Countdown to Avengers 3: Avengers: Age of Ultron

Can you believe that we’re doing a third installment of Countdown to Avengers? It seems like it was only yesterday that we teamed up with Nerd Lunch and Cavalcade of Awesome to tackle all the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) films (and then some) that lead up to The Avengers. Believe it or not, we’re back, and now we’ve got Jay from Life Vs. Film along for the ride as well. 

Whereas that first series of ours was special, this one will be even more epic. It heralds the end - or, at least, the beginning of the end - of this current manifestation of the MCU. So we’ll be looking at at least one MCU film a month until Infinity War releases in May. First up...2015’s Avengers: Age of Ultron. Mandatory spoiler warning!

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Looking back on Avengers: Age of Ultron, maybe it deserved the mixed reviews it received from critics. Let's see...it definitely suffered from sequel bloat. The plot was basically the same as the first Avengers. You could argue that the film yet again suffers from that "Marvel has a villain problem" situation. Others have definitely pointed these problems out, but the fact remains. Personally, I particularly remember some hate about how Black Widow was handled and I’m pretty sure returning director Joss Whedon quit Twitter over this whole movie. All that said, this film could have been a lot worse, and there was a lot to live up to. Considering all that, Whedon more or less pulled it off.

Basically, post The Winter Soldier, The Avengers have reunited to take down Hydra and the film opens on the team attacking Baron Von Strucker’s (Thomas Kretschmann) base in Sokovia to steal back Loki’s scepter from the first Avengers movie. This all, believe it or not, leads to the birth of the titular villain, the devious A.I. Ultron.

There was definitely a lot going on in this movie...almost too much. Consider for example that Thor goes off on his own at one point on a fact finding mission to learn more about the Infinity Stones. At the end he even actually leaves to go find the Stones. It explains why he wasn't around for Civil War. Maybe it's something that could have been emphasized a bit more, but I probably just wasn't paying attention/didn't appreciate it.

Some of the film's highlights for me were the Black Widow/Hulk stuff. It was nice to see their relationship develop past their meeting in India and their shenanigans in the first film. Speaking of the Hulk, I also enjoyed his fight with Iron Man's Hulk Buster, but I do think they could have maybe injected a little seriousness into that fight. It never really felt like Tony was in danger at any point. It would have been cool if maybe Hulk pried the suit open a little bit. The lack of danger and consequence is a bit too much.

There’s a ton of connections to the other films littered throughout this movie. Almost too many to mention (and dozens of other folks have already done it). It opens with the team trying to retrieve the scepter from the first film, which went missing after Shield fell in Captain America: The Winter Soldier. Thor hits Captain America's shield to produce a shockwave like in The Avengers, but here it's like a combo attack move. Falcon shows up in this so it's another nice throwback to The Winter Soldier.

We get some action from the Iron Legion at the beginning, which are more or less an extension of all of Iron Man’s suits from Iron Man 3. Although he did blow all of those up, but I guess it was just sort of foreshadowing an Iron Man suit army. Despite their destruction, it leads to the Legion and ultimately Ultron.

This flick was not only setting up Civil War - Cap and Tony’s wood chopping scene - it also laid a lot of ground work for Infinity War. Tony has a premonition of the aftermath of the team fighting Thanos, and there’s obviously a lot of talk about the Infinity Stones - and we SEE an Infinity Stone in the form of Vision’s forehead stone.

The team now inhabits Avengers Tower, formerly Stark Tower. We basically saw this foreshadowed at the end of The Avengers, with all the letters of "Stark" - except for the "A" - having fallen off the building.

Traffik Cone via AMP

Now in this series of ours, we'd normally talk about how the main character from the film in question will fit into the upcoming Avengers movie. But not only is this not a stand alone film, there’s a subsequent film - Civil War - that features most of the team, so you can’t even say how the whole team will behave once they’re reunited.

But I'll speculate a little anyway. Will there be two teams in Infinity War? Iron Man's team and Cap's team from Civil War and they all have to come together? Not to mention The Revengers and the Guardians of the Galaxy. They've all been scattered so it'll be interesting to see them all join up together. Although I have to wonder if there will even be a unified team in Infinity War. It may just be these different factions doing their own missions. An Avengers Army (what else can you call it if this is a war?) would truly be awesome, however. But we might have to wait for that.

