CAPTAIN AMERICA: THE WINTER SOLDIER

I waited 2 years for this Captain America sequel to be out. Starring Chris Evans (as Steve Rogers aka Captain America), Scarlett Johansson (as Natasha Romanoff aka Black Widow), Samuel Jackson (as Nick Fury), Robert Redford (as Alexander Pierce), Sebastian Stan (as Bucky Barnes aka Winter Soldier), Anthony Mackie (as Sam Wilson aka Falcon), Frank Grillo (as Brock Rumlow), Cobie Smulders etc, this much anticipated 9th movie of the Marvel Comics cinematic universe was just alright for me.

What is interesting about the Avenger Marvel movies is that they all had embedded plots and characters that hinted at future movies and at the end of the movies, there were easter eggs that provided a glimpse of the movies to come.

In the movie, there was a conspiracy that sought to eliminate Nick Fury to bring down the espionage agency S.H.I.E.L.D.. Everything eventually led back to HYDRA, a terrorist organization, with its many secret agents such as Alexander Pierce, Brock Rumlow, and Winter Soldier, who was Steve Roger's buddy from his distant past. Who was Captain America supposed to trust when the agency he so trusted and worked with seemed to turn their back on him?

Stan Lee, as usual made a brief cameo as a security guard who lamented that he would lose his job when the Captain America suit in the museum he was guarding was stolen. Brock Rumlow, played by Frank Grillo whom I remembered from the TV series "The Gates", was carried away on a stretcher near the end of the movie. He was slated to play Crossbones, another villain, in the future movie.

Now back to the easter eggs. I saw only the first and left the cinema without knowing there was a second. In the first, it was intriguing to find the scepter that belonged to Loki from the Thor movies on display and the appearance of two new characters, imprisoned behind glass chambers. After some googling, it was revealed that they are Quicksilver and Scarlet Witch, children of Magneto from the X-Men series. Well, the audience would have to wait for at least another year to be able to catch it on the screen. In the second segment that I missed, it was apparently about Bucky who found his way to the Captain America museum and saw a video or was it a photo of him and Steve Rogers together and memories of his past came flooding back.

Meanwhile, I can only look forward to the "Amazing Spider Man 2" and "X-Men: Days of Future Past" coming up soon.

In the real world, I don't think there are any superheroes. Otherwise, the plane MH370 and its passengers wouldn't have disappeared without a trace.

Captain America and Black Widow

Captain and Nicky Fury

Captain America and Falcon

Steve Rogers and Bucky Barnes

the Winter Soldier

the evil Alexander Pierce and Captain America

Brock Rumlow who would be Crossbones in future sequels

Brock Rumlow

THOR: THE DARK WORLD

It was a while since the premier of the first Marvel movie on Thor. This is the second movie with the same cast Chris Hemsworth, Natalie Portman, Tom Hiddleston, Anthony Hopkins, Rene Russo and so on.

It follows the story of how Thor enlisted the help of his imprisoned half-brother Loki to combine their forces to fight the battle against the dark elf Malekith, who was woken up from a deep slumber in outer space by his secret weapon the Aether, whose sole purpose was to destroy the entire universe made up of the nine realms.

With his deep voice, Chris was as usual his hunky macho self as the Asgardian thunder god Thor who wielded the weapon Mjolnir. However, it was Tom who stole the thunder from him by putting up an excellent performance as his sneaky and untrustworthy brother Loki who stopped at nothing to betray his Asgardian race and heritage. There was a brief few seconds cameo by Stan Lee as a patient in a mental asylum and by Chris Evans as Captain America.

Overall, this movie didn't disappoint although I wasn't thrilled by the storyline or special effects. This could be attributed to the fact that I have watched too many such movies for it to have an impressionable impact on me. Anyway, I am so looking forward to the next Captain America movie which would premiere in April 2014.