Quick review: Lots of fun, but WAY too long. 
***Spoilers ahead. You've been warned.***
Three hours. That's about an hour and a half too long for a movie for me. I'm so glad I didn't see this in a theater. I'm just going to note here, I don't like my movies to go more than 90 minutes any more. Even Aquaman was a tad too long for me, and I loved it. By contrast, this movie could have had a ton of "moments" cut from it and been just as good but more tolerable to watch. In my opinion. I'm sure other folks will completely disagree.
The movie starts in a very dark place, with the heroes having been defeated utterly by Thanos. The despair gets worse when they learn they cannot undo what's been done - Thanos made certain of that. So everyone attempts to get on with life, despite having lost literally half of every loved one in the universe. What impressed me was the way people didn't just move on and adjust. Everyone had PTSD and everyone was still suffering five years later. Even those who were most successful at moving on were still suffering. Which only makes sense. You don't lose half the population of the universe and just recover in the blink of an eye.
It was Scott who really brought it all home, though. He pops out of nowhere with a possible solution, and his sheer shock at everything that's happened makes for some interesting scenes. The bit with the kid on the bike was one of those strange moments that just worked.
The "gathering of the heroes" scenes could have been way shorter and still effective. There were a lot of moments when I just wanted to turn it off or hit fast forward. Most of the "Hulk selfie" thing could have been cut. It went on much too long. Same with the Thor scenes. Just too much.
Anyway, then there's the time travel. No matter what you do with time travel, something won't work. It's just the curse of working with paradoxes and such. And there's a massive "ug" moment in this movie when the past figures out the future and ... yeah, branching time streams. Whatever. I'd rather just not deal with it at all. In the end, that's what pulled this movie down for me. They have a massive paradox happening, and a snap of the fingers, and it's still a paradox but apparently only in a branching time stream and where does that leave Gamora? It's not like she could go back to her own time once both the quantum thingies were destroyed.
I did like the return of all the missing heroes. The portals opening made for an excellent moment. Having an army to go against Thanos' legions was nice to see.
In the end, we got a mostly fun movie with a lot of long boring moments and a massive battle scene. And an unholy mess of a paradox finish. It could have been better, but then it could have been much much worse.
Wednesday, September 04, 2019
Movie Review: Avengers: Endgame (2019)
Sunday, September 01, 2013
A Sunday Review
- Jul 17th
- Justice League of America #6 - Still an annoying mess. At least it's sort of narrowing to just a few players. Unfortunately, Aquaman isn't really one of them. Oh well, more DCU nonsense.
- Green Lantern: New Guardians #22 - Oh, so it's all Kyle's fault then. Ok. That's expected.
- Batman Beyond Unlimited #18 - A new Batgirl? Terry still trying to decide what his role will be? All very interesting, and a neat way to end this series, I guess. On to the new series.
- Batman '66 #1 - So, Batman has a 3D printer AND Robin got to sit on sleeping Catwoman's lap? I see... Very strange start to what can only be described as a very strange series.
- Powers: Bureau #6 - So, the armor almost works and they got the bad guys. Yay. The gap between issues, oddly enough, hurt my reading of this one because I seriously cannot remember what happened in the last issue. Oh well.
- Fables #131 - Ug, I knew it was too good to be true. As for Rose, she's in for it now, isn't she?
- Doctor Who Classics #3 - Ooo, it's Abslom Daak, Dalek Killer! I seem to recall he has a heap of dalek-y mayhem to his name. Mixed up with the seventh Doctor now, which I don't recall. This is new stuff for me.
- Jul 24th
- Aquaman #22 - I admit it, I really want to know what the dead king is and why Nereus and his people are bowing to him. And I'm very curious about the other two plot threads as well. Ug, I don't want to wait for the next issue!
- Arrow #9 - I sometimes forget that Ollie is, in fact, a murderer in this version. Not just a murderer, a mass murderer. As usual, three solid little digital first stories.
- Steed and Mrs Peel #10 - Emma has the answer, doesn't she? The rest was also pretty incredible in an Avengers sort of way. Wowsa. Rockin' 60's action and it doesn't involve Batman.
- Doctor Who V3 #11 - I'm with Clara. That's a bit hard to fathom.
- Peanuts V2 #10 - Poor Snoopy. Having his house collapse just isn't fun.
- Jul 31th
- Trinity of Sin: Pandora #2 - So she goes to Superman, then to Vandal Savage? Wow. I wonder who she'll try next? Probably not any characters I really care about.
- Flash Annual #2 - Hubby-Eric got it for the Green Lantern appearance. And hey, it was pretty good. Two solid stories, one with a very Silver Age feel and the other just touching. Good stuff.
- Smallville Season 11 Special #2 - LANA! Finally a resolution to that last bothersome bit of storyline. Though I think she's going to have a difficult time of it now.
- Doctor Who: Prisoners of Time #7 - Well, that's not exactly what I was expecting to happen, but it makes a certain sort of sense. Nice to get the Master out of the way. And Ace has gone without her jacket before, so I'm not sure why she insisted on wearing it over that dress. Oh well.
This week's comic book related review is DC Super-Pets: Deep-Sea Duel by John Sazaklis, illustrated by Art Baltazar. Well, Aqualad had to get his time in the spotlight. This wasn't a horrible way to do it, although I tend to think that Aquaman was just testing his protege. Considering how Aqualad broke Aquaman out, I think Aquaman was perfectly capable of escaping if he wanted to. Anyway, there are some fun new characters, but why introduce a new "Aquagirl" and not just include Tula? Overall, it works well enough for the series.
