Marvel Cinematic Universe: THE AVENGERS

In eager anticipation of Marvel Studios' AVENGERS: AGE OF ULTRON, I'm re-watching every entry in the "Marvel Cinematic Universe" (MCU) thus far, from IRON MAN to GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY, and then sharing my views on each one as a film and within the context of the MCU and movie landscape.  At the end of each essay is a list of "Easter eggs" that connect the pertinent film to other films in the wider MCU, and a "Top 5" of the best five parts (a scene, concept, actor, character, etc.) in each movie.  The first five movies of the MCU were in the service of setting up a world to be paid off in spectacular fashion, and spectacular it was, in Marvel Studios' best independently-produced movie to date, MARVEL'S THE AVENGERS.  [Please note, this review contains spoilers for MARVEL'S THE AVENGERS, and some speculation involving connections to future Marvel releases].

MARVEL'S THE AVENGERS  (aka AVENGERS ASSEMBLE)
Released 4 May 2012
Directed by Joss Whedon
Starring: Robert Downey Jr., Chris Evans, Mark Ruffalo, Chris Hemsworth, Scarlett Johansson, Jeremy Renner, Tom Hiddleston, Samuel L. Jackson, Clark Gregg, Cobie Smulders, Stellan Skarsgard, Gwyneth Paltrow, Alexis Denisof
Rated PG-13 for intense sequences of sci-fi violence and action throughout, and a mild drug reference.
143 minutes
Merit: 4/4
When Nick Fury, the Director of an international peacekeeping agency known as S.H.I.E.L.D., encounters an unexpected enemy that threatens global safety and security, he finds himself in need of a team to pull the world back from the brink of disaster.  Spanning the globe, a daring recruitment effort begins for Earth's mightiest heroes.  Iron Man, Thor, Captain America, The Incredible Hulk, and two of the world's greatest assassins, Black Widow and Hawkeye, must assemble to defeat Loki, the darkest villain the Earth has ever known.  [Synopsis from "Marvel Cinematic Universe - Phase One: Avengers Assembled" Blu-ray box set]

The last time that I left a movie theater feeling really exhilarated after seeing a brand new movie for the first time was at about 2:45 AM on May 4, 2012.  It was in the wee hours of the morning, but I felt like the previous two hours and twenty-three minutes had been the most entertaining superhero movie I had ever seen and my adrenaline was still soaring.  I watched it again about 18 hours later after completing a work shift, and my opinion was not changed.  In anticipation of the 2012 summer movie season, I was more excited for THE DARK KNIGHT RISES than any other movie, but even three years later, MARVEL'S THE AVENGERS is still the most fun, and if that is any mark of quality, the best superhero movie that I've ever seen.

MARVEL'S THE AVENGERS, differentiating itself from the inept and silly 1998 flop, but also popularly known simply as THE AVENGERS, or in the UK as AVENGERS ASSEMBLE, is a deliriously witty thrill ride from the start, as Loki (Tom Hiddleston), notably more psychotic from when we last saw him in THOR, ambushes a S.H.I.E.L.D. research facility to steal the Tesseract, a powerful energy source which he plans to use to open a portal and unleash an alien army called the Chitauri, and conquer Earth.  From there, we're reunited with the heroes we know from the previous Marvel films, far flung across the globe; Natasha Romanoff (Scarlett Johansson), code name Black Widow, in Russia, Bruce Banner (Mark Ruffalo), aka the Hulk, in Calcutta, and Tony Stark (Robert Downey, Jr.), aka Iron Man, and Steve Rogers (Chris Evans), aka Captain America, both in New York City.  Once they get the team together, the trick is to get them to work together, as their egos and allegiances clash and Loki plays them against each other.
Writer/director Joss Whedon, previously best known as the creator of the TV series Buffy the Vampire

Slayer and Firefly, and his only prior theatrically-released feature film being SERENITY, a commercial failure continuation of Firefly, nails the tone of each of the characters, sometimes even better than their solo films.  Flying in the face of the post-DARK KNIGHT "dark and gritty" formula, Whedon's script uses humor to emphasize each of the important characters' personalities, with a pervasive wit that injects itself into the action set-pieces as well as the character interactions.
THE AVENGERS has wall-to-wall action, but there are three showcase action set-pieces, each of which capture the landmarks in the formation of the Avengers team.  First is the confrontation in Germany, where Loki is apprehended by Captain America and Iron Man, but the arrest soon descends into a showdown between Cap, Iron Man and Loki's brother Thor (Chris Hemsworth).  When they're first put together, they end up fighting each other.  Second is the battle on the S.H.I.E.L.D. Helicarrier, where Loki makes his escape while manipulating the Avengers to turn on each other, but they're gradually learning to cooperate for the greater good.  Finally, there's the grand 40-minute climax, the "Battle of New York", where all six Avengers finally come together to work as a unit to fight an army of hundreds of Chitauri warriors.
On the one hand, the Battle of New York sequence can be criticized as typical CGI bombast and destruction, and producer Kevin Feige may have chosen a poor example for what he wanted to emulate in TRANSFORMERS: DARK OF THE MOON, but my goodness, it's so awesome.  Of course, there's the "nerdgasm"-inducing "hero shot" as the Avengers circle up, but my favorite is the extended tracking shot that goes from Avenger to Avenger as they take down Chitauri across the cityscape.  The Chitauri are a generic, "faceless" army that basically serve as fodder for the Avengers, but the generic villain serves the intended purpose of providing a context in which the heroes overcome their main obstacle in the movie- their lack of cooperation and personal shortcomings, such as when Stark makes a sacrifice that calls back to Captain America's accusation that he wasn't the type to "lay down on the wire".  Loki is a spectacular villain who gets some really great moments, but the point isn't so much the heroes vs. villains aspect as it is the heroes getting over their own personal hang ups.  Stark is selfish, Banner is ashamed, Romanoff and Barton have guilt complexes, and so on.  THE AVENGERS is about its eponymous characters coming to terms with each other and themselves.  Romanoff is my personal favorite, vastly improved from her introduction in IRON MAN 2, a sexy, feminist character with a lot of substance, complemented by Johansson's performance.

Loki, the primary antagonist, may be only a secondary obstacle to the Avengers, but he's nonetheless a marvelous comic book villain, vicious and indignant, with plenty of opportunities for flowery speeches while watching on amused at the chaos that he creates.  As a special bonus, he proves that you can get away with using an archaic form of the so-called "c-word" in a family adventure film distributed by Disney, you "mewling quim".  It is a family film; if Marvel Studios have proved anything, it's that we've come back around from the PG-rated family fare of the '70s and '80s that would be rated PG-13 today, to actually having PG-13-rated family films.  Slightly older families, sure, but THE AVENGERS really does have something for everyone, men and women, young and old.
It's mass appeal showed at the box office, where THE AVENGERS was a gargantuan success.  2012 was a stellar year for film, with four movies that crossed the $1 billion barrier internationally, including THE DARK KNIGHT RISES, THE HOBBIT: AN UNEXPECTED JOURNEY and SKYFALL, not to mention a little movie called THE HUNGER GAMES that tore up the month of March with $408 million domestically.  It was an insanely successful year for big Hollywood movies, plus a lot of them were successful as entertainment besides.  Nothing could touch the success of THE AVENGERS though.  Four pre-established superhero series tying in together, it was practically money in the bank from the word 'go', but it far outplayed expectations.  Previously, the record for opening weekend gross was 2011's HARRY POTTER AND THE DEATHLY HALLOWS PART 2 $169.1 million, more than $10 million over the next runner-up, 2008's THE DARK KNIGHT.  Box office analysts began the weekend predicting a record-breaking $172 million for THE AVENGERS, and by the time reports for opening day, May 4, came in, with a second-highest opening day ever of $80.5 million, opening up the possibility of an outrageous $200 million weekend.  What's more, stellar reviews and audience word-of-mouth was through the roof, making it a truly must-see movie, and by the time the weekend was over, THE AVENGERS had shattered not only records but expectations with $207.4 million, which currently stands $33 million ahead of the next runner-up.  In its first weekend, THE AVENGERS had nearly grossed its enormous $220 million budget.  It was only getting started.

