100 Days of Marvel: Road to Infinity War - Day 13: Marvel One-Shot: Item 47

The Superbowl is on right now so I am hurrying to get this one out. I planned two Marvel One-Shots this weekend not because I care about the game, but because I wanted to keep up with the commercial reactions on Twitter.

This One-Shot, "Marvel One-Shot: Item 47", is WORLDS better than the one we discussed yesterday, "Marvel One-Shot: The Consultant." For one, it is longer than 2 minutes. For two, it tells a story worth the 5 or 10 minutes it takes to watch. And, for three, it adds something new to the MCU, something that "Marvel One-Shot: The Consultant" failed to do.

Claire Weiss (Lizzy Caplan) and Bennie Pollock (Jesse Bradford) played luck-struck lovers who have come into an alien weapon after the events from the Avengers. They are seemingly smart characters who go on a montage of bank robberies to get "what's theirs." Agent Sitwell (Maximiliano Hernández) is tasked with bringing them to justice and discover how they managed to get Item 47 (one of the only 47 items of alien tech that works after New York) to function.

I immediately cared about Weiss and Pollock, even though they were the robbers. We are introduced to their perspective, and my first thought was "I hope they make it," and not "Shit, they're the bad guys." Additionally, knowing that Sitwell is Hyrdra makes it really easy to route against him and for Weiss and Pollock in the One-Shot.

I was pleasantly surprised with the climactic hotel fight scene. It was reminiscent, at least for me, of a sfw Quentin Tarantino film. Huge blast effects, crumbling walls, characters getting slammed around - I was here for every piece of it. It even had a similar humor and timing like those, almost like a fight in "Kill Bill."

Even the twist was fun. Because Weiss and Pollock ended with roles that I am totally happy not seeing again, but would be excited if they surface in a future movie.

And man, even the Half-Time piece of this was super cool. When Justin Timberlake (Justin Timberlake) appeared, I was, at first, afraid that Janet Jackson (Janet Jackson) would have another incident, but she doesn't show up here. Just just performs, and does a clever Prince shout out. I don't think that Timberlake had great on-camera chemistry with Weiss and Pollock though, their characters didn't even have a chance to speak with one another because there just wasn't enough time in the short.