We have come to the end of another summer full of movies. There were a few that were amazing, some that were good, and a few that were disappointments. Today I am going to take the time to rank the movies I saw this summer and how they all fit in to the categories below.
Top 5 of the Summer
1. Avengers Endgame - I don't think this is a surprise to anyone, but if this a surprise for you...umm well SURPRISE. This movie was a mind blowing experience with so many great surprises and wonderful moments that range from laugh out loud to heart warming. What was so great was that this movie was basically kept under wraps, some predicted a few things but not the whole movie, which made the experience a very pleasant surprise. We live in a world today where it feels like everything is given away in the previews. I am so glad everyone went to great lengths to keep this under wraps and beg not to spoil the movie, at least until opening weekend. This was the epic comic book movie I didn't know I really wanted and the movie that I didn't know would be possible but I am extremely grateful we have.
2. Toy Story 4 - When I heard about a 4th Toy Story being made, I thought why, the 3rd ended perfectly that I felt we didn't need one. But this came out and I saw it and I was very surprised on how well this continued the story for these characters, and how this gave a great conclusion to Woody's story. This felt like a nice adventure movie with plenty of laughs, especially from Duck and Bunny, and Duke Kaboom. The one that gave me the biggest laugh (besides from Duck and Bunny's plans to get the keys) is when Buttercup suggests to frame the dad so he goes to jail. I still think Toy Story 3 is the best, but this proved that the Toy Story world can continue with a great movie.
3. Yesterday - How would you react if you woke up one day and your favorite band disappeared from off the face of the earth? You remember the music but no one else knows what the disappeared band is. This concept is brought up in this movie as one aspiring musician decides to take this as an opportunity to present the music as his own. This is a very entertaining and original idea. The actor also does a great job at performing the songs. One of my favorite bands is U2, if they disappeared, don't turn to me to bring the music back since I am not very good with performing music.
4. Spider Man: Far From Home - After an epic adventure in Avengers Endgame, it's hard to imagine where the MCU could go, but this movie gives us a world on what would happen after the events of Endgame. As well, this was a nice palette cleanser. We get a very compelling villain with Mysterio. There is one sequence that was really mind blowing visually, talking about it in detail would be a huge spoiler, so I will just say it's mind blowing and hope you get to check it out as soon as possible, it is amazing what special effects can do these days. There are plenty of surprises, and after the movie was over I wanted to rewatch the movie with the new angle I was given.
5. The Farewell - A movie I heard about but never bother looking up a trailer for, but I heard nothing but great things about, and so I went to see it and this movie was really good. This had a story that made me think about what I would do in that scenario. For those that don't know, it's about a woman who has her grandma get diagnosed with cancer and the family chooses not to tell the grandma about it, and this is supposedly how China culture functions. This had some good laughs here and there, and great performances, especially from Awkwafina, who I have known from comedies, so it was good to see her attempt something a little more serious.
Other great movies
Hobbs and Shaw - Somehow after 8 movies, I have become a fan of the Fast and Furious movies. I did not care for the first few movies, I say the 5th movie was when things got very interesting. So we are with this spin off, and this movie was a blast to watch. Even the few cameo additions really added to the fun. Even if you aren't a fan of the series but enjoy dumb action movies, you will have a ton of fun watching this and don't have to see the other movies to enjoy it.
Detective Pikachu - I didn't grow up as a fan of Pokemon, I did watch some of the episodes of the first season and was aware of the games. Each trailer I saw for this just painted a very fun movie, and that's what I got when I saw the movie, a very fun movie where the world that was created was just fun to explore. Plus, Ryan Reynolds as Pikachu, that was perfect casting.
Enjoyable
Aladdin - This was a movie I had no anticipation to see whatsoever, if you review my list of anticipated movies, I included Lion King and Dumbo, but not this at all. I ended up enjoying this a lot more than I thought I would, this was one of the biggest surprises of the summer. Yeah, we didn't need this movie, but I feel they handled this movie very well. Props to casting Will Smith as the Genie and allowing him to put his own spin on the character instead of trying to personate what Robin Williams had done before.
