End Game

I just saw End Game today and what a show it was. After my friends cancelled three times I decided to break out on my own and watch an early morning 10am showing in Dolby at AMC. The seats were very comfortable, and they reclined, perfect and much needed saying since this movie is clocking in over three hours.

This movie is the movie that ends most of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Chances are you might have missed a couple of the Marvel movies before you saw this one. You definitely need to see Avengers, Avengers Age of Ultron, and Avengers Infinity War before you see this movie. Now before we get into the nitty-gritty, stop reading this if you don't want spoilers. 

Okay, a brief synopsis. So half of the population has been wiped out by Thanos. Ant-Man gets out of his quantum realm with the help of a rat [funny, nice touch]. He comes to the present time-line only to find out that a lot of people are dead, including himself. He teams up with the Avengers and they come up with the idea of a time machine. It's actually Ant-Man's idea.

Captain Marvel brings Stark [Iron Man] back to Earth and Stark helps them develop the time machine. Time travel is always messy and it definitely doesn't make sense in this movie, but hey, who am I to argue? It's very cliche, and its a super old science fiction trope that doesn't hold up well in this day and age, going back to 1820-The Time Machine by HG Wells. Great idea for 1820 not so much for 2019. But I digress.

Anyways, they branch off into small groups and fetch the infinity stones from the past, so they can bring it to the present, use the infinity gantlet to bring everyone back. There's a scene I like that reminds me of the comics where Steve Rodgers [Captain America] is a double agent. He grabs the stones and tasseract from the bad guys who are from Hydra, evil Nazi's. Cap says, "There's been a change in plans. I'll take care of the goods." Then he whispers to the bad guys,"hail Hydra." I liked how they sneeked that in there. 

Thor is fat and depressed. Natasha [Scarlett] feels that her only purpose is to bring everyone back with the Avengers. Brie Larson is snarky, just like in Captain Marvel. Nebula takes on a more serious active role, helping the Avengers go back in time to grab the stones, only to be kidnapped and then her doppelganger from the past comes to the present and messes everything up-you got all that? One thing that should be noted is that the jokes are few and far between. This is a much more serious Avengers team. Rather than their typical snarky smart ass selves they portray in the other movies.

Okay, so this movie is sort of all over the place and the first 2 hours and 45 minutes are just them going back and forth for the infinity stones. Then Thanos from the past comes to the future to do what he did in the present-again! Why, because this is fate, he says. But we're not stupid, we know that the script is written that way so that he can get his ass kicked-again. Actually Thanos dies in the first thirty minutes of the movie. Thor chops his head off, the blood splashing across Nebula's face. "I aimed for the head." Nice bit of gore there.  

The last twenty-thirty minutes is straight-up superhero fanfare. Hulk uses the infinity gauntlet to bring back everyone, bringing them on a huge battlefield against Thano's army, that he brought from another time-line thanks to evil Nebula from the past time-line. Captain Marvel destroys Thanos' ship in one fell swoop. Thanos is desperately trying to get the infinity gauntlet [which has all the stones] but Stark quickly puts on the glove.

Thanos [putting on the guantlet]: I am inevitable. 
Stark [who somehow had the rings with a makeshift Iron Man suit guantlet]: I am Iron Man.

It doesn't seem like a powerful line but it is. And it was his last line of the film, and the franchise, because Stark ended up dying after he used the gauntlet. Apparently humans aren't strong enough to wield the power of the infinity stones. Even after Thanos used it, he was old and dying on a planet somewhere, his energy wasted from the stones. When Hulk used it, he burned up his arm and upper body, and he's the strongest one out of all of them. 

The fighting was great. Especially Cap. Thor is about to get sliced by his own blade by Thanos. Then out of nowhere Thor's hammer flies into Thanos' skull-its Captain America's doing. 

Thor: I knew it! 

Cap wields Thor's hammer like a god. Like Achilles from the Iliad. He's swinging the hammer in his left hand and holding his shield up in his right, like a true warrior. Not only that but he's commanding lightning strikes with the hammer as well. That was my favorite moment of the film, it was great to see that not only is he worthy of Thor's hammer, but he can use it just as well as Thor too. The female heroes had their moment in the sun too. They're protecting the infinity stones as Spiderman says, "Uhh, be careful, you might need some help." "We have plenty of help right here," the female Wakanda warrior says as the women beat and bash their way through enemies.

The end is what this movie is truly about. "End Game". Thor joins the Guardians of the Galaxy. Stark dies. Natasha sacrifices herself so the team can get the soul stone, a very sad and tragic death. That one was a real tearjerker.  Hawkeye gets his family back. Captain America goes back in time and stays there with his sweetheart, becoming in the present an old man. 

At the end of the movie where we see Cap dancing with his sweetheart back in the 40's I had a sort of epiphany that the whole point of superheroes is for people to do normal things like that-have a simple and loving life. The thing I realized is that you don't need superheroes to enjoy that kind of stuff, you don't need all the action and the rigamarole, the twenty-two movie fanfare. If the Marvel movies had more of that and less of all the other stuff, it would've been a much more thoughtful experience. More acting, less fighting. Maybe that could become the new norm for superhero movies? I wish.

With all that being said, "Avengers assemble!"

Check out my reviews for all the other Marvel movies I've seen. 
 Antman and the Wasp https://ofigueroamusic.blogspot.com/2018/07/antman-and-wasp.html
Avengers Age of Ultron https://ofigueroamusic.blogspot.com/2015/05/avengers-age-of-ultron-thoughts.html
Avengers Infinity War https://ofigueroamusic.blogspot.com/2018/05/avengers-infinity-war.html
Guardians of the Galaxy 2 https://ofigueroamusic.blogspot.com/2017/05/guardians-of-galaxy-2.html
Spiderman Into the Spiderverse https://ofigueroamusic.blogspot.com/2019/01/spiderman-into-spiderverse.html
Deadpool 2 https://ofigueroamusic.blogspot.com/2018/06/dead-pool-2.html
Thor Ragnorak https://ofigueroamusic.blogspot.com/2017/12/thor-ragnarok.html
Doctor Strange https://ofigueroamusic.blogspot.com/2016/11/time-will-tell-how-much-i-love-you.html
Deadpool I https://ofigueroamusic.blogspot.com/search?q=deadpool
Venom https://ofigueroamusic.blogspot.com/2018/10/venom.html 

Us

Us is a 2019 science fiction horror film produced and directed by comedian, actor, and writer Jordan Peele. The movie starts with a chilling introduction where we see a young black girl at a pier out with her parents. Her parents don't like each other much, the father is drinking too much, and the mother is telling him no more beer. At some point the girl wanders off on her own, getting lost in a hall of mirrors, some sort of 'ride' at the pier. She was lost for fifteen minutes before her parents found her. When they were reunited, the girl was mute.

