DAMN Good Movies -- STAR WARS: THE RISE OF SKYWALKER

It's time to take one last look...at our friends.

That's right, I'm back once again with another of my movie takes, this time on Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker, the final film in the Star Wars Skywalker Saga.  As always, if you haven't seen the movie yet and you don't want it spoiled for you, then please step back from your computer or whatever electronic device you're reading this on and stop reading now.  If, however, you're wise enough to know that movie reviews with spoilers are always more interesting than the ones without them...well...the Force will be with you...always.

After Rian Johnson's successful but highly controversial previous installment, Star Wars: The Last Jedi, toxic Star Wars fandom was at an all-time high and behind-the-scenes production at Lucasfilm wasn't fairing much better.  Episode IX director Colin Trevorrow left the production in September 2017, with the go-to explanation "creative differences", after failing several attempts to deliver a satisfactory script to Lucasfilm president Kathleen Kennedy.  J.J. Abrams, director of Star Wars: The Force Awakens, was quickly announced as Trevorrow's replacement, which many saw as an attempt to placate fans and get the final trilogy back on track after some of Johnson's unpopular creative choices.  Abrams and co-writer Chris Terrio reportedly met with creator George Lucas, then rewrote the script while the film's release date was pushed back from May 2019 to December.

The Rise of Skywalker opens one year after The Last Jedi's Battle of Crait, which left the Resistance against the First Order at its lowest point.  Following a broadcast by the late Emperor Palpatine, suddenly not dead after being killed off in 1983's Return of the Jedi, Supreme Leader Kylo Ren obtains a Sith Wayfinder device on the planet Mustafar, leading him to the uncharted planet Exegol.  There, he finds Palpatine, who explains he literally created former Supreme Leader Snoke as a puppet to control the First Order and lure Kylo to the dark side of the Force.  Palpatine unveils his secret armada of Star Destroyers (Surprise!) and tells Kylo to find and kill his sort-of-creepy love interest Rey, who's continuing her Jedi training under Kylo's mom, General Leia Organa.  

From there, the film launches into a fast, albeit initially uneven pace as Finn and Poe Dameron deliver intel from a spy that Palpatine is on Exegol.  And after rescuing the ancient Jedi texts from Rian Johnson, Rey has learned that a Sith Wayfinder can lead them there.  Even better, Leia reveals that there's an ally on new planet Pasaana who may be able to help.  So off we go, with Rey, Finn, Poe, Chewbacca, BB-8, and C-3PO blasting off in the Millennium Falcon while poor R2-D2 stays behind going "Hey!  What about me?".

On Pasaana, the group encounters old smoothy and cape fetishist Lando Calrissian, who points them to the Wayfinder's last suspected location.  Using their creeptacular Force bond, Kylo learns where Rey is and heads there with his old crew, the Knights of Ren.  Rey and the others discover the remains of a Sith assassin named Ochi, his ship, his little wheely droid D-O, and a dagger inscribed with Sith text, which C-3PO's programming forbids him from interpreting even though hey, that's his primary function.  Sensing Kylo is nearby, Rey goes to confront him because the Reylo shippers demand it.  The First Order captures the Falcon, Chewbacca, and the dagger, while Rey, attempting to rescue Chewbacca, accidentally destroys a First Order transport with Force lightning.  D'oh!  The group escapes on Ochi's ship, understandably thinking that Chewbacca died in the explosion, and looks over at Rey in a very awkward moment.

It's around the second act that the film finds its footing, as Poe suggests traveling to another new planet, Kijimi, to have the Sith text extracted from C-3PO's memory with help from a tiny droidsmith named Babu Frik.  The process wipes C-3PO's memory, with the obvious comedic ramifications, but reveals coordinates to a Wayfinder on Kef Bir, an ocean moon of Endor (Yes, that Endor).  Rey eventually senses that Chewbacca is alive, so congrats on not killing one of Star Wars' most popular characters, and the group mounts a rescue mission.  While Kylo searches for Rey, the group infiltrates his Star Destroyer with the help of Zorii Bliss, a mysterious acquaintance of Poe and an even longer acquaintance of J.J. Abrams.  Rey recovers the dagger and has visions of her not-nobody parents being killed with it.  

Kylo decides to drop some long-awaited truth on Rey, informing her that she's not a Skywalker like many of us thought, but the granddaughter of (dun-dun-dun) Sheev Palpatine.  It turns out Grampa Palpy ordered Ochi to recover Rey as a child, but her parents hid her on Jakku to protect her, just as Obi-Wan did with Baby Luke on Tattooine.  And in a surprising-but-not-that-surprising sequence, General Hux saves Poe, Finn, and Chewbacca from execution, revealing himself as the spy that gave Finn and Poe intel.  He allows the group to escape on the Falcon, but then gets himself executed for treason.  (Insert Price Is Right fail horn here)

The group arrives on Kef Bir and meets Jannah, an ex-First Order stormtrooper and current Resistance sympathizer like Finn, who leads them to the remains of the second Death Star, where Rey locates the Wayfinder.  Kylo, having tracked the group to Kef Bir, destroys Rey's Wayfinder and asks her to help him take Palpatine off the board.  A climactic lightsaber duel follows, with Leia calling to Kylo through the Force and distracting him at a key moment, allowing Rey to impale him.  The effort causes Leia's death, however, but Rey heals Kylo and takes his ship to exile herself on Luke Skywalker's secret crib on Ahch-To.  After torching Kylo's ship, Rey is confronted by Luke's Force ghost, who encourages her to face Palpatine and gives her Leia's lightsaber and his X-wing from his time in the Rebellion.  Rey leaves for Exegol, using the Wayfinder from Kylo’s ship, while Kylo has an unexpected conversation with a memory of his father, Han Solo.  Kylo finally turns his back on the dark side, throwing away his lightsaber and reclaiming his identity as Ben Solo.

Heading into the final act of the Skywalker Saga, Palpatine, in a display of total dickishness, has a Star Destroyer obliterate Kijimi, while at the Resistance base on Ajan Kloss, R2-D2 restores C-3PO's memory with his most recent backup.  The Resistance follows Rey's coordinates to Exegol, where she confronts Sith Zombie Palpatine, who demands she kill him so he can transfer his spirit into her and presumably, admire himself in the mirror.  With Poe's plan to attack a crap-ton of Star Destroyers with a small fleet not being very well thought out, the Resistance fighters get pretty much owned until Lando shows up with a lot of reinforcements from across the galaxy.  Ben arrives to help Rey, overpowering his former frat bros in the Knights of Ren.  

Recognizing Rey and Ben as a rare Force dyad, Palpatine drains their power to rejuvenate himself without any need for botox.  He attacks the Resistance fleet with a huge surge of Force lightning and hurls Ben into a chasm so he knows how it feels.  Still weakened, Rey finally hears the voices of past Jedi, who lend her their strength.  Palpatine attacks her with his lightning, but Rey deflects it using Luke and Leia's lightsabers, disintegrating him and sacrificing herself in the process.  After climbing out of the chasm, Ben revives Rey by transferring his life force into her.  Rey wakes up and kisses him as the Reylo shippers squee with delight, but the effort costs Ben his life.  He dies, as both he and his mother Leia become one with the Force.

The Resistance destroys the remainder of Palpatine's Star Destroyer armada, then heads back to Ajan Kloss to celebrate.  Lots of hugging -- seriously, so much hugging -- follows, with some last looks at the surviving cast.  The Skywalker Saga closes with Rey, as she visits the abandoned Lars homestead on Tatooine, where Luke grew up.  Having built her own lightsaber, she buries Luke and Leia's lightsabers in the sand, the first tribute to her former masters.  In the second, she tells a passing old woman that her full name is Rey Skywalker, allowing the Skywalker legacy to continue.  Abrams' final shot, with John Williams' closing theme, brings the entire film saga full circle, as Rey and BB-8 stare off into the distance at Tattooine's binary sunset.  THE END.

So what about the performances from the cast and the characters they portrayed?  Well, as you might expect, I have a few thoughts...

REY SKYWALKER -- If this is the last we see of Daisy Ridley as Rey, at least she went out on a high note.  So much of this movie rides on her performance, which is easily her most physical, and Ridley definitely steps up when needed.  The revelation that Rey is the Emperor's granddaughter is obviously a big one, but it works better than the theory that she was Luke's daughter with or without a midichlorian immaculate conception.

KYLO REN/BEN SOLO -- Adam Driver finally got to play Ben Solo and we're all better for it.  Kylo Ren was the ultimate Darth Vader wannabe, right down to following his redemption arc, but it was Ben Solo's Force dyad connection to Rey that distinguished him.  As much as it would've been nice to see Kylo Ren pay for murdering his father Han Solo, Ben's redemption made Han and Leia's deaths more meaningful.

POE DAMERON -- As the Han Solo-esque Poe Dameron, Oscar Isaac gets to deliver more quippy one-liners than his previous outings, but it's his history with Zorri Bliss that interested me the most.  For once, we had a hero with an ex-girlfriend who didn't get back together with his ex by the movie's end.  On a completely different note, Isaac was able to give Poe some depth in a great scene as he questioned his own ability to lead the Resistance after Leia's passing.

FINN/FN-2187 -- If there's one character who felt incomplete at the end of this trilogy, it's probably John Boyega's Finn.  It sure seemed like Finn wanted to express his feelings for Rey on a couple of occasions, but he failed to do so before the clock ran out and the movie ended.  Meanwhile, his would-be romance with Rose Tico in The Last Jedi completely vanished, and suddenly, there's Jannah, an ex-stormtrooper exactly like him, who seemed like a solid match.  Time for a Disney+ spinoff series, maybe?

DARTH SIDIOUS/SHEEV PALPATINE -- In (presumably) his final outing as Palpatine, Ian McDiarmid's return made perfect sense, especially given his connection to Rey.  Palpatine was Big Bad of Return of the Jedi and later the prequels, so only now, at the end, do we truly understand.  

LANDO CALRISSIAN -- Billy Dee Williams' Lando was a character fans wanted to see return ever since The Force Awakens, so this was definitely a case of better late than never.  Still rocking his cape after all these years, Lando brought some Original Trilogy swagger to Rise of Skywalker and even got a big fist-pumping moment when he showed up with the Resistance allies in the nick of time.

GENERAL LEIA ORGANA -- Ever since Carrie Fisher's untimely death at the end of 2016, Star Wars fans have been dreading the moment when we would need to say goodbye to Leia as well.  Even with only having unused footage from The Force Awakens, Abrams and Terrio gave Leia a tasteful demise that mattered and was emotionally resonant.  We felt Leia's death, as did the characters, and it brought a true sense of closure for many of us.

LUKE SKYWALKER -- After being killed off in The Last Jedi, Mark Hamill's final appearance here as Force Ghost Luke Skywalker was a more fitting end.  Hamill gets to deliver a sly jab at Rian Johnson's treatment of Luke's lightsaber in the beginning of The Last Jedi, then has a wonderful sequence as he finally raises his X-wing fighter from the water, just as Yoda showed him was possible in The Empire Strikes Back.  And in a lovely moment as the film ends, we see Luke reunited with his sister Leia as Force ghosts, watching over Rey as she continues the Skywalker legacy.

CHEWBACCA -- You know a Star Wars film is emotional when even Chewie's tugging on your hearstrings.  Joonas Suotamo's Chewbacca had older fans gasping when we thought Rey had accidentally (and rather stupidly) killed him with Force lightning, but it was Chewie's powerful cry of loss that had everyone reaching for the napkins as he learned that Leia had died.  This has been a hard trilogy for Chewie, but like the Millennium Falcon, he's a survivor.

C-3PO -- Anthony Daniels, the only actor to appear in all nine Skywalker Saga films, delivers another solid and funny performance as everyone's favorite chatty protocol droid.  And in another heartstring-pulling moment, Threepio sacrifices his memory so that his fellow Resistance members can receive a Sith message forbidden to his programming.  Thankfully, his best friend and droid life partner R2-D2 is able to reload most of his memories.

R2-D2 -- Once again, Jimmy "Bannakaffalatta" Vee reprises Artoo, who gets to be the only one to actually watch Leia die in her final attempt to reach Ben.  In addition to restoring most of Threepio's memory, Artoo fills in for BB-8 in Poe's X-wing for the final assault.

BB-8 -- Surprisingly, BB-8 doesn't get to do all that much this time out.  After Rey accidentally drops a tree on him, he's primarily used to introduce D-O to the others.  He does, however, get to share the final scene with Rey on Tattooine.

ZORRI BLISS -- Keri Russell, one of J.J. Abrams' go-to actresses, plays new character Zorri Bliss, who looks and feels like someone who would be right at home on The Mandalorian.  Some of us wondered if Zorri was going to be revealed as Rey's mom, but instead, she turns out to be Poe's old spice runner girlfriend.  She was cool though, and I wouldn't say no if she landed her own Disney+ spinoff TV series.

JANNAH/TZ-1719 -- Naomi Ackie plays another new character, Jannah, who turns out to be a former stormtrooper like Finn.  She gets partnered up with Finn, primarily because Rey is off doing Jedi stuff and Poe is off doing Resistance stuff, but the two have a fun chemistry.  We don't get to learn that much about her, unfortunately, but Lando makes a kind gesture to help her do just that, so...Disney+ series?

BABU FRIK -- Baby Yoda's new competition for Cutest Star Wars Character Ever is Babu Frik, the tiny droidsmith who operates on C-3PO.  Voiced by Shirley Henderson, who played Moaning Myrtle in the Harry Potter films (I know, right?), Babu Frik steals every Frikkin' scene he's in, even in the Battle of Exegol, where he suddenly turns up in Zorri Bliss' cockpit for no damn reason whatsoever.

D-O -- Voiced by J.J. Abrams himself, D-O is introduced as BB-8's new sidekick.  He doesn't do a whole lot apart from react to things, but he gets some nice scenes such as when Rey fixes his squeaky wheel.

GENERAL ARMITAGE HUX -- Finally, someone puts Domhnall Gleeson's Hux down once and for all.  The weaselly First Order general finally flips on the First Order, not because he's suddenly decided to become a good guy, but simply because he doesn't want Kylo Ren in charge.

ALLEGIANT GENERAL PRYDE -- Richard E. Grant is the guy we have to thank for taking Hux off the board.  As General Pryde, he's essentially a considerably more competent version of Hux, a character needed because Hux had become such a joke by this point.  A shame Richard E. Grant didn't have more screen time, he's a great actor.

ROSE TICO -- After being such a key character in The Last Jedi, Kelly Marie Tran's Rose Tico almost completely vanishes into the void here and it's a damn shame.  The Skywalker Saga's sole character of Asian descent is reduced to Resistance administrative support, showing up briefly here and there as Leia and other Resistance base characters react to things.  I knew the toxic Star Wars fans hated Rose, but I didn't think Abrams and Terrio did as well.

MAZ KANATA -- Lupita Nyong'o only had a quick cameo as Maz in The Last Jedi, but she's gets a little more to do here, as she explains Leia's actions and mourns for her upon her death.  She gets a very welcome scene, however, at the end celebration where she gives Chewbacca Han's old medal, a callback to the final scene of the original Star Wars film in which Luke and Han received medals and Chewbacca didn't for some inexplicable reason.

HAN SOLO CAMEO -- Speaking of Han, Harrison Ford makes a surprising appearance as the film's best cameo.  Presented as Kylo's "memory" of Han, Ford gets to urge Kylo Ren to finally do the right thing and come back to the light side.  There's a terrific nod to Han's death scene in The Force Awakens, where Kylo Ren recreates his line about knowing what he has to do but not being sure sure if he has the strength, while Han touches his face just as he did when he died.  This scene makes Han's death a little more meaningful, knowing that eventually, Han's son makes the right choice.

WEDGE ANTILLES CAMEO -- Denis Lawson reprises Wedge for a quick cameo after destroying the Supreme Star Destroyer.  People might confuse him for Anthony Daniels.

WICKET WIDGET WARRICK CAMEO -- Warwick Davis turns up in a quick moment on Endor at the film's end with his son Harrison Davis as Pommet Warrick.

JOHN WILLIAMS CAMEO -- The legendary Star Wars composer turns up as a Kijimi bartender named Oma Tres, an anagram of O Master.

VOCAL CAMEOS -- During the climatic showdown on Exegol, Star Wars fans will have lots of fun identifying the voices of Andy Serkis as Supreme Leader Snoke, James Earl Jones as Darth Vader, Hayden Christensen as Anakin Skywalker, Olivia d'Abo as Luminara Unduli, Ashley Eckstein as Ahsoka Tano, Jennifer Hale as Aayla Secura, Samuel L. Jackson as Mace Windu, Ewan McGregor and Alec Guinness as Obi-Wan Kenobi, Frank Oz as Yoda, Angelique Perrin as Adi Gallia, Freddie Prinze Jr. as Kanan Jarrus, and Liam Neeson as Qui-Gon Jinn.

All in all, Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker is the conclusion we needed to the Skywalker Saga.  It's not going to please everyone, because Star Wars fans now exist in three different generations with their own preferred trilogy and their own ideas of how Star Wars ought to be.  What the film does, well enough in my opinion, is bring a story that began in 1977 to a close -- the story of how George Lucas' sci-fi adventure film defined one generation and created an enduring legacy for the others that followed.  It took 42 years to tell, but was definitely worth it.

And for those who may be wondering, here's my personal ranking of the Star Wars films:

1. Star Wars (1977)
2. The Empire Strikes Back (1980)
3. Star Wars: The Force Awakens (2015)
4. Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker (2019)
5. Return of the Jedi (1983)
6. Rogue One: A Star Wars Story (2016)
7. Solo: A Star Wars Story (2018)
8. Star Wars: The Last Jedi (2017)
9. Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith (2005)
10. Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones (2002)
11. Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace (1999)

DAMN Good Movies -- JOKER

That's right, I'm back once again with another movie take, this time on the film Joker, the controversial psychological thriller based on the classic DC Comics supervillain.  As always, if you haven't seen the movie yet and you don't want it spoiled for you, then please step back from your computer or whatever electronic device you're reading this on and stop reading now.  If, however, you're wise enough to know that movie reviews with spoilers are always more interesting than the ones without them...well...put on a happy face!

In 2016, director Todd Phillips pitched the idea for Joker to Warner Bros., wanting to create a more grounded comic book film.  He proposed that DC Films distinguish itself from Marvel Studios' by producing low-budget, standalone films, and after the success of Wonder Woman, DC Films decided to de-emphasize the shared nature of the DC Extended Universe (DCEU).  A year later, Warner Bros. and DC Films revealed their plans for Joker, with Phillips directing and co-writing with Scott Silver, and Martin Scorsese co-producing with Phillips.

Warner Bros. considered casting Leonardo DiCaprio as the Joker, hoping to use his frequent involvement with Scorcese to persuade him, but Scorcese ultimately left the project due to other commitments.  By February 2018, Joaquin Phoenix was Phillips' top pick for the role, who eventually signed on because the film was a standalone project, unlike the Marvel Cinematic Universe, which would require him to appear in multiple movies.

While the film's premise was inspired by The Joker being a failed stand-up comedian in the 1988 graphic novel Batman: The Killing Joke, written by Alan Moore and drawn by Brian Bolland, Phillips and Silver chose to create their own original story that wasn't based on the comics.  Instead, the film is heavily influenced by Scorcese's films Taxi Driver and The King of Comedy, right down to the casting of Robert De Niro.

Joker opens in 1981 Gotham City, riddled with crime and unemployment (because hey, no Batman), leaving segments of the population disenfranchised and impoverished.  We're introduced to Arthur Fleck, a long-haired nobody who struggles to get by working as a clown for hire and is beaten up by a gang of young punks in an alley.  The film's unsettling, cynical tone is quickly established here, with Hildur Guðnadóttir's score haunting the entire film.

We learn Arthur leads a lonely, pathetic existence, taking care of his elderly mother Penny in a shitty apartment and depending on a social services worker for medication for his severe mental illness.  In addition to suffering from a neurological disorder that causes him to uncontrollably laugh at inappropriate times, Arthur is disturbingly thin (Phoenix reportedly lost over 50 pounds for the role) and keeps a "joke book" filled with chaotic scribblings and dark thoughts in the hopes of a career in stand-up comedy.  Arthur idolizes a late-night talk show host named Murray Franklin, whose show he and Penny watch together every night.

After the gang attack, Randall, Arthur's co-worker at the clown rental agency, loans him a handgun for protection, even though he's not supposed to have one.  In a random elevator encounter, Arthur meets Sophie, a single mother who lives in his apartment building and smiles at one of Arthur's goofy facial expressions.  Arthur invites Sophie to his scheduled stand-up comedy performance, and they begin dating.  Looks like Arthur's life might be picking up, right?

Wrong.  The film becomes even more unsettling and tense when Arthur's gun falls out of his pocket while he entertains at a children's hospital, but doesn't go off.  Arthur is still fired, of course, and Randall lies that Arthur bought the gun himself.  On the subway home, still in his clown makeup, Arthur is beaten once again, this time by three drunk Wayne Enterprises businessmen who pretty much deserve what's coming to them.  He shoots two in self-defense, then chases after the third, murdering him to prevent a surviving witness.  The murders are condemned by billionaire mayoral candidate Thomas Wayne (That's right, Batdad himself), who labels those envious of more successful people "clowns".  Demonstrations against Gotham's rich begin, straight out of The Dark Knight Rises, with protesters donning plastic clown masks similar to Arthur's image.

We head into the film's second act, where Arthur learns that budget cuts are ending the social service program, leaving Arthur without medication to control his mental illness.  Yeah, this'll turn out well.  Arthur's stand-up comedy performance goes about as well as you might expect, as he experiences an uncontrollable laughing fit and has difficulty delivering any of his jokes.  Murray Franklin mocks Arthur by showing clips of his bad comedy club routine on his show.  

And hey, just to throw more gasoline on the fire, Arthur intercepts a letter written by Penny to Thomas, alleging that he's Thomas' illegitimate son, and yells angrily at his mother for hiding the truth.  Arthur travels to stately Wayne Manor and talks all kinds of creepy to Thomas' young son, Bruce, Arthur's alleged half-brother, but runs off after being confronted by bearded (!!!) butler Alfred Pennyworth.  Following a visit from two terrible Gotham City Police Department detectives investigating Arthur's involvement in the train murders, Penny suffers a severe stroke and is hospitalized.

As Alan Moore wrote in Batman: The Killing Joke, "All it takes is one bad day to reduce the sanest man to lunacy."  And here, at last, we see Arthur's one bad day.

At a public event, Arthur confronts Thomas, who explains that Penny is delusional and was a patient at Arkham State Hospital (I guess "Asylum" is a little too obvious these days).  In denial over Penny's mental illness, Arthur visits Arkham and steals Penny's case file, which shows that Penny adopted Arthur as a baby and allowed her abusive boyfriend to harm them both.  Penny alleged that Thomas used his powerful influence to fake the adoption and commit her to Arkham as a way to conceal their affair.  

