Review: Avengers: Age of Ultron (Trevor)

by Trevor Kirkendall

★★★

Marvel Studios deserves a good bit of credit for concocting a grand plan and sticking to it. I’m not sure studio head Kevin Feige even realized how big of an empire they would build when they first drafted their plans. And everything just keeps getting bigger. The centerpiece of the Marvel Cinematic Universe is the mash-up adventures of all the stand-alone characters: “The Avengers.” The Summer Movie Season of 2015 begins with the second all-star film “Avengers: Age of Ultron.” The film features everything people loved about the first one with a much larger cast, but ultimately offers nothing new.

“Age of Ultron” opens with our team of heroes already assembled going after Loki’s scepter from the first film, which is being held and experimented with by the last holdouts of Hydra. Here, we meet two of Hyrda’s test subjects, the Maximoff twins Pietro (Aaron Taylor-Johnson) and Wanda (Elizabeth Olsen), whose backstory leads them to hate Tony Stark (Robert Downey, Jr.).

With the scepter recovered, Stark and Dr. Bruce Banner (Mark Ruffalo) use it to try and create a type of artificial intelligence Tony has been working on. He envisions this program being used for peacekeeping purposes that would one day render The Avengers as obsolete. Initial tests fail, but it ultimately takes hold within the computers at Tony’s house and puts itself into one of Stark’s iron robots. Thus, the birth of Ultron (James Spader). He learns from the Internet that humans are bad and must be destroyed. He enlists the help of the Maximoff twins to help with his diabolical scheme. Our team of Avengers must stop Ultron and the Maximoff’s before they destroy the world.

Of course, the movie wouldn’t reach its full two-and-a-half hour run time without tons of plotting exposition in between the highly stylized, CG-filled action sequences. There’s also a ton of bro moments with Stark, Captain America (Chris Evans) and Thor (Chris Hemsworth). We also get some more back-story on Clint Barton (Jeremy Renner) that seemingly comes out of nowhere. There’s even some dark back-story and a little love interest for Agent Romanoff (Scarlett Johansson).

“Age of Ultron” is loaded to the brim with so many characters and so many different stories that it feels like it might just break the hard drive it was created on. But from the early concepts behind these films, how could anyone have thought they were going to be clean, polished and concise? That’s what the stand-alone movies are for. “Captain America: The Winter Soldier” remains the best film Marvel has produced because it’s the only film in the studio’s history to work off a script with a complete beginning, middle and end, and actually pull off the high-octane action sequences effectively. It’s also the only film of the bunch that didn’t necessarily feel like a superhero film, but rather a political thriller with superhero as the protagonist.

“Age of Ultron” takes everything that Marvel has done in its past and doubles down. The action sequences are grander and longer. The in between sequences of exposition are more drawn out and detailed. The disposable army of clone soldiers – I mean, Ultron robots – is bigger and faster. Okay, now I’m just getting picky with that remark. Writer/director Joss Whedon actually has improved upon the things that flawed the first film. Yes, there’s a lot of down time he fills with exposition and back-stories, but there are some moments that genuinely do feel like a heart felt attempt. Are these moments necessary to advance the plot of the film? Not really, but he wants to give these characters a little more humanity. Suddenly, Hawkeye in particular doesn’t seem like just a waste of space with a bow-and-arrow. It ultimately feels forced and out of place, and increases the run time considerably.

Whedon has also cleaned up his direction of the combat sequences this time. I’d be worried if he didn’t. “The Avengers” was bogged down by moments where everything was happening so fast that you couldn’t tell what’s going on. “Age of Ultron” is that way too, but they’re not as prolonged. He doesn’t stick with the same moments for nearly as long, given everyone a little more time to process what’s happening. Christopher Nolan experienced the same thing when he got involved in the action genre. His fistfights in “Batman Begins” are so muddy compared to what he accomplished in “The Dark Knight.” Same thing applies here with Whedon. Remember, this is only Whedon’s fourth film. (And I may have just committed a cardinal sin by mentioning a DC film in a review about a Marvel film. Oops.)

