OVP: Free Guy (2021)

Film: Free Guy (2021)

Stars: Ryan Reynolds, Jodie Comer, Joe Keery, Lil Rel Howery, Taika Waititi (and a few cameos we'll get into below)

Director: Shawn Levy

Oscar History: 1 nomination (Best Visual Effects)

Snap Judgment Ranking: 2/5 stars

All right, we are going to be playing a little bit of catchup on the blog this week, as I will be doing four movies from 2021 that I have seen recently.  2021's film output, I'll be honest, has been middling for me.  I've seen a couple of movies I just adored (The Green Knight being chief among them), but by-and-large the year has been more "ehh" than "wow."  This is personified by Free Guy, one of several films that feels like it came out years ago because it was supposed to before the pandemic.  Though it's hard to tell in 2021 what constitutes a hit, this movie feels like it was one.  It's grossed $276 million on an estimated budget of about $125 million (and is currently dominating the Chinese box office, so that number should get closer to $300 million before we're done), and even if you assume another $50-60 million for marketing, that comes down to a relatively profitable sum for 20th Century Studios (I loathe that we can't still call it Fox, and I know that this is petty but I don't care).  But after watching it, I'll be real-it might be a hit, in a time I'm cheering on any hit that comes across the plate, but it's a pretty formulaic one.

(Spoilers Ahead) The movie is about Guy (Reynolds), a non-player character who is in a game called Free City, where he doesn't realize that he's, well, a character in a video game.  He spends every day oblivious to the crime-riddled world around him, thinking it's just a normal day, until Millie (Comer), a real-world player, teams up with him & he starts to see the world for what it is.  Millie is trying to prove that Guy and the entire game was based on a prototype that she and Keys (Keery) made & sold to Antwan (Waititi), a ruthless gaming tycoon in the hipster vein Mark Cuban.  Teaming up with Guy, who comes to want more from his life than the preordained world he's always lived in, they are able to uncover Antwan's plagiarism, and create a new world where Guy can roam freely, not having to constantly live in fear.

The movie is impressive in terms of its effects, and I will say right out-the-gate that it's awesome to be in a situation where we are celebrating an original character that isn't part of a franchise.  I loved the commitment of the film to the specific video game-aesthetics employed by the picture, and Reynolds is affable & fun as this dopey lead character.  Reynolds is not a great actor (I've struggled with a lot of his past movies), but he's right in certain types of roles that trade on his genial handsomeness & awe-shucks likability, and that's the whole point of Free Guy.  Combine in clever cameos from Chris Evans, Channing Tatum, and a host of real-world gamers like Jacksepticeye & Ninja, and you have a movie that knows its audience.

That being said, the movie doesn't take off & can't just rely on Reynolds to keep it afloat.  The sound team is too much (it's immersive, but overtly loud & not just cause I saw this in iMax), distracting from what's going on on-screen (the visuals are already enough-you don't need to repeatedly underline "it's a video game!" with off-putting audios).  More of an issue is the plot, which has been done forever-this is a movie you see coming every second of the movie-there's no beat in this film, which does show some plot points as "twists" that you can't see coming a mile away.  We've done this with The Truman Show, we know the drill.

Worst of all, though, is Taika Waititi as the egomaniacal Antwan.  I'm a Waititi defender-I thought his "imaginary friend Hitler" in Jojo Rabbit was superb, a weird & risky addition to a film that could have flailed under its weight, but he made it work.  That said, this is a step too far.  Antwan doesn't read as an actual human being, and his character falls under the weight of being a total ass-does anyone believe this man is remotely sane enough to have built an empire of this size, much less held down a steady job for longer than a week?  It's a genuinely bad performance, and by-far the biggest thing holding Free Guy back from being a truly fun summer blockbuster.

OVP: Knives Out (2019)

Film: Knives Out (2019)
Stars: Daniel Craig, Chris Evans, Ana de Armas, Jamie Lee Curtis, Michael Shannon, Don Johnson, Toni Collette, Lakeith Stanfield, Christopher Plummer
Director: Rian Johnson
Oscar History: 1 nomination (Best Original Screenplay)
Snap Judgment Ranking: 3/5 stars

I love Clue.  I know that like everyone loves Clue, but I LOVE Clue.  I like everything about Clue, and not just the movie (which I've seen more than any other film, once watched with my brother I think every day for a month-for two cinephile brothers, I think that's the only film we ever did something like that with, and that includes Disney films, and have a poster of it in my basement).  I collect Clue board games; I have 20 versions of the game in my hobby room closet, as well as three knockoff mystery games (13 Dead End Drive, I see you), and am hoping to make it 21 this Christmas as I have "Clue Guess Who" prominently featured at the top of my Christmas list.  I've read all of the Clue books, watched the Clue VCR game, have the Clue Christmas ornament, I buy the Clue board game chocolate every year that Target has it...I love Clue.  And as a result, I'm about as good of a candidate for something like Knives Out as you can find-a silly murder mystery with a large, talented ensemble cast is exactly what gets me to a movie theater.  Even with a plethora of more plausible Oscar contenders out (though kudos on the trio of Globe nominations!), I couldn't resist last week when I had a two hour window to go and catch Rian Johnson's latest in theaters.