There was no way Avengers: Age of Ultron was going to live up to The Avengers and the sheer joy of seeing all the characters meet up for the first time. At the end of the day, Age of Ultron is just a good MCU film, not a great one. There were better films before it, and there have been better films since. But it had a lot to accomplish, so maybe we’re unfair to the film.

Countdown to Avengers 2: Daredevil: Into the Ring

Avengers: Age of Ultron officially premieres tomorrow! Since January we've been counting down to the film's release with Nerd Lunch and Cavalcade of Awesome by looking at different aspects of "Phase 2" in the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU).

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We've looked at Iron Man 3, Thor: The Dark World, Captain America: The Winter Soldier, and Guardians of the Galaxy. Now it's time for our final pre-Ultron post, and for that, we head to Hell's Kitchen for the pilot episode of Netflix's Daredevil!

Beware spoilers for Daredevil and other Marvel productions!

Daredevil: Into the Ring

I'll just come out and say it - Daredevil, a joint effort between Marvel and Netflix - is one of the best projects Marvel has ever done. It's well acted, well scripted, and competently produced.

And this was just Marvel testing the Netflix waters. Shows revolving around superheroes Jessica Jones, Luke Cage, and the Iron Fist are planned, before a team up ala The Avengers in a fifth show - The Defenders.

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While I have seen the entire series, we're just covering the pilot episode. But what a pilot! We start out with a frantic and emotional scene that shows how Matt Murdock, the man who will become Daredevil, was blinded as a boy (saving an innocent of course). This is followed up by the adult Matt Murdock (Charlie Cox) confessing to his priest. This scene fluctuates between charming, emotional and dark, and Cox just nails it. I can see showbiz hopefuls using it as a monologue in their acting classes in the future.

What we see next - and what Matt was asking forgiveness for in advance (that's cheating!) - is our hero saving a group of kidnapped young women from the sex trade. The fight scene is fierce and brutal, and shows you what you're in for in terms of the action and choreography of the show. 

Deborah Ann Woll as Karen Page, a woman Matt helps who goes on to be his employee, was effortless in the role. The only actor I didn't really like was Elden Henson who played Foggy Nelson, Matt's law partner. He did grow on me over time, but I'm confident they could have found someone with a little more talent.

As for references to the MCU, there weren't that many in the pilot. We get some references to alien attacks and destruction (the battle with the Chitauri from The Avengers). There were more as the show went on, but the pilot was pretty light, which I think was intentional.

There are already rumors that Daredevil and the rest of the Defenders will fit into a future Avengers film. I say bring it on. I'm looking forward to revisiting Hell's Kitchen.

Thoughts from CT at Nerd Lunch...

Robert asked me to contribute some thoughts about the first episode of Daredevil, but I wound up watching the whole thing. It is episodic, but plays as a 13-hour long movie in a lot of ways. Everyone applauded Guardians of the Galaxy for telling a different kind of story in the MCU and proving how versatile it can be. Granted, this is something that comic readers have already known. The comics' world contains super powers, advanced tech, magic, monsters, supernatural forces and just regular ol' street crime. With the Daredevil TV series, Marvel has done it again and told a story unlike anything they've done and set it in a world with magic hammers and iron suits. Strip a few things out, and this is a simple crime drama. But place it in the context of the MCU and it's so much more.

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As a result, I think this is the start of something special and I applaud Marvel and the success they've had with this series. I hope the subsequent shows are as good and I look forward to more Daredevil in the future. Hopefully he'll get a movie appearance someday, too.

A Peek Through the Hatch: Robert's Most Anticipated Films of 2015

It's time to look at my most anticipated films for 2015 the rest of this year! And what a crazy year it'll be! New James Bond, Avengers, and Star Wars films, not to mention a new film in the Jurassic Park franchise?!? Am I dreaming?

There are a lot of honorable mentions I could go through, but why bother? This year is jam packed with cinematic goodness, or at least, the promise of it. Oh, and by the way, picks 10 - 6 don't have a particular order, but 5 - 1 are truly my most anticipated movies of the year. Thanks in advance for checkin' 'em out.

