In Which The Author Rambles About Movies

[mmerriam]

What I'm about to say here is going to damage my geek credibility, possible even destroy it—like, throw it to the flow and stomp it to little pieces destroyed—but I have to say it.

I've been watching all the movies leading up to The Avengers (which I haven't seen yet) and I have to say, I'm underwhelmed. Especially considering how much my friends and people on my various social media networks raved about these movies. They weren’t bad, but they didn't move me. I thought Hulk and Thor had the best character development of the bunch. The Iron Man movies were okay, and I liked how we introduced Black Widow, but they lacked something that I haven't put my finger on. Captain America was slow. Really slow. And there was breaking of the Laws of Physics that I couldn't ignore. They were ok movies and I'm not saying I wasted my time, but after all the hoopla, I guess I expected more.

Now I'm really going to destroy my geek cred.

I saw Snow White and the Huntsman in the bargain theater last week. I thought it rocked It hit most of the right notes for a fairy tale, had beautiful cinematography and did what it was supposed to do and did it well. For those of you who have been hating on this movie, what is it you're hating on? There's a part of me wondering if some of that criticism might be misplaced criticism of Kristen Stewart spilling over from her turn in (and general derision of) the Twilight movies. She did perfectly fine in this movie. Was she brilliant? No. But she was fine. I walked out the theater pleased by this movie.

So in the final analysis, for my money Snow White and the Huntsman was a better movie than any of the super-hero movies leading up to The Avengers.

There. I said it.

Originally posted at michaelmerriam.net. You can comment here or there.

Comments

[maggiedr.livejournal.com]

I liked a lot about Snow White but Charlize Theron ruined it for me. And I normally like her. She really over-reached and came across as a female Snidely Whiplash.

I enjoyed The Avengers and was glad to have watched all the individual superhero movies Thor is my favorite. But I am with you in that the entire saga is rather forgettable. I am not a comic universe fan though and am weary of the comic book influence on action movies.

[tiny-wings.livejournal.com]

Everybody thought the Avengers was awesome, and I really wanted to agree, because, you know, Joss Whedon. But I just couldn't find it in me to get excited about anything in the movie. So if you've been feeling that way about all of the lead-up movies, you'll probably feel that way about the Avengers too. I found that in a couple of cases, the lead-ins were actually better (I liked the first Iron Man, and Thor had good entertainment value).

Snow White wasn't a perfect movie, there was a lot that didn't work in it, but I still really enjoyed it. I felt exactly the same way about Prometheus, as well.

[songwind.livejournal.com]

I had mixed reactions to Captain America, but I definitely had to shut my brain off. The idea that a shield that "absorbs all vibrations" could ricochet off walls made my brain stabby. I'm a bit surprised you had that strong a reaction to the science of CA but got past the idea of Tony Stark having a reactor capable of pushing several hundred pounds of steel through the air at supersonic speeds and not even being inconvenienced by waste heat, though. :)

But then again, I've read Marvel comics, so I expected that. Superhero stories have never really had any truck with physics except to embarrass themselves with attempted explanations for gadget characters.

I enjoyed them, but they are strictly effects/spectacle/one-liners kind of movies.

as far as i'm concerned

[tyler tork (from livejournal.com)]

you're still a geek.

The Superhero Movies

[marlowe1.livejournal.com]

Most of them were merely adequate with some brilliance (Thor being the best of the bunch). Even in the best ones there was a rote repetition of all the major superhero tropes without much variation.

Of them, the only one that I hated was Iron Man II just because there were too many people shooting at each other for there NOT to be innocent bystanders getting killed. It was just asking for too much to make this into a fun popcorn movie without even noting that a ton of people are going to get killed with that kind of crap going on.

On the other hand, The Avengers had just enough cool stuff to keep things interesting (including the best post-credit scene in any Marvel movie)

[timprov.livejournal.com]

I hated Iron Man and didn't bother with the rest. (And of course being written by Joss Whedon is very much not a positive for me.)

I think my geek cred can stand it.

[carbonel]

The complaints I've heard about Snow White and the Huntsman have nothing to do with the acting, but with the stupidity of the plot.

[ajnews.livejournal.com]

Captain America was simply awful.

[haddayr.livejournal.com]

I hope you will see The Avengers, though! I loved it, and then went and watched a bunch of the movies leading up to it and was TOTALLY underwhelmed.