(Spoilers Ahead) The film is not, of course, Clue, but it's obvious that Johnson has had a similar adoration for the franchise.  We start with Harlan Thrombey (Plummer), a wealthy mystery novelist, dying of what appears to be suicide in the opening moments of the film.  He had just finished celebrating his birthday party, one that had quite a bit of calamity with his family, and this opened the door for Benoit Blanc (Craig, sporting a ridiculous Southern accent), a noted detective, to be hired by an anonymous figure to investigate what could be a murder.  The film hosts a variety of suspects, from driven businesswoman Linda (Curtis), Harlan's favorite child, to her husband Richard (Johnson), who is having an affair, to his less successful son Walt (Shannon) who is mad that his father is driving him out of the business.  Add in a failed "Goop"-style guru daughter-in-law Joni (Collette) and a spoiled playboy grandson Ransom (Evans), and about the only person you don't suspect is Marta (de Armas), Harlan's nurse & caretaker.  Which means, of course, that Marta is both guilty and we're about to find out why she's guilty.

The best parts of Knives Out are arguably the parts I liked the least while watching it, because I am a mystery fan at heart, and love figuring out the clues as I'm going along.  We find out about a third of the way through what "actually" happened (it's a mystery-there's going to be a twist eventually) with Marta mixing up the morphine vile with Harlan's medication, thus accidentally killing him, and depriving her of her inheritance (Harlan decided to leave all of the money to his caretaker, cutting his family out of the will as a result).  We then see the steps that Marta will take to keep Benoit from finding out, knowing that if she had anything to do with Harlan's death, she'll lose the fortune which will go to Harlan's greedy & unworthy family.  As a result, this becomes more of a thriller than a mystery, as we're meant to take on the role of Marta as an audience rather than Benoit.

Upon reflection, this change in format generally works.  Johnson upends the mystery genre by giving us what we think is the answer, in the process showing what it's like to be an unreliable narrator, but in doing so the ending and the humor don't really resonate by putting someone as morally upstanding as Marta so central to the story.  The movie's best parts should be Curtis, Stanfield, and Collette, all having a blast with their characters, but they're forced into the sidelines to focus on sweet-as-pie Marta and over-acting Benoit, and since the only character whom we spend enough time with and is dynamic enough to be the eventual culprit is Evans' Ransom, we know eventually that it'll be revealed that he's the killer (by switching the labels on the bottles).

The film is fun, no question, but the entire time I saw it I kept thinking "this should be more fun."  It runs too long, isn't snappy enough outside of the initial interrogation sequences, and because it takes away the enjoyment of solving the mystery, it doesn't make us vested into the stories of the eccentric relatives.  As a result, we get relatively two-dimensional performances from people capable of so much more, and while de Armas has ability, she's kind of boring as Marta when you keep wanting to go back to the fun promised in the trailer & the movie's opening chapters.

OVP: Avengers: Endgame (2019)

Film: Avengers: Endgame (2019)
Stars: Robert Downey, Jr., Chris Evans, Mark Ruffalo, Chris Hemsworth, Scarlett Johansson, Jeremy Renner, Don Cheadle, Paul Rudd, Brie Larson, Karen Gillan, Bradley Cooper, Josh Brolin
Director: Anthony & Joe Russo
Oscar History: 1 nomination (Best Visual Effects)
Snap Judgment Ranking: 3/5 stars

I wrote when Captain Marvel came out that it had become impossible for me to judge the films in the franchise without seeing how they ended, and so I (like every person on the planet, apparently) went out the first week Avengers 4 was in theaters and caught the final(?) chapter of the movie franchise.  The film is destined for a slice of immortality, certain to overtake Avatar as the highest-grossing film (a title it may hold forever considering global box office trends-like Avatar and Titanic before it, it’s hard to imagine what kind of movie would eventually trounce such a film).  But the better question is-is it any good?  After 11 years and 22 films, what was the series finale like?

(Spoilers Ahead) The movie picks up almost exactly after we left off, with an opening eerily similar to The Leftovers (a series that is heavily borrowed from in terms of aesthetic, though not in gravitas by this picture).  Hawkeye (Renner) watches as his entire family goes up in smoke (similar to Carrie Coon's Nora on The Leftovers), and soon we find out what life is like in a world where half the planet has disappeared. Each Avenger that got left behind takes their lives in different directions.  Iron Man (Downey) settles down with Pepper Potts and has a child, Black Widow (Johansson) takes on the Nick Fury role, Hawkeye becomes an assassin, the Hulk (Ruffalo) becomes a kinder, gentler being, Captain America (Evans) runs grief sessions, and Thor (Hemsworth) just is a drunk who lets his Adonis-like figure go in favor of a Jeff Bridges in The Big Lebowski sort of aesthetic (though he’s still hot, and anyone who says otherwise needs corrective lenses).  The return of Ant-Man (Rudd) gives them hope that they can go back-in-time and stop Thanos, but Nebula (Gillan), Thanos’s daughter accidentally informs her father in the past that they are trying to undo his work, and as a result they have a gigantic battle where literally every character you can think of from the MCU pops up to fight Thanos.  This journey ultimately ends in the death of not only Thanos, but also Black Widow & Iron Man, and Captain America becoming too old to be an Avenger.

