Posted By Dave Howlett on June 15, 2013

If the Dark Knight trilogy is Christopher Nolan’s gritty, street level, crime-drama version of the Batman epic, then Man Of Steel (which Nolan produced) is director Zack (Watchmen) Snyder’s crazy, science-fiction version of the Superman legend, in which the Man Of Tomorrow’s formative adventure is presented through the lens of a full-on alien invasion disaster movie. In fact, Man Of Steel is so much a science-fiction alien invasion disaster movie that it doesn’t always feel like much of a Superman movie (and based on the lukewarm reception to Bryan Singer’s 2006 Superman Returns, it’s an approach that Warner Brothers is probably fine with). But even though Snyder (and scripter David S. Goyer) get carried away with the skyscraper-shattering climactic battles, the film’s uniquely alien approach sets it apart from most of the recent spate of superhero adaptations.

 

 

 

The first fifteen minutes of Man Of Steel are jarring and disorienting, as a journey to a dying alien world should be. The flora, fauna, and technology of Krypton are utterly unlike any version we’ve seen before—Jor-El (Russell Crowe) rides around on some kind of dragon, citizens communicate via 3D screens made up of dozens of black-silver balls that form images of the users’ faces, and babies are born in a weird underwater chamber/garden/nursery that recalls The Matrix. Jor-El’s child Kal-El, however, is the first natural birth on Krypton in generations, and he is its last son. As an armed insurrection led by General Zod (the utterly terrifying Michael Shannon, from HBO’s Boardwalk Empire) fails, Jor-El and Lara (Ayelet Zurer) arrange to have baby Kal rocketed away from Krypton, a world shuddering in its death throes after its inhabitants have plundered & squandered its internal energies. From here, we jump ahead to Clark Kent in his twenties (Henry Cavill, from The Immortals and Showtime’s The Tudors), a young man traveling the globe trying to find himself. We see Clark in a variety of odd jobs, sometimes saving lives, other times trying to hide his true nature, always intercut with flashbacks to his youth as he learns about his powers and his legacy. Clark’s adopted mother (Diane Lane) teaches him how to control his burgeoning abilities, and his adopted father (Kevin Costner) teaches him to hide them. Grown-up Clark makes a pilgrimage to a mysterious snowbound starship that may hold answers about his origins, pursued by journalist Lois Lane (Amy Adams). A holographic Jor-El fills Clark in, just in time for General Zod and his pack of now-super rebels to emerge from the Phantom Zone, demanding that Krypton’s only other survivor—who may hold the key to recreating Krypton on Earth—turn himself in. Clark embraces his alien legacy and forms an uneasy alliance with the military in order to try and save his new homeworld from certain destruction.

 

 

 

Man Of Steel takes a lot of liberties with the specifics of the Superman mythos, and longtime fans will likely have a tough time dealing with some of them. For my part, the fundamental change in the relationship between Superman and Lois Lane was surprising, but welcome—it addresses one of the aspects of her character that hasn’t exactly aged well, and strengthens her personality at the same time (Adams’ tough-but-tender performance helps a great deal). On the other hand, a fateful choice Superman makes in the final battle with Zod was tougher to swallow, but it may steer his character’s decisions in the inevitable sequels. Cavill plays Clark/Superman as a much more tortured character than Christopher Reeve or Brandon Routh, but it works for this telling of the story. I found Clark’s journey from wandering loner to outcast superhero absorbing, even as I found the epic destruction of the second half’s battle scenes exhausting. Superman and the Phantom Zone criminals create so much destruction in their fight scenes—throwing each other through buildings, casually tossing tanker trucks at each other—that it’s hard to even process the death toll that must have resulted (after Zod uses a giant space weapon called the World Engine to try and terraform Earth, Metropolis is practically wiped off the map). Sadly, in the wake of 9/11, we have a pretty good idea just how many people are killed when one or two office towers collapses, and Man Of Steel sees about a dozen get knocked over. This troubling aspect of the movie might have been mitigated a bit by some scenes of Superman rescuing innocent civilians caught in the crossfire, but the movie doesn’t have time for that (by contrast, The Avengers trashed almost as much real estate, but devoted considerable time to showing the heroes protecting ordinary people, and it meant a world of tonal difference). All this aside, the alien ambience and heightened danger makes Man Of Steel feel like no other comic book adaptation, or Superman story for that matter, which, considering that its titular hero turned 75 this year, is a feat worthy of a superhero.

Check out our other reviews for Man Of Steel:

Michelle Ealey’s Review

Rick Swift’s Review

 

Categories: Movies, Reviews
Tags: Amy Adams, Ayelet Zurer, Batman, Boardwalk Empire, Brandon Routh, Bryan Singer, Christopher Nolan, Christopher Reeve, Clark Kent, David S. Goyer, Diane Lane, General Zod, Henry Cavill, Jor-El, Kal-El, Kevin Costner, Krypton, Lara, Man of Steel, Metropolis, Michael Shannon, Phantom Zone, Richard Donner, Russell Crowe, Smallville, Superman, The Avengers, The Dark Knight, The Immortals, The Matrix, The Tudors, Watchmen, Zack Snyder

Posted By Dave Howlett on June 11, 2013

I always associate Bryan Singer’s Superman Returns with Peter Jackson’s 2005 redo of King Kong: both were new takes on classic franchises, both were expensive vanity projects from high-powered directors that no studio would (at that point, anyway) say no to, and both are egregiously overlong. For my part, I actually like both of these films more than most people–by any standards, they’re both widely considered to be critical and commercial disappointments, but my unconditional love for both properties earns them a pass. That being said, it’s easy to see why so many fans felt them both to be letdowns. Jackson took a story that, originally, barely filled ninety minutes of screen time and stretched it out to over three hours, making strange casting choices (Jack Black?) and padding the story with a phalanx of unnecessary characters. Similarly, Singer’s reboot wears out its welcome with a 2 1/2 hour running time, an often dour tone, and a strict adherence to the cinematic Superman universe established in Richard Donner’s 1978 original. Audiences primed the previous year by Batman Begins were clearly hoping for a brand-new Man Of Steel mythology, and Singer (whose X-Men films, it must be pointed out, were produced by Donner) wasn’t ready to give it to them.

