AVENGERS: ENDGAME (2019) – My rating: 7.8/10

Avengers: Endgame is a superhero film based on the Marvel Comics superhero team,The Avengers. The film is produced by Marvell Studios and distributed by Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures. Avengers: Endgame is the sequel to 2012’s “The Avengers”, 2015’s” Avengers: Age of Ultron” and 2018’s “Avengers: Infinity War” , it is also the 22nd film in the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU). Avengers: Endgame is directed by Anthony and Joe Russo and written by Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely. Endgame picks up with the surviving members of the Avengers team, along with their allies working to reverse the damage caused by Thanos during the Infinity War. I for one, anticipated Endgame with bated breath. While I thought this was a decent sequel, I was somewhat disappointed.

Thanos (Josh Brolin) used the Infinity Stones to disintegrate half of all life across the universe, leaving us devastated by the deaths of our beloved super heroes. The world has waited in anticipation for the reversal of Thanos’ actions. Avengers: Endgame, part two of Avengers: Infinity, begins three weeks after the completion of Thanos’ dastardly deed, with Carol Danvers / Captain Marvel (Brie Larson) returning to Earth from deep space, carrying a spaceship containing Iron Man/Tony Stark (Robert Downey, Jr.) and Nebula (Karen Gillan) inside. Now the remaining Avengers, which include; Bruce Banner / The Hulk (Mark Ruffalo), Steve Rogers/Captain America (Chris Evans), Rocket (Bradley Cooper’s voice), Thor (Christopher Hemsworth), Natasha Romanoff / Black Widow (Scarlett Johansson) and James “Rhodey” Rhodes / War Machine (Don Cheadle), must find a way to go back in time to fix what Thanos has done. Using Nebula’s knowledge, they find an injured Thanos on an unguarded planet. Their plan is to retake the Stones and reverse his actions but find he has already destroyed them to prevent further use. An enraged Thor beheads Thanos, who is now an ordinary person without the powers of the stones.

**** SPOILERS ****

Five years later, Scott Lang / Ant Man (Paul Rudd) escapes the quantum realm and meets Natsha Romanoff / Black Widow and Steve Rogers / Captain America at the Avengers’ compound. Scott explains that he experienced only five hours while trapped, which to him theorizes that the quantum realm allows time travel. The three heroes travel to ask Stark, because of his genius, to help them retrieve the Stones from the past so they can reverse Thanos’ actions in the present. Stark not believing this could be done refuses, mostly out of fear he’d lose his daughter, Morgan (Lexi Rabe). After having a short chat with his wife, Virginia “Pepper” Potts (Gwyneth Paltrow), Stark relents says good-bye to his family, then leaves to work with Banner, who has merged his consciousness with the Hulk’s body, hoping to stabilize travel in the quantum realm. Banner and Rocket go to the Asgardian refugees’ new home in Norway, to recruit a beer drinking, drunken, overweight Thor and Romanoff heads to Tokyo to recruit Clint Barton / Hawkeye (Jeremy Renner), who has turned into a ruthless vigilante following the disintegration of his family.

I think this is a good place to stop. It is difficult to critique this film because the entire story is a mystery for you to solve or not, so you don’t want to know how it ends or if they accomplish the mission. I was a little disappointed in this sequel. First, I felt Tony Shark deserved much more. I can’t elaborate on this since it would spoil the movie for you. Suffice to say, Iron Man should have a movie all to himself, which would give him the opportunity to explain his actions, past, present and future. I also feel Black Widow should be in that Iron Man movie to boost their fan’s moral, concerning what happened in the Endgame. I must inform you that this three hour and one minute movie is action packed with special effects beyond your greatest expectations. There were so many super heroes, from the present as well as the past, that you will find it hard to keep up. The beginning of Endgame tested our faith in the writers to pull off a Thanos’ reversal, as hopelessness was the only feelings we could muster up. After a long battle of defeats for the Avengers and company, we finally got some hope but it didn’t last long. I personally thought the Endgame could have been better written, as there were too many disappointments. Also, the quantum theory story was a bit hard to swallow. Terms like “your past is now your present” really took a lot of intellect to fully understand. BTW, that quantum statement is longer with deeper meaning; I just can’t spoil this for you by saying anymore. You have to see Avengers: Endgame for yourself. It is definitely worth seeing. The film received positive reviews for its direction, acting, entertainment value, musical score, visual effects and emotional weight, with critics lauding its culmination of the 22-film story. With an estimated budget of $356 million, it is one of the most expensive films ever made. It also broke numerous box office records and has grossed over $1.7 billion worldwide, becoming the highest-grossing film of 2019, as well as the fifth highest-grossing film of all time. Check It Out!

 

WIND RIVER (2017) – My rating 7/10

Not exactly as advertised but still a pretty good movie.  I liked Wind River because it was a little different than the run of the mill murder mystery.  The trailer made it seem more suspenseful than it was.  Like a bad cup of coffee, Wind River wasn’t full bodied.  It was more of a man’s movie.  Terse answers, short on detail, suppressed feelings and no real leaderships.  Of course all men don’t fit that description, but a lot do.

