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Avengers: Age of Ultron (2015)
Age of Ultron once again delivers an entertaining but inferior sequel to the Marvel ensemble hit
The sequel to 2012's breakout superhero hit, Age of Ultron obviously serves as a middle film in the MCU. Although the stakes are significantly higher than last time, some aspects feel a little underwhelming and inconsequential, despite the total or partial destruction of at least three major cities. Joss Whedon still proves adept at staging massive action sequences and giving his characters endless quips to throw at each other at even the worst of times, but taking into account that he has discussed several times that the making of the film exhausted him, it's occasionally noticeable, as he includes, by necessity from the powers that be in the MCU, many character cameos and hints of future plots.
The weaker aspect of the film is definitely the inclusion of the Maximoff twins. Quicksilver made quite the impression with his powers and presence in X-Men last year with only 15 minutes of screen time, but here Aaron Taylor Johnson doesn't even come close to that. His weird and obviously forced accent doesn't really help him. Elizabeth Olsen fares better, although her accent also proves to be distracting.
Despite these flaws, the film still proves to be highly entertaining, although it doesn't quite reach the heights of the first film. The acting is once again great, with everyone fitting comfortably in their roles. Ultron, although a little wasted, is helped by Spader's menacing voice. One thing I particularly appreciated, especially compared to every previous Marvel film, is that the characters showed their vulnerability quite a bit more and for once, there was emphasis in evacuating civilians before unleashing a war in their midst. Whedon's VFX-assisted long takes once again make a couple of appreciated appearances, and Vision finally provides a cool flesh and bone role for Paul Bettany. His first scene was really one of the best scenes in the film.
Hawkeye's one liners and the fact that he has a family were quite funny too, especially Tony's predictably sarcastic reaction.
The Imitation Game (2014)
An entertaining but forgettable biopic predictably overrated during the awards race
The Imitation Game is another biopic in a seemingly endless list of biopics that come out every year indistinguishable from one another. For all its self-important attitude and melodrama, it doesn't even attempt to shine above other similarly themed films; it actually revels in following convention to a T. Morten Tydlum, of whom I've only watched his acclaimed feature "Headhunters", which I quite liked, here follows the British Biopic Manual at every second, including but not limited to:
* Heart-stirring but otherwise functional soundtrack by Alexandre Desplat. * Casting great British actors and giving them stereotypical roles. * Casting Benedict Cumberbatch in another misunderstood and antisocial genius. * Making up many unnecessary plot points. * Hundreds of historical inaccuracies.
And so on, and so forth. Cumberbatch gives a good performance, but one that feels too manufactured and rehearsed. I still can't understand how Cumberbatch and Bradley Cooper were nominated over Jake Gylenhall's masterful performance in "Nightcrawler", but that's for another review. Speaking of undeserved Oscar nominations, even more baffling was the nomination for Tydlum's serviceable but entirely forgettable directing over David Fincher, Dan Gilroy, Christopher Nolan, etc. I guess the Oscar voters will have a heart attack if they even think of nominating someone who doesn't direct a polished British drama.
Now, to my biggest gripe with the film, the historical inaccuracies. Of course every biopic has them, it's practically inevitable when doing a film you can't include every fact and person or otherwise it would be endless. But the matter is that other biopics haven't suffered in quality because of this; Spike Lee's Malcolm X is a monumental example of this and that film even now remains underseen and underrated, and was even practically ignored at the Oscars. The Imitation Game suffers because it's noticeable when something was drastically altered from history just to make it more digestible for a mainstream audience. Although I found it a little better on first viewing, my opinion on the film lowered when I read about the inaccuracies, such as Turing's personality, greatly altered to make him much more socially isolated than he actually was. Maybe the filmmakers thought he wouldn't be relatable or sympathetic otherwise, but given his eventual tragic treatment by the British government, I think they were rather mistaken.
Despite all these flaws, the film remains an entertaining affair throughout; it's just that it never elevates itself from nothing else than an affable but completely forgettable film. At least it's a little better than "The Theory of Everything".
