Recently watched movies!

[O.Supreme]

Avengers Age of Ultron -Not sure why, of all the MCU films, I was compelled to watch this one last night, probably because its been a while, or because I finished rewatchng The Office, and I just like James Spaders' quirkiness...at any rate... It was still entertaining. I know a LOT of people ultimately gave it negative reviews, but I still like it. Also, I noticed this I believe was the first time Stark refers to "The Endgame" (trying to justify the creation of Ultron to act as protection the next time aliens invade). Though it's now famously stated by Dr. Strange in IW.

Kind of like how "It's A Trap" is always attributed to Ackbar in RotJ, but Leia actually said it first in EsB....

[Dr Kain]

Ant-Man and the Wasp - Not as bad as I thought it was when I watched it in theaters. In fact, I pretty much enjoyed it this time around, raising my score from a 7 to an 8/10.

[lhb412]

Godzilla vs. Biollante, Godzilla vs. King Ghidorah, Godzilla vs. Mothra and Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla II

Whew! Went through several in a few days! Biollante is one of my favorites, so that's always fun to watch. That movie interests me structurally, because the 1st act is so chaotic with all these characters and organizations and things introduced but once Godzilla shows up it all kind of snaps together and you see how everything relates to each other.

King Ghidorah I like more and more, because of its ambition and it trying to tackle the schism at the heart of Godzilla's popularity as a character; namely him being a nuclear destroyer and a Japanese folk hero.

Of course, from here on the '90s movies become rather repetitive and feature a whole lot of structural and stylistic things me and others have spent a lot of time complaining about, but I was resolved this time to just lighten up and enjoy the movies and for the most part I have. The setup in Godzilla vs Mothra it's actually pretty good, even if it feels like little of it pays off once the movie gets going. But there at the end of Mechagodzilla I felt the stylistic repetitiveness of the 90s movies kind of getting to me. This is probably a result of watching them all so close together, so maybe I should take a few days off before I finish off with SpaceGodzilla and Destoroyah.

[jellydonut25]

[lhb412]

Wanted to take a break... but ended up watching Godzilla vs. Spacegodzilla, Godzilla vs. Destoroyah and Godzilla (1998)

Spacegodzilla has nice location footage and better cinematography than the films around it. Destoroyah has a great first half that doesn't culminate in a satisfying second half.

It really bothers me when people say the 1998 Godzilla is bad because it deviates too much from what Godzilla is supposed to be, but it's an alright movie when you disregard that.

Folks, that's bull. The characters are annoying and their arcs are inane. Who cares about Audrey being a reporter or Nick being kicked off the team?! The movie spends so much time convinced we're invested in these things. The humor misses the mark so thoroughly it seems like they marked places for jokes to be in the screenplay and forgot to take another pass and actually put the jokes in. All tension and suspense deflates the moment Godzilla makes landfall in NYC, which is inexplicable! The movie doesn't know whether Godzilla is scary or sympathetic and doesn't commit to either. It's a first draft that was filmed.

[canofhumdingers]

Been busy lately but I've squeezed in some films when I could.

Shazam! - this was great! I really have no negative comments at all. I loved everything about it! Being rather unfamiliar with the character, I was blindsided by the more "Ghostbustery" aspect and that was a real treat. Very eagerly awaiting the sequel!

Avengers Endgame - Dang, Marvel. You guys know how to stick a landing! What a perfect ending to the first wave of MCU characters. I won't go into spoilers, but I will say Captain America has easily been my favorite MCU hero. I mean, no one else even comes close to how much I enjoy good ol' Cap. And I walked out of the theater with a huge smile on my face. I could not be any happier with his role in the film. It was perfect!

[klen7]

Endgame: a solid ending, plenty of hero moments. I hadn't seen Captain Marvel, so her moments felt a little like if Superman had shown up, but overall this was such a good flick with plenty of nods to the journey that brought us here. Makes me want to go rewatch Winter Soldier, and now I can't wait to see what the Russo's do outside of Marvel.

Godzilla 2014: I really love this film, i wish Gareth Edwards had continued the franchise.

