I will forever watch anything with Tessa Thompson.
What a reunion. Chris Hemsworth and Tessa Thompson back together after their great chemistry in Thor: Ragnarok! Personally I thought they were great together and I’m really happy to see them working together so soon. The world might not think we need a new Men In Black movie, but after this trailer, I’m kind of sold. If only on the great chemistry between its two stars. It’s been 6 years since we last saw the men in black suits, and personally after the huge success of the first film, I believe they failed to find their footing. The two sequels proved to be lacklustre and couldn’t live up to the original. Which I would consider, a perfect summer blockbuster.
These two stars are so damn likeable it’s really hard to not love this trailer. It has a lot going for it, one the whole concept of the men in black is cool as shit, it’s got a competent director in F. Gary Gray, and this movie is chalked full of star power. Along side it’s two stars we have Liam Neeson, Emma Thompson and Rebecca Ferguson. There’s a lot to like in here. Gary knows how to make an entertaining summer movie, with Fate of The Furious and Straight Out of Compton on his resume, so I know we will get a well put-together film. With all of that, and the fact they acknowledge the old, there’s a photo of Tommy Lee Jones and Will Smith characters in this trailer, who knows, maybe we can have an awesome end credits scene of a cameo of some sorts. There’s a ton of possibilities here, I just hope they focus on this story and this movie, rather than try to build a huge universe and set up 4 sequels to come. Focus on the task at hand and people will come watch, lately franchises plan for the sequel rather than the movie they have in front of them.
After Ghostbusters I wanted to see more Hemsworth comedy, and we are getting that here. For the amount of muscles his muscles have, we equally get a funny man. I dunno, seeing this universe again and in a new and refreshing light made me smile. I’m all in on this and it could crack the 20 most anticipated list for 2019!
Godzilla might have some company for best trailer of 2018. Dear god.
Anyone else sign up for boxing lessons today? If this trailer and his highness Lord DMX didn’t get you all sorts of fired up, well you simply have no soul. This is it, I’ve didn’t know it when I woke up this morning, but I have been waiting my entire life for this. Seeing how Rocky 4 is one of the most rewatchable movies of all time, I can’t even begin to tell you how excited I am for this movie.
People like myself have had Rocky in their lives since the day they were born, others grew up with him. For a ton of people, he is one of the greatest movie characters to ever step foot on the big screen. When Creed was announced, these people (myself included) didn’t know if this would translate well onto the screen. We all know how that turned out. Creed blew us all away and we all wanted more of this universe. We also know how I tweeted Michael B Jordan 10 seconds after I watched Creed and ask him if he knew if Ivan Drago ever had a son. Well now 3 years later, not only did he have a son, but he’s about to go toe-to-toe with Adonis Creed. Seeing Rocky and Ivan on the screen together again will be so goddamn legendary, and I don’t know if I’m ready to say goodbye to Rocky just yet. Can you say Rocky ghost? Does Rocky die halfway through this thing, but he’s there in spirit? I don’t know, but I have a feeling by the time the end credits hit, Rocky won’t be around. I hope that’s not the case because this will no doubt be a trilogy, so not having him around for the final chapter wouldn’t be ideal, in my opinion.
I just need this in my life right now, and I watched this trailer ten plus times today.
“A biologist signs up for a dangerous, secret expedition where the laws of nature don’t apply.”
To quickly sum it up. This movie is Predator on acid. Interpret that however you want.
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I’m dead serious when I say that Annihilation, Alex Garland’s latest science-fiction film is an acid trip. Throughout the film I kept asking myself, “man this is going to be really difficult to write about.’ Annihilation is best served in dialogue when discussing the film, because it is such a complex and unique film. This is the definition of heavy science fiction, where it leaves you scratching your head long after the movie is over. I’m still digesting what I saw, because it asks so many questions, and like most great science-fiction movies, it doesn’t always give you the answers you are searching for. Now that can leave the average movie goer with a lot of frustrations because you invest your time and money into the movie, and don’t come away with certain answers to questions that are lingering throughout the entire movie.
I’ll say this first and foremost, this movie is not for everyone. You need to have knowledge in your taste in film going into Annihilation. Because this isn’t some grand science-fiction epic, with a ton of action and explosions. It’s also not a summer blockbuster like Black Panther which dropped last week. This is almost an art-house movie, in the sense that it seems small, but asks MASSIVE questions about biology, evolution and what it means to be human. When Alex Garland came bursting onto the scene in 2015 with Ex-Machina, he instantly became a fan favourite when it came to the science-fiction genre, so when he was attached to direct this movie, based on the best selling novel, people’s ears were perked up to say the least. Add in Natalie Portman as the star of the show, and now people were seriously intrigued. The first trailer dropped and I was instantly hooked and this became my fifth most anticipated movie of 2018. Here’s the thing about building up movies, sometimes they aren’t exactly what you want them to be, or simply don’t meet your expectations. Annihilation just wasn’t what I was expecting, so I can’t say it didn’t live up to what I wanted it to be. It would be unfair of me to criticize a movie just because it wasn’t what I thought it “should be.”
