One of my favorite Instagram movie accounts, Old Hollywood Swoon, recently has been ranking various groupings of movies. Movies in a franchise, or by a director, etc. I have really enjoyed those posts, and they reminded me of when I ranked all of the Alan Ladd movies I had seen by order of favoriteness. And I thought, why not do more posts like that?
So, I will. Beginning with the Marvel Cinematic Universe, because I have been re-watching those movies slowly with my teens over the past few months.
Just to be clear: for me, the MCU ends with The Avengers: Endgame (2019). I watched a couple of movies and Disney+ shows that take place after it and did not like them or where the franchise was heading, so I decided to just stop there. For me, this is the MCU. I'm not dissing the later movies, especially since I haven't seen most of them. But this list won't include later movies and the TV shows.
I haven't reviewed all of these movies, but the ones I've reviewed have their titles linked to my reviews.
It's been seven years since I shared my original list of favorite superhero movies. A lot of water, most of it flowing from the MCU, has washed under the bridge since then, and it is high time I updated this list.
As always, this is a list of my favorites, not necessarily what I consider to be the best movies in this genre. These are the ones I pull off my shelves to watch again and again. You'll notice that none of the heavy films are on here, because while I appreciate really serious superhero stories too, they tend not to become my favorites.
Six super-talented people assemble to save the world from Loki's (Tom Hiddleston) desire to show Thor (Chris Hemsworth) he can be cool too. This is everything I want a superhero movie to be.
Wolverine (Hugh Jackman) travels to the past to save the future. It's got all my beloved X-men in it, sometimes two versions of them, which is unbelievably awesome. Words truly can't describe how deeply I love it.
Professor X (Patrick Stewart), Magneto (Ian McKellen), and their followers join forces to keep William Stryker (Brian Cox) from destroying all mutants. Until I saw The Avengers, I thought this was what a perfect superhero movie looked like. It's still magnificent.
Thor (Chris Hemsworth), Loki (Tom Hiddleston), the Hulk/Bruce Banner (Mark Ruffalo), and new pal Valkyrie (Tessa Thompson) work together to get off a wacky planet ruled by Jeff Goldblum (Jeff Goldblum) so they can stop Hela (Cate Blanchett) from taking over the Nine Realms and unleashing murder and mayhem, etc.
5. X-Men (2000)
The X-Men help wandering mutant Wolverine (Hugh Jackman) rescue Rogue (Anna Paquin) from Impending Doom. The kick-off for modern superhero movies -- we owe so much to this one!
Everything sad comes untrue, and then other sad things do happen, but the Avengers find peace for the universe and themselves, and I am so, so, so happy with how this movie wraps everything up that I am considering not moving forward in the MCU timeline. I'm happy where I am, right here.
Wolverine (Hugh Jackman) squares off against his half-brother Sabretooth (Liev Schreiber) and a younger Stryker (Danny Huston this time), and gains his adamantium skeleton in the process. This is the origin story for Wolverine I always wanted and finally got.
A woman (Brie Larson) learns the truth about her identity and sets about undoing all manner of injustices she was an unwitting part of. It's remarkably fun and upbeat for having such deep themes.
Spoiled young god Thor (Chris Hemsworth) is banished to earth, where he meets and falls in love with a lovely scientist (Natalie Portman) and battles to protect earth from his brother Loki (Tom Hiddleston).
Genius-billionaire-playboy-philanthropist Tony Stark (Robert Downey, Jr.) escapes from kidnaptivity and hunts down the people who kidnapped him. And builds a really cool flying suit that shoots stuff.
I love SO MANY other superhero movies too, and it feels wrong to leave some of them off here, but my series is Ten Favorites, not Fourteen favorites or Twenty Favorites, so... I'll just have to stop here.
Eva Schon of Coffee, Classics, and Craziness tagged me for this, and I love nattering about pretend people, so here goes! Because this is my movie blog, I'm going to stick with movie and TV characters, mmkay? Just to make it easier on myself, as I adore far too many fictional characters across all platforms (books, movies, TV shows, radio shows...) for this to work otherwise.
RULES:
Answer every question honestly. (duh.)
Use as many gifs and images as possible.
Incorporate at least one YouTube video with a favorite scene of a character.
NO VAGUE ANSWERS ALLOWED. Explain why you chose that favorite character to fit that description. I love details, my friends.
If you can’t choose just one, that’s okay – give us a few answers and geek out if that’s what it takes.
Tag at least 3 people.
Use fictional characters from any fictional story.
If you get nominated and/or decide to participate in this tag, please put a link back to this original post in your post and credit yours truly as the creator.
Have fun and obsess over fictional characters!
This says use as many gifs as possible. Challenge accepted.
I'm going to use Alan Ladd gifs everywhere.
Chew on that for a bit, why dontcha?
