Wednesday, May 11, 2016

Captain America: Civil War Review



Sorry its so late but here's my review of Captain America: Civil War. After an accident during a battle with mercenaries leads to casualties, Captain America and the Avengers must deal with both the Sokovia Accords, a government bill designed to regulate superhuman actions, and the reemergence of The Winter Soldier, who may or may not be responsible for an attack on the United Nations.

What else can I say about this movie other than it is complete jam packed! At least four or five subplots are going on at the same time and yet most if not all of them end up working out really really great. The characters all have deep personal moments and their stories all tie together nicely, whether they're main or secondary. As a result, two big plot moments that I could see coming, still really hit hard emotionally and had big impact on the plot.

Even the introduction of new characters, The Black Panther and the new Spider-Man played by Tom Holland, who I was worried would be needlessly forced in, worked out really wonderfully. So much so, that they made me definitely want to see the Black Panther and Spider-Man solo movies that are coming out the next couple of years (despite me either not having much interest or having lost interest in those characters beforehand). If I had any problems at all with their characters, its that the beginning of Black Panther's arc felt a little bit rushed and could have used just a little bit more build up, but that's really just a nitpick as the rest of his arc is solid (and it can be argued that the buildup will be fleshed out more in the solo movie).

I thought I was going to have issues with the decision to make the character of Aunt May. here played by Marisa Tomei, younger, but the way it was executed and the version of the Spider-Man world that the character was placed in, I thought worked very well and I look forward to how both characters are further portrayed in the solo movie.

All the leads like Chris Evans as Cap, Robert Downey Jr, as Iron Man, Scarlett Johannson as Natasha Romanov, etc. do a great job in their performances, fitting so effortlessly into their roles that they feel like old friends. While some of the actors and characters are fairly new to the series like Paul Bettany as Vision, Elizabeth Olsen as Scarlett Witch, Chadwick Boseman as The Black Panther, and Tom Holland as Spider-Man, I can definitely see them starting to fit into their roles here and further down the road as well.
Daniel Bruhl also does a great job with his role as a surprise villain, who, as opposed to a lot of Marvel's villain, is very subtle and "behind the scenes" in his evil doing. On the one hand, because of this, his character is somewhat forgettable, but at the same time, his actions and character development really leaves a big impact on everyone else.

Along with the actors, the film really comes together thanks to the work and talent of the directing and writing teams Anthony and Joe Russo (who directed both this and Winter Soldier) and Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely (who have been with the series since First Avenger (Woohoo!). They've really done their research and really took the time to make the story and characters work, right down to the fantastic cinematography, lighting, action scenes, etc. If I had any complaints in this area, it'd be that the title cards for the locations (Laos, London, etc.) needlessly fill the entire screen and are a bit distracting. Again, a nitpick).

Really, the only major problems I have with the film involve its tone and the rest being due to personal bias mixed with nitpicking.
With the tone, I appreciate the fact that the film tried to go for a darker more complex feel but its overall tone feels a bit uneven and a little wonky. There are huge chunks of the film that are completely serious and almost humorless. While there are comedy bits here and there though, they're mainly to break the tension from earlier scenes. When the film gets to the big German airport fight, however everything goes completely crazy and hilariously insane (in the best way possible). However, as soon as this sequence finishes, it jumps right back into seriousness.

As a result, the tone feels like a serious sandwich with some hilarious comedy in the middle, or in less convoluted terms, two different movies and that was slightly distracting.

In terms of personal bias, the scene I'm thinking of involves one of the big plot moments that I could see coming. While it does work emotionally and story-wise in the film for Cap, and makes sense for the Cap movies overall, it involves a character who I highly enjoyed watching, both in the Cap movies, and in their own personal TV series. With the moment involving this character that happened in Civil War, and with their TV series most likely being canceled (I'll find out by next week), unless something happens with this character in the upcoming Infinity War movies,.it looks like this character's time in the Marvel Cinematic Universe is sadly coming to a close. I find this really unfortunate as I feel a lot more fun adventures and character development could be had with them.

