About Time – Review

about_time_xlg

I had the choice between About Time or Thor: The Dark World. Some of us were going to see one and some of us were going to see the other. Walking out after Thor: The Dark World, I thought I made the right choice. Thor: The Dark World exceeded my expectations and now I’d be ready for the Agents of SHIELD episode that was advertised as tying into the movie. Besides, wasn’t Rachel McAdams in The Time Traveler’s Wife? That movie stunk (the book is so good!).

Well, now that I’ve finally seen About Time, I’m wondering if I made the wrong choice that weekend. Yes, I am a bit obsessed with Agents of SHIELD, which is part of the reason I needed to see Thor: The Dark World on opening weekend, but I would have understood that episode even if I hadn’t seen the movie. It didn’t tie in as much as Captain America: The Winter Soldier did. Now that was a game changer for Agents of SHIELD.

About Time

 

About Time is fantastic! It is a terrific romantic comedy about a time traveler who can only travel pack in time along his own life. Sure, that’s a limited form of time travel, but think of the possibilities if you had that power! All the things you could go back and not say, or go back and say! About Time uses the time travel power to its fullest, using it to comment on the relationships between lovers, friends, parents and children, and siblings. I defy you to watch this movie and not want to call your dad afterwards and tell him that you love him.

Bill Nighy steals this movie. He is amazingly charming as the father of main character and time traveler Tim. He wins at being a dad, but he does have the unfair advantage of countless do overs.

about-time3

The relationship between Tim (Domhall Gleeson) and Mary (Rachel McAdams) makes good use of Tim’s time travelling powers to tell the story. This movie is what I wanted the movie adaptation of  The Time Traveller’s Wife to be.

Seriously, go watch About Time. It is one of those movies that you can throw on at any time and just feel better about the day after watching it. It’s super cute without being saccharine.

Am I glad I saw Thor: The Dark World in the theater? Yes. Do I think the people who saw About Time that day saw the better movie? Also yes.

Agents of SHIELD – S1E15 – Yes Men – Recap

Thor: The Dark World once again crosses over with the TV show Agents of SHIELD this week. Like, The Well, Yes Men also deals with the aftermath of Thor: The Dark World. While Lorelei was not in Thor 2, it’s revealed in this episode that she was freed from her Asgardian prison during Malekith’s assault on Asgard. Unlike The Well, sadly, there’s no Dr. Janoch Pohaa. But  we do get Lady Sif in this episode! Can we please have a Zachary Levi as Fandral appearance next?

JAIMIE ALEXANDER

It’s a battle of the sexes this episode as Lorelei as every male character in this episode with the exception of Coulson falls under Lorelei’s spell. Coulson not being under Lorelei’s command leads to my favorite scene in the episode. A spellbound Fitz locks Skye and Simmons in Skye’s recovery room. Coulson plays along with Fitz’s love of Lorelei (lorelove?) just long enough to deck Fitz unconscious.

Ward and May’s sexual relationship ends soon after Lorelei reveals to May that Ward has deep feelings for someone on the team…and it isn’t May. Once Ward is free of Lorelei’s spell, May dumps him. The writing was on the wall for this in the “Previously on Agents of SHIELD” opening sequence.  Why include the clip of May telling Coulson that she had no problem dumping Ward unless it was going to happen in this episode? All in all, it’s an up and down day for Ward. On the one hand, he was dumped by May. On the other hand, he had wild sex with a god.

Questions: Can humans impregnate Norse gods? Do Norse gods even bother with protection? Norse herpes has be at least 1,000 times worse than regular herpes, right?

lorelei agents of shield

I liked that Lorelei picked her man-slaves in ascending order of toughness. Biker gang? Tougher than the yuppie newlywed. Ward? Tougher than a biker bang. Fitz? Yeah, I said it, tougher than Ward! I’m completely assuming Lorelei made time to have her way with Fitz off screen before Coulson happened upon a spellbound Fitz. You go, Fitz. Get yo’ Asgard on.

JAIMIE ALEXANDER

Parting thought: Never bring a gun to a god fight.

The episode ends with Coulson apologizing to Skye for her being injected with alien blood on his orders, but Skye brushes it aside because, you know, it did save her life. Coulson then wants to team up with Skye to confront whomever was responsible for Tahiti.  I really wanted Coulson to hold his hand up, Skye grip it and they rev Lola out the back of the bus midair Thelma and Louise style. It’s cool, the car flies.