As big and grand as “Age of Ultron” is, it never feels like it’s overwhelmingly crowded. There are always a lot of characters on screen and there’s different stories coming at you from different directions, but it’s never more than you can process. This isn’t the work or a filmmaker trying to completely mess with your mind and senses, but rather the work of studio and filmmaker actually working well together for a change. Whedon respects the source material so much that he doesn’t want to offend anyone by leaving anything out. (Although, I’m sure there are things people want to see included, but won’t.) Whedon and Marvel have gone hand-in-hand thus far in this highly successful experiment that is the Marvel Cinematic Universe. He leaves the film and story in good hands moving forward as he won’t be involved in the future films, at least not as a director or writer. He’s set up a lot of high expectations for fans of this studio’s work, and he leaves us with a film that will likely meet the expectations of almost all in attendance. It doesn’t offer up anything new or revelatory to the series, but it does offer us the same amount enjoyment that this studio has become famous for delivering.

Review: Avengers: Age of Ultron (Joe)

by. Joe Moss
★★½

Well, one thing is for certain...when you watch Avengers: Age of Ultron, if you desired to see a kick-ass, slam-bang, action montage after action montage--YOU HAVE FOUND IT!! Joss Whedon's latest entry into the Marvel Cinematic Universe hits all of those 'labels' and more. But my question is, "Did he hit too much more?" Was this movie forced to become too much to ready the Universe for all of the future film sequels and spin-offs that have been announced. Just a warning...Prepare yourself for INFORMATION OVERLOAD!!

The Avengers needing to regroup after a defeat in South Africa.

I will be the first to admit that this was one of my most anticipated movies of 2015, and I have been one of those fan-geeks who over-analyzed the theatrical trailers to the point of driving myself mad with plot speculation. Joss Whedon (touché, sir) did a masterful job of misdirection in the trailers--that much I will allow to slip in this review. Almost 50% of the speculations floating around the internet regarding what 'must happen' are wrong. Now, that being said, I found myself lost in what the POINT of this movie was supposed to be. There was too much information presented, plot twisting, new characters and back-story intertwining that the movie became lost in itself--for about 1/3 of the film run time.

The film opens where we last saw the Avengers, hunting down the scepter wielded by Loki in "The Avengers." They have finally traced it to a remote location in Eastern Europe (Sokovia) to Baron Strucker's castle where hold-overs of Hydra are at work unleashing the power within the scepter. Enter the Avengers doing their usual wherein they recover what they were after, but there is a twist--Hydra has been performing human manipulations once again. Unleashed are Maximoff Twins, Scarlet Witch (Elizabeth Olsen) and Quicksilver (Aaron Taylor-Johnson).

The Maximoff Twins

Tony Stark (Robert Downey, Jr.), Dr. Banner (Mark Ruffalo) and the crew return to Avengers Tower in New York to regroup, heal [with the aid of Dr. Cho (Claudia Kim)], and relax until Thor returns to Asgard with the scepter to be locked away safely. Except we all know that when Tony Stark is involved, nothing every quite goes as planned when there is an 'untapped power supply' in the picture. Suffice to say that from this point on is where the movie gets TRULY INTERESTING.

After the farewell party gone awry, we see the introduction of Ultron (James Spader), Laura Barton (Linda Cardellini), Ulysses Klaue (Andy Serkis), Vision (Paul Bettany), F.R.I.D.A.Y. (Kerry Condon), and Thanos (Josh Brolin) for the 3rd time.

OK....the visuals were stunning. The cinematography was spot on; the editing was amazing as usual. What really bothered me about this movie was that I wasn't sure if it was supposed to be a revenge story, a love story, a revenge story about love, a love story intermingled with revenge...well, you get the picture here. With the introduction of the Maximoff's, we are handed a whole NEW story line regarding their background that is all new to the Marvel Cinematic Universe. And their initial story centered around revenge against a member of the Avengers team. This is the entire reason they teamed up with Ultron. BUT...then there is one of about 25 plot twists that tweaks that plot line and morphs it into something else entirely.

