Thunder vs Justice: Which Super Hero film Rocked November?

Welcome back to another edition of Comic Relief! where I talk about all the goings on in the world of nerd!

This month has given us the release of 2 big super hero movies from both sides of the house. On the Marvel side, Thor: Ragnarok was released, and on the DC side, we had Justice League. Now if you look at sheer critic reviews, it's very clear as to who won the month of November, however, if you look at the audience reviews, that becomes a little less clear as both films are very close in audience reception. I am going to talk about what I like and disliked about both of these films, so here is a spoiler disclaimer. Both films have passed their opening weekend, so I feel like there has been an adequate amount of time for people to have seen the films.

Let's start with Thor: Ragnarok, the latest installation to both the MCU and the Thor story. This movie is a great film. It's fun, it's whimsical, and it has some amazing action scenes. However, it's strongest point was based in the Planet Hulk story line on the Planet Sakarr. The introduction of characters like Korg (who is easily my favorite character of the film), and the PTSD inflicted Valkyrie were great. Then obviously the fight between Thor and Hulk was a huge highlight of the film for me as it show cases what I have been telling people for years: if Hulk and Thor went all out against each other, Hulk would get wrecked. The only reason why hulk gets to win is because of outside intervention from the Grand master (played brilliantly by Jeff Goldblum). Yet, as great as this part of the movie is, the part that left a rather large distaste in my mouth was how they handled the Asgard side of things.

 While there were certainly silver linings to this part of the plot in Cate Blanchet's Hela. and Idris Elba's renegade Heimdall, this part of the film actually upset me. To start with the smaller sins, Karl Urban's Skurge really didn't sit well with me at all. The stoic and cold berserker that serves as the executioner to the Enchantress in the comics is supposed to be a bad ass that Even Thor has a great deal of respect for as a warrior. In this film he is reduced to comic relief and a stooge, and while he may ultimately have been redeemed by sacrificing himself, this is far from what I had hoped to see in this film. The callous destruction of Asgard by Surtur as the means to defeat the villain was also greatly upsetting, especially after realizing that for a third time Thor is not the one who defeats the film's villain, but instead he uses outside help. This has become a rather annoying trend, while I understood this to be part of the lesson he was supposed to learn in the first Thor film, he has not defeated single-handed a major foe since then. This is not a trope that I would have wished for Marvel's god of Thunder and it's disappointing to say the least. However, the biggest thing that left a massive distaste in my mouth was how Taika Waititi killed the Warriors Three. Now, I realize the Warriors three are side characters that have had very small roles since the first film, however, that's not the point. The point is that the Warriors Three and Lady Sif are Thor's BEST friends. These are people that he had gone on countless adventures with over centuries, maybe even millennia, and yet they are killed off like no name extras (with exception of Hogun). Let me be clear, I don't mind that these characters died, I mind that they died in such an undignified way. Volstagg and Vandral are the first people to die by Hela, and they just get destroyed. There is no dignity in their deaths, they look like porcupines with the amount of knives they had coming out of them. Then Hogun fares a bit better, but still is ultimately wrecked much the same, but the gravest insult is that we get no reaction of this from Thor. Sure there was a lot going on in this film, but you mean to tell me that Thor wouldn't have thought to ask Heimdall what happened to his BEST FRIENDS during Hela's invasion? Maybe see if they had survived and were helping Heimdall gather refugees? Ultimately this deprives us of seeing a more human element to Thor's character as he has lost not only his hammer at this point, but his battle buddies. It's honestly unacceptable.

All that being said, I want to be clear that I still enjoyed Thor: Ragnarok a lot. I feel that if it were it's own movie that didn't have an established universe it would have been one of Marvel's best, but as it was attached to the character of Thor and the world that surrounded him, I had just hoped for better. Now time to move onto Justice League.

