Endgame

Captain Marvel

Thoughts on Solo

I saw Solo this weekend and was pleasantly surprised. A two word review: "Surprisingly worthwhile." A few other thoughts:

-Some people complain this movie isn't necessary. What Star Wars movie after the first three has been?

-I've disliked some of the Disney Star Wars movies for trampling over the former stories, now discarded, in books and comics that I grew up with. Solo's origin trilogy sucked though, so no complaints here.

-The main thing for me is that there's very little to be annoyed with in this movie, and nothing that makes me want to scream at the screen like Rogue One and The Last Jedi (man, I HATE that movie).

-Alden Ehrenreich does a good job as the title character. He doesn't do a Harrison Ford impression but is definitely making an effort to be like Ford. I was quite satisfied.

-Lando is a lot of fun and could have used more screen time.

-There's a cool cameo near the end of the film.

-Shockingly, I would be up for a sequel, especially if Han and Lando had an adventure together.

Thoughts on Infinity War

It's hard to say too much about this movie without spoilers so this might be short and vague.

-One you need to know: This movie isn't a full story. If you remember, early on the plan was to film Avengers 3 and 4 together. When it was decided not to do that Marvel emphasized the idea that this wasn't necessarily one continuous story. That may have done a disservice to fan expectations, though it's probably technically true. This movie is very much like a jaw-dropping season finale that ends with a cliffhanger and leaves you desperate for the next season to start, so set your expectations appropriately.

-I've seen reviewers write that this movie is pretty demanding of fans as far as expecting you to know things. That's reasonably true. If you haven't seen Ragnarok, Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2, Civil War, and Black Panther you're probably going to be slightly confused along the way.

-This movie should be called Thanos because he owns it, he's basically the protagonist and gets the most screen time. The CGI is really impressive and makes him into a character, not an effect. Josh Brolin said the other day when someone asked him which character he preferred playing, Thanos or Cable, he said Thanos because he was so amazed that you could see his performance in this hulking purple monster. It's amazing, and well worth the years of build up. As hard as it is to believe he's almost sympathetic. Some people complain about Marvel villains, they won't get any more ammunition from this movie.

-The interactions between the different sets of characters is a lot of fun and everything I hoped for. The only drawback is there's not more of it. The characters are also very consistent with their past appearances, especially the Guardians who feel like they stepped out of their own movie.

-The movie has a 2 hour and 40 min runtime and it flies by. That does mean you may want to take it easy on the soda though.

-There were a lot of young children in the showing I went to. While this isn't any more violent than other Marvel movies it feels more intense. I definitely wouldn't bring kids.

-That said, the movie is still very funny at times. There were a few lines that had the audience laughing so hard I couldn't hear the next line of dialogue.

-There are also more emotional scenes than in any other Marvel movie I can think of. There's one in particular between Thor and Rocket that brought everyone to tears and is the best thing Chris Hemsworth has ever done, it also makes up for the humor undercutting the drama in Ragnarok.

-There's no mid-credit scene and one post-credit scene. It does help set up the next movie a little, but unless you're reasonably familiar with the comics it won't mean much to you. So, basically, if you feel like you need to get out of the theater, go ahead because you might not understand it anyway.

-As usual, this will require a rewatch or two to determine my final ranking but it's hard to imagine putting it below any other Marvel movie, but it's such an achievement it's difficult to think of it as just a movie.

"We are Venom."

Perfectly Balanced

Venom

 This movie is ill-conceived as it's a dumb idea to make a Venom movie independent of his relationship with Spider-Man but at least Tom Hardy might make it an interesting failure.

Solo

 Well, this is... interesting. It's hard to deliver a satisfying origin story for a character like Han Solo and the novels published years ago that tried to do it failed miserably. Can this movie do better?

Infinity War

Ant-Man and the Wasp

??

Is anyone even less enthused about the college football championship now that it's two SEC teams? I watched part of one game in the first round because I was in an airport, this time I will actively avoid it and root for horrible ratings.