Beauty and the Beast?

Also circumspect is the relationship between a few members of the Avengers team. There is love in the air that is alluded to MULTIPLE times throughout the film, but it seems to be as confusing to the characters as it is to the audience. AND we are privy to Hawkeye's background (Jeremy Renner) which nobody in the theater saw coming. That added an entire new plot twist and allowed a whole new emotional side of Hawkeye to be addressed by Renner as the film progresses. One that doesn't necessarily add to the plot as a whole.

Lastly, there is a lot of testosterone induced posturing throughout the film between Thor (Chris Hemsworht), Captain America (Chris Evans), and Tony Stark. This seemed overly ridiculous and wholly looked to be a forced add-in to introduce the plot for the next Captain America/Avengers/Thor set of films, wherein information has already been leaked about a "war" coming, and the death of an Avenger.

Overall, I liked the film. Would I watch it again? Sure thing. Was it as spectacular as I had hoped it would be. No. Maybe in a few years after I have watched the culmination of this purveyance of the Marvel Cinematic Universe I will be able to look back on "Avengers: Age of Ultron" and say, "ohhhhhhhh, so that's why that happened." But for now, I was unsatisfied with most of the plot/information overload.

Review: Chef

by Trevor Kirkendall

★★★½

After several years of directing big budget pictures – most notably the first two “Iron Man” films for Marvel – Jon Favreau returns to directing the small independent types of films that gave him his first big break. To me, “Chef” seems like it could be somewhat autobiographical as well. I’ve always wondered what the real reason Favreau had for dropping out of directing “Iron Man 3.” Could it be Marvel got too powerful and wanted to take away the creative control from the director? Maybe, maybe not, but Favreau never did direct the film so you can draw your own conclusion.

I think “Chef” may very well contain some parallels to Favreau’s real life as a filmmaker. He plays Carl Casper, a renowned chef in Los Angeles who runs the kitchen at a restaurant owned by Riva (Dustin Hoffman). He loves his work to the point where he almost always neglects his son Percy (Emjay Anthony). He does, however, have time to hit up the farmers market each day, and for his new girlfriend Molly (Scarlett Johansson), the head hostess of the restaurant.

Today, a well-known food critic, Ramsey Michel (Oliver Platt), will be reviewing the restaurant. Carl begins to put together a world-class menu for the review, but Riva insists that he cooks the usual menu because that’s the reason people come. Sure enough, Ramsey writes a scathing review of the food. This prompts Carl to call out Ramsey on Twitter, which ultimately costs Carl his job. But that also boosts his online following.

At the insistence of Carl’s ex-wife Inez (Sofia Vergara), Carl accompanies her and Percy to Miami. There, he meets with Inez’s first ex-husband Marvin (Robert Downey, Jr.) about acquiring a food truck. His former assistant in LA, Martin (John Leguizamo), is so excited about Carl’s new food truck that he flies to Miami right away to help him get it started. Together with Tony and Percy, Carl takes his new food truck back home serving up delicious Cubanos along the way.

“Chef” is a much smaller concept film than anything Favreau’s done in a long time, and it’s also the best film of his career. Everything about this movie is immensely engaging and rather charming too. And the food that Chef Carl cooks throughout the movie looks so delicious. It’s like watching Food Network with a delightful storyline between cooking scenes. You’ll want to being chowing down on a Cubano rather than that big bucket of popcorn.

It seems to me that Favreau needed to make this movie to keep his creative levels high after spending the last decade working with Marvel. Not that Marvel saps the creativity from its filmmakers, but they do have their own vision that may not necessarily line up with the individual film’s director. Perhaps Favreau had a different idea about how “Iron Man 3” was supposed to play out than what Marvel had envisioned. Conflict ensued, resulting in Favreau to leave the project. That might not be what happened, but it’s a thought. One that would make sense given the plotline of this film.

