Beautifully Assembled

As you are no doubt aware, I make my judgement of how any particular summer at the movies will be, quality wise, based on how well the first BIG movie is. Last year, the Marvel train was in full force, kicking things off with Thor, which I loved. And luckily, my prediction was right on the money. Summer 2011 was a great season, but if my prediction now is accurate, then it will in no way touch this summer. Let me just get it out of the way right now. I am expecting great things from Prometheus, cannot wait for Brave, am stoked for Ted and for GI Joe, and, of course, am anticipating the hell out of The Dark Knight Rises. But if any of those films can beat The Avengers for my number 1, then I will be floored. What Marvel studios, along with writer/director Joss Whedon have done is truly marvelous, a triumph of character mixed with spectacle mixed with humor mixed with emotion mixed with action. After five films and tons and tons of teases and build up, the wait is over. The Avengers have assembled, and they defy every expectation there was or could have been.

Made in the U.S. of A.

And with that, the longest theatrical trailer of all time comes to an end. After two Iron Man flicks, a Hulk movie, and Thor, only one thing remained before Nick Fury's elusive team assembled. And now there's nothing left. Thankfully, Marvel goes out with a bang. Captain America: The First Avenger, while nowhere near a masterpiece, and certainly far from the best under the Marvel brand, is a much more superior film than you would initially believe. With a healthy amount of well crafted action, strong acting, and the smartest use of Avengers promotion yet, Captain America offers a solid and more than sufficiently entertaining bout of comic book mayhem. It's smarter than it needed to be, and more stylish than was required.

Mission Accomplished! Where's my apple pie?

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Title Translation: Total Domination in leetspeak... I am such a geek...

Slowly, but surely, I'm overcoming the challenges of being a film blogger who is suddenly thrown into an area where theaters are not exactly easy to come by. You know all those movies that were huge at the end of the summer that were conspicuously absent from this blog? Well, blame Leon Botstein for that. Anyway, as the movies I missed slowly start to trickle out onto DVD, I, like a fiendish feline (alliteration FTW), pounce on them all. There are a few which have still eluded my grasp, but, the big kahuna has finally found its way into my hands. Scott Pilgrim vs. The World was on my short list of films that absolutely had to be seen this past summer. My prediction was right; Scott Pilgrim was great. As a guy who is pretty well versed in video game culture and no so secretly digs on the whole power ups, levels, and boss fights thing, this was film was something of a godsend. And now that I've seen it, I'm finally going to jump in line behind y'all with my verdict. Im slow to the draw, but, what do you want from me? I'm young.

Epically Epic On An Epic Scale Of Epicness!!!