Brie Larson Is Officially Off Duty As Captain Marvel

As Ant-Man & The Wasp crawl all over the box-office (but not ours yet because it’s coming home), the Marvel machine is still hard at work. Spider-Man: Far From Home is currently filming and now as reported by the another film’s lead, Brie Larson aka Carol Danvers has finished her first cinematic stint as Captain Marvel.

The actress tweeted a new photo with a clapperboard and a calendar all used up confirming that Captain Marvel had officially wrapped. It also followed on from co-director Ryan Fleck putting a photo on Instagram that his job was coming to an end working on the eagerly anticipated Marvel movie.

pic.twitter.com/qnZ5RnzDLM

— Brie Larson (@brielarson) July 8, 2018

A rarity in the MCU for a number of reasons, Captain Marvel will actually be set even before Iron Man  but after Steve Rogers became The First Avenger. Kicking off in the 90’s, the film will detail how hotshot pilot, Carol Danvers got involved with some alien antics and became one of the most powerful being in the universe, Captain Marvel. Most powerful being that still uses a pager, but whatever.

Joining in on the action is Jude Law as alien hero Mar-vell, Ben Mendelsohn as an as yet unconfirmed villian. Lashana Lynch, Algenis Perez Soto, Rune Temte and Mckenna Grace also star.

Interestingly, Samuel L. Jackson will be appearing as Nick Fury pre-eye-patch and former Marvel alumni, Clark Gregg and Cobie Smulders will be back as Agent Coulson and Maria Hill a long time before one got impaled and the other was scattered to the wind (spoilers). There’s also some former Guardians of the Galaxy foes in the form of Lee Pace’s Ronan The Accuser and Djimon Honsou’s Korath.

There’s no confirmation as to when we’ll first get a glimpse of the Captain in action, but the date for her official arrival is March 8, 2019. That’s before she joins the Avengers in their second round of the Infinity War on April 26, 2019.

The Reelgood Video Podcast Episode 4

This week the gaming industry has leapt forward in inches thanks to the new customisation feature for Conan Exiles, the new Mass Effect: Andromeda trailer has come flying in from outer space, and Kei tells us why he’s apprehensive of Marvel’s mystery Square Enix game.

In regards to the big screen, Ben Affleck has decided to be the hero we need but not the director we deserve for the solo Batman film, and the boys question if it’s worth choosing life again for Trainspotting 2.

Doctor Strange Gets A Release Date

The Doctor might not be in yet but the release date for his solo debut certainly is, following the news that Marvel have stamped July 8, 2016 as the day we finally meet comic-book based conjuror, Doctor Strange. But ‘who?’ And ‘where?’ And ‘what the?’ you are probably crying out, depending on your concern for Sorcerer Supremes. Well thankfully, Marvel have revealed a few more details as well.

Admittedly, there’s still no confirmation on who will be taking the titular role with Joaquin Phoenix’s name still having yet to be uttered by anyone at the House of M. Heck, recently hired Ben-Hur lead Jack Huston could still be on to take the job after he was rumoured a while back. Nevertheless, the studio has plans to set up shop over at Pinewood Studios again, just as they did for the likes of Guardians of the Galaxy and Avengers: Age of Ultron. Expect cameras to magically start rolling some time later this year. The film is being directed by Scott Derrickson who recently turned in Deliver Us From Evil to fairly mixed reviews. Thankfully, his eye for the unnatural and eerie should be suited well for this.

Shrouded in just as much secrecy as any of Marvel’s movies that have come before it, Doctor Strange will tell the story of high-level surgeon Steven Strange, who is unable to take his talent any further when his hands are severely injured in a near fatal car crash. Willing to go to any limit to return to his former profession, Steven travels to the Himilayas in the hope he can sort himself out. Instead he meets a mysterious man known as The Ancient One, who teaches him mystic arts he must use to battle foes from an alternate dimension, finding his new calling as our protector.

Seeing as they’ve got a time and a place for Doctor Strange to call in on, it should really be only a matter of time before we get solid confirmation who will be taking the role. Be sure to keep an eye out or even better an Eye of Agamatto if you have one whenever it gets announced. Yeah, that’s right! Comic book reference right there!

