The Grand Marvel Rewatch: Marvel One-Shots

Face front, true believers! Welcome to the final astonishing addition to “The Grand Marvel Rewatch,” designed to get us all sufficiently amped up for Captain America: Civil War, which comes out May 6, 2016. Each Wednesday, The Cinema King casts his eye back upon the twelve films in the Marvel Cinematic Universe and offers five salient observations about the caliber of the films and the way they might play into Marvel’s latest installment in America’s favorite franchise.

Today’s fantastic feature film isn’t a feature film at all – we’ve got five “Marvel One-Shots,” short films released as special features on various Marvel DVDs. Where do these all fit in, and why haven’t we seen more than five? Read on for the answers!

1. The Consultant. If you’ve wondered how Tony Stark got to his postcredits cameo for The Incredible Hulk, The Consultant has your answer – he’s a patsy, sent by Phil Coulson and Jasper Sitwell to sabotage the World Council’s attempt to get Abomination on the Avengers. So much clicks into place here – Stark’s recruitment, apparently too early, of the Hulk is here recast, and we know the World Council has been infiltrated by Hydra, so it makes sense to see them pushing this shadowy agenda. Plus it’s a real treat to see Coulson and Sitwell working together (even though we know the latter is Hydra) in a very mundane fashion, sipping coffee at a diner while guarding the sanctity of the free world. 
2. A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to Thor’s Hammer. Okay, this might be my favorite One-Shot, set between Iron Man 2 and Thor (as the title indicates). We get to see Phil Coulson (Clark Gregg) in action, playing with the effortless charm and unassuming physical dexterity required to rescue a gas station from an everyday holdup, even without the help of his firearm. It’s the intrusion of the super on the quotidian, a recurring theme in the MCU, and it’s shouldered by Gregg’s endearing portrayal of a man who’d rather contemplate donuts than deadbeats, but he’ll happily work on both if the occasion calls for it. Did this short demonstrate the potential for Coulson to lead Agents of SHIELD on ABC? It wouldn’t be the only One-Shot to spin-off into the television realm. 
3. Item 47. A worthy epilogue to The Avengers, Item 47 puts Jasper Sitwell on the tail of two civilians (Lizzy Caplan and Jesse Bradford) who’ve recommissioned an inert Chitauri weapon to aid them in a series of bank heists. It’s also the short that introduces us to Felix Blake (Titus Welliver), a recurring figure on Agents of SHIELD. But why we haven’t seen more of Marvel’s Bonnie & Clyde (here, Claire and Bennie – the initials can’t be an accident) is our loss. Depicted as entering SHIELD by the end of Item 47, Claire and Bennie’s fate remains to be revealed. Did they fall to Hydra, as Sitwell did? Or are they still among the angels? Heck, are they even still alive? 
4. Agent Carter. Though Thor’s Hammer is a personal favorite, Agent Carter is ostensibly the greatest One-Shot, not least because it led to a television show of the same name. We get to see Hayley Atwell strut her stuff as Peggy Carter, stick it to the patriarchy, and save the day while sidelining postwar sexism. No wonder they greenlit this for two full seasons! It’s infectiously fun, too, with a compelling narrative that sees Peggy pick up a case. Its microcosmic nature, which sees Peggy promoted to the head of SHIELD in twelve minutes, doesn’t quite jive with the canon of the series, but no one says she has to accept right away. Bonus points for the post-credits shot of Dum Dum Dugan (Neal McDonough) appreciating the innovative swimwear known as “the bikini.” 
5. All Hail the King. To those who, like me, were less than enthused about the decision to turn The Mandarin into a farting drug-addled Brit, you’re in luck – All Hail the King revisits Trevor Slattery (Ben Kingsley) in prison to reveal that there’s a real Mandarin out there who’s none too pleased about the (mis)use of his moniker. Now, it’s unlikely that this’ll ever really be followed up on in great detail, but it does draw a bit more connective tissue between Tony Stark’s abductors from Iron Man and the true Mandarin. But it’s always a treat to see Sir Ben in his element, and a nod to Justin Hammer (Sam Rockwell) confirms that maybe, just maybe, Marvel isn’t done with those Stark nemeses.

