Movie Review: Avengers Infinity War

Well, after 10 years and a ton of movies, the penultimate movie has supposedly come out. I should warn, there will be SPOILERS ahead. We were told the stakes would be high, but are they? I finally watched Doctor Strange over the weekend and you know, he has the time stone, a magical element that he can use to manipulate time, undo whatever has happened in the past. Imagine how helpful that would be if something awful happened, to say, all, or half, of our favorite characters. The movie starts of where Thor Ragnorok ended, and we are aboard the ship of what is left of Asgard. Loki is on his knees, pleading with Thanos about not killing Thor, not wanting to give up the Tesseract (another infinity stone) – if you missed it, there are 6 magical stones, the big bad, Thanos, has one, as far as we know, but gets the second from Loki, who stole it before Asgard fell. The ship they’re on gets destroyed and that’s how Thor ends up with the Guardians of the Galaxy.

Hemdall, Idras Elba, gets Hulk off of the ship, back to NYC and he lands in Doctor Strange’s sanctum. And this is the first time Banner is back, and he isn’t the Hulk and we don’t see the Hulk throughout the movie. I don’t want to skip over anything, but the story with Vision I found very annoying. And his love story with the Scarlett Witch bored me. I know that sounds bad, especially because he has the infinity stone in his head, and it’ll likely cost him his life. But I’m going to change gears.

For several movies we’ve heard nothing but fear and anxiety about Thanos. This movie finally gives us a glimpse into some of his origins. It doesn’t delve deeply enough, into what makes him think that he’s right, but we see a flashback of him taking Gamorra from her home world and adopting her, sort of. There is a moment, towards the end of the movie, that Thanos is explaining to Iron Man/Tony Stark, what happened to his home planet, Titan. This, to me, was the most important scene. Thanos says he noticed how wonderful Titan was, how prosperous it was, how overcrowded it was. He said he made a suggestion, or something, to decrease the number of people, to kill off a large group, but not based on wealth or status, just random. That encapsulates the ending. As you expect, Thanos gets all of the stones, has the completed gauntlet and does exactly what he says he’s going to do. And poof, like that, half the heroes are gone. But not any of the original Avengers, not they’re all fine. And that’s what makes this so empty. The can kill of Black Panther or Spidey, but we know they have more movies coming out, so we know they’re going to be fine. So what have we been waiting for, really? I’m not sure.

Movie Review: Age of Ultron

I often go in for the special double features at AMC and while I may have meandered into another movie to avoid seeing the first movie a second or third time, the mainstay feature was the one I’d come for.  I wanted to like this movie, but I think I’ve had my fill of this sort of superhero movie and while I am a huge Joss Whedon fan, and the dialogue is wonderfully done, the movie just felt flat to me.  The forced romance between two characters was obvious.  The tension was forced and the laughs were expected.  Overall, I just didn’t feel wowed by this movie and I wonder if it has more to do with me than the movie itself.

The story is built around Iron Man and The Hulk creating artificial intelligence and that AI running amok.  The story had a few fun twists and turns, most notable for Hawkeye, the story never seemed to draw me in.  I felt like the movie would never end until it finally did.

I will cite that after hearing the comments Jeremy Renner and Chris Evans made about Scarlett Johansson’s character, even if they were joking, really rankled me.  In this day and age of feminism, I just find myself disgusted by their behavior and comments and while their acting was decent, it didn’t allow me to forget what had been said.

If you’re a fan of superhero movies, you’re going to see this movie.  I’m telling you now, waiting a week or two or more to see this won’t take much away and there isn’t much to miss to begin with.  This might be the end of me patronizing these sorts of things.

Movie Review: Captain America The Winter Soldier

As luck would have it, I got to see both Captain America movies back-to-back.  The first one was a primer, an introduction to Steve Rogers and the second movie picks up right where the Avengers movie stops.  Rogers is trying to assimilate back into the world, yet still not being a part of it.  Rogers is sent out on a mission early in the story, a hostage situation that he diffuses, but not without realizing that fellow Avenger, the Black Widow, was assigned to not just the strike team.  Her mission differed from his and when he confronts Fury about it, the latter doesn’t deny it, stating that he doesn’t trust anyone.

Rogers meets a fellow veteran of the army, Sam Wilson, who invites him to visit the VA to help others with their PTSD.  While Rogers is visiting Wilson, Nick Fury is being attacked and shot at by half of what appear to be the DC police.  A massive action sequence transpires and when the story returns to Rogers, he finds Fury in his apartment, half alive, getting shot as he tries to get up.  The neighbor he thought was a nurse turns out to be an agent of SHIELD and she calls an ambulance as Rogers pursues the shooter.  The attacker has the same strength as Rogers and easily escapes.  Back in the hospital, Fury dies and the jump drive he gives Rogers has to be hidden.  Rogers is cornered and questioned back at SHIELD, managing to escape and when he goes to retrieve the hidden file, the Black Widow has already gotten it.

