Captain America: Civil War

So on one hand, Captain America: Civil War is the perfect movie for me. Its a super hero film that essentially does everything Batman v Superman tried to do correctly. It takes two iconic superheroes with two opposing ideologies fighting, not because one is the good guy or one is the bad guy, but because they believe so strongly in opposing viewpoints and their personalities clash. Its not just an action filled punch fest, its a clash of beliefs.

And even if it wasn't, the truth was, I was going to see this movie. I was probably going to enjoy this movie no matter what, and even if it was bad, I was still going to be interested in the story and see every Marvel movie from here on out. Why? Because I'm already too invested in this universe not to. I've already watch all the movies, taken in the stories of Steve Rogers, Tony Stark, and the Avengers. I’ve gotten to the point where I actually wouldn’t mind just cutting Marvel a check for 500 dollars and saying, this is for every movie that you absolutely have my business for, for the next 10 years. (Don’t quote me on that math). That’s how invested I am in this movie already.

All that being said, I still try to look at movies objectively not matter how invested I am in it. And this movie falls into a couple of conventions that I’ve started to feel about superhero films in general. I am by no means getting sick of superhero films, but I am starting to see the formulas and a familiar tone that makes me start to think I’m getting tired of seeing the same thing over and over again. I feel like I need to see this movie again to really determine whether or not there is some fatigue going into these films, but for now, let’s talk about the plot.

Captain America: Civil War takes place after the events of Avengers: Age of Ultron. The new Avengers (Scarlett Witch (played by Elizabeth Taylor), Falcon (played by Anthony Mackie), War Machine (played by Don Cheadle), Vision (played by Paul Bettany)) led by Captain America (played by Chris Evans) and Black Widow (played by Scarlett Johanason) are off doing their Avengers thing. They find themselves in a conflict in the country of Wakanda facing a somewhat familiar threat and they take action. They are successful in stopping the real plot, but not without casualties. This not only shakes the group, but it also shakes the world and their outlook on The Avengers.

On the same end, Tony Stark (played by Robert Downey Jr.) feels guilt for the loss of life from previous films, Avengers, Captain America: The Winter Soldier, Age of Ultron, etc. He teams up with the government, represented by the Secretary of State “Thunderbolt” Ross (played by William Hurt) who informs the Avengers that the United Nations is about to sign what is being called the Sokovia

Accords which will bind the Avengers to a governing body that will decide when and when not to deploy the Avengers. This of course splits the Avengers based on what each one of them feels ideologically on the accords. Tony Stark and others believe it is a good check and balance to a powerful group like The Avengers who, without any oversight, have inadvertently caused the deaths of innocent civilians while they were saving the world. On the other hand, Captain America and others believe the Avengers should have full autonomy and be able to take up any crisis they think is the right thing to do. Ross tells them that the accords are being signed and those who side with the government are free to continue being an Avenger. Those who do not are forced into retirement, and any superhero that works outside government control will be branded a criminal.

Before I move on, I should mention that the differing ideologies in this movie are really great. Yeah the movie is called Captain America: Civil War, so at the end of the day you’re probably going to side with Captain America, but they do a really good job at presenting the pros and cons of both sides. Tony and everyone on his side for the most part believe in the pros of the Accords and believe this is the right thing to do. They believe a governing body creates structure and allows them to do their job, if not better than they used to. If you’re not jumping between sides on during this film, you’re not an open minded person and you’re not appreciating the real value of this movie. It allows both sides to maintain their status as “The good guy” and its not totally a fight between good versus evil as opposed to it being a battle between differing ideologies.

At the same time of this ideological battle, Captain America’s childhood friend Bucky Barnes (played by Sebastian Stan) or The Winter Soldier, the former deadly assassin for Hydra appears from his hiding. The government wants him brought in, but they only want Avengers who have signed the accords to take action. Captain America, knowing what the wrong people will do to his friend, goes after Bucky to help him. On the opposing side you have Tony going after both of them as he recruits the help of the Avengers who side with him and other new heroes, including Black Panther (played by Chadwick Boseman) and Spider-man (played by Tom Holland).

