News

New ‘Avengers Endgame’ Trailer!

Most of the same, but that still means it’s glorious.

Remain calm everyone, the epic finale 10 years in the making is almost upon us. But first we get one last trailer. What a nice surprise to wake up too on this Thursday morning. There wasn’t any word on this coming out today, but it’s almost time, so they need to put one last tease out before the biggest showdown ever.

I can’t imagine how difficult it must be to edit one of these trailers, because well we all know that most of our fallen heroes will return but they don’t want to spoil that. We do however see that Tony Stark makes it back to Earth and is reunited with those left standing. That was probably the biggest “spoiler” from this trailer, but if you didn’t see that coming, well Quicksilver would just be disappointed in you. Very little footage was given to the team behind the trailer, that’s why it feels almost the same as the first one to drop, but you should be okay with that. I didn’t expect them to reveal anything, even something as small as Tony Stark back on Earth.

Can’t wait.

Reviews

‘Captain Marvel’ Review

When you’re going to these movies for the mid-credit scene, maybe it’s not a great sign.

Carol Danvers becomes one of the universe’s most powerful heroes when Earth is caught in the middle of a galactic war between two alien races


The good old MCU. The most reliable thing in Hollywood today, maybe in the history of Hollywood. It took them just over 20 movies to have their very first female-led superhero flick. Enter Brie Larson and her portrayal of Carol Danvers aka Captain Marvel. You can always count on an MCU movie to do two things; make a ton of money, and seriously divide nerd culture. From the very get-go, I truly wasn’t on board with Brie Larson suiting up in the MCU. She’s a fine actress, an Oscar winner, and has been a staple in Hollywood for years now, but something just didn’t click with me. After seeing the movie, I personally think she lacked any sort of charisma and her whole performance was very vanilla. In a world where Marvel has perfected casting, I just think they could have found someone more suitable. She doesn’t come across as Captain Marvel or even a superhero. Where RDJ, Evans, and Hemsworth are literally walking incarnations of their characters. I think the main reason I’m not down with Captain Marvel is that for the last 12 years we have watched our Marvel heroes struggle time and time again, they have lost so much. Scarified, over and over again. After the events of the Infinity War, people were legit shook. Now, Captain Marvel is dubbed the most powerful person in all of the MCU and she will be very much responsible for defeating Thanos. Which seems so unearned, actually it is so unearned and it doesn’t even seem fair to be honest. She almost gets a happy ending, and we don’t really know where she’s been and why she has decided to wait until everything legit went to shit to show her face. This movie did a terrible job at telling us why she has been gone. In fact, she tells Nick Fury “only for emergencies.” I think aliens invading Earth through a massive portal in New York wasn’t a large enough emergency.

I just felt this whole movie was a 90s nostalgia trip, that was needed in order to have this girl in our lives before the events of Endgame play out. I even took some flack online saying I felt this was one of the weakest MCU origin films we’ve gotten. A huge blockbuster directed by a woman, starring a woman is fantastic, but that doesn’t mean you can’t talk about its flaws or be honest with how you feel about it. It’s Sunday on its opening weekend and it’s sitting with the 6th highest global opening ever with 455 million dollars, this movie is going to be fine. It’s just not what I wanted it to be. The only great aspect of this film was Sam Jackson’s and Brie Larson’s onscreen chemistry, it was actually quite fantastic. De-aging him worked really well, they should be doing this in more movies. But Jude Law is an utter waste, as one of the weakest MCU villains Yon-Rogg. You get Jude Law in your movie, you should make the most of it. Ben Mendelsohn plays Talos, and he was finally put in a great role. After a few duds in a row, it’s amazing to see him back in a fun role. I just felt the movie as a whole was choppily made, and for being so powerful, I didn’t think we even got a “cool moment” from her.

Just not a whole lot happens in her first outing, we don’t know why she decides to do what she does and really anything about her. And now we have to sit back and watch her take over the MCU? I have zero emotional investment with this character, and that’s a shame really. She doesn’t even lose anything in the movie. I just wanted it to be over so I could see the lead into Endgame. And the mid-credit scene was dope, but my biggest question after all of this. How will she interact and fit in with the rest of our heroes? Most of them might not be around at the end of Endgame, but still, she’s on the main building blocks in the MCU going forward. Even though I disliked her origin flick, I think in a group, Brie Larson could shine. I’ll find out soon enough, and I’m hanging on with the littlest of hope that this will be the case.

