The Guardians are back, adding Kurt Russell (he was Colonel Jack O’Neil in the first Stargate movie [before Richard Dean Anderson took over in the series], and opposite Goldie Hawn in Overboard) as Ego, with an appearance by Sylvester Stallone as Stakar.
The film opens in Missouri, 1980, where we meet Peter’s mother, as well as his father, though we should note that there is something alien in the field. Meredith is so pleased to find a spaceman. Quick jump to thirty-four years later, and Peter is on a job with the other Guardians, with their usual antics. Dancing baby Groot distracts us from the fight going on behind him. They technically complete the job, but Rocket steals something from their client, which sends a fleet of ships after the Guardians, who still bicker and now have Nebula with them as a prisoner. Rocket and Peter argue over who is the better pilot and they are only saved by the intervention of a new ship. They crash land onto Berhert, where the other ship lands as well and their savior introduces himself as Ego, Peter’s father. He invites Peter to his home planet to explain everything. Gamora and Drax go with Peter, while Rocket and Groot remain with Nebula to fix the ship.
Meanwhile, Yandu and his Ravengers are partying (well, Yandu isn’t partying as much), then he meets another Ravanger, Stakar, who calls Yandu out for some of his prior jobs, including kidnapping young Peter. He’s exiled, but manages to pick up another job, which is to find the Guardians of the Galaxy for their botched job. He finds Rocket, who handles the crew pretty well with a myriad of traps, but Nebula manages to get free and sides with the crew that mutinies against Yandu for going soft (he’s just smart enough to not kill the Guardians of the Galaxy). Nebula makes a deal with the new crew so she can hunt Gamora and kill her, then track down Thanos and kill him. Yandu, Rocket, and Groot manage to escape, aided by Kraglin and go after Peter.
Ego shows off his planet to Peter, Gamora, and Drax, and they meet his…companion Mantis, who uses her empathy to help Ego sleep. Peter already doesn’t trust Ego, but as Gamora puts it, “if he ends up being evil, we’ll just kill him.” But Ego’s planet is beautiful and full of life. Ego reveals he’s a Celestial; in essence, a god, small “g.” He doesn’t quite know where he came from, but he’s been around millions of years. He can control the molecules around him and in the planet and eventually formed himself into a human. He didn’t want to be alone in the universe and eventually met Meredith Quinn on Earth. When he discovered she had a son, he searched the galaxy for him, then heard of a human who could hold an Infinity Stone without dying and knew Peter must be part Celestial. He swears to Peter that he wanted to be a father; Peter is not a mistake. And he wants to teach Peter about the light. But Peter is still mad that Ego left and never came back. They partially make up when Peter is able to make a ball out of light and they play quintessential catch for a few minutes.
Peter is happy and even persuades Gamora to dance with him for a few minutes, then she ends up insisting that there is nothing between them. And Mantis is hiding something from the heroes. Nebula tracks down Gamora and they start fighting each other, then Nebula’s ship crashes and Gamora ends up saving Nebula. Nebula finally shouts at Gamora that all she wanted was a sister; it was Gamora who was focused on being better and the victor. During their argument, they find skeletons and have to make it back to the surface.
That’s where Ego is sharing his plan with Peter. Peter is immortal as long as the light lives in the planet. And Ego wants to spread throughout the galaxy. In this Expansion, he planted thousands of extensions of himself (that weird alien planet from the beginning) on thousands of planets, with the intention that they will cover all that exists. But one Celestial does not have enough power on their own. So he needs Peter. Mantis explains to our heroes that the bones the sisters found are Ego’s previous children, none of whom shared the Celestial gene; only Peter. And Peter’s initially taken by Ego and on board with the plan until Ego admits he was the one who put the tumor in Meredith. Peter is furious. He tries shooting Ego, but Ego just reforms and spears Peter in order to use him as a battery. One Earth, that plant bursts into a giant black wave that begins engulfing the town.
Yandu and the rest of the Guardians crash in. Yandu admits he couldn’t hand Peter over as a child after he heard about what happened to the others. Peter grudgingly forgives him and they focus on destroying Ego, meaning they have to strike at the center of the planet in order to kill him. Mantis helps the Guardians by putting Ego to sleep, which works for a few minutes. When he wakes up, he tries to crush Peter’s friends, continuing to insist that this is Peter’s purpose in life. But Peter fights back, remembering the good times he’s had with his friends (even a brief clip of Yandu teaching a young Peter something), and his friends are released. He continues to hold back Ego, growling that he shouldn’t have killed his mom. Groot sets a bomb, but it still looks hopeless for the Guardians, with the planet falling apart around them. Rocket gets everyone on the ship and takes off, without Yandu and Peter, saving his friends. They all demand to know about Peter. Peter is fine not being a god and watches Ego disintegrate. Yandu is there to save him, using the jetpack himself, but putting the protective bubble on Peter when they hit space. Yandu freezes, but Peter lives.
They hold a Ravanger funeral for Yandu, whom Peter finally admits was his dad. The life he was always looking for was right there. Gamora asks Nebula to stay and they even hug, admitting they will always be sisters. But Nebula wants to hunt down Thanos and leaves. The other Ravangers come for Yandu’s funeral and everyone is fairly content.
This movie is about family; yes, Peter finally solves the problem of who his biological father is, but he also accepts other people in his life as family. And the Guardians feel the same way, considering they demand to know where Peter is before they leave. And I like that Peter is a little more serious in this film. There are plenty of jokes cracked to keep the humor we know from this crew, but Peter doesn’t pass everything off as a joke. He honestly wants to know this man who calls himself Peter’s father, but is also smart enough to not immediately trust him. And he truly cares for Gamora and Gamora eventually returns his feelings. Everyone experiences character growth (which is what you want in a sequel).
I’m looking forward to Next Time, we have Spider-Man: Homecoming
Again, Marvel continues to expand their universe. Benedict Cumberbatch (Sherlock, Smaug and the Necromancer in the Hobbit trilogy, Khan in Into the Darkness, Richard III in Hollow Crown, as well as appearing in War Horse and Amazing Grace) leads the big name cast as the titular Dr. Stephen Strange. Rachel McAdams (famous for The Notebook, Mean Girls [how did those two come out in the same year?], and Irene Adler in Guy Ritche’s Sherlock Holmes [which gave birth to a meme that’s only expanded]) is Dr. Christine Palmer, Chiwetel Ejiofor (the Operative from the Firefly movie, Serenity) is Mordo, while Mads Mikkelsen (he’s Grindelwald in Fantastic Beasts, and Galen Erso in Rogue One. He’s also Rochefort in 2011’s Three Musketeers and Le Chiffre in Casino Royale; needless to say, he’s experienced playing villains) is Kaecilius. Tilda Swinton (a bit of a different role from portraying the White Witch in the Chronicles of Narnia films) is the Ancient One [and if you’re like me, and wondering why Pangborn is familiar looking, he’s Eric Matthews in Miss Congeniality.]
The film opens with Kaecilius beheading the librarian in order to rip pages from a book in order to do a dangerous ritual. Change of scenery to a city and Kaecilius is confronted by someone in yellow robes with their hood up. He shouts hypocrite while the world gets topsy-turvy. The woman in yellow showcases her skill and Kaecilius and his followers run away.
Another change in scenery and we meet a doctor as he preps for the operating room. He’s a bit of a show off, but does help another doctor in a second operation when she asks. We find out that Christine Palmer used to date Stephen Strange, but they chose different paths; her in the ER and he wants to advance new techniques. Or show off and get credit; “everything is about you,” Christine remarks. Stephen invites her to a ceremony, which is an award for him, but she declines. We see that Stephen has done well for himself with the selection of watches and the fast car he has. But as he’s checking out a new case (and turning down Rhodey’s spinal case we find out), his car crashes, glass shatters into his hands. Christine is one of the doctors who rushes alongside him back into the hospital. She’s the one to inform Stephen of the bad news; due to how long it took to get him into a hospital (most likely because it took time to discover he was missing and find him), there is severe nerve damage in his hands. She encourages him to allows his body to heal, but he bites back “you’ve ruined me.” So begins Stephen’s journey to get his hands back. He asks different doctors for help, suggests experimental treatments. But nothing brings them back to the way they were. Christine tries to help him, but he pushes her away, being very rude to her one evening, saying that they hadn’t even made a good couple and tells her to leave. So she does.
He eventually finds another patient who had had a supposedly hopeless case, but ended up walking again. When he tracks down this Pangborn, he’s sent to Karma-Taj, which apparently resides in Nepal, because Stephen travels to Kathmandu. He’s rescued from some thugs by Mordo, then taken before the Ancient One [and I do appreciate that the Ancient One is portrayed as a woman simply from the aspect that a woman is the head of this…religion I believe one could classify]. She is aware of who Stephen Strange is and explains that they are able to convince the body to put itself back together, by reorienting the spirit to heal the body (I don’t quite get the mix of medical and philosophical). Stephen is disbelieving, so the Ancient One demonstrates by sending Stephen’s soul through different dimensions (and it gets a bit weird here). He asks to be taught. Mordo tosses him out. But Stephen persists; sitting at the door, until the Ancient One lets him in based on his stubbornness, arrogance, and ambition, though she fears leading another gifted student who may ultimately betray her (like Kaecilius).
The Ancient One teaches Stephen that the language of the mystic arts is as old as civilization; they called it spells, but they actually harness energy from the multiverse [setting up the storylines after Endgame that we are not getting into because they are too confusing and I just didn’t have the energy after Endgame to continue with the crazy storylines.] This energy they use to create shields and weapons. It requires study and practice, which Stephen should be used to. Stephen discovers the library and the new librarian, Wong. He is told that no knowledge is forbidden, only certain practices. Eventually, Stephen begins to study time, which is not something that is really allowed, but he also gets good at astral projecting and being in two places at one, and even allows his astral form to read while he sleeps. He has his struggles, often blaming his hands, until the Ancient One leaves him on Mount Everest and he has to make his way back. He succeeds and continues. She also shows him the Mirror Dimension when his education progresses and he needs a safe place to practice; what occurs in the Mirror Dimension cannot influence the physical world. Stephen’s study in time leads him to the book of time and the Eye of Agamotto. He uses his new knowledge to bring the pages torn out of the book back and starts to read about the Dark Dimension. He’s caught and stopped and warned not to tamper with natural law. While the Avengers defend the world against physical dangers, sorcerers defend it against mystical dangers. Stephen finds out about the three Sanctums; Hong Kong, London, and New York. The Dark Dimension holds Dormamu, who is the cosmic conqueror and destroyer of worlds.
Then Kaecilius attacks the London Sanctum, which throws Stephen into the New York Sanctum. Kaecilius soon arrives and kills the guard, and Stephen fights back…with some help from a cape (and the funniest bit of the movie). Stephen is stabbed and transports himself to the hospital where Christine is and gets her help. He has to go to the astral plane to fight another bad guy, and he ultimately lives and proves to Christine he’s not crazy, though she’s still a bit scared. He returns to New York and keeps the cape. But he has also discovered the Ancient One’s secret; she draws on the Dark Dimension while warning others away…that is how she has lived so long. Stephen gets in an argument with Mordo, then Kaecilius is back and they try to trap him in in Mirror Dimension, but he fights it. The Ancient One arrives and fights Kaecilius again. This time, she’s stabbed and exits the Mirror Dimension. Stephen takes her to Christine, but she freezes time for a single moment to talk to Stephen, bestowing words of wisdom. Then she allows herself to die. Stephen knows he must save the Hong Kong Sanctum, dragging Mordo with him, who is angry with the Ancient One.
When they initially arrive, they are too late, but Stephen uses the Eye to begin to rewind time. Eventually, he freezes it and confronts Dormamu. He’s come to bargain and he has infinite time to repeat the same moment over and over and over again, which makes Dormamu his prisoner. His price, take the zealots and leave, let Earth live. Dormamu agrees and Kaecilius is dragged into the Dark Dimension and Hong Kong is saved. Mordo has to figure out his new path and leaves. Stephen agrees to put the Eye back and Wong points out that it is an Infinity Stone. We see that Mordo has chosen a bloody path and hunts down Pangborn because this world now has too many sorcerers. And a little taste of Thor is given when we see in the credits Stephen meets with the god, mentioning Odin and Loki.
Let me say that this film has a great cast. However, as much as I’m interested in magic, I just can’t get into this film. To me, the film is very one note. Yet, it is how we get this meme (and there’s another Sherlock if you include superhero movies in general with Henry Cavill as Superman/Sherlock in Enola Holmes):
A turning point in the MCU and it acts more like an Avengers movie since most of the other characters appear in this film. While we don’t have Thor or Bruce Banner, Clint and Scott Lang show up. And T’Challa (played by the late Chadwick Boseman) and Peter Parker (played in this universe by Tom Holland) are introduced. Martin Freeman (Watson in BBC’s Sherlock and Bilbo Baggins in the Hobbit trilogy) appears as Everett Ross.
The prologue of the film takes place in 1991 Russia, with the Winter Solider program, revealing a red book with a black star that holds information on the program, including the coded phrase that…activates, I guess you’d say, the solider. Poor Bucky is screaming at one point, then chillingly responds in Russian to the phrase, “ready to comply,” showing that he’s no longer in control. He carries out a mission involving a car crash and stealing a case.
Now, we’re in present day Lagos, and Steve’s team is on a mission to hunt down Rumlow. They’ve brought Wanda with them, working on her training. Rumlow’s after a biological weapon (and Sam gets to show off his new drone bird “Red Wing,” and some other tech). [By the way, the guy holding the vial looked a bit familiar; because he’s played by Damion Poitier (who was the Incapacitator villain in the Lab Rats, Mighty Med crossover episode.] When Rumlow faces off against Steve, he mentions Bucky as a way to distract Steve. But Wanda is there to help get a bomb away, but it doesn’t work the best and the bomb takes out a corner of a building. It is revealed that many of the ones killed were Wakandans and the king is unhappy and is now speaking to the UN. Both Wanda and Steve blame themselves (and Vision decides to walk through a wall instead of an open door).
Tony’s speaking at MIT, demonstrating a project that can help people clear traumatic memories, using it to say goodbye to his parents like he never did. And this is just a precursor to funding all the students’ projects. But when it’s time to bring the head of the foundation out, Pepper is not there. A mother confronts Tony in a hallway; her son was brilliant, but won’t get the funding because he was killed in Sokovia; and she holds Tony responsible.
