Hello there, ladies and gentlemen. It is finally May and that doesn’t just mean warm weather, that also means that the summer movie season is starting to kick into high gear. And man, did the summer kick off with a bang releasing Avengers: Age of Adaline -- I mean, Ultron, Ultron.
Yeah, the similarity between the subtitle of Avengers and the actual title of Age of Adaline has been picked up on by many, and while it is one of those highly ironic coincidences concerning the movies, it is time to get into talking about Avengers as that is all that anybody is talking about, and will continue to talk about long after the summer is actually over, I am 100% sure of that.
Avengers: Age of Ultron is a film released to fervent crowd perpetuating hype that may or may not be a little extreme, but the film is going to make a crap-ton of money throughout its run so it’s to be expected. I will say that I loved the film, and even with my problems with it, it’s still wrestling with the first one for my favorite Marvel movie to date, however, the conditions under which I saw it hamper my judgment slightly. You see, I saw this movie in a packed screening, and there were easily 200 people there; every seat was taken! So what, you say? The air conditioner wasn’t working, that’s the ‘so what’, and this was on a fairly warm night. Imagine, 200 people cooped up together with no airflow, with the inevitable stench of BO, and only after my father went to go get the manager did the air conditioning get going after two hours. TWO. HOURS. I was not happy, as you can tell. In fact, by the end of it, you couldn’t even tell the air conditioning was working unless you really looked for it, as it made little difference. It was a terrible experience and was actually rather unhealthy considering the fact that it was so bad that if you were above the age of 60 there was a good chance you could have passed out. That is why I’m going with a friend this weekend to see Avengers again in order to have a better experience, probably in a smaller screening. Let that be a warning folks, that the Winston Churchill Cineplex theater allowed that to happen. I don’t care what the reasons were, that was just gross, disgusting, and an absolute failure in providing a comfortable and healthy environment for your audience.
Anyhow… moving on to the movie itself: it was a ton of fun. I feel that the movie’s main problems stem from how much is actually in the film, along with the set-up that, I’m sorry folks, just felt like checking off boxes on a list. But like I said, I LOVED the movie, it’s just that those were my problems with it in a nutshell. Oh, and Thor goes on a weird vision quest that just feels completely irrelevant and idiotic in the face of what goes on in the film. Aside from that though, you get the further development of the Avengers, with Hawkeye getting some long-overdue focus, as well as several key moments that make him the star of the movie in many people’s eyes. Don’t worry, this is still an ensemble piece, and everybody gets their time in the sun, from Iron Man to Captain America, to War Machine, to Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver, and the Vision played by Paul Bettany! Vision in this movie was awesome, and for those of you who don’t know who Vision is, either search him up or wait for the movie to see him, because the character is an absolute boss, with a keen Shakespearian wisdom that makes him the complete opposite of the film’s main villain, Ultron. I’ve heard complaints about Ultron, and while his creation may feel rather quick, when he pops up on the scene he is not just menacing and charismatic, but he’s funny. I’m serious guys, Ultron is definitely a great villain, especially considering the fact that these Marvel movies have had, for the most part, rather weak villains. Want to disagree with me? Give me a Marvel villain in the movies you’ve seen that has impressed you, besides Loki - Thanos (the big purple guy in Guardians) doesn’t count either, as he will factor into the universe more prominently when the Infinity War movies come along . Like, central to the story type of prominent. If you can think of a Marvel villain off of the top of your head instantly besides the three I’ve already mentioned, just leave a comment below and say so.
So considering all I’ve said, which is not enough to talk about the film sufficiently, I guarantee you that, I’m going to give this movie a very high rating of 4.5/5 stars. I was bouncing between that and a 4, but considering the parts I enjoyed vastly outweighed what I didn’t enjoy, on top of my hampered experience during that absolutely disgusting screening, I feel a 4.5 for now is a deserving score of the film. That could change when I see it again, and I’ll inform you guys if it does change, but I have a feeling it won’t, even though I’ll definitely enjoy it more next time due to me ensuring that there’s actual airflow in the theater.
Well, we’ve finally covered Avengers, so now it’s business as usual. Over the next couple of weeks we do have quite a few movies coming out, but for this weekend in particular it’s just comedies. We have The D Train starring Jack Black and James Marsden, where a man, played by Black, spins a web of lies in order to befriend a former classmate, Marsden, and convince him to attend their high school reunion. It is rated R, however, so only those 18 or older may see it alone. Also coming out is a film called Hot Pursuit, with Reese Witherspoon as a by-the-book inept cop who has to protect a drug dealer’s widow, played by Sofia Vergara, from all kinds of criminals. However, from what I’ve heard, the movie is terrible. The jokes don’t hit, the characters are completely unlikable and unrelatable, all on top of shoddy direction and lazy film-making, so my advice is either stay away or see Avengers again. The following week though, it gets quite a bit better, as we have the release of Pitch Perfect 2, and seeing as the first one was actually pretty funny and enjoyable, I have hope for this film. However, there’s another film that releases that weekend called Mad Max: Fury Road, a reboot/sequel for the Mad Max franchise, directed by George Miller, the man who directed all of the other Mad Max movies. I have heard nothing but praise for this movie, and the action just looks absolutely fantastic, as it is mostly practical with little CGI. It is rated R though, which is to be expected with Mad Max and is the way it should be, in my opinion.
Moving onto the final portion of Thursdays at the Theater, it is time to talk about an older movie, one that you may not have seen or is relevant to the article and I want to talk about it. Now, you’ll be seeing a lot of films that may be familiar to you throughout the next few segments, seeing as it is the summer with a lot of big franchise films coming our way, and I don’t view that as a bad thing as some people might. That is no exception for this week though, because I am talking about:
Yes, I’m talking about Iron Man ‘cause it’s Avengers time, baby! This is the movie that led the Marvel Cinematic Universe right out of the gate with a bang, introducing us to Tony Stark, the brilliant yet narcissistic billionaire-genius who is forced to build a suit of armor in order to escape captivity from terrorists who want him to build them weapons. His time in captivity shows him the destruction that his weapons create, and so he perfects his armor design which becomes the Iron Man, and, as a character in the film puts it, a masterpiece of death. This is the movie that brought back Robert Downey Jr.’s career after he had gotten to his lowest low, when he was making that steady climb back to being a guy people wanted to be in their movies, and when Marvel cast him in this movie, that helped him immeasurably. While he had been back on track for a couple of years, Iron Man was the film that not only got his career back on track, but put everything on full throttle, because it’s been 7 years since the movie’s release and Robert Downey Jr. is pretty much on top of the world right now.
I don’t believe I need to talk about Iron Man in detail that much, because almost everybody that it’s an awesome movie, even if you somehow haven’t seen it. I recommend you do watch it if you’re a fan of superheroes or action/sci-fi, and especially if you’re a fan of Robert Downey Jr.
That will do it for now on this edition of Thursdays at the Theater, so do not forget to stay up to date on everything the blog puts out by liking us on Facebook and following us on Twitter. If you wish to leave a comment as a response to what I talked about or raise up something else entirely that’s film related, don’t hesitate to leave something in the comments section below. Remember, there are a lot of great movies coming out, especially since it’s the summer blockbuster season at long last, but just be sure to have the air conditioning on in the theater you’re in. If not, get the manager in there to avoid a fiasco like what happened to me. I mean, I was wearing grey socks and runners, man! Anyways, enough about that, I wish you all a great day, so stay strong Titans, and I’ll see you next time!
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