We May Have an Alfred! Andy Serkis in Talks for The Batman

There’s been a lot of info coming out concerning The Batman casting over the past few days, and I’m not sure I can keep up with all of it. First, I’m hearing that Matthew McConaughey is set to play Harvey Dent (I’ve seen only rumors on this one so far). Then there’s news that Colin Farrell is in talks for The Penguin. Finally, and what should be the smallest of these castings, Andy Serkis is entering talks to play Alfred Pennyworth, Bruce Wayne’s butler and surrogate father-figure.

I just want to unpack the interesting bit here about Serkis. Andy Serkis is an incredible actor, both in Motion-Capture and also in real world performing. People don’t talk about Serkis as a non-CG performer, but he’s great at both. I loved his work in The Prestige, Black Panther, and the cook in King Kong. So hearing him playing Alfred seems so inspired and something I hadn’t thought about. I had been hearing rumors of him as The Penguin, and again, my mind went to CG, and I was very excited. He has previously worked with director Matt Reeves on Dawn of the Planet of the Apes and its sequel, so again, I wasn’t surprised by his inclusion in the DC Batman world, but its only that I hadn’t for a single second thought about him playing Alfred Pennyworth.

But now, I can’t believe the thought never occurred to me. It’s such a brilliant translation for the Alfred character after seeing what the DCEU had done with him as a guy-in-the-chair sidekick-like assistant to Bruce when he dons the cowl. It’s so perfect.

So I’m completely on board with Andy Serkis playing any damn role in The Batman, and if that happens to be Alfred, then I’m perfectly happy.

What do you think? Is Andy Serkis right for Alfred Pennyworth or is there a better fit? Let me know/Drop a comment below.

-Kyle A. Goethe

November 7, 2019 0

[31 Days of Horror Part VI: Jason Lives] Day 13 – Ghost Stories (2017)

Director: Jeremy Dyson, Andy Nyman

Cast: Andy Nyman, Paul Whitehouse, Alex Lawther, Martin Freeman

Screenplay: Jeremy Dyson, Andy Nyman

98 mins. Not Rated.

On the recent subject of anthology horror films, today we’ll be looking at Ghost Stories, a unique and interesting twist on the idea of anthologies. It’s not really an anthology, and it also has a level of anthology-style to it with a very interesting framing device. Let’s talk about it.

Phillip Goodman (Andy Nyman) a professor known for his skeptical viewpoint of ghosts and the afterlife. He runs a documentary-style show that debunks paranormal events and stories, and when he is given a file with three cases of unexplained paranormal circumstances, he discovers that each of these ghost stories blurs the lines between what is real and what is not.

I had been told many great things about Ghost Stories and as I was watching Professor Goodman going through each of the cases, I kept wondering why. Each of these cases felt like something that I’d seen before, something I expected, something unsurprising. So why is it a good movie? About halfway through the film, I stopped wondering about that. There’s a reason why these stories feel familiar and why they seem unsurprising and expected. There’s a hidden connection among the stories and the effect they have on Professor Goodman.

Andy Nyman does some very solid acting as Professor Goodman, and, in fact, each of the three characters leading the three stories are both relatable and well-performed. I particularly liked Paul Whitehouse (The Death of Stalin, Alice Through the Looking Glass) as Tony Matthews, the central character of the first story. He’s an actor I don’t have a lot of experience watching, and his character arc in the first story mirrors a lot of how I would go through the experience of a haunting. That’s not to fault either Alex Lawther (The Imitation Game, TV’s The End of the F***ing World) in the second story or Martin Freeman (Black Panther, Cargo) in the third. Each story works much better in hindsight after understand the complete path of the film.

Ghost Stories is a wildly psychotic and enjoyable film. Its faults lie in a muddled first half meant to set up the big reveal at the end of the film. I’m also not entirely sure if the film is very re-watchable, but I’d like to see it at least once more to put all the pieces together. I’d highly recommend it for a fun puzzle of a movie, one that stuck with me after watching it. These Ghost Stories are well worth hearing.

4/5

-Kyle A. Goethe

For more 31 Days of Horror, click here.

October 13, 2019 0

[SPOILER CHAT!] Spider-Man: Far From Home (2019)

Hey Hey!

We are here to talk a few of the Spoilers for Spider-Man: Far From Home. If you came here by accident, click here to see my Spider-Man: Far From Home non-spoiler review.

Okay, you’ve been warned.

SPOILERS BELOW!

IRON MAN DEEP CUT

It’s great to see Peter Billingsley (of A Christmas Story) pop up again after appearing in an incredibly-small capacity in the first Iron Man. What I enjoy is how they were able to use a pre-existing character in a way that forever changes the way we will watch Iron Man, and that’s pretty damn cool.

BARF

So BARF was featured in Civil War as a system designed to use drone technology to create visual planes that one could interact with. I’m excited to rewatch Civil War to see how it plays into Quentin Beck’s master plan, which was a great reveal. I would have liked to have seen an interaction between Stark and Beck, but I get it. I love when films do this, using created lore to build upon. It seems that many of Spider-Man’s villains are tied to Tony Stark, furthering the mentor motif with the sins of the Father being visited upon by the Son.

