Tag / Movie Review

by WetheGeek

Spider-Man a swinging Success

Spider-Man Far From Home

I’m going to split this into two parts. The first will be a spoiler free review, then the ending will be spoilers and talking about what the end credit scenes mean.

It’s the second best movie of the year, so far. I gave it an easy 9/10. Once again Marvel created a very compelling villain out of a nobody in the comics. I was blown away by how thought out the story was. FFH deals astonishingly well with the aftermath of “the snap” and “the blip” as they are commonly referred to in the movies.

The plot follows Peter Parker going on a class trip to Europe. He just wants to be a normal teen and leave the hero life behind. All doesn’t go as planned though because Nick Fury needs Peter’s help in fighting giant elemental monsters. Together the new hero Mysterio and Spider-Man team up to take down the monsters.

**Spoilers**

Mysterio is the villain. I was disappointed he wasn’t a dimension hopping new age hero but they did a fantastic job with him anyway. I was extremely impressed with the character design and arc. It was well thought out. The way he goes from wanna be hero to evil mastermind was great and reminded me of DCs Reverse Flash in many ways.

Spider-Man also was once again well done. I appreciated the friendship he has with Happy Hogan finally. After Homecoming and now the death of Tony Peter needs a friend. The two new suits Peter gets are amazing and I’m excited to see more of them in the future.

My biggest issue with FFH is that Mysterio is another person slighted by Stark that turns to villainy. It’s super overplayed at this point. Ultron, Vulture, Whiplash, Iron Monger, Killian, and now Mysterio. Mysterio was fired for a legitimate reason, he was emotionally unstable and wouldn’t seek help. I think Marvel definitely needs to find a new villain origin story.

-RytheGeek

#spiderman #farfromhome #ironman #happyhogan #moviereview #review #wethegeek #wethegeekry

by WetheGeek

The 90s are Back!

Catching Up

This past month has been crazy. We moved Luna out of her apartment, I’m looking for a new place, several of us have started new jobs, and this summer has been crazy chaotic. Not to mention all the geek content E3 dropped on us this year. It’s just been a lot. But I want to catch everyone up on movies. So here we go.

Aladdin 7/10: The updated Disney animated classic wasn’t half bad. For the most part I really enjoyed the movie. I loved Will Smith and his personalization of the Genie. While he is no Robin Williams he definitely made it his own. There were a few part like Jasmines “let it go” song that seemed unnecessary but overall it was pretty good.

Godzilla King of Monsters 8/10 or 2/10: I don’t usually give movies a double score but I felt this one deserved it. If you like action movies and especially big monster fights you’re going to love it. If you want a story with human characters? Don’t go. Simple as that.

Dark Phoenix 5/10: I tried. I really did. I wanted to like this movie. It’s Marvel and superheroes and action. But when it comes down to it, it was pretty bad. I can’t express how disappointed I was, again, with an X-men film.

MIB International: Currently MIB 4 is the second worst movie of 2019. That’s easily subject to change (we still have Star Wars 9). I loved the idea of Thor and Valkyrie in a body cop movie. It seemed like a great idea. It wasn’t. Not a movie I would recommend.

Toy Story 4 7/10: 90s nostalgia is definitely here this summer. Toy Story 4 is one of the few movies this summer that lives up to its hype. It’s a very well done story with all your favorite characters. To be honest the only reason it isn’t scored higher is because I didn’t feel it was entirely necessary after TS 3. It felt more like a way to sell new toys, and not the closing that 3 had. But if you ignore that it was great.

Now we wait for Spider-Man Far from Home

-RytheGeek

#moviereview #movies #aladdin #godzilla #xmen #meninblack #toystory #spiderman #wethegeek #wethegeekry

by WetheGeek

Theory for the End

My theory and what I was right and what I messed up.

Immediately after Captain Marvel came out I made a theory about how Endgame would go down. It was a little out there for some people and most ignored it. But I have to say something.

I was right. About some major plot points.

While my Captain Marvel Theory was a bit outlandish and far fetched I think my Endgame Theory was much more grounded. The LEGO sets, other toys, IMDb page, and trailers gave me a lot and helped with what I knew.

So without further ado let’s get down to it.