The next part of the film starts with a well-to-do black family on vacation at a vacation home. The same girl who got lost at the pier is now an adult, with two children. A boy who is slightly awkward, and a well-adjusted girl. Her husband is a jokey fatherly type with glasses. Things take a turn for the worst when a family wearing red jumpsuits appear on their lawn. They don't say anything. The father goes out to scare them off with a baseball bat but it doesn't work. It turns out that the family is actually them-doppelgangers. This is where the horror element comes from. 

It turned out that the family on the lawn were actually doppelgangers, an apparition or double of a living person. This is where the science fiction element comes in. Later in the film, after some exposition, we find out that there are doppelgangers of Americans living underground, the disenfranchised, the dispossessed. Meanwhile, the privileged, well-to-do people that have it easy in life are living above ground, getting their vitamin D from sunlight and livin' easy.

Not only that but the film makes a reference to the 1980's Reagan era with this event that actually happened, called Hands Across America. These doppelgangers have come up from underground to exact revenge across their doubles, holding hands across vast areas of land in America, after killing people. Does that make sense?  Does it have to?

We see underground that the doppelgangers live with these white rabbits in the corridors. That was an interesting visual. The idea that there are underground places across America reminded me of Colson Whitehead's The Underground Railroad, where slaves find their way to freedom using these underground passages. The movie is somewhat similar and referential a lot of other horror movies, such as A Nightmare on Elmstreet, The Shining [b/c of the white family's twins], and even has some similar aspects to Get Out, Peele's first film.

The movie is filled with too many references, metaphors, and so much symbolism that its all to much to write about here. The main takeaway I got from Us is the idea of the have nots coming to take their revenge on the bourgeois. This goes back to Marx and Hegel's philosophy about the rise of the proletariat, meanwhile, the bourgeois does everything in their power to keep the working class in the gutter. This is what the Communist Manifesto is all about. It's a very overt philosophical overtone. 

Many writers online have been speculating about what this film means. I'm not sure that it particularly means anything, other than that it is a damn good black horror movie. It's great to look at visually too. The fact that the main actors are black people is a plus [and a negative, see below] because its 'the first black horror movie', other than Get Out,  however, that movie works better than Us in the sense that Get Out is simpler in form and not overstocked with 'too much syndrome'. In short, it's less messy, thus works better as a movie that can be enjoyed as well as reviewed. 

I didn't come to the conclusion that Us was too cluttered until I read reviews. After viewing the movie with my friend, we got sidetracked by the clutter: symbolism, metaphors, references, and subtext. But now that I've seen what good movie reviewers think I've come to realize that the movie was still great, although probably not as great as I first thought. This isn't going to be Jordan Peele's best film but it will definitely be one of his most referenced and most talked about, probably for years to come. 

Lastly, I want to mention another thing that is personal to me regarding the movie. I don't think Jordan Peele did black people a favor making a movie like this. Yes, its a black horror movie but in a metaphorical way, I think it works as entertainment for white people to enjoy watching black people get scared, complete with vaudeville big eyes, tears falling down their faces and animalistic noises instead of speech from the doppelgangers. I don't think this is a movie my mother would like or any older, serious, black person. In short, its a young black persons thing, if they're into it at all. Older black folk would scoff at the way black people are portrayed in this movie. This is a personal criticism yet I think it is crucial to the film as a whole culturally. Of course, you could speculate until you turn black and blue and say, "Yeah, Peele is trying to say something important regarding class and race in America." And I would respond with, "Yes, we understand that. But at what cost?"

Despite that I still enjoyed the movie. You can see the ending coming a mile away yet it is still satisfying. Jordan Peele is a young film director and he was trying to do too much, not unlike a great author's sophomore slump. Yet somehow the movie still works, although probably not as effectively as Peele intended. Still, this was probably the best movie I've seen in 2019. You should definitely see this movie.

Captain Marvel [film]

Captain Marvel is the latest Marvel superhero flick [2019] about the character Carol Danvers, from the comics. Produced by Marvel Studios and Walt Disney Motion Pictures, it is the 21st film in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. "The film is written and directed by Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck, with Geneva Robertson-Dworet also contributing to the screenplay. Brie Larson stars as Danvers, alongside Samuel L. Jackson, Ben Mendelsohn, Djimon Hounsou, Lee Pace, Lashana Lynch, Gemma Chan, Annette Bening, Clark Gregg, and Jude Law. Set in 1995, the story follows Danvers as she becomes Captain Marvel after Earth is caught in the center of a galactic conflict between two alien worlds." [wiki] 

Captain Marvel has some feminist overtones. But for who and why? I would say Captain Marvel is a female superhero movie for young adult males. Its a movie for fanboys that want to see a girl kick ass. Be a badass. Or something like that. Brie Larson smashes her way through every obstacle in the movie, just like any other male superhero would. No thinking involved. No surprise there.

What makes a female superhero different from a male superhero? Of course, I would have to say feelings, emotions, empathy. This movie has just a little bit of that. I really enjoyed the scenes where Brie Larson wasn't smashing her way through everything, where she could just be herself, a young woman dealing with complicated issues. The most emotional moment of the film for me was when Captain Marvel's best friend, a young female black pilot, and mother, tries to remind her of who she was, before she became a Kree, before Captain Marvel, to remember her past life. That scene was so real, visceral, it felt like something real, not a superhero movie. I actually smiled during that scene because it felt so real. That was some good acting. 

