Welcome to the premiere of BingeViews, BingeMedia.net’s exclusive review show to get you ready for the weekend viewing. Join Law as he interviews the great Chad C. about the films you need to know about. This week we have all the info on THE HITMAN’S BODYGUARD, LOGAN LUCKY, INGRID GOES WEST, and GOOD TIME. What won the week? Is Kylo Ren funny? Does Salma get naked? Does Chad have a crush on Robert Pattinson? All these questions are answered and more inside. Inside your butt. Eat it.
This week on The Binge Movie Aftertaste, I am joined by my friend and fellow movie geek Zach Grooten to discuss a lizard creature who looks nothing like Maggie Gyllenhal. Ok, maybe a little. Of course I am talking about Godzilla. Born in the 50s and resurrected by both Chinese and American filmmakers alike, Godzilla is a pop culture mainstay who has seen his fair share of incarnations.
Zach and I are here to discuss all of them. Ok, maybe not all 28 of them. But within this hour ten minutes plus, we talk about highlights and lowlights -of which Godzilla has had plenty of both- throughout his entire cinematic run. From his very first feature to how JJ Abrams’ Cloverfield fits into the Godzilla lexicon, all the way through the Godzilla Resergence trailer that dropped this month, Zach and I make the lizard eat his own radioactive breath. Ok, that was stupid.
Plus, a Prince fact that will blow your mind. Maybe. Just click the damn download button.
School is finally out and now I can get back into serious reading mode for the summer. It’s been awhile since I’ve been able to enjoy books at my own sluggish pace and not race through them during a lunch hour at work. This week I got through a stack of Marvel comics that I had accumulated while I was finishing up school over the last few weeks. First was Captain Marvel‘s second volume, which I’m not really sure how it came to be. Captain Marvel has strangely been rebooted in the middle of its run but retained its author. I’m not really sure what the purpose was of restarting, but here we are at the fourth volume since the NOW! reboot, second in the new line. I have to say I continue to be impressed with DeConnick’s work on Captain Marvel. The ex-Ms. Marvel Carol Danvers has become Captain Marvel, and I think it’s been a great transition. Not only has she had a phenomenal background story, but Captain Marvel is one of the titles that never loses its sense of humor. Many Marvel books attempt funnies and fail hard, and most of them don’t have anywhere near as good of a story. Kelly Sue DeConnick is a proven writer, especially for female leads, and shows that she’s not quite done having fun. Stay Fly teams up Captain Marvel with Rocket Raccoon for some out of this world fun. As the two come to blows over Carol’s pet flerken, they discover that cats may be more deadly than they appear. Overall, I had a lot of fun with this book. There’s not much here story-wise, but there are a lot of laughs and a lot of cool pages. These two characters surprisingly go very well together, and I’d love to see them team up more. I’m sure this isn’t the last Rocket Raccoon team-up we’ll see in the near future.
Also this week, I got the opportunity to pick up the latest Pool, as usual. This is the seventh volume in the long-running NOW! reboot of everyone’s favorite anti-hero, Deadpool. Brian Posehn and Gerry Duggan have had this good thing going for awhile now with this title. There was a little fall off after the fifth volume or so, when I felt that the title had finally run its course. I’ve always been a big fan of Posehn’s, whether it was on Just Shoot Me! or during his stand-up specials, but I think that his magic touch got weaker and weaker. Eventually your personality phases out, and you become just another Deadpool writer. This happens because Deadpool is such a larger than life character, that demands being written like Deadpool. At first Posehn was able to work his humor and personality into the Deadpool pages, and it worked beautifully. But you can just tell when you read it now that he’s almost out of ideas, or that it’s just not quite clicking like it was at first. And that’s because Deadpool has finally overwhelmed Posehn and Duggan. This isn’t to say the product they’re putting out right now isn’t good, because it’s still great, but it’s just not as magical as it was at the start. What it’s lost in quality story it’s been gaining in neat art, as this volume had one of the coolest covers I’ve seen in the series. With the creation of Zenpool, we not only got the great cover but also a new kind of Deadpool that isn’t as evil as his predecessor. He still can’t rid himself of the sense of humor though, and that’s what makes this book fun.
