Film Review: Avengers Infinity War

So it's hard to fully review this movie without spoilers, but I'll start off with the spoiler free summary: Avengers Infinity War is definitely worth seeing, and is part one of the two-part big payoff of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. The part one part is really important, as this movie ends on a cliffhanger that guarantees people will be back this time next year to see how things resolve.

The movie manages to simultaneously pay out for the hardcore fans of the movies, as many, many moving parts all slide together into the grand, unifying plot we've been waiting for. That said, if you've not been paying too much attention, or catching every film, this one is still going to work for you; it's stand alone story element holds its own, and even if you have no idea where the infinity stones have been showing up in prior movies (or why) this movie doesn't require that a priori knowledge.

Oddly, one of the most interesting characters in the movie was Thanos himself. Marvel finally has a villain no one can complain about, and this works well; the narrative on Thanos and why he is doing what he does makes him a more compelling and ultimately interesting villain.

So yeah...solid A, absolutely.

Beyond that? Spoilers, lots of spoilers. Actually, I'll try not to spoil things, but I will make the following oblique observations:

1. There's more than one interesting cameo in here, and in particular (you'll know who when you see the scene) that was kind of a "Wow holy cow look who just showed up" moment.

2. This movie HAD to come out right as my kid, in his mid sixes, is developing a strong sense of the concept of mortality.* I saw it on a special preview, but the whole family goes tomorrow and I need to brace my wife for the fact that before this movie is over he's very likely to be streaming tears and snot at certain deaths in this film. It's gonna be rough.

3. The movie politely subverts expected deaths, even as it surprises us with more than a couple unexpected deaths. Then there's....well, a damned good cliff hanger, we'll just say that.

4. Thor had a surprisingly good heroic arc, a sort of fall and redemption, then return to power. Which was good, because like the first five minutes of the movie completely negate any victory garnered at the end of Thor: Ragnarok.

5. No Hawkeye? I thought Hawkeye was going to be at least cameoing.

6. Implied and direct nods to the notion that Scarlet Witch is actually one of Earth's most powerful beings.

FRIDAY REPORT: The family viewing was today. Kiddo handled it better than I expected, although I gave him a pep talk about how this was a sad movie, with some sad things, and then he told me as long as Spider Man didn't die he'd be fine....anyway long story short the ending was perhaps just a bit metaphysical in a sense so it left him sad but not in a streaming snot kinda way (whew) despite ...ahh.....all that stuff that went down at the end (um, trying not to be spoilery). But the overall impact on the total crowd, which had a LOT of kids in it was almost palpable...tears, cries of shock, etc. etc. only the old jaded comic fans were "unmoved." The youn 'uns who haven't gotten used to how these sorts of stories work were genuinely shocked/traumatized/surprised/horrified, etc.




*I found this out the hard way. I bought the animated film "Batman: Escape from Arkham" which I did not realize was quite as adult and violent as it was, but the problem came when my kid immediately bonded with the Black Spider character, who later dies an ignominious death in the movie. My son was devastated, crying, and a couple days later told me I am never to mention that Black Spider died, ever. Period. So.....when you see a movie like Infinity War, as an old comics veteran how do I impart to my son the wisdom that no comic death is ever really permanent? Hmmmm.

Film Review: Wonder Woman

I'll get this out of the way, as usual: I am a DC fanboy so any review I make of a DC film will be biased. That said, I don't have to stretch much to say that Wonder Woman was good. It really was! I was frankly impressed that they managed to do so much right with this one.

The new movie starts with a young Wonder Woman on the Island of Themiscyra and moves forward from there. Most of us have probably got the general idea of the story from the trailers: It's a historical adventure, set during World War I, and Gal Gadot as Wonder Woman gets to leave the island after a spy for the allies, Steve Trevor (Chris Pine) somehow crash lands on the Amazonian island and they rescue him from Germans in hot pursuit. Cut to a lengthy series of scenes explaining both why the Amazons don't want to get involved in the mortal world but ultimately realize they must, and choose Diana, who is herself not a real amazon (being made out of clay and all that) to wield the weapons of the gods and escort Steve Trevor back to the mortal realm. Behind all this is the stink of Ares, who in the film is the last Greek God Standing and most likely the reason mortal men are busy trying to kill each other.

From there the plot moves to a series of set pieces in London to entertain us with the liberated, naturally inquisitive nature of Wonder Woman set against a society with oppressive standards aimed at women. Then off to the battlefront for some truly amazing battle sequences spurred on by Diana's inherent sense of decency and goodness in a world that knows little of either. Eventually it culminates in a sequence where she at last reveals the real Ares and they duke it out in a fashion I will describe only as "DC standard third act mayhem scene."