Before I talk about League, I already did a spoiler free review of the film on this very blog, so please check that out. I would also like to preface that in a choice between DC and Marvel I will always pick Marvel as that's what I grew up with and they have my top 3 favorite comic book characters in it. That being said, I enjoyed Justice League far more than I enjoyed Thor: Ragnarok. Justice League honestly was the most fun I've had watching a movie since Spider-Man: Homecoming and I was grinning for most of the film. I grew up watching Justice League and Justice League:Unlimited, so watching this film bring together a League that sorta mirrored the spirit of that show was just so much fun to watch. It was great to see Batman shouldering the death of Superman, and also for the movie to focus on the more human aspects of Bruce's character. In fact one of the strongest it scenes of the film is Wonder Woman helping Batman out of the Bat suit after seeing that his back is covered in bruises. Their exchange about it both shows Diana's compassion and Bruce's steadfast will and determination to the mission. Superman was a show stealer in this film, aside from the noticable removal of the mustache with CG, this is the Big Blue that people have been waiting for. He is considerably lighter in tone, he has some pretty corny dialogue at times, and outside of when they revive him, he is smiling for most of the film. Also the scene where Superman is able to see Flash while he's travelling through the Speedforce and track him was hilarious, and it gives you a scope of just how powerful the Man of Steel is. Not much needs to be said of Wonder Woman, she just continues to do right what she did in her solo film. Where the film shines most is in the DC Trinity, which honestly is fine by me.

Now that being said, there are some immense narrative issues. The first 45 minutes are hard to watch, not because it's boring or anything, but because they jump around so much that it's utterly confusing. One moment, Batman is on a rooftop confronting a parademon, next thing you know WE'RE IN ICELAND! Problems like that exist throughout the entire first act, and while there is enough good peppered through there to allow you to stomach it, those first 45 minutes are certainly a chore in comparison to the rest of the film. Steppenwolf is easily the films weakest link, I am only putting him in the negative column because despite going into the film with literally no expectations of this character to be anything but a giant muscle that brings the league together, most people do not have the background in comics that I have and therefore could have been expecting something akin to Loki in the first Avengers film. However, where this film suffers the most is in the other members of the League. While all the casts' portrayals are great, I felt robbed of more story on Momoa's Aquaman, Ezra's Flash, or Ray's Cyborg. There was a lot of footage cut from this film to fit it's 2 hour runtime and honestly, that is the most notable flaw. All these characters are great, but I feel we are only given diet versions of them because the scenes that were supposed to help you understand them and their purpose in the film were all cut from it. Once Again, Warner Bros prove to be the biggest Achilles heel for the DC cinematic universe as they decided they knew better than the film makers on what should be presented. While I doubt we will get an extended or Snyder cut of the film, I honestly am curious to see what it would have been like with those scenes in there. I would have liked to see more of the other characters in the League, just to kind of feel their presence a bit more.

Ultimately, Thor: Ragnarok was the better superhero film in November. It's narrative was far less clunky and despite my own reservations about how they handled Asgard, the movie does deserve it's B+ or A-. That being said, Justice League was truly a win for DC, at least to me, as for the first time (outside Wonder Woman) my friends and I that left the theater could only debate on how much we all enjoyed the film rather than what we didn't enjoy about it. To me it was far more fun than Thor, and while it might not be a better movie, if I were to chose a film to go see again it would be Justice League. 

Well this has been another edition of Comic Relief! I hope you have enjoyed and I will see you next time!

Justice League Verdict (SPOILER FREE)

Welcome Back to another edition of Comic Relief! Where I talk about all the goings on in the world of nerd!
Today marked premier of the newest chapter in the DC cinematic universe: Justice League, and it has been the topic on everyone's minds for the past week leading up to release. Last night, critic website Rotten Tomatoes released their aggregated critic score of the film at a very disturbing 42 percent. Critics bashed the movie for it's clunky narrative and weak villain. However, I am a firm believer of making my own opinion of the film. Justice League was not only a fun movie, but it genuinely surprised me that it got the reviews it did. While far from a perfect film, Justice League is a movie that surpasses the standards of several Marvel Phase One films. While it may not amaze to the degree of Avengers the film certainly makes headway in some great introductions and portrayals of characters as well as a fantastic screen chemistry between the team itself.

