Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) 2 | ***Dave Does the Blog

Movie Review: “Eternals” (2021)

While imperfect, the questions raised and the focus on people, not powers, impressed me

No Spoilers, Sweetie

So, bottom line: I liked Eternals.

Not get-the-tatoo loved it, though there there were parts that I loved. But I had a very fine time for my money in the theater, and have no regrets over time or money.

The Good

For my money, this is one of the most thoughtful, and thought-provoking, films in the MCU. While other super-hero tales have given us moral quandaries, they’ve often been pretty binary “hero’s choices” — do I save X or Y; do I meet my date or stop the bank robbery; do I stomp the bad guy or save the falling plane?

The issues the Eternals deal with are existential ones, with questions of loyalty and love, of purpose, of destiny and pre-destiny, duty, of sacrifice, of service to God, service to humanity, service to family (or families).

While there are structural and other aspects of the film that blunt some of those questions, they are very real, and they get dealt with in different (sometimes very different) ways by different characters.

Remember how Captain America: Civil War felt a bit facile in how it teed up the superhero vs superhero conflict? This movie doesn’t. The decisions made (and sometimes regretted) are organic to the characters and their situations. This movie will always have a special place for me because of that.

This film has plenty of action and adventure, but for the most part it avoids two overdone cliches in MCU movies:

disaster porn of cities turned into rubble in the course of super-hero villain battles
giant climactic battles of Our Hero(es) vs hordes of CGI villains.

age-of-ultron-drones-600x338 — Or, y’know, both

While there is a Major Threat to Humanity that gets dealt with, ultimately the final conflicts in the film are driven not how many CGI baddies can we pew-pew to pieces, but by those moral questions above, and how the characters reacted to them.

This is a movie primarily about people, not a movie about powers.

The movie is visually lovely, both in terms of a global span of settings, and regarding some set pieces that were truly awe-inspiring.

Also on the visual side of things, given their common origins (if differing specialties), I appreciated the common motifs in their powers and technology. There was sufficient commonality to understand the ties between the characters, but enough distinction to appreciate their differences.

Thena weaponry — Thena gets all the flashy stuff, but all the Eternals’ tech / power expresses in these gold threads and circles

“I did not see that coming,” I thought to myself a good half-dozen times in the film. There are a lot of unexpected twists, most of them quite good. It is a much less linear film than a lot of the MCU.

People emote in this film. People emote a lot. Strong men cry. So do strong women. I am sure that really bugged some of the folk decrying this film, but, again, people not powers.

The Not-So-Good

This movie ramps up very slowly, and ramps down very slowly.

We get a lot of exposition starting off, lots and lots, with tons of flashbacks spanning human history, and then, once we start getting some stakes going, it takes a loooong time to get the band back together.

The individual pieces are done well, and it’s understandable the amount of time things take, given the scope of what we’re addressing, but it feels slow; I was really wondering at points how they were going to end all this, given the time they were taking setting it up. (That they were able to run to 2:37 is a big reason for this — and, since I usually complain about films being cut too short, I suppose I shouldn’t complain much here.)

(My wife, on the other hand, thought it was all well-handled to provide info on all the characters involved. So there’s that.)

On the tail end, we have a long set of denouements, many of them very talkie, some of them very hand-wavy in terms of addressing loose ends. I don’t know what I would necessarily cut there, but I was feeling a bit impatient.

In-between, being something brand-new in the MCU (and, honestly, brand-new in general, as much of this doesn’t follow anything related to Jack Kirby’s Eternals) ends up requiring several pallets of exposition to be dropped in at various times, especially as the protagonists learn things that have been hidden from them or that contrast with earlier infodumps. While interesting, and individually handled decently, it sometimes made things drag.

There are two mid/post-credit scenes, for those wondering if you need to run to the bathroom. Unfortunately, those feel very tacked on, and introduce three MCU characters for future consumption. I was not a fan of any of the introductions, to be honest. I’ll talk more about them in post-spoilers days.

While the Eternals cast is more diverse, the Celestials all kind of looked alike.

As a side note, my wife noted that it was really awkward when the various Eternals hug each other, because their shoulder pads always get in the way.

The Okay

This movie has a huge ensemble — ten members of the Eternals, plus supporting players. It’s impossible to give them all equal time, let alone the time each deserves.

That said, the movie does a decent job of it. There’s a distinct narrative focus on Sersi, with narrative rings circling around her, getting their various turns. While I could use a lot more of practically everyone, most of the characters do get moments in the sun that help us to know them and appreciate them.

Cover of Eternals #1 — Rather understated, don’t you think?

As noted, this is not Jack Kirby’s Eternals, but core themes — the Van Danikenesque space gods and super-heroic basis for myths, the names and themes of the individuals, etc. — remain in place. Frankly, I’m fine with that. Kirby’s imagination was amazing, but his writing was full of bombast makes Shakespeare feel subdued.

FWIW, I don’t think Kirby would have had a problem with this film. Indeed, I think it would have inspired him to write a dozen new crazy comics.

The actual origins of the Eternals was significantly shifted from the comics, something I felt disappointment about when it got shoved in my face during the initial screen text. But what was devised in its place successfully drove the rest of the plot, so I’m good with it..

Another non-Kirby aspect I’m fine with is the diversity of the cast. As reference, here’s how they looked back in the day:

Kirby's Eternals — Makkari, Thena, Kro, Sersi, Ikarus’ girlfriend Margo, and Ikarus.

Lots of pasty-white (except for the one Deviant there). The same was true for pretty much all the main Eternals cast in Kirby’s day. Most of them men, too, except Thena and Sersi.

Whereas the movie gives us lots of strong women who aren’t dressed in bathing suits. Lots of races and ethnicities, as would be appropriate for beings set forth to interact with the breadth of humanity. Even (gasp) non-het sexual orientation.

