AVENGERS - AGE OF ULTRON

Walt Disney Studios

Rated PG-13

Running time: 141 Minutes

Click below to watch a movie trailer of Avengers - Age of Ultron from YouTube.
 

In Walt Disney Studios Avengers - Age of Ultron, an artificial intelligence robot Ultron/James Spader threatens human extinction - and the Avengers must stop it.

In this sequel to The Avengers, and the eleventh installment of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, Avengers - Age of Ultron is Written and Directed by Joss Whedon, and has an ensemble cast of Tony Stark/Robert Downey Jr., Thor/Chris Hemsworth, Hulk-Banner/Mark Ruffalo, Captain America/Chris Evans, Black Widow/Scarlett Johansson, and Hawkeye/Jeremy Renner as the Avengers.

After the Avengers raid a Hydra outpost run by Baron Wolfgang von Strucker/Thomas Kretschmann, they run into twins Pietro/Aaron Taylor-Johnson and Wanda/Elizabeth Olsen who were experiments of Strucker using Loki's scepter. After Wanda/Olsen tries to overwhelm Stark/Downey, Jr. with a vision of the deaths of the Avengers, Stark/Downey, Jr. retrieves Loki's scepter. Stark/Downey, Jr. and Banner/Ruffalo discover an artificial intelligence in the scepter's gem and they use it to complete Stark's Ultron global defense program, designed to save the word. When Ultron/Spader becomes sentient, he believes he must destroy humanity in order to save Earth.

Amidst all the action, the movie sets up the Avengers - Infinity Wars movies with the Infinity Stones, as well as a hint of the Captain America - Civil Wars movie with the conflicts between Stark/Downey and his guilt of the possible deaths of the Avengers, and Captain America/Evans with his idealism on the direction and true purpose of the Avengers. Thor's/Hemsworth's vision in the film of the larger threat puts the movie on the path to tie all of the MCU together.

I liked seeing how all of the Avengers powers and abilities have improved in this sequel, although they had to use various Hollywood tricks to cover up Johansson's pregnancy. Hawkeye/Renner had more to do in this film than he had to do in the last film in which his role was pretty much wasted. It was cool watching the Hulkbuster in action. The Hulk's portrayal was based on the Peter David Hulk from the comic books with a split personality of each personality hating the other - which is intensified with his relationship with Black Widow/Johansson, in which you learn more of Black Widow's/Johansson's background. Black Widow's/Johansson's background is a similar background to a similar character in the TV show Marvel's Agent Carter. Hayley Atwell - the star of Agent Carter - had a cameo as her character, Agent Carter, in Age of Ultron. It was great having Lou Ferrigno as the voice of the Hulk in this movie - as well as Nick Fury/Samuel L. Jackson rallying the Avengers to stand and fight.

Seeing the Maximoff twins being there for each other and the use of their powers was great, especially with Taylor-Johnson running outdoors to give life to his running instead of running in front of a green screen. Due to rights issues, Taylor-Johnson's Quicksilver is a different version of  the Quicksilver shown in the X-Men movies. As agent Maria Hill/Cobie Smulders says, he's fast and she's weird, referring to Olsen's hypnosis and telekinesis powers.

I loved the theme song of Pinocchio's I Got No Strings for Ultron's/Spader's theme song. This seems appropriate both artistically, and that Disney owns both films. With Ultron/Spader having access to the entire Internet, Age of Ultron also has a more world-wide scope to the movie than The Avengers did as the Avengers travel around the world dealing with Ultron's/Spader's activities and his army of robots. The end of the movie felt very similar to the end of Man of Steel to me, but was a more positive ending as the Avengers worked hard to save the citizens while they battled Ultron/Spader and his robots.

Stan Lee's Excelsior cameo is during the Avenger's party. Lee says that this is his favorite cameo to date, which possibly may be due to his being a World War II veteran. The TV show Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. TV episode "The Dirty Half Dozen" - which aired a few days before the movie's opening - sets up the opening scenes of Avengers - Age of Ultron. Then a few days later, after the movie's opening, the episode "Scars" on Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. picks up after the events of Age of Ultron.

I was at a preview screening of the movie, and there was Thor and Captain America directly behind me in line. Several people were carrying Captain America shields.

