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Triumph or trash? A Marvel first-timer’s spoiler-free take on "Avengers: Endgame"

4/24/2019

Avengers: Endgame brings an 11-year narrative arc started with Iron Man to a supremely satisfying close full of nods and crowd-giddying payoffs to the 21 movies that have led up to this point. Given you probably already know if you’re going to see this, I won’t spoil anything or dwell too much on my thoughts. (You can find more reviews for Avengers: Endgame than there are characters crammed into its bladder-testing three hours.) Instead, I wanted to know: What would someone with zero knowledge of and no emotional investment in the Marvel universe think of Avengers: Endgame?

What if you’ve missed a few films here and there but still want in on the fun? Or what if you’re a total newcomer who wants to arm themselves for some Monday morning water cooler chit-chat? After all, this super-sized saga send-off may be the closest thing to a Return of the Jedi-caliber pop-culture event many movie-goers have ever experienced. To get an idea of how well Endgame plays out (or doesn’t) for the uninitiated, I sought a viewing partner who could go in clueless and report back on their Avengers experience.

Finding someone who’s been absent from this decade-long journey proved challenging. Most of the people I could assemble from my contacts list had seen most of the films (a testament either to how widely viewed these films are or how nerdy my friends are — your choice). But at the final hour, a new hero approached — a conveniently solution-shaped key to my Marvel-movie problem, a Captain Marvel-like deus ex machina to save the day: Kevin.

Kevin, my Marvel-ignorant Endgame-viewing guinea pig of a partner, has managed to avoid almost all Avengers-related adventures. He thinks he’s seen the first Avengers flick and caught parts of The Incredible Hulk on a wall of TVs at Best Buy years ago. Armed with no context and a bag of popcorn, Kevin suited up and joined me for Avengers: Endgame.

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"Penguins" are cute. What more do you need to know?

4/16/2019

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It’s hard to believe March of the Penguins and Happy Feet – two highly rated (and high grossing) penguin-heavy films came out over a decade ago. So I suppose it was inevitable that we were due for another round of penguin rich content.

This time it is the aptly named Penguins. The new film from Disneynature follows the story of a young Adélie penguin named Steve as he endeavors to find a mate and raise a family in the harsh Antarctic environment.
Because the penguin sojourn has been captured so ubiquitously on camera -- through documentaries like the aforementioned March of the Penguins and the wildly popular Planet Earth series – there isn’t much content here that will surprise the penguin savvy viewer. Likewise, the anthropomorphic “plot” follows your typical Cute Animal Documentary formula: cute animal appears on screen, captures hearts, confronts obstacles, emerges victorious. The film chronicles the trials and tribulations of the penguin experience without confronting too closely the dog-eat-dog (or in this case, sea lion-eat-penguin) chaos that exists in the natural world, which makes Penguins a safe and trauma-free bet for families viewing with young children. The voice work by Ed Helms (of The Office and The Hangover fame) strikes a tender balance of kid-friendly humor (yes there are barf jokes) and rich, informative storytelling that will keep a wide range of ages engaged. The comedic relief for Penguins’ more mature viewers is primarily rooted in the documentary’s soundtrack. Ever wondered what it would be like to watch two penguins fall in love over REO Speedwagon’s “Can’t fight this feeling”? Well, Penguins will scratch that itch for you.

The real star of Penguins (besides, well, the penguins) is the cinematography. Whether it is the dramatic, sweeping shots of the Antarctic mountain ranges, gripping underwater chase scenes, or tender moments captured between Steve and his doting companion Adeline – viewers are sure to leave the theater with a deep appreciation for the years of hard work, dedication and patience that the film’s videographers undoubtedly poured into this visually impactful film.

Despite its Earth Day release, what viewers won’t get from Penguins is any kind of reference to climate change. I’m sure it was an intentional choice by the filmmakers to honor the sacred separation of penguins and politics, but it seems like a missed opportunity to educate young viewers about the impacts of our changing environment. After all, NASA studies have estimated that climate change could cause the Adélie penguin population to drop 60% by the end of the century. Regardless, a portion of the proceeds will go toward the Wildlife Conservation Network, which will hopefully help keep the penguin content coming for the next generation of moviegoers.

--Kelsey Robinson

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A six-year-old's take on the slapstick stop-motion magic of "Missing Link"

4/12/2019

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What do kids think? My presumptions are probably about as spot on as my guess of what a dog has going on behind the eyes. To get a better idea of what a child might think of Missing Link, the latest stop-motion animated bit of eye candy from Laikia, I sat down for a couple of cheeseburgers and a convo with one of my younger roommates (my six-year-old daughter) to see what she thought of the movie, which I forced her along for. (She’s more of a My Little Pony person.)