The Amazing Spider-Man 2 (2014)
An over-ambitious and overlong blockbuster sequel
Despite the decidedly mixed reaction to 2012's reboot, I appreciated the film although I still very much preferred Sam Raimi's debut film. However, it's an entirely different matter when it comes to my opinion on this film. Besides the obvious argument that a sequel to an already unnecessary reboot is even more unnecessary, this film still had an unlimited amount of potential in terms of character development and exploring intersecting story lines. And to be honest, it does try to do this, maybe too much on the intersecting story lines aspect, but it never manages a balance between an individual story and the overarching storyline already slated for the upcoming Sinister Six spin-offs.
The result is a mess of a plot, an utterly waste of over-the-top in a bad way cliché villains with even more cliché motivations, numerous jarring tonal shifts which already affect the film when it's started barely ten minutes ago. For instance, the opening chase sequence featuring an throwaway cameo by the great Paul Giamatti, here utterly wasted as an constantly screaming villain with a terrible Russian accent, shifts constantly between trying to be suspenseful, funny, dramatic and violent all at once. Certainly the fault lies in Marc Webb's inconsistent direction throughout the entire film and his inability to decently and creatively stage an action sequence and Pietro Scalia's choppy editing, which takes out the entire momentum of this 142 minute long film, trying to make an epic superhero film out of one that really didn't need to be all that big.
On the positive side, most of the acting performances are still solid, particularly Garfield, Stone and Field, even though they can't make miracles with the cliché-ridden script they've being handed to. DeHaan's performance suffers from being provided with a whiny and underdeveloped character, and Jamie Foxx, another great character actor, is also terribly wasted here as the one dimensional Electro.
But most importantly, because of trying to be so many films at once, forgets the most important element the previous Spider-Man films had, even Spider-Man 3, despite its undeniable flaws; the human aspect. The only scenes that really touch this are any between Garfield and Stone, but despite their undeniable chemistry, they also end up becoming nothing more than a tiresome on and off couple, which undermines the proceedings since we already know the ending of it.
If Sony wishes to make the next film work, they better come to realize that sometimes, less is better.
24: 5:00 a.m.-6:00 a.m. (2001)
One of the best episodes of 24 ever (SPOILERS)
Is unusual that the first season of a show can deliver such an excellent episode when it just begins. Fortunately for 24, that's the case, because the cast, crew and writers can prove they can deliver one of the strongest episodes of the entire show with strong performances from everyone involved, especially Kiefer, Dennis Haysbert and Leslie Hope, and with a little of shock value and flawless pacing, the job is done.
Jack leaves the body to Nina for ID while he goes to the hospital to meet with Teri. His scenes with Teri are well done and start to show the first signs of desperation in Jack's world when he realizes his dangerous job is affecting deeply his personal life, something that would become inevitable in later seasons.
Meanwhile, the Palmer storyline begins to move forward and become interesting when David discovers that his family has been keeping secrets from him. Although obviously this subplot would drag for almost the whole season, this is the seeds of a great execution handled by good wrtiting and convincing acting from Haysbert and Penny Johnson Jerald. (In this episode the real Sherry finally is revealed).
Jack, of course, is distrustful from Alan York, but when Teri asks him to leave him alone, he complies. It may have been because of his wife, but Jack's instincts fail this time, because he was absolutely right (as usual) when Alan wasn't to trust. In a definitely horror-oriented scene, Alan goes to visit his raped-drugged-car crashed daughter Janet, but things unpredictably change for the worst as we find out, in an amazing moment, that Alan is a bad guy. So he proceeds to brutally suffocate Janet until she dies and leaves the room with anyone ever discovering (as far as we know) that the girl just successfully operated from a car crash and other things has been killed.
The last minutes continue with this perfection. The score is great and there's great suspense with Jack's situation, as he's manipulated by Gaines. In the ending, Teri is the first one to discover that the man next to her is an impostor. Great stuff.