Avengers Endgame: a brief (Spoiler-free) review

TRANSCRIPT:

I didn’t plan to review Endgame, I figured that ground would
be well covered by so many more notable people than I that there was little
point. But the film so completely blew away all my expectations that I feel
like I have to put my thoughts out there even if nobody hears them.

But this presents another challenge because I want to keep
at least this review spoiler-free, if I find the words for a longer, more
in-depth one with spoilers I may or may not make that one too. I’ll level with
you guys, I’m writing by the seat of my pants here, I have no idea how I can
articulate my thoughts on Endgame without going into spoiler territory because
to quote Luke Skywalker, this is not going to go the way you think. To the
point then, Endgame is absolutely incredible. It is scary how good this film
is, and how well they managed to make 11 years, and 21 films worth of build pay
off and feel not only satisfying but also natural, while somehow at the same
time defying all expectations.

I don’t even feel like I can tell you what I mean by that
without going into spoiler territory, but nothing in this film unfolded like I
thought it would going in. This film is over three hours long and I felt almost
none of that runtime, those three hours flew by. Not only is this film a worthy
conclusion of the 21 that preceded it, it even manages to build upon them and
add more context. But if you haven’t seen it yet, you NEED to go in blind, I
would say remaining unspoiled is even more important now than it normally is.

Endgame is like the final performance after a long, long
period of rehearsals and every beat is hit. I actually cannot conceive of
anyone being disappointed by this film, I certainly wasn’t, it is absolutely
worth the price of admission and if there was one film I’d say you HAD to see
in theatres, it would be this one.

Captain Marvel: a brief review

Captain Marvel: a brief review


TEXT HERE

I have to say that during the lead-up to this film I repeatedly forgot it was even coming out. So much of the MCU hype in my online and social circles has been around Avengers: Endgame which comes out surprisingly closely following this, and I’ve made a concerted effort to avoid the shitstorm of whining crybabies who can’t handle that less than 5% of the MCU is now female-led and the other shitstorm of people who think Brie Larson didn’t want white men to see her movie or something Someone told me people were mad about? Which, if true, doesn’t even approach what she actually said. But whatever I’m not a drama channel. So my attention vis-à-vis the MCU has been more Endgame-centric than not as of late. As such this one kinda crept up on me, Now, from a technical and narrative standpoint the movie’s about as good as I expected it to be, Perfectly enjoyable, if not exactly ground-breaking, with a lot of fun 90s references some nice humour and special effects aplenty. Which is why I was pleasantly surprised with how much I found myself enjoying this one.

So Captain Marvel takes us back to the 90s, but also into space, with an amnesia-stricken Carol Danvers, known only to her Cohorts as “Vers” fighting for the Kree empire alongside a band of soldiers, one of whom is the guy from the beginning of Guardians of the Galaxy…oh and Ronan the Accuser shows up too, they’re working for him at this point. She basically has ki powers and isn’t sure how she got them. So a mission goes Awry and she crashlands on earth into a Blockbuster just to drive home the fact that it’s the 90s and her journey of self-rediscovery begins.

So basically I’m pretty sure you’ll feel like you know where the movie is going like, 5 minutes in. But there are some interesting developments to keep you on your toes and some nice character backstory for the younger Nick Fury. I wasn’t sure how I felt about the amnesia plot-device but as a mechanism for suspense it does the job. A LITTLE of the tension is undercut by the fact that we know certain characters survive, but not much.

The films visuals are great as always, in fact a lot of Danvers third act scenes put me in mind of Dragon Ball, which is basically one of, if not my favourite thing, so that stylistic choice was absolutely my bag and put me in a good mood. There’s also plenty of humour as I mentioned, in particular there’s one part near the end that put me in mind of one of my favourite parts of Raiders of the Lost Ark, you’ll know what it is when you see it.

Overall, when compared with the rest of them I’d say, not top 5 but maybe top 10? It’s a fun adventure with spaceships and superpowers, definitely worth watching if you go in for that sort of thing. A solid 7.5/10 from me, would watch again, I look forward to seeing where this goes, roll on Endgame. 

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Review: Aquaman

CAUTION: Minor spoilers ahead:

I swear my tendency to review Warner Bros movies on this blog is purely coincidental, it's just that these have more of a habit of being notable in my opinion, whether they're good or bad.

I guess it's also because, as an unapologetic nerd for the superhero...would you even say "genre" anymore? DC Comics movies are more of a curiosity these days than Marvel ones, don't get me wrong, I love me some Marvel movies, but you can be pretty sure they're gonna be good to serviceable, it doesn't seem to need saying. I still endeavour to review them, I have started drafts of Black Panther, Ant-Man and the Wasp and Thor: Ragnarok reviews on this blog which will probably never be finished, because I just never got around to it when they were relevant, (I'll incorporate them into an updated ranking listicle after Endgame to finish that particular business) and I'm not sure why that is exactly.

I guess the process of pinpointing where the creative decisions of the DCEU fall apart, or in the case of Wonder Woman why it's so refreshing is a more engaging and cathartic exercise than saying a film I was sure was going to be at least pretty good, ended up being pretty good. or it might just be that I find it easier to stave off procrastination when I'm angry or surprised, at this point who the hell knows? Anyway, Aquaman.

So right off the bat this looks a lot more lighthearted than most DC fare, which suits me right down to the ground, Temuera Morrison falls in love with the queen of Atlantis, who, upon stumbling, injured into his lighthouse, immediately impales his TV with a trident, and you know he likes her, because, after seeing that, and her eating his pet goldfish, the words "what the fuck!?" are not even implied,

Anyway, they have a kid, and she's ambushed by Atlanteans, and decides it's for the best that she leave to keep her lover and son safe. Said son grows up to be Jason Momoa, and, through flashbacks, it is revealed, received training from Willem Dafoe (I don't remember the character names, I'm sorry)

So he's already saved the world once, and we see that he means business when he lifts a submarine out of the water in the setup for the secondary antagonist, After a trip to a bar with his dad, he's visited by Amber Heard who tells him that Atlantis is on the brink of war with the surface and only he, as a child of both worlds, and son of the queen, can claim the throne and prevent global catastrophe.


All in all, this is a pretty standard superhero plot, complete with the premature boss-fight, humiliation, and McGuffin-hunt and personal epiphany before round two. all wrapped up in one prolonged King Arthur reference. That said, I'd be lying if I didn't say that what this film does, it does well.

The visuals are worth the ticket price on their own, Atlantis is a visually stunning creation full of inventive designs for technology and striking backdrops for action setpieces. There's plenty of lore to satisfy those that go for that woven into the film without feeling too cumbersome, even if it is frontloaded a little at times. The soundtrack is...basically fine, with the notable exception of the single worst use of Toto's Africa that has ever happened in any medium, and the whole thing carries itself with an air of humour that lets it ride the goofiness of the setting without being overpowered by it.

The Characters, underdeveloped though some may be, are likeable enough, the main villain is pretty generic and the secondary antagonist, while slightly more interesting, just ended up making me laugh at the fact that his costume makes him look more like a villain from Power Rangers than any Superhero movie I've ever seen. The plot is boilerplate and you'll figure out where it's going more or less immediately, but the execution is solid enough that predictability is fine.

All in all, Aquaman is a perfectly watchable Superhero film, it's not quite on the level of Wonder Woman but it's leaps and bounds ahead of Man of Steel it is, if you'll pardon the incredibly cheesy analogy, a respectable fish, in an adittedly understocked, but still noteworthy pond. I would definitely recommend giving this one a watch.