Bumblebee: Finally got around to seeing this, glad i did. The Mrs even enjoyed it to rewatch it the next day

[Gwangi]

"Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse". I liked it. Thumbs up. *** stars on the Maltin scale. But God help me, I was not in love with it. I would not deem it as an "instant classic", others have more or less, labeled it to be.

Very interesting concept. Great villains. But, I just could not stand Miles Morales! I realize that he was a teen who had just been thrusted into the situation, so perhaps, I should give some leeway on that. Still, I am kinda of sick of whiny Spider-Men. I miss that clever, smart aleck, and somewhat older version, that I grew up watching with the 1967 cartoons. To give credit, where credit is due, the movie does hint at some of those qualities.

[Dr Kain]

Assassination Nation - This was so god damn BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOORING! Everything they showed you in the trailer was not until the last 10 minutes of the movie so you spent the other 90 minutes wondering when the good stuff was going to happen. Ugh. If I had seen this movie last year, it would have easily made my top 10 worst movies of 2018 list. I will give it some credit for at least having some cool camera work, so that saves it from being anything below a 4/10.

[lhb412]

^^ I totally disagree on Miles! I was left hoping the sequel focuses just on him and his family and friends with no other Spider-people.

[jellydonut25]

[Dr Kain]

Godzilla 98 isn't bad because it's a bad Godzilla movie, it's bad because it's down right boring. However, in the grand scheme of things, it's not THE worst Godzilla film ever. Those awards go to the anime trilogy and SpaceG.

[O.Supreme]

[lhb412]

A Matter of Life and Death

During World War II, a British aiman, played by Larry Niven, dies jumping out of his plane on his way back to England. Only, he washes up on the beach unharmed. There's been a mistake, and he has failed to report into the afterlife because his appointed conductor got lost in the English fog. He falls in love with the American RAF volunteer he spoke with on the radio right before he jumped out, and when a ghost is dispatched to retrieve him he refuses to go, saying that now that he's fallen in love he has additional responsibilities. This makes things very complicated in heaven, where a trial is arranged to decide whether he gets to keep the life that has been accidentally given to him. Or, maybe this is all in his mind caused by epilepsy induced by brain injury...

This is one of the greatest movies ever made, or one of my favorites, at least. The cast is excellent; it's Technicolor at it's most beautiful due to genius Director of Photography Jack Cardiff; it possesses some of the cleverest special effects ever committed to film; and it's all in service of a very sweet, fable-like story.

Avengers: Endgame

A very satisfying season finale to the television show we've been seeing in the theaters this past decade. That's what it feels like, right? It's useless to discuss this as a single movie because it's not. It's a mega sized version of a good Doctor Who season finale.

It's hard to give thoughtful criticism to this movie, because I feel like any review would really just review the 20 + movies that it's a part of. The truth is, I typically hate these big events that ensnare all of the characters when it comes to comics. For every great event comic story there's 20 generic, forgettable ones that mess with what's going on in everyone else's storylines. I feel that sometimes the case in these movies, too. I thought Thor Ragnarok was one of the best Marvel movies, yet when Thor is ensnared into the plot of Infinity War it undoes a lot of the great character work that made Ragnarok such a satisfying story. Likewise, I enjoyed the dynamic between Steve and his friends in Winter Soldier and I felt that the development of that core dynamic was stunted when the sequel, Civil War, was made into more of an Avengers film, marginalizing the storylines unique to Captain America and his crew. Those are just two examples, but there's much more. In the end, while a shared universe is very exciting and offers all sorts of opportunities for new cool combinations it also can detrimentally affect single stories.

The biggest compliment I can give Avengers Endgame is that it mostly doesn't do that. It is 90% a satisfying wrap up to the themes and storylines established in all the previous movies, and frankly that is an enormous achievement. It's also a great Improvement on the previous film, which I didn't care for. Being able to concentrate on a smaller cast is partially the reason for its superiority, but also this movie is better at juggling tones and keeping things interesting. It's a longer movie, but it's so light on its feet it feels like it goes by quicker than the previous installment.

