• Tag Archives Black Widow

  • Various Bits from the Net – 121019

    Posted on by A.P. Fuchs

    The Various Bits from the Net segment was something I did as part of a daily blog schedule many years ago when each day of the week (Monday-Thursday, with Friday being a summary day; hope I remembered correctly) had a specific assigned topic. They were the same week-to-week except for, of course, the content itself. Various Bits from the Net was one of those days and it was a day I would post links and/or commentary on various items from the Net that caught my interest.

    I’m bringing that feature back but, as of this writing, not as a set day per week but rather something I’ll blog about here and there.

    So that said, welcome to Various Bits from the Net 2.0. Today’s date is 121019.

    Points of interest:

    The Black Widow Trailer

    Really curious about this one. Obviously, this takes place at some point before Avengers: Endgame, and then even at a point further back because we see Natasha training to become a spy. I’m also a David Harbour fan so I’m really curious as to what he’s going to do with Red Guardian. He’s seems somewhat Hopper-esque (from Stranger Things) which, to me, is a huge plus point.

    The Wonder Woman 1984 Trailer

    DC/WB have flubbed their movie outings since Day One with a few exceptions. And while I enjoy the WB/DC movies overall despite their flaws, Wonder Woman delivered well when it was first released about halfway through 2017. I personally think waiting three years for a sequel is one year too many, but I also understand the delay given what’s been happening at the WB offices and them not being sure what to do in terms of the DC Extended Universe. Anyway, Wonder Woman 1984 looks to be a promising sequel to Wonder Woman and I’m curious to see how certain things and characters are explained when the film comes out. This is also a teaser, and since we all know Cheetah is the other main bad guy and she’s not in this trailer, it’s safe to say the villainness will be the focus of a trailer closer to release date.

    The Ghostbusters: Afterlife Trailer

    I grew up with Ghostbusters. To me, they were superheroes because they wore a jumpsuit and had matching proton packs and stopped ghosts. I won’t mention the Ghostbusters reboot from a few years back. In the end, it looks like this is indeed Ghostbusters 3 (it’s about time), and also appears to be a transition movie to pass the torch on to a new group of Ghostbusters.

    UoN Interview: Alan Moore

    The last portion of this interview hit home hard. I’ve gone through what Alan Moore speaks about. It’s also very pleasant to see an interview with Mr. Moore that doesn’t rehash the same questions he’s been asked for the past twenty-plus years. He makes an excellent point about art in this clip and its impact on human history. It’s this point he makes that fuels me on a daily basis because I’m a firm believer that everything is art and that its value far exceeds anything else we put our value in (especially in the 21st century where our values seem awfully misplaced).

    My friend and fellow author Nick Cato came out with a book recently. It’s called Suburban Grindhouse and it’s his first film book. Though part memoir, it looks at exploitation films and the effect they had on audiences in New York and New Jersey. Presently, it’s available exclusively from the publisher. Details and write-up can be found here. (If you sign up for their newsletter, Nick informs me you get 20% off.)

    Lastly, today a new essay went up on my Patreon page and it’s about getting back in the creative saddle after a lengthy hiatus. I relay my own experience about getting back to work after being ill and suggest to you the steps that helped me get the ball rolling again. You can read the essay here.

    And that wraps up this installment of Various Bits from the Net.


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  • Canister X Movie Review #96: Avengers: Age of Ultron (2015)

    Posted on by A.P. Fuchs

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    Avengers: Age of Ultron (2015)
    Written by Joss Whedon
    Directed by Joss Whedon
    Runtime 141 min.
    5 out of 5

    In an effort to protect the world from future alien attacks, Tony Stark uses the artificial intelligence inside the gem of Loki’s scepter to complete his Ultron program. It works but, unfortunately, the now-sentient Ultron AI has taken it upon itself to destroy the human race.

     

    Time for the Avengers to assemble.

     

    Recruiting the Maximoff twins, Ultron uses them to take on the Avengers while he attends to building a robot army. Soon the Avengers are taken out and must re-assemble if there is any hope they can stop Ultron before his plan of global destruction comes to pass.

     

    With the fate of the planet hanging in the balance, can the Avengers stand against a seemingly unstoppable foe?

