On May 5th, several
theaters across America hosted a Marvel Marathon of films starring Captain
America which lead up to 7:00pm screenings of the newest Marvel Cinema
Masterpiece Captain America Civil War.
Each theater provided their own experience offering deals on food and drinks
while providing raffles and special guests during the intermissions between
films.
While not every city is offered
this experience, and some people missed it, many can still get a fun experience
at home with friends and family. The point of the marathon is supposed to be a
fun refresher of all the films that will give you the details you need for Captain America Civil War. Having
already seen Civil War, I believe a
marathon will make the emotional impacts that occur in Civil War all the more powerful. So why not host your own? Invite a
few friends, or just do it yourself. The fun thing about doing it at home is
you set your own viewing schedule, choose your own audiences, can talk during
the movie, and don’t have to be stuck with just popcorn and soda.
My favorite part is setting your
own Marvel themed menu. Here are a few ideas of food and drink to enhance your
Make Your Own Marvel Movie Marathon Experience:
The first film in the viewing is Captain America The First Avenger.
Directed by Joe Johnston (visionary that brought us the modern classic The Rocketeer) and written by Stephen McFeely
and Christopher Marcus (the same writers that will go on write Winter Soldier, Civil War and Infinity War).
Chris Evans steps into the iconic role by first playing Steve Rogers in
malnutrition form via state of the art special effects that shape and impose
his face onto a petite double. This is the first time Marvel began using such
technology which would later return in Winter
Soldier and Civil War.
The Marvel movies take the source
material serious, but not themselves. This provides a fun experience that
doesn’t weigh to heavy on its audience. Captain
America is a great example of this because of its setting. About 98% of the
film takes place in the 1940’s when villainy and heroism were black and white.
The Nazis and Hydra and bad. Captain America and the Howling Commandos are
good. So simple it’s perfect for early morning viewing. And that is why
breakfast will be the meal on the menu. Try these Cap Shield Pancakes:
Ingredients
Any Generic
Pancake Mix
Water
|
Red Food
Dye
White Food
Dye
Blue Food
Dye
|
Preparation
1.
First prepare the batter for as many people you are
serving. The serving size is the equivalent of 3 pancakes.
2.
Next get 3 separate bowls. Pour 1/2 of the
batter in one bowl. The remainder batter should be split between two bowls as
1/3 and 2/3.
3.
The bowl with the most batter gets red food dye.
The bowl with the least batter gets the blue food dye. And the remaining bowl
gets the white food dye. Use enough to make the colors rich as possible. (You
may need to use half or more of your red food dye.)
4.
I
recommend using a flat griddle so as to cook as many pancakes as possible, but
a large skillet could work just as well. Start with the largest pancake, red
batter. When cooking let the batter sit a little longer than normal to create a
mostly cooked pancake. After flipping the pancake, only allow half a minute to
set, otherwise you may lose the color.
5.
Next use the white batter to make a pancake
slightly (appx. 15%) smaller that the first. Repeat the flipping process.
6.
Next use the red batter again to make a cake
slightly (appx. 15%) smaller than the white one.
7.
Now use the blue batter make a cake slightly
(appx. 15%) smaller than the smallest red pancake.
8.
Finally make a white pancake that is slightly
larger than a half dollar, or at least smaller than the blue pancake. Use a
star shaped cutter to punch out a white pancake star.
9.
Serve immediately with drink (I preferred OJ but
milk is good too).
The next film in Captain America’s
adventures is Marvel’s The Avengers. Joss
Whedon (Firefly and Buffy the Vampire Slayer) writes and
directs this box office hit that after 4 years of viewing, still has repeat
entertainment value. Whedon is able to blend both the drama and spectacle of
comic book superheroes in what is probably the perfect popcorn film of Marvel
movies.
This is the first film where Steve
Rogers spends the whole film in modern times. As such, he is still in the
adjusting phase. He does not get modern references, doesn’t comprehend modern
technology, and doesn’t know about the gods, aliens and monsters in today’s
world. Throughout the whole film, he still maintains his tough 1940’s persona
and is able to show the Avengers what real heroes are made of.