The movie had real legs, being the only movie to ever gross a whole $100 million in its second weekend alone, then reaching $1 billion worldwide by May 12.  By the end of its theatrical run in October 2012, THE AVENGERS ranked as the third highest-grossing movie of all-time, both domestically and internationally.  Domestically, THE AVENGERS stands behind AVATAR ($760.5 million) and TITANIC ($658.6 million), with a total of $623.3 million, ahead of fourth place-holder THE DARK KNIGHT ($534.8 million).  Internationally, THE AVENGERS stands behind AVATAR ($2.788 billion) and TITANIC ($2.186 billion), with an international total of $1.518 billion, ahead of HARRY POTTER AND THE DEATHLY HALLOWS PART 2 ($1.341 billion).
Interestingly, heading into the summer, THE AVENGERS was not the most anticipated movie of the season, going up against THE DARK KNIGHT RISES, the long-awaited follow-up to 2008's THE DARK KNIGHT.  THE DARK KNIGHT is a brilliant movie, an important movie, a movie that brought artistic legitimacy for superhero movies to all but the most stubborn and snootiest art house champions.  THE DARK KNIGHT RISES doesn't live up to its predecessor, not by a long shot, and after so much denial and so many attempts to justify the bloatedness, the improbable plotting, the b-grade supporting cast and overall depressing qualities, one just has to accept that THE DARK KNIGHT RISES is ultimately a failure.  In many otherwise positive reviews of THE AVENGERS, critics qualified that THE AVENGERS was merely a "popcorn movie", a fun bit of summer entertainment, but the real show was yet to come, THE DARK KNIGHT RISES, and would remind us all that superhero movies can be "art" too.  THE AVENGERS, certainly as far as I'm concerned, is the best superhero movie to date.  It's technically not "perfect"; it has a few contrivances in service of the plot and much of the climactic action is almost entirely computer animated, but it's such a joyous piece of wish-fulfillment, the ideal (if not perfect) summer movie.  Four years after the crushingly dark and cynical THE DARK KNIGHT, released in the midst of the Great Recession, where only a glimmer of hope shines through, THE AVENGERS revealed a world that THE DARK KNIGHT only hints at; a world of ideals and optimism, where the true challenge and ultimate victory is in working together.  THE AVENGERS is the ultimate feel-good fantasy, one full of old-fashioned ideals and optimism worth real-world striving, and that is pretty important too.

Easter Eggs to Look for:

•  Foreshadowing to AVENGERS: INFINITY WAR: In a mid-credits stinger, Loki's contact to the Chitauri, The Other (Alexis Denisof) speaks to his master: "Humans...they are not the cowering wretches we were promised. They are unruly, and therefore cannot be ruled.  To challenge them is to court death."   The large-jawed purple face that turns and grins is Thanos, an Avengers villain noted for his "love affair" with death, and has already appeared in a cameo in GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY, played by Josh Brolin, and will be the primary antagonist in AVENGERS: INFINITY WAR PART 1 coming in 2018 and PART 2 in 2019.

Top Five Moments of MARVEL'S THE AVENGERS 
1. Extended Tracking Shot Over the Battle of New York (Tie-In Shot)- An astoundingly complex and lengthy, uncut shot that follows Black Widow up into the air, piggybacking a ride on an alien vehicle, passing Iron Man, who the camera follows as he passes to take down a few Chitauri with Captain America on the street, then flying up past Hawkeye, stopping to show him taking down aliens with his unique arrow arsenal, then catching up with Hulk and Thor atop a passing Leviathan, taking down and wrapping up with a hilarious non sequitur comic beat as Hulk punches Thor out of frame.
2. Natasha Interrogates Loki- Natasha gets Loki, imprisoned in a huge, practically impenetrable glass cell, talking with her own unique interrogation technique, and getting him to expose his most sinister side: "This is the basest sentimentality. This is a child at prayer...pathetic! You lie and kill in the service of liars and killers. You pretend to be separate, to have your own code, something that makes up for the horrors. But they are a part of you, and they will never go away!  I won't touch Barton. Not until I make him kill you, slowly, intimately, in every way he knows you fear! And then he'll wake just long enough to see his good work, and when he screams, I'll split his skull! This is my bargain, you mewling quim!"  Reaching a chilling boiling point, Natasha gets what she wants from him though.
3. String Quartet No. 13 in A Minor (Rosamunde) by Franz Schubert- I adore action scenes scored with Romantic-Classical compositions, and Rosamunde is a beautiful, sentimental piece to play over a possessed Clint Barton shooting down security guards and Loki using a horrific device to carve out a high society man's eye.  It emphasizes the brutality by adding a disturbing elegance to the violence.
4. "Make your move, Reindeer Games."- Iron Man has already shown up earlier in the film, but this is his real entrance into THE AVENGERS, showing up in Berlin as Captain America is sparring with Loki, taking over S.H.I.E.L.D.'s quinjet PA system with AC/DC's "Shoot to Thrill", knocking Loki to the ground and gives him an offer: "Make your move, Reindeer Games."  That, ladies and gentlemen, is Iron Man.
5. Shawarma- Filmed less than a month before the film's wide release and added after the film's world premiere, the brief post-credits scene of the Avengers sitting around a table in a heavily damaged cafe eating shawarma in the battle aftermath provided a huge boost sales for vendors of the Middle Eastern dish in the wake of the film's release.  Shawarma, kind of like a Middle Eastern version of a submarine sandwich, as one of those who became interested after seeing THE AVENGERS, is really, really tasty, but the scene is just such a perfect coda to all the non-stop action that came before.  Everything has been said and done, they've just fought a huge intergalactic battle, and they just sit there in silence, battle-worn, eating shawarma.

Images via Marvel Studios

Marvel Cinematic Universe: CAPTAIN AMERICA: THE FIRST AVENGER

In eager anticipation of Marvel Studios' AVENGERS: AGE OF ULTRON, I'm re-watching every entry in the "Marvel Cinematic Universe" (MCU) thus far, from IRON MAN to GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY, and then sharing my views on each one as a film and within the context of the MCU and movie landscape.  At the end of each essay is a list of "Easter eggs" that connect the pertinent film to other films in the wider MCU, and a "Top 5" of the best five parts (a scene, concept, actor, character, etc.) in each movie.  The final step in setting up the universe for the "Phase 1" grand finale, MARVEL'S THE AVENGERS, to play in was to go back in time to the 1940s for the story of "the world's first superhero" (according to Agent Coulson in THE AVENGERS), CAPTAIN AMERICA: THE FIRST AVENGER.  [Please note, this review contains spoilers].

