Reaction & Review | Captain Marvel XXX: An Axel Braun Parody

Welcome, ladies and gentlemen, to "Tales of the Longbox" here on Reaction & Review. Tonight, guys, we close out this edition of "Tales of the Longbox" with something rather...unique. It's unique, because it's the first time I'm delving into this sort of genre. And you might already have an idea as to what it is, just based off the title and everything. But just in case, I should do the proper introduction first. Tonight's movie came out in 2019. That movie is "Captain Marvel XXX: An Axel Braun Parody".

And yes, guys, you are reading that title correctly. Tonight, I'm gonna be delving into the seedy world of porn. Not only that, but it's also a parody film of the "Captain Marvel" movie from the exact same year this thing came out in. Now I know, right off the bat, that you might have a couple of questions. First of all, why not just cover the "Captain Marvel" movie starring Brie Larson? Well, first of all, I have no interest in ever covering that MCU film, mostly because it looks boring as shit and Brie Larson herself can't really act. And the less said about me ever covering it's sequel "The Marvels", the better.

Another question you might be asking is why on Earth am I even covering a porno parody of an existing franchise? The short answer is...why the hell not? I mean, despite some peoples protests, porn is technically a film genre. But the longer answer is because I kinda just came across this thing by accident. Now yes, I could've covered another MCU film for this marathon, however, I usually try to limit one MCU film per marathon, and "Captain America" The First Avenger" took that slot. So, I wanted to find something different, whether it was an animated film or live action, as long as it was something I haven't seen before, then it's totally up for eligibility for this series. And well, this thing somehow came up, so I chose it out of random curiosity.

Now there is one other thing I wanted to touch upon before I dive right into this movie, and it has to do with part of the title. As you might notice, it's from a man named Axel Braun. I should mention, first and foremost, that I looked up this guy's filmography to see what kind of work he has done. And while there are a lot of films of his I've never heard of, he's also made a *ton* of porno parodies that consists of superheroes from both Marvel and DC. The list is a long one, so I'll just throw in a few of them down below. Some of those caught my interest and I *may* consider doing a review on some of those because they just sound stupidly promising.

"Iron Man XXX: An Axel Braun Parody"
"Superman vs. Spider-Man XXX: An Axel Braun Parody"
"Avengers vs. X-Men XXX: An Axel Braun Parody"
"Suicide Squad XXX: An Axel Braun Parody"
"The Dark Knight XXX: A Porn Parody"
"Avengers XXX: A Porn Parody"

But anyway, guys, um...I have no idea to expect from this thing, outside of the general premise being a porn parody. Especially of a character that I have little experience with. But hey, who knows, this thing could somehow end up being generally decent. And the only way I'm gonna find out if this thing is gonna be watchable at all, is if I shut up, and I push play, and I'm gonna do that right now. So, without further ado, it's time to kick back, relax, and check out "Captain Marvel XXX: An Axel Braun Parody".

3 minutes later

You know, guys, I understand it's still early for me to be commenting on this, however, I can't help but notice the obvious green screen that's going on in the background as our two main characters, I'm going to assume, are having a sparring session. It's a little bit distracting, and I'm not totally sure if that's gonna be like that for the entire movie. And if it is, then it might end up being kind of a painful experience.

12 minutes later

By the way, guys, I probably should've mentioned this beforehand, but this movie is almost 2 hours long. Which is saying something, because so far, we've only had about 5 minutes of story, and the other 10 minutes is dedicated to our main characters fucking each other. And it's honestly kind of dull. I'm hoping, maybe, this film will pick up soon, but somehow, I kinda have my doubts about that.

9 minutes later

Thank Christ, that scene is over! I was gonna make another comment about how we're *still* on this scene, but thankfully, the film was gracious enough to move on with itself. Just...good lord, I never I'd say this about a porno film, but the pacing in this movie, so far anyway, is pretty abysmal.

5 minutes later

OK, guys, my knowledge about the Skrulls are pretty limited, but last I checked, they were suppose to be green-skinned. And if that's the case, then shouldn't their dicks be green as well? I probably wouldn't be asking this sort of question, except their faces are completely covered in shadow while Captain Marvel is busy sucking them off. I understand it's probably just me nitpicking, but it's honestly kind of bugging me a little bit, you know what I mean?

4 minutes later

OK, so they *do* have green faces like I thought they would. Granted, it still doesn't really make any sense as to why their dicks aren't green as well, but you know what? I'm not going to continue bitching about that, because it'll just hurt my head the more I do.

15 minutes later

Well, guys, I believe I just picked up another pattern when it comes to this movie's attempt at humor, in which they are *explaining* the references as to what's supposedly being made fun of. Good lord, this is starting to hurt...and we're not even an hour into the film yet. This is pretty painful, guys.

15 minutes later

So, guys, the movie's now making fun of how Captain Marvel went from wearing a blue and black outfit to wearing the standard red and blue costume she's most known for nowadays. And you know what? That would've been really funny...if again, they weren't explaining the fucking joke! God damn...I really thought we got past the Friedberg and Seltzer shit, but apparently, when it comes to this movie, I was totally fucking wrong.

18 minutes later

You know what, guys, at this point, I just want this stupid movie to end. The jokes are still unfunny, the sex scenes are surprisingly dull, and I have been given very little reason to care as to what's going on in this movie. I want something to happen in this movie that's gonna be deemed as partially interesting. Doesn't have to be good, just interesting enough for me to make me care! That's all I'm asking for.

11 minutes later

Oh my god...OK, guys, I am gonna say, so far, that the costuming here is actually pretty good. Except now, I'm looking at Captain Marvel wearing a ridiculously hideous-looking cowl over her face. And yet, somehow...it actually is the most interesting part of the movie. Oh, and Deadpool's in this movie, too, now for...some reason. And his costume is almost accurate to the actual "Deadpool" movies as well. That's...pretty damn impressive.

The Review

Oh...thank you, God, it's over. Well, guys, that was "Captain Marvel XXX: An Axel Braun Parody". I can finally shut this garbage off...OK. So, um...where the hell to even start with this thing? Well, I partially knew what I was getting myself into here, what with it being a porno parody and all. But after actually getting a chance to watch this thing, it was...different than what I was expecting. And definitely *not* in a good way either.

So let's try to get into this thing by talking about the writing. And right off the bat, I should mention that this movie barely has any story, if at all. Now granted, I understand when it comes to porno films, story is the last thing that anyone should expecting out of it. You *could* get a good story out of a porno flick, but that rarely ever happens. And when it comes to this movie, I was honestly expecting more out of it. Now yes, this movie has a *ton* of hardcore sex scenes. I'm gonna get more into that in a second. But part of the reason why I wanted to watch this movie was simply because of the fact that this was suppose to be a parody film of the MCU's version of "Captain Marvel". I wanted to see how exactly they could make fun of something that was, at the time anyway, one of the most financially successful films of the MCU before "Avengers: Endgame". Now like I mentioned earlier, I haven't seen "Captain Marvel" before and I still have no interest in ever watching it. But I do remember a few things about it beforehand that was pointed out by people on the internet, such as Brie Larson barely showing any emotions in the movie, or why exactly she was wearing a green costume, or how the movie was trying to promote itself as a "feminist" movie that was going to change the Marvel Cinematic Universe. And while some of the stuff I just mentioned is joked about in the movie, the way that they go about it is, well...shit, to it put it lightly.

