‘As soon as the woman in Florida put [the cornrows] in, the character was alive,’ actor says of his drug-dealer role. By Fallon Prinzivalli, reporting by Josh Horowitz James Franco Photo: MTV News Despite the young actresses with Disney roots starring in Harmony Korine’s “Spring Breakers,” the film is far from just another teen rom-com about traipsing on the beach and falling in love with long-haired surfer boys. This movie’s stars — Selena Gomez , and Ashley Benson — are seduced by a grungy rapper named Alien, played by “127 Hours” actor James Franco . When Gomez tweeted a photo from the set , we barely recognized Franco in character. Dressed in a bright Hawaiian shirt and donning tattoos, massive sunglasses and a gold wristwatch, this isn’t the scholarly, unkempt actor we’re used to spying in set photos. But what stood out the most were the cornrows neatly aligned on the top of his head. When MTV News’ Josh Horowitz caught up with the actor at CinemaCon 2012, he asked Franco what inspired the cornrows for “Spring Breakers.” “That’s a character that Harmony and I have been talking about for over a year,” Franco said. “Harmony is one of the best, kind of, researchers that I know, and we just went through a series of looks. You know, people have said, like, K-Fed or Riff-Raff, but that character really is kind of an amalgamation of a lot of different people and inspirations.” Korine’s films are notoriously gritty and provocative, and “Spring Breakers” is no different. It’s a big departure from Disney’s “Wizards of Waverly Place” for Selena Gomez and “High School Musical” for Vanessa Hudgens. And while Ashley Benson’s “Pretty Little Liars” is a tad more scandalous, the ABC Family hit series isn’t nearly as graphic as “Spring Breakers” is expected to be. The film follows four girls who rob a restaurant to fund their spring break trip. When they’re bailed out by Alien, a drug and arms dealer, they find themselves seduced into plotting and helping him with a murder. Gomez recently told Interview magazine that leaving behind her stereotypical good-girl characters is what attracted her to this role. “I was getting kind of repetitive in terms of the roles I was picking, and I really wanted to do something completely different,” she said. “I want to be taking myself seriously as an actress, and this was definitely a stretch. I mean, I’d never smoked a cigarette before in my entire life. It was really funny — they had to show me how to do it.” Franco — whose usual attire doesn’t include cornrows — also noticed how the character came to life with the help of Korine’s direction and the small details to which he paid close attention. “I can say this: As soon as the woman in Florida put [the cornrows] in, the character was alive. We both knew. We looked in the mirror and it was like, ‘Oh my, God. He’s here.’ ” Check out everything we’ve got on “Spring Breakers.” For breaking news, celebrity columns, humor and more — updated around the clock — visit MTVMoviesBlog.com .
‘We knew the film would be judged by the success of the Hulk,’ ‘Avengers’ visual-effects supervisor tells MTV News. By Josh Wigler Robert Downey Jr. as Iron Man in “Avengers” Photo: Marvel/Disney At the end of the day, “Marvel’s The Avengers” is all about character. If the viewer doesn’t feel invested in the conflict between Tony Stark and Steve Rogers, the inner-turmoil Bruce Banner feels as he keeps “the other guy” at bay or any other number of relationships, then the movie as a whole simply does not work. Thankfully, all those things work with flying colors due to the winning combination of Joss Whedon’s direction and script and the performances from Earth’s mightiest actors themselves. But while story is a crucial component to the success of “The Avengers,” spectacle cannot be downplayed as another essential ingredient. The film’s visual-effects supervisor Jeff White and his team had their work more than cut out for them when approaching “The Avengers,” a movie filled with no fewer than six superheroes, one particularly nasty supervillain and an entire alien armada to fight for his cause. MTV News spoke with White about his work on the film, what he viewed as the greatest visual-effects challenges, why the Hulk was key to the movie’s success and what it was like working with Whedon. The Biggest Challenge In short? Everything. “At the end of the day, with ‘Avengers,’ there were so many things to get right,” White told MTV News about the biggest difficulties facing his team. “We created a lot of New York City for the film and needed to build flying shots of Iron Man all from photography. We had to build a new Iron Man suit — the Mark VII — and Stark Tower. We had to build the alien race. When you add all of those things up, there are quite a few challenges there.” That’s not even mentioning the S.H.I.E.L.D. Helicarrier, the floating base of operations for Earth’s