Spy

Now I saw Spy a while ago but I didn't exactly watch the entire thing so I couldn't really give a complete review of the film. However, when I first watched it there were a lot of parts of it that I really enjoyed so I always wanted to go back and watch the entire thing. Now I got that chance.

Spy is a espionage comedy directed by Paul Feig. Melissa McCarthy plays Susan Cooper, an agent with the CIA. However, Susan is the kind of agent you see in movies and TV shows who is in the background and in the ear of the real spies. However, she is also like those kinds of people in that she has a very kind heart and she's very likable. Its not exactly the same character she's played in other movies like Bridesmaids, The Heat, or Tammy. She's a decent person and it actually gives her an opportunity to act a little bit. That being said, it gets old pretty quickly and the first act of this film is a little bit slow compared to the rest of it.

Susan is partnered up with the secret spy, Bradley Fine (Played by Jude Law). When a mission goes awry and the identities of all the field agents in the CIA are compromised, Susan is tagged in to do field work for the CIA as she is just an analyst and is not on the list of agents compromised. So the rest of the film is her doing spy stuff in the Melissa McCarthy way you might be familiar (and maybe even a little tired) with.

Susan’s main target is the daughter of an international terrorist (played by Rose Byrne). And once again, Rose Byrne continues to just be an actress I want to see more and more of in everything she does. This movie is no exception. She is a lot of fun and I only want to see more and more of her as the movie goes along.

Susan is also assisted by a hardcore secret agent by the name of Four (played by Jason Statham). And I have to say, at first, I wasn’t that wild about Statham in this movie. I didn’t totally see where they were going with him but the more I watched it and the more he shows up, the more hilarious it is. He’ll just show up out of nowhere and you get the impression that he is this very competent and dangerous spy, but then there’s this great moment near the end of the film where Cooper looks at what he does and just says, he means well, he really does. That really captures everything about Jason Statham in this film and its hilarious!

The fun part about Spy is throughout the movie, it treats itself like a Bond film. The dialogue is very serious and everyone is taking it very seriously… until they don’t. The movie is pretty self-aware at times and that’s where Melissa McCarthy’s same old shtick appears and it’s where the movie gets really, really funny. At a certain point, Susan drops her always nice routine and she just becomes a total badass. She’s swearing with every sentence, she’s talking shit about people. It gets really funny.

And I know that some people are going to say that it’s the exact same thing we’ve seen from McCarthy in every movie she’s in, but honestly, it really works in this role. When the jokes are timed correctly and she delivers them well, it lands perfectly and the movie picks up a lot. But at the same time, you see some of the humanity of this character from that softer side that mixes well with the rough and tough character and overall it just becomes fun.

The funny part about this film is that once again, it feels a lot like a real spy film. It treats itself like a real spy film. If you took out Melissa McCarthy and put in Daniel Craig as James Bond, this might even make for a decent James Bond film. But because Melissa McCarthy is in it, because her character is so funny, and because everyone else has those moments where they break the seriousness, the movie has a lot of fun moments.

Now, does it over complicate itself by doing that? I’d say a little bit. There are a couple of characters that have really small roles but large implications. I’m looking at your Morena Baccarin! Also, a down side of this movie might be the fact that it is again, Melissa McCarthy’s same old shtick. 

You’ve seen this character before in Bridesmaids. You’ve seen her before in The Heat. You’ve seen this character before in Tammy. You’ll probably see this character in The Boss and Ghostbusters too. I’m going to say that it works for this movie but it might not work for you.

The fact of the matter is that Spy is actually a really straight forward comedy. This works both in its favor and against it. On one hand its very straight forward and it makes it a lot of fun. You have a lot of fun watching a Rated R action comedy and I don’t think anybody would say that it was a waste of time. However, it works against itself because this movie is not at all extraordinary. It has taken a little bit more time to get this review out because I kind of forgot that I watched this film. Nothing about it really stood out because we’ve seen movies like this.

This is movie is in essence a rated R, Get Smart but with Melissa McCarthy instead of Steve Carrell. Now I do think that is exactly what Get Smart needed to become a really entertaining movie. But Get Smart was passable. It made me laugh at the time and then I kind of forgot about it until now. The only differences between that and this is the R rating. Now that may sound like a huge difference but it really isn’t.

