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

Captain America: The Winter Soldier

http://marvel.com/movies/movie/181/captain_america_the_winter_soldier

Much like Cineworld did for the Midnight Screening of Thor: The Dark World, they offered those seeing the Midnight Screening of Captain America: The Winter Soldier a chance to catch up on what they might have missed, by showing a double bill of Cap 1 with Cap 2. As a big fan of the first film I of course wanted to go two for two with the Captain. You can read my previous review for Captain America: The First Avenger by clicking the respective link, but do know that if I were reviewing it now it would get a much higher score as I have grown very fond of The First Avenger.

However, Cap one has had it's time in the glowing spotlight of my blog, and as such I am going to move swiftly on to the new, and very different Winter Soldier. Different primarily because it's set in the present day, but also because there is a lot more interaction here with a couple of S.H.I.E.L.D.'s finest agents that you might be familiar with if you've seen a little movie called The Avengers (or Avengers Assemble in the UK). As much as everyone talks about Cap's (Chris Evans reprising his role of Steve 'Captain America' Rogers) friendship with Bucky Barnes (Sebastian Stan), most of his work in the war in the first movie was done alone. This movie sees Steve team up with Natasha Romanoff (Scarlett Johansson) for a mission to free S.H.I.E.L.D. agents who are being held by terrorists on one of their own ships. Whilst completing the mission, Natasha hacks into the S.H.I.E.L.D. database on board the ship and downloads information about her employers, which upsets Steve's sensibilities about doing the right thing and trusting those you work for. However, it seems Natasha was right to capture the secret S.H.I.E.L.D. files, as not long after this Director Fury (Samuel L Jackson) faces off against the mysterious Winter Soldier and Natasha and Steve find themselves on the run from the very organisation they work for. Will they discover what is in the S.H.I.E.L.D. files? Will they find out who the Winter Soldier is? You'll have to go and see the movie to find out.

As I mentioned above, if I were to review The First Avenger now, I have no doubt I would give it a higher score as it has become one of my favourite Marvel movies. The funny thing is that in the run up to the release of the sequel, a lot of people have said to me, "Oh I didn't really like the first one", which on the one hand is fine, because the sequel is entirely different, it's set in a different time, with the majority of different, present day characters. But if you don't like the character of Steve Rogers, if you don't like his values, or the old school way he has of solving problems etc, I still don't know if you'll find a lot to like in Cap 2. Thankfully for me, as I said, I love the first film, and I like the fact that Cap is old fashioned. I think it makes his movies a refreshing change from the norm.

In this instance I loved his team up with Natasha. I loved the dynamic of the two of them, I loved the way they worked together and the way they challenged each other. I loved the fact that there was no hint of romance between them, that they could be a man and woman and just be colleagues, who might someday be friends. After seeing Johansson trying to be a 'serious' actress in Under The Skin and achieving nothing other than getting under my skin, it was nice to see her do justice to a character she is clearly very comfortable with after 3 outings in her catsuit. She adds so many layers to Natasha's already intriguing background that you feel like you'll never really be sure who she is. But damn do you want to find out.

I also loved the addition of Anthony Mackie's Falcon Sam Wilson. And my only real complaint about the movie is that he isn't in it nearly enough. As if adding Falcon to the mix wasn't enough to widen the scope for the next movie, the story arc of the Winter Soldier has only melted enough to dip your little toe into, and as such I am excited to see what more we will learn from Cap 3 (already announced at the UK Premiere of Cap 2) and beyond. If Marvel can keep up the fantastic work they have put in at ground level then I can't wait to see what will be next.

Whether you are a fan of The First Avenger or not, you should see The Winter Soldier and make your own mind up as to whether there is anything here for you. I was not disappointed and I doubt you will be either. 9 out of 10. 

Viewing Date - 25th March 2014

UK Release Date - 26th March 2014

Cast Overview:

Steve Rogers / Captain America ~ Chris Evans

Nick Fury ~ Samuel L Jackson

Natasha Romanoff / Black Widow ~ Scarlett Johansson

Alexander Pierce ~ Robert Redford

Bucky Barnes / Winter Soldier ~ Sebastian Stan

Sam Wilson / Falcon ~ Anthony Mackie

Maria Hill ~ Cobie Smulders

Brock Rumlow ~ Frank Grillo

Jasper Sitwell ~ Maximiliano Hernandez

Kate / Agent 13 ~ Emily Van Camp

Peggy Carter ~ Hayley Atwell

Dr Arnim Zola ~ Toby Jones

Director(s) ~ Anthony and Joe Russo

Writer(s) ~ Christopher Markus (Screenplay), Stephen McFeely (Screenplay), Ed Brubaker (Concept and Story), Joe Simon (Comic Book) and Jack Kirby (Comic Book)

Captain America: The Winter Soldier UK Premiere

Around a month ago my cinema/premiere buddy Blair asked me, “so do you think you might want to go to the Captain America 2 premiere?” To which my reply was something along the lines of “err, why WOULDN’T I go?” Bearing in mind we did the Avengers Premiere together, and following Margaret Thatcher’s untimely demise which caused the Iron Man 3 premiere to be put back by a day, I did that - and the Thor The Dark World premiere - stag. Add to that the fact that Chris Evans was the only Avenger who wasn’t at the Avengers premiere, this was my chance to see him for the first time, along with Samuel L Jackson, who also was not in attendance at Avengers, and Anthony Mackie who is having his first outing as Falcon.

