Personal Ranking of the X-Men movies

My experience with the X-Men movies has been a very interesting ride to say the least. There are some I really like, and others that I thought were alright, and a couple that are just painful to watch. With the last X-Men movie coming out under the Fox name, I thought now would be an appropriate time to do a personal ranking of all the X-Men movies under the Fox name, this is going to include the Wolverine movies. I will not be including the Deadpool movies on this list as I have not seen them. So here is my ranking:

9. X-Men Origins Wolverine - This may be the last on many personal rankings, or at the least near the bottom. I was looking forward to this, I was kind of excited to see the origins of Wolverine and get a solo movie of this X-Men favorite. I saw it before everyone else got to see it, and I was really disappointed with the final result. I haven't rewatched this in years, but I may rewatch it at some point to see how it is after all these years.

8. X-Men: The Last Stand - I didn't get to see this in theaters, but caught it on video many months later. I heard about the main demises, so I already wasn't too excited going in, and also I remember the scope of X2 being really impressive, and this just felt like a weak conclusion compared to what we got in the last entry. There were a few pluses, one of them being Kelsey Grammar as Beast. 

7. X-Men Apocalypse - At the time of writing, I have not seen this since theaters, I enjoyed it when I saw it but for some reason, this one never really got me excited in the X-Men franchise, maybe it was because I got more invested in the MCU at that point, but I wasn't disappointed because I didn't get too excited by the trailers either, so it was a movie that kind of came and went for me. However, I really liked the Quicksilver sequence in the middle of the movie, and there were some cool moments here and there. 

6. The Wolverine - This is another movie I saw the trailers for and I didn't get too excited for, so I wasn't expecting anything, but then I saw it and I was kind of surprised by it. Yes it dragged in certain areas and there were issues with the story, but this was a visually interesting movie and a very interesting experience that I really appreciated it. I just really liked the atmosphere that this movie presented, and I also liked how it handled the relationship between Logan and Jean. Yes, there are other ones that I appreciate more, but this one has a unique place for me and I enjoy re-experiencing here and there.

5. X-Men - The first X-Men movie we ever got, I was familiar with the cartoon series from the 90s, though I did not watch it faithfully, but I saw a few episodes, so I was familiar with the world of X-Men because of the series, and a few video games I played as well, so I was looking forward to this for that reason, and this was very entertaining. I got to admit that rewatching it all these years later, some parts are dated, but what sticks out is how small this movie feels compared to all the other movies we got later on, that is the crazy part for me. I also felt that the people cast fit their roles well, especially Patrick Stewart as Professor X, Ian McKellen as Magneto, and definitely Hugh Jackman as Wolverine.

4. X-Men First Class - When I saw the first trailer, I thought that this was it, this was the movie that would end the X-Men series, at this would tank and it would be done with, I wasn't impressed with X-Men 3 or X-Men Origins Wolverine, so I thought the series was through. I then heard the reviews were good and then I ended up seeing it and I was very surprised, and not only that, this is one of those movies that I am able to rewatch. It continues to be very entertaining and the story very well crafted. This movie is the biggest surprise in the series, and the connections that were established here really brought an interesting perspective on the original trilogy.

3. Logan - This one was very intriguing to me. I heard that this would be the very last time that Hugh Jackman would play the role of Wolverine, so for that reason I was very intrigued on how they would handle the ending to such a favorite character. I have only seen this once, but I really appreciate the smaller scale story that this one had, I also really like the atmosphere that this movie presented for all that viewed it, kind of that feeling of being a western almost. It was very well shot and very well written. This may be on the top of almost everyone's list, but there are three that had more of an impact than this one did, but this doesn't dismiss this one from being extremely well crafted.

2. X2: X-Men United - Ever since the release of the first movie, I was looking forward to the sequel and where things would go next. This movie was before the establishment of the MCU, so sequels to comic book movies were still in an early stage, but I had high hopes for this, with people comparing that this could be the next Empire Strikes Back, and in many ways it was, it really expanded on everything that was established in the first movie, and also gave us new threads on where things could go next. This felt like a bigger movie than the first one which made things more exciting. 

