To Infinity & Beyond: Thor – The Dark World

Iron Man 3 was a brief albeit fun intermission from universe building for the MCU, but now it’s time to jump back into the scheme of things! Unfortunately the jump back into things ended up being a face plant with Thor – The Dark World. So where does it all go wrong? Let’s find out.

Plot

Thor’s been a busy guy. He’s had to stop his brother Loki twice, and has been busy bringing peace to the nine realms. While Thor’s been busy knocking heads in, Jane Foster has been continuing her research in astrophysics in London. It’s then that she stumbles upon an artifact known as the Aether: a cosmic entity that has the power to rewrite reality itself and defy the laws of physics. The Aether binds itself to Jane, and Thor brings her to Asgard in hopes of a cure. It is then he learns the history of the Dark Elves: a race older than the universe itself and how they used the Aether in an attempt to take over Asgard. History tells that Odin’s father eradicated the Dark Elves, but not all of them died it would seem…

Villain

The leader of the Dark Elves, Malekith, waged the war on Asgard against Odin’s father Bor. With a weapon as powerful as the Aether, Malekith was defeated. In order to prevent the extinction of his race, Malekith… sacrificed almost all of them. Because that makes sense. The film doesn’t really give Malekith much motive to be evil or want to rule over Asgard. He just does. From the very beginning of the film he comes off as weak having already lost to Asgardians once, and he doesn’t even really speak all that much. In case you couldn’t pick up on it, I’m not a fan of Malekith. He gets a half decent final battle but by that point of the movie you just don’t really care anymore.

Best Scene 

The escape from Asgard is definitely the best scene in the movie. After the Dark Elves attack his home, Thor devises a plan to travel to the cleverly named Dark World (home of the Dark Elves) to draw Malekith away from Asgard, cure Jane Foster, and destroy the Aether. The only one who knows how to escape Asgard without using the Bifrost though, is Loki. So Thor breaks Loki out of prison and while they’re escaping, Loki suggests the two should use disguises. Loki shows an array of different disguises they could use including one of him being Captain America himself. The dialogue Loki says as Cap is the highlight of the movie.

“The suit’s a bit much… so tight! But the confidence! I can feel the righteousness surging! Hey wanna have a rousing discussion about truth? Honor? Patriotism? God bless America!”

The rest of the escape is cool, but the real highlight is the Captain America cameo.

Stan Lee Cameo

Jane Foster goes to London for her research after Erik Selvig says he had a breakthrough. When Jane gets there though, Selvig is nowhere to be found, but she quickly learns that Selvig had a crazy meltdown and was found running around Stonehenge butt naked. Selvig was arrested. When Jane’s intern Darcy goes to get Selvig out of prison, we find him briefly explaining his theories of Convergence to his inmates using shoes as props. When he finishes he asks, “Are there any questions?” Stan Lee then responds with, “Yeah, can I have my shoe back?”

Post Credits Scene

The worst movie in the MCU somehow also ended up with one of the best, most important post credit scenes. Malekith has been defeated and the Aether is in the hands of Asgard. In the post credits scene Volstaag and Sif are surrounded by strange alien creatures and meet with a man known simply as The Collector. The three then have this conversation which confirmed a fan theory people had been speculating since The Avengers came out!

Sif: “You know why we’re here.”

The Collector: “Of course, but if I may ask… why not keep it secure in your own vault?”

Volstaag: “The Tesseract is already on Asgard, it’s not wise to keep two Infinity Stones so close together.”

The Collector: “That’s very wise. I can assure you, it will be absolutely safe here in my collection.”

Sif: “See that it is.”

The Collector: “One down… five to go.”

After the Avengers revealed Thanos to the MCU, fans everywhere hoped we’d be getting an Infinity Gauntlet movie somewhere down the road and this scene finally confirmed it! With both the Tesseract and the Aether being Infinity Stones, we are already 1/3 of the way to Infinity War!

There was also a second brief post credits scene after this. At the end of the original Thor, he left Earth promising Jane he’d come back. However, he didn’t come back until two years later. At the end of Dark World we are in a similar situation. Thor left promising he’d come back and we find Jane at home again waiting. This time though Thor came back and they share a smooch. Daaaaaw it’s a shame their relationship is based purely on physical attraction though… Also we see that one of the monsters that got teleported to Earth during Thor’s fight with Malekith is still running around Greenwich.

Final Thoughts

This is the one MCU movie that I really can’t defend. It’s definitely the worst in the MCU. The villain is boring, Anthony Hopkins is so unenthusiastic about being in this film, and the Jane and Thor relationship is just as lousy as it was the first time around. Besides Loki and the post credits scene there just isn’t anything memorable about this movie whatsoever. Although Iron Man 3 was considered the first movie in Phase Two of the MCU, The Dark World was the first real sequel to the whole connected universe Marvel was building. Unfortunately it didn’t go as well as fans would hope, but Marvel would quickly recover with the next film.

