Reviewing - The MCU: Phase Two
The unstoppable franchise continues, raising the stakes without sacrificing the emphasis on character and heart. With both new and familiar faces, each chapter adds more to the ever-growing universe.
The Best: Avengers - Age of Ultron
The Worst: Thor - The Dark World
Iron Man 3 (***1/2)
In which a rich billionaire learns his weapon obsession has resulted in too many weapons so he destroys all his weapons
Phase 2 of the MCU kicks off with its most popular character, and although this movie has its flaws, I think Robert Downey Jr. brought his A-game once again with perfect joke deliveries and a convincing look at how his life has changed since “The Avengers”. After re-watching all of them, I think I have to pick this one as my favourite of the Iron Man Trilogy – if you can call it that. What I loved about this film was how Stark had to deal with PTSD – because of course he did. We see so often heroes go through unimaginable insanity in order to win, and then in the next film they’re hardly fazed. Here, Tony is not the same man he was before the invasion of New York. He’s haunted by his own inadequacy in the light of threats from beyond Earth. And he’s scared! I love that. It grounds him as a character and makes him compelling.
Although this is my favourite of the Iron Man films, the villain is the absolute worst, no question about it. Having the Mandarin turn out to be an actor made for a cheap laugh, but it also let the pressure out of the film’s tires, so to speak. The dramatic tension of “Who is he? What does he want?” dissolves, which is disappointing given the film shows how the Mandarin is supposedly connected to “The Ten Rings” group from the first film. It also just doesn’t hold up to scrutiny. If the Mandarin is really Trevor Slattery and the only guns he was ever given on set were fakes, what about the guy he shot and killed live on television? Sure, the guy wasn’t actually killed, but then where is he now? Mandarin aside, Aldridge Killian has nothing interesting about him. He’s just another person who is loosely connected to Stark’s past in some way and has a secret grudge he’s looking to take care of. I mean, yeah, he can breathe fire, but he only uses it once AND he doesn’t even kill War Machine with it. He literally breathes fire NEXT to Rhodes to scare him…and then he walks away, whereupon Rhodes immediately busts out. Why didn’t you burn him to a crisp, Killian?
Those are the biggest flaws of the film, but I said that this one was still my favourite, and here’s why. This is the film where Tony Stark becomes a good man. At the end of “Iron Man”, he’s shut down the weapons division of Stark Industries, but he’s still a glory-chasing girl-crazy narcissist. Yes, I said girl-crazy. “But Matt, he’s in love with Pepper!” I present to you the opening scene of “Iron Man 2”, where he’s surrounded by bikini-clad girls dressed in Iron Man-esque attire. By the end of Iron Man 2, he’s beaten the bad guy again, but aside from having dealt with some daddy issues he hasn’t changed much as a person. Iron Man 3 is where we see the most transformative change in his character. He’s still cocky, but now it’s almost a false cockiness to mask his inner turmoil. He’s still Iron Man, but he’s finally putting Pepper before himself (never mind that he takes it back the next time we see him). He’s still Tony Stark, but he’s gained humility and perspective.
Though this is the final Iron Man film in the MCU, it’s interesting to see where the franchise takes him next…Avengers 2, Civil War, and Infinity War all show his growing need to prepare for the next potentially cataclysmic interstellar event, and Spider-Man/Infinity War both show his shifting role into a guide or teacher for the next generation of heroes. At the end of this film, Stark is at his ‘newest’, having undergone radical change. And that’s why this one is my favourite.
Thor: The Dark World (**)
In which the God of Thunder teams up with the biggest villain of Phase One in order to stop a weird elf guy from blowing up the universe
Seeing Thor back in his own element reminds me how much I dislike him in his own element. When Thor is on Asgard, he is surrounded by characters who look, act, and speak like him. This makes Thor utterly normal, and not a relatable kind of normal. Seeing his old human friends – Jane Foster included – also reminds me how little I care about their struggles. Darcy is Jane’s intern, and I honestly had to look her up to remember her name. I thought she was going to be a throwaway character for the first film, but they brought her back to do more of the same cheap jokes she did the first time. And then they gave Darcy an intern of her own…and I don’t care about any of them. If you want comic relief, let Thor take care of it. He’s the star, and the whole appeal of his character is that he’s a fish out of water. The brief subway scene is a classic example of the kind of Thor I like to see.
