So the other night I watched Guardians of the Galaxy 2 and Spider Man: Homecoming right in a row with my brother. (Do not recommend. To many emotions, guys!)

I'd heard some stuff from my friend, so I wasn't really thrilled going into it. It had some great parts, and themes about family. (Some people made up. I won't say who. Spoilers. 😉 )

Guardians of the Galaxy 2: There was some really cool stuff in there. (Nebula was actually interesting as opposed to the earlier movie where she was just basically baddie #3) I began to care more about characters I never thought I would. Yondu for the win, man. But overall, I feel disappointed. But other parts of it just felt like a bigger grungier version of trying to top the first one. I guess (even though I liked Thor 3 alot ) I can't stop being disappointed in the movie creators.

Spiderman: Homecoming on the other hand, that I enjoyed much, much more. Even if I did alternate between cheering for him and covering my face in second hand embarrassment. (Except for that one part where I wanted to give him a talking too.) But I felt it was believable considering he's trying to handle life and being a teen with this new cool experience he's just had. (I'm still kinda sad about Peter and Liz.)

Spider-man: Homecoming easily made it into my top 5 Marvel movies, despite the couple heavier profanities (really, Aunt May and Michelle?) and the name Flash calls Peter (seriously?). I like the character and the way they made an origin story without it being an actual origin story.

Spider-man: Homecoming easily made it into my top 5 Marvel movies, despite the couple heavier profanities (really, Aunt May and Michelle?) and the name Flash calls Peter (seriously?). I like the character and the way they made an origin story without it being an actual origin story.

Yeah, it did have it's downsides, but it was still pretty good. I thought it might be to action packed/tense for me to enjoy but it was actually okay.

@Lil: They made it pretty light-hearted, for sure. 😀

@Lil: They made it pretty light-hearted, for sure. 😀

Personally I thought Guardians more light-hearted. 😛

Possibly so, but I have no intention of watching GotG. 😀

Possibly so, but I have no intention of watching GotG. 😀

Dunno that you're missing that much. You can probably look up scenes on youtube or fill in with Wikipedia (or how it should have ended on youtube. HiSHE is not affliated with tlc, look up at your own risk.. ect ect ect.) There were some scenes I liked, but I couldn't justify recommending it.

Has anyone scene the new Agents of Shield Episode? I haven't, but I saw the trailer and I am super curious.

Haha, I fill up with PluggedIn, JeremyJahns (not recommended; he's got a foul mouth and makes crude jokes), HISHE, and CinemaSins (definitely not recommended; they're worse than JeremyJahns), so I think I got most of my bases covered. 😉

AoS doesn't start till this Friday, I believe. But I will be watching it!

Also, Infinity War teaser is out!

Being Spider-man fans, Luthien (my sister) and I did go to the opening night of the Spider-man: Homecoming movie. We generally liked it because it is much more believable that Peter would have a learning curve when using his powers, and overall the violence is not quite as much as other superhero movies, and there are lots of jokes.
The thing is, much as we liked it, we haven't watched it a second time because of the language. There is just way more than I was expecting. And I know that lots of kids, at least in my neighborhood that's kind of run down, swear at least half as much as this in real life. But I don't feel I can ignore the swearing and just enjoy the movie because I'm afraid I'll get the language stuck in my head and I'll accidentally use it too.

I watched the AoS season premiere. If you like dystopian fiction, it looks real good so far! I'm excited to see where this will go.

I'm so excited though! I just saw the new episode 5 "Rewind" with Fitz and HUNTER WAS BACK! 😀 (hope he'll stick around.. but since we're in the future, I don't know how much of them we'll see.)

@Lil: I'm really, really hoping this isn't the last we see of Hunter. I needed him all last season (if only to make fun of Mace's rainbow ranking system) and I'll be much put out if he's not back for more. I want him and Deke to meet so Hunter can annoy the living daylights out of Deke. 😆

Okay, so I saw Black Panther!

