Brainstorming for a future RDJ biopic

Note: This is all hypothetical and strictly my imagination running wild. But hopefully someday this is done and done well.

I’m writing this (began drafting it last Friday) with the presumption he’s going to win an Oscar this weekend… but I won’t publish it until it happens. Wouldn’t want to jinx myself.
——

This has been said about Robert Downey Jr. a number of times in the past decade or two. His redemption arc is the classic Hollywood story. Him winning an Oscar after all he’d gone through, if I should be so bold to say so, all but guarantees that a movie will be made about his life and this Oscar win will be the grand finale.
Mind you, I’m not making all of this up just to fangirl about my favorite actor and fangasm (a word I got from him, by the way) about the possibilities this presents. It’s just, in true Hollywood fashion, it only makes sense. Everyone loves an underdog overcoming adversity and making the most epic comeback possible.
It’d also be cool if he took a page from Andrew McCarthy’s book and penned an autobiography of his own after finally getting this win. I’d be first in line to buy it.

Potential issues, complications and drawbacks
aka- the Devil's Advocate section


The big downside is that this movie would come with a few complications. Not simply limited to licensing issues, which are sure to happen depending on how many footage is taken from the Marvel movies.

First off, this will undoubtedly focus HEAVILY on his addictions and criminal history. All of the things I don’t want to focus on when I talk about him. He’d slayed all those demons nearly two decades ago so, as far as I’m concerned, there’s no point on focusing on it anymore.
Unfortunately that is a huge chunk of his life so of course it needs to be part of his story. His first joint (courtesy of Downey Sr.) when he was 8-9, the “method acting” while preparing to shoot Less than Zero, up through the 90s where he was in and out of rehab at least 2-3 times. The most significant part of this arc being the court tv moment where the judge sends him to Corcoran for jail time, reasoning “this just might save your life.” I don’t know for sure if that was also the same day Robert compared his addiction to black tar heroin as “it’s like having a gun in my mouth and I like the taste of gun metal.”
One final rehab stint happened during his time on Ally McBeal. His soon-to-be wife Susan had also said in one article she had faced with that darkness in him once (I forget the metaphor she used, probably Darth Vader) and she gave him an ultimatum. After which he threw his drugs in the ocean and he’d been clean ever since.
I am paraphrasing a bit here. I do have the article saved somewhere.

A movie needs conflict, obviously, but how much of it will exclusively be about this one thing… I don’t know. There should be more than that but this also needs to be authentic as possible. It can’t be like that Chaplin biopic he did where it jumped from one wife to the next with a little of J Edgar Hoover’s witch hunt against him sprinkled in.
At least there’s only a few notable relationships in Robert’s life. Sarah Jessica Parker before his first wife, Deborah falconer. Calista Flockhart for a short time while he was doing the show and separated from his wife. Then his current marriage, going strong since 2005.

Another potential issue- some of the people that influenced Robert and his career path have since been implicated by the MeToo movement or had otherwise been cancelled for one reason or another.
James Toback who worked with him in “the pickup artist” and wrote “two girls and a guy” specifically for him to have work fresh out of rehab in the 90s- he’d had dozens of accusers come forward about him like what happened with Harvey Weinstein. I still feel like he contributed to Robert’s breadth of work and really helped him and it’d be a shame to leave all that out because his inclusion would bother people.
Charlie Rose, in 2003, conducted maybe my favorite interview Robert ever did. I’d love footage of that to be included, but like Matt Lauer, stuff came out about him and women so that would rub people the wrong way. Unless they just had a clip of Robert saying at their roundtable- “it serves a small part of your soul to blow it up cuz if you survive it, you’ll realize there are forces you may never understand that have your back and they’re fairly forgiving”.

Then of course there’s Mel Gibson… I’m not condoning or forgiving any of his transgressions. But the fact remains that he gave Robert a big job after his final stint of rehab. He cast him in a movie adaptation of the British series “the singing detective” and paid the insurance so he could work. That was the start of the path leading him to where he is now.

And no, it’s not as easy as “we’ll just rewrite history and make a different person the one who helped him in these instances.” It doesn’t work like that.
Aside from Susan, the only other advocate in his life I can think of who hasn’t been implicated in some career ending controversy is Jodie foster. There’s one story while working “home for the holidays” where she stops by his trailer. Apparently he was strung out and had lots of “projects” around the room. Like a model of the space shuttle. And she says something like “I think you know I’m aware of what’s going on here. It’s ok on this film because it’s a safe role but don’t think you can get away with getting caught doing this again.”
And you can’t do what they did on Harry Potter, giving all of Dobby’s contributions to Neville. I don’t know beyond this moment how else Jodie foster helped Robert but not enough where you can substitute her in place of Mel Gibson.
Sean Penn might have been an advocate as well but I can’t say for sure. And I’m not sure whether he’s free of controversy. I don’t know him that well.

If they could find some way to include Tropic Thunder in the mix, it should be. Nowadays such a movie would never get made. People are way too sensitive about stuff like that now. But as other people have said, you’re missing the point if you just look it as “he got away with playing a character doing blackface”. The joke is that he played an actor that was so caught up in their own ego, ala “I’m the only one who could’ve played this role” and he went out of his way to give himself the look to pull it off. Having Brandon T Jackson as that voice of reason to say what everyone in the audience is thinking is exactly why it works.

A Realm of Possibilities

aka- the daydreaming section


Who would play the lead role? Chances are they haven’t been born yet. Such a biopic might not be made while he’s still alive- and here’s hoping he gets to be at a ripe old age after everything.
His kids are a good possibility, though. Indio did play a younger version of him in one movie.
Then there’s the question of how many actors would play him through his life. 3 at minimum, probably. A younger version for working on his dad’s movies and early childhood moments. One for his 20s and the rehab/jail time arc. Then where he is now- 2003 onward.
Also- I don’t care how good their American accent is- they need to cast New York actors to play him. That’s my personal caveat. I hate when British actors play American.

The basics of what story arcs should be included:

• growing up with the counter culture movement in his family and his dads filmmaking
• Going to Santa Monica high with a lot of the big brat pack names, culminating in the John Hughes experience
• Less than zero
• Burying his clothes from Less than Zero and doing research for Chaplin
• Rehab, Jodie Foster, and “two girls and a guy”
• Court tv and jail time
• Ally McBeal, ending with him being fired and Calista flockhart fainting after hearing the news (this reportedly happened)
• His first jobs out of rehab, Mel Gibson, and meeting Susan
• Susan’s ultimatum and their wedding
• A montage of roles leading up to the audition for iron man
• Some witty banter between him and Jude law while working on the Sherlock Holmes set
• He and mark ruffalo bond after avengers and he goes on his “carbon footprint” agenda he’d been on for the past few years
• Oscar time!

I can’t help but want this to follow the “Chaplin” blueprint. Despite how heavily they focused on the controversies, they also did a lot of things right.

Maybe at a later date I’ll come back to this and come back with a solid outline of how I’d like this thing to go.
Although my approach might sound more like a documentary than a biopic.

In light of recent events, I’d really love an updated biography of him. All the ones I came across in 2011 focused heavily on the 90s and his recent successes were scarcely a footnote.

Ideally, it would be a two hour movie. Maybe 2 and a half. Rated R for drug use and language. There was one incident he was arrested for where he was reportedly driving naked throwing invisible rats out the window and there was a loaded gun (with dumdum bullets- his words) in the glove compartment. But if things need to be edited down for pacing, there should only be one bizarre incident included. I’d choose the one where he broke into his neighbor’s house and fell asleep in their laundry room.
For any normal movie (i.e. not X rated or pornographic), my opinion is nudity should be limited as long as it contributes to the plot. Full frontal male nudity especially. (Yeah, I’m a straight woman but I’m still very self conscious about that stuff in movies and tend to avoid it if I can)

And for those who are curious how I know these quotes as well as I do, I did binge a lot of interviews in 2011 and watched a few multiple times. I didn’t have a lot going on at the time and my life wasn’t going well so it was a good escape.
Charlie Rose isn’t held in high regard like he used to be but if you can find his interview with Robert from 2003, watch it. They go into a lot of deep stuff that makes you think. Also one of many interviews I saw early on that showed me how articulate and intelligent this actor is. As much as I’m attracted to him or find his life’s story so compelling, I admire how eloquent he is when he’s given free rein. As someone who has to rehearse a thought several times in my head before speaking it aloud, I wish I had that super power.

Robert Downey Jr. wins!!- and other 2024 Oscar highlights

(had to find a photo somewhere online just to remind myself this actually happened)

Victory Lap

RDJ first appeared on my radar in 2008 with Tropic Thunder and I’d been lobbying for him win an Oscar ever since. 16 years later (oddly enough, the same length of time between his first Oscars as a nominee and his 2nd nominated role), it finally happened.
From now on, when they show movie trailers of him, his name will be preceded by “academy award winner.”
I’m still in disbelief, honestly. As much as I wanted this, I didn’t want to give myself permission to get excited until his name was called. The fact Robert DeNiro was also nominated made me listen extra closely to make sure I heard correctly he actually won.
And his speech was pretty much everything I expected, but I’m sure all the victories preceding this one helped him prepare for it.

