Tag: KAYoung

Avengers: Endgame

Natasha Romanoff: “It’s going to work, Steve.”

Steve Rogers: “I know it will, because I don’t know what I’m going to do if it doesn’t.”

Let’s be honest here – Avengers: Endgame doesn’t really need too much of a summary. Why? Well, it’s been a highly anticipated movie that has been eleven years in the making. It is only the epic finale to a decade long story arch. Therefore, the only summary that will be provided is that it is an emotional ride. While this should be expected, there will be spoilers throughout the review. So, if you have not seen it yet and do not want it to be spoiled for you – it is suggested that you stop reading at this point.

Also – my apologies for posting this later than other reviews. I wanted to ensure that people had ample time to watch the movie for themselves first as it has been highly anticipated by many.

Liked:

Tony Stark and Pepper Potts as parents. I absolutely loved seeing Tony as a father figure to his daughter Morgan. I do not think them having a child was something that was expected by fans, but it was welcomed warmly. Tony interacting with Morgan was a shift in his character arch as it added another side to him. It was adorable to see him tuck Morgan into bed and her saying “I love you 3000” to him. It had me smiling like crazy because he and Pepper were finally able to settle down and have a life together even after all of the destruction Thanos created. However, seeing that Tony had Pepper and Morgan as family made his death more saddening. It goes without question that it was a heartbreaking end to Iron Man’s story as he grew so much throughout his journey.

Captain America’s happy ending. I greatly appreciated that he was able to have a life with Peggy. However, the only part I am iffy on is the whole time traveling part as this would have changed his past. It was unclear as to what happened to the Captain America from the altered timeline. Additionally, I loved the scene where Captain America wields Mjolnir. It was funny and a nice nod to Avengers: Age of Ultron. Something that did bother me though was that he was willing to sacrifice Iron Man’s new family to undo the destruction that Thanes created.

People as a whole have complained on social media about Thor’s appearance in the movie. I think it is important to note that he was clearly depressed after failing to stop Thanos in Avengers: Infinity War – it cannot be forgotten that he lost his home Asgard in Thor: Ragnarök shortly before the events of Infinity War occurred. That’s a lot for someone to deal with. I thoroughly appreciated that Thor was seen as being depressed in Endgame because it is realistic and needs to be normalized more. Furthermore, the scene where Thor summons Mjolnir when he and Rocket were retrieving the Reality Stone was beautiful and inspiring. Why? Because he was able to reassure himself that he was still worthy. It shows that it is what inside that counts and that struggling with mental illness doesn’t make you any less of a person.

Conflicts:

It was tragic that both Iron Man and Black Widow died in the movie. The funeral scene was a beautiful sendoff for Tony Stark. It was well deserving, especially since he had undergone great amounts of growth throughout the eleven-year run. However, there should have been an on-screen funeral for Black Widow. Her death was just as tragic as Iron Man’s was and her last words “it’s okay” to Hawkeye had me crying. Black Widow deciding that she had to be the soul sacrificed to receive the Soul Stone instead of Hawkeye because he had a family was a powerful and emotional scene, especially since right before they got there, they said “We’ve come a long way since Budapest.” It really hit me in the feels. Both Tony and Natasha had honorable deaths in their fight to undo the destruction caused by the mad titan Thanos. There was no way to predict the outcome of the battle with Thanos. For all they know, it could have ended the same, if not worse than it did in Avengers: Infinity War. Therefore, I found Natasha’s death to be a bit sadder as she sacrificed her life to undo the destruction when there was the possibility that it would not have worked out in their favor. Her sacrifice would have ultimately been for nothing then.

I am always conflicted when time travel is used to try to change something as there are many factors to take into consideration and several things that could go wrong. There are two things that bothered me about it: Thanos from the past came to their timeline and the idea of removing an item from the past. One thing that I am questioning is what happened to the timeline past Thanos left? Do the events of it never unfold because he is defeated in the post-snap timeline? There are a number of questions and uncertainties about it. The Avengers time traveling to collect the Infinity Stones before they were stolen seemed iffy to me. Do their actions of removing the Infinity Stones from their respective timelines create alternate timelines? I know that Captain America returned the Infinity Stones to their respective timeline, but the logistics and the repercussions of it are uncertain and sort of nerve wracking.

