Captain Marvel: Review
By Paul Anthony
D.C. first big hit was Wonder Woman for their DCEU and Ironically enough Marvel released their first woman led heroine film. Which marks the first film for Marvel Studios. Let’s disregard the Marvel film Elektra since it was a Fox’s film which completely bombed and in my eyes hurt the heroine genre but now we know things have changed since then.
We knew going into Avengers: EndGame that Captain Marvel would be the X-factor to fight Thanos, well at least that is what marvel seems to be making us believe. If that is truly the case which I believe is the case, they needed to build her up, which would make sense to have her film come out way beforehand instead of 7 weeks before Endgame. With that being said they needed this film to be good and lets say Marvel didn’t disappoint us.
Like many first movies in what will be a series, it was a origin movie of sorts. This may be played out, so Marvel had to make it interesting and they did exactly that. We get carol with her powers already and on the StarForce team, what we don’t see how she got her powers and joined the team. This created a little of a Mystery which helped the plot of the film. Now instead of wasting a whole film they made it into one scene it worked out well.
The acting was on par with the other Marvel film, they do a great job with casting, Brie Larson fits the mold and made the role all hers. She spent time getting into the shape and with the sarcasm and good heart it felt different but she wasn’t the only cast member to stand out, we had Samuel L. Jackson as a young Fury and Jude law and let’s not forget a rookie Agent Coulson played by Clark Gregg.
As I watched this film it did feel like Captain Marvel and Captain America were the same person and film both were weak but had the will to keep fighting the good fight and in the end the hard work paid off. If Captain Marvel is the X-Factor this film needed to show her off what she is fully capable of. They exactly did that, from the start she was not afraid of using her powers and as the movie went on she only got stronger and more confident. The effects for her power was spot on and even the hand to hand combat was good.
We knew this movie was going to be a hit and barely a week in the movie has gross over 450 million dollars and the numbers will continue to go up though April is looking like a tough month, so the film will need to make its money this month. In the end I am giving it four stars and recommend everyone to go see it!
Battle of the Trailers!
By Paul Anthony
We always hit the weeks where trailers come out and get us excited for movies to come out. Those movie trailers can sometimes hurt the films as we know and there are times where the trailers show too little or show too much. Among the trailers that did come out two really caught my attention and in today’s blog i am going to look at two movie trailers and those two trailers the first Avengers: Endgame trailer and the Godzilla: King of Monsters trailer. We first look at the Avengers one since after all let’s be honest we are dying for this movie to happen.
Trailers are meant to get us excited for a movie but some movies don’t even need a trailer, one of those movies are Avengers: Endgame. We been excited for this movie since the post credit scene ended in Infinity War. This movie gave us the new title and showed the aftermath of the snap of the finger from Thanos. We see Iron Man floating in an aircraft running out of food and water and now oxygen, we see Thor mourning the loss of maybe his friends and Loki. We get to see a much different looking Hawkeye who most likely lost his family and Captain America forming a plan of attack. Then it ends with Ant-Man at the front door waiting to get in at the Avengers headquarters in his goofy matter.
The trailer got us even more pumped and to think this movie is only four months away we don’t even need another trailer. The only thing that i wish they would have added was maybe a scene with Thanos enjoying life to get an idea of what he actually been up to. Had they added this into this trailer I would have been perfectly fine with it. I am guessing we will get a second trailer during the superbowl ads, so stay tune.
The other trailer that I mention was Godzilla: King of Monsters trailer. For years we have been craving for a Godzilla franchise and in 2014 we finally got it and even have a Monsterverse going on with Godzilla meeting with King Kong. But it’s been five years and the delay may have caused the hype to die down. When the trailers came out I am have to admit I didnt get excited for, the latest trailer was released and I believe it gave away a little too much, judging by the trailer and Movie title Godzilla going to be fighting every monster pretty much and trailer shows that. Which in my mind is just too much and could hurt the film. We know from experiance when you pack too much into a film it always end up being a failure but that will be determine once the film comes out.
Regardless of the trailers, it doesn’t mean these films will be good or bad though, we all know which film will crush the box office and which one might turn a profit. Either way 2019 looking like a great box office year!
