Captain America: The Winter Soldier

Expectations:
Not only is Captain America the "First Avenger," but he is also the "Best Avenger"! There is no doubt in my mind that the first Captain America film was the best pre-Avengers Marvel flick, and I was hoping that Captain America: The Winter Soldier could follow that up and become the best of Marvel's "Phase 2" films. Unfortunately, many of the plot details for the film were under wraps, so I wasn't quite certain what to expect. At the same time, it is quite nice that Marvel now has the power to hold in the big secrets of the films. In fact, that power is what made everyone trip over the big twists in Iron Man 3, which may have inflated expectations for The Winter Soldier. Anywho, my expectations were high, because of the greatness that was The First Avenger...

Plot:
The end of mindless superhero films may be fast-approaching, as evident by the BLATANT political themes presented in The Winter Soldier. In case you didn't know, Obama is watching you, and he is going to destroy you because Robert Redford said so! And Rob Red is the man!!! However, on Captain America's (Chris Evans) end, there were just a few too many things going on for him to really be making a political statement. Black Widow's (Scarlett Johanssonn) continual need to be insignificantly significant took up an unnecessary amount of screen time, and, in the end, the film probably should have been titled Captain America: S.H.I.E.L.D. & Friends. The film wasn't a total bust, but I truly believe it had great potential. At one point, the trusting, old-fashioned Captain had a moment where he didn't know who was with/against him. That moment was probably the most intense Marvel moment ever! Unfortunately, in less than five minutes, he figured out who to trust again, which left me disappointed at what could have been. Even with this disappointment, the action was absolutely great, and Cap had no problem with anybody he faced.

Characters:
As a result of the numerous storylines, there were waaaay too many characters for any non-Avengers film. Like I said, Captain America is THE MAN! Why would you want to be distracted by minor characters? The answer to that question can probably be found in the fact that The Avengers: Age of Ultron needed a lead-in, which is quite unfortunate.

Negatives:
Hayley Atwell was absolutely amazing in The First Avenger, but there was no need for her Peggy Carter to show up, ever again. Captain America seemed to be moving forward and accepting the 21st century, eliminating the need to bring his past back into the picture. Additionally, Toby Jones's Dr. Arnim Zola was awkwardly brought back into the picture, although he was a bit more necessary, in the grand scheme of things. Although Robert Redford's Alexander Pierce was quite important to the storyline, he was the one significant character that I did not care for, but hopefully you will like him!

Positives:
My main man Danny Pudi had an extremely short appearance as some sort of computer guy, and I just wanted to be sure to give him a shout out. Without him, Community would no longer be on the air and no one would know what the term "butt-dial" means (look it up... he was the first to say it). New to the Captain America crew, Anthony Mackie's Sam Wilson/Falcon was a fun addition to the film, and I truly hope that people reward Mackie with larger roles in the future. Finally (and I never thought I would say this), Cobie Smulders' Maria Hill actually fit in quite well with the rest of the cast. Her short time on screen was quite significant, and she nearly redeemed herself for being the only negative in The Avengers... but not quite.

Conclusion:
Captain America: The Winter Soldier was a great Marvel film, but it could have been so much better. There was just waaaay too much going on, which greatly scattered the focus of the film. Really, Captain America had very little riding on the outcome of the film. Instead, S.H.I.E.L.D. and Black Widow took center stage, which would have been fine, if they didn't already have an entire TV show dedicated to S.H.I.E.L.D. Additionally, if Black Widow could have had her own film, instead of showing up in others over and over and over, neither Iron Man nor Captain America would have had to worry about her. Regardless, I would certainly suggest that you check out The Winter Soldier, especially if you like to keep up with the events of the Marvel universe. You miss this one, and you might as well skip The Avengers: Age of Ultron. I give Captain America: The Winter Soldier 2.99 out of 5 stars.

Her

 

 

Expectations:
The trailers for Spike Jonze's Her looked a bit too artsy fartsy for my taste, but something about a man falling in love with his computer is very interesting to me. But, folks, no need to worry!... I am engaged to a girl, and she is MUCH better than my computer!... I'm not a huge fan of Spike Jonze's previous work, although it always manages to get me thinking. His stories are so weird and unique, and I can easily say that I would be frightened to be in his head for more than five minutes. But, even with the craziness, there is something so intriguing about this storyline, and, regardless of how absolutely insane Joaquin Phoenix may be, the man can act. Sometimes, weird movies, like Her, are able to surprise me, but, at the same time, weird movies can end up as total disasters. Who knew what was coming with Her?...

Plot:
As expected, the film was quite artsy and trippy, but neither was the least bit overwhelming, which was a pleasant surprise. The artistic, visual focus (which I tend to not care for too much) was quite nice and accented the realistic fantasy that Jonze and Phoenix created. You might ask, "Tanner, how does a film manage to be a realistic fantasy? Those words are antonyms." To you people, I just ask that you take my word for it or go watch the movie! Honestly, there were a few inexplicable, technological advances in Her, and it is difficult for myself to imagine falling in love with my computer. However, at the same exact time, nothing about the technological and societal advances were too extreme to make them seem unattainable. Wait, wait... I take that back! In Her, nobody ever wore a belt, and I really don't see the market for belts collapsing drastically in the near future. So, there was that! Also, as someone who considers himself a bit of an introvert, I could actually imagine somebody out there falling in love with a computer, if that computer was the Samantha (voiced by Scarlett Johansson) that Phoenix's Theodore Twombly fell for in the first half of the film. Personally, the idea is not appealing, but I don't believe it to be too far-fetched. So, anyway, I say all of that to help you realize that Her is not as whimsical as the trailer made it out to be. The film felt very, very real, and I thoroughly enjoyed the way that Jonze told the story. The plot itself was not ground-breaking, but the film really opened some gaping questions about seclusion, as a result of our computer-loving, introverted future-selves.

