originally published on Geek La Chic on 2nd May 2015.

Avengers: Age Of Ultron

http://marvel.com/avengers

When I took part in a film reviewers accreditation course last year, one of the things they told us was that we should never ever reveal spoilers in our reviews. Sometimes however, in order to talk about the things you enjoyed or didn't like about a movie, you kinda have to reveal certain elements of the film. Having said that, I am going to try *really* hard not to intentionally spoil anything.

Avengers Assemble was one of my favourite movies of 2012. It was the culmination of all of the individual phase 1 Marvel movies of Iron Man, The Incredible Hulk, Iron Man 2, Captain America: The First Avenger and Thor. And as if that wasn't enough for me to fangirl over, it was written and directed by one of my favourite geek icons, Joss Whedon.

The three years that have followed have felt like a lifetime. I developed what I can honestly say has been a life changing crush on Jeremy Renner, the actor who plays the always on target Hawkeye. I eagerly went to see all of the phase 2 movies in the hope that Hawkeye might appear, much like Bruce Banner in Iron Man 3, or Natasha Romanoff in Captain America: The Winter Soldier. But sadly, due to Renner's busy schedule, the one scene featuring Hawkeye that was written into a phase 2 movie had to be scrapped. 

And so Avengers 2 became the most anticipated phase 2 movie of all for me. Spoilers slowly started to leak as the release date got closer, and these were spoilers that gave me pause. I didn't think they could be true. And I didn't want them to be. But I wanted to give Age of Ultron the opportunity to prove me wrong. 

The film opens with a battle at a Hydra facility in the fictional eastern European town of Sokovia. The Avengers are there to find and re-claim Loki's scepter as seen in the first movie. The base is overseen by Baron Von Strucker who will be familiar to hardcore fans of the Marvel comics. He was seen at the end of Captain America: The Winter Soldier with gifted twins Quicksilver (Pietro Maximoff) and Scarlet Witch (Wanda Maximoff) in his possession. Following the battle between the Avengers and the twins, one member of the team is badly wounded and they head back to Avengers Tower. At this point it seems apparent the Black Widow Natasha Romanoff has been doing some training with The Hulk, and following their encounter in the first movie where she was attacked by him, she now seems to be the only member of the team with the power to turn him back into mild mannered scientist Bruce Banner. Interesting. 

With Loki's scepter (and the infinity gem encased in it), in their possession, the team of Banner and Stark set about creating 'a suit of armour around the world', a new kind of robot with one job built into his subconscious - to create world peace. Together, the science bros create Ultron. But Ultron has other ideas, and somehow becomes a sentient being with a mind of his own, and that mind wants anything but peace. It's up to earth's mightiest heroes to stop him, but are they up to the task when they're the ones who brought him to life in the first place?

As far as characterisation goes, most of the Avengers are spot on the money. Tony is his usual egotistical self, Thor continues to add humour to the group, Cap remains in his leadership role and tries to be a good role model at the same time, at one point telling Tony to watch his language. But I think the biggest surprise for most people (and hopefully a welcome one), will be that we get to see the real Clint Barton this time. He's sassy, funny, and definitely the heart of the movie. As a Renner fan, I certainly enjoyed his scenes and was glad that they finally made use of his character. I also thought that Ultron was a formidable villain and that the Maximoff twins were a great new addition - although the accents were a little ropey. Paul Bettany's addition to the film in a more fleshy role also contributed greatly, and one scene in particular had me, and the rest of the audience gasping. 

Sadly, the same can't be said of Banner and Romanoff. Their characterisation lacked in ways I can't really go into without adding a spoiler, although it was certainly hinted at in the trailers. This is a particular disappointment following Captain America: The Winter Soldier where I thought Natasha really grew as a character and was someone I really wanted to see more of. I heard that we would get to see some of her back story in this film, and whilst you did, it was all too brief, and the rest of the time her character was reduced to little more than a googly eyed girl. As she's the only female on the Avengers team, I find this particularly insulting writing on Joss's part. And particularly disappointing as he's so well known for writing amazingly well rounded female characters (Buffy, Willow, Faith, Echo, Zoe to name but a few). Where was that head when he was writing for Nat? Banner is also very weak character wise in this movie, and I think if they are going to make another solo Hulk movie, they need to step up his characterisation in a major way. He's great as a science bro, but he needs more backbone on his own.