None of it felt forced, or weird, or clashing with the original in context of the story. Yet sooooo many fanbois are outraged by these changes. Wonder why?

(In my opinion, if it pisses off Russia and the Middle East, that’s probably a good thing.)

This is the true kick-off of the Cosmic phase of the MCU, as show in both the very nature of this film and its tales of the Celestials and their shenanigans, and in how things wrap up at the end (esp. that first in-credits sequence). We’ve touched a bit on that theme previously, with Captain Marvel and the Guardians of the Galaxy film, but I expect to see a lot more starscapes in the MCU future.

Just a reminder that the “Knowhere” space outpost in GotG is the *head of a Celestial* that is being *mined from within.* Yeesh.

That said, this movie felt oddly detached from the MCU, and its few connections felt a bit forced. It really was very much a stand-alone film, with a couple of exceptions (one of which ended up a significant feature of someone’s motivations). To be sure, my wife, not a Marvel fan, thought that was fine, eliminating the “Oh, you won’t get this if you don’t read the comics or rewatch the movies a dozen times.”

That occurring-in-a vacuum did feel a little strange to me at times, but I also largely didn’t miss it.

Net-Net

I think this movie got a lot of early dumping upon for a few reasons:

Too many film critics dislike the popularity of super-hero films in general, and the MCU (egads! Disney!) in particular. Throw in an Academy-award winning director “slumming,” and their reaction is going to be particularly harsh.
For the fanboi crowd, Eternals is too feeling, too morally complex, and too willing to resolve problems in ways that don’t involve fisticuffs and pew-pews. (It may also have too many strong women and too much diversity for some of their tastes.)

For me, I found those all to be strengths. I mean, I like a good rock-em sock-em, comics-faithful, simplistic-redemption-arc film as much as the next person (I maintain that the original Iron Man is one of the best supers films ever).

But this film was also refreshing, in not providing easy answers, or even easy-to-judge characters. Each of the Eternals faces difficult decisions in the movie, makes (or chooses to dodge, or changes their mind on) those decisions, and doesn’t always get it right, because big, difficult, moral decisions rarely end up with a big red or green light next to them to immediately let you know you made the right one.

Let's Make a Deal Zonk — It sometimes takes a long time to learn you picked a Zonk behind Curtain Number 3.

Eternals is by no means a perfect move. It is (if unavoidably) verbose in its setup, and dragging in its wrap-up. It handles some elements clumsily. Some characters got a short shrift. Some of it feels melodramatic at times (though Kirby would probably smile at those elements).

But it’s a good film, a great kickoff to bigger things in the MCU and maybe some more sophisticated directions, and I’m really curious as to what happens next.

(This is an expansion of my review on Letterboxd)

Soooooo many people want “Eternals” to be a “disaster”

Too many critics find the MCU not to their taste, and just can’t wait for it to fail.

I haven’t read more than a paragraph (spoilers, sweetie!) of this article lamenting the “Disaster” of Marvel’s new Eternals , but I really didn’t have to, not with this headline:

There are soooooo many Serious Critics who want Marvel (and Disney) to suffer a serious failure. It’s evident here from the very beginning of the piece.

However you may feel about the place superhero blockbusters have occupied in the cultural landscape for the past dozen-plus years …

But you know how you should feel.

… there is something ineluctably sad about the way directing one has become the primary marker of success for a gifted emerging filmmaker. Distinguish yourself in your field, as Chloé Zhao did when she won the Best Director and Best Picture Oscars last year for her contemplative indie road movie Nomadland, and you are ceremoniously handed the keys to the Marvel car—a gigantic CGI-enhanced vehicle that can navigate black holes and shoot rays of plasma out of its headlights, but that always moves in the same direction to arrive at the same predetermined spot.

Or, to sum up the underlying sentiment, “It’s ineluctably (!) sad that brilliant indie movie creators aren’t allowed to endlessly create brilliant indie movies for the brilliant indie movie lovers. Then everyone would become a brilliant (or at least moderately intelligent) indie movie lover like we are. O tempora! O mores!”

O filmcrit snobbery. Because when you start a movie review, not with observations about the film itself, but with bewailing that a great director has been somehow lost to the Inhuman Unartistic Evil Hollywood Marvel Movie-Making Track, you’re not here to criticize the movie — you’re here to criticize the entire genre and its leading production house. For reasons.

Marvel and Disney — Yes, it’s time for another screed about Everything That’s Wrong In The Movie Industry Today.

The idea that a director is only being pure and true to the Muse if they produce brilliant, thoughtful, low-budget, award-winning cinematic masterpieces is … well, yeah, snobbery. It makes assumptions about what is worthwhile, what is pure, what is right.

If a great, award-winning chef is offered the opportunity to make a lot of money creating a family-friendly tuna casserole — no tuna eyeballs floating in sauce, no molecular gastronomic crystalline noodle essence, just tuna casserole using what’s in the pantry — I’m betting it’s going to be a kick-ass meal regardless. Maybe not a once-in-a-lifetime culinary masterpiece that people will weep that they missed in the decades that follow, but something filling and enjoyable and probably with a bit of unexpected dazzle.

Creamy-Tuna-Pasta-Bake-square-FS-49[1] — Mmmm. Tuna casserole.

Is Eternals any good? Is it a tasty tuna casserole? A hearty and multi-faceted stew? Macaroni and Processed Cheez Whiz ? I dunno. I tend to enjoy MCU movies despite the chorus from one side (as above), or the chorus from the other side (“Zack Snyder would have made it even better!”). I have tickets for next Saturday, so I’ll let you know then.

