by Cavin Jacobson | Jul 3, 2019 | Arts and Entertainment, News Slider
“Spider-Man: Far From Home” returns to the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s roots and delivers a story that feels straight from the pages of a comic. Coming fresh on the heels of “Avengers: Endgame,” “Far From Home” makes for the perfect coda to the story that Marvel wrapped up with “Endgame.” It is important to note that this review will have slight spoilers for “Far From Home,” references to past MCU movies, and spoilers for “Avengers: Endgame.” If you have not seen “Endgame,” a new version was released in theaters last Friday. “Spider-Man: Far From Home” immediately answers the questions that bothered so many after “Endgame.” While the film does not answer them perfectly, “Far From Home” reminds the audience just why the MCU formula is a winning one. After the comedic exposition of how life was for non-superpowered people during “Endgame,” we find Peter Parker (Tom Holland) wanting to return to normal high-school life and work up the courage to ask out MJ (Zendaya). The world has different plans for Spider-Man though, as the burden of being the next Iron Man falls on his shoulders. Peter Parker flees the burden of Spider-Man and goes on a class trip across Europe. The traveling montages hark back to the style of National Lampoon movies and clearly shows director Jon Watts’ love for ’80s teen comedies. While on the trip, Peter is forced to be Spider-Man when creatures known as Elementals start attacking cities that Peter and his class are visiting. A new superhuman called Mysterio (Jake Gyllenhaal) arrives on the scene to help stop the Elementals’ threat. He is joined by Nick...
by LeBron Hill | Mar 12, 2019 | Arts and Entertainment, News Slider, Opinion
Transitions can be hard — moving out of your parents’ house and actually paying bills, or when your university changes from Pepsi to Coke. #neverforget With Marvel’s highly anticipated “Avengers: Endgame” premiering late next month, “Captain Marvel” sneaks in as the last superhero introduced in Phase Three, Marvel’s timeline of character storylines, thus transitioning into the next chapter of the Marvel Universe. The movie isn’t anything too spectacular; it doesn’t help that it’s placed in the middle of “Infinity War” and “Endgame,” acting as an appetizer before we devour the main course. Captain Marvel (Brie Larson) finds herself right in the middle of the war between the warmongering Kree and the shapeshifting Skrulls. With her mind swiped of her memories, Carol Danvers must hone her newly-found radioactive powers and regain who she is. The storyline is solid, but the overall ideas and themes are overdone. You enter into “Total Recall“ territory with the lost memory premise and then combine that with an intergalactic war of “Star Wars” proportions and sprinkle in “Star Trek”-like cosmetics. Larson’s supporting cast is a bright spot of the film, which is led by Jude Law (Sherlock Holmes) and Ben Mendelsohn (Rogue One), and you can’t have a Marvel movie without the Kangol-wearing king of box office blockbusters, Samuel L. Jackson. It makes sense that casting for this film would be so strong, considering how importantly the storytelling in this film will lead into more to come. In the comics, Captain Marvel becomes the new leader of the Avengers with Iron Man passing the torch to her. It seems to be the way the movies...
by Cory Woodroof | Aug 1, 2014 | Opinion
If Marvel Studios’ track record tells you anything, it’s that the company isn’t afraid to roll the dice. By now, it’s almost humorous to think that making Robert Downey Jr. into Iron Man, casting two relative unknowns (Chris Hemsworth and Tom Hiddleston) into the roles of Thor and Loki and handing Joss Whedon the keys to the Avengers kingdom were incredible risks at the beginning. But, really, that’s been the studio’s mantra ever since Tony Stark took to the skies – “We’re unafraid to take chances because, most of the time, we’re right.” It’s a formula that’s garnered a conglomeration of critical praise, audience adornment and box office records. As rival comics company DC attempts to play a game of Jenga to get their long-gestated Justice League franchise off the ground (fingers crossed), Marvel coasts across their ‘Marvel Cinematic Universe’ with the self-dubbed ‘Phase 2’ nearly in the rearview mirror (next summer’s Avengers: Age of Ultron will tie the knot on the second part of the overarching Avengers storyline, with vehicles for Ant-Man, Dr. Strange and others on the way). Although, the studio hit a public snag in May when lauded director Edgar Wright bolted his prized Ant-Man adaptation, a project that, according to rumor, went through many failed offers before landing in the hands of comedy vet Peyton Reed. Speculation painted Marvel as a controlling cookie-cutter, afraid to embrace the potentially diverse take Wright had on the character and its universe. “How dare a visionary enter our arena and try to go against the grain that we’ve established?” With a movie like Guardians of the Galaxy now under...
