Thursdays at the Theater XVII
The lights dim, allowing the theater to be enveloped in darkness. A few moments pass, and then the usual onslaught of trailers and marketing assaults the audience. But once that and the IMAX intro pass, the audience waits with bated breath as the familiar music plays as the Marvel intro appears on screen, and with that, Captain America: Civil War begins.
And this is where we stop that little soliloquy in order to go over some other films that will be released in the upcoming weeks, including a couple of big ones. We will get to Civil War later, no worries, but first to the matter at hand.
For this weekend, we have the Kevin Bacon led horror film ‘The Darkness’ creeping its way into theaters. The film tells the story of two families who, after a trip to the Grand Canyon, bring a supernatural force back home with them. How the Grand Canyon suddenly became ‘Spook Central’, I have no idea. Guess you have to watch it if you want to find out. We also have a movie that I am very interested in called ‘Money Monster’ directed by Jodie Foster. It stars George Clooney and Julia Roberts as a rich investment broker/television host of a ‘stock advice show’ and his producer who are taken hostage by a man who lost all of his money following Clooney’s tips. This has the potential to be quite intense, so I’m curious to see what the verdict on it is.
Next weekend is comedy weekend as we have Angry Birds, Neighbors 2: Sorority Rising and The Nice Guys all releasing. Angry Birds is based on the hit series of mobile games that feature birds throwing themselves into slingshots in order to take out the greedy, gluttonous green pigs. It features the voices of Jason Sudeikis, Peter Dinklage, and Danny McBride among several others, and I have heard that it’s actually surprisingly funny. Neighbors 2 is the sequel to the hit film Neighbors from 2014, following Seth Rogen and Rose Byrne as they have to contend with a wild sorority led by Chloe Grace-Moretz this time around. In their bumbling attempts to stop the wild girls, they enlist the help of their old enemy played by Zac Efron in order to win back their quiet family life with their daughter. I have to admit, I have not been too impressed by the trailers but I thought the original Neighbors was good, so let’s see if college insanity clashing with quiet suburban life still has its appeal. Finally, we have the movie I’m most excited for out of all of these films, and that is The Nice Guys. This is directed by Shane Black set in the 70’s, as a cowardly private eye played by Ryan Gosling teams up with Russell Crowe’s knuckle-breaking enforcer in order to uncover the disappearance of a young woman. As they deal with all sorts of criminals, they uncover a shocking conspiracy that reaches all the way to the top. This looks insanely fun and appears to be right up Black’s alley who has directed Kiss Kiss Bang Bang and Iron Man 3.
Alrighty then, we finally get to the main draw of this article which is me talking about Captain America: Civil War. For those of you who do not know, I was very disappointed with the way that Batman v Superman was executed, so I was looking to this movie to fill in the gap of a hero vs hero movie, and boy does it deliver. The conflict is set up very well and addresses the consequences of superhero intervention in world affairs. It does this very clearly and concisely in a focused manner, never drifting away from the issue at hand unlike its distant relative Batman v Superman. The Russo brothers, who directed this movie, have to be commended for their incredible skill in capturing both the action and the spirit of these characters. Everybody has motivation, and I mean everybody. Iron Man feels guilty for all the destruction the Avengers have caused over the years along with personal troubles, and Captain America cannot in good conscious surrender his freedom to the governments of the world who have agendas of their own. From here we have a mental battle between these two characters, and we see how the rift is cast over the rest of the characters in the movie, and how they reason their choice for siding with one person against the other. This is also very different for a superhero film. Yes, you have your action and your spectacle, but it’s not about getting the bad guy, it’s about how these characters are torn apart by these problems that occur from all their attempts to ‘saving the world’.
If I had any complaints, it would probably be a few nitpicks. Some of the CGI could’ve been cleaned up, and I did feel the movie was just a little too long, although no scene feels unnecessary. I don’t know what you would cut out of this film to make it better, so with those small criticisms out of the way, I am giving Captain America: Civil War a very high 4.5/5 stars. Go out and see this one guys, it’s a blast, and as is per usual for Marvel movies, stay until the end of the credits for post-credit scenes. It’s going to be interesting to see how this movie leads into the other films that are coming up, in particular Infinity War Parts 1 and 2 (soon to be retitled).
And the part you’ve all been waiting for: Spider-Man and Black Panther. How are they? Absolutely perfect. Black Panther is a resolute, smart and strong superhero and this new Spider-Man is the best we’ve ever gotten. The new actor for Spider-Man knows how to crack the jokes and delivers on the web-slinging action. The movie drives home the fact that Spider-Man is a dirt-poor teenager who grew up admiring these heroes, and that is what makes Spider-Man, Spider-Man. He’s only in the movie for a rough total of 20-25 minutes, but he is absolutely amazing, and I cannot wait for his new solo movie next year.
That concludes this edition of Thursdays at the Theater, I hope you all enjoyed reading this. If you want to stay up to date on everything that we do here, follow us on Twitter and Instagram, like us on Facebook and until next time, this is Josh Volkers signing out, so stay strong Titans!
