CAPTAIN AMERICA: THE WINTER SOLDIER (2014)

The Winter Soldier marks Marvel Studios' 9th film since their launch in the mid-2000's. They've been in the business of making movies that are fun and entertaining, but many criticize their films for lacking any serious depth. Joss Whedon's The Avengers proved that Marvel could look deep into the eyes of its superheroes and not look away after the formula worked so well in Iron Man. Finally, 5 years after Tony Stark took to the skies, Joe and Anthony Russo have delivered what I think is the best movie put out by Marvel: the sequel to 2011's hit Captain America: The First Avenger.

Early on in the film, we find Steve Rodgers (Chris Evans) connecting with Sam Wilson (Anthony Mackie), a war veteran who runs a PTSD support group. Rodgers is now thrust into the 21st century, having to re-live his past at the Smithsonian's Captain America exhibit. Meanwhile, across Washington D.C, Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson) is having to deal with Project Insight, a plan to put three helicarriers into the air that carry technology so powerful, they can detect and neutralize threats before they even become a worry to SHIELD. Questioning the program, Fury tells SHIELD's tip-top man and member of the World Security Council Alexander Pierce (Robert Redford) to put Project Insight on ice for the time being, feeling that not all is well. Soon, a new enemy appears in the form of a legendary assassin that goes by the name of the Winter Soldier. Soon, Steve Rodger's past returns in ways he did not expect and is once again, out of place in a world that is embracing him.

This film did brilliantly what Man of Steel failed to do. In the case of Marvel, their most by-the-book boy scout of a superhero and dropped him into a world that does not share his morals. Evans plays Rodgers with the absolute sincerity that dripped from the pages of Joe Simon and Jack Kirby's stories. What's even cooler is that writers Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely brought to life one of the neatest bromances in comic book history: Steve Rodgers and Sam Wilson, aka Captain America and The Falcon. Mackie is a great actor and has a super likable persona that Wilson had in the comics. On the other end, is Robert Redford as Pierce. It's incredible to see an actor of his caliber in a Marvel picture, but the decision made sense seeing how great the script for the film is. 

Scarlett Johansson is fantastic as Natasha Romanoff. The more I see her interpret this character, the more I fall in love with the Black Widow. Having her in the film is a stroke of genius and wonder. In the comics, Captain America took his missions from SHIELD, most of the time. The present day Cap film should be the SHIELD film, and that's not exactly what we get.... Yet another element that made this film work. The structure of it all and implications are brilliant and reminded me of The Empire Strikes Back. Something the audience thought to be true isn't and it has devastating consequences. Joe and Anthony Russo come off as old pros directing car chases, aerial fights, and heavy gunfire with great showmanship. I was floored to find out that this was their first action film, having directed episodes of Community and other TV shows.

One element that was also interesting is the musical score for the film, written by Henry Jackman. In The First Avenger, the music is very old fashioned. Big orchestra, lush instrumentation, and a melody that sent everyone out of the theater with the tune in their heads. Here, we're treated to a very 21st century score: lots of electronics, fast rhythms, piercing strings, and powerful percussion. I'm not a big fan of Hans Zimmer's minions taking over the film scoring world, but this is one of the rare cases in which music of this nature perfectly reflects what's happening to Captain America. He's been taken out of the romanticized world of the classic comic books and thrust into the political heat of the present day.

The origins of the Winter Soldier himself were adapted nicely from the comic book story arc of the same name (the Winter Soldier was originally released in 2004 by Marvel, written by Ed Brubaker). In the comic book, the story heavily involves the Cosmic Cube, known as the Tesseract in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Instead, that story is replaced with one of espionage and intrusion of personal information. This movie uses Marvel heroes to provide a commentary on the times we are living in. Information is readily available about us everywhere, yet our governments keeps their monitoring of our data a secret. The film takes this premise and creates a very frightening scenario as to what could happen when this information is in the wrong hands.

Bold story telling, a great cast, and impressive filmmaking make Captain America: The Winter Soldier one hell of a film. As a fan of the comic book, I was impressed to see an adaptation handled with so much care. Marvel is at the top of the world and they just get it. They understand what fans want and they give it to us. Even when their films aren't the best, the spirit of the characters usually shines through their dullest of moments. This is not the case in Winter Soldier. The Russos have made a film that is a political thriller at heart and shakes the Marvel Cinematic Universe to its core and for that reason, its the best Marvel film to date.

8.5/10

My Theory About Terminus on "The Walking Dead"

SPOILERS:

The group has been separated and hope is dwindling. Will our survivors and main protagonists be reunited? Tonight, we got most of our answer.

Since the show returned from its mid season hiatus, the characters have all been following train tracks, a great symbolism for what's waiting for them at the end of the line. All railroad tracks have to reach some sort of a station at some point, right? Well, all tracks have been covered with maps marking a center known by the name of "Terminus."