Thanos Meme of the Week

We finally know what Thanos wants! He wants the stones… or minerals… sorry Hank.

To Infinity & Beyond: Iron Man 3

The Battle of New York changed everything. Suddenly the world got a whole lot bigger and stranger. Now with aliens and god like beings throughout the universe, Earth suddenly feels more threatened than ever. Earth’s mightiest heroes are tasked with protecting it, but will they ever be the same after everything that’s happened? With all that in mind, we begin Phase Two of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. This is Iron Man 3.

Plot

After barely surviving the Battle of New York, Tony has been a bit of a mess. Clearly suffering from PTSD, Tony has been tinkering away obsessively trying to perfect the Iron Man suit to protect those he loves most. However, the world still isn’t any safer. Recently a terrorist known as the Mandarin has been threatening the United States and Tony takes it upon himself to stop him. However,  Tony’s showdown with the Mandarin becomes more personal than he could imagine when demons from his past come to haunt him, but with his damaged mental state, can Tony protect the world yet again?

Villain

I wish this could be the part where I talk about how great the Mandarin was. I wish I could tell you that, but Iron Man 3 is no fairytale world. Although trailers and posters would suggest the big bad in Iron Man 3 is the Mandarin, the film offers a massive plot twist by revealing that the Mandarin was actually a fake. Instead he was an actor by the name of Trevor Slattery who was hired by the true villain to pose as the Mandarin to take credit for the crimes the true bad guy himself was committing. As someone who loved all the Mandarin scenes, realizing he wasn’t the real bad guy was extremely disappointing which is why I’m slightly jaded towards this movie. So who was the real villain you ask?

The real villain is a man by the name of Aldrich Killian. Back in 1999, Killian proposed a new research project to Tony. However, as we saw in the first Iron Man, Tony was kind of a dick before becoming Iron Man so he shrugged Killian off. Killian then spent the following years working on that proposed research project which became known as Extremis. Extremis is a recreation of the super soldier serum which modifies one’s DNA to become super strong fire breathing beings. Killian mastered this serum and intended to use it to assassinate the President and put his own man (the current Vice President) in office, effectively allowing him to do whatever he wanted. In any other scenario, Killian would’ve been a good villain, but being teased and then faked out with the Mandarin just makes this character hard to swallow.

Best Scene

As disappointing as the Mandarin twist is, Iron Man 3 does have some great action sequences. The attack on Tony’s house and the intense airplane rescue are both contenders for the best, but the arrival of the Iron Legion takes the cake. Seeing all of the different Iron Man suits in action is a sight all superhero fans loved to see especially since they all had varying abilities. It also gave fans insight on what we could see for the future of Iron Man in the MCU. I guess Tony’s suit building obsession eventually paid off!

Stan Lee Cameo

Stan Lee had to love this one. After the attack on his home, Tony’s suit transports him to Tennessee. The suit doesn’t have enough power to fly back to California though so Tony is forced to find another way home. He eventually comes up with the idea of using a news station van to to pinpoint the Mandarin’s location. The news van was originally broadcasting a local beauty pageant and we see Stan Lee giving a woman in a bikini a 10/10.

Post Credits Scene 

This one is a tad disappointing because it’s more for laughs than it is foreshadowing the next Marvel film. The entire was being narrated by Tony himself and we see who he was telling the story to: Bruce Banner. However, we find out that Bruce had fallen asleep towards the beginning and actually heard none of it. Bruce quickly apologizes saying he’s not “that kind of doctor” and that he doesn’t have the right temperament to listen to others’ problems. Tony then quickly begins talking about another past problem and Bruce lets out a big groan. Although it’s good for a laugh, the last film gave us Thanos so I think a majority of audiences were looking for something a bit more substantial.

Final Thoughts

It’s strange. When I originally saw this movie in theaters I wasn’t impressed with Iron Man 3. I was irritated that they tricked me with the Mandarin and I thought Pepper defeating Killian in 20 seconds after the entire Iron Legion couldn’t was lame. I hadn’t watched Iron Man 3 again until now, and after getting over the twist, Iron Man 3 is actually a solid entry in the MCU. I won’t say it’s one of the MCU’s best as many critics say, but it’s definitely better than most people remember. It’s a movie that is best watched twice. The first time to get over the initial shock and disappointment that it didn’t do what you expected, and the second time to enjoy everything you missed while you were blind with rage the first viewing.

Thanos Meme of the Week

At the end of Avengers we saw Thanos grinning ominously. With his original plan foiled, what could he be doing now? Probably cracking open a cold one with the boys, plotting his next move.

