Following the tear jerking panel of Disney/Pixar Animation, D23’s Saturday Presentation was all about live action and it was on a whole new scale.
The discussion of who would go first was brought up by Chairman Alan Horn, and Marvel took the honors. President of Marvel, Kevin Feige took the stage to talk about two films in the upcoming slate; ‘Dr. Strange’ and ‘Captain America: Civil War’. In a pre-recorded video, Dr. Strange himself, Benedict Cumberbatch addressed the audience reassuring fans that he will be going on a journey through multiple dimensions and levels of reality in the film next year.
Feige gave the crowd an advanced look at ‘Doctor Strange’ via concept art that he said will not be seen again until the “Art of” book comes out with the film’s release. The take away from these images were landscapes and imaginative action scenes taking place atop floating cars, adding to the perplexity to the Marvel Cinematic Universe, a feat he compared to ‘Guardians of the Galaxy’.
Confirmed during the panel was the casting of Chiwetel Ejiofor as Karl Amadeus Mordo. There was a very quick shot of art with Ejiofor as Mordo, but it was mostly from the chest up so there wasn’t a good look at his costume. There was however, a full wide shot look at Tilda Swinton standing over a wary Doctor Strange and that costume was white. The visual reel was mind-blowing and with the costumes on point to the original, trippy comics that made this character endearing to readers, you can expect something special with this one.
November 4, 2016, ‘Doctor Strange’ conjures into theaters November 4, 2016. Kevin Feige said Marvel hopes to “continue to expand what a comic book film is and what a Marvel Cinematic Universe film is.” Scott Derrickson will direct from a script he co-wrote with John Spaihts, with Benedict Cumberbatch starring as Dr. Stephen Strange.
After the otherworldly, things got a lot more grounded when Kevin Feige brought out Anthony Mackie and Chris Evans to introduce a sizzle for ‘Captain American: Civil War’. The film was teased in earlier sizzle reels with the scene from ‘The Avengers’ between Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr.) and Steve Rogers (Chris Evans) as they gave quick snips at each others character. The philosophical battle between the two looks to wage on in next year’s ‘Civil War’ after government control get’s placed over superhero actions that lead to more dead than saved.
Tony tells Steve, “We have no boundaries; we’re no better than the bad guys.” Tony is not wrong, as power left unchecked can lead to be disastrous.
Tony’s sentiments are shared by General Thaddeus “Thunderbolt” Ross (William Hurt), who appears to be highly involved in the movement Cap opposes. He tells Rogers, “The world owes you an unpayable debt. A great many people see you as a hero, but there are some who prefer the word vigilante. People are afraid.” It is a very similar mindset with which Steve has fought throughout his trilogy of films.
Some key moments and images to take away from this reel were the action, which looks to be upped from ‘Winter Soldier’ and mainly falling on Black Widow this time around. She looks to have some really fantastic looking parts in larger than life set pieces, including a motorcycle stunt where she’s riding sideways and a doubled up version of her signature move from ‘Iron Man 2’. The dialogue spoken stays unique to each character, but here it seems to carry the weight most of us wanted out of ‘Avengers: Age of Ultron’. There were new gadgets in Falcon’s “Red Wing” drone which helps discover a bomb hidden under a vehicle in a tense situation and Crossbones’ blades which look lethal against Caps’ shield. There were even some visual moments like Bucky and Cap walking in the snow and a funeral procession outside with Cap carrying a casket that looked emotional and breathtakingly gorgeous. The clip ended with a geek out moment coming from Paul Rudd’s Scott Lang aka Ant-Man as he meets Captain America for the first time, which had the audience rolling with laughter.
All in all, Marvel Studios looks to be continuing their reign in the industry with imagination, strong visuals, great casting choices and all around fun movies on the horizon.
Captain America: Civil War hits theaters May 6th, 2016.