Additionally, Hawkeye going on a murderous rampage after his family was dusted by Thanos raised some questions, uneasiness, and several red flags. Sure, it might have been a nod to whatever terrible decisions Black Widow had made in her past that he didn’t judge her on, but it was ultimately glossed over. Yeah, Rhodey did mention that he wasn’t sure if he even wanted to find him. However, it makes me wonder if Hawkeye’s actions would have been overlooked if he wasn’t a white male. It didn’t sit right with me.

Overall:

Avengers: Endgame is a solid movie despite some of the aforementioned conflicts and I highly suggest that you see it on the big screen. It was an exceptional conclusion to the eleven year long and twenty-two movie story arc. The battle scene is a bit rushed, but ultimately does it justice even though it is essentially an over glorified game of football. It will be interesting to see how exactly the events of Avengers: Endgame will be incorporated in Spider-Man Far From Home.

Spider-Man: Into the Spiderverse

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Miles: How am I supposed to save the world?
Spider-Man: You can’t think about saving the world. You have to think about saving one person.

Summary

Everyone knows how Peter Parker got his super powers. However, this movie focuses on 14-year-old Miles Morales, who is reluctantly enrolled at an elite New York board school. After he is bitten by a radioactive spider, Miles begins to experience drastic changes that he cannot explain such as being able to stick to walls and having a weird instinct feeling. To make sense of what is happening, Miles retraces his steps to where he was bitten by the spider. While doing so, he discovers Peter Parker/Spider-Man mid-fight with the crime boss Kingpin. He was trying to keep him from opening a hole in the space-time continuum, which could potentially destroy New York. Ultimately, Kingpin kills Spider-Man, but Kingpin’s expierment results in another older Spider-Man from a parallel universe showing up and encountering Miles. Together they encounter four more spiderlings which includes Gwen Stacy, an anime-style girl from the distant future, a cartoon pig, and black-and-white 1930s noir Spider-Man. Upon getting over their shock and confusion, everyone understands that they must work together to defeat Kingpin to return to their own respective universes.

Review

The movie was incredible – from the character development to the animation style. I will admit that I was a bit hesitant at first to go see the movie, but I am glad that I did. The parallel universe concept in the movie was pulled off fantastically as it incorporated different versions of the Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man. It was nice to see some of the different comic book variations of Spider-Man interact with each other! One thing in particular that I greatly enjoyed about the movie was Mile’s relationship with his father. Like most teenagers, he is not entirely sure what to say or how to act around his parents. His father is a member of the police force, which adds an extra layer to it. At the end of the movie, their relationship is stronger.

Another thing that I greatly enjoyed was that the movie relies on the audience’s previous comic book movies knowledge, movies, and ultimately the characters. An example of this would be the opening sequence of the movie that tells the backstory of the soon-to-be-deceased Peter Parker, which essentially shows him as being the Tobey Maguire iteration of the character from the Raimi film trilogy. It had references to each of the movies in the Raimi trilogy from the upside-down kiss with MJ from Spider-Man, the train rescue from Spider-Man 2, and the pain-inducing dance sequence from Spider-Man 3. It serves as a clean break from the other iterations of the character.

Each of the different multiverse characters portraying their own genres provided plenty of different snippets of humor to play with. For example, Nicholas Cage’s Spider-Man Noir is a parody of goofy film noir clichés while Spider-Ham serves as the comedic relief as he is an absurd character. He basically helps the other iterations of Spider-Man feel more grounded by comparison. Miles Morales is by far the most relatable character and vulnerable lead to appear in a Spider-Man movie. His desire to create his own identity from his cop father’s is admirable, his awkward teenager-ness when he meets someone he is crushing on, ad his frustrations that he is struggling with mastering his powers.

These are all themes that are present in a majority of Spider-Man origin stories. Setting them in the plot of a multiverse was the perfect way to do so as it allows Miles to learn that there are numerous interpretations of who Spider-Man is and all of them are valid.

Overall

I enjoyed the movie thoroughly. The animation style is distinct, though at times it was a little hard to look at when the colors were blurring. However, the animation style was needed to differentiate between the parallel the universes that the other spiderlings came from. I highly encourage that you see the movie in theaters!

