Avengers: Infinity War

I love Thor, I love Black Panther, I love Captain America, I love The Avengers. For years now, we have been awaiting the arrival of the "big bad" Thanos. It's no secret that he is the baddie in The Avengers: Infinity War. With that being said, this review comes to you with spoilers. If you haven't yet seen Infinity War and you don't want to be spoiled, turn back now. You've been warned.

At the end of Thor Ragnarok, doesn't Thor meet up with the Guardians of the Galaxy? It was the last "end credit" scene, I mean, am I wrong about that? So here's my idea of a plot hole.  Infinity Wars opens up with Thor and Loki being attacked by Thanos. He wants the infinity stone in the Tesseract. He kills most of the inhabitants of Asgard who were saved in Ragnarok. Loki gets killed again. I hope that this time he stays that way, but more on that later. Thor is flying in space (why does Disney continue to this??  It's lame) and lands on the Guardians spaceship. There is a hilarious exchange between, Thor and the Guardians. Chris and Chris nail it. What a great comedic duo. Drax and Mantis are amazing! But again, why are Thor and the Guardians being reintroduced? Someone please explain this to me, seriously.

The setting takes place in various locations, with various members of Team Avengers working together to try and stop Thanos from collecting all of the Infinity Stones. The purpose to have all the stones is to rid the universe (not just the world) of half the population, so that those who do make the cut, can live happy lives without the fear of starvation and poverty. He succeeds in collecting all six infinity stones, even the Soul stone which is being watched over by Red Skull from Captain America. In order to do this he must trade a soul for a soul, so he kills the only thing he ever loved, his "daughter" Gamora. This annoys me, but more on that later.  Apparently, Thanos is a kidnapper who abducts Gamora from her home planet, after he nearly destroys it.

In the end Thanos, with the snap of his finger, kills almost everyone in the universe, except for all of the ORIGINAL AVENGERS, oh and Rocket.  So, we are left with: Iron Man, Thor, Black Widow, Captain America, and Bruce Banner. All of the characters who only have one movie left in their Marvel contracts, which means, something will happen and everyone will be resurrected again, a la Justice League's Superman.

Now this is where I have the problem. We know contractually the recently obliterated Avengers will be back. I think that Vision and Loki are truly dead. I hope they are, not because I didn't like their characters, but because we need to have some loss.  They didn't turn to dust like the others. Vision's body was still intact. Loki, we just didn't see again. Thor even states, "He's been dead before." Gamora we know is already coming back. She'll be in Guardians 3. I'm really over the "resurrection" story-line. It's been played out, it doesn't work.

Overall, the movie was wildly entertaining. It kept my attention from start to finish. When Captain America and Thor showed up to the fight, the audience went wild. My husband took a nap, but that's typical. Ragnarok is still my favorite film in the MCU. I definitely liked this movie better than Black Panther, and would recommend it if you're already a fan and have seen the previous films. Newbies would be lost. Articles I've read, stated how connected the Avengers were when they got together to fight, I would have to disagree. My dream is to see everyone working together. I would have LOVED to see an Iron Man and Captain America reconciliation, is that too much to ask? I wish I watched all of the previous films leading up to this one. That would have been helpful. I mean we're talking a ten year span of movies.

This movie only had one end credit scene. Nick Fury calls on Captain Marvel right before he turns to dust. So chances are, she'll be in the next one. Pay close attention to Chris Hemsworth's eyes. Rocket gives him a new eyeball, so no more patch. I was disappointed to not see Ant-Man. I love Paul Rudd so much! I'm thinking, he might be in round two.

Overall, Avengers Infinity War gets 4 out of 5 Pink Gerber Daisies.

UPDATE: One thing I forgot to mention that really irked me, why didn't they just cut off Thanos's arm when they had the chance??? 

Black Panther Review

****For some reason, the coloring is off on this blog. I tried to fix it the best I could. Sorry in advance. 

How can I come across in this review and not sound like a Debbie Downer? I had super high expectations for Black Panther and while my expectations weren't quite met, I still enjoyed the movie.

