Pinoy Movie Club: marvel

Showing posts with label marvel. Show all posts

Otherwise known as X3 during our time, this is the third installment of the X-Men franchise and supposedly the last (?) if sequels were talked about. Franchises then always "end" on the third movie and we thought this was it for the X-Men then.

Movie starts off with Professor Charles Xavier (played by Patrick Stewart) and Erik Lehnsherr aka Magneto (played by Ian McKellen) meeting the young Jean Grey hoping to invite her to join the school Charles established. She joins them and the scene shifts to a boy with wings, who's the son to a rich tycoon. Then it stops there, the boy with the wings, we get back to him later.

Fast forward to the present, that rich tycoon who owns Worthington Labs finally announces that they have developed a vaccine or drug that suppresses the mutant gene. It inhibits the mutant abilities and thereby they become normal, a "cure" they call it for those mutants who wish to be normal again. The so called cure is harnessed from a genome of another mutant who suppresses other mutant's powers when they are near him. But the cure has its critics and Magneto's Brotherhood of Mutants is against it, as they feel they don't have a disease thus the need for that cure. As of then, the cure is administered among mutants who volunteers, but the Brotherhood feels otherwise. The so called cure will be used to eradicate the mutant race by forcing it on them.

To combat this threat, Magneto rescues Mystique (played by Rebecca Romjin) from prison and they attacked the mobile prison where she was being kept. In their escape, Mystique was shot with an dart gun containing the "cure" and she transformed to being a normal person, Magneto had to choice but to leave her behind.

During this time, Scott Summers aka Cyclops (played by James Marsden) still grieving over the loss of Jean Grey (played by Famke Jannsen) at Alkali Lake then finds Jean Grey alive and well there. As they hug and kiss, Jean kills him. Professor X senses danger in Alkali Lake, sends Logan aka Wolverine (played by Hugh Jackman) and Storm (played by Halle Berry) to investigate. They found Jean Grey at the lake unconscious. The brought her back to the X Mansion to be checked.

During her recovery, Professor X explains to Logan and Storm that in Jean's efforts to save them in X2, she somehow released the "phoenix", a powerful alternate personality that Professor X tried to contain. Indeed the phoenix has taken over and she went to her childhood home where Professor X pursued her. Magneto was also there but with another purpose, he wanted Jean to join him in the Brotherhood. In the process of talking to Jean, the Phoenix kills the professor and she leaves with Magneto thereafter.

With Jean at his side, Magneto proceeds to attack Worthington Labs to kill and eradicate the cure. The rest of the X-Men then tries to stop the advancing Brotherhood. In the melee, Magneto was injected with the "cure" and he lost all his powers. It was now up to Jean Grey to finish what Magneto started and now its up to Logan to stop her.

With his speedy recuperating powers, Logan was able to withstand all the phoenix's attacks on him until he was able to kill Jean Grey. Logan mourns for her death.

What happened next is the opening of Professor Xavier's school with Storm as its head and Hank McCoy (played by Kelsey Grammer) was appointed as ambassador to the United Nations. Magneto was relegated to being human again however he was able to slightly move a metal chess piece, suggesting that the cure was just temporary. The last scene shows a comatose patient wakes up and greets with Professor Xavier's voice.

Now that's the movie. We love the X-Men and X2, then we get this. Well, it wasn't a good sequel as we hoped it would be. The first half was full of drama and story complete with witty dialogues then comes the other half that full of action and we see a little bit of the story. What was frustrating for us was the fact that the latter half for us negates all the memories and stories we had from the first two films.

Magneto issues one liners, there's a jealous Rogue which we felt was overboard as we know already Rogue was frustrated already that she can't hold or touch his boyfriend, we saw a very different Jean Grey, it's because of the phoenix, and the whole action thing in the end was too long for our taste. And the new mutants Magneto hired? We didn't like them. End of that story.