Overall, Captain Marvel falls in the middle of the pack for MCU movies, I’m dialing back some of my critiques of the film because I do think overtime Brie Larson can grow into this role. She’s got a lot to prove to me in Endgame, I just think it’s not right and so unearned that she gets to come in now and be the hero. I hope this is all handle so well next month. I just think it fell short of my expectations

Nate’s Movie Tour Reviews – Captain Marvel = 67/100

News

‘Spider-Man: Far From Home’ Trailer

You need a Venn diagram to explain this thing. It comes out after Endgame, but it could take place before Infinity War. Whatever, it’s got Jake Gyllenhaal.

Peter Parker and his friends go on summer vacation to Europe, where Peter finds himself trying to save his friends

Very confusing time. Marvel promoting a movie that might take place after the biggest event in comic book movie history. Bold move. We all know Peter Parker got crop dusted at the end of Infinity War, a causality of “the snap” by Thanos. People are debating whether or not this will be a prequel to Infinity War, or if this will take place after Endgame. Why would Marvel spoil something so big, even though we know it’s coming months before Endgame hits theatres. Part of me thinks this will end with them back on the bus in New York when we first see Peter in Infinity War. Now Peter and his friends are heading across the pond for a good old summer vacation. Well, what he doesn’t know is that being a full fledge superhero is a 24/7 job and soon into his holiday Nick Fury arrives and tells him he needs his help.

It’s nice to see Nick Fury making the rounds again in the MCU, he’s a great character and Sam Jackson kills the role. I think the last 30 seconds of this trailer was better than anything we saw in Spider-Man Homecoming. The stakes are certainly higher and it feels like a much larger movie. Not so grounded with the lonely Vulture as the villain, Spider-Man will be dealing with the elementals. Sandman, Hydro-Man and Molten-Man, pretty cool stuff if you ask me. It will be interesting to see how they translate Spider-Man swinging from skyscrapers in New York, to the streets of London.

For the main attraction. Jake Gyllenhaal, as Mysterio. This whole role is up in the air. What a cool character design and concept. Able to use magic? Maybe. We know that Mysterio is the master of illusion, so this whole thing could be created by him in order for it to look like he’s really the good guy. I kind of hope they use him as an ally. Who knows if anything he’s doing is actually real or not, I’m really curious to see how they will play this out. All I know is he looks dope and it’s Jake Gyllenhaal who simply doesn’t do bad movies.

I’m already more excited for Far From Home then I was ever for Homecoming. Good stuff again Marvel.

News

New ‘Captain Marvel’ Look

The banter between Fury and Marvel could end up being the selling point for me.

Captain Marvel she’s our hero, she’s going to turn Thanos to a zero. Now say that to the tune of the Captain Planet theme. Its taken two trailers, a few TV spots and now this new little inside look at the movie to finally get me on board. The reason? Sam Jackson and Brie Larson look terrific together on screen, and they seem to be the driving force behind it. I still don’t like the idea of her being the saving grace to the MCU and the person who will defeat Thanos, but that will all come together in Avengers: Endgame.

But this new look really focused on Fury and Ms. Marvel and I enjoyed what I saw. And I really don’t have much more to say about it. I haven’t blogged in a week so I thought I’d toss this in here. I guess I’ll be going opening weekend now.

Check ya later.

News

‘Avengers: Endgame’ Trailer

Ant-Man really out here ruining trailers.

So Tony has officially hit rock bottom. He lost his pal Spider-Man, and now he’s about to float into space and die a pretty depressed man. It’s been 8 months since the worlds biggest snap happened and Marvel just dropped the first teaser trailer for the end to it all.

Avengers: Endgame is the official title, and that’s exactly what it is. The Endgame to so many characters that we have been watching for over a decade now. Crazy to think that in about 6 months this wonderful journey will all be over. This was the definition of a teaser trailer, not telling us anything we already didn’t know and certainly not showing us anything. They will not show a single snapped character in any marketing before this movie is released. So I expect these trailers leading up to the finale to be pretty bleak and very minimal. But that is the point. If you were expecting something else, you clearly don’t know Marvel or how to properly market a movie.