A few words about Avengers: Age of Ultron, since I really enjoyed writing about Leto Joker last week. I was able to go and see the film this past weekend on a Sunday morning. I had hoped that there would not be much of a crowd, but I was stuck sitting in front of a person texting on their phone the whole movie, per usual. It never fails that my movie theater experience is ruined, but I digress. Age of Ultron was a weird movie for me, and it was a movie of many firsts. This may have been the first Marvel Studios movie that I didn’t find myself that excited for. Sure, it was another in the line of greatness that has come from Marvel Studios. Sure, it’s a team-up movie that was going to feature almost twice as many heroes/villains as last time. Also, it was set to be an absolute blockbuster. But there was something missing for me, whether it was in the trailers or the story, I just wasn’t interested. I knew I would love it, and I did make time out of my schedule to go to the theater (which I rarely do anymore, for shame). As the movie started with the wintry woods action scene, I found myself remembering why I was there in that very seat. As the movie went on, I knew that this was no Avengers, and it certainly was no Iron Man or Captain America: The Winter Soldier. What it was though, was the first comic book hero movie that actually gave me a nerdgasm. I know that’s a term we throw around when we get really excited about something nerdy, and it’s so awesome it blows our minds. I thought I’d experienced this before in a Nolan Batman film, or a previous Marvel film, but I was wrong. Seeing Scarlet Witch and Vision fighting alongside in the Avengers in the concrete tower towards the end of the movie was one of the most beautiful things I have ever seen. A switch flipped inside of me that made me so fucking delighted to see this occurring via live action on a movie screen. I totally forgot about the hundreds of people around me, and the guy on his phone in front of me.
As we left the movie, I could not get the scene out of my head. Scarlet Witch popping people left and right with her psychic powers, and Vision flailing around in the air like a fish out of water, beaming people with an infinity gem lodged in his forehead. Something about this made my heart race. It made me excited. The kind of excitement you only remember feeling as a kid. When I got home my girlfriend asked me if there were any good Scarlet Witch books out there, to which I did not know the answer. But then I got it. I went into my reading room and dug into my shelves. We have a ton of books, just one shelf of comics. I have a small collection from when I was a kid, and it is not very expansive. I was privileged to have the few comics I did have growing up, and I read them over and over and over again. I watched more of the cartoons and collected trading cards, but the comics held a very special place. They were like trophies or holy grails to me. I’d protect them and keep them safe, and only took them out to read maybe once a year and would put them back in their sleeves. Looking on my shelf I discovered that one of the ten or so comics I had growing up was a Vision and the Scarlet Witch #4 which is them having a baby. It’s not a comic I probably really understood the context of growing up, and looking through it was nothing special. But this book was one of few connections I had to actual comic books, where these great movies hail from. I connected on a truly personal level to Age of Ultron on Sunday, and I experienced my first true nerd euphoria. I cannot wait to watch the film again, and I truly hope that they keep these two characters around because I thought it was so damn cool to see them both come to life on screen. I really do not care for Paul Bettany either, but Vision was just too cool for school man. And Scarlet Witch? What a bad ass bitch!
Starring: Samuel L Jackson, Robert Downey Jr, Chris Hemsworth, Scarlett Johansson, Chris Evans, Linda Cardellini, Mark Ruffalo, Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Hayley Atwell, Andy Serkis, Cobie Smulders, Elizabeth Olsen, Tom Hiddleston, James Spader, Jeremy Renner, and Idris Elba.
Make no mistake about it. For the second time in a row, writer/director Joss Whedon had a mighty big weight on his shoulders. Leading up to the release of 2012’s The Avengers, there was a lot of talk about how many balls Whedon was going to have to juggle in order to make it a successful round-up of characters Marvel spent a lot of time and money establishing the origins of since 2008. Even given these origins, Whedon had to plausibly enter Iron Man, Black Widow, Hawkeye, Thor, the Incredible Hulk, and Captain America into a life or death situation involving the fate of the world. Personally, while The Avengers was an all around fun first time cinematic viewing experience, I have to say that I do not think it holds up on repeated viewings. There was no filter to be found for how many snarky lines were sprouted, and moderation was completely absent. Going into The Avengers: Age of Ultron, it was hard to not know of the pressure Whedon had to top himself from the original film’s overly positive fan and critical reaction. Despite my reservations about the first film’s faults, I found myself wondering if there was any way he could possibly make this film better than its predecessor. Let’s be honest. There were quite a few things to improve. The movie’s final enemies were boring, and the overly jokey dialogue gave it less and less replay value. But the brilliant juggling act of combining slam-bang action with the Avengers forming -or Assembling, if you will- Whedon pulled off was never in question. So the main doubt I had with Age of Ultron was, with the job of assembling The Avengers for the first time behind him, did Whedon bring a continuation story worthy of all these characters coming back while making it seem organic and not outlined with the color of money? In other words, did he make his Empire Strikes Back?
