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Avengers Assemble: The Ambassador (2014)
"The Ambassador"
Episode 19: "The Ambassador", was not as terrible as the rest of them. The plot was something about Doctor Doom going to the U.N. to seek protection from The Cabal (the show's group of badguys: Red Skull, Hyperion, Attuma, Dracula, and Super-Adaptoid/M.O.D.O.K.)--speaking of The Cabal, it actually was pretty neat how they pretty much gave each badguy an episode of their own and then had them all combine forces to form a sort of anti-Avengers.
There were many twists and turns in the episode. Doom, being the evil genius that he is, planned it out so that Captain America and the Avengers would give him protection from The Cabal and honor his diplomatic immunity as Latveria's ambassador. Doom then took advantage of Cap's trust and used him to sneak inside Stark Tower, where he tried to download Stark's A.I. that The Cabal had previously stolen so that Doom could have all the same advantages over the Avengers that The Cabal has. Only, Captain America and Iron Man foresaw this betrayal coming and instead uploaded a Stuxnet-like virus to Doom's thumbdrive that somehow shut down his Latverian castle for weeks while simultaneously allowing the Avengers to Skype with Doom and taunt him.
... or something like that. I dunno, I wasn't really paying attention to the plot and it was a couple of days ago anyways.
Captain America: The First Avenger (2011)
Captain America: The First Avenger
(see original at http://cobyscomics.blogspot.com/2014/02/captain- America-first-avenger.html)
Captain America. My least favorite movie in all the MCU (yep, liked it even less than Iron Man 2). I don't know what it is about the movie that I found so unimpressive. It was a sleek movie with some big action spots. If I was an old-time movie buff, I probably would've loved The First Avenger. Maybe that's it: maybe it was a little bit too authentic. Maybe it felt too much like the grainy WWII flicks that my grandparents used to watch. This guy hit on it a little bit in his review, "Whatever happens, wherever it happens, its like watching a simulacrum of reality instead of a fully-realized world." Which, yeah, that's not bad, but, it's just kinda... dull and boring, I think.
Regardless, the movie had some great big action sequences and told a story that definitely needed telling (the Super Soldier serum is referenced in nearly every other aspect of the MCU as the Holy Grail of scientific achievement), so I can't be too nitpicky.
Skinny Steve
I will be nitpicky about the grotesque body-modification, though. I mean this in more than one way. First, while I appreciate all the work the CG effects people put into going through frame by frame and either resizing Chris Evans or swapping out his body with his skinny body-double, he still looks creepy and weird. I don't know how they could've done this any better (in one of the behind the scenes interviews, they mentioned they didn't have time for Evans to go through the whole "Tom Hanks in Cast Away" thing); all I know is, I had trouble seeing this as anything more than a floating head attached to a skinny neck.
Second, what kind of a message is this sending to any teenage boys out there self-conscious about their own body? So Steve Rogers has a big heart, is always honest, and is the quintessential America patriot, but he only gets accepted into the Army to be a guinea pig and he's not truly accepted for his values until after he adds on a hundred pounds of muscle? I know this story is nearly a century old, but still, what kinda message is that to be sending to the kids?
The Howling Commandos
Did you know that's who these guys are supposed to be? They didn't call themselves that the whole time, and not a one of them was ever named, as far as I could tell. Maybe they only made them so recognizable as a nod to the comicbook fans and figured the mainstream audiences wouldn't know or care who they were, but still.... I think maybe the first quarter of the movie (with Skinny Steve) should've been shortened by about half, and they should put some time into telling the story of the Howling Commandos--they should've gotten more a story than a quick montage that focused on Captain America, is what I'm saying. But, hey, at least they left the black guy in and didn't "accidentally" re-color him....
I did like what they did with Bucky Barnes, however. The way he went from being Steve's protector to Steve's sidekick was pretty cool. The first time I saw The First Avenger, I somehow completely missed the part when he fell from the train and "died".
I mean, I saw it, I just didn't get the significance of it. Cuz, you know, he's gonna come back as The Winter Soldier, and it's gonna be AWESOME.
"I Don't Want to Kill Anyone" Remember that part? The part where Steve says he doesn't want to kill anyone? Yeah, forget about that. I mean, I won't question the morality of Captain America killing tons of Hydra Henchmen, as I did with Thor and the Frost Giants, because we all know, if anyone deserves to get killed by Captain America, it's Nazis. But, still, he says he doesn't want to kill anyone, but then he kills a lot of people. He even takes a gun into battle. That's part of the whole heroic thing about Captain America, is that he has a shield, not a gun. He goes to war carrying a weapon of defense (which he still uses to crush people's faces in, but, you know, regardless...).
