Another THOR-Mulaic Marvel Movie, But That’s Okay, I Guess

Opening tonight at every multiplex in the multiverse:

THOR: LOVE AND THUNDER

(Dir. Taika Waititi, 2022)

This fourth THOR film, the 29th movie in the MCU (Marvel Cinematic Universe), checks off all the expected boxes with its air-borne battles, callbacks, cameos, catchphrases, and spectacle-filled set-pieces. It’s the Marvel movie that fans know they’re going to get from before they ever saw the trailer. It’s the big summer superhero blockbuster we all feel like we’ve seen a million times. But I’ve come here to appraise the return of Chris Evans’ Norse god, not just toss off a jaded dismissal, so I’ll say that the film pops with enough laughs, and likable character activity for me to be okay with it.

Director and co-writer Taika Waititi, who also appears via motion capture as the Thing-like Korg, follows his previous turn, THOR: RAGNAROK, with a less weightier story about Thor saving the children of New Asgard from Gorr the God Butcher, intensely portrayed by a Nosferatu-esque Christin Bale (easily the most compelling thing on screen in the entire film). That’s the THUNDER.

The LOVE in the title comes from the rekindled romance with Natalie Portman reprising her role as Dr. Jane Foster, who wasn’t in the third film. Deemed worthy by the Mjoinir Hammer (whatever), Portman’s Dr. Foster joins the action as her own version of Thor dressed in likewise garb (Evans: “And that’s my look”), but her real fight is with cancer, an element that Waititi and co-screenwriter, Jennifer Kaytin Robinson, fail to give much emotional power.

Still, Evans and Portman do conjure up some cute charm together, and, after such performances in the strained sci-fi of ANNIHILATION and LUCY IN THE SKY, it’s nice to be reminded that Portman can be an effective comic actress.

Alongside Thor and Mrs. Thor (She-Thor? Lady-Thor? I’m not looking it up), we’ve got the always welcome Tessa Thompson as Asgardian warrior, Valkyrie; Jamie Alexander as Lady Sif, the aforementioned Waititi’s soft-spoken Korg, and a glorified cameo by the Guardians of the Galaxy (Chris Pratt, Dave Bautista, Karen Gillan, Vin Diesel, and Bradley Cooper), who aren’t given much to do – they aren’t even accompanied by some ‘70s K-Tel hit on the soundtrack.

One amusing factor is that the premise is packaged in a Guns N Roses theme with several of the band’s ‘80s anthems and power ballads blaring throughout, and even a character who wants to be called Axl. GNR’s tuneage even flows through Michael Giacchino’s orchestral score – I still have the instrumental strains of “Sweet Child o’ Mine” bouncing around in my head hole days later.

What’s both good and bad about THOR’s fourth can be summed up in the centerpiece sequence of the film, which features Thor ‘n friends traveling to Ominpresent City (whatever) to seek out the help of Russell Crowe (appearing have a blast as the chubby, smarmy deity) as the god, Zeus, in his lavish gold palace. It plays out as an attempt to merge the movie’s mythology with Mel Brooks by way of dick jokes, and that results in a bunch of hit or miss back and forth one-liner.

Working better are such running gags as Portman’s brain-storming of catchphrases, Matt Damon, Sam Neill, and Luke Hemsworth reprising their roles from RAGNAROK as Asgardian acting troupe versions of Loki, Odin and Thor; and a pair of giant screaming goats, Toothgnasher and Toothgrinder. Hey, these gags do actually work better than they sound, but I’m not claiming it’s all primo material.

As summer sequels go, THOR: LOVE AND THUNDER is a typical offering that should basically satisfy superhero fans or just folks looking for a couple hours of air-conditioned entertainment. These movies feel more and more disposable the more they make, but it feels so futile and useless to be cynical about them.

So if you like Marvel movies, Evans, Bale, Waititi, Portman, GNR, and/or screaming goats, you’ll most likely go for this round of more THOR. If you don’t care for those things, I’m not sure why you read this far.

