Awesome Civil War Sticks the Landing

Finally! It took me a couple of weeks longer than I’d have liked, but I finally clocked in Captain America: Civil War – and yes, it’s utterly awesome, easily one of the best Marvel films since, well, Captain America: The Winter Soldier.

 

Civil War is refreshingly Old School and restrained. The focus is much tighter than Age of Ultron,maintaining a deft balance between character and flat-out action. You’ve probably heard – as world-saving as their escapades have been, The Avengers tend to leave a lot of collatoral damage in their wake. In a crackerjack action sequence fighting newly minted nemesis Crossbones (Frank Grillo, from The Winter Soldier), a knee-jerk move to save a comrade results in a large-scale loss of life. The government (personified by William Hurt) decrees that The Avengers are more vigilantes than heroes. They need oversight – they need containment. Facing that mandate splits the group into two factions – Iron Man, who thinks you need to go along to get along, and Captain America – who distrusts everything about this submission to authority.

 

I won’t spoil the scene where Tony Stark is forced to look at the grief he’s caused, but the actor who confronts him makes the moment heartbreakingly superb. When it appears Cap’s old friend Bucky Barnes – The Winter Soldier – has had his assassin programming reawakened, Steve Rogers finds himself resisting the will of the world on multiple fronts.

 

Civil War features an enormous number of characters, but writers Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely do a spectacular job of juggling the various perspectives and giving everyone numerous moments to shine. To top it all off, they introduce two new characters into the mix – Black Panther and Spider-man! Both get incredibly economical and convincing introductions and Chadwick Boseman as T’Challa (Panther) is a fierce and compelling presence plugged right into the plot. But Spider-man! Newcomer Tom Holland as Peter Parker is the awkward, mouthy teen we’ve always appreciated in the comics. Boom, these two are plugged seamlessly into The Avengers universe, and they’re a breath of fresh air. If anybody pales a bit in comparison, for me it was Scarlet Witch (Elizabeth Olsen) and Vision (Paul Bettany), who just seem a touch goofy, somehow. I found Sebastian Stan’s Winter Soldier way more compelling. Stan’s a great presence, and he’s dynamite here as a desperate loose canon. For me, his scenes are the best in the movie. 

 

Directors Anthony and Joe Russo a phenomenal job here. They’ve really taken the Marvel reins and the fact that they’re tackling the twin Infinity Warbehemoths is phenomenal news. They keep the focus and the conflict between our heroes. There’s no ridiculous over-sized villain from beyond, no titanic vehicles crashing to Earth. The third act is dynamite, but we don’t need the intervention of some monstrosity to get our fractured team to come together – the focus is on the conflict inherent among them. But those Russos! In what’s bound to be one of the action sequences of the year (and I’m spoiling nothing), get ready for the sequence of extreme antics at the Berlin airport. It’s a crowd-pleaser on every imaginable level.

 

Civil War never insults your intelligence, and it plays like a thriller. Downey, Evans, Stan and the rest do some terrific acting, and you’ll actually give a damn about the outcome and what’s at stake. Summer movie season is here, and Civil War ushers it in in high style.

Wallander's final season begins this Sunday

I’ve been a big fan of Kenneth Branagh’s Wallander for quite a while, eagerly anticipating the arrival of the 4^th season, especially since it was announced that it would be the show’s last. Wallander has been some of Branagh’s best work, and it’s consistently been a gripping, unexpected take on the detective genre. Like Luther and Sherlock, a “season” of this beloved BBC series consists of three 90-minute films, and will air on American PBS public television stations over the next three Sundays. If you haven’t seen Wallander yet, and you like a good police procedural, you’re really missing out. Branagh gives us an aging, brooding detective on an increasingly fragile tether, trying to make a difference in world that’s increasingly harder to deal with. Saying goodbye to Kurt Wallander is bound to be bittersweet.

The Jungle Book Thrills - But a Necessity...?

I was pretty skeptical about The Jungle Book. It’s pretty popular with the rated-G member of our household, and the original was the first movie I ever saw in a theater. So it was something of a “keep your paws off our beloved classic” property. But as we’d all do well to remember, a property it is, nonetheless. 

Jon Favreau is an interesting cat, who’s had a pretty great career as a director. He basically launched the Marvel Universe with Iron Man back in 2008, did the obligatory and much less beloved Iron Man 2, then really took it on the chin with Cowboys & Aliens. That kind of whiplash can give you a complex. In 2014 he took a hard left turn off the juggernaut freeway and made the delightful Chef, which served as a neat metaphor for a creative person who’s flown to close to the commercial sun getting back in touch with what fires him up creatively. Disney wisely kept his seat warm, and it’s a good thing, because The Jungle Book sees Favreau realigned in a harmonious fusion of creative glee and shrewd box office manipulation. It’s no wonder Disney loves him.

The gist of the story follows the Rudyard Kipling source as well as the 1967 animated classic. I was concerned that it would be a mistake to translate the whimsy of old school animation into this more jarringly literal realistic depiction. We’re dealing with talking animals, after all. Plus, the trailer looked maybe a little too intense. Wouldn’t it all be a messy, too vivid train wreck? Thankfully Favreau put just as much focus on retaining a sense of whimsy as he did on delivering groundbreaking special effects. 

Mowgli (a terrific Neel Sethi) is raised by wolves (Lupita Nyong'o and Giancarlo Esposito) deep in the jungle, as a “man cub” – he’s a fish out of water, but never an outcast. The wolves love him, but wise panther Bagheera (a spectacularly elegant Ben Kingsley) knows that the boy will someday become a man, and that it’s only a matter of time before their two natures will no longer be able to coexist. When the imperious tiger Shere Khan (Idris Elba) learns of the boy, he’s determined to kill him, fuel by an Ahab-like thirst for revenge at the past deeds of men. Mowgli will have to go.

On his way out of the jungle, Mowgli meets Baloo the bear (lethargically embodied by Bill Murray), who serves as Mowgli’s Falstaff. “Let’s just hang out together and eat honey and snooze and Hakuna Matata.” Murray’s terrific as and makes the bear an enormous, charming presence who lovably puts the kids at ease. Things get a little extrme and surreal in The Jungle Book, with some pretty great star turns by Scarlett Johansson as Kaa the constrictor, and a deliriously oversized Christopher Walken, complete with Apocalypse Now homage. His King Louie gets pretty dark, and small fry are apt to be a little freaked out by his King Kong menace. But then we’ve unexpectedly got singing and dancing, so if you get a little “tone whiplash,” don’t say we didn't warn you.

Young Neel Sethi is shrewdly cast to be very appealing to contemporary audiences, and he does an amazing job, considering that he likely performed the entire film in motion-capture green-screen overload. He sells every interaction with every talking animal without an iota of hesitation. 

Favreau keeps things moving and knows when to wisely remove or repurpose elements from the cartoon original. No pompous Colonel Hathi here, though the elephant troop is cleverly used very well in a different context. He also bypasses the ending of the original, leaving the cave door open for the inevitable sequel. Ultimately, director Favreau manages the same challenging trick Kenneth Branagh pulled off with Cinderella – taking a beloved animated classic and injecting fresh, three-dimensional charm into it to satisfy a new generation, while untapping new gushers of revenue for the home office. The Jungle Book is eerie, charming, and successful as hell. I only hope that as Disney continues their meteoric success at reinvention, they also spend just as much energy cultivating visions that are original - not just reimagined.