Well, folks, that’s it. Another stellar series from the Monarch of Movies, your Cinema King. Captain America: Civil War opens on Friday, so be sure to see it before coming back here on Monday for the full review of Marvel’s latest superhero flick. As always, there won’t be spoilers in the initial review, but if you want to join the conversation you’ve gotta get a ticket! Subscribe above to make sure you don’t miss a single review, Top 10 list, or our next special series. Excelsior!

The Grand Marvel Rewatch: Thor

Face front, true believers! Welcome to the next astonishing addition to “The Grand Marvel Rewatch,” designed to get us all sufficiently amped up for Captain America: Civil War, which comes out May 6, 2016. Each Wednesday, The Cinema King casts his eye back upon the twelve films in the Marvel Cinematic Universe and offers five salient observations about the caliber of the films and the way they might play into Marvel’s latest installment in America’s favorite franchise.

Today’s fantastic feature film takes us to 2011 for Thor, taking the MCU to the realm of gods, far away from our earth.

1. Magic = Science? The MCU is three for three with protagonists who are also scientists, and while Thor does have a supporting cast of physicists the focus is very much elsewhere, giving the MCU a depth we didn’t realize it had lacked up until this point. Of course, the film says that magic is basically Asgardian science, but it’s difficult to imagine Thor understanding the physics behind it all. This is definitely the weirdest the MCU has gotten thus far, but it opens up a new corner of storytelling where our adventures don’t necessarily have to be entirely earthbound.
2. Speaking of weird... I have to point out that director Kenneth Branagh loads this film with more Dutch angles than most episodes of Batman ’66. As a directorial quirk, it’s such a strange one because it’s applied to scenes on Earth and on Asgard, to heroes and villains, to the mundane and the fantastic. In short, I don’t know what Branagh is doing, especially because his other films like Hamlet and Cinderella aren’t shot this way. Is he trying to demonstrate cinematographically the weirding of the MCU? Or is he saying that our world is just as strange as Thor’s? More research is needed.
3. Shakespeare’s Loki. It’s no wonder that Marvel’s most charismatic villain yet ends up taking the lead in The Avengers, and Tom Hiddleston really does steal this film from Chris Hemsworth and his mighty abs. Indeed, it’s Loki who has the more compelling character arc – discovering and asserting his birthright, striving for the love of his father, and reveling in his role as the god of mischief. The only misstep in the film’s portrayal of Loki is his haircut, this strange slicked-back look that doesn’t quite capture the internal mania of Loki. This, true believers, is why God invented sequels, and perhaps why Branagh is a strong fit for Thor – there’s something very Shakespearean about Loki.
4. Where have all the humans gone? As we move apace toward The Avengers, I’m looking for points of intersection, and the human cast of Thor – Natalie Portman, Stellan Skarsgard, and Kat Dennings – are a wonderful complement of normalcy to the foreign Asgardian element, but I can’t help regret that we haven’t seen more of them outside the Thor franchise. As Dr. Selvig, of course, Skarsgard has popped up in both Avengers films, but how have we not seen more of Dennings’s Darcy as some of that continuity glue? And while Portman is understandably a busy star, her absence is acutely felt when the Avengers films try to explain away her nonattendance.
5. We’ll always have Phil. Thor gives us a glimpse at the man, the myth, the legend that is Phil Coulson. After an obligatory cameo in Iron Man 2, we finally get to see Agent Coulson in his element, proving once and for all that this truly was a man who deserved his own spinoff. The Iron Man films did a good job establishing Phil as the audience’s connection point to the shadowy SHIELD, such that his arrival in Albuquerque in Thor lets us know that things are about to get real. After all, you don’t call in a heavyweight like the Son of Coul for nothing.

There’s so much more to be said about Thor, so be sure to check out my original review. Join me in the Grand Marvel Rewatch over the coming weeks, and hit the comments to share your thoughts about the MCU. And don’t forget to tune in next Wednesday for the next installment, in which we take a closer look at 2011’s Captain America: The First Avenger. Excelsior!