Superman Returns focuses less on the Man Of Tomorrow’s fantastic deeds and more on his feelings of alienation and loneliness, neither of which translates to popcorn blockbuster material. As the movie begins, Kal-El (Brandon Routh, eerily evoking Christopher Reeve’s warmth and humility) returns from a poorly-explained, strangely morbid five-year deep space mission to find the remains of his planet of origin. While he’s been gone, Lois Lane (Kate Bosworth) has moved on and is now raising a child with Richard (James Marsden). The kid is close to five years old himself, so you know where that’s headed pretty much straight away. Meanwhile, Lex Luthor (Kevin Spacey, having a ball) is out of prison and, having located the Fortress of Solitude and unlocked its Kryptonian secrets, is planning yet another real estate swindle/mass destruction of innocents. Many of the complaints people have made over the years about Superman Returns are fair. The constant callbacks to the Donner mythology aren’t exactly what most filmgoers were clamouring for, Superman comes off as a depressing loner, Bosworth is at least five years too young for the role, and the movie ends on a strangely quiet note of uncertainty. You want to leave a Superman film wishing you could fly, and Superman Returns kind of makes you glad you can’t.

But the tendency among fans these days is to focus purely on the bad, so of course most people will tell you that Superman Returns is a complete waste. This love-it-or-hate-it approach sadly ignores the parts that do work, like some truly spectacular action sequences (Superman’s rescue of an experimental rocket and the commercial aircraft it’s launched from, his later series of daring disaster aversions all around Metropolis) and a few bits of genius casting (Frank Langella’s calmer, quieter Perry White is weirdly hypnotic, and Sam Huntington’s excitable Jimmy Olsen is right on the money). This is a wonderful looking movie, with gorgeous cinematography and production design, and John Ottman’s translation/update of John Williams’ score is appropriately stirring. With a different Lois, a new villain (Brainiac has got to make it into a Superman movie one of these days), a more upbeat tone, and a snappier pace, Superman Returns could have soared. But, much like his film’s hero, Bryan Singer (and co-scripters Dan Harris & Michael Dougherty) couldn’t quite let go of the past. Alien superheroes shouldn’t dwell on the space-junk remains of their homeworlds, and directors at the top of their game probably shouldn’t expect modern audiences to share their reverence for thirty-year-old movie continuity.

 

Categories: Comics, Movies, Reviews
Tags: Brandon Routh, Bryan Singer, Clark Kent, Frank Langella, Jack Black, Jimmy Olsen, John Ottman, John Williams, Kate Bosworth, Kevin Spacey, King Kong, Krypton, Lex Luthor, Lois Lane, Perry White, Peter Jackson, Richard Donner, Sam Huntington, Superhero Movies, Superhero Reboots, Superman, Superman Returns, X-Men

Posted By Dave Howlett on June 9, 2013

When the once-proud Superman franchise has fallen into the hands of producers Menahem Golan and Yoram Globus, you know the glory days are over…or, depending on your taste for their particular flavor of 1980s action cheese, they may have just begun. No matter where you stand, it’s undeniable that 1987′s Superman IV: The Quest For Peace–a well-intentioned but stunningly stupid entry in the series, whose story was partly conceived by star Christopher Reeve–is a pretty far cry from the respectful, epic treatment given the Man of Steel in the 1978 original.

In response to an ongoing game of high-stakes nuclear poker between the world’s superpowers, an obnoxious little kid writes a letter to the United Nations asking why Superman can’t just get rid of all the nuclear weapons on the planet. Superman, feeling particularly adrift given the impending sale of the old family farm in Smallville, and eager to save his adopted world from destruction, decides to take the smarmy brat up on his challenge. The inflammatory headlines dictated by the Daily Planet‘s greedy new owner (“Superman To Jeremy: Drop Dead!”) might have had something to do with it as well. Anyway, Superman collects the various nuclear arsenals of the world and tosses them into the sun. This is particularly easy to do, since every nation involved is more than happy to help him do it–they all basically act as though the nukes just overpowered them all, muscling their way right into their own silos. Everything is swell until Lex Luthor (Gene Hackman, between Oscar wins) is freed from jail by his dorky nephew Lennie (Jon Cryer, sporting an idiotic Valley accent), allowing the criminal genius to combine some pilfered Super-DNA with all those sun-stored missiles to create a new villain named Nuclear Man. Or, if you’re the supposed super-genius Luthor, “Nuke-ular Man”. The stage is set for a series of poorly-staged super-duels, featuring bargain-basement special effects (the same shot of Superman flying towards the camera is reused at least three times, probably more) and convenient new super-powers (Nuclear Man destroys a section of the Great Wall Of China, which Superman then repairs using…telekinetic eyebeams?)

When watching a movie as dumb as Superman IV, it’s important to keep your morale up by focusing on the positive. It isn’t easy, but there are a few things to enjoy here. Mariel Hemingway plays Lacy Warfield, daughter of the Planet’s new owner, and she’s a rich snob who warms up to Clark Kent’s earnest charms. Her transition from nasty to nice happens a bit too quickly, but the idea of the inherent goodness of Clark/Superman rubbing off on others is a cool idea. In his final turn as the title hero, Reeve is still picture-perfect, especially in the melancholy early scenes where Clark returns to a Smallville that has nothing left for him. But there isn’t anything that can salvage this movie–it’s the kind of film where Clark reveals his dual identity to Lois so he can bounce his nuclear dilemma off of somebody, only to give her the same exact amnesia kiss he used on her at the end of Superman II. Kind of a dick move, Supes–how many times have you pulled that trick, exactly? Ultimately, the big flaw at the center of Superman IV is one that pops up in the comics every few years too–you can’t really tell stories about Superman solving humanity’s complicated geopolitical problems, because he can’t. Not in the comics, or in the real world, because the former would be a cheat and the latter would be impossible. Superman IV may have its heart in the right place, but its head is…er, up somewhere else.

 

Categories: Comics, Movies, Reviews, Uncategorized
Tags: Amnesia Kisses, Christopher Reeve, Clark Kent, Daily Planet, Gene Hackman, Jon Cryer, Lacy Warfield, Lennie Luthor, Lex Luthor, Lois Lane, Margot Kidder, Mariel Hemingway, Mark Pillow, Menahem Golan, Nuclear Man, sequels, Sidney J. Furie, Smallville, Supeman II, Superhero Movies, Superman, Superman IV: The Quest For Peace, Yoram Globus

Posted By Dave Howlett on May 29, 2013

It’s hard to believe that there’s a Superman movie out there that features both a rogue supercomputer and a twisted, evil duplicate of the Man of Steel, yet doesn’t feature either Brainiac or Bizarro. But somehow Superman III exists, and, mind-bogglingly, casts aside two of Superman’s best-known opponents for silly stand-ins. This is problematic, obviously, but it’s also among the least of the movie’s flaws. Directed by Richard Lester (the man behind the goofy reshoots that prop up the better material in this film’s predecessor, 1980′s Superman II), Superman III shows what happens when the heroic legacy of the world’s most famous superhero is taken out of the hands of a respectful cinematic caretaker like Richard Donner and is left to the whims of the series’ increasingly flaky producer Alexander Salkind.