Venom a great sleeper hit of the fall!
By Paul Anthony
Sony made a deal with Marvel a few years ago, so that Spider-man could be a part of the MCU. Now we all remember why they did this deal and when I say them I mean Sony. Back in 2002, they released Spider-Man and it became a big hit for them. Just two years later they released Spider-Man 2 which became one of the best comic book films of all time even today it’s still regarded as one of the best still. The critics loved it and so did the fans, money wise it was very good but fell short of making more then the first film but it didn’t need to which is rare but in 2007 Sony released Spider-Man 3, film was a hit but fans and critics couldn’t stand it. Even though it made nearly 900 million, it killed the franchise and forced Sony to reboot the series.
2012 saw Sony release The Amazing Spider-Man, all seem to be good again until they release Amazing Spider-Man 2 and they made the same mistakes they did in Spider-Man 3 which lead to them going to marvel and seeking help. The Deal has been going great so far for both parties. Sony however deep inside and won’t admit that their pride got crushed so they needed to rebound. Since Amazing Spider-Man 2, Sony has been trying to plan a series of films revolving around his villains but could they pull it off. Venom made the most sense.
Venom has and will always be fan favorite, so it made the most sense with him. Not only that, he does have story arcs of him being a hero or at least trying and they wanted another crack at the venom character because the last time we saw venom, well you remember how that went. But could they pull this film off without Spider-Man? Well of course they can. Venom has plenty of source material to pick from. They needed to get it right though or else their plans will once again go down the drain. Now I went to go see the film and I enjoyed it and thought they did enough right to make a Venom part two. The film could have been better, I’m not denying it needs to be better. With a 100 million budget and most of it going to effects, I was blown away from the money it has made so far.
Venom has cracked the top 5 highest grossing films of 2018 already, now that is a shocker when you think about it because we had films like Avengers: Infinity War, Black Panther, Jurassic World 2, incredibles 2, Mission Impossible, Deadpool 2, Ant-Man 2, Ready one player and Operation Red Sea. It’s even funnier when you think Venom out performed DeadPool 2. Once again though the foreign box office did save this film and here are the stats to back up what I am saying.
Here in the States the film made 211 million so far which counts for only 25 percent of its total gross meanwhile at the foreign box office it grossed 611 million which comes out to around 75 percent of its gross. It did do great for its opening weekend here at 80 million and China with 111 million.
Did Sony see this happening? I’m thinking not but now can they continue this? That is something I am not sure about since their track record says other wise. We now know Tom Hardy is signed onto 2 more films. I now hope they can learn from their mistakes and make Venom 2 even better and get this film series going.
Can Bill Maher please shut up
By Paul Anthony
If you follow Bill Maher, you will know he’s the biggest trash talker there is, who pretty much thinks hes a rottweiler when in reality he is nothing more then a chihuahua, that needs to be kicked. I’m not saying i was a fan but I would watch him from time to time when there was nothing else to watch. But now I see this man decides to hit an all time low.
We all know Stan Lee passed away earlier this month, at the age of 95. Here is will Bill decides to show his colors, by taking cheap shots at both Stan Lee’s legacy and his fans who are mourning. In what would be the worse time to say anything regarding someone passing, he decides to blast fans “who are in deep deep mourning over a guy who simply inspired millions to see a movie” he also went on to blast people by saying people need to grow up and read books without pictures. I must say Bill you are truly an idiot and I would love to say it to his face. Bill is in his 60’s and his career is winding down and i believe he likes to say stupid stuff like this to get a reaction to keep his career going. Because he knows his legacy is never going to be on the same level as Stan Lee.
Bill would go on once again blasting people who blast him for his comments by saying more dumb stuff and that dumb stuff is the backlash only proves his point. Oh Man, let me take a breath for second, no people who are going after him don’t prove his point, and I am sure he’s going to say something like reading comics make you dumb, no Bill listening to you will make people dumb. When people make remarks like that, it is clear as day they know they are wrong but in some people nature they can never admit that they are wrong.