AVENGERS TOWER

So there is a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it shot of Avengers Tower, which has apparently been sold, seen at the end of the film that has a sign on it saying “We Can’t Wait to Show You What Comes Next” with the numbers “1-2-3-?” on it. Many have speculated at the fun of this nod to Phase 4, but part of me questions if Phase 4 is all that they’ve been hinting at here. Who bought the building? There’s two ideas that come to mind.

I don’t recall seeing any reference to OsCorp yet in this Spider-Man iteration, so could it have been Norman Osborn. Let’s question why we haven’t seen Harry Osborn yet. Was he not Blipped and aged 5 years right into Peter’s class and we just haven’t been introduced to him yet?

On the other hand, what if it becomes The Baxter Building, thus introducing us to the Fantastic 4. I know that Kevin Feige has said we won’t see them in the MCU for some time, but what if this was thrown in real quick as a sly introduction. “1-2-3-?” could be referencing them. Even if it takes years to see them introduced, this would be a fun little send-up.

Whoever bought Avengers Tower would have to have a lot of money at their disposal, and it was purchased years before we saw it in Far From Home, so anything could be possible.

NO STAN

I figured we would get some Stan Lee overt reference, but no such luck. I’ve been claiming for a while that they would find a way to insert some Stan Lee material in each future MCU film, even as simple as a picture in the background, and maybe no one caught it, but I didn’t see anything either. That’s too bad, and hopefully they find a way to correct that in future films.

MID-CREDITS SCENE

Alright, so the mid-credits scene is literally the end of the movie, and it’s a pretty important ending that forever changes the way that Spider-Man’s story will be told.

So essentially, MJ and Peter and finishing their web-slinging date, and then, a news report comes on from none other than The Daily Bugle, in the MCU a podcast/internet radio show similar to Alex Jones apparently. J. Jonah Jameson appears, played once again by the legendary J.K. Simmons. There really is no one else to play him. He announces that Spider-Man is a killer and he has proof from Mysterio’s video feed. He also lets the video feed announce to the world that Spider-Man is PETER PARKER!

It’s an insane reveal that trumps the Aunt May reveal from Homecoming in every way. I’m not even sure how they will pick up the pieces of this moment going into Phase 4.

What’s crazy about this whole thing, too, is that J.K. Simmons is playing Jameson again. That’s the first time that has happened in the MCU, so it’s a big deal. What worries me is that it seemingly was done at the last second, so hopefully there’s more to the Jameson reveal than just the shock of it.

POST-CREDITS SCENE

The post-credits scene is probably the most shocking reveal of the whole movie and may confirm some of the theories about Avengers: Endgame, or it may not.

So, the scene begins with Nick Fury and Maria Hill discussing the events they’ve just been through, and then, all of a sudden, they both morph back into Talos and Soren from Captain Marvel. They’ve been Skrulls for who knows how long.

Fury is then revealed to be on a ship somewhere out in the galaxy, working with the Skrulls.

Now, let’s take this a piece at a time. In Captain Marvel, Fury is quoted as saying he doesn’t cut his sandwiches diagonally, something he later ends up doing in Avengers: Age of Ultron. Now, this could be a little continuity error, but why would anyone bring up sandwiches twice with a character like Fury. How often would Nick Fury eating a sandwich just happen to come up? That’s what makes it so interesting. I’m assuming that Talos has been Fury at least that far back.

Now, in Avengers: Endgame, many fans claimed to have seen Talos posing as a teacher in the background at the end of the film when Peter goes back to school. Now, I’ve looked at this footage in slow-mo, and I don’t think that’s Ben Mendelsohn. To back it up, IMDb has confirmed on their site of his appearance in Far From Home, even uncredited, but they have not done the same for Endgame. That doesn’t mean too much, but it is curious.

Going back to Infinity War, when Fury and Hill were dusted, does that mean it was Talos and Soren that got dusted? If so, did the real Fury and Hill survive The Blip, and will we see any of that time if they did?

During Far From Home, Fury/Talos is involved in a conversation concerning Kree sleeper cells on Earth, so does that have anything to do with why Talos is posing as Fury? There’s not much more to go on at this point, but it is interesting nonetheless.

Now, going to the second part of this reveal, where is Fury? It appears to be a ship or installation out in space working with the Skrulls. The question here is what would give Fury the ability to help the Skrulls and Talos the ability to help the humans. Outside of being cool, why wouldn’t Talos and Soren be on the ship and Fury be on Earth? What are they gaining by swapping?

Now, I’ve read some online about the installation being S.W.O.R.D., a command post operated as a space-version of S.H.I.E.L.D., which sounds cool, but forgive me if I have no idea what I’m talking about.

That sounds cool, and it kind of reaffirms the general belief that Phase 4 is going cosmic. If Fury is already out there, then it would stand that’s what is happening. Looking at the Avengers as they stand right now, there is Ant-Man, a character who can go subatomic, Doctor Strange, who can get all trippy, the Guardians, who exist out in space, Thor, who is out there with them presumably, and Captain Marvel, who is essentially a space cop. We also have Black Panther and Spider-Man, who I would assume would lead Earth-led stories, but who knows, and then there’s all the new characters we could potentially see. If makes a lot of sense.

