Ranking the MCU Movies by Favorite

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.

1. The Avengers (2012)

2. Thor: Ragnarok (2017)

3. The Avengers: Endgame (2019)

4. Thor (2011)

5. Captain America: The First Avenger (2011)

6. Iron Man (2008)

7. Captain America: Civil War (2016)

8. Spider-Man: Homecoming (2017)

9. Captain Marvel (2019)

10. Doctor Strange (2016)

11. Black Panther (2018)

12. The Avengers: Infinity War (2018)

13. The Avengers: Age of Ultron (2015)

14. Thor: The Dark World (2013)

15. Captain America: The Winter Soldier (2014)

16. Ant-Man (2015)

17. Iron Man 2 (2010)

18. Guardians of the Galaxy (2014)

19. Iron Man 3 (2013) 

20. Ant-Man and the Wasp (2018)

21. Black Widow (2021)

22. Guardians of the Galaxy, Vol. 2 (2017)

23. The Incredible Hulk (2008)

Wow.  I've reviewed way more of those than I thought I had.  I should fill in that handful of gaps sometime.

What is your ranking of MCU movies by favorite like?

My Ten Favorite Val Kilmer Movies

My heart is still heavy over Val Kilmer's death.  I've been rewatching some of my favorites of his movies, and today, I'm sharing the list of my top ten favorites with you.  

1. Tombstone (1993)

A free-wheeling recreation of that one time Doc Holliday (Val Kilmer) and his friend Wyatt Earp (Kurt Russell), plus Wyatt's brothers (Sam Elliott and Bill Paxton), had a showdown with Ike Clanton and his pals, and Tombstone, Arizona never got over it.  This movie is a wildly good time, particularly every scene Val Kilmer is in.  And the score by Bruce Broughton is one of my all-time favorites.

2. Willow (1988)

A small farmer (Warwick Davis) reluctantly teams up with a big braggart (Val Kilmer) to save a baby princess from a wicked queen (Jean Marsh).  Along the way, the braggart falls in love with the queen's daughter (Joanne Whalley) onscreen and off.  It was one of the first fantasy movies I ever saw, and it's still a dear favorite.

3. Spartan (2004)

When the daughter of an important American government official is kidnapped, an impressively capable agent (Val Kilmer) is sent to retrieve her before she's sold into slavery overseas.  It's a tense thriller that makes plain the all-too-real ease with which human trafficking occurs here in the U.S., and the difficulty in rescuing someone from it.  And it's cool seeing Clark Gregg work with Val Kilmer.

4. Real Genius (1985)

A teen genius (Gabe Jarrett) enters a school for the scientifically gifted, where he and his offbeat roommate (Val Kilmer) try to stay sane while also solving a mystery surrounding just what their scientific discoveries and creations are being used for.  My college roommates and I were obsessed with this movie for a while, and we used to wear these funny headbands around campus (even to classes) as a nod to Val Kilmer's character in this movie.

5. Batman Forever (1995)

Bruce Wayne/Batman (Val Kilmer) tries to stop Harvey Dent/Two-Face (Tommy Lee Jones) and Edward Nygma/The Riddler (Jim Carrey) from taking over Gotham, while also mentoring an orphan (Chris O'Donnell) and romancing a psychiatrist (Nicole Kidman).  Is this movie a dayglo comic book extravaganza?  Yes.  Does it also have a compelling storyline and some really good character development?  Also, yes.  I just rewatched it this week for the first time in a while, and was excited to find I still really love it.

6. The Saint (1997)

Simon Templar (Val Kilmer) is a professional thief who gets involved with Russian spies and a beautiful scientist (Elizabeth Shue) while just trying to do his job: stealing some nuclear macguffin or other.  The real treat here is all the disguises Templar uses, which lets Kilmer transform himself again and again in ridiculously fun ways.

7. Thunderheart (1992)

An FBI agent (Val Kilmer) with Native American heritage is assigned to solve a murder on a Sioux reservation, despite the efforts of others to either cover up the truth or use the crime to pursue their own agendas.  The fact that Val Kilmer had Native heritage himself (he was 1/8 Cherokee) is a total bonus for how perfect he is in this role.  The story is based on true incidents.

8. The Ghost and the Darkness (1996)

A professional hunter (Michael Douglas) teams up with a British engineer (Val Kilmer) to take down two man-killing lions that have been attacking workers trying to build a bridge in Africa.  It often feels like a throwback to the adventure movies of the '50s and '60s, but with more realistic violence.  Maybe that's because the screenplay is by William Goldman, who wrote The Princess Bride (book and screenplay both), as well as screenplays for movies like Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969) and Maverick (1994).

