marvel cinematic universe

Chris Knight's avatar

I must be honest, that I’m not completely jazzed about Avengers: Doomsday.  Not like what happened the last time the Russo brothers made Marvel movies (Infinity War and Endgame).  Maybe I’m just tired of comic book movies?  Others seem to be feeling the same.  This and Dune Part Three are coming out on the same day and I know which I would get a ticket for.

What about you?  Does a new Marvel movie stoke you?

Well anyhoo, here is the first trailer for Avengers: Doomsday.

I do confess that Robert Downey Jr. playing Doctor Doom piques my curiosity.  So we’ll see.

And yes, I am aware that there is a new trailer for Dune Part Three.  But I haven’t watched it.  The first two movies were such a delight (though there was some deviation from the novel) that I want to go into this ...

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Chris Knight's avatar

Two matters have persisted in my mind during the past several months leading up to Spider-Man: Far From Home.  The first, obviously, is “How the heck does any Marvel movie follow up on the heels of Avengers: Endgame?”  Those three hours were a staggering symphony of cinema, made all the more magnificent in that they wrapped up eleven years and twenty-some movies of what had come before.  Did Disney and Sony and Marvel seriously believe that a Spider-Man movie could raise the bar on that?!


But for me, the bigger issue was this: “When the heck do we finally see Spider-Man’s little world explored and fleshed out on this canvas?”
Because Far From Home represents Tom Holland’s fifth outing as the web-slinger.  And still by the time of this latest film in the Marvel Cinematic Universe chronology we have yet to see Peter Parker’s unique and classic sphere
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Chris Knight's avatar
The first epic matchup of Saturday Night Massacres ended this past weekend.  With 62% of the vote Robin Hood decisively out-archered Katniss Everdeen for the rabbit dinner!  Not a bad way to kick off this bi-weekly battle across the multiverse.
But hot on its heels is a contest that no doubt a BUNCH of y’all out there will be wanting to cast a ballot in…
The Setting:
Big and Little Enos must get the shipment to the big rally for Zaphod Beeblebrox. Unfortunately taking Coors outside the Solar System is bootlegging and highly illegal. And Bandit’s rig is strictly two-dimensional. The Burdettes have no choice but to cut deals with two seasoned pros in the art of stellar smuggling. First to deliver their cargo of beer to Zaphod in less than 24 hours wins the cash!!
That’s right folks: Han Solo and Peter Quill are taking it to the starlanes to see who
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Chris Knight's avatar
It was a Friday afternoon in the spring of 2008.  A friend was running for state office in North Carolina and I had been serving as his campaign treasurer.  And at a rally in Chapel Hill he had been given the hearty endorsement of then-presidential candidate Ron Paul.  Meeting Dr. Paul was a great honor and I was feeling pretty good about things.  So en route back home, just on a whim I decided to take in a movie that was just released that same day.

Said movie was Iron Man (read my review here).

Ten years later, dozens of movies and many television spinoffs later (and maybe someday we’ll see those intersect with the main films… I mean how hard is it to get Peter Parker into the offices of Nelson and Murdock for legal advice?!) and what seems to me like two or three other lifetimes,
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Chris Knight's avatar

Okay, it’s not a “perfect” movie.  I for one would have appreciated more of Ultron’s legendary Oedipus complex between himself and his “father” (who in the Marvel Cinematic Universe continuity is Tony Stark).  But those little problems aside, Avengers: Age of Ultron is a gob-smockingly powerhouse of a ride comin’ at ya, and in this viewer’s opinion it’s more than the ideal movie to kick off a summer season.

So we caught it last night during its preview showings (it officially opens today).  “We” being longtime friend/artistic collaborator Melody Hallman Daniel who’s been visiting here for the past week, her service dog Sasha, and Yours Truly.  After what seemed like a dozen trailers (alas! the Star Wars: The Force Awakens trailer was not one of them, and if it had been I was going to stand up wave my hands frantically while screaming “YES YES YES!!”).  The film starts with ...

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