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LIGHTYEAR: Mildly Amusing, But Light On Real Movie Magic

Opening tonight at a multiplex near you:

LIGHTYEAR (Dir. Angus MacLane, 2022)

For those who are wondering why Chris Evans is voicing Buzz Lightyear in this TOY STORY spin-off, and not Tim Allen, it’s because in the TOY STORY series, Allen is the voice of an action figure based on an astronaut character that was the star of a movie that was popular in the shared TOY STORY universe.

So, as an opening disclaimer tells us, this is the movie that the toy-owning kid, Andy Davis, saw in 1995, that made him want the Buzz Lightyear toy, and the rest is DISNEY/PIXAR history!

As voiced by Captain America himself, Evans’ version of the character isn’t the self-satirical, goofy concoction that Allen gave us in four films (plus lotsa short films, and video game appearances); he’s a driven, fearless, and earnestly heroic construction.

But while that hardened persona makes this Lightyear a sturdy, serviceable action protagonist, it also makes him to be, well, a kinda boring guy. Evans is a solid, likable presence in the role, but it’s a generic alpha male voice however you cut it.

The immaculately animated film posits Buzz and his fellow Space Rangers getting stranded on a hostile planet in which they have to constantly fight off alien tentacles that comically appear to drag off people out of shot. Buzz attempts to save the colony by testing a new hyperspace crystal in a four-minute space flight, but fails, and finds that it takes him four years into the future.

However, Buzz doesn’t give up, and he tries to pull off the hyperdrive over and over, failing every time, and sadly sees his best friend, Commander Alisha Hawthorne (Uzo Aduba) age over time - getting married, having a child, having a grandchild, growing old, and passing. This makes for the movie’s most effective emotional material, but, it’s no UP when it comes to real tearful time-moves-on impact, that’s for sure.

This is all setup for the premise of Buzz joining up with the granddaughter of Alisha, Izzy (Keke Palmer), the clumsy Mo Morrison (Taika Waititi), and ex-convict Darby Steele (Dale Soules) to save the colonists from an evil robot, Emperor Zurg, whose star-destroyer-style ship is hovering above their city that’s trapped inside a big-ass lazer dome.

The principle source of comedy in LIGHTYEAR comes from Sox, Buzz’s robot cat companion. Voiced by Pixar veteran Peter Sohn, Sox does provide a number of funny moments - I enjoyed his firing of knockout darts at attackers (“I bought you five minutes”) – but he’s a pretty predictably cutesy element that teeters on the edge of wearing out its welcome throughout the adventure.

And maybe I was bothered that the design for Sox reminded me too much of BRIGSBY BEAR.

LIGHTYEAR’s greatest strength is its wondrous imagery. When the visuals aren’t focused on the characters, and function as foregrounds, they are as convincing as live action cinematography in every detail. The scores and scores of digital artists, whose names you’ll have to get through to get to the post-credits stinger, really outdid themselves here.

Unfortunately all the eye-popping majesty on display doesn’t add up to the movie magic needed to make LIGHTYEAR a truly memorable, special experience. It’s fine as throwaway summer blockbuster fare, but it doesn’t make for a must-see origin story, or anywhere near an essential Pixar production. 

Audiences will likely find it entertaining enough, and probably won’t care that it doesn’t go to infinity and beyond, as long as it’s an hour and 40-minute distraction from the heat, or the January 6 hearings, or gas prices, or…well, whatever real world crap you want to escape.

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CAPTAIN AMERICA: CIVIL WAR: A Super-Sized Superhero Mash-Up

Now playing at a multiplex near you:

CAPTAIN AMERICA: CIVIL WAR

(Dirs. Anthony & Joe Russo, 2016)

Eight years ago this week, the first IRON MAN movie was released and so began the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU). Since then we’ve gotten two more IRON MANs, two CAPTAIN AMERICAs, two THORs, a stand-alone HULK entry, GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY, ANT-MAN, and two AVENGERS films. 

Now here’s the third CAPTAIN AMERICA movie, which is so packed with Marvel superheroes that it could easily be mistaken for the third AVENGERS movie. 