The young Samuel L. Jackson with the CGI young face was pretty cool. He gives the film a 90s Pulp Fiction vibe, minus the afro. The introduction of the Skrulls to the Marvel universe was interesting, as well as the Kree. The Flerkin cat sometimes acted out by a CGI cat was a real treat. Brie Larson does a fine job of being the latest and greatest Marvel superhero. But my 'bro' friends didn't quite agree.

We spent quite some time arguing about the film at lunch. They seemed to think the film had some overt feminist sjw [social justice warrior] vibes and that was a bad thing to them. I agreed but said that was a good thing. Let's put it this way, in today's day and age you can't have a female superhero that isn't a social justice warrior. You're never going to see a female superhero who is alt-right, extreme or anything of that nature. We're still in the middle of the Me Too Movement, where women are making headway in terms of status. The original feminists are much different from the feminists of today. Mostly in the fact that today's feminists will never get everything that they want. However, when it comes to Captain Marvel, Brie Larson does certainly bring a feminist charm. She's an attractive blonde [although she has a flat ass, as my friends complained], and she's used her platform as an actress to speak out against the lack of diversity amongst film reviewers. She even said of one of her films, "if you're a forty-year-old white dude, this movie wasn't made for you." That is such an explicit statement and I commend her for using her power to say whatever the fuck she wants. Most women don't do that because they're not allowed too, because some old white man is in charge of them or their work. What my friends fail to realize is that feminism is here to stay. It's alive and well. Thriving in fact. Brie Larson makes Captain Marvel a powerful female protagonist. I think what Brie Larson represents [sjw's, feminism, more female superhero movie directors, more female superheroes] is more important than her actual acting job done here as Captain Marvel. The RottenTomatoes fiasco was a big part of it. People won't forget about her or this movie. I think it will help her career. She'll find more appealing, better-acting roles, and be respected for it in the long run.

Larson's personality as Captain Marvel isn't captivating but it's still something. Her incredible power isn't some rare occurrence. She isn't a young Rei from The Force Awakens, who suddenly has more power than a Sith Lord out of nowhere. Rather, Captain Marvel is powerful because she got her powers from the Tesseract, an object linked to the Infinity Stones, making her one of the most powerful superheroes in the Marvel universe. When we see Brie Larson beating the crap out of an army of Skrulls, with dead weight chains over her arms, we realize that she's a complete badass. That's what the fans what, a woman who's a badass. Of course, being a woman who's badass gets old, just as it gets old when guys do it. When you pour the beer in the cup and let the foam dissolve, so to speak, you realize that this movie is just another beat-em-up Marvel superhero flick, devoid of anything meaningful or memorable. At the end of the day, it's just another goofy Marvel movie with trained actors running around in funny outfits. However, that doesn't mean that I didn't enjoy it. At least it was better than The Ant-Man and the Wasp, which was totally forgettable. 

Check out my other Marvel movie reviews below. I've seen so many of these superhero flicks. Luckily I saw all these movies free because I have a friend who works at AMC Theatres as a team member. 
 
Antman and the Wasp https://ofigueroamusic.blogspot.com/2018/07/antman-and-wasp.html
Avengers Age of Ultron https://ofigueroamusic.blogspot.com/2015/05/avengers-age-of-ultron-thoughts.html
Avengers Infinity War https://ofigueroamusic.blogspot.com/2018/05/avengers-infinity-war.html
Guardians of the Galaxy 2 https://ofigueroamusic.blogspot.com/2017/05/guardians-of-galaxy-2.html
Spiderman Into the Spiderverse https://ofigueroamusic.blogspot.com/2019/01/spiderman-into-spiderverse.html
Deadpool 2 https://ofigueroamusic.blogspot.com/2018/06/dead-pool-2.html
Thor Ragnorak https://ofigueroamusic.blogspot.com/2017/12/thor-ragnarok.html
Doctor Strange https://ofigueroamusic.blogspot.com/2016/11/time-will-tell-how-much-i-love-you.html
Deadpool I https://ofigueroamusic.blogspot.com/search?q=deadpool
Venom https://ofigueroamusic.blogspot.com/2018/10/venom.html 

Alita Battle Angel

Alita Battle Angel is the latest anime inspired flick to hit the big screen. Its an adaptation of the 1990s manga Gunnm, also known as Battle Angel Alita. Directed by Robert Rodriquez, written by James Cameron and Laeta Kalogridis, and produced by Cameron and Jon Landau. As you can see this is a multi-million dollar movie with James Cameron [of Avatar fame] involved. 

Alita Battle Angel reminds you of a lot of things. Avatar because Alita is acted out using a sensor capture suit, with big wide-eyed anime eyes, complete with a cyborg body, which is totally Ghost in the Shell. The actual city that the movie takes place in, Iron City is complete with neon signs, multilingual people, and different races. Very reminiscent of Blade Runner. Those are great things to be reminded of. 

Alita is found in the scrapyard by a paternal scientist named Ido, who gives her a cybernetic body that he was planning on using for his daughter [not weird at all!]. Alita is mostly cyborg but she has a human brain intact, giving her emotions. Hence, she's a lot like a teenage girl at first and gets a teenage boyfriend, who turns out to be a bad guy. Turns out this guy is apart of a youth gang that hijacks cyborgs and steals their parts, while they're still alive. Then his gang sells the parts to Vector [a guy who gets his fashion sense from the Matrix], in what they believe is the only chance to get to the utopian city Zolumn in the sky above Iron City. Sound convoluted yet? It is.

However, it is not the razor-blade addled cyborg fights or the intense violence of Motorball [basically death race, a futuristic sport where you throw a ball and try to kill your opponents, while racing on motorized roller blades]. Nor is it the fact that Alita learns that she was an ancient weapon used some 300 years ago in some battle, possibly fighting to destroy Zolumn [again convoluted]. 