10. The Martian (November 25, 2015)

Based on the book by Andy Weir, The Martian will follow Mark Watney, a NASA astronaut stranded on Mars. With Matt Damon in the title role and Ridley Scott at the helm, this flick sounds like a winner. This would probably rank higher if I'd read the book. Speaking of, here's an unofficial (?) trailer of sorts for the novel:



9. Spectre (November 6, 2015)

I don't know about you, but Skyfall was my favorite Bond film since Goldeneye. So the fact that Skyfall director Sam Mendes is returning to the director's chair for Bond's next adventure (keep in mind no one has directed consecutive Bond films since John Glen's run in the '80s) is amazing. Monica Bellucci as the Bond girl! Christoph Waltz as the villain! Sign me up!

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8. Poltergeist (July 24, 2015)

A lot of things are screaming at me about having this on my list. It's a remake. It's supposedly more of a kid's film. But dammit, Poltergeist is one of my favorite movies of all time and Sam Rockwell - the dad in this Gil Kenan directed Sam Raimi produced installment - is never not good. And check out this trailer:



Doesn't look half bad, right?

7. The Fantastic Four (August 7, 2015)

To be completely honest, this movie probably wouldn't have cracked my top 10 until the trailer finally (finally!) came out. There were those rumors that it would be found footage and there was no shortage of oddities about the story and production (Von Doom is now a blogger or something? Director Josh Trank was destroying sets?) Let's hope this is better than the Tim Story flicks and WAY better than the Roger Corman movie.



6. Mad Max: Fury Road (May 15, 2015)

Look at this goddamn trailer!!!



5. Tomorrowland (May 22, 2015)

Ah, the mysterious Tomorrowland. Directed by Brad Bird (The Iron Giant, Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol) and Starring George Clooney, the film has been described as "Harry Potter but with science". We haven't seen much besides the excellent trailer below, but maybe that's a good thing.



4. Star Wars: The Force Awakens (December 18, 2015)

I'm more of a Trek guy, but there's a lot to be excited for about The Force Awakens. The return of Mark Hamill, Harrison Ford, and Carrie Fisher is fantastic, the film boasts an impressive group of new actors including Domhnall Gleeson and Oscar Isaac, and speaking of Trek, J.J. Abrams - director of that franchise's reboots - traded in the Enterprise for the Millennium Falcon and The Force Awakens' directors chair. So we'll see. And this trailer? Oh, this trailer.



3. Jurassic World (June 12, 2015)

I absolutely love Jurassic Park, so this flick is a no-brainer for my #3 spot. We aren't getting human/dinosaur hybrids, but there is some genetic manipulation at play here, a logical step for the series. A fully realized park was also a brilliant idea for a sequel, and Chris Pratt and Bryce Dallas-Howard are fine additions to the series' cast. Speaking of, hopefully Jeff Goldblum's Ian Malcolm and/or Sam Neill's Alan Grant show up?



2. Ant-Man (July 17, 2015)

I was beyond upset when director Edgar Wright abandoned this flick, but I'm still excited. Why? I'm glad you asked...

1. Oscar winner Russell Carpenter serves as the film's cinematographer.
2. Word is there are some flashbacks to Hank Pym's (Michael Douglas) tenure as Ant-Man, which could show us the likes of Peggy Carter, Howard Stark and Pym working together.
3. Adam McKay and Paul Rudd worked on the script. Sure, this is infinitely worse than Edgar Wright, but it could be worse.
4. Paul Rudd! He wasn't my first choice for Ant-Man, but I think he'll be awesome as Scott Lang.
5. Marvel! Let's not forget, this is Marvel. Remember last year? Winter Soldier? Guardians? Big Hero 6 (now an Academy Award winner)?

And even if this film isn't great, he'll still show up in Avengers movies down the road.



1. Avengers: Age of Ultron (May 1, 2015)

Yep, the first movie was at the top of my favorites list for 2012, so of course I'm excited for this sequel. Watch out for our countdown series with The Nerd Lunch Podcast crew. I'm very interested in seeing what Whedon's done with these characters, both individually, and as a group. When they're not partying, they'll be fighting Ultron and I'm excited for both.

Countdown to Avengers 2: Thor: The Dark World

We're counting down to Avengers: Age of Ultron with Nerd Lunch and Cavalcade of Awesome! Each month leading up to Ultron's release on May 1, we'll be reviewing a different aspect of Marvel's Phase 2.  

