What Movie Did You Just Watch

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

I actually really liked it, myself, but I can understand the issues that many others have with it. It's a character study more than it is a traditional plot-driven movie, which is why there basically is no plot until the last couple of scenes.

As for the ending, I actually didn't find it that surprising. I've seen enough Tarantino movies to know his habits and tendencies, and in particular if you've seen Inglorious Basterds and Django Unchained, you'll have a good idea of how that final encounter will shake out.

[Mustang]

I finally got to watch Avengers Endgame. Boy, wow, I don't want to go into too much about it, and maybe this is because I just finished watching it as I'm typing this out, but this might be my favorite superhero movie of all time (I had Dark Knight as my #2 favorite movie behind Pulp Fiction, and Endgame might get that #2 spot). I'll re-watch it again maybe in about a week or 2 just to be sure.

I'm not an emotional guy at all, but, almost got me tearing up.

Spoiler

Robert Downey Jr made me like Ironman. Ironman is probably 1a or 1b to Superman. I was aware of him dying, I just didn't know how he died, so just going through the journey with Ironman hit me in the feels a little bit.

[close]

I don't know the deal about this Brie Larson lady, but the little bits that she showed up for I had no problem with.

I'll end it here with this; THAT DAMN THANOS is so good.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

Endgame was a really good event film. It's been a while since a big commercial live-action movie could hit me on such a strong mix of emotional levels, and the performances from all of the actors for the core original Avengers were spot on. It's one of those things where I have to kind of point to it when people accuse the MCU of being a big machine-produced soulless cash-grab franchise and ask: "What movie were you watching?"

Also, for as much flak as MCU movies get for relatively forgettable scores (this is kind of a fair point on the whole), Alan Silvestri's soundtrack is fucking peak composing skill and I'll take no arguments otherwise. As far as I'm concerned the scores for Infinity War and Endgame are on par with any Star Wars movie.

That said, for everything that I loved about it, I'd be lying if I said it was my favorite MCU movie. I think I ranked it at #6 and I definitely stick by that ranking. It's great, but as an overall experience I do still prefer Infinity War which was much tighter paced. My top favorite MCU films above that one still tend to be the smaller, more personal stories in-between the big crossover blockbusters.

Still, this was a pretty great end to this particular era of Marvel movies. If I'm being honest I doubt even with Feige still on board that this franchise will ever quite reach the same heights again. It's actually probably for the best that it doesn't try to and instead maybe tries a few weirder, more experimental projects in the mix. I'm not saying that it has to go full on Legion here, but something tonally out of the scope of what we've become so used to within the MCU up to this point.

[Dr. Insomniac]

Also, for as much flak as MCU movies get for relatively forgettable scores (this is kind of a fair point on the whole), Alan Silvestri's soundtrack is fucking peak composing skill and I'll take no arguments otherwise. As far as I'm concerned the scores for Infinity War and Endgame are on par with any Star Wars movie.

Yeah, I was indifferent to plenty of the soundtracks for MCU movies outside of Thor Ragnarok's, and that's only because of all the licensed songs, but they hit it out of the park for Endgame's music.

I'm not saying that it has to go full on Legion here,

Still holding out hope Feige will greenlight Noah Hawley's Doctor Doom script.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

The vibe that I'm getting is that the Disney+ shows will be allowed to be more weird and experimental (WandaVision, for example, looks like it'll be bonkers), whereas the movies will probably still remain as the safer bets. Still holding out hope for In the Multiverse of Madness to be proper comic book levels of fucking absurdity, though.

As far as MCU music goes, I have a soft spot for Iron Man 1's soundtrack as it has a very unique vibe to it that perfectly fits that movie's tone and the character, sounding nothing like what you would typically expect a superhero theme to sound like. It's not something that I'd listen to on it's own, but it works really well in the context of the movie.