1. X-Men: Days of Future Past - As I learned more about this movie, my anticipation grew, it was going to include the cast from the original X-Men trilogy, and the cast from X-Men First Class, it would involve time travel, and Bryan Singer, the director of the first two X-Men movies was coming back, I was excited for this. This movie delivered in what I was hoping for in this, an epic story with lots to take in and appreciate. In my opinion, this movie takes the best of everything and gives us a good story and many exciting moments and great interactions. It also gave me moments that I didn't know I wanted, like the sequence with Quicksilver. This is easily my favorite in the X-Men series under Fox.

With Dark Phoenix coming out, I have been uncertain on what to think of it, but with it being the last with this iteration of characters (with the exception of Wolverine since he already got his conclusion), I am very interested in how they wrap up the story, I have heard not so pleasant things from early screenings and all, but I want to wait till the movie comes out before casting judgement. 

Big surprise, Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance trailer arrives

As you are all aware, I am a fan of The Dark Crystal, the world created for that movie has always fascinated me, and I have enjoyed revisiting it over the years. I have also been reading the sequel comic book series and also started reading the prequel novels. So yeah I have been furthering the world more recently. I have been looking forward to the Netflix series Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance for a while now, and I have been awaiting for information on the series, images, anything. I got on Facebook this morning and I found the poster, and it was a jaw dropping poster.

I figured with the drop of the poster we would get a trailer soon, figured maybe tomorrow, but I got on YouTube shortly afterwards and found the trailer, I immediately checked it out and I was blown away by how gorgeous and amazing the trailer is. I saw photos that helped establish how close the feel is to the original. I figured they would get the feel right and that it would be good, didn’t know that it would be this spectacular. I didn’t take into account how the technology had advanced. The imagery was beautiful and the creation of the puppets are amazing and I really like how with this series they are using practical work to make this possible instead of relying solely on digital, I love digital work but there is always something special with practical effects, altogether I was simply blown away. Waiting for three months for this to arrive will be tough but it will be worth it.

Top 10 Favorite Moments of Avengers Endgame

We have hit the end of an era in the MCU. This was my most anticipated movie ever since I saw the end of Avengers Infinity War, I mean seriously, I wasn't the only one in that boat. I was hoping for a time machine to get to the future to watch this, but I waited for the movie the way of the natural course, watching videos of theories of what could happen, and enjoyed a couple of new really good MCU movies beforehand. But we finally got here, and it was amazing. I was blown away.

Now before I continue forward, I must give a SPOILER WARNING, as there are many that have still not seen it yet. So if you have not seen the movie, please don't read ahead.


Last chance.


Okay, now what I want to do is share my favorite moments from the movie, so I will do a top 10 of what my favorite moments from the movie were.

10. Roadey and Nebula watch Starlord dancing to "Come and Get Your Love" - The opening sequence of Guardians of the Galaxy with Starlord dance to "Come and Get Your Love" playing on his Walkman was a ton of fun to watch, but this takes it to the point that, what if someone was watching him dance without hearing the music, and that's what happens here, and the best part was the comment made by Roadey, "So....he's an idiot." and Nebula simply replies, "Yes". It took a favorite moment and gave us a different viewpoint and it gave us a hilarious moment.

9. Professor Hulk brings everyone back - This wasn't an expected part for me, I was expecting something to go wrong during this moment, so this was kind of tense in that way, plus of how it was built up. There is a great call back to the first Captain America movie that was nice, and also the comment from Hulk that he was made for this, how the many choices beforehand prepared him for this. I also like how after the snap, everything felt peaceful realizing that it worked after not being very sure, a big pay off for the heroes that only got bigger, but of course we have the insanity occur after the nice peaceful moment.

