Captain Marvel Afterthoughts

Opening Thoughts: Captain Marvel is a film I wanted to see earlier, but to be honest both sides the Brie Larson haters and the unapologetic trolls who wanted to rub in the haters faces hey look what she has done in box office numbers really put a bad taste in my mouth. I almost refused to watch this film because of both sides actions. That said I had no vested interest in seeing the film either way other than some plot elements may affect Avengers Endgame.

That said let me make one thing clear and I will be unapologetic about. Do not jump on the bandwagon in support of Brie Larson as Captain Marvel if you refused to see Ghostbusters (2016) or the new Doctor Who. You are a hypocrite and a pos in my book and you can't have it both ways when it conveniently works for you.

Plot: Vers (Brie Larson) is a Kree desperately wanting to go into battle to prove herself and fight for her people, but her inability to control her anger makes her a liability to her team. So as a result she is still in training with her master Yon-Rogg. Yon refuses to take her on a mission until the great intelligence says she is ready.

That day finally comes in which Yon's team has to infiltrate the Skrull planet and get his agent back. The thing is Skrulls are shape shifting aliens that will fight to the end. The mission as General Ackbar will put It's a Trap. Nothing goes right and Vers finds herself stuck to a machine on a Skrull spaceship. That machine's sole goal is to bring the past out of Vers mind and lead the Skrull to Lawson and her secret weapon.

Vers escapes with limited knowledge about her past, but has to get to planet C53 before the Skrulls invade the planet and take Lawson's weapon for themselves.

Vers finds herself on Earth with no one to trust and being the last line of defense. Will Vers find an ally? Will Vers unlock the secret of the past? Can the Skrull Invasion be stopped? Watch and find out for yourself.

Review: Captain Marvel is alot of things, but one thing is for sure the film is not good and especially not great. The film is what you call a mediocre piece of a bunch of things thrown into a blender by writers hoping the public will just buy it. Not to mention a few actors completely misused who are capable of performances that can leave your jaw on the ground.

Let's just get the cat out of the bag and focus o  Brie Larson as Captain Marvel/Vers/Carol Danvers. I will be honest she is a great actress, but miscast in this film and let down by terrible writing. The film takes place in the mid 90s and once the film got to that point all I could say to myself was why does Captain Marvel have to look like DJ Tanner (Candace Cameron) of Full House. I couldn't buy her as Captain Marvel. Then we get into the writing of her character as a naive, weak most of the film, and mostly uncaring woman terrible. Carol Danvers is like the Wonder Woman of DC Comics. She is supposed to empower women yet they wrote her character so out of character for 90 percent of the film that not even Meryl Streep could have made her likeable to comic fans.

Then let us focus on the real problem of the film trying to tie this film into the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Sure the last few cameo scenes after credits were fine, but the meat and potatoes of the story is the problem. Hey writers we want you to somehow fit in Captain Marvel so it connects multiple films together to tie up loose ends and questions before Avengers Endgame happens. The thing was I have no questions going into Endgame  before seeing this film. So I am now watching a film that is a cross between Green Lantern and Dragonball Z that somehow is a prequel to Guardians of the Galaxy and I am seeing the main villain of Guardians working with Yon. Where is my element of surprise instead of saying really did we have to go this route?

That is the other issue the villain is mediocre and to be honest to make up for shortfalls we had to Disneyfy this movie making characters seem useless and unimpressive like Nick Fury. This is honestly the worst Marvel film since Doctor Strange.

I don't hate the film, but would never buy it. After multiple homeruns in a row with the MCU we get a strikeout. I rate this film in the 14th place out of 20 Marvel films. The only reason this film is not lower is because those films are real stinkers and this was a nice to see film that gets a 6/10 from me.

That said hats off to Annette Benning for delivering a performance that is the one shiny light on an otherwise completely hot mess of a film.

Closing Thoughts: When it comes to comic films I am the harshest critic you will meet. So you can take my review with a grain of salt. What I will say is this to the writers of MCU films. Get your head out of your butts and stop focusing on how many cameos you can get in film, how many films can we attach this too, and how can we Disneyfy this film for kids. Focus on giving us story that is solely on the hero and make that story about them if another character pops up fine, but don't do it to the point it is distracting.

Suspiria Ultimate Collector's Edition

Wow two weeks without a post from me has the film industry been that boring with nothing to watch, view, or report? Nah life just gets in the way and sometimes you need a small break from posting and some huge announcement is needed to make you post.

Well possibly the best announcement and yet controversial at the same time came out this weekend. The Suspiria Ultimate Edition UHD BluRay release details have finally came out. I knew about this release in December, but with a 90 pound price tag and no details I was questioning my own preorder til this weekend.

The only thing keeping me attached was the Koch release is one of two releases of Suspiria 2018 that featured UHD BluRay and my love of Suspiria in which this film was by far my favorite horror film of 2018.

That wait was worth it. Here is the juicy details that came out over the last three days.

1. This set is massive at 10 discs.

What set needs 10 discs you ask yourself? Obviously Suspiria does.

Disc 1 Suspiria 2018 UHD
With 7.1 Dolby Atmos English
English and German Subtitles
Disc 2 The Film on BluRay
Disc 3 Bonus BluRay including a MasterClass in English  with Luca Guadagnino
Disc 4 DVD of the Film
Disc 5 Thom Yorke's Suspiria Score Disc 1
Disc 6 Thom Yorke's Suspiria Score Disc 2
Disc 7 Suspiria 1977 UHD
Disc 8 Suspiria 1977 BluRay
Disc 9 Suspiria 1977 DVD
Disc 10 Suspiria Goblin score

Throw in posters for both films, artwork cards, and a nice book this set has alot going for it. Not to mention alot of the special features are in English.

