MadCap At The Movies - "Deadpool and Wolverine" (2024)

 

There are many great duos in history.

Romulus and Remus.

Bulk and Skull.

Lennon and McCartney.

And of all the duos in history... this is one of them.

MadCap At The Movies - "Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse" (2023)

...okay, so at the very least the Spider-Verse films are either part of the MCU or are MCU adjacent. Come to peace with it.

Spoiler alert.

MadCap At The Movies - "Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3" (2023)

 ...this movie is good. Go watch it.

Yeah, that's... that's pretty much it. That's the takeaway here. Go.

Right now.

Go.

...alright, fine. But don't say I didn't put up a spoiler warning.

MadCap At The Movies - "Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves"

I decided to let this one stew for a bit before actually posting it. I'll go ahead and tell you: it's good. Is it good because we just have never had a good Dungeons & Dragons movie before or is it good on its own merits, though? Let's have a look.

As always with my fresh from the theater film reviews, spoilers follow after the cut. If you don't wish to be spoiled, go ahead and go see the movie (and I do recommend that you do!) and then come back here.

Alright. Everybody caught up? Good, then I'll begin.

MadCap At The Movies - "Jurassic World: Dominion" (2022)

Alright, so... let's pick up right where we left off before. Plus about four years.

Now, you may remember that I rather enjoyed Fallen Kingdom at the time that it came out. My opinion on it has soured a bit upon re-viewing, I'm sorry to say. I'd hesitate to call it "bad", but it's an odd duck in the Jurassic Park franchise. It's not Jurassic Park III bad, but it was still eclipsed by the first Jurassic World film in terms of scale and presentation. With Dominion touted as "The Epic Conclusion of the Jurassic Era", will it be able to surpass expectations? Let's have a look!

As always, beyond this point there be spoilers. You have been warned.

MadCap At The Movies - "Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness" (2022)

Alright, folks! We're back to the movies! Grab your Rasinets, slurp your ICEE, and get ready for some spoilers.

Because there will be spoilers.

From this point onward, spoilers.

I'm serious. If you haven't seen the movie, turn back now.

Also if you haven't seen No Way Home, turn back now, because I'm about to drop a massive spoiler for that as well.

Oh, and WandaVision as well.

Seriously, a lot of spoilerage here.

MadCap At The Movies - "Star Wars Episode IX: The Rise of Skywalker"

Well, here we are again.

To misquote a poorly-written version of a great Jedi Master, "no one's love of Star Wars is ever really gone". However, does this mean that The Rise of Skywalker has re-ignited my love of the franchise that Rian Johnson snuffed out and has spent the better part of the last two years laughing at me from his lofty perch supported only by Reylo shippers and bullshit?

But I repeat myself. Let's get into the end of the "Skywalker Saga", which I could have sworn I reviewed quite some time ago, but nevermind me.

MadCap At The Movies - "Spider-Man: Far From Home"

HEY! HEY! HEY, EVERYBODY! DID YOU KNOW THAT IRON MAN DIED IN AVENGERS: ENDGAME?! IT'S REALLY IMPORTANT THAT YOU KNOW THAT IRON MAN DIED IN AVENGERS: ENDGAME! HEY! HEY HEY!

...this is pretty much the entire first half hour of the film.

What starts out as a fitting and rather well-done tribute to those lost during Endgame (weirdly set to Whitney Houston's "I Will Always Love You") in the first few minutes turns into a film that spends a third of its run time praising a man who destroyed all of his company's weapons in order to build a bigger, more more destructive one and then about forty-seven variations of that, created an artificial intelligence that nearly ended the world as well as killed several thousand people and received no blame for it, willingly handed control over his team to a government that could still be crawling with HYDRA agents for all he knew, then fought and criminalized many of his friends when they didn't want to go along with it, manipulated a teenage boy from Queens into being his own personal soldier, and was apologetic for literally none of it before doing what was literally the least he could have done and sacrificing himself for the greater good.

So. CAN WE PLEASE STOP TRYING TO PASS OFF MCU TONY AS A GOOD GUY ALREADY?!

HE REALLY, REALLY WASN'T!

MadCap (And A Ginger!) At The Movies - "Dark Phoenix"

Well, the word is in. Is Dark Phoenix a glorious bird rising up again for one final hurrah or is it the last dying gasp of said bird as it chokes on the ashes? stoopidkid425 and I hit the theater to find out!

