‘Captain America: Civil War’

Hell yeah.

Do we really have to wait until November?

  
Dr. Strange and Baron Mordo.

Nuff said.

The ‘Civil War’ Super Bowl trailer

Game over.

Geeks can go to bed early. Here’s the Super Bowl 50 trailer for “Captain America: Civil War.”

Man do thinks look dire – no more so than when Tony narrowly avoids a bullet in the head, courtesy Winter Soldier, by quickly covering his hand in a gauntlet.

The movie asks us to pick a side: Team Cap or Team Iron Man.

I can’t do it. Can you?

The movie opens May 6.

First look: Cumberbatch as Dr. Strange

  
Oh, heck yeah. 

The new EW has this look at Benedict Cumberbatch as Dr. Stephen Strange. 

The “Dr. Strange” movie comes out in November and it looks like Marvel nailed it.

‘Captain America: Civil War’ – pick a side

More-likely-than-not pre-production art for “Captain America: Civil War” hit the web today.

We know that the star-studded movie, due for spring release, pits teams headed by Cap and Iron Man against each other.

Although I bet we’ll see some allegiances change during the movie, the initial lineups are pretty interesting.

Here’s Cap’s team. Hawkeye, Sharon Carter, Falcon (with Redwing above!) and Winter Soldier.

And here’s Tony Stark’s team. War Machine, Black Widow, Black Panther and Vision.

In the shot of Cap’s team, did you notice Ant-Man on Hawkeye’s shoulder?

That means we’ve got to see this.

Marvel wouldn’t tease that and leave us hanging, would they?

Why I won’t be seeing ‘Fantastic Four’

Up until a few days ago, I was considering going to see “Fantastic Four.”

Of course, my interest in the movie was pretty modest compared to my borderline mania to see each movie released by Marvel Studios – the official Marvel Cinematic Universe, of course.

But I was considering going to see the new Josh Trank “FF” anyway because Fantastic Four – along with the Avengers – was my favorite comic book growing up.

I might have gone to see it despite my misgivings about Trank’s efforts to turn Marvel’s most swashbuckling, space-spanning, goofy, good-natured comic into a “grimdark” spectacle.

But reading reviews of the movie turned me off, convincing me that the movie was not only a joyless experience but a throughly bungled one, too.

Trank himself trashed Fox and his own movie on Twitter the other day, saying that he had a good movie in the works before Fox took over and ruined it.

I don’t know who’s responsible for what is, by almost every account, a mess with awful characters, subpar story and effects and bizarre choices. I suspect maybe we’ll get a post-mortem sometime.

(And it’s funny that everyone thought the troubled production of “Ant-Man” was going to turn that movie into a disaster, huh?)

I just know that everything I’ve heard – from the botched storyline, the short shrift for Susan Storm – who doesn’t even go on the adventure, apparently, but gets her powers from an accident afterward – the penis-less Thing and the thoroughly screwed-up version of Doctor Doom – this is not a movie for FF fans from way back.

We’ve seen four movie versions now, not counting the best of them all, the unofficial version of a superhero family, Brad Bird’s “The Incredibles,” and I imagine Fox will still be cranking them out to keep its rights to the story.

And that’s a damn shame. Just think what Marvel Studios could do with FF.

Final thought:

The days of standalone superhero movies that are not part of a bigger universe are over. Sure, I thrilled at the end of “Iron Man” when Nick Fury showed up, talking about “the Avengers initiative.” It meant that if the movie succeeded, critically and financially, Marvel would cautiously build out its universe. The new “FF” movie couldn’t connect to the Marvel Cinematic Universe, of course, because it was made by Fox. But the claustrophobic nature of these narrow, self-contained worlds are done, done, done for me.

I want to see universe building, and, bizarrely enough, the most far-reaching, science-mad, adventuring characters of all, the Fantastic Four, won’t have a chance to build their universe until the rights are back in the hands of Marvel.

‘Ant-Man’ – Yep, it’s the real deal (Spoilers. Duh.)

“Ant-Man?” “Ant-Man?” Ludicrous. Silly. Comic-booky.

Exactly.

Go see it.

It’s late and I’m tired, but some first impressions upon seeing the movie tonight:

Spoilers ahead, more likely than not.