Tony meets up with the rest of the team, inviting along the new Secretary of State, Ross (that guy who hates the Hulk). Ross admits that the world owes the Avengers an unpayable debt, but now people are disagreeing with the destruction the Avengers leave in their wake, and taking battles into other countries. So, 117 countries of the United Nations have put together the Sokovia Accords, to restrict the Avengers’ powers and supervision. A panel will decide when and where the Avengers deploy. The team has three days to sign; if not, they will be forced to retire. The team begins splitting. Tony and Rhodey are all for signing; agreeing they need to be held accountable, while Steve feels that they are giving up their right to choose. Vision points out there may be a causality going on; since Tony revealed himself as Iron Man, there has been an uptick in enhanced individuals coming on the scene and major disasters happening. While Tony argues they need put in check, Steve argues that the safest hands for this situation are their own.
Meanwhile, in Cleveland, the old Winter Soldier handler is attacked, by Zemo, and asked about the December 1991 mission. Zemo claims the red book.
The Avengers’ argument is interrupted by Steve getting notified that Peggy Carter has passed away. He’s a casket bearer at the funeral in London, accompanied by Sam. Even Nat comes to pay her respects and comfort Steve. They also find out that his apartment neighbor, Kate, is actually Peggy’s niece, Sharon Carter. Peggy was a huge role model to live up to, so Sharon never revealed her relation. She also gives a pointed eulogy that Peggy cautioned “compromise where you can. Where you can’t don’t. Even if everyone is telling you that something wrong is right. Even if the whole world is telling you to move, it is your duty to plant yourself like a tree, look them in the eye and say No, you move.”
Natasha informs Steve that Tony, Rhodey, and Vision have all signed the Accords. Clint is retired, and Nat will sign to keep everyone together. Steve tells her he can’t. Natasha attends the meeting at the UN in Vienna, meeting King T’Chaka and Prince T’Challa of Wakanda. There’s an explosion while T’Chaka is speaking and T’Challa tries to get to his father, but he is killed. The news reports that James Barnes is a suspect. T’Challa intends to find Bucky, but Steve wants to find him first. Sharon Carter helps out and Sam follows Steve. They find Bucky in Bucharest [Sebastian Stan spoke his native Romanian language in the market scene] and Steve helps out when the special forces invade Bucky’s apartment. Bucky insists he’s not going to kill anyone; he doesn’t do that anymore. The Black Panther shows up on the roof of his apartment, and they take the fight to the streets, chasing each other, eventually causing an explosion and getting caught by Rhodey and the police and arrested.
Bucky remains a prisoner, and Sam and Steve have to turn in their weapons and suits, but manage to stay out of a jail cell. On their drive, T’Challa explained that the Black Panther is the guardian of Wakanda. They’re introduced to Everett Ross. Tony tries to convince Steve again to sign the Accords (after confirming that he and Pepper are taking a break; to Steve’s disappointment, he was hoping Tony was going to announce her pregnancy). Tony insists they need Steve; he doesn’t want to see him gone. And Tony feels that he is doing what has to be done in order to stave off worse. Both men cannot stop being who they are. Steve still won’t sign.
Zemo, masquerading at the psychologist, beings to ask Bucky questions. When the lights go out (thanks to an EMP he planted elsewhere in the city), he rattles off the code words to activate Bucky. Then he escapes and Bucky fights the Avengers, without their suits. Even T’Challa goes after him (and they all show off how well they fight even without their suits.) Bucky makes it to a helicopter, but Steve pulls it back down. It falls and takes them both into the water. This time, Steve pulls Bucky out. Zemo heads to Moscow. When Bucky wakes up, he remembers old Steve; then tells them that Zemo wanted to know about Siberia. And bombshell, Bucky is not the only Winter Soldier. Sam and Steve realize that with the split in the Avengers, they have less help than normal; they don’t think they can go to Tony, or even if we wanted to help if he could, with the Accords controlling his actions. But, Sam knows a guy (remember the stinger to Ant-Man?)
Secretary Ross goes to Tony and Tony insists that he brings in Bucky and Steve. Ross gives him 36 hours. Nat and Tony both have ideas on who can help. Nat’s idea is downstairs. Tony’s in in Queens. A teenage kid that Tony has figured out is Spider-Man. He intends to upgrade Peter’s suit and convinces him to come to Germany with Tony, though they can’t tell Aunt May why. Peter protests because he has homework, but Tony just rolls his eyes [and Robert’s comment in the scene, “I’m going to sit here, move your leg,” was because Tom forgot the blocking, but it worked well in the scene, so they kept it.]
Next, Clint enters the Avengers compound to retrieve Wanda, who has been instructed to remain inside by Tony, watched over by Vision. Wanda and Vision have created a friendship, so they don’t want to hurt each other, but Clint has to hold him off in order to get Wanda out, making a crack about coming out of retirement for this. Then Wanda stops Vision so she can leave and they can help Steve. She’s decided that while she can’t control other people’s fear, she can control hers. So the teams both head to an airport and lineups are revealed. Scott Lang joins Clint, Wanda, Sam, and Bucky with Steve. While Vision, Rhodey, Natasha, T’Challa, and Peter side with Tony. Steve tries to explain, and Nat quips “do you really want to punch your way out?” Tony accuses Steve of tearing the Avengers apart. The fight starts (and yes, it is pretty cool, even though we wish they really weren’t fighting.) Ultimately, Steve’s goal is to get him and Bucky out of there, and Clint agrees that the rest of them won’t get out. Scott grows gargantuan at one point, grabbing Rhodey, to which Tony says “give me back my Rhodey.” It is also hilarious that Peter’s idea is to treat him like an AT-AT from Hoth in Empire Strikes Back (and of course, the teenager calls this all old). And hey, it works. Peter also gets to face off against Steve and there’s a little New York rivalry going on. Nat holds off T’Challa to let Steve and Bucky through, then Sam dodges a shot from Vision, which then hits Rhodey. Rhodey crashes to the ground, Tony landing shortly after him, followed by Sam, who is concerned for the other man. Steve and Bucky fly off.
Those who opposed Tony are locked up on a prison in the middle of the ocean, Clint and Scott very angry, and Sam still shows concern about Rhodey. Tony has found out that Steve’s story of Bucky’s innocence holds some ground (they found the murdered phycologist’s body), and he wants to help. So Sam gives him an idea where to go. He finds Steve and Bucky in the bunker, and the dead soldiers. But Zemo has loaded a video for Tony to watch. That mission that Bucky took in December of 1991, that caused a car crash? That was Howard and Maria Stark and the video shows Bucky killing them. Which understandably gets Tony angry and Steve of course tries to defend his friend, but he also reveals that he had found out before Tony and never told him. While Tony goes after Steve and Bucky, T’Challa stalks Zemo. Zemo confirms that he wanted to destroy the Avengers and figured the best way was to pit them against each other. T’Challa stops the other man from committing suicide; while T’Challa will not allow himself to be ruled by vengeance any longer, he will not let Zemo get away so easily: “the living are not done with you yet.”
There’s a pause in the fight between Steve, Tony, and Bucky, and Steve cautions Tony that this fight won’t change what happened. Tony doesn’t care, Bucky killed his mom [note that he’s more upset over his mom’s death; but we know that Tony has a complicated relationship with Howard; he even admitted to Steve earlier that because of Howard’s obsession with Captain America, Tony grew up hating him.] Tony attacks again. When Bucky sees Steve in trouble, he picks up the shield and attacks Tony. The two trade off on the shield until Bucky goes for Tony’s arc reactor. Tony blasts off Bucky’s metal arm. Steve’s furious now and trades blows with Tony. He kneels in front of Bucky, telling Tony “he’s my friend.” He won’t abandon him. Well, Tony though he was Steve’s friend as well. Tony tells Steve to stay down. Of course, Steve’s not the person to stay down. He gets back up, quipping “I can do this all day.” Tony lines up a shot, but Bucky distracts him, which then allows Steve to grab Tony, then pummel him, grabbing his shield, smashing the arc reactor (at least instead of Tony’s unprotected head). Tony yells for Steve to drop the shield. Steve complies and helps Bucky out, leaving Tony behind.
Tony returns to the compound to help Rhodey with leg braces, and receives a package from Steve [delivered by Stan Lee, calling Tony “Stank”], containing a letter and phone in case Tony ever needs him. The Avengers are more Tony’s family and Steve’s going to stick with Bucky. Steve also retrieves his teammates from the Raft prison, then is allowed sanctuary in Wakanda (probably because T’Challa is making up for going after Bucky, who he knows is now innocent.) Bucky also allows the Wakandans to put him back in cyro until they can get the Winter Soldier training out of his head. The final stinger in the credits is May bringing Peter some ice due to the bruise from getting hit by Steve, a guy from Brooklyn, Peter admits. And, he’s got some new tech.
I am not going to dissect the argument over the Accords between the two sides because I feel they should have found a third alternative. They should have tried to figure out how to keep the team together. If Steve and Tony were better at communicating with each other, they may have not gotten in a fight. Of course Steve is going to protect Bucky; Bucky had his back all those years when Steve was a weaker man, he’s going to return the favor. And yes, Steve should have told Tony about the attack on his parents; because keeping quiet on that stuff in order to “protect” someone never works out. And all parties involved are lucky that the worst that happened during that big face off was Rhodey getting injured (most likely paralyzed to a degree); someone could have gotten killed. Tony, Steve, and Bucky were certainly going for the jugular in their last fight. Yes, they’re humans and have emotions and reactions, but they’re also grown-ups and heroes, and we just end up disappointed in them by the end of the film.
On a more positive note, I enjoyed the new characters who were introduced (who later get spectacular solo films). Peter is adorable, chatting through his fight, because he’s supposed to be this nerdy teenager who’s just pumped to be around all these heroes. And the airport fight sequence is admittedly cool.
Marvel continues to add characters to its line-up. Paul Rudd (known for his comedy films) leads the cast as Scott Lang, Michael Douglas (in my house, we know him for Romancing the Stone, The Jewel of the Nile, and American President) is Dr. Hanky Pym, while Evangeline Lily (we’ll see her in the Hobbit movies as Tauriel) is his daughter, Hope Van Dyne. Judy Greer (from 27 Dresses) is Scott’s ex, Maggie, David Dastmachian (Murdoc from the 2016 MacGyver) is Kurt, and Anthony Mackie makes an appearance as the Falcon. Hayley Atwell and John Slattery reprise their roles as Peggy Carter and an older Howard Stark in the prologue to the film, which is set in 1989, while the Triskelion is being built. Hank storms in to confront Stark, claiming he’s stealing his research. Howard and Peggy attempt to calm Hank down, but the other man in attendance, Mitchell Carson makes a crack about Hank’s deceased wife. Hank punches him and resigns, while Stark pleads that Hank’s research is revolutionary science and they need him. Hank declares that no one will get the formula to his Pym Particles as long as he lives. Peggy assures them that Hank is not a security risk and Stark agrees with her, unless they make him one.
In present times, there is a fight going on in jail, which is actually a weird good-bye ritual the inmates do when someone leaves. Scott’s buddy Luis picks him up and lets him crash at his place until Scott can find a job. Though Luis first offers another criminal job, but Scott insists he is finished with that. He wants to be able to see his daughter and doesn’t want to get arrested again. Scott feels with a Master’s in Electrical Engineering, he’ll find a job easily. Not so much. He ends up at Baskin-Robbins (dealing with an idiot customer), but his record is found out and he’s fired. Luis, joined by Dave and Kurt, offer the criminal job again. Scott again insists he is out, and emphasizes that he burgles, which involves not threatening. But when he visits his daughter’s birthday party and speaks to his ex-wife, he realizes he needs to do something to make money so he can have a chance at visiting his daughter. [It is rather sweet that his daughter absolutely adores him and later, her mother even defends her ex-husband, saying he’s not a bad man, just confused.]
Meanwhile, at Hank’s company, he makes a rare appearance when the new head of the company, Darren Cross, has an announcement. Hank’s daughter, Hope is working for Darren and is cold to her father. But afterwards, it’s shown to be a partial act; she’s helping her father take down Darren. Darren has found Hank’s old “Ant-Man” research, about shrinking people down to the size of an insect and carrying out covert work. Darren has developed the Yellow-Jacket suit and touts it as an “all purpose weapon of war,” (and sounds a lot more dangerous for the world.) Hope insists to her father in their plans that she can use the suit. Hank tells her he’s found a guy.
Scott agrees to the criminal job, which is to break into an old man’s house and break into the safe (explained through a rambling story). Scott proves to be a bit of a MacGyver [which is ironic with the Murdoc of the newer series sitting there], but when he opens the safe, there’s only a strange suit inside. He takes it anyways and gets out. Out of curiosity, he tries on the suit later and pushes the buttons on the gloves. He shrinks down and a voice echoes in the helmet, telling him it will be his trail by water (since Luis is starting a shower). Scott then falls through a crack in the floor and begins his adventure. When he returns to normal size, Scott tries to return the suit, but is caught by the police.
Hank visits Scott at the station and offers him a choice. He explains that he had set up the case for Scott and watched him the whole time. If he wants a second chance, await further instructions. With the suit, Scott is able to escape prison and finds his way back to Hank’s house, where he meets Hope, who is not happy for Scott to be brought into the plan. Turns out, Hank has been watching Scott since his burglary and how he beat the security system. Hank fills Scott in and Scott’s first reaction is that they should call the Avengers. No, Hank won’t let Stark near his technology and the Avengers are too busy dropping cities out of the sky (a callback to Age of Ultron, but at least a character is aware enough that hey, this is a universe with the Avengers, they can help). Hank needs Scott to be Ant-Man (and Hank won’t risk his daughter). So they begin training, Hope reluctantly helping, though she seems to enjoy beating Scott up. Hank warns Scott against messing with the suit too much, primarily the regulator; he risks entering the Quantum Realm where he would continue shrinking for all time. When Hope storms out, Scott talks to her, admitting that he’s the expendable part of this plan, because he recognizes that Hank does not want to risk Hope. And Hank finally admits what really happened to his wife; they were a team years ago, she was the Wasp, and while on a mission, she entered the Quantum Realm in order to take out a missile, but she never returned. Hope understands more now.
