Review: Thor

Thor (Chris Hemsworth), the son of Odin (Anthony Hopkins), challenges his brothers ayre to the throne, and as punishment for his arrogance, is sent to Earth to live among the humans and loses his power. While on Earth, he falls in love with the scientist that found him, Jane Foster (Natalie Portman). Falling in love teaches him humility and gives him a new strength that he is required to use when an evil force is sent from his homeland of Asgard by his brother, Loki, who has taken over the throne and used it for his own evil purposes. I've always found Thor one of the more boring of Stan Lee's creations. He's just not as cool as the likes of Spiderman, Iron Man or Wolverine, and the movie keeps my opinion of the character as stable as ever. There are some fairly solid performances from Hopkins and Hemsworth, but Portman just doesn't make the impact you would expect. Thor just doesn't work as well as other "Marvel Studios" classics.

6/10

The Awesominator

Review: Skrillex - Bangarang EP

Skrillex is becoming ever more so popular, with his recent small swag of Grammy's for his previous EP, Scary monsters and nice Sprites,  and his new release, Bangarang, seeping into main-stream radio. At the moment, Skrillex is dominating "Dance music" and many of it's sub-genres, and it's not hard to see why. Bangarang seems to have a whole new feel to it. While many tracks do have the classic dirty basslines Skrillex is known for, there just seems to be a whole new...optimistic feel to it. Opening with the average "Right In" (the only song on the EP in which Skrillex has not collaborated with anyone), Bangarang goes onto some of his best work in "Bangarang" (featuring Sirah) and the surpringly "normal" sounding "Summit" featuring Ellie Goulding. There's the mediocre songs like "Breakn' a Sweat", in which Skrillex collabarates with Members of the Doors, and "Kyoto" featuring Sirah, and then there's those songs that you just can't wait to end.

Skrillex has succeeded in bringing us an alternative to and a new take on the ever-so-repetitive mainstream dance/electronic music. Bangarang is another solid and consistent performance from that side parted devil we call Skrillex.

7/10

The Awesominator

Review: Iron Man 2

The first Iron Man was released in 2008 to wide critical acclaim, for taking a somewhat different approach to the superhero genre, but mainly for Robert Downey Jr.'s performance and after that a sequel was inevitable.  With original director Jon Favreau at the helm, it is a much similar affair to the first movie, with Tony Stark (Downey Jr.) admitting to the world that he is Iron Man.  But not all is well at Stark Industries, for one Tony is now looking for a replacement core to use his arc reactor for his old one is poisoning him.  Tony also has physicist Ivan Vanko (Mickey Rourke) plotting revenge against Stark Industries for the mistreatment of his father many years ago.  Along with all of that, the US government is on his back about turning the Iron Man suit  into them for use as a military weapon.  If you can keep track of all that until about halfway it will all start to come together as part of a bigger picture, with Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson) dropping in to tease us about the Avengers and more references to Marvel's other superheroes.  Robert Downey Jr. really does steal the show as Stark and the actors aren't bad ether.  The dialogue is smart and witty bar Stark's close friend Rhody (Don Cheadle) who truly does get some terrible lines.  But  altogether this is an enjoyable popcorn flick that is pretty much on par with the original.

7.5/10

Tomm

Review: The Shins - Port of Morrow

James Mercer's indie rock project The Shins haven't been around since their relatively successful 2007 album 'Wincing The Night Away', during that break Mercer teamed up with producer Danger Mouse for 'Broken Bells' which produced a great album and an EP,  But after five years The Shins are back with 'Port of Morrow'.  'Port of Morrow' opens with 'The Rifles Spiral' which is nice little doozy, it then leads into the album's great first single 'Simple Song' which is full of interesting lyrics and a terrific melody.  'It's Only Life' is a nice acoustic ballad, 'September' is very reminiscent of their breakthrough 2001 single 'New Slang' and 'No Way Down' is enjoyable but one of the album's less compelling songs.  The album's final and best song, the title track has a very laid back feel and could have easily been a Broken Bells song.  With 'Port of Morrow' against all odds The Shins have made a very triumphant and fun return to the music world, but also produced one of their best albums.