Here’s the deal-there’s a lot to really like about Avengers: Endgame.  The casting budget on the film had to be just impossibly large (when you’re willing to spend money to, say, just have Michelle Pfeiffer & Marisa Tomei stand at a funeral, you know you’ve entered new territory), but it’s a joy to see something so spectacular. The fight scene with Thanos is wonderful, with major moments from Captain America (people cheered in my theater when he took Thor’s hammer) and for girl power (it was hokey as hell, but I loved the “Women of Marvel Assemble” sequence, and so did the packed theater I was in).  In my opinion we have Evans, Hemsworth, & Gillan as the movie’s MVP’s (the movement to get Robert Downey Jr. an acting Oscarcitation feels a stretch, and more a nod to a truly remarkable comeback than a true acting achievement).  Gillan is giving a strong performance, and Evans/Hemsworth have carved out such wonderful dimensions with these noble guys (and have such great chemistry with everyone) that it’s terrific to get to see them together for the last time.  And there’s something to be said for the movie feeling permanently over.  The next franchises are clearly set up (Spider-Man in a few weeks, but also there’s obvious potential for a future Captain America (with Anthony Mackie as the star), Black Panther, Captain Marvel, & Guardians pictures), but it also feels like an end to at least the chapter that started in 2008, a true achievement in a world where we have to stretch movies until their story breaks.

But there’s also a lot of slog here.  Trying to fit 40-odd characters into a movie is a tough task, and certain people (Black Widow & Hulk especially) get the short end of the stick in this picture.  The movie is overlong, predictable, and doesn’t have the emotional heft of the last film’s surprise snap.  Everything in this movie feels exactly how you would have expected it to turn out.  That might be the sign of a good finale (everything was as it was supposed to be), but a movie should have at least some unexpected twists, and it might have been more interesting if we’d had characters die whom we thought might actually exist in the MCU in the future.  As a result, I’m giving this movie a 3 star rating, and think it rates under Infinity War, which felt more epic and more urgent. As a franchise, it’s hard not to commend the achievements of Kevin Feige over the past 11 years, and I’d probably go with a 4-star for the 22 parts as a whole, even if only a couple actual movies in the series rose to that same level.

Ranking the Marvel Movies

Next week, we will see the end of the Marvel Cinematic Universe's current chapter (phase-I don't know what we call this).  For roughly 11 years, we've been getting nearly nonstop movies from the studio, every few months yet another massive hit from Disney.  Individually, the series has had ups-and-downs, with no proper, truly terrible films in the bunch but, honestly, no truly unstoppable masterpieces either (I'm decidedly a Marvel fan for comics, and yes, I bought comics religiously as a child, but I still think The Dark Knight is better than any movie on this list, and I'm not even a Nolan fanboy).  I'm not sure if I'll stick around past this collective list of movies for "Phase 4" of the Marvel Cinematic Universe-I think stories have to be able to end to qualify as stories and not just rambling tales, and in a lot of ways Avengers: Endgame feels like a series finale while the next phase of the MCU (whether that be Spider-Man or Black Panther 2) is a spinoff I'm not sure I'll sign up for.  But in honor of this 22nd film and a closing of the Thanos chapter of the series (and likely the departures of actors like Chris Evans, Chris Hemsworth, and Robert Downey Jr. from these collective roles), I finally got around to seeing Thor: The Dark World (the only missing piece in this puzzle for me) and instead of writing a traditional review of the picture, I thought I'd buy into the trend over the next two weeks and give my personal rankings of the different films.

21. Iron Man 2 (2010)

By-far the weakest entry in the series, not even Downey's schtick (which even in 2010 was starting to show signs of repetitiveness) could save this boring slog of a movie.  Mickey Rourke was coming off such a high with The Wrestler, it's a pity that his comeback stalled after giving the quintessential "boring villain" performance, something that has plagued most of the series (certainly compared with DC).

20. The Incredible Hulk (2008)

I mean, it feels like a cheat to even include this since the titular role was recast, and let's be real here-this is only included because it technically came after Iron Man, otherwise we'd likely leave it off of the list.  That said, Edward Norton was the least of the three Hulks (I actually didn't mind the strong artistic license Ang Lee took with the 2003 version), and Liv Tyler brings really nothing to the love interest role.

19. Thor: The Dark World (2013)

I'll be honest here-while I'm genuinely a fan of both in real-life as celebrities, and actually think that Hemsworth has done the best work outside of the series, I'm decidedly in the field of Captain America within the confines of the quality of their actual stand-alone films.  This is the least of the Thor outings, with a convoluted villain plot and Natalie Portman basically phoning it in as a love interest she likely had no interest in playing (notice how she has yet to show up again in the series).

18. Guardians of the Galaxy, Vol 2 (2017)

Backlash to the first installment always felt a bit extreme to me, with people I think just forgetting that the movies can occasionally be a good time.  That being said, the second film is a bit off-base, with a lot of the same jokes from the first film being repeated, and with no one saying anything new, not even Kurt Russell as a nice-guy villain.

17. Avengers: Age of Ultron (2014)

The actual Avengers movies themselves have always felt a bit of a paint-by-numbers approach.  Perhaps most shocking because of the number of stars that they fit into one film (what is the casting budget on this movie-$100 million, $150?) we also see a lot of ego on display as they attempt to shove every character into enough scenes to warrant 7 or 8-digit pay days.  Combined with James Spader as an eye-rolling villain, and you get a bloated picture.

