Avengers: Endgame is the perfect sendoff to the Infinity Saga, capping off a monumental run of films. You’ll laugh, you’ll cry and you’ll cheer. Well at least I did.
After the devastating events of Avengers: Infinity War, the universe is in ruins. With the help of the remaining allies, the Avengers assemble once again.
Where were you doing on May 8th, 2008? Almost 11 years to the date, IronMan was released in theatres, officially launching the MCU. Robert Downey Jr and Jon Favreau changed the landscape of Hollywood forever, catapulting this Marvel superhero’s into our lives. The MCU didn’t just change how we watch movies, it changed how movies were being made. Everyone wanted the ‘Marvel Cinematic Universe” formula for their movie franchise. Some trying to emulate it as best they could, some succeeding to a certain degree, others failing miserably. After the end credits scene rolled on Iron Man, and Nick Fury, played by Samuel L Jackson said those famous words; “I’m here to talk to you about the Avengers initiative.” No one would have guessed the amount of success and praise that would follow.
Now here we are, 11 years and 22 films later. All leading to this, Avengers: Endgame. Ever since the events that unfolded last year in Infinity War, fans around the world have been dying to know how this was going to play out. We watched as some of our favorite heroes turned to dust, and watched Tony Stark deal with the impact of his favorite kid literally crumbling into his arms as Peter Parker blew away. I’ll begin with this. When I saw the movie, it was a sold-out show, and it took no time at all for this experience to turn into a rock concert. Throughout the movie, the audience was going nuts, and I couldn’t help myself but join in on the fun being had. This kind of environment was so heartwarming, knowing that you weren’t the only one who for the most part was screaming on the inside. It’s why they make these movies, for a crowd of people to embrace one another and share this journey together. Maybe that made me enjoy and like the film even more, but one thing is certain, Avengers: Endgame was worth the wait. Worth all the time and money I have put into the MCU over the last 11 years. All the midnight showings, all the repeat viewings, the pounds of popcorn and liters of soda I have ingested watching these films. The film almost honors the time you have spent with this franchise. What I mean is, they know that you’ve been on this 11-year journey, and they made damn sure you get what we all deserved, one satisfying ending.
This will be spoiler-free (for the most part), I will talk about one thing, but that one thing you should have known would happen, so it’s not even a spoiler at this point. We all know that two things happened. One, our friends and heroes were dusted, and that Thanos was still alive and still holding all of the infinity stones. In order to restore balance in the universe, it was pretty obvious that our heroes would need to do some time travel in order to do so. With Ant-Man sitting out the events of Infinity War, it was pretty clear that he would be the game changer the Avengers needed to tackle Thanos once and for all. If someone asked me to describe the plot of Endgame, I think I’d say, the Avengers are preventing Thanos from getting the stones in the first place – and they all need to be retrieved from a specific point in time so that they all can ultimately be returned to that exact moment in time, thus preserving the timeline. Make sense? Probably not, but that’s the best I could come up with, and to me, it’s pretty straightforward. I was a really big fan of how they were referencing other time travel movies, and almost calling bullshit on a lot of them, for not having proper time travel rules in place. That’s what makes the MCU so quirky and fun to be a part of. The idea of time travel and the consequences that come with it is so elemental to the very idea, that it can be a very hard thing to navigate through. But like most things the MCU does, I thought they handled it as well as they could. People will always poke and pry when it comes to time travel, but this movie has a talking raccoon, space robots and a giant talking tree, you can’t really expect the science to be perfect.
The team that we do have left is great, it was pretty neat seeing new teams being formed and friendships being made between characters I had no intention of thinking I wanted to see them on screen together. It’s just really difficult to talk about anything in this movie without giving ANYTHING away. Everyone in this film has something to do, a purpose, no one is sitting on the sidelines at all. They all get their moment to shine. Ant-Man serves as the real heart of the film, Paul Rudd gives his best performance to date in the MCU. Chris Evans and Robert Downey Jr once again rule every scene they are apart of. I could go on forever about these two, but you already know the drill by now.