mightiest heroes. “That was a massive undertaking,” White said. “The challenge was not only building the Helicarrier, but then having to build the atrium underneath that you fly into. Then we had to build all of the set dressing to make it feel like it was a populated vehicle: the flight crew, digital doubles, the vehicles pulling objects around, planes on the deck … all of that stuff, if it’s not there, makes everything feel very CG, because it’d be so empty.” We Have a Hulk … Still, if there was one particular ingredient White had to get right, the answer is easy: the Hulk. Already a big fan of Bruce Banner’s monstrous alter-ego going into the project, White said so much of “Avengers” leans on the existence of a compelling Jade Giant. “It was important to deliver on the performance that Joss was looking for. He knew exactly the Hulk he wanted to bring to the big screen. All of the great moments Hulk has in the film was Joss really guiding us there,” White said of creating the latest take on Hulk. “We wanted this guy to be as photo-real as we could make him. He’s not in a solo film; he’s part of an ensemble team. We wanted it to feel very natural when he’s sitting in that circle of Avengers. We didn’t want him to pop off or seem separate from the rest of them. So in that vein, we spent a lot of time working on his skin and his hair and his teeth, just to make sure that all of that was believable.” … But They Have an Army Just as important are the enemies Hulk goes up against — namely the Chitauri, the alien warriors Loki recruits to help him take over Earth. As they’re not the most iconic creatures in Marvel Comics lore, the “Avengers” design team had some freedom in bringing the heroes’ enemies to the big screen. “They’d done some initial designs at Marvel, as far as getting their overall forms in place. They came up with this idea of a mixture of metals and leather and skin, and then we ran with that as far as what the textural details were, making sure that the chariots had enough variety in them, making sure that when we initially started, we wouldn’t see the aliens with their helmets off — and then through the course of production, we do see them that way,” White said. “That was a whole round of design processes: What do they look like? What do their heads look like under that armor? I think one of the great parts of them is they’re wearing all of that armor — it’s worn, they’ve clearly been through several battles — but you can still see their eyes in there. That’s an important part of connecting them as a threat to the Avengers.” Release the Leviathan The Chitauri foot soldiers aren’t the only threats the Avengers have to worry about in the film. There are also the massive Leviathans, giant sky serpents hell-bent on destroying Manhattan. “That’s all about scale,” White said of those creatures. “It was such a great opportunity to have these massive creatures ambling around New York. Part of their design was to put these wings on them, which made them too wide to fit down a New York street, which in turn led us to have them tearing through buildings and causing mayhem everywhere they go.” Some fans have likened the Leviathans to something out of a Michael Bay “Transformers” movie — an observation that’s all the more interesting when considering White’s previous visual-effects work on those very same films. “You can see where the ‘Transformers’ comparisons come from as far as the trailers go. But when you see how the Leviathans operate in the film, and the role they fill and what drives them forward, there’s a pretty big difference,” White said. “Driller from ‘Transformers’ was all metal and all machine, digging through the ground to take down a building. These guys are actually organic beneath all of that armor. They have these worn gold plates and energy signatures that ripple down the side. We really tried to make sure that they felt unique. But I agree, when the first trailer came out, that [‘Transformers’ similarity] was a component of it, but when you see them in the entire film, they really serve a very different purpose.” The Geek God’s Influence Creating aerial bases, giant green rage-monsters, chariot-riding aliens and massive flying serpents is all well and good, but for White, the real thrill of working on “Avengers” was collaborating with Whedon, a storyteller who White was already very fond of going into the project. “It was fantastic,” White said of working with Whedon. “He’s involved in the [visual-effects] process every step of the way. Joss is so good at working with actors, and that extended right through working with animation and trying to get that same performance, really coaching us along. ‘Here’s what we want to see, here’s where you really want that look to get the emotion across his face.’ Everything he does so well with writing and actors really translated into his direction for working with the Hulk. He was involved in the entire effects process and every review. It was great working with him.” Tell us what you thought of the visual effects in “The Avengers” in the comments section or on Twitter ! Check out everything we’ve got on “Marvel’s The Avengers.” For breaking news and previews of the latest comic book movies — updated around the clock — visit SplashPage.MTV.com . Related Videos MTV Rough Cut: ‘The Avengers’ Related Photos ‘Avengers’ Assemble At Los Angeles Premiere
