Hello, and welcome back. Sorry for the inactivity lately, I have been dealing with my first round of midterm exams, I am planning on flushing out 3-4 blogs over the next two weeks though as so much is happening in the movie world right now! On Friday March 8th I ventured home to Massachusetts to see the newest installment of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, Captain Marvel. Anyone who knows me could tell you this was a big day for me. I’m a huge marvel fan, I have seen every single installment of the MCU on opening weekend with my three best friends, and despite the long distances separating us at college, Captain Marvel was no different. Obviously, Marvel’s first female led movie did numbers at the box office, opening with $153M domestically and $455M worldwide Captain Marvel was a hit. What I am going to do in this blog is both give my official review of the movie, and breakdown what I think it could mean for the future of the MCU and more specifically for Avengers: Endgame this April.
THE REVIEW: Overall, if I were to describe Captain Marvel with one word I would choose fun. That’s what it was, a really fun introduction to a superhero many casual fans have probably never heard of before. The mid 90’s nostalgia was really spot on. From the cars, the style, the music, the technology, and to the cameos of classic 90’s franchises like Blockbuster and Radioshack, Captain Marvel did a superb job of capturing the time period it took place in. Speaking of which, the de-aging they did on Sam L Jackson and Clark Gregg was absolutely crazy. It looked 100% natural and did not distract from the movie one bit. The sparring we see, especially between Jude Law’s character Yon-Rogg and Brie Larson’s Carol Danvers was really really good. The comedy of the movie was well timed and usually hit well (much better than Shuri’s unforgivably bad “what are those” joke in Black Panther). For all the shit that Brie Larson has been taking about her facial expressions in the trailers, I personally thought she was amazing as Danvers and that the best part of the movie may have been the character connection between Carol Danvers and Nick Fury, who played off each other phenomenally. I really hope we get to see more of that in Endgame and other Captain Marvel movies. However, this was in no way a perfect movie. One problem I had though was with the reverse style origin story, casual fans are likely to get very confused in some scenes, especially those digging into Carol’s forgotten memories. The stakes really never felt high at any point, I think they didn’t use the Skrulls to their full potential (please refer to the Secret Invasion comic run), and by the end Carol just seemed to powerful to the point where it really wasn’t suspenseful at all. Overall, I thought it was definitely a good movie, but had flaws and was not one of my top marvel movies I have ever seen. My official one view review is an 8.3/10.
THE BREAKDOWN: Honestly, there is a lot to talk about with this one. First off, stating the obvious, the post credit scene in this movie showed us Carol arriving at Avengers HQ in upstate New York. WOW. That was a straight up crazy scene probably pulled straight out of Endgame, essentially confirming that we’re gonna get a lot of Carol with the OG 6 Avengers scenes and dialogue. One problem that this movie set up was that Carol was essentially invincible in the third act of this movie. She was literally just tossing trained Kree Star Force warriors (think Seal Team 6) around like they were goddamn rag dolls! Obviously with Endgame coming up she’ll play a major part in the fight against Thanos. However, as much as I love Brie Larson, personally I would feel a little bit cheated if she was the one who beat the mad titan as Endgame is probably the last journey of the original six avengers. Obviously though, alongside Black Panther, Doctor Strange, and Spiderman, Captain Marvel is in line to be a major player in the new avengers line up, and probably replace Captain America as the leader of the squad. The new Avengers trailer also gave us a little look at her and Thor talking, and I already love all the things they could do with the two of them if Marvel re-signs Chris Hemsworth after Endgame releases. Overall though, we honestly don’t know much of anything about what is happening in Phase 4 of the MCU yet with Endgame still looming and a lot of our heroes will probably either die or end their heroes journeys (looking at you Captain America) and we don’t have a Phase 4 movie slate yet and won’t get one until July so pinpointing exactly where the MCU will go from here is essentially impossible.
It’s not everyday that we get to discuss some of Hollywood’s most marquee roles being up for casting, especially the likes of Bruce Wayne aka Batman, but with Ben Affleck stepping down from Matt Reeves’ “The Batman” which is going to go into production late 2019 or early 2020, Warner Brothers and Reeves now are now searching for a new actor to take over the mantle. Some of Hollywood’s biggest names like Val Kilmer, George Clooney, Michael Keaton, Christian Bale, and Ben Affleck have all played the playboy billionaire, and with Matt Reeves saying he wants a “recognizable face” another A-List actor will soon be added to that list. Today I’m gonna give you my personal choices on who I believe would make a great Bruce Wayne and who I think Reeves and WB Studios will ultimately go with.
