#38: Avengers Infinity War

This is what happens when you're swept up in hype. You see movies you had no interest in until you watched an hour of a cam rip and was like "....Hm?"

Despite my enthusiasm for Black Panther, I'm not the world's biggest MCU fan.

I don't like about 80% of the cast.

Before last year, I hadn't seen one of these movies in theaters since the original Guardians in 2014.


A quick recap; Every movie I saw in the Marvel Cinematic Universe before Infinity War.

• Original Iron Man - loved it. Due for a rewatch, really.
• Second I don't remember.
• Third I really enjoy!
• Original Avengers I didn't like at all. Never saw Ultron.
• Winter Soldier - I saw it but I ... forgot I saw it.
• I don't remember Ant Man.
• Guardians of the Galaxy is my second favorite MCU film.
• While the sequel is my least favorite. Way to mess up a good thing with even more trite storytelling.
• Homecoming made my top ten of last year.
• Ragnarok ... let's just say, I was far more tired after watching that one hour and maybe fifty minute movie than I was watching this that clocked in at almost three hours.
• Black Panther is my favorite.

And Infinity War? It's what the fans want. And I acknowledge that I'm not really one of them - but I didn't find this movie totally unapproachable. 

Spoilers Follow 

#37: What We Do In The Shadows

Vampires; They're just like us!

This is the second full length film by New Zealand wonder Taika Waititi, based upon a short from 2005.

I have seen Hunt For the Wilderpeople (loved it) and Thor: Ragnarok (Very, very tiring), and his humor works far better here and in Wilderpeople than in Ragnarok.

Which isn't a bad film, no, I appreciate the themes of colonialism, but Waititi's humor has a tendency to be very drawn out and droll, which makes it feel refreshing in his smaller, more personal movies than in something like an MCU film where jokes are constantly flying at you and it's sensory overload.

Shadows is a documentary about vampires in New Zealand leading up to an Unholy Masquerade;

Or can we call it a fauxumentary? We can just make up words, right.

Four-Month Summer Showdown

Wow, talk about your change of plans.

Yes you can, Laureline. 

I initially just shoved all the summer ones into the final challenge of the year, until I realized a few things - one, more movies are coming out in September than I realized. Like, two more.

Two, there's quite a lot of movies (read: 2) that don't have release dates but are anticipated to be around Oscar season.

It was just going to be a very clumped challenge already, so we have a mini one! From May to August, just, well, four movies.

And the lucky films include;

#36: WALL-E

I'm less impressed with this now than I was when it came out.

 I will give it one point in that despite the main characters clearly alluding to typical gender conventions (Curves are for women, angles are for guys), EVE's design is pretty cool. The other robots are pretty ambiguous but I guess Pixar didn't expect an American audience to attach itself to some that's not vaguely shaped like an organic lifeform.

"A love story between robots," No, it's just a typical story about a lonely guy bothering a woman trying to do her job but with a lot less creepy stalking factor because, you know, for kids.

It's not as "Technology is bad," as one would expect, but it's there.

I just really find nothing charming about this movie except the "voicework" and the little cleaning robot on the Axiom. I'm not angry this won Best Animated Feature over my favorite movie of all time, but.... the story does nothing for me, trite, typical, and empty are how I describe it.

#35: Godzilla (1954)

The OG Big G, plus bonus review of Shin Godzilla (2016) and I suppose notes on Godzilla (2014)

There is a stark difference in how American filmmakers see Godzilla and how Japanese filmmakers saw it.

As opposed to our "Ooh, big lizard, make it stomp and atomic breath." love, it's seen as more of a metaphor for nuclear holocaust in its country of origin.

Americans complained that it took too long to see the titular titan in the 2014 remake, and those people would not enjoy any of the Japanese Godzilla movies, as it is far more about suspense and taking emergency action than theatrics.

Even though the 2014 remake try to bring it back to its roots, it's still mired in more of a 'Giant sleeping mega goliath' instead of  it's original metaphor...but that also had to tie in with Warner Brothers' / Legendary Monsterverse.

You can't have King Kong fight a metaphor in 2020! Can you?

"Godzilla was baptized in the fire of the H-Bomb and survived. Who could kill it now?"

Book 2: The Desert / The Serpent's Pass

Well, this suuuuucks!

#34: Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope

Would have been more ... ironic if this was #77, but either way, it's The One that started it all.

I haven't seen the original Star Wars movie since 2015, and not on television. I remember being impressed by how cheesy but yet not totally outdated it looked. The consistency. Nothing really looks like it shouldn't belong. The wonder of practical effects.

I fell in love the moment I saw Mos Eisley. Like, look at ALL of that!

Though this is (obviously) the edit with some weird shots of CG animals and the absolutely awful jerky-shoulder movement with Han vs. Greedo and a very strange looking Jabba.

I don't remember how C3-PO ended up on Leia's ship right now. Something must allude to that in some of the Disney-Era materials, I imagine. Though the book Leia: Princess of Alderaan matches up neatly to the beginning of this movie.

Also, one of the most iconic scenes in Star Wars now stars dead people 😔 Godspeed, Kenny Baker and Carrie Fisher.

I like how we're immediately thrown into something with maybe a minute's worth of text.

 This shit would not fly today, even Valerian had a two minute sequence of meeting aliens that spelled everything out.

Seeing the Binary Sunset sequence on a TV screen was something beautiful to behold.