Brief thoughts on my Marvel movie marathon.

So because of my absolute love of the D+ show Loki, I’ve decided to catch up on the Marvel Universe and watch all the movies. I initially watched the movies with Loki in them (the three Thor movies, and 3 of the Avenger movies) but because the show Loki has consequences for Marvel movies moving forward (and assuming I’d want to watch them) it was time to play catch up on everybody that came before.

Using the D+ list of Marvel phases 1-4, I began. Here’s a few lines on what I though of each movie.

Iron Man. Very cool. Tony Stark is annoying at first, but he grows on you.

Iron Man 2. Kind of boring, actually.

Thor. Absolutely loved. I’m more into mythological magic users than superheroes, so this made me happy.

Captain America: The First Avenger. Steve Rogers is such a good guy. But I wonder if Agent Carter would have fallen in love with Skinny Steve Rogers, lol. Kidding, I know she liked him. Loved seeing Hugo Weaving.

Avengers. Fabulous. Loki is so wonderfully evil in this one. And it’s this Loki that ends up at the TVA.

Iron Man 3. Better than 2. I love that Pepper gets to kick some ass at the end. And I love Guy Pearce.

Thor: The Dark World. This one’s great, too. Loki’s reaction to Frigga’s death is heartbreaking.

Captain America: The Winter Soldier. Also kind of boring. SHIELD is compromised by HYDRA, yada yada. I like what they’re doing with Bucky, though.

Guardians of the Galaxy. This one was goofy and fun. Kind of a breath of fresh air after all the (sometimes boring) earth stuff. Good soundtrack.

Avengers: Age of Ultron. This one was pretty good. The Romanov/Banner romance kind of came out of left field, but it’s sweet. Vision and Wanda intrigue me.

Ant-Man. This one was really fun, too. I REALLY don’t like insects, but the ants in this were kind of cute. Kind of.

Captain America: Civil War. This one was actually quite good. Seeing the Avengers turn on each other is painful. I loved Daniel Bruhl in The Alienist series, and he’s a good villain here. I think there’s more of him in The Falcon and the Winter Soldier.

Doctor Strange. OMG, I absolutely LOVED Dr. Strange. The mystical magic users are more up my alley (which is probably why I like the Jedi so much). I can’t wait to see more of Dr. Strange, most likely in connection to the events of the Loki series (I think??).

Guardians of the Galaxy: Vol. 2. Another fun ride, another great soundtrack. Baby Groot is probably the cutest thing pre-Grogu.

Thor: Ragnarok. My absolute favorite Thor movie. The relationship between Thor and Loki is wonderful here. And it’s really funny. Jeff Goldblum almost steals the show.

Black Panther. Perfection. That is all. Except “Wakanda Forever!”

Avengers: Infinity War. Loki’s death in the first ten minutes of this movie is very, very painful to watch. But knowing he went out a hero in trying to kill Thanos is poignant. This movie is really when shit gets real, and what all the movies that came before were leading up to. And I love how Thor calls Rocket “Rabbit.”

Ant-Man and Wasp. I really like Scott Lange. I think he’s the only (sort of) Avenger with a child (until Tony has Morgan later). He’s funny and down-to-earth and a little star-struck by the Avengers, and I think the audience can really relate to him. And Paul Rudd is the perfect actor to play him.

Captain Marvel. This one was fine. At first, I felt like it didn’t have much to do with, well, anything. The Cree and all that, but honestly, who cares? But then Nick Fury and Agent Coulson came along, and that was neat, I guess. I loved the cat Goose, or whatever it was, lol. Oh, and Ben Mendelsohn. He’s great.

Avengers: Endgame. Truly epic. I gotta admit, I got a little weepy this second time around when Tony dies at the end. Leaves me with a couple of questions: where’s Gomorrah? How did she just disappear from the battle? Guessing Guardians of the Galaxy 3 will find Quill looking for her. And I love that Thor’s with them, but what does that mean for Thor: Love and Thunder? I know that Jane Foster will become The Mighty Thor, but where does that leave our Thor? And what about Mjolnir? Cap brought it with him back to the past when he brought the Infinity stones back, but he only brought his shield back for Sam. Where’s the hammer? And Loki–well, we know what happened to Loki, lol.

Wandavision. At first I thought, What the hell am I watching? Lol. I figured it would make sense eventually. Pretty entertaining. But what happened to White Vision? Hoping he shows up somewhere in future content.

The Falcon and the Winter Soldier. For the first few episodes, this one was a little dull for me, but it got really good towards the end, even quite moving. It was obvious Steve wanted Sam to be the new Captain America, but I guess he had to get there on his own. I was mostly there for Bucky and Zemo, though, lol.

