Marvel movies 2017
Marvel had a great year with four movies all of which did really well at the box office. I liked all of them to varying degrees. Spoilers ahead.
Logan was only the second R-rated Marvel movie ever, after Deadpool. While it was excellent, it was also very depressing. The cinematography was well done and the acting was good all around. But I don’t see Logan as a movie I would want to watch over and over again.
I liked the fight between old Logan and the younger, animalistic clone of himself. Twice the Hugh Jackman is always great. I knew that family was going to die as soon as they invited the three of them back to their house but I hoped at least the son would survive.
The movie had some sci-fi touches with the self-driving cars and cloning which was nice. But almost everybody dies in it. I don’t need all of my movies, let alone all of my Marvel movies, to be jokefests but it was tough to take. Especially the sadness of having Xavier kill all of the X-Men accidentally and not being able to remember it because of his dementia.
I liked seeing Patrick Stewart again. I liked this version of Caliban. But Dafne Keen stole the show as Laura/X-23. She didn’t even talk until at least halfway into the film but she did so well with body language, especially in the action scenes. I loved her final scenes with a dying Logan where she’s no longer a tough little girl and instead is crying for her father not to leave her.
I liked the group of clone kids, especially since one of them was Julio Richter. If they do a sequel following the kids, I hope they have a young Shatterstar included. But, of the four movies, this one was the only one I don’t want to watch again so I guess that makes it my least favorite even though I really did like it.
Guardians of the Galaxy: Vol. 2 was just as good as the first one if not better. It had the same blend of humor, action, pathos, and sci-fi craziness but they were able to jump right into things instead of having to spend time on back stories.
Baby Groot was adorable but he was also useful although this version of him didn’t seem as smart since it took him so long to figure out what Rocket and Yondu needed on the ship. The rest of the crew were great, especially Drax with his bluntness and need to take everything so literally. I like the addition of Mantis even if she wasn’t quite the same as her comic book version. The casting of Kurt Russell as the human avatar of Ego was awesome as was the cameo appearances by David Hasselhoff and Sylvester Stallone.
I felt really sorry for Peter as he gains a father and cool new powers only to have everything come crashing down with the revelation that his father caused his mother’s cancer. The look of dawning horror on his face as he realizes the truth was heartbreaking. Then he has to lose Yondu as well at the end so it was a pretty sad story for him.
The massacre on Yondu’s ship was pretty graphic although the previous scenes with Rocket making fun of Taserface’s name was hilarious. Plus, this movie had one of the funniest lines in any Marvel movie, “I’m Mary Poppins, y’all!” I liked Yondu a lot more in this one as his character is fleshed out, especially his reasons for not delivering Peter to his dad.
Both Guardians of the Galaxy movies together are my favorites of the Marvel movies, not counting X-Men which is a separate universe. Although now that the great and powerful Disney corporation has acquired Fox studios, the X-Men could actually appear alongside the Avengers which is great news. Hopefully a third Guardians film will keep up their trend of awesomeness.
Spider-Man: Homecoming was good in many ways but I had a few problems with it. Most of the casting was great even if it’s still weird to see a younger version of Aunt May. Tom Holland did a fantastic job playing Peter as the awkward, nerdy kid who is still learning the ins and outs of his powers.
I liked Peter’s friend Ned but that kid can’t keep a secret to save his life. Peter should have friends, normal friends who aren’t in the cape-and-cowl business. The appearances by Tony Stark were fun too but it irritated me how much Happy Hogan was ignoring Peter and treating him badly. The ferry scene where Spider-Man struggled to keep the two sides together was awesome.
Michael Keaton was a great villain as Vulture. He was calculating but also angry and taunting. His costume looked amazing and I loved the way it tied in once again with the Avengers movie where he and his crew were selling stolen Chitauri tech on the black market. I liked that they had Tinkerer and Shocker as well.
I did not like the character of Michelle at all. The whole time I found her very obnoxious which is why I was really irritated that she was revealed as a mediocre version of Mary Jane. One of the main reasons Peter likes MJ in the comics was because she was actually nice to him when everyone else was indifferent or bullying. Why would he fall in love with this version when she doesn’t treat him much better than Flash does?
I also hated this version of Flash. I understand that here Peter was attending a school for the academically gifted and it wouldn’t make as much sense to have some dumb jock there to bully him but there was something extra irritating with this version of Flash and his constant need to bully Peter. I get he was jealous because Peter was smarter than him and he felt threatened but I really wanted someone to punch him in the face.
Overall, I liked the movie even if I have deep reservations about MJ but maybe they’ll make her character nicer in the future. I look forward to more Spider-Man in Avengers: Infinity War and on his own. Hopefully, they’ll do another version of Dr. Octopus, my favorite Spider-Man villain, at some point.
