The Avenger Pancakes

Rise Of The Guardians - Review

Rise of the Guardians
(2012 - November 21)
Animation | Adventure | Family
97 min.

Rated: PG  Thematic elements and some mildly scary action
Grade: A-

Director: Peter Ramsey
Writers: David Lindsay-Abaire (screenplay), William Joyce (book)
Stars: Hugh Jackman, Alec Baldwin and Isla Fisher | See full cast and crew

Rise of the Guardians is an epic adventure that tells the story of a group of heroes - each with extraordinary abilities. When an evil spirit known as Pitch lays down the gauntlet to take over the world, the immortal Guardians must join forces for the first time to protect the hopes, beliefs and imagination of children all over the world. -- (C) Official Site 

After seeing the trailer for this film I was not excited about seeing it and avoided it until there wasn't anything else to see. I had read that the 3D version was worth the extra couple of dollars but I chose to see it in the regular 2D.

Will the children find Rise of the Guardians interesting? Definitely. Will parents be bored to death? I don't think so.

I was quite pleasantly surprised and I might, in fact, see it again in the 3D version. The animation in Rise of the Guardians along with Frankenweenie is probably the best of the year, perhaps the best in several years.

My main objection to this film is the banishment of any Christian relevance in the Christmas and Easter holidays in deference to the Hollywood pagan or humanist standards. This may leave you asking why does Santa have a Russian accent and why are his arms covered with tattoos and why is the Easter Bunny a six-foot tall Australian, but those are conundrums that you can discuss with your children. Those questions aside there is plenty of fantasy, adventure, tension and drama in The Guardians, and yet it still employes plenty of values, morals and life lessons in its story like loyalty, friendship, working together, discovering your purpose in life and so on, plus there is the Tinkerbell like mystery of 'Do yo believe in fairies?'. The film is based on "The Guardians of Childhood," a series of books by William Joyce.

Rise of the Guardians is a little bit like The Avengers, sort of a Hall of Fame band of children's Super-Heros. It is bursting with childhood icons like Santa Claus, the Tooth Fairy, the Easter Bunny, the Sandman, Jack Frost and the Man in the Moon. This film is action packed with some mild violence revolving around the scary 'bad guy' Pitch Black a.k.a. the Boogie Man.

Pitch takes the dreams of children, left by the Sandman, and turns them into nightmares with his cavalry of wispy, menacing stallions. I would suspect that some of these scenes will seem more intense and frightening for the little ones in the movie's 3-D version. It includes some taunting language like "coward" and "selfish" and "go suck an egg," and includes the death of some characters. Whether they personally believe in these characters or not, kids will root for the Guardians as they fight the forces of chaos and despair.

Plot

Don't want to give anything away so we'll keep it brief and generic. Jack Frost loves creating fun for children. He is especially proud of 'Snow Days' when kids get a break from school and can play in the snow and have snow ball fights (some parents may be unsettled by the direct hits to the head some of the kids take). Suddenly Jack is captured and delivered through a portal to Santa's kingdom when an evil specter called Pitch Black becomes bent upon taking over the world by inspiring fear in the hearts of kids everywhere. Jack was summoned because the Man in the Moon has told the existing Guardians that Jack Frost has been chosen to join them, they must convince him to take up the cause before Pitch can snuff out the light of hope in every child of the world, but Jack isn't sure he wants to be a Guardian. The Guardians are a band of superheroes, who possess their own special powers. They must now join in opposition of a common foe, and they need Jack. The Guardians must heed the call and combine their powers to defeat Pitch and protect the world from his campaign of fear.

Cast

Jack Frost (voiced by Chris Pine), a carefree immortal figure who creates winter fun for children who don't really believe in him. Pitch Black (Jude Law) rallies his nightmare forces to cause worldwide despair and make children stop believing in the Guardians of Childhood: Santa Claus (Alec Baldwin), the Easter Bunny (Hugh Jackman), the Tooth Fairy (Isla Fisher), and the Sandman.

