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Countdown to Avengers 2: Captain America the Winter Soldier

Posted in comic books, movies with tags Captain America, comic books, Marvel Comics, movies, reviews on April 22, 2015 by Paxton

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As we did back in 2012, the blogs at Nerd Lunch, To the Escape Hatch and Cavalcade of Awesome are doing a Countdown to Avengers as we lead up to the release of Age of Ultron. In this countdown we are reviewing all the Marvel content that we can from within Phase 2. This is one of those reviews.

Captain America: The First Avenger was the last solo film of Phase 1 before The Avengers. So, appropriately, the Captain America sequel is the last solo movie of Phase 2 that will lead directly into The Avengers sequel. Coming in, I loved the first Cap movie. I loved it’s time period, I loved the cast, I loved pretty much everything about it. And I had a lot of doubts about the movie before it began in that I thought Chris Evans was all wrong for the role and I didn’t initially like that the movie took place back during World War II (even thought that’s the perfect place to set the movie).

So, I wound up loving the first movie and then came this sequel. And again, I was not sure until I started seeing images of Chris Evans in the “stealth suit”. And then the first trailer hit. And the cast came together. Black Widow. Falcon. Modern day SHIELD. ROBERT F**KING REDFORD is now in a Captain America movie. It just ballooned into so much awesomeness that the actual movie couldn’t possibly live up to what I was seeing.

And on watching, the movie is every bit as awesome as I wanted it to be. It’s amazing what the directors did with this sequel. This movie is completely different in tone, color scheme, sensibilities and setting than it’s predecessor but it completely works.

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First off we see a more seasoned Captain America. He’s been in our time for a few years and has trained extensively with SHIELD. The opening mission, storming a hijacked freighter, shows you everything you need to know to understand that THIS Captain America is BAD ASS. We’ve seen Captain America be pretty awesome in The Avengers, but this movie cranks that idea “up to 11” and hammers that home. We also see that Cap is becoming a little concerned with the direction that SHIELD is taking in response to external threats. There are several really good scenes with Cap and Nick Fury debating this very issue, is SHIELD protecting or promoting fear. It’s a valid and very relevant discussion.

Speaking of Nick Fury, we finally get to see him do something. The attack on Fury’s car is a wonderful little scene where we get to see Fury’s quick thinking and quick acting save himself from capture and possible death. And how awesome was the AI in that car? And the hidden dashboard cannon? Great little scene. Another little scene I liked when I saw the movie theatrically was Steve going back to visit an elderly Peggy Carter. However, now that I’ve watched Peggy in the Agent Carter mini-series and re-watched the original Captain America movie, that scene becomes HEARTBREAKING. There are several more levels of heartbreaking sadness and loss that permeate that scene. Especially thanks to the excellent Agent Carter series.

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And I love the addition of Anthony Mackie as Falcon. I originally thought Falcon was a sort of, “we don’t need him but we need to add a new character” addition. But I was wrong. Mackie crushes it and I now want him in more movies. Plus, how great is a movie that implies a giant action scene that we never get to see? Cap, Black Widow and Falcon have to break into a military installation to steal back the Stark wing technology, but we never see it! That needs to be a movie. NOW.

And I haven’t even talked about the return of Sebastian Stan as The Winter Soldier. He’s a great foil for Captain America. I really liked him as a villain, but he’s more of a henchman than a mastermind. I do hope we see more of him.

Now that the movie is over, I’d love to see a Captain America and Falcon movie where they are chasing Bucky. The end of this movie teases that, but it looks like the next Captain America movie is going to be Civil War, which I can only assume does not cover that.

The status quo that this movie leaves will make the next Avengers movie interesting because I’m not sure how many years later it is in the new movie. SHIELD was destroyed and has to be rebuilt. I assume the Avengers are sort of an autonomous entity without any governmental connection. Will that be addressed or has enough time passed that that doesn’t really matter anymore? I don’t know.

As it stands, I liked this movie so much that I think it’s my third favorite overall Marvel movie behind only the original Iron Man and the first Avengers movie. We’ll see if this changes after Age of Ultron.