I do have reasonably good expectations, based on the MCU track record, the source material, and what I’ve seen so far. Heck, that the director won Best Director and Best Picture for her “contemplative indie road movie” seems like a good sign that it could be something really good.

As I said, I have not read the full review by Dana Stevens (I’ll save that for after seeing the film). But I suspect, just from that first paragraph, that she fundamentally dislikes the entire genre, and its conventions, and its style of story-telling, especially as packaged within a corporate franchise that isn’t going to do anything too radical or profit-endangering in its various outings. And so Zhao’s outing in Eternals gets framed as a tremendous waste of time and talent when we could have had Nomadland 2 or something.

(Stevens admits she has a bad “record” on “comic book blockbusters,” and that she really doesn’t understand the appeal of the genre, though the original Wonder Woman movie made her cry. She also brags, re Wonder Woman 1984, “Look at me over here, liking a comic book movie! Never let it be said every film on my Top 10 list is a harsh Eastern European documentary!”)

Stevens is not the only person who has expressed literary eye-rolling at the hoi polloi popularity of super-hero flicks in general, or Marvel’s installments specifically. It’s been standard fare since the earliest MCU movies came out, and went into overdrive when Marvel was bought by that other cultural bugbear, Disney — especially as such movies showed an inexplicable tendency to attract lots and lots of viewers and make lots and lots of money. That’s like red meat to some film / book / cultural critics.

“Eternals” is not “Nomadland.” There I said it. Wait, should it have been?

Of course, all this begs the issue of what a “good” movie is. I don’t expect Eternals to be a brilliant “contemplative indie road movie.” In fact, that’s not the entertainment I’m looking for from it. And I can say that without maligning those who enjoyed Nomadland as out-of-touch pointy-headed intellectuals who want to tempt up-and-coming directors with low-budget, contemplative film-making.

Aside from enjoying the genre, I’m intrigued with Eternals because of some of the creative challenges it has to face, with its out-of-nowhere large cast that it has to introduce and get the audience engaged with, let alone the mythos behind it. In some ways, it’s the most ambitious MCU film yet, bypassing the slow build-up of solo films before group gatherings for a much bigger chunk of story-telling. Some few bits of feedback I’ve heard from early viewings are mixed as to whether the film pulls that off.

Beyond that, as a dyed-in-wool Marvel comics fan, I’m at least as interested in the bigger picture of how the movie, and the characters, fit into the larger MCU and the future. And I’m sure there are other folk who just want a pew-pew blow-em-up spandex Saturnalia of good-looking people fighting CGI baddies. I don’t think there’s anything wrong with that.

Hamlet fights Laertes — Just like that hack Shakespeare and his inevitable crowd-pandering sword fights.

Rise the chorus of folk like Stevens, who cry out, “But it’s such a waste of talent! Chloé Zhao! And money! Millions of dollars of money that could have gone to something much more important and memorable and artistic!”

But, honestly, would not have. Nomadland won Best Picture, but if every movie produced was another Nomadland, would we have a movie industry as we know it? Would Disney (would anybody) have created forty Nomadlands for the price of Eternals? It seems unlikely. Nomadland had a box office of $39M in the US, very respectable for a $5M budget. But Shang-Chi made $90M in the US in just its first weekend; Black Widow made $80M (plus another $60M streaming).

There’s more to the cinema than money, and there should be. But there’s very little without money.

Do we need to issue an amber alert for Chloe Zhao?

And it’s not like Disney kidnapped Chloé Zhao and locked her in a room and forced her to make Eternals. Or is the implication that she was unfairly (and “ineluctably sadly”) tempted by filthy lucre to sell out her Muse by directing such a thing? Hey, little girl — climb into the Mickey Mouse van. We have candy!

That’s actually kind of insulting to Zhao.

Not that I think she’s not at least partially into movie-making for the money, but I can’t imagine that there wasn’t something about this project that intrigued her beyond the paycheck, just as other Marvel projects have intrigued folk like Brannagh or the Russo Brothers or Coogler or Waititi.

I did flip forward to the last paragraph of the review:

Eternals’ cinematography incorporates a little more natural light and open landscape than your average Marvel joint, but the demands of a $200 million corporate enterprise ultimately prevail over any aspirations to auteurship. That’s OK—a filmmaker of Zhao’s gifts has earned the right to try her hand at what, like it or not, is one of the dominant genres of the 21st century.

Yes, “like it or not,” but also we’ve somehow flipped from Zhao being sucked into an ineluctably sad Hollywood money-making machine to her having the “right” to try her hand at it. I guess that’s … progress.

For myself, I’m going to engage with Eternals as a contemporary super-hero movie, a genre I generally enjoy, rather than demanding it to be something hitting the 2050 Top 100 Bestest Films of All Time list. Indeed, I’ll see it, not as a stand-alone one-off art film, but as a chapter in a longer (if open-ended) saga. I expect I’ll enjoy it, too, even if it’s just “predetermined” to be tuna casserole.

Sometimes tuna casserole can be pretty good.

Movie Trailers before “Shang-Chi”

There’re a lot of not-good movies coming out.

Because if they’re going to chew up a half hour of your life, it’s worth making a note of them.

Weirdly, there was a trend in these trailers … the longer it went on, the better / less-reprehensible they became. Not sure if that was a coincidence or not.

