The MCU in movies and TV — Iron Man, Thor, Captain America, Avengers, Guardians of the Galaxy, Agents of SHIELD, etc.
Yeah, I'm seriously there for this. #ddtb
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Marvel's The Avengers – Movie Trailers – iTunes
Marvel Studios presents in association with Paramount Pictures "Marvel's The Avengers"–the Super Hero team up of a lifetime, featuring iconic Marvel Super Heroes Iron Man, The Incredible Hulk, Thor, …
Though I seriously jonesed to see it in the theaters, I never quite managed it (it’s been a busy year), and while I’ve had it on Blu-Ray for multiple weeks, it was only last night that I actually managed to wrangle the family into watching Captain America: The First Avenger.
I. Am. Impressed.
In terms of canon, Captain America plays fast and loose with any number of pieces — Bucky, the Red Skull, Hydra, the Howling Commandos, Howard Stark, the Cosmic Cube, the final fates of Cap and his sidekick, etc. and so on. Unlike so many other “comic book movies” (or book adaptations into film), though, the changes that are made form a new organic whole. It all holds together, it all makes sense, it simply works … at least as well as seventy-odd years of comic book continuity does.
(The only false note, as far as I was concerned watching through it, was Bucky’s fate — which simply seemed forced, in timing, by the plot.)
The other elements of the film — the actors, the action, the FX, the costumes, the fight scenes, the sentiment and flavor — all gelled beautifully. It’s not Oscar material, but it’s Grade AAA Pulp, and that’s just what I want from a Captain America movie.
Chris Evans does a great job making the role of Steve Rogers (old and new) and Captain America his. He’s earnest almost, but not quite, to the point of Boy Scoutishness, but steps away from that line to make the character decently real. Hugo Weaving similarly steps back from chewing the scenery too badly as the Red Skull (“Welcome to Nazi Germany, Captain Rogers!”) to create a character who’s lovingly menacing.
Hayley Atwell (Peggy Carter) is suitably lethal yet romantic, Tommy Lee Jones (Colonel Phillips) is emphatically Tommy Lee Jones-like, Sebastian Stan (Bucky Barnes) is nicely cocky and gung-ho, Stanley Tucci (Prof. Erskine) is remarkably human … and all the other supporting characters do their job professionally (if, perforce, sketchily).
And not only do the production folks manage to make the shield work (metal, rubber, and CG alike), but they make the costume(s) work, too. A nice challenge, and hats off to their success.
There’s sort of a competition out there as to “which is the greatest comic book hero movie of all time.” I’m pleased that the field is getting large enough to start making that competition difficult, but, bottom line, Captain America: The First Avenger is definitely a contender.
(Speaking of which, we rewatched Thor tonight. And it’s certainly in the Top 5 as well.)
With Margie out of town on business, we’ve been having Father/Daughter Movie Nights. Which let us get a bit caught up with some of this year’s super-hero flicks.
It’s not easy being the under-appreciated son of Odin. Especially when your brother — who you really do love dearly (or tell yourself you do) — is such an arrogant oaf, easily tricked by your mischievous jokes and clever manipulation. It’s far worse when your father decides your brother’s the one who deserves the throne, even when he manifestly doesn’t. And it’s even worse than that when you discover you’ve been lied to all these years.
So when you get your chance (not intentionally, but opportunisitically) to put things right — well, it’s probably going to lead to some major drama.
Thor is really about Loki (Tom Hiddleston), in a lot of ways (even moreso when you watch the “deleted scenes”), who is far less the “Prince of Evil” in the comics than a guy who makes some bad decisions for reasons that are a mixture of noble and venal. He’s just out to protect Asgard (esp. from his arrogant ass of a brother), and prove to his dad that he’s strong enough to be his heir.
Which, in some ways, is where Thor starts the film, as the Ultimate Jock of the Gods, grinning and charismatic and a true hero — when he’s not letting his confidence and his passions get in the way.
The main arc of the film is, of course, Thor learning his necessary lessons of humility, courtesy, and compassion, with the help of a fun family of human astro-physicists in a little New Mexico town; his Asgardian comrades the Warriors Three + Sif; and despite the best efforts of SHIELD to figure out what’s going on with the strange hammer embedded the desert …
Oh, yeah, the Destroyer pops in for a nice knock-down-the-town, drag-out-the-plotline appearance.
