Avengers: Infinity War (2018)

Avengers: Infinity War (2018)

Directors: Anthony Russo ad Joe Russo

Cast: Robert Downey Jr., Josh Brolin, Chris Evans, Chris Pratt, Chris Hemsworth, Mark Ruffalo, Scarlett Johansson, Don Cheadle, Benedict Chumberbach, Tom Holland, Chadwick Boseman, Zoe Saldaña, Karen Gillan, Tom Hiddleston, Paul Bethany, Elizabeth Olsen, Anthony Mackie, Sebastian Stan, Idris Elba, Peter Dinklage, Dave Bautista, Samuel L. Jackson, Benicio del Toro

We’d been waiting for this one for a long time. In fact, this film starts the culmination of a story line that started way back in Captain America: The First Avenger (2011), the one in which we first came in contact with one of the Infinity Gems. The thing with this story though is that I fear that anyone who hasn’t been following the Marvel movies will feel a little lost. I mean “a little” because the movie does do a good job of summarizing things a bit for those who are just now being introduced to this universe, but still even then, my advice is to catch up with previous Marvel movies before this one. That way you’ll get the full effect. But those of you who have been feverishly following these movies should have a mega blast with this one. This is the end all be all of Marvel movies, well, at least till the next one. So, how was it? Did Avengers Infinity War deliver?

Thanos the megalomaniacal madman who has been looking for the Infinity Gems has tightened his search and wants those stones sooner rather than later. So he finally comes to earth where a couple of the gems reside. Once he acquires all six gems, they will turn Thanos into an all powerful godlike being. Sadly, Thanos’ idea of making a better universe is killing half of the population to make things more manageable. Will he achieve it even when the earths mightiest heroes are all against him? Can the Avengers take Thanos and live to tell the tale?

 The political implications of the story were amazing in my book. This is certainly a story for our times. Let’s see, a megalomaniacal madman with a twisted view of life is about to become the all-powerful ruler of the universe. Everyone dreads that he will actually achieve it…hmm, sounds like a power hungry madman we all know and hate don’t it? Not saying any names but you can read between the lines. *cough* Trump *cough* So yeah, parallels to our reality are there. If you can read between the lines of socio political events, the formula to force society into bringing down the population has been in effect for a while now. Governments think we’ve gotten too big for our own good, so they’ve forced the working class (read poor people) into a nearly impossible economical climate. By making life so expensive that having kids or owning a home will become a nearly impossible ordeal. It’s all masqueraded by a “crisis” of some sort, but the ultimate goal is to make everyone think about it twice before having kids. I love that Disney had the guts to say this with Infinity War, a film that everybody and their mother will see. It’s a message that’s hard to deny. And you guys know me, I love movies that are a mirror to society.

 But aside from political interpretations, the movie is fun from a superhero perspective. We have awesome superhero fights right from the get go. Five minutes into the movie it’s big guys kicking each others asses. There’s a major brawl that takes place in New York which is just wowzers. I mean, in terms of superhero action, with these gods going at each other in full force, the film does not disappoint. And it really couldn’t disappoint in that department because that’s what the Infinity Gauntlet storyline was about from the very beginning, every single superhero vs. Thanos, the all powerful godlike madman.

 I remember when I read this story way back in 1988 when it was first printed by Marvel Comics. It was an event comic book that every comic book geek had to have. And why? Because you wanted to know which hero was going to end up beating Thanos and if not, you wanted to know who was going to fail and how. Also, the big question of “who is going to die?” loomed heavy in all comic book geeks, the same way it is looming on everyone’s heads with this film today. That comic book series was a big deal amongst comic book fans back in the day and it still is one of the best comic book storylines I’ve read in my life. Highly recommend you check it out at some point. And I’m talking about the one drawn by George Perez and written by Jim Starlin, that’s the definitive version, the first and best version of the Infinity Gauntlet storyline if you ask me. There’s a couple of homages to that first Infinity Gauntlet story line in the film that fans will enjoy. The film is not an exact adaptation of that story, because that original series was solely about the fight. It took place in a planet in space with every character getting a chance at Thanos…and failing. It lasted six issues and spawned a whole slew of other books like Infinity Watch and Infinity War. But the film does do a good job of getting the gist of the entire concept and idea behind these old comics. The idea of a madman becoming all powerful.  

It doesn't get more epic then pulling down a moon to knock out your opponent.

