Marvel's Avengers smashes NZ box office on opening day

It should be no real surprise that the Marvel's Avengers has opened to rather large box office numbers.

CHECK OUT THE MARVEL'S AVENGERS MOVIE REVIEW HERE

In figures just released, it's been revealed that on its opening day, according to Disney's release -

"Marvel’s The Avengers has smashed the New Zealand box office on its opening day of release with a record breaking NZD$1,019,844.00. The result puts the film at the number one position of all time openings surpassing the current holder Harry Potter Deathly Hallows Part 2 (NZD$975,109).

The stunning opening makes Marvel’s The Avengers the biggest opening day in New Zealand history and
represents the number one Disney Studios opening day, ahead of Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest (NZD$513,290.00).

“The most anticipated blockbuster for the year Marvel’s The Avengers has really lit up the box office with this stunning opening – Disney and Marvel’s biggest yet in New Zealand. The Avengers is testament to fabulous storytelling combined with a blockbuster cast and world-renowned director - this superhero epic is a must-see for all New Zealand fans and film lovers!,” said John Cracknell, senior vice president & managing director The Walt Disney Company, Australia and New Zealand."

And by way of celebrating, here's a couple of Avengers featurettes for you.


One of which is a featurette on Scarlett Johansson as Black Widow...

Meet the Prometheus crew

The Prometheus crew are slowly being unveiled.

In the latest promotional material from Ridley Scott's forthcoming scifi flick, there's some new insights into the characters of the Prometheus crew.

We've already had the Happy Birthday David video and a whole range of images from Prometheus unveiled...

Feast your eyes on the images below...First up an artefact.

Then the crew of the Prometheus themselves...David, Shaw, Janek and Vickers.

Prometheus hits NZ cinemas on June 7th.

Starring the likes of Noomi Rapace, Michael Fassbender, Charlize Theron, Idris Elba, this is likely to be one of the biggest sci fi hits of the year - and we get it a few hours before America does too.

Rumour has it as well, a new Prometheus trailer is due very soon....stay tuned.

Tintin gets the VIP treatment

Just briefly - for fans of Herge's Tintin, some good news this weekend if you're in Auckland.

The Adventures of Tintin got released on DVD and Blu Ray this week and to celebrate, those behind a very cool book about the film The Art of the Adventures of  Tintin hit the City of Sails to talk about the book and the WETA made film.

Details are below....

The Most Fun You Can Have Dying: Movie Review

The Most Fun You Can Have Dying

Cast: Matt Whelan, Roxanne Mesquida

Director: Kristin Marcon

Fresh from taking the lead as Brad in Go Girls, here's Matt Whelan's latest attempt to conquer the big screen (after the success of My Wedding and Other Secrets).

He is Michael, who has a relatively carefree existence down in Hamilton - he's prone to the excesses of youth - the hedonistic partying, rooting and drinking and not giving a damn about the morning after. He's even happy to cheat on his best mate and steal a quickie with his girlfriend - those kind of naivetes of youth.

But his world is turned upside down when he's diagnosed with end stage liver cancer.

Suddenly, his self absorbed world has an end date on it; his youthful shelf life is brought crashing down around him.

So, when $200,000 is raised for his cancer treatment, in a moment of self calculated selfishness, Michael steals the money and heads to Europe to live life to the full - and with anyone who wants to join him.

Into his life after a beating, stumbles French drifter Sylvie (Mesquida),whom Michael falls for.

But it's not just Michael who has secrets...and the clock is running out.

The Most Fun You Can Have Dying starts off with a punky bang and doesn't really let up from there.

For a debut film (albeit based on a book), it's an exciting proposition and Marcon certainly brings some flourish to the table - using European locations to give a Kiwi film a point of difference is one of the best. It's great to see a New Zealand film start off here and head out globally giving it that scope and worldwide appeal that's sometimes lacking in other flicks. It's stylish and got a great soundtrack too as well.

