The Fire Rising

A Review of The Amazing Spider-Man

When it was first announced that Spider-Man 4 had been cancelled, I was disappointed. Although I found Spider-Man 3 overall not to be enjoyable, I’d been hoping for them to start building up to a Sinister Six showdown for the sixth installment. However, when it was announced immediately following that the series would be rebooted, I was even more disappointed. I did not feel the need to have a brand new face for Spider-Man so soon, nor did I believe that the new film would be able to live up to the first three.

I’m happy to say that, for the most part, I was wrong. The Amazing Spider-Man is more than worthy of succeeding the other three, outdoing all of them (with the possible exception of Spider-Man 2). Andrew Garfield does a splendid job as the webbed wonder, giving us a range of emotions that Tobey Maguire could only wish for. Emma Stone’s portrayal of Gwen Stacy was also well done, and far better than Kirsten Dunst’s wooden performance of Mary Jane Watson, who seemed like all she could do was be kidnapped by everyone in New York City.

The overall storyline of the film was, however, the most interesting (and the best) aspect of the film to me. The subtle hints and nudges towards what is going on behind the scenes were a great touch, and with Oscorp it truly felt as if there were more than meets the eye to the film than simply Spider-Man fighting The Lizard. Speaking of The Lizard, his origins were another interesting aspect of the film; I spotted many similarities between him and both Spider-Man’s Green Goblin and Spider-Man 2’s Doctor Octopus. However, at the same time Doctor Curtis Connors managed to be his own character as well, and I appreciated that.

I have two major complaints about the film, however, that keep me from scoring it higher. The first is that we receive an after-credits scene that is meant to create suspense for the sequel. In it we meet a character for the first time, but we are not told the identity of the character, leaving them a mystery that, right now, forces us to wait until the sequel to meet him for real. I dislike that they did this, and I feel if they had named the character I would have been more satisfied when leaving the theatre.

The second (and admittedly far larger) complaint is with the soundtrack of the film. Aside from the main theme which can stand on its own, I feel that the soundtrack just can’t match up to those of other films. It was grating to my ears whenever I heard piano keys being slammed to try and create a scary song for a scene featuring The Lizard, because in this day and time it is easy to do so much more. This soundtrack was not worthy of Spider-Man, and I hope that the sequel’s soundtrack will remedy this issue.

Overall however, I did enjoy the film. In fact, I enjoyed it enough the first time to go and see it again. Although The Amazing Spider-Man may not be as exciting as The Dark Knight Rises, nor perhaps as perfect as The Avengers, it is still a movie worth seeing, and a film worthy of Spider-Man.

Final Score: 84/100

Please stay tuned - tomorrow or tonight I will give you all my review of The Dark Knight Rises. And what a review it will be.

-ibrow

Mini Review #1
Monsters University Teaser

First off, let me say this- when I heard that this film was being made, the first thought that popped into my mind was “Do we seriously need another Monsters, Inc. film?”.

However, then I thought back to my trip to Disneyworld and the hilarious Monsters, Inc. comedy show they have there, and to the (rather vague, I’ll admit) memories I have of the film itself, and just the fact that this is Pixar we’re talking about. So I decided to give it a chance once I heard more information.

I saw the teaser right before Brave, and I was blown away. When the trailer opened, I thought it was so predictable; “Okay, so they’re telling us how the monsters do their job. Got that... except it’s gonna turn out that they do something else and we’ll get some boring sequel to the original film”.

Or... not....

I wish the sound of the glue being squirted and the laugh that followed could be on a forever repeating soundtrack of my life. Those two sounds right there made my day and the hallway scene that followed was comedy genius at work. The banter between Wazowski and Sullivan was perfect, and I can’t wait to see both of them working against each other and together in the film next year.

The animation and music were also beautiful- I enjoyed the subtle additions they had, like Sullivan high-fiving another monster as he walks into the scene, and the chips that are scattered everywhere when he later digs into the bowl. I don’t think I need to say anything about the music that plays when the lights are turned off- it just fit the scene perfectly.

In the end, I am super hyped for this film. Pixar has, with this teaser, turned a film I wasn’t going to pay attention to into a must-see film for next year.

Final Score: 4.5/5

If there are any film or video game (or other) trailers or teasers you'd like me to review, feel free to suggest in the comments! I'm hoping to do two or three of these a week, and the only rule is that whatever it's a teaser/trailer of can't have been released yet.

Expect my The Amazing Spider-Man review tomorrow.

-ibrow

A Review of Pixar’s Brave

Going into the theatre to watch the latest film from Pixar, I was... apprehensive. Every review I’d seen of the film, and every comment made on it, I had noticed complaints. Complaints that Brave didn’t match up to the rest of Pixar, everyone saying that the entire thing was predictable, so on and so forth.