In fact, let's actually talk about this movie's attempt at humor, because this is where the writing falls apart very quickly. And one of the big reasons why it falls apart is because it basically goes the route of Friedberg and Seltzer, where they have to announce what they're referencing and it kills whatever joke the movie was trying to go for. One example I can think of is right at the beginning of the movie where Captain Marvel and her sparring buddy are training with each other, and her partner explains to her that the implant device she's wearing looks exactly like the device from "Thor: Ragnarok" and Marvel's "Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.". Now that one I didn't get, because I've never seen either "Thor: Ragnarok" or any episode of "Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D." But still, the very fact he tells her what it looks like and where it came from automatically makes the joke completely useless. Another example I can remember is when Captain Marvel first crash lands on Earth. And the first person she meets is suppose to be Samuel L. Jackson's character from "Pulp Fiction", because the guy has the exact same hairstyle and the exact same mannerisms. Except, when she contacts her partner from space, she directly *states* that the guy looks like Samuel L. Jackson's character from "Pulp Fiction". Again, guys, I really thought we got past this shit with Friedberg and Seltzer, but I guess some people thought his style of humor by directly announcing what they're referencing was suppose to be still funny in 2019. But it really isn't. 

The movie also goes out of it's way to reference it's self-awareness. Like I mentioned earlier, they go after Brie Larson and the stuff that fans had already pointed out about the MCU version of the movie. And most of this happens in a dream sequence, in which some sultry lady explains to Captain Marvel that the reason why she's in a red and blue costume is because they had to do a bunch of re-shoots, because the green costume was getting in the way of the obvious green-screen that was supposedly taking place in the dream sequence. And like I said, that probably would've been really funny, except, again, they had to explain the fucking joke! Now if they wanted to be more subtle with their references, instead of actually explaining the whole green-screen bit, what they could've done was have the sultry lady simply flip a switch on and off to show the obvious green-screen effects without actually having trying to explain it to Captain Marvel. Or going back to the whole shtick about the guy looking like Samuel L. Jackson's character from "Pulp Fiction", the movie could've had it where Captain Marvel doesn't obviously reference who the character is while the guy imitating Jackson is busy quoting lines from "Pulp Fiction". It could've been handled much better that way. It wouldn't necessarily make the movie any good, but at least the jokes would've been handled a little better.

Speaking of which, let's talk about the other reason why this movie falls apart, which would have to be it's runtime. Now admittedly, I'm not exactly a porn aficionado, so I may not be the best person to judge on how someone should be constructing their sex scenes. But being that this thing is suppose to be a parody film of a popular movie, I wasn't expecting an excessive amount of it. Now I am not complaining that they exist in the movie or anything. I mean, it's still a porno film at the end of the day. It's just that these particular scenes go on for *way* too fucking long. In fact, I could imagine that if you had cut out all of the sex scenes in this movie, then this thing would run at just under an hour long, probably even shorter than that. I've heard some other porno parodies actually do this where people just edit out all the sex scenes and you would have a much better paced movie. Granted, it would kinda destroy the concept of them being a porno flick, but at least they would flow better. And this movie honestly needed to be trimmed down some. There is no reason to have this movie go on for almost 2 hours. And I probably wouldn't have a problem with this, except the sex scenes themselves are boring as shit. Which admittedly, you could summarize the entirety of this movie with, but you get my point. It honestly could've been trimmed down to about an hour and a half, and it probably would've been better paced. But again, I am not really a porno maestro here, so what the hell do I know?

Beyond that, guys, the writing here, in terms of a parody film, is complete shit. The humor falls flat on it's face, what with it's constant need to announce what they're referencing. And as a porno flick, it's boring as fuck to watch. Which is something I would never expect to say out of a porno flick, but here we are. So with that said, let's talk about the acting. And again, this is gonna be a bit harder to analyze because, much like with writing, acting in a porno film is not something you should really be expecting. I guess the best way I can summarize the acting here is that it isn't necessarily good, but I can't really hold that against any of the actors, because you can really only work with so much when it comes to writing in a porno film. So I'm gonna give some of the bad acting a bit of a pass here, partially because I haven't really seen enough porno flicks to gauge an opinion on that. So again, the acting here isn't really that good, but it's not something I can really harp on too much either.

Special effects here are mostly cheap-looking. Now I can kinda understand why it looks cheap, because this movie was working with a very small budget, I'm going to assume. So you have CG here that looks ugly as shit, and the green-screen is actually the worst part of the movie. Now I mentioned earlier about the scene in which Captain Marvel and her sparring partner are training from behind an obvious-looking green-screen. Well, the green-screen looked a hell of a lot better there when compared to a later scene in which Fury and Captain Marvel are driving. And during this entire sequence, you can actually see the blurriness around Fury most of the time while he's driving, which makes the compositing of these shots look *awful*. I mean, they looked noticeably awful. And I don't know if that was suppose to be intentional or not, or if that really was just a case of terrible green-screening. But either way, the green-screen effects are probably the worst part about the special effects. The costuming, on the other hand, is actually pretty good. Captain Marvel's costume looks great in particular and Deadpool's costume looks almost exactly like the one Ryan Reynolds wears in his movies. Monica Rambeau's costume is probably the only one here that looks kinda cheap and shit-looking. But honestly, it's not too much of a complaint from me, so it's fine enough to what the actress had to work with. Otherwise, guys, the costuming here is fine for low budget standards, but the special effects overall are not very good.

Camerawork here is decent, minus a bit of shaky cam in certain scenes. The lighting here is decent. The sound-mix is little bit screwy in one particular scene where Captain Marvel and Monica Rambeau fight for a short time, and Monica ends up yelling something at Captain Marvel. However, the sound quality takes a little bit of a dump here because you can hear some of the background noise going on as this happens. I don't know if that was a case of poor boom-mic control or what, but it is rather noticeable, at least, to me, it is. The music here is pretty damn forgettable, too. I really couldn't remember a single piece of music that was in any way memorable. Most of the movie is silent when it comes to it's sex scenes, and the non-sex scenes don't really offer much in terms of passable music. So I guess I can say the music kinda sucks, and it's just really forgettable.

