Chris At The Pictures

Everyone seemed bowled over when Joss Whedon’s first foray into the Marvel Cinematic Universe hit screens three years ago, but upon re-watch it felt (at least to some) that the gags well all loved the first time fell a little flat and the spell was somewhat broken: maybe people were shocked that a superhero film could have any margin of wit beyond endless self-referential satire? Regardless, the majority still left the cinema after Avengers Assemble with a smile wide enough to put the Cheshire cat to shame: so, does Age of Ultron meet the standard?

First, the plot: after several successful missions to bring the remnants of Hydra to justice, less-than-satisfied Iron Man Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr.) asks Bruce Banner (Mark Ruffalo) to help him kick-start an artificial intelligence programme, Ultron, to take over from the Avengers and ensure world peace. It all goes up in smoke and the Ultron programme has taken on a life of its own (voiced with honeyed evilness by James Spader) and it’s up to the Avengers to save the world again.

Strangely, everything that worked so well in the first Avengers feels empty here, and everything that’s great about Age of Ultron is what was missing in its predecessor. The bright, pristine colours of the 2012 film are gone, replaced with a total visual mess. The unimaginative cinematography rarely pauses to take in the scenery and spends a lot of time thrust up against the actors’ faces, which becomes such an issue that there are some moments where we get the Transformers problem (read: a lot of stuff happens very loudly and incomprehensibly). There is a fine line between delirious and dizzying, and Age of Ultron crosses it way too often.

But where the Transformers comparison (thankfully) falls away is that not only can you follow the story and the characters, you enjoy spending time with them. The gags feel a lot less forced and will definitely stand up to a second viewing, and the script is much more streamlined, giving every character has their time to shine. Standout moments are gifted to Jeremy Renner as Hawkeye and Elizabeth Olsen as newcomer Scarlet Witch, and James Spader's Ultron is gleefully nasty, a dark side reflection of his creator.

For those not fortunate enough to have caught up with the standalone pieces (and if you’re one of those, check out Iron Man 3 right now) then don’t fret, as the script ties up the small character strands (such as Tony Stark’s fear of the wormhole) rather neatly. I only wish that the musical flair of the solo pieces transitioned so smoothly. Brian Tyler – whose scores for Iron Man 3 and Thor: The Dark World I bought the moment I left the cinema after each respective film – has been hired to work the decks here, and has failed spectacularly: despite assistance from Danny Elfman, the music is dull and uninspired, saved only in the moments when tAlan Silvestri’s superior work from Avengers Assemble is hastily spliced in.

However, nit-picking the faults in the music or complaining about the jumbled visuals feels like taking pebbles from a beach in the face of such a gigantic film firing on all cylinders. This is a film made by someone who really enjoys the source material and wants the audience to have fun too. Whatever faults Age of Ultron has (and there are many), it’s still an entertaining, funny, light-footed action romp that doesn’t feel the need to stoop to the lowest common denominator.

There are enough of those ‘wow’ moments; those iconic shots when the group stand together in the face of unimaginable odds, and the music swells and Tony Stark drops a clever quip, to keep you engaged and grinning. That’s what you want in an Avengers movie, and when it works, it really works. 

From director Luc Besson – taking a break from producing more Taken sequels – Lucy is a science-fiction thriller starring Scarlett Johansson. When the eponymous heroine is caught up in a drug deal in which a performance-enhancing substance leaks into her bloodstream, she soon discovers that the unreachable 90% of her brain capacity are slowly unlocking, giving way to a vast range of new abilities. With the help of a genetics professor (Morgan Freeman), Lucy attempts to escape her captors and control her developing powers before she is consumed by them.

2014 has certainly been a bumper year for Scarlett Johansson, from her ethereal performance in Under the Skin to her star turn in Spike Jonze’s Her, she’s had a lot to offer, and Lucy is no different. Initially terrified and believably stricken, her performance develops as her powers escalate, slowly becoming cold and detached from the world, a near-reversal of Under the Skin, where in this case her humanity fades and a cold and calculated killer emerges. Sadly Morgan Freeman feels easily replaceable in his role, almost an offshoot of his character in Transcendence, a film we shall return to later. Where other characters are concerned there is very little to speak of, as none of them are given any real development but if anything this helps the film keep focus on Lucy.

The film is terrifically shot, the fast-paced handheld work knowing when to hand things over to a slower, more intimate technique when there is pause to reflect, and is perfectly echoed by composer Eric Serra, who I for one am glad to see back in Besson’s capable hands. Providing a musical backdrop that wavers from bass-heavy electro in the action set pieces to smaller yet dramatic motifs in the quiet spells, one can easily see why Serra and cinematographer Thierry Arbogast are Besson’s favoured sons. This combination alone is what helps the film survive a rather choppy and mishandled opening twenty minutes.

To return to Transcendence then, a film which I favoured much more than it probably deserved due to the clear ambition beneath the surface. In a similar fashion, the final third of Lucy is remarkable for the director’s unrelenting aspirations to films such as 2001: A Space Odyssey. Without wishing to spoil it, the ending yearns to stretch far beyond the limitations one would expect of a typical action thriller and into the realms of full-on science fiction fantasy, sporting some truly gorgeous visuals courtesy of the ever-reliable Industrial Light and Magic. Sadly an earlier sub-plot becomes entangled with the ending and saps a little of the emotional resonance, as does a strain of cold detachment in the tone. This may arguably be there to enhance the final message of the movie but it remains a hindrance to investment in the chracters.

