December 16, 2022

So, I went with a friend to the Air & Space Museum in Chantilly Virginia. I hadn’t been there in over a decade, and I’d never seen a movie there. It was an interesting experience as my friend will attest, haha. There were some technical difficulties that were eventually fixed. And we watched the first little chunk of it not in 3D because of that. But it was great the rest of the time. though our seats were, uh, a smidge close to the rather massive screen, so, there’s that. But even so, it was still enjoyable. But I certainly want to see it again with a proper view.

I can’t believe it’s been so long since the first Avatar movie. This was the second of 5 parts. If this does well, James Cameron will go through with the other movies. I, for one, hope that they get made because I missed Pandora and the Na’vi culture.

It starts with a little catch up of what’s happened since the last movie and then dives (pun not intended but welcomed) straight into things. It is a 3 hour movie, but honestly it didn’t feel like it. Even with the couple interruptions. Perhaps since it’s been so long since we’ve been in this world that I just enjoyed sitting in it all. But also I think the story was well-paced. Maybe a couple droplets of slow scenes, but the beauty of the visuals really made me not care about the length of the movie.

There are a few plots to follow and I enjoyed them all. I felt for the characters and the situations they were put through, both good and bad. The kids pull on the heart-strings, as do the animals.

The acting was, of course, fantastic. It was nice to see most of the cast return, you know, other than the various deaths in the first movie. But everyone just slipped back into their roles. I do regret not rewatching the first one again before watching this but I just forgot to.

And of course, the visuals. The 3D aspect certainly enhanced the viewing. They already looked amazing, but man, I had forgotten how great 3D can be when done in a movie that warrants it. I would definitely suggest seeing it in 3D. The colors and VFX just pop and look so real. The creature designs for this movie were brilliant as before. So many animals I would love to interact with. And since this movie was water-based, there were just so very many animals to see and with the visuals of underwater views, it just all flowed into one another to make visual glory.

The main plot was a bit straightforward, but every moment of it was deserved I think. I loved meeting the new characters and the adventures that were had. This movie could certainly be watched on its own and stand alone nicely. But, since it is just part of a larger story, there are threads that will be explored in the next movies. And I am certainly hoping to be able to see what comes of them.

There are some times during this all where you just get caught up in everything going on and you can’t help but feel for characters and there were a couple moments where I teared up. The scenes were brilliantly acted.

I really enjoyed this movie, and I really hope that it’ll do well enough that the other sequels will be made. Though I suppose Avatar 3 was filmed at the same time as this one (in 2017) so it’s probably almost done. And apparently a lot of Avatar 4 has been filmed already. So, we’ll see.

Mid-credit scenes: No

End-credit scenes: No

But, the way it ends, you will want the next movie asap.

November 9, 2022 –

Wow. That was a magnificent movie. First off, everyone’s acting was superb. Every moment of emotion hit hard, every moment of humor was on point, every moment of seriousness was solid.

This movie encapsulated grief and loss and how different people deal with death on a magnificent level. It had you feel everything that was coming at you, hard.

The story was well put together. As the conflict was being introduced I was a bit surprised that I hadn’t put the pieces together earlier. Both sides were well developed. The various climaxes of conflicts were cinematic and a wonder to behold. There were many times I was worried for various characters, and I enjoyed that fear. At the end I wasn’t really sure what was going to happen, I thought about so many possible outcomes that I really was sure how things would come to a close. And I agree with what they came up with.

As had been stated a few days ago, the tone of this movie didn’t change too much from what they had initially planned before Chadwick Boseman’s passing. And his loss was felt throughout this film. I still remember when I heard about it and it really hit me harder than I thought it would. I typed up a whole post. But it was just such an unexpected loss. I think his legacy was well represented and respected here. I think he would have loved every aspect of this movie.

I loved seeing all these characters again after the whole that it’s been. And I loved meeting the characters new to the MCU. I loved Riri Williams so very much. I can’t wait for her Disney+ series and to see her throughout the MCU.

Letitia Wright. She was magnificent. She portrayed Shuri in such a personal way. She showed us every aspect of the character. Ups and downs throughout and it was brilliant.

Im excited to watch both Black Panther (2018) and this movie again tomorrow. Oh, there may or may not be a couple surprise character appearances. Enjoy!

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Mid-credit scene – Yes. It continues on from the last scene. It was wonderful. And unexpected for me. Such potential.