In a word, hell yes. With The Avengers: Age of Ultron, Whedon has accomplished the impossible. He has made a movie that is not only one of the most entertaining summer films to come around in quite sometime, he has also injected some surprisingly philosophical themes into what could have once again been the romp he got away with last time. This time, Whedon decided to instead play with the God complex that comes with being a superhero. The way the story and main conflicts develop revolves around Tony Stark. With S.H.I.E.L.D. gone, Stark (Downey Jr) decides to take matters into his own hands and make things easier on his fellow heroes by developing an artificial intelligence run police force, headed by Ultron (Spader). Ultimately, Ultron sees all mankind as the real betrayers of humanity and takes it upon himself to quench the world with their extinction. What follows are many doubts among the Avengers about whether they can take both the physical and mental hits Ultron has to dish out, as well as people who started off on Ultron’s side changing allegiances. In all honesty, that is all the plot you need, as the way its points are layed out and followed through in Whedon’s taut script does more than enough to let you know what is going on in each character’s head.
Speaking of which, that would lead to my favorite new character of the series. From Buffy Summers to his last incarnation of Black Widow, Whedon has a history of writing strong women. He once again does not disappoint with Avengers: Age of Ultron, as not only does he again push the Black Widow character over boundaries we have not seen her jump yet, he also introduces Scarlet Witch. Played with a glint in her eye by the lovely Olsen (Godzilla), Scarlet Witch is a character who, like all characters in this series, could come off as silly if written or played wrong. But her abilities to go into someone’s head without them knowing while going through their exact experiences are brilliantly integrated into the film’s plot. It also helps that Olsen plays up her emotions so that you feel her pain.
Another highlight for me was Hemsworth, who despite being given sub-par scripts in both Thor movies (as well as playing carnival hammer games at state fairs to promote them) has never deterred his charisma. He once again brings his welcome swagger to the proceedings, and Evans & Downey of course chew up each piece of scenery they own. Along with giving Black Widow a bigger part, Whedon saw fit to make Hawkeye a larger piece of the puzzle this time as well. A bigger role and better lines did nothing but endear me to an otherwise boring Renner. The writing of his character makes him more than eminently watchable.
In addition to Olsen’s Scarlet Witch, another surprise was this film’s villain and title character. When I am told by people how entertained they were by The Avengers, they always talk about the action and dialogue. Yet they never talk about the film’s enemies. Hiddleston’s Loki (who once again shows his face here) was written well. But the ‘troops’ Whedon stuck him with made the ending of the film feel weak to me. Yet like most of the 2012 film’s faults, Whedon has fixed the problem. Spader, who has always been one of the most magnetic supporting actors of his generation (something tells me Downey, who acted with Spader in 1987’s Less Than Zero, had a say in this bit of casting) is everything a good villain should be. He is imposing, he is monstrous, and he is emotionally conflicted. Spader -who also did the character’s mo-cap- emotionally digs deep into Ultron’s subconscious, and Whedon’s talent at displaying angst is on full display when he shows Ultron wrestling with his emotions and what he has to do.
Whedon has no doubt gone deeper this go around. Though the movie is not as dark as the trailers would have you believe. While his previous Avengers film was not nearly as clever and funny as it thought it was, Whedon has done what I was hoping for Age of Ultron, which is use moderation. The humor in Age of Ultron comes off as hard hooks as opposed to soft jabs. This time, instead of groaning at someone playing Gallaga, I found myself laughing with the rest of the gang at Hawkeye’s purpose on the Avengers team.
All roads lead to this being Whedon’s last crack as director of an Avengers film. Let me say, if this is his curtain call from the director’s chair of a Marvel film, then he picked a hell of a way to go out. Sure, his hands were tied with Quicksilver (Taylor-Johnson) and what the rights to use him meant to both parties involved. But he did what every good director does, which is do what he could using the tools he had. Yes, his plot has roots in Terminator-esque fears of messing with technology. But I didn’t care. At its core, The Avengers: Age of Ultron is a movie whose soul it does not wear on its sleeve. It is an action packed, rib cage rattling romp through many different emotions. After what he pulled off last time, I did not expect Whedon to do more of the same. But I also sure could not foresee him spinning the web of an emotionally layered action film that he did. And no, that is NOT a hint to the film’s final scene.
There’s not a ton of movement across the board but it’s still early. Everybody needs to keep in mind that this is a loooooong season. I imagine (hope) that everything will even out among the top scorers near the end of the year and things will be settled in awards season. If not, shut up. I still have zero. Results for week 7 are below.