For Chris Evans, once again donning the red, white, and blue uniform and shield as the title character, is joined by Robert Downey Jr. reprising his iconic role as Iron Man/Tony Stark for the seventh time, Scarlett Johansson for her fifth go around as Natasha Romanoff / Black Widow, Anthony Mackie for the fourth time as Sam Wilson/Falcon, Don Cheadle, also four timing it, as James “Rhodey” Rhodes /War Machine; Jeremy Renner as Clint Barton/Hawkeye (another four timer), Elizabeth Olsen for her second appearance as Wanda Maximoff /Scarlet Witch, Paul Bettany as Vision (likewise), and Paul Rudd, also back for seconds, as Scott Lang/Ant-Man.

And that’s only half the cast because Sebastian Stan is back again as Bucky Barnes aka Winter Soldier from the CAPTAIN AMERICA sequel of the same name, Chadwick Boseman is on hand to introduce the character of T’Challa /Black Panther to the MCU, Daniel Brühl does a slimy turn as Slovakian terrorist Helmut Zemo, Frank Grillo (also from the CAPTAIN AMERICA sequel) puts in some more tough guy time as Brock Rumlow/Crossbones, William Hurt is back from the THE INCREDIBLE HULK (though the Hulk isn’t) as General Thaddeus “Thunderbolt” Ross, and Captain America’s returning love interest Sharon Carter /Agent 13 again played by Emily VanCamp.

Whew! I knew I’d spend half the review just listing who’s in this movie, and I haven’t even gotten to what’s probably the most hyped factor: the introduction of the brand new Spider-Man to the MCU, now played by Tom Holland in a warm up for SPIDER-MAN: HOMECOMING, due for summer 2017. 

CIVIL WAR involves the Avengers being divided over signing the Sokovia Accords, a 117-country treaty that would give the United Nations jurisdiction over the superhero team because of the massive death and destruction that went down in AGE OF ULTRON. Iron Man is for signing the agreement, feeling that the Avengers should be kept in check, but Captain America disagrees, feeling that the regulations will run them the risk of being used as weapons by corrupt forces in the government.

Captain America’s discord with the Accords has to do with his protection of the Winter Soldier from Iron Man, as the brainwashed Bucky Barnes was responsible for the automobile accident that killed Stark’s parents.

While the film is obviously all about a big showdown between Team Captain America, who has Falcon, Winter Soldier, Hawkeye, Scarlet Witch, and Ant-Man on his side; and Team Iron Man, who has Vision, Black Panther, WarMachine, and Spider-Man on his side, there is a framework of dramatic scenes interwoven with action set pieces leading up to it that make the film a lot more than one big blow-out battle.

Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely, who wrote the previous Captain America films, expertly weave together all these characters and story elements into a ensemble epic that’s one of the strongest, richest, and rewarding of the Marvel movies. There’s not a wasted moment or misstep in the film breezy 146 minute running time. 

The Russo brothers have topped their previous CAPTAIN AMERICA entries and Joss Whedon’s last AVENGERS film by maximizing on the human approach to these characters. We’re not watching unrelatable dark dull demigods fighting it out like in the disastrous BATMAN Vs. SUPERMAN, we’re engaged with flawed, funny friends with opposing principles putting their powers on the line. The powers that be at DC really ought to be taking notes.

CIVIL WAR’s climax, the aforementioned Avengers on Avengers battle at Leipzig/Halle Airport in Germany doesn’t disappoint. It’s a rousingly exciting and wholeheartedly hilarious sequence of spectacle that’s as packed with thrills as it is one-liners. Every Avenger gets a chance to shine, but Rudd’s Ant-Man, who enlarges himself to be a towering giant at a crucial moment, steals the sequence – or at least, scores the most laughs.

Another Avenger who steals their screen-time is Johansson with her impeccably choreographed hand-to-hand fight scenes being the best I’ve seen since THE RAID 2. As much as I enjoyed Holland’s fresh, frisky take on Spider-Man, Johansson’s moments made more of an impression on me. Where’s her stand-alone movie?

But everybody here is at the top of their game. Evans is the best he's ever been as Cap, Downey Jr. acts again like he was born to play Iron Man/Stark, and there's not a dud to be found in the vast cast.

CAPTAIN AMERICA: CIVIL WAR is a stupendous success of a super-sized superhero mash-up; a well-oiled machine of a crowd-pleasing blockbuster that fan boys won’t be able to get enough of. As somebody who’s been more satisfied than disappointed by the offerings of the MCU, consider me among them.