Endgame will focus on two things, avenging the fallen and trying to get them back. For those who have watched infinity war that seems pretty obvious. They are the Avengers after all.

“As we last saw them Tony and Nebula are the only survivors on Titan. They have extremely limited resources being so far from earth. The ship Tony got to Titan on was destroyed. The only ship left is probably what’s left of a battle damaged Benatar. Nebula would be the obvious choice as pilot since this is Tony’s first time being in space (not counting the missile in Avengers 1). In the trailers it appears that the duo get stranded. From loose reports online all the footage we have seen is from the first half hour of a three hour movie.”

That was all pretty much correct. While I didn’t know how they would get back, I did understand that their struggle in space would be over quickly. I didn’t see Captain Marvel rescuing them because quite frankly that seemed too easy.

“While the duo is stuck the rest of the Avengers (Captain America, War Machine, Black Widow, Thor, and Hulk) have returned to Avengers compound in Upstate New York. Rocket is strangely missing from the cast. Having only met Thor before I’m not surprised if he goes off on his own to try to find Groot. We see at the end of Captain Marvel that the remaining Avengers have managed to get their hands on Fury’s PDA. Black Widow seems to have become the de facto leader since the dusting of Fury and Tony’s disappearance. Captain Marvel arrives in search of Fury and probably learns of the dusting. She has been off stopping the Kree/Skrull War for the past 30 years and helping other planets. The Earth team gets word from Tony and help save him and Nebula. Specifically Black Widow, Rocket, Thor, and a very depressed Hawkeye. This information is curtsey of the new LEGO sets. Hawkeye probably loses his entire family to “the snap” and has since become a very dark vigilante in search of revenge and answers.”

I was completely wrong about Thor. Dude got fat. And lazy. And really depressed. It wasn’t Rocket who left the team, but Thor. I also didn’t see the killing of Thanos happening at all. That was new to me. I nailed Black Widow being in charge and running the show. I didn’t know she would run the “new SHIELD” but I still knew she would be important. I also saw the dark Hawkeye plot a mile out. That one was pretty easy.

“After the entire team is finally on earth, Antman escapes the Quantum Realm and meets up with the team. Rocket, Tony, Scott, and Bruce come up with a way to use the Quantum Realm to time travel. The team wants to put together an infinity gauntlet before Thanos does or at the very least try to destroy the infinity stones before they are completely assembled. Captain America, Tony, Scott, and Rocket travel into the past to try to prevent the future.”

While I was wrong about the time travel teams, I nailed the reasoning, they wanted their own gauntlet. I 100% aced that. Even weeks before the movie.

“Why these four? First I think Rocket because of the suit we see him in, in the trailers. It looks very reminiscent of his comic suit which could be before he joined the Guardians. The other three we have seen in early set photos wearing a small device on their hands that could be related to time travel. IMDb further confirms my suspicion of at least Tony and Steve time traveling in having casted Ty Simpkins again as Harley Keener, the kid from Iron Man 3 and Frank Grillo as Crossbones from Civil War and Winter Solider. LEGO goes on to solidify Tony going back to Iron Man 3 with the “Hall or Armors”. We see one specific suit we haven’t seen before or since that movie, the blue heavy lifting suit, Mark 38, (or as I call it HulkBuster Jr). We know Tony goes back in his current suit (Mark 50) because once again LEGO told us.”

All of this was wrong. My bad.

“The time travel goes on because Tilda is set to reprise her role as the Ancient One. We can guess this is sometime in the 70s because of the extras on IMDb. This is well before Doctor Strange but presumably she still has the time stone to make this time travel easier.”

While I was wrong about when they would see Tilda, I was dead on about needing the time stone from her. So some minor credit there.

“We also have rumors of Katherine Langford casted as Scott Lang’s teenage daughter. There is some possibility that Katherine and Ty become heroes in the future and that’s why Antman is part of the time traveling team. We get to go to the past and the future in attempts to stop the snap from ever happening.”

So technically Scott did go into the future. But the entire movie did too. It wasn’t just him. So in a small way I was kind right?

