Avengers: Endgame

Avengers: Infinity War

Captain America: Civil War

The Quick and Dirties: Superheroes

Avengers: Age of Ultron

Captain America: The Winter Soldier

Directed by Anthony and Joe Russo.

2014. Rated PG-13, 136 minutes.

Cast:

Chris Evans

Scarlett Johansson

Samuel L. Jackson

Robert Redford

Anthony Mackie

Sebastian Stan

Frank Grillo

Cobie Smulders

Emily VanCamp

Hayley Atwell

Like Thor and Iron Man we find Steve Rogers, aka Captain America (Evans), trying to piece his life back together "after New York," or the events of The Avengers. In case you haven't kept up with what's going on, Cap has an additional hurdle. He's not long been woken after having been frozen for nearly seventy years. He has a lot of catching up to do. Of course, that has to wait because there's a world to save. Some bad folks, I won't say who, have taken over SHIELD. They plan on restoring world order, and running things, by eliminating every person in the world they deem to be a threat. This numbers some twenty million people. Yes, Captain America, Black Widow (Johansson), and Nick Fury (Jackson) are included in that group. Superhero stuff ensues.

One thing we notice early on is that the tone of this movie is different from just about every other in Marvel's shared universe, with the first Captain America being the closest one. The rest go out of their way to make us laugh. While there is some humor here, that certainly isn't the case. Things don't quite veer into The Dark Knight territory, but it is a fairly serious minded superhero flick. The movie uses this to tremendous advantage by creating tension sooner and rarely diffusing it. Action scenes are given more oomph. Combine all this with the fact that neither our hero nor the people helping him are actually invincible and that tension is increased a bit more. We feel like there's something on the line.

Captain America himself is a big asset. Chris Evans has found the hero he should be playing. As The Human Torch in the Fantastic Four series, he was too much. He got to be real annoying, real fast. In other things, I've usually found him too bland to make me care about whoever he was playing. The character of Captain America calls for a certain level of blandness. Like Superman, he represents the cheesy ideals of a simpler time. He is also a physical specimen superior to the rest of us. Evans embodies all of this. We believe him when he expresses confliction over the politics at play within SHIELD and elsewhere. Unlike Superman, and what ultimately makes him a better fit for the movies, is that he is not indestructible. As enhanced as he is, he will still succumb to many of the same things we will. Granted, none of us are jumping out a plane with no parachute and landing unharmed, but he can still be taken out by a gunshot or be cut by a knife.

Helping us psychoanalyze our hero are Black Widow and Sam Wilson, aka Falcon (Mackie). Both ask him tons of personal questions. Black Widow does so mostly in an effort to help him kick start his love life. Meanwhile, Falcon tries to help him fill in the blanks created by seventy years of sleep. It's a cool way for us to get to know a little more about Cap, and inject some laughter into the proceedings. Johansson gives her best performance of the character, to date, and Mackie does a very nice job with his role. He is an actor I've admired for a while now, so I'm happy he's getting a chance at becoming part of a huge franchise on a recurring basis (hopefully). Speaking of our supporting cast, I'd be remiss if I didn't mention Samuel L. Jackson. He continues to make Nick Fury his own.

All of these performers come together to tell us an intriguing story. It's the saga of a prodigal son returning, but not sure what to, and if he still belongs. It's the self-examination of a man who is struggling with his sense of right and wrong. His feelings are egged on by his lack of trust in the powers that be. These are issues he never had to deal with during his World War II days. Eliminating the enemy was easy because everyone knew who they were. With evil-doers more clandestine than ever and their identities rapidly changing, Cap has a lot tougher job than he once had.

Examining our hero's mental state is fine and dandy, but it all would be for naught in a boring movie. See Ang Lee's Hulk for proof. Luckily, this one not only has tons of action, it has tons of good action. The battles Cap gets into are some doozies. His hand-to-hand combat is shot in a way that owes a lot to The Bourne Identity. The camera is a bit shaky and closer than normal. It works to emphasize the force and speed at which our hero is moving. His best fight is one with a person who has a very interesting identity. However, the best action scene of them all might be one that doesn't include Cap at all. Instead, it features Nick Fury trying to escape with his life. It's Fury's finest scene in any movie, period.

One of the negatives in all this awesomeness is something this movie imposes on itself and wouldn't change. That problem is that it's "just" a Captain America flick. Marvel's shared universe concept comes back to bite them. By that, I mean we already know that this is a world where Thor, Iron Man, and the Hulk exist. The conflict of this movie certainly seems like a big enough issue to get their attention. Alas, none of them are even doing a fly-by to see if Cap is okay. This is by no means a deal breaker. However, it just feels a bit odd that so big a problem get such a limited response. On the technical side, there were a couple of hard to ignore continuity issues. These mainly involve just when and where Falcon is able to access his wings. He seemed to just get them out of nowhere on occasion. Again, not a deal breaker, but an annoyance.