For those who listen to the music and stay through all the way to the end credits, there is only one mid-credits scene at the end of the movie. Joss Whedon confirms that there is only one mid credits scene, although there is a leaked second scene on the net that may or may not have been real and was possibly cut out of the movie, but this second "scene" was still fun to watch.

Avengers - Age of Ultron was on track to break the box office for an opening weekend, with a bigger opening weekend than the original Avengers, but was knocked out of the race due to the Mayweather-Pacquiao boxing match that aired that weekend.

 Click below to watch another movie trailer of Avengers - Age of Ultron from YouTube.

   

Click below to watch a final movie trailer of Avengers - Age of Ultron from YouTube.



Rated PG-13. for violence. Running time: 141 Minutes

Pancho
All people smile in the same language.

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THOR - THE DARK WORLD

Marvel Entertainment

Rated PG-13

Running time: 112 Minutes



Click below to watch the Thor - The Dark World movie trailer.



In Marvel Entertainment's Thor - The Dark World, the Dark Elves led by Christopher Eccleston invades Asgard and Earth. Thor/Chris Hemsworth must then recruit his criminal brother Loki/Tom Hiddleston to stop him.

After an ancient battle between Odin/Anthony Hopkins father Bor/Tony Curran, and the Dark Elves led by Eccleston - Eccleston and a handful of Dark Elves escape into suspended animation.

In modern-day London, astrophysicist Doctor Natalie Portman discovers a place where objects disobey the laws of physics and disappear into thin air. Portman winds up being teleported to another world. When Thor/Hemsworth learns of her disappearance, he goes in search of Portman as the Asgards learn of the Convergence, the rare alignment of the Nine Realms with portals linking them all. Eccleston and the Dark Elves awaken from suspended animation and return to threaten Asgard and Earth through the Convergence portals. In desperate revenge Eccleston and the Dark Elves, Thor/Hemsworth seeks an alliance with his imprisoned traitorous brother Loki/Hiddleston.

I had mixed feelings about this movie. Actually, I had opposite feelings about this movie than for the first Thor movie. I liked the Earth scenes better than the Asgard scenes. The Earth scenes dealt with more interesting scenes, like scenes in London instead of scenes in the middle of nowhere in America, and the scenes that dealt with the warping of the laws of physics. The Asgard scenes were too human for me, more human street level, instead of using more godlike fantastical situations.

I liked the eventual meeting with Thor/Hemsworth and Natalie Portman, as well as the meeting with Portman and Loki/Hiddleston. Portman of course has issues with both Thor/Hemsworth and Loki/Hiddleston after what happened in The Avengers. Thor/Hemsworth also has to deal with the issues he has with both Portman and Loki/Hiddleston. I also liked the uneasy alliance between Thor/Hemsworth and Loki/Hiddleston. You are never sure when Loki/Hiddleston will betray Thor/Hemsworth. Their relationship was possible the most interesting one in the entire movie. Portman's relationship with Thor's/Hemsworth's parents Odin/Anthony Hopkins and Frigga/Rene Russo. While Odin/Hopkins did not think Portman worthy, Frigga/Russo had a motherly affection for Portman. Frigga/Russo also kicks ass if you mess with her, which I loved.

For Stan Lee fans, I think it is appropriate he is a patient in a mental ward. Chris Evans uncredited cameo was great.

As a by-product, the events of Thor - The Dark World will affect the events in TV's Marvel's Agents of SHIELD.

During the end credits - there is not one, but two scenes that are shown. Most people left after the first scene was shown. The first scene was more concerned with The Collector story - with an uncredited Benicio Del Toro as The Collector - which leads to Guardians of the Galaxy, so the people leaving after learning the story was okay. The next scene was a love story scene with Porter and Thor/Hemsworth.

Rated PG-13 for violence, nudity. Running time: 112 Minutes.

Pancho 
All people smile in the same language.

Pancho's Movie Reviews


 

RED DAWN

FilmDistrict/Metro-Goldwyn-Meyer

Rated PG-13

Running time: 114 Minutes

 

 Click below to watch the Red Dawn trailer.

