The Avengers

I'm not going to say a ton about Marvel's The Avengers movie -- because I hate spoilers and don't want to be That Guy.

I will say, as a lifetime comic book fan and film guy, I'm very happy with the film.

Joss Whedon and Zak Penn do a great with story and dialog (and the cast with delivery and physicality), and there were some unexpected, laugh-out-loud moments (in a good way).

I also like the parkour stunts for Captain America (I think Levi Meeuwenberg was his double) -- this worked far better for me than the CGI that (for me) takes away from things like the Spider-Man films.

Mark Ruffalo is a surprisingly good Bruce Banner / /Hulk, Tom Hiddleston is an increasingly good Loki (with one particularly good / creepy vitriolic diatribe), and Scarlett Johansson surprised me by holding her own in the film.

And (again avoiding spoilers), the after-credits scene surprised and shocked me, and put my hairs on end -- non fan boys might not get the import, but for me, it teases toward one of the defining story arcs in the Avengers universe.

Well worth a watch. Maybe a re-watch. Or several.

Batman: Year One

I finally got around to watching the Blu-ray of Batman: Year One - and it's pretty solid. Critical and user reviews are all over the map, probably due to fanboy attachment, previous voice actor fixations, and nostalgic reminiscences of the original comic book arc.

If you're not familiar with Frank Miller's seminal retelling of Batman's and James Gordon's origin, it's a gritty, character-driven story about motivations.

The film adaptation is pretty appropriately brutal, pushing the boundaries of its PG-13 animated rating. My big problem with Batman's origin is - if told badly - it's easy to dismiss the critical, devastating death of Bruce Wayne's. This adaptation walks the line pretty well.

Though that's maybe where the film drops a bit -- the original arc was arguably not kid-safe, and trying to make the motion adaptation fit into a safer rating gimps it.

But almost better than the movie are the special features, which are pretty robust for this direct-to-disc release.

• Catwoman -- A sexy (definitely PG-13), slick anime-esque original short pits Eliza Dushku-voiced Selena Kyle against a very, very bad man (voiced by John Di Maggio).
• "Heart of Vengeance" -- A solid (if a bit fawning) look at Frank Miller's comic book work and impact on comics; more than just a "known name", I'd say Miller creatively re-invigorated comics at a critical point in the speculative market that arguably nearly killed the industry.
• Voice acting -- There's a commentary-heavy voice acting feature with producer Alan Burnett, writer/editor Mike Carlin, and Andrea Romano (voice casting director); good for Biz folks.
• Two previous Catwoman cartoons -- Oddly, there's a Catwoman-themed episode each from Batman: The Animated Series and The New Batman Adventures. They're OK, but not stellar. 
• Justice League: Doom -- This teaser shows off the upcoming modernization of the Justice League versus Legion of Doom, popularized in the Super Friends Saturday morning cartoon from the late seventies.

But my favorite extra is the roundtable let by Batman producer Michael Uslan, with Dan Didio, Denny O'Neil and Scott Snyder. Insights from O'Neil by himself made this worth the price of admission for me, but (though it might just be great editing) my favorite part of the interview is seeing young gun Scott Snyder share what resonates with him about the Batman mythos, and watching Didio and O'Neil apparently visibly moved by the impact of the franchise on a new generation of writers.

Overall, a good Blu-ray for content and extras, especially for those of us who are Batman fans and are OK with different expressions of some of our favorite stories.

Rise of the Planet of the Apes

I saw the Rise of the Planet of the Apes, and I am deeply impressed.

I honestly was expecting a great movie. I was not expecting a powerful, moving, and in some ways, important film.

It was all of that.

Yes, I'm tired and impressionable and a ganglion away from my raw emotions right now, but the initial trailers really mislead about what the movie has to say. There's deeper stuff here.

James Franco does a solid job. Well cast, emotive, and not over-used. John Lithgow is brilliant, and his portrayal of a victim of Alzheimer's is poignant and moving and appropriately hard to watch. No, it doesn't show us what it is to live with the disease day in and day out anymore than a movie sex scene shows what a lifetime romance is, but his portrayal is at least less tawdry.

And Andy Serkis gives one of the most powerful utterances I'm heard in a film in a long, long time.

But what's important about a science fiction movie with apes?

I dunno -- maybe what it says about medical ethics, humane treatment of lesser creatures, family love versus obligations, desperate hope in the face of futility, greed, playing god, and revenge versus reckoning?

You know -- light, sci-fi fare.

The film is a prequel to the 1968 film -- and yes, there are earlier entries in the franchise (I had to argue that point with a cheeky cashier who not only didn't understand The Customer is always Right, but she also doesn't know her classics).

Rise does a good job setting up the small set pieces needed to dovetail into Planet of the Apes, and other than one over-done piece of dialog, wasn't hamfisted about it (the extraneous bit of dialog was jarring, and would be OK for homage, but not prequel). On the positive flip side, there's a bit of nifty easter egg here for the first film's leading man.

There also are some neat solid artistic-but-not-art-house composition and shots in the film, if you're into that kind of thing (I am).

On a not-quite-minor point, I'm impressed with the movie's clever use of end credits as epilogue. Some, "But how did" questions get deftly answered in the graphics there. Cheeky Cashier missed that.

I recommend the film. It's not War and Piece, but it is a solid offering that pulls the bandage off of some unresolved debates, watch the small moments, and enjoy the fun ride.

Superman & Batman: Apocalypse

I finally got around to watching Superman & Batman: Apocalypse.

Despite some occasional shortcuts on the animation side, this is one of the more solid comic book animation offerings.

Definitely not kiddie fare, it's a great reprise for Tim Daly as Superman and Kevin Conroy as _the_ Batman.

There is some interesting concantenation of a few start arcs, but there's some meaty content here, and a good expression of the Batman/Superman/Wonder Woman interplay.

There's also a pretty impressive sequence showing what a battle between a Kryptonian and Darkseid should look like.

Definite recommend.