The movie is entertaining, but it doesn’t feel lasting. Now that might just be a personal opinion of mine, but in the long run, I don’t think Spy is going to be an incredibly memorable movie. If you find yourself watching it, you’ll definitely be entertained, but I don’t think you’re going to remember it in a month.

Overall, you have some good performances by McCarthy, Byrne, Statham, Law and everyone in the film. It’s an interesting set up but nothing incredibly original, and you might find it entertaining while you watch it but overall its not gonna leave a lasting impression on you.

But what do you think? Have you seen Spy? What did you think? Comment and Discuss below. You can also send me your thoughts on Twitter @MovieSymposium as well as send me your thoughts for movies I should review in the future. If you follow me on Twitter you can also get updates on future movie news and reviews coming out on this blog.

I’ll leave you with this. Speaking of spy comedies, a new one is coming out with The Rock and Kevin Hart. I'm not gonna lie, it looks hilarious! Here's the trailer for Central Intelligence. Enjoy the link on that. But because YouTube is stupid on the stuff I can share on here, here is something totally different. Here's the trailer for Get Smart instead. Enjoy!

Spider-man and Sony's Cinematic Universe

It’s almost been 2 years since the release of The AmazingSpider-man 2 and a little bit under a year and a half since the Sony Hack. Since then, Sony has done all they can to recuperate their losses and start climbing their way back up to the top and that is definitely prevalent in their plans for a rebooted Spider-man franchise and their superhero plans in general.

Back before the release of The Amazing Spider-man 2 and the Sony/Marvel deal that fulfilled every ones dreams of having Spider-man show up in Marvel cinematic universe movies, especially Civil War, Sony had big plans to create a cinematic universe around their only superhero, Spider-man. There were plans for a Sinister Six movie to come out, a Venom movie, more Spider-man movies, an all-female super team, and my personal favorite, an Aunt May movie. Now all those plans are in question as we wait to see the popularity of Spider-man in his limited role in Civil War as well as his new standalone film in 2017.

The way I see it, those plans don’t really need to go anywhere, they just probably need to be pushed back. The deal with Marvel shouldn’t restrict Sony in expanding their Spider-man universe the way they wanted to, it should expand it even more as the deal makes it so Sony can use Marvel characters in those movies as well. Of course we need to wait and see how Spider-man is received and if there is a future for Tom Holland as the web slinger, however, this deal helps everyone and hurts no one.

No I don’t think Sony should go ahead with an Aunt May spy thriller (although Marissa Tomei might surprise me) but there is a lot of source material to go through when it comes to Spider-man. It may not be the cinematic universe Sony had in mind, but if anything, it allows for Spider-man to climb higher in his adventures because he exists in a larger universe now.

Furthermore (and this is more of a selfish reason) Spider-man can now collaborate with The Avengers to shake things up. Because of that, the Avengers can now face Spider-man villains and vice-versa.

The Sinister Six can still happen!

Sony hasn’t been totally dormant when it comes to Spider-man. They definitely have their eyes set on the standalone film because they feel they have to revitalize a character that has already been revitatlized, that is a challenge. But they also just announced they are going to be making a standalone Venom movie.

Wait… what?

That crappy bad guy from Spider-man 3 played by Eric from That 70’s Show? Now I know Venom is a better character than that movie made it out to be, at least he is in the comics, and I feel like they could do a really interesting expansion of the Spider-man universe by having Venom be an anti-hero, face off with Spider-man here and there, but have his own horror like adventures… Except… he’s going to be separate from the new Spider-man?

Wait… why?

I mean I understand wanting to create a character to stand on its own that could create his own franchise, but this is such a weird choice by Sony. Venom is an incredibly iconic Spider-man character, one of his top villains, and definitely a part of his universe. And you’re just not going to give him any connections to the Spider-man we’re going to see in Civil War? That doesn’t make any sense Sony!

Now Venom was a planned movie in the universe that was going to be set up by The Amazing Spider-man films. I remember hearing about a standalone Venom film for years and that it was going to be connected to The Sinister Six and the Amazing Spider-man films. Again, I don’t think you need to totally scrap those ideas. Sinister Six can work in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, Venom can work in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, you have the materials, why don’t you use them Sony?!?

So why hasn’t Sony introduced their plans for this yet?

Well the answer is quite simple. They’ve done it before and the results were not good. They’ve released plans looking ambitiously to the future and all those plans fell through.