The deliberate ambiguity of which story to believe is a clever creative decision by Phillips, leaving things up to the audience to decide the truth they prefer while throwing out the possibility that Batman's dad cheated on his wife Martha and had another son, making the Joker Batman's half-brother.  Arthur, as you might expect, doesn't take this information well and goes to the hospital, smothering Penny with her bed pillow.

He enters Sophie's apartment unannounced and a visibly frightened Sophie tells him to leave, revealing another twist -- Arthur's "relationship" with Sophie never happened and was just one of his delusions.  We see Arthur exiting her apartment, but what happened right before that is also left intentionally ambiguous.  Sophie doesn't appear in any subsequent scenes, so did Arthur murder her and her daughter before leaving?  Did he spare them?  That's left for the audience to decide.

In the film's third act, Arthur is invited to appear on Murray's show due to the unexpected popularity of his routine clips.  As he prepares by painting his face white, symbolizing his final evolution into the Joker, he's visited by his former co-workers Gary and Randall.  Arthur brutally murders Randall with a pair of scissors, but allows Gary to leave unharmed because Gary was the only one who was nice to him.  Leaving his apartment for the TV studio, Arthur steps out in full Joker purple-suit regalia, fully embracing and celebrating who he has become, or perhaps who he's always been.  He's quickly spotted by the two GCPD detectives, who pursue him onto a train filled with clown protesters heading for a protest rally.  One detective accidentally shoots a protester and incites a riot, letting Arthur escape in the chaos.

He makes it to the TV studio and requests that Murray introduce him as Joker, a reference to what Murray called him during his mockery.  The Joker walks out to a warm reception, but begins telling morbid, unfunny jokes, confesses that he killed the men on the train, and finally unloads in a rant about how society abandons the disfranchised and how Murray mocked him.  Instead of killing himself on the show as originally planned, the Joker instead kills Murray on live TV and is soon arrested as riots break out across Gotham.  

One rioter, presumably named Joe Chill, confronts the Wayne family in an alley as they leave a movie theater showing Zorro, the Gay Blade starring George Hamilton, a period accurate nod to the Wayne family seeing The Mark of Zorro  in various versions of Batman's origin story.  Wearing a clown mask, Chill predictably murders Thomas and his wife Martha, sparing Bruce and making the Joker indirectly responsible for creating Batman.  Meanwhile, some other rioters driving an ambulance crash into the police car transporting the Joker and free him from the wreckage.  Finding acceptance at last, the Joker dances to the cheers of the clown-masked rioters and notices that he is bleeding from his mouth, which he smears to paint a bloody red smile across his face.

In the film's closing scene, we find Arthur (or is it The Joker?) in Arkham State Hospital, where he's being evaluated by a psychiatrist about what happened.  He laughs to himself, telling his psychiatrist that she wouldn't understand the joke.  The last thing we see is him leaving a trail of bloodied footprints and being chased back and forth by orderlies.  Did Arthur murder the psychiatrist?  Was The Joker another delusion?  Or was the entire movie one big joke played on the audience by Phillips?

Even though there's only one performance in this film that truly matters, here are the major characters and actors that stood out:

THE JOKER/ARTHUR FLECK -- Joaquin Phoenix proves once again that he's one of the finest actors we have right now.  Everything in this film hinges on him, and after iconic Jokers played by Jack Nicholson and Heath Ledger, it's amazing how Phoenix brings something completely unique and equally iconic to the role.  His strong portrayal should be remembered for decades to come and while I'm not certain that Joker will get a Best Picture nomination, Joaquin Phoenix damn well deserves a Best Actor nom.

SOPHIE DUMOND -- As Arthur's love interest that turns out to be anything but, Zazie Beetz definitely steps up her game from last year's Deadpool 2.  It doesn't make much sense that a woman like Sophie would fall for such a creeptacular incel like Arthur, finding him charming and quickly having sex with him, but once the delusion twist is revealed, everything falls into place.  I would've liked to have seen more of Sophie, but I get the decision to make her fate vague and uncertain.

MURRAY FRANKLIN -- Robert De Niro, who starred The King of Comedy as Rupert Pupkin, an aspiring mentally unstable failed comedian who longs to appear on a talk show, gets to experience the flip side as Joker's talk show host who makes fun of Phoenix's aspiring mentally unstable failed comedian.  This is the closest you'll ever see of Bobby D starring in a superhero movie, so I hope you enjoyed it as I did.

PENNY FLECK -- Frances Conroy first made my radar as the creepy older Moira O'Hara in American Horror Story: Murder House, so I was intrigued when her casting was announced.  As the Joker's mom, or perhaps adopted mom, she first appears to suffer from some sort of dementia, but the implication of her being severely mentally ill gives weight to Arthur being her natural son and passing that illness onto him genetically.

THOMAS WAYNE -- As the newest Thomas Wayne, Brett Cullen's big scene is when Arthur confronts him in a restroom about being his father.  For the first time, Thomas Wayne is depicted in an unsympathetic manner as a rich elitist looking to achieve power as Gotham's mayor instead of a rich doctor using his fortune to make Gotham a better place.  Dirtying up Thomas' character helped to sell the ambiguity of whether Arthur is his son, but might come off as horribly out of character to diehard Batfans.

ALFRED PENNYWORTH -- Douglas Hodge turns up as the latest Alfred in the unnerving scene where Arthur shows up at Wayne Manor and meets young Bruce.  Unfortunately, because Hodge looks nothing like Alfred, especially with his full beard, you can easily mistake the character for a random security guy protecting the front gate.

BRUCE WAYNE -- We have another Batman, or at least another young Bruce Wayne, this time in Dante Pereira-Olson.  In the scene noted above, this still-innocent Bruce gets lured to the front gate by Arthur, and then in a really disturbing moment, forcibly made to smile when Arthur insert his fingers into the corners of Bruce's mouth.  Comic book writers and artists are going to love recycling that imagery when creating future Batman comics.

MARTHA WAYNE -- Carrie Louise Putrello becomes the latest Martha to be shot dead in Crime Alley and have her pearl necklace ripped from her neck.  That's it.  Even though this is a film about the Joker and not Batman, would it have killed Phillips to make Martha as much of a character as Thomas?

All in all, Joker isn't a film for everyone, certainly not for young Batman fans, but it's one that gives a good look at extreme mental illness, represented by the classic DC Comics supervillain who embodies it so well.  After so many comic book movies, Joker is that far-too-rare standalone comic book film that transcends shared cinematic universes and instead delivers art and a good amount of social commentary.  Even better, it makes you stop and think about what you just watched, as opposed to waiting impatiently for the post-credits bonus scene that sets up the next superhero movie.

And for those who may be wondering, here's the updated list of my Top 20 Comic Book Films:

1. Superman (1978)
2. The Dark Knight (2008)

3. Avengers: Infinity War (2018)

4. Avengers: Endgame (2019)

5. The Avengers (2012)

6. Batman Begins (2005)
7. Joker (2019)

8. Logan (2017)
9. Black Panther (2018)

10. Captain America: The Winter Soldier (2014)

11. Man of Steel (2013)

12. Captain America: Civil War (2016)

13. Doctor Strange (2016)

14. Wonder Woman (2017)

15. Spider-Man 2 (2004)

16. Spider-Man (2002)

17. Aquaman (2018)

18. Iron Man (2008)

19. Guardians of the Galaxy (2014)
20. Watchmen (2009)

DAMN Good Movies -- AVENGERS: ENDGAME

You guessed it, I'm back once again with another movie take, this time on the movie Avengers: Endgame, the 22nd film of the Marvel Cinematic Universe.  As always, if you haven't seen the movie yet and you don't want it spoiled for you, then please step back from your computer or whatever electronic device you're reading this on and stop reading now.  If, however, you're wise enough to know that movie reviews with spoilers are always more interesting than the ones without them...well...time to assemble!

One year ago, Marvel Studios shocked the world (Well, the part of the world that doesn't read comics) by having big bad Thanos use his spiffy Infinity Gauntlet to snap half of the universe's population out of existence at the end of Avengers: Infinity War.  Fans gasped in horror as one by one, major MCU players like Spider-Man, Doctor Strange, Black Panther, Scarlet Witch and more crumbled into ash and blew away in the gentle wind.  At long last, we had a superhero film where the supervillain actually won.

Twelve months of Thanos Snap internet memes later, directors Anthony and Joe Russo are back with a massive three-hours-long Part Two, with the surviving members of the Avengers and their allies working to reverse the damage and also bring what is essentially a 22-film saga to a resounding conclusion.  It's an incredible achievement of coordination that Marvel Studios accomplishes here, but one with a sense of finality as we say goodbye to some of our favorite heroes.

The film opens with Clint Barton, a.k.a. Hawkeye, still under house arrest at his homestead after the events of Captain America: Civil War.  As he trains his daughter Lila in archery, his wife Laura prepares a picnic while the couple's two sons play catch.  However, while retrieving an arrow, Clint turns his back for a few seconds and when he turns back around, his entire family is gone, having disintegrated in The Snap.

This somber tone fills the entire First Act, as we jump ahead three weeks after Avengers: Infinity War.  New player Captain Marvel, somehow still looking as youthful as in her solo film set in the 1990s, rescues Nebula and Tony Stark from being stranded in deep space. They return to Earth and join the remaining Avengers—Black Widow, Bruce Banner, Captain America, Rocket, Thor, and War Machine.  Using Nebula's knowledge, they find Thanos on an unguarded planet, intending to retake the Stones to reverse his action.  Once there, they learn whoops, he already destroyed them to prevent further use, severely burning himself in the process.  After this horribly awkward moment, an enraged Thor finally goes for the head and decapitates Thanos.

We jump ahead FIVE...YEARS...LATER, with the resulting fallout of the Avengers not being able to reverse The Snap.  No longer operating as superheroes, Steve Rogers now heads a support group for Snap survivors, Natasha Romanoff coordinates updates from Nebula and Rocket, Okoye, Captain Marvel, and War Machine, and Tony Stark seems content living in a cabin with his wife Pepper and their young daughter Morgan Stark.  All of them seem to have reached the Acceptance stage about their new status quo.

Thankfully, we head into Act Two with Ant-Man finally escaping the quantum realm and learning that his daughter Cassie is now five years older.  He joins Steve and Natasha at the Avengers' compound and explains he lived through a duration of five hours instead of five years, theorizing that the quantum realm can let them time travel.  Desperately needing the smartest guy left on the planet before Mr. Fantastic joins the MCU, they go to Tony to help them retrieve the Stones from the past so they can reverse Thanos' actions in the present, but he refuses out of fear of losing Morgan.  

Still in desperate need of a big brain, Steve, Natasha and Scott Lang meet up with Bruce at a restaurant, where we learn Bruce has managed to merge his intelligence with the Hulk's body.  An hour of hopelessness finally gives way to some much-needed humor, with Bruce enjoying his newfound celebrity before agreeing to help the others as best as he can with his limited knowledge of quantum physics.  Bruce experiments with trying to send Ant-Man back in time using the quantum realm, turning him into a kid, then an old man, and finally a baby before finally restoring him to normal.

After getting a pep talk from Pepper, Tony finally shows up and agrees to help, under the condition that reversing The Snap won't reset what's happened since, keeping Morgan from being erased.  With Tony back in play, Bruce goes off with Rocket to the Asgardian refugees' new home in Tønsberg, Norway, now known as New Asgard, to recruit Thor, who has become embarrassingly overweight and alcoholic after sliding into depression and watching The Big Lebowski way too many times.  Natasha, meanwhile, heads to Tokyo to recruit Hawkeye, who has turned into a Zack Snyder version of himself, killing Yakuza members as a ruthless vigilante.

Hawkeye rejoins the Avengers and agrees to road test Tony's tweaked time machine, proving that it works.  The team figures out when and where to retrieve the Infinity Stones from the past, and the movie lays out its version of time travel rules -- affecting the past won't change the present like in Back to the Future, but creates an alternate universe instead.  And because of this, they have to bring the stones back to their original times and places after half the universe is restored.  Oh, and by the way...They only have a limited amount of trips because Hank Pym isn't around to make more Pym Particles.

So, somehow, Back to the Future is nonsense but Back to the Future Part II is perfectly cool.  Bruce, Steve, Tony and Scott travel to New York City in 2012, during the Chitauri invasion from the first Avengers movie.  Bruce visits the Sanctum Sanctorum before the Doctor Strange movie and convinces the Ancient One to give him the Time Stone, promising to later return the stones to their original place.  Steve successfully retrieves the Mind Stone, but Tony and Scott fail to retrieve the Space Stone after Loki escapes with it. Quickly needing a backup plan, Steve and Tony travel to S.H.I.E.L.D. headquarters in 1970 and steal an earlier version of the Space Stone along with more vials of Pym Particles from younger Hank Pym, then return to the present.

Everybody got that?

Rocket and Dude Thor travel to Asgard in 2013, during Thor: The Dark World, to retrieve the Reality Stone from Jane Foster, and Dude Thor swipes his former hammer, Mjolnir.  On Morag in 2014, during the first Guardians of the Galaxy movie, Nebula and War Machine steal the Power Stone before Star-Lord can.  War Machine returns to the present with the Power Stone, but Nebula is unable to return due to her cybernetic implants interfacing with those of her 2014 self.  Through this connection, the 2014 Thanos learns of his future success and the Avengers' attempts to undo it.  Ruh-roh!  Thanos captures Good 2023 Nebula and sends Bad 2014 Nebula to the present to replace her because shenanigans.  Meanwhile, Black Widow and Hawkeye travel to Vormir in the same year and learn from the Soul Stone's keeper, the Red Skull, that it can only be acquired by sacrificing someone they love.  (Remember, like Thanos did to his adopted daughter Gamora?)  After a brief battle to see who can sacrifice themself first, Black Widow commits suicide in the film's first big death, allowing Hawkeye to claim the stone.

We head into the film's third hour and Third Act with all of the Infinity Stones obtained, and Tony, Bruce and Rocket create a new Infinity Gauntlet to hold them.  Bruce is the only one able to use the Gauntlet and stay alive, but he's able to snap his fingers just in time to restore half the universe's population, who should be really surprised to find out they've jumped ahead five years.

While this is going on, Bad 2014 Nebula uses the time machine to transport Thanos, 2014 Gamora, and the Black Order to 2023, and he destroys the Avengers' compound.  In the resulting chaos, Bad 2014 Nebula tricks Hawkeye into giving her the Infinity Gauntlet, until 2014 Gamora and Good 2023 Nebula team-up and kill Bad 2014 Nebula, which should make things really awkward for Good 2023 Nebula.

The Big Three go after Thanos, who easily defeats them then realizes his plan to wipe out half the universe wasn't that great, because the survivors were too busy thinking about what was lost instead of making the most of the "opportunity" they were given.  So now he has a new plan -- wipe out all life in the universe and then rebuild it in his own image, with no one having any idea about what happened before.  Thanos is about to kill Dude Thor with his own Stormbreaker hammer, until the audience-cheering moment when Captain America becomes worthy enough to use Mjolnir to pound on Thanos' big purple face.

The cheers continue when the restored Doctor Strange arrives with the restored Avengers, Guardians of the Galaxy, and assorted other heroes, as well as the armies of Wakanda, Asgard, and the Ravagers.  Captain Marvel checks back into the film and together, they fight Thanos' army in an epic and insane battle sequence that works in a special shoutout to all the female MCU superheroes.  Eventually though, Thanos seizes the Gauntlet and is about to snap himself another victory...but nothing happens.  It turns out Iron Man stole the Infinity Stones back and snaps Thanos' army, the Black Order, and in a very satisfying moment, Thanos himself into dust in the wind.

Unfortunately, Iron Man is mortally wounded from using the Gauntlet and dies in the film's second big death.  Following Tony's funeral, Thor appoints Valkyrie as the king of New Asgard and goes off to join the Guardians of the Galaxy in their third movie.  Star-Lord begins searching for 2014 Gamora, still in love with her even though she has no idea who he is.  

And in the film's final moments, Captain America is tasked with returning the Infinity Stones and Mjolnir to the original places in time.  After doing so, however, he apparently goes rogue and ignores all the previous time travel rules, choosing to remain in the past and live out the rest of his life.  Now in 2023, he returns as Old Man Rogers, passing on his shield to Sam Wilson, The Falcon, and making him his official successor as Captain America.  Anyone familiar with Captain America: The First Avenger will start reaching for the tissues in the closing flashback scene, where Steve is shown reunited with his time-lost love Peggy Carter, finally getting his dance that he missed all those years ago.  An absolutely perfect ending.

As expected, the film's ginormous cast once again give great performances, with some entertaining and emotionally powerful character moments.  Here are just some of the dozens and dozens or characters that stood out:

IRON MAN/TONY STARK -- Robert Downey, Jr. launched the Marvel Cinematic Universe with 2008's Iron Man, so it was only fitting to have Avengers: Endgame be the end of his time as Tony Stark.  Over the past eleven years, the actor became the character and vice versa, and as impossible as it is right now to picture someone else as Tony Stark, Iron Man will return...someday.  For now though, let's stop and appreciate everything Downey helped build as the invincible -- and definitive -- Iron Man.

CAPTAIN AMERICA/STEVE ROGERS -- In presumably his final outing as Cap, Chris Evans swings for the fences in action scenes and saves his best work as the character for his final scene as Old Man Rogers.  Captain America is more than just a superhero, he's inspirational, and it's a credit to Evans that he was able to embody that so well on screen and in real life.  More than all the other Avengers, Cap is the one who deserved a happy ending and I'm so glad that's what he received. 

THOR ODINSON -- Unlike Downey and Evans, Chris Hemsworth doesn't seem quite ready to let go of his character yet, especially if the Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 tease is any indication.  Unfortunately, after the success of Thor: Ragnarok, it feels like Marvel wants to keep playing Thor for laughs and that's exactly what happens here.  With his comically excessive fake beer gut, Hemsworth looks more like Volstagg the Voluminous than the God of Thunder, so let's just hope this wasn't his last appearance as Thor.

HULK/BRUCE BANNER -- After being somewhat marginalized in Avengers: Infinity War, Mark Ruffalo returns in a Hulk-sized way here, with Bruce having merged his brain with the Hulk's brawn as if he was taken right out of Peter David's Incredible Hulk comic book run.  It seemed a bit odd to have the dangling plot thread of the Hulk's fear of Thanos in Avengers: Infinity War completely abandoned as a result of the five-year time jump, but obviously the story had more important things to worry about.

BLACK WIDOW/NATASHA ROMANOFF -- The death of Scarlett Johansson's Black Widow gets completely overshadowed by Tony Stark's death, but knowing that a Black Widow solo movie is finally happening, the big question here is, did Natasha's death even matter?  Will the solo movie be a prequel, or did Cap do some more tweaking to the timeline that somehow allows Black Widow to return?  Keep watching those upcoming MCU post-credit scenes...

HAWKEYE/CLINT BARTON -- And just to complete the set of the original six movie Avengers, Jeremy Renner returns as Hawkeye, albeit more like his Ronin persona from Brian Bendis' The New Avengers series.  Renner gets a powerful opening scene as Clint's entire family are snapped out of existence, but Clint's silly edgelord haircut and arm tats make it harder to take his major personality change seriously.

THANOS -- Once again, Josh Brolin kills it as the voice and motion-capture model of Thanos.  Even though his Thanos is just a big CGI special effects creation, Brolin brings a ton of gravitas to the character and his interactions with others. Thanos will be remembered fondly as one of the best movie villains ever, although I'm wondering since 2014 Thanos was taken off the board by Tony in 2023, how was everything Thanos originally did from 2014 to 2018 affected?

ANT-MAN/SCOTT LANG -- Paul Rudd's Ant-Man steps up in a big way in this film, after being rescued from the quantum realm by the Ratus Ex Machina.  Scott brought a lot of humor that was definitely needed to offset all the sadness and hopelessness caused by The Snap, but Rudd's best moment has to be when Scott is reunited with his daughter Cassie after fearing her dead, only to take her sudden five-year age increase in stride.

CAPTAIN MARVEL/CAROL DANVERS -- After being teased as Nick Fury's paged ace in the hole to stop Thanos, it's was really surprising that Brie Larson only got a few scenes here and there as Captain Marvel.  And I'm not sure how much sense it made to have Carol fly right back into space, when there obviously was a huge need for someone of her strength and power to help get Earth back on its feet.  At least she got a few good punches in on Thanos.

NEBULA -- It's kind of amazing that Karen Gillan got more to do here as Nebula than she did in two Guardians of the Galaxy films combined.  As two versions of the same character from 2014 and 2023, Gillan was able to showcase her character's development from Thanos' compliant minion into an independent positive force and unofficial Avenger.  Like Thanos, however, the death of her 2014 self poses some serious timey-wimey questions that still beg to be explained.

ROCKET RACCOON -- Bradley Cooper returns as Rocket, who still delivers one-liners with the best of them and even serves as a new Science Bro along with Tony and Bruce.  Regardless, as the only survivor of the original Guardians of the Galaxy team, his pain and survivor's guilt is often heartbreaking.

DOCTOR STRANGE/DR. STEPHEN STRANGE -- As one of the returned heroes, Benedict Cumberbatch's Doctor Strange does his thing with his sling ring and brings everyone in for the final battle with Thanos and his forces.  He's also key for inspiring Tony to sacrifice his life to stop Thanos once and for all.  And now, we wait for his solo movie sequel.

SPIDER-MAN/PETER PARKER -- Tom Holland also returns as his character Spider-Man, but since his second solo movie is right around the corner, there was no need to make Spidey a major player here.  He's there for Tony's death scene though, bringing their mentor/student and surrogate father/son relationship to a touching close. 

THE FALCON/SAM WILSON -- Anthony Mackie's Falcon returns for the final battle, but obviously Steve passing the shield on to Sam is his character's big moment.  Will there be a fourth Captain America movie, this time with Sam as the new Cap?  All I know is, Disney Plus' upcoming Falcon and the Winter Soldier TV series just got a lot more interesting...

SCARLET WITCH/WANDA MAXIMOFF -- After losing the Vision and being dusted in Avengers: Infinity War, Elizabeth Olsen's Scarlet Witch definitely deserved some payback on Thanos.  She got her chance in the final battle, smacking Big Purple around pretty good for a little while.  And her upcoming Disney Plus series, WandaVision, also has my attention after this film.

GAMORA -- After 2018 Gamora was killed off in Infinity War, Zoe Saldana is back to start playing 2014 Gamora.  And now that 2014 Gamora has become 2023 Gamora, with no memory of her adventures with the Guardians of the Galaxy because they hadn't happened yet, her relationship with Chris Pratt's Star-Lord is now awkward as hell.  But hey, James Gunn is back to direct Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3, so she's got that going for her, which is nice.

