Marvel – The Movie Chronicles

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.

Captain Marvel

“I keep having these memories. I see flashes. I think I have a life here. But I can’t tell if it’s real.” – Carol Danvers (Captain Marvel)

Summary:

On the Kree Empire’s capital planet of Hala, Starforce member Vers suffers from recurring nightmares. Her mentor, Yon-Rogg, warns her to control her abilities while the Supreme Intelligence (AI), urges her to keep her emotions in check. While working with Ronan the Accuser to rescue an undercover spy, Vers is abducted and subjected to a memory probe by a group of Skrulls. The Skrulls are alien shapeshifters with whom the Kree Empire as at war. Vers escapes from the Skrulls’ ship in an escape pod, and ultimately crash lands on Earth. Her presence quickly attracts the attention of S.H.I.E.L.D. agents Nick Fury and Phil Coulson, whose investigation ends up being interrupted by a Skrull attack. A Skrull impersonates Coulson whom is killed by Fury. Fury agrees to work with Vers while Skrull commander Talos disguises himself as S.H.I.E.L.D operative Keller.

Thanks to Fury’s security clearance, Vers learns she was a pilot who is presumed to have died six years earlier while testing a light-speed engine. “Keller” confronts them but Fury and Vers get away and pilot to Louisiana, where they met Maria Rambeau and her young daughter, Monica. Monica reveals that Vers’ real name is Carol Danvers. Talos tracked them to Louisiana and asks to speak with them. He uses the black-box recorder of the plane crash that Carol was in, and she learns that an alien spaceship had taken them out. Because of the black-box recording, Carol finally remembers Yon-Rogg killing Wendy Lawson, the person she sees in her recurring nightmares, and her warning to destroy the experimental energy-core to keep it from getting into the wrong hands. Carol shot the experimental energy-core which resulted in an explosion, leading to her body absorbing the energy. Yon-Rogg brought “Vers” to Hala. Talos then explains that the Skrulls are simply refugees, and Lawson’s energy-core was to help them escape the Kree. By using the coordinates that Lawson had given her, along with Fury, Monica, and the fearless cat Goose, fly their cargo jet, which was modified by the Kree to a cloaked ship in orbit.

Once there, they find the Tesseract, which is the source of the energy-core’s power, as well as some Skrull refugees. Yon-Rogg’s Starforce tracked them down and they capture Carol. They place her before the Supreme Intelligence. Carol, enraged at the fact that they used her, fights back and discovers that the implant that was given to her by the Kree was limiting her powers instead of helping her. Now accessing her full force, Carol escapes, and gives the Tesseract to Fury for safekeeping and proceeds to battle the Starforce to give Maria, Fury, and the Skrulls time to escape. They escape, Carol quickly defeats Yon-Rogg and sends him back to Hala. Carol agrees to help the Skrulls find a new home and gives Fury a modified pager to contact her in case of an emergency. At the very end, Fury later drafts his proposal for the Avenger’s Initiative, naming it after Carol’s old call sign of “Avenger.”

Review

There are several things that I thoroughly enjoyed about Captain Marvel. For one, I really appreciated that Captain Marvel is a female superhero and that she is seen as someone who is strong. In my opinion, it is a superb example of what positive representation looks like. She did not need the help of a man to fight off the enemies. By fully using her powers, she took down the enemies within no time flat. Brie Larson was a phenomenal Captain Marvel – I cannot picture anyone else in the role. She brought her to life and made her seem real. I appreciated that the fact that emotions are powerful and can cloud judgment was present throughout the movie. Why? Because it is true. Emotions are extremely powerful and people need to be able to control their emotions to avoid doing something they may regret.

Another thing that was particularly enjoyable about Captain Marvel is Goose the Cat. Now, Goose is not your everyday house cat. He is actually Flerken. For those who do not know what a Flerken is – they are essentially a gateway to pocket dimensions. Goose definitely provided comedic relief throughout the movie, with some of the most memorable ones being when Nick Fury attempted to have Goose attack the Kree that were trying to keep them from escaping towards the end of the movie.

The third thing I enjoyed about Captain Marvel was that the twist about the Skrulls being refugees was not one that I saw coming. Solely going off of their appearance, one would assume that they are the bad guys – which is exactly what the director wants the audience to think. The Skrulls having the ability to shapeshift also made them seem like they would be the perfect villain for Captain Marvel to encounter throughout the movie. However, in war, things are rarely what they seem. The Kree had fabricated the entire story about the war they were waging with the Skrull, making them seem like the bad guys in it all. However, the Skrull are simply trying to get away from the Kree and find a home for themselves.