“That’s about where my theory ends. I’m not really sure what act 3 will be. From the LEGOs I surmise that the final battle will be at Avengers compound. We haven’t seen much about it and that makes sense. The Russo Brothers are being very quiet about it.”

Once again I got something right. I saw the final fight being not only on earth but at Avengers Compound. While I didn’t see the Nebula doppelgänger plot happening, I did know where it would all end.

“With Spider-Man 2 coming out in July we also know everyone who was dusted comes back. We see Peter and Fury alive and well post Infinity War. Sadly it appears Tony doesn’t make it out of Endgame. We don’t see him mentoring Peter at all and that is depressing.”

I hate admitting I was right about Tony. I had a bad feeling he wouldn’t make it out and I was dead on. Tough.

And that’s how I was right about some of the biggest Endgame spoilers.

-RytheGeek

#avengersendgame #avengers #endgame #theory #wethegeek #wethegeekry

by WetheGeek

A love letter to Marvel

I love you 3000

The first Marvel movie I saw in theaters was Avengers back in 2012. I was 15. I actually didn’t even see it in a theater, I went to the drive in. I didn’t go to the movies a lot growing up, usually I just went to the library and rented new movies. Avengers changed all that. Since then I haven’t missed a single Marvel movie in theaters. That includes Deadpool or the X-men or anything in the MCU. I’ve seen them all.

I love the MCU for one reason, Iron Man.

Never before have I related on a fictional character as much as I do Tony Stark. It’s not because I’m wealthy or a super genius. Far from both. But just like him, over the past few years I’ve had the same character arc. From arrogant jerk to loving passionate defender.

The MCU has revolved around Tony Stark more than any other character. The first movie was Iron Man. The last of the Infinity Saga is his death. He was the star of the MCU and it’s not hard to see that.

In Iron Man we meet Tony Stark. He is a rich, arrogant, selfish, playboy who cares about no one. Throughout the eight movies we see him in we watch him lose his company, his health, his loved ones, his sanity, and more importantly himself. He struggles with it all. I haven’t suffered quite what he has but I understand in some small way what it’s like.

Avengers Endgame was by far the best MCU movie. Not only did it have obscure comic book references like Howard the Duck but it also had the humor that is quintessential of the MCU.

The special effects were vivid and lifelike. The dialogue was humorous yet depressing. The actors made you feel like you were there in every second.

It made me want more.

And in the end I watched my hero give it all for something else believed in.

The people he loves.

-RytheGeek

#avengers #marvel #endgame #ironman #tonystark #wethegeek #wethegeekry

by WetheGeek

Endgame from a non believer

Endgame from NOT a fan

Okay so I just wanted this review to say “more Loki, less captain and I love ant man” but Ry said I should put a little more effort into it so here we go with each of those three pieces broken down:

MORE LOKI- guys I’m completely shamelessly saying here that I think this movie still should have had more Loki. Every movie needs more Loki. He’s not really dead. You’ll never change my mind. He’s a British actor in a science fiction situation he hasn’t exhausted his 37 lives yet. And while there is some Loki I am DEEPLY concerned with the fact that not a single avenger cared that this unreformed evil man just disappeared with an infinity stone. And while this is rumored to be the set up for the new show on Disney plus it was lazy writing and frankly goes against everything we know about the Avengers that they’d let this guy just disappear into space. That’s honestly more unbelievable than bringing half of the worlds population back from a disappearance. So yeah. You’ll make me happy with more Loki

LESS CAP- can we all just admit now that he’s gone how truly annoying cap is? Like boo hoo poor me I want you all to follow the law and then I’m just gonna go not follow the law and be totally rude to like all my friends. He’s poorly written from a bygone era and frankly I do not mind he’s no longer around to pout a little more. If he was snapped away the first time the second movie would be better.

ANTMAN- okay so my biggest issue with infinity war was the fact that like all of the newer avengers got snapped. That makes it really hard for someone like me who joined this series somewhere around Ragnorock. And who still hasn’t seen a lot of the early movies (but has managed to see iron man two and three go figure). Thus I am so thankful that Antman was in this film the way he was. Most of his time was spent asking questions like “who are you” and “why do you crazies think this loony Doctor Who level reset the universe crap will work”. This man was my saving grace in this film. I love him desperately. More Paul Rudd. Now.