8. Thor talks about the Reality Stone when trying to get the stones back in time - I got to admit, I was shocked at the appearance of fat Thor, but I got a kick out of him in the movie. His funniest scene was when he was trying to talk about the reality stone back during the events of Thor The Dark World, and when he brought up the dark elves and his old girlfriend Jane, and just how he reacted to all of it, and everyone's reaction to his telling of the events as if they knew the train was about to crash, that was priceless.

7. Nebula gets Tony Stark on the chair when he falls asleep -This is a very small and quick moment, but something I appreciated and something I didn't think I would see from a character like Nebula. Nebula wasn't really one of my favorite characters when the first Guardians of the Galaxy movie debuted back in 2014, but over time, she became more intriguing, but I really liked when her and Tony bonded while on the Benatar, but that moment when she sees Tony on the floor sleeping, so she picks him up and sets him on the chair, just seeing her grow to that point was great.

6. Hawkeye gives the Time Travel device a test run - We have hit that moment where Hawkeye has lost hope, and refuses to think there is any left for him. At this moment, they need to test the time machine to see if it will work for the Avengers big journey to retrieve the stones from the past. Hawkeye agrees to test the machine, I don't know if he was expecting it to work or not. I put this on for two reasons, first because the visual of traveling through time for the first time was pretty cool, but also, to see Hawkeye in one sense be taken from a place of hopelessness and despair that occurred moments prior when he killed the Yakuza to being transported back to his home in the past where there is that warm feeling of home. It is a very brief moment but it helps establish hope back into his life. This place has a nice feeling of warmth and comfort since we were introduced to it back in Avengers Age of Ultron, so making that return (even though we were at it at the beginning of the movie) was very comforting, plus it was cool to see the time machine officially work for the first time and see how the Avengers would travel in time.

5. "I am....Iron Man" - This is a line that shocked me the most in the first Iron Man movie, the one that started the whole MCU. The one line that blew my expectations away and really got me interested in the sequel. Anyway, it was clever to use this line when Tony Stark uses the Infinity Stones to snap away the army of Thanos. It was a nice call back to the first movie, and it showed how much of a hero that Tony Stark has grown into throughout the series. If you remember in the first Avengers movie, Captain America made the comment that Tony wasn't the hero that would make the sacrifice play, and at that moment he really wasn't the type of hero that would, he kind of did at the end of that movie, but there was chances of survival then, at that moment when he put the Infinity Stones on his hand getting ready to snap, he knew right then and there that there would be no chance of him surviving, but he realized he had to make the sacrifice for his family and friends. Tony is a character that has really grown and it was great to see this, though him dying was still very sad.

4. Thor with his Mom - If any hero in the movie that really had a ton of guilt for what happened, it was Thor, he chose to spend time making Thanos suffer for killing his friend and brother instead of just killing him off by going for the head or even just cutting off his arm. Realizing his failure and his many losses and his guilt, Thor made the biggest change within the 5 year time jump, and it made sense. Thor returns to 2013 where him and Rocket retrieve the Reality Stone (aka liquid). This is where Thor runs into his mom and has a nice conversation with her. This conversation has a nice impact on Thor who has lost his way and helped bring him back on the path. She has a nice quote that  says, "A measure of a person, of a hero, is how well they succeed at being who they are." This was a nice little moment, how heroes have someone that they turn to for help and that we aren't all on our own and need to work together and need to help one another.

3. Captain America gets his happy ending - Captain America at the end of the movies goes on a journey to return the Infinity Stones, and Mjoinir back to their proper places. After completing the mission, he decides to return to his time to be with Peggy Carter. Yes, as the directors explained, this created a new branch in time (alternate reality) where he needed to jump from that alternate reality back to the original time line to meet with Falcon, but I want to focus on the payoff and not the science behind the ending, there are discussions where they talk about the science and how it works here, and I can share some of those later on. However, what really matters here is that Captain America got his big payoff, his happy ending by being with Peggy Carter, he always carried that compass with Peggy's picture in it throughout the series, this was his moral compass, one that would help keep him on the right path, we even see him with it at the beginning of Avengers Endgame as they are getting ready to fight Thanos and take back the gauntlet, the one where they fail, and you can tell it has a ton of meaning for him, and this kept him on the path of helping people, someone that he truly admired, his supposed lost hope, until the way for him to go back in time arrived. Also, this was a moment where they passed on the shield to Falcon which was a nice passing of the torch.