‘You’ll be playing Jeffrey Jones,’ director jokingly tells Depp, referring to actor in original flick. By Kara Warner Johnny Depp Photo: Pascal Le Segretain/ Getty Images We’re fully aware of the fact that Tim Burton and Johnny Depp have very full schedules at the moment, given all their various projects like “Dark Shadows,” Burton’s “Frankenweenie,” Depp’s “The Lone Ranger,” another “Pirates of the Carribean” movie, etc. But can we get Burton to free up his schedule sometime soon in order to film a “Beetlejuice” sequel already? Because Burton has already expressed interest in exploring another “Beetlejuice” film with star Michael Keaton and “Shadows” screenwriter Seth Grahame-Smith, when MTV News caught up with the busy director and frequent collaborator Depp recently, we threw in a question about what chance there might be in seeing Depp in the film, if it ever happens. “Ugh,” Burton replied, playfully scoffing at the question. “Yeah, Tim,” Depp reacted, adding emphasis for his friend to answer the question. “This is my last movie,” Burton continued as both of them chuckled at the idea. “You’ll be playing Jeffrey Jones,” he said to Depp, which sent the actor into further giggles. “Yeah,” Depp laughed. “I can play Jeffrey, I think.” “We can make it work,” Burton said. Now, whether Burton meant that Depp should play the character that actor Jeffrey Jones originated in “Beetlejuice” or that he should actually play Jeffrey Jones, that’s up for interpretation. On a more serious note, writer Grahame-Smith is definitely planning on delivering a script to Burton this year. “I am hopefully going to write it this year,” Grahame-Smith told MTV News recently . “I’ve gone and met with Tim Burton about it, I’ve gone and met with Michael Keaton about it. In theory everybody would be open to it if the script is good, so now it’s just my job to make sure the script is good.” Additionally, Grahame-Smith is also in favor of including a role for Depp. “I may not be able to avoid it — [Burton] may make me do it,” he said of Depp getting involved. Check out everything we’ve got on “Dark Shadows.” For breaking news, celebrity columns, humor and more — updated around the clock — visit MTVMoviesBlog.com .
Editor’s note: The following piece, originally published by the author at Movie City News , was written after the New York premiere of the Beastie Boys’ concert film Awesome; I Fuckin’ Shot That! in 2006. The project was one of many films and videos made by the Beasties’ late Adam Yauch under his directorial nom de plume Nathanial Hörnblowér; Movieline today republishes the piece in remembrance. — STV Admittedly, I am not what you would call a Beastie Boys enthusiast. I am not even a casual fan. The depth of my Beasties appreciation runs shallow at best: I like the “Sabotage” video as much as the next guy; “Fight For Your Right” annoys me; the hip-hop clown thing is endearing; and I tend to just take their (many) devotees’ word for it that the trio is rooted in prodigious creative genius. Fine. I do watch a lot of movies, however, which is why I feel comfortable assessing the Beastie Boys’ Awesome; I Fuckin’ Shot That! as possibly the greatest concert film ever made. A second viewing at last night’s New York premiere confirmed my first impression, and the standing-room-only audience attending the Museum of the Moving Image -hosted event seemed to share at least some of that judgment. Not that it came out when the Beasties themselves – ”Mike D” Diamond, Adam “Adrock” Horovitz and Adam “MCA” Yauch – joined the crowd for the requisite post-screening chat. “How do you stay in such great shape?” a viewer asked. “As members of a basketball team, we have a very strong work ethic,” Horovitz said. “We have a workout tape we’re gonna be selling,” Yauch said. Diamond spoke up. “Actually, the team, I think, has a poor work ethic, and I think everybody needs to talk about that before we get into next season,” he said. “You guys talk about how you want freedom on the court. Show me the stats.” “Also, we rub ourselves down with monkey piss a lot,” Yauch said. That the Beastie Boys never actually got around to discussing how good their film is kind of helps define Awesome ‘s transcendent appeal. The movie represents the raucous bastard offspring of goofball stunt and technical experiment; only a band that takes its mission as seriously as the Beasties do could conceive a film this determined to not take itself seriously. And only the Beastie Boys — whose interactive relationship with their fans manifests itself in multi-angle DVD’s and do-it-yourself remixes — would count on concertgoers to hold them to their own expressionistic standards. Awesome ‘s central gimmick is old news: The band gave 50 fans 50 cameras to record the entirety of its Oct. 9, 2004, concert at Madison Square Garden. “You can rock out, you can do whatever you want,” a producer advises the camerapeople at the beginning of the film. “Just keep shooting. … In 20 years, you’ll be able to look back and say, ‘Awesome; I fuckin’ shot that.’ ” The Beasties combined the crowd footage with that of a small backstage crew, and Yauch went to work. “There were 61 different angles that we were cutting from,” said Yauch, whose other alias, Nathanial Hörnblowér, claims directing credit. “It was all loaded into Final Cut and stacked and we were cutting from that. It was a pretty crazy job. The way we started out was there were actually three different editors who went at it, and they had 20 cameras each, and they each did a cut. We were kind of looking it over and picked some parts that worked. We did a cut from that, and Neal (Usatin, supervising editor) and I stated cutting on top of that, and then spent about a year working on it. It was a good starting place, because it’s pretty hard to start with just, like, a blank canvas and start cutting from nothing when you have that much material.” In the end, Yauch continued, Awesome comprises 6,632 cuts – an average of one for every 19 frames. It screens like a pixilated light show, drowning in color and kinesis, putting the “ADD” back in “addled.” Meanwhile, the rich, refined sound defies the visuals’ bootleg ethos. As occasionally challenging as this blend is to watch, it makes for revelatory viewing. No band since Talking Heads has preserved (or even established) such visceral identity while relinquishing this much aesthetic control. But in downplaying posterity for the sake of experience, Awesome sets itself up as the anti- Stop Making Sense , the anti- Last Waltz , the anti- Woodstock , the anti- Gimme Shelter . Depeche Mode 101 trails a handful of fans on their journey to a landmark emotional event in their lives–DM’s 1988 show at the Rose Bowl — but D.A. Pennebaker’s film captures a sense of a moment more than any real sense of community. Dave Chappelle’s Block Party evokes moment and community as sort of a hollow auteur wet dream, with no less a force than Michel Gondry doing little more than pointing and shooting Chappelle’s swan song to swagger. By placing them in the context of a genuine community (and if you have ever been to a sold-out show at the Garden, it is about as communal an atmosphere as 20,000 strangers are likely to find), Awesome de-mystifies its subjects. A man carts his running camera into the bathroom, while another tapes a concessionaire air-guitarring her way through the opening riff of “Sabotage.” One hapless woman turns her device on her relatively idle section, imploring, “Come on, get excited! We’ll be on the DVD.” Boyfriends shout lyrics in girlfriends’ ears, dances mimic each other. The most powerful stage presence, in fact, belongs to the Beasties’ DJ Mix Master Mike, whose showcases contribute the virtuosic complement to Yauch’s crude explosion of style. That said, for all I lack in Beastie Boys knowledge, their film’s reflection of unhinged New York musical tradition is unmistakable. “That’s the thing with growing up in New York City,” Diamond said Tuesday night. “I think at the time we grew up, it was like hip-hop was evolving, there were incredible punk rock shows, hip-hop shows, reggae shows. Everything was in New York City. And then at the same time, I think even when we started playing shows ourselves–opening up for Run-DMC and LL Cool J and all these bands on tour–we learned so much from them. Being able to study that and everything, that was like…” Horovitz gestured into the audience, “For me personally, I don’t know if I’d be doing this if my brother never played me Jimmy Spicer’s Super Rhymes ,” he said. “I can name some shows,” Yauch said. “Like when Funky Four Plus One came Downtown?” “Oh, yeah,” Diamond said. “That was definitely a big deal,” Yauch continued. “Slits, PIL, Clash.” “Gang of Four,” Horovitz said, nodding. But are the Beastie Boys a continuation of that spirit? That is for their fans to debate, although I should not be so quick to pass the buck – especially considering Awesome; I Fuckin’ Shot That ‘s influence, its magic and my slow assimilation into their ranks. For once, at least for me, the Beastie Boys are a sight and sound to behold. This piece was originally published March 29, 2006, at The Reeler, a blog hosted at Movie City News . Follow S.T. VanAirsdale on Twitter . Follow Movieline on Twitter .
