On the recent successes of Marvel's Cinematic Universe

Jeremy Renner as Hawkeye in Avengers: Age of Ultron (2015)

Chris Evans as Captain America and Chris Hemsworth as Thor in Avengers: Age of Ultron (2015)

Mark Ruffalo as The Hulk and Robert Downey Jr as Iron Man in Avengers: Age of Ultron (2015)

Aaron Taylor-Johnson as Quicksilver and Elizabeth Olsen as Scarlet Witch in Avengers: Age of Ultron (2015)

Scarlett Johansson as Black Widow in Avengers: Age of Ultron (2015)

So last week I got the chance to see Marvel’s latest gamble in film making, Guardians of the Galaxy, and it was amazing. Marvel continues to exceed my expectations with the diversity of their film franchises. Almost every film I think won’t be exceptional proves me wrong, and in this case I’m glad that I have been proven wrong.

It all started with The Avengers (2012). Avengers to me seemed like a bad idea. You already had Iron Man (2008), The Incredible Hulk (2008), Iron Man 2 (2010), Thor (2011), and Captain America: The First Avenger (2011) preceding it, all of them giving backstory and fame to each of their titular characters (and in the case of Nick Furry and Black Widow, their secondary characters). It just didn’t look like it would work in my eyes. Each of these characters were developed prior to this film, some of them played by big name actors like Robert Downey Jr, Scarlett Johansson, and Edward Norton (although he didn’t reprise his role). I predicted that the movie would rely too heavily on you having seen the previous films and that Downey would overpower the other leads with his star-power. This wasn’t the case. The Avengers was a perfectly well-balanced film that didn’t just assume that the audience knew everything about the previous ones and went the extra step of further developing each character in a logical and compelling manner.

Chris Hemsworth as Thor, Robert Downey Jr. as Iron Man, and Chris Evans as Captain America in The Avengers (2012)

Next came Captain America: The Winter Soldier (2014). Watching all the trailers, I had low expectations for this film. I saw explosions, a dark blue Captain America suit with little red or white, and little story. I wasn’t intending to go see the film in theaters when it came out, but one day I was trying on jeans at Kohl’s when I got a text from my friend Joey who asked if I’d like to go and see it. I agreed, and I saw what is so far my favorite movie of 2014. Captain America: The Winter Soldier continued in the vein of Avengers and succeeded in my book for two reasons: It used minimal CGI (see my rant on CCP’s tumblr, I used this as an example of CGI done right) and it didn’t fall under the typical mold of a superhero film, instead acting as more of a political thriller. It proved that superhero films weren’t just about the action or the effects.

Chris Evans as Captain America in Captain America: The Winter Soldier (2014)

Finally, Marvel proved me wrong with it’s most recent endeavor, Guardians of the Galaxy (2014). Whereas I had low expectations going into Avengers and Captain America, I had no expectations for Guardians and that was simply because I did not even know what to expect. It was a superhero movie, starring the guy from Parks and Recreation with Bradley Cooper voicing a raccoon and Vin Diesel voicing a tree. I had never even heard of the Guardians prior to this film. It seemed like such a whacky concept that I didn’t know what to think except that it could be a huge flop. But… at the same time if Marvel could make it work, Guardians would open up a whole new world for their cinematic universe. Just like how Captain America proved that the genre didn’t have to just be action/adventure, Guardians proved that Marvel could mix a perfect comedic superhero movie.

Chris Pratt as Peter Quill in Guardians of the Galaxy (2014)

Now comes my next concern: Can Marvel make Avengers 2 work? Avengers: Age of Ultron is set to come out in May 2015 with great expectations placed on its shoulders. Marvel made four movies this year, three of which proved to be some of their strongest works yet (let’s just not mention The Amazing Spider-Man 2… shhhhhhhh). Age of Ultron provides one concern for me, which is plausibility. Can lightning strike twice? Will the reason for the Avengers reassembling be worthy of another movie? Not only that but the same Avengers as the last time? To be fair, they did reunite a few of the Avengers in their standalone movies, such as Captain America and Black Widow in Winter Soldier, or Iron Man and Hulk in Iron Man 3, but will this work? I guess we will just wait and see.

In closing, I may have a few misgivings on Avengers 2, but with the way Marvel movies have been going, I think they have a good chance of making quality movies for years to come, and believe me, they’ve planned them out for several years. There are even rumors that Guardians of the Galaxy was the first step in establishing the plot for Avengers 3!

Avengers: Age of Ultron, scheduled to be released on May 1st, 2015

CLUTCH

Today, I finally got to shoot my first film school project. There's quite the story involved, let me tell you. It all started out as a horror film/comedy short, but evolved into something completely different and much more.

The original story was this: A young girl (Annie) and her friend (Claire) are watching horror films together. Annie makes fun of Claire for being afraid of the movies, saying "they're too fake". However, when she returns home that night to find her house empty and the lights not working, she begins to think she herself is stuck in a horror film. Just when she's the most afraid, the lights come back to reveal it was just a surprise birthday party. But wait! Plot twist, there WAS a killer in the house with her who now feels cheated out of killing her because of so many people.

That was the original. It turned from a house to a school due to location agreements. Then today when we got to filming it, we had to drop this story completely due to our actresses backing out. Determined not to back down, I wrote a new script on the train ride to the city and finished it before reaching the school. I'll wait to give you more details about the story until after I put it out, but here's a summery.

A girl cannot find the inspiration for her script, until a friend comes by and provides her with just the thoughts she needs.

The film stars myself and my assistant director, Amelia DeWane. She did an amazing job and I can't wait to share the whole film with you. In the meantime, here are some pictures:

My Adventure: Stumbling Upon Transformers 4 Filming Location Accidentally

This month, I start school at Tribecca Flashpoint Academy in downtown Chicago. There, I will be studying the aspects of film making. Today, my dad and I went downtown to scout out the school and make sure I could find my way there and back from the train station. On our way, we crossed a street that was blocked off. We didn't think anything of it right away, but then Dad noticed a helicopter hovering around down the way. Once at the school, we found this truck parked outside.

A truck that had a sign that reads "operated by Paramount Pictures, Los Angeles, CA". In the back there was a crate filled with what seemed like filming equipment. I didn't get a good look, though. We were about to start walking back to the train station, Dad and I soon realized that there was actually a movie being filmed on LaSalle. We decided to take a closer look and we discovered that we had stumbled upon the filming site for Transformers 4!

Obviously, we couldn't get too close, but I got to see a quite a lot, all things considered. No actors were present, but there was a large transformer part out in the street (I couldn't get a good picture of that, it was too far away and my phone doesn't zoom). I did get to see a car with a camera crane on top. That was cool. We thought we had seen all that we could see, so we headed back to the train station. BUT! There was more! On the way back, there were several Transformer cars just parked on the street! Most of them were covered in tarps (including one I think was Bumblebee). One of them was OPTIMUS PRIME. He was not covered, as he was being washed. It was super cool.

 I went and looked them up on IMDB as soon as I got home. There indeed was Optimus and that military vehicle.

Opportunities like this don't happen very often, and I just happened to be passing the street when they were setting up. And there were very many people there, so I could get clear pictures of the cars. It was a cool experience. I may not be the biggest Transformers fan, but still. That was cool.