So, what's the message to the kids here? If you get picked on and beat up a lot, take some artificial substance to enhance your body, then go and murder all the bad guys in their face. For America!
Red Skull
First of all: yuck. Ripping Hugo Weaving's face off to reveal the Red Skull wins for grossest part of this movie (besides maybe when that Hydra pilot got chopped up by the propeller in a Raiders of the Lost Ark nod).
Secondly, I don't understand the Red Skull's motivation. So he wants to blow up the world, but why? Is he just a nihilist who wants to worship chaos, or is there some master plan there where he hopes to rule over the ashes? I guess this villain-for-having-a-villain's-sake is a motif carried over from the original Captain America stories (in one of the featurettes, co-creator Joe Simon even mentions that the motivation for the Red Skull was a literal cherry on top of a fudge sundae, and he created him simply to be someone for Cap' to beat up, fully expecting to only do one issue with him in it). And I guess there maybe there is no motivation for the Red Skull, he's just an evil maniac. Luckily, Captain America murders him stands by while he dies the Tesseract beams the Red Skull up to Asgard.
Rating
I give the movie 5/10 stars. A little harsh, I know, but these WWII movies aren't really my thing, and the story felt more like something that I needed to see rather than something I wanted to know about.
Thor (2011)
Thor
(see original at http://cobyscomics.blogspot.com/2014/02/thor.html)
As good as Iron Man, Incredible Hulk, and Iron Man 2 were, they were all just prologue. Thor is when the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) really kicks off.
I think I enjoyed Thor more this time than any previous viewing. The first time I watched Thor (on a bootleg DVD in Afghanistan), I was bored with all the Asgard stuff and just wanted to get on with the story that mattered, the one of Thor on Earth interacting with S.H.I.E.L.D. The second time I watched Thor (just before watching Dark World), I found myself wanting more Asgard and less flirting between Thor and Jane. This time, I was able to enjoy the movie for what it was: an outstanding origin story (of sorts) for Thor and his introduction to the MCU.
Thor = Jesus ?
One thing I couldn't help but noticing this time I watched Thor thwas the parallels between Thor and Jesus. I'm not versed enough in Norse mythology to know if these parallels actually exist, or if they just made them up for this movie. Either way, I appreciated them. Once you think about it in this light, they become pretty obvious. Thor is forsaken by his father Odin. Thor dies fighting the Destroyer and then comes back to life and saves everyone. Stuff happens, then he returns to Asgard, promising to one day return.
Loki
Tom Hiddleston's performance during Thor went largely unnoticed the first couple times I watched it. Maybe it was because I have now seen him in three movies, or maybe it was because I've read other people's (far better movie critics than I) opinion of his acting, but wow, it is good.
Frost Giants
Am I the only one who feels sorry for the Frost Giants? I mean, when Thor, Sif, and the Warriors Three first go to Jottenheim, they kill like dozens, if not hundreds, of them (or 76). And then Loki vaporizes Laufey and turns the Bifrost on and attempts to obliterate their entire planet! Are Frost Giants not sentient beings, also? Poor, poor Frost Giants.... It's a good thing Thor was there to save the day by smashing the Rainbow Bridge, else their entire species might've been genocided!
Easter Eggs
I missed the Infinity Gauntlet in Asgard's weapons vault.
But I totally caught that "Journey into Mystery" billboard!
I love these little nods Marvel puts in their movies for the comic fans out there.
After the Credits
Talk about a great tease! We see Nick Fury, the Cosmic Cube (err... I meant, Tesseract), and find out Loki didn't die after all! This scene actually got me hyped to watch The Avengers all over again!
Rating
If you'd asked me the previous times I watched Thor, I would've given it a much lower rating, maybe 5 or 6 out of 10. But now, being able to watch it in context with the rest of the MCU, I love it! 9 out of 10!
Marvel One-Shot: The Consultant (2011)
One Shot: The Consultant
(see original at http://cobyscomics.blogspot.com/2014/02/thor.html)
In the first of what is now a super-fun tradition, Marvel released a short film called a "One Shot" with the DVD of Thor. After seeing way too much Agent Coulson in the Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. TV, it was nice to go back and watch this One Shot, where he is still the fast-talking, mysterious secret agent type with all the answers. I'm glad I watched this so soon after the Incredible Hulk, otherwise everything Coulson and Sitwell talked about would've gone way over my head. It nicely tied up any loose ends from the Incredible Hulk, mentioning that Blonsky/Abomination is still locked away and S.H.I.E.L.D. wants to keep him that way, so they send Tony Stark to spoil his release by talking with "Thunderbolt" Ross. This also explains just what the heck Tony was doing in the post-credits scene of the Incredible Hulk.