Now before I talk about the performances including the new characters, I should mention that this isn’t just a battle between Tony Stark and Steve Rogers. There is an element of this film that is technically the antagonist of the film. The problem is, the way I described this movie, there could be a version of this film that doesn’t include the villain and the movie would be just as good, if not better. Daniel Bruhl plays the antagonist, and I won’t give away who he is, but he’s okay. He’s not the worst Marvel villain but that’s pretty much all he is, a Marvel villain. He’s pretty forgettable, and he’s really just there to give the heroes, the real focus, something to fight and develop their characters from. He’s not the worst, but he’s definitely no Loki or Kingpin.

The performances all around are very good in this movie. I can probably talk more about arcs and how well each individual character did with their individual piece of the film when I talk about story, but I do want to mention a couple of standout performances.

Obviously the conflict between Steve Rogers and Tony Stark is only furthered by the performances of Chris Evans and Tony Stark. These two actors are the quintessential Captain America and Iron Man and they really bring it in this film. This movie is a lot more serious than the other films. While there are your typical Marvel comedic moments, this Marvel movie deals with a little bit more serious subject matter and you feel it in the tone of this film. Things become very personal for everyone involved and there are times this movie does not feel like Marvel film.

A couple other standouts include Elizabeth Taylor as Scarlet Witch. Not only is Scarlet Witch really turning out to be an incredibly force of nature on the Avengers, but she’s also becoming a really great character. She faces a lot of inner demons and she has to deal with all of that in this film. Is it totally developed the way I would like it to be? No I don’t think so, but I really hope Scarlett Witch continues to be a bigger and bigger character in these Marvel movies because I am really digging what Elizabeth Taylor is bringing to the character.

Paul Rudd returns as Ant-man and while he has a pretty small part, he’s incredibly entertaining and it really makes me want to rewatch Ant-man. I’ll talk a little bit more about this later, but I’ve felt since Ant-man, I’ve been seeing Marvel in a little bit of a downslope and maybe I need to give that movie another chance.

Probably one of the best parts of the movie in my opinion is Chadwick Boseman as Black Panther. I actually called what Black Panther’s motivations were going to be when I saw the trailers for the film. But that didn’t change the fact that I really enjoyed the arc they created with him. I don’t want to give anything away, but he really brings a great element to the film and it makes me overly excited for his standalone film, coming in 2018 (I confirmed it is 2018 and I am sad now because I want to see this movie sooner than that).

The other performance worth mentioning is Tom Holland as Spider-man. I wrote a post a while back stating that there is a pretty good chance that Spider-man still might fail even though the character is now within the Marvel Cinematic universe. I still have a suspicion that that scenario might still occur. However, looking at the character of Peter Parker and Spider-man in Civil War, I am once again excited to see Spider-man appear again in another standalone film. There is such a great relationship

between Peter Parker and Tony Stark that is created in this film that I am excited for that to be developed in Spider-man Homecoming! I loved how quirky and kind of obnoxious Spider-man is in Civil War that I want to see this younger version (an age I wasn’t excited to go back to) of Peter Park squirm his way through another movie and be cocky and just down right hilarious as Spider-man. There isn’t enough time to really flesh that duality out in this film but I already see the beginnings of it. I am overly excited of the prospect of Michael Keaton participating in Spider-man Homecoming and potentially being the villain Vulture. Hell, I’m even excited to see Marisa Tomeii as Aunt May and see where that goes. This Spider-man is a lot better than I expected him to be and it was almost surreal seeing him fight all the characters we’ve come to know in the MCU. He basically has a Quicksilver from X-men Days of Future Past cameo, but it’s really good and makes me excited for the future.

The last thing I’ll speak about is the story. I've mentioned before how the story probably could have been just as good if not better if the villain hadn't been involved. However, overall, given a lot of time to recap in my mind and think about what all happened, its a really solid story. I've heard a couple of complaints that have said that the story is too dependent on the other movies that come before it and its too far down the franchise universe hole that its not accessible to casual viewers. This is a very valid complaint, especially since I know a lot of people who are not avid watchers of the MCU films and they could easily get lost in the shuffle. 

However, I really enjoy the Civil War storyline and it really opens up a lot of prospects for the future, like most of the MCU movies have done. The end credit scenes were pretty cool and there's not a lot of complaints to bring up against it except for the ones I mentioned before. 

I'm going to cut this review short due to the fact that I really want to put this review out before I see X-men Apocalypse and due to the fact that I have to get started on the spoiler review of this so I can talk about the bigger points. 