Agents of SHIELD – S1E14 – Tahiti – Recap

It’s been almost a month since we had a new episode, but Agents of SHIELD is finally back! The last episode ended with the team in disarray. Skye’s been shot and is comatose in critical condition. And after finding out the truth about his resurrection, Coulson doesn’t know who he can trust.

At the start of Tahiti, Coulson’s crew is airborne, desperately trying to find somewhere they can bring Skye. Coulson instructs the team to bring him to the SHIELD facility that treated him after the battle of New York. One problem: that SHIELD facility doesn’t exist and the main doctor who operated on Coulson seems to have disappeared. Coulson tries getting Fury on the line, which sadly does not lead to Samuel L. Jackson making a cameo.

Fitz, being awesome, figures out what the secret facility actually is, and in an audience-disbelief defying maneuver, manages to figure out that the 3D file he’s looking at isn’t actually encrypted, but rather an inside-out topographical map. In Fitz’s defense, this scene looked awesome, especially when the 3D map dissolved into the real mountain on screen.

A hamper in Coulson’s plan to save Skye occurs when the bus is boarded by Ward’s old SO, Agent John Garrett (Bill Paxton!!), and Garrett’s new Ward, whose name I forget, so I’m calling him Ward 2.0. Ward 2.0 has a thing for Simmons. Can’t blame him. Garrett and Ward 2.0 want Ian Quinn. Quinn was responsible for some of Garrett’s team dying and Garrett wants him for questioning. I was super-convinced during this episode that Garrett and Ward 2.0 were going to be double agents working to free Quinn. I kept waiting for them to turn on Coulson’s team. And it never happened. Sorry for not trusting you more, Mr. Paxton.

agents of shield bill paxton

We’re given a question along with some answers in regards to Coulson’s resurrection. It’s not Tahiti. It’s T.A.H.I.T.I. What’s T.A.H.I.T.I. stand for? No clue. But we do find out what’s in this week’s McGuffin, the mysterious drug that was used during Coulson’s operation that could also save Skye. It’s alien blood. As least I hope it’s alien blood. The alien on ice that it’s coming from in T.A.H.I.T.I. is bisected at the waist. I hope that tube isn’t coming from its small intestine. “Here, Skye, take this alien juice. What is it? It’s not alien diarrhea. We promise you that. Definitely not alien diarrhea! Okay, we’ll be going now.” Coulson possibly had the same thought, because a very shaken Coulson is screaming for the team not to inject Skye…only it was too late. Skye’s got alien juice in her…and she’s saved! For now. I’m not saying she’s going to go all Jeff Goldblum in The Fly after that injection, but there’s got to be at least one unintended consequence that comes from it, right?

The final scene leads directly into next week’s episode. A red-headed Asgardian arrives by way of the bi-frost in Death Valley. She quickly hypnotizes a newlywed dude to ditch his wife and drive her away. I immediately thought we were seeing the Marvel Cinematic Universe debut of the Enchantress! But then she says her name…Lorelei, aka the Enchantress’s lesser known sister. We’ll get more Asgardian fun next week, as Sif arrives on the scene to take down Lorelei.

Comic Book Tie-Ins

John Garrett is an Agent of SHIELD that made his first appearance in the hit 1980s miniseries, Elektra: Assassin. I wish they let him keep his bitchin’ mustache on the show.

john garrett

 

Lorelei can be easily confused with her more popular sister, Amora The Enchantress. Both are Norse gods with the power to bend men’s will to their whims. Lorelei first appeared during Walt Simonson’s run of Thor, in Thor #382. As a side note, Walt Simonson’s Thor run also saw the debut of Malekith, the main bad guy in Thor: The Dark World.

lorelei

Agents of SHIELD S1E8: “The Well” – Review

It’s finally here, the Thor: The Dark World crossover with Agents of SHIELD! Sadly, there was no sign of Chris Hemsworth, Tom Hiddleston or Natalie Portman in this episode. Not even a Cat Dennings or Stellan Skarsgård. We do get an Asgardian though. Unfortunately, it’s not this Agardian:

Sorry fellas. No Sif in Agents in SHIELD.

Sorry fellas. No Sif in Agents in SHIELD.