It’s also the first time all of the
Avengers are assembled on screen, which is magically displayed in the now
famous and iconic camera pan of the team. Marvel’s
The Avengers is a perfect popcorn flick, but again why not try something
different. There is a moment in the film when Tony Stark (Iron Man) asks the
team if they would want to grab some schwarma. The request is immediately
followed by the line, “I don’t know what it is, but I want to try it.” At the
time, I didn’t know what schwarma was either, but like Stark I wanted to try
it.
Use this recipe and you can join the
Avengers in trying out some Chicken Schwarma.
Ingredients
Chicken
breast
|
Tahini
|
Vegetable
oil
|
Tomatoes
|
Yogurt
|
Lettuce
|
White
vinegar
|
Onion
|
All spice
|
Parsley
|
Cardomon
Minced
garlic
Tomatoes
Pita Bread
Rounds
|
Salt &
Pepper
Lemon Juice
Onion
Olive Oil
|
Preparation
1.
The marinade should be made the night before
your marathon. Assemble the yogurt, olive oil, white vinegar, all spice and
cardomon and mix in a bowl. Then place the chicken in a gallon bag, pour the
marinade in the bag then refrigerate.
2.
The tahini sauce should also be made the night
before. Mix 1/4 cup of tahini, 1/4 cup of yogurt, 1 tsp of minced garlic, 2 tbs
of lemon juice, 1 tbs of parsley, and 1 tbs olive oil. The mix should be
thoroughly beaten to the point of a cream. Refrigerate.
3.
When you are ready to cook, preheat oven to 350
degrees. Remove the marinade and chicken from the plastic bag and bake in a
dish for 30-40 minutes.
4.
Remove the chicken and cut into chunks or
slices.
5.
Cut slices of lettuce, onion and tomatoes
accordingly with servings.
6.
Stuff cut lettuce, onion, tomatoes, and chicken
into pita rounds. Then dab tahini sauce.
7.
Serve and enjoy!
I also recommend pairing the meal
with the first alcoholic beverage of the marathon: The Tesseract Cocktail. The
Tesseract Cocktail has a shot of Blue Rasberry Vodka which is my chosen
designation of alcohol for the infinity space stone.
Ingredients
Sprite 4 oz
Blue Rasberry Vodka 2 oz
Rum 1 oz
|
Blue Agave Tequila 1 oz
Torani Vanilla Syrup 1 oz
|
Preparation
1.
Assemble all ingredients into a shaker with ice.
Shake well for 1-2 minutes. Then pour, without ice, into a glass. Serve and
enjoy.
In Captain America The Winter Soldier, we see Cap at his most action
oriented. Joe and Anthony Russo (You Me
and Dupree) had never done a big budget action film before, so when they
came out the gate swinging no one was prepared. Their Captain America does
parkour, fights half a dozen trained killers at once, jumps from skyscrapers,
and still maintains the moral fortitude, courage and leadership displayed from The First Avenger.
This film also introduces Anthony
Mackie as The Falcon and reintroduces Sebastian Stan as The Winter Soldier.
Both characters will continue their importance to Captain America into Civil War.
Captain
America The Winter Soldier is not as light hearted as the first two films,
but after two meals, I think it’s time for desert. Try the Winter Soldier
Sundae. Like The Winter Soldier, one appendage is organic (banana) and the
other covered (chocolate covered banana). See this simple recipe below:
Ingredients
Vanilla Ice Cream
1 banana
1 maraschino cherry
|
1 waffle cone
Red, white, blue sprinkles
Whipped cream
|
Chocolate melts (I used blue to
imitate the metal arm, but any color is fine)
Preparation
1.
Slice the banana in half (longways). Leave the
peel on 1 half and remove the peel from the other half.
2.
Melt the chocolate for 1-2 minutes. Stir around
to make the consistency creamy liquid.
