Tag: MCU

Gillian Reviews Captain Marvel (Spoiler Free)

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Something I’ve tried to do over the years is to let go of my expectations when I see a movie. It’s hard to do this at times and today I failed a little bit. I let the hype of “The First Woman Led” Marvel movie get to me. I felt a little underwhelmed by the final fight but I realized I was expecting an earth-shattering battle when that wasn’t what the movie was building to or made sense in the MCU history.

Also, this time between Infinity War and Endgame has been full of anticipation for the conclusion of the story started in Infinity War. A lot of people, myself including, are desperate for any hint of what is coming. Captain Marvel is not Avengers 3.5 nor is it the super secret history of the MCU.

Captain Marvel is not the greatest Marvel movie and it shouldn’t have to be. It is a fun movie that introduces a character we could (should) have met years ago. It has great acting and a good story. And it has Goose the cat. Brie Larson emotes in subtle but powerful ways. Samuel L. Jackson brings a bit of humor as her sidekick.

I liked the ’90s setting and didn’t feel like it was forced or over the top. There was one scene that is set to a certain song that is very on the nose but it plays almost in the background. I would have liked to hear the song blasted over the action instead.

The CGI de-aging of Fury and Coulson looked good but I do have mild faceblindness however I have heard other reviewers also say they looked fine.

One final thing. As the Marvel logo began to play, I was internally wishing they would do the older style Marvel Studios logo with images from the character’s comics. Then I saw this was not the new standard logo. Instead of characters from the MCU movies, images of Stan Lee began popping up along with clips of his movie cameos. And then it ended with a simple “Thank you, Stan.” Nearly got my waterworks going. His actual cameo in the movie is inspired but I won’t spoil it.

Rating: 3.5/5

Captain Marvel: Convince Me

I don’t know what to think about the Captain Marvel movie. To be honest, Marvel Studios doesn’t have any experience with female-led superhero movies. Until Black Panther, their female cast was like two women. The recent Superbowl trailer for Captain Marvel didn’t raise my level of excitement. It was mostly scenes we have seen in previous trailers recut with slightly more context. It’s almost like Marvel doesn’t want to show us to much of the movie. Could it be that they’ve already shown us the best parts of the entire movie in under five minutes?

Also, I’ve heard the critiques from the naysayers:

“I mean Captain Marvel could end up being a great inspiration to little girls but why can’t they be inspired by Captain America?” … “What’s wrong with a captain named after our great country?” … “Honestly Captain Marvel sounds like she’s from Canada.” … “There are already so many female characters in the Marvel movie I don’t know why this one needs her own movie.”

With my faith shaken by Marvel’s lack of confidence in their first female-led movie, I’ve decided to conduct an unscientific non-legally binding survey. I want sincere honest strongly held opinions so there are some rules to participate in the survey.

Guidelines:

  • Votes are to cast as donations to my paypal.
  • Odd dollar amounts ($1, $3, $5, etc.) will be counted as “YES” votes.
  • Even dollar amounts ($2, $4, $6, etc.) will be counted as “No” votes.
  • You may add comments to your vote.
  • Comments of interest will be posted on my blog.
  • Any comments that contradict the dollar amount vote (a $2 “YES” vote with comments about how bad the movie will be) will render that vote invalid.
  • All votes valid and invalid are non-refundable.

Goal Levels:

  • Majority “YES” votes: I see the movie secure that it will meet or exceed my expectations and write a review afterwards.
  • Majority “NO” votes: I will burn my ticket stub, post a video of it and write a review afterwards.

Dollar Tier Goals (Every dollar tier includes the previous tiers.)

  • $10: Popcorn and a soda will be added to my experience.
  • $15: Popcorn will be upgraded to the special Captain Marvel plastic popcorn tub (if available).
  • $30: I will treat a friend to a viewing.
  • $40: I will see the movie a second time.
  • $70: My worn out work shoes will be replaced.
  • $90: All the yarn I need for my current knitting project will be bought.
  • $200: Video of ten tickets being burned will be produced.
  • $60,000: Animated cartoon of this post produced.

Thank you, for your participation.

Gillian Reviews Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2

#blog #review #movie #gotgvol2 #marvel #mcu

Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 is a brilliant sequel. The first movie, of course, had to be an origin movie introducing not only several new characters but also the cosmic space setting. It was a colorful action packed funny and at times moving (“We are Groot.”) film. If it could be said to be lacking anything it was depth to the characters and their relationships.

