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Hulk

GIVEAWAY: AVENGERS – INFINITY WAR!

August 8, 2018 by Steve Norton 17 Comments

The War has begun…

In Avengers: Infinity War, Iron Man, Thor, the Hulk and the rest of the Avengers unite to battle their most powerful enemy yet — the evil Thanos. On a mission to collect all six Infinity Stones, Thanos plans to use the artifacts to inflict his twisted will on reality. The fate of the planet and existence itself has never been more uncertain as everything the Avengers have fought for has led up to this moment.

The winner will receive a copy of the Avengers: Infinity War 4K Ultra HD/Blu-ray Combo Steelbook Edition.

To enter, simply like or share our post on Facebook and answer the following question in the comment section: Which Infinity Stone (Time, Space, Soul, Power, Mind or Reality) would you use first and how?

For a bonus entry, like or share the post on Twitter and Instagram.

All entries must be completed by 11:59pm on Monday, August 13th, 2018.

 

Avengers: Infinity War will be unleashed on Blu-Ray on Tuesday, August 14th, 2018

Filed Under: Film, Giveaways Tagged With: Avengers, Avengers: Infinity War, Black Widow, Captain America, Hulk, Infinity Stones, Infinity War, Iron Man, Kevin Feige, MCU, Russo Brothers, spider-man, spiderman, Thanos, Thor

Meet The Rocket Man: 1on1 with Sean Gunn (AVENGERS: INFINITY WAR)

April 15, 2018 by Steve Norton 2 Comments

While he is perhaps best known from his time playing the affable Kirk Gleason in Gilmore Girls, Gunn has stepped into the forefront recently for his role as Kraglin in the Guardians of the Galaxyfilms. However, he has also found himself in the unique position of serving as physical stand-in for CGI fan-favourite Rocket the Raccoon as well. As Gunn prepares for the return of Rocket in Avengers: Infinity War, he credits his brother, Guardiansdirector James Gunn, for bringing him into the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

“Really, it was when my brother got involved,” he starts. “I know that my brother, James, was at a point in his career where he was a little down on directing movies because it was such a hard job to get it on one of these big tent-pole movies. Then, when he ended up being up for Guardians, getting that job, I was totally ecstatic for him.”

“I play both Kraglin on-screen and I also play Rocket [the Raccoon] on-set. That kind of came about during the first movie. [James] and I had worked together so much on various things in our career and he knew that he wanted an actor that he knew, trusted and had worked with to be able to play Rocket on set so that he’d have a real actor there to do it and not just a tennis ball on a stick or a PA holding up script in their hands or something like that. So, he asked me to do it and we ended up kind of figuring out on the go what the method was for that to work. Then, it turned out that it was basically me just getting down on my hands and knees and playing Rocket just as though he was there and it was really helpful to the other actors and the visual effects team. They weren’t able to use me for reference them when they started to animate the character and then I think it was a matter of ‘if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it’. So, then you know, it worked so well for the first movie that I ended up doing it again for Guardians Vol. 2and then for both Infinity Warmovies as well.”

Though most people associate Rocket the Raccoon with Bradley Cooper who supplies his voice, it’s Gunn’s work that lays the groundwork for the performance. By providing much of the physical acting for the character, Gunn appreciates the hard work of the animators who can take his movements and bring Rocket to life.

“I play Rocket the entire time on-set…,” he recalls. “Then, the visual effects team then goes in and they start to put together a draft based on what I did–our movements, hand movements, and particularly my face, some facial expressions, things like where Rocket’s looking… For just little things like that, the animators will use what I’m doing as a reference. Then, later Bradley Cooper comes in and he does the voice of the character and they can change things then. He’ll flesh the character out and sort of put his thing on it and then if they want to make some changes based on either what he’s doing or some combination thereof, they can make those changes at that point as needed.”

Of course, playing two different characters within the same film brings its own set of challenges as well. During scenes where Rocket and Kraglin shared screen time, Gunn claims that he had work twice as hard in order to be prepared.

“There are four different scenes where [Rocket and Kraglin] are not only together [in Vol. 2], but they both have dialog. We really would just kind of shoot around each character and plug me in as much as we could. I always think that the preparation and focus are the most important components to go to acting on set and I had to sort of double my preparation and double my focus on those days. It wasn’t easy because I can’t really squat down as Rocket in Kraglin’s wardrobe. So, I was also having to do these costume changes where I would get and jumpsuit, which is a little stiff and hard to maneuver, and into my Rocket sweats, which is basically a track suit that I’m wearing. So yeah, we’d just have to go back and forth. We’d really have to just take a little longer to shoot and I would be doing the scene twice from the point of view of each character.”