On top of that, there is some Spider-man fatigue.

A lot has changed since the first Sam Raimi Spider-man filmcame out in 2002. The superhero genre has cracked open and now B or C list characters like Guardians of the Galaxy are being discovered and thriving. In fact Guardians destroyed The Amazing Spider-man 2 in 2014 when it came to box office results. Ant-man is getting sequels greenlit and while think that movie was surprisingly fun but probably pretty formulaic in the grand scheme of things, people are more interested in the new characters Marvel can create interesting stories for rather than the same old rehash of Spider-man for the 3^rd time. This will be the 6^th Spider-man film in 2017 and Sony has an uphill battle to make Spider-man exciting again.

I wrote this post mainly in response to the new of the Spider-manless Venom film and to say Sony just keeps on missing the point. I get it, Sony is a business that wants to make money, money is in franchises these days. I also get it that this deal with Sony and Marvel is probably not as conducive as a relationship as I’d like to believe that it is. The fan in me sees this as a perfect opportunity for both organizations to maintain autonomy over their property while creating a larger universe. But knowing what I know about Marvel and their very restrictive creative control, I wouldn’t have been surprised if this Venom thing is a way to maintain creative control over a property that Kevin Fiege would have instead taken down his own dark rabbit hole that is the Marvel Cinematic Universe. But I don’t really see the alternative Sony!

This is the situation we have found ourselves in, a situation where Spider-man is a part of the Marvel Cinematic Universe and struggling to remain relevant. I understand that it won’t be until 2017 that Sony reveals any future universe building plans, but I think I’m just impatient.

I like any other comic book fan want to see Spider-man fight the Sinister Six and recruit help from Tony Stark or other characters from The Avengers. I want Captain America to fight characters from the Spider-man mythology. And the thing is, we now have the opportunity for all of that to happen. Maybe I just want to hear the plans to know that its going to happen, but right now all I am hearing is that Spider-man is going to show up in Civil War in what seems like a very small role and he’s going to have ANOTHER standalone film in 2017 reintroducing the character even though we’ve seen him recreated 2 times already!

The hope that I have is that all of this is going to come to its real fruition after Infinity Wars. That will open up Marvel’s slate a little bit more and they can use that partnership to continue their world, even after the biggest thing that could happen (The Infinity Wars) happens.

Maybe some of these questions will be answered after Civil War, maybe the interest for Spider-man will peak again after his small role in that movie. Because of that I will probably do another post like this after Civil War comes out, but until then I will keep my ear to the ground to see what the plan is for Spider-man and the Marvel Cinematic Universe. But hey… it could still fail.

But what do you think? Where do you think they’re headed with the Spider-man Universe and its connection to the Marvel Cinematic Universe? Do you think I used the word universe too much in this review? Comment and Discuss below!

You can also send me your thoughts on Twitter @cmhaugen24 as well as send me your requests for future movies to review and stuff to talk about. If you follow me, you can also get updates on future movie news and reviews coming out of this blog.

I'll leave you with this. Here's a video of a Spider-man vs a T-Rex... Enjoy!

X-Force and the Future of the X-men

Fox’s expanded universe is the universe I like to talk about probably the most because it’s always changing. One minute it seems like its following a certain scheduled pattern and the future is written pretty clearly, then a movie like Deadpool or X-men: First Class really comes out of nowhere and surprises me.

I remember when I first started this blog I wrote a post on The Wolverine and where I wanted the X-men universe to go. I wanted Hugh Jackman to be visited by Samuel L Jackson and then the X-men universe would be roped back into the Marvel Cinematic universe and all would be right in the world. Then X-men Days of Future Past came out and not only did it solidify the X-men in Fox’s hands, but it opened up a lot of possibilities for future films.

It’s pretty obvious that X-men are going to stay within their own universe for the near future, especially with the success of Days of Future Past and the hype over Apocalypse. But from my perspective, Apocalypse has a very similar vibe to it that X-men: The Last Stand had in that it didn’t necessarily mean the franchise was ending but it was concluding a chapter for the universe. Apocalypse is definitely going to be the last movie for stars like Jennifer Lawrence and it seems to be the end of a trilogy that was started by First Class. On top of that, the final old guard is leaving with HughJackman’s last X-men film said to be the third Wolverine movie. Obviously a cast of new stars is being groomed for the future like Tye Sheridan and Sophie Turner.

