Spider Man Movie Summaries

 I am putting Spider Men movies in their own spot as for the most part they do not fit into the Marvel Universe Phases.  Four actors have portrayed Spider Man in the movies: Tobey MaGuire, Andrew Garfield and Tom Holland as Peter Parker' And then Shameik Moore as Miles Morales.  The Tom Holland is also found in several Avenger movies playing Spider Man including Avenger Civil War, Avengers Infinity War and Avengers Endgame.  There are other animated carton versions available on t.v. as well.  The next version appears to be a sequel to the Spider Verse.  Should be fun.  

*****Spider Man

*****Spider Man II

****^Spider Man III

****^Amazing Spider Man

****^Amazing Spider Man II

****^Spider Man: Welcome Home

****^Spider Man: Far from Home

*****Spider Man: No Way Home

***** Spider-Man: A Brand New Day

***^Spider Man: Into the Spider Verse won the Oscar for best animated feature 2019

*** Spider-Man: Across the Multi-Verse. (2023). Continuation of into the SPider-Verse. animated

***^Captain America: Civil War.   In this movie Spider Man is introduced to the Avenger Universe (as are several others.)

*****Avengers: Infinity War. In this movie Spider continues with the Avengers, and goes off world, and gets blipped away.

*****Avengers: End Game.  Spider gets blipped back, and helps in the final battle, carrying the gauntlet for a time.  

In Theaters: Avengers: *****End Game (2019)

Avengers: End Game:  This is the most anticipated movie in some time; and it more than lives up to all the hype.  From Thanos’ “I am inevitable” to “I am Iron Man” and all the ride along the way, this movie is great.  Of course the thing about this movie is having all the characters together.  There is too much here to give a plot summary, but suffice it to say this movie entertains and appeals to Avenger fans, as well as Guardians of the Galaxy and Dr. Strange.  It has all the characters taking part in their turn.  There is a part during the major battle where all the women are going to protect the glove and it just seemed to miss as tried to make a politically correct statement.  And then of course the fumbled the glove anyway as Thanos had said, :He is inevitable.”  However that is my only complaint.  A couple of our major Avenger friends will not be coming back it appears, but there are plenty others who are ready for the continued Avenger Universe, including Peter parker and Spider man later this year.  This is a must see.  In fact it warrants going back and seeing all the Avenger movies.

Robert Downey Jr.     Tony Stark/ Iron Man
Chris Evans                Steve Rogers/ Captain America
Mark Ruffalo               Bruce Banner / Hulk
Chris Hemsworth        Thor
Scarlett Johansson     Natasha Romanoff / Black Widow
Jeremy Renner            Clint Barton / Hawkeye
Paul Rudd                   Scott Lang / Ant-Man
Benedict Cumberbatch  Doctor Strange
Chadwick Boseman    T'Challa / Black Panther
Brie Larson                  Carol Danvers / Captain Marvel
Tom Holland                Peter Parker / Spider-Man
Karen Gillan                 Nebula
Zoe Saldana                Gamora
and many more
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In Theaters: *****Captain Marvel (2019)

Captain Marvel (2019) We left the theater and Tony announced this was his favorite movie ever.  I wouldn’t go that high, but it does put a new twist on the Avenger series.  Her is an Avenger before the Avengers.  Captain Marvel (Brie Larsen) is a human, who was taken to space and her memory distorted.  However she returns, chasing who she thinks are the bad people, some shapeshifter aliens.  However she discovers that what she believed is not so.  This makes for an interesting twist.  In they end, she serves those she hunted.  Captain Marvel has special powers from absorbing the blast of a light speed engine which was made with a special stone.  The alien race that kidnaps her tries to tell her these powers have been granted by them.  But as will happen the truth wins out.
Nick Fury assists her (Samuel Jackson) and from this the idea of Avengers is born. 

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Movie Review: ****Avengers: Infinity War (2018)

Avengers: Infinity War (2018)

Here is a movie that combines two film dynasties, the Avengers and Defenders of the Galaxy.  Even with their combined strength, they still are a bit inadequate to confront Thanos (Josh Brolin voice) and his hoards.  Thanos is on a quest to retrieve the five stones with which he will have all power: The Power Stone, The Reality Stone, The Space Stone, The Time Stone and The Mind Stone.  He destroys Thor’s (Chris Hemsworth) hammer in retrieving the Space Stone.  He is successful in getting three stones, but the Mind Stone is in Vision’s (Paul Bettany) forehead, and the Time Stone is kept safe by Dr. Strange’s (Benedict Cumberbatch) deceptions.  Thanos is gathering the stones to complete his life-long task of killing half the people in the universe, and thereby eliminating hardship and hunger.    Thanos is the father of Gamora (Zoe Saldana) and Nebula (Karen Gillam).  Gamora and Dr. Strange have the best chance of stopping Thanos.  There is a confrontation with Thanos on his home world with Iron Man ((Robert Downey Jr.), Spider Man (Tom Holland),  Star Lord (Chris Pratt), Drax (Dave Bautista) and Mantis (Pom Klementieff),  At the same time Thor is off to forge a new hammer.  He travels with Groot (Vin Diesel voice), and Rocket (Bradley Cooper voice).  Others prepare for a confrontation on the Black Panther world of Wakanda.  They are joined by many as the attempt to destroy the Mind Stone without killing Vision.  These are: Mark Ruffalo as the Hulk, Chris Evans as Captain America, Scarlett Johansson as Black Widow, Don Cheadle-War Machine, Chadwick Boseman-Black Panther, Elizabeth Olsen-Scarlet Witch, Anthony Mackie-Falcon, Sebastian Stan-Winter Soldier.  There are many more in this epic battle.  I must admit, the ending of this movie left me with a bad feeling of despair.  Thor battles hard, but with all five stones in place, Thanos has unlimited power.

