April | 2012 | the m0vie blog

Non-Review Review: Battleship

Posted on April 11, 2012 by Darren

Battleship is a big American blockbuster. And, to be fair, it falls pray to a large number of the pitfalls of those sorts of films. There’s more action than thought. There’s lots of CGI filling the scenes. It rigidly adheres to a formula. It’s characters aren’t developed beyond shallow archetypes. However, I can forgive most of these flaws because Peter Berg actually makes this fun. I can very honestly and shamelessly admit that this was the most fun big dumb blockbuster that I’ve seen since Independence Day or perhaps The Rock. And that’s quite a compliment. It’s never anything more than it claims to be, but does well not to take itself too seriously.

Something to sea...

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Filed under: Non-Review Reviews | Tagged: Alexander Skarsgård, aliens, battleship, Berg, blockbuster, Brooklyn Decker, cgi, film, Hopper, liam neeson, michael bay, Movie, non-review review, peter berg, review, Rihanna, Stephen Hawkins, Taylor Kitsch, transformers, United States | 7 Comments »

Kurt Busiek’s (& George Perez’s) Avengers – Avengers Assemble! Vol. 2 (Ultron Unlimited) (Review/Retrospective)

Posted on April 11, 2012 by Darren

I want to enjoy Kurt Busiek’s Avengers run. It’s apparently one of the better Avengers runs out there. In fact, I can actually see the reasons why one would fall in love with it. It has great characters, great villains and great stories, written by a writer who adores the subject matter and an artist who is among the best in the business. And yet I can’t help but feel locked out of the series, as if this is a book intended for those who like a particular style of old comics – rather than those seeking accessible and fresh takes on classic characters coming together to fight evil. This second volume is perhaps the highlight of the run, collecting – as it does – the Ultron Unlimited storyarc, perhaps regarded as Busiek’s finest hour on the title (with only Avengers Forever and The Kang Dynasty competing, depending on who you ask).

Boy, is his face red...

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Filed under: Comics | Tagged: Avenger, avengers, avengers assemble!, avengers forever, Busiek, captain america, Comics, continuity, george perez, hank mccoy, Henry Pym, iron man, joss whedon, kang dynasty, kurt busiek, marvel, marvel comics, nostalgia, Scarlet Witch, The Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes, the beast, Triune Understanding, ultron, ultron unlimited | Leave a comment »

Sopranos: Meadowlands (Review)

Posted on April 11, 2012 by Darren

It’s interesting how slowly The Sopranos approached the violence of what Tony does. Of course, the pilot episode (The Sopranos) featured Tony brutally beating a debtor in an attempt to earn his money back and the subsequent episode (46 Long) featured Tony beating up an employee at the Bada-Bing for failing to work the telephone properly, but the show generally eased us into seeing Tony as a truly “bad” guy.

It was never ambiguous about his mob connections or the crimes and violence that he committed or that he authorised others to commit, but the first few episodes generally keep that violence somewhat insulated from Tony. Paulie and Pussy brutalise the car thieves to reclaim a teacher’s lost car, while Tony’s threatened castration of a Jewish man refusing to play ball is kept off-screen. While Tony would commit his first on-screen murder in the next episode (College), Meadowlands feels like the first episode to truly present Tony as a borderline sociopath, and to demonstrate just how aggressive and possessive he can be.

Paying respects...

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Filed under: Television | Tagged: al pacino, american dream, Bada Bing, Christopher, David Chase, godfather, Jennifer Melfi, meadowlands, Melfi, Scarface, Soprano, the sopranos, Tony, Tony Soprano, United States | Leave a comment »

Avengers: Earth’s Mightiest Heroes, Volume 1 (Review)

Posted on April 10, 2012 by Darren

It’s fascinating how Marvel managed to effectively reinvent the Avengers franchise over the better part of the last decade, pushing the title to the centre of their publishing line and revitalising it – both through Mark Millar’s alternate-continuity Ultimates and Brian Michael Bendis’ New Avengers. Both were poles apart from the type of books fans associated with the property, favouring sweeping and blockbuster storytelling in the place of the more conventional soap opera antics. As such, Joe Casey’s miniseries, offering a reflection on the first few years of the team, feels like something of a polite acknowledgment of the legacy of the team, and an attempt to celebrate their history together.

Not quite a train wreck…

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Filed under: Comics | Tagged: avengers, captain america, captain america: the first avenger, Earth, Earth's Mightiest Heroes, hulk, Hulk (comics), iron man, Joe Casey, joss whedon, mark millar, marvel, Marvel Studios, robert downey jr, scott kolins, the avengers, thor, tony stark | Leave a comment »

Minor Miracles: Supporting Characters & The Lesson of Hannibal Lecter

Posted on April 10, 2012 by Darren

“Less is more.” Or so we’re often told at least. It generally seems to be used in a polite way to limit our exposure to things we don’t like. However, I can’t help but wonder if it is true of supporting characters. After all, those interesting side characters in movies that happen to capture our imaginations with a relatively minor roles. Indeed, I reckon that I could probably name more supporting characters I took a shine to, rather than iconic lead characters. While we undoubtedly relish every moment they appear on-screen, and perhaps lament that we only get so limited an exposure to them, I can’t help but wonder of that somewhat restricted presence might be precisely what makes them so appealing in the first place.