Godzilla: King of the Monsters - To properly enjoy this movie, watch it on the big screen, I understand this isn't in theaters anymore, I mean watching it on a big screen TV or projector screen. This is a movie that was made to be experienced on the biggest screen possible, even on your biggest TV you have at home, and a very good home theater set up. I saw this on the IMAX screen and many of the shots of the movie were so epic, and the monster fights were enhanced by experiencing it in that way. Also, don't go in expecting a deep story, just go in for awesome monster fights and you will have a fun time.
Scary Stories to Tell In The Dark - I don't have many experiences with the books this movie is based on. I might have heard a couple of the stories, but I don't have a strong connection to the stories. I went because I had a few friends that invited me to join, and I was curious enough to check it out. I ended up enjoying the movie more than I expected to. This had the right amount of scares for me. I was entertained, and this could end up as one of those movies that I might put on my list of movies during the Halloween season.
Watch once, then move on
The Lion King (2019) - Let's describe this movie as the photorealistic version of Lion King. It is suppose to be live action, but since it's done on a computer it's basically animated but it's animated in a way it's suppose to represent real life, so I consider it photorealistic. I didn't have high expectations, but I did have hopes that this would be more different than it turned out to be. The big disappointment for me was this was a movie was done better in traditional animation, and I understand the reason, the creators were trying to trying to go for a realistic approach, and since lions don't show emotion in real life, they didn't emote here and that became a distraction for me. However, the visuals were still incredible, and the story is still good. This was just one of those I wished they did something a little more different with, kind of like Aladdin.
Men In Black International - Ever since I saw the trailer in December, I was excited for this, it looked like it was going to be a fun movie, I ended up being really disappointed with it. However, once we got past the first half of the movie, it got better and I enjoyed it more than the first half, so I walked away with a smile on my face at the end of the movie. However it wasn't enough for me to make this a repeat watch, which is sad because the first movie is one I can watch quite a bit and also the third one as well.
47 Meters Down Uncaged - This should probably be in the major disappointments below, but the thing is, I wasn't disappointed...because I had no expectations going in at all. Did this excel my expectations then? No. But I certainly got plenty of laughs out of this, one could almost say this was one of the best unintentional comedies I saw this summer. The decisions made were kind of baffling. But hey, you want a dumb shark movie and want stupid unintentional laughs, this movie is perfect, but I would wait for Netflix.
Major disappointments
Dark Phoenix - I really think they should have ended the Fox X-Men saga with Logan, that was a perfect ending, also, X-Men Apocalypse ended the prequel trilogy just fine, we didn't need a continuation. So with all this in mind, I had no expectations when I saw the first trailer debut last year. My expectations didn't grow overtime, but I decided to see it regardless. Even with no expectations, I was surprisingly disappointed because I realized there was potential with the movie and it could have been somewhat fixed with a different director and made different choices.
So these are the movies that I saw this summer. There are some I didn't see this summer that I would like to check out soon, and if they blow my expectations away, I might include them on my top 10 at the end of the year. Anyway, I will be back later with a list of my most anticipated movies of the rest of the year. See you soon.
Wednesday, September 11, 2019
Tuesday, August 6, 2019
Tenet teaser - a nice treat
I went to see Hobbs and Shaw last Thursday when it opened and it was a ton of fun. But I got one surprise that I wasn’t expecting, a teaser for Christopher Nolan’s next movie, Tenet. It was about a minute and only gave glimpses of the movie and not enough to put together a narrative or to give us an idea of what kind of movie to expect, but the vibe of the trailer reminded me of the teaser for Inception which debuted about 11 months before the movie came out. This teaser was a special treat and gave me a nice taste of what to expect and I can’t wait for the full course meal next year.
