CAPTAIN AMERICA CIVIL WAR: SPOILER-FREE REVIEW:

Everything has been leading to this, ever since Chris Evans said to Robert Downey Jnr, “Put on the suit, let’s go a few rounds” it’s been all building to this. After destroying a good cross-section of New York, taking out the University of Greenwich, a massive shootout over Washington DC and dropping a European city out of the sky it’s all resulted in The Avengers being made accountable for their actions. However when a 90 year old virgin and a billionaire narcissist with a hard-on for shiny metal can’t see eye to eye, the big question is, which side will you choose? 

When Captain America’s new team of Avengers cause an international incident that results in a lot of collateral damage, it becomes the political straw that breaks the camels’ back and all superheroes need to become accountable to a new government initiative. But when the team can’t see eye to eye about how to move forward, the team fractures and some of the best actions scenes ever committed to film ensue. However whilst all of this is happening, the Avengers may not realise that they are being manipulated behind the scenes.  

Continuing the story and stellar work of Captain America The Winter Soldier, The Russo Brothers keep the storytelling tight and well-paced with some nail-biting action sequences and organic humour that was noticeably absent from the marketing of the film. One of the big concerns that a lot of people had, was that this film would not be a Captain America film but rather Avengers 2.5, or as Anthony Mackie once referred to it, Avengers 3.8. It’s understandable considering that Joss Whedon struggled to balance so many characters in Avengers Age Of Ultron, plus shoe-horn in the set-up for all the solo movies, thankfully The Russo Brothers have managed to balance all of the characters and give each one their own moment in the film. Most importantly, the film still focuses on Chris Evans’ star-spangled Avenger and his relationship with life-long friend Bucky along with his love/hate relationship with Tony Stark. 

Some real highlights of the film is the inclusion of some of the new characters such as Chadwick Boseman’s Black Panther who’s presence is energetic and exciting plus makes you all the more eager for his standalone film. We also have the return of Paul Rudd’s Ant-Man who brings the humour and has some awesome scenes ripped straight from the comics and every fanboys wet-dreams. Of course the “elephant-spider” in the room is the inclusion of Spider-Man into the Marvel Cinematic Universe. It will probably surprise many people just how much screen time Tom Holland’s Spider-Man has, this is not a quick glorified cameo, he has nearly thirty minutes of interaction with the rest of the Marvel characters both in and out of costume. This is a version of Spider-Man that we’ve sorely needed for quite some time, gone is the mopey angst-ridden versions of Tobey Maguire and Andrew Garfield, and instead we get a teenager who enjoys having his powers and acts like a kid. To see Spidey finally interact with members of the Marvel Universe genuinely brought a tear to my eye. There’s some great interactions between him  and Stark, whilst his fights with other members of The Avengers is everything my nerdy inner-child could have wanted. 

Going back to existing characters though, The Russo’s really know how to reach the heart of these characters, with Black Widow being given some more kick ass scenes like she had in The Winter Soldier, to really fleshing out newer characters such as Scarlet Witch and Vision. The most impressive feat though, is that they have given us not only the best version of Spider-Man, but the best version of Tony Stark, with Robert Downey Jnr just giving his all in this film between being justified in his actions, but totally torn apart by his choices. He nails so many lines throughout the film that shows Iron Man to be more than just a quippy smart-ass. 

As always, the villains are short-changed because unless your name is Loki, Marvel are not really committed to giving villains much development. However, in this case, the film really excels because the focus is on the heroes and their conflict. Instead of the team quipping whilst fighting an otherwise faceless army, we have hero pitted against hero, we know their backstory, we have an emotional connection with these characters which makes the battles a much more invested experience. 

Now before the DC fanboys get up in arms, it is inevitable that every review is going to compare Captain America: Civil War to Batman V Superman: Dawn Of Justice and honestly, let’s face it, it’s a fair comparison. They are both two films released within a short space of time that features superheroes fighting one another instead of the villains, it’s the same way that we would compare Armageddon to Deep Impact, or Dante’s Peak to Volcano, it’s just a thing you have to do. Now there’s a hundred and one different ways we can compare these two films: fun versus grim, payoffs versus letdowns, heroic versus, well whatever the f*ck was going on in Batman V Superman. The one thing I will choose to focus on is the fact that the characters in Civil War take the time to talk to one another before throwing punches, and this is such an important thing because instead of just pontificating, it paints the reasons for why these characters come to such loggerheads and that makes us as an audience feel so much more invested in what happens in this film. 