Jackass Forever — The Jackass franchise is egregious enough. Coming up with something pretty clearly scripted for the Jackass franchise is unforgivable. The trailer almost made me want to leave the theater.
Venom: Let There Be Carnage — The only good thing to come out of the Sony purchase of Spider-Man rights from Marvel is that the whole Venom / Carnage piece of the Marvel Universe has been shoved into a completely different set of movies that I can ignore. Really.
King Richard — You would think a movie about Venus and Serena Williams would actually be about those tennis stars. Instead, this seems more focused on (given the name and the Will Smith star-power) their father, which is … kinda weird.
No Time to Die — The Daniel Craig era of Bond has been a very good one, but having a trailer for the last Craig film present itself as half-nostalgia, half-this-is-the-final-Bond-movie-ever is … also kinda weird.
Sing 2 — A heartwarming musical performer anthropomorphic animal song performance sequel to a movie I never watched and don’t regret not doing so.
The King’s Man — I watched The Kingsmen because I knew the Mark Millar comic book. Which meant I had little desire to watch the sequel. But this is an Edwardian Era prequel, which could be kind of amusing.
Eternals — Same trailer as seen before. I am definitely so there. But I’m also a bit worried about an ensemble movie for the MCU where none of the characters are pre-established in solo efforts. I worry about how this will fare, commercially, even while everything about it looks very cool.

Net-net? I see us going to Eternals, The King’s Man (Margie was intrigued), and maybe No Time to Die. The rest are not our cuppa.

Movie Review: “Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings” (2021)

The MCU meets Wuxia and manages to make it work

A very good martial arts / Wuxia film that manages to find the sweet super-hero spot between Orientalist stereotypes and generic Western action flick. It’s not only a good MCU move on its own, but ties into the MCU in some very distinct and intriguing ways.

For the record, there are two end-titles vignettes — a long one after the initial “animated” credits, and then a shorter one (but definitely worth the wait) after all the credits are done.

Do you want to know more?

Marvellous

Some vocal bros sure seem to be constantly threatened by strong female heroes.

I honestly don’t get the Captain Marvel / Carol Danvers / Brie Larson hate thing, be it in comic books or the movies. I never have. It just always feels like it boils down to horrible resentment and fear of strong women who recognize themselves as such.

That observation was inspired by yet another article — “Comic Book Fans Reject Captain Marvel | Cosmic Book News“– with that theme. “Everyone hates the Captain Marvel because she sucks and she hates men and Marvel is ruining my childhood.” But I’ve been reading this kind of “analysis” for years, ever since (a) Carol got her new name and outfit and (b) she got her own MCU movie announced, too.

Captain Marvel movie poster brie larson — Brie Larson as the MCU’s Captain Marvel

And I find that outlets that actually echo those sentiments tend to be a click-baity toxic stew of such feelings, largely just amplifying a relatively small number of hating, if vocal, broflakes, who seemingly can’t stand the very concept of a superhero who can trade punches (or energy blasts) with the best of them, but is a girl, and almost certainly has girl cooties.

(I’ve taken to asking Google News to exclude those media outlets, since I rarely find myself in agreement with any of their other pronouncements, including, frequently, how Zack Snyder is a cinematic god.)

Is Captain Marvel (comic or movie) my bestest ever experience? No. I think the character (originally as Ms Marvel) has rung through too many changes over the years (female version of a male hero, early feminist icon, bathing suit-wearing flying brick, amnesiac victim, hyperpowered cosmic hero, alcoholic … then, finally, as Captain Marvel, fearless pilot and icon for girls).

That current iteration of the character in comics has gone through a series of writers and artists and, well, series, and attracted both fierce fans and fierce detractors, but only so-so readership. I’ve bought its various incarnations because I’ve enjoyed it, but I’ve never put it at top-of-stack as the best thing of the week.

(That the comic has gone through multiple volumes and directions and creative team is much hallooed by the character’s critics, as in the original article noted, without any consciousness of how many other characters and titles go through similar things without being condemned as a threat to All that is Right and Good (and, of course, Masculine).)

Similarly, I thought the movie was good, but not spectacular, though it did decent box office — not top-tier, but quite respectable.

mcu box office 2021-09 — Pretty sure those aren’t *bad* numbers.

But I can say, “Hey, this is only good, not great” without the need to pin down a binary “best of breed” or “dirty mongrel” … perhaps because I don’t see Captain Marvel as a threat to my ego or the rest of my comic book / movie franchise experience. I can see a comic / movie starring a strong woman — one who’s not showing a whole bunch of skin, at that — and not feel like my masculinity is being threatened, let alone attacked.

Brie Larson’s Captain Marvel was supposed to be a tentpole for the next wave of Marvel movies, something that COVID-19 put into a tailspin. It’s strong but not blockbusting performance may have also led to the next installment pivoting to not being another Carol solo film, but The Marvels, which will include two other related characters: Monica Rambeau (seen getting her powers in WandaVision), who in the comics held the Captain Marvel name for a while*, and Kamala Khan (a teen who in the comics got powers and took on the moniker of Ms Marvel).

I hope that’s all setting up a whole bunch of new goodness, not a response to dudes who think Captain Marvel doesn’t fit their toxic view of womanhood.

Original Tweet

* Short history lesson: The first superhero named Captain Marvel was originally a knock-off of Superman back in the 1930s, published by Fawcett. DC ended up suing Fawcett over it, quashing the comic, and eventually buying the rights to the character. Meanwhile Marvel decided it should have a character by that name, obviously and created its own Captain Marvel, a Kree spy who “went native” and defended Earth. Carol Danvers was a character in his book, and eventually got exposed to McGuffin technology, and became the similarly-powered Ms Marvel. DC started up its Captain Marvel comic again, though usually not as part of its mainstream universe. Marvel, who couldn’t make a huge commercial go of its Captain Marvel, killed him off with cancer (great comic), but realized it needed to keep the name in use in order to defend the trademark. So Monica Rambeau got created to be called Captain Marvel, though she later changed her hero name to Photon. Various other Captains Marvel showed up in Marvel, until someone had the obvious idea a few years back of renaming Ms Marvel to Captain Marvel, putting an end to all that. Meanwhile, DC finally agreed to rename their Captain Marvel to the name he invoked to trigger his powers, Shazam. And now you know. And knowing’s half the battle.

captains marvel — Captains Marvel: Marvel’s Kree Mar-Vell; Carol Danvers; and Fawcett Comics’ Billy Batson Captain Marvel, now called Shazam.

