Avengers Assemble

Four arrogant, beefed-up men, one curvaceous woman, and an individual with severe anger management issues for comedy value. How could Avengers Assemble be anything other than a success? If you saw, and enjoyed, any one of the previous Marvel films (see Iron Man, Iron Man 2, Thor, Captain America or, dare I say it, The Incredible Hulk) chances are you were eagerly awaiting the arrival of this comic book blockbuster. With so much at stake it was almost a sure thing that the big cheeses at Marvel Studios were going to let us down somehow, but after churning out some of the best films of the past four years it would seem Marvel have done the impossible. They have successfully produced the coolest, biggest, teenage-boy-arousing comic book film I have ever seen.
With so many huge, hammer-wielding, shield-throwing, general ass-kicking stars Avengers is the kind of film that could almost get away with having only a vague semblance of a plot but the story line concocted here is actually quite engaging. When Thor’s wayward brother Loki returns to Earth to dominate all life war is imminent, and with completely unequal weaponry Earth doesn’t stand a chance. It’s in this vein of desperation that Nick Fury of S.H.I.E.L.D approaches our six heroes and enlists them as his personal response team. One by one they come in, bringing tight outfits, baggage and enormous egos with them. After a swift capture of the renegade Loki the team quickly descends into chaos, dragging up each others’ weaknesses and errors as they all quickly lose patience.
This is a heavily character focused film, and it’s in getting these right that Marvel Studios have hit on such success. These superheroes are not perfect. It’s enjoyable to watch Steve Rogers’s struggle to come to terms with the modern world, Thor’s guilt for the errors he made with his brother, Tony Stark’s general playboy arrogance and Natasha Romanoff’s exhaustion as she engages in a final battle that is really beyond her capabilities. It is in these human elements that these characters become likeable, and it makes their final acts of valour all the more awesome. Another great perk of believable heroes is humour that actually works. These are not predictable one-liners shoe-horned in between explosions, they are moments of sarcasm and wit that are genuinely funny and I hate to admit, almost clever.
One key point that Joss Whedon has got completely, one hundred percent right in this film is the balance of screen time. Avengers is not Iron Man and friends or three big names plus two more human tag-alongs and a big green guy. Everyone has their own elements of back-story and their own time to shine. In screen time this really does feel like a team movie, not just a badly weighted spin-off of a previously successful film, without going too far the other way and becoming a revamped X-Men.
Of course, it is not totally perfect. The ending of the film is, as you would imagine, way too convenient to be even remotely believable, though why after watching a half hour battle with the Chitauri (think Orcs from space) I’m not sure why I’m worrying about believability. In some ways Avengers strays into the realms of the ridiculous, I mean don’t get me wrong, if ever a film required suspension of disbelief it’s this one, but I do require some level of logic in my comic book heroes. The absurd science talk forced in to explain away Loki’s use of the Tesseract can quickly get dull, and seems more of a desperate ploy to explain why we’ve been chasing a blue cube around for one-and-a-half films. Meanwhile, the moments of emotion injected into a genre all about heroes and villains feel fairly stilted.
With all the hype that five previous successful films have to offer Avengers Assemble has done well to deliver. Engaging and entertaining this hero film is a refreshingly good watch after a succession of high fliers that fell flat (see Spiderman). My one piece of advice would be to swat up on previous Marvel films before heading down to the cinema, Thor and Captain America are certainly important to the plot and the whole spectacle comes off a little better if you’re already familiar with the characters. All in all this film is an explosive hit with classic one liners, explosions and end of the world peril. Don’t expect to be intellectually challenged but you’d be hard pushed to find a more satisfying guilty pleasure.

