The Avengers: Age of Ultron

SF: I did everything I could to avoid too many trailers and spoilers so I could watch this without my expectations being too high. I also feel this needs two scores because from a totally bias view its a 10, it delivers everything I want, tonnes of Marvel universe nods and hints. I'm enjoying the move from the more Ultimates line up to a traditional Avengers roster, I also screamed with glee when Vision appeared, ok not the Vision we are used to but Wonder Man isn't around so lets go with it. Having said that - Ultron without a mention of Hank Pym despite the Ant-man movie being on the way? Surely Tony Stark could of had him on Skype of something. Anyway I digress. As a film I didn't feel the same sense of awe that the first installment delivered. Maybe the attempts at character development were a tad shallow but this had plenty of action, a few good quips, amazing effects and I can't wait to see it again, maybe even three times so it deserves 9/10

50Eggs: Winter Solider having restored my faith in Marvel films, I was expecting big things from this. It partly lived up to those expectations. As a standalone film it tries to cram in far too many story threads, but viewed as 'hub' film in a massive story arc you can understand why. The first hour is a little slow but it does pick up, and the finale, whilst close to being a rehash of that of the first film, is spectacular. 1 point off for too much Hawkeye, but a point back on for lots of Black Widow. 8.5/10

DB: These Marvel films are definitely starting to suffer quite seriously from the law of diminishing returns, creatively at least if not yet financially. It is just not as good as the first one, not as funny, not as exiting, the bad character is nothing like as interesting (no Tom Hiddleston). The set pieces don't feel as spectacular, while I'm prepared to be told they are in fact 200 times bigger and involve twice as many people etc etc I just don't care very much about computer animations of things hitting things with things. The film has two ideas in it, neither of which are new or particularly interesting but both involve Bruce Banner: his conflict over whether he should assist serial world endangering narcissist Tony Stark and his conflict whether he can form a relationship with Natasha. Both ideas are under explored in favour of the ridiculously boring Hawkeye, who I was disappointed to see survive death near the start of the movie. There are none of the memorable moments typified by Bruce Banner swinging Loki about like a toddler with a doll from the first film in this film, it is all just more of the same. I was under the impression we were going to be getting some Hulk films, we only need one, but I would have preferred to see that than this. 6/10

Overall: 7.8/10

Iron Man 3

SF: It is no Iron Man 1 but it had plenty of good points, comic nods, surprises and does well to keep the continuity of the previous marvel movies going. The visual effects are as ever brilliant, the story takes cues from the Extremis story (which can only be a good thing), so worked on the whole (I might have liked it to be more faithful). The only problem is that this one just didn't have that spark you expect from super hero films. Also Pepper Potts gets more annoying as these go on. It's still good and fans are likely to enjoy it, but something was missing and I don't just mean the lack of AC/DC on the soundtrack 6.5/10

50 Eggs: Iron Man 2 was fairly awful, serving no discernible purpose other than to staple together this series with the other 'Avengers' films. Iron Man 3 is better, but it's still a disappointment. The plot is nothing special, the bad guy is dull, and there is little in the way of peril. The last half hour contains the best action of all three films though. I'm getting tired of these Marvel films now...I'm putting all my chips on DCs 'Man of Steel'. 6/10

DonkeyB: I have nothing very interesting to say about Iron Man 3. If you liked the first 2 you'll like this one too. Better than 2, worse than 1 and Avengers Assemble. Ben Kingsley is both funny and a reasonably clever plot point for the comic book fans (SF assures me this is true). However if you've seen his Watson to Michael Caine's Holmes in 'Without a Clue' then you may have some idea what is going on with his Mandarin. Robert Downey Jr has made Tony stark one of the more amusing super heroes to spend two hours with every other year, but at some point don't all these overlapping story arcs and characters start to eat each other? At some point we will all get bored of complaining that they keep making these films too long and baggy in the middle, but I feel duty now to point out that it is. 6.5/10

Overall: 6.33/10

Avengers Assemble

Sequel to Captain America, Iron Man 2, Thor and The Incredible Hulk

SF: For me this was either going to be fantastic or a horrid disappointment. I'm pleased to say I loved it. Perfect blend of action, humour and character. Joss Whedon did an amazing job, captured the essence of the Avengers (well Ultimates really which is fine). Also best Hulk so far. A well earned 10/10

50 Eggs: It would have been so easy to mess this up but instead Marvel have excelled themselves. All the characters mesh brilliantly whilst retaining their individual appeal in a storyline worthy of the Avengers name. A minor plot hole aside, this is the best superhero movie ever...and yes, that includes you Batman. 9.5/10

DonkeyB: It was fun, a good popcorn movie (if popcorn was an appropriate cinema food). It's still too long and too much crash bang wallop though. Not as good as Captain America but within the margin still gets 7/10

Overall - 8.83/10

Sherlock Holmes: Game of Shadows

SF: The intro had me musing as to whether or not this sequel could compete with its predecessor. Sadly I can't say that it does. Plenty of things I liked - lots of action and humour but it lost me in the middle, which can only be a bad thing. Still above average. 6/10

50 Eggs: I couldn't keep up with the finer points of the plot, although that may be because they weren't actually there, I'm not sure. However I liked the film, and I loved the 'brain-off' between the protagonist and his nemesis at the end. Unlike SF, I preferred this to the prequel. 7.5/10

DonkeyB: Much better than the first. It's more of a 19th century Bond film than a detective story. There were far too many sloooooow dooooooown thhhhhhhe actiooooooooon shooooooooots, it becomes tedious quite quickly I found, and I was midly irritated by the "look at the book about horticulture, and here- [look look] dead flowers on the window sill" set-up early on. A kind of Guy Richie way of making his audience feel smart- well they're not smart if they need their food cut up into bite size pieces and their squash served in a sippy cup. I'm going to get in trouble for this being too long. 6/10


Overall - 6.5/10

Due Date

SF: no plot, no point, no humour. I kept watching thinking this can't get any worse. Really it can't. 2/10

50 Eggs: About as funny as getting your balls stung by a swarm of angry bee's. Painful. 3/10

DonkeyB: n/a

Overall - 2.5/10

Iron Man 2

SF: Iron Man set the bar very high indeed so it would be near impossible to top it. Personally I never liked Whiplash as a baddie, can't say this film helped in that respect but WarMachine is cool and I'm glad he was finally in this one. Took a while to get going but great finale. 6.5/10

50 Eggs: Really boring. Clearly this is just a build up to the Avengers movie but is that a good reason to eject all the excitement present in the first movie? No. The last scene was ok but everything else - plot, bad guy, action - was all below average. 4.5/10

DonkeyB: n/a

Overall - 5.5/10