Overall, Civil War is probably one of my favorite Marvel movies just due to the fact that it has a lot of great action, the story is pretty compelling, and it really delves into ideals and has heart as opposed to just being a run of the mill MCU film. I can't say that it has gotten rid of the slight superhero fatigue I can feel developing, but it definitely gave me a better taste in my mouth than Batman v Superman did. 

But what did you think of Captain America: Civil War? You can comment and Discuss below! You can also send me your thoughts and predictions via Twitter @cmhaugen24. Let me know where you think the MCU is headed and what your favorite part about Civil War was. You can also send me your requests for future movies I should review on this blog. If you follow me, you can get updates for future movie news and reviews. 

I'll leave you with this. Its the Civil War trailer but in an 8-bit format. Its kind of a fun video. Enjoy!

Beauty and the Beast Teaser

Yes I know I haven’t really been up to date with all the posts that I should be focusing on, and yes, I know I haven’t posted my review of Captain America Civil War which should really be my priority… but… GUYS! THERE’S A BEAUTY AND THE BEAST TEASER!

So this teaser was released earlier this morning and I just happened to have a bit of a lull in my work. I thought that was a sign I should write a quick post about this Beauty and the Beast teaser because… Guys… this is probably one of the best teasers I’ve seen in a long time.

We live in a world where a Teaser trailer is no longer a teaser. Teasers have been showing more and more of the film and have become more of short trailers rather than giving you a taste or a tease of the film before the actual trailer. Having watched a lot of trailers in the past year, I do understand how it might be a difficult process to actually make a teaser trailer. But guys… this is really a fantastic teaser.

Beauty and the Beast has been the live action Disney film that I think almost everyone who knows it’s been coming out has been the most excited for. Every single bit of news about this film just made it sound better and better. Emma Watson as Belle, Ewan McGregor as Lumiere, etc, casting news after casting news just made this movie sound like it’s going to be a great film. Along with that, this movie seemed like it was going to be the live action adaptation that people are actually calling for.

I’m not knocking good adaptations that have come out like Cinderella or The Jungle Book, but they’re not the most popular Disney cartoons we remember from childhood. Those are both really good films but they had their own tone and felt like a more up to date adaptation then a true to the cartoon source material they came from. On the other hand of that, you have movies like Alice in Wonderland and Maleficent who don’t feel like the cartoon at all and are really just using the name to branch off and make their own story with the property. As it happens, both examples range from okay with Maleficent, to really kind of terrible with Alice in Wonderland.

What sets Beauty and the Beast apart, especially with this teaser, is it feels like an actual adaptation of the cartoon. It’s not just taking the property and making its own flare on it and calling it an adaptation (which is not necessarily a bad thing) it feels the movie I watched and loved in my childhood is actually coming to life on the big screen in a live action adaptation.  

The teaser isn’t that long but there are a few distinct points that make it one of the best teasers I have ever seen.

The first thing to mention is the music. That opening music is just iconic Beauty and the Beast. Everyone nostalgia should be freaking out when they hear that music if they’re a fan of the movie because that is just quintessential Beauty and the Beast. This is what sets it apart from The Jungle Book which was a pretty close adaptation all things considered. The difference though comes from the fact that The Jungle Book trailers had different indicators that while they set off nostalgic alarms, they weren’t as poignant as this teaser. Hearing that iconic music is a lot different, and in my opinion a lot more effective, than Kaa just saying Trust in me, or them whistling the Bare Necessities at the end. I got goose bumps the first time I heard this trailer just because of the music, and that is a sign of an effective teaser. One last thing worth saying about the music is that it is just magical. The music for Beauty and the Beast was always pretty mystical, but seeing it contrasted with the imagery of the castle, and the voiceovers of Ewan McGregor and Ian Mckellan, it just works perfectly. 

The other thing that was so distinctive about this teaser was the imagery. There’s only one character that you physically see in the trailer and that’s Emma Watson as Belle. And even then you don’t see her totally clearly but just enough to give the movie some star credibility. But the great part about the imagery is that it serves the purpose for both people who are really familiar with the movie and the story, and those who may not be. The castle and the sets that they pan through incredibly resemble the castle from the cartoon so the nostalgics are going to get warm fuzzies just from the sets. But both people are going to get that magical feeling from the combination of the music and the sets falling into disarray from the passing of time.