Ultimately, guys, when everything is said and done, am I able to recommend "Captain Marvel XXX: An Axel Braun Parody"? Personally, no. Like I've mentioned a couple of times already, I'm not exactly a porn expert, so this stuff isn't exactly catered to me. That, plus I'm not that big a fan of the Captain Marvel character. However, if you are somehow into this kind of stuff, then you can probably find it somewhere online for free. Or you could find it on DVD or Blu-ray if you really are willing to spend money on a physical copy of this thing. But for everyone else, I would just say avoid this thing, especially if you're not into this kind of genre of film-making. And even if that wasn't the case, the humor is really poorly written, and the sex scenes themselves are way too long and are boring as shit. Perhaps maybe if I had focused on a different character in the Marvel universe, I probably would've had a better time with this. Like I said, I'm not a fan of Captain Marvel, and this movie didn't really make things better for me when it comes to this character. So, with that said, I'm gonna go and watch something better. I don't know, maybe I'll just go throw in my copy of "Sgt. Kabukiman N.Y.P.D." or something. Who knows? At least it'll be a better viewing experience than the stuff I had to suffer through for almost 2 hours.

And with that, guys, we come to the close of this year's "Tales of the Longbox" marathon. My god, did I ever pick a movie to end a marathon with, but hey, at least it was something different for this series. And speaking of which, we are very close to approaching 200 episodes of this series. Holy shit, is that gonna be a fucking milestone. I cannot wait to get around to it. But for now, guys, take care, and I will see you all later. Peace.

Reaction & Review | Green Lantern

Welcome, ladies and gentlemen, to "Tales of the Longbox" here on Reaction & Review. Tonight, guys, I'm gonna be covering a superhero film from 2011. That movie is "Green Lantern".

Now I would love to tell you that I am looking forward to watching this movie. After all, I do like the Green Lantern character, whether it's either Hal Jordan or John Stewart. I know there's Kyle Rayner and a bunch of other Green Lantern's, however, the first two are the only ones I have any actual experience with. But this movie has 2 things going against it before I even push play. Number 1, almost everyone who has seen this film has come out and said that the movie is a piece of shit. Now admittedly, this is more of a minor concern to me, because I have seen quite a few movies for this series that were claimed as being some of the worst movies ever made, but I didn't see that for most of them. Movies like "Jonah Hex", "The Garbage Pail Kids Movie", and even Stallone's "Judge Dredd" ended up being OK despite the negative criticism that they received. So this movie could possibly be one of those misunderstood movies that I might end up actually liking.

That being said, however, the other thing this movie has going against it is the film's star, Ryan Reynolds. I'm probably gonna be in the minority on this one, but I am not a huge fan of Ryan Reynolds work. One of the big reasons why is because I've noticed a pattern with his acting. Ever since his success as "Deadpool", it seems to me that he's taken that role and emulated it into almost every other movie that he's starred in. And thus it leads to his acting being very samey and kind of tiresome. Also, on a side note, I wish all the Mint Mobile ads I see that feature Mr. Reynolds almost every time I watch a video on YouTube would just die in a fire, because they are *painfully* annoying! And yes, I know he's supposedly the owner of Mint Mobile, but those shitty ads have been going on for nearly a year now and I wish they would all just die a quick and painful death, because I'm sick and tired of seeing them.

Now I can't be too harsh about him being in this movie, because this was long before the "Deadpool" movie even came out. So I'm curious to see what he can do here long before his stardom really took off. I kinda have my doubts about this movie being any good, but like I said, I've been proven wrong before, so I'm hoping that this movie will do the same and actually be halfway decent. But the only way I'm gonna find out as to whether or not this movie will be any good at all, is if I shut up, and I push play, and I'm gonna do that right now. So, without further ado, it's time to kick back, relax, and check out "Green Lantern".

12 minutes later

So, Hal Jordan's idea against these robot-fighter planes was to pull off what Tony Stark did by flying as high as he can towards the sky just to prove a point by showing what they can't actually do, which essentially was them not being able to break Earth's atmosphere. All right, well, that definitely is a bold move on his part. Not sure if that's gonna win him any favors with his colleagues, but at least it was sorta cool.

16 minutes later

Wow, we're actually getting an introduction to Amanda Waller...interesting. I'm kinda surprised to actually even see her in something that's not either Justice League or Suicide Squad related. That's actually rather refreshing now that I think about it, because I don't know if she was in any other live action DC movie up til this one. Still, it's actually sorta cool to see her in something different, you know what I mean?

18 minutes later

OK, I have a really dumb question here, and I know it's a trivial one, but I gotta ask. Why the hell are Sinestro's eyes so fucking big? I ask this, because in the previous shot, his eyes looked normal. And now, of all sudden, his eyes are fucking bigger now that we're getting a closeup of him. I don't know if that was a case of poor CG or if his eyes just naturally look like that when he's widening them, but it is rather noticeable. At least, to me, it is.

9 minutes later

So...Dr. Hammond has the ability to read people's minds. I have a question about that. Exactly *how* did he obtain these powers? The only explanation I can think of is when he was trying to operate on Abin Sur's body that some sort spark happened when Hal Jordan was able to unlock the powers of the Green Lantern. Granted, that's not a really good explanation on my part, but it is something that I can kind of roll with, I guess.

15 minutes later

You know, guys, I find it kind of funny that Hal's love interest immediately recognized him as the Green Lantern upon a second meeting. I'm kinda happy the movie brought that up pretty quickly. Otherwise, if she didn't figure out who he was the moment that she saw him up close and personal, despite his mask, then she probably would've been fucking retarded, and I would have to question the writers mentality on not addressing any of that.

20 minutes later

OK, you know what? That plan by Hal Jordan to give Hector the Green Lantern ring and use it against him was actually a really clever plan from him. I was gonna question why the hell he would give his ring to Hector, but it actually kinda made sense in a way. So yeah, I gotta give Hal some props there.

The Review

Well, guys, that was "Green Lantern". Let me go ahead and shut the movie off here...OK. So...where to begin with this one? Well, first things first. I mentioned it earlier, and I'm gonna get a little more in depth about this in a moment, but when this movie came out, it was slammed by both fans and critics to where it eventually bombed in theaters. And I was very skeptical about buying this movie when I decided to add it to the schedule for this year's "Tales of the Longbox", mostly because it didn't look all that interesting to me. That, coupled with the fact that I'm not a huge Ryan Reynolds fan, didn't really excite me, either. So, I was expecting the worst out of this movie when I eventually got around to cover it. And I gotta say, after finally watching this movie...it really isn't that bad. OK yes, the movie isn't great, and I don't really know if it's worth watching a second time, but to say that it was the one of the worst movies ever made is something that I think was sort of over-blowned a bit.

