Road to Infinity War - Phase 3 - Captain America: Civil War (2016)

Phase 3 kicked off in style with the stealth Avengers film Captain America: Civil War aka Avengers 2.5.
Admittedly there were a few worries going into the film that this was simply going to be an Avengers ensemble film rather than a Captain America film. The Russo brothers however managed to find a way to distil the story about the breakdown of the Avengers to actually further Steve Rogers' story by making the Jenga piece that threatens to topple the whole be James Sebastian Barnes aka The Winter Soldier.
Inspired by Mark Millar's game-changing comic series that crossed over many of Marvel's titles at the time, heavily influencing future storylines, it focused on the issue of a Superhero registration act that would force heroes to reveal their secret identities and become government employees.
As this was not an issue in the MCU due to the fact that most of the heroes were not hiding their identities, the storyline had to be adapted to fit in with the movie universe.
Following the events of Age of Ultron, the Avengers find themselves subjected to legislation called the Sokovia Accords. This would make them answerable to the United Nations, something that Tony agrees with but Steve refuses to sign. The battle lines are drawn between the Avengers as everyone has a different opinion on whether or not it is a good thing. Something which in particular affects Scarlet Witch and Vision's relationship which sets things up nicely for further exploration in Infinity War.
Just as the Accords are due to be passed, Bucky Barnes bombs the UN causing the death of Wakanda's King T'Chakka. This introduces audiences to the character of Black Panther in the form of his son Prince T'Challa (Chadwick Boseman). He desires revenge and goes after Barnes but Rogers sets out to protect his friend, unwilling to believe he was behind the bombing.
Upon his capture, which sees the reintroduction of Steve Rogers' beard... no, not the one in Infinity War, Sharon Carter of course, the Winter Soldier is released by a man called Zemo (Bruhl) using a HYDRA mind control technique.
In order to solve the mystery and bring his friend back, Captain America cuts ties with the Avengers, putting him on a collision course with Stark. Something that will cause all the heroes to pick a side and lead to the MCU's most iconic and fantastic scene: the Superhero Smackdown.
This was the scene that Marvel fans had dreamed of ever since Nick Fury turned up at the end of Iron Man. The chance to find out the answers to the geeky questions like "who would win in a fight? Falcon or War Machine? Ant-Man or Spider-Man?
Yes, just one of the reasons that Civil War is so good is that it is the film that brought Spider-Man into the MCU and boy does he make a great first impression. Tom Holland is perfect as the young teenage Peter Parker and he gets some wonderful moments, particularly with Cap, Falcon and Bucky.
Every character gets their moment to shine but it is Paul Rudd's Ant-Man who steals the show here with his transformation into Giant Man. When Ant-Man was first released I thought that he would transform when returning from the Quantum Realm and burst through the house but they wisely saved it for this and it was completely worth it.
It isn't just the fight at the airport but every action sequence that cemented the Russo brothers as the kings of the Marvel castle. Even going so far as to take a page out of the Marvel TV series playbook and include a fight in a corridor and stairwell.
Ultimately, the film comes down to Cap vs Iron Man as the scheme that Zemo has been plotting turns out to be a more twisted revenge tale than Oldboy as it is revealed that Barnes was the one responsible for killing Stark's parents. This results in the most emotional fight so far (even more so than Thor vs Loki) and one that puts the final nail in the coffin of the Avengers as Steve chooses Bucky over Tony "I'm sorry, Tony but he's my friend", "So was I".
Will we see the old team back together in Infinity War, only time will tell.

Fun fact: Hawkeye calls Tony "The Futurist" which is the name of the album that Robert Downey Jr released in 2004.

