Category: Movie Review

My 5 favorite movies in the MCU

marvel logo

I’ve been asked 1,000 times, what do I like better: Marvel or DC? I can’t pick. I love both of them for similar and different reasons. But when it comes to movies, the MCU regions supreme. Here’s 5 of my personal favorites. In no particular order let’s begin with…

dr strange 1. Doctor Strange- ever since I read Dr Strange & Dr Doom: Triumph and Torment I’ve grown to love the beautiful and weird exploits of the the sorcerer supreme and I was ecstatic to hear Benedict Cumberbatch was playing him; as a Strange fan, I was really pleased and it’s mind blowing as hell in IMAX 3D.

gotg v2 2. Guardians of the Galaxy Volume 2- This was a really tough pick between the first and second but the second has a deeper story and a much better villain in Ego…also Baby Groot is freakin adorable, he seriously maybe the cutest damn thing I’ve ever seen.

avengers 3. Avengers – you can’t beat the once and probably future king of superhero flicks. While Iron Man is also a phenomenal movie, as well as the underated Incredible Hulk but watching Hulk slam Loki around like a rag-doll- truly epic.

spiderman homecoming 4. Spider-man: Homecoming – Spider-man maybe the coolest, most versatile superhero out there but at the end, he’s a regular kid and Homecoming gave us that: he’s Spider-man at Homecoming. Nothing fancy, no overblown world building, and Holland’s portrayal is spot on. Plus, growing up with Batman it was great to have Michael Keaton back in a super role, and as Vulture nonetheless, one of my favorite Spidey bad guys was a huge treat.

avengers 3 5. Avengers: Infinity War – I laughed, I almost cried, and I couldn’t help thinking about the movie on a whole hours, even days after seeing it. As a nerd I freaked out in joy and I give credit, it may be my favorite of the Avengers trilogy…

I hope you all enjoyed this list, may the gaming gods bring you glory, and as a great man always said : EXCELSIOR!

Fight Club

fight club book

There’s one quote that comes to mind, made synonymous with this story: “Rule one, don’t talk about Fight Club. Rule number two, don’t talk about Fight Club.” And weirdly enough because of the movie, we do…

Fight Club is a strange story of a hapless white collar smuck who hates his boring, meaningless, empty life. The only solace he gets is wandering into support groups where he meets up screwed up Marla, a woman he is fascinated by but too meek to really engage. Until one night he meets Tyler Durden, his exact opposite. Cool, badass, mischievous, and outspoken. They come to a conclusion, start a Fight Club to make them feel alive and get out there frustrations; this soon becomes a new kind of revolution on it’s own, albeit a malevolent one. Durden is a full scale Anarchist and wants to tear the world down and our weak narrator is in the middle, trying to stop the only real friend he ever had.

Fight Club is a strange beast, it’s such a BRO story with some strong philosophic innards, enough to satisfy both demographics. I read the book as well as saw the movie. The book is written very strangely I admit, Palahnuik’s writing style takes a bit of getting used to but becomes addictive once you get immersed and the end feels more appropriate. The movie is stylish and damn near perfect but I do like the book ending better and the expansion to the characters themselves in the book. Either way, Fight Club is a messed up story  that is irresistible as hell and I highly recommend it. May the gaming gods bring you glory.

fight club movie

Ant-Man and the Wasp, trailer 2

 

Just when my nerd adrenaline was starting to level off after Avengers: Infinity War we got a fresh new trailer for Ant-man and the Wasp ( a link to my thoughts on the last trailer here; AntMan and the Wasp trailer ). First, disclaimer, I’m not a huge Ant-Man fan when it comes to comics. That being said I love the move. Wasp’s costume is really badass and I’m thrilled to have her in the MCU. I’m also glad we get more Giant Man stuff which is always cool. As for the villain, I think Ghost’s outfit looks like a Destiny costume but I think she’ll be awesome enough to ignore that. I’m really excited for this movie and I can’t wait to see it. May the gaming gods bring you glory.

The Week Of (2018)

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As most of you know I am a pretty big fan of the Netflix movies. I am also a pretty big fan of Adam Sandler and Chris Rock. Both are quite funny, and Netflix has in my experience released some great movies. However this is not one of them.

Before I get into the things I don’t like about the movie, I will say it is a nice family movie, a few parts may be a bit edgy for the kids but no more than most movies these days with that rating. And the story itself is well put together with nice pacing and great acting.

The issue is the movie itself isn’t funny, and honestly I never really cared what was going on. The story of a well off man marrying a somewhat poor but still pretty middle class girl really isn’t something most people will relate to. And walking the line between being a comedy and more serious rarely works out, and it didn’t work out here. The movie is will be enjoyed by some I am sure, but for those expecting more from Rock and Sandler you will want to look elsewhere. Best wishes and may the gaming gods bring you glory.

Jurassic World Fallen Kingdom final trailer

 

I loved Jurassic Park as a kid; all these years later it still holds up. I was shocked how good Jurassic World was; it was a better, healthier sequel than the actual damn sequels. When I heard World was getting a sequel, I got a little skeptical. I do like the small return to a horror aesthetic, and the creatures look great as always. I’m not really sold on the emphasis on it being about military use dinosaurs but I’d still see what the movie has. May the gaming gods bring you glory.

Kin, trailer 1 review

 

During our outing to see Avengers: Infinity War this was the first of many unexpected trailers we got. In fact, the only trailer I expected was Solo ( Solo Trailer review ). It seems to be the story of two brothers who find some kind of ray gun and get hunted by the government and some kind of weird aliens or robots, or I don’t know while dealing with there hard knock life. I really wasn’t sure how to gauge it so I’ll keep an eye out for trailers to come. May the gaming gods bring you glory..