The thing that makes this movie good, maybe even memorable for a few months [for me at least] is the sheer emotional appeal of this cyborg girl. Some people would find the emotional scenes in this movie to be corny. I did not. I was moved when Alita was trying to justify herself to her boyfriend, only for him to respond, "You're the most human person I've ever met." Their love was real in that scene. That shows that even a cyborg girl is capable of loving, and of being loved back. Very powerful indeed. 

Another characteristic moment was when she was talking to the boyfriend about going to Zolumn. She says, "I'll do anything to get you to Zolumn. I'll give you my heart. It's so powerful it can power the city for a whole year!" Then the boyfriend responds, saying "I can't do that to you. You can't just give people things. You can't be so naive." And the reality is that Alita is quite naive, she's basically like a teenage girl. 

The climax of the movie is when the love interest dies, killed by an unknown villain in Zolumn, [who like a characteristic anime character wears some cyberpunk googles that look really cool]. At some point Alita finds her 300 year old Erhm bodysuit and she discovers that she's a Battle Angel, an ancient weapon, which is the reason why she was able to beat the crap out of Hunter Warriors, cyborgs who do the policing in Iron City. The new suit has bigger breasts and a small waist. There's something of a feminist affect in Alita Battle Angel but for whom, and why? I can't really say. Some scenes have feminist overtones. Like when Alita beats up everyone in the Hunter Warrior bar and when her boyfriend says not to challenge them she says, "I'm gonna need you to step back." As if men should sometimes take a step back from women, that kind of thing. But the fact that her body suit is sexy and sleek, with the 'ideal' feminine traits, I think that is something purely for the male fanboy audience. Of which I am apart of [lol]. The one thing that I liked regarding Alita's physical appearance was her big anime eyes that never seemed to close, and that seemed to change during emotional scenes. I think they did a great job with those eyes. You can see Alita's soul through her eyes. However, I can also see the eyes in a negative sexual sense. Someone might say she looks like a sex doll. Or something.

Alita becomes a Hunter Warrior and a pro Motorball player in her attempt to get to Zolumn, to discover more about the world, and herself, I presume. The movie ends much better than it starts, on a cliffhanger. Rodriquez and Cameron believed that the world would catch Alita fever. While I don't see that being the case [most of my friends haven't seen it], I do think they had something here with this movie. It may not even be as good as Ghost in the Shell [it lacks the maturity that Ghost in the Shell had] but I think that the little bit of pathos utilized here was good enough for me. However, I'm a fanboy that has watched years and years of anime, so I'm a bit biased. 

I'll definitely watch the anime version sometime soon. 

Spiderman Into the Spiderverse

Spiderman Into the Spiderverse is one of those superhero flicks that you can really enjoy, maybe even more so than Avengers [fight me if you disagree!]. What makes this movie so enjoyable is that it goes into the human mind, the human framework of the superhero. It turns out that what makes superheroes super isn't their powers, but they're inherently human traits and characteristics, and perhaps even their failings. Here, we have a young black/Hispanic kid [just like me], who ends up getting spidey powers after getting bitten by a radioactive spider underground in some sewers.

Its the same old Spiderman story but this kid is a lot different from Peter Parker. His parents want him to go to this preppy smart kids school and he just wants to go to regular city house school. On top of that, he watches as Kingpin kills Spiderman! [Peter Parker] 

Not only that but it turns out that there's a multiverse which Kingpin is activating with the help of Doc Oc's [famous old Spidey villain] daughter, Liev. Once the multiverse is opened up Miles Morales [this movie's main star and Spiderman], ends up meeting a bunch of other Spidermans, and Spiderwomen. It turns out that Gwen Stacy [young girl, high school] is Spiderwoman. There's a steampunk Spiderman with a trench coat who fights nazi's in his world. There's a fat Peter Parker from another dimension where he breaks up with Mary Jane. There's an anime Spidergirl who uses a mech [modeled after Overwatch's D.Va maybe?] And there's even a Peter Porker, a Loony Toons inspired Spiderman who happens to be a talking pig. [Spider pig anyone?]

So the story here is that Miles has to fight Kingpin and shut down the multiverse machine they're running in order to send all these various Spider people back to their own universes. But there's all these problems along the way. Fat Peter Parker has to show him the ropes. He does this by just shoving Miles out into the fray, learning by doing. This isn't something Morales is good at right away. In fact, all the other Spider people think he isn't ready for a job this big and that in fact, Peter Parker should do it. Miles gets upset at this and tells them he will figure it out and do it on his own. Along the way he ends up fighting a villain named the Prowler, who turns out to be his uncle. When he lifts his mask to reveal himself to the Prowler, the Prowler doesn't kill him. When Kingpin sees this, he fires his gun at Prowler, killing him. This is the catalyst for Morales to become a true hero. Life is struggle and contradiction. You must persevere to get to the good stuff. 

So Miles ends up finding the strength and courage within himself to fight the good fight. This is pretty tough for a high school kid. After all, he saw Peter Parker get smashed to death by Kingpin. It could happen to him too! This is the main story and theme of the movie, and it is a great one. It shows you what it takes to become a hero. Sometimes it can take everything. 

The other great aspect of this movie is the computer animation. The colourful, glowing pixels here are astounding, some of the best in the business using today's current technology. Some other great animated movies come to mind; Rango, Incredibles, Big Hero 6, Coco, Wreck-It-Ralph. This movie is apart of long line of other great animated movies. Those pixels were lush man! And all the other Spider people had their own unique animations. The anime girl Spider had a unique anime look and attacks. The pig Spider had cartoon puns and a funny little hammer that he used to fight. [you have to suspend your belief for that one] Heck, even Peter Parker's fat looked realistic. The art style of the movie had a cartoon 3D look to it but it was still realistic. Certain video games come to mind, mainly Overwatch with its graphics. But to debase the art style down to say that it looks like a video game doesn't do it justice. It looks better than a video game. 