Goody-two-shoes: A character who was just so morally good
Mwahaha! I know exactly the perfect character for this. She even gets called "Goody-Two-Shoes" several times in the film.
I'm talking about Catherine Freno (Leslie Caron) in Father Goose (1964). She's an unmarried woman trying to get a bunch of scared schoolgirls to safety through enemy-occupied territory during WWII. Hooch-swilling Walter Eckland (Cary Grant) pegs her as the stereotypical uptight, repressed spinster and calls her Goody-Two-Shoes repeatedly because she insists on politeness, disapproves of his drinking, and adheres to her own strict moral code.
But she's no shrinking violet, as he learns eventually. Together, they learn that you can be upright without being uptight.
Heartbreaker: A character who made you cry
(Oh my goodness, Alan Ladd. Those eyes. HOW did you convey so much sadness with them? You amazing actor, you.)
One character who makes me cry. Really. You think I can pick just one? I cry WAY more over fictional characters than I do over real life.
But this is going to be a massive post, what with all the Alan Ladd gifs and such. I'd better stick to one answer per question.
Okay, so I always, always, ALWAYS cry over characters getting wishes granted. Having things they believed were impossible suddenly become possible. Finding out dreams can come true. So when the fairy godmother (Helena Bonham Carter) says, "You SHALL go to the ball" in Cinderella (2015), I bawl. Every time.
I'm crying because she's so wonderful, does that count?
Parrot: A character who won’t stop talking
(Look, Alan Ladd got so thirsty from just thinking about talking as much as this character, he has to keep drinking from magically refilling glasses of water!)
"If you put a dime in him, you've gotta let the song play out."
Luis (Michael Peña) never stops talking. He's like me when I drink too many Cokes in a row. Or when I sometimes succumb to the need to tell people ALL the details when they ask me a question -- it's generally because I think they deserve to have all the information so they can fully understand something. But I know it's probably irritating to some people. Fortunately/unfortunately, I only do that with people I truly care about and feel comfortable with, so it's not like I bore total strangers with what appears to be meaningless drivel, but is actually me making a very full and complete explanation.
Um, except on my blogs. I natter away here all the time.
But even though he takes foreeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeever to get to his point, Luis is one of my favorite things about the Ant-Man movies from Marvel. He's so genuinely sweet and kind and helpful, and he has this little-boy glee that makes me laugh a lot.
Moving right along...
Devilish: Your favorite villain
(And just when you thought Alan Ladd was all sweet face and soulful eyes, he shocks you.)
Know what? I'm actually going to answer with the character who goes with this gif. Cuz I can.
I LOVE RAVEN. Okay? There. I said it. I do. I love Raven, Alan Ladd's star-making role in This Gun for Hire (1942). Sure, he gets paid to kill people. Unarmed, unsuspecting people. He hits a woman. He goes all still and creepy and menacing from time to time. He intends to kill a woman who's been super nice to him.
But he's really kind to cats and kittens.
He looks like this when he's sleepy:
He snuggles.
He rescues kidnapped damsels.
And when someone surprises him by kissing his cheek like this:
He goes all sweet and startled like this:
So, um, yeah. I love Raven. I just do. Even though he's technically one of the antagonists and a bad guy. And I basically never love bad guys, though sometimes I do love antagonists. But he has a beautiful character arc toward redemption that I just adore.
Love interest: A character who, if alive in reality, you would want to marry
(I love how Alan's all "Ooooooookay, then, I'll just go back to my paper...")
HOW TO PICK JUST ONE?
Fine. If I must, I must. I would marry Bard the Bowman (Luke Evans) in a heartbeat. If you want a full explanation of why I love him, read this. Basically, he is upright, honorable, family-oriented, hard-working, brave, and utterly magnificent. Mine, mine, mine!
Plus, Luke Evans got to use his natural Welsh accent for the role, and I LOVE Welsh accents. They're so... rich and charming and quirky.
Sidekick: A character who was always loyal no matter what
(Don't worry, I'm not going to write about the kid from Shane here. Even though he IS always loyal, no matter what.)
So, there's this movie called China (1943) that stars, you guessed it, Alan Ladd. But I'm not going to talk about his character, David Jones. (Totally an inspiration for Indiana Jones, btw. I'm not even kidding.) I'm going to talk about his sidekick, Johnny Sparrow (William Bendix).
Johnny is an absolute sweetheart. He rescues orphaned babies. He comforts and defends sad young women. And he will follow his friend David Jones anywhere. Into a war zone. Into enemy-occupied territory. Into morally grey areas. He's like having a faithful dog for a bodyguard, basically. And even when he disagrees with David Jones, he still sticks with him. Only death would be strong enough to separate them.
Complicated: A character you love and hate
(That's the very first gif I ever made, btw!)
Um, yeah, so... that would be Loki (Tom Hiddleston) from the Marvel movies.