First off, the last Marvel outing, Thor Ragnarok, blew my mind. Every other Marvel film will now be set to that standard. It took Thor, three outings before they finally succeed in making a cool film. Even Kenneth Branagh couldn't get it right. 

Black Panther is such a multi-faceted character, he's a king and a superhero. He must protect the people of Wakanda, and yet also be a part of regular society. I loved his (Black Panther's) first outing in Captain America: Civil War. I love Chadwick Boseman! He's very nice too look at, especially on the cover of Rolling Stones Magazine. On that note, here's what I thought about the characters/actors.  

I've loved Chadwick Boseman since 42 and he was great in Marshall too. He is amazing as T'Challa. Lupita Nyong'o as Nakia is great too, but I couldn't help but hear the voice of Maz Canata (I wonder why?). My favorite character by far was Letitia Wright as T'Challa's sister, Shuri. She was funny and strong willed and kicked some butt on her own. I couldn't help but feel annoyed at Michael B. Jordan's, Erik Killmonger. I get that he's upset about being left behind, but what about his mother? She isn't mentioned except for once, when they say that his father, Sterling K. Brown (Randall from This Is Us, the BEST show on the planet) fell in love with an American. We don't know much about his life growing up. T'Challa had no idea that this man existed. Why must T'Challa pay for the sins of his father, who wasn't a bad guy to begin with. I don't clearly understand why T'Challa's dad didn't take Erik with him in the end anyway. This is the problem I had with the movie. The fact that Michael B. Jordan's character felt to entitled to a throne that didn't belong to him.  In the end there was no redemption in his character either, and that annoyed me. 

The action was just ok. There weren't too many on-the-edge-of-your-seat moments. I thought those  very few moments, were what we were given in the promos/commercials for the movie. There were a few fight scenes, but nothing to wow me the way Captain America: Civil War did. My husband fell asleep in this movie and he didn't fall asleep when we watched Fifty Shades Freed. What does that tell me. This couldn't hold his interest.  He did say he wanted to see Black Panther again, probably to watch all that he missed when his eyes were closed and his snoring got too loud. 

The visual effects were great, except the spaceship in the sky. I didn't like that. I thought it was silly. Why would no one mention this fancy spaceship in the 80's or question why it was flying overhead? I love how Wakanda is so exotic. 

I'm not all too familiar with the Black Panther mythos. In fact, I'm not too familiar with much of the Marvel mythology, just what I've read and learned in the more recent years. I think that because I heard so many amazing things about this movie before I went to see it, my expectations were just too high. As I mentioned Thor earlier, I had low expectations for that movie. Thor and Thor: The Dark World weren't that great, then they released Ragnarok, which was a super fun ride. The opposite could be said about Iron Man. I thought the first in the trilogy far surpassed the two sequels. Anyway I digress (as per my usual). 

I liked the acting, that wasn't the problem. The storyline wasn't as great as I thought it could be. I  feel a bit burned out by the amount of Marvel/DC action films being released, and yet I feel the need to watch them all. 

I would give Black Panther 3.5 out of 5 Pink Gerber Daisies. 

On a side note someone I know asked me if this film was about the rise of the Black Panther movement of the sixties. I had no words. 

Go See Captain America: Civil War

OMG, Wow! What did I just see and can I see it again? I just got back from watching Captain America: Civil War, and what a war it was. This is by far my favorite Captain America outing. The first movie, let's face it, was a snooze fest. The second, Winter Soldier, was 100 times better than the first, and this one just blew Winter Soldier out of the water.

The acting was smart and funny. The movie was a whole lot of fun. Robert Downey Jr. is an amazing talent, as is Paul Rudd. OK really they were all amazing, even the new Spidey! Elizabeth Olsen is my favorite Olsen and I grew up watching Full House. Chris Evans's arms, OMG Superman has some stiff competition. I'm still unsure about Vision and his vision, he reminds me of Dr. Manhattan from the Watchmen and the Silver Surfer from The Fantastic Four. All three are a bit boring and sound the same. Other than that, I loved all the actors in this movie. I'm not a huge fan of Scarlett Johansson, but this movie made me like her! Well, her character at least. Remember when Scarlett Johansson and Chris Evans were in the Nanny Diaries together? I digress. 

