Avengers: Age of Ultron

Avengers: Age of Ultron, 2015, Marvel Studios. Directed by Joss Wheadon. Starring Robert Downey Jr, Chris Evans, Chris Hemsworth, Jeremy Renner, Scarlett Johansson, Mark Ruffalo and James Spader.

Let’s talk about Marvel’s streak; it’s incredible. In the past three years they’ve not put a foot wrong, learning from previous mistakes to polish the superhero formula until it shines - and the best thing is no film is alike. Since Avengers Assemble, we’ve had: a one man army action movie, an end of the world epic, a global conspiracy thriller and a space western comedy and they all rock so incredibly, uniquely hard (my previous low opinion on Winter Soldier changed dramatically from ‘Meh’ to ‘Wow...’ on a second viewing). Can they keep it up? If Age of Ultron is any indication, yes, yes they can. 

Avengers Assemble had Earth’s Mightiest Heroes basically snipping at each other in an airborne office and then punching their way through Lower Manhattan because one guy in a silly hat was in a sulk. In Age of Ultron, Tony Stark unwittingly creates an unstoppable monster robot hell bent on destroying the Avengers, humanity and the world to create peace in our time. The stakes are higher and the canvas is broader, encompassing Hong Kong, Royal Holloway and ‘The African Coast’ (the one thuddingly bum note in the film comes from this bizarrely vague caption). It’s a welcome expansion as the Avengers taking their place as world’s protectors, not just the USA’s.

More impressive than the map are the characters, who are also massively improved from Assemble. No longer does Iron Man hog all the good lines – now, everyone gets in on the act, the opening fight scene allowing our protagonists to strike a flippant, pumped up tone for the film to follow, including a running joke at Captain America’s expense that lands every time. Joss Wheadon, clearly unsure of what to do with Hawkeye before, has him behave more like the snarky, charmingly exhausted agent of the comics, making him someone to actually care about and (more importantly) enjoy having on screen. Thor is louder and happier than ever before, Chris ‘Touched by Angels’ Hemsworth providing the gratuitous male toplessness now expected of every Marvel movie. Black Widow, no longer carrying the only major female role in this series, is allowed to show some heartbreaking vulnerability (as far as Black Widow can) and Bruce Banner... well, Bruce Banner still doesn’t really do much. The Hulk has the best action scenes though, so it’s a fair enough trade. 

Newcomers Wanda and Pietro Maximoff are convincingly corrupted by a juicy backstory and kickass powers, Aaron Taylor-Johnson and Elizabeth Olson game for the silliness unfolding around them. Ultron himself is simply a masterstroke; following Loki can’t be fun for any Marvel villain, but Ultron is both entirely human and entirely robotic, with all of Tony Stark’s wit and occasionally some of his empathy. Wheadon has surrounded himself with fantastic actors, their skill in smaller moments giving as much depth to their characters as any grand standing speech could.

All this character development could make Age of Ultron fall into the dreaded ‘darker, grittier’ sequel trap, but instead it becomes more contemplative. It slows down in some places and lacks Assemble's breakneck pace, but it works. It feels more mature, more thoughtful, but never at the expense of fun. Turns out you can have it both ways. Take an early exchange where Thor and Tony Stark extol upon Pepper Potts and Jane Foster’s achievements in business and science. It’s a fun aside, but shows not only their awe at their smart, powerful girlfriends, but reminds us of their emotional centre at the heart of their one liners and rippling muscles.

Thor? More like 'Phwoar', ammi right ladies? Ahem.

 

You won’t find much in the way of po-faced navel gazing at the human psyche, nor any real query along the lines of ‘Who Watches the Watchmen?’; refreshingly Age of Ultron doesn’t try to ask any questions deeper than ‘How do you calm down a huge green rage monster?’. But by fleshing out the characters and giving them an emotional momentum gives the flash bang fireworks more meaning, more power. Avengers Assemble made you cheer because despite all the odds, it worked as a film. Avengers: Age of Ultron will make you cheer because you care about these characters. 