It's still watchable though thanks to the superb acting of Patrick Stewart and Ian McKellen. We love Hugh Jackman and Famke Jannsen here. In fact a lot of them performed well but the story line is a bit sketchy for us. The 25th Century Fox rendition of the Marvel characters we kinda agree has been confusing at best when continuity is in focus. It all started here and then the succeeding films didn't help at all.

To its credit, we liked this one better than the X-Men Dark Phoenix so rest assured this is watchable. Catch this movie on Netflix (as of this writing).

How did this fare? X-Men: The Last Stand (2006)

We love the early X-Men films and somehow our appreciation to it goes down every time we watch the newer movies (except for Logan) and this one took us to the lowest of the lows.

Even with a superb cast thrown herein, they couldn't have possibly resurrect the story. Caught between the merging of the Disney owned MCU and 20th Century Fox, this movie somehow lost it's way. We all know that the split in the characters has been with us with Marvel selling some its characters to 20th Century Fox. Without the MCU, we were happy seeing the X-Men and Spiderman movies only to find it as rubbish when MCU came along and introduced the very first Iron Man. There is a whole new world of story telling and 20th Century Fox was left in the dust. Everything went downhill from hereon.

Going back to this movie, the first scene was set in 1975 with the young Jean Grey was travelling with her parents and got into a car accident leaving her as an orphan. It was during this time that Professor Xavier brought her to his school. Fast forward to 1992, the X-Men were asked to rescue the astronauts aboard the Space Shuttle Endeavor. In the process of the rescue, Jean Grey was struck by a solar flare like energy, which she absorbs. This energy multiplied her powers and unsuspectingly unlocks the memories which were repressed by Professor Xavier. The professor blocked the memories for her to be shielded from the childhood trauma of losing her parents. With this memory unleashed, all those trauma flooded right all in, filling her with all that anger and pain. With her new powers she found out that her father was alive and well. She went to her hometown and confronted her father, who gave her up fearing for her powers. She also learned that she was responsible for her mother's death. The X-Men arrived to bring her back to her home but she ended up injuring Quicksilver and killing Mystique before fleeing again.

She went to seek help from Magneto but with what she did to the US Military tasked to arrest her, he denied her request and he asked her to leave instead. She then meets with Vuk, the leader of aliens who landed on earth, who explained to her that the energy that she absorbed was the same cosmic force that wiped out Vuk's home planet long ago. The energy was focusing on Jean Grey's power all along Vuk said.

Hank McCoy now allied with Magneto, comes after Jean Grey. They succumb to her powers until Professor Xavier convinced her to read his memories, allowing her true self to take over. Feeling guilty she asked Vuk to take the power from her, but by doing so would kill her. Before Vuk could absorb all this power, Professor Xavier prevented this and all of them were captured by the US government troops. They were then under power inhibiting collars and placed on a train headed to a containment facility.

En-route, the train was attacked by Vuk and her cohorts with Jean Grey as their mission. Seeing that the US government troops were no match to this shape shifting aliens, they released the X-Men to even the odds. With Professor Xavier's help, Jean Grey was able to control her new found powers and saves everyone against Vuk. Jean Grey finally retakes the powers she gave to Vuk and she killed Vuk in the end. Jean Grey then vanished in an energy explosion in the form of a phoenix.

Events thereafter, Xavier's School was renamed after Jean Grey and Hank became its first dean. Professor Xavier is retired now and settled in Paris with Magneto, and while starting to play a game a chess, a flaming phoenix appears in the sky.

Admittedly it was difficult for us to review this film. We can't help to relate this one with the third X-men film, the Last Stand. There we find Jean Grey unleashing the Phoenix from within her. We wonder if this Phoenix was the same Phoenix from this movie. As we don't have that answer for you, we proceed to explain it by what 20th Century Fox did with X-Men: Days of future's past. This time travel movie turned the already confusing X-Men timeline into a fritz. We can't understand the X-men movies after that flick.