I’ll have to write a follow-up post dissecting and discussing everything that went down in Endgame. This review is really difficult to put into words because without expressing all my emotions from what transpired I can’t do it justice. All I know is this. Over the past 11 years, we have been treated to some extraordinary film-making and world-building. Hollywood was changed forever with the birth of the MCU, it truly is a special feat and something that will never be replicated or topped. It’s pretty incredible when you sit back and think about how all these movies intertwine and the cohesive storytelling that occurred. Endgame was the cherry on top of this already perfect sundae, and I wish I could relive my experience Thursday night.
Go see it, this is going to make a billion dollars this weekend alone. It won’t catch Avatar, nothing will, but if you have been alongside these heroes for the past 11 years, why give up now? Whatever it takes……..
Nate’s Movie Tour Reviews – Avengers: Endgame = 100/100
Marvel raises the bar once again for the Superhero genre. Creating their greatest achievement yet. It’s perfectly balanced, as all things should be.
I laughed, I cried, I cheered. And that was all just in the first 10 minutes. I had to wait until Sunday night to finally see the much anticipated Avengers: Infinity War. Do you know how difficult it is to stay spoiler free from the biggest movie of the last decade? It’s extremely hard, I did my best to stay off social media, so when Sunday night rolled around I was ecstatic I was walking in spoiler free. So after a decade and 18 movies later, did Marvel hit a grand slam? Yes, yes they did. I’m not really sure where to start, this will be a spoiler free review, I’m going to write another piece about the future of the MCU and how I really thought about EVERYTHING that happens in Infinity War, but for now, here’s my review! Also just congratulations on this becoming the highest grossing movie ever domestically in a single weekend. It deserves it, this is bar none the best MCU movie ever made.
Boy did Marvel not hold back, from the very opening moments of the film, this felt like something epic. This review might be all over the place, because it will be extremely hard to write something spoiler free, which this will be! We are immediately introduced to Thanos (Josh Brolin) and his trusty side kicks – The Black Order. For sidekicks, the Black Order were pretty goddamn awesome I thought. Hats off to Tom Vaughn-Lawlor who played Ebony Maw, because if you tossed him into any other MCU movie, we could be talking about one of the best MCU villains here. Just so happens he was standing next to Thanos for the entire movie so it’s hard to really consider him truly great, because well Thanos climbed to the top of Mount Rushmore of comic book movie villains after this performance. It shouldn’t come as a surprise to anyone, it’s not like we have been waiting since 2012, when he first reared his big ugly purple head. Since then they have been building the MCU for this very moment. When everything finally comes together, crossovers you didn’t know you wanted, team ups we could have never imagined and more importantly the Avengers coming face to face with the Mad Titan Thanos. For the last 6 years all we have heard about is the 6 infinity stones and the unimaginable power they all contain. Put them all together and that person has the power to accomplish anything. Well Thanos is looking to round up all these stones and it’s up to our heroes to stop him. That’s almost the strongest part of the entire movie. It’s not an overly complicated plot, it’s simple. Thanos wants the stones, our heroes are trying to do everything and anything they can to stop him.
Thanos was such a terrific villain, we are coming off such a strong one with Killmonger in BlackPanther, but Marvel stepped their game up even more with Thanos. What makes a truly memorable and great villain performance, is well, they need to have layers, and the character kind of needs to be flushed out throughout the movie. We get a ton of background and history about Thanos, we get to see inside his mind, what makes him tick and everything he truly loves. For being the most evil person in the entire universe, there are parts of the movie where you almost are rooting for him to get all the stones. Like if someone asks me, “Was Thanos a good villain?” Well, he’s unstoppable, terrifying, sadistic, at times polite and like i mentioned, in a few brief moments, sympathetic. He’s just not a power hungry mad man who has no sense or sense awareness to everything around him. He’s so much more complex than that, and you almost see where he’s coming from. He’s the most badass villain to ever show up in a comic book movie, and with that comes the fact he’s almost the most sympathetic villain to ever grace the big screen. So if you haven’t figured out by now, I really enjoyed Thanos, he makes the movie and I was glad that he got the most screen time out of any character in the entire movie. Frankly, us fans that have been waiting all this time for him to show up deserved it.
