Annie Edison and Daenerys Targaryen Hope To Love Up Captain America

Captain America is my favorite of all the pre-Avengers Marvel films, so I was already pretty psyched for the upcoming sequel, Captain America: The Winter Soldier.  It's fair to say that excitement tripled when Marvel hired Joe and Anthony Russo as directors; their work on NBC's incredible Community speaks for itself.

So the idea that they may be bringing the lovely and hilarious Alison Brie on board as the modern love interest to Steve Rogers absolutely fills me with glee.  There's no official word yet on exactly what character she would play, but it seems likely that the role would be that of Sharon Carter, niece of Haley Atwell's WWII-era character Peggy Carter.

Now let's be clear: Brie is one of five who are testing for the role, including Emelia Clarke (Game Of Thrones), Jessica Findlay (Downton Abbey), Teresa Palmer (The Sorcerer's Apprentice), and Imogen Poots (V For Vendetta).  That's a helluva talent pool right there, so it looks like either way Chris Evans will have his hands full next year.  While I'm not a Downton Abbey fan, Emelia Clarke's work in the first season of Game Of Thrones is absolutely astounding.  And I find Teresa Palmer to have an easy charm on screen, aside from being someone who can physically hold her own in a fight.

But yeah.  Annie Edison for The Winter Soldier.  Come on internet, let's make this happen.

Joss Whedon Returns For Avengers 2 And More!

HUZZAH!

At this point I think it's safe to say that Avengers is the biggest (and possibly most fun) movie of the year.  You can thank writer/director Joss Whedon for that.  While we all hoped and prayed that he'd be back again for the sequel sometime in 2015, Disney announced on an investor conference call that it's now officially a done deal.  Not only that, but Whedon will also be shepherding the still-in-development live action TV show that will be somehow set in the Marvel-verse.  That project is still in the extremely early stages - Marvel hasn't even really announced a general pitch, although rumors point towards some kind of police procedural.  While none of the established Marvel heroes would be regular cast members, I certainly wouldn't rule out the occasional cameo.

While we can hope that Whedon will stay heavily involved in the proposed hour-long (the man is responsible for some of the greatest TV in the past 20 years after all), what looks even more likely is that he'll have a strong hand in the remainder of the in-development movies that make up Marvel's Phase Two.  Whedon did some fiarly extensive re-writes on Captain America, something that was very evident in the finished product, (Tommy Lee Jones' Colonel Phillips feels like a wholesale Whedon creation.) so it makes sense that he'd want to shape the rest of Marvel's upcoming slate to properly set the stage for the next Avengers adventure.  Iron Man 3 is already heading into post-production and the most input he can probably have on Thor: The Dark World at this point is some quick dialogue punch-up, but I expect Whedon will be heavily involved in shaping the stories for Captain America: The Winter Soldier as well as the way-out-there Guardians Of The Galaxy.

A gun-toting raccoon spouting witty Whedon-banter?  Yes please.

X-Men Mark Their X-Calendar For DAYS OF FUTURE PAST

Part of the reason people have reacted with such gusto to the announcement of Captain America: The Winter Soldier is because the title indicates that film will be adapting one of the most beloved comic arcs in the character's recent history.  It's an interesting approach, as comic films tend to focus more on the broad strokes of the character/world than bringing a specific storyline to the screen.  Marvel's plan certainly has the potential for greatness and Fox seems to concur, as they'll be taking the X-Men down the same path.

Bryan Singer has confirmed that Matthew Vaughn's followup to X-Men: First Class will indeed be called X-Men: Days Of Future Past, adapting what is possibly the most famous of all the X-Men stories.  Originally penned by Chris Claremont and John Byrne, (authors of the Dark Phoenix story) Days Of Future Past centers around a dystopian future in which mutants have all been either interned or killed by the infamous giant robot Sentinels.  The future Kitty Pryde sends her mind back in time to possess her younger self and warn the X-Men in order to prevent this dark future from coming to pass.

Honestly, this announcement almost raises more questions than it answers.  Since the last film took place in the 1960s, will the "future" actually take place in our present day, or will it go even further into the 21st century?  More intriguingly, how does Vaughn plan to handle the elder versions of our mutant heroes?  Does he plan on getting the band back together?  While I wouldn't mind seeing Patrick Stewart and Ian McKellan return, my hope is that Fox lets Vaughn continue to re-write the X-Universe as he sees fit, instead of trying to shoehorn it in with the previous Singer/Ratner trilogy.*  I say that this actually presents a tremendous opportunity for Vaughn.  The story is all about changing future timelines, so even if he does decide to bring in folks like James Marsden and Famke Janssen, he can essentially have them do whatever he wants and explain it away ala J.J. Abram's Star Trek.

I'm firmly on the record as having loved Vaughn's first mutant adventure (the Blu-ray is in heavy rotation in our house) and I'm delighted that he and writing partner Jane Goldman are back for round two.  Fortunately they've also got a bit of time on this one, as the film isn't scheduled for release until 2014, but we should start hearing casting announcements in the next few months.  I expect we'll get to see a whole lot of new characters between the two timelines as well, so start your obscure mutant office pool now!

