Tag Archives: hayley atwell

AVENGERS: ENDGAME (2019) – My rating: 7.8/10

Avengers: Endgame is a superhero film based on the Marvel Comics superhero team,The Avengers. The film is produced by Marvell Studios and distributed by Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures. Avengers: Endgame is the sequel to 2012’s “The Avengers”, 2015’s” Avengers: Age of Ultron” and 2018’s “Avengers: Infinity War” , it is also the 22nd film in the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU). Avengers: Endgame is directed by Anthony and Joe Russo and written by Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely. Endgame picks up with the surviving members of the Avengers team, along with their allies working to reverse the damage caused by Thanos during the Infinity War. I for one, anticipated Endgame with bated breath. While I thought this was a decent sequel, I was somewhat disappointed.

Thanos (Josh Brolin) used the Infinity Stones to disintegrate half of all life across the universe, leaving us devastated by the deaths of our beloved super heroes. The world has waited in anticipation for the reversal of Thanos’ actions. Avengers: Endgame, part two of Avengers: Infinity, begins three weeks after the completion of Thanos’ dastardly deed, with Carol Danvers / Captain Marvel (Brie Larson) returning to Earth from deep space, carrying a spaceship containing Iron Man/Tony Stark (Robert Downey, Jr.) and Nebula (Karen Gillan) inside. Now the remaining Avengers, which include; Bruce Banner / The Hulk (Mark Ruffalo), Steve Rogers/Captain America (Chris Evans), Rocket (Bradley Cooper’s voice), Thor (Christopher Hemsworth), Natasha Romanoff / Black Widow (Scarlett Johansson) and James “Rhodey” Rhodes / War Machine (Don Cheadle), must find a way to go back in time to fix what Thanos has done. Using Nebula’s knowledge, they find an injured Thanos on an unguarded planet. Their plan is to retake the Stones and reverse his actions but find he has already destroyed them to prevent further use. An enraged Thor beheads Thanos, who is now an ordinary person without the powers of the stones.

**** SPOILERS ****

Five years later, Scott Lang / Ant Man (Paul Rudd) escapes the quantum realm and meets Natsha Romanoff / Black Widow and Steve Rogers / Captain America at the Avengers’ compound. Scott explains that he experienced only five hours while trapped, which to him theorizes that the quantum realm allows time travel. The three heroes travel to ask Stark, because of his genius, to help them retrieve the Stones from the past so they can reverse Thanos’ actions in the present. Stark not believing this could be done refuses, mostly out of fear he’d lose his daughter, Morgan (Lexi Rabe). After having a short chat with his wife, Virginia “Pepper” Potts (Gwyneth Paltrow), Stark relents says good-bye to his family, then leaves to work with Banner, who has merged his consciousness with the Hulk’s body, hoping to stabilize travel in the quantum realm. Banner and Rocket go to the Asgardian refugees’ new home in Norway, to recruit a beer drinking, drunken, overweight Thor and Romanoff heads to Tokyo to recruit Clint Barton / Hawkeye (Jeremy Renner), who has turned into a ruthless vigilante following the disintegration of his family.

I think this is a good place to stop. It is difficult to critique this film because the entire story is a mystery for you to solve or not, so you don’t want to know how it ends or if they accomplish the mission. I was a little disappointed in this sequel. First, I felt Tony Shark deserved much more. I can’t elaborate on this since it would spoil the movie for you. Suffice to say, Iron Man should have a movie all to himself, which would give him the opportunity to explain his actions, past, present and future. I also feel Black Widow should be in that Iron Man movie to boost their fan’s moral, concerning what happened in the Endgame. I must inform you that this three hour and one minute movie is action packed with special effects beyond your greatest expectations. There were so many super heroes, from the present as well as the past, that you will find it hard to keep up. The beginning of Endgame tested our faith in the writers to pull off a Thanos’ reversal, as hopelessness was the only feelings we could muster up. After a long battle of defeats for the Avengers and company, we finally got some hope but it didn’t last long. I personally thought the Endgame could have been better written, as there were too many disappointments. Also, the quantum theory story was a bit hard to swallow. Terms like “your past is now your present” really took a lot of intellect to fully understand. BTW, that quantum statement is longer with deeper meaning; I just can’t spoil this for you by saying anymore. You have to see Avengers: Endgame for yourself. It is definitely worth seeing. The film received positive reviews for its direction, acting, entertainment value, musical score, visual effects and emotional weight, with critics lauding its culmination of the 22-film story. With an estimated budget of $356 million, it is one of the most expensive films ever made. It also broke numerous box office records and has grossed over $1.7 billion worldwide, becoming the highest-grossing film of 2019, as well as the fifth highest-grossing film of all time. Check It Out!

 

CINDERELLA (2015) – My rating: 7.5/10

CinderellaHow many times has this movie been remade? There just seems to be a fascination about this story, like none other. I think the more wicked the stepmother and the bigger the revenge at the end, the better the movie. Cate Blanchett makes one of the best evil, wicket, mean stepmothers I’ve seen to date. She just seems to wallow in her meanness. The two stepsisters, Anastasia (Holliday Grainger) and Drisella (Sophie McShera) were equally as mean. What hatred they displayed throughout the movie. In this version of Cinderella, mom knew her daughters were dumb and dumber. She also knew they were not eye candy, which made her all the more jealous of her step daughter, Cinderella. She also admitted to her anger over the fact that she had now loss two husbands and is left to fend, financially, for herself. As for Cinderella, she was the biggest push over of all but always happy and cheerful. Before the evil step family came into her life, Ella, as she was called then, (Lily James) lived with her parents (Ben Chaplin and Hayley Atwell), on their estate and were quite well off and happy. She had relationships with all the animals and a very special one with her beloved father.  As we all know, nothing last forever. Ella’s mother fell ill and passed on leaving Ella and her father alone to deal with their grief. After many years, Ella’s dad decided it was time to start enjoying life once again by taking on a wife. Ella agreed and so her father’s new wife moved in with her two daughters, making Ella’s life a living nightmare. Not too long after, while on a business trip, Ella’s father took ill and died, leaving his daughter in the most horrific situation. Ella’s name was changed to Cinderella and she was relocated to the attic and to save money, the entire staff was dismissed. She was given leftover scraps from the table to eat and no new cloths to wear. All chores were carried out by Cinderella while the others did nothing.  The only friends Cinderella had were the animals. I believe everyone knows the rest of this story so I won’t elaborate any further. I’ll just say, to my surprise, Cinderella became strong and revenge was sweet in the end.

This version of the classic fairy tale was very well done. The costumes were beautiful and the acting was superb. Cinderella is available on DVD, so no loss if you decide to rent it.

[CINDERELLA is nominated for Costume Design]