The Avengers: More Hype Than Your Body Has Room For

IMDb

Rotten Tomatoes

In most every summer for the past 10 or 12 years, we have had a huge Marvel or other comic book company movie release that gets hyped up all year and draws in huge box office numbers. Spiderman and X-Men were the first big movies, and they actually had pretty successful trilogies. X-Men was another newer idea with a huge collaboration of Hollywood stars all smashed into one movie. The series suffered a bit from the feared idea that when you have so many big names and big characters, the screen time and development/background of some of the characters can suffer, which is a real fear for The Avengers.

But The Avengers is doing something completely unprecedented in the movie world this weekend. It is the first time we are seeing a convergence and a collaboration between the actors and characters of 4 completely individual movie series. Iron Man, which already has it’s own sequel, something the other films are working on, Thor, and Captain America have all had their own really successful movies that most all movie goers recognize and liked. The Hulk has had a different past, with two installations being made, once in 2003 and a remake in 2008, and of the three movies being released in the past 8 years with The Hulk, each movie has had a different lead playing the Hulk, Mark Ruffalo playing him in The Avengers. It is worth noting that Ruffalo has signed a 6 picture deal to play The Hulk, so that should be comforting for fans, assuming he does the role well.

The creation of The Avengers movie has been known and incorporated into the movies ever since the first Iron Man movie came out. The man who brings all of these heroes together, Nick Fury, has appeared in both Iron Man films, Thor, and Captain America. Agent Phil Coulson, played by Clark Gregg, has also appeared in those movies [minus Captain America]. It’s safe to say that people know about this movie, and have for a while. These cameos combined with the incredible ad campaign that this movie has churned out makes me think that this movie could break records this weekend and over the course of its movie theater stay.

Now, along with everyone knowing about this movie, the reviews have been really sound as well. On RottenTomatoes, the only website that I take into consideration for overall critical reception, has an overall review rating of 93%. The more important number, the “Top Critics” percentage, currently stands at 84%. Both of those numbers are really damn good for a comic book movie. Iron Man [94%, 91%] has had the highest review numbers of all of the Avengers movies so far, and rightfully so. That movie was actually such a solid movie. The other 3 films have had very similarly good numbers: Iron Man 2 [74%, 67%], Thor [77%, 64%], Captain America [79%, 78%].

Preview: The Hunger Games

I the past decade, there have been two book series that have been adapted to the big screen that have dominated the younger crowd’s attention spans: Harry Potter and Twilight. As a monster Harry Potter fan, I was pretty happy with what they did with the seven books, and Twilight movies always draw big numbers, so it is clear that young adult book series can really do well at the box office, but no other movies have arisen from this realization. Until now.

Movie Preview: Safe House [10/2/12]

A young CIA agent is tasked with looking after a fugitive in a safe house. But when the safe house is attacked, he finds himself on the run with his charge.

IMDb

RottenTomatoes

[54% All critics | 67% Top critics]

Director – Daniel Espinosa

Writer – David Guggenheim

Cast

	Denzel Washington	…	Tobin Frost
	Ryan Reynolds	…	Matt Weston
	Vera Farmiga	…	Catherine Linklater
	Brendan Gleeson	…	David Barlow
	Sam Shepard	…	Harlan Whitford
	Robert Patrick	…	Daniel Kiefer

This is a movie that I only recently caught onto, and I’m not sure why it took me so long. With the leading combination of Denzel Washington and Ryan Reynolds, I’d think this would be on my radar for a while. I think this type of role is one that Washington really thrives in, and the same goes for Reynolds, although not to the same caliber. The recent trailers that have come out make it seem like it could be a pretty entertaining movie. The rest of the cast solidifies that thought as well.

With newcomers directing and writing, however, I’m a little hesitant to get too excited for this movie. Such a cast could probably carry a poorly written and directed movie, but if the writing and directing can hold their own, than this will probably end up being a pretty decent movie.

The Boy Who Ended – HP: Deathly Hallows pt. 2 Preview

In June of 1997, a first time writer  published a book about a young boy with a lightning shaped scar. Little did Ms. Rowling know, she would change millions of kids’ lives forever, including mine. Over the course of 10 years, 6 more books would be published, and they would go on to shatter sales records with each new release.

This series is what really introduced me to reading. The only other book I had ever read on my own accord was J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Hobbit, which was, and still is, a sensational book in its own right. But it did not come close to reaching the level of joy, excitement, and connection I felt to this British Wizarding world. I was obsessed. I have never read anything as passionately and as quickly as I would when these books were released. Waiting in line at book stores, man I loved those days.

