My Top 10: Scarlett Johansson Films

My first memory of Scarlett Johansson was seeing her in Home Alone 3 when she was only 13. A minor role in Eight Legged Freaks in 2002 slowly put in her into the mainstream. But her breakthrough years was definitely 2003. With leading roles in Girl With A Pearl Earring and the Oscar winning Lost In Translation, Johansson became the global star she is today.

She is now one of the popular actresses in Holywood today and is usually high up in magazine's top 100 sexiest women in the world lists.

With more roles already confirmed for the next few years, it is safe to say that Johansson's career is not finishing anytime soon.

A few honorable mentions to speak of. I'll begin with Girl With A Pearl Earring. The breakthrough film of Johansson's career. Based on the how the famous drawing by painter Johannes Vermeer was made, this is a well structured period drama that gives great philosophy into the art of drawing.

There are also a great performance by lead male Colin Firth.

Another is, The Island. A really enjoyable popcorn flick that is great to just watch when you want to switch your mind off. The pace is frenetic, the story is interesting, we have likable characters and it is great entertainment. Co-leading with Ewan McGregor, Johansson  gives us a great physical performance that I felt helped her get her role in Marvel.

Just missing out on the top is Chef. A highly enjoyable feel-good comedy that sees a chef quit his job and buy a food truck to fulfill his creativity with food whilst bringing his family back together. Johansson plays the restaurant's hostess and does a solid job at her supporting role that plays a fairly important role in the first two thirds of the film.

If this was a top 11, Captain America: The Winter Soldier would have made it. A big favorite in the Marvel franchise as something that felt more than just a generic superhero film. With great spy and espionage elements to its story, this definitely gives something a little different to Marvel's long list of successful blockbusters. Johansson's on-screen chemistry with male lead Chris Evans is essential to the success of this film.

Out of her 53 films, I have only seen 32 of them. I will rank all of the films I have seen and give a short review of each of my top 10:

32) Home Alone 3
31) Eight Legged Freaks

30) Black Widow
29) The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie
28) Iron Man 2
27) Match Point
26) The Other Boleyn Girl
25) Hitchcock
24) Hail, Caesar!
23) Lucy
22) Ghost In The Shell

21) Sing 2
20) We Bought A Zoo
19) Avengers: Age Of Ultron
18) Sing

17) Isle Of Dogs
16) The Horse Whisperer

15) Vicky Cristina Barcelona
14) Girl With A Pearl Earring
13) The Island
12) Chef
11) Captain America: The Winter Soldier

10) Jojo Rabbit - A hilarious and suprisingly poignant WWII political satire from the mind of New Zealand director Taika Waititi.

It sees a young boy devoting himself to Hitler's army. But when he discovers his mother is hiding a Jew in their home, his attention towards the Nazi army begins to change.

Johansson plays the mother and has great chemistry with the central character that is very pleasant to watch.

9) Captain America: Civil War - Johansson in her fifth venture as Agent Natasha Romanoff a.k.a. Black Widow is probably the tensest and most action packed yet.

When politics interferes with The Avengers activities, the group is split on their views on this.

What we get is a great mashup of amazing action and in-depth character studies.

8) Avengers Assemble - The highest grossing film of 2012 and it sees the end of Marvel's first phase in it's Cinematic Universe.

After her debut in Iron Man 2, Johansson is back and seen as an important member of the Avengers as one of SHIELD's best and most talented agents.

Johansson definitely gets a few scene stealing moments.

7) Under The Skin - Saw this a couple of years ago and it is by far one of the most interesting and atmospheric films I have seen in a long time.

A mysterious character goes around Glasgow seducing lonely men and leading them to a tragic fate. Johansson's character also goes through a process of self-discovery.

Not everything quite works, but its ambition is certainly worthy enough for this to be viewed. It also contains a truly disturbing scene that I will never forget for the rest of my life.

6) Lost In Translation - One of the most critically acclaimed films of the 21st century.
It sees Bill Murray play a faded movie star endorsement a Japanese product and pretty much bored with life.