I’d go on some more but I have a more substantial post in mind. Something I didn’t want to post until I knew for sure he’d won. The last thing I wanted to do was jinx this.
I’ll just add a little retrospective on his history with this awards show.
He lost for “Chaplin” because Al Pacino had been passed over a few times before he finally won. Would winning an Oscar at the age of 26 have changed the way his life went during the 90s? There’s a good chance it wouldn’t have made a difference. If anything, him winning might have been the worst thing that happened to him. Showering praise on the young and inexperienced in show business tends to have some adverse effects.
Then his Tropic Thunder performance lost to Heath Ledger. Part of me will always believe the only reason he won or was even nominated was because he died in the middle of filmmaking. But considering the Tropic Thunder role and the controversy surrounding it, him getting passed over then also makes sense. Plus he was still winning back the masses after his personal life had gotten in the way of his professional life for so long.
Now, he’s finally the DiCaprio and Pacino nominee. He finally earned his due. And hearing how this year’s vote had a higher than normal turnout, part of me wonders if it’s because that many people wanted him to win as much as I did.

Also, Jimmy Kimmel said how 20 years ago, his most recent role was Tim Allen’s antagonist in the shaggy dog remake. I completely forgot about that movie, haha.
But he was also off by a couple years. In 2004, Robert’s movie that year was Gothika. The movie where he said his fondest memory (other than playing the doctor on the opposite side of the table) was “romancing the producer.” In his speech he said how he was the rescue pup she’d helped out of the gutter. It’s a bit more complicated but she deserves all the credit in the world for why he’s here. And on set, Team Downey is as good as a team as they are on the home front.

Yes, you read correctly. This is the short version of my victory lap over this news. More to come later this week.

Did the headlines hype the wrong rivalry?


Since last summer, many journalists were saying the same thing. Barbie and Oppenheimer were going to take all the awards. And when the nominations were announced, things seemed to be looking that way. But to echo what everyone else had said, there were two people conspicuously absent. Margot Robbie for best actress and Greta Gerwig for best director. Both of whom absolutely deserved to be there and I can’t imagine why, except to clear the way for the people they really wanted to win.

Of their 13 nominations, Oppenheimer took home half. I didn’t expect them to take all of them but I was admittedly concerned when we were an hour in and they hadn’t won anything. Then Robert won his and karma was coming back in their favor.

It seems like every Oscars, there’s one movie that has me caught between annoyance and concern because I hadn’t seen or heard of it and it wins a lot of awards. Last year it was the foreign film “on the western front”. This year it was “Poor Things.” Considering it was nominated for 12 awards, none of its wins were super surprising. But the fact it stole a bunch of the awards I’d picked Barbie to win, I was very much concerned.
So I have to say this- there was so much hype about the Barbieheimer rivalry. But really, Poor Things was the movie Barbie really should’ve been worried about.
Poor Things was also the only one of the nominated movies that was being regularly played in theaters nearby. The two aforementioned movies were already on dvd and/or HBO. But some of the others (The Holdovers I was very interested in seeing), only played locally 2-3 times and they were at inconvenient time slots. And I wasn’t going to subscribe to Peacock or buy a dvd we were most likely only going to watch once.

And yeah, I guess if Poor Things ever comes to TV, I’m gonna have to watch it now.
It looks like a bizarre cross between Tim Burton, Birdman and Wes Anderson (who won for a short film this year but wasn’t there to accept it in person). The kind of movie sure to stick with you- for better or worse and I hope it’s the former.

Barbie was a little bit of a letdown when I finally saw it but I’d be willing to give it another try. I didn’t like Ken’s story arc but Ryan Gosling’s performance was such a show stopper, it might be enough to bring me around. (It was so epic, I was like "dude, if this acting thing doesn't work out for you, this would be a good back up plan").
It was just sad after all that the movie only won one award. And in the Barbie vs Ken face off, Barbie prevailed. A well deserved second win for Billie Eilish.

The result of my Oscar ballot


I’ve only filled one of these out a couple of times but it might be a tradition I’ll continue going forward.
I got 13/23 wins correct, which is my average.

Barbie aside, it was kinda disappointing I didn’t get the lead acting categories correct. But I also couldn’t be too mad about either one. I honestly thought Lily Gladstone was nominated because she was going to win- Hollywood’s too-little-too-late way of making up for the Sacheen Littlefeather controversy. But I’d loved Emma stone since “Easy A” so any time she wins is a win for me.

After watching a Hollywood reporter round table on YouTube (featuring RDJ, Mark Ruffalo and three of the best actor contenders), I picked Jeffrey Wright to win for American Fiction. He received so much praise from the other actors and his role sounded interesting to me.  It’s one of those roles and movies that people had been clamoring for that shines a spotlight on other backgrounds.(I'd have to see it for myself but it's about a black writer who earns accolades for writing a novel that- quoting Wikipedia here- "mock[s] the literary clichés expected from Black writers." He'd written it out of spite and it winds up becoming an overnight success).
That being said, I can’t be mad at Cillian Murphy winning for Oppenheimer. He did that role so well.

And of course I’m thrilled Oppenheimer won best picture because I can actually say I’d seen it and agree that it was worthy.
Although the way Al Pacino handled the presenting of the award, I was a bit concerned it was going to be the LaLa Land debacle all over again.
No disrespect but the academy needs to do better selecting people to present this award because it’s the most important one. Between Al Pacino and Warren Beatty, the ball has been dropped a bit too much in recent years.

The supporting actress winner, Da'Vine Joy Randolph, set the tone for the rest of the show. She thanked her publicist for being instrumental in her success. So a bunch of people rode those coat tails. (Robert thanked his stylist as well as his agent who’d helped him a lot over the years, not just limited to helping him get insured to do movies when he wasn’t at his most reliable).


Jimmy Kimmel


Again he was a good host. Although a couple of his jokes fell flat for me. Two of which were political jokes. :sigh: Dude just can’t help himself and I hate that.
And the whole John Cena streaker joke… I’d seen the dude have no issue with nude scenes in a couple movies but doing it live is a different animal. No wonder the poor dude was uncomfortable.
And predictably, he got one little job at Matt Damon in there at the end.


Best Oscars in years?


I may be a little biased in this regard but it was a great show even without all the Oppenheimer victories.

And I think the biggest reason was the lack of grandstanding and soap box speeches. People won their trophies and thanked all the people that helped them get there. It’s the way it should be and hadn’t been for a while.
The only point that shifted away from this was Ukraine winning their first Oscar (Best Documentary) and the recipient speaking in support of his country. And also the snippet from Alexei Navalny, the Russian activist who’d died in prison (none of us believe the whole “death by natural causes” cover story) right before the "In Memoriam" segment. There were some complaints (including at least one person in our house) that you couldn’t read the names all that well. I saw enough of them that they left the intended impact. They showed Matthew Perry and his loss hit me as hard as it did when I first heard. It still doesn’t feel real. Having Andrea Bocelli there in person singing "Time to Say Goodbye" with his son, in Italian and English, also super touching.

Another cool thing was having 5 previous acting winners giving speeches for the nominees. You could really feel the love and admiration in the room.
And of course I didn’t expect anything less when Sam Rockwell delivered a few lines about RDJ with playful prodding. The most well known being “he doesn’t drop character until the DVD commentary.” Speaking from the 2-3 of his commentaries I’d sat through, it was just the one time. But I’d recommend the commentary for Tropic Thunder just the same.

Another neat thing about the awards this year. In addition to some of the international winners, several were from the UK and ended their acceptance speeches with wishes of “happy Mother’s Day.”
We have a wall calendar from the British Isles this year. It’s a bit strange having the week start with Monday. But sure enough, on March 10th it says “mothering Sunday”

This year, the show started a little after 7pm my time and ended around 10:30... there were some complaints about this, but honestly, I'd be all for this time slot going forward. Speaking as someone who has to get up early to work the next day.

Theatrical Review: Dolittle

Date: Saturday January 25 2020
Time: 11:15am
Party: 3 (my mom, sister and I)

Director: Stephen Gaghan
Writers: Stephen Gaghan, Dan Gregor, Doug Mand, Chris McCay, Thomas Shepherd
Composer: Danny Elfman

Cast: 
(humans)
Dr. John Dolittle- Robert Downey Jr.
Stubbins- Harry Collett
Lady Rose- Carmel Laniado
Queen Victoria- Jessie Buckley
Dr. Blair Müdfly- Michael Sheen
Lord Thomas Badgely- Jim Broadbent
King Rassouli- Antonio Banderas 
(animals)
Polly the macaw- Emma Thompson
Chee-Chee the gorilla- Rami Malek
Yoshi the polar bear- John Cena
Plimpton the ostrich- Kumail Nanjiani
Dab-Dab the duck- Octavia Spencer
Jip the dog- Tom Holland
Kevin the squirrel- Craig Robinson
Barry the tiger- Ralph Fiennes
James the dragonfly- Jason Mantzoukas
The Dragon (yeah, there is a dragon)- Frances De La Tour 

Duration: 101 minutes (+6 trailers)

Write-up:

Opening Comments

Ok, first of all... this movie has already gotten so much dumped on from critics... one in our local paper actually gave it 0 stars. Out of 4 stars, I might give it 2.5. It's not an Oscar-worthy movie, but I had fun with it. And it isn't just because RDJ is a part of it. It was just a fun fantastical movie and the cast of actors they had to voice the characters- they were all great. The visuals were dazzling. They pulled me in and after a certain point, the movie just ran by so fast that it was suddenly over. 
It was a decent crowd in the theater. A lot of kids. And they were laughing along with the movie and a couple times were clapping. So it definitely won over the target audience in our theater. Robert and his wife, Susan, were saying in interviews that it was the first premiere they could take their kids to because it's appropriate for their age. Exton was born in 2012 and I think Avri was a year or so after that. But the fact kids have been enjoying this movie is a good sign. Heck, what they lose out on in theater sales, they might make up in DVD sales or streams. 

