Ghostbusters (2016)

Before you all jump down my throat and start giving me shit about seeing the new Ghostbusters movie let me tell you this: the original Ghostbusters movies are two of my all-time favorite movies ever. I know them both word for word and scene for scene. I have been watching the Ghostbusters movies since before the age of five. My parents have me and my older cousin on video running around with his play proton pack when we were little. They are two movies that I have nothing but the fondest memories of watching and that have impacted my life. I also have nothing but respect for the cast and director of the originals. Usually I do not like remakes, I freak out whenever I hear Hollywood finances a remake instead of something original. But, let me tell you guys, the new Ghostbusters movie is hilarious and in no way even a remake. I say it is a different telling with some throwbacks to the originals.

            This story begins with Dr. Erin Gilbert (Kristen Wiig). She is a professor of physics at Columbia University in New York City. Just before a class she is approached by a man who has read her book about ghosts and the paranormal. He needs Erin’s help with investigating a ghost in an old Victorian mansion he is a historian at. Erin is furious to find out her old friend Abby Yates (Melissa McCarthy) is selling the book they had both written together. This book could jeopardize her tenure that she is up for at the college.

            Erin goes to see Abby who is working at some sort of school for science. Abby is now working with Jillian Holtzmann (Kate McKinnon) on new devices to catch ghosts. Erin tells them about the guys who came to see her about investigating the mansion. Abby and Hotlzmann are so excited so go check the place out that Erin tells them she will only take them to the mansion if Abby takes the book off of Amazon.

            At the mansion they find a full body apparition. All three women cannot believe what they are seeing. Erin tries to go up to talk to the apparition and the ghost spews goo all over her. Erin now fully believes there are such things as ghosts and the paranormal and her shouting her new belief was filmed by Holtzmann which Abby then puts onto the Internet. Columbia finds the video and kicks Erin out.

            Soon Erin, Abby, and Holtzmann get a call from a MTA worker named Patty (Leslie Jones) who says she saw a ghost in the subway after she had tried to chase after a guy who walked off that platform and onto the tracks. Before she saw the ghost she had seen something that had been placed on the electrical panel and sparked and exploded. They all see the ghost but they have no way of catching it. Or they do but they have nowhere to store it. Holtzmann keeps improving on their machines to catch ghosts as the story progresses.

            Ghost sightings occur at different places around the city. Erin notices a pattern. The pattern actually forms an X over a certain place that could be used to open up a portal for all the ghosts to come out of. And of course the portal gets opened and the Ghostbusters have to hilariously save the day.

            There is so much more to the story but why would I want to ruin a good thing? You guys have to go see it for yourselves.

            Obviously the major difference in this movie is that the cast is entirely female. That is awesome and if you do not think an all-female cast like this is awesome stop reading this review and get with the modern times. I think it was completely genius to have an all-female cast and especially because they are four of the funniest actresses around today. Kate McKinnon practically steals the entire movie. Every scene Holtzmann was in I cracked up so hard. I have never seen McKinnon on Saturday Night Live, I have only ever seen her in her bit part in the movie Sisters. She was even hilarious in that small part. Holtzmann is eccentric and fantastic and I now count her as one of my all-time favorite movie characters. With Melissa McCarthy and Kristen Wiig I feel like their comedy was a bit toned down. To me they usually play these over the top comedic characters and in this movie they were not as over the top (I am sure that made absolutely no sense whatsoever to anyone but me). Leslie Jones was hilarious. I do not think I have never seen her in anything else. I enjoyed her character a lot too. Cecily Strong, also from Saturday Night Live, has a small part. I like her, I never mind seeing her in a TV show or movie, she is so funny.

I have to give a mention to some of the actors. Chris Hemsworth plays the secretary. I am not too much a fan of his acting but he was not that bad. It was funny seeing Hemsworth play such a clueless person. I nearly freaked out when I saw Matt Walsh. You have seen the guy in so many movies and shows as a bit player. I know him as Trotter from Upright Citizens Brigade.