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CT from Nerd Lunch and I tackled Iron Man 3 last month, and now it's time for Pax and I to take a look at Thor: The Dark World.

Beware spoilers for Thor: The Dark World and potential spoilers/speculation regarding Age of Ultron.

Thor: The Dark World

Thor: The Dark World picks up after the events of Thor and The Avengers. Our titular hero is establishing order in the Nine Realms now that the Bifrost has been restored. Jane Foster (Natalie Portman), now studying in London with Darcy (Kat Dennings), is done searching for Thor and is trying to get over him. Meanwhile, back in Asgard, Loki (Tom Hiddleston) is in prison. We see him interact with a hologram of his mother Frigga (Rene Russo).

Mondo

So not only has much changed for Thor and his friends and family since the last film, a new villain is on the scene: Malekith, the Dark Elf. Long ago, Malekith tried to obtain the Aether, a powerful relic that can essentially destroy the galaxy and restore darkness to reality. This is bad. What's worse is that Jane of all people manages to stumble upon the Aether and becomes imbued with its powers. Thor reunites with Jane (who's very upset at him for not doing so earlier) and whisks her off to Asgard. Malkeith follows and the rest of the film is Thor battling Malkeith for the Aether.

It might be because I just rewatched this film, but it's the Thor franchise that makes me want to see more Marvel character interaction. I'd love to see Anthony Hopkins' Odin interact with Robert Downey Jr.'s Iron Man or Chris Evans' Steve Rogers, for instance. I think that's a testament to these characters and actors. Some of the relationships in this movie are really quite fantastic. In a nutshell, Marvel's first family is fractured. The relationship between Loki and his mother Frigga is pretty heartbreaking here. She's one of the last connections he has outside of his prison cell, and when she's killed, Loki is devastated. An especially nice touch is when Thor goes to see Loki after her death. The trickster appears calm and collected, but when Thor questions him, Loki drops his holographic facade and reveals that he's disheveled and destroyed his cell in a fit of rage. Another great relationship is that of Thor and his father Odin. The All-Father wants Thor to take the throne and Thor still passes it up. Also interesting is that Odin and Thor have essentially swapped stances on war in this movie. Thor simply craved war in the original film because he was a spoiled brat, however. Here, Odin seeks vengeance for the death of Frigga.

The strongest relationship in the film is that of Thor and Loki, of course. Hiddleston turns in a particularly fine performance. His death (which comes after protecting both Thor and Jane and avenging Frigga) not only validates Hiddleston's role in the movie, it sort of validates Hemsworth as well. The two actors play off each other with ease.

Another great aspect of the film is the visuals. The opening shots of the elf/Asgardian battle on Svartalfheim is pretty fantastic. The visuals and production design sort of reinforce the fact that Thor and his people are more aliens with advanced science than gods. One of my favorite visual effects sequences in the film is the final battle between Thor and Malekith, not just because of their portal jumping, but because Thor's hammer Mjolnir is flying around desperately looking for Thor, almost with a life of its own.

There are plenty of connections to The Avengers for fans to enjoy here. The Bifrost is restored sometime before the start of the film, which we know was still damaged in The Avengers after Thor and Loki's battle in the original Thor. There's a lot of fallout from The Avengers. We see the repercussions of Loki's actions on his entire family. Dr. Selvig (Stellan Skarsgård) is now essentially crazy after Loki's brainwashing and the Battle of New York (the good kind of crazy, however - running around in your underwear, that kind of thing). In one of the movie's funnest moments, Loki briefly takes the form of Chris Evans' Captain America.

I'm sure - like me - you're wondering how Thor will fit into Age of Ultron. For one thing, I've heard a rumor that Jane and Thor didn't work out after The Dark World, so we'll have to see how that plays out for the God of Thunder.

I've also heard that Thor winds up in Asgardian hell and I guess Thor: Ragnarok will be him getting out. Maybe he goes to Asgard to get help to fight Ultron and Loki throws him in hell (where he discovers Odin has also been a prisoner?).