Are we in a parallel time line as a result? What happened to the story line of the movies prior? Is it still there or they are not there anymore? Do we have to accept this movie as it is or simply drop it and wait for how the MCU would handle the reboot? Will the story line be rewritten again so that they will be introduced to the MCU Phase 4? We felt that his movie, along with that of Fanstastic Four suffered a let's just do a movie and don't care how will MCU handle it thereafter. Both movies are dismal failures in story line in our books and we suggest don't go through them like we did. Stay away from this movies and simply wait for the MCU certified movies about them instead.

They're right to fear me - X-Men: Dark Phoenix (2019)

This was reboot of the 2005 film and that was a reboot of the 1994 film about 4 superheroes that banded together to form the Fantastic Four. In total there were 4 movies already made but the previous to this 2015 movie was a sequel so it doesn't count as a reboot.

The movie started off with Reed Richards (played by Miles Teller) and Ben Grimm (played by Jamie Bell) prototyping a teleporter with the former as brains and the latter as the muscle. Eventually their science project impressed Franklin Storm thta he both offered them scholarships in the Baxter Foundation. Ben Grimm is not the brains in the duo so he opted out and left Richards to continue with scholarship.

In the foundation Richards later found out that his science project was similar to what another Franklin Storm's protege named Quantum Gate by Victor Von Doom. The only difference, Richard's project worked. Sue Storm (played by Kate Mara) worked also on the project with Johnny Storm (played by Michael B. Jordan). These four eventually succeeded in teleporting their pod to another dimension they named "Planet Zero".

With their success, it was then decided by the facility's director to send in a team from NASA to venture into Planet Zero. This move disappointed the three members, Doom, Richards and Johnny Storm. They felt that since they built the Quantum Gate, they should be the ones to first try it out. Richards felt a bit of nostalgia he invited Ben Grimm to go along as well since he was also instrumental in their early days of their science project.

So off the four went to Planet Zero to explore but something went wrong, Doom fell from a cliff, the remaining three went back to their pod only to realize that they can't teleport back to Earth. Their pod suddenly opened and all three of them got exposed to the energy from Planet Zero. Sue Storm who was left on Earth finally overridden the re entry sequence and was able to bring back the pod to Earth but she was exposed as well.

The energy from Planet Zero exposed the four releasing some super powers in each one of them. Richards had the ability to stretch, Johnny Storm was now enveloped in flames, Sue Storm is now a telepath with invisibility powers and Ben Grimm was not cast in stone. The facility director now sees them with their super powers and tries to harness them for military applications. Richards somehow manages to escape and vowed to Ben that he will find a cure for all them.

A year passed and eventually Richards was apprehended by Ben, Dr. Allen, the facility's director persuaded him to help in rebuilding the Quantum Gate in exchange for resources in finding a cure for their powers. Dr. Allen then sends a team of explorers to Planet Zero to find Victor Von Doom still alive. They rescued Victor and brought back to Earth, but Victor had other plans. He thinks Earth must be destroyed so that he can create a new one at Planet Zero. He killed most of the people inside the base and returns to Planet Zero via the Quantum Gate with the other four in pursuit.

Doom activates a portal in Planet Zero and starts to harness the Earth's resources he thinks he needed to rebuild Planet Zero. With the four against it, Reed Richards, Sue, Johnny and Ben finally was able to defeat Doom and thwarts his evil plan.

Coming back to Earth, they are deemed heroes by the military and was given a new base of operations for which they can further study their abilities.

To summarize the movie, this thing sucks big time. I faulted the two films before this, the 2005 reboot and the Rise of the Silver Surfer as childish. But this one was much worse. It's not the actors fault. We got great actors here, Miles Teller, Michael B Jordan, Kate Mara and Jamie Bell. I can't find fault in their acting. The script and the story line was at fault.