Matt Whelan is mightily impressive as Michael, who chooses hedonism over hellish wasting away; it's a testament to his acting prowess that he imbues Michael with a real watchability and gives the nastier sides of his personality a rogueish roughness which is relatable given his circumstances. Whelan certainly steps up his acting from his Go Girls Brad character. It's difficult as well because it's not as if Michael's a particularly decent chap given what he's going through - sure, you can understand it to a degree but there's only so much terrible behaviour you can forgive.

The Most Fun You Can Have Dying is an admirable Kiwi film - while it's not quite as engaging as it could be, it's cerainly well put together (Europe gives it a great global feel as I've mentioned) and watchable, if occasionally flawed and distant.

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The Way Movie Review

The Way Movie Review

Cast: Martin Sheen, Deborah Kara Unger, James Nesbitt, Yorick van Wageningen
Director: Emilio Estevez

Martin Sheen stars in this film directed by his son Emilio.

Sheen stars as Thomas Avery, a widowed ophthalmologist, who's also estranged from his son, Daniel. Avery's drive these days is his work but one day, his world is shattered when he gets a call from a French policeman telling him that his son's dead.

Daniel had been killed in the Pyrenees, walking the Camino de Santiago, a Christian pilgrim route made by thousands. This news, coupled with the fact Thomas wasn't sure why Daniel was doing the route, throws his world into turmoil.

So, setting out to retrieve the body in France, Tom decides on the spur of the moment to walk the route himself - to try and reacquaint himself with his son and find out why he was doing what he was doing.

But along the way - and despite his many protestations to the contrary, he falls in with three other walkers. Joost, an overweight man from Amsterdam, Sarah, a bitter Canadian and Jack, an Irish travel writer who's trying to beat writer's block.

The Way is a gentle, unassuming and moving film which has an emotional resonance from beginning to end.

Thanks, in a large part, due to Martin Sheen's subtly layered performance; the guy is a powerhouse of an acting talent who takes you through this road movie despite its occasional faults and flashbacks to Tom and Daniel's relationship. His tetchy and grumpy Tom is very relatable and watchable as the film unfolds and his dynamic with the other travellers is perfectly understandable for anyone who's been backpacking.

Of the rest of the cast, van Wageningen gets the lion's share of funny lines (his pilgrim is there to lose weight but can't help but eat at every stop to ensure he enjoys the journey); Kara Unger bristles with simmering anger and Nesbitt irritates as the writer. Perhaps that's some of Estevez's intention with Nesbitt's character - he doesn't show until later into the film and is the catalyst for some changes but his initial appearance is, unfortunately, nothing short of annoying. Thankfully, this quartet is inextricably linked through their walk together and thier bond is compelling and may leave you close to tears at times.

Estevez does a good job of this writer/ director piece - even if he does occasionally sentimentally over-egg the pudding by inserting shots of Tom seeing Daniel at key moments on the walk. It's unnecessary and heavy handed. But beautiful shots of scenes along the way help to hint at something a little majestic in places.

While The Way is perhaps predictable in plot and denouement, it's simply unmissable as a piece of inspirational cinema- it's the characters' dynamics and relationships which make it so enjoyable and  touching; as a character piece, it's gentle, unassuming, touching, reflective, emotionally satisfying and soulful.

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A Dangerous Method: Movie Review

Cast: Michael Fassbender, Keira Knightley, Viggo Mortensen, Vincent Cassel

Director: David Cronenberg

Taken from the 2002 stage play, The Talking Cure which was in turn based on the 1993 book A Dangerous Method, we've now got the cinematic version from sometimes controversial director David Cronenberg.

Set in 1904, Fassbender, in another searingly good character performance is Dr Carl Jung who is a junior doctor and bored with dispensing prescriptions. Into his care is bundled Russian Sabina Spielrein (Knightley), a troubled soul with an horrific case of hysteria.

Jung decides that the only real way to treat Spielrein is to push on with his treatment of word association and dream analysis (the founding of psychoanalysis) and after some reticence on her behalf, he begins to break through.

Jung's methods bring him to the attention of Dr Freud (brilliantly played in a haze of constant cigar smoke and calm by Viggo Mortensen) and soon Jung's been adopted as Freud's heir apparent as the two lock horns and bond over theories and practices.

