Less epic but more meaningful ‘Guardians’ sequel

Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2” often feels like a forced and self-conscious sequel, but it makes you care deeper about characters we barely knew before. And while it has less unpredictable conflicts, the collective drama is amped-up and more permeating, overpowering even the grand combat sequences set in mesmerizing dreamscapes.

The Marvel Studios film doesn’t scrimp on special effects—there’s a tremendous amount of detail, as well as painstaking digital artistry in almost every scene. But, the heroic space misfits’ dynamic improves. Their metamorphoses, while contrived, have satisfactory results.

Director James Gunn’s second sci-fi-action flick zeroes in on the bonds of its members and successfully tests them further, their personalities aptly becoming more complex:

The half-Earthling, retro music-loving Star-Lord (Chris Pratt) meets a humanlike alien, Ego (Kurt Russell), who claims to be his biological father.

More is revealed about warrior Gamora’s (Zoe Saldana) feud with her murderous sister, Nebula (Karen Gillen); the witty brute, Drax (Dave Bautista), is now comfortable, and the nimble CGI-powered creatures, Rocket (voiced by Bradley Cooper) and Baby Groot (Vin Diesel), both provide cartoony cuteness and attitude—seamlessly blending in with the comic-book chaos and carnage.

It’s a simpler offering, despite the stunning imagery—one would expect a senses-shattering epic, after the space adventurers’ debut in 2014. Not that there aren’t threats in “Vol. 2” on a galactic scale, but problems are far too easily resolved, and the sense of danger isn’t entirely there.

Star-Lord’s estranged ally, the antihero Yondu Udonta (Michael Rooker), however, becomes a fully developed character. He was underused before like Nebula, but they both shine here.

As for Ego, it was mentioned in the first film that Star-Lord’s dad was something of a jerk—so his presence is suspicious from the get-go. The revelations don’t disappoint, but they’re perfunctory.

In the bigger scheme

of things, the now-popular Guardians will figure prominently, according to reports, in the third “Avengers” film in 2018. This sequel also helps expand the cosmic lore of the live-action universe, introducing figures and ideas from the comics anew.

Speaking of expansion, there are five extra scenes at the end, but only one is of real consequence, and that arc will undoubtedly be picked up in the eventual crossover with the Avengers.

The film has pleasantly surprising cameos by popular actors, although they don’t feel as significant as they should’ve been. It often appears like “Vol. 2” has a need to show off and is painfully aware of its previous success.

Despite that, it deserves to be seen on the big screen—the imaginative, painterly visuals are truly glorious. Moreover, the character-driven sequel connects effectively with human drama, despite its strange and otherworldly conceits.

source: entertainment.inquirer.net

Thor battles to save the nine realms in “The Dark World”

From Marvel Studios comes the highly anticipated “Thor: The Dark World,” continuing the big screen adventures of Thor, the Mighty Avenger, as he battles to save Earth and all the Nine Realms from a shadowy enemy that pre-dates the universe itself.

In the aftermath of Marvel’s “Thor” and “Marvel’s The Avengers,” Thor fights to restore order across the cosmos…but an ancient race led by the vengeful Malekith returns to plunge the universe back into darkness. Faced with an enemy that even Odin and Asgard cannot withstand, Thor must embark on his most perilous and personal journey yet, one that will reunite him with Jane Foster and force him to sacrifice everything to save us all.

Based on the ever-popular comic book series, Marvel’s “Thor: The Dark World” stars Chris Hemsworth as Thor with Academy Award® winner Natalie Portman as Jane Foster, Tom Hiddleston as Loki, award-winning Stellan Skarsgård as Selvig, Idris Elba as Heimdall, Christopher Eccleston as Malekith, Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje as Algrim, Kat Dennings as Darcy, Ray Stevenson as Volstagg, Zachary Levi as Fandral, Tadanobu Asano as Hogun, Jaimie Alexander as Sif with Rene Russo as Frigga and Academy Award® winner Anthony Hopkins as Odin.

Marvel’s “Thor: The Dark World” is directed by Alan Taylor from a story by Don Payne and Robert Rodat and a screenplay by Christopher L. Yost and Christopher Markus & Stephen McFeely and is produced by Kevin Feige, p.g.a.