Until Thor: Ragnarok (2017), I basically had this range of emotions toward Loki that went from annoyance to hatred to wrathful disgust. And then around again. This is all because I love Thor (Chris Hemsworth) so dearly, and Thor loves his adopted brother Loki with a fierce loyalty that just makes me love Thor all the more. Because that love is so unconditional and undeserved. Loki is an unlovable jerk to his brother for three movies straight, but Thor sees past that and loves him anyway. Thor learns not to trust him, to anticipate that Loki will repeatedly betray him, but he doesn't stop loving him. And Loki treats Thor with contempt and disdain and cruelty for three movies straight, and so... I couldn't stand him. Cuz I get all protective of people I love, even when they're fictional, and Loki kept hurting Thor, so... nope. No love there at all from me.
But that all changed with Ragnarok. Because Thor finally was done with Loki's nonsense. And once Thor's friendship and support were gone, Loki realized what he had lost. And so, by the end, Loki made some good choices and became worthy of his brother's... hesitant trust. Spoiler: And then he died a glorious death in Infinity War and I did something I never imagined I'd do. I cried over Loki. So, yeah... I now kinda like Loki. And am still annoyed by him. But I don't actually totally hate him anymore, so there's that.
The rules say I have to share at least one YouTube video, so although I've shared this before, I'm sharing it again because it continues to delight me :-)
Oddity: A character who was strange, but you loved them that way
(Hahaha! I love this gif. It's so subtle.)
Right! A strange, odd character that I love. Easypeasylemonsqueezy.
Who but a character played by Johnny Depp, Grand Master of Playing Strange Characters? I dearly love his Tonto from The Lone Ranger (2013). He's a lone wolf who teams up with another lone wolf to hunt down the men who wiped out his whole tribe when he was a boy. He's wracked with guilt, he wears a dead bird on his head, he trades with dead men, and he talks to horses. He's also cunning, fearless, and resourceful. I would change absolutely nothing about him. He's wonderful just as he is.
King: A male character whom you admire and aspire to emulate
(I love this question!)
Easiest answer ever. Sgt. Saunders (Vic Morrow) on Combat! (1962-67).
In fact, I wrote a big, long post about all the reasons why I love, admire, and look up to Saunders. So you can read that if you want to know more about why he's my favorite fictional character of all time. Actually, I could have just answered "Saunders" for all these questions. Except the villain one and the complicated one. He's never villainous, and I never hate him. But the rest? Yup. He's totally made me cry; there are times when he won't stop talking; I want to marry him; he's always loyal; he can be a little odd; and he definitely has the savior thing going on.
But back to this question. I literally will think, "How would Saunders handle this?" when I'm in difficult situations, especially interpersonal ones. Saunders is The Best Ever at dealing with people. All people. Good people, bad people, happy people, sad people, whiny people, calm people, scared people, angry people, mean people, vicious people, cowardly people, ... he can handle them all. And he does. Over the course of the show's five seasons, he encounters basically every single kind of person you'll ever meet, and they all are better for the encounter.
Savior: A character who oddly reminds you of Christ
(Alan Ladd really did shoot the rock in that scene. He didn't want to because he wasn't actually a great shot, just an actor playing a gunfighter. Director George Stevens insisted he do it himself. So he did... but it took more than a hundred tries. Cracks me up.)
Okay, fine, I'll go with the Alan Ladd character that goes with the gif One Last Time. Because the title character of Shane(1953) absolutely reminds me of Christ. He saves a whole community from evil, then leaves. He takes his friend's place in a gunfight, sacrificing himself (in the book, he's probably mortally wounded, but in the movie, maybe not) for others. Many of the people he saves shun and reject him. Just... so many Christ-like aspects to him and his story.
I Tag:
DKoren at Sidewalk Crossings
MovieCritic at Movies Meet Their Match
Cordy at Any Merry Little Thought
And if YOU want to play too, consider yourself tagged! Play if you want to!
For your ease of participation, here are the categories again, just so you don't have to hunt them down and copy them.
Heartbreaker: A character who made you cry
Parrot: A character who won’t stop talking
Devilish: Your favorite villain
Love interest: A character who, if alive in reality, you would want to marry
Sidekick: A character who was always loyal no matter what
Complicated: A character you love and hate
Oddity: A character who was strange, but you loved them that way
King: A male character whom you admire and aspire to emulate
Savior: A character who oddly reminds you of Christ
I've been writing this review in my head for days. Weeks, actually.
First of all, let's be very clear: I love this movie. Love it with a deep, satisfied sort of love that I didn't dare hope for after Infinity War left me so, well, angry.
Maybe you remember how I said in my review of it that my sadness over Infinity War was not the same kind of sadness I feel by the end of Hamlet. I love Hamlet, obviously, and it's tragic, but it's a tragic that leaves me feeling cleansed, washed clean, and at peace somehow. Infinity War was not that.