CAPTAIN AMERICA: THE FIRST AVENGER
Released 22 July 2011
Directed by Joe Johnston
Starring: Chris Evans, Hayley Atwell, Sebastian Stan, Tommy Lee Jones, Hugo Weaving, Dominic Cooper, Richard Armitage, Stanley Tucci, Toby Jones, Neal McDonough, Derek Luke, Kenneth Choi, Samuel L. Jackson
Rated PG-13 for intense sequences of sci-fi violence and action.
124 minutes
Merit: 3/4
Steve Rogers came of age in an era of global turmoil, and despite a bevy of physical deficiencies, he wanted nothing more than a chance to serve his country.  Recruited for a top-secret program by Dr. Abraham Erskine, Steve's frail body is transformed into the ultimate super-soldier, the powerful and heroic Captain America.  Now the world's greatest hero, he wages war on the evil HYDRA organization, led by the villainous Red Skull.

Captain America has been around since before Marvel Comics became Marvel Comics.  Created by Joe Simon and Jack Kirby and first published in Captain America Comics #1 by Timely Comics in March 1941, eight months before the attack on Pearl Harbor flung the United States into World War II.  An All-American New York boy born to immigrant parents, Steven Rogers was a frail artist but was chosen as a test subject for the "Super-Soldier" project and became Captain America.  His debut comic book cover famously and very, very dramatically depicted Captain America, clad in a red, white and blue outfit with a bulletproof shield to match, socking none other than Adolf Hitler on the jaw in the middle of a Nazi war room.
Joe Johnston is ideally picked as the director of CAPTAIN AMERICA: THE FIRST AVENGER, the pulpy WWII adventure that introduced the Avengers' captain to the Marvel Cinematic Universe.  Johnston is an Academy Award-winner, but not for directing.  Johnston won the Academy Award for Best Visual Effects on 1981's RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK, beginning his career in Hollywood as an effects artist for George Lucas' effects workshop Industrial Light & Magic and then as an art director, working on all three films of the original Star Wars trilogy, INDIANA JONES AND THE TEMPLE OF DOOM and HOWARD THE DUCK.  He cut his teeth on directing as a second unit director for *BATTERIES NOT INCLUDED (produced by Steven Spielberg's company Amblin Entertainment), and made his official directorial debut making Walt Disney Pictures' effects-driven family film HONEY, I SHRUNK THE KIDS.  He also directed a box office disappointment for Disney called THE ROCKETEER, also a pulpy WWII-era adventure.

THE FIRST AVENGER opens in the present day, when a derelict aircraft has been discovered poking through the Arctic ice, a red, white and blue circle showing through the ice.  Back in 1942, a few months after the official entry of the United States into the war, Steve Rogers (Chris Evans) is a scrawny young man with a laundry list of health issues, but is desperate to join the fight against tyranny.  After multiple rejections, Rogers is noticed by Dr. Abraham Erskine (Stanley Tucci), a scientist who fled Germany at the rise of the Nazis, and is developing a revolutionary experimental program to make an army of "super soldiers".  Chosen for his inherent goodness by Erskine to be the first test subject, Rogers is physically transformed into a more-than-perfect physical specimen, but with the assassination of Dr. Erskine and the resulting loss of super soldier formula, Rogers is reduced to being an Army mascot.  A Nazi super soldier experiment, Johann Schmidt (Hugo Weaving), aka the Red Skull (so named for the ghastly deformities resulting from the early stage experiment), commands a Nazi deep-science cult called H.Y.D.R.A. however, and having gone rogue from even the Third Reich, has come into possession of an ancient Norse relic that has given him the power to carry out his plans of global domination.

The stylized world of THE FIRST AVENGER is more comic book than war movie, willfully hokey at times, and square like its hero.  For some of his critics, Captain America is just too pure of heart, too guileless, and thus too uninteresting, but it's not like this is a character study.  "Cap" becomes a little more complex in his post-AVENGERS solo feature, CAPTAIN AMERICA: THE WINTER SOLDIER, but even then, it is Captain America's surroundings that are required to be complex.  Cap is an ideal to live up to, and his purity allows him to be pitted against an impure society in social commentary.  THE FIRST AVENGER is appropriately simple however, a pulpy origin that doesn't need to be morally or dramatically complex.  It just has to be fun, and that it is.  Although THE ROCKETEER would make for a more appropriate comparison point, being another WWII rah-rah superhero adventure which Johnston directed, many, including Johnston himself, instead have gone to RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK.  Early in THE FIRST AVENGER, when the Red Skull attacks the Norwegian village of Tønsberg, uncovering the Tesseract, also known as the "Cosmic Cube", and muses, "And the Fuhrer digs for trinkets in the desert," a direct reference to the events of RAIDERS.  Less direct, if even an intended reference, is a moment when Cap, fighting with a H.Y.D.R.A. soldier on an airborne craft, throws his opponent through the propeller.  Regardless of whether it was intended to bring to mind the similar fate of a Nazi mechanic in fight with Indiana Jones, it's really cool in a ghoulish sort of way.
Out of Phase 1, THE FIRST AVENGER has some of the best action, including a prisoner escape from a fiery, self-destructing H.Y.D.R.A. stronghold, and the aforementioned airborne battle.  Unsurprisingly, there are a lot of opportunities for thrills in WWII-era superhero escapades.  For all the spectacular action, the most impressive visual effects work is the convincing placement of Chris Evans' face on a much smaller body double for Steve Rogers' pre-transformation scenes.
Evans, playing Steve Rogers/Captain America, was previously best known for playing Johnny Storm, aka the Human Torch, in the Tim Story-directed FANTASTIC FOUR and it's sequel, in which he was a minor bright spot in the otherwise very dull and dumb proceedings.  As Captain America, Evans is a much nicer, nobler presence and charming in the most clean-cut way, a character that shows his range in comparison to his often very dark independent film performances.  As the Red Skull, Hugo Weaving does what he does best, gnawing on the scenery as a true pulp menace, and the lovely Hayley Atwell as Cap's lady love and colleague Agent Peggy Carter, is the best female lead of the MCU thus far, outside of Scarlett Johansson's Natasha Romanoff/Black Widow.
The last Marvel Studios film in setting up the Phase 1 grand finale of MARVEL'S THE AVENGERS, THE FIRST AVENGER is also arguably the most crucial piece, even concluding with a direct set-up; Steve Rogers, awakened from his Arctic hibernation (survived thanks to his supernatural cellular regeneration and metabolism) and thrust into the midst of a modern world, and Director of S.H.I.E.L.D. Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson) comes to him with a mission.

Easter Eggs to Look For:

• Foreshadowing to MARVEL'S THE AVENGERS: The unnamed "Tesseract", the mystical cube that H.Y.D.R.A. weaponizes, opens a portal to another galaxy which the Red Skull disappears into, foreshadowing the manner in which Loki arrives on Earth early in MARVEL'S THE AVENGERS.  Howard Stark (Dominic Cooper) retrieves the Tesseract from the sea floor, and it becomes a major plot point in THE AVENGERS.
• Reference to MARVEL'S THE AVENGERS: Many MCU films feature a post-credits "stinger" scene that leads into an upcoming film, but CAPTAIN AMERICA: THE FIRST AVENGER actually features a short teaser trailer for MARVEL'S THE AVENGERS, released less than nine months later.
• Reference to IRON MAN 2: Captain America's tactical suit and shield are designed by Howard Stark (Dominic Cooper), Tony Stark/Iron Man's father, played by John Slattery in IRON MAN 2, and referenced to in IRON MAN.
• Reference to THOR: The church where the Red Skull uncovers the Tesseract is located in Tønsberg, Norway, which was featured in the prologue of THOR, released earlier the same summer.  The church features an ornate carving of Yggdrasil, a tree pivotal to Norse mythology, which Thor uses to explain the Nine Realms to Jane in THOR.

