Movie review: In 'The Avengers,' a Marvel-lous team
louis vuitton damier ebene canvas "The Avengers"are here, and resistance is futile.Even if you're frustrated by the relentless calculation of Marvel Studios' plan for world cinema domination, fed up by the shameless way the studio used several of its earlier, at times pro forma superhero movies to promote this one, even if you don't particularly like comic-book adaptations, this film just might make a believer of you.That's because, just like Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson), the über-calculating director of S.H.I.E.L.D. who calls on the Avengers when the fate of the world is at stake, Marvel has gone to its own version of the A-team when the franchise needed it most. That would be Joss Whedon.PHOTOS: 'The Avengers' premiere.As screenwriter, sharer of story credit with Zak Penn and director, Whedon is the key reason why this $220-million behemoth of a movie is smartly thought out and executed with verve and precision. It may be overly long at two hours, 23 minutes, but so much is going on you might not even notice.
louis vuitton epi leather Whedon's biggest success, creating TV's "Buffy the Vampire Slayer," was nowhere near this scale. But he is a third-generation television writer who was nominated for an Oscar for co-writing"Toy Story," and he's got an innate gift for bringing stories like this to life with the energy and intelligence that should be popular entertainment's birthright but rarely is.For starters, the film's numerous action set pieces, including a whopper of an alien invasion of Manhattan that was so enormous it had to be shot in Cleveland, are crisply done with minimal dead time and few perfunctory elements.But what really makes the difference in "The Avengers" is the emphasis on character as the film's storytelling core. Many of the superheroes, including Iron Man (Robert Downey Jr.), Captain America (Chris Evans) and Thor (Chris Hemsworth), have had features of their own, but both what they say and how they say it is a step up here.Because Whedon's dialogue is less glib than the Marvel norm, with lines written as if they meant something, not to mention often being genuinely funny, the total effect brings the film closer to the tone of the original 1960s books, which revolutionized the comic world by presenting superheroes who were deeply involving, troubled individuals.
louis vuitton mahina leather It is part of Whedon's style here to throw the audience into the middle of the action, then backtrack to bring viewers up to speed. "The Avengers" begins with some nefarious aliens gleefully writing Earth's obituary ("The humans, what can they do but burn?"), and the bad news that the Tesseract, a tiny but enormously powerful extraterrestrial energy source, has started to act up.That acting up opens a portal to the other side of space, and who should arrive on our planet but the Norse god Loki (the exemplary Tom Hiddleston), up to no good. "I am Loki of Asgard, burdened with glorious purpose," he says by way of introduction before killing everyone in sight and using his scepter to turn ace S.H.I.E.L.D. archer Clint Barton, a.k.a. Hawkeye (Jeremy Renner), into his brainwashed tool.Loki's goal, as it turns out, is to make a deal with those shadowy aliens and end up ruling we feeble earthlings, a species he feels is ripe for the picking. "The unspoken truth is that you yearn for subjugation, you are made to be ruled," is the way he puts it. What a diplomat.Talk like this causes Fury (whose organization is not called Strategic Homeland Intervention Enforcement Logistics Division for nothing) to declare that a state of war exists and mobilize agents like the deadly Natasha Romanoff, a.k.a. Black Widow (Scarlett Johansson) into full combat mode.
louis vuitton monogram canvas To save Earth, Fury is fully aware, his S.H.I.E.L.D. troops will have to be supplemented by a handful of superheroes he hopes will coalesce into a fighting machine called the Avengers. Which allows Whedon to enliven the film with some"Seven Samurai"-inspired sequences where legendary fighting heroes are importuned to join the cause.First asked is mild-mannered Bruce Banner, now occupied doing good deeds in the slums of Calcutta but once known and feared as the Incredible Hulk. The doc is willing to help, but is understandably worried about "what happens if 'the other guy' says no." The talented Mark Ruffalo is the latest in a long line of Hulk portrayers, and perhaps the best.Captain America, asleep for 70 years and wondering why anyone bothered to wake him, is also asked, as is Loki's brother Thor and the ever-acerbic Tony Stark/Iron Man. He wears a Black Sabbath T-shirt and has a sarcastic attitude toward his would-be colleagues, nicknaming Thor "Point Break" and noting that Banner has "breathtaking anger management issues."Stark cracking wise is just one example of the problem confronting S.H.I.E.L.D.: As creatures of supreme ego, the superheroes don't work and play well with others. More than that, they genuinely don't like one another, and hearing Captain America and Iron Man verbally rip into each other is pleasantly convincing and helps makes the hero-on-hero battles that periodically erupt all the more involving.
