Monday, May 7, 2012
The Michigan Daily - michigandaily.com
FiLM REVIEeW
The epitome of'Whedon-esque'
Amazing 'Avengers'
upholds Nerd-dom
expectations
By KAVI SHEKHAR PANDEY
DailyArts Writer
it's about time the adjective
"Whedon-esque" was added to
the English language. You know,
when a work of
entertainment, ****%
in the style of
Writer/Director The Aveng-
Joss Whedon, err
achieves a bal-
ance of dazzling At Qualityl6
action, heartfelt and Rave
drama and roll-
on-the-theater- Disney
floor-and-get-
covered-in-spilled-concessions
laughter so perfectly, it makes the
rest of the fare skulk away in their
bloated, Hasbro-sponsored pants.
The Marvel movies leading up to
"The Avengers" all ranged from
good to great, but add two table-
spoons of Joss Whedon and bam
- you get a movie that is amazing,
astonishing, incredible, uncan-
ny, spectacular and every other
superlative ever used as a preface
in a Marvel comic book title.
Here's where Nerd-dom col-
lectively sighs, "Told you so."
They've been preaching the Gos-
pel of Whedon for years, but "The
Avengers" is Joss's long-awaited,
much-deserved coming-out party
for the rest of the world - a soiree
that makes the "Project X" riffraff
look like a neighborhood potluck.
From opening frame to post-
credits sequence, "The Aveng-
ers" glistens with effervescent
entertainment - it's classic stand-
up-and-cheer, holy-shit-did-The
Hulk-just-do-that cinema that
leaves audiences with a grin plas-
tered on their face as they exit the
hall, furiously pulling up Google
Calendar to check when they can
experience the movie again.
The first filmsofsuperhero fran-
chises are always bogged down
by the necessity to tell the origin
story (see: how much better "The
Dark Knight" and "Spider-man 2"
are than their predecessors), but
"The Avengers" takes advantage
of its status as a quasi-sequel even
further. The standalone Mar-
vel movies gave introductions to
not just Captain America (Chris
Evans), Thor (Chris Hemsworth),
Iron Man (Robert Downey Jr.),
The Hulk (Mark Ruffalo) and Nick
Fury (Samuel L. Jackson) and all
his S.H.I.E.L.D. agents, but also
the film's main villain Loki (Tom
Hiddleston) and the Tesseract,
a blue cube that is the object of
everybody's interest (it's powers
aren't sufficiently explained, but
who gives a shit, it gets the Aveng-
ers to bring the pain).
So "The Avengers" gets to cut
right to the action, with Loki's
theft of the Tesseract and the
assembling of the Avengers - and
it's these opening scenes where
the idea that this movie is going to
be truly remarkable begins to take
root.
In the briefest of vignettes,
the film saves the Black Widow
from irrelevant character-stasis,
unveils Captain America's 21st
century loneliness, shows the
heart behind Tony Stark's caus-
tic facade and gets Bruce Banner
to actually crack a quip, exuding
Whedon's expertise in developing
dynamite characters.
Like the boss he is, Whedon
never loses focus that this is a
team movie - every single Aveng-
er, from Thor to Hawkeye (Jeremy
Renner) gets a dramatic show-
case, spouts uproarious zingers
and goes H.A.M. in a moment that
demands a thunderous ovation.
Whedon's control of this delicate
equilibrium is at center stage dur-
ing the film's sensational final
battle - a flurry of hearty laughs
(unrelenting, in a good way) and
electrifying action set pieces that
culminates in a stunning single
take featuring every one of Earth's
Mightiest Heroes earning their
title. Heaven is a place where you
can watch The Avengers duke it
out with Loki's alien horde in mid-
town Manhattan for eternity.
These days, the phrase
"gamechanger" is thrown around
as casually as the Hulk kicks the
living shit out of Loki and his min-
ions, but that's exactly what "The
Avengers" is for blockbuster cine-
ma. The smashing success of "The
Avengers" shows that Marvel's
massive gamble was an absolute
bonanza and that such elaborate,
multi-layered storytelling is pos-
sible in Hollywood.
More importantly, it shows that
big-budget productions can thrive
outside of the hands of commer-
cial and music video directors (no
hard feelings, Michael Bay). Put-
ting years of planning and hun-
dreds of millions of dollars in the
hands of Joss Whedon, a man with
a single directorial feature to his
name - that had a domestic gross
totaling barely a tenth of the pro-
duction budget for "The Aveng-
ers" - but a body of work worth
billions in quality, proves that stu-
dios can be rewarded with leaps
of faith. Filmmakers like Whedon
may not be able to protect Hol-
lywood from Bay-esque schlock,
but you can be damn sure they'll
avenge it.