What is Terminus? Is it a refuge for our characters to finally hold up in? A new beginning? The safe haven they've been dreaming of? Here's what I think:

To those who think back to the Walking Dead comic book by Robert Kirkman and Charlie Adlard, the group has to find new shelter after the prison is destroyed by the Governor and his merry band of misfits. So, they eventually run into a group somewhere around issue 61 of the series. The group becomes known as the Hunters, survivors who've become cannibals in order to stay alive.

In the comic book, Dale is the person who loses his leg at the prison, not Hershel. Dale is forced to adjust to life without a limb. He is eventually kidnapped by the Hunters and wakes from unconsciousness to find that his remaining leg has been amputated and being consumed by his captors. Dale is then returned as a means of drawing Rick and the others out of hiding from their own camp and Glenn is shot in the process.

Is Terminus housing the Hunters? Will one of our group be eaten by the mysterious people that they've found? What lead me to believe this from the show's return are all the signs the characters kept finding telling them that shelter, protection, and sustenance will be found within the confines of Terminus.

Or I could be totally wrong. One of the brilliant aspects of the show is that writers use the comic book as a guide to tell their story. Events have happened out order or have been altered entirely and characters have been added and removed.

Either way, tonight's episode of The Walking Dead was fantastic as the writers are gearing up for what's sure to be a kick ass season finale.

- @eduardovictory

Stillborn: DEVIL'S DUE Doesn’t Deliver Much of Anything

This is a repost of my review appearing on www.traumaticcinematic.com:

By Eduardo Victoria

What immediately struck me about Devil’s Due is how good the film looks. There are shots in this movie that are so cinematic that I thought to myself, “there’s no way an Average Joe with his digital camcorder filmed all of this.” They’re beautifully lit, the camera is tilted slightly, and the rule of thirds is in full effect. On the heels of Paranormal Activity: The Marked Ones, 20th Century Fox has released a lame copy-cat into theaters.

The film follows Sam (Allison Miller) and Zach McCall (Zach Gilford), a newly-wed couple who go on a bizarre misadventure when on their honeymoon in the Dominican Republic. Thanks to a cab driver who promised them a good time, the pair end up in a strange underground cavern of a nightclub. When the couple return home, Sam finds out she’s pregnant and the happy couple decides to document everything for their child. However, Sam’s behavior begins to grow more and more strange. After studying the footage from past events during Sam’s pregnancy, he discovers that there could be a far more sinister reason behind her behavior.

First and foremost, this film (to me at least) is not a true found footage movie. It violates some rules that have been set up by landmark films in the genre and felt too cinematic, capturing scenes from multiple angles or cameras other than that of our main character. What makes the style work in Cloverfield or the Paranormal Activity series is that we as the viewers are limited by what we can see. This movie uses security camera footage, hidden camera footage (a very lame plot device used by the filmmakers explains this), and even video from characters other than the main protagonists - making for one really confusing final edit of the story.

Speaking of story, the weak elements of the plot sure don’t hold up for very long after the film ends. Every decision the characters make had me asking myself “why would anyone do that?” If you heard a strange noise in your own home and wanted to investigate, wouldn’t you turn the light on first so that you could see if any one was in the room with you? As horror and B-Movie fans, we’re willing to let a little more than usual slide by us in terms of story (i.e. any classic 80’s horror film), but Devil’s Due doesn’t return us the favor by giving us a fun 89 minutes to sit through. Instead, the viewers are treated to a snooze fest with no wake up call.

The biggest crime of all though is the movie’s under-developed characters. Never once did I feel any real sense of danger for any of them because quite frankly, I didn’t care at all about them. If anything, I wanted everyone in the film to be picked off in terribly violent ways because they were annoying. Something the film highlights but never explores is Samantha’s biological family, killed in a car crash while she was still in utero, resulting in her being removed from her mother’s womb via a c-section. What I just told you is all we get. Again, that brought up lots more questions in my mind, why and what they are I won’t reveal because I don’t want to spoil the film for any of you who want to check it out.

For a movie with Devil in the title, there isn’t very much in the way of demonic elements in Devil’s Due. Besides a title card at the opening of the film, we aren’t reminded that the Anti-Christ is involved until pretty deep into the plot. The characters are two dimensional, the story was predictable, and the acting was certainly nothing to write home about. Good cinematography, multiple camera angles, and bizarre editing of various bits of footage make for a poor entry into both the found footage and demonic horror subgenres. The filmmakers tried to make a modern Rosemary’s Baby with overtones of The Omen in the style of Paranormal Activity, but instead delivered a stillborn mess that will be forgotten by this time next week.