Finally, when we are at a stage with the Marvel films where we could justifiably say that they run the risk of getting stale, The Russo Brothers change up the Marvel formula.  They go huge in the middle with an airport fight sequence that’s been teased in all the trailers, but no amount of fanboy drooling and jabbering can truely express just how cool it is, then in the final act, they go dark and intimate. The final act almost plays out like a horror movie and the stakes are at the highest they have ever been to the point where you don’t know if these characters are really going to kill each other. In a cinematic world where “bigger” is always consider “better”, The Russo Brothers just proved that when you make it just about the characters, you can have a truely emotional response to seeing heroes going at one another. 

Overall, with great pacing, genuine character interactions that justify the fights that occur throughout the film and one of the most nail-biting hand-to-hand fight sequences between two of the biggest characters in the Marvel Universe, you get more than your money’s worth when you buy your ticket for this film. Please don’t download a sh*tty video camera copy of this film, it really needs to be seen on the big screen. Keeping the film focused on Captain America but still introducing us to a whole host of exciting new characters, Phase 3 has never looked more exciting. 

Captain America Civil War gets Four and Three Quarter Stars out of Five (or Four and Three Quarter jaws, that I was constantly picking up off the floor.) 

THE JUNGLE BOOK: SPOILER-FREE REVIEW:

It’s the classic collection of Rudyard Kipling stories that was later transcribed into a Disney masterpiece about a young Indian boy who spent his days in the jungle being manipulated, abused and borderline sexually harassed by all manner of animals. Now putting those thoughts aside, it’s undeniable that Disney’s 1967 version of The Jungle Book is a right of passage for anyone growing up on Disney. I guess the big question is, why create a live-action version of something that many think is a near-perfect classic? Money. Well, also because they can, but the money aspect certainly seems to be an incentive. Thankfully though, Jon Favreau’s delve into the jungle is worth, well, all your money. 

If you read the books, or seen the animated film, then you know the story: Little man-cub Mowgli is forced to seek out his own kind after an anthrophobic, pyrophobic tiger known as Shere Khan makes it his personal mission to skin the young orphan Indian boy alive. Along the way he meets a whole barrage of colourful characters including a con-artist bear, a creepy hypnotic snake with the voice of Scarlet Johansson and some gangster/jazz-loving apes just to name a few. 

The film itself, although completely unnecessary, works on every level.You have photo-realistic talking animals that just populate the scenery in every shot with special effects that would put Life of Pi to shame. Favreau has also just composed every shot to look like it was ripped straight from the novel itself, you could literally take a screenshot from any scene in this film and hang it up on your wall. However close your eyes, and the film is equally as beautiful thanks to an absolutely stellar voice cast that includes Bill Murray as the ever-lovably Baloo, Ben Kingsley as the noble black panther Bagheera, a sultry Scarlet Johansson as the slithery Kaa (full disclosure, I suffer from a major case of Ophiophobia, but knowing that it’s Johansson, makes it a creepily arousing fear - inside voice Chris dammit!) The standout voice actor is of course Idris Elba as Shere Khan who just does villain so well it should be illegal. Of course, the most impressive casting has to go to young Neel Sethi, who plays the young Mowgli, his interaction with the animals (who weren’t really on set) looks and feels so authentic and this kid will make you believe when he’s scared, will make you smile when he’s having fun, and will make you tear up - no matter how old you are. 

Now if there was going to be one complaint about this film, and I wouldn't really call it a complaint, more like a little niggle; is that the film does have two musical numbers ripped straight from the Disney classic. There’s nothing wrong with these songs, they just feel a little out of place considering the rest of the film doesn’t seem to be committed to being a musical. It doesn’t detract from the film, it just takes you out of the film for a brief moment and reminds you that this is replicating the animated classic when it should function as it’s own beast. 

