Archive for July, 2012|Monthly archive page
herochan: Batman Comic Set Created by Kenneth Ioh
The Avengers (2012)
The Avengers
★★★★☆
Directed by: Joss Whedon
Written by: Joss Whedon and Zak Penn
Based on the Comic Book Created by: Stan Lee and Jack Kirby
I said in my combo review for Captain America and Thor that I was ready to pull down my fanboy goggles for The Avengers after seeing what Marvel Studios was doing with their superhero movies in the last few years. I didn’t know then that it would be such a literal statement. Circumstances dictated that the best showtime for my wife and I to see the film was a 3D showing.
This isn’t really a review of the 3D effects in The Avengers or even 3D movies in general, but I should point out a couple of things I noticed from seeing a full 3D movie. One is that kinetic, high-movement action sequences don’t look as impressive in 3D, at least not to me. Maybe my brain operates at half speed or something, but it looks very choppy and stilted to me when things move too quickly in 3D. The other is that the depth of field impression given by the 3D makes sequences of characters who aren’t in close zoom appear incredibly small, such as when Iron Man flies around the city. And finally, I don’t see very many points at which set pieces that weren’t designed with 3D in mind should be in full 3D. Watching people stand around a table talking in 3D isn’t exactly detrimental to the storytelling, but it adds zero to the equation and for that reason alone it should be taken out.
So anyway, The Avengers. In large part, the set-up here is not terribly necessary. If you’ve kept up with the Marvel Movie Canon, you have lots of familiar faces as Robert Downey, Jr. (Iron Man), Samuel L. Jackson (Nick Fury), Scarlett Johansson (Black WIdow), Gweneth Paltrow (Pepper Potts), Chris Evans (Captain America), Chris Hemsworth (Thor), Jeremy Renner (Hawkeye), Clark Gregg (Agent Coulson) and Tom Hiddleston (Loki) all reprise roles from earlier movies. Each plays his or her character essentially the same as they have before, so there are no real surprises. The only big newcomer is Mark Ruffalo as the Hulk, standing in for Edward Norton. Honestly, I’m a fan of Norton as an actor, but I think Ruffalo is a better Bruce Banner so the singular change is welcome.
The plot involves a plan by Loki to steal the Tesseract, first seen in the original Thor film, which is a macguffin that permits the opening of a portal between an alien world and Earth. The real plot of the movie is the assembly of the Avengers team to combat Loki and the threat and the first act is largely a series of homages and personality clashes between the larger-than-life heroes that have filled whole movies themselves. I need to pause here and say that this part of the movie works, but it only does so on the strength of the script (which is, if you have any familiarity with Joss Whedon’s other work, expectedly exciting and funny and cool). It is fairly clear early on that Whedon is the most comfortable when writing a select few of the characters: Agent Coulson, Tony Stark (Iron Man), Natasha Romanoff (Black Widow) and Steve Rodgers (Captain America), so they get the most dialogue and the best lines. Which is actually fine because from these four central characters, the others bounce witty exchanges and character or dynamic revealing exchanges off each other in a way that doesn’t make them seem less important, just less assertive.
There are the requisite comic-book dream match-ups: Thor vs. Iron Man, Black Widow vs. Hulk, Captain America vs. Being A Total Square, etc. As the second act unfolds on an impressive S.H.I.E.L.D. air-carrier and a captured Loki begins to reveal his scheme, the discussions of teamwork and purpose and background fade and themes of heroism and sacrifice emerge. This is easy, familiar territory for Whedon and on this grand stage he repeats some of his favored insights in slightly different contexts such that his great talent is undeniable to the uninitiated but those who have followed along on Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Angel, Firefly, Dollhouse, etc. will nod with sage recognition.
The final action sequence is among the most spectacular I can remember, a long, exhilarating sequence of special effects that I think will stand alongside the epic scope sequences from films like Lord of the Rings (specifically The Two Towers) and 300 and The Matrix Reloaded (don’t email me with 10,000 other movies that have great epic action scenes, there are a lot I know; assume that whatever your personal favorites are, this one stands alongside it). Interestingly, in these effects-heavy scenes it is the Hulk who mostly steals the show (I find once again, like in his own movie, Thor comes out seeming a little pointless and wussy) but each Avenger has at least a couple of scenes or moments to shine.
