Marty Supreme (3 Stars)

I've been hearing about this film for weeks. It's received nine nominations for the Academy Awards, including best film. One of my friends has told me it's his favourite film of the year so far. So I expected to enjoy it today. I wanted to enjoy it. But I didn't.

It's difficult to say why I don't like a film without giving away spoilers, but I think I can do it with "Marty Supreme". The main reason that I don't like the film is because I find the character Marty unpleasant. He lies, cheats and steals to get what he wants. He's conceited. He's not someone I can cheer on. He's not someone I'd want as a friend.

A second reason is that he has no noticeable character arc, not even in his table tennis skills. He starts the film as the best, and he ends at the best. That's all I can say about him.

The critics disagree. They see something in the film that I don't. I don't want to put my readers off. Maybe you'll enjoy it more than me.

SE7EN (4 Stars)

This is the January selection for the "Best Of Cinema" series. Usually the film is shown on the first Tuesday of the month, but it's been shifted to Friday this week for reasons unknown to me.

It's a film I've never seen before. I admit that I was put off by the film's title. It's pronounced seven, but it's written with a 7 instead of the V. Some people might think it's cool; I think it's stupid. The only advantage of misspelling the title is that it won't be confused with the Andy Sidaris film called "Seven".

"Se7en" – I hate typing that word! – was filmed in Los Angeles, but according to reviews it takes place in an unnamed fictional city. Why not just call it Los Angeles? The action takes place in grubby little streets, carefully avoiding any well known landmarks. Morgan Freeman plays William Somerset, a detective seven days before his retirement. He's joined by David Mills, a young, impulsive detective who's been transferred from a smaller city. Somerset wants to get away from violent crime, Mills is looking for it. They spend Somerset's last week working together.

There are a series of seemingly unrelated deaths. The victims have no connection to one another and come from all walks of life. At the scene of the first death the word "gluttony" is written on the wall. At the scene of the second death the word "greed" is written on the floor. The detectives surmise that they're the first two victims of a serial killer who's basing his murders on the seven deadly sins.

The killer might seem mad, but he's a very calm, religiously motivated man. He doesn't care if he's captured, as long as he can carry out his seven murders first. He wants to send the world a message that committing any of the seven deadly sins is a greater sin than traditional crimes and should be punished accordingly.

It's a good film, but is it best of cinema? That's a matter of taste. It won't ever enter my top films list.

Success Rate:  + 7.9

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Avengers: Endgame (5 Stars)

Disney Wednesday #13

For the last week I've been watching films on Netflix. Today I realised that I could access my Disney Plus account while I'm travelling, so I have access to dozens of wonderful Marvel films. So I sat down with my son-in-law and asked him what he wanted to watch. He picked "Avengers: Endgame". An excellent choice.

While we were watching my daughter Fiona came in the room and asked what crappy film we were watching. She should have remembered that she'd already seen in twice in the cinema in May 2019. The second time was with me, as recorded in my blog. Even without checking my blog I could remember it clearly, because it was my only ever visit to a 4DX movie. (My review on 16th May 2019 describes what that is). Even so, Fiona has completely forgotten it. Memory is a strange thing. Sometimes I can clearly remember things that happened 40 years ago, but I forget what I did last week.

"Avengers: Endgame" is too spectacular to be forgotten.

Success Rate:  + 5.8

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Avengers: Endgame (5 Stars)

Stan Lee didn't create the character Thanos. He was created by the writer/artist Jim Starlin in 1973, when Stan had already given up most of his writing activities at Marvel. Nevertheless, Stan Lee laid the foundation for the Marvel Universe, and he created the Avengers and most of the other heroes in the film. His contribution to comics and modern culture overall can't be underestimated.

The Blu-ray disc of "Avengers Endgame" that I watched today has a short tribute to Stan Lee. It's not a full tribute, it's just a review of his cameo appearances in the Marvel Cinematic Universe films.

These words, spoken by director James Gunn, express my thoughts precisely:

"My hero. The greatest man alive".

Stan Lee has passed away since this photo was taken, and the world is a poorer place without him. However, for me he still lives on in his writing. In the course of writing my Marvel Years posts I read his comics regularly. I'm up to mid 1971, close to the end of his regular writing. Other less capable writers stepped into his footsteps. Some of Marvel's writers were good, some were average, some were poor, but even Marvel's best writers weren't Stan Lee. He had a spark of genius that others could only dream of.

The most touching part of the tribute is when Robert Downey Jr kneels before Stan Lee and kisses his hand. That wasn't an empty affectation, it's a sign that he truly loved him. As do I.

Asking whether there will ever be another Stan Lee is like asking if there will be another William Shakespeare. It's not impossible, but it's highly unlikely.

