Movie review - "Justice League" (2017) **

The movie gets off to a wonky start with Superman talking to camera - not a bad idea itself but he's got this wonky face thing happening which I gather was because the CGI'd out the actor's beard. Then it gets worse with a cover version of "Everybody Knows" which smells of try hard cool for trailers, and a silly slow mo sequence of a fat bald man smashing up a store which I think is meant to show disintegration of society.

The film doesn't work. It feels just silly - Wonder Woman and Batman and Aquaman. I didn't buy that they lived in the same world and knew each other. It was tired and uninvolving.

The villain was so dull - some creature who wants a box for world domination. No complexity, no shade. A bunch of Amazons get killed. Then underground people. I did worry for the Russian family. There's random terrorist attacks like the silly one led by the Game of Thrones guy who is beaten by Wonder Woman.

Ben Affleck looked tired. Jeremy Irons is miscast - I don't buy him as a servant; the lacks the warmth someone like Michael Caine or Billy Connolly would have brought to the role. Gai Gadot tries but struggles without a decent emotive plot like rebelling against her family or falling in love or clashing with the new world.  Amy Adams feels wasted. Diane Lane looks wasted.

Ezra Miller is lively as the Flash - he at least has a clear relationship with the others, clingy with Batman, a crush on Wonder Woman, bewildered by Acquaman. I wasn't sure how Batman felt about anyone. I guess it was cool Acquaman mocked Batman - the film could've used more of this interpersonal stuff. But he kind of stuck out in the group. Jason Moama is okay in the role - his character feels weird.

Ray Fisher isn't very good as Cyborg but he had the best character - a teenager moody and lonely because he was half machine. That's a great emotional core around which to build a film - surely he would be more annoyed at dad (Joe Morton)? But he doesn't get enough screen time.

A film that tries to do too much and none of it well.

Movie review - "The Avengers: Age of Ultron" (2015) **

Something inside me snapped while watching this film: I'm over Marvel. Over their smug, quippy films with their really good actors playing cutouts, with their celebration of fascist values not very artfully disguised, with their top secret organisations constantly recruiting new super heroes for their nefarious means.

This feels like a stock episode of a very expensive TV show. They only kill off one major person, someone we barely know. There's a little bit of urst between Scarlett Johanssen and Mark Ruffalo but not much; I expected Jeremy Renner's wife and kids to be killed or at least threatened, but they aren't - so why introduce them; they don't even kill off the villain they just keep introducing more and more characters; there's a little bit of conflict between the Avengers but not much. Joss Whedon has said he was inspired by The Godfather II - well, Fredo was killed in that film, and mum Corleone died... nothing that big happens here.

The action sequences feel generic. Everyone looks as though they eat well and go the gym. There's no emotion and lots of unpleasant political undertones. The cast is very strong and there are some bright lines.

Movie review - "Cabin in the Woods" (2011) **1/2

Maybe I was in a grumpy mood watching this or something but I found this take on teen horror films irritating a lot of the time. The "it's all a big game" twist has been done lots before - Seven Keys to Baldpate, The Game, Galaxy of Terror - and Scream deconstructed the horror movie a long time ago. The thing Scream did better too was provide a story that was really fun, scary and satisfying on it's own terms with some great twists and interesting characters, which Cabin in the Woods doesn't have.

There are archetypes, not characters, which I know is the point but makes it hard to sustain - especially when the actress who plays the virgin is bland and the guy who played the stoner is irritating. And the fact is young people are still killed violently and bloodily, which doesn't really do it for me (for all the meta-ness on display the filmmakers still can't resist having a pretty topless girl get her head chopped off). Adding to the mix is that fact it's not particularly well directed.

It is clever, sometimes extremely clever - I loved them making Chris Hemsworth dumb and suggesting to everyone that they split up - and occasionally it hits this note of delirious insanity, particularly the outbreak of monsters at the end. But I do think you can tell it was written in three days and people tell Joss Whedon he's a genius a lot.

Movie review - "The Avengers" (2012) **** (warning: spoilers)

To think we were stuck with all those David Koepp adaptations over the years when Joss Whedon was around to bring comic book adaptations to life. It's one of the best big screen versions of a comic book I can think of - smart, funny, and it mostly spanks along. It does drag for a bit around the two thirds mark - there was a lot of hanging around on that big ship, and in common with many of these spectacles I found the destruction and action wearying after a while because it didn't seem wedded to anything real.

One of the unwritten rules about blockbusters is a friend of the hero needs to die around the two-thirds mark - since we know none of the Avengers are going to cark it, I figured it would either be Clark Gregg or that woman from How I Met Your Mother (who I didn't spot straight away - I had to google her afterwards), and I was right. They don't do much with the concept of Captain America being in the modern era, which one would have thought was rich fodder, but maybe they're holding that off for his own sequel. Thor is good for a few laughs, but he's a foreigner so doesn't have that much stake in Earth. 

The meatiest roles go to Iron Man (which is the best part really because it's got the best lines - he also gets a romance plot with Gwyneth Paltrow), Hulk and Black Widow. The Black Widow stuff with Hawk seemed a little under developed but then I haven't seen Iron Man 2.

Scarlett Johansson is sexy but not terribly convincing as a woman of action. Mark Ruffalo is superb at the Hulk, and gets to take part in the best action sequence - despatching Loki. Great to see on the big screen. Hopefully Whedon will make several blockbusters, as I feel he's more needed in the movies than TV as there are plenty of good TV shows still out there but few films.

Movie review - "Serenity" (2005) ***1/2

This has a fan base of super hard core fans, which is a little surprising - you'd think sci fi fans of all people would be the first to know that the concept of Western style outlaws in space isn't exactly anew one - Battlestar Galactica was Wagon Trail in space, there was also Buckaroo Banzai, elements of Star Wars. Nathan Fillion is OK as the hero (don't think he's got big screen chops but he's fine as a small screen one), Summer Glau is the young Buffy like superhero with doe eyes and long legs created (one can't help thinking) with one eye very much on the lecherous teenage fan base and Chiwitel Ejiofor shines as the baddie. Plenty of twists and turns - you wonder why Hollywood didn't give this the hundred million dollar treatment, but there you go.