You wanna know something crazy? Endgame is not sad. I mean, it has sadness, but it ends on an upbeat note. But Endgame leaves me feeling a lot like I feel after watching or reading Hamlet. Calm. Washed clean. Peaceful. Serene, even. And that's a huge part of why I love it.
I've seen it twice now, and I yearn to see it again -- maybe I can make that happen this weekend somehow. I need Cowboy to see it, if only so I can talk about it around him.
SPOILERS from here on out. I'm serious. Lots of spoilers.
You know what else I love? How much closure we get. Totaly, true closure for so many character arcs, so many threads. I'm a stickler for closure, and that's a lot of why middle movies in trilogies don't often please me -- no closure. But this? So much of it. Thanos is for real gone. Cap is for real married to Peggy. Hawkeye is for real reunited with his family. Thor is for real going off on new adventures and leaving the throne of Asgard to someone who is, if not more worthy, at least more interested.
Okay, so, speaking of Thor, let me just say that maybe now people will FINALLY believe me when I say that I love him not for the fact that Chris Hemsworth is hot but because of who Thor is as a person. And man, do I love him in this movie. He's despairing and depressed and hiding from himself, and I love him. Nothing I love more than a character who genuinely needs help. My poor darling. I love that he works through his problems with his mom's help and is back on an upward trajectory by the end.
And I love that Captain American can wield Mjolnir. Opening day, the crowd cheered there. I had such a great crowd that first viewing -- so much clapping, cheering, gasping, laughing. Wonderful. I went to see it again a week later, and nada. Boring people. But anyway, I love that Mjolnir got to be in this again (Thor's "I'm still worthy!" moment is one of my fave Thor moments ever), and that he got to use both it and Stormbreaker together, and that Cap got to use it, and and and and... so cool.
Cap really just... was spectacular in this. He's been my second-fave Avenger for years now, and I may have mentioned a time or twenty that he and I share an MBTI type, ISFJ. While I actually identify more with Thor than Cap, I really understand him a lot, and I love that he stepped up and was just... exactly who he needed to be, who he could be. In fact, the only character arc I was more impressed by was Tony Stark's.
And now here come the tears. Man. Maaaaaaaaaaan. I never would have imagined that I'd love Tony this much. That I'd be this affected by his loss. Because I never expected that this is how much he'd grow. Still the weisenheimer, still the genius, but gentler now. Matured. At peace with himself. Ready to rest. Wow.
Okay, but back to Cap. Of all the things that happen in this movie, the absolute biggest surprise for me was that Cap found a way to be with Peggy at last. I did NOT see that coming. I could NOT be happier about it. It was something I never thought they'd try to do, much less make work, and I'll never be able to listen to the song "It's Been a Long, Long Time" without tearing up again. I mean, that song always made me kind of misty as it is, but now? Find me a mop.
So many things I love in this movie. That Sam gets to be Captain America now. That Bruce found a way to make peace with the Other Guy. That Black Widow wiped all that red out of her ledger. That we get Gamorra back, but only sorta. That Loki is now maybe not dead or something? That Thor and Tony got to interact with their lost parents one last time. That Happy is there for Morgan. That we got that random cool shot of all the Marvel Superheroines together. Just... so much perfection in this movie. So much of it.
Okay, okay. I think I'm done. For now. If I manage to see it again this weekend, I might have more thoughts, but basically... yay. Yay, yay, yay.
Ten days ago, a friend nominated me for the 10-day Movie Challenge on Facebook. Every day, I had to select an image from a film that has impacted me in some way, present it without a single explanation, and nominate somebody else to take the challenge.
I finished the challenge today, but it was HARD!!! Why? Because I couldn't talk about the images! When I share about movies that have affected me in some way, I want to use words. I want to explain. And I couldn't.
Well, ha ha ha, this right here is MY blog where I make the rules, and so I'm going to share all ten pictures here too and talk about WHY I chose them and HOW these movies have impacted me. SO THERE.
Day One
That's Richard Burton in Hamlet (1964). It's a little bit of a cheat because that wasn't technically a movie, it was a stage performance in NYC that got recorded and broadcast to theaters, but... I really love it, so I included it. It's the first stage performance of Hamlet I ever saw, albeit on film and not live, and it made such an impact on me! (I'll be reviewing this for a blogathon next month, btw.)
Day Two
It's the schwarma stinger at the end of The Avengers (2012). Which still doesn't fail to crack me up. I've seen The Avengers in the theater more times than any other movie -- I'm up to seven viewings now, and I still adore it. Three of those were in its initial run, one was when they brought it back for Labor Day weekend that year, one was for a Thorsday Marathon, one was when it was paired with Age of Ultron for a double feature, and one was when they brought it back earlier this year for the ten-year anniversary of the MCU. Would go again in a heartbeat if it showed up at some theater nearby this evening. Man, this movie taught me so much about how to weave a story together! Plus, of course, it introduced me to Thor. In fact, it was my introduction to the MCU as a whole!
