I’ve made no secret of the fact that Captain Marvel is my favorite superhero (and I’m still annoyed that Vans didn’t make her shoes in my size), so it should go without saying that I’m pretty excited for the upcoming movie. Thus far, Marvel had been kind of cagey about giving us details… the only picture we’d really seen was more based on Mar-vell than Carol as Captain Marvel.
That being said… EW released their cover image and a preview of an upcoming feature that will cover the movie and… yeah, that’s the definition of “nailing it” when it comes to costume design. This is the last stop before we get Avengers 4 next year… and I can’t wait.
Tron: Legacy is a basic story wrapped up in a shiny, beautiful coat of paint. Probably like a #7DD2DA color, provided that Lowe’s sells that color in gloss.
This movie is a sequel / reboot (referred to as a soft reboot) of 1982’s Tron. The movie was technically impressive at the time, but had a basic, unimpressive story and has aged fairly badly since.
That isn’t to denigrate the hard work or the acting of the original; however, in light of today’s nearly photo-realistic CGI, even movies from a decade ago can start showing their age (looking at you, Indiana Jones 4). The story of Tron was simple: a man (played by Jeff Bridges) becomes trapped into the “TRON†program, and attempts to escape while defeating the villain, the MCP. Simple. Cut and dry.
Let’s define a soft reboot quickly. A soft reboot is marketed as a sequel of a movie that was decades ago, but at the same time is a remake of that same movie. Star Wars: The Force Awakens, Jurassic World, 2009’s Star Trek, the upcoming Predator movie, Creed – these are soft reboots. They star the main / side character from the original movie as a mentor – Han Solo, Spock, Rocky – as a new hero – Rey, Chris Pine, Adonis Creed – takes up the mantle. The story is generally a retelling of the original. Soft reboots, by definition, aren’t bad, but are rather lazy.
Tron: Legacy fits exactly within that definition. With Jeff Bridges as the older, mentor character (Sam Flynn’s father) and a plot that’s fairly similar to the original. But the story is…lacking. A character like Quorra is largely useless for the overall plot except for a kind of B-plot jammed in. The main character, Sam, is bland. The most interesting character(s) of Kevin Flynn and CLU aren’t utilized very well. The story is a big jumble of missed potential.
I don’t have any particular problems with the story, as it’s inoffensive and simple enough. At least it doesn’t turn into a large CGI-laded battle that gives me a headache.
I would say that the main draws for this movie are the visuals and the soundtrack.
Visually, the movie is a winner. The blue / orange contrast of the Grid with that shiny, empty black decorate a bleak setting. The environment is clean in a very computery way, which is perfect. Code doesn’t generally have anything more than necessary to function.
The best portion of the movie by far is when Sam first gets into Tron. Weird flying ships, a disc game, and the light cycle fight. It’s just cool. It remind me of how I felt watching Ready Player One – once we were in the OASIS, I was just having a good time, never mind the plot. As far as movies go, it isn’t the best strategy, but I’d rather have fun with visuals than be bored with them (hey, Justice League).
Of course, the Daft Punk’s legendary soundtrack sets the stage perfectly. The music encapsulates the feeling of Tron. The song “The Grid†is so well done, and it makes me want to go into the Grid. As far as I’m concerned, that’s all the soundtrack of a movie needs to do. I can’t imagine the movie going with a more stereotypical and less memorable stock orchestra sound.
This movie is a 3/5. Average story, great visuals, great sound.
Side note: Thanks to Google, I’ve just realized that Jeff Daniels and Jeff Bridges are not the same person. I’ve thought that Jeff Bridges was in Dumb and Dumber for years now. Oops.
I’m still not exactly sure what to think of the Aquaman movie. I think the only way that the DC Extended Universe is going to be successful going forward is to build up the rest of the roster not named Batman and Superman. We saw greatness with Wonder Woman, and there was some hope that Justice League was going to do that more… but sadly it pushed Ezra Miller’s Flash and Jason Mamoa’s Aquaman to the edges for the most part. Which is too bad, because the interaction with those two specifically was the best part of the movie.
