Just saw WW and liked it too. Still not up to Marvel snuff, but much closer than the previous efforts. Both Guardians movies are my high-water mark of what a comic book movie should be.

Quite liked how they made WW like 1/3rd Captain America, 1/3rd Leonidas, and 1/3rd Indiana Jones. Those lasso moves were badass!

Later,
EV

I've seen Children Of Men pop up on a couple of "Greatest Sci-Fi movies of all time" lists, and I just don't see the big deal.

I've watched it a couple of times, and it's not a bad flick (I'd say 6.5/10), but it's not the end all be all of Sci-Fi for me. I'd say personal Top 100 mayyyyybe, but not even Top 50. Can you guys help me understand the love on this one?

Thanks,
EV

Jay,

really interesting article. Didn't really think it through the political angle. That explains a lot.

Thanks,
EV

Blashpemer! The Queen soundtrack alone is worth 6 popcorns.....

Later,
EV

Saw Valerian last night.

Very pretty, imaginative, insane visuals. Story was just OK. Chemistry between the two leads (DeHaan and Delevingne) seemed forced, but nowhere near as cringe-worthy as the Star Wars prequels.

Overall, I found it quite enjoyable. Very pulp/cheesy sci-fi in the mold of Flash Gordon and Buck Rogers.

7/10 Popcorns.

Later,
EV

Ever hear of a Shepard Tone? I hadn't until I saw this neat video analysis of a sound trick Zimmer uses in a lot of Nolan soundtracks....

Later,
EV

Ooooh, now you're going a bit too far.

Valerian was fun, but nowhere near the perfect recipe of character, visuals, story, and sound that is GotG. For crying out loud, GotG made me care and empathize with a tree, a raccoon, and a wrestler. So very, very well done...

Just for reference, my GotG rating is a full 10 popcorns.
GotG Vol. 2 comes in slightly lower at only 9.5 popcorns.

Later,
EV

Spider-Man: Homecoming

While the Raimi movies were good, and I didn't think the "Amazing" ones were as bad as everyone says....

Spider-Man finally gets the movie he deserved.

Without question the best of the bunch so far, and no small amount of credit goes to the choice of Tom Holland for the role. While Tobey McGuire had the geeky Peter Parker side down and Andrew Garfield did a great snarky Spidey side, no one had previously captured all the aspects of the character like Holland does. Totally pulls off the awkward teenager, as well as the earnest super-powered crime fighter.

The other major win of this movie was Michael Keaton. He makes the villain completely believable, understandable, and even a tiny bit sympathetic.

Wayyyy high in the pantheon of MCU movies.

9/10 popcorns.

Later,
EV

While I concur about the scary, I disagree about the crazy. That's the thing I liked about Keaton's Vulture. I totally got where he was coming from as a regular guy that felt like he got screwed over, and was just trying to provide for his family, albeit in an illegal way. Seemed like a totally rational motivation to me.

The fact that I also have a teenage daughter doesn't hurt the fact that I totally empathized with that paternal protective instinct. Keaton's character just lets it go too far.

"You go in there and show my daughter a good time. Just not TOO good a time..."

Later,
EV

Colossal
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt4680182/?ref_=nv_sr_1

Just caught this one on Hulu last night. Probably the strangest Kaiju story you'll ever see, strangely connected to a indie character study type film. Anne Hathaway does a good job, and Jason Sudiekis' character travels an interesting arc.

Worthwhile to see once if you like Kaiju films, but not sure I'd want to go back for repeated viewings...

6/10 Popcorns

Later,
EV

Finally saw Pixar's Coco this weekend.

Absolutely brilliant. Take the emotional impact of the first 5 minutes of "Up" (the Carl and Ellie montage), and apply it across an entire movie. Colorful, creative, and a fantastic return to form for the folks at Pixar.

Hard to believe this comes from the same company as the nihilistic Last Jedi.

Go see Coco with your family. You won't be disappointed.

10/10 Popcorns.

Later,
EV

Loved the Arrival.

IIRC, earlier in the film she notes that when you study in a certain language for long enough, your thought patterns change and you begin thinking in that language.

To me, the circular patterns of the alien text were a metaphor to represent how these aliens didn't precieve time linearly, and therefore didn't think linearly.

Thus, her continued exposure to them altered her awareness enough so that she began to see space-time as a circle, and could thus see the future as well as the past.

YMMV of course.

What I thought was coolest about the story was the idea of this.... If you knew beforehand that your child would die of a horrible disease at age 10, would you still have kids?

Later,
EV

Please keep the BP review spoiler free. Very much looking forward to seeing it this weekend...

Later,
EV

Black Panther

Really liked the character (MCU iteration) from his intro in Civil War, but I was very trepidatious about it being over-the-top politically. Enjoyed the movie very much, and found that it didn't get as preachy as I expected. (Yes, it has some SJW flavor to it, but I thought nowhere near as heavy-handed as The Last Jedi's Canto Bight crap...)

Cool action, enjoyable characters, and a big thumbs up to the design and wardrobe folks. While GOTG was the most colorful in terms of scenery/background, BP is the winner for costumes here. The aircraft designs were also cool as hell.

Overall, yet another solid extra-bases hit for Team Marvel.

8/10 popcorns

Yeah, she was totally bad-ass. Completely didn't realize until reading details afterwards, but that's Michonne from TWD!

Later,
EV

Okoye (resized).jpg

Pacific Rim Uprising

Saw it last night in IMAX 3D. Cool robots. Cool monsters. Lots of robot vs. monster fighting. Some robot vs. robot fighting too. Characters were OK. Story wasn't bad.

But overall, just didn't have the magic lightning-in-a-bottle that the first one did. Didn't help that the trailers showed most of the cool parts.

6.5 / 10 Popcorns

Just for reference, the first Pacific Rim is one of the greatest "10-year-old movies" of all time. What I mean by "10-year-old movie" is that any time I watch it, I'm instantly 10 years old again watching re-runs of Ultraman, Johnny Sokko, and old Godzilla movies in my parents basement. Pure nostalgia awesomeness.

10.5/10 popcorns. Yes, it's in my personal top 5 EVER.