Trailers 

To the theater's credit, they didn't overdo it with commercials or trailers this time around. There were only 6 and they only ran for about 17 minutes. 
Let's see... 

Peter Rabbit 2: The Runaway
I swear when they advertised this last, the whole story was about Peter meeting the Fierce Bad Rabbit. Now apparently it's about the animals leaving Mr. McGregor's place and a couple get kidnapped and they all need to get them back. I'm not a fan of what they did with this story I grew up with, but this movie looks a bit better than the original one did in the trailers. 

I still believe
Not sure if whose life this was based on, but there's a musician who falls in love with a girl and she gets cancer and Shania Twain is in the cast... It looks really good, but maybe a tearjerker. Depending on whether it's another of those spiritual movies they typically release around Easter

Sonic the Hedgehog
Omg... I mean, they tried their best with this trailer, but considering this movie was delayed for a year because YouTube comments were freaking out about the fact Sonic's teeth were "too human"... this is already doomed before it hits theaters. The humor is too try-hard and over the top. And why is it when video game characters come into our world that the fate of the world is at stake? We've seriously run out of ideas. 

In the Heights
I'm not quite sure what this movie is about, but it's a musical that takes place in a very colorful neighborhood. It has the same director as "Crazy Rich Asians" and Lin-Manuel Miranda (the guy behind "Hamilton") is involved too. But it looked pretty impressive.

Emma
Why do they feel compelled to make this movie again? Gwyneth Paltrow did it in the 1995. They did Clueless, a modern adaptation in 1995. There's no need to do this again. And none of the names in the cast are big names, so why even bother? 

Trolls World Tour
I've seen this trailer so many times... I don't need to add anything... 

The Main Event

First, the story... we have an animated flashbacks (really good drawings of the characters, by the way, very realistic) about the Dolittles and their back story. They went around the world saving animals from imprisonment and hardship. It ends with his wife dying in a shipwreck and he becomes a reclusive as a result of the devastation. 

The boy, Stubbins, comes from a hunting family and when he misfires to avoid shooting ducks, he actually shoots a squirrel. Polly the parrot takes him to Dolittle's place and after much ado, he does get him treated and save his life. The same day he shows up, one of the royal attendants, Lady Rose, shows up at the estate, saying that the Queen (who had gifted the Dolittles with the estate in the first place) has fallen ill and needs his help. 
So begins the voyage where Dolittle, Stubbins (who decides he wants to be his apprentice) and a bunch of his animal friends sail to find the antidote for her sickness. Oh, and there's the fact the Queen's illness falls under the category of suspicious and they have parts of the British royal entourage to deal with on the journey. 

Anyone who had seen Robert as Sherlock Holmes will have a fair idea of how he's going to play this character: very eccentric and imaginative. And of course he does an accent on top of that. He was a guest star on Ellen where he said that Welsh is the hardest accent and she asked him "why do you do that to yourself?" He has a really good ear for accents, especially when Andrew Jack is his dialect coach, but he changed the accents for two roles (Natural Born Killers and Tropic Thunder) from Irish to Australian because he couldn't do an Irish accent. 
The fact he'd been shut up in her since his wife died... yeah, it kinda makes sense that he let himself go a bit. And it's bizarre when you see him talking in animal speak before they transition to him and the animals speaking English so we can understand. It does start a little strange, but it does get better from there. The only other moments I didn't care for was when they opted for bathroom humor to get some cheap laughs. It's only a couple scenes, but it's like "did they REALLY have to go there?" 

One of the biggest story arcs with the animals is Chee-Chee the gorilla. He's a bit of a coward, but in some pivotal moments, he finds his courage and it's a great moment when he does. Polly is the voice of reason, kinda the motherly figure in the group, so she's pretty great. The dynamic between Yoshi and Plimpton, it's a little strange, but it makes for some entertaining moments. A lot of the animals were used in creative ways. One involved a stick insect. 
Kevin the Squirrel... even though Stubbins brought him to get treated, he's paranoid the whole movie that he hasn't finished with him. His commentary is pretty silly. 
The fact Stubbins was learning how to talk to the animals... I'm not quite sure if I believe that. In the Eddie Murphy version, it was a gift he was born with. According to this version, you can learn it from books... unless those were books Dolittle wrote himself. 

Michael Sheen play an interesting character. A little vain and neurotic. He and Dolittle went to school together, so he's jealous of his accomplishments and is excited at the opportunities to one-up him. But he does have some great comical moments too. He always plays a good baddie. 
(There's also a post-credits scene of him-- right after all the portraits go on the wall and the main cast are listed-- so be sure to stick around for that. It's kinda funny)

Antonio Banderas rules one of the places they stop and he's Lily Dolittle's father, so there's a little tension involved with him, but also a lot of twists. The funny thing is that I didn't realize it was him until the credits. His voice is so iconic (omg, he's only Puss in Boots from Shrek), but he just looked so scruffy that he was unrecognizable. 

It's a happy ending, that's all I'll really go into. 
But overall, I'd have to say that it's the kind of movie where, if you suspend your disbelief and get lost in the visual effects and the characters... you'll have a good time. 
Would I buy it on DVD? I don't know... I'd probably watch it a bunch of times on HBO whenever it gets there. Robert was tapped to do "Oz, The Great and Powerful," but I think he turned it down because he didn't get the freedom to improvise. This was a far better movie than that was. I pair them together, only because they favor visual effects more than a deep storyline. 

It was definitely great to be back at the movies for another Downey flick. Something outside of the Marvel universe for a change. And honestly, I was so caught up in his characterization that I kinda saw the character more than him. When he does his best work, he really disappears into his characters. 
It just kinda sucks that his movies are so few and far between. Once a year if I'm lucky... he's rumored to appear in the new Black Widow movie, which takes place in some other time period before Endgame. But I'm planning to see that just because they are finally doing a Black Widow movie after years of people begging for one. And of course Sherlock 3 will be next Christmas... after all the time waiting after Sherlock 2 (I hadn't seen that movie since I saw the DVD commentary with him... I didn't like it that much), it better be a good sequel. That's all I'll say on that.

For now... I'll give it... 

Grade: B+

Theatrical Review: Avengers- Endgame

Date: Sunday April 28, 2019
Location: Cinemark Theater at Stroud Mall
Time: 12 noon
Party: 3 (my mom, sister and I)

Directors: Anthony and Joe Russo

Cast:
(oh god... so many...)

Tony Stark/Iron-Man- Robert Downey Jr. 
Steve Rogers/Captain America- Chris Evans
Thor- Chris Hemsworth
Natasha Romanoff/Black Widow- Scarlet Johansson
Clint Barton/Hawkeye- Jeremy Renner
Bruce Banner/The Hulk- Mark Ruffalo
Rocket- Bradley Cooper
Pepper Potts- Gwyneth Paltrow
Rodey/War Machine- Don Cheadle
Scott Lang/Ant-Man- Paul Rudd
Nebula- Karen Gillan
Thanos- Josh Brolin
Carol Danvers/Captain Marvel- Brie Larson
Peter Parker/Spider-man- Tom Holland
Doctor Stephen Strange- Benedict Cumberbatch
Peter Quill/Star-Lord- Chris Pratt
Gamora- Zoe Saldana
Groot- Vin Disel
Drax- Dave Bautista
Mantis- Pom Klementieff
T'Challa/Black Panther- Chadewick Bosman
Sam Wilson/Falcon- Anthony Mackie
Bucky Barnes/Winter Soldier- Sebastian Stan
Okoye- Danai Gurira

...if I forgot ANYONE, I'm really sorry... it's a lot to remember... 

Duration: 181 minutes (+ 7 minutes)... ok, the last LOTR movie was 3 hours and 21 minutes... so this movie wasn't nearly as long as that, but it came close... 