Even with this trailer, I still don’t know. The CGI underwater, for the most part, looks way too DC, but I do like the look and color of it. More than that, though, DC has already been beaten to the punch on this story: Black Panther has done the “collision of worlds and cultures” thing already… and did it really well. That being said, I welcome DC branching out… let’s be fair, the early Marvel Character pieces aren’t nearly as good as what’s come out since, but they certainly laid some groundwork. And I think we’d all love it if DC movies started to trend “up” in their quality overall. I know I certainly would…
As hard as I am on the DC Universe that’s not Wonder Woman, I have to admit that I was fairly excited about the upcoming SHAZAM! movie… mostly because it has Zachary Levi in it, and it’s really hard to not just like that guy. Now, having what the first trailer, though…
I’m excited to see it. I mean… there’s more color in the preview still of that video than there was in the whole of Batman v Superman and Justice League… and the trailer is showing people having fun and features jokes that work. It looks like they’re leaning pretty hard into the camp that makes Captain Marvel* such a fun character, and that seems to be the right choice.
*The actual name of the character, which DC can’t actually use because of a lot of odd and drawn-out lawsuits. Shazam! isn’t even one of their creations, they gained it in a lawsuit themselves after he was found to be a ripoff of Superman. Shazam! had a knockoff as well, called Marvelman, which was later renamed to Miracleman… which Marvel purchased the rights to about a decade ago. Turns out even real-life continuity about comics is kind of nonsense…
As good as Infinity War was, it isn’t the best Superhero movie released so far this year… I’d give that firmly to Deadpool 2. Of course, they’re both very good, just in very different ways. Even better than getting to watch the movie again when it hits video on August 21st… it will include a “Super Duper Extended Cut” along with the theatrical version of the film.
While extended cuts can be very hit and miss (Batman v Superman had better stuff added, but took out nothing of the bad and was too long, the various Special Editioning of Star Wars), it’s always fun at least once, and they’re being awesome and giving it from the get go, instead of doing the normal Fox thing of releasing several different editions of the same movie to frustrate people who purchase it. Looking at you, X:Men Days of Future Past.
The Director’s Cut will debut at SDCC next week… so here’s hoping I can pester Ace enough to go see it (and if he wins the drawing, take Sheriff Deadpool along with him) and tell me how it was.
It feels like it was just yesterday that Infinity War hit theaters and left a whole lot of us stunned… because it honestly wasn’t all that long ago. It hit theaters in April, and was still playing some places as of last month. So seeing that the movie will be available for purchase digitally on July 31st, or on Blu-Ray / DVD August 14th, is kind of a surprise.
That being said, it’s a welcome one. The movie was awesome, and has most people who saw it chomping at the bit for what’s to come next. Given that we only have one more movie between now and the next Avengers movie, I get some of the rush with it.
There are obviously a whole raft of special features coming with it, including deleted scenes and features over Thanos and some of the others. I guess that’s one of the few ways we’ll get some more Proxima Midnight… or at least one can hope we do.
SDCC is rapidly approaching, planning an assault on the wallets of those who attend, and spiking the envy levels of those of us who can’t and have been eyeing the exclusives. LEGO has a long history of exclusives, both sets and figures, and we’ve covered the DC and Star Wars sets already. Now, the Marvel stuff has been revealed, and not surprisingly, it’s based on the movie that just came out today and will still be fresh in everyone’s mind once SDCC starts.
I haven’t had a chance to see the new movie yet, but reviews have been very positive thus far. I actually love this idea, given that there’s already a set that has a Wasp minifigure in it, and that the bust of Ant-Man going Giant-Man doesn’t look to have any super-exclusive parts in it.
I especially love the LEGO-themed joke around the Comic Codes Authority on the box. If I happened to get my hands on this, the box would certainly be sticking around as a display piece for that alone…
This review of Incredibles II will be part recap, part review, and all spoiler-free. I can’t say the same for the comments section, as I will be putting some spoiler-y stuff there, so be forewarned.
