Rio 2

For some reason it interests me immensely that with Rio and its sequel Rio 2 we get the rare instance where an animated movie is not named after its protagonist. Yes there are others, Ice Age and Up being two examples, but still. I find it worth noting. Rio 2 has Blu (Jesse Eisenberg), Jewel (Anne Hathaway) and their kids travelling to the Amazon Rainforest in an attempt to find more of their kind. But things get complicated by evil loggers, the return of their old foe Nigel (Jemaine Clement), and the fact that Blu is a city bird who wears a fanny pack and uses a GPS.

The voice cast is good, there is no denying that. Eisenberg conveys the perfect timidity of his character and the support is spot on. But with the film’s expansion into the forest and the adding of characters, many of the strong players from the first film were severely marginalized. Nigel’s return is never fully developed even though he is given his own cast of minions. And even more noticeable is the lack of importance of the friends, played by Jamie Foxx, Will.I.Am and George Lopez. They’re basically only there for nostalgia’s sake and nothing more.

Plot wise, the logger and Nigel conflicts are resolved very easily and the only real development that takes place is Blu proving his worth to the jungle birds and that moves very slowly before being instantly fixed in the film’s final minutes. Sure, there is funny stuff in the there. I’m not going to pretend I didn’t laugh, but in an attempt to expand the story’s scope, so much of what worked the first time around goes unrealized here in Rio 2. I was definitely tapping my toe to the music too. I’m all for an animated musical that gets “Let it Go” out of my head.

Each film earns either zero, a half or a full arrow in five categories. The categories are Acting, Writing/Directing, Emotion, Innovation and Overall Impression. The arrows are added up to equal the full score.

Captain America: The Winter Soldier

Just when you think you know what is going to happen next in the Marvel cinematic universe, they throw you a curve ball. Or in the case of Captain America: The Winter Soldier, a curve shield. The film has Captain America, played by Chris Evans, adapting to life in the 21st century. But beyond learning about iPhones and the Berlin Wall, he has the ever conniving and secretive SHIELD to try and decode. Plus there’s the deadly appearance of the Winter Soldier to deal with. This movie has a whole lot of stuff going on. It could even have been labeled as a SHIELD movie because this is the first time we’ve seen the organization featured so much in the forefront of the story telling.

As the no-nonsense member of The Avengers, Evans approaches the character head on focusing on maintaining a steady personality. If anything, Cap should be more frazzled by everything going on around him. The plot is quite complex as Marvel breaks down the barriers they built themselves in the previous films. The second Captain America is so important to Marvel’s overall structure that it really weakens the previous phase two films. We’re looking at you Iron Man 3 and Thor: The Dark World.

But what is tough about being a piece of such a large series is that it causes holes in the stand alone films. We get a lot of underdeveloped characters that may return in the future, maybe not. Emily Van Camp’s Agent 13 comes to mind. Also we lose time with the title character in order to build what is essentially a team of secret Avengers for this film. Cap is joined by Nick Fury (Samuel L Jackson), Falcon (Anthony Mackie), Agent Hill (Cobie Smulders) and Black Widow (Scarlett Johansson) to bring down the bad guys. That’s all fun and exciting. But we watched Tony Stark drag his suit around in the snow for a while in his last movie. Where’s that insight into the character for Captain America?

The Film moves quickly never letting you catch your breath as you’re treated to tie-ins to the previous Captain America film, Avenger’s allusions and easter egg name dropping to appease the hardcore fans. (Did you catch the mention of Dr. Strange, a character we’ll likely see sooner or later?) There’s no question Marvel is continuing to strive for fresh approaches to the comic book genre. This film was advertised as essentially more of the same with Cap fighting bad guys with SHIELD. To avoid spoilers, let’s just say this isn’t that. Touché Disney and Marvel. Touché.

Each film earns either zero, a half or a full arrow in five categories. The categories are Acting, Writing/Directing, Emotion, Innovation and Overall Impression. The arrows are added up to equal the full score.