In 1962, the now-legendary duo of Stan Lee and Jack Kirby introduced “The Mighty Thor” to readers of Marvel Comics, unleashing a new era of action-adventure with their take on the hammer-wielding Norse god. Despite the Nordic-sounding names, the story was rooted in familiar, universal conflicts that have driven human drama since the beginning of time: a son impatient to prove his worth to his father; a lethally resentful brother; and a woman who helps a man see the world anew.

After the global cinematic success of Marvel’s “Thor,” the filmmakers reached once more into a rich archive of Norse mythology and comic book history for Marvel’s “Thor: The Dark World.” The movie paints an adventure of the most epic and spectacular proportions. Again drawing on universal and familiar themes, the film pits duty and family allegiance against personal aspiration and love. It sees a nation in conflict with an enemy long thought to be dead, but who now threatens the very existence of the universe.



At the end of “Marvel’s The Avengers,” Thor’s adopted brother Loki is taken back to Asgard by Thor as a prisoner, after trying to take over the world. From this starting point, producer Kevin Feige, executive producer Craig Kyle, the screenwriters and a large team at Marvel sat down to look at where Thor’s story should go next. Screenwriter Christopher L. Yost explains, “We really wanted to look at how you could escalate the story personally for him and push things to the next level in terms of conflict.”



Director Alan Taylor, describing Thor’s journey, says, “In the first film, we saw Thor go from being an impetuous prince to taking his first steps towards maturing and growing up, and in our film that life story continues. He’s moving closer to actually claiming the kind of power that comes with Odin. He’s becoming not just a man, but potentially a king as well. In this story, as Thor matures and deepens, he has to give some things up and suffer.”

To create the conflict, the filmmakers give Thor a worthy adversary—the villainous Malekith. Introduced in June 1984 in issue #344 of Thor, Malekith is leader of the dark elves, who inhabit Svartalfheim, one of the Nine Realms. After waging war with the Nine Realms, and being defeated by Asgard, the dark elves were considered to be extinct. But Malekith put his planet and the surviving dark elves into hibernation for many thousands of years, until a calculated time when he was ready to avenge the universe and turn light once more into darkness. Malekith and the dark elves will prove to be formidable enemies with a violent and personal history with Asgard.


In creating “Thor: The Dark World,” Marvel filmmakers worked diligently to respect the film’s origins and the legions of comic book fans it spawned and worked carefully to endear and excite not only those fans but fans of the Marvel Cinematic Universe as well.

Opening across the Philippines on Oct. 30 in IMAX 3D, Digital 3D, 2D and regular theaters, “Thor: The Dark World” is distributed by Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures International.

source: movies.inquirer.net

Tony Stark Strikes Back in Marvel’s “Iron Man 3″

From Marvel Studios comes “Iron Man 3,” which continues the epic, big-screen adventures of the world’s favorite billionaire-inventor-Super Hero, Tony Stark aka Iron Man.

Marvel’s “Iron Man 3” pits brash-but-brilliant industrialist Tony Stark/Iron Man against an enemy whose reach knows no bounds. When Stark finds his personal world destroyed at his enemy’s hands, he embarks on a harrowing quest to find those responsible. This journey, at every turn, will test his mettle. With his back against the wall, Stark is left to survive by his own devices, relying on his ingenuity and instincts to protect those closest to him. As he fights his way back, Stark discovers the answer to the question that has secretly haunted him: does the man make the suit or does the suit make the man?

Based on the ever-popular Marvel comic book Super Hero Iron Man, who first appeared on the pages of “Tales of Suspense” (#39) in 1963 and had his solo comic book debut with “The Invincible Iron Man” (#1) in May of 1968, “Iron Man 3” returns Robert Downey Jr. as Tony Stark, the iconic Super Hero, along with Gwyneth Paltrow as Pepper Potts, Don Cheadle as James “Rhodey” Rhodes, Guy Pearce as Aldrich Killian, Rebecca Hall as Maya Hansen, Jon Favreau as Happy Hogan and Ben Kingsley as The Mandarin.

Shane Black directs Marvel’s “Iron Man 3” and the screenplay is by Drew Pearce & Shane Black.