     

    Sequels are tricky business, especially when creating a sequel to not only a quality film, but one that was a hit at the box office. Usually, sequels pale in comparison to their predecessors, but now and then—and more often than not in the superhero genre—the sequels outshine the original and Avengers: Age of Ultron did just that. As good as the first Avengers was, Age of Ultron is better.

     

    I don’t want to give away any plot points to those who haven’t seen it yet, so these are more my thoughts instead of notions on specifics of the film.

     

    One of my greatest fears for this movie was its giant cast. Not only did the standard Avengers team return—Iron Man, Captain America, Thor, Black Widow, Hawkeye, Hulk, Nick Fury, Maria Hill—but it was greatly added to with the addition of War Machine, Quicksilver, Scarlet Witch, Vision and, sorta, Falcon. All these characters could have quickly made the movie go the way of Spider-Man 3, but instead more or less equal screen time was given to the majority of the cast, with supporting roles coming in to do their job without making the film feel overly crowded.

     

    On the acting front, the main Avengers team have really come into their own, the actors having now portrayed their characters a minimum of three times prior to this movie and it really shows through. There’s an air of comfort about who they’re playing and each one has made the character their own while also staying true to that character’s comic book roots. Even the humor in the movie was fitting and not once did it feel forced or cheesy or slapstick. Most of the humor was off-the-cuff comments, which made the team more human and relatable.

     

    Ultron was a terrific bad guy. He was smart, dangerous, evil, but at the same time had a humanity to him that helped connect him with the audience. He wasn’t just some evil robot and that’s it. He was also a formidable foe for the Avengers and it did take the entire team to take him down.

     

    The addition of Vision worked well and was a good progression of the Jarvis character. He had a specific purpose in this movie and fulfilled it to a T. I’m curious to see what role he plays either in the stand-alone Marvel movies or in the upcoming Avengers: Infinity War flicks.

     

    On a fanboy note, there were some amazing iconic superhero action shots in this flick, the kind that makes you gush and squeal (yes, I’m that nerdy). There is one particular moment—you’ll know it when you see it—where I was just, like, “Wow, oh wow.” And the action on the whole was well done, with each character fighting according to their skillset.

     

    Going to have go back for a second outing to the theatre on this one and, of course, will be adding it to my personal movie collection when it comes out.

     

    Highly recommended.


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  • Canister X Movie Review #88: Ultimate Avengers: The Movie (2006)

    Posted on by A.P. Fuchs

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    Ultimate Avengers: The Movie (2006)
    Written by Greg Johnson
    Directed by Curt Geda and Steven E. Gordon
    Runtime 71 min.
    4 out of 5

    In World War II, the Nazis tried to launch an intercontinental missile and was thwarted by Captain America, but at great cost: Captain America fell into icy waters and was presumed dead. Some sixty years later, he was found and revived by S.H.I.E.L.D., who ends up convincing him to join their fight against the alien Chitauri. When the Chitauri attack, S.H.I.E.L.D. implements Project Avenger and begins assembling together Earth’s Mightiest Heroes to take on the Chitauri and put a stop to them once and for all.

     

    This ensemble flick is one of the greats and is a solid introduction for the uninitiated to the Avengers—Captain America, Iron Man, Thor, Black Widow, Giant Man, Wasp and Hulk—all led by Nick Fury.

    It’s evenly paced, exciting, and gives each member of the team enough screen time to give them a chance to lock in with the viewer and make that viewer-character connection before moving on to the next guy.

    Marvel’s direct-to-video efforts have been lacking and haven’t been that great because they’ve been very busy—albeit very successfully—focusing their efforts on bringing their heroes to the big screen. Ultimate Avengers and its sequel are the major exceptions to their animated shortcomings and this movie is every bit as good as their live action counterparts. I also think that’s the secret to making a good animated movie: treat it with the same care and seriousness as a live action film and you’ll hit it out of the ballpark every time. It works in Japanese animation. No reason why it wouldn’t work here in the West.

    This movie was good start to finish. Had a story that spanned decades, and made you care about what was going on from first frame to last.

    You have multiple plotlines going on, ranging from the Avengers dealing with the Chitauri to Bruce Banner trying to find a cure for the Hulk, to Captain America trying to find his place in the world. The amazing thing is they fit all these plotlines into a very short runtime (just over an hour).

