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.

Avengers Infinity War

Avengers Infinity War is a blast of a movie. Literally. Tons of repulsor blasts, magical projectiles, explosions, hand to hand combat, and more. Here I'd like to go over the good, the bad, and what I think could have been better. If you haven't seen the movie and care about spoilers then you should stop now.

First, the good. This movie has the Avengers, Black Panther, the Guardians of the Galaxy, and Thanos' crew of minions and they all get good spotlight. Iron man, Doctor Strange, Spiderman, and the Guardians (Quill, Mantis, Bautista's character) take the fight directly to Thanos on his home planet while the others are busy doing other things like protecting the infinity stone carried by the Vision, on Wakanda. 

Black Panther, Captain America, Bucky Barnes, Black Widow, Bruce Banner (not in Hulk form), and Scarlett Witch are all protecting Vision (and the stone) while simultaneously stopping a Thanos army invasion on Wakanada. 

"Evacuate the city. Engage all defenses. And bring this man a shield." -Black Panther

In addition, Thor gets a lot of good screen time. Fitting because after all, he is a god from Asgaard. Thor, Teenage Groot, and Rocket Racoon (or Rabbit as Thor calls him) all go to this planet to craft this legendary hammer from this Asgaardian dwarf, played by Peter Dinklage, called Stormbreaker. Once Thor gets the god-hammer he meets up on Earth in Wakanda to whoop ass. 

"Thank you sweet rabbit," Thor exclaimed happily. 

Everyone got good screen time although some of the minor characters just had short small moments. These characters include Black Widow, War Machine, Thano's minons, Captain America's robotic Hawk flying friend, and the Collector, who had one of the infinity stones. In terms of giving all the fan favorite characters good screen time the director did a fantastic job. I personally really enjoyed Doctor Strange as he is probably the mvp of the entire movie. 

In terms of pure action I loved the fight in the beginning between the wizards (Strange, Wong) with Iron Man against Thano's hulk monster and his skinny alien wizard. The magical projectiles flying around the screen (in Imax) looked particularly impressive. I always like to see more fantasy based magic projectiles as opposed to the standard hand to hand fighting combat or the typical projectile blasts. It looks sweet. 

Also, I'll have to say that when Thor arrived in Wakanda with the god-hammer Stormbreaker, ("That's a bit much," Rocket said) he drew lightning from it across the entire war landscape and decimated Thano's creature army to pieces. Pretty cool, it reminded me of the latest Thor movie where he murdered his sister when she broke out of hell. Good times.

Before we move on from all the great stuff about the film I must mention that although this is a dark villain movie the jokes were quality. From talking about ice cream, to "stop massaging the god man's muscles", to "have you seen that old movie aliens", and lastly "how long have you been there?" "An hour". The flow of the film would have been too ghastly if it were not for all of these quirky jokes from the cast of heroes. Its a nice, little touch. 

There are also emotional connections between the characters in this movie. More so than in the other Avengers films. When Thanos kills Gamora in order to retrieve the soul stone (Red Skull guides them to it, says they need a soul for a soul) that was a particularly sad moment. Also when Teenage Groot is about to die we've been told by directors that he saying "Dad" to Rocket Raccoon. The ending in general was quite catastrophic for the characters as well as the viewers. Its the end of the Universe man! 

Now for the bad. This movie only exudes one bad quality trait to me. The fact that the movie flows in a clunky way. The way everything moves around all the time as Thanos tries to retrieve all the infinity stones, its sort of all over the place. However, I don't think they could've done a better job because the point of this story is that everything is happening all over the place. They could've cut down on some of the fight scenes to make more meaningful dialogue and made the film shorter. If the film was shorter it wouldn't feel as clunky. 

Lastly, I must say that the movie is mostly good although I will debate any Marvel fan and say that its still super clunky and doesn't flow well. The first time you see it you will miss certain things not because you're not paying attention but because it doesn't flow well and your thoughts and eyes are focused on other parts. The seconding viewing I saw it, it was still clunky and didn't flow well. However, I still enjoyed it. Maybe even more the second time around (in Imax!). 

The thing is with these films is that yeah its cool they're going to destroy the Universe. That's exciting to all the fans and viewers. However, once you realize that it doesn't matter and that all of this crap is going to get relaunched eventually anyways, that's when the dream dies and you realize its just a movie for kids. 

However, its fun to be a kid sometimes and that's where Infinity War shines. Have fun with this film! 