The first actor I want to talk about is Jon Hamm. Hamm has been rumored to play Batman ever since Christopher Nolan started casting for his trilogy with the Caped Crusader. The Mad Men star has got the acting chops, he looks more like Bruce Wayne than any other actor in Hollywood, he’s been talked to about playing the role before, and honestly in my opinion he might be the most qualified actor on the planet to play Batman. However, sadly he won’t be the next actor to wear the cape. I say this because the reason that director Matt Reeves parted with Ben Affleck for the role of Bruce Wayne was because he was looking to do a story on a much younger and inexperienced Batman rather than the 20 year veteran that Affleck played in Batman v Superman, and Justice League. Hamm is 47 years old, one year OLDER than Ben Affleck is currently which essentially already puts him out of the running. Nevertheless, it’s definitely fun to imagine a Hamm starring Bat flick, because with the right director at the helm (which I believe Reeves is) a Hamm Batman movie would have insane potential. Sadly though, this won’t ever happen and that sucks. But I can dream right?
Now that I got that out of the way, now let’s get into who I think some of the top contenders to get the role are. First up, Ryan Gosling. Everything about Gosling screams Bruce Wayne. The dude has the billionaire playboy feel, plus he has the classic Bruce Wayne jawline that could cut through diamonds. The dude is a complete stud and that has got to be attractive to Warners and Reeves. Gosling attaching himself to the project would also be a huge indication that Reeves’ script is good because Gosling has one of the most selective management/agent teams in Hollywood. He literally only makes hits. He definitely has the ability to portray Wayne’s inner darkness and emotional complexity, and I think he would kill the detective part of Batman that Reeves said he wants to focus his movie around. The one downside of Gosling is that as good as he would be at playing Bruce Wayne, I don’t know how good of a portrayal of Batman himself Gosling would be. Gosling does not really have the hand to hand combat experience for the character that other actors do, and a huge part of who Batman is in action scenes is that he is a trained badass and without any legitimate powers can still easily dominate thugs. However if Gosling trained hardcore and maybe threw on a few pounds, these doubts could be tarnished and we could be seeing a Gosling led Batman movie.
Next up is The King Of The North himself, Kit Harrington. Harrington obviously made a name for himself on HBO’s Game Of Thrones where he has been phenomenal over the past seven seasons, but GOT is coming to an end this spring and that means that Harrington will be out of his HBO contract and not signed into any big franchise at the moment. Seems like almost perfect timing, but will we actually see John Snow playing the iconic role of Bruce Wayne? It’s hard to say. He’s definitely built for the role, especially if they cut off his luscious locks. We know from GOT that he can fight well, and can play a character filled with loss and grief. The only problem is we haven’t really seen him in much else, and because of that he could fall into the Daniel Radcliffe predicament where you can’t cast an actor who played such an iconic role for so long in another big franchise because all people can see him as is his original role (this obviously happened with Harry Potter for Radcliffe). Would Warner Brothers overlook this for Harrington if they believe he is their best option? I think it’s possible, and this would be a win win for both WB and Kit because it would attach a huge name that people love to the project, and would help Harrington break out of being known as only Jon Snow and shoot his career into the stratosphere.
Okay, the next actor I think who really has a good chance at getting the role of Batman is Jack O’Connell. He is undoubtably the least famous and smallest name on this list, which could hurt his chances, but he seems to be being considered a real possibility by the studio. Recently O’Connell’s name seems to have be floating around whenever Batman casting has come up and for good reason too. The dude is an action star. Personally, I think he’s too much on the rugged side to play Bruce Wayne, but then again nobody thought Christian Bale was the best available option in 2005 and we literally got the greatest superhero trilogy of all time, and arguably the greatest movie ever made (The Dark Knight) from his tenure as the character. Like Bale, O’Connell is British and has a similar look (although I don’t see O’Connell being able to be as suave as Bale was in his movies), and he has the grit and fighting experience that would make action scenes awesome. Out of all the actors on this list O’Connell is probably at the bottom of who I would personally pick to play Batman, but if Reeves and the studio tap him to play the role, I could live with it.