RESCUE/VIRGINIA "PEPPER" POTTS -- Gwyneth Paltrow got a taste of armor in Iron Man 3, but here we finally see her in her Rescue armor from the comics.  With Tony dead, will Pepper continue as Rescue in future Avengers movies or is this the last we see of her as well?

VALKYRIE -- After joining in on the final battle, Tessa Thompson's Valkyrie is named king of New Asgard by Dude Thor before he completely bails on them.  Will Valkyrie take Thor's place on the Avengers?  Here's hoping...

HANK PYM CAMEO -- Michael Douglas has a brief cameo as the 1970s Hank Pym, during the Pym Particles heist scene.  It's interesting that he used to work for S.H.I.E.L.D. back in the day.

LOKI LAUFEYSON CAMEO -- Despite being killed at the beginning of Infinity War, Tom Hiddleston has a great 2012 flashback cameo, as if we were watching deleted scenes from the Avengers Blu-Ray.  And relax, Hiddlestoners, Loki's also getting a Disney Plus series.

RED SKULL CAMEO -- Ross Marquand reprises the Red Skull from Infinity War, this time as the 2014 version who watches as Black Widow and Hawkeye try to out-suicide one another.  We still have no idea how the Red Skull ended up on Vormir, so maybe he needs a Disney Plus series, too.

NICK FURY CAMEO -- Samuel L. Jackson returns for Tony Stark's funeral, just to remind everyone that he's back and that he'll probably be in the Captain Marvel sequel.  But where's Goose?

THE ANCIENT ONE CAMEO -- In one of the more unexpected cameos, Tilda Swinton returns as the 2012 Ancient One, who magically knows somehow that Doctor Strange will become her successor as the Sorcerer Supreme.  A really fun scene with her and Mark Ruffalo's Incredible Brulk.

PEGGY CARTER CAMEOS -- After being teased earlier in the film as 1970s Peggy, Hayley Atwell returns as 1940s Peggy for the superb final scene of Steve and Peggy finally sharing their long-awaited dance and bringing their characters full circle.  And now I want Agent Carter Season 3 on Disney Plus.

POSTHUMOUS STAN LEE CAMEO -- In his final Marvel Cinematic Universe cameo, Stan "The Man" turns up digitally de-aged as a car driver in 1970.  It's not one of his greatest cameos, certainly not for being his last, but it was nice to see Stan looking in his prime once again before we said goodbye.

JIM STARLIN CAMEO -- Thanos' creator turns up as one of the people at Steve's support group for Snap survivors.  You would think he'd be feeling really guilty about that.

All in all, Avengers: Endgame is an immensely satisfying conclusion to the past eleven years of Marvel Cinematic Universe films.  It's not perfect though, and has some noticeable issues with timey-wimey story logic, but you have to give a lot of credit to the Russo brothers and the screenwriters for giving Marvel fans the big payoff to all their invested time and ticket purchases.  And even though we know this film franchise is nowhere near close to ending, Endgame is an ending for this moment in time, with this particular group of talented actors portraying some of comics' greatest heroes and legends.  And that's okay.

One important question remains, however.  What happens next?

And for those who may be wondering, here's the updated list of my Top 20 Comic Book Films:

1. Superman (1978)
2. The Dark Knight (2008)

3. Avengers: Infinity War (2018)
4. Avengers: Endgame (2019)

5. The Avengers (2012)

6. Batman Begins (2005)

7. Logan (2017)

8. Captain America: Civil War (2016)

9. Black Panther (2018)

10. Man of Steel (2013)

11. Captain America: The Winter Soldier (2014)

12. Doctor Strange (2016)

13. Wonder Woman (2017)

14. Spider-Man 2 (2004)

15. Spider-Man (2002)

16. Aquaman (2018)

17. Iron Man (2008)

18. Guardians of the Galaxy (2014)
19. Watchmen (2009)
20. Captain America: The First Avenger (2011)

DAMN Good Movies -- CAPTAIN MARVEL

At long last, I'm back once again with another movie take, this time on the movie Captain Marvel, the latest entry of the Marvel Cinematic Universe.  As always, if you haven't seen the movie yet and you don't want it spoiled for you, then please step back from your computer or whatever electronic device you're reading this on and stop reading now. If, however, you're wise enough to know that movie reviews with spoilers are always more interesting than the ones without them...well...Higher, further, faster, Baby!

As many of you know, Marvel Studios took quite a while to make a female-led superhero film.  The Marvel Cinematic Universe launched in 2008 with the first Iron Man film, and Black Widow, the MCU's first female superhero, made her debut as a supporting character in the sequel, 2010's Iron Man 2.  Black Widow joined the MCU Avengers in 2012, but after three Avengers films and a couple of Captain America movies, we're still waiting for a solo Black Widow film to arrive in theaters.  Other female superheroes followed, with Sif, Scarlet Witch, Gamora, Mantis, Valkyrie, and The Wasp all making their big-screen debuts, but none of them has received their own movie as a solo lead.  

None, that is, until Captain Marvel.

With Warner Bros./DC Films realizing that a Wonder Woman movie might be a good idea, Marvel Studios finally got serious about making a Captain Marvel film in 2014, after Marvel Comics had spent the past couple of years revamping Ms. Marvel/Carol Danvers into a higher-profile superhero using the Captain Marvel name.  The film was first announced for July 6, 2018, then bumped to November 2, 2018, and then moved again to February 27, 2019, after Marvel cast Brie Larson as Captain Marvel and finally hired Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck to direct the movie.

After a lovely modification of Marvel's logo to honor Stan Lee, the film opens in 1995, on the Kree Empire's capital planet of Hala.  We're introduced to Vers, a member of the Kree Starforce, who looks and acts like a human from Earth, and suffers from hazy memories that sometimes involve an older woman she doesn't recognize.  Yon-Rogg, her mentor and commander, trains Vers to control her unique abilities while the Supreme Intelligence, an organic artificial intelligence and ruler of the Kree, urges her to check herself before she wrecks herself.

Things get a bit clunky with heavy exposition and a bunch of new MCU characters as we see the Starforce undertake a mission to rescue an undercover Kree operative infiltrating a group of Skrulls, alien shapeshifters and archenemies of the Kree.  Vers gets captured by the Skrull commander, Talos, taken aboard their ship that's headed for Earth, and forcibly subjected to a memory probe.  As the Skrull ship reaches Earth's orbit, Vers manages to escape in a pod that crashes into a Los Angeles Blockbuster Video store, just to remind you that hey, this is the '90s.  And if that isn't enough, well gee, here's a bunch of great Nirvana, R.E.M. and Garbage songs to clinch it.

Vers' presence attracts S.H.I.E.L.D. agents Nick Fury and Phil Coulson, both rocking less wrinkles and considerably more hair thanks to the spiffy de-aging CGI special effects budget.  Fury and Coulson confront Vers, only to have their investigation interrupted by a Skrull attack.  In the ensuing chase, Vers recovers a crystal containing her extracted memories while Fury kills a Skrull impersonating Coulson.  Talos, now wearing the form of S.H.I.E.L.D. Director Keller, seems all kinds of shady as he convinces Fury to work with Vers.

We head into the movie's Second Act with Fury taking Vers to the Joint USAFA Facility in Nevada to confirm Vers' claims of coming from Earth.  It's here where the movie really starts to click, with Larson and Samuel L. Jackson having great buddy cop movie chemistry as they banter back and forth and start enjoying the adventure.  Vers discovers she was a U.S. Air Force pilot who was presumed dead in 1989 after testing an experimental engine designed by a Dr. Wendy Lawson, the same older woman from Vers' nightmares, who's a friend of former pilot Maria Rambeau.  With Lawson's cat Goose as a stowaway, Vers and Fury steal a Quadjet and fly to Louisiana to meet Rambeau.  

Talos, meanwhile, arrives at the Rambeau house just as Vers discovers her real name is Carol Danvers, which should take you all of two seconds to realize why Carol was called "Vers".  In the film's big twist, supposed "Big Bad" Talos reveals the Skrulls aren't the bad guys here, but are actually refugees searching for a new home, and Lawson was a Kree renegade named Mar-Vell who was helping them.  Talos then plays the recovered black box from Lawson's plane, which causes Carol to regain her memories and remember the day of the crash.  Lawson told her to destroy the engine's energy core before being killed by Yon-Rogg, the film's actual Big Bad, and Carol absorbed the energy from the ensuing explosion at the cost of losing all her memories.  Talos then leads everyone to a cloaked lab ship orbiting Earth, where several Skrulls are hiding and protecting the Tesseract (Yes, that Tesseract), the source of the energy core.

In the Third Act, Starforce captures Carol and brings her before the Supreme Intelligence, who still looks like Annette Bening and not a giant Jabba the Hutt from the comics.  During their conversation, Carol removes a Kree implant that was suppressing her powers, gaining full access to all her abilities and leveling up to Badass Superhero Mode.  During the inevitable battle, Fury retrieves the Tesseract and Goose is revealed to be a Flerken, an alien with a pocket dimension inside her body.  Goose swallows the Tesseract whole, which puts the cat Flerken in a really bad mood, causing her to scratch Fury's left eye and partially blind him in the process.  Carol takes out ballistic missiles fired by returning Kree bad guy Ronan the Accuser, forcing him and his forces to bail.  She then confronts her former mentor Yon-Rogg on Earth, sending him back to Hala with a warning to the Supreme Intelligence.

Deciding to help the Skrulls find a new homeworld (and explaining why we never see her until Avengers: Endgame), Carol gives Fury a modified pager to contact her in an emergency.  And then, to check that final continuity box, Fury drafts an initiative aimed at locating heroes like her, changing the name after finding a photo of Carol boarding her Air Force jet, which bears her call sign "Avenger".  And lo, the Avengers Initiative is born!

For the most part, the movie's cast give solid performances, bringing fun superhero moments and some wonderfully dry humor to the table.  Here are some things that stood out:

CAPTAIN MARVEL/VERS/CAROL DANVERS -- As many of you already know, Brie Larson received a Hala-sized amount of advance criticism online from incel trolls that feel threatened by women who assert themselves.  Many of us who actually watched the movie (and didn't post "reviews" of it prior to the release date) can attest that Larson is a great Captain Marvel and does a nice job shifting from the conditioned space soldier to a relatable superhero with a sharp, dry wit.  Interestingly, Carol is never actually called Captain Marvel in the movie, so it'll be interesting to see how she claims the codename in Avengers: Endgame.

NICK FURY -- Samuel L. Jackson is once again Samuel L. Jackson as Nick Fury, as if that's ever a bad thing.  This time, however, we get to see him being a bit freaked by the first aliens he encounters and not as the ice-cool veteran spymaster from previous MCU films.  As a result, Fury gets to smile and enjoy himself a bit more, at least until we finally find out how what forced him to start rocking his famous eyepatch.  Oh, and points to Fury for actually keeping Goose around after what happened, instead of dumping her into a S.H.I.E.L.D. sub-sub-sub-subbasement holding cell somewhere, never to be seen again.

TALOS/KELLER -- In a great bit of misdirection casting, stereotyped villain actor Ben Mendelsohn was cast as Talos, which only helped sell the presumption that Talos was the movie's Big Bad.  And considering Talos is a Skrull, the alien shapeshifters who have been menacing the Marvel Universe since Fantastic Four (vol.1) #2 in 1962, using that misconception was a brilliant plot twist.  I have to think Mendelsohn really appreciated playing against his stereotype, and it was fun to see Talos chewing the scenery with humorous quips and slurping on a fast food drink.

YON-ROGG -- Jude Law, meanwhile, got to play against some of those misconceptions as well, with Yon-Rogg turning out to be the actual Big Bad instead of that inspirational mentor who usually dies in the First or Second Act to motivate the hero.  (I'm looking at you, Uncle Ben!)  Unfortunately, Yon-Rogg feels like a bit of blank slate, even after his Big Bad revelation, so it seemed oddly appropriate that he was taken out by Carol so easily and quickly in their big confrontation scene.

MARIA "PHOTON" RAMBEAU -- As the connection to Carol's past as an Air Force pilot, Lashana Lynch shares some nice scenes with Larson as Maria helps Carol remember her past.  I'm guessing, though, that things will feel a bit different when Carol returns twenty-plus years later in Avengers: Endgame, still roughly the same age as when she left Earth.  And as longtime Captain Marvel fans know, Maria's daughter Monica Rambeau is the one to watch, presumably with the now-adult Monica taking on the superhero alias Photon at some point. 

GOOSE -- Originally Carol's cat Chewie from the comics, Goose is obviously named here for the Top Gun character Nick "Goose" Bradshaw, and is portrayed by four different cats, Reggie, Archie, Rizzo and Gonzo.  Like Chewie from the comics, Goose is revealed to be an alien Flerken by Talos, making the cat a great scene stealer and a good source for comic relief.  Goose swallowing the Tesseract whole (and later regurgitating it as if it were a hairball) were fun moments, along with the explanation that Goose is responsible for Nick Fury losing his left eye.  Anyone else want to see Goose vs. Thanos now?  My money's on the Flerken cat.

THE SUPREME INTELLIGENCE & MAR-VELL/DR. WENDY LAWSON -- With the movie version of the Supreme Intelligence taking the physical form of the individual most respected by whomever is speaking to it, instead of a giant space slug with brain tentacles, we get Annette Bening.  To Carol Danvers, it takes the form of her former mentor Dr. Wendy Lawson (also Bening), who turns out to be a gender-swapped Mar-Vell, the original Kree Captain Marvel from the comics.  If that explanation sounds a bit confusing, that's because it is if you're not paying close attention, and it affects the importance of the Mar-Vell revelation.

PHIL COULSON -- After five seasons of playing Coulson on Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., Clark Gregg finally brings his fan-favorite character back to the big screen as a younger '90s version.  Like Nick Fury, Coulson gets the "less wrinkles and more hair" treatment, and his big contribution here is to give Fury and Carol a pass as they escape from the Joint USAFA Facility.  Presumably, this decision is what makes Fury trust Coulson enough to make him a recruiter for the Avengers Initiative.

KORATH THE PURSUER -- After being introduced in the first Guardians of the Galaxy movie, Djimon Hounsou reprises Korath as a member of Starforce alongside Vers, Yon-Rogg, and Minn-Erva.  He accompanies Yon-Rogg to Earth alongside Starforce and some Kree soldiers for the sole purpose of fighting Carol, only to have his Kree ass handed to him.

MINN-ERVA -- Gemma Chan plays Minn-Erva, noticeably different from the comics character, a Kree geneticist named Doctor Minerva.  This version is a member of Yon-Rogg's Starforce team along with Vers, essentially a sniper with a strong grudge towards Carol.  During the final battle, she attempts to catch up with and shoot down a ship being flown by Maria Rambeau and containing several refugee Skrulls, but Maria outmaneuvers Minn-Erva and shoots her down.  See ya!

RONAN THE ACCUSER -- Another Guardians of the Galaxy vet, Lee Pace, returns as his character Ronan the Accuser, this time with a significantly scaled back role.  Because Captain Marvel is a prequel film set in the '90s, Ronan is nowhere close to being obliterated yet and works alongside the Starforce, hunting Skrulls across the universe. After being contacted by Yon-Rogg to eradicate the Skrulls on Earth, he ends up exiting stage left when his fleet is destroyed by Carol. Before escaping, Ronan resolves to come back for Carol, which should be a good trick since he's now a pile of dust on the planet Xandar.

KELLY SUE DECONNICK CAMEO -- Former Captain Marvel writer Kelly Sue DeConnick turns up very briefly in the train station sequence.  After Vers loses track of the Skrulls on the elevated train, she wonders around on the train platform in the middle of the train station.  It's there on the platform that Vers walks past a commuter played by DeConnick, who's rushing to get on the train.

POSTHUMOUS STAN LEE CAMEO -- In addition to the lovely opening tribute to Stan Lee, he turns up during the train scene where Vers fights a Skrull shifted into the form of an old Earth woman.  When Vers first boards the train, she's looking around at every passenger, trying to figure out which one is the shape-shifting Skrull, with one of these people being Stan, who's shown reading the script for Mallrats, the 1995 second feature film from filmmaker Kevin Smith.  Not only was Stan Lee reading the script, but he was going over the lines that he actually speaks in the movie.

AVENGERS CAMEOS -- Just to tie Captain Marvel to the upcoming Avengers: Endgame, Chris Evans, Scarlett Johansson, Mark Ruffalo and Don Cheadle turn up in the bonus mid-credits scene, where we find their present-day characters Steve Rogers, Natasha Romanoff, Bruce Banner, and James "Rhodey" Rhodes monitoring Captain Marvel's pager, which Fury activated prior to his disintegration in the end credits scene of Avengers: Infinity War.  Looking just as young as she did in 1995, Captain Marvel appears and demands to know where Fury is.  Awkward.

All in all, Captain Marvel is a perfectly entertaining and enjoyable introductory film to the Marvel Cinematic Universe's first female superhero solo lead.  As a film, it's not especially innovative and occasionally clings a bit too hard to the typical MCU formula, but there's at least one solid plot twist and Brie Larson more than proves that she doesn't have to constantly smile all nice and pretty to get the job done.  And now that Captain Marvel has been fully introduced, I can't wait to see where the character goes from here in Avengers: Endgame and the inevitable Captain Marvel sequel.

And for those who may be wondering, here's the updated list of my Top 20 Comic Book Films:

1. Superman (1978)
2. The Dark Knight (2008)

3. Avengers: Infinity War (2018)

4. The Avengers (2012)

5. Batman Begins (2005)

6. Logan (2017)

7. Captain America: Civil War (2016)

8. Black Panther (2018)

9. Man of Steel (2013)

10. Captain America: The Winter Soldier (2014)

11. Doctor Strange (2016)

12. Wonder Woman (2017)

13. Spider-Man 2 (2004)

14. Spider-Man (2002)

15. Aquaman (2018)

16. Iron Man (2008)

17. Guardians of the Galaxy (2014)
18. Watchmen (2009)
19. Captain America: The First Avenger (2011)
20. Captain Marvel (2019)

DAMN Good Movies -- AQUAMAN

At long last, I'm back once again with another movie take, this time on the movie Aquaman, the sixth film of the DC Extended Universe.  As always, if you haven't seen the movie yet and you don't want it spoiled for you, then please step back from your computer or whatever electronic device you're reading this on and stop reading now. If, however, you're wise enough to know that movie reviews with spoilers are always more interesting than the ones without them...well...you have permission to come aboard!

Aquaman is, quite frankly, the movie I never thought I'd see.  Considered a joke by many,  who dismissed the character simply because he "talked to fish", Aquaman had a serious superhero cred issue until writer Peter David came along in 1996 and had a bunch of piranhas devour his left hand in Aquaman (vol.5) #2.  From that moment on, David reinvented the character as a long-haired, bearded, undersea warrior king, whose derided ability to "talk to fish" seemed considerably more impressive when commanding a group of sharks or 300,000-lb blue whales.  Another comics writer, Geoff Johns, helped definite Aquaman even further in 2011, creating a personal connection between the superhero and his arch-enemy, Black Manta, and developing his love interest Mera as a formidable superhero worthy of sharing the spotlight.

In 2004, Sunrise Entertainment's Alan and Peter Riche planned to bring Aquaman to the big screen for the first time, with Robert Ben Garant writing the screenplay, only to see the project fall through.  Five years later, Aquaman was in development at Leonardo DiCaprio's Appian Way, but it wasn't until 2014 when things really got moving.  Warner Bros. hired screenwriters Will Beall and Kurt Johnstad to prepare two separate scripts, with the film being developed on dual tracks and only the better version moving forward.  Beall's script got the nod, then was rewritten, and the long-named David Leslie Johnson-McGoldrick was brought in to work on it as well.  The Saw franchise's James Wan was tapped as director, while star Jason Momoa built up interest by appearing as Aquaman in Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice and Justice League.

The film opens with Aquaman's father, lighthouse keeper Thomas Curry, who rescues Atlanna, the formidable princess of the undersea nation of Atlantis, during a storm.  These crazy kids soon fall in love and have a son, Arthur, who's born with the aquatelepathic power to communicate with marine lifeforms.  After Atlantean soldiers show up, Atlanna's forced to abandon her family and return to Atlantis, leaving Thomas to raise Arthur alone and trusting her loyal advisor Nuidis Vulko with training Arthur.  Under Vulko's guidance, Arthur becomes a skilled warrior, but is rejected by the Atlanteans because he's a half-breed and ultimately leaves Atlantis behind.

Johns' creative influence here is obvious, especially as we pick up with Aquaman after the events of Justice League.  One year after Steppenwolf's assault on Earth, Arthur confronts a group of pirates attempting to hijack a nuclear submarine.  Their leader, Jesse Kane, dies during the face-off, while his son, David, vows revenge against Arthur for not rescuing Jesse from being trapped aboard the damaged and sinking submarine.  Aquaman choosing to do nothing to save a bad guy from drowning -- right in front of his son -- is one of the movie's genuinely surprising moments, which becomes that awkward moment when you give your future arch-enemy a great reason to hate you for all eternity.

David later targets Atlantis under the orders of Orm, Arthur's younger half-brother and Atlantis' king, who uses the attack as a reason to declare war on the surface.  King Nereus of Xebel swears allegiance to Orm's cause, but his daughter Mera, who was arranged to marry Orm, refuses to help them and travels to the surface to ask Arthur for help.  Unfortunately, Orm decided that's a good time to send a tsunami crashing onto the Maine coastline, which strikes the pickup truck Arthur and Thomas are riding in.  Mera earns Arthur's trust by saving Thomas, so he reluctantly accompanies Mera to rendezvous with Vulko.  

As we travel down to Atlantis, Wan showcases his artistry to amazing effect.  Despite being heavily CGI, Altantis looks absolutely incredible, everything Aquafans could've hoped to see.  Wan goes all out with the visuals, which are practically overwhelming even in standard 2-D, and then starts overwhelming us with Atlantean politics.  Vulko urges Arthur to find the Trident of Atlan, a magical artifact that once belonged to Atlantis’ first ruler, in order to claim his rightful place as king and oust the power-tripping Orm.  They get ambushed by Orm’s goons, with Mera and Vulko escaping while Arthur is captured.