Kid Gamora: Did you do it?
Thanos: Yes.
Kid Gamora: What did it cost?
Thanos: Everything. 

Thor Ragnarok

Thor Ragnarok is fun super hero movie. It has Justice League beat. Here's why.

Thor's story-line is simpler and easier to see out on the big screen. The fact that Asgard gets taken over by Odin's first daughter Hela who's Thor's sister. She took over countless civilizations with her father Odian and was the god of Death riding atop a giant wolf. The fact that Thor continues to have family disputes is not a surprise.

Thor's fighting scenes are cooler. The fighting scenes in Thor are marvelous, like a crude man's ballet. The weapons really added flair as there was weapons like swords and spears, guns, and magic.

One guy had some sort of enchanted Mace. He was pretty cool but he got speared through the gut by Hela.

The Hulk used hammers and axes against Thor in a fighting exhibition tournament match, akin to a gladiator affair.

Hela used magic to throw these Asgardian spears at an entire army of soldiers.

Thor was able to channel lightning throughout his body instead of just using his hammer. Because his hammer gets destroyed by Hela (by her bare fists) he learns how to use his powers without it.

Yeah, that was all pretty cool stuff.

Thor had a better soundtrack. At one point Thor gets lightning powers and he starts to annihilate an army of bad guys. The music from Led Zeppelin Immigrant Song is blasting away. That was a standout musical moment for the film.

Thor Ragnarok is good superhero cinema. I thought that Idris Elba, Cate Blanchett, Benedict Cumberbatch, and Mark Ruffalo did a great job in their roles. Actors like these give a good name for superhero flicks.

Justice League

Hey, its been a while. I've been busy reading different sorts of books and playing a lot of music. But I finally got around to seeing to the Justice League movie. It was quite an enjoyable two hours of cinema. Here's why.

The movie takes its time with gainful setup. The movie doesn't meander anywhere and it seems to have a purpose for most scenes. The beginning of the film features Batman looking to assemble his team (like an Overwatch team) of superheroes with powers (which he lacks, but has resources and leadership abilities) to defeat this new threat called Stephenwolf but honestly it doesn't matter who they're fighting, they just need an excuse to kick some ass.

Batman is portrayed in a smarter light in this movie as opposed to Batman V Superman where he came across as a violent maniac. Gal Godot is sexy and straight to the point, just as you would think an Amazonian warrior would act. The Flash is nerdy and quite green here. Cyborg is disillusioned with his mechanical body but otherwise quite nice. And Aquaman is a strong dude with a lance. There's the team, now fight! Superman gets raised from the dead to help defeat Stephenwolf and he's the most emotionally expressive character in a sense. He picks up Batman once he's revived and says, "Do you bleed", an ode to the Batman V Superman movie where Batman says that to him and hits him with a kryptonite lance. That was a nice Easter egg. 

The action scenes in this movie are quite good. Its nothing we haven't seen before in superhero movies but it is quite thrilling. My favorite part was probably when Superman was fighting the Justice League team when he was revived because he didn't know who he was or where he is, he was just raised from the dead, like Jesus Christ or something. Batman played God in this movie and it worked out for him but I have my doubts about some sort of after effect happening-Bizarro anyone? They ended up reviving Superman with this thing called a Motherbox, some kind of multidimensional box that contains "deep power", or whatever they want to say it does.

Superman was portrayed in the most human light in the film. Hell, Batman even remarks, "He's more human than I am." After he realizes who he is Lana Lane (Amy Adams, whom I love because of her performance in The Arrival) comes and they go to his childhood home on the farm. They talk and catch up. Lana says she wasn't strong when he died. They kiss and hold each other. Its the most emotional scene in the film. Superman eventually realizes he has a job to do and takes off. But that scene made the movie more interesting and contrasts with the darkness of the film, a feeling a hope that wasn't present before.

It should also be noted that the film portrays a dark atmosphere. This is not the Avengers, where everybody is laughing and joking around with each other. There's jokes here but they're a little forced and not quite that funny (nobody in the audience laughed at anything). The opening song of the movie has a woman singing, "Everybody knows the world is over, everybody knows the good guys lost." Its the perfect music to setup this dystopian superhero adventure. In essence that's what the movie is. Its not meant to be the best Justice League movie, its just meant as a stepping stone for other DC movies to come, hopefully featuring more superheroes (Martin Manhunter and Green Lantern please) and the Justice League fighting more interesting enemies (after the credits there was a scene with Lex Luthor talking about forming his own team of bad guys).

