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Avengers: Infinity War (2018)
Avengers: Infinity War (2018)
2018 | Action, Sci-Fi
Special effects are great, except Bruce Banner's head in the Hulkbuster suit. (4 more)
Great action scenes.
Great seeing just about all the Marvel characters.
PETER DINKLAGE!
Josh Brolin is great as Thanos.
Too talky at points. (5 more)
Some weird, illogical, wtf parts.
Guardians seemed out of place acting so serious.
Wasn't moved by the ending. Was kind of like, "Okay...so what? This is a comic-book movie."
Too long to introduce everyone.
Not funny.
Hype says it's better than it actually is
I knew this movie wasn't going to live up to the hype. Just like Black Panther, it's just an okay movie. Just like every other movie made these days, it starts strong, gets boring, then ends strong. Except it doesn't end too strong. It sort of ends with a whimper. I see memes where people were devastated at the ending. I felt like it was meaningless, as we know this is a comic book movie & all will be put right in the next installment.

I feel one of the main problems of the movie was the humor. When you have great Marvel movies, like The Guardians of the Galaxy films, and Thor: Ragnarok, which relied on a lot of humor and then are intertwined with a movie so dark, so deathly serious & try to keep the humor of those films, it just doesn't work. The Guardians, Thor & Bruce Banner were all throwing out jokes, but they mostly fell flat. It's hard to smile when Thanos is being an absolute terror.

All this being said, I did like the movie. Where I probably wouldn't watch Black Panther again, I would definitely watch this again. I actually have BP a 7, just like this film, I would probably change my score to a 5, as this movie was better, but doesn't deserve higher than a 7.
  
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Mike Carlson (115 KP) May 4, 2018

I've had a problem with the Marvel humor since the illogical dance-off in GotG. I knew there would be issues uniting the dumber (silly for the sake of a laugh rather than well thought out and believable in context) portions of the universe with the smarter, more serious portions.

Judas and the Black Messiah (2021)
Judas and the Black Messiah (2021)
2021 | Biography, Drama, History
Kaluuya and Stanfield excel (1 more)
Great US history lesson on the Black Panther movement
Sound mixing makes dialogue difficult to hear (0 more)
"Politics is war without bloodshed"
The ‘Judas’ in “Judas and the Black Messiah” is Bill O’Neil (LaKeith Stanfield). He works as an informer for FBI man Mitchell (Jesse Plemons), who has him over a barrel for impersonating an FBI officer. Fred Hampton (Daniel Kaluuya) runs the Chicago chapter of the Black Panther party and O’Neil is a trusted comrade on the inside.

Will O’Neil – always concerned that ‘snitches get stiches’ – stay on the side of ‘the pigs’, or be influenced by the ideals and good deeds of Chairman Fred?


Positives:
- Before this movie, I really had no idea what the Black Panthers were or how they operated. (If pushed, I would have tagged them as “internal terrorists” or similar). So this movie was really valuable to me in further understanding their role as a political movement. And their use of community programmes – focused, for example, around child nutrition and health improvements in inner cities – was a revelation.
- Given the BLM movement, and further ‘blue-on-black’ shootings, the film is timely. (Even more so for me, since the George Floyd trial verdict came out last night). “The United States vs Billie Holiday” showed how brutally the civil rights movement was put down by the authorities in the 40’s. This shows the same thing happened in the 70’s too. It’s again a movie that leaves you angry and frustrated at how poorly the black community have been abused in America. I guess counter to that is the positive view that things HAVE evidently improved significantly since then, albeit that the US is still on this journey.
- Nominated for Best Supporting Actor Oscars are both Stanfield and Kaluuya. (This is a highly debatable point, since arguably both of these gents are lead actors in the movie!) Both of them deliver outstanding performances, and Kaluuya has already picked up the BAFTA. Kaluuya demonstrates a huge amount of energy and charisma, particularly during the delivery of his stirring speeches. But Stanfield delivers a superbly nuanced performance, and perhaps impressed me even more.
- Also deserved, in a movie predominantly featuring a black cast, is recognition of the ever-excellent Jesse Plemons. As the steely-eyed FBI family man, he’s chilling to watch.

Negatives:
- I had issues with the sound mixing here. I found some of the dialogue – already hard for me to follow sometimes due to the speed of delivery and the accents – drowned out by background music and foley sounds.
- Martin Sheen’s make-up as J. Edgar Hoover was rather over-the-top and detracted from the role. (Sheen is in little more than a few cameo scenes).

Summary Thoughts:
I’m pleased I’ve managed to see this impressive Oscar contender before Sunday’s Academy Awards event. Interestingly, I noticed that historical advisors on the movie were Deborah Johnson (played here beautifully by Dominique Fishback) and the baby she was carrying (now Fred Hampton Jnr.).

As well as the two Supporting Actor nominations, it’s also up for Best Film, Best Original Screenplay, Best Cinematography (Sean Bobbitt) and Best Song (for “Fight for You”, played over the end titles, and very good).

(For the full graphical review, please check out One Mann's Movies here https://bob-the-movie-man.com/2021/04/21/judas-and-the-black-messiah-war-is-politics-with-bloodshed/. Thanks.)
  
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Blazing Minds (92 KP) rated Tenet (2020) in Movies

Nov 1, 2021 (Updated Nov 3, 2021)  
Tenet (2020)
Tenet (2020)
2020 | Action
Right from the very start, you not only get a massive screen to see all the action on, which in itself adds to the feel of TENET, but you also get that IMAX sound and that is used brilliantly in the film, the bass rumbles through the seats and into your body with the superb soundtrack from Ludwig Göransson (Black Panther, The Mandalorian), listen out for moments when parts of the instruments and music reverse to play with your mind, brilliantly done and a joy to listen to.

TENET also looks stunning with the cinematography from Hoyte Van Hoytema (Dunkirk, Interstellar), it is beautifully shot and the use of the IMAX cameras makes certain scenes really pop such as the theatre scene which makes you feel as if you are in the vast auditorium.
  
Black Panther (2018)
Black Panther (2018)
2018 | Action, Drama, Sci-Fi
Conquered or conqueror
Does a nation or peoples with ability have a responsibility? That seems to be one of the central questions. There is a long history of nonwhite civilizations that developed more advanced technology that became conquered by the white nations (more through their disease, but that is another story, than their weaponry although they had that too.) Wakanda and its king have remained hidden in an effort to prevent such a tragedy.
China gave us gunpowder, Japan feudalism, Arabs medicine and math, Africa astronomy, and Mayans soccer. Yet all of these people became conquered and enslaved over time. T'Chaka seems to attempt to prevent this eventuality, but T'Challa soon faces his own dilemma. When an African-African cousin wants to expose Wakandan ability to his oppressed "others," Black Panther, king of Wakanda, must come out of hiding to assist the world and possibly expose their many secrets.