UPDATED TO ADD 1/16/19

Hi! This is Tcyoung who decided to check this movie out after all the hype. I loved the hell out of it! I’m going to add a few quick notes of my own on the movie.

The movie does a good job constructing these different variations on Spider-man. Using a typical opening to a superhero cartoon, it has a very quick and efficient way of explaining what their deal is, especially how the two human, red-and-black suit Peters differ from each other. They also do a good job of giving you enough of each character without detracting from the movie being Miles story through-and-through.

The character-work is tremendous, especially through animation which does a great job conveying emotion. I grew attached to these characters quickly.

Like Bumblebee (which also had Hallie Steinfeld and is pretty good), the character arcs and plot beats aren’t too out of the ordinary but they are executed pretty damn well.

But, yeah. This is a pretty good movie and I recommend you see it.
–Tcyoung

Escape Room

I’d Like to Solve the Puzzle

Danny: Wow! Talk about immersive!
Amanda: What the hell is wrong with you? That was real!

Six strangers travel to a mysterious building to experience the escape room after someone they each individually knew seemingly signed them up for it. It was a game where players compete to solve a series of puzzles to win $10,000. What starts out as seemingly innocent fun quickly turns into their personal hell as the six strangers discover that each of the rooms is an elaborate trap that is part of a sadistic game of life or death. The quickly realize that you either find the clues, or you die.

While Adam Robitel’s PG-13 thriller is definitely not an original film, it is relatively entertaining and keeps you on the edge of your seat through the duration of the film. The film has all of the archetypes covered from the cutthroat businessman named Jason to the stoner burnout Ben. Additionally, there is the video game geek Danny, a blue-collar trucker named Mike (he is basically the comic relief of the film and serves no other purpose), Amanda the PTSD Iraqi veteran, and the intelligent but incredibly shy Zoey.

The movie bares striking similarities to Saw, the movie was far from predictable when it came to the death of characters. Essentially, it was easy to figure out that some of the characters were meant to die even if you did not know how they would or in what order. The six characters could not be more different from one another they had to have had one thing in common for the six to be mysteriously invited at the same time. The commonality was that they were all lone survivors – statistical improbabilities. The game master of the Mintos Escape Room wanted to figure out which one of them had what it took to survive again.

I have seen conflicting opinions on the likeability or relatability of the characters. For the most part, I found them to all be pretty relatable or likeable even if they were overexaggerated archetypical characters. The only one that I could see why people did not care for him was Jason, the businessman. He was quick to use others tragic pasts against them to better his chances of survival. A prime example of this would be when he brought up Mike’s deceased younger brother Cal. Jason said that now was Mike’s time to do what was right and sacrifice himself to save the rest of them. I personally thought that utilizing tragic pasts or tender topics against those around him to progress himself further in the game, especially since it was Jason himself who was the only one who was able to help them get out of that specific escape room.

Once they barely completed the first escape room with all six of them moving forward, I was on edge pretty much for the remainder of the film. It was solidified when Amanda, the Iraqi veteran with PTSD had a panic attack in the ventilation tunnel to the next escape room. The game master was deliberately using their tragic pasts against them to make these rooms as victimizing or terrifying as possible for them. I guess it showed that people can find out essentially anything and everything about a person due to advancements in the internet and technology.

Overall, I found the movie to be anxiety inducing and enjoyable but wouldn’t say that it is award worthy, especially compared to the remainder of the 2019 movie lineup that includes Avengers: Endgame and the IT sequel, just to name a few. I would recommend seeing it in theaters with a group of friends as it is made better by peoples’ reaction to what is happening throughout the film.

Avengers: Infinity War

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Peter Quill: I’m gonna ask you this one time: where is Gamora?

Tony Stark: Yeah, I’ll do you one better. Who is Gamora?

Drax: I’ll do you one better. Why is Gamora?

If you have not seen Avengers: Infinity War yet I highly encourage that you back away from this review because there are spoilers ahead. You have been warned.

Summary: The Avengers and their allies continue to protect the world from threats too large for one hero to handle while a new threat appears from the shadows of space. Thanos, with the aid of his intergalactic army, have one goal: collect all six Infinity Stones. The Infinity Stones are artifacts of power that cannot be fathomed, and he wants to use them to twist all of reality to his will. Essentially, everything the Avengers have fought for have led up to this moment in time. They must protect the fate of the Earth and existence itself – even though it has never been more uncertain.