So now that I've gotten that part of the way, let's actually dig more into the movie itself, shall we? And to continue on with what I just mentioned, let's actually talk about the writing. Now while I did just admit that I sorta enjoyed the movie, I can also kinda see why people didn't like it, and I have a theory as to why that is. See, when you ask fans about what they know about the Green Lantern mythos, one of the responses that you'd get is Sinestro inheriting the yellow ring of Fear, thus him turning evil and having to fight Hal Jordan. And considering that this was the first ever live-action movie centered around the Green Lantern, it's something that fans were highly anticipating. However...that doesn't happen here. Sinestro himself is gone for a good portion of the film after he meets with the Guardians to say that he'll fight fear with fear against Parallax by creating a new ring which would contain that power. And he doesn't show up again till the last 25 minutes of the film after he completes the ring, only to be stopped by Hal Jordan before he executes that plan. Now a little bit of a spoiler here, he does end up wearing the yellow ring after the post-credits sequence, however, we never actually get to see any real conflict between Sinestro and Hal. And what little there is between them basically amounts to very little. Which is, admittedly, rather disappointing, especially when you consider how badly this movie did at the box office. So needless to say, any chance of that happening in a sequel never came to pass, nor will it ever at this point.

Now another reason why I think this movie faltered a bit is that it feels like there were two completely different stories here that got crammed together in order for the film to get made. On one side of it, you have the origin story of Hal Jordan becoming the Green Lantern, and it's honestly really good. But on the other side of it, you have the sub-plot involving Hector Hammond. Now I should quickly mention, first of all, that the movie did clarify a reason as to how Hector might've gotten his powers of reading minds. Basically, Waller explains to Hector that he was exposed to Parallax's DNA that was present on the fatally wounded Abin Sur's body. Granted, it's still a little questionable as to how you gain that sort of ability, but I'm not gonna question that part. But anyway, instead of focusing on Sinestro as the main villain like fans were hoping for is instead focused on this one character. And I would probably care more about it, except, Hector is honestly kind of bland and is really a rather boring villain. He's basically being presented as a weird and insane scientist, and...that's kind of it for his character. He really has no kind of personality beyond that, and because of that, you really won't find much of a reason to care about him. So I can totally see why fans would be upset that this guy was considered to be the main villain rather than Sinestro. And it definitely is the weakest part of the movie by far.

That being said, though, the stuff involving Hal Jordan's origin story is *really* good. And I actually really like how he was written in this movie. From everything involving first gaining the ring, to how he's getting use to his powers, to him overcoming his fears so that he can find a reason as to why the Green Lantern ring chose him as a hero. All of that is really solid stuff, and is one of the more stronger aspects of the movie. Our other characters here range from being kind of bland to just being forgettable. Setting aside Sinestro's short appearance in this movie, other characters like Amanda Waller are also not in the movie for very long either. I think she's in the movie for, like, less than 10 minutes or so. Her backstory is briefly touched upon thanks to Hammond reading her mind, but beyond that, she really doesn't have much of a role here outside of just being one of the main scientists. I feel like you could replace her with anyone else and you wouldn't notice the difference. Hal's girlfriend is also somewhat bland, too, and her chemistry with Hal Jordan is somewhat cheesy, but it does provide more of a layer to Hal's character, which stops him from becoming completely bland. The other characters are just there to exist for plot reasons and they're not very memorable anyways.

So with this mind, I completely understand as to how this movie got the reputation it deserved. It definitely is a flawed movie, and as someone who also likes the Green Lantern character, it would also disappoint me, too, especially if I had seen the movie in theaters back in 2011. However, being that I'n now seeing this movie 13 years later, I can honestly say, despite all of that, the movie is still able to stand decently well enough on it's own merits with it's strong characterization of it's main character. And the story itself is still interesting enough, as long as you're able to overlook the issues that I discussed earlier. Now with all that said, let's get into the acting. And I'm gonna say that the acting here is really well done. And in the case of Ryan Reynolds, his acting is also pretty good, too. There is a little bit of those mannerisms from "Deadpool" that I noticed. However, he's able to not let that part of his acting overtake the role. Because he has a good balance of when to be serious and when to be humorous. And to be fair, Hal Jordan was also a pretty humorous character in the comics and in the "Justice League" cartoon. So in that aspect, Ryan Reynolds does a good job on getting the character right. The rest of the acting is also pretty solid as well. I would say, at times, the actor playing Hector would sound a little hammy, but it's not to a point where he's overacting, so I can give some of that a pass here. But yeah, the acting here is perfectly fine from just about the entire cast.

Special effects in this movie are pretty good, too. I've heard most people say that the effects are god-awful because there's suppose to be some noticeable green-screen effects. And while a good portion of this movie does have some scenes like that, I didn't really notice them as much as I did, so it's just something you have to take for what it's worth. But onto the effects themselves, the CG here is pretty good. The one thing I have to comment on that is gonna be seen as a mixed bag is Green Lantern's mask. I have no idea if his mask supposed to be done in CG or if it was just poorly done makeup effects, but it is very noticeable, and it could potentially pull you out of the movie. The makeup effects themselves are also pretty good, though I will say the one thing that kinda throws me off about it is Sinestro's eyes. Perhaps it's just me, but I swear almost anytime Sinestro's on camera, his eyes look a lot bigger than usual. And I don't know if that's just my poor eyesight, or if the CG was suppose to make him look more "alien" then usual by having bigger eyes. It's not all the time, mind you, but it is something that did catch my interest. I know a lot of people won't notice it, but I did, so again, you just have take it for what it's worth. But otherwise, like I said, the CG here is pretty good, and the makeup effects are also really good, too. The costume is also done in CG, but I honestly didn't have much of an issue with it. It's just the mask that kinda threw me off slightly. Otherwise, though, the costume on the Green Lantern is pretty good for the most part.

Camerawork here is really good. The lighting is lit very well, which makes sense, considering we're dealing with a superhero that is working with green light and all. Sound-mix here is mixed fine. The music is also pretty good, too. It's not great, mind you, but it's also very inoffensive, as well. So yeah, the music here for both the score and soundtrack are perfectly serviceable.

Ultimately, guys, when all is said and done, am I able to recommend "Green Lantern"? If you're able to overlook all of the issues that this movie has, then yes, I could recommend it, at least for a single viewing. Like I said earlier, I wasn't sure if it was something I would watch a second time, and after actually getting a chance to talk about it, I don't see myself watching it again or keeping it in my DVD collection. Mind you now, I did enjoy watching this movie, and it certainly has it's moments. The really solid characterization of Hal Jordan becoming Green Lantern and the story itself being rather interesting is definitely worth checking out, at least once. And if you actually like it enough, then you can go ahead and find it on either DVD or Blu-ray, or watch it on MAX, assuming it's on there. However, I don't really think this will satisfy long time fans of the character, especially with the issues that this movie has. And in regards to those people, I don't think I could recommend for them, because they would probably end up hating it. But like I said, the movie, at least in my opinion, isn't really that bad. And if you do want to give it a chance, well, you can easily find a copy of this somewhere on almost any format. I have no idea if there's a 4K version of this movie, but then again, I don't really care about 4K in general. So yeah, the movie was enjoyable to watch once. But personally, I don't see much of a reason for myself to watch it ever again. Which is a bit disappointing, but not totally surprising to me. Now...with that being said, I think I'm gonna go and watch a different DC movie. I think I'll go and watch my copy of "Justice League: War". I haven't seen that in a little while, so I'm gonna do that next after I get done typing this review up.