End-credit scene – No. they wanted to have the tone of the end stay the same. So, even though this was an early screening, I don’t expect that to change tomorrow. Though there might be a dedication at the end, I read that somewhere, we’ll see. If there is something different, I’ll edit this post at the end here.

Wakanda Forever.

October 20, 2022 – Well, I certainly enjoyed the movie! It had a different feel than the other DC movies. Still dark, but the tone was more fitting than the unnecessary dark tone of the DC Films universe we’ve gotten so far.

The story was pretty clear and not overly complex. There were some swerves that I enjoyed. A couple were foreseeable, others did take me by surprise a bit.

The main characters that weren’t super-powered individuals were good I thought, though I would have liked a little bit more character development in their introductions. But they were well-motivated.

The JSA was great to see even though this was more like an assembled team specifically for this mission, not like this was the team at the time. I assume there’s a rotating roster depending on the situation. Hawkman was certainly characterized accurately. Doctor Fate was well cast (I still hope we get Doctor Fate from the recent comics in the movies at some point too). And the magic did feel different that that of Doctor Strange, so that was nice. Atom Smasher was fun, very green, but still enjoyable. I’ll be excited to see him grow into a great hero. Cyclone was lovely. I liked her personality and her powers looked amazing.

And of course, Black Adam himself was fantastic. I will admit, like many, I was a bit worried that The Rock’s personality would peek through into the character, but it didn’t and I loved that. Teth had a commanding tone but subdued as he didn’t really want to be there. I would say he learned things and became a better version of himself, but let’s face it, he didn’t learn that much and is still himself, haha. But he learned enough to make a choice that changes everything. I certainly can’t wait for more from him.

And going by what I’ve seen, the sequel to this movie is already in development and they want to get it out there sooner than later. Also, Dwayne has said that he intends to have Black Adam interact with both Superman and Shazam eventually, as well as other DC characters. So, that will be fantastic.

I enjoyed it a lot and cant wait to see it again!

Mid-credit scene: Yes. It’s short but sets up things to come.

End-credit scene: Nope.

July 7, 2022 – Wow, that was such a fun movie!! I loved seeing so many characters we’ve not seen in a couple years. And the bunch of new characters were enjoyable too.

Thor and Thor were great together as they always are. Jane and his stories have always been tied to one another. Natalie Portman was great as Mighty Thor and looked like she had fun with it. Chris Hemsworth was wonderful as ever in his role.

Valkyrie and Korg and all the other Asgardians were fantastic. So much was happening and they all performed brilliantly. Oh, also, the Guardians time on screen was fun and had heart.

Gorr, The God Butcher. I still wish they’d had him look closer to his comic version, but Christian Bale was phenomenal as Gorr. He was terrifying and disturbing. Certainly a perfect choice for the role.

As to the connections to the Jason Aaron comic run of Thor where Gorr and Mighty Thor debuted, there were many specific similarities to those stories and how things started and ended, and as these movies work, things have to be a bit sped up for everything to work. In this case, I think they did well with matching what they could in the limited time-frame they were allowed.

The special effects were glorious as always of course. And the new locations we visited were amazing. New Asgard looked great and seeing how things have been going there was nice. The scenes with Zeus were fantastic too! That setting was spectacular! I will have to look at those scenes carefully to see if there are any particular faces I missed. For example, if I see Khonshu or some other god. I don’t think I saw him there, but, there were a lot of them. and of course the music was amazing and the comedy was great. Oh and a couple unexpected cameos early on XD.

Oh. Toothnasher and Toothgrinder were the best. XD

How things ended suggests a number of possible paths forward. I have a couple ideas I’d love to see come out of this. Who knows what we’ll get eventually. all in all, I really had fun with this movie. I wouldn’t say no to a show spinning out of this somehow. Can’t wait to see it again!

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Mid-credit scene: Yes. Setting up some intriguing things.

End-credit scene: Also, yes. Potentially setting up something I want to happen, but maybe something else.

June 16, 2022 – I have to say, if I were Andy and all his friends when he was a kid in the 90’s, I would have been blown away by this movie XD. And today, I’m similarly in awe. It was a fantastic film!

The plot was pretty simple, but it had reach. I love this version of Buzz, he’s what we know from the Buzz toy from the Toy Story franchise, but with more depth of course, since he’s the character the toy is based off of. He’s a bit by the books but does his own thing when he feels he needs to. That can be a good thing at times and a bad thing at others.

