Captain America: Civil War

I really enjoyed the last Captain America movie. The Winter Soldier was a spy movie and it was breaking the mould of what a superhero movie could be, whilst still having the familiar elements that everyone enjoys. Civil War on the other hand takes it all away and punches you in the face instead. It wants to make you certain that this is a balls to the wall action movie, but for me it didn't stand out against any of the other superhero movies that I've seen recently, which is really disappointing because it has Spiderman in it. Spiderman!

Captain America (Chris Evans) and his team of Avengers are facing public backlash when they accidentally kill a large number of aid workers in Nigeria whilst trying to stop a villain who has stolen a biological weapon. This leads to the United Nations proposing a policy which would bring the Avengers under their umbrella to be used only when they deem it necessary. Endorsing this deal is Tony Stark (Robert Downey, Jr.) who urges the other superheroes to sign, as they must do so voluntarily or else their actions are considered illegal. Captain America still refuses to sign, especially because his old buddy Bucky Barnes (AKA The Winter Soldier) is being accused of a variety of crimes that Cap believes he has no involvement in.

I saw somewhere that this movie is basically Avengers 2.5 and that's true. Instead of focusing on the hero of the title, it cuts between both him and Tony Stark, making me think a much better title would be Captain America V Iron Man, but that's too much of a mouthful. There are definitely parallels to be drawn with the latest Superman movie, but they don't drag this film down as much. While there are definitely way too many characters in this movie, they have been set up in other films and that fives us an opportunity to be able to focus on the two new ones. But just because you don't need to introduce every single character that doesn't make the film less confusing. I found it hard to track every character's motivations in the film because they're all important to the plot.

The plot is definitely the weakest part and I know that it's a superhero movie so what am I expecting. Well, Civil War is essentially two movies. On the one hand there's the Avengers being split up and having to fight each other and on the other is a Captain America movie with Bucky being framed for crimes he didn't commit, so he has to clear his name while dealing with someone who wants revenge. I would totally be happy with the latter because you could shuffle some plot points around and drop a lot of the extra characters while still introducing others. But people want to see that shot where the two groups meet each other in the middle of the screen. I wasn't really impressed with the way the final fight between Cap and Iron Man played out. It seemed very out of character for both of them.

Since we've spoken ad nauseam about all the actors who've played these characters before, I'll quickly talk about the new and expanded upon parts. Chadwick Boseman is introduced as Black Panther and I really liked his arc. Boseman's performance was solid considering his character is not that well known to cinema audiences and he's up against characters that have been well known for almost a decade. Tom Holland was absolutely perfect as Spiderman. They nailed his non-stop talking and genius way better than both Tobey Maguire and Andrew Garfield and it's very disappointing that he wasn't in the film for long at all. Daniel Brühl was criminally underused as the movie's bad guy and he really just felt like 'generic German villain'. I really appreciated that Emily VanCamp's Sharon Carter was expanded on because that was sorely lacking from the last movie. Finally, Paul Rudd slipped into the main group with ease and he has great chemistry with everyone else.

I know I've already compared this to Batman V Superman but it's pretty hard not to. Did I enjoy it more than that movie? Yes? Is it the best Marvel movie so far? I don't think so. There were some shining moments which I enjoyed, but I mostly felt ambivalent throughout. I know that it's leading to brighter things in the future though so I'm hopeful.

Legend

It seems amazing that we still get a kick out of a single actor playing two separate characters. All the things superheroes and action stars can do seem pretty normal, but put two Tom Hardys on the same screen at the same time and everyone is baffled. Make them fight and we all lose our collective shits. But apart from this novelty value, is Legend offering us much?

In late 1950s London, the Kray twins, Ronald and Reginald (Tom Hardy) are gangsters on the rise. Reggie is seen as the brother that is more level headed, whereas Ronnie is an unrestrained psychopath, having been released from a psychiatric ward at the beginning of the film. They have a stranglehold on the East End of London and are looking to expand across the river, but are hampered by rival gangster Charlie Richardson (Paul Bettany). Meanwhile, Reggie is courting young Frances Shea (Emily Browning), with whom he is enamoured with greatly. In the background, Ronnie and Reggie are trying to snare a deal with the mafia that will put them on top.

That's the problem with this film, the main action that the film should focus on is relegated to the back seat. This movie should be a violent portrayal of how the Krays came to rule London instead of a twisted romance between Reggie and Frances. There is a missed opportunity as well in not delving into the police investigation that brought the Krays down. One thing I will give the film credit for is its frank and honest portrayal of Ronnie's homosexuality. It makes no bones about Ronnie's admission of it either.

Tom Hardy has had an interesting career path. If this film had come after 2008's Bronson and RocknRolla, I would have thought that he was setting himself up as a British gangster actor and that would have made sense. But in this post-Fury Road world where he is being set up as superstar of tomorrow, doing a film like this doesn't make much sense to me. Although I say that, his performance (or performances) do dominate, and he is incredibly charming in both roles. The best thing I could say is that there is a definite difference in the way he plays them, right down to their difference in physicality.

