Marvel Monday: The Avengers

I remember seeing the first Avengers movie in theaters. I hadn't liked any of the Marvel movies leading up to The Avengers at the time... well I saw Iron Man and didn't like it and I never gave anything else a chance at first... but I thought The Avengers looked good because it was all of them together... and that just seemed more exciting to me than their solo movies. And... they have a Hulk.

After seeing Endgame... this movie is really fun to watch! We did revisit the events in the first Avengers in Endgame and it was kind of fun to see everyone's first interactions with each other. They didn't get along... and the Tesseract kind of fueled off of that too. It is kind of a theme that they disagree- particularly Steve Rogers and Tony Stark... but they all fight well together and they do a great job. It was also fun to see Loki as a villain... I love Loki- but I do kind of miss his character as a villain! He destroyed New York and killed a lot of people though... so that's bad.

Another fun thing is the relationship between Natasha and Clint. Without spoiling Endgame... this is kind of the heart of their character arcs in the movie and I feel like in the series it is one of my favorite parts of all the Avengers movies. In this movie and in Age of Ultron... I really think their relationship kind of grounds the group. I thought it was a romantic love when I first saw this movie... but I like how it ended up as more of a brother/sister type of love. The series does a good job of showing how they always care about each other and they'll always be there for each other.

That's actually all I have to say right now. Overall great movie- really fun to watch especially after you just see the conclusion of this saga in Endgame. I can't wait to watch Age of Ultron for the next Marvel Monday!

TTFN!
-Shannon

Disney Favorites And News This Week: 5.9.19

Not going to lie... I wrote this for Friday- but Life. I think this might be a Wednesday thing.

Alright #1 favorite this week is of corse Avengers Endgame. This is definitely worth the hype and worth seeing in theaters. I did a review on it... but man... I cried a lot! It was great. I want to see it again! It's probably worth seeing more than once in theaters.

I watched Ralph Breaks The Internet too! I did a movie Monday on it- you can check it out right here.I love the Bunny and Kitty in it and I actually got a Toybox Toy from The Disney Store with Vanellope, the Bunny and The Kitty. That is definitely a favorite for sure. My boyfriend actually has Ralph- so of corse I have Vanellope! I only have 2 of the Toybox toys right now. Vanellope and Dr.Strange... I do really like these but some of them look a little odd. I wanted the Thanos one because I love Thanos... but he just didn't look great.

I watched Zootopia too. I feel like I can watch this movie every time it's on... which is true of a lot of Disney Movies... but still. It's just so funny.

I've got some Disney News for you guys too! There was recently an Anniversary Party for Disney's Hollywood Studios and they previewed some new things. First off we have a new Logo for the park featuring Woody, BB8 and Mickey himself. I like the logo... however I do understand what a lot of people are saying about it... which is basically it's a little awkward as an actual logo. Seeing these 3 characters together makes sense in a commercial spot or on video... but with the different animation styles it doesn't look great on the sign itself.

I couldn't get a picture of the actual sign for this blog? Maybe Disney isn't allowing that or something... but here you can get the details of it... I'm curious. I don't think It's something I would think twice of while in the park itself... I don't think it would ruin my park photos... I still think it looks good... but I understand the criticism.

Another thing I think people are critical of: The Skyliner Gondola's having characters! So far there was an accidental reveal of one of the characters. You can check out this youtube video at 0:28 seconds. One of the covers covering the gondola's fell off and it showed what the gondola looked like. This one has Goofy, Pete, Clarabelle Cow and Horace Horsecollar. I think it's cute. I like that some of the Gondola's have characters on them and some do not. I think if I were a kid I'd be really excited to ride in one of the ones with the characters on it. Plus it's kind of fun to guess which color you're going to get for the Monorail and... I just like how this will be kind of exciting to wait and try to guess what you might get.

Also there will be a table service Barbecue restaurant in Toy Story Land called Roundup Rodeo Barbecue. The concept art looks really adorable. I know Disney has a lot of great Barbecue restaurants on property. I've heard people say Flame Tree Barbecue in Animal Kingdom is one of the best... and they have The Polite Pig... so this is a good announcement. I think it'll be really nice to have something else in Toy Story Land- especially since the main complaint I'm hearing about Toy Story Land is that there's no shaded areas. So this will be a nice break from the heat there.