The influential , Oscar-nominated talent whose breakout year included six roles has taken to her Facebook page to officially pass on Iron Man 3 : “My schedule is jammed packed and I can’t fit anything else in. The press announced my possible attachment far too soon. I know many of you wanted me to be involved, and I’m so sorry to disappoint you. Hopefully there’ll be another Marvel film in my future. Shane Black and everyone on the IM3 team are really wonderful. I’m very excited to see the film when it comes out.” Asked for their reactions, every other young actress in Hollywood sighed in unison, ” Finally. ” [ Facebook via ComicBookMovie ]
‘MTV First: Snow White & the Huntsman’ debuts new clip and cast interview Tuesday night at 7:56 p.m. on MTV and MTV.com. By Josh Horowitz Kristen Stewart Photo: MTV News At a time when it seems like virtually every movie at the multiplex is based on a fairy tale, comic book or best-selling YA novel, “Snow White & the Huntsman” checks off all the boxes even if it’s none of the above as well. Confusing? Well, the cast is clearly borne of past successful franchises, namely Kristen Stewart (have you heard of her?) coming off of “Twilight” and Chris Hemsworth dropping his Thor hammer in favor of an ax this go-round. And of course the film is inspired by one of the most cherished fairy tales of our youth. But look more closely at “SWATH” (as fans have quickly taken to calling it) and the film clearly owes more to Tolkien than to Walt Disney. And I think that’s why we’re all excited for its June 1 release. I know that’s the case for me. It doesn’t hurt that Charlize Theron looks to be chewing some scenery in a fun way with a diabolical take on the evil queen (much more fetching than the one in the cartoon of my youth, as I recall). Tuesday night (at 7:56 p.m. on MTV & MTV.com to be precise) we’re debuting “MTV First: Snow White & the Huntsman.” As usual, we’ll be debuting a never-before-seen clip, and I’ll be sitting down with the cast (Stewart, Hemsworth, Theron and Sam Claflin, who portrays the prince in the tale) for a 30-minute interview. We taped the special a little while back, which means I can share something fun and exciting with you: Kristen Stewart’s very first participation in “After Hours.” And what better franchise to start her off on than “The Yes/No Show”? [EMBED YES/NO SHOW] There’s a lot more where that came from on the full show Tuesday night, including tons of insight into the filming, the actors’ takes on their iconic characters, Chris and Kristen’s weapons technique and a near-breakup fight between Kristen and me. It’s all in good fun, and we’re quite proud of it. And there’s more exciting “SWATH” news to come as I’m headed out to England later this week to reunite with the entire cast, so as always, feel free to send your questions to me @JoshuaHorowitz with the #MTVSWATH. A Second Look I got a chance to see “Avengers” for the second time over the weekend, this time in good old 2-D (and I’d recommend seeing it this way, by the way). And by gosh, I might have enjoyed it more the second time around. I have a bunch of conflicting feelings about the movie. After my first viewing, I was pretty convinced that while I had a great time watching it, it’s less satisfying to me than most of the previous films. If we’re looking at the recent bevy of Marvel flicks, “Captain America” is my favorite, delivering the most full-bodied experience (i.e., it’s got the cool stunts and humor but it’s also got a great character arc at its core). But a funny thing happened as “Avengers” rolled the second time around: I let go of my hang-ups with the story (er, there isn’t much of one) and I let myself fully geek out for two hours at what Joss Whedon and company expertly did: create the purest fanboy-friendly film ever made. Check out everything we’ve got on “Snow White & the Huntsman.” For young Hollywood news, fashion and “Twilight” updates around the clock, visit HollywoodCrush.MTV.com . Related Videos MTV After Hours With Josh Horowitz
As mild, comforting and vaguely colonial as beans on toast, The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel brings together some of Britain’s top-shelf acting treasures for a story of late-life awakenings and self-discovery in India. Directed by John Madden (of Shakespeare in Love and, more recently, The Debt ), the film is, underneath its surface of warm fuzzies, a precision instrument aimed directly at the heart of its intended, underserved older audience. As predictable a path as it follows, it delivers exactly what it sets out to — a feel-good tale with equal portions of romance, tempered melancholy, transformation and low-key fish-out-of-water humor. And if the mechanics at work here are more than obvious, they’re also a fair price to pay for getting to see Bill Nighy joke with Judi Dench about his inability to fix a telephone, Maggie Smith force down local food in order to be polite, Tom