Oh, and as always - stay for the post credits stingers.

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AVENGERS: AGE OF ULTRON: Satisfyingly More Of The Same

Now playing at every multiplex in the galaxy and beyond:

AVENGERS: AGE OF ULTRON

(Dir. Joss Whedon, 2015)

If you live on planet Earth, you’re aware that today the Marvel machine is rolling out the biggest super hero movie of the year - sorry, ANT-MAN, but, c’mon!

AVENGERS: AGE OF ULTRON (from this point on, A:AOU), the sequel to the biggest superhero movie of 2012, THE AVENGERS, and the 11th entry in the Marvel Cinematic Universe franchise that began with the first IRON MAN back in 2008, is here to officially kick off the summer 2015 movie season - sorry, FURIOUS 7.

But if you’re reading this, you most likely know all that, and just want to know if this highly anticipated, star-studded, and CGI-saturated production lives up to its huge hype.

I’ll say - yeah, it does. I had a tremendous amount of fun watching the reunited team - Iron Man/Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr.), Captain America/Steve Rodgers (Chris Evans), Thor (Chris Hemsworth), Clint Barton/Hawkeye (Jeremy Renner), The Hulk/Bruce Banner (Mark Ruffalo), and Natasha Romanoff/Black Widow (Scarlett Johansson) – working together with lots of wit and energy to defeat the powerful robotic villain Ultron (voiced by James Spader).

This adventure begins with an already-in-progress action sequence, involving the comic book crew storming the castle of Hydra leader Baron von Strucker (Thomas Kretschmann) in the icy terrain of the fictional European nation of Sokovia.

Amid the standard chaos and wisecracks (most of which are pretty funny) we are introduced to a couple of new characters, brother and sister duo Pietro/Quicksilver (Aaron Taylor-Johnson) and Wanda Maximoff/Scarlet Witch (Elizabeth Olsen). “He’s fast, she’s weird,” is what SHIELD’s Maria Hill (the also returning Cobie Smulders) says of their powers, which means that Pietro can move at supersonic speeds, while Wanda can manipulate minds with magic.

The Avengers rescue Loki’s scepter, one of the McGuffins of the series, and return to their headquarters at the Stark Tower Complex in Manhattan, where we actually get to hang out with the guys as they party, and engage in a game of taking turns trying to lift Thor’s hammer. Meanwhile, Stark’s Ultron project, which is supposed to be a global peacekeeping program, is co-opted by the scepter and becomes sentient.

That means Spader, who in addition to providing the voice, performed on set in a motion-capture suit, takes over as the movie’s major villain, and sets out to wipe out humanity (“There is only one path to peace... your extinction”).

As if he thinks we don’t have enough characters to keep up with, Whedon keeps piling them on. We meet Barton’s (Renner, in case you forgot) wife (Linda Cardellini of Freaks and Geeks and Mad Men fame) and kids living at a “safe house” farm where the Avengers lay low between battles, geneticist Helen Cho (Claudia Kim) who gets co-opted by Ultron, arms dealer Ulysses Klaue (Andy Serkis, a motion capture master himself), and the re-occuring role of Stark’s A.I. companion J.A.R.V.I.S. (voiced by Paul Betttany) is expanded via a red and green android body (Bettany in the flesh).

There’s also the many cameos from the MCU including Don Cheadle getting in a few good one-liners again as as James “Rhodey” Rhodes/War Machine and Anthony Mackie getting in a few glaring grins as Sam Wilson/Falcon, along with appearances by Hayley Atwell as Peggy Carter, Idris Elba as Heimdall, and of course, Samuel L. Jackson as Nick Fury, who no Marvel movie should be without. And yes, there’s a Stan Lee cameo, but, c'mon, you knew there would be.

Yes, A:AOU covers every single fan-pleasing base it can in its 2 hour and 21 minute running time and is a pretty bloated affair because of it, but it swiftly juggles all these strands until they collide in the big climax set on a ginourmous hunk of a Sokovian city land mass that Ultron has lifted from the earth and is planning on crashing down. The Avengers try to save the city's people while warring with the armies of robots that are all forms of Ultron (in a MATRIX sort of way I guess).