Movie trailers before “Black Widow”

Back in the theater again, with a look at what’s coming up.

We went to Black Widow on Friday night (no spoilers review, a fine movie, glad to go see it, and in an actual movie theater no less!), and here are the trailers we saw before the show.

The Protégé – Which, as a Samuel Jackson film about assassins I thought, at first, was for the new The Hitman’s Wife’s Bodyguard film, which it kind of looks like, only with no humor. Meh.

Respect – I’m sure this biopic of Aretha Franklin will get huge plaudits and lead to greater fame for her work, all of which is fine and deserved. But I don’t expect to go see it. Not my cuppa.

Suicide Squad 2 – I’ve managed to avoid watching any trailers for this so far. What I saw looked interesting enough that I’ll certainly see it eventually, maybe even in a theater. It’s less zany than the first one pretended to be (in the trailers, at least), and I’m a long-time fan of the concept.

Old – I’m … not ready for an M Night Shyamalan film yet, sorry. This one does look creepy in a number of ways, but it’s literally warning all of us that there’s a cheap gimmick at the end that will ruin it all.

Snake Eyes – I assume someone has decided to reboot the GI Joe franchise, and they are going the Marvel route of establishing a bunch of solo movies first before getting the gang together, a la The Avengers. If I was at all invested in GI Joe, I might be interested in this film, which looks appropriately actionish. But … I’m not.

Free Guy – An interesting cross between The Truman Show and Ready Player One. Not sure I’m as interested as I am curious about it, but I am open to being swayed to go see it by the time it opens.

Shang-Chi – It’s unfortunate that two comic-booky martial arts movies are coming up a the same time (see Snake Eyes). That said, I’ll almost certainly go to see this because MCU, but, never having been deeply interested in the original character, I’m not sitting at the edge of my seat, waiting for the day. It looks like they’ve filed off the Fu Manchu serial numbers well, and the Ten Rings look like they are not the Mandarin’s Ten Rings (the connection to the group that cause Tony Stark grief remains to be revealed), so that particular bit of Orientalism seems resolved. Still, this martial arts / crime family / super-powers film looks less awesome than it should. We’ll see.

And that was pretty much it, aside from some pre-previews of Jungle Cruise, which looked to be a lot of fun. Not counting that, make it two movies I’m likely to see, one definite maybe.

Movie Review: “Black Widow” (2021) [no spoilers]

We went to an actual movie theater! It was fun!

Black Widow is a fine action flick and a decent (if overdue) wrap-up and send-off for Natasha Romanoff. It doesn’t pay off some of the stuff it sets up, but it’s definitely in the upper half of MCU films.

Do you want to know more?

2020 In Review: Movies

A look back at what I watched this year.

We watched a lot more movies this year than usual — though only one in a movie theater. That was due to the pandemic lockdown, indirectly — that we had the Boy home with us from college after mid-March, as well as my mom living with us for a number of months early in the pandemic, meant lots of opportunities and impetus to watch stuff, whether streaming or on disc.

Looking through my Letterboxd diary, I have 57 entries for the year (compared to 33 in 2019). Of those 57, 45 were rewatches of something I’d seen before, sometimes recently. 44 were flagged with a “♥”; 13 were not.

Let’s look at the best and worst (subjective). The links are to my Letterboxd review for each flick.

Films I watched that I rated lowest:

Films I watched that I rated highest:

Agatha Christie’s Poirot: Murder on the Orient Express (2010) ♥
Julius Caesar (1953) ♥
The Avengers (2012) (twice!) ♥
Coco (2017) ♥
Good Omens (2019) ♥
1776 (1972) ♥
Hamilton (2020) ♥
Moana (2016) ♥
The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (2003) (twice!) ♥
The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (2001) (twice!) ♥
Zootopia (2016) ♥

Oldest Movie Watched: The Thin Man (1934) ♥

Only Movie Actually Watched in a Movie Theater: Birds of Prey (2020) ♥

My Movies of 2019

Some new stuff, a lot of old stuff.

According to Letterboxd, I watched (or at least recorded watching) 33 movies this year, 5 of them in a movie theater.

Of those, the ones I ranked at 5 stars (for what that’s worth) were Spider-Man: Into the Spiderverse and a rewatch of Fellowship of the Ring. There were a lot of 4.5 stars, though, and a lot at lower scores that I flagged as being a favorite vs being well-crafted (though the two are sometimes difficult to separate).

Looking forward, the movies I’m most anticipating seeing in the theater in 2020 are Black Widow, No Time to Die, and Wonder Woman 1984 — which probably says all about me you need to know. Other films I might see in theater when they release in 2020 (as currently scheduled): Birds of Prey, New Mutants, Onward, Dolittle, Eternals, and Dune.

Beyond that, I expect much streaming and disc-watching in the New Year.

A non-spoiler “Spider-Man: Far from Home” quick review

A fun movie, very Spidey, with some interesting themes layered in

This was a fun movie, with plenty of humor, plenty of heart, plenty of action, plenty of Spider-Man being Spider-Man (i.e., getting whomped on physically, emotionally, and situationally, but somehow finding enough moments of happiness to make his dedication to Great Responsibility worth it).
All those questions we had about how the world dealt with half of humanity returning after being snapped out of existence five years ago? A whole lot of them get answered (a bit glibly in places, but the MCU probably doesn’t need to deal with the cataclysmic economic disruption and likely mass starvation that would actually ensue).
Nothing is as it seems. Appearances can be deceiving. That’s true for a lot of the movie — people, relationships, what’s obviously happening vs what’s really happening — and extends all the way through the (two) mid-credits scenes. It actually adds some layers of depth to an (also) enjoyable comic book action flick.
J K Simmons!
I really liked Mysterio. I can’t say anything more, but — I really did.
As someone in the middle of curating a bunch of vacation photos from Venice, seeing the kids (et al.) in Venice was a hoot.