Part of their plan requires a bit of Stark tech, so Scott is sent to an old warehouse in upstate New York. Turns out that old Stark property has been turned into the new Avengers compound (that we saw in Ultron). And Sam is on patrol and his goggles allow him to spot shrunken Scott. There is a rather good fight between the two, Scott going between being shrunk and normal-sized, and he manages to get into the building and retrieves the item they need. Then he shrinks into Falcon’s suit and messes with it, so Sam can’t follow (and Sam requests that Cap never finds out about this).
They hit a bit of a snag when Darren Cross, who has managed to successfully shrink a lamb, is at Hank’s home. Hope keeps her cover, but they have to move fast now. Hank has promised to be at Cross’s next announcement, so Scott suggests calling in his buddies to help, though Hank and Hope don’t hold much hope in their skills. Scott pays a quick visit to his daughter at night before he goes on the mission. Luis is the security guard inside, who helps Scott enter through the water main. When the cops show up to arrest Hank for springing Scott from a holding cell, his buddies distract the cops so Hank can get in. Scott uses his training to plant bombs throughout the building and almost has the Yellow Jacket suit in his grasp, but Cross was onto him. He’s ready to sell his tech to Hydra, though he holds on to the shrinking solution for more money. He threatens Hank and Scott manages to escape, though Hank is still shot. In the chaos, Cross escapes with the suit, they send Scott after him. Hank had shrunk a tank, so he and Hope use that to escape. Cross causes more damage, but the good guys exit the building before it explodes. Then Cross puts on the suit and heads to Scott’s daughter’s home, knowing Scott will follow him. They shrink down and have a fight amongst the girl’s toys (which is a bit funny to watch from the outside). Scott has to go subatomic to enter Cross’s suit and he’s almost lost in the Quantum Realm, but hears his daughter calling for him and switches the regulator so he can get out. Cross is destroyed and Scott patches the relationship up between his ex, her fiancé, and his daughter. He also begins kissing Hope, though they’re caught.
Luis has another rambling story that the Falcon is looking for Scott. Which ties in with the scene at the end of the credits that we now know is part of Civil War, where Sam tells Steve he knows a guy who can help. In the credits, Hank also gives Hope the Wasp suit he was working on; he knows he should have her as part of that world now.
Ant-Man is not one of my favorite Marvel films, mainly because I don’t like bugs and I don’t want to see enlarged ants on screen. The story is pretty good and the actors are wonderful; it just doesn’t drag me in. Though, the daughter is adorable. And I like how this is still exploding the Marvel universe, showing Hank working with Peggy and Howard Stark, and mentioning other Avengers.
So, next up is Captain America: Civil War [and I have more of an opinion on this one]
The big six are back together and working on taking down Hydra. James Spader (he was Dr. Daniel Jackson in the original Stargate movie) voices Ultron, while Aaron Taylor-Johnson and Elizabeth Olsen (yes, she is the younger sister of Mary-Kate and Ashely Olsen) join as Pietro and Wanda Maximoff [in some versions of the comics, they are Magneto’s children, which explains their abilities. In the MCU, they are not, and instead volunteered for the program.] The Avengers find Struker’s facility and attack. Strucker is holding Loki’s scepter, but he doesn’t want to risk the twins yet. He tells his men to not surrender, but he is fine with surrendering himself and tells someone to destroy their evidence.
The team jokes around like many teams do in battle situations, Steve inadvertently calling Tony out for his language; and no, Tony is not going to let Steve live that down. Steve continues to use his motorcycle as a weapon, tossing it when needed to. Tony has built new suits, as an Iron Legion, to help protect the city as it takes fire during their assault. He manages to bring down the shield and get inside [and his dialogue is funny at times, which helps the film]. The Maximoff twins have run off into the battle as well and manage to get Clint hit. Natasha is called upon to calm the Hulk down once they’re finished. Tony retrieves the scepter, but not until after Wanda has shown him a vision; of everyone dying and blaming him. (She’s first shocked at his vision, then smiles when he takes the scepter; not making her the most trustworthy at the moment.) The flight home is subdued, though Tony gets permission from Thor to check out the scepter before he returns it to Asgard. Tony also makes a crack about Steve being the boss of the team, while Tony just pays for everything, but he is concerned about Clint and calls in a doctor friend. (We do get a bit of the Avengers’ theme when the tower comes in.)
Steve finds out more about the twins [and Maria Hill’s explanation that “he’s fast and she’s weird” is a bit rude, in my opinion. Though she did try to give a more technical explanation, but telekinesis is so much for than “weird,”] and makes a crack about “what kind of monster would let a German scientist experiment on them to protect their country?” Proving that Steve recognizes he’s not so different from the twins, even if they’re not on the same side right now. Tony and Bruce work on the scepter and discover that the gem at its center is actually protecting something else inside it; something they describe as a mind, similar to Jarvis. Tony theorizes that it will help them create Ultron, in order to protect the world and bring about peace. And no, he doesn’t want to debate it with the team because he doesn’t want them to say no, so he works alone with Bruce. Once Bruce and Tony leave, Jarvis makes a connection with Ultron and tries to explain things, but Ultron makes the wrong conclusion and attacks Jarvis.
Meanwhile, Tony hosts a party and we get to see Sam Wilson and Rhodey for a few minutes. Sam is happy to not be part of the firefight and carries on the search for Bucky for Sam. Steve and Thor hang out with some veterans, while Bruce attempts to flirt with Natasha. Once the party-goers have left, leaving our main team, they decide to test who can actually lift Thor’s hammer [best scene of the movie]. Clint can’t figure out the trick, Tony calls upon Rhodey and parts of their suits and still fails. Steve gets Mjölnir to scootch just a smidge (Thor’s a little concerned in the background) and Natasha refuses to join in. Ultron makes an appearance and ruins the party; he deploys Tony’s suits, one of which grabs the scepter and escapes. Ultron believes that in his quest for world peace, he has to destroy the Avengers.
Once he leaves, this leads to a discussion amongst the team, who are not happy Tony did not share his plan with them. Tony is more concerned with the big battle he saw as the endgame [they title dropped that one well in advance.] Steve insists they’ll go at it together, Tony retorts that they’ll lose. “And we’ll do that together, too.”
Ultron, in a new shiny body, finds the Maximoff twins; he knows that they blame Stark for some of their lot in life; it was his missiles that struck Sokovia and trapped them in their house. So Wanda showed him a vision, knowing that Tony’s fear would control him and make him self-destruct. Ultron agrees that everyone creates the thing they dread and repeats that in order to save the world, the Avengers have to be destroyed. He will use Wanda to get in their heads. Ultron then kills Struker, which gets back to the Avengers. They begin to look through his connections (using files and paperwork) and find that he’s connected to a man called Ulysses (played by Andy Serkis [most notably Gollum in Lord of the Rings]) that Tony had knowledge of back in the day. Thor notes the brand on his neck and Bruce discovers its from Wakanda, which Steve and Tony pick up as the place where vibranium is from, which makes up Captain America’s shield.
And Ultron does go after Ulysses (and cuts off his arm), but it’s also a trap for the team. Wanda hits Thor, Steve, and Nat with her powers. Thor sees Heimdall, then destruction. Steve imagines himself with Peggy, and Natasha remembers the Red Room. Clint manages to stop Wanda, who is then rescued by Pietro. She recovers and goes after Bruce [which, if you see one of them coming, why didn’t you attempt to lock the door? Let’s just hang out in the open and become a target]. Bruce Hulks out and can’t control it, and creates havoc in the nearby city. Tony goes after Bruce and uses a new suit to control him.
In the aftermath, the Avengers need to lie low. Natasha, Steve, and Thor are all recovering from their visions and Bruce is upset about the destruction he caused. Clint has a place they can go; his own farm. The team meets the family (and Natasha is an honorary aunt to his children). Thor needs answers about his vision and flies off. Bruce talks to Natasha about leaving and she offers to go with him. Steve and Tony take some of their frustration out by chopping wood (admittedly, impressive that Steve can just rip a log in two), but end up in an argument. Clint’s wife, Laura, pulls Tony aside to have a look at their tractor. Fury is actually waiting for him and Tony admits that he saw the team dead, because of him.
That is after Nick admits he cares about Tony…which, let’s unpack that a little. Earlier, both Thor and Tony attempted to make light of the fact that their significant others are not at the party. And Tony’s getting a lot of flak from everyone on the team, heck, even Fury was joking about it a minute before. But Tony is shouldering the burden of this knowledge he was shown and he can’t share with his team. So he throws himself into a project in order to protect the team and the world…which admittedly was maybe not fully thought out. But it all boils down to, no one is on Tony’s side. And he’s just had someone he does respect; because if Tony didn’t respect Nick Fury, he wouldn’t help him as much as he does or even pay attention to him if he didn’t want to, admit he cares about Tony. There’s not a lot of that going on at the moment. So Tony is honest with him. And Nick tells Tony it’s not all on him, and he also understands that Tony is dealing with the knowledge that he lived, while all his friends died.
So Nick gives the team a pep talk. While he does this, Thor goes to Erik Selvig for help. Erik leads Thor to a pool that is similar to others on other worlds where Thor can go back into his vision and find answers. And while all of that is going on, Ultron has hunted down the Avengers’ doctor because she has a “cradle” that can create skin and cells and essentially a human body. He has to use the scepter to convince her a little, but she starts work. He plans to upload his mind into the new body, along with binding vibranium to the human cells, making him nearly invincible. Ultron also brings the stone out of the gem in the scepter and sets it in the head of the body. Wanda can now read this being’s mind and sees the destruction that will come. She’s horrified, but Ultron shoots the doctor and escapes with the body.
The Avengers have a new mission; get the body back. Natasha gets her own motorbike this time and races after the truck, Clint calling out locations from above. Steve takes on Ultron. Pietro and Wanda come along to help the Avengers; Wanda slows down a runaway train while Pietro gets people out of the way. It is nice that Steve accepts them when they show up; he cares more about saving people rather than why someone is doing it. Yeah, they fought each other before, but if you want to help innocent people, that’s okay. Natasha manages to get the cradle to Clint, but does not escape herself.
Back at the Tower, Jarvis is back. And Tony wants to put him into the body Ultron was creating. When Steve and the twins show up, the argument begins all over again, until Thor flies in and superpowers the cradle. The body emerges and at first, tackles Thor, but stops when it takes in the window and the city outside. Thor explains the Infinity Stones, one of which is the Mind Stone that now resides in this new body, which has Jarvis’s voice [and now Paul Bettany doesn’t get to just read lines], but he is neither Ultron, nor Jarvis, he is something new. Thor warns of the destruction the Mind Stone can bring, but with it on their side, they stand a chance of defeating Ultron [and Thanos]. The most important sign that they can trust this new being? He can lift Mjölnir.
So the team gears up for a new fight. Tony puts a new interface into his suits, Friday. They land in Sokovia and Steve states that their primary mission is to save the people and get them out of the city. Pietro and Wanda help with that. Bruce rescues Natasha, then wants to run and offers Natasha to come with him. She kisses him, but pushes him off the rising city, because she needs the Hulk at the moment to take down Ultron. He plans to lift Sokovia and then crash it to Earth, creating a massive explosion and global extinction. Tony works on a way to minimize damage. Steve tells everyone to take out the suits Ultron has sent out. “If you get hurt, hurt ‘em back. If you get killed, walk it off.” Clint gives Wanda a pep talk; she can stay safe where she is and he’ll send Pietro for her, but Clint has to go out and help the people. If she comes out that door, she’s an Avenger and has the same job. When she walks out, she’s ready to fight. When Pietro runs by Clint again, he jokes to himself about getting the guy. The fight continues. Ultron takes on Thor, which is just a distraction. Tony and Steve debate the best way to finish the fight; Steve wants everyone rescued. And Fury comes in with the helicarrier and SHIELD. The rest of the Avengers start getting the people away and even Rhodey is there to help.
The team converges. Thor taunts Ultron “is that the best you can do!” And more suits show up. As Steve says, “you had to ask.” The fight intensifies. At one point, Clint is about ready to leave, but realizes there is a kid still in the city, so he goes for him. Pietro notices that a suit is lining up at Clint and runs between them, taking the shots. Wanda feels her brother’s death and screams. Clint takes Pietro with him. Hulk rescues Natasha, then takes a Quinjet. Wanda goes after Ultron, wanting to cause him pain. One of the suits manages to drop the city, so Tony has Thor help him stop the crash. Vision rescues Wanda, then speaks to Ultron after the city is back. They speak of humans, but Vision is on their side and uses the Mind Stone to destroy Ultron.
There are some happy moments in the ending. Clint is back home and his wife gives birth to their third child, a boy they name Nathaniel Pietro Barton. Tony drives to a new facility and we catch a glimpse of Erik Selvig. There’s a funny bit between Steve, Thor, and Tony discussing the hammer again. Vision is worthy, but would an elevator be worthy? Thor flies off to continue tracking the stones. Tony is thinking of trying the simple life, and Steve admits he’ll miss him. As for Steve, he’s staying at the facility, more comfortable with who he is. He’s not the same man who went into the ice. Instead, he’ll have Natasha help him train some newbies who aren’t a team yet (as we hear the Avengers theme). Rhodey, Sam, Vision, and Wanda are waiting for them. Steve calls them to order, “Avengers…” and the scene cuts [in a blooper, Scarlett shouts “assemble!”]. In the credit, Thanos picks up a gauntlet, declaring “I’ll do it myself.”
I’m not as fond of this film as other follow-ups in the MCU. It’s setting up Civil War; a lot of fans, me included, are not fond of the idea of our favorite superheroes fighting amongst themselves. Lines are starting to form between them; a lot of blame gets placed on Tony and okay, his idea wasn’t the safest, but he apparently doesn’t trust talking about what he saw in his vision with the rest of the team, so he made a bad decision, though Thor approved of part of it, I guess. It gets a bit confusing. But there is definitely a separation between Steve and Tony and at the end of the first Avengers, we hoped they were getting over it. Which is why fanfiction includes Tony looking in on Steve at the end of Winter Soldier. Dear Marvel, we want our characters happy.
