Movie of the Week: Captain America – Civil War

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captain_america_civil_war_1By now you guys all know that I’m a huge Marvel fan, right? And also, I’m a HUGE Captain Americaand Chris Evans – fan, but when the trailers for Civil War started coming out, I saw myself siding with #TeamIronMan, and I honestly felt like I was cheating on Steve Rogers or something… I felt bad. Still, there I was, totally convinced that Iron Man was in the right on this one… until I saw the movie last week.

I’m now firmly #TeamCap and the only thing I can say is that the trailers lied!

OMFG!!!! This movie is excellent!

Because the ensemble cast is so huge, I was a little worried that some characters would get lost in the jumble, but that doesn’t happen at all. Every single one of these superheroes gets their time on screen and their chance to shine, and shine they do. The reasoning behind why each of them chooses one side or the other is clear, and it mostly fits with what we know of the characters. And despite what it looks like, not everything is black and white – or red and blue – and there are more than enough reasons for some wavers.

The action sequences were freaking amazing. The movie opens with an Avengers sting, and I swear to you that I could spend hours just watching Cap and Black Widow fighting. The stunts choreography is spectacular. The acting is out of this world! Having so many stars sharing one screen is bonkers, and they all bring it.

I really liked the plot. I love how this movie doesn’t focus that much on the villain – though he gets his screen time and the story is developed well – and instead focus on the internal struggles of each of these superheroes and their battle between doing what everyone says it’s right and what they feel is right.

I don’t want to spoil anything for anyone, but I want to talk about a few specific characters. I thought the integration of the Black Panther was very organic, he not only belonged there, but he made sense. Also, I’m so freaking excited for his movie, because he was just awesome!

I was a little scared when they announced that Tom Holland was playing the new Spider Man, but boy, did that kid impress me! I loved the way they introduced him, without having to go into an origins story, but with him still being pretty new to the superhero game. I wasn’t a particular fan of how Tony recruited him, because I felt that from all the players duking it out there, Spidey was the only one that didn’t know all the stakes, and I felt that if he did know them, he wouldn’t be siding with #TeamIronMan. The suit looks amazing though, and he was a delight to see on screen!

I loved seeing Steve, Bucky and Sam together, with the later two competing a bit in the role of BFF/sidekick. Sebastian Stan and Anthony Mackie play well off each other, and that chemistry was amazing.

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I was super excited about seeing Paul Rudd’s Ant-Man join the team. He was so freaking excited to just be there, and I thought he integrated himself quite nicely with the other #TeamCap superheroes.

If there was one character I wasn’t a fan of on this movie it was James Rhodes. I always loved Rhodey, but he was a little too entitles in this movie, and somehow he really pissed me off. And somehow that annoying thing passed to Tony too, and that’s bad, because I love Iron Man.

I thought it was amazing how they showed The Vision‘s vulnerability, with him struggling to understand his role, his existence and his emotions. At the same time that they showed him building a relationship with Wanda, which I felt was important for both of them.

Ultimatly I’m a little scared for what this movie means for the MCU, because several characters are not in the greatest position at the end of it, and I have no clue how that will play out in their future movies. The two post-credits scenes do an amazing job setting up the Black Panther and Spider Man movies though. I’m excited 😀 !

(I had to share this one… come on… that’s arm porn!)

Captain America: Civil War New Trailer

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OMG people!!! I’m freaking out over here! The latest trailer for Captain America: Civil War just came out and wow, just wow.It feels awful and it looks so good!

We see sides being chosen, Scarlet Witch bringing The Vision to his knees, which is super sad given their history. Bucky shooting Tony. Tony fighting Steve. More destruction.

And I think I’m siding with Tony here and I feel like I’m betraying my baby Steve!

Also, SPIDER MAN!!!! And now it’s official: he’s #TeamIronMan!

Captain America: Civil War #TeamIronMan

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After getting the posters for #TeamCap a few days ago, today we get the #TeamIronMan character posters for the upcoming Captain America: Civil War.