It seems like every new Marvel movie has naysayers convinced – at least in advance – that this will be the one that destroys the studio. We heard that with “Guardians of the Galaxy” last year. We heard it with “Ant-Man” this year.

Nope. Hasn’t happened. Sure won’t happen with “Ant-Man,” which is smaller in scale than some of the Marvel movies but still has high personal stakes for the characters, as well as fun action and character scenes.

Credit scenes, because this is what you want to know: As these things go, the scenes have some heft. The first – in the mid-credits – at least promises a new, female hero. The second sets up the entry of the Ant-Man character into the larger Marvel Cinematic Universe and next spring’s “Captain America: Civil War.”

The final credits scene, however, is foreshadowed somewhat by the extended cameo played by Anthony Mackie’s Falcon character, however. After Falcon intercepts and fights with Paul Rudd’s Scott Lang at the new Avengers facility and Falcon turns up again at the end of the movie, looking for Ant-Man, there’s little surprise to the post-credits scene. Still, it’s pretty cool.

The movie has Easter eggs – more than I could catch – and plot threads for the overall MCU. But the best of those by far is the opening scene, set in 1989, with an uncanny, younger CGI version of Michael Douglas’ character, Hank Pym, the original Ant-Man. Loved this scene  and loved how it filled in some blanks in the Marvel Cinematic Universe as we know it so far.

There’s a surprising amount of comedy in the movie, maybe not really surprisingly. The whimsy makes for some of the best moments in “Ant-Man,” however.

I’ll come back to the movie at a later date, maybe after I see it a second time.

And by the way, here’s my earlier post on why Ant-Man matters to the MCU.

It’s sobberin’ time

And also, apparently, nakeder. And less penis-ier.

You know, Ben Grimm is a tragic character and all, but … damn, man.

In the “Fantastic Four” comics and movies, there’s usually been an attempt to give the characters a consistent look in their costumes. This was done even for Ben Grimm, who turned into the rocky Thing. Benjamin Grimm usually had trunks on – blue to match the costumes of the other members of the FF – and or sometimes had on a whole jumpsuit-type-thing.

In the new movie, which comes out in August, the Thing apparently doesn’t wear any kind of costume.

And he apparently doesn’t … have … a penis.

I was already pretty uncertain about what I thought about the movie.

Now this.

Other people have noted this online, but does the Thing in the movie not eat or drink? Does he have any means at all of eliminating waste?

Is Ben Grimm’s longtime girlfriend, Alicia Masters, in the movie?

Are they going to address all this in the storyline?

Okay, now I’m just depressed.

‘Avengers: Age of Ultron’ has its own Vision

For a while now, I’ve been anticipating that “Avengers: Age of Ultron” would be “The Empire Strikes Back” of the “Avengers” movies and after seeing it tonight, I’m somewhat surprised to say that I was right.

Now keep in mind that “Empire” is my favorite “Star Wars” film and after just one viewing, I’m not sure I can say that “Age of Ultron” is my favorite Marvel movie, or even my favorite “Avengers” movie. It is pretty damn good and director Joss Whedon put everything up on the screen. I was nearly exhausted by the end.

Here are my first impressions of the movie. Spoilers to come after a spoiler warning, because there are so many surprises here that I don’t want to ruin it for anyone who is unspoiled.

Whedon had a tough act to follow not only counting his 2012 original “Avengers” but everything that has come since. That’s because the “Avengers” movies are the tentpoles, the mile markers, of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. “Age of Ultron” caps Phase Two of this universe, a group of movies that included “Iron Man 3” and “Thor: The Dark World” but also “Guardians of the Galaxy” and, best of all, “Captain America: The Winter Soldier.”

Appropriately enough since Cap is the heart of the Avengers team, but “Age of Ultron” – besides setting up a ton of plot lines – feels like a bridge between the very-nearly-peerless “Winter Soldier” and “Captain America: Civil War,” which comes out next summer and will then lead to the two-part finale of Phase Three, “Avengers: Infinity War Part 1” in 2018 and “Infinity War Part 2” in 2019.

Having said that, though, “Age of Ultron” doesn’t feel like just a stepping stone. And the ending is more satisfying, in its own way, than “Empire.”