These are my thoughts on Spider-Man: Far From Home. If you want my full review, just click here!

-Kyle A. Goethe

July 13, 2019 0

Us (2019)

Director: Jordan Peele

Cast: Lupita Nyong’o, Winston Duke, Elizabeth Moss, Tim Heidecker

Screenplay: Jordan Peele

116 mins. Rated R for violence/terror, and language.

I’m glad I took some time to decompress after Us. There’s a lot to unpack here.

Us, from writer/director Jordan Peele (Get Out), is the story of the Wilson family who, while on their family vacation to Santa Cruz, are beset upon by a family of four red-clad attackers who look exactly like them. The matriarch of the Wilson family, Adelaide (Lupita Nyong’o, 12 Years a Slave, Star Wars: The Last Jedi) learns from her doppelganger Red that the doubles are here to “untether” themselves from the Wilsons, and now Adelaide and husband Gabe (Winston Duke, Black Panther) must protect their family and friends from the growing number of murderous doppelgangers bent on killing them.

It would appear that Jordan Peele is not a one-hit wonder when it comes to his horror films. The man has a keen visual sense and the ability to tell an intelligent story. He, like Quentin Tarantino before him, was baptized and raised by film, and it shows in both Get Out and especially Us. He uses symbols and themes so intricately that Us becomes infinitely more enjoyable upon a second or even a third viewing.

If there are problems with Us, it mostly boils down to two factors in the story. First, there’s a lot of cool mythology building in the film, but the story does have moments where it becomes clear what is happening even if the mythology is not revealed yet. Doppelganger stories sometimes have certain tropes that need to be ticked off, and Us is not exempt from all of them. Secondly, with the mythology and world-building, there are some things that feel like they either aren’t fleshed out enough or don’t make as much sense the more you read into them. There are explanations, but some don’t appear in the film, and if you try to peel away the layers, you might ruin the experience, so just watch it without trying to understand it all, the film will do the heavy lifting for you.

Lupita Nyong’o proves her abilities here are just as strong as any other genre. The way she plays both Adelaide and Red are so unique and different. Adelaide is a woman who has grown up being terrified of an experience she had in Santa Cruz as a child, and so she almost isn’t surprised when these doppelgangers show up to start wreaking havoc upon them. It’s like she’s prepared for something, anything, horrible to happen, and it appears to be a blessing that she did. Red, though, hasn’t used her voice in so long that it appears that she is struggling to use correct speech patterns, her vocal cords straining due to not being flexed in a long time.

Winston Duke is also tremendous as both Gabe and the doppelganger Abraham. Gabe is seemingly nonviolent outside of his wit and the way he acts. On the flipside, it seems like Abraham only knows violence and anger, and it’s interesting to see the way Gabe tries to work around a solution.

Also like Tarantino, Peele has a terrific sense of music, and he uses it to great effect here, giving the film both catchy tunes to exude the fun of the horror, while also staging his serious sequences with more disturbing and unsettling music. His use of I Got 5 On It (he added it to the finished film after it performed with audiences in the trailer) is absolutely incredible.

Us is quite the powerhouse second feature for Jordan Peele, and while I think Get Out might be the better film, Us is my personal preference and the one I will probably go back to more often. Us is Peele swinging for the fences, and he takes a lot of risks that pay off quite well. It’s just a damn fun time at the movies and is one of the best horror films of the year.

4.5/5

-Kyle A. Goethe

For my review of Jordan Peele’s Get Out, click here.

July 6, 2019 1

Feige Talks the Disney/Fox Deal and How to Incorporate the New Properties

I’m sure Kevin Feige is done talking about the Fantastic Four and the X-Men, but during an event for the upcoming Spider-Man: Far From Home, he took some time to talk again about it. So let’s unpack a few things he said.

First, he kept to his statement about taking his time, saying that he was in no real rush to add these characters to the MCU. This is still a smart statement for many reasons. First, we should point out that Kevin Feige makes a plan and usually sticks to it pretty close. Notice how his initial Phase 3 announcement compares to what we’ve see play out. The only major changes, to my memory, are the inclusion of Spider-Man, which didn’t need as much work and didn’t wrinkle the plan too much, and the movement of the Inhumans to a series from a movie, a move that you can say either worked out well for him or didn’t. The jury is still out on what an Inhumans movie would have looked like. Now, think about the reactionary approach to a DCEU or even The Dark Universe. A plan was made and then seemingly thrown out the window. He also has to come to terms with the failure of Dark Phoenix, which will leave a stain on the X-Men for a bit. Add that to the stain of a major Fantastic Four failure from a couple years back and Feige will have to play this one carefully.

He also stated that, while he is in no rush, he has been working on this possibility for a while now. Years, he states. He’s been playing though plans that have included and excluded the X-Men, Fantastic Four, and Spider-Man for years now, and that’s how Spider-Man: Homecoming was able to come together so quick in time to open up Phase 3.