However, Jung's not just interested in Spielrein for her leaps forward in analysis and the field of psychoanalysis - there's also a strong sexual attraction between the pair. But, spurred on by his desire not to overstep the doctor/ patient threshold, he initially resists - only to give in and fully embrace the possibilities a wild relationship with Spielrein would offer him as opposed to a calmer time with his wife, who's given him children.


In amid the bondage and spanking, Jung starts to unravel as Freud hears of the affair and soon his standing within the community and colleagues is taking a beating...

A Dangerous Method is a stunning and tautly directed piece which benefits from thrilling performances from all involved.

From the initial scenes of Knightley screaming, wailing and jutting her jaw forward like a twitchy pitbull as she wallows in the grips of her hysteria to the back and forth verbal tension between Freud and Jung, it's an engrossing, if at times, starched film which has an undercurrent of repression running throughout.

Fassbender is simply brilliant as Jung as the one upmanship between the pair escalates and the tension has you on a knife edge; equally Knightley relatively impresses with what could be a one note character performance as she proffers up subtle layers to a woman caught in the middle - despite veering a little closely to being OTT - and Mortensen is a nonchalantly calming voice as Freud, lending an intellectual presence to the scenes his character appears in.

Occasionally given the film's material, there is a tendency toward a starched and detached tone, but thanks to a simple story of a man being tempted by lust -both intellectually and physically - A Dangerous Method is a highly watchable and fascinating piece which has a tendency to get under your skin.

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The Avengers: Movie Review

The Avengers: Movie Review

Cast: Robert Downey Jr, Chris Evans, Mark Ruffalo, Scarlett Johansson, Chris Hemsworth, Jeremy Renner, Tom Hiddleston, Clark Gregg, Samuel L Jackson, Cobie Smulders

Director: Joss Whedon

Finally, after the Avengers 2012 red carpet premiere in Los Angeles coupled with the Avengers release date being ahead of the USA here in New Zealand and with plenty of scenes and featurettes from the Avengers being released, the superhero team-up film everyone's been waiting for is finally here.

When the world faces a threat like no other before thanks to the meddling of Tom Hiddleston's Loki, who's determined to wreak havoc on Earth, Nick Fury (Samuel L Jackson) of S.H.I.E.L.D has no choice but to bring together the greatest army of Marvel superheroes ever assembled under the "Avengers Initiative".

But despite pulling together Iron Man (Downey Jr), The Incredible Hulk (Ruffalo), Thor (Hemsworth), Captain America (Evans), Hawkeye (Renner) and Black Widow (Johansson) on a worldwide global recruitment drive, Fury -along with Clark Gregg's Agent Coulson - find the biggest challenge threatening the world may not be Loki, the Cosmic Cube / Tesseract(which has been teased through the previous films of Thor and Captain America) and his army, but the egos and issues within the team...

With a writing pedigree of Joss Whedon and Zak Penn plus directing from Joss himself, there's plenty of expectation on the shoulders of this film.

The first question has to be - does it deliver?

The simple answer is a resounding hell, yes. And not just to the fanboy crowd too. Sure, they'll feel satiated by the references and the reverence to the mythology of these characters but there's plenty to love in terms of action and plot - as well as much unexpected humour throughout.

From its action packed pre-titles sequence (which  references Stargate and The Terminator), The Avengers 2012 movie is a film which goes at it full tilt right from the get go and succeeds hitting every target it can, while screaming utterly epic on its way.

Be warned - from here on in on this review, there are some mild spoilers to the film coming so, proceed with a bit of caution. (Though I promise not to ruin the best bits of the film for you - nor will I add fuel to some of the internet rumours currently out there about the flick).

While the initial stages of the film after the attack on the S.H.I.E.L.D base take the form of a reintroduction and recruitment of all the characters of Iron Man, Hulk, Thor, Captain America, Black Widow, those behind the film have taken care to ensure that it moves along reasonably swiftly.

It's always difficult as well with a film like this, with so many characters in the spotlight to neglect any of them and over-focus on one of them. Thankfully, this is not the case with the Avengers. Every cast member - from the core of the initiative to Clark Gregg's wonderfully funny and human Agent Coulson - get their moment in the spotlight and every one of them seizes it and leaves an impression permanently etched on your mind.

