Captain America: Civil War

Release Date: May 6, 2016

Starring: Chris Evans as Captain America/ Steve Rogers
Robert Downing Jr. as Iron Man/ Tony Stark
Scarlett Johansson as Black Widow/ Natasha Romanoff
Sebastian Stan as Winter Soldier/ Bucky Barns
Anthony Mackie as The Falcon/ Same Wilson
Dan Cheadle as War Machine/ James Rhodes
Chadwick Boseman as T'Challa/ Black Panther
Jeremy Renner as Clint Barton/ Hawkeye
Paul Bettany as Vison
Elizabeth Olson as Wanda Maximoff/ Scarlet Witch

Directed By: Anthony Russo and Joe Russo

Written By: Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely

In the aftermath of the events that happened in the Avengers the team is put face to face with the consequences that took place. That lives of innocent people were lost. In an effort to make sure that the choices that were being made are for the greater good, Tony Stark chooses to work with the government to put regulation on the Avengers. Rogers doesn't think it's a good idea. They can't do their best work if they have to answer to someone. When the UN is attacked by Bucky, the team is divided by the choices that they make leading to one of the biggest disagreements in Avengers history.

*Warning there are Spoilers*

I will have to say that I think everyone is missing the point of this movie. Everyone that is interested in this movie picked a side. However, I didn't because I couldn't. The reason that I couldn't was because the trailers didn't give much information on what side were for what. At first is seemed like everyone was fighting on weather to save Bucky or not. Then it was if there should be regulations on the team or not. While, yes that is the issue that breaks the camel's back in the movie that is not what the team is fighting about. The real battle is between the opinions of Tony and Steve and nothing more..

Let me elaborate.

We first off lets deal with Steve and Bucky. Steve and Bucky do follow a similar story. They are both from the 40;s, both have cheated death, and both long for a free will. You see, it seems to me that Bucky and Steve both had choices that they could make at first, however, after that one choice was made, joining the Army and becoming a super soldier, they were robbed of their choices. You can't just up and leave the Army whenever you want, and you can't just not be a super soldier anymore. Now, the Steve is Captain America he is constantly being watched and can't make whatever choices he wants. He has to think it through, and he has to do it for the greater good. To further elaborate, Cap feels guilty to what happened to Bucky. Why? Because Cap feels like he should not have had let Bucky fall from the train and "die". That Bucky should not have sacrificed himself. Although it really was Bucky's choice to let go or not, Cap was robbed of the option to save his best friend. Then later when he is in the plain with the bomb that is heading toward New York, he feels robbed of his love life. He knows that he can't just escape and let bomb go off and fix it from there. He needs to save all the innocent people that he can now. Now 70 years later, when they find that Bucky is still alive, he is robbed of the option to save his friend again. We learned that Bucky has been robbed of his choices after he fell from the train. Hydra found him and brain washed him and is forced to do anything that they tell him.

Now let me explain Tony. The first time we see Tony in this film is very unique, and very important when you think about it! He is doing a seminar at MIT showing off his latest invention. You can basically choose any memory and have everyone see it either how you wanted to it to go, or how you remembered it went. Now, out of all of the memories that he chose, he chose the one that was the most important to him. The one that changed the course of his life, and at that time he didn't even know it. This could have been when he almost was lost in space, when he fell in love with Pepper, when he saved the world, when he first became Iron Man, but he doesn't. He picks a day in his younger years, well before any superhero was around. He picked the last day that he would ever see his parents. He has always done things his way, as we soon learn that the memory he shares is not how it went, but how he wished it would have gone. He made the the choice, and did things his own way in real life, and ended up with his parents leaving after he got into another fight with his dad, and that choice is a choice he can never unmake. He lives with the guilt that he didn't tell his parents how he really felt about them and it was too late after that. He still lives life his own way making whatever choices he wants without looking into what problems it might cause. We learn still that these choices are causing him to loose more people, Pepper Potts and him are taking a break because he is still doing whatever he wants. He is used to people leaving, that is nothing new to him, that is why he doesn't changed his ways. That is until he meets a woman on the elevator leaving MIT. Her son was helping people in Sokovia before he started college and died because of the attacks. She leaves Tony with his picture as a reminder of what he did. It's the first time that Tony was put face to face with his consequences. He chose to make Ultron, and nothing was stopping him, and it turned into the big mess that ended up being Sokovia. (Side Note: the brilliance that we feel the same feeling that Tony does in that moment is because all of the people that worked on all of the other Avenger's movies never show an innocent by stander being killed. It's the first time the audience is brought into the realization that innocent people were dying because of their actions.) It's the first time in Tony's life that he is shown what his unchecked choices are doing, not only to the people around him, but the whole world.

Tony works with the Government to create the Superhero Registration Act because, as he says in the movie, we need to be put into check. Tony, all his life, has seen the world a many different colors. There is not clear right and there is not clear wrong. He has learned that he can do something for the right reason but it can totally end being the worst thing you could have done. With this act, he hopes to make his choices into more black and white categories, like right and wrong. Steve Rogers, again who hasn't been able to make a lot of choices, sees the world as more black and white. He sees that all choices are either right or wrong there is rarely anything in the middle. Leading a team of superheros has finally given him freedom to make more choices, so the idea of someone coming in and limiting him again doesn't sit well with Steve. By not siding with the act, Steve thinks that it will allow his choices to be more colorful instead of just black and white.