But when he stumbles upon a young woman played by Johansson, they form an unlikely bond and begin a care-free friendship in Tokyo.

5) Marriage Story - An impactful and surprisingly hilarious drama that is being seen as this generations Kramer vs. Kramer. It sees Scarlett Johansson and Adam Driver's characters begin the process of a divorce while trying to keep their family together.

The opening scene does so well to hook you in. After that, it brings out all the emotions and Johansson and Driver together are completely engaging.

4) Her - Winner of an Oscar for Best Original Screenplay last year, this is certainly a romantic drama for the modern age.

It sees a lonely writer develop a relationship with his brand new operating system that is designed to meet to the customer's every need.

3) Avengers: Endgame - The culmination of the Avengers saga within the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

It sees the remaining Avengers regoup and looking to correct their mistakes, defeat the evil Thanos and restore balance to the universe.

Johansson is back once again as Black Widow.

2) Avengers: Infinity War - What I consider to be the best film within the MCU. This is constantly action packed sci-fi action-adventure see the Avengers teaming up with the Guardians Of The Galaxy to prevent Thanos from eliminating half of all life in the universe.

It is pure blockbuster entertainment and it's brave ending adds to the impact and the reason why it is considered by many as the best in the franchise.

Johansson continues her role as Black Widow and her physical acting is as ever present in a very effective way.

1) The Prestige - A terrific period mystery drama that centres on two rival magicians in the Victoria era trying to out-do each others magic show.

Directed by Christopher Nolan, this is truly thrilling experience with many twists and turns that will make you discuss for a longer time.

Johansson plays a minor role as one of the magicians assistants.

Review: Avengers: Age Of Ultron

It is quite an astonishing story of how far Marvel have come since being almost bankrupt around a decade ago. With rivals DC Comics ruling the roost for such a long time, Marvel finally found success in 2000 with X-Men and Spider-Man. But with those two franchises not being primarily ran by Marvel Studios, they were still not getting enough profit to progress.

Then they went on a big gamble by introducing us to characters that are seen as secondary to the more well-known superheroes.

2008 saw huge success for Iron Man, and now we have the Marvel Cinematic Universe. With its interwoven features that would usually be seen in a TV series, Marvel Studios has become a colossal force in the film industry that is leaving DC in its dust. Even with all this record-breaking box-office, Marvel are still taking risks as they know they have to introduce new characters to keep giving the franchise a fresh look and the audience asking for more. I have certainly jumped on the Marvel bandwagon and now a huge Marvel film fan-boy.

Now, we have the final installment of Marvel's second phase with the second Avengers feature.

For the most part I found it very enjoyable early summer popcorn flick that does everything you want it do. Everything was pretty solid all-round, I had a big smile on my face throughout and felt satisfied. But with Marvel setting itself such a high standard, I definitely was expecting something more interesting then what I saw in the end.

Before I say what problems I felt this movie had, I just want to mention that these are all minor ones. I still would recommend this to anyone, whether they love Marvel or not.

The first problem I had when reflecting was the plot and story structure. For me was a bit disappointing as it felt too similar to the first one, and yet inferior. I had hoped for something with a darker tone that the trailer was suggesting and covering interesting subjects from the first Avengers film and all the films in-between.
As for building up Marvel's plans for the next phase of films, it felt poorly hinted. It was as if the film makers just dropped it in without any explanation and felt out of place. The only thing I could think of as to why they did that was to help the general moviegoers be interested in the franchise. I won't mention it for possible spoilers, but I will say that Guardians Of The Galaxy explained it better.

Thankfully, the humor is still vintage Whedon and still keeping the tone of any other Marvel film. I laughed pretty consistently throughout, even at times I never knew I would laugh at.
Sadly, there were some unnecessary attempts of comedy. At one point, it seemed every time a character has a line, they had to end it on a joke. It felt totally unwarranted, it took me out of the moment on multiple occasions and it was like a contest to see who can come up with the wittiest line.