As a fan of the old Fox cartoon and someone who's been thoroughly disappointed by the Transformer films, I'm excited at the prospect of actually seeing the Sentinels brought to life.  Who knows, they might even be purple!





*It's a fine line.  Obviously we've seen Hugh Jackman as Wolverine and a quick cameo by Rebecca Romijn, but part of what worked about First Class is that it was evocative of those future-set X-Men films without feeling like a slave to their continuity.

COMIC CON: Get Ready For Marvel's PHASE TWO!

While I already covered some of the early highlights from this year's Comic Con, there's still plenty to talk about.  Let's kick things off with all things Marvel...

Obviously the folks at Marvel are in high spirits in light of the overwhelming success of The Avengers, but they're far from resting on their laurels.  As "Phase One" will hit DVD and Blu-Ray this September in the form of a giant boxed set (complete with glowing Tesseract!) Kevin Feige and friends laid out their blueprint for "Phase Two" on Saturday in Hall H.  Here's what it looks like, including logo branding and new titles!

First up, we've got the Shane Black directed Iron Man 3, hitting theaters May 3, 2013.

Marvel put on a helluva show with this one, including an exclusive footage presentation that more than impressed the audience.  Highlights included shots of Don Cheadle's Rhodey in his new red white & blue War Machine armor and the first glimpse of Ben Kingsley as the now-confirmed Mandarin.  (He does not appear to be playing the role as Asian.)  For a more detailed take on the footage, check out Drew McWeeny's excellent description over at HitFix.  They also had all seven previous versions of Iron Man's armor on display, as well as the newest model we'll see next spring:

Thor: The Dark World opens November 8, 2013.  

That subtitle doesn't give too many clues as to where the story is headed, but we might get a better clue as they finish up casting.  They've already had to replace Josh Dallas with Zachary Levi as Fandral (which is ironic as Levi was originally set to play the role in the first film, but was later replaced by Dallas, both times due to unexpected TV renewals.)  They've also lost their villain in the form of Mads Mikkelsen, whose commitments to the upcoming Bryan Fuller-helmed Hannibal Lecter television series forced him off the Marvel project.  We'll see who emerges to torture the thunder god in his next go-round.


Arriving on April 4, 2014 is Captain America: The Winter Soldier.

As opposed to the Thor sequel, this title speaks volumes.  It's clear the Russo brothers (!) will be drawing heavily from Ed Brubaker's infamous run on the comics in which Cap's sidekick Bucky is revealed to be very much alive, now a deadly Russian assassin with a mechanical arm who's spent the decades since WWII in and out of cryo-stasis. (I almost put a spoiler warning there, but ultimately decided the title indicates that Bucky's presence in the movie will probably be well advertised beforehand.)  We've also learned that Cap's 70's-era partner The Falcon will appear and that Marvel is in negotiations with Anthony Mackie.  The Falcon is one of Marvel's early black superheroes, a Harlem native who can fly with the help of a special suit.  He also has a psychic link with his pet Falcon and can generally see through the eyes of birds.  Mackie is a fantastic actor who should be far more successful than he is, so here's hoping he'll get a bit of the Marvel bump.  I wouldn't be surprised to see him appear in the next Avengers flick either.


Marvel's also opening up a new franchise, Guardians Of The Galaxy, on August 1, 2014.

This one is WAY out there compared to the Marvel movies we've seen so far.  This is a huge outer space epic, with a team of heroes named Star Lord, Groot, Frax, Gamorra and Rocket Racoon.  Yes, that last one is an actual racoon.  With automatic weapons.  Oh, and Groot is a walking tree.  Here's some concept art, to give you a sense of the characters.  

The Guardians will be teaming up to fight Thanos, who was briefly glimpsed during the credits of Avengers and will definitely be the villain the next time Earth's mightiest heroes assemble.  I actually love the idea of using this new franchise to flesh out the Avengers' newest foe, as we'll have essentially had three (or in Tony Stark's case four) movies with each of our heroes by the time we get to the next Avengers movie.  Since most folks aren't terribly familiar with Thanos, it'll be nice to have the team fighting an enemy with some serious backstory that the audience might even be more aware of than some of the characters. 

And finally, the much anticipated Ant-Man from Edgar Wright.

Wright recently shot some test footage to see how Ant-Man's growing and shrinking abilities could be utilized on-screen, but this project is still quite a ways off.  While Marvel formally announced the project with Wright attached (and showed the footage, which sounded beyond cool, even sans-ants) there is still no official release or production start date.  Wright is about to start shooting The World's End, the final entry in his infamous "Blood & Ice Cream" trilogy with Simon Pegg and Nick Frost.

All told, an ambitious and (hopefully) impressive slate for the next two years.  Color me stoked.