Although the plot was exceedingly simplistic its reasonable to say its to be expected from this sort of action superhero movies genre. What this movie does better than the first Avengers film is that it keeps your attention on the different scenes and animation techniques, something I looked at with great detail. In Avengers there's so much fighting going on that you forget that there's even dialogue sometimes. In this movie dialogue is used in a smarter and more effective way.

The good guys have won for now. But can they withstand the onslaught of the enemy team of ragtag super villains? We'll find out in the next film.

Guardians of the Galaxy 2

I saw this movie about a week ago and I thought I'd jot down my thoughts of the film. Obviously a movie like this could never be truly great because its just bubblegum popcorn entertainment. However, I can critique and give an opinion on it. One thing to take note is that the movie made 136 million during its first opening weekend. Alien Covenant only made 36 million on its opening weekend and it was a much better movie. Onto the film...

Guardians 2 doesn't really take off where the first one left off. It's not really a true kind of sequel. Instead, it brings a brand new element to the series. Starlord is actually part god or as they call it in the film, celestial. Starlord (played by Chris Pratt) and the gang (Rocket Raccoon, Gamora, Bautista, and Baby Groot) meet Starlord's dad and they end up going to his planet. There Starlord learns that his father is a celestial (god) that formed that entire planet they went to and that Starlord's half god too.

His dad seemed like a pretty cool dude. The movie opens with Starlord's dad driving down a country road with then Starlord's mother in a convertible while she's singing a song. Its the 80s because he had a longhair mullet sort of style going on. It was a good opening. Very memorable even a week later. The rest of the movie not so much.

The basic plot of the movie is that Starlord's dad needs another celestial to power up the planet with a weapon....or something like that. The movie featured a ton of comedy. My favorite part was how Rocket Raccoon made fun of a mini-villain that gave himself the moniker Tazerface. Rocket says,"you call yourself Tazorface!?" He laughs and says,"whats next, buttocks scrotum?" I thought that part was super funny.

You can say that the plot didn't even matter for this movie because its ultimately forgettable. The fact that no more infinity stones were revealed in the movie or in any of the after trailers (there were four) was a bit of a disappointment for me. However, what the movie does do well is remind us that summer is here and that good times are meant to be had. Yeah, its a party movie. Dumb fun, like drinking beers when you're a little kid. I didn't hate it but at the same time its not something that will be talked about for years to come.

It differs from most Marvel, DC, and superhero movies in the sense that its not about action or even having a linear plot. Instead, its about the characters, jokes, and the relationships between them. Its at times funny, awkward, rude, and sometimes even weird. You can tell they were trying to save all the super important lore and story of the Guradians of the Galaxy at bay with this one. 

Suicide Squad

So I finally got around to seeing Suicide Squad with my friends. Because my friend works at Amc Theaters I got to see it for free. I've been seeing all the summer blockbusters for free. Special shoutout thank you to my friend!

The movie got a lot of bad press in the gaming community and a lot of people told me personally that they didn't like it as well. I thought it was great fun! Nothing too serious-I could compare it to Marvel's Guardians of the Galaxy in the sense that both are fun action movies with comedic undertones. Let me tell you about my favorite scenes and what I liked about this film.

When the super villains are being introduced by Amanda Waller we see glimpses into their past and what makes them tick. This was especially great because I didn't know who Deadshot or Captain Boomerang were. For Deadshot we see a scene where Batman comes to take him in-in the presence of his daughter. Deadshot decides to go peacefully instead of shooting Batman, because of the love for his daughter.

For Harley Quinn we see that she was an Arkam Asylum psychiatrist designated to the Joker, played by Jared Leto. She finds herself falling in love and becoming obsessed with the Joker. Their relationship was a strong one. Joker tried to get Harley to kill herself in one scene (by having her jump in a pool of chemicals) but instead we see Joker jump into the chemicals and save her. Although he was crazy enough to give her electric shock therapy he truly loved her.

Jared Leto was great in this movie. He portrays the Joker less as a psychopath and more as a crime boss. There's this scene where he's sitting in his room and all around him are all these knives placed carefully in position. He showed a wide variety of emotion for the Joker. It was hard to know to expect because I think of the Joker in the movies as Heath Ledger Joker and its to compare to that. But in a sense I think he did a great job.

My favorite character in the movie was Katana. She's this Japanese woman with a sword that contains souls of all the people the sword has slain. She wears a mask and had on this cool leather jac ket and outfit. She even only spoke in Japanese, a nice touch. She's pretty unknown in the DC movie universe so it was cool to see that they featured her. She was an ally to Waller that worked for the government and was there to make sure none of the super villains got out of line.