Gimme Shelter

Gimme Shelter, 1970, 20th Century Fox. Directed by Albert and David Maysles, Charlotte Zwerin. Starring Mick Jagger, Keith Richards, Ronnie Wood and Charlie Watts

Albert Maysles was a documentary pioneer, fact. He normalised the ‘fly on the wall’ and reactive style of documentary with his brother David and used it to devastating effect with the off kilter and menacing Gimme Shelter.

In 1969, the Rolling Stones launched a huge USA tour culminating in a free concert at the Altamont Speedway in San Francisco. Built up as the next Woodstock, the gruesome affair ended when a Hells Angel (hired as crowd control) stabs a spectator right in front of The Rolling Stones performing Under My Thumb. The Maysles don’t reveal this as a twist of tragic drama, but shows it as inevitable from the opening minutes of the documentary, with Mick Jagger and Keith Richards reacting in stunned silence to a radio interview with one of the Hells Angels. These cuts to the Stones watching their own film acts as the interview segments of any other documentary and Jagger’s horror when he sees the frozen image of the Hells Angel with a knife gives more information than any interview ever could. 

And it all started so well, with the crowds in New York getting groovy as the Rolling Stones play on a three foot stage. Everyone is having a good time and Jagger feeds off the good vibrations, giving energetic and carefree performances. When asked at a press conference if staging a huge free concert would be a good idea, Jagger brushes it off; they’ve played massive gigs before and the crowds behaved themselves then, why should this be any different?

For a while, it seems that there’s a lot of fuss over nothing. The Stones play, the crowds have a good time and their lawyer Melvin Belli rings his hands over where the hell this concert will actually take place. But good grief, do things turn nasty when the attention turns to Altamont. For a start, amount of drugs on show is eye-watering, and it seems that every single one of the three hundred thousand attendees were completely off their heads. There're fights, screaming and an impressive amount of nudity, all shown with in non judgemental  silence from the filmmakers. By showing the effects of these drugs on the individuals, the glamour of the Sixties becomes a mess of mind alteration and confused terror, as one man's giggling stupor turns to horror as he stares at the long suffering sound recordist for the longest ten seconds put to film.

Literally everyone is naked and high in this photo

And it gets worse. The lead singer of Jefferson Airplane is cracked on the head by a Hells Angel. The Flying Burrito Brothers stop playing until everyone gets off the damn stage. A doctor is called for on three separate occasions. Jagger kills Sympathy for the Devil and ticks off the fighting crowd like an exasperated primary school teacher. He tells everyone to sit down until the final song and misses verses as he tries to find out from some people in the crowd why one guy was fighting. He stands at a complete loss when it’s clear that no amount of laid back charisma can control this mess of ugly violence.

A rare moment where Jagger could actually perform without naked people crushing the stage

By noninvasively documenting these events in a quiet, dignified style, Albert and David Maysles allow the shock of just how violent Altamont was to unfold without plodding, heavy voiceovers or pompous analysts talking about the end of hippy counterculture and whatnot. Albert Maysles died last weekend aged 88 and he left behind a legacy of astonishing documentaries, of which Gimme Shelter is his crowning jewel.

Next Goal Wins

Next Goal Wins, 2014, Icon Productions. Directed by Mike Brett and Steve Jamison. Starring Thomas Rongen, Jaiyah Saelua and Nicky Salapu.

Next Goal Wins tells the sorry tale of the American Samoa football team. In 2001, they won the world record for suffering the heaviest defeat in FIFA history, losing 31-0 to Australia. By 2013, the best they can hope for is an 8-0 defeat.  They are the worst football team ever. But they still play and love football and drive themselves toward the wild dream of competing in the 2014 World Cup, with trivial things like no resources, a lack of football culture and a limited talent pool no match for their enthusiasm. They are, without a doubt, the ultimate underdogs. So of course you fall in love with them instantly.

 

But every underdog needs a champion, and he comes in the shape of Thomas Rongen, a Dutch-American soccer coach flown in to get the team to the World Cup. His hardnosed intensity sits ill with the laid back lifestyle of the South Pacific. Though not exactly softened by the islanders, he is shown to have just as much passion for the sport as his team, and as he conquers mountains with a cigarette in his hand, you begin to think he might actually get his team to Brazil after all.