Review: The Marvel Cinematic Universe has never felt like more of a universe until this movie, which is in both good and bad ways. Infinity War is a narrative that juggles a myriad of characters and locations. The packed film includes an array of superheroes from the Avengers, to Spiderman, Black Panther, the Guardians of the Galaxy and more. To my surprise, they left out Hawkeye, Ant-Man, Valkryie, Nakia, and Everett Ross.

Thanos is by far the biggest villain we have encountered in a Marvel film. I was incredibly surprised to find that I not only liked this villain, but I also sympathized with him. I am not entirely sure why, but my guess is because he had to sacrifice Gamora, the person he loved the most, to be able to accomplish his goal of “saving the universe”. While Thanos is a good villain, he’s no Killmonger with his problematic but hard-earned racial politics. In my opinion, he is one notch below him.

Moving on with the review, I would like to highlight three problems I noticed in Infinity War.

Problem One: There are too many moving parts for one movie

I am in no way, shape, or form saying that this was a bad movie. I understand that the Avengers movie is all about the Avengers assembling and it makes sense to add a bunch of new heroes in the movie as the cast of them grow. But jumping around from Earth, to Space, to Wakanda, etc., became a bit of a clusterfuck and difficult to follow location wise. Just when the scene was going into more depth or something would happen the movie would shift gears and move to a different location with different characters. At times this became difficult (and annoying) to try to follow.

Problem Two: The movie should have ended before the ending with Thanos

I thought the most frustrating thing about Infinity War to me would be all the characters that died. It wasn’t. The most frustrating thing was how it ended. After collecting all six of the Infinity Stones, Thanos snaps his fingers and half of the universe’s population disintegrates meaning that he achieved the balance he wanted. After that we see a myriad of characters who we know can’t die, disintegrate before our eyes. It was incredibly irritating because the Guardians of the Galaxy have a third movie, a sequel to Spiderman: Homecoming is in the works, and there’s rumor of a Doctor Strange and a Black Panther sequel. Personally, I think Infinity War should have ended after Thor hit Thanos in the chest with his axe. Thanos could have said his line, “You should have aimed for the head.” Then it could have rolled to the credits. I understand that in a war there is loss, but it seemed meaningless because of the already confirmed movies that are coming out about some of the heroes that “died”.

Problem Three: Lack of backstory for Thanos prior to Infinity War

Don’t get me wrong, I thought Thanos was a great villain. However, I think Guardians of the Galaxy 3 should have been released before Infinity War. Who knows, maybe Guardians of the Galaxy 3 would have further developed Thanos’s backstory. We could have seen more of his relationship with Gamora and Nebula. It could have also introduced us to his plan earlier and see it develop across the movies.

What I liked about the movie:

There were a lot of things that I liked about the movie. I really liked seeing Vision and Scarlet Witch’s relationship brought to life on the screen. They were definitely the heard of Infinity War and seeing their relationship blossom more throughout the film made it even more devastating when Scarlet Witch had to be the one to destroy the Infinity Stone in Vision’s head. To make it even worse, Thanos brought him back to life so he could rip the stone out of his head and collect it.

Personally, I am a huge fan of the friendly neighborhood Spiderman. Therefore, I really enjoyed seeing him in this movie. His humor definitely provided comedic relief when it was needed and when he met Doctor Strange and said his line about using their made-up names was such a power move. I genuinely enjoyed seeing Peter Parker interact with Peter Quill as both make pop culture references (obviously Quill’s are a bit dated). I greatly appreciated seeing the father/son dynamic that Tony Stark and Peter Parker had as well. It has been in the works since Captain America: Civil War and it was nice to basically see it in full swing. It made it more heartbreaking to watch Peter disintegrate in Tony’s arms while he begged and apologized to Mr. Stark

I enjoyed that essentially picked up where Thor: Ragnorak left off and showed everyone on the (destroyed) ship. It showed that life does not hesitate to kick you while you’re down. Thor had already lost his home and continued to lose his people.

Overall, I highly encourage that you see this movie in theaters! It is a definitely a film that you will want to see in theaters and to see with other people. The reactions of those around me in the theater when major events took place made the film that much better.