And with that, guys, we come to the close of another Reaction & Review. Until next time, ladies and gentlemen, take care, and I will see you all later. Peace.

Reaction & Review | Bumblebee

Welcome, ladies and gentlemen, to "Tales of the Longbox" here on Reaction & Review. Tonight, guys, I'm gonna be covering a movie from 2018. That movie is "Bumblebee".

Now, I don't know if I mentioned this before or not way back when I reviewed "Transformers: The Movie", but I consider myself a casual fan of the Transformers series. I don't exactly follow the entire lore of the Transformers mythos nor have I read many of the comics, but there are some things about the series that I do genuinely like. For example, as I just mentioned, I've seen and reviewed the animated Transformers movie from the 80's and I loved it. I've seen it about a good 4 or 5 times since my review of that movie and it still holds up very well. I mostly really enjoyed the Michael Bay "Transformers" movies, flaws and all. And even though I haven't played it in a good while, I still own my copy of Transformers: War for Cybertron for the Xbox 360, because it's the only Transformers game I've played so far that I really enjoyed.

And since I just mentioned the Bay films, that brings us to tonight's movie. From what I've heard, and I could be totally mistaken here, this movie apparently has no connection with any of the Michael Bay 'Transformers" films. And if that *is* the case, then that honestly may be a good thing. Now I want to clarify again that I do enjoy watching the Bay films, but honestly, there is only so much you could do with those particular set of films before you start to run out of ideas. And admittedly, the fifth film did just that. So if this film's starting fresh in it's own universe, then that's probably for the best. Although whether that's the case or not is something I'll find out when I start watching the movie.

The only other thing I know about this movie is one of the stars of the film, and it's one that I have very mixed feelings on. That star being John Cena. Now I should mention that I was a fan of John Cena's work back in the WWE days when I was younger. At least, until I started to pick up on his "Super Cena" shtick to where it eventually got old and he grew kind of boring. And when it comes to his films, well, I can't really gauge an opinion on that, since I've only seen one movie that he starred in. That movie, of course, being "The Marine". A movie that was mostly plotless and kinda shit, but still somewhat enjoyable, mostly for Robert Patrick's performance. Cena was just...there, really. He wasn't the worst, but it's definitely not one of his stronger performances either. But then again, it was only his first movie, so maybe I shouldn't judge too harshly yet.

So now, I have to deal with him here in a movie about giant talking robots fighting each other. I have no idea if he's actually gonna contribute anything to this movie at all, or if he's just gonna be a fucking standby character that'll eventually be squashed by one of the robots. I have a feeling the latter option is not going to happen, but hey, I can dream it, can I? But in all seriousness, I really don't know what to expect from Cena in this movie. But regardless of his role, I am hoping for the movie itself to be pretty good. And the only way I'm gonna find out is if I shut up, and I push play, and I'm gonna do that right now. So, without further ado, it's time to kick back, relax, and check out "Bumblebee".

10 minutes later

Huh...you know, guys, I understand it's been a while since I last watched any of the Bay "Transformers" films, but I don't recall if it was ever brought up as to how Bumblebee lost his voice. Well now, I got my answer as one of the Decepticons just ripped his voice synthesizer from his neck. Damn, that looked painful!

14 minutes later

Well, guys, it is official. I hate Charlie's entire family. I hate her Mom, I hate her bratty little brother, and I especially hate her over obnoxious step-dad. Charlie herself has been a little bit bland, but I'm hoping that'll improve as the film goes on. But as for her family, I hope they all get fucking crushed by the Decepticons by the time the movie's finished. I strongly doubt that'll happen, but hey, I can kinda hope for it, right?

11 minutes later

O...K, well, that's...something new. I've never seen a human blow up as a...watery bubble...I think. Honestly, guys, I have no idea of the substance he became afterwards, but that was...certainly something, I'll say that much.

17 minutes later

You know, guys, I understand this is probably just a minor nothing, but for some reason, every time I look at the size difference between the humans and Decepticons, I can't help but notice that the Decepticons look a lot...smaller than usual. Perhaps maybe it's just me, but I always imagined that they looked a lot taller, like in the Bay "Transformers" movies. Here though, every angle that I'm looking at the Decepticons, they look fucking tiny as shit when compared to the humans. I understand that this is, again, probably just me nitpicking, but it's honestly starting to bug me a little bit, you know what I mean?

6 minutes later

All right, as brief as that was, hearing "The Touch" was a nice little creative nod there. That was kinda awesome.

10 minutes later

OK, you know what? When I made that comment about the size difference between the Decepticons and humans, I was honestly just thinking that may have just been me overthinking it. Well now, we got Bumblebee scourging around inside Charlie's home, like it's almost nothing to his size. Granted, I understand Bumblebee is probably the smallest of all the Autobots, but I didn't think he would be *this* fucking small! Jesus Christ...

12 minutes later

All right, I have a question, and it's something that just came to me. So earlier, when Bumblebee was messing around in Charlie's house, he managed to trigger a signal from the U.S. military base that a couple of the Decepticons are using to find his location. My question here is if they were able to find his signal, then shouldn't Optimus Prime and the rest of the Autobots be able to hone in on his location as well? I ask this, because we haven't seen them since the start of the movie, and we have no idea if they even made it to Earth or not. You would think that they would've found him by now if that was the case, but I guess maybe they just have really shitty radar, who knows? All I do know is that it leaves me wondering why they haven't been able to find him since that point of the movie, you know what I mean?

18 minutes later

Wow...OK, that was probably the most violent death I've seen in this entire movie. Holy shit, that was...kinda awesome.

The Review

Well, guys, that was "Bumblebee". Let me go ahead and the shut the film off here...OK. Before I get started, I should mention, on the off chance someone else mentions this first, I am aware that Michael Bay was one of the producers of this movie. However, unlike the previous 5 movies, he's not the director for this one. The director for this film goes by some guy named Travis Knight. I just want to get that out of the way first, because I know some people still have some boner hatred against Michael Bay for "ruining the Transformers franchise". And I will say that if you weren't a fan of those movies, then this one will certainly satisfy those fans, because this movie is actually pretty solid. Now mind you, the movie isn't great by any stretch, but it definitely feels like a more structurally made film, at least in terms of a live action "Transformers" movie, anyway.