Opening Commentary
I was actually trying to hold off on doing this as long as I could... but considering I had a dream last night where I attempt to tell one of these people how great they were in these movies, the time is about right to do it... admittedly, it's been a weird past couple of weeks and I'd been in a weird state of mourning between a lot of different things in my work life and personal life and this movie added a bit on a top of that... 
However, I will try my best to go into this movie without spoiling anything... as much as there are some things I really do want to go into, that will be a separate post. It's something that will need to be done... after all, I did invest a lot of time and money into keeping up with these movies since 2010. It's a big investment monetarily as well as emotionally. And above all else, it's difficult saying goodbye. I will still see Marvel movies (I'm already looking at Spider-Man for sure), just not every single one. It'll be all about the characters involved. 

As for seeing the movie itself... I feel kinda lucky I got there that first weekend. Granted, this theater is has a couple dozen movie houses, so they're able to show it on multiple screens. But the fact the first 2 shows were sold out and we had to wait to see the 12 noon showing, yeah, that tells you all you need to know. 
We went into the theater and literally sat there for 90 minutes waiting for it. The one big negative I take away from this... they are pumping music through the speakers so it's not completely quiet, but it's the same program played on a loop... at least 5-6 songs they played several times... they do this "Noovie" thing before even showing commercials and trailers and that didn't even come on until T-15 minutes. It's just a pet peeve of mine to have things repeated. Come the third time, I just put on my iPod. I got through Side A of "Abbey Road" before the screen turned on-- it was a good way to kill time for sure. 

Trailers... yeah roughly 17 minutes of trailers on top of an already long movie... at least we did bathroom breaks before all this cuz there was no point in the movie where I could have left and come back without missing anything

"21 bridges"- not only written/directed by the Russo brothers, but it stars Black Panther himself, Chadewick Bosman. Kudos for them putting this guy into position to make more great movies. I just hope this was a good movie. Supposedly, this is about trying to hunt down a cop killer and they have to close the 21 bridges leading in and out of the city to do so. It's also very current and topical and if it's well-received, will stir up some good conversation. 

"Hobbs and Shaw"- I already voiced my opinion on the Fast & Furious series... pass!!

"Godzilla: King of the monsters"- my dad loves Godzilla movies, so he'll probably want to see this one. Supposedly 17+ monsters have risen and are threatening mankind and they want to bring Godzilla to take care of them. Particularly the alpha. All the while, they're playing some version of "Somewhere over the rainbow"... don't know why, but it got me a little choked up. Somewhat of a weird music choice, but this haunting rendition oddly worked...

"Dark Phoenix"- the more I see trailers for this, the more I think I might be interested in seeing it... Jean Grey has always been a tortured character and it really goes all in.

"Men in Black: International"- yeah, I don't think this necessarily needed a remake. And another nod to Marvel- it has Thor and Valkyrie (Chris Hemsworth and Tessa Thompson) teamed up as H & M... it did have some funny jokes, though... 

"Lion King"- first time I'm seeing a proper trailer for this... it looks AMAZING... wow, this is gonna be a great year for Disney movies

"Star Wars- the Rise of Skywalker"- this was a teaser trailer really... but considering how the Last Jedi ended, the title confuses me a bit... unless it turns out that Kylo Ren lied and Rae  really is related to someone we knew from the original trilogy. 
The other night, I saw Return of the Jedi for the first time since Luke came back in the previous movie... it was a little strange... also the fact Luke's Jedi powers seemed to have grown exponentially between episodes V and VI... 

The Main Event
Again, as spoiler free as I can manage... but I'll give the basic details...

We catch up with the Avengers remaining immediately following the events of Infinity War. And some of them got a rawer detail than others about the people that were lost... I just had to say "that's not fair!"... 
As shown in the trailers, Captain Marvel joins them and those remaining get to finally rectify the way the previous movie ended... my only question was... why couldn't they have just added these 10 minutes to the end of the previous movie? Maybe the ending of the previous movie wouldn't have been as somber... 

Then we catch up with everyone left 5 years later... you see those words come up and I'm thinking "whoa"... it kinda knocks the wind out of you.

However, despite all the time that has passed, a sentiment remains about fixing things. And this is brought into motion because Ant-Man comes back after being MIA... I did not see the most recent Ant-Man movie, so I was completely lost about the events that transpired. (yeah, I'd seen all of the movies but this one and it wound up being the most crucial detail... go figure!)
And the solution is... wait for it... TIME TRAVEL... 
pretty much every pop culture reference is made in relation to this and I cheered when "Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure" was among them. Love that movie. 

One fascinating turn of events... Tony Stark's role in all this... back with the Ultron saga, he was the one who wanted to "build a suit of armor around the world" and everyone thought he was crazy... he's the only one who isn't really into this because he'd actually moved on and found his happy ending. But Captain America, who still never got over losing his past (after being defrosted and after these 5 years), is the one pushing for this chance at fixing things. It's almost like Civil War all over again where both of them take different sides on an issue and it's because Tony wavers in his position that the events follow as they do. 
Ultimately what we get from all this... those who have followed these characters after all this time know and understand why they decide to take the actions that they do... and actually, that's the theme for the entire movie. 

CGI comes into play a lot in these movies, but they really upped their game with physical transformations whether it's Tony being emaciated after being stuck in space for 21 days or what happens to Thor 5 years later (why they did that- I think it was strictly comic relief and Tony getting to finally use that Big Lebowski reference he'd been saving... I remember RDJ being on the red carpet, talking about how Jeff Bridges is "The Dude" and his son Indio had no idea what he was talking about)... it also made me think whether Thor and Aqua-Man have more similiarities than I realized. I got a very similar vibe and I'd only seen Aqua-Man in the Justice League movie. 

So with this movie... not going into great detail... 
I actually looked at my phone 3 times throughout the movie to try to gauge time stamps and I think I managed to get each hour perfectly. 

Hour 1- finishing off the previous movie, catching up with the characters, establishing where they are and getting the plan together
Hour 2- Time travel and putting those plans into action
Hour 3- the final epic battle with ALL the characters and the epilogue 

In this respect, the three hours really didn't feel that long at all. At least not to me. 

Much of this movie is fan service- it rewards the fans who saw all the movies because we get to revisit moments from previous films. And the dialogue makes dozens of references to previous movies. I think YouTube had a video that showed all 300+ Easter Eggs in this movie that harkened back to the previous ones. 
And all things considered, I got nearly all of the references and it felt empowering. Almost like following a book series and it's transitioned to the big screen and I get things that other people don't because I read the books. (Also a double-edged sword because I'm upset when things from the books are omitted or completely changed). 

These characters (and the actors playing them) are so well established that none of their actions are surprising at the end of the day. 
I liked how they focused more on Nat and Hawkeye's friendship. Instead of getting a few hints in the first few Avengers movie, they really get a lot of screen time together. I'm still hoping that they shoot a prequel where they really show what happens in Budapest. I just know they were both there and they "remember it very differently." There's so much call for a Black Widow movie, but why not have a movie with the both of them, their different bios and how their paths inevitably cross. Plus, as much as I wanted them to be romantically involved, they're not and it'd be good to see a movie with a male and female working together and it doesn't have that romance. Because romance more often than not ruins these things- particularly in TV shows. Castle and Blindspot are among several that went down or lost viewership because of that.

Of course the time travel thing isn't completely foolproof and one extra stop needs to be taken by Tony and Steve... where they go, I really had no clue about, but it was a really special scene for both of their characters. (This is also where Stan Lee makes his cameo).

One moment that happened made me think about "Heart and Souls" where RDJ makes a comment "It's been an emotional time for us all"... in the movie, he's the "corporeal being" that 4 departed souls use to complete unfinished business. The emotional exchange that happens makes sense for that particular person, but with him conveying the action, it's more than a little bizarre. Especially he had encountered this character a number of times throughout the movie and he happens to be connected to someone's unfinished business. 

The final battle is pretty insane... all the battles really are and they all get to a point where the actions more or less blur together... but like with the previous movie, it's absolutely painful how difficult Thanos is to kill... every single split second is crucial. And Doctor Strange mentioned how it was 1 chance out of 7 billion (it was some huge number- I forgot exactly what that they can win)... he wasn't kidding. 

I also got to thinking about Harry Potter and how that movie ended... and Snape's comment to Dumbledore when he reveals that Harry must face Voldemort when he's at his weakest... saying with sarcasm how he was raised as a lamb for slaughter.
It made me also wonder if certain characters were entrusted with the full truth of what would happen with this movie or these movies, just like J.K. Rowling told Snape what happened with his character. Apparently, that was true for at least one person. 

Yeah, everything in this movie happens exactly as it is meant to. Even how it ends and who makes it and who doesn't. I accept that there was a reason for all of it. I even said at the end of my post on Infinity War that I'd be ok with things ending a certain way... 
but it is nice to see character arcs finishing as well as small hints of future movies. 
There are no post-credits scenes. But it's just as well.
I'd like more Marvel movies... I just don't want all of them to build to a massive climax like this again. Not because it's emotionally taxing, but it's just a massive committment and I'm ready to move on. 