I enjoyed it, I really liked the Tony stuff at the beginning and my only issue was the stuff with Ant-Man at the end. Yup, the entire universe was just cut in half but they still got time for jokes in the MCU! Just scale it back a little bit, that’s all I’m asking. So now we gotta wait another 3 months before the first real trailer with footage we all wanna see will drop. Until then, watch this on a constant loop.

https://youtu.be/-9hhb3M6c1A

News

‘Captain Marvel’ Trailer Hits

Another origin story……..

It only took 10 years, but we are finally getting a female led MCU movie! Brie Larson stars in the upcoming Captain Marvel, I feel like she’s the equivalent of DC’s Green Lantern. She’s a space cop, who lands on earth in the 80s! That’s right, we are hearing back in time to everyone’s least favourite decade. But we have Stranger Things to thank for all this 80’s nostalgia.

Look the trailer seems fine, in fact, it was just that, fine. I’m not over the moon about this movie or this character to be honest. The biggest problem I have with her is the fact that she’s suppose to be the most powerful hero in all the MCU and now she’s coming around? After Thanos wipes out half the universe? Where has this girl been? That’s what I don’t like. It’s been 10 years into the MCU and they are now introducing us to this all powerful space cop. It’s kind of a litre ridiculous and I just don’t believe it. They better have a damn good excuse why she hasn’t been around to Earth when it was trying to be destroyed 100 times over.

The cast is chalked full of great people, they are even de-aging Samuel L Jackson for this, and he has both his eyes! Jude Law looks to be a potential villain and the return of Josh Pence as Ronan The Accuser. But all of this and I still thought the trailer was simply okay. It’s a teaser I know, or maybe I’m just tired of origin stories. We know what happens 30 years later in the MCU. Why do I care about this? Remind me why I should care about an origin story of Captain Marvel that takes place in the 80s, when half the universe just got wiped out.

Anyways. Here’s the trailer.

Reviews

‘Ant-Man & The Wasp’ Review

So we’ve gotten 2 solo Ant-Man movies in the last 4 years and zero Batman movies in the last 6………

After Marvel dropped Infinity War earlier this year, it was pretty hard to get yourself psyched up for the next Ant-Man outing. Rightfully so, after the events of Infinity War how could anyone really care what Scott Lang and the gang were up to? Let me tell you this, I have completely forgotten this entire movie. You look up bland and meh in the dictionary, well this might fall under it.

I like the Ant-Man character, I think Paul Rudd was perfectly casted. Just the whole movie was an excuse to show us an after credits scene. I’m not lying, the whole movie was a set up for a 90 second scene that – spoilers, shows Hank Pym (Michael Douglas), Janet Van Dyne (Michelle Pfeiffer) and Hope Van Dyne (Evangeline Lilly) disappearing just like half the universe, all while Scott Lang is now trapped in the Quantum Realm. Pretty much indicating that Ant-Man once again will not be suiting up with the rest of the Avengers in next years Infinity War finale. That’s my biggest takeaway from the movie. It’s predictable, dull and I don’t understand the science behind anything that goes on and Marvel just decides not to explain this science to us. I’m not picky when it comes to this kind of stuff, but for this movie, where the laws of physics are just being thrown out the window, a little education would be nice. I was totally fine with the first Ant-Man it was a fun time, and I actually really liked the villain from it. Yellow-Jacket is a underrated bad guy, and their fight sequences were a ton of fun. This time around, Hannah John-Kamen suits up as Ghost and well, yikes. Marvel had kind of been on a hot streak for villains, but Ghost is so forgettable and she’s almost not even a villain. It’s murky with her, so that’s where Walton Goggins character of Sonny Burch comes in. He’s like a bad cartoon character come to life. A lot of the new characters introduced are just god awful. This might be one of the worst MCU villains.