Perhaps the majority of movie goes don't know for sure, but this is a stacked cast and you should be excited about it because not only is it a lot of people you might know, its a lot of talented people. From Emma Watson as Belle, to Luke Evans as Gaston, to Ewan McGregor as Lumiere, or Ian Mckellan as Cogsworth, the casting just goes on and on. And not only is a number of talented actors, they're also perfectly casted based on what they can do as actors and what they look like. 

It should go without saying, but the claw marks and not showing the Beast was a phenomenal choice. I really hope they continue to shroud the Beast in mystery until the release of the movie. I know that’s a highly unlikely scenario since we live in a world where trailers give away so much, but how great would it be to wait until you see the movie to actually see the Beast. That would be awesome! But back to the claw marks, a picture is worth a thousand words. Even if you don’t know the story of Beauty and the Beast, you can guess there is turmoil, there is conflict and it includes a Beast of some sorts. And if you know the story, you see all the foreshadowing and that’s another aspect that makes this trailer amazing.

And of course, there’s the iconic rose that absolutely needed to be in the teaser that you see when you see our main character.

And then on top of that all, all the voice overs create a perfect tease as to what the familiar story will be. It’s a girl! Could she be the one? Conflict is set up with the claw marks on the portrait and the solution is brought right in front of us.

This is not a very long teaser so this won’t be a very long post, but all I can say is, I loved this. This movie is very much one of my most highly anticipated movies of 2017 and this only heightens that excitement.

But what about you? What did you think of the teaser? Are you excited for Beauty and the Beast? Were you excited from the news about it and made less excited by the teaser? Comment and Discuss below! You can also send me your thoughts on Twitter @cmhaugen24 as well as send me your requests for future reviews (yes Civil War is on the way). If you follow me on Twitter you can get updates on future movie news and reviews coming out of this blog.

Sahara

I think I have a little bit of a bias with this movie. I watched this movie when I was younger and I thoroughly enjoyed it. I grew up loving movies like Indiana Jones and National Treasure that movies like this fell directly within my wheelhouse. Something about digging into conspiracies about American history and exploring ancient ruins is just a lot of fun and I expected that from this movie.

I know as a kid I really enjoyed this movie, but it’s been a while since I’ve seen this movie. Does it hold up?

Sahara stars Matthew McConaughy as Dirk Pitt and Steve Zahn as his partner in crime, Al Giordino. The two of them are treasure hunters and have been partners since their time in the military, all the way up to their treasure hunting days. Dirk has always had the goal of finding a Confederate warship that by some miracle, is rumored to have ended up in the desert of war torn Mali. Nobody believes that that the warship is where Dirk believes it is and dismiss it as a wild fairy tale.

At the same time, a team of Doctors led by Eva Rojas (played by Penelope Cruz) are trying to gain access to Mali in order to figure out the source of a plague that has been ravaging African citizens in surrounding countries.

The two teams figure out that the two situations are more connected than they realize and they set out on an adventure to find a trove of Confederate gold, while investigating a James Bond villain like plot for a warlord to consolidate power and inadvertently cause an environmental catastrophe.

The first plus for this movie is that the cast is a really good cast. While this movie came out at a time before the McConaughassaince and before he started giving Oscar winning performances, it is a fun role as Dirk is your pretty typical dashing rogue. And yeah, you still get a lot of his Southern drawl,

you can tell he’s itching to take his shirt off, and at any point you’re expecting him to end a sentence with, “Alright, alright, alright.” However, I did enjoy McConaughy  in this movie if not for the sake that I know things work out for him in the end.

Steve Zahn is an actor who I actually think is really underrated. I can think of a handful of movies I really enjoyed him in and if the movie wasn’t good, I can’t say it was really his fault. In this he plays the standard best friend companion. He’s the dorky comic relief to balance the dashing hero that McConaughy  plays.

This is something that you might have to understand about this movie While I really enjoyed the cast of this film, you’ll soon realize that the cast and the characters are all pretty standard and fall into a certain trope. This is definitely the case with Penelope Cruz. There’s nothing incredibly unique about Eva. She’s a decent female lead and a decent enough love interest.