Loki. The show that started this madness for me, lol. I love the direction Loki’s character is going here. Simply wonderful, and psyched there’s a Season Two. And we’ll probably see Loki in some future movies, and I’m so there for that.

Black Widow. I probably won’t see this one until it’s removed from Premiere access, but that’s okay. She’s a cool character, but not at the top of my list.

So I don’t see any Hulk or Spiderman movies on D+ (who knows why, probably licensing stuff), so I may have to look elsewhere for those, and I’m not really sure where they fall in the timeline, but whatever.

I really thought Star Wars was complicated and comprehensive (and if you include the books, it is), but cinematically, Marvel takes the cake. It’s really incredibly ambitious, and I never knew how interconnected it all was. In the past, I’d see previews for yet another comic book movie, and I thought, ah geez, another one? Lol. But I’ve been converted. I’ve seen the light. I’m a true believer, and can’t wait to see what Marvel has up its sleeve for the future.

Padawans, Super Soldiers, And A Russian Princess

Happy weekend, my Star Wars friends!

I thought I’d change the title of these weekend updates and make them more tuned to what each post is about.

So I’ve gotten a few chapters into Out of the Shadows, by Justina Ireland, and I’m pretty sure I’m going to like this book. I’ve heard a few complaints about it, that it’s more talky and slow than previous books, but that’s okay by me. Between Star Wars and Marvel, I think I’ve had enough explosions and battles to last me several lifetimes, lol. This one focuses on the Padawans and younger Jedi, like Vernestra Rwoh, Reath Silas, and Imri Cantaros. I’m a big fan of Reath ever since Into the Dark by Claudia Gray. He’s a bookish type, more into research and scholarship than the whole Jedi adventuring thing, and I can relate to that, lol.

On Kindle, I’m still working on Freefall, about a young Poe Dameron, but it’s recently taken a back seat to a non-Star Wars book called I Was Anastasia, by Ariel Lawhon. For the past few years, my sister and niece and I have done a little book club together, on and off throughout the year, and after some time off, we just started up again. The book we chose was this one about Anna Anderson, the woman who had claimed to be Anastasia Romanov, the supposed only survivor of the slaughter of the Romanov family during the Russian Revolution. I’ve always been fascinated by the subject, and probably saw a movie or two back in the day about it, but I don’t quite remember all the details. I think it was fairly recently established that she was NOT Anastasia, but again, I’m not sure. Even if that’s true, people still want to believe, I think. It’s a tragic, sensational story, and people respond to that. It’s in novel form, so it’s “fiction,” but I’m sure the author has done her research. Really intriguing.

The Bad Batch penultimate Season One episode, “Return to Kaminoa,” is what I’ve been waiting for this show to do for a while now: go back to compelling story-telling. I won’t go into spoilers in case you haven’t seen it yet, but this Season Finale Part 1 is fantastic, and I can’t wait to see what happens in Part 2.

On the Marvel front, I’m a few episodes into The Falcon and the Winter Soldier. Admittedly, I’m not as invested in this one, although I think the character of Bucky Barnes is interesting. And the return of Zemo is great. But after the quirkiness of Wandavison, and the sheer enjoyability of Loki, this one’s a bit dull, lol. But I’ll soldier through, and then rewatch Loki, of course. And then I’m done with the Marvel universe (unless I look around for Hulk and/or Spiderman movies, which I may or may not do). I may catch Black Widow in the theater next week. There’s a few Marvel movies coming out later this year, like The Eternals, but I have no idea what it’s about, lol, or if it’s connected at all with what I’ve been watching. Oh, and the Shang-Chi guy. I can’t keep track, lol. What I’m waiting for are the next Dr. Strange and Thor movies, and I think another Wakanda movie is coming out next year. So I’ll stay tuned.

That’s about it for entertainment. My family and I still haven’t done half the summer stuff we wanted to do this year yet, but next week is our 23rd wedding anniversary and I took the week off from work, so maybe we’ll get some fun stuff in. We’ve been talking about ziplining, so maybe we’ll actually get to that! I’ll let you know next week. See you then!

My Star Wars Weekend Update

Happy weekend my Star Wars friends!

I don’t have much to report on the Star Wars front at the moment. I’m still slogging through The Rising Storm. I’ve gotten to the more exciting part, but for some reason I’m just not feeling it. Maybe it’s me; I’ve been distracted by other things. I still love these characters, especially Elzar Mann and Stellan Gios. Just because I don’t speed through a book doesn’t mean I don’t like it. I’m hoping to get through it by next week, in time for the next YA novel, Out of the Shadows. And I still plan on doing review posts for the books I read.