Wilkinson join in a game of pickup cricket and Penelope Wilton look terrified during a tuk-tuk ride. The seven retirees in the main ensemble end up in Jaipur, enticed by marketing materials for a hotel “for the elderly and beautiful” that turn out to be more aspirational than actual. The place is run-down, some of the rooms don’t have doors and others have been taken over by wildlife — the manager Sonny (an aggressively animated Dev Patel) has unquashable enthusiasm but not particular skill for running a place or raising money to make much-needed fixes. Fortunately for him, most of his guests can’t afford to leave — they’ve outsourced their retirement to India rather than face living the rest of their lives tucked away or lauded as if they had already died. Housewife Evelyn (Dench) is there because the husband she always trusted to take care of things has passed away and left her in debt, forcing her to sell the apartment in which they lived. Douglas (Nighy) and his wife of almost 40 years Jean (Penelope Wilton) invested their savings in their daughter’s internet startup (the mystery of the online world to these characters is a recurring joke) — she’s been unable to pay them back, forcing them to either move to a depressing senior citizens community or out of the country entirely. Madge (Celia Imrie) and Norman (Ronald Pickup) are looking for love or, barring that, to get laid — they’re both anxious to prove to themselves that that part of their lives isn’t over. Muriel (Maggie Smith) is a former housekeeper who’s reluctantly left England in order to avoid a long wait for a hip replacement surgery. And Tom Wilkinson is Graham, a high court judge who’s gay (“nowadays more in theory than in practice,” he explains) and has returned to the place in which he grew up to track down his first love. Add to this Sonny’s attempts to date call-center worker Sunaina (Tena Desae) despite his mother’s (Lillete Dubey) desire to arrange his marriage to someone else and have him give up the hotel, and you have enough plot threads to easily carry the film through its unhurried two-hour runtime. And most of them work — Nighy and Dench are especially luminous playing explorers of the city who fall in love with India and with the renewed sense of possibility in their lives, their reserve giving way to tentative but genuine joy and an unexpected connection. Wilkinson is so disarmingly self-deprecating as Graham that it takes a while to realize that the confessions he’s making to his new friends are the most open he’s been in his life. Smith operates with the same glorious crabbiness she’s perfected in her recent roles, though the film’s attempt to treat her first as adorably racist and then as a uniting figure thanks to her transformative friendship with a maid is impossible to swallow even with her enjoyable performance. The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel portrays the city in which it’s set as chaotic, colorful and lively, but also ultimately a backdrop — this is not a film about India, it’s one about growing old in a terribly British fashion. “Can we be blamed for feeling that we are too old to change?” Evelyn muses in one of her blog posts that in voiceover periodically mark the story. While we in the audience have always known that’s not the case — that’s why we’re watching the film — the pleasure is in watching the characters on screen realize the fact themselves, to their delight. Follow Alison Willmore on Twitter . Follow Movieline on Twitter .
Reviews are glowing for director Joss Whedon’s star-studded superhero epic. By Josh Wigler Scarlett Johansson in “The Avengers” Photo: Marvel Impossibly high expectations, assemble! The moment that Marvel fans far and wide have been waiting years for has arrived at last: “The Avengers,” directed by Joss Whedon and featuring a star-studded cast including Robert Downey Jr. and Chris Evans, has finally landed in theaters nationwide. Anyone worried that Marvel couldn’t live up to its own hype with “Avengers” need only look at the reviews to see that Earth’s Mightiest Heroes have indeed performed to the best of their ability. Not only is “Avengers” an international box-office success and a soon-to-be domestic hit, the film is also adored by critics, geeks and moviegoers of all other assorted shapes and sizes. Keep reading for a selection of the glowing “Avengers” reviews! The Man Behind The Curtain “As screenwriter, sharer of story credit with Zak Penn and director, Whedon is the key reason why this $220-million behemoth of a movie is smartly thought out and executed with verve and precision. It may be overly long at two hours, 23 minutes, but so much is going on you might not even notice. Whedon’s biggest success, creating TV’s ‘Buffy the Vampire Slayer,’ was nowhere near this scale. But he is a third-generation television writer who was nominated for an Oscar for co-writing ‘Toy Story,’ and he’s got an innate gift for bringing