Infinity Stone counter = 4

Road to Infinity War - Phase 2 - Ant-Man (2015)

The greatest "What If?" in the history of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Out there in the Quantum Realm somewhere there is a version of the MCU that still features an Ant-Man that was directed by Edgar Wright.
Fans of the Cornetto Trilogy were feeling rather negative towards the film before it came out, saying that this was finally going to be Marvel's first genuine misstep and flop but...
Trust in Feige and the MCU because in spite of all the troubles and issues going into the production, the final result is actually a very fun and enjoyable Marvel film, albeit it on a smaller scale than Age of Ultron (pun intended) and the perfect palette cleanser.
Paul Rudd is a fantastic choice for Scott Lang, who is drawn into a scheme to stop the original Ant-Man Hank Pym's protege from recreating the technology. He perfectly captures the wide-eyed cynicism to the ridiculousness of the entire situation and it helps draw the audience into this world.
It certainly plays to Rudd's strengths, playing up the humour "Baskin Robbins always find out" and he is given a terrific sidekick to spark off in Michael Pena's Luis with his fantastic flashback explanations.
NB: Marvel, please release the Comic-Con video of Pena explaining the entire MCU history to Michelle Pfieffer before Infinity War comes out!
While Pym has handpicked Scott Lang to be the one to take on the mantle (or should that be Antle) of Ant-Man, this puts Scott at loggerheads with Hank's daughter Hope Van Dyne (Evangeline Lilly) who believes she is the worthy successor but at odds with her father because of a past family tragedy that will drive the narrative forward in the sequel Ant-Man and the Wasp.
With Marvel keen to put a different spin on each of their movies, this one can definitely be described as a heist movie with a lot of time spent on Lang training for the job (including the contractual Marvel shot of Rudd with his top off to prove that he has worked out enough to have a six-pack) and putting the plan into action.
Peyton Reed does a good job of delivering the action but there are still moments in the film that still feel like Wright (he retained a screenplay credit) such as the train fight sequence at the end with a cameo from Thomas The Tank Engine.
However if there is one person who deserves a huge amount of credit for the success of Phase 2 and 3 in the MCU, it is the person responsible for the visual effects that de-aged Michael Douglas in the opening scene as the result is astonishing (and would be repeated in Civil War and Guardians Vol. 2). It is creepily realistic and they deserve a pay rise!

Also, it doesn't get mentioned a lot but one would argue that Ant-Man features that saddest death in the MCU outside of Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2!

Infinity Stone counter = 4

The Edgar Wright Takeover at The Prince Charles Cinema review - An Epic Of Epic Epicness

Anyone who knows me will know that I am not adverse to the odd film-going experience that other people may find, extreme.
I've done a 12 hour round trip to Glasgow to catch the first screening of The Dark Knight Rises at the IMAX, I've hosted a Dark Knight Trilogy at The Belmont Picturehouse dressed as The Joker (including Nurse outfit) and I've watched every single one of Empire Magazine's Top 500 films in one year (on top of new releases).
However the event on Saturday 7th July would be on a whole different level in terms of endurance.
Edgar Wright is one of my favourite directors and one of the most exciting talents working in the film industry today and to coincide with the upcoming release of The World's End, The Prince Charles Cinema just off Leicester Square had organised a 16.5 hour Edgar Wright Takeover.
The Prince Charles is famous for its repertory programming and events and there was a buzz of excitement growing outside the cinema, helped by the awesome readograph message. Could the event be an "Epic of Epic Epicness" or would it amount to nothing more than sitting around eating peanuts in the dark?

Since 16.5 hours is a long time to spend in a cinema, it was important to have a steady source of snackage and therefore I'd sourced a selection of themed snacks to sustain me over the night including Hog Lumps, Twiglets (caution - violence may ensue) and Jaffa Cakes in my coat pocket. Only thing missing was a pint of Bovril!

"280 eager fans begin their own version of the Golden Mile.
16.5 hours from A Fistful Of Fingers to Scott Pilgrim Vs The World"

8.00pm
The evening kicked off with Edgar Wright happily chastising us for choosing to spend part of the hottest weekend of the year inside a darkened room watching his life's work and provided a layout of the night/morning ahead but also promised a few surprises... However a preview screening of The World's End would not be on the cards sadly, ha ha.