Avengers Infinity War (2nd Opinion)

avengers 3

Well it finally happened. The new Avengers released so me and @torstenvblog planned a trip to the not quite local movie theater to see it. So with the help of a stolen ( borrowed from momma savior) car we journeyed off to see the movie. Now @torstenvblog didn’t have high hopes and truth be told while I was a bit more open-minded I expected a more solid movie I didn’t expect greatness. But how was it?

Well from the get go this doesn’t waste time getting into to. You won’t be waiting around to see Thanos or getting into the story. You will be thrown right into things, and not in a bad way. The only real draw back is that while you don’t have to see the last Thor movie or Black Panther movie for example to enjoy this one ( I did not) it truly will help and I highly recommend it. This is by no means a good spot to try to enter the MCU, but it can be done I think.

Thanos as a villain is great,I have my own theories on this one but that will be in a future post. Suffice it to say I enjoyed hating this bastard. It was also nice having a bad guy that not only wasn’t an idiot but also did things that were actually bad. He is by far my favorite villain not named Loki.

The movie isn’t perfect of course, but it was still great and Thor by far stole the show. I loved seeing Dr. Strange and and Tony Start bicker back and forth and Spidey making Alien reference this week of quite nice. Some of he CGI looked a bit off at times especially when it came to the Hulk Buster suit. @torstenvblog felt the pacing was a bet off as well but personally I enjoyed the roller coaster like ride. You can read his thoughts however for yourself . Avengers: Infinity War.

The ending is also not anything I wasn’t expecting, but they managed to do it in such a way that I didn’t care, and for me that was all that mattered. This movie should not be missed. Best wishes and may the gaming gods bring you glory.

Avengers: Infinity War

avengers 3

It’s here, the climatic finale to the past decade of building inside the MCU. I’ve been seeing reviews left and right, many calling this film spectacular and some just going meh. We aren’t ruining the film epic so no spoilers here…

Picking up after Ragnarok, Thanos has seized the remnants of the Asgardian people in space and has gone slaughtering his way through them to Thor with his badass Black Order, looking for the Tesseract. Already possessing the power stone, he makes short work of them. The only survivors are Thor and a Hulk who has been sent to Earth, crashing through the Sanctum of Dr Strange while Thor ends up meeting the Guardians of the Galaxy. The Order comes to Earth, searching for the time and mind stones while Thanos confronts the Collector to retrieve the reality stone, leaving a tragic reunion to come to the soul stone. In the End, the fate of existence as we know it comes down to a enormous war in Wakanda and a distant fight against a seemingly invincible Thanos. With the odds so hugely against them, can the Avengers last against the Mad Titan?

I absolutely loved this movie and I recommend it to all. I admit it isn’t perfect, the pacing is funky and you you damn well it’s a long movie; this IS NOT a good entry point to the MCU if you never stepped in before. The movie won me great performances that are surprisingly well shared considering the huge cast list, the effects and scale are mind-blowing, the balance between comedy and drama is well done, Josh Brolin is a great villain as Thanos, and this movie has the balls to take risks. I’m sure I’ll find other knicks in the armor but I’m pretty confident and saying I’m pleased with the result. May the gaming gods bring you glory.

 

Captain America: Civil War (Cap side) Captain America Civil War (Iron Man Side)  Doctor Strange ( 2016)  Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 (2017)  Spider-man: Homecoming Thor: Ragnarok  Black Panther  Avengers: Infinity War

Avengers: Age of Ultron

avengers 2

Avengers 2 was one of those rare movies that when the trailer dropped, I’m think the world stopped for one minute. My phone exploded with texts and calls asking me what I thought, was I pumped, who’s going to die and like 100 other questions. Did it live up to the hype?

Ultron picks up where Winter Soldier primarily ended, the Avengers closing in on perhaps the final and most crucial Hydra base containing Baron von Strucker, Loki’s scepter, and the Maximoff twins: Pietro (Quicksilver) and Wanda (Scarlet Witch). The Avengers crush Strucker’s forces but the twins cause a problem, but otherwise they were victorious. With greener pastures on the horizon and life wearing all of them down, Stark and Banner have an idea: create the ultimate Avenger so they can live normal lives again. Enter Ultron. Corrupting Jarvis and getting life from the scepter’s power, he realizes how much devastation the Avengers cause, he turns on them. Joining with the disgruntled twins, Ultron evolves and sets to destroy the Avengers and kill humanity with his ultimate creation, the vision of perfection ( wink wink) Can the Avengers stop these mounting threats as tensions rise to destroy them?

Ultron is a really good movie but it does drop the ball in some spots. The cast, effects, and general story are damn good. What kills this movie for me are the quips and forced comedy. I’ve read a few Ultron comics- Ultron is cold, angry, and sinister. When the script allows, James Spader does fantastic as Ultron but I hated the damn puns, on top of how much they bitched him down, much like a huge issue I had with X-Men: Apocalypse . I love the twins and especially Paul Bettany’s transition from Jarvis to Vision, who stole the show for the finale. I feel there was some bloating but nowhere near DC level bad. Also, as a minor grip, I wish they kept Hank Pym as the creator of Ultron instead of Tony Stark but I can get over it.  In the end, it’s a good sequel and a good movie but it had so much more potential. Below I’m giving a phase 2 watchlist as well as the trailer that had us all frantic. May the gaming gods bring you glory.

Iron Man 3 (2013)  Thor: The Dark World  Captain America: Winter Soldier  Guardians of the Galaxy (2014)  Avengers: Age of Ultron Ant-Man