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Movie Review: ***^ Captain America: Civil War

This battle has lots of violence.  It pits Avengers against Avengers, as is the plan of Zemo (Daniel Bruhl).  His family was killed in fall out from past episodes of the Avengers battling evil.  Now he wants revenge.  Fall out from Avenger heroics has lead the United Nations to want to control the Avengers.  Differences in opinion cause the initial rift between the two groups.
Zemo manipulates people and things to bring Winter Soldier (Sebastian Stan) and finds the secret clues to trigger his evil personality.  Captain American (Chris Evans) and Iron Man (Robert Downey Jr.) are on a collision course.  With some new and some old Avengers taking sides.  This includes Black Widow (Scarlett Johansson), Ant Man (Paul Rudd), Falcon (Anthony Mackie), War Machine (Don Cheadle), Hawkeye (Jeremy Renner) and introducing Black Panther (Chadwick Boseman.)  Even Spider Man (Tom Holland) gets into the action.  His youth attracted Tony and I must admit his character brought humor to a movie that was really action-packed, violent and dark.

Marvel Universe

Movie Review: ****Iron Man 3

This is the continuing sage of Iron Man (Robert Downey Jr.), and his suits.  However his love, Pepper (Gwyneth Paltrow) also plays a much greater part.  Iron make takes on a terrorist who calls himself, "The Mandarin" and has been responsible for explosions around the world, explosions without bomb casings.  Turns out the evil comes from a fellow scientist Iron Man slighted some years previous.  He has developed away to regenerate limbs, but the side effects are explosions; and the recipient has an ability to generate heat.  One of Iron Man's Friends is accidentally infected with this, and is in a coma after he exploded.  Iron Man, in his anger, gives himself as a target, giving his home address.  They visit and blow his residence up, sending Iron Man into escape mode with a damaged suit.  He is helped by a boy, who sees him as Iron Man.  Back on his feet, but without his recovering suit, he tracks the evidence around these strange explosions, which lead him to The Mandarin's (Ben Kingsley) lair, who is not the lead but an actor, the scientist, Aldrich Killian (Guy Pearce) is the bad guy, and has this power to burn people with his limbs.  Iron Man is caught.  His suit is still repairing itself.
They use this power to wrest the suit from Colonel James Rhodes (Don Cheadle) and use the suit to kidnap the president.  Pepper has also been kidnapped by our villain, and he is converting her into a fire woman.  This process may kill her.  We have a situation where the Iron Man is captured, but needing to save his girlfriend, and the president.  When his suit comes back on line it is no problem.  And we discover that the suit has over a hundred different suits it can call to its assistance.  However, mad scientist fire men are hard to kill.  However girlfriends who have been changed into fire women are hard to kill too.
This movie has plenty of action.  The ending is a bit confusing, and leaves them in a spot where you wonder if there will be any more Iron Man movies.

Marvel Universe

Movie Review: ***Thor: The Dark World (2013)

This is the second movie based on the character Thor (Chris Hemsworth) not included "The Avengers."  This movie is two years after the original Thor.  Thor has not been back to see his love interest, Jane Foster (Natalie Portman).  She has been sad.  However, when she sees what appears to be a break through in astro-physics, some strange phenomenon, she decides to investigate.  She gets pulled into some kind of a vortex, and in doing so a strange power of the dark elves enters her.  She also makes it to Aasgard, where she is considered an enemy because she possesses this weapon.
The dark elves feel she has stolen their power, and are determined to capture her.  They attack Aasgard, which is almost successful except for the queen, who sacrifices herself to save Foster.  Loki (Tom Hiddleston), Thor's adopted brother, provided key information to the attackers.
However it is Loki who holds the key to success when Thor, Foster and Loki go to confront the dark elves.  Loki appears to have sacrificed himself for Thor's benefit.  The fight ends up on earth, because of the alignment of the planets.  Foster and her astro-physics friends find a way to send the dark elves back to where they came from.  Thor has a big battle with the lead elf.
This movie is not my favorite in the Avenger series.  The astro-physics stuff is over my head.  The filming of battle scenes in the dark world were too dark to know what was happening.  In the end, most of it was a convoluted mess.  Even thought Tony likes most of the Avengers, he was not interested in Thor saying he doesn't like Thor.  After watching I can understand why.  However the first we saw at the theater, and it was more enjoyable.