Lucy is a film I admire more for its ambition than technical prowess, and while still a decent thriller interwoven with supernatural elements, the latter soon becomes too much for the rest of the film to handle and narrowly escapes collapsing under its own weight. It is nevertheless intriguing, great to look at, acted well, and comes packed with an ending that will leave your head spinning. Returning Luc Besson to form and creating another addition to Johansson’s rapidly expanding portfolio, it’s worth the watch.

3 stars

There’s a moment in Avengers Assemble where Tony Stark/Iron Man and Steve Rogers/Captain America are arguing, and Stark says ‘It’s not really my style.’, to which Rogers replies snidely ‘…and you’re all about style, aren’t you?’. In a way, this one line encapsulates the difference between the different strands of the Marvel cinematic universe. After the high-octane thrill rides that were Iron Man 3 and Thor: The Dark World brought the style, Captain America: The Winter Soldier brings the substance.

The latest instalment in the Marvel franchise follows Steve Rogers (Chris Evans) in the months following Avengers Assemble, adjusting to life in the 21^st century and helping S.H.I.E.L.D, led by Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson) track down and eliminate threats, with the help of an elite commando unit led by Black Widow (Scarlett Johansson). Upon returning from a successful mission with some key enemy information, the tables are turned and a nefarious unit within S.H.I.E.L.D make it their mission to track down Captain America, who goes undercover with Black Widow to discover the truth.

Whilst the two previous films felt more like action-adventure romps, The Winter Soldier feels more like a cold-war espionage era thriller that just happens to have a couple of great big special effects sequences in it. Whilst Iron Man 3 – which I really liked – felt somewhat all over the place in terms of pacing, this feels much more coherent and sticks to a much tighter narrative structure, which works very well. Even when the plot twists do make themselves known – and I can assure you that you won’t expect them – the story remains coherent and ordered. Much like the first hour or so of Avengers, this film takes it’s time to give proper, fleshed-out character development, in such a way that even the audience who just turned up to see things explode won’t find it dull. It’s all offset with the reliable Marvel humour and a visual style that is cleaned to a mirror-shine, the fantastic digital cinematography really bringing out the colour in the costumes and the polished surfaces of the S.H.I.E.L.D headquarters.

The leads all give very fine performances; Evans retains his role of trying to keep things morally straight, Johansson continues her alluringly deadly facade but conflicted under the surface. Samuel L. Jackson is always reliably grumpy as Fury and new-comer to the franchise Robert Redford is very good as a morally suspect S.H.I.E.L.D executive. When the action sequences do turn up, they’re a well-balanced mix of in-camera effects and CGI, the hand-to-hand fights packing a real punch in terms of visuals and thumping sound effects, and the great big computer-generated effects still carry enough weight to be believable. 

The only issues with the film are that it stretches the mark in terms of running time, and doesn’t have the fun-factor that felt much more prevalent in the former Marvel films, plus it has little to contribute to the Marvel cinematic universe as a whole (save for a very brief post-credits scene). Captain America: The Winter Soldier is still a worthy addition to the canon, making its mark with an intriguing story, well-developed characters and some extremely well put together action sequences. Roll on, Avengers 2.

4 Stars

Under the Skin is the new film by Jonathan Glazer, a director perhaps best known for 2000’s Sexy Beast. It stars Scarlett Johansson as an extra-terrestrial who prowls the streets of Glasgow in an unassuming white van, seducing men and leading them to their deaths in a series of extraordinarily bizarre methods.

I don’t think I’ve left the cinema feeling so irritated in a very long time. This is not because the film is in any way terrible, as there are undoubtedly some great pieces in there, but I just found it impenetrable. I think a lot of this is to do with the cold, detached way in which the story is told. It’s not a film about getting invested or caring about anyone involved and in a way that’s the problem. There is something interesting and emotionally involving to be found in the story but the film chooses to act more as an observer than actually engaging with it.

On the plus side, there are a number of things to praise within the film. The central performance by Johansson is electrifying, perfectly capturing the strange, ethereal quality of an alien within a human body, understanding that humans have certain emotions but not understanding why (one might – and some have done so – draw a parallel with David Bowie in The Man Who Fell to Earth. The cinematography is inventive and lends itself well to some of the more visually interesting set pieces, such as the sequences when the alien leads her victims to their deaths, and one death scene in particular has a moment of genuine terror that took me several minutes to recover from.

The scratchy, other-worldly musical score is interesting at first but quickly loses its charm after a few minutes and becomes, in the end, rather grating and annoying, throwing me out of several scenes and adding to the detached feeling that persisted until the end, though I still found the use of special effects throughout to be visually enhancing and an actual contribution to the story. There is also a seamless transition from the acting and the real-life encounters with passers-by on the streets, filmed with hidden cameras, although when the proper actors take over much later, they all act like they’re in an art-movie, further adding to the lack of engagement.

Under the Skin is a failure, but an admirable one, an example of a film-maker daring to try something different and inventive regardless of its success with the mainstream or not and does so with a certain level of visual intrigue. It sells itself as an erotic thriller, but at no point was I aroused or really thrilled…just rather frustrated.

2.5 Stars