We dive into the Second Act, as Orm visits Arthur in captivity and announces that Atlanna was executed for the crime of having a half-breed son, blaming Arthur and the surface for her death.  He offers Arthur an opportunity to leave forever, but Arthur instead challenges him to a duel in a ring of underwater lava.  (Wouldn't lava just cool and harden into stone as it hits the water, because science?)  Orm, with his considerable training, soon gets the upper hand and nearly kills Arthur before Mera rescues him, forcing the two to make a hasty exit from Atlantis.  The movie goes a bit Indiana Jones, as Arthur and Mera travel to the Sahara desert, where the trident was forged, and unlock a holographic message that leads them to Sicily, where they retrieve the trident’s coordinates.  Orm hooks up David with Atlantean armor and weaponry and sends him to stop them.  After learning of Vulko's betrayal, Orm imprisons him and coerces the remaining kingdoms of Atlantis to pledge allegiance to him as Ocean Master and support his campaign against the surface.

In Sicily, David, now going by the handle Black Manta, ambushes Arthur and Mera and injures Arthur before being thrown off a cliff to his apparent death.  Well, so much for Aquaman's arch-enemy.  Arthur and Mera finally track down the trident’s whereabouts, and Mera encourages him to embrace his destiny as the Man of Aqua.  Wan's horror movie background gets used to great effect as Arthur and Mera are attacked by a legion of amphibious monsters known as The Trench.  After the Trench swarms their stolen boat, they manage to fend them off and reach a whirlpool that transports them to an uncharted sea located at the center of the Earth.  There, they are unexpectedly reunited with Atlanna, who seems not very dead.  It turns out she was sacrificed to the Trench for her crimes but managed to escape and reach the uncharted sea, where she's been stranded ever since.

Onto the Third Act, Arthur faces off against Karathen, an impressive kraken-like leviathan that guards the trident and speaks with Julie Andrews' growling voice.  Arthur states his intent to protect both Atlantis and the surface, proving his worth and reclaiming the trident, which grants him control over the Seven Seas.  Now rocking his shiny Aquaman uniform, Arthur leads an army of marine creatures in an insane battle against Orm and his followers, who renounce Orm and embrace Aquaman as the true king after learning that he wields the Trident of Atlan.  To the surprise of no one, Aquaman defeats Ocean Master in combat, but chooses to spare his life.  Orm accepts his fate and surrenders, after discovering Arthur has found and rescued their mother.  And just to give the film a nice, happy ending, Atlanna returns to the surface to reunite with Thomas, while Arthur ascends to the throne with Mera by his side to wait for the inevitable sequel.

The movie's cast give some decent performances, bringing a lot of humor and heart in the process.  Here are some things that stood out:

AQUAMAN/ARTHUR CURRY -- In this third outing as Aquaman, Jason Momoa seems even more comfortable in the role, if that's even possible.  He's clearly having a good time here, bringing his goofy, brotastic charm when needed and looking imposing even with his shirt off.  Even though he's not as perfectly cast as Gal Gadot's Wonder Woman, Momoa is the Aquaman the DC Extended Universe needed at this moment in time.

MERA -- After making an extended cameo in Justice League, Amber Heard finally gets to shine as Mera.  Her character starts off as a bit of a stiff, but gradually warms up and finally starts clicking when Mera and Arthur go adventuring.  Her best moment, though, is probably in Sicily, when she eats roses, thinking they're food, which encourages Arthur to do the same to put her at ease.  A silly moment, sure, but one with lots of heart.

OCEAN MASTER/ORM MARIUS -- Patrick Wilson, best known to comic book movie fans as the second Nite Owl from Watchmen, gets to be the film's Big Bad as Ocean Master.  The contrast between Orm and Arthur is considerable, which makes Orm's surrender at the end all the more interesting as the two half-brothers finally find an understanding.  And with Orm in Atlantean prison, that certainly leaves him open for a future return appearance.

BLACK MANTA/DAVID KANE -- Yahya Abdul-Mateen II makes his debut as Black Manta and seems all but certain to be the Big Bad for Aquaman II: The Search for More Tridents.  His introduction in the early submarine sequence is strong, with his father's death becoming the prime motivation for his hatred of Aquaman.  Unfortunately, that potential gets wasted when he later suits up as Black Manta, in a costume that comes off more like a Power Rangers villain.  His quick defeat in Sicily doesn't help either, as Black Manta does a great impression of Homer Simpson falling down Springfield Gorge.  D'oh!

NUIDIS VULKO -- Willem Dafoe's background as the Green Goblin in Spider-Man and as Gill in Finding Nemo probably made him a perfect choice to be in Aquaman.  Here, Dafoe plays the role of Arthur's mentor and Orm's vizier, which could've made him more of a conflicted character than he turned out to be.  Essentially, Vulko is the Obi-Wan Kenobi to Aquaman's Luke Skywalker, although he certainly received a better fate...for now.

ATLANNA -- Even now at 51, Nicole Kidman is still a stunning on-screen presence.  As Arthur's mother Atlanna, she's an important part of Aquaman's origin and thankfully given more to do than just be the Atlantean woman Thomas Curry knocked up.  Her introduction to Thomas is a fun bit of chaos, as she freaks out and hurls a trident into Tom's TV set and practically trashes his lighthouse in the process.  Kidman even gets a solid action scene as she tries to fend off the Atlantean soldiers tasked with bringing her back to Atlantis.

TOM CURRY -- As Aquaman's father, Temuera Morrison is probably glad to have a decent, high-profile gig after playing Jango Fett in the Star Wars prequels and Abin Sur in Green Lantern.  He does a good job here, particularly in the bar scene with Jason Momoa and his scenes with Nicole Kidman's Atlanna.  Tom and Atlanna's long-awaited reunion at the end of the film is a solid Kleenex box moment, as proven by my wife's tearful reaction.

THE TRENCH -- Holy crap, how great did the Trench look in this movie?  Despite their limited screen time, these Geoff Johns and Ivan Reis creations were very nasty threats to Arthur and Mera.  As the two descended down into the darkened depths, the Trench looked even more frightening and helped make a simple transitional sequence tense and gripping to watch.

DR. STEPHEN SHIN -- Randall Park makes a couple of cameos as Dr. Stephen Shin, another Geoff Johns and Ivan Reis creation.  Shin's obsession with Atlantis is key to his character, and the post-credits scene revealing that Shin rescued Black Manta sets up his appearance in a sequel rather nicely.

KING NEREUS -- The last person you probably expected to appear in Aquaman is probably Dolph Lundgren, the original movie Punisher and Rocky IV Big Bad.  But here he is, and he actually does a decent turn as King Nereus, Mera's father, who ends up a pawn in the Ocean Master's masterplan.  Let's see if he's around to give the bride away at Arthur and Mera's eventual wedding.

All in all, Aquaman is a fun, visually stunning movie that demands to be seen in the theaters.  Ignore the Rotten Tomatoes critics, whose anti-superhero movie agenda couldn't be more obvious in their reviews, and just enjoy the undersea sci-fi/fantasy spectacle James Wan and his team delivered.  Yes, it's flawed, especially compared to Black Panther or Wonder Woman, but Aquaman feels like DC movies are finally moving away from Zack Snyder's grim and gritty broodfest and embracing some of what makes Marvel films so loved by fans.  It's another step forward for DC films, and an incredible achievement for a character that "talks to fish".

And for those who may be wondering, here's the updated list of my Top 20 Comic Book Films:

1. Superman (1978)
2. The Dark Knight (2008)

3. Avengers: Infinity War (2018)

4. The Avengers (2012)

5. Batman Begins (2005)

6. Logan (2017)

7. Captain America: Civil War (2016)

8. Black Panther (2018)

9. Man of Steel (2013)

10. Captain America: The Winter Soldier (2014)

11. Doctor Strange (2016)

12. Wonder Woman (2017)

13. Spider-Man 2 (2004)

14. Spider-Man (2002)

15. Aquaman (2018)

16. Iron Man (2008)

17. Guardians of the Galaxy (2014)
18. Watchmen (2009)
19. Captain America: The First Avenger (2011)

20. Thor (2011)

DAMN Good Movies -- SOLO: A STAR WARS STORY

I thought we were in trouble there for a second, but it's fine.  We're fine.

That's right, it's time once again for another of my movie takes, this time on Solo: A Star Wars Story, the latest in the Star Wars film series exploring the origin of Han Solo.  As always, if you haven't seen the movie yet and you don't want it spoiled for you, then please step back from your computer or whatever electronic device you're reading this on and stop reading now.  If, however, you're wise enough to know that movie reviews with spoilers are always more interesting than the ones without them...well...I've got a good feeling about this.

With the first Star Wars Story anthology film Rogue One making over $1 billion worldwide, Walt Disney Studios and Lucasfilm were understandably ready to go forward with a second.  Before selling the Star Wars franchise to Disney, George Lucas was developing his "Young Han Solo Chronicles" project and hired veteran Star Wars screenwriter Lawrence Kasdan for the screenplay.  While Kasdan left to help finish up the Star Wars: The Force Awakens script, his son Jonathan Kasdan took over until he was able to get back to it.  The LEGO Movie's Phil Lord and Christopher Miller were tapped to direct, and after finding new Han Solo Alden Ehrenreich after a reported search of over 3,000 people, the project was off and running.  All good, right?  Right?

In June 2017, Lucasfilm cited the old "creative differences" and parted ways with Lord and Miller, following reports of them encouraging too much improvisation from Kasdan's script and Lucasfilm not exactly feeling the footage they reviewed.  Ron Howard, who was directed by George Lucas in the 1973 movie American Graffiti, was brought in to take the reins and get things back on track.  The rumor of an acting coach being brought in for Aldenreich was later debunked, but Michael K. Williams, who had already been filmed as the movie's villain Dryden Vos, was replaced with Paul Bettany when Williams became unavailable for reshoots and the character being reworked from a motion-capture alien.  Star Wars fans and critics already skeptical about the need for a Han Solo movie trolled the production pretty hard by this point, leaving a big question about what Howard's end result would be.

The second Star Wars Story film begins missing the classic crawl once again, but this time,  it's replaced with some opening text that helps establish the setting better than in the start of Rogue One.  We're told that the galaxy is in a state of disorder (Thanks a lot,  @realEmperorPalpatine), with criminal syndicates competing for valuable resources such as hyperfuel.  We open on the shipbuilding world of Corellia, finally getting to see Han Solo's homeworld, where orphaned children are made to steal in order to survive.  

Our introduction to young Han (just Han at this point) and his girlfriend Qi'ra sets the movie's fast pace, with a landspeeder chase that ultimately leads them back into the clutches of a local criminal gang led by a snakelike alien named Lady Proxima.  Tramps like them, baby, they're born to run from Corellia, so they successfully bribe an Imperial officer who grants them passage on an outgoing transport.  Han makes it through the checkpoint gate, but Qi'ra is snagged by their pursuers before she can join him.  Now separated, Han vows to return for her, and with no means of income, he joins the Imperial Navy as a flight cadet, with the Imperial recruiting officer dubbing him "Han Solo" as a surname.

Three years later, we find out that Han was expelled from the Imperial Flight Academy for insubordination, and now serves as an infantryman during a battle on the planet Mimban. Seeing the senselessness of war, he's drawn to a gang of criminals posing as Imperial soldiers, led by Tobias Beckett and conisting of his wife Val and an annoying four-armed alien named Rio Durant.  He tries to blackmail the gang into allowing him to join, but Beckett instead has him arrested as a deserter and condemned to battle a "beast" held in captivity. The beast, of course, turns out to be the mighty Chewbacca and a friendship is born.  Thanks to Han's ability to speak enough Shyriiwook to communicate, the two stage a fight for the benefit of their captors and escape after collapsing their cell.  Strangely sympathetic, Beckett decides to rescue Han and Chewie, and enlists them for a planned train heist to steal a shipment of the hyperfuel coaxium on the planet Vandor.

In the movie's Second Act, an impressive train heist sequence continues the film's hyperpace (See what I did there?), with Han and Chewie getting some on-the-job training as they fend off Imperial guards protecting the shipment and a gang of marauders led by the masked Enfys Nest.  Tobias' pilot Rio is predictably killed off in the process, giving Han a chance to step up in the role, but rather disappointingly, so is Val.  The heist ends up going south, when Han, on the ship, gets into a tug of war with Enfys Nest and is forced to ditch the shipment.  Having lost his wife and his pilot, all for nothing, Beckett is understandably piiiiiiiissed.  He reveals he was ordered to steal the shipment for Dryden Vos, leader of the Crimson Dawn criminal syndicate, and now he's worried that Vos willing be coming for him.  Han and Chewie volunteer to help him steal another shipment as repayment, then travel to Vos' yacht where Han is stunned to find Qi'ra there as Vos' arm candy.  Oh, and it turns out she's a member of Crimson Dawn as well.  Han scrambles a bit, but comes up with a plan to steal unrefined coaxium from the mines on Kessel (Yes, the famous "Kessel Run" Kessel).  Vos, meanwhile, insists on Qi'ra accompanying them.

Looking for a fast ship to pull the heist, Qi'ra introduces Han and Chewie to Lando Calrissian, who is as egocentric in his youth as Han is impulsive.  Han challenges Lando to a game of sabacc, with the wager being Lando's ship, reputed to be the fastest in the galaxy.  Diehard Star Wars fans expect the game to end a certain way, but Lando actually wins by cheating.  Regardless, he still ends up joining the mission in exchange for a share of the profits.  The team boards his ship—you guessed it, the Millennium Falcon—and head for Kessel.  After reaching the planet and infiltrating the mine, Lando's equal rights crusader/co-pilot droid L3-37 gives them a small distraction by causing a mass revolt from other droids and enslaved Wookiees.  They use the chaos to steal a consignment of unprocessed, volatile coaxium, but L3 gets severely damaged and Lando is injured during the escape.  At long last, Han gets to pilot the Falcon, knowing that they need to make a "Kessel Run" in less than twenty parsecs to reach a processing station before the coaxium explodes.  Things naturally go sideways when an Imperial blockade shows up to complicate things, but Han proves he's a hell of a pilot that would make Poe Dameron proud.  They rendezvous with Vos on the planet Savareen, although the Falcon ends up considerably dinged during the run.

As we head into the Third Act, things take on more of a space Western vibe.  Vos surprises the team by announcing that the coaxium is fake and that Beckett betrayed them, to the surprise of no one actually paying attention.   Beckett ratted to Vos about Han's plan to give the real shipment to the Cloud Riders, the group led by Enfys Nest who turn out to be rebels.  However, in a nice turnaround, Han mentions he anticipated Beckett's shady move and the coaxium they're holding is real.  Beckett takes Chewbacca hostage (somehow) and takes off with the coaxium, leading to a gunfight between Han, Qi'ra and Vos that ends up with Qi'ra killing Vos.  She urges Han to help the Cloud Riders and tells him she'll join him shortly, only to seal the room and look all ominous after Han leaves.

Han catches up with Beckett and Chewbacca and in welcome moment, he shoots first and kills Beckett.  Han and Chewbacca turn over the coaxium to Enfys Nest, who reveals her plans to use the fuel to aid the rebellion against the Empire.  She offers Han the chance to join her but he passes, leaving Enfys Nest to suggest that some day he might feel more sympathetic to the rebels because foreshadowing.  

The movie's one real surprise moment happens when Qi'ra contacts her superior, who unexpectedly turns out to be Darth Maul, with the presumption that everyone watched the Star Wars: The Clone Wars animated series.  She informs Maul of the mission's failure and assumes Vos' position, because apparently, being a Khaleesi isn't enough.  Meanwhile, to check off one last important box, Han and Chewie track down Lando at another sabacc game and Han challenges him once again or ownership of the Falcon.  Now hip to Lando's tricksy ways, though, Han relieves Lando of the cards hidden in his sleeve and wins the second game.  As the new captain of the Millennium Falcon, Han tells Chewie his plan is to go to Tatooine, where Beckett mentioned a "gangster" who's putting an organization together.  Hope you like having a price on your head, Han...

So what about the performances from the cast and the characters they portrayed?  Well, as you might expect, I have a few thoughts...

HAN SOLO -- Let's face it, Alden Ehrenreich was in a no-win scenario taking over for Harrison Ford.  Either he doesn't act enough like Ford to satisfy fans of the character or he doesn't make the role his own, like Roger Moore did taking over from Sean Connery as James Bond.  He does well enough here, bringing Han's cocky attitude in all the right moments, but he doesn't seem as confident in the role as Ford did.

CHEWBACCA -- After fully assuming the role of Chewie in Star Wars: The Last Jedi, Joonas Suotamo finally gets to do something more with the character than just being annoyed by Porgs.  He gets to throw down with Han in a mud pit during their first encounter, helps Han during the train heist, and even gets to liberate some of his fellow Wookiees.  As always, Chewie steals every scene he's in and it was great to see him get so much screen time here.

TOBIAS BECKETT -- Woody Harrelson takes on the role of Han's mentor in crime, showing us what Han probably would've turned out like had he never met Leia and joined the Rebellion.  We get a small taste of his relationship with Val, but she's killed off far too soon for it to matter.  It was a little disappointing to see him turn on Han at the end so easily, but unlike George Lucas, at least Beckett respects Han for shooting first.

QI'RA -- Fresh from Westeros, Emilia Clarke plays Han's lover from Corellia, whose life diverges considerably from his.  She's essentially the femme fatale here, the character you know is nothing but bad news for the hero, who can't help but be romantically attracted to her.  We learn Qi'ra is under Dryden Vos' thumb, so we're glad to see her take him out until we quickly find out she did it as a power move to work more closely with Darth Maul.

LANDO CALRISSIAN -- Taking over from Billy Dee Williams, Donald Glover also had to live up to portraying a classic Star Wars character.  Unlike Ehrenreich, though, Glover seems far more comfortable doing so and comes off enjoying himself as Lando.  Glover doesn't have Williams' natural smooth charm, but he definitely depicts Lando's egocentrism and occasional shallowness.  Regardless, Lando's strong desire to rescue L3-37 was surprising, and now I want to know more of why Lando felt so much over a droid.

DRYDEN VOS -- As mentioned above, Paul Bettany took over from Michael K. Williams as the film's villain and I think the decision to make Vos humanoid was a good one.  Bettany is solid at this type of role, and displays his power over Qi'ra while also being quietly menacing in social settings as if he were a James Bond villain.  Ultimately, he ends up underestimating Qi'ra's ambition, or overestimating his power over her, which leads to his downfall.

L3-37 -- Phoebe Waller-Bridge is Star Wars' first major female droid character, a self-made droid that given the personality of an equal rights crusader.  L3 gets a strange but fun scene with Qi'ra talking about the ability of droids to have physical relationships with humans, but her big moment is obviously when she creates a "distraction" in the coaxium mines on Kessel that quickly turns into a full-fledged uprising.  And even though L3 is destroyed, it's somehow comforting to know she lives on as the Falcon's navigational system.

VAL -- Taking a break from HBO's Westworld, Thandie Newton turns up as Val, Beckett's lover and fellow scoundrel.  We don't really learn that much about Val, apart from her being a no-nonsense type that's great with a blaster rifle.  And because Val is such a underdeveloped character, her death scene during the train heist only causes the barest of shrugs.  

RIO DURANT -- Jon Favreau voices a four-armed Ardennian pilot named Rio, who was so obviously expendable you expected him to have the word "expendable" tattooed onto his forehead.  As Beckett's first pilot, Rio's character tries way too hard to be funny and comes off more annoying than anything else.

DARTH MAUL CAMEO -- Ray Park (with Sam Witwer providing the voice) returns as Maul, who's revealed to be the Big Bad that Dryden Vos, the public leader of the crime syndicate Crimson Dawn, answers to.  We don't get an explanation of how Maul survived the end of The Phantom Menace or how he's suddenly rocking a replacement bottom half, so you'll have to research that on your own.  In this cameo scene, Maul commands Qi'ra to meet with him on Dathomir and warns her they'll work more closely from now on, igniting his lightsaber.  To be continued...?

All in all, Solo: A Star Wars Story is better than a lot of us were dreading.  It's a fun, fast-paced ride that often feels more like a space Western than a heist movie, revealing the promised backstory of Han Solo with some old friends and new characters along the way.  It's a credit to Ron Howard that he could step in over two-thirds into production and pull things together into a decent, entertaining movie, but I have to think there was some lost potential here.  Solo ends in a such a way to hint at more with Han Solo, Qi'ra and Darth Maul, and Ehrenreich was reportedly signed for three films should they choose to do a sequel, but with an underperforming opening weekend, I honestly don't know if that's going to happen.  But hey, never tell Han Solo the odds.

And for those who may be wondering, here's my personal ranking of the Star Wars films:

1. Star Wars (1977)
2. The Empire Strikes Back (1980)
3. Star Wars: The Force Awakens (2015)
4. Return of the Jedi (1983)
5. Star Wars: The Last Jedi (2017)
6. Rogue One: A Star Wars Story (2016)
7. Solo: A Star Wars Story (2018)
8. Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith (2005)
9. Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones (2002)
10. Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace (1999)

DAMN Good Movies -- AVENGERS: INFINITY WAR

You guessed it, I'm back once again with another movie take, this time on the movie Avengers: Infinity War, the nineteenth film of the Marvel Cinematic Universe.  As always, if you haven't seen the movie yet and you don't want it spoiled for you, then please step back from your computer or whatever electronic device you're reading this on and stop reading now. If, however, you're wise enough to know that movie reviews with spoilers are always more interesting than the ones without them...well...time to assemble!

It's all been leading to this.  Eighteen Marvel Cinematic Universe films introducing and connecting various Marvel characters, all with the ultimate goal of having the Marvel superheroes and assorted supporting characters finally face the looming threat of Big Bad supervillain Thanos.  Directors Anthony and Joe Russo and screenwriters Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely, who earned their geek cred with the stellar Captain America: The Winter Soldier and Captain America: Civil War films, loosely based the film on Jim Starlin's The Infinity Gauntlet comic series and elements from Jonathan Hickman's Infinity event series.  Oh, and there was only the ridiculous expectations of millions of MCU fans to consider as well.

Believe it or not, though...they pulled it off.

The film opens with Thanos and his Black Order lieutenants — Corvus Glaive, Ebony Maw, Cull Obsidian, and Proxima Midnight — intercepting the spaceship carrying the survivors of Asgard's destruction after the events of Thor: Ragnarok.  Having already acquired the Power Stone from the planet Xandar, Thanos extracts the Space Stone from the Tesseract that Loki nicked when everyone wasn't looking.  Eyepatch Thor is taken out, and Thanos beats the unholy hell out of the Hulk (!!!) and kills Loki, traumatizing thousands of weeping Hiddlestoners in the process.  Before being taken off the board as well, Heimdall sends the Hulk to Earth using the Bifröst.  Thanos and the Black Order depart, and the ship is obliterated.

So right off the bat, we see that Thanos isn't playing around and neither are the Russos.  Two longtime characters dead, and the two strongest Avengers thrown around like they were nothing.  All before you've made a dent in your bag of popcorn.

