Written and directed by Joss Whedon, Avengers Assemble centres around the Director of the international peacekeeping agency known as S.H.I.E.L.D., Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson)’s, need for a superhero team. Uniting Captain America (Chris Evans), Iron Man (Robert Downey Jr.), The Incredible Hulk (Mark Ruffalo), Thor (Chris Hemsworth), Hawkeye (Jeremy Renner), and Black Widow (Scarlett Johansson), The Avengers are brought together to face Thor’s Godly brother Loki (Tom Hiddleston) and his Chitauri alien army as they declare war on Earth.

Continuing on from the epic big-screen adventures from the Marvel comics that have already begun with Iron Man, The Incredible Hulk, Iron Man 2, Thor and Captain America: The First Avenger, Avengers Assemble has already grossed more in its first week than all of these Marvel films together in the same time period. And it’s not surprising really, as Marvel have done an amazing job of getting us ready and excited for this assemble. Most of us have seen at least one of these superhero films, if not all of them, and have had time to invest in these characters; now, with these characters joining forces for the very first time, everyone has something different to look forward to. So whether you’ve gone to see Iron Man for Robert Downey Jr’s witty charm, or Thor for Chris Hemsworth’s brilliant accent, or even if just for Scarlett Johansson in a black skin-tight jumpsuit, you’re sure to leave the cinema satisfied.

Set around the premise of war and an alien invasion, Avengers Assemble is all about the action, but at the beginning of the film when it is very heavy on scenes of mass gun shootings and big explosions, at first it comes off as a lot less light-hearted than most would hope. As you get into the film, however, you see that this is just to make an impact at the start, and that as the film goes on these excessive scenes of fighting begin to blend better with other aspects of the film. Whilst there is an awful lot of action, the use of big explosions doesn’t come off as an unnecessary use of a big budget here, but it rather strengthens the film from Whedon showing us how to use big budget action scenes in the right way. From the film’s trailer I was worried that the mechanical machines flying through the New York City looked very Michael Bay and it was only too easy to conjure up fears of the film looking like another Tranformers movie. Fortunately this isn’t the case at all, and these robotic mechanisms are actually pretty cool. The CGI and 3D enhancement was some of the best I have seen (3D will always be an unnecessary addition to a film but there were parts where it really worked). There was no blurriness in the fighting scenes, which was of the greatest advantages as you have a genuine interest in these characters; whilst a lot of action films avoid any focus in these battle scenes to speed through having to give any focus, with The Avengers you wanted to know who is fighting who and how they are each using each of their unique weapons of choice to do so, which was a big plus. Whilst Avengers Assemble is by no means a comedy, it is also one of the funniest films I have seen in a long time. Whedon’s writing is pure genius here, often diverting from the seriousness of the situation with some hilarious one-liners or by using distractions in some almost predictable scenarios. The comedy isn’t in your face as if the jokes are purposefully put in places to make you laugh, but are rather fitted in well all over the place which came off as very organic humour. Occasionally giving the threat that not everyone is going to make it, as well, Whedon also manages to make the audience fall silent. His contrasting use of fear and humour in his writing is what’s so incredible about this film, and it’s this great script that you constantly notice throughout.

The biggest focus in the film is on the character development, which is the most important aspect of the film as the team meet each other - with a couple of exceptions - for the first time. Without focusing too much on their back stories, only using a couple of flash backs to remind us of a couple of necessary points, the emphasis is on the characters attempting to work together as a team. Most of us will have already have a favourite character so it’s likely that we all wanted more from each of them, but with so many characters, of course there are some aspects of their personalities that aren’t fully developed. Everyone may have had their time to shine, but the one criticism I would have to give is that a better introduction was needed for Hawkeye for those of us that haven’t read the comics. It wasn’t completely obvious as to why he was good enough to be in The Avengers, but the fact that we got to see a different side of his character as well, played extremely well by Jeremy Renner, helped to rebalance this. Other than that his character was played up really well, with some amazing camera shots of him firing his arrows; the moment that laser shines in your eyes as he flies in front of the screen was quite a memorable one. Another character I felt the film didn’t handle very well was Black Widow. We’ve met her before in the last Iron Man film, but whilst she has her moments, and whilst Scarlett Johansson is undeniably sexy and her character powerful, she doesn’t have a lot else going for her. It was hard to glamourise her role as only being able to shoot one alien at a time whilst others were smashing through hundreds. Yes she can easily get her legs around a man’s head to break his neck, but against the other characters hers often seemed a little out of place.