Day Three
This is Alan Ladd in Whispering Smith (1948), aka the movie that made me start falling for Ladd. Look at those beautiful, soulful eyes! His character in it, Luke Smith, is proooooobably my favorite Ladd character, even though this is not my favorite of his movies. He's so honorable, loyal, brave, and kind. Everything I look for in a character, really.
Day Four
Slow West (2015) is one of those movies that gets inside you, and the more you think about it, the better you like it. It's a phenomenal bit of modern western filmmaking, and Michael Fassbender's performance in it is one of his finest. Weird, quirky movie that has been inspiring me in so many ways since the first time I saw it.
Day Five
Ahhhhhhhhhh, 3:10 to Yuma (1957). It's one of those movies I didn't like at all when I saw it as a teen, and now I adore it. I'm running into more and more of those lately. It's a fabulous bit of cowboy noir, lean and strong, and so achingly beautiful with its deep shadows everywhere.
Day Six
The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies (2014) gave me Bard the Bowman (Luke Evans), my Middle-earth ME character. I shall love it forever. I once drove through an ice storm to get one last viewing of it onscreen, it's that important to me.
Day Seven
I bought Blackboard Jungle (1955) on VHS when I was a teen because it was Vic Morrow's first film. Surprise, surprise, I fell in love with Sidney Poitier and Glenn Ford in it instead. Though I AM blown away by Vic's performance as well -- but he's playing the Bad Guy, and I just have a really hard time liking Bad Guys.
Day Eight
The Greatest Showman (2017) filled my winter with joy. My kids love it, I love it, we sing the songs constantly -- it's just such an uplifting, inspiring film!
Day Nine
The Best Years of Our Lives (1946) gave me Dana Andrews. And, more importantly, gave Dana Andrews to my best friend. Together, we fangirled over him for years and years. And this movie is just one of the most amazing movies I've ever seen. Of all the movies in this post, this is the only one I would label a MUST WATCH. Everyone should watch it.
Day Ten
Emma (1996) convinced me that I liked Jane Austen's stories when I was a teen. I have watched it countless times, I listen to the soundtrack frequently, and it's one of the few movies that I actually like better than the book that inspired it. (GASP! It's true, though.) Also, this was the first movie I saw Gwyneth Paltrow in, and the first one I saw Ewan McGregor in! I've become such a fan of both of them.
THERE. Now I've gotten to say my words about these ten movies. I feel better now.
This isn't exactly a review, but more of just me putting my thoughts and feelings about the movie down someplace. Also, I will probably post stuff that could be considered spoilage. Movie has been out for like a month now, so I figure if you're going to see it, you've had your shot, and if you haven't seen it and still care about spoilers, you can just not read this post until you're done, right?
I went to see Avengers: Infinity War again today. Second time. First time, I came out feeling like I'd been run over by a steamroller. Just wrung out and hung up to dry. So emotionally exhausted. My best friend had the opposite reaction: she came out feeling like she was ready to conquer the world. This intrigued us. It always fascinates us when we have opposite reactions to things, or similar reactions for opposite reasons. So I'm sure we're going to ponder and discuss this for a long time.
Anyway, I spent lots of time thinking about the movie, listening to her reasons why she loves it, reading other people's thoughts, and generally wrapping my head around the story Marvel Studios unleashed on us here. I have a deep desire to like the MCU movies, mostly because I've got these characters so tangled up in my heartstrings now. And, for the most part, I do like the movies. I don't love all of them, but I love a lot of them, and I enjoy just about all of them in some way. Enough so that I own every single one of their movies so far.
I'm not sure I like this one, though. I respect it. I appreciate it. But boy, howdy, it is a hard one for me to like. Why? Because it's filled with sadness. I realized this afternoon that I need a healthy dose of happy in my MCU. Which is why my favorites are The Avengers (2012), Thor: Ragnarok (2017), Iron Man (2008), Spider-man: Homecoming (2017), Black Panther (2018), Thor (2011), and Ant-Man (2015). I can watch those ones (especially The Avengers and Thor: Ragnarok) over and over and over. And many of the others too. That's why I own them on DVD -- so I can do just that. Don't get me wrong -- I'm sure I'll buy this one and rewatch it multiple times. Possibly not until after the next Avengers movie comes out, though.
It's entirely possible that the next movie will make me reverse my feelings on this one. Put together, they might form one glorious whole. But right now? Nope. I'm not sitting here eating brownie mix straight out of the bowl because this movie made me happy, I'm doing that because I need to be consoled after it, and brownie mix is a good source of consolation.