    The art direction was superb and I enjoyed how everyone looked in this, especially Hulk. (For me, he’s one of those guys that don’t always come out well.)

    While there’s a pretty good dose of violence in this movie, it’s much more kid-friendly than the majority of DC’s animated features and is safe for kids (depending on your household rules for this sort of thing). Personally, I let my kids watch it but don’t let them watch the DC movies.

    Whether a Marvel fan, an Avengers fan, or a superhero fan in general, Ultimate Avengers is a fantastic flick worth watching many times over. What’s cool is it’s basically part one of two and goes right into its sequel, Ultimate Avengers 2: Rise of the Panther, without missing a beat, so if you have both, you’re in for a doubly-good time.

    Recommended.


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  • Canister X Movie Review #46: Iron Man 2 (2010)

    Posted on by A.P. Fuchs

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    Iron Man 2 (2010)
    Written by Justin Theroux
    Directed by Jon Favreau
    Runtime 124 min.
    4 out of 5

    Taking place six months after Iron Man, old shellhead is using his armor to maintain world peace and keep things right as rain for the world. Enter Ivan Vanko (Mickey Rourke), aka Whiplash, who has a vendetta against Tony Stark and wants to see him dead for the wrong he believed Tony did to his father.

    Meanwhile, Tony’s dealing with issues of his own, namely that the very tool he’s using to keep himself alive—the arc reactor in his chest—is actually poisoning him, and time is quickly running out.

    Can Iron Man defeat a foe hellbent on grinding him to dust while also saving his own life?

     

    Iron Man 2 is a solid sequel. It’s not as smart as the first one, but it’s certainly not bad by any means. The idea of the arc reactor slowly killing Tony is brilliant. I mean, really, what do you do, right? Just wait it out? Unplug? Tell someone? Good stuff.

    A lot of people gave this movie grief and I don’t understand why. You got superhero action, superhero struggle, relationship tension, introduction of a new hero—War Machine (Don Cheadle, who plays James Rhodes; the part was originally played by Terrence Howard in the first movie)—and a new villain with a simple but decent origin story. Adding to that you got the breadcrumb trail that will eventually lead into The Avengers. The cool part is this subplot—complete with appearances by Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson) and Black Widow (Scarlett Johansson)—don’t detract from the main story. Of course, I won’t fail to mention Sam Rockwell as Justin Hammer, who’s an amazing actor and becomes whatever role he is assigned. I love that about him.

    As before, Robert Downey Jr. continues to amaze me as Tony Stark. He is that guy. End of story. Never thought I’d like a self-absorbed hero, but he proved me wrong.

    Anyway, back to the action: Iron Man 2 has got loads of it, right from Iron Man’s first encounter with Whiplash, to the big fight at the end where it takes Iron Man teaming up with War Machine to take out robots and a newly-armored Whiplash. What I liked was the realistic—as you can get, anyway—portrayal of what a suit of robot armor would most likely do and fight like if it was real. It was fluid, yet appropriately clunky and moved as such accordingly. The flight sequences were exciting, same with the weapons used.

    What was also good was the humor. Aside from the here’s-how-I-pee-in-the-armor joke, which I found dumb, every other bit of joking around totally worked and still maintained that this was a serious movie with a serious hero fighting a serious villain.

    What makes this third movie in Marvel’s Phase One plan great is that while it had its own self-contained story, it was part of the overall Avengers plotline. I loved how the two worked together but weren’t dependent on each other.

    Do I watch this movie when I’m going through my super flicks in my DVD and Blu-ray collection? Every time.

    A major iron thumbs up from me on this one.

    Recommended.


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  • Canister X Movie Review #3: The Avengers (2012)

    Posted on by A.P. Fuchs

    Click Here to Order from Amazon.com
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    The Avengers (2012)
    Written by Joss Whedon
    Directed by Joss Whedon
    Runtime 143 min.
    4 out of 5

    When Thor’s mischievous brother, Loki, makes a deal with the alien race the Chitauri to help them secure the Tesseract Cube so they can conquer the galaxy, the Earth suddenly falls into great peril. With even the powerful top secret agency S.H.I.E.L.D. having difficulty containing Loki, there is only one call S.H.I.E.L.D. Director Nick Fury can make: Avengers Assemble!