16. Ant-Man and the Wasp (2018)

I was so smitten with the first movie, it was always going to be a letdown when they brought back this character, as how could it possibly be as much fun?  Even by bringing Michelle Pfeiffer on board, we struggle to make this one work, with the Ghost villain story feeling totally ancillary to the plot, and perhaps they'd have been better off just letting the unknown be the villain here, rather than having a traditional comic book plotting.

15. Thor: Ragnarok (2017)

This is inarguably the silliest film on this list, somehow even surpassing Guardians of the Galaxy, and is the one I wish I liked more.  The cast is superb, possibly the best of any of the films, but it's too random, sporadic, and ridiculous (the entire Jeff Goldblum subplot seemed only there to create memes).  Us finally getting a proper female villain in the series (and played by Oscar Winner Cate Blanchett, no less) is about the best I can recommend here.

14. The Avengers (2012)

We jump from Thor 3 to Avengers 1 where we now have 3-star movies (ie movies that I'd actually recommend based on the rules of this blog).  This is fun, and cool, but never as fun & cool as it should be.  Loki is a good villain, but there's not the right level of chemistry yet between the six main characters, as Hemsworth & Evans in particular are still finding their bearings as matinee idols against an established star like Downey.

13. Doctor Strange (2016)

I can't really figure out how I feel about Benedict Cumberbatch, who always feels a bit too eager in his cinematic work, and seems intent on mugging in a way that recalls a British Justin Timberlake.  That said, this is a good movie, one that just avoids the cliches of an introduction to a character enough to not feel boring.  Tilda Swinton joins the long pantheon of Oscar-winning actresses who have randomly appeared in MCU movies (Portman, Bening, Blanchett, Tomei...it's a longer list than you'd think).

12. Iron Man 3 (2013)

Much better than the sequel, Iron Man 3 actually challenges Downey a bit as an actor in a way few others in this series have done.  We see him fight a villain that feels worthy of him in a way others in the series haven't (Guy Pearce's creepy Killian), and we get arguably the best work out of Gwyneth Paltrow we've had this decade.

11. Thor (2011)

Chris Hemsworth might be my favorite discovery from the Marvel Cinematic Universe in terms of actors who hadn't already proven to themselves at that point.  He's so debonair, funny, charming, and DAMN sexy, and all of that comes out when he basically brings Thor from the comic book pages to life here.  He's considerably better than the film, but that's true pretty much every time he's onscreen.

10. Captain Marvel (2019)

The first of the movies to be headlined by an Oscar winner, and it shows.  Larson is hamstrung by us spending most of the movie looking for clues to what will happen in Avengers: Endgame, but she actually has a fun popcorn movie here, and though he's hidden behind distracting CGI, Sam Jackson gives his best work in the series here as a young, pre-eyepatch Nick Fury.

9. Captain America: Civil War (2016)

Thor is probably my favorite of the actual superheroes in the films, but Captain America is the best leg of the franchise.  Arguably the weakest of the three mostly because of the messy ending to the film, this is still fun and considerably better than the two Avengers films that preceded it (for all intents and purposes, this was the third Avengers movie-look at who it starred in that photo!).

8. Iron Man (2008)

The film that started it all, Robert Downey Jr. going from basically uninsurable to a matinee idol will eventually be one of the great Hollywood comeback stories.  He's great in this movie, a role he was born to play, and the lack of over-confidence in his work (though thankfully not in his character) is spectacular movie star fun.

7. Avengers: Infinity War (2018)

It is literally impossible to gage this film without seeing the sequel (increasingly, it's hard to gage this entire series without seeing the rest of the series) since they are so interconnected, but most of the film gets it right.  The film is grand in scale, there are some strong performances (particularly Tom Holland), and Thanos is a well-executed villain.  It all depends on what the nexy film does, though, over whether this movie stays on its perch considering the cliffhanger.

6. Captain America: The First Avenger (2011)

This movie works really well on its own, and arguably doesn't need the rest of the series to elevate it at all.  Fun, with a great motif & scheme for the characters (I loved the pre-war scenes and the ridiculousness of Captain America's new body), Chris Evans nails this part & sets up a complicated character that in the comic books was always underwritten.

5. Spider-Man: Homecoming (2017)

I didn't want this movie, and I distinctly remember at the time of its announcement saying "I'm not going to see it" after the terrible reboot with Andrew Garfield proved to be such a disappointment.  However, Tom Holland is the best of the three live-action Peter Parkers, playing with a lack of confidence that is endearing and works so well it's impossible to deny him his place in the Top 5.

4. Guardians of the Galaxy (2014)

I don't care that you don't like it anymore, or that Chris Pratt has become problematic in the years since (I actually do care about that one, but as a classic film historian, I have dealt with problematic film stars for decades so my tolerance level is high).  This is the first of the quartet of films I gave 4-stars to, and it earns it with great humor, unlikely heroes, and a new swagger to the MCU.

3. Ant-Man (2015)

By far the most visually innovative of all of the movies, and perhaps the funniest, everything about this movie works.  Paul Rudd is great as the unlikely hero, Michael Douglas hasn't been this good in 15 years, and what could have been a joke of a movie ends up being one of the best installments in the series without ever being too silly.

