Magical Mystery Tour: A Look Back at Doctor Strange

There was a time, not so long ago, that a group of people came together to do something truly miraculous; miraculous because what was accomplished had never been done before and has yet to be replicated. This group of people, this committee, was instrumental in creating the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Perhaps more impressively, this committee was responsible for monitoring the narrative through-line and continuity that the MCU is known for, recasting notwithstanding. And for a time, there was peace.

Or so it seemed.

Marvel released its slate of Phase One movies culminating in The Avengers to mostly critical and commercial success. But even as early as Iron Man 2, one could see The Creative Committee’s stranglehold beginning to tighten. The Committee, comprised of Brian Michael Bendis, Alan Fine, Dan Buckley, Joe Quesada, and casual racist Ike Perlmutter, was responsible for offering notes, cutting costs and otherwise acting as a thorn in the sides of various directors in the MCU. As was bound to happen, this power became unwieldy and those that sat at the head did not have the storytellers’ best interests at heart. It’s how we ended up with Don Cheadle replacing Terrance Howard, how star directors like Ava DuVernay, Patty Jenkins, and Edgar Wright walked away from career-defining blockbusters, why Black Widow toys did not exist, and the overall ‘sameness’ of the films in the MCU, especially the origin stories.

At the height of their power, The Committee was almost directly responsible for entirely different take on Captain America: Civil War. It’s been well documented that there was a contingency script in place if Marvel was unable to acquire Spider-Man, but what’s often lost in the media scuffle is that there was also a contingency script if Robert Downey Jr. did not return to the MCU. Downey’s contract was fulfilled after Iron Man 3, making his continuing run in the MCU hazy. The Committee dug in their heels and for what seemed like an eternity, refused to offer Downey more money to return and were content with Civil War ending in a fight with an army of rage zombies. Whether or not he deserved the raise is open to interpretation, but the fact remained that the MCU owes its existence to that charismatic sonuva-bitch.

"You're Welcome." - Downey, probably.

The story goes that while Downey did eventually agree to come back, super-producer Kevin Feige was so frustrated by the micromanaging on the budget of Civil War that he threatened to walk if not granted autonomy. Thus, The Committee was stripped of its power over the film side of Marvel, and Feige, producer Luis D’Esposito, and producer Victoria Alonso were placed in charge. While a new day was dawning at Marvel, there was no escaping the collateral damage. Civil War managed to make it to theaters relatively unscathed, but Marvel’s next film, Doctor Strange, did not fair nearly as well as its predecessor. Although Doctor Strange makes some interesting choices narratively and visually, one can’t shake the feeling that we have already seen this movie a dozen times over.

Oh, and if you’re upset that I spent a good portion of this post explaining the motivations of a sinister committee instead of focusing on the actual topic at hand, congratulations! You are no longer allowed to be mad at Star Wars: The Last Jedi for doing that exact thing with Snoke.

Seriously, nobody cares.

What Works

Visual Language

Right from the very beginning, director Scott Derrickson set out to “change the visual language of magic.” Derrickson has pointed out on numerous occasions that ever since The Emperor shot lightning out of his fingertips, all of cinema decided: “Well, we can’t do any better than that! That’s it for magic! Cut and print!” Nearly every film featuring magic has the good guy and the bad guy throwing different colored lightning at each other until one of them is dead. Even the Harry Potter series, which I adore (Hufflepuff for life!) amounted to Harry and Voldemort blasting each other with colorful strobe lights. 

"I'm pointing my wand as hard as I can!" - Voldemort

While still employing the luminescence associated with magic, what Derrickson was able to do is make the magical world a bit more tactile and a bit more spiritual. Take a look at something as simple as portals. A spell that any seventh-year can accomplish in the Potterverse requires intense concentration and calming of the soul in Kamar-Taj. 

Throw in a little threat of bodily harm for good measure.

The whole point is that you can’t simply swish and flick your way into becoming a great sorcerer, ‘Arry. Instead, your body, mind, and spirit all have to be in unison in order to cast even the simplest of spells.

And speaking of visual language, I cannot express how much I loved the magical mystery tour that the Ancient One sends Strange on. It’s like the filmmakers were able to tap directly into Steve Ditko’s LSD-riddled mind in order to show us something that we haven’t gotten in a Marvel movie before: imagery that will haunt nightmares for years to come.

Like asking Harvey Weinstein for a part in his movie.

And I can’t talk about Doctor Strange without mentioning those Inception-style environmental manipulations. 

You know the ones.

To write these visuals off as an Inception rip-off is a disservice to both films. When Nolan made Inception, I’m sure he thought “No one will be able to top that!” just as I’m sure Derrickson did a bump of coke, watched the movie through a kaleidoscope and replied “Oh yeah?!?!” and proceeded with an attempt to BLOW THE AUDIENCE’S FUCKING MINDS. It’s hard to keep track of everything happening during this sequence, but that didn’t stop the filmmakers from doubling down on the chaotic impacts of fucking around with Natural Law.

Just every drug.