-Luna

#avengers #endgame #loki #captainamerica #review #moviereview #paulrudd #antman #wethegeek #wethegeekluna

by WetheGeek

Was Captain Marvel really that good?

Before RytheGeek reviews Endgame (which comes out next week), Mabel and RytheGeek reviewed Captain Marvel. So here we go. Spoilers in all.

Mabel-

Captain Marvel was ok.

The action was there, the plot was there, the characters were there but, that being said, there were a few things about it that bothered me as a veiwer.

Please note: I have no lore or background or previous love for Captain Marvel or any Marvel character. Everything I observe is solely based on how I felt about the movies. Everything I say is how I felt slowed the movie or made it unbelievable (go figure, a superhero movie being unbelievable).

I find that recently it is a trend, especially with female superheros, to have a scene where someone struggles with a task for a few minutes before the main character fixes it to show off their power/knowledge.

In the movie, Captain Marvel and Nick Fury are stuck in a secure room where they had to get out. For a solid 3 minutes, Fury painstakingly lifts a security guard’s fingerprint off his badge with tape and uses it to open the secure door. Later, they’re met with another door that Captain Marvel just blasts the handle off the door within seconds.

Under the time crunch they had, my question is why would a military trained officer like Captain Marvel allow precious minutes to be wasted to watch Fury struggle? You can argue that it was a funny scene but there are less time consuming ways to pull that scene off without losing it’s punch.

The movie itself is very fast paced, sometimes not even allowing the audience a chance to breath and process before sucking us back into action and information, which is something I kind of expect from an origin movie. Because of this fast paced, information packed format, there were a few things that were rushed in the interest of time.

In the movie, the Kree had been waging a war on the alien race of Skrulls. Captain Marvel had been apart of Kree’s battle for some time but, upon coming to Earth, she learns that she might be on the wrong side of the fight.

The development of Captain Marvel switching sides happened too fast. It literally only took one short scene for her to decide that the Kree were actually that bad guys. The transformation was not earned. After Captain Marvel gets her memories back, she learns that her previous commander was an alien fighting on the wrong side of a war and that her commander was shot by her new Kree commander. The reason Captain Marvel switches sides is vage at best; there are so many unanswered questions and assumptions that she had to ignore:

Which side of the war was Vell talking about?

How could she know that the man who killed Vell wasn’t actually a Skrull pretending to be him?

Why trust Vell after she lied to her about her race?

The decision was made so fast that it almost doesn’t make sense. After we get to the hidden ship, then it makes sense but Captain Marvel had already made up her mind before that.

RytheGeek-

I had trouble writing this review. For a lot of reasons. On the one hand I don’t feel this movie was for me, it’s not your typical guy superhero flick, and that’s great. I loved Wonder Woman and initially I loved Captain Marvel too. It was fun and fast and bright and shiny. But after sitting down and thinking about it I had some huge issues with it.

First I think they ruined a perfectly good villain. This is the same issue I had with Age of Ultron and Iron Man 3. All three movies took amazing comic book villains and made them lame and weak compared to their counterparts. The Skrulls has so much potential. They literally could have changed the face of Marvel and the MCU as we know it. Instead they just were refugees. While I do understand the political importance in today’s climate of discussing refugees, I don’t think it should be infused in films. Unless you are making a strictly political film. They took an amazing villain bank and made them lame. Just as they did in Iron Man 3 to the Mandarin and Ultron in Avengers 2. All had great potential and yet…

My second big issue is something Mabel touched on, the turn over. Flash back to one of the best MCU movies to date, Captain America Winter Solider. We meet the title character, the Winter Solider and discover who he really is, Bucky Barnes, Captain America’s best friend. We find out Bucky was brainwashed by Hydra to be the perfect assassin. Sound familiar?But he was brainwashed by mere mortals and not a super advanced alien race may I remind you. Bucky, just like Carol, tries to break his “programming”. The major difference between them is that he spends five years after he learns the truth breaking his programming. She spends mere hours or days. I guess Hydra could be better at brainwashing, but I really doubt it.

My last big issue is why I’ve hesitated writing this article, the worst part of the movie, which isn’t even in the movie at all!