And I don’t get how the Ultron project was supposed to actually work or how it really went wrong. But faceless suits of armor attacking are a bit creepy. Also, in regards to pairing Natasha and Bruce, my comment is why does there have to be a romantic couple at all? Do we have to pair Natasha off with one of the guys on the team [yes, we were kind of rooting for a Natasha and Clint pairing at one point, but it’s also sweet that he has a family totally outside of Shield]. But why can’t she just be friends with these guys? Why does there have to be a strained relationship going on? She could be Bruce’s friends and the story will still stand.
Admittedly, there are a few funny parts, such as everyone joking about Steve’s “language” comment. (As fans have pointed out, Steve probably swore a lot as part of the Army, despite coming from a generation that looks down on casual swearing.)
Marvel adds some new characters and a different tone to the scene. The film stars Chris Pratt (famous for Parks and Recreation [which I’ve only seen commercials for], he’s also Own Grady in the newer Jurassic World movies) as Peter Quill, Zoe Saldana (she’s Neytiri in Avatar, Uhura in the alternate universe Star Trek movies, and was in the first Pirates of the Caribbean movies) as Gamora, Lee Pace (Thranduil in the Hobbit movies [we’ll get to Marvel casting Lord of the Rings and Hobbit actors later]) as Ronan, and Karen Gillan (Amy Pond in Doctor Who) as Nebula. Vin Diesel (he’s part of the Fast and Furious franchise, though I thought he was funny in The Pacifier) voices Groot and Bradley Cooper (he’s been in a lot of big movies in recent years; he was Face in the 2010 A-Team movie) voices Rocket. Glenn Close (she voiced Kala in Tarzan and played the Vice President in Air Force One as well as Cruella de Vil in the live action Dalmatians movies) appears as Nova Prime. I recognize John Reilly as Corpsman Dey, Sean Gunn (he was oddball Kirk in Gilmore Girls and would stand in on set as Rocket, and he’s also director James Gunn’s younger brother) as Kraglin, and Djimon Hounsou (he voices Drago in How to Train Your Dragon 2) as Korath.
We do start on Earth in 1988, unfortunately, in a hospital. Young Peter is there for his mother; he’s called in one last time, the rest of the family surrounding her. She has one last gift for her son and also mentions his father, calling him an angel. When she passes, Peter runs. And gets taken by an alien ship. Twenty-six years later, Peter is grown up and dances his way to steal a mysterious orb. He’s caught, and refers to himself as Star-Lord, a legendary outlaw. He manages to escape, then his boss calls him. (And Yandu may not be fully honest with the guy, because he claims that he saved him, but actually he was hired to deliver the child.) Peter just wants to deliver the orb and get paid.
But trouble is brewing in the galaxy; a race known as the Kree have made peace with Xandar, but Ronan is a more traditional Kree and wants to destroy Xandar. It was his men who confronted Peter about the orb; they want it as well. Ronan is to deliver the orb to Thanos (he starts becoming a big and visible player) in return for Thanos destroyed Xandar. Ronan has two daughters of Thanos in his company, Gamora and Nebula. Gamora volunteers to go to Xandar to get the orb.
On Xandar, we meet Rocket and Groot, who are bounty hunters and want to capture Peter, since Yandu put a price on his head. When Peter goes to the Broker to sell the orb, once Peter mentions Ronan, the Broker wants nothing to do with him. Gamora is waiting for him outside and tries to get the orb. It soon becomes a three-way fight when Rocket and Groot join in. They are all arrested by Nova Corps and sent to the Kyln prison (and they helpfully run down the characters so we know a bit about them). Many inside the prison want Gamora dead for her connection to Ronan and Thanos and Rocket admits to Peter that the guards won’t help; they’re only there to keep people from escaping. And Rocket is keeping an eye on Peter because he still wants his pay day. In actuality, Gamora plans to betray Ronan and she has another buyer in mind for the orb, who will pay more. When Peter interrupts some guys killing Gamora, she offers to lead them to the buyer if he, Rocket, and Groot get her out of prison. Drax is another prisoner in the Kyln, who has serious beef with Ronan. Peter has to stop him from killing Gamora, pointing out that Drax really wants to kill Ronan and Gamora will be helpful in the meantime. They have to improvise, but they make it out, with the addition of Drax. (First, Peter has to make sure he gets his tape player back [I appreciate that Marvel brought fun music back to their movies]).
Ronan is called before Thanos, who does not care about the politics of the Kree or Xandar. All Thanos wants, is the orb. Yandu pays a visit to the Broker and we see the Collector again (still creepy). Gamora’s buyer is on Knowhere, the severed head of a celestial being which has become a home to outlaws. She reveals to Peter that Thanos is not her true father; he destroyed her true family and tortured and turned her in a weapon for him. She wants out. Peter shares the “legend of Footloose and the hero, Kevin Bacon.” [He’s lucky he’s good with tech and actually has a good heart or this guy would be too stupid.] However, it gets him an almost-kiss with Gamora, until Rocket and Drax get in a fight. They try to settle down, for the deal, when Gamora is called before the Collector. He explains that inside the orb is one of the six Infinity Stones. And Gamora realizes what Thanos’ plan is. One of the Collector’s servants grabs the purple stone, destroying part of the building and herself (which was better than living as the Collector’s slave). Gamora gets the orb and now they have to try to get off Knowhere.
But Drax is drunk and calls Ronan so he gets his showdown. Ronan beats him fairly easily and Nebula goes after her sister. Peter goes after Gamora, claiming they should take the Infinity Stone to Nova Corps for safe keeping. When Rocket asks him “What did the galaxy ever do for you? Why would you want to save it?” Peter comes back with “Because I’m one of the idiots who lives in it!” And someone has finally pointed that out! Peter’s also trying to get away from Yandu, who has also arrived. Nebula manages to shoot down Gamora and take the orb, leaving her sister to float in space. Peter leaves his pod and gives her his mask, so she’ll live. He had also sent a message for Yandu to come and get him, so they’re rescued quickly, but Yandu’s crew still beats him up, as an example. Peter does manage to convince Yandu not to kill him (still in exchange for the orb). Groot rescues Drax, and insists to Rocket that they save Peter and Gamora, since they’re friends.
And Ronan plans to turn on Thanos, now that he has absorbed the Infinity Stone into his war hammer. Nebula will gladly help kill Thanos (no one likes this guy).
Peter’s got twelve percent of a plan [call back to Avengers, when Tony and Pepper were having twelve percent of a moment] and asks his new friends for help. It will likely result in them dying, but they’ll do it (Rocket takes some convincing). They know that Ronan wants to destroy Xandar, so Peter sends a message. They then plan to punch a hole in Ronan’s ship, get inside, and destroy him with some contraption that Rocket has put together (that racoon likes gun). Nova Crops helps and Yandu and his crew also help. We see Yandu whistle-arrow take out a whole bunch of Kree. Gamora and Nebula face off again, and Gamora manages to get the upper hand. Rocket and the Ravagers protect the city. Yet, Ronan is still standing after the blast. They do manage to get his ship to crash (Groot protects everyone, which makes his burst into a thousand pieces when they land, much to Rocket’s sorrow), and Peter declares a dance-off with Ronan…who is very confused.
It’s actually a diversion. They hit his war hammer, which releases the stone. Peter grabs it. Gamora then grabs his hand, and Drax grabs his arm. They destroy Ronan and manage to still be standing afterwards. Gamora puts the stone into a new orb, which they have to hand over to Yandu, with the warning not to open. Again, Kraglin makes a comment about how it was good that they didn’t deliver Peter to his father, like they were hired to. Except, Peter switched the orb; Yandu’s has a troll in it. Peter delivers the real Infinity Stone to Nova Corps, who also point out that Peter is only half from Earth; his father was something else and that may explain why he was able to hold the Infinity Stone and not blow up.
We catch some glimpses of happy endings. Groot has been re-potted and is growing again. Peter gets a new ship and everyone agrees to stay [and Gamora’s dress is reminiscent of Starfleet uniforms]. Drax wants to kill Thanos, since Ronan is gone. And Peter finally opens his mom’s last present, with a letter that called him Star-Lord. He has a new tape to play (and Groot enjoys dancing to Jackson 5’s I Want You Back).
I’m not a big fan of the Guardians of the Galaxy, but I can appreciate the change in tone. It’s funnier and I do appreciate the music. The characters act more like humans, being honest when things are dumb. They’re honest that they’re not the most morally upright people, but they do recognize what is the right thing to do; as in saving thousands of innocent lives and that is actually more important than money. As Dey quotes Peter, they may be a-holes, but they’re not dicks (which, way to go for Marvel and Disney for letting the language slide).
I just, tend to prefer my heroes to be a little more, classically heroic. And the humor in this movie is not quite my brand of humor. But I can stand this better than some other films [like re-watching Thor:Love and Thunder recently and they just made Thor so incredibly stupid. He was not always that stupid; this is far better in comparison (and doesn’t have screaming goats for no good reason)].
This also happens to be my 200th post, which is a little mind-boggling. When I first had the idea to do this blog, I didn’t have a notion of how much it would encompass. I’m a little in awe of how much I’ve done, but also aware of how much more I want to do (we haven’t even hit Lord of the Rings yet, which has had a huge impact on me). This “exercise” also shows me that this is something I enjoy doing; I enjoying watching movies and talking about them and sharing little tidbits that I find out. And when my brain will focus, analyzing story or character aspects. So, thanks for coming along for the ride!
The second solo Captain America film, featuring Chris Evans as Steve Rogers, of course. Samuel L. Jackson returns as Nick Fury, as does Scarlett Johansson as Natasha Romanoff. Sebastian Stan is Bucky Barnes/Winter Solider. Acting legend Robert Redford is Alexander Pierce, Anthony Mackie joins as Sam Wilson and Emily VanCamp is Kate (or Agent 13).
We open with an early morning run in D.C., with Steve lapping another guy, constantly calling out “on your left.” [Apparently, Chris Evans had to do all his running because no one else runs like him.] We meet Sam Wilson, who easily jokes with Steve Rogers. Good to know that not everyone is awestruck and some people can treat him normally. He even notes that Steve’s bed is too soft at home, bonding as soldiers returned home. Steve does admit that some things are better in the present, such as food and no polio, but takes note of Sam’s suggestion in a notebook. Natasha soon comes to pick Steve up for a mission; they have to deal with a hostage situation on a secret SHIELD ship. Natasha, of course, attempts to set Steve up with various women around the office. Steve claims he’s too busy; then jumps out of the plane without a parachute. He easily takes guys out on the ship and Natasha swoops down and takes out a few guys. The rest of the team moves in and rescues the hostages while Steve then has to fight the pirate leader. It’s a rather good hand-to-hand fight, Steven even puts away the shield. Then he finds out Natasha is running her own mission as well, to save SHIELD data; he’s not too happy about not knowing.
Which he goes to Director Fury to talk about at SHIELD headquarters, known as the Triskelion [we saw the triple spiral design way back in Merlin; it’s a Celtic symbol]. In response, Nick shows Steve Project Insight: three helicarriers (with redesigned repulsor engines, thanks to Tony Stark after he got an inside look at the turbines) that will be synced to a network of targeting satellites, with guns that eliminate 1,000 hostiles a minute with a targeting system that can read one’s DNA. As Nick puts it “gonna neutralize a lot of threats before they even happen.” Steve points out, “thought the punishment comes after the crime.” Nick argues that SHIELD is taking the world as it currently is, and other generations, such as Steve’s, did a lot of bad in the name of good. Steve argues they did it so the future would be free: “this isn’t freedom, this is fear.” [And a lot of social commentary could be made. I will not be doing that, but it does make one’s stomach sink a little.]
To cool off, Steve takes his motorcycle to the Smithsonian (specifically, the Air and Space Museum), where they have an exhibit on Captain America. Steve disguises himself a bit to take it in, and stops in front of the wall memorializing Bucky. We catch a clip of a video with Peggy Carter, then Steve visits an aged Peggy, looking for advice; he’s not sure what is right anymore. Sadly, she has Alzheimer’s, and forget Steve is alive at one point. Steve eventually wanders into the end of one of Sam’s meetings at the VA; a support group. Steve admits he may be thinking of getting out, but he’s not sure what makes him happy at this point. Sam gets it.
Nick has his own problems; the data Natasha retrieved is sealed and won’t open even with his director override. So he visits his friend, Secretary Pierce, and wants to halt Project Insight until Nick knows it hasn’t been tampered with. Later, while driving, Nick calls Agent Hill and tells her he needs her in DC. Then his car is hit and blockaded by false police cars, joined by a SWAT team intent on breaking in (and the SUV continues to tell him all the broken parts, though the AC is functioning. Nick keeps his head and drives out, but is pursued. A man in a black mask eventually flips the vehicle, but Nick is able to cut his way out.
Steve returns home and manages to flirt a little with his neighbor, but is disturbed to find music playing in his apartment. So he sneaks in the window, ready to pounce, only to find Nick sitting in the dark, injured, and warning him the place is bugged. He feels SHEILD is compromised, and doesn’t get a chance to give details as he’s shot again through the wall. He passes the thumb drive off to Steve, his final warning is “don’t trust anyone.” Turns out, Steve’s neighbor is only posing as a nurse and is actually security stationed next door by Nick. Steve pursues the shooter, who manages to catch Steve’s shield; it’s the masked man from the road.
Natasha arrives at the hospital, joining Hill and Steve, watching Nick’s surgery. He flatlines and is declared dead. Steve manages to hide the drive, before he is requested back at SHIELD. He meets with Pierce, who explains his past with Nick, claiming friendship after Nick carried out an unauthorized military operation on foreign soil that saved political officers. With that in mind, Pierce asks Steve why Nick was at Steve’s apartment. Steve doesn’t know. But Pierce actually suspects Nick was dealing under the table and that raid on the SHIELD ship was all Nick’s idea, after he hired the pirates. As Pierce warns Steve about getting in the way, he remarks that sometimes to build a better world, the old one has to be torn down. Steve goes to leave the Triskelion, but his team enters the elevator. Steve notes behavior and realizes what is going on. “Before we get started, does anyone want to get off?” The men attack and try to cuff Steve and almost succeed once, but Steve gets free and takes out all the guys. But there are more waiting, so he has to crash through the outside of the glass elevator, saved from the fall by his shield. He dodges a quinjet and gets past their walls. SHIELD is now starting a manhunt for Captain America; his neighbor asks why. Pierce claims that Steve is lying about the investigation into Fury’s death and he’s now a fugitive.
