Superhero Movies: Nick Fury Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D.

This movie was amazing but probably not in the way the film makers were hoping. If you watched the second season of Bay Watch Nights and enjoyed it, you'll likely love this. (If you have not watched the second season of Bay Watch Nights, you are missing out big time.)

Yes, that Batman Begins.

The plot unfolds something like this: Agent Nick Fury is a free agent, but not for much longer. He's been tapped to return to S.H.I.E.L.D. and help save Manhattan from a terrorist attack orchestrated by Hydra. Along the way, he'll rekindle an old flame, shoot an elevator to get it "working", complain about having to sign forms, and kick a fair amount of ass!

The best part of the movie IMHO.

Wait, he complains about signing forms?: Basically. Fury runs up against having to sign standard tax withholding documents and he "sticks it to the man" by ignoring the peons sent to collect his signature. His superior officer quips "things have changed Nick, bean counters have taken over the world" as if to lament the "glory days" of government agencies not having employees sign standard employment documents. What would be so glorious about those days? "Remember the good old days when we worked for the government and were never sure if we'd get paid or not? Man, times sure do change."

The jokes: There are so may "jokes" in this movie, and every single one is relentlessly blunt in it's delivery. For instance, Fury meets an agent who has ESP, she shakes Fury's hand and reads his mind, causing him alarm. She try to reassure him by letting him know her abilities have been enhanced with implants. This of course causes Fury to look directly at her boobs. She clarifies "neuro-implants" and points at her brain. Rimshot.


Other ridiculousness: At one point a cyborg that looks exactly like the director of S.H.I.E.L.D. walks into their headquarters and plays a prerecorded message, and promptly explodes. That's right, Hydra successfully sends an exact replica of the directer of S.H.I.E.L.D. into their headquarters, and all it does is play a recording and self destruct.

Not the only cyborg clone: (Very mild spoilers in this one.) Early on in this flick there's a scene where Fury runs into a skinless cyborg that's being outfitted to be his double. There's an ADR line that didn't register with me (but thankfully Tim heard it) that mentions that the cyborg gets really small for "easy transport". Fast forward to the end of this movie; the hero crew flies to Manhattan, hikes through the city and infiltrates the Hydra hideout where Fury eventually finds himself in an impossible-to-escape situation. But wait a second, that's not Fury, that's his cyborg replica!! You know, the one that was barely mentioned once at the beginning of the film and was never ever mentioned again? Thank goodness it was completely undetectable (and never once mentioned) during transport!

Is the cyborg inside his false eye?

Written by: David Goyer. Who's that? Click that link and prepare to be confused.

Characters in this film that pop-up later in the MCU: Arnim Zola and Baron von Strucker.

Legitimately impressive: Whoever was in charge of set design actually did pretty well despite their likely tiny budget. Everything looks like it came from a very comic book and nothing looks like it's recycled from another set. It was a pleasant surprise.

Biggest fail: The main Hydra villain was supposed to be... foreign I guess? Her accent shifted from word to word like nothing I've ever heard before. Was she trying for German? Russian? French? Korean? I don't think we'll ever know for sure.

But was it good: This one would be fun with a group, but there's a bit too much boring, clunky melodrama for us to recommend this one too enthusiastically.