As I grew up and found this sincere interest in movies, I couldn’t wait until some company started throwing money into this book series, and they eventually did. Although the first few movies were a little iffy, the series really has blossomed into something great, becoming the highest grossing movie series of all time [inflated, of course, to their being 7 movies so far].

And now, it is at last time for the 8th and final film, and what is the last creation that will spawn from the original book series.

We are holding our breath, having been left in despair after part one. Voldemort has the Elder wand, Harry and company have only found but one horcruxe, and things are bleak. We know that things will be difficult, and that Harry will eventually face the Dark Lord himself, for neither can live while the other survives.

This film is going to be packed, PACKED, with action and excitement. The first part of the last book was a lot of story and a lot of build up, and it was great in doing so. We were left in a bad place at the end of that movie, and we don’t know what to expect [even though we all actually do know]. This movie is going to be fast paced, and there are going to be people and things fighting and dying every 8.7 seconds, for I’m pretty sure that most of the events that will be happening in this film will be over the course of a few short days in the wizarding universe. It is going to be nuts, and I can not wait for it.

Reviews so far:

100%  – Fresh: 18 | Rotten: 0 [Top Critics – 100% ~ Fresh: 2 | Rotten: 0]

94%  – Fresh: 34 | Rotten: 2 [Top Critics – 100% ~ Fresh: 7 | Rotten: 0] As of July 11th.

97%  – Fresh: 60 | Rotten: 2 [Top Critics – 100% ~ Fresh: 11 | Rotten: 0] As of July 12th.

96%  – Fresh: 107 | Rotten: 5 [Top Critics – 100% ~ Fresh: 29 | Rotten: 0] As of July 13th.

FINAL REVIEWS

96%  – Fresh: 129 | Rotten: 5 [Top Critics – 100% ~ Fresh: 32 | Rotten: 0]

Top Critics’ reviews:

http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/harry_potter_and_the_deathly_hallows_part_ii/reviews/?type=top_critics

_____________________________________________

Interview with director David Yates:

http://collider.com/david-yates-interview-harry-potter-deathly-hallows-part-2/101507/?_r=true

Interview with producer David Heyman:

http://collider.com/david-heyman-interview-harry-potter-deathly-hallows-part-2/101555/?_r=true

_____________________________________________

As an ending note to this preview, I must say this to anyone who wants to see this movie.

The film adaptation of this series of books has probably given me only 33.33% of the excitement, the thrill, the fear, the sadness, and the joy from this incredible story that the books themselves did. To consider these movies “good”, or anything of the like, without having read the books is a crime on humanity, and should literally be punishable by death from the Avada Kedavra curse. These books are the reason I love to read, and probably the reason I so much enjoy escaping reality to enter the strange and awesome worlds of fiction, in book and film forms.

People need not only to read these books, but to read any and every book possible. Reading could very easily become a thing of the past, and we mustn’t let that happen, for books and and written stories are the truest and enthralling form of story-telling and entertainment.

Super 8: The Countdown

Big Announcement: Super 8 to open, in limited theaters, a full day early. Scroll to the bottom of this post to read more.

Super 8: IMDb

Super 8: RottenTomatoes

Get Excited! Super 8

RT ratings [June 4, 2011] : 13-2 [1-0] 87%

RT ratings [June 6, 2011] : 20-4 [3-1] 83%

RT ratings [June 7, 2011] : 24-5 [4-1] 83%

RT ratings [June 8, 2011] : 32-8 [4-1] 80%

This movie has been the twinkle in my eye for at least a year now, and I want to follow it in every way possible until the day I see it, a week from today. I’ll google search that shit every day, reading whatever comes out about it, most every review, to see if this is as special a movie that I think it is going to be.

———————————-

June 8 – So I’ve decided to go ahead and watch Close Encounters of the 3rd Kind, which is very similar in general plot. A certain town is rocked by something we can’t quite explain. It also is a Spielberg film, one that really shows his style of film-making, one that I’m sure will be mimicked in Super 8.

I recommend it to everyone. This is actually my first time watching all of it all the way through. It is available to stream on http://www.netflix.com/

———————————-

-The first top critic on RT to review is Richard Cortliss, for TIME magazine, who does a nice job summarizing the movie in his fresh review: http://www.time.com/time/arts/article/0,8599,2075217,00.html

-The first negative review from a top critic comes fromPeter Debruge of Variety: http://www.variety.com/review/VE1117945388?refcatid=31

———————————-

-New Collider interview with JJ himself. http://collider.com/jj-abrams-interview-super-8-star-trek-sequel/94747/?_r=true

-Interview with Kyle Chandler, the lead adult role.  http://blog.moviefone.com/2011/06/07/super-8-kyle-chandler-interview/?_r=true

———————————-

Super 8 to Hit Theaters a Day Early in Twitter Promotion