Marvel Universe

Movie Review: ****^Captain America

Captain America   This is an enjoyable sequel to the original Captain America and The Avengers.  Who knew that after the original that Hydra would be back.  That is what happens in this movie, and worse yet, they have infiltrated Shield.  Captain America (Chris Evans) and the Black Widow (Scarlett Johansson) discover this by following a beacon to a secret base, where the knowledge of the Hydra scientist, Dr Zola (Toby Jones).  Nick Fury (Samuel Jackson) has guided Shield to an important day where they will launch three vessels as a shield over the world.  These vessels will have incredible destructive force.  However, due to the infiltration of Hydra, this force is going to be used to cleanse the world of those who might stand in the way of Hydra, based on computer projections.  Nick Fury is shot, and presumed dead.  Falcon (Anthony Mackie) joins Captain America in first in offering a place to hold, and then in joining the team.  A surprise character is Bucky, Captain America's best friend, who was assumed lost in the first show.  His memory has been wiped, and he has been manipulated by Hydra to be an assassin.  He is the greatest rival, and Captain America wants to bring him back from the nightmare he is living.  Alexander Pierce (Robert Redford), Fury's boss is in fact the manipulator behind Hydra.
This is a fun show with great action. 

Movie Review: ****^The Avengers

The Avengers in 3-D is a fun movie.  I had seen Iron Man I and II, Thor, The Incredible Hulk, Captain America.  This show adds the Black Widow and Hawkeye as well as the organizer, manipulator Nick Fury.  All of these stories come together with the brother of Thor, adopted, coming to earth with the hopes of conquest, and making people bow to him.  Of course Thor comes to stop him.  The brother has a source of mind control and takes over the mind of one of Avengers, Hawkeye, who shots arrows.

The theme of the show is you are more together than just a sum of the parts.  Each of these super heroes has a big ego, and it takes a lot for them to com together.  Bickering and fighting, they finally join together to save the world from an alien invasion.  The robot monsters are cool, especially the worm like space ships.  But cooler are the skills of the Avengers, and the Hulk tackling one of those worms is too much.  This movie was a good ride and kept me on the edge of my seat.  It was almost too much action non stop at one point, but that is just me.

Marvel Universe

Movie Reviews: ***^Iron Man and ****Iron Man II

Both of these movies star Robert Downey Jr. as Iron Man.  The first is in our home library, and the second on instant Netflix.

These movies turn my on deep down.  There is just something about Iron Man when he has his mask on, and when he lands after turning off his rockets, with that big thud, that is just cool.  Actually Tony turned me on to this story, and now that I have watched these movies, I am ready to see The Avengers.  The second video does a better job of introducing some of the Avenger characters.

I prefer the second movie, because the bad guy is so much more bad.  Jeff Bridges portrays the bad guy in the first movie,  being Tony Stark's business partner, but also trying to kill him.  He is able to compromise Tony's design, and make his own suit, but it doesn't work out for him in the end, as he doesn't have the experience.

On the other hand, Mickey Rourke  portrays the son of the original designer of the small reactor, who is seeking revenge for his father.  He makes his own suit with powers, and is a worthy opponent.  But he is defeated early, Stark's business competitor rescues him, and gives space for him to work his revenge.  He turns on the business partner, and takes control of the robots he made, which wreak havoc attempting to kill Iron Man.  Gwyneth Paltrow is great as the love interest, and Scarlett Johanssen as the lady from the Avengers.  Fun ride.

Marvel Universe

Movie Review: ****Next Avengers

Avengers Next:  This is a movie Tony got for his birthday.  It is about the children of the Avengers, because the original Avengers were killed by robots.  The robots were built by Tony aka Ironman.  They then turned on the Avengers in an effort to make a perfect world.  Unfortunately Tony has also built robot replacements for the Avengers, and these are also taken over and turned to the robotic side of the equation.  The robots break into Tony’s base, and the young Avengers who Tony has been raising barely escape.  Instead of fleeing, they decide to attack the robot city and free Tony who has been captures.  They find a few other Avengers, who also help, including the strongest of them all.  (You’ll have to watch the movie to see who that is.)  I have watched this movie two or three times since my Tony’s birthday.  It is really pretty fun, and Tony loves the superhero animated movies.

Movie Review: ***Captain America: The First Avenger

I judged Captain America through Tony's eyes.  Tony was really bored with the first part of the movie.  In the theater he was more interested in playing with his chair than the movie.  However when Captain America (Chris Evans) gets his shield, then things started to pick up. The action was exciting after that point.  This is a good WWII action movie.

It was fun that Howard Stark (Iron Man's father) was part of the movie, and a rival for the woman's Peggy Carter (Hayley Atwell) affection.  It actually explains where he gets the power for the suit Iron Man eventually makes.  I hated the ending however.  I wanted him to get the girl, not end up frozen for 70 years.  And so for this I give Captain America a mild recommendation.

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