Iron Man 2 (2010)
Iron Man 2
(from http://cobyscomics.blogspot.com/2014/01/iron-man-2.html)
After Iron Man and The Incredible Hulk, the next movie in the Marvel Cinematic Universe is Iron Man 2. Critics were pretty harsh on this one, and understandably so. It was a pretty obvious set-up for The Avengers movie, but, you know what? I don't necessarily think that's a bad thing.
Cheadle
One of the biggest controversies of Iron Man 2 was the change in characters for Rhodey. Terrence Howard only recently came out and admitted he didn't do the second movie because Marvel wanted to give 80% of his pay to Robert Downey, Jr, and they felt that the second movie would work with or without Howard. And they were right! I actually prefer Don Cheadle to Terrance Howard. Cheadle comes off as more serious and hardcore (even in that ridiculous Iron Patriot armor), where Howard has that artistic, flamboyant aire to him that's just hard to get past.
Whiplash
Much like Iron Man 3, I didn't care about the villain in this one. OK, I guess it was pretty cool how they took the Blacklash concept and remade him into Ivon Vanko, son of Howard Stark's old Russian partner, Anton. This sorta kinda explains how Vanko could've developed the Arc Reactor technology, which was another so-so plot device for them to be able to throw in Tony's face how he wasn't the only one with that technology anymore.
How in the world Vanko was able to survive full-on Repulsor Ray blasts to the chest, let alone perfectly time the incoming Grand Prix race cars to be able to whip them to pieces, is anyone's guess. Maybe his exo- skeleton gave him an increased strength and reaction time, Elysium- style? I guess we have to suspend disbelief for a minute here, in order to give Iron Man a credible threatening foe.
My main problem with Vanko was, every time he came on screen, I couldn't help but see Mickey Rourke as a more piratey Hyperion from Immortals and Whiplash as Blacklash from that 90's Iron Man cartoon. Apparently, even Rourke was disappointed with the way his character came across (which, ironically, he talked about during the publicity for Immortals), so at least I'm in good company with my criticism.
I gotta tell you though, as far as cool factor goes, when Iron Man and War Machine blasted each other with Whiplash in the middle, this one tops the charts.
Natalie Rushman
I can't believe I forgot all about Black Widow even being in this movie... I'm so ashamed....
Who else was tricked and thought Scarlett Johansson was really gonna be Tony's assistant? As far as hot assistants go, if anyone could put Ollie's Smoak to shame, it would've been "Natalie Rushman".
Post-Credits Scene
Mew-Mew! Remember how stoked everyone was to see Thor's Hammer at the end of Iron Man 2? I remember the theater literally applauding. I honestly didn't think it would ever happen. I thought Marvel was just effing with us, they'd never actually give Thor his own movie. But they did, and it was awesome! And Thor 2 was even better!
Stan Lee!
as Larry King. You gotta love the old dude's sense of humor: "So I finally, for the first time in my life, felt like I was a celebrity".
Thor: The Dark World (2013)
Thor: The Dark World
I think I had the perfect viewing experience. Wednesday I watched the first Thor movie; then Thursday afternoon I watched the Avengers, before going to see The Dark World Thursday night. I've also been playing the "Avengers Assemble" Facebook game, which prepared me brilliantly for the movie. It's one of the great joys of the transmedia empire that is the Marvel Cinematic Universe. In the Facebook game, the newest Spec Ops mission has Kurse, Dark Elves, and several other elements from the movie. I'm not too familiar with this part of Thor's canon, but being even slightly introduced to these parts of the story via this game made the movie that much more enjoyable.
It's hard to put into words just how much I enjoyed Thor: The Dark World. It was everything a Thor movie should be, and then some. In the first movie, I found myself wishing for more time exploring the Nine Worlds. I also found it hard to care about Asgard and wishing for more time on Earth. This time, not only did I get to see Thor and his Asgardians wrapping up their campaign to establish peace throughout the Nine Worlds, but I also got to see a brilliant before-the-dawn-of-time story. The story made me care about Asgard even more than Midgard (Earth), to the point where, not only did the setting not matter, but I found the scale tilted the other way, where I wanted more Asgard than Earth. Although, Jane Foster and her Phoenix-esque possession by the Aether provided the link for me (as for Thor) back to Earth, and I found myself loving the story that much more.
