Final Destination is a 2000 American supernatural horror film directed by James Wong, with a screenplay written by Wong, Glen Morgan, and Jeffrey Reddick, based on a story by Reddick. It is the first installment in the Final Destination film series and stars Devon Sawa, Ali Larter, Kerr Smith, and Tony Todd. Sawa portrays a teenager who cheats death after having a premonition of a catastrophic plane explosion. He and several of his classmates leave the plane before the explosion occurs, but Death later takes the lives of those who were meant to die on the plane.
Not gonna lie, a young me had a decent crush on Devon Sawa back in the ’90s.
This is not a happy movie, this is a very gory take on what destiny, fate, or even Death has planned for us, for everyone. But somehow, Sawa’s character catches a glimpse of those plans and upsets the donkey cart, or the airplane.
What follows is the beginning of a 5 film series of what happens when you try to cheat Death. Death claps back, and in the most horrifying gruesome way possible – mysterious “accidental” deaths. I am not sugar-coating this, this is a gory horror movie. Normally I don’t care for “it’s gory because I can” horror movies, but in this case it makes sense to have them added, otherwise we wouldn’t really have much of story here, now would we?
I like horror movies, I’ve see many of them (and documented quite a few on the blog already), and so it’s no secret that I have an affinity for this series even if it is gruesome. And origin stories are top tier, so there’s that.
Marvel’s The Avengers (classified under the name Marvel Avengers Assemble in the United Kingdom and Ireland), or simply The Avengers, is a 2012 American superhero film based on the Marvel Comics superhero team of the same name. Produced by Marvel Studios and distributed by Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures, it is the sixth film in the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU). Written and directed by Joss Whedon, the film features an ensemble cast including Robert Downey Jr., Chris Evans, Mark Ruffalo, Chris Hemsworth, Scarlett Johansson, and Jeremy Renner as the Avengers, alongside Tom Hiddleston, Stellan Skarsgård, and Samuel L. Jackson. In the film, Nick Fury and the spy agency S.H.I.E.L.D. recruit Tony Stark, Steve Rogers, Bruce Banner, Thor, Natasha Romanoff, and Clint Barton to form a team capable of stopping Thor’s brother Loki from subjugating Earth.
I am so glad I started rewatching these movies again. So very glad. I’m catching so much more of the humor of these first phase movies than I remember when I watched them the first or even second time. The Avengers is the first movie where all 6 original Avengers come together for the first time and it is so interesting to watch them interact. One thing that I dislike is that we only get to briefly meet Hawkeye before he was turned by the super villain.
Speaking of which, this is the first time we see Loki in his full glory as a super villain. Granted, he was instrumental in Thor’s movie, but we only saw him directing things from afar. This time he is front and center and it is great to see too. And we get some really interesting fight scenes once he’s in the mix.
Even if you don’t like superhero movies you’ll have to admit that this movie has an all star cast, all of them make this movie. With any big movie also comes The Avenger’s first casualty, the premise of when they finally become a team.
“This was never gonna work if they didn’t have something to…”
Captain America: The First Avenger is a 2011 American superhero film based on the Marvel Comics character Captain America. Produced by Marvel Studios and distributed by Paramount Pictures, it is the fifth film in the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU). The film was directed by Joe Johnston, written by Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely, and stars Chris Evans as Steve Rogers / Captain America alongside Tommy Lee Jones, Hugo Weaving, Hayley Atwell, Sebastian Stan, Dominic Cooper, Toby Jones, Neal McDonough, Derek Luke, and Stanley Tucci. During World War II, Steve Rogers, a frail man, is transformed into the super-soldier Captain America and must stop the Red Skull (Weaving) from using the Tesseract as an energy source for world domination.
This is my favorite MCU movie. I love, love, love it. I know I’ve already said I love origin stories, and here’s another one to add to that list, but this movie also made me love Steve Rogers. I know he’s super vanilla in the grand scheme of things, but Evans does such a good job at it that I just fell in love with the character (this also spun off into following Evans’ acting career).
Back to the plot, this movie is the entirety of his transformation, the lead up to it, and the aftermath. Here is our first encounter with Hydra, Red Skull, and S.H.I.E.L.D., and the introduction of several characters who only seemed minor to begin with, like Agent Carter, and Bucky Barnes. Also the infamous shield that came from Howard Stark.
It’s just so good! And yes, I am overly, massively biased about this movie, and I will happily admit it.
