Avengers: Infinity War

Ten years and Eighteen Films later, we now have Infinity War. This is the culmination of everything they've done and what I love about it is it seems like this was the plan all along.

To the surprise of no one, I saw this movie twice over opening weekend. Then I had a great conversation with all my friends about it. Still, I needed a few more days to fully decompress and get my feelings right.

Oh, I've spent two small paragraphs without saying how I felt about the movie. I loved it. This was like a big comic book crossover, brought to life on the big screen.

Gun to my head, in all honesty, it would be forth on my personal favorite Marvel films list. This isn't a bad thing, I just liked my three movies better. For the curious, that ranking is Black Panther, Captain America: Winter Soldier and Guardians of the Galaxy.

What impressed me about this movie is that it accomplished two things that can be difficult. It felt like there were real consequences to what was happening. The other thing is that this movie manages to juggle like thirty characters and does it in a way that the movie flowed very well. I'm surprised that it didn't get crushed under the weight of it.

At this point, I should mention that there might be spoilers. I will do my best to not give away too much, but some things I will have to comment on.

Where to begin without giving away too much? I really liked the pairing of characters that we get. In comic books, it's always great to see characters that have never met get thrown into a situation to fight a big threat. It's throwing your typical team dynamics into a potential pressure cooker. This is comic book 101 and it is done expertly here. What is impressive though, is that they paired up characters that fit together tonally. For instance, you get Tony Stark, Iron Man and Spider-Man in one group. Seeing Tony and Strange play off each other, you realize how similar they are in some ways, yet also different. You get two alpha males and a kid that is still figuring it all out.

Tom Holland is still great as Spider-Man. I hope they keep him around for a long time. Also, it feels like Benedict Cumberbatch has lost that weird American accent he used in his own movie. Thank goodness.

Another pairing we get is Thor with the Guardians of the Galaxy, which was another team up that worked. Their brand of comedy meshed well. Again, this was a great thing to see.

In fact, to tie this up, it was great to see all the actors/characters on screen in all the different permutations.

Before I go any further, for a movie this big, you need a great villain. I am glad to say that now that we finally see Thanos for more than 5 seconds, he is the perfect antagonist at the perfect time. They had to change his origin a bit, but at the end of the day, he was a great and they played him perfectly. I have said this before, but my favorite kind of villain is the one that thinks they are the hero in their own story. In this movie, he had a clear motivation for what he was doing. It's a warped way of thinking, but he had a plan and truly thought he was making the universe better.

Also, they did a great job with the CG on Thanos. Sometimes you truly forget he's not a real person. It's clear where some of the money went.

Another particular thing that speaks to my soul is watching fight scenes where the heroes are fighting together with various team up moves. If there is one thing that gets me in a team movie, it's synchronized moves. With stakes this high, it is good to see the heroes fighting together, not apart. Same goes for the villains.

Speaking of which, we don't get any background on Thanos' Black Order, which is okay. They are mini-bosses for the heroes to fight, so they serve their purpose.

There are specific moments in this movie where I either let out an audible, "YES!" or I was so excited I got goosebumps. One moment is when we first see Captain America. Another is watching Spider-Man swing into battle. I can't say when, because that would be spoiling. There is also a moment where you see Captain America and Black Panther running into battle and as they turn on the jets, it's a cool visual to see them leading the charge into a battle (that I am trying hard to not reveal).

I will say, that if you do not like quips, you would hate this movie. The quips are all over the place. As the movie goes along, you will see this is very necessary as this movie is extraordinarily dark. We need those moments of levity. If you haven't heard anything about this movie, the ending will be a huge gut punch.

Before I end this review, since we had to follow a lot of characters, we get to see a lot of different locales and they were all different while being distinct.

As you can see, I clearly had a lot to say about this movie and yet I feel like I didn't really talk about anything. I did this for YOU, dear reader. I wish I could get into more specifics, but I don't think the statute of limitations has passed yet.

Runaways

I initially meant to talk about Hulu's Runaway series months ago when it ended. This one slipped through the cracks and not due to anything with the show. Sometimes life gets in the way.