Kit Harrington isn’t the only Game Of Thrones star on this list, Harrington’s co-star and TV half brother, Richard Madden is also been in consideration to play the role. Not gonna lie, I am extremely biased towards Madden. I loved Rob Stark in GOT, and I thought he was a beast in The Bodyguard. As of now, he’s the actor I want to play Batman, and not just because of my love for his other work. Madden has already shown he can play a young strategical genius with deep emotional complexity, has shown he can kill the whole action fighting thing, and looks and feels like a natural leader (which he will need to be in any Justice League reboots they might use him for). Some people may say his look is a little off for Bruce Wayne, and those people are idiots. Just google him on the red carpet if you don’t believe me. He’s getting serious consideration from the media too which means this is very possible, and if it happens I will be very very very happy. Rob Stark as Batman? Just shut up and take all my money Warner Brothers.
Lastly, I want to talk about who I think Warner Brothers and Matt Reeves will ultimately pass the mantle to, Armie Hammer. Hammer has been getting the most media buzz over the role, and it seems like most reliable sources agree that he will likely be Warner Brothers first choice on their list. Hammer literally checks off every box in the Batman search: he’s only 32, he has fighting/action experience in The Man From U.N.C.L.E, he is a very well known actor who can carry a franchise, his ability to play a range of characters shows his sheer acting ability, and he has the perennial Bruce Wayne look that comic book fans demand their Batman has. Not to mention, on top of all of that, Hammer has been on Warner’s radar long before this Reeves movie was set to happen. He was actually casted in 2007 to play Batman in a Greg Miller Justice League film that was eventually canceled. The dude has literally already been casted by Warner Brothers. It makes way too much sense, all signs point to Armie. I think he would be fantastic as Batman and I would be all in if they decided to cast him (which they will, book it). Regardless though, whoever they decide to cast will hopefully be fine (I would be down for anyone on this list). The important thing is that we are getting a new Batman solo movie, the first since Christopher Nolan’s absolute masterpiece of a trilogy, and we’re getting it soon and for that I think we can all rejoice.
This weekend, the 91st annual Academy Awards or more commonly called, The Oscars will be broadcasted live on ABC. Now I know there has been a tremendous amount of attention focused on the Kevin Hart scandal, and how the show has no replacement host, but the show must go on. Honestly, the Academy usually sucks, but they kinda dealt with this no host thing pretty perfectly by absolutely stacking the list of award presenters for the show, including Daniel Craig, Chris Evans, Chadwick Boseman, Amy Poehler, Paul Rudd, Sam L Jackson, Tina Fey, Brie Larson, Michael B, Jordan, Jason Momoa, Barbara Streisand, John Mulaney, Michael Keaton, Jennifer Lopez and many more. So no host, no problem. Anyhow, lets dive into a few of the biggest awards and how I believe they should shake out. (Full disclosure this blog is LONG. Fun, but long.)
The first award I wanna talk about is Best Visual Effects. Now I know this isn’t the biggest award and you may be here just to learn about actor/actress and picture, so if that’s the case just skip right by this. Personally, this year this is an award i’m feeling really passionate about, the nominees are: Christopher Robin, Avengers: Infinity War, Solo: A Star Wars Story, Ready Player One, and First Man. My pick to win this award is Avengers: Infinity War, because how can it not be?! For pete’s sake the goddamn villain is completely CGI based and they spend two thirds of the movie on various space planets! (the scenes with Stark and Spidey on Titan plus the Guardians / Thor storyline). Thanos looks so good that you almost forget he’s CGI, the visuals of the battles on Titan and in Wakanda are amazing, and other CGI characters like Rocket Racoon, Hulk, and Groot look fantastic as always (besides that one brutal shot at the end of Bruce’s head coming out of the Hulk Buster armor). The only two movies I could see having a chance to play spoiler in this award are First Man because as I stated before The Academy sucks and has constantly been weird about giving comic book movies Oscars (lets remember the lack of Nolan Batman Oscars), or my personal dark-horse, Ready Player One where the great Stephen Spielberg literally used CGI to create an entire freaking video game universe on screen AND a futuristic dystopian Columbus Ohio. But honestly, Avengers did everything all these movies did, and did it better, so for me it’s an easy choice.