This is a spoiler thread, so... spoilers. 🙂 And because I'm me and I haven't organized my thoughts into any kind of order, bear with my scattered thoughts. 😀

Overall, I liked it. I think it takes after Winter Soldier in that it's a story with superhero elements rather than a superhero story. There was a greater emphasis on character motivation and the politics of Wakanda than there is on all the cool stuff T'challa can do.
T'Challa himself did not disappoint me. (I like him in the Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes cartoon and he got a great introduction in Civil War.) He's only just become king in this movie (seriously, he's king for all of, like two or three days), so a chunk of that time is spent sorting out what kind of king he wants to be (well... "time spent" in the midst of everything else happening). He's honourable, desires to do the right thing, respects tradition, and recognizes when he's in the wrong. The only downfall on his character I noted was an OOC moment in which he was definitely about to kill (or at least maim... but my money's on "kill") a bad guy. Considering that he spared Zemo even though he spent all of Civil War wanting to avenge his dad... his near-murder of a guy here seemed very out-of-place. Besides that, he had promised to bring this guy to Wakanda to face the music. And he nearly killed him in public, surrounded by a crowd and recording cellphones.
Erik Killmonger is a better villain than most of the ones we've seen. I'd even say he's probably the second-best. He's got a clear motive that's something other than "I want to rule the world" or "I want to be rich" or "I hate the hero, so I'm going to beat him". He wants to set right an evil in the world; the problem is that he goes about it in very much the wrong way. His backstory sets a good foundation for his motives on a personal level. The main (if not only) thing I wish they'd done differently was his choice at the end: I wish he'd accepted the offer of healing, rather than death, so that he and T'Challa could mend what their fathers had destroyed.
Ulysses Klaue was more of a psycho than I thought he'd be, but I'm okay with it. Andy Serkis is good at playing characters that are a little off their rockers. 😉 I think they should have kept him around longer though. Not sure how else they could use him, but considering the amount of comic material, there'd always be something.
Everett Ross (CIA agent from Civil War) has a larger role here, but he's definitely at the tertiary level. He was an interesting character, particularly during the climax. I'm thinking that there may be a chance that the MCU will mange to work toward the comic book friendship between him and T'Challa, what with how much he now knows about Wakanda but is still keeping on the down-low. (In the comics, T'Challa trusts Ross so much, that he even makes him regent during his absence!)
Shuri (T'Challa's sister) is smart, but she's got teenage sass that makes her both kinda annoying and funny (excepting the part where she flips her finger at T'Challa). Not sure she's a teenager though. She acts like one but looks like she's in her twenties.
Nakia (T'Challa's ex-girlfriend), I think, seems to have a smaller role than I'd expected. That's not to say she doesn't get a lot of screentime. I just mean that she seems to act like a foil to T'Challa and Okoye (general of the Dora Milaje, the royal guard) half the time, since she often provides an opposing perspective. Granted, her views are a definite factor in the story, so she's certainly not wasted. Besides that, her role as a spy and warrior come into play.
M'Baku (aka Man-Ape, but never called that in the film) is another tertiary character that proved interesting. More interesting than I expected, at that! He has a sense of honour (however conflicted) that I didn't see coming (since he was anything but honourable in Earth's Mightiest Heroes). I'm interested in seeing more of him in future films.
The violence levels also follows in the steps of Winter Soldier: pretty intense at times. Cars spinning out of control, flipping, and straight-up shattering; a couple stabbings; a broken arm; charging rhinos (hey, isn't that a Munchkin card? anyway); a sliced throat... yup.
The spiritual elements aren't as prevalent as I know they could be and yet cropped up in ways I didn't expect, so this is a heads-up for anyone who is turned off by that. They make it very plain that Wakandans worship gods (the panther tribe worship Bast) and the ancestors (indicated by intonations of "praise the ancestors" and drug-induced visits to the "ancestral plane" where they can communicate with the spirits of their departed beloved (these scenes are reminiscent of that scene in The Lion King in which Mufasa's spirit tells Simba to remember who he is)).
And, I just have to say it, the second post-credit scene got me fangirling because we get to see Bucky!! He's still just got the one arm, though Shuri will outfit him with a new one before Infinity War. He's presumably free of Hydra's programming too, since he's not only thawed and awake, but not in any kind of Wakandan facility. The one downside to this scene was that half-man-bun.... I'm also starting to question my thought of Bucky taking the Captain America mantle if Steve Rogers dies, because in this scene, some kids call him "White Wolf", which is a comic book character. White Wolf is apparently T'Challa's adopted brother and specializes in spywork and such. This could work out for Bucky, considering his past and his current connection to Wakanda. Much as I'd love to see him take over as Captain America if Steve dies (which I would mourn!), I think I'm also open to a White Wolf version of Bucky.