Nitpick-wise, while the movie was called Captain America: Civil War, it still felt like it was Avengers 2.5 or Avengers 3 quite a bit. However, I only classify this as a nitpick because, personally, I've been used to the singular Marvel movies as being one of the heroes surrounded by a supporting cast, with maybe a cameo or a secondary role by one of the Avengers, and this was a new experience. Not to mention that the final result works as both a Captain America and Avengers movie anyway.

Other than that, any other nitpicks are extremely minor like wishing some characters had a little more screen time/things to do but it makes sense as to why they are like this.

Other than problems with tone and my own personal feelings, this is a great entry into both the Captain American series and the MCU series at large. Out of all the Marvel Universe films, all three Captain America films have turned out the strongest (Iron Man 1 aside) into a solid could be classic trilogy, and I personally think it is because Cap is the most human out of all the Avengers characters. He's not a spy, a billionaire, a god, or a robot. He's just a regular guy who's trying to do the right thing. Sure, he's genetically enhanced, but he's still down to earth, has morals, makes mistakes, feels pain (and insecurity at times) and he has gained and lost a lot, mainly through his own actions. He's human but he's the ideal human, both in physicality and spirit. (I'm sorry if that was really cornball and cheesy).
I definitely say see it if you haven't already.

Rating: 4.3 stars out of 5.

(If anyone is curious, while I do agree Winter Soldier and Civil War are the better films, my personal favorite is still The First Avenger because its great old fashioned action/adventure fun, its got strong characters and stories, great performances, beautiful cinematography (and just because I love anything from the 30s and 40s).

Sunday, May 1, 2016

The Jungle Book (2016) Review


Sorry it took me so long but I finally got to see the live action Jungle Book movie that came out (technically this is my second time seeing it because I arrived late at the first showing and thought I had missed some of the opening. Turns out, I just missed the opening titles). I apologize in advance that this is such a long post and if I accidentally reveal too much, let me know and I'll take it out).
A live action remake of the 1967 animated Disney film, this version is directed by Jon Favreau and stars newcomer Neel Sethi as Mowgli amidst a large array of CGI animals voiced by an all star cast and feels like a mix between the animated version and a slightly darker old fashioned adventure, like the original Jungle Book stories.

Despite being entirely filmed on a sound stage in downtown Los Angeles, I kept forgetting that fact both times I watched the film. The CGI work is absolutely fantastic, expertly designed and painstakingly detailed. Not to mention richly atmospheric and brightly colored (More of this please!)

The animals are almost at that level of design as well, although some might find it lacking (I myself found it ranging from not quite there to so real, its a bit unnerving/distracting. There are some moments though where its accomplished just right, such as when Mowgli and the wolf put their heads together). Even so, the CGI mixed with the story and characters is done at such a level, that even if the CGI does bother you, it won't for very long (I found myself ignoring it more this time around).
The voice acting for the animal characters has a similar range as well: The actors that absolutely nail their roles are Lupita Nyong'o as Raksha, Mowgli's adoptive wolf mother, portraying so much power and emotion in so few words (and making me kick myself for not having seen her Oscar winning role in 12 Years A Slave yet) and the great Ben Kingsley as Bagheera.
While getting off to a slow start, I was quickly won over by Idris Elba as Shere Khan, giving the character the perfect amount of menacing power both vocally, and as an incentive, physically as well (Even psychologically at one point as well)..

The two voices I was most worried about, Scarlett Johansson as Kaa and Christopher Walken as King Louie, actually turned out to be rather effective despite certain problems with the scenes that they were in (which I'll get to in a moment). Johansson was able to manipulate her voice in a such a way that, when mixed with the visuals, was giving me some pretty good goosebumps by the time the scene was over. Walken as Louie also gave the character a good amount of menace and danger, kind of playing the role like a New York gangster (albeit as a giant orangutan).
Finally, I come to Bill Murray as Baloo. What else can I say other than he's charismatic in the role? That's both a good and a bad thing however. Good, in that it helped ease me in and enjoy his performance, but also bad in that the second I heard his voice, I kept picturing him as Bill Murray and couldn't quite embrace him in the role like I did with Phil Harris in the animated version.
Despite this being Sethi's first role, he does a fairly good job, giving a nice physical and vocal performance through much of the film, despite being by himself most if not all the time, and I look forward to his future roles. That being said though, there are things he does need to work on as quite a few of his line deliveries come off as a bit distracting or non-believable (although that's understandable given the circumstances he was working under).