Of course, the Guardians franchise signaled a shift in tone for the Marvel Cinematic Universe upon its release. While offering more humour and brighter colour schemes than other franchises (and not to mention the best soundtracks in the MCU), the most interesting thing about the Guardiansfranchise has been its ability to help audiences fall in love with the anti-hero. When asked about whether he feels this franchise looks for the good in the ‘bad guys’, Gunn argues that the backstories of characters like Rocket gives them the chance to explore what it means to be a hero.

“Well, I certainly don’t view them as bad guys,” he explains, “but they’re not motivated by altruistic qualities the way that the Avengers are certainly… But, I agree with your premise that over the course of the movies, I think the arc of those characters are still learning to identify the goodness that’s already inside of them. I think they’d had lives that have encouraged them to squash the goodness, like Quill living with the Ravagers or Rocket having been where he’s been, sort of lonely most of his whole life. They’ve been encouraged to not think about the good inside of them so I think part of the movies is them finding that.”

Having worked with an ensemble cast on Guardians, his experience on Avengers: Infinity Warmoves to another level entirely. Billed as the ‘largest cross-over event in history’, the film features most (if not all) of the major characters that Marvel has introduced to audiences over the last decade. Nevertheless, Gunn believes that the film honours each character and hopes that the fans agree.

“There are a lot of characters and I think that that’s handled particularly well over the course of the two movies–which, if I can’t talk about the first one, imagine how little I can say it about the second one,” he muses. “We filmed them back to back. There’s still some additional photography to do for the second movie as is always the case and but I think the way that that issue of all these different characters participating in one story is really interesting and I think it works really well. We’ll have to wait and see what people think about. It certainly is a lot of balls in the air to juggle.”

Providing the motivation for the Avengers to assemble this time is the impending threat of alien overlord, Thanos. Hell-bent on destroying the universe, Thanos’ quest for the Infinity Stones is rumoured to give the film a darker tone than other entries into the MCU. Despite its intensity, Gunn also feels that Infinity Waralso balances it with Marvel’s trademark humour.

“I haven’t seen the movie yet so I’ve got to start with that,” he begins, “but I do think that it has a heaviness to it that I think is super cool. I think it’s warranted, personally. I mean you can’t have all these disparate franchises that you’re tying together under one massive banner and be sort of glib about it. I think that these movies are going to be serious. There’s certainly plenty of comedy though. I mean, you know, we have the Guardians in there. We’ve got the crew from Ragnarok in there. I think there’s a lot of laughs, but I think the overall tone of piece is not super light. I think fans will like that because it’s pretty serious. Thanos is serious business.”

Furthermore, one of the highlights for Gunn of working on Infinity War was the opportunity to combine the Guardians crew with a more diverse cast, allowing new interactions and conflicts.

Says Gunn, “I think every actor in one way or another helps define who the character you’re playing is, particularly from Rocket’s point of view. Rocket has been in space his whole life. He knows very little about Earth or the people who live there other than what he knows through his friendship with [Peter] Quill. So, his whole relationship to the earth is based on what Quill has told him and when he comes across any of these people from the Avengers universe, he has a very different perspective of them than any of us would have of them from down here. If anything, I think they’re not quite so impressive to Rocket.”

With his success in the Marvel Universe and Gilmore Girls, one might wonder what Gunn hopes to do next. Still, rather than get preoccupied with what is to come, he prefers to simply focus on looking for great stories to help bring to life.

“I try not to prognosticate or wish too much about where my career is going to go because then you’re only setting yourself up for disappointment. I’ve been very, very lucky to work with incredibly talented people with my brother in Guardians, with the Russos and everyone else they’re working with on Avengers and the list goes on and on, but also with Amy Sherman-Palladino and her husband, Dan, on Gilmore Girls. They’re such great writers and I’ve been so lucky and I really just try to chase the words. I think story is king still. Good stories and good content still rule the day and I just want to keep doing stuff like that. I’d love to revisit Kirk on Gilmore girls if we ever make more, which I don’t think would happen anytime soon. I’d take a look at the character again at some point down the line. I’d love it.”

To hear full audio of our conversation with Sean, click here.

Avengers: Infinity War opens April 27th, 2018.