PARANORMAL ACTIVITY: THE MARKED ONES (2014)

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The 5 Worst Movies of 2013

Hello everybody!

I hope you've all been keeping warm or beating the heat depending upon where in the world you all are, my best wishes to you all. It's the end of the calendar year forcing us all to look upon the time past and reflect. Being that I'm in the film business, I too will be putting up my top lists on the site! Specifically, they will cover all the movies released in 2013 that I saw, across all genres. But opposed to "top 10's", I'll be posting "top 5's." So, without any further stalling, let's get to business with my least favorite movies of 2013:

5. Spring Breakers

James Franco is stunning in the role of Alien... And that's about it. Harmony Korine gives us a film with a dense pallet of neon colors that's laden with a soundtrack featuring Skrillex and Britney Spears to name a few. However, the film's sub-par script, overall tone of treating women as objects, and just plain bizarre quality made it not difficult to sit through, but one that I didn't enjoy. The social commentary about the lengths these girls are willing to go to spring break their faces off in Florida was not missed by me, that's for sure, but the activities of drinking, doing drugs, and (in this film) riding scooters among many will certainly make this film a cult classic in the vein of "Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas." However, the film is just like Alien says: "Bikinis and big booties."

4. Oz: The Great and Powerful

This is nothing but a cash grab by Disney, based on the writings of L. Frank Baum. The worst part about it is that it definitely shows that is a cash grab. James Franco seems like he "isn't entirely there" for the length of the entire film, relying on his mile wide smile and weird sense of reading lines like a high school drama teacher. Bad CGI, over-the-top performances from its entire cast, and extremely bad editing make it's 130 minute runtime seem like an eternity. But perhaps the biggest crime of all is director Sam Raimi's uninspired vision for the entire film. It's amazing how weird Franco is as an actor. He can deliver a flooring and fantastic performance as he does in the above mentioned "Spring Breakers" and then throws it all out the window in this film.

3. Texas Chainsaw 3D

A reboot of the "Texas Chainsaw Massacre" franchise after Platinum Dunes mis-fired the remade franchise with "Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Beginning." A new batch of characters and a different direction for the series makes for what is perhaps the most pointless film this year. Giving us nothing new in terms of kills we haven't seen before, instead the film delivers a different side to Leatherface that I was not expecting, but not in a good way. Trey Songs is stupid, Alexandra Daddario is miscast, and Tanya Raymonde disappears far too soon (not in the way you may think). This film is truly an embarrassment for the TCM name and legacy, easily being the worst of the sequels to the original film. I was actually pissed off by this movie as I left the theater after seeing it. Seriously, I was upset that this was considered passable enough by executives to be given the TCM name and then released to the public. Whoever was involved in the making of "Texas Chainsaw 3D" should be ashamed.

2. Man of Steel

Perhaps the most bizarre film of this year, Superman returns to the bigscreen in a way that no one could really imagine. Henry Cavill was excellent as Kal-El, but the film greatly suffered because of the lack of chemistry between he and two of the film's leading ladies: Diane Keaton as Martha Kent and of course, Amy Adams as Lois Lane. Adams is great in the film when we see her off on her own or interacting with other members of the cast but stumbles when she has to be the woman of Kal-El's dreams. Seriously, Henry Cavill has better on screen chemistry with his costume than he did with Amy Adams. The third act's endless waves of destruction and over-the-top chaos completely took me out of the film as Zod and Superman resort to throwing themselves through buildings, satellites, and whatever else Zack Snyder probably thought would look cool. Of all of the films I saw this year, Zack Snyder's revival of Superman proved to be the biggest travesty in the world of cinema. However, I was more or less expecting the film to turn out this way based on some of Snyder's past work and was prepared for it. But nothing prepared me for the utter disappointment of...

1. Iron Man 3

That's right. In an era in which Marvel Studios is paving the way for how superhero pictures "should" be made, "Iron Man 3" was dropped to massive box office and for the most part, critical success. And hell, I really enjoyed this movie... Then began to dwell upon it. The Mark 42 suit was billed as one of the film's main draws and then... isn't. The script from director Shane Black was far too childish and comedic than we were lead to believe and Tony Stark was annoying. The ending is by far the stupidest endings to any movie I've seen this year and is one of those "why didn't you do that in the first place" type of things. Dumb. Not to mention the post credits scene, which I loved and was a lot of fun, but ultimately was a cheat. As a matter of fact, Marvel even inserted fake names during the credits of "Iron Man 3" to make the audience wait longer for it. This movie was such a turn off that I was in no hurry to see "Thor: The Dark World" and actually became less excited for "Captain America: The Winter Soldier."Hell, if this is how Marvel could potentially treat all of its brands, I'd be fine with stepping away from Marvel's big screen, post converted 3D adaptations.