The slapstick, Rube Goldberg-style disaster sequence that befalls the citizens of Metropolis in Superman III‘s opening credits set the tone for what follows. Richard Pryor plays Gus Gorman, a natural computer whiz whose skills are exploited by his ruthless employer, Ross Webster (Robert Vaughan). Webster enlists Gorman to help him first take over a government satellite so he can destroy Columbia’s coffee-based economy through weather manipulation (seriously!). When Superman foils this plot, Webster and the increasingly conscience-afflicted Gus hatch a revenge plot that hinges upon creating a synthetic Kryptonite substitute that somehow turns the Last Son of Krypton into a surly, drunken shadow of his former self. Webster also builds a massively powerful computer based on Gus’ designs, one that employs Weird Science-levels of 1980s high-tech wizardry to achieve…well, pretty much anything its users can imagine. There’s also a subplot that features Clark Kent going back to Smallville for his high school reunion and reconnecting with old crush Lana Lang (Annette O’Toole, one of the film’s only bright spots), now a single mom with an annoying kid.

Superman III is the kind of instantly-dated grab bag of then-current trends and ideas that the original Superman probably would have turned into if Donner and his collaborator Tom Mankiewicz hadn’t been around to stop it. It’s Pryor’s movie more than anyone’s, and even he looks like he doesn’t know what he’s doing there (the part was allegedly written for him after the producers saw Pryor on The Tonight Show confessing his appreciation for Superman II). Obviously, the Silver Age publishing history of the Superman comics was filled with zany transformations and oddball what-if scenarios, but those comics have a good-natured sense of fun about them that’s missing from this haphazard mess of a movie. Christopher Reeve is as iconic as ever as both Superman and Clark Kent, and he does surprisingly well in the part of the unshaven, drunken Superman doppelganger (so much so that you wish he actually did get to appear as Bizarro). But even Reeve and the appealingly wholesome Annette O’Toole (who would also go on to play Ma Kent on Smallville) can only do so much with the ridiculous, lurching, jokey plot–the already-overlong movie’s two-hour running time somehow feels like eight. If you’ve ever complained about the quality of a modern-day superhero movie or sequel, you might want to revisit this film to see what it was like when filmmakers immediately jettisoning the source material was the rule rather than the exception. It’s really the only reason to ever waste your time watching Superman III.

 

Categories: Comics, Movies, Reviews
Tags: Alexander Salkind, Annette O'Toole, Bizarro, Brainiac, Christopher Reeve, Clark Kent, Gus Gorman, Lana Lang, Ma Kent, Richard Donner, Richard Lester, Richard Pryor, Robert Vaughan, Ross Webster, Silver Age, Smallville, Superman, Superman II, Superman III, The Tonight Show, Tom Mankiewicz

Posted By Dave Howlett on May 28, 2013

“How did you know there would be a car there to land on?” asks Letty, played by Michelle Rodriguez at one point in Fast & Furious 6. “I didn’t,” replies Vin Diesel’s Dominic Toretto with total sincerity. “Sometimes you just gotta take a leap of faith.” Although, really, he could just as easily have answered, “Duh! Because it’s a Fast & Furious movie! There’s always gonna be a car there!” The Fast & Furious series defies probabilities and expectations the way its cars and stars defy gravity and logic. Most film series–particularly such stridently proud B-movies as this surprisingly complex saga of vehicular mayhem–are going straight to DVD or cable by the time they get to a sixth installment. However, the F & F movies actually seem to gain in popularity as they go, making more and more money and collecting more and more fans. They’re a perpetual motion picture machine–they just keep going, and going faster, and faster, and faster. By this point, though, the series has built a surprisingly dense internal mythology (one that somehow contains a series within the series), and that’s the only speedbump that could possibly hamper your enjoyment of the newest, loudest, fastest chapter yet.

Full disclosure here–I had only seen 2001′s original The Fast & The Furious and 2011′s Fast Five when I sat down to watch the sixth film, so many of the intricate character relationships (yes, we’re still talking about The Fast & The Furious) were lost on me. The full impact of Rodriguez’s back-from-the-dead Letty, a former street racer now working with an evil genius (Luke Evans) didn’t fully register for me, nor did the elaborate timeline that supposedly allows another character who died in the third film to be around for parts five and six (an end-credits tease brings the two timelines together, while setting up–wait for it–a third trilogy, one with an appropriately big-name villain). Details, details. What’s really important is the fact that Letty’s alliance with Evans’s sinister Shaw, and his squad of villainous speed junkies (Tyrese Gibson’s Roman incredulously calls them “an evil version of us!”), is the incentive that government agent Hobbs (Dwayne Johnson) needs to bring Dominic Toretto and his crew of gearheads out of retirement so they can stop the bad guys from stealing…I dunno, some kind of high-tech thingamajig or something. Does it matter? Of course not. All that really matters is that a series of increasingly faster and improbable vehicles will be involved.

If you haven’t watched the whole series, the scenes in Fast 6 that don’t involve lots of driving and/or punching will be lost on you. Thankfully, there aren’t too many of those, as F & F vet Justin Lin knows by now exactly what fans of this franchise want. The car chases, largely still achieved through actual stunt driving and not CGI, are exciting and ridiculous in equal measure, each one building on the previous one, culminating in the film’s climactic orgy of transportational warfare–it involves a military transport plane trying to reach takeoff speed on a runway with no less than four vehicles hanging from it via titanium-steel cables, and multiple characters fighting each other in and on them all. The hand-to-hand combat scenes deliver as well, particularly the two go-for-broke fights between Letty and Hobbs’ sidekick, Riley (MMA fighter and Haywire star Gina Carano) and the team-up of Toretto and Hobbs against an impossibly hulking henchman. The F & F series succeeds where other long-running franchises fail because of its refreshing lack of pretension, but its commitment to a racially diverse cast doesn’t hurt either–rather than having one token African-American guy or Asian-American girl in its cast, these movies instead have a token white guy in Paul Walker. But, more than anything, it’s all about the cars. If The Fast & Furious films have taught us anything, it’s that fast cars are the cause of, and solution to, all of life’s problems.