The other characters in the movie were enjoyable, though other than both Hawthorne‘s the other two were maybe a bit one-note. But they were still fun. And Sox is of course the best!

There weren’t too many twists and turns, though one thing was unexpected. I think it was a decent twist. Basically a lot of things go wrong before things go right (regarding the team’s plans).

This was just a fun adventurous movie with a great lead and lots of blowing things up! I’m certainly glad I saw it in theaters. Space stuff is always better in theaters.

Mid-credit scene: Yes. A funny one.

End-credit scene: Yes. Also for laughs.

A-very-last-thing-you-see-end-credit scene. Oh yes indeed. The most important one.

June 9, 2022 – So, it’s been a while since I watched Fallen Kingdom, so I forgot a bunch of stuff, I’d seen Jurassic World on television recently, so it was fresh in my mind.

I enjoyed this movie a lot. I loved seeing the classic Jurassic Park characters interact with the modern era characters. The dinosaurs were of course gorgeous as always. There were ones that we’d not seen in a while and familiar ones. This movie takes place 4 years after Fallen Kingdom, so the world is not doing well after dinosaurs were unintentionally introduced back into the wild. Plus those bugs! Wow. There were two clear plots that weaved in and out throughout the movie and they connected nicely later on.

All the actors did brilliantly as one would expect. Since this is the end of this story, I wouldn’t mind seeing a couple of the new characters have their own projects. They certainly seemed to have more to offer.

Seeing the dinosaurs in the midst of the normal world was intriguing and visually fascinating, even if not great for the people in the movie. There were some cameos via photos in one scene from the other Jurassic World movies that was nice. And there was even a couple specific things directly from the original Jurassic Park.

I really enjoyed being in this world again, it’s always fun. Of course it’s not been that long since we’ve been there since Netflix has had its Jurassic World: Camp Cretaceous animated series which has been going the past few years. The final season of which drops next month. I’d certainly suggest it, it gets deeper than I thought it would when I first watched it. It’s set before, during and after the first Jurassic World movie, so the connections to that in season 1 are many. Season 2 is during the same month and season 3 is three or so months after season 2. It’s quite fun to see connections to the movies via this series and to see what potential there is for future projects.

All-in-all, this was a great ending for this story that started for us all in 1993 (1990 for those who read the novel first).

Mid-credit scene: No

End-credit scene: No

May 5, 2022 – This is the first time I’m writing one of these movie posts on here after having finished being caught up on filling out this blog with content from as far back as 2016 (it took four weeks to catch up to present day XD)!! Woot!! I wanted to have done that before seeing The Batman, but that didn’t work out. This is also the first time I’m sharing this blog on my Facebook (normally I would have posted my thoughts on movies via a post on there).

If this is you’re first time seeing this blog, welcome! And have a look around after you read this! So far it’s comics and movie reviews/reactions. Anyway, enjoy:

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So. This. Movie. First of all, Props to Sam Raimi (first Spider-Man trilogy director) for directing and Danny Elfman (the master musical craftsman behind Batman (1989) which inspired the music and tone for the 90’s animated series, Batman Returns, the first Spider-Man, and many other spectacular scores) for the score. That duo was perfect! XD

There were specific threads that I had hoped would be stitched throughout this movie, and weren’t, but there was so much else going on, that I was perfectly ok with that.

Even though I was a little worried about 2 hours 2 mins not being enough, it certainly felt right. The pace was fine for me. Plus in the story that was being told, things were happening fast, so it made sense.

I can’t believe it’s been 6 years since the first Doctor Strange movie. So much has changed for Stephen since then. Even though this movie had a lot to do, it also served as a decent sequel.

The returning characters were a joy to see again, of course. And the new ones were also wonderful to meet for the first time. And the cameos were brilliant! Hehe. There certainly are some that haven’t been spoiled by the internet.

America Chavez was a character I was worried about a little bit because of how much I enjoy her character in the comics. Of course the MCU has to do it’s own version of all these characters and changes must be made at times. In general, her origins seem to be what they were (initially) in the comics. Though her characterization here was very different, I hope that whenever we see her again she’ll be more similar to her comic counterpart. Time will tell. But she was a fun character indeed.