No one is going to go see this movie, not because it’s a bad movie, it’s currently sitting at 89% on Rotten Tomatoes, but because it’s so different. People just want to go into a movie and sometimes not have to think or be told a unique and insanely different kind of story. Comic book movies, sequels, prequels, they all rule the box-office right now, and it’s a shame, because I think if you can, you should head out and see this movie. It’s deep, it’s rich, it’s very thought provoking material, where I’m still not sure what the message or the ending means. When Kane (Oscar Issac) suddenly returns home, his wife Lena (Natalie Portman) is shocked beyond belief. Meeting each other in the military he went on a top secret mission and had now been missing for just over a year. Thinking he was dead, when he resurfaces, he just isn’t the same. Shortly after his return, he needs medical attention and slips into a coma, and that’s when we find out that he had entered the ‘Shimmer.” Lena is now in Area X, located just outside the Shimmer, she intends to find out what happened to her husband and embarks on an expedition inside it, along with 4 other crew members. Dr. Ventress (Jennifer Jason Leigh), Anya (Gina Rodriguez), Cass (Tuva Novotny) and Josie (Tessa Thompson). All these ladies excel in some sort of scientific background and want to know what exactly is at the hear of the Shimmer. This is a female led film, all of them giving great performances, I thought Gina Rodriguez was tremendous, and we should be again celebrating an all female cast, not just for that single reason, but also because it’s a fantastic movie. Everyone pulls their own weight, and Tessa Thompson is a freight train that cannot be stopped right now.
See something three years prior landed on Earth, at a lighthouse, and ever since, the Shimmer has be manifesting and growing. Every team they send in, never make it out alive, until Kane. Things start off normal, but the Shimmer is a myserteous place for a reason, and when they start to realize that the laws of nature do not apply here. They discover a crocodile that has been crossbred with a shark. From the very get-go the team realizes they are most likely on a one way mission, but they want to try to find some sort of answers. The further they get into the Shimmer, the weirder things become. Lena realizes that their own DNA has been compromised. You knew all of that from the trailers, so I won’t go any further into plot points or spoilers, because everyone should really have the opportunity to fully take in this flick. The visuals are simply stunning, with a 50 million dollar budget, the visuals are better than most blockbusters, and Garland really builds a world of his own. This is just a really ambitious movie, with imaginative story-telling. It’s almost the definition of mesmerizing because at times, you aren’t really sure what you are watching, because it’s so vastly different from anything you have ever seen before it. It can be terrifying in moments, fun in others, and all around suspenseful. It’s unsettling, you see things that make you want to look away, but get you so immersed in the movie, because you want to know why these things are going on. You really want to know what the Shimmer is, but it’s not about the end, it’s about the journey.
This is survival of the fittest, they are battling new elements that the human race has never seen before, but also one another. It leaves you scratching your head at times, because in certain parts they take you one way and you think this is where the movie is going, but then they flip things around, and you want to know why the movie shifted gears so quickly. Don’t worry the climax delivers copious amounts of that blood and gore and a ton of tension, you will get your fill. The landscape is miraculous, it’s a world that wants to shake you up a bit, it’s uneasy for a reason. Some things are better left unsaid, and in some instances unsolved. You don’t get all the answers you are looking for, but going on this acid trip is worth it. Sometimes you need to expand your own horizons, step out of your comfort zone and experience something new. Annihilation is just the thing you are looking for. It’s like creating a new cocktail and Annihilation is part Arrival, part Predator, and part 2001: A Space Odyssey and that is the greatest compliment one can give.
This is the female Ghostbusters movie we all wanted.
Writer and director to the epic sci-fi masterpiece Ex-Machina looks to be following it up with another stroke of genius with Annihilation. This movie and this trailer is shrouded in mystery and it looks like a really great new science fiction movie, something we need right now. Everything we have seen so far regarding this movie has been incredible, and for lovers of science fiction movies, this could quite possibly be their most anticipated movie of 2018.
Natalie Portman stars as a biologist who is headed into the unknown, or as it’s referred to as “the shimmer,” she’s in search of something that has come in contact with her husband (Oscar Issac), and wants some answers. She leads a team of other badass women, Tessa Thompson, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Gina Rodriguez and others, into this place, where it seems the laws of nature no longer apply. Animals are cross breeding, strange plants are growing and some cool ass monsters are lurking in the darkness. Things are going to go up shit creek for these ladies, and it seems like they all won’t make it out alive. The visuals are simply stunning, but that should come to no surprise, seeing this is coming from the guy who made Ex-Machina. Portman is going all sorts of Ripley in this trailer, and she’s really pulling it off, she’s unloading her gun on god knows what, a bunch of times throughout the trailer. I’m just so intrigued by all of this, the landscapes, the creatures, what a place like this is doing on Earth, and I’m sure we will get all these answers in the movie. Trailers should leave you with wanting more, and this one certainly did it’s job. We have a real winner on our hands here I think!