After the debut of the teaser, I realized I didn’t find it online earlier that day, or afterwards at the time of writing this. I don’t get as excited about seeing teasers or trailers on the big screen because I can find them online or there are so many that I tend to think “not another one”, but this was a treat. It also got me thinking that it would be cool to make the teaser and/or trailer available in theaters first before dropping them online. I don’t think this needs to be the case for every movie, but certain ones. What do you think?
Thursday, June 13, 2019
Toy Story 4 - Excited or concerned?
Nine years ago, we were given Toy Story 3, the conclusion to a great trilogy that was part of our lives for 15 years, the first movie was a phenomenon, as it was the first computer animated feature length film, then the second one was a great follow up, and then the third gave a fantastic conclusion to this great trilogy....or so we thought. I don't remember when it was announced, but soon we found out that there would be a Toy Story 4. My first reaction was why, we had a great conclusion and we don't need a follow up, I was guessing that they had success with the shorts that featured Woody and the gang in Bonnie's house, so my thought was that they wanted to capitalize on that success and make another one, my initial thought was that they wanted more money, and of course that would be the reason for most of these movies in the film industry, but then I wondered if they had another reason behind it, I didn't think about that until recently.
Each time I see a trailer for the new Toy Story movie, there was nothing that really got me excited to see it, it seemed like a movie that was created just to get more cash for Pixar and that was it, it seemed like a new adventure with no real reason to continue the series. So that is the trailers, but then I started looking into the articles that talked about the movie where they interviewed the principle actors of the main characters, mainly Tom Hanks and Tim Allen. I first read that Tim Allen got emotional when he came in to record the final scene for the movie, he said it was tough for him to get through. At this time, I have no clue what that exactly means. Not too long ago, there was another article where Tom Hanks talked about being warned by Tim Allen about recording the final scene and how it was a tough one, and Tom Hanks admitted it was tough for him to get through. Based on this, it sounds like it's more than just the realization that this would be the last time these characters would be playing these iconic characters, but that there was more to this final scene. The next piece I heard is that when Toy Story 4 was proposed, many shot it down because there was already a conclusion to the series, and then it was stated that Toy Story 3 was a conclusion to Andy's story, but that they should do a conclusion to Woody's story.
So with all this in mind, am I excited or concerned? I prefer to say that I am intrigued. I heard reports that this was suppose to come out a while back so it appears that they took their time to get this right, so I think it's safe to assume that this movie will probably surprise us. Either way, I will go see this opening weekend and will try to share my impressions of it as soon as I can.
Each time I see a trailer for the new Toy Story movie, there was nothing that really got me excited to see it, it seemed like a movie that was created just to get more cash for Pixar and that was it, it seemed like a new adventure with no real reason to continue the series. So that is the trailers, but then I started looking into the articles that talked about the movie where they interviewed the principle actors of the main characters, mainly Tom Hanks and Tim Allen. I first read that Tim Allen got emotional when he came in to record the final scene for the movie, he said it was tough for him to get through. At this time, I have no clue what that exactly means. Not too long ago, there was another article where Tom Hanks talked about being warned by Tim Allen about recording the final scene and how it was a tough one, and Tom Hanks admitted it was tough for him to get through. Based on this, it sounds like it's more than just the realization that this would be the last time these characters would be playing these iconic characters, but that there was more to this final scene. The next piece I heard is that when Toy Story 4 was proposed, many shot it down because there was already a conclusion to the series, and then it was stated that Toy Story 3 was a conclusion to Andy's story, but that they should do a conclusion to Woody's story.
So with all this in mind, am I excited or concerned? I prefer to say that I am intrigued. I heard reports that this was suppose to come out a while back so it appears that they took their time to get this right, so I think it's safe to assume that this movie will probably surprise us. Either way, I will go see this opening weekend and will try to share my impressions of it as soon as I can.
Wednesday, June 5, 2019
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.
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.
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.
Thursday, May 30, 2019
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.
Saturday, May 11, 2019
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.
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.
Wednesday, May 1, 2019
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.
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