2. Captain America wields Thor's hammer Mjoinir - This moment was kind of hinted back in Avengers Age of Ultron, when everyone was trying to lift Mjoinir and were unable to move it in any way. When it comes to Captain America lifting the hammer, he is able to budge it slightly, and the shot then focuses on Thor who has a very worried look on his face. Could have Captain America lifted Mjoinir at that moment? I don't really know, I have heard discussions where he wasn't completely worthy because of hiding the truth of Bucky from Tony, to where he could have but chose not to lift it up completely. He stops pretty early so who knows, but if he could, Thor would not have been ready for the idea that someone either than him could lift it, but I think some of his experiences, like Hela crushing Mjoinir in Thor Ragnarok, probably helped to prepare him to accept the fact that Captain America was worthy. This was one moment that really got me cheering and it was so great to see this moment happen, and it was a great moment to rewatch each time. This was a great payoff moment and so great to see Captain America really use the power of Thor to knock down Thanos. This would be my top moment if it wasn't for one other that was so grand.

So before I give my favorite moment, I am going to give a few more favorites that didn't make my top 10 but were still awesome:
-Hulk seeing his past self in 2012
-Scott Lang talk about the idea of Time Travel to Steve and Natasha.
-Tony Stark cracks the code of Time Travel and his moment with his daughter after that
-Scott Lang blows one of the test runs for time travel
-Tony Stark and Scott Lang fail getting the tesseract from 2012

1. The gathering of everyone for the big battle - The moment was kind of set up not too long before, but you have the beginning of the battle where Thanos is fighting between Iron Man, Thor, and Captain America. After Thanos knocked them down, he sends in his massive army to take out the three Avengers and to wipe out the planet. You get Captain America with his broken shield ready to fight them on till his last breathe, and then you get Falcon on Cap's radio, "on your left" (nice callback to Winter Soldier), and slowly the portals open and a bunch of the heroes that were gone start to come back and everyone walks in, everyone from Black Panther to the Guardians of the Galaxy to the Wasp, to even Howard the Duck. The massive scope of this one shot was just amazing and it was great to see everyone come together. I went into the movie thinking that there was no way they could top the battles in Infinity War, and I was blown away at that moment and realized that they were going to top that battle in a very massive way. I reflect on that one line from Nick Fury in the first Iron Man end credit scene where he says, "You have become part of a bigger universe, you just don't know it yet." I didn't know how massive things would get but it was great to see all that happen, all that build up really paying off in a way I didn't think would occur. Seeing everyone battle and take down Thanos's army was awesome, to see everyone use their abilities and just that entire battle was amazing, but the coming together is what really stood out for me.

So those are my top 10 favorite moments. It was really hard to narrow it to 10 as this movie has a lot of amazing moments. This movie was worth the hype and as you can see by the box office numbers, it was worth it. I will update my personal ranking of the MCU movies soon.

SPOILER TALK - Avengers Endgame: Theory on One Line in Final Scene

This has been on my mind since the second viewing of the movie Avengers Endgame and I really wanted to share this theory. Keep in mind that this is just a theory and is not confirmed at all, and could have holes in it, but the idea sounded nice that I wanted to share it. Also, this will definitely go into SPOILERS, so don’t read below unless you have seen the movie.

Last chance....

When Captain America is about to go through time to return the stones to where they got them, Bruce is getting the time machine going and then made the mention that he really tried to bring Natasha back and that he really misses her. I would like to take this time to focus on that line, “I really tried to bring her back.”