So now that I've kinda summarized what I thought about the movie, let's actually talk about it in a little more detail, shall we? I'm gonna start with writing. Now as I just mentioned a moment ago, this movie felt more structured and knew what it wanted to do. And being that we're only working with one Autobot in this movie, it definitely helps the film tremendously. Now being that this is an action film, you normally shouldn't expect character depth to happen in this particular genre. And this movie kinda follows suit on that. However, I'll get more into that in a second. As for our actual story, it starts off on the destruction of Cybertron, as the Autobots and Decepticons fight each other. And with Cybertron's destruction nearing, Prime sends Bumblebee away to Earth to find a hidden base for the Autobots while they fight off the Decepticons. Then later on in the film, two Decepticons managed to track down Bumblebee's location on Earth after our main character, Charlie, starts up Bumblebee (who remains in vehicle mode), as they later get an idea to track down Bumblebee with the help of the U.S. military's satellites while also pretending to be on their side. And as for Bumblebee, he remains with Charlie as she tries to help understand him while trying to get her own life in check.

In fact, why don't we jump right into the characters, since I just mentioned them. Of all the character depth in this movie, the ones that are going to matter the most is the friendship between Charlie and Bumblebee. You *really* feel a connection between the two characters for similar reasons. For Bumblebee, obviously, it's him trying to get use to the fact that he doesn't have a real voice anymore. And as for Charlie, she feels rather disconnected with her family after her Dad died of a heart attack, and doesn't know what to do with her life since he's been gone. Now yes, she does have a hobby in fixing cars much like her Dad did and also has a side job, but she still feels like the loner character. So when you put these two characters together, they have really solid chemistry with each other, and it's really well done, too. With everyone else, though, I can barely remember their names, outside of Agent Burns and Memo. Memo is suppose to serve as a potential love interest for Charlie, but it really doesn't go anywhere. Partially because, Memo doesn't really get involved in the film until almost an hour in. There were a couple of times beforehand where he tries to talk to her, only for her to ignore him for one reason or another. And he really has no kind of depth to his character whatsoever. You could honestly cut him out of the movie and you wouldn't miss a thing. He really is *that* worthless. And as for Agent Banks, well, he's more just the meathead soldier that just follows orders and nothing much else. Charlie's family, I fucking hated, and the two Decepticons who are there to look for Bumblebee, I don't remember their names at *all*. The only Decepticon names I'm aware of are Megatron, Soundwave, and Starcream. Why they couldn't bring in any of those into the fray rather than two no-namers is anyone's guess.

But let's stick with the positives again for a moment. One big positive I can definitely give this movie is it's runtime. If you look back at the 5 previous films directed by Michael Bay, one recurring pattern you might notice about them is the fact that they all run over 2 hours, sometimes over 2 and a half hours, give or take. And that could be seen as a major overkill, because while it's understandable that you want to be hardcore nuts with your film, you also don't want to overstay your welcome. And in the case of "Age Of Extinction", that one definitely felt over-bloated, what with it being the longest film in that franchise at 164 minutes. This movie, however, only runs at an hour and 53 minutes long. Which is definitely a breath of fresh air, at least when compared to the Bay films. The pacing in this movie is much tighter. Nothing here really felt like it overstayed it's welcome. Now yes, while I could nitpick about the prologue being way too short, AKA the destruction of Cybertron being only 3 minutes long, or how some of the humorous scenes involving Bumblebee aren't that great, it still does a good enough job to keep the story moving forward without having to be hobbled down by any of it's weak points.

Speaking of weak points, there are a couple of issues I did have with the movie, story-wise. I mentioned it earlier, and I'll ask it again. If Bumblebee was able to accidentally create a signal for the Decepticons to track him at his current location, then why did none of these Autobots ever get this response? I would've figured that they maybe would've shown up during the final act of the movie, but surprisingly, they don't. And in the case of Optimus Prime, you only see him two times in the actual movie, not counting scenes where Bumblebee is projecting holographic images of his recordings. Once at the prologue, and the other time towards the end credits. But anywhere else, no. And going on that subject, right towards the end of the movie, if Optimus was actually on Earth, possibly the whole time, then where the fuck on Earth has he been this entire time?! Unless, again, he has a really shitty radar system, then why did he not receive the same signal like the two Decepticons did? With them, they got the signal when they were at the U.S. military base. But what about Prime? It's not like he was injured or anything, since he looked perfectly fine on Cybertron and towards the end of the movie, so what the hell is Prime's excuse for not getting it? I don't know, and honestly, it leaves a bit of a glaring plot hole. Now it's not enough to completely ruin the film entirely, but it does raise a bunch of questions if you really start to think about it for too long.

But otherwise, guys, the writing here, despite some noticeable flaws, is still really solid. In fact, this movie shares another similar aspect to the Michael Bay films, in which it's a fun mindless popcorn flick. Where if you go into it with your brain shut off, then you are going to have a blast with this movie. I can almost guarantee that. Now with that said, let's get into the acting. For the most part, the acting here is pretty good. The two best performances come from Hailee Steinfeld, who plays our main character. She *really* nails this performance down to a tee, and it makes her character stand out quite a bit. The other noticeable mention goes to Peter Cullen, who's mostly been voicing Optimus Prime since the 80's cartoon. And the fact that he's still got it is fucking great. Granted, like I said, Optimus is only in the movie for about a few minutes tops, but Cullen still gives out a really solid performance for the character. Everyone else in the cast did OK, including John Cena. Granted, his character is just kind of a tough-sounding meathead soldier, but he still turns in a halfway decent showing. So overall, the acting here ranges from mostly being pretty good to a couple of them sounding great.

Special effects in this movie are also really solid. Now admittedly, I have no idea if they're from the same effects team that did the previous 5 movies, because I wasn't able to find any info if it was from them or not. But even if that's not the case, the effects here are almost on par with what was shown in the previous 5 movies. I still have a bit of a soft spot for the effects there, but that's just more of a personal bias. But yeah, the CG here on the Transformers themselves looks really good, the pyrotechnics are done really well and are also not as explosive happy like they were in the Bay films. So yeah, I really have no complaints when it comes to the special effects.

I do have to comment on camerawork, because it ties into another issue I had when it comes to this movie. Now being that this is a different universe that is separate from Michael Bay's films, I can accept the fact that the designs of the Transformers are gonna be different, and I don't have any issues with that. What I do have an issue with is the size difference between them and any human characters. One of the biggest examples has to be the scene where the two Decepticons are first inside the military base. Because with every angle that the movie cuts to during this scene, the size difference on the Decepticons seems to change every time the camera cuts to a different angle. Sometimes they'll look too small, and other times they'll look almost kind of regular human-sized. And it just looks so jarring to me because I always imagined that they looked bigger in size, kinda similar to the Bay films. Now with Bumblebee himself, I can kind of give it a pass given his own size, even though the scene of him being able to fit inside of Charlie's house with almost no problems is pretty ridiculous. But the two Decepticons have this size issue where with each cut it seems like to me that the size change was always inconsistent. Now admittedly, this may just be my poor eyesight, but it still looked really jarring to me to not give it a notice.