On Kindle, I’ve been reading Freefall, a YA novel by Alex Segura, about 16-year-old Poe Dameron. It mostly tells the tale of how he spent time with the Spice Runners of Kajimi, and met Zorri Bliss, events alluded to in The Rise of Skywalker. I’m enjoying it so far.

The Bad Batch continues to be fine, but I feel like it’s getting a bit soggy in the middle. It started off so strong, but lately it’s just been ho-hum. The latest episode, Infested, was fine. Cid is starting to grow on me, and she’s certainly not the worst of the dredge out there. And she’s got a soft spot for Omega. For all of them, really. I like her nicknames for them. I just wish, I don’t know, that the writers could tighten it up a little bit. I’d rather have 8 extraordinary episodes than 16 that are just so-so. Maybe we’re just spoiled, lol.

As you may know, it’s the Marvel universe that’s been distracting me from Star Wars lately. I’ve been doing a Marvel movie marathon for the past couple of weeks, and I’m up to Avengers: Age of Ultron. Some of these movies are great, some are just so-so, but I’m enjoying getting to know this universe and its characters. I’ve got a post I’m working on as I go along, jotting down my thoughts on each movie, and I’ll post that when I’m done (probably several weeks from now, lol.)

And by the way, on Disney+ there is a “Making Of Loki” special that just dropped, and it’s great, so if you liked the show, check it out. There’s also a making of Wandavision and The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, which I’ll watch once I’ve seen these shows. They’re under the title “Assembled.

So that’s been my week in entertainment. My family and I have been wanting to enjoy the summer, but it’s been raining so much here in New England that we haven’t even gotten to our favorite lake yet. 😦 I wish we could send some of this water out west to put out those terrible fires. Even here, across the country, our sky was hazy from the smoke blowing our way.

On a more fun note, and just because he’s cute, here’s a pic of our kitten Cosmo:

May be an image of cat, laptop and indoor — Couldn’t drink my coffee for a while, lol. That’s my favorite Barnes and Noble mug, btw; it’s got famous classic authors on it.

What have you been up to? Let me know in the comments, and we’ll talk about it!

And now for something completely different.

So I haven’t posted my usual array of blog posts this week, and the reason is simply this: I’ve been using my blogging time to watch Marvel movies, lol.

I started watching the Disney+ show Loki, because I watched the second Thor movie years ago simply on a whim, and the thing I loved most about the movie was the character Loki. I didn’t follow up by watching more Marvel movies, however, because I just wasn’t interested enough.

But when Loki premiered on D+, I knew I wanted to check it out. I’ve watched the first two episodes, and despite not really knowing a thing about Marvel stories or characters, I love it. You don’t really have to; in a way, it’s like The Mandalorian, where a casual fan can just start watching and enjoy it for what it is. But it IS better appreciated if you know a bit more about the Star Wars universe, especially in the second season when all those cameos from other SW content showed up. I figured that would probably happen with Loki, so I decided it might be time to catch up.

I really only wanted to watch the movies with Loki in it, so I began with the three Thor movies. I know there are Avenger movies in between, but that didn’t concern me too much. I finished those, and now I’m halfway into the first Avenger movie.

I have to admit, these movies are super fun. In Thor: Ragnarok, when Led Zeppelin’s “Immigrant Song” busted out at the beginning, and again when they faced Hela on Asgard, I just laughed and clapped with delight, it was so awesome.

Despite all the cool heroes in the series, I still feel that Loki is the most interesting character. The “villain” often is, simply because of their complex psychology. What makes them bad? After watching a few of the movies, I think Loki is just a little boy who wants love and attention, lol. Mobius called it by claiming he was a “scared little boy.” But he just can’t help being bad. He is, after all, the god of mischief, the trickster. He covers his pain in humor. He’s so likable in so many ways, it breaks your heart when he betrays someone.

When I watched the first Thor movie, I thought ugh, Thor is such a jerk. Lol. But he grows throughout the movie, and also throughout the series of movies. Loki never changes, really.

But the show, I think, will really start to dig into his psyche, and we’ll see if he’s capable of change. But do we really want him to change?

So I just thought I’d let you know what’s been going on in my entertainment world. I’ll be back to writing Star Wars probably next week. Don’t worry, Star Wars will always be my first love. But here’s Loki with lightsabers for your viewing pleasure:

Have you watched Loki? What do you think of the show? Let me know in the comments, and we’ll talk about it!