So yeah, the film will please. It’s not as epic as the comics were because the comic book storyline included The X-Men, The Fantastic Four and Silver Surfer in the mix, but sadly these characters were left out of this movie for obvious reasons. Though now that Disney bought Fox…we might see these heroes pop up in the next film? I am hoping we will, because that will make the next film even more of a must watch! Can you imagine the X-Men, The Fantastic Four and The Silver Surfer joining the fight!? Holy moly will that movie be epic! All things considered Avengers: Infinity War will be one of the biggest money makers ever, well, at least that’s my prediction. It will certainly be a hard film to top! It’s satisfying in many ways, even on the dramatic side. I was disappointed in only two ways, Nick Fury was left out of the main action (I mean, he basically runs the Avengers) and also for some reason Ant-Man was not seen. Why leave him out? Where was he? Obviously, leaving out Ant-Man has something to do with the upcoming Ant-Man sequel, bu he was missed. I did love how they really fleshed out Thanos and let us know where he is coming from as a villain. He’s not just a cartoon character looking to destroy everything *cough* Justice League *cough*. They made Thanos a believable villain and an outstanding one at that. The heroes really have their hands full this time. Be ready because the film does end with a somber note…and you will definitely want to see how it all ends in the next film. Stay after all the credits for the extra ending!

Rating: 5 out of 5

Captain America: Civil War (2016)

Captain America: Civil War (2016)

Directors: Anthony & Joe Russo

Cast: Chris Evans, Robert Downey Jr., Scarlett Johansson, Sebastian Stan, Anthony Mackie, Don Cheadle, Jeremy Renner, Chadwick Boseman, Paul Bettany, Elizabeth Olsen, Paul Rudd, Tom Holland, Marisa Tomei, Daniel Bruhl

I finally got to watch Captain America: Civil War, one of the most anticipated films of the year and it was quite noticeable that audiences were salivating to see this one, how much? Well, my plan was to see this one on an early screening, during the morning, on a weekday, you know to avoid the crowd. I got there early but to my surprise the first show was sold out! I started to realize that maybe I had underestimated this movie, so I decided I’d better buy tickets for the next show. The thing is this was a weekday, a school day and yet, there was a huge line to buy tickets and it was mostly kids on the line. Kids who were supposed to be in school I might add! My take on it was that Captain America: Civil War was way more important on their list than the math test they had that day. So yeah, looks like everyone and their mother wanted to see this one, which says a lot about the kind of money this movie is going to make once everything is said and done. On this screening of the film people were audibly excited, clapping when Black Panther and Spider Man first appeared, and yelling stuff like “no that movie didn’t just finish there!” Don’t know about you guys but I love watching a movie with a giddy audience. But, excitement aside how was this third Captain America movie?

Well, this time around, same as in a lot of recent comic book movies, the heroes are seen as the villains because they’ve caused so much death and destruction while ‘saving the world’. The government wants to bring in Captain America and his team of sympathizers in order to keep them under control and used whenever they see fit. But Captain America will have none of that. On the other hand, we have Iron Man, who sympathizes with the government and thinks they are right, heroes are out of control and need to be kept in check. Who’s right and who’s wrong? Of course this all leads up to the big battle, which is just as cool as you’d expect it to be.

This story line was recently played out in Batman vs.Superman: Dawn of Justice (2016), a film in which the world starts seeing Superman as more of a threat than a savior. And same as in that one, the government wants to exert some sort of control over the super powered individuals. This similarity in plot lines and themes doesn’t surprise me because Hollywood has always fed on each other when ever a new idea pops up. When a new idea is hot, the 'modus operandi' is each studio will put out their own version of it, at the end of the day, what matters is how well they played out their version of the idea. Superman vs. Batman had flaws but I managed to enjoy it. You do get the feeling they could’ve gone further with the whole government trying to control superman thing. Instead, that film focused more on Superman fighting Doomsday and left the whole government after Superman story floating in the air. In retrospect, it does seem like Batman vs. Superman:Dawn of Justice (2016) should have stuck to one story line, maybe it might have had the cohesiveness that this film has, you see Captain America: Civil War stays with its proposed plot line and plays it out well, without introducing a new sub plot every five minutes. 

