Blu-Ray/TV Series Review: Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.: Season 2

 

+++Warning, this contains spoilers from season one, but no major season two spoilers+++

The second season of Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. has a lot going on. One of the main arcs is the fallout from the reveal (In Captain America: The Winter Soldier, which occurred at the end of the first season) that HYDRA had infiltrated S.H.I.E.L.D. and that Ward was a double agent. There are a bunch of really good recurring characters in the Hydra storyline including Reed Diamond (playing Werner Reinhardt / Daniel Whitehall) and Adrian Pasdar (from the series Heroes) as major Glenn Talbot.

Then, there is a major story arc involving Skye and her father (played by Twin Peaks' Kyle MacLachlan), which ties into the Inhumans storyline (and brings in many great recurring actors such as Dichen Lachman and Luke Mitchell. Then, there are the tie-ins to the movies that were released during the second season, primarily, Avenger's Age of Ultron, and a loose tie-in with Guardians of the Galaxy, which reveals the race of the blue-skinned alien that we saw in season one and again in season two. Jamie Alexander makes another appearance as Lady Sif, and Cobie Smulders makes an appearance as Maria Hill. The two main additions to the regular cast are Nick Blood as Lance Hunter and Adrianne Palicki as Bobbi Morse. Hailey Atwell also reprises her role as Agent Carter for a cameo in the season premiere.

As far as the blu-ray set goes, it is a MOD set that is an Amazon exclusive. Thankfully, it is still priced reasonably well, so if you prefer physical media to streaming, you can get it on blu-ray. Just be aware, that after the second season, Amazon stopped the exclusive manufacturing, and to get the show on blu-ray you have to find an imported version. The final two seasons were not released on blu-ray or DVD in any mass format and so the only way to get them is to find a bootleg version (if you want one of those). So, it is not easy to keep a collection together, so if that is a big deal to you, then you may want to just stream it. The second-season blu-ray set is very light on extras. Just deleted scenes and a blooper reel.

Overall, the season is very good. While it does still have tie-ins to the MCU movies, the show really does start to stand on its own this season. Of course, as the seasons go on the show becomes less tied in with the movie, and is not "filler" to get from movie to movie as it seemed to be in season one. The acting and writing are both very good, and even though many of the cast members like Chloe Bennet, Iain De Caestecker, and Elizabeth Henstridge were still relatively new (at least in major TV roles), they do some of the best work in the show. And, Ming-Na Wen is always awesome. Of course, the Marvel Universe is basically one long (and large) intertwined story, and the show very much fits into that, but it also tells a good stand-alone story that is definitely worth watching.

Blu-Ray/TV Series Review: Marvel's Agent Carter: Season 1

 

Agent Carter is set after the events of “Captain America: The First Avenger” and the 2013 “Agent Carter” Marvel One-Short short film. In the first season, Peggy (Hayley Atwell) works for the Strategic Scientific Reserve investigating Howard Stark (Dominic Cooper, also reprising his role from "Captain America"), who is accused of selling weapons to America’s enemies. He enlists Peggy to help prove his innocence. She teams with Stark’s butler, Edwin Jarvis (James D’Arcy) to track a secret organization called Leviathan that is trying to steal Stark’s more dangerous inventions. Peggy often butts heads with the other members of the SSR, especially her boss Roger (played by Shea Whigham) and agent Jack Thompson (played by Chad Michael Murray). She has to fight against the blatant misogyny at the SSR where her only real ally is another agent named Daniel Sousa (played by Dollhouse's Enver Gjokaj). Her best friend outside of the SSR is played by Lyndsy Fonseca (from the Kick-Ass movies and Nikita TV Series).

This is more like a mini-series, with the season lasting just eight episodes. It has a good blend of action and comedy, especially in the scenes between Atwell, Cooper, and D’Arcy. There are definitely some tie-ins with the Captain America movie, as you would expect, but the show really tells its own story apart from the larger MCU franchise. Atwell does a great job as the series lead, as does the entire cast. Bridget Regan plays a great foil for Peggy as a Russian sleeper agent from the program that preceded the Black Widow program.

The Blu-Ray set is a MOD Amazon exclusive. The only bonus content is a short blooper reel. Otherwise, the is no behind-the-scenes material, commentary tracks, etc. It is worth picking up if you can find the blu-ray set at a reasonable price. But, given it is just eight episodes and there is not really any extra content to speak of if you cannot get it at a reasonable price, streaming it is probably the better option.

4kUHD/Movie Review: Captain Marvel

 

Captain Marvel is a much better movie than it gets credit for. The movie is set in 1995 and serves as an origin story not only for Carol Danvers/Captain Marvel, but also for Fury, to some extent Coulson, and the entire Avenger initiative. At the beginning of the movie, we see Danvers (played by Brie Larson) already with her powers believing herself to be a member of the Kree race and fighting a war with a race of beings called the Skrulls, whom she believed had her memory erased. After a battle with the Skrulls, she ends up on Earth and meets Nick Fury, played of course by ‎Samuel L. Jackson, who was de-aged using CGI, who is at that time just a grunt SHEILD officer. Then the movie is about Carol regaining her memory and figuring out how powerful she really is. The rest of the cast is rounded out by Ben Mendelsohn, Lashana Lynch, Jude Law, Djimon Hounsou, Lee Pace (making a cameo appearance as Ronan), Annette Bening, and Clark Gregg (who is also de-aged using CGI).