Steve returns to the hospital to retrieve the data, but Natasha has already found it. So Steve confronts her; she knew the bullets they dug out of Nick, she knows who killed him. He’s a ghost to part of the intelligence world, but Natasha has run into him before, the Winter Solider. It convinces Steve, because they go on the run together. They hit an Apple store to attempt to read the data, and when that doesn’t work, they track a location that Steve is familiar with in New Jersey. When Natasha makes a crack about Steve stealing a car, he points out he learned in Nazi Germany. They end up at Camp Leigh, where Steve trained and he manages to spot that the munitions building is in the wrong location. It hides one of SHEILD’s first headquarters (complete with pictures of Colonel Phillips, Peggy, and Howard Stark). They find another secret bunker, filled with old computer equipment. Turns out, Hydra’s scientist, Zola, was hired by SHIELD after the war, which he used to keep Hydra going in secret, within SHIELD. When he grew ill, he downloaded his brain to the computer (not entirely sure how plausible that really is, but it’s a premise that has been used before; Batman Beyond did an episode like that). He still plans for Hydra to take over the world, when humanity surrenders its freedom willingly, when they sacrifice their freedom for security [again, some scary parallels]. He’s also stalling, so a missile can take out Natasha and Steve. They manage to dive below and Steve protects Natasha. Steve’s old team searches for them and calls in an “asset.” The asset is the Winter Solider, who stops at Pierce’s house for his next mission.
Steve takes Natasha to Sam Wilson, the one man he can trust at the moment; he’s not a part of SHIELD, but is a soldier. When Natasha comments “everyone we know is trying to kill us,” Sam responds “not everyone.” Sam eagerly offers to help when they lay the situation out in front of him. Those missions he told Steve about, he wasn’t in a plane, he was in a flight suit (which Steve and Natasha steal one for him to use). Sam gets SHIELD agent Sitwell (who does appear to be part of Hydra, along with that Senator we don’t like from Iron Man 2) to Steve and Nat, who kicks him off the building when he doesn’t answer. Sam pulls him up and Sitwell spills the plan. Zola’s algorithm will target people who can become a threat to SHIELD, using their past to predict future actions. But they’re interrupted from returning to SHIELD by the Winter Solider and his cronies. Cars explode and flip and our heroes have to dive out of their car onto Cap’s shield, then take off over a bridge to escape gunfire. After Nat shoots the Winter Soldier’s goggles, he goes after her. It’s cool to see Nat in action a bit, then she’s caught by a bullet. Steve steps in, the Soldier’s metal fist slamming into the shield. There are flips and turns and after the Soldier throws Cap’s shield, he brings out a knife and it goes hand-to-hand. In one flip, Steve tears off the Soldier’s (terrifying) black mask and reveals…Bucky. That name means nothing to the Solider. Steve freezes, though Sam flies in to kick the Solider away and Nat manages to use a grenade launcher. But they’re caught by SHIELD and arrested. Rumlow manages to get his men to not shoot Steve in the street when he realizes there are cameras around. Luckily for our heroes, Hill snuck into the team and gets them out.
She leads them to a dam and reveals that Nick is alive. Not in great shape, but alive. They formulate a plan to replace the targeting systems on the helicarriers. And Steve wants to take down SHIELD; all of it, it all goes. Nat’s with him and Sam give Nick “I do what he does, just slower.” Okay, Cap’s giving orders.
In the meantime, Bucky returns to his base. But he’s remembering his past (which is a bit disturbing); how Zola turned him into a weapon. Pierce and Rumlow visit (cementing that Pierce is a bad guy, if shooting his maid wasn’t enough). They want a mission report, but Bucky looks a bit lost. His target knew him, how was that? Pierce calls the Soldier’s work a gift to mankind; it shaped the century. But Bucky is still lost looking. He’s been out of cyro too long, so they must wipe his mind and start over. And that is not pleasant. Bucky’s screams echo.
While Bucky flashes back, Steve remembers the two of them after his mother’s funeral, Bucky offering his support and helping Steve out by remembering where the key is. He tells Steve that he doesn’t have to be alone. “I’m with you to the end of the line.” Sam comes out to talk to Steve; they need to stop the Solider. But Steve wants to save Bucky. Sam’s got his suit, so Steve needs one. He gets the one from the Smithsonian display (Stan Lee is the guard who’s probably going to get in trouble [and fans point out that Steve got the Captain suit that Bucky would recognize, not his more muted newer suit]).
The Council is at the Triskelion and listens to Steve’s announcement; he knows the truth, that SHIELD was taken over by Hydra. And he calls out Pierce and asks good people to stand up. He knows that the price of freedom is high and he’s willing to pay it and willing to be the only one. But he’s willing to be he’s not. When Rumlow threatens a tech, Steve’s neighbor is there to threaten Rumlow in return. A firefight breaks out and the carriers are launched early. Some people do try to stop Hydra agents, and Sam and Steve make for the carriers. Steve points out that they’ll know the bad guys by who’s shooting at them. Back with the Council, the woman fights back, and turns out to be Natasha in disguise, who stops Pierce. She also sets to dumping all of SHIELD and Hydra’s secrets onto the web. She’s also stalling for Fury to arrive, who is mad that his friend turned on him. He uses his bad eye retinal scan to help Natasha with her job.
Some pilots try to take off, but they’re stopped by Bucky, without the mask. Sam manages to get his two carriers changed before Bucky rips his wings off and he parachutes to the ground. Then Bucky goes after Steve. SHIELD is evacuating and Rumlow goes on the attack. Hill directs Sam to take care of him. Bucky manages to wound Steve several times, and Steve has to put Bucky in a stranglehold, hoping he’s out long enough for Steve to change the computer. They’re cutting it close to the wire, targets are acquired, including Bruce Banner and Tony Stark, and Bucky keeps shooting at Steve. The switch is made just in time for Hill to change the targets to the helicarriers. She warns Steve to get out, but Steve orders her to fire anyway. Bucky is pinned and Steve goes after him.
Nick shoots Pierce, after Natasha shocks herself to give Nick to opening. Pierce’s last words are “Hail Hydra.” Nick and Natasha escape, then fly by to pick up Sam after his fight with Rumlow when a carrier crashes into the building. Steve continues to try to get through to Bucky, but Bucky fights back. Steve takes off his helmet and drops the shield; “I’m not going to fight you. You’re my friend.” But Bucky still punches Steve. Steve’s bloodied and tells Bucky to finish it, “cause I’m with you to the end of the line.” Bucky’s eyes widen [this scene is used in the new National Treasure show]. The structure under Steve collapses and he falls into the water. Soon after, an arm pulls him out. Bucky saved Steve, but runs off.
We do see Steve recovering in a hospital, Sam sitting with him. Steve wakes up enough to quip “on your left.” We get clips of the aftermath, the neighbor agent at the CIA, Maria Hill interviewing at Stark Industries. The Senator is caught, and Rumlow happens to be rescued. Natasha is called to Capitol Hill and questioned (one of the guys questioning her is played by Steven Culp, who played Special Agent Clayton Webb in JAG). She tells them that they won’t put her or Steve in jail, because they need them. They are the best qualified to defend this world. Nick burns his storage shed and meets with Sam and Steve. If anyone comes looking for him, direct them to his gravesite. Natasha arrives and hands a file over to Steve, Bucky’s file. He and Sam leave to go find him. During the credits, we find out that a splinter group of Hydra has the scepter and has been working with it, including two teenagers in cells. Also, Bucky goes in disguise to the Smithsonian exhibit, most likely to try to find out why this guy knew him and who he was before the Winter Soldier.
On the one hand with this movie, I like Falcon entering, because it gives Steve another friend to count on. And I certainly like Bucky returning (and fuels loads of fanfics). On the other hand, I’m not fond of the political backstabbing part or the SHIELD is secretly Hydra part; that’s just depressing. These are superhero movies, where the good guys win and the bad guys lose. Yes, I understand that we want nuisances and a developed story, but to find out that the bad guys were hiding amongst the good guys makes us question everything now…and we already have to deal with that in the real world.
We do see some more action from Natasha, which is always cool. The fight sequences in this film are stupendous. And on the note of the fandom; I am totally down with the notion that Bucky and Steve are partners…and a bit more. I actually prefer that to Steve and Natasha hooking up, because that story is too easy. Mind you, Natasha keeps throwing out other names for Steve to start dating; she could be hinting that she wouldn’t mind hooking up, or else naming others so he won’t attempt to date her. They’re good friends and it is perfectly acceptable to have opposite gender friends that don’t cross a line. There are also several stories floating around about what other Avenger members were doing when the final battle was going on; for instance, what would Tony’s reaction be. He’d be mad that they misused his technology, and probably worried about Steve. He has no love lost for SHIELD. We’ll delve more into some of the character relationships as they develop through further films.
The second of the Marvel movies to specifically focus on Thor and continues to deal with the fallout of the events of The Avengers. Christopher Eccleston (the ninth Doctor in Doctor Who; the first of the revival run) is added to the cast as Malekith. Zachary Levi (he now stars in the Shazam films, he also voiced Eugene/Flynn Rider in Tangled) takes over as Fandral [Josh Dallas was committed to Once Upon a Time by that point and oddly, Zachary was originally supposed to play Fandral, but had backed out due to his commitment to another show at the time]. Odin gives us a history lesson at the beginning, explaining the Dark Elves, led by Malekith, who wanted to harness the Aether; an ancient force of infinite destruction, to destroy the universe. Odin’s father, King Bor, led the Asgardians in war against the Dark Elves. The Dark Elves had warriors, known as Kursed (a bit like Beserkers), who used capsules to be taken over by darkness and attack. A Convergence of the Nine Realms was the opportunity Malekith wanted to use the Aether, but Asgard used the Bifrost to take it from him. He sacrificed his own ships and people to destroy more Asgardians, and allow himself to escape. Asgard felt they had won. Bor tells his guards to bury the Aether; they do not have the power to destroy, but bury it deep where it cannot be found. [Bor was played, uncredited, by Tony Curran, who was Vincent van Gogh in two episodes of Doctor Who, as well as many other appearances in television shows.]
Back in the present, Loki appears before Odin in chains, though his mother pleads with him not to make the situation worse. Loki does not enjoy these chats with Odin. The Allfather passes judgment on Loki for his invasion of Earth; only because of Frigga will Loki be spared the axe, though he will never see her again as he is sentenced to life imprisonment in the dungeons of Asgard. Everywhere Loki goes, Odin claims, there is war, ruin, and death. Loki feels that humans are lesser than Asgardians, though Odin points out they themselves are not gods, for they too live and die. Give or take five thousand years, Loki quips. Besides, he was just attempting to claim the birthright that Odin fed him his childhood, that he was born to be a king; and his actions are not that different from what Odin has done [SPOILER; as we see in Ragnarök, there is truth to Loki’s statement]. Odin snaps back that Loki’s birthright was to die, on a frozen rock as a child. “If I had not taken you in, you would not be here now to hate me.” [Again, Anthony Hopkins is brilliant as a commanding ruler, first startling us by shouting, then keeping our attention by getting quiet.] Loki argues against Thor taking the throne of Asgard, calling his brother a witless oaf. Yes, Odin declares, once Thor is finished mopping up the mess Loki has started and bringing order back to the Nine Realms, Thor will take the throne as king of Asgard.
We find Thor doing precisely that. There is a battle raging on Vanaheim, with Sif and the Warriors Three all involved. Thor arrives via the Bifrost, though Sif argues they have everything under control. “Is that why everything is on fire?” Thor quips as he throws Mjölnir. The invaders let their largest warrior come forward, a rock-like creature. A swing from Mjölnir reduces him to pebbles. “Anyone else?” Nope, they surrender. Thor tells Hogun to stay with his people, and Thor and the other warriors return to Asgard (we hear part of the theme from the first movie as they return). Thor speaks to Odin, who tells him that the Nine Realms are at peace due to Thor’s actions; the realms are reminded of Asgard’s strength and Thor has earned their respect, as well as Odin’s gratitude. Yet, Odin does not agree with his son on his chosen love, even motioning to Sif as a worthy candidate. Furthermore, it is time for Thor to take the throne. He orders his son to revel and join his companions in their fun, or at least pretend to enjoy himself. (We enjoy a brief scene of Thor bathing…) and Thor tries what his father says.
Meanwhile, Jane Foster is in London, on a date, that is interrupted by Darcy showing her readings on her equipment. Her date encourages her to check the readings out. They eagerly set off and we discover that Erik Selvig is rambling a bit and found naked, at Stonehenge. (He later explains the Convergence to an audience in a psychiatric ward.) Jane’s readings bring them to an abandoned warehouse area and a spot of odd gravity. Jane continues to investigate and disappears, to another world, where a red glow (the Aether) jumps onto her. She collapses and Malekith’s ship awakens.
Turns out, Thor has been looking in on Jane with Heimdall. Heimdall informs his prince that Jane is tracking the Convergence, though she’s not aware of what it is. Troublingly, Heimdall cannot see her at the moment. Back on Earth, when Jane awakens, she finds out she’s been gone five hours and it’s now raining, except not on her. Thor arrives and Jane rushes to see him. She slaps him; first to make sure he’s real since it’s been a strange day, then, because he left. She saw he was in New York. His excuse of dealing with the chaos is not terrible. The two get closer and almost kiss, getting a bit confused, before getting interrupted by Darcy. The police try to arrest Jane, but when they go to touch her, something shoots them back. Thor takes Jane on the Bifrost to Asgard in order to protect her.
He takes her to his healers and Jane marvels at their magic that mimics science (look at Thor smile at her). Odin stops in, telling his son that mortal Jane does not belong on Asgard. Again, when the guards go to touch Jane, they’re blasted back. Odin is now concerned by the energy within Jane. Odin explains to Thor and Jane that what is within Jane is a relic that predates the universe. Before the dawn of the Nine Realms, the Dark Elves reigned absolute. Most of the relics appear as stones, but the Aether is fluid, and ever-changing. It changes matter to dark matter and Malekith wants to use it to turn the world back to darkness. But Odin’s father, Bor, defeated the Dark Elves. Thor points out that the Aether is returned, so maybe that story is not wholly true. Odin insists that the Dark Elves are dead (we already know that is not true).