It shouldn’t be a surprise that Loki steals the show. After the events of “The Avengers”, Loki has cemented his place as that awesome bad guy you can’t help but love. He’s interesting, conniving, two-faced, and always has a trick up his sleeve. In a movie filled with characters whose motives are always painfully evident, it’s nice to see someone with an air of mystery. The dynamic of Thor and Loki working together is really fun, so I’m glad that they bring this aspect back in Thor: Ragnarok.
When you look back at the enormous success that the MCU has had, it’s surprising to me that the first two Thor films were so boring. The bad guy in particular here is just some ancient dark elf who wants to blow up the universe – not once do you develop even an inkling of a thought that there’s any genuine depth to his character. He’s worse than the Mandarin. What I think kept Thor going was Loki and the Avengers – without them, I think Thor would have fallen flat with audiences. In short, this is another thoroughly skippable movie.
Captain America: The Winter Soldier (****1/2)
In which the ex-skinny guy decides he knows everything and blows up the organization that basically made him in the first place
This is the MCU at its finest. In my opinion, no MCU film centered around one superhero comes close to the quality of the Captain America films. Steve Rogers is a good man first, and a superhero second. We get this from the very first scene, where Steve just talks with a new friend. They could have opened with the big boat action sequence, but they chose to start by reminding us of the kind of man Steve is, and I loved that.
The action scenes are jaw-dropping. The big-boat action scene where Cap just mows through a bunch of bad guys is incredible, as is Nick Fury’s car chase and the Cap-versus-Bucky knife fight. There are plenty of superhero movies where the good guy shoots energy out of his chest or eyeballs or hand or magic wand or whatever at the bad guy who does the exact same thing and they both yell at each other dramatically, but what’s great about this movie is we never forget about the people underneath the masks.
It would’ve been hard to believe at the time that the next Cap film could have improved on this one, but as it turns out, the final Captain America movie pulls out all the stops.
Guardians of the Galaxy (**1/2)
In which a raccoon, a tree, two weirdos with swords and a somewhat regular guy hold hands in order to save the world
Although there are definitely parts of this movie that I like, there’s just something about the Guardians that I have a hard time with.
Maybe it’s the way some of the jokes fall flat. I love Chris Pratt, but I have to say that I think some of his lines in this movie were poorly delivered. This is a funny movie for sure (Drax and Groot both got the most laughs out of me), but there are some lines that just had me rolling my eyes…Gamora’s “pelvic sorcery” bit being one example. One of the last lines of the movie was just too much:
“What should we do next? Something good? Something bad? Bit of both?”
We all know that these characters are anti-heroes. We know that they’re good guys who do bad stuff sometimes. You don’t need to remind us – it’s a wink at the audience that feels too forced and corny especially given the fact that Rocket has already called the characters out for a similarly corny movie trope (the standing-in-a-circle bit – another joke I liked). A lot of this movie is tongue-in-cheek, which is great, but you can’t really afford to wear your heart on your sleeve at the same time. You can’t have both.
Guardians wasn’t a bad movie at all. I really like Rocket, Drax, and Groot, and seeing the Infinity Stones delved into in greater depth. I just think that sometimes the movie can’t decide if it wants to be taken seriously or not.
Avengers: Age of Ultron (*****)
In which the weapons-crazed billionaire and the scientist with temper issues can't think of a single thing wrong with partnering to design a super-powerful artificial intelligence
The biggest feat that this film had to accomplish was overcoming the hype of its predecessor. The first Avengers was game-changing, kickstarting an era where filmmaking corporations feverishly pushed for their own ‘cinematic universes’: Universal’s “Dark Universe”, Sony’s “Spider-Verse”, and the DCEU to name a few. As glorious as this sequel could be, nothing could overtake the fact that the first one was the first blockbuster crossover hit of its kind. As a result, I feel like most reviews of this sequel were weighed down by “It’s not the first one”.