But I’m not the only one that has ideas about this movie…here’s CT with his thoughts:

Captain America: The Winter Soldier has been referred to by some as Avengers 1.5. I wonder just how integral it will be to Avengers: Age of Ultron. It is the Phase 2 film that will have changed the world the most since the first Avengers film. The fall of S.H.I.E.L.D. is huge and will have to at least be addressed since they will no longer play a role in bringing the team together. I look forward to seeing if Black Widow and Cap have any interactions in Avengers 2 since they worked so well together here. Black Widow now has strong ties with all the Avengers except maybe Thor.

Besides pieces set up for Avengers and the plot lines sets up for future Cap movies, the big set up for future movies is the mention of Stephen Strange. Sitwell references him as though Strange is already a known person, at least by Cap. Is he already Sorcerer Supreme or just a really, really famous surgeon? It will be interesting to see how that plays out in a couple years.

Other Countdown to Avengers reviews:
CT’s review of Iron Man 3.
Robert’s review of Thor: The Dark World

Movie Man-a-thon: Dracula, secret agents and a time traveling Ethan Hawke

Posted in Dracula, Genres, horror, monsters, time travel with tags Dracula, monsters, Movie Manathon, movies, reviews, time travel, vampires on March 19, 2015 by Paxton

Steph took the kids to her parents for the week so I was left to my own bachelor devices. So, as usual, I programmed a viewing schedule of movies and TV shows that Steph would not ever want to watch. I’ve done this before, time to do it again.

Dracula Untold (2014) – The Universal monster rally movies can now begin! I didn’t hear a lot about this movie beforehand but I look forward to any movie utilizing the classic monsters, especially Universal who says they want to plan a “monsterverse” set of movies. This actually wasn’t that bad and a pretty good re-interpretation of the legend of Vlad the Impaler. It makes him a more sympathetic character and places the inhuman bloodthirsty killer on another character from which Vlad will get his vampiric status. The cast is great and the effects are pretty awesome. Recommend. However, to be honest, I was a bit disappointed we didn’t get a glimpse or hint of another monster in a post credit sequence. But that’s a relatively small gripe.

Kingsman: The Secret Service (2015) – Until very recently I had no idea this was based on a Mark Millar comic. Honestly, I think Millar had the screenplay written, no one bought it, and so he made it into a comic. Then when the comic did pretty well, he was able to sell it to Matthew Vaughn. And this is a pretty spectacular movie. I love Colin Firth and he’s brilliant in this. On one hand he plays directly into your expectations of him while simultaneously doing something completely different that you would never expect him to be doing. Michael Caine is also great. The new kid is pretty good. My only gripe would be Sam Jackson as the villain. We’re to the point now where Sam Jackson will immediately take me out of a movie. He’s no longer Sam Jackson the actor, he’s Sam Jackson the character. He transcends whatever he’s trying to do. And I appreciate he’s trying to do something a little different with the lisp, but I never saw anything other than SAM JACKSON playing the villain. That being said, he’s remarkably entertaining to watch in this movie. I highly recommend it. I hope there are more Kingsman movies to come.

Predestination (2015) – On the surface, it looks to take the same basic idea of agents policing the time stream as Time Cop. But quickly you find out it’s a completely different movie. It’s a more intimate story involving one time agent on one mission that seems to have some huge importance to history, but also some very personal importance as well. It’s not really what I wanted out of the movie but I’m not going to lie, the way the story wraps up has a few surprising reveals that I didn’t see coming. I saw one of them coming pretty early, but not the other. It’s mostly well acted and interesting, but definitely quirky and a bit weird. The story focuses more on Ethan Hawke and Sarah Snook’s characters and their interactions with each other more than the actual time travel or the agency that is policing the time stream and how it works. But it’s still a good movie. I’d give it a soft recommend.