Top 5 of CAPTAIN AMERICA: THE FIRST AVENGER

1.  Captain America Takes Down the H.Y.D.R.A. Flying Wing- Basically all of the climactic action in THE FIRST AVENGER, from the moment Cap boards the H.Y.D.R.A. flying wing, somewhat reminiscent of a fictional aircraft from RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK, to the emotionally-charged crash-down of the craft in the Arctic ice, to prevent it from delivering a WMD payload to New York City, is all some of the best Phase 1 action.  I love how they even leave the wing for a bit, for Cap to fight H.Y.D.R.A. on top of a one-man propeller aircraft, sending one to a ghastly fate in the spinning propeller blades (a death that also calls back to RAIDERS), and then makes his way back to the wing for a showdown with the Red Skull.
2.  Stanley Tucci as Dr. Abraham Erskine- One of the most consistent rules of movies today is that Stanley Tucci makes every movie better, maybe a little, more likely a lot, but no movie that Tucci shows up in is a total loss.  His small role as Dr. Erskine, developer of the Super-Soldier serum and short-lived mentor to Steve Rogers, is in a similar vein to Shaun Toub's "Yinsen" in IRON MAN, a humorous and and heartfelt presence to root the movie's emotional core.
3.  Chris Evans as Steve Rogers/Captain America- Chris Evans, like Captain America, is underrated, but he is as well-suited to his role as Robert Downey, Jr. is to Iron Man.  Handsome, charming and a warm personality, but also firm in his standing, so you believe that he can take down just about any opponent, he gets you on his side from the start.
4.  Hayley Atwell as Agent Peggy Carter- British actress Hayley Atwell is every bit the classic 1940s beauty, but also the most active female lead in a Marvel movie so far next to Scarlett Johansson's Natasha Romanoff/Black Widow.  More a muse for Captain America than a pretty face, and written with sharp wit, Agent Carter is a sturdy, classically-styled pulp heroine.
5.  The Red Skull- Call me old-fashioned, but I'm a sucker for a supervillain with a bright red skull face.

Images via Marvel Studios

Review: PAUL BLART: MALL COP 2

PAUL BLART: MALL COP 2  (COMEDY)
0.5 out of 4 stars 
Directed by Andy Fickman
Starring: Kevin James, Neal McDonough, Raini Rodriguez, Daniella Alonso, David Henrie, Loni Love, D.B. Woodside, Eduardo Verastegui, Nicholas Turturro, Gary Valentine, Geovanni Gopradi, Vic Dibitetto, Ana Gasteyer
Rated PG for some violence.
94 minutes
Verdict: A soulless, witless, amateurish and bizarrely disinterested sequel that defies the dignity of the people involved and its audience.  It might have been understandable if it were made for public-access television programming.
YOU MAY ENJOY PAUL BLART: MALL COP 2 IF YOU LIKED:
PAUL BLART: MALL COP  (2009)
HERE COMES THE BOOM  (2012)
GROWN UPS 2  (2013)
ZOOKEEPER  (2011)
I NOW PRONOUNCE YOU CHUCK & LARRY  (2007)

Nobody can reasonably expect great things from a movie called PAUL BLART: MALL COP 2.  Not even good things.  Optimistically, maybe "okay" things.  Consider that, because PAUL BLART: MALL COP 2 is somehow all the way on the other side of the spectrum of expectations; it is even less competent than one might expect.  PAUL BLART: MALL COP 2 isn't even up to the expectations that anyone ought to have from a movie bearing that title.
It isn't that it's particularly unbearable.  It certainly isn't the most loathsome product to come out of producer Adam Sandler's Happy Madison Productions, but even in the midst of that studio's consistently unpleasant output, PAUL BLART: MALL COP 2 is as soulless as they come.  Six years after the original, there's no apparent enthusiasm in returning to the character, no story that writer/actor Kevin James and his collaborators seem interested in for the sake of continuing the story of the conceptually thin but physically rotund eponymous mall security officer.  Even if it's all for the paycheck, even at the cost of all dignity for those involved, it's bewildering how little anyone seems to care about the movie they're making.  This is a movie supposedly made on a budget of $30 million and opening 3,600 theaters nationwide, so why does it feel like a TV movie made for public-access television or an internet short stretched to feature length?
In that age-old device of cheap, obligatory sequels, PAUL BLART: MALL COP 2 drops its characters in Las Vegas, Nevada, six years after New Jersey security guard Paul Blart (Kevin James) took down a gang at the mall where he worked.  His wife has divorced him, his mother has died, and his daughter Maya (Raini Rodriguez) his about to leave for college.  In Vegas for a security guards convention at the Wynn Las Vegas hotel (which the movie is primarily filmed in and is practically a commercial for), Blart has a series of embarrassing experiences and is ridiculed by his colleagues before getting another chance to prove himself when he discovers an art heist taking place in Wynn itself.
The movie has professional sound and lighting technicians, according to the end credits anyway, but you wouldn't know it by looking at it.  It looks and sounds like a home movie much of the time.  According to the credits there was a script, but it seems more like they just showed up at the hotel and winged it, and yet, it has the stale formality of the listed side effects at the end of a pharmaceutical drug ad.  There are a scarce few uncomfortable chuckles during the course of the film, and they all revolve around an overweight, self-serious man making pratfalls.  PAUL BLART: MALL COP 2 is a movie that thinks little of itself, and even less of the people whose money it aims to take.  It may be relatively harmless, a quickly forgotten bit of childish mugging in front of a camera for 90 minutes, but most people wouldn't shell out ten bucks to watch an amateur comedy sketch on YouTube.

Marvel Cinematic Universe: THOR

In eager anticipation of Marvel Studios' AVENGERS: AGE OF ULTRON, I'm re-watching every entry in the "Marvel Cinematic Universe" (MCU) thus far, from IRON MAN to GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY, and then sharing my views on each one as a film and within the context of the MCU and movie landscape.  At the end of each essay is a list of "Easter eggs" that connect the pertinent film to other films in the wider MCU, and a "Top 5" of the best five parts (a scene, concept, actor, character, etc.) in each movie.  Although transparently manufactured, and one of the weaker installments in "Phase 1" of the MCU (the first six movies, that is), there's plenty of silly blockbuster fun to be had in 2011's THOR.  [Please note, this review contains spoilers for THOR, and minor speculated connections to future Marvel releases].