The film's first act is probably it's weakest point, which honestly comes to be expected. This first act does a lot of jumping around trying to introduce the members of the team while reintroducing the characters we already know of. The obvious fix to this problem was to not rush into this film and allow for each of these characters to experience their own solo film adventure before getting to this point, but since that's not what was decided, what we got was decent enough. However, once that first act is done, the movie builds its momentum and never really stopped. While Steppenwolf, the film's villain, is no Iago, he's not terrible and serves his purpose as hulking opponent that provides a necessary threat to unite the league. I honestly don't understand most of the criticisms of this character. As a side note, anyone with any knowledge of who Steppenwolf is, knows he's not exactly what one would even remotely consider as a powerhouse villain in either ability or personality. Where the film shines is where it counts and that is the portrayals of the heroes. Gal Gadot gives yet another stellar performance in League, providing the team with a conscience that parallels to Steve Rogers in the Marvel films. Jason Momoa gives us a fantastic first look at Aquaman that will genuinely make you crave for more (don't fret his solo outing is right around the corner in 2018). Ezra Miller's Flash is a new take on the speedster showing him at the beginnings of his career and the relationship he has with Affleck's Batman is great as you get to see Batman bring out some of the lessons he clearly instilled in other people he's worked with. Ray Fisher's Cyborg was far better than I expected it to be, and even made me invested in him as a Leaguer (something that I had not done previously as I had only associated him as a Titan). The supporting ensemble of Billy Crudup, Amber Heard, Diane Lane, Amy Adams, Jeremy Irons, and J.K. Simmons bring an incredible human element to the film that has been missing in the DCEU's previous outings. Lastly, Henry Cavill and Ben Affleck deserve their own paragraphs.

Let's start with Cavill. If you have read ANY  of my moviepilot pieces, Superman was a big thing for me. My most viewed articles were about Superman, and I wrote several things about how DC had dropped the ball on writing. When it comes down to Justice League, Henry Cavill shines. Cavill's Superman has probably some of my favorite scenes in the movie and they really show that ears have been opened to fan criticisms. He has excellent scenes with everyone in the film even though he only comes back to the action during the latter half of the film. His dialogue is corny a good deal of the time, but honestly that's Superman in a nut shell and I was just happy to see Cavill live up to the potential that he had for the character. However, while Cavill was great, I want to take a moment to address the portrayal that I feel is being missed out in praise.

In many reviews I have read, they claim Affleck's performance to be half hearted. That he didn't seem to want to be there. I couldn't disagree more. If there was any notions of misplacement it's because Batman genuinely feels out of place, and that's absolutely the way it should be. He is the only normal human on this team of essentially gods. Ben does a great job of showing just how humbling an experience the death of Superman was to his character. He is riddled with self doubt, and doesn't even feel himself worthy of leading the League, even claiming that Superman could have done it better. It honestly hurts knowing that this may be the last time I see Ben in the cowl. I sincerely hope that he at least signs up for Matt Reeves' solo Batman film. I think that if he allows himself to do it, he will have a chance to see the true vindication of his hard work, that it will all pay off in the best live action Batman film ever made.

The movies is not without faults, as I said the narrative suffers in the beginning, the CGI is inconsistent at points (no doubt a result of the switch in direction), some of the dialogue is corny. However, it is certainly not enough to condemn the movie to a terrible score. If you put this film up against movies like Thor, Iron Man 2, or even First Avenger it more than stacks up, and maybe that's a bit of a let down that a film with as much potential as this can only cut it against the early Marvel films after five outings, but again that doesn't make it a terrible film. It's a lot of fun and I feel most people will leave the theater not only having enjoyed, but excited to see where the franchise might take us. If Justice League proves anything, it's that the critics went into this film wanting to hate it, and so they looked hard and hard for holes to poke at, rather than walk into a movie with the sole purpose of trying to have a good time. I genuinely expect audience response for this film to show the giant disconnect that exists between critics and the average movie goer.
I would personally give Justice League a 6.5 to a 7 out of 10. Though flawed in some of it's presentation of narrative, it delivers a genuinely fun experience.
This has been another edition of Comic Relief! and I hope you guys enjoyed this review
(PS stay through the credits)
(PPS audience score on Rotten Tomatoes currently resides at an 86)

Back to the Basics: Legacy's Captain America Brings Back A Whole Lot More Than Just Classic Numbering

Welcome back to another edition of Comic Relief! Where we talk about all the goings on in the world of nerd!