GHOOOOOOST FIIIIIIIGHT

Doctor Strange absolutely delivers on the weird and twisted action that I was expecting from this film and offers something different from what we’ve seen before. The aforementioned ghoooost fiiiiiight is evidence enough that they’re at least attempting something new, as the Sorcerer and the Zealot slam into each other in the astral plain and have some fairly amusing effects on our physical world. Take a look!

I am rather fond of that ghooooost fiiiiiight, but I would be remiss if I did not discuss the Rewind Fight in the third act. While our characters move forward in time, all of the destruction is being reversed, giving an added layer of depth to the action and acts as a twist on the “DESTROY EVERYTHING!” mentality that most action movies go for. Also, pay close attention to Michael Giacchino’s score, which is made to sound as if it is moving backwards as well:

Then, in a move never before seen in the MCU, our hero elects to OUT SMART Dormammu in what may have turned into the most meme-able scene in the film. The MCU is a universe full of geniuses from Stark to Banner to Shuri, and yet Strange has been the only hero clever enough thus far to claim victory without punching his way to freedom. The notion that Strange can irritate Dormammu into submission is one of the more interesting moves that the film makes:

Doctor Strange continues to raise the bar for action in terms of creativity for the MCU. However, the big question now is how much the MCU will continue to rely on the Time Stone. If the Doc can simply reset the clock, is there any actual weight to the arrival of Thanos? I suppose time will tell (GET IT?!?!).

A Strange Journey

I gotta give Bicklebrack Cuddlegrahm his due; he really does a great job as Strange. The frustration and pitifulness that he brings to the role… you can just feel it, you know? Every time they shoot a close-up of his trembling hands, you can tell that he is in both physical and emotional pain from losing his identity as a surgeon. Which is great as an audience member, because Stephen Strange is an irredeemable asshole. He’s cold, he’s arrogant, and he’s just so fucking mean to Regina George.

"You can't sit with us!"

And I eat that shit up. We haven’t had a character who spends most of his origin film just being an unlikable prick to everyone around him. Some people compared him to Tony Stark, but I feel like I would be hard pressed to find a person who wouldn’t grab a drink with Stark. A drink with Strange would most likely end in a trip to the hospital.

"I don't know, officer, he just tried to tackle my car."

What’s more is that he doesn’t really redeem himself by the end. He apologizes to Regina, but it doesn’t make them magically happy again. He surrenders himself to dying over and over again, but since he’s in a time-loop he can’t actually die, and he’s still an arrogant bastard by the end of the movie. It’s the best; I like that the character doesn’t do a complete 180 degree turn over the course of a single movie. Yet, he has his one moment of humanity in which you completely understand what his character is about. Right after the ghooooost fiiiiight, Strange checks the pulse of the man that he just killed. The scene immediately following this is him facing the fact that he, a doctor sworn to do no harm, took the life of another. This is bolstered by the earlier mention that Strange has a perfect record as a surgeon; the man that has never lost a patient now has to cope with the fact that he straight up ghooooost muuuuurderrrrred another human being. While I think this could have been handled a bit more gracefully in the movie, the idea that Strange is so unwilling to take a life is an interesting dynamic which I hope plays significantly into Infinity War.

What Doesn’t

Show Me, Damn It!

If I’m remembering my filmography correctly, this should be the last time that I have to include this fucking section in one of these things. There’s nothing inherently bad about exposition; I understand why exposition exists. The filmmakers need a way to bring the audience up-to-speed, explain how the world works, and cover a lot of ground in a short amount of time. But if you’re going to include pages and pages regarding the explanations of relics, dark dimensions, and the motives of the villain, you gotta take the time to make this shit interesting. Otherwise, it feels like you’re reading from an instruction manual for a toaster.

"And then after you put the bread inside the toaster,
you set the dial to 3; medium brown." - Mordo, probably.

 For a film where we can watch a magical cape beat somebody into submission, it’s disappointing that I was so bored for a good chunk of it. Nothing takes me out of a movie quicker than a character explaining why they are the way they are. There is a scene in the movie where Strange literally says: “I have a photographic memory. That’s how I got my M.D. and Ph.D at the same time.” Cool, glad we got that completely unnecessary line shoehorned into a scene instead of ACTUALLY SHOWING THE AUDIENCE HOW HIS BRAIN PROCESSES INFORMATION. I feel like the filmmakers left that in as a placeholder and thought “oh, we’ll come back to that later,” and then just never came back to it later. This narrative device in the MCU has been a major gripe of mine since at least Guardians of the Galaxy, and I am unspeakably grateful that Marvel has seemingly been able to course-correct after the expulsion of The Committee.

The Lame-Ass Villain

Can I just do Black Panther already? I would love to write about a villain with an actual arc and 

character development.

SOON...

*Sigh*. Alright. Kaecilius. Mads Mikkelsen famously passed on portraying Malekith in Thor: The Dark World due to ‘scheduling conflicts.’ After that movie was released, a great deal was made regarding how Mikkelsen dodged a bullet as The Dark World was widely panned and Malekith was added to the list of forgettable Marvel villains. But oh, Mads. You should have known that the bullet was coming for you. Kaecilius is little more than Ronan from Guardians BUT WITH MAGIC! As far as religious zealots go, Mikkelsen gives a serviceable performance with what he is given, but it still isn’t enough to elevate Kaecilius to anything remotely resembling memorable. Like Yellowjacket, I wish that there was more that I could say about him, but I feel like I’m grasping at straws. His eyes have that weird purple thing? That’s cool I guess?