Reaction: Captain America

In a season of blockbuster movies that range from disappointing (Green Lantern) to well executed but flawed (Super 8), I'm here to tell you that Captain America: The First Avenger is the movie you've been waiting for all summer.  Fun, upbeat, adventurous, charming, ass-kicking, large-scale, well-crafted, earnest...this is everything you want in a Friday night at the movies and more.  This is not a "I'll just wait for the DVD" kind of movie.  This is a theater-going, popcorn-munching EXPERIENCE.

Not only is Captain America unquestionably the best of the Marvel Studios movies, but this is the first movie where I don't find myself making apologies for a lack of action, or an uneven story, or bloated plot-lines.  Aside from maybe 3 or 4 dodgy FX shots of skinny Steve Rogers, (and yes, that's shots, not scenes) I walked away from the movie with virtually no regrets, and most of my issues are of a "that was awesome, I wish there was more of that" nature.  The Howling Commandos are great, but it would have been nice if they were ever referred to as such, or if any of the characters were ever called by name, especially since they have such great names, like Dum Dum Dugan.  Hayley Atwell is poised and lovely as Peggy Carter, but I would have liked one more scene with just her and Steve, something to flesh out her backstory and motivations a bit.  And while there's certainly no shortage of action, I wanted to see more in the montage of Cap's wartime battles.

The cast is excellent across the board, particularly Stanley Tucci as super soldier serum inventor Abraham Erskine, Dominic Cooper as the young Howard Stark and Tommy Lee Jones as the dryly funny General Phillips.  Hugo Weaving is given a great chunk of meat to chew on in the form of Johann Schmidt/Red Skull.  Surprisingly, he's equally compelling in both physical personas and hits all the right notes as the dark and twisted version of Rogers.

Chris Evans...oh man.  He gives one of those performances that you literally didn't know he was capable of giving.  He's kind of developed his schtick over the years, a kind of less smarmy version of Ryan Reynolds.  Well don't expect to see any of the Human Torch here.  Evans sheds all cynicism, rounding out his sharp edges into a man that is, at his core, not just strong willed but overwhelmingly decent.  He has an unshakable moral compass always does the right thing, regardless of the risks or consequences.  I'd love to see that unflinching morality really tested in later films, to see Cap get cornered into making a bad decision and forced to deal with the consequences, be it in The Avengers or future Captain America flicks, of which there should be many.

Sidenote: one the smartest choices the movie makes is to span the entirety of WWII using two great montages, which leaves the door open for future WWII era adventures, or at least extended flashbacks in a present day-set movie.  I should also point out that the movie manages not once, but twice to use montage to not just denote the passage of time, but to give us real, honest character development without bashing us over the head with it.

I haven't even talked about director Joe Johnston, the man who not only directed The Rocketeer, but also designed the Millennium Falcon.  For that alone the man gets a free pass for life, but his work here is inspired.  He manages to not only capture the tone of an idealistic and bygone era, but creates a terrific sense of heightened reality that actually manages to fit seamlessly into the period, so that I actually believe in all of Hydra's crazy weapons, most of which would be considered futuristic in present day, let alone the 1940s.  I also love the way Johnston handles Captain America's powers.  Yes, Rogers can run faster, jump higher and punch harder, but aside from a few sort of iconic, character-building moments, Johnston never draws the audience out of the scene just to showcase those abilities.  It never feels like we're being told "Look, look!  See how hard he can punch?  ISN'T IT IMPRESSIVE?!?"  Rather, in order to dispatch some faceless thug, Captain America needs only one punch, instead of four or five, and then the guy gets propelled back farther than normal, impressing us without ever demanding our attention.

Which leads me to my greatest praise for the movie.  Now, as much as I love Marvel's interconnected approach to their properties over the past few years, it's also been an incredible drain on the films themselves. Thor and particularly Iron Man 2 are great examples stories that literally get sidetracked by Nick Fury and SHEILD, and while I appreciate just how much groundwork Marvel has had to lay down before we get to The Avengers, after a while it starts to make the individual movies feel incomplete.  Large chucks of running time are dedicated to things that we hope will ultimately pay off in some other movie, and usually the story of the movie you're actually watching suffers for it.  Not only does that never happen here, but all those tendrils that connect Captain America to the larger Marvel universe actually feel natural and well integrated.  The writers finally found a way to tell a great story while including some nice touchstones from what we've already seen (I loved the callbacks to Thor) as opposed to trying to build their story around SHEILD and whatever else they think we need to know before next May.

There so much more to love here, including Alan Silvestri's soaring score and an absurdly catchy tune from Alan Menken during Steve's time with the USO (one of my favorite sequences in the movie).  Breathtaking cinematography, outstanding production design, the progression of Captain America's uniform, and a great throwaway Raiders Of The Lost Ark joke...I'm not exaggerating when I say this is the kind of movie I could spend all summer watching, and I plan to see it again at least once more before it exits theaters.  Do yourself a favor and make the time for this one.  Go out of your way.  See it in 3D if the technology doesn't give you migraines.

And, as with all Marvel movies, make sure to stay after the credits.