Thor: Ragnorak was the last Marvel movie of the year and it was a lot of fun although also really sad. Almost everyone in Asgard is killed including the Warriors Three. I guess it was a good thing that Sif wasn’t in the film or they probably would have killed her off too. Thor losing an eye made me wince too although you’d think such an advanced society would be able to fix that later.
I loved the little play that Loki-as-Odin put on to commerate his supposed death and the fact that they got actors like Sam Neill and Matt Damon to do such minor cameos as well as Chris Hemsworth’s own brother portraying the play version of Thor.
The cameo from Dr. Strange was fun although I don’t know how he was able to overcome Loki so easily. I guess he took him by surprise but Loki is a powerful sorcerer who’s had centuries of practice and Dr. Strange just brushed him aside like he was nothing.
Odin’s death scene was very moving, especially when he addresses both of them as his sons. It’s a little weird having Hela be his daughter instead of Loki’s daughter but it made sense in the story. Cate Blanchett was suitably scary as Hela, goddess of death, who doesn’t seem to care who she kills, even her own people. But I found it hard to believe that no one seemed to remember her unless there was magic involved in altering everyone’s memories.
I didn’t even recognize Karl Urban at first with the shaved head and all the muscles but his voice clued me in. I’m glad Skurge had a conscience at the end and turned on Hela to save his fellow Asgardians. Jeff Goldblum was also amusing as the Gamesmaster.
Thor’s fight with Hulk was awesome although Hulk isn’t one of my favorite characters. I did like Hulk attacking Surtur at the end and when everybody yells at him to stop, he’s like, “But…big monster!” Then he looks dejected because he can’t attack the monster.
Valkyrie was somewhat annoying and I never really warmed up to her character even when she did the right thing at the end but the flashback to the Valkyries attacking Hela in slow motion on their flying horses was an amazing visual. I wanted more of their background. Korg was very amusing as well both his voice and his lines. I especially liked when he was yelling at the “ghost” to go away.
Obviously, this movie is setting up for Avengers: Infinity War in a big way but I’m hoping they don’t kill all of the Asgardians off when Thanos attacks them. His ship appears at the very end and we already saw an unconscious, battered Thor being rescued by the Guardians in the trailer as well as Loki offering the Tesseract to Thanos so we know bad things are going to happen, it’s just a matter of how bad it’s going to get.
That said, I’m super excited for Infinity War. The trailer looks amazing and I’ve watched it multiple times already. I think 2018 is going to be another great year for comic book movies.
Logan was only the second R-rated Marvel movie ever, after Deadpool. While it was excellent, it was also very depressing. The cinematography was well done and the acting was good all around. But I don’t see Logan as a movie I would want to watch over and over again.
I liked the fight between old Logan and the younger, animalistic clone of himself. Twice the Hugh Jackman is always great. I knew that family was going to die as soon as they invited the three of them back to their house but I hoped at least the son would survive.
The movie had some sci-fi touches with the self-driving cars and cloning which was nice. But almost everybody dies in it. I don’t need all of my movies, let alone all of my Marvel movies, to be jokefests but it was tough to take. Especially the sadness of having Xavier kill all of the X-Men accidentally and not being able to remember it because of his dementia.
I liked seeing Patrick Stewart again. I liked this version of Caliban. But Dafne Keen stole the show as Laura/X-23. She didn’t even talk until at least halfway into the film but she did so well with body language, especially in the action scenes. I loved her final scenes with a dying Logan where she’s no longer a tough little girl and instead is crying for her father not to leave her.
I liked the group of clone kids, especially since one of them was Julio Richter. If they do a sequel following the kids, I hope they have a young Shatterstar included. But, of the four movies, this one was the only one I don’t want to watch again so I guess that makes it my least favorite even though I really did like it.
Guardians of the Galaxy: Vol. 2 was just as good as the first one if not better. It had the same blend of humor, action, pathos, and sci-fi craziness but they were able to jump right into things instead of having to spend time on back stories.
Baby Groot was adorable but he was also useful although this version of him didn’t seem as smart since it took him so long to figure out what Rocket and Yondu needed on the ship. The rest of the crew were great, especially Drax with his bluntness and need to take everything so literally. I like the addition of Mantis even if she wasn’t quite the same as her comic book version. The casting of Kurt Russell as the human avatar of Ego was awesome as was the cameo appearances by David Hasselhoff and Sylvester Stallone.
I felt really sorry for Peter as he gains a father and cool new powers only to have everything come crashing down with the revelation that his father caused his mother’s cancer. The look of dawning horror on his face as he realizes the truth was heartbreaking. Then he has to lose Yondu as well at the end so it was a pretty sad story for him.