In the lower levels of Asgard, Loki is in a cell in the dungeon. Frigga visits him and attempts to counsel him, but he eventually erupts that Odin is not his father. She points out, am I not your mother? He hesitates, then says no, and reveals that Frigga’s visit is only an illusion. [There is a lovely deleted scene where Thor witnesses his mother coming back from her visit and speaks to her of her hope for Loki. While Loki is not the boy she once knew, neither is Thor, and she loves them no less. Thor asks his mother if she regrets sharing her magic with him and she replies no. Thor and Odin cast large shadows and Frigga hoped that by sharing her gifts with Loki, he’d find some sun for himself. Thor wishes he could share his mother’s optimism and compassion.] Frigga later comes upon Thor and Jane speaking, and kissing. Jane likes the way Thor explains things, and he vows that he will save her; his father does not know everything.
Malekith’s strongest warrior is brought into the dungeons in Asgard alongside other mercenaries. He then goes berserk and breaks out. He releases other inmates, but eyes Loki and does not release him. So Loki suggests that he takes the stairs on the left. An invisible ship approaches, that Heimdall does not spot until it is at the Bifrost. He attempts to stop it, but it begins firing upon the city. Heimdall enacts a shield around the palace, but it is brought down by Kurse. One ship crashes into the palace and the Elves attack the guards; Malekith emerges. He apparently can sense the Aether and finds Frigga and Jane. He demands the return of the Aether, and Frigga fights him off with a dagger (another tool she passed along to Loki). Kurse arrives and grabs Frigga while Malekith confronts Jane, but she’s only an illusion. Kurse runs Frigga through, then Thor erupts into the room, scarring Malekith with lightning, but he and his loyal companion are able to escape.
Asgard mourns the loss of its queen. A guard is sent to Loki; we do not hear what is said [somewhere I read that Odin was first going to say that the queen is dead, but changed his mind to tell Loki that his mother is dead]; we witness Loki use magic to slam his furniture. Thor and Odin argue plans. Thor wants to take Jane to the Dark World, Svartalfheim, lure Malekith there to get the Aether out of Jane, and then destroy them both. Odin would rather wait for Malekith to return to Asgard “where he will fall upon ten thousand blades…. we will fight to the last Asgardian breath, the last drop of blood.” Thor doesn’t want to risk their people and asks his father how does that make him different than Malekith [SPOLIER: again, in Ragnarök, we see that this is what Odin was like ages ago, more ruthless and bloodthirsty.]
Thor gathers his friends and continues with his plan. He also goes to Loki, for he will need his help to get out of Asgard. He sees through his brother’s calm illusion. Loki reveals that he is a mess after Frigga’s death; his feet bloody and his room destroyed. Thor offers Loki vengeance in return for helping Thor escape. “You must be truly desperate to come to me for help,” Loki retorts. Thor is clear that he doesn’t trust Loki, but their mother did. And warns his brother that when they fought in the past, he held a glimmer of hope to retrieve the brother he knew, but now he knows he will not. “You betray me and I will kill you.” Loki grins, “when do we start?” Loki disguises himself as he walks alongside Thor; first as a guard, then turns Thor into Sif, who cracks that it will hurt no less when he kills Loki in that form. So Loki turns himself into one of Thor’s new friends, since he likes them so much; he chooses Captain America [and it is hilarious and keep in mind that Tom Hiddleston first recorded the scene and Chris Evans had to mimic his over-the-top performance] and wants to have a rousing discussion about truth and honor. Thor shushes his brother and instead of giving him a dagger, puts cuffs on him.
Sif retrieves Jane, who slaps Loki upon seeing him for his actions in New York. Loki simply smirks and says “I like her.” Heimdall distracts Odin with a report of treason, his own. Sif stays behind to give Loki, Thor, and Jane time to escape, though Sif stops Loki to inform him “betray [Thor] and I’ll kill you.” Loki chuckles. Volstagg is waiting to also defend Thor and also warns Loki that he’ll kill him if he betrays Thor. “Evidently, there will be a line.” Thor uses the Dark Elves’ ship to escape, but he doesn’t handle it well. Loki is a backseat driver…and this is honestly my favorite part of the movie; their bickering is so typical of siblings: “now they’re following us, now they’re firing at us.” “Thank you for the commentary Loki, it’s not at all distracting.” And when Thor crashes into a statue of Bor, Loki snarks “you just decapitated your grandfather.” The strain of the Aether is draining Jane and she passes out on the ship. When Loki berates Thor for his plan, Thor pushes him out of the ship, then calmly jumps out after with Jane. Fandral catches them in a skiff, then has to exit so the others can escape. Loki steers them to his secret passage, seemingly straight into a cliff. Thor’s a little worried. “If it were easy, everyone would do it,” Loki says. Thor asks his brother “are you mad?” “Possibly.” But the passage works and they land on Svartalfheim with a “ta da.”
The brothers fall into an argument, Loki first pointing out that even if the Aether doesn’t kill Jane today, even if it’s a hundred years, Thor will never be ready to lose her (let’s point out that Odin simply dismisses Thor’s feelings for Jane and directs to someone Odin deems worthy, while Loki is validating Thor’s feelings yet cautioning him about heartbreak). Their argument turns to their love of their mother, Thor pointing out that while Loki had Frigga’s tricks, Thor had her trust. Loki responds that Frigga’s last actions were a magical trick; something Loki would have done. Thor argues back that Loki was in a cell when Frigga was killed, to which Loki demands “who put me there!” “You know damn well who,” Thor pushes his brother, fist poised to punch. But he holds back; “she wouldn’t want us to fight.” “Well,” Loki drawls, “she wouldn’t exactly be shocked.” Thor laments that he can’t trust Loki. Loki assures him, “trust my rage.”
Before they appear before Malekith, Thor returns Loki’s daggers and uncuffs him. Then Loki stabs Thor and claims he wants him dead, cutting off Thor’s hand before Mjölnir can return to him. Loki then throws Jane before Malekith, asking to watch Asgard burn. Kurse supports Loki’s claim, since he saw him in the dungeons. Malekith draws the Aether out of Jane, after which Thor calls to Loki. It was an illusion and Thor regains his hand and hammer, then lights up the Aether (Loki covering Jane), and for a minute, we think Thor’s plan worked.
It did not. Malekith possesses the Aether and begins to leave. Kurse throws a device that essentially creates a black hole. Loki pushes Jane out of the way and starts to get sucked in, looking very much like he did before he fell into the void at the end of the first Thor movie. Thor rescues his brother and they fight off the Dark Elves; Thor focusing on Kurse. When Loki spots his brother in trouble, he stabs Kurse. Kurse turns around and stabs Loki, but Loki vows to see him in Hel; he placed one of the black hole bombs on Kurse and he gets sucked away. Thor holds Loki as his skin grows ashen. Loki apologizes to Thor; Thor shushes him and says he will tell Odin what Loki did. Loki didn’t do it for him. His eyes close and Thor yells in grief.
Thor and Jane take cover in a cave and attempt to regroup. Surprisingly, Jane’s cell phone rings. It happens to be the guy she went on a date with, but with cell reception, she must be close to something from Midgard. They find the gravity well and return to Earth. Darcy, and her “intern” Ian retrieve Erik from the psychiatric ward. They all meet up and Erik reveals that the ancient civilization had left clues to where the Convergence would appear…Greenwich. [Except all his markers are based in Britain and there was more than one ancient civilization, so I’m not sure how Greenwich became the spot.] Malekith’s ship arrives, becoming visible as it runs aground and the Convergence begins. Thor takes on Malekith and the rest place Erik’s stabilizing spikes, which Jane uses to play with gravity. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t, so the battle takes place throughout different realms, such as a missile from a jet lands in Vanaheim. Mjölnir goes flying at times while Thor is elsewhere. Malekith beings to prepare the Aether and Thor takes Jane’s last spikes and uses them to send Malekith’s body parts to different realms, breaking him up. He may not be able to destroy the Aether, but he can destroy Malekith. The last spike is rammed into Malekith, hammered by Mjölnir. The resulting blast knocks Thor out and Jane runs to him, but Malekith’s ship starts to fall. Erik uses the gravity well one last time to send it away, actually to Svartalfheim, where it falls on Malekith.
Thor reports back to Odin on Asgard. Odin asks, “what can Asgard offer its new king?” Thor wants his life. He cannot be king, he feels, though he will protect the Nine Realms with all he has to offer. Truthfully, Loki was better suited for the throne. Thor declares “I would rather be a good man, than a great king.” Odin despairs, he had one son who wanted the throne too much and now one who will not take it. Thor vows to live with honor, like Loki died with honor; that is Odin’s legacy. Thor offers Odin Mjölnir, but Odin tells him it belongs to him, so long as he is worthy. Thor will strive to be. Odin dismisses Thor; he cannot give his son his blessing, nor wish him good fortune; “If I were proud of the man my son has become, even that I could not say, it would speak only from my heart.” After Thor leaves, Odin shimmers and becomes Loki (he had transformed into a guard earlier to report to Odin his own death…we’re not quite sure how Loki survived; if his death was real for a minute or two, or simply another illusion). He grins and thanks the departing Thor.
We see Sif and Volstagg visit an odd place and meet someone called the “Collector.” They hand over the Aether, since Asgard’s vault already holds the Tesseract and it would not be wise to keep two Infinity Stones so close together. After they depart, the Collector says “one down, five to go.” Yes, this is setting up Infinity War and shows that it has been a game plan since Iron Man and Captain America at the very least. Jane does get a happy ending, with Thor returning via Bifrost and kissing her. The end of the credits declare that Thor will return.
This film gets a lot of flak, some of which I get behind, but I like it better than some others in the MCU. Malekith is not a well-defined villain, aside from general bad guy who wants to destroy the world. There was a different storyline that fleshed him out, but it was abandoned due to other scenes. It has been pointed out that Jane and Thor’s relationship is a bit flimsy; they spent only a few days together, but that is often how these stories go. I’m glad we saw more of Frigga and gave her things to do and she battled. Of course, I adore the expansion on Loki and show him a multi-faceted and the bickering between him and Thor is hilarious. And I want to believe he was sincere in his farewell to his brother as he faded away. And you have to admit, he plays a convincing Odin. Yes, he sent Thor away, but it is what Thor wanted. Does it also aid Loki’s schemes? Yes. But he wasn’t so out of character that Thor was suspicious [like Dean knew the demon was possessing John Winchester in season one of Supernatural because the demon said he was proud of Dean…which is a bit sad, but not the point of this blog.]
So what are your feelings? Do you like Loki? There is a featurette on the Blu-ray disc about the Brother’s Journey. Thor’s is one of humility, while Loki’s is an attempt to get his life back after his fall from grace. Loki has always desired to be Thor’s equal, and they point out that if Odin had trusted his children and not kept it a secret so long, he wouldn’t have this trouble now. One brother rose to be a hero, while the other descended to become a villain. And that is a fascinating aspect [which is why I want to write an essay of sorts examining brotherly dynamics in our favorite stories]. The producers also wanted to show Asgard as a mix of medieval and science fiction (and I love that, also for story purposes). The brothers’ fight on the Dark World shows that they have the same goal (avenging their mother), but different ways to go about it. And that fight exposes who they both are. Thor made use of Loki’s illusions and let Loki play the villain, but also trusted Loki to keep his end of the bargain. Loki saved Jane twice and Thor saved Loki as well. Showing that despite their difference and the gulf between them, they are still brothers. It’s hard to throw away centuries of teamwork.
We’ve still got plenty of MCU to go. Up Next: Captain America: Winter Solider
Draws on what happened in The Avengers. Ben Kinglsey (Nizam in Prince of Persia, he appeared in The Last Legion and Schindler’s List. There is also a video of him singing “Shall We Dance” with Julie Andrews from The King and I) is added to the cast as Trevor Slattery. Miguel Ferrer (Assistant Director Granger from NCIS:LA; he sadly passed away in 2017) appears as the Vice President.
Tony voice-overs the opening of the film, stating “we create our own demons.” And with I’m Blue playing, we flashback to New Year’s Eve of 1999 in Bern, Switzerland. Tony, accompanied by a mullet-wearing Happy, had made a presentation and is thoroughly enjoying the after party, even bumping into Yensen (a callback to the first Iron Man movie). Then he comes across a pretty girl who asks questions about research. They move the party upstairs, though Tony is briefly approached by Aldrich Killian, who has a proposal for a think tank, named AIM. Tony is briefly intrigued, but moves on to going over the pretty girl’s research, which examines the healing center of the brain, and she calls the project Extremis. Extremis has explosive results. Getting so caught up in the research, Tony forgets to meet Killian.
Fast forward to the present, post Battle of New York world, Tony is working on more suits. The latest is the Mark 42, which is supposed to come to him piece by piece, guided by chips implanted in his arm. There are a few errors, but then Tony has been awake 72 hours. But the world doesn’t rest; the Ten Rings have reappeared and taken over the airways, with their leader, the Mandarin calling out Americans and warning “you’ll never see me coming.” The President immediately announces that Captain Rhodes will be handling the situation as the Iron Patriot. Tony has to meet his friend afterwards, but Rhodey is worried about Tony; he’s showing signs of PTSD, having panic attacks and flashbacks. Tony tries to laugh them off in public and flies off before he has to deal with it.
In the meantime, Pepper is still CEO of Stark Industries, with Happy as her chief of security, which he takes seriously. And he gets bad vibes from her meeting with Aldrich Killian and his bodyguard, and reports such to Tony. Pepper wisely turns down Killian’s proposal on Extremis, feeling it is too weaponizable. When she returns home, she finds Tony in his workshop and he’s trying to make this relationship work, admitting he’s a hot mess. He loves her and just wants to protect her; that’s why there’s multiple suits; he can’t live without her. Pepper gives him a chance, until he has nightmares in bed and unconsciously calls his suit to him, scaring Pepper.
Happy follows his hunch and follows the bodyguard, who’s doing some sort of deal. Happy pockets something, then gets in a fight with the guard until the other man heats up and explodes. Happy is gravely injured and Tony takes a place by his side, informing the nurse to ensure that everyone is wearing their security badge, something Happy is a stickler about. Oh, and Happy thinks Downton Abbey is romantic, so keep him playing. Tony is greeted by reporters outside the hospital [one of whom is Kim Holderness, who has a YouTube channel with her husband with funny skits now]. The Mandarin has already claimed the attack (and the videos are a bit terrifying). Tony has a response; he’s not afraid of the Mandarin and he’s coming for him, good old-fashioned revenge. He even gives the Mandarin his home address.