Yes I was bloody well going. But then I got a new job, and as luck would have it, the induction training was during the same week as the premiere. Thankfully my new boss is lovely and allowed me to take the day off. Good job too because I then found out that not one, but two of my tumblr friends were going to be there! Having had two previously great experiences meeting tumblr people in real life, it just made me even more excited for the premiere.

On the morning of the premiere I decided to go with my contingency Natasha costume, which ironically, I don’t have a picture of me in, but it was a take on this:

I set off for London on the first train that didn’t cost a fortune, and after some delays caused by overcrowding, Blair and I arrived at around 11am. I immediately panicked as the pens already looked busy. I spoke with a security guard to find out the situation with wristbands and he informed me that each pen had a different colour, and so once you were in, you were in! I told him that we were meeting people and weren’t sure which pen they were in, as we hadn’t thought to exchange numbers beforehand.

He said there was plenty of room and we could wander around until we found them, which thanks to one of the girls dressing up as Black Widow (complete with Red wig), did not take long at all.

Once the initial greetings were done, we then began our 6 hour wait for the stars to arrive. Thankfully as there was so many of us, it meant we could go for walkabouts in turn, go to the toilet, get food etc, without worry that our places would be taken.

Blair and I also bumped into a friend we made at the Star Trek premiere so it was lovely to see him too and have a bit of a catch up.

The girls convinced me I should put on my catsuit, which I brought in case I suddenly felt brave, and so I went to get changed. Then at 3.30 there was the cosplay contest to win tickets to see the movie. As I had the catsuit on, I figured what the hell and entered the contest, even though I didn’t think I stood a cat in hell’s chance next to the Widow I was with and her much more accurate costume.

 

Me in my Widow costume with little Steve

Sadly, none of our group won tickets so we took our places for the warm up guy to do his bit, and then before we knew it the stars were coming out of the stage door designed to look like Cap’s shield. First out was Anthony Mackie looking very *ahem* excited, or like he was smuggling in a gaggle of snakes maybe?

Next were the directors Joe and Anthony Russo, then came Samuel L Jackson, who took a selfie with the crowd behind him:

The Winter Soldier himself, Sebastian Stan was up next, followed by Scarlett in a very pretty scarlet dress (good thing the carpet was blue)

and bringing up the rear was Cap Chris Evans…

There were other Avengers/Cap alumni also walking the red carpet, Hayley Atwell and Jenny Agutter, but they were not interviewed.

I actually had a mini conversation with Hayley after she signed my magazine and she came across as very gracious and down to earth whilst also being incredibly beautiful and much less buxom than she appears on screen. After so many premieres I really do believe the old adage that the camera adds 10lbs.

As if all that excitement wasn’t enough, after the premiere another tumblr friend came to see us! She travelled half way across London and probably for only 5 or 10 minutes with us. It was so nice to finally meet her after many misfired attempts, and she was just as lovely in person as she has always been via various message portals.

So to sum up…

I managed to get signatures from everyone mentioned above apart from Scarlett (although she did sign the item I was holding out for Blair - I just didn’t get her signature on anything of mine) and Samuel (although Blair did manage to get his signature on both something of mine and his magazine).

I must admit that I am thrilled with my signatures, not least Chris’ as it adds perfectly to my existing collection. If my nephews are reading this, you best not sell these when I die because it’s been a painstaking journey to collect them and I’m not done yet, I still have Scarlett, Jeremy and Mark to go (and Clark and Cobie would be nice but I shan’t quibble).

But it’s a collection I’m determined to complete. So here’s to the next premiere.

Before I sign off and tell you what I thought of Cap 2, here is me, in my contingency Widow outfit (leather jacket behind me) with my haul for the day

*additional pictures courtesy of Blair Holmes

Under The Skin

http://undertheskinmovie.com/

My first exposure to Under The Skin was when I saw a post from one of my friends on Tumblr who was very excited about the movie. She had read the book some years ago and forgotten the title, and then by chance discovered they'd made said book into a movie. I then read up on the film and read several glowing reviews, and I managed to convince my friend who, shall we say is less than keen on Scarlett Johansson, to come and watch it with me as it was only showing at the local independent cinema. 