            This Ghostbusters movie would not be complete without cameos from the original cast. Spoiler alert: they do not make cameos as their original characters. All of the cameos were great.

            Ghostbusters was one of the best times I have had sitting through a movie in the theater. Everything about it, to me, was perfect. The best was that it did not for one moment take itself too seriously and that helped so much because it was just silly all around. Paul Feig’s direction was awesome; his direction of Kate McKinnon’s scenes was the best. The cast could in no way have been any better. Do not let all the negative reviews get in your head and turn you off to seeing it. As I said, I am a diehard fan of the original movies and I loved this new Ghostbusters. Absolutely go see Ghostbusters as soon as you can.

 

Thought Round-Up on Marvel Avenger Movies

My brothers have been obsessed with the Marvel Cinematic Universe ever since Iron Man came out in 2008. For all those years they have been trying desperately to get me to sit done to watch at least one of them. I have always wanted to see the Marvel movies but in those years as all the movies were being released I was attending like sucking, soul crushing college. And I was also being a huge movie snob and only really watching classic films, eesh did I miss a lot. I did actually get to see The Avengers in theaters because when it was released I was working at a movie theater and got to see it for free. Now that my head is out of my ass and I am expanding my range of movie watching, it was now a great time to finally see all the Avenger movies. Well, besides the time Age of Ultron just came out last week and I hated not knowing what was going on with the characters so fire under my butt right there.

My first solo Marvel superhero movie was Captain America: The First Avenger and that was only because I started watching the TV show Agent Carter. Peggy Carter is now one of my all time favorite movie/TV show characters. I fan girl raged over her in my review for Captain America: The First Avenger so I will not go overboard here. The movie was amazing. I LOVE beyond reason the story of Steve Rogers. I love how he was this sweet kid who wanted to defend his country and help fighting the bad guys from the goodness of his heart. The doctor who created the technology to turn Steve into a fighting superhero of sorts and Peggy Carter were the only ones who believed him. I can never get enough of Captain America as a character and as a story. It is one of those movies I can watch at least once a week. Every time I see Steve Rogers in an Avengers movie I love him all the more because he is still fighting for the good of others and is never ever selfish about anything. I adore it to no end. And how in anyone’s right mind they do not love, admire, and adore Agent Carter as a character and Hayley Atwell for playing her is beyond me. GO WATCH THE SHOW RIGHT NOW!!!

            Iron Man and Thor I could not for the life of me get into. Thor I felt was quite dull except for Loki and Darcy. Maybe it has something to do with it being about gods in other realms I do not know. I could not get behind the characters or believe the actors playing the characters at all. Iron Man kind of pissed me off. Robert Downey, Jr. is incredible as Tony Stark he IS Tony Stark no one could have played the character better but the character kind of drives me nuts. I mentioned in my reviews that I cannot stand when something happens to someone and then from that something happening the person changes. That is what happened to Tony and Thor they got too cocky and annoying and then they changed after some traumatic experience. Also they started out as spoiled dicks. Unlike Captain America who is good from the bottom of his heart Thor and Tony had to go through something to change.

            The Avengers movies are very good. The first one I really liked when I originally saw it. Age of Ultron I wrote up not that long ago. I felt Ultron was a little drawn out.

            The only Avenger I would pay top dollar to see in their own movie is Black Widow. Scarlett Johansson is amazing as the character. Black Widow is just a complete bad ass fright from her first fighting scene. I go nuts watching her kick some ass effortlessly in the movies she has been in. Marvel needs to make a Black Widow movie. There is so much to that character and she is so awesome that there could be a movie just for her. Unfortunately, the writers of Age of Ultron set Natasha Romanoff and Black Widow back ten years by creating a love story between her and The Hulk. That pissed me off to absolutely no end. Great job screenwriters, great job making a great character and then knocking her down to love interest when she never should have been. I get it we need to see that Natasha is not a robot or emotionless but there were plenty of other ways to do so.