As for the rest of the team they all work so well together. Yes they all don’t have the most screen time, but if you love these characters and watching them, then you won’t care. The interactions between characters, like Rocket and Thor, Tony and Dr. Strange are all things I didn’t know I needed so badly in my life. The Russo Brothers picked the perfect little teams to divide into, and I think that was really important. If that doesn’t work, the whole movie doesn’t work. I thought Dr. Strange, Thor and Gamora were the MVP’s of our heroes. Thor has evolved into the best MCU character in my opinion and I can’t wait to see how he will keep evolving. The whole movie really flies by, they don’t really pussyfoot around at all. You’re in waist deep before you know it, and instantly the stakes are at an all time high. I saw a lot of people saying this was just another “funny MCU movie” and yes of course it’s funny. I’m happy this movie is funny, but when it wants to get down to the nitty gritty and be serious, it’s actually bone chilling serious. There are moments in this movie that I never saw coming, things that maybe I saw coming. Things I thought might happened, happened. Things that could happen, happened. A ton of available evidence and suspicion confirmed that, in the end that thing would happen. I WAS NOT PREPARED AT ALL TO WATCH THAT THING HAPPEN. This movie tugs on your heart strings and when the screen fades to black, you are gut punched. You are looking around searching for answers, you want to know what the hell just happened. I think that’s my favourite part about this whole thing. I have no idea where Marvel is going to take this thing. Well I have some thoughts and wild ideas, but I actually don’t really know the future direction of the MCU and for the first time in a long time, I am so intrigued about this whole thing.
Like I can’t even say much more, because all I want to do is talk about everything that happens within the movie. But I can’t, not here at least. What more do you want me to say? This is the movie of 2018, no other comic book movie will come close to making me feel what I felt during Infinity War. It’s damn near perfect, I can’t wait to watch it again. I saw it back to back nights, because I needed that in order to really process everything. Go see this movie, don’t be that weirdo that sits this one out. I will say this – It’s perfectly balanced as all things should be.
Check ya later
Nate’s Movie Tour Reviews – Avengers: Infinity War = 98/100
Been waiting 11 long years, just to see Thanos kill Captain America
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Mild spoilers? Well that’s my guess anyway, Cap will bite the dust by the hands of the Mad Titan in the up-coming Infinity War. It’s been a good run for Captain America though, it’s been 11 years since I sat down in the theatre about to watch Iron Man. At the time much like everyone else, I didn’t know too much about the titled character. I’ll admit I didn’t really know anything about Iron Man or the rest of the Avengers, because I always considered myself as a DC fan rather than Marvel. But 16 movies later, I have seen every MCU movie in the theatre and have come to appreciate almost all of them. Some are better than others and some of them are even some of the very best comic book movies. Sometimes MCU movies can follow the same cookie-cutter formula, but when it ain’t broke don’t fix it. They have something really special going on with their universe, and this upcoming May, things are really going to get interesting when all these characters will finally come together to take on Thanos and try and save the world. With that being said, this week Thor:Ragnarok is coming out, and I’m going to break down all previous MCU films and rank them! So here we go! Side note: I’m not going to include The Incredible Hulk, I know technically it’s part of the MCU but with Edward Norton no longer being the Hulk and they kind of just disregard that, I’m just going to not rank it, even though I think it’s a pretty awesome movie!
15.) Thor: The Dark World. Director: Alan Taylor. Box Office: 644.4 Million. Rotten Tomatoes: 66%
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The worst of the worst. Sorry Thor, but in my opinion the weakest of the MCU films. It has the lowest RT score, and it’s crazy to think this movie is 66% and Batman vs. Superman sits at 27%. For me that is mind boggling. I know people didn’t love BvS, but at the same time, these two movies are easily comparable and sometimes I think that critics were just really rough on BvS. The only good thing to really come out of this movie, was the fact that the first director of choice was Patty Jenkins (Wonder Woman) but she ultimately dropped out and that was the best thing to ever happen to her. We got Wonder Woman out of it and well we all know how that turned out. This movie also has by far the worst villain in the MCU and I bet if you are reading this, you don’t even know his name so I’m not going to tell you! The crazy thing is, this movie probably has one of the most emotional scenes in the entire MCU run. When Loki appears to be okay in his cell after his mothers death, yet he is tortured and just lost. Sitting there and then screaming out that he lost the one person he cared about. For me it’s honestly one of the few real heartstring moments in the entire MCU.
