The trailer for the highly anticipated Avengers 3, known as Marvel’s “Avengers: Infinity War,” was released today on “Good Morning America” after fans have been impatiently demanding footage. This is the first anyone outside of Comic Con and D23 has seen of the new movie, aside from the many leaks of that footage, and fans were ecstatic. The new trailer starts off with a voice over from Nick Fury, Iron Man, Thor, Black Widow, and Thanos and we are quickly caught up to where the Avengers are presently at, including some interesting shots of Vision in human form. Then, Thanos is quickly attacking Manhattan and there’s a slew of great moments in the first minute of the trailer, including Peter Parker’s spider-sense, a team up between the Hulk, Doctor Strange, and Iron Man, and we see Loki giving the Tesseract to Thanos amidst an onslaught of dead bodies. We also see some action between the Black order, Wakanda, and Captain America. The trailer then shows the title screen while playing the iconic Avenger’s theme from the first film. It’s followed by a quick shot of Thor meeting the Guardians of the Galaxy. The trailer had been rumored to premiere in early December with “The Last Jedi” and after a mysterious countdown on the Russo Brothers twitter account, fans were eager to learn that the trailer was premiering so soon. The next movie on Marvel’s plate, after a successful few weeks of “Thor: Ragnarok,” is “Black Panther.” Avengers infinity war is directed by the Russo brothers and will be the 19th film in the MCU released on May 4, 2018.
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On November 24 Katy Perry brought her Witness Word Tour to Salt Lake City where I was privileged enough to see her perform a high-energy show. Her stage, shaped like a crying eye, lit up in every color and the lights followed Perry from every corner as she danced and sang her heart out. The iris of the eye opened up at multiple times during the show revealing props and costumes for each set. Whether it was a pair of giant lips during “I Kissed A Girl” or giant stilt-like men with tv heads during “Chained to the Rhythm,”” there was always something spectacular to look at while Katy Perry performed. One of the coolest moments of the show was Perry sitting on a replica of the planet Saturn while playing guitar and the planet was floating above the audience. Song after song Perry performed with such agility, acuteness and grace, never missing a beat. She continuously played with the audience and pandered to their excitement. It was a pleasure to see the concert in person. Disney and Pixar have always been known for bringing animated characters to life with a compelling story that will tug at your heart-strings. This year’s “Coco” is no exception as it is set in Mexico on the Day of the Dead when relatives in the afterlife can visit their living family members. The main character, Miguel, defies his families ban on music only to be taken to the Land of the Dead where he will discover the truth about his lineage and himself along the way. “Coco” is fun and imaginative and one of the best films of 2017. The main them of families being forever through the memories you pass down to your children and their children rings true to everyone in the audience. If one is forgotten in life, there is no afterlife to live, the film teaches. Exploring themes such as culture, family, afterlife, and music, and much like "Moana" exploring Polynesian culture last year, "Coco" introduces it's audience to Hispanic culture and "Day of the Dead." However, this story isn't anything like the white-washed "Book of Life" from a few years back, this has a true spirit and an all-star Latino cast much of which is stemming from the cast of "Jane the Virgin." By the end I was in tears and throughout I enjoyed the laughs and squels of the little Spanish girl in the seat behind me who told her mom that she loved the movie. This is for her and all the others who deserve to see themselves on the screen. Media and representation matters. Family is important and you don't have to love them or forgive them, but you can't forget them. The only way I could enjoy the film more is if I was bilingual. The plot was predictable to me but still moved me. Occasionally I leaned over to Ross and translated choncla and chorizo and other words I knew but I wish I could have been moved in two languages. I highly recommend everyone go out and see "Coco" this weekend to show that movies with strong cultures and strong plots deserve to succeed. Also, "Olaf's Frozen Adventure" was great too! Hulu’s “Runaways” premiered with three hour-long episodes today kicking off a 10-episode season that depicts the events after a group of teenagers discover that they have powers and their parents are part of an evil cult. “Runaways” has been in development since late 2008, just as long as the Marvel Cinematic Universe has existed, and was originally going to be a movie until it was shelved due to the success of the Avengers franchise. In 2016 Hulu began production on the series which stays true to its comics origin. Nico, Gert, Molly, and more are all present in this modern telling of the early 2000 Brian Bendis comic. The plot is dramatic and fun, the characters are relatable and complex, and the special effects are better than every other superhero show on television, aside from Fox’s “Gifted.” Runaways is an instant hit and is reminiscent of the O.C. if the characters had powers. “Justice League” is DC comics 5th attempt at strengthening its cinematic universe but aside from the summer’s critically acclaimed “Wonder Woman,” every film has been met with mixed reviews. The third film directed by Zack Snyder after “Man of Steel” and “Batman Vs Superman: Dawn of Justice,” “Justice League” has a few glaring issues right off the bat, one being that it noticeably ignores the plot of last years “BVS” by making everyone mourn Superman’s death as if they loved him when he was alive.
