The One With the New Fantastic Four

 

 

 

As many people in the family know, I am a huge Fantastic Four guy. Ever since I watched the 1960s Hanna Barbera cartoon in the 1980s, I was hooked. There is something about the team that made them my favorite Superhero team, moreso than the Justice League or the Avengers.

Truth be told, I wasn't too sure how I'd take this version. The cast seemed a little "meh" to me in terms of how they match my expectations of the characters. After all, Johnny Storm has always seemed like a wild card to me and the Thing has always seemed like Hulk-light. However, neither character really came across that way to me in the previews. And, although they were like past iterations, this version worked well, as did Mr. Fantastic and Sue Storm. There was a fun chemistry between all of them. And the fact we did not need the backstory to how they came to be just added to the movie. We jumped right into the action.

Interestingly, I was more concerned that the presence of the robot, Herbie, was going to ruin it for me. When they added him to the 1970s remake of the Fantastic Four cartoon, I found him completely annoying and utterly useless. However, even he was an endearing member of the movie.

Overall, I felt myself mesmerized and found this to be a great addition to the renewed reboot of the Marvel Franchise. They even turned Galactus into an interesting villain...which I did not see coming.

The One With Shang Chi and the Ten Rings

 

 

It's been a little while since we had the chance to catch back up with this online blog. Sorry about that. Things have been wild.

But, tonight we saw Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings. It was great. I wasn't too sure what to expect, but the story actually didn't disappoint. Awkwafina had a solid role in it that didn't rely on comedy....it was great to see that. They brought back Ben Kingsley's character from Iron Man 3, which was awesome, too. And, the characters were great.

 

 There were great Easter eggs at the end....which alluded to a lot.  This one is definitely a movie all Marvel fans should see.

The One With Captain Marvel

Last night, we were able to enjoy the advance tickets we bought to Captain Marvel earlier in the week. The key figure who will play a main role in Avengers Endgame, Carole Danvers (hey our town's namesake), had to be introduced, and this move did not disappoint.

First, it was definitely a FOUR STAR movie. The action, the pace, and the story-line were clever. It was a little hard to follow at first as we are plunged into a science fiction story that is a little displaced, but once the dust settles, it is easy to understand in a clear, cohesive manner.

The story is fun, action-packed, and enjoyable. It is standard Marvel flair with a little twist. It helps to explain some of the different nuances in the Avengers storylines, from where the name of the Avengers comes from to the discovery of the Tesseract, and the reason Nick Fury has an eyepatch. 

Even more incredible was the use of CGI to make Nick Fury and Agent Coulson young. AMAZING! Captain Marvel was captivating and an interesting character and we learn where the pager came from the Nick Fury uses to page her at the and of Infinity Wars. 

And make sure to stick to the end for two neat little end previews, including one to rev us up for Avengers:Endgame.

Oh, and one other nice thing - they have a great little intro to honor Stan Lee. May he rest in pace. For all you Marvel fans, this is a must see.