When it comes to the negatives, there are two big ones, namely some wonkiness in the execution of the story and the inclusion of the more obvious elements of the animated version, both of which might be tied together. With the story, the flaws lie in some of the transitions that lead to bigger scenes, with some of them feeling rushed or a little sloppily done. This would include Kaa knowing Mowgli's backstory of when he came to the jungle, Mowgli being reluctant to leave the jungle, when Mowgli first meets Baloo, and Baloo upsetting Mowgli when trying to get him to the man village. While the first of these is understandable and is actually done fairly well, the remaining three are done either in a rush or with a sloppy execution or both.

The biggest problem I had with the story though was the arc where something big happened to an important secondary character that drives Mowgli toward the climax. While the event that happened was shocking, I did not feel the character was built up enough emotionally to leave a proper impact for the audience when the event does happen and the aftermath that leads up to the climax.
What I think hurts the film most though is the inclusion of the more obvious elements from the animated version, like the two bits I mentioned above, the opening and closing, etc. If all those elements had been removed or tweaked and a little more focus had been put on the old fashioned adventure elements (similar to what Kenneth Branagh successfully did with Cinderella last year), then I think the film would have been that much more stronger.

Going back to those transitional scenes, the inclusion to make Mowgli's reluctance to leave the jungle (for one scene mind you) similar to the animated version, where he was a bit of a brat, not only felt way out of character for this version of Mowgli, but also undermined a big emotional scene that occurred right before it.

With the Baloo scenes, while not a problem in terms of being straight from the animated version, was a problem in how they were executed. The former in that instead of easing Mowgli into calming down and starting to trust him, Baloo simply says he has to do something for him, and the latter was executed in such a lazy cliche way, that I had to stop myself from groaning. Both end up hurting the character of Baloo and was another reason why I had trouble fully embracing this version of the character.
Then there are the inclusion of the classic Disney songs, "Bear Necessities", "I Wanna Be Like You" and "Trust In Me" which really feel unnecessarily forced in to tie into the animated version more ("Bare Necessities" and "Trust in Me" less so but that's not saying much). The most unnecessary of the three is Christopher Walken singing "I Wanna Be Like You". Not only is it straight out of left field, but it also undermines the vocal and physical threat that is established for the character (Walken can definitely be effective when he plays it straight, folks. Cowbell, parody, and weirdness jokes aside).

"Trust in Me"'s placement in the ending credits isn't bad as Johansson has a beautiful voice and keeps up that serpentine allure she had when voicing Kaa, but the execution of the song itself, mixed with the background pictures during the end credits, still felt a bit distracting as it came off more like the opening to a James Bond movie than the closing of a Jungle Book movie.
"Bear Necessities" while a little rough in its execution, was not that bad, but simply felt out of place as there was mainly action and drama beforehand with no songs to ease us into it. (Plus. I hate to be that guy but its hard to do a new version of the song when the animated version did it so iconically). Again, if these songs had been removed and the story a little more straightforward, then it would have been a bit more stronger.

Despite these problems, the film really does work effectively, having enough strong story and character elements, action, drama, comedy, editing/pacing, and CGI work to engage the audience emotionally and effectively pull them into the movie. Even better, not only does the film feel like an old fashioned adventure, but it has a nice balance between light and dark and an overall lightness, innocence, and upbeat attitude that makes you feel good leaving the theater and is something that I think is sorely missing from movies lately.
Add this as another positive project to Jon Favreau's directing belt as he definitely has an eye for cultural and nostalgic kind of projects (Iron Man 1 and 2, Chef, Elf, the highly underrated Zathura and Cowboys and Aliens, and finally this one).
I definitely say see it if you haven't already.

Final Rating: 3.4 stars out of 5.

(One last note. I was very happy to finally see a movie where wolves were portrayed as good guys. Thank God!)