After watching this movie, I loved the 2005 film and its sequel even more. The comic style of story telling then was fluid that I was able to grasp the journey the 4 or 5 went through, the struggles and the successes they had individually and teamwise. I was able to see how they developed their powers and how they were able to use them to their advantage. In this 2015 film, suddenly they know how to harness their powers after one year of having them. I was not able to appreciate their new found powers. As for Doom, one year in Planet Zero made him bitter about Earth and yet wants to build another Earth in that dimension, he wants what?

CGI and visual effects are sloppy in some scenes but its better than the previous so we let them slide but the story line and dialogues are so boring and uninteresting. We can understand that Reed Richards, Von Doom and Sue Storm was in on the project as they are scientists, but Johnny Storm? We saw Ben Grimm bowing out because he was just muscle. Johnny was too yet he was signed in.

Another dumb numbing idea for us was their decision to be the first to go to Planet Zero. We understand that they wanted to be the first to go there but reckless enough not to do extensive more research and simply "joy ride" there was so irresponsible on their part. I thought they were intellectuals, or maybe it was the alcohol they took earlier that did more of the thinking.

There a lot of misses more in this film than hits so it gave us headaches trying to make sense the things we saw here. Doom was able to telepathically kill people by simply walking by them, when he saw our four superheroes, why didn't he do the same thing? I would like to say that this movie is darker than the comic style of the 2005 and 2007 films but being darker doesn't mean its likable.

Currently showing on Netflix but we don't recommend it. Try watching another movie instead.

A reboot done right? Fantastic Four (2015)

Within this week we were lucky enough to watch two trailers for movies we are excited to watch in the year 2020. Slated for release a month from each other, the 25th James Bond film - No Time To Die will be for release April while the much awaited solo film Black Widow will be shown a month later.

Finally Natasha Romanoff gets her own film after she sacrificed herself in Avengers End Game. This is somehow a worthy reward for her heroic deed. In the solo film, she's joined by her family starting off with the Red Guardian played by David Harbour. His Character is the russian counterpart of Captain America in the US. Playing her sister Yelena Belova is Florence Pugh, with Natasha's demise in Avengers, fans surmise that she will play the new Black Widow in the present timeline. William Hurt will undergo some de-aging as he plays Thaddeus Ross and Robert Downey Jr. will reprise his role as Iron Man/ Tony Stark (the story line of the film is prior to the snap).

On the other film, James Bond's No Time To Die, Daniel Craig will be in his fifth outing as the dashing and debonair spy. In the film, he finally retires as a double O to be with Dr. Madeleine Swann (from the prior film Spectre). He comes out of retirement though when his CIA friend, Felix Leiter reaches out to him for help. Nothing much of the story is out yet, but we know he will be dealing with likes of Rami Malik's character Safin.

Both trailers are linked herein and both are exciting to watch. Something truly to look out for the next year.

Exciting Movie Trailers

A few days from now, we will be having the Avengers: Endgame in our midst and we had to watch Captain Marvel first. Marvel has this formula of showing a movie prior that explains some scenes in the upcoming Avengers film. They did this with Black Panther last year.

Synopsis

Carol Danvers (played by Brie Larson) was rescued and brought to an alien world to become part of a Kree special forces squad headed by Yon-rogg (played by Jude Law). Devoid of her past, he proceeds to go on with life as a Kree warrior until her past caught up with her. With the help a Skrull mind machine, her past came flooding in batches confusing her mind and morals. Along the way she came to earth and met with Nick Fury (played by Samuel L Jackson). Her past eventually comes to her and finds out who she really is, a Terran, and finds who are the real enemies.

Our review

Having a woman superhero is a welcome thing coming from the Marvel Studios. It's been a while that we have seen Scarlet Witch and Black Widow in Avengers but we haven't seen yet a stand alone movie for them. Now comes Captain Marvel.

The movie is entertaining and Brie Larson is a good choice to be Captain Marvel. We were skeptical at first if she can pull it off but thankfully, she did or is a great as Captain Marvel.