For comic book fans, there’s some triffic stuff here. The sets, the costumes, the FX are all Aesiriffic. Thor flying through the air is great, Thor throwing his hammer is great, the Warriors Three are great character bits, the Destroyer is appropriately ravening, the crazy Kirbyesque sci-fi Norse world is crazy, Thor’s cape is billowy, the Rainbow Bridge is lovely, Odin (Anthony Hopkins) is All-Fatherly (if sometimes a bit of a softy), Heimdall (Idris Elba) is ominous …
Fun, fun, fun.
Appropriate, perhaps, for comic books, the biggest problem is with the women. Sif (Jamie Alexander) is a cypher — she presumably has the hots for Thor, but barely shows it. Jane Foster (Natalie Portman), now promoted from nurse to amateur astrophysicist, is plenty passionate, but her role doesn’t give her a lot of opportunities to do much besides yell at SHIELD agents (including Iron Man‘s Agent Coulson, Clark Gregg) and moon after Thor (which I guess is twice as much as the original comic book character did).
And then there’s Frigga (Rene Russo), Odin’s wife and Thor’s mom. Who is almost a non-presence in the comics, but here gets at least as much screen time and as many lines as Odin. It feels … odd.
Chris Hemsworth does Thor, and he does the job admirably early on. Heck, all of his appearances are just fine. If there’s a problem, it’s that his arc of redemption — going from bloodthirsty home team jock to noble, humble, self-sacrificing hero — feels way too short. It’s a good, classic tale, but it takes too little time and — except for one majorly traumatic moment — feels forced for time.
One of the minor controversies of the film was the casting of Idris Elba as Heimdall. I mean, Norse Gods, right? We’ll leave aside Grim Hogun (whose ethnicity has always been a bit cloudy — I thought if him more as Finnish, but Tadanobu Asano does okay). It’s sort of a reverse racebending charge … but it works just fine here. Heimdall stands apart, with unique talents and abilities and he looks just fine.
Odin being so gung-ho for peace was a different take on the character.
Kenneth Branagh’s direction is good, if not great. This isn’t Shakespeare, after all, but he still instills appropriate fun and drama. The writing is as smooth as can be expected with three screenwriters and two storywriters (one of whom was Joe Straczynski). The deleted scenes on the Blu-Ray include some good character-fleshing-out bits (that are missed), and some miscellaneous bits that certainly were properly edited out.
The movie also serves as a nice lead-in (including an after-the-credits bonus scene) to Joss Whedon’s upcoming Avengers movie (complete with another Avenger-to-be cameo).
Overall good stuff. And a movie I’ll watch again.
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(Minimal spoilers below, but the consider the comment section unfettered.)
Let me start off clearly: this is a fun — if sometimes vaguely disturbing — movie. I’m glad I went to see it in the theater. I’m glad it was made. There’s some good acting, and the whole concept (aliens have landed in the Old West, and cowboys — and maybe some Indians — need to fight them to survive) is a lot of fun.
Now for the downsides. Of which there are many, though, bear in mind, I overall enjoyed myself.
This movie tries to do too much. There are way too many subplots, multiple romances, multiple stories being told. You have Daniel Craig as the (initially) Man with No Name, who wakes up in the desert with some alien tech locked to his wrist, who has to discover his past, find love, and seek redemption. You could do a whole movie just about him.
But wait, we also have Harrison Ford, arrogant cattle baron who lords over the local dying town the aliens are attacking, dealing with his Civil War past and a deeply disappointing son. You could do a whole movie just about him.
But wait, we also have Sam Rockwell, small town doctor and saloon keeper, worried about his wife and his dreams and how he’s disrespected. You could do a whole movie just about him.
But wait, we also have a kid who’s trying to grow to a man, a sherriff who’s trying to look after his grandson, a woman seeking vengeance on her kinfolk’s killers, a …
Well, you get the idea. There’s way too much focus on too many people here, meaning you end up shortchanging all of them. Any character you choose to root for will be underused. Any story you’re interested will be cut short.