Ann Arbor, MI
UN E-H U N t)ERU-T W EN T Y TWO Y EARS OF EDITORIAL FREEDOM
Weekly Summer Edition
Monday, May 7, 2012
BASEBALL
-Michigfan takes
series over Iowa
Wolverines win two respectively.
In the late game on Saturday,
games for first time Michigan struggled to find any
consistency on either side of the
in over a month ball. After exploding in the first
two games of the series, the bat-
ting order managed just one earned
By STEVEN BRAID run against Iowa's freshman Sasha
Daily Sports Writer Kuebel, who pitched a six-hit com-
plete game.
With Michael O'Neill back in the Junior right-hander Ben Bal-
lineup against Iowa, the Michigan lantine, who allowed three earned
baseball team gave a glimpse of runs while walkingthree batters in
what could have been this season. four innings, was tagged with the
Playing in his first games in a loss.
month, the sophomore right-fielder "We gave too many freebies
ignited the offense as the Wolver- away," Maloney said. "We weren't
mnen took two of three games from able to overcome our mistaken and
the Hawkeyes, scoring 21 runs in (Iowa) really capitalized on them."
the process - the most they have In the early game on Saturday,
scored in a three-game series since the Wolverines scored two runs
their series victory againsttIndiana- in the top of the ninth inning to
Purdue Fort Wayne in late March. come back and tie the game at two.
"(O'Neill) changes the whole Then, they tallied six more runs in
lineup," said Michigan coach Rich the first frame of extra innings to
Maloney. "He puts fear in the line- secure the victory.
up because he's a star player. With "(Going into extra innings) we
him in the lineup, we're better in knew that we had a chance to win
three areas - running, hitting and the series in that second game -
fielding." that was the biggest thing for us,"
Though Michigan (6-12 Big Ten, O'Neill said. "We wanted to win
19-28 overall) was unable to com- that (second) game and not have
plete the sweep - losing the sec- to go to a rubber match in the third
and game of the doubleheader on game."
Saturday, 7-2, the Wolverines took The offense was sparked by
the first two games of the series in junior center-fielder Patrick
TERRA MOLENGRAFF/Daily
Day-workers hired by Apple Inc. ceram-wrap televisions in preparation for loading thern into a semi-truck.
'U' Apple Sims host e-Waste event
Event provides free
electronic waste
recycling to public
By ANNA ROZENBERG
ManagingNews Editor
Thousands of cars - and the
occasional biker - made their
way to the last day of the fifth
annual e-Waste Recycling Event
held at Pioneer High School on
Saturday.
Each year, the University's
Office of Campus Sustainabil-
ity partners with Apple Inc. and
Sims Recycling Solutions in Chi-
cago, a company dedicated to
making cost-effective, legal dis-
posal services to the pan-North
American area, according to
their website, to host the event.
Andy Berki, manager of the
Office of Campus Sustainability,
explained that the first two days
of the event are geared toward
businesses and non-profit orga-
nizations, but the third day is
focused on bringing the general
public to Pioneer so consumers
can dispose of their electronic
waste.
"A big ol' television in your
basement can weigh up to 80
pounds and cost $40 to dispose,"
Berki said, citing the e-Waste
event as a way for people to get
rid of products like these for free.
Berki said the e-Waste event is
for the public, and the University
does not dispose of any of its own
material through the event.
"We feel like we want to focus
the efforts and time of these
three days towards the commu-
nity as opposed to stockpiling
everything (the University) gen-
erates in the year," he said.
See E-WASTE, Page 10
dominating fashion, 11-0 and 8-2,
INDEX
Vol. CXXI, No. 1372a 2012 The Michigan Daily
NEWS....................... 2
OPINION .............4
CLASSIFIEDS ...........6
SUDOKU .............2,{,
SPORTS.. ... .7
ARTS.................11
See BASEBALL, Page 6
I
NEWSOIO
'U' Alzheimer's Hazing on campus The Avengers 'M' softball wins
research Why the University needs to Whedon leaves his stamp two of two
'U' leading the way in dis- better regulate this banned on superhero movies in this After a rainout, 'M' softball
coveries about Alzheimer's practice. must-see. sweeps Wisconsin.
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