Movies are awesome

[andersonh1]

And a couple more:

Black Panther - Lots of interesting backstory and a likable and heroic main character in T'Challa, but not enough superheroics. Barely felt like a super-hero film at all. In some ways, the middle third felt like James Bond, down to the undercover mission to an exotic foreign country and the main character's CIA friend. The African setting was very nice, and it's enjoyable to see a backdrop for a story that isn't some urban US city somewhere. Like the Captain America movies, Black Panther is a very low-key superhero, who is just a little stronger and faster than the average man, meaning we don't get the big flashy displays I'm used to in this type of movie. Still, pretty good film.

Spider-Man: Homecoming - fully integrated into the Marvel movie continuity with Iron Man playing a prominent mentor role. Where Black Panther didn't have enough "hero in costume being awesome" moments, Spider Man had a ton of them. Tom Holland is the best casting for the character yet, and Michael Keaton is always great. This is the most traditional "fights crime, has to struggle between costumed heroics, normal life and love life" super hero movie Marvel has produced, and Spider Man's youth and sheer heroism really makes the viewer root for him. Well done.

[andersonh1]

Shazam!
Aka the original Captain Marvel, never named as such during the movie (though he's never actually called Shazam either, interestingly). There's a running gag all through the movie about just what "the champion" or "Philadelphia's newest superhero" should actually be called, with Freddy Freeman coming up with names like "Captain Sparklefingers" or "Thundercrack". It seems like they don't really want to use the Captain Marvel name, but they don't really want to totally walk away from it either. This movie is very much the New 52 Shazam story, but it's interesting to me that, like Wonder Woman, something I don't care for at all on the printed page works fairly well as a live action film.

The movie opens with Sivana as a boy, taken to the Rock of Eternity by the wizard Shazam, where he is tempted by the imprisoned Seven Sins and rejected by the wizard. Sivana spends all his life trying to find his way back there and claim the power the Sins offered him. Billy Batson is an orphan who was separated from his mother as a young child and when she never found him, spent his life going from foster home to foster home, all the while looking for his mother. He ends up in a foster home with five other kids, including Freddy Freeman. When Sivana finally gets back to the Rock and frees the seven Sins, the dying Shazam has no choice but to stop looking for perfection and do the best he can, and he gives his powers to Billy Batson.

Much of the movie's middle act is Freddy and Billy testing Billy's superpowers, finding out what he can and can't do, and using Billy's adult form to get away with skipping school, buying beer (they both hate it and settle for soda and snacks instead) and just generally being kids. The power and celebrity go to Billy's head, but when Sivana shows up things get serious and while he first runs away, he is forced to step up and fight to protect his foster siblings. The kids are a stereotypically diverse bunch, but likable enough, and the foster parents are portrayed as genuinely caring and as good parents, unlike Billy's mom when he finally tracks her down. Her life was falling apart, and she deliberately abandoned him, thinking someone else would do a better job raising him than she would.

The final act has Billy/Captain Marvel step up and do what he has to do to protect his siblings, including sharing the power with all of them, so they all get super-powered adult forms to fight Sivana and the sins. They manage to win, the sins are re-imprisoned at the Rock of Eternity, Sivana is de-powered (yes, he's superpowered in this version) and imprisoned, and Billy accepts his new family. A couple of nice touches at the end of the film: Captain Marvel shows up to eat lunch in the school cafeteria with Freddy, and brings Superman with him (the audience in the theater cheered when Superman showed up). And Mr. Mind comes to find Sivana in his prison cell. They've gone all out and embraced the craziness of comic books when the Venusian caterpillar who wears glasses and speaks through a voice box shows up in a live action superhero movie.

It's not classic Captain Marvel, but it's a reasonable modern version that works as a part of the larger movie continuity. The closing credits are animated as if the kids were drawing in their notebooks, and show things like Captain Marvel stealing the Batmobile or taking Wonder Woman to the prom. It's a lot of fun, and that's probably what sets it apart from the New 52, despite drawing heavily from that version of the character. The New 52 was miserable and unlikable, but this movie is much more light-hearted, despite some heavy moments when warranted.

[JediTricks]

Captain Marvel - 7/10, the real problem is that Brie Larson's just kinda "there" as the titular character. Everything around Carol Danvers is interesting, there's twists and turns, action and even fun, but the center of the film feels the most undriven, which holds it back from being better.

[andersonh1]

Ant Man and the Wasp - I was pleasantly surprised by how much I enjoyed the first Ant-Man, and the sequel is an improvement. The main and secondary characters all get nice roles, the humor keeps things light and fun, and it's good to see Evangeline Lilly get a bigger role this time around. Shouldn't this be the much-hyped first Marvel movie starring a female lead, rather than Captain Marvel? Just about everything in this movie hits the right notes with me.

I like Marvel's movies, but I just can't get into their comics. But then the same is true for some of DC's characters. I like Wonder Woman and Cyborg on-screen, but don't care for either on the printed page.

[JediTricks]

Glad you liked Ant Man & The Wasp, it's a lot of fun, and yeah, Evangeline Lilly deserved credit for being the first, she's a titular character there. Nobody gives the Ant Man movies much credit.