The bigger negative is Captain America's abilities. I mentioned them as a positive, earlier. I also exclaimed how great it is that he isn't immortal. Still, just how enhanced he is is a bit vague and inconsistent. Remember that chuteless sky-dive? It looks really cool, but leaves us a bit puzzled when something of much lesser impact than landing that jump hurts him. It's a problem the character has been dealing with since long before he made the leap from the comic book pages to the big screen. Therefore, I won't knock the movie too much. It's really hard to. To be honest, this is arguably the best Marvel movie of this whole shared universe thing.

The Avengers

Captain America: The First Avenger

Directed by Joe Johnston.

2011. Rate PG-13, 124 minutes.
Cast:
Chris Evans
Hayley Atwell
Tommy Lee Jones
Hugo Weaving
Sebastian Stan
Stanley Tucci
Dominic Cooper
Toby Jones
Neal McDonough
Derek Luke
Samuel L. Jackson

To say Steve Rogers (Evans) is weak is an understatement, at least in a physical sense. Mentally, he’s uncommonly pig-headed…er…determined. It’s 1942, and he’s hell-bent on getting into the military. After all, he hates bullies and there are none bigger than Hitler and his Nazis. Unfortunately, 90 pound asthmatics get turned away from service repeatedly. As it turns out, Dr. Abraham Erskine (Tucci) has been watching him. The doctor thinks Steve’s qualities, both physical and mental make him the perfect candidate to be the guinea pig in an experiment to create a super soldier using a special serum the doc invented. Lest you think Rogers is the only pumped up soldier in the world, high-ranking Nazi Johann Schmidt (Weaving) had already gotten a hold of an early version of the serum. He’s also gained possession of an ancient magical thingamajig that pretty much eviscerates anything its pointed at. So there’s that to deal with.

Captain America pulls the trick lots of other comic book movies struggle with. The origin story is at least as good as what happens after our hero becomes super. Rogers is established as such an underdog and is so feisty we can’t help but root for him. He feels ripped straight from the pages of the old comics. Not from the stories themselves, mind you. He’s from that ad in the back where the weakling gets sand kicked in his face. By the way, I’d be remiss if I failed to mention that this early portion of the film contains some of the more remarkable uses of cgi. We have no problem believing Chris Evans is short and scrawny. This also aids Evans in giving one of his very best performances.

Once our guy actually becomes the hero, which takes a while after he undergoes his metamorphosis, we get the action we came for and of course, the villain we came for. In the role of the bad guy, Schmidt AKA Red Skull, Hugo Weaving delivers the goods as usual. It’s not quite the iconic work he turned in as Agent Smith in the Matrix trilogy, but he has a way of making us feel uneasy without going over the top. When his true face is revealed, it does enough on its own. Wisely, he doesn’t break out in histrionics trying to act crazy. He has the confidence of a man who knows he’s frightening. He doesn’t have to prove it.

Marvel has managed to get its last few films right. This, along with Thor and Iron Man 2 before it, works as stand alone entries into the comic book giant’s film canon. They also work as catalysts for translating the idea of a Marvel universe to the big screen with this upcoming summer’s The Avengers. Before these three, each comic book movie was its own self-contained reality. Things have changed. Allowing these characters to be linked also allows for them to develop. We see Captain America do just that. Along the way there are bumps in the road. How he arrives where he does by the finale is bittersweet. It also leaves us very ready for The Avengers.

MY SCORE: 7/10

Sunshine

Directed by Danny Boyle.
2007. Rated PG-13, 107 minutes.
Cast:
Cilian Murphy
Chris Evans
Rose Byrne
Michelle Yeoh

Fifty years into the future the great sustainer of life, the sun, has started dying. Eight scientists/astronauts are on their way to the fading star with a giant nuclear bomb strapped to their ship, the ominously named Icarus II. They hope to release the bomb into the sun, then detonate it in hopes of reigniting it and save mankind from freezing to death. We learn that seven years earlier the same thing was attempted by a crew aboard what else? The Icarus I. No one involved was ever heard from until our heroes pick up their distress signal. There are decisions to make, tempers to calm, emergencies to quell and consequences to deal with. All of this is handled well as the opposing forces of selfishness and selflessness. In the bigger picture, there’s also man’s will to survive vs. God’s plan. However, if you’re paying attention and have seen the Ridley Scott classic you’ll notice a number of references to [i]Alien[/i]. It feels like a nice homage at first. I was hoping it was just that and not a sign of things to come. After all, the tension from such an inherently dangerous and important mission is more than enough to carry the movie. Alas, directory Danny Boyle can’t control himself and we find ourselves suddenly thrust into a very weird space-monster movie. Lame.

