Avengers Movies Roundup!

Super trite post here, but I've been wanting to do this for a while, just to think through why I like the ones I like, and which ones have been weaker.  And of course, I'm going to state a lot of things as fact here, but it is all definitely just opinion.

Jessica Jones: Season 2

I've recently finished watching season 2 of Jessica Jones, and I've got to say that I was quite happy with it.  It was a very different animal from season 1, which I think is leading some people to disappointment.  I, however, found it to be much more my style, and I really enjoyed the subtlety of it as well as the characterization and subtext.

Beyond this point be spoilers.  Don't say you weren't warned!

Review: The Punisher

Just finished Netflix's "The Punisher" series a few days ago, and I must say that I was very impressed.  In the run up to its release, I saw many posts and articles raising concerns that Frank Castle couldn't be a good protagonist because he was just too far over the line, that he wasn't nuanced enough, and that the whole thing would just be a 13 episode bloodbath.  I am pleased to say that the writers sidestepped all of those concerns and made what I thought was one of the best seasons of their Marvel shows so far.

Review: Marvel's Inhumans

Back in the yestermonth of September, Marvel's Inhumans was released in a special IMAX screening of the first two episodes.  I had low expectations going into the theater and they may have been too high.  Basically zero effort was put into turning the two episodes into a "movie"-like experience; it even had some recap at the beginning of episode 2 (I guess in case we had gotten up to go to the bathroom, or perhaps fallen asleep).  Anyhow, I recently watched the third episode in the hopes that it might improve.

It did not.  Also, spoilers.

Guardians of the Galaxy V2: Daddy Issues

I got to watch the new Guardians of the Galaxy this past weekend.  It was very good, and fun.  I would say that it was a bit sillier than the first one, but also had more feelz than the first one.  All told, I thoroughly enjoyed it.  But that's not what I'm writing about; I'm here to write a very spoilery and brief listicle about how the whole movie was about parental (especially fatherly) relationships.

--------------- FULL OF SPOILERS --------------------

Review: Star Trek Beyond

This weekend, I went with my wife to see the newest entry in the Star Trek series.  From watching previews, I didn't expect much.  I looked like a pretty standard action romp in which they listened to the Beastie Boys and Bones was cranky.  They did not disappoint.  It was in fact a pretty standard action romp.  They listened to the Beastie Boys.  Bones was cranky.  I only mention Bones because he really stood out in this movie.

Early in the movie (I'm going to keep this as unspoilery as I can) the crew gets split up.  So there is a lot of stuff going on and it keeps jumping back and forth between different characters and groups of characters.  Most of the movie is spent getting the characters to coalesce again into a crew.  Anyhow, that element (along with more use of shaky-cam than I was happy with) made the movie feel somewhat frenetic and hard to follow.  That said, I think that made Bones stand out because he is so grounded during the movie, simplifying concepts so he can complain about them efficiently.

Honestly, I've got to say that the plot of this movie reminds me much more of Wrath of Khan than anything else.  That's all I'll say on that subject, but if you have opinions please sound off in the comments.

The movie has one of the best set-piece fight scenes I've ever seen.  It's extremely vertiginous for those not educated on orbital mechanics (it didn't bother me at all).  It does the classic Star Trek thing where you introduce a really cool idea and then barely use it for anything besides a backdrop (I'm looking at you Dyson Sphere episode of TNG), but it was a pretty awesome backdrop.

Also, as I was watching it (and I should have gotten this from just the trailer) I felt like the entire space adventure genre was upended by Guardians of the Galaxy.  The movie felt like it was trying really hard to iterate on GotG's success.  I think they actually did a good job with this and the movie didn't feel unoriginal, it just felt like it was made in a post GotG world.

I know this was more of a series of thoughts than a proper review, but that's what you get.  I'm not going to give it a number of stars, I'll just say that if you are expecting a fun sci-fi film, you'll probably not be disappointed.  If you're expecting a brilliant movie that will blow you away, maybe watch something else.

Captain America: Civil War

I went to see Civil War this weekend.  I've intended to do superhero movie critical analyses on my blog for a while now and I've finally found one I cared about enough after watching that now seems like a good time to start.  So SPOILERS AHEAD!