The character that everyone will be talking about, however, is Mark Ruffalo for the re-casting of The Hulk. We’ve seen The Hulk before portrayed by Edward Norton, but whilst he is a great actor, he had no sensitive side to his character. Ruffalo in The Avengers, however, was much easier to feel sympathy for and his character therefore built up a big fan base this time around. The CGI also allowed Ruffalo to play The Hulk via motion capture which worked brilliantly, further allowing the audience to see the connection between Bruce Banner and the beast he is constantly cautious of becoming, and it’s because of his place in a team that we were able to see his character flourish. For me though, it was Tom Hiddleston as Loki that stood out. Not so much a fan of his character in the Thor film, his role has progressively strengthened to reach the high level of power his character emanates here. Hiddleston is great in the role and quite surprisingly, only because of his unburdened accent and quite dainty composure, he makes a brilliant antagonist. His acting was solid and he has definitely made a name for himself, more so than before, through this role here. But despite certain flaws or qualities in individual characters, as a group their assembling was brilliant. Beginning with different duels between each characters and then having the team finally coming together after - without giving any spoilers - finding something to avenge was the best development, and by the end of the film the team have a great chemistry.

Despite a 140 minute running time you don’t find yourself checking your watch to see how long is left. Avengers Assemble is constantly brilliant. Of course there was certain aspects of the film that were missed out, the most disappointing revolving around Thor’s arrival (which if you have seen the film then you will know what I mean), but there wasn’t anything left out that would leave the audience questioning. You may not believe that the film will actually be this good - it’s often easy to become skeptical with everyone giving such huge praise - but it really is all that. It is undoubtedly one of the biggest blockbuster movies you will see and it is definitely my favourite film of the year so far. All we have to do now is see if The Dark Knight Rises can top this in the summer. 

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Watercolor painting inspired by the 2011 movie Drive featuring Ryan Gosling and Carey Mulligan

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André Kuipers, who is currently on a expedition on the International Space Station, shared his incredible photography from space.

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The first in a trilogy of novels adapted from Suzanne Collins’ best-selling series, The Hunger Games is set in a dystopian future where, in order to maintain peace in the 12 districts of Panem, 24 young representatives are forced to compete in a televised game each year where they must to fight to the death until only one remains. Directed by Gary Ross, the film centers on the character of Katniss Everdeen (Jennifer Lawrence) a young woman living in the poorest of districts who, when her sister Primrose (Willow Shields) is chosen to compete in the games, volunteers herself as tribute alongside fellow district competitor Peeta (Josh Hutcherson).

Pitted against the richest of tributes who have been training all their lives, Katniss is thrown into the colourful world of the rich in interviews with TV host Caeser Flickerman (Stanley Tucci), stylist Cinna (Lenny Kravitz), and Game escort Effie Trinket (Elizabeth Banks). But with only the mentoring skills of the drunk and bitter Haymitch (Woody Harrelson) to prepare her, does Katniss even stand a chance of returning home to her family? And how will seducing her district competitor in order to attract sponsors affect the harboring romance she has with Gale (Liam Hemsworth) back at home?

From very early on, The Hunger Games has been constantly compared to many films, the biggest of these being the Harry Potter and Twilight franchises, as well as the Japanese action thriller Battle Royale. I think it’s impossible to deny any comparisons, and even more so to avoid mentioning them, but at the same time I don’t see why they are a means to judge the film either before or after seeing it. Of course the film is verging on the same lines as the classic Battle Royale, which is also set in a dystopian future where the government capture a class of students who they force to kill each other, but name a film that doesn’t pull its influence from somewhere else?

The reason that The Hunger Games succeeds in differentiating itself from this comparison is because it’s aimed at a completely different - and much bigger - audience, which it does by portraying a dystopian future where there is still hope and something to strive for. Battle Royale shows the more sinister and pessimistic side of such a world, killing people for pure entertainment, but what’s so good about The Hunger Games is that Ross manages to create the world of Panem so successfully that is believable enough to provoke an emotional response to both the setting and the people within it. You can feel the desperation and hatred towards the government for what they are doing, and because of this Katniss becomes a heroine. Through her character, we now have someone to relate and emphasise with, which is a bonus in itself compared to Twilight’s Bella Swan.

What Ross captures on-screen is almost exactly how I had pictured the story when reading it, which for me is the best part about his adaptation (of course!). Occasionally missing out explanations or further details that are sometimes needed, though this can be said for most adaptations and is why it’s worth reading the book, the film does an excellent job of filling in the audience with most of what Collins was trying to create through her own words.