I want to start off by saying I really enjoyed this show. Almost more so than some of the Netflix Marvel shows. I think by being in LA and not in grim and gritty New York, the atmosphere was just so different. I think the fact that it was about a bunch of teenagers and not maladjusted adults helped too.

It has been a long time since I read the first volume of the Runaways comic, but this show felt pretty faithful to that. This series was a fresh concept when it came out and still feels fresh here. If there was any difference between this and the comic book series, I think the parents get more fleshed out here. In the comics they were basically mustache twirling villains. Here, they all have their own motivations and we get to see those played out.

They did a really good job with the young actors that played our main characters. I liked them all in their own ways. I think that is what really makes this show. The strength of our main characters. They also felt like authentic kids. I didn't cringe at the dialogue as you can do when a show is trying too hard.

I've become more convinced that ten episodes is about the right amount of episodes in a show. There is little filler because time is at a premium. This show gets going, but doesn't hang around too long. If the Marvel Netflix shows could do the same, we would have something.

Let me talk about the look of the show. I feel like some money really did go into this show. Old Lace (Gert's pet dinosaur) looked pretty good. The sets looked good and even though I have never been to LA, this show felt like it was authentic enough. The costume designs seemed pretty spot on too.

I wanted to keep this review short, so I will end by saying that this show is definitely worth a watch. It ends on a cliffhanger that makes me excited about where this show will go next. My initial excitement for this show was the reason I finally decided to subscribe to Hulu. It was well worth it.

The Fantastic Four Are Coming Back!!

Alright, Alright. So you've heard my whining pleas as I wistfully pined for the days of yesteryear. Nothing gets more yesteryear than the Fantastic Four. After Marvel was teasing this "Fresh Start" (ugh) initiative they are doing with their comic line, they spent days teasing what was coming. Then today, they announced that the Fantastic Four are coming back! I couldn't be more happy! Absence truly makes the heart grow fonder.

Even better, they get a really good creative team. We get writer Dan Slott, fresh off his ten plus year run on Spider-man and Sara Pichelli on art. If they can sustain this, that's a pretty good team. I hope this book doesn't fall into the double booking scheduling that Marvel/DC seems to be doing right now. I'm not going to lie, I really wanted Chip Zdarsky to get that shot at writing this book after the great work he has been putting in on Marvel 2-In-One.. Since he signed an exclusive with Marvel, maybe they have other plans for him.

I'm definitely over the moon. You could tell because I felt compelled to actually write a timely post on this here blog. That is all.

Black Panther

Now that I have seen this movie three times within the last seven days, I think I have formed enough of an opinion to actually write about it. You may have seen this everywhere else already, but I want to echo that same sentiment. This movie is a big deal for me and black people alike. There has never been a big, blockbuster super hero movie like this with a black cast this large.

What's even better, is that in this movie, the characters are not all cookie cutter stereotypes that you find in most black characters in film. This in and of itself is also very refreshing. It is great to see black characters as being fully capable and smart.

As I think about it, this is a movie that I am immensely proud of. It's a movie that I can happily recommend to people because it is also a pretty good movie in it's own right. It is a celebration of black excellence. As I alluded to above, we get positive portrayals of black people here which is counter to what you normally see on screen.

Let's talk about the movie now. After the last couple of Marvel movies (Thor: Ragnarok excluded) it was nice to see a film that had a fresh take and look. This movie does not look like the other Marvel movies and it is all the better for it. Whether it's CG or not, there is a lot of beautiful scenery to take in here.

I also want to add that there is a lot to unpack from this movie. I won't go into TOO much detail, but this movie deals with a lot of issues, which would almost seem heavy for a super hero movie. Here I feel it is done organically without feeling forced. For starters, it deals with Isolationism and the detriment it can have. Wakanda is a nation that is rich, but to the outside world they appear as a third world country. This is by design, as Wakanda looks to take care of their own and nobody else. This is probably the most central them of the movie. When there is a line about not allowing immigrants into the country because they bring their own problems with them at the expense of the host country, this rings true with real world events.