 

In FilmDistrict's/Metro-Goldwyn-Meyer's Red Dawn, high schoolers must defend themselves and their home - when America gets invaded by North Korea.

In a remake of 1984's Red Dawn, this film starts out with the high school football game with Josh Peck of the Wolverines trying to prove himself during the game to his Police Sergeant father Brett Cullen and his veteran Marine brother home on leave, Chris Hemsworth. When North Korea invades their hometown, Cullen sends the motherless Peck and Hemsworth off to their cabin in the woods for safety and to eventually make war with the Korean troops.

I have not seen the original Red Dawn since it first came out in 1984, but from what I remember I think that the new Red Dawn is a better film than the original and seems more of a regular fun action film. I enjoyed the action in this movie. With stars from current TV shows like Adrianne Palicki, Isabel Lucas, Alyssa Diaz, Edwin Hodge and Jeffrey Dean Morgan, I am sure the young audience can relate to these characters like my generation related to the young stars like Charlie Sheen of the original Red Dawn. The feel was very much like The Hunger Games and the Twilight saga movies, as well as the V TV series, when the teens are out training with the various guns and developing their fighting skills in the woods, especially with Josh Hutcherson from The Hunger Games as one of the teenagers. I liked the family aspect of the movie between the brothers and their relationship, and how all the other Wolverines had family of some kind or another as well.

The opening montage sets up the movie with news clips, including clips of President Barack Obama and Senator Hilary Clinton of the escalating tension from North Korea and it's military and the technological and economic vulnerabilities of America, especially the vulnerability to a new kind of weapon. While the Koreans tried to hunt down the Wolverines, the fact that the Koreans do not take any retaliation against the population, or at least the prisoners located at the stadium for the Wolverines actions was illogical to me.

I have always wondered - both back in the 80's and now - how it would be if my high school, Estancia High School, was the one that was involved in the movie. Our mascot, the Eagles, would have been more patriotic mascot symbol for the city to rally around against the North Korean army as the kids that I went to  high school with fight the Koreans. I can imagine everyone crying out Eagles!

Originally the film was made in 2009 and was supposed to be released in 2010, keeping in mind the post-9/11 world that we are in. However, due to the financial difficulties of MGM, the released was pushed back to 2012. As a result, the enemy was supposed to been China, which would have been logical, given their resources - but with the opening up of Chinese availability of Western products, MGM wanted the Chinese box office, all references to China was changed during post production and computer graphics to make the enemy North Korea. With backing from another source, it made it more believable that North Korea could pull off such an invasion. With both Chinese and North Koreans being Asian, it was a simple matter of changing the logos and flags through CGI. With Chris Hemsworth as the leader of the Wolverines, the movie's late release works to the movie's advantage as Hemsworth is a bigger name as an action star now.

Rated PG-13 for violence and language. Running time: 114 Minutes.

Pancho 
All people smile in the same language.
 

THE AVENGERS

Paramount Pictures in association with Walt Disney Pictures

Rated PG-13

Running time: 142 Minutes




Click below to watch The Avengers trailer.



In Marvel Studios The Avengers, written and directed by Joss Whedon - the creator of Buffy the Vampire Slayer - the Trickster Norse God Loki, Tom Hiddleston, steals a powerful power source called a tesseract from the counter terrorism and intelligence agency of the Strategic Homeland Intervention, Enforcement and Logistics Division - S.H.I.E.L.D. In order to recover the tesseract, S.H.I.E.L.D. Director Nick Fury, Samuel L. Jackson, then feels it is time to gather together a team of heroes that becomes - The Avengers.

Based on the Marvel comic book, The Avengers - created by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby - the team of heroes that Jackson puts together consists of Captain America, Chris Evans, Iron Man, Robert Downey Jr., Thor, Chris Hemsworth, The Hulk, Mark Ruffalo, along with The Black Widow, Scarlett Johansson, and Hawkeye, Jeremy Renner. This team is a dysfunctional group of people - which eventually become Earth's Mightiest Heroes. The team was so dysfunctional, there was one scene where everyone yells at each other because of their hidden agendas. While this all may seem quite dramatic, and the movie is dramatic, this dysfunction of the team also leads to some funny moments.

