I went into this movie with some very high expectations (I don't feel this was unjustified) and I came out pretty disappointed. The special effects were not enough to justify some screaming plot holes that I was inches away from screaming out in the middle of the movie theatre, not to mention the at times stolid performances from some of the cast. Lets get something clear, just because two characters argue, does not mean an "extra dimension" was added to them. Robert Downey Junior does a good job but there is little else here in terms of acting. Apart from this, the movie just follows a PAINFULLY formulaic story line. Team of superheroes get together to fight a grand evil and must put their differences aside for the greater good, which they eventually do. And of course, Captain America struts onto the scene and begins shouting orders, somehow he rips this authority from thin air amongst a God, an egotistic super genius millionaire and the bloody Hulk! Overall cheesy, completely devoid of any novelties and shamelessly formulaic. the 3 stars are for the slight entertainment I got from the film at times.
Reviews
3 Reviews
Cosmos
(1980)
The best documentary I have ever seen.
25 July 2011
There has been no shortage of praise towards Carl Sagan's Cosmos and rightly so. Every single episode in this wonderful series takes the watcher on a new adventure, teeming with learning. Sagan manages to make the viewer emulate his awe and wonder at the universe, where every discovery is a treasure trove. Cosmos is entertaining and interesting, containing anecdotes and dramatizations that most people will not have heard of but that are interesting and important. Not refining his viewers to space, and rightly so, Sagan covers many topics in an interesting and understandable way, from the Doppler effect to relativity to evolution and the workings and structure of DNA, the viewer will come out of this a much more knowledgeable person.
Wonders of the Universe
(I) (2011)
Unintersting and overloaded with shots that belong on a desktop background.
22 July 2011
Warning: Spoilers
Within the first twenty minutes we learn that the universe is very old, that you can't go back in time, that a year is when the earth revolves around the sun once, that the universe appears eternal and never changing(even though, spoilers, it isn't) and that time is irreversible and changes things. Brian Cox manages to repeat this last fact about ten times, seemingly challenging our notion of time and trying to make us believe we have been caught in some broken record of an alternate universe. For any person, whether you are physics graduate or you have simply completed one year of primary school, this is not news.
The BBC seem satisfied with squandering an obviously large budget on admittedly impressive but ultimately useless shots of far away landscapes. This series simply looks for the money shots, whilst giving the writing job to a nine year old boy with adhd. Time is irreversible, now heres a turtle, time is irreversible, now heres a glacier, time is irreversible, now heres a cool simulation of an explosion! Though clearly trying to emulate the same wonder and respect for the universe that Carl Sagan had, Brian Cox's exhilaration seems completely artificial. This shows that today, documentaries are willing to sacrifice learning and wonder for special effects and plane tickets to anywhere that takes their fancy, no matter how relevant to the message it is.
The BBC seem satisfied with squandering an obviously large budget on admittedly impressive but ultimately useless shots of far away landscapes. This series simply looks for the money shots, whilst giving the writing job to a nine year old boy with adhd. Time is irreversible, now heres a turtle, time is irreversible, now heres a glacier, time is irreversible, now heres a cool simulation of an explosion! Though clearly trying to emulate the same wonder and respect for the universe that Carl Sagan had, Brian Cox's exhilaration seems completely artificial. This shows that today, documentaries are willing to sacrifice learning and wonder for special effects and plane tickets to anywhere that takes their fancy, no matter how relevant to the message it is.
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