Dear Star Wars, Time for a Break

Dear Star Wars,

For the past few months, I have found myself holding out for things to be different, but I am realizing that may not happen anytime soon. I think it is time for us to take a break. My heart can only take so much, and now I realize I need to protect it more carefully than I have been. I know, you probably think I am being unreasonable, but hear me out.

I just need some space.

I know you think I am too tough on you, but I hold you to high standards because I care. I want you to excel and make something of yourself. You have so much potential and I have always hoped you would stand out, especially after making your big comeback. My hope was for you to really make your mark on the world, not join in with the crowd and become mediocre like many of your peers. I always held you in high esteem, for as long as I can remember. However, since you left home I cannot condone the person you have become. I still believe you have the potential for greatness, but right now you are on a path that makes me cautious. What a fool I would be if I were to hope for too much only to be let down again.

Also, maybe you see something in them I do not, but I fail to see why you continue putting up with that one friend of yours. What was their name again? Easton? Eamon? (I just remember it was Ea..., something or other.) They obviously have no respect for you, or anyone else for that matter.

When the time is right, I hope our relationship will have a better dynamic. I will cherish the memories we have made up until now, and I hope that we can create new ones in the future. Perhaps this is just a rough patch and things will be different down the road. For now, however, I think it is best if we go our separate ways.

May the force be with you,

Your Hopeful Fan

MCU Films to Watch Before Avengers: Infinity War

Short answer: All of them. The payoff at the close of Infinity War will be greatly enhanced by having seen all the movies released to date in the shared Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU).

However, if time is of the essence, or you just want the bare essentials, here are the movies you should have seen, watch in preparation, or at least be familiar with before you see Infinity War:

• Captain America, Iron Man, Incredible Hulk, Thor (for character origins; as listed = chronological order; Hulk could probably be skipped if you know even a little about Bruce Banner/Hulk)
• Marvel's The Avengers (2012)
• Avengers: Age of Ultron
• Guardians of the Galaxy (Vol. 2 is mentioned briefly, but not terribly relevant)
• Captain America: Civil War
• Doctor Strange
• Black Panther (the story of this movie is not really relevant, but the setting and characters introduced are front & center in the climax of Infinity War)
• Thor: Ragnarok (Infinity War essentially picks up right where it left off)

That comes out to about a full day worth of Marvel films (21 hours, more or less), but the investment is well worth it in the end.

Batman v Superman: The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly

I went to see Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice this week and I wish I could say "It was the best superhero movies of all-time!" but then I would have to add, "April Fools" at the end of that. This was unfortunately just another one of those movies where I say, "Seen it. Now time to move on with my life".

Over the weekend before I went to see it, I had read/watched a few reviews which lowered my expectations for the movie. With that being said, I went into it really wanting to find something to love about the movie, but I can't think of anything that really stands out as a positive highlight. I feel like a better title for the movie might have been "Batman sort of fights Superman: Bring on the Controversy". In my opinion (and I recognize this is just my opinion), the movie was mediocre at best and left me feeling underwhelmed. To summarize my thoughts on the movie, I appreciated the film for what it is, but I did not like it because I found it too clumsy and sloppy. 

Here's my breakdown of "The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly" (SPOILER WARNING! I'm not going to hold anything back!):

The Good:

• I did enjoy Ben Affleck as Bruce Wayne/Batman. He certainly did a much better job than most people thought he would when it was first announced that he had been cast. 
• The Metropolis prologue, where we see the ending to Man of Steel from Bruce Wayne's perspective, was a good way to set up Batman's motivation that drives his actions through the movie.
• The movie is pretty and good-looking, I will give it that. The fight between Batman and Superman (which took 1.5 hours to finally get to by the way) looked great. I just wish the story/character motivations' (see below) would have been strong enough to match the visuals because I would have enjoyed it a whole lot more. I'll also note here that I was let down by the fight since it only last about 7-8 minutes. I expected the sequence to be longer.
• I read something about Zack Snyder wanting to include Wonder Woman in the film because he dreamed of seeing the DC Trinity (i.e. Batman, Superman & Wonder Woman) on the big screen together. I admit it was visually pleasing to see them together on screen, but the movie did a poor job of building up to the moment where they all come together.
• I give DC/Warner Bros. a lot of credit for making the decision to kill Superman. I feel like that was a very bold move and I applaud them for doing so.