Spoiler Free...

Avengers: Endgame - 6.5/10 - big theatrical spectacle, overly long and complex, doesn't hold up to scrutiny at all, good but not as good as Infinity War.

What We Leave Behind - 8/10 - the Deep Space Nine documentary finally streamed for early backers like me. It's 2 hours long, feels like it could have been another hour easily, so much probably got left out. A bit unfocused and unclear of the point (except for focusing on Ira Steven Behr a lot, must be nice to be producer), but the smaller points and the greater whole are well-served. The HD remastering looks fantastic, if CBS doesn't put money into this, they're fools.

[andersonh1]

Glad you liked Ant Man & The Wasp, it's a lot of fun, and yeah, Evangeline Lilly deserved credit for being the first, she's a titular character there. Nobody gives the Ant Man movies much credit.

They should get more. I don't know that I expected much from them, not being all that familiar with the character, but maybe that's why I enjoyed them so much. It was good to see Scott Lang

Spoiler

end up being so important to the plot of Endgame

.

I was discussing this with my daughter, and Captain Marvel is actually the fourth female-lead superhero film. Supergirl, Wonder Woman, and Ant-Man and the Wasp all preceded it. Take that, Brie Larson. I can't say I found Captain Marvel all that compelling a character either. The character seemed really full of herself in Endgame, and talked down to everyone.

Avengers: Endgame - 6.5/10 - big theatrical spectacle, overly long and complex, doesn't hold up to scrutiny at all, good but not as good as Infinity War.

Agreed, it's a story that works more on the emotion it generates than a sound plot. That being said, it is very good and I think the filmmakers have earned that emotional payoff by building off of so many movies and off the great setup of Infinity War. This was the first Marvel movie I've gone to see in the theater, and overall it was worth it.

What We Leave Behind - 8/10 - the Deep Space Nine documentary finally streamed for early backers like me. It's 2 hours long, feels like it could have been another hour easily, so much probably got left out. A bit unfocused and unclear of the point (except for focusing on Ira Steven Behr a lot, must be nice to be producer), but the smaller points and the greater whole are well-served. The HD remastering looks fantastic, if CBS doesn't put money into this, they're fools.

I'm looking forward to seeing this at some point. DS9 is my 2nd favorite Trek overall after the original series. It's such a good show, and deserves more recognition than it often gets.

[Sparky Prime]

Avengers: Endgame
Wow. This movie was a doozy. It may be 3 hours long, but I did not feel like it was, it all went by so fast. Easily one of, if not the best Marvel film (thus far). I'd also have to describe it as a love letter to the fans that have been watching these films for the past 11 years. So many call backs and connections to the previous films, and even at least one of the TV series with an actor who only appeared in the Peggy Carter series. Couple of twists I didn't expect (and some I did, but they still managed to surprise me with it). I have to admit, I cried a bit at the end. Very satisfying film in so many aspects.

I wouldn't say that the plot is unsound personally. The mechanics of how it all works are a little... complicated. But the movie addresses that by explaining

Spoiler

time travel

doesn't work like we've seen in so many other films.

Spoiler

Not to mention, the uncertainty of using the quantum realm as we are shown.

Now, there is at least one scene that would seem to disrupt it, but apparently the Russo's have an explanation for it (which would have been nice if that'd been in the movie, but then, Cap is vague on the details, so I don't see that it breaks the story either way).

[Dominic]

Planning to see it in the next week or so. (Time has not been on my side of late.)

From what I heard,the ending falls apart pretty quickly under minimal scrutiny, even without the poorly defined time travel.

[Sparky Prime]

From what I heard,the ending falls apart pretty quickly under minimal scrutiny, even without the poorly defined time travel.

Spoiler

The thing about time travel they establish in this movie is that they don't actually travel to the past of their own universe, they travel to the past of an alternate reality. Essentially this is done to avoid paradox's that we usually see in time travel movies (like Back to the Future) where changing the past affect their present/future. So anything they might inadvertently change while in the past (which they do) doesn't actually affect their own timeline. However, when Captain America returns the Infinity Stones to their proper realities in time, he decides to stay in the past to live out his life with Peggy Carter. He shows up as an old man and passes his shield to Falcon. So the question becomes, how is he an old man in this universe if he stayed in the past of an alternate reality? Apparently the Russo's explain that Cap had to make another jump, back his own universe, after he had lived his life with Peggy.

However, this still leaves some questions. We know Peggy was married to someone in the 'main' universe as well, although his identity was never revealed. I kinda think old man Cap is the Cap from another reality himself, where they'd done the same thing we saw in the 'main' universe. Only, in old man Cap's reality, his shield wasn't broken by Thanos during the fight.

[andersonh1]

Part of the idea behind

Spoiler

the time travel is that they can remove the stones from the past, and as long as they return them at the same point, history will continue as before with no disruptions

. So I'm fine with that,

Spoiler

it's the second Thanos and Gamorra that throw things off for me.

Maybe when I get around to watching it a second time I'll piece things together.