Then you have to deal with the fight between tradition and modern ideas. T'Challa's sister, Shuri, is the best representation of this. You see this in that they have all this wonderful technology, but their clothes and their armor reflect their tradition. This is also evident in the clothes that Shuri wears. What makes this interesting is that with all this technology, they still have hand to hand combat to show who is truly worthy to be the king of the nation. If you think about it, the dichotomy between those two is pretty stark.

Let's not forget how heavy is the head that wears the crown.  T'Challa, who has been thrust into a ruler due to extremely unfortunate circumstances, has to constantly juggle whether it is better to look after his own country or be a shining beacon to the rest of the world. All this and he is trying to live up to legacy of his dad, who he idolized as a hero. This also gets challenged later in the film and has a profound effect on him. We get to watch T'Challa grow into his role as the king.

One last theme I want to talk about is the concept of Duty. This struggle is seen in the character of Okoye. As a general, she has to remain loyal to the throne, no matter who sits on it. She is pretty steadfast in her commitment to this, but you can see her also change through out the movie. I hope with her performance, Danai Guirara put the world on notice. She is the best part of Walking Dead and she steals the show here.

How about we talk about probably the most compelling character in this movie, Eric "Killmonger". He was wonderfully portrayed by Michael B. Jordan. They always say the hero is only as good as his villain and Killmonger shines in this movie. Sure, he kills people and that makes him bad, but he had a compelling argument for his actions. For him, the fact that Wakanda stood idly by while the rest of black people have been enslaved or impoverished, served as a reason for him to bring down the monarchy. Also, as part of his quest, he does begin systematically tearing down Wakanda from the inside, forcing the nation to have to change. He wasn't so much an agent of chaos as a villain that was cold and calculating. Also, the best villains are the hero in their own story and that is Killmonger in this movie to a T.

I also want to mention the Dora Milaje. Not only them, but the characters of Okoye, Nakia and Shuri. Here you have three different and distinctly strong black women on film. The fact that they are black is secondary to their strength, but it goes to show how little of that we get in big budget super hero movies. It was great to see so many strong women kicking ass on screen.

I could go on and on, but the cast was fantastic here. I've gone all this way and I am just now mentioning that Forest Whitaker and Angela Bassett are in this movie.

I don't want to discredit the job that Chadwick Boseman did with this movie. In such a large cast, it would be easy to fall in behind so many other strong performances, but he is excellent in this film. He put a lot of hard work into preparing for this role and it shows. He is completely committed to the character and that makes him a joy to watch. You want to root for him and in some of the showings I went to, there was open applause when he appears near the end of the film.

I loved that this movie was self contained in that you do not see a lot of the other Marvel films having any bearing on what happened here, other than the death of T'Challa's father, which happened in the Captain America: Civil War film. I thought the movie was paced well. It had a great infusion of humor that never seems forced. Everyone is not here to make quips like we've seen in many other Marvel films.  The stakes felt very real and the way it was playing out, you weren't sure who was going to live or die. I was definitely on the edge of my seat.

There area lot of fantastic action sequences in this movie too. From the hand to hand combat of the fights for the throne, the car chase scene in Busan, the last battle scene of the movie, the action helped balance the non-action sequences very well.

My only complaint is that I really hate CG stuntmen and there was a lot of that here. I know it is here to stay, but I can't help but to complain every time I see it. It can make it look more like a video game and less like actual actors doing some of these stunts.

I am so glad they made this film and that it is doing extremely well. Black Panther is my favorite Marvel Character and I'm glad to see him treated so well here. I also hope that people are watching it and catching some of the themes I mentioned above. I know it can be lost amidst the noise of a super hero film.

If you haven't seen this film, please go see it. It comes with my highest recommendation. After seeing it three times, I think I can officially unseat  Captain America: Winter Soldier as my favorite Marvel film and put this movie into it's place. I've watched all the films, so I don't come by this lightly. I know a lot of my own personal feelings are wrapped up in this, but isn't that what a film is supposed to make you do?

Wakanda forever.