Those are my thoughts for the time being. I'll probably think of more later. 🙂

Just saw last week’s AoS ep. My mind was not blown like I was told by Marvel peeps to expect, but...
(Um, yeah, major spoilage below)

FitzSimmons are MARRIED!!!! It’s about time!
Also related to that, yay, we have confirmation about Deke’s heritage! Something (don’t remember what) had thrown me off the FitzSimmons scent earlier in the season but I’m absolutely not surprised. I’m just curious as to how his presence in the present is going to affect the future (though, one would think, not by much, since they’re in a time loop).
I was starting to get worried that it was all in Coulson’s head (what with the whole “this world will be mind-blowing” hype I’ve been fed). Yep. I fell for it.
Okay, can we take a moment to appreciate the emotions these actors put on? Daisy in denial of Coulson’s state was great.

Don't worry, I'm not here to talk about Infinity War!

I'm here to say that I've finally watched Thor: Ragnarok. And only because someone I know really, really wants to see it, but will not proceed to watching it without first getting my opinion of it; otherwise, I was perfectly content to just run with the cliffnotes version the internet is more than willing to supply.

So, um. It was strange. I was surprised it wasn't as horrible as I expected nor drowning in characters (though, granted, four died very early on, so that thinned things out). There were things that stuck out to me as straight-up weird, like instances of music (I'm about 98% sure they used that Led Zepplin song simply because it mentions Valhalla... and by "98% sure", I mean, "I'm sure the Vallhala mention was only a small contributor toward that decision, but this is me trying to come up with a reason for Marvel to justify it"), Thor talking very much like he's been on Earth for the two years between Age of Ultron and Ragnarok rather than absent (really, Thor? you're throwing "like" into your sentences now?), the play in Asgard (that went on for too long), and a great deal about the planet Sakaar and the Grandmaster in general. Plus, there were things said that we really could have done without. The humour was as heightened as I'd been told, but I do think some of it was done to the movie's detriment: it would pop in when I didn't want it. And despite the amount of humour, there were parts of the film that were pretty dark if you think about them. Not all of these dark spots are bad - I think there's merit to some of it - but others seemed too easily dismissed by the next bit of humour or else were darker than necessary.

What I did like very much were the instances in which characters had deep moments with each other, however brief. Every chance I got during the scene with Odin, I watched Loki's face: things were said that clearly affected him. I loved each of the moments Thor and Loki had. I generally wasn't wild about Thor and Hulk (Hulk was too much like a grumpy kid, for one), but I think there was one spot in which I felt something.
And, finally! Thor was able to keep the spotlight on himself in his own movie! Loki has always been a show-stealer because of his complex character, but Thor had a good amount of dimension to him that lasted for more than a few scenes, if you get my drift. (Not saying he's always flat. I appreciated his character growth in his first movie, but now the character had a chance to build and grow further - something that did not happen in Dark World (which I literally watch for Loki 'cause the rest of the movie falls into "I don't care" territory). So kudos to those who made that happen this time around.

Random note: It was really weird to know that Karl Urban (aka Eomer) was Skurge. Not sure why, since his character is way different here than in LotR (not to mention the accent that I'm pretty sure no Asgardian has ever been heard using before) and I should therefore not be making any connections to those films. Especially considering that I was not constantly thinking about Galadriel every time Cate Blanchett was onscreen as Hela, even though her voice is exactly the same.

Another random note: I think the Doctor Strange scene was one of my favourite parts. And since I saw Doctor Strange once and some time ago, I got the experience the shock of his American accent all over again.

Overall opinion? "Meh." It's largely enjoyable and definitely has the kind of moments I love to see in stories, but I'm not joining the ranks of those claiming that this is the best Marvel movie - indeed, the thought of it dethroning one of my top fives hasn't even entered my mind - though I'll have to think about whether I consider the first Thor movie or this one to be the better one. Despite the character moments and the fact that Thor really holds his own as a character in his own movie, I still prefer other Marvel films that I believe have more depth.

So, my sister and I went to see Infinity War mainly because our classmates and friends had seen it and we didn't think we could avoid the spoilers forever. Without spoilering it, I'm going to agree with my sister's friend's mom who says it's probably better to wait to see it until the second movie comes out next year to resolve things.
It also has about 25 main characters and spends more time than I wanted with the Guardians of the Galaxy.

Basically, if you can avoid the movie; I would wait. It's not the best Marvel movie, it just has a lot of characters, a lot of crude remarks from the Guardians of the Galaxy, and a lot of fighting, so maybe they should have named it Infinite War instead.
It is, however, the first Marvel movie that I've actually liked Iron Man in, so it isn't all bad.

EDIT: I've been thinking a bit over the last month and I don't really recommend this movie. Mainly because of language and crudeness.