Wind River takes place in Wyoming on an Indian Reservation of the same name.  Fish and Wildlife Service agent, Cory Lambert (Jeremy Renner), stumbles onto an 18 year old dead woman, Natalie Hanson (Kelsey Chow), from the reservation.  She’s face down and frozen solid, barefooted, inappropriately attired for the subzero winter weather with blood stains on her pants and face.  It’s apparent Natalie was raped and murdered.  To help with the case, FBI rookie Jane Banner (Elizabeth Olsen), is assigned, who by the way, was also improperly attired and had to borrow clothing befitting the severe weather conditions.  It is believed the murder was committed between Natalie’s new, unknown boyfriend, Matt Rayburn (Jon Bernthal) or her drug addicted brother Chip Hanson (Martin Sensmeier), who is strung-out living with local dealers on the reservation in a double-wide trailer.

While Wind River was interesting, it was a bit slow.  It’s a murder mystery on an Indian Reservation in the bitter cold.  Nothing we haven’t seen before.  Actually, the rape didn’t make sense and the aura surrounding this movie was sad and depressing.  I didn’t get a profound message or a warm fuzzy feeling upon the resolution of the crime.  It seemed as though all the characters had a sad background, which didn’t help to cheer things up any.  It wasn’t a bad film but I wouldn’t recommend it to anyone who is looking for a pick-me-up experience.  Wind River was well acted and unpredictable as far as “who done it” goes.

Save

ARRIVAL (2016) – My rating: 9/10

What a profound message at a time when we really need it. Arrival is spot on. Too bad it’s just a figment of someone’s imagination! This nation could use a shot of reality. Arrival delves into some pretty deep philosophies. Louise Banks (Amy Adams) a Linguist who speaks several languages has a doctorate and teaches at a near by university. Having been called upon in the past to service her country, Louise continues to have top security clearance when she’s called again for this new and very different assignment.

When 12 alien vessels land across the earth settling in several countries, without explanation, Louise is called on to lead a special team of military personnel to try and communicate with the aliens who landed in Montana, as to why they are here. Senior US Army Colonel Weber (Forest Whitaker) pays her a visit to explain just enough information to get her on board.  After turning him down, he leaves to pursue another linguist but soon returns.  Every country has their own agenda on how to deal with these alien invaders and after a while, block communications between themselves and all other nations. As a result, there is no sharing of each others progress or future plans.  Over time, several attempts are made to teach our language to the aliens through a glass partition.  For the purpose of  backup and a secondary approach, a second team headed by an equally distinguished Theoretical Physicist, Ian Donnelly (Jeremy Renner) was called to work side by side with Dr. Louise Banks  Together our government hoped to make headway into establishing answers to our many questions. The Military named the alien ships “shells”.  The plan to learn and  share information between us and the aliens (called “Heptapods”, because of their structure) wasn’t working as the Heptapods used a written language, based on time, that proved to be extremely complicated.

Director, Denis Villeneuve did a fantastic job building up to an ending that was so emotional and intense that it brought tears to my eyes.  The key to Arrival is togetherness.  Without spoiling a great work of art, I cannot say any more about the movie, except go see it.  Keep your eyes and ears glued on every word and every scene.  There’s not a lot of fast paced action or destruction or even special effects.  Arrival is purely a lesson in being compassionate human beings — something we seem to have forgotten.  I was moved and entertained as well.

[ARRIVAL is Nominated for Best Picture, Best Director, Adapted Screenplay, Cinematography, Film Editing, Production Design, Sound Editing and Sound Mixing]

Save

Save

Save

MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE – ROGUE NATION (2015) – My rating: 8.5/10

Tom Cruse continues to show the world that he is able to frolic through a physical production like a young buck (who, BTW, just turned 53) with no problems.  He was injured 6 times in the making of MI, but all is well and MI – Rogue Nation is a big hit.  Still electing to do his own stunts, Tom has signed up to do a sixth sequel, to start filming in 2016.

Rogue Nation stars Rebecca Ferguson as Ilsa Faust (known for Starz’s series The White Queen).  Rebecca displayed some pretty fancy moves and was an added delight to the cast.  In this sequel, Ethan Hunt (Tom Cruse) must prove that an international criminal consortium known as the Syndicate exist against their organization (IMF).  CIA director, Alan Hunley (Alec Baldwin) thinks Ethan’s Syndicate theory is just that, a theory, so he dismantles IMF, dissolving them into the CIA and goes after Hunt causing him to go rogue.  Hunt is captured by the Syndicate but gets away to start his journey to prove their existence.  The Syndicate is headed up by Solomon Lane (Sean Harris) who will stop at nothing to discredit IMF and get what he needs to keep the Syndicate well financed and undercover.  The Syndicate employes various skilled and dangerous villains like Janik “Bone Doctor” Vinter (Jens Hultén).  Their skill level and intelligence is tantamount to IMF.    There are many, many twist and turns, car and motorcycle chases, hidden agendas, special effects and thrill soaked scenes.  There’s some corny and humorous scenes and some very intense scenes as well as some totally unbelievable scenes.  The entire IMF gang was there, William Brandt (Jeremy Renner), Benji Dunn (Simon Pegg) and Luther Stickell (Ving Rhames).  I thought Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation was very entertaining, well acted and had a pretty descent plot.  Can’t wait for the next sequel.  Check it out!