My Kindle book this week was Whitstable by Stephen Volk. I saw a preview of this in the Peter Cushing Fortean Times (overview) and was so intrigued I hunted it down to read the whole thing. I'm glad I did. The subject matter is a bit adult while being completely sweet. Peter Cushing is mistaken for Van Helsing by a young boy who believes his mother's boyfriend is a vampire. Cushing comes across as not only an excellent actor but as a good man. The situation is overwhelming to some degree, but it's all nicely handled by the characters. It makes me want to hunt down Cushing's portrayal of Van Helsing to watch. Then maybe I'd reread this novella. A powerful little bit of writing.
Wednesday, October 30, 2002
Rapid Reviews - 30 Oct 2002
Wowsers. I actually read the whole lot. I can hardly credit it myself. I thought it would take me several days to get through this mess, but the first-read is done already. I guess I was just in a reading mood.
Ok, I guess I didn't finish it all. I haven't gotten through Previews yet, and I didn't read Lone Wolf and Cub Vol 26. I usually save LWaC to savor slowly anyway. Well, at least as slowly as a fast reader like myself can savor anything. The way for me to savor things is to re-read them, and more than one of the following will get a re-read.
Anyway, here's the scoop:
Avengers #59: Bleah. Avengers lost it's appeal for me some time ago, and it just hasn't picked up since. I found myself mildly intrigued in Black Panther's story, but that didn't support the book. When I find the LEGO ad more compelling than the surprise revealed on the story page right before it, I think it's safe to say I've lost interest. 2 starfish.
Gotham Girls #3 (of 5): This one focuses on Harley, and I'm afraid it doesn't really cover any new ground. The back-and-forth fights were fun, but it's the steady detective work of Montoya makes me want to read the rest of the mini-series. Pretty good, might be better on the second read. 3 starfish.
Batman: Gotham Adventures #55: Pretty easy to see where this one was going, but the storytelling needed work in the middle. In trying to preserve the surprise that wasn't a surprise, things got a little confusing. Not too confusing, but a little. Overall, decent. 3 starfish.
Titans #46: Massively disappointed in this issue. It seemed promising, but then it petered out. Nothing new on the Tempest/Dolphin front except that Tempest is apparently angry. This one qualifies as a miss. 2 starfish.
Ruse #13: A new plot, a new mystery to solve, and some nice twists. Plus a double-cliffhanger. Yeah, this one is good. 3 1/2 starfish.
Snapdragons #2: Ah, Halloween. And it came out just in time, even! If this had arrived next week, it wouldn't have been quite as funny. I like the characters, I like the short story format, and I like the extras in the back (although I've just never been able to get into the art of Patty Cake, sorry). This book rocks, and I hope everyone picks it up. 4 starfish.
Usagi Yojimbo #61: Has there ever been a bad issue of this title? My educated guess is: NEVER. That said, Jotaro is sure an annoying little brat, isn't he? But then, like father, like son. In every young Usagi story we've seen, Usagi came across much the same way. Compared to most Usagi stories, this one was a little tame. Compared to the other comic books, this was still the best of the week. 4 starfish.
JLA Sticker Book: This goes with the Ultimate Guide, and it's fun but not so fun that I would have bought it if I'd known what it contained. Oh well, live and learn. At least there is one Aquaman sticker in it... 2 starfish.
JLA The Ultimate Guide: This is cool. It's written by Scott Beatty, who is also the writer on Ruse that coincidentally came out this week. Of the two, I like this better because it has Aquaman in it (oh c'mon, you knew I'd say that!). It's a little light on Tempest info, and that's not so good because it does cover some of the Titans much better (ok, a paragraph better), but since Aquaman and his Atlantis gets a two-page spread I'll forgive them this time. This covers the current JLA title from the beginning up until the Obsidian Age arc going on right now, and has a bit about previous Justice Leagues just to keep things complete. A 14 page JLA Timeline starts with Brave and the Bold and goes up to JLA #72 (late Sep 2002). This is a must-have for JLA fans, especially fans of the current JLA. 4 starfish, and an extra 4 starfish for the "map" of Atlantis.
Next weeks tentative list: Thieves & Kings, Powers, Green Arrow, Amazing Spider-Man, Hawkman, Justice League Adventures, Young Justice, and Way of the Rat.
Speaking of next week, I peeked in the DC Preview Pack at my local store (Thank You Paige!) and checked out the Aquaman sneak peek that will be in several of next week's books (including Young Justice and Hawkman). I was severely disappointed.
See, the press release for the preview said this: "Each preview will include a cover and five story pages in full color on glossy paper and will be featured for one week during November. These eight-pages inserts will be bound into the center of all participating books."
I read that as 6 pages of art, and either two ad pages, or a single ad page and some kind of text promotional feature. Sounds reasonable, right?
Well, the previews are *4* pages of ads. That's right four. Half the insert is ads. To fit the story pages and cover in, they shrink them down to half size. The cover is a bit larger and gets it's own page, but the five story pages are tiny and printed sideways. The last one has a little bit of promotional text next to it to fill out the page.
To be honest, I would not have minded this format if the promotion hadn't made it sound like we were getting more than we are. But to have half the thing turn out to be ads... yuck.
I guess I better just count my lucky stars that they are promoting Aquaman at all, but still, it's disappointing.
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