What keeps “Age of Ultron” from feeling like just another link in the MCU chain is the plot – which wraps up plot lines like Hydra and Loki’s scepter and furthers the story of the Infinity Stones and Thanos, the Mad Titan seen in the end credits of the original – and the ingenuity of this movie’s characters.

As the movie opens, the Avengers – in a post-SHIELD world, since that spy organization was mostly dismantled in “Winter Soldier” – are the peacekeepers. They’re cleaning up messes around the globe – along with the help of some other very recognizable and very welcome Marvel movie characters – and rooting out the last of Hydra, which has been using Loki’s scepter and its Infinity Stone power source to experiment on human beings.

The only survivors of those Nazi-inspired experiments are Pietro and Wanda Maximoff, who in the comics are Quicksilver and the Scarlet Witch, the children of Magneto and mutants, but here are Eastern European twins who have an understandable grudge against Tony Stark.

The two find an ally against the Avengers in Ultron, a sentient android inadvertently created by Stark and science bro Bruce Banner.

As voiced by James Spader, Ultron is the kind of perfectly mad artificial intelligence who decides the only way to save the world is to destroy it.

With an army of robotic surrogates, Ultron causes havoc just at the wrong time for the Avengers. Stark and Banner feel guilty for their role in Ultron’s birth, personal complications rock the core of the team and all the members – Iron Man, Cap and Thor included – are haunted by visions of things to come.

Speaking of which … the Vision.

Just like “The Avengers” was one of my favorite comics, the Vision was one of my favorite characters. The synthetic offspring of Ultron, he was created to destroy the Avengers but, in the comics, becomes their ally. The shifting allegiances might come a little too easily in the movie but they are effective.

And the Vision, as played by Paul Bettany – the voice of Jarvis in previous MCU movies – is the oddest but most perfect addition to the cast. He’s eerie and weird and endearing – in other words, just like in the comics.

“Age of Ultron” is a piece in the sprawling Marvel Cinematic Universe, for certain. But it stands on its own.

And that ending …

Okay, spoilers from here on out.

Ready?

Avengers Assemble ….

To get to the conflicts to come in “Captain America: Civil War” and to reunite the team – and, perhaps, every member of the MCU – for the two-part “Infinity War” movies three and four years from now, “Age of Ultron” had to shake things up. And it does.

Besides the seeds of doubt sewn in the characters here – doubt enough to make Thor split for Asgard and prompt Stark to leave the group – the movie plants so many other seeds for the future. Longtime fans will recognize the moment when Vision rescues Scarlet Witch as a tip to their relationship in the comics, which included marriage, children and madness.

The reintroduction of old friends felt so right. It was a pure pleasure to see characters like James Rhodes (War Machine) and Sam Wilson (Falcon) in action and as part of a new Avengers line-up at the end.

The relationship between Black Widow and Bruce Banner also felt just right .. and its bitter ending felt just like a Joss Whedon relationship moment.

Who’s the happiest Avenger? No doubt it is Clint Barton. In this movie, we find out what Barton does when he leaves his Hawkeye persona behind. It’s heartwarming.

And the big character death? I was expecting maybe someone with a little more history in the MCU than Pietro but I was okay with it. And her brother’s death ensures that Wanda has the proper “push” into joining the team.

I’ll probably have more thoughts after seeing the movie a second time. Suffice it to say, “Age of Ultron” has more than its share of plot complications and hints for the future to bear another pass.

By the way … reports that there is no extra scene after the last of the end credits are true. There is a mid-credits scene, however.

Not that I have to tell you to stick around.

New ‘Fantastic Four’ trailer is out

“Fantastic Four,” along with “The Avengers,” was my favorite comic book when I was a kid.

So I’d like to see Josh Trank’s movie, out this August, get it right.

I’m still just not sure.

The new trailer looks like they’re closer than I would have thought previously to getting Ben Grimm right.

And yes, apparently, they’re following the “Ultimates” version of the story, which means all the characters are younger. Edgier. In some cases, I think that works.

But will they get Doom right? I’m not reassured by this look.

What’s so hard about a genius/madman in a suit of armor?

Here’s the new trailer.