As you remember, when they first gather all the Infinity Stones on the Iron Man glove, and Bruce agrees to put on the glove and snap the fingers, and right after that he passes out from exhaustion. I would like to take that moment and recall back to Thanos’s experience when he snapped his fingers at the end of Infinity War, once he did so, he was transported to the Soul World where he had his exchange with little Gamora, it lasted about a minute and then was brought back to that moment after he snapped his fingers, and it appears at that moment that no time passed. 

With all this in mind, it is very possible that Bruce had a very similar experience and we were not shown it. When Bruce snapped his fingers, he could have been transported to the Soul World, and found Natasha and they could have had a moment together and Bruce could have asked her to come with him, and she could have stated that she couldn’t go with him, and that she loved him and would miss him, something like that, and then cut back to where he passes out.

Keep in mind, this is just a theory, but it would make sense. Anyway, what are your thoughts? I will be sharing more of my favorite moments from the movie soon.

Avengers Endgame review

Just as I stated, I would provide a review on Avengers Endgame after I saw it. I am going to be going spoiler free as there is a lot that happens that I don't want to ruin anything, so this won't be very long for that reason. First off, kudos to the marketing team for not revealing everything.

The word I would use to describe the movie is amazing, it is epic, maybe a good way to describe it is amazingly epic. This movie felt like one big payoff over the last 11 years of Marvel movies. This movie felt like the end of an era of the MCU, and also allowed a new one to begin. I really don't want to say much else at this time as I worry that anything I could say could reveal a little too much, but this movie is epic, and it is one that you should see ASAP, even this weekend if you can still get tickets. I will do a spoiler filled review soon, but I think I want to give at least one more week before I share more of my thoughts on the movie. As far as where I would place it, I want to see it at least a couple of more times and think about that.

The Road to Endgame

This is it, we have made it to the concluding chapter of this era in the MCU. I will be seeing Avengers Endgame on tonight at 6:00 PM, and I am so excited, this is like waiting for Christmas to come. It continues to get harder to wait, but I can't wait to see what happens. Anyway, in preparation for the final chapter of the Infinity Saga (as Kevin Feige has called it), I went back and rewatched all the movies, including seeing Captain Marvel in theaters. I felt it was time to take the list I made last year and update it, including adding Avengers Infinity War, Ant Man and the Wasp, and Captain Marvel into the list.

21. Thor: The Dark World – This and Iron Man 2 kind of switch out between one another, but I went ahead and put this one at the bottom because this had aspects that just did not work for me. I find Darci to be pretty annoying, a villain that was forgettable (yeah, I am aware of the criticism of the villains in the Marvel Cinematic Universe to be the weaker aspect of the movies, but this one could have been way better), and a romance that was fell flat. I have to admit, I did not mind the romance between Thor and Jane Foster in the first one, but this one just made me wish that they would split the couple apart, which thankfully they did. I also felt there were issues with the pacing. That said, I still like the visuals and the moments between Thor and Loki were great, I also like what we get when we explore Asgard.

20. Iron Man 2 – The sequel to the one that started it all, unfortunately it was not the movie that we were hoping for. There were a ton of pacing issues, much like Thor The Dark World. As well, a villain that could have been really cool, and just seem to lose his momentum as the movie progressed. This became a movie that was focused more on world building instead of focusing on the main story, but at the same time, it was understandable and I can still forgive them for that, plus we got a cool introduction to Black Widow, and Justin Hammer by Sam Rockwell was a fun addition to the cast. So yeah, there were a ton of problems, but I had more fun with it this time around then when I tried to watch it again three years ago.

19. The Incredible Hulk – I don’t mind this one as much as other people do. I have seen lists on Facebook where people are gearing for Infinity War and this has become the entry that has been neglected or disregarded, and the reasons I completely understand. I got to admit though, this was still an entertaining movie when it came out, and Edward Norton’s take on Bruce Banner was pretty solid. The final fight between Hulk and Abomination were pretty cool, and some of the moments of humor were nice, obviously there has been much better use of humor in later movies, but the jokes they used were pretty good here. I don’t consider this a complete misfire at all.