I revisited a bunch of the movies leading up to this... admittedly, I started getting sick of them... but after this, I was happy with the conclusion, but it's very bittersweet at the end of the day. 
It'll be a while before I watch anymore. But I know I at least have to rewatch Spiderman before the new movie comes out (plus I need subtitles to catch EVERYTHING going on- those first 10 minutes were going so fast, it gave me a headache) and Doctor Strange (cuz I got it for Christmas and still haven't watched it- I saw it in the theater ages ago and it's time to revisit that)

Grade: A
(pretty close to perfect, but I can't quite give it an A+... even if its length is justified, it's still an unnecessarily long movie)

Theatrical Review: The Avengers- Infinity War

Date: Saturday April 28 2018
Location: Cinemark Theater in Stroud Mall
Time: 1:40pm
Party: 3 (my mom, sister and I)

Directors: Anthony and Joe Russo

Cast... oh boy... I might just copy & paste this whole thing

Tony Stark/Iron-Man: Robert Downey Jr.
Steve Rodgers/Captain America- Chris Evans
Thor- Chris Hemsworth
Bruce Banner/The Hulk- Mark Ruffalo
Black Widow- Scarlet Johannson
Peter Parker/Spider-Man- Tom Holland
The Vision- Paul Bettany
Black Panther- Chadwick Boseman
Wanda Maximoff/Scarlet Witch- Elizabeth Olsen
Loki- Tom Hiddlestone
Heimdell- Idris Elba
Star-Lord- Chris Pratt
Gamora- Zoe Saldana
Rocket- Bradley Cooper
Drax- Dave Baustisa
Groot- Vin Diesel
Mantis- Pom Klementieff
Doctor Strange- Benedict Cumberbatch
Sam Wilson/Falcon- Anthony Mackie
Bucky Barnes/Winter Soldier- Sebastian Stan
Okoye- Danai Gurira
Thanos- Josh Brolin

Unless there are more people that come up in the movie, that's going to be the majority of them...

Duration: 160 minutes  (+ 7  trailers... trailers started on time, but the actual movie didn't start until 2:02pm)

Write-up:

Introduction

Man, I've been really bad at keeping this blog updated, but I really haven't been to the movies since 50 Shades back in February. Ever since our local theater burned down, I've felt less need to go to the movies and there've been a few I've wanted to see. Isle of Dogs for starters. And with all the success it had, I kinda regret not going to see Black Panther. There'll be another chance, I'm sure... when it comes on DVD and my dad sees it in-flight.
I also have yet to see the new Spider-Man movie. Having RDJ in it wasn't even enough incentive to get me to go. I guess I'm just sick of them trying to remake Spider-Man when Tobey Maguire did it right the first time.

With this movie, I don't have a whole lot of expectations. I've been disconnected from the Marvel universe for some time. It's been a while since the last time I saw an Avengers movie and I gave up Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. after that Ada story arc and the alternate universe. It just drove me too nuts that much of the series was about the team being split apart and fighting all season to get back together. Almost as frustrating as Once Upon a Time always starting a new season with a new memory-wiping curse... I really did love that show and I miss watching it, but it broke my heart one too many times.

And now I'm rambling...

I'd purposely avoiding spoilers, but it's getting rave reviews and on Twitter, I get the impression it's very dark ("and they call DC dark" I think was the quote). There's also talk of a lot of characters being killed off... I mean, losing Tony Stark would be emotional for me, but I'm dying for RDJ to do something other than Marvel. It does sound, though, he is working on a new Dr. Dolittle movie. It has an all-star cast, but of course, he's the only human among them, lol.

Getting into the movie...

This was a first for me. If our local theater hadn't burned down, I'm not entirely sure this would have been avoided. BUT we get there close to 12 for the 12:20 show... they have an electronic sign behind the ticket counter with all the movie times. I noticed within minutes the 12:20 flashing saying "sold out"... I'm like "whoa..." so we immediately get tickets for the next showing and are promptly told to get in line an hour beforehand so we'll get a good seat. An hour beforehand was half an hour of free time... but the line actually wasn't bad and we got really good seats.

Gotta say this for the Avengers crowd at the first weekend of a movie... you'll never find a better movie crowd. They care about everything so much that they will laugh at all the appropriate times in unison and will collectively stay silent when something serious is going down. Hell, I got shushed once during this movie when I was complaining how Spider-Man calls these movies he's referencing "old"... I did not appreciate that. It's not like I was like those little kids at the Beauty & The Beast movie last year that were chatting much of the movie and were promptly shushed when the big song came on. But I guess it's been a while since I'd been in a crowd like this and I'd gotten way too comfortable with interacting with movies. It's not like I do it ALL THE TIME in theaters. (Although I couldn't help but do so when I saw "Let's be cops" and "Ghostbusters" cuz I was the only one in the theater... best time ever)...

Again, I'm rambling...

Then there was the ending where everyone just fell completely silent and whether we said it aloud or not, we had all a sense of "that was it?!"

Trailers

I was able to ID these movies within 10 seconds so I was able to type them into my phone and lock so I could enjoy the rest.

The trailers have been around, but I finally saw Deadpool 2. And it seems like he's trying to put a league together of superheroes. Gee, I wonder where he got that idea... X-Men (which Colossus has been recruiting him for) or Avengers (cuz, you know, it worked so well)... Anyway, it looks like this movie has more of a budget than the last one and I hope they don't try to overachieve too much just cuz they know they have a good thing going.

Crimes of Grindewald- the newest installment of the Harry Potter "Fantastic Beasts" franchise. And it appears Jude Law is Dumbledore... I love Jude, but I don't know if I completely buy it. Cuz Harry Potter is born in 1980 and goes to Hogwarts in the 90's. This franchise takes place in the 20's and maybe 30's... Dumbledore looks A LOT younger here than he does in the Harry Potter franchise. Unless his inevitable duel with Grindewald ages him A LOT, I don't quite see that making sense. But it sounds like Dumbledore is asking Newt Scamander to kill Grindewald because he can't do it. J.K. Rowling said after the books were done that Dumbledore was gay and hinted that he and Grindewald might have been a thing... so I interpret his plea to Newt as "it's not that I can't do it, I just don't want to"...
but it's very exciting for this next movie to come out... too bad it isn't for months.

Mission Impossible: Fallout... WHY?! We don't need anymore of these movies. I'd rather see Jeremy Renner's next Bourne film (that's not a jest, I really do want to see another of those movies from him...)... I didn't know about this movie until ET trailers talking to Tom Cruise about his MI injury and I'm like "another injury?"... this trailer just made me want to see the new Jack Reacher movie that should be on HBO soon.

Venom with Tom Hardy playing the title role... I didn't know about this until I saw the movie posters and we promptly saw a trailer. This looks DARK and terrifying. Something I really have no interest in seeing. Supposedly there is this Indian guy running a company that's experimenting with something called Symbiants, which is some dark substance that takes refuge in the human body and is the next step towards evolution. Tom Hardy gets infected and this substance actually talks back to him in this deep threatening voice and sometimes black fluid comes out of him to attack people around him. Supposedly Venom will become an anti-hero. I know that people are disappointed with how Venom was treated in Spider-Man 3 (among other things...) but completely darkening it up is too far for me. I don't know or care enough about this character (or Tom Hardy for that matter) to proceed.

Solo- we saw this trailer on my dad's iPad ,but this had far better lighting. Woody Harrelson is in it as Han's boss, saying something like "if you expect everyone you know to betray you, you won't be disappointed"... which tells me someone betraying him is why Jabba the Hutt puts such a huge price on his head. And there's a scene with Lando and a card game and supposedly that's how Han gets the Millennium Falcon. My mom of course is excited cuz she loves Han Solo and Harrison Ford and she kinda likes this guy as well, but we'll see when we see the actual movie.

Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom... going back to dark and terrifying... OH MY GOD... this movie goes way beyond all the previous Jurassic movies. Not only is the island full of dinosaurs being threatened by a volcano, but Blue, the last of Owen's trained raptors gets captured and experimented on and of course, B.D. Wong has to create a new dinosaur (because Indominus Rex worked SO WELL in the last movie). There's a scene where the new dinosaur is in a girl's bedroom... so yeah, this is scary. And is this girl supposed to be Owen and Claire's kid? Why not bring back her nephews from the last movie? (I guess after the last movie, their parents don't want them anywhere near the island or dinosaurs again)...
anyway... it looks terrifying and like nightmare fuel (I'd been saying that a lot lately, although I don't really have nightmares all that much), but cuz I'd seen every Jurassic movie in theaters, I have to see this one. It's tradition.

Incredibles 2... I didn't like the last one that much, so I'm not really looking to see this one either... but the theme is that some organization wants to change the perception of superheroes and they want to use Elastic Girl to do it. Meaning Mr. Incredible is emasculated and has to be a stay-at-home dad. Meanwhile his daughter is going through, what the Quickster called "adolescence" (this franchise I think was closer to PG13 than other Pixar movies, so that's as family friendly as they can put it... although I think "Inside Out" did mention puberty towards the end) and Jack-Jack has a lot of different powers firing off at the same time.

Yikes... now I get the feeling I'm going to be saying more about the trailers than the actual movie. Sorry if that's disappointing...