[O.Supreme]

So... Most people know what the current #1 and #2 highest grossing films Globally of 2019 are...but chances are, unless you are in China, or your into Box Office Numbers, you've never heard of #3

At nearly 700M The Wandering Earth just dropped on Netflix without any advertisement whatsoever. I had been wanting to see this, but couldn't manage to get out to one of the theaters in my area that had it in its limited U.S. run. It was only thanks to a youtube channel I watch that I was even informed of its arrival.

Plot Summation: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Wandering_Earth

With a reported budget equivalent to roughly 50M, this is China's most ambitious film to date, venturing into Sci-Fi and hoping for global recognition. I thought the film overall looked pretty good. The characters were fairly compelling, and the plot was not boring, which for me is really saying something because admittedly I am not as keen on Chinese cinema as i am on Japanese, and sometimes things are just *lost in translation*. These is an English dub on Netflix, so you can choose subs or dub.

In some ways, it reminds me of a more extreme version of the Toho classic Gorath. The idea of moving the earth in real world terms is ludicrous, but, just turn off your brain, and enjoy the compelling story and pretty good special effects (in some ways this reminds me of Armageddon as well ) . Heck, come to think of it, there are quite a few nods to other sci-fi films and novels -2001, Journey to the Center of the Earth and a few others.

I recommend this as a film to definitely give a watch if you have time. On the surface it will probably just seem like a generic sci-fi film, but if viewed from the stance that this is a country with a blossoming film industry, there is definitely potential for a lot of really good films to come out of China in the years to come.

[O.Supreme]

Stargate Origins: Catherine ok...so this was a thing on Amazon Prime. A Prequel set in 1938 (just 10 years after the modern discovery of the gate) . I am a huge fan of the original film, and SG1 was OK, not so much the others. I still wish original sequels would have been made but oh well. I would love for Stargate to continue to receive entries, but this was just bad. For a film, it seemed like it had lower production value than any TV episode even.

Also, I wondered how they were going to explain the fact that in the first film, Old Catherine says that once they discovered the 7th symbol *that* was the first successful gate opening (since now Nazi's figured it out in 1938...)...Well of course *amnesia* was the explanation, though amnesia was never a side effect of going through the gate ever before or since in any other version of the media .

[O.Supreme]

Completed a full rewatch of all 3 MIB films. What is amazing is that looking back at Box Office numbers, none of these films was overwhelmingly successful, however they continue to be produced. I don't mind, because I actually enjoy them. There is a LOT of very subtle humor that only gets better with each repeat viewing, as opposed to some of the more obvious comedic bits. I actually think the second film is bar far the weakest of the three. IIRC, Will Smith made a BIG push to get the 3rd film made, which I can understand Columbia's hesitance after the second didn't do so well. But I am glad as the 3rd film really shines in certain moments.

I really didn't plan this as preparation for MIB International, but the timing worked out. I'll admit my anticipation for that film isn't really much (well compared with Godzilla, my anticipation for everything else would seem very minimal...), but I would definitely not mind seeing this at a matinee.

[klen7]

^ i need to rewatch these at some point, my memory has it as a series of significantly diminishing returns each time

[Dr Kain]

I couldn't even get into the original MIB film, so I never touched the sequels. I have no plans for the new one either. I did like the cartoon series though.

[jellydonut25]

I really like the original Men in Black. The second was so bad I never bothered with the third and MIB International looks so terrible I'm planning on skipping it in order to preserve my opinion of the actors in it.

[O.Supreme]

^ I can understand the extreme dislike for the second film, but I'd give the third one a chance at least. Josh Brolin really shines as a young Agent K, and the end is a really nice tie up to the entire trilogy. In a way International is the best possible outcome (as opposed to that horrific jump street crossover ugh... so glad that was scrapped). It continues in the original universe, without being a reboot, but with new actors/characters, and anyone who doesn't want to isn't obligated to see it as it is a whole new story.

[jellydonut25]

I would have LOVED for Lord & Miller to do the Jump Street crossover.

[O.Supreme]

They are great writers, no doubt, but some things just shouldn't be. Jump Street & MIB have about as much in common as Stargate and Friday the 13th....

[jellydonut25]

[Benjamin Haines]