The story was fun but probably not the most engaging. Basically Enchantress (this witch) gets loose and creates this megaweapon designed to wreck havoc on the Earth-and it does! The Enchantress creates this army of like black goop head-men that the Suicide Squad have to kill in order to get to her. Once there, they have to deal with her brother-this demonic entity thing. Thankfully, they had Diablo ( ese, villain, shoots fire) turn into his true form and he was able to push it into a corner where they used explosives to take it down. His improved form was this giant fire monster. It was pretty cool.

I liked how they portrayed Harley Quinn as super crazy but also sexy. It was like a peep show with her. In addition, I think Katana was pretty cute too. The movie at least had a few cute girls. The movie is light-hearted enough for families with kids to enjoy and has enough action to keep the super hero fanboys watching. For me the movie was a solid 8 out of 10. Not amazing or a must see. But a fun addition to the DC catalog. They finally know what they're doing with their movies. Can't wait to see more from the franchise. I would be totally down for a Katana movie about her origins story. 

Deadpool movie

     Today me and the lads went to go see the Deadpool movie. I was not dissapointed. This movie is terrific, action packed, and contains an origin story that leaves the watcher sympathetic to the character. Deadpool isn't really seen as a hero or a villain, he's just a guy who's out for revenge against the guy that scarred his face. He was told that they were going to cure his cancer and turn him into a super hero but instead they fucked up his face instead (they being Ajax). In the end his cancer was cured and he did have super powers.
     He decapitates guys with his swords, guns them down with pistols, and isn't a bad fighter when it comes to hand to hand combat. The cool thing about Deadpool is that he virtually can't die. There were moments like when he was fighting Colossus (from the X-Men, a cameo) and his body just got crunched and turned into a lump of meat. But then he was able to regenerate his broken bones, it was awesome! Kind of reminded me of the Pillar Men from JoJo's Bizarre Adventures if you've ever that. I guess this is Deadpool's mutant abilities at work. All I knew about Deadpool before I saw this movie was that he was a cool Marvel character in Marvel vs Capcom 3, that he liked chimichangas and Spiderman, and that Ryan Reynolds played him in X-Men first class. Now here he is with his own movie! Let me break down the movie.
     Basically the movie goes in a backwards order which reminded me a bit of Pulp Fiction because the story wasn't a linear progression. Deadpool is out to kill Ajax, this baddie that forced a mutation on Deadpool by giving him non-stop torture. Don't ask me how constant torture somehow brings out the genes for super powers but that's how they explained it in this movie. Deadpool is seen as a jokey straight up killer but he actually loves his girl friend and his whole fight in this movie was for her. The story isn't anything great but the action packed scenes more than make up for it. This is a straight up action flick with a lot going on. There are moments when people get messed up horribly but I wouldn't call this a gory movie. However, this isn't a movie you should take a young kid to. There are decapitations, torture scenes, and boobs! Haha, but seriously this is rated R for a reason. If they went with a PG-13 rating this movie would not have been as great as it was. It's great to see something from the Marvel camp that isn't just PG-13 Avengers.
     When I watched this movie there was a sense that everything just flowed well. It was like a perfect super hero movie. Although you can't really call Deadpool a super hero. He's kind of his own kind of hero ya know? I really like that about him. He's not a bad guy necessarily but that doesn't stop him from being a killing machine. Colossus even kept saying that he would make an X-man out of Deadpool yet. So there's still hope for Deadpool to turn to the light side. Things to look forward to when watching this movie; Ryan Reynolds' great acting and hilarious banter, cool action scenes, the strip club scene (which was very random), and a unique origins story. This is how you do justice to a comic book character in film form. It's just that good. Go see this movie as soon you can! 
     Lastly, I've been playing Street Fighter V and the issues that the game had seem to have been fixed. I haven't played any matches online but tomorrow I'll try to play my friend online. I've kind of found an interesting character that I like, Necalli. I thought he was some kind of vampire at first but he's actually some kind of Aztec warrior. Which seems just as awesome! He's become my favorite character just today but I'll probably play a lot of Ryu as well to learn the basics. In addition, I'm looking forward to going to a Smash tournament tomorrow. I'm going to go ham as Zero Suit Samus. I was working on my tech skill, perfect pivots and teching. I've also been working on not rolling so much. I need to completely change my style to remove all my bad habits in order to play better at the competitive level. Wish me luck!