Watching it 4 years after its release in the midst of my journey to watch through the entire MCU, I was really able to enjoy this film on its own terms without the pressure of “is it going to measure up”. I just sat down excited to see Thor, Cap, Stark and Hulk together again, and they didn’t disappoint. This movie is 141 minutes of breathtaking fun. These characters shine brightest when they’re all together, poking fun, trying to one-up each other, and generally taking shots back and forth. The party scene in the opening act of the movie is terrific – for a moment, they’re all just having fun, and so are we. I find once again that Thor is at his best when he’s not on Asgard. He’s hilarious in this film, and it makes you wish his first two films had been more like this. Seeing the growing tension between Steve and Tony is exciting too. By this time, we knew ‘Civil War’ was coming in the future, so the seeds of dissent that pop up in this movie pump you up for what’s to come.
Ultron was a fun villain. Sure, he has the same old “Destroy/Conquer the planet” shtick that too many Marvel villains have had in the past, but James Spader’s voice has the perfectly powerfully sinister timbre to it. The motion capture in use really let Spader’s own physical performance shine through. I was familiar with Spader from “The Office”, so there were little movements and gestures that Ultron did that instantly made me recognize the Spader within. He was funny, too. At the end of the day, yes, he was just a robot who wanted to take over the world, but hey, it’s a comic book movie.
I have to mention the Hawkeye/Quicksilver trick that Joss Whedon pulled. When I first watched this film in theatres, my friend Vincent leaned over to me during the scene where we first meet Clint Barton’s wife and kids.
“Whedon’s gonna kill Hawkeye,” he whispered, and my eyes went wide. Whedon has a knack for introducing characters, giving you a reason to love them, and then killing them. We saw this in the first Avengers with Phil Coulson, as well as Wash from his 2005 film ‘Serenity’. And now here we were, and all of a sudden the least important Avengers from the previous film is suddenly getting a back story and emotional ties. And Whedon set it up perfectly. On Sokovia, Hawkeye’s rescued just about everyone and then there’s one more kid still in trouble. And everything in you says “Oh no, he’s gonna die here.” But then Quicksilver jumps in and saves the day, giving his own life in the process. When he says “Didn’t see that coming”, he’s talking directly to the audience, because we all expected it to be Hawkeye.
The action of course does not disappoint. The Hulk vs Hulk-buster fight is a blast, as is the climactic battle in Sokovia. It’s what you came for. So in summation, this film brought everything we loved from the first Avengers, and added some more unforgettable moments like all the bits with Thor’s hammer. Don’t miss it!
Ant-Man (**1/2)
In which Baskin Robbins finds out
MCU’s Phase Two probably should’ve ended with Avengers: Age of Ultron, but instead it kind of went out with an ant-sized fizzle. That said, Ant-Man was a fun movie – just much smaller-scale than the last six MCU films at least. The world isn’t exactly in jeopardy. We’re not seeing any major super hero that we’ve seen before. Every aspect of this movie is untrodden ground, which was refreshing.
Michael Pena is my favourite part of this movie. I think the film would have suffered a lot more without him. His character is hilarious, and he brightens up every scene he’s in. And of course, his ‘storytelling’ moments are terrific. They’re just pure fun. Paul Rudd is charming, but he doesn’t steal the spotlight like Robert Downey Jr. does in the Iron Man movies. Rudd needs other people onscreen with him in order to keep things interesting. I was happy to see Evangeline Lilly onscreen again since my family watched the LOST series way back when, and she did a good job as well. The villain was all too familiar – a bad guy who wants to steal the good guy’s technology or some other important thing to make weapons, just like Iron Monger, Whiplash, Red Skull, or Ronan. But in this particular film, it’s okay. We’re being introduced to a new superhero. We should focus on him, not the villain.
This isn’t near the top of my list of MCU films, but it’s a fine movie that brings someone new into the universe without being bogged down by any of the pre-existing lore.
This post was originally published on February 16th, 2019.