There has been a few Marvel Cinematic Universe shows that have been really good, a very small few that have been brilliant and some, just ok. With that said, one of my favourite MCU movies as a standalone movie, possible the best out of the entirety of the MCU, is Captain America: The Winter Soldier. Espionage Thriller. This looks like it is following in the same vein and I LOVE IT!
There has been some speculation as to when Nick Fury left earth and we might get a response to that now with this show. I call, since Captain America: The Winter Soldier, Nick Fury has not been on earth, but it seems he has now returned, looking grizzled trying to uncover a threat and trying to stop a secret invasion by himself, because we do not know, who is who and who to trust. Looks EXCELLENT!
At this point, it would seem as though Spider-Man films keep going on and on and people could be getting tired of it. We had Toby Maguire in the Spider-Man film from 2002, then we had Andrew Garfield in The Amazing Spider-Man 2012, but it is probably safe to say that, Tom Holland is the perfect rendition of Spider-Man, debuted in Captain America: Civil War and his first movie, Spider-Man: Homecoming have ever had. Not only is Tomas young, he can grow into the role and not be a 30 year old playing a kid. No shade at all as the Raimi Spider-Man was great until they did part 3, but I hate the organic webs. Regarding The Amazing Spider-Man, I liked the way they properly delved into the lore more but they rushed it and messed up the sequel. Far From Home, being the third sequel in a Spider-Man movie is absolutely Amazing.
For anyone who watched the 90's Spider-Man cartoon, that show was what I watched that gave me the background to Spider-Man and his somewhat infinite Rogues Gallery. And considering Sony seem to be distancing themselves from the last two versions of Spider-Men movies, this movie is soo welcoming, especially when you know who Mysterio is.
Without going into too much detail as this entire movie is a spoiler, the film picks up moments after the events of Avengers: Endgame, where life has somewhat moved on but the ramifications are felt. Peter is struggling and just wants to have a break from saving the world. Peter just wants to be a kid and go on a school break and get closer to the girl he fancies, MJ. However, when these mysterious threats known only as Elementals appear all over Europe, Nick Fury enlists Spider-Man, with the help of a new hero named Mysterio to try and stop this threat or the world will be destroyed. In order to do this, Peter must rise to the occasion and be the hero Tony Stark, the Ironman see's in him.
This movie was amazing. Yes it starts a little slow because we are covering the aftermath of Endgame and the director () spent time allowing the audience to understand the world we are now living in, post-thanos, but halfway through the movie, the movie takes a dramatic turn and not only does the action kick in, the story changes and everything from this moment feels like it was taken straight from the comic books and TV show. Mysterio is one of my favourite Spider-Man characters and if you like his character, I would say that the movie was 2000% authentic to the material. I can't say any more unfortunately.
The special effects and the imagination on these guys, wow! The comedy, the tone, the heartfelt moments; I mean, I almost cried....almost. Spider-Man is just a kid and his supporting characters as well as the villains involved, they ALL have character and make Spidey very relatable and sometimes we forget, Peter is just a kid who is trying to struggle, with Great Power, comes Great Responsibility and this is translated in this movie. I have a few nitpicks and one MAJOR one, but I'm assuming that will come later on as Spider-Man is still learning to be, Spider-Man.
If you liked Homecoming, you need to definitely see this because if you like Mysterio like me, you will definitely love this movie. Also, the post credits scene not only blows your mind, but also sets up Phase 4. Spider-Man: Far From Home is the closing chapter to 3 Phases of the Thanos' Quest for the Infinity Gauntlet as the Infinity Saga and I cannot wait for what will happen next in the MCU.
So, I saw this film as an early screening after tons and tons of trailers and clips and EVERYTHING. Needless to say that this was most definitely OVERKILL and although the film looked great, I was pretty much sick and tired of it all. At one stage, I went to see a film and ended up seeing a 10 minute clip of CA:TWS and although it got me interested in the film, I couldn't help but think, "gimme the movie now, alright!". I felt it was totally unnecessary.