stories like this to life with the energy and intelligence that should be popular entertainment’s birthright but rarely is.” — Kenneth Turan, The Los Angeles Times Earth’s Mightiest Heroes “Downey’s Tony Stark remains driven by ego and genius, always on the verge of overreaching, while Hemsworth continues to navigate between two worlds. As a man out of time, unsure of how he fits into the modern world, or if he even wants to, Evans shoulders even more of the drama, becoming the heart of a film that’s filled with heroics, but also, if sometimes too fleetingly, concerned with the meaning of heroism. Fitting right in: Ruffalo’s laidback Banner, a characterization with echoes of the easy-living California dude he played in ‘The Kids Are All Right,’ Johansson’s haunted superspy, and Renner, whose steely intensity alone makes it easy to forget the unlikelihood of an archer, no matter how good, being able to hold his own among superhumans.” — Keith Phipps, The A.V. Club The Laugh Factor ” ‘The Avengers’ may be one of the funniest movies of the year. Whereas ‘Iron Man 2’ was overdose, having other leads to dilute Downey Jr.’s manic mouth helps Tony Stark finally land his punchlines. Evans is another standout, his fish-out-of-water predicament lending itself to comedy that clicks (‘I got that reference,’ Captain Steve Rogers timidly points out). But Hulk takes the cake, Whedon mining the towering green monster for all-out destruction and physical comedy. When Hulk smashes, he smashes big and Whedon’s clever timing is reminiscent of old Warner Bros. cartoons.” — Matt Patches, Hollywood.com The Big Fight “Much of this battle takes place in midtown Manhattan, where the neatest sequences involve Loki’s ginormous slithering, undulating snake-lizard-dragon machine, which seems almost to have a mind of its own and is backed up by countless snakelings. At one point, an Avenger flies into the mouth of this leviathan and penetrates its entire length, emerging at the business end. You won’t see that in ‘The Human Centipede.’ ” — Roger Ebert, The Chicago Sun-Times The Final Word “It’s essentially six movies in one, which might account for the nearly 2 1/2 hour length. While it’s slow getting started, ‘The Avengers’ is a splashy superhero mash-up that should please breathless fanboys. It also has a broader appeal for mass audiences with its fast-paced comic banter and exhilarating action sequences under the capable helm of director/co-writer/unabashed fan Joss Whedon. Whedon weaves a story that allows each of the heroes to do what they do best. And while they may not have exactly equal time, audiences get enough of each to feel satisfied, but not sated. Clever work, indeed.” — Claudia Puig, USA Today Are you seeing “The Avengers” this weekend? Let us know in the comments section below or on Twitter ! Check out everything we’ve got on “The Avengers.” For breaking news and previews of the latest comic book movies — updated around the clock — visit SplashPage.MTV.com . Related Videos Get Psyched For ‘Avengers’ MTV Rough Cut: ‘The Avengers’ ‘The Avengers’ Take On Tribeca Film Festival
About 20 minutes into a 3-D press screening of The Avengers Monday night in Los Angeles, one member of the audience interrupted the superhero theatrics to make it known that all was not right with his viewing experience. “Fix the projector!” the exasperated gentleman bellowed during a conspicuously quiet moment, as Mark Ruffalo ’s contemplative face filled the screen. Something was very off, giving the complainant and others in attendance a less-than-ideal, even disastrous presentation. The only problem? There was nothing wrong with the projector. The issue that led this particular fed up gentleman — who may or may not have been a film critic on assignment, I’m not sure – to shout out in irritated frustration wasn’t any fault of shoddy projection, or texting teens, or (forbid!) an accidental digital file deletion up in the booth, or any of the common complaints audiences have in the age of modern moviegoing. It was a case of faulty 3-D glasses mucking up the picture for the poor guy, giving Joss Whedon’s ZOMG epic 3-D adventure an unsolicited layer of blurriness, blackouts, green tint and/or other visual muck — only he didn’t realize that it was because of the cumbersome contraption on his face and not the projection itself. I know this because about 10 seconds into The Avengers , I realized my pair of theater-provided 3-D glasses were also inoperable — and then spent 15 minutes running back and forth from lobby to darkened theater aisle, sorting through literally dozens of pairs in a frantic attempt to find ones that worked so I could get back to watching Hulk and Co. smash, already. Now, a brief techie aside: The Arclight theaters, which hosted the screening in Hollywood, employ the XpandD active-shutter kind of 3-D glasses — they’re the heavier ones with the rubberized frames and the just-cleaned wet