The action is what you would expect in a huge blockbuster. However, I noticed a lot of scenes that was pretty much a copy from the first one. There were also times where the camerawork let itself down during the action set-pieces. There were lots of "shaky-cam" moments that for me felt it hard to follow and have a relax-able viewing experience. I was not expecting to say this, but I felt the CGI to be quite inconsistent. At times it felt impressive, but the other times it looked unfinished or overused.

One big problem that I was hoping to not happen was that there are a lot of characters bunched into this blockbuster and I think this is the problem people feared the first film would contain. A few characters were given very little or almost non-existent screen time. One secondary character in particular is hardly in the film and yet involved in the final scene which was an important one. That sort of frustrated me, because I wanted to know why that person is there in such an important role and there was no development on that whatsoever. For me, there were too many characters and some of them unnecessarily used and they should not have been included at all.
Thankfully, there were enough characters that were solidly developed and that I cared about throughout the film. But I think for the franchise to make really interesting films, they need to get rid of a lot of secondary characters, especially if they want to introduce more new ones.

The most annoying problem was the plot-holes and some of the unnecessary subplots. I will not list all the plot-holes because I think that would be too much nit-picking. But I will mention about my minor frustration about them not addressing the events following from the films between the two Avengers installments. It was like they just ignored it and wanted to just make a blockbuster with lots of super-hero action  set-pieces and explosions.

As for the performances, they were pretty solid overall. However, there were a few positive exceptions. Chris Evans was born to play Captain America, his loyalty, passion and goody-two-shoes characteristics is great to watch and he has created the type of character you want to pick first to be in your team.
Scarlett Johansson had her moments and we got to know the history of her character which was nice to see. But for me, the star of the show was Jeremy Renner. Whedon and his team have definitely forgiven the under-usage of Renner's character in the first Avengers film and they have given Hawkeye some great development and gave him some humanity that I can now see him become a popular member of the team.
Downey Jnr. was not as witty as he has been and was definitely knocked down a peg or two in terms of the screen time. However, he was still o.k. Hemsworth felt under-used and had odd subplots and Ruffalo did well with what he had. As for the new characters, Elizabeth Olsen, Aaron Taylor-Johnson had nice development and the longer the film went, the more interested I was in their characters. As for Paul Bettaney's character, I think his late arrival in the film means we will get to see more development from him in future films. Also, it was nice to see Andy Serkis have a minor role and as always he played the role well even though he was not doing motion-capture.
James Spader as the voice of the main villain Ultron was as expected. However, I'm afraid I think Ultron has fallen into the over-crowded category of 'weak villain'. All that promise of his menace and high-threat level was not completely washed away, but pretty much averted which was a shame. Also, his development felt patchy. It was as if we missed important scenes and we do not get an explanation of how he got to that stage. For me, Olsen's character was more threatening then any other villain within the film and Loki is still the best villain Marvel Studios have ever created.

Despite all those small frustrating problems, I felt it to be a highly enjoyable sequel and a positive addition to the powerhouse juggernaut that is Marvel. The characters still deliver, their chemistry on-screen is very entertaining, the action is fast-paced and exhilarating and the humor is probably the best part of the movie.
There are definitely parts that were disappointing, but it is overpowered by the positives. I think for future reference, I will purposely not watch anymore Marvel trailers to see if it improves my viewing experience. I did watch the first trailer for this and missed the rest as I was excited to see it anyway. After seeing the other trailers afterwards, I can definitely guarantee that they would have ruined my viewing experience as they showed moments that I was surprised to see in the film.
Joss Whedon has definitely done the best film he could have made. With him trying to make the film his own way and the studio pushing him to tick certain boxes, I think this was the best we could of got. I hear that there will be an extended version of this when it is released on DVD, which also includes an alternate ending. It will be interesting to see what was left out.

For the first time in Marvel Studios history, we do not have a post-credit scene. I'm not sure if they are running out of ideas of things to hint us with, or they are deciding to not show too much this time. Thankfully, there is a mid-credit scene. But to be honest, I was quite gutted as it showed something we pretty much knew would happen anyway. Not only that, it felt massively rushed. I think I would have enjoyed that scene a lot more if they included another character that would make more sense and kept the continuity of the development of the story.

