All right everyone, most people have probably seen this by now, but just in case, this review is full of spoilers. It is hard to talk about this movie without at least some spoilers, so I am going all in and I'm going to talk about it all.

First, it looks like the following movies won't be made:
Spiderman 2
Guardians of the Galaxy 3
Doctor Strange 2
Black Panther 2
The Avengers (whatever movie might be next)
Loki 1

Thanos, I am sure a lot of people look at him and see a villain, but me, I see a god. If you believe in a higher power isn't Thanos just acting as the god from the Bible did when he destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah or flooded the earth, only saving one single family group. Thanos does go about what he is doing wrong, by destroying have of all universes he is also destroying the good in life.

This was not the best movie ever, and a lot of the judgements the characters made seemed to fulfill one purpose, help Thanos win. Throughout the movie I don't think anyone was surprised as each infinity stone was retrieved by Thanos. I think the only thing that might have been a surprise was the amount of main characters who were killed or died in the events leading up to Thanos getting the infinity stones.

In the end this was a very long (two and a half hours) trailer for the next movie, which seems to be a revenge story with an added mystery per the end credit scene.

Back to this movie. The acting was okay, but since there was so much going on there was almost too much to pay attention to. The things that would have been funny in other movies were lost in the mass of things that were happening in this movie. Thor had a few funny moments, as did The Hulk, but neither had enough screen time to be appreciated. It was the same with the characters from Guardians of the Galaxy. As soon as Thor was pulled into the ship he made jokes, and the others made jokes, but then the movie jumped to a different scene. A lot of what the characters did was frustrating. They had several moments when they could have saved life on all planets, but instead they reacted badly and waited too long to react, which doomed not only beings we have and will never meet, but also some very well-loved characters.

For example, when Gomorrah dies, as a participant in the audience I was angry that she chose the life of one person over the life of many. Then not only does she take Thanos to the place where she hid an infinity stone, but she tries to sacrifice herself too late to be of any good. If she wanted to help life and save a large number of life on all planets, she would have sacrificed her soon as Thanos had captured her, not after having a father/daughter talk with him. This wasn't the only time in the movie that felt unnecessary.

Later, towards the end of the movie Vision and the Scarlett Witch have a decision to make, and it is one they should have made a lot earlier in the movie, then maybe Thanos wouldn't have killed them both and life in all other universes would have continued on, not knowing that there had even been a chance of their untimely deaths. I understand that the love story between the Scarlett Witch and Vision had to be explored a little more, but it didn't add anything to the movie, and it really made everything seem long and as if there wasn't any point.

I think that was the problem. In the end I thought this was one of those movies that didn't need to be made. Couldn't the next movie have started with the end of this, Thanos getting all of the infinity stones and killing as much life as possible? Another issue I had was, if Thanos was doing all of this to eliminate half of all other worlds to help them, then why did people like Mantis have to die? She was the last of her people, at least that was what she said in the last GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY movie. She isn't the only one who I questioned the death of, especially since she was not the only character who was the last of her species. Several of the deaths seemed pointless, which often seems true for deaths, but when the Black Panther faded away I wondered why they would choose to do that when the BLACK PANTHER movie made so much money.

This might just be the fatalist in me, as the person I saw the movie with said that maybe everyone wasn't dead and this is going to turn into some time shift or alternate universe timeline device, but for me, I am not sure. If these characters are actually dead the Marvel universe has killed some very beloved characters and left behind characters that may not be able to hold things up on their own.

After saying all of this, I will say I did enjoy this movie. I enjoyed the interaction between some of the characters, but there wasn't enough to keep me from being frustrated in the fact that people were going to die, or that this movie was a very long trailer for something else. I don't appreciate movies that take place just to fill space, and this was how I felt about ROGUE ONE. It wasn't a bad movie, but it wasn't necessary.

Did I enjoy BLACK PANTHER? Yes. Did I think it was the best movie in the Marvel universe? No. Did it live up to the hype for me? No.

Now don't hate me for my opinion. I felt the same way about WONDER WOMAN. So many people were telling me I'd love it and I really thought it was only okay. Everyone should know what this movie is about, but if you don't this is taken from IMDb: T'Challa, the King of Wakanda, rises to the throne in the isolated, technologically advanced African nation, but his claim is challenged by a vengeful outsider who was a childhood victim of T'Challa's father's mistake. It is really so much more than that though. It was a romance movie with action and family drama, in a place that doesn't exist, but in an Africa that does (yes, the entire continent of Africa).

While the movie has a lot of great cinematography and acting, I thought the plot of it was a little lacking, and it could have used some good editing. For me there was too much backstory, and I wasn't sure why I should care. I don't want backstory unless it is being developed to make me feel for someone later in the movie, or push along my views of a character. BLACK PANTHER flipped too much and didn't stay with one character enough for me to feel anything, and the ease of the end of the bad guy they were chasing from the beginning of the movie seemed a little too defeating and easy, it added nothing and was unnecessary. I don't think it should have happened as easily as it did, nor do I think the end of the movie should have been as flat as I felt it was. How easily does a man go from saying, we should keep Wakanda a secret, to let's go to war with the world! It really didn't make sense, and neither did it make sense that this same man would turn against his friend so easily because of someone who came in and said something that didn't at all make sense. 