The Grand Marvel Rewatch: Iron Man

Face front, true believers! Welcome to the first in a limited series of ongoing posts entitled “The Grand Marvel Rewatch,” designed to get us all sufficiently amped up for Captain America: Civil War, which comes out May 6, 2016. Each Wednesday, The Cinema King casts his eye back upon the twelve films in the Marvel Cinematic Universe and offers five salient observations about the caliber of the films and the way they might play into Marvel’s latest installment in America’s favorite franchise.

First up, let’s throw it back all the way to 2008 – eight years ago! – for Iron Man, the place it all began.

1. This movie holds up. I’m not one to only watch these movies once, so I’ve probably seen Iron Man the most of all twelve – and not just by virtue of it being the oldest. But even though I find myself doing most of the dialogue right along with the film, it doesn’t feel stale. Indeed, it feels as if it’d work just as well if it came out today. It sets a wonderful bar for the MCU, builds a world almost immediately, and initiates a delightful brand of humor that never transgresses into Batman and Robin territory. 
2. Robert Downey, Jr., is perfectly cast. Look, Iron Man doesn’t work without RDJ, and it’s safe to say that the entire MCU is built on the shoulders of this film. So it’s a good thing that RDJ is pitch-perfect as the swaggeringly confident Stark; the improvisational quality of the film gives it a fast pace that requires a gifted performer to keep up, and RDJ manages to navigate the fast-talking attitude along the character’s evolution into a comparatively more responsible hero. And it’s not a coincidence that the Tony Stark who appears in post-2008 Marvel Comics is essentially a printed version of RDJ – that’s character redefinition, the likes of which we hadn’t seen since “Heart of Ice.”
3. The chemistry with Gwyneth Paltrow is underrated. It’s easy to forget that there’s anyone else in this film besides RDJ, but I want to give a special shout-out to Gwyneth Paltrow’s turn as Pepper Potts, Tony Stark’s doting assistant, walking conscience, and life support system. It’s somewhat criminal that Pepper won’t be in Civil War (at least, so far as we know), because it’s hard to imagine Tony having a crisis of conscience without Pepper’s presence. Aside from Paltrow’s wonderful presence as the counterpoint to RDJ’s frenetic energy, the romantic tension between the two doesn’t feel compulsory; instead, you feel from the opening that these two genuinely care for each other, and their endpoint – somewhere between playful banter and tender affection – feels earned by the film.
4. That world-building, son. Iron Man does this wonderful thing where it’s perfectly fine as a standalone film. Director Jon Favreau quickly builds a universe for the characters to inhabit, and if we never had an MCU to follow we certainly wouldn’t have known this was a prelude to a much larger franchise. There’s that opening sequence in the back of the Humvee (or, as Tony calls it, “the Funvee”), memorable for its deft introduction of tone while also establishing the climax of the first act. But at the same time, Iron Man lays all kinds of seeds for the MCU to come, and we can go all the way to the very end of the film and its iconic post-credits sequence (you are now free to imagine Samuel L. Jackson turning up at the end of any movie saying, “You think you’re the only [insert profession here] in the world?”). 
5. Phil! You know, I’d almost forgotten that Iron Man marks the debut of Agent Phil Coulson, ostensibly the most important original character imported into the comics since Harley Quinn appeared in Batman: The Animated Series. Clark Gregg just kills it with a strikingly nuanced performance (or maybe those are retrospective lenses I’m wearing) that suggests at first a timid pencil pusher before revealing himself to be something of a badass. Again, Coulson’s a great example of how the film carves out its own turf without feeling like it’s in deference to a larger narrative. Coulson would go on to headline his own show, Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., but we always remember him as the guy who never got to debrief Tony Stark because (headcanon alert) he was too busy becoming Pepper’s bestie and stealing all our hearts in the process.

There’s so much more to be said about Iron Man, so be sure to check out my original review. Join me in the Grand Marvel Rewatch over the coming weeks, and hit the comments to share your thoughts about the MCU. And don’t forget to tune in next Wednesday for the next installment, in which we take a closer look at 2008’s The Incredible Hulk. Excelsior!