Overall, The Jungle Book is a fantastic family matinee film with beautiful visuals, comforting voices, clever humour and tense action sequences that everyone should enjoy - although if I put my parent-hat on for just a moment, I will admit that there are a few scenes that the really little ones might find a little frightening if for no other reason than for just how real and raw everything looks in this film.     

The Jungle Book gets Four and a Half out of Five Stars (or Four and a Half confusingly sexy snake scenes that really conflicts with my intense fear of snakes - inside voice Gooch!!) 

THE HUNTSMAN: WINTER'S WAR: SPOILER-FREE REVIEW:

It's the unnecessary prequel/sequel to a movie that no one originally wanted. Admittedly, I haven't seen the original, but honestly, I don't think you're missing much by just watching this. The Huntsman: Winter’s War is a story of an Ice Queen who, in one of the most extreme cases of post-natal depression forms a child-soldier-militia just because and then chooses to do nothing for seven years whilst the Snow White story happened in the first film. Yeah, it’s one of those kinds of films…

The film has a strong cast with three of Hollywood's strongest leading ladies and Chris Hemsworth, who I imagine got paid more than all three women combined to do another contractually obligatory shirtless shot and just be a Thor-like badass. However the real stars are the three leading ladies with Charlize Theron, Emily Blunt and Jessica Chastain being awesome in their respective roles. You have Charlize being just stunning in every scene, you have Blunt being cold-hearted-resting-witch-face the whole way through the film, and you have Chastain being a bad-ass but just mangling a sometimes Irish/sometimes Scottish accent. As a matter of fact she and Hemsworth almost seem to be competing for who can do the most confusing accent with Hemsworth sounding at times like Thor, at times Australian and other times a weird Scottish/Irish hybrid... 

As far as the film goes, it's a safe movie with safe humour and safe action where there are countless disposable extras to pick off whilst the near indestructible-Liam-Neeson-in-Taken-level leads seemingly die in nearly every scene only to actually survive to the point where sometimes they can't be bothered explaining how they actually survived said death traps. 

The special effects are admittedly awesome and everywhere in this film to the point that I can only assume that's why the film couldn't afford a full seven Dwarves and a Snow White. Now if rumours from behind the scenes of the first film are true then it's no wonder that the film is not shy about avoid Kristen Stewart and her one facial expression, but once again, the big story is the casting of the dwarves and the typical Hollywood "Tall-Washing" of the casting choices. Sure Nick Frost and Rob Brydon are great in their roles but there's no denying that these roles could have gone to Peter Dinklage or.... or... I don't know, is that guy from the old U2 music video still alive? 

Overall, I can't really tell you if it's better or worse than the original but it is a perfectly acceptable piece of escapism for its one hour and fifty-four minute runtime. If you are hoping for lots of Charlize Theron and Emily Blunt action be warned that the trailers are incredibly misleading with regards to how much screen time to expect. But the will they/won't they/they definitely will chemistry between Hemsworth and Chastain is certainly worth it, if not a little infuriating with the lazy reasoning behind will they or won't they...

The Huntsman: Winter's War gets Three out of Five unnecessary Stars for an unnecessary prequel/sequel whatever the f*ck this is.   

CAPTAIN AMERICA: THE WINTER SOLDIER: REWIND REVIEW:

With Captain America Civil War only a few weeks away, it seemed like an appropriate time for a Rewind Review and look at the film about a ninety-year old virgin who’s paranoid conspiracy theories actually turn out to be true and has to evade his former employers. At a time when stocks in Captain America were at a questionable low, two brothers did the near impossible and made an earnest justice-seeking boy scout one of the most interesting and exciting comic book characters on the big screen. Zack Snyder, you may want to take note. 

Whilst trying to adjust to the modern world, Avenger Steve Rogers kicks ass and takes names for S.H.I.E.L.D. until his mentor and general badass boss Nick Fury is gunned down in front of him. Whilst on the run with the help of his only “friend” Natasha Romanoff a.k.a. the Black Widow, Steve soon discovers whole new and deceptive layers to S.H.I.E.L.D. that shakes the whole Marvel Cinematic Universe to it’s very core.  