The X-men universe is not over concluding with Apocalypse, but my question is, where do they go from there?

Well before Deadpool, it seemed like the person that was destined to take over the X-men universe as the new “Wolverine” was going to be Channing Tatum as Gambit. Originally the Ragin Cajun was suppose to be coming to theaters later this year. But with difficulties with the production of the movie, it looks like Fox has taken the Gambit movie off the slate for now.

Furthermore, the disappointment that was The Fantastic Four has sprouted rumors that Fox has sold Marvel’s first super team back to Disney. That hasn’t been confirmed, but there is definitely not going to be another Fantastic Four movie any time soon and it definitely won’t be connected to the X-men Universe for a while. So again, where does the future of the X-men universe lie?

Well honestly, it lies with Deadpool.

Deadpool is the highest grossing X-men movie of all time and if you watched the end credit scene from that movie, you know that they have bigger plans for sequels to the rated R comedy. They confirmed that the time traveling Cable is going to be in Deadpool 2 and Ryan Reynolds has said that X-Force is his next priority.

With the success of Deadpool, Fox is flirting with the idea of making more of their priorities R rated. This includes the 3^rd Wolverine movie and X-Force. I guess my question is, is there a place for the run of the mill PG-13 X-men movies we’ve come to know up until now?

The answer really comes with the success of X-men Apocalypse. If Apocalypse turns out to be not as big of a success as Deadpool, Fox might see the future of their brand, not with McEvoy and Fassbender and the new generation of X-men, but with Deadpool and the R-Rated superhero world.

Now the other question will be how well Deadpool and the R-rated X-men integrate with the mainstream X-men.

Now the PG-13 X-men movies have not been devoid of mature moments. The Wolverine actually has an uncut version that is definitely R-Rated and I was even surprised when they threw in an F-Bomb into Days of Future Past. But at the same time, from the beginning, the X-men franchise has been PG-13. Maybe flirting with R, but pretty PG-13 across the board.

The question I have for Fox is do they want to begin a shift for all their properties to be rated R?

Again, it all depends on how Apocalypse is received and if they have plans for the mainstream X-men, and if those future plans seem profitable.

Now the fun part about Fox shifting their focus from the mainstream X-men to a more R-Rated, X-Force centric universe is that it might be a perfect Segway to reintroduce Wolverine when Hugh Jackman leaves.

Now for the longest time, I was on the team saying that Wolverine should not be rebooted for a while. I think we can go for a little bit without a Wolverine to give some breathing room between Hugh Jackman’s Wolverine and the new one. That way there is some time that if they brought in a new one they could give an actual good explanation as to why it’s a different guy, or they could reboot the entire franchise and the new Wolverine could be just as new as everyone else.

But with the X-Force, I could see that being a great way to reintroduce a new Wolverine, keep him separate from the original characters as to avoid any awkward conversations, but of course you can have Deadpool give him so much crap about not being Hugh Jackman. I think that would be hilarious!

I have no idea who they should recast as Wolverine and the good thing is we won’t be figuring that out for another year or two until the third Wolverine movie comes out. Maybe I will do a post on who I think should replace Hugh Jackman down the road but for now, I’m going to stay on the side of they shouldn’t reboot Wolverine.

It’s really fascinating to have the X-men franchise at such an interesting crossroads.

Obviously they’re going to try and milk as many X-men movies out of James McEvoy and Michael Fassbender as they can, they’re obviously going to build a franchise around the new characters introduced in X-men Apocalypse, and it really looks as though they are going to create a new sect of the franchise with Deadpool leading the charge as the punkish rogue that will show up every once in a while to do a fourth wall joke.

What does interest me is Fox’s future plans for the Fantastic Four.

Since the horrible turnout at the box office and the horrible critical reception, any news on future Fantastic Four movies have been very quiet. For a long time I thought The Fantastic Four were going to be a property that Fox was going to capitalize on and make a larger franchise within the X-men universe. But now that the sequel has been scrapped, there doesn’t seem to be a future for Marvel’s first super team.

There have been rumors that The Fantastic Four could be returning to Marvel, especially with no plans to do a sequel at Fox. That has not been confirmed and if it is true, there is a good chance they won’t appear until after the Infinity War films.

