The Avengers

For many, comic books are the source of joy, and when those comic books become adapted into movies, everyone gets excited. The long awaited movie of Marvel's, The Avengers series is no different, with all of of the Avenger characters getting their own movies, and finally coming together in this epic showdown between good and evil. With it being so highly rated before coming into theaters, I was honestly a bit skeptical, but also hyped for one reason: the characters it mainly featured.


Our story is Loki, the Norse Trickster God, and the main villain of the movie Thor, somehow gets to Earth to take the Tesseract, an infinite source of energy, and is capable of opening a portal to another world. He takes over the minds using his spear to make one of the best archers and the best scientist into his slaves. Nick Fury assembles the Avengers, which are Iron Man, Thor, Captain America, The Hulk, and Black Widow, in order to stop the destruction of Earth, and stop Loki. Problem is, will they be able to assemble and get along long enough to stop Loki, or will chaos envelope the world?

The characters were both the strong point and the weak point of the movie. Loki is still driven by revenge, which in a way makes sense, but the extremes he goes to in order to exact his revenge are irrational at best. He plans on destroying the world due a grudge on Thor, all because Loki was adopted. All the other characters were also well done, and the interactions between them were amazing, and funny. They actually picked on one of the problems I have with Iron Man, which is the fact with out the suit, he is nothing, among the random jabs at the characters and their super-hero back ground.Although the characters had their bickering moments due to cultural differences, they eventually dropped some of it, and they straightened up and flew right.

There were no shortages of fight scenes or explosions in the movie, though it feels like you have to wait forever for them. True, between character fights and disputes through out the movie there were a fair few fight scenes, but I have to give the Hulk the award for most amusing fight scene, but the best fight scene, besides the grand finale, has to go to Iron Man, Thor, and Captain America. It was well coordinated, and I can see that actually happening if the Avengers were real, and it was, for me, a display of their power against each other, while Loki was just amused.

In the movie, the world may be going to hell in a hand basket, but that does not stop the humor from going on in the movie.. This movie in a lot of parts made me laugh at the witty dialogue, and the characters reactions to one another. From Thor's amusement of the human world, to Iron Man's witty comebacks, to Captain America's confusement at the modern world, these reactions and comebacks were almost nothing short of priceless. At one point, Nick Fury said "I bet you ten dollars that this world has changed a lot more than you thought," and when they get on the air ship, Captain America is amazed at the technology, and proceeds to hand Nick Fury the ten dollars.

Music score wise, the music was phenomenal and fit well with the movie. All the scenes had well coordinated msic, and to boot, the music felt like it was supposed to be there. There were no awkward silences between characters because even when there was no music, the tension between the characters was well portrayed, and felt realistic. The music was catchy, which is always a plus, and they knew how to balance it out between having the music out in front or to have it in the back.

Personally, this have to be one of the most epic movies I have ever seen. Each character was well portrayed and they really kept the personalities of the characters from the original movies. Also, they kept the romance to a minimum, thank god. I highly recommend anyone, super hero fan or not, to go see this movie because there is a little something for everyone: action and violence for the dudes, and steaming hot men for the chicks.

Chronicle

Imagine if you and your friends one day come across a giant hole, and then you decided to go in it. All of a sudden, you all find a bright lit up mass, and you all decide to touch it, just to realize that the next day you have telekinesis powers.You and your friends experiment on what you guys can do, starting off small, then moving things as big as cars. Finally, you guys learn to take to the skies.  After a while of using your powers, you start to become cocky due to the influence of your friends, and eventually lead to your doom.

The story of Chronicle follows Andrew, Matt, and Steven who come across telekinetic powers by accident. They then start using their powers, but they have nosebleeds as a result of using it too much, but as they get stronger, they don't have as many nose bleeds. As Andrew begins to delve deeper in using his powers, a question arises: the lion does not feel guilty about killing the gazelle, then why do humans feel guilty about killing other humans? As he tries to struggle with the question, and other events going on around him, such as his violent father, and his dying mother, his friends have to save him from the ultimate weapon: himself.

The story was quite interesting really. I liked how the people who came across the super powers were just average guys, with no ulterior motive in to using them. Often times in super hero movies, the guys who receive the super hero powers are often times the self-sacrificing types, and while they might use their powers for good and try to beat the bad guys, I think that is actually boring at a point because no regular person thinks like that. No, this story is about three kids who find the power, and then try and use it for their benefit, not the world's.

The film its self was done in an odd way. The way the story was told was that Andrew had a camera, and you saw everything from the camera's point of view. Also, when his camera was not in use, you still did not have that many "professional" cameras capturing the action; you still had to rely on the cameras around, such as security cameras and T.V. cameras capturing the news, which made the experience unlike any I have ever had before watching a movie. The way it was presented made it feel like this could have very well happened in real life, and that some one was just there to film it. 

The characters are well done and they actually grow and progress through out the movie. Andrew  is kind of silent, and the kid with a camera, and then as the movie progresses, he starts to come out of his shell. Steven is the out going kid who wants to be student president. Matt, Andrew's cousin, is kind of the popular kid, however, he is less out going than Steven. Given all the diverse personalities, I think they actually got along pretty well, and even had their share of disputes.

The green screen for the effects was very well done. When they took to the skies, it actually looked like they were actually flying and just not on a green screen. Also, the effects of them moving the stuff like cars and such was very fluid; it was like they were actually moving them telekinetically. Also, the wire effects were well done, and it made everything look decently real.

Over all, I say that this is a must see movie. It has action, and it has a unique was of presenting the story through cameras. It also has that coming of age feel that we all love in movies. I highly recommend it to any one who wants to go see it, you will not be disappointed.