Marvel Avengers & The Raid

[garth cartwright]

I don't go to the cinema often and I often wonder after going why I did. The answer in the case of seeing the aforementioned films is, I guess, nostalgia. Before discovering pop music I loved Marvel comics and The Avengers were always a good deal - lots of superheroes all in one comic! I've seen the occasional superhero film - Spiderman (my first hero) was OK and Iron Man entertaining - and The Avengers doesn't raise the bar. Its written and directed by Joss Whedon who did such a brilliant job with Buffy The Vampire Slayer but he never takes such chances here, keeping things full of CGI fury. Some good casting and yes Scarlett is very fetching in her jumpsuit but it often feels rather flat. The outer space bits look like out takes from old Dr Who programmes. Very kitsch.

Bruce Lee may have been my second hero and I loved kung fu movies. Fast and furious and such athletic grace in dealing out punishment. The Raid is an Indonesian film written and directed by a Welsh man who is obviously a fan of old Bruce films and the more recent John Woo and such type films. As ever, simple plot with a very bad guy and a very good guy. It's fun for about the first forty minutes then gets rather repetitive. Kind of like a computer game in the sense there seem to be so many bodies to be slaughtered. Well shot in a grainy, grim old school style. Both this and the Avengers have so much fighting you end up yawning.

I think the next film I will go to will be a chick flick or art film. Anything but men saving the world/their team from resident evil.