THE AVENGERS - fanboy paradise

Joss Whedon has done it (with much help, I suspect). The Avengers was loads of fun, action packed and genuinely amusing.

For those out there that could care less about superheroes, comics and the plethora of blockbuster movies with their sequels over the past decade, this one is for you. If you don't leave the theater appreciating superheroes and their relative appeal, I much doubt that you ever will.

This film will surely please anyone even remotely interested in comics and their celluloid counterparts. The Avengers contains a number of little inside jokes, cameos and marvel esoterica that will likely appease the hardcore fans as well as catering to an audience of fresh recruits.

All the characters, old and new, converge in a rather simple yet perfect story for platitudinous display - good vs evil. The movie takes place on virtually only 2 sets - a giant flying airship and Manhattan. Both of which are summarily destroyed - rightly so. The Avengers is unsophisticated in scope and execution but this is not really to its discredit. You have heroes, some supernatural, some not, who have some initial qualms about linking up as a team but ultimately they must overcome their own internal conflicts and come together to combat the unambiguous evil that pervades. The humor gives the entertainment value even higher points and doubtless charm. The Hulk and Iron Man are case in point for a perfect comedic pair. I hope they make a movie together! Loki's helmet and Samuel L. Jackson's robotic acting are about the only complaints I would muster. The special effects were great, nonstop and perfectly suited to this heroic extravaganza. A great movie? Depends on your definition. Probably No. A great super hero movie? A definitive Yes. One of the best.

Recommended Viewing: X-Men II - The Punisher (1989) - Batman (1989)

              Bob Scale: Objective: 7.9   -   Subjective: 8.6

             MetaCritic: 69

 Rotten Tomatoes: 93

                      IMDB: 8.8

THE CABIN IN THE WOODS - evil dead resurrected

I think MC Escher would have lent his design talent towards this film. It had many twists, turns, ups, downs, all in a jumbled mess of near incoherence in addition to a plethora of nonsensical phantasmagoria. And that is precisely what makes this movie a small treasure of sorts.

Joss Whedon, writer of Toy Story and director of the upcoming Avengers, penned this bizarro tale. The story is quite epic in scale and in my opinion, could have truly shined so much more as a TV series. There were just too many good ideas on display here to be conflated in under two hours. I really believe this could have been the next Lost if allotted the proper amount of time and energy.

Despite the fun time at the movies feel that The Cabin In The Woods certainly provides, it comes up short as a solid work of art. Most people know that comedy and horror find an interesting and rather advantageous balance in the best of the horror genre. In Cabin, the horror seems to underwhelm and the comedy seems to overwhelm, which is to say, I believe the right balance was not struck. I really admire what Whedon and others tried to do here, it was high camp obviously inspired by Sam Raimi's Evil Dead, parts 2 and 3.  I will be in the minority here but I found the first Evil Dead to be the most effective and overall the best of the three because it emphasized the horror and not the comedy. Don't get me wrong, I love the comic bits when they feel right but not when they feel forced and take you out of the experience. The pothead (comic relief character) was good but not great with delivery and that, i think, could have been easily fixed with better direction.

A movie to see in the theater with friends for sure, I have no doubt that most will have a good time but critics and fans alike need to quit calling movies smart just because they seem to be clever and original. The Cabin In The Woods has a long way to go to reach the heights of say - The Shining.

Recommended Viewing: Evil Dead - Cube - Drag Me To Hell

              Bob Scale: Objective: 7.0   -   Subjective: 7.5

             MetaCritic: 73

 Rotten Tomatoes: 92

                      IMDB: 7.6