Check out out other reviews of Fast & Furious 6:

Iain McNally’s Review

Michelle Ealey’s Review

 

Categories: Movies, Reviews
Tags: action movies, Car Chases, Dominic Toretto, Dwayne Johnson, Fast Five, Fast Six, Gina Carano, Haywire, Hobbs, Justin Lin, Letty, Luke Evans, Michelle Rodriguez, Paul Walker, Shaw, The Fast & The Furious, Tyrese Gibson, Vin Diesel

Posted By Dave Howlett on May 23, 2013

Blame it all on Tony Stark. The 2013 summer movie season kicked off so strongly with Iron Man 3, the bar was set pretty high for blockbusters in general and sequels in particular. Granted, after an insultingly lazy second installment, the raunchy Hangover series had nowhere to go but up, and this third and allegedly final chapter in Todd Phillips’ salute to bad behaviour and its inevitable consequences is a slight improvement. But where 2011′s The Hangover Part II was content to retrace the steps of the 2009 original a little too closely, The Hangover Part III seems determined to wander away from the familiar setup. Even so, it all still feels a little too familiar.

 

 

The Hangover Part III begins as Alan (Zach Galifianakis) is spiraling out of control into increasingly bizarre activity, having been off his meds for months. After the sudden heart-attack death of his father (who Alan refers to in a eulogy as his “life partner”), it seems that Alan may be beyond salvage, at least until the members of “The Wolfpack”—cool-guy Phil (Bradley Cooper), straight-laced Stu (Ed Helms), and perpetual living, breathing MacGuffin Doug (Justin Bartha) agree to accompany Alan to a rehab clinic in Arizona. However, they’re waylaid en route by a gang of pig-masked thugs led by drug kingpin Marshall (John Goodman, seemingly everywhere these days) who kidnap Doug (of course) and promise to return him only if the guys can deliver diminutive crime lord Lesley Chow (Ken Jeong), who Alan has been secret pen pals with since the second movie’s Bangkok escapade. The quest to capture Chow leads first to Tijuana, then finally back once again to Las Vegas for a final showdown.

 

 

 

There isn’t much for anyone to really do in these movies anymore, from a character development point of view at least. Phil and Stu finished their narrative arcs way back in the first film—Phil realized that the debauched lifestyle he craved was no substitute for the domestic bliss he already had, and Stu freed himself from his abusive harpy of a fiancée so he could be happily married to Jamie Chung’s Lauren by the end of Part II. As such, they act out familiar patterns in scene after scene, and look pretty bored doing so. This is Alan’s movie, though, and it does successfully humanize the series’ wild card a bit, first through his grief at his father’s demise and later through his reunion with a now-four-year-old Baby Carlos from Part I. He even gets a shot at romance with a purple-haired pawn shop clerk played by Melissa McCarthy. The movie doesn’t really come alive until the crew returns to Vegas, the high point of which is a dizzying insertion into a top-level balcony at Caesar’s Palace. This element of actual danger was one of the elements that made the first Hangover work so well; this installment even has a body count–at least four humans, a giraffe, and a handful of fighting roosters bite the dust before the credits roll. Phillips once again proves himself a visually shrewd director with an impressive grasp of film vocabulary (he references both The Shawshank Redemption and Midnight Cowboy early on). But like every Die Hard movie after the first, there’s no way these particular circumstances would keep lining up to provide an avenue for these kinds of misadventures. Phillips and his co-writer Craig Mazin seem to realize this, and they’ve opted to break up the usual structure a bit. The actual hangover itself isn’t the setup but rather the punchline this time around, an over-the-top end credits zinger that appears to double as an everything-must-go clearing house of craziness. Seeing as how Phillips and company have promised that this Hangover is the last, let’s hope this means they’ve gotten it all out of their system.

 

Categories: Movies, Reviews
Tags: Baby Carlos, Bradley Cooper, Caesar's Palace, Comedies, Craig Mazin, Die Hard, Ed Helms, Iron Man 3, Jamie Chung, John Goodman, Justin Bartha, Ken Jeong, Las Vegas, macguffin, Melissa McCarthy, Midnight Cowboy, sequels, Summer Movies, The Hangover, The Hangover Part II, The Hangover Part III, The Shawshank Redemption, The Wolfpack, Tijuana, Todd Phillips, Tony Stark, zach galifianakis

Posted By Dave Howlett on May 20, 2013

Watching Superman II as a kid, I was unaware of any of the behind-the-scenes drama that afflicted the production—director Richard Donner was let go after several clashes with producers Alexander & Ilya Salkind, and was replaced by Richard Lester. Revisiting the sequel as an adult, or at least, a reasonable hand-drawn facsimile of one, the clashing sensibilities are impossible to ignore, and the result is a patchwork production featuring wildly out-of-sync tones and leaps of storytelling logic that make Superman turning the earth backwards and, resultingly, turning time itself backwards, in the 1978 original seem perfectly reasonable. It’s a good thing that the over-the-top supervillains played by Sarah Douglas, Jack O’Halloran, and, most memorably, Terence Stamp, bring so much personality to the proceedings, or else Superman II might have been beyond salvage.

 

 

 

Originally conceived as a massive 500-page screenplay that was inevitably broken up into two movies so the first film could make its planned release date (and not have a six-hour running time), 1980’s Superman II is cobbled together from footage shot by Donner and original director of photography Geoffrey Unsworth (who had passed away by the time the second film began to take shape), and new material created by Lester and new DP Bob Paynter. The film opens with The Man Of Steel thwarting a terror plot at the Eiffel Tower (Lois Lane is, of course, on hand and in peril) by throwing their nuclear device into outer space. The resulting detonation cracks open the Phantom Zone, freeing Kryptonian criminals General Zod, Ursa, and Non, who now have Superman-level powers thanks to Earth’s yellow sun. Zod and his gang first murder a group of astronauts on the moon, then proceed to conquer a small town in Texas, before moving on to the White House to declare themselves masters of the world. Unfortunately, Superman is nowhere to be found, since he’s decided to use some wonky Kryptonian pseudo-science to make himself mortal so he can be with Lois.