What makes it worse is that everyone really does a pretty good job of it, Craig and Ford in particular. When they’re on screen, you want them to stay there, and when things shift away it’s irksome. Heck, it would be fun to watch a movie about the two of them and their relationship, but even there we’re disappointed.
There are a lot of other niggling problems. The movie can’t decide on a tone. There are some the cowboy elements, obviously, munged against typical bug-hunt Aliens-style action, not to mention some slapstick comedy, but occasional psychological darkness and even horror, and then occasional socially relevant review of White/Indian relations (and the unspoken, gratefully, comparison between Whites/Indians and how the aliens themselves relate to humans).
There’s also way too much action that happens, not because it makes sense but because we either need to ratchet up the action or drag the action out. The alien behavior makes no sense, and the weaknesses it’s suggested they have are ignored by their subsequent behavior. Even their basic power level varied depending on the scene’s needs — sometimes they can stand up to a hail of bullets or arrows, other times they are conveniently dispatched by one hit. (I’m also not convinced how they would fit in to the little scout ships we see pretty close-up). We’ll leave aside the question of what sort of “studying” they are doing about the humans, and why they continue to seek more samples when they seem to still have plenty available (except, of course, to ratchet up the action once again). And, of course, the aliens are stupid and (we’re told) underestimate the danger that the humans present — except that they’ve had plenty of evidence of it already, and appear to have the necessary tech to deal with the problem with no danger to themselves.
The SFX are decent — the aliens interact seamlessly with the real action. There are no show-stopping bits, but lots of nice smaller touches. The music and overall production are solid, though not spectacular.
There’s some decent talent behind this movie — Jon Favreau, the director, had success with the first two Iron Man movies (Robert Downey, Jr. was originally tapped in the Daniel Craig role, which would have made this a very different film). Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman, who lead up the writing team (though, ominously, there are many other names there, which may be part of the problem) have done writing and production work on Hawaii Five-O, Fringe, and Alias. Craig and Ford are both good actors, as noted, and they and the rest of the cast do a good job with what they have. We even have (as Margie notes) some character development as we go along — people changing and growing and ending up in a different place than when they started.
For some reason, though, it just doesn’t hold together, and the rickety plot in all its different tones and colors, shudders and clanks its way over the finish line. It remains fun for its individual pieces but as a whole, the more you look at it, the worse it looks.
Disappointing. Fun, enjoyable (as long as I remember the parts and don’t think too much about the whole), but not something I feel the need to see again any time soon (or to buy the DVD of).
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Okay, this trailer for the new Captain America flick is looking pretty darned good.
[UPDATE: Silly autoplaying trailer is silly. Go here.]
Yeah, I’m feeling excited. Not overwhelmingly so, but I plan on seeing the film.
New trailer for the Thor movie. Sweet!
Okay, not sure about the big rock soundtrack. And Odin just doesn’t sound Odinesque. But … still … cool …
Margie was out of town this week on business, so Katherine and I set up a nightly film schedule. Well, in actuality, she pulled out six movies, I putted out eight, and then another five or six shorter features, and she looked around in the cabinet and … we ended up figuring out each night what it would be.
I don’t know what the selection says about us, but …
DAY 1
Sherlock Holmes (2009): We actually watched this earlier in the day. It remains a strangely fun, dysfunctional flick, where you don’t know if you want to admire Holmes, slap him, or feel sorry for him. Which, in most modern renditions of the character, means it was a succcess.
The idea of Holmes thinking so far ahead in a a physical battle that he charts out each move — and then showing them — is very nicely done. (Katherine liked that bit.)
And Robert Downey, Jr., is always fun. Good music from Hans Zimmer, too.
Katherine liked how Holmes confronted the villain at the end. She thought it was a lot like the ultimate scene between Westley and Humperdink in The Princess Bride.
Fellowship of the Ring (2001): This remains terribly impressive and, aside from the excision of Tom Bombadil and the Barrow-Downs, is the most “faithful” of the Jackson adaptation of Tolkien.