Instead, we get this Asgardian:

elliot randolph

That’s right, mother-fucking Dr. Janoch Pohaa! Sorry, I mean Dr. Elliot Randolph as played by Peter MacNicol. Sadly, MacNicol is not using his excellent foreign accents skills in this episode. And he doesn’t worship any paintings of Vigo, the Scourge of Carpathia, the Sorrow of Moldavia.

But MacNicol is a full-fledged Asgardian in this episode. He’s wearing a suit in that photo and not a bitchin’ set of armor because centuries ago he renounced being an Asgardian Beserker to live a quiet life on Earth. Unfortunately, a Nordic hate-group has discovered his Beserker staff, which he broke into three pieces and hid, and hid well. One of the pieces was inside a tree! Just a fragment of the Beserker staff is enough to give a mortal superpowers (and as Ward found out, dredge up all your worst memories). The staff is like half power ring and half Scarecrow fear toxin.

CLARK GREGG, BRETT DALTON, PETER MACNICOL

“How do we stop Gozer?!”
“Um, wrong Ghostbusters movie, jerks.”

The effect of the Beserker staff on Ward really lets Ward’s asshole side take charge. At the same time, it opens up new layers of the character. We see the childhood trauma that shapes so much of Ward’s present day. Holding the staff is too much for him, but not for Agent May, resident bad-ass of the SHIELD crew, who takes it and doles out a whupping on the bad guys.

"I got this."

“I got this.”

The “Holy shit!” moment of the episode came after the villains were defeated and the SHIELD team was getting a rare night of R&R in a hotel instead of sleeping on The Bus. Skye wants to hang out with Ward, but he decides to head up to his room alone instead. Agent May is entering her room as Ward reaches his door. She’s holding a bottle of wine and leaves the door ajar as she heads inside. Ward follows her in. WHAAAAAAAATTTTT! It looks like Ward and May are going to get the effects of the Beserker Staff out of their systems in the most fun way they can.

I was hoping for more of a tie-in with Thor: The Dark World than Coulson’s team acting like a Damage Control clean-up crew. But their roles as janitors to superheroics did lead to an interesting expansion of the Marvel Cinematic Universe with the introduction of The Berserker. I just wish MacNicol gave The Beserker a Carpathian accent.

 

Gravity – Review

gravity poster

When I first saw the trailer for Gravity, I thought it looked stunning. At the same time, I also thought it looked like it might be incredibly boring. Sandra Bullock and George Clooney stranded in space? With no aliens or laser guns? I had the feeling this would be the outer space version of Open Water*.

*Note: I have never seen Open Water, but I have always pictured it as the ocean version of what I thought Gravity would be.

I wanted Gravity to be a suspenseful thriller. Luckily, if it turned out to be boring, I was in the right theater. I caught Gravity at my new favorite movie theater, the AMC on Broadway and 84th. If the movie was a snoozer, at least I’d be snoozing in an oh comfy recliner for the next two hours. Win-win!

SPAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAACE!

SPAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAACE!

Unfortunately for nap time, Gravity is a really good thriller. It’s a classic man-versus-nature story, even though most of the dangers from nature are man made. The premise for Gravity is very simple: an accident causes a chain reaction of satellites to explode, sending deadly shrapnel at 50,000 mph at our stranded astronauts . They need to get to the International Space Station for a ride home before being eviscerated by said shrapnel or running out of air. I wasn’t sure how the story was going to sustain itself for the length of the movie, but it did. I was on the edge of my seat, which is quite an accomplishment for a movie when the viewer is in a recliner.

gravity clooney

Besides being a great thriller, Gravity is visually stunning. I wanted to see Gravity on the IMAX in 3D, but waited too long. It’s been booted off every IMAX in the New York City area thanks to Ender’s Game and Thor: The Dark World. Still, Gravity looks great in 3D. I highly recommend seeing it in 3D and seeing it on the big screen. I think you’ll be missing out on something if you just wait to catch it on DVD.

GRAVITY

When Gravity comes out on DVD, I will definitely be buying it, mainly that for the first time in a long time, I really want to watch the making-of special features. The making-of specials are usually boring back-slapping on the part of the producers, cast and crew, but I am utterly fascinated to see how this movie was made. I could easily spend an hour listening to director Alfonso Cuarón talk about how he chose his shots.

gravity bullock undressed

If you haven’t seen Gravity yet, go see it! And see it in 3D! You won’t regret it!