Fun, colourful, full of laughs. Thor: Ragnarok is one of the best MCU movies to date.
(DISNEY)Minor spoilers – nothing that really wasn’t in the trailers!
So take everything you know about Thor in the MCU so far and throw it out the window. In the newest MCU movie, Thor: Ragnarok. everything we have really come to learn and understand about our beloved King of Asgard, is different. Thor’s hammer gone, his hair, also gone. His meat headedness is made an essential joke of the movie and overall we see Thor go through a transformation. The Thor franchise can finally rest easy, because the latest addition is a home run. The previous two installments in the franchise have been met with some critiques and most people believe them to be, two of the weakest MCU films. There’s a lot to love about this movie, and the tone of it, is something that is truly different from any MCU movie before it. I don’t want to say it’s a parody of a comic-book movie, but it certainly wants to be. Director Taika Waititi almost puts comedy before anything else in this movie, and I’m not saying that as a critique. Because with that being said, this has a ton of action, and some of the best shot action in the MCU in quite some time. This movie did for Thor what Captain America: The Winter Solider did for Captain America. It just made us fans realize how awesome and incredible this character can be. This is the Thor I’ve been waiting to see, the true God of Thunder showed up this time, and I didn’t even mind he didn’t bring his trusty hammer along for the ride.
So Thor gets his hammer broken, imprisoned, has to fight Hulk to the death essentially and then finds out he has a sister, Hela – who turns out to be the Goddess of Death, wants to kill him and hates his guts. All of this happens in a mere few days, so it’s pretty fresh for Thor still. This is the shortest MCU movie, but it certainly packs in a lot of stuff, the movie, I thought was paced beautifully. Everyone is playing the best versions of their characters and having a ton of fun doing so. That’s the best thing I can say about Ragnarok, it doesn’t take itself to seriously and it’s just a lot of fun. You are constantly laughing at jokes, and mesmerized by the action sequences. The movie opens up with a great scene and kind of leaves us with the last great “Old Thor” moment, because after that he evolves into the Thor we will be seeing for the rest of his time in the MCU.
The cast is spectacular and diverse and everyone is doing a bang up job. Chris Hemsworth like everyone already knows, rocks it as Thor, and this is his best work in the MCU to date. He’s fantastic and his comedic timing is off the charts. Considering the movie was apparently 80 percent improvised, which if that is the case, well done to the cast, because after watching it, it seems so unlikely because of how well timed, and how perfect the comedy and delivery is with each cast member. Cate Blanchett who plays Hela, Thor’s sister, is one of my favourite MCU villains. I know she was almost a generic “death and destruction” bad guy, but at the same time I thought she has a lot of backstory – that could still be uncovered, and I liked how she was related to Thor and Loki. She was funny, and menacing all at the same time, and was a handful for our heroes in the movie. We will see her again, which is nice, when she teams up with Thanos, and boy will that be a tag-team to remember. I know people have concerns about the villains in the MCU, and I even got into an argument on Twitter about this, I thought she was really fun, and a worthy villain and certainly one of the best in the MCU. People think otherwise because her character had bad dialogue and was poorly written and I didn’t think that was the case at all. Am I crazy for thinking she is a better villain than the Vulture? Please tell me I am not. Speaking of Loki, once again Tom Hiddleston rules as the Master of Mischief. I’ll say this, I’ve been a big fan of the character since the original Thor, and he’s always been good in this role. But in this movie, we get the best version of Loki. I think he needs to become a good guy from here on out, because I think he works best for him. He was the best part of this movie. I guess he serves as an anti-hero, because I don’t think he can truly become good, but he’s best used along side Thor, because their chemistry together is through the roof. I’m really interested to see where they take his character and his ark going forward. Tessa Thompson as Drunky it’s actually Valkyrie but she is a drunken mess the entire movie, so lets go with Drunky. Loved her in Creed, and she’s really fun in this role. She’s also a badass, the best drunken fighter since that dude in Game of Thrones. Her relationship with Thor was well executed and I think we have a new power couple on our hands. Obviously Jeff Goldblum and Karl Urban knock it out of the park, that should surprised no one here, anything they are in, usually turns out to be pretty good. Given a few exceptions, but that doesn’t take away from their acting abilities. Goldblum was right at home in this role, and was at times just playing himself really, or what we all think he is. I can’t write this review without bringing up The Hulk. Honestly, the best part of The Hulk, is that each time we see him, it’s a better version. CGI and motion capture keeps getting better, so does movie making technology, so it only makes sense that Hulk keeps getting better. He looks so sleek, and like slimed down. We also get to see a new side, Hulk talking and being like Hulk the human. Which was really fun to watch, especially his scenes with Thor, just being two meatheads and picking on one another. The witty banter back and forth between those two was really impressive and so hilarious. Hats off to Mark Ruffalo because he was on top of his game in this and seemed to be really enjoying himself.