The other performances in this movie fail, not because the acting is bad, but because the characters aren't very interesting. Emily Browning's Frances just seemed like a flat and boring person and that made her scenes hard to watch. The Krays' business partner is played by veteran actor David Thewlis, but just serves to explain exposition. Christopher Eccleston could have done better if he was given more to do, but he floated in and out too rarely for me. Taron Egerton was a shining light in all this as Ronnie's lover and is present in nearly every scene he was in. I didn't even know Paul Bettany was in it until I had to write this review.

Look, this movie is a bit of a disappointment if you're going to watch it with expectations. If you're watching it for Tom Hardy, you might like it.

Avengers: Age of Ultron

I think it's safe to say that Marvel Studios have gotten themselves to a safe enough place to be comfortable and confident in the movies they are making. The latest films have been branching out into various genres (political thriller with Captain America: The Winter Soldier, comedy sci-fi with Guardians of the Galaxy) and they have now reserved the main Avengers movies for the generic beat-em-up that most superheroes become. Despite this, Age of Ultron isn't entirely a slugfest and does try to take a softer approach with a few of its characters.

The movie starts right in the middle of an intense action sequence, with the team of the Avengers (Thor, Captain America, Iron Man, Black Widow, The Hulk and Hawkeye) assaulting a fortress in the European country of Sokovia in an attempt to retrieve the sceptre of Loki from Hydra (see Captain America: The Winter Soldier). Once Tony Stark gets his hands on it, he realises that the sceptre possesses the technology to develop complex artificial intelligence, something that he and Bruce Banner have been interested in developing for a while. But Stark's plans for this AI program, named Ultron, goes awry and the program soon goes rogue with plans to destroy mankind. It's up to the Avengers to, you know, save the day.

In this film, we get to have a closer look some of the characters outside the big three (Thor, Cap, Iron Man) and it is slightly refreshing. The relationship between Black Widow and Hulk is explored and heavily hinted at being romantic and Hawkeye is revealed to have a wife and children, a fact that surprised not only the audience, the characters in the film. These smaller arcs are somewhat refreshing and satisfying.

There is a lot of assumed knowledge that comes with watching this film. Not only are you expected to have done your homework and be completely up to date with the Cinematic Universe, but you are also expected to have some knowledge of what is happening in the comic books or else you will be left in the dark as to who some of these new characters are. This film introduces us to three new heroes on top of the villain, whose storyline does make sense. The new characters are the Maximoff twins, Wanda (Elizabeth Olsen) and Pietro (Aaron Taylor-Johnson) (otherwise known as Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver). We of course saw a much better version of Quicksilver in X-Men: Days of Future Past, but that is beside the point. We also are introduced to Vision (Paul Bettany), who is another advanced cyborg imprinted with Tony Stark's manservant Jarvis' own AI.

This movie is definitely the kind that moves from action sequence to action sequence with a little talking in between, just enough so you know what's going on. And it's pretty impressive too. The action is enough to keep you amazed at what's going on. There is also an array of humour in the movie, enough for everyone to have a laugh.

Most of the performances are pretty stock standard, as all the actors have gone way too deep with these characters. The ones that stuck out the most for me were James Spader (Stargate) lending his amazingly authoritative and terrifying voice to Ultron and Elizabeth Olsen as Scarlet Witch, although her accent did drop a few times. Of all the Avengers, Chris Hemsworth probably gave the best performance. His outsider status as an Aussie probably helps him get in the mindset of the god Thor.

Ultimately this film is incredibly entertaining and isn't extremely taxing. Fans of the movies will get all sorts of excited and people with limited knowledge of this things will still enjoy the large scale of the film.

Mortdecai

As we are in the midst of awards season for movies, there seems to be an expectation that every movie that is released at the moment has to be better than the last and by doing so we forget that movies also serve as entertainment. Whilst David Koepp's Mortdecai may not win any Oscars, BAFTAs or Golden Globes, it is a very fun movie and I feel like I need to see a good fun one every once in a while.

Charlie Mortdecai (Johnny Depp) is an aristocratic art dealer who has fallen on some financial hard times and is only days away from complete insolvency. After the murder of a painting restorer, he is enlisted by MI5 agent Inspector Martland (Ewan McGregor) to hunt down the killer. So with his trusty manservant Jock (Paul Bettany) in tow, they set off in search of the painting. Meanwhile, Charlie's wife Johanna (Gwyneth Paltrow) begins her own investigation into the missing painting.

One thing I think this movie suffers from is an overcomplicated story. There are parts where I felt as though it was tripping over plot points just to get to some laughs that occasionally fall flat. However, I did find that the characters were suitably well rounded enough to feel them as real people. The movie also takes a lot of time in its transitions to the parts of the world that it takes place. Every time we change city (or even a different part of the same city) we get an animated fly-over of the globe, which I felt worked once, but every time after that was just annoying.

