Tag: Movies

14 Down, 13 to Go

14 Marvel movies down, 13 to go! We have crossed the halfway point and we have closed out Phrase Two-ish!

Here is The Great 2022 Marvel Cinematic Universe Chronological Rewatch of 2022 Update:

  • Phase One-ish
    • Captain America: The First Avenger
    • Captain Marvel
    • Iron Man
    • The Incredible Hulk
    • Iron Man 2
    • Thor
    • Marvel’s The Avengers
  • Phase Two-ish
    • Iron Man 3
    • Thor: The Dark World
    • Captain America: The Winter Soldier
    • Guardians of the Galaxy
    • Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2
    • Avengers: Age of Ultron
    • Ant-Man
  • Phase Three-ish
    • Captain America: Civil War
    • Black Widow
    • Spider-Man: Homecoming
    • Black Panther
    • Doctor Strange
    • Thor: Ragnarok
    • Ant-Man and the Wasp
    • Avengers: Infinity War
    • Avengers: Endgame
    • Spider-Man: Far From Home
  • Phase four-ish
    • Eternals
    • Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings
    • Spider-Man: No Way Home

I just finished Ant-Man. I started it this morning and finished it tonight. So ends Phase Two, or what passes for Phase Two when you’re going chronologically instead of in release order. Ant-Man is a classic, so Phase whatever-it-was ends with a bang.

Phase Three-ish opens with an even bigger bang. Captain America: Civil War is Thor and The Hulk away from being a full blown Avengers movie and it squashes most of the rest of the MCU flicks like the proverbial grape. It’s awesome. I’m not going to start it tonight though. There’s a new episode of That Pedal Show that I haven’t watched yet, and they are going to talk about wet/dry rigs using stereo speaker cabinets and that is going to sound mega.

In closing though, why weren’t The Hulk and Thor in Civil War? Simple. Whichever side had them was guaranteed to win. I mean, they could have split them up, but saving them for the buddy cop vibe in Ragnarok was a stroke of pop-culture genius.

Did You Think I Forgot About the Marvel Rewatch?

I haven’t had an update on the Marvel rewatch in like three days. Did I stop? Did I forget about it?

Hells no! It just took me three days to get through the next movie!

Here is The Great 2022 Marvel Cinematic Universe Chronological Rewatch of 2022 Update:

  • Phase One-ish
    • Captain America: The First Avenger
    • Captain Marvel
    • Iron Man
    • The Incredible Hulk
    • Iron Man 2
    • Thor
    • Marvel’s The Avengers
  • Phase Two-ish
    • Iron Man 3
    • Thor: The Dark World
    • Captain America: The Winter Soldier
    • Guardians of the Galaxy
    • Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2
    • Avengers: Age of Ultron
    • Ant-Man
  • Phase Three-ish
    • Captain America: Civil War
    • Black Widow
    • Spider-Man: Homecoming
    • Black Panther
    • Doctor Strange
    • Thor: Ragnarok
    • Ant-Man and the Wasp
    • Avengers: Infinity War
    • Avengers: Endgame
    • Spider-Man: Far From Home
  • Phase four-ish
    • Eternals
    • Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings
    • Spider-Man: No Way Home

I started Age of Ultron in the wee hours of Wednesday morning, watched a little more this morning, and then finished it off tonight before bed. It’s far and away the weakest of the four Avengers movies. Five, if you count Captain America: Civil War as an Avengers movie because it pretty much is. I still think it’s a great movie though. Ultron the character makes a major comeback in the What If? series on Disney+, if you’re interested in a little more. I guess you could read the books too, if that’s your thing.

Up next is Ant-Man, when our friends in the MCU take the funny from Guardians and bring it down to Earth. After that, I guess we’re into Phase Three.

13 movies down, 14 to go.

Yet Another Marvel Rewatch Update

Here is The Great 2022 Marvel Cinematic Universe Chronological Rewatch of 2022 Update:

  • Phase One-ish
    • Captain America: The First Avenger
    • Captain Marvel
    • Iron Man
    • The Incredible Hulk
    • Iron Man 2
    • Thor
    • Marvel’s The Avengers
  • Phase Two-ish
    • Iron Man 3
    • Thor: The Dark World
    • Captain America: The Winter Soldier
    • Guardians of the Galaxy
    • Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2
    • Avengers: Age of Ultron
    • Ant-Man
  • Phase Three-ish
    • Captain America: Civil War
    • Black Widow
    • Spider-Man: Homecoming
    • Black Panther
    • Doctor Strange
    • Thor: Ragnarok
    • Ant-Man and the Wasp
    • Avengers: Infinity War
    • Avengers: Endgame
    • Spider-Man: Far From Home
  • Phase four-ish
    • Eternals
    • Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings
    • Spider-Man: No Way Home

I wasn’t going to finish it tonight, but then I did. I’m just crazy like that. I am done with The Guardians of the Galaxy, at least until Infinity War.