So if you’ve seen the first you know a little bit of the backstory. Hank Pym was once Ant-Man and Janet was The Wasp, now after a rescue mission gone wrong, Janet has been stuck in the Quantum Realm for over 30 years. When Scott went into the realm himself at the end of the first movie, some how they became connected. Now Hank and Hope have the technology and the means to rescue her from the Quantum Realm. That’s pretty much the entire movie, Scott is on house arrest because of the events of Civil War, so when he has a dream in which he sees Janet, Hank and Hope bust him out and try to rescue her before it’s to late. Just like the first one, this has a ton of comedic moments and Michael Pena steals the show, because the only time I was really having fun with this movie was when he was on screen. There’s a whole bit about truth serum and it’s so great, and when he tells his stories, you can’t help but burst into laugher, but that simply can’t save the entire movie. The action sequences are just boring, I enjoyed them much more in the previous incarnation. The movie is kind of a blur, because everything really isn’t making sense and it’s almost like one long game of hot potato. They are able to shrink an entire building down, and it turns into a suitcase on wheels pretty much, and that’s where their lab is located. So it keeps going back and forth between the good guys and the bad guys, and that goes on for 90 minutes. Don’t get my wrong, this is a Marvel movie, it’s enjoyable, Ant-Man is a great character and you’ll laugh really hard in certain spots. But this shouldn’t have come out after Infinity War, it just felt so underwhelming. Knowing what we know now, and what’s to come, a solo Ant-Man adventure is just something I wasn’t really looking forward to. So I think they dropped the ball big time with this release date, and I honestly think this shouldn’t have taken place when it did. Like I previously mentioned this just felt like an excuse to tell us again why Ant-Man wasn’t around during Infinity War and that he sure as hell won’t be suiting up next summer. They could have just made this post credit scene after Infinity War and saved themselves a ton of work hours and money. This didn’t even crack 80 million dollars on it’s opening weekend. For a Marvel movie, that’s not great. I don’t see this movie having much legs either, because word of mouth won’t be great.

If you’re a fan of these movies go see it, if you’re on the fence about it, you should probably sit this one out. Movies keep disappointing this summer, we haven’t had to many hits on our hands. I didn’t expect much from Ant-Man & The Wasp but I expected just a little bit more.

Nate’s Movie Tour Reviews – Ant-Man & The Wasp = 65/100

News

Where Does The MCU Go From Here?

We got HEAVY spoilers up ahead. So proceed with caution.

Tony-Stark.jpg

Still here? Okay good! So that photo above means so much more and screams so painfully loud once you have lived through the experience. We had already kind of had our hearts ripped out before this iconic moment, you know with the deaths of Loki and Gamora. But I don’t think ANYONE was prepared for the ending of this movie. I don’t really know where to exactly start, so why not at the beginning? I honestly thought the opening scene rivals the opening scene to the Dark Knight for the best opening scene to a comic book movie ever. The introduction to Thanos just tells us that he is not here for any bullshit, and that’s exactly what Loki is known for. The trickster, the jester, the well dead man. I kind of had a funny feeling that we would finally see the end of Loki at the start of this, but I didn’t think he would go out in such a cruel and awful way. I think we finally got to see the real Loki, the anti-hero Loki in Ragnorok and now I think he’s gone for good. No resurrection, no tricks, Loki is flat out gone from our lives and I think that’s a massive hit to the MCU. But if they want us to believe that there are finally massive stakes at play, then their best bet is to keep him dead. He failed Thanos once, I don’t really think he wanted him around. Here’s the thing. I believe Loki and Gamora’s deaths will be permanent. Everyone else who bit the dust at the end will eventually come back, but deaths that occurred prior to the finger snap might be gone forever. Zoe Saldana is going to be busy as hell filming like 5 Avatar’s in a row and I think making her death remain permanent will only flush out Quills character even more. I also believe she will be the reason Thanos snaps his fingers again and changes what he did and here’s why. Gamora is living inside the soul stone now, they showed that towards the very end of the movie. I think Thanos is RATTLED, and now that she will always be around, like inside his head will drive him insane.

I know it’s crazy to imagine the Guardian’s movies without Gamora but the MCU needs something, a real moment, where there were no jokes, no fun and games. Just real consequences and Gamora’s death should be that moment for the MCU. We all know the 10 people that die in the end scene, I’m not going to name them all, you should know by now, and shame on you if you didn’t weep when Peter was crying to Tony. Now those 10 are 1,000,000 percent coming back I don’t care what any Marvel Executive says about it. Does it make their deaths feel a little bit hollow? I think a little bit, but the original Avengers are left standing. It only makes sense the team that started it all are the ones to defeat or change this outcome for the rest of the universe. That’s why it’s important Loki and Gamora stay dead, or else it will be like this entire movie didn’t matter, and as a fan I will ultimately just feel cheated.