                                

    

So, #TeamIronMan is composed of: IronMan, Black Widow, War Machine, Black Panther and The Vision. While #TeamCap is composed of: Captain America (obviously), Winter Soldier, Falcon, Scarlet Witch, Ant-Man and Hawkeye.

Captain America: Civil War #TeamCap

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I’m so excited for this!!! The character posters from #TeamCap for the upcoming Captain America: Civil War came out, and they look awesome. So check them out below.

  

  

So, #TeamCap is composed of: Captain America (obviously), Winter Soldier, Falcon, Scarlet Witch, Ant-Man and Hawkeye.

Captain America: Civil War trailer and posters

What better way to wake up when you’re sick and have a tweet with the new Captain America trailer?! (Thank you Kat!!!)

This trailer hurts me, it’s seriously hard to watch my two favorite babies fighting against each other. And I like to see Bucky all good and all, but seeing Cap against Tony is way too hard! And when Cap says “but he’s my friend.” and then “so was I”, I swear, I’m so sad I want to cry! Check out the trailer below:

Movie of the Week: Ant-Man

I did it! I finally managed to go watch Ant-Man (last week)!!! 😀

I was a bit skeptical when the movie started (and sometime in the middle), but somehow the movie works. When I can get over the creepiness of all those ants, it is pretty spectacular. The fact that the first scene has Peggy Carter and Howard Stark, as well as a much younger Hank Pym, really warmed my heart! (Peggy Carter just has to be in all Marvel things now, right? It’s in her contract?)

The fact that the storyline wasn’t about saving the world, but was a heist, was ingenious and ultimately made the movie better, it stayed grounded, it showed that although Ant-Man has the potential, he’s not yet up to par with the Avengers. That’s “realistic” and it made the movie thoroughly enjoyable. Speaking of the Avengers, that scene with the Falcon was pure genius!

Paul Rudd is amazing! He’s so lovable and funny (but a kind of cute funny). Evangeline Lilly was alright as Hope, I look forward to see more of her as the Wasp 😉 ! I thought the “romance” was super well done, because it never takes from and center screen, actually, we don’t actually see the kiss, it totally blindsided me, though I had thought it would be obvious if they got together at some point.

Michael Douglas is pretty great as well as Hank Pym, and I loved his chemistry with Paul Rudd. Again, Paul Rudd is already a Marvel superhero!

If I had to pick a favorite scene, it would be that last part when Michael Peña’s Luis is telling Scott how Falcon’s looking for him… I cracked out laughing! He has some pretty amazing moments within the movie – I think some people in the theatre wasn’t really happy by my laughing sound – but that last scene stole it for me.

All in all, not my favorite Marvel movie, but definitely entertaining and worth the watch. And probably the one where I laughed the most (seriously, I think I was snorting at some point).

Movie of the Week – Avengers: Age of Ultron

Wow, I hadn’t posted about a movie in a while… oh well, here it is… When I got back to Portugal, after my trip to Brazil, I managed to include a visit to the Movie Theatre with my friend, to watch (by then, very late) the new Avengers movie.

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Let me start of by saying that I loved the movie. Granted, I wasn’t as surprised and excited as the first one. It wasn’t as good story wise as Captain America: The Winter Soldier. But nonetheless, it was AWESOME! And for the life of me, I can’t understand all the hating towards it. Warning, there will be SPOILERS!

What I loved:

  • This movie was a Clint Barton fest and I was delighted by it. Hawkeye hasn’t been the center of attention in none of the other movies because he doesn’t have powers or lots of money, but here we see how much the team needs him and it’s glorious. Jeremy Renner was amazing.
  • The Vision is from now my favorite new Avenger, yup, no doubt about it. He’s like an upgraded version of JARVIS, he flies and he can create clothes… what’s not to love? Paul Bettany, who was present from the beginning of the MCU as JARVIS, was absolutely amazing as Vision and I can’t wait to see more of him.
  • Speaking of JARVIS, I will miss him most of all…
  • Thor and Tony comparing their wives (girlfriends, whatever), in a game of who’s better and more accomplished was hella cute and such a break from the usual system.
  • I really loved that Sam and Rhodes were at the party and I was really glad when War Machined showed up to fight. It would have been nice however to see Falcon there as well, given the wings and the fact that they were in the air… it would have helped.
  • Oh Captain America, poor baby, my heart breaks each time that he has a scene with Peggy Carter…
  • Pietro and Wanda Maximoff were pretty great. I was a bit wary about Quicksilver, given than just last year we saw a version of this character in X-Men: Days of Future Past, but I have to say, that even though Evan Peters’ Quicksilver was amazing and lots of fun, I kind of liked Aaron Taylor-Johnson’s version a bit more. I think they made Quicksilver more human, which makes sense, given that he was never without his sister.
  • Bromances all around! I love the Bruce/Tony bromance, but my heart gave a little jolt when Thor sided with Tony!!!
  • There were some amazing fight scenes!!! =D
  • The New Avengers!!! Captain America, Black Widow, War Machine, The Vision, Scarlet Witch and Falcon! Can’t wait to see them in action on Civil War!!
  • I really loved that Natasha was made Clint’s BFF and that his kids call her Aunt Nat… It was adorable…

What I wasn’t especially fond of:

  • The plot was really complex, which made the story seem confuse at times. I don’t know what they could have done differently to fix it… everything was important.
  • I wanted to slap Bruce Banner really hard… First, I don’t think they should have gone there with Natasha and Bruce, yeah they have some kind of weird chemistry, but they shouldn’t have implied that she would abandon everything to be at peace with him, I don’t think that’s in character for her, and it really bothered me.
  • Nick Fury. What the hell was he doing there? They did not need him, his lines could have been said by Maria Hill and his named dropped and that would be ok… no need to bring him there (especially because he’s supposedly dead!).
  • There weren’t enough outside shots of Iron Man. Most of Iron Man scenes were done inside the suit and I felt that the suit did not see much action.
  • Oh, yeah, Pietro dying?! Not OK people… not OK at all!!!

I guess this is it, I need to watch it a second time though 😀 !!!

Avengers: Age of Ultron posters

This week, the first poster for the Avengers: Age of Ultron came out.

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Let’s face it, the poster is nothing much, but it did bring a bit of good news: Anthony Mackie and Hayley Atwell will be in it! Pretty excited about the Falcon! The Falcon and War Machine in the same movie?! Awesome!!! About Hayley, something tells me that it will be a flashback of some sort, because I can’t bear to watch another scene with old Peggy and young Steve… just no… 😦

In the meantime, Marvel has been releasing individual posters for some characters… And these are pretty amazing… still not sure why Black Widow looks like she just came from Tron, but hey… here they are!

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Movie of the Week – Captain America: The Winter Soldier

Technically, it’s been the movie of the last few weeks… I first saw it the day it went out in Spain, March 28th, and immediately after I left the screening, I realized I needed to watch it again, and I spent the next weeks trying to get some free time to go to the movies… I didn’t manage to go, until I got to Portugal… Last Thursday, after spending a whole day with my nieces, and having dinner with friends, me and a friend of mine decided to go to the midnight screening of Cap2. I loved it even more than the first time (and I’m seriously considering convincing my nephew to watch it for the 3rd time…).

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It’s very different from all the others superheroes movies, it’s less fantastical and more thriller. It’s a political espionage thriller done beautiful, with a lot of things you don’t see coming, combined with a lot of action and hand to hand combat. And WOW! Those combat scenes are amazingly done! Kudos to the choreographers, stunt doubles and off course, the amazing actors who did them.

The Winter Soldier gives a new dimension to all the people involved. The Cap is adapting and has taken the lead, so much so that Fury is not in control anymore. We learn more about Natasha and I wouldn’t be surprised if a Black Widow movie will pop up soon. Falcon is just the best, and in just half a movie grows into someone we just can’t see the Cap without. And with only a few lines, the Winter Soldier steals every scene he’s in. Natasha and Steve also develop an amazing kind of friendship, and I can’t wait to see Steve and Sharon go on some kind of date…

One of the best so far, which is saying something…