Catching up...

It seems that I've abandoned this blog (and all my other blogs) for most of this year. So this post will mostly be a quick catch up on what I've been watching... It's a shame though, because I've watched a few very good movies this past year, although I am watching less TV shows.

Marvel's Agent Carter

The first 2 episodes were a lot of fun. I saw a comment on Reddit that puts Agent Carter as James Bond meets Alias meets Mad Men. James Bond with the secret agent with gadgets, Alias with the kick-ass female spy, and Mad Men with the period (even though Agent Carter is technically set two decades earlier than Mad Men). I happen to like all three of these things, and I am definitely liking Agent Carter very much so far.

The show is set right after Captain America: The First Avenger, and I believe it will end at the "Agent Carter" Marvel One-Shot. It's 1946; World War II has just ended and Peggy Carter (Hayley Atwell) is still grieving over the loss of Steve Rogers. Peggy, seemingly the only female agent at the SSR, was getting tired of being pushed towards administrative work instead of being allowed more prominent duties. In comes old pal Howard Stark (Dominic Cooper), who was being suspected as a traitor. He enlisted Peggy's help to clear his name, running secret missions from within the SSR. Howard loaned Peggy his personal, faithful butler in Edwin Jarvis (James D'Arcy) to help her.

Of course, with a Marvel Cinematic Universe show, they must throw references around. I mean, the first episode started with clips from The First Avenger, and it never stops. My favorite is definitely Dominic Cooper's Howard Stark, and how Robert Downey Jr.'s Tony is pretty much the same as Howard, whether he likes it or not. I guess, in reality, it's Cooper who based his performance on RDJ's, but it's still amazing to see two very different, but very similar performances. The scene of Howard joking around in front of the Congress made me want to rewatch Iron Man. Love the snarky Starks.

Jarvis, who's the inspiration behind Tony's AI that powers everything J.A.R.V.I.S., is also full of snark. I really would love to see Jarvis meet J.A.R.V.I.S. and see how they would react to each other. At the end of the first episode, Jarvis was on the phone with Howard, and it was revealed that they were keeping a secret from Peggy. The one theory I like, and it seems very plausible, is that it wasn't anything bad like the scene made it seem like. Instead, they were just talking about the possibility of appointing Peggy as the first Director of SHIELD. As I've mentioned earlier, the season is set up to the One-Shot, which is when Howard invited Peggy to run SHIELD. Hopefully, this means that season 2 will feature more of Howard Stark! And lots and lots of Peggy-Jarvis action, because I love their relationship.

Speaking of Jarvis, I find it interesting that James D'Arcy stars in the only two shows that I'm currently following weekly: Agent Carter and Broadchurch.

Edgar Wright exits Ant-Man

It's really a shame. I don't even know anything about Ant-Man, but I was looking forward to it because it's Wright and because people have been saying how great the Comic Con teaser was.

A brief statement was released by Marvel:

Marvel and Edgar Wright jointly announced today that the studio and director have parted ways on Marvel's "Ant-Man" due to differences in their vision of the film. The decision to move on is amicable and does not impact the release date on July 17, 2015. A new director will be announced shortly.

There are rumors as to what the "differences in vision" might be, but we'll never know for sure. But Wright had been working on this movie since 2006, and he was very passionate about it; it's just a shame that it's been taken away from him. I do trust Marvel though. This movie is supposed to kickstart Phase 3, so hopefully this doesn't hinder that. I will still watch the movie, definitely, but I was really looking forward to Edgar Wright's Ant-Man. I know that they're still using his script, but it would have been better to have his vision as a director to go along with said script.