Although I don't like this movie, I can appreciate it. It's incredibly well-made. The writing is breathtakingly good. Tight, focused, single-purposed, and inspiring. The acting is never less than excellent, and sometimes astonishing. Robert Downey Jr. and Josh Brolin in particular really wowed me this second time through. Alan Silvestri's score is so good that I'm thinking I'll buy the soundtrack, which is kind of rare for movies I don't actively like/enjoy.
So right now, you're thinking to yourself, "But Hamlette... you love Hamlet. That's sad." True. But it's a good sad. And I'm trying to figure out how to define the difference. Because I can fiercely love and even enjoy desperately sad stories like Hamlet and Logan (2017) and Rogue One (2016). And I think the difference between them is that, the sad movies I love are sad because someone dies for a reason. Hamlet and Logan and Cassian and Jyn and other tragic heroes I love -- they die to accomplish something. And yeah, Heimdall and Loki do that too in this. I mourn them, but in a good way.
But everyone else? Died because a homicidal monster snapped his fingers. And that makes me angry. And being angry about an MCU movie makes me sad. So it's a TOTAL different kind of sadness. And not at all the enjoyable kind. And that's why I don't really like Infinity War very much.
But I don't want to spoil anything for anyone, so I can't actually talk about it in this post. Sorry.
Instead of a review or a reaction or my initial thoughts, here's a picture of me before the movie, being all annoyed with my phone because the camera kept switching to video instead of photo.
My Thor shirt is still all awesome, though, even if my phone was being dumb.
And this is a picture of the cool Avengers IMAX thing they had in the theater.
Seriously, that's all you're getting from me.
I mean it, I'm not spreading spoilage. Lips are sealed.
Oh fine, here's a picture of my Thor-scented candle. I swear that's not a spoiler. There aren't any Thor-scented candles in the movie. It's just something my brother and his wife gave me for Christmas a couple years ago.
If YOU have seen Avengers: Infinity War and want to discuss it in the comments, I'm all for that. If you haven't seen it yet, prolly just avoid the comments here until you have. Or be really smart and stay off the internet until you've seen it. That would be best. There are jerks out there who like to spoil stuff.
Time for my end-of-the-year list of the ten movies I saw for the first time this year and liked better than all the others. PLEASE NOTE that these are not necessarily the "best" movies I saw for the first time in 2017, they're they ones *I* liked the best.
I've linked to the titles of the ones I've reviewed, as usual. And if you want to read my lists for 2014, 2015, and/or 2016, click on those years to visit their respective lists.
1. Thor: Ragnarok(2017) Thor (Chris Hemsworth) and Loki (Tom Hiddleston) and the Hulk/Bruce Banner (Mark Ruffalo) and new pal Valkyrie (Tessa Thompson) work together to get off a wacky planet ruled by Jeff Goldblum (Jeff Goldblum) so they can stop Hela (Cate Blanchett) from taking over the Nine Realms and unleashing murder and mayhem, etc. I've seen this four times in the theater, and if only they'd show it at a workable time, I'd go see it again in a heartbeat.
2. Logan (2017) In the bleak future, Wolverine/Logan (Hugh Jackman) is slowly dying, poisoned by the adamantium grafted to his skeleton. He's clinging to the dregs of his existence so he can care for Professor X (Patrick Stewart), really just waiting out the days until one or both of them can die. Then a young mutant (Dafne Keen) on the run from a brutal opportunist (Boyd Holbrook) gives him one last chance to be more than a lonely old man. I cry a lot over this movie.
3. The Greatest Showman (2017) P.T. Barnum (Hugh Jackman) dreams and schemes his way through life, searching for a way to be important and successful. Finally, he realizes that he's already important and successful because he has a wife and two daughters whom he loves and who love him. Also, there's lots of singing and dancing and fun circus stuff.
4. China (1943) An American profiteer (Alan Ladd) and his best friend (William Bendix) reluctantly help a teacher (Loretta Young) shepherd her young female students across war-torn China to safety. Once again, Ladd excels at convincing us that a sour, cynical character is worth caring about.
5. Lucky Jordan (1942) A racketeer (Alan Ladd) gets drafted into the army, where he causes trouble, deserts, helps save a McGuffin from the enemy, and ultimately... really doesn't change much, which charms me somehow. He does learn to care about the woman (Mabel Paige) who's posing as his mother, at least. A rather fluffy, yet very adorable movie.
6. King Arthur: Legend of the Sword(2017) Arthur (Charlie Hunnam) grows up lean and mean on the Londinium streets, not learning he's the son of the late king (Eric Bana) until he's an adult. He reluctantly agrees to take on his uncle, Vortigen (Jude Law), who killed Arthur's father and usurped the throne. This one is a fun ride.
7. Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day (2008) When a middle-aged governess (Frances McDormand) loses her job, she accidentally takes a new position as personal assistant to a glamorous singer (Amy Adams) who makes very bad life decisions. Over the course of one day, Miss Pettigrew sorts out a variety of the singer's problems, be they romantic or professional, and finds a new path for her own life. I really must review this one here soon. SO good.
8. Open Range (2003) Free-range cattlemen (Kevin Costner, Robert Duvall, Diego Luna, and Abraham Benrubi) tangle with a corrupt lawman (James Russo) over whether or not they can graze their cattle near the lawman's town. There's also a love story. Another one I want to review here, though I need to rewatch it before I do.
9. Sense and Sensibility (2008) When their father dies, sisters Elanor (Hattie Morahan), Marianne (Charity Wakefield), and Margaret (Lucy Boynton) must leave their home with their mother (Janet McTeer) to live in a much smaller, cheaper place. The sisters fall in love with various gentlemen (Dan Stevens, Dominic Cooper, David Morrissey) and... why am I even explaining this? It's the Jane Austen story, you probably already know what it's about. (Yes, it's technically a miniseries and not a movie, but whatever.)
10. O.S.S. (1946) New spies (including Alan Ladd and Geraldine Fitzgerald) get trained by the Office of Strategic Services, then are sent on a mission behind Nazi lines during WWII. An entertaining and fairly accurate portrayal of wartime spying.
Any surprises here? Probably not. Alan Ladd, Hugh Jackman, westerns and superheroes and musicals and action and drama. Kind of my usual things, huh? I suppose the one surprise might be that Star Wars: The Last Jedi is not here. Doesn't mean I hated it, I just didn't love it.
Happy new year! Here's to all the movies 2018 will bring :-)
This, my friends, is the Thor movie I have been waiting for all my life.
Thirty-seven years, and finally, here it is! Exactly the Thor movie I have always yearned for. Even if I could never have described it to you before it existed, now that it exists, I know it for what it is: the Thor movie that lives in my heart.
Is it because this is the Thor movie that Thor (Chris Hemsworth) has always deserved? The one where they didn't try to smoosh him into a specific mold, but just let him be himself? No more smooshing him into the whiny mold, or the stalwart mold, or the sacrificial mold, or the oblivious mold. They have just let Thor be Thor, and in doing so, elevated him.
They have finally allowed Thor to be a serious, stalwart, honorable, goofy, hopeful, and cheerful fellow. Instead of trying to show off just one or two aspects of his character, they've shown them all off -- and thereby allowed him to be a fully-rounded, believable, huggable character. Who'da thunk, right?
I love so many things they did in this movie. They hit so many right notes in the rightest way. They used humor that is actually funny, is character-based and situational, not just adolescent-boy-humor. They allowed the poignant moments to be poignant, and the proud moments to be proud. And they let the silly moments be silly, and because they weren't trying to pretend that silliness is important, or that seriousness is unimportant, they pulled off both.
This isn't really a review, is it? It's kind of a gush-fest. I'm still humming along on a post-second-viewing buzz from yesterday, to be honest. But just so you're warned, there's some spoilage below.
You probably know that I have never really managed to like Loki (Tom Hiddleston) before. I have appreciated Loki, I have enjoyed Loki, but I have never liked him because he's always been such a jerk to Thor! Thor, who just wants to be friends with his brother, to live peacefully with him... and then Loki's always doing jerk things like stabbing him or trying to kill his friends or making him believe he's died -- ARGH. Loki, just leave the poor guy alone, will you? You're so eaten up with envy because Thor is everything you aren't (and that you claim you wish you weren't) that you can't stand it when he continually repays your jerkiness with kindness and love.
But then, Thor stops. Thor finally stops falling for Loki's crap. He started pulling away from him back in The Dark World (2013) when, in one of my favorite moments, he admitted, "I wish I could trust you." Thor knew, cerebrally, he couldn't trust Loki anymore, but he still wanted to. And, in the end, he did trust him -- he believed Loki's lie about Loki dying. (And then I spent like a year wanting to cut Loki's heart out with a spoon.)
But now, he's stopped.
He doesn't stop loving Loki. You can see that in every moment they have together -- that absolute, unconditional love is still there. But he no longer even tries to trust him. Thor accepts that Loki will always try to trick him, try to twist things to his own advantage, try to pull one over on Thor.
So what happens? Well... I kind of like Loki now. Because as soon as Thor quits trying to trust Loki, I think Loki realizes what he's lost. And suddenly, he wants to be trustworthy. Wants to be helpful. Wants to even do the right thing now and then. He realizes that what he's always wanted... kinda sucks.