But the funny part is, that movie didn’t seem to hurt anybody. With the possible exception of the director Josh Trank, everyone involved with The Fantastic Four seems to be doing alright.

Fox soared to the top with Deadpool last month, Michael B Jordan is doing fine, especially with Creed, Miles Teller is in talks to play Han Solo (I don’t think he will but it means he’s still getting work) and I just watched Kate Mara in House of Cards… she’ll be fine.

The success of Deadpool and the excitement for X-men Apocalypse seems to be overshadowing any doubts people have about the future of the X-men universe.

Overall, this is an exciting time for Fox.

It’s pretty interesting because the X-men movies overall have been pretty self-contained adventures. While the Thor or Iron Man movies are self-contained stories unto themselves, it feels a lot more like a franchise. When Captain America comes into Age of Ultron, you feel the implications of a movie like The Winter Soldier, you feel like the crossover movies are continuing a personal narrative.

Whereas you could watch X-men Days of Future Past without watching The Wolverine and you’d be just fine.

I’m not saying either ways of doing things is a bad thing or a good thing, Marvel has its down side because it requires you to watch ALL the previous movies in order to get the full experience. Whereas X-men feels a little disjointed and not totally connected.

I’m really interested in seeing X-men Apocalypse. While I’m obviously excited about movies like Batman v Superman (10 days!!!) or CaptainAmerica: Civil War, X-men Apocalypse intrigues me more than I’m excited about it. That’s probably because I know less about X-men than I do about Batman v Superman or the Civil War storyline, but that’s also a good thing. Because I don’t know that much about the X-men universe, it could go in any direction and I can’t predict that direction.

But what do you think is the future of the X-men Universe? Do you think we’re going to be getting that Gambit film in the near future? Who do you think should play Cable in Deadpool 2? Comment and Discuss below! You can also send me your thoughts on Twitter @cmhaugen24 as well as your requests for future movies to review and topics to talk about. If you follow me you can also get updates on future movie news and reviews coming out of this blog.

I’ll leave you with this. In case you haven't seen it, here is the trailer for X-men Apocalypse. Its coming out soon! Enjoy!

Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon: Sword of Destiny

I’ll be honest; I have never watched any of the Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon movies.

I’ve heard they’re good movies and I think I’ve had the interest, I just haven’t had the drive or the opportunity to watch any of them.

Suddenly on Netflix, Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon: Sword of Destiny shows up and my friend says, let’s watch this!

I was hesitant because I hadn’t seen the previous ones and I didn’t have much of a context with what was going on. According to him, the story was very simple to follow and you didn’t necessarily need to watch the previous films to know what was going on. Was that actually the case?

Sword of Destiny centers on a renowned warrior named Yu Shu Lien (played by Michelle Yeoh) as she travels to a town in the midst of a war with a warrior clan called West Lotus. This town has in its possession a legendary sword called Green Destiny that is coveted by West Lotus and many people around the world. At the same time, a young man named Wei-Fang (played by Harry Shum Jr.) and a young woman named Snow Vase (played by Natasha Liu Bordizzo), come to the town to find them sword themselves. Wei-Fang is looking to steal the sword for his master Hades Dei (played by Jason Scott Lee) of the West Lotus, while Snow Vase is looking to steal the sword to defeat Hades Dei herself.

Wei-Fang is captured but he warns Shu Lien of Hades and his army coming to steal the sword for himself.

In order to protect the sword, a contract is put out to mercenaries willing to come and defend the sword, and that contract goes out to a warrior named Silent Wolf (played by Donnie Yen). He gathers a group of mercenaries to come and defend the sword. The rest of the movie is them defending this sword, good guys versus the bad guys, good versus evil, great visuals and a lot of sword play.

Let’s delve into those good things first. This movie is gorgeously shot. The landscapes and tones of the movie are really well done and just down right beautiful to look at. I also have to say that the swordplay and fighting scenes are just beautifully choreographed. It’s interesting because when I saw Kill Bill, I understood the exact kind of movie it was trying to recreate and now that I’m watching a movie like that, I understand a lot of the nuances and style of the film. I don’t think this movie would have seemed as significant if I hadn’t watched Kill Bill first, so I have to give Tarantino credit for that one. At times it seems ridiculous, but once you understand the style of fighting they’re going for and you get used to it, it’s a lot more fun.