Game of Thrones: Season 2 – My wife and I started watching Season 2 a few weeks ago but she bowed out after two episodes. By contrast, I was hooked after the same two episodes. I went ahead and finished the season while Steph was away. THIS SHOW IS SO GOOD. Great characters, great drama. Everything in this world is so f**king filthy. Dirt and mud is EVERYWHERE. And I feel sorry for the actor who plays Joffrey. He plays the most despicable person in a TV show EVER. I want to punch him in the face. With a crowbar. SO GOOD. But far and above everyone else is Peter Dinklage kicking so much f**king ass as Tyrion Lannister. He gets better every episode. I’m two seasons behind right now so I’m trying to stay as spoiler free as possible, but I’m already aware that there is this thing called a “Red Wedding” and it happens at the end of season 3. But that’s all I know. SO SHUT UP ABOUT IT ALREADY.

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High Fantasy Month is back to slay some dragons

Posted in books, pop culture, reviews with tags Book Report, books, High Fantasy Month, pop culture, reviews on February 16, 2015 by Paxton

The last time I did this was back in July, so I thought it was time to knock out a few more fantasy books. Next time, I may switch up the media and do High Fantasy movies instead of books only. I’ve been sort of dying to see Sword & the Sorceror.

Anyway, recently I bought a few fantasy books I’ve been eyeballing during a fire sale on Google Play and Amazon. So let’s see how I did.

The Wise Man’s Fear: The Kingkiller Chronicle: Day Two (2011) – Patrick Rothfuss – I read the first book in Rothfuss’ series, The Name of the Wind, back in January 2014 and I enjoyed it. It was very story heavy with lots of characters with weird names but the book is well written and I was very interested in the world that Rothfuss had built. So, when I found the sequel on sale for super cheap a few months ago on Google Play, I snatched it up. It continues the story of Kvothe, a legendary arcanist (ie magic user) who is relating the unbelievable events of his life story to a scribe. Overall, this book is good. However, it’s LOOOOONG. The eBook is 875 pages long. And it feels every bit of that length. And I didn’t realize this, but it’s also a road book. The main character, Kvothe, is sent out on a journey that lasts FOREVER. He finishes the initial task on the journey and then goes off on an interlude. And then another interlude. And another. To infinity. I was ready for the book to end. But the book is written very well and is set in an interesting world with an interesting take on magic. I just think, since we KNOW this book is continuing into a third book, that Rothfuss should have ended it a little sooner. And I feel this is a gripe I have with many books in the fantasy genre.

Troll Mountain: The Complete Novel (2014) – Matthew Reilly – I’ve read most of Matthew Reilly’s books. He’s a great action adventure author who’s most famous series involves a special forces officer code-named Scarecrow. So, this was a bit of a genre departure for Reilly. It’s a junior fantasy adventure. Very simple. Short. The novel is in three parts and each part is only about 50 pages long. I actually liked it quite a lot. It reminds me of L Frank Baum’s fantasy stories. Like this could have been a lost fantasy fable found in his papers after he died. It has that type of heart and charm with a touch of morality and lessons to be learned. The story involves our hero, Raf, who has a sister that has fallen ill to a disease that is plaguing the land. There are trolls living in a nearby mountain that have an elixir that will cure it but they require a high payment. Raf, who is poor, decides to travel to Troll Mountain, sneak into their vault and steal the elixir in order to save his sister. It’s a pretty fun, quick and light read that I highly recommend.

Mistborn: The Final Empire (Book 1) (2006) – Brandon Sanderson – I’ve had my eye on Sanderson’s Mistborn Trilogy for a while. Finally Amazon put the Kindle versions on sale for a song (all 3 books for less than $6) and I snatched them right up. So, I read the first book in the trilogy and it’s pretty damn good. The world Sanderson creates is interesting and he has filled this world with interesting characters and a very interesting system of magic. And the setup is similar to something you’d see in another fantasy series I like, The Lies of Lock Lamora by Scott Lynch. It’s a group of thieves and cons who are hired to perform an impossible heist. Exactly the type of plot I love. I will definitely continue this trilogy. However, I have a similar gripe about this book that I had with the first book in this list. The book is a little bit too long. The first book in this trilogy is nearly 700 pages. Knowing there are two more books in this series, reading through to 700 pages starts to get a little tiring. And slightly annoying. Even when I enjoy the characters and subject matter, story fatigue sets in around 600-700 pages. However, that being said, I really did enjoy the book and would recommend it.

