Avengers Age of Ultron: Round 2!

Hello everybody! For this week’s new movie club, we have Avengers: Age of Ultron.

AVENGERS: AGE OF ULTRON

DIRECTED: Joss Whedon

STARRING: Robert Downey Jr., Chris Hemsworth, Mark Ruffalo, Chris Evans, Scarlett Johansson, Jeremy Renner, Don Cheadle, Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Elizabeth Olsen, Paul Bettany, Cobie Smulders, Anthony Mackie,Hayley Atwell, Idris Elba, Stellan Skarsgård, James Spader, Samuel L. Jackson

GENRE: Superhero

YEAR: 2015

COUNTRY: United States

When Tony Stark tries to jumpstart a dormant peacekeeping program, things go awry and Earth’s Mightiest Heroes, including Iron Man, Captain America, Thor, The Incredible Hulk, Black Widow and Hawkeye, are put to the ultimate test as the fate of the planet hangs in the balance. As the villainous Ultron emerges, it is up to The Avengers to stop him from enacting his terrible plans, and soon uneasy alliances and unexpected action pave the way for a global adventure.

Alright Marvel, I decided that it was time to give you another chance. I have stayed away for the majority of your films since Iron Man 3, with Guardians of the Galaxy and Captain America: The Winter Soldier being the few exceptions. Overall, Age of Ultron was definitely not disappointing, but was far from perfect. I enjoyed the fact they took some more time and making our favorite Avengers seem more like people instead of being superheroes. The action scenes were over the top as always, but that has become to be expected when you go into any Marvel movie. I would also like to praise James Spader’s performance as Ultron. He served as a mighty foe.

Like I said before, Age of Ultron is far from perfect. Overall though, I just wasn’t thrilled with what they did with Black Widow’s character. Scarlet Johansson’s performance was decent for what she actually was, but I feel that they could have done so much with her if they just treat her as one bad ass love interest. Also, could they have cut down on the final climactic scene a bit? Its just like an hour long of fighting.

PROS:

• Over the top action.
• Superheroes are more than humans.
• James Spader’s performance.

CONS:

• Black Widow.
• Love Interest.
• Hour long fight scene.

SCORE: 7.5 / 10

If you have any suggestions for films/TV/Games/Music/Anime for me to review, drop me a comment!

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All check out my lengthier video game reviews over at Nerd Bacon Games.

Flight: Let’s Roll the Plane!

Hello everybody! Today we have Denzel Washington’s drama Flight.

FLIGHT

DIRECTOR: Robert Zemeckis

STARRING:  Denzel Washington, Don Cheadle, Kelly Reilly, John Goodman, Bruce Greenwood, Melissa Leo

GENRE: Drama

YEAR: 2012

COUNTRY: United States

Whip Whitaker is a commuter airline pilot. While on a flight from Orlando to Atlanta something goes wrong and the plane starts to fly erratically. With little choice Whip crashes the plane and saves almost all on board. When he wakes up in the hospital, his friend from the airline union introduces him to a lawyer who tells him there’s a chance he could face criminal charges because his blood test reveals that he is intoxicated with alcohol and cocaine. He denies being impaired, so while an investigation is underway, he is told to keep his act together. However, letting go of his addiction is not as easy as it seems…

Flight follows the story of Whip Whitaker (Denzel Washington) who is an alcoholic, drug addict pilot who crashes a plane, but kills 6 people. Flight analyzes Whip and his addictions and we are allowed to see what his life is like. This analysis is done expertly, even if the film doesn’t ever reach the pace or excitement of the plane flight (the first act). The film is shot amazingly in the first act (especially when the plane is upside down), but then there isn’t anything special in the remaining acts. Denzel Washington, Don Cheadle, and John Goodman performed spectacularly and they definitely were the right actors for their characters.

Flight suffers from a huge pacing problem after the first act. Zemeckis intends to give us a slightly more depraved version of Washington’s usual charismatic hero, then pull the rug out from him. But Flight‘s true downward spiral is its own loss of momentum. Flight turns out to be a disappointingly standard addiction story in its second half also serves as a reminder that Hollywood tends to be more invested in these types of self-serious movies than most actual audiences.

PROS:

• Character analysis.
• Perfect cast choices.
• Amazing shooting during first act.

CONS:

• Second and third act pacing.
• Too little coverage on controversial themes.

SCORE: 8.0 / 10

If you have any suggestions for films/TV/Games/Music for me to review, drop me a comment! Remember: Like Media In Review @ https://www.facebook.com/MediaInReview?ref=hl Follow Media in Review @ https://twitter.com/Media_In_Review.