 

 

 

Superman II explores some interesting thematic territory regarding Kal-El’s place in the world—with all his responsibility, can he ever have a normal life? Can he find love with a human woman? In throwing his power away, he finds himself immediately confronted with enemies that represent a distortion of himself—they have all his power (and, for whatever reason, a few he doesn’t have, like telekinesis), and nothing but contempt for his values. But the movie’s tone is, perhaps inevitably as a result of its two directors, all over the map. There are moments of real darkness—the assault on the hapless astronauts, Clark’s horror at his newfound human weakness when he is bullied by a truck-driving boor—sharing the screen with slapstick goofiness, like the Lois-and-Clark Niagara Falls subterfuge early in the film, or the silly behaviour of Metropolis’ citizenry during the superpowered war between a repowered Superman and Zod’s forces. The footage shot by Unsworth—cinematographer of 2001: A Space Odyssey and Cabaret—is easily, recognizably superior to the material filmed by Paynter. Gene Hackman was unavailable for the reshot footage (his Lex Luthor returns to team up with the Phantom Zone criminals), so much of his appearances are represented by a body double and voiceover dialogue from another actor. A 2006 Restored Director’s Cut of Donner’s vision for Superman II gives us an interesting alternate glimpse of what he had in store for the sequel, but given that he was removed from the original project early on, and some of his ideas ended up in the 1978 original anyway, it remains more of an interesting historical curiousity rather than a full-on alternative.

 

 

 

All that aside, Superman II remains a very watchable film, due once again to the fine cast headed by a right-from-the-comics Christopher Reeve as Clark Kent/Superman. But where the film really shines is in its portrayal of the gleefully evil Phantom Zone criminals, led by a forceful, arrogant Terence Stamp as General Zod. Even in their shiny black Disco-era jumpsuits, the villains exude such menace and ruthlessness that they steal the film away from Superman. Their city-shaking showdown with Supes results in super-breath tornadoes, shattered buildings, and a casually-thrown city bus. The special effects in this set piece may be pretty low-fi by today’s standards, but the actors sell it with gusto. The finale in the Fortress Of Solitude veers back into silliness once again, but the sneering villainy of the Kryptonians (and the ever-deceitful Luthor) redeem it. Despite all the zany super-gimmicks (Superman’s amnesia kiss, his giant plastic capture-logo), visual & tonal inconsistencies, and the inexplicably British kid hanging out in East Houston, Superman II is worth watching for the mayhem caused by Zod and his pals, proving that a hero is only as good as his villains.

 

Categories: Comics, Movies, Reviews
Tags: 2001: A Space Odyssey, Alexander & Ilya Salkind, Bob Paynter, Cabaret, Christopher Reeve, Clark Kent, Comic Adaptations, Director's Cuts, Gene Hackman, General Zod, Geoffrey Unsworth, Jack O'Halloran, Kal-El, Krypton, Lex Luthor, Lois Lane, Margot Kidder, Metropolis, Niagara Falls, Non, Phantom Zone, Richard Donner, Richard Lester, sequels, Superman, Superman II, Terence Stamp, Ursa

Posted By Dave Howlett on May 17, 2013

With its second J.J. Abrams-helmed installment, Star Trek Into Darkness, Gene Roddenberry’s spacefaring franchise veers even further away from humanist, pioneering adventure and even further into sci-fi action. The script, by Alex Kurtzman, Roberto Orci, and Damon Lindelof, is filled with all kinds of “Why did they…?”, “But what about the…?” and “How come they don’t…?” questions. The answer, pretty much across the board, is the same—because it’ll be cool. And there’s nothing wrong with that. The pace of the new Trek is so lightning-fast and genuinely exciting that any questions about the plot are pushed aside by the time the next thrilling set piece arrives. But those questions about the plot will linger long after you’ve left the theatre.

 

It’s difficult to discuss that convoluted, twist-filled plot without spoiling a lot of Into Darkness, but I’ll give it a go: when a former Starfleet officer turned terrorist named John Harrison (Benedict Cumberbatch) masterminds a London bombing and an attack on Starfleet Command, newly-minted maverick Captain James T. Kirk (Chris Pine) is tasked with pursuing the criminal into some very dangerous (and familiar to longtime Trek fans) outer space territory. Kirk clashes with his by-the-books Science Officer, Spock (Zachary Quinto), while the vengeful mission parameters raise questions about the very purpose of Starfleet. Is their broad agenda one of exploration, or of warmaking? That dichotomy could very well be referring to the rebooted Trek itself. Whereas classic Trek was about boldly going where no one had gone before, the new-model Trek is more often than not about chases and explosions.

 

 

Not that there’s anything wrong with that, mind you. We’ve already had three TV seasons and six movies (not to mention all the various spinoffs, novels, comic books, etc.) that plumbed the depths of more thoughtful, idea-based science fiction, and hopefully the inevitable future Star Trek films will find a happy balance between the two incarnations. A sleeker, funnier, sexier Trek was almost certainly mandated by Paramount when the reins of the franchise were given to Abrams, and on those terms, he’s admittedly fulfilled his duties. The rest of the Enterprise crew—rounded out by Zoe Saldana’s Uhura, Karl Urban’s Bones, John Cho’s Sulu, Anton Yelchin’s Chekov, and Simon Pegg’s Scotty (who gets a surprising number of hero moments in this outing)—has already meshed into a wonderful ensemble, and everyone gets plenty of chances to shine in this adventure. Cumberbatch is a powerhouse villain, with his laserlike stare and menacing rumble of a voice. But even as Into Darkness struggles to free the franchise from its past, it can’t escape throwing in just a few too many knowing winks and shout-outs (quite literally, in the case of one particularly groan-worthy punchline) to established Trek films and episodes. Abrams and his writing team have strained to deliver a product that surprises and delights, reworking existing canon and twisting it into something new—often at the expense of good sense and logic, but still new nonetheless. But while surprises in a Hollywood tentpole flick are always welcome, this need to tie everything back to the familiar is a whole new kind of predictable. Here’s hoping that, freed of the yoke of comparison to another, very highly regarded second Trek film, Abrams and company can get back to boldly going where no filmmakers have gone before.