But otherwise, camerawork for everything else is great. The lighting here is lit perfectly fine. The sound-mix is also good. Music, I also want to touch upon. See, one of the things that happens in this movie is that Charlie tries to give Bumblebee a voice through a radio that she fixed for him. And unlike the Bay films where Bumblebee basically spoke in movie quotes from other Paramount movies, this one has it to where he speaks through song lyrics. And most of the songs in this movie are from the 80's, which is great. There are songs in this movie from artists like Bon Jovi, Howard Smith, Simple Minds, to even Stan Bush. Which admittedly, for the latter, is only that one song I touched upon earlier...and somehow, I felt like I just made a terrible pun given the song choice and all. But anyway, there are a lot more songs in here that are from the 80's and they all sound great. So if anything else, I would totally recommend giving the soundtrack a listen to sometime, especially if you're a fan of 80's music.

Speaking of which, when all is said is done, am I able to recommend "Bumblebee"? Most certainly, yes. Like I said earlier, if you are someone who wasn't a fan of the Michael Bay films, then this movie will definitely make you a fan again, what with it being a new universe and all. If you did like the previous films and if you go into it with the right mindset of it being a popcorn flick, then you are going to love it even more. Now admittedly, the movie might be trying to learn towards a slightly younger audience, but honestly, I don't think that's gonna be an issue for you, because it offers plenty enough for both sides to enjoy. And if you've been a Transformers fan since the beginning, then you probably have already seen this, and might already own it on DVD or Blu-ray. Or you might even have Paramount+ to watch it on there, too. But regardless of how you watch it, the movie is a really solid action film. And who knows? Maybe I just might add it to marathon with the other 5 Bay movies I bought as a combo pack that has all of the movies together. Though considering how long those movies are, I'm not totally sure marathoning them would be the best idea. But hey, at least I have that option, if I want to pursue it. In the meantime, though, I think I'm gonna go and replay Transformers: War for Cyberton again. Because it has been a good few years since I last played it, and after watching the opening prologue to this movie, it kinda made me want to replay it again. So I'm gonna go and do that next after I get done typing this review up.

And with that, guys, we come to the close of another Reaction & Review. Until next time, ladies and gentlemen, you got the touch, you got the power, and I'll see you all later. Peace.

Reaction & Review | Captain America: The First Avenger

Welcome, ladies and gentlemen, to "Tales of the Longbox" here on Reaction & Review. Tonight, ladies and gentlemen, I'm gonna be covering a movie from 2011. That movie is "Captain America: The First Avenger".

Now, as has been established way back during my review of the 1990 "Captain America" movie, I'm not really a huge fan of the Captain America character. Much like with Wonder Woman of DC, I find the character to be kind of dull. Mind you, he's nowhere near as dull as the Hulk is, but that's not really saying a whole lot. With that said, I did end up liking the "Captain America" film from 1990, and I said that I would be interested in covering more movies involving the character if the opportunity ever came to me. Well, it took a while, but I'm finally getting around to covering this thing, and I honestly cannot wait to watch it.

Now I should mention a couple of things about this movie before I dive right into it. I do know that this movie is one of the very earliest films in the Marvel Cinematic Universe next to movies like "Iron Man" and "Thor". I should also mention that I actually have seen one other Captain America movie in the MCU, which was "Captain America: Civil War". A movie that I thought was decent, but was overblown to all hell because MCU fanboys unfortunately still exist, and they'll cream all over everything involving this movie franchise. However, I am going to ignore those people, because once this tired cinematic universe ends, I'll be opening a massive kegger for myself, and all the MCU fanboys will eventually quiet down, hopefully.

But anyway, assuming you haven't already clicked away from this review after that little snark, let me continue on here with what else I know about this movie. Which, in real honesty, isn't very much. Now from what I've heard, this movie is sort of a mixed bag with some fans. I've heard some people say that it's great, others I've heard say it's heavily flawed but still OK, and even a few people have openly admitted that the movie is a piece of shit. So you know what? That makes my job here a whole lot easier. I'm going to find out where this movie is gonna land with me, and whether or not it will be any good at all. And the only way I'm gonna find out the answer to that, is if I shut up, and I push play, and I'm gonna do that right now. So, without further ado, it's time to kick back, relax, and check out "Captain America: The First Avenger".

12 minutes later

Wait, so we're actually getting a cameo from Tony Stark's dad? All right, that's sorta cool. I had no idea that he was even alive in the 40's. I figured he wouldn't be doing what he does until the 50's or something. But then again, it actually kinda makes sense now that I think about it, considering this movie is taking place during wartime and all. But still, I wasn't really expecting an appearance from Howard Stark of all people, you know what I mean?

11 minutes later

OK, guys, this movie teaches you a very valuable lesson. If you want to get a flag down from it's pole, simply remove the screws that are holding onto the pole and let it fall down to the ground. You really do learn something new everyday, don't ya?

14 minutes later

Well, I can definitely say that the Super Soldier serum most certainly works. And Steve definitely looks more jacked up than usual, rather than looking like a scrawny little kid from what he was a moment ago. Granted, I know that's part of Captain America's origin, but still, at least we know it works.

12 minutes later

I didn't think this was possible, guys, but somehow, this early Captain America costume that Steve is wearing looks even more goofier and cheaper than it did in the 1990 movie. Now yes, I'm sure that's suppose to be intentional, given the time period and everything, however, I just can't help but notice how glaringly cheap it looks, you know what I mean?

19 minutes later

Is Cap really trying to get Bucky, who I should mention has been held in captivity for God knows how long by Hyrdra, to cross a very shaky-looking steal beam, despite the fact that the whole damn place is exploding?! OK...well, at least he made it across. Admittedly, I thought it was kind of a stupid idea to do that to begin with, because I figured Cap would try to preserve as much health for Bucky as possible. But perhaps that's just me.

17 minutes later

Well...it does suck that Cap wasn't able to save Bucky in time. But considering that I saw "Captain America: Civil War" long before this one, it kinda lessens the impact of this scene. Mind you, the film is still really good so far, but the scene I just saw involving Bucky unfortunately didn't really do much for me.

The Review

Well, guys, that was "Captain America: The First Avenger". Let me go ahead and shut the movie off here...OK. Well, I am gonna start by saying that this movie was really enjoyable. I really had a good time with this movie. And I suppose, on the off chance anybody might ask, where would I rank this out of all the MCU films that I've seen up to this point? Well, it's certainly better than a lot of the others that I have seen, however, given that I'm not a die-hard fan of the MCU, that's not saying a whole lot. And out of 10 films that I've seen from the MCU, only 4 have been worth holding onto for my DVD collection. And I'm gonna include this movie as that 4th film, because I enjoyed it enough to hold onto.

