Category: My Favorite Franchises

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Character Posters

21 – Captain Marvel

Once again, this isn’t one of my favorite MCU films, though I always enjoy watching it.  I just enjoy watching other MCU movies more.  Of course, this is the first MCU movie with a female lead protagonist, Carol Danvers, otherwise known as Captain Marvel, played by Brie Larson.  Critics really loved her performance as the title character, and I completely agree.  I thought she did a fantastic job.  I mean, she had it all: power, intelligence, and an indomitable will.  And she looked fantastic, as well.  On top of that she had humor and fierceness in equal measure.

This movie introduced a lot of low level characters among the alien race known as the Kree.  And we got more of Ronin the Accuser from the first Guardians of the Galaxy movie, firmly establishing that this story took place in the MCU’s past, as Ronin died at the end of Guardians.  Other than him, Korath was brought back, in addition to Nick Fury, played by our beloved Samuel L. Jackson with some pretty amazing de-aging technology applied, and Phil Coulson.  Then we got plenty of new characters, most of whom disappeared after this film.   Jude Law played Carol’s main antagonist, Yon-Rogg, a Kree captain.  The Kree supreme intelligence, the mastermind behind the Kree domination of the Galaxy played, at least in Carol’s encounters with her, played by Annette Benning.  And I really loved Carol’s old friend Maria Rambeau!

But one new character who we see in several future MCU features, is the Skrull operative, Talos, played by Ben Mendelsohn.  I love his character and the fact that at first we are led to believe he is the bad guy, but we later learn that the Kree are the bad guys, and the Skrulls are really the good guys who are just trying to escape oppression under the Kree.  Mendelsohn did a great job and I really like what they did with his character.  As it turns out, he was just trying to infiltrate Carol’s mind to find his missing wife and child. 

And then there was a strange member of the cast, an alien called a flerken, which looks like a cat, but which can overpower multiple enemies with flailing tentacles that come out of its mouth.  It can also swallow both objects and people, no matter what their size.  I thought it was interesting to learn that this flerken, named Goose, was actually played by four different cats named Reggie, Archie, Rizzo, and Gonzo.  Anyway, it was interesting to learn why Nick Fury has to wear an eye-patch.  Goose scratched his eye out!

I also really liked the story.  At the beginning of the narrative, Carol has no memory of her past, and thus does not know that the Kree are really the villains.  But by the end of the film, she regains her memories and learns to fully control the mega-powerful abilities caused by the explosion of an experimental light-speed engine, developed by a rebel Kree scientist.  And she really becomes the most powerful hero in the MCU, save for Wanda Maximoff, who comes into her own in later installments of the franchise.  And how did Carol finally defeat the Kree Supreme Intelligence?  By being herself, a woman who always got to her feet one more time than she got knocked down.

For the most part, I liked the 90s pop music selections use for many of the action sequences.  But for one fight scene on the orbital laboratory, the film actually laid it on pretty thick with the girl-power angle, where they played I’m Just a Girl, by No Doubt.  But why not?  The whole movie was actually a period piece that took place in the 90s, so that was cool.    And as a final thought, I really love Carol’s cosmic super-powers.  They are bright and colorful, and look amazing on the big screen.  She can survive in outer-space without a suit, turn herself into a cannonball, capable of smashing through things like missiles and space ships, and she can shoot energy bolts from her hands.  And she is as durable as steel.  Such a powerful hero!

Top 10 Favorite Parts

1. Carol’s escape from the Skrulls.  Pretty cool fight sequence.
2. Carol meets Nick Fury and Phil Coulson.
3. Carol chases a Skrull disguised as an old lady, and fights it on a train.
4. Fury catches up with Carol in the dive bar.  “How do I know you’re not a Skrull?”
5. Talos reveals himself at Maria Rambeau’s house.
6. The flight to the orbiting Lab. And Talos finding his family.
7. Carol escapes from the Supreme Intelligence through force of will.
8. Captain Marvel fights the Kree Squad and Goose eats the Kree soldiers.
9. Carol powers –up and turns back Ronin’s assault on Earth, taking out his missiles and destroying one of his assault ships.
10. Captain Marvel refuses to fight Yon-Rogg and just shoots him down, humbling him, and saying, “I have nothing to prove to you.”