First up was Edgar Wright's debut feature film A Fistful Of Fingers, a Western filmed in his hometown of Wells, Somerset, which hadn't been in cinemas since it played The Prince Charles in 1995.
It might have received a 1 star review in Empire Magazine (oh how times have changed!) and is clearly the work of a young filmmaker just starting out but the film is full of the technical inventiveness and whipsmart gags (the "Nun shall pass" gag being a highlight) that would become his trademark style and could be described as "If Zucker/Abraham/Zucker had created a mash-up of Blazing Saddles & Monty Python And The Holy Grail".

Edgar returned for a quick Q&A on the film in which he was frank and honest about it, the story behind the Jeremy Beadle cameo, how the film's lead Graham Low appeared in Hot Fuzz as the Living Statue and whether we might ever see it as an extra on a future DVD release.
He then bid us farewell and hoped we would all enjoy the rest of the event and that he would be back in the morning to make sure we were all still here!

First bathroom break followed and I had to pee, not due to boredom but necessity, and in a nice touch the staff had placed "Pee Bars" above the urinals.
The gaps between each segment were kept to 5-10 minutes each time in order to quicken the pace of the event and keep everyone's attention focused on the screen but the brief breaks were a hive of activity with long queues for the bathrooms, people stretching their legs, shouts of "Can I get any of you c*nts a drink?" and "Do you want anything from the shop?" as they went to the bar.
The PCC staff were also filming audience reactions and had a photo booth set up with props including cricket bat, vinyl records, etc.

10:20pm
Each segment began with a special bonus treat and we got the first episode of The Random Adventures of Brandon Generator, the online graphic novel that was created with the help of fans.
Spaced is my all-time favourite TV show and seeing it on the big screen was one of the main draws of the event for me.
I have watched the series many, many times but the show is so well written and performed that another viewing unlocked new gags and references that I hadn't noticed before.
Initially I was surprised that we wouldn't be watching the whole two seasons back-to-back, which would have meant the event would have run in chronological order, but it turned out to be a very smart move to break it down into runs of 3-4 episodes as Episode 3, featuring the zombie segment, was the inspiration for the first instalment of the Cornetto trilogy Shaun Of The Dead.

11.50pm
No real signs of fatigue in the audience at this point but I had one minor irritation, my eyes. The weather in London that weekend was glorious and as a pasty white Scotsman I had needed some protection so in the words of Buffalo Bill, "it puts the lotion on its skin or else it gets the hose again", but during the day it had melted off my face into my eyes and ended up irritating my eyes which I continued to rub for the entire night and I was forced to purchase eye drops and apply some between each film. I didn't care if my eyeballs bled (a distinct possibility when the time came round to watching Scott Pilgrim) nothing could stop me watching the big screen.

Preceded by the Don't trailer that Wright directed for Grindhouse, it was time to watch everyone's favourite "Rom-Zom-Com" on the big screen for the first time since I saw it on release back in 2004.
Still remains a pitch-perfect blend between comedy and horror with a host of random crowd-pleasing moments like the C-Bomb that ITV2 always cuts, Bill Nighy's amazing pivot turn and the pool cue fight to Don't Stop Me Now.

1.45am
We were now into Sunday and approaching the halfway point in the marathon with the conclusion of Brandon Generator and the second part of Spaced season 1 including my favourite episode of that season, the clubbing episode and the introduction of Michael Smiley's Tyres.

3.40am
After another quick pit stop we were off to the country and "this shit just got real" with Hot Fuzz. Once again Wright and Pegg's script perfectly balances the culture clash of Bruckheimer action with a Midsomer Murder Mystery heavily influenced by The Wicker Man.
If nothing else, the film proved that Timothy Dalton needs to appear on the big screen more often and that dropkicking a granny in the face is never not funny!

5.55am
After being treated to a fun home video clip of a young Edgar Wright's appearance on Going Live, we cracked on with Season 2 of Spaced and having just watched Season 1 earlier it was clear to see the leaps and bounds that Wright had developed as a director in that time as it was a lot more cinematic in terms of visual flair.
The first three episodes also included the fallout of The Phantom Menace and Reece Shearsmith's unique delivery of the line "aw yeah, I hadn't thought of that!".