The special effects, of course put together by thousands of digital artists, are flawlessly top notch, but it’s the human moments that give a lot of heart, soul, and humor to this enterprise. A romance blooming between Ruffalo’s Banner (another invested portrayal - where's this guy's Hulk movie?) and Johansson’s Romanoff adds a thoughtful touch, and while Downey Jr.’s Stark is still full of snark, there’s an unmistakable conscience behind it. The rest of the gang also have their moments, but Hemsworth's Thor is still my least favorite Avenger.

Spader, even with only a mechanical presence, makes for a powerfully worthy foe, one who gets his share of well delivered quips and takes delight in destruction.

If this is Whedon’s final fling with the super hero franchise, he went out with a multitude of big bangs. Maybe they’re all riffs on the familiar formulaic tropes of the genre we’re all used to, but that doesn’t make them any less effective. 

A:AOU is winningly and satisfyingly more of the same; it’s everything a superhero superfan would want out of a Marvel movie. Non fans who haven’t been won over by any of the movies in the series before won’t be converted by it, but I seriously doubt many of them will have read this far into this review anyway.

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The Brutally Brilliant SNOWPIERCER & The Striking IDA

SNOWPIERCER (Dir. Bong Joon-ho, 2013) 

In case you haven’t heard, the best action movie of the summer isn’t at the multiplexes, it’s at the art houses in the form of the South Korean-American sci-fi thriller SNOWPIERCER, opening this weekend in the Triangle area.

Based on a French graphic novel, the English language debut of Bong Joon-ho is a hell of a wild ride aboard a 1,001-carriage super train traveling on track that spans the globe. It’s 2031, long after a failed experiment to curb global warning has left the Earth in a new ice age. Most of the world's population has been killed except the inhabitants of the train, who are separated by class with the poor in the back and the rich in the front.

A bearded, almost unrecognizable Chris Evans (CAPTAIN AMERICA) leads a revolt to take over the front of the train (“If you control the engine, you control the world” he figures) resulting in bloody axe battles with masked thugs.

Evan’s band of battered rebels, including Octavia Spencer, Jamie Bell, and Song Kang-ho, capture Tilda Swinton (outfitted with scary false teeth, thick glasses, and a crooked wig) as one of the political stooges for the train’s creator and self appointed savior, Wilfred, and force her to help them make their way through the carriages. Kang-ho is convinced that conditions outside are improving, and that they should use explosives to blow the side of the train open so they can escape.

But Evans is determined to confront Wilfred, especially after witnessing the outlandish opulence that the elite have at their disposal. There’s a lot of social satire in these sequences, most notably in a rich kid’s schoolroom scene, in which a perky teacher played by Alison Pill (The Newsroom) leads her students to sing a song with such lyrics as “What happens when the engine stops? We all freeze and die!” in their happiest voices.

Ed Harris, tracking in traces of his God-minded Christof character from THE TRUMAN SHOW, appears as the supposedly all mighty Wilford, in a conclusion that philosophically brings all the film’s chaos together.

Although I wouldn’t call it visually stunning, the film’s imagery, courtesy of cinematographer Kyung-pyo Hong, is vividly gritty, and looks convincingly lived in.

The brutally brilliant SNOWPIERCER never stops moving. It has an intensity that most summer blockbuster wannabes can’t dream of matching (certainly this year), and its hard edged take on class warfare is so much more compelling than in the HUNGER GAMES movies.

So bypass the weekly onslaught of superheroes, monsters, machines, and all the sequels at the multiplex and seek out the cinematic surprise of the summer.

Writer/Director Bong has not only topped his stellar work in THE HOST and MOTHER here, he’s made a film that can stand up next to such dystopian classics as MAD MAX, BLADE RUNNER, and BRAZIL. A cult crowd is sure to dig it, but here’s hoping it will be embraced by a much bigger audience.

IDA (Dir. Pawel Pawlikowski, 2013)

Set in the early ‘60s, this Polish period piece authentically evokes its era by not only being in black and white, but also in the old-fashioned boxy “Academy ratio” (also recently used in Michel Hazanavicius’s THE ARTIST and parts of Wes Anderson’s THE GRAND BUDAPEST HOTEL).