9. Prince of Egypt (1998)

Animated take on the life of Moses (Val Kilmer), growing up in Pharaoh's household and being tasked by God with leading the Jewish nation out of slavery in Egypt into the Promised Land.  Excellent take on the historical account from the Bible, and the songs are really cool, too.

10. Top Gun: Maverick (2022)

An Air Force pilot (Tom Cruise) has to train the wild son (Miles Teller) of his fallen wingman for a dangerous mission.  Val Kilmer gets a small scene as Tom Cruise's former rival and current superior officer, and it's a moving one.

Please note that Tombstone, Spartan, Thunderheart, and The Ghost and the Darkness are all rated R, so you may want to investigate their content levels further before watching them if that is of concern to you.

When Everything Old is New Again: "X-Men: Days of Future Past" (2014)

I love X-men: Days of Future Past (2014), and a huge part of why I love it is how it handles time travel. I’ve long liked the idea of time travel, especially how it can lead to awesome character development as people deal with the differences between what might have been and what now is, depending on how their actions change things. 

Days of Future Past begins in a dystopian near-future where mutants have been hunted almost to extinction. Only a few have survived, including Professor X, Magneto, Wolverine, and Kitty Pryde. Kitty’s powers used to be walking through walls, but they’ve expanded to being able to send a person’s consciousness through the walls of time into their past body, which comes in handy for warning their past selves about future ambushes from the giant robots called Sentinels that have been wiping out the mutants. 

Professor X and Magneto decide the best plan to save what remains of mutantkind is to have Kitty send someone to the 1970s to keep the Sentinels from ever being created. Initially, Professor X wants to go himself, but Kitty says a person’s mind can only stretch back for a few weeks—any more and it would break. 

Logically, then, the only one who can get sent back as far as the 1970s would be someone whose mind and body can heal as fast as they’re broken, namely Wolverine. Which, from a filmmaking standpoint, is also logical, since Wolvie doesn’t really age, so having Hugh Jackman play him in the 1970s and the near future works without major makeup or digital effects to age or de-age him. A little grey hair at the temples for Near-Future Wolvie, and none for Past Wolvie, and we’re good to go. 

Once Wolverine’s consciousness goes back to the 1970s, the real fun begins. Because he didn’t get his adamantium skeleton and claws until the 1980s, he has just his bone claws, which surprises him and leads to one of the funniest moments ever to involve a metal detector. The movies have always depicted him wearing ’70s flavored clothes, especially those awful paisley shirts, so for once, he really fits in well. Also, this allows him to meet up with younger Professor X, Magneto, and Mystique, and thus bridge the past and future versions of these characters neatly, passing the torch much more effectively than in X-Men: First Class. 

But the fun 1970s shenanigans, the epic prison break scene involving Quicksilver, and the meeting of the minds between future and past Professor X aren’t why I love this movie, though they add to the wonderfulness. No, this is my favorite X-Men movie, not to mention my favorite use of time travel, because of how it ends. I’m going to spoil that here, so don’t read the next two paragraphs if you haven’t seen this, but want to, and don’t desire major spoilization. 

I love the ending because it effectively wipes out the biggest reason Wolverine has to be filled with heartache and remorse: the death of Jean Grey at the end of X3: X-Men’s Last Stand. Wolvie’s actions in the past create a new future, one much happier than the one he was living in at the beginning of the movie, and not just because the Sentinels are no longer an issue. 

At the end of this movie, Wolverine wakes up back in Professor Xavier’s School for Gifted Youngsters, which we all know shouldn’t still be standing, much less in such lovely condition. He walks out into the hallways and sees characters who had either died or left the mutant family, and we begin to hope, just like you can see he does, that maybe others who died might also have been spared in this new timeline. And then, there she is —a woman with bright red hair, standing with her back to Wolverine and to us. Wolverine’s eyes widen with the realization that he has fixed so much more than he’d expected to as the woman turns around and reveals she is indeed Jean Grey. My heart nearly burst with joy for Wolverine the first time I saw it, because my heart has ached for him for so long, for the burden of grief he’s borne over having to save the world by killing the woman he loved… and now, that never actually happened. Oh joy, oh rapture unforeseen! 

Yes indeed, I like the idea of time travel. I even like it when it means that character development from old stories gets negated by new ones. There’s always room for more in the future, after all.

(This post originally appeared in the May/June 2015 issue of Femnista magazine.)