Filed Under: Film, Interviews, Podcast Tagged With: Avengers, Avengers: Infinity War, Benedict Cumberbatch, Black Widow, Captain America, CGI, Chris Evans, Chris Pratt, Doctor Strange, Groot, Guardians of the Galaxy, Hulk, Iron Man, James Gunn, Mark Ruffalo, Robert Downey Jr, Rocket Raccoon, Scarlett Johansson, Sean Gunn, spider-man, Star Lord, tom holland

Thor Ragnarok: Lies Destroy

March 13, 2018 by Arnaldo Reyes 2 Comments

The Marvel Cinematic Universe continues Phase 3 with the third solo film of Thor. The first Thor film was good, not great, but good. The second film was a big disappointment and a missed opportunity with one of Thor’s comic based greatest foes in Malekith. In Thor: Ragnarok, we get arguably the best film out of the three and Chris Hemsworth’s best performance to date. But does that make it a great film?

I guess it depends on you are as a viewer (I’ll get to that later).

At the end of Age of Ultron, we discover that Thor was in search for the Infinity Stones and the crazy dreams about the destruction of Asgard tells us what it means. This is where Ragnarok starts, as Thor gives us an introduction of what he’s been doing. Ultimately, he’s been trying to prevent Ragnarok from happening. Upon his return to Asgard, he finds Loki still pretending to be Odin and he exposes him. They then go looking for Odin who Loki put in a nursing home in New York. With the help of Dr. Strange, Thor and Loki get to Odin where the truth is revealed: Thor cannot stop Ragnarok because Hela (Cate Blanchett),the Goddess of Death, is coming. In their initial confrontation with her, they didn’t stand a chance and from there the race to stop Hela begins.

The other part of the film focuses on another Avenger who went missing after Age of Ultron, and that is Dr. Banner aka Hulk. Taking from the famed comic Planet Hulk storyline, Hulk is on a planet called Sakaar where he is a champion gladiator. Thor arrives and is forced to face him, all the while trying to escape and get back to Asgard.

As I said above, the film is the best version of Thor to date. It’s exciting and fun with great special effects and the Marvel staple of humor. It’s the type of film that shows where MCU is going, as they move towards a more ‘Guardians of the Galaxy-type’ loose fun adventure. (In fact, the opening sequence is a page out of James Gunn and the Guardians films in that it really lets you know that you’re in for a good time. The characters were great, and finally Hulk was given a personality rather than being portrayed as just a giant ape-like monster.

Of course, there are still those out there that won’t like it. I can see where many will think “nothing new here, same Marvel style film, bored of the formula, etc.” when they are looking for something different. For instance, my favorite film in the MCU is Winter Soldier because it is the one film that deviated from the formula and got it right, while others failed when they tried (Thor: The Dark World). But again, this film is extremely fun and definitely a good time for everyone.

However, and this probably the fanboy in me, I still left disappointed. Not because the film wasn’t fun, but because it left me wanting more. Hela was a formidable villain but I just didn’t get enough of her or the details of her background. I felt that I got two great stories crammed together and leaving me unsatisfied. Planet Hulk is one of the greatest Hulk stories in comics and this did it no justice. I would rather a full movie that stars this version of the Hulk (you know, the one with a personality) that details how he got to Sakaar and his rise in the gladiator world while working to liberate it. The film went too fast in parts where I wanted it to slow down and too slow in parts where I wanted it to speed up. By putting the story of Ragnarok and Planet Hulk together, we were cheated of great opportunities to flesh out the characters of Hela and Valkyrie as well as seeing Hulk as he should be and not just a mindless brute.

The one thing the film does well is in its message. Lies destroy, and Ragnarok came because of lies. In fact, most of Thor’s journey through all three films have come with him discovering the lies and sins of his father coming back to haunt him. Sin is a fickle thing. The Bible says that the wages of sin is death, and in this case it really was. Many times we fail to realize that the consequences of our actions don’t just affect us, but can affect those around us as well. It trickles down to our children, our friends and the world around us. Loki says it best when he tells Thor that, “it doesn’t feel good to find out you’ve been lied to your whole life”. Of course, his actions didn’t help in the matter. But the great thing about family curses is that all it takes is one to finally step up and put an end to it. In this film, it wasn’t just Thor taking that stand, but many of the characters needed to search within themselves and find redemption. Instead of running away from the problem, they must confront it and overcome it. A lesson we can all learn is that, to be worthy, we need to just simply believe in ourselves and do what is right.

Special features on the Marvel Studios Combo Blu-ray pack include “Getting in Touch with your Inner Thor” and “Unstoppable Women: Hela & Valkyrie.” There are deleted scenes, a gag reel, the director’s commentary, and the exclusive short, “Team Darryl.” Thanks to the Multi-Screen Edition, you can watch the film anywhere. 

Filed Under: Film, Reviews Tagged With: Hela, Hulk, Marvel, Marvel Cinematic Universe, Marvel Studios, Planet Hulk, Ragnarok, Thor, Thor: Ragnarok, Valkyrie

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