Characters:
Pretty much everything about this film revolved around Theodore Twombly, and I do not believe that there was ever a significant, on-screen moment that lacked the presence of Joaquin Phoenix. With that being said, pretty much everything that I said in the plot about the film can be carried over to Twombly's character. He was THE man in this film, and he wasn't nearly as much of a social recluse as the trailer made him out to be, which is probably why I was so surprised that he was so realistic. Sure, he was a bit awkward and introverted, but he was NOT socially inept. Phoenix did a brilliant job, as we've come to expect, regardless of how crazy he may be. Additionally, Scarlett Johansson did an amazing job with her voice acting, although I did not like the fact that I was picturing her the whole time. If I did not have a face to associate with her voice, I think the film would have been even better, because I would have felt a bit more in touch with Theodore's perception of her. Finally, Spike Jonze himself provided one of the funniest moments of 2013 films, with his voice performance as the foul-mouthed Alien Child. I was rolling throughout that entire scene! I think the Alien Child is deserving of his own film... Anybody with me on that?

Conclusion:
Her was so surprisingly real that I still don't know if I've fully grasped how great the film was, and I watched it like two weeks ago! My expectations were absolutely destroyed! Of the 2013 Oscar contenders/nominees, I don't think there is another film with anywhere near as much creativity or intrigue in its story... Maybe Bad Grandpa? Ha Ha Ha!!!... Anyway, I encourage everyone to check out Her. Is it odd?... Yes! Is it unique?... Yes! Is it possible that you will hate it?... Yes! But, there is a chance that this film could sneak up and be your favorite film of 2013. Do not be afraid! Let me be your encouragement! Go watch Her! I give Her 4.00 out of 5 stars.

The Avengers

Expectations:
Let's be honest with one another for just a minute. How many people have ever seen a movie with a ton of really famous stars in it that just really, really sucked? Answer: Everyone. How many people have a seen a movie with so much CGI and so much unrealistic crap that it just really, really sucked? Answer: Everyone. Now my expectations were that, when you combine those two elements of suckiness, you get The Avengers. There is just no way that you could possibly set your expectations too high for this film. We all know how awful Thor and Iron Man 2 were. We all know that nobody can make a good Hulk movie. We all know that Loki looks retarded with that antler helmet on. Sure, the action scenes would rock, and every comic book guru would pee in their pants while waiting in the theater at midnight. The question was could they overcome all of the aforementioned problems and make a good, solid movie?

Plot:
While the plot of the movie certainly wasn't deep or real, I will hand it to Joss Whedon and crew for coming up with a way to make every character share an almost equal-sized role. This film had so many big characters, which is not an easy aspect to deal with, but they dealt with it almost perfectly. The only real big problem I had with the plot structure was the fact that it took so long for us to actually see them all together. There was too much jumping around from place to place at the beginning of the film. The other small problem that I had was not really a problem with the movie but, instead, a problem with film critics and watchers. No one can tell me that the final battle scene didn't mimic the final scene in Transformers: Dark of the Moon (a film that everyone hated for no reason at all). While I loved the scenes in both films, can someone please explain to me how you can love the one film and hate the other? Regardless, I was completely surprised at how sound the plot was. While it certainly isn't Oscar-worthy, people can still love more than the just the characters in the film, and that is a strong statement for a superhero movie.

Characters:
While there were a few low points character-wise, most every character was dealt with fantastically well. There was very little randomness to the interaction and appearance of these characters. Robert Downey Jr. was fantastic, as usual, in his role as Iron Man. While I expected her to fade into the background, Scarlett Johannson really surprised me at how interesting her character was. Samuel L. Jackson was just as so so as he ever is. Chris Evans certainly carried his momentum from Captain America into this film. Tom Hiddleston's performance as Loki turned out to be much more real and raw than I ever could have imagined. While the antler helmet did take away from your ability to accept him as real, I was very impressed with his performance. On a negative side of things, there were a few characters that I didn't quite like in the film. Looking back, Chris Hemsworth's Thor really had no major role in the movie at all. I think Hulk's presence really took away from Thor's ability shine as the big strong dude that does big strong dude stuff. Also, I was not a big fan of Hawkeye, played by Jeremy Renner. I don't really know why, but I just wasn't impressed.

Best Character: Although I never saw the newest Hulk film, I have heard nothing positive about it, which is what lead everyone to think that Hulk would be a low point in The Avengers. Boy were we wrong! Everyone who has seen the movie knows exactly how great Hulk was portrayed, but I'm not completely sold that it was because of Mark Ruffalo's performance. I give the credit, yet again, to Joss Whedon.

Worst Character: Agent Maria Hill, played by Cobie Smulders, was absolutely the stupidest character in the whole film. I do not understand why she had anywhere close to that big of a role. She wasn't basically just a person that gave Nick Fury a reason to have lines.

Conclusion:
The Avengers shattered mine and everyone else's expectations, while taking the box office numbers for quite a spin as well. Was it the most solid movie ever? No. However, it was extremely well put together, which means that comic freaks and movie freaks all need to invite Joss Whedon to their birthday party this year! The comedy in the film was a bit over-bearing at times, but it was certainly fun to watch with everyone cracking up at 1 o'clock in the morning. The plot wasn't realistic, but it wasn't supposed to be. Almost everything that went wrong in The Avengers had an excuse, which is rare. With all the positive things that have been said, I must say one thing that everyone may not agree on. Contrary to what everyone was putting on Facebook and what not, The Avengers is NOT the best superhero movie ever made. That title is held and will likely always be held by The Dark Knight, and don't you ever forget that. I give The Avengers 4.11 out of 5 stars.