Also I think Captain America: The First Avenger has a great fucking soundtrack, and I'll defend that opinion to my grave. It's also composed by Alan Silvestri, which is why you hear quite a few beats of it reprised and modified to be integrated into Endgame's score. In particular that rendition he played when Steve passes the shield onto Sam really raises the entire emotional payoff of that scene. It was kind of a shame to lose him for the sequels, but I can kind of understand why since The First Avenger soundtrack didn't fit with the very big tonal shift that The Winter Soldier and Civil War took.

Oh, and Ant-Man's main theme music is actually quite good, but unfortunately doesn't have a particularly memorable set of movies to be attached to. Black Panther also had some pretty rad tunes, but I wouldn't exactly call it Oscar-worthy, myself. Aside from those examples, though, the MCU has definitely been lacking in anything substantial in it's film scores.

As for licensed music, Ragnarok and the Guarduans of the Galaxy movies are the only two examples of MCU movies which I feel use it well to service the story and/or tone of any given scene of the movie in particular. Most other Marvel movies just feel like they randomly insert popular songs in random spots just for a cheap "Hey, remember when this was popular?" reference.

[Foggle]

Also I think Captain America: The First Avenger has a great fucking soundtrack, and I'll defend that opinion to my grave.

The Star-Spangled Man is great. I know it's intended to parody pro-war tunes from that era (which it does well), but I just love that Captain America has a proper vocal theme song.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

Any song featuring a montage of punching out Hitler over and over again is A+ material in my book.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

So, I know the reviews are apparently mixed on this one, but personally I really liked It: Chapter Two. I'm in a position where I haven't found this story to be scary at all for a long time, now, but to me it's a character study first about coming of age that happens to have horror elements. Much like an actual Stephen King novel, horror is actually only a secondary element at best used to explore character and narrative themes.

The cast in this movie is pretty fucking great, and there's a lot of great visual direction, especially with the brilliant scene transitions and expert use of imagery to create clever motifs. I personally didn't feel the length of this one like others did, and am quite happy with many of it's story-telling decisions. I might change my mind and find more flaws on a re-watch, but the fact that I even do really want to watch it again is a pretty promising sign of my feelings about it. I think I'm personally going to have to disagree with the majority on this one.

[Mustang]

I watched Avengers Endgame again and, yeah, I was definitely in the moment with the movie when I said it might've been better than Dark Knight. 2nd time viewing it I noticed a lot of it could've been trimmed, but overall it was still a good movie. Infinity War is probably the better of the 2, but I think I like Endgame more because it had a lot of moments that just got reactions out of me. I did almost tear up again btw.

Next up, John Wick 3 when I buy it.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

So, while I don't think that this movie was in any way necessary, for what it's worth I did really like El Camino. I don't think that it's quite on par with Breaking Bad or Better Call Saul at their best, but it's easily better than just about any other straight-to-streaming movie that I've seen.

[Dr. Insomniac]

I thought Todd was the MVP of the movie. The show already did a good job highlighting his psyche, but El Camino reiterated how abnormal he is. Like the way he kills his own maid just because she accidentally found his stash of money, but then gets mad at Jesse for asking if she stole from him and trying to give her a decent burial. Or how he's just unable to understand why Jesse wouldn't want to be friends with him. He thinks offering Jesse pepperoni pizza will calm his nerves, even though the flashback takes place after he shot Andrea in front of him. At least with the Salamancas, you know where you stand with them. But with Todd, it's not like he's sadistic or anything. This wasn't a Ramsay/Reek situation. He legitimately doesn't know what he does to Jesse is evil, and thinks locking him up in a cage is no different than letting him crash on his couch. He's just a jovial guy next door who happens to murder innocent people if they get in his way.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

It also somehow manages to make Jesse strangling him to death at the end of Breaking Bad retroactively even more satisfying.