Spoiler warning: Six-year-olds don’t care about the concept of spoilers, which is just one of the ways they’re superior to adults. But that’s a subject for another time. Just know that some things she calls out are from the last half of the film, but I steer her away from anything that would likely ruin your spoiler-sensitive viewing experience.

What did you think of the movie?
What movie?

The movie we saw today.
Lost Link?

Missing Link.
Yeah! Missing Link!

Right. What did you think of that movie? What would you tell people about it?
That was the scariest movie, so don’t you dare go to that!

Really? That’s a quote for a movie poster if I’ve ever heard one.
Well, it was a little scary, but really exciting. And I think it’s good. I think that the ending is really nice, but the first part of it is kind of scary. The second part’s really nice, so I think actually … It’s a good movie, and I think other people should watch it.

That might be a bit too long for a poster quote.
What?

Let’s talk about what Missing Link is about.
So this Yaki person wanted to go and…

Wait. What?
What?

What’s a “Yaki”?
The Yaki guy — Link.

I think “Yeti” is what you mean, but he was actually a Sasquat--
This Yaki guy wanted to go to his cousins because he thought they were his cousins. And a girl and a boy decided to come with him and they … [cheeseburger chewing] … they kind of went far away and they got trapped in an area, but they came out because the Yaki throwed the boy up and he crashed, and then he throwed the girl up and she went over it and she climbed on and she got something to get out of the place because they were trapping them for the Yetis they thought were … and then they like ... Oh! [very excited now] They went across the bridge and the bad guys were waiting and they destroyed the bridge and…

Whoa, kid. Let’s leave some points of the plot untouched.
The good guys were safe and they went back home.

Or not.
In the very end, they got like a mermaid-dinosaur picture or something.

A fossil. You’re just really going for it, huh?
And the man I was talking about, he was so excited. And it was the end, and it was really good. The end.

Let’s talk about how the movie looked. Most cartoons you watch are made with computers now. And they use them here, for sure, but this one is also made with little models, like toys they pose made out of Play-Doh. That won’t matter to some people — likely the same savages who see no difference between Keuring and a real cup of coffee. The people at Laika go the extremely hard-to-brew animation route, prioritizing art and tradition over convenience. And it gives all their movies such a beautiful and unique look.
I liked it.

I find that stuff super inspiring, both from a creative and a work ethic standpoint. It’s that JFK-going-to-the-moon pep talk — doing it not because it’s easy, but because it’s hard. Not that it’s even remotely similar, but I recently started using paper for my to-do list and am amazed how often I hear “Why? Just use your phone.” I mean, why should I do anything other than everything on my phone, huh? Just plop a rib-eye in my smart microwave and listen to an algorithm-created playlist while I mindlessly swipe through pictures on my phone. That’s totally the future I dreamed of.
Are you mad, Dad?

No. What did you think when you get a time-lapse glimpse of the work the crew did on one scene in the closing credits? Wasn’t that cool? These people have a surgical attention to detail and such patience. I can barely be bothered to re-read this blog post for simple speling mistaks.
Yeah … Remember when that guy ate cow poop! Hahahahaha!

Yeah, he thought they were cookies. Classic.
Cause the girl said don’t talk about the chicken.

Yeah, because the old woman didn’t realize she had a chicken on her head.
She never knowed? Then she realized? Did she ever realize?

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Shazam!: Magic in the Machine

4/7/2019

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I loathe the way we now talk about movies. Like a bunch of dang suits, average film fans—myself included—talk about box office returns and market trends and in-universe implications. Yes, filmmaking is commerce, but what a grim climate when fandom feels justified by box office success. So, instead of cultivating a healthy distrust of the money havers and industry knowers, we’ve adopted their perversity. Perhaps I’m just some tragic cusp Gen-X’er come Old Millennial, but I recall an era when we wanted to pick our teeth with the bones of the rich. Now, we gleefully play along. #BigCinematicUniverse slaps a DC or Marvel logo on literally anything, and fans do the rest, ginning up existential import around meaningless brand turf wars. And if this lowly dingus were pressed, he’d tell you it’s the antithesis of what makes movies magical.