18. Iron Man 3 – We could totally go into the biggest pet peeve of the movie, the villain, the one that actually came off as amazing in the trailer, and then…..yeah, if you have seen the movie, you know the reveal, but in case you haven’t seen it, I won’t ruin it here. With that out of the way, watching this again was nice to see the character of Tony Stark develop in this one. His experience of saving the world in The Avengers left him with PTSD. Maybe the fault was that expectations were high after the first Avengers movie and also the fact we were hoping this would make up for Iron Man 2. 

17. Thor – Until 2011, the only superheroes we got for the still small Marvel Cinematic Universe was Iron Man and The Incredible Hulk. I was not familiar with Thor as I never read the comics growing up, or new much about any of the superheroes unless a movie came out of them, so going into this I wasn’t too sure what to expect. It was a solid movie, I really liked the production design and also the score that accompanied the movie. It was a solid entry.

16. Avengers: Age of Ultron – Following up on the first Avengers has to be a difficult task to complete, as you can tell, this didn’t make my top 10 in Marvel movies, but honkestly, I wouldn’t scratch this off in any way, it was very entertaining and I actually enjoyed the villain in this. This has a ton of aspects that I thrillingly enjoyed. Also featured one of my blink and you’ll miss moments that made me laugh. So yes, this is flawed, but ton of great moments that make this one that I can put on and just watch for fun. 

15. Captain America: The First Avenger – This was not anticipated at all by me, but the trailers did kind of spark my interest, but I wasn’t too sure what to make of it going in, but this was a movie that really surprised me. I really enjoyed the World War 2 setting with sci-fi elements thrown into the mix, kind of had that vibe of The Rocketeer. Also features one of my favorite villains, not because of motives, but just because of the design and the performance.

14. Captain Marvel - One of the newest heroes to be introduced into the MCU. I have heard much about the character and how awesome she is, so I was looking forward to her solo movie, and I really enjoyed it. The big highlights were the 90s setting, I have very fond memories of the 90s, as that was where I did a lot of my growing up. Also, it was fun seeing all these little Easter eggs that connected throughout the MCU, and of course Goose the Cat (or Flirkin). I am also impressed with how they de-aged Samuel L Jackson and it really looked like they took him from the 90s and brought him here to film the movie. This movie is a ton of fun to watch. 

13. Spider Man Homecoming – Andrew Garfield’s turn as Spider Man kind of decreased my interest in another Spider Man movie, not because I thought he was a bad actor, but just the direction and everything about that reboot series, so yet we got another reboot, but they made the right choices with the rebooted character, in particular Spidey’s story in his first solo movie, which is to ditch the origin story and focus on his growth in this Avengers world. Also, this movie featured a twist that shocked me and the rest of the theater when we all first saw it. The approach to this movie was very entertaining, and still holds up now.

12. Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 – This features one of my favorite opening credit sequences. Seriously, if you aren’t at least smiling at that sequence, then I don’t know what to say. I have talked much about this already so I won’t go too much into it, but this movie was a ton of fun to watch and re-watching it in preparation for Endgame, I found myself just having a blast. Also, when I first watched the movie in the theater, during the first 20 minutes I was laughing so hard that I thought I was going to pass out.

11. Ant Man and the Wasp - After the release of Infinity War, I was looking forward to this, one of the reasons was to see what Ant Man was up to, but mainly because I recalled that article I read that featured Evangeline Lilly back in late 2017 where she talked about the role this movie would play in the MCU moving forward, and I figured this would help shed light on potential solutions for the next Avengers movie, so yes I was anticipating this, read my post on thoughts after Infinity War for more on my theories regarding this. I got a very fun movie with plenty of laughs, and also had some really cool tech and gave us more of a look into the Quantum Realm and the possibilities it gave us. Also, Luis and the truth serum.