It’s important to note that Phase 4 has been kept pretty secret for some time, but I would imagine, based on some of the statements from Kevin Feige over the years, that he has had some form of Phase 4 in his head for a long time. He stated a couple years back that he had storylines planned out through 2028. Now, this was back when Marvel was releasing 2 films a year, and maybe that changed when they moved to 3, but I have to imagine he’s had a future beyond Thanos and the Infinity Stones.

He shared that some character introductions work better in their own films and some, like Spider-Man and Black Panther, worked better in someone else’s story. It’s true, and the more I’ve thought about this, the more it has made sense. I would take that as a possibility that we could see a non-powered Reed Richards appear in someone else’s film in the MCU before the Fantastic Four get a solo movie. I could even believe that perhaps a Hank McCoy/Beast or a Professor X might get an appearance before an X-Men Proper film. These properties have fan expectations, so this one will be a tough inclusion process that might aid them to have an appearance elsewhere first.

So what do you think? When and how will we see the Fantastic Four and X-Men appear in the MCU, if at all? Let me know/Leave a comment below!

-Kyle A. Goethe

June 20, 2019 0

Avengers: Endgame (2019)

Director: Anthony Russo, Joe Russo

Cast: Robert Downey Jr., Chris Evans, Mark Ruffalo, Chris Hemsworth, Scarlett Johansson, Jeremy Renner, Don Cheadle, Paul Rudd, Brie Larson, Karen Gillan, Danai Gurira, Bradley Cooper, Josh Brolin, Benedict Wong, Jon Favreau, Gwyneth Paltrow

Screenplay: Christopher Markus, Stephen McFeely

181 mins. Rated PG-13 for sequences of sci-fi violence and action, and some language.

Well, here it is. I’m going to try not to use the word culmination like everyone else has, but I cannot make any promises. This is the end of The Infinity Saga, the twenty-second film in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. The culmination-dammit…

Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr., Sherlock Holmes, Chef) is drifting through space with Nebula (Karen Gillan, Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle, TV’s Selfie). On Earth, what’s left of the Avengers have collected at the compound, unsure of what to do next. Thanos (Josh Brolin, No Country for Old Men, Deadpool 2) succeeded in his plan, obliterating half of the universe in a single snap of his fingers. As they each come to terms with the enormous loss that they and the universe have incurred, an old ally appears with an idea, a crazy crackpot idea that has no chance of working. Well, almost no chance. The Avengers, or what’s left of them, assemble on one final attempt to fix everything, and if they fail, they’ll do that together.

I’M TRYING TO AVOID AS MANY SPOILERS AS I CAN, BUT BE WARNED THAT A REVIEW LIKE THIS WILL ALWAYS HAVE SOME SPOILERS. SEE THE FILM FIRST IF IT CONCERNS YOU.

THIS IS YOUR SPOILER WARNING.

Avengers: Infinity War set up an almost impossible task. Let’s give the villain his own movie and test out characters like they’ve never been tested before. I think that’s the importance of the Avengers franchise of the MCU. Much like any team-up movie, I think it’s important to have the team tested in a unique way, and they should almost always come out of the film with more people on the team or less, because that’s one of the only ways to change the story trajectory. Well, Infinity War had tested the Avengers, and they certainly came out of the film with less characters, but it was also an even bigger test for Anthony and Joe Russo (You, Me, and Dupree, Welcome to Collinwood) as well as the writing team of Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely (The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, Pain & Gain), who now had to bring in the fourth Avengers film on a solid landing and end the story. We knew that they had to do something to save some of the dusted Avengers. Hell, there was a Spider-Man trailer out weeks before the film’s release, and even though we joked about it possibly set before Endgame, everyone knew that Sony would not let Marvel kill their most popular character. Certainly, Black Panther’s story would not end after one solo film, but how was this all going to happen, and what’s the cost?

So let’s start with that impossible task. Knowing all the things that had to happen in the follow-up, it’s incredible how the Russos and the writing team actually pulled it off and made it captivating, exciting, and heartbreaking. From the shocking opening of the film to the final act, a dauntingly epic ending that takes up a large chunk of the film’s three-hour runtime, Avengers: Endgame just cruises on by. In a lot of ways, it’s the flipside of Infinity War’s coin, and it’s a good thing that they changed the titles from Infinity War Part 1 and 2 because as much as they rely on each other, Endgame is a completely different film, and that’s why it works so well. Infinity War was a film that gave each of its characters at least one moment to shine, and Endgame does that too, but Endgame even gives each film before it time to shine. There’s references to Iron Man 3 in this film and Thor: The Dark World, two films that don’t even end up in the upper 80% of most MCU fan rankings of the franchise (full disclosure, though, I love Iron Man 3). It’s a love letter to the 11 years of this franchise and the fans that stuck with it for so long.