Another thing worth mentioning is that it is very good to see a movie that really gives a lot of roles to Asian actors. I wasn’t a huge supporter of the #OscarsSoWhite movement, but I do recognize that Hollywood just doesn’t give the same opportunities to actors of color that they do white performers. Seeing a movie like this that is all Asian actors is really encouraging to see. I’d like to more roles open up for performers of all races and not require the movies to be Asian martial arts movies. However, this is a good start and a good jumping off point as Netflix does reach a larger audience.

However, while there are a lot of good things about this movie, I will say there are a lot of not so great things about this movie.

The first thing is that the story and a lot of the characters are pretty one note and simplistic. I will say there might be a little bit of a benefit for a simple story as it can portray the narrative as more of a legend. I don’t know if that’s really what they were going for, but having a simple story and simple characters creates it more as a story you might tell around the fire or before bed. However, if you’re talking about a major motion picture, it’s good to have a little more complex characters.

And when you have pretty one note characters, some of that is on the script, but another part of that is on the performers themselves. And with the exception of a couple characters, the actors in this movie don’t really give the best performances.

On top of that, I’m not totally sure if this is a sequel or if it’s a movie that stands on its own. I’m pretty sure Michelle Yeoh’s character is a returning character from the last movies but am I supposed to watch those movies first? Are there characters that I could keep track of better if I had watched the previous movies first? 

I’m not totally sure if this is a complaint or just something I would have rather seen, but I was actually surprised on the lack of violence I actually saw in this movie. For being a movie with a lot of sword play and a lot of extras getting sliced open, I thought I would have seen more blood. But instead a lot of it is done off camera leaving it to the imagination.

Now I’ve seen this done before and depending on how you do it, it can be done really well. Sometimes you really don’t need that R-rated violence and it’s almost more graphic if you don’t see guts flying everywhere.

However, I feel like this movie maybe could have used some more graphic violence, and could have used some blood. While some movies use that PG-13 fighting scenes to make it even more intense, I feel like this movie could have and should have gone for a more Rated R stance and shown some people dying horribly by swordplay.

I understand if the movie was going in a way that has worked for them in the past (again, I haven’t seen any of the other Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon movies) but I personally would have liked to see them take advantage of Netflix in this version.

But going back to the simplicity of the story. On top of the movie being simplistic, I feel like it just wrapped up way too conventionally. Bad guys and good guys fight, good guys are victorious. I think these days we like movies that the good guys can win, but it either has to be at great cost, or they had to have worked really hard to make sure everyone got out alive.

This movie unfortunately wraps everything together with a convenient red bow and you don’t necessarily feel like anybody really developed was lost. Sure people die at the end of this movie, but with the not so great writing and the bad performances, while it was a bummer some of the characters died, I didn’t feel it took a huge toll on me by the end of the movie. Honestly, the main reason I was sad some characters died was because I thought they just fought in a cool style and that style wouldn’t be done by that person. This was a bummer because again, this movie is gorgeous, even the fighting, and the loss of someone with a particular style makes the audience lose out on some cool imagery.

If you’re looking for an easy to follow story which is pretty simple with some sub-par performances, a lot of good fighting, and some great visuals, Sword of Destiny might be a fun ride. But if you’re looking for something more complicated, you can probably skip this one.

But those are my thoughts on Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon: Sword of Destiny. Have you seen it? What did you think about it? What do you think I should review next? Comment and Discuss below. You can also send me your thoughts on Twitter @cmhaugen24 as well as requests for future movies and shows I can review on this site.

If you follow me on Twitter you can get updates on future movie news and reviews I’ll be posting in the future.

I’ll leave you with this. Again, I haven't watched the entire movie, but here is the trailer for the original Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. Maybe it will inspire me to watch it. Enjoy!

House of Cards Season 1

I have tried for about 2 years to put a review up explaining my thoughts on the first season of House of Cards. Originally, I wanted it to be a comparison episode as I have seen both the British version of the show and the American version of the show. I wanted to compare the two and let you all know which one I preferred.

However, it has been a very long time since I finished the first season of the British version, and my real goal here is to get to the 4^th season of House of Cards as fast as I can because its suppose to focus on an election and being as I am incredibly interested in elections these days, I don’t have time to re-watch the British version and give a comprehensive comparison review of both of them.

I’m going to try and go back and check out the British version sometime soon perhaps, but for now, here are my thoughts on the first season of House of Cards.