I don’t really know what exactly Marvel has planned for part two of Infinity War. I want to think Thanos will have a change of heart, because even at the end of this movie, while he was sitting on his farm, it seemed he was at peace, but part of me believes me knows he made a big mistake. So I can either see redoing what he has done, or Captain Marvel, who was teased after the credits will get her hands on the gauntlet and do it herself. I don’t really want that to happen. She’s going to be super powerful, we all know that, but she hasn’t even made her debut yet, I don’t want a character who hasn’t been a part of this journey the last 10 years to be the one who finally saves the day. She can come and help out the team, but she better not be the hero at in the end, because I don’t think that’s fair to the rest of our heroes who have lost so much. There are some really powerful people yet to be introduced into the MCU, so Thanos could honestly just be the tip of the iceberg. Josh Brolin said he signed a 2 movie contract, which sucks because Thanos is by far the best thing to happen to the MCU in a long time, and I can’t imagine them getting rid of him after two movies.

I think some of our older heroes will finally say goodbye next installment. It’s funny everyone thought Captain America was going to die during this, I was one of those people. And he was one of the very few left standing. But I don’t see him and Iron Man both making it out alive next time, it seemed Thanos spared them both and he might not be so forgiving next time. It’s the older generation trying to save our younger heroes, the ones that will carry the MCU into the future, it would only make sense that a few of them sacrifice themselves to save others. Iron Man is going to be next level sad after watching Spider-Man die. I hope the next movie takes place moments after this one ends, because I need to see exactly how Tony is going to react knowing that these heroes might not come back. Remember just because we know its a forgone conclusion our heroes will return, the heroes in the movie don’t.

It really has been an incredible journey these last 19 movies, and I think a lot of people aren’t ready to say goodbye to some of these characters. But all good things must come to an end. Marvel knows what they are doing, and I know next years finale will truly be something to remember, it’s difficult thinking that they could top Infinity War.

So what’s in store for our heroes, we are going to have to wait till May 19th to find out!

Reviews

‘Avengers: Infinity War’ Review

Marvel raises the bar once again for the Superhero genre. Creating their greatest achievement yet. It’s perfectly balanced, as all things should be.

I laughed, I cried, I cheered. And that was all just in the first 10 minutes. I had to wait until Sunday night to finally see the much anticipated Avengers: Infinity War. Do you know how difficult it is to stay spoiler free from the biggest movie of the last decade? It’s extremely hard, I did my best to stay off social media, so when Sunday night rolled around I was ecstatic I was walking in spoiler free. So after a decade and 18 movies later, did Marvel hit a grand slam? Yes, yes they did. I’m not really sure where to start, this will be a spoiler free review, I’m going to write another piece about the future of the MCU and how I really thought about EVERYTHING that happens in Infinity War, but for now, here’s my review! Also just congratulations on this becoming the highest grossing movie ever domestically in a single weekend. It deserves it, this is bar none the best MCU movie ever made.

Boy did Marvel not hold back, from the very opening moments of the film, this felt like something epic. This review might be all over the place, because it will be extremely hard to write something spoiler free, which this will be! We are immediately introduced to Thanos (Josh Brolin) and his trusty side kicks – The Black Order. For sidekicks, the Black Order were pretty goddamn awesome I thought. Hats off to Tom Vaughn-Lawlor who played Ebony Maw, because if you tossed him into any other MCU movie, we could be talking about one of the best MCU villains here. Just so happens he was standing next to Thanos for the entire movie so it’s hard to really consider him truly great, because well Thanos climbed to the top of Mount Rushmore of comic book movie villains after this performance. It shouldn’t come as a surprise to anyone, it’s not like we have been waiting since 2012, when he first reared his big ugly purple head. Since then they have been building the MCU for this very moment. When everything finally comes together, crossovers you didn’t know you wanted, team ups we could have never imagined and more importantly the Avengers coming face to face with the Mad Titan Thanos. For the last 6 years all we have heard about is the 6 infinity stones and the unimaginable power they all contain. Put them all together and that person has the power to accomplish anything. Well Thanos is looking to round up all these stones and it’s up to our heroes to stop him. That’s almost the strongest part of the entire movie. It’s not an overly complicated plot, it’s simple. Thanos wants the stones, our heroes are trying to do everything and anything they can to stop him.