SCORE: 5/10

The Nanny Diaries

Directed by Shari Springer Berman and Robert Pulcini.
2007. Rated PG-13, 106 minutes.
Cast:
Scarlett Johansson
Laura Linney
Chris Evans
Paul Giamatti
Donna Murphy
Nicholas Reese Art
Alicia Keys

Every once in a while, you go into a movie fearing the worse and are pleasantly surprised. The Nanny Diaries is one such movie. Charged with picking out “something for everyone,” I settled on this, as it seemed to be the sort of flick my girls would like. “My girls” consists of my wife and two daughters. With my son away at a friend’s, I’m severely outnumbered, in terms of gender. This was not the time to pluck a testosterone fueled adventure from the shelf.

Our tale begins with Annie (Johansson) graduating from college. She’s more than a little unsure what she’s going to do in “the real world.” As luck would have it, she quite literally stumbles into a job as a live-in nanny to a very wealthy family on New York’s Upper East Side. Actually, calling her a nanny is understating her job quite a bit. She is more like a post-natal surrogate mother. She merely has to do everything for Grayer (Art), the little boy she nannies. Dad (Giamatti) is almost always on a business trip. Somehow, he’s still absent even on those rare occasions he’s actually in the same room as his son. Mom (Linney) dictates all activities but doesn’t participate. Apparently, she just can’t do with less than 12 hours of “me time” every day. As a result, “me time” is something Annie finds hard to come by. On top of that, she’s lying to her own mother (Murphy), whom she is hiding her occupation from. Then there’s Harvard Hottie (Evans). He’s the handsome rich guy who lives on the 12th floor and has taken a liking to Annie.

Johansson acquits herself nicely in the lead role. However, it’s Linney’s excellent turn as the control freak mom that drives the movie. She’s oblivious to her own villainy and operates through the fog of pain she’s trying desperately not to show. Her self-worth hinges on the two men in her life, her husband and son. Their failures, both real and imagined, keep her teetering on the edge of full blown depression. Linney plays it perfectly.

TND could’ve settled on the slapstick and pratfalls that mark Annie’s first day at work. Luckily, it finds its brain going forward. Perhaps, this makes it less funny, producing fewer laughs. However, it also makes it smarter, more enjoyable. When we get to the end, even though it’s fairly predictable, it’s somewhat satisfying. It doesn’t feel rushed or seem to come in out of left field. It also says what we’ve been dying to say for the last hour leading up to this.

MY SCORE: 6/10

Scott Pilgrim vs. the World

Directed by Edgar Wright.
2010. Rated PG-13, 112 minutes.
Cast:
Michael Cera
Mary Elizabeth Winstead
Ellen Wong
Kieran Culkin
Anna Kendrick
Alison Pill
Mark Webber
Johnny Simmons
Chris Evans
Brandon Routh
Jason Schwartzman

Every now and then you watch a movie that just shouldn’t work, but absolutely does. Scott Pilgrim vs the World is one of those movies. On paper, it seems to have nothing going for it. It’s based on a graphic novel I’m apparently not cool enough to have ever heard of. The story feels ripped from the early days of fighter games, not exactly profound literature. There is going to be lots of action, but our hero, Scott Pilgrim, is played by Michael Cera, the wimpy whiny dude from Juno and a number of other teen focused flicks. Unconventional heroes are fine. After all, I loved Kick-Ass. This just seems to be too much of a stretch. A comic book movie with a video game plot? Or is that the other way around? Either way, I’m not exactly overwhelmed by anticipation as I press “play” on my remote.

An odd thing happens once the movie actually starts. It strikes a perfect tone and absolutely relishes in how ridiculous things are going to get. It knows its premise is dumb and that our hero is something less than our ideal of heroic. However, unlike Macgruber, which I recently had the displeasure of watching, in this film the script, sight gags and action scenes are actually very smart. Together, they take the last three decades of what was once strictly nerd culture, comics and video games, and morphs it into a clever, funny imagining of those two worlds colliding on the screen. It uses cartoonish, but still flesh and blood people full of the attitudes prevalent among those in their late teens and early twenties taken to absurdist extremes. There’s even some sly social commentary and an obvious moral. And all of it works.

That dumb premise? Scott Pilgram has an odd dream one night. The next day, he meets the girl from that dream, strangely enough. He falls head over heels for her that instant and hounds her until she goes out with him. Where does all the action come from? Shortly after starting to date Ramona (Winstead), the girl of his dreams, it is revealed that to continue seeing her, he will have to defeat each of her “7 evil exes”. These guys pop up out of nowhere and have all sorts of powers and fighting skills.

If you’re a fan of the original Super Mario Bros. and fighting games like Mortal Kombat, Street Fighter, Tekken, or any number of classic video games, you’re prepared to love this movie. The same goes if you’re a comic book fan as a number of scenes are made to look like panels from the hero mags. Then there’s the occasional narration that is spot-on. Finally, Cera’s usual self deprecating humor is perfect.

Here’s the thing: I get the sense this is a love it or hate it type of deal. People like me will sing its praises. Others will roll their eyes at all the madness, complain about how unrealistic it is, proclaim it moronic, and me a moron for liking it. It boils down to this: if you can’t understand the brilliance behind the “pee meter," you’ll never get this movie.

The Losers