Usually at the end of the summer, I’ll have watched enough movies to write a blog about them.  And sometimes, that happens in the winter, too.  This is one of those winters!  So here’s a blog about the movies I’ve seen in the past couple of months.  There might be some slight spoilers here and there.  Nothing too significant, but you’ve been warned anyway.

Thor: Ragnarok

Even though I don’t do much with comic books, there have been a few Thor movies already so I know enough about it.  Plus there was a movie back in the 80’s called Adventures in Babysitting, and there’s where I first heard about the Thor comic book character.  I like how this movie implements a bit of humor into it.  My favorite character was the Valkyrie lady.  I don’t really know why, though.  Maybe because she was kinda pretty and strong looking, I guess.  OK I’m going to end this review with one of my favorite dumb Thor jokes:  So one day, Thor leapt upon his mighty steed and bellowed out, “I’m Thor!”  And then his horse turned to him and said, “Well thit on the thaddle, thilly!”

Justice League

I don’t have a lot of expectations with comic book movies, so I enjoyed this one anyway.  Wonder Woman was still the best character in it, but all of them were fun.  One thing I did question was in one part of the movie, they were trying to guard these cube things from the bad guy (what is it with comic books and cubes?).  But when they went to go do something else, the bad guy just came in and swiped the cube!  I bet they felt pretty stupid not to put somebody on guard duty.  Granted, what they were doing was also pretty important, but still.  Also, in one of the post credit scenes, Superman and The Flash have a race.  But they don’t tell who won!  I think it would’ve been funny to have another post credit scene where they’re running, but then the Road Runner, Speedy Gonzales, and Sonic the Hedgehog run along beside them and pass them!  In the last post credit scene, Lex Luthor wants to have a league of his own.  What’s he going to call it?  The Injustice League?

Coco

This was Pixar’s latest, so of course I had to see it.  I was hoping they’d have a Pixar animated short before the feature like they always do, but instead they had a Frozen Christmas special.  I’d like Frozen a lot more if it were 2-D animated, then it would really feel like a classic Disney cartoon.  But all the kids in the audience were oo-ing and aahh-ing over it, so I guess that’s OK.  Coco actually ended up being a lot better than what I thought it would be.  From the previews, it looked like it would be a rehash of Ratatouille.  Just replace a rat following his dreams of cooking with a Mexican boy dreaming of becoming a musician.  But the movie is a lot more than that. I would say the Day of the Dead theme has been done to, well, death.  I know Coco has been in production for a long time, but even back then there were a lot of things about it.  Now there’s already been a Day of the Dead animated movie called The Book of Life (Coco is WAY better, though).  And heck, even video games have gotten into the act with Grim Fandango and even the Super Mario Odyssey desert Tostarena level has Day of the Dead themes in it.  The movie has some very sad scenes toward the end, but I kind of expected it would with the whole Day of the Dead theme.  When I go to see Pixar movies, I stay for the end credits to find a name of a friend that I know that works at Pixar (1up.com friends may know who I’m talking about).  But I couldn’t find him this time because the font they used was so hard to read (and maybe my eyes were a bit misty from the ending).  Coco may not be one of my favorite Pixar films, but it’s not one of my least favorite either.

The Star

This was another computer animated movie, but it was about the animals around the stables during the birth of Jesus and how they helped save the day.  The animation wasn’t super groundbreaking and looked like something you could see on television, but I’m a Christian so I enjoyed the Christmas story anyway.  There are so many Bible stories that would make great cartoons, but you don’t see too many of them made.  At least not very good ones.  The Star may have been very low budget and flopped in theaters, but I still enjoyed it just as much as the other movies on my list here and I’ll definitely get it on DVD.  Sometimes you don’t need stellar animation, spectacular effects, and an all-star cast to make an enjoyable movie anyway.

Star Wars: The Last Jedi

I saw the new Star Wars movie with my family.  Here is my take on the new Star Wars. Spoiler free, of course. The movie was fun with lots of action. Some parts were hokey, but that’s what Star Wars has always been. I liked that they put a bit of humor in places, too. It’s a good thing I didn’t see this movie as a kid, because all the new spaceships and critters would’ve made cool toys that I would’ve wanted like when I was little. And many of the scenes in the movie would make for a good LEGO Star Wars game, which I’m sure they’re working on right now.  Also, Kylo Ren ate his spinach.

And that’s all for now!  Let me know what movies you’ve seen recently and ones you want to see that are coming up.  Me, I may go see the Early Man movie, since it’s done by Aardman, the Wallace and Gromit people.  And even though it’ll probably be really dumb, I’ll probably go see the new Rampage movie.  My brother and I have a history with that game.  Thanks for reading!  Later!  –Cary

Tags: Movies with Children