On an unrelated matter, I've been running into the limitations of Google's Blogger (Blogspot). I add labels to posts to list the actors who appear in a film. Not every actor, just the ones that I consider to be the major actors. That's five or six actors per film, on average, but the last two Avengers films, "Infinity War" and "Endgame", have an overwhelming ensemble of big actors. Blogger limits me to a maximum of 20 labels per post, so I've been forced to omit some of the actors. Originally I omitted the actors who play smaller parts. Now I've decided to do the opposite. I've omitted the labels for the actors who play the biggest roles, because people know they're in the film anyway. The actors that I have omitted from the labels are:

Chris Evans (Captain America)
Chris Hemsworth (Thor)
Mark Ruffalo (Hulk)
Robert Downey Jr (Iron man)
Scarlett Johansson (Black Widow)
Samuel L. Jackson (Nick Fury)

Nuff said!

Success Rate:  + 5.8

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Avengers: Infinity War (5 Stars)

"The hardest choices require the strongest wills".

Success Rate:  + 4.5

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Avengers: Endgame (5 Stars)

This is the third time I've seen "Avengers: Endgame". The first time I saw it was in a German cinema. The second time was in an English cinema. Today I watched it in a friend's house, in beautiful 4K resolution and supposedly Dolby Surround Sound. I say supposedly, because I wasn't aware of being surrounded by the sound. It seemed to be coming to me from the front, like a normal stereo soundtrack. I'm saying that as a compliment. If I'm watching a film that's taking place in front of me, I don't want to hear the noises behind me.

I feel quite jealous of the beautiful movie system that I enjoyed today. It's not a matter of money. I could afford it if I wanted to. My trouble is the size and layout of my room. The furthest I can sit away from the screen is 135 cm (53 inches), so the largest screen that would be sensible for me is 49 inches.

Yesterday I watched "Avengers: Infinity War", which helped me to appreciate "Avengers Endgame" in its context. "Infinity War" has action all the way, whereas "Endgame" is slow and  mournful, with only occasional action scenes, all of which are splendid when the action breaks out. For the first hour very little happens at all. We meet the characters, and we share their sorrow after having lost so many friends.

I'm pleased to see that Captain Marvel's powers haven't been toned down in the film. Of the highly powered heroes, she's the only one who lives up to her strength in the comics. This makes her the most powerful hero in the MCU (Marvel Cinematic Universe), unlike the comics, where several heroes have greater power, such as Warlock and the Silver Surfer. The original male Captain Mervel in the comics was also stronger than her.

Where do the Avengers go from here? Where does the MCU go from here? Kevin Feige, the producer of the MCU, has promised that there won't be an early reboot, starting the Avengers again from the beginning with younger actors. In "Endgame" several characters were killed, and others will disappear because the actors haven't renewed their contracts, so now they've gone for good. They'll be replaced by other Marvel characters; there are so many to choose from. This is a good idea, but we can't go on like that forever. The best, most appealing characters are the ones that Stan Lee invented in the 1960's, and cinema audiences will grow bored when they've disappeared. A reboot is inevitable, but when will it happen? I don't know yet. The Marvel bosses will make a decision based on the viewing figures.

"Avengers Endgame" has become the highest grossing film ever, if the figures aren't adjusted for inflation. That's one of the advantages of my Success Rate. It's a relative number from comparing the budget and the box office takings, so inflation doesn't play a role. My way of calculating the Success Rate makes "Endgame" the most successful film in the MCU, but less successful than the non-MCU Marvel film "Venom", which scored + 6.6.

Success Rate:  + 5.8

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In the review I wrote yesterday about "Avengers: Infinity War" I said that Thanos would never retire and become a hermit or a farmer. One of my friends sent me a message, saying that I was mistaken. He pointed out, quite correctly, that after he lost the Infinity Gauntlet to Adam Warlock he became a farmer, "scraping out a living from the soil". However, this is what he became after losing the Gauntlet. He would never have become a farmer if he had remained the universe's supreme being. He was exiled to live alone on a remote planet by Adam Warlock, so what else could be do except to farm the land?

As we can see, he's become very stoic. He accepts his new position in life. However, I don't believe he would have taken this position voluntarily.

The story of Thanos continues in Marvel comics, some of them written by Jim Starlin, but for me this page isn't just the end of the Infinity Gauntlet saga, it's the final end of what I consider to be Marvel canon.

Avengers: Infinity War (5 Stars)

Despite my love for this film, I have to point out – yet again! – that it's not the same Thanos that we know in the comics.

In the comics written by Jim Starlin, Thanos' motivation for killing half of the universe isn't to achieve a cosmic balance or to solve the problems of overpopulation. It's a sacrifice for the woman he loves, Death. He thinks it's something that will please her and make her love him. I don't know whether I'll get as far as the Infinity Gauntlet comics in my Marvel Years posts. That's in 1991, and I'll probably stop when I get to 1984. I'm not sure yet.

