CAPTAIN AMERICA: CIVIL WAR

Walt Disney Studios/Marvel Studios

Rated PG-13

Running Time: 146 Minutes

Click here to watch the TV spots of Captain America: Civil War on YouTube.
 

In Walt Disney Studios/Marvel Studios Captain America: Civil War, the consequences of the Avengers world-wide actions put Iron Man/Robert Downey, Jr. and Captain America/Chris Evans on opposite sides.

This is a non-spoiler review. I thoroughly enjoyed this movie. There is one MCU continuity issue for me, but is a very minor non-issue when concerning this movie.

The thirteenth film of the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU), and as of 2016 the 75th anniversary of Captain America, the movie is set one year after the events of Avengers: Age of Ultron and deals with the events of the past few movies, Directed by Anthony and Joe Russo, and based on the 10th anniversary of the Marvel comic book crossover storyline limited series Civil War by Mark Millar and Steve McNiven.

Actually this movie is really more of an Avengers movie than a Captain America movie. At the very least, the story is just as much about Tony Stark/Iron Man/Downey, Jr. as it is about Captain America/Evans. You also got to see more of the background of Captain America's friend Bucky Barnes/The Winter Soldier/Stan. The movie has an ensemble cast of Chris Evans, Robert Downey Jr., Scarlett Johansson/Black Widow, Sebastian Stan/The Winter Soldier, Anthony Mackie/Falcon, Don Cheadle/War Machine, Jeremy Renner/Hawkeye, Chadwick Boseman/Black Panther, Paul Bettany/Vision, Elizabeth Olsen/Scarlet Witch, Paul Rudd/Ant-Man, Emily VanCamp/Sharon Carter, and Tom Holland/Spider-Man.

This is an international movie as the characters travel to various countries - and the MCU country of Wakanda is represented well in the United Nations. There are sub-titles in the movie as several of the characters speak various languages.

The politics of whether or not the Avengers should be under oversight by the United Nations when informed by U.S. Secretary of State Thaddeus Ross/William Hurt were very important issues. I am basically Team Cap/Evans, who was against the accords and feels that the Avengers are better policing themselves instead of the government policing them - but the reasons why Tony Stark/Downey, Jr. are for the accords are very compelling, and I totally felt for him and could go for Team Iron Man. I totally understand the reasons which split the Avengers, and I felt for both sides - which is especially sad as they are friends.

Aside from the politics, the theme of this movie is that of loss. There were a few times where I felt for the characters at their loss.

It is awesome to see the Avengers using their full powers and fighting abilities fighting each other. Even without their powers, they are incredible hand to hand martial artists. Also, the number of Avengers, despite the fact that they were split up, makes me appreciate just how powerful a group of Avengers really are - and why there needs to be some kind of oversight with this kind of power. Some of the action scenes were very dramatic done with film strobe usage.

Introducing Black Panther on his 50th anniversary and one of the first black superheroes in American comics, as well as introducing Spider-Man into the MCU was awesome. Black Panther/Chadwick Boseman was done right - and Spider-Man/Holland was awesome and actually had more to do in this film than I had expected. Actually, all of the Avengers had their own scene moments and made you really appreciate them as characters - especially the vulnerable Scarlet Witch/Olson. Even a couple of minor MCU characters had scene moments in the movie, which make me appreciate the scope of the MCU more.

There are a few terrorist acts in the movie - and as a member of my local Community Emergency Response Team (CERT), I totally sympathized with the first responders dealing with the aftermath of those acts in this movie. It also brings home the idea of world events being bought into the movie.

There is an intense helicopter scene, that hopefully was done with CGI, that was incredible.

For Stan Lee fans, his cameo is at the very end of the movie. You can enjoy the movie without worrying about missing his cameo.

I saw the film at a 9:00 Saturday morning showing and the theater was half-full. There were a lot of kids in the theater. I can only recall one language word in the movie and that was as a reaction word from Spider-Man and is not used as a graphic language word. In fact, the kid behind me had more of a reaction to a simple kissing scene than that one word.

There are two after-credits scenes. In my theater, a lot of people left after the first after-credits scene, but there were still a few people who stayed for the second after-credits scene. It is curious that one of the after-credit scenes in Ant-Man was used in this movie.

Spider-Man will return.

Click below to watch a trailer of Captain America: Civil War from YouTube.



Click below to watch another trailer of Captain America: Civil War from YouTube.



Click below to watch the Team Cap and Team Iron Man trailers of Captain America: Civil War from YouTube.



Rated PG-13 for violence. Running time: 146 Minutes.

Pancho
All people smile in the same language.

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AVENGERS - AGE OF ULTRON

Walt Disney Studios

Rated PG-13

Running time: 141 Minutes

Click below to watch a movie trailer of Avengers - Age of Ultron from YouTube.
 