THOR
Released 6 May 2011
Directed by Kenneth Branagh
Starring: Chris Hemsworth, Natalie Portman, Tom Hiddleston, Anthony Hopkins, Stellan Skarsgard, Kat Dennings, Clark Gregg, Colm Feore, Idris Elba, Ray Stevenson, Tadanobu Asano, Josh Dallas, Jaimie Alexander, Rene Russo
Rated PG-13 for sequences of intense sci-fi action and violence.
115 minutes 
Merit: 3/4
The heir to the legendary throne of Asgard is a brave but restless warrior who longs for the glory and rush of battle.  Armed with the mighty hammer Mjolnir, Thor is nearly unstoppable with the weapon in his hands.  When the arrogant prince is banished to Earth from his homeworld of Asgard, he must fight to reclaim his lost powers.  Pursued by an enemy sent to destroy him, the fallen God of Thunder must rise to battle and learn what it takes to become a true hero. [Synopsis from "Marvel Cinematic Universe - Phase One: Avengers Assembled" Blu-ray box set]

Went it opened in theaters in May 2011, THOR was considered a risk, a make it or break it moment for the Marvel Cinematic Universe, introducing extra-terrestrial characters, "magic" and other more explicitly fantastical elements that were not present in the Iron Man movies or THE INCREDIBLE HULK.  It plays it safe though.  It's a perfectly fine bit of blockbuster fluff, and while certainly not bad, it is transparently manufactured.  It gets the job done to introduce the characters that will need to appear in THE AVENGERS, with a few fun, but simple action set-pieces, and a smattering of humor throughout.  It's the Jim Belushi of the MCU.

Considered gods by ancient Norsemen of Earth, the titular Thor (Chris Hemsworth) and his brother Loki (Tom Hiddleston) have been raised as Princes of Asgard, one of the Nine Realms, by their wise father and ruler of Asgard, Odin (Anthony Hopkins).  Wielding the mighty hammer Mjolnir, Thor is a brave but arrogant and vain warrior, and when his actions destroy a delicate but longstanding peace between Asgard and Jotunheim, the realm of the Frost Giants, Odin exiles him to Earth, with an enchantment on Mjolnir that only one who is worthy my wield it.  Thor lands in the desert in New Mexico, near the tiny town of Puente Antiguo, where he meets Dr. Jane Foster (Natalie Portman), an astrophysicist who is studying the phenomenon that brought Thor to Earth.  When S.H.I.E.L.D. takes possession of Jane's data while investigating Mjolnir, which has landed nearby but is immovable, Thor agrees to help Jane, during which time he comes to recognize the value of humility, and for lack of a better word, his humanity.  On Asgard, Loki, jealous and resentful of Thor, learns of his own true heritage as a son of Laufey, the King of the Frost Giants, and begins enacting a coup to consolidate power for himself by ensuring that Thor never returns to Asgard.
The plot is generally simple, mostly setting up characters, with Thor and Loki having individual arcs that only collide momentarily, mostly at the end.  Loki, a spiteful, jealous schemer desperate for approval comes to sever himself from his family in pursuit of power, while Thor, an arrogant and selfish warrior, becomes a sincere and benevolent defender of others.
Director Kenneth Branagh, probably best known to most American audiences as Professor Gilderoy Lockhart from HARRY POTTER AND THE CHAMBER OF SECRETS, is also well known for his big screen adaptations of William Shakespeare's plays, the best of which is his 1996 unabridged production of HAMLET.  THOR has an appropriate and slightly self-aware Elizabethan grandiosity, but more notable than the Bard is the connection to Arthurian legends, with the film's best scene alluding to the Sword in the Stone.  Taking out a series of S.H.I.E.L.D. agents with brawny fisticuffs in muddy, torrential desert rain, Thor fights his way into a makeshift compound built around Mjolnir, perched on a rock, and attempts to claim it.  However, still the proud and arrogant warrior, he finds himself unworthy to lift it, let alone wield it.  It's a nice, poignant moment, and Branagh's direction provides a steady hand, but THOR is hardly defined by his directorial vision.

THOR is a very moderate movie, never making any bold plays, with the arguable exception of opting to be so bold in its lack of boldness.  It's got a strong cast; Hemsworth is a big, hulking, Thunder from Down Under with a roguish smile and an action hero's charisma as Thor, his breakout role, though having already filmed lead roles in the then-unreleased CABIN IN THE WOODS and RED DAWN.  Fresh off her Oscar win for BLACK SWAN, Portman is an adorkable romantic lead as Jane Foster, an adequate but light character benefited greatly through Portman, and Swedish-born Stellan Skargard brings an actual Nordic presence to the proceedings.  Tom Hiddleston in the role of Loki was the breakout star of THOR, but as the primary antagonist of the movie, Loki is not much a villain for this round.  In the midst of the world-building, the story is kept simple, and Loki's villainy is reserved to a surprisingly sympathetic, albeit deranged effort to earn the admiration of his adoptive father.  Loki is not yet a fully formed character, not until his next appearance in MARVEL'S THE AVENGERS, so I was admittedly disappointed at first to learn that he would be the main villain in THE AVENGERS.  Joss Whedon's perspective on the character would render my concerns unwarranted.
It's a sort of fantasy film with swashbuckling and magic that takes place between three worlds, including Earth, but the movie goes out of its way to minimize the world-building, showing sweeping scenery of a vaguely steampunk meets Camelot city/world of Asgard, and Dutch angle shots of the jagged, icy Jotunheim, but never trying to make any sense of the civilizations or cultures themselves.
Patrick Doyle's grandiose musical main theme is one of the best in MCU, a suitable theme for the bombastic, hammer-swinging God of Thunder, and in turn is the most efficient world-building element to THOR.  It's a well-polished production, decent summer blockbuster entertainment, but feels strangely small.

Easter Eggs to Look For:

• Foreshadowing to MARVEL'S THE AVENGERS: S.H.I.E.L.D. Agent Clint Barton (played by Jeremy Renner), aka Hawkeye, is introduced but unnamed as the agent with a bow aimed at Thor as he storms the makeshift compound before Agent Coulson calls him off.  Hawkeye later appeared as part of the main cast in MARVEL'S THE AVENGERS.
• Foreshadowing to MARVEL'S THE AVENGERS, Reference to CAPTAIN AMERICA: THE FIRST AVENGER: In the post-credits stinger, Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson) comes to Dr. Selvig with the Tesseract (also referred to in the comics as the "Cosmic Cube"), a potentially unlimited power source for Selvig to study while a hidden Loki looks on.  The Tesseract is a major plot point in both CAPTAIN AMERICA: THE FIRST AVENGER and in MARVEL'S THE AVENGERS, where it is key to Loki's plans.
• Foreshadowing to AVENGERS: INFINITY WAR PART 1: Possibly an unintentional foreshadowing at the time of production, the Infinity Gauntlet can be glimpsed in Asgard's weapons vault when the Frost Giants are killed by the Destroyer.  The Infinity Gaunlet will likely become a major plot point in AVENGERS: INFINITY WAR PART 1, currently scheduled for May 4, 2018.

Top 5 of THOR

1. Thor's Main Theme by Patrick Doyle- I'm a big fan of Doyle's boisterously grandiose film scores, and his composition for Thor's leitmotif, which was reportedly inspired by a Celtic folk song, is magnificent as it should be.
2. Thor Storming the S.H.I.E.L.D. Compound- A rough and rowdy bit of brawling in the muddy desert downpour, with heavy thudding blows accentuated by the water makes for the most thrilling action in the film, followed by a moving failure to remove the hammer from the stone.
3. The Puente Antiguo Diner- All the best moments of humor in the one scene; Thor finishing a cup of coffee and smashing the cup on the floor to call for another, and Thor declaring "This mortal form has grown weak. I need sustenance!"  Also, Thor's goofy grin when Darcy (Kat Dennings) takes his photo is golden.
4. Chris Hemsworth- Marvel Studios has a knack for choosing its leads, and Hemsworth is no exception, a lively action star in a classic fashion.
5. Thor and Selvig Go Drinking- Thor puts it simply enough when they return: "We drank, we fought; he made his ancestors proud!"

