" The Avengers " and " Battleship " Review

I saw tonight The Avengers, and the movie is not only as terrific as you've probably heard, but it's a triumph! Let's say it: The Avengers is clearly the best Marvel Super-Heroes movie ever done. Not less. And this is due not only to a perfect cast but also, if not mostly, to the brilliant script and direction by Joss Whedon who has obviously understood "everything" to what a Marvel super-heroes movie must be.

The Avengers is a 2h20 min movie but i can assure you that it will be hard to find one minute that you'll like to cut. And this because Joss Whedon is a director "who knows to take its time without losing it", to quote the famous quote of french director François Truffault about John Ford. The action scenes are of course perfect and, again, the cast with a special mention to almost everyone and especially Tom Hiddleston playing Loki, the Asgardian god who come down to steal the Tesseract, a cube of energy of unknown potential, activate it and open a portal to another dimension over Manhattan through which an alien race called the Chitauri come to invade the Earth.

Frankly, if there is one super-hero movie to see this season, it's The Avengers. Hopefully the new Spiderman and the next Batman will be good too, but i'm not sure they will be as enjoyable as The Avengers is.

Last but not least, yes, Stan Lee has his cameo and i will not tell you exactly where he is. But for those of you who always try to don't miss him all i can say is that you'll see him somewhere in the last ten minutes, so you can relax and concentrate on the movie itself the rest of the time. Also, stay during the first part of the end credits as there is a bonus scene coming after it.

I expect the movie to be a tremendous success and there is no doubt that The Avengers box-office will reach easily $1Billion later this month, considering that it already did at the time i type this article $306M outside U.S and $80M this friday, which was its release date in the U.S. Update: The Avengers has set a new opening week-end record with an amazing $200M on its first week-end! So, if you go to see The Avengers this week-end, let us know in the comments what you think about it!



Battleship, directed by Peter Berg is far to be as perfect as The Avengers is, it's the least we can say. The first 45 minutes are so unlikely that i even wondered if i didn't entered the wrong theatre - no kidding. But if you succeed to don't get out of the theatre during these first 45 minutes, then the real movie you came for will begin and the next hour and a half will be okay, specially for those who like alien invasion movies. That said, the film was probably sponsored by the american army as it is really a "Navy at war" movie. The cast is okay - if we except Liam Neeson who is hardly credible in his role of Admiral Shane.

But the one who really surprised me is Rihanna - yep, the singer - who plays the Raikes character. To be perfectly honest when i've watched Battleship i didn't knew that Rihanna was part of the cast - and didn't recognized her during the whole movie. But each time her character was on screen i remember thinking "how good the girl who is playing was". Taylor Kitsch playing Lieutenant Alex Hopper - the main character - does a decent job and Brooklyn Decker - playing his girl friend and daughter of the admiral - brings the sexy touch in Battleship.

In two words, Battleship - released May 18 in the U.S - is supposed to be the Independence Day movie of the season but at the end it's just one more deluxe "B" movie that you will probably forget as quick as you entered the screening room.

Pictures: copyright Disney - Marvel, Battleship Delta Productions, Bluegrass Films