In her film debut, Agata Trzebuchowska portrays Anna, an 18-year old nun, who is told by her Mother Superior that she has one last living relative, and that she should meet them before taking her vows.

So Trzebuchowska’s Anna travels to meet her aunt Wanda (Polish actress Agata Kulesza in a stand-out performance), who tells her niece that her real name is Ida, she’s Jewish and the rest of their family was most likely exterminated by the Nazis in World War II.

Kulesza, as a boozy former Stalinist state prosecutor, travels with Trzebuchowska to their hometown to find out the truth about the fate of their relatives. The two woman clash a bit because of their vastly different lifestyles, and a charismatic jazz musician (David Ogrodnik) that they pick up hitchhiking may be too big a temptation for our heroine to handle.

Within the square frame, writer-director Pawlikowski, via cinematographers Ryszard Lenczewski and Lukasz Zal, sets up shots in which the top half of the screen is largely bare with the actors’ heads often occupying the bottom. Trzebuchowska, when alone in close-ups, consistently inhabits the lower corners of the image in many compelling compositions throughout.

These touches are artsy, but not self consciously so, as the dramatic weight gets beautifully conveyed by them. I often felt like I was flipping through a collection of grim historic photographs of these events, with the added perspective of these real-seeming characters dealing with difficult decisions about their past and future.

IDA is a striking masterwork of quiet tension. Its pace and power may be extremely restrained, but it still seeped in and haunted me for days after seeing it. For a film that’s this spare, small on the screen, and only 80 minutes long, that’s something to write home about.

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CAPTAIN AMERICA: THE WINTER SOLDIER: The Film Babble Blog Review

Now that Full Frame is over, I leap back into the world of mainstream movies with what's now the #1 movie at the box office:

CAPTAIN AMERICA: THE WINTER SOLDIER
(Dirs. Anthony Russo & Joe Russo, 2014)

So apparently we’re now well into Phase 2 in the building of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. The second phase began strongly last summer with IRON MAN 3, continued with the lackluster THOR: THE DARK WORLD, and now hits its highest point with CAPTAIN AMERICA: THE WINTER SOLDIER, a sequel which surpasses the 2011 original (CAPTAIN AMERICA: THE FIRST AVENGER).

The iconic comic book character’s latest adventure is now in the hands of Anthony and Joe Russo, who are better known for their television work (Arrested Development, Community) than their film output (WELCOME TO COLINWOOD, YOU, ME & DUPREE). Working from a screenplay by Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely, who wrote the first installment, the Russo brothers confidently take control with a soaring action film that actually has a compelling politically driven plot-line.

Chris Evans dons the red, white, and blue uniform and shield for his third appearance as the iconic super hero (fourth if you count his cameo in the THOR sequel last year) in this adventure that is set two years after the events of THE AVENGERS. We catch up with Evan’s Steve Rogers/Captain America working for S.H.I.E.LD. in Washington D.C. and trying to catch up with modern culture (he carries a notebook with a list of things he missed while he was in a cryogenic sleep state for 70 years that includes Moon Landing, Nirvana, Star Trek, Thai food, etc.).

In a stunning opening involving taking on French/Algerian pirates with on a hijacked naval vessel, Captain America catches Black Widow (Scarlett Johansson) extracting electronic files from the ship’s computers, which disturbingly means S.H.I.E.L.D. Commander Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson) had an ulterior motive for the mission.

Back at S.H.I.E.L.D. headquarters, Fury debriefs Captain America about Project: Insight, which will send into space three huge “Helicarriers,” that are linked to spy satellites and have the capabilities to preemptively take out potential threats.

The project has been spearheaded by a cold calculating Robert Redford as World Security head Alexander Pierce, who it’s no Spoiler to say turns out to be the central villain – an agent of HYDRA, the terrorist organization Captain America fought in the first film.

An incredibly jolting car-chase sequence through the streets of D.C. ends with Fury being gunned down by a shadowy assassin, the Winter Soldier, whose face we can’t see. With Fury presumed dead to the world, our hero is left to protect the film’s MacGuffin, the USB flash drive that contains the encrypted data Johansson previously retrieved.