spots, weighty because the active-shutters in each pair are synced to an infrared signal broadcast in the theater which switch alternate right — and left-eye images at high speeds and require batteries. (The alternate kind of 3-D glasses, passive glasses, use polarized lenses and tend to be those lightweight, disposable, hipster-looking shades; these were used at the incident-free Avengers ’ L.A. premiere last month at Grauman’s Chinese, but the Arclight cinemas are XpanD partners.) So the Arclight’s active-shutter glasses were causing a major malfunction for us unlucky attendees who’d grabbed bunk pairs on our ways to our seats. And the exasperated gentleman and I were not alone. In my journeys up and down the hallway I saw many fellow would-be Avengers -watchers doing as I was, all of us locked in a comically desperate dance of grabbing glasses, testing them, returning defeated. Trays upon trays of fresh 3-D glasses were laid out in front of us by the bewildered theater staff, who quickly retired their “These should be working” auto-reply and let us seize handfuls of the damned things at a time. (The Arclight Cinemas declined to comment for this article, by the way.) Critic/journalist Fred Topel , who’d been in the same boat, tweeted about the snafu that night along with an explanation he’d received from the theater manager later, after it had been fixed: @ arclightcinemas 3D glasses broke tonight. Some stayed blurry, some blacked out one of the eyes. I tried 7 before I got one that worked.— Fred Topel (@FredTopel) May 01, 2012 @ Arclightcinemas manager Joshua said they fixed the broken 3D by adding a second emitter in the booth.— Fred Topel (@FredTopel) May 01, 2012 Topel managed to find a working pair before too long, but others weren’t as lucky; of the handfuls of folks I saw leaving their seats to hunt down working 3-D glasses, some, like Screen International critic Brent Simon, gave up the search when he’d decided too much movie had gone by to return to his seat. “My glasses had in-and-out image flickering, one of them went black, and then I had massive green tinting on one pair — sort of like Hulk vision?” he told Movieline. “I tried watching with no glasses for a while, but that was problematic.” After 15 minutes of attempting unsuccessfully to find a working pair, Simon decided he’d have to see the film from the start another time, and left. But unlike those who’d exited altogether or managed to eventually find a working pair, there were the untold folks who, like our exasperated gentleman, either never realized the glasses were the problem or that they’d have to leave their seat and miss parts of the film in order to find a fix. “I had a good vantage point from where I was sitting of how many people were coming back and forth, streaming down the aisles,” said Simon, “and some people were just watching without their glasses.” If you’ve ever watched 3-D without 3-D glasses, you know that watching a film for any amount of time with that kind of consistent blurriness would totally suck. So is every 3-D release worth the potential hassle? Or worth the potential risk ? I’ll put this out there: The Avengers does not need to be seen in 3-D. For starters, it contains a number of scenes that are dark and dimly lit to begin with, notwithstanding the added dimness that most 3-D post-conversions usually suffer. (For example: The entire opening sequence is composed of nighttime action shots that are frustratingly hard to make out.) At moments I glimpsed the screen sans 3-D glasses and the film was brighter, crisper, much more vivid, even gorgeous, and if not for the blurriness of the third dimension I’d have preferred to watch it that way. Whedon seems to have shot for immersive 3-D rather than gimmicky 3-D, which is fine and all, but overall the added dimension doesn’t add that much. If I were to recommend The Avengers to anyone, I’d wholeheartedly push them toward 2-D. Besides, to be in a 3-D film and not get the full 3-D effect — or worse, to sit through a blurry presentation without even realizing something was wrong — would defeat the point entirely. And if 3-D isn’t an essential or notable enhancement to a film, why bother? Just remember: In our brave new world of 3-D dominance, we are all, potentially, that exasperated gentleman. How many of us might continue to sit there, watching through broken glasses, unaware of why the picture was so darn fuzzy? But 3-D continues to be pushed upon us, and while Monday’s minor debacle was just one isolated incident of the technology revolting against its bearer, I simply offer it up as anecdotal evidence of a bump in the road to our moviegoing future; take from this what lessons you will if you see The Avengers in 3-D this weekend. Just don’t rush to blame the blurry curves of ScarJo’s Black Widow getup on the projector. Follow Jen Yamato on Twitter . Follow Movieline on Twitter .
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