Being an origin story, we always give films like this a huge leeway. To create a character, to endear to its charm, the movie always and is dragging along until the middle. This film wasn't an exception, it went through all the motions of being an origin story. What made this special was she lost some parts of her memory, the parts very vital to finish the film which eventually was told, where else, near the end of the film. It was like watching X-Men Origins: Wolverine, he also lost part of his memory.

Going back to Captain Marvel, we were amazed by its CGI effects that we were always on the look out for it. The shape shifting Skrulls were always lovely to see, especially when they were on the beach. I was hoping to see two bikini clad women then it's leader told the other to look for another human to emulate. Bummer.

Overall, it was a great origin but forgettable most parts story, just enough to characterize Captain Marvel and introduce her for the upcoming Avengers Endgame. More of her will be shown in the sequel we hope, and with a better story line. This movie was full of easter eggs that we felt the story line was thin. That save for Brie Larson's acting, it was Nick Fury and the cat (Flirken) named Goose actually saved the movie for us. Hoping to see Goose again in the sequel, although we really like to know how to connect the Tessaract with the MCU timeline. We felt it created a bit of branched reality when this was presented in the movie.

If you like Marvel, then this movie is it for you. If you are not a fan of Marvel, just look at the cat.

Woman Power - Captain Marvel (2019)

After watching the very first trailer in 2018, we are already excited for 2019. Our emotions go wild similar to our excitement to Black Panther. A movie, the first of the series for these characters and they both come before the Avengers (Infinity War for Black Panther and Endgame for Captain Marvel). Each movie somehow establishes a story that connects to the Avengers, helping us the moviegoes understand the latter. This style of movie showing giving these films awesome box office figures.

Black Panther was Marvel's first film about a black skinned character and Captain Marvel is their first heroine film. So similar to the former, the latter should be impressive.

Literally we have trouble sleeping right now and we pray already that March 6 is tomorrow already.

March 6 is for Captain Marvel

It's not easy to be a super hero, you get no vacation at all. Its the case here with our very own neighborhood Spider-Man. In the latest issue of our masked crusader, we can see him trying to have his european tour with his classmates until he is "recruited" by Nick Fury.

Imagine a high school student on a holiday trip to europe only to find out he would be working? Give the kid a break dude. Oh well, that's the latest story line of Spider-Man Far From Home. I would rather have him work so that I can watch him doing some action stunts. I will have him work for my movie ticket money. We are paying him millions right? Would you like to see him go around europe like a tourist? Not me.

There are two trailers that went out, one is the official trailer and the other was for international release. I like the latter better, with the best scene him with his bags opened at customs with his Spider-Man suit on top. Both trailers offers great previews of the film making it more exciting to watch it this year.

Since this will be the first Marvel film shown after Avengers Endgame, spoiler alert, it means that he came back, and maybe Thanos' is defeated somehow? Oh well, this film will have lots for us to digest. Like how many villains can we see here? First off, there's Hydroman, then Mysterio. There must be more since there are rumors going around that Sony Pictures, together with Marvel Studios are planning to create the Sinister Six. We have glimpse of Vulture and Scorpion last outing, so that's four. Who would fill up the last two slots?

In the comics they have included Doc Octopus, Goblin, Electro, Rhino, Kraven the Hunter. Since the films do not necessarily follow the comic path, a mix up is currently in the works, makes it a guessing game to whom the last two slots would be given.

The movie also shows a new spiderman stealth suit, and a possible love chemistry(?) between Happy Hogan and Aunt May?

Spider-Man: Far From Home openss July 5 in the US and maybe, just maybe, July 4 here in the Philippines.

Catch both trailers, the international and official here.

Photos and videos here credit to their owners (CTTO).