The two go on a search to try and determine what is going on and find more than they expected.  With Fury unable to protect them, the two are hunted everywhere they go and have to enlist the help of Wilson to hide and mount a push back.  The masked attacker makes recurring appearances and Rogers soon discovers that he too is from his past.  The movie culminates with many competing elements and storylines crossing together, leaving the viewer wanting more, knowing there will be more.

Unlike the first Captain America movie, this one has a lot more going on and feels slightly more bloated in the story with quite a few different elements in the story.  The cast is bolstered with Robert Redford, who puts together quite the performance as Fury’s boss, so to speak.  If you’re a fan of the Marvel movies, this is nothing new.  While there is a lot going on, at no point did I feel overwhelmed by it.  All of the Marvel movies have these elements where there is a lot going on, but unlike the DC based movies, there are more explained with each passing movie.  After three Iron Man movies, two Thor movies, one Avengers movie and now two Captain America movies, the Marvel universe is very well stocked and very well written and acted.

Some fans might think that the concept of the Winter Soldier was minimized in favour of Fury’s storyline, but as the leader of SHIELD, and not having a movie of his own, it was nice to finally get to see more of his story and see more of some other minor characters.  I am still waiting for Marvel to make a Black Widow/Hawkeye movie of some sort, which would be amazing.

On the whole, I can’t give many, if any detractions for this movie.  At no point was I bored or uninterested.  The acting was superb, as per usual and the writing kept me engaged throughout.  I do worry that as they make more movies, each one will get heavier and heavier.  There seem to be few people who haven’t been following these movies, so it seems unlikely that a ‘new’ viewer would be lost, but that would be the only ‘bad’ thing I could say about this movie or series of movies.  Looking forward to the next Avengers movie even more.

Movie Review: Captain America The First Avenger

In the midst of Marvel’s renaissance of super hero movies, after the breakout success of X-men and Spiderman, the studio decided to release a series of movies based on individual super heroes that comprise The Avengers.  When the movies started coming out, I primarily ignored them.  I was more of an X-men/Batman fan and didn’t think much of them.  A few weeks after the first Iron Man movie was released, I decided to go ahead and give it a try.  To my surprise, it was engaging and entertaining.  Despite this, I still didn’t give Captain America much attention when the first movie came out.  Once I saw The Avengers, I had to give the good Captain his due and AMC was kind enough to do a marathon last night for the first movie and the brand new sequel.

The movie starts in the present, and we have a search team discovering something in frozen in snow and ice.  There is a glimpse of a shield with the stars and stripes on it and the story becomes a flashback.  The story of Steve Rogers is that he is a small kid with a big heart.  Even though he’s outmatched by any and all adversaries, he doesn’t back down from a fight, this stance is furthered because of the loss of his parents as a young adult.  Rogers has a stick-with-it-ness mentality that has him breaking laws trying to enlist in the army for the Second World War.  A scientist takes pity on Rogers and gets him into the army, though no one takes him seriously.

It is at this juncture that the scientist reveals that he has an experimental procedure that could make Rogers the ultimate soldier.  The risks are high, but with the chance to fight in the army, beat down a bully, as Rogers puts it, he doesn’t hesitate.  The moment the experiment is complete, he becomes bigger and stronger, the innate goodness in him compounded by the serum.  The experiment does not go on without a hitch and an agent of Hitler and Schmidt (aka the Red Skull) is there and shoots and kills the scientist.  Rogers goes after the killer and catches him, only to have him commit suicide with a cyanide pill.

While the scientist promised a chance for Rogers, the army colonel doesn’t and Rogers is relegated to a show piece, performing in a staged production to induce the masses to donate to the cause by buying bonds.  When he is assigned to speak in front of soldiers in the field, he is rebuffed and realizes his dream of being a soldier is just that.  The contingent he is with is comprised of one his boyhood friend was a part of and without orders, he takes off to try and rescue them.  The mission is a success and he is given the chance to lead his own strike team to thwart Schmidt’s forces throughout the war zone.  The movie ends in climactic fashion as Rogers is forced to sacrifice himself to save the world from Schmidt’s madness.

Looking back, I can’t for the life of me figure out why I was so turned off on seeing this movie when it first came out in 2011.  From beginning to end, the movie is compelling and well-made.  More than that, this movie is another hallmark in what I call the Joss Whedon engine of success.  I often wonder if he has had a part in each and every one of these Avengers related movies, which I am sure he has.  The vision of them, the themes they possess are both individualized for each hero and yet homogenized as they end up being put together in one team.