Magic, the root of Shazam’s power, is in some sense why we are here. No, this is not a pitch for you to join the DSA, there is an actual Shazam! review in here somewhere, I swears it. But I think it is important to explore the curious baggage so many of us now carry into these movies. Can DC make a good movie? How will Marvel pivot after Endgame? What minutia do I need to keep in mind as I insert film ‘X’ into the landscape of this cinematic universe? Ew. No. Gross. But, to counter with the least provocative, yet most telling take, I participate in all of the above. And therein lies Shazam!’s unique positioning as it hits screens nationwide.

Shazam!, no foolin’, is actually pretty good. Like really actually pretty good. It’s a passion of mine to trade in cliché, and I laughed! I cried! Thrills! Chills! The whole smorgasbord of movie going fun, and Shazam! was an able buffet table. In some way—and here goes that cynical language again—DC adopted the Marvel model. They took a character with no baggage, with few emotional attachments, and where some complete asshole is gonna try so hard to pass themselves off as a longsuffering Shazam! stan, no one gives a fuck about that character. And it’s liberating! It is free of the strictures and cache of a Batman or Superman! Though, in one of the cleverer wrinkles, the Bat and the Big Blue Boy Scout are omnipresent through the film, almost oppressive. Shazam! knows it can’t escape the long shadow of DC lore, but it also tweaks the machine as the film play-acts its little part in the larger scheme.

Every inch the stock-in-trade origin story, Shazam! embraces the only good kind of a superhero, a fun teenager. Fun teenagers, not to be confused with moody teenagers, are equipped to handle super powers. Super powers are dope! And a little exploitable. And maybe kind of a pain in the ass from an overall responsibility stand point. Like, who wants to be good all the time? This idea frames the question at the core of Shazam; what does a pure heart look like? Maybe sometimes it’s screwing with the cops, other times it can be trying to save the day. In one of the films very good lines this sentiment is given a nice shape, “not everyone feels like a hero inside all of the time.” Superman is just, like, what, good because…why exactly? And Batman is a trust fund weirdo who maybe we should not trust? Our Shazam, at least in this film, is a foster kid who has these powers foisted on him.

In this dynamic, Shazam does its best work. Billy Batson—a kid who has been bounced around the foster system largely due to a determination to find his real mother—is ostensibly our main character, but this film is almost about the disillusion of the hero mythos. I may just be feeling very 36 today, but as Shazam’s powers dictate, and in a flash of light Billy is transformed from 14-year-old boy to hulking adult, it reminds me that the certainty of aging does not always track with the check list of “adulthood.” Fumbling towards adulthood is consistently marked by our heroes being stripped down to something painfully real. Whether those heroes are the ones we believe to be inside of ourselves, or the individuals we set on the pedestal, Shazam! gets that we’re all making it up as we go along. It takes a tapestry of personal growth and trust and family (chosen or otherwise), just to stand. Beyond that, true heroism is a lofty ambition. Though, if a pure heart is the hero’s requirement, perhaps that isn’t a flawless heart, but simply an open one.

Where the above, a great cast, and an overall tight script work to Shazam!’s credit, you already know yer boy is gonna quibble. The third act is a little tedious once we’ve firmly squared our larger thematic elements. The film is also not as cinematic as I’d hoped. There wasn’t a sequence that really stuck to my ribs. But let’s be real, that dude Mark Strong is going to spackle over lots of flaws with a killer performance, and his Dr. Thaddeus Sivana is a delight.

Now, for my final trick, let’s dovetail this conclusion into the intro paragraph! Because *checks notes* magic is the throughline. And in all sincerity, Shazam! stoked in me that old movie magic feeling. The audience freaking cheered at a climactic moment! It’s has a joy and silliness and sweetness that is irrepressible, and in the face of the cinematic universe superstructure, that is a momentous accomplishment. Shazam! cannot avoid paying its dues to the tyranny of franchise, but they skewer as much as they celebrate. Not in the snarky way a Deadpool might tackle this obligation, but in a bit more subtle way, like a scrappy little kid trying to find their light amongst siblings who are titans. And where I did carry so much of the thoroughly documented baggage into the theater—ready to harrumph my way through another comic book film--Shazam! harnesses a kind of magic capable of peeling back all the white noise, and revealing a truly fun film able to stand on its own.
--Monte Monreal

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Triumph or trash? A Marvel first-timer’s spoiler-free take on "Avengers: Endgame"

"Penguins" are cute. What more do you need to know?

A six-year-old's take on the slapstick stop-motion magic of "Missing Link"

Shazam!: Magic in the Machine

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