Like all good sports films, the secondary plot tackles a wider social problem taken apart by the love of the game. Next Goal Wins has Jaiyah, who belongs to American Samoa’s third gender, fa'afafine, the Way of the Woman. It would have been easy to put all of FIFA’s awful reputation for sexism and transphobia on her shoulders and make her a symbol of the growing need for inclusion in the sport, but this is not the case. Instead of chest thumping declarations of what Jaiyah means for the sport, you see her relaxed, happy and utterly focused on her game, whilst gaining a glimpse of the veritable paradise American Samoa seems to be for a transgendered person. She’s the joyful centre of a very likable group of people and she shines throughout.

Normally, sports films are beleaguered with a need for internal conflict – someone has to leave just in time for it to be dramatically significant for them to come back for the half time oranges, and it’s terribly dull indeed. Not so in Next Goal Wins; by the time the team come to play their three qualifying matches for the World Cup, you want to cheer on each and every one of them because they all know that this is their best chance ever to prove that they can actually play football. Going from the very worst to just one step up is everything for this team, and that’s enough drama to have you chewing your nails throughout the final act.

As a story, it’s a five star classic. As a documentary, it sometimes feels like a film-length training montage, with compelling issues such as the lack of jobs and opportunities for young people on the island never fully explored. But it’s gorgeously shot, beautifully edited and genuinely leaves you with a sense of joy rarely found in modern documentaries. Treat yourself – check it out.

 

The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies

The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies, 2014, New Line Cinema. Directed by Peter Jackson. Starring Martin Freeman, Ian McKellen, Richard Armitage, Orlando Bloom, Cate Blanchett, Lee Pace, Luke Evans.

 

Perhaps I’m being mean, but on some levels, The Hobbit was always going to be somewhat of a disappointment. The Lord of the Rings breathed new life into fantasy and changed the game for blockbusters over the course of the decade in terms of aesthetic and marketing a trilogy. It was bold, exciting and showed what could be done with a bold, exciting director and a cast ready and willing to throw themselves into a world that, treated with too much reverence or too much flippancy, could have just looked a bit silly.

Eleven years since Return of the King, Battle of the Five Armies has taken the final bow for Middle Earth, and though it’s not quite with a whimper, it’s certainly not with the same bang. Much has changed in fantasy since 2003 and The Hobbit has never quite managed to stake its claim away away from Lord of the Rings and its ever lengthening shadow.

After Smaug has been desolated himself, people start to take a lot of interest in the Lonely Mountain and the riches therein, with just the one line of dialogue given to how this mountain is actually the gateway to the evil kingdom of Angmar (which is why two lots of Orc army want it). Thorin, overcome with all that glitters, backs away from his promise to the people of Laketown to share Smaug's wealth and decides it’ll be much nicer kept all to himself. Thranduil (Lee Pace, manfully battling with the largest eyebrows in modern cinema) wants a necklace with special gems in it and will quite cheerfully wage war over them, despite not mentioning them before or since. Some more dwarves turn up to lend Thorin a hand and then the film meanders as various creatures hobble each other under a moody sky. 

Hi friend! We have very little motivation to be here!

 So really, in the conclusion to the Middle Earth saga, there’s a battle, a bit with a dragon and Bilbo doing his very best John Watson impression. How they managed to cram this all into two and a half hours is a miracle of editing.

It all feels very tacked on, which is a problem that stems from the source material. In the book, Bilbo misses the battle entirely, and so therefore does the reader. However, the previous films spent so long leading up to Smaug, when he’s dismissed in a spectacular pre-credits scene, there is a sense of a scramble to keep everyone’s interest. If there was more build up to the bad guys in Angmar, maybe there wouldn’t be such a feeling of loss when the dragon goes down, but as it stands the Big Bad is gone before we have a bigger bad to take his place.