Guardians of the Galaxy

For fans of Marvel’s Mightiest Heroes, Avengers Assemble was the grand prize for sticking with the comic book/blockbuster making company that planted a seed in 2008 and left audiences to watch it blossom for four years. The pay off amazed millions with Joss Whedon juggling a high-calibre cast in a story that life-long fans always dreamed of seeing, and that even novices were up to date on thanks to the four solo films (and one solo sequel) that kept them up to speed. Therein lied the genius to Marvel’s blueprint; releasing the first blockbuster that was a crossover from several other franchises leading up to it, allowing audiences to take on the explosive entry and run with it at the pace Whedon set. Now the studio is a little braver; they’re venturing off-world and beyond the stars in Guardians of the Galaxy, another super team that aren’t as well known and have no where as much focus as Cap and his cohorts, which feels like the biggest hindrance to the MCU’s latest.

The films attention to detail can be encapsulated in its opening moments, when a young Peter Quill bolts from a hospital on Earth after a tragic loss only to be abducted by an alien spacecraft where his new life awaits him. It’s the fastest, slimmest slice of backstory in the MCU so far and the most you’re going to get for this entire film. That’s because director James Gunn isn’t resting on his laurels looking to the past, instead he slings us 26 years into the future where the tearful tearaway is now a grown man and rogue smuggler who’s going it Solo and looking like him too. Pratt fits the character well, bringing that expert comedic timing he’s mastered during his time on Parks and Recreation whilst also carrying a cocky arrogance to his hero in a vein similar to Downey’s Tony Stark. Trying to talk his way out of his latest snatch and grab on a barren planet, his thievery gets the attention of an endless array of shifty space travellers, one particular wrong’un is big bad Ronan The Accuser (Lee Pace) who has a chip on his shoulder for his planet being wiped out and is keen to retrieve Quill’s latest haul and deliver it to an even greater power. But as our law-breaking hero is picked up by the authorities, he soon crosses paths with a quartet of equally rough misfits who all have a connection to either the treasure or the villain out to have it. So begins a reluctant alliance between Quill, lethal assassin Gamora (Zoe Saldana), bloodthirsty warrior Drax The Destroyer (Dave Bautista) and two wild thugs Rocket Raccoon (Bradley Cooper) and not so chatty tree creature, Groot (Vin Diesel).

Credit where it’s due, the success of Marvel’s bravest entry lies in its titular team. As soon as these five are slung in the slammer together Gunn’s piece gains momentum after being dragged through a somewhat formulaic opening. Pratt might very well be Guardians’ leading man but it quickly becomes a group effort when the guardians gather and it shines through whenever they interact. Cooper’s short-tempered, wise-cracking animal alter-ego Rocket does a good job at winning some of its best moments, shooting down anyone else’s when he gets the chance. The real surprise though comes from Dave Bautista whose barbaric nature as Drax The Destroyer acts as a wonderful brick wall for every other member of the team to bounce jokes off of. It’s unquestionable that the team itself make for a good pick, it’s the faults that surround them that’s the problem.

It can’t be denied that Guardians has some great moments, whether it’s shocking sex jokes or simple slapstick (Groot even has his own Hulk-out scene, beating guards in a similar vein to the green guys scuffle with a ‘puny god’). Even so, with all these brief bits and pieces, the film struggles to weave them all together in a strong story like the major league Marvel team did before them. As mentioned Quill’s backstory is a wafer thin one and his other guardian good guys even more so. Instead of actually having a sit down with them, daring to risk putting the brakes on the whizz-bang pace of the piece and learn why we should be backing our heroes, we get mere glimpses at why they’re so pissed at the universe. Case and point being Rocket Raccoon; an embittered lab experiment whose past is seen in a passing shot of the creatures hard wired spine, or in a fleeting fit of rage when he’s referred to as ‘vermin’. You’ll want more from him and the rest but you won’t get it, and instead your attention will sway towards the particularly cookie-cutter story they’re running around in, turning what could have been an impressive and adventurous watch into just an average one.

Get First Look At Marvel’s Quicksilver & Scarlett Witch

In a way that perfectly befits the character, a race is on to get two versions of Pietro Maximoff aka Quicksilver to the big screen. At the moment 20th Century Fox are putting the pedal to the movie-making metal to deliver the speedster in X-Men: Days of Future Past, whilst Marvel Studios are etching behind them with their take on the character in Avengers: Age of Ultron. At the moment we’ve only seen one – photo, that is – of Evan Peters in the mutant-tastic Days of Future Past but now we’ve got a first conceptual look of Aaron Taylor-Johnson in Age of Ultron, as well as a flurry of other bits of artwork from Marvel’s upcoming movie calendar.