This is the motivation for the creation of a team of superheroes (or metahumans) lead by Batman (in reality, lead by Wonder Woman) and introduces three new heroes, Aquaman, The Flash, and Cyborg, which we are expected to care about even though they have literally only been on the screen for 20 minutes and we only know them from the comics. In other words, it’s fan-service. We are then introduced to the main villain, Steppenwolf, who we are also supposed to fear even though we just learned everything about his last defeat five minutes ago. Basically, the biggest mistake made is trying to create an entire universe with nostalgia and a bunch of cramming. We know Batman and Superman. We’ve had decent movies featuring them. We even love Wonder Woman in a short time, but fans shouldn’t be expected to instantly like three new portrayals of characters in less time than the last “Justice League trailer.” Which also, most of the stuff from the trailer didn’t end up in the film, so it’s like “Suicide Squad” all over again. “Justice League” is fun to watch and just like “Thor: Ragnarok” or any other superhero movies, it’s enjoyable, but nothing more. Taika Waititi is known for bringing a very generic yet loud sense of humor to every film that he directs. Marvel’s latest box office hit “Thor: Ragnarok” is no exception. Starting off the film with Thor dangling from a chain and giving one of the most generic monologues in the history of monologues, this film establishes itself to be nothing we haven’t seen before.
It wasn’t common for the Thor films to have much comedy back in 2013 when Thor 2 was in theatres. In fact, when I saw that film in theatres I started to doze off. Ask me today and I probably still couldn’t tell one much about the elves and the ether that were established in the film. However, “Ragnarok” is the funnier, younger sibling to the phase one movies of Marvel past and riding on the success of Guardians of the Galaxy Volume 1 and 2, it’s safe to say that Waititi was brought onto the film to amp up the comedy to Star-Lord levels, making the third installment of the Thor franchise more memorable than the last two installments. The plot is simple even though at this point in the Marvel Cinematic Universe there is so much going on and so many details crammed into each movie, it feels like a lot is happening. Two years after the events of “Age of Ultron” we meet up again with Thor who has been searching the galaxy for the Infinity Stones, but having no luck. We see him captured by Surtur, a fire demon, and the opening pulls a trick from James Gunn’s hat by having the hero battle to a popular song, setting the mood for the entire film. Thor then goes to Asgard where Loki has been ruling by disguising himself as Odin. This is where the last Thor movie ended and this plotline was quickly dropped, much like the infinity stones, and were sorry excuses to say that our two main characters have been doing stuff while the Avengers have been fighting and Spider-Man replaced Thor on the team. None of it matters as we get a quick cameo from Doctor Strange and then we meet the real Odin just in time for him to tell his sons that they have a sister and then die. Quickly Hela, the fore-mentioned sister, appears and battles Loki and Thor then sending them spiraling through the universe while she takes over Asgard. Despite all of this, it is still a mere secondary plot to the “Planet Hulk”-inspired hour-long advertisement for the Marvel’s mobile game “Contest of Champions.” Thor meets up with Hulk, forms new allies, and by the end of the movie saves the day and is on a course to Earth where he will encounter Thanos with the other Avengers in May’s “Infinity War.” “Thor: Ragnarok” was entertaining to say the least and the fight scenes were a ton of fun to watch yet the villains seemed rather dull. With so much going on there wasn’t any time for Thor or the audience to really feel the scope of Hela’s wrath. Hopefully Kate Blanchett’s character will show up again in the future. Chris Hemsworth as Thor and Mark Ruffalo as the Hulk/Bruce Banner is a great team up and the film will be as successful as every other Marvel film this far. However, despite a CGI Hulk-ass and some new characters, there wasn’t much depth to the story at all and it was just pure entertainment. |
Erick L. Graham Wood
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