Overall the movie is fun, its super colourful, it’s full of laughs and one of my favourite MCU movies to date. This is a must see for any comic book movie fan, and they take Thor in a complete and new direction, one in which I really like. A lot happens to his character ark that I won’t get into because of spoilers, but I really loved his transformation throughout this 2 hour journey. My only little problem with the movie as a whole was at times, maybe there was too much humour. Where you needed a break because you just kept on laughing, and it takes you out of the movie a little bit, especially in moments of actual seriousness. We get to see the best versions of Thor, Loki and Hulk, so credit again to director Taika Waititi because that is a tremendous feat. This is the 17th MCU movie now, and you would think at this point, there was little room for surprises or making you feel and see something different, well this movie is all of that plus more. It’s getting great reviews for a reason, it’s just a ton of fun and a great popcorn flick. The MCU is in a really good place right now, and it will all come together soon enough when the band gets back together this May in Avengers: Infinity War, I can’t wait to see how it all plays out.
Check ya later.
Nate’s Movie Tour Reviews – Thor:Ragnarok = 90/100
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So the guy who did ExMachina (Alex Garland), that movie was phenomenal is back with his newest project Annihilation. Remember how good ExMachina was? So to say I’m pretty intrigued by his new movie, is an understatement. This trailer is creepy and really mysterious, where I’m not quite sure what is going on to be honest.
It seems that people are some scientific expedition and everything isn’t quite normal. At least the laws of nature are off, and this appears to be a dangerous mission of sorts. With ExMachina being different and kind of a statement piece and a true piece of art. I’m sure this will follow suit on that regard.
Natalie Portman looks to be playing a biologists on this expedition and is in search of her husband, who is played by Oscar Issac. This has a really strong female cast, with Jennifer Jason Leigh, Tessa Thompson and Gina Rodriguez rounding out the ensemble. It’s really hard to get a grasp of what the movie is actually going to be about, it looks like things don’t go as planned and Natalie Portman’s character is replaying the events of the mission. There are plenty of awesome visuals throughout the trailer, and I think that’s why I’m so intrigued by it, really doesn’t look like anything we have seen in awhile and I’m fully on board for that. The visuals are really unique and the cinematography is so colourful and beautiful, it sucked me right in. It’s based on a best-selling book, so this movie will already have a following, and really I’ll watch anything Natalie Portman is in.
I know that’s a really big photo, but look how AMAZING that poster is!!! I also find it hilarious that Hulk is the biggest and most obvious thing on a Thor movie poster. Well played Marvel, well played.
I regret not putting this movie on my most anticipated list back in January, because my god it looks b-e-a-utiful. Seriously though, Hulk is talking, and he doesn’t sound that stupid. This is pure awesomeness in every sense of the word. Throughout the years, Hulk has just been getting better looking with every movie, and this is by far the best Hulk to date. He even got a new hair cut, how cute. He wanted to be matching hair cut buddies with his BFF Thor.
Like Chris Hemsworth was literally born to play Thor, and even with his new hairdo, I’m all in on this. The first trailer was really good, and now Marvel drops this bomb on us and they are just getting warmed up tonight. Holy shit, this trailer is good. Thor telling Hulk about his day, is so funny, it reminds me of some 21JumpStreet type banter. So this looks like a buddy cop movie starring Thor and Hulk, like just take my money Marvel, seriously just take it all.
Calling it now, Cate Blanchett will be the first great Marvel villain, since well, Loki. Who also happens to be in this movie, and doing awesome brotherly type things with Thor. But Cate looks badass as Hela, the god of death, and I’m really excited to potentially have a Marvel movie with a fantastic villain in it. The colours in this movie are quite something, my god it’s just full of beautiful colours. Everyone seems to be having a ton of fun, and I honestly don’t know how Marvel keeps pulling it off. Thor has had the worst movies thus far, but they are really going for it this time around, and I think they have a home run on their hands. Even Tessa Thompson, who I loved in Creed, looks like she will fit right in the MCU, and will be a great addition to this franchise. November is going to be an all time stacked month with this and Justice League coming out. I know I’m more excited for Justice League, but I think this might end up being the better of the two movies. Only time will tell!
