Avengers: Endgame (2019)

Spoilers ahead! I never cared much about superhero movies, but then the Marvel Cinematic Universe happened and, every year for the past eleven years, they've been the movies I was looking forward to seeing the most. No matter how disappointingly awful some were, I was still excited to see what would come next. And after Avengers: Infinity War ended with that huge cliffhanger, Avengers: Endgame became my most anticipated Marvel film ever. And boy, I was not disappointed. 

The story picks up after the devastating events of the previous film, with the remaining Avengers — Steve Rogers (Chris Evans), Bruce Banner (Mark Ruffalo), Natasha Romanoff (Scarlett Johansson), Rocket (voiced by Bradley Cooper), James Rhodes (Don Cheadle), and Thor (Chris Hemsworth) — joined by Captain Marvel (Brie Larson), Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr.), and Nebula (Karen Gillan) to track down Thanos (Josh Brolin), steal the Infinity Stones and reverse his action. Unfortunately, they learn upon finding him that he had destroyed the stones, and Thor kills him. Five years later, Scott Lang (Paul Rudd) comes back from the Quantum Realm and proposes the others to travel back in time and prevent Thanos from finding the stones in the first place.

Venom (2018)

I already had lukewarm feelings about Venom so when critics flooded us with negative reviews, I decided to pass the movie and save some money. Then, many people I follow —either on Twitter or blogs— started posting their review and it didn't sound that terrible. At that point though, I didn't want to go to the cinemas and watch the dubbed version so I waited for home release. 

The film follows Eddie Brock (Tom Hardy), a news reporter who has just lost his job and girlfriend (Michelle Williams) because he went off-script while interviewing Carlon Drake (Riz Ahmed), the CEO of a bio-engineering corporation, the Life Foundation. When he tries to dig some dirt up on Drake, he becomes the host of a powerful, symbiotic alien, Venom, that gives him superhuman abilities. Venom and his species, however, do not come in peace.

Ant-Man and the Wasp (2018)

Yesterday, now that basically the entire world, except for Portugal, China, and Japan (according to IMDb), has seen Ant-Man and the Wasp, Marvel's latest film finally hit theatres in my shithole country and since I love Marvel, I got the 9pm ticket hoping that I would not fall asleep in there (backstory, I wake up a 5am every day and I haven't been getting a lot of sleep in the past few days).

Set after the events of Captain America: Civil War but before those of Avengers: Infinity War, the film finds Scott Lang (Paul Rudd) under house arrest as he struggles to entertain himself. When he only has days left of confinement, Scott has a strange dream and decides to call Hank Pym (Michael Douglas). Pym and his daughter Hope (Evangeline Lilly) then approach Scott with an urgent new mission and Scott must put on the Ant-Man suit to face a new enemy.

Avengers: Infinity War (2018)

Though I couldn't wait to see all those characters from the Marvel Cinematic Universe to meet in one film directed by the Russo brothers (and to see Chris Evans and his glorious beard on the big screen), I had some reservations about the Avengers: Infinity War. Instead of getting part 1 and part 2 as we were promised years ago, we got only one movie. Actually, we got two movies squeezed together and the result isn't that good.

Intergalactic despot Thanos (Josh Brolin) is determined to collect all of the Infinity Stones in order to bend reality to his will and the now-torn-apart Avengers must team up with the Guardians of the Galaxy to stop Thanos before he puts an end to half the universe.

Black Panther (2018)

If you love comic book movies then I'm pretty darn sure Black Panther was/is one of your most anticipated movies of 2018. I was beyond excited for this --the cast being one of the many reasons-- and I'm very happy to say it did not let me down.

After the events of Captain America: Civil War (don't worry, there's a little recap at the beginning), T'Challa (Chadwick Boseman) is crowned king of Wakanda, the isolated but technologically advanced African nation he's from. But soon a powerful old enemy (Andy Serkis) reappears and T'Challa is forced to join forces with CIA agent Everett K. Ross (Martin Freeman) and members of the Dora Milaje, the Wakandan special forces, to prevent his country from being dragged into a war.

Thor: Ragnarok (2017)

I'm a sucker for Marvel and I'd watch anything they make. Those terrible movies with Ben Affleck, Jennifer Garden and whoever played the Punisher are the proof.  What I'm trying to say is that's pretty obvious I was excited for Thor: Ragnarok. However, this time there wasn't just the fact that it's an MCU flick, but especially the fact that Taika Waititi directed it. Last year, he left me speechless, in a very good way, with Hunt for the Wilderpeople, and that's the real reason why I was really looking forward to seeing this. And once again he left me speechless. This indeed is the most entertaining, exciting and fun Marvel film since Deadpool.

Spider-Man: Homecoming (2017)

Genres

Action, Sci-Fi

Director

Jon Watts

Country

USA

Cast

Tom Holland, Michael Keaton, Jon Favreau, Zendaya, Donald Glover, Tyne Daly, Marisa Tomei, Robert Downey Jr., Jacob Batalon, Laura Harrier, Tony Revolori, Jennifer Connelly, Chris Evans, Gwyneth Paltrow

Storyline

Months after Civil War, Peter Parker (Tom Holland) tries to balance his life as an ordinary high school student while fighting Vulture (Michael Keaton), a new villain that will threaten everything that is important to Peter. 

Opinion

After Logan and Wonder Woman, I think Spider-Man: Homecoming was the most hyped (superhero) film of the year. But I wasn't that excited about it probably because of what happened with The Amazing Spider-Man flicks, so it easily exceeded my expectations. Actually, it was way better than I thought. In fact, Spider-Man: Homecoming was entertaining as hell and one of the funniest MCU films made so far -and I also liked it better than Guardians of the Galaxy Vol.2.

After gods, androids and aliens, this is the film that (finally) brings back down to earth the MCU with another origin story that doesn't feel like an origin story at all. Rather than focusing (again) on the whole bite thing, this film focuses on teen Peter Parker as he struggles to find his place in the (Avengers) world. Although the plot could have used some more depth - it's indeed very simple - it's compelling and engaging. And it also has a nice twist.

The characters, as well as their roles in the role, were a pleasant surprise. The character of Peter Parker is well developed and Tom Holland makes for a fantastic Spidey. He beautifully captures the spirit of teen Peter Parker, a guy who is always trying to prove himself and wants to be involved in bad things. He's fun to be around and he delivers the humour.

A huge surprise was the role of Robert Downey Jr.'s Tony Stark/Iron Man. Because of the trailers, I was expecting him to completely steal the show. But the opposite happened. He was barely in the movie and that gave Holland the chance to really shine. And now the problems with the other characters. While I liked the idea of changing the characters races, it bothered me that all those characters were paper-thin. And the cast was uneven. I think Zendaya was great as Michelle, the quirky student who hangs around Peter, but Laura Harrier was terrible and annoying as Liz, Peter's shallow love interest.

Finally, there's the villain, Michael Keaton's Vulture. While more development would have been appreciated, Vulture and Keaton's mesmerising performance are definitely not forgettable like the majority of villains in Marvel movies. He is one of the most human villains. He's like a superhero villain, and his backstory and the reason he does what he does make you empathise with him.

Also great is the humour. Although it's pretty much the teen comedy kind of humour, it never feels forced and the timing of the actors will make you have a good time. The action is bad either. It doesn't react the spectacularity of the previous Marvel movies, but the sequences are still awesome.