I mean that ponytail is...... uggghhhh.

The White Washing of it All

I don’t know what it is to be discriminated against. While I’m Hispanic and consider myself as such, I understand that I am one trucker-hat away from looking like one o’ dem good ol’ boys down in Louisiana. I have never been passed up on a job because of my last name, I have never been unfairly pulled over at a traffic stop, and I have grown up seeing myself on the big screen time and time again.

How I see myself. I'm so goddamn pretty.

All of this to say that I don’t have the same experiences or understanding of discrimination that some of you reading this face on a daily basis. When Tilda Swinton was cast as The Ancient One, I was excited that an Academy Award winning actress was lending her clout to a mystical Marvel movie. It didn’t bother me; I’ve always argued that the role should go to the best person for the story (I know, my privilege is showing). And I think that Swinton gives a great performance in the role. She’s charming and funny when it’s called for, but measured and terrifying when she has to be. But the more I read and the more I heard, the more I started understanding and becoming aware of representation (or lack thereof) and why it was such a big deal to not have an Asian actor or actress cast in the role. To hear Derrickson describe it, he felt like he was given an impossible choice. He wanted to avoid the stereotype of the ‘wise Asian man on the hill,’ and also wanted to avoid the ‘Dragon Lady’ stereotype that he believed would come from casting an Asian woman.

I sat around with this information for a long time as I tried to figure out how I felt about it, and what I ultimately arrived at was this: If the script is not strong enough to avoid a stereotype, you need to take the time, money, and energy to write a better script. I understand Derrickson’s feelings on the matter, and I don’t think he was intending to be racially insensitive, but I do think that if Doctor Strange had a better script, it could have been a little bit easier to navigate these waters. Poor writing is not an excuse for casual racism.

Final Thoughts

Doctor Strange currently has an 86% ‘Fresh’ Audience Score on Rotten Tomatoes, yet, I have only ever talked to one person who considers Doctor Strange their favorite MCU movie. By and large, when I ask people about Strange, it’s met with an indifferent shrug and a ‘Yeah, it was okay.’ Think about how sad that is for a minute. Strange introduced the audience to entirely new concepts, visuals, and realms within the MCU, and yet couldn’t differentiate itself enough from what came before to leave a lasting impact. I don’t know how much of that comes from Derrickson and how much came from The Committee, but it’s discouraging that a movie in which we are shown an entirely new form of magic comes off as embarrassingly bland. As for me personally, I think that Doctor Strange is a fine enough entry into the canon, but if Marvel decided to never make another movie starring the Sorcerer Supreme, I wouldn’t lose sleep over it. I like Strange’s turn in Thor: Ragnarok and I’m hoping his pair-ups in Infinity War make for some entertaining scenes, but I don’t need to see his continuing adventures. Like Hulk and Hawkeye, maybe this wizard is better off as a supporting character. Regardless, as far as good times go, you can do worse than a magical trip with the good doctor.

So where does Doctor Strange rank in my list of MCU Films?

  1. Captain America: The Winter Soldier

  2. The Avengers

  3. Captain America: Civil War
  4. Iron Man 3

  5. Iron Man

  6. Guardians of the Galaxy

  7. Captain America: The First Avenger

  8. Avengers: Age of Ultron

  9. Thor

10. Thor: The Dark World
11. Doctor Strange
12. Ant-Man

13. Iron Man 2

14. The Incredible Hulk

End

Okay, back on track! Now I get to start working on Marvel's undeniable winning streak! Tune in next week for a look at Guardians of the Galaxy: Vol. 2! In the meantime, if you like what I’m writing, please like, comment, and share these lil’ guys. They love to be read! I’m now on the tweeties @TheJamesBrock and on Instagram… also thejamesbrock. Still no idea of how these things work. Until next time...

Be kind to each other.

-James

Conflict: A Look Back at Captain America: Civil War

Captain America: Civil War is the movie that I was least excited to revisit. When I saw the movie for the first time, I remember being blown away by the sheer magnitude of pulling off a Civil War storyline that was both effective and vastly different from the comics. But when I saw it the second time, there was a shift. The second group of people I saw it with didn’t like it nearly as much as I did, and the theater was noticeably more quite than during my first viewing. Then I remember reading the opinions of others, most recurrently featuring the same handful of gripes but… I don’t know. My perception of this movie had been altered. The more I dug and the more I read, the more I doubted my own opinion of the film. I was in unfamiliar territory. I mean, I’m the guy that can defend 2003’s Daredevil starring Ben Affleck, but I can’t form a coherent thought on Captain America: Civil War?

What am I becoming?!?!

Looking back, I think it was input overload: I was reading so many other thoughts about the movie that my own were simply lost in the noise.

