Posts Tagged ‘Jeremy Renner’
The Amazing Spider-Man: Review
In this reboot of the Spider-Man film franchise directed by Marc Webb (I think they picked him purposely…lol) Andrew Garfield stars as the web-slinger Peter Parker and Emma Stone as his love interest Gwen Stacey. This film retells the origin of Spider-Man starting from Peter Parker being your run of the mill brainy, nerdy high school kid to him getting bit by a spider and gaining superpowers after taking a trip to a research facility. He quickly realizes that having that kind of power does require a certain sense of responsibility.
I have been exposed to Spider-Man’s origin story many times over the years (comics, tv and in film) so I wasnt looking forward to seeing it again but as the movie began and it started to build up into it I was fairly surpirised to see that it wasnt the same thing that I’ve seen constantly. The outline to his origin is still there and intact but they tweaked it in certain spots and made it feel fresh and new. I was happy that they included his parents into the story because there is a great little backstory that happens with them in the comics that looks like it may happen in this series of films. The other thing that I was fairly critical about with the previous Spider-Man films was Peter’s lack of actual mechanical web shooters. This film brings that to the table and I couldn’t be happier to have a big, important part of the comic worked into this version. Rhys Ifans plays Dr. Curt Conners perfectly in this movie. You end up sharing a bit of sympathy with the character and all he has been through. The only thing that bothered me a bit was the way Andrew Garfield played Spider-Man. He played Peter Parker exactly the way he should be played but Spider-Man was a different story. In my opinion he was a bit too lanky and very casual with the way he was Spider-Man. I kept looking for that “superhero moment but it fell a bit short. I thought they did a great job at this reboot and it has tons of potential to tell a really great story. I’ve heard that they plan on making this a trilogy, I just hope that if they decide to make more movies after that they at least keep the same continuity with or with or without the same actors. There are plenty of stories out there that can be told without seeing another origin story again. Go check this out in theaters now!
The Avengers: Review
An unlikely group of heroes (Iron Man, Thor, Hulk, Captain America, Hawkeye, Black Widow) are recruited by S.H.E.I.L.D director Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson) to take part in the “Avengers Initiative” when the world is threatened by Loki (Tom Hiddleston) and an army of alien beings known as the Chitauri.
Marvel has been setting this movie up for the past four years through careful planning and weaving stories together. Since the special clip after Iron Man have people been waiting for the day that The Avengers would arrive in theaters. Well finally the day arrived……..and it was glorious. Each film that led up to this provided a small piece of The Avengers puzzle and it all fit together nicely. From the very start of the film it was full of action with Loki making his presence felt. Little by little the other characters were reintroduced (not that they really needed to be) with the most time I think being given to The Hulk/Bruce Banner (Mark Ruffalo). I had my hesitations with Ruffalo seeing as this is the third incarnation of The Hulk in recent years but that quickly went away after seeing the chemistry between him and the rest of the cast. Especially Iron Man (Robert Downey Jr.). I’m not going to go as far as saying he stole the show but he came pretty damn close. I did like that they did show a bit of a “alpha dog” situation with Iron Man and Captain America (Chris Evans) like the way they would show in the comics but by the end of the movie Cap was throwing out orders and plans of attack like a true leader. Thor (Chris Hemsworth) was again fantastic as the God of Thunder (even though I believe they referred to him as a demi-god). He was a perfect fit to spit out the Joss Whedon one-liners that were given to him. Hawkeye (Jeremy Renner) and Black Widow (Scarlett Johansson) were a perfect pairing. Seperate they were fantastic but when they shared the screen together you could see the sparks fly. There are rumors of individual films for Hawkeye and Black Widow but I think I “team-up” film would be waaaay better. I only have two (very small) issues with the movie. One of them being the burying of Loki. I feel like they built him up to be this huge villian and he essentially just got used for comic relief on a few occasions (it did provide some really funny moments though) and the focus kind of strayed from him. The second one was the lack of any sort of elaboration of Captain America being thawed out in the present time. From the looks of it the movie picked up a short time after the Cap movie and they showed in a brief moment flashbacks what happened but didn’t really go into the way he felt at all. I mean, a guy being suddenly thawed out in modern times would probably mess with his brain a bit. Maybe they’ll do that for CA2 but I still think they should’ve addressed it a bit. Other than that the movie did really well at giving each hero enough screen time and their “hero moment”. I’m a huge Joss Whedon fan and I felt like the writing was really solid and the film was a Marvel film with little Whedon moments thrown in here and there. That was nice. As of this moment of me typing this up everyone should have already seen The Avengers once if not a few times. If not, WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU WAITING FOR?!?!
Side Note: Something you should already know. Stay until after the credits.
Mission Impossible – Ghost Protocol: Review
This is fourth installment of the Mission Impossible series directed by Brad Bird and starring Tom Cruise as Ethan Hunt. Hunt’s IMF (Impossible Missions Force) team is recruited to retrieve files from the Kremlin in Moscow that contain information about someone named “Cobalt”. In the midst of their mission their position is given away by someone that has broadcasted the teams’ radio frequency to personnel within the Kremlin. As Hunt and his team quickly escape, a bomb is detonated that completely destroys the building and implicates the US in the attack. Russia sees it as an “act of war” and in doing that causes the President of the United States to implement “Ghost Protocol” which is a black ops contingency plan that disavows all knowledge of the IMF and makes them take the blame. It’s now up to them to find a way to clear their names and figure out what Cobalt has to do with all of this.
I was a big fan of the very first film. The second and third ones didn’t really do it for me so I always held the first one to be my favorite. MIGP I feel really brought it back to what the series started with, lots of action and lots of twists and turns. This one was super enjoyable from start to finish and had everything you wanted in a spy movie. The action scenes are intense with my favorite being the building climb in Dubai. You can’t have a Mission Impossible movie without cool gadgets (just like a 007 flick) and it definitely had its share of them including a really kick ass projector (you must see it to realize what I mean). Tom Cruise makes being a secret agent seem like a walk in the park. So much so that it starts to make you wonder about the man (I’m kidding………….or am I?). He has to be some sort of genetically engineered being or something because this guy does all or most of his own stunts. I mean it gives great credibility to the movie but damn that’s crazy. Jeremy Renner really shined in this movie and was neck and neck with Cruise the whole way as far as “action star appeal”. There were rumors circulating at one point that Renner would be Cruise’s successor in this franchise but those reports were quickly shot down and after seeing MIGP I could see why one would think that. Simon Pegg can really do no wrong in my book. He was great as the Intel guy of the group and of course provided some of the comic relief as well. This man can go from low-budget comedies to big-budget action flicks without even missing a step whatsoever. The stunning Paula Patton was the female ass kicker of the group and did exactly that. She did that left and right throughout the movie and looked great doing it. I’m hoping that when/if the decide to do an MI5 that they keep this team together and keep somewhat of the same formula that they have. Like they say: If it aint broke, don’t try and fix it. You gotta see it!
