Tag: mcu

Film Review: A Step In The Right Direction

~ Peter Kanelis ~ Leave a comment

The Fantastic Four: First Steps is a somewhat encouraging addition to the Marvel Studios’ cinematic output and is directed by Matt Shakman. It took four screenwriters to come up with a reasonably enjoyable film, but they got there. Josh Friedman, Eric Pierson, Jeff Kaplan, and Ian Springer wrote the script with someone named Kat Wood sharing the story credit.

Pedro Pascal portrays Reed Richards also known as Mr. Fantastic alongside Vanessa Kirby as the Invisible Woman, Sue Storm. Ebon Moss-Bachrach plays Ben Grimm or the Thing. Finally, Joseph Quinn plays the Human Torch, Johnny Storm. Other cast members include Julia Garner, Sarah Niles, Mark Gatiss, and Ralph Ineson.

This story takes place in some parallel Earth in 1964. It has been four years since the space accident which transformed this family of astronauts and scientists into superheroes. Reed Richards and Sue Storm have discovered that they are about to welcome a new addition to the family. They are also warned by a Silver Surfer that a planet eater named Galactus is on his way to consume the entire planet. When the Fantastic Four take another space trip to find out what this guy’s problem was, they find an absurdly powerful being who is willing to spare the Earth in exchange for the child. Obviously, the Fantastic Four have some understandable objections to this plan and make a harrowing escape back to Earth to come up with a plan to defeat the oncoming. During the escape, the baby is born after Galactus induces Sue to go into labor. The Fantastic Four also have to contend with a growing panic among the people they have been protecting for the past few years. They have to unite the people and come up with a plan to send Galactus on his way with an unfulfilled appetite and without the new child.

This franchise has really struggled in the past couple of decades to gain a reliable cinematic audience. This iteration actually manages to be quite suspenseful and entertaining. The cast is more likeable somehow. The chemistry between Pascal and Kirby was also quite endearing. Johnny Storm was actually kind of funny at times.

The film seemed to have a pretty good mix of humor and heart in the performances. The 1960’s setting worked pretty well. I also appreciated that there was not much time spent on another origin story.

Obviously, there was some ridiculousness to forgive since it is a comic book movie, but it wasn’t quite as hard as it has been in recent contributions from Marvel.

Anyway, I am not generally a Fantastic Four fan, but I can still appreciate some success from the producers and studios when they come up with a reasonably entertaining product.

Film Review: Watch Out For The Thunder

~ Peter Kanelis ~ Leave a comment

Thunderbolts* is the latest cinematic offering from Marvel Studios and actually manages to be a piece of solid entertainment. Eric Pearson and Joanna Calo wrote this engaging script, and Jake Schreier claims the director’s seat and may have breathed a little more life into the superhero film genre. Florence Pugh reprises her role of former Black Widow assassin, Yelena Belova. Sebastian Stan returns as Bucky Barnes, the Winter Soldier, who is now a United States congressman. Of course, that doesn’t mean that Bucky has lost any of his punch. Wyatt Russell, Olga Kurylenko, Lewis Pullman, Hannah John-Kamen, Julia Louis-Dreyfus, and David Harbour are also included in the cast.

Valentina Allegra de Fontaine, played by Louis-Dreyfus, is now the CIA director and has been involved in some controversial black ops which has led to her facing an impeachment. She sets up some of her super-powered operatives to kill each other in a remote lab that also needs to be sanitized to protect her secrets. Yelena, John Walker, Ghost, and an enigma named Bob end up escaping the trap, but Bob is abducted by de Fontaine’s agents where whatever experiments were being conducted on him may continue. The ragtag group of contract killers have only each other to rely on until they are joined by the Winter Soldier, and Yelena’s crazy father figure who is a Russian super soldier known as the Red Guardian. Bob has transformed into a being with frightening abilities and a dark past that fuels the Void within him. This new team of loners and renegades need to figure out how to combine their abilities and save the world without the Avengers to back them up.