When I do one of these things, I’m pretty consistent with my process. I watch the movie alone, sit with it for a few hours or a few days (depending on the day of the week), then write until I think I’m clever. It’s why I churn out so few of these things; my opinion of myself is pretty low. This time I tried something a little different. My wife, who had no recollection of this movie, wanted to re-watch it with me to brush up on the lore before Avengers: Infinity War. It doesn’t sound like it would make much of a difference, but I promise you, it did. We got to be two people watching the movie again for what felt like the first time, and just like before, I felt blown away by the intricacy, intimacy, and character work that directors Joe and Anthony Russo were able to imbue in this film, even if it doesn’t hold the same weight as some of the other Marvel films.

Plus, I got to talk about Civil War for a good 45 minutes with a person who is contractually obligated to love me ‘till death do us part. Too late to take it back now, sweetheart.

What Works

The Characters

Serving as Captain America 3, Iron Man 4, Avengers 2.5, the introduction of Black Panther (which OMFG HE’S HERE!!!), and the introduction of Spider-Man (which OMFG HE’S COME HOME!!!), Captain America: Civil War had a lot of heavy lifting to do. Mostly, it succeeds. Tracking each character’s arc through this movie seems like it should be a convoluted mess (looking at you Batman v. Superman) but the Russo’s are able to make a relatively comprehensible movie. Anchoring the flick, you have Steve Rogers; a man out of time who just lost one of the final connections he had to the life that he used to know. To his left, you have Tony Stark; a man who is, perhaps for the first time, feeling insurmountable guilt at how many lay dead in his wake.

Tony's Fault! Tony's Fault!

Putting these two on uneven footing right at the beginning of the movie made them all the easier to manipulate (which we’ll get to in a minute). The two are led on a magical journey full of heartbreak and betrayal until finally coming to blows in a Super Smash Bros. stage.

Final Destination, No Items

During the final fight between the two, the audience can feel the frustration and angst behind every punch… have you even been in a fist fight with a sibling? Not that play fighting shit where someone accidentally gets hurt and you make them promise not to tell mom. I mean that gloves off, hardcore fighting to the death where every strike is a ‘fuck you’ for every imagined slight they’ve lobbied against you since birth. That’s what you feel between Cap and Iron Man by the end of this movie. They don’t want to kill each other, they just really want to make each other hurt, maybe knock out a couple of permanent teeth. Even down to Tony’s final venomous jab proclaiming that the shield doesn’t belong to Steve is designed specifically to cut down to the bone. Watching their arc unfold is fascinating, and if the character development had stopped there, it probably would have been enough to carry the whole movie.

But it didn’t stop there.

Wanda AKA Scarlet Witch AKA the Fat Olsen had a fairly tragic arc herself. As a new recruit, she was directly responsible for a handful of Wakandans getting exploded. If the guilt she felt wasn’t bad enough, she was essentially imprisoned in the compound on Tony’s orders being watched by Vision; the one person that she thought understood her. Watching her evolve from uncertain child to owning her shit and proclaiming “This is who I am!” as she increases Vision’s density until he looks like Magic Mike reject is fantastic to watch over the course of the film.

Touching is extra, ladies.

And if the character development had stopped there, it probably would have been enough to carry the whole movie.

But it didn’t stop there.

T’Challa AKA Black Panter AKA Mr. Steal Yo’ Girl is driven by revenge brought on by the death of his father. He’s literally a Revenger. His entire arc is driven by his unquenchable thirst for the blood of his enemies, yet by the end of the movie HE SAVES THE BAD GUY TO NOT BE CONSUMED BY REVENGE!!!

This Bitch

Sorry, I get more than a little excited talking about character development; mostly because it seems to be a concept too often ignored by major blockbusters. The point I’m making is that aside from Hawkeye, Ant-Man, and Spider-Man, you can trace any character’s motivations from beginning to end and have it make sense. It makes me excited that the Russo’s next film is, you guessed it, Avengers: Infinity War. If they can focus on the intentions of the cavalcade of characters in that film as much as they did in Civil War, we are going to be in for something truly special.

Special shout out to Scarlet Johansson, who was not terrible in this movie. Maybe fifth time was the charm for her, but it finally feels like she is comfortable with her character. She was, dare I say, almost charming?

Almost.

The Action

When a man can throw a motorcycle and stop a helicopter from taking off, you expect a punch from him to lay you the fuck out. This movie, like Winter Soldier before it, does a good job at reminding the audience that the people going toe-to-toe with each other are demigods, trained assassins, and a literal purple Jesus.

Blood rushing from head... can't formulate joke...

While it’s just a cool thing to watch, the brutality of these hits also serves to remind the audience that despite all of their power, most of these people are still human. They can bleed, they can die (you know, maybe one day) and they can become injured beyond repair, unless they have another movie in their contract.

Walk it off, buddy!