The Actual Movie

Here's the tricky part... so much happens in this movie, good and bad... that I really don't want to go into every detail. It's one of those movies you just have to see. Especially if you love these movies.
I admit I'd been experiencing "Marvel fatigue" lately with all the movies that had been out... I think mostly because RDJ is stuck doing these movies when he could be off trying to win Oscars... for me, the latest Thor and Guardians installment were kinda disappointing because they either stepped way too far from what made the franchise great or just too dark a turn that I kinda lost faith. "Civil War" was really good and one of the better ones, but it's not the greatest feeling that not like Tony Stark and siding with Captain America when I'd always leaned one way more than the other.
This movie or less took all that fatigue away and now I'm dying for the next volume to come out... because this ending needs to be salvaged and reconciled.

I don't really want to give away which characters run into who because that's part of the fun. And also where they end up going.

Tony Stark and Pepper seem to be planning their wedding... which is amazing to me because in "Civil War," I thought they'd broken up so I have no idea how they reconciled. But needless to say, the events of this movie will put a further damper on things.
And he also winds up confronting a lot of his fears that have been with him since his moment of sacrifice in the original "Avengers" movie... so that's really good closure for his character. Meanwhile, the tech in this movie is RIDICULOUS... how advanced Tony's suit is and all of the extra features his suit for Spider-Man is... it was blowing my mind.
Gotta hand it to this franchise, they step up their technology every time and it's incredible how far we've come in the last 10 years.
Yeah, Iron-Man was released 10 years ago and I don't think any of us could have predicted all this.

Of course one thing people have been clamored for and RDJ had hinted about it on his Facebook page... the two Sherlocks (Downey from the Guy Ritchie franchise- where is Sherlock 3?!! and Benedict Cumberbatch from the PBS series) getting to have actual screen time together. It's pretty awesome. And it reminded me how I really should get Doctor Strange on disc at some point cuz I hadn't seen it since the movies.

On the other side of the galaxy, we have the Guardians. And in true-Guardians fashion, their arrival is announced by a change in music :P and they interact with a couple of different Avengers throughout their screen time. And of course they go how you expect them to... which includes another melee (that was a highlight of the first Avengers movie, so why not?... too bad the timing of it isn't exactly preferable).

If you view this movie in the canon of the whole franchise, seeing it right after the latest Thor movie... let's just say things get very dark, very fast.
Thor is in need of a new weapon to replace his beloved hammer and he gets to visit the forge inside a dying star that Mjolnir came from. I won't give away who he meets there, but let's just say Game of Thrones fans will be VERY happy. And his new weapon is extremely bad-ass.

Then there is Thanos... who had been hyped up since the end credits scene as the ultimate villain of this franchise... you'd think his motivation was just galactic/universal domination. But he has a very interesting motivation that falls almost in line with Dan Brown's Robert Langdon book "Inferno"... his concern is overpopulation, so he wants to obtain all of the infinity stones to rectify that. As far as motivations go, it's actually not too bad. It's well-thought out, actually. In the Pokémon video game franchise, the theme of Black & White was about separating Pokémon from people because certain characters truly believed that they did not benefit from their captivity. That fell in line with the critics of the series that said it was akin to dog fighting. When you really think about it, the antagonists might have a point and if you were in their circumstances, you might believe the same way. However, you have to resist and hold onto your ideals because it will get in way of your happiness and way of life.
I think my overall point to this is that you can side with Thanos and agree with where he's going... but you really don't want to because the price needed to be paid is way too high. Losing people you love and care about.

It was established in the first Guardians movie that Gamora was adopted by Thanos and left him to join the Guardians. Like with Tony Stark, everything kinda goes full circle for her as well and we see how she came into the care of Thanos.

As far as action goes... it's nearly relentless. We get some lulls where there are some good laughs and pop culture references and so on. But the fact the Stan Lee cameo is very early in the movie suggests that things will get pretty dark later on. (and yes, I know I used that word 9 times already... I'll try to stop).

It's incredible to watch, though. It keeps you on your toes. I audibly screamed once or twice because something came out of nowhere. (But in my defense, that has happened a couple of times recently, including one episode of Shadowhunters). The technology is insane and so cool to watch. Just when things look bad for the heroes, others show up to join the fight. We have a scene where all of the female characters get to fight against a common enemy. That was a pretty awesome moment, but I can't help but feel that was planted to pander to a certain demographic. Kinda like this latest trend of having diversity just for the sake of it. Whitewashing in a historical movie where it involves a certain culture or demographic is one thing, that's bad... but feeling the need to include non-white actors and actresses into movies so you can claim "hey, we're diverse, we're good"... to me, it comes off a little forced.
What we need is more good roles written by and for non-white characters. Like Randall in "This is Us" and the movie "Girls Trip" where the writers, director and main cast is black... that's a step in the right direction for sure. "The Good Doctor" also had an interesting episode where one character threatens to sue for unlawful discharge, proclaiming racism and the head of surgery (as black) berates him for an improper use of "the race card" (he was fired because he assaulted another doctor cuz another student said he was inappropriate with her)... he went into a little more detail than that, but I thought that was an interesting moment.

So the fact I am doing a lot of sidetracking kinda suggests I don't really want to talk about certain things in the movie.
As a general rule, I REALLY don't like it when villains are unbeatable. All of them have to have one weakness that gives the good guys a chance to overcome him. Certain parts of this movie were like that, but the camaraderie between heroes and the last minute saves helps with that. But ultimately, that emotional rollercoaster was just toying with our emotions.
The body count (if you can call it that) is substantial. But considering how many of these characters have upcoming franchise installments, it's hard to be completely devastated. Not to mention they did bring a couple S.H.I.E.L.D. agents back from the dead, so it's impossible to kill anyone off, really...

And the fact I'm not a complete wreck but merely just felt numb in all my extremities after the movie ended... that's kinda telling of one of the survivors...
And for those curious, there is a post-credits scene, but it's after ALL of the credits. (Made me wonder how much of the lengthy run time was for credits alone). And it's more fallout from the end of the movie. But there is hope because back-up does get called, but all they give us is a symbol and I have no idea what it is. Who else is there left? Unless they actually bring the cast from Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. into the movie as well... that'd be something.

Grade: A (if not for the somber ending, it'd be an A+ easily... probably the best of the whole franchise)

...oh and another thing... why the heck is Black Widow blonde in this movie? Were the movie runner afraid we'd confuse her with Wanda? I'm sorry, that aesthetic change just doesn't work for me.
And the dynamic with Bruce Banner and The Hulk gets even more interesting in this movie-- somewhat of a reverse of how things went down in the latest Thor film. Some of its kinda frustrating, but it also has its entertaining moments.

Theatrical Review: Captain America- Civil War

Date: Sunday, May 15, 2016
Location: Pocono Movieplex
Time: 11:30pm
Party: 3 (my mom & aunt)

Director: Joe and Anthony Russo

Duration: 147 minutes (+3  trailers)

Cast:
Steve Rodgers/Captain America- Chris Evans
Tony Stark/Iron-Man- Robert Downey Jr.
Natasha Romanoff/Black Widow- Scarlet Johansson
Rhoady/War-Machine- Don Cheadle
Sam Wilson/Falcon- Anthony Mackie
Bucky Barnes/Winter Soldier-Sebastian Stan
Wanda Maximoff/Scarlet Witch- Elizabeth OlsenT'Challa/Black Panther- Chadwick Boseman
Zemo- Daniel Bruhl
The Vision- Paul Bettany
Peter Parker/Spider-man- Tom Holland
Aunt May- Marisa Tomei
Clint Barton/Hawkeye- Jeremy Renner
Scott Lang/Ant-Man- Paul Rudd
Sharon Carter/Agent 13- Emily VanCamp
Secretary of State- William Hurt
Everett Ross- Martin Freeman

Audience and Previews:

Had a good crowd. A bunch of parents with kids. But probably wouldn't have known it wouldn't be a full house judging from the parking lot.
The movie theater used to be the only thing in the area, but the flea market and today something involving show cars... it takes parking spots away from movie-goers. Just a pet peeve of mine. It's why when I go by myself, I don't like to go on weekends because I don't like dodgy parking lots.

Three previews:
Doctor Strange lived up to its name. It looked "Inception"-trippy with all the visual effects and such. But with Benedict Cumberbatch playing the lead role, probably will go to see it.
Star Wars: Rouge One, I'd heard about, but this was the first I was seeing of it. Should be interesting, especially when Episode VIII is coming out the same month.
Star Trek: Beyond- should be interesting. A lot of thrilling moments in the trailer, but also had room for comedic moments.

I thought we'd be seeing another trailer for "X-Men: Apocalypse" but not the case. Considering Oscar Isaac is the villain, it might be worth looking into. He plays a good bad guy.

Review:

I'll cut to the chase immediately: this really was the best Marvel movie that they'd made since they created the Marvel Cinematic Universe with "Iron-Man." It lived up to all the hype and was a thrill from start to finish.
If there's one negative, it's the excess of action sequences. Certain people might tire of the quick pace and the special effects and things blowing up. But if you're in that, this is in your wheelhouse.

