Tag Archives: Marvel comics

Captain Marvel (2019)

Written by Yogeswaran Ganapathy @moviemanyogi

My Ratings: 2.75/5

Captain Marvel Review: A debut hero movie with same MCU formula but with intense final moments which sets up an intriguing future for MCU.

The Basic Plot: The story of an USA pilot Carol Denvers who becomes Captain Marvel.

The opening moments of Captain Marvel give us a look into the latest addition of the Marvel Cinematic universe … Hala which is the home planet of the Kree force. These sequences give you a strong vibe of Asgard in Thor (2011) and Wakanda in Black Panther (2018) . There we have Brie Larson present as a fierce Kree warrior under the team headed by Jude Law. Is she holding more than what meets the eye ??? That forms the rest of the story.

Brie Larson gives a memorable performance as Captain Marvel. I must say that the hate she received for the trailer of the film is totally unjustified and she has made a decent debut as a superhero in the Marvel Cinematic universe.

Samuel L. Jackson steals the show as Nick Fury in the 90’s. He adds a cool swag to the role and easily connects with the audience., specially the scenes he has with Brie Larson are really enjoyable.

The digital de-aging of Nick fury is pretty inconsistent though. It is revealing in some scenes and fabulous in others. 

Ben Mendelsohn and Annette Bening give a justified performance in their given scope.

The direction and screenplay in the film is pretty formulaic . Directors Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck follow the same Marvel debut hero formula with only a few standout moments. The setting of the era of 1990’s could have been exploited more to make the audience have a better connect. And unfortunately the push of women empowerment is shown in a cliched way. We need to understand that women empowerment need not be born ONLY by trying to prove that men are wrong! 

The story is pretty dull. We have a main character, a mentor, a power discovery …. you get it right.

The Marvel problem of antagonist/villians (barring Thanos and Loki) still persists in its 21st film . These characters just come and go along the screen with most performances being pretty forgettable.

The first hour of the movie is bland. It’s a mix of Thor, Black Panther and nothing amusing . The second half brings out the acting range of Brie Larson effectively. The core of the movie lies in the last 15 minutes and solely because it has a great tie in to the Marvel cinematic universe. These moments greatly set up the Marvel universe for the next few movies!!

Many people would argue that captain Marvel is the most overpowered character in the MCU as of now. But in this movie, her powered state is felt to be OVER-powered due to the pretty weak antagonists who fight against her. It is like a Bollywood fight fest between Salman Khan and low level goons in Dabangg! Captain Marvel is rarely shown to be vulnerable which is a huge drawback.

Iron man is a classic example of showing this vulnerability. The character was hurled towards death , was highly vulnerable and then he defied all odds to come out all guns blazing. That made us root for the character. This particular aspect was clearly missing in Captain Marvel.

We really have to appreciate the marketing team of Marvel and the sheer brilliance of the head of MCU Kevin Feige. They have attracted audience to watch a movie pretty well knowing that they are here for the last few moments. The last 10 minutes and especially the mid-credits scene is why most of the people actually came to see the movie. And it’s by far the best Marvel mid- credits scene ever!

Film trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0LHxvxdRnYc

Poster courtesy: www.imdb.com


Deadpool 2 (2018)

Deadpool 2 Review

written by Souranath Banerjee

Deadpool 2 Review: If you like quirky insolently funny kind of comedy blended with extreme gore – this is your game!

My ratings: 4/5

11 years in the making, the first Deadpool film emerged in 2016, Canadian actor Ryan Reynoldspet-project that went on to become an unexpectedly Marvel-ous success of the year! The film was made out of $58 million (only) and went on to collect a whooping $783 deadpool-2million worldwide – the highest grossing Superhero-movie with an
R-rating!
The trailers created such hype and immense fan-following that the producers announced its sequel Deadpool 2 just 3 days before even the first film hit the theaters!

And finally the wait is over, the second installment is hot out of the oven and it is no less inappropriately funny (often to the point of vulgarity), addictively raunchy and disrespectfully sarcastic than the first one. Guaranteed boost in violence, swearings, racist jokes, sexually awkward moments and self-referential super-hero-world wisecracks!

You all better get ready for the lizard-skinned Wade Wilson who managed to gain extraordinary healing powers from an accident and got transformed into this cool superhero Deadpool; and mark my words – this time he is determined to take down all the baddies of the world!

‘You’re no hero. You’re just a clown, dressed up like a sex toy.’ Ouch!

deadpool-2Like any other superhero from either DC or the Marvel universes Deadpool also has certain set of responsibilities (mostly self-imposed though) and by the end of the movie he goes through enough comic sufferings to achieve the impossible (well almost).

But the real question that needs our attention is that this buffoon of a superhero who every now and then breaks the fourth-wall and chat up the audience just to deliver another smart one-liner – will he be able to commit to a dream from a loved one and sacrifice his life if necessary to save an innocent?

Superb comic-timing by Ryan Reynolds – definitely his foul sense of humor is the core of this franchise! Not to forget Colossusdeadpool-2DopinderBlind Al and Deadpool’s girlfriend Vanessa who continued to be at their very best in this sequel too.    

Introduction of director David Leitch (who replaced Tim Miller) and also the introduction of a whole bunch of new characters – the one-eyed villain from the future Cable played by Josh Brolin, the most ‘lucky’ new recruit in the ‘X-Force’ team Domino played by Zazie Beetz and Julian Dennison as the kid who has problems in controlling his superpowers. Awesome cool performances all around! 

And guess who plays the Vanisher? Hint: The same guy was supposed to play Cable – but didn’t. 

deadpool-2Overall a highly entertaining film that turns out to be exactly what it promised to be!

And let’s face it, when grotesquely violent action-sequences (like a guy being shredded into pieces in a huge grinder, another one literally torn into half from his belly, and hundreds of chopped heads and limbs flying around the screen most of the time) make you heartily chuckle, eat your popcorn with a smile and wait for the next gag – then the writers Rhett Reese, Paul Wernick and Ryan Reynolds must have done something right!

Wade Wilson is undoubtedly the funniest superhero in a costume and lucky for us he is kinda immortal, which means never-ending franchises. Wink. Wink.

‘Tell me they got that in slow-motion’ Absolutely hilarious!

P.S: Still wondering about Stan Lee’s cameo – couldn’t find him anywhere in the film!

Similar Interest: Deadpool review

Poster courtesy: www.imdb.com