Outside of the redundancy 4 discs are unnecessary for me this release has been the best kept secret of 2019 andis going to be a contender for best home video release of 2019 which for me currently belongs to All the Colours of the Giallo with fantastic commentary by Kat Ellinger. Figures it would take this behemoth of a release to knock out the Severin's release.

Samsung Calls It Quits can Physical Media Survive

On February 15th this year Samsung officially announced they were going to quit production not only of the 1080p Blu Ray players, but also the 4KUHD players as well. Why Samsung are you doing this to us? Do you want physical media to die?

I can see why in their eyes they would like physical media to stop because if you walk into a Best Buy, Target, Barnes and Noble, and more their selection seems to be getting smaller and smaller like they plan on phasing it out like most of them have done with music.

This may be happening as a result of pressure from the elite studios who wish they could stop production altogether on physical media and push their will onto masses. It is not Shatner or Friedle they are trying to push on us. The studios seem to want us to watch an inferior product through downloaded material or stream it.

The problem is there I have not seen a good digital source or stream yet without some kind of problem. Whether your movie that you watch cuts midstream in the middle of you watching it or the film just looks a step above DVD quality, but you get something inferior looking to BluRay. Now this can be an issue I own the WWE Network and have never been able to watch a Live Event without it breaking up or even a movie without some pause.

Yet the studios want to educate you streaming is the way go to go and that they can convince the majority of the population who don't care or try to see the difference in quality this is the best route to go. Honestly this irritates me because a 4K stream looks subpar to BluRay and BluRay is below 4KUHD. The Cinephiles are not buying it.

The Truth: The days of Physical Media as we know it did die and Samsung's announcement proves that. Is that a bad thing? At first glance yes, but in all honesty that may be the best thing happening at the moment in film the fall of studio handled releases.

What I am seeing in the last few years is the rise of boutique labels in the industry. Sure Criterion is the king when it comes to boutique labels that not only the Boutique Labels follow, but the big boys followed for quite a while as well. The thing is the big boys don't know how to handle their releases or even care on some if the film can get a release or not.

What this means for us not all films may see the light of digital or streaming or may just ne available for a limited time. What that has done is open a new market for boutique labels to say hey let us license the film from you and release it under our label.

The Result: Companies whose main goals are to restore older films with love get them and release them on to physical media for us. Sure they make a stream and digital copy as well, but these individuals who restore them actually love these films and went us to enjoy them as much as they do. That may be why on most top ten releases of 2018 onto home media the overwhelming majority of the picks actually came from Boutique Labels.

So what Physical Media has evolved into is the hipsters reason for vinyl. We want the best quality of video possible, but at the same time stay true as possible to the source material. What we also want is access to the films we fell in love with as kids or in our college years. The studios are not giving us that because they don't want to do small print runs of 300 to 2000 releases onto BluRay or 4KUHD they don't see the money they want. These boutique labels as long as their is a profit will deliver us the films we want. Here are a few you should research.

Twilight Times: They seem to mostly release the older catalog films 20th Century Fox and Columbia Pictures onto BluRay. This group takes the time to clean and restore the films they release. Some of the highlights include 9 to 5, Bob Ted Carol Alice, and more. So they tend to release popular films that are older and just might not have enough sells to warrant a release from the studio. I was shocked 9 to 5 was not released by Fox Studios directly.

Criterion: They are the kings, but the films they pick lately you have to ask are they Criterion worthy. That said they do a great job on restoration and release what they feel are the most influential films of their time. That said some people look at these films for snobs or the general public wont understand. I don't care if a film I like is getting a Criterion release I'll pick it up.

Vinegar Syndrome: They release B films of all genres thay fall under exploitation.  I'm not saying. If you like exploitation films this is your company. The odd thing is they clean up their releases, but leave some damage in to give the films a tough grindhouse look to them. For people who want to complain they hate the look BluRay gives to film, Vinegar Syndrome is your company. Stand out releases are Sex World and Penitentiary.

Arrow Films: If Criterion is the king of world, indie, and arthouse cinema, then Arrow Films are the king of important Cult, Grindhouse, and exploitation films across the world. Arrow in many ways is a gateway drug to a fantastic new world that once you are hooked you can't stop watching. Arrow's Restoration for older films is to give them the look, grain, and color the film deserves to be seen in. Alot of films from Japan and Italy are in this collection. Stand out films The Baby, Deep Red, and Shock and Gore Box Set.

Severin Films: As a Boutique Label Severin Films is all about the overall experience. Severin if you pre-order will include goodies with their releases which could be anything from collectable pins to sign films posters or even black gloves. They are probably the most fun company to buy an item from directly.

Other Indie Labels: Kino Lorber also specializes in cult films, foriegn, and indie films, but they mostly license from other companies that do the work. So as a result a film from the can be like a box of chocolates. I personally love the sexploitation horror line from them called Redemption Films. Issue is they don't get released on a regular basis. I would also check out Shameless from the UK. Raro Video is another company to check out that specializes in Italian Films.

The thing is while places said they had a loss in sales in 2018 with Physical Media these boutique labels said they had record sales by providing hard to get films, stellar restorations, and sometimes goodies that let you know these video companies care that there name is on the label. 

Don't let that Samsung article scare you, instead be happy that physical media is becoming hip again thanks to boutique labels and will now be thought of as fondly as vinyl is now.

Next Review: Faust