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Captain Marvel
For some reason, Captain Marvel didn’t inhabit the Marvel Universe that I grew up with, so she is a new character to me. I liked her. I enjoyed her film. I know the film won’t be seen as a masterpiece in years to come, but will be remembered as an important link in the build-up to Endgame. But still. Offspring said it was the best Marvel film he’d seen - certainly better than Black Panther - and while I don’t 100% agree with the former, I do agree with the latter. It’s a good romp; the build-up of CM’s powers is taken at a steady rate; there are some nice twists, at least one of which I didn’t see coming. So even if you are not a Marvel nerd, you should enjoy this film. A spoiler at the start of the credits gives a strong link to Endgame, too. How can you afford to miss that?
Avengers Infinity War
Well, I love watching Avengers films, because I grew up reading all about them in comics (and the X Men too, as it happens). So to see all my boyhood superheroes cavorting about on the big screen is great fun. I thought Infinity War was great fun. Lots going on, and THE unexpected end. My only grouse is that Thanos didn’t look real. Yeah, I hear you say, like all the others do? Well, you know what I mean. He just looked a bit... rubbery. And not evil enough. Oh well, actions speak louder than appearances, maybe. Go see it, even if you are not at heart an Avengers fan. Not long now, because of my tardy posting, before Endgame comes out. Really looking forward to that, too.
Black Panther
I enjoyed Black Panther, but didn’t think it was worth quite the hype that surrounded it. Even allowing for the fact that it’s a superhero jaunt, some of the action was unlikely (whatshisname shooting down the escaping planes, for example), and some of the special effects looked as if they came straight out of Dr Who. The plot was okay, nothing special; ditto the dialogue. I didn’t feel any of the main characters were in real danger, even though there were baddies aplenty. I felt it was a little superficial; pop-corn adventure but not in my view worth any Oscars. Still, if you have a spare evening and the dvd is hovering nearby, I expect you will find it an easy enough way to fill a couple of hours.
Ant Man and the Wasp
I remember we enjoyed Ant Man when it came out, and reviews suggested that this latest iteration was just as enjoyable. They aren’t wrong. This is a jolly good romp, with lots of humour thrown in. The special effects aren’t overdone, and the plot is just the right side of too simple but not overly complicated either. Dylan and I saw this with my other half who famously doesn’t often go to see ‘boy films’ - but she enjoyed this one - and Guo Guo, Ivy’s nephew (who speaks little English but was thoroughly entertained nonetheless). With such an eclectic mix of viewers all giving Ant Man and the Wasp the thumbs up, what are you waiting for?
Incredibles 2
I thought #1 was good, and half expected #2 to be a bit of a let down. Not a bit of it. Particularly if you have (or have had) a young family, you’ll recognise the stresses and strains Mr Incredible goes through as he looks after his own kids, even if he has superpowers. They do to, so it’s the same family conflicts only up a notch or two. The action is great fun. The plot has a slight twist in it which I confess I didn’t quite see coming. It’s a good film. Watch it.
Justice League
I got this on DVD because when this film did the cinema rounds it got poor reviews. But you never know... The reviews were right. This is an awful film, a blot on the history of superhero movies. There’s too much wrong with it to try to attempt a meaningful critique here. Steer clear.
Bladerunner 2049
Some of the Big Children were back at the weekend, so I took the opportunity of arranging a trip to the Odeon to see Bladerunner 2049. There’s been a lot of hype and a lot of positive reviews of this film. So did it live up to it all? In my opinion, yes. It’s quite complex, but the plot hangs together. The visuals are brilliant - stunning in places - and most of the action, especially towards the end, is brutally and efficiently shown. All the characters are realistic, especially the main character. The soundtrack was spot on... ... what else to say? Go and watch it.
Bladerunner (1982)
Bladerunner 2049 is getting rave reviews, so I thought I’d better watch a Blu-ray version of the 1982 film to remind myself of exactly what happened way back then. I thought the original film would seem outdated and the special effects positively laughable, but I was pleasantly surprised. The special effects aren’t laughable. True, they focus in on shots of flying vehicles against a huge metropolitan landscape - commonplace nowadays, but it’s easy to forget that this was ground-breaking at the time. Those shots still look good. The film itself was still very watchable. I was surprised by how much I remembered of it, given that I saw it 35 years ago. It’s perhaps a little slow by today’s standards... but then, I think some of today’s films could do with a bit of slowing down. In fact my only real criticism of the film was the tiny bit about the chess game - ludicrously unrealistic. They should have hired a proper chess master to manage that bit. But apart from that, it was still a good film. Great in its day, still good now.
IT
IT is one of the best books I have ever read (see book reviews) so I went to see the film adaptation with some trepidation. I also went with trepidation because my other half came with me, and she is no aficionado of horror stories. I needn’t have worried. The film is not too horrible, but there are plenty of scary bits. My other half didn’t fall asleep, so she wasn’t bored. The character development is very well done, and the film followed the plot of the book very closely. Most of the characters were just as I imagined them, and the whole thing was splendid. About 4/5 of the way through, the screen went blank. The sound was still audible, though, and it sounded as if lots was happening. Shrieks and grunts and snarling, and meaningful silences. But no picture. I went out to find someone and we eventually discovered that the projector had overheated. We all had to troop to another screen to see the end of the film, so we didn’t get home until almost midnight. But it was worth it. There’s a Part 2 coming sometime, and we’ll want to watch that too.
Wonder Woman
The other half, smallish boy and I went to see this at our local cinema in Ayr and for a change there were actually other people in there with us. I think I can safely say that we all enjoyed it. Wonder Woman benefits from being well paced and having something of a plot, which many other action-dominated films overlook in their efforts to bring bigger, scarier special effects to the screen. Wonder Woman starts off quite slowly (though not boringly), and builds up the main character(s) rather well. The baddies are suitably bad, and WW’s failure to understand the real world when she gets out there is nicely portrayed. Gripes? Well, only that in my opinion WW ends up being just too wonderful and too powerful. That’s not really a spoiler: everyone knows that these films head into an action-packed finale. It’s a bit hard to see where she goes next (apart from the Justice League, of course), but no doubt Hollywood will find a way. Do I recommend it? Yes; if you enjoy the superhero genre, this has a lot going for it.