 Check out our other Star Trek Into Darkness Review:

Iain McNally’s Review

Michelle Ealey’s Review

 

Categories: Movies, Reviews
Tags: Alex Kurtzman, Anton Yelchin, Benedict Cumberbatch, Bones, Captain James T. Kirk, Chekov, Chris Pine, Damon-Lindelof, J.J. Abrams, John Cho, John Harrison, Karl Urban, Pararmount Pictures, Reboots, Roberto Orci, science fiction, Scotty, Spock, star trek, Star Trek Into Darkness, Sulu, Uhura, Zachary Quinto, Zoe Saldana

Posted By Dave Howlett on May 15, 2013

There’s a tendency over the last decade or so for a segment of fandom to write off Superman: The Movie as a quaint, dated relic of the pre-Marvel Studios, pre-CGI era, a campy speedbump along the road to true superhero movie greatness. A lot of the antipathy towards it seems to be of the “Why can’t Superman just punch something?” variety, while other detractors scoff at the (admittedly, often dated) practical special effects, or at Margot Kidder’s shrill Lois Lane. In revisiting this film for NerdSpan’s Box Office Back Issues feature (leading up to the June 14 release of Man Of Steel), I found that I did sympathize with those complaints, but only a little. Yes, it would be nice for Supes to have a nemesis he can trade blows with (Superman II checks off that box quite nicely by giving him three super-powered punching bags), and yes, high-definition is not always kind to the movie’s then-groundbreaking special effects (the final explosion of Krypton suffers pretty badly in this regard), and yes also, Kidder’s Lois Lane is a bit much. But the 1978 blockbuster remains one of my favorite superhero movies ever, thanks to a big, bold, epic approach that is somehow both respectful and tongue-in-cheek, a John Williams score that makes me want to tie a towel around my neck and pretend to fly, and a lead performance by Christopher Reeve that is nothing short of definitive.

The film certainly is the product of a strange lineage–written by The Godfather scribe Mario Puzo and Bonnie & Clyde writers David & Leslie Newman and Robert Benton (finally hammered into shape by James Bond veteran Tom Mankiewicz), and directed by Richard Donner, a journeyman helmer whose biggest hit up to this point was The Omen, there’s no way Superman: The Movie should have worked. But Donner grasped the character perfectly, and found a lead actor that was able to channel the four-color hero’s innate sense of good (and hint at the pain of his outsider status) while providing his own comic relief as his simpering alter ego Clark Kent. Reeve is terrific in both roles, but almost as importantly, he sells the effects work beautifully. For us to believe he’s flying, he has to believe it as well, and he clearly does. The physicality he brings to the part is astonishing, as is his line delivery. His Superman is about 85% wholesome sincerity and 15% gentle irony, a delicate mixture that, if it had been slightly off, would have curdled and probably soured the whole venture. The three wildly different segments of the film–the biblical, sci-fi splendor of Krypton, the Norman Rockwell Americana of Smallville, and the fast-paced, ultramodern (read: late Seventies) urban crush of Metropolis paint the saga of Superman across an epic canvas. The movie’s cast is as mixed a bag as the team behind the camera. Marlon Brando commanded a sky-high salary for a scant few minutes of screen time as Jor-El, and he can’t even pronounce Krypton properly. But Gene Hackman makes up for it with his comically twisted Lex Luthor, a sardonic evil genius who, in a strange departure from the comics, is obsessed with real estate. Even so, his gallows humor plays well off Superman’s squareness, even as Ned Beatty (who seems to have appeared in nearly every single movie released in the 1970s) as Lex’s bumbling sidekick Otis threatens to topple the whole affair into outright comedy.

Donner and Reeve’s Superman is less a superhero and more a worker of miracles. While he does stop a few robberies and drop Luthor and Otis off at a nearby prison (no trial?), Superman also catches Lois Lane and a falling helicopter, rescues Air Force One after a lightning strike, catches and diverts a runaway nuclear missile, and repairs the San Andreas fault, among other Herculean tasks. This portrayal carried over into Bryan Singer’s much-maligned Superman Returns in 2006 (which we’ll get to in a few weeks’ time). A lot of fans wanted to see Superman fighting an equally powered-up opponent, and they would have the chance in the sequel (Terence Stamp’s Phantom Zone-banished General Zod and his evil sidekicks are set up as the next film’s villains in the opening Krypton scenes). But the filmmakers wisely chose to set Superman up as this world’s only fantastical element in the first movie, which makes him that much more remarkable. If he made his debut into a world already populated with super-powered criminals and killer robots, he would seem that much less special for it. The practical special effects used to achieve Superman’s remarkable feats are dated, yes, but that isn’t a bad thing. Sequences like little Kal-El’s rocket journeying through the cosmos, or Superman’s lava-soaked restructuring of the earth’s crust, still look incredibly cool. It may be a retro kind of cool, but it definitely has more character than the usual computer-generated smoothness of many a latter-day disposable blockbuster. And the best special effect of all is Christopher Reeve’s performance, which hasn’t aged a day.

Superman: The Movie is something of a time capsule, or, more appropriately, a rocket sent to us by the dying world of Hollywood circa 1978. Its squeaky-clean hero, rotoscoped flying effects, and silly, land-grubbing Luthor plot are regarded strangely by the inhabitants of a world where super-powered heroes jostle for screen space at the multiplex several times a year. But, just as the Last Son Of Krypton inspired an entire industry in publishing, Donner’s film was the first big-screen superhero movie, setting the template for all that would come after. He and Reeve made us believe not only that a man could fly, but that a big-budget comic book adaptation could take off at the box office. It’s still great fun.

That being said, Lois Lane’s “Can You Read My Mind?” bit still sucks.

Categories: Comics, Movies, Reviews
Tags: 1970s Movies., Bonnie & Clyde, Bryan Singer, CGI, Christopher Reeve, Clark Kent, Comic Book Movies, David Newman, Gene Hackman, General Zod, James Bond, John Williams, Jor-El, Kal-El, Krypton, Leslie Newman, Lex Luthor, Lois Lane, Man of Steel, Margot Kidder, Mario Puzo, Marlon Brando, Ned Beatty, Otis, Phantom Zone, Practical Effects, Richard Donner, Robert Benton, Superman, Superman Returns, Superman: The Movie, Terence Stamp, The Godfather, Tom Mankiewicz

Posted By Dave Howlett on May 6, 2013

Deciding to take the reins of Iron Man 3 must not have been easy for director Shane Black. Sure, it’s a high-profile gig for a guy who hasn’t really been relevant for a while now–Black’s heyday was in the ultraviolent Eighties and early Nineties, scripting shoot-em-up fare like Lethal Weapon and The Last Boy Scout. It’s also an opportunity to run wild in the Marvel Universe, which must be akin to being set loose with a blank check in the world’s biggest, most expensive toy store. But taking the reins of Tony Stark’s third solo cinematic adventure also meant delivering a product that could play as a pseudo-sequel to The Avengers, a movie that raised that bar considerably for filmic superhero mayhem, as well as redeeming the Iron Man series after a disappointingly haphazard second chapter. Thankfully, Black (re-teaming with Robert Downey Jr. after 2005′s critically hailed but little seen comedy-noir Kiss Kiss Bang Bang) fits the series like a repulsor-powered gauntlet, delivering a light-hearted, fast-paced action thriller that pushes high-tech hero Tony Stark forward by, paradoxically, returning him to his low-tech roots.