Now I am not saying Stan Lee created literature atleast according to rules comics aren’t literature. However what Stan lee work did do was inspire people to read aqnd believe in themselves. Marvel heroes and villains are famous for having flaws but it taught people that you can have falws but still do good in life. Those people that read those comics did move onto books without pictures and as for those movies, No, Stan Lee didn’t make those films, these movies bring people back to a fun time in their life and that’s why they are hits with fans.
To prove a point here regarding his comments, president Obama who a lot of people regard as one of the better presidents even said Bill was wrong for that. In the end people are allowed to mourn for whoever they want and for reasons they will only know, but this doesn’t mean it’s okay for a never was like Bill Maher to put his two cents in this subject and just let people mourn. So Please Bill will you just shut up!
The Fall of MoviePass
By Paul Anthony
When things seem to be too good to be true then they probably aren’t true and that is the case with MoviePass. I have to admit I always wanted to try MoviePass since it seemed to be a good deal for someone who loves a lot movies like I do but for the actually service review check out the blog by Justin, this blog is going to be about how this once great idea is now failing and I would be shocked to see if it is still around by next summer.
In 2011 they came with this idea and took years to catch on, the plan was simple, it was 15 dollars a month and you see any move you wanted, one film per day. Then they decided last fall to drop the price and people jumped on board, they went from 20,000 subscribers to two million in just a few weeks, business was booming but a lot of good things always come to an end and this is the start.
Recently they annouced that the prices would be going up which wouldn’t hurt anyone then they had a blackout and noone could see anything and the reason behind this blackout? well they ran out of money and needed a loan, so now they are in debt which never a good thing. Now they are forgiving custombers who owe them money, basically giving everyone a clean slate. When the blackout ended there was no doubt they needed a better plan and forgiving people isn’t it. When they cameback, their new plan is only three movies per month for 15 dollars and certain films for example any summer block buster. You will have pay a fee or wait for the film to be in only 1000 theaters which could be weeks. Now if you are a movie nerd this where you will most likely will jump off the band wagon because you are not going to wait weeks to see a movie you wanted to see badly.
If you can handle the delay then good for you and still three standard screen movies is a deal but this plan shoud have been their plan to begin with and then they would have actually made a profit. I will explain, this plan eliminates the hardcore movie fans now its aimmed at people who might only go to like two movies a month during bargain days just to get out of the house and right there you could easily make 5 dollars a month in profit right there and over time that adds up but they are doing this now but the problem is it’s just too late and they are in debt and most likely lose some customers.
It’s not rocket science this could hurt them and as I stated I don’t see them making it passed next summer.
Solo Oh No!
By Paul Anthony
Could it be? No it can’t be, Right? did we just witness our first Star Wars fail? As much of a shocker, we aren’t talking about episodes one through three, instead we are talking the most recently film Solo: A Star Wars story. Now at the time of this blog the movie has made 260 million worldwide and still currently is the number one film which, they will try to promote it as just that to get more people to come but with the drop its having in its second week its now pretty clear its a flop.
First lets discuss the numbers as i said before the movie has made 260 million worldwide so far and the budget was 250 million now when you look at those two numbers you think hey just in the second week it has already made a profit but when a movies has that type budget they looking to make at least 800 million and that is the low point, honestly this movie won’t make anywhere near that. In it’s second week it dropped 66 percent and for the domestic total for the second week it only brought in 30 million so the crowds are done flocking out to see it. It will only get worse for the numbers because from this point June is loaded.
Now we must wonder why this film didn’t do well and I may have the answers. Fatigue, yes this can happen to any fan base and Star Wars does not get a pass here. Disney got cocky here, just after releasing the Last Jedi just 6 months ago they decided to release another film which makes four films in four years, that is a little overboard when the franchise stayed quiet for over a decade. Clearly Disney needs to slow down. Next is the month Now we know Disney owns marvel and Star Wars and is trying to buy Fox so in theory they pretty much owned the month of May in 2018 but Deadpool 2 and Avengers: Infinity War was just too much for a film that had nothing to do with the main Saga. The fans, look just because a few people like idea of a spin off doesn’t mean everyone does and then you add in the fact that before Han Solo doesn’t really have much of a story to tell, the character became so popular simply because of who played him and not the character himself. Which is our last reason the story, we know who solo was but did we really clear? No we never did so the story didn’t add much to anything to the franchise and that also hurt it.
