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.

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.

Favorite Scene Friday! Iron Man 3: Barrel of Monkeys

I don't know what it is about scenes involving mid-air action and/or rescues, but I love 'em. Whether it's from X2: X-Men United, the Star Trek reboot, Quantum of Solace, or Superman Returns (which I've written about for FSF here), there's something about hurtling about in the emptiness of the atmosphere that really speaks to me as an action fan. If your movie has a scene like this, I'll like it by default.

Take Iron Man 3 for example. Leading up to today's scene, Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr.) has endured the destruction of his home and attacks on his loved ones by a terrorist known as The Mandarin. In dealing with the villain and his thugs, Tony finds himself handling an attack on Air Force One and must come to the aid of its staff after they're jettisoned from the plane:


Iron Man 3 had a lot to live up to, not so much because of the first two Iron Man films, but because of The Avengers. It had its flaws, but decent action in the movie overall is bolstered by this week's scene, which is crazy fun. It's unique, even as these types of scenes go, and undoubtedly entertaining. Part of that has to be due do the work that went into this scene. While the filmmakers could have taken some shortcuts here, they opted to film this scene as practically as possible:



Side note - this FSF is a companion piece of sorts to today's Iron Man 3 post over at Nerd Lunch. Our sites - along with Cavalcade of Awesome - are doing a countdown to this year's Avengers: Age of Ultron, much like we did for the first Avengers film. So get ready for monthly posts leading up to the release of what looks like a truly great sequel to The Avengers.

Mondo

What's your favorite scene from Iron Man 3?

And what future Marvel Cinematic Universe film are you most looking forward to?

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?