It was the most fun I've had at the movies since the Avengers. Everything about it was done masterfully, and I can't wait to watch it again! Not only did they do everything I wished they had done in the first Thor movie, and do it better than I ever imagined they would, they also took some of my favorite elements from other movies and perfected them.
Ever since seeing the kids mess with the malfunctioning matrix in Beyond, a short film, part of the Animatrix from 10 years ago, I've been subconsciously wanting to see this squishy gravity concept played out better on the big screen. I got this wish fulfilled in The Dark World. Watching the kids, Jane, Darcy, and Ian throw stuff into the weird anti-gravitational field in the abandoned warehouse was super neat-o. Then, when Thor and Malekith were fighting and warping and teleporting between worlds, with "Mew-Mew" (Mjolnir) frantically trying to find its way across the galaxies and back to its master's hand, I was blown away. This fight couldn't have been better! Ian slamming the car down on the Elves was just icing.
With the Man of Steel a few months ago, a bit of my yearning for the epic super-powered battle that Dragon Ball Z perfected was satiated. But Thor versus Malekith took epic fights to a whole nother level! The timing of The Dark World's release couldn't have been better, with Man of Steel coming to Blu-Ray this Tuesday. There is no competition! Seeing Thor flying through the air like that with his electrified hammer, as he came crashing down into Malekith to teleport him away, I actually believed he was the god of thunder. I dare say I've never seen a better epic battle.
I also loved how they continued to play with Arthur C. Clarke's notion that "magic is just science that we don't understand yet". Jane's back and forth with the healers about the "quantum field generator" versus "soul forge" was just one little example of this. The forcefields both in the prisons and over the capitol were another. It was especially amusing watching Thor and Loki try to figure out how to make Malekith's ship work. There were many other wonderful parts of maybe science-fiction / maybe magic that made the movie just that much better.
During the part when Thor and Loki are escaping from Asgard, I couldn't help but think back to some of the now-lame space battles from Star Wars and how much better this was than that! Even some of the sound effects were the same. I know it's difficult to say anything is better than Star Wars, but, I have to admit, Malekith's fleet was cooler than any of the ships from the former.
So many other good parts to this movie. Too much for my feable mind to have remembered after only one viewing. Thor: The Dark World was such a fun, fantastical, beautiful, amazing movie. I can't wait to watch it again!
Iron Man (2008)
Iron Man
(from http://cobyscomics.blogspot.com/2014/01/iron-man.html) This movie set the stage for such great things to come. Truthfully, I believe if Robert Downey, Jr. had not done the marvel-ous job he did portraying the "genius, billionaire, playboy, philanthropist," then we would not even be talking about a MCU.
Downey's brilliance is in his one-liners, those quips he delivers so perfectly they stick in your head for days afterward. You know what I'm talking about, like when he first dons the original Iron Man armor and absorbs all that AK fire, then turns around and says, "my turn".
Or, the ultimate one-liner, the one that really sold the movie and made everyone like Black Sabbath again, "I am Iron Man".
One of my favorite scenes in the movie is when Tony gets Pepper's small hands to help him switch out mini-Arc Reactors. When she yanks that copper ring out, I almost fell off the couch laughing.
And, yeah, OK, we've got to suspend disbelief for the scene to work, but so what? This is a superhero movie, it's all about suspending disbelief.
Speaking of Pepper Potts, this movie did more for female supporting actresses than anything I can remember in a long time. She's more than just a damsel in distress. Not only does she help Tony Stark do everything (including remember his Social Security Number)--which, incidentally, is nearly identical to the relationship I have with my own wife (sans the whole billionaire playboy thing)--but she plays a major role in this movie. She becomes even more important as the Iron Man trilogy goes on, but we see shades of that in this first movie, where she even helps Iron Man defeat the Iron Monger at the end. So, yeah, I say, give Pepper her own movie! I'd watch it.
My other favorite scene from Iron Man is when he goes back to Afghanistan to blow up all of the Stark Industries weapons. First off, I'd like to point out how much better the Tony Stark in Afghanistan origin story is than Tony Stark in Vietnam or Tony Stark in the Gulf. The creators of this movie took Stan Lee's original idea of having Iron Man be the anti-communist and updated it to make him the anti-terrorist. Secondly, it's always fun watching the movie and telling people, "hey, Bagram Air Field, that's where I was for 6 months" and "yeah, Konar Province is a real place, and it's really bad".