Up next is the second Avengers flick, Age of Ultron. By far the worst of the four Avengers movies, but still pretty fricken good.

Marvel Rewatch Update

Here is The Great 2022 Marvel Cinematic Universe Chronological Rewatch of 2022 Update:

  • Phase One-ish
    • Captain America: The First Avenger
    • Captain Marvel
    • Iron Man
    • The Incredible Hulk
    • Iron Man 2
    • Thor
    • Marvel’s The Avengers
  • Phase Two-ish
    • Iron Man 3
    • Thor: The Dark World
    • Captain America: The Winter Soldier
    • Guardians of the Galaxy
    • Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2
    • Avengers: Age of Ultron
    • Ant-Man
  • Phase Three-ish
    • Captain America: Civil War
    • Black Widow
    • Spider-Man: Homecoming
    • Black Panther
    • Doctor Strange
    • Thor: Ragnarok
    • Ant-Man and the Wasp
    • Avengers: Infinity War
    • Avengers: Endgame
    • Spider-Man: Far From Home
  • Phase four-ish
    • Eternals
    • Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings
    • Spider-Man: No Way Home

So Guardians… I know I’ve seen it a bunch of times but I really didn’t remember a lot of it. I forgot that Thanos’ kids were working for the bad guy. I forgot that Thanos is actually in two scenes. I forgot the whole prison sequence. Weird.

Up next is Guardians Two. We’ve seen that one more recently. It’s not as good as the first one, but it’s still really good.

Three Movies in One Day?

Dude, you watched three Marvel movies in one day? Damn, get a life!

Here is The Great 2022 Marvel Cinematic Universe Chronological Rewatch of 2022 Update:

  • Phase One-ish
    • Captain America: The First Avenger
    • Captain Marvel
    • Iron Man
    • The Incredible Hulk
    • Iron Man 2
    • Thor
    • Marvel’s The Avengers
  • Phase Two-ish
    • Iron Man 3
    • Thor: The Dark World
    • Captain America: The Winter Soldier
    • Guardians of the Galaxy
    • Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2
    • Avengers: Age of Ultron
    • Ant-Man
  • Phase Three-ish
    • Captain America: Civil War
    • Black Widow
    • Spider-Man: Homecoming
    • Black Panther
    • Doctor Strange
    • Thor: Ragnarok
    • Ant-Man and the Wasp
    • Avengers: Infinity War
    • Avengers: Endgame
    • Spider-Man: Far From Home
  • Phase four-ish
    • Eternals
    • Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings
    • Spider-Man: No Way Home

I started Iron Man 3 last night before bed but didn’t get far. I finished it this morning while farting around on my computer. I went straight into Thor 2 and watched that while doing some errands around the house. I finished it around lunch time and then spent the next nine hours or so just hanging around with my lady, which was pretty wonderful. I was a little worried that those two less than spectacular movies would take me out of this whole Marvel mood, but I just needed a little break.

Tonight when bed time came around I picked off the next movie in line, Captain America: The Winter Soldier and ushered in the golden age of Marvel flicks. Winter Soldier might be my favorite of them all, not counting Infinity War and Endgame which just raised the bar so freakin’ high nothing is ever going to reach them. From here on though there are no bad movies. Age of Ultron might be the only one that doesn’t really cut it, but even that is awesome. We don’t get a less than awesome movie until Eternals, and even that is still pretty good.

The chronological order I’m working off of has the two Guardians movies next. Both excellent. Both really different. Are we sure they go back to back in the time line? Who knows. I’m just doing what that one website told me to do. I’m not putting that much thought into any of this.