    The team is gathered—Captain America, Iron Man, Thor, Hulk, Black Widow, Hawkeye—and they set out to do battle with Loki and his alien cohorts. If they don’t overcome their differences and learn to work together as a team, the Earth will fall and Loki will rule the planet.

    The Avengers brings together Earth’s mightiest heroes to combat a force of evil so great they either stand together or fall together, with the fate of the planet—even the galaxy—hanging in the balance.

     

    The Avengers is a difficult movie to review, more so, give a proper rating to because this movie is very much black and white between its story and its presentation, so that said, I’m going to quickly go over both and you’ll see where I’m coming from at the end.

    The story: This is a single-plot movie, very much an A-to-B narrative and incredibly simple—too simple. Aliens are coming, we need to stop them so we’ll get the Avengers to do it. That’s it. From a storytelling perspective, it’s too simple and too predictable. Big bad guy, big good guy(s), let’s fight, good guys win. The end.

    However, if you view The Avengers as an end cap/final act to all the movies leading up to it: Iron Man, Incredible Hulk, Iron Man 2, Thor, Captain America—then you have something that definitely serves its purpose and more or less lets each character shine for the same amount of time. In this case, a simple story works despite, um, the many continuity flaws from the previous movies (i.e. Thor is somehow now able to come to Earth, which renders the ending of Thor’s movie moot; Tony Stark called upon to be Iron Man in The Avengers despite being banned from doing so in Iron Man 2; the characters communicating to each other without earpieces or any communication devices. Maybe they’re telepathic?).

    The presentation: this movie is a nerd’s dream come true from start to finish. Assemble your favorite superheroes—of which each were spotlighted in their own movies, almost—put them together and have them go toe-to-toe with a larger-than-life threat that will squash the planet if they don’t come through.

    From an eye candy perspective, this movie nailed it. Huge battles, lots of explosions, combat action, hammer throwing, Hulk smashing, shield boomeranging, repulsors firing, arrows shooting, girl fists punching—yeah, it has it all.

    It’s also very important to point out that the casting of Mark Ruffalo as Bruce Banner/Hulk was an amazing choice. I honestly wasn’t too thrilled with the news when I first heard it, with Ruffalo being more of a chick-flick romance guy, but he got the role done so well that if there’s a spin-off, I hope he gets the job. He’s definitely earned it.

    Chris Evans as Captain America—a Superman performance, which is good and brought a traditional superhero element to the team. As the running joke was throughout the movie, a little “old-fashioned” was what was needed.

    Robert Downey Jr. as Iron Man—do I really need to talk about this? He’s the same Tony Stark from the first two Iron Man movies, the only difference being he’s mellowed out a bit because, despite his arrogance, he understands life isn’t all about him and there are other people out there, too. This bit really comes through in this movie.

    Chris Hemsworth as Thor—bold, poetic, commanding, everything his character is supposed to be so kudos to him for carrying on with a great performance from the stand-alone movie.

    Jeremy Renner as Hawkeye—I don’t know much about the comic character other than he’s like Green Arrow, but perhaps with a more military-mind-set, so I can’t comment. Renner did sell me on Hawkeye though, but why couldn’t they give him that awesome mask? Maybe in the sequel.

    Scarlett Johansson as Black Widow—she really comes into her own in this flick because in Iron Man 2, it was more a back-up appearance so we didn’t know much about her. I’m glad she got the screen time she deserved and, come on, her fight scenes were fantastic.

    Tom Hiddleston as Loki—he’s the bad guy you love to hate, the one that, even just looking at him, you want to punch in the face. I appreciated how Loki, to a degree, was a villain to sympathize with because of his exile, but you also get mad at him for being such a jerk about it.

    Samuel L. Jackson as Nick Fury—an excellent portrayal of Samuel L. Jackson being Samuel L. Jackson—but under a fictitious alias. Yeah.

    The Avengers is a solid good-times-turn-your-brain-off-action-fest that is great for escape and is recommended for that reason. As a spoiler warning, if you want just the action parts, start the movie around thirty minutes in.

    Honest assessment is 3.5 out of 5, but because it’s the first movie of its kind and because of all the building up to it that has been going on since 2008, I’ll give it a 4.


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