House of Cards centers on a Democratic senator named Frank Underwood (played by Kevin Spacey). From the beginning, you can tell that Underwood has had a plan to climb the political ladder and that

is prevalent in his support of the recently elected President, Garret Walker (played by Michael Gil). However, when the President doesn’t grant Underwood the position of Secretary of State as he was promised, Underwood begins a cloak and dagger plan to mass power in the political jungle that is Washington DC.

Before I go on, I should say that this is one of Kevin Spacey’s greatest performances in my opinion. The man is well known in the industry and he’s given a lot of great performances but he was always selective in what he chooses. I’ve found that for him he doesn’t want to fall into the same kind of role and it’s always about the performance, not the money for him. Frank Underwood is just a down right evil character and yet you enjoy coming back and seeing him carry on in this story. I’ll talk more about his character and his performance later on.

There is a collection of characters that Frank creates alliances and enemies with throughout the season, but there are a couple of main characters worth mentioning.

The first is his wife Claire (played by Robin Wright). From the very beginning, you can definitely tell Claire Frank’s partner in crime and she is just as ruthless and tactical as he is. Performance-wise, Wright does a great job at creating both the most ruthless ice queen you will probably see in any TV show ever, and a really vulnerable complicated woman. Like I said, Claire is just as tactical and conniving as Frank and yet she has these moments where you can tell she is questioning her life choices and the lifestyle she has created with Frank and that is a continuing arc throughout the season.

The second character worth talking about is Zoe Barnes (played by Kate Mara). Zoe is a rookie reporter that catches the eye of Frank Underwood. He begins to use her to influence the media to help his agenda. The thing about Zoe is that she is not exactly a likeable character and she is by no means a good person, she’s kind of cold hearted, she’s just as calculated as Underwood at times. However, you quickly figure out that she is out of her league as she also finds herself questioning her choices and the situation she has gotten herself into. The story is made even more compelling once the relationship between her and Underwood begins to evolve and stuff gets very dark.

The interesting part about Zoe is that she has a direct comparison character to the British version of the show that was pretty much the cornerstone of the show. And in a sense, the relationship between Zoe and Frank is pretty quintessential to the story, however, I think it was a disservice for me to lock myself into that thinking because the story is really a lot bigger than that. But I found the comparison between Zoe’s characters in both versions was really interesting.

It is only helped by the fact that Kate Mara is a very talented actress. I mentioned this in my review of The Fantastic Four Trailer, but I really only knew Kate Mara from 24 as a really annoying analyst that had a brief stint in the 5^th season. And now she’s a sought after actress, and I don’t think that The Fantastic Four is going to hurt her career too much because she did such a good job with this show.

There are a lot of characters that are important to the first season of House of Cards, however, if I had to name one more character that is incredibly important to the entire show, it is Corey Stoll as Peter Russo.

I remember when Law and Order: LA was a thing and Corey Stoll showed up with a weird looking mustache and I couldn’t really take him seriously. I had no idea that this guy was going to keep on showing up in some of my favorite shows and movies and I’m realizing he’s really an incredibly underrated actor. I’m glad to see that he’s been in big budget movies like Ant-man, and I think people are starting to recognize his name, and I think that has a little bit to do with his role in this show.

Peter Russo is a Representative for Pennsylvania who is an alcoholic. Probably out of all of the characters within the show, he is probably the “good guy” of the show but he has a lot of problems. These problems are noticed by Frank Underwood early on and he becomes a cornerstone to Frank’s plan to mass power in DC.

Now, I’ve pretty much said nothing but good things about House of Cards which is surprising because the first time I watched the first season, it took me a long time and I wasn’t totally impressed with what I saw. I understood the hype, but I don’t know if it was everything that it was built up to be.

If you read my review of Bloodline, you’ll know that I’ve figured out that Netflix dramas are more likely to be a lot of dialogue and more likely to be a slow burn than exciting and suspenseful. House of Cards has its suspenseful moments, but a lot of it is going to be focused on the dialogue as well as the development of characters. It also took a second viewing to really see the big picture of Frank’s plan and totally understand it. I wouldn’t say the plot is overly complicated, it is just muddled with

episodes that are more focused on building character development, but if you don’t know what you’re getting into, you might get lost, get bored, or just lose track of where this is all building up to. Watching the first season for the first time really made me understand a lot of the decisions made.