2. Black Panther (2018)

Marvel goes prestige with this movie, the first superhero movie to ever compete for the Best Picture Oscar.  Armed with the series best villain (Michael B. Jordan is sexy & dangerous as Killmonger), we see an expanded universe that shows that the MCU might just be able to survive after the first class of superheroes (Evans, Downey, ScarJo) hang up their capes.

1. Captain America: The Winter Soldier (2014)

The best Marvel Cinematic Universe movie, and next to The Dark Knight, the best comic book movie of this century, period.  Johansson was on a creative high at the time, and you can see that in her work here, and Robert Redford's warm, movie star charisma (very similar, in fact, to Chris Evans') is eerie because he's so nasty as an Edward Snowden-style figure, a villain whose point you can kind of see even if it's totally evil.  Add in Toby Jones' Arnim Zola making a freaky cameo (still my favorite scene in literally any Marvel movie), and you have arguably the best picture in the series (to date).

OVP: Avengers: Infinity War (2018)

Film: Avengers: Infinity War (2018)
Stars: Robert Downey, Jr., Chris Hemsworth, Mark Ruffalo, Chris Evans, Scarlett Johansson, Benedict Cumberbatch, Don Cheadle, Tom Holland, Chadwick Boseman, Paul Bettany, Elisabeth Olsen, Anthony Mackie, Sebastian Stan, Tom Hiddleston, Idris Elba, Peter Dinklage, Vin Diesel, Bradley Cooper, Gwyneth Paltrow, Benicio del Toro, Josh Brolin, Chris Pratt (okay, seriously-what was the actor budget like on this film-this cast easily could have cost $200 million by itself)
Director: Anthony and Joe Russo
Oscar History: 1 nomination (Best Visual Effects)
Snap Judgment Ranking: 3/5 stars (read the review though, as it's really more a 2-4 star range based on the sequel)

Movies and television have started to collide in being the same mediums, something that I have never been okay with but apparently everyone else is so I've learned to deal.  The reality is that in a world where we simply rely upon "awesome franchises" for so much of our entertainment, and everything old is, well, not necessarily new but more a shattered shell of its former self (but comfortable so "who cares!"), it makes sense that a multi-billion dollar asset like the Avengers series would become essentially a multi-film TV series.  This picture, the 19th in the franchise (I believe I've seen all but two of these movies, though I'd have to double-check) is about as certain of a blockbuster hit as one can get, and because we live in an era where we need to suck up even if we aren't impressed (see also the White House Correspondents' Dinner), it's surely going to be a critical smash.  But I have been hit-or-miss with the Marvel Cinematic Universe, and so I was genuinely curious if I was going to leave The Avengers duly-impressed or finding the film lacking.

(Spoilers Ahead) The movie takes place in the aftermath of our last few installments of Captain America, Thor, and Black Panther, and most-importantly finally puts Thanos (Brolin) front-and-center as our villain, as he's been whom we've been building toward for nearly a decade now as our ultimate baddie who will take over the world.  Played in dull purple by Brolin, Thanos is an all-powerful villain that never quite feels as interesting as he should; one of the cardinal sins of the Marvel Cinematic Universe is that they never approach the intrigue or a Joker or Lex Luthor when it comes to their bad guys.  Thanos could be more interesting if we let him breath a bit more on his personal philosophy, as in many ways he resembles Bane in his battle for a better humanity through brutal results (he essentially wants to wipe out half of the population of the universe in order to reduce hunger and resource-deprivation).  It's entirely possible they're saving that for the sequel, but that points to perhaps the greatest problem with this movie: it needs a sequel to function, and it needs to be television to work.

Film functioning as television has always had one major flaw: TV shows end, and film franchises frequently do not, at least not while there's serious money on the table.  The best television series allow you to love characters, but also occasionally give you consequences or events that can never be undone.  Look at, say, Lost or Game of Thrones or Mad Men, and how these shows would occasionally kill off characters or end romances or have betrayals that shape the course of the series, never to be entirely glossed over.  As a result, there was genuine risk in what the series was bringing to the viewers, knowing that season finales could shape your viewpoint entirely of what might come next in the franchise.

Here, though, we watch as Spider-Man, Black Panther, Star-Lord, roughly a dozen major characters in the franchise vanish with a literal snap of the fingers in the film's final moments, as Thanos vision for a universe where half of the citizens die suddenly becomes reality.  It's a staggering sequence, with fine work from Danai Gurira (watching her invincible king evaporate in her hands), and especially a squeaky-voiced Tom Holland pleading with Iron Man to save him, the scared teenager behind the superhero emerging as he realizes the consequences of fighting for good.  In a television series, particularly one where I assumed there is only one film left, I would have thought this was a jaw-dropping moment.  Holland's fine protestations would have brought me to tears, realizing that he would leave us too quickly, and I would have been shocked that it hadn't been the actors whose contracts were about to expire (Iron Man, Captain America, Thor) who left us but the theoretical future of the series.  But I'm smart enough to realize that these characters already have films lined up (Spider-Man, in particular, is going to have to start airing trailers before Avengers is seen next year, so I'm not sure how that will even work).  Theoretically, of course, we could see the roles in these films recast, but that seems preposterous-Holland, Boseman, Pratt, these are major stars now that the public wants to see play these roles.  They aren't going to quickly disappear from the franchises, and Disney has too much money on the line to let them go.