Bloody brilliant…

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Filed under: Movies | Tagged: Anthony Hopkin, anthony hopkins, Boba Fett, Clarice Starling, forgetting sarah marshall, george lucas, hannibal, hannibal (book), hannibal (film), hannibal lecter, hannibal rising, jason segel, Katy Perry, kristen bell, Movies, mystery, Nicholas Stoller, People's Choice Awards, russell brand, Sarah Marshall, silence of the lambs, supporting character, the silence of the lambs, thomas harris, will graham | 20 Comments »

S.H.I.E.L.D: Architects of Forever(Review/Retrospective)

Posted on April 9, 2012 by Darren

April (and a little bit of May) are “Avengers month” at the m0vie blog. In anticipation of Joss Whedon’s superhero epic, we’ll have a variety of articles and reviews published looking at various aspects of “Earth’s Mightiest Heroes.” Today we’re looking at a miniseries exploring the history of S.H.I.E.L.D., the organisation which has played a big role in the Marvel cinematic universe.

Jonathan Hickman is something of a rising star at Marvel, with his acclaimed work on Secret Warriors, Fantastic Four and Ultimate Comics: Ultimates, along with character-centric miniseries like Ultimate Thor and Ultimate Hawkeye. Much like Jason Aaron, the writer has demonstrated a remarkable ability with both the smaller cult characters in the universe, as well as some of its bigger names – it has been argued that Hickman has been doing fascinating things with characters who had stumbled a bit of late in Marvel’s shared universe, like Nick Fury or the “first family” of the company, the Fantastic Four. Hickman has a wonderful talent to combine old established concepts with clever new ideas to produce an interesting result. S.H.I.E.L.D., documenting the history of Marvel’s premiere espionage organisation, demonstrates this quite well.

At least what I understood of it.

The SHIELD protects us...

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Filed under: Comics | Tagged: Acura, Architects of Forever, Architects of Tomorrow, comic books, Comics, fantastic four, Infinity, IPad, iron man, Isaac Newton, Jonathan Hickman, Leonardo da Vinci, marvel comics, Marvel Studios, S.H.I.E.L.D, Secret Warriors, Shield, spider man, thor, Thor: Son of Asgard (Thor (Graphic Novels)), ultimate thor | Leave a comment »

Non-Review Review: Collateral

Posted on April 6, 2012 by Darren

Collateral is a masterpiece. I think the only Michael Mann movie I’d rate against it would be Heat, which puts it in very good company. It’s probably my favourite neo-noir film, and I actually ranked it as my favourite film of 2000-2009. There are a lot of reasons for that: I think it’s the best example of digital video cinematography I’ve ever seen, the script is superb, the two leads are fantastic and it’s an utterly compelling examination of urban isolation. The screenplay was originally set in Manhattan, but I think the decision to transpose the story of a cabbie and his client to Los Angeles was actually quite clever – there’s generally an eerie emptiness and anomie to how life in Los Angeles is portrayed, and Collateral captures it perfectly.

Top gun...

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Filed under: Non-Review Reviews | Tagged: anomie, Ashlee Simpson, Australia, Ching, collateral, collateral (film), Darwin, Darwin City, Darwin Northern Territory, film, heat, isolation, L.A., los angeles, max, michael mann, Movies, Municipalities, New York City, non-review review, Northern Territory, Oceania, review, Vincent | 6 Comments »

Brian Michael Bendis’ Avengers – New Avengers Vol. 5-6 (Hardcover) (Review/Retrospective)

Posted on April 6, 2012 by Darren

You know, at this stage I’m wondering what an Avengers book might look that wasn’t plowing from one event (Secret Invasion), through another event (Dark Reign), towards yet another event (Siege). I actually quite enjoyed Bendis’ opening two arcs on New Avengers, before the book effectively became the primary tie-in to whatever big crossover event was happening in the Marvel Universe on a given month. It was Grant Morrison who once wrote that every panel in a comic book should be an event, and I agree – stand-alone series don’t gain any extra validity by tying themselves in to a big crisis crossover. Make the stories themselves compelling and worry about the “event” later.

The evil empire…

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Filed under: Comics | Tagged: avengers, bendis, brian michael bendis, dark reign, iron man, joss whedon, luke cage, Marvel Comic, marvel comics, matt fraction, Savage Land, secret invasion, skrull | Leave a comment »

Avenue Q at the Bord Gais Energy Theatre (Review)

Posted on April 6, 2012 by Darren

I had the pleasure of catching the superb Avenue Q at the Bord Gais Energy Theatre this evening. The play is a rather brilliantly subversive exploration of what Sesame Street might look like reworked for an adult audience. Filled with the somewhat depressing notion that not everybody is special and not everybody has a special destiny mapped out for them in life, the musical manages to offer a more realistic pragmatic outlook on life without ever becoming overwhelmingly depressing. Brought to life by a talented cast and crew, it’s hard to resist the charms of Avenue Q.

You'd be a muppet to miss it...

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Filed under: Theatre | Tagged: arts, Avenue Q, Bert, Bert and Ernie, Broadway, Broadway theatre, Cookie Monster, Gary Coleman, Jim Henson, Nicky, NYC Off Broadway, Performing Arts, Sesame Street, Theatre, Trekkie Monster | Leave a comment »

Thor by Walt Simonson Omnibus (Review/Retrospective)

Posted on April 5, 2012 by Darren

April (and a little bit of May) are “Avengers month” at the m0vie blog. In anticipation of Joss Whedon’s superhero epic, we’ll have a variety of articles and reviews published looking at various aspects of “Earth’s Mightiest Heroes.” We’re also taking a look at some of the notable stories featuring individual Avengers.

Read our review of The Avengers here.

Walt Simonson’s run on Thor is one of the truly great Marvel runs of the eighties – along with Frank Miller’s take on Daredevil and John Byrne’s tenure on The Fantastic Four. It’s great to have that entire run – and the Baldar the Brave miniseries – collected in one absolutely giant omnibus, which stands as one of the greatest accomplishments of Marvel’s collected editions department. Did I mention that it has been lavishly recoloured for the occasion? Because it has. And it’s spectacular.