Suffice it to say my expectations walking in weren’t that high. I only went because it was Pixar, and because I’ve been waiting to see this film all year.

I must say that I was surprised, to say the least. The animation was fantastic, as I’d heard- I only wish my theatre was one with the new Dolby sound format, as I believe the fantastic tone of the film would have been expanded beyond the confines of the current generation of sound technology. The grass and the trees seemed lifelike, and the birds sounded very realistic for an animated film. The entire motion picture was a treat to look at, and I would love to see another Pixar flick with a setting just as realized in the future.

The story was predictable as expected, to an extent- overall however, I didn’t find it to be that bad. I enjoyed the fact that Merida did indeed know that the witch was a witch. It added some depth to the story, and changed up the far overused “Wait that was a witch how did that happen, because I never knew that!” plot point. There were some clever twists- number one being the scene mentioned above, and some others being scene where the three brothers were turned into small bears- I had a good laugh out of that.

The characters were a real treat to watch as well- much like how I enjoyed the characters of How to Train Your Dragon in 2010, except more Scottish and less Viking. I would have liked to have seen more of the King like we saw at the beginning of the film and less of the raging, revenge obsessed King we saw later, and it would’ve been nice if the clan chiefs had been given larger roles, but overall I can’t complain. I really enjoyed the Witch and her pet- they were brilliant.

Overall, I must say, this film was brilliant. Unlike the more negative reviews of this film, I’m going to say that I loved it and recommend that you go see it now. It was a more mature take on Pixar’s usual formula, and for that I am thankful; it’s a very fun and exciting refresher from the likes of Wall-E, Toy Story and Up – although like all of Pixar’s films, those are brilliant in their own way too. Would I recommend this film over the likes of The Avengers or The Amazing Spider-Man? Perhaps not- but this film will still be more than worth your while.

Final Score: 87%

Several months late (I wrote this back in January) comes the second set review on this blog- look for the review on Rocka by tomorrow.

Presentation
From the design of the box to the instruction manual, these are the first things you see before building the set.

Evo doesn’t really come in a box as much as he comes in a bag. A re-sealable bag nonetheless, but still just a bag. I miss the canisters. Also, it looks like he’s trying to catch up with the Savage Planet heroes. It’s a little late for that, but we’ll let Evo be and he’ll be happy just the same. I actually think that, compared to some of the other bags this time around (like Jawblade), Evo’s is a little bland.

Building
Half the fun is had building the set. How fun is it to build and how easy or challenging is it?

Evo is built just like the 2.0 and Savage Planet heroes, with a touch of 2010 thrown in for good measure. Although the build is one I’ve done several times before, I did find building the weapon arm (seconds long as it was) to be enjoyable.
Considering Evo is one of the small sets, one cannot expect much of a difference from the past. In this case that is okay, though.

Set Design
Now that the set is complete, we can critique how it looks from every angle. New or interesting pieces can also be examined here.

The set contains plenty of cool pieces.
The pieces I found to be of interest, or are otherwise new. I love the gunmetal feet (as well as all the gunmetal on Evo) except for that this probably means we might not get a gunmetal hero as I want. The gunmetal feet are sweet anyway. The new helmet I really like. Lego has made a helmet that looks like his 2.0 helmet but manages to add some personality, making it more like the 2010 helmets. And that’s a good thing. The new core I wish came in a color other than white, but it is okay as it is, I guess. The new body armour I think still would’ve worked with the 2.0 chest plate over top, and I’m not sure I like the new Thornax launcher. Without the pin hole it’s not as flexible, and must be re-adjusted every time I fire it. Sigh. The new round add-on armour piece is far better looking than I expected, however. That’s a plus.

Overall Evo looks very nice. The all gunmetal tank arm looks very good, as do the legs. To my surprise, the smaller body piece actually works fairly well for Evo; for the first time, I don’t feel like replacing it with a larger one. That’s automatically plus five points there.

Playability  
The other half of the fun is in playing with the set. How well does the set function and is it enjoyable to play with?

Playability wise, Evo’s like a 2.0 version of 2010 Bulk, Stringer, or Stormer. His tank arm can’t bend past certain points and can be a little hard to pose well, but if you can get him in the right pose Evo looks very good.
I don’t really like the handcuffs, however. I think they would have been better as one big, rubbery piece like the spikes that came with Evo 2.0 myself.

Once it's all said and done, how does the set stack up? Should I get it?
Pros
What's to like?

• 2010 style helmet is win
• Gunmetal feet!
• Tank arm
• Flows nicely
• GUNMETAL

Cons
What's not to like?

• Is tiny compared to Furno, Breez, and Rocka
• No purple?
• Orange head instead of blue or purple?
• Lack of 2.0 chest plate
• Seriously where’s the purple
• Handcuffs don’t really work

Evo would be the one breakout hero that I would recommend. Furno and Breez both look slapped together with all that white and mata red (in Breez’s case), Surge has too much lime green and doesn’t really add anything new, and Rocka has several issues in piece choices. Evo, however, is good as he is.