The performances from the entire cast are solid, but I want to discuss the ones that I think deserve to be discussed, good or bad. Let’s start with Robert Downey Jr. His performance here is a series best (quite a feat for the actor that has not beaten Hugh Jackman for most appearances as a superhero in a franchise), even better than Tony Stark struggling with PTSD in Iron Man 3 (see, I love that one). There, he’s dealing with the knowledge he obtained in The Avengers that Earth is not alone in the universe, and now, he’s dealing with the failure in saving billions or trillions of lives. He becomes weak, and he cannot hold blame. He keeps going back to wanting to put a suit of armor around the world with Ultron. He’s beaten and broken and still hasn’t forgiven Steve Rogers (Chris Evans, Gifted, Before We Go) for abandoning him even though he is just as responsible. He’s also dealing with the loss of Peter Parker on Titan. Tony needs some hard truth at this point on his journey, and he gets it in Endgame.

Steve Rogers watched many of his friends die right in front of him. He’s a man who fell out of time into a confusing one and did the best he could, but he comes to realize that his failure to stop Thanos has hit him just as hard as Tony, but in a different way. He’s running a group that helps people to cope with the loss, and he’s going just as much for himself as anyone else. Chris Evans consistently does the impossible with Steve Rogers/Captain America; he makes this superhero a human. He makes the goody-goody Rogers an actual human being, with plenty of flaws and pain. This is the story that tests him and his need for hope, and there’s no one I’ve seen outside of Christopher Reeves playing Superman that embodies that struggle for hope so well.

Natasha Romanoff (Scarlett Johansson, Her, Sing) has taken control of the remaining Avengers, and she’s stopped taking care of herself. She’s dealing with the loss by diving into work, hunting down a rogue Avenger who needs her help, but she’s sputtering on exhausted wheels. She’s just looking to make right on a career filled with wrongs. All the bad things she has done before finding her home with the Avengers have led her here, and she couldn’t do anything about it.

This is a film that gives Mark Ruffalo (The Kids Are All Right, Now You See Me 2) so much to do with the Hulk character, probably the most unique shift for the character in the MCU, and he does a spectacular job with it. It isn’t what I would have done, but I admire the character arc he takes.

One character that doesn’t get much to do is Thor (Chris Hemsworth, Snow White and the Huntsman, 12 Strong). This is a man who lost his father still very recently, his brother died in front of him, and half of his people are slaughtered after losing their home. He’s another hero dealing with failure. He should have aimed for the head. He came so close to saving everyone and then he didn’t. He should be dealing with the most pain of anyone in the story. Instead, he is used more so for comic relief than anything else. I get it, Chris Hemsworth is really funny, but I know he can play to drama as well. He just doesn’t get the emotional beats that I wanted him to have. It’s similar to what is done with him in Infinity War, where he just doesn’t get the time to develop his trauma. His alcoholism in Endgame could have some serious consequences and bearing on him, but it just doesn’t.

Lastly, I want to talk about Karen Gillan’s performance as Nebula. I’ve never been a big fan of the character, either the way she’s written or the performance. Nebula always reminded me of a fly that comes in the window in the middle of the night when you’re trying to sleep. You swat and swat and just can’t get rid of her. In Endgame, though, her character is expanded upon so much more because of how we see her and the presentation of how far she has come as a character since we saw her in Guardians of the Galaxy vol. 2. People forget that vol. 2 takes place just a few months after the first one, so it’s been a long time since we’ve really seen Nebula in the MCU, and Gillan’s subtle broken performance is terrific.

From behind the lens, the Russos directed the hell out of this thing, and there’s a lot to be said about the strength of their storytelling as it has evolved over the years. Their cinematography is so clean, especially when it needs to be, in some of the heavier action set pieces. It’s safe to say that there’s a lot going on in this film; there has to be, but the way the Russos keep the focus on where it needs to be to progress the story is great, and the way they handle the set pieces are very focused and strongly laid out. There’s a heavy possibility, especially in the third act, to lose sight of what’s going on and where we’re at from a narrative perspective, but they never let the film lose sight of its goal, a tremendous feat.

With that visual storytelling comes the editing, which is very strong. The film never feels long. It’s the enjoyment factor, no doubt, but clocking in at just over three hours, the film almost should feel long, but it doesn’t. Not once. After seeing it twice, I can say with certainty that there’s only one scene I would cut earlier in the film to tighten it more, and it probably would only save 30 seconds or so.

No offense to Danny Elfman, but I’m really happy to hear Alan Silvestri’s score here after being absent from Age of Ultron. Silvestri’s score takes notes from The Avengers and especially from the ending of Infinity War, but it dives deeper into the depression, loss, and hope that permeates the film, and his score has a note of finality to it. If this is indeed the last time we’ll see some of our favorite heroes, Silvestri sends them out on a high note.

Avengers: Endgame accomplishes the most difficult task assigned to it. It has an ending. This is the end of a big part of this franchise without feeling the need to really set anything else up. For the most part, there isn’t an MCU film that hasn’t had the need to at least set up something in the end credits, but not Endgame, and that’s a strong and restrained decision because the film should speak for itself and everything that comes before it, and boy does it have a lot to speak on. This is an absolute cinematic achievement, and barring a few small hiccups, it comes off without a hitch. The ending raises some questions that we won’t really have answered until Spider-Man: Far From Home (the true last film in Phase 3), but beyond all that, I loved watching this movie and cannot wait to see it again, if only to catch some more of the blink-and-you’ll-miss-it moments. If you haven’t yet, then seriously, why not?

