Henrik Carlsson's Blog

All things me.

Captain America: Civil War

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🎞 Watched: Captain America: Civil War

Before getting into the MCU, this was probably the movie that I thought would be the very worst one. Super heroes fighting each other over issues that could be solved be talking is just so boring. Turns out, I was wrong about the movie. I really liked this one!

I think we all can agree that this is an Avengers movie, just as much as a Cap movie. And as such it is the Avengers movie, at least in the sense that this is how I would like more of them to be. The world is not going to end if the heroes fail, but instead there are real personal stakes here. I can understand motivations, I can get invested.

As for the fighting, the Avengers movies have the problem that you have a demigod, an almost invincible rage monster, some really powerful metahumans and a spy/assassin and a guy with a bow and arrow. This imbalance of power amongst them gets more or less silly in both Avengers and Age of Ultron (and I assume in Infinity War as well). In this one, it is much better managed. The airstrip scene, which I kind of dreaded, was really exciting. Everybody had an important role and I could understand the abilities of every character and why the could, or couldn’t, match each other.

It was also interesting that I still don’t really know if I’m on team Tony or team Cap. Philosophically speaking I would like to agree with Steve, but I can also totally see myself acting just like Tony does in the final battle, if I were in his shoes.

Right, I almost forgot. Spider-Man! (I’m looking forward to seeing Homecoming.)

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🎞 Watched: Ant-Man

I’d heard a lot about how this one was different from the earlier MCU movies and while it felt less serious – mostly in a good way – I don’t think it was this radical shift that some made it out to be.

Anyway, it was enjoyable but also a bit forgettable. I probably won’t rush to rewatch this anytime soon.

One interesting thing was the scene in the beginning that was set in the past, where they’d digitally de-aged Michael Douglas. I knew this was going to be a thing and after my negative reaction to Tarkin in Rouge One I expected to dislike this as well. Turns out I was wrong. Technology marches on fast and this digital effect looked really good. Funnily enough I actually though digitally de-aged Douglas looked more real than the real Douglas in the rest of the movie.

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🎞 Watched: Avengers: Age of Ultron

When I first watched this movie a couple of years ago I really didn’t like it. Now, as I’m watching is as part of my MCU watching, it is definitely less terrible but it’s still a mess of a movie.

Even though I’ve watched countless hours of MCU movies, since I haven’t watched the Agents of Shield tv show, I still had to resort to google to understand the stakes of the first scene. Who is Avengers fighting? Why? And why should I care?

The action scenes feels impact-less overall and I can’t really relate to the characters. There are some good things though.

I like the scene with Hawkeye’s family. It humanises all of the characters and gives me some reasons to care about them. Also, Elizabeth Olsen is good as the Scarlet Witch. She is doing some actual acting in the final battle scene, something that no-one else in the cast bothers at this point in the movie.

All in all, a more or less terrible movie.

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🎞 Watched: Iron Man 3

This movie has some serious problem with tone. Sometimes it’s great but sometimes it just can’t juggle its emotions correctly. The result is one of the worst Marvel movies. Though I have a feeling that the one I’ll watch next will be even worse.

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🎧 Listened to: Micro Monday – Episode 33: Aleen Simms aka @aleen

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🎧 Listened to: The Incomparable | Sometimes You Need a Wookiee (Episode 408)

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🎧 Listened to: H.I. #104: Fruitbooting — Hello Internet

I had already listened to this episode when it was first released but at that time I hadn’t watched Solo: A Star Wars Story so I skipped that part of the episode. Now that I have watched the movie I went back and listened to the episode.

I enjoyed Grey and Brady’s discussion about it and I’m glad they more or less liked the movie. I agree with them that it probably is the second best new Star Wars movie.

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🎞 Watched: Solo: A Star Wars Story (2018)

Since this is a Star Wars movie and today was the first time I watched it I’m probably contractually obligated to write something long but that’ll have to wait for another day. For now, suffice to say it was a really enjoyable movie and I’m looking forward to seeing it again. Alden Ehrenreich – the guy that plays Han – is just perfect for the role!

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🎞 Watched: Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit

Snoozefest.

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🎞 Watched: Thor: The Dark World

Yet another Marvel movie. This one was definitely or the sillier side and parts of it felt really bad but as a whole still quite entertaining.

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