Images via Marvel Studios

Marvel Cinematic Universe: IRON MAN 2

In eager anticipation of Marvel Studios' AVENGERS: AGE OF ULTRON, I'm re-watching every entry in the "Marvel Cinematic Universe" (MCU) thus far, from IRON MAN to GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY, and then sharing my views on each one as a film and within the context of the MCU and movie landscape.  At the end of each essay is a list of "Easter eggs" that connect the pertinent film to other films in the wider MCU, and a "Top 5" of the best five parts (a scene, concept, actor, character, etc.) in each movie. Now for the first in the series to really throw open the doors to Marvel's grander vision, the creaking and bombastic but still modestly entertaining sequel IRON MAN 2.  [Please note, this review contains spoilers].

IRON MAN 2
Released 7 May 2010
Directed by Jon Favreau
Starring: Robert Downey Jr., Gwyneth Paltrow, Don Cheadle, Scarlett Johansson, Sam Rockwell, Mickey Rourke, Samuel L. Jackson, Clark Gregg, John Slattery, Garry Shandling, Paul Bettany (voice), Jon Favreau
Rated PG-13 for sequences of intense sci-fi action and violence, and some language.
124 minutes 
Merit: 2.5/4
With the world now aware of his dual life as the armored superhero Iron Man, billionaire inventor Tony Stark faces pressure from the government, the press, and the public to share his technology with the military.  Unwilling to let go of his invention, Stark, with Pepper Potts and James "Rhodey" Rhodes at his side, must forge new alliances- and confront powerful new enemies.[Synopsis from "Marvel Cinematic Universe - Phase One: Avengers Assembled" Blu-ray box set]

IRON MAN and THE INCREDIBLE HULK were a couple of fun summer blockbusters, one of them superb, the other a bit of dumb fun.  IRON MAN 2 revealed the grand vision that Marvel Studios had in mind, but in less than spectacular fashion, a clumsy, bombastic midway point in a narrative that emphasized the weaknesses of the planned MCU.  IRON MAN 2 is not a particularly bad movie, but it's not a good one, the result of a production that did not yet realize it was mere cog in a giant machine that no one quite knew how to operate yet.
Six months after the events in IRON MAN, Tony Stark (Robert Downey, Jr.) is a world famous superhero as Iron Man, or as he puts it, having successfully "privatized world peace".  However, while Tony only uses it as a defensive weapon, the federal government, concerned with a foreign power developing similar technology, and military contractors, interested in getting a slice of the profits, are pressuring him to turn the tech over to the public.  Meanwhile, Ivan Vanko (Mickey Rourke), a Russian genius bearing a grudge against the Stark empire, has done just what Tony insists is years away, having developed his own arc reactor weapons technology, which he plans to use against Tony in the midst of the newly re-instituted Stark Expo in New York.  Tony has an even more pressing problem than any of this though, with the arc reactor in his chest that keeps him alive slowly killing him with palladium poisoning.

In addition to the smorgasbord of new complications in Iron Man's world, IRON MAN 2 introduces two new major players in the MCU, S.H.I.E.L.D. Director Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson) and Agent Natasha Romanoff (Scarlett Johansson), who show up with information that Stark needs to build an entirely new synthesized element to replace the palladium core in the chest piece that his killing him.
IRON MAN 2 is serviceable entertainment enough, but feels obligatory in most respects, with conflicting visions between returning director Jon Favreau (who also returns onscreen as Stark's driver/head of security, Happy Hogan), who envisioned the Iron Man films as a trilogy story arc, and Marvel Studios president and producer Kevin Feige, who was using IRON MAN 2 as an introduction to how each character fits into the larger Marvel Cinematic Universe.  The primary antagonist, Ivan Vanko, marketed as "Whiplash", is more of a side plot with minimal consequences to the story as whole and basically serves as an excuse for an overly bombastic finale.  Fury, Romanoff and returning S.H.I.E.L.D. Agent Phil Coulson (Clark Gregg), meanwhile, are primarily there to connect the Iron Man world to the larger MCU.  In her first appearance, Johansson's Black Widow is poorly managed, a cliched, sexualized action heroine whose role is not only perfunctory, but lacking a sufficient identity.  Sam Rockwell, an early candidate for the role of Tony Stark when the first movie was in development, brings a sharp, sardonic sense of humor as a Stark wannabe, weapons manufacturer Justin Hammer, a flashy showman with a dark edge.  Again though, his place in the proceedings is a bit confused, as a secondary antagonist to a primary antagonist who feels misplaced himself.
The action is also lacking, comprised of a lot of bombast, but lacking in either impact or elegance.  The climactic action sequence in particular is disappointingly explosion and destruction driven, and while maybe not approaching the absurdly callous level of MAN OF STEEL, it feels like there would be more of a civilian body count than the movie is prepared to accept.
There are two sets of priorities to IRON MAN 2, essentially two movies; a continuation of the narrative introduced in IRON MAN, and an introduction to the wider Marvel Cinematic Universe at large; and while the two interweave well tonally, the overcrowded whole neuters the effects of both.  It's a big, creaking sequel that takes the character from point A to point B, but the substance of the journey and achievement, as an individual film, is negligible.

Easter Eggs to Look For:

• Reference to CAPTAIN AMERICA: THE FIRST AVENGER: Tony uses a partial Captain America shield, which appeared as an Easter Egg in the first IRON MAN, to prop up a makeshift arc reactor.
• Reference to THOR: Multiple references to THOR, released in theaters a year later, including Nick Fury telling Tony Stark, "I have bigger problems in the southwest region to deal with," (THOR is primarily set in New Mexico), and Agent Coulson being transferred to New Mexico (Coulson later plays a role in THOR).
• Reference to THOR: The post-credits stinger shows Coulson in New Mexico, standing by a crater with a large hammer, Mjolnir, at the center, alluding to events to come in THOR.
• Reference to THE INCREDIBLE HULK: When Stark meets with Nick Fury to go over Agent Romanoff's assessment of Iron Man for the Avenger's Initiative, a screen is visible showing a news report of the Hulk's battle with General Ross' troops from THE INCREDIBLE HULK.
• Foreshadowing to MARVEL'S THE AVENGERS: The Avengers Initiative for which Agent Romanoff is assessing Iron Man is a straightforward lead-in to MARVEL'S THE AVENGERS.