Thanos would never retire and become a hermit or a farmer. If he destroyed half of the universe he would want to rule over the other half.

So much to his motivation. As for the Snap, it wasn't a magical act powered by the gloves. He could have killed half of the universe merely by thinking about it. The finger snapping is just a gesture to show that killing trillions of people is as easy as snapping his fingers.

What I likie about this film is its epic quality. There are battles taking place at the same time all over the world, and all over the universe. Some of the battles are very close, and we expect the good guys to win. In other battles it's obvious that they're too weak, but all the battles are enjoyable.

We can almost like Thanos. He's an environmentalist who is carrying out a plan to save the universe. In the film at least. Maybe he's not Thanos as we see him in the comics, but his benevolent nature is suitable for the film. Films profit from having villains that we can sympathise with. That's not so necessary in comics. It's just an added plus.

"You can't be a friendly neighbourhood Spider-Man if there's no neighbourhood".

Don't worry, Peter Parker, there will still be a neighbourhood after Thanos snaps his fingers; there will just be less children playing in the street.

Is there anyone else who disagrees with the German translation of "Wakanda Forever"?

This character isn't named in the film, but in the credits she's listed as Proxima Midnight, a post-canon servant of Thanos. She was played by two actresses: Carrie Coon in facial close-ups, and Monique Ganderton when her full body was shown. She returns in "Avengers Endgame", but in that film she's only played by Monique Ganderton. I think that she has a fascinating face. Fascinatingly evil.

I intend to rewatch "Avengers Endgame" tomorrow. I can judge the films better if I watch them back to back.

Success Rate:  + 4.5

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Avengers: Endgame (5 Stars)

While I was in Birmingham this week I went to see "Avengers: Endgame" again. It was suggested by my daughter Fiona. She saw it last week, but she didn't understand it. That's not surprising. The first MCU film that she watched was "Black Panther". "Endgame" – I'll shorten the title – refers to so much of the early films that it must be totally incomprehensible to any johnny-come-latelys. Or should that be spelt johnny-come-latelies? I don't know if there's a special rule for the plurals of adverbs.

I sat explaining to Fiona the previous 21 MCU films, concentrating on the ones most prominently referenced in "Endgame": "The Avengers", "Thor: Dark World" and "Guardians of the Galaxy". At first she sat attentively, but as I continued she was overwhelmed by the long list of names and her face went blank. She found a full review of "Endgame" in YouTube and listened to the first minute, but it was awful. The reviewer was just rattling off the plot at a breakneck speed, which confused her even more.

So we went to the cinema. There was a 4DX screening at Cineworld on Broad Street, which we chose because neither of us have seen 4DX films before. If you don't know this technology, it's a way to immerse the viewer in a film by provoking his other senses, not just sight and sound.

This is the 4DX theatre in Cineworld Broad Street. Eight rows with 20 seats each, arranged in groups of four. The gap at the front left is possibly for wheelchair users, but I would have to ask about that. I don't consider 4DX suitable for wheelchair users, unless the functionality is limited.

I know that it's officially been allowed to give away "Endgame" spoilers now, but I shan't. I'll just review the 4DX experience.

There are extensive warnings on the door before you enter. You shouldn't use 4DX if you're pregnant, you shouldn't use 4DX if you're shorter than 1.30 meters (4'3"), plus many seemingly random restrictions. The cinema obviously wants to protect itself from all possible lawsuits.

When you sit down you're supposed to put your head on the headrest and your feet on the footrest. The only controls on the seat itself are for the water. You can turn off the water sprays to stop yourself getting wet. That's a setting for wimps. Why would anyone want to stay dry in a cinema?

The most enjoyable feature was the chair motion. The chairs move in all directions at different speeds. When there are fights the motion is fast and jerky. I found it effective that when a plane was flying the chair very slowly tilted forward, giving the impression of movement.

There was frequent wind blowing, mainly from my left. That's possibly because I was sitting on the left of the four-chair group. It gave me the impression of being outside. This was mostly appropriate.

One strange feature is the vibration of the chairs. This was usually done whenever there was a loud noise. I found it somewhat arousing, because the vibrations went straight through my testicles. I suspect that it might be even more exciting for women. However, I have to admit that despite the cheap thrill this did nothing to enhance the movie experience.

During the fights I was sometimes poked by a rod underneath my right shoulder blade. When I checked the chairs afterwards I found two rods, on the left and the right, but the left rod was never used. Maybe it was broken on my chair. This was a weird feeling. It would have had to hit me a lot harder to simulate a fight.

There was a very pleasant smell in the scene where Thanos is walking in his garden. I liked it a lot. The scent feