So I Just Watched Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2...

Well, now I'm doing my first 2017 Movie Thoughts post! This film is in theaters and it's Marvel's third Phase 3 movie and their 15th Cinematic Universe film overall. And, y'know, the second film the Guardians of the Galaxy have appeared in. This review is gonna have a ton of spoilers, so I'll just say something here if you haven't seen it yet... If you're a follower of the MCU, if you enjoyed the humor, action and characters from the first film and want more of it, you'll definitely enjoy this film and you should definitely see it! It is a sequel that does not disappoint! Well, now that we've gotten that out of the way...
{SPOILER WARNING}
Alright, I'm not gonna focus on this scene by scene like I did with Bill and Ted's Excellent
Adventure... Except I'm starting with a scene. At first, I wasn't really sure how flashing back to 1980 would give us new info we need to know. And that prologue was kind of a mystery. What's with the otherworldly flower? Why is Mr. Quill nonchalantly talking about the flower? Okay, now I actually kind of want to talk about this scene by scene to an extent.

I definitely didn't expect the scene with the Guardians fighting the monster to be at the beginning, because the way the trailers made it out to be was, like, a big finale and a big plot point. So that was interesting.

And then the gold people, the Sovereign dudes. I remember hearing how painful the gold Yogurt makeup was for Mel Brooks in Spaceballs and I hope these guys didn't have that much trouble with this makeup. Also, no pun intended, but that joke with Drax all wanting to kill people, but all the ships were just remotely piloted was gold. Sorry.

Alright, nonlinear time. Second time around, the main characters were all great the second time around. Drax is strangely kind of different from when he was in the first film, jolly and laughing throughout the movie. Baby Groot? Well, I'm not obsessed with him. I wasn't obsessed with Groot. But I definitely enjoyed watching him. What did I think of Mantis? I enjoyed her shtick of being a cute, innocent girl. She was funny. Other than that, I don't know what else to say about her.

The big character that most stood out to me was Ego. Oh, Ego. They did a very great job of concealing the fact that he was the antagonist. This is the advantage of not being a comic book follower... A superhero movie's plot can be more engaging! Though I do remember there was some other movie where someone found his father after many years and after happy times together he realizes he's a bad guy. I wish I could remember what movie it was... But I definitely remember seeing it before. I did think this twist was still engaging, though. Ego was charming and likeable, but then he also became scary! But you know what? I realized he's Malekith done right! Who's Malekith? He's the villain nobody remembers from Thor: The Dark World who wanted to make everything darkness... for some reason. This guy, Ego, wants to make everything a part of himself... because immortality gets boring! Well, that's at least a reason. Yeah.

Peter Quill gaining superpowers... That was cool! It was also funny seeing him transform into Pac-Man. Best product placement ever. And for a while, I was like "Wait, so in Infinity War, he's gonna be all overpowered? But nope.

This movie surprisingly got darker than the first one. I didn't expect that. But this is the year of dark sequels, so I should've! The Fate of the Furious, Transformers: The Last Knight, and Star Wars: The Last Jedi!

Moving on, the running jokes. My least favorite running joke was people calling Rocket different animals. The humor of heroes offending each other just doesn't really get me. I mean, they're just fictional characters, but I'm like "Don't say that!" But my favorite running joke is Taserface. With villains, I don't care about them, so they can be as irreverent as they want with them. That running joke was quite enjoyable.

The cameos and Easter eggs were great, too. Howard the Duck makes another appearance in a bar, making a terrible duck pun like he did a lot in the George Lucas movie. which I thought, ironically, was cute. And then the villain in Thor: Ragnarok makes an appearance, which got a gasp from me. But my favorite of these cameos for me was the obligatory Stan Lee cameo, with him in a space suit talking to the beings known as the Watchers (dudes who observe other peoples lives without interference) and he says something like "In that universe I was a FedEx delivery agent" proving a fan theory that's been going around for a while... Every Stan Lee is the same person! And now that has become one of my favorite Stan Lee cameos.

Now let's all take a moment to remember Peter Quill's Walkman. RIP 198?-2017

Conclusion? Well, after walking out of the theater, I thought the plot was definitely better than the first one. It was more interesting, more emotional, and more engaging. But could I say the same about the humor? Well, I'd say that would be almost on the same level. Not quite, but it was still very funny. Where would I rank this among other Marvel Cinematic Universe films? Well... that's tough. It's definitely one of the better Marvel films, but not quite as good as Civil War or Iron Man. I enjoyed it, and I was not disappointed. Definitely a great, well done movie!

Well, I hope you enjoyed this review. I've got some more 2017 Movie Thoughts on the way. But we're gonna take a little break from Movie Thoughts and we're gonna do a kind of post we haven't seen in a while. You'll have to wait to find out, though! See you next week! Have a good day!

So I Just Watched 9 Batman Movies...

In case you're wondering, I didn't watch those first two...

Anyway, if you follow me on Facebook, you probably know that I watched The LEGO Batman Movie at the theater. Well, that inspired me to start this big binge of all the theatrically-released feature-length live-action Batman films. This is gonna be an unconventional Movie Thoughts post, because it's a bunch of mini-reviews of nine films. Wow. This is gonna be in a weird order because I didn't watch all the movies in order of release. I'm also going to spoil all of these, so if there's one you haven't seen, you can skip right to the ones you have seen. Or if you haven't seen any of these, definitely start with Batman Begins.  With that in mind, let's start this!

Batman Begins (2005)

Well, I started with the first in the Christopher Nolan Dark Knight Trilogy because I've heard The Dark Knight was the best superhero movie ever. And I didn't have really high expectations going into this one. So my expectations were exceeded! I'm glad I decided to go with this one first, because this is the best place to start if you haven't seen any of these before. It tells the origin of the Caped Crusader quite well. The nonlinear first half was an interesting way of doing it, and even though I knew that Bruce Wayne's parents were gonna die, that scene when that happens was pretty effective! I was surprised to see both Liam Neeson and Morgan Freeman in this superhero movie. Heh. I like how they grounded everything in reality, like the Batmobile, and the way the gliding worked. I got a little confused on a few things, though, like Ra's Al Ghul being a villain being revealed earlier than I thought. Both him and Scarecrow, as villains, are great. I didn't expect Christian Bale's Batman to sound like HISHE's Batman, but I liked his voice like that. My favorite part would be when Batman first shows off against those criminals. That was an awesome way to show him off. Well, this is a great movie, and is my favorite of the series besides another one coming up.

The Dark Knight (2008)

Oh yes, this one. I don't know where to start! I guess... it was definitely the most action-packed movie I've ever seen. It seemed like every other scene was an action scene. And they were good scenes! Heath Ledger's Joker is definitely the best part about this movie. He's both scary and charming. My favorite part of the movie was when he blew up the hospital and had that great reaction. I had seen a picture of Two-Face from this movie, so I knew he was gonna be in it. And throughout the movie I was wondering whether or not Harvey Dent was gonna become him. And then I knew it when his face was up against the floor with the gasoline. It was a little weird that he went from being this hero who stood for justice to a serial killer. And... I don't have much else to say about this movie. That's the thing. The better the movie, the less you have to say about it. This is the most renowned superhero movie, but it's not my favorite. I did quite enjoy it, though. And this is my favorite Batman movie besides Batman Begins!



Batman (1989)

Oh yes, this one. I was originally gonna see just the Dark Knight Trilogy, but I got interested in this film and then Batman and Robin and I had to watch all of these films. So, this one. I thought it was gonna start with the origin story of Batman and then go off from there. But nope. It starts with a known-ish Batman, And that is done pretty well. I did watch the Honest Trailer a while before I watched this movie, because I never thought I'd see this movie. And so I counted all the times Vicky Vale screamed. And it might've been 11. I can't remember. Michael Keaton was a great Batman, but not my favorite. I did think it was weird that at night he does some hanging upside-down while his guest sleeps. Moving on, I guess there's a reason why on that poster Jack Nicholson is credited before Michael Keaton. Because he was pretty much the star! He's very funny, memorable, and maybe a little creepy. That was an interesting though convoluted origin story, and that death was surprising. He does look creepier when he's killing Bruce Wayne's parents, though, and that's another thing. That is an interesting decision to make him the killer. I don't have anything else to say except that's... different. How would I rank this movie among the last two? I thought the movie was pretty great, but not as good as Batman Begins and The Dark Knight.

Batman Returns (1992)
Alright, the sequel. I gotta say, when the beginning had this psychopathic monster baby, I was like "Whoa... That's not what I wanted to see." And then when they show Selina Kyle becoming Catwoman by falling on the ground and cats eating her I was like "whoa whoa whoa... Tim Burton, do you think cats are evil? YOU ARE WRONG!" and then throughout the movie when she was acting like a cat, that was cringey. Okay, and then Penguin. Penguin felt like he should be in a cartoon. I mean, with Joker, it's fine and enjoyable and all, but Penguin just weirded me out. Also, Gotham's inhabitants are stupid. How are they just alright with this random terrorist dude they just met becoming the mayor of Gotham and only turn against him when Batman hacks the speakers of the stage he was on? Come on! Okay, enough being negative. Michael Keaton was great the second time around, and there were a good amount of scenes that I quite enjoyed, a few even more than in the original. And though I enjoyed the original overall more, this one... stood out to me more. The music, the tone... everything. But like I said, I enjoyed the original more.

Batman: The Movie (1966)
Okay... I watched this one in a weird way. It was on Netflix, so I decided to watch this before any of the other ones. But I only watched the beginning because I was just watching it casually and got bored of it. And then there were a couple nights when I watched 10 minutes of it. But then one night... After I watched Batman Returns, I finally got to watching the rest of it. What can I say? This is ridiculous. From the suit to the villains to the effects to everything. I want to talk about everything, but I can't, so I'll just focus on a few things. 2 words: SHARK. REPELLENT. Pffffffffff. Robin said "Holy [random word]!" about 5 or 6 times, which is pretty silly. Riddler giving Batman and Robin easy to solve riddles about what they're doing next? Wow. Catwoman likes carrying around a cat.... You don't really need to do that. All the punches in this movie miss by a foot and they still react, which is hilarious. All the world leaders are so into their arguing that they don't notice that two madmen are in the room reducing them to rubble one by one. Okay then. The effects are dated as heck. For one thing, Batman and Robin are running through the streets.... well, in front of a greenscreen. And when henchmen are being shrunk, some of them are cardboard cutouts... literally. And lastly... the scene where Batman is running around with a bomb and everywhere he goes,there's two people in a bar, nuns, a couple, a mother and her baby, and then he goes to the water and there's baby ducks... and he says "Some days you just can't get rid of a bomb!" I loved that. Okay, I'm going too long. I better stop with this... I liked this more than Batman Returns simply because of the ridiculousness of this. It was hilarious.

Batman Forever (1995)

Alright, now we're getting into the... weirder Batman movies. Joel Schumacher thought this was a cartoon for some reason. The weirdest thing in all of this is Two-Face. From the questionable recasting to the awful makeup to the over-the-top performance to the way he does things. And The Riddler is Jim Carrey's most over-the-top performance I've seen him do. But surprisingly enough, there are some redeeming qualities. Though I didn't see him as Bruce Wayne, I didn't think Val Kilmer wasn't a bad Batman. Though Robin can be a jerk at times, I enjoyed his origin story and what he got to do in this movie. And even though Jim Carrey got a little over-the-top at times, he was still enjoyable, as he is in any movie he's in. It didn't feel like it was the same continuity as the Tim Burton Batman films, but it was supposed to be. So that was a little weird. And The Riddler's Box reminded me of the Novabox from radio drama Adventures in Odyssey, though that came after... Anyway, this is one of my least favorite Batman films.

Batman and Robin (1997)
What the heck is up with this movie?! How did anyone approve of this?! This is one of the weirdest movies I've ever seen. Batman is recasted yet again as George Clooney, and the only actor that stays the same throughout all four movies is Alfred's! This is so bad... It's enjoyable. From the zooms on the Bat-Nipples and Bat-Butt to the ice puns that never leave me cold to some of the other shockingly ridiculous lines to Bat-Credit Card (never leave the cave without it!) to the awkward-looking suit to the way he turns his head. This is just full of camp and craziness. I didn't expect Mr. Freeze to have a backstory or the beginning make you think this is dark and gritty. Robin is the jerkiest jerk I have seen him as. Batgirl... wasn't bad. Though I thought it was weird that she was Alfred's niece and not Commissioner Gordon's daughter. Poison Ivy was almost as silly as Mr. Freeze, but not quite. And then Bane. Hm... Bane is stupid. I wish I hadn't seen the Honest Trailer before watching this because I want to have been surprised by a lot of these things. Well, I definitely enjoyed it more than Batman Forever, but not as much as Batman Returns.

The Dark Knight Rises (2012)
And now I'm back to the Nolan films. The chronological time between this and The Dark Knight was kind of reflected by the time between when I watched these two films. Coincidentally it's what it felt like. This movie also unfolds over quite a long time, which I thought was a little weird. Christian Bale is as awesome as always, and his Batman voice is one of the best. Bane I quite liked, and I did not expect his voice to sound like that. It's also weird going from this stupid buff to this criminal mastermind. He was definitely a menace, and it was surprising seeing the things he was willing to do. Catwoman, on the other hand, I wasn't really invested in. Her acting like a cat in Batman Returns was cringey, but at least in that film she was fleshed out, more interesting, and... for lack of a better word, cool. I just didn't get that with this Catwoman. And then Bruce Wayne was in prison for quite a while, trying to get out, and I was saying "Come on! RISE!" multiple times. And then when he "died", I just knew the whole time he didn't, because you simply can't make a title superhero die. And so that removed 90% of the emotion out of it. But back to positivity. Michael Caine. I knew by this film that he is the best Alfred. All the other ones are just like "I'm Batman's butler and I help him." Michael Caine's Alfred gives him advice, shows concern for him, and is sad and regretful when Bruce Wayne "dies". He was great in Batman Begins and The Dark Knight and he was truly the best part of this movie. Oh... well now I'm going long again. This film I don't know where to rank. I don't like it quite as much as the first two Nolan films, or the 1989 one... But maybe sometime I should revisit this to see where I put this.

Batman v Superman (2016)

"Save... MARTHA!!!!"
And now we're getting to the most recent film. Okay, positive things first. Ben Affleck as Batman. That was pretty awesome. He killed it! (sometimes literally, though...) His voice especially was awesome. I don't know which is my favorite, Christian Bale or Ben Affleck. Superman wasn't bad, either. I did like that news sequence with him saving people and everybody questioning him. And Batman's fighting sequences were cool. Unpopular opinion, I actually kinda liked Jesse Eisenberg's Lex Luthor. I mean, it wasn't great, and there were a few odd moments, but he wasn't all that bad. Wonder Woman was also pretty cool. Okay, negative time. The movie had a lot in it, but it felt... a little bit empty. And while some parts I was invested in, some parts I just wasn't. And... Martha. Save... Martha... WHY DID YOU SAY THAT NAME!?!?! I thought that was a little silly. Their moms having the same name I wouldn't say is that silly, but the fact that Batman kept repeating "WHY DID YOU SAY THAT NAME!?!!" over and over kinda took me out of the movie and made me chuckle. Lastly, Superman's "death". The emotion was taken out of this one too, because he's Superman! You simply just can't kill him without Kryptonite! And I didn't notice his ashes floating at the end, and so at the end I thought he was actually killed and I was like "WHAT?!" Wow. Yeah. I'm not interested in Justice League, and I'd have to see a trailer before I get excited about The Batman, even though Ben Affleck was awesome as him. Going long yet again. This is one of my least favorite Batman films besides Batman Forever. I'm sorry, I know there are some people who quite liked this movie, but... not me.

And that concludes my long collection of mini reviews. Wow. That is the longest post I've ever done, surpassing the Switch review. I hope you enjoyed it anyway! What is your favorite Batman movie? What is your least favorite? Tell me in the comments! Well, see you next week!

So I just watched Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure...

Welcome to my first movie review on this blog! I'm going to call these "Movie Thoughts" and each post will be titled "So I just watched [insert movie title here]..." This'll be a recurring kind of post, as this year I have 5 movies I want to watch that are coming out this year, and many more that have been out but I've never seen before. This is one of those. And I'm spoiling the heck out of it. So there's your warning. Enjoy this long review!