#ThanosDemandsYourSilence #Don’tSpoilTheEndgame

4.5/5

-Kyle A. Goethe

For my review of Joe Johnston’s Captain America: The First Avenger, click here.

For my review of Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck’s Captain Marvel, click here.

For my review of Jon Favreau’s Iron Man, click here.

For my review of Jon Favreau’s Iron Man 2, click here.

For my review of Louis Leterrier’s The Incredible Hulk, click here.

For my review of Leythum’s A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to Thor’s Hammer, click here.

For my review of Anthony and Joe Russo’s Captain America: The Winter Soldier, click here.

For my review of James Gunn’s Guardians of the Galaxy, click here.

For my review of James Gunn’s Guardians of the Galaxy vol. 2, click here.

For my review of Joss Whedon’s Avengers: Age of Ultron, click here.

For my review of Anthony and Joe Russo’s Captain America: Civil War, click here.

For my review of Ryan Coogler’s Black Panther, click here.

For my review of Jon Watts’s Spider-Man: Homecoming, click here.

For my review of Taika Waititi’s Thor: Ragnarok, click here.

For my review of Anthony and Joe Russo’s Avengers: Infinity War, click here.

June 9, 2019 17

The Nominees for the 91st Academy Awards

Hey everyone! We officially have our nominees for the 91^st Annual Academy Awards. Over the next few weeks, I’ll be going through as many of the nominations as I can, so join me on this journey using #2019oscardeathrace and share your count on our way to 52!

The nominees are:

Best Picture:

Best Director:

Spike Lee – BlacKkKlansman
Pawel Pawlikowski – Cold War
Yorgos Lanthimos – The Favourite
Alfonso Cuaron – Roma
Adam McKay – Vice

Best Actor:

Christian Bale – Vice
Bradley Cooper – A Star is Born
Willem Dafoe – At Eternity’s Gate
Rami Malek – Bohemian Rhapsody
Viggo Mortensen – Green Book

Best Actress:

Yalitza Aparicio – Roma
Glenn Close – The Wife
Olivia Colman – The Favourite
Lady Gaga – A Star is Born
Melissa McCarthy – Can You Ever Forgive Me?

Best Supporting Actor:

Mahershala Ali – Green Book
Adam Driver – BlacKkKlansman
Sam Elliot – A Star is Born
Richard E. Grant – Can You Ever Forgive Me?
Sam Rockwell – Vice

Best Supporting Actress:

Amy Adams – Vice
Marina de Tavira – Roma
Regina King – If Beale Street Could Talk
Emma Stone – The Favourite
Rachel Weisz – The Favourite

Best Original Screenplay:

The Favourite
First Reformed
Green Book
Roma
Vice

Best Adapted Screenplay:

Best Animated Feature Film:

Best Foreign Language Film:

Capernaum
Cold War
Never Look Away
Roma
Shoplifters

Best Documentary Feature:

Free Solo
Hale County This Morning, This Evening
Minding the Gap
Of Fathers and Sons
RBG

Best Documentary Short:

Black Sheep
End Game
Lifeboat
A Night at the Garden
Period. End of Sentence

Best Live Action Short:

Detainment
Fauve
Marguerite
Mother
Skin

Best Animated Short Film:

Animal Behaviour
Bao
Late Afternoon
One Small Step
Weekends

Best Original Score:

Black Panther
BlacKkKlansman
If Beale Street Could Talk
Isle of Dogs
Mary Poppins Returns

Best Original Song:

“All the Stars” – Black Panther
“I’ll Fight” – RBG
“The Place Where Lost Things Go” – Mary Poppins Returns
“Shallow” – A Star is Born
“When a Cowboy Trades His Spurs for Wings” – The Ballad of Buster Scruggs

Best Sound Editing:

Black Panther
Bohemian Rhapsody
First Man
A Quiet Place
Roma

Best Sound Mixing:

Best Production Design:

Black Panther
The Favourite
First Man
Mary Poppins Returns
Roma

Best Cinematography:

Cold War
The Favourite
Never Look Away
Roma
A Star is Born

Best Makeup and Hairstyling:

Border
Mary Queen of Scots
Vice

Best Costume Design:

The Ballad of Buster Scruggs
Black Panther
The Favourite
Mary Poppins Returns
Mary Queen of Scots

Best Film Editing:

Best Visual Effects:

Avengers: Infinity War
Christopher Robin
First Man
Ready Player One
Solo: A Star Wars Story

So there you have it. It’s going to be a hell of a month and I’m looking forward to it. Be sure to join me on this adventure and share your thoughts on these nominees.