Top 5 of IRON MAN 2  

1.  Opening the Stark Expo- To the strains of AC/DC's "Shoot to Thrill", Iron Man skydives into the arena in spectacular fashion, before machinery removes the suit to reveal Tony Stark in a tuxedo beneath, a la James Bond, in IRON MAN 2's highest energy moment.
2.  Justin Hammer's Sales Pitch- He has an unpleasant, nasty edge at moments, but in full gear as the on-stage Justin Hammer, Sam Rockwell is hilarious, no more so than when he lays out a series of weapons for modifying the War Machine suit.  "I can tell this isn't disco enough for you..."  Love that.
3.  Samuel L. Jackson is Nick Fury- After a post-credits cameo in IRON MAN, Samuel L. Jackson returns in a supporting role as Director of S.H.I.E.L.D. Nick Fury, and every movie should have a bit of Samuel L. Jackson in it.  Every movie. 
4. Tony Reads His "Avengers Initiative" Assessment- "Mr. Stark displays textbook...narcissism?" [pauses, looks up] "Agreed." 
5. The Ex-Wife Payoff- Facing off against Ivan Vanko/Whiplash, Rhodes/War Machine fires what he's been told is a super-charged bunker-buster grenade, the "Ex-Wife", which bounces of Whiplash and falls in a puddle with a small fart sound.  "Hammer tech?" Iron Man asks.  This would just be a stupid, cheap gag, but it's War Machine lowering his head dejectedly when says, "Yeah," which sells it.

Images via Marvel Studios

Marvel Cinematic Universe: THE INCREDIBLE HULK

In eager anticipation of Marvel Studios' AVENGERS: AGE OF ULTRON, I'm re-watching every entry in the "Marvel Cinematic Universe" (MCU) thus far, from IRON MAN to GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY, and then sharing my views on each one as a film and within the context of the MCU and movie landscape.  At the end of each essay is a list of "Easter eggs" that connect the pertinent film to other films in the wider MCU, and a "Top 5" of the best five parts (a scene, concept, actor, character, etc.) in each movie.  Second in the series is the oft-overlooked (though better than you may think) 2008 sequel/reboot THE INCREDIBLE HULK.  [This review contains spoilers.]

THE INCREDIBLE HULK
Released 13 June 2008
Directed by Louis Leterrier
Starring: Edward Norton, Liv Tyler, Tim Roth, William Hurt, Tim Blake Nelson, Ty Burrell, Christina Cabot, Peter Mensah, Paul Soles, Debora Nascimento
Rated PG-13 for sequences of intense action violence, some frightening sci-fi images, and brief suggestive content.
112 minutes 
Merit: 3/4
After a gamma experiment goes awry, the brilliant and mild-mannered scientist Bruce Banner finds himself with a peculiar condition.  When angered or provoked, he transforms into an uncontrollable green-skinned monster.  Now being hunted by a secret military force, Banner desperately searches for a cure to the gamma radiation that has poisoned his cells and created his alter ego known as the Hulk.  [Synopsis from "Marvel Cinematic Universe - Phase One: Avengers Assembled" Blu-ray box set]

THE INCREDIBLE HULK is not one of the better efforts in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, but it may be the most underrated.  It has a bad reputation, for what reputation it has, as a lot of people tend to forget about it.  Of the two big screen independent outings for the angry green giant, it's less ambitious and arguably less interesting, but it's a lot better, and a lot more fun.  It definitely isn't a bad movie, and it's better than at least a couple of other films in the MCU.  Even still, it didn't quite work out how Marvel Studios would have liked, it's notably lacking in continuity with the other MCU movies, and as such, Marvel seems to prefer it as a footnote anyway.
To date (although they're now working on Spider-Man films), the Hulk is the first character in the MCU to have been adapted to a theatrical release previously, so Marvel opted for something in between a complete reboot and a sequel to Ang Lee's 2003 film, HULK.  Quickly retelling the origins of the Hulk in an opening credits montage, in a lab accident modeled after the popular 1978 TV series that starred Bill Bixby and Lou Ferrigno (both of whom have cameos in the film, the late Bixby appearing in archive footage), the film opens in Rio de Janeiro, where fugitive scientist Bruce Banner (Edward Norton) works as a severely overqualified machine repairman at a bottling plant.  In hiding from General Thunderbolt Ross (William Hurt) who wants to extract and militarize the condition of Banner's gamma irradiated cells which cause him to transform into the immensely powerful, indestructible but unpredictable Hulk, Banner is attempting to find a cure for his condition.  When an accident reveals his location to General Ross, Banner is forced back on the run, and Ross has been experimenting with "super soldier" serums on his own man, Emil Blonsky (Tim Roth), to condition him to take down the Hulk.
THE INCREDIBLE HULK is a more traditional form of the superhero film than IRON MAN, following the parallel story lines of the hero and villain, occasionally colliding as they build to the big final showdown.  When I saw both movies in 2008, I liked THE INCREDIBLE HULK better, finding more familiarity and emotional potency in it; needless to say, my views have evolved, and I now find much more to appreciate in IRON MAN and less in THE INCREDIBLE HULK.  It lacks a strong directorial vision, being directed by French journeyman director Louis Leterrier, but it's still not as much a manufactured studio product as is THOR.
It's a fairly standard superhero movie with lots of big CGI action and big melodrama, except that it brings a big brand to go with it all.  It's a more than adequate standard superhero movie though, and I feel compelled to defend it.  It is melodramatic, a science fiction love story first and foremost, filled out with a lot of over-the-top monster action.  Liv Tyler plays Banner's colleague and girlfriend Betty Ross, a cellular biologist and estranged daughter of the General, who reunites with Banner shortly after he returns to the States and helps him evade the Army while searching for a cure.  She's a disappointingly inactive role in the plot, mostly tagging along to provide an emotional core, with romantic moments with swelling musical score by Craig Armstrong, such as embraces in the pouring rain and passionate kisses before going into battle.  Like I said, it's a more traditional superhero movie, for better or worse.

Roth is a pretty cheesy villain as Blonksy, but once you get to the big climactic scrap in Harlem, it doesn't matter.  Yeah, it's a lot of destructive CGI brawling, but damn it all, it's exciting.  Regardless of Leterrier's lacking in character construction and storytelling, he knows how to make an exciting action scene and a sense of cool spectacle.
Ultimately, Marvel didn't think so much of THE INCREDIBLE HULK though.  Director Leterrier's and star/co-writer Norton's working relationship with Marvel Studios President Kevin Feige soured over editing process of the film, with Leterrier and Norton preferring a nuanced cut about twenty minutes longer than Feige's, and Norton also irked credited screenwriter Zak Penn, by pointing out that he rewrote much of the film prior to shooting each day (Norton was initially given credit on some of the posters as "Edward Harrison", before the Writers' Guild of America decided sole credit would be given to Penn).  Noted for his intense work ethic but often confrontational as a result, upon the film's release, Norton opted out of the typical media interviews and promotional tour, making only a couple of appearances, and was doing charity in Africa when the film opened over Father's Day weekend in 2008.  The movie opened at #1 for the weekend with $55.4 million, but only narrowly passed Ang Lee's financially disappointing HULK in total grosses with $263.4 million worldwide, making it the lowest-grossing MCU installment to date by a margin of over $100 million.  While IRON MAN 2 and MARVEL'S THE AVENGERS contain minor references to THE INCREDIBLE HULK (THOR contains a brief reference to the character, but not in relation to the events depicted in the Hulk movie), the movie is largely brushed under the rug in the midst of the MCU at large.  Norton was replaced by Mark Ruffalo for the Hulk's next outing in MARVEL'S THE AVENGERS, and none of the cast has appeared in another MCU film either, with no other solo Hulk films to date or officially in development.