The Second Book Of Swords – Fred Saberhagen – You’ll recall during my last High Fantasy Month that I read Fred Saberhagen’s First Book of Swords. I actually have the compilation of all three of the original swords books, so I thought I’d pick up the book and read the second book in the series. But, alas, I didn’t get much further than 4-5 pages. I just couldn’t get into it. I kept glazing over reading the pages and nothing would stick. Not sure what was wrong. I’m close to saying I’m not reading this series anymore, but I may give it a few months and try again. When I couldn’t finish this book, I started to read Mistborn instead. And you see how that turned out, so clearly it was an issue with this story and not with me getting tired of reading fantasy books.

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Worst Movies I saw in 2014

Posted in movies with tags Movie Board, movies, reviews on January 21, 2015 by Paxton

On Monday I gave you my favorite movies of 2014. Here are the worst movies I saw in 2014.

I Frankenstein (2014) – I watched this hoping for a “so bad it’s awesome” schlock-fest. What I got is a non-sensical mish-mash genre picture that isn’t sure if it wants to be taken seriously or be completely tongue-in-cheek. And that inability to commit ruins the final product. And I love Aaron Eckhart, but he’s not a very good Frankenstein’s Monster.

Pain & Gain (2013) – I watched this based on the word of mouth and the cast. I thought it was going to be funnier. I didn’t realize it was going to be as dark as it turned out to be. It just lost me, I guess. Ed Harris, as usual, is GREAT, but the rest of the cast, just lost me. I came out the end not really liking the movie or any of the characters in the movie.

A Good Day to Die Hard (2013) – I watched this against my better judgement. I felt the last Die Hard movie was a good movie on its own, but was a sh*tty Die Hard movie. And that’s where this falls. Except, this is even a less interesting story than the last one. I think Willis has forgotten how to be John McClane. These last two movies are really just Willis being Willis. He’s too stoic. Loosen up, dude. McClane is an everyman policeman. Not super bionic cop. This character discrepancy is especially evident if you watch the first two Die Hard movies in a row and then watch this movie the next night. Which I did.

Non-Stop (2014) – This is more of a mild “not recommend” as opposed to the other movies in this list. I was more disappointed here. I thought it would be so much better plus it had a pretty good cast with Neeson, Julianne Moore and Michelle Dockery who plays Mary on Downton Abbey. This movie sort of reminded me of Neeson in Unknown, another B-level thriller that was more miss than hit. Neeson has been racking up roles since he took off in Taken and he’s mostly awesome, but the law of averages is a vicious bitch and this will tend to happen. Want a different, better Neeson movie from last year starring an actor from Downton Abbey? Check out A Walk Among the Tombstones.

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The Best Movies I saw in 2014

Posted in movies with tags Movie Board, movies, reviews on January 19, 2015 by Paxton

Here I am again to list out my favorite movies of the last year. This time it’s for 2014. *Insert jokes/comments about how quickly time has passed.*

Today, I’m not only judging movies that I watched that opened last year, but ALL movies I watched for the first time in 2014.

I think I’m going to split this list into two categories. I’ll start off with a list of my favorite movies that were released in 2014 and I’ll finish up with movies that were released in other years but I only saw for the first time last year.

It’s amazing how good 2014 was for movies. I had a hard time picking, so I think I’m going to extend my usual five picks to eight. Here they are:

John Wick – Wow. Just…WOW. This movie is balls out intense and action packed. Keanu crushes it. I can’t recommend this movie enough. Wall to wall action and gunfights. Brutal. GREAT.

Captain America: The Winter Soldier – I loved the first Cap movie, but this one blew that one out of the water. In this movie, you see why Cap is a BAD ASS. Great, great movie with lots of amazing action and a great cast. I also love that it turns out to be a conspiracy plot that changes up the makeup of the Marvel Movie-verse a bit and not just Cap defeating some super baddie. We also get a pretty great scene of Nick Fury being bad ass Nick Fury. Something we don’t get to see enough of. And now I want to see a Captain America and Falcon movie. Right now.

Draft Day – I love the sh*t out of this movie. And it’s a testament to how good it is that it’s the only movie in this list that I’ve seen THREE times. And I love it every time I watch it. Kevin Costner is awesome and I’ll watch him in most anything. Plus, there’s some gratuitous Jacksonville love at the end.