Thanos was such a terrific villain, we are coming off such a strong one with Killmonger in Black Panther, but Marvel stepped their game up even more with Thanos. What makes a truly memorable and great villain performance, is well, they need to have layers, and the character kind of needs to be flushed out throughout the movie. We get a ton of background and history about Thanos, we get to see inside his mind, what makes him tick and everything he truly loves. For being the most evil person in the entire universe, there are parts of the movie where you almost are rooting for him to get all the stones. Like if someone asks me, “Was Thanos a good villain?” Well, he’s unstoppable, terrifying, sadistic, at times polite and like i mentioned, in a few brief moments, sympathetic. He’s just not a power hungry mad man who has no sense or sense awareness to everything around him. He’s so much more complex than that, and you almost see where he’s coming from. He’s the most badass villain to ever show up in a comic book movie, and with that comes the fact he’s almost the most sympathetic villain to ever grace the big screen. So if you haven’t figured out by now, I really enjoyed Thanos, he makes the movie and I was glad that he got the most screen time out of any character in the entire movie. Frankly, us fans that have been waiting all this time for him to show up deserved it.

As for the rest of the team they all work so well together. Yes they all don’t have the most screen time, but if you love these characters and watching them, then you won’t care. The interactions between characters, like Rocket and Thor, Tony and Dr. Strange are all things I didn’t know I needed so badly in my life. The Russo Brothers picked the perfect little teams to divide into, and I think that was really important. If that doesn’t work, the whole movie doesn’t work. I thought Dr. Strange, Thor and Gamora were the MVP’s of our heroes. Thor has evolved into the best MCU character in my opinion and I can’t wait to see how he will keep evolving. The whole movie really flies by, they don’t really pussyfoot around at all. You’re in waist deep before you know it, and instantly the stakes are at an all time high. I saw a lot of people saying this was just another “funny MCU movie” and yes of course it’s funny. I’m happy this movie is funny, but when it wants to get down to the nitty gritty and be serious, it’s actually bone chilling serious. There are moments in this movie that I never saw coming, things that maybe I saw coming. Things I thought might happened, happened. Things that could happen, happened. A ton of available evidence and suspicion confirmed that, in the end that thing would happen. I WAS NOT PREPARED AT ALL TO WATCH THAT THING HAPPEN. This movie tugs on your heart strings and when the screen fades to black, you are gut punched. You are looking around searching for answers, you want to know what the hell just happened. I think that’s my favourite part about this whole thing. I have no idea where Marvel is going to take this thing. Well I have some thoughts and wild ideas, but I actually don’t really know the future direction of the MCU and for the first time in a long time, I am so intrigued about this whole thing.

Like I can’t even say much more, because all I want to do is talk about everything that happens within the movie. But I can’t, not here at least. What more do you want me to say? This is the movie of 2018, no other comic book movie will come close to making me feel what I felt during Infinity War. It’s damn near perfect, I can’t wait to watch it again. I saw it back to back nights, because I needed that in order to really process everything. Go see this movie, don’t be that weirdo that sits this one out. I will say this – It’s perfectly balanced as all things should be.

Check ya later

Nate’s Movie Tour Reviews – Avengers: Infinity War = 98/100

 

News

New ‘Ant-Man and The Wasp’ Trailer

Really thought they would really explain where Ant-Man was during Infinity War….

Any one else feel a little underwhelmed with this? With everything we just witnessed in Infinity War it’s hard to get truly excited and stoked for the next MCU movie. This is nothing personal against Ant-Man or The Wasp, but I just simply don’t care all that much.

They were even suppose to tell us where he was during Infinity War, but they didn’t say much at all. The movie seems fine and dandy, I in fact like these characters but in the grand scheme of things, it doesn’t really matter, like at all…

Does this take place before Infinity War? After? Tell us something here Marvel, my guess is this takes place right before the events of Infinity War, and it will explain when Ant-Man is absent from the biggest fight the Earth has ever seen. Or maybe Paul Rudd just had a scheduling conflict.

Overall, looks like a fun time, building on a stellar first solo outing. But I just feel empty inside and this isn’t filling any kind of MCU void for me.

Check ya later