The film opens on the creation of an eyeball (in case you saw the film and were wondering). The eyeball in question belongs to an alien who takes the form of Scarlett Johansson, although think Scarlett Johansson in the 80s with a dodgy hairdo rather than the blonde bombshell we've all come to recognise. The film is set in the present day so I'm not sure why she has such terrible hair other than maybe the production blew so much money on her fee that they could only afford a really crap wig off ebay to disguise their star? Anyway, the alien drives around Scotland in a transit van and talks men into having a lift, taking them back to her place and submerging them all in fluid that preserves them but doesn't kill them. What does she want with them? Is she eating them? Studying them? And who is the mysterious stranger on the motorbike?

Unless you have read the book (as my friend who's read the book tells me), you will not find out the answer to any of these questions. The film has received a lot of praise but it really did nothing for me. It thought it was being arty and cool but I just found it confusing and misleading, and if I'm honest, really really boring. So Scarlett Johansson takes her clothes off. Big whoop. The biggest revelation here was that *shock horror* she has a very normal body underneath her clothes, and she clearly has a supplier of very good underwear that minimises her rather big bottom and thighs and maximises her rather small bosom. And before anyone replies to my review and tells me "you're only jealous", allow me to say I'm not having a go at Ms Johansson, quite the opposite, it was refreshing to see a Hollywood star look like an average Jane. But if this was an entirely Scottish film, with a Scottish nobody in the lead role who was taking her clothes off, would anyone care? Would anyone have seen it? Would it have received rave reviews? I highly doubt it. Because yet again that proves that a Hollywood star taking her clothes off is more of a draw than a great story. Which the book of this may well be.

The movie did manage to achieve one thing, but in all honesty, just talking to my friend who has read the book probably would have done this just as well. It has made me want to read the book, just to find out if any of my questions above are actually answered. 

One final point. The music (by Mica Levi) was very atmospheric. It set a good tone. It's just a shame the movie didn't live up to that. 3 out of 10.

Viewing Date - 14th March 2014

UK Release Date - 14th March 2014

Cast Overview:

Scarlett Johansson

Director ~ Jonathan Glazer

Writer(s) ~ Walter Campbell (Screenplay), Michel Faber (Novel) and Jonathan Glazer

Her

http://www.herthemovie.com/

As is my valentine tradition, I spent the evening with my best friend, having dinner and watching a movie; which on this particular valentines day was Her, a Spike Jonze love story. It seemed oddly appropriate for the day.

The film follows the life of writer Theodore (Phoenix), in the not too distant but never specified future. He is on the cusp of finalising his divorce and decides to purchase a new artificially intelligent operating system, which, as the advert tells him, will cater for all of his needs. He never dreamed that would include his OS, Samantha, falling in love with him (and he her), and the two of them entering into a relationship. But if Theodore's wife could not be all that he needed, and she was a flesh and blood person, how will he fare with a woman he cannot see or touch?

Her was a very interesting and unique take on the love story, and one which I found to be quite thought provoking. As a society we seem to be headed further and further down the path of communicating via smart phones and tablets etc, and I could honestly imagine the future depicted in Her becoming our future. Similarly, the amount of single people I know who would be quite happy to enter into a relationship with someone they never had to physically see, or who wouldn't judge them for their own appearance, would be very appealing. The imagination is a wonderful thing, and a disembodied voice that you could imagine to look like whoever you wanted, would probably be the ideal for some people.

The story ambles along at a leisurely pace, never feeling as though it is hurrying to get to it's point, but I liked that about it. You felt as though Theodore and Samantha actually did fall in love over time, and not just in the space of minutes, which I felt recently with another film I saw. It didn't feel rushed, and when they eventually consummated their love, I found it to be both sweet and alluring. It was a scene to divide opinion though, as my friend hated it and found the whole thing embarrassing. 

Considering Joaquin Phoenix announced only a few years ago that he was retiring from acting, I was surprised to see him headline this film, but after seeing the movie I am glad that he decided to do it, and that the studios supported his casting, as he really does a great job of carrying the movie. The supporting cast is sparse, a great supporting cast to be sure, headed by Amy Adams, but sparsely present and only for short scenes, and the majority of scenes are of Theodore interacting with Samantha. Whilst Johansson is fantastic as the voice of Samantha, it must have been difficult for Phoenix to pull off the emotion of some of those scenes with no physical person to act against.

I can see that Her would definitely be a Marmite film, one that you will either love or hate. I personally fell into the love category and I hope you will too. 8 out of 10.

Viewing Date - 14th February 2014

UK Release Date - 14th February 2014

Cast Overview:

Theodore ~ Joaquin Phoenix

Amy ~ Amy Adams

Catherine ~ Rooney Mara

Paul ~ Chris Pratt

Charles ~ Matt Letscher

Blind Date ~ Olivia Wilde

Samantha ~ Scarlett Johansson (voice)

Sexy Kitten ~ Kristen Wiig (voice)

Alan Watts ~ Brian Cox (voice)

Director/Writer ~ Spike Jonze

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!!!