The Hulk crash-lands into Doctor Strange's Sanctum Sanctorum in New York, reverting to Bruce Banner.  He warns Strange and his assistant Wong about Thanos' plan to kill half of all life in the universe, so Doctor Strange decides maybe bringing in Tony Stark would be a good idea.  Ebony Maw and Cull Obsidian arrive to get the Time Stone from Strange's Eye of Agamotto, with their big, wheel-shaped spaceship tingling the Spider-Sense of Peter Parker.  During a brutal friendly neighborhood battle, Ebony Maw captures Doctor Strange, but fails to take the Time Stone due to an enchantment.  Iron Man and Spider-Man pursue Ebony Maw's spaceship as it leaves orbit, while Banner splits to contact Steve Rogers, and Wong decides he's staying behind to guard the Sanctum.  Smart move, Wong.

Meanwhile in Scotland, Proxima Midnight and Corvus Glaive ambush the Vision and the Scarlet Witch in order to retrieve the Mind Stone from Vision's forehead.  Steve Rogers (Don't call him Captain America), Black Widow and The Falcon rescue them and hide out with War Machine and Bruce Banner at the Avengers Compound.  Vision offers to sacrifice himself by having the Scarlet Witch destroy the Mind Stone to keep Thanos from getting his oversized mitts on it.  Steve suggests they go to Wakanda, where he believes has the resources to remove the Mind Stone without destroying the Vision and is a very popular place these days.

At this point, with most of the film's major players revealed, anyone who hasn't seen at least 3/4 of the MCU movies is probably going to feel a bit lost.  It becomes all too apparent that Avengers: Infinity War is the advanced class for Marvel fans, and the Russos make no apology for it.  They give only the barest explanations for who all these characters are, and plow straight ahead, expecting everyone watching to know their MCU lore back to front.

We go into the Second Act with the Guardians of the Galaxy responding to a distress call from the Asgardian ship and giving the movie a much-needed humor boost.  They find and rescue Thor, who guesses that Thanos wants the Reality Stone, which is in the possession of the Collector on Knowhere.  The group splits up, with Rocket and Groot accompanying Thor to Nidavellir, where they and a giant Dwarf named Eitri create an enchanted axe hammer called Stormbreaker that's capable of killing Thanos.  On Knowhere, Star-Lord, Gamora, Drax, and Mantis find Thanos with the Reality Stone already in his possession.  Ruh-roh!  Thanos kidnaps Gamora, his adoptive daughter, who reveals the location of the Soul Stone to save her captive adoptive sister Nebula from torture.  Thanos and Gamora head to a planet called Vormir, where we're stunned to find the Red Skull, of all people, is now the keeper of the Soul Stone.  The Red Skull informs Thanos that the stone can only be retrieved by sacrificing someone he loves, so Thanos reluctantly sends Gamora over a cliff, granting him the Soul Stone and delivering another big death.

Nebula escapes her captivity and asks the remaining Guardians to meet her on Thanos' homeworld, Titan.  Iron Man and Spider-Man kill Ebony Maw (as "heroes" do these days) by ejecting him from his ship, and rescue Doctor Strange.  Landing on Titan, they meet Star-Lord, Drax, and Mantis, and there's some quippy banter as Tony Stark and Peter Quill butt heads to become the alpha.  The group forms a plan to remove Thanos' Infinity Gauntlet,  after Doctor Strange uses the Time Stone to view millions of possible futures, seeing only one in which Thanos loses, so...no pressure.  Thanos arrives, justifying his plans as necessary for the survival of a universe threatened by overpopulation.  The big plan actually put Thanos on the ropes...until Nebula realizes that Thanos killed Gamora.  As you might expect, Star-Lord flips out and goes after Thanos, breaking their hold on him, who then overpowers everyone.  D'oh!  Doctor Strange surrenders the Time Stone in exchange for Thanos sparing Iron Man, because remember, he saw all those possible futures, and Thanos heads for Earth to finish off his jewelry set.

It's time for the Third Act and boy, is this one a doozy.  In Wakanda, Steve Rogers reunites with his ol' pal the Winter Soldier before Thanos' army of Outriders invades.  This group of Avengers, alongside the Black Panther and bunch of ready-to-throw-down Wakandans, mount a defense while the Panther's sister Shuri scrambles to extract the Mind Stone from Vision. Banner, unable to transform into the Hulk because the Hulk's a'scared, is forced to fights using Iron Man's Hulkbuster armor.  Just when the battle starts to go south, Thor, Rocket, and Groot arrive as reinforcements.  Proxima Midnight, Cull Obsidian, and Corvus Glaive are killed and their Outrider army is defeated.  The victory is short-lived, however, as Thanos arrives.  Despite the Scarlet Witch's attempt to destroy the Mind Stone, Thanos retrieves the stone from the Vision, destroying him in the latest gut-punch.  Thor severely wounds Thanos, but Thanos uses his now-complete Infinity Gauntlet and teleports away.

And then, everyone (especially the audience) sees the ramifications of what just happened.  With Thanos' plan all kinds of winning, half of all life across the universe starts disintegrating in a series of horrific moments.  One by one, fan favorites like the Winter Soldier, the Black Panther, Groot, the Scarlet Witch, the Falcon, Mantis, Drax, Star-Lord, Doctor Strange, and even Spider-Man are taken off the board.  Iron Man and Nebula remain on Titan while Steve Rogers, Bruce Banner, Black Widow, Okoye, War Machine, M'Baku, and Thor are left on the Wakandan battlefield wondering what the hell just happened.  Meanwhile, on some other planet, Thanos finally kicks back and rests in satisfaction as the credits start rolling, and millions of voices in movie theaters all over the world suddenly cry out in terror and are suddenly silenced.

As expected, the film's ginormous cast give some great performances, with some entertaining and emotionally powerful character moments.  Here are some of the things that stood out:

IRON MAN/TONY STARK -- We may be seeing the final two-part ride for Robert Downey, Jr. as Iron Man.  In this film, Tony still has some residual PTSD issues from the first Avengers film and some wedding issues with Pepper Potts to work out, but his best moments come when he views Peter Parker as he son he'll never have.  This, of course, makes Peter's disintegration at the end so powerful.

STEVE ROGERS -- Chris Evans isn't going by his Captain America handle this time, as anyone who saw Captain America: Civil War can understand.  Regardless, Steve is still very much the hero and leader we need him to be, and gets a great moment when he's defiantly struggling and pushing back against Thanos, for all the good both know it will do.

THOR ODINSON -- Fresh off the events of Thor: Ragnarok, Chris Hemsworth's Thor is still being played more for laughs as he was there.  He gets some fun moments meeting the Guardians of the Galaxy, but it's his acquisition of Stormbreaker that I find more intriguing.  Does this mean we could finally see Beta Ray Bill?

HULK/BRUCE BANNER -- Mark Ruffalo finally gets to be more active in a Marvel movie than his big, green alter ego.  After having the gamma rays kicked out of him by Thanos, the Hulk is now refusing to come out and play, even with Puny Banner becoming angry.  This movie is probably a big letdown for Hulk fans, so hopefully The Strongest One There Is gets off the bench early in Avengers 4.

BLACK WIDOW/NATASHA ROMANOFF -- For some reason, Scarlett Johansson is sporting her natural blond hair this time as Black Widow.  Sure, it can be easily explained away as a dye job while she's being a fugitive from justice, but why wouldn't Natasha just wear a wig instead?  And more importantly, why wouldn't Johansson at least wear a red wig if she didn't want to dye her hair this time?  Thanos, would you mind fixing this with your Infinity Gauntlet, because this is obviously really important.

THANOS -- Josh Brolin has been playing Thanos in post-credit cameos since 2014 and finally gets to step up as the Big Bad.  Interestingly, Thanos ditches the armor he's typically known for, presumably in an attempt to make the character more relatable and less like a throwaway CGI villain like Steppenwolf in DC's Justice League movie.  A good villain sees themself as a the hero of the story, and Thanos certainly does that, even when erasing half the population of the universe from existence.

BLACK PANTHER/T'CHALLA -- It seems a little weird to see Chadwick Boseman here as Black Panther while his insanely popular solo film is still making money in movie theaters.  Regardless, it's still great to see T'Challa leading Okoye, M'Baku and the other Wakandans into battle in a sequence that feels like the Marvel Comics version of Lord of the Rings.

DOCTOR STRANGE/DR. STEPHEN STRANGE -- Benedict Cumberbatch is still waiting for Doctor Strange 2 to be greenlit, so it was nice to see him be a major player in this movie.  Strange has a great moment with Spider-Man that makes me want to see them do a Marvel team-up at some point.

SPIDER-MAN/PETER PARKER -- And speaking of our friendly neighboorhood wall-crawler, Tom Holland seems more comfortable in the role with each movie he does.  Peter finally gets his Iron Spider suit from Tony this time and gets some good Spidey quips in, but it's his disintegration moment that proves most powerful.  We see Peter as just a scared kid that doesn't want to die and the moment is truly heartbreaking, even though common sense tells us Marvel isn't about to let Spider-Man go after fighting to get him back all these years.

THE FALCON/SAM WILSON -- Anthony Mackie's Falcon is one of the more underused Avengers.  He gets some good action scenes, but nothing truly notable, even his disintegration.

SCARLET WITCH/WANDA MAXIMOFF -- As the Scarlet Witch, Elizabeth Olsen gets to explore a little romance with the Vision this time.  Her biggest moment comes when Wanda has to set aside her love and try to destroy the Mind Stone, but of course, far too late.

THE VISION -- Paul Bettany gets a little character development this time, with the Vision taking on hair and a more human appearance (presumably so Bettany wouldn't always be in hours of makeup).  He also proves his selflessness by being willing to risk losing himself with the destruction of the Mind Stone.

WAR MACHINE/JAMES "RHODEY" RHODES -- As Rhodey, Don Cheadle is another underused Avenger, but he does get a fun moment where he tricks Bruce Banner into needlessly bowing before Black Panther.

THE WINTER SOLDIER/JAMES "BUCKY" BARNES -- Sebastian Stan's Bucky is finally reunited with his longtime friend Steve Rogers, which I'm sure made the Stucky shippers squee with delight.  Even better, Bucky gets a new bionic arm and some solid action scenes during the Outriders battle.

STAR-LORD/PETER QUILL -- Chris Pratt's Star-Lord never changes, nor should he.  As the MCU's Han Solo, Star-Lord gets into an alpha male contest with Tony Stark, but you just want to smack Quill upside the head when he flips out on Thanos and lets him break free.

GAMORA -- As Thanos' adoptive daughter, Zoe Saldana finally gets to explore the connection between the two characters.  We even get to see how Thanos met Gamora as a small child after wiping out her mother and her entire race.  She even gets a big death scene moment, arguably the biggest of the movie if you don't count Thanos wiping out half the universe.

DRAX THE DESTROYER -- Dave Bautista's Drax finally gets to attempt some vengeance on Thanos for the murder of his wife and child, but of course, it doesn't lead anywhere.  

ROCKET RACCOON -- Bradley Cooper has some fun moments with mopey teenaged Groot this time and gets to hang out with Thor for a bit, but for those paying attention, Rocket is now the sole surviving Guardian of the Galaxy.  I'm sure he's not going to take that well in the next Avengers movie and I can't wait to see what happens.

GROOT -- Groot fans wanting to see everyone's favorite living tree back to normal get some progress, but we're still not there yet.  Vin Diesel is now voicing the character as a sulky teen obsessed with his retro hand-held video game, which is cute for a couple of scenes, but I'm ready to see adult Groot again.

MANTIS -- Pom Klementieff only really gets to shine as Mantis when she and the other Guardians recover Thor in space, but she does help with the big attempt to subdue Thanos and take his Infinity Gauntlet, for all the good it does.  Way to go, "Star-Lord"...

NEBULA -- As Thanos' other adoptive daughter, Karen Gillan's Nebula spends most of the movie being tortured and stretched apart by Thanos.  She does make her escape though, and if you've read The Infinity Gauntlet, you know how important she might be in Avengers 4.  Definitely a character to watch very closely next time.

EITRI -- I have to think Peter Dinklage took some joy in playing a character who's a giant, even though he's considered a Dwarf.  As Eitri, he gets to craft a new hammer for Thor to use and any fan of Walt Simonson's Thor comics run had to be smiling when he was on the screen.

THE COLLECTOR/TANELEER TIVAN -- Benicio del Toro's reprises the Collector once again, but this time as an illusion created by Thanos using the Reality Stone.  We're not really sure if he's actually dead or not, but it's implied that Thanos killed him before the Guardians of the Galaxy arrived at Knowhere.

OKOYE -- As one of the big highlights of the solo Black Panther movie, Danai Gurira's Okoye gets to help T'Challa lead the Wakandan forces into battle against the Outriders, and her eyeroll is strong when Bruce Banner faceplants while running in the Hulkbuster armor.

SHURI -- Another highlight from the Black Panther movie was Letitia Wright as Shuri, who practically stole every scene she was in.  Here, she has a fun moment being a science geek with Bruce Banner before she is forced to scramble attempting to remove the Vision's Mind Stone before Thanos arrived.

WONG -- Also waiting for the Doctor Strange 2 greenlight, Benedict Wong's Wong (Yes, I know what I just typed) gets to use his typical deadpan humor to great effect.  You also have to respect Wong for having the sense to deliberately sit this one out and stick to his responsibilities.

LOKI LAUFEYSON CAMEO -- As Loki once again, Tom Hiddleston tries to pull a fast one on Thanos in the opening sequence, only to end up dead in the film's first shocking moment.

HEIMDALL CAMEO -- Idris Elba only gets one scene in the movie as Heimdall, but it's a big one as Heimdall is killed after sending the Hulk to Earth.  

RED SKULL CAMEO -- The Walking Dead's Ross Marquand takes over for Hugo Weaving as Captain America's arch-enemy, who turns up unexpectedly on Vormir as the keeper of the Soul Stone.  Now that he doesn't have the Soul Stone, maybe he should return to Earth and be Captain America's main bad guy again?  Just sayin'.

OBLIGATORY STAN LEE CAMEO -- Stan "The Man" turns up as a school bus driver taking Peter to school, only for Peter to duck out to investigate the arrival of Ebony Maw's spaceship.

NICK FURY AND MARIA HILL CAMEOS -- Samuel L. Jackson and Cobie Smulders appear in the post-credits scene, where Nick Fury transmits a distress signal just in the nick of time (See what I did there?) as he, Maria Hill and others also disintegrate.  The transmitter displays a yellow star insignia of Captain Marvel on a red-and-blue background, so be sure to go see her movie.

All in all, Avengers: Infinity War actually lives up to its insane amount of hype.  The film is essentially The Empire Strikes Back of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, bringing everything fans love only to end on a brutal downbeat cliffhanger.  While we wait for the big Cosmic Reset Button to be pushed in Avengers 4 (Quick, go read The Infinity Gauntlet to find out how), the big question is, will that film stick the landing better than Return of the Jedi did?  Well, at least there shouldn't be any Ewoks...although that could be kind of amazing and Disney does own both franchises...Hmmm...

And for those who may be wondering, here's the updated list of my Top 20 Comic Book Films:

1. Superman (1978)
2. The Dark Knight (2008)

3. Avengers: Infinity War (2018)

4. The Avengers (2012)

5. Batman Begins (2005)

6. Logan (2017)

7. Captain America: Civil War (2016)

8. Black Panther (2018)

9. Man of Steel (2013)

10. Captain America: The Winter Soldier (2014)

11. Doctor Strange (2016)

12. Wonder Woman (2017)

13. Spider-Man 2 (2004)

14. Spider-Man (2002)

15. Iron Man (2008)

16. Guardians of the Galaxy (2014)
17. Watchmen (2009)
18. Captain America: The First Avenger (2011)

19. Thor (2011)

20. Justice League (2017)

DAMN Good Movies -- BLACK PANTHER

That's right, I'm back once again with another movie take, this time on the movie Black Panther, the latest film of the Marvel Cinematic Universe.  As always, if you haven't seen the movie yet and you don't want it spoiled for you, then please step back from your computer or whatever electronic device you're reading this on and stop reading now.  If, however, you're wise enough to know that movie reviews with spoilers are always more interesting than the ones without them...well...Wakanda forever!

The struggle to get a Black Panther movie made has been going on longer than you think.  Back in 1992, actor Wesley Snipes (who went on to play Blade, of course) announced his intention to bring the character to the big screen and entered talks with Columbia Pictures, but script problems and confusion with the Black Panther Party affected the film's development.  In 1998, Marvel placed the movie on its film slate, but corporate problems put the project on hold for two years, when Artisan Entertainment announced a deal to co-produce and finance the film.  

That eventually went nowhere, so jumping ahead to 2005, Marvel announced Black Panther would be one of ten films developed by Marvel Studios and distributed by Paramount Pictures.  Marvel spent the next several years trying to develop the film, approaching director John Singleton and a number of writers, but still no movie sign.  Finally in 2014, Marvel announced Black Panther for November 2017, with Chadwick Boseman in the title role.  They spent another year trying to land a director, eventually bringing aboard Ryan Coogler after the success of his 2015 film Creed.

Black Panther opens centuries ago, with a backstory presented as a fable of five African tribes who warred over a meteorite containing the fictional metal vibranium.  A warrior consumed a "heart-shaped herb" that was affected by the metal and gained superhuman abilities, becoming the first "Black Panther" and uniting all tribes (except the declining Jabari Tribe) to form the nation of Wakanda.  Over time, the Wakandans used the vibranium to develop highly advanced technology and hid their advanced civilization from the world by disguising themselves as a poor Third World country.

We skip ahead to 1992, where King T'Chaka, the reigning Black Panther, travels to Oakland, California, to visit his undercover brother, N'Jobu.  It turns out super-shady arms dealer Ulysses Klaue (from Avengers: Age of Ultron) had infiltrated Wakanda and stolen vibranium, leading T'Chaka to accuse N'Jobu of helping him.  N'Jobu's friend reveals himself to be Zuri, another undercover Wakandan, who confirms T'Chaka's suspicions.

Finally switching to he present day, we pick up with events following T'Chaka's death at the hands of Helmut Zemo in Captain America; Civil War.  His son T'Challa, last seen in Civil War, returns to Wakanda to assume the throne and the mantle of the Black Panther.  He and Okoye, the leader of the Amazonesque elite bodyguards known as the Dora Milaje, extract his ex-lover Nakia from an undercover assignment so she can attend his coronation ceremony, along with T'Challa's mother Ramonda and his younger sister Shuri.  At the ceremony held at Warrior Falls, the Jabari Tribe's leader M'Baku challenges T'Challa for the crown in ritual combat.  T'Challa soon defeats M'Baku and convinces him to yield instead of dying during their fight.

By this point, it becomes more than clear that this isn't your typical Marvel movie.  After introducing us to the amazing technological spectacle of Wakanda, Coogler delivers an impressive sight of hundreds of people from the five tribes, all with painted faces and brightly-colored ceremonial costumes, decorating the waterfall's rockface and taking part in the ritual.  It's not Peter Parker crushing on a girl in high school or Tony Stark throwing a glitzy party, that's for sure.

Klaue and a man named Erik Stevens, meanwhile, steal an ancient Wakandan artifact from a museum that contains vibranium.  T'Challa learns that Klaue plans to sell the artifact in an underground casino in Busan, South Korea, and W'Kabi, T'Challa's friend and Okoye's lover, tells him to either kill Klaue or bring him to Wakanda for trial because Klaue was responsible for murdering his parents.  T'Challa, Okoye, and Nakia travel to the casino (which looks a lot like the Macau casino in the James Bond movie Skyfall), where T'Challa learns CIA agent Everett K. Ross, whom he met in Civil War, is the intended buyer.  A firefight breaks out, Klaue escapes, and Okoye, Nakia and Ross take off after him.  A very Bondish car chase through the streets of Busan follows, with T'Challa capturing Klaue with Shuri's help.

We head into the Second Act with Ross interrogating Klaue, who reveals that Wakanda's international image of being a Third World nation is just a front.  They get ambushed by Erik, who extracts Klaue, leaving Ross severely injured intercepting a bullet meant for Nakia.  Oh, and T'Challa notices Erik is wearing a ring identical to his own, which of course pays off later.  T'Challa decides to take Ross to Wakanda, where their technology can save him, instead of going after Klaue.  While Shuri heals Ross, T'Challa confronts Zuri about what happened to N'Jobu.  Zuri explains that N'Jobu planned to share Wakanda's technology with people of African descent around the world to help them conquer their oppressors.  When T'Chaka arrested N'Jobu, N'Jobu attacked Zuri, forcing T'Chaka to kill him.  They left behind N'Jobu's son, Erik, because returning with him would complicate their lie that N'Jobu had disappeared.  Erik eventually became a U.S. black ops soldier, earning the name "Killmonger".

Killmonger kills Klaue, then takes his body to Wakanda as proof T'Challa isn't all that, flipping W'Kabi over to Team Killmonger in the process.  Killmonger is brought before the tribal elders, then he reveals his identity as N'Jadaka, son of N'Jobu, and stakes a claim to the throne.  He challenges T'Challa to ritual combat and after killing Zuri, he defeats T'Challa, throwing him over the waterfall to his presumed death.  Now large and in charge, Killmonger order the heart-shaped herbs to be burned, but Nakia rescues one because once again, it will pay off later.  Supported by W'Kabi and his army, Killmonger uses his new authority to prepare shipments of Wakandan weapons to his operatives around the world.

The Third Act has Nakia, Shuri, Ramonda and Ross heading into the mountains to ask the Jabari Tribe for aid, where they find T'Challa comatose after being rescued by the Jabari in repayment for sparing M'Baku's life.  (Good thing he did that, hunh?)  Healed by Nakia's herb, T'Challa requests help from M'Baku, who isn't quite feeling it and passes.  T'Challa returns to fight Killmonger, who orders W'Kabi and his army to attack T'Challa.  The Dora Milaje, Shuri and Nakia battle Killmonger, who dons his own spiffy Black Panther suit.  In the middle of fighting, Shuri instructs Ross to remotely pilot a jet to shoot down the planes leaving with the vibranium weapons.  

Just when all seems lost though, M'Baku and the Jabari finally show up to help T'Challa., while Okoye calls out her boyfriend W'Kabi, encouraging him and his army to stand down. This leads to the big climactic fight in Wakanda's vibranium mine, where T'Challa eventually disrupts Killmonger's suit and fatally stabs him.  Fearing imprisonment, Killmonger declines an offer to be healed, instead choosing to die a free man.  Reclaiming his throne, T'Challa brings Shuri to Oakland and tells her he bought the building where N'Jobu died to establish a Wakanda outreach center, which will be run by Shuri and Nakia.  The End.

Later, in a mid-credits bonus scene that probably would've made a better ending for the film, T'Challa appears before the United Nations to reveal Wakanda's true nature to the world.  Presumably, he's unaware that he'll probably be lit up on Twitter for not telling the world about Wakanda's advances in technology and health care years ago.