If you watch the MCU movies in chronological order, this one is the second movie in the sequence after the first Captain America. If you watch them in release order, it was the twenty-first movie and the one that comes just before Avengers Endgame. In some ways, the storyline makes more sense if you watch them chronologically, but on the other hand, this movie was really meant to be a flashback after the storyline and characters were established to see how everything started. So, watching it second without all the other movies to set it up I do think takes something away from it. Plus, the mid-credits scene only makes sense if you have seen Infinity War first, and without seeing Guardians of the Galaxy, Ronan does not have as much gravitas as he is intended to have.

For those who get the 4k set, the movie looks and sounds great in the UHD format. The UHD disc just has the movie itself, and then all the other extras are on the regular Blu-Ray disc. There are about 25 minutes of behind-the-scenes featurettes, about 10 minutes of deleted scenes, a short gag reel, and then a commentary track on the movie by the directors. What was included was okay, but it definitely does not has as many extras as some of the other movies received.

As I said above, the movie is better than it gets credit for, and a lot of the shit it gets is undeserved. It has a good mix of action and humor, with bits of drama mixed in as well. Larson and Jackson have great chemistry and really seem to enjoy working together, and the supporting cast all did a great job no matter how large or small their role is. The beginning of the movie also had great dedication to Stan Lee who passed away after the movie was shot but before it was released. And, it features a great 1990s soundtrack which will definitely give anyone who grew up in the 90s a major jolt of nostalgia. It does go a bit overboard on the girl-power thing in a couple of spots, but I don't think it is worth getting apoplectic over like some of the reviewers seem to. Those who think Larson's acting was wooden do not get that the character was written the way she played her, and why the character was written the way it was. Nor do they appreciate the dry humor, which Larson nails perfectly. While I would not say it was the best of the MCU movies, it is also do not think that it is the worst. Of course, that is totally subjective and there is a wide range of opinions on the quality. I definitely recommend it.

4kUHD/Movie Review: Captain America: The First Avenger

 

This is the first movie in the MCU timeline if you want to watch the movies in chronological order and the fifth if you watch them in release order (after Iron Man, Hulk, Iron Man II, and Thor). It tells the story of Steve Rodgers, a short scrawny kid who wants nothing more than to enlist in the army and fight for the United States in World War II. The problem is that he is about 5'5", 100 pounds soaking wet, and has asthma. After getting rejected time after time trying to sign up, he meets a doctor (played by Stanley Tucci) who developed a super-soldier serum and is looking for a worthy candidate to test it on. After Steve proves himself to be heroic during basic training he is given the serum and transforms into a six-foot-tall muscle-bound super-powered hero.

The film sports a great ensemble cast including Tommy Lee Jones (who brings his awesome dry humor as the unit commander Chester Phillips), Hayley Atwell as Peggy Carter, Hugo Weaving as the main villain, Red Skull, Dominic Cooper as a young Howard Stark, Sebastian Stan as Steve's best friend Bucky Barnes, and Toby Jones as Arnim Zola. Some of those characters, as anyone who has watched the movies and/or various TV series, would go on to have roles that were expanded well beyond what they are in this movie, and for other characters, this movie was a one-off. It is mostly an action movie, as you would expect, but also blends in drama, romance, and a lot of humor. Evans does a great job playing a goody-two-shoes character but giving him depth beyond just being a do-gooder. Atwell does a great job as Agent Carter, and Hugo Weaving pretty much steals every scene he is in.

For those who get the 4k UHD set, the movie looks and sounds great in the format, especially if you have a big screen to watch it on. The picture is definitely an upgrade from the regular Blu-Ray. The UHD disc just has the movie itself, and then the second disc is the same regular Blu-Ray disc that was released before, which has the movie and the extras. The extras include a commentary track on the film by the director and the editor, then it has several making-of featurettes, the most interesting of which was, in my opinion, how they used a blend of CGI and practical effects to make Chris Evans look five inches shorter than he is in real life and emaciated at the beginning of the movie. There is also a "one-shot" which is basically a short film that features Agent Coulson (Clark Gregg) as he is on the way to the site where Thor's Hammer is discovered. Then there are some deleted scenes and trailers. So, if you like watching the bonus content, there is a lot there for you.

The movie is very good and does a great job establishing the character of Captain America who, of course, is integral to every other movie that comes after it. If you watch this movie first it will make some things in other movies, namely the stand-alone Hulk movie, make more sense, but the post-credits scene which sets up The first Avengers movie will feel out of place. The 4K disc will probably be a double-dip for a lot of people who had already purchased the Blu-Ray, but I think the upgrade is worth it.