3.
Cover the peeled banana with the chocolate. Then
place the maraschino cherry on the still soft chocolate. Place chocolate
covered banana with cherry in the freezer for 30 minutes to an hour.
4.
Once the chocolate has hardened, peel the other
banana half and place both halves in the waffle cone. Scoop some ice cream,
pour some sprinkles and whipped cream and enjoy.
The final film before the big event
is Avengers Age of Ultron. Joss
Whedon returns as writer and director in this darker and more intimate Avengers
sequel.
In this film Tony Stark and Bruce
Banner accidently create the “murder bot” Ultron with unknown aide of one of
the infinity stones (if you don’t know what these are you haven’t been watching
the films). The infinity stones will play a larger role in coming films, but
here we are introduced to the mind stone. The mind stone turns the Artificial
Intelligence that Tony and Bruce create into a machine that hates them and
wants to bring about the extinction of mankind. The mind stone also is what
brings new Avenger The Vision to life. As such your drinks of choice are The
Ultron Cocktail or The Vision Cocktail, each containing a shot of tequila (the
alcohol representing the mind stone). Choose your recipe below:
The Ultron
Ingredients
Orange
Juice
1 double
shot of tequila
1 shot of
grenadine
ice
Preparation
Combine all
ingredients in a shaker, shake for 1-2 minutes, pour drink without ice into a
glass.
|
The Vision
Ingredients
Sprite/7-up
1 shot of tequila
1 double
shot of midori
ice
Preparation
Combine all
ingredients in a shaker, shake for 1-2 minutes, pour drink without ice into a
glass.
|
 |
Now that at home marathon is
complete, head to the theater for Captain
America Civil War. There you can feast on whatever your local theater has
to offer and enjoy Marvel’s latest adventure.
The world has been keeping an eye
on The Avengers since they first appeared in New York to fight an alien
invasion. Since then hellicarriers fell on Washington DC in Winter Soldier and a chunk of a city
fell in the country of Sekovia in Age of
Ultron. The UN has decided that enough is enough and wants to keep a leash
on these heroes. But during a summit to discuss the accords to keep our heroes
in place, a terrorist attack occurs with fingers being pointed at The Winter
Soldier (Bucky). The Avengers are now divided on the accords and what to do
with Bucky. This division leads each team to recruit more folks.
Captain
America Civil War brings back the whole team from Winter Soldier and adds a few new cast members as well. Now we get
to bring Scott Lang The Ant-Man from Marvel’s 2015 hit Ant-Man. Making their first appearance in the MCU is Prince T’Challa
of Wakanda (The Black Panther) and Peter Parker (Spider-Man). Both of these new
characters will get their own films but Civil War gets to introduce them. Each
character is played pitch perfect. Chadwick Boseman (42, Get on Up) is brooding and focused as Black Panther while Tom
Holland (In the Heart of the Sea, The
Impossible) plays inexperienced nerd with a heart of gold as Spider-Man.
Civil
War brings the action sequences to another level with super powered characters
using all the tools at their disposal in some knock down drag out fights. These
sequences do not disappoint because the execution results in some of the most
magical comic book moments on the screen. The stand offs between these
characters are also earned in that we have seen how they grew throughout the
marathon provide which provides an incredible emotional impact in this film.
Thanks to the team of directors The
Russo Brothers and writers McFeely and Marcus, Captain America Civil War succeeds in both intimacy and spectacle.
This is film designed to see in theaters and when you first watch you will not
be able to take your eyes off of the screen. For that reason popcorn is the
perfect meal. When those jump out of your seat moments happen the only mess you
will have is popcorn flying everywhere.
Check back here later for a bonus
special dish. There is a meal that one character attempts to make for another.
The dish is called Paprikash. In our world, Paprikash is a popular Hungarian
dish commonly cooked with chicken. So the bonus dish for those playing along at
home is Chicken Paprikash. Check back here after you see the film.
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