As a result, we get a cheap ending to the film.  It's probable that we'll see them brought back next time, and then watch as the expected characters go into the sunset, with a new series of Avengers ready to take the stage, perhaps with Downey, Hemsworth, or Evans a possibility to return in 5-7 years if their careers are suffering.  But it doesn't make this film particularly interesting, and it proves that perpetual stories are too lazy.  There's a lot to like in The Avengers, even if I feel it fails on the most important element (plotting).  The victor of the movies has always truly been the casting directors, finding relative unknowns who ooze movie star charisma to play larger-than-life characters.  There is so much plot, but it's relatively brisk all-things-considered, and were it not for the inevitable deletion of the ending, it would surely stand apart as a great action film.  The movie's performances are uniformly good, with Holland, Cumberbatch, & Saldana being the standouts, and they take the time to give us fun pairings (Rocket & Thor being an obvious highlight, though I also particularly liked Spidey & Doctor Strange).

Were it not for the film's ending inevitably being deleted for something more conventional and keeping the story going perpetually (until we eventually tire of comic book heroes, which may be never), I'd give this a higher ranking, perhaps even a four-star.  But it doesn't work like that.  I know how this game plays out, and I'm not stupid enough to think that the shocking, arguably quite smart, ending to this picture won't be erased for something less intriguing.  As a result, I'm going to go with three stars, though in my head it's more like 2.5  If they keep most of the characters dead in the next film, I'll vote for a 4 star change at that time, but until then they've removed any element of surprise or sacrifice by giving us this ending, and as a result I can't applaud this picture, even if I see its value.

Captain America: Civl War (2016)

Film: Captain America: Civil War (2016)
Stars: Chris Evans, Robert Downey, Jr., Scarlett Johansson, Sebastian Stan, Anthony Mackie, Don Cheadle, Jeremy Renner, Chadwick Boseman, Paul Bettany, Elizabeth Olsen, Paul Rudd, Emily VanCamp, Tom Holland, William Hurt, Daniel Bruhl, Marisa Tomei, Alfre Woodard (seriously-what was the casting budget on this movie?!?)
Director: Anthony and Joe Russo
Oscar History: No nominations
Snap Judgment Ranking: 3/5 stars

I grew up with comic books in my house, and so I've always had a slightly weird reaction to the world of comic books becoming so common-place on the big screen.  Unlike other guys who will spend hours upon hours rehashing different multiverse theories and the intricacies of universes in the current Marvel world, I can't keep up there, but I do still read the occasional comic book (especially after one of these movies I'll sneak out and buy a few from my local store just to check in like fans of a soap opera), and feel a kinship with my youth when my brother and I would spend our allowance at the local Pamida buying up the latest installments.  We were definitively a Marvel household, and so seeing all of these characters come to life on the big screen, all of these Avengers that we had seen dance across the page, it's truly a wonderful experience and I try not to be one of "those guys" who name-checks facts and dates about every character on the screen to their friends who aren't as familiar and just want to go to the latest awesome superhero movie.

What continues to stun me, though, is how the movies have really reshaped in a lot of ways my thoughts on the comic books at large.  After all, the comic books that I loved growing up aren't remotely the same as the movies that I've gravitated toward.  X-Men, probably the comics I have read the most of through the years, never really felt right as they were too focused on a specific mutant at the cinema (Wolverine, then Professor X, and now Mystique), but what made that series so special was that it was a group of individuals, and you didn't know if the next story-line would center on one of the major headliners or just a sideline character getting their moment in the sun (who else is pumped that Jubilee is finally going to be in a movie?!?).  My favorite comic books as a child were Fantastic Four, and yet their movies have been a complete and utter travesty-I'm still flummoxed how they have managed to botch my beloved family of superheroes so often, and how I'll probably never get a definitive motion picture (though I'll eternally be indebted to Chris Evans for bringing my crush on Johnny Storm so perfectly to life).  Instead, the best movies have been centered around arguably one of my least favorite comic book heroes, Captain America.  I always found him to be a bit blase, not as morally complicated or interesting as a Wolverine or Incredible Hulk, and not as much fun as the Human Torch or Black Widow.  And yet, Chris Evans' incarnation of Captain America is such a joy, and his films are the ones that come the closest to reliving that magic of my youth onscreen, the comic books I fell so deeply in-love with and escaped into when I was feeling blue.

(Spoilers Ahead) This is a preamble to tell you that I once again left Captain America's third outing (from the looks of things his final outing as a solo venture) duly impressed.  The film centers around, once again, Captain America's complicated relationship with Bucky Barnes (aka the Winter Soldier), who is once again wanted for murder, this time for blowing up the United Nations building, and in turn killing the king of an African nation.  This is amidst a growing fear of the Avengers, and a powerful retribution for the destruction that they are bringing about to the world.  The idea of holding superheroes accountable for their actions is hardly new, but it's become the centerfold of almost every single superhero picture in recent years so I was curious how Civil War would handle it (there are people in those "Hulk Smash!" buildings, and they aren't just extras anymore).  There's a terrificly acted scene with Alfre Woodard early on in the picture (sadly, she doesn't become one of the Avengers later on), where she essentially admonishes Robert Downey, Jr.'s Tony Stark for destroying her world, even as he thought he was trying to save it.  It was arguably one of the most impressive monologues I've seen in a Marvel picture, and kudos to Woodard for not making it feel like a cliche.