On top of that, a lot of it is muddled with political jargon and while the show tries to help the average audience, I still think it can be confusing if you’re not really up to date with the political process.

Another thing that might bring in some people but might turn others away is how dark this show is. While a lot of it is focused on that slow burn, there are some really evil things done in this show and there’s not a lot of light moments.

Talking about light moments, the humor in this show is more focused on a dry humor that might go over some people’s heads. I watched this show with a friend and realized that some of the humor in this show is really funny… the problem is that it is so dry and its sandwiched by these really dark moments that sometimes it can be lost on people.

And while I will say that Bloodline was one of the slowest shows I’ve seen in a long time, at least that had a little bit of an explosive and suspenseful last few episodes, House of Cards really doesn’t have that explosive ending. It’s still very much focused on the dialogue and the interactions between characters. The show is definitely a thinking man’s show and if you’re looking for action or at least some suspense more than just threatening talk, you’re going to leave the first season probably disappointed.

I am currently watching the second season and I’m hoping to get the review of that season up just as fast as I did this season. The main reason it’s easier to get a review for a show like this up more quickly is that House of Cards falls into the category of shows that they are more like a long movie rather than 13 episodes.

House of Cards is more episodic than other shows I have watched like that like True Detective, however, I do think that House of Cards is better watched when its binge watched because you’re more likely to hold onto the plot and your thinking might be on a better track to take everything in and really enjoy all the development of characters and the plot that is done really well.

Because it’s more like a movie, I don’t really need to go into particular episodes that I liked and disliked. While some of the episodes could maybe seem like filler episodes on the surface, if you’re paying attention, you will see that the overarching story is set within the entire season. Each episode builds off one another, even if its focused more on Frank going back to South Carolina to deal with a local issue, or he’s going to The Sentinel to accept a library being named after him. If you’re paying attention and you see it more as a long movie, you’ll see the recurring themes and how these different events affect these characters throughout the entire season.

The last thing you could say is a “down turn” to the show, is unfortunately Kevin Spacey as Frank Underwood. Like I said in my explanation of each of the big character’s storylines, there are not a lot of “good guys” in this show. Everyone has their own flaws and everyone is a complicated character. Some are more good than others, but everyone has their moments where you don’t want to root for them. But Spacey does such a good job at playing a just down right even Senator that it can be hard to keep watching, especially if you don’t really like rooting for the bad guy.

In any other movie, Underwood would be the villain you love to hate, however in those movies, you know there is still a hero that you can root for. House of Cards doesn’t really do that. This is more the rise of evil’s power and there’s not a lot of good to root for. It definitely creates something different than the conventional TV show you’ve seen in the past, but it can be a little bit more than a lot of people can handle.

And if you’re the kind of person who has a problem with the lies, with the actions Frank does and says, don’t worry, that probably means you are a normal good human individual. That’s not to say you can’t find it entertaining, it just can be a lot to handle sometimes.

The overall thing to remember is that House of Cards is not a show that you just put in the background. It is the epitome of a show that you need to pay attention to really enjoy it and you’ve been warned, it is a slow burn show.

However, the performances in this show are really great. Not only are the performances from the actors I made mention to great, but the people I didn’t mention. Michael Kelly plays Underwood’s top staffer Doug Stamper, Sebastian Arceuls plays a reporter that helps Zoe throughout the season. Mahershala Ali plays a lobbyist who makes occurring appearances throughout and plays a powerful role.

The show might have a lot more political jargon than a lot of people might be familiar with it, but if you are a political buff, you’re going to get a lot of the jargon being used and it makes the show even more entertaining.

For the most part, I recommend the first season of House of Cards. Once I had a solid grasp on the plan and the plot throughout, I couldn’t wait until the next episode, and even now, I can’t wait until I start watching more and more of the second season. I’m really hoping the review for that will come out just as quickly as this one did.

But what do you think? Without giving any spoilers, what have you thought of House of Cards, especially Season 1? Comment and Discuss below! You can also send me your thoughts on Twitter @cmhaugen24 as well as send me your requests for movies and shows I should review in the future. If you follow me on Twitter, you can also get updates on future movie news and reviews that come out of this blog.

I’ll leave you with this. I might have already used this video, but Kevin Spacey does impressions and here is him doing impressions with Jimmy Fallon. Enjoy!