The cool thing is that there's going to be more animated films based off this story arc here. At the end, after the credits we see another Spiderman, this guy is named Miguel. Looks like we're going to start seeing a much different breed of supermen and superwomen in the future. More minorities and more women. Looks like Marvel is changing a lot for the better. 

*Puts hand on shoulder of hot girl* "Hey"

Dragon Ball Super Broly

The new Dragon Ball Z Super Broly movie was pretty cool. It became the best selling anime movie on opening weekend. Although I thought the movie was 'good', I didn't think it was great. However, I don't think one should go to an anime movie expecting something to be great, or for it to change your life. You go in, sit down, suspend your systems of belief for an hour or two, and then move on with your life. I'll explain my problems with the movie as well as what made it good. 

First of all, Broly's origin story in this movie is bare bones basic (b-b-b, anyone?). In the original movies they didn't even try to give him a story, which I almost respect more. Instead they explain how when Goku was a baby, Broly was trying to sleep in his Sayian tank, and Goku kept waking him up with all his whining.Then at some point he broke free, and tried to whoop Kakkarot's (Goku) ass. Pretty simplistic, but it worked well.

Here, we have Broly as a vengeance story. Broly is a baby in his tank and King Vegeta sends the baby off-world because he's seen to have such incredible power, that he might destroy the planet and everyone on it! (surprise, surprise, Frieza ends up doing that anyway) Anyways, Perigues, Broly's father ends up high-jacking a ship to Broly's destination. Once there, he grows up with his son on a desolate planet where everything's trying to kill them. 

Fast forward to Super's time period and all of a sudden Frieza's henchmen (not really lackeys, just peeps doing their jobs as Freiza Force members) find Broly and Perigues on said remote planet. They take them to Frieza, who is in awe of finding more live Sayians. His plan, to pit Broly against Goku. 

Vegeta goes up to bat first. At first Vegeta is beating on Broly pretty hard, even just in base form. Then he realizes that Broly is learning how to fight better the longer the first continues, like a true Sayian warrior! Eventually Vegeta has to keep powering up from Sayian 1-2-blue-god form and every time Broly goes down he keeps getting back up. Eventually Vegeta can't take him on anymore. The power within Broly is immeasurable! 

Next, Goku steps up to fight. Its a brutal battle. In fact, Goku gets thrashed around like a rag doll, screaming in agony, which prompted this writer's laughter in the theater. Super Sayian God form isn't enough to take down Broly, who again and again, keeps getting back up, and powering up even more and more!

Goku talks to Piccolo and they come up with a plan. The only way they can defeat Broly is if they do the fusion dance (embarrassing for Vegeta, a Prince), and become Gogeta! (Gogeta is canon now) Once they combine to become Gogeta, they fight Broly in an epic splatter of cartoon pixels and animation. (the best part of the film) 

Before Gogeta can really do bodily harm or dare I say it, [KILL] Broly, the Frieza Force henchmen steal the dragon balls from Freiza's other henchmen and they make a wish. You see, one of them was a girl that really felt sympathy for Broly, and she even stole and broke Perigues' super strong shock collar that he put on Broly, thus the reason why Broly kept powering up more and more, and he (Perigues) had to just let Broly go on like that. 

Anyways, so the girl wishes Broly to be put back on his faraway planet, away from Gogeta, right before a super strong energy blast is shot at him! This shows you that most fights in Dragon Ball are for the ultimate costs and also for no costs at all. (the true lesson of Dragon Ball) Goku ends up using instant transmission to go to Broly and his two new friends (former Frieza henchmen who saved him), gives them a house capsule, food, and says he will come back to train Broly himself. 

One last thing I'll say is that Broly himself is a simpleton. Although the old Broly movies he was even more of a barbarian who couldn't even speak sentences, here he is still simple minded, like a child. His only friend on the planet was a giant monster that tried to kill him, a play for sympathy that works on the audience. I like the idea of Broly being canon, although I don't think his backstory is very interesting. 

One minor complaint I have about the movie is that the English voice acting isn't as exciting to me, nor did I think it was all that great. Give me Japanese subtitles for any anime or anime movie. I don't mind the reading, plus I think the emotional gravitas (or lack there of) is much easier to accomplish in the native language of the artists themselves.

The animation in this movie is some of the best Dragon Ball I've ever seen, especially in a movie theater where you can really see all the pixels flashing across the screen more easily. Early Super animation wasn't very good but now they've got it down to a t. I'm definitely going to watch this movie again in Japanese and see if I like it any better. 

"We are Gogeta." 

Venom

Venom got a lot of bad reviews in the press. In fact, I asked a lot of friends and peers what they thought of the movie and most of them had mixed reviews. However, they still thought it was fun and 'good', albeit in a broad generalized way. I only read maybe two reviews before I saw it. I already knew most of the plot and details from friends but didn't know exactly how it would be displayed. I wasn't disappointed, I thought it was good. 

Tom Hardy's Venom is a kin to the common-man trope in many stories, be they science fiction (Phillip K Dick's characters), comic books (Peter Parker, nerd), or fictional Horatio Alger stories (stories of the great American canon). Tom Hardy is a reporter who's life goes to shit when he loses his job, his girl friend, and all ambition. Venom, a symbiotic form from space attaches to him during this time of crisis, not only that but he identifies with Hardy, saying, "where I'm from I'm a loser like you, but here 'we' can be something more." This is a further identification with the common-man trope, or in this case common-alien. 

Tom Hardy does a great Venom voice, deep and vicious with jokes sometimes and serious threatening behavior the next. Venom likes to eat tater tots and chocolate, which was kind of funny. Venom even eats people, biting their heads off, which of course freaks out Eddie Brock (Tom Hardy's character). I like the way Venom is portrayed here. Yes, he admits to being a 'loser', but he's also a bad ass character, a strong fighter, who develops a sort of labored love towards Eddie Brock, and even his girl friend, who when Venom takes control of her, kisses Brock as She-Venom, quite an intimate kiss. Oui la la. 