Thor is a 2011 American superhero film based on the Marvel Comics character of the same name. Produced by Marvel Studios and distributed by Paramount Pictures, it is the fourth film in the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU). It was directed by Kenneth Branagh, written by the writing team of Ashley Edward Miller and Zack Stentz along with Don Payne, and stars Chris Hemsworth as the title character alongside Natalie Portman, Tom Hiddleston, Stellan Skarsgård, Kat Dennings, Clark Gregg, Colm Feore, Ray Stevenson, Idris Elba, Jaimie Alexander, Rene Russo, and Anthony Hopkins. After reigniting a dormant war, Thor is banished from Asgard to Earth, stripped of his powers and his hammer Mjölnir. As his brother Loki (Hiddleston) plots to take the Asgardian throne, Thor must prove himself worthy.
Thor is my second favorite Marvel character and it should be no surprise at this point. I love the Norse Mythology background, because well, Thor is a God of Asgard. He’s got a pre-built background, so this is not an origin of Thor story. This is an origin of Thor as a Superhero.
Thor is also a bit of a comedy, for instance one of the running jokes of the movie is that Thor keeps getting run over by a car, and because he’s a god he’s just fine. He gets back up and brushes it off.
Anyway back to the main story, there’s a problem in Asgard, which Thor as the next in line of succession takes it upon himself to correct, and makes a mess of it. Odin banishes Thor to Midgard, and takes away his power (it’s the Hammer, because of course it is). This is where he runs into Natalie Portman and friends and spends several days figuring himself out.
Iron Man 2 is a 2010 American superhero film based on the Marvel Comics character Iron Man. Produced by Marvel Studios and distributed by Paramount Pictures, it is the sequel to Iron Man (2008) and the third film in the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU). Directed by Jon Favreau and written by Justin Theroux, the film stars Robert Downey Jr. as Tony Stark / Iron Man alongside Gwyneth Paltrow, Don Cheadle, Scarlett Johansson, Sam Rockwell, Mickey Rourke, and Samuel L. Jackson. Six months after Iron Man, Tony Stark resists calls from the United States government to hand over the Iron Man technology, which is causing his declining health. Meanwhile, Russian scientist Ivan Vanko (Rourke) uses his own version of the technology to pursue a vendetta against the Stark family.
This movie introduces some of the more well-known main and side characters of the Marvel Franchise. We get Don Cheadle, the new Rhodey, and who plays Rhodes for the rest of the franchise (Terrence Howard was in the original Iron Man). There’s also an appearance from Scarlett Johanssen and if you don’t know who she is in this franchise I won’t tell you here, same with Mr. Samuel L. Jackson. And the main villain of this story, another genius who never got his chance to shine thanks to Stark – Whiplash.
Tony’s also dealing with some serious side effects, being poisoned by the machine that’s keeping him alive, his business competition is stealing his designs, and being hounded by the government to turn over his new weapon.
This all reaches a breaking point at the Stark Expo when said competition reveals their newest innovation – soldier drones for the military. Of course, Whiplash is in control and a full on battle ensues, with the outcome being a new partner for Iron Man, Warmachine.
The Incredible Hulk is a 2008 American superhero film based on the Marvel Comics character the Hulk. Produced by Marvel Studios and distributed by Universal Pictures, it is the second film in the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU). It was directed by Louis Leterrier from a screenplay by Zak Penn, and stars Edward Norton as Bruce Banner alongside Liv Tyler, Tim Roth, William Hurt, Tim Blake Nelson, Ty Burrell, and Christina Cabot. In the film, Bruce Banner becomes the Hulk as an unwitting pawn in a military scheme to reinvigorate the “Super-Soldier” program through gamma radiation. Banner goes on the run from the military while attempting to cure himself of the Hulk.
This is not an origin story, not really. It glosses over the origins in the opening sequences and moves right on to the aftermath. That is how we find Bruce Banner on the run from the government experiment that went wrong and created the Hulk. Banner is trying to find a way to cure it so it can’t be weaponized. The General has other ideas and plans however.
This leads to a chase throughout South and North America (with a cameo of our favorite comic book creator), and some other colorful characters that run afoul of Banner’s anger.
We all know how this turns out – Banner doesn’t find a cure, and the climax of the movie is an Abomination created by the government and one man’s thirst for power.
It’s not the best movie in the MCU line-up, but it does give character background to our favorite jolly green giant and his struggles to eventually become a superhero and not just a destroyer of Manhattan.
ron Man is a 2008 American superhero film based on the Marvel Comics character of the same name. Produced by Marvel Studios and distributed by Paramount Pictures, it is the first film in the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU). Directed by Jon Favreau from a screenplay by the writing teams of Mark Fergus and Hawk Ostby, and Art Marcum and Matt Holloway, the film stars Robert Downey Jr. as Tony Stark / Iron Man alongside Terrence Howard, Jeff Bridges, Gwyneth Paltrow, Leslie Bibb, and Shaun Toub. In the film, following his escape from captivity by a terrorist group, world famous industrialist and master engineer Tony Stark builds a mechanized suit of armor and becomes the superhero Iron Man.
