MCU picks its
blonde Wonder Woman to fight
shapeshifters and Jude
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Category: Marvel
ANT-MAN and The WASP (2018) movie review
Expect Marvel – that primary color palate and pert pacing. Expect Rudd’s quick wit of puns and one liners. Expect hard kicking Ghost girl to startle, but never during warm family moments.
Expect to see Evangeline Lily showing the many seasons of emotion as seen in Kate from Lost all rolled into this one film.
More size-shifting spectacles make this yet another fun classic Marvel hero flick. See it and you’ll get exactly what you expect: an Ant Man & aWasp.
AVENGERS: Infinity War (2018) movie review
All of the souped up super heroes from ten years of Marvel magic unite to share 2.5 hours of slightly tedious exposition and some hard kicking to defeat Thanos.
That formidable enemy with a righteous thirst for universal domination has only to injure the one closest to each stone keeper for them to give it up.
Kudos to Marvel writers for balancing so many plot lines and sticking to the story Bibles from a decade of character re-creating. Inventing action with matching one-liners for comic relief is no small task. Every character gets one-line comic glory. Here are a few of my favorites:
“That was gross.”
“An hour.”
“That’s what killing is.”
Despite the gaggle of famous faces, they somehow leave room for a few surprise guests: Voldemort as dementor, Tyrion as oxymoronic giant dwarf, purple Hellboy, Loki’s CG twin sister, an Iron Hulk, and the Demogorgon.
Don’t worry. Thor is still the thunder god, Cap the hot moralist, Scarlett’s Black Widow kicks the crew into action, and Tony Stark boasts ever newer and better tech. Wakandans, Bruce Banner, and all of the Guardians of the Galaxy run madly toward battle fronts covered in Orc-like goblin goons and the godlike children of Thanos.
It’s a little like those charity performances that combine all of the chart-topping vocalists to help heal the world. Rod Stewart and Sting get their stand-out moments next to Aretha. All maintain personal style, but you hope that together they won’t make a cacophony. Infinity War meets the challenge in vignettes with unique groupings combining efforts and quirks. 
Back in NYC, over African countrysides, and across the universe, backstory runs a long legato strain under moments of humor and triumph. All Avenge, though not all are present. Ant Man, Hawkeye, and others wait in the wings for the next star-studded film experience.
Thematically sparing one life at a time, they sacrifice all in the process to show Marvel’s minion fans that they too can suffer long. After an Empire Strikes Back-esque cliffhanger, part 2 with Brie Larson as Captain Marvel won’t appear for yet another year. Just remember that this is a comic series and that the Gauntlet, covered in stones, now controls space, mind, time, reality, power, and soul. All is not lost.
BLACK PANTHER (2018) movie review
Forget your fear that Marvel will take over movies as we know them. Never mind those haunting urges that attending might mean you’re supporting the “man” of the movie industry. That cash cow should not keep you from enjoying a night at the movies.
Give Marvel’s new James Bond that sweet Panther suit, a sassy brainy sister with access to more tech-power than Iron Man can boast, an army of spear-wielding women, and a backstory littered with the weight of royalty, alien metal, and starlit Lion King nods, and you’ve got the action-packed two plus hours of Black Panther.
The perfect cast pounces into action while Andy Serkis gives chase. You may have to overlook the piece-meal religious appropriations and some overly charged CGI, but this movie is everything you’ve come to expect: lively and exhilarating action in a stand-alone story that introduces a slew of new likable characters who jump battle-ready from scene to scene.
The tribal traditions offer depth of culture to the every-hero-an-Island usual Marvel landscape. Here heroes are born, made, and continue to fight for place earning the respect of a nation with a secret that could change the world if shared.
THOR: RAGNAROK (2017) movie review
Ragnarok is quirk and pizzazz in primary colors. It’s one-liners on trash planets run by Jeff Goldblum. It’s humor and clash and straight rock and roll. It’s meant to be fun.
The beauty of current Marvel films, still solid in story, is that they don’t take themselves too seriously. The pure cadence of Goldblum’s speech sets the tone for Thor’s third in the Marvel regime. Perhaps the Pratt playful dialogue of Guardians is contagious and they knew they’d need to bridge that gap before Infinity War.