The ins and outs of the plot get a bit too complicated from here, but with its ginormous set piece scenes of explosive destruction (the mammoth annihilation of Tony Stark’s Malibu fortress in IRON MAN 3 has nothing on the climatic CGI spectacle here), you won’t care about keeping up with the twists.

As Captain America, Evans contributes a sharp stoically charming portrayal, one in which statuesque stiffness is a requirement of the job. Evans’ banter with Johansson is fun to watch, but his easy-going chemistry with charismatic newcomer Anthony Mackie as Sam Wilson/Falcon (an old Marvel character making its first appearance in the franchise), is where his performance pops.

The film is enhanced by expanded roles for Jackson and Johansson, and Frank Grillo as a HYDRA henchman is an effective baddie (another Spoiler?), but Redford, probably ecstatic to have so much exposition after ALL IS LOST, is the real scene stealer. His part obviously pays homage to his role in Sydney Pollack’s 1975 political thriller THREE DAYS OF THE CONDOR, as does the movie’s dark themes of techno-paranoia, updated for our current climate.

It’s a testament to Markus and McFeely’s tight screenplay that these themes are crucial to the narrative and aren’t treated as background fodder. Its layered depth helps it transcend the standard super hero storyline structure, while still holding on the fun we’ve come to expect from the formula (on-the-nose one-liners, cross references, Stan Lee cameo, etc.).

CAPTAIN AMERICA: THE WINTER SOLDIER is one of the best Marvel movies, with just the right amount of humor, thrills, and clever character interaction to keep both fans and casual movie-goers highly invested, right through to the signature stinger at the end of the credits.

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CAPTAIN AMERICA: The Film Babble Blog Review

CAPTAIN AMERICA: THE FIRST AVENGER (Dir. Joe Johnston, 2011)

Although I am not a comic book guy, I have more and more been developing an admiration for how Marvel has been expanding their movie universe.

Now Captain America joins Iron Man, Thor, and the Hulk, in this surprisingly solid summer super hero movie that just might be the best of the bunch so far.

Much like the recent X-MEN: FIRST CLASS, this is an origin story crossed with an alternate history scenario, and also like that film, it largely works.

Here our hero played by Chris Evans, who we first meet convincingly CGI-ed as a scrawny runt constantly rejected by the military, gets genetically modified into a tall muscular super soldier for action in World War II by a German scientist (Stanley Tucci).

The villain, the intense Hugo Weaving as a Nazi official with a sinister secret, is planning on destroying the United States with his HYDRA terrorist organization ("Hail, HYDRA!"), and, of course, it's up to Captain America with the help of love interest Hayley Atwell, best friend Sebastian Stan, and the always reliably gruff Tommy Lee Jones as a stern army Colonel to stop the looming wave of world domination.

Weaving, especially after being revealed as Red Skull (not sure I want to try to explain that), appears to be having a blast with his scenery-chewing-and-spitting out prowess, and his treatment of Toby Jones as a beleagured Nazi chemist/lackey is terrifically savage stuff.

The star-spangled man with a plan (as Jones calls Evans) is as engaging as he is unshakable in fight scene afer fight scene. Evans mostly acts with a stoical demeanor, but its not without humor.

There's a satisfying use of circular dialogue throughout in which key lines are effectively repeated, and Evans holds his own with the exceedingly capable cast.

Director Johnston handles with film's aesthetics, at times metallic; at times grimy, beautifully, with all the gravitas that GREEN LANTERN was so sorely missing, and he sets a sturdy tone that takes itself just seriously enough.

There were some pacing problems here and there, and Alan Silvestri's generic action movie score was a bit intrusive, but since CAPTAIN AMERICA is such a smart and ginormously entertaining mainstream Marvel movie, I feel like a heel complaining.

As for the Marvel Universe aspect, you can always expect cameos from franchise characters such as Iron Man's dad Howard Stark (this time played by Dominic Cooper), and Samuel Jackson as Nick Fury (that can't be a SPOILER! right? I mean, he's in all of these films).

You can also expect the traditional Stan Lee cameo, and more importantly, the after-the-credits scene which here doubles as a teaser trailer for next summer's THE AVENGERS which, as you probably know, assembles several of their super hero strands into one big ass Marvel movie event package.

Here's hoping that will be as solid and super as this is.

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