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Character Posters

19 – Avengers: Infinity War

I can’t say enough how perfect a movie this was.  I don’t want to just gush over this movie, but I love pretty much everything about it.  From the cast to the cinematography, from the costumes to the score, from the visual effects to the script, they just got so much right.  And you could tell that the actors loved what they were doing, the roles they were playing.  And something happened in this film that pretty much never happens in a superhero film.  The good guys lost.  They lost!  And the epic scale of that defeat was monumental, changing the very fabric of the franchise.  Beloved characters were either killed or erased from existence.  The climax had lasting consequences that would permanently color the MCU and its characters.  It was pure cinematic magic, and I loved every minute of it.

So we have spent 18 films introducing superheroes, and while there have been fantastic team-ups in films like The Avengers and Captain America: Civil War, here they brought them all together to face the threat of one of the greatest super-villains of all time.  Thanos, played by Josh Brolin was amazing.  Yes he was the bad guy, but I don’t know if I’d call him evil.  Insane, yes, but not evil.  One of the mistake that many films make, superhero films, in particular, is that their villains are weak.  They are simply bad guys with powers that match those of the good guys.  But Thanos was his own character with his own history and motivations and plans.  He wasn’t a copy of any hero, and he had actual reasons for what he was doing.  And those reasons, while guided by an amoral mind, were almost understandable, if not condonable.  In his own unfathomable way, he was actually trying to alleviate suffering by reducing the population of the universe by half, to allow the survivors to more easily use the limited resources of the cosmos.

And how absolutely bad-assed were the Children of Thanos?  His four lieutenants that were sent to retrieve the infinity stones on Earth?  There was Maw, Proxima Midnight, Corvus Glaive, and Cull Obsidian.  Maw was so cool and was incredibly powerful.  He pretty much single handedly took down Iron Man, Doctor Strange, and Wong, and was only defeated by his own arrogance and hubris.  His calm and focused exterior was only matched by his incredible telekinetic abilities.  And Proxima Midnight was just a master of hand to hand combat.

The story was masterfully told.  There were three main plots that were followed, each with their own unlikely teams of heroes   We had Iron Man who get teamed up with Dr. Strange, Spicer-Man and the Guardians of the Galaxy, second Rocket and Groot go on a mission with Thor to create a new weapon to replace his destroyed hammer.  And finally, we got Captain America, Black Widow, Vision, Wanda Maximoff, Falcon, and Bruce Banner, and they join up with Black Panther, the Winter Soldier, and all the armies of Wakanda.

The action sequences were incredible.  I especially loved the battle on Titan where Thanos would have been defeated, if not for Starlord’s discovery that Thanos had murdered Gamora.  We really got to see Doctor Strange using his mastery of the mystic arts in awesome ways.  Co cool!     And the climactic battle on the fields of Wakanda were thrilling to watch.  Thor’s arrival on Earth was epic!  I awlays love it whenever Thor’s eyes glow and he goes God mode!

But the real emotional heart of the film is the end.  The defeat.  The snap.  So Thanos has collected all six infinity stones.  With Thor’s new ax buried in his chest, he snaps his fingers and eliminates half of all live in the universe.  Bucky is the first we see turn to dust and vanish.  Each hero who disappears is hard to watch, but Spider-Man’s demise nearly brings me to tears every time I watch it.  He is just a boy, and he is afraid, and Iron Man, can do nothing to prevent it.  It is absolutely heartbreaking to watch.  Just heartbreaking.

Top 10 Favorite Parts

1. Iron Man and Dr. Strange fight Maw.  “Dude, you’re embarrassing me in front of the Wizard.”
2. The Guardians of the Galaxy confront Thanos on Knowhere and he messes with reality.  Quill actually pulls the trigger to kill the woman he loves.
3. Stark meets the Guardians.  “Where is Gamora?” “Who is Gamora?”  “Why is Gamora?!?”
4. The battle on Titan.  Dr. Strange is amazing and uses the Crimson Bands of Cyttorak!  Also, Thanos throws a moon at Iron Man.
5. Thor restarts the forge on Nidavellir to create Stormbreaker, and Groot uses his own arm as a handle.
6. Shuri talks with Banner about removing the Mind stone from Vision’s head.
7. The battle in Wakanda and Thor’s epic arrival.  “You guys are so screwed now!”
8. Wanda has to kill Vision, and it doesn’t even work because Thanos reverses it with the Time Stone.
9. The snap, and all the heroes turning to dust.  Just rip my heart out!
10. After all the devastation, Thanos has a vision where the child Gamora used to be asks him what his victory cost him.  “Everything.”  Then, finally he sits alone in his peaceful, empty paradise.