Spider-Man: Far From Home Trailer is Out

We all know that Venom was introduced in previous Spiderman movies as the villain. So why create a spin off movie about him? This I simply can't understand while watching the trailers. Would a Spiderman fan watch this? For starters, we will watch this film as it stars Tom Hardy. He's a great actor and really picks roles as he deems he can truly push the character at its best. Second is, we are curious how Sony Pictures will handle this comic character knowing that they had to collaborate with Marvel Studios regarding Spiderman. Although Venom is not done with Marvel Studios, we are excited to see what they had in store for us Marvel fans.

Now after watching the much awaited film, we can't help but say its not as great as we hoped it would be. All I can say is that Tom Hardy saved the movie. Venom is a great character, a great villain, so what seems to be the problem?

It seemed like Sony Pictures just needed the money and they know Venom is a great cash cow that will rake in lots of moolah with Tom Hardy in the starring role. If not for the fast paced action, the movie has a flat story line. It left me with lots of questions more than of entertainment.

So Venom came from space, and he is not the only one. We got that part in the film. Question was, how did the other venom or symbiote know he or she or it should go to the US? How did they understand our language so fast? How did venom got his name? What was the name of the other symbiote? If Venom prefers live food, how did Eddie Brock (Tom Hardy's character) eat? Will Eddie not eat and only venom? Venom's species weaknesses were of loud noises and fire, how did they survive the crash? That's a lot of noise and fire there. When venom was paired with human hosts in the lab, the hosts died. I think it was eating the internal organs of its hosts, why did not venom ask for live food there? Why did the scientist did not ask Venom what he likes? Why was one host alive and the villain assumed that it takes time for Venom to adjust? What made this host different? What was with Eddie Brock that Venom was compatible with? Eddie's ex-GF also became a host, why did Venom like her as well? Venom wanted to invade earth using his co-symbiotes, then had a change of heart, why? He mentioned that he was a loser like "Eddie", would he be a hero and a winner if he brings all his symbiotes back to earth? He felt a winner with Eddie that he decided to save earth? What made him almost to give his life to save Eddie? and why is always bites the heads of people? When he did bite someone in front of that cashier, walks out simply from the store, that's it? Why the cashier didn't panic is a puzzler for me, and why did I finish this film?

A villain being shown as a hero, a dark hero is beyond me. Why Sony did this is beyond my comprehension. In the end, I still don't think of him as a hero, is he a villain with a conscience? A vigilante? OMG im still adding more questions so to speak.

Ill add more questions - why did Michelle Williams kiss Eddie Brock while Venom was in her? why did Michelle Williams acting a so so performance? Was it a poorly written character that she can't make heads or tails how her character would interact with Eddie? She left Eddie as she was a loser, and when he came back, she was already with a Doctor, in a matter of half a year? Why did he ask his new BF to check Eddie? Why would Eddie say yes to this, if I was the BF why would I check and treat an ex-BF? I would have just referred another doctor to fix Eddie (this is just me I guess), why is that always the next BF is a lame BF (yes he is a doctor to Eddie's reporter but still he acted lame)?

On the matter of the Imperial Pilot (of Star Wars - Rogue One), errr Riz Ahmed, he plays a villain here, Carlton Drake. Why is he always insisting to use human test subjects right away? He knows its bad, but he is doing this so that he will be portrayed a really bad ass villain? When he became a host of another symbiote, he simply just said yes to the plan of bringing other symbiotes to earth, knowing it will be of earth's destruction? He will be the only one living, is that it? What's the fun of being the last person on earth among the symbiotes? Now that I know Riot is the name of the other symbiote, how on earth or alien's world get that name? How did Venom get his name (I had to ask twice here)? When other symbiotes come, what will be their names? Rampage? Optimus Prime? Rage?

If it wasn't for Tom Hardy, I would say skip this film altogether. But he is so handsome, manly, rugged and charismatic and plus the fact that he really did his part well in the movie that watching him and his CGI counterpart is truly a spectacle. Poorly written script may have drove the other characters off the cliff as I was not impressed by their performances. Kudos to Tom Hardy for providing a good watchable film even though his character was also poorly written. He really is a great performer.