Iron Man 3 finds Tony Stark in the throes of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder after helping his fellow superheroes battle an alien invasion in 2012′s The Avengers. This makes perfect sense, considering that he isn’t a super-soldier, an international spy, a gamma-powered monster, or a god–he’s just a really smart dude with a high-tech battlesuit. Make that battlesuits, actually–since the Battle Of New York, Tony has been tinkering nonstop with an ever-more-advanced array of armors and gadgets, just in case he might need them to save the life of his now live-in girlfriend, Pepper Potts (Gwyneth Paltrow). Unfortunately, he’s been building his armors at the expense of his relationship with Pepper, and the relationship is becoming strained. Meanwhile, a series of terror attacks by a sinister mastermind known only as the Mandarin (Ben Kingsley), utilizing a cadre of genetically-engineered human bombs, culminates in the hospitalization of Stark’s pal Happy Hogan (Jon Favreau), causing Tony to publicly challenge the villain to a showdown. The Mandarin responds swiftly, sending a phalanx of helicopter gunships to take out Tony and his beachside mansion in Malibu, separating Tony and Pepper and ultimately sending Iron Man off to Tennessee to try and find the connection between the Mandarin and a pair of Tony’s old scientist colleagues, Aldrich Killian (Guy Pearce) and Maya Hansen (Rebecca Hall). But, with his armor critically damaged in the assault on his home, Tony has to once again rely on his scientific brilliance and ingenuity to save the day, just like he did back in 2008′s original Iron Man.

The trailers for Iron Man 3 appear to give away a great deal of the plot, showing great big chunks of the Mandarin’s helicopter attack, a daring Air Force One rescue sequence, and the film’s conclusion, which sees Tony remotely summoning 42 different incarnations of the Iron Man armor to help him and Rhodey (Don Cheadle) battle the Mandarin’s army of Extremis soldiers. But Shane Black and co-scripter Drew Pearce still have plenty of tricks up their sleeves. Iron Man 3 is a movie not predicated on one Big Twist, instead containing a series of built-in smaller ones that are clever, satisfying, and in some cases, very funny (avoid all spoilers as to the true nature of the Mandarin–you’ll be glad you did, as it’s probably the movie’s best reveal). Not everything about the plot makes total sense; the villains’ plot can be a bit tricky to navigate, and Maya Hansen’s character goes nowhere (which, in an already crowded movie, makes her doubly redundant). Also, Tony is able to send his armor to protect Pepper at a key moment, but claims he can’t do the same for Rhodey during the film’s final battle–why not, exactly? But, even though at two hours and fifteen minutes, this is the longest Iron Man film, it somehow feels like the shortest. The set pieces avoid the lifeless CGI that is so prevalent in action movies these days, feeling refreshingly practical and, as a result, much more exciting and dangerous (the Air Force One rescue is a hair-raising highlight). Downey once again propels the movie forward with his performance as Tony Stark. He’s still the same glib genius as before, only now much more haunted and desperate. While stranded in Tennessee, he enlists the aid of a whiz kid named Harley (Ty Simpkins), in a subplot that could have been annoyingly sugary but generates some of the film’s biggest laughs. And the conclusion can be read as either the end of Tony’s journey or the beginning of his next one (Downey has now fulfilled his contract with Marvel Studios, leaving the possibility of his return to the role up in the air for now). Shane Black leaves you wanting more while also feeling good about the fact that this might be the definitive ending to the Iron Man saga–a feat truly worthy of a superhero.

Check out the other reviews for Iron Man 3:

Iain McNally’s Review

Michelle Ealey’s Review

Royal Lance Eustache’s Review

Ryan Morrissey-Smith’s Review

 

Categories: Movies, Reviews
Tags: Aldrich Killian, Ben Kingsley, Don Cheadle, Drew Pearce, Extremis, Guy Pearce, Gwyneth Paltrow, Happy Hogan, Iron Man, Iron Man 3, James Rhodes, Jon Favreau, Kiss Kiss Bang Bang, Lethal Weapon, Marvel, Maya Hansen, Pepper Potts, Rebecca Hall, Robert Downey Jr, Shane Black, The Avengers, The Last Boy Scout, Tony Stark

Posted By Dave Howlett on May 2, 2013

In thrillers like Black Sunday, Red Dragon, and The Silence Of The Lambs, novelist Thomas Harris excels like no other at creating memorable, believable psychopaths. In his best works, he combines his own dark imagination with thoroughly-researched explorations into real-world pathology, and the result has been some of the scariest, most fleshed-out homicidal lunatics in fiction and film (even when, as with Hannibal Lecter in Lambs, they only play a supporting role). Jason Aaron (Scalped, Thor: God Of Thunder) has taken a page from Harris’ approach in his five-part miniseries, Thanos Rising, which seeks to explore the origins of Marvel’s most memorable mass murderer like never before. Aided by the singular visual style of Simone Bianchi (Wolverine, Seven Soldiers: Shining Knight), Aaron has crafted a creepy tale that doesn’t feel much like a Marvel comic at all–instead, it’s a look at the forces that shaped the most cosmic serial killer of all. But one can’t help but wonder if the need to stretch it out into a miniseries (and the hardcover and softcover collections that will surely follow) doesn’t dilute its impact somewhat.

The second issue of the miniseries picks up with teenaged Thanos, having slaughtered a family of cave lizards that killed his friends at the conclusion of issue one, finding that he has a sweet tooth for murder now. The mysterious girl who accompanies and encourages him along his journey to the dark side (a character who will almost certainly be revealed as the latter-day Thanos’ paramour, the living embodiment of Death itself) watches as he calmly, clinically performs vivisections on a series of ever-larger animals native to the moon of Titan, seeking to find some great truth within the subjects of his study (after all, a common trait among most serial killers is an early indifference to the suffering of animals). But it isn’t long before Thanos decides to work his way up the food chain of Titan’s technologically-advanced, supposedly enlightened society to become not only its very first murderer, but its very first serial murderer as well. The future Mad Titan evades detection for now–even as a search begins for the perpetrator behind the strange rash of disappearances–but by issue’s end his choice of victims becomes decidedly personal.

