Captain America

Captain America: Brave New World – JenEric Movie Review

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Hello Cinephiles,

Today we’re talking about the 2025 film Captain America: Brave New World.

Story

This was a Captain America movie, it had all the heroics, all the intrigue, and all the big set pieces that were needed. That’s not to say it was predictable or boring. It dealt with twenty years of lore and not only told a story but connected it with the world.

I know it’s setting up a lot of the next Avengers movies but I never felt like I was watching a prologue.

Score: 1

Characters

There was so much in this that I found the villain got lost. I get that the real villain is the systemic oppression of the American people, especially those that are different, but the Leader wasn’t all that scary once they figured out his mind control trick.

Captain America, the new Falcon, and the agent following them around were a great group and a lot of fun to watch. The softening of Ross was interesting. Much more than the Red Hulk. I also loved the cameos.

Score: 0.5

Dialogue

You’d think with such a big brain, the Leader would be able to come up with better one liners. His dialogue was boring.

The quips by the heroes were great and there were some great lines about government’s mistreatment of people.

Score: 0.5

Visuals and Music

I think, hope, and pray that this movie is proof that Marvel is fully moving away from jump cuts and shakey cam. The action was clean and the special effects were pretty good. The camera work was spectacular.

The music was great.

Score: 1

Fun

I wasn’t looking forward to this movie but I really enjoyed it, as did the rest of the family, although there were a lot of questions about who people were and what they were talking about. Thankfully, I can’t remember important information but I’m great with superhero lore and trivia.

Score: 1

Overall

The movie lives up to the first three in every way possible. It’s an excellent set up for future movies, while being a great political thriller and having fun with superheroes. It’s Captain America and if you loved the others, you’ll love this one.

Final Score: 4 Stars out of 5

Captain America: The First Avenger – JenEric Movie Review

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Hello Cinephiles,

Today we’re talking about the 2011 film Captain America: The First Avenger.

Story

The story is extremely simple and a perfect transition from the simpler superhero movies of the 2000’s to the more complex ones after.

It’s amazing that they managed to have a movie set in WWII that had only 3 Nazis.

The villain is scary smart if over-the-top and the story is wonderfully soothing.

As much as I love the romance between Cap and Carter, the convoluted obstacles are tiresome and unnecessary.

I would also would have liked more nuances on the concept of patriotism, but that would come with the future movies.

Score: 0.5

Characters

This movie was extremely well cast and all the actors play their roles wonderfully. Again I think Red Skull was a little much, but all the others are fantastic.

Score: 1

Dialogue

This movie, more than Iron-Man or Avengers, sets the bar for Marvel dialogue. It’s clever, quotable, and has fantastic depth.

Score: 1

Visuals and Music

The movie’s special effects still look amazing a decade later and visually this movie is a treat.

The music is fantastic and works perfectly for the movie.

Score: 1

Fun

Our Blu-ray has a bug where the dynamic range (loudest vs softest sounds) is huge, making me spend most of the movie changing the volume or not being able to understand the words. This is actually pretty common for Marvel movies and really pisses me off.

That being said, the movie kept the attention of the entire family and made me want to re-watch all the Marvel movies.

Score: 1

Overall

The unambiguity of the movie is its strength, bolstered by its fantastic dialogue and acting. It was the last before Avengers changed the landscape and set the bar for storytelling. It is by far the best Marvel Phase 1 film (Arguably Phase 2 also).

Final Score: 4.5

Good and Bad

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Hello My Imaginary Friends,

We’ve been watching Falcon and the Winter Soldier. No spoilers, I promise. My daughter is having a really hard time following it, which is interesting on its own, considering she had no issues with WandaVision.

Her biggest problem, besides the sheer quantity of military, political, and racism language; is figuring out who the bad characters are.

Television, books, and movies normally have very well defined good and bad characters. She understands the twist baddie, but this show’s characters are all so ambiguously bad that it’s hard to tell.

Even the main characters do some bad and dumb things.

I’ve been trying to explain to her that in real life, bad or good isn’t what you are, but what you do. We’ll get to how it can be hard to tell the difference later, but right now she needs to understand that its not an innate state of being. No one is Good and no one is Bad. We are defined by our actions.

It’s important to me that my kids understand the difference both for themselves and for others. Because once you decide people are one way or another you put them in a box and start to paint their actions based off of your preconceptions. It leads to hero worship and accepting bad things because someone is good.

It’s a hard concept, but we have a lifetime to discuss it.

Stay safe, and be kind,

Éric

MCU, Infinity Stones, and Black Panther

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Hello My Imaginary Friends,

I am a big fan of superheroes. I’ve watched all the most recent movies and most of the TV shows. I gave up on Daredevil but that’s another post.

I saw Black Panther a few weeks ago and I have an interesting theory. Spoilers for all of the Marvel Movies below.

**Spoilers**

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Winter Soldier

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This Winter Soldier was running from Cap – see the shield? – but stopped to pose with the TARDIS. Unbeknownst to us, Cap snuck into the picture! Blurred face because of no permission asked of the parents.

I love the leather jacket. Gorgeous.

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