All the characters are good, and Gimli is at his least buffoonish. After some initial smiles, I found myself wearying faster than usual at Elijah Woods’ pained/tragic expression. McKellan and Lee make such fabulous Gandalf and Saruman renditions, it’s hard to say who could ever supplant them.
The real gem in the rough here is Sean Bean as Boromir, who takes a rather stiff foil to Aragorn and invests him with a passion not only for his city, but for his comrades. Notably, he shows more compassion and attachment to the Hobbits than Aragorn does. The preying of the One Ring upon his heart and doubts, thus, becomes all the more tragic. His final speech to Aragorn is a bit over the top, but Bean still manages to pull it off.
Katherine enjoyed how the Hobbits snuck into the Council of Elrond. She also liked how Legolas stood up for Aragorn at the Council, and how the Fellowship comes together.
DAY 2
Young Sherlock Holmes (1985): This has long been on my list for K to see, and afer getting over some of the dissimilarities of the characters, she did fine. The movie’s FX really holds up quite well after a quarter century (!), stop motion and (ground-breaking) CGI both. The movie’s triffic fun, and I’m glad we watched it.
Katherine thought it was fun, since we know about what the characters become later. She thought the difference between Watson here and Watson in the movie above was so different. She also liked the color-of-the-bear riddle.
Batman/Superman: Public Enemies (2009): Faithful adaptation (for good and for ill) of the comic series. GGood use of “traditional” Animated DCU voices, even if the animation style is (faithfully) a bit odd. Not a huge rewatch factor, but it’s always good to see Supes and Bats working together, esp. against waves of bad guys (and good guys). (Katherine liked that factor, too.)
DAY 3
The Mummy (1999): This just one of those massively fun adventure movies, one that doesn’t take itself too seriously but with enough occasional bits where seriousness is the order of the day to keep it from being a slapstick romp. The (also somewhat groundbreaking for the time) FX remain strong, and the movie has a high percentage of lines that are repeated around our household.
This film gets regular replay in this household, and I have no problem with that. I’ll even go so far as to say (gasp) I enjoy it more than its spiritual forebearer, Raiders of the Lost Ark.
Kay still thinks it’s creepy, but fun at the same time. Especially Benny.
DAY 4
Charlie’s Angels (2000): Okay, so the “fun action flicks” played a large percentage of the screens during this film series, and this one falls into that category. Katherine hadn’t seen it before, but I thought the Girl Power aspect would entertain her, and I was right. She liked bits and bobs of all the characters, and, without taking it too seriously, I’d agree that there would be far worse role models out there, at least in a cartoonish sense.
The movie not only does well on its own, but it plays on the TV show nicely, with the opening montage, the whole girls / Bosley / Charlie relationship, etc. In fact, unlike most remakes from TV shows (a genre it, itself, lampoons early on), this one refreshingly doesn’t run away from its roots, but considers itself near-continuity. That’s nice.
Katherine liked all the backstories. And The Chad.
Hulk Vs. (2009): This consists of two half-hour unrelated (save by production house, and some voice artist) slug-fests between Hulk & Thor, and Hulk & Wolverine. Both are not-too-bad intros to the continuity of both guest stars (the Hulk’s continuity is mostly assumed — Banner-anger-Hulk-rest-Banner-wandering). Which means that not only do we get Thor, but also the Warriors Three, Balder, Sif, Hela, Loki (who is appropriately hoist on his own petard twice), the Enchantress, the Executioner, Odin, the Odinsleep … Really, not at all badly done.
The Wolverine segments gets into the whole Weapon X program, Wolvie’s origins, and various erstwhile allies involved — Deadpool, Sabretooth, Deathshrike, Omega Red. I’ve never been as fond of all that continuity folderol, but we enjoyed Deadpool at least.
Interestingly enough, the Thor tale paints Banner in a much more human, sympathetic light. In the Wolvie tale, Banner plays little time on-screen, and is mostly a sniveling whiner.
Katherine thought it was a different Wolverine than she was used to, and liked the in media res at the beginning of the Wolverine segment. She likes Hulk’s nicknames for people. She had fun in the Thor segment trying to map the Norse gods to the Greco-Roman ones she’s more familiar with.