Stark's newfound moral compass (though really-isn't Stark always finding his moral compass again and again in these pictures, only to seemingly lose it again by the start of the next movie?) leads to a break between he and Captain America, as Stark wants to be under the control of the UN while Captain America doesn't feel that he can be held down in that manner, despite the consequences.  Battle lines are brought forth, with alliances like Black Widow and War Machine joining Tony Stark while the likes of the Falcon and the Scarlet Witch go with Captain America.  All-the-while, at the center is the Winter Soldier, who is being framed for a series of crimes by an agent-of-chaos (Bruhl), whose intentions quite frankly never feel properly revealed, except that he wants to destroy the Avengers.

The film's best moments, and what was always so incredible about the comic books but hasn't been realized cinematically until now, is that you don't always needs a villain.  Frequently the infighting of groups like The Avengers (or X-Men or Fantastic Four) were the most compelling moments of the written pages, giving us insight into the desires of the superheroes that didn't just rely on them saving the universe.  That is true of Civil War, where we see Steve Rogers stand by his principles and his best friend of a hundred years or so even while Tony Stark, his new commander whose stance isn't without merit, becomes his enemy and they largely split up by the end of the picture.  The movie is, without question, the best Avengers movie that has been created so far.  Unlike the two actual films that claim the group in their title, Civil War feels like an ensemble, one that gives time to each character without it ever feeling like a checklist.  Perhaps because some of this film's stars aren't as large as the likes of Mark Ruffalo or Chris Hemsworth at this point (though it feels like Chadwick Boseman and Tom Holland will soon be able to demand more respect in this regard) you are able to have a tale without an equal amount of story going to a different character, and since you know the central focus will be on Captain America, you aren't bummed you didn't get to have more time with a Thor or an Ant-Man.

The film is not without its faults, of course.  While the central Avengers vs. Avengers battle was truly wonderful, and I loved the introduction of Spider-Man, there are still problems.  RDJ can land a one-liner with aplomb, but his Tony Stark is constantly rehashing the same memories, and I know it's part of Tony Stark's origin story, but this episode felt a little bit too Batman for me toward the end.  For every character that felt fresh (Ant-Man-I haven't seen his stand-alone yet, but it's now on the To Do list) or interesting (the Black Panther was my favorite new character to the series, and I think Scarlett Johansson's Black Widow is still the best element of the original core Avengers), you are left with some characters that feel underwritten (War Machine, Scarlet Witch), and too preachy (Vision).  Also, I am still coming to grips with the television-like aspect of these films, which feels cool in the moment but I can't quite get my hands around the fact that it feels never-ending, and while that mirrors the comic books, most stories even there eventually came to an end.

Before I leave, I do want to say one thing because it's been highlighted a little bit in the press tour.  I think it's incredible that we have a major motion picture that has three black leads in the cast (Cheadle, Mackie, and Boseman), but the Marvel movies still haven't quite gotten to the diversity of the actual comic books quite yet.  I'm stunned, considering she's about to get her own stand-alone film that they didn't go for Captain Marvel in this picture.  Maybe they're saving Carol Danvers for a future picture-perhaps Guardians of the Galaxy Volume 2?, but it's a bummer that we don't have a Bechdel Test pass for this particular movie.  My biggest qualm, though, is I wish we'd finally see a gay character in one of these movies.  For all of the talk (and there's a lot of it), about how actors and studios want to feature more gay characters in blockbusters, it never actually happens.  I'm sick and tired of clearly homosexual elements in films (come on, Steve Rogers and Bucky Barnes are really close for friends), being the only thing that we get on-film.  My vote would be that they make Spider-Man gay or bisexual, even though Sony and Stan Lee aren't there for it, as it would make so much sense within the confines of his character (loner, outcast, really close with his aunt), but really it's time to have a gay character on the big screen that we can root for and not just see at an art-house or as a side character on an ABC sitcom.  The GLBT community deserves a seat at the table, and if Marvel/Disney want to put their (insanely huge amount of) money where their mouth is, it's time to go there.

Those are my thoughts (more of them than I initially thought I'd have) on the latest installment of the Captain America franchise.  What are your thoughts?  What are you hoping for next in the Marvel saga?  Share your thoughts below in the comments!

Avengers: Age of Ultron (2015)

Film: Avengers: Age of Ultron
Stars: Robert Downey Jr., Chris Hemsworth, Mark Ruffalo, Chris Evans, Scarlett Johansson, Jeremy Renner, Don Cheadle, Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Elizabeth Olsen, Paul Bettany, Cobie Smulders, James Spader, Samuel L. Jackson
Director: Joss Whedon
Oscar History: No nominations
Snap Judgment Ranking: 2/5 stars

I always feel weird reviewing movies that everyone has seen.  I get asked a lot of questions about movies and my thoughts on them as a general rule, but usually it's in the context of a movie that someone theoretically wants to see.  You know the type-the ones who will name-check 12 Years a Slave or Birdman but will actually just watch Friends reruns yet again (this may in fact be you, dear reader, and I implore you to maybe just maybe consider a movie outside of your comfort zone instead).  So even if I run counter to the norms of most reviewers, no one is going to really counter it because they haven't actually seen the movie.  This isn't the case for a massive hit like Avengers: Age of Ultron, which everyone has seen and has an opinion upon, and I've already gotten several dirty looks for calling merely "okay" and not raving about it being the "BEST MOVIE EVER!!!!"  Either way, though, it's a significant film for 2015 so I need to get my thoughts on it out into the world, so here goes...