One thing I will give this movie credit for is the chemistry they create between characters. While I have seen multiple romances that are better than Dirk and Eva's, I did like their dynamic. They were a flirtatious couple and you can tell that the two of them are going to get together at the end, but they don’t really focus on that until the very end. Sure there’s the sexual tensions that you know they’re going to act on at some point, but they really don’t until the end because they understand the gravity of the situation. While its still a pretty formulaic romance, it is done in a different enough way for me to take notice and actually kind of enjoy.

Furthermore, the chemistry between Dirk and Al, and the group dynamic of all three of our main characters is pretty good. You can believe that Dirk and Al have been friends since forever. I think this movie was supposed to be the start of an adventure franchise starring these two and I am disappointed because I would have enjoyed to see Matthew McConaughy  and Steve Zahn continue that partnership to future films.

If you need a comparison of the three main characters of this film, think of The Mummy. In the Mummy you have the dashing rogue who is your hero. The ambitious and smart female lead who is a little bit out of her league and while she’s strong, she will need rescuing, and finally the comic relief. Its been done in The Mummy and its been done a lot of other places.

Sure there are other characters like Rain Wilson’s character who has some comedic moments, William H Macy playing their authority figure that they don’t listen to. But at the end of the day, the characters in this film are pretty formulaic and unfortunately that dampens their ability to be incredibly interesting. That all being said, I still do think the cast is a plus of this movie because while they are formulaic, you can tell that these people had fun with this movie. I think they do a pretty good job with their performances, I just don’t know if they were given a script that was constructive enough for those performances to be distinctive enough.

Now the structure of this story is also pretty formulaic and nothing to get over excited about. However, the story is pretty unique. I mean a Confederate warship ending up in the deserts of Africa combined with a James Bond-like plot they need to foil, it’s pretty unique. The issue that Sahara runs into is that it almost goes too far into being so unique that it doesn’t capture the imagination the way other adventure movies have. National Treasure was very good at capturing real live historical events and connecting it to the plot in a way that seemed probable and made the adventure fun. One Google search about the story of Sahara will make you understand pretty quickly that this is all fiction and the movie doesn’t really do a great job trying to convince you otherwise.

There are moments in the film that feel like a classic adventure film, and then there are moments that you feel like you’re in a James Bond film. Now you’d think that the combination of a movie in the genre of Indiana Jones would meld perfectly with a spy thriller like James Bond, but for some reason it just doesn’t come off as incredibly inspiring in this film. Both moments are good but for some reason they don’t really meld well together.

It might sound that I am not a fan of this movie anymore when that really isn’t the case. All of the notes that I’ve mentioned about this movie, and the issues that I’ve brought up don’t really disguise the fact that this movie is fun. The action is a lot of fun, the characters while formulaic are entertaining and well acted, and the plot, while goofy, is in the same vein as a movie like National Treasure. I had a lot of fun with Sahara. I get the feeling that if this movie had been given the opportunity for a sequel, they would have been able to make a franchise that had a little bit more of a distinct flavor to it. As it is though, it’s a fun, pretty standard adventure film that you probably will enjoy if you give it a shot.

But that’s what I think of Sahara. What do you think of that film? Comment and Discuss below! You can also send me your thoughts on Twitter @cmhaugen24 as well as send me your requests for movies I should review in the future. If you follow me you can get updates on future movie news and reviews coming out of this blog.

I'll leave you with this. McConaughey is best known for his role in Days and Confused where he had an iconic line that really hasn't gone away no matter how talented an actor he has become. Here's the origin of that line. Enjoy!

Trainwreck

I have to start this post off with an apology. I've been swamped with my real person job and unable to post any new material on here. I'm hoping that changes but I make no promises because this has been a busy year for sure and its only May. Your patience is greatly appreciated and I'm hoping I'll be able to knock out some reviews that have been in the pipeline for a while now.

I won’t say Amy Schumer came out of nowhere, but in many ways she did. I don’t really remember when she started being popular but suddenly she had her own TV show on Comedy Central and I kept on watching her stand up. So it wasn’t surprising that she was gonna stare in her own romantic comedy.

