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. SEEPAGE3 SEEPAGE4 >> SEEPAGE12 SEEPAGE 6