The fourth thing that I enjoyed about Captain Marvel is that it is a different take on an origin story. Captain Marvel has her powers right from the start of the movie, meaning that we are immediately thrown into the action, with her past being the mystery. It was a nice refresher to watching Carol’s past unfold alongside her instead of watching how she got her powers in a linear way.

The fifth thing that I really enjoyed about Captain Marvel was the decision to make the original Mar-Vell a woman instead of a man. The Marvel Cinematic Universe made the right choice by deciding to make Captain Marvel’s predecessor female, which is where Annette Bening’s character came into play. It is not only another twist on the story, but it made it, so Captain Marvel is not simply following in the footsteps of a man. I personally think that this was an excellent decision on Marvel’s part and is pointing them in the right direction. Continuing on the same topic of character choices, Jude Law was superb as Yon-Rogg. It is safe to say that Jude Law certainly has the talent to play both the good and the bad guy. He seems like the perfect fit to play the self-assured mentor-turned-adversary to Carol.

These are just some of the things that I thoroughly enjoyed about Captain Marvel. I think it goes without saying that I highly recommend that you see this movie in theaters to get the most out of your movie-watching experience. What are your thoughts on the movie? Let us know in the comments below!

Spider-Man: Into the Spiderverse

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

Ant-Man and the Wasp

Image result for ant-man and the wasp poster

Scott Lang: Hold on, you gave her wings?
Dr. Hank Pym: And Blasters.
Scott Lang: So I take it you didn’t have that tech available for me?
Dr. Hank Pym: No, I did.

Plot: Under house arrest, Scott Lang (play by Paul Rudd) is asked to help Hope and Hank Pym (Evangeline Lilly and Michael Douglas) find rescue her mom Janet van Dyne (Michelle Pfeiffer) from the Quantum Realm. Awhile Ghost(Hannah John-Kamen) trying to use the machine the Pyms plan to use to go the realm.

Review: I enjoyed it, the movie was a little better than the first. The humor was good but the movie was mostly action which was very good. But one thing to note is that the commercials depicted an total different movie then it was. One commercial made me think that Ghost came from the Quantum Realm and was released by Hope. Another made me believe that Ghost was go to damage the world, even before I saw the movie. I thought to myself “What harm can she do, that Thanos has already done in Infinity War.” Anyway, the sequel didn’t shadow it’s first movie, but the sequel is still an enjoyable ride until it’s end. For the short time I forget what going to happened at the end. If you see Infinity War then you know what mean, if you haven’t see it then the scene will not make any sense to and you will be in for a surprise.

Deadpool 2

Image result for deadpool 2 poster

Cable: Dubstep’s for pussies!

Wade Wilson: You’re so dark. Are you sure you’re not from the DC universe?

If you like the first Deadpool movie, then you’re going to love its sequel. The sequel brought the laugher, refences, the 4^th wall breaking, and they double it all for this movie. The film about Wade Wilson aka Deadpool (portrayed by the great and perfect for the role Ryan Reynolds) protecting a young mutant name Russell from Cable a time traveling mutant (portrayed Josh Brolin from The Goones, which in my option was a good choice for the role.), Cable traveled from the future to kill Russell before Cable’s family dies by the hands of future Russell. The film features an appearance from blink and miss it camos from the X-Men and Brad Pritt. No, I’m not mess with you he’s in it.

Now what I liked about the sequel because the portrays of Deadpool and Cable were beyond great, they’re like classic buddy-cops characters from 80’s movies with one cop being the class clown and the other cop being completely the opposites or my brother and I. And the sequel’s borrowed the mid/post credits scenes from the MCU and made them with their own brand of humor. The characters were great especially two characters Negasonic Teenage Warhead and Domino, Domino with her back-and-forth banter she not dealing with Deadpool like two siblings, matter of fact it reminds me of my relationship with my closest siblings and Negasonic Teenage Warhead, in the film she’s in a same-sex relationship with a fellow mutant and I just like it because it’s different from the usual style where there boy, girl relationship. It’s more realistic to her character and it a milestone in the LGBTQ Community. To end this review, go this movie. You will have a great time.

Avengers: Infinity War

Related image

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.