Considering the all-star cast (and it was hard to put the list together because I was afraid to leave anyone out- still adding people now), it's kinda hard to think of it as a Captain America movie. Unless you think of how much screen-time he has versus everyone else (slightly more) or how the feel of it was similar to "The Winter Soldier." But instead of just a political thriller, it was also psychological.

The cliff-notes/spoiler-free version of the plot goes like this:
After a mission in the opening scene goes array, the United Nations drafts an initiative called the Sovokia Accords (named after the Eastern European city where "Age of Ultron" took place). This asks the Avengers and other special powered individuals to register themselves and agree that their actions need supervision. Despite the bad guys they've stopped, that good doesn't outweigh the bad: the collateral damage inflicted on the cities involved.

Naturally, this is something that all of the heroes have an opinion on and wind up taking sides. So obviously conflict ensues... and continues to build throughout the film.

When the accords are about to be ratified in Vienna, the building is bombed. And the Winter Soldier (aka Steve Rodger's childhood friend, Bucky Barnes) is the lead suspect.
So the agenda building against him is something Captain America tries to stand against. Meanwhile, Tony Stark is on the other side, finally trying to do what he started in "Iron-Man"- have accountability about his actions and those of others.

After "Age of Ultron," where I left the movie saying that maybe Tony deserved to be punished for his actions... and considering how RDJ is the reason I am here at all, it was difficult to accept.

When this movie was first announced and they announced he would be in it, they said off the bat that Tony might be considered a villain.
I figured that I wouldn't know until I saw the movie if I'd be #TeamCap #TeamIronMan. After weighing the options and seeing where each of them was coming from, I wound up back on #TeamIronMan.

Real quick: there are two post-credits scenes, so stick around until the end.

Mild Spoilers Ahead...

Tony's going through a lot of difficulties when the movie starts.
Things are not good between him and Pepper- mainly because of his actions in "Iron-Man 3" and how he went against his word that he would retire from the superhero business.
He shows off some great new technology- as he often does, but this was a little more personal. Not to mention seeing a CGI'd younger version of RDJ in a simulation with the last moment he had with his parents before they died... I was even tripping out. Wondering if I'd seen this movie before and even trying to place what age Robert could have been. Technically, Tony was in high school or college at the time because his dad made a joke about his sleeping around. But Robert, considering how I know his movies so well, he looked like he was 37-38 and he'd just filmed the music video for Elton John's "I Want Love." [Worth checking out- his lip-synching is so good, you'd almost think he was the one singing].

One thing I can note about this movie is that some of it runs like a mystery from a detective show. More pieces start to come together as time goes on. But the biggest bombshell- I pieced it together within the first couple minutes simply because I know this universe so well. Especially with Tony Stark's history. And it's a doozy.

And he's the one who recruits Spider-Man, which explains why he's scheduled to appear in the next Spider-Man movie. I'm definitely on board with Tom Holland's version of the character, even though he's just another British guy playing an American. Especially in the battle scene- this kid is so funny.
It's funny seeing Robert and Marisa Tomei in a scene together because they've been in two movies together. One where they end up together. Thinking about how, in the past, he'd gotten other people to star in movies with him... I wonder if he did the same for her in this.

Daniel Bruhl is the main villain of the entire piece and he is VERY good at what he does. All I can say: being around him felt like being around Christophe Waltz in "Spectre"- the latest James Bond movie.
But this was better written and way more believable.

One interesting thing of the movie is that it's trilingual in places. 99% English, of course, but Daniel [who I first saw in "Inglorious Basterds"] knows German and we learn that Bucky is "activated" when he hears a sequence of Russian words.
Side-note: a couple of those words, I understood. For almost two years, I'd been learning Russian on and off, although most of what I understand is written. When Russian is spoken, I have a harder time [considering the reason I started learning- I hope to improve on that] and I can barely string a sentence together. And while the words I recognized here were mostly numbers... it's one of those mini-victories I like to savor when I can. It means I'm retaining at least some of it.

While on the international front, I love how we go all over the world, but my nit-pick was how they plastered the name of the city in big bold letters on the screen to let us know where we were.
I know some people have trouble reading small print, but that's just ridiculous.

Not sure if I mentioned it during my "Winter Soldier" write-up, but Falcon is an awesome character and I loved seeing all the tricks he can do in uniform in this movie. You never know what to expect and it's fun to watch.
And the Black Panther is great addition to the Avengers- great costume and abilities, but his motivation, while cliché, is good.
"Ant-Man" is the one Avenger movie I still hadn't seen yet, but seeing all the things his character can do when he was involved in the key battle involving all the Avengers (except for Thor and Hulk, both are MIA in this film)... it was exciting. At the same time, though, it was fun to see how all Avengers he goes after have a way to counter him.

The film overall has a good balance of drama and comedy. But the funniest comment came from Spider-Man who makes a "Star Wars" reference and a couple Avengers joke about how young he is because he called it "old."
The whole point of the reference- let's just say it was clever.

Grade: A+

Theatrical Review: Avengers- Age of Ultron

Date: Sunday, May 3, 2015
Time: 12:15pm
Location: Pocono Movieplex
Party: 3 (my mom and aunt)

Cast:
[Returning Cast from previous Marvel movies]
Tony Stark/Iron-Man- Robert Downey Jr.
Steve Rogers/Captain America- Chris Evans
Thor- Chris Hemsworth
Bruce Banner/The Hulk- Mark Ruffalo
Natasha Romanoff/Black Widow- Scarlet Johansson
Clint Barton/Hawkeye- Jeremy Renner
Maria Hill- Cobie Smulders
Nick Fury- Samuel L. Jackson
Dr. Eric Selvig- Stellan Skarsgard
Rhodey/War Machine- Don Cheadle
Falcon- Anthony Mackie
J.A.R.V.I.S.- Paul Bettany
Peggy Carter- Hayley Atwell

[Newbies]
Scarlet Witch/Wanda Maximoff- Elizabeth Olsen
Quicksilver/Pietro Maximoff- Aaron Taylor-Johnson
Ultron- James Spader
The Vision- Paul Bettany
Laura- Linda Cardellini
Dr. Helen Cho- Claudia Kim

Writer/Director: Joss Whedon

Duration: 150 minutes (+3 trailers)

Write-up:

Audience and Previews

The theater wasn't quite as packed as I hoped/feared. The youngest attendees couldn't have been older than five, but there was a good age range throughout. The audience also wasn't quite as active as the previous "Avengers" (which had the greatest audience participation I think I'd seen with any movie- with the "Twilight" midnight showing coming close).
But there were still plenty laughs had, which was nice. There were also certain moments where the movie wasn't just quiet, but the audience (except the youngest among us) was silent. A pin could have dropped and you'd hear it.

Not surprisingly, two of the three previews came from the comic book genre. Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice was a teaser where we had a glimpse of Ben Affleck staring at the suit and him and Superman suited up facing one another.
Then there was Ant-Man... I'm still on the fence because that's easily the stupidest name I'd ever heard for a superhero (Paul Rudd apparently agrees, according to the trailer). I'm also not a big fan of insects, so I was cringing at the scenes where we had close-ups of ants and other insects. But the special effects and the acting looked really good. I guess I'll wait until the hype before I decide. [Unlike with this movie, whether the reviews were good or bad, I'd still be going].

The other was your typical disaster movie: San Andreas... which I heard they were having second thoughts about releasing on the set date because of Nepal. It stars Dwayne Johnson (who apparently gets 5 movies a year... whereas I'm lucky to see any of my personal favorite actors ONCE a year) and I also recognized Alexandra Daddario (who I know as Annabeth from the Percy Jackson movies... however out of line they were with the books, I will miss them not adapt to my favorite book of the series).

Amidst the action...
Spoilers from here on out, btw
Whenever I look up articles on writing tips, I often find people suggesting to start a story in the middle of the action.
Kudos, btw, for Paul Feig and Marvel company picking this up immediately where "Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D." left off last week because it was the perfect segway. Phil Coulson's "Operation Theta Protocol" involved getting the Avengers to locate Loki's scepter.

Last night, we rewatched the first "Avengers" in preparation for this movie... I made sure to note what happened to the scepter. Forgive me for missing where it went considering EVERYTHING that went down in New York. We last saw Black Widow holding it when the Avengers had Loki surrounded and defeated.

Supposedly, the scepter has been taken to a HYDRA forest somewhere in Eastern Europe. So we get an amazing opening sequence with all the Avengers on call, taking on various HYDRA soldiers with their various skill sets. Within the fortress, we also get a glimpse of our two new characters: Quicksilver and Scarlet Witch. (For whatever reason, though, they are never called that... just like Black Widow is never called by that name). They were experimented upon with the scepter and it allowed them certain powers. Quicksilver has super inhuman speed and the Scarlet Witch has telekinesis and strong powers of hypnosis. We see him use his powers on the Avengers while she takes on Tony Stark when he gets inside to retrieve the scepter and various data files.

