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: Captain America: Civil War

While I saw this movie almost two weeks ago, this is the first time I’ve had to sit down at a computer for an extended period of time to write down my thoughts, however scattered they are at this point. If you’ve seen one super hero movie, you’ve really seen them all. Having said that, for about 2.5 hours, this was a decent use of time and money. There’s no way to have a story without conflict and the movie opens with a ridiculous fight sequence, picking up where the last Avengers movie left off. And just as happened in all the other movie, civilians get in the way, get hurt and sometimes it is unavoidable. Not so, says the government, who come in to dictate to the Avengers that they can’t run amok without supervision, a committee or something of the like. The group fractures and wackiness ensues.

The plot is hardly surprising. The ending is fairly expected. I did read a comment online stating that the costs should have been greater for the team, but I’m not sure which character would have been eliminated. Given the tenor of the world right now, unless it had been one of the two main characters, I don’t think people would have been satisfied. That didn’t happen and at the end of the day, the movie almost felt like a waste.

What I love and hate about the Marvel universe is that the scope of it has no bounds. The entire series is tied together and everyone is working towards a common goal. At the same time, it starts to feel overburdened and directionless. The same things keep happening and people continue to watch without pause. But should we pause? What is Captain America really doing? Is he not a vigilante? Sure, you could argue he was searching for the truth, but to do so with no boundaries, and near limitless power, means he is unstoppable. This is the cue that Robert Downey Jr.’s Iron Man came in, trying to find a middle ground. I thought it interesting that the flamboyant playboy was the voice of reason and Captain America was the one that refused to compromise.

The whole movie seemed weighted, a production that was bigger than the screen that could hold it. At each turn there were yet more heroes and more obstacles for them to overcome. When the super hero movies first started out, Batman would be opposing two bad guys. Then Batman got Robin and they’d play against more villains. It seems that Disney has forgotten how this turned out (lest we forget Batman and Robin) and we’re doomed to repeat it. I appreciate the entertaining quality to these movies, but my expectations are going to continue to lower as each new movie preens onto the screen.

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.