My other gripe with the film was the way in which certain events unfolded without any indication that such things existed prior to this movie. There were what, four phase 2 movies prior to Age of Ultron, and not one of those movies even hinted at things that appear in this movie. Things that we're just expected to believe have been this way for a while even though this is the first we're hearing about it. A heads up would have been good. 

I can't help but feel like these events unfolded in this way, without prior warning, simply because Joss wanted it that way. I read in an interview recently that he was asked if he took into account what the fans wanted, and he point blank said he didn't, he took into account what he wanted, as he is a fan himself. I think this answer shows his complete lack of respect, not only for the fans but for the characters he's blatantly shown such disregard to in this film. They deserved much more.

My only hope is that the Russo brothers who did such a wonderful job of Captain America: The Winter Soldier, will be able to salvage Joss's wreckage for the Infinity Wars films they are taking on in 2018 and 2019. 

As for Age of Ultron, I went in with high hopes and I came out disappointed. 6 out of 10. 

Viewing Date - 22nd April 2015

UK Release Date - 23rd April 2015

Cast Overview:

Robert Downey Jr ~ Tony Stark / Iron Man

Mark Ruffalo ~ Bruce Banner / The Hulk

Chris Evans ~ Steve Rogers / Captain America

Chris Hemsworth ~ Thor

Scarlett Johansson ~ Natasha Romanoff / Black Widow

Jeremy Renner ~ Clint Barton / Hawkeye

Elizabeth Olsen ~ Wanda Maximoff / Scarlet Witch

Aaron Taylor-Johnson ~ Pietro Maximoff / Quicksilver

Paul Bettany ~ The Vision / J.A.R.V.I.S.

Don Cheadle ~ James Rhodes

Cobie Smulders ~ Maria Hill

Samuel L Jackson ~ Nick Fury

Anthony Mackie ~ Sam Wilson / Falcon

Hayley Atwell ~ Peggy Carter

Idris Elba ~ Heimdall

Stellan Skarsgård ~ Erik Selvig

James Spader ~ Ultron

Written and Directed ~ Joss Whedon

Secret Screening - Now You See Me

http://nowyouseememovie.com/

It turns out Cineworld membership has some serious perks. Other than making it incredibly cheap to watch as many movies as I want per month, and giving me discount on food and drinks, they recently introduced a 'secret screening'. For Cineworld Unlimited members only, you could get a ticket to an as-yet-unannounced film which would be revealed on the night of the screening. I hope, from the success of this one, they make this a regular occurrence. Especially as the film they chose to secretly screen - Now You See Me - isn't out here until the start of next month.

The film tells the tale of four magicians who are brought together by an unknown figure and given a fantastical plan to bring those in power, a bank, a millionaire who built his fortune on the misfortune of others and the police force, to their knees. And they achieve this, all by the art of illusion. Jesse Eisenberg, Woody Harrelson, Isla Fisher and Dave Franco play the Four Horsemen, while Mark Ruffalo and Mélanie Laurent are the ones in pursuit.

I had a feeling from the clues that had been given to the secret screening, that we were sitting down to watch World War Z. I would have happily sat through any film, but I could not have been more pleased that we were actually sitting down to this. I am a huge fan of Mark Ruffalo and had been looking forward to this movie for some time. And I have to say that I really enjoyed it. 

I love a mystery and this one had me guessing right up until the reveal. The cast are a dream. We know from Zombieland that Eisenberg and Harrelson work well together, but throw in firecracker Fisher and James Franco's charismatic and cute younger brother Dave and you have a team that can't be cracked. Ruffalo's ruffled cop has great chemistry with Interpol detective Laurent and the thesps Freeman and Caine are clearly having a whale of a time. And so the audience does too. 

It's well put together, pacy, got a good story and great actors. I really don't see what more you could want? How about locations? Vegas, New Orleans, New York and Paris all look stunning in this movie. It's not going to win any awards but if you want a fun and intriguing night out, you can't really go wrong. 8 out of 10. 