The Bad:

• I mentioned above that Ben Affleck was good. In fact he really makes this movie. However, I felt like I needed to see more of him as Bruce Wayne and as Batman to decide how he compares to previous iterations. I know some people say he is their new favorite, but I still prefer Christian Bale's performance.
• Going along with the previous bullet point,where was all the action? For being an "Action & Adventure/Superhero" movie, I expected a bit more. Maybe it's just the fact that most of the action was saved until the 2nd half of the movie. The first big action scene I can remember is the "Knightmare" sequence (at least that's the nickname I have seen for it online). While the action in this scene is awesome, I wish there would have been other scenes sprinkled throughout the first hour to show Batman being Batman. The scene in the warehouse (as featured in the final trailer) is easily one of the best Batman action sequences in any Batman movie, but unfortunately by that point I didn't care enough about the movie/story to enjoy it too much.
• The bathtub scene: Why does Clark Kent (Henry Cavill) jump into the tub fully clothed while Lois Lane (Amy Adams) is completely naked?! It really makes no sense to me. Though I understand how this scene adds to the character development of Clark Kent/Superman (one of only a few, more on that later), was it 100% necessary for Lois to be naked and taking a bath? The scene could have easily been rewritten to take place in their living room and they could still make out on the couch after they discuss the same issues.
• I was not a fan of Jesse Eisenberg as Lex Luthor. He didn't ruin the movie for me, but I felt like he was too psychotic and goofy. His character seemed too much like a mad scientist rather than the charismatic and subtly menacing Lex Luthor that I am familiar with from other storylines (such as Kevin Spacey's portrayal of the character in Superman Returns from 2006).
• I was not very impressed by Gal Gadot as Diana Prince/Wonder Woman. I also had a really hard time understanding her dialogue. This may be a result of audio levels being off for some reason, but I feel like this is something they need to fix in Justice League and Wonder Woman films (either by adjusting the audio composition, bringing on a dialect coach, or both). 

The Ugly:

• The story seemed really scattered and disjointed, which I think was a result of my two main complaints with the movie: the writing and the editing.
• 1) Screenplay/Story
• They should have stuck with one main protagonist. I could never really tell if the movie was supposed to be 1) a Batman movie that includes Superman, 2) a Man of Steel sequel that has a substantial Batman presence or, 3) a Lex Luthor movie that was really poorly written because other characters get more screen time than the protagonist.
• I don't usually pick up on bad writing, continuity errors or plot holes in movies, but the use of plot devices in this movie was so obvious and "in your face" that I couldn't help but notice.
• The character of Lois Lane was completely unnecessary in this movie. 90% of the time she is only in a scene to be the damsel in distress so that Superman will have something to do in the story by coming to her rescue.
• The resolution of the Batman v Superman showdown was extremely disappointing. First of all, the story fell so flat along the way that by the time we got to the fight I didn't even care about them fighting. After having thought about this scene for the past few days I have come to terms with the idea that Superman crying out "Save Martha!" catches Batman off guard. However, I see no reason why the fact their mothers' have the same first name should resolve the tension between them and cause them to set aside their differences for good. The scene could have been so much better even with some minor adjustments such as Batman saying something to the effect of, "I will help you save your mom, but this isn't over between us."
• Bruce Wayne's motivations could have been greatly improved. The prologue set up his story really well, but it took too long to pay off. Confrontations between Batman & Superman along the way (such as the "Do you bleed?" scene, which I thought was one of the better moments in the movie) could have fueled his anger and strengthened his resolve to defeat Superman when they finally have their big showdown. By the time the movie finally gets to that point, there wasn't really any tension to make me care about them fighting.
• At one point during the showdown sequence Superman called Batman "Bruce", but the movie never explained how he learned/knew that Batman was Bruce Wayne. When that happened, I remember specifically thinking, "Wait a minute, did he just call him Bruce?" I know some people might argue that an audience doesn't need to be spoon-fed the answers to every question in a plot, but this is one of those questions where I would have liked a better explanation.
• Returning to the death of Superman, so what? We all know he won't stay dead for long because we already know he is going to be a part of the Justice League. By that point in the movie I didn't care enough about Clark Kent/Superman as a character to have any emotional reaction to him dying anyway. I was also very disappointed at the end of the movie, when the dirt started to rise. DC/Warner Bros. should have committed to the idea of Superman being dead, rather than so obviously telling the audience that he is going to come back from the dead in the future.
• Overall, I thought Clark Kent/Superman was very poorly handled. For supposedly being a sequel to Man of Steel, he did not feel like he had a large presence in this movie. His motivations for confronting and fighting Batman were also really weak. I still can't believe that Lex Luthor kidnapping his mother is what leads to the big fight.
• 2) Editing
• Sure it looked great, but the Batman origin scene at the beginning was unnecessary. Honestly I felt like the only reason they included it was for the plot device and to set up the call back to "Martha" later on during the Batman v Superman fight. I think the film would have started out on a much better note if it began with Bruce Wayne landing in Metropolis.
• The scene about halfway through with Kevin Costner was odd and detracted from everything else going on at that point in the story.
• The Justice League intros were extremely out of place.
• Don't get me wrong, each of the teases looked cool, but the whole scene killed what little momentum the main story had finally started to build. I don't think this scene necessarily needed to be cut from the film altogether it just needed to be placed somewhere else.
• It also didn't make much sense to me to have Diana/Wonder Woman click on the videos. The audience could have watched the videos with Bruce Wayne when he first finds them and it would have fit so much better with the rest of the story. He could have opened Wonder Woman's file last to finish the scene with the big surprise of her photo revealing that she hasn't aged in almost 100 years.
• The logos for each of the characters were also really silly and convenient. Obviously the people involved in the production process don't care about overt foreshadowing.
• Although the Batman/Lex Luthor confrontation at the end of the movie was well filmed and looked cool, this scene was also really out of place. I was actually really pleased with the ending and liked the contrast between the Superman funeral versus Clark Kent's funeral. But just as I thought the movie was wrapping up fairly well the scene cut abruptly to the prison sequence, only to then return to the cemetery for the last minute or two. Some minor rearranging of scenes could have made this movie so much better.