Fourteen years. That’s how long it’s been since the release of the first Incredibles movie. And the small snippet that played before the movie started had the Holly Hunter, Samuel L. Jackson, and Craig T. Nelson remind us of this fact. To paraphrase, they said that we waited 14 years for a sequel because Pixar wanted to do it right and that it was worth the wait. They were not wrong.
While 14 real-time years have passed between movies, the sequel picks up exactly where the last movie left off with the appearance of the Underminer and the Parr family donning their domino masks. The Parr family springs into action. Despite their family’s new roles as a super hero family, Mom and Dad’s parental instincts kick in and delegate tasks to their kids, Dash and Violet, that are safer and keep them away from the center of the action. Violet actually gets babysitting duties to watch Jack Jack much to her chagrin. This is kind of an important moment as it comes into play much later in the movie.
But despite the family’s good intentions of saving the day and preventing the Underminer’s driller from ruining city hall, the public only sees the aftermath and the damage that their heroics caused. A bank was still robbed and there is property damage galore. Super hero fear is still alive and thriving and this incident does not help matters much. The government agency that was responsible for cleaning up, Pixar’s version of Marvel’s Damage Control, steps in once again to relocate the Parrs and, since supers are illegal, we find out that the agency is being shut down completely.
Enter DevTech, a multi-million dollar company set on restoring the good name of super heroes and the work that they do. With most of the more popular supers gone thanks to Syndrome from the first movie, Frozone, Elastigirl and Mr. Incredible are given an opportunity show the world what happens from their point of view. The public tends to focus on and react to the end result, and this is true going all the way back to the first movie. DevTech’s goal is show that while the ends may not be desirable, the means to get there are always coming from a place of good.
Which, now that I think about it, is the motivation of any super type, good or bad. The bad guys, the well-written bad guys, the smart ones that leave an impression on you, never see themselves as the bad guys. They always try and do what they believe is right, but the means to get there are almost always bad. Hence why they are cast as the bad guys. This holds true for Incredibles II as the bad guy’s motivation, in their point of view, is justified and what needs to be done.
We see this exact thing happen with the main villain of the movie. Despite DevTech seemingly succeeding in restoring the good name of supers, the underlying plot plans to ruin all of that progress and turn triumph into tragedy. At a historic event set on a boat (you know bad things will happen once you’re on a boat), leaders of the free world along with a super from their country assemble to sign a document making supers legal again. The villain strikes immediately after the signing and broadcasts an ominous message that now that supers are legal, it’ll be survival of the fittest, pitting supers against regular non-super humans (this is the only part I have an issue with and will be discussing in the comments). And that boat I mentioned was set on autopilot to crash into the city.
Of course this doesn’t really happen (spoiler alert). The Parr family (including Violet, Dash, and Jack Jack), Frozone, and a couple of newcomers, all work together to save the day in just fantastic fashion. The final climax of the scene had me so worked up that I had to fight the urge to stand up and give a standing ovation once everyone was safe. Though, once the credits did start rolling, the entire theater I was in erupted in applause. I can’t remember the last time something like that happened. THAT’s how good the movie is.
There are two things I’d like to highlight that were really entertaining for me: Elastigirl and Jack Jack. One of the best things about the first Incredibles movie was Elastigirl and how the writers imagined how she would use her powers. Everything from swinging through the city like Spider-Man, to flinging a manhole cover at the Omnidroid, to forming into a dinghy to serve as a life raft for her two kids, it was all just inventive and smart. The same holds true in Incredibles II especially once she gets on the Elasticycle. Being made of rubber holds so many possibilities so anything that you think she can or should do, she actually does and more.
Now the thing with Jack Jack is that we, the audience, got to see his powers manifest itself at the end of the first movie, along with the animated short, Jack Jack Attack. But the rest of the Parr family did not. So we get to see them discover his abilities and how they deal with it. Jack Jack was also the reason to bring Edna Mode back. It’s all quite entertaining. Jack Jack provides the comic relief in a mostly serious movie. His powers are wide and varied and whenever he appeared on screen, there was this sense of excited anticipation of “what’s he going to do next?” Because you were almost guaranteed that he’d make you laugh.