After the “Iron Man” and “Iron Man 2” box-office successes, the Iron Man character, once again reprised by Robert Downey Jr., was last seen in Marvel Studios critically acclaimed “Marvel’s The Avengers,” which set the all-time, domestic 3-day weekend box office record at $207.4 million. The film went on to gross over $1.6 billion worldwide, becoming Disney’s highest-grossing global and domestic release of all time and marks the studio’s fifth film to gross more than $1 billion worldwide.



“The exciting thing about ‘Iron Man 3,’ is that it’s not only the culmination of the first two films, but it’s also a follow up to ‘Marvel’s The Avengers,’” says producer Kevin Feige. “It’s one of the first situations where you have a movie that is the sequel to two different films and in a way that liberates it to be more unique than anything that has come before it, which is what we’re most excited about.”

In the Marvel cinematic universe, all events that happen within each film have a direct influence and consequence in future films and franchises. For Tony Stark the events and encounters he faced in “Marvel’s The Avengers” may be behind him, but he is still working hard to balance the demands of his own personal life.

For the storyline of Marvel’s “Iron Man 3,” the filmmakers decided on a “back-to-basics” tone where they could explore what Tony Stark would do if all of his money and toys were stripped away from him and he was forced to find a way back to being a Super Hero.

“Early on in the development, we talked about this notion of taking Tony Stark back to basics because we wanted to see him just use his brain,” explains executive producer Louis D’ Esposito.  “You want to see what he can do when the odds are against him and it makes you wonder, ‘How is he going to get out of this one?’”


Executive producer Stephen Broussard explains the filmmakers’ decision to blend two different storylines together for the film. “There are two classic stories that have appeared in the ‘Iron Man’ comics—one is older and the other is more modern,” explains Broussard.  “The older is the character called The Mandarin, and he is one of the most famous villains in the franchise. The character dates back to the 1960s and we wanted Shane [Black] and Drew [Pearce] to take that idea and contemporize it for present-day audiences.”

Broussard adds, “We also wanted to combine that with another storyline in the comic called Extremis, which came out not too long before the first ‘Iron Man’ film in 2008.  It deals with the biological enhancement of humans and Tony must face super-powered humans in that. So we just thought, wouldn’t that be interesting if we tried to combine these two stories into one for ‘Iron Man 3’?”

An early believer in the Extremis story line, Downey Jr. says, “I remember when we were getting ready to shoot ‘Iron Man,’ I started reading ‘Iron Man’ comics and there was this one called ‘Extremis,’ and I thought it was really interesting and cool.”

“The thing about the Extremis storyline that always interested me in the comic books was that you had a sense that Tony Stark puts on an iron suit and hides inside it in a way,” says director Shane Black. “The character wouldn’t call it that, but that’s kind of the case. With the Extremis people, you always got a sense that they’re burning up from the inside. So one of them could actually say to Tony for instance, ‘you drive a car, I am the car.’”

There is plenty of angst from “Marvel’s The Avengers” to fuel Tony Stark’s arc too. Before “Marvel’s The Avengers,” Tony Stark thought he was the only Super Hero in the world, and in “Iron Man 3” he must deal with the revelation that he is not the only one out there. As Kevin Feige explains, “In ‘Marvel’s The Avengers’ he faces a world-changing event that not only includes seeing the powers of other Super Heroes, but also having a portal to another world opened above his head.”

For Robert Downey Jr. the journey of Tony Stark in the “Iron Man” franchise is one that is very relatable to audiences. “The great thing about ‘Iron Man 3’ is that we really are going back to kind of an extension and continuation of some of the things that made the franchise fly to begin with,” says Downey. “With the execution and incredible success of ‘Marvel’s The Avengers,’ we’re afforded the opportunity to not have to set up another film and can really explore the character of Tony Stark in ways that are very organic and connectable and play to the strength of the franchise.”

(Opening across the Philippines on April 24 in IMAX 3D, Digital 3D and regular theatres, “Iron Man 3” is presented by Marvel Studios in association with Paramount Pictures and DMG Entertainment. Marvel Studios’ President Kevin Feige is producing and Jon Favreau, Louis D’Esposito, Charles Newirth, Victoria Alonso, Stephen Broussard, Alan Fine, Stan Lee and Dan Mintz are executive producers. The film is distributed by Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures.)

source: movies.inquirer.net