14.) Iron Man 2. Director: Jon Favreau. Box Office: 623.9 Million. Rotten Tomatoes: 73%
(DINSEY)
When I think back on all the MCU films, Iron Man 2 has the most wasted potential. Coming off the stellar Iron Man, I think the sequel was a little rushed, because they were really trying to get this universe started. When you bring in an actor like Mickey Rourke to play your villain; Whiplash and hardly use him, that’s wasted potential. When Whiplash actually turned out to be really cool, and I think Mickey was all in for this role and the last encounter between him and our heroes is 90 seconds long, again wasted potential. I was just so disappointed when I saw this, I remember this was back in the day of Thursday midnight showings, so I waited all day and night to watch this, and it turned out to just be “meh.” Terrence Howard left this franchise of the role of Rhodes and entered Don Cheadle which was great and I think in the long run it worked out. Also we got introduced to Black Widow aka Scarlett Johansson. This is just a lacklustre movie, with zero to no action sequences and a really big waste on probably a great villain idea. I don’t think I can ever forgive Marvel for the last battle scene in this movie, its a shame really.
If someone told me ten years ago, there would ultimately be an Ant-Man movie, I would have called them crazy. Scott Lang, the weirdo of the Avengers, I guess he really isn’t an Avenger yet? Anyways this movie was fun, it had a ton of laughs and overall it was another solid outing by Marvel. I really like Paul Rudd in this role, I think this was almost perfect casting, because he can be a bit gritty but at the same time bring that humour and charm that this character needs. Michael Douglas as Hank Pym was a great choice as well, I loved him in this movie, and I look forward to seeing him again. Yellow-Jacket as the villain wasn’t so bad either, with some of the action sequences being really fun and unique, but at the same time being something that we really hadn’t seen before in a comic book movie. I think the sequel Ant-Man and The Wasp will be much improved, and I think it will stand out a little better than just Ant-Man.
12.) Iron Man 3. Director: Shane Black. Box Office: 1.215 Billion. Rotten Tomatoes: 79%
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The first MCU movie following the events of the Avengers. Holy shit this movie made a ton of money. Incredible feat considering well Iron Man 3 just wasn’t good. I couldn’t decide which Iron Man sequel was worse, but this movie was all sorts of messed up. I’ll never forget the excellent trailers for this and how I was so excited to finally see the Mandarin – especially because Sir. Ben Kingsley was playing the role. We all know how it worked out in the end, that twist or reveal at the end of the movie, was not well received by myself or fans of the character. Rebecca Hall was also up for the villain role but her role in the movie kept getting smaller and smaller. This was revealed later on in interviews with her. Instead we got Guy Pierce playing the bad guy, the inventor of the Extermis virus and soon calls himself the Mandarin. I was just so disappointed with this movie, because the trailers made it seem like something was at stake and that Ben Kingsley’s character was going to be a real threat to Tony Stark. That never happened, and I don’t know, I love the character of Iron Man, but man, they have a hard time with his stand alone movies. Seriously this had some of the best trailers for any Marvel movie to date, with the Kingsley voice over. Not to mention the whole thing with Pepper Potts, and boy thinking back on this movie, it really was just a giant mess.
11.) Guardians of The Galaxy: Volume 2. Director: James Gunn. Box Office 863.6 Million. Rotten Tomatoes: 82%
(DISNEY)
Boy was this movie just plain old average. After the success of the first GOTG, coming into the sequel expectations couldn’t be higher for this sequel, and for me, it just fell flat. Crazy to think, because it was kind of the same material as the first, and adding Kurt Russell into the mix as Star Lords father, it just didn’t hit home for me. The last act of this movie is a complete and utter mess, and it felt so out of place, with Star Lord pretty much becoming Superman and having an all out slug-fest with his dear old Dad. This is a tough one to digest because I love all the characters so much, yet the story wasn’t the greatest and I feel like the relied to much on humour. I am looking forward to the third installment and seeing the Guardians interact with the Avengers in the up-coming Infinity War. I think Tony Stark and Star Lord are going to mesh really well together and will have some really good scenes with one another. This movie however just wasn’t Marvels best, but they all can’t be home runs, that’s just impossible to ask.