Once home, Tony has JARVIS compile a Mandarin database and examine the attacks associated with the terrorist. There are several bombs that have detonated, like the one at the Chinese Theatre with high heat, but no bomb parts found. Happy, in his last conscious moments, pointed to a clue for Tony and JARIVS finds a similar case in Tennessee. Until there is a woman at the door; Maya. Pepper, of course, wants to leave. Their discussion is interrupted by helicopters outside that shoot missiles into Tony’s home. Tony calls the suit, but has it cover Pepper, and in turn, she protects Tony, until he gets her to safety and calls the suit to him. Tony manages to take out the helicopters as the house crumbles around him and he drops into the water. He manages to shoot out of the water, but no one seems him. He passes out and wakes up as he crashes in Tennessee. The suit is low on power and JARVIS shuts off, so Tony drags the suit behind him until he finds a pay phone to leave Pepper a message. Then he finds a seemingly deserted shed. Turns out, not so deserted, it’s got a kid, Harley. Tony convinces Harley to help him (cause what kid is going to turn down the chance to help Iron Man?)
Meanwhile, Pepper talks to Maya about why she came to the house (she did get Tony’s message and knows he’s alive, but let’s the media say he’s presumed dead). Maya thinks her boss, Aldrich Killian, works for the Mandarin. When they find a hotel, Aldrich shows up and captures Pepper. Maya indeed works for Killian and yes, she went to Tony for help. She needs him to fix the glitch in Extremis.
Tony investigates the explosion site in Tennessee, though Harley pesters him with questions about the Avengers and New York and causes Tony to have another panic attack. Tony visits the victim mom, assuring her that her son was innocent, until another woman tries to arrest him. He battles her; she’s another one that will glow, as well as Killian’s bodyguard. He tires to take Harley prisoner, but Harley uses Tony’s bully defense sparkler to get away. Tony’s got the information he wanted and instructs Harley to guard the Iron Man suit. Tony realizes that AIM, Killian’s company is behind this, with the Extremis program, and calls Rhodey. Rhodey’s a little busy, being Iron Patriot all over the Middle East, looking for the Mandarin, who put out another video, threatening to execute a man. Even though the President called, the Mandarin still shot him (we don’t actually see that part). Iron Patriot is taken down in one of the buildings he’s investigating.
This causes Tony to have another panic attack, and luckily, JARVIS is running enough to help him out, with some assistance from Harley. JARVIS’s system is showing the Mandarin’s messages originating in Miami. Harley suggests that Tony builds something, since he’s a mechanic. So Tony showcases his genius again in making an arsenal out of what he can find at a hardware store (recalling that “box of scraps” comment from the first movie). He enters the compound in Miami and finds the set of the Mandarin videos. And that the Mandarin is actually just an actor hired to play a role. And yes, Killian was behind it; a custom-made terror threat. The bodyguard enters and captures Tony. Tony sees Maya again, who reveals that Tony had jotted down an equation all those years ago and hence why she thought Tony could help. But Tony doesn’t remember the equation and tries to appeal to Maya. Killian enters and credits Tony with creating him; leaving him on the roof in Switzerland made him desperate and he decided to rule from behind. He gave evil a face and a target in creating the Mandarin. He’s planning on opening the Iron Patriot suit and he will own the war on terror, creating supply and demand. Oh, and he’s given Pepper Extremis. Maya threatens to kill herself to protect her work; Killian shoots her anyway.
The clock is ticking. Tony calls the suit to him (which is hilariously delayed), but he still takes out the guards and makes his way back through the compound (one guard easily gives up; he’s had enough weird) to find Rhodey. They have to find the President, who is now on Air Force One with someone he thinks is Iron Patriot. Iron Man arrives in time to rescue the people falling from the plane [pretty cool]. Then he’s hit by a truck; it’s not actually Tony in the suit, he’s controlling it from a distance. They continue to make their way to the shipping yard where Killian is staging the murder of the President. Rhodey is no slouch in sneaking on and taking out guards, with Tony backing him out. Then Tony’s other suits arrive, all controlled by JARVIS and the action really begins. Tony uses this as a chance to find Pepper, who is trapped. He almost has her, then she falls into a fire. Rhodey, in the meantime, rescues the President. Tony goes after Killian, switching suits as he needs to (because Tony cannot go against Killian as Extremis in just his human form; the suits come in handy and he can take on more dangerous enemies). Killian mocks Tony, that Killian was trying to improve Pepper. Tony retorts that no, he didn’t deserve her, and she was already perfect. Tony gets Killian in one of the suits and blows it up. It does not stop Killian, though he admits to the Mandarin plot. Just as Killian is about to deal the final blow, Pepper to the rescue! She knocks Killian out, then takes on the suit and blows up Killian. Her comment at the end? “That was really violent.” Now she’s the hot mess. Tony quips, it’s still debatable; she’s in a relationship with him. He promises to fix her; he almost had it while he was drunk years ago, and this is what he does, he fixes things. He then has JARVIS blow all the suits.
The story wraps up with Rhodey arresting the Vice President, who was in on the kidnapping of the President since his daughter would have benefitted from Extremis. Tony got Pepper sorted out, then has surgery to finally remove the shrapnel from his chest and remove the arc reactor. And Happy wakes up and Harley gets an updated lab. Tony theorizes that his armor and tools can be taken away, but no one can take away the fact that “I am Iron Man.” And this is all revealed to be Tony talking to Bruce (who fell asleep).
This is not my favorite Marvel movie, or Iron Man movie; there’s just too many things going on at the same time. However, I do like seeing more of Tony Stary, rather than just an Iron Man suit. While the suit is helpful, he’s no slouch outside of it. There are a few things that I don’t get why the character had to do; like why did Tony have to destroy all of his suits? He just proved how helpful they are and he doesn’t have to be in them all the time. And while I think it’s great that Tony no longer has the shrapnel in his chest, I was a bit sad to see the arc reactor just thrown in the ocean. And kind of missed seeing the other Avengers. I get that these are their individual movies again, but some crossover would have been nice. For instance, when Pepper is standing in the ruined mansion, alone. No one came to check on her? Or attempt to find Tony?
The big crossover movie for Marvel. The big stars are back, though Edward Norton is notably replaced by Mark Ruffalo (I think the only other film I had seen him in before this was 13 Going on 30) to play Bruce Banner; this casting sticks for the rest of the MCU. Cobie Smulders joins as Agent Maria Hill, a new character. The film is also notably directed by Joss Whedon (responsible for Firefly and its movie Serenity, along with Buffy the Vampire Slayer and its spin-off Angel. He wrote several other MCU stories, as well as Toy Story, Atlantis: The Lost Empire and 2017’s Justice League).
This film quickly became iconic. There are so many bits and scenes that remain popular and funny. And the theme is totally awesome for this movie.
It opens with a deep voice announcing “the Tesseract has awakened;” reporting to a leader. Their ally is handed a staff to lead an army against another world. The universe will be handed to this leader and the humans will burn. Next, we’re at S.H.I.E.L.D. facility in the midst of evacuation, with Director Fury arriving on the scene (with the first strains of the theme playing) to find out that the Tesseract is “behaving” as Selvig puts it. Fury directs Agent Maria Hill to give priority to the mysterious Phase Two, because “until such time as the world ends, we will act as though it intends to spin on.” It’s Barton, from his nest who points out to Fury that the Tesseract is a door to space, and doors open from both sides; meaning this energy spike is from somewhere in space. Then the Tesseract creates a portal and Loki emerges, holding a scepter and wearing a manic grin [note the condition that Loki is in at this point; he’s not at peak form]. He soon attacks the agents, but finds that Barton has heart. So he uses the scepter to turn Barton, while Fury takes the Tesseract. Loki announces himself, proclaiming he is “burdened with glorious purpose.” He comes with “glad tidings, of a world made free…of freedom. Freedom is life’s great lie, once you accept that in your heart, you will know peace.” He turns Selvig (who perks up at the mention of Asgard and realizes that Loki is Thor’s brother.) Barton picks up that Fury is stalling, then shoots him in order to take the Tesseract. Loki and his new followers leave and are almost free until Fury alerts Hill that Barton has turned.
This starts a car chase, made more dangerous by the facility collapsing. Fury gets out and takes a helicopter after Loki, who just shoots it out of the sky with his scepter. Fury jumps out, Hill barely manages to keep from getting smashed and Coulson is with the last truckload of people. Fury immediately begins coordinating S.H.I.E.L.D.; they are now at war. Cue the title card and more of the theme.
We check in on Natasha as the Black Widow next, tied to a chair being interrogated. Until a phone rings; it’s for her and she’s actually interrogating the men. She has to end it quickly because Coulson informs her that Barton has been compromised. Coulson holds while Natasha beats up the guys, even still attached to the chair, until she breaks it and uses it as a weapon. In stocking feet and a dress. This woman is badass. She’s sent to India to collect the “big guy,” and no, it’s not Stark. It’s Bruce Banner; Fury wants his help tracking the Tesseract, which is emitting levels of gamma radiation.
Meanwhile, Fury is meeting with a shadowy council, doing his best to make them understand that a threat has landed on Earth. He has put together a response team; which one man retorts “you’re going to leave the fate of the world to a handful of freaks.” Fury firmly believes that this group will be the response team the world needs with the right push. When they call him out on sentimentality, Fury confirms that wars are won by soldiers. So we’re back in the gym with Steve, getting his orders to save the world from Fury. Steve recognizes the Tesseract as Hydra’s secret weapon. Fury reveals that Howard Stark was the one to retrieve the cube from the ocean and was the first to make the argument that it is the key to unlimited, sustainable energy…hence SHIELD investigating it. Steve retorts they should have left it in the ocean.
And speaking of energy…Stark is pulling his new building from the power grid, demonstrating self-sustaining clean energy and celebrating with Pepper. Coulson interrupts their moment (or, 12% of moment) and gives Tony homework with files on the Avengers Initiative and Tony recognizes the blue Tesseract cube, (which Howard had made notes on as we saw in Iron Man 2). Coulson next brings Steve to Natasha and Bruce aboard an aircraft carrier. Except it’s not a true aircraft carrier, it’s a helicarrier and it can fly, and disappear using reflective panels. Steve gives Fury ten bucks as payoff on a bet about how the world has gotten stranger.
Meanwhile, Selvig is set up in a new lab and Loki is receiving orders [again note, Loki is not the one behind this attack and he still does not look like he’s at peak performance], trying to prove his worth to the alien spokesperson. They “rescued” Loki from his defeat. They care not for his desire to rule for they look to worlds that will be revealed by the Tesseract. He warns Loki that if he fails “there will be no realm, no barren moon, no crevice where he can’t find you. You think you know pain? He will make you long for something as sweet as pain.” Barton helps set up their next mission in Stuttgart, Germany…he’ll need an eyeball. Loki attends a museum gala, then attacks the curator and uses a device to read his retina. Barton uses the data to enter a vault and steal iridium. Loki enjoys the chaos, uses magic to transform his garb, and makes the crowd kneel outside. “Is this not your natural state? It is the unspoken truth of humanity that you crave subjugation. The bright lure of freedom diminishes your life’s joy in a mad scramble for power, for identity. You were made to be ruled. In the end, you will always kneel.” [This is the voice that delivers Shakespeare’s speeches with perfection.] One old man rises and stands up to Loki, saying they will not kneel to men like Loki. Just as Loki is about to make an example of the man (who is canonically a Holocaust survivor), Captain America shows up, quipping the last time he was in Germany and a man was standing above everyone else, they ended up disagreeing. The two trade shots back and forth and are interrupted by Shoot to Thrill and the arrival of Iron Man. He manages to knock down Loki, who surrenders, transforming his clothing once again to something subtler than a cape and a helmet with gold horns.
Natasha pilots the Quinjet to bring Tony, Steve, and Loki back to the helicarrier; they hit a storm. Loki is a bit nervous, which Steve picks up on. Loki is “not overly fond of what follows” lightning. Cue Thor’s entrance into the Quinjet and grabbing Loki. Tony immediately grabs the helmet to his suit, to which Steve cautions they need a plan of attack. Tony has a plan, attack. Natasha suggests that Steve sits that bout out; they’re basically gods, she cautions. Steve retorts that there’s only one God, and he doesn’t look like that, hiking up a parachute. Thor attempts to reason with Loki, demanding where the Tesseract is. Loki quips that Thor should be glad because now he has a reason to be sent to Earth by Odin. Thor is not in a gaming mood, he plainly states he thought Loki dead and yes, he mourned for him [you can make out the relief image of Loki’s helmet embossed on his vambraces later], as did their father. Loki cuts Thor off; Odin is not his father, or did he not inform Thor of Loki’s true parentage. It doesn’t matter to Thor; Loki is his brother; they were raised together, played together, fought together. Loki once again cuts off his brother; all he remembers is being in the shadow of Thor’s greatness, blaming him for falling off the Bifrost [you can hear ravens briefly; a sign maybe Odin is listening?]. Loki chuckles when Thor claims the Earth is under his protection; “you’re doing a marvelous job of that. The humans slaughter each other in droves, while you idly fret. I mean to rule them.” Yes, he believes himself to be above humans. Thor gently chides Loki that he misses the point of ruling, “the throne would suit you ill.” Loki lashes out at Thor again; he’s seen the truth of the Tesseract in his exile; which Thor picks up as someone is behind Loki’s scheme. He demands who is behind the would-be king and begs Loki to come home. For a second, Loki is serious, then grins; he’s sent the Tesseract away, he knows not where. Thor urges Loki to listen, but his next statement is cut off when Iron Man tackles him. Loki simply stands there, “I’m listening,” then watches the two face off below.