But, yeah, how badass is it when Iron Man shoots his little missile and then turns around, with the tank blowing up behind him? Hard core.
One thing my wife spotted in Iron Man that I completely missed was the Ten Rings flag.
This is the same terrorist organization that the "Mandarin" would go on to "lead" in Iron Man 3. I can't believe I didn't notice this before! By calling this organization the "Ten Rings", Marvel was setting up the villain for the third film way back in 2008 when the first one came out. Just another example of why I love the MCU and Marvel's Master Plan.
I love how pretty much every movie in the MCU culminates in a Final Battle. Iron Man started this trend, and I love it! In Iron Man we get two giant robots fighting on the streets--how awesome is that! The Iron Monger hits Tony with a motorcycle, smashes him through a bus, and flies him into inner-space, all while taunting him in that great Jeff Bridges Evil TRON Supervillain voice. And it ends with anti-damsel Pepper blowing up the Arc Reactor with a Big Badda Boom that can be seen from space.
Finally, we get to the Deleted/Extended Scenes, which I watched for the first time on this viewing of Iron Man. Unlike most movies' deleted scenes, I was actually glad they cut almost all of what they did. If I had seen those Airmen doing their Parade Deck Rifle Drill in the original movie, it probably would've made me hate the thing. The one Deleted Scene they probably should've kept showed Obadiah Stane actually falling into the Arc Reactor before Pepper blew it up. They left him getting blowed up implied in the original movie, which is always dangerous because it leaves things open for one of those comicbook revivals they like to do.
Overall, Iron Man was a fantastic movie, one that kicked the whole MCU off. I'd say it, with Robert Downey, Jr.'s performance, is one of the most important superhero movies ever made. Overall, I'd give it a 9 out of 10 stars.
Oh yeah, we can't forget the obligatory Stan Lee cameo! In Iron Man, he appears as none other than the original Playboy, Hugh Hefner
Man of Steel (2013)
Man of Steel Blu-Ray
(from http://cobyscomics.blogspot.com/2013/12/man-of-steel-blu-ray.html) When I first watched Man of Steel at the theater, I was less than impressed, honestly. Maybe because it was just too big, too much to take in all in one sitting. Maybe because--even though I am by no means a die-hard Superman fan--they changed the story too much, maybe it was too hard for my brain to take in both the over-the-top fight scenes and the all new Superman origin story.
And then I got the Man of Steel on Blu-Ray, and, after watching it, I'm thinking, maybe it was done that way on purpose?? For me to keep a Blu-Ray movie I buy, it has to have one thing above all others: replayability. If I watch a movie once and feel like I've seen everything there is to see, then I'm probably I'm better off renting it from the Redbox or just waiting for it to replay on HBO or FX or something. Very few movies have earned the right to take up my very limited shelf space. Movies like Fight Club, The Matrix, Office Space, The Big Lebowski, Kill Bill, The Dark Knight Trilogy, and The Amazing Spider-Man are there, of course. And now, I think, Man of Steel has earned its place.
After watching it again in the comfort of my living room, I think, maybe, I love it. I think it might be one of the best movies ever--I think it is at least the best Superman movie ever. I think I want to watch it again. There was so much there that I felt like I missed the first time. It's got me thinking maybe they changed the movie some between its original release and the Blu-Ray.
I also enjoyed some of the special features; they answered some lingering questions I had about the movie. Like, how Zod escaped from the Phantom Zone (it was because Krypton's destruction rattled the portal and knocked him loose). The "Krypton Decoded" fake documentary thing was pretty cool, too. However, I was disappointed to see the movie was so CG-heavy--even Zod's Kryptonian armor was fake! The most impressive thing that struck me during my second viewing of the movie was the parallels I was subconsciously drawing between it and my all-time favorite cartoon ever, Dragon Ball Z. I wasn't the only one to make this connection, although, most people saw Man of Steel as enabling a DBZ movie done right (unlike the one that tried and failed miserably, so miserably that I never even watched it).
It's pretty obvious, really: both Superman and Goku's home planets blow up, they both get sent to Earth as children and go on to save the world multiple times, they both have seemingly endless god-like powers, they even both have a special name from their home planet that they didn't find out until later. But the connections go further, to the point where I can't help but think Zack Snyder was directly influenced by Dragon Ball Z. And yeah, this does totally make me want a good DBZ movie, even more so than that spectacular Final Battle between Neo and Agent Smith.