   Chris Pine   Hugh Jackman   

Jack Frost     Easter Bunny

    Isla Fisher     Jude Law  

    Tooth Fairy    Pitch Black

   Alec Baldwin    Sandman

   Santa

Dakota Goyo

Jamie Bennett (voice)

 

The Avengers - Review (updated 5/8/12 + Howard the Duck)

The Avengers grosses $18.7 million in late-night shows

Marvel's The Avengers

Opens today May 4, 2012

(Already opened in some foreign markets)

Run time: 2 hs 23 min

PG-13
Intense Sci-Fi Action/Violence and A Mild Drug Reference
Rating: A

Budget $220 Million
Box office to date $300+ Million

Nick Fury of S.H.I.E.L.D. brings together a team of super humans to form The Avengers to help save the Earth from Loki and his army. 

I saw this in the IMAX 3D format. I didn't mind the 3D effects at all (although the glasses made my face sweat which was a distraction). It was one of the first showings at 12:01 AM the theater was sold out and full of Comic Book geeks, er I guess I should say fans (although I think even they would call themselves Super Hero Geeks when they come to the movie dressed up in Super Hero costumes). They loved the film. I was all prepared to be underwhelmed...BUT I WASN'T! It has been a long time since I have been in a theater where the audience as a whole laughed and cheered a film. At the end there was cheering and applause.

I will update this post soon with a more complete review. (In the meantime I have included the synopsis of the film as posted on Wikipedia.)

I guarantee that this is going to be a huge box office smash hit! It has already topped $300 million prior to it's US opening and should make around $150 million this opening weekend.
 

Update: (Aug. 8, 2012)

Marvel's Avengers smashes box office records! 

Opening weekend in America tops $207 million, the previous record was held by Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows part II at $169.2 million. The Avengers worldwide box office has exceeded $702 million in just 13 days.

OK, I was off on the opening weekend box office by 38%. Oops, my bad. Instead of $150 million it earned $207 million. But I was certainly right about it being a smash hit.
Avengers even gave a boost to the financially troubled Disney film, John Carter, after being teamed up as a double feature at Drive-in Theaters over the weekend, John Carter's earnings jumped by 1,224% over its previous weekend earnings.
There were 127 films playing during The Avengers' opening weekend. Avengers earned over four times as much as the other 126 films combined, totaling $207 million of the weekends total receipts of $258.2 million.

I have added some pictures to the previously posted review and a little personal tale about Howard the Duck, NOT one of Marvel's super hits.

None of the characters dominate this film, as it should be, a credit to Josh Whedon and Zak Penn. Who would have suspected that the Hulk, who hardly speaks at all,  would deliver two of the best laughs in the entire film.

The Avengers is fairly long but not that you will notice. It keeps you involved the entire time. The comedy and the suspense work very well with each other, artfully balanced by director Josh Whedon.

Synopsis:

Nick Fury (Samuel L Jackson), director of the espionage agency S.H.I.E.L.D., arrives at a remote research facility during an evacuation. The Tesseract, an energy source of unknown potential, has activated and opened a portal through space, through which the exiled Norse god Loki (Tom Hiddleston) steps. Loki takes the Tesseract, and uses his abilities to control the minds of several S.H.I.E.L.D. personnel including agent Clint Barton (Jeremy Renner), and physicist consultant Dr.Erik Selvig (Stellan Skarsgard) in order to aid in his getaway.

In response to the attack, Fury reactivates the Avengers Initiative. Agent Natasha Romanoff (Scarlett Johannson) is sent to India to recruit Dr. Bruce Banner (Mark Ruffalo), while Agent Phil Coulson (Clark Gregg), approaches Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr.) and requests that he review Selvig's research. Fury himself approaches Steve Rogers (Chris Evans) with an assignment to retrieve the Tesseract from Loki. During his exile, Loki encountered the Other (Alexis Denisof), an alien conqueror who in exchange for the Tesseract offers Loki an army of the alien race called the Chitauri in order for him to subjugate Earth.