            So to round up my painfully long Avengers marathon: I actually did like them despite some short comings with the characters, some of the actors/actresses, and the stories. Captain America: The First Avenger is now one of my all time favorite movies and Steve Rogers and Peggy Carter are my idols. Iron Man 3 was the best of the trilogy. Loki/Tom Hiddleston and Kat Dennings make Thor worth sitting through.

            Not the best reviewing of all the Avengers movies, but hey I am not a professional film critic which surely you can see. I really like how all these superheroes are not perfect. They all have their own demons and dilemmas they have to work out. Even though watching all the Avengers movies felt like a drag at times I had a great time watching them. I am very glad I did because now I can say I have seen them all and now I am ready for whatever the next Marvel Cinematic Universe movie is. 

Thor: The Dark World (2013)

“Some believe that before the universe, there was nothing. They're wrong. There was darkness... and it has survived.”

            Thor: The Dark World takes place two years after Thor (Chris Hemsworth) first came to earth. He wants to return to earth but after the events of the first Thor movie and The Avengers his father Odin (Anthony Hopkins) refuses to let him go. So in the mean time Thor has been fighting off enemies and trying to bring peace to the nine realms of his world. He has had a guy named Heimdall (Idris Elba) looking out for his earthly lady love Jane Foster (Natalie Portman). One day Heimdall cannot see Jane and Thor rushes down to earth.

            Jane and her trusty sidekick intern Darcy Lewis (Kat Dennings) track down a wormhole like the one Thor came through in the first movie. Jane gets sucked into the wormhole to another dimension/realm/world… whatever you wanna call it. Wherever she goes she is brought near this big rock type thing that is filled with this red stuff called Aether… let me explain what this Aether gunk is…

            Thousands of years ago the Asgardians fought off these people called The Dark Elves (yep I said The Dark Elves). The leader of the elves Malekith and his second in command Algrim escape to await their chance to come and fight off the Asgardians.

            Back to Jane… Jane was gone for five hours. When she comes back Thor appears. Jane is happy to see him but also not since he was away for so long. And he also destroyed a portion of NYC with the Avengers. The police arrived to try to help look for Jane. When they go to touch her the Aether that she was smothered in sends out this wave of energy that knocks everyone down. Thor takes her back to Asgard to be cured of whatever the Aether stuff is.

            *Skipping over a lot of stuff*… the Dark Elves comes back and destroy Asgard. Through the wormhole in time they plan on going down to earth and using the Aether as their weapon. Naturally Thor and Jane and even Loki (Tom Hiddleston) all have a hand in bringing down the Dark Elves.

            The cast was great except for Natalie Portman. Ok before I get shit thrown at me, Natalie Portman is a good actress and she was very good in this Thor but I feel she just is not right for the part. She is not convincing as a scientist and as someone in love with Thor. DO NOT for one second think I am saying Portman is not convincing as a scientist because she is pretty that is not at all what I am saying in the slightest. There was just something about her that did not convince me she was a character rather than just an actress playing the character of a scientist. Jane and Thor’s relationship is not convincing either. To me they have as much chemistry as two poles. It could just be me and how I am sick and tired of romantic love interests in certain movies. I a shipper hardcore of certain love interests in movies and TV shows but I am finding I would rather see a man and a woman work together as partners to get shit done without the romantic entanglements… wow that turned into a rant, I apologize. Kat Dennings once again steals the movie in what limited screen time she is given. She saves the movies for me. Tom Hiddleston is just a hot sarcastic piece of ass as Loki. Loki also saves the movies for me too because he is a hot sarcastic piece of ass. Good lord, I am such a damn girl I cannot handle myself. Once again, I apologize.

            Unfortunately Thor: The Dark World not hold my interest at all. I feel really bad for some reason but the stories of the movies have not held my interest. The stories I found a bit dull in both movies and the characters are just not convincing to me, well I will say except for Loki, Tom Hiddleston just nails playing a villain. Thor: The Dark World, like Iron Man and some of the other Marvel movies are worth seeing because they are awesomely made and written (except for the characters in Thor). 

Thor (2011)

“You can't kill an entire race!”

“Why not?... And what is this new found love for the Frost Giants? You, could have killed them all with your bare hands!”