Three different Spider-Man’s since the year 2000. Can you believe that? We had two incredible Toby Maguire movies and I don’t really want to talk about the Amazing Spider-Man Movies. Let me be clear, when I say that Tom Holland is a really good Peter Parker/Spider-Man. There’s no doubt about that, but this movie was just AVERAGE AT BEST. It’s really hard to keep pumping out Spider-Man movies and trying to have them be different and unique from one another. Enter The Vulture, the villain in this movie. If he wasn’t played by Michael Keaton, boy this movie could have been one big pile of shit. They also needed to add in Iron Man to peak interest and to juice up the movie. I don’t want to see the Vulture against Spidey, I don’t think anyone wanted that, but you can’t do Green Goblin for the third time and I guess it’s to early for Venom or Carnage. The movie was just boring, and I don’t know, just not a lot went on. There are some great moments in the movie, but I’m just tired of stand alone Spider-Man movies that aren’t about the villains we want to see. We need a proper Venom, like make this happen, it’s not too difficult, not some guy flying around in a mech-suit. One of the rare MCU movies that I have only seen once and really have no desire to watch again. Tom Holland is great, and I hope big things are on the horizon for this franchise, because Spider-Man fans deserve that.
The King of Asgard! Thor actually gets better with age, just like a fine wine. This movie is always on cable and when it is, I find myself being sucked into it. Chris Hemsworth does such a great job at capturing Thor’s “clueless” side in this movie, not knowing Earth things. One of my favourite lines from any MCU movie is “I need a horse!” when he enters the pet shop. I just really enjoy Thor, and I’m excited for the third installment coming this week. By far the better of the first two installments, I think this franchise kind of gets a bad wrap, but it really shouldn’t. One great thing about the first Thor, was it made it clear that the MCU is a big universe that will surpass Earth, and it really touched on the “mythical” side of the MCU. The MCU has had some pretty bang on castings, but its been 7 years now and I still don’t think anyone could play Thor other than Hemsworth, it’s just perfection. I can’t talk about Thor and not mention Loki and how well Tom Hiddleston plays him. If it weren’t for him, the run of the villains would be absolutely pathetic. Now it seems he may turn into an anti-hero, at least in the upcoming Thor. Who knows what will happen with Loki once Thanos shows up.
8.) Captain America: The First Avenger. Director: Joe Johnson. Box Office: 370.6 Million. Rotten Tomatoes: 80%
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How awesome was Chris Evans in Not Another Teen Movie? Or as Johnny Storm in the god awful Fantastic Four movies. Who knew, he would become almost the best part of the entire MCU. He’s come along way since joining the Avengers and the MCU. Another MCU movie that over time as grown on me. I remember walking out of the theatre and thinking “that movie sucked” but over time I have really come around to Captain America. The movie and the character himself. I just thought it was super cheesy and I thought the ending was just lame. I remember laughing when Cap is about to crash the plane into the water. One thing I liked right away was Red Skull, like come on Hugo Weaving playing a villain in your movie? What could go wrong. We haven’t seen Red Skull since, which in my opinion sucks, because he’s such a great foe for Captain America, and I don’t think we will see him pop back up. I’m really going to miss Cap, because I don’t think he will be making it out of Infinity War alive.
7.) Doctor Strange. Director: Scott Derrickson. Box Office: 677.7 Million. Rotten Tomatoes: 89%
(DISNEY)
Probably the coolest MCU to date. Again another super hero, that 10 years ago would never get released and now, it’s one of the most successful MCU movies. We have Thor exploring the mythical aspects of the MCU and now Doctor Strange dives into the “magical” aspects. This movie can be a little confusing for causal fans, but overall it was really well done. Casting is great, Benedict Cumberbatch kills it as the cocky doctor turned superhero. The visuals are some of the best within the MCU, and that is a huge compliment. I can’t really think of a single problem, the villain was great and the reveal at the end making Chiwetel Eijofor the next baddie to face the doctor will be fun. He’s one of the most, if not the most powerful Avenger, considering he can bend time and space so it will be really interesting to see what kind of role he will play in Infinity War.
