The Avengers blows up cineplexes as only a good, solid summer blockbuster can. Getting here took a while: If you count two Iron Man films, Thor, Captain America, and both the original and rebooted Hulk, that's six films of various quality to set up this one.
Now, this six-pack of Marvel heroes arrives ready to save the earth. It adds up to big, loud fun.
The evil god Loki (Thor's brother, played by Hiddleston) has promised an ancient, eternal energy source to evil aliens, if they'll help him take over our planet. Loki is cruel and ornery. He steals scientist Skarsgård and brainwashes arrow-slinging Hawkeye (Renner) to help him start the war. At first our heroes don't want to work together. This is when Nick Fury (Jackson) uses both earnest logic and underhanded psychology to make these super-humans into a team.
Producers were smart to hire director/co-writer Joss Whedonâ┚¬â€Âthe man behind Buffy and Firefly. Whedon knows witty dialogue exposition to reveal character. In fact, Whedon takes nearly half the movie to set up the climactic battle to give them heart.
Maybe The Avengers doesn't have the complexity of The Dark Knight or the emotional beauty of the subway scene in Spiderman 2. Perhaps there are too many protagonists for complete character development. It's still a very strong, explosive comic flick you can bet your bucks will come out on top.
This could be titled How To Kill an Idea, or We Forgot to Tell a Story. This is deadly awful, meandering junk that even a gifted cast cannot save.
Depp is Barnabas Collins, a 1760s fishing mogul who is turned into a vampire and buried alive by a lovelorn witch (Green). Some 200 years later, in 1972, he's dug up to find Green now controls his town. He vows to return his family their former glory. In between, there are ghosts, reincarnations, petty thieveries, sex, slaughter, and lots of talk about architecture.
The original was a complicated, supernatural soap opera in the late 60s and early 70s. Director Tim Burton and writer Seth Graham-Smith (Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter) took every gimmick from the original series' six years and crammed them into this two-hour long miasma. There are entirely too many characters with nothing to do. Plot holes gape like open graves. Most jokes are dead dull.
Is the pretty scenery and makeup enough to resuscitate it? Nope. Even the 1970s gags aren't used to their full potential.
The most rage-inducing element is that there is absolutely nothing to cause the pulse to race. Despite the pedigree of the cast, Depp's character vacillates between determination and complete confusion. The battles never escalate, there are no surprises, and nothing leads to the climax, which itself is rather wispy. Honestly, Dark Shadows would've been better off if it had stayed buried in the past.
In Borat and Bruno, there was something gleeful about how Baron Cohen surprised people. He'd dress up in disguise to catch the unsuspecting dupe. In Borat, his post-Communist idiot also uncovered the American idiots he visited. Gay Eurotrash Bruno exposed our country's ugly undertones of homophobia and Puritanism.
The Dictator is a more traditional tale, so the surprise is gone. The other actors are in on his game, and the joke itself is only intermittently funny. When it is, though, it's really funny.
Baron Cohen is the maniacal leader of the fake east African country Wadiya. His aide Kingsley was supposed to be king. When they have to go to the U.N. in NYC to answer charges of building nuclear weapons, Kingsley sets a trap to wrest leadership. Baron Cohen is abandoned to a gullible tree-hugger (Faris), who runs an eco-friendly food co-op.
You can guess the general arc of the story. Still, a few disgustingly funny gags liberate the film. Apparently, the world's dictators pay celebrities for sex; the list is disturbing and hilarious. At one point, Baron Cohen has to delve into a famous actress's innards to help deliver a baby. Baron Cohen's speech at the U.N. is brilliant, political satire. Finally, you'll be downright appalled by what they do with the severed head of a civil rights leader.
These types of shockers make The Dictator gross-out hilarious, getting our vote when the basic plot fails.