DAY 5
Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (2002): We were pretty disengaged on this one. Kay wanted to continue her documentation of spells cast in the HP films (yes, I know there are online lists of them … ssshhh, it’s geeky research!), and I’m burned out on HP given the number of times the films have been watched here in the last six months.
Not much more to say about it, except that it’s neither the best nor the worst HP film, I like Moaning Myrtle, and I’m glad we haven’t seen much more of Dobby since then.
Katherine maintains she doesn’t watch it much because, despite how hilarious Lockhart is and how much she likes Dobby, she just dislikes the basilisk.
DAY 6
The Ten Commandments (1956)
I grew up with this movie playing every Easter on network TV. For whatever reason, I’d forgotten over the years how over-the-top patriotic it’s all about. Cecil B. DeMille very explicitly (he says so himself in the introductory passage) frames the story of Moses as one not just of freedom by faith from slavery in a foreign land, but as the foundation for freedom in the modern age. Given that the Israelites effectively (in the story) abandon one yoke (that of physical slavery to the Egyptians) for another (that of cultural slavery to “I AM”), it’s an odd concept; put another way, one would not consider the land of Israel to be an exemplar of American-style democracy and freedom.
That said, the movie does, in addition to some still-spectacular SFX (“cheesy, but awesome,” quoth Kay) and faboo music from Elmer Bernstein, raise some interesting questions of cultural and personal identity, doing what is right vs. what is convenient, and working within vs. outside of an illegitimate system to change it. For all that Heston’s Moses eventually becomes a cliche as the movie progresses, the earlier, relatively more human story allows for some of these questions to arise. His decision to take on his Hebrew identity and fight against his adopted culture (and father figure) is perhaps divinely ordained, but you can almost see the argument that Moses could have done better by becoming Pharaoh and striving to better all the people’s lives through his wise rule. Would have been a lot less bloody than killing all the Firstborn of Egypt (a very creepy scene, and one that makes Passover a lot more like Halloween than one would think).
I’d forgotten how compacted and simplified the action becomes after we leave the Egyptian soap opera. Bang! Mt Sinai! Bang! Golden Calf! Bang! Moses dies before entering the Promised Land! The closer we get to Scripture, the more reverence the movie has for the orthodox line, which makes it more a series of Biblical vignettes than a story.
The movie has a cast of zillions. The other ones most worth mentioning are Cedric Hardwick as the beneficent autocrat, Seti; Yul Brynner as the prideful Rameses; and Edward G. Robinsn as the vile straw boss, Dathan.
Katherine liked it, especially that it had an Intermission / Entr’acte, with special orchestral segments at the beginning, middle, and end of the film. She also thought Moses’ hair changes were interesting.
WRAP-UP
“I want to watch them all again,” Katherine says. “It was all-around good.” And something she didn’t mind doing with her dear, old Dad. Huzzah.
An ostensibly leaked and “may be taken down at any time” lengthy trailer/preview from the Comic-Con of the Thor movie. Hmmmmm … okay, I’m in.
We have pretty much the whole Thor mythos here — Odin, Loki, the Warriors Three, Sif, arrogant young Thor getting banished — combined with the setup at the end of Iron Man 2. There doesn’t seem to be any Don Blake, but maybe they thought that smacked too much of Banner/Hulk.
Good stuff. And … THE DESTROYER! Spiffy!
(via Topless Robot)
I’m not going to go into as much detail on IM2 as I have on other movies, largely because there’s not as much to say.
Short review: not as good as the first, but not a bad flick at all.
Spoilers (for those waiting for the home release) below the break …
The Iron Man trailer from the Academy Awards (for those of you who, like me, didn’t watch it):
Some very cool stuff going on here, building on (but not scavenging from) the original film. Looking forward to it.
All sorts of fun on Twitter today about the Disney acquisition of Marvel. A variety of folks weighed in with various mash-ups (mostly tagged with #disneymarvel and #disneymarvelcrossovers — the following is a small sample, and several of the ideas below were independently arrived at by other people as well).
theblairbutler: Escape from Scarlet Witch Mountain. Song of the South Coast Avengers. Lady Bullseye and the Tramp.
jimmyjaquino: Honey, I Blew Up the Rawhide Kid
the_afterlight: “Who is the monster and who is the man?” sing the bells of Xavier’s School for Gifted Youth!
