The Martian (2015)

Moving right along, up for a few Academy Awards nominations, including Best Picture and Best Actor in a Leading Role along with adapted screenplay and production design and more is The Martian.  I had meant to see this in theatres but I believe it landed in a time when I didn’t find much time to go anywhere or do anything other than the normal routine.  Regardless, I came home from a weekend getaway with a friend and decided to start this one up!

Let’s check it out! 🙂

The Martian (2015)

Director: Ridley  Scott

Cast: Matt Damon, Jessica Chastain, Jeff Daniels, Kristin Wiig, Michael Pena, Sean Bean, Kate Mara, Sebastian Stan, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Benedict Wong

During a manned mission to Mars, Astronaut Mark Watney is presumed dead after a fierce storm and left behind by his crew. But Watney has survived and finds himself stranded and alone on the hostile planet. With only meager supplies, he must draw upon his ingenuity, wit and spirit to subsist and find a way to signal to Earth that he is alive.-IMDB

The Martian is a smart and thrilling action adventure.  Its adapted from a novel by Andy Weir with the same novel. I’m going to be honest that I’m not a huge fan of Matt Damon.  In fact, I don’t think I’ve seen many of his movies and the ones I’ve seen are somewhat forgettable.  The premise of The Martian looked good and one that could amount to some fun and intense moments.  All these expectations were met and exceeded.  Its rare for me to stay engaged in lengthy movies and coming in at 2 hours, I’d say it borders along the length I’m not a huge fan of although most movies are averaging around that sort of runtime nowadays.  However, it never feels like its that long.  Even if he stays on that planet for something like 3 years or whatnot. This has to do mainly with pacing and the tone along with some good performances.

I can’t compare it to the source material but nothing in The Martian ever felt like it was lost in translation.  The story pieced together well.  For one, The Martian is kind of like Cast Away but in space except it shows the other side of the spectrum working hard to bring him home, almost as hard as he is working to stay alive.  Its because of that, our endearing characters go from Matt Damon’s witty attitude towards this as he slowly transforms over the time in Mars by himself to the scientists at NASA working to get him back as soon as possible and to his crew that reluctantly had to leave him behind in the first place.  While this can be dramatic, it also is strewn with comedic moments to mellow out the seriousness of the situation.  In many ways, its the heart of having a positive heart that keeps you going in the first place or just its better to try to work stuff out then to give up. On top of that, the production design was great along with the visual effects.

The cast here is pretty fantastic.  I’m loving that Jeff Daniels is in this one also.  Back to back movies with him is refreshing (the last one was Steve Jobs that I reviewed HERE).  Its also with a very different and much more serious performance from Kristin Wiig which I liked quite a bit.  At the same time, Chiwetel Ejiofor is a fantastic judge of picking decent movies to be involved with and his role in this one is dynamic to say the least.  Jessica Chastain might not feel like she’s in here for a long time and honestly, I didn’t even think her role was that groundbreaking, especially considering the crew also included Sebastian Stan who should get more bigger roles. A young actor Rich Purnell gets the small role of being the astrophysicist who kind of solves all the problems here and I’d truly love to see him in more movies because I loved his part.  But, Matt Damon blew me away.   It was a memorable performance full of energy.  Smart and funny; the latter adjective is something I never quite associated him with before.  Mark Watney is a great character and he did a great job bringing him to life on the big screen.

Overall, The Martian is a fun action-adventure movie.  It carries a good message, adds in some thrills, puts a little space twist, and is smart and comedic all wrapped up in a little bundle.  It works well and is an engaging story.  The cast and their performances were great from Matt Damon to Kristin Wiig to Jeff Daniels and much more.  Is it a Oscars material? Maybe not exactly fitting the normalcy and the format of it but it does have rewatchability and that’s even more important to me. It exceeded my expectations and I love that! 🙂

Did you see The Martian? What did you think of it? Are you a fan of Matt Damon? Any of his roles stand out to you?

Captain America: Winter Soldier (2014)

I just seemed to realize that ever since The Avengers, I haven’t missed one Marvel movie in theatres.  I’m pretty impressed with myself.  On Saturday night, on a pretty spontaneous conversation, after a chat about the hotness of Captain America and Thor, one of my girl friends and I decided to go see the late showing of Captain America: The Winter Soldier 🙂 Of course, I have no objections because I was meaning to see it and seeing as we’ve been so busy with the house, my boyfriend would have been too tired to go with me anyways.  Plus, my friend was awesome enough to share her coupon with me so I got to see it for free.  I really have to make it up to her some time. But you are all here to hear about Captain America 2 so lets check that out 🙂