“I've changed.”

Thor is yet another Marvel superhero story where a vain, greedy man is shown the error of his ways once something happens to him after he had done a not so good thing. This time instead of a rich billionaire like in Iron Man it is literally a mythological god who is sent down to earth.

            Several centuries ago there was a war between some mythological figures the Asgardians and some kind of ice people. The ice people were defeated and all the realms lived in peace. The leader of Asgard is a king named Odin (Anthony Hopkins). He has two sons Thor (Chris Hemsworth) and Loki (Tom Hiddleston). Thor is the oldest and set to become the next king of Asgard should anything happen to Odin. He is eager to go to war with any realm who wants to start one.

            Somehow during a ceremony the ice people manage to break into the castle at Asgard. Thor gathers Loki and a few of their friends to go to the realm of the ice people and start shit. Well, they start a pile of shit that gets so huge that Odin comes and gets super pissed at his son because now peace with the ice people has just ceased. Odin banishes Thor to the realm of earth without his powers and the ability to pick up his mighty hammer unless someone becomes worthy of it like Thor once was.

            Thor comes crashing down on a site that is being monitored by scientists Jane Foster (Natalie Portman) and Erik Selvig (Stellan Skargard) and student helper Darcy Lewis (Kat Dennings). Jane unavoidably hits Thor with her car and they take him to the hospital. In photographs they took of the lightening strike that came before they crashed into Thor they see the outline of his body on the lightening. They rush to the hospital only to hit Thor yet again with the car after he escaped from the doctors and nurses.

            Back in Asgard Loki learns some things about himself that do not please him at all. He becomes vengeful and evil. He wants Odin to die so he can be king and seek his revenge. He also wants to find Thor and kill him. Loki has always been jealous of Thor as the older brother who got whatever he wanted.

            On earth Jane and Thor begin to fall in love (what a damn bore). Jane is willing to risk her reputation and her life to help Thor to retrieve his hammer. The only issue is his hammer has been sealed up by S.H.I.E.L.D who want to study it. He breaks into the facility but he is still not worthy of the hammer after what he did to the ice people.

            To make a long story short: Loki comes to earth looking for Thor, Thor fights Loki and he once again becomes worthy of his hammer, the brothers fight and it looks like Loki has died, Thor is upset and brooding because he has come to like earth and he cannot see Jane again.

            .The cast was great Marvel is amazing when it comes to casting even their most secondary of characters. I loved seeing Kat Dennings she cracks me up so much no matter what she does or says. She brought great comedy to the movie right from the beginning. Darcy said what every woman who watches this movie is thinking when it comes to Thor/Chris Hemsworth. Tom Hiddleston was brilliant. I have seen The Avengers more times than I can count so it was finally nice to see what crept up Loki’s ass to make him so vengeful and evil. I have a harder crush/love for Loki than I do for Thor and that is down to Hiddleston I think he is such a brilliant actor. I felt the character of Jane was not very well written or acted. She just felt flat either due to the writing or Natalie Portman’s acting. I have to mention Josh Dallas, Prince Charming from the TV show Once Upon a Time, played one of Thor’s buddies. I was dying because he had blond hair and an awful mustache and I just kept thinking of him as Prince Charming.

  My family has raved about Thor since it came out. They constantly rave about how much they love Thor. It has taken me four years to finally sit down and watch it. The story of a spoiled man-child reminded me of Tony Stark. With Tony Stark something happened to him that made him turn his life around. Same with Thor, he got kicked out of his home realm and he realized what a dick he was and he changed. That kind of story drives me a little nuts. But as a whole Thor was a goodAs with most of the Marvel movies I have watched so far Thor is worth seeing as a part of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. And of course I would not be a woman if I did not mention that Thor is worth seeing for a shirtless Chris Hemsworth… shallow I know but deal with it.

 

Avengers: Age of Ultron (2015)

“If you step out that door, you're an Avenger.”

            Marvel’s newest Avengers movie Age of Ultron is an MCU fan’s dream come true. All the superheroes are given a great amount of screen time and character development and two new really awesome heroes are introduced.