After enduring the this film to the end, I am now reading and watching some fans saying that Venom 2 will be far more greater than this. Surely it would be, as the saying goes, there's no other way but up. Really going up? I hope so, I don't want to watch it and say it went further down than this film. Carnage, another anti hero symbiote will be introduced and will be the villain to our anti hero turned hero Venom. This will lead me to more questions, but................................... I will hold them to myself for now and let the writers of Venom 2 have their way with the story line. I just pray that they will offer a well written script this time around.

As a disclaimer to this article - I am a Marvel fan yes, but im not a comic fanatic so if you think I do not know about this character, you are correct. I am just rambling off questions that a normal (non-comic fan) would experience when they watched this film. If you wish to barrage me of how I am an ignoramus on the subject, don't. I have already admitted that I am. If you wish to answer my questions here, email me away at pinoymovieclub@gmail.com.

images credit to their owners....

Taking a Bite at Venom

Stan Lee was an American comic book writer, editor and publisher and many things at Marvel Comics. He revolutionized the comics industry since 1960s by co creating Spider-Man, the Hulk, Doctor Strange, the Fantastic Four, Iron Man, Daredevil, Thor, the X-men, and may other fictional comic characters.

His trademark when his creations get into movies or tv, he makes funny cameo appearances in them.

We love watching Marvel films hoping to see Stan Lee's cameo. Be it humorous or serious, nothing excites us more than waiting for his appearances. Sometimes his cameos are better the entire film altogether. LOL.

Thanks Stan Lee for your creations from the comics to animation to live action films. He was 95 years old.

Too see his cameos in live action films, as a tribute to the guy, we are linking this video of all his appearances in films.

Thanks Stan Lee For Making Our Life Enjoyable

Warning - Spoiler Alert on some parts of this review.

Thor Ragnarok is the third and last installment (?) of the Thor series. In our book, this is the best there is. The theme went comic and we can't help compare Thor with Deadpool in terms of one liners. Unlike Deadpool, Thor had laughable banters between him and Hulk and Bruce Banner. So having these in a Thor movie is a welcome treat to Marvel fans. Even in time of near death, hanged from the ceiling, Thor still had its comic moments.

Now In between the laughter, sadness and seriousness sneaks in from time to time to keep us on our throes of emotions. From Odin's Death, the shifty characterizations of Loki and Scourge, the bravery of Heimdall, the loyalty of Scrapper 142 as a Valkyrie and the evilness of Hela, the change in Thor's character in becoming the King of Asgard. The mix of these emotions make the latest Thor installment a very watchable film.

Along with the new characters thrown in, commendable acting can be given to Karl Urban as Scourge and Jeff Goldblum as the Grand Master of Sakaar. Adding greatness to the already great film. With the story well written per our taste, we forgot we are watching a marvel film.

Although regarded as the last film (is it?) we clamor for more due to the (don't read - spoiler alert) destruction of Asgard. I won't say how it was destroyed lets agree to disagree on this. So I was waiting how they would resettle on..... maybe the answer to this might be in a fourth Thor movie, or maybe in part one of the Infinity War or part two.

So If you haven't watched it yet, watch it. Look out for these.... Matt Damon and Sam Neil in Asgard. What? Matt Damon and Sam Neil in Asgard? Look also for the bravery of the Warriors Three. Very brave and loyal soldiers of Thor.

With great acting, great cast, great characters, upbeat music, great story plot and twists, what more can you ask for a marvel movie like this? Truly caught us by surprise.

Great Save To The Franchise - Thor Ragnarok

After being previewed in the Avengers Infinity War, we now get an origin story of Captain Marvel coming out in 2019. Since we are excited to see how Captain Marvel would correct the Thanos' snap, we are given the back story on Captain Marvel. So when a trailer came out, we are all excited to see a snippet of who and what she is.

Now looking into the trailer, it didn't show much of her story. We all know that she is human, and is a strong woman with powers. Since this is a trailer, we need to watch the whole movie I guess. LOL.