Agents of SHIELD S1E7 – The Hub

I really enjoyed the seventh episode of Agents of SHIELD. I think it is because the usual pairings of Ward and Skye, and Fitz and Simmons were shuffled. Fitz is sent to the field with Ward, and Skye enlists Simmons in a mission of subterfuge within a giant SHIELD facility known at The Hub.

Both Fitz and Simmons are taken out of their comfort zones this week. The lab-bound Fitz is enlisted into a heavy-fire field mission with Agent Ward. There is tension between Fitz and Ward. Fitz resents Ward for being the one who saved Simmons in last week’s F.Z.Z.T. Ward feels like he’s babysitting Fitz in the field. I’m glad Fitz wasn’t portrayed as only bumbling in the field. Fitz and Ward both get to save the day at various points during the mission. Though I’m also glad that concern over Fitz’s lack of field experience was used for humor when he lost a fight with a sliding glass door.

FitzWard

FitzWard

Simmons finds herself partnering with Skye in an scheme of intra-SHIELD subterfuge. While Skye has no regards for rules, clearance and procedure, Simmons is completely by the book. If this were D&D, Simmons would be lawful good. Or in her own words, “I like following the rules and doing what’s expected of me. It makes me feel nice.” She’s given a great arc in this episode, as by the end of the episode, she’s bragging to Fitz, “I shot a superior officer in the chest.”

Of course I’m going to love an episode that focuses heavily on FitzSimmons, as they are my absolute favorite characters on the show. As if I needed another reason to like Fitz, we find out in this episode that the guy has excellent taste in sandwiches. His favorite? Prosciutto and buffalo mozzarella with just a hint of homemade pesto aioli.

Two Marvel Comics characters make their Marvel Cinematic Universe debut in this episode of Agents of SHIELD. Jasper Sitwell is a SHIELD agent who has been a member of SHIELD since his first appearance in 1966’s Strange Tales # 144. Victoria Hand is a newer character. She has a shadier past than Sitwell, in that she made her rise to prominence as  the evil Norman Osborn’s #2 when he took over SHIELD and renamed in it HAMMER. She eventually made it to the side of the angels when Captain America offered her a chance at redemption after Osborn’s downfall. I like the inclusion of these characters and hope to see more comics characters make their way to the show. As much as I like the new characters created just for Agents of SHIELD, it’s cool to see pre-established characters pop in. It ground the show more firmly as a Marvel show.

 

 

Victoria Hand and Phil Coulson

Victoria Hand and Phil Coulson

Jasper Sitwell

Jasper Sitwell

I’m really loving Agents of SHIELD, especially these last two episodes. If you’ve fallen off the SHIELD helicarrier, I think now’s a good time to get back into it. Next week’s episode has Coulson’s team cleaning up after the events of Thor: The Dark World. If you’ve seen the movie, next week should be a great jumping on point for you.

Thor: The Dark World – Review

thor the dark world poster

It was a bright, sunny Saturday morning when we headed to the movie theater. The boys were seeing Thor 2 and the girls were seeing About Time. I hated having to decide between the two, as Rachel McAdams looks adorable in the About Time poster, but there was no denying the siren song of seeing Thor: The Dark World before it crossed oven with Marvel’s Agents of SHIELD (next week!).

Adorable

Adorable

I thoroughly enjoyed Thor: The Dark World. Like the previous Thor movie, the takes-themselves-so-seriously Asgard scenes were balanced out with slapstick comedy during the Earth-based scenes. Unlike the first Thor movie though, I never felt like we needed to get back to Earth right now whenever Asgard was on-scene.  Asgard is fleshed out more in this sequel, and while the individual members of the Asgard supporting cast are not on the screen very long, they are on just enough to make me want to see more of them in Thor 3.

There has been rumors circulating recently that Jaimie Alexander, who plays Sif, will be playing Wonder Woman in the upcoming Superman/Batman movie. After seeing her in Thor: The Dark World, this seems like the most perfect of perfect casting. Because her Sif armor isn’t that far removed from Wonder Woman’s current costume, it almost seemed like Wonder Woman was guest-starring in Thor: The Dark World.

 

Sif or Wonder Woman?

Sif or Wonder Woman?