10. Doctor Strange – I remember everyone talking about how excited they were for Doctor Strange, and once again, someone that doesn’t read comic book, I didn’t get the fascination when hearing about the character, that was until I saw the trailer, and what this would introduce to the MCU. This has the most inventive special effects for a movie, yeah we have The Matrix and Inception with similar effects, but that doesn’t diminish the wonder I feel when seeing these things on the screen. Actually, this featured the best use of 3D in a very long time. 

9. Ant Man – This movie ended up on my top 10 of 2015, it was a surprise to me as I wasn’t thinking there would be much out of it. My mind was still gearing towards Iron Man, Hulk, Thor, and Captain America. They introduced Guardians of the Galaxy, but I felt this was when they really started to crank out the more obscure characters and try to see how they would be received. This really delivered in so many ways. I really enjoyed the concept of the film, which was a heist movie with superhero elements. You can never go wrong with the use of Michael Pena’s character.

8. Captain America: Civil War – I don’t know where to start with this, this was a movie that featured so much, and the buildup of the universe is what made this entry worth it, and featured many things that made me think, like which side would I put myself on. Also, it introduced me to a character that I immediately became excited to see a solo movie for, that was Black Panther. What came before it is what made me emotionally invested, how were these characters going to come out of this, what would result. Yes, this featured the most forgettable villain, but for this movie I feel that was okay because the movie wasn’t about the villain but about the conflict and how everyone became challenged because of this conflict. Yeah, I have another Captain America movie that beat this even though this was excellent.

7. Black Panther – I already said it, I was looking forward to Black Panther’s solo movie after his debut in Captain America: Civil War. The world of Wakanda was breathtaking, and just awesome to look at, and is another example of how amazing the world building for the MCU really was. It also featured very intriguing characters that you would like to see solo movies for. This features a very good music score and a very good message. This felt like a very unique solo movie. If you asked me if I thought this would become so popular that it would become number three in the all time box office in the US, I wouldn’t have believed you. 

6. Thor Ragnarok – As you can tell, the Thor movies weren’t among my favorites in the MCU, at least until this one came out. This was the movie that got me more invested in the character and really enjoyed the adventure that he was on. Everything about this felt very fresh thanks to the director. Everything about this movie was very unique. Also, the ending was a bit of a surprise for me as I didn’t think it was going to end the way it did. But everything about this movie was just a blast to watch. A part of me wants to find the original script and read it to see what was scripted and what was improvised. 

5. Captain America: The Winter Soldier – After Iron Man 3 and Thor The Dark World in 2013, I figured I had the direction on where everything was going heading into Avengers Age of Ultron. Not only did this prove me wrong, but it managed to destroy any possible idea I may have had. This was a movie that really surprised me in so many ways, first off by the action, by the direction and by the story. I never thought about the idea of SHIELD becoming corrupt from the inside. The first Captain America movie was a solid entry, but the sequel went from a fun adventure movie to a political thriller, even made me think about what I would do in these kind of situations. Yes, Civil War was excellent, and I juggled as to which one I liked more between this and Civil War, but in the end I liked this one more as this one surprised me way more as to what to expect.

4. Iron Man – The one that started it all, still among one of my favorites. I went in not expecting anything, and walking out being blown away. As you can read in my last post, I did not find out about the end credit sequence till about a couple of weeks later. Here is a question for everyone, when and how did you discover the end credit sequence? This movie had great action, and gave us a lot of cool attitude, and I also really enjoyed the soundtrack to this. This was a great set up and we didn’t even know how big things would go from there, but the fact they started off right is what makes this excellent.

3. Guardians of the Galaxy – Up to this point, the only Marvel movies we had were about Iron Man, Hulk, Thor, and Captain America. This was the first time that they featured any other Marvel characters, and there were probably many that didn’t know what to expect going in. I went in the first weekend because it was a Marvel movie but also the idea behind it really caught my eye, kind of reminded me of a Star Wars movie. Did they expect this to be the hit that it became to be? So many questions, but this was the first time we were introduced to new characters and were not featured any of the bigger known characters. Actually, this was a group of heroes that were not very well known, but I don’t count as I said many times before, I didn’t read the comics growing up. But this became a big hit and blew many away, myself included, and not only that, it is one of those that you can rewatch again and again just because.