(Spoilers Ahead...though, really, you haven't seen this yet and you're still planning on seeing it?) The film picks up relatively quickly after the last Avengers' film, with little need to introduce characters we have already spent billions of dollars to see in a host of different movies.  Iron Man (Downey), Thor (Hemsworth), Captain America (Evans), the Black Widow (Johansson), the Hulk (Ruffalo), and oh, what the hell, even Hawkeye (Renner) are battling it out over yet another one of the Infinity Stones that we've all been leading up to for the final films in the set.  We see the Infinity Stone retrieved by the team in the form of a scepter, and run into several new baddies, most notably Quicksilver (Taylor-Johnson) and the Scarlet Witch (Olson).  Once at this new compound, Iron Man wants to use the Infinity Stone to create world peace, but in the process creates an evil villain in the form of Ultron (Spader), whose idea of world peace is essentially destroying all life on earth so that machines and creatures of metal/data can rule the world.  His idea is to tear the Avengers apart in leading up to his armageddon, in hopes of beating them through this strategy, though as this is a superhero movie, after some soul-searching, the team eventually gets a final showdown with all of the Avengers taking on Ultron, a minor Avenger getting offed in the process, and the team seemingly breaking up...with them inevitably being called together at a later date once back-end residuals have been negotiated.

The film, like most action adventures, follows a pretty traditional format, and like the original picture it's at its most interesting when the film is fun, not heavy-handed.  The movies don't have the motif of DC when it comes to creating something harsh to cling onto, a tortured soul with the passion of a hero.  As a result, it's best when it's trying to be a little bit lighter.  I loved the entire sequence where everyone tries to lift Thor's hammer (and Captain America actually comes close), or whenever Captain America is called out for his aversion to profanity, or basically anything involving Maria Hill (Cobie Smulders is human perfection in this role).  Whenever it's clear they're having a good time I'm having a good time by proxy.  These are the Avengers, the World's Mightiest Heroes, and most people just can't come close to touching them, and both sides know it, so why not at least play with that in the process?  The second half of the film loses most of this amusement, and as a result is the lesser half of the film.

The movie is very hit-and-miss with both returning characters and introducing new ones.  Part of the problem here is that there are way too many characters-we can argue til we're blue-in-the-face about whom to cut, but with a dozen major actors playing significant roles in the film, and all of them with agents on speed-dial, it feels like we have too much posturing or moments where we need to see a specific character to set up a future film or a future angle of the Marvel universe.  Thor, for example, is woefully underused and off on his own adventure that we don't even see for the bulk of the film, clearly setting up Thor: Ragnarok but nothing much more in this film and he could have been lifted with ease.  The film has much more time for Hawkeye and the Black Widow, but the former gets into an annoyingly bad story (seriously-if there's a cliche for "I'm about to die" that they tried to throw in hopes of getting the audience to anticipate Hawkeye's death when clearly it was going to be the underwritten Quicksilver, I don't know what it could have been) and the latter gets downgraded in terms of a hero.  Did we really need that ridiculously uncomfortable sequence about her not being able to have children?  This is what makes her a "monster?"  This is her major failing as a human being-not having children?  The fact that this becomes such a key part for arguably the most significant female superhero in filmic history is a really massive misstep by Joss Whedon, who generally does very well with his female characters but makes the Black Widow a woman who can kick butt, but for some reason her entire story needs to deal with her lacking of a romantic relationship and a baby, and unlike the others, not her ambitions.  It was a HUGE step back from the places we took the character in the far superior film Captain America: The Winter Soldier.

The movie also has troubles with the villain.  Ultron initially seems like a really complicated character-one who seems to be doing evil accidentally as a byproduct of doing good (much like Robert Redford's character in Winter Soldier), but then descends into a simple "I'm a bad guy" veneer that becomes tiresome and boring.  His henchmen should be more complicated than they are, but the Scarlet Witch is insanely naive and Quicksilver just stands there and looks pretty.  Neither of them stands out, and Quicksilver is so unimportant to the plot that his death is mostly a "oh, I figured they'd do more with that" than a "wow, I can't believe it!"  About the only character that is new to the film that really resonated in a big way was Paul Bettany's Vision, who actually asks some big questions and seems pulled straight out of the comic books and not some bleached down version of what Marvel has created in print.

So I will admit at the end that I just didn't like this movie.  It has too many pleasurable elements not to state that it's still fun in the moment (Chris Evans, Scarlett Johansson, and Cobie Smulders remaining my favorite performances in the series), but overall it's less than the predecessor, which still pales in comparison to what the Captain America movies are doing.  I feel like I'm contributing to the problem with almost certainly seeing the next movie, but I might wait for reviews for it at least.  This is a movie that everyone's seen that I'm just giving a shoulder shrug.