This is where Vol. 2 shines. Did you want to know about Gamora and Nebula’s relationship? Did the reveal that Peter’s father is something unknown perk your interest? What about Yondu and the Ravagers keeping Peter from his father? Vol. 2 pick up these threads and runs with them. Every main character gets some time to breath and become more fully realized.

While this movie doesn’t directly involve Thanos or the infinity stones, I definitely feel the strings starting to come together for the Infinity War. One mid-credit scene promises to tie almost directly into it.

Stan Lee’s cameo and mid-credit scene are great.

I saw the movie in 2d and thought it looked marvelous. I definitely noticed some shots that seemed made to play up the 3d but they weren’t too annoying. I am almost tempted to see it again in 3d. Bottom line I loved this movie and will probably be going to see it again 3d or not.

Rating 5/5

Follow the link to my website for a few spoilerish musings after the review.

gotgv2-origanal

Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 is a brilliant sequel.  The first movie, of course, had to be an origin movie introducing not only several new characters but also the cosmic space setting.  It was a colorful action packed funny and at times moving (“We are Groot.”) film.  If it could be said to be lacking anything it was depth to the characters and their relationships.

This is where Vol. 2 shines.  Did you want to know about Gamora and Nebula’s relationship?  Did the reveal that Peter’s father is something unknown perk your interest?  What about Yondu and the Ravagers keeping Peter from his father?  Vol. 2 pick up these threads and runs with them.  Every main character gets some time to breath and become more fully realized.

While this movie doesn’t directly involve Thanos or the infinity stones, I definitely feel the strings starting to come together for the Infinity War.  One mid-credit scene promises to tie almost directly into it.

Stan Lee’s cameo and mid-credit scene are great.

I saw the movie in 2d and thought it looked marvelous.  I definitely noticed some shots that seemed made to play up the 3d but they weren’t too annoying.  I am almost tempted to see it again in 3d.  Bottom line I loved this movie and will probably be going to see it again 3d or not.

Rating 5/5

Spoilerish musings below. Continue reading “Gillian Reviews Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2”

Tale of Two Trailers

Two trailers for two media properties I’m interested in were released recently: The Dark Tower movie and The Defenders.

Watch The Dark Tower trailer here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GjwfqXTebIY

Watch The Defenders trailer here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4h3m7B4v6Zc

I have mixed feelings about both.  Let’s start with The Dark Tower.

Now, I’ve read all the original books at least once.  Stephen King wrote another book after he “ended” the series that is an interquel that I haven’t read.

I honestly don’t pay a lot of attention to movie set pictures or read speculation about the story of things I’m interested in.  I like to see one trailer and then see the thing.  So, I’ve seen Idris Elba in costume, I don’t know how many months ago, and that’s all.  I’m also aware that the movie is technically a sequel to the books but I wasn’t prepared for how far the story would bend from the books.  It looks like a combination of the first and third books but a couple of major characters are missing.

I would have liked to see a seven or six movie series since the fourth book is largely a flashback to Roland’s youth.  But I can see how hard it would have been to make such a series profitable.  After giving myself a little time to let the implications of this movie as a continuation of the books sink in, I feel more at ease with the apparent story choices that have been made.  Ka is a wheel, after all.  We won’t know for sure how it pans out until the movie is released on August 4.

Now The Defenders.  First some positives.  Yay to Misty Knight returning!  Yay to the return of Matt’s scarf mask!  Yay to Jessica’s snark!  Yay to Luke Cage’s reaction to Danny!  Yay to Iron Fist getting a haircut!  Yay to seeing these superheroes all together!

Now my concerns.  Mostly, I’m not happy about The Hand being the apparent big bad that they all have to band together to defeat.  I was talking to my roommate the other day about how I didn’t really like that Iron Fist was fighting The Hand in his series.  The Hand was introduced as Daredevil’s villain so I feel like it should be dealt with in his series.  I get that The Hand is a city-wide threat and it makes sense for them to all fight it but that could have happened in the Daredevil show via a series of guest appearances. The Defenders, I feel, should be about them facing something none of them have encountered before with Claire being the one to bring them together.

Also, I’m feeling like Daredevil season three is going to spin out of The Defenders which means it won’t make sense to watch season two and three back to back in the future.  This is just like in mega crossover comic events where the last page of a comic tells you to read a completely different comic to continue the story.  TV shows, like the CSIs or Buffy and Angel, occasionally have done this but only with one episode.  To have an entire season of the story from one show in another show is unheard of.

But, like with The Dark Tower, all we have is a two-minute trailer so we won’t really know the story until the show comes out on August 18.