Favreau’s screenplay is exceptionally polished proving that he’s not lost his touch. The main plotline and all the intersecting subplots never feel out of place. Each subplot supports the others. The humor and wit is on par with Favreau’s earlier work of “Swingers” and “Made.” I would take this film over “Swingers” any day of the week.

He’s top notch in the role of Carl as well. He delivers this character with many different levels of emotion. Even if you’re not an employee of a restaurant, you’ll still find many different ways to identify with this character. The real star of this film, however, is young Emjay Anthony. He shares almost every scene with Favreau and steals just about all of them.

“Chef” is one of my absolute favorite movies of the year. I can’t say it’s going to be a highly decorated award winning film by year’s end, and it might not even end up on my Best Ten, but it is enormously gratifying and pleasant to watch. It’s a nice break from the big budget franchise pictures Favreau’s been making recently. He’ll go back to those some day soon I’m sure, but this just proves he can still tell a great story on his own when he wants.

Review: Iron Man 3

by Joe Moss
★★★

SUMMER TIME!! The season begins with a bang. Well…ok a bang, a crash, a crescendo of explosions, some melting metallics and a cacophony of screams and shouting.  Welcome once again to the summer blockbuster movie season and the newest installment of the Disney/Marvel Universe—Iron Man 3. Director Shane Black (“The Last Boy Scout”, “Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang”, “ Lethal Weapon 2”, and “The Long Kiss Goodnight”) stays true to his identity as a film maker by cramming Iron Man 3 with plenty of shtick humor, long action sequences, and plenty of physical substance. Enough to make the average movie goers oohhhh and ahhhh all the way to the bank.

But…once you look past the green screen production into the plot development of the film, now there we can see a few small issues—a lack of substance and development in the screenplay written by Shane Black and his collaborator Drew Pearce. Once you get past the obvious main plot of the film—Mandarin (played by Ben Kingsley) attempting to give America a lesson in humility the small nuances of the under-story begin to show too many gaps.

(warning….some small spoilers are present)

1)      Where is the character development of the Mandarin? He was alluded to in the first installment of Iron Man, but just appears suddenly with no real back-story. Additionally, as I am not a avid comic reader by any stretch of the imagination, even I know that the Mandarin is supposed to be aristocratic Chinese with 10 power rings of alien origin. This is not quite what we get in the movie…

2)      Who is Aldrich Killian (Guy Pearce)? While we are provided a small amount of interplay during a 15 minute back-story involving Tony Stark and Dr. Maya Hansen (Rebecca Hall) this does not seem enough to truly foreshadow the events that occur throughout the remainder of the movie. Then we are hit with a small segment that mentions Aldrich used to attempt to woo Pepper. Hmm?

3)      Finally the most glaring omission revolves around how the film was billed as an attempt to examine whether Iron Man makes Tony Stark  or whether Tony Stark makes Iron Man. And this theme plays throughout the majority of the movie quite well—and ultimately answers it at the end with sweet aplomb. What doesn't really work with the Iron Man image is Tony’s self pitying introspection intermingled with panic attacks when questioned?? Tony…panic attacks?? I understand how the Shane Black was attempting to humanize Tony Stark, but he doesn't give us a reason to believe.  It is mentioned that Tony is having difficulty dealing with the events of New York (from The Avengers), but the screenplay never really gives us substance in this regard. What were the problems? Why can’t Tony sleep—a dream about falling is all we get.

The cinematography by Oscar winner John Toll (Legends of the Fall, Braveheart) are perfectly on par; and the film editing by the partnership of Jeffery Ford and Peter S. Elliot is visually flawless. So, even with these small questions left unanswered for me, I do have to say that Iron Man 3 is a spectacular movie and I thoroughly enjoyed every minute of it.

Review: Iron Man 3

by Trevor Kirkendall

★★★

The summer movie season has finally arrived, and what better way to start than with another entry into the Marvel universe. Marvel seems to have a very firm grip on this first weekend in May. After last summer’s “The Avengers,” why not kick off this summer with their next stand-alone feature with arguably their most popular character?