Along the way we are treated to an amazing ride with entertaining and often funny (appropriately) dialogue, strong characters whom we genuinely like, a sense of adventure and discovery, and a thematic tone that is unique among the superhero film genre so far....Wonder Woman, like only a few other movies before, delivers on a sense of style and purpose that feels almost intoxicatingly fun to watch. It is only in the final act when were are subjected to the by now traditional CGI beat-em-up sequence that I felt the film faltered even a little bit. And even then, it was still enjoyable.

Issues I had with the film are minor: there are a couple of odd moments where I couldn't quite put my finger on it but the pacing or focus felt a bit off, mostly in the last third of the film. Despite this, right up until about the point where they reach the castle and Wonder Woman misses a chance to kill Ludendorf, I felt that the movie was spot on in its overall pacing. But I don't know....this could just be me, feeling like once again maybe too much CGI and quasi-deities battling it out with powers that are defined by the needs of the screen imagery less than any story let me feeling like it was all a bit unreal.

My other (minor) complaint was that this film felt dark. I don't know if it was the screening I was at, or what, but the film seemed ridiculously heavy on dark "bluish" tint, especially for much of the second half of the film.

Despite that, the movie is incredibly solid and currently my favorite film this year behind Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 in terms of sheer audacity and enjoyment. Definitely see it...and take the wife and kids, it's a great movie for the family. Solid A+!!!!

A+

Review: Dead Set (currently on Netflix)

I saw Dead Set a long time ago....apparently before I ever did my first Halloween Horror Month a few years back, because I could have sworn I would have reviewed it back then. Apparently not! Recently it showed up on Netflix, so now you can watch it without jumping through hoops. Originally a 2008 British five part mini-series, Dead Set is a tale of Big Brother's final season, right before a zombie apocalypse descends upon the world to insure that we are no longer forced to endure reality TV shows.....at least, not as living humans.

In Dead Set, the entire cast and crew of the latest edition of the Big Brother UK series is in the middle of the latest "voting out of the house" when a coincidental (?) national emergency descends, catching the revelers off-guard as zombies appear and begin to kill....making many, many more zombies in short order. The survivors consist of a handful of lucky souls and the stars of Big Brother, who isolated in their house spend a full night there blissfully unaware of the apocalypse going on outside.

In short order the eclectic range of personalities come to clash, as the narcissistic actors contend with working together as the only reliable protagonist Kelly (Jaime Winston) does the best she can while both she --and her boyfriend-- hope the other is alive somewhere. Eventually their stories converge, but right when it seems like there might be some chance of cooperation and order, everything goes horribly south, chiefly due to the selfish machinations of the conniving show producer.

As you might expect, this is a formula with potential. Zombie films seem to work well when you have survivors who work both with and against one another, and this film is no exception. It plays the apocalypse straight: this is not really a comedy at any point, but it delves into some dark humor on several occasions, and spends just enough time with its five part story arc setting up the characters to all be "just interesting enough" for you to feel bad when they meet their ultimate fate. And yes: this is a good zombie film, one which knows that in a zombie apocalypse, it's never about whether you die or not, but rather when, and what sort of foolish error in judgement brought you to your fate.

The movie seems to shoot for a metaphor, about the show itself and its audience, zombie-like in its desire for more episodes, more dirt on the cast. The zombies of the film, which are done with excellent FX (and some eerily creepy eyes), seem drawn to the Big Brother compound like moths to a flame, which only exacerbates the plight of the survivors. They remain the dedicated fans of the show, just now with an insatiable and very much literal hunger for the cast and crew.

If you've been craving a really good, classic-style zombie apocalypse film be sure to check this one out! I give it a solid A.

Five fun things about Dead Set (minor spoilers):

1. The fact that it is portrayed as an actual set for Big Brother (so far as I can tell; haven't seen that show in at least 15 years) adds to the verisimilitude of the film, even as it dates the movie a bit. Does this show still exist?

2. Is it just me or does Kevin Eldon (as Joplin) make a great English Steve Buscemi?

3. The film's least endearing moments are, unfortunately, some shaky-cam action sequences, but they work in the context of a film that is 1/2 normal production and 1/2 "found footage" in feel.

4. The two keystone cops who show up feel vaguely like a nod to 28 Days Later or something else I might be missing from British TV.....any ideas?

5. This film sticks with the more traditional "who knows why zombies are here" method of handling what's going on. As such it feels like it could be part of the broader Romero film canon easily, or perhaps displaying a corner of the world in 28 Days Later (though maybe not, as the zombies in Dead Set are clearly actual walking dead types).

A