If you have some comments or suggestions please do email us at pinoymovieclub@gmail.com.

Captain Marvel Trailer is Out

As of this writing, the movie Black Panther surpassed the USD500 Million mark in worldwide distribution. It garnered also USD292 Million in its opening weekend bypassing the Avengers: Age of Ultron.

A lot of people flocked movie theaters to watch a big budget film composed of mostly African Americans with a story line based in Africa. A very unique concept for a US film much more for a Marvel superhero film. Add the fact that this movie is a "prequel" or a "setup" film prior to the showing of the Avengers: Infinity War so its no surprise this would be a big hit.

After watching the film, (this is not my review yet) it had a feel of disney to it more than Marvel for this writer. When I saw the lead talking to his dead father, then I waited for Simba to roar on top of the Black Panther bust LOL. Fight scenes reminded me of Spiderman CGI, love scenes with that of Star Wars Episode II, the Wakandan space ships with that of Guardians of the Galaxy.

This was really a Disney film and with lots of easter eggs that abound in the movie, it's no wonder that planet earth leapfrogged in technology just enough time to battle Thanos in the upcoming Infinity War.

We will be reviewing the movie (with spoilers) after this film has been shown in the next few weeks.

Spoiler Free Reaction - Black Panther

It's been three weeks since Avengers Infinity War opened in theatres and still it is being played until now. This is how popular this movie is. Why wouldn't it be? Its been a decade since the thought of assembling a group of super heroes came into being and now the thought of them being killed in one movie is kinda interesting. Here comes the superhero killer in Thanos.

For those who haven't watched the movie yet, better stop now. Just a warning.

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Now who got killed in the movie?

Heimdall

He sent The Hulk to Earth to warn the Avengers that Thanos is coming. Then he was killed. That was his last act of heroism.

Loki
Killed by Thanos' hands. He died with Thor watching.

The Collector

Although we have not seen how, it is assumed he died as Thanos got the Reality Stone from him. If we are wrong, then we might see him back again in the next Avenger film.

Gamora

Yes. She was killed by Thanos. She was the favorite daughter (adopted) by Thanos yet she was given up. She was the sacrifice that Thanos made just to get the Soul stone in Vormir.

Vision

Obviously he will be killed and we expected this even before the movie even opened. He has the Mind Stone on his forehead so we know Thanos will get his hand on it. Half of the movie is shown the Avengers protecting him from Thanos and the war ensues unto Wakanda.

Those were the heroes that got killed by Thanos' hands or by his siblings. Since he got his hands on all the stones, and with just a snap of his fingers, half of the population died. And here are the list of those characters who got "disintegrated" or simply turned to dust.

Groot

Scarlet Witch

Bucky Barnes (Winter Soldier)

T'Challa (Black Panther)

Sam Wilson (Falcon)

Mantis

Drax

Peter Quill (Star Lord)

Doctor Strange

Peter Parker (Spider Man)

Shown in ending credits who turned into dust.

Nick Fury

Maria Hill

Wow look at the long list characters that got killed by Thanos. Now here are those who survived.

Thor

Bruce Banner (The Hulk)

Tony Stark (Iron Man)

James Rhodes (War Machine)

Natasha Romanoff (Black Widow)

Steve Rogers (Captain America)

Rocket Raccoon

Okoye and M'Baku (Wakanda Warriors)

We got a short list of those who survived and now we have not seen the following heroes in the film. We assume they also "survived" the culling and we hope to see them in the next Avengers film.

Scott Lang (Ant Man)

Wasp

Clint Barton (Hawkeye)

Shuri (Black Panther's Sister)

Pepper Potts

Carol Danvers (Captain Marvel)

Valkyrie

Wong (The new Master of the New York Sanctum)

Ned (Spider Man Best friend)

This is just part one of our review and we had to get this out of our system. We will have the story review next up.

Pinoy Movie Club