The "Flaming Hot... Five Reasons Why" Tag

Sally Silverscreen of 18 Cinema Lane tagged me with the "Flaming Hot.... Five Reasons Why" tag.  Thanks, Sally!  You know I do enjoy blog tags :-D

The Rules:

• You must add the name of the blog that tagged you AND those of the Thoughts All Sorts and Realweegiemidget Reviews with links to ALL these sites.. and use the natty cat themed picture promoting this post. This picture is found later in this post… 
• List 5 of your all-time swoon-worthy characters from TV or Film, i.e. crushes/objects of your affection. And do mention the actor or actress who plays them, as you might like James Bond as played by Timothy Dalton and no one else, etc., etc. 
• Add 5 reasons why you love them, in five sentences.
• Link to 5 other bloggers. 
• Add lovely pictures, gifs or videos of those you selected. 
• Oh…and post these rules.

Sooooo, I'm going to list these guys in the order in which they arrived in my life.  I'll try to keep my gushing to the required 5 sentences ;-)

Sergeant Saunders (Vic Morrow) on Combat! (1962-67)

My beloved Saunders is devastatingly attractive, but in an unconventional way.  

A lot of the time, he just looks like a kind of scruffy nobody, especially in still photos (except these, which really do capture his gorgeousness).  But when you see him in action, he's mesmerizing.

I think it's the intensity.  He's burning so brightly inside that you can't look away, and that inner fire is... unavoidably attractive.

Wolverine/Logan (Hugh Jackman) in the X-men movies

My darling Wolvie is the best there is at what he does, and what he does isn't very nice.  Except when what he does is very, very nice indeed, and then I fall in love with him even farther.

It's that juxtaposition of feral and tender that makes him so fascinating to me.

Doesn't hurt that Hugh Jackman is unrelentingly handsome, of course.  But I loved Wolvie in the comic books before the movies even came out, so Hugh's deliciousness is just a sort of bonus, not what makes me swoon over the character.

Angel (David Boreanaz) on Buffy the Vampire Slayer (1997-2003) and Angel (1999-2004)

Is it the pensive face?

The never-ending shoulders?

The classic tall-dark-and-handsome good looks?  Those all help a lot, for sure, but once again, it's who Angel IS that weakens my knees.  Even if he wasn't played by the achingly gorgeous David Boreanaz, this vampire with a soul who champions the hopeless would still entrance me. 

James "Sawyer" Ford (Josh Holloway) on Lost (2004-2010)

Sawyer is the one guy here that I didn't WANT to love.  He starts off the show as a complete loser, and I was convinced I could never like him for approximately two whole episodes... and then, the layers appeared.

Sawyer is more than just a handsome face, scruffy beard, long hair, and delicious Southern accent (and it's real, not fake, nom nom nom).  He also reads constantly, is completely devoted to refusing to let anyone ever like him at all, and has an anti-hero complex just begging to be disputed.

And he has dimples -- what more can I say?

Shane (Alan Ladd) in Shane (1953)

One of the things I like best about Alan Ladd's portrayal of Shane is how still and quiet he is.

He never wastes anything: not movement, not words, not a thing.  But that means that every glance and smile and line of dialog counts extra.

And Ladd's eloquent eyes, shy smiles, assured movements, and quiet words all combine gloriously in one unforgettable performance.  Handsome, magnetic, charismatic, mesmerizing -- no description does him justice in this film.

Well, there you have my five!  I'm supposed to tag five bloggers, so I hereby tag:

Chloe the Movie Critic at Movies Meet Their Match

Katie at I'm Charles Baker Harris (And I Can Read)

Phyl at Phyllis Loves Classic Movies

Rebecca at Taking Up Room

Skye at Ink Castles

Play if you want to!

Movie Music: Michael Kamen's "X-Men" (2000)

Today, class, we'll be listening to music from X-Men (2000), composed by Michael Kamen.  Settle down and listen up!

We owe a lot to this movie, don't we? It kicked the popularity of superhero movies into high gear by not trying to turn the story into Serious Drama like the first couple of Batman movies, but also not descending into silliness like the last couple of '90s Batman movies. Instead, it unabashedly presented complex characters who happen to have super powers, giving them a stylish story that does not pretend it's not based on comic books.

This score contains one of the most haunting, achingly beautiful themes of any movie soundtrack I have ever heard. I'm talking about the first two minutes of the final track, "Logan and Rogue."

(This movie is 21 years old, but I'll still say it: Spoiler Alert!) In the movie, of course, this is the point where Wolverine risks his own life to save Rogue by letting her take his healing powers. It's an amazing moment in the film, the culmination of my beloved Wolvie's journey in that first film from selfish loner to self-sacrificing friend, but even if you haven't seen it, I think you'll still feel the emotions here.

My other favorite cue on this soundtrack is "Charles Xavier's Institute" (also sometimes titled "Mutant School") because of the way it conveys cautious optimism. It starts out as a happy, hopeful song, then turns quiet and contemplative, reminding us to enjoy our powers, but to take them seriously too.