Filled with bold choices from the film’s twists to the hiring of The Russo Brothers, who’s only other film credit was the deplorable You, Me & Dupree; these bold choices paid off in big ways with one of the most exciting Marvel films to date. With nail-biting action sequences, organic humour that is neither quippy or forced and a strong support cast that includes Samuel L Jackson, Scarlett Johansson and veteran actor Robert Redford, The Russo Brothers gave us a tightly paced 70’s-style political-thriller encapsulated in the comic book genre.  

Now credit where credits due, The Russo Brothers did the near impossible and made Captain America an interesting and engaging character by upping his power levels and making him a real meat and potatoes fighter with some fights that really make you feel it in the guts. At times the fights are so intense that you can be forgiven for thinking that some of the key cast may not get out of this film alive. But getting back to Captain America, this is the Cap that comic book fans have been waiting to see since Chris Evans was cast. For once, we were given a Captain America who was a genuine formidable force, and for once, wasn’t treated like the butt of a joke. Going forward I was hoping this trend would continue, but personally I felt that Joss Whedon regressed the character in Avengers Age Of Ultron as soon as he opened his mouth in his first scene. Fingers crossed The Russo Brothers improve on the already stellar work that they established here with The Winter Soldier when Civil War hits the big screen.       

Of course building on the theme of characters, The Russo Brothers finally did interesting things with characters that were aching for some character development and character moments. Samuel L Jackson finally got a big action sequence and proved why Nick Fury is a character to be respected with a car chase sequence that would make Jason Bourne proud. Now I’m not wanting to sound like I’m Whedon bashing, but The Russo Brothers managed to do more character development for Scarlet Johansson’s Black Widow in one simple car driving scene than Whedon was able to do in two Avenger’s movies. We were also introduced to Falcon, played by Anthony Mackie, who basically played, well, another version of Anthony Mackie, but still an awesome addition to the Marvel Cinematic Universe.  

Besides the strong cast, the tightly choreographed action sequences, solid pacing and some surprising twists (although there are some less surprising twists) one of the other incredibly strong elements is the score by Henry Jackman, the man who brought us the music to Kick Ass, Big Hero Six and X-Men First Class. All his scores are a riff on high end heroic action movies of the past, but he does them in a way that is thrilling to listen to. He has modernised the sound of Captain America plus gave us excellent scores to identify us with Nick Fury and The Winter Soldier, which has some of Hans Zimmer’s Joker theme mixed with a real Trent Reznor industrial soundscape.  

Of course the film isn’t perfect. The twist with Nick Fury’s resurrection was seen about half a second before he died, which feeds once again into the theme of Marvel being afraid to kill off a key cast member. Meanwhile the third act battle echoes the previous endings of The Avengers, Thor The Dark World, Guardians Of The Galaxy and even Avengers Age Of Ultron with the “death from above” trope where something ominous floats in the sky ready to destroy a whole city or the entire world whilst the heroes effortlessly dodge insurmountable odds of bullets, debris and death to save the people below. To be fair, this is probably more indicative of blockbuster’s in general than just a Marvel-thing, but you could be forgiven for thinking there is a thing called “Marvelsplosions.” The other thing that is a bit of a stretch is the patience and timing of Hydra’s ultimate plan: I mean let’s think about it for a second, Hydra have laid dormant in S.H.I.E.L.D. and infiltrated every aspect of the organisation, they have this algorithm that can identify future threats, plus they have a sleeper-cell assassin known as The Winter Soldier yet have done nothing until now. Seriously, why didn’t they use The Winter Soldier to take out Tony Stark before he created Iron Man? Why didn’t Hydra pull the plug on Captain America before he was thawed out? Why let The Avengers form in the first place? I mean I’ve heard of playing the long game, but when you really think about it, they are taking the piss. 

Negatives aside, Captain America The Winter Soldier is one of Marvel’s best films to date with tight pacing, tight action, and a more serious tone that’s still capable of providing genuine laughs throughout the runtime. With so much goodwill being brought over from this film and reviews for Captain America Civil War being incredibly positive, it is clear to see that with The Russo Brothers, Marvel’s cinematic future is in safe hands.   