Tying back into the previous section a bit, I also love what the action does for the characters psyche. In big budget movies such as this, you get fights that don’t go much further than ‘kill or be killed.’ Even in this Universe that I love so much and would do unspeakable things to/for, a lot of the action has been centered around “Hey you better go kill da guy or da guy’s gonna kill us.” And that’s all well and good, but it gets old after a minute. If you have a bunch of explosions with no discernable depth, well that’s a Michael Bay movie, my friends; beautiful yet vapid. As mentioned above, this movie does just a swell job  of ensuring that every character has emotional baggage going into the action, ensuring that our characters are feeling the full weight of the punches both physically and spiritually.

EMOTION!!!

The Badass Villain

If there was ever a face to put on the repercussions of the Avenger’s ‘victories,’ it would be the face of Helmut Zemo. Daniel Brül as Zemo tends to be overlooked, if not overwhelmingly forgotten, due in no small part to the fact that the title fight between our heroes is what audience showed up for. But when you take a step back and see what this man was actually able to accomplish, Zemo easily becomes one of the most terrifying and effective villains in the MCU. Zemo, a former Sokovian black-ops agent, is on a quest to abolish the Avengers in a way to ensure they remain abolished. Zemo is cold, calculating, and, most importantly, fractures the Avengers without throwing a single punch. Our heroes are torn asunder by his relentless quest for revenge.

Though I'm kinda bummed he didn't wear the costume.

People often like to complain that Zemo’s plan is reliant entirely on coincidence and one would have to take many leaps of logic in order to make sense of it. To those people, I would say that it is a lot easier to watch the movie without their heads up their own assess. There are better looking hats out there. I get that the notion of Rogers and Stark showing up to the Soviet base at the same time as the crux of his evil plan is more than a little coincidental, but I argue that this was never part of his plan. Look, the whole bombing the UN, tracking down and interrogating Bucky thing was all due to one asshole HYDRA agent that wouldn’t give Zemo what he wanted. And Zemo says as much during that interrogation scene! The fact that they show up at the same time simply saved Zemo the trouble of uploading the video to YouTube and calling it a day.

"Uh, hey! It's the uh, Captain Spangley versus the Tin Man!"
- The Grandmaster, probably.

Regardless of what you think of his plan, coincidence is not an inherently bad storytelling device. If it were, Heath Ledger’s Joker would be seen as the worst villain in franchise history for the crazy amount of luck he would need to break out of jail. At the end of the day, Zemo was able to do something that countless other forgettable villains weren’t: end the Avengers.

Bait and Switch

The strength of Marvel post-Avengers has been to subvert expectations in order to keep the audience guessing. The idea of betraying the audience continues with Civil War. The story starts with a thoughtful look at government oversight vs. personal agency, with the Avengers split roughly down the middle. When Bucky is brought into the fold, he acts as a catalyst for both sides to be like:  “See?! This is why I’m right, assgoblin!” Like Ant-Man before it, Civil War trusts that the audience is ready for a more intimate story between our heroes and, while set in the shadow of the Sokovia Accords, believes in bringing everything to a more personal, grounded level.

If these two don't make out in Infinity War I'm going to lose my shit.

But the fun doesn’t stop there. After Bucky comes back from his murder-bot rampage (or Batmanning as I will now call it), he tells the quaint little story of a special batch of killer agents injected with the super soldier serum that will help Zemo take down an empire. The movie mostly sets up that the final act of the film will be our heroes fighting for their lives against a highly trained stunt team in order to save the world. Then *gasp* we realize, this isn’t the case!

"They knew we were coming to kill them! They can anticipate our every move!"
-Steve, probably

In this age of information and leaks, it’s so refreshing to be surprised by a film, especially a film that I think I’ve seen a dozen times before.

Like with Avengers: Age of Ultron, there is a lot to dissect and a lot more I can add. In fact, I thought about just writing an entire 18-page rant on Black Panther and Spider-Man. However, they have their own movies coming up and we are inching ever closer to that Infinity War release date, so let’s go ahead and jump to totally fair and balanced complaints.

What Doesn’t

Required Viewing

Captain America: Civil War is a movie that cannot exist without the rest of the MCU. I certainly don’t mind it, and I’m sure people like me feel rewarded when we have our very own Captain America ‘I understood that reference!’ moment. It’s enriches the world to see everything interwoven, and is kind of the whole point of having an interconnected universe in the first place. But while someone like me may think that it’s a super cool thing to hear Cap say ‘I can do this all day,’ more casual viewers like my folks are too distracted asking me who that purple guy is, if that’s an Olsen twin, and how has the arrow guy not been killed yet to appreciate the complex details of the character work.

A question for the ages. I got 10 bucks says he slips in the tub.

I’m all for expanding this universe, but in order for this movie to make sense, you have to watch at least one Captain America movie, two Iron Man movies, both Avengers and an Ant-Man just to have some semblance of who these characters are. Six movies may be a little much for the casual viewer.