For the sake of not playing the spoiler role, I’ll be brief and somewhat vague.

“Iron Man 3” begins some time after the events in “The Avengers,” though they do not specify how long. Tony Stark (Robert Downey, Jr.) is having difficulty sleeping and suffers from panic attacks. He attributes his recent struggles to the events that took place in New York during “The Avengers.” His relationship with his girlfriend Pepper Potts (Gwyneth Paltrow) has continued to grow. His best friend Colonel James Rhodes (Don Cheadle) is away acting in his new role as the Iron Patriot (a rebranding of the War Machine suit we saw in “Iron Man 2,” complete with a new paint job). So things, for the most part, could be going better.

Then all hell breaks loose with the emergence of an evil terrorist, known as the Mandarin (Ben Kingsley) who no one can seem to find. The Mandarin is blowing up places around the globe, yet he’s not using any type of explosives. Interesting.

Elsewhere, a mysterious scientist with a brief history with Tony shows up looking for Stark’s assistance. This is Aldrich Killian (Guy Pearce). Stark’s personal assistant, Happy Hogan (former “Iron Man” franchise director Jon Favreau), becomes suspicious of Killian and his muscle man, Savin (James Badge Dale). Happy stumbles upon Killian and Savin in the midst of evil deeds. The result of such deeds leaves Happy incapacitated for a time, and Tony out for revenge.

Shane Black has his fun with this one. Who could blame him? He’s the latest filmmaker to get an opportunity to direct something for Marvel, one of the only studios out there that seems to be playing all the right cards at all the right times. Personally, I’m not a comic book fan, yet I’m somehow drawn to these films every time a new one is released. Producer Kevin Feige has done tremendous work for this studio bringing the entire comic book universe to life.

I find no fault with Black and Feige wanting to have their fun. “Iron Man 3” is an extremely satisfying addition to the Marvel universe. No doubt it will leave fans chomping at the bit, waiting to see where Marvel choses to go next. And there’s still three more Marvel movies coming before we get the next “Avengers” installment.

The problems that lie in “Iron Man 3” are the same issues that plague just about every other big budget summer movie. Black sacrifices substance for spectacle. Action sequences with heavy effects drive the film. There might be four or five large-scale action sequences in this film, but everything in between is mere filler that does little to advance the story.

Downey, Jr. plays his role just as well as he ever has. As Tony Stark, he appears much more exhausted and lifeless at times, the wear and tear of being Iron Man clearly taking its toll on him. Black’s effort to make Stark seem more human than in previous installments works quite well. You almost feel bad for Tony, until you realize he’s a billionaire and you’re not.

Despite his success with Tony, Black misses the mark with his villains. Motivation for their sinister plans never seems to be fully established. It’s almost as if they woke up one day and thought it would be fun to go start fires around the world, and, while we’re at it, kill Tony Stark too. Sure, there’s some back-story that doesn’t make things too out of place, but its so loose and generic. It’d be like me suddenly reappearing to seek out some sort of misplaced vengeance against the kid who broke my wrist in the sixth grade. Yeah, I remember that and I remember how it felt, but is that really worth my attention after so many years?

I’m splitting hairs. Sacrificing substance for spectacle is nothing new in the summer months. We all know Black knows how to write (“Lethal Weapon” anyone?). Everyone knows what they’re in for when watching this. Downey’s sarcastic humor is right on, as usual. The action sequences are great. At times they can even be borderline intense. That’s what everyone wants.

The shortfalls shouldn’t even be a concern. Die-hard fans of the comic books, no less, will find fault somewhere. They always do. Not being a fan myself, I have no idea who these characters are other than the information that’s presented in the films.

No matter what type of fan you are, this will be one of the most fun experiences you’ll have at the movies this summer. Even with such a stacked slate of action films, “Iron Man 3” should hold up very well. It’ll be a busy summer, and we’re only getting started.