Which leads me to the good side of Five Armies; it’s chock-a-block with really cool bits, Smaug being its crowning glory. Benedict Cumberbatch is obviously having an enormously good time being the most awesome dragon ever and he is breathtaking as he takes out an entire town in three minutes. Legolas, after a wobbly start in the previous film, is in full swing here; remember how cool it was when he took down a battle elephant in Return of the King? He’s way cooler here, unburdened with clunky dialogue this time around as he lets his sword do the talking – his fight scenes are full of air punching moments and it’s nice to see him kick ass and take names again. Even Galadriel gets to show her awesome side in a scene that highlights just how terrifyingly powerful she really is.

I don't have anything in particular to say here, I just wanted to show you how cool Smaug is

 

And the ending is perfect. This, more than all of the portentous chatter about a gathering darkness, ties this trilogy to The Lord of the Rings. It’s beautifully judged, brimming with affection and really lifts the entire film. Without it, it could have been quite unsatisfying. Now, it really does feel like things have come to a close that can leave people happy.

No, it’s not another Lord of the Rings and I doubt it will inspire a generation of filmmakers to get out there and make their own mark on the cinematic landscape. But it’s fun, it’s worth seeing on the biggest screen you can find and it’s one more trip into Middle Earth before Peter Jackson puts his toys away for good.

The Cabin in the Woods

The Cabin in the Woods, 2012, Lionsgate Films. Directed by Drew Goddard. Starring Chris Hemsworth, Kristen Connolly, Fran Kanz, Anna Hutchison, Bradley Whitford.

It’s telling how much people care about a film when there are very few spoilers kicking around about it despite its age. It’s entirely plausible for someone to be able to watch Psycho in 2014 and not know anything about it apart from the shower scene; the consensus is that you should watch Psycho for yourself and enjoy it as it is.

This rule seems to also apply to The Cabin in the Woods – you have try quite hard to spoil this film for yourself, which I find comforting in a world where films yet without scripts are picked over like so much carrion. All everyone says about Cabin is that it’s really good and whatever you’re expecting, it will not be that. And oh my, they are so right.

The premise as shown in the trailer doesn’t do it any favours – stereotypical college students escape to isolation, but little do they know they are under surveillance by a strange and shadowy organisation – so far, so ho hum, but the reviews and word of lightly lipped mouth tell a very different story and it’s now been held up as a modern horror classic, a title I think it deserves. It’s funny, dark and genuinely scary in places, with an amazing plot I simply won’t talk about further.

Not pictured: any spoilers whatsoever

So let’s talk about the cast instead; I make it a rule of thumb to only watch films with at least one Avenger in them, and Chris Hemsworth is enormous fun as ‘the sporty one’ with a perfect life and even more perfect jaw line. Anna Hutchison plays up to her role as ‘the slutty one’ with great aplomb and with just even knowing to stop the film from becoming distractingly sexist. Jesse Williams as ‘the nerdy one’ doesn’t seem to have much to grasp on to apart from that his character occasionally wears glasses, and as such he has the least interesting lines of the bunch. Kristen Connolly as ‘the virgin one’ is sparky and level headed – perhaps too level headed, as she seems to face down just about everything with a wide eyed stare; she’s no scream queen and the role was begging for someone with a good set of lungs. Fran Kanz as ‘the stoner one’ seemed to be the most obnoxious at first, but as the film continues he gallops away with the best lines, the best reaction shots and ultimately the best laughs. They’re an enjoyable lot, but Kanz steals the show from under everyone else’s nose.

Cabin careers along at an amazing pace, going further and further down the rabbit hole of Joss Whedon and Drew Goddard’s minds and coming up with a weird, gruesome and thoroughly entertaining hour and a half of good old fashioned post modern horror. The film starts as it means to go on; a brooding, gothic horror title card for Lionsgate snaps to a fun but innocuous office conversation between Bradley Whitford and Richard Jenkins, with the film title screaming over them in a very video nasty fashion. This slapping together of the everyday lives of the employees and the abject horror the college students face works brilliantly, the threat of not meeting your project deadline as real as the threat in the woods.

Finally, it’s nice to see a modern horror film rely on something other than shaky camerawork and mutilation to get its jumps and scares. It never takes itself too seriously and as such it’s more entertaining than disturbing. It won’t give you nightmares but it will make you laugh, shriek and jump with great gusto, and what more can you want for a casual movie night? Happy Hallowe’en!