The multiverse! All I’ll say is the moment this goes to Disney+, I’m going to watch it again and pause on so many frames to see if I can recognize any of the other worlds. There were a lot! XD

The plot itself wasn’t too complicated, but the path from A to B was well, a ball of wibbly wobbly stuff (to paraphrase a certain Timelord :-P). I enjoyed the story and I’m excited for everything that may come next!

And just in case you haven’t yet, if you’ve not watched WandaVision on Disney+, you are required to watch it entirely before watching this movie. Yes, you read what I said. Just do it. It doesn’t matter if you know what happened in the show already, just watch it first. XD

This was a fun movie with a creepy, scary tone thanks to the aforementioned director and composer. I’m excited to see this again soon!! XD

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Mid-credit scene: SO MUCH YES. I’m so glad this wasn’t spoiled. XD though many of you probably will be confused. XD ask me once you’ve seen it XD.

End-credit scene: Yes XD it’s one of those funny, non-essential ones, but I enjoyed it still XD. So, if you have the time to stay, stay. If not, no worries.

April 14, 2022 – Back to the wizarding world we went!

I enjoyed Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore a lot. It was, as always, wonderful to return to this world of magic and fantasy.

The plot was clear and not overly complicated, we jump into things right away and everything flows well. There were still twists and turns but it was nice to not have anything too over the top.

All the acting was brilliant of course, new and old characters alike. And of course the creatures introduced and seen were wonderful too. The music was beautiful as one would expect with these movies.

We have two movies left of this story, and considering one thing that happened at the end, things can ramp up now. I certainly have high expectations for movie five when we get it eventually.

There were aspects of the HP books that were touched upon in this and I liked seeing those threads connect. Though I’ll be interested to see if that continues with the last two films.

The action was great, there’s always some new little bit of magic we’ve not seen yet that just brings joy. It’s just such a fun world. I’ll always love it.

I know Ezra Miller has been having some bad press recently along with the past year or so, we’ll just have to see what comes of it. He’s not been making great choices.

I would certainly say that this made me miss seeing the wizarding world more often like before, I wouldn’t say no to WB making a series out of something. But, with everything that continues to go on with Rowling’s backward views, I think WB is just trying to get these movies done asap. It’s a shame, but again, we’ll have to see what the future holds.

Mid-credit scene: No

End-credit scene: No

March 31, 2022 – Morbius

Well, first thing’s first, it wasn’t horrible. The plot was simple, and thus a little predictable, it was okay but not great. And my knowledge of Morbius came from the 90’s Spider-Man animated series and the various times he’s showed up in the comics that I’ve read, so it’s not a lot. I did do some extra reading yesterday just to get a little more acquainted. And other than many stories with other marvel characters (mainly, of course, Spidey), there wasn’t a lot of stuff just on him besides his origin and then what it later became. So Sony basically had free reign. It basically was 5 ish main characters. Maybe 3 proper main ones and 2 side characters.

One thing that I did enjoy were the special effects. I think they were well done. The use of color and smoke was a nice touch.

I do wish there was a little more character development with the antagonist though. The actual antagonism of them came out of no where and wasn’t explained or hinted at. Maybe they were just a naturally violent person? Who knows.

I think Jared Leto did a good job here, Michael Morbius is a man of science but he doesn’t generally lean towards violence even in his vampiric form. Everything he does is about a cure.

There were a couple decisions at the end where I was a bit confused about. Though one of those things maybe less confusing and more, I don’t think that needed to happen. And the second thing I don’t understand why it happened (unless it’s because of the first). So, maybe we’ll see.

I really haven’t said a lot here just because it’s such a simple plot, I can’t really dig into it. It was a sequence of 10 ish plot points in all. Maybe 11.

Since there’s not a lot about Morbius when not interacting with other marvel characters, this movie doesn’t need to be judged against the comics much. It was nice to see Morbius on screen even if this is Sony. But this didn’t really “wow” me. Not that I expected it to. It’s an okay movie. Though I think I do have to put it below both Venom movies only because I liked the humor in the venom movies more than anything else in those movies XD.

Oh and another odd thing, the animated credits were so random. It’s was like a 70’s theme or something. It didn’t match the movie at all whatsoever. It just felt jarring.

Mid-credit scene: Yes. There are two, both during the animated credits. Both related. At first I was confused as to why what was happening was happening, then I guess I figured it out and was like eh, alright. The second one suggests more to come.

End-credit scene: No.