The Unholy Dragon

The more I think about it, the more Endgame becomes a Civil War redux to me. A thoroughly enjoyable film that coasts on great acting, character moments, and action but falls apart under any real scrutiny. Which isn't as much of a dig as it sounds like. I've watched Civil War like four times. That said, I don't think I *like* Endgame's highs as much as I do Civil War's so...

New printing coming later this year. I'm getting too old to work FCBD. My shop is a smaller one and we were still packed.

To be the first fresh video game movie on RT, obviously.

Locked in for that AB pointage. Nice.

Added! Thanks! EDIT: Edited because I typo'd the number first go, whoops.

Box Office 1) Toy Story 4 (Jun 21) 2) The Lion King (Jul 19) 3) Fast & Furious Presents: Hobbs & Shaw (Aug 2) 4) Spider-Man: Far From Home (Jul 2) 5) Aladdin (May 24) 6) The Secret Life of Pets 2 (Jun 7) 7) Men In Black International (Jun 14) ? Dark Phoenix (Jun 7) 9) Godzilla: King of the Monsters (May 31) 10) Detective Pikachu (May 10) 11) New Mutants (Aug 2) 12) Child's Play (Jun 21) 13) John Wick: Chapter 3 - Parabellum (May 17) 14) Shaft (Jun 14) 15) Long Shot (May 3) RT 1) Toy Story 4 (Jun 21) 2) Once Upon A Time In Hollywood (Jul 26) 3) Spider-Man: Far From Home (Jul 2) 4) The Lion King (Jul 19) 5) Long Shot (May 3) 6) Men In Black International (Jun 14) 7) John Wick: Chapter 3 - Parabellum (May 17) ? Detective Pikachu (May 10) 9) Aladdin (May 24) 10) Godzilla: King of the Monsters (May 31) 11) Fast & Furious Presents: Hobbs & Shaw (Aug 2) 12) Child's Play (Jun 21) 13) New Mutants (Aug 2) 14) Stuber (Jul 12) 15) Dark Phoenix (Jun 7) Tie Breaker: Toy Story 4 - $320m WOO! Thanks for running this again SKOS! SUPER PUMPED TO SEE HOW I FAIL THIS YEAR YEAH~!

Given how they've been messing around with that I have concerns with how it'll shake out as well honestly. But I may just be bitter because they cancelled my Kyle Rayner series.

It really is, though the Cap in Vietnam story it teases us with is even more interesting to me.

My favourite thing about Flashpoint is that every issue ended with Barry looking like the dumbest putz alive. The #2 cliffhanger and #3 resolution is such a hilarious 1-2 punch for it as well since it basically has no consequence anyway.

Given his age, Evan Alex was ridiculously impressive. He conveyed a lot in both roles with his face and body language in a way a lot of adult actors struggle with. If he keeps at it, he could be an all timer in the making.

He's hoping for it by end of 2019 but no fixed dates given.

Okay since this is now a spoiler thread I'm assuming spoilers are fair game. Really liked this and will probably settle to love because it's sticking with me and there's a lot there to love, but I did have a couple nagging issues which held it back from that. The big one is the whole "It's a US military experiment...somehow? For reasons?" I thought it worked way better with no outward explanation and honestly the bit where they lay it out just KILLS the suspense and momentum. I would have handled the big ending twist differently, I think. It felt pretty telegraphed and then overdone. That said, thinking back on it does recontextualize the whole film so it's hard to say it didn't work, especially since Peele was going for the Twilight Zone vibe. Everything else is gold. I love the focus on tension and long term creep factor over short term scares. The acting was off the charts great, from Lupita Nyong'o especially but Winston Duke brought it and the kids were GREAT as well. There's a lot of smart pacing notes like how the bit with their friends is handled and acts as the rug pull for the second act stuff. The coincidence stuff was great though it's disappointing it didn't go anywhere after the start. Really close to a perfect horror flick to me which is a lot of why the sticking points hit me so hard because they're all in the go-home. I'm still gonna be recommending it to friends and going to see it again though because there's a LOT there.

Last bit of DLC announced and it's SUDA51 writing a sequel to the story mode he made for the original Fire Pro in 1994. Which is...a weird story. Kind of a cool idea actually.

NEW GRENDEL COMING! Devil's Odyssey, Grendel Prime searching the stars for a new home for mankind. 8 issues. I'm pumped.

Given Liam Neeson's press presence in February this absence was probably a blessing in disguise actually.

Collette gets a lot of hype for it and deservedly so, but I think Alex Wolff deserves a ton of praise too. He doesn't get as many big scene hogging moments but his portrayal of a teenager slowly destroyed by guilt and neglect is understated in the best ways and totally brilliant.

At least a couple times. Pretty sure he beat him in Legacy and he for sure beat him just after Forever Evil even if some of their other encounters could be considered dicey.

Saw Happy Death Day the other month and followed with 2U this week. Loooooved the former, just a really great film for reasons that have been discussed ad nauseam here. 2U was not what I expected but still a great sequel idea. Could have used more horror but the character stuff was great and finding a way to put a new twist in things ruled. I did HATE that it came down to Full credit for the trailer being a complete fake out.

I really liked how Return of Wolverine #5 rolled right into Infinity Watch #1. Very cool with both dropping the same week.

Welp. Conan to lead a Savage Avengers team with Wolverine, Venom, Punisher, Elektra, and Brother Voodoo. That's...a choice. Can't wait for all this stuff to be impossible to reprint due to rights issues in another ten years or so.

I could have gone for it skipping to the part where Willow and Xander were already friends with Buffy but changes like Willow already having her college onward confidence, Anya being around already, and the first big bad reveal have me interested.

I cannot believe Tom King dug up the Protector for a random super serious appearance in Heroes in Crisis. Ridiculous in a good way.

One of the things I find really interesting about the Us trailer, following Get Out, is that Peele seems to be really emphasizing the experience of black culture interacting with white folks in America. The trailer has a family going to vacation in a rich looking cabin with what looks to be all rich white friends (their buddy got a boat) and I feel like the idea of 'other' selves could play off that. Especially since, while they say the other family is trying to kill them, the trailer has multiple instances where they could and don't. Admittedly I'm a white as hell Canadian so feel free to correct me, but this seems to lay plenty of groundwork to go as deep or deeper into racial/cultural/identity stuff as Get Out did and I'm hyped to see it then read a shitload of breakdowns after.

Two really good Aquaman details I haven't seen much talk of: 1) The writing creates a reason Arthur can't just call in Clark to roflstomp Atlantis. Sure he could do it but it wouldn't solve the underlying issues and even Superman couldn't stop a full on Atlantean invasion. They really made the problem one only Arthur could fix which I thought worked great. 2) Patrick Wilson delivers a lot of nuance as Orm. Dude is losing it over the fact that by old school Atlantean purity shit he should be the favourite son, yet his advisor, fiancee, and even his mom all clearly favour his brother and that just unravels him further. In a lot of ways he's suffered similarly to Arthur but rather than taking the lessons of those he loves, he lets each loss drive his anger and hate and becomes a worse person for it. A lot of the character stuff in this was really good.

Passes MoS and Suicide Squad. It's at $70m or so behind WW and $120m behind BvS. Domestic it's still at the lowest spot but if the drops keep small it's not inconceivable it becomes the top grossing film in the franchise overall and maybe #2 or 3 domestically. Not bad.