I think this was a great installment in the MCU, Tom Holland continues to be worth his weight in Spidey-Gold; I definitely look forward to what is coming up next for both the hero and the setting.

Overall rating:

Worth going to see!

Want a more spoilerish review? ‎‘Spider-Man: Far from Home’ review by Dave Hill • Letterboxd

My SPOILERIFFIC “Avengers: Endgame” overly-long ramble

Do not read if you are one of the dozen people in the world who have not yet seen “Avengers: Endgame”

The Russo Bros. indicated that two Mondays after opening weekend was time enough to have a spoilery discussion, so that’s when I started this. Of course, there’s been a lot out there already, but I haven’t had a chance to mention any of it, so …

I still stand by my initial, somewhat gushing review of the movie. To be sure, a lot of people have pointed out a number of flaws and opined a number of ways that the movie didn’t do all it could have, or even (gasp) disappointed. So I want to tackle some of those items.

But first … SPOILERS BELOW!

Continue reading “My SPOILERIFFIC “Avengers: Endgame” overly-long ramble”

My initial, no-spoiler review of “Avengers: Endgame”

The climactic movie of the MCU cycle to date

(No spoilers in this post. I can’t vouch for the comments.)

I enjoy the Marvel super-hero movies. The Marvel Cinematic Universe has almost always managed to please, to a great or lesser extent. There have been films I’ve been less enchanted with (Iron Man 2 and Thor 2 come to mind), but even they had some bright moments.

So I went to Avengers: Endgame expecting to enjoy myself, thinking that this climatic Avengers movie will hit the needed emotional notes, blend tragedy and triumph, sacrifice and heroism, and probably wrap up one or more of the iconic characters in a satisfying, contract-closing, oh-my-god-no-more-extreme-conditioning way. There would be a few cameos, a few call to mind of past films, the good guys would triumph, there’d be a funeral, and we’d end on a note of hope for the future.

I trusted Kevin Feige and the Russo Brothers and Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely and the actors and Alan Silvestri and all the production crew would give us that.

They gave me that, cranked up to 12.

And not in a “loud, obnoxious” fashion, but as in hitting every single note they needed to, and the several more that I really hadn’t realized I wanted, and a few additional ones I never thought I’d see, and doing it in virtuoso fashion. I’ve never seen a franchise movie that more organically integrated the cameos it felt it had to have, to the extent that they weren’t just shout-outs, but key parts of the plot. I’ve never seen a franchise movie that called back to its predecessors in a way that wasn’t a cheat or fan service, but as a necessary and delightful way to make this movie’s plot all the richer.

We’ve got characters — heroes and villains — acting intelligently, reasonably, in line with their motivations. We have heroic, epic goings-on that most of the time feel like that’s exactly how it should happen.

While not everything is perfect in Avengers: Endgame (and surely I’ll be having those debates with folk in the future), even the imperfections are still okay, and the rest of it is wonderful.

The movie ran for three hours and one minute … and it didn’t feel like it. They used the time to establish mood, to explain motivation, to provide a chance for action to be balanced with consideration, and to give the cast members the time they need to bring their characters forward or to an end. Characters follow a path that makes sense for them — some of their stories come to a close, while others have new beginnings opened up for them, in a variety of ways. If Marvel never made another movie again (no!), I could find this a fitting conclusion for most of these people.

My hat’s off to the creative team. I expected to enjoy myself. I didn’t expect something this good.

Overall rating:

It’s not “Casablanca,” but it’s superb at what it does.

(Note: the immediate post-movie credits are a lot fun. There is no post-credit scene, thought here is a … brief … thing at the end, which I’m sure people will be debating about. It’s worth sitting in the cinema while the credits role, both to appreciate the talent that went into the film, and to unwind a bit.)

Do you want to know more?

Avengers: Endgame (2019) – IMDb (SPOILERS!)
‎‘Avengers: Endgame’ review by Dave Hill • Letterboxd (reprint of this review)

What do you need to watch before “Avengers: Endgame”?

What’s the minimum MCU watch list for a total noob?

So I met with some friends the other day over lunch to answer some questions about Captain Marvel, from the perspective of someone who’s watched all the MCU movies and is a huge comic book geek.

And I discovered that they had never watched an MCU movie before watching Captain Marvel. Which provide an interesting perspective, to be sure, on how self-contained a story it was (and wasn’t).

Thing is, they are now looking forward to Avengers: Endgame, and want to know what they actually have to watch before that happened. Which intrigues me, because while Captain Marvel was kind of a stand-alone film, Avengers: Endgame is going to be a lot more difficult to understand without some sort of MCU knowledge. It’s literally like coming into the final chapter of a story and starting with “Um, who’s that guy dressed up as a flag?”

I cannot realistically suggest that they watch all the previous MCU movies, and I don’t even think it’s necessary (though, certainly, it would be fun to do). So if I trim down the list, how much do I trim it down?

So here’s my answer, bounced off the Internet to see how people recoil. This is a list of all the MCU films, in chronological order. The letter grades are (definitely) not about quality, but about essentiality to the story, to figure out what’s what and who’s who in Avengers: Endgame. I.e., if you have only a minimal amount of time and opportunity to watch these, go for (in chronological order) just the A films (4 films). If you have more time to devote, go for the B films, too (3 more) . Even more binge-watching? Do all the C films as well (7 more). Etc.