Seven Down, 20 to Go

Here is The Great 2022 Marvel Cinematic Universe Chronological Rewatch of 2022 Update:

  • Phase One-ish
    • Captain America: The First Avenger
    • Captain Marvel
    • Iron Man
    • The Incredible Hulk
    • Iron Man 2
    • Thor
    • Marvel’s The Avengers
  • Phase Two-ish
    • Iron Man 3
    • Thor: The Dark World
    • Captain America: The Winter Soldier
    • Guardians of the Galaxy
    • Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2
    • Avengers: Age of Ultron
    • Ant-Man
  • Phase Three-ish
    • Captain America: Civil War
    • Black Widow
    • Spider-Man: Homecoming
    • Black Panther
    • Doctor Strange
    • Thor: Ragnarok
    • Ant-Man and the Wasp
    • Avengers: Infinity War
    • Avengers: Endgame
    • Spider-Man: Far From Home
  • Phase four-ish
    • Eternals
    • Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings
    • Spider-Man: No Way Home

See what I did with my movies list? I sort of split it into what the Marvel folks are calling the different phases. Whatever that means. It’s not exact because some movies happened out of chronological order. Guardians 2 is during the time of phase two but the release was in phase three. Black Widow’s release is phase four but in the time line it is phase three. It’s all meaningless, really.

I just watched The Avengers, while putting together the mangled fireplace thing. That’s the first movie on the list that I really loved. The next two on the list probably represent the low point for me. Thor, yes. Iron Man 3? Is that better than Iron Man 2? I don’t remember. Whatever, I’ve got two to get through before the movies start getting really good. From Winter Soldier on they are all pretty effin’ great… except for Eternals. That one is just okay. Whatever.

Six Down, 21 to Go

Here is The Great 2022 Marvel Cinematic Universe Chronological Rewatch of 2022 Update:

  • Captain America: The First Avenger
  • Captain Marvel
  • Iron Man
  • The Incredible Hulk
  • Iron Man 2
  • Thor
  • Marvel’s The Avengers
  • Iron Man 3
  • Thor: The Dark World
  • Captain America: The Winter Soldier
  • Guardians of the Galaxy
  • Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2
  • Avengers: Age of Ultron
  • Ant-Man
  • Captain America: Civil War
  • Black Widow
  • Spider-Man: Homecoming
  • Black Panther
  • Doctor Strange
  • Thor: Ragnarok
  • Ant-Man and the Wasp
  • Avengers: Infinity War
  • Avengers: Endgame
  • Spider-Man: Far From Home
  • Eternals
  • Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings
  • Spider-Man: No Way Home

I started watching Thor last night before bed and I think I shut it off and went to sleep after about 20 minutes. I finished it this morning. If I were to rank these flicks from best to worst, this one would be pretty close to the bottom. I just find the whole Asgard thing to be lame. Ragnarok will straighten it out, but that’s still far away, chronologically.

The biggest take away from Thor, and I have probably reacted in shock every time I’ve seen the movie and then completely forgot about it, is that it was Directed By Kenneth Branagh! Gildoroy Lockheart himself! My favorite Kenneth Branagh moment was actually my first Kenneth Branagh moment. It was during the period where I was working nights in Boston back in the early 90’s, I think. It was probably 3-4:00am or something and I just couldn’t bring myself to sleep. I was flipping through the channels and hit Henry V on some movie channel. I had never seen the play, never read the play, didn’t know anything about it at all, but there was King Henry giving a speech to rally the troops before a battle and for the first time ever Shakespeare and I connected. I don’t know if it was lack of sleep or somehow being open to suggestion or what, but as I listened to Ken Branagh playing (and also directing) Henry, I was 100% ready to invade France. It was crazy.

And that, is my thoughts on Thor.

Up next is The Avengers. I am going to be putting together a fireplace insert in a few minutes. That will happen in the living room. That means the living room TV will be playing The Avengers while I work.

Another Marvel Flick Down

Here is The Great 2022 Marvel Cinematic Universe Chronological Rewatch of 2022 Update:

  • Captain America: The First Avenger
  • Captain Marvel
  • Iron Man
  • The Incredible Hulk
  • Iron Man 2
  • Thor
  • Marvel’s The Avengers
  • Iron Man 3
  • Thor: The Dark World
  • Captain America: The Winter Soldier
  • Guardians of the Galaxy
  • Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2
  • Avengers: Age of Ultron
  • Ant-Man
  • Captain America: Civil War
  • Black Widow
  • Spider-Man: Homecoming
  • Black Panther
  • Doctor Strange
  • Thor: Ragnarok
  • Ant-Man and the Wasp
  • Avengers: Infinity War
  • Avengers: Endgame
  • Spider-Man: Far From Home
  • Eternals
  • Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings
  • Spider-Man: No Way Home

I know I had seen Iron Man 2 before, but I didn’t remember most of it. It was okay. It ended with a suitable bang. A lot of it was on the boring side though. Not bad, just not great. I think I had a hard time accepting Mickey Rourke. I mean… it’s Mickey Rourke.