Director: Anthony Russo, Joe Russo

Cast: Chris Evans, Anthony Mackie, Scarlett Johansson, Samuel L. Jackson, Robert Redford, Sebastian Stan

Captain America Steve Rogers (Chris Evans) is adapting to the modern day living while saving the world here and there.  On a mission to rescue hostages lead by the big bad Batroc (George St-Pierre), Captain America catches Natasha aka Black Widow (Scatlett Johansson) doing a secret mission for Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson). He learns that there are secrets and secrets that may not have such pure intentions.  When Nick Fury is attacked and Senator Alexander Pierce (Robert Redford) seems to be hatching another plan, he has to figure not only who to trust but how to save the world, especially when the new villain is the long time Soviet agent: The Winter Soldier.

When I finally caught up with the first round of movies leading up to The Avengers after I had seen The Avengers, I had them in a certain order.  Captain America always was the hero I was a bit skeptical about, but I also admire patriotic characters.  I’m not American and still, I appreciate seeing anywhere.  That makes Captain American an admirable character. Before I went to this movie, I watched one trailer and it was that elevator fight scene and thats all.  So, I didn’t know the story, I have no knowledge of the comics, so it was a clean slate.  My sole purpose was to enjoy a Marvel movie with no comparison of its source material.  Keep that in mind as you read my write-up on it 🙂

I’m just going straight out to say that I like Captain America: The Winter Solider a lot! I don’t know what people expect from Marvel movies but I’d say that they are hitting the target every time.  Sure, there are few snags here and there but nothing enough for me to even remember right now.  Chris Evans is just perfect as Captain America.  He has that classic look that just works because he is a man from the past.  His ways and his honor are pretty spot on.  The story hits a few levels of politics as it should and his interaction with everyone is just awesome! I’m starting to really like Captain America. Plus, this movie is packed with great performances by everyone.  I personally love Scarlett Johansson as Black Widow.  There’s so many secrets about her and I always wanted Marvel to give her a movie but then, in this one, we start touching a bit more of her life here and there.  Plus, Chris Evans and Scarlett Johansson have great chemistry together.

 

Now, we all know about the epicness of Samuel L Jackson as Nick Fury and he keeps that up.  No one will ever replace him at doing a better job at it 🙂 And as for Alexander Pierce played by Robert Redford, I really don’t have much to say.  I was never a huge fan of Redford to begin with.  He did a decent job and it all worked well for me.  As for the main person I want to talk about is our new good guy, Anthony Mackie as The Falcon.  I like Anthony Mackie. I may not have been as big of a fan for Pain & Gain as some of you are but I did love Anthony Mackie in that. I haven’t seen him in much else other than that but although he isn’t really hot, he has this charm that just makes him so likeable.  As The Falcon, he has this energy that totally makes me root for him and connect  with his character.

We can never go through a Marvel movie or any action/comic book sort of movie without looking at its villain.  In this case, we kind of have a double villain.  I’m sure I wasn’t the only one to figure out who The Winter Soldier was before his face was revealed.  The Winter Soldier may be the bad guy but he’s kind of in the gray area.  His killing machine instincts and fast reflexes made him a worthy opponent to Captain America.  Plus, it brings out a bit of his past to surface just a little.  We’re all learning a little bit more about The Avengers as they all get their second movie and I really like where its all going.  Honestly, I liked the villain in this one.

Captain America: The Winter Soldier had not only a great cast with some outstanding performances but it was matched with a very impressive action thriller storyline that packed in a lot of fun and energy. It was nice to look at, the effects were great, the fight sequence was awesome.  A funny part was that Batroc up there, played by George St-Pierre (UFC Champion from Quebec), started talking in French and the theatre literally started laughing.  I just felt like I had to insert it somewhere.  Actually, the movie itself had some funny dialogue here and there to loosen up the mood a tad and it worked effectively. Captain America: The Winter Soldier is the real deal and worthy of a visit to the theatre to get in all the visuals and action in full force 🙂 I think I might have enjoyed this one even more than the original.

Oh right, and if you haven’t seen this yet, do you need me to tell you to stay through all the credits? I wanted to punch the people who almost all got up to leave at the end of the movie.  I don’t get it.  I mean, its already late and they probably weren’t going to catch a bus or anything, whats another 5 minutes, right? Either way, it was still past midnight.  Plus, its a Marvel movie.  I got fooled once for The Avengers and I never do it again.  I gather all my patience, keep my butt glued to the seat and if I don’t want to read the credits, I turn around and talk to my friend until the scene happens 🙂

 

Have you seen Captain America: The Winter Soldier? What did you think? Will you be seeing it in the theatres?

