Avengers: Age of Ultron

Avengers: Age of Ultron officially kicks off the summer movie season.  Box office records for Marvel's eleventh entry to its venerable cinematic universe are insured.  After all, the Marvel brand is such a finely oiled, storm-weathered machine that it's nearly irrelevant to put much serious thought or intellectual weight over whether or not the movies themselves are good or bad.  Analysis is besides the point-- the approval ratings and billion dollar global business dictates Hollywood investments rather than artfulness, originality and aesthetic value.  This may sound horribly cynical-- the corporatist, overstuffed Age of Ultron can't not be iced with a little cynicism-- but that's certainly not meant to imply that there aren't pleasures to be found in Joss Whedon's second go as captain of the ship.  Nor is it meant to imply that there shouldn't be a place in the cinematic marketplace for the adventures of this rag-tag group of superhero misfits-- Iron Man (Robert Downey Jr.), Captain America (Chris Evans), Thor (Chris Hemsworth), Hulk (Mark Ruffalo), Black Widow (Scarlett Johansson) and Hawkeye (Jeremy Renner)-- learning how to form a team.  There's value in that, just as there is in Richard Linklater's effortlessly insightful 18-year spanning Before-trilogy.  I just wish slightly more people flocked to the latter and slightly less blathered endlessly at the former.

Hiring Whedon was Marvel's smartest move.  When he came aboard to write and direct the first Avengers, the Marvel universe was still an unsteady, risky venture.  Yet with Whedon's verve as a writer and willingness to work within the iron-clad Marvel infrastructure as a director, it was clear way before the iconic 360 money shot near the end of the 2012 film that franchise/brand was going to take over the world (whilst simultaneously showing the destruction of it in every movie).  Whedon already established on the great television show Buffy the Vampire Slayer a way to deconstruct, mold and sharpen genre pieces by attaching humanity, levity and relatable anguish while still respecting and holding true its mythology.  The first Avengers film was hardly a work of art but it was zesty and chock full of small, human-sized moments to savor on thanks to Whedon's sharp one-liners and gift with performers.  Avengers: Age of Ultron at times feels like a heated divide between Whedon's untethered imagination and Marvel's eternal task to retain the status quo.  Which again, isn't to say the movie is altogether bad (devotees will probably be happy, agnostics may continue to shrug), but perhaps marks a blessing that Whedon is handing directorial duties moving forward.

Musings and Stuff's Snarky Summer Movie Part 2

Because the movies are nothing without franchises.

JUNE

June 7th, 2013

The first weekend of June will be a relatively quiet one because of the quick scheduling move on the part of Sony's After Earth moving a week earlier.  Again this might be a great weekend to catch up on (hopeful) art house pleasures like Before Midnight, Frances Ha and Stories We Tell, all of whom will likely be playing on 2,000+ screens the first weekend in May due to endless demand queries-- it could happen!  Otherwise the big attraction will come squarely from Fox's Vince Vaughn-Owen Wilson buddy-dumb-dumb comedy The Internship about two loser salesmen who try to conquer the digital world of now by becoming interns at Google.  Shawn Levy, the director of the Night at the Museum franchise, helms what will surely be a compelling tale of middle aged men in competition with nerdy geniuses for future employment.  Rose Byrne, John Goodman and B.J. Novak co-star.  Trailer here.

If you want to be the cool kid in your selected city, the obvious movie-going choice for this weekend will be Joss Whedon's black and white, modern re-staging of Shakespeare's Much Ado About Nothing.  Whedon shot this during a break from shooting of The Avengers and it features a collective whos-who of past Whedon players including Amy Acker (Dollhouse), Alexis Denisof (aka Mr. Willow-- Alyson Hannigan's real-life husband and Buffy the Vampire Slayer/Angel alum), Fran Kranz (The Cabin in the Woods) and Nathan Fillion (nearly everything.)  All which prompts a fun game of Whedon musical chairs to the tune of Shakespeare-- certainly a drinking game can arise from this somehow.  The film premiered to nice notices at last years Toronto Film Festival and this springs SXSW.  Strangely, given the popular cinematic art form of gutting the work of Shakespeare endlessly, Much Ado About Nothing has only been made into a theatrical film once before in 1993's Kenneth Branagh's version which starred Emma Thompson, Kate Beckinsale, Denzel Washington, and, ahem, Keanu Reeves; that version is actually a beaut and worthy of checking out as well.

Also opening: Provocative documentary Dirty Wars which follows investigative journalist Jeremy Scahill, while Evocatuer: The Morton Downey, Jr. Movie is another documentary which explores the divisive, chain-smoking shock jock.

Reason #451,000 to Heart Joss Whedon

Joss Whedon, the wonderful mind behind perhaps the greatest television series in history with Buffy, the Vampire Slayer, the Academy Award nominated co-screenwriter of the first Toy Story finally hit it huge last year for writing and directing Marvel's The Avengers.  While I'm averse to many big studio things, and more than a few franchises, and comic book vigilantes, and well...lots of things, Whedon helming a big budget franchise can lead to nothing but good things.  Not so much that The Avengers was the best thing in the world (even though it's fair to say that without the wit, humor, humanity and genre-bashing skillery of Mr. Whedon, it would have likely been the blueprint cog that many of the proceeding films felt like), but it because now as the director of one of the biggest movies ever, it gets a free ride for a bit...

...and that can be only good.  For only a man of his quirks and endless imagination would film a black and white modern version of Shakespeare's Much Ado About Nothing in the midst of an Avengers break.  God bless him, and let's all hope that his Marvel duties don't impede on him too much.  The film opens this June after receiving kind words from the Toronto Film Festival last year and SXSW last month.  Here's the trailer...spot out all the past Whedon alums.

The Avengers Assemble

The kick-off to the bombastic summer movie season is off a fighting start with the stellar $18.7 million The Avengers earned solely from Thursday midnight sales.  The question of the weekend is how high will it go-- or better yet, do it off a shot at besting the three-day opening weekend set by last summers Harry Potter & the Deathly Hallows: Part 2 (which earned $168 million in July of last year.)  The midnight performance was the eighth biggest midnight seller of all time (falling short of the Harry Potter and Twilight films) but ahead of The Dark Knight (just barely, which earned $18.5 in July of 2008) and the biggest superhero midnight earner ever.  Whatever happens, the Joss Whedon-helmed tale, that which took five films (highly expensive ads) to kick start it, earns the top summer crown...for now.

It's all gravy...The Avengers has already amassed over $300 million overseas.

The Avengers

I can't help but really not care about this one at all-- I say in full awareness that the fan boy contingent is preparing the pitchforks set at my doorstep--the whole Marvel lexicon reeks kind of desperate and cheap at this point.  What with the forwarding and perhaps way to neatly (and rushed) pre-packaging of their characters.  The bright side is that Joss Whedon is a master of wit and mythology.  I'm just keeping expectations grounded so it can rock...