Captain America The Winter Soldier gets Four and a Half out of Five paranoid ninety-year old virgins that’s a total GILF (I went too far didn’t I?) 

IRON MAN 3: REWIND REVIEW:

With Captain America Civil War only a few weeks away, it seemed like an appropriate time for a Rewind Review about an unstable PTSD suffering billionaire who loves running around in a metal war suit who gets duped by a drug-addicted British actor and Guy Pearce because he left him on a roof top that one time. 

The kick off of Marvel’s Phase 2 projects and the immediate follow-up to one of the biggest record-breaking films of all-time that ultimately lead to every other studio trying to jump on the shared-universe bandwagon in the hopes of making Scrooge McDuck levels of money. Iron Man 3 certainly had some huge expectations resting on its’ heavy metal shoulders and with huge box office takings and critical approval, you could call it a success, but with some huge plot holes and a divided reception amongst fans, Iron Man 3 is a bit of a divisive mixed bag. 

I personally really loved this film. Shane Black gave it some really punchy humour, impressive action sequences and some great misdirections that lead to some genuine rug-pulling moments. Sure some people may say that the film is too much Tony and not enough Iron Man, but when both Tony Stark and Iron Man are Robert Downey Jnr I fail to see how this is a legitimate complaint. Downey gives his most layered performance of Tony Stark to date with the most funny and most vulnerable version of the character we’ve ever seen. Downey spits out Shane Black’s script that brings us right back to Kiss Kiss Bang Bang and also reminds us of why Black is one of the most sought-after action movie writers of the last few decades. 

With better humour than Joss Whedon’s Avenger’s film, I almost would go as far as saying this is a more enjoyable movie than the 2012 super-blockbuster, sure there’s some more plot holes and non-sensical moments that The Avengers didn’t have, but I just feel that the humour works so much better here. The film also benefits from some great action set pieces such as the Air Force One plane rescue sequence, which looks fantastic, but serves no purpose to the film other than just looking cool. Plus the slight of hand approach where we discover the Iron Man suit was being remotely operated gives this film the edge over some of the bigger criticisms of the film. Speaking of slight of hand, after seeing the film for the first time that you must admire how well Marvel handled the marketing and the secrecy of the big Mandarin reveal. Sure some fans despise the handling of one of Iron Man’s greatest villains, but the fact that many people didn’t see it coming makes for one of the film’s better twists. And come on, Ben Kingsley kills it on both sides of his role: he can be absolutely terrifying as The Mandarin but hilarious as Trevor Slattery. 

Now as I’ve said, I don’t personally have an issue with the Mandarin reveal, admittedly I would have loved one final twist where we discovered he was playing possum as his Trevor persona and actually was The Mandarin all along, but I digress. The plot holes have been covered in countless other web series such as Honest Trailers, How It Should Have Ended, Cinema Sins, etc; so you should know most of them: putting on his only untested suit, not activating the House Party Protocol as soon as he gave out his personal address after threatening a terrorist, the weird grab-bag of powers the Extremist villains seem to have, blah, blah, blah. I agree that these things are all questionable issues with the story, but I don’t think that diminishes the enjoyment of the film. Some of the issues I have are probably a little more simpler: the “death” of Pepper Potts felt like a non-issue because you knew they weren’t going to kill her off, and with this hot on the heels of Agent Coulson being resurrected after his death in The Avengers, this just became a recurring theme in the Marvel films. Sure they have killed Quicksilver since Iron Man 3, but that honestly felt like a cop-out killing a character that has only just been introduced in the same film. Fingers crossed with Civil War on the horizon we shall have a meaningful death within the Marvel Cinematic Universe. 

Overall, despite the completely unnecessary Christmas setting and the Lethal Weapon 2 climax, Shane Black’s Iron Man 3 is thoroughly entertaining blockbuster film that has more unexpected twists and surprises than your regular blockbuster fare. If this is Robert Downey Jnr’s final solo effort as the Invincible Iron Man, then for my money, he’s gone out far better than most third entries in comic book movies. 

Iron Man 3 gets Four out of Five “Diplomatic Immunity” references that were clearly missing from this film’s climax.