Trainwreck stars Schumer as Amy, a woman who doesn’t really believe in monogamy and shows it by sleeping with a lot of men, drinking a lot, and smoking a lot of pot. She is in essence the “trainwreck” in this movie, but the reality is she is very comfortable with her lifestyle. She has a sister (played by Brie Larson) who is married, raising her husband’s kid from his previous marriage, and is pregnant. She is the absolute opposite of Amy. Another aspect of Amy’s life is her job where she works for a magazine focused towards men. That was one joke I wasn’t totally clear on because it was this magazine with these incredibly offensive titles all about men’s interests and its all run by Tilda Swinton... which I guess is kind of funny. Overall, Amy is living her life the way she wants to live it, nobody is going to tell her otherwise.

While on an assignment for her magazine, Amy meets Sports Doctor Aaron Connors.  (played by Bill Hader). The two hit it off pretty quickly and go on a date. The date ends with her in Connor’s bed and usually that is how the date would end for Amy, but things go differently with Connors and the two start to date, breaking every convention that Amy has set up for herself as not being monogamous.

The rest of the movie really plays out like a normal romantic comedy. If you’ve watched a romantic comedy before, you can probably predict the path this movie takes and while Amy Schumer’s humor brings a different tone to your typical romantic comedy and the movie is actually a lot sadder than usual rom coms, it plays out exactly how you think it will. 

That doesn’t make the movie bad, just don’t buy it if people say Amy Schumer is breaking trends and doing something totally different. She’s really not. Its good, and it’s a rated R Romantic Comedy, but that has been done before.

The praise that this movie receives is there because the characters are fun and Schumer gives a good performance that is different than what her stand up has been. There are actually a lot of serious moments in this movie than I expected and Schumer does a good job with those moments. I think I’d have to see her in more before I say that she’s a great actress, but I do have to say that I really enjoyed her in this movie, both in the serious moments and the funny moments.

Bill Hader hit comedy gold weekend after weekend in SNL and I’m glad that he has a pretty decent career after he left SNL. The reason he is able to is because he’s able to bring out the honest but still funny performances like the one he gives in Trainwreck. Bill Hader looks and kind of comes off as the kind of guy that would usually be the goofy friend or the annoying comic relief, but the cool part is that he’s able to be the romantic male lead and he does a really good job while doing it. He had me laughing, but he also had me feeling.

But probably one of the best comedic parts of this movie was Lebron James. Why was Lebron James in this movie? I don’t know. But he’s hilarious! Even though he’s able to pull off the romantic male lead in a movie, Bill Hader is still a little bit of a weird looking guy and can still be funny in the goofy way, so they needed someone to counter him with a lot of deadpan moments and Lebron James nails them. He plays himself, as a friend of Aaron Connors and you can tell, he had fun with it, Hader had fun with it, everyone had fun with it. James should not consider a career in acting, but for what it was, it was a lot of fun and he brought a lot of the comedy to the movie.

Those two were the main actors and the story focused on them the most but there were a couple other characters like Brie Larsen playing Amy’s sister, Kim, playing her sick father, and the other funny cameos, from Matthew Broderick, to John Cena, really make a solid comedy and a decent movie in general.

I say decent because once again, it’s a pretty conventional romantic comedy. Its pretty by the book despite having rated R comedy and it follows a lot of conventions. Conventions that just wouldn’t happen in real life and therefore takes away from the characters which have been built up as comedic but relatable.

Also Trainwreck is a lot like the movie Ted. Just like Seth MacFarlene, it has a bit of a feel to the comedy that falls in line with Schumer’s style. It’s a style that not everyone enjoys and if you don’t enjoy that style, you might not enjoy this movie that much. Now I would say that Schumer’s style is a little less in your face than MacFarlene’s, but its still there and its still noticeable. I enjoyed the comedy myself, however since Schumer doesn’t always land with me in her comedy, the jokes in this movie didn’t always land with me either.

I think Trainwreck is worth checking out. I enjoyed it and I think if you like Amy Schumer or rated R romantic comedies, it’s the right choice for you.

But what did you think of Trainwreck? Comment and Discuss below! You can also send me your thoughts on Twitter @cmhaugen24 as well as send me your requests for movies I should review in the future. If you follow me you can get updates on future movie news and reviews coming out of this blog.

I'll leave you with this. Speaking of R-Rated comedies, there's a movie coming out that I'm really looking forward to. Its called Popstar and its made by the Lonely Island. I've always been a fan of their work and if they're making a movie essentially making fun of Justin Bieber, I'm in. Enjoy!