My biggest criticism of this flick is that the villains were boring and one dimensional. Donald Trump makes a better villain than any of the characters here. Venom has his evil tendencies, but in the end he becomes an anti-hero, willing to live, take care of, and be a willing part of Eddie Brock's life. First off, that bad guy who finds the symbiotic goo that is the Venom strains (there are millions of them, just like Venom), he's this Silicon Valley type Elon Musk guy named Carlton Drake. That guy is one of the worst villains I've seen in a Marvel movie. Elon Musk is actually much more of a d-bag villain, especially when he called a guy a pedo a while back. 

Anyways, this character was so generic it was laughable. They try to make it more interesting by giving him a symbiotic parasite too, named Riot. But Riot ends up being kind of generic too. Other than the fact that Riot and Venom have an epic fight to the death (with Riot and Elon Musk-alike getting blown up), there's not a thing interesting about these characters. The bad guys need to be better, have better motive, other than typical generalized ideology.  

Lastly, I would say that they captured Venom pretty well. The way he runs up walls check. The way he's like a glue that attaches to Tom Hardy's body check. His jump from Marvel Vs Capcom 2 check. His "we are Venom" characteristic voice-line check. They did Venom right. He comes across as bad ass. I thought the movie was bad ass, in the sense that the action was great, the voice lines were strong, especially the "have a nice life" line. The love interest is sort of down-played in this movie and my friends even said that the actors didn't have much chemistry. Its true, but I don't think the luke-warm relationship hurt the action-packed scenes or the exciting nature of the human-symbiotic relationship. 

As a kid I used to love reading Spiderman, Venom, Carnage, those three were some of my favorite superheroes, antiheroes, and villains, mostly because they're from the Spiderman universe and I always liked Spiderman. The Venom movie is a lot different from the comics but I would still say its does a decent job of not straying completely off base from the comics. In that sense, its a safe portrayal, ultimately a decent one of the classic antihero. 

Overall I think Venom is a pretty damn good movie. I thought a lot of it was humorous but it was also action-packed. This is a better movie than Ant-man and the Wasp, the last Marvel movie I saw. I recommend the movie to comic book fans, Spiderman fans, and Carnage fans for sure. Carnage even has a cameo after the credits so make sure to stay after the credits to see this ginger talk about "bringing carnage."  

Halloween 2018

Halloween (2018 movie) is a direct sequel to the original Halloween film, a slasher flick starring my favorite Halloween and horror character, Michael Myers. I ended up watching the film at an early midnight showing for employees at AMC theater, where my friend works. The audience of AMC staff wasn't my cup of tea. The constant laughter, whispering, and talking throughout undermines the seriousness of the horror flick, which it is a great one. 

The movie starts 40 years after the first one left off. Michael is old, but we hardly ever get to see his complete face. However, he's just a plain looking, bearded, tall, generic white guy from what we can see. His victim from the first movie Laurie Strode, whom he didn't kill is old, and looks even older. She's estranged from her daughter, the horror of Michael ruining her life, her marriage, etc. 

Michael ends up getting sent to another facility. Somewhere on the road the inmates break free, and Michael is on the loose, setting the movie up for the grisly murders. The body count isn't very high in this movie, but the killings are much more grisly than the original film. Not only that but Michael goes on a killing spree on Halloween night! Evil ensues. 

Once he finds a knife, its trademark Halloween time. Once again, the murders are pretty simple, but we see that Michael is a lot more aggressive with his killings. He's the face of evil, as they say. Anyways, so he's on the run murdering everyone he can, mostly teenagers, cops, and his doctor, but eventually Laurie Strode finds Michael and they have an epic battle in her booby-trapped house, the house she built waiting for this moment, to kill Michael Myers. She's prayed for this, she says earlier in the film when she finds out he's on the loose. 

They trap Michael in the basement, and set the whole house on fire, a scene reminiscent from Halloween II. Of course, Michael is presumed to be alive, and in the last scene we see Strode's granddaughter clutching the knife Michael had used. Fin. 

The movie is actually pretty great, considering that nothing could've topped the original film and that making a sequel to the original is pretty damn difficult, never mind those other six (or however many!) other Halloween movies there are. I think this movie is a good horror flick, it has the gore, the evil mascot, the innocent victims, and even a smidge of evil mysticism (the inmates at the hospital when reporters go see Michael). 

I think the movie's most serious aspects were undermined by the audience, but I still enjoyed the movie even if they all thought they had to be coolest kids in the room. The acting, while not great, was still decent, and Michael Myers' character was perfect, I remember him being the same way in the original. In this aspect, they excelled especially. 

This is a great holiday movie to watch right now. Even if you don't like horror movies (like me), I think this is something even people who are afraid of horror movies can enjoy. There's some grisly murders, but some of it is downright laughable, like when Michael stomps on a guy's head, and the head explodes into pukey chunks. You would have to be unbelievably strong to do that! Anyways, check out the movie, its the best time, its fresh, and its almost Halloween.

Annihilation

Annihilation was one of those movies that took me a long time to finish watching. I saw the very end of it at a movie theater once in February. I had it on DVD but didn't watch it until four weeks after I got it. When I finally watched the film I was in was awe. It was a great experience. 

Annihilation is a science fiction movie about a group of female scientists (led by Natalie Portman) who explore an alien environment called the Shimmer, which is slowly taking over more and more land over a big area.  Only one soldier came back from a ship but he in was in bad shape mentally and physically.

Once inside the shimmer, the scientists find themselves in quite a strange world, strangers in a strange land you could say. The film has some horror elements to it. First, they run into a mutated crocodile that nearly kills one of the crew. Portman opens the creatures' mouth and realizes its teeth were all different, mutated. She had first noticed these mutations on the plants. She spotted a plant that had endless variations all on the same vine. 

So what we come to know is that the Shimmer refracts DNA. The team sets up camp at the former soldier teams' base of operations. There's early signs of a mutiny early in the film. There's another monster attack (this movie has cool monsters and aliens). A giant bear strikes at the base just before dawn. It takes down a member of the crew. 