Now Disney has the money to take this lost and and just move on and i would be shocked if this even changed their plans moving forward. Its going to take for movie fails to realize that they messed up from somewhere. So fans get over this and get ready for Episode 9 which is the end of this current run that they are on with the main saga.
Justice league Debacle
By Paul Anthony
How bad can it be? I am sure D.C. and Warner Brothers kept asking themselves when they saw the numbers for Justice League. There were rumors that they wanted to have a better opening than Thor which they failed to even come close to the numbers Thor has put up and at this point they were even hoping to be on Par with Batman V Superman, which they aren’t even close and what the saddest part is, Batman V Superman is probably the worse movie in the DCEU, yet it is the highest grossing film of the franchise. Justice league had a 300-million-dollar budget which doesn’t include the money they spent on marketing and the film has only grossed 570 million worldwide, sure it has only been out for a few weeks but each week the numbers keep dropping and Star Wars is just right around the corner, this might as well end up a big flop for warner brothers.
So, what happen? Well the problem has been mostly behind the camera, with Zach Snyder being in charges things were doomed to begin with, he wasn’t the right choice to lead this franchise and catch up to Marvel, finally Zach left the project because of family reasons which may have been a cover up because shortly after that Warner Bros basically fired him shortly after that, then they brought in Joss Whedon, which they saw the success he had with Marvel why not, so bring in the reshoots and script changes, the situation seems like the one Fox had with Fantastic Four. Joss did his best but the damage has been done. Then you add in the fact that Ben Affleck keeps jumping ship and showing signs, he might want to bail because this franchise is just a mess and it is clear as day this isn’t working. Are fans getting sick of him after like three movies? I sure would be sick of it.
The final version that we saw at the theaters wasn’t bad and was much better than Batman V Superman, The story was okay at best but there was too much CGI, the acting was alright but there was no real character development. But the action better. So with that being sad we are here wondering, what happen!
Warner bros have a plan B case Affleck wants to bail, the rumor is if Justice league flops, then they are doing the Flash point storyline in the Flash which changes everything even characters. I believe before they focus on another film, they might want to get everything situated behind the scenes and write a good script and get everyone on board for the long term build everything up the right way. There is hope with the Wonder Woman series which seems to be the only film they have going for them.
Thor: Ragnarok Review
By Paul Anthony
We are now 9 years deep in the MCU and to this day Marvel studios has yet to have a dud, the closes we gotten to a failure would Thor: The Dark World which still made money but the bright spot was a Villain, who is a fan favorite that pretty stole each scene that he was in. That person is of course being Loki played by Tom Hiddleston. The series hasn’t been the strongest which is understandable because it has to do with mythology, which is difficult to mix in with science but Marvel did it. Now let’s move on from The Dark World and three years later we get Thor: Ragnarok, which is a complete 360 from The Dark World.
In this film, it’s truly a fun space Adventure, they are only on earth for maybe 5 minutes of the entire film, now let’s touch on something that is different from the previous Thor films and I am talking about the comedy. In the previous films we did have a bunch of punch lines but nothing like we have in this film. For the first time in the entire series there is comedy from the beginning to the end. In the first film when he arrived on earth the comedy made sense since he was so new to earth, we seen the comedy in the Avengers films. So why did Thor bring the laughs? Well Chris Hemsworth showed he can make people laugh, just watch Ghostbusters and Vacation, so why not cut him loose and show us what he got and sure enough he brought the laughs but he wasn’t the only one, we got laughs from the Hulk and the grandmaster as well as Korg.
The comedy wasn’t the lone bright spots, Jeff Goldblum played a brilliant Grandmaster with his wits and his comedy and Cate Blanchett and Anthony Hopkins, all were brilliant in their roles. The music was good as well which was important because if music off so is the flow of the film. Now I am going to combine the action and graphics because in this case it goes hand and hand. With Disney’s money, you know the graphics are the best and the fight scenes aren’t bad we are starting to see Thor’s true power yet we didn’t see that much but I am sure we will see his full strength in the infinity war that is coming up next year. With I am giving it 4.5 stars. Why not 5? Well to be honest as much as I think this movie was great, it didn’t feel like a Thor movie instead I felt like I was watching another Guardians of the galaxy film which isn’t a bad thing but it just didn’t feel original.