So with that said, let me back it up a bit and start this review off proper by talking about the writing. The writing here is really strong throughout most of it's slightly over 2 hour runtime. What helps it the most is the fact that it's an origin story. About how a scrawny, small-looking Steve Rogers that started off wanting to get enlisted into the war, and would ultimately become America's most beloved hero at the end of it all. And you really get to see the struggles he has during this time period, in which he's given the Super Soldier serum, acts more like an ambassador for the U.S. Army, before finally becoming Captain America. Now yes, he was acting as the role of Captain America during his bit involving the showgirls, but he ultimately ends up adopting this role, and later gets his famous shield. And what I really liked more about this is that, even though he ends up getting better gear for his role later in the film, he doesn't go out of his way to outshine anyone else either. There are moments during the latter half of the film where he's seen with his soldiers, and they each get their moment to shine, with *maybe* the exception of Bucky Barnes. I'll get to him in a moment. But anyway, I still really like the fact Steve isn't just some would-be hero that's trying to outshine the rest of the army. He's there to help lead them, and everyone feels like a winner in the end, if you know what I mean.

Now since this is an MCU movie, I do want to touch upon the humor for a moment. And if you're new here, I'll briefly explain why I'm mentioning the film's humor. I've talked about this before a couple of times, but one of the big reasons why I'm not a huge fan of the MCU is, in a lot of cases, they will try to shoehorn in humor as much as possible in their movies. Even in situations where's it not even called for, they will still try to force in a joke whenever they can. A big example, of course, is the first "Guardians of the Galaxy" movie. I hated the humor in that film, and almost every joke in that thing fell flat on it's face, and it ruined what could've been a really solid film. Now as with the case of "Captain America: The First Avenger", the humor in this movie, for the most part, knows what it wanted to be. And this film wanted to be a drama/action movie with a little bit of campy humor here and there. Now mind you, the humor here isn't really all that great. I may have gotten a chuckle once or twice out of this thing, however, it still does it's best to not interfere with the film's overall tone. Which, if you seriously want to compare it with the 1990 movie, the tone in that film felt like it was trying to be serious, but ended up being unintentionally hilarious because of the fact that the tone there was somewhat clumsily misguided.

So with the talk of humor out of the way, let's talk about the characters. Just about everyone here, in terms of our main cast anyway, is very fleshed out and are mostly really likable. I already talked Steve Rogers earlier, so there's no need to go into him again. Agent Carter is also kind of endearing in a way, and she definitely is very likable. Tommy Lee Jones character, at first, isn't all that great, but he does end up getting better and does get more use to Steve Rogers as a hero. The only character who I feel like is a bit one dimensional is our villain, Schmidt AKA the Red Skull, who I don't even think gets called by that name at all in this movie. I could be totally mistaken there, but I'm pretty sure he never actually gets called by the Red Skull. But like l said, his character is kind of one dimensional, but he's still mostly competent. The only other character who I feel like needs to be mentioned is Bucky Barnes. Now I will say, first and foremost, that his relationship with Steve Rogers is genuinely good. That being said, though, without going too much into spoilers, I felt like at the point where he and Steve Rogers separate permanently honestly didn't really do anything for me. I say this because, again, I watched "Captain America: Civil War" long before I finally got around to watching this thing. And yes, I am kind of aware of what happens in it's second sequel "Captain America: The Winter Soldier", though I haven't seen that one yet. But the impact of what happens here unfortunately just does nothing for me. Now perhaps maybe if I had actually watched this movie first and saved the sequels for later, I would probably get a better reaction out of it. But as it stands, the scene just left no impact on me, and that's really disappointing.

But, with that said, I am not gonna let that one small point get to me too much, because, as I said, this movie is still really good. The writing here is still really strong, and the characters are mostly well developed. All of that holds this together, and it does a really good job of doing that. And top of all that, we have really strong acting. Everybody turns in a fantastic performance here. Nobody is phoning it in, and that includes everyone from Chris Evans, Tommy Lee Jones, Hugo Weaving, and even the minor actors who are suppose to be playing as the solders. *Everyone* turns in an awesome showing, and it's what happens when you have a very tightly written script that everyone is given something to work with. I do have one minor quibble, and nobody's gonna notice this except me, however, it's something that stuck out at me and I kinda want to address that part. See, it happens right when we first get to see Steve Rogers first appearance as a scrawny muscle-less guy. And as soon as he first spoke, I couldn't help but hear Chris Evans's older voice when I first heard it. Now again, I want to clarify and state that this is a completely minor nothing, but to me, hearing him first speak sounded really off-putting to me. I don't know if he was meant to sound like that when we first see him, or if Chris Evans forgot to sound like he was playing a younger version of himself. I don't know, but it was something that kind of caught me off guard. But anyway, that's something no one will care about except sad bastards like me who are almost trained to notice it. And aside from that, the acting here is still fantastic from the entire cast.

Special effects are pretty standard in what you would see in an MCU film. There are instances of pyrotechnics, which makes sense, given the time period that this movie is suppose to take place in. The CG is pretty much the kind of thing you would see in an MCU flick as well. It's nothing special, but it is still really well done for what it is. The costuming here is also really well done. And even though I did *sort of* nitpick the ultra cheap-looking costume from earlier, I will say it did have some kind of charm to it, as it reminded me a bit of what I saw from the 1990 movie. Now of course, when Captain America gets his updated costume, he doesn't have the silly little plastic wings on his head. And it's a fine modern design for the character, so I have no complaints about that. All of the other costumes involving the soldiers uniforms look really good, and the makeup effects on the Red Skull look really good, as well. So yeah, everything involving costuming and special effects are pretty good.

Camerawork here is really solid, the lighting here is lit very well, the sound-mix is mixed perfectly, and the score here is also pretty good. But then again, considering this a big blockbuster movie we're talking about here, I don't think any of those would be an issue unless if they actively went out of their way to make all of that look bad. It's possible they might've done that with their recent films, but I can't really comment on that too much.

Ultimately, guys, when all is said and done, am I able to recommend "Captain America: The First Avenger"? Oh, absolutely yes! This movie is really good, and I really enjoyed the hell out of it. Which is saying something, considering that I'm not a huge fan of the character to begin with, but I will say that this movie is definitely the kind of film that will satisfy fans of superhero movies, and could also bring out your inner patriotism as well, assuming you're even into that kind of thing. But anyway, yeah, this film is great. And if you can find it anywhere, be it on DVD, Blu-ray, 4K, or even Disney+, go ahead and check it out. This movie is a very solid entry in the Phase 1 edition of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, and I'm rather happy myself to add this the other handful of MCU films that I have on DVD. And speaking of which, I'm kinda in the mood to go back an re-watch the first "Iron Man" movie again, because I *love* that thing to bits. So I'm gonna go and do that next after I get done putting this review together.

And with that, guys, we come to the close of another Reaction & Review. Until next time, ladies and gentlemen, take care, and I will see you all later. Peace.