An example of this cohesiveness is the fact that they didn’t really go into the whole Infinity Gems/Thanos plot line that will be played out in the upcoming Avengers: Infinity War films. They’ve been leaving little hints in other movies, and could have easily added something about that film on this one. Instead, there’s not much about the upcoming Infinity Gauntlet story line except for The Vision talking a bit about the yellow Infinity Gem that’s on his forehead. Other than that, this film is solely about Team Captain America, the group of heroes who want to be in control of their actions and Team Iron Man, the heroes who think it’s best to be a government lap dog. Who will win? Freedom or subjugation? Will superheroes be subdued?

The thing about this Captain America movie is that, it feels more like an Avengers film than a Captain America movie, I mean, look at the credits! This is one gigantic cast! Everyone gets their time on screen, but like I said, there's so many characters on this movie that we sort of lose focus on the main guy, Captain America. That’s really the only flaw I could find on this otherwise perfect comic book film. The action sequences are spectacular, loved that chase down the highway, where the heroes are running faster than the cars themselves, that was a novel approach to a chase sequence. The entire airport fight sequence was like, wow, gigantic in nature and had some unexpected twists and turns. Then of course we get the Black Panther and Spiderman intros, both of which got claps from the audience of mega geeks I saw the film with. I must say, Black Panther was so well introduced, it definitely feels like he could get his own movie, same with Spiderman, who’s portrayal was one of the moments that everyone was expecting the most here. I gotta say I loved this new Spiderman. He comes off as an inexperienced kid learning to be a hero. He doesn’t look like an adult trying to play a teenager, he is a teenager, he talks like a teenager and that’s how it should be. Loved the father son relationship that’s building up between Iron Man and Spidey, that was extremely cool. Another surprise is just how much Spidey is on this movie. I thought he’d do more of a cameo appearance, but he really is a part of the film. Actually it feels like his first try out at being an Avenger!  I’m really curious to see what Marvel will do with Spiderman: Homecoming (2017), the upcoming Spiderman film from Marvel. All in all, Captain America: Civil War is a film jam-packed with goodness, and all delivered in a coherent and thoroughly entertaining way. By the way, this movie has two extra endings, so stay all the way to the end of the credits to see both. Marvel/Disney has got comic book movies down flat, it seems like they get better with each passing film.

Rating:  5 out of 5

  

The Avengers (2012)

Title: The Avengers (2012)

Director: Joss Whedon

Cast: Robert Downey Jr., Mark Ruffalo, Gwyneth Paltrow, Scarlett Johansson, Samuel L. Jackson, Chris Evans, Jeremy Renner, Tom Hiddleston, Chris Hemsworth

Review:

The Avengers is visual crack, seriously, your eyes will become instantly addicted to the silver screen. This movies so good, you wont want to blink! It’s been a while since I’ve been honestly and wholeheartedly floored by a film, so kudos to Joss Whedon for making a film that reminds me why I love going to the movies. I want to be blown away, I want to be wowed, I want to laugh. And I got all these things with The Avengers; a gigantic, bombastic, non stop thrill ride of a movie!  A love letter to super hero comics! It’s been a while since I heard gasps in the movie theater, but it happened last night. People where gasping whenever any super hero would show up on screen. People were clapping after action sequences, they even clapped when the Marvel logo went up on screen…it was an event.

Sure other films based on comic books have been made; and a lot of them have been quite good. For example, so far I rank Sam Raimi’s Spider Man 2 (2004) as one of those films that really captured what super hero comic books are all about, and I hold that film in high regard, but The Avengers blew it away. The Avengers is officially my #1 super hero film of all time. Watching this film, I felt like I was in geek heaven, there’s this thrill you get when you see all of these super heroes together up on the screen!

The story for The Avengers is fairly simple. Loki, the demigod from Asgard wants revenge. If you remember correctly, in THOR (2011), Loki wanted to be king of Asgard, but Thor stopped him before he could achieve his goals, so now Loki wants not only revenge, he also wants to rule over earth. He wants humans kneeling at his feet! In order to do so he enlists the help of an alien race called ‘The Chitauri’. SHIELD is an organization in charge of national security, so seeing as how this is a potentially earth threatening situation, they decide that the best way to confront this is to organize a group of the most powerful super heroes on the planet. And so The Avengers are born. Will they be enough to go up against Loki and his alien army? 