Great Personality

Like your significant other’s third best friend, this movie is fucking ugly. And if an image of someone you know flashed into your mind, you’re the bad person; not me. Back in Captain America: Winter Soldier, the Russo’s adopted a more grounded, earthy color palette for the grittier direction in which they were taking the character. While that palette works for characters like Cap, Widow, and Winter Soldier, having other characters in the universe conform to that scheme is grossly misguided and leads to underwhelming visuals. The airport scene gets a lot of credit for meticulously positioning and balancing all of the characters on the battle field, but it is done no favors by having the same color scheme as a bowl of Frosted Mini-Wheats. The background is grey and white, Cap’s costume is washed out, Panther doesn’t have his purple yet, Hawkeye is in all black. Even the reds with Scarlet Witch and Ant-Man don’t pop like they should, especially after Ant-Man grows to the size of a damn airplane. I mean guys, VISION is a PURPLE AND YELLOW ANDROID that somehow manages to get lost in the scenery!

I've taken Trumps dumps more vibrant than you!!!

I know he’s British but shit, give him a little bit of flavor. Spidey is the only character with any sort of brightness to him, and I can’t help but wonder if that was part of the deal with Sony; that he can come over and play, but he has to be the best looking kid there. It doesn’t seem like a huge misstep, but when you look at the Jack Kirby-ness of the films that follow this one, it’s a little disappointing that Civil War seems too self-conscious to want to be a comic book movie.

Final Thoughts

What are my final thoughts on this movie? This is a question that I’ve been asking myself since Civil War came out and has been ringing louder in my head for the last two weeks. I’m obviously impressed with the character work and what the Russo’s were able to achieve… but something just feels off about it. I think maybe part of it has to do with why this movie exists. When viewed through that lens, I keep coming back to the idea that this movie was made solely to set up Infinity War. There’s no resolution at the end, no vanquishing of some villain, no cataclysmic event; the lone purpose of its being is to communicate that The Avengers are splitting up and will have to reunite to fight Thanos. They took some interesting twists and turns along the way to get here, but Civil War can’t shake being a placeholder flick in the MCU.

But I had such a good time with this movie! The action, the characters, the intricacy. Maybe I’m having difficulty reconciling my conflicting viewpoints here. Like, maybe Captain America: Civil War is a pint of ice cream: there exists no nutritional reason to consume this but goddamn if I’m not going to enjoy eating the whole thing in one sitting. Civil War maybe be empty calories, but it is a damn good time.

So where does Captain America: Civil War rank in my list of MCU Films?

  1. Captain America: The Winter Soldier

  2. The Avengers

  3. Captain America: Civil War
  4. Iron Man 3

  5. Iron Man

  6. Guardians of the Galaxy

  7. Captain America: The First Avenger

  8. Avengers: Age of Ultron

  9. Thor: The Dark World

10. Thor
11. Ant-Man

12. Iron Man 2

13. The Incredible Hulk

Huh, so that's what I think of it.

End

Well, now I’m behind. YAY! Fortunately, the next movie I’m looking at is as rudimentary as Marvel Movies come. Tune in… soon… for a look at Doctor Strange. In the meantime, if you like what I’m writing, please comment or share these lil’ guys. They love to be read! I’m now on the tweeties @TheJamesBrock and on Instagram… also thejamesbrock. To answer your question: no, I have no idea how to use either social media outlet.

Be kind to each other.

-James

Why Bother?: A Look Back at Ant-Man

(In the voice of Sam Elliot) Have you heard the tale of the beginning of the Marvel Cinematic Universe? Legend says that Ant-Man is the genesis of the studio as we know it. The story goes that in 2006, a young Edgar Wright approached by Marvel to make a movie starring the Astonishing Ant-Man. After shopping the idea around to a few different studios, it was clear that nobody in Hollywood really understood what an action movie involving a shrinking man could be, so Marvel set out to make their own studio, with blackjack and hookers. Years go by, Marvel becomes a household name, and Ant-Man (aside from some test footage in 2012) is all but forgotten. Then in December, 2013, it was announced that production on Ant-Man would finally be underway starring Paul Rudd as Scott Lang and Michael Douglas as Hank Pym. Wright, coming off of Scott Pilgrim vs. The World and The World’s End, and Rudd, most commonly known for his comedic performances, were destined to make something altogether different than what we had come to expect from the MCU.

"No, I promise! They're not holding me against my will! Hehehe...help me!"

Then in May, 2014, disaster struck. Wright, the man who had been attached to the film for eight years, left the project citing "differences in the vision" of the film. Cruelest of ironies, that the man with the ideas responsible for allegedly jumpstarting the studio was no longer welcome in the Marvel Club House. And that’s when Ant-Man devolved into a movie by committee. Peyton Reed was brought on to direct, Paul Rudd and Chris McKay joined forces to take another pass at the script, and the Marvel Creative Committee continued their meddling, unobstructed and unopposed (more on them later, I promise). Instead of the truly special film that we were promised, we get a homogenized origin story that probably would have felt right at home in 2006. In 2015, however, Ant-Man, became known as a mostly forgettable entry into the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

No, Ant-Man. Everything is not alright.