B Iron Man
F Incredible Hulk
F Iron Man 2
C Thor
C Captain America: The First Avenger
A Avengers
F Iron Man 3
F Thor: Dark World
C Guardians of the Galaxy
C Captain America: Winter Soldier
D Avengers: Age of Ultron
D Ant-Man
A Captain America: Civil War
C Doctor Strange
F Guardians of the Galaxy, Vol. 2
C Spider-Man: Homecoming
A Thor: Ragnarok
B Black Panther
A Avengers: Infinity War
C Ant-Man and the Wasp
B Captain Marvel

Thoughts?

The Tangled Histories of the Captains Marvel

One who was first called it isn’t any more. One who is now called it wasn’t before.

I knew pretty much all of this, but it’s still a fine analysis of “Captain Marvel” — the origin story(ies), why the original isn’t called that any more, why the one called by that name isn’t the original even in their own comic book company, and why the story is entangled not just with two comic book companies but with others foreign and domestic.

But the story of the Captain Marvels begins decades before Marvel Comics was even calling itself “Marvel Comics,” and it’s much, much wilder than you could ever expect. Among other things, it involves Superman, Spawn creator Todd McFarlane, the UK’s Children and Young Persons (Harmful Publications) Act of 1955, the word “atomik” spelled backwards, and preeminent United States legal scholar, Judge Learned Hand.

And I liked this:

They say that life is stranger than fiction, but I know it to be true; because both Marvel and DC Comics have characters known as “Captain Marvel,” and in 2019, both of those characters have feature films out within a month of each other.

The tangled stories of the Captains Marvel is darned fun. Enjoy: Shazam & Captain Marvel are forever linked. This is the wild story why – Polygon

On “Captain Marvel” and the future of the Marvel Cinematic Universe

What Carol’s success might mean for the X-Men and FF, oh, and what about her romantic life?

[Possible spoilers for Captain Marvel, but, really, you should have seen it by now.]

As the movie approaches the $1 billion box office level, Marvel’s Captain Marvel is, along with Black Panther, demonstrating that the MCU’s films (and, perhaps, movies in general) don’t need to primarily focus on white guys as heroes.

Which, honestly, I have no problem with, and in fact, applaud. There are a lot of characters in the Marvel Universe who are not-white and/or not-male, and this only frees up the opportunity to see more of them center screen, too. I would prefer not to see white guys disappear totally from the MCU — but that hardly seems likely. Heck, even the Snap didn’t do that.

avengers 2 — I’m not actually worried about running out of white guys in the MCU.

(And, yes, there’s even the possibility that some characters might be cast with people who don’t align with their complexion or even gender in the original comics. Nick Fury’s a kinda-good example of that being workable, as are changes with Mar-Vell. If done well, in a way that doesn’t significantly change something essential about the character, I don’t have a problem there.)

Beyond that, it’s noted that the success of these two heroes that are slated for prominence in the post-Avengers “Phase 4” movies, along with the movies already slated, indicates that Marvel need be in no big hurry to incorporate the massive properties they just inherited with the Fox deal: the X-Men and the Fantastic Four.

Fantastic-Four-Vs-X-Men — FF and X-Men — They’ve both been around for a while.

I mean, I’m as anxious as anyone else to see a decent film rendition of the FF, but I’m totally cool with both properties, esp. the X-Men, getting a few years of rest and reset, and then potentially centerpiece another phase down the line. Aside from the risk of super-hero flicks going out of style (which has been predicted multiple times over the last decade) before they circle around to those sagas, a break makes a lot of sense. Though in the meantime we can get some “hints” (news stories about mutations on the rise due to cosmic radiation or Infinity Stone leftovers; a NASA representative name-dropping Reed Richards; weird shenanigans on the news going on in the Sokovian neighbor nation of Latveria, etc.) to help tee up some excitement.

Another interesting thread of discussion that’s come up lately, viz Captain Marvel, is the question of Carol Danvers sexual orientation. It’s a little weird that it’s being brought up in large part because the character doesn’t have the traditional “boyfriend” in her origin movie, which is supposed to be a good thing because not every woman’s story has to be focused on her relationship with a man — but that’s, in turn, made people wonder if Carol’s relationship with Maria Rambeau or (and this would be an interesting twist) Mar-Vell might be more than just friendship.

I’m, honestly, non-committal. There’s nothing wrong with it, but there’s nothing particularly compelling about it, either. To be sure, I don’t have a personal stake in that particular representation, and I agree that getting some LGBTQ folk into the MCU picture (a million unofficial memes about Steve/Bucky notwithstanding) would be a positive thing in principle. I may just be a bit concerned at a meta level about the amount of heavy-eyerolling-See-it-was-all-a-feminist-plot that would ensue if it turned out that Captain Marvel was a lesbian, or even bi, but that seems inevitable no matter what happens with the character.

Honestly, the question of any sort of relationship for Carol is a more interesting one to me: a highly duty-driven person, whose memories have been messed up, who’s been betrayed by her closest friends, who’s just spent a few decades in deep space (has it actually been that long for her, or 3sd-are we talking some light-speed time contract compressing the interval for her?) … trust issues and understanding how to relate to people at all might be a serious uphill road for her, regardless of which way(s) she swings.

In short, on this as with other things, I’m more interested in good story than in particular agendas. If they want to have Capt. Marvel and Valkyrie as the hottest gay lovers in space-time, great. If she ends up in domestic bliss with Doctor Strange, well, that might be interesting. Heck, if she decides that Rocket Raccoon is her type, I’m cool with that, too. Just give me a good story about it.

Do you want to know more?

