Open Letter To Joe And Anthony Russo

We know the Russo Brothers already brought us one of the (if not the) best superhero movies of all time in Captain America: The Winter Soldier. I firmly believe that their talent will show in next year’s Captain America: Civil War which I am now predicting will be THE best movie of 2016, and you can bet that Infinity War 1 & 2 are in the best hands.

Now of course I am just a comic book geek who is watching his diet and exercising just so that I do not unexpectedly die before watching those two movies (I am having so much pizza the day after). So what could I possibly hope for with this open letter? I am just thinking of what could possibly add to the epic-ness of those movies and I can only think of one thing that would make my inner-nerd die of excitement.

Imagine while our heroes are fighting Thanos, we get a view of what that fight is doing to the universe, and those characters in the MCU that we have gotten to know since the first Iron-Man. Think about it; it has been said that it is all connected and this is the chance to show that connection, all in one place.

We get a view of the earth and the Defenders trying to keep people safe in New York, then a cut to the agents of SHIELD with Mocking Bird, Quake, May, Coulson and Deathlok doing their thing, The Punisher somewhere being badass, then we cut to Xandar and the Nova Corps and Asgard with Lady Sif and the Warriors Three and other Asgardians. Even if you were to spend 5 seconds on each take it would make for a moment that no one would ever forget.

Come on Russo Brothers, we know that if someone can handle hat epic moment it is you. Just picture those 20 seconds of film history where the Marvel Universe came together. There would not be a moment that could compare to it. It would be the kind of scene that people would go back to the movies to see and when the Blu-ray is out we would all pause just to see everything that you showed us.

Of course it is only a dream and I am not even sure that you will read this, remember and picture it. You will not want to pass that opportunity. Or just give us the movie that you want… I am sure it will be awesome anyway. 

San Andreas Review

Every time you have a mega star like Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson you have a certain level of expectations. Those expectations may not be that you will watch an Oscar-worthy film, but that you will have a lot of fun watching that movie. That is exactly what you have with San Andreas; the movie is not something that you would expect would ever happen, but instead it is billed as a disaster film. If you are expecting a fun time in front of a screen, then that is what you will get, just make sure that your expectations are not that high.

There is a lot of action in the movie, but there is a feeling that you are focusing too much on things that are not all that important to the plot if there is any. One of the things that really took my attention away from the main plot of the movie is that I was waiting for a certain “fantastic” character to die, and once that happens it is all much better and it allowed me to focus on the main characters.

The special effects were good, and the movie is a lot of fun, but nothing that will make you want to see the movie more than a couple of times if that. Even so, it is a good movie to watch and keep in your collection. The acting from Paul Giamatti is as good as always, but Will Yun Lee could have been used a lot more. Ioan Gruffudd did a good job as someone you are supposed to hate and Alexandra Daddario had a good amount of screen time and showed that she could have a great future in film. Dwayne Johnson and Carla Gugino were good individually, but I never really bought their relationship.

The movie does what it is supossed to; it is a fun ride, and a good disaster movie which is what you should be looking for if you are interested in it.

Overall, San Andreas is fun if you are not willing to think too much about it. I give it 3 out of 5 stars.

   

Avengers: Age of Ultron Review

Avengers: Age of Ultron is one of the comic book movies which has gotten a lot more hate than it deserves. We actually have it ranked in the top 5 comic book movies of all time with the first Avengers movie, Captain America: The Winter Soldier, Guardians of the Galaxy and the surprise of the summer Ant-Man. While Ultron had a few flaws, the things that it does right way outweigh those that went wrong.

First let’s talk about what went wrong with the movie; I think that it is pretty obvious that Ultron was setting up phase 3 of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. That is fine by us because it is not as much as you would expect from what people have spoken against. Sure, the “Thor in the cave” movie could have been deleted or done in some other way, but it was less than 2 minutes so it is no big deal. That’s it! That is the only thing that we can think of that was wrong with Ultron.

A lot of people were also concerned that the trailers had given too much away, but that was not the case. Ultron was advertised as a menacing character, but he was more than that. Ultron was a good villain that was in fact very menacing, but at the same time had a lot of the unexpected fun lines in the movie.

Age of Ultron was not as dark as we expected and that is a good thing. While “dark” can work for some characters, it is not the case for a team like the Avengers. There is a feeling of dread when everything is happening in the final battle and while the audience knows that the world is going to be saved, they did not know at what cost. Those that saw the movie already know that the cost is pretty high. There is a chance that the “cost” we are talking about could be erased in future movies, but I am not that much against it if it is done right.

The special effects were great, the script was pretty good, the acting for a superhero movie was spot on and you can tell that these actors are out there having fun. It is sad to know that director Joss Whedon will not be back any time soon for another Marvel movie, but he does leave the franchise in great shape.

We give Avengers: Age of Ultron 4.5 out of 5 stars

Sinister 2 Review

If you saw the first “Sinister” movie, then chances are that you were looking forward to the sequel. The first movie was a refreshing new horror movie and for the most part we loved it… except for the “monster” in it which is supposed to be the boogie man, but even then we loved it because it really creeped us up.

The second movie is not as good, but that does not mean that it is not worth the admission price. The “Sinister 2” movie has its share of problems, but it still managed to give us a few scares. My personal problem with Sinister 2 is that I was able to figure out the ending after watching about 25% of the movie. We got to the ending and though I did not know how we would get there, the end result was what I predicted.

The other problem that I had with the movie is that it relied way too much on the jump scares. Some of those jump scares you will be able to see from a mile away. The moment that you see a space behind the actors, you know that something will be happening behind them. That could mean that if you see a reflection or enough space by them you and bet something will be jumping out of there, and yes it happens every time.

Now to the good things about Sinister 2. The movie manages to give us a story is believable when it comes to what the family interactions are. You have a mother that is willing to protect her kids against earthly dangers and if you see the movie you will know what I am talking about.

There are somethings that I did not see a connection to the story for like the “confession” or why James Ransone’s character was so into helping the woman and her kids. I see why he wanted to take care of the home, but after that the motivation is not clear; I mean once he sees that there are people living in the house then it would have made sense to tell the mom and get the hell out of there… that is what I would have done, but that would not make for a good movie I guess.

Overall I liked Sinister 2, but just in the pure “entertainment” sense. I am not telling you that the movie is something that you just have to watch, but it is good enough that if you see it you will walk out of the movie theater not sorry that you saw it. What I am saying is that it is not a waste of time and you should watch it… or not.

I give this movie 2 ½ out of 5 stars.