For a long time, even up until after my first viewing of Ragnarok, I thought the Thor trilogy as a whole was about Thor finally growing up. And it is, to some extent -- he is a fully mature man now, willing to take on the leadership role that he should have assumed long ago. But it's also about Loki finally growing up. Will he always be the god of mischief? Of course. He'll always try to mess with people just for fun, trick people, twist situations to his own ends -- but I really really really think/hope that Loki has also discovered that he values Thor's love and trust. He sheepishly walks in at the end and stands beside Thor's throne, taking his place as right-hand man, exactly where Thor has always sought to place him.
ALL THE FEELS, MY FRIENDS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Okay, other things I love.
Valkyrie (Tessa Thompson). She is just -- she's beyond cool. I love her arc, I love her attitude, I love her super-playful relationship with the Hulk. I love that, when she first sees Thor, she knows exactly who he is -- she calls him "Your Majesty" right from the get-go, before he's identified himself more than cursorily. And the very first thing she does is protect the throne of Asgard, really, by rescuing Thor from the trash-hunters. She's tried to convince herself, just like Loki and Thor both did at various times in their series-long arcs, that she is perfectly happy letting other people suffer because she's forsaken her duties. But, like Loki and Thor, she comes to realize that a duty is not necessarily a curse. It's a blessing -- it's a place in the world that you fit perfectly, a way for you to serve others that no one else can.
In fact, it's a lot like the Christian idea of vocation -- that God has given us roles to perform, duties to fulfill, and that by doing so, we are serving not just those around us, but serving God through them. Rebelling against those roles doesn't bring us joy. Forsaking our duties doesn't make life easier. We might think that running off and doing our own thing, living for ourselves, and ignoring duties we consider unpleasant will make us happier... but it won't. We'll end up miserable and bitter and lonely.
Um, so that got kind of deep.
See why I love this movie? It's bright and glittery and fun, but it's got so much more going on under the surface. Just like Thor is handsome and muscly, and people tend to just see that outside of his and think that's all he's got going on, but he's actually got plenty of intelligence and an almost boundless capacity for hope and love that they tend to overlook.
And then there's Hulk. Ohhhhhh, sweet Hulk. And Banner (Mark Ruffalo). How I love them both.
And Heimdall (Idris Elba)! I love that Heimdall got some thrilling heroics this time. But did we really have to kill off the Warriors Three? I was not happy with that at all. I mean, yes, we needed to show that Hela (Cate Blanchett) was horrible, but... poor Fandral and Volstogg and Hogun. Uncool.
Okay, speaking of Hela, she was... kind of my least-favorite part of the movie, to be honest. She spent an awful lot of time sashaying around, prating and preening, and her fight scenes went on longer than necessary. I mean, it's cool that we have a female antagonist and whatever, but she was... well, she was more interesting than the bad guy in Dark World, but did she have to vamp so constantly? I guess I like my villains to have more than one note. Which is why I've always appreciated Loki -- he's never boring. Hela was just all, "I'm going to kill you!" All the time.
Skurge (Karl Urban) was a lot of fun, though. I love his final scene. So I put up with Hela whenever Skurge was around because he kept things fairly interesting, He wasn't one-note, at least.
Oh, and we have to talk about Jeff Goldblum! I would say "Grandmaster," but let's all be honest -- this is like the most Jeff Goldblummy role Jeff Goldblum ever could play. I really have to wonder if they even wrote a script for him, or if they were like, "Then Grandmaster comes in and says stuff," and he just walked in straight out of make-up and hair and said stuff. He cracked me up soooooo much.
Other funny things: Matt Damon, Luke Hemsworth, and Sam Neill as actors playing Loki, Thor, and Odin. I mean, dude. That was unbelievably hilarious. I had zero idea they were in it, and so the first time I saw it, I laughed so hard over Matt Damon showing up, I had to blow my nose. (I recognized Sam Neill too, but I had to look up Luke Hemsworth when I got home -- so funny they got Chris's older brother for the role!)
So much I loved! The colors. The joy. The optimism. The happy ending. Thor's short hair.
Um, yeah, I even love the short hair. I thought I was going to be super sad to see his hair go. I was right there with him, saying, "Please, kind sir, do not cut my dear Thor's hair." But nope, he rocks the new look. Including the (I know I said spoiler alert earlier, but SPOILER ALERT!!!!!) eyepatch. I mean, when he lost that eye, I was like, "I hate Hela and she must die," but holy cow, he looks so regal even with only one eye I can barely stand to look at him straight-on. Like, he's just so grown-up and adult now, so regal and fierce, and I'm so proud of him. So, so proud of my Thor.
Okay, I could go on and on and on, but I am kind of guessing that nobody has really read this far, and if you did, well, thanks for letting me gush about my darling Thor and how much I love this movie. I have other things to say, but I've said the ones I really wanted to share, so... good enough for today.
EDIT: Forgot to say if this was family friendly or not. Erm, there's rather a bunch of low-level cussing, loads of smash-and-bash, and people die. Also a reference to orgies and a couple other small innuendos.
