The Marvel Cinematic Universe delivers its next installment with Thor: Ragnarok. In addition to being a great new adventure, it covers where Thor and Hulk were during Captain America: Civil War. We get a new kick-ass heroine to root for, and a few lingering plot lines dealt with.
I’ve been reading comics most of my life, so I’m pretty familiar with Wonder Woman. I’ve also read about comics a lot, so I know the broad strokes of Professor Marston’s life. When I heard about the movie, I was curious enough to check it out, and today I got the chance to.
DC continues to do really well with their animated movies. Their latest offering, “Batman and Harley Quinn” was another entertainingly good time. And they are definitely making the most of not having to worry about being a “kids’ cartoon” any more with their theatrical and Digital Video releases. Just like the adaptation of The Killing Joke dealt with a lot more adult themes, they do some scenes that never would have flown in the WB or Cartoon Network shows.
I’m a huge hero fan, and have been reading comics for decades. Yes, decades. So I like to think I’m at least a decent judge of hero movies. I’ll sum this up quickly and then go in to detail later. Spider-Man: Homecoming is fantastic. It’s a great addition to the Marvel Cinematic Universe and I’d say the best Spider-Man movie I’ve ever seen. And I liked the Tobey Maguire ones. At least the first one.
The DC “Expanded Universe” movies have not been doing overly well on a lot of fronts. Man of Steel had people either loving or hating it, but both sides seem to agree that it’s the most divisive comic book movie ever made. Batman Vs Superman didn’t make the box office DC hoped for, and had a lot of bad reviews from critics and fans both (I was one of them). Next up was Suicide Squad, which I liked but could see problems in, and also did disappointingly with critics and fans both. So, I was a bit worried about going to see Wonder Woman.
Sequels can be tricky, even with a good team behind them. I wasn’t really worried about Guardian of the Galaxy Volume 2. Even the worst of Marvel’s movies (probably Thor: The Dark World in my opinion) is pretty good. And this was better than that by a lot. There was action, humor, nods to the…
The way my life works, I don’t always get to the movies as much as I’d like. So, while it’s been out for a while, this is when I finally got to see Logan, hence why my review is late by many standards. Even though it’s been out a while, I’m going to try to…
There are a few things you should know before you read this review. I am a huge Star Wars fan. I saw the original in the theaters, way back when, something like twenty times. I have an entire bookcase of just Star Wars novels. I’ve played several versions of the role playing games, and both Galaxies and Old Republic. I’m enjoying the current Marvel Comics series. So I was really excited about Rogue One.
I’ve been a comic book, and general hero, fan my entire life as far back as I go. As a rule, I’m more of a DC fan than Marvel, or at least that was true until the DC reboot several years ago. I’m also a big fan of movies. Give me a dark room, a big screen, and some popcorn and I’m a happy guy. I say all this as background to try and get across what a big thing it was for me to NOT see Batman vs. Superman: Dawn of Justice in the theater. It was the first time two of the most famous comic book heroes out there shared the big screen, and I just couldn’t bring myself to see it after Man of Steel. I’m not going to rehash the Man of Steel controversy here. I will say, and most have agreed, that it was the most divisive comic book movie ever made. For me, on the heels of such dismal products as Green Lantern, Jonah Hex (how do you screw up a cowboy movie??), and Dark Knight Rises, I didn’t like where they went with Man of Steel. Everything I saw suggested that Dawn of Justice would continue that, so I decided to not give them my money. For me, I made the right choice.
The Marvel Cinematic Universe adds not only a new character, but a whole new area to their shared world as the Sorcerer Supreme, Doctor Strange, debuts, bringing magic with him. Earlier movies (Thor, Thor: The Dark World) made some half-hearted attempt to invoke Arthur C Clarke’s comment about, “Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.” With Dr. Strange, magic is most definitely not the same thing as science.
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