That's all for today, friends!

(This review originally appeared here at J and J Productions on June 1, 2015.)

My Ten Favorite Superhero Movies -- 2021 Update

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.

1.  The Avengers (2012)

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.

2.  X-Men: Days of Future Past (2014)

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.

3.  X2:  X-Men United (2003)

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.

4.  Thor: Ragnarok (2017)

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!

6.  Avengers: Endgame (2019)

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.

7.  X-Men Origins:  Wolverine (2009)

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.

8.  Captain Marvel (2019)

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.

9. Thor (2011)

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).  

10. Iron Man (2008)

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.

"Black Widow" (2021) -- Initial Thoughts

The Marvel Cinematic Universe is at its best when it brings all its shiny machinery to bear on something very, very human: a relationship.  Think of the greatest MCU movies out there, and then notice how they entirely revolve around what happens when two people become friends, become enemies, discover they're related, discover they're not related, and so on.  That's what the MCU understands that the DC franchise seems to miss.  It's not about the explosions or the fight scenes or the mind-blowing CGI effects.  It's about people dealing with other people.  Loving them or hating them or being annoyed by them or wanting to thrash them or wanting to save them.  Relationships are the key.

And that's what made me love Black Widow.  The entire story revolves around the fake family Natasha Romanoff (Scarlett Johansson) briefly had as a child, then lost.  Her little sister Yelena (Florence Pugh), her pseudo mom Melina (Rachel Weisz), and her pseudo dad Alexei (David Harbour) are all ripped from her one by one, but she never lets go of the love she had for them.  Not through all her torture and reprograming in the Red Room that turned her into a superspy.  Not through finding a new family in the Avengers and then losing them too (this takes place between Captain America: Civil War and Avengers: Infinity War).  Not even though she's convinced herself that the love she felt for them was as fake as the family they were pretending to be.

Is it cool that she gets to take down Dreykoff and atone for a few of those red items in her ledger?  Yup.  Were there abundant cool fight scenes?  Yup.  Did stuff blow up about ever five minutes?  Yup.  Did any of that come even close to mattering as much as the deep, rich emotional journey that Natasha goes on here?  Nope.  Not at all.

And I think that's pretty genius, really.  Pull the audience in by promising them a summer blockbuster with lots of bang-bang-shoot-em-up thrills and laughs, and then give them so much more.  

Anyway, I've tried not to be spoilery in this.  I know a lot of people have decided this is the movie that will pull them back into the theater for the first time in how ever many months.  I applaud that decision, just like the audience in the theater with me this afternoon applauded at the end of this movie.  It's a great experience (and it is NOT as dorky as the trailer made it appear, though there is a lot of humor, and some of it is dorky or kinda stupid -- but intentionally so).

Is this movie family friendly?  Um, there's quite a bit of cussing, some juvenile humor, and a LOT of non-gory violence.  I wouldn't recommend it for people under like 15.

I've Done It Again

Every couple of summers, I get the urge to dye my hair red.  So, I do.  Well, Cowboy usually helps because my hair is about 4 feet long and takes quite a lot of time and effort to dye.  He had today off, so this happened:

I need to touch it up a little, but yeah... I completely love it :-D  And I just happened to have time to dye it in time to go see Black Widow this weekend with red hair!

My Ten Favorite Hugh Jackman Movies

I've been wanting to do lists of my favorite movies starring more of my favorite actors and favorite actresses for a while now, but I kind of kept forgetting about it, too.  Well, Eva posted her top 10 favorite Hugh Jackman movies at Coffee, Classics, and Craziness a couple days ago, and that reminded me that I've been wanting to do more "ten favorites" posts revolving around my favorites, so I'm starting that with Hugh Jackman.

Yes, yes, fully half of these are X-Men movies where he's playing Wolverine.  This should not surprise anyone, considering that Wolvie is my favorite superhero, and also one of my 5 favorite fictional characters ever, the end, full stop.

1. X-Men: Days of Future Past (2014)

Wolverine (Hugh Jackman) travels to the past to save the future. My absolute favorite X-Men movie. Words truly can't describe how deeply I love it.

2. X2: X-Men United (2003)

Professor X (Patrick Stewart), Magneto (Ian McKellen), and their followers join forces to keep William Stryker (Brian Cox) from destroying all mutants. Practically perfect in every way.

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. Also, there's lots of singing and dancing and fun circus stuff.

4. X-Men (2000)

The X-men help wandering mutant Wolverine (Hugh Jackman) rescue Rogue (Anna Paquin) from Impending Doom. And to think that I refused to see this at first because I thought Hugh Jackman was all wrong for Wolverine! What kind of fool am I?