With phase two now in the books, let's see what phase three of Marvel's grand scheme gives us as we approach the climax to where the Avengers clash with the baddest villain Marvel has created.

Rating: 7/10

My Top 10: Robert Downey Jnr. Films

Known for being quite eccentric and yet highly entertaining, Robert Downey Jnr. has lead quite a fulfilling acting career.

Despite being in the acting business for 45 years, he has managed to remain fresh and new with the ever evolving cinema audience. With an amazing back catalog, Downey Jnr. is certainly one of the most respected actors in Hollywood.

Out of his 68 films, I have only seen 24 of them. I will rank all of the films I have seen, and give a short review for each of my top 10:

24) The Shaggy Dog
23) Dolittle
22) Due Date
21) Chances Are
20) A Scanner Darkly
19) Iron Man 2
18) Iron Man 3
17) Bowfinger
16) Tropic Thunder

15) Sherlock Holmes: A Game Of Shadows
14) Sherlock Holmes
13) Avengers: Age Of Ultron
12) Good Night, Good Luck
11) Spider-Man: Homecoming

10) Captain America: Civil War - Downey Jnr.'s sees him in his seventh film as Tony Stark/Iron Man.

This time we see a split of opinion within The Avengers when politics interferes with their activities.

It has that perfect blend of amazing action and in-depth character studies.

9) Iron Man - The film that ignited Downey Jnr's career as a global superstar and that saw the birth of Marvel Studios and its cinematic universe.
Nominated for two Oscars, this wonderful superhero action extravaganza introduces you to a character that Downey Jnr. was born to play.

It has great story development and clever writing. If this film was nothing short of great, who knows what Marvel would have been now.

8) Kiss Kiss Bang Bang - Downey Jnr. teams up with Val Kilmer in this dark humored crime comedy.

It's unpredictable nature makes it captivating viewing. It's wit and charm has made it a bit of a hidden gem.
It is definitely worth watching.

7) Zodiac - Anything directed by David Fincher means a gritty tone, this is no exception.
A once newspaper cartoonist becomes an amateur detective and is involved with tracking down the famous Zodiac killer.
Downey Jnr. is in a supportive tole to lead Jake Gyllenhaal.
It is definitely not your usual mystery drama.

6) Oppenheimer - Downey Jnr's latest project sees him be part of a Christopher Nolan event that covers the story of scientist J. Robert Oppenheimer and the development of the atomic bomb.

This gripping character study has that vintage Nolan spectacle and contains multiple strong performance. Including Downey Jnr. as controversial American politician Lewis Strauss.

5) Avengers Assemble - Downey Jnr. is back as Iron Man along with a few other well-known superheroes as they team up to become the Avengers.
It ended the first phase of Marvel Studio's franchise and was the highest grossing film of 2012.
It met and surpassed many peoples expectations. Many had doubts the amount of big name stars would make it a mess. But director Joss Whedon handled it perfectly.

4) Avengers: Endgame - The culmination of 11 years of work for not just the Marvel Cinematic Universe, but also Downey Jnr. as the incredible Tony Stark/Iron Man.

It sees the Avengers regroup after the defeat to Thanos and looking to correct their mistakes of the past.

3) Avengers: Infinity War - The third Avengers installment and seen by many as the best film within the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

The cast list may be beyond stellar. But Downey Jnr. still contributes heavily as the returning Tony Stark.

It's an absolute thrill-ride with many high stakes.

2) Natural Born Killers - An Oliver Stone film from the 1990's mean a lot of controversial topics being portrayed on screen.
This feature sees two serial killers being wrongly glorified from the mass media.
Downey Jnr. plays one of the journalists as he helps grab attention to these traumatized murderers (played by Woody Harrelson and Juliette Lewis).

1) Chaplin - Directed by the late great Richard Attenborough, this film saw Downey Jnr's only Oscar nomination for Best Actor as he played one of the greatest actors of all-time.
It tells the story of the troubled actor and film-maker and how he became the man we all know and love.
Downey Jnr. is definitely out of his comfort zone and produces a mesmeric performance.
A great viewing for lovers of cinema and its early years of development.