 Where to start? I guess... The soundtrack! I quite liked the 80's pop/rock (not the candy). It was... cool. I'm not an expert at this, So I'll just move on. The title sequence. For a little bit, I thought that it was CGI. But as it progressed, I found it looked practical. It looks pretty odd. But at the same time dazzling. And then the opening scene with George Carlin's character, Rufus. He described the world as a thriving utopia where the water is clean, the air is clean, even the dirt is clean, and other things. And after things like The Matrix, WALL*E and Sonic '06, I'm tired of dystopian futures and I was glad to see a hopeful, lighthearted future in this movie. Also, George Carlin. I feel like I've seen him before. I looked up his filmography and all I could find that I recognized was Filmore from Cars. It's kind of ironic how he was an authoritative presence among stereotypical period dudes in this movie and then in Cars he becomes a stereotypical period dude! Heh! Anyway, Rufus is trying to help Bill and Ted stay together so that mankind would live happily... But if he was the one who kept them together, himself being from the future that Bill and Ted created, how the heck is this possible?! It's a paradox! Aaah! There are a good amount of these in this film. I'll talk about some of them later. Anyway, in the present of 1988, which was a year before the film was released, we find Bill and Ted, jammin' out. And dude, Alex Winter and Keanu Reeves were totally rad! Their performances as dumb 80's teenagers was very funny. Though it's weird seeing Keanu all serious in The Matrix. They have to go to school, where if they flunk history, they flunk school. Hm. I homeschool, so I can't say if that's an accurate representation of school. So yeah, I've been focusing on these little details in every single scene... Maybe I'll refrain from it next time. So anyway, that was a great scene at the Circle K, when Rufus shows up to give Bill and Ted the time machine. Only thing is... THEY BLATANTLY STOLE THE TARDIS FROM DOCTOR WHO. Be a little creative, people. And also, the phone number system is needlessly complicated. I mean, it's from the future! They could just talk to a Google Hologram instead of looking through a book that should be way bigger than it is. What I liked about it, was when Future Bill and Ted give advice to Present Bill and Ted. "What number are we thinking of?" *pauses* "69, dudes!" I don't know why that's funny, but it was. This movie is very quotable. My favorite line, I'd say, is "Strange things are afoot at the Circle K." I can't explain it, but LOL. The CGI for the "Circut of Time" or whatever looks very dated, and reminds me of Tron. Well, Tron's CG fits with its primitive computer world. This doesn't. Whatever. Nitpicks. Moving on, we got a scene in the French war against Austria where they just abduct Napoleon Bonaparte. Okay then. It's not like the world is gonna be different. And then there's that whole sequence in the western where they get Billy the Kid. Another quote here. "If I win, I take it all. If you win... *pauses* I take it all," Yup. And at the end of the sequence they just abduct him also. They abduct a whole bunch of historical figures, and everything turns out the same! It's like Marty meeting his future self in Back to the Future Part II. That's just not gonna happen. There are a number of these historical sequences. I'll focus on a couple. Like the one at the medieval times. There's this fake-out where you think a heavily suited Ted is dead, but of course he got out of the suit. Very predictable. And then the scene in the future. So... what is this place? Why do a whole bunch of crowds go to this weird cave? Is this, like, the Bill and Ted synagogue? I don't know. Then they break their antennae... What the heck? Do they really have to rely on this 700-year old technology? They fix it... with gum, and then they get the rest of their historical figures, like Joan of Arc, which I couldn't really tell was her and thought was a young boy. But it was her. Back in the present, Napoleon is bowling and then he completely fails.... and he continually swears. Um... Why is this rated PG? This is 1989, where UHF and Last Crusade are rated PG-13. But whatever. Napoleon goes on the water slide and becomes super-addicted to it to the point that he keeps cutting in line. Napoleon wants his way. And then after this there are more paradoxes. The scene where Ted goes to his dad's police office to rescue all the imprisoned leaders, and they find the keys that his dad has been missing, and it turns out that their future selves did this for them. And then they get in a bad situation, and Ted tells himself "Remember the box..." and a trashcan  from his future self falls from above conveniently solving their problem. Wow. I'd think after this was over that they never get around to it, thus cancelling out themselves. But whatever. And there's this tension where the school finals are going, and the principal is constantly looking at the clock. I did kinda feel that tension a little bit. But not entirely. And then the finals are over, and Bill and Ted are like WAIT! and this whole sophisticated concert lighting system is present. How long did that take to set up? And the whole oral report goes, and I have two things to say. The first is that Abe Lincoln says "Fourscore and... 7 minutes ago" AND IT'S HIMSELF!!!! HE WOULD BE CORRECTING EVERYBODY ELSE ON THE WHOLE SCORE MEASUREMENT!!!!! AAAAAAAARRGH! Sorry, that just drove me crazy. And that is not entirely how I felt. That was an exaggeration. And second thing, he got an A+, which wouldn't be right because he kept misinterpreting Socrates, which was funny, but still. They give a little speech at the end, which is "Be excellent to each other, and... PARTY ON!" That captures the lighthearted and hopeful feel of this movie for me. Great! And then at the end Rufus tells them that one day they're supposed to write an album that shapes the course of history. That's interesting. 80's rock saving the world. I like it. And then Bill and Ted do some so-so jamming and Rufus says "Well, they do get better." and we end the film on that.

SO WHAT DID I THINK?!??!! Well, all those nitpicks were just nitpicks that I thought were worth mentioning, but overall, I thought it was pretty great. Not the kind of movie that I would watch over and over, but maybe something I'd revisit in a bunch of years. Oh yeah, and then there's that sequel, Bill and Ted's Bogus Journey, which I've heard has the two dudes get killed and they find themselves in Hell where they must beat the Grim Reaper at a bunch of licensed board games in order to resurrect themselves. Hm... Doesn't sound great. Rotten Tomatoes gave it a 53% too, so I'm not gonna watch that. It's probably bogus.

And that concludes my mess of a first Movie Thoughts review. Next week it's gonna be huge. I'm not reviewing one movie. But then after that it'll be one movie. So that's nice. But if you have the time, you'll enjoy next week's huge post. Well, I hope you enjoyed it! What do you think of this movie? What is your favorite part! Comment! I can only count the number of times people have commented on my blog, so it'd be nice if you could. Alright! See ya later, dudes!