There were a number of great actors in this film who made their characters particularly notable.  Here are some of the things that stood out:

BLACK PANTHER/T'CHALLA -- In his second outing as Black Panther, Chadwick Boseman obviously get the chance to shine more here than he did in Civil War.  His T'Challa is a stoic, noble hero, desperate to be a good king like his father T'Chaka and to do right by his people.  He's sympathetic to what was done to Killmonger as a child, respectful to everyone who serves under him, and even allowed to have a little bit of a sense of humor where his younger sister is concerned.  Boseman is a formidable Black Panther, but he's an even better T'Challa.

KILLMONGER/ERIK STEVENS/N'JADAKA -- Michael B. Jordan proves to be much more effective as a supervillain than he was as the Human Torch in Josh Trank's unfantastic Fantastic Four reboot film from 2015.  Killmonger could've easily been a one-note Marvel villain wanting to take over Wakanda and use it's resources to control the world, but Jordan gives his character considerable depth.  He shows the cultural divide between Africans and their American offspring, bringing something very new to the traditional bad guy role.

NAKIA -- After slumming it as Maz Kanata in the recent Star Wars trilogy, Lupita Nyong'o plays Nakia, T'Challa's ex-girlfriend and a War Dog, an undercover spy for Wakanda placed in other countries to complete missions.  Thankfully, Nakia is allowed to be more than just the Bond Girl to T'Challa's James Bond, with Nyong'o shpwing the heart of a true Wakandan warrior in various scenes and displaying wise counsel for T'Challa.  Hell, Nakia could easily have her own spy movie spinoff and I'd be all over it.

OKOYE -- Danai Gurira takes a break from killing zombies with her katana as Michonne on The Walking Dead and all of us are better for it.  As Okoye, she heads the Dora Milaje, the special forces group that serves as T'Challa's bodyguards.  And like T'Challa, she's a very stoic figure who also gets the occasional sense of humor, especially when Shuri is in the room.

SHURI -- And while on the subject of Shuri, Letitia Wright pretty much steals every scene she's in.  Your new favorite Disney princess is the Q to T'Challa's Bond, providing him with all sorts of high-tech devices...even though she's only 16!  Her teenage rebelliousness makes for some fun, socially awkward moments, especially during T'Challa's coronation ceremony, but the character's intelligence is really what matters most here.  Just imagine what would happen if Shuri, Peter Parker, Tony Stark, and Bruce Banner were locked in a research lab together...

EVERETT K. ROSS -- Martin Freeman, famous for playing Dr. John Watson on Sherlock, Arthur Dent in the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy movie and the younger Bilbo Baggins in The Hobbit trilogy, positively excels as a white guy placed in uncomfortable situations.  Reprising his role from Captain America: Civil War, Freeman gets to develop Ross as something of a new Phil Coulson here.  He's not just comic relief though, and even gets a couple of decent action sequences.

KLAW/ULYSSES KLAUE -- Andy Serkis, the film's other white guy who was also in The Hobbit (as Gollum), reprises his character from Avengers: Age of Ultron.  Once again, Klaue is a sleazebag from South Africa with zero redeeming qualities, this time filling the role of Killmonger's main henchman until Killmonger decides he's no longer useful.  Klaue gets a great interrogation scene with Ross, spilling the beans on Wakanda's true nature just for shits and giggles

W'KABI -- Hot off his Oscar nomination for Get Out, Daniel Kaluuya is W'Kabi, T'Challa's best friend and head of security for the Border Tribe, which serves as the first line of defense for Wakanda.  W'Kbai is a minor supporting character here, but his resentment of T'Challa's inability to capture or kill Klaue and willingness to support Killmonger make for some great dramatic moments.  Ultimately, he makes the wise choice and stands down, primarily because his girlfriend Okoye was about to rip his head from his body and use it for spear practice.

M'BAKU -- Winston Duke takes what could've been a thankless role, T'Challa's rival for the throne who ultimately helps him to save Wakanda, and turns it into something more special when Nakia, Shuri, Ramonda and Ross show up looking for help.  He trolls Ross into thinking that he's going to eat him before revealing he's vegan, then trolls the others into thinking he's going to help for a moment before refusing them outright.  And yes, let's just be really glad he didn't go by his comics alias "Man-Ape"...

RAMONDA -- Once everyone's favorite pick 25 years ago to play Storm in a movie, Angela Bassett finally makes it into the Marvel Cinematic Universe after playing Linda Lake on an episode of the 1990-91 DC Comics series The Flash and DC's Amanda Waller in Green Lantern.  As Wakanda's Queen Mother, Ramonda is a trusted advisor to T'Challa but she doesn't get to do a whole lot apart from look concerned at key moments and wear an impressive white dreadlock wig.

OBLIGATORY STAN LEE CAMEO -- Stan "The Man" turns up as a gambler at the South Korea casino, who swoops in after T’Challa wins at a table, suggesting that he’ll look after T’Challa’s sizable amount of chips until the king returns.

WINTER SOLDIER CAMEO -- Sebastian Stan returns as Bucky Barnes, the Winter Soldier, in a post-credits bonus scene that reveals Shuri has revived Bucky from suspended animation, where he's been ever since the end of Civil War.  Time to suit up for Avengers: Infinity War, Buck!

All in all, Black Panther is a major step forward for the Marvel Cinematic Universe...and for superhero films in general.  With the movie bringing in over $235 million domestically in its first four days, it's already destroyed the notion that the public won't turn out in big numbers for films starring black superheroes, paving the way for potential Marvel movies starring Storm, Luke Cage, War Machine, Deathlok, and others somewhere down the line.  It's proof that if you make a superhero movie with a solid story, strong casting, and great production values, audiences will show up no matter the character's racial or ethnic background.  And even better, the film brings hope and inspiration to thousands of young boys and girls all over the world, who've been waiting and waiting for a major black superhero film that represents them.  So with all this in mind, DC Films...How's your Cyborg solo movie coming along?

And for those who may be wondering, here's the updated list of my Top 20 Comic Book Films:

1. Superman (1978)
2. The Dark Knight (2008)
3. The Avengers (2012)

4. Batman Begins (2005)

5. Logan (2017)

6. Captain America: Civil War (2016)

7. Black Panther (2018)

8. Man of Steel (2013)

9. Captain America: The Winter Soldier (2014)

10. Doctor Strange (2016)

11. Wonder Woman (2017)

12. Spider-Man 2 (2004)

13. Spider-Man (2002)

14. Iron Man (2008)

15. Guardians of the Galaxy (2014)
16. Watchmen (2009)
17. Captain America: The First Avenger (2011)

18. Thor (2011)

19. Justice League (2017)

20. Avengers: Age of Ultron (2015)

DAMN Good Movies -- STAR WARS: THE LAST JEDI

This is not going to go the way you think.

That's right, it's time once again for another of my movie takes, this time on Star Wars: The Last Jedi, the latest in the Star Wars film series.  As always, if you haven't seen the movie yet and you don't want it spoiled for you, then please step back from your computer or whatever electronic device you're reading this on and stop reading now.  If, however, you're wise enough to know that movie reviews with spoilers are always more interesting than the ones without them...well...May the Force be with you...

After the huge success of Star Wars: The Force Awakens, which resurrected the Star Wars franchise to over $2 billion in worldwide box office, expectations were understandably high for Episode VIII.  Rian Johnson, writer of director of the time-travel movie Looper, was brought in to do the same here, with many fans hoping Johnson would take the Skywalker Saga in a bold, unexpected turn similar to The Empire Strikes Back.  

The film opens right after the events of The Force Awakens, with Resistance fighters, led by General Leia Organa, evacuating their base as a First Order fleet arrives, similar to the escape from Hoth in Empire.  Poe Dameron leads an effective but costly counterattack that costs the Resistance their bombers, but First Order is able to pursue them through hyperspace using a tracking device.  Leia's son Ben, now known as Kylo Ren, destroys the Resistance support fighters, but hesitates to fire at the lead Resistance ship after sensing his mother's presence.  I guess killing one parent was enough for Emo Ren, hunh?

Well, TIE fighters end up destroying the ship's bridge anyway, killing several Resistance leaders, including Admiral "It's a trap!" Ackbar.  It was a pretty shocking moment to see Leia sucked out into the vacuum of space, and with Carrie Fisher's real-life death, it felt really wrong to see Leia go out in such an abrupt way.  Well, credit to Rian Johnson here, who played against expectations and revealed that the Force is indeed strong in Leia as well.  Anyone who ever hoped to see Leia's game stepped up beyond being Force-sensitive had to be fist-pumping with delight as she used the Force to survive the coldness of space and propel herself back to safety aboard the Resistance command ship.

With Leia understandably sidelined, a new, purple-haired character named Vice Admiral Holdo steps up out of nowhere as next in command.  Finn, meanwhile, decides this is a good time to finally wake up from his injuries in The Force Awakens.  He takes a beacon dropped by Leia that will lead Rey back to them, and quickly attempts to board an escape pod, only to be caught by another new character, a maintenance worker named Rose Tico.  Rose, whose sister Paige was a Resistance bomber that Poe carelessly got killed, isn't exactly down with Finn's whole desertion thing right now.  She's about to turn him in, until Finn informs her about the First Order tracking device that she might be able to disable.  They run their plan by Poe, who contacts Maz Kanata for help, only to have her tell them to look for a "master code breaker" at a casino on the planet Canto Bight.  Poe then runs their plan by Holdo, who says the word is no, but Poe, Finn, Rose and BB-8 are therefore going anyway.

And hey, remember that cliffhanger from The Force Awakens on the remote planet of Ahch-To, where Rey was trying to hand Luke Skywalker his old lightsaber back?  Well, he finally takes it...and throws it away as the Price is Right fail music plays.  It turns out that Luke is very disillusioned with being a Jedi these days, ever since his former padawan Ben Solo flipped to the Dark Side, killed Luke's new Jedi order, and burned down his spiffy Jedi temple.  Surrounding himself with Porgs, Luke has zero desire to train Rey in the ways of the Force and is quickly freaked when she displays her considerable raw power that, surprise, is as powerful as Kylo Ren's.  Things that make you go hmmmm.

We head into the Second Act on Canto Bight, where Rose starts bonding with Finn as she explains the shadiness of the lavish casino city, whose inhabitants have made their fortunes selling weapons to both sides of the war.  Unfortunately, most of this sequence gets a bit frustrating to watch, especially when you realize there are more important storylines in play and "alien casino" clashes with the film's overall tone.  After being arrested by the Canto Bight police, Rose and Finn encounter DJ, a slicer (hacker) who releases them from prison.  Riding towards their ship, now destroyed by the Canto Bight Police, they again run into DJ, accompanied by BB-8, who conveniently comes to their rescue aboard a stolen vehicle.

Back on Ahch-To, Luke keeps being a dick and ignoring Rey, until R2-D2 goes right for the emotional jugular by replaying the footage of Luke's sister Leia pleading Obi-Wan Kenobi for help in the original Star Wars movie.  While Rey keeps having visions of Kylo Ren with his shirt off, Luke finally agrees to give Rey three lessons of the ways of the Force (two of which we actually see), and tells her why he believes the Jedi must end.  He eventually reveals to Rey that he had sensed Supreme Leader Snoke's corruption of Ben and considered killing Ben in his sleep to put an end to it, but the idea quickly vanished.  Ben, however, woke up to see Luke's lightsaber drawn, and became disillusioned with Luke and the Jedi (Go figure), allowing himself to become Kylo Ren.  

Rey urges Luke not to give up and return to the Resistance, not to mention try to turn Kylo back to the Light Side, but Luke merely shrugs and goes "Whatevs".  After Rey leaves Ahch-To with Chewbacca, Artoo and bunch of souvenir Porgs, Luke is visited by Yoda as a Force ghost, who uses the Force to summon a lightning bolt to burn down the first Jedi temple and with it, seemingly, the sacred Jedi texts.  Yoda assures Luke that the texts don't matter as long as the Jedi continue the teachings themselves, and urges Luke to learn from his own failings.  The more things change...

Around this point, the film begins to struggle.  Holdo reveals her big plan to evacuate the remaining Resistance members using small transports and basically hope that the First Order doesn't notice.  Not down with Holdo's "run away" masterplan, Poe goes seriously rogue and attempts a mutiny.  Finn, Rose, BB-8 and DJ infiltrate Snoke's ship, but are captured by Captain Phasma, but BB-8 manages to escape.  Rey lands on the ship, and Kylo brings her to Snoke, who reveals that (surprise!) he was responsible for the mental connection between her and Kylo as part of a plan to destroy Luke.  Ordered to kill Rey, Kylo Ren instead takes out Snoke (Wait...What?) and teams up with Rey to kill Snoke's not-so-elite guards.  Kylo invites Rey to rule the galaxy with him, but Rey refuses, just to remind you that you already saw this scene in Empire with Luke and Darth Vader.  Using the Force, they struggle for possession of Anakin Skywalker's lightsaber, which splits in two and lets Rey breathe a sigh of relief that she still has two hands.

In the third act, Leia wakes up and literally stuns Poe, allowing the evacuation to begin. Holdo decides to remain on the ship to act as a diversion while everyone else heads to a nearby old Rebel Alliance base on Crait.  DJ throws Finn and Rose under the bus and reveals the Resistance's plan to the First Order.  The evacuation transports are targeted with heavy losses, and Holdo sacrifices herself by ramming Snoke's fleet at lightspeed to stop the barrage.  It's here that you wonder why Holdo didn't just pre-program the controls and leave by escape pod, and more importantly, why no one else ever thought to take out the big First Order ships with kamikaze suicide attacks.

Rey escapes in the chaos, while Kylo declares himself new Supreme Leader and probably starts tweeting about how he's going to make the First Order great again.  BB-8 frees Finn and Rose, who escape after defeating Captain Phasma far too easily, and join the survivors of the evacuation on Crait.  When the First Order arrives, Poe, Finn, and Rose lead a charge with some junky old speeders that were left behind by the Alliance.  Just when things look even more bleak, Rey draws the TIE fighters away with the Millennium Falcon, while Rose saves Finn from a suicide run against the main enemy cannon, which blasts a hole in the Resistance fortress.  Time to start shipping "Frose", I guess. 

In the film's big climax, Luke suddenly appears on Crait and has a long-awaited reunion with Leia that's over far too soon.  He then confronts Kylo alone so that the surviving Resistance fighters can escape.  Kylo orders the First Order forces to fire everything on Luke, but is surprised when Luke is still standing like nothing happened.  Kylo Ren then battles Luke himself, striking Luke with his lightsaber, only to realize he's been fighting Luke's Force projection all along.  D'oh!  Luke defiantly tells Kylo that he will not be the last Jedi, while Rey uses the Force to help the remaining Resistance fighters escape.  Back on Ahch-To, we see that the long-distance Force projection costs Luke his life, as he disappears in another disappointing end to a classic Star Wars hero.  Leia reassures everyone that the rebellion has everything they need to rise again, because hey, we still have Episode IX to go, right?  

And then, somewhat inexplicably, the film ends on Canto Bight, with one of the children that helped Finn and Rose escape grabbing a broom with the Force and gazing hopefully up into space.  I get that Johnson was probably trying to end on more upbeat, hopeful note, but instead this ending felt a bit tacked on and unnecessary.

So what about the performances from the cast and the characters they portrayed?  Well, as you might expect, I have a few thoughts...

REY -- No, we still don't know her last name.  Despite being one of the central characters, Daisy Ridley is somewhat sidelined this time out.  This is Rey's big "training in the ways of the Force" movie, although she spends more time actually training herself rather than learning anything from Luke.  We get more of Rey's strong connection to her brother/cousin/whatever Kylo Ren, who tries to convince Rey (and us) that her nobody parents simply sold her off for booze, but is anyone seriously buying that load of poodoo?

LUKE SKYWALKER -- Mark Hamill officially returns to Star Wars after three decades, saving his best performance as Luke for last...or is it?  Unfortunately, Johnson's script completely fails to understand the character, something Hamill himself has stated publicly, and I tend to agree.  It's pretty much impossible to reconcile the Jedi who fought so hard to stay alive after having his right hand hacked off by his Sith Lord father, then came back and turned his father from the Dark Side so he could take out the Emperor, with the hopeless, self-pitying recluse that turned away from the Force because he was temped to murder his corrupted nephew that murdered his new Jedi order.  We can only hope that Luke's casual "See you around, kid" to Kylo was a tease that we'll get a more satsifying ending for Luke in Episode IX.

GENERAL LEIA ORGANA -- Does anyone else think it's odd that Leia, who passed away in real life as Carrie Fisher, actually outlived both Han and Luke?  I imagine Leia will be killed off screen by the time Episode IX is released, but at least Carrie Fisher's final performance as Leia was more substantive than in The Force Awakens.  The sequence where Leia awakens in space, revealing her full strength in the Force, absolutely floored me and I was happy we finally got a taste of Leia being a true Skywalker before Fisher's end.  Rest In Peace, your worshipfulness.

KYLO REN/BEN SOLO -- Thanks to Snoke's not-so-subtle hint, Adam Driver ditches his black bucket helmet and finally realizes that he's supposed to be the bad guy.  Sure, he feels this connection to Rey, but this time, Kylo reveals that being Snoke's henchman is getting seriously old.  The scene where Kylo suddenly takes out Snoke, hinting at a possible flip to the Light Side, was a good twist, especially when he surprises Rey by declaring himself Supreme Leader and the actual villain of this trilogy.  

POE DAMERON -- After getting only a couple of solid sequences in The Force Awakens, Oscar Isaac returns as Poe, only to find his character is just all over the place.  Johnson's script has Poe being careless with the lives of the Resistance bombers, which gets him demoted, then he gets pissy with Holdo just because she's not proactive enough, which makes him stage a mutiny that ends up failing when Leia wakes up from her coma to stun him.  Yeesh.  I'm not even going to get into his completely pointless strike against the First Order on Crait using some junky leftover speeders.  Poe, you deserved better.

FINN/FN-2187 -- John Boyega finally wakes up from his coma as Finn, and to the surprise of no one, the very first thing he thinks about is Rey.  Well, at least until Rose Tico catches him trying to run away (again) and the two are partnered up during their side trip to the casino on Canto Bight.  All we want to see, though, is Finn in another grudge with Captain Phasma, but that's over far too quickly to be satisfying.  Finn's biggest and most heroic moment comes in the Third Act, when he shows he's willing to sacrifice himself to defeat the First Order's cannon, only to have Rose deliberately ram his speeder to save him.

ROSE TICO -- New to the Star Wars saga, Kelly Marie Tran makes her debut as Rose, the likeable maintenance worker who turns out to be quite the crusader.  Rose is definitely one of the bright spots of The Last Jedi, quickly made sympathetic when we see her crying over the dead sister Paige, who was killed during Poe's reckless Battle of D'Qar.  Instead of dwelling on her sister's death, however, Rose steps up from her traditional supportive role for the Resistance and shows her distaste for oppression and injustice, both on Canto Bight and on Crait.  Rose seems to show her affection for Finn, sneaking a kiss just before she collapsed unconscious from injuries after ramming his speeder, so we'll have to wait and see what becomes of this next time.

VICE ADMIRAL AMILYN HOLDO -- Laura Dern also makes her Star Wars debut as Vice Admiral Holdo, who takes over for General Leia Organa after she's sucked out into space and needs to recuperate.  She ends up butting heads with Poe Dameron, forcing him to stage a mutiny, but her big moment comes when she takes out Snoke's ship, Supremacy, by jumping to lightspeed right through it.  It still makes no sense why she just didn't pre-program the jump and then bail out using an escape pod, but whatever.

GENERAL ARMITAGE HUX -- With his unfortunate spitting habit seemingly under control this time, Domhnall Gleeson returns as Hux, mostly as comic relief.  He gets a couple of decent scenes, one where Poe pretends to not hear him during a transmission between the two, and another just after Kylo kills Snoke and takes over as Supreme Leader, requiring a Force choke-hold to "encourage" Hux's approval.

SUPREME LEADER SNOKE -- Andy Serkis reprises the role of Snoke, whom we actually get to see in person this time instead of a ginormous hologram.  Snoke was the subject of a lot of speculation from fans after The Force Awakens, so it was very surprising that Johnson chose to womp-womp those expectations by having Kylo take Snoke off the board so he could seize power for himself.  Maybe that whole "let's create a psychic bond between Kylo and Rey" thing wasn't Snoke's best idea...?

CAPTAIN PHASMA -- Back from Westeros once again, Gwendoline Christie gets a second outing as Phasma, who obviously survived being left in a trash compactor by Finn and Han Solo in the previous film.  In Round Two of Phasma's grudge match with Finn, she gets to taunt Finn and Rose after they're captured, then faces off in a duel with Finn.  Finn manages to crack her chrome dome, exposing part of her face around the left eye just before she plummets into an inferno below.  But hey, you don't really think we've seen the last of Phasma, do you?  I didn't think so.

DJ -- Benicio del Toro appears as a "slicer", which is just the Star Wars term for "hacker".  We're introduced to him when Finn and Rose are thrown in the slammer and can't find the Master Codebreaker they're looking for.  But since Finn and Rose never watched del Toro as the Controller in Guardians of the Galaxy, they end up trusting DJ way too much and are shocked when he has no problem throwing them under the bus for the First Order.  

CHEWBACCA -- Joonas Suotamo fully assumes the role of Chewie, who remains a fixture aboard the Millennium Falcon.  Chewie gets a few good scenes, mostly dealing with the Porg infestation on the ship.  One highlight is the scene where Chewie attempts to eat two Porgs he caught and roasted over a campfire, only to be guilted out of doing so by a bunch of other Porgs looking at him with big, sad eyes.

BB-8 -- Despite being a significant addition in The Force Awakens, BB-8 gets a downgraded role this time out.  Still, he gets to fix Poe's x-wing weapon system just in the nick of time, takes out several guards on Canto Bight, and he hijacks an AT-ST to rescue Finn and Rose after DJ's inevitable betrayal.

C-3PO -- Once again, Anthony Daniels reprises Threepio, who mostly serves as an assistant for Leia and Poe, while Leia is unconscious.  He gets a really brief reunion with Master Luke, who winks at him before confronting Kylo Ren, but Johnson once again wastes a good opportunity to have the characters really interact.

R2-D2 -- Jimmy "Bannakaffalatta" Vee takes over for the late Kenny Baker, although Artoo doesn't get to do much.  His biggest moment is obviously the scene where he replays Princess Leia's message to Obi-Wan Kenobi in the original Star Wars movie, which finally shakes Luke out of his apathy to start training Rey.