The hallmark of a good popcorn flick is one that seems to pass the time very quickly and that has you leaving the theater with a smile on your face. The Avengers did both of these admirably, and I can do little but recommend it, especially to those who have enjoyed other Marvel-based movies in recent years.
Foster the People — The Greek Theater, Berkeley, California — June 29, 2012
The triple-billed show started with Kimbra, a performer I had practically zero exposure to other than watching half a YouTube video on the BART ride over to the show. I was pleasantly surprised by her performance. It’s never easy to be an opening act, but Kimbra made the wise decision to stick to uptempo, high-energy tracks and while she won’t win any dance competitions, her stage presence was engaging and entertaining. I was left after the short set with the conviction to definitely devote some time to checking out her catalog.
Up next was Mayer Hawthorne, a curious sort of band that brought to mind the self-aware throwback irony of a hipster Chris Isaak. Hawthorne and his band played retro-tinged jazz/funk fusion tracks that were enjoyable enough but hardly noteworthy. Still, I’m of the opinion that any band that can nail You Make My Dreams Come True so hard they might as well have hit it with a hammer can’t be <i>all</i> bad. I wasn’t, however, nearly as compelled to add Hawthorne to my favorite playlists as I was with Kimbra.
Once night began to fall, the stage was set for the headliners and Foster the People came out of the gate with a strong sequence including Miss You (a strange but sort of effective opener), Life on the Nickel and Helena Beat. An early highlight was a track that doesn’t appear on the band’s album, Torches, Broken Jaw, but it was followed by the midtempo I Would Do Anything For You that kind of sucked the energy from the show for a bit. It did work well to pave the way for the astounding rendition of Waste, a song that on the album has potential but comes across as a bit flat. Here, though, amid a shower of bubbles and the backdrop of the stellar lights show, it owned the moment profoundly.
From this high though the show seemed to start to falter. Another non-album track (possibly a new song?) called Love and then lackluster renditions of Call It What You Want, Don’t Stop and, most disappointingly, Warrant led to the sagging middle of the show. At this point I started noticing that Mark Foster (and the whole band really) were showing the effects of what Foster himself referred to as “nearly 300 shows in a year and a half.” Obviously this much touring is a drain, but it seemed that the band relied too heavily on the stage production to carry the energy and it was clear from this lull that the spectacle wasn’t enough to keep up with the noticeable lack of gumption from the performers.
Fortunately the show ended with Kimbra returning to stage alongside Foster while the band took a break and they re-created their song Warrior. Foster then laid down a rendition of Houdini featuring the UC Berkeley Marching Band that re-ignited the crowd and really ended on a high note. The short encore featured the also non-album song Ruby, a slow piano ballad that I don’t think Mark really sold 100%, but the song itself is nice. Then, of course, they ended the night on the ubiquitous radio hit, Pumped Up Kicks which didn’t quite match the intensity of either Waste or Houdini, or even Broken Jaw, but seemed to thrill the majority of the crowd.
My overall takeaways are that I felt the band digressed too often into long, meandering instrumental interludes and tried too often to play with the “up and down” vibe that bands who aren’t all high-energy all the time seem compelled to do. Some acts are better than others at pulling this off. I feel that there’s obviously nothing wrong with playing lower key or slow songs in concert, but those tracks tend to need to be anthemic, sing-along songs that the frontman can practically hold the mic out to the audience and have them cover. This wasn’t the case with Foster the People and it showed. I would have liked to see some fun injected into the setlist as well, perhaps a well-timed cover or a favorite cut from Torches re-interpreted. This is especially true in the case of Pumped Up Kicks which I got the impression the band was already kind of sick of, unfortunate since it was probably the song most of the attendees had come to hear. If not the “signature” tune, at least one of the mid-section songs like Warrant could have used either a dance-remix vibe or perhaps even a stripped-down acoustic version to draw the interest back downstage instead of fixating on the flashing sun-face light element that conjured Torches cover artwork by Japayork.
I found it to be a good show, though, overall, and one I’m very glad I went to see. Occasionally the acid test for how well I liked a concert is whether or not I think I’d make a point to pay to see the headliners again if they came back to town and in this case while I have no regrets at all, I’m not sure I’d make Foster the People an appointment act, content to say that I saw them when and save my money and time for other groups that may tour as much or more as this hard working band without ever letting on.