louis vuitton monogram empreinte If, as "The Avengers" depressingly underlines, comic-book movies are the ultimate expression of today's Hollywood zeitgeist the way, say, "Gone With the Wind" or"Casablanca"epitomized an earlier time, it's good to at least have them done this well. If you have to watch "a handful of freaks, isolated and unbalanced" saving the planet for the umpteenth time, you could do a whole lot worse.The death of former San Diego Chargers linebacker Junior Seau has again put the spotlight on the possibility of a link between concussions and depression so severe it drives professional athletes to take their lives.Seau’s death on Wednesday from a gunshot wound to the chest in an apparent suicide will sound all too familiar to shaken fans of the National Football League.Last month, former Atlanta defensive back Ray Easterling, a plaintiff in concussion-related lawsuits against the NFL, died of an apparent suicide as did Chicago safety Dave Duerson, who shot himself in the chest last year and left a note asking his family to donate his brain to the NFL brain bank for study.Even the NHL and their fans have wrestled with similar tragedies as tough guys Rick Rypien, Derek Boogaard and Wade Belak all died last offseason.
louis vuitton monogram vernis On the surface, their three deaths appear eerily similar as they all made a living on the unforgiving fringes of the sport, NHL enforcers who earned pay cheques by dispensing punishment on opposing players.The three deaths in four months brought uncomfortable questions as to whether the events were a tragic coincidence or a sign of a deadly problem.Now the NFL, the players and their lawyers are asking the same tough questions.Alarm bells have been ringing in the NFL for several years as battered players stepped forward with tales of dementia and memory loss they believe to be the result of repeated blows to their heads during long careers.According to NFLConcussionLitigation.com, 61 concussion-related lawsuits have been filed against the league by dozens of players, who allege the league negligently misled them about the dangers of concussions and other head injuries.BRAIN DISEASE.A report by Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that as many as 3.8 million athletes suffer a concussion each year in the United States.“Depression & suicide are serious matters and we as current and former NFL players should demand better treatment. Lack of info ... no more!!!,” former Dallas Cowboys Hall of Fame running back Emmitt Smith said on his Twitter account.“And for you current players who think this issue doesn’t effect u. Get your head out of your but. Where u r 2day was his (Seau’s) yesterday.”
louis vuitton monogram multicolore Seau spent 20 seasons in the NFL terrorising running backs and receivers but there is, so far, no proof that his death can be linked to chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE), a degenerative brain disease caused by repeated blows to the head which can only be diagnosed after death.There is, however, mounting evidence that many professional football and hockey players suffered from CTE in their careers.Duerson’s brain, examined by Boston University’s Center for the Study of Traumatic Encephalopathy found “indisputable” evidence of CTE in the tissue.“NFL players often experience post-concussion syndrome,” said James Johnston Jr., M.D., assistant professor of Neurosurgery at the University of Alabama at Birmingham in a statement. “They have a higher rate of depression, substance abuse, and dementia compared to the general population - it’s thought this is connected to head impacts.”When Research In Motion Ltd.'s (RIM-T12.63-0.68-5.11%) new CEO, Thorsten Heins, took over the company in late January, one of the first promises he made was to hire a new chief marketing officer to fix the BlackBerry-maker’s mixed messaging and broken brand image. But as the search for a high profile CMO continues, so, too, do the marketing missteps.