Josh Brolin as Thanos in Avengers
Next up is the award for Best Score and the award for Best Original Song. This year was LOADED with good music in movies. First off, Black Panther came out and killed it with a Kendrick Lamar produced original album featuring many radio hits and a classic great Marvel Studios score. After that we got musicals like A Star Is Born and Mary Poppins, a great 70’s mo town score in BlacKkKlansman, and we went full circle to end the year with another hit filled soundtrack in Sony’s Spider-Man: Into The Spiderverse (how did this movie only get one nomination?). I’m gonna keep this relatively quick, the nominees for best score are: Black Panther, Isle Of Dogs, BlacKkKlansman, If Beale Street Could Talk, and Mary Poppins Returns, and my winner, although it was super hard to decide has to be MaryPoppinsReturns. This was close one, so don’t be surprised if Black Panther pulls it out, but honestly I think it was Black Panthers soundtrack rather than it’s in movie score that was so amazing. Mary Poppins had a delightful and fun score throughout the entire two hour runtime. For Best Original Song the nominees are: When A Cowboy Trades His Spurs For Wings, Shallow, The Place Where Lost Things Go, I’ll Fight, and All Of The Stars. This has gotta be the easiest award of the year, it’s obviously Shallow by Lady Gaga and Bradley Cooper. They’re great. The movie is great. You love this song. I love this song. Your mom loves this song. We want them together in real life. It’s amazing. If this fucking song doesn’t win I will be furious Sunday night, it’s that good.
Emily Blunt in Mary Poppins Returns
The next award I want to talk about is the award for Best Supporting Actor. The nominees for Best Supporting Actor are: Adam Driver for BlacKkKlansman, Mahershala Ali for The Green Book, Sam Rockwell for Vice, Sam Elliot for A Star Is Born, and Richard E. Grant for Can You Ever Forgive Me. For me this is tough, there’s definitely a divide between who I think will win and who I am pulling for to win. The pick though has to be Mahershala Ali for Green Book. Ali has won all the big awards leading up to the Oscars including the Golden Globe, the SAG, the BFCA, and the BAFTA, he’s essentially just cleaning up at every award show. This would be Ali’s second Oscar in three years (Moonlight) and it feels like it’s already essentially a done deal. However my dark horse, who I am rooting for and I don’t think has been getting enough buzz is Adam Driver for BlacKkKlansman. Driver’s work playing an undercover Jewish detective face to face with KKK killers was nothing short of spectacular, and his visual acting helped add even more layers of thrilling suspense to already edge of your seat dangerous encounters. Signs point to Ali, but I really am pulling for my boy Kylo Ren to shock the world.
Mahershala Ali in Green Book
Unlike the last award, the award for Best Supporting Actress is 100% up in the air still. I honestly can’t figure it out. The nominees are: Amy Adams for Vice, Emma Stone for The Favourite, Regina King for If Beale Street Could Talk, Rachel Weisz for The Favourite, and Marina de Tavira for Roma. The one thing I think I can say for sure is that Stone and Weisz will cancel each other out. They’re both previous winners and both coming from the same film and I think their performances will cancel each other out for stealing the movie. Now between Adams, King, and Tavira. I love Amy Adams. Alway have, always will. I think it’s absolutely crazy she has been nominated now six times and has no wins, I think she is a fantastic Lois Lane, and I think she was amazing in Vice. However all that being said, sadly she really isn’t getting the buzz right now despite her fantastic performance, so I wouldn’t count on her winning. This leaves the two Golden Globe winners, Regina King and Marina de Tavira, and my pick has to be Regina King for If Beale Street Could Talk. Weirdly this film didn’t get the amount of nominations I thought it deserved, and hasn’t really gotten any love at the award shows, besides Kings performance. Although Roma may be the darling of the Oscars this year I think King pulls this out and gets If Beale Street Could Talk at least one Oscar to hang their hat on.