A lot of what makes this film work so well is the fact that Joss Whedon directed it. Here’s a man who is king of the geeks. He understands very well the pleasures of reading a good super hero comic book. He knows what super hero fans want to see in an Avengers film, because he is one of them. He knows what fan boys consider cool, and he gives it to them. How perfect is Whedon for directing this film? Well, apart from his vast television experience (he created Buffy and Angel) and having directed the incredibly underrated sci-fi/western Serenity (2005), he's also written quite a few Marvel comics himself, including his popular Astonishing X-Men run. Many directors have tried to capture this magic of reading comic books, of seeing powerful beings kicking the hell out of each other, but only some achieve it well. For example, Sam Raimi and his first two Spider Man movies, Bryan Synger and his X-Men films, Chris Nolan with this Batman franchise…and now Joss Whedon can be added to the ranks, and dare I say it he is the one who has made, what I’m sure will be considered by many as one of the best superhero movies ever made. In my opinion, this Avengers film eclipses all other Marvel movies, you kind of feel like they are less somehow after watching The Avengers, which is simply put loaded with non stop coolness from opening to closing credits.

The success of this film show us one thing: a movie will work better with the appropriate director at the helm, get a guy who knows what his talking about, a guy who knows a thing or two about the characters and their backgrounds, about special effects, about getting an audience hooked. I’m sure all those years in television production taught Whedon all about what needs to be done to keep the audience happy, to get them hooked. This is a director whose been given a lot of money to bring this film to life (reportedly 220 million) so basically, Whedon, King of Geeks was given the keys to heaven. Marvel Disney did well in trusting this guy with The Avengers, no one else could have gotten this film this right.

Whedon directs! 

So what’s so good about this film? Well, let’s see, it brings SHIELD to life is what it does. For years, as a comic book fan, I’d been reading stories involving SHIELD and now finally I get to see it come to life; and in such a spectacular manner. I mean, SHIELD’S flying fortress, wow, what a sight! Which reminds me, the visual effects on this film are top notch, cutting edge, state of the line. They’ve done a fantastic job of bringing these gods to life. The action sequences where fantastic! What I really loved about them is that the action sequences are extended. Once they start, they don’t seem to stop! The levels of destruction on this one are gargantuan! Battle sequences go on and on, and on, showcasing one awesome moment after the next. It’s an onslaught to the senses, which is why you’ll probably want to see it again. After all, this is a Marvel comics film we’re talking about, and Marvel Comics have always been king of the cliffhangers! Most of their comic books end with a caption that reads: “come back next week for the thrilling conclusion” or a “to be continued”. This was a very successful technique, I know it kept me buying comics for years! They’ve just applied this age old formula to films. This one also has an ending that will make you want to come back for that sequel, so after the credits, wait a couple of minutes, comic book fans will salivate at what they see, I know I was left thinking of the possibilities for the inevitable sequel.

Captain America comes full circle with this film by becoming the leader of The Avengers

The heroes are the star of the show and they all get their moment to shine. I loved how Whedon wrote this film because none of the heroes feel left out. They are all equally important in the story, they are all useful, they all got a purpose. And this film really connects with all the others that came before it, which I thought was awesome. Characters reference events that happened in their own respective films, which is why I personally recommend seeing all the other ones that came before it before you see this one. But honestly, I don’t think you’ll get lost if you haven’t, the films story is a simple alien invasion flick. But speaking about the heroes, I believe this is the best depiction of these guys on any movie so far. Hulk really smashes! Captain American leads! Iron Man is a genius, an asshole and a hero all rolled up into one! Thor is truly the God of Thunder controlling lighting bolts through his hammer. By the way, has anyone noticed how many Oscar  nominees are on this film? 

The embodiment of hotness, Scarlett Johansson

On the negative side of things I will say that the whole alien invasion story line in which Loki opens dimensional portals in order to bring an army of alien beings to assist him in his conquering of the earth sounded and at times looked extremely similar to Michael Bay’s Transformers: Dark of the Moon (2011). But don’t you worry about that because The Avengers is infinitely better than anything Bay has directed. Also, I wish Nick Fury had done a bit more in the film, it would have been cool to see Jackson kicking ass in some form or another in his own spectacular action sequence, but then again, he's not really a 'super' hero in the true sense of the word. Hey, at least he can shoot a bazooka! Okay, so my last words on The Avengers? It’s definitely worth the price of admission, so if I was you, I’d buy that ticket and take this ride! This is officially the first blockbuster of the summer! And it’s a good one, so what are you waiting for?  

Rating: 5 out of 5