More trailers before “Captain Marvel”

Movie trailers on a Monday aren’t quite the same as opening night

Went to Captain Marvel tonight — the second time for me, the first for Margie (who was sick) and James (who wasn’t in town). It remains enjoyable, perhaps even more so in that I could observe the structure of the mysteries and reveals more easily the second time around.

Anyway, here are the trailers we were given, which were a bit different from what I saw opening night … a combo of a week-and-change passing, the different prominence of opening night vs a week later, and a Monday night at that.

Best of Enemies* — This based-on-a-true-story tale of a civil rights activist and a KKK member isn’t my cuppa, but it still looks interesting.

Hobbs & Shaw* — A Fast-and-Furious-related outing. Looks like a fun film to rent or watch on a long plane flight some day.

The Hustle — Buddy film about a pair of female con men. The humor looks a bit more, um, broad (no puns intended) than my preference.

Long Shot — Rom-com with Seth Rogan (as a scruffy journalist) and Charlize Theron (as a presidential candidate). I’m sure there are people who will find it more interesting than I found the trailer, let alone the concept.

Rocketman* — This Elton John biopic doesn’t wow me, but it looks interesting nonetheless.

Missing Link* — Odd little animated film about an adventurer helping reunite a Sasquatch with their Yeti cousins. Doesn’t quite do it for me, but it could be quite charming.

Shazam — Aside from the irony of this appearing in front of Captain Marvel, I’m trying to figure out if this looks like a really funny, fresh take on super-heroes, or just general silliness. The trailers aren’t quite doing it for me, but I’ll probably watch it eventually.

Dumbo* — Those who find slightly creepy and rococo Tim Burton films will probably find this something they like. Not for me.

Frozen II* — This is looking visually interesting, and the soundtrack presented is also interesting. Might end up seeing it.

*Also shown on opening night.

Trailers that were on opening night that were missing this go-around: Spider-Man: Far from Home, Late Night, Godzilla: King of the Monsters, and Dark Phoenix.

“Captain Marvel” does boffo box office

While I had my own minor issues with the movie, I’m delighted to see it’s doing even better than the studio had predicted.

Part of that delight is pleasure that the MCU brand continues hold strong, as we reach a new phase going forward.

But a good chunk of that delight comes from thinking about the broflakes who were vocally certain that such an uber-feminazi anti-male movie (which it most definitely is not, unless you think that “female super-hero” intrinsically means male-bashing) would crash and burn under the weight of its grim SJWness.

‘Captain Marvel’ Box Office: Brie Larson Lands $153 Million Debut – Variety

Ranking the Marvel Cinematic Universe

With the release of Captain Marvel, we now have 21 films in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. One can look around on the Intertubes and find all sorts of force-ranking of worst-to-best of those films. I figure I should probably do something similar to that.

That said, I hate force-ranking, both because it lacks gradation and because my rating of something has a certain plus-or-minus on any given day or viewing. So instead, I’m going to lump these films into four tiers. Even here, I can be swayed, or can appreciate that a given movie is hardly a uniform blessing or curse — Thor: The Dark World is overall a plodding disappointment, except for any scene where Loki is on-screen.

So, here we go, the movies (I’m leaving out TV/streaming service shows) with release year and MCU “Phase”. There’s no particular order within any given tier, and keep in mind that, even with this ranking, I lurves ’em all.

FOURTH TIER – Problematic, despite some good moments.
Iron Man 2 (2010) I
Iron Man 3 (2013) II
Thor: The Dark World (2013) II
Avengers: Age of Ultron (2014) II

THIRD TIER – Entertaining but not memorable
Incredible Hulk (2008) I
Guardians of the Galaxy, Vol. 2 (2017) III
Captain Marvel (2019) III

SECOND TIER – Perfectly respectable, enjoyable, noteworthy, and well-done
Doctor Strange (2015) III
Ant-Man (2015) II
Avengers: Infinity War (2018) III
Captain America: The First Avenger (2011) I
Captain America: Civil War (2016) III
Thor: Ragnarok (2017) III
Thor (2011) I

FIRST TIER – Exemplify (in a variety of ways) what a super-hero movie can be
The Avengers (2012) I
Guardians of the Galaxy (2014) II
Spider-Man: Homecoming (2017) III
Iron Man (2008) I
Captain America: Winter Soldier (2014) II
Black Panther (2018) III

The only one not listed above is Ant-Man and the Wasp (2018) III, which, for a variety of unessential reasons, I haven’t yet watched.

Feel free to critique any given rating. This is my opinion, obviously, and I would expect anyone else’s mileage to vary.

Movie Review: “Captain Marvel” (2019)

Short NO-SPOILER version: Captain Marvel, for me, is an entertaining and enjoyable MCU film, but not a great one, largely because it never quite engaged me with enough emotional or narrative stakes to keep me at the edge of my seat.

Brie Larson (along with everyone else) is likeable and strong and interesting, and I don’t feel at all like I got ripped off buying a movie ticket for this (versus, say Iron Man 2), and I even think it’s (just) worth seeing in a theater vs waiting for home release. But if this is the character that Marvel is planning on hinging the next phase of the MCU on, then her anticipated activities in Avengers: Endgame had best be a tick up from what we get here.

Rating: ★★★ ½ of 5 (with a ♥)

Note: The movie has two in-credit scenes, a “big picture” one after the initial animated credits, and then a charming denouement after the credits are over. Worth sitting through.

If you want a few more spoilers, here’s my Letterboxd review.

A nicely done music vid to various Marvel movies

I’ve seen a lot of “movie cuts set to music” videos, but this one not only has some great MCU imagery, but it’s both nicely clustered and the timing on it is exquisitely matched to the music. Bravo to the creators (as well as to the MCU and Barns Courtney).

[h/t James]