ADMIRAL GIAL ACKBAR CAMEO -- Timothy D. Rose Ackbar returns in his final appearance as Admiral Ackbar, who aids the rest of the Resistance in evacuating their base.  Unfortunately, The First Order initiates an attack on the bridge of their main cruiser, causing all occupants, including Ackbar, to be blown out into space and killed.  Here's hoping Ackbar says "It's a trap!" when he arrives in Star Wars Heaven.

YODA CAMEO -- The legendary Frank Oz returns to the Skywalker Saga as a Force ghost while Luke debates whether to burn down the tree storing the only remaining copies of the Sacred Texts of the Jedi.  When Luke decides against burning down the tree and destroying the texts, Yoda trolls his former Padawan hard by summoning a lightning bolt down upon the tree, setting it ablaze while Luke watches in horror at the texts being lost forever.  It was nice to see Yoda back to his mischevious, giggling self again, but where was he all that time while Luke was languishing in his depression and apathy?  Watching Netflix?

MAZ KANATA CAMEO -- I was disappointed that Lupita Nyong'o only turns up in one scene as Maz, where she tells Poe, Finn and Rose to find the master codebreaker on Canto Bight, while in the middle of a firefight that she calls a union dispute.  

All in all, Star Wars: The Last Jedi tries hard to do something different with the Star Wars saga but it doesn't always work.  Rian Johnson seems to enjoy playing against fan expectations, taking his characters in unexpected directions that often come off as puzzling, or in Luke's case, completely out of character.  J.J. Abrams made a solid effort setting up the board in The Force Awakens, only to have Johnson come along and kick the board over, making you wonder what the hell was the point of the previous film.  Some might find that refreshing, but considering the overall narrative for this trilogy, I find myself concerned that the final film of the Skywalker Saga isn't going to have enough of a payoff.  Help us, J.J. Abrams, you're our only hope.

And for those who may be wondering, here's my personal ranking of the Star Wars films:

1. Star Wars (1977)
2. The Empire Strikes Back (1980)
3. Star Wars: The Force Awakens (2015)
4. Return of the Jedi (1983)
5. Star Wars: The Last Jedi (2017)
6. Rogue One: A Star Wars Story (2016)
7. Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith (2005)
8. Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones (2002)
9. Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace (1999)

Your friendly neighborhood movie reviewer,

Charles

DAMN Good Movies -- JUSTICE LEAGUE

That's right, I'm back once again with another movie take, this time on the movie Justice League, the fifth film of the DC Extended Universe.  As always, if you haven't seen the movie yet and you don't want it spoiled for you, then please step back from your computer or whatever electronic device you're reading this on and stop reading now.  If, however, you're wise enough to know that movie reviews with spoilers are always more interesting than the ones without them...well...come together, right now.

It's been ten long years to bring Justice League to the big screen.  In 2007, Warner Bros. cancelled Joss Whedon's proposed Wonder Woman film and David S. Goyer's adaptation of The Flash, both of which gave way for a project called Justice League: Mortal.  The film would've branched out into separate sequels and spinoff films and even had Mad Max: Fury Road's George Miller slated to direct.  The project even made it all the way to the casting stage, with D.J. Cotrona as Superman, Armie Hammer as Batman, Megan Gale as Wonder Woman, Adam Brody as The Flash, Common as Green Lantern/John Stewart, Teresa Palmer as Talia al Ghul, and Jay Baruchel as the film's villain, Maxwell Lord.  Yeah, that almost happened.

However, the 2007 writers strike and various production delays doomed Justice League: Mortal, with Warner Bros. deciding to focus on developing individual films instead.  The first was 2011's disappointing Green Lantern movie starring Ryan Reynolds as Hal Jordan, followed a year later by the less disappointing but still disappointing The Dark Knight Rises, the final film in Christopher Nolan's Batman trilogy.  In 2013, Zack Snyder's Superman reboot film Man of Steel, became a financial success, bringing in over $668 million worldwide, despite mixed reviews from both critics and fans.  The decision to make a sequel was obvious, which resulted in Snyder's Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice in 2016 as the second film of Warner Bros. new DC Extended Universe, intended as the DC Comics equivalent of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Unfortunately, Batman v Superman was widely panned, giving fans serious concern about Snyder's ability to direct the announced Justice League film as his next project.  Snyder ended up stepping down during post-production as a result of his daughter's tragic suicide, but Joss Whedon (remember him from 2007?) took over as director to oversee two months of reshoots, as well as write some additional scenes.

The movie opens with a kid's cellphone video of Superman, which unfortunately features some really bad CGI covering up Henry Cavill's mustache that he was contractually obligated to keep during Whedon's reshoots.  A terrible and depressing cover Leonard Cohen's "Everybody Knows" follows, as we see a world without Superman following his death at the end of Batman v Superman.  Things have become rather bleak, with racism, crime and a sense of hopelessness permeating everything.  And if things aren't bad enough, Superman's death somehow activated three dormant Mother Boxes, powerful supercomputers familiar to fans of Jack Kirby's Fourth World saga and the New Gods.

It turns out that thousands of years ago, Earth was invaded by Steppenwolf, a member of Darkseid's elite who attempted to conquer and remake Earth with the help of an army of winged zombie creatures known as Parademons.  (Yes, for those paying attention, these are the same creatures featured in the nightmare sequence in Batman v Superman.)  Thanks to a unified resistance comprised of humans, Olympian gods, Amazons, Atlanteans, and even alien Green Lanterns, Steppenwolf and the Parademons were repelled back to Apokolips through a very cool-looking Boom Tube, and the Mother Boxes were hidden across the globe.  Why didn't the Green Lanterns just take the Mother Boxes with them when they headed back into space, you ask?  Great question, if only we were given an answer.

Attempting to regain favor with Darkseid, Steppenwolf decides to make a second invasion attempt and retrieves the first box from Themyscira, home of the Amazons.  Queen Hippolyta warns her daughter Diana, better known as Wonder Woman, and Diana looks up her flirting buddy Batman for help.  As we learned from Batman v Superman, Bruce Wayne and Diana have been researching/stalking a number of superpowered metahumans for just such an emergency, so they set off on a recruiting drive.  Bruce finds Barry Allen, The Flash, in Central City, who eagerly signs up because he needs friends, but his attempt to bring in the brotastic Aquaman fails in epic fashion.  Wonder Woman, meanwhile, tracks down Victor Stone, better known as Cyborg, but also has trouble convincing him to help out until Cyborg's father Silas and some other S.T.A.R. Labs employees are kidnapped by Steppenwolf.

As we head into the Second Act, Steppenwolf makes a side trip to Atlantis to retrieve the Atlantean Mother Box, giving us our first good look at what the Aquaman solo movie is going to be like.  Now that Atlantis has been attacked, Aquaman finally decides that maybe Steppenwolf is something that needs dealt with, so he hooks up with the other four heroes and together, they rescue Silas and the other employees.  It's a solid geek moment to see the five Justice Leaguers in full action, although The Flash is uncomfortably hesitant and of little use for someone who moves faster than everyone else.

In an expected addition to the team's "To Do" list, Batman (who has spent most of the movie so far feeling guilty about his part in Superman's death) decides hey, let's resurrect Superman from the dead using the remaining Mother Box that Cyborg tucked away for safekeeping.  Even though Wonder Woman and Aquaman point out this might not be a good idea, Batman plows ahead and gets The Flash to charge up the Mother Box, which will do something sciency-wiency to the incubation waters aboard the Kryptonian ship that Lex Luthor used to create Doomsday in Batman v Superman.  Superman returns (See what I did there?), but isn't exactly himself until Batman brings in Lois Lane to help him regain his memories.  And while everyone's so preoccupied with the resurrected Superman, Steppenwolf just casually walks in and nicks the final Mother Box.

Wait...What?

The Third Act has our team (minus Superman) heading to a Russian village that happens to have a nuclear reactor to help Steppenwolf with his plan.  Here, we see another jarring contrast between Zack Snyder and Joss Whedon's directing styles, with the League battling Parademons left and right in pure Snyderian battleporn mayhem.  They eventually reach Steppenwolf, distracting him long enough for Cyborg to separate the Mother Boxes.  Superman finally joins the team during a great moment, with Henry Cavill finally being allowed to play a Superman who's more colorful and smiling.  Steppenwolf suddenly becomes fearful at the thought of being defeated by the League, or perhaps is more fearful of Darkseid's wrath, and his fear rings the dinner bell for the Parademons, who end up turning on Steppenwolf just as all of them are Boom Tubed back to Apokolips.

In the aftermath, Batman donates the ruined and not-so-stately Wayne Manor to the League to serve as their headquarters, with Wonder Woman teasing that there's "room for more".  Wonder Woman decides to finally step from the shadows as a public hero, while The Flash lands a job at the Central City Police Department that may prove useful if The Flash solo movie ever happens.  Aquaman returns to Atlantis because he knows he's getting his solo movie, and Cyborg goes off to explore his new abilities with his father and hope that he can someday get some decent character development.  The film brings us full circle with Superman, as Clark Kent rips open his shirt and flies off, presenting a much more hopeful and optimistic tone for the DC Extended Universe.  As Superman soars into the air, Lois tells us, rather fittingly, to look...up in the sky...

You can tell there was a lot going on here, with various DC Comics characters finally making it to the big screen.  Here are some of the things that stood out:

BATMAN/BRUCE WAYNE -- In his third movie as Batman (counting his Suicide Squad appearance), Ben Affleck doesn't seem any happier to be doing what he's doing.  Despite being paired with Wonder Woman, The Flash and Aquaman in some lighthearted scenes, Affleck feels like he's just going through the motions.  He's not a horrible Batman, certainly not in the George Clooney sense, but he's still not great.

WONDER WOMAN/DIANA PRINCE -- Gal Gadot, meanwhile, shines once again as Wonder Woman.  With her solo film being the strongest and most successful DCEU film to date, the decision to emphasize Wonder Woman was a no-brainer.  Diana finally gets to step up and be a leader, although maybe someday she can do that without the other Leaguers (except Cyborg) commenting on her appearance.

THE FLASH/BARRY ALLEN -- Like many Flash fans, I had some serious misgivings about Ezra Miller as The Flash and I'm sad to say I still have them.  Relegated to the Comic Relief role, Miller's Flash deviates far too much from his traditional depiction in the comics.  Initially introduced as squatting introvert for some inexplicable reason, we soon learn this Barry Allen is fearful and hesitant of just about everything and his only real contribution as a League member seems to be that he can relocate innocent bystanders from one place to another.  No rapid punching, no cyclone winds, no running on water...just awkward reactions to everything going on around him.  At least we still have the TV show with Grant Gustin...

AQUAMAN/ARTHUR CURRY -- Unlike Ben Affleck, Jason Momoa genuinely seems to be enjoying himself as Aquaman.  His laid-back "bro" version of the character also deviates from the comics, but Momoa's imposing frame and bad-boy look make Aquaman seem a lot cooler to people that simply dismiss him as "the guy who talks to fish."  Naturally, his underwater scenes are a particular highlight, but Momoa also has decent comedic timing as well, such as the scene where Aquaman unwittingly sits on Wonder Woman's lasso and unloads his true feelings to everyone.

CYBORG/VICTOR STONE -- Ray Fisher makes his full debut as Cyborg, but the character doesn't quite click enough to make you stop wondering where Green Lantern or the Martian Manhunter are.  I think it's mainly due to Cyborg being underwritten as a character, making viewers not as emotionally invested in him, along with too much of a reliance on CGI to depict him.  Fisher's Cyborg looks like a leftover overdesigned Michael Bay Transformer, with Fisher's face poorly animated by CGI to make even his human face come off as fake.

SUPERMAN/CLARK KENT -- In his best appearance as Superman since Man of Steel, Henry Cavill makes the most of what little screen time he actually has.  When not forced by Zack Snyder to portray Superman as a scowling sourpuss hovering above everyone, Cavill proves he's a worthy successor to Christopher Reeve.  The mid-credits Superman/Flash race scene is great showcase for Cavill, and a great geek moment for DC Comics fans.  

STEPPENWOLF -- Ciarán Hinds of Rome and Game of Thrones fame provides the voice of Steppenwolf, a rather underwhelming villain for the Justice League's first film.  Presumably, Warner Bros.' plan was to save Darkseid for the sequel, but with the way the studio keeps second-guessing itself, who knows if we'll ever see him.  Being a pure CGI character, Steppenwolf's face looks odd when he speaks, which makes him feel even less like a villain of substance.

LOIS LANE -- In her third outing as Lois, Amy Adams primarily serves as Batman's contingency plan to bring Superman around following his resurrection.  A great deleted scene shown in the trailers that was cut from the final film had Clark noticing that Lois was wearing his engagement ring, so I have to wonder what other great Lois and Clark moments were cut as well.  At least Lois is given the final narration as Superman flies off into the Metropolis sky.

MARTHA KENT -- Diane Lane returns as Martha, who became a popular meme following the derided moment in Batman v Superman when Superman and Batman both realize their moms have the same first name.  Martha is shown having fallen on hard times after losing both her husband Jonathan and son Clark, then losing the Kent farm to foreclosure.  She gets a nice scene meeting with Lois and considering Lois family, but I think the scene where Martha is reunited with Clark could've been a bit more emotional.

ALFRED PENNYWORTH -- Jeremy Irons' second appearance as Alfred comes off considerably better than his first.  With Joss Whedon lightening Terrio's script, Alfred feels more like Alfred this time and gets off a couple of good digs at Bruce while serving in his usual role as tech support.  

COMMISSIONER JAMES GORDON -- No longer at the Daily Bugle, J.K. Simmons gives us the most traditional take of Commissioner Gordon we've ever seen on screen so far.  He gets a rooftop scene where Batman (and the other Leaguers except for The Flash) abruptly disappear when Gordon's back is turned, then praises Batman for playing with others again.  

HIPPOLYTA -- Fresh from the Wonder Woman solo movie, Connie Nielsen reprises Queen Hippolyta and gets a solid action sequence where the Amazons are playing "Mother Box Keepaway" with Steppenwolf and the Parademons.  It was good to see her as the warrior queen this time, although I did wonder if Steppenwolf was going to kill her at one point.

HENRY ALLEN -- Billy Crudup, who played Dr. Manhattan in Snyder's underrated Watchmen adaptation, is the big screen Henry Allen, framed and imprisoned once again for the murder of his wife Nora by the Reverse-Flash.  Henry's role is to help set up the Flash solo movie and encourage Barry to do more with his life, something that wouldn't be needed if Barry was depicted as he should've been.

MERA -- Amber Heard makes her debut as Mera, the future wife of Aquaman and Queen of Atlantis.  In addition to help set up the Aquaman solo movie, Mera is the one who successfully goads Aquaman into stepping up and taking Steppenwolf's threat seriously.  Interestingly, Mera and Aquaman seem to have a rocky relationship, so it may be a while before these two make it to the altar.  And if you're an Aquafan, you had to really enjoy seeing Mera use her powers of water manipulation.

SILAS STONE -- Best known as the creator of Skynet, Joe Morton serves as Cyborg's supporting character and also provides necessary exposition about the Mother Boxes.  There are hints of the distance between him and his son Victor, but Silas' best moment is probably when he defiantly refuses to tell Steppenwolf where the final Mother Box is, impressing Cyborg as he watches from the shadows.

DEATHSTROKE AND LEX LUTHOR CAMEO -- Joe Manganiello and Jesse Eisenberg turn up in the post-credits scene, with Luthor having escaped from prison somehow with no one noticing.  Luthor mentions to Deathstroke that hey, maybe it's a good idea to form their own League, presumably teasing the Injustice League for a potential sequel.

All in all, Justice League is the film we've been wanting but not quite the film we deserve.  Warner Bros. made another misstep with its DC Extended Universe by inexplicably giving Zack Snyder a third attempt to destroy it along with screenwriter Chris Terrio.  Joss Whedon's efforts to lighten things up and salvage the film are successful enough to make it watchable and occasionally even enjoyable, but you have to wonder how much better it could've been without Snyder and Terrio mucking things up once again.  Unfortunately, with the movie's opening weekend being something of a disappointment considering the amount of money that went into making it, a Justice League sequel is anything but a given right now.  

And for those who may be wondering, here's the updated list of my Top 20 Comic Book Films:

1. Superman (1978)
2. The Dark Knight (2008)
3. The Avengers (2012)

4. Batman Begins (2005)

5. Logan (2017)

6. Captain America: Civil War (2016)

7. Man of Steel (2013)

8. Doctor Strange (2016)

9. Captain America: The Winter Soldier (2014)

10. Wonder Woman (2017)

11. Spider-Man 2 (2004)

12. Spider-Man (2002)

13. Iron Man (2008)

14. Guardians of the Galaxy (2014)
15. Watchmen (2009)
16. Captain America: The First Avenger (2011)

17. Justice League (2017)
18. Thor (2011)
19. Avengers: Age of Ultron (2015)

20. Thor: Ragnarok (2017)

DAMN Good Movies -- THOR: RAGNAROK

Yes, I'm back with another of my infamous movie takes, this time with the film Thor: Ragnarok, the sequel to 2011's Thor and 2013's Thor: The Dark World.  As always, if you haven't seen the movie yet and you don't want it spoiled for you, then please step back from your computer or whatever electronic device you're reading this on and stop reading now.  If, however, you're wise enough to know that movie reviews with spoilers are always more interesting than the ones without them...well...you are worthy to hold the hammer of Thor...

With Thor: The Dark World bringing in almost $200 million more worldwide than the first Thor movie, it's no surprise to see the film series continue.  The Dark World director Alan Taylor decided that he wasn't coming back after having creative problems with Marvel during the post-production process, so the search was on for his replacement.  New Zealand director Taika Waititi ended up with the gig, after creating a "sizzle reel" with clips from other movies like Big Trouble in Little China to present his take to Marvel Studios.  He also scored the sizzle reel with, you guessed it, Led Zepplin's "Immigrant Song", which was so well liked it became part of Thor: Ragnarok (twice!) and used in the movie's marketing.

Writer Christopher Yost returned to provide the screenplay, along with Craig Kyle and Eric Pearson, which is based loosely on two storylines from Marvel Comics -- "Ragnarok" by Michael Oeming and Andrea Di Vito, from Thor (vol.2) #80-85, and "Planet Hulk" by Greg Pak, Carlo Pagulayan and Aaron Lopresti, from Incredible Hulk (vol.2) #92-105.  And yes, that's right, a Hulk story was used to make a Thor movie.

The film starts off two years after the Battle of Sokovia, which was featured in Avengers: Age of Ultron.  It seems Thor's been searching for the Infinity Stones, rather unsuccessfully, and is now imprisoned by Surtur, a ginormous fire demon from Muspelheim, another of the nine worlds from Norse mythology.  Now more glib than ever, Thor gets Surtur to start monologuing and he reveals that Thor's father Odin is no longer on Asgard.  In addition, the realm will soon be destroyed in the prophesied Ragnarök, once Surtur unites his crown with the Eternal Flame that burns beneath the city.  After a fight that's over far too quickly for fans of Walt Simonson's Thor run, Thor defeats Surtur and claims his crown, thinking he managed to prevent Ragnarök.

Thor returns to Asgard and finds Skurge filling in for Heimdall, who's been declared an enemy of the people.  Not really down with that, Thor goes to find Odin, even though Surtur just told him he wasn't on Asgard.  He sees Odin watching a play about the valiant death of Loki while being pampered by women. Thor eventually sees through the deception and exposes Loki, still posing as Odin since the events of The Dark World.  Thor forces Loki to help him find their father, so they head to Earth and learn that the retirement home Loki dumped Odin in has been demolished.  Thor gets some help from none other than Doctor Strange, who is all too happy to get rid of the Asgardian gods and sends Thor and Loki to Norway, where Odin is hanging out admiring the view.  Odin explains that he's dying, and that his passing will allow his firstborn child, Hela, to escape from a prison she was placed in long ago after she started power tripping..  

Sure enough, Odin presumably dies and Hela appears for a brief family reunion.  She destroys Thor's hammer Mjolnir, a major game changer, and when Thor and Loki attempt to  escape using the Bifröst Bridge, she pursues them and forces them out into space to die. Hela arrives in Asgard and quickly goes through her "To Do" list.  She destroys the Asgardian army, murders the Warriors Three one by one, resurrects the ancient dead who once fought with her, brings back her giant wolf Fenris, and designates Skurge as her Executioner.  She plans to use the Bifröst to expand Asgard's empire, but Heimdall steals the sword that controls the Bridge, and hides away with the rest of Asgard's citizens to form a resistance.  #Resist

The second act has the hammerless Thor landing on Sakaar, a garbage planet surrounded by wormholes.  He's quickly captured by a drunk and sassy bounty hunter named Scrapper 142, then hauled in to serve as a gladiator for the planet's ruler, the Grandmaster, another Elder of the Universe and occasional brother of the Collector.  Thor soon realizes that Scrapper 142 is one of the Valkyrior, a legendary force of female fighters who were killed defending Asgard from Hela long ago.  Forced to compete in the Grandmaster's Contest of Champions, Thor encounters other captive gladiators named Korg and Miek, gets his hair chopped short (presumably so Chris Hemsworth can stop wearing a long wig), and is sent into the arena to face off against his old friend the Hulk.  Summoning lightning, Thor is about to defeat the Hulk until the Grandmaster rigs the fight to make sure the Hulk wins.  Still enslaved, Thor attempts to convince Hulk and Valkyrie to help him save Asgard, but neither wants to go.  After managing to escape the palace, Thor finds the Quinjet that brought Hulk to Sakaar.  Hulk follows Thor to the Quinjet, where a recording of Black Widow calms him down and transforms him back into Bruce Banner for the first time since Sokovia.

Everybody got that?

Okay, so the Grandmaster orders Valkyrie and Loki to find Thor and the Hulk, which they do, and Loki forces Valkyrie to relive the deaths of her fellow Valkyrior at the hands of Hela.  Deciding that maybe Thor has something going on, she takes Loki captive to prove her goodwill.  Not wanting to be stuck on Sakaar, Loki provides the group with the security codes to steal one of the Grandmaster's ships.  They liberate the other gladiators who, led by Korg and Miek, stage a rebellion.  To the surprise of no one, Loki attempts to betray his brother to the Grandmaster, but Thor anticipates this and leaves him behind, where Korg and the gladiators soon find him.  Time for the Third Act!

Escaping through a wormhole called "The Devil's Anus" (Let's see that get turned into a Lego playset), Thor, Bruce and Valkyrie arrive on Asgard, where Hela's forces are attacking Heimdall and Asgard's citizens.  Bruce becomes the Hulk again, after an awkward faceplant on the Rainbow Bridge and smashes Fenris, while Thor and Valkyrie battle Skurge and the Warriors Dead.  Loki and the gladiators arrive to help, with the surviving Asgardians swarming onto their large ship for refuge.  Skurge rethinks the whole serving Hela thing and  sacrifices himself to allow the Asgardian refguees to escape.  