5. X-Men Origins: Wolverine (2009)

Wolverine 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 I've always wanted for him, blending my favorite elements of several backstories for him from the comic books.

6. Australia (2008)

A determined Englishwoman (Nicole Kidman) and a drifting Drover (Hugh Jackman) struggle to save each other and an orphaned Aboriginal child (Brandon Walters) in Australia's Outback during World War Two.  This is the only movie that has ever given me cowboys and WWII soldiers in the same story.

7. Someone Like You (2001)

A jilted woman (Ashley Judd) writes an opinion piece that brings her national fame but jeopardizes her almost-relationship with a crass-yet-cuddlesome coworker (Hugh Jackman).

8. X-Men: The Last Stand (2006)

It's the X-Men versus Magneto's bunch again, with a back-from-the-dead friend turned into a foe. Actually a better movie than X-Men, but I don't love it as much.

9. Les Miserables (2012)

Jean Valjean (Hugh Jackman) raises his adopted daughter (Amanda Seyfried) while hiding from an obsessed policeman (Russell Crowe) during yet another French revolution.  To be honest, I still wish that Crowe had played Valjean and Jackman had played Javert... but I like it this way pretty well too.

10. Oklahoma! (1999)

A cowboy (Hugh Jackman) tries to win the heart of a girl (Josefina Gabrielle) who claims she hates him. Yes, you read that correctly: Hugh Jackman. This is the London stage version, not the famous Hollywood one, but I prefer it because, well, Hugh Jackman!  He lends a really interesting edge of danger to Curly that I quite dig.

"Wonder Woman 1984" (2020) -- Initial Thoughts

Well, I can no longer say that I've never been to any of the new DC movies in the theater, because I went to see this last weekend.  I'd say I liked it about as well as the first Wonder Woman (2017).  I liked it enough to not be sorry I've seen it, but not enough to seek it out for a second viewing.

I don't have a lot of thoughts on this movie, so here are just some reactions and reflections:

• I liked the sequence near the beginning of the film that took place in a classic '80s mall, mostly because it was filmed at the Landmark Mall in Alexandria, VA.  For six months, we lived only a few minutes from that mall, and I used to take my kids there for a fun lunch at the Chik-Fil-A in the food court.  It is a dead mall now, with only the food court and the Macys still open.  At least, last time I was there, which was about 10 years ago.  They decked it all out for the film to look like it undoubtedly did back in the '80s, of course. I was curious to see if they did that, or if they used it to film some sort of apocalyptic wasteland scene, because it's seriously creepy these days, just hall after hall of empty stores.

• I liked Pedro Pascal's performance as villain Maxwell Lord.  In fact, I think it was the strongest one in the film.  You know I basically never like villains, and usually detest them.  But Pascal's character was the only one that elicited any emotional response in me -- I was angry at him for how he treated his son for much of the film, but really bought his emotional confliction, and I was so happy and relieved by how his story wound up.

• I was not happy to see yet another story in which two women cannot have a genuine friendship.  Really tired of the whole "female friendships always devolve into rivalry" thing.

• Was it just me, or was Diana (Gal Gadot) on exactly the same emotional journey as she was in the first Wonder Woman movie?  (SPOILERS HERE)  In the first movie, she finds love with Steve Trevor (Chris Pine) and then has to let herself lose him in order to save the world.  In this movie, she finds love with Steve Trevor and then has to let herself lose him in order to save the world.  Contrast this with the character growth of even minor characters in the MCU or the X-men franchises, and you'll realize comic book movies don't have to have static characters.  (END SPOILERS)

All in all, it was a fun two hours, with a draggy half an hour added to it of extra-long fight scenes that just kept going and going.  All of the new DC movies I've seen so far (which is, admittedly, only 3) have suffered from the delusion that more = better, especially when it comes to action scenes.

But Gal Gadot, Chris Pine, and Pedro Pascal were entertaining and enjoyable, so I don't feel like I wasted my money, at least.

Wakanda Forever

I went to bed so sad last night.  I'd pulled up Instagram while brushing my teeth before bed, and the top post was that we'd lost Chadwick Boseman.

I've been a fan of his since 2013, when I went to see 42 and was blown away by his portrayal of Jackie Robinson.  He brought the perfect mix of dignity, anger, determination, and athletic grace to the role.  When I found out he was going to be playing T'Challa/Black Panther in Captain America: Civil War (2016), I was so excited!

And he surpassed my every expectation in his portrayal of T'Challa.  Fierce, kind, funny, strong, elegant, and powerful -- he quickly made Black Panther a favorite of mine in the MCU.  I was looking forward so much to seeing another solo film for him.  In fact, last night, I was wondering if maybe Boseman would make a western sometime, because he'd be so fantastic as a cowboy hero.

