Road to Infinity War - Phase 1 - Captain America: The First Avenger (2011)

From tales of Norse Gods and visiting the Nine Realms in Thor, the Marvel Cinematic Universe then followed that up with... a period action film set in World War II?
Yes, it was time to introduce the face and poster boy for Marvel since 1942... Steve Rogers aka Captain America.
And who did they get to portray the Star Spangled Man with a plan? Well, the Human Torch of course.
At this point, Chris Evans (no, not that one) was most famous for starring in Fantastic Four. 7 years on, it is hard to imagine anyone else carrying the shield... well maybe, Bucky or Falcon (if you read the comics).
Powered by a terrific cast including Tommy Lee Jones, Hugo Weaving, Toby Jones, Stanley Tucci, etc, director Joe Johnston proved the perfect choice for the tale, having previously delivered a perfect slice of retro charm with The Rocketeer. He even manages to throw in a reference to his work on Raiders Of The Lost Ark when the Red Skull gains possession of The Tesseract and quips that "Hitler digs for trinkets in the desert".
The CGI still holds up well in the early scenes with "tiny" Steve before the super serum and Evans does a great job at showing Rogers' pure heart and determination ("I could do this all day").
The origin of "Captain America" gifts the MCU with one of its all-time greatest moments, the Star Spangled Man with a Plan musical number, and its finest leading lady in the form of Peggy Carter.
Hayley Atwell is a match for Steve in terms of wits, guts and style and gets her moments to shine. The only times she comes across as the "love interest" is when she reaches across and touches his chest post-serum and during the Armageddon-Aerosmith style radio message at the end.
Their relationship is what gives the movie its heart and leaves the audience with a heartbreaking denouement before setting us up for The Avengers (somewhat disappointingly with a mini-trailer for the film rather than a standard post-credit sting).

Infinity Stone Counter = 1 (The Space Stone aka The Tesseract)

Darkest Hour - review

That Dunkirk spirit is well and truly alive and in full force at the moment in the UK. Following 2017's Their Finest and Christopher Nolan's cinematic masterpiece Dunkirk last July, it seems that filmmakers are not heeding Basil Fawlty's advice and can stop mentioning the war!
For Darkest Hour which shows what was happening across the channel as the men waited, and waited, for their salvation and evacuation.
Not only is Dunkirk the flavour of the month but this is the third screen characterisation of Winston Churchill in the last 12 months, following Brian Cox's Churchill and John Lithgow's portrayal in The Crown.
Churchill is so popular at the moment, don't be surprised if you see a feature length adaptation of the Churchill nodding dog put into production by the end of the week!
Director Joe Wright also returns to the issue of Dunkirk, 10 years on from filming that incredible single take tracking shot of James McAvoy and the troops on the beach in Atonement. However there is very little of that inventiveness and bravura filmmaking style on show here. It sadly falls into the trap that many biopics of British subjects and heroes can fall into, in that it feels more like a Sunday night BBC drama than a film destined to be enjoyed on the big screen. Yes, I'm talking about you The King's Speech (and on that topic, I much preferred Ben Mendelsohn's take on George VI than Firth's).
The only time the visual flair exhibited in the dance sequence in Pride & Prejudice and every frame of Atonement and Anna Karenina came into view was the shots of Churchill in lifts surrounding by darkness or peering through windows, slowly increasing his sense of isolation from the cabinet and imprisonment within his belief to do what he believes is right for the British people.
The film does capture how alone Churchill was in his stance against the impending pressures of Nazi Germany, feeling like he was one man against the world.
The film is perhaps too effective at this however as ultimately Darkest Hour is a two hour drama built on the foundation of one performance of bluster and bravado by Gary Oldman.
From the first time we see Churchill, Oldman disappears beneath the prosthetics and costume to completely embody the British Bulldog, and stomps, shouts and chews as much scenery as he does cigars that no one else can barely register an impact on screen. Even the great Kristin Scott Thomas gets left in the shadows as his wife Clemmie.
Rather than a big screen adaptation, Oldman's Churchill might have been better suited to a one man show on the West End where he performed some of his greatest speeches to a captive audience.
While there is no denying Winston's impact and legacy on British history, the Darkest Hour is unlikely to be the brightest moment in the history books of Oldman and British cinema. Even if it does bring him a shiny golden Oscar.

2 stars

Fury - review

War is hell. Anyone who tells you different is selling something.

The crew of the tank Fury look like they've been to hell and back by the time Logan Lerman's fresh faced new recruit is ordered to serve as their new assistant driver and gunner and the film follows Lerman's character's descent into his own personal hell as his innocence is slowly eroded away by the horrors of war (much of it at the hands of Brad: Tank Commander.

The battle sequences are some of the best captured since Saving Private Ryan culminating on a 300-style last stand albeit it 300 German troops descending upon one busted tank and five soldiers.

Within the tank you get a real sense of the grit, grim, blood, sweat and tears shed by these men and with the constant reloading of shells and firing it feels like Das Tank. It's just a shame that the crew didn't get much chance to develop their characters beyond the one note "Leader", "Newbie", Bible Basher", "Redneck" and "Mexican" as there would have been more emotional investment in these In-Fury-ous Basterds come the finale.

War. What is it good for? Making movies. And Fury is a good movie but we'll have to wait and see if it tanks at the box office.

3 stars

Night Will Fall - review

In 1945, towards the end of World War II, Allied troops began to liberate the Nazi concentration camps. What they found there was so shocking that they filmed it with cameras in order to document the horror so that those responsible could be held to account.

Producer Sidney Bernstein was tasked with making a documentary using the footage that could be used as a tool to hold a mirror up to those who took part in the atrocities and to those who stood by and let it happen.

He even brought Alfred Hitchcock in as a supervising director but before the film could be finished it was abandoned due to political pressure as it was felt that shaming the Germans would be counter productive as they were also needing their help to rebuild the country following the collapse of the Third Reich.

For years this film remained unfinished but don't go into Night Will Fall expecting to see the completed film because it is actually more of a documentary about the making of a documentary.

Interviews with some of the soldiers who were among the first to see the camps, survivors and those involved in processing the footage are intercut with some of the most horrific images that have ever emerged from the Holocaust.

Many films have shown the pits of bodies upon bodies of the dead but this film shows the soldiers moving them and tossing them in as if they were sacks of rubbish.
One soldier even commented that if they had seen them as people then they would have gone mad, so large was the scale of the task.

There are reactions shots of Germans being brought in to witness what their country had done and you can see the shock in their faces to the sights and smells of the camp.

In particular, there is one final reel of footage that will stay with you forever, unable to be wiped from your memory, as a voiceover says "Unless the world learns the lessons these pictures teach, night will fall".

Yes, the film is a harrowing, disturbing, sobering viewing experience but as the quote intones, it is also an essential one as it is important to learn the lessons from the past in order to prevent anything like this from happening again.

4 stars