This passed Wednesday, we saw the release of a book I have impatiently been awaiting. Marvel released their first issue of their Rebirth Captain America series. Captain America 695 returns the icon to his classic issue numbering, however, that is far from the only classic thing brought back in this book. The whole first issue feels like an homage to a Jack Kirby book. The feel, the art (even though it's more stylized for modern times) feels like it's being ripped from the golden age. This is a book that will be well worth adding to a collectors stock.

The first arc of this new series is aptly named: Home of the Brave. The whole point of this arc is that Cap is doing some soul searching after the events of Secret Empire, but before we go too far into that, let's talk a bit about what happens in this book. The story starts off with a brief overview of the Steve Rogers story, but then takes us on an adventure of Captain America right when he got out of the ice. A town is being held hostage by a white supremacist group called Rampart. The panels showcase Cap fighting off these Nazi goons, and it just feels so right.The colors, the action, all of it screams Jack Kirby and it sends you down a massive nostalgia train while simultaneously delivering new material.What's probably one of the best parts is that, in the process of saving a group of kids, one of them is inspired by Cap's example and gets involved. This little girl draws a Rampart goon's attention from shooting Cap while his back is turned. The memory comes to a close with Cap using the American flag as a shock blanket to wrap around this little girl who has just saved his life. It's just 100 percent what a Cap book should be, and this is only the first 3 pages.

The book then takes a jump to the present day. Steve Rogers is riding a Harley down the highway, to find a giant sign that Welcomes him to Captain America Nebraska. Surely enough, it is the same town that we saw him save at the beginning of the book. They are holding an annual Captain America festival, celebrating the man and what he did for the town. Now it is important to note that Steve is fresh on the heels of facing down the Hydra version of himself in the finale of Secret Empire, and that this journey is in no small part his path to earning back the trust of the American people. Even after the terrible events of Secret Empire, these people never forgot who Steve really was, what he really stood for. Steve walks around the festival and hears the people tell stories about what Captain America means to them, or a story about how he had saved them that day years before. Then action comes up again, as agents from Rampart take the stage at the show. Cap springs into the fight and reveals his true intention of hunting this organization down.

Cap beats the nazis and the townspeople show their gratitude. They thank him for saving their town once again, however, Steve refuses the thanks. He points out the instincts of people in the town to take care of one another during the fight, to make sure everyone was okay. These heroics weren't inspired by anybody but themselves, and that is something to be proud of. "The Strong protect the weak," he says, and is met with a reply from a familiar girl who has grown quite a bit, but still clutching onto an American flag that is draped about her like the last time we saw her. "That's the rule, welcome back." Cap drives off into the sunset after saluting the town for what they did.

While that essentially wraps up the first issue my favorite part to read was the author's note left by Mark Waid. In it he gives a very touching and fun story about how Cap was his favorite Marvel hero as a kid amidst a preference for DC characters. He details his admiration for the character's nobility and never say die attitude. However, the most important thing he says comes in the end:

I share these confessions with you not because I'm in a mood to cringe in embarrassment now. (And yet...) I'm just willing to go that far to reassure you, if you're a new reader not sure what you're getting into, that Cap has been a meaningful part of my entire life. As unfashionable and retro-corny as it is, I have always believed that it's possible to be a good guy not because you need to exorcise some personal demons or because your expecting some reward, but because life is just better when I watch your back and you watch mine. And I choose to think that, at heart you believe the same.

I don't recommend, as an adult, drawing all your morality and ethics from super heroes. They are fortunate enough to live in a wonderful world where might always makes right, one sometimes absent the gray areas we struggle with as we mature. Nonetheless I will share Steve Rogers' core belief until the day I die. If you have the ability to help, then you have the responsibility, because everybody ultimately benefits. Life isn't fair, but people can strive to be, and we are all better for it when we do. 

It would appear that the Sentinel of Liberty is indeed in trustworthy hands. This was a helluva first issue to start off a run and I am looking forward to checking out what this team will bring to the character as they have already brought back so much that has felt missing for quite some time.

I hope you all have enjoyed and please check out Captain America 695: Home of the Brave! We will see you next time on Comic Relief!