[Closed] Now Playing XLIII

I think it's more similar to Sakamoto's Merry Chrisitmas Mr. Lawrence, rather than The Last Emperor.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NkWjsT_SJNI

Hisaishi's The Paths of Wind from My Neighbour Totoro also has a bit of similarity, and both pieces are (almost) everyone's favorite in Japan
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6RfXJjhgiCM


NP: Totoro!

Indeed! I was surprised at just how well The Avengers worked. It had great potential to fall flat on its arse, but it didn't. It just worked. Joss Whedon handled each character so well!

What's good about The Avengers is if you're a fan of Captain America, it's a good Captain America film. If you're a fan of Iron Man, it's a good Iron Man film. If you're a fan of... well, you get the idea. The action scenes actually mean something because Whedon took the time to develop the characters coming together as a team. He developed them through good dialogue. So, yeah... what film did you watch?

NP: The Land Before Time - James Honer

Playing this loud for the neighbors!

How much of the other characters you actually saw being developed? Hulk was an angry monkey smashing things. The hot chick aka Scarlett Johannson was useless, the arrow throwing guy was highlighted a lot but was something like out of LOTR, Thor just run behind Iron Man's ass...It was practically an Iron man meets Captain America and they drag a lot of puppies with them all the time. I didn't think it was bad, but too many characters to have the time and space to study them altogether at once. And i am a bit tired of the uber coolness of Iron Man in those movies, ok we got it already.

My thoughts on the matter:

-Black Widow and Hawkeye's relationship was very well scripted and developed considering it was a nearly meaningless sideshow in a film that's not primarily about them.

-Dialogue-driven scenes like the verbal showdown between Loki and Black Widow are what make the film stand out on a character-development level. They are tight, well-written (unless you just don't get Whedon's unique way of writing, which is fine, I know its not for everyone) and honestly, in how many action movies do you get to see 3-5 minutes of the villain and a minor female character pouring out their souls to each other? Its the little things.

-I thought this film did a better job of developing Bruce Banner/Hulk's character than either of the previous two actual Hulk films. In those, he was just Generic Sad Angsty Man. In this one, he was actually interesting. Ruffalo's acting was brilliant, the nude scene as well as the "puny god" scene were priceless humor, and its rare to see more character insight/development accomplished with one line of dialogue than his "I'm always angry" moment.

I could keep going but you get the idea. And I don't like Iron Man much either. I get the feeling Whedon would not have chosen to make him such a focal point if he'd had full control of the creative process from the beginning, but he didn't, he was stuck with the story Marvel had already outlined. That won't be the case for the sequel, so the sequel should be loads better story-wise. As it was, I thought Whedon did a good job making Iron Man seem less of an annoying jerk than in the two actual Iron Man films.

First listen? To me it's his very best score. Have you seen the film?

Oh, and THE AVENGERS......

What relationships? It was an IRON MAN 3 movie with the others just running behind him.

Well, we were never going to have complex 20 minute sit downs between Thor and Nick Fury full of implications that Thor wishes he could have had a father figure more like Nick than Odin, or stuffs like that. This is a comic book film in the truest sense of the concept, not meant to be like these "realistic" adaptations like Nolan Batman (which I love too). Avengers is exactly like a real comic book with all the cells turned into live action. It just happens to be a well written one too. For a comic book. Never going to compete with a proper, character driven movie. It's an ensemble cast too. Ensemble casts are hard to do proper relationships and character development. We don't really find out much about Merry and Pippin's relationship, nothing at all about Legolas and Gimli beyond their racist jokes. But yes, Frodo and Sam make better protagonists than Iron Man and Captain America :P

I loved THE AVENGERS, I honestly can't remember the last time I had so much fun watching a movie. Iron Man ( and THE HULK ) did steal the show but I thought all the characters got a good look in.

p.s. it most definitely WASN'T an IRON MAN 3 movie

It's the best super hero flick I've ever seen.

I wouldn't say that but it was a lot of fun!

-Erik-

Hmmm?

THE DARK KNIGHT, liked it but dare I say I also found it tedious, watching it again only recently I found it boring at times but would spark into life every now and then, especially when Heath Ledger is on screen. Bale growling away as Batman irritated me also plus the score is shit.

THE WATCHMEN, I think we're both in agreement that this was a very good and criminally underrated adaptation of the graphic novel. Great cast and exceptionally well realised.

SUPERMAN, this is the MAIN contender for best superhero movie, again a brilliant cast, a score that is so far beyond all other superhero scores, the film also has something lacking in most others and that is a BIG HEART.

If you like Joss' work there and superheros, I strongly suggested ordering his run on the comic book series The Astonishing X-Men.