THE AVENGERS

Dir: Joss Weedon - Starring: Robert Downey Jr, Mark Ruffalo, Samuel L Jackson

The road that Marvel has been travelling these past few years has finally reached its end. No more origin stories, the gang have been assembled: Thor, Iron Man, the Hulk and Captain America unite (along with lesser types such as Black Widow and Hawkeye) for screen-adapted comic books' most ambitious project yet.

And, in baseball terms, they knock it out of the park.
With the obligatory backstories in place (twice in the case of the Hulk) the big question was always how all these characters would fit into one movie. Writer/director Joss Weedon balances it with immense skill, building a script that allows each superhero their own space and arc while answering many comic book geeks' biggest questions ('who would win a fight between Iron Man and Thor?” etc). What sustains it is the genuinely witty interplay between the characters and the absolutely convincing effects.
For the first time the Hulk works as an on-screen presence, because Ruffalo nails a mixture of fear and self-loathing but also because the Big Green One finally looks convincing as he leaps from building to building smashing everything in his path.

The 3D at the movies was terrible but this looks great on 2D at home, the only possible downside being that Loki is a slightly inconsistent villain. But with so much other fun going on, and continually eye-popping visuals, you hardly notice. Recommended, obviously.

Say what you like about Roman Polanski (and I have said some very harsh things over the years) he certainly knows how to direct actors. Every so often he works with a play (Death and the Maiden, etc) and Carnage is exactly that: four people in a room. Luckily those people are Kate Winslet, Jodie Foster, John C Reilly and Christopher Waltz. One couple's son has assaulted the other couple's son, they are there to work out some sort of rapprochement. What follows is delightfully bitchy and often very funny as the two couples spar and irritate each other, fail completely to bond, and reveal various layers of insecurity and prejudice.

Afterschool is an obliquely-made film delving into issues of high school alienation in an original and unsettling manner. Central is young Robert (We Need To Talk About Kevin's Ezra Miller), a porn-watching loner who accidentally videos the death of twin sisters (not, as the DVD cover states, suicides – contrary to the blurb there are no teen suicides here and the topic is never mentioned) as part of a class project. It's a study of a generation in the thrall of voyeuristic culture, shot to emphasise the disconnection, with characters often filmed out of frame or out of focus. Intentionally uncomfortable viewing, thought-provoking if somewhat impenetrable.

From writer/director Michael Chapman comes The Ledge, an intriguing little low budget thriller in which a cop (Terence Howard) with marital problems is called to talk down a jumper. Turns out the potential suicide (Charlie Hunnam) is not on the ledge through choice. A twisted tale involving his odd neighbours (Patrick Wilson, Liv Tyler) emerges, slowly revealing layers in the characters. It's shot in a measured minimalist style – this is not a film for bells and whistles - with subtle plotting that stirs together sexual jealousies and religious philosophising.

A nurse goes to work the nightshift at a creepy abandoned soon-to-be-closed hospital; there is a serial killer called the Nighthawk on the prowl. So Psych 9 isn't the most original of premises. Cue creepy husband, creepy doctor, creepy cop and you have a recipe for paranoia, especially given the nurse is burdened with her own troubled past. She certainly gets wigged out in record time. The whole build-up is so warped and illogical that a Big Reveal would seem in the offing. Not really, but there's a certain grim fascination as events stagger finale-wards.