Rogers, Stark and Romanoff travel to Germany to apprehend Loki, who is recovering iridium needed to stabilize the Tesseract's power and demanding that the civilians kneel before him. After a battle with Captain America and Iron Man, Loki surrenders and is escorted back to a S.H.I.E.L.D. plane. However, Thor (Chris Hemsworth), Loki's adoptive brother and the Norse god of thunder, arrives and attempts to free Loki to reason with him. Stark and Rogers confront Thor, and Loki is eventually returned to the Helicarrier, a high-tech, flying aircraft carrier, and placed in a cell designed to hold the Hulk.

 

The Avengers are divided, both over how to approach Loki and the revelation that S.H.I.E.L.D. plan to harness the Tesseract's power to develop weapons. Fury admits that the events in New Mexico a year before made S.H.I.E.L.D. aware of extraterrestrial life, some of whom may see Earth as a target. The decision was made to produce weapons with the Tesseract as a means of deterrence. As the group argues, Barton and Loki's other possessed agents attack the Helicarrier, disabling its engines in flight. As Stark and Rogers attempt to restart the damaged engines, Banner transforms into the Hulk, despite Romanoff's best efforts to calm him down, and runs amok inside the ship, fighting Thor. During a fight with Barton, Romanoff discovers that a blow to the head — powerful enough to knock Barton unconscious — is enough to break Loki's mind control. Loki escapes, killing Agent Coulson as he does so, and Thor and the Hulk are each ejected from the ship.

Fury uses Coulson's death to motivate the Avengers into working as a team. Stark and Rogers realize that simply defeating them will not be enough for Loki; he needs to overpower them in a very public way so as to validate himself as ruler of Earth. Using a device built by Selvig, Loki opens a portal to the Chitauri fleet over Manhattan, summoning a Chitauri invasion.

 

The Avengers rally in defense of New York, but quickly realize they will be overwhelmed as wave after wave of Chitauri descend upon Earth. With help from Barton, Rogers and Stark evacuate civilians, while Banner transforms into the Hulk again and goes after Loki, beating him into submission. Romanoff makes her way to the portal, where Selvig, freed of Loki's control, reveals that Loki's staff can be used to close the portal.

Meanwhile, Fury's superiors attempt to end the invasion by launching a nuclear missile at Manhattan. Stark intercepts the missile and takes it through the portal toward the Chitauri fleet before running out of power and plummeting back to Earth, but the Hulk catches him as he falls. Thor escorts Loki and the Tesseract back to Asgard, while Fury notes that the Avengers will go their separate ways until such time as a new world-threatening menace emerges.

Buy The Avengers merchandise:

DVD/Blu-ray (pre-order), 

Books,

Magazines,

Action Figures,

Posters,

Clothing,

or all kinds of other Avenger related merchandise

Cast of The Avengers at the 2010 San Diego Comic-Con International, with Joss Whedon and Kevin Feige.

In a post-credits scene, the Other confers with his master about the attack on Earth. In a second post-credits scene, the Avengers — gathered at a shawarma restaurant — eat in silence.

My Personal brush with 'fame' at Marvel

Stan Lee is the artist who brought most of the Super Heroes to life in the pages of Marvel's comic books. He has appeared at various pre-release events for the Avengers. He was not, however, responsible for Howard the Duck. 

Many years ago way back in the 70s, I did some work for Marvel Comics. At some of the pre-release publicity events in NYC for the movie, Howard the Duck. Although the comic was seen as one of the best of the 70s, its transition to the silver screen was not so warmly received by critics many who still refer to it as one of the worst movies of all time, it was proclaimed as a major movie fiasco heaping ridicule on all those involved including: George Lucas, Tim Robbins, Lea Thompson, and Jeffery Jones.

Anyway back to me...I made some personal appearances as Howard the Duck back in the 70s. One of those appearances was at a party for the children of Marvel executives. It was a part of the annual International Toy Fair in Manhattan. It was to occupy the children while the parent executives did their 'adult' stuff.  It is a tremendously important industry convention/trade-show. 

And...If I may be so bold, the children were for the most part ill mannered, privileged, spoiled, little monstrous brats. It was not one of my shining moments as an actor. I couldn't say one of my most favorite and special experiences nor was it what I would come to remember as a pleasant experience.