Status Anxiety

Do you worry about how well you’re doing? says the back of Alain de Botton’s Status Anxiety. Are you envious of your friends’ success? To me the blurb sounded like a self-help book. The sort of thing that is supposed to give you ten easy steps to perfect happiness and felicity, covering everything from flimsy mantras to difficult yoga positions, but that’s not what Status Anxiety is about. What this book offers is a different perspective on life and a sensible reasoned way of achieving it. It finds a different way of looking at your status in society.
Chapter by chapter what this book tells you is that high status and the paraphernalia of success are not only incapable of making you happy but are luxuries enjoyed only by the few. From birth we are spoon fed the ideals that one day we will have a successful job, an ideal partner and all the respect and deference that we deserve. However, not only is out career success empty, it is also perilous, as most of us live in a state of dependence on those who employ us, and they in turn rely on the demand of the market. Realistically there are few people for whom these high expectations ever come true and it is this, combined with a lack of genuine love and a deep-rooted loneliness, which makes us truly miserable.
One of the causes of anxiety, de Botton says, is our meritocratic society. Though commendable in its premise the meritocratic society, while allowing the able to succeed, brings with it the implication that those who do not succeed are inept. This assumption, and the subsequent disdain by the successful for the poor, leads many in difficult circumstances to believe themselves to be deserving of their low status. This revelation is a real wake up call for those who believe that our society promotes equality. In reality we are a far cry from living in a state where social mobility is possible.
With the problem established the second half of the book looks at the ways of combating status anxiety, covering everything from bohemia to Christianity, and it is this section of the book that really strikes at brilliance. De Botton’s analysis of art, politics and a disdainful bohemian lifestyle not only serves to ridicule the snobbery of the “successful” but also highlights that there is more to life than conforming to the commonly held ideas of status. Success is not necessarily synonymous with happiness and high status in society does not equate to morality and godliness.
Using insightful political and social examples from history across the world de Botton successfully offers a new view without padding out the information with empty phrases and vapid self-help ideas. More than this de Botton’s book is a truly refreshing look at the world of success. In a time when people are struggling to reach the goals they have set for themselves it’s time to take a step back and really re-evaluate what is truly important. De Botton totally undercuts our society’s preoccupation with wealth and possessions, revealing its transient characteristics. To read this book is not to be lost in hard psychological theory or political debate, it is to hear someone talking sense and to gain a new outlook on the goals we set for ourselves and the hand that life has dealt us.

The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society

Little is known in the UK about the German occupation of the Channel Islands during the Second World War. Indeed, little seems to be taught in schools or documented in books concerning the plight of the Channel Islands, the only British Crown Dependencies to suffer occupation. It is shocking that due to either lack of sympathy or a feeling of public shame the hardships suffered by Guernsey, Jersey, Alderney, Sark and Herm are virtually unknown in a society that has spent decades deconstructing and exposing every crime of WWII.

Deemed to be no longer strategically important the Channel Islands were left completely undefended against German assault. Ships were sent to offer the islanders a means of escape before the German army reached them. Most of the inhabitants of Alderney took this opportunity, in Guernsey parents faced the heart-wrenching choice of keeping their children with them in danger or sending them to live with strangers for the remainder of the war and in Jersey the majority of the residence stayed. Unaware that the islands had been left undefended the Germans approached with caution and, mistaking some tomato export lorries for troop vehicles, heavily bombed St Peter Port.

During the occupation the islanders suffered greatly at the hands of their conquerors, although many of the troops saw their time in the Channel as a glorified holiday. The food quickly ran low and the islanders were deported to concentration camps on the continent for such crimes as listening to radios, having Jewish grandparents and aiding the slave workers who were brought to the islands. Eager to preserve his victory in conquering a little piece of England Hitler fortified the Channel Islands more than the beaches at Normandy. About six thousand slave workers were brought in, imprisoned in camps and forced to build a forest of concrete fortifications around the islands.

When D-Day finally came and Normandy was liberated the supply lines to the Channel Islands were cut in an attempt to starve out the German forces, the islanders starved with them. It wasn’t until six months later that a Red Cross ship was permitted to approach the Channel Islands bring much needed relief to the malnourished inhabitants.

Even when the islands were liberated when the war ended in 1945 there was no end to the suffering of the islanders. Many were accused of aiding the enemy, although the allegations were quickly discovered to be unfounded, and the women who had had relationships with German officers during the occupation, ‘Jerry-bags’, suffered acts of revenge.

Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows’ The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society is a touching, witty combination of expertly researched fact and cleverly conceived fiction. It dramatises the occupation of Guernsey in a way both unique and moving, weaving a tale of tragedy and loss, of heroism and bravery and of people pulling together during a time of great hardship. When war comes to Guernsey all social barriers are broken, all lives thrown into turmoil and an unlikely band of friends forced together. Set in 1946 this humorous and hopeful story is veiled in a shroud of mourning, relating the past by softly touching on the memories of a collective group, slowly eking out the painful truth.

This novel successfully captures and recreates the shell-shocked mood of a continent recovering from war and does not shy away from subjects which a post war Britain was eager to dust under the carpet. With many quick-witted and eccentric narrators this novel will make you want to drop all your responsibilities, fly to Guernsey and never come back.