With Captain America, Iron Man, Thor, and The Hulk having their own movies previously produced by Marvel leading up to the ultimate team adventure, of which The Avengers is, Marvel built up quite an audience which lead to The Avengers breaking the $200 million mark for an opening weekend and breaking $100 million in it's second weekend - thus setting a couple of new records. I saw the movie as the first showing on a Sunday afternoon the first weekend and the theater was pretty full. When the movie ended, there was a line for the next show when I got out.

While some of the previous Marvel movies were uneven, The Avengers is the ultimate comic book movie. The super hero battles utilized all of the heroes talents and powers, making the battles intense. All of the Avengers had their own little scenes, which gave them some characterization in the movie, allowing you to get to know all of them - although there was not as much characterization done with Renner's Hawkeye - but it was great to see Renner as the World's Greatest Marksman shoot all of his arrows, even if he was not referred as the World's Greatest Marksman but a master assasin.

Hiddleston as Thor's adopted brother Loki is the bad guy of the movie. Although, there were times that Hiddleston seemed to have just accepted things and had just let himself get captured - which made Hiddleston to me appear to be not as strong, or as evil as a super villain who wants to rule humanity as he should have been. Even though I knew Hiddleston had sinister intentions for doing that, I still felt a little wishy-washy about Hiddleston being the ultimate bad guy as a result. However, Hiddleston's interactions and intense battles with The Avengers makes up for Hiddleston being so wishy-washy. Loki's helmet was straight out of the comics and the helmet really made me believe that Hiddleston was the evil Loki when he wore it. With Hiddleston's helmet on, this was the evil Loki that I grew up with.

I was wondering how they were going to bring Hemsworth's Thor back to Earth - because at the end of the Thor movie, Hemsworth had left Earth. While Hemsworth's Thor did return to Earth in The Avengers, Thor's return was more of an incidental thing in The Avengers rather than his return being a significant plot point. Hemsworth's and Hiddleston's fraternal rivalry was great to see again, as their fraternal rivalary is the basis for Hiddleston's sinister motivation - as well as Hemsworth's sense of responsibility, because it is Hemsworth's brother that is causing all of this destruction.

Hiddleston's army from space was alluded to throughout the film, but it is only until the climax that you actually get to see his alien army. The climax is similar to the climax of the Transformer films and Green Lantern, but The Avengers climax is a much better climax as there are multiple threats in the movie and you can tell the bad guys and the good guys apart. Civilians and military are involved in the climax, and not just as victims. One of my favorite scenes in the climax is of a line of New York City police officers shooting up at some attacking airborne aliens in their defense as the aliens are strafing the police. Jackson's Nick Fury must deal with a scenario straight out of the movie Fail Safe. That scene shows how desperate the situation has turned into, although you have a fairly good idea of how it would turn out.

S.H.I.E.L.D.'s Helicarrier as their floating/flying aircraft carrier Headquarters was great, right out of the comic books. To see the Helicarrier take off and fly shows how large a craft it really is. The S.H.I.E.L.D. agents on board the Helicarrier were dressed in the uniforms just like what they wear in the comic books. While I believe there was a resolution for the tesseract, the resolution was not a big enough resolution for me to truely remember it. If the resolution scene is the scene that I think it is, I have to concentrate to remember that particular scene out of all the memorable scenes in the movie. For comic book fans, comic book creator Stan Lee's cameo appearance appears at the end of the movie - so you can concentrate on watching the movie instead of looking for Lee. Cameo appearances of characters from the other Marvel movies also appear in the movie, with the fate of one such character at stake.

With the Hulk being motion-captured from Ruffalo, this was the most believable to me computer graphic of the Hulk. It was still a computer graphic, but this computer graphic Hulk was much more believable as a character to me than other CGI Hulks. It is nice to know that Lou Ferrigno got to do the voice of the Hulk once again after playing the Hulk in various forms over the years since his TV show The Incredible Hulk several years ago.

I saw the movie in Dolby 3D. The film was shot in 2D and converted to 3D. This conversion was most obvious in the slow opening scenes, and was not very good 3D in the beginning, which made me wish that I did not pay for a 3D show - but the 3D did get better as the movie went on and I enjoyed the 3-D look of the movie.