6.) Iron Man. Director: Jon Favreau. Box Office 585.2 Million. Rotten Tomatoes: 94%
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The movie that started it all! Can you believe they originally wanted Tom Cruise to play the playboy billionaire. How crazy would have that been? Is the MCU as successful as it is today? I can’t really see Cruise playing Iron Man nearly as well as Downey Jr. in fact I think the execs over at Disney and Marvel probably get down on their hands and knees everyday and thank god he is in this role. No one knew about this character before the movie hit, nor really cared much for Iron Man, but they were certainly talking about him after this movie dropped. I love this movie, I think it’s one of the strongest stand alone comic book movies ever. Its slick, its cool, its got style and it’s just overall really well done. Jeff Bridges as Iron-Monger is so perfect, he was really good in this role, and I think its just been so long since Iron Man came out, that they forget how good of a villain he played. This movie also started the whole “after credits scene” and no one knew that was coming, but to see Nick Fury (Samuel L Jackson) talk to Tony Stark about the Avengers initiative was a really cool movie moment for everyone. It didn’t make nearly as much money as other MCU flicks, but if this movie wasn’t a hit and wasn’t appreciated and loved by the fans, I don’t think the MCU would be standing today. Honestly one of the most successful films ever, just in terms of what came after it and whats still to come, hats off to Kevin Feige for knowing this road map way before anyone really knew the possibilities of the MCU!
5.) Avengers: Age of Ultron. Director: Joss Whedon. Box Office: 1.405 Billion. Rotten Tomatoes: 75%
(DISNEY)
Personally I don’t think this movie gets the credit it deserves, because well, its the follow up to arguably the most loved and successful comic book movie of all time. I remember watching the trailer for this over and over again, with the Ultron voice over. Done by the legendary James Spader, who again credit to Marvel was so perfect, his voice was so menacing and it really captured the spirit and the essence of the character. Was the actual follow through of the character that well received, no not really, but I still think Ultron was the best villain in the MCU – so far. There was just so much hype and the expectations were so incredibly high for the follow up to The Avengers – that it was next to impossible to meet all of those expectations. After going back and watching this movie, I really do love it. The Hulkbuster scene is awesome, I loved the introduction of Quicksilver and Scarlet Witch (still hoping Quicksilver can come back). Joss Whedon was ousted from the MCU after this movie, and I’m not sure why. Thankfully he will be helping Zack Snyder with the upcoming Justice League movie, because if anyone knows how to make a superhero team up movie, its Joss. I saw another rankings list and they had this as like the third worst MCU movie, which for me is just blasphemy. I know some gripes with the movie is the story line and stuff just not adding up, but when it comes to comic book movies and certainly big team ups, that can be really hard to do at times. Clearly it was a success it made over a BILLION dollars, so again this is one movie that I scratch my head at when people tell me they don’t really like it.
4.) Guardians of The Galaxy. Director: James Gunn. Box Office: 773.3 Million. Rotten Tomatoes: 91%
(DISNEY)
The most lovable group of misfits the MCU has to offer. By far the biggest surprised hit of the bunch. But when you have an incredible soundtrack, amazing cast, the right amount of humour and just a great story, that is a recipe for success. Considering it has a talking tree and raccoon, well I think some people thought this movie would fall flat on its face, that wasn’t the case, in fact, at the time, this was arguably Marvels most well received movie. Even myself, I had a blast sitting in the theatre, I remember laughing my ass off a ton and at the same time really enjoying the action and the characters. I’m a huge Chris Pratt fan, so seeing him in this role seems perfect and again it will be really interesting to see interact with everyone else, because I think he will certainly take a big leadership role in trying to take down Thanos. I think this was the movie that I finally realized that Marvel can make any kind of superhero movie and I will be in the theatre watching it and I know it will be fantastic.