Actually, he'd been on my mind on and off for a couple of hours last night because Cowboy is reading One Bad Apple aloud to my kids at bedtime right now.  And, in my head, Chadwick Boseman plays Ness, the trail scout who first encounters the seven orphans.  So, when I was listening to my husband read the part where Ness offers to help them, that put Boseman in my head and made me think, "You know, maybe I'll get lucky and he'll make a western sometime for real."  And then Cowboy and I watched the movie The Tin Star (1957) last night.  I had listened to the soundtrack for that movie almost the entire time I wrote and rewrote One Bad Apple, so watching the movie was a little surreal because I'd hear cues and think, "Hey, this is where Ness rides into view," or "This is where Hopeful gives Levi an apple," or "This is where Ness stands up to Sanderson."  So he was in and out of my mind, by association, all evening.  And then the news hit me as I was getting ready for bed.  And I still feel off-kilter this morning, oddly bereft by the loss of this man I'd never met, but whose acting inspired me in so many ways.

Also, he was three years older than me.  That hits close to home in a whole different way.

Happily, Boseman was a church-attending, born-again Christian who continued attending church even after becoming a big Hollywood star.  He may have lost his fight with colon cancer, but we can trust that he's at peace in heaven now.

So, um, yeah.  I'm sad because I'll miss you, Chadwick Boseman.  Rest in peace.

Wakanda forever.

My Ten Favorite New-to-Me Movies of 2019

Happy New Year!!!

In 2019, I watched 102 movies.  Not 102 separate titles, as I am a major re-watcher, but I sat down and watched a movie 102 times. T'was a happy year.  As always, I'm here with a retrospective in the form of a list of the 10 new-to-me movies I liked best this past year.  Titles are linked to my reviews where applicable.

1. Midway (2019).  Faithful, dazzling, elegant presentation of the early Pacific Theater of Operations during WWII, from the attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, through the Battle of Midway June 4-7, 1942.  I love this movie so much, I've put it at #14 on my list of my 100 favorite movies.  I've seen it in the theater four times now, and I'm aching to see it again.

2. Captain Marvel (2019).  This movie is just plain, unadulterated fun.  A woman (Brie Larson) learns the truth about her identity and sets about undoing all manner of injustices she was an unwitting part of.  Yes, it's a superhero movie, but it speaks to the universal longing for self-knowledge and finding your true place and purpose.

3. Avengers: Endgame (2019).  I'm okay now.  I was not okay after Avengers: Infinity War (2018), but I am okay now.  The Avengers have triumphed.  The saga is basically complete, and I will tentatively be interested in the MCU going forward, but I might be okay just letting the story be done here for me.  We'll see.

4. Captain Carey, USA (1949).  An OSS agent (Alan Ladd) gets betrayed to the Nazis while on a mission in Italy.  When the war is over, he goes back to seek vengeance for the death of the woman he loved, only to discover that much of what he thought he knew about that fateful night was a lie.  Ladd is the best part of this movie, but it's still a solid watch even if you're not his fan.

5. The Man Who Invented Christmas (2017).  Charles Dickens (Dan Stevens) needs money.  And he needs his career to stop fizzling.  And he needs these grumpy characters in his head (especially Scrooge, played by Christopher Plummer) to cooperate.  And he needs people to stop pestering him so he can just write his next book.  I was WAY more charmed by this movie than I expected to be!

6. Up (2009).  Cute kid and grumpy old guy and funny dog have an adventure.  This movie made me cry a lot.  Pixar does that well.

7. 17 Again (2009).  Middle-aged guy (Matthew Perry) thinks his life would have been so much better if he'd only fulfilled his potential as a basketball player after high school.  Then he gets turned back into his 17-yr-old self (Zac Efron) and sees his life in a whole new light.  I thought this movie would be dumb, but wound up totally digging it.

8. Dodge City (1939).  A cowpuncher (Errol Flynn) becomes a lawman so he can bring law and order to Dodge City.  And also to gain the respect of a woman (Olivia de Havilland).  My first Errol Flynn western!  Won't be the last, I assure you.

9. The Thin Man Goes Home (1944).  Nick (William Powell) and Nora (Myrna Loy) visit Nick's hometown, where he gets no respect, no respect at all.  But he does get to solve a mystery.

10. How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World (2019).  Every story has a ending, including Hiccup and Toothless's.  This movie also makes me cry, but I like it anyway.  So do my daughters.  My son hates it.

Special Mention: They Shall Not Grow Old (2018).  Peter Jackson's haunting presentation of WWI that transcends the documentary genre.

