Marveling marvelously

I'm about 90% through my MCU-in-chronological-order binge, and I've needed to take several breaks. It's been slow going through Runaways, Cloak and Dagger, The Punisher and a few other of the TV shows.

The movies I'd previously never seen have been a mixed bag...

Not the biggest fan of Iron Man, but Iron Man 3 was enjoyable once we established that the not-so-vaguely racist character of the Mandarin wasn't real. Even though I haven't seen Avengers: Endgame yet, I'm not immune to spoilers so I know how this character arc ends. And I don't care. Tony Stark is plain insufferable.

Captain America: Winter Soldier was meh, and it pains me to say that because I love Cap. The only useful thing it served for me was fully understanding what happened in the background of Agents of S.H.I.E.LD.

Avengers: Age of Ultron is the weakest of the Avengers movies, and also underscores why Tony Stark/Iron Man sucks. It also helped fill in some gaps from Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. episodes.

Ant-Man was great (Paul Rudd usually is).

Loved Captain Marvel. It's the only movie I've had to watch out of order, but only because it came out later.

I'm now extra-motivated to make it through Cloak and Dagger S2 (maybe yay), Luke Cage S2 (yay), Iron Fist S2 (God, please make it stop), Daredevil S3 (End it now, o Lord), Runaways S2 (hmmm), The Punisher S2 (no no no no no), and Jessica Jones S3 (OK) so I can finally get to Avengers: Infinity War and Endgame and Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. S6.

This project has lasted longer than I thought it would, but I'm glad I'm sticking to it, even if I have to take breaks to watch Derry Girls S2, Call the Midwife S7, and old SNL episodes I missed.

Merry-Go-Round

I think I watch more movies with my sisters' kids than I do on my own. The Michigander nieces and neffy also pepper me with movie questions and express shock when I haven't seen their latest favorite.

Because the eldest sobrina apparently read Wonder the book several times and also liked the movie, we had to watch it. It wasn't something I would have selected on my own, nor watched without kids. As an elementary-school feel-good tale about friendship, it was cute. I appreciated how each character had their story told, with backgrounds and emotions coming out that others can't see in their interactions.

Coco was amazing, and not just because it was tailor-made for a Latinx fam. The story is endearing and cute and has a good twist and also had me sobbing at the end. I loved the little cultural touches -- like the chancla, the Mexico futbol jersey, the Spanish phrases not translated into English.

I liked Smallfoot. I expected it to be a reverse-Bigfoot discovery tale (and it was), but it also ended up being a refreshing take on the dangers of fearing the Other.

Inside Out was similarly cute, and all the little characters representing feelings reminded me of my youngest niece, or all of my nieces and nephews when they were little, for that matter. I had flashbacks to their toddler tantrums when various Feelings were dominant in the storyline. Oy.

The kiddos are all getting older, though, so the movies they recommend or want to watch are changing. Who knows what future theatre outings will bring?

Flicks 'n things

2018 brought a new neffy in NZ, and though I love all the Skype/Face Time/FB Messenger screen time, I'm now trying to figure out how to get back to Aotearoa soon to see him before he gets too big. They grow up so fast!

A year ago, when I saw the then-youngest neffy for the first time (he was 5), I tried to watch Hunt for the Wilderpeople to prepare me for Kiwi humor and television. It was... interesting. Parts of it were funny, parts were over the top, parts of it dragged on. In all, it's a decently heartwarming story of a foster kid who bonds with an old man while they're on the run from a social worker who (hilariously) goes all-out to find them. But it only took a few minutes into it to realize the humor is very... unique.

Upon getting to New Zealand, my bro-in-law told me that Boy was a quintessentially Kiwi funny film, so we watched it. It's a bittersweet story about an impoverished kid whose father gets out of prison and uses him to try and find loot he buried. And it's a comedy.

I think maybe Kiwi humo(u)r is just beyond my funny bone. To be fair, I've only seen a handful of NZ films -- but drama or comedy, they have all had some sort of bittersweet, underlying sad notes to them.

Then the nieces and nephews made me watch Jurassic World because they were horrified I'd never seen a Jurassic film. I really enjoyed it. Not too interested in watching the past films in the franchise, but this one was good as a stand-alone.

My eldest nephew had also recently started reading the Percy Jackson series, so we had to watch the two films. This started a rabbit hole of googling and learning about other young adult series out there that seem way cooler than the ones from my own tween years. I'll admit, the classics nerd in me loved it -- it's basically Harry Potter for the human children of Greek gods rather than wizards and Muggles. Coming-of-age stories can be hit or miss to delve into as an adult, but this one was fairly decent.

Then we got into the movies based on dystopian youth novels. We watched Divergent and then The Maze Runner. Both were interesting enough until I cheated and looked up the plots of the next books/films in the series and was so depressed it made me content to let the stories end where I left them. Divergent seemed more interesting, if done many times before: individuals are divided by roles in society, some learn the insidious secret behind the social order and revolt... The Hunger Games, The Giver, etc, etc, etc.

The Maze Runner had similar undertones but more of a Westworld vibe.

I think the dystopian trilogy fad for tweens and young readers/viewers is only popular because the kids are embarking on their own personal growth, realizing there is a strange, real world out there that they'll have to learn to navigate.  Some of them are good stories. But I think I've read or seen so many, especially lately, that these two in particular seemed really formulaic.

Plus, I'll be 40 this year. I want the happy ending fantasies to distract me from the never-ending news cycle.

My 6yo nephew still believes in Santa Claus.

Re-marveling

Once again, as Avengers: Endgame approaches, I'm trying to go back and watch the entire MCU in in-universe chronological order, this time included all the TV shows like Agent Carter and Jessica Jones that I hadn't previously thought to weave into my understanding of the general superhero narrative.

It's going to be a long journey. But luckily, the Pacific Northwest is current blanketed in a rare, debilitating snowfall. Snowpocalypse-induced cabin fever means I have a lot of binge-watching time on my hands. The Seattle Public Library has also kindly extended all due dates on books, so the non-snow options are practically endless.

Following last year's MCU binge, I bit the bullet regarding distasteful rich playboy "heroes" and watched Iron Man 2. Meh. But The Incredible Hulk was worse: the dialogue was crappy, and Liv Tyler is devoid of personality as always but so was every other character. After re-watching the (fun) Captain America and introducing myself to the highly addictive and unfortunately short-lived Agent Carter series, these next two MCU films in the timeline were such a letdown and I can't wait to get beyond this first awkward phase of the Marvel oeuvre.