Now the film will be facing real competition in the weeks to follow with Justice League and the of course Star Wars but for now I highly recommend seeing this film!
Bye Netflix
By Paul Anthony
Who doesn’t have Netflix these days, right? I know I love Netflix, their online content may be small compared to their DVD collection, now many have noticed that there are more Disney owned films showed up on Netflix. I remember when I saw Captain America: Civil War on there, little did I know, 2016 was the first year Disney and Netflix began an awesome partnership. However, we all know that all good things must end and sure enough this partnership might be ending as fast as it begun because last week Disney dropped a Bombshell and they announced they are pulling their films at the end of 2019.
When they announced that which was only the beginning, they announced from that point on that they would have their own streaming service, of course it comes with a monthly fee just like Netflix has. Now at this point we are to believe it’s just their movies but then it was reported that Netflix was trying to keep the Disney owned shows, now at this point we don’t know what will happen to the marvel Netflix shows, I assume those are safe since Netflix help co-produce them and has been a big hit for both parties.
If the shows go to this will be a big blow to Netflix, if you just think about all that Disney owns, the classic movies, the new movies, the hits from Pixar and Marvel and even Star Wars are just few things Disney owns and makes billions from. This could be the start of more film studios doing the same and that would pretty doom Netflix the same way they doomed video stores.
If Netflix manages to keeps Disney owned shows, the hit wouldn’t be such a death blow, for now that is. This partnership was short lived one, total of three years to be an exact.
I doubt there is anything Netflix can say or to do to bargain with Disney because they hold all the chips, they know that with starting their streaming service people will buy into and that is a fact, Netflix has nothing to change Disney’s mind about doing this.
We still have a few more years left to see all our favorite movies and T.V shows. Pricing has yet to be determined but my best guess is it will be around 9.99 for the basic package and more for the better plans, so for now enjoy your Disney stuff that is on Netflix.
Star Wars Movie Debate
By Paul Anthony
Last week Disney announced a new Star Wars film and much to my disappointment it wasn’t the film I was expecting. They announced Obi-Wan Kenobi story, yes let’s watch a movie about a jedi whose greatest battle and victory came when he defeated a young Darth Vader and basically put him in his black suit that he is now famous for.
Now it may seem like I am hating on this famous character but the truth is I am not, I adore the character but the truth is the character’s story ends basically after his battle with Darth Vader and he basically does nothing until the events of New Hope takes place, so why give him a full movie? I was asking myself that question and sure he’s a popular character but there are more popular characters that have better stories to tell, just look no further then Darth Vader himself.
Vader, not Anakin story begins with the lost to Obi-Wan, a good movie would be seeing how he had to learn to rebuild himself and he’s fighting and lightsaber styles and his missions that he was sent on. I do believe we will get this film or films one day, but instead they announced this film.
I can deal with a Han Solo film because we know there are stories to and adventures to go on, we know Han wasn’t a kid in New Hope. Obi-Wan a different case though, he’s adventures basically end once Luke is born.
I am sure they will give him something to do before the film comes out, to justify this film. If the story makes sense, no doubt I will support it, after all I am a big fan of Star Wars, I Just believe a Darth Vader film should come first.
The best part of Rogue One was the scenes where Darth Vader was in them. From him in his healing tank which is where he was at his weakest to him killing those rebels and showing us why people feared him.
We know the rumors are there about there being a Boba Fett film and even a Yoda film. I am okay with a Yoda movie but not a Boba fett film, he had what like twenty minutes of total screen time in all the films. I get it we all want spin-offs but the truth is not every character needs or deserves one, this does go for Obi-Wan.
I know this won’t change Disney’s mind, they are going to keep making films with all the properties they own. At this point we really don’t know much about this film except that it is coming, this film could be years away, we will just have to wait and see.
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