The inclusion of Spider-Man made me excited to see him again. I'm so glad Sony is allowing Marvel to use their character again. From what I saw tonight, Marvel did a great job with him. I couldn't bring myself to watch the new Amazing Spider-Man movies (they should really be called the Amazingly Lame Spider-Man movies). It was too soon for a reboot and like the argument over which Batman is better, Tobey Maguire is the better Spider-Man. Again thank you Sony for letting Marvel borrow their character. You obviously didn't know what to do with him, maybe Marvel can fix what you broke when you made The Amazing Spider-Man and Spider-Man 3. I'm actually excited to see Tom Holland take on the role. 

The writers should be praised and given a raise. They had so many characters to write for and they did a really phenomenal job. Nothing in the film seemed forced. We had so many different story lines to watch, but unlike Batman V. Superman everything worked well together, everything made sense. 

Paul Rudd, I have loved you since Clueless. Paul has impeccable comedic timing similar to that of Robert Downey Jr. Other than Chris Evans's arms, he is the best thing in the movie! 

Let's face it Iron Man started off really strong and just went downhill after movie #1. The same thing happened with The Avengers.  Poor Thor and the Hulk, their movies just sucked. Captain America has progressively gotten better. I know Iron Man aka Robert Downey Jr. is finished with his solo films, but does this movie mean there will be another Captain America movie in our future? 

The moral of the story --- what would you do for friendship? What lengths would you go to protect your friends. OK this isn't really the moral of the story, but it could be. It's also about the world government and it's incessant need to control everything. But really though, who cares about the moral, the action was enough to keep you watching,

This was way more than just a Captain America movie. It was a fun ride and I can't wait until it comes out on DVD. I really need to start adding to my Superhero DVD collection. I want all of the DVDs, even the bad movies. I actually want to watch Captain America: The First Avenger again. I tried to watch it when it came out, but it put me to sleep. 

I'm going to now use my Jedi mind tricks on you:  You will now go see Captain America: Civil War and enjoy it! Sorry it's three in the morning and I'm tired. I'm not rereading this post, so if I have grammatical errors, which most likely I will, I'll fix them when the sun comes up.

Captain America: Civil War gets 4 1/2 Pink Gerber Daisies out of 5.

XOXO see you again soon, take care and goodnight. 

Summer!!

Have to say, it's been a very long while since I've posted on my blog, partly due to the craziness which is my life and partly because I haven't had much to say. I still don't have much to say. 

I've read many books that I've forgotten, I've seen many of the summer blockbuster films which weren't worthy to review. Haven't this year's summer movies been a tad mediocre?  A couple were good, The Avengers and Hunger Games I liked enough. I refused to watch the Hunger Games until I read the book.  I was a bit late to jump on the Hunger Games bandwagon after my disappointment with Twilight, but I thoroughly enjoyed the book, well the first chapter at least and then everything after page 130.  The movie exceeded my expectations, thank god! It's been so long since I read and watched the movie, I won't waste my time reviewing either, but read it and go see it.

My life changed completely, for the better of course.  After years dealing with layoffs, department restructuring and part-time and freelance work in Public Relations, I'm teaching again.  It's what I enjoy doing. I learned that, yes, I had the best of both worlds, but one fits better into my lifestyle.  I learned that I don't have to give up the things that I love.  I can still blog, still do a little bit of Public Relations freelance work, and I can still be a social media guru! I learned that I am resilient, strong and am capable of many things.  Life is good right now, I just need to take care of myself, lose some weight, get in shape, and try to be a little more laid back.  Things work out in the end, sometimes it takes going back to where it all began. Am I a success? Right now I think so!

Have a great start of the summer (at least it's my start).  I look forward to what the future has in store for me!

Unfortunately I had nothing to review, so I have no Gerber Daisies to give out. As usual I have quotes, three to be exact, all on the topic of success.

The world belongs to the enthusiast who keeps cool, William McFee, English engineer and writer
Though a tree grow ever so high, the falling leaves return to the root, Malay Proverb
You always pass a failure on the way to success, Mickey Rooney, American actor and entertainer