“Dammit Tony.”

To Infinity & Beyond: The Avengers

“There was an idea, called the Avengers Initiative. The idea was to bring together a group of remarkable people, see if they could become something more. See if they could work together when we needed them to fight the battles we never could.” After five years of universe building, it’s finally time for Earth’s mightiest heroes to come together and change both the cinematic and superhero world!

Plot

Loki has been exiled from Asgard, but has found new friends in a mysterious unnamed alien leader and his army of Chitauri (hive mind cybernetic beings). Given a staff with mind altering powers, Loki is sent to Earth with a mission: get the Tesseract (the glowing blue cube from Captain America), and bring the Chitauri army to take over the world. When the war for Earth begins, SHIELD Director Nick Fury decides it’s time to put the Avengers Initiative into action.

Villain

Everyone’s favorite trickster Loki is back for Round 2! After being exiled from his home, Loki wants one thing and one thing only: to rule Earth and make a fool out of his brother Thor. With his new mind controlling staff, Loki becomes more threatening than ever. Loki controls Erik Selvig and Hawkeye and uses their abilities to help put his plans into action. Loki remains one step ahead of the Avengers and SHIELD up until the very end of the movie manipulating everyone so they play directly into his hands. Not only is he just as cunning and strong as before, but now he has an entire robot army to back him up. It takes six of Earth’s mightiest heroes to stop Loki, that should say something about how great of a villain Loki (still) is.

Best Scene

The Battle of New York is one of the best sequences in the MCU’s history, but there are two particularly memorable moments that come to mind when I think of “best scenes.” The first comes about halfway through the Battle of New York. It starts with Black Widow hijacking a Chitauri ship and blasting her way through the city. The sequence then follows each of the Avengers teaming up fighting through the Chitauri. We get instances like Iron Man using Captain America’s shield to deflect his energy blasts along with Thor and Hulk taking down a monstrously sized Chitauri. It’s fast paced and shows the team truly working together for the first time in stylish fashion!

The other scene that just about every Marvel fan remembers when talking about The Avengers is the infamous meeting between Hulk and Loki. After getting shot out of the sky by Hawkeye, Loki is immediately met by The Hulk. Hulk is about to smash to which Loki yells this…

“ENOUGH. You are all of you beneath me! I am a god you dull creature, and I will not be bullied by…”

Which is when Hulk grabs Loki by the leg and smashes him repeatedly into the ground. Hulk then walks off saying, “puny god.” And Loki gives out the most hilarious whimper. Although short, this was definitely the funniest, most memorable moment of the entire film.

Stan Lee Cameo

There’s so much interaction between the Avengers that the film doesn’t have time to sneak Stan Lee into the movie until the very end! After the Battle of New York is over, news outlets everywhere show how the people of New York are reacting. Some are happy that the Avengers are watching over them, while others are more skeptical. This is when we see good old Stan Lee saying “Superheroes in New York? Give me a break.” Stan helped create the cliche of superheroes in New York so his remarks in The Avengers are particularly amusing.

Post Credits Scene

The Avengers actually gave us two post credits scenes! The first shows The Other (second in command to the person that gave Loki his Staff and army) is seen speaking with the mysterious leader behind the events of the movie. The Other says,

“Humans. They are not the cowering wretches we were promised. They stand. They are unruly and therefore cannot be ruled. To challenge them, is to court Death.”

It is then that we see who the mastermind behind Loki’s invasion truly is!

THANOS!!!

Every Marvel fan worth their salt knew EXACTLY what Thanos meant! We didn’t know when, but we knew at some point we were going to get an Infinity Gauntlet story line! We didn’t know it would be six years later until we finally got it, but still!

The second post credits scene is for a quick laugh but it’s worth mentioning. During the film, Iron Man sends a nuke through the portal to destroy the Chitauri hive mind. After Hulk catches him and is awakened, Iron Man asks the other Avengers if they wanna try this schwarma place he found during the fight. The second scene is the group sitting quietly eating their schwarma. It’s a hilariously uncomfortable scene because of how quiet it is, but it was a nice laugh to have at the end.

Final Thoughts

The Avengers is still one of the best movies in the entire MCU. It had some pretty high expectations both from fans and Marvel Studios. This was the movie that was going to prove whether or not the shared universe idea was something worth pursuing. Thankfully it paid off in spades. With each character having backstories established in their individual films, it let The Avengers spend more time on just the heroes doing what they do best: fight evil. That being said, there was still enough background in The Avengers alone for people new to the MCU to enjoy the film. What made the film truly soar though is that each character got a moment to shine in the film, the action was evenly distributed amongst all the Avengers. Mark Ruffalo who played the new Hulk got plenty of moments to solidify that the actor change was going to work. Also, using an established, well received villain like Tom Hiddleston’s Loki was a great choice. All of these helped create one of the best superhero movies of all time that pretty much altered how superhero and sci fi films were looked at. After this film, everyone pretty much hopped on the shared universe train.