Tom Hiddleston as Loki steals every scene he is in. It’s amazing what Hiddleston and the Marvel movies have done for the character of Loki. Before the first Thor movie, Loki was one of Marvel’s lamest villains. With the exception of when Walter Simonson was writing him, I can think of few comic book examples of Loki pre-Thor movie in which Loki didn’t come off as lame. But Hiddleston has helped to reinvent the character. But now, thanks to writer Kieren Gillen, Loki is one of my favorite comic book characters. I wonder if Marvel would have given Gillen his shot at reviventing Loki in the comics if Hiddleston didn’t create so many fans of the character in the movies.

hiddleston thor 2

We need to start the Tom Hiddleston for 13th Doctor campaign right now!
#Hiddleston13thDoctor

Often fantasy and science fiction are squarely separated from each other, but Thor: The Dark World does a good job of blending the two. The evil dark elves ride in starfighters that could have been in the latest Star Trek movie. Science and magic are weaved together, which I liked, because Thor exists in the same world as Tony Stark. Odin makes a point in this movie to state that Asgardians are not actual Gods. And the story plays that out. They’re more like mythological extra-dimensional aliens.

If you saw Thor: The Dark World already, hopefully you stayed until after the credits. Does anyone leave the theater any more before the credits are completely over in a Marvel movie? The scene with the Collector made me NERDGASM. No, not because of the Collector himself. Who cares about him? Because of what the Collector says, namely that THE TESSERACT AND AETHER ARE INFINITY GEMS!!! EEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!! Avengers 3: The Infinity Gauntlet? Yes, please! If you haven’t read the Infinity Gauntlet, I highly recommend buying it today and reading it. It’s one of my favorite comic book stories ever, it will fill you in on who that big purple guy at the end of Avengers is and why his appearance was the signal of something awesome coming.

Agents of SHIELD – S1E6 – F.Z.Z.T. – REVIEW

Spoilers abound! Read this only if you’ve already watched F.Z.Z.T!

Episode 6 of Agents of SHIELD, “F.Z.Z.T,” starts out normally. There’s a new super-powered mystery to be solved. This time, it’s a scout leader whose dead body is both electrically charged and hovering in the air. The good news is that it takes the team only half the episode to solve this one. The source of turns out a be a Chitauri helmet carrying some kind of space virus.

FZZT floaty

 

It was cool that the Agents of SHIELD TV show went beyond just passively referencing the Avengers movie here and brought in an actual prop that kickstarted this episode. It definitely helps the show feel like it’s securely grounded in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. What was also cool about this plot was that there was no sinister villain hungry for power. The people who died thanks to the Chitauri helmet weren’t murdered. It was just wrong place, wrong time. Of course, it at first looks like one person is out to kill his friends, but when he dies and the SHIELD team recovers the helmet, everything is resolved and there’s no villain lurking in the shadows.

Chitauri Helmet

What follows is without a doubt the most intense half an episode we’ve had so far this season. I honestly had no idea if Simmons was going to make it out of this one alive. When she and Fitz failed in their final attempt at creating a cure, I was ready to yell at my TV, “You can’t kill Simmons!” But this is Whedon we’re talking about. He totally could.

Part of the reason that I love this episode so much is for the amount of screen time that Fitz and Simmons get. There is definitely chemistry between the two of them. We’re treated to their back story, which is great,except that it’s given to us in this frame that Simmons is about to die. If this was Lost, she’d definitely be dead for all the back story we got on the two of them.

When it’s revealed that the EM pulse from Simmons as she dies will blow the whole plane out of the sky, killing the entire SHIELD team, I breathed a sigh of relief. They can’t kill the whole team. There’d be no show. Then Simmons jumped from the plane…just as Fitz realizes they figured out a cure. It’s like a nerd version of Romeo and Juliet.

IAIN DE CAESTECKER, ELIZABETH HENSTRIDGE

If Simmons dies, we riot!

I literally cheered when Fitz tried to get that parachute on and Ward jumped out of the plane to save Simmons. This episode was INTENSE. At the end of the day, Ward saves Simmons and I don’t throw my remote at my TV over her death. Whedon, you played with my emotions like an episode of Parenthood here, and I thank you for it.

In Agent Coulson news, we get a BIG reveal tonight. Coulson undoes his shirt and shows off the massive scar where Loki blasted him in The Avengers. Someone told me that this is proof that Coulson is not a Life Model Decoy. I still think he’s a LMD, and that whoever designed the Coulson LMD went into very good detail. I’m guessing we won’t find out until the end of this season at the earliest.

Coulson Scar

Agents of SHIELD is crossing over with Thor: The Dark World in two weeks. In other words, make sure you see Thor: The Dark World. See you next week!