This movie possesses all the elements of a great Hollywood blockbuster.  Chris Evans’ portrayal of the weak turned strong hero who is held to a standard by a high moral compass is superb.  The supporting cast is equally affecting, though I found the character of Peggy somewhat unlikeable as being the only female in the movie, practically.  The way their relationship was developed was a bit of a slow burn and it evolves at a pace that makes it more interesting as it moves on.  I can’t say I had many, if any complaints about this movie.  I doubt any of you haven’t had the chance to see this, and with the sequel out now, you really have no reason to have not seen it.

I will say this, after some careful consideration, it dawns on me why I am so gobsmacked by these Marvel movies.  When I was a kid, I read X-men, Spiderman and Batman comics.  When I watch the movies, I find myself frustrated by the constant changes being made to the stories.  With these movies, I come in fresh.  I have never read any of the comics related to any of these characters and each story feels fresh and new because it is.

Movie Review: Thor: The Dark World

I had the rare treat of leaving work early yesterday to attend the AMC event where the original Thor movie, the Avengers movie that came out last year and the new Thor movie were played back-to-back.  The effect of such a marathon, while tiring, helps keep the stories continuous and doesn’t overwork your brain to remember something from a movie you saw over two years ago.

In Thor: The Dark World, the movie picks up much as the original did, citing a hidden threat that is reignited by a cosmic alliance that happens once every five thousand years.  The story moves back through time to the present, showing our astrophysicist Jane Foster looking for Thor and finding something dark instead.  The entity becomes a part of her and only those seeking the power are the ones that can remove it from her.  Thor comes down to earth, seeing Jane in peril and takes her back to Asgard, which is then attacked by these same beings.

The story continues on at a rapid pace, introducing old characters, giving them more depth than seen in previous movies.  The relationship between Thor and Jane is the central piece of the story and while it is compelling at times by great acting from the two leads, it also felt inauthentic at times.  I didn’t believe that Thor would really sacrifice his life for Jane, nor the other way around.  I did enjoy the very unpredictable appearance of Chris Evans.  I do love that Marvel and Disney are going to great lengths to keep the continuity up in all the movies.  The trailer for the next Captain America movie also appeared before this one.

Overall, this was a fun action, adventure movie, but the staying power of the story didn’t hold and I had forgotten about it as soon as I went to bed.  It was well worth seeing in 3D, though.

Movie Review: The Avengers

As I mentioned in my last blog, I went to see this Sunday, but it was sold out, so my friend and I were like, ‘let’s see it in the middle of the week, it’ll be empty.’  Well, we were wrong.  The theatre was packed, and apparently AMC was caught unawares as well, because they were woefully understaffed.

If you haven’t seen the various Marvel movies over the last few years, the Avengers builds off of them, joining Iron Man, Thor and Captain America with the supporting cast that had been introduced previously.  In this movie, the main villain is Loki, Thor’s foster brother.  While I can’t say the story was utterly original, it was still done on a large scale and written and directed by the indomitable Joss Whedon.  And that is the main point I need to make about this movie.  Being a long time Buffy fan, I know all too well how amazing and talented Joss Whedon is a storyteller, and even his worst episodes of Buffy, Angel, Firefly or Dollhouse were still leaps and bounds above other shows.  It is only Lost that I can ever compare to a Joss Whedon franchise.

In assembling the Avengers, Joss Whedon brings together a star cast that works at every level.  Even though each character may not get the same level of attention, each actor brings the character to life.  The story opens around Nick Fury, the director of SHIELD who has his greatest weapon stolen by Loki, subsequently; he must assemble the various members of the Avengers.  The group assemble, and after much arguing and epic battles, decide to work together to stop the common enemy.

The story isn’t what is packing the theatre, and it isn’t the special effects either, it is the acting and directing.  While children will come in droves to the theatre to see superheroes, adults can come and enjoy the double-speak and hidden meanings to story.  Whedon is known for adding hidden gems and is the fanboy that we all dream about making the comics we grew up with.  The only way this movie could have been better is if Kevin Smith (who wrote for the Green Arrow at one point) had been involved.  The level of fanboy-ism is directly related to the level of success of a franchise movie.  While I respect Christopher Nolan, even the Batman movies can’t rival the Avengers.

I know this review wasn’t really much of a review, but given the box office numbers this movie has, I’m betting you’ve already seen this movie at least once.  Avengers starts the summer movie season off with a bang and I can’t imagine any movie surpassing it this summer.