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

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.

Trailer Reviews - The Hunger Games: Catching Fire Trailer #2

Earlier today at Comic-Con, they released the latest trailer for The Hunger Games: Catching Fire. This trailer was then uploaded to Yahoo! Movies for those who didn't go to Comic-Con. I'm one of those guys who sat at home waiting to review this trailer like I did the last one (to see my review of the previous Catching Fire trailer, click here.) Again, like I said in my previous trailer review and my pre-review for this film, I will more than likely deal with spoilers, since the film is based on a book which I have read. This review is geared towards those who have also read the book.

To start things off, here is the link to the trailer in question. I can't link it like my last couple trailer reviews, as the trailer isn't currently on YouTube that I could find. http://movies.yahoo.com/movie/the-hunger-games-catching-fire/

The Hunger Games: Catching Fire is an upcoming action-adventure film based on the novel Catching Fire by Susanne Collins that follows Katniss Everdeen and Peeta Mellark as they tour the districts of Panem on their victory tour after winning the 74th annual Hunger Games. What they don't realize is that their defiance of the rules that they demonstrated in the Games has made them into role models for a rebellion rising in the districts. This prompts President Snow to mark them both as well as the previous Game victors as threats to be resolved in the Quarter Quell.

This new trailer offer much more than the previous, which is something I like to see. I'm not a fan of when trailers reuse the same footage in every trailer and only offer a small handful of new clips. This one recycles a few shots, but the majority of it is new material. This trailer also touches on a major plot point of the story, the Quarter Quell. The Quarter Quell was hinted at in the end of the previous trailer, but never outright shown or explained. We were only treated to an exchange between President Snow and Heavensbee: "Her entire species must be eradicated." "Her species, sir?" "The other victors. Because of her, they think they're invincible."

Now I'm going to get into the shot-by-shot review. I'll be doing this a bit differently, since trailers skip around with shots, I will be grouping similar shots and review them as a group, rather than one by one.

The trailer opens with Katniss entering Victor's Village, where all the District 12 victors live after the Games. This is a scene from early on in the book.

While this scene of Katniss and her sister Prim appeared briefly in the previous trailer, none of the dialogue used in the first trailer is recycled. It also touches on something that really drives Katniss's motivations in the book, which is that her acts of rebellion have an effect on not only her, but those she cares for.

Catching Fire is directed by a new director, Francis Lawrence. As such, not everything can be expected to be the same. One thing that I find both different and very interesting is the shots of The Capitol shown in this new trailer. We weren't treated to very many shots of the Capitol in the previous trailer, and the shots in this one seem different to me than how I remember the Capitol looking in the previous movie. In The Hunger Games, I always thought the Capitol looked a lot like Corescant in the Star Wars Prequel Trilogy, but the Capitol in this film looks more like a cross between Corescant and a modern day city with normal skyscrapers. All that being said, in the trailer over-all, I do get more of a sci-fi feel from this trailer than I did in the entire first movie.

Advanced technology was hinted at in the first film, but this trailer certainly shows a bit more. Like in the above picture of Katniss and Peeta being filmed by a camera system. They doesn't appear to be any crew, but it's a trailer. We're only treated to two shots of it. This shot also begins to show the complicated relationship (or lack thereof) between the two, which Peeta then explains.

Also prevalent in this trailer is the threat of rebellion. The trailers (and I wouldn't be surprised if the movie also takes this view), but Gale seems to be the leader of the rebellion. There are many shots of rebellion, (some recycled from the first trailer) including the execution of Rue's family member, the attack on and burning of the Hub, and Gale's whipping.

Dang, she grew several feet in only a year...

In the book, the kiss between Katniss and Gale was only mentioned as already happened, but the movie (being a movie) needs to show it. It also takes it a step further by proving that President Snow has been spying on Katniss's activities via cameras, as in the trailer, we see that Snow has video evidence of the kiss. The President's threat against her family is also shown dramatically.

The trailer also expands upon the Quarter Quell, a topic that is a major plot point in the book and almost completely absent in the first trailer. We are also teased with brief glimpses of Katniss's wedding dress and Phoenix dress.

 And the final topic in the trailer: The Quell itself. The 75th Hunger Games in which past victors are chosen and must fight to the death. We are shown shots of victors training, including a brief shot of Finnick Odar, Enobaria, Gloss and I think Johanna. As the trailer closes, we get a brief glimpse of the arena, and Katniss dives into the water.

The Hunger Games: Catching Fire. Coming to theaters November 22, 2013. I liked this trailer, as it did not use too much footage from the previous one, and they do give more information on the driving plot point, the quell. I will say though, they don't shown that much of Peeta or Haymitch in this trailer. It reminded me of the latest trailer for The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug in which several main characters, including Thorin and Gandalf, are oddly absent.

I still can't wait to see this movie but until then, May the Odds be Ever in your Favor.