At the end of the movie the audience applauded. There is a scene during the end credits that alludes to the Avengers sequel. While they did not mention the name, the makeup alludes to some known Marvel villains of whom I am looking forward to as they would make great villains - if they are the villains I am thinking of. At the very end of the end credits, there is a little intimate silent scene. Although, like the guy said behind me mentioned at the end - they should have said something during the scene. It was a great place for a joke.

Rated PG-13 for violence. Running time: 142 minutes.

Click for movie reviews of the following movies: Iron Man 2, Thor, and Captain America.

Pancho
All people smile in the same language.

 Pancho's Movie Reviews

THOR

Paramount Pictures

Marvel Studios

Rated PG-13

Running time: 115 minutes















Click below to watch the Thor trailer.



In Paramount Pictures Thor, the Norse Asgardian god Thor, Chris Hemsworth, is stripped of his power by Odin the All-Father, Anthony Hopkins, for being too arrogant and is banished to Earth/Midguard. After hitting Hemsworth with her car, Natalie Portman takes the strange Hemsworth home as she believes he is a key to her scientific weather research.

Based on Marvel Comics Thor, this film was much more interesting in the Asgard and other realms than while being on Earth. While Earth had all the jokes, with the main settings being in a desert and a small town, it was rather boring compared to the family dynamics between Odin, Thor, and his brother Loki, Tom Hiddleston. Not even S.H.I.E.L.D made up for a boring Earth as S.H.I.E.L.D was just portrayed as another secret government agency that takes over everything and nothing was really spectacular about it. The movie trailer made S.H.I.E.L.D seem much more sinister. Agent Clark Gregg mentioned that Thor made the S.H.I.E.L.D agents look like minimum wage mall cops which was easy to do as the agents did act like mall cops and not the elite special operations teams that they should have been. While back in Asgard, it was rather touching and sad to see a sweet young Loki turn into a bitter man jealous of his beloved brother Thor. This was a better telling of betrayal than Anakin Skywalker becoming Darth Vader. With director Kenneth Branagh's  Shakespearean roots, this definitely helped the story which is basically a retelling of Shakespeare's Henry V.

The frost giants were much more agile than what I imagined from the comic books, so the battles between them and the Asgardians were more intense than what I expected. And it is the invasion of the frost giants during his coronation that causes Thor to be arrogant in the first place as he wants to insure the safety of Asgard by invading the frost giants realm with the Warriors Three.

As Queen Frigga, Thor's mother, Rene Russo was an unexpected addition to the movie as I recall no publicity concerning her being a part of the film. Actually I did not recognize her until I read the end credits, although I knew that she had looked familiar when I saw her. There is also a bowman amongst the S.H.I.E.L.D agents Jeremy Renner who is uncredited as the character Hawkeye.

In the spirit of Asgard and the other realms, the credits were rather cosmic. There is also a scene after the end credits which goes more into Samuel L. Jackson and S.H.I.E.L.D which, when combined with all the references in the movie, lead to possible sequels like The Avengers.

The band Foo Fighters song "Walk" is also in the film because the filmmakers thought its lyrics were strangely appropriate for the film.

Rated PG-13 for violence. Running time: 115 minutes.

Pancho
All people smile in the same langauge.

Star Trek

Paramount Pictures

Rated PG-13

Running time: 127 minutes


In Paramount Pictures update of the TV series. the movie is very true to the spirit of Star Trek. It brings the crew of the starship Enterprise together for the first time, and is very optimistic and fun with a level of intensity that is more than a typical TV episode of Star Trek. There are a couple of plot points which changes traditional Star Trek canon, but this might make for interesting story-telling for future films. With Spock, Leonard Nimoy, going back in time, this film is on a different timeline than the TV series. It was nice to see George Kirk, Chris Hemsworth, as the father of James T. Kirk, Chris Pine.  Zachary Quinto is perfect as the young Spock. I could see him as the original Spock in the 1960's TV series. Anton Yelchin was appropriatlely very young as Chekov. As Simon Pegg, who plays chief engineer Montgomery Scott, says "I like this ship!"

Rated PG-13 for violence. Running time: 127 minutes.

Pancho
All people smile in the same language.

Pancho's Movie Reviews