Tony demands Thor return Loki, at least until they get the Tesseract and then he’s all Asgard’s. When Tony quips “tourist,” Thor throws Mjölnir. The two start pummeling each other, though when Iron Man gets hit by Thor’s lightning, his suit is now at 400% power, interesting. Steve drops in to break up the fight, but when he asks Thor to put down his hammer, Tony tries to warn him. Thor puts down the hammer, on Captain America’s vibranium shield, which causes a blast wave and more damage to the forest. See, it’s funny here when superheroes fight because they’re all men who are used to leading and others following, and they haven’t sat down and made peace yet (it’s later on, down the road that we dislike them fighting). And it does answer the question of what would happen if Thor’s hammer met Steve’s shield.
They settle down and bring Loki in; Fury sticks him in an impenetrable glass capsule. Our leads start discussing the real issue. Thor informs them of Loki’s plan to lead the Chitauri army in return for the Tesseract, which Bruce surmises he needs to make another portal, but there are some science barriers he has to overcome, which Tony picks up on. Yes, he became an expert on thermonuclear astrophysics overnight, because he’s that good. Oh, and he plants something on Fury’s computer. Bruce makes a crack about the crazy on Loki and Thor defends his brother. Natasha points out “he killed 80 people in two days.” Well…he’s adopted. Tony bonds with Bruce over science, which just confuses everyone else. Steve points out that Loki’s scepter works an awful lot like Hydra weapons and Fury confirms it is powered by the Tesseract and he’d like to know “how Loki used it to turn two of the sharpest men I know into his personal flying monkeys.” Thor may not understand that reference, but Steve does. He’s proud, cause there’s a lot of references he doesn’t get in this modern world.
Tony and Bruce work together well and Tony invites Bruce to Stark Industries in New York for research and development. Bruce declines, since the last time he was in New York, he kind of broke Harlem. Steve walks in when Tony pokes Bruce, reprimanding him for putting people at risk because he wants to see if Bruce will Hulk out. No, this is Tony not being afraid of Bruce and recognizing that there is a man behind the monster. Also, Bruce wouldn’t have come aboard if he couldn’t handle a few prods. Tony continues to say that he doesn’t trust Fury; Bruce concurs that there is something fishy going on because why is S.H.I.E.L.D. in the energy field and why didn’t they bring Tony onboard earlier? (And the blueberry bit is Robert Downey Jr keeping snacks on set and sharing). It does make Steve suspicious, so he goes snooping.
Natasha goes to speak to Loki, hoping to get information out of him about Barton; she owes him a debt for making a different call when he was sent to kill her years ago. Loki points out that she is bargaining for one man when the fate of the world hangs in the balance. “Regimes fall every day, I tend not to weep over that, I’m Russian,” she quips. Oh, but Loki knows about the Black Widow, thanks to Barton. Loki won’t touch Barton, until he kills Natasha in every way she fears, and then, when he sees what he’s done, he’ll split his skull (and calls Natasha a word that Frigga would not approve of). At his monster quip, Natasha infers that he means to release the Hulk.
Everyone ends up in the scepter room, Fury angry about Tony hacking his system. Steve reveals that Phase 2 is S.H.I.E.L.D. uses the cube to make weapons, like Hydra did. Fury blames that move on Thor. S.H.I.E.L.D. learned that not only are we not alone, we are hopelessly and hilariously outgunned. Thor argues back that S.H.I.E.L.D.’s work with the Tesseract is what drew attention; it is a signal to all the realms that the Earth is ready for a higher form of war. Tony argues that a nuclear deterrent never works and Steve gets a crack in. Thor quips that he thought humans were higher evolved than this bickering. It devolves into everyone speaking over each other, though there is a crack in there about Captain America is really on a threat watchlist? Steve and Tony really rub each other wrong; Steve quips that they’ll go around when Tony puts on the suit, because under that suit, what is Tony. He retorts he’s a genius, billionaire, playboy, philanthropist. Thor watches this and chuckles; “you people are so petty. And tiny.” Then attention turns to Bruce when he calls Fury out on the capsule as a way to kill the Hulk if necessary. But no one can; Bruce has tried (and watch everyone’s faces react). He got really low once and wanted to end everything. The “other guy” spit out the bullet. As he gets worked up, he grabs the scepter. When Steve calls him on it, he puts it down. Just as they get a location on the Tesseract, there is an explosion.
While the heroes were fighting, Barton leads a team against the Helicarrier, locked in on the scepter. Now Tony complies when Steve tells him to put on the suit. Barton knocks out of the helicarrier’s engines. Tony and Steve go to fix that, Steve keeping bad guys off of Tony’s tail while Tony does repairs midflight. The explosion sent Natasha, Bruce, and Thor through the floor. Bruce Hulks out near Natasha and chases her around the lower levels. Thor tackles the Hulk and gets some hits in with Mjölnir. Fury sends a pilot as a distraction before the Hulk can tear the carrier apart. It works, for a minute, but the shots make the target angry and Hulk leaps at the plane. He eventually pulls the pilot out and flings him away (chute opening safely) and the plane crashes, flinging the Hulk another direction. Thor then goes to confront Loki, who uses his duplicating skill to trick his brother. “Are you ever not going to fall for that?” Loki sends Thor hurtling towards the ground in the capsule. Barton is aboard and one of his arrows takes down S.H.I.E.L.D.’s system and the helicarrier begins to fall to the earth as well. Fury sends Natasha after Barton, then directs someone to turn the helicarrier around so they’re over water. They protest that navigation is down. “Is the sun coming up? Then put it on the left [proving that sometimes, the old ways are still best.]” Clint and Natasha know each other’s moves well enough to dodge some. They’re at an impasse until Natasha bites Barton, flips over him, and runs him into a pipe. And a second time for good measure.
Coulson goes after Loki, but he uses his duplication again and stabs Coulson from behind. Coulson predicts Loki will lose. Fury finds Coulson as his associate argues about his belief in the team. Loki has escaped with the scepter, though Barton is now onboard. Steve and Tony managed to work together, Tony getting the last guy shooting who had Steve pinned down (after pinging around the engine for a minute like a pin ball). Fury throws bloody Captain America trading cards at the ones left. Fury admits that yes, an arsenal was in the works, but he was betting on the Avengers Initiative, to fight the battles that humans couldn’t. But, it’s obvious now that the team couldn’t get along; maybe his idea was an old-fashioned notion.
Steve and Tony visit where Coulson died, Tony remarking that the man was an idiot for not waiting for back-up; he was obviously no match for Loki. Neither of them trust Fury and come to the point that Loki was making this battle personal. He’s a diva, Tony points out, and wants his name in lights. Which means, he’s going after Stark’s tower. He repairs his suit, Steve finds the suit Coulson designed, Natasha speaks to Clint and they agree to accompany Steve as they steal a Quinjet. A security guard finds Bruce and gives him some words of wisdom.
Everyone begins to make their way to Stark Tower, where Erik is set up to make another portal with the Tesseract. Tony arrives first and trades barbs with Loki, pointing out that he managed to piss off the Avengers, “Earth’s mightiest heroes and all that.” Made up of a demi-god, a super solider, a man with breath-taking anger management issues, and a couple master assassins. Loki quips, “I have an Army.” Tony comes back with “we have a Hulk,” and there is no version where Loki will come out on top, because even if they can’t protect the Earth, they will make damn sure they’ll avenge it. Loki attempts to control Tony, but his reactor protects him, so Loki chucks him out the window. Tony’s newest suit manages to catch up with him before he goes splat.
Selvig gets the portal open and the Chitauri army begins to fly through. Thor arrives in his full armor and trades strikes with Loki. After Loki fires at the Quinjet, Thor tries once more to reason with his brother, pointing out the madness going on around them. Loki states it’s too late to stop them. Thor pleads that they can stop it, together. We think for a minute Loki will join his brother; instead, he stabs him, murmuring sentiment. Thor ups the ante and throws Loki around, who eventually rolls off the tower and into his army.
When Steve, Natasha, and Clint crash, they immediately set to helping the civilians fleeing the scene. Steve tries to give orders to the police, who question who he is until he smacks down a few aliens. Natasha and Clint fall into helping each other, Natasha quipping about Budapest. She and Clint remember that very differently, he cracks. Steve soon joins them again, along with Thor and Bruce arrives. Tony is pleased and tells Bruce to suit up, he’s bringing the party to them, meaning a whale-like creature. Natasha is not sure how that’s a party, but they gear up. Steve tells Bruce it may be time to get angry, to Hulk out. Bruce’s secret is actually that he’s always angry, to which he transforms and punches the whale (and the theme gears up). Our heroes circle up (iconic image) as the Chitauri yell at them. Tony tells Cap to give the orders. Thor is use bottleneck the portal, use lightning, Tony is on perimeter; turn it back or turn it to ash. Barton is up high, calling out patterns; Tony gives him a lift. Steve and Natasha will remain on the ground, keeping fighting on them. And Hulk…smash. Which he does with glee.
Natasha eventually figures they need to close the portal, and has Steve give her a boost up so she can commandeer a ride from a Chitauri. Selvig had been hit with a blast at some point and now realizes that there is a safeguard he built in. You can close the portal with the scepter. Hulk leaps into Stark Tower to confront Loki. “Enough!” Loki shouts, calling Hulk a dull creature. “I am a god, and I will not be bullied…” Hulk grabs Loki and smashes him several times into the floor. Loki wheezes from the crater and Hulk calls him “puny god.” [Just about the funniest scene in the film.] Everyone fights together (there’s a great tracking shot where we see everyone and all the action in one continuous shot), Steve and Thor both throwing and retrieving their weapons, Hulk even helping Thor – though he punches him as payback for the carrier fight. Clint calls out patterns to Tony.
In the meantime, the S.H.I.E.L.D. Council calls Fury and order him to release a nuclear bomb on New York City in order to stop the army. Fury recognizes that “the Council has made a decision, but given that it’s a stupid-ass decision, I’ve elected to ignore it.” [One of the best lines from the film]. He won’t release a bomb until he’s sure that the Avengers can’t handle it. The Council goes behind his back and orders a pilot to takeover. Fury manages to stop that plane, but not the back up. He calls Tony to tell him on the incoming nuke. Tony breaks away and flies as fast as he can to intercept it and shoots straight into the portal. As he does that, the rest of the team is starting to fray. Clint has to leap off the roof before he’s blown up, crashing into a window and landing painfully on his quiver. Steve is shot a few times and even Thor is lagging a bit. The Hulk is overwhelmed by fire, then Natasha says she can close the portal. Tony has them wait long enough to take the nuke through. As he enters space, his suit shuts down and he begins falling. He’s awake long enough to see the missile hit and the ship explode. Back in the city, the army falls down. When the team on the ground can see the explosion, Steve makes the call for Natasha to close the portal. Iron Man falls through at the last second, free from the explosion that gets trapped in space. Agents cheer from the carrier, though Fury is downturned, knowing what it cost to rid the city of the nuke.
The Avengers are happy to see Iron Man, but Thor quickly realizes he’s not slowing down his fall. He swings his hammer, ready to retrieve his teammate, but Hulk catches him from midair. He lays him down, but Tony is not breathing, as far as they can tell in the suit, whose reactor is growing dim. Hulk yells and that startles Tony awake. He’s exhausted and tells everyone they should try shawarma. Well, first, they have to deal with something. Loki has crawled out of the crater and asks Tony for that drink he offered earlier, while the whole team is standing around him, Clint’s arrow aimed directly at him.
The team does have to break apart; Thor takes Loki in a gag back to Asgard with the Tesseract. Bruce accompanies Tony. Natasha and Clint leave together. Steve rides away on his bike. Fury speaks to the Council, informing them that no, he’s not tracking the team’s whereabouts; they’ve earned a leave of absence. And while that was not his call to make, he didn’t argue with the god who did. Fury speaks to Maria Hill afterwards, that he trusts them to return because at some point, they’ll need them. We see Tony working on new plans for the tower (and there are specialized floors laid out for each team member) and as the camera pans away, the only letter left out of Stark is the “A.”
There are two credit scenes; the first being a report on the invasion. The reporter tells his ruler that to challenge the unruly humans is to court death. A purple face turns towards the screen (that now all audiences know is Thanos, but only those who read the comics knew when the film first came out). The second scene is simply the team eating shawarma silently after the battle; everyone exhausted [and trying not to laugh. And Chris Evans’ hand is in front of his face to hide a beard he grew for his next role].
I will take a minute to say that the theme is very cool, with the strings keeping a rhythm that pushes the tempo a little, building excitement. Then there’s a fanfare that’s perfect for a superhero movie. Then it repeats a little more sedately which works well for the background of scenes. It’s quickly become iconic; we hear this and know that heroes are banding together. It’s positive. It’s a full orchestra score compared to the electric guitar heavy Iron Man theme, or the brass fanfare of Captain America.
And let’s not forget the bloopers! They play the theme from Smokey and the Bandit due to a crack from Robert Downey Jr. It’s four minutes of fun I’ll play if I need something “fluffy” or funny. Actors crack up and can’t set props down, or get a parachute on. Cobie is a little more dramatic about Coulson’s death and Tom Hiddleston is dead on with an Alan Rickman impersonation (there’s a twinge of sadness knowing that beloved actor has passed now). He also cracks up when he’s supposed to be moaning on the floor and even director Joss Whedon gets in on the argument, yelling for everyone to stop fighting. Chris Hemsworth occasionally struggles to catch his hammer; Chris Evans catches his shield and keeps going. Also, check out Tom Hiddleston’s appearance at Comic Con the following year as Loki, mimicking his speech from the movie. The crowd goes nuts and Tom basks in it. They chant “Loki! Loki! Loki!” but go silent when he puts his finger to his lips. At the end, he has the crowd say his name, which they gladly do. He now has his army. The fact that he gets the entire Hall H (one of the bigger halls at the convention from what I’ve heard) to cheer for the villain…it’s a testament to the actor. It is amazing and this is why we love him!
This film has just become iconic. It’s one of the major crossovers in cinema, pulling superheroes that had their own films into one. Black Widow eventually got her own movie and Hawkeye got his own show (neither of which I have seen yet). As opposed to say X-Men that was always written as a team. There wasn’t much development of some major characters on an individual basis. It’s well written in the way that we remember a lot of the dialogue from the film. The action is engaging and everyone seemed to get their moment. True, the MCU only gets bigger from here, but I do recall it being a big deal when it came out and we shouldn’t forget that. After this film released, there was so much speculation on what direction the universe would go (and fans went wild!) It’s definitely a movie I recommend.
Dreamer in the Mirror 