One thing I'm hoping for is that we see more of a Thor/Captain America bromance. Stark and Banner already have their "science bros" thing going on, so it only makes sense that Thor and Cap have something similar (muscle bros?). The brief part in the first movie where the two teamed up to fight Chitauri on the streets of New York was fun, and they seem to be friendly at the glimpses we've gotten of the party scene in the Ultron trailers. The fact that Cap almost picks up Mjolnir while a (briefly) worried Thor looks on in the trailer is something else to consider.

Thoughts from Pax at Cavalcade of Awesome...

I saw Thor: The Dark World in the theater just before it left and then I saw it again when it hit Blu-Ray. I actually quite liked it the first time I saw it but the more I moved away from the viewing my stance changed. I didn't remember why I liked it and the only thing I could think of was that Natalie Portman acted as if she didn't really want to be there and that they completely wasted the potential of Christopher Eccleston as Malekith.

So, I was not 100% looking forward to my re-watch for this countdown. But watching the film again, I am completely swept away by the charisma of the movie's cast. Hemsworth is simply a revelation when he's playing Thor. He's amazing. And I don't think I need to harp on how great Hiddleston is as Loki. And having these two team up for a "buddy" movie was a great idea. But it doesn't stop with them; Jaime Alexander, Zachary Levi and Ray Stevenson as Sif and the Warriors are also awesome. I want a Sif and the Warriors Three movie. STAT. Make that happen, Marvel. We even get to see Rene Russo and Idris Elba punch out tiny bits of awesomeness in this movie. It's also nice to see Kat Dennings' intern character come back. I had so much fun watching the movie this time and it's all based on the amazing cast.

Coming back to the bad part? Malekith. Completely wasted. Not too surprising since we keep getting visually amazing but ultimately hollow villain characters with very muddled motivations in almost all of these Marvel movies (I accuse you, Ronan the Accuser). And Natalie Portman is not great in this, but she isn't as bad as I remembered. It helps that she's gorgeous in nearly every scene that she's in.

Overall a very enjoyable movie that for some reason I forgot how fun it was to watch. And the humor was much more prevalent than I remembered as well. Not sure why I lapsed a bit in my Thor worship, but I'll be sure not to let that happen again.

A Peek Through the Hatch: Avengers: Age of Ultron

Spoilery thoughts are in this post!

So I was watching Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. last night, catching up in order to watch the new episode next week, all so I could catch the world premiere of the first Avengers: Age of Ultron trailer. I was also on Twitter, since I can't stand to be watching just one screen aparently. All of a sudden, people are talking about the Avengers trailer and I realize that it's leaked online. But I refrained from watching the leaked/bootlegged version. I was going to wait until next week.

So I was pleasantly surprised to check Twitter this morning to discover that Marvel went ahead and released the official trailer! Check it out below (like you haven't already).



Some thoughts:

• Like a lot of folks, I'd been hearing about this trailer (or a version of it) since Comic-Con. It's nice to finally see stuff like Ultron walking in on the party scene and the Hulk throwing the car at Iron Man (in full Hulkbuster armor) and then punching through it. Expectations were basically met there.
• The Pinocchio song is indeed awesome and lends the trailer a disturbing vibe.
• Some cliches: Black Widow saying "Nothing lasts forever.", Scarlet Witch dropping to her knees and screaming, Thor's cape sliding/billowing over to block the background (didn't we just see that in Man of Steel?), Hulk and Iron Man punching each other at the same time (that sort of already happened in The Incredible Hulk between Hulk and The Abomination).
• The party scene is going to be one of the highlights of the film and it's fun seeing a little bit of it here. Check out Thor's crazy red jacket:

• We get a wide shot of the party and I'm wondering who the two mystery women are. It's clear that Black Widow is there but I'm wondering who the other two are. I'd heard that Jane, Natalie Portman's character and Thor's main squeeze, would be there but that she'd be with someone else, the guy she goes on a date with in Thor: The Dark World (Chris O'Dowd from The IT Crowd). At least, I think I remember hearing/reading that. I'm not sure why they'd do that. Maybe Cobie Smulder's character, Maria Hill is also one of them?

From left to right: Hulk, Black Widow, Mystery Woman 1, Thor, Captain America, Mystery Woman 2, James Rhodes/War Machine/Iron Patriot, Iron Man, Hawkeye

• Finally, that final shot of Ultron is pretty flippin' badass. I can't wait for May 1st!

What do you think of this trailer?