What wonderful movies did you discover this year?  Did you see any of these?

If you want to see my lists from 2014 through 2018, there are links to them at the bottom of my "Ten Favorites Lists" page.

Here's to a new year of watching movies!

"The Lego Batman Movie" (2017) -- Initial Thoughts x 4

My kids and I just finished watching The Lego Batman Movie together for the first time.  Here are thoughts from them, labeled by whether they're my 12-yr-old, 9-yr-old, or 7-yr-old speaking, or just me, so you know who's saying what.

12: Everything is awesome!  No.  Um.  Um.  Somebody else talk.

9: Unikitty wasn't in it :-(  Must stay positive!

12:  I think Lord Business should have been in the Phantom Zone.

7: It was less cool than the Lego Movie.  It was more boring.  It was all "I'm trying to do the same thing" over and over.  In the Lego Movie, they did more random stuff.

12: About half the movie was embarrassing dithering before anything exploded.

9: Wyldstyle should have been in it.

12: Also, the Talking Brick's boss (and voice) should have been Unikitty.

Me: What's something you liked about it?

9: It had lots of explosions.

7: I don't really have anything that I liked about it.  Except Robin was cute.

12: It was all Lego and not like the Lego Ninjago Movie. Also, Batman's riff on "Everything is Awesome" was funny.

So... they kind of weren't big fans of it.  I think that's probably because this was their first Batman movie ever, so a lot of the jokes about Batman history stuff weren't funny to them.  And come to think of it... the only other superhero movie they've ever seen is The Incredibles, which is ALSO a loving spoof of superhero movies... and if you don't know the genre, spoofing it isn't very funny.

Which is why I totally loved it, since I adore superhero movies, as you may have noticed.  All the little nods to Batman history and to the superhero genre in general were AWESOME.  Just, so funny.  Robin saying "Holy family photo, Batman," and all the little snippets of the previous Batman movies/shows ("that weird one in the sixties" cracked me up so much), plus that thing where they did the sound effects as words ("Bam!" POW!") and just... it was perfect.  I totally dug it.

And can we talk about the bad guys they gathered?  Voldemort, Sauron, Daleks, King Kong... that was brilliant.  (And I was just heartily amused that Ralph Fiennes was voicing Alfred, and then Voldemort showed up, and... that made me laugh.)

Plus... as my son said above, it looked like Lego bricks, just like The Lego Movie.  Not just animated cartoon characters who sorta looked like Lego people wandering around a generic animated world (not a Lego Ninjago Movie fan, gotta say).  Totally dug that.

The story line of "everyone needs a family" and stuff was a little touchy-feely, but that's what made it funny, cuz Batman was so "I'm allergic to touchy-feely things".  (And then he's addicted to rom-coms -- sooooo amusing).  Plus, even God says it's not good for people to be alone, so... not gonna argue with it.

That's about all I have to say about it, I guess.  Don't think it's one I'll watch over and over and over, but it's definitely something I'll pull off the shelf for a laugh from time to time.

"Dark Phoenix" (2019) -- Initial Thoughts

Michael Fassbender is absolutely the best part of this movie.  The directions they go with his character Erik/Magneto delighted me in ways I wasn't expecting.  His character arc has been the real joy of the three "young X-men" movies.  (I don't count Days of Future Past in that because it's got both the young and mature versions of the characters.)

The rest of the movie?  Was okay.

I mean, I liked that they had Charles Xavier (James McAvoy) confront his habit of meddling with people's minds and realize that he's become convinced of his own infallibility.  I liked that Hank/Beast (Nicholas Hoult) got some very juicy interior conflict, plus a nice chunk of screen time.

And I liked the ending a lot more than I expected.  I can't tell if this is supposed to be the capstone on the series, but I kind of hope it is, because it ended in a really good place and I liked it.  I've read that now that Disney bought Fox, this is the last film from Fox with these characters, and I think that would make me happy.  Start over fresh in a few years, add them to the MCU, whatever.

Things I disliked?  I still don't dig Sophie Turner.  And I didn't like how it kind of copied/mirrored parts of Captain Marvel.  And there was an effect they used that looked an awful lot like the way people crumbled when "snapped" in the MCU.  Like, seriously?  Couldn't come up with a fresh image, like exploding into little stars or something?  And the villains... were flat.

I didn't love this, but it was ultimately satisfying, and I know I will enjoy watching this again on DVD.  If you love the series, or are a Fassbender fan, this is worth seeing in the theater.  Especially since it looks like it's the last time we'll see these versions of these characters.

But the absence of Wolverine was keenly felt.  By me, anyway.

"Avengers: Endgame" (2019)

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.