Concluding thoughts:

• I was disappointed from the start. I got bored very early on. About 10 minutes into the movie I had the thought, "Oh shoot, I forgot send that text to members of my group" come to mind. There should have been no reason for me to even get distracted that easily! If I had been hooked and engaged right from the start I would not have thought twice about forgetting to send the text. Since I wasn't yet hooked (and I don't know if the movie ever really hooked me unfortunately), I pulled out my phone, turned the brightness down as low as I could and sent the text!
• If Zack Snyder is still going to direct Justice League, I hope they involve a co-director. Otherwise I don't know if DC will ever get me excited about their cinematic universe.
• Ben Affleck said in an interview that this movie was not made for critics, but made for the fans. I consider myself a fan of comic book movies and I didn't really care for it. Maybe it was made for the fans who are avid readers of DC comics, in which case I am not the kind of fan he was referring to, but I feel like this movie should have at least been enjoyable for the average movie-goer.
• I thought the the movie took too long to end after the battle with Doomsday. It seemed like the last 5-10 minutes were 3 different subplots randomly thrown together.
• If nothing was added or removed from the movie, but it was reedited so that many of the scenes were in a different order, I think I would have liked it a whole lot more overall than I did. I am not a filmmaker, but I feel like I could have done a better editing job, and it saddens me to think that.
• I consider The Dark Knight to be one of the darkest, most macabre superhero movies ever made. Yet I still found that movie entertaining and enjoyable. Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice is sadly too dreary and simply put: joyless. My one main expectation going into the movie was that it would at least entertain me, but it didn't even manage to do that.

Movie Hype in the 21st Century

Remember when you had to stand in line for 2 hours to get tickets for the next big blockbuster only to be sorely disappointed when you finally got to the window and learned that all showings had been sold out for the weekend? Yeah, me neither.

We are so spoiled when it comes to buying movie tickets these days! The scenario I described to open this post was inspired by the stories I have heard in documentaries about the initial release of Star Wars in 1977. I remember someone saying they saw the movie for the first time during opening weekend and immediately got back in line and waited 2 hours to buy tickets to see it a second time. When I was younger I recall standing in line to get tickets to a few movies here and there, but none of my experiences were anything like those of moviegoers when Star Wars first came out. Nowadays, we can order our tickets well in advance and even reserve the exact seats we will be in to enjoy the movie (rather than taking our chances in the "first come, first serve" battle for good seats). 

Fast forward to the year 2015 and chances are you knew about Star Wars: The Force Awakens long before it was released. Whether you knew a lot about it (i.e., the plot, names of the new characters, etc.), or only a little, you still knew it was coming. The hype that builds up before modern blockbusters is amazing to think about when you compare it to the hype that preceded older movies. Believe it or not, Star Wars (1977) was not very well known by the public at the time of its release. Its success was due in large part to word of mouth after the premiere. 

Unlike moviegoers who had to wait hours to see the original Star Wars, I purchased tickets for my family and I to see Star Wars: The Force Awakens on October 19th, 2015, almost a full 2 months before it was even released! I knew that if we waited any longer than opening weekend to see the movie that spoilers would be all over Facebook and YouTube, so I made it a point to get tickets as early as possible. The night I went to get tickets was the same night they were first made available. Even then, all the "good" seats for the showing we ended up going to were already claimed by the time I got to the theater. I had initially hoped to get tickets for the "Tightwad Tuesday" after release, but that particular showing was already sold out!

I have been interested in seeing Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice for some time now and the latest trailer got me fairly excited about it. Yesterday I was going to make the trip over to the Megaplex at Geneva to buy a ticket for a showing on the first "Tightwad Tuesday" after the movie is released. Before I left to go to the theater, I decided I should probably check the theater's website to see if tickets were available yet. When I saw that advanced tickets are scheduled to go on sale starting Monday, the 29th, I was actually disappointed. The movie will not even be released for another month! After feeling disappointed for a minute, I realized how silly it was for me to even think that way. This experience made me reflect on just how much the times have changed and how different the movie-going experience is now compared to what it was like for our parents and grandparents. 

So next time you go see a blockbuster movie with a pre-purchased ticket (and there will be a number of them this year alone), take a minute to think about how awesome it is that your seats were reserved so you did not have to sit up in the miserable front row, or how you were able to walk right in and not wait in line for an hour or 2. And as advantageous as technology has become in revolutionizing the theater industry and our experience as viewers, PLEASE TURN OFF YOUR CELL PHONE! (Haha, just thought I would throw that out there.) Enjoy the movie!