#2019oscardeathrace

-Kyle A. Goethe

January 23, 2019 0

Avengers: Infinity War (2018)

Director: Anthony Russo, Joe Russo

Cast: Robert Downey Jr., Chris Hemsworth, Mark Ruffalo, Chris Evans, Scarlett Johansson, Benedict Cumberbatch, Don Cheadle, Tom Holland, Chadwich Boseman, Paul Bettany, Elizabeth Olsen, Anthony Mackie, Sebastian Stan, Danai Gurira, Letitia Wright, Dave Bautista, Zoe Saldana, Josh Brolin, Chris Pratt

Screenplay: Christopher Markus, Stephen McFeely

149 mins. Rated PG-13 for intense sequences of sci-fi violence and action throughout, language and some crude references.

IMDb Top 250: #37 (as of 9/1/2018)

Well, it happened. I almost cannot believe it, but it happened. After 10 years and numerous storylines, everything in the Marvel Cinematic Universe has culminated in this.

Let me say that word again: culminated. I like that word.

So a lot has happened. I’ll try to sum it up as quick as I can.

Thanos (Josh Brolin, No Country for Old Men, Sicario: Day of the Soldado) has one goal driving his very being: to collect all six Infinity Stones. He already has one, but to get the others, he will have to go through the Avengers, Earth’s Mightiest Heroes. The Hulk (Mark Ruffalo, Spotlight, Now You See Me 2) and Thor (Chris Hemsworth, Snow White and the Huntsman, 12 Strong) are quickly dispatched, Thanos sends his minions, The Black Order, to Earth to search for the remaining Earthbound stones while he finds himself facing off with his daughter Gamora (Zoe Saldana, Avatar, My Little Pony: The Movie). Now, it’s a fight to protect the stones from the increasingly more dangerous Thanos as the Avengers team up with the Guardians of the Galaxy, Doctor Strange (Benedict Cumberbatch, The Imitation Game, The Child in Time), Spider-Man (Tom Holland, The Impossible, Pilgrimage), Black Panther (Chadwick Boseman, 42, Marshall), and others, but do they even stand a chance?

Avengers: Infinity War almost needs to be looked at differently than other films. My goal here and in all my reviews is to look at each within the context that it exists. When I watch a horror film, I look to be scared, thrilled, or shocked. When I watch a comedy, I look to laugh or smile. When I watch a Uwe Boll film, I look to hate myself at the end. Context.

So Avengers: Infinity War needs to be looked at on its own terms as well as how the film changes and shapes the characters in this universe. It’s a season finale of sorts, and it does an incredible job of juggling so many character arcs and stories that have existed within the confines of ten years of storytelling.

Let’s start with the most important arc in the film: Thanos’s. Josh Brolin does the performance capture justice in his work as the Mad Titan. We spend more time with Brolin’s character than anyone else in the film, and for that reason, this is very much Thanos’s film. He’s the protagonist. He is the one with the goal who initiates the action, and our heroes are only trying to stop that mission. He is a believably insane tyrant who moves from planet to planet wiping half of the population out in order to restore order. It’s a crazy idea but he believes it wholeheartedly which makes him all the more frightening. He’s well-written, thoughtful and menacing. There are of course a few similarities to Kurtz from Apocalypse Now or its source novel Heart of Darkness. It’s mostly surface level but it also works pretty well and helped me to understand how his mental faculties would lead him to such a sinister mission.

The rest of the cast get mixed amounts of time, most of them only about 10 minutes onscreen with the biggest characters getting closer to 30 minutes. Thor has one of the better arcs, especially following the opening of the film. He has vengeance in his heart and a plan to stop Thanos. He joins up with Rocket Racoon and Groot to accomplish his mission and it’s an enjoyable and important set of sequences. I would have liked to see a bit more emotion from Hemsworth as the film goes on but he kind of falls back to comedy as a backup.

Mark Ruffalo also gets a lot of time with his journey, especially considering that he spends a lot of the film not being the Hulk. We see a side of both of them that I’m not sure we’ve seen before, and it’s the first time in a while that we see Banner having to deal with not turning into the Hulk.

It’s also nice to give some more time to Gamora, who has gotten some development in the Guardians of the Galaxy films but always as a companion to the others. Now, she has a really interesting relationship with father Thanos. I just wish more time would have been given to further develop the two.

Directors Anthony and Joe Russo (You, Me, and Dupree, Welcome to Collinwood) and screenwriters Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely (The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, Pain & Gain) developed what was later termed as strange alchemy, the forcing together of characters that don’t usually spend any time together. This idea works really well and is a large portion of what makes The Avengers films so fun and so anticipated. It’s what I’m looking forward to more than anything else for next year’s Avengers: Endgame.

The Russos did a tremendous job of weaving all of these story threads together while never once sacrificing the flavor that comes with each film. I love that they devoted time to ensure their film would not be ruined for viewers who were not there on opening night. Each of the separated groups further the problem that this team works best together but now they are caught up in different parts just trying to plug a leak, essentially, and these directors and screenwriters never let the story dry up or get stale.

