Movies

Hellboy 2019

First, let me say that I am basing the 2.5 Stars score solely on the merits of this film. I am not comparing it to the other Hellboy films.

The good – faithful to the comics. A lot of the comics.

The Bad – too many storylines from the comics were used. I tihnk it would have been better to just stick with one and told that story.

The storytelling felt all over the place. Hellboy did not feel like Hellboy. He was not the Everyman coming in – he was a whiny and complaining. He jsut reacted to events and rarely felt like he was doing anything himself.

If they do go ahead with a sequel, I hope the filmmakers can work together instead of against each other (Studio interference stories do not do anything for this film).

Starring: David Harbour, Milla Jovovich, Ian McShane, Daniel Dae Kim, Sasha Lane, Penelope Mitchell, Brian Gleeson, Sophie Okonedo, Allstair Petrie, Thomas Hadden Church

Synopsis: DEMONS HAVE DEMONS TOO
Hellboy comes to England, where he must defeat Nimue, Merlin’s consort and the Blood Queen. But their battle will bring about the end of the world, a fate he desperately tries to turn away.

Avengers Endgame

I cannot be objective about this movie. At all. You get laughs, tears, the whole gamut of emotions. The screenwriters and directors manage to pay off every movie from the MCU. Every Movie. Even Thor: Dark World.

I cannot go into the opening scene. It is emotionally devastating. It is a gut punch to remind you people missing and what the remaining people are going through.

Spoilers – no Spoliers. The Avengers track down Thanos after the Snap. It does not go as well as they plan. Then we get a significant time jump. We see how the world has progressed in 5 years with half the population gone.

Ant-Man plays pretty heavily into the plot of Endgame. The Avengers prepare a Heist of epic proportions to gather the stones to undo the Snap. But like all plans, it does not survive contact with the enemy.

Along the way we get to revisit moments from all the previous MCU movies. So much character development. Every character gets their moment to shine in one way or another.

Phase 4 and Beyond are setup. But this could easily be the last MCU movie and tie everything up nicely.

I do not have just one favorite or stand out moment from the movie. But several. A lot from the final reel.

Two quotes to highlight a couple:

Thor -> “…I Knew It!”

Spider-Man -> “…Instant-Kill…”

Starring: Anyone and Everyone from previous MCU movies.

Shazam!

Shazam! was a much lighter DC movie than we have been getting.

Shazam! is the story of Billy Batson, a foster child, gaining the power to turn into a super powered adult by saying Shazam. We get the tried and true story arc of the protagonist not being heroic right away, but they grow as the movie goes on.

Shazam! takes more of a New 52 story direction for the character as opposed to his history from Fawcett comics.

Shazam has a lot of beats that are going to jump out at comic fans, but not interfere with anyone’s movie going experience. I mean, we get a Mr. Mind cameo. Mr. Mind. A tiny alien worm with a speaker box around his neck. We do get all the basics. Billy Batson. The wizard, Shazam. Mary. Freddy. Tigers. Dr. Sivana (a lot different than I recall). The Seven Deadly Sins. Etc.

The mid credits scene promises something to come in the next film or the third. The after credits scene is not needed – but was a fun addition.

Starring: Zachary Levi, Mark Strong, Asher Angel, Jack Dylan Grazer, Djimon Hounsou, Faithe Herman, Grace Fulton, Ian Chen, Jovan Armand, Marta Milans, Cooper Andrews

Synopsis:
We all have a superhero inside of us — it just takes a bit of magic to bring it out. In 14-year-old Billy Batson’s case, all he needs to do is shout out one word to transform into the adult superhero Shazam. Still a kid at heart, Shazam revels in the new version of himself by doing what any other teen would do — have fun while testing out his newfound powers. But he’ll need to master them quickly before the evil Dr. Thaddeus Sivana can get his hands on Shazam’s magical abilities.

Us 2019

Us

Seeing Us in a theater of people was a blast. As in most horror movies, the characters on screen do things that we the audience know is no good. Having various people in the crowd react was perfect. From the “no no no no”s to the “Don’t go in there!” Just a good horror movie going experience.

Us’ trailer gives too much plot away. It just does. But the idea of your evil doppelganger coming after you is powerful. Especially if it is doppelgangers of your whole family.

The scope explodes far beyond what you think.

Music plays heavily in Us. The soundtrack is good and has some entries I am not familiar with.

All the actors kill it in Us. Even the supporting players.

There is a twist that horror movie fans will see coming a mile away. But that does not detract from the movie.

Starring: Lupita Nyong’o, Winston Duke, Shahadi Wright Joseph, Evan Alex, Elisabeth Moss, Tim Heidecker, Yahya Abdul-Mateen II, Anna Diop, Cali Sheldon, Noelle Sheldon, Madison Curry, Ashley Mckoy

Synopsis: Husband and wife Gabe and Adelaide Wilson take their kids to their beach house expecting to unplug and unwind with friends. But as night descends, their serenity turns to tension and chaos when some shocking visitors arrive uninvited.

Captain Marvel

I enjoyed this movie quite a bit. The origin story is sprinkled throughout until we get the payoff near the final act.

It opens with a nice tribute to Stan Lee. His cameo, while brief, was perfect.

This movie has easter eggs galore. We get a young character who may become Photon in present day MCU. We get young Fury and Colson. We get Ronan the Accuser as well as one of his henchman introduced in Guardians of the Galaxy. The movie also plays with Fury losing his eye.

Captain Marvel has many light and funny moments.

The theater I was in was filled with adults and children. Barring one child getting upset when the skrulls were on screen, most had a blast and were cheering Carol Danvers on .

Just like GotG, the souindtrack for this movie is an amazing throwback. This time to the 90s.

Starring: Brie Larson, Samuel L. Jackson, Ben Mendelsohn, Jude Law, Annette Bening, Lashana Lynch, Clark Gregg, Rune Temte, Gemma Chan, Algenis Perez Soto, Djimon Hounsou, Lee Pace, Chuku Modu, Akira Akbar, Azari Akbar

Synopsis: The story follows Carol Danvers as she becomes one of the universe’s most powerful heroes when Earth is caught in the middle of a galactic war between two alien races. Set in the 1990s, Captain Marvel is an all-new adventure from a previously unseen period in the history of the Marvel Cinematic Universe.