So with spring nearly over and summer almost here, I thought I’d go over the movies I saw in theaters this past spring.  I’ll try to keep the spoilers to a minimum, but one or two may seep out here and there, so you’ve been warned!

Captain Marvel

I had never heard of Captain Marvel until I played Marvel vs. Capcom Infinite.  But then, most of my information on comic book characters comes from the Marvel vs. Capcom and LEGO games, or the movies.  I know a lot of people will compare this movie to another girl power super hero movie: Wonder Woman.  Well I am, too, fair or not.  I’d have to say I like the Wonder Woman movie better for a couple of reasons.  The first is the setting.  Wonder Woman was set during WW1, which was pretty interesting.  Captain Marvel was set during the 90’s, so the soundtrack was littered with 90’s songs and references.  I’m not a big fan of 90’s music myself, so that was a bit lost on me.  I prefer 80’s music, which is probably why I liked the Bumblebee movie so much because it was set in the 80’s and had a rockin’ 80’s soundtrack.  Another reason why I liked Wonder Woman better was the buildup.  At the end of Captain Marvel, she was so powerful that she could blow up spaceships just by looking at them.  In one of the later scenes in Wonder Woman, she picked up a tank over her head, which seemed more impactful for me for some reason.  Captain Marvel just got too ridiculous.  But don’t get me wrong, Captain Marvel was still a fun and entertaining super hero movie.  One last thing I wanted to say was that I know it’s not much of an issue now, but with all these girl power super hero movies, I hope that people don’t forget that boys need good super hero role models, too.  But what other female super hero movies would you like to see?  I think a She-Hulk movie would be fun.

Rifftrax: Octaman

I’m a HUGE fan of Mystery Science Theater 3000.  Probably my all time favorite TV show.  Some of the folks who did that show now do Rifftrax, which is pretty much the same thing without the robot puppets.  They just make fun of old, bad movies and sometimes put them in theaters via Fathom Events.  This one was a rubber suit monster film about a humanoid octopus attacking campers from the 70’s.  It also had a McGruff the Crime Dog short from the 80’s, which was just as funny.  I hope to see the other Rifftrax movies this summer if my work schedule and wallet allow it.

Avengers: Endgame

So even though I don’t get into super hero movies much, I just had to see this one after the last Avengers’ cliffhanger of an ending.  I figured they’d have to Dragon Ball Z it up so they could Kefka their way out of things, and they did with a stereotypical movie trope.  And they got that trope from Ant Man and the Wasp, the most ‘pull the plot out of your butt’ movie ever.  But it is a movie based on comic book characters so that’s OK.  Like the other movies, I also wish the heroes would wear name tags so I knew who they were.  And sometimes the action went a little TOO fast.  Like I was always, “go back a minute, I need to see how he did that!”

But that doesn’t mean I didn’t like the movie.  It was great, I just wanted to get my complaints out of the way first.  I was worried that I’d get bored with a three hour long movie, but the pacing was good and there was always something going on, so it didn’t feel like three hours at all!  If Thanos was a true villain, he would have shown images of running water while saying, “Hah hah hah!  I’ll make 50 percent of the audience have to go pee during this movie!”  And just so you know, there were no end credit scenes!  This was the last of the Marvel movies, then?  What are they doing to do now?

Detective Pikachu

I know I’ve said this before, but when Pokémon first came out, I was writing for The Dallas Morning News.  After seeing how Nintendo was going to market the first game at the first E3 I went to, I requested to my editor that I cover everything Pokémon.  And after that, I was writing Pokémon articles left and right.  I like to say that Pokémon helped pay my way through college.  So this live action movie is a big deal.  I’d have to say it was one of the best video game movies I’ve ever seen since Wreck-It Ralph, and one of my favorites on this list.  It’s based on the Detective Pikachu game, so if you’ve already played it, you’ll know the plot and who the bad guy is.  But they added and took out some scenes and locations to make it more watchable as a movie, and the main character is totally different.  But that’s OK.  If you haven’t played the Detective Pikachu game yet, I recommend you do so if you like Pokémon.  It’s like a Phoenix Wright game for kids.  And definitely see the movie, too, if you are a fan of Pokémon.  My only complaint is that the realistic Pokémon looked a little fakey in live action, especially considering Jurassic Park made CG dinos look real in movies over ten years ago.  But it didn’t ruin the movie for me.  I think my favorite part was the Ditto fight scene.  Overall it’s just a great movie the whole family can enjoy.