...it's the second thing.

MadCap At The Movies - "Avengers: Endgame" (spoilers)

Okay, so I was going to do a non-spoiler review and a spoiler review and just rake in the mad ad revenue dollars...I mean, have one for those that wanted to avoid spoilers and those that didn't care or had already seen the movie. So that's what I'm going to do. This is the spoiler version of the review. If you don't want spoilers, then watch the movie and come back to read this one or check out the non-spoiler version here. Or, if you do not care about spoilers, then feel free to look beyond the cut to read.

We good? Good. Excelsior!

MadCap At The Movies - "Avengers: Endgame" (no spoilers)

Okay, so I was going to do a non-spoiler review and a spoiler review and just rake in the mad ad revenue dollars...I mean, have one for those that wanted to avoid spoilers and those that didn't care or had already seen the movie. So that's what I'm going to do. This is the no-spoiler version of the review. If you don't want spoilers, then feel free to proceed. If you want spoilers or you have already seen the movie, then feel free to check out the spoiler review here.

We good? Good. Excelsior!

MadCap (and a Ginger!) At The Movies - "Shazam!"

Yep! Went out with stoopidkid425 again! He says hi, internet! Check him out on PSN!

Given that this movie will very likely be swamped by the oncoming Avengers: Endgame coming out later this month, I imagine that this film is going to need all the boosts it can get. And that's a shame, really, because it most definitely deserves the praise.

Yeah, I'm not going to sugar coat it - this film is good.

Very, very good.

MadCap At The Movies - "Captain Marvel"

I, a twenty-eight year old white male (at the time of this writing), am with sound mind and body reviewing Captain Marvel. Why? Because this is America and I can complain about whatever I like, thank you Brie Larson. Granted, I'm about half the age of the people that she claimed she didn't want to see more reviews of, but I'm happy to say this attitude has not infected Captain Marvel...much.

But let me just go ahead and spoil it here: this is not a bad movie. It's your standard Marvel fare. Whether you like them or not, Marvel Cinematic Universe films are well produced and have wide mass appeal. Disney can cast a wide net and catch a lot of people in it (unless the project head is named Rian Johnson) who will then give them a lot of money. Will Captain Marvel do well? More than likely. Is it going to be some kind of wunderkind film that will redefine films for the rest of eternity, like some sort of Silver Screen form of Jesus?

No.

Just like Black Panther was not that either.

You know what they both were? Fairly solidly made.

MadCap At the Movies - "Ant-Man and the Wasp"

Just a few short years ago, you were made to believe a man could ant. But the question remained from the post-credits scene of that movie, can a woman wasp?

The answer is yes. And you did believe it.

Spoilers here follow on from both the first Ant-Man film and Captain America: Civil War as well as some late-game spoilers for Infinity War. So, if you've not seen any of those films (and I congratulate the three of you on discovering the internet!) turn back now. After the jump, anything goes...

MadCap At The Movies - "Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom"

So...Jurassic World was a pretty good movie. Star-Lord commanded raptors and fought an abomination of science and while it had some issues it was overall enjoyable as a popcorn movie and you really weren't expected to think too much about it. There were plot elements that were clearly to be set up for sequels, but overall it was just an enjoyable roller coaster ride with dinosaurs involved with the charisma of Chris Pratt and Bryce Dallas Howard elevating it beyond its means.

It made money.

And a lot of money at that. So, naturally, a sequel was going to happen. Just as The Lost World came in 1995 after the original, it was preordained by the gods of the box office that we would have a Jurassic World 2. And lo has it come, it's existence shouted from the highest mountain top of Isla Nublar as it exploded in a fiery mess of magma.

And it's not bad...

MadCap At The Movies - "Solo: A Star Wars story"

...so after Rian Johnson opened the Seventh Seal and brought strife and destruction down upon the Star Wars fanbase the likes of which haven't been seen since the days of Lucas releasing the Special Editions (And that was in the pre-Disney era, when Lucas either didn't know or didn't care that he could buy off journalists to insist that the work wasn't complete and utter garbage), it was obviously time to go back to something less horrifically offensive to sanity.

So, naturally, a Han Solo solo movie...only three movies after the movie in which he was killed off.

Way to go, morons!