Pugh is actually quite fun to watch, and I think the Russian accent she affects is pretty good. I am not so sure about Harbour’s, but he did fine as well with his manic energy as Alexei Shostakov. He was pretty fun to watch, although I also appreciated the chance to catch my breath when he wasn’t onscreen. The cast was pretty well-chosen. Julia Louis-Dreyfus did quite well as a smug elitist with too much power and not much caution in achieving her goals.

The special effects were typically well executed. The fight scenes were also quite compelling if as typically implausible as expected in a comic book movie.

The story does get into some themes of despair and the effects of trauma, but there is enough humor peppered throughout to help not get too depressed. Some of the one-liners even landed pretty well,

I don’t think the film is as good as the early Marvel films such as Iron Man and the first Avengers installment, but it sure wasn’t as dubious as some of the more recent offerings in this franchise.

Pugh is still relatively new in the limelight, but she does have plenty of talent and charisma. The scenes she shares with Harbour were often hilarious, but there was one pretty moving moment between their characters.

The film was just good, and I am looking forward to getting together with this cast of misfits again.

Film Review: Captain America Sees Red

~ Peter Kanelis ~ Leave a comment

Captain America: Brave New World is the latest film added to Marvel Studio’s list of mildly entertaining cinematic experiences in a still over-saturated superhero market. It is a little better than I had heard but not by much.

There are five credited screenwriters for this, including the director, Julius Ornah. The other collaborators are Rob Edwards, Malcolm Spellman, Dalan Mussan, and Peter Glanz.

Anthony Mackie has succeeded Chris Evans as the new Captain America. His superhero moniker in the previous MCU films was the Falcon. Now, he is the new Captain America since the previous one, Steve Rogers, went back in time to be with his lost love and bequeathed his shield to Sam Wilson. Anyway, other cast members include Harrison Ford as now-President Thaddeus “Thunderbolt” Ross, Danny Ramirez, Shira Haas, Tim Blake Nelson, and Giancarlo Esposito.

Nelson reprises his role from The Incredible Hulk film of 2008, which was Dr. Samuel Sterns, a super-intelligent villain who was grievously wronged by Ross for many years.

An old friend of Wilson’s is brainwashed into attempting to assassinate the president. A treaty with Japan falls into peril as they negotiate the handling of a new element known as adamantium. Ross had invited Wilson to a summit at the White House, wanting to discuss the chances of rebuilding the Avengers. The assassination attempt sparks an investigation that leads Captain America to an enemy who was kept in secret. Ross also has to fight off a frightening transformation triggered by his ingestion of gamma radiation. The new Captain America will have quite a fight on his hands to protect his country and the world from enemies within his own government.

Mackie is actually a talented actor and does his best with this role, but I didn’t find his character to be all that interesting. His angst about replacing the previous Captain America is somewhat predictable. He performs his fight scenes quite well. He seems to have trained quite hard to make some of those moves seem so effortless. My lack of enthusiasm for this portrayal has more to do with the writing than Mackie’s casting.

Harrison Ford predictably does a solid job as Thaddeus Ross, a role he took over from the late William Hurt. The previously mentioned frightening transformation is in the trailer, so I am not spoiling much by saying that he becomes the Red Hulk, which is pretty well realized with the assistance of CGI and whatever other special effects gizmos are involved.

I guess I was also distracted by the realization that it took five screenwriters to cobble this thing together. Parts of it did feel a little tacked together.

The film manages to avoid being completely terrible. There are some interesting moments peppered throughout.

Sterns was kind of an interesting adversary with a legitimate beef. Of course, the problem is that he was willing to tolerate a lot of collateral damage for his understandable desire for revenge. Nelson was quite effectively creepy at times. It was nice to see some previously dangling threads from The Incredible Hulk get tied off.

The fight scenes were well done, but Marvel films tend to be consistently effective in that arena.

Overall, the film has some good points such as casting and a semi-interesting plot, but the editing, some of the dialogue, and a rather underwhelming cameo are a little too clumsy for me to forgive.