Regina King in If Beale Street Could Talk
I think Best Animated Picture is pretty straight forward this year. The nominees are: Incredibles 2, Isle Of Dogs, Spider-Man: Into The Spiderverse, Mirai, and Ralph Breaks The Internet. This was a ridiculously easy pick and it is Spider-Man: Into The Spiderverse. This movie is GOOD, like it could’ve been nominated for Best Picture never mind Best Animated Picture good. It feels like a freaking real life walking and talking comic book, I literally don’t think I have seen an animated film edited so carefully as this one. It’s funny, inspiring, filled with action, and has a fantastic soundtrack and was honestly in my opinion a top 5 movie of the year, never mind animated movie. Also Jake Johnson from New Girl is hilarious as the voice of Peter Parker and is in general people forget how funny he is.
Spider-Man: Into The Spiderverse
Okay now onto the big four awards. Starting with Best Director. To be honest, I don’t even want to talk about this award. It’s absolute bullshit that Bradley Cooper THE PRE NOMINATION FAVORITE TO WIN THE AWARD wasn’t even NOMINATED. Absolute bullshit! Coop killed it and even said to Oprah Winfrey he was “embarrassed” when he wasn’t nominated. But it is what it is and going forward the nominees are: Spike Lee for BlacKkKlansman, Adam McKay for Vice, Pawel Pawilkowski for Cold War, Alfonso Cuarón for Roma, and Yorgos Lanthimos for The Favourite. There’s a few ways I could see this one going. First off, let’s talk about the fact that Adam McKay is nominated for this award. Adam McKay! Again! The same guy who used to direct and write almost every single Will Ferrell classic has now over the past three years has gotten two Best Director nods! What a freaking guy! One of my favorite directors, I mean Step Brothers? The Anchorman? Talladega Nights? All classic comedies, and now The Big Short and Vice have gotten him five Oscar nominations over three years, absolutley bonkers and I love it. Also I think his casting choices for this movie were fantastic and it shows with Bale, Rockwell and Adams all getting Oscar noms. However as much as I love McKay, the easy choice is to say front runner Cuarón will get another Best Director for Roma (previously won for Gravity), and I wouldn’t mind that happening. What he did with a cast of primarily non professional actors was amazing and Roma is obviously the Academies sweetheart with 10 nominations this year. However my pick for best director, is the man, the myth, the legend, Spike Lee for BlacKkKlansman. It’s absurd that Spike has never been nominated for Best Director before, not even for Do The Right Thing or Malcom X, but I think his patience will pay off and Lee’s ability to tie the 70’s history piece to events that we see in our country today will be enough to land him his first statue.
Spike Lee on the red carpet
Now for Best Actress in a Leading Role. The nominees are Lady Gaga for A Star Is Born, Glenn Close for The Wife, Olivia Colman for The Favourite, Melissa McCarthy for Can You Ever Forgive Me?, and Yalitza Aparicio for Roma. So the pick on who I THINK will win is Glenn Close for The Wife. It’s like a DiCaprio situation again, Close has been snubbed in the past and is now on her seventh time through without any Oscars to show for it. She’s been marching through this award season though taking home virtually every award, and the complexity of her role makes this success make sense. However, you can’t count out Lady Gaga who I loved the performance of in A Star Is Born, I mean people will say it’s a remake of a remake and that should hurt her chances but I don’t buy that, I think Gaga was amazing and her on screen chemistry with Bradley Cooper might have been the best on screen romance I have ever seen. Also a darkhorse outside the top two to look out for is Melissa McCarthy for Can You Ever Forgive Me? McCarthy completely transforms herself in this role and acts the shit out of it. It’s almost crazy to think this is the same actress who put out The Happytime Murders earlier in the year and other cheesy comedy movies like Tammy, The Heat, and that godawful female Ghostbusters remake. McCarthy honestly may have given the best performance, but look for Gaga or Close to win the award with the momentum they have had at shows and in the media.