Godzilla: King of the Monsters

Like most kids, when I was little I would watch cartoons on Saturday mornings.  When the cartoons were over and Soul Train came on, one of the local stations would play Ultraman shows or a Godzilla movie in the late morning/early afternoon time, so if I didn’t have anything to do or didn’t go play outside, I’d watch it.  (For Dallas readers, it was channel 27 if you were wondering).  So I’ve always been a fan of Godzilla and this new one is basically “Cary’s Childhood: The Movie.”  It’s a sequel to the 2014 Godzilla movie, and is actually pretty good.  Godzilla gets to fight and share screen time with other famous monsters like Mothra, Rodan, and more.  I loved how their names were even in the credits, played by themselves!  Was disappointed that Mothra wasn’t summoned by two tiny Asian girls who live in a box, but I guess the movie makers thought that would be too ridiculous, as if 50 story monsters weren’t.  It’s a great way to kick off the summer movie season, though.

One of my relatives who saw the movie with me said that one of the actresses from Stranger Things was in it.  I’ve never seen Stranger Things, though.  But I do know that another lady who was in this movie and the 2014 Godzilla was also the mom in the live action Paddington Bear movies, and I think she’s pretty.  But don’t tell anyone I said that!  I just think that’s a funny movie resume she has.  Unfortunately she wasn’t in this new movie very long, so I expect in the next Godzilla movie, Paddington Bear will seek revenge and give Godzilla one of his ‘hard stares’ he gives people who aren’t being polite and behaving themselves.  And then Paddington and Godzilla will share a marmalade sandwich.  Boy am I silly!

Spring Movies I Missed

And those are all the movies I saw in theaters this Spring.  On Netflix the only notable one I remember seeing was Christopher Robin, a live action Winnie the Pooh movie that was actually pretty good, but not good enough to go see in a theater.  Other Spring movies that I’ll wait until they’re on Netflix include Shazam.  The previews just didn’t sell me on it, and it just looked too childish and juvenile.  Which I know is hypocritic since most of the movies on my list here are childish.  But I dunno, it’s hard to describe with this one.  Just didn’t click with me.

Also, I’m a big fan of Laika stop motion movies, but I’ll wait on Missing Link.  It tells the story of a man and a Yeti on a trip, but looked more like something Dreamworks would do, and didn’t have any interesting storytelling hooks or visual uniqueness like Boxtrolls or Kubo did.  Disney did a Penguins documentary this spring that looked interesting, too, but that can wait as well.

Summer Movies

There’s not a whole lot of movies this summer that I want to see in a theater.  Maybe Secret Life of Pets 2 and Toy Story 4, but that’s it.  So I may not write a summer movie blog later on.  Depends on if I can watch those other two Rifftrax movies as well and have lots to say about them.  I’m kind of tired of X-Men and Spiderman, so I’ll probably skip out on those new ones.  I liked the other Men in Black movies, but the new one looks like I can wait until Netflix.  I don’t want to go see the live action Dora the Explorer movie but I am curious if Swiper the Fox is in it.  Other animated movies I’ll skip out on include Angry Birds 2 and a Playmobil movie (are they trying to copy the LEGO Movie?).  There was going to be a Shaun the Sheep sequel movie that I would go see since I’m a big fan of Aardman and clay animation, but I think it got delayed until fall or winter.

So that’s it.  What movies did you see this Spring, and which ones would you like to see this Summer?  –Cary

Tags: Movies with Children