What I don’t recall from my one previous viewing was all of the references to Thor. I figured there would be an end credit thing, but Coulson shows up in the middle of the movie out of nowhere and tells Stark he’s going to New Mexico. That had nothing to do with Iron Man 2 and is just a nod toward Thor. Weird. Fury mentions it too during the donut shop scene.

Next up is the aforementioned Thor. I don’t mind Thor as a character, and I don’t mind the human gang he runs around with, but most of the Asgardian stuff feels a little snooze-festy to me. After that it ramps up big time with The Avengers and then snooze-fests again with Iron Man 3 and Thor 2. That’s okay. I can make it through. Just watch me.

Hulk Smash

So that MCU rewatch thingie… want an update? No? Sorry, you’re getting one anyway.

Here is The Great 2022 Marvel Cinematic Universe Chronological Rewatch of 2022 Update:

  • Captain America: The First Avenger
  • Captain Marvel
  • Iron Man
  • The Incredible Hulk
  • Iron Man 2
  • Thor
  • Marvel’s The Avengers
  • Iron Man 3
  • Thor: The Dark World
  • Captain America: The Winter Soldier
  • Guardians of the Galaxy
  • Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2
  • Avengers: Age of Ultron
  • Ant-Man
  • Captain America: Civil War
  • Black Widow
  • Spider-Man: Homecoming
  • Black Panther
  • Doctor Strange
  • Thor: Ragnarok
  • Ant-Man and the Wasp
  • Avengers: Infinity War
  • Avengers: Endgame
  • Spider-Man: Far From Home
  • Eternals
  • Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings
  • Spider-Man: No Way Home

So I watched The Incredible Hulk today. Like I mentioned before, most people don’t like that movie, but I do. Remember that Eric Bana played Bruce Banner in the first Hulk movie. Mark Ruffalo plays him in the Avengers movies. They are both great and I will never say a bad word about either of them… but to my untrained eye, Edward Norton just blows them both out of the water as far as acting goes. Yes, I may be basing that on American History X and Fight Club more than on playing Bruce Banner, but really… it’s Edward freakin’ Norton. That guy could probably play a dust bunny and make it absolutely riveting.

Up next is Iron Man 2, and then Thor. Thor was the MCU character that interested me the least. Then they made Ragnarok. Then they made him fat. Now he’s awesome. What I didn’t know was that the comics that Incredible Hulk, Iron Man 2, and Thor were based on (in part, at least?) were from the same series, and they all take place within a few days of each other. I learned that when the What If? show referenced all three of them in the same episode. How cool is that?

Okay. I am finishing packing up for the drive to work tomorrow, then I want to try and watch MoonKight episode two. Looks like I am going to be awake until after midnight again. I really have to stop doing this crap this late at night.

The Last of the Paneling

The contractor is here. He’s been here for a couple of hours or so. He took down the last of the kitchen/dining room paneling today and it is everything I dreamed it would be. There is still paneling in the hallway, but I don’t eat in the hallway (or to put it the way Connor McCleod of the Clan McCleod did, I don’t dine in the hall*). The end of the paneling will be a day long remembered (It has seen the end of Kenobi, and will soon see the end of the rebellion**).

The contractor is subcontracting one item on the to-do list out to someone else. That someone else is coming tomorrow at…

…wait for it…

7:30am.

Yeah, that’s going to suck out loud.

Totally worth it though.

*Highlander reference, of course. They had the French guy play the Scottish guy and the Scottish guy play the Egyptian via Spain guy. Fucking brilliant.

**Star Wars quote, of course. Most things in my tiny little brain are revolving around Obi-Wan Kenobi these days and they will until we get the full Disney+ series. The few things in my tiny little brain that are not revolving around the imminent release of Kenobi are revolving around Star Trek Picard. Oh, how yesterday’s enterprise***.

***Star Trek Picard quote that is a call back to the title of a Star Trek the Next Generation episode. A killer episode at that. Welcome to the 21st century, Q.