Fourteen years was a long time to way for a sequel. Back then, it was never guaranteed that a sequel would be made. But at the time that it came out, I distinctly remembering saying, “If there ever was a movie that deserved a sequel, it’s this one.” It wasn’t until 2014 that a sequel was announced. Four short years later, here we are enjoying one of the best animated movies I’ve ever seen. The last couple of Pixar films were just okay in my book, mostly forgettable affairs that I couldn’t really recommend paying theater ticket price to see in a theater where the chances are high of a crying toddler or two being in attendance (yeah, that happened at my showing and THAT was fun. What is up with parents thinking its okay to bring a baby into a movie theater? And what is up with those parents that don’t take the baby outside once the crying begins? I mean, come on, be considerate). I was wondering if Pixar had lost their touch. Incredibles II is such a stellar movie, it reminded me, heck it reminds everyone, the whole world even, why they are a wold-class movie studio. I did nothing else yesterday except watch Incredibles II. This is how I spent my Father’s Day. I enjoyed every minute of it and I couldn’t have asked for anything more.
I’ve mentioned a few times before that I am a huge Spider-man fan, and have been following the character since my formative comic book years back in the 80s. It’s really the only book on the Marvel side that can match Batman for the ups/downs, as well as the absurdly large rogue’s gallery, and that’s always made me love it.
That being said… I’m not as big on Sony doing Spider-man stuff on their own. Homecoming was good because Marvel had a hand in it; same with Spidey’s appearance in Civil War and Infinity War. On TV, the cartoons have been mostly good (though I preferred Ultimate to the new XD series) because it’s been Disney/Marvel, not Sony.
The theme here… on their own, Sony is less than .500 when it comes to movies, having made two good, 1 terrible, and 1 meh, and one jumbled mess of a movie. Honestly, the upcoming Venom movie doesn’t look that much better.
Yet here, we’re getting an animated film developed by Lord/Miller of LEGO Movie fame (and Solo infamy)… their style would fit perfectly to Spider-man in the same way it fit great for Batman. The sources for the film are based on some of Brian Michael Bendis’ best work and creations, stuff like Miles Morales (best thing to come out of the Ultimate universe) and the Spider-Verse series from 2014 that introduced Spider-Gwen. The whole tone of the trailer seems like it fits, and I’m pretty excited to see it.
I know I’ve mentioned this before, but Captain Marvel (Carol Danvers) is one of my favorite characters of all time. Ms. Marvel, Binary, Warbird, etc…. I’ve read a ton of the stuff around her. So I was excited by the announcement of a movie for her. There aren’t a ton of details around it right now, other than it will take place in the 90s and be focused around her Air Force career.
Of course, being in the 90s opens up a lot of possibilities, and that’s when it comes to the familiar faces. Marvel announced the production yesterday, and the cast list includes Samuel L. Jackson reprising his role as Nick Fury, Clark Gregg as Coulson, and, surprisingly, Lee Pace as Ronan and Djimon Hounsou as Korath (Ronan’s VCR-brained henchman). So it seems that likely we’re going to get a Kree war of some sort.
Given that the Disney/Fox deal isn’t done yet, and likely won’t be until next year at the earliest… it seems unlikely that it will be the Kree-Skrull war since I’m fairly certain the Skrulls are tied up in the Fantastic 4 rights (that’s why we got the Novas like we did in Guardians). I’d love to see it happen, and there could be a lot of ground for the space/mystic stuff once they do get the rights, but for now, it’ll probably more Kree stuff. That was well established in Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., and obviously Kree lore is a huge part of Carol’s backstory. But so long as the Shi’ar and Skrulls aren’t in the MCU, we won’t get a lot of it.
Edit: As pointed out in a comment below, turns out that apparently they’ve already said that the Skrulls will factor in, since they were part of the Avengers lore with the Kree-Skrull war. So I guess we know some of the basis of the story.