Avengers: Infinity War is not a perfect movie. The ending, upon a second viewing, doesn’t really feel like it has stakes (though that may change next year), and some more character development would be much appreciated, but overall it accomplishes its goals and in context of what the film is trying to be, it succeeds in almost every way. This is an event film if there ever was one, and it is endlessly re-watchable. If you haven’t seen the film yet (and don’t kid yourself, yes you have), then what are you doing? Go. Now. Watch it.

4.5/5

-Kyle A. Goethe

For my review of Jon Favreau’s Iron Man, click here.

For my review of Jon Favreau’s Iron Man 2, click here.

For my review of Louis Leterrier’s The Incredible Hulk, click here.

For my review of Anthony and Joe Russos’s Captain America: The Winter Soldier, click here.

For my review of James Gunn’s Guardians of the Galaxy, click here.

For my review of James Gunn’s Guardians of the Galaxy vol. 2, click here.

For my review of Joss Whedon’s Avengers: Age of Ultron, click here.

For my review of Anthony and Joe Russo’s Captain America: Civil War, click here.

For my review of Ryan Coogler’s Black Panther, click here.

For my review of Jon Watts’s Spider-Man: Homecoming, click here.

For my review of Taika Waititi’s Thor: Ragnarok, click here.

For more Almighty Goatman,

Email: almightygoatmanreviews@gmail.com
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December 13, 2018 14

Black Panther (2018)

Director: Ryan Coogler

Cast: Chadwick Boseman, Michael B. Jordan, Lupita Nyong’o, Danai Gurira, Martin Freeman, Angela Bassett, Forest Whitaker, Andy Serkis, Daniel Kaluuya, Letitia Wright, Winston Duke

Screenplay: Ryan Coogler, Joe Robert Cole

134 mins. Rated PG-13 for prolonged sequences of action violence and a brief rude gesture.

Well, Black Panther’s finally here. Compared to every other MCU film to date, Black Panther is one of the titles I hadn’t read until the film was revealed. Like Iron Man before it, I just didn’t know much about the character or the comic, but as soon as I heard about the adaptation and the inclusion of director Ryan Coogler (Creed, Fruitvale Station), I wanted to read as much as I could. Black Panther is under a lot of pressure to be good. Expectations have been abnormally high on this one. How did it turn out?

Picking up about a week after the events of Captain America: Civil War, T’Challa (Chadwick Boseman, 42, Marshall) arrives home in Wakanda to claim his birthright as King. He is reunited with Nakia (Lupita Nyong’o, 12 Years a Slave, Star Wars: The Last Jedi), an old flame who sees Wakanda’s secretive advances in technology as a tool to help the world, but T’Challa believes that revealing Wakanda for what it is puts the country in jeopardy and creates enemies. One such enemy is Ulysses Klaue (Andy Serkis, War for the Plane of the Apes, The Adventures of Tintin), a smuggler and arms dealer, has allied himself with the mysterious Erik Killmonger (Michael B. Jordan, Fantastic Four, That Awkward Moment), who has his own reasons for wanting to reach Wakanda.

Black Panther is one of the most-layered films in the MCU, and it excels in two areas that MCU films regularly fail: the villain and the music. First, the villain is an interesting and flawed character who has understandable motives in his ultimate quest. Just like Civil War before it, Black Panther presents a very interesting dilemma that has merits on both sides of the argument, and T’Challa is just as flawed with his decision as Killmonger.

The music is also a major step up from previous MCU films in that Black Panther has a theme, courtesy of Ludwig Goransson, and its complimented by Kendrick Lamar’s music supervision of the soundtrack. This film has a unique feeling that stands on its own while embracing the tightrope act of the larger MCU framework.

Coogler presents powerful themes in the film like Responsibility and Legacy. While T’Challa doesn’t want to lead from a throne, he is challenged by what has come before. He would rather be out hunting for Klaue himself. He looks up to his father but he is challenged by the difficult decisions T’Chaka had to make as king. T’Challa is forced to confront these difficult decisions and their aftermath, further conflicting his views on the legacy that his father left. The way he interacts with Killmonger, too, brings forth conflicts in identity and the question of nature vs. nurture in their lives.

I think Black Panther is a hell of a showcase of its principal cast. It’s proof of the incredible amount of top-notch performers of all races. Each role was cast with purpose, from Danai Gurira (The Visitor, TV’s The Walking Dead) as Okoye, leader of the Dora Milaje, an all-female team of protectors, to Forest Whitaker (The Last King of Scotland, Arrival) as Zuri, a spiritual figure in Wakanda who protects a special and powerful herb. Every performer in the film is so precisely cast that you couldn’t see anyone else playing that character. I was especially impressed with Daniel Kaluuya (Get Out, Sicario) as W’Kabi, friend to T’Challa. Up until his role in Get Out, I did not know Kaluuya, but with such a small amount of screen time, he creates a lasting impression in the film.

For all the amazing things Ryan Coogler did with Black Panther, one cannot forget that this is a superhero movie in a crowded genre at the beginning of the year. He should be recognized too for the absolutely incredible experience of watching the film. Black Panther was downright fun to watch and be a part of. If you haven’t seen the film yet, I’d advise you to head to your theater immediately to see it in the largest crowd you can. This is probably my favorite film so far this year.

5/5