            The latest bad guy in the Marvel Cinematic Universe actually comes from within the Avengers team. At the beginning of the movie the team has found Loki’s staff that holds one of four extremely powerful stones in a small remote European country. Back at Avengers headquarters in Stark Tower, Bruce Banner (Mark Ruffalo) and Tony Stark (Robert Downey, Jr.) figure out they can use the power of the stone to protect the world from invasion from different realms. Tony wants to do create this protective barrier after New York City was attacked by these alien things and prevent more from coming through. Bruce does not like the idea of using the stone as a way to protect the world but he goes along with Tony.

            That night there is a party at the headquarters. Since nothing is happening with the stone and what Tony and Bruce want to do with it, Tony has Jarvis scan for things that will make the stone work the way he wants it to. Well during the party Jarvis helps to bring to life Ultron (voiced by James Spader). Unfortunately and very quickly Ultron is not kind like Jarvis. He immediately hates Tony and everything that humans have done in the world. Ultron attacks Jarvis and shuts him down. He transfers his information to one of Tony’s droids and physically attacks the Avengers after their party.

            Now Ultron is a major threat to the world. He wants to bring down mankind and create a new world with machines. He takes the form of an imposing mechanical figure and recruits twin brother and sister Pietro and Wanda Maximoff with great super powers.

            The Avengers have to stop Ultron from destroying the world and deal with each other.

            I can only say so much about the cast without getting redundant. They are all amazing in their roles. Elizabeth Olsen as Wanda/Scarlet Witch and Aaron Taylor- Johnson as Pietro/Quicksilver were awesome additions to the Avengers. I liked their characters and I really liked how they played their characters. I cannot wait to see more of them in future Marvel movies and how they interact with the rest of the team.

            I am going to give a minor spoiler away here and I am sorry but I need to fan girl over it so bad. If you have read the credits list on IMDB or have read any article lately pertaining to Agent Carter or Hayley Atwell you will know that both character and actress make an appearance in the movie. I thought Atwell’s appearance was going to be through a flashback but it was not. How Peggy Carter is brought back very quickly for Captain America I will not say but I will tell you that it broke my damn heart. Seriously, Steggy is like one of the most heartbreaking and horrible ships to ship. But I cannot help myself I love them as characters and as a sort-of couple way too much. And Steve makes a mention at the end how his job now is just be a soldier he does not know any other life and his chance for a family and a normal life passed seventy-five years ago. COME THE HELL ON MARVEL!!!! YOU’RE KILLING MY FEELS!!!! (Good lord I am such a such a raging fan girl. I apologize. I'll get myself together one of these days into a normal twenty-seven year old I promise).

            Steve Rogers is emerging as the leader of the Avengers. He is the perfect choice because despite everything he has seen in mankind since he was unfrozen he is still has the same morals and values as the skinny kid from Brooklyn. He is the good, wavering man out of all the superheroes. There is not a vain bone in Steve’s body he is all about helping others.

            Natasha and Bruce are an item now. When the hell did that happen? I understand that maybe the writers were looking for a way to dig deeper into Bruce and Natasha as characters and show character development but I did not that like that all. To me showing how they are getting closer to each other was just unnecessary to the story. There are probably countless numbers of ways to develop the characters rather than having them become a couple. I applauded the writers of The Winter Soldier for not making Steve and Natasha a couple and developing them as friends and now I am going to give them a jeer for their turn around.

            While I did like Age of Ultron and where it brought all the characters for future movies I did find it a little boring. There were some parts I felt were just too dragged out and some of the scenes and story lines were just totally unnecessary. Like all of the Marvel movies there is a message. I cannot put my finger on a solid message I will say that the message was about technology. We praise technology but there are certain areas in life that technology has its limits. And then of course there is always a moral message in Marvel movies and there is one here. Age of Ultron is great to experience in theaters on a big screen but if you have trouble sitting for long periods of time in a theater like I do (thanks ADHD) than wait for the movie to be out