A couple of different fireworks shows have been announced also! Disneyland Forever- which is the Fireworks show that Disneyland showed for their 60th celebration. It was apparently amazing and many Disneyland fans and park goers are excited for that. Walt Disney World also announced they will have a new fireworks shows for Mickey's Not So Scary Halloween Party also! This will debut on August 16th- which is the first Mickey's Not So Scary Halloween Party. I think people were kind of surprised about Disneyland Forever, but not as surprised as the Halloween Fireworks because they debuted the Happily Ever After Fireworks to replace the Wishes Fireworks show. These both sound really good!

There's a Pop Up Museum in Disneyland's Downtown Disney. It's basically a museum of cute Instagram Walls dedicated to Mickey Mouse. It looks really cute and you'll probably see it all over your instagram. It looks like fun- if they bring it to New York or Something I'm sure I'll go!

Hope you guys like this favorites!

TTFN!
-Shannon

Avengers Endgame Review- Some Plot Spoilers but no Major Spoilers

In a movie like Avengers Endgame where there is so much hype leading up to the release- it's easy to have some pre-conceived notions of what to expect and you almost have a movie in your head based on what has to happen. To me- Endgame definitely met those expectations... but still in a way that surprised me and exceeded those expectations.

I feel like everyone knew the movie would probably have time travel-I think we knew the Quantum Realm would come into play... I think we had enough to piece together the plot... but the movie still did everything in a way that would surprise us and it was still interesting. Nothing happened that was like out of left field... but it was all still surprising and they followed the format in the best way they possibly could.

My first observation was that Tony Stark kind of lucked out compared to everyone else. Rhodie was still alive, Pepper was still alive... although Tony almost died in the ship with Nebula- when he got home he reunited with Pepper and when they show what happened FIVE YEARS after the snap- btw someone in my audience screamed "Five Years?" Quizzically which was funny- we saw that Tony and Pepper had a daughter named Morgan who was the most adorable kid ever.

Tony having a daughter kind of threw me for a loop. From everything I thought I knew about time Time Travel- had they gone back in time and gotten the gauntlet before the snap- Morgan might not exist. So she immediately changed what I thought was going to happen in the movie and she also raised the stakes and made everything a little more interesting. It also made the time travel plot a little harder. They couldn't prevent the snap from happening- they just had to get the Infinity Stones to get all of those that Vanished in The Snap back. They also had to use the Pym Particles to time travel... but there were only enough Pym Particles for each of them to do one trip to the past and back... which also raised the stakes because they couldn't make any mistakes whatsoever. Plus it was extra fun because they went back in time to the actual movies to get the Infinity Stones... so that was fun too. We got to see Loki as the trickster and the villain again, we saw how other characters reacted to different situations that they weren't in before... it was just very interesting to see how the Time Travel changed the movies. Plus we got to see moments like The Hulk mad because the other Avengers made him take the stairs.

Another thing I absolutely loved about this movie was that all of the characters were really heroes in the movie. We all know Iron Man and Captain America could save the universe and we expect that from them... but even Ant Man and Hawkeye had big "hero moments" and they really helped save Thanos. Each of the characters really did their part to try to stop Thanos. They really all made a good team.

My favorite part in this movie also made me cry. I don't want to spoil anything major... but it is when the Avengers get the Soul Stone. It was just a really emotional and well done scene... and it really honored the relationship between the 2 characters involved in the best way... and those are 2 of the characters with my favorite relationship... so it's really great.

I think that this movie was kind of better than Infinity War... but this one was harder to watch. I could see myself watching Infinity War all the time... and I have watched it several times. I don't know if I would watch this all the time... I might watch it every few years or something. I also think in terms of "was it funny?" I'd say Infinity War definitely had more funny moments... where there could be whole scenes that are kind of funny and definitely lighter... there are funnier moments in Endgame... but the overall tone of the movie is more serious so it really doesn't feel that funny.