What They Did Right

The Smaller Scale

I’m so sorry if that came off as a pun; that was not my intention (or was it?). To say the story of Ant-Man is unique would be a gross misrepresentation of the movie. The plot is mostly generic, especially to compared to its contemporaries. However, Ant-Man gets points for taking a few steps back and shifting the stakes from ‘global turmoil’ to a much more intimate setting. Let's recap: since The Avengers, we have had a story about saving the world from a terrorist with an army of flying armor, a story about saving the nine realms from ancient aliens, a story about saving the world from a bunch of floating battle ships, a story about saving the galaxy from a zealot, and a story about saving the world from an army of robots and a fucking meteor. It was nice to revisit a time when your biggest concern was your arch enemy threatening to kill a loved one.

Pictured: A simpler time.

The reason Ant-Man works as well as it does is because it doesn’t try to raise the stakes to a level higher than the 'global extinction' stakes of Age of Ultron. While I don't mean to trivialize, the crux of the story is Lang trying to hang out with his daughter, stopping a weapons dealer from selling weapons, seeing what shenanigans he can get into along the way. The point isn’t that the story means less because we aren’t on the brink of catastrophe. I don’t necessarily means more either, but I feel like there was a realization with this movie that the threat level didn’t have to be constantly raised to ridiculous levels in order for the audience to care. Stop focusing on one-upping yourselves and just give us something we haven’t seen before. Which leads me to…

The Set Pieces

Before we get into the actual fights, I'd like to give a shout-out to the shrinking animations. Showing the faded-out after-images is something that, as a comic book fan, makes me squeal like a stuck pig. Now onto the action. Again, this movie was less about “how do we top the last one” and more about “what can we do that's fucking crazy?!” The fight sequences between Ant-Man and Yellowjacket are some of my favorites in the MCU for how clever they are. Granted, the fight in the helicopter is pretty standard fare, but once they get into the suitcase, it’s an entirely different movie. From Lifesavers the size of elephants to the epic bass of The Cure’s Disintegration, the movie takes on a new life. Take a look!

Then there’s the bedroom scene in which Thomas the Tank becomes the gift that just keeps on giving. It’s great that the fate of our heroes comes down to a fight in a little girl’s bedroom. Take a look!

The Captain America movies get a lot of credit for that fast-paced, ground level action, but the stuff in Ant-Man is incredibly zany and something that remains unmatched in the world of comic book movies. Had the tone in the bedroom fight been carried out through the rest of the movie, I think Ant-Man would have been much better flick from beginning to end.

Michael Peña

Of all of the missteps that this movie makes, the casting of Michael Peña in the role of Luis is not one of them; he's just the best. I want a version of this movie where everyone is replaced with Michael Peña and we get two hours of Michael Peña telling super elaborate stories to the other Michael Peñas he comes in contact with.

COMING SOON TO A THEATER NEAR YOU!

His recaps are easily the best sequences in the movie and one of the most interesting ways to deliver exposition. We all know a guy that embellishes and rambles for no discernible reason. Shit, I'm a guy that embellishes and rambles for no discernible reason. Though people like to single out Luis’s role as the comic relief, I prefer to focus on his optimism. Luis is introduced to the audience as a guy who has suffered so much loss and heartbreak over the three years Scott Lang was in prison. Luis tells us that his girl left him, his mom died, and his dad got deported. Yet despite all of this tragedy, Luis excitedly tells us:  “But I got to keep the van!” This is the true hero of the story; the man that has lost everything but still manages to take pleasure in the simple joys of life. As I look out the window and stare down at an increasingly unfamiliar world, it’s important to remember that, like Luis, we all get to keep the van in our own way.  Luis is not the hero we deserve, but he’s the one we need right now.

What They Did Wrong

The Lame Villain

The villain in the movie is Darren Cross, AKA Yellowjacket. I’m sure that most of you reading this didn't remember that at all. Don’t bother learning it; he’s not around for very long and this won’t be on the test. In the great Marvel tradition of terrible antagonists, Cross is nothing more than a slightly off-kilter disposable villain with muddled motivations. His story starts out interesting enough:  the man is a dejected protégé of Hank Pym and wants to take over his company to prove that he was a worthy successor to the famed scientist. Great, with him so far. Then you add in blink-and-you-miss references to the idea that Cross is being driven more insane by constant exposure to the Pym particle. Cool, off-balanced, check. And now he… has intimate knowledge of Scott Lang and decides to use the Yellowjacket suit to threaten his daughter instead of killing off a wounded Hank Pym for… reasons?

"I don't know what I'm doing here either." - Corey Stoll, probably.

Re-watching Ant-Man, it feels like there is a big chunk of this movie missing that would have shed some light onto Cross’s character (and let’s be honest, add some much needed depth to the rest of the characters). Corey Stoll is immensely charismatic in the role and pulls off ‘unsettling’ like nobody’s business, which makes it all the more frustrating that they couldn’t make Cross a more compelling character. Instead of spending time with or learning about him, I feel like the creative team was just like “Shave his head, make him a businessman, put him in a grey suit. Did we make Iron Man again yet? No? Cool. Cut and print.”