The performances were all fun though. All the actors were playing against type, except for Depp. His usual hammed up performance came in handy here, making himself slightly effete and terribly in love with his freshly grown moustache, which he checks in a mirror of some sort every five seconds. Paltrow has a fun time playing his long suffering wife, although I can't see why she is still together with Mortdecai (and yet at the same time I can). Ewan McGregor's character has been in love with Johanna forever, which I thought was a fun touch to a character whose main job is to give exposition and therefore can be a tiny bit tedious.

The supporting cast is great too. Paul Bettany, normally quite a dramatic actor, plays the rather stiff but reliable manservant Jock and is just a joy in any scene. Jeff Goldblum turns up for a few scenes but the amount of screen time he gets is tantamount to murder. Olivia Munn plays his nymphomaniac daughter but has nothing really to do but be a provocative character.

All in all Mortdecai may not be the best movie out right now, but it surely is a relief from some of the more emotionally invested movies that are out at the moment. I am a huge fan of slapstick and I felt as though this had some fun moments of that.

Transcendence

Sometimes there is a concept for a film that is full of potential. The idea of the technological singularity is one such concept. The singularity is a point in which artificial intelligence surpasses that of humans. Transcendence starts on that path but then gets confusing and not even great acting from actors playing minor parts can help this lacklustre story.

I think that has to do with first time director Wally Pfister. Despite not knowing his name, I'm sure that the majority of you reading this are familiar with his work. Pfister has worked for many years as Christopher Nolan as his cinematographer on the recent Batman films among others. As a result of this work, Transcendence is a good looking film. He has been able to take his own visual style and enforce it as a director.

It can't be the actors that drag this film down either. Surely? Johnny Depp playing a straight Johnny Depp character. Rebecca Hall undecided about whether or not what is happening is the right thing. The best performances come from Paul Bettany and Kate Mara.

But even someone who has been on enough sets with a director like Nolan must have learned enough lessons about being a director. So it must be the story. This is the first script that has been produced for writer Jack Paglan. As I said, the initial concept is promising. The idea of a man uploading his consciousness to a computer, where he will cause the technological singularity is cool, but once the story became about creating human-robot hybrids I was lost.

The film is bookended by some interesting scenes where the world is devoid of technology. I feel like this would be a more interesting place to set the film with flashbacks showing us what caused it.

Verdict: A beautiful looking film that has a complete mess of a story. I think everyone in the cinema with me felt confused about what had happened.

Iron Man 3

It's taken three movies but I think I finally see the appeal of Tony Stark. His abrasiveness and bluntness add to his charm. Over the course of the last two Iron Man movies (and that massive Avengers flick), I have to come to love the man in the Iron mask.

In this first post-Avengers movie, Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr.) is suffering from PTSD caused by the events that happened in New York. He spends most of his days tinkering with his many Iron Man suits with the help of his robotic assistant Jarvis (Paul Bettany). Stark's girlfriend Pepper Potts (Gwyneth Paltrow) is running Stark Industries. And Stark's best friend Col. James Rhodes (Don Cheadle), AKA War Machine AKA Iron Patriot, is working for the US Government.

In recent weeks, attacks by a shadowy terrorist known as the Mandarin (Sir Ben Kingsley) have been ramping up in their intensity. Pepper Potts is in talks with Aldrich Killian (Guy Pearce), a scientist who was once ignored by Tony, about some new biotechnology he has engineered.

The shit hits the fan when an attack by the Mandarin hits Tony's old bodyguard Happy Hogan (Jon Favreau). Tony reacts to this attack by saying that he is going to take revenge on the Mandarin and even goes so far as to give him his home address (via the means of good old fashioned media). The Mandarin responds in turn by attacking Stark's cliffside mansion.

Tony's suit breaks down and decides to fly across the country. He wakes up in Tennessee and finds refuge with a young boy who helps repair his suit. Once this is done, he teams up with Rhodey to take the Mandarin out.

I think what I enjoyed so much about this film is the fact that it wasn't directed by Jon Favreau (not that he's a bad director). Shane Black brings some fresh ideas and they definitely show through his directorial style.

Ever since I saw 2002's Kiss Kiss Bang Bang, I have always had faith in RDJ. He brings lightness to roles that would otherwise be quite depressing (because let's face it, Tony Stark is Bruce Wayne or vice versa). As I said earlier, Tony Stark is quite blunt and has no qualms about driving off and leaving a kid in the cold snow.

I have found that putting Ben Kingsley in a movie is great marketing (that this film doesn't really need), but he has only ever played a handful of dramatic roles. This is one of those borderline roles and once you see the film, you will agree that he is a fantastic actor. I have always been a fan of Guy Pearce (one of the first films I ever saw being made had him in it). In this movie, his devious Aldrich does whatever he wants to get his way.

Of course the most important element of these Marvel films is the stunning visuals. The seen where Tony's mansion is falling into the see is fantastic to look at and the climax of the film is even better.

Verdict: A fantastically entertaining superhero romp that is better than the last two Iron Man films combined. Lots of hilarious dialogue between RDJ and Paul Bettany.