There were so many characters, and there wasn't enough of a focus on one or two to have much story development. I would have liked to have the film focus on four of the characters, T'Challa, his sister Shuri, the head of the female warriors Nakia, and Erik Killmonger, a young man with a goal to help his people, but not quite in the right way.

BLACK PANTHER was a fine film, but I feel as if it didn't live up to the expectations I had based on what everyone was saying after they had seen it. I'd also like to say, it isn't the first movie with an African-American superhero, but it is the first movie with a full cast of African-Americans who move the film along, which is pretty cool. So I will honestly give it that for being interesting and including an almost exclusively African-American cast, but was it a great movie or the best in the Marvel universe? No, it was a-aight. I honestly enjoyed the GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY 1+2 better, partly because the focus was limited, and partly because it didn't seem to try so hard at explaining all of the characters important to that movie with the backstory of the marginal characters being forgotten. We know nothing of why there is a king over the entirety of these different groups, nor do we know why some are treated different that the others.

Now, the last thing I want to say is that the character of M'Baku, played by Winston Duke, is great and I would have liked him to have some more screen time. His character was funny and serious and absolutely fabulous. He was given some of the best lines and scenes and his character was underused in a film where he could have been used more adeptly.

So, go see it if you like, most people seem to like it more than I do. I think I am maybe a little biased, partly because I was a little hesitant to believe the masses chanting "it was the best movie ever" like they did for WONDER WOMAN, which was not the best version of WONDER WOMAN I feel we could have had.

Iron Man used to be my favorite Avenger, but after watching CAPTAIN AMERICA CIVIL WAR I think my new favorite has to be Captain America. 

This movie really was all about Captain America. Which was great because the last one, CAPTAIN AMERICA WINTER SOLDIER was not really about the Captain but about his friend and their relationship. The reasoning behind this movie wasn't the best, and at the end I was like, for real? This is what the movie is about? This is why we sat here for hours? Ugh.

This movie showed how much heart and soul Captain America has, and how little control Iron Man does. Iron Man is full of himself and only thinks of himself when he is doing stuff. He doesn't really think fully of his people, the other people with super human powers. For example, Wanda, she is really just a misunderstood kid and yet Tony Stark doesn't take this into consideration. He doesn't even really try to understand her, and he pushes Vision to help him, even if that means hurting her. 

Captain America see everyone. He thinks about everyone. Before he makes a decision he considers how it will affect everyone, even characters like Wanda, who needs all the protecting she can get. 

This movie showed how much his code of justice affects his decisions, and because of his code I found a new respect for Captain America. He thinks with his head and constantly tries to do what it fair and just. He kills because he has to, not because he is seeking revenge. He hurts people to stop them from hurting someone else or themselves, not because he likes it and it gives him power. He understand that sometimes people die, but he constantly feels bad about it. 

This was a bigger side of the Captain. I like him more. The one problem I had with this movie was they put too much lip gloss on Chris Evans. There was one part of the movie that just had me questioning why they put so much lip gloss on him, it was so distracting. 

​Lastly, you really should go see KEANU!

I haven't been to the movies in a long time, since I went and saw MAD MAX to be honest. I feel like I am going through withdraw. Books have become a problem. Now most people wouldn't think of books as a problem. There are a lot of people that love books and would rather read than watch a movie. Me, I like both books and movies. I love to read and I love to watch movies. I wish that I had been watching more movies because I am beginning to feel like I am missing some good or okay movies.

I missed the AVENGERS movie. JURASSIC WORLD has been out for a while and I haven't gotten to it yet. And today, the new TERMINATOR came out and I didn't rush out to see it. Well, I'm going to give in. I'm going to put down the awesome books I've been reading and I'm going to the movies. I am probably going to see something terrible, but I will be going to at least one movie this month.

THE GALLOWS looks like it has potential. A movie about something that has been done, but not quite in the way that is being done. Found footage or videotaping while the bad things have happened has so been done. People going into an abandoned place and getting murdered has been done, in fact it has been overdone. But the hanging part, I'm interested in seeing how it will be handled. Plus, if you know me, or if you have been reading these blog posts, you know how much I love love love horror. I'll watch anything horror related, even when it sucks, even when it sucks and I know beforehand that it sucks.

I'd like t know what you, out there in internetland think. Have you seen any movies lately that you'd like to recommend? Bad or good? Just tell me. I'd like to know.

For now though, I'm going back to reading this book. I've been reading EMPTY ROOMS by Jeffery J. Mariotte. It's pretty good. I am totally wondering where the bad guy is and if the bad guy we are reading (from his POV) is THE bad guy we are looking for, or if there are multiple bad guys and multiple things going on. It's complex and I like it. I don't know right off who the bad guy is and how this book is going to end, which is a total A+ for me lately!