Posts Tagged ‘scarlet’

3 May

Movie Review: Avengers – Infinity War

Posted by vagrantesque in Movies. Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , .

Yep, spinning up the old template for my first movie review in almost two years (My last one was Suicide Squad – ew). I got sick of people asking.
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Starring: Just a lot of people
Director: Anthony & Joe Russo (Captain America: The Winter Soldier, Captain America: Civil War)
Rating: M
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Hi. Yes, I’m reviewing this Big Deal of a movie thanks to the requests of some lovely people who read my older stuff back in the day and I’m really quite flattered but it’s been a long time since I’ve put a score on something and the functional purpose of this blog has changed and I’ve changed and to be honest I feel like I can’t really put enough of my own spin on a review format like this enough to justify using my limited free time to do in-depth film reviews that will become out-of-date extremely quickly anymore but alas, I ignored enough people by not reviewing Star Wars: The Last Jedi last year and well, here we are.

Now why open a review like that? After all, if you’re reading this in the far-flung future you probably don’t care about my state of mind regarding reviews circa early May 2018. No sir. However, it seems quite apt to talk about the futility of following the structure of a scored review (which I’m doing anyway) when talking about this movie in particular, because Joe and Anthony Russo‘s Avengers: Infinity War is not concerned in the slightest with sticking to a recognisable blockbuster narrative structure. Also, no matter the score, it’s clear people will go see it anyway (Hello biggest worldwide opening weekend ever).

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30 Apr

Movie Review: Captain America – Civil War

Posted by vagrantesque in Movies. Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , .

Oh look, another movie pitting superheroes against one another. I wonder how this one will go…

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Starring: Chris Evans, Robert Downey Jr, Sebastian Stan
Director: Anthony & Joe Russo (Welcome to Collinwood, Captain America: The Winter Soldier)
Rating: M
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The only “complete” Marvel comic book story (if such a thing exists) that I have read to this day is Civil War, a seven-part 2006/07 series that was given to me as a gift a couple of years ago. A positively gigantic event, the series divided literally hundreds of Marvel characters down an explosive ideological line – one side led by Tony Stark/Iron Man, in favour of regulating superhero activity to safeguard against massive collateral damage – the other by Steve Rogers/Captain America, unable to reconcile his desire to do good with the politics he feels would impede true justice. When Kevin Feige announced that Marvel Studios would be doing an adaptation of sorts a couple of years ago, I was skeptical of the project, and I wasn’t alone. How could they possibly do justice to the expansive, universe-shattering story with so few established characters in their stable?

As it turns out, the film version of Civil War, appropriately prefixed as Captain America: Civil War, is such a loose adaptation of that comic that the argument is moot. Sure, there are nods to the structure of the original, but what the movie actually turns out to be is primarily a story about Captain America (the still-amazing Chris Evans) and the closest relationships in his life, and on that front, it succeeds spectacularly. It also has some pretty cool supporting characters, and almost all of them add to the sheer fun of the spectacle. Though Captain America: The Winter Soldier was a more focused film, returning directors Joe and Anthony Russo have now proved that they can handle much bigger casts with aplomb, resulting in a sequel that is almost as good as its predecessor, and noticeably fresher than Avengers: Age of Ultron.

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2 May

Movie Review: Avengers – Age of Ultron

Posted by vagrantesque in Movies. Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , .

Yes, we have already reached another summer blockbuster movie season. I’ve already seen this sucker twice and have let it settle for a bit before writing this.

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Starring: Robert Downey Jr, Chris Evans, Jeremy Renner
Director: Joss Whedon (Serenity, The Avengers)
Rating: M
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And so it is that Marvel’s all-conquering cinematic universe has completed its second “cycle” (well, almost – there’s still technically Ant-Man left in July). Even though it seems like yesterday that his first Avengers movie changed cinematic history by tying up four movies of build-up with a very pretty, rather hilarious bow, Joss Whedon has returned with his second and final major contribution to the increasingly expansive web of continuity that is the MCU. And while it’s probably fair to say that it would have been impossible for Age of Ultron to match the euphoric sense of triumph achieved by its predecessor, something tells me that we’ll be lamenting the lack of Whedon come the third movie. He just gets ensemble stories like this.

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