Finally!  Something to avenge!

by Thom Yee

Avengers:  Endgame images courtesy of Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures

I know what it’s like.  To want so desperately not to, but to know it as an inevitability.  Dread it.  Run from it.  But always arriving at the same conclusion:  You hate people.  But don’t worry.  So do I.  And honestly, I think… no, I know that if I had had the chance, I would get rid of half of them too.  At least that many.  Starting with the people who won’t shut up in movie theatres.  Because it’s precisely that type of person, one with no regard for those around them and the injustices they inflict on others, that led to the type of hatred I felt for people while watching Avengers:  Endgame.  I suppose, though, when it comes to something like Endgame, that, like Thanos’ mad scheme to kill half the universe, getting mad at awful people is ultimately little more than a game of numbers — combine the release of one of the most anticipated movies of our age with the longest running time ever for a superhero movie and attending that movie on its very first day of release and of course the odds heavily favour that at least one idiot would have to come to my showing and not be able to keep his mouth shut.  And that he would have friends.  Anticipation + Time + Overstimulation + People = Catastrophe. Continue reading →

Back in my day, Captain Marvel was just a big red cheese, and I don’t remember no one complainin’!

by Thom Yee

Captain Marvel images courtesy of Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures

It might not seem like it from the outside, but Captain Marvel is just about the weirdest damn superhero to talk about.  At least for me she is.  See, I’m a lifelong comicbook nerd, even to this day, but I’m also a ‘90s kid, and if you were a ‘90s comicbook nerd kid like I was, then Captain Marvel, at least the Marvel Comics version, is basically a character who didn’t exist.  See, in the ‘90s, Captain Marvel was one of only two things:  1) The DC Comics teen superhero who yelled SHAZAM! and got powers just like Superman’s; or 2) The Marvel Comics superhero with cosmic powers who had been dead for a long, long, long time.  Like early ‘80s long ago.  And in either case, neither was a very big deal.  And in both cases they were men. Continue reading →

You’ve changed, man!  It used to be about the ants!

by Thom Yee

Ant-Man and the Wasp images courtesy of Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures

I was actually pretty fired up for the release of Ant-Man and the Wasp last weekend.  Which was strange because the original Ant-Man was the first Marvel Cinematic Universe movie that let me down [and that’s not even mentioning how unlikely it is for me to be excited about anything in the first place].  I think part of my excitement stemmed from how much more I’d gotten into the Marvel Cinematic Universe since the release of Avengers:  Infinity War a scant two months (and change) ago, but if we’re being honest with each other, you and I, here at the end of all things (as it always feels like lately), I think the main reason for my expanded excitement for Ant-Man and the Wasp (See what I did there?  Expanded?  Because he grows?) was because, as much as Ant-Man let me down and as hard as I was on it in my original review, I like that first Ant-Man movie quite a bit now.  Certainly more than my three (of five) star review might suggest.  In retrospect, Ant-Man is a real good, solid movie.  It’s got solid characters, innovative action scenes, and some pretty decent laughs.

You’ll never convince me Ant-Man is great movie though. Continue reading →

Thanos was right

by Thom Yee

Avengers: Infinity War images courtesy of Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures

This world doesn’t make sense any more.  Californians are intentionally drinking untreated, unsterilized water they’re buying “off the grid” while people in Flint, Michigan still have too much lead in their taps.  A ridiculous, Immortan-Joe-esque ignoramous is the President of the United States.  Vaping is a thing.  And Thanos is a major figure in our popular culture.  Those four things might seem unrelated at first, but I’m pretty sure they all have megalomania and super-villainy at the heart of their origins.  But we’re mostly here to talk about that last one, Thanos, today, because, as of April 27, 2018, people — normal people all over the world — suddenly knew who Thanos is.  And the opportunity to talk about Thanos?  As if he was something or someone people might know about?  Someone people might actually care about?  That makes almost no sense!  That’s almost insane!
Continue reading →