The Equalizer – OMFG this movie is balls out awesome. Denzel is a MAN in this. I really hope this turns into a series of movies where we see Denzel helping out people in need. So. Fu**king. Good. Intense. Smart. Great action scenes. In many ways this is as brutal as John Wick, but it also has a lot more to think about.

X-Men: Days of Future Past – I’m a big fan of the original X-Men movies (as you heard on the Nerd Lunch Podcast) plus I’m a huge fan of X-Men: First Class. Combine those franchises and I was ALL IN. And it turned out pretty great. I was very happy with this movie and watching Jackman, Fassbender, McAvoy and Lawrence tear it up was just awesome.

Guardians of the Galaxy – Against all odds this movie turned out pretty great. The eclectic cast and sly humor completely won me over. Not to mention the awesome sci-fi set pieces and I am 100% in love. And I’m glad it caught on with everyone else because now we’ll get more of their adventures sooner rather than later.

Maleficent – Here we are again with Disney. I love these reimagining/retelling from a different point of view type stories. I thought this movie was going to be good but it was SO GOOD. Angelina is great as Maleficent and you really get a sense of her character in the movie. It’s a great companion piece to Sleeping Beauty. And the movie looks just unbelievable. Such great visuals.

Into the Woods – Jeez, Disney again. Obviously I’d seen the trailer for this but knew nothing else about it going in. Not even that it was originally a Broadway show. And it blew me away. I’m a big fan of Broadway shows anyway, so having this be an actual interpretation of a Broadway show didn’t bother me at all. And I hadn’t seen the original show so I didn’t really know what I was missing. I’d love to see the show now. This movie is awesome and fun with great songs and a fun way to intertwine several different fairy tales into one long form story. And Meryl Streep kills the witch. She is so good. As is Emily Blunt as the Baker’s wife and Chris Pine as one of the princes even has a few great moments. So good, especially if you’re a fan of musicals to begin with.

Now those are the best movies I saw that were released last year. Now, let’s look at the best of all the other movies I watched for the first time in 2014 that weren’t released that year.

Frozen (2013) – As you can probably guess, since I’ve mentioned it once or twice, I’m a big Disney musical fan. Plus I have kids. Both my son and daughter LOVE this movie and all of the songs. I’ve probably watched this movie upwards of 50 times but I still like it. And all the songs (except the troll song). Both the movie’s story and the songs are written so well and all of the voice cast is amazing. Is it overexposed? Yes, but deservedly so. It’s still a great movie.

Blackfish (2013) – I had read about this documentary online so I gave it a shot on Netflix streaming. WOW. Horrific. Sad. Scary. It’s a tough one to watch but it’s totally worth it.

Saving Mr. Banks (2013) – Wow, 2013 must have been a great year for movies as well. Look how many showed up in my list this year that I didn’t even watch. Like I said, I love Disney, the movies and the whole atmosphere of the man and the company. And Mary Poppins is one of my favorite Disney movies. So combine all of that and give us the “behind the scenes” story of how that movie was created? YES. Hanks and Thompson knock it out of the park. This is such a great movie.

Somm (2012) – This was another documentary I loved this year. Recommended to me by my good friend Stephen Dupuy. My wife and I love all things wine. So this was right up our alley. It follows several people who are studying and preparing to take the Master Sommelier test. A test that is so all encompassing and so difficult that in the last 40 years of its history less than 200 people have passed. A look into the mind of why someone would want to do that.

Rise of the Planet of the Apes (2011) – The sequel came out in 2014 and I saw it in the theater. But I hadn’t watched the first one at the time so I watched it the day before I went to see the sequel. I had very little expectations. I don’t love Planet of the Apes and have no particular nostalgia for the franchise so I wasn’t really looking forward to watching it. But I was wrong. The movie is pretty great. It’s amazing the performance you get out of Ceasar. Kudos to Andy Serkis for that. This is truly a great movie. The sequel is good too. Not as good as the first one, but it’s definitely a worthy sequel to this movie (It just missed making the list above). I look forward to more Caesar movies.