And also whew.

(Look how severely sad he is!  Want to hug!)

"The Incredible Hulk" (2008) -- Initial Thoughts

Lou Ferrigno's tiny speaking cameo elevated the whole film for me from 'meh' to 'okay.'

The sad truth is... Edward Norton is no Mark Ruffalo.

The happy truth is, Mark Ruffalo is no Edward Norton.

"Captain Marvel" (2019)

Whoooo-eeee!  This movie is a superb ride.  I saw it for the second time today, and it was even better than the first time through.  The plot is all twisty and has some nice foreshadowing that you only pick up on when you know what's coming.  Sometimes twisty plots don't hang together as well the second time through, but this one absolutely does.  I can't wait to see it again.  I suspect a third viewing will push this into my top 5 list of MCU films.  It's already in my top 10.

One of the things I liked best about it was how it blended humor and focused, purposeful action.  It reminds me of Thor: Ragnarok (2017) more than any of the other MCU movies, and you know I adored that one.  Like in that, the humor here is character-based and situational, not jokes.  And the little thingie on her neck was a lot like the one that kept Thor in submission on Sakaar.  And they did this little burbling motif in the music that got used a lot in Ragnarok too, so that was nifty.

But it's not all fun and games -- they didn't shy away from pathos either.  Bad stuff has happened to a lot of these characters, and they don't shrug and move on, they let the characters (and audience) process that pain. And learn from it, and use it.  I appreciated that side of the storytelling a lot.

Okay, spoilers will be rampant from here on out.  I'm just going to kind of gush about different things I loved.

Let's start with the '90s setting.  I kind of came into my consciousness of pop culture around 1996, so the grunge look?  I totally wore flannel shirts tied around my waist.  Video stores were basically my favorite places -- I used to dream of working in one.  So much of the music was familiar, and their use of No Doubt's "I'm Just a Girl" had me grinning and bouncing during both viewings.  So perfect.

Then there's the CGI younger-ing of Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson) and Agent Coulson (Clark Gregg).  Soooooo well-done.  I think Fury's is a little better, but maybe that's because I am fairly familiar with what Samuel L. Jackson looked like in the '90s, but the first thing I ever saw Clark Gregg in was The Avengers (2012). 

And I loved Jude Law.  Oh man.  He delivered another solidly stunning performance.  I really have never seen him turn in a boring one, but he has been extra good lately, including here.  His Yon-Rogg was so smart, so strong, so deserving a mentor and then foe for Carol Danvers.  Really rocked this role.

And Ben Mendelsohn!  Oh my goodness!  I enjoyed disliking him in Rogue One (2016), I found him very compelling in Darkest Hour (2017), and he amuses me a lot in Slow West (2015), but he was just wonderful here.  Loveable, even.  Eventually.  I love that we got to see him in his human face as well as under gobs of alien makeup as Talos -- that was loads of fun.  And Talos was such a sweet husband and father, too.  I love his scenes with his family.

As for Carol Danvers (Brie Larson), I found her a really relatable character.  I too spent my girlhood with a strong desire to prove myself to everyone around me. Sometimes I failed.  Sometimes I triumphed.  But I never quit trying.  In a lot of ways, I still haven't.  There's that bit where you see her standing back up after falling on her butt time after time, all through her life, and I was like, Yes!  I know that feeling!  I liked how smart and intrepid she was, but also not absolutely sure of herself.  She had to figure out who she really was before she could go out and save the world, and that a little bit mirrored Thor's character arc in his first movie too, which I appreciated.

Let's see, what else?  It was cool to see Annette Bening again.  She got some nice stuff to do.  Oh, and Carol's best friend Maria (Lashana Lynch) was a great character in and of herself!  She wasn't just the best-friend-sidekick, but had an integral role to play and got to help save the day.  Really liked her.

Annnnnnnnnnd the Flerken. So adorable.  So surprising!  I'm super tempted to adopt an orange cat and name it Flerken.  That would be such fun.

But possibly the best thing about this movie, for me, is how smart it is.  It gets you 100% wondering if maybe the Kree aren't always evil, it convinces you of things that Vers is convinced of, and then it flips everything around at the end of the second act to reveal that nope, she's not who she thinks, the things she believes happened didn't quite go that way, and she's been trusting all the wrong people.  And it WORKS.  It's not merely flashy storytelling, it's solid all the way down, and watching it through a second time has only deepened my appreciation of the excellent writing.

Okay, maybe that wasn't as much spoilage as I thought, but I'll leave the warning where it is. 

Is this movie family friendly?  Um, about as much as most MCU movies?  It's got some innuendo, lots of superhero violence, some bad language, etc.  Teens and up.