In Norse myth, Ragnarok is the famous end game as prophesied in dreams. It is the end of Asgard, and it specifies the deaths of each member of Odin’s household, including Thor. Novelist Neil Gaiman recently released his book “Norse Mythology” which offers short stories detailing the lore of Thor, the hijinks of Loki, the double-sided nature of the All-father Odin, the true evil nature of Hela the goddess of death, the wisdom of Heimdall, the details of Ragnorok, and more. It’s brilliant.
Thor operates with different tools, as a god. His super strength, second only to his chiseled abs, helps him to defeat evil forces like frost giants that threaten his community. With the loss of his hammer, poor Thor is displaced and forced into the gladiatorial ring. He must escape, form a new team, and rescue Asgard before his long-lost sister destroys everything he spent his life protecting.
Unlike the deities of Greek mythology who fear nothing as they play dice with mortal humanity, Norse gods know that their days are numbered. Life is therefore more precious, purposed; it’s a battle worth fighting. And if you’ve been riding the Marvel train all along, you’ll probably agree that this is a film worth seeing.
SPIDER-MAN: HOMECOMING (2017) movie review
The Marvel machine is up and running the sides of skyscrapers once again, spinning webs over lampposts, swinging freely through city streets.
With this latest installment of Spidey in the suit, protecting NYC’s friendly neighborhood boroughs, of course he’s going to meet up with some baddies. And, who better than Michael Keaton to play “Vulture” and offset the mix.
Robert Downey Jr returns as Iron Man – this time as fatherly mentor… Or anti-mentor.
A growing all-star line-up also adds Marisa Tomei, Zendaya, and my personal fav Donald Glover to the already long list of Marvel celebs including returners Jon Favreau and Gwyneth Paltrow. The story is sweet, fresh, young, and suitable for all audiences, I believe.
Somehow it’s cool because it doesn’t fight to stay cool; it just builds on confidence and lets Homecoming be the coming-of-age story it’s meant to be.
Where both Maguire and Garfield’s Spideys fueled their flames of revenge, young Tom Holland seems to fan sparks of curiosity, hope, and an indefatigable sense of personal justice giving the film an upbeat, playful tone.
GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY 2 (2017) movie review
Pratt’s back with the whole gang in this second Gunn Guardians film. It works as a laugh-a-minute, family ties, lesson-learned, sci-fi comedy that picks up right where the first left off.
The quirky Quill backstory, as re-told by Kurt Russell’s appropriately named character Ego, becomes the centralized plotline as themes such as friendship, integrity, surrogate family systems, and revenge come into play.
Despite the incalculable death toll, it feels more like video game “lives” lost and tallied than body count. A colony of golden beings only emphasized this notion and added over-the-top scenarios and comedic tone to an already laughable script.
The soundtrack feels more mellow without Hooked on a Feeling but equally iconic and era-driven.
The band together, add Stallone and baby Groot, can really take on the task of guarding this golden, disparate, conflict-laden galaxy with a little help from their friends. Thanks to the 80’s, they’ll never run out of tunes, and the Marvel universe can live on making sequels forever.
DOCTOR STRANGE (2016) movie review
Delightfully surprised by this one. It had the best effects to date, and I was equally won by humor and lighthearted giddy snark as Benedict Cumberbatch embraces his Marvel side. The pace of the film somehow works despite the constant embedding of exposition in tectonic spinning and explosive flair. It’s rather beautiful.
Some may complain about the heavy-handed mysticism present, but Strange himself keeps the Film leveled as a man of sarcasm and science.
Log line it: when a self-centered brain surgeon tests fate one dark and stormy night he is left incapacitated without the use of his hands, so his medical quest leads him on a spiritual journey – one which forms his heroic destiny.
Dr. Strange will return and with him a host of Marvel merch and intertwined storylines. Those infinity stones have birthed quite a following from Hydra to heart-valves to Galaxy Guards with great musical taste. Now they have a mystic who can control time, and somehow it works.
Splatter: on FILM 