8/10

Tomm

Review: The Incredible Hulk

A military experiment aiming to create a "super soldier" goes horribly wrong and leaves the test subject, Bruce Banner, with a unique condition where, under emotional stress, he becomes the large green monster we all know, The Hulk. While on the run from the government and military, who are seeking his capture, Banner is searching for a cure. Upon becoming close to the cure, a terrifying creature with strength matching The Hulk's, The Abomination, makes himself known. Banner must summon the beast within to save New York City from total destruction.
The Incredible Hulk is actually a pretty good movie. The acting was pretty good and the special effects were also very nice. I think Edward Norton's depiction of Bruce Banner would beat Eric Bana's any day. I sure do look forward to the sequels to come (if they ever come).
The Hulk has always been one of my favourite comic book characters, with his brute strength and lack of sense and reason. I do like the wise-cracking, agile superheroes but Hulk was a welcome change. The Incredible Hulk will go down as one of those film's that was pretty good but everyone forgot about.

7.5/10

The Awesominator

Review: Bon Iver - Bon Iver

Bon Iver's first album 'For Emma, Forever Ago' was released to wide critical aclaim, it was just a man in a cabin pouring his heart and soul into an accoustic guitar.  Lead singer/songwriter Justin Vernon could have easily went down that path again, but in a strange move, he didn't.  His follow up self titled album is full of eary layered vocals and haunting soundscapes and a lot of it gels. Take the opening track 'Perth' it builds up beautfully to a thundering drum beat and a great horn section.  Some   Nearly every song on this album is evidence of the great songwriting talent this man possesses.  'Holocene' and 'Calgary' are two of the best songs of last year, and even songs like 'Minnesota, WI' that seem like filler at first serve their purpose as you gain a better understanding of them after every listen. One thing a lot of people will notice is how hard the layered vocals are to understand and if people really want to get to the root of what Vernon is singing about they will have to resort to lyric finders on the internet, though that is just a small gripe to have seeing as you will just get absorbed in this album, forgetting about everything except the wonderfull msic at hand.  On this album Bon Iver really have reinvented themselves and grown out of the indie folk shell they blossomed in, it was a daring move but if you put time into this album and give it a few listens it will pay off.

9/10

Tomm

Review: Iron Man

Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jnr.) is a genius. He is the head of Stark Industries, a military weaponry company inherited by his father. While taking a trip to Afghanistan to witness the demonstration of a new weapon, Stark is wounded and captured during an attack. A fellow captive builds an electromagnet, powered by an electric generator called the Arc Reactor, to keep the shrapnel in his chest away from his heart. They capture Stark in order for him to build the terrorists a Jericho missile, which by doing so he will apparently earn his freedom. He escapes using a suit of armour he and the other captive secretly built. Upon his return, Stark announces that Stark Industries will no longer manufacture weapons. In his workshop he begins construction on an improved version of the suit he escaped in, and a more powerful Arc Reactor. He discovers that his father's old business partner and second in command, Obadiah Stane (Jeff Bridges), has been selling the terrorist group weapons. He returns to Afghanistan to take down the terrorists and stop Obadiah Stane from taking over Stark Industries.

Iron Man really is a good movie. Robert Downey Jnr. plays a really good rich playboy turned superhero and, as usual, everything Jeff Bridges touches turns to gold. There are also some really good supporting roles from Gwyneth Paltrow and Terrence Howard as Starks two good friends. The special effects are also spectacular. Of course, there are little niggly flaws, but that's the case in most movies. Iron Man introduced a whole new audience to the superhero and probably helped overtake Spiderman as Marvel's most liked superhero.

8/10

The Awesominator

Superhero Movies of 2012

2012 is set to be a big year for superhero movies, with the releases of three of the biggest superhero movies yet, The Avengers, The Dark Knight Rises and The Amazing Spiderman. These three movies all have preceding movies, whether they be in the same series or not. Critical Euphoria are going to do some superhero specials, reviewing all of the movies setting the scene for these three*. The first of these three movies to be released is The Avengers (25 April), therefore we will review the five movies leading up to The Avengers in order of release, but don't worry we will still keep up our music reviews.

*In the case of The Amazing Spiderman, we will review the Sam Raimi series.