Tag Archives: Review

Assembling a Good Superhero Movie

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This post includes major spoilers for Avengers: Infinity War

It had no business being a good movie. And yet it was. How did that happen?

I’m talking, of course, about Avengers: Infinity War. My rule of thumb is that, all things being equal, the quality of a movie is inversely proportional to the number of major characters. How many were in this movie? I won’t even try to count.

So why does it work? The key is to listen to the directors’ commentary. In other franchises (let’s leave them anonymous, shall we?), what excites the director is the special effects.

This scene was shot against a green screen / CGI. So was this. And this. Oh, that scene? It was filmed on set. No biggie. But THIS scene, that was green screen / CGI. And so on.

Not surprisingly, while that (anonymous) movie has whiz-bang action and CGI, it isn’t very good. Story and character were pretty much completely overlooked.

In the commentary for Infinity War, what the Russo brothers comment on is story and character. And oddly enough, when the emphasis is on those two things, the end result is pretty good. This is the thing about Infinity War. While I’d argue it wasn’t a great movie, there was greatness in managing to bring all those characters together in a coherent, character-driven story that gave many of the characters interesting development arcs.

The most obvious arc is Thor’s, who picks himself up from his defeat at the hands of Thanos and, by the time he arrives on Earth, has become the king he was meant to be. Groot has a small but satisfying arc in which, after witnessing the sacrifices made by Thor, grows out of his annoying teenage phase and becomes instrumental to Thor’s evolution.

The humour, and there’s plenty of it, is character-based. Peter Parker, with his love of “old” sci-fi movies. Poor clueless Drax who thinks that by being still he becomes invisible. The clash of egos between Tony Stark and Stephen Strange. Then, of course, there’s the culmination of ten years of the MCU, the moment when Rocket meets the Winter Soldier and says, “I’m going to get that arm.”

There are many other precious moments. Pretty much all the scenes with Vision and Wanda, with their new (and apparently, doomed) affection for each other. The reverence with which Peter holds Tony Stark. The moment when Steve Rogers and Thor compare haircuts and beards in the midst of a battle for the universe. When Bruce Banner and Natasha are reunited, scarcely a word is spoken. There’s no need, because their faces say it all.

In the end, it’s the humanity in Infinity War that makes it good, and the reason why we so look forward to End Game.


Captain America: The Winter Soldier Movie Review

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Let’s get down to it. Is Captain America: The Winter Soldier as good as The Avengers? To me, it’s an apples and oranges comparison. The Winter Soldier is a different kind of movie. Though hardly lacking in action sequences, it’s a slower paced, more human movie. The quiet moments are my favourite. Steve Rogers (Chris Evans) commiserating, soldier to soldier, with Sam Wilson (Anthony Mackie). Natasha Romanoff (Scarlett Johansson) asking Steve whether that was his first kiss since 1945. And Steve’s heartbreaking reunion with an elderly Peggy Carter (Hayley Atwell).

Still, the action sequences are quite something. The hand-to-hand fight scenes are breathtaking, Nick Fury’s (Samuel L. Jackson) long chase sequence is highly entertaining, and the big action at the climax is satisfying, though a bit predictable.

winter soldierAnd there’s more. SHIELD may have been infiltrated, but by whom? And to what end? The answer will have reverberations throughout the Marvel Universe, and will have to have some impact on TV’s Agents of Shield. Cap, the Black Widow, and the Falcon are on the run, hunted down by their own. They can’t tell the good guys from the bad, except, as Cap points out, if they’re shooting at you. Yes, there’s humour in the movie as well.

The Winter Soldier allows the actors to more fully develop their characters, has an interesting story, great action, and changes everything. What more could you ask for in a “comic book” movie?

 

The Wolf of Wall Street Movie Review

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In the spirit of better late than never, here are some thoughts on Martin Scorsese’s The Wolf of Wall Street. Generally accepted as one of America’s greatest directors, it’s worth taking in any Scorsese movie just to see what he’s up to. After viewing this movie, though, I found myself asking, what was he thinking?

To start with, what was the point? Why make the movie in the first place? One is tempted to guess that Scorsese, too, succumbed to the sales charm of Jordan Belfort, the former Wall Street stockbroker whose rise and fall is the subject of the movie. It would only be fitting. Given the movie’s commercial success (at the time of writing, over $110M), it may prove to be yet another Belfort windfall.

After all, is anyone surprised at the portrayal of stockbrokers as greedy, decadent, overgrown adolescents? This is hardly new territory. Then add to it’s pointlessness the punishing length of this movie. At three hours long, they could easily have had cut an hour’s worth of material. How many scenes did they really need to demonstrate the greedy, decadent and adolescent behaviour of the brokers? By the time the credits roll up, the movie has succeeded only in making nudity, sex and drugs utterly boring. This is perhaps its greatest sin.

Are there any positives? Well, yes. There is some very fine acting, and Leonard DiCaprio displays some brilliant physical comedy. Is it worth suffering through the whole movie for this? Not really.

Every great artist is entitled to a miss or two. This one is definitely a miss. Let’s hope Scorsese hits it out of the park next time.