Change Your Image
Bill-166
Lists
An error has ocurred. Please try againReviews
Captain America: Civil War (2016)
A Grand Slam
Captain America:Civil War was everything BvS wanted to be but Warner Brothers didn't have the patience to let it become.
It's tight with a coherent narrative, serious themes and real stakes. It's not concerned with world building because the world has already been built. When heroes come into conflict, we understand the ideological and sometimes personal reasons. Nothing is easily or even completely resolved. More importantly, though, is the fact that we've been with these characters for 13 films now, mostly with the same actors. This heightens the emotional investment. Watching these guys come to blows actually matters because of their long relationship with each other and with us.
As far as the core conflict, one of the flaws in the original comics was that there was really only one side you could be on because too many crossover comics had Stark crossing the moral event horizon and basically becoming a villain. In this, you can at least see reason in both arguments, neither side is a bad guy. While Zemo is the ultimate villain of the film, he's really just the catalyst that forces the issues that have been brewing to the surface. This makes the fights that much more poignant. That said, I personally remain firmly Team Cap.
For those who have read the original comics version, they've fixed the other problems that plagued it and included some awesome homage moments.
Now for some of the fun stuff. Black Panther was excellent, the fights were epic, Spider-man was just right and showed he belonged on the same stage with the rest of these guys. I'm stoked for both their upcoming solo films, and damn Ant-Man is seriously cool in this movie.
The Russo brothers have shown that they can handle a large ensemble cast of unique characters with a sprawling story and tell it in a serious tone with just the right amount of comic relief. They have my full confidence for Infinity Wars.
Ant-Man (2015)
Marvel does it again.
Ant-Man hits all the right notes. This is one of my favorite things about the MCU, they match the character to the genre. They're not trying to force them all into the same mold, which makes things more interesting when different characters come together. Iron Man - High tech action, Cap - WWII & Political Thriller Thor - High Fantasy, Guardians - Space Opera and now Ant-Man - Caper flick with an intimate family subplot.
For readers of the Scott Lang incarnation of Ant-Man, Paul Rudd brings him to life perfectly. He's just extremely likable as a regular guy thrust into extraordinary circumstances. As Ant-Man the film explores the full range of his powers with a great deal of imagination. Michael Douglas' Hank Pym is pretty much what I'd expect an aged Hank to be like. The parallel father/daughter relationship stories are very touching. Michael Pena is just hilarious, and you can tell Edgar Wright wrote most of this.
There are quite a few easter eggs for comic readers, and some hints of things to come. There are also some nice cameos and well drawn connections to the larger MCU.
It runs just under two hours and has two post credit scenes, both of which are awesome.
I saw it in IMAX 3D, and it was a very good conversion. The visual effects are just jaw dropping, including some genuinely fine work by the crew that did Chris Evans' pre-transformation look in Captain America:The First Avenger.
I really, really enjoyed this and I'm already looking forward to my second viewing.
Horror of the Blood Monsters (1970)
Redefines bad
This film atrocity must be seen to be believed. By comparison Plan 9 looks like Citizen Kane. Any movie that can combine vampires, space travel, lobster-men, bat-pygmies, snake-men, & cavemen into one utterly illogical, incomprehensible "plot" gets a special place in my bad movie lovin' heart to begin with. When compounded by adding tinted black & white stock footage as a plot device, a 50-cent plastic toy spaceship with a bic lighter for propulsion(I swear I'm not making this up), and a "Spectum Analyzer" that is clearly a caulk gun, it transcends the normally accepted standard of "so-bad-it's-good". The WORST of the worst.