Here is why that everyone is missing the point. The point is not about the Act at all. I reiterate, that is the just straw that broke the camel's back. The whole movie is there to show HOW you make your choices, FOR WHAT REASON you make your choices and HOW YOU VIEW your choices can change how you live your life and what you stand for. You can stand for doing what is best for the world, like BOTH Steve and Tony, but that can being completely different meanings to you. You have to talk and work things out. You have to stop and think or else you doing to end up like Steve and Tony. Don't believe me? At the beginning of the movie when they find Bucky again the first thing that Steve wants to do is jump into action and save him without any real proof that Bucky is in real danger. He basically said do not kill him, do not touch him, he is my friend and I know how to handle this. Instead of talking with the people who he trusts the most and telling them his reasoning on why he thinks he can trust Bucky he says shut up and just follow me. If Tony and Steve talked rationally about it (without mentioning the Act at all) Tony would see where Steve was coming from and help to capture him, and save him from the brain washing. Instead, Steve and Tony could not let go of the act, and used Bucky as a reason on why the act does or does not work. They were trying to force their view of choices on each other instead of working on making the best possible choice as a team. If they had worked together, like they were supposed to, then they could have saved Bucky, and help put Tony a peace with his "worst choice" of his life. That would have happened after Steve would have told him that he found out the Bucky was forced to kill him parents while he was brain washed, instead of Tony finding out at the worse possible time.

Instead the chose to be stubborn fools (BOTH OF THEM) and made a huge mess, because they both felt guilty, because neither one of them really liked the choices that led them here in the first place.

In reality I can't make a choice between which team because both make valid arguments, but both are wrong about somethings. One is trying to make it black and white, the other in color when in reality it's more of a grey area. They are trying to come up with a one size fits all plan when it's really not going to be fixed overnight. Until they realize that, the team is not going to be able to help the greater good.

Papa Hemingway in Cuba

Release Date: April 29, 2016

Starring: Giovanni Ribisi as Ed Myers
Adrian Sparks as Ernest Hemingway or "Papa"
Joely Richardson as Mary Hemingway
Minka Kelly as Debbie Hunt

Directed By: Bob Yari

Written By: Denne Bart Petitclerc

This is the story of revolution. Not only in Cuba but for the lives of Ernest Hemingway and Ed Myers. Hemingway, currently living in Cuba, is suffering from writer's block for his next book. When Ed Myers sends him a letter. Ed is a young journalist who was inspired by Hemingway while he was growing up. He was abandoned during the Great Depression and ran away from the orphanage at 14. He never learned much from his father and thought that Hemingway gave him more advise than his family ever did. Hemingway decides to take him under his wing and have him call him "Papa", everyone does. Ed soon learns of the demons that Papa holds with him, and the problems that Hemingway faces, not only in Cuba, but in his marriage as well. Through this movie Ed Myers shares that story of friendship, all though short, that they shared with the Great Ernest Hemingway.

I think the thing that stuck with me with this movie the most was the use of color. Ed's life, before Papa, are all earth tones. Lots of brown, black, beige, and boring. The only thing that has color in his world in America is Debbie. You can tell right away that she is going to be someone special because she is the only woman wearing lipstick in any of the scenes in America. Yet, the contrast is totally different when he goes to Cuba. His life there is full of color and excitement. That slowly changes over time in the film has he starts to get his life priorities straightened out. I think that it's one of the coolest way of showing how a character evolves, and you catch it even if you aren't paying attention.

Huntsman: Winter's War

Release Date: April 22, 2016

Starring: Chris Hemsworth as The Huntsman/Eric 

Charlize Theron as Ravenna 

Jessica Chastin as Sara

Emily Blunt as Queen Freya 

Directed By: Cedric Nicolas- Troyan

Written By: Evan Spiliotopoulos, and Craig Mazin

After the defeat of the evil Queen Ravenna, Eric starts to find some sort of peace in his life. With a new house, and balance restored to the kingdom, he tries to honor the love of his life that he lost. Until, Snow White requests his help. The Mirror that held the evil that Ravenna controlled is trying to use Snow for evil. She tells her guard to take it to the Sanctuary so it never rules again. When the guards don't return she requests the Huntsman to track it and defeat it. Problems arise when Eric's past comes back to haunt him, literally. On the quest to find the mirror his dead wife finds him. Not only that but Ravenna's sister, Queen Freya, is seeking the mirror to rule all. To make matters worse, he learns that Sara, his wife, may not love him anymore because she thinks that he left while he thinks she died. Eric is no on an adventure to save the kingdom and win back the one true love of his life. 

I loved this movie. I thought is was beautiful. It was much lighter than the Snow White and the Huntsman. I loved that we get to see how Eric actually becomes the Huntsman. I love that there were all of these strong women in it. They all fought and stood their ground. The amount of back story they put into Queen Freya's character was brilliant. That the reason she rules her kingdoms this way is because she is trying to make up for the past. She blames herself for the loss of her only child and that she wants to prove that she is a good mother. That she can redeem herself is her only goal. In the end, the movie sticks to the true meaning of the original Snow White story is about. Love Conquers All.