Final Score: 9/10

The Avengers – This is the film that Marvel Studios has been building towards since 2008, when they released Iron Man and The Incredible Hulk. Further leading into this film were the films Iron Man 2 (released in 2010), Thor, and Captain America: The First Avenger (both released in 2011). In this film Nick Fury, the director of a company known as S.H.I.E.L.D. must assemble the title heroes from those films (as well as a few others, which we’ll get to later) to defend Earth against the super villain Loki, who returns from last year’s Thor.

The Characters – 9.5/10
The characters were one of my biggest worries heading into this film- because I already knew the sheer amount of them. You have seven super heroes, the main villain, three agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (that is a pain to type), and then several other background characters to keep track of.

You can easily keep track of them all.

There’s Nick Fury, the hardcore and brutally honest director of S.H.I.E.L.D., who gathers Tony Stark/Iron Man (played by Robert Downey Jr.), Bruce Banner/The Hulk (played by Mark Ruffalo), Thor (Chris Hemsworth), Steve Rogers/Captain America (Chris Evans), Natasha Romanoff/Black Widow (Scarlett Johansson), and Clint Barton/Hawkeye (Jeremy Renner). Ruffalo as Banner is easily the standout of the crowd – he plays Banner brilliantly, as a Doctor whose anger is always there boiling right beneath the surface, waiting to be unleashed. Downey is also pleasing to watch, as Stark easily interacts with Banner, Rogers, and Thor. Hawkeye as the confident, to-the-point assassin was also fun, although Thor, Black Widow and Captain America were rather average.

Then there’s Loki, the main villain of the film returning from last year’s Thor. He’s descended since then into a pure need for revenge and the need to satisfy what he feels is a most terrible injustice against him, and Tom Hiddleston pulls this off beautifully. Loki’s banter with Fury, Thor, Black Widow, and the rest of the Avengers one by one is hilarious to see, especially when it’s Iron Man’s turn: when Stark, without his armour, is asked if he’s going to appeal to Loki’s humanity, Stark says that no, he won’t, and proceeds to threaten Loki instead, provoking one of the most hilarious scenes in the film.

The chemistry between the characters is amazing too; almost every conversation between the Avengers or Loki slips in one or two clever remarks that are genuinely funny; and that was very refreshing. In terms of the characters, Avengers has gotten everything right.

The Plot and the Juicy Stuff: - 9.5/10
The plot is rather predictable, to be honest; the big bad villain (Loki) wants to rule/enslave/destroy the Earth, and the heroes (the Avengers) need to stop him and save the day at the eleventh hour. However, it’s the way that the film portrays it that makes me give it such a high score; imagine Transformers: Dark of the Moon with all of its high points, and then give it characters you can actually care about and give it humour that isn’t like, totally lame. Once you’ve done that, multiply it by three, and you might have Avengers.

From the get-go, the Avengers are fighting amongst themselves (albeit, not willingly). Loki takes over the mind of one in the opening scene, which was definitely a surprise, and that hero then fights Fury and others to help Loki escape; Black Widow is sent to retrieve Banner and only narrowly avoids unleashing The Hulk; Iron Man point-blank refuses to join and then joins in anyway, saving Captain America/stealing his thunder; and then when Thor enters, he immediately begins brawling Iron Man and then brawls with Captain America too, as Loki watches and laughs.

I don’t want to spoil the movie, so I’ll end this section off there, but I will say that the banter between each character makes every scene worth it, and at the very end you’re going to be in for a huge surprise that no Marvel fan will want to miss.

Special Effects and Action: - 9.5/10
The special effects of this movie are as good as (if not better than) those in Transformers, with trees and buildings being snapped and shattered when Thor and Hulk fall from the heavens and then the portal to another dimension that Loki uses to return to Earth.

The action itself is reminiscent (and better than) the Transformers films too; watching Captain America (and then Iron Man) take on Loki single handed early in the film was wicked to watch, and later on when Iron Man took on Thor, setting a forest ablaze, my jaw hit the floor. Let me tell you, there is nothing better than watching the Avengers duke it out with each other, beating themselves senseless while the guy they’re supposed to be fighting watches them and doesn’t even try to escape.

Overall – 9.5/10 (95%)
Even if you haven’t seen the other Marvel films (or haven’t seen all of them), I would recommend this movie; it does everything right in terms of a super hero film, and every character is given the screen time that they need and deserve. If you’re a Marvel fan, I shouldn’t have to tell you to see this film. It’s the best Marvel film there is, and I would argue that it’s even better than The Dark Knight.

If you see only one film in theatres this year, this has to be that film.