2. Avengers Infinity War - This was my most anticipated movie last year and I even wondered at times if they would pull it off, let alone it be something that I would want to rewatch quite a bit. This is one of those movies, despite the dark ending, that I can rewatch quite a bit. Seeing all the characters come together (minus a few) and see them interact with one another was like a dream come true. I also keep thinking how gorgeous the visuals of the movie look, obviously from the CG work on the movie, but also the colors of many of the shots in space, especially when they go to Nidavellir to make Thor's new weapon, the colors and the scope of the place are just amazing. All the locations in space they go to are just amazing. This movie features many awesome action sequences and many moments where you want to cheer, I still remember the moment where Thor, Rocket, and Groot arrive in Wakanda, and just getting very excited at that moment. This is a movie that I find many awesome things each time I rewatch it.

1. The Avengers – This is my favorite Marvel movie at this moment, but of course we will have to see where Endgame falls on this list after the movie comes out. We had many superhero movies before, but this was the first time that we had this kind of movie where you combined superheroes from other movies. This was something that was not done before, and that was what made this exciting. Not only that, it was an incredibly entertaining movie, with tons of laughs. I was among those that was concerned with them replacing Edward Norton with Mark Ruffalo, as I enjoyed Edward Norton as Bruce Banner, but Mark Ruffalo did a great job. What made this work was we had a director that knew how to make each character interaction work, every laugh worked because of this. I enjoyed coming back to the theater each time I could to see this because of how entertaining it was. I still enjoy going back to rewatch it. Yes, the MCU has gotten so much bigger and has grown so much since the Avengers first assembled here, but there is something so perfect about this outing that it still stays on the top of my list after all these years. And this is something I can rewatch quite a bit.

I am stoked to see Avengers Endgame tonight. Once I see it, I will share brief thoughts on the movie that night, but I will keep it spoiler free, and then will go into more details on the movie a week or two later. 

Alita Battle Angel review

Warning: May contain potential spoilers

This was suppose to come out last July, and then it was delayed till December, and then it was delayed again till February, so I began to go from very interested to very concerned. However I decided I wanted to give it a shot, so I got into a special screening on Thursday, and I got to admit that I really enjoyed it. I want to address the main attraction of the movie, and that’s the visuals, and wow were the visuals were incredible. The world that was created for this movie was just spectacular, and were captivating. A part of me wishes I could jump into the screen and wonder around this world, that’s how cool it was. 

Next part that was amazing in the movie was the action, the action was so cool. One of the highlights was the Motorball sequences, besides movies, another favorite past time activity for me is Rollerblading, so that was cool to see that here. All the other action sequences were cool as well and that added to the amazing visuals. 

I was also invested in the main character of the movie, Alita, she was very intriguing and I enjoyed learning about her and cared what happened to her. There was a moment where something happens to a supporting character, and while I didn’t care for this supporting character, I did care about how she felt and that affected me more than what happened to this supporting character, it is a spoiler so I am trying to veer away from the details, but I am willing to go into this movie after this it comes out. I liked some of the other supporting characters like Christopher Waltz’s character who was the scientist that helped find Alita.

How was the story, I thought it was fine, there is a lot of world building and there is definitely a fair amount of setting up for future installments. It didn’t bug me that much, and I kind of hope they do get enough to make a sequel as I would like to see what happens. Let me put it this way, the main character was so interesting that it helped drive the story for me, there were flaws but you can tell there was a ton of effort put into the movie that I really appreciated it.

I look forward to seeing the movie again when it officially comes out in theaters. If you want to see this or are interested, I recommend checking it out in IMAX, it is worth seeing on the biggest screen possible to get the biggest experience.