This is the origin of Iron Man, the playboy billionaire turned superhero. I really do enjoy origin stories, but even though I enjoy it, and I love watching RDJ on screen, Iron Man is not on my list of favorites. But it is a good watch and it is part of the MCU and that’s what makes it worth watching. You have to know where Tony starts in order to see his evolution, and this is his beginnings.
It’s too bad we have to blow him up first in order to get him put back together.
It’s not very easy to identify the villain of this movie, but they do a great job of dropping little hints and nuggets until the movie just flat out shoves it in your face.
This is a weapons race. A race to see who has the biggest stick in the end, and well, as this is an older movie we all know who ends winning the arms race this time.
Kill Bill: Volume 2 is a 2004 American neo-Western martial arts film written and directed by Quentin Tarantino. It is the sequel to Kill Bill: Volume 1, and stars Uma Thurman as the Bride, who continues her campaign of revenge against the Deadly Viper Assassination Squad (Lucy Liu, Michael Madsen, Daryl Hannah, and Vivica A. Fox) and their leader Bill (David Carradine), who tried to kill her and her unborn child.
The bloody revenge of Beatrix Kiddo continues as she tracks down the last two of Bill’s henchmen. Bill’s brother Bud, is down-on-his-luck, bouncing at a bar that he nearly gets fired from when Beatrix shows up. He does get the jump on her, and then calls in Elle to make a buck off Beatrix’s signature weapon, her Hatori Hanzo Sword.
When that is all dealt with, the movie climaxes with the confrontation of Bill, and the realization that her daughter lives.
The soundtrack to this and the previous movie is so good. I think I could listen to it over and over again and not be bored with it. The ending credits do each of the characters exacting justice.
Kill Bill: Volume 1 is a 2003 American martial arts film written and directed by Quentin Tarantino. It stars Uma Thurman as the Bride, a former assassin who swears revenge on her ex-teammates (Lucy Liu, Michael Madsen, Daryl Hannah, and Vivica A. Fox) and their leader, Bill (David Carradine), after they leave her for dead. Her journey takes her to Tokyo, where she battles the yakuza.
This is a revenge story, maybe even a love gone wrong story, a story told in flashbacks without a straight timeline. A movie story where the action sequences have different stylings. For instance, O-ren’s origins are told comic book style, the massacre at El Paso seems like a Western, the encounter with Vernita almost seems like a modern family drama, and the fight scenes are told in black and white, black light, and even a touch of traditional Japanese.
The Massacre at El Paso sets the tone of the revenge story, and the most important plot point for this and the next movie. We learn that Ms. Uma Thurman has a hit list and she’s methodically running through it, with the climax of this movie being the battle with O-ren, the leader of Yakuza, and her personal army, The Crazy 88s.
Through flashbacks we see how Uma acquires her signature weapon, how she ended up in the hospital, why she’s at Vernita’s house, and who is on her hit list. Two of her hit list are dealt with in this movie, I already gave away one of them, but her ultimate target is the titular character: Bill.
Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home is a 1986 American science fiction film directed by Leonard Nimoy and based on the television series Star Trek. It is the fourth feature installment in the Star Trek franchise, and is a sequel to Star Trek III: The Search for Spock (1984); it completes the story arc begun in Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan (1982) and continued in The Search for Spock. Intent on returning home to Earth to face trial for their actions in the previous film, the former crew of the USS Enterprise finds the planet in grave danger from an alien probe attempting to contact now-extinct humpback whales. The crew travel to Earth’s past to find whales who can answer the probe’s call.
This is the only other Star Trek Movie I have in my DVD collection currently, and it’s one we all should watch, as it involves animal extinction and the need for their survival. I enjoy when movies do this, which is partly why I also enjoy the Godzilla franchise.
Now, the movie concludes a story arc from the previous movies, which even if you haven’t seen them, the basic plotline is easy to grasp: go back in time to collect a humpback whale to ward off the probe attempting to destroy Earth (does this sound a bit like the first movie?). It’s a journey back to our own time from the future crew, with a few funny moments as the crew attempts to use our archaic technology to get the job done.
If you are a Star Trek fan I encourage you to watch this movie, if you are not a Star Trek fan I encourage you to watch this movie because of the environmental impact it concerns.
Fellowship of Filming(s) 