Cast Photos

Character Posters

18 – Black Panther

Ever since Prince T’Challa was introduced in Captain America: The Winter Soldier, fans have really been looking forward to a solo movie for Black Panther.  The one we got knocked it out of the park.  We got a host of new characters that were just as awesome as the title character.  The casting was incredible, the acting was commendable, the set and costume design were top-notch, the visual effects were amazing, the script was smart, and the action was exciting.

If I had any complaints, it would be a complaint I have with most Marvel movies – the villain.  The MCU has a built in problem with its bad guys.  They often craft a super-villain that roughly matches the abilities and power-levels of the heroes.  Just look at other Marvel films.  Iron Man had Iron Monger.  The Hulk had The Abomination.  Yes, Thor was a little different, he had his brother Loki, kind-of, and his own arrogance.  But then we went back to Captain America and The Winter Soldier.  Ant-Man had Yellowjacket.  Dr. Strange had Kaecilius.  The list goes on and on.  And here we have Black Panther matched against Killmonger.

But that being said, Killmonger, played by Michael B. Jordan, was pretty bad-ass.  He had an emotional stake in the story, and he, like most Marvel bad guys, was really under-developed, which I also kind-of don’t have a problem with.  Yes, we care more when the hero wins if we know more about the bad guy.  But we’re here to see the good guy win.  We don’t need to know too much about the bad guy because we know he isn’t going to last beyond this movie.  The back story we really need is that of the good guy.  And Chadwick Boseman really did such a fantastic job as T’Challa.  The character had to deal with his father’s death and replacing him as King of a powerful nation.  Boseman really played that balance between grief and responsibility well.  We fell in love with him, which just made the actor’s death in 2020 so much more tragic.

We also met some other great characters like T’Challa’s sister, super scientist Shuri, his love interest, Nakia, the head of his personal guard, Okoye, the chief of a rival tribe, M’Baku, his mother, Ramonda, and one of the elders of his tribe, Zuri.  We also meet an American CIA agent, Everett Ross, and the criminal his is pursuing, Ulysses Klaue.  And the got some pretty big names to fill these roles like Angela Bassett, Andy Serkis, Martin Freeman, and Lupita Nyong’o.  I particularly loved Winston Duke as M’Baku. 

But this film also did a great job of tying into the larger MCU tapestry.  In delving into the history of Wakanda, their attitudes and policies regarding vibranium and the secret of the heart-shaped herb, and how they interact with the rest of the world.  Also, they used Klaue, one of the criminals from The Avengers: Age of Ultron.  And I know that Martin Freeman’s Agent Ross, goes on to be used in future MCU projects, as well.  And of course, in this film’s post-credit scene, we see a bit of Sebastian Stan as Bucky Barns.

And as all MCU films, the action sequences were thrilling to watch.  There was the sequence in which Klaue is tracked and apprehended, the big battle in the fields outside T’Challa’s palace, and the short climactic fight between Black Panther and Killmonger in the vibranium mine.  Not to mention the ritual combat scenes when a new King is appointed.  The use of CGI was flawless, and the super-futuristic tech of all the Wakandan warriors was so cool!  Their cloak shields were great!  I also loved the armored battle rhinos.

And as a final thought, I have to mention how much I love Angela Bassett.  I have never seen her do a bad job in any movie.  She is a very good actress, the kind that really draws my attention every time she is on the screen.  She has a kind of intensity, a nobility, and a confidence to her that comes across in the way she carries herself and the way she interacts with her fellow actors.

Top 10 Favorite Parts

1. The Ritual combat between T’Challa and M’Baku.
2. T’Challa’s visit to the Ancestral Plains.
3. The entire South Korea sequence – The casino fight and the car chase where Shuri remote controls a car.
4. Agent Ross is healed by Shuri
5. Killmonger brings Klaue’s dead body to Wakanda and confronts the council and the royal family.
6. T’Challa and Killmonger fight the ritual combat for Kingship.
7. Killmonger’s visit to the Ancestral Plain.
8. Nakia, Shuri, Ramonda, and Ross go to the Jabari Tribe for help, and find that T’Challa is still alive.
9. Okoye and the Palace guard fight with Killmonger while Agent Ross remote-controls a Wakandan ship to prevent vibranium from leaving Wakanda.
10. The final fight between Black Panther and Killmonger in the vibranium mine.