But it's the character dynamic between the core cast which make this flick work so well (coupled with some very funny one liners and banter)- rather than simply being a collection of egos on screen, it's an examination of what makes superheroes tick and reminds us why they're different from the rest of us.

Mark Ruffalo brings a touch of class to Bruce Banner, struggling to keep "The Other Guy" (as he refers to his green alter-ego) in check - there's a measured calmness to the performance which really shows up the violence when the Big Green One erupts.

Whedon's made a smart move by not bringing out the Hulk until at least midway through the film - that reveal gives the metaphorical punch in the air that you perhaps need when sitting through a 2 and a quarter hour long movie. And when he does finally show up, he's funny too - quite unexpectedly so. Plus ILM's once again done themselves proud with the FX for Hulk - giving him the cartoon edge while keeping Ruffalo's face.

Elsewhere, Downey Jr is effortlessly cool as Tony Stark/ Iron Man and continues to own the role he's made his own in two prior movies; Evans brings muster and respect as a take charge Captain America; Samuel L Jackson is his usual stylish self as Nick Fury; Hemsworth improves on his Thor role; Johansson is pouty vulnerability mixed with ass kicking as Widow; and Renner is suitably aloof with his loner Hawkeye. Kudos also need to go to scene stealing Clark Gregg for imbuing Agent Coulson with a level of humour and humanity that the film needs to ground it. Perhaps the only minor weak link is Cobie Smulders as the 2IC of S.H.I.E.L.D because she suffers from being part of such a strong line up of cast members.

Take a look at The Avengers character portraits here.

But one of the real highlights is Tom Hiddleston's Loki. A sneering, scornful demi-god who leers at the human race that they "were made to be ruled", as he readies his (relatively faceless and mildly underdeveloped) Chitauri army in the background, his is a baddie who's not over the top but brings a real sense of menace to this superhero smackdown; his showdowns with the group are sinister and yet at the same time humorous and mischievous. As he bellows at one point "I am burdened with glorious purpose", his snarling and snarky presence is magnetic and compelling. 

It's not just wall to wall action in this film - it doesn't stumble from one set piece to the next (even though the final action sequence when all of the Avengers get to kick some serious butt is pretty damn impressive) without a degree of heart and a sense of story purpose as well as great character moments.

There's a real smattering of emotion in this flick as well - with one scene proving to be particularly emotionally draining and the impetus/ kick in the pants the team needs to put aside their differences. It gives the film the fire in the belly it needs to propel the last act forward.

Watch a behind the scenes featurette from the Avengers 2012 movie here.

Yes, there's a during the credits scene (so stay on) and there are rumours an extra post credits scene has been filmed - but that wasn't on the print I was privileged enough to see. Needless to say, there's room for a sequel and I'm guessing it'll be a no brainer.

With a great ensemble cast, a smart script and a fanboy eye for detail, The Avengers is a superhero film that does more than just ticks the box. It Hulk smashes the box to pieces with joyous geeky entertainment and cinema smarts -complete with kick ass action sequences. What's also good about this is how broad the appeal is - by not disappearing too far up its own fanboy wazoo, you've got a film that pretty much anyone can enjoy the spectacle of.

Full credit needs to go to Joss Whedon for his Avenging efforts in bringing this to the screen, peppering it with brilliant one liners and ensuring everyone involved in the Marvel Universe is treated well while remaining true to both its comic book origins and the set up of the previous films - hopefully he'll be back for another film; though if not, he can bow out with credibility in check.

The Avengers is perhaps the ultimate blockbuster and the best popcorn film of the year.  Quite simply, The Dark Knight Rises and The Amazing Spiderman just got a warning that they'll really need to up their game.

With its dedication to the Marvel cause, eye-poppingly good action sequences, pulsating wit and crackling, fizzling throwaway lines (as well as throwaway action moments),  it's destined to be a classic and a shining example of how great these mass entertainment films actually can be when they're done superbly, respectfully and totally awesomely.

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Watch a clip from The Avengers as Iron Man takes on Thor...