The massacre on Yondu’s ship was pretty graphic although the previous scenes with Rocket making fun of Taserface’s name was hilarious. Plus, this movie had one of the funniest lines in any Marvel movie, “I’m Mary Poppins, y’all!” I liked Yondu a lot more in this one as his character is fleshed out, especially his reasons for not delivering Peter to his dad.
Both Guardians of the Galaxy movies together are my favorites of the Marvel movies, not counting X-Men which is a separate universe. Although now that the great and powerful Disney corporation has acquired Fox studios, the X-Men could actually appear alongside the Avengers which is great news. Hopefully a third Guardians film will keep up their trend of awesomeness.
Spider-Man: Homecoming was good in many ways but I had a few problems with it. Most of the casting was great even if it’s still weird to see a younger version of Aunt May. Tom Holland did a fantastic job playing Peter as the awkward, nerdy kid who is still learning the ins and outs of his powers.
I liked Peter’s friend Ned but that kid can’t keep a secret to save his life. Peter should have friends, normal friends who aren’t in the cape-and-cowl business. The appearances by Tony Stark were fun too but it irritated me how much Happy Hogan was ignoring Peter and treating him badly. The ferry scene where Spider-Man struggled to keep the two sides together was awesome.
Michael Keaton was a great villain as Vulture. He was calculating but also angry and taunting. His costume looked amazing and I loved the way it tied in once again with the Avengers movie where he and his crew were selling stolen Chitauri tech on the black market. I liked that they had Tinkerer and Shocker as well.
I did not like the character of Michelle at all. The whole time I found her very obnoxious which is why I was really irritated that she was revealed as a mediocre version of Mary Jane. One of the main reasons Peter likes MJ in the comics was because she was actually nice to him when everyone else was indifferent or bullying. Why would he fall in love with this version when she doesn’t treat him much better than Flash does?
I also hated this version of Flash. I understand that here Peter was attending a school for the academically gifted and it wouldn’t make as much sense to have some dumb jock there to bully him but there was something extra irritating with this version of Flash and his constant need to bully Peter. I get he was jealous because Peter was smarter than him and he felt threatened but I really wanted someone to punch him in the face.
Overall, I liked the movie even if I have deep reservations about MJ but maybe they’ll make her character nicer in the future. I look forward to more Spider-Man in Avengers: Infinity War and on his own. Hopefully, they’ll do another version of Dr. Octopus, my favorite Spider-Man villain, at some point.
Thor: Ragnorak was the last Marvel movie of the year and it was a lot of fun although also really sad. Almost everyone in Asgard is killed including the Warriors Three. I guess it was a good thing that Sif wasn’t in the film or they probably would have killed her off too. Thor losing an eye made me wince too although you’d think such an advanced society would be able to fix that later.
I loved the little play that Loki-as-Odin put on to commerate his supposed death and the fact that they got actors like Sam Neill and Matt Damon to do such minor cameos as well as Chris Hemsworth’s own brother portraying the play version of Thor.
The cameo from Dr. Strange was fun although I don’t know how he was able to overcome Loki so easily. I guess he took him by surprise but Loki is a powerful sorcerer who’s had centuries of practice and Dr. Strange just brushed him aside like he was nothing.
Odin’s death scene was very moving, especially when he addresses both of them as his sons. It’s a little weird having Hela be his daughter instead of Loki’s daughter but it made sense in the story. Cate Blanchett was suitably scary as Hela, goddess of death, who doesn’t seem to care who she kills, even her own people. But I found it hard to believe that no one seemed to remember her unless there was magic involved in altering everyone’s memories.
I didn’t even recognize Karl Urban at first with the shaved head and all the muscles but his voice clued me in. I’m glad Skurge had a conscience at the end and turned on Hela to save his fellow Asgardians. Jeff Goldblum was also amusing as the Gamesmaster.
Thor’s fight with Hulk was awesome although Hulk isn’t one of my favorite characters. I did like Hulk attacking Surtur at the end and when everybody yells at him to stop, he’s like, “But…big monster!” Then he looks dejected because he can’t attack the monster.
Valkyrie was somewhat annoying and I never really warmed up to her character even when she did the right thing at the end but the flashback to the Valkyries attacking Hela in slow motion on their flying horses was an amazing visual. I wanted more of their background. Korg was very amusing as well both his voice and his lines. I especially liked when he was yelling at the “ghost” to go away.
Obviously, this movie is setting up for Avengers: Infinity War in a big way but I’m hoping they don’t kill all of the Asgardians off when Thanos attacks them. His ship appears at the very end and we already saw an unconscious, battered Thor being rescued by the Guardians in the trailer as well as Loki offering the Tesseract to Thanos so we know bad things are going to happen, it’s just a matter of how bad it’s going to get.
That said, I’m super excited for Infinity War. The trailer looks amazing and I’ve watched it multiple times already. I think 2018 is going to be another great year for comic book movies.