Tepid Americano

I have a friend that worked in a coffee shop in Seattle for a long time. As you can probably imagine, Seattleites are very particular about their coffee and my friend received many a strange order; the most interesting and perplexing of which was what would be forever referred to as the ‘tepid Americano.’ An Americano, for those who don’t know, is simply espresso and hot water that coffee shops charge you way too much money for. Normally, people will get Americanos hot, or they will get Americanos iced. Pretty standard ordering procedure. The person that orders a tepid Americano? That person is on the FBI watch list, guaranteed. That’s some serial killer shit. The guy that orders a tepid Americano is probably the guy that has to say is mom’s name out loud before cumming and spends the next hour staring in the bathroom mirror screaming “WHY ARE YOU LIKE THIS?!” The girl who orders the tepid Americano gets off on the guy’s screaming. Ordering a tepid Americano communicates to your barista and anyone that overheard your order that you are directly in the center of a shitty day in your shitty life and you want to drink shitty coffee because you can’t bat away your indifference long enough to enjoy a single simple pleasure the world has to offer. You are the anti-Luis. Why even bother at that point? Just cut your losses, try not to kill anyone on your way home, go to sleep early, and pray to any god that will listen to have better luck tomorrow.

Now imagine all the things I just described being performed by Eeyore.
You're welcome.

The general indifference associated with ordering the tepid Americano is the same sort of ‘why bother’ attitude that the filmmakers employed in writing these characters. Say what you will about previous scripts (I have), the strength of any movie in the MCU is the defining traits of their heroes. Tony Stark is the sarcastic one, Steve Rogers is endearingly earnest, Natasha Romanoff is manipulative. Everybody has their thing. What is Scott Lang’s thing? He has a daughter and he does crime sometimes. The two things that you can point out about Lang’s personality are traits of circumstance; there is nothing inherent about his character. I mean, it's pretty telling that we care more about the CGI ants than we do the actual hero.

*sniff* I'll never forget you, Antony. *sniff* Only dreams now.

What makes it even more disappointing is that Rudd is one of the most lovable actors working right now; just seeing his face on screen gives you that same warm feeling inside that you get while watching videos of puppies playing with each other.

DAAAAAWWWW!!!!!!!

None of that shines through in this performance and we have to wait until Lang’s turn in Civil War before we get any sort of sense of who he is and what he can be.

But wait, the collateral damage of the tepid Americano doesn’t stop at Lang’s story! In nearly every scene, you get the same undercurrent of apathy.

Cross:  “I’m mad that you never admitted to being Ant-Man.”

Pym: “I was Ant-Man.”

Cross: “You finally admit it!”

And scene.

Pym: “Hope’s mom died in a plane crash.”

Hope: “She didn’t die in a plane crash.”

Pym: “She didn’t die in a plane crash.”

Hope: “You finally admit it!”

And scene. The further I get away from the release of this movie, the more tepid this Americano becomes. I had a moment while re-watching the film in which I asked myself why Marvel decided to release this movie. While the movie itself isn’t bad enough to be offensive, it certainly isn’t good enough to be meaningful or memorable. I guess it’s exactly what it needed to be in the moment:  a mediocre shot of caffeine to help get us through the day until we could find better coffee elsewhere. It’s just a shame; Ant-Man could have been so much more.

Final Thoughts

I wish that I could say more about Ant-Man, but this really is a nothing movie. Wedged between Avengers: Age of Ultron and Captain America: Civil War, Ant-Man serves as an unmemorable palate cleanser flanked by two incredibly flavorful entrees. With as tumultuous as the production of this film was, I suppose I should be happy that the film turned out as well as it did, but what bothers me is that compared to other films in the MCU, Ant-Man appears to lack any sort of ambition or creativity. Ant-Man just... is. I think what’s difficult, too, is that I don’t know whose movie this really is at the end of the day. Is it Peyton Reed, the director for hire? Is it Kevin Feige’s vision? How much of what’s on screen belongs to Edgar Wright? How much input did the Legion of Doom Marvel Creative Committee have in getting Ant-Man into theaters? It’s like the Justice League dilemma only with a less terrible outcome. Look, I know that there are some of you out there that can and will defend this movie and I’m not here to tell you that you’re wrong, but in the wake of what’s come before and after this movie, Ant-Man is an unnecessary addition in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

So where does Ant-Man rank in my list of MCU Films?

  1. Captain America: The Winter Soldier

  2. The Avengers

  3. Iron Man 3

  4. Iron Man

  5. Guardians of the Galaxy

  6. Captain America: The First Avenger

  7. Avengers: Age of Ultron

  8. Thor: The Dark World

  9. Thor
10. Ant-Man

11. Iron Man 2

12. The Incredible Hulk

Let's see if they can Wright right the ship with this summer's Ant-Man and the Wasp.

End

Next week, I’m tackling Captain America: Civil War, in which I’ll yearn for the days that I can spend a good portion of my time ruminating on people’s coffee ordering habits. Thank you so much for reading; I hope I was able to make you smile. If you like what you’re reading, please like, comment, and share. If you don’t like what you’re reading, please like, comment, and share anyway with some insulting little tag like “This fucking guy.” I’m now on the tweeties @TheJamesBrock so there’s a completely new way for you guys to ignore me. Talk to you again soon!

Be kind to each other.

-James