There were also 2 moments of "Fan Service" in the movie. We do get one scene where we see what an all female Avengers might look like. And there's another fan service moment that I'm not going to talk about here cause it's a little too much of a spoiler... but it is at the very end... so if you saw the movie you probably know what I'm talking about. There were no post credits scenes... which I  liked... but this was a moment that did sort of set up something else. I hope that makes sense.

So I hope you liked this review. I tried to do the best I could of describing it without spoiling the major parts.

TTFN!
-Shannon

Marvel Monday: Infinity War Review

So I think every Monday I'll watch one of my Disney DVDs or Blu Rays and I'll review them here. Every OTHER Monday- I'll do a Marvel Monday. I might run out of Marvel Movies before Disney Movies however... so we'll see what happens.

So as I'm writing this- I have not seen Endgame yet... but I am seeing it today- so my review on Endgame will be my next post... but right now we have my thoughts on Infinity War.

I've seen this movie multiple times... but this was my first time seeing it with someone else. I watched it with my boyfriend Aspen... and that made it a little more fun. I feel like we noticed different things about it. He noticed the differences in tones while the scenes were transitioning. I realized that Peter Parker is Spider Man and Peter Quill is Starlord. That's 2 Peter's in one movie!

Just kidding... but back to my favorite thing... which I did notice before but... it's better having someone to confirm my notion... The transitions between characters includes a change in tone of the movie. When Iron Man is on screen we have a tone more similar to The Avengers... then we hear 80s music and suddenly we're in space and in a Guardians of the Galaxy movie. The Russo Brothers did a great job of showing how all these characters come together... but also respecting the individual movies that the characters came from and their individual arcs. Guardians of the Galaxy's movies always deal with father-child relationships... this movie includes that greatly. Captain America and Iron Man both deal with themes of War I would say... I've only ever seen Iron Man 3... but I know Tony Stark invented weapons used on both sides of war and that's how he became rich. Captain America was a soldier ready to fight in the war and then became a supersoldier... so very war themed... This movie is literally called Infinity War... so those are represented too. This movie is great because it really does show each of them struggling with their own issues... they just showed how that all came together really well.

My favorite part of the movie is when the Guardians of the Galaxy go after Thanos when he gets the reality stone. I think the reality stone is just my favorite because you never really know what's real or not in the scene... and it just showed how well they all worked together and how well they all knew each other. They knew Drax wouldn't be able to stop himself against Thanos. Thanos knew Starlord wouldn't be able to kill Gamora. Plus I like how Drax and Mantis fall apart in the scene... it's just a cool scene that I love every time I watch it. Plus... it shows how badass Mantis' powers really are... which brings me to my other favorite part!

The scene where everyone teams up and they ALMOST get the Infinity Gauntlet off of Thanos... and then Starlord ruins it. I feel like this shows how strong the Avengers are... I mean together they were almost able to get it off. But it also shows that they are human. Mantis wasn't really strong enough to hold on that long (although technically she isn't human)- Starlord's emotions were also human and they are what end up ruining this plan. I don't really blame Starlord for this either... I think this gives him a stronger character arc and... I feel like any of the Avengers would feel the same way had their loved one been killed to get a stone.

I also feel like the human sides of the Avengers do make them stronger... which is how I think they were able to strategize how to fight Thanos in the first place. I always use the end of Doctor Strange as an example of the Avengers regular abilities are just as strong as their superpowers. Sure Dr. Strange has the superpower to use the time loop... but I feel like it's his human-nature abilities and his brain that made him come up with the idea to use the time loop to annoy someone to death in the first place. That's a cool thing too... kind of a side note... but this is why I like the Marvel Movies so much.

One criticism I do have about this movie is Wakanda... I feel like it was underused. I preferred the scenes in Space and the actual battles between the Avengers and Thanos... I didn't really need to see The Battle of Wakanda... Other than the parts with Wanda, Vision and Thanos and then the snap... the battle itself was just sort of backround noise. A little lackluster.

That is everything for now... I hope you guys like this movie. My next post will be my Endgame Review and next Monday I'll have a review on Ralph Breaks The Internet... so I hope you guys like this!

TTFN!
-Shannon