3.) Captain America: Civil War. Director: Anthony & Joe Russo. Box Office: 1.153 Billion. Rotten Tomatoes: 90%
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Talk about Avenger on Avenger crime. As a huge fan of the graphic novel, when this was announced by Marvel I was so excited and it didn’t disappoint. Yeah, it couldn’t follow the exact formula as the graphic novel, but overall this is one of the best comic book movies to date. Who side were you on? Did you flip-flop through out the movie like I did? Who are the bad guys in this movie, because the actual villain was maybe the worst in the whole MCU. Helmut Zemo is actually a really cool character from the comics but in Civil War they just really dumbed down his character and he didn’t even put on his signature purple ski mask! They introduced two new characters into the MCU which could be hard to do, considering the amount of people we have in this movie. Black Panther and Spider-Man, both highlights of the movie for me, were so awesome in this and each brought their own sense of favour to the film. Clearly like most people walking away from this movie, Tom Holland as the web-head was the stand out and everyone wanted more Spidey! But the same can be said for Black Panther and with the King of Wakanda getting his own movie next year, which looks incredible by the way, both of these characters were worthy additions to an already stacked roster. The airport fight scene, which takes place during the day! We always get these big battles in the dark and I hate that, was so fun to watch and everyone has their own moment and it was just so well executed, something that could be tough to juggle, because of just how many people were involved. This might be a Captain America movie, but the best part of the movie was Tony’s story arc. Finding out about his parents and how Bucky was responsible for their deaths, makes for one of the best emotional scenes the MCU has to offer. I’m not too sure whats to come with Cap and Iron Man, and trying to put aside their differences, but they will have to when the Mad Titan shows up to Earth.
2.) Captain America: The Winter Solider. Director: Anthony & Joe Russo. Box Office 714.3 Million. Rotten Tomatoes: 89%
(DISNEY)
I think this is the most serious and grounded MCU movie, and I believe that’s what makes it so successful. I almost think this has the most rewatchability out of any of the MCU movies. The first Captain America was kind of serious, but this movie just felt really personal, just like Civil War did. But this had some much on the line, because you didn’t know how you felt about Bucky, and Cap was trying to figure out how his best friend can now be a bad dude. I think The Winter Solider is such a bad ass character with his metal arm and just his calm and serious presence. He doesn’t need to say much for you to realize he means business. Black Widow is terrific and so is Nick Fury. I say this is the most grounded MCU movie, because it doesn’t really have much “super powers” it’s almost like a spy thriller and you are right there along for the ride. The chase scene on the highway which leads to the encounter of the streets was awesome and fun to watch, and I just really love this movie. You don’t need a boat load of CGI or super heroes to make a great super hero movie. Just a really compelling story and all around great performances. Frank Grillo is so great in this role and this movie also introduced Falcon. Who I have really taken a liking too, and his cameo is Ant-Man is one of the all time greats. It’s funny because you know that can’t be Iron Man, so Marvel is thinking “who can we get for cheap, to be in this movie for 5 minutes?” Answer – Anthony Mackie Bucky is such an interesting character and I can’t wait too see what happens with him going forward, because I’ve now mentioned three times, that I just don’t think Chris Evans will be making it through Infinity War alive. So does that mean Bucky will take up the shield and be the new Captain America? Only time will tell I guess.
Can’t have a photo for the movie and not put in the still of one of the most iconic scenes in comic book movie history. The pan-around of the entire team, standing there, waiting to face their foes gets me every time. Known as the “hero shot” now, it was just something we had never seen before and when it’s tried to be replicated, well it just doesn’t pop quite like this does. What can I say about The Avengers, it was 5 years in the making, it was the first movie of its kind, and in the end it was a gigantic success. We got to see the NYC battle, Loki being Loki, the team coming together, and at the time, the best on screen Hulk. Like without doubt the best on screen Hulk, watching him jump around NYC smashing Chitauri to bits is always a treat. We even get two great Hulk moments, the punching Thor and smashing Loki are huge standouts for the movie. It was just so incredible well done, it is damn near perfect this movie. We also got our first look at Thanos, which for everyone was awesome to see. That’s another thing, it will be 6 years in the making to finally see Thanos in action with Infinity War, and I just pray it lives up to my expectations. I want Thanos to finally kill an Avenger and them not be brought back to life, I want their to finally feel like something is actually at stake. He can’t show up and be defeated in 20 minutes, it’s not fair to us fans. He needs to really come and sorry – fuck shit up. I can’t wait to watch it and I really think it will live up to my expectations, because after writing this, you can never take the MCU for granted. They know exactly what they are doing, so we can all sit back, relax and enjoy Thor: Ragnorok and Black Panther until all hell breaks lose.