Remembering this is supposed to be his movie, after all, Thor has a final showdown with Hela, which costs him the same eye that his dad Odin lost back in the Asgardian day.  (Maybe Nick Fury can help Thor find a discount eyepatch retailer?)   Suddenly, Thor has a vision of Odin, who reminds him that he's the God of Thunder, not the God of Hammers, and oh, by the way, did I mention that you're more powerful than me?  Realizing that he possesses the power of The Glow thunder and lightning, Thor cranks "Immigrant Song" back up and throws down with Hela, until he and Loki decide that only Ragnarök can stop her.  While Hela is distracted, Loki locates Surtur's crown in the trophy room and places it in the Eternal Flame.  Surtur is resurrected to his ginormous state and destroys Asgard, seemingly killing Hela.  Thor and the others escape with Asgard's survivors aboard the Grandmaster's vessel.  Thor, crowned king, decides to take his people to Earth, which should annoy the hell out of Doctor Strange.

Waititi's film is pretty much nonstop one-liners, a noticeable upswing from the first two Thor movies, and it's certainly not dull.  Mark Mothersbaugh from the classic new-wave band Devo provides an interesting synth-punk score, which combined with Waititi's love of neon, gives this flick a serious '80s vibe when not blasting Led Zepplin.  And of course, there are a lot of great character moments, so here's some of what I noticed...

THOR ODINSON -- In his fifth film as Thor, Chris Hemsworth looks like he's having the best time ever as Thor.  Anyone that's watched Hemsworth on Saturday Night Live or in the Ghostbusters remake knows he has good comedic timing, which he uses here in spades.  He also does a nice job with the weight of responsibility Thor feels concerning the Asgardian refugees and it would've been nice to see more of that.  Maybe in Avengers: The Infinity War?

LOKI LAUFEYSON -- Tom Hiddleston, rather shockingly, finally avoids stealing a Thor movie.  For once, Loki doesn't end up being the central focus, which was probably a letdown to the Hiddlestoners on Tumblr, but I think the film is better off for it.  Don't worry, Loki still gets his moments here and there, with a particular favorite of mine being when he stands up and cheers the Hulk thrashing Thor about like the Hulk did to him in the first Avengers movie.  And hey, did Loki nick the Tesseract back from Odin's trophy room?  It certainly seems that way, doesn't it?

HELA -- Swapping Middle-earth for Asgard, Cate Blanchett has a solid outing as Hela, the film's Big Bad.  She's a big deal here, mainly because the Marvel Cinematic Universe finally gave us a formidable female supervillain.  In order to stop her, Hela costs Thor his hammer, his right eye and his home, all significant ramifications that aren't given a quick reset button.  And even better, Blanchett gets to sport Hela's large, branching headpiece from the comics, which I have to think will make Jack Kirby proud up in Comic Book Heaven.

VALKYRIE -- So, if Tom Hiddleston doesn't steal the third Thor movie, who does?  Tessa Thompson, that's who.  Completely drunk, Valkyrie makes her big-screen debut falling off the landing ramp to her own ship, but still manages to make Thor her captive.  From there, Valkyrie easily shows she's Thor equal (if not superior), charming the God of Thunder (and the audience) with her sassy Asgardian attitude.  Thompson first hit my personal radar during the first season of HBO's Westworld and her strong performance here is going to make her a star, just you watch.

THE HULK/BRUCE BANNER -- With no solo Hulk movie in his foreseeable future, Mark Ruffalo reprises his role of Bruce Banner once again here.  This time though, his Banner seems unusually unsure of himself, possibly a result of being only the Hulk for two years.  While the "Planet Hulk" arena battle finally gives us the Thor vs. Hulk throwdown we've always wanted, the Hulk ends up relegated to little more than an afterthought during the climactic showdown on Asgard.  And yes, I'm still wincing at Bruce's epic Rainbow Bridge faceplant.

THE GRANDMASTER/EN DWI GAST -- Once again, Jeff Goldblum reminds us how good he is at being Jeff Goldblum as someone else -- Jurassic Park, Independence Day, The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai, you name it.  Instead of the cold, manipulative Elder of the Universe from the comics, Goldblum's Grandmaster is a quirky ruler of Sakaar who craves public adulation.  He also gets a fun post-credits scene, where the Grandmaster turns up alive on Sakaar after the revolution and tries to dismiss it as a tie.

THE EXECUTIONER/SKURGE -- Continuing to build upon his already impressive geek movie cred, Karl Urban gets to play classic Thor bad guy The Executioner.  Unfortunately, his would-be girlfriend The Enchantress was nowhere in sight, so Skruge ends up becoming the Substitute Heimdall and Hela's main henchman to help move the story along.  At least Urban gets his character's defining moment, where he flips the script and becomes a good guy, defending the Asgardian refugees against Hela's Warrior Dead with a pair of M-16 rifles from Earth, in a great homage to Walt Simonson's Thor (vol.1) #362.

SURTUR -- Clancy Brown is another Buckaroo Banzai vet to make an appearance, voicing the fire demon that dominated Simonson's biggest saga during his Thor run.  Sadly, the Surtur depicted here doesn't even come close to Simonson's epic monster, in a completely wasted opportunity.  Surtur is taken out far too easily in the early moments of the film, only to be resurrected at the end as a deus ex machina to deal with Hela.  

KORG -- In addition to directing the movie, Taika Waititi provides the voice of Korg in the "Planet Hulk" storyline.  The decision to give a big rock alien a polite New Zealand accent was definitely an interesting one, but it obviously helped to make the character much more accessible and likable.  Korg's best moment is probably the scene with the Asgardian refugees in space, watching the destruction of Asgard and awkwardly trying (and failing) to be helpful.

ODIN BORSON -- Sir Anthony Hopkins reprises his role as the All-Father, presumably for the last time.  Odin essentially becomes Obi-Wan Kenobi, offering advice to Thor right before dying and disappearing, only to offer some crucial piece of advice to the hero at just the right moment.  

HEIMDALL -- Reportedly, Idris Elba considers Thor: Ragnarok to be his favorite because it was "fun" to make.  I have to think it's simply because for once, Heimdall isn't just standing around in big clunky armor at the Bifröst Bridge gate.  Apart from swiping the Bifröst sword and overseeing the refugees, he doesn't get that much to do here.

DOCTOR STRANGE CAMEO -- If you saw the mid-credits scene at the end of Doctor Strange, you've already watched some of Benedict Cumberbatch's sequence where he helps Thor and Loki find Odin.  In this expanded "uncut" version of that mid-credits scene, we also see the events leading up to that scene and get a much better understanding of what actually took place.

BLACK WIDOW CAMEO -- Scarlett Johansson turns up briefly as a recording inside Bruce Banner's Quinjet, back from when she attempted to get him to turn the Quinjet around and come home in Avengers: Age of Ultron.

VOLSTAGG THE VOLUMINOUS AND FANDRAL THE DASHING CAMEOS -- In two "blink and you miss them" cameos, Ray Stevenson and Zachary Levi are quickly and unceremoniously killed off the moment Hela arrives on Asgard.  Quite simply, these characters deserved a far better exit.

HOGUN THE GRIM CAMEO -- As the last surviving member of the Warriors Three, Tadanobu Asano's Hogun is also killed off by Hela, but only as the last remaining member of the Asgardian army.  At least Hogun got to speak a few words of defiance before he was canceled.

ASGARDIAN ACTOR CAMEOS -- During a sequence where Asgardian actors perform a play based on the events of Thor: The Dark World, Sam Neill portrays Odin, Matt Damon plays Loki, and Luke Hemsworth (Chris' other brother) is Thor.  #TheMoreYouKnow

OBLIGATORY STAN LEE CAMEO -- Stan "The Man" turns up as a barber on Sakaar tasked with cutting ol' Goldilocks'...um...locks before his arena battle with the Hulk.  Hey, at least he didn't give Thor a perm.

Overall, Thor: Ragnarok is a fun film that ends up just a bit too goofy to be worthy of its game-changing climax.  While Ragnarok was a significant improvement on the previous film, the mostly lifeless Thor: The Dark World, it tries way too hard to be a Guardians of the Galaxy clone instead of something closer to the epic tale that Thor fans deserved with Ragnarök in play.  We'll see where Avengers: Infinity War takes our one-eyed God of Thunder and the surviving Asgardians next...Broxton, Oklahoma, perhaps?

And for those who may be wondering, here's the updated list of my Top 20 Comic Book Films:

1. Superman (1978)
2. The Dark Knight (2008)
3. The Avengers (2012)

4. Batman Begins (2005)

5. Logan (2017)

6. Captain America: Civil War (2016)

7. Man of Steel (2013)

8. Doctor Strange (2016)

9. Captain America: The Winter Soldier (2014)

10. Wonder Woman (2017)

11. Spider-Man 2 (2004)

12. Spider-Man (2002)

13. Iron Man (2008)

14. Guardians of the Galaxy (2014)
15. Watchmen (2009)
16. Captain America: The First Avenger (2011)

17. Thor (2011)

18. Avengers: Age of Ultron (2015)

19. Thor: Ragnarok (2017)

20. Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 (2017)

DAMN Good Movies -- SPIDER-MAN: HOMECOMING

Hey, everyone!  It's time once again for another of my movie takes, this time on the film Spider-Man: Homecoming, the first Spider-Man solo film set in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.  As always, if you haven't seen the movie yet and you don't want it spoiled for you, then please step back from your computer or whatever electronic device you're reading this on and stop reading now.  If, however, you're wise enough to know that movie reviews with spoilers are always more interesting than the ones without them...well...let's do some web-slinging!

In the brighter days of November 2014, Sony Pictures' emails were hacked and dumped onto the interwebz, revealing that Sony wanted Marvel Studios to produce a new trilogy of Spider-Man films after the debacle of The Amazing Spider-Man 2, a creative mess that was the franchise's lowest domestic performance to date.  Discussions between Sony and Marvel broke down, leaving Sony to plan a number of Spider-Man related films until somehow, Sony and Marvel managed to strike a deal in February 2015.  A new Spider-Man, Sony's third in less than fifteen years, would debut in Marvel's Captain America: Civil War before (web) spinning off into his own solo movie where Sony would have final creative control.  All that mattered to Marvel fans, however, was that Spider-Man was finally going to be a part of the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

As expected, casting the replacement for Andrew Garfield proved tricky, especially with Sony wanting an actor younger than Garfield to distinguish his take on the role.  Logan Lerman and Dylan O'Brien were considered early front-runners, until other names like Nat Wolff, Asa Butterfield, Tom Holland, Timothée Chalamet, and Liam James were reported as well.  Butterfield, Holland, Judah Lewis, Matthew Lintz, Charlie Plummer, and Charlie Rowe reportedly screen-tested with Robert Downey, Jr. for "chemistry", and Tom Holland (then all of 19 years old) was finally announced in June 2015.  With Jon Watts brought in as director, working from a screenplay by himself along with five other screenwriters, Homecoming was off and running.

The movie opens with a wonderful musical nod to the 1967 Spider-Man animated series theme, as we go back in time shortly after the Battle of New York from the first Avengers movie.  Adrian Toomes, the future Vulture, and his salvage company are contracted to clean up the city after the Chitauri invasion, which has left all kinds of alien artifacts behind.  All well and good, until Tony Stark's United States Department of Damage Control steps in and takes over, kicking Toomes and his crew to the curb. Needless to say, Toomes isn't a fan of the move (They terk our jerbz!), so he encourages his guys to keep the Chitauri technology they haven't turned over and use it to create advance weapons and maybe a big ol' flying Vulture suit for scavenging operations.

We jump ahead eight years later and get a quick recap of Spider-Man's involvement in Captain America: Civil War, but using shakycam footage taken by Peter using his cameraphone.  Tom Holland's Peter Parker is young, enthusiastic and horribly awkward, so after Tony is finished using Peter's Spider-Man abilities for Team Iron Man, Tony quickly benches him and tasks "Happy" Hogan to essentially babysit Peter via long distance.  Peter leaves Happy dozens of unreturned phone calls, eager to prove himself to Tony as Spider-Man, before finally turning his attention on fighting crime in his friendly neighborhood of Queens.

Peter confronts a gang wearing Avengers masks attempting an ATM heist using the Vulture's weapons, then returns home to have a serious secret identity fail by not realizing that his best friend Ned Leeds was hanging out in his bedroom.  Peter struggles to answer Ned's inane, non-stop questions, but Ned soon provides superhero support as Peter comes across Fake Shocker and Real Shocker selling weapons to Troy Barnes from Community.  At this point, Homecoming goes into full John Hughes movie mode, staging a suburban backyard chase reminiscent of Ferris Bueller's Day Off that even features the original Ferris Bueller sequence playing in the background.  We see what you did there, Watts.

More John Hughes allusions follow when Peter rejoins the Midtown High academic decathlon team on a trip to Washington, D.C. mainly so he can track down the Real Shocker in Maryland.  Peter gets dry, snarky sass from "Ally Sheedy in The Breakfast Club" wannabe Michelle Jones, crushes on senior Liz (who turns out to have a very important connection to the Vulture), and misses the academic decathlon tournament .  Just to remind people this is a Spider-Man movie, Peter gets a solid win saving his classmates from a Chitauri grenade explosion at the Washington Monument, only to get a solid loss when the Staten Island Ferry is sliced in half during an attempt to capture the Vulture.  Fortunately for Peter, Tony actually shows up this time as Iron Man to save the passengers, but takes away Peter's spiffy Spider-Suit because Tony has never screwed up anything ever (Iron Man, Iron Man 2, Iron Man 3, Civil War...).  

We head into the Third Act with Peter trying to get his groove back by asking Liz out to the homecoming dance, which she accepts.  Everything seems adorkably high school, until Peter goes to Liz's home and discovers that her father is -- you guessed it -- Adrian Toomes, the Vulture. Peter starts sweating even more profusely, especially after Liz makes some throwaway remarks that help Adrian figure out that Peter is -- you guessed it again -- Spider-Man.  Michael Keaton lays on the bad guy menace nice and thick, threatening to kill Peter's Aunt May and his friends if Peter interferes with his plans.  You wanna get nuts? C'mon, let's get nuts!

Peter mulls over his predicament for about a second and promptly bails on Liz.  Donning his cheesy homemade Spider-Man suit, he races to the Vulture's hideout and takes out the Shocker with Ned's help.  However, the Vulture gets the better of Spidey by taking out a support column that buries our hero in rubble and heavy machinery.  In a great homage to The Amazing Spider-Man (vol.1) #33, Peter summons enough willpower to lift the rubble and frees himself.  From there, there's a dizzying climactic sequence aboard a Damage Control plane transporting weapons from Avengers Tower that the Vulture attempts to hijack, forcing Peter to steer the aircraft to crash on Coney Island Beach.  This leads to an important moment where Peter could easily let the Vulture die using his damaged equipment, solving his secret identity problem rather neatly, but chooses instead to save the villain's life and leave him for the police along with the important cargo.  The moment is not lost on the Vulture, who repays Spider-Man back in the mid-credits scene by not telling his real identity to Mac Gargan.

In the aftermath, Tony decides to give Peter his spiffy Spider-Suit back and even invites to a press conference where Spider-Man will be announced as an Avenger, but Peter declines the Avengers offer.  He keeps the suit though, and just as he tries it on once again, Aunt May walks in and is this close to dropping an F-bomb before the Ramones' "Blitzkrieg Bop" and the closing credits kick in.

This was a fun, '80s style superhero romp, with some good character moments. Here are some of the things that stood out:

SPIDER-MAN/PETER PARKER -- In his second outing as Spidey, Tom Holland has a better handle on his character but doesn't seem up to owning the role just yet.  Holland rattles off Spidey's one-liners well enough and seems a decent choice for a younger Peter Parker full of energy and recklessness.  The problem here, in my opinion, is the lack of distance from Maguire and Garfield to win over fans of those eras.  And it certainly doesn't help to have Peter being under Tony Stark's controlling nature, to the point where Peter can't even have a decent Spider-Man costume without him.

THE VULTURE/ADRIAN TOOMES -- Michael Keaton is Batman.  You know it, I know it, but it's really nice to be reminded that Keaton can be more than that.  Thankfully, his Vulture isn't the lame septuagenerian Adrian Toomes from the comics, he's one of Marvel's better movie villains and one that was sorely needed.  The Vulture is a villain that doesn't see himself as a villain, just someone trying to provide for his family until that pesky Spider-Man comes along to mess things up.  Even better, he isn't simply killed off after figuring out Peter's alter ego, setting up a potential return...with the Sinister Six perhaps?

IRON MAN/TONY STARK -- Despite not being on screen all that much, Robert Downey, Jr.'s Tony Stark is all over this film.  So much so, this movie probably should've been called Marvel Team-Up instead of Spider-Man: Homecoming.  As a result, Tony and all the baggage that comes with him eats up time I would've rather seen spent on Peter, and ends up making Peter a sidekick -- in his own movie!  Tony does, however, seem to want to groom Peter as a potential successor, and it would've been nice to see him taking genuine pride in Peter's accomplishments.

NED LEEDS -- Speaking of sidekicks, Jacob Batalon is pretty much that as Ned Leeds. He's the goofy comic relief, trying on Peter's Spider-Man mask or wanting Peter to build a Lego Death Star with him, until things get serious and Peter needs somebody at a computer.  He's an interesting change from two takes on Harry Osborn, but unfortunately, not as strong of a supporting character as Harry was.

LIZ ALLAN -- Laura Harrier is Peter's love interest, although she's more of a crush interest for most of the film.  Liz seems to respect Peter's intellect, helping to bridge that huge divide between seniors and sophomores that would normally put her way out of Peter's league. Obviously, it's her connection to the Vulture that's the most interesting, and it feels like a wasted opportunity that we're probably not going to see how Liz copes with knowing that her father is a supervillain.

MICHELLE "MJ" JONES -- The character most designed to rile up haters of diversity casting is Zendaya's Michelle, who was first teased as a Mary Jane Watson of color until Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige had to publicly state that Michelle isn't MJ...even though she glosses herself "MJ" at the end of the movie.  (Everybody got that?)  Michelle comes off fairly well as the sulky yet brilliant prodigy who steps up and covers for Peter at the Decathlon tournament, but did the film really need her?  I'm not so sure.

EUGENE "FLASH" THOMPSON -- Tony Revolori is the latest big-screen Flash, taking over from Joe Manganiello and Chris Zylka, but instead of being the physical bully we know and loathe, Revolori's Flash is just a rich douche who mocks Peter while trying to be a DJ on the side.  Yeah, not exactly an improvement.

MAY PARKER -- After debuting with Tom Holland in Captain America: Civil War, Marisa Tomei received a bit of flack from fans who dismissed her Aunt May as "Aunt Milf".  So, it was no surprise to see May suddenly sporting granny glasses in Homecoming, which did manage to add some mileage.  May is only there to provide the occasional words of wisdom to Peter, but she does get arguably the movie's biggest laugh at the very end.

THE SHOCKER/MONTANA/JACKSON BRICE -- Logan Marshall-Green is the Shocker for all of five minutes before the Vulture accidentally kills him off for jeopardizing the group's plan and hands his vibro-blast gauntlets over to...

THE SHOCKER/HERMAN SCHULTZ -- As the Shocker we know and remember from the comics, Bokeem Woodbine is on screen for all of ten minutes.  He does, however, get to threaten Peter and Ned at Midtown High and has some moments during the Staten Island Ferry fiasco.

THE TINKERER/PHINEAS MASON -- Michael Chernus is obscure Spider-Man bad guy the Tinkerer, who serves here as the Chitauri tech whiz in Vulture's gang that builds Vulture's suit and the Shocker's vibro-blast gauntlets.

THE SCORPION/MAC GARGAN -- The Scorpion gets a major tease as the possible next Spider-Man movie villain, with Michael Mando sporting a scorpion tattoo (Get it?) on his neck and shows up on the Staten Island Ferry to receive stolen Chitauri technology.  He turns up later during the aforementioned mid-credits sequence, trying to get the Vulture to tell him who Spider-Man really is.  Another member of the Sinister Six, perhaps?

HAROLD "HAPPY" HOGAN -- Jon Favreau finally makes another appearance as Tony's bodyguard and chauffeur Happy, after getting blowed up real good in Iron Man 3 and rendered comatose.  As always, Happy finds himself stuck with the mundane tasks Tony doesn't want to deal with, which in this case, means Peter.  He does, however, get a nice moment toward the end where he reveals he's been carrying a ring for Tony to propose with for the past fifteen years.

PEPPER POTTS CAMEO -- And who does Tony propose to?  Why, Gwyneth Paltrow's Pepper Potts, of course.  This was something of a surprise, since Pepper didn't appear in Avengers: Age of Ultron or Captain America: Civil War, where we were told that she and Tony were "taking a break".  The break must've worked, because Pepper's back to potentially set up a wedding scene in Avengers: Infinity War.

CAPTAIN AMERICA CAMEOS -- Chris Evans also gets some laughs in a couple of funny high school PSA videos, wearing his costume from the first Avengers movie.  One is a "Captain America Fitness Challenge" that Peter and Ned watch during gym class, and the other is a clever post-credits scene where Cap instructs the audience in the importance of patience.  Well played, Watts.

OBLIGATORY STAN LEE CAMEO -- In his latest cameo, Stan "The Man" turns up as Gary, a New York City apartment resident named Gary who interjects himself into Spider-Man's argument with another apartment resident.

All in all, Spider-Man: Homecoming is a decent reboot for the Spider-Man film franchise.  It doesn't quite reach the level of the first two Tobey Maguire films, but it has a lot of heart and manages to surpass the third, not to mention the two Andrew Garfield films.  Tom Holland may not be everyone's favorite wall-crawler, but with this reboot firmly grounded in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, at least it feels like it actually matters.  The decision to partner with Marvel was a wise move for Sony, especially since they already have a sequel in the works for July 2019.

And for those who may be wondering, here's the updated list of my Top 20 Comic Book Films:

1. Superman (1978)
2. The Dark Knight (2008)
3. The Avengers (2012)

4. Batman Begins (2005)

5. Logan (2017)

6. Captain America: Civil War (2016)

7. Man of Steel (2013)

8. Doctor Strange (2016)

9. Captain America: The Winter Soldier (2014)

10. Wonder Woman (2017)

11. Spider-Man 2 (2004)

12. Spider-Man (2002)

13. Iron Man (2008)

14. Guardians of the Galaxy (2014)
15. Watchmen (2009)
16. Captain America: The First Avenger (2011)

17. Avengers: Age of Ultron (2015)

18. Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 (2017)
19. Spider-Man: Homecoming (2017)

20. X-Men: Days of Future Past (2014)