On another note, one little trope that Vince Gilligan brought back from Breaking Bad was the bad guys somehow letting their sense of pride or at least hubris lead them into making a dumb decision that ultimately benefited the protagonist. To an extent I was alright with it in Breaking Bad since characters like Gus or Jack were established that way and thematically played into Walt's character arc. In Gus's case his cockiness in wanting to keep Hector Salamanca alive to torment him gave Walt the means to take him out. Likewise, with Jack, the whole point was how Walt exploited the same kind of pride that lead to his own downfall in the first place. He got him to hold off on killing him to prove a point which gave Walt the opportunity to turn the tables.

Jesse, though, is not that kind of character. If anything the movie did a good job of showing how Mike's character rubbed off on him more than Walt, and he tended to be a lot less gung-ho than his former partner. So it kind of strikes me as a bit too oddly convenient that the climax of the movie worked out completely in his favor. The guy challenging him to a duel was just a random situation that he couldn't possibly predict, yet he was perfectly equipped for that situation. But what would he have done in the very reasonable alternate situation that they just started shooting him as soon as he appeared? Or what if they had more guys that he didn't know about? The whole scene just felt way too contrived, as cool as it was.

Don't get me wrong, it's not like it ruins the movie for me, but it does feel like a bit of a copout, IMO.

[Avaitor]

El Camino was pretty good. At first, I wasn't sure, since the thing about Breaking Bad is that everything that takes place on the show is about Walt. The rest of the cast, as strong as they are, primarily function to serve his story. It's not a bad thing. especially since it seems like TV is currently more interested in smaller scale stories like that, rather than ensembles like Mad Men, Lost, or Game of Thrones, and it's fair to say that BB was a big reason for that shift. So yeah, taking the focus to another character, even a major one like Jesse, could be tricky. Although Better Call Saul has proven itself to be worthy, even if it took me a couple of seasons to really fall for it.

This just proves that I shouldn't doubt Vince Gilligan, even if it wasn't perfect. The pacing wasn't as tight as either show's, and it's not as dynamic as BB at its best. But I wasn't coming in for a flawless cinematic masterpiece- I wanted to see a decently satisfying coda for one of my favorite Breaking Bad characters, and I got it. I especially appreciate how tasteful the film was with its cameos, only focusing on the ones who'd make the most sense. As much as I'd like to have seen a bit with Hank and the Whites, they don't figure into his story the way Walt, Mike, or Jane do. And damn, Badger and Skinny Pete are friendship goals.

[Dr. Insomniac]

It's not a bad thing. especially since it seems like TV is currently more interested in smaller scale stories like that, rather than ensembles like Mad Men, Lost, or Game of Thrones, and it's fair to say that BB was a big reason for that shift.

I'm not sure if I see TV going that way. There are still plenty of sociological dramas than psychological ones on TV all the time like Fargo, Chernobyl, and Watchmen. I haven't noticed a big enough shift in prestige dramas that focus more on the individual than the society they live in. Even Better Call Saul founds it stride when it spent less time on Jimmy and more on making Mike, Gus, and Nacho protagonists.

[Avaitor]

It's not a bad thing. especially since it seems like TV is currently more interested in smaller scale stories like that, rather than ensembles like Mad Men, Lost, or Game of Thrones, and it's fair to say that BB was a big reason for that shift.

I'm not sure if I see TV going that way. There are still plenty of sociological dramas than psychological ones on TV all the time like Fargo, Chernobyl, and Watchmen. I haven't noticed a big enough shift in prestige dramas that focus more on the individual than the society they live in. Even Better Call Saul founds it stride when it spent less time on Jimmy and more on making Mike, Gus, and Nacho protagonists.

You know, in hindsight, I think you're right. I feel like it's more of a dramedy thing to be one-sided in your attention, such as with Fleabag and Russian Doll. But even that isn't 100%, since Atlanta isn't the Donald Glover show, even though it could easily be.

In some ways though, I do see Breaking Bad still being the show of the era, give or take Game of Thrones as well.