 

Captain America:The First Avenger (2011)

A lot of you probably were not following when I posted up the Avengers review (like HERE), I went to that movie with practically no knowledge of anyone or anything except for the movie posters.  I didn’t even watch any trailers of the 5 movies that built up to it, but the effort was there when I bought Ironman 1 & 2 and Thor.  But, it was my busy phase (when am I not?) so I never actually watched them.  The Avengers was awesome enough that I spent the next 2 days watching these movies to catch up.  Unfortunately Captain America was still in the super expensive (in my budget) zone so for Boxing Day I finally snatched it up and after 2 months finally managed to watch it.

Director: Joe Johnston

Cast: Chris Evans, Sebastian Stan, Dominic Cooper, Stanley Tucci, Hugo Weaving, Hayley Atwell, Tommy Lee Jones

Back in the war days, Steve Rogers (Chris Evans) is a small weak man who is patriotic and wants to join the army to protect his country.  However, because of his long list of diseases and small size, he was rejected over and over again. His friend, Bucky (Sebastian Stan) had gotten into the 107th brigade and was about to go off to war.  In the midst of partying before Bucky leaves, he sees another recruitment sign and he tries again with another fake name and city.  This time he gets recruited by Dr. Erskine (Stanley Tucci) who had other intentions for him and he in turn volunteers to be part of his experimental program.  At training in the camp, he meets Colonel Phillips (Tommy Lee Jones) and Peggy Carter (Hayley Atwell), who one doubts Erskine’s choice and the other remains hopeful for using him as the subject  to turn him into a superhuman (super soldier?).  After Rogers turns into the superhuman successfully, he becomes Captain America.  At first, he loses his initial goals but eventually, with a little help he turns into the patriotic selfless superhero who with the help of Bucky, Peggy and a crew of good men go off to stop Johann Schmidt (Hugo Weaving), also called Red Skull, who leads the Hydra organization.

I’ve said it once with Avengers and again with Amazing Spiderman review (HERE), that I’m really not very familiar with any of the comic book superheroes, be it Marvel or DC.  Nothing, nada! You give me Tintin (HERE), I’ll know a bit more because thats just how my childhood was.  So I won’t go and comment on the similarities but rather as a movie itself, the entertainment I got out of it.  Captain America was really gripping at some moments but also embedded some funny and/or lighter  moments from Tommy Lee Jones, Chris Evans, Sebastian Stan and a few other supporting actors. It was just so fun to watch with the action and the whole setup and scenes.

The concept of making the straight out good guy and turning him into a superhuman to fulfill his goals in life and protecting his country is not new but for Captain America, I was convinced by Chris Evans that he genuinely wanted the world to be at peace and for good to happen for everyone.  The best example would be when he was recruited, Stanley Tucci’s character, Dr. Erskine asked him a question if he wanted to kill Nazis and his answer shows his simple and kind heart when he says “I don’t want to kill anyone. I don’t like bullies.  I don’t care where they’re from.” I think thats one of the most important parts of a super hero movie is to be convinced that this guy defending everyone is really out there some way or another to help and has that good heart exposed or hidden, whichever works for him (or her). Chris Evans is an awesome Captain America. Another quote that was said by Erskine about his choice says it all: “That is why you were chosen.  Because a strong man, who has known power all his life, may lose respect for that power.  But a weak man, knows the value of strength and knows compassion.”

So to match a great good guy, we need to have an evil villain, and who can beat Hugo Weaving at it. Okay, maybe you will have a few on your mind but lets just follow my flow here.  Hugo Weaving pretty much can be declared an expert in being a bad guy.  As Red Skull, he is just so horribly mean and has no compassion at all.  He’s like a robot that just wants to kill and take over the world with his minions.  This guy just sends off all the bad vibes a villain could possibly have.  I was convinced and he actually made me feel a sense of danger with the action sequences and the schemes. Although his face wasn’t that menacing but lets say it wasn’t very pretty either so it worked enough to convince me that he was indeed evil villain.

 

They have a great cast here. I love Dominic Cooper who is an inventor or scientist called Stark who aids Erskine with his experimental program.  Tommy Lee Jones was awesome and I’m not very familiar with Sebastian Stan (I think I saw him in another movie) and he was pretty awesome as well.  In general, I really enjoyed the supporting cast. The group of men they chose to be Captain America’s team to invade Red Skull’s plants was so fun, comedic and brave.

All in all, Captain America is one of the better of the 5 movies to Avengers.  I think Ironman still rates a bit higher than this one.  However, now that I know who Captain America is.  He is one hell of a superhero.  I can’t wait to see some more of him and Chris Evans! 🙂

What is your favorite of the 5 movies that lead up to The Avengers?