Thanos Meme of the Week

Now that Thanos has been officially added into the MCU, each week I’m going to be adding a “Thanos Meme of the Week!” Here’s to hoping that the wait for him is worth the wait!

To Infinity & Beyond: Captain America – The First Avenger

We are so close to the end of Phase One!! We’ve been introduced to Iron Man, Thor, the Incredible Hulk, Black Widow, and Hawkeye! Now it’s time to meet the final Avenger, and Marvel saved the best for last! This week we are looking at Captain America!!!

Plot

Steve Rogers is a small guy with one desire: to fight for his country. However, Steve is riddled with health issues and can’t enlist in the army. All that changes though when he meets a scientist by the name of Dr. Abraham Erksine who selects Steve to participate in a Super Soldier experiment. With this experiment, not only could Steve’s life change, but so could the course of the second world war!

Villain

The villain is the leader of HYDRA (the scientific research division of the Nazi regime) the Red Skull aka Johanne Schmidt. Besides being the leader of HYDRA, Red Skull is a competent fighter in his own right. He was the original subject for the Super Soldier experiment. The experiment went awry though and Schmidt was deformed into the Red Skull. Although he was deformed, Red Skull was still a brilliant strategist and an excellent leader for HYDRA. Red Skull found the glowing blue cube known as the Tesseract which brought limitless power and almost succeeded in using it to help the Hitler win World War II. Although Red Skull did become the origin of multiple memes, Red Skull never really got a worthy finish. Besides one brief encounter with Captain America, Red Skull doesn’t really have much of a connection with the American hero. Even their final fight is underwhelming. The two fight for a few moments and then Red Skull is disintegrated by the Tesseract. There has been speculation as to whether or not Red Skull died, but I don’t think we’ll be seeing him again any time soon.

Best Scene

The best scene from Captain America isn’t an action scene by any means. Although the film has great action, I think the best scene of the film is the final interaction between Captain America and Agent Carter. Throughout the entire film, Steve mentions how he has never asked a girl to dance because he hasn’t found the “right partner.” It’s completely obvious though that Steve and Agent Carter are meant to be. At the end of the film though after Captain America has stopped Red Skull, the only way that he can save the world is by crashing the HYDRA ship into the ocean. Captain America says goodbye to Agent Carter and it makes for one of the saddest scenes the MCU has ever conceived. The two never got that dance together… *sobs uncontrollably*

Stan Lee Cameo

This one is quite comical. When Steve finally gets enlisted into the war, it isn’t exactly as he wanted. Instead of becoming an actual soldier, Steve becomes Captain America: a character created to sell war bonds. After leading a private mission to save his friend Bucky Barnes and other Allies, Captain America is unable to make his future tour dates. One of his meetings though didn’t get the memo and they make the embarrassing mistake of introducing Captain America who is a no show. The man making the introduction is met by a smaller coworker and when he walks out, Stan Lee (who is an American general) says “I thought he’d be taller” thinking the man who came out was in fact Captain America.

Post Credits Scene

This actually should be called the Post Credits trailer because although it does show a singular scene, the post credits actually show a brief trailer of what’s to come in the next Marvel film, The Avengers! Beginning with the actual post credits scene, Captain America is seen hitting a punching bag until Nick Fury arrives. Captain asks if Fury is “trying to get him back into the world,” and Nick states he’s simply, “trying to save it.” We are then shown a mini trailer of scenes from the upcoming Avengers movie and it is purely glorious! This was the point that the MCU was finally going to see its worth. Marvel had made multiple successful superhero movies up until this point, but the main objective was to see how profitable a shared universe could be. Spoiler, the answer is “extremely successful.”

Final Thoughts

Many think of Iron Man as one of the best MCU origin movies, but I’m here to tell you that Captain America: The First Avenger is superior to Iron Man. Not only does it create a great origin story, it also adds more emotional impact than any other MCU movie had up until this point! Along with that, there are plenty of great performances in this film. Besides the obviously great performance in Steve Roger, Stanley Tucci, Tommy Lee Jones, and Hugo Weaving also steal the show! Although Chris Evans is heralded as the hero of the movie, the other star of the movie is Hayley Atwell’s Agent Peggy Carter. Agent  Carter was such a memorable character that she got her own TV series that was cut way shorter than it should’ve! There is plenty to love with Captain America: The First Avenger and I think it was the best preview for Avengers that Marvel could’ve hoped for! Next to Iron Man, there’s no better Avenger than Captain America!