Easter Eggs to Look For:

•  Reference to CAPTAIN AMERICA: THE FIRST AVENGER: General Ross refers to a "bio-force enhancement research project developed during World War II," which Blonsky identifies as "Super Soldier," the program which made Steve Rogers into Captain America in CAPTAIN AMERICA: THE FIRST AVENGER.  It is revealed that Ross was hoping to revitalize the program in the accident that made Bruce Banner the Hulk.
• Reference to CAPTAIN AMERICA: THE FIRST AVENGER, IRON MAN: When General Ross retrieves the Super Soldier serum for Blonsky, it is contained in a cryogenic canister labeled "Stark Industries" (Tony Stark's company in IRON MAN), with the "Developer" of the serum listed as "Reinstein" an alias in Captain America comics of Dr. Abraham Erskine, the doctor who created the serum for Captain America, and who would be played in CAPTAIN AMERICA: THE WINTER SOLDIER by Stanley Tucci.
• Reference to IRON MAN, Foreshadowing to MARVEL'S THE AVENGERS: In what would have been a post-credits scene in other MCU movies (THE INCREDIBLE HULK is the only MCU movie without a post-credits scene), Tony Stark (played by Robert Downey, Jr.), aka Iron Man, shows up at a bar with an offer: "What if I told you we were putting a team together?"
• Foreshadowing to MARVEL'S THE AVENGERS: A CGI visualization of internet surveillance includes a seal for the Strategic Homeland Intervention, Enforcement and Logistics Division, aka S.H.I.E.L.D.

Top Five of THE INCREDIBLE HULK

1.  Harlem Fight- Yeah, it's a couple of CGI characters brawling in a cityscape and breaking everything in their path in the process, but it's a balls-to-the-wall CGI battle with a slightly cheesy appeal.
2.  Free-fall Hulk-out- In order to transform into the Hulk before fighting the Abomination, Banner free falls out the back of an Army plane, accompanied by Craig Armstrong's bombastically emotional score, the adrenaline rush transforming him into the Hulk just in time to crash through the asphalt of the streets.
3. Chase Through Rio de Janerio- Regardless of the living conditions, the tight spaces and winding, sloping landscapes of Rio's favelas make them ideal for a cinematic foot-chase.
4. Hulk vs. Sonic Cannons- Bullets, mortar shells, grenades are nothing, but aim a couple of giant sonic cannons at the Hulk, and then he's got a real challenge, plus, you don't get sonic weapons too often in movies.
5. Tim Blake Nelson- Most movies could use a little more Tim Blake Nelson.

Images via Marvel Studios

Review: FURIOUS 7

FURIOUS 7  (ACTION/ADVENTURE)
3 out of 4 stars 
Directed by James Wan
Starring: Vin Diesel, Paul Walker, Jason Statham, Michelle Rodriguez, Jordana Brewster, Tyrese Gibson, Chris Bridges, Lucas Black, Kurt Russell, Dwayne Johnson, Djimon Hounsou
Rated PG-13 for prolonged frenetic sequences of violence, action and mayhem, suggestive content and brief strong language.
137 minutes
Verdict: The biggest and craziest installment in the series yet, FURIOUS 7 is full of insane, jaw-dropping action in exotic locations and provides an unexpectedly moving tribute to the late Paul Walker, even if the pacing is occasionally clumsy and it barely gets by in the script department.
YOU MAY ENJOY FURIOUS 7 IF YOU LIKED:
FAST & FURIOUS 6  (2013)
FAST FIVE  (2011)
FAST & FURIOUS  (2009)
THE EXPENDABLES 3  (2014)
THE TRANSPORTER  (2002)

Michael Bay, take note, the best major movie franchise for “dumb fun” out there today is Universal's Fast & Furious series, of which the newly released FURIOUS 7 is the biggest and craziest yet. It's not quite the "best" one to date, but is a strong runner-up to the series' 2011 installment FAST FIVE, which marked the emergence of what had been a dull teen-friendly exploitation series newly reformed into vehicular warfare/caper adventures.

FURIOUS 7 picks up immediately following the events of FAST & FURIOUS 6 (although those coming in clean should be able to get the gist of it easily enough), after Dominic Toretto (Vin Diesel), Brian O'Conner (Paul Walker) and their crew of “extreme drivers” defeated international arms dealer Owen Shaw. Now Shaw's big brother Deckard Shaw (Jason Statham), a trained killing machine and rogue shadow agent for the British government, has made it his personal mission to kill all of the team that killed his brother, one by one. A government operative (Kurt Russell) offers to help Toretto and the crew take down Shaw first by finding the “God's Eye”, a surveillance technology with limitless applications that can help them find Shaw anywhere in the world, or help Shaw hunt down everyone one of them (and in a more socially/politically conscious movie would have been an opportunity to scrutinize the modern U.S. Security apparatus, but here is basically a MacGuffin).

FURIOUS 7 marks director James Wan's first foray into non-horror territory, following huge success with moderately-budgeted horror movies like SAW, INSIDIOUS and THE CONJURING, and taking the reins from Justin Lin, who had helmed the previous four in the series starting with 2006's THE FAST AND THE FURIOUS: TOKYO DRIFT. Wan's working on a far larger scale than he has before, but his talent for setup and payoff carries over to the benefit of the action, which has been pumped up to a scale unprecedented for this series, even if his broader storytelling is lacking cohesion. In the movie's most memorable sequence, the characters drive their fancy racing cars, reenforced like tanks, out the back of a airborne plane and skydive onto a mountaintop road, filmed for real with stunt drivers, because this franchise is insane. While the stunts and action choreography are top notch, much of the action is cut between differently placed characters with occasionally clumsy timing, but it's a forgivable offense in light of the typically enthralling onscreen mayhem.  More problematic is the fact that the two plot lines involving Shaw and the God's Eye never feel effectively intertwined, and one could easily be disposed of without seriously affecting the other.  It's true, no one should expect great storytelling from these movies, but FURIOUS 7 ranks as 'barely adequate' in the script department.

Dwayne Johnson, who was added to the cast in FAST FIVE to the enormous benefit of the series, has a smaller role this time around but makes the most of his obligatory appearance, while newcomer to the franchise Kurt Russell injects fresh life into the film's compendium of gear-heads with an energetic and self-aware performance that also serves as a reminder of just how rarely he seems to show up in movies anymore.  Of course the big question is Paul Walker, who famously died in a car accident in November 2013, partway through shooting, so that the production had to be postponed with his part rewritten and his scenes finished via a combination of stand-in actors (including Walker's own brothers, Caleb and Cody) and elaborate digital visual effects.  Digital faces bring to mind the less-than-convincing "Clu" played by Jeff Bridges in 2010's TRON, but the effects in FURIOUS 7 are remarkably seamless, with the only hint that something might have been created following Walker's untimely death being the nature of the scenes themselves.  It's no secret that FURIOUS 7 is Walker's send-off for the franchise, with scenes rewritten to give his character some closure, and while I was never a fan of Walker's work within or without this series, I think they nailed it.  As per usual with this series, the majority of intended emotional moments in this installment are cheaply manufactured and merely an interruption to the next action set-piece, but there's real feeling in Walker's surprisingly adept farewell, which smartly blends a comforting note for the character with an almost meta sensibility that provides the permanence of that note.

FURIOUS 7 is a little more touching that even casual or more cynical moviegoers may expect, but importantly, it proves that the series still knows how to jump the biggest sharks and having way too much fun doing it.  It's like the Mission: Impossible series' brother who may be big, dumb and uncouth, but he can throw an awesome party.  You may feel a little superior to the party, and even a little woozy, but hey, it was a fun party.

All images via Universal Pictures.