I don't mean to be overly hard on this movie, after all, Han is one of only two of the original trilogy's trio that a solo film could be made for (the other being Leia), and you have a lot of possibilities that you could explore with him...that were already covered in all that Expanded Universe that Disney decided to dump because they thought that their crap was better, managing to screw it up in three movies where the Expanded Universe managed to have ups and downs over the 30+ years of existence that it had.

Way to go, morons!

But I don't want to mock this film for other poor creative decisions, instead choosing to blame it's own poor creative decisions. So with that all out of the way, this is where the spoilers begin. If you don't want any spoilers, this is your chance to back out of the article. For the record, "Han Solo survives the movie" does not count as a spoiler.

Neither does "Chewbacca survives the movie".

...and neither does "Lando survives the movie".

MadCap (And A Ginger!) At The Movies - "Deadpool 2"

Yep, that's right. Stoopidkid425 and I hit the movies again! This time, it was the cinematic opus of Ryan Reynolds - Deadpool 2! Now, I know what you're thinking - "MadCap, you incredibly virile and sexy man who is just far, far too handsome to have anything resembling a consistent release schedule! How could they possibly told the absolutely nearly-perfect 1:1 translation from comic book to film that the first film did?" Well first, you can go ahead and stop licking my boots, I assure you they are very clean by now. Second, I have to be entirely honest with you here my readership - but Stoopidkid and I agreed, they pretty much nailed it.

Spoilers follow on from this point so, if you're not ready for them, go and see the movie before reading on.

MadCap (And a Ginger!) At the Movies - "Rampage"

So...Rampage. It was an arcade game back in the day when Midway was not bought out by the corporate puppets of Warner Brothers. Today, it's a one hundred and seven minute long movie that my friend Stoopidkid425 (he's the ginger in the title, check him out on PSN) and I went to see. And it's...okay.

That's it, really. It's just okay.

I've seen people going around saying that it's a triumph and finally breaks the curse of bad video game movies...and I really can't agree for a variety of reasons. Namely, we already have video game movies that are not bad. They're not masterpieces, to be sure, but there are a few ones that are enjoyable. There aren't many, sure, but there are those out there. There's Mortal Kombat or DOA: Dead or Alive if you want examples.

Yes, I know that both are stupid and shameless, but that's rather fitting of video game adaptations, don't you think?

MadCap At The Movies - "Black Panther"

So! Black Panther. The next step in the saga of T'Challa of Wakanda (Chadwick Boseman) as we see him dealing with the fall out of Captain America: Civil War. For me, at least, T'Challa was the most likable character in the whole of Civil War even with the addition of Spider-Man. He had a sympathetic backstory that we could relate to on an emotional level, and he showed himself to be a true hero by choosing forgiveness and peace over revenge and conflict, something which had consumed both Steve Rogers and Tony Stark by the end of that film.

Naturally, one would expect him to get his own solo film and rightly so. He proved through the narrative of Civil War that he was an interesting enough character, and that Boseman had the acting chops, to carry his own feature. So, two years after Steve Rogers delivered to Tony Stark his rightful ass-whooping, we come to this film. Is it a worthy continuation of the story of T'Challa? Is it worth all the praise that both audiences and critics have been heaping on it? Or is it, as some might have you believe, just another sign of Marvel sliding into a bottomless pit of failure?

In this order: Yes, yes, and get a life, losers.

MadCap At The Movies - "Star Wars: The Last Jedi"

Is it possible to measure soul-crushing disappointment? Why, yes indeed, there is! Two hours and thirty minutes according to the latest entry into the Star Wars franchise! I was someone who defended The Force Awakens. I enjoyed it. I still do. Unfortunately, now, every single viewing I have of it from now until the end of my linear existence is going to see to it that it is tainted by the knowledge that this is what follows it.

This.

I'm going to go ahead and warn you now, this is where the spoiler warning begins. I am going to praise the few things that I can about this movie before vivisecting it, pointing out and pulling hard on every single loose thread in this tapestry until I have dismantled it...and then I will take the time to fix the very, very many mistakes to salvage this clunker.

That being said, I will say that you should see it. It is, after all, another part of the story and despite all the raging and complaining I have to do here, Disney pretty much has me by the balls because I have to see how this ends.

Last warning for spoilers. If you haven't seen the film yet and still wish to without spoilers, turn back now.