Surprisingly, she does not take him out as it could be expected... considering he's the only Avenger inside. Instead, she haunts him with visions of the other Avengers having fallen, and glimpses the abyss that caused his PTSD in the final Iron-Man film. She lets him take the scepter, apparently, because it will lead to the destruction of him and the Avengers.
...hmm... it's almost like she took a page out of Loki's book- he allowed himself to be captured in "Avengers" so he can work mind games while buying time for his comrades to track him down via the scepter.

Lots of great action throughout these first 15 minutes with a little character building (particularly Black Widow and The Hulk) and a tiny bit of forced laughter.
I realize that they're trying to produce something for the younger audiences, but the whole "watch your language" running joke... I'm sorry, it was kinda lame. [On the plus side, that's the only huge negative drew from the movie overall... aside from there being maybe too much action at times]

Ergo the plot...

Besides doing a once over about the two new characters, I knew this much: Ultron was an A.I. peacekeeper Tony Stark created in hopes it would grant the Avengers their eventual retirement. And that this experiment would be one that takes on a life of its own and a purpose counterintuitive to its original intention.
Translation: Ultron wouldn't preserve peace, it would destroy the world, believing that it's the only way to save it.
The mere idea of Ultron as a villain would be super genius if not for the whole "destroying the world" thing.

A Detraction for Tony Stark

Anyone who knows me knows I love me some RDJ as Tony Stark... but after the fact, part of me can't help but think that if Ultron killed him.. well, he might have deserved it. Nobody should experiment with artificial intelligence because it NEVER ends well. Certainly, not for the creator.
The fact he doesn't just do this once but twice in this movie... neither time without consulting the other Avengers besides Bruce Banner- his reluctant partner-in-crime... that's kinda hard to overlook.
This can only mean then that the next Captain America movie will be interesting... whether I'd be #TeamTony or #TeamCap.

I would say that Tony as a character hadn't been the same since what happened in New York. "Iron-Man 3" had its problems, but it had a lot of strong character points for him.
Maybe the whole energy is off for me personally because Tony Stark, while the root of this movie's source of villainy, didn't steal the spotlight as much as he had on previous occasions. He certainly didn't have the gift of ample one-liners he had in the previous "Avengers." There still are some good scenes. Like where he and Captain America are chopping firewood and Cap has the bigger pile because he doesn't need an axe. And the whole lifting Thor's hammer scene, but everyone had a great moment there.
Right now, I can only remember how he "woke up" out of the Scarlet Witch's spell in a cold sweat :P I didn't know Robert could sweat on cue like that.

Pluses and Minuses for Everyone Else

The other members of the cast are given more to do and get more development- a plus for some who don't have stand-alone movies yet.

To me, Thor has always been the type of guy who was all good looks with very little substance to back him up aside from wielding that hammer. But when the Scarlet Witch puts him in a trance, he actually witnesses something noteworthy and pursues it as a potential lead. Sure, it does give the people in charge the excuse to show Chris Hemsworth without a shirt... but him taking initiative and following it through... that's impressive. Going a little further than what Captain America did in "Avengers," investigating Phase 2.
And by further, I mean clueing us into what the next Avengers will be about: the Infinity Stones. [In addition to Loki's scepter, so far, we have the Tesseract, Aether and the stone from "Guardians of the Galaxy"]

Captain America has time to reflect on the past he didn't get to finish with Agent Carter and acknowledges he might not be able to afford to move back to Brooklyn... but for the most part, he isn't given as much to work with as he does in stand-alone movies. Not intellectually anyway. But his fight scenes were choreographed so well with the shield and such... those guys definitely upped their game.
See, Ultron, it's more than just a Frisbee!

Considering their back story, I always expected Black Widow and Hawkeye to get together. But that isn't meant to be... supposedly. She and Bruce Banner had shared moments before, but I didn't think too much of them. Suddenly, the Marvel people decided that we needed a love story in here somewhere. So why not put those two together? Write that Black Widow came up with a "lullaby" that allowed Hulk to resume human form. It's something that would become handy, but whether or not anything will happen between these two remains to be seen.

This does, however, allow for more character development for her. Her bout with the Scarlet Witch was about as brutal as Harry Potter dealing with the dementors in "Prisoner of Azkabhan"... the horrors in her past, how she was created, trained to be an assassin at a young age- it took her longer to bounce back than the others.
And her budding relationship with Bruce Banner allows for some of these things to come out. Plus she adds that sterilization came with the process of graduation from this "academy" she was part of.
Between the "dementor" thing and the part of the film where she was kidnapped by Ultron (for apparently no reason, other than to allow the excuse for her and Bruce Banner to get another scene together), you would think that the people in charge were being cruel to our lone female Avenger. Throwing her through all the female plot clichés.
But she still kicks lots of ass, so it's not as if she's not taken seriously.

The fact he spent so much of "Avengers" brainwashed by Loki, I couldn't wait to see what Hawkeye would have to work with. He probably had the most scene-stealing moments of anyone- a real plus. I cheered when he got the jump on Scarlet Witch before she could work her magic on him. He had a certain electromagnetic arrow that rendered her useless and her brother no choice but to remove her from the situation.
We also find out that he has his own secret family life that we don't see until the Avengers need to go into hiding. No wonder Jeremy Renner couldn't say anything in the talk show interviews...

New Characters, Action and Special Effects

First and foremost, this is an action-packed superhero film. And other than being superfluous at times, the action sequences and effects were SO good. Like cinematic action had just peaked and set the bar for the rest to jump. Especially loved the effects with Quicksilver and Scarlet Witch. They wouldn't have had the same impact without them.

The fight scene between a bewitched Hulk and "Veronica," Tony's beefiest suit was massive with plenty of comedic moments, but it was mostly destruction. Continuing to harp on Bruce Banner's insecurity about his condition... sadly, it would seem that confidence isn't coming to him anytime soon.

While not as annoyingly invincible as the villain in "Iron-Man 3," Ultron was a worthy foe. He was set on his war path and couldn't be persuaded otherwise. Early on, his powers were so unparalleled, it was almost scary. I approached this movie with a lot of optimism and very little to go on, so I was more marveled [pardon the pun] than intimidated. Him using the hundreds of robots to do his bidding... a little lazy on behalf of the writing because Tony Stark has done the same thing. It'd be another thing if the robots were constructed with the vibranium Ultron used to turn that Eastern European city, Sovokia, into a meteor.
The fight between him and Captain America was really good as well, but when he met his makers- his intentions were more malicious than his presence.
James Spader had the best voice for him- and it was a relief that it was just his voice in this. "Tuff Turf" has me convinced that he was good looking in his younger days... at the age he is now, he just looks creepy :P

Loki, I have yet to take seriously as a villain, but he at least had charisma going for him. [And I kinda miss not seeing him in a movie with Thor... supposedly he had a cameo that was written out, but might make the Blu-ray extras]

Quicksilver and Scarlet Witch had a good back story with Tony Stark... how his weapons destroyed their family and they sought revenge. But the trick was figuring how they'd eventually change sides. Once Ultron became more human, she was able to see his destructive intentions.
Both had great interaction with Hawkeye because you never knew quite what to expect. The running joke was "Didn't see that one coming"... considering how Quicksilver has the speed thing and has moments where the results surprise even him.

I already kinda knew he wasn't going to survive this movie, but I was still kinda sad about it. The Russian accent was growing on me :P [had this been a year ago, I'd have been devastated]
At least there's still his X-Men incarnation [although played by another actor without the Russian accent].

Cameos and No-shows
Well, at least I can't say this time that RDJ got special treatment- being the only Avenger who had their love interest in the movie.
There was no appearance by Pepper or Jane Foster :P but that didn't stop him and Thor trying to one-up each other with their girlfriends' accomplishments.

One of the greatest highlights of the movie had to be the final party at Tony's place... final because it's the last light point of the movie before Ultron arrives.
Our token Stan Lee cameo is here and has great laughs to go with it.
Lots of great interaction with the characters. We get to see Falcon and Rhodey. Afterwards, everyone tries to lift Thor's hammer and hilariously fails.

I was disappointed Falcon didn't get more to do other than randomly show up here and at the end. Loved him in the latest Captain America movie [something I should probably revisit, now that the whole HYDRA thing makes sense].
Rhodey, meanwhile, got to tell stories at the party, get on Tony's case about "representing" when they couldn't lift the hammer, and he helps with the final battle scene- where Nick Fury and S.H.I.E.L.D. lend a hand with evacuation. [Too bad Phil Coulson couldn't make it... seriously, how long can they keep secret the fact he's alive? would the Avengers turn rouge if that truth was revealed?]

Believe or not, the scene with Thor's hammer wasn't just filler... when Tony created his second A.I. being [The Vision], Thor's hammer was the one thing that convinced the other Avengers he was fighting for the right side. He was able to lift it and was therefore worthy.
Considering how Thor nearly choked Tony out over Ultron, him being the one person on his side about this creation was a plus.
And the infinity stone in Loki's scepter finally has a place where it can't be used maliciously again- on the Vision's forehead.

The only remaining question is what the other two infinity stones are, where they are and what role they'll play in everything.

Grade: A
[on the same level with "Avengers," weaker on some points and stronger on others]