Why did the Mad Titan Thanos (Josh Brolin – W., Sicario) need to grab hold of the power of the six Infinity Stones to destroy the universe? I think it’s important to understand what causes a villain to do certain actions rather than just to have a bad guy. The stronger the villain’s arc and the more we sympathize with them on any level, the more we understand and appreciate the underlying of who they are. In Avengers: Infinity War (directed by Anthony Russo and Joe Russo), we have a powerful bad guy motivated by a tortured past and willing to destroy all the good guys in the universe to atone for it. After the planet Titan is no longer inhabited, he is not allowed to prevent things from destroying it; he thinks he will prevent it. Instead, he lost his planet and everyone on it. Vowing not to let something like that happen again, he makes it his mission to balance the universe by completely wiping out half of it. But to do so, he’ll need all six of the Infinity Stones that will power his Infinity Gauntlet, allowing him to bend time, space, energy, and the laws of physics and reality.
Category Archives: Superhero
Black Panther (2018)
In 2009, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences expanded on a tradition that it had in place since 1927. It increased the number of potential Best Picture nominations from the normal five to a potential maximum of 10. It was a move to inject more blockbusters into the Oscar mix and to give movies like Avatar, Inception, and Toy Story 3 the recognition of Best Picture that they deserved. But in essence, this was The Dark Knight rule. This 2008 film most incredible superhero movie ever made, was nominated for eight Academy Awards and won two (Best Supporting Actor – Heath Ledger, Best Achievement in Sound Editing). Still, it failed to earn a Best Picture nomination. While 2008 produced five excellent Best Picture nominations (Slumdog Millionaire, Milk, The Reader, Frost/Nixon, and The Curious Case of Benjamin Button), it still felt like The Dark Knight belonged, either in addition to one of these five or as a replacement. And the Academy changed its rules after that year. Instead of the top five vote earners being selected as the nominees, if a movie received a certain threshold of votes, it would be nominated for Best Picture (up to 10 nominations). I don’t believe we’ve had 10 movies selected yet in the last decade, but we have had nine on multiple occasions. This year there were eight. And while the last decade resulted in many movies earning a Best Picture nomination that they wouldn’t have received before the rule change, the first superhero to benefit from The Dark Knight rule was Ryan Cogler’s (Fruitvale Station, Creed), Black Panther, a film that made history by becoming the first-ever superhero to receive a Best Picture nomination.
Logan (2017)
James Mangold’s (3:10 to Yuma, Walk the Line) Logan is about to set the standard for the next wave of superhero movies…the death of a major character. In an age of movies (particularly superhero ones) where we’ve seen sequels, prequels, and reboots, we have yet to see the story’s beginning, middle, and definite conclusion. We’ve seen plenty of superhero movies that COULD be a conclusion story, but we’ve all learned the hard way that we think is the end probably isn’t the end unless we see that character killed off. And, let’s be honest, even then, we don’t really know. When there is the potential for hundreds of millions of dollars to be made, who are we to believe that the end is the end. Oftentimes, the end is determined by a crappy movie in a series that doesn’t resonate with audiences or critics. Sometimes, that movie can be a concluding story, but often it is not. But (spoiler, but not really) based on what happens at the end of the film, I don’t expect to see him back. I know I probably will in some other fashion, but that can be an argument for a different day. Until then, I’ll continue to sing the praises of Logan. And at the time of this review, I have it as a top-five Marvel movie of all time.
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