The fans.

I’ve been part of toxic fandoms before, like Rick and Morty or Star Wars. But this is the first one that made me truest uncomfortable. If you don’t love, and I mean loooove, Captain Marvel, you’re called sexist and bigoted. I’ve seen it in the comments. I’m not hating on this movie because of females. I’m hating because of plot holes. I hate Iron Man 3 just as much and I consider myself a huge Iron Man fan. I think people can critique movies and films and not be sexist pigs.

Personally I think Brie Larson has been a large contributor to the toxic fan culture. She acts like she knows everything about comic books and is the best actress ever. Her interviews have shown as much. And quite frankly she isn’t. She even lied about doing her own stunts, which is clearly wrong. She has pictures on set with her.

That all being said I still didn’t hate Captain Marvel. I give it a solid 7/10. It could have been far worse. They had great action and I love the Fury/Danvers dynamic. Not to mention Goose. That cat is great.

Thanks for reading

-Mabel and RytheGeek

#captainmarvel #marvel #disney #moviereview #recap #wethegeekmabel #wethegeekry

by WetheGeek

The OA: A Netflix hidden gem

The OA

Season 2 of Netflix’s original series The OA was released last week, and I couldn’t have been more excited. Almost a year and a half after the pilot season released, our questions finally start to get answered and the plot starts to make a little bit more sense. If you’ve never heard of The OA, don’t worry, I’ll give you a spoiler-free synopsis and overall review of this hidden binge-able gem.

The OA is centered around a young woman named Prairie Johnson (Brit Marling) who randomly comes home after being missing and presumed dead for 7 years. Queue the happy family reunion and sob fest in the hospital. But there’s a catch to this seemingly positive intro to our story. Prairie suffered from blindness beginning when she was a child. I say suffered in the past tense because when she is found after that long 7 years, she has fully regained her sight. How she lost her sight to begin with and came to have her sight again are connected by the same type of event in Prairie’s life. Unfortunately, if I tell you what actually happened, it’ll ruin the whole brain-bang that is the show.

When I first watched The OA back in early 2017, I went into it thinking it was going to be a wonderful story of a blind girl magically regaining her sight, returning home, and adapting to normal life again. What I wasn’t expecting was the mind-bending conspiracy that unfolded in each episode. The more time I spent watching it, the more brain power I used to connect all the dots and critically think my way through the plot. The one central theme that captivated me from the start was the approach to death not as the end all be all, but as a gateway to somewhere else. Season one leaves you wondering where is this “somewhere else?” Is it heaven, hell, limbo? Season 2 answers this question vaguely. The somewhere else is just a parallel universe or alternate reality where the same people exist just living a totally different life.

The OA is an intriguing concept that explores the afterlife and possibility for infinite universes within a vast multiverse. This show is the perfect blend of drama and science fiction that will leave you with a major existential crisis. Are there alternate realities or parallel universes that we can’t access until death? Do you need a series of gestures and movements done by 5 people to retain the memories of your previous life? If you want a real thinker of a show, The OA is the series for you. Try not to lose your mind in the process.

-KatTheLadyNerd

#wethegeek #kattheladynerd #theoa #oa #netflix

by WetheGeek

The Bricks Return

LEGO movie 2: the second part.

Everything’s NOT awesome in the world of our LEGO friends. What makes me super happy is it picks up right where the last movie left off with the duplo characters coming in to take over. Once again the movie has impressive animation, a catchy song and a cute story line. Sure there may be no big huge twist in this film like there was in the first one but it’s also a good film with enough excitement and energy to keep you on your toes.

What this movie does shockingly well however is entertain the adults they know are being taken to this film. For example, Chris Pratt’s other character Rex is just a hodgepodge of all of his famous characters (including a joke of chiseled features that were hidden under baby fat). It’s a very self aware film and that’s always fun for me to see.

