craigoxbrow

There will be spoilers. Oh, such spoilers there will be.

Seriously now.

I mean it.

Putting them in a separate post for at least two weeks.

And even then being a bit vague.

While we wait - the staff at the Cameo here were in costume, with the request not to take photos or be noisy with spoilers on the way out delivered by a pretty good Emperor... who then Force choked one of the others to underline his point.

And Oscar Isaac doing a cover of the Bill Murray Star Wars song.

Like S P A C E D? Like Shaun Of The Dead? Like Hot Fuzz? Like Scott Pilgrim? Like the quiet English village SF apocalypses of John Wyndham and their influence on Quatermass and Doctor Who? You'll probably like The World's End.

Also probably the only film where the end credits soundtrack is split between the Housemartins and The Sisters Of Mercy.

The soundtrack does rather reflect my life...

And I hadn't heard the term "whitey-ed" in years. Not since my own high school days.

... Yikes.

Not bad. Gets its "we're a Bond film, we have to have an insane giant action sequence regardless of what the rest of the film is like" out of its system at the start rather than jamming it in at the end like the last two. The slow prowling establishing shots, some of the music and certain plot elements make me agree with the "influenced by the Nolan Batman films" comments in some reviews. Oddly, the most striking image in the trailer is not actually in the film. The scene it was presumably cut from still counts as a striking image, fortunately.

LJing for posterity...

The Avengers gag reel

The Dark Knight Rises. I'll just say if you liked Batman Begins you might well like it more than I did, as it's very much a sequel to that with some housecleaning from The Dark Knight in a few scenes, but if like me you were lukewarm to it and only really liked The Dark Knight you may be disappointed, as it shares a number of the things I didn't like first time out.

(Doing my best not to be influenced by the context it has been given, but I'll note that two jokes were met with uncomfortable silences in the packed screening room.)

Being ahead of a plot twist (unusually) didn't help. I wonder how obvious it was to not-comic-y people? A scene apparently getting shifted in continuity doesn't help either.

And Catwoman doesn't feel like she belongs in the same Batman story as Bane. Although I loved the bit where she stabbed Owen from Torchwood in the leg after he lampshaded how insane her shoes are.

And strange how plot points recur across different interpretations - consider how Tw-Face gets taken out in both Schumacher and Nolan's films, or now... there's this.

(He's just one distracting "hey it's that guy!" appearance in a minor role, by the by.)

On the whole, above The Amazing Spider-Man, not as disappointing as Prometheus, had things I liked, but they're mostly tricks and surprises so I'm unlikely to go see it again.

Trailers:

Well, Man Of Steel uses music from Lord Of The Rings instead of the John Williams Superman score, so that's different. The segmented metal snakes S logo is sort of horrific. Still amused that we're getting a Captain Rugged movie.

Skyfall looks like a big international espionage action movie with the same plot as the first Mission Impossible. Um.

And Total Recall and Judge Dredd Versus The Raid.

And apparently a Keith Lemon movie. Not a visage I wanted to see on an IMAX screen when I'm three rows from the front.

And a video game that David Goyer apparently wrote - it seems he really likes the "villain posing as freedom fighter" plot strand.

Not the worst Spider-Man movie I've seen. But then, I saw Spider-Man 3.

A few changes I liked - more character comedy before and after he puts the mask on, the climax isn't rescue-the-girlfriend. A few changes I didn't - belabouring the he's-helped-people bit, not hitting "with great power comes great responsibility".

Some new things I liked - the Lizard generally worked, apart from the face. Some new things I didn't - the ultimate plan that goes nowhere.

In all, roughly on a par with the first Raimi movie, nowhere near the second, easily beats the third, looks decidedly meh in the summer of The Avengers (as it would have in the summer of Iron Man and The Dark Knight, or the summer of Thor and Captain America).

Trailers: It's probably the only movie where Wimpy Kid and Magic Mike both make sense, being a 12A not-quite-kids'-movie with a lot of bare chests. Also Total Recall, HawkeyeBourne and of course Batman.

Hey, there's an Avengers movie! It's pretty good, too!

(For serious, today was my last chance to see it again in big 3D, so off I went.)

New trailers: The Hawkeye-dentity, Brave, a logical place for Spidey and Batman, and less so for the new Ice Age.

Well, the big films of the summer can't all be winners.

Removing a mystery, too much going on, spare characters... Looked great, naturally.

Trailers: The Pact, the questionable-taste idea of restaging The Hills Have Eyes in Chernobyl, but never mind that, JAWS!

Well, I had a free ticket.

... Oh, alright. It looked nice. And there were some funny things in it. It's just that all but about two of them were in the trailer.

(Which is an improvement for the writer, whose books have all their jokes in the title.)

Joss Whedon's The Avengers (Assemble) was the most fun had at the movies in months, possibly years. Best superhero team movie yet made (good as they are, even the first two X-Men movies are really Wolverine movies). The problem for Marvel now will be topping it. Can't wait to see what comes next.

(TWH casting - Jenny Agutter as one of the grimly pragmatic Watchers' SHIELD Council.)

It's also a pitch-perfect example of giving everybody spotlight time. It's a great Captain America sequel, a great Iron Man episode, a great Black Widow movie - everybody gets something vital to do in the final battle in particular, and good scenes throughout, and their own confrontation with Loki.