The crew gets distracted when Ventress (played by Jennifer Jason Leigh) says they should move on without trying to see if their crew-mate lived or was already dead. Lena (played by Portman lies to the team and says the best way to get back out is to go farther in by going to the water's shoreline, and taking the shoreline route all the way back. It was a ploy to get them to keep moving forward. 

At some point when everybody's asleep, a member of the crew commits a mutiny and ties everybody up in a chair. She has a knife to Lena's stomach. At this point we believe she might be going mad because of the effect of the shimmer. All of a sudden we hear the lost crew member's voice, yelling, shouting, the last words of her life screamed out into the open. It was a trick of the creature, the bear that attacked them. 

The bear tears the crazed woman's throat apart and that was the end of her. The others shoot down the creature as soon as they get themselves free. They keep moving forward. Another member of the crew says she doesn't want to go in, and becomes one with plants. 

Its just Ventress and Lena at this point. They make it to the Lighthouse, the goal for the team. Lena sees a camera that shows her husband killing himself with a phosphorous grenade, only to have a doppelganger walking in front of him. She runs down into this alien-like den, which reminded me of the Aliens' (from Prometheus) home planet lairs. 

Ventress is already mutating, into something...Its shown as a sort of violent exorcism, garish and video-gameish, Ventress puking out a blob of fantastic colours to loud sound. Overly dramatic but tends to get the point across. A splotch of blood from Lena's eye falls into the colourful blob, which triggers the blob into a humanoid form. 

The alien has no face or mouth, its just like a tall silver form, like an evil Silver Surfer. It chases Lena but it isn't clear what it wants. There's a bit of a struggle but in the end Lena throws a grenade at it, and it gets engulfed in flames, destroying the creature, the Lighthouse, and dissipating the Shimmer. 

Back at base Lena and her husband Kane are reunited. Kane admits he doesn't know he's the real Kane. And when he asks if Lena is human Lena does not respond. There's a shimmer in their eyes and that ends the film. 

What a story. I was quite taken a back with how gory and violent the film was at first. The part with Kane cutting open a guy's stomach with a knife made me cringe. The bear ripping throats was a surprise. Even the crocodile was somewhat unexpected. These horror elements add a lot of spice to what is otherwise a lot of dialogue with no action. This is a good amount of spice, its not overbearing. 
 
The special effects also had a strong effect on me. The ending was such an utterly climactic scene that I plan on re-watching it again. I've seen it twice now, once in the theater and most recently on my desktop computer. Seeing that in the movie theater was amazing, it was such a memorable science fiction scene. It reminded me of 2001 A Space Odyssey.  

On the other side, the monotone direction of the film is quite great, almost intellectual in a way. By making the movie more about the characters rather than action scenes they created a much better movie than most science fiction films. Its a smart science fiction movie like Arrival, another great sci-fi movie back from 2016. I feel that because the movie was sort of slow to build up, it actually created a much better and more climactic ending.

The science fiction element (DNA mutation) to the movie was what made it so cool to me. The alien at the end suggests an all powerful presence, but it isn't clear if it is, or if it even wants anything. The fact that the film ends with us not knowing if Kane and Lena are human or alien is what gives the film its edge. You could say that the movie was trying to go all intellectual on the audience. Or that they're just trying to be clever. But I would disagree. I would say they wanted to create an ending of all endings, infinite ideas to justify conclusion. Its quite interesting once you see it and think about it. Maybe even more interesting after watching it again...

You could throw down any number of theories for what happened (regarding if they are human or not) but ultimately the audience doesn't know. That is suspense!

Watch this movie, you won't regret it. 

Antman and The Wasp

Yesterday was another scorcher in the Valley so my friends and I decided to cool off at the movies. We saw Antman and Wasp, the new Marvel superhero movie. Paul Rudd (Antman) and Evangeline Lily (Wasp) save the world by telling jokes and saving a family member from a super teeny tiny space-universe. It pays the bills.

The movie isn't really about anything per se but if there is a plot it is this: Wasp and her father are trying to save their mother, who's trapped in a tiny universe. They need Antman's help because Wasp's mother used some kind of telepathic ability to have Antman explain how they can find her. What the what? It makes no sense, and if it did it would still be grade school level speculative fiction. But that's not what makes this movie good. What makes this movie good is that its fun.

The movie is only about an hour long, which is about as long as I can take when it comes to superhero movies these days. After Infinity War this movie is right in the pocket. Evangeline Lily looks great in her Wasp suit, Paul Rudd tells jokes that aren't as corny as Ryan Reynolds' Deadpool character, and the action scenes although cliche, they bring a wallop to the cinematography.

There's sketches of character development in this movie that is sorely missing in other Marvel movies. Antman is a great dad that loves his daughter. Wasp loves her mother and Antman.

The villain of the movie is sort of unclear. We have a villain-esque type character that reminds me of the character Sombra from Overwatch, the video game. Her body is in a lot of pain because her body isn't stable, its shifting through space and time, she is and isn't there physically. Needless to say she can whoop Antman and Wasp's ass, that's why they have to tag team her to beat her down. Great character, it'll be great to see if she joins their squad of superheroes.

This isn't a memorable film and I've already forgotten most of the one liners. However, its a blast of a summer film. Marvel won't surprise me with anything truly great or remarkable anymore. At the very least, I can still have fun.

Dead Pool 2

Finally got around to seeing Dead Pool 2 with a bunch of co-workers. It was a fun film, and had its moments. Here I'd like to go over the narrative and talk about the movie's best and most interesting moments. 

Basically Dead Pool (played by Ryan Reynolds) wants to kill himself. His girl friend was killed because of him, a bad guy killed her to take away what he loves most, the usual superhero sort of trope. So our guy has to find a new meaning in life and he finds that in this troubled mutant kid, goes by the nickname Fire Fist, or something like that. 

Fire Fist and Dead Pool end up going to jail after Dead Pool kills some people that were hurting the kid. Enter Cable, who's pretty much an anti-hero here. He says that the kid has to die because he grows up to become a killer after he gets his first kill (he was tortured at this home for mutants, plans on killing the guy in charge there), and he ends up killing Cable's daughter. The murdered family member thing, another popular superhero trope.