Don’t listen to the reviews that say it’s not a great movie. In my opinion adults get stuck in this idea that all children’s movies will be some Pixar level deep commentary on society. A kids film doesn’t have to have that to be good. Sometimes mindless songs that will certainly get stuck in your head and vomiting glitter is exactly the entertainment required. Don’t go to a kids film expecting depth. Go expecting fun, which is exactly what you will experience here

-Luna

#lego #legomovie2 #chrispratt #toys #wethegeek #wethegeekluna

by WetheGeek

X-men Returnith

Return of the X-men

I’ve relatively ignored the X-men franchise in WetheGeek for one main reason, Disney has the rights and all the other movies don’t matter. Not to say any of them were super fantastic (except Deadpool and Logan) but they really don’t matter. Most of the movies were jokes when they came out and the box office showed as much. Nonetheless they have made 11 movies as part of the franchise. I should probably talk about them or something. Especially with Dark Phoenix coming out this year.

The first X-men came out in 1963 by the legendary Stan Lee and Jack Kirby. The series was based around a team of humans with special powers given to them through genetic mutations. It was originally written to show why racism is so bad and how skin color or religious preferences don’t matter.

The movies follow that same ideal. The first X-men movie came out in 2000 and since then we have had one every few years. The plot of the movies follows the young team and its leader, Professor X, while trying to stop mutant haters, radical mutant groups, and the occasional overpowered mutant.

The hardest thing for me to write about is the timeline. It’s all over the place. This series throws cannon out the window and continuously rewrites its history. I don’t know if I could even do it if I tried.

And that in of itself is what makes this series so hard for me to love. The plot is everywhere and nowhere all at once.

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But none of this matters. Disney has bought the rights to the X-men. Even after Dark Phoenix this entire movie series will be pointless. Hopefully Disney can fix the X-men like they did Spider-Man.

Here’s hoping

-RytheGeek

#xmen #wolverine #professorx #disney #fox #darkphoenix #wethegeek #wethegeekry

by WetheGeek

A Twist on Normal Streaming

Black Mirror: Bandersnatch

Back in December, the popular Netflix anthology series Black Mirror added another strange tale to their ranks. Bandersnatch is a standalone film that brings choose-your-own adventures to a whole new level. The story surrounds a young videogame designer, Stefan, in the 1980s who is attempting to adapt his favorite choose-your-own-adventure novel into a visual medium. It’s a psychological thriller that causes just as much chaos for the viewer as the protagonist.

In the beginning, you make a series of seemingly insignificant decisions to get the feel for how the film lays out the plot. Without providing any serious spoilers, there are many different ways to make a poor or detrimental choice that takes you to a less-than-ideal ending. But it’s what the film’s algorithm does that’s the best part. When you get that early ending, it takes you back to the scene before the “bad” choice, and let’s you choose the other option as a way of correcting the mistake and allowing you to see the rest of the story and every possible ending.

It wouldn’t be a classic episode of Black Mirror without several secrets and plot twists that leave you scratching your head wondering, “What the *bleep* just happened?!?” Why would the Bandersnatch creators make the viewer choose the story if there wasn’t any real interaction between the audience and the characters? That’s right. You guessed it. A fourth wall break. Stefan, the guy you control the decisions of, figures out he’s being manipulated by an outside force to make these decisions. So to be a smart alec, it’s a choose-your-own-adventure novel within a choose-your-own-adventure game within a choose-your-own-adventure film. Does that mean our very human existence is a choose-your-own-adventure universe? Mind blown.

Unfortunately, a project as well-received as this doesn’t come without backlash. According to an article from TheVerge.com, the publisher of the Choose Your Own Adventure book series, Chooseco, is suing Netflix for trademark infringement at the amount of at least $25 million. Their main reasoning is since Bandersnatch is so dark and geared toward adults, it will ruin Chooseco’s reputation for publishing family-friendly entertainment. Netflix is such a large entity in the industry, the chances of them losing this battle are very slim. Chooseco can try though.

Netflix has been on fire with their Originals lately. From Stranger Things to Tidying Up with Marie Kondo to Orange is the New Black to The Seven Deadly Sins, there are nearly limitless options available on this legendary streaming platform. The next time you’re scrolling through your watch list, just pick a Netflix Original. The worst that could happen is that you’ll hate it and have to pick another one. Eventually, you’ll end up sucked into an intense show you just can’t stop binging…like Black Mirror.

Well, you know where I’ll be.

-KatTheLadyNerd