The timing of this series is no accident, seeing as how millions of moviegoers met Thanos for the first time last summer in the end credits of The Avengers and had no idea who he was (my girlfriend turned to me when he appeared and said “Is that Hellboy?“). With the Marvel Phase Two movies ramping up and Thanos destined to appear in at least a few of them, the time is right to delve into his backstory. Aaron’s approach is a sound one, grounding the galaxy-spanning ambition seen in later Thanos epics like The Infinity Gauntlet in a more recognizable reality–albeit, one set on a moon of Saturn. The result resembles a cross between The Bad Seed and Anakin Skywalker’s descent into villainy in the Star Wars prequels. There definitely is a tragedy to the way young Thanos is portrayed–born different from the rest of the Eternals, he is not an outcast but is happily welcomed by his schoolmates and beloved at home. But that doesn’t stop him from abducting and killing those schoolmates when the urge overtakes him. Bianchi’s art is as lyrical and strange as ever, lending an odd beauty to the grotesque subject matter. But this is a story that, while well told, moves along at a leisurely pace since it has to fill out five issues. It’s the kind of tale that would have been delivered in a giant-sized annual back in the day, but the realities of the publishing business in 2013 demand a book-sized story that can be repackaged to suit the much larger audience who will flock to see Avengers 2. Too bad–as authors like Harris have shown, a truly memorable psycho doesn’t have to command too much of a page count to leave a lasting impression.

Categories: Comics, Reviews
Tags: Anakin Skywalker, Avengers, Avengers 2, Black Sunday, death, Eternals, Hannibal Lecter, Hellboy, Jason Aaron, Marvel, Marvel Now, Marvel Phase Two, Red Dragon, Saturn, Scalped, Seven Soldiers: Shining Knight, Silence of the Lambs, Simone Bianchi, Star Wars, Thanos, Thanos Rising, The Bad Seed, Thomas Harris, Thor: God of Thunder, Titan, Wolverine

Posted By Dave Howlett on April 29, 2013

Box Office Back Issues is a new feature here at the Movies Section of NerdSpan, where we revisit the previous installments in a comic movie franchise in anticipation of the next adventure–a rummage through the metaphorical movie longbox.

There’s a generally acknowledged maxim about action-movie franchises–superhero movies in particular–which says that the third movie in a series represents a kind of stumbling point. Usually following a second film that is often breathlessly hailed as being even better than the first (Superman II, Spider-Man 2, The Dark Knight), the third movie is more often than not seen as the victim of unusually high expectations and a desire to top the previous instalments. Iron Man 2 seems to have skipped the heavenly second-movie praise that is characteristic of its subgenre and cruised right on into its big disappointment. Coming as it did so early in the development of the Marvel Studios empire, the underwhelming sequel spelled trouble for future film prospects. However, after the successes of Thor, Captain America: The First Avenger, and The Avengers, one hopes that the Iron Man series has gotten its weakest chapter out of its system, and that the upcoming Iron Man 3 can be the series high point in its place.

Picking up some time after the 2008 original, Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr., slipping effortlessly back into the role) appears at the opening of the new Stark Expo in full armored regalia, and we’re told that his presence has somehow allowed America to enjoy a period of unparalleled peace. We’re never told exactly how this was achieved, and a lot of what follows centres around characters wondering if Iron Man can protect the country anymore (as though his presence had caused foreign aggressors and the US military alike to just shrivel up and blow away). Stark is called before a congressional hearing by a dubious Senator (a puffy-faced Garry Shandling) who demands that the industrialist turn over his weaponized suit. Stark refuses, causing a rift between himself and his Air Force buddy James Rhodes (Don Cheadle, replacing the original film’s Terrence Howard). Meanwhile, a vengeful Russian genius named Ivan Vanko (Mickey Rourke) prepares a high-tech attack on Stark in Monaco, utilizing a power source that is suspiciously similar to Tony’s arc reactor (which, unbeknownst to everyone but himself, may be slowly poisoning him). On top of all that, rival industrialist Justin Hammer (Sam Rockwell) has his sights set on Stark’s military contracts, and is willing to make an unholy alliance with Vanko to get them.

Written by Justin Theroux, Iron Man 2 races in several directions at once; in addition to the various plot points listed above, Tony also clashes with Stark Industries’ newly-installed CEO Pepper Potts (Gwyneth Paltrow) over the direction of the company, defends his position as a superhero to spymaster Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson) and his S.H.I.E.L.D. agents Phil Coulson (Clark Gregg) and the Black Widow (Scarlett Johansson), and wrestles with his own daddy issues (Howard Stark appears in old-timey filmstrips, played by Mad Men‘s John Slattery). That’s a lot of story to pack into a two-hour movie, and very little of it is handled well. Somewhere along the way, director Jon Favreau forgot he was making an action movie–the film only contains three big set pieces, and two of them are pretty short (the final battle, involving Iron Man, Rhodes’ newly-minted superhero War Machine, and an army of robotic drones, is impressive, but by then it’s far too late). Most of the screen time is given over to the talented but directionless cast talking over one another in a way that was fresh and fun in the first film, but tiresome here. Rourke’s bizarre, bird-obsessed performance is distracting, and the film’s portrayal of Rockwell’s Justin Hammer as an evil version of Tony Stark just feels redundant. Even the film’s well-meaning nods to its comic book sources–Iron Man’s suitcase armor, Tony’s drinking problem–aren’t enough to overcome the problems with the script. The subplot about Fury and the Black Widow considering Stark for inclusion in the still-assembling Avengers bogs down an already murky storyline, and it reveals the studio’s uncertainty in piecing together their superhero universe. Thankfully, with the benefit of hindsight, we know that everything turned out well for Earth’s Mightiest Heroes, but even that knowledge doesn’t keep Iron Man 2 from being the weak spot in the series’ armor.

 

Categories: Comics, Movies, Recap, Reviews
Tags: Agent Coulson, Black Widow, Captain America: The First Avenger, Clark Gregg, Don Cheadle, Garry Shandling, Gwyneth Paltrow, Iron Man, Iron Man 2, Ivan Vanko, John Slattery, Jon Favreau, Justin Theroux, Mad Men, Marvel Comics, Marvel Studios, Mickey Rourke, Nick Fury, Robert Downey Jr, S.H.I.E.L.D., Sam Rockwell, samuel l jackson, Scarlett Johansson, The Avengers, Thor, War Machine