Viewing Date - 17th June 2013
UK Release Date - 3rd July 2013

Cast Overview:

Jesse Eisenberg ~ J Daniel Atlas

Mark Ruffalo ~ Dylan Rhodes

Woody Harrelson ~ Merritt McKinney

 Isla Fisher ~ Henley Reeves

Dave Franco ~ Jack Wilder

Mélanie Laurent ~ Alma Dray

Morgan Freeman ~ Thaddeus Bradley

Michael Caine ~ Arthur Tressler

Director ~ Louise Leterrier

Writer(s) ~ Ed Solomon (Screenplay), Boaz Yakin (Screenplay and Story), Edward Ricourt (Screenplay and Story)

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)

Avengers Assemble European Premiere

Some of my readers will know that I regularly attend Premieres for upcoming films I'm interested in. Not to watch the film, but to see the stars and hopefully come home with the occasional signature to add to my collection - which for the record includes Jake Gyllenhaal, Ralph Fiennes, Megan Fox, Toby Kebbell, Evanna Lynch, Alex Meraz and Booboo Stewart to name but a few.

This concept, of attending the Premiere but not seeing the film, seems to baffle a lot of my friends. So I thought I would take this time to explain the reason why I don't see the film when I go to the Premiere. 


You see I would love to be able to see the film on the day of the Premiere, but to do this you have to be one of three things. 1) A movie star or D list celebrity, 2) A very wealthy person who can afford to buy a ticket or 3) A competition winner. I do of course enter the competitions to win tickets, but as yet have not been lucky enough to win. And at the present moment I'm not one of the other two options. I hope this helps to clarify when I next say I'm going to a Premiere.

Now onto the good stuff. My band of superheroes - which for the purpose of the Premiere were known as the Mighty Blair (my usual Premiere companion and cinema buddy) and Iron Hayley (our friend and comic book expert) - and myself aka Captain Kath, set out for London on a rainy Thursday morning and reached the Westfield shopping centre just before midday. We found our spot for the Premiere and settled down to our picnic prepared by the Mighty Blair. We chatted to the fellow Avengers fans surrounding us, prepared our cameras, pens, items for signing etc and ourselves and eventually it was time for the stars to arrive.

Each star was individually announced and came out onto a stage in front of a sea of photographers and fans. They made their way around the atrium and greeted and signed for fans until they were needed for interviews and official photographs and such. The event host, Jonathan Ross, took each of the stars back onto the stage for screened interviews - which I did record but you can barely hear over the screaming fans. Instead I have included some photo's taken by the Mighty Blair.

Robert Downey Jr who plays
Tony Stark aka Iron Man

Chris Hemsworth who plays Thor

Mark Ruffalo who plays
Bruce Banner aka The Hulk

Scarlett Johansson who plays
Natasha Romanoff aka Black Widow

Clark Gregg who plays
SHIELD Agent Phil Coulson

These fantastic photos aside, the Mighty Blair also took some amazing shots of the cast members on stage when they were talking to Jonathan Ross. This means we were also able to capture Jeremy Renner who plays Clint Barton aka Hawkeye, Tom Hiddleston who plays Loki and Cobie Smulders who plays SHIELD Agent Maria Hill, but who most will recognise as Robin in How I Met Your Mother. Unfortunately Chris Evans who plays Captain America Steve Rogers and Samuel L Jackson who plays Nick Fury weren't at the European premiere so we didn't see them at all. :0(

But I think my favourite photo of the day has to be this one of Jeremy Renner and Scarlett Johansson, where Jeremy is clearly thinking what every other man in the room was thinking (and probably some of the women too)...

So there you have it folks. Our fun day out at Westfield with some of Hollywood's biggest stars. Oh and I did manage to get one signature...

You can't see it that well but in the white THOR writing is Chris Hemsworth's signature.
And a very happy looking Captain Kath. :0)

It must have been my Avengers nails he couldn't resist.

 

**Special thanks to Iron Hayley for her expertise and being a wonderful Premiere companion and of course extra special thanks to the Mighty Blair for his always amazing picnic and the use of his awesome photographs.**


Tune in soon for my Avengers Assemble review!!!