Glenn Close in The Wife
The award for Best Actor in a Leading Role has been swinging momentum throughout the past month. The nominees are: Rami Malek for Bohemian Rhapsody, Christian Bale for Vice, Bradley Cooper for A Star Is Born, Willem Dafoe for At Eternity’s Gate, and Viggo Mortensen for Green Book. Before awards season started it felt like Cooper had it in the bag, his performance was fucking amazing! Then the Golden Globes came about and Christian Bale’s amazing transformation into Dick Cheney got him some momentum and it felt like we’d have a close one! But no… out of nowhere Rami Malek went in and essentially took almost every major award throughout award show season and now it almost feels like it’s his to lose. First off I just want to say, for the amount of heat I am about to give Bohemian Rhapsody in the next section of this blog, I actually liked Malek’s portrayal of Freddie Mercury and would not be THAT upset if he won for best actor. That being said, my pick is Bradley Cooper. Cooper played the lead role of Jackson Maine so fantastically and flawlessly, making us all feel his on screen love with Lady Gaga and even more so feeling his pain dealing with his depression, alcoholism, and drug addiction throughout the movie. Cooper did fantastic showing his characters emotional complexity and really making the audience feel with him as much as they felt for him.
Bradley Cooper in A Star Is Born
Finally, the big one, Best Picture. The nominees are: Bohemian Rhapsody, Green Book, BlacKkKlansman, Black Panther, The Favourite, Roma, A Star Is Born, and Vice. I honestly have no idea what to think of this award this year. Remember when I said the Academy sucks? Well the way this award is shaking out is exactly why. First off, they changed the rules so that there could be ten nominees a few years back to include more great films, and then only nominated eight this year? That literally makes zero fucking sense. Great films like Mary Poppins Returns, If Beale Street Could Talk and Spider-Man: Into The Spiderverse all not even getting a chance to be on the BALLOT, while Bohemian Rhapsody which got a 61% score on Rotten Tomatoes and almost entirely mediocore at best reviews gets not only a nomination but is now becoming a front runner for Best Picture?? Don’t get me wrong it was a “fun” movie but considering that a movie about Freddie Mercury fucked up portraying his sexuality in a super accurate way worthy of a best picture nod. There was too much Queen to call it a Freddie movie, and too much just Freddie to call it a Queen movie. However moving on, Green Book is fun and a great feel good story however there’s a lot of controversy surrounding people involved in the movie and that’s really killed it’s momentum, BlacKkKlansman was one of the most powerful movies I have seen recently and John David Washington and Adam Driver were great, any other year I think this could be a major front runner, but in this stacked field I would currently place it as my dark horse. Black Panther was more than a movie, it was a movement. The cultural impact it had was huge, and being a comic book movie fan words literally can’t describe how giddy it makes me to finally see one of my movies be nominated for best picture, and although I think the CGI was sub par and there were a lot of underdeveloped characters, Killmonger was awesome and if BP won, I would be happy for Ryan Coogler and Kevin Feige. I think The Favourite is a long shot especially with no hype in the media, and it hasn’t really been cleaning up around the award shows either. Vice is fun and with a great director, and cast, and with the political ties I won’t say it is dead in the water but I don’t think it really has a chance either. Now my top two… First up, the clear academy favorite, Roma. Roma has 10 nominations, including best picture, actress, director, supporting actress, cinematography, foreign film, and screenplay. This movie is a goddamn wagon. If you are gonna bet on a movie to win it would be smart to bet on this movie. However, I’m not smart. My pick for best picture is A Star Is Born. I think Bradley Cooper is the best actor, best director, and is the best adapted screenplay writer, and I think Gaga was amazing as well. This movie made you laugh, love, hurt, and had kick ass music. For how good Roma is I think A Star Is Born is better, and although it may be the underdog to Roma (and even Bohemian Rhapsody, but fuck that movie) I think the Academy will give the award to A Star Is Born come Sunday night.
Well that’s it folks, thanks for reading this behemoth of a blog. Hope you all enjoyed and feel better prepared for Sunday night!
Thanks for joining me! Welcome to Capp’s Thoughts, your one stop shop for anyhting and everything about the movie industry. Expect weekly deep dives into some pretty nerfy and fun topics including Marvel, Game Of Thrones, Star Wars and more! I’m super excited to get going so let’s get at it! And uh I don’t really know how to use wordpress yet so please enjoy this picture of the ocean that was somehow automatically added to this blog.
/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/50774591/GettyImages-475741736.0.jpg)
/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/59448873/Screen_Shot_2018_04_19_at_11.01.35_AM.0.png)
Capp's Thoughts 
