Sean HaleStaff Reporter

Avengers

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The Avengers is an action-packed comedy that takes you in from the very first second the movie begins. In case you’ve lived under a rock the last few weeks, The Avengers has gained the title of the biggest box office opening weekend in history. The Avengers has been praised by millions of viewers worldwide, although the movie first became popular in September 1963 when the comic series was first published by Marvel creator Stan Lee. Joss Whedon directs the Marvel film, and adds a modern twist to it. The Avengers begins with Thor’s brother, Loki (Tom Hiddleston, War Horse) going to earth to try and steal the tetrad, the deadly weapon from Thor’s planet, from the clutches of the secret organization of S.H.I.E.L.D. At that point Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson, Snakes on a Plane) decides it is a good time to assemble a team of superheroes and spies known as “The Avengers” which includes The Hulk (Mark Ruffalo, Shutter Island), Iron Man (Robert Downey Jr., Iron Man), Captain America (Chris Ev-ans, What’s your Number?), Black Widow (Scarlett Johansson, The Perfect Score), Thor (Chris Hem-sworth, Thor), and Hawkeye (Jeremy Renner, The Town). The team must overcome their differences in order to save mankind.I enjoyed this movie because of the action that it had because it was very entertaining to watch. I also like how you saw the characters develop from being alone to becoming a member of a team be-cause it showed their transition into the group. The special effects really helped make the fight scenes more intense and made the scenes look extremely awesome, because without them the movie would have been terrible. There is nothing in this movie that I didn’t really like because it was interesting, funny, and had a ton of action in it.

Dark ShadowsThe Raven

When Barnabas Collins’ (Johnny Depp, Pirates of the Caribbean) family moved to America in 1776, they formed a small town called Collinsport where they started a fishing business. Soon after their arrival his family set to work on their enormous house in which they would live forever, Collinwood. By the time the mansion was finished Barnabas was an adult, who like most men was in love. This woman hap-pened to be a Josette DuPress (Bella Heathecote, In Time). With every movie there is always a jealous ex who wants to ruin everything; this movie isn’t miss-ing that role. Angelique Bouchard (Eva Green, The Golden Compass) puts a spell on Josette and sends her off Widows Point to her death on the rocks below with Barnabas following. Only for Barnabas; he lived and was turned into a vampire by Angelique’s con-trol. Angelique wasn’t finished with Barnabas; she turned the town against him and locked him in a box for a grand total of 196 years, exactly. Dark Shadows tells the tale of Barnabas and what happens after he awakens from his long slumber in a coffin six feet un-der. The makeup and hair designs really caught my at-tention in this movie. The acting was marvelous; I re-ally don’t think it could have been played any better, especially the part of Barnabas. Johnny Depp pretty much nails every part he is given and this movie did not fail in that category. There was a mixture of hu-mor in the movie along with a lot of suspense that made me want to stay during the entire movie, which I did. The entire plot was perfect; there were no flaws or plot holes that I could catch. I think I could pay the extra money to see the movie again. When I left the theatre I wanted to buy another ticket and watch the movie again. This movie kept me on the edge of my seat the entire time as I hoped for some kind of happy ending. When the ending did come, I was extremely happy. Above all, this movie is definitely worth that $7.50 I spent for the ticket.

Katie WillisStaff Reporter

Katie O’DonnellStaff Reporter

It is known that the famous author and poet, Edgar Allan Poe, was found close to death on a bench in Baltimore; the last few days of his life remain a mys-tery. The movie The Raven came up with a fictional account of his last few days. The movie begins with a double murder where the detectives are puzzled by how the murderer escaped in a room with only one window nailed shut, and a door locked from the inside as an escape. Inspector Emmett Fields (Luke Evans, Immortals) discovers that he escaped by a method explained in one of Edgar Allen Poe’s (John Cusack, The journey of Natty Gann) poems. The po-lice question Poe, and realize he is not responsible when another murder happens while he is with the detectives. They then recruit him to help the investi-gation. The killer taunts the team with Poe’s own po-ems, kidnapping of a loved one, blackmail, and clues which eventually lead to a touching sacrifice. I thought the movie was well thought out. All the references to Edgar Allen Poe’s poems were really good. I wish I knew more of his work, or had looked it up before the movie, because I feel I would have appreciated that aspect of it more. The plot line was not predictable, as some murder mystery movies are. I had no idea who the murderer was until the characters in the movie found out, but I was guess-ing the whole time. I really liked how the movie went in a circle; it began with a scene and ended with the same scene. The heroes of the movie were relatable and admirable. I found myself cheering out loud for their discoveries. Despite all of these positive points about the mov-ie, there was way too much violence and gore. For me, this ruined the movie. There were lots of scenes where I didn’t look and lots of images that I did see made me feel sick. I think it would have still had all of its effects without showing such violent images.