Earth_2_Comics: Finding Zemo
DanxMcGowan: Pirates of the Caribbean : Iron Man’s Chest.
theblairbutler: The Nutty Professor X.
Grimloche: Snow White Queen and the 7 X-Men
Grimloche: Finding Namor
khaosworks: “Behold… MODUCK!”
chrisu: After lots of Disney/Marvel jokes, I still think @mattraub’s “Herb-E”, “Deadpooh” and “Finding Namor” are the best so far.
Polisurgist: Don’t forget the one they’ll keep under wraps: Song of the Skrulls
k: Other ideas: Mick Fury, Lilo and Snikt.
scrubninja: “Dances with Wolverine”
braingoblin: Honey, I transported the kids to the Negative Zone
Unmature: That’s So Kraven
openczun: Since Disney owns ABC, how about “Jean Grey’s Anatomy”…. hmmm
onimonkii: Beauty and Beast. That would actually work, Belle and Hank seem like a great pair.
MackReed: This is probably the best of all (from my friend Sam Whedon): Spider Pan
SeattleOtaku: Escape to Wundagore Mountain, Wasp the Love Bug, and She-Hulk Origins: The Green D.A.
Positron_CoH: High School Musical 4: Xavier’s School for Gifted Youngsters.
Brian Bendis weighed in.
BRIANMBENDIS: bravo to @BrianReed for: “Face it Tigger, you just hit the jackpot!” now everyone can stop.
BRIANMBENDIS: no, i did not kill the wasp to make way for tinkerbell. but she would be a kick ass avenger
BRIANMBENDIS: RT @shurwitt: I’m looking forward to the @BRIANMBENDIS “House of Mouse” series. (Wanda: “No more ducks.”)
BRIANMBENDIS: THIS MAN, THIS HEFALUMP
BRIANMBENDIS: congrats to bambi’s mother on joining the cast of marvel zombies
And of course, there was Warren Ellis’ contribution:
warrenellis: Hm. Have been instructed to make Bambi a member of the X-Men.
warrenellis: I’m sure my new corporate overlords will enjoy the forthcoming graphic novel ASTONISHING X-MEN: DOE-EYED MEAT GEYSER.
And for my own contribution?
Good night, everybody!
I had to check my calendar to make sure it wasn’t April Fools when the news of The Walt Disney Company’s latest acquisition rolled across my screen. Disney is now the proud owner of Marvel Entertainment at a cost of a cool $4 billion. That quickly adds 5000 new characters to Disney’s cast including some of the most famous and hot properties in the market today – Iron Man, Spiderman, Thor, Captain America, and the X-men.
With Stan Lee, the creator of much of Marvel’s super hero cast, working closely with Disney for about a year now. I guess he’s had plenty of time to sow Bob Iger’s ear with how valuable a product this would be for Disney. At $4 Billion it is practically a steal compared to Pixar and Pixar has turned out to be a good buy for the Mouse House. Frankly, many analysts wondered why Disney just didn’t acquire Marvel at the same time it acquired Lee’s POW entertainment. No sense making up new superheroes when those with strong existing brands are there for the taking. Plus this might put Stan Lee back in a position of power at Marvel, which is where he belongs.
I’m …
Hrmph.
Okay, I’m just not sure there’s a fit here, content-wise, except in an at-arm’s-length Touchstone sort of way. I really cannot imagine any of the Marvel properties showing up at the Disney resorts, for example (though it makes for some interesting thoughts regarding some Marvel properties at Universal Studios in Orlando). I don’t see any cross-overs in Marvel comics with Disney characters, either. The two worlds are just too jarring.
On the other hand, it gives Disney an entree into the comics world that is unmatched by anyone but Warner Brothers, with the potential to get some of their material out under a Marvel label rather than a number of independents. Ditto their new access to some valuable movie franchise possibilities. And it gives Marvel some deep pockets in that regard, too, as well as a owner that’s not simply out to strip it like a West Virginia mountaintop. And there’s the whole ABC thing …
It’s going to be a very interesting ride to watch.
