Film Review : "Avengers End Game"

If you think anything you could read about Avengers :End Game “ is going to be a spoiler then you did not pay attention to the other movies. It was all foreshadowed if not outright telegraphed, Not to mention the fact that most of the characters are getting either tv shows or sequels so how much in question can the fates of Spider-man, Dr. Strange, Winter Soldier, Vision , Falcon, Scarlet Witch and Black Panther really be ? Did this movie need to be 3 hours ? No. It does drag some in some of the laboratory scenes and when everyone's is getting into their feelings about the post-snap world the movie starts off in.  Despite juggling the story-lines for the 6 original Avengers, it does stay on track, there is still plenty of fat that could have been trimmed. Perhaps it’s this fat, along with the performances of the veteran core, that hides the fact plot which has less surprises than plot line of your average video game that is high on the quest mode.

If you had not read the comics then I am sure the ending of the last movie seemed like a cliffhanger. This all culminates here, the final fruits of the movies picking and choosing what parts of mainstream continuity and the ultimate universe they want to pick from , we see how if they had stuck closer to the source material they would not have to jump the shark so hard. So without characters like the Sliver Surfer and Adam Warlock we are left with Stark having to do a bunch of tinkering and coming up with “Legends of Tomorrow “ like narrative. None of which is really spoiler heavy if you have already seen the movies they revisit. You are going to regret not seeing Dr. Strange.

While it does get mired down in sentiment it is the sense of humor that helps balance the pace and once they get on their respective missions, the movie is certainly fun. It focuses largely on the 3 core members  Cap, Thor and Stark. This makes sense as they have been the 3 who have held up their own trilogy of films .All the actors from the first film have really settled into their roles so it’s hard to not see them s these characters. I think Paul Rudd once again steals the show with conviction, so I am hoping they make an Ant-man 3. There are plenty of mis steps that are balanced out by the heart of the performances. The big cgi battle at the end feels a kid just dumped all their action figures on their bed to see what would happen.

One thing I do like about this movies is it is aimed at the fans who have stuck by these movies and not the fair weather fans only there for the diversity marketing in fact  Black Panther only gets a few passing glances and Captain Marvel get much less screen time than most predicted. . While there are easter eggs at the end that give nods to certain shifts in the comics, since they were largely short lived when b - list characters proved unable to support their own series, I can see this transitioning into another Avengers movie , though he next Spider Man movie it is going to be a rough ride for Marvel until they are able to dust off the Fantastic Four and the X-men.

Film Review : "Shazam"

As a kid I was more into D/C characters than I am now, though even then I preferred Marvel. So while I have an appreciation for Captain Marvel, who we are now back to referring as Shazam, despite the fact he came before Carol Danvers, I don't have an emotional investment in the character. In fact before Kelly Sue DeConnick began to write her. In the battle of the two Captain Marvel movies I will go ahead and say that this one wins. I think what puts this movie over the caped shoulders of most D/C movies is the tone stands out. While Aqua-man, tried to add a bit of levity to things, this movie does a better job of that. Does it at time wear out it's welcome with the "Big" inspired jokes, somewhat though it does directly wink at this fact. I think it succeeds in the same way Guardians of the Galaxy did for Marvel movies.

It falls into a few tired superhero tropes, with a villain who is an inverse mirror image of the hero. Not that he has as deep of a rogues gallery as Bat-man or Super-Man. I also think bringing in the whole Marvel family was jumping the shark a bit. I get that it is a part of his mythology, but it turned the end of the movie in one of the typical D/C cgi fests that seems to be a reoccurring problem for the post -Nolan films. The bulk of the movie was fun and made the most out of the fact it was an origin story. While I normally dislike origin movies, I think the fact the story of Billy meets the Wizard has not been told a half dozen times helps.

The 7 Deadly Sins felt like monsters from Ghostbusters, but once again the tone of the film made this work. As far as D/C goes I think this movie was much better than Aqua-Man. It stands shoulder to shoulder with Wonder Woman , and perhaps a little better since aside from the Little Rascals elements it comes closer to the comic books. If you are a fan of the comic book, then you are going to feel the same way I felt about the Dr. Strange movie. It did the best it could given the medium being used to tell the story in this day and age. In fact Shazam needed an origin more than Dr. Strange did. The acting is better than bulk of the post- Nolan films and I think it could set the tone for movies to come if D/C is smart..