In Walt Disney Studios Avengers - Age of Ultron, an artificial intelligence robot Ultron/James Spader threatens human extinction - and the Avengers must stop it.

In this sequel to The Avengers, and the eleventh installment of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, Avengers - Age of Ultron is Written and Directed by Joss Whedon, and has an ensemble cast of Tony Stark/Robert Downey Jr., Thor/Chris Hemsworth, Hulk-Banner/Mark Ruffalo, Captain America/Chris Evans, Black Widow/Scarlett Johansson, and Hawkeye/Jeremy Renner as the Avengers.

After the Avengers raid a Hydra outpost run by Baron Wolfgang von Strucker/Thomas Kretschmann, they run into twins Pietro/Aaron Taylor-Johnson and Wanda/Elizabeth Olsen who were experiments of Strucker using Loki's scepter. After Wanda/Olsen tries to overwhelm Stark/Downey, Jr. with a vision of the deaths of the Avengers, Stark/Downey, Jr. retrieves Loki's scepter. Stark/Downey, Jr. and Banner/Ruffalo discover an artificial intelligence in the scepter's gem and they use it to complete Stark's Ultron global defense program, designed to save the word. When Ultron/Spader becomes sentient, he believes he must destroy humanity in order to save Earth.

Amidst all the action, the movie sets up the Avengers - Infinity Wars movies with the Infinity Stones, as well as a hint of the Captain America - Civil Wars movie with the conflicts between Stark/Downey and his guilt of the possible deaths of the Avengers, and Captain America/Evans with his idealism on the direction and true purpose of the Avengers. Thor's/Hemsworth's vision in the film of the larger threat puts the movie on the path to tie all of the MCU together.

I liked seeing how all of the Avengers powers and abilities have improved in this sequel, although they had to use various Hollywood tricks to cover up Johansson's pregnancy. Hawkeye/Renner had more to do in this film than he had to do in the last film in which his role was pretty much wasted. It was cool watching the Hulkbuster in action. The Hulk's portrayal was based on the Peter David Hulk from the comic books with a split personality of each personality hating the other - which is intensified with his relationship with Black Widow/Johansson, in which you learn more of Black Widow's/Johansson's background. Black Widow's/Johansson's background is a similar background to a similar character in the TV show Marvel's Agent Carter. Hayley Atwell - the star of Agent Carter - had a cameo as her character, Agent Carter, in Age of Ultron. It was great having Lou Ferrigno as the voice of the Hulk in this movie - as well as Nick Fury/Samuel L. Jackson rallying the Avengers to stand and fight.

Seeing the Maximoff twins being there for each other and the use of their powers was great, especially with Taylor-Johnson running outdoors to give life to his running instead of running in front of a green screen. Due to rights issues, Taylor-Johnson's Quicksilver is a different version of  the Quicksilver shown in the X-Men movies. As agent Maria Hill/Cobie Smulders says, he's fast and she's weird, referring to Olsen's hypnosis and telekinesis powers.

I loved the theme song of Pinocchio's I Got No Strings for Ultron's/Spader's theme song. This seems appropriate both artistically, and that Disney owns both films. With Ultron/Spader having access to the entire Internet, Age of Ultron also has a more world-wide scope to the movie than The Avengers did as the Avengers travel around the world dealing with Ultron's/Spader's activities and his army of robots. The end of the movie felt very similar to the end of Man of Steel to me, but was a more positive ending as the Avengers worked hard to save the citizens while they battled Ultron/Spader and his robots.

Stan Lee's Excelsior cameo is during the Avenger's party. Lee says that this is his favorite cameo to date, which possibly may be due to his being a World War II veteran. The TV show Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. TV episode "The Dirty Half Dozen" - which aired a few days before the movie's opening - sets up the opening scenes of Avengers - Age of Ultron. Then a few days later, after the movie's opening, the episode "Scars" on Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. picks up after the events of Age of Ultron.

I was at a preview screening of the movie, and there was Thor and Captain America directly behind me in line. Several people were carrying Captain America shields.

For those who listen to the music and stay through all the way to the end credits, there is only one mid-credits scene at the end of the movie. Joss Whedon confirms that there is only one mid credits scene, although there is a leaked second scene on the net that may or may not have been real and was possibly cut out of the movie, but this second "scene" was still fun to watch.

Avengers - Age of Ultron was on track to break the box office for an opening weekend, with a bigger opening weekend than the original Avengers, but was knocked out of the race due to the Mayweather-Pacquiao boxing match that aired that weekend.

 Click below to watch another movie trailer of Avengers - Age of Ultron from YouTube.

   

Click below to watch a final movie trailer of Avengers - Age of Ultron from YouTube.



Rated PG-13. for violence. Running time: 141 Minutes

Pancho
All people smile in the same language.

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