So, as the film starts, I see the same 10 minute clip at the very beginning of the film that I saw before watching another film and I was upset. I've seen it all before. I was a little annoyed, but to be fair, the clip was excellent, so although I had already seen it, there were some great memorable bits I remembered and bits I didn't see as I was probably laughing too hard. And just like that, the film opens out into greatness!
For those who do not know anything about CAP; Steve Rogers aka Captain America (Chris Evans) was a weak and frail young man who underwent a scientific experiment to become an enhanced human at the peak of human perfection with an experimental serum in aid to win World War II. As this worked out to be a success, Steve Rogers fought in the war and with his efforts and the defeating of the villain named Red Skull who was trying to use a cosmic cube called the Tesseract to carry out evil villainess things, Captain America crash lands his plane to save countries from being totally obliterated by Weapons of Mass Destruction. Presumed dead and is later found 70 years later, Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson) welcomes Captain America: The First Avenger to a brand new world where things have changed a great deal.
Shortly after being "awoken", Captain America joins, Iron Man, Thor, Hawkeye, Black Widow & The Hulk in a desperate effort to stop Loki (Thor's Brother) from using the same cosmic cube, The Tesseract to open a wormhole which will unleash an alien race called the Chitauri to overpower and control Earth. With Loki's defeat and everyone going back to their "normal" lives, Captain America is still trying to adjust to living in a completely different world which is 70 years on and also has Aliens, Gods and Magic thrown into the mix. Not only is this something which will take some time adjusting to, Captain America who now works with S.H.I.E.L.D's espionage agency, is dubious about how Shield operate, their motives and who he can really trust. This is where CA:TWS kicks off with a Bang and becomes one of my most entertaining marvel films in a long time. Possibly since The Avengers.
With a secret operation looming involving 3 Helicarriers led by Alexander Pierce (Robert Redford), which will be used to eliminate threats worldwide, things turn sour when Black Widow (Scarlett Johansson) doesn't tell Captain America about her mission objectives, Nick Fury gets attacked by an unknown assailant and CAP gets framed the the death of someone really important (I'm trying to keep this Spoiler free). With no one to turn to or trust, Steve Rogers teams up with Sam Wilson aka The Falcon (Anthony Mackie) and tries to clear his name, solve the mystery of the death of that important person, uncover S.H.E.I.L.D Secrets and who this new player/myth/ghost/legend is they call The Winter Soldier (Sebastian Stan).
This film is much darker than the first film. Grittier and is more of a suspense thriller than just a comic book movie like how The Avengers was. I understand that billions of people worldwide did not like the first Captain America film, but I did. No it wasn't great, but to put that film into context with eras and timing, the first film made sense to me. This film on the other hand, could not be any more perfect than it already is. The bar was raised as the stakes are very high. The acting, the fight scenes, the characters, the secrets, the lies, the suspense, it was all too much. The film has a very serious tone to it as well as being laced with comedy throughout and still manages to portray a comic book movie.
I could not give anymore praise to this film as everything worked. It makes me completely appreciate (to an extent) the reasons why the promotion for this film was heavily pushed. The first film only made, 370 Million at the box office on a 140 Million Budget. And although it made more than double the cost of the film, when a film like Iron Man 3 can make 1.2 Billion on a 200 Million Budget, the push made a lot of sense. Hopefully, everyone who is caught up in Marvel's Cinematic Universe will go to see this or who would give this one a chance after possibly not liking the first one, I could not stress any more that, if you do not see this film, there is something really wrong with you. Like, really wrong with you. Especially if you do not like it.
Never in my life have I wanted to be a shield agent with Nick Fury status...AND I watch Marvel's Agents of Shield. I might even see it again over the weekend.
Go and watch it...you won't be disappointed. Oh, AND you don't need to have seen the first one or The Avengers to pick up the storyline.