Because of Ross’ brilliant portrayal of this dystopian setting, he also manages to capture the darkness of the situation, whilst at the same time not making too ‘scary’ for the younger audience. With its premise of death and murder, it was inevitable that there was going to be a lot of violence, and it would have been extremely hard for Ross to dance around these subjects. Ultimately given a 12A rating after having seven seconds cut, we have to wonder what scenes were removed to make it acceptable for this younger audience. One technique that was used to help avoid this extreme violence was a shaky camera, which overshadowed any killings, taking away the emphasis of anything too serious and instead focusing on the confrontation itself that was going on…somewhere.

Of course, whilst this made the film easier to watch for the younger audience, for the rest of us it did occasionally ruin certain scenes. But even without gore and the visual image of spears going through people, the film doesn’t flower the themes of death. The scene with Rue (Amandla Stenberg), especially, was quite a big part of the book that could not have been easily ignored. Whilst at times a bit of blood would have emphasised these scenes even more, it wasn’t a complete negative on the film as the violence was still enough to have an impact.

As for any comparisons to the Harry Potter and Twilight franchises, the only way that The Hunger Games can relate to either of these series of film adaptations is that it will be just as big of a franchise as they have already succeeded to become. Only verging on the inclusion of any mythological beings or creatures (I’ve only read the first book at this point, and the film doesn’t draw on the beasts with human eyes), The Hunger Games has a sense of reality to it, and for that reason it emanates a sense of relatability that were not be achieved with the previously mentioned series of films that it is being compared to.

The Hunger Games managed to remove itself from the young adult genre, not only because the film derives a sense of inspiration through the character of Katniss, but because the tributes are fighting for a better life. It is this maturity and socially relevant themes of politics and government actions that sets it aside from the franchises that find it hard to escape its teenage audience. And for that reason I must ask why we are not comparing it to George Orwell’s 1984. It’s not a literary classic, let’s not go that far, but in reading Collins’ novel I was able to imagine a dystopian and totalitarian regime just in the same way that Orwell’s novel managed to capture. This sophistication is really well expressed in the film, and is definitely worth thinking about.

As for the cast of the film, of course it is all about Jennifer Lawrence. Not only did she fit into the role perfectly, but she played the character almost flawlessly and held a strong performance throughout. Helped by the fact that her character is one of inspiration, Lawrence is almost indefinitely going to do well from this. But whilst she was the star of the show, the film held many other great performances too. One of my personal favourites was Stanley Tucci’s Flickerman, who, with his shiny white grin and bright blue hair, was just what the role called for. Provoking laughter and cheers from the audience of his TV show, he did just the same with the audience of the cinemas too. And let’s not forget Woody Harrelson and Elizabeth Banks, too, who were both great additions to the cast and again suited their characters superbly.

Overall, The Hunger Games is a brilliant adaptation of the book. Not missing out too much of what the book details, the one thing I felt was quite hard to express in the film was the romantic connection between Katniss and Peeta. Whilst some of the audience may have felt that their relationship was a genuine one, the book puts it very differently. Katniss’ actions were, for the most of it, for the cameras, which in the book Peeta eventually realises. With Katniss narrating the book, we are able to understand this better. Whilst the film picks up most of what was left unsaid in Collins’ novel, the emphasis on Katniss’ thoughts of Gale wasn’t easily expressed on-screen.

Something else I feel worth briefly mentioning that the film missed out was that the wild beasts at the end of the film were supposed to be mutations of the dead tributes. Whilst not making a major different to the film, this would have further shown how far the government were willing to go, I think, and would have given a darker twist to the end of the film, which instead ended quite abruptly and almost on a cliché note.

What I did like about the end, however, was that the film very slightly went into the second book. From reading the first book we are left to guess what will happen next, knowing that Katniss must be punished somehow to fill another two books, but the film makes it certain that President Snow (played by Donald Sutherland) is determined to retain his power and that he isn’t going to let Katniss’ actions slip. This both tied the film up brilliantly and also made it clear that more is to come that we can look forward to.

Despite the only one major flaw of a shaky camera, The Hunger Games is brilliant from start to end, and I really would recommend it to everybody. But if there’s only one thing that we can all agree on, it’s that Gary Ross knows how to adapt a novel onto the big screen. Now can we stop talking about Battle Royale and love it for what it is? 

Great debut for Clooney. Really well put together, interesting and unpredictable story line. Very enjoyable. Ryan Gosling, as well, is always a plus. 

This is now one of my favourite films; a brilliant story that reveals so much about Marilyn’s true self. Williams is superb and her relationship with Colin Clarke is performed solidly. It’s not exactly a sad film but by the end I teared up, so bravo Simon Curtis.

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