The kid makes friends with Juggernaut in prison and they cause a ruckus at the mutant home, where the kid is about to kill the schoolmaster (owner). Cable and Dead Pool agree to work together. Cable tells Dead Pool that if he can't stop the kid he's going to kill him. Dead Pool makes it his mission to stop the kid. 

In the end Dead Pool ends up getting a device that allows him to go back in the time, messing up the time stream. Dead Pool 3 looks even more fun now that we know he has this device. 

Now I'll go over the best and most interesting parts. The coolest thing about the fighting scenes for me was when Cable entered and was using futuristic cyberpunk weaponry. When he was being attacked by Juggernaut he was able to deflect physical attacks with this sort of orange cybernetic shield. His explosives and guns were super flashy and caused some major splash damage. 

The scene that introduces us to Cable was quite the fanfare. We see a dystopian world that reminds you of typical science fiction. And then he uses his time travel device. Two trips. One way. One back. That's it. 

Another scene I like action-wise was when Juggernaut created an earthquake when he was first set free. Now that is how Juggernaut should act. The kid's fire attacks were mage-like too, explosive fiery blast reminiscent of a fire mage a la video games. Also there's a fight at the end between Juggernaut and Colossus that has its moments. 

The most interesting scene was at the end where Dead Pool is dying and he ends up going to a kind of heaven, (which reminded me of speculative fiction) where he sees his murdered girl friend. They have a talk about how it isn't his time yet, and then they kiss. Although most of this movie is sort of a joke (and sometimes not funny) this part had a serious aspect to it that reminded me of some science fiction short stories that depict certain aspects of human relationships. It was good, and not corny like most of Dead Pool's scenes. The best thing I can say about this movie from seeing this part is that it had some human element, not just superhero flare. 

That's the best I can say about the movie. Ultimately its a movie that can be easily forgotten among a sea of Hollywood action and thriller flicks. But its not a bad theater experience for the beginning of summer.

Han Solo: A Star Wars Story

I finally got around to seeing a new summer holiday movie. I saw the new Star Wars movie, Solo or more accurately titled Han Solo: A Star Wars Story. Here I'd like to tell you a bit about the film and what I thought of it. 

The story starts off introducing us to Young Han and his lover Qi'ra. It turns out that they're poor smucks (slaves) trapped in the shipbuilding world of Corellia, where children are taught to steal in order to survive. 

Han is in a lot of trouble. He owes people money and he doesn't have the credits. So he takes Qi'ra and they try to run off-world, away from their pursuers. Right at the last second the bad guys take Qi'ra and Han is shipped off world alone, presumably to become a pilot for the Empire. 

Han signs up for the Empire but ends up as foot soldier blindly following evil orders by the Empire. However, he meets some mercenaries and ends up joining their ranks, becoming a deserter. 

From there he goes on a heist to steal coaxiom, this explosive material that everybody wants because it makes things go boom! The leader of the mercs, Tobias Beckett owes the Crimson Dawn Syndicate, lead by Dryden Voss (who also played Vision in Avengers, arguably the most recognized actor in this movie) and he tells Han if he helps him get the coaxiom and pay off his debts, he will have enough cash for his own ship. 

They enlist Lando Calrissian (played by Childish Gambino, of "This is America" and Community fame) and use his ship, the prized Millennium Falcon in order to pull off the heist. 

In the end they get the coaxiom but a rebel group apprehends them. Han is perplexed but in the end decides to help them, give them the coaxiom and give Voss a fake replica of it. Voss gets upset when he finds out from Beckitt that he's been crossed, while at the same time Han is surprised that Beckitt crossed him as well. "Never trust anyone," Beckitt tells him for the second time in the film. 

Meanwhile Voss has his baddies apprehend Enfys, the rebels but it turns out what they had was nonexistent. Their bags were empty. Not only that but when they were unmasked they all turned out to be old women, victims of the Crimson Dawn syndicate, peoples whom had their tongues cut out. It turned out that Crimson Dawn was responsible for despicable acts throughout the Galaxy, a revelation to Han. It was symbolic that these women were disguised as the rebels. There was a heartfelt connection to the characters in that moment. This was my favorite part of the film. They did that part right.    

Enfys, the rebels who get ahold of the coaxiom, are planning to use it for revenge and a rebellion against the Empire. The rebel leader, a cute young girl with red hair asks if he wants in the rebellion but when Han says no she says,"You might change your mind later."

There's a showdown between Qi'ra, Han, and Voss. Qi'ra ends up killing Voss, and then lying to her boss (the true Overseer), saying he was killed by the rebels. It turns out the true Crime Boss here is Darth Maul, an old character from Star Wars the Phantom Menace, a film from 1999. In the Phantom Menace Darth Maul gets cut in half by a a jedi named Qui'gon Jin. Darth Maul sends a ship to kill Beckitt right as he's about to shoot Han and take the coaxiom, the real stuff. Han and Chewbacca give the stuff to Enfys. Darth Maul says to Qi'ra at the end of their conversation,"You and I will be working a lot closer from now on."  Qi'ra looks around uncomfortable after the conference call. My secret hope is that Qi'ra becomes a Sith, and learns how to wield a light saber. I can dream right? 

Ending the film, we see Han and Lando meet up again. Han challenges Lando to a gambling game again (how they first met) and Lando ends up betting the Millennium Falcon ship. He ends up losing because Han cheats. Han wins the ship and heads out for Tatooine with Chewbacca, where a gangster is putting together a team for a heist. 

The film didn't gross nearly as high as any of the other Star Wars films but that's okay. I thought the movie was fun. The movie goes very slow with its development but its not a bad movie by any means. The acting could have been better and more emotive, but then again I don't expect Shakespeare from a Star Wars film. 

I thought that they made Han a pretty boy that likes to tell jokes. Thats okay. Han doesn't have to be the cool tough guy he is when he's played by Harrison Ford. This is an all new take on Han Solo and it looks to keep people interested for the summer break.