8.00am
Still wasn't suffering from any general fatigue symptoms but my eyes looked as if they had been on the receiving end of an entire can of mace.
No time to worry about that though as the "bonus features" kept on coming with a selection of music videos including a Bluetones song that allowed Edgar to indulge his love for Bugsy Malone.
Meanwhile in the city of Toronto, Canada Scott Pilgrim was battling his way through the League of Evil Exes in the only comic book movie where Michael Cera defeats Superman AND Captain America... "That's actually hilarious".
Scott Pilgrim Vs The World might not have had the box office success that it deserved but it showed that after the Britishness of Shaun and Fuzz that Wright was extremely comfortable working in the US studio system and the action scenes proved that the upcoming adaptation of Ant Man for Marvel was in safe hands as we were to find out... but more on that later.

10.00am
As promised, Edgar returned after Scott Pilgrim Vs The World to check up on how we were all doing and brought Jaffa Cakes for everyone. However he had brought so many he needed a friend to help him carry them and out popped Nick Frost to the delight of the crowd.
After dishing out 300+ Jaffa Cakes for breakfast the two stuck around for a hilarious and expletive-laden impromptu Q&A.

Highlights included:

when asked if he could film a biopic on anyone who would it be Edgar lamented that unfortunately all his childhood idols were now paedophiles which would make it rather tricky

debating whether a Jaffa Cake was a cake or a biscuit

Edgar & Nick leading the screen in a rendition of Happy Birthday to a lucky fan

I was fortunate enough to be able to ask a question, well I asked it after Wright complimented my Shaun Cosplay outfit but pointed out that Shaun wasn't Scottish so to ask it again in an English accent so putting on a stereotypical posh voice (to which he dubbed me "Downton Shaun") I asked them if they wrote the scripts for The Cornetto Trilogy with certain actors in mind (not including Pegg & Frost's roles of course) and hope they get them or if they tailor the script following casting.
Edgar admitted they write with actors in mind as it makes it easier to write to their voices and they have been very fortunate with all the great people that they have worked with.

10.45am
The finishing line was in sight when the roof nearly blew off the auditorium as we were treated to one last surprise from Mr Wright... NO, not The World's End but the Ant Man test footage that was screened at Comic Con and it would be fair to say the crowd approved of the sequence that showed Hank Pym switching between sizes as he fought his way down a guarded corridor. I had previously seen it on YouTube but it looked amazing up on the big screen.
The marathon drew to a close with the final four episodes of Spaced featuring Edgar Wright's favourite episode (which also happens to be mine and many others) 2.5 Gone.
There is always clamour for another season of the show but I feel that it ended on the perfect note and besides the best UK comedy shows only have 2 seasons (Fawlty Towers, The Office).

"Skip to the end..."

So 16.5 hours later, a couple of hundred people emerged from the darkened auditorium into the blinding sunshine for the traditional Prince Charles Marathon Survivor photograph which quickly descended into a Spaced-style gunfight.
Finally the icing on a very delicious cake of awesome came in the form of the item that has become synonymous with Edgar Wright's work... A free Cornetto!

And so that was the end of the Edgar Wright Takeover and I can honestly say that it was one of the best experiences I've ever had in a cinema. So much so that even though I live in Aberdeen, I bought a year's membership for the cinema as I can guarantee it won't be the last event I attend there.
There are more ways than ever to view movies (DVD, streaming, on a tablet/phone) and between ever-shrinking theatrical windows & multi-platform releases there is a danger that the trip to the cinema will become the minority choice for many consumers.
However I don't care how big your widescreen TV at home is, nothing can recreate the feeling you get when you watch a movie that you love on the big screen surrounded by people who feel the same way.
I believe that repertory programming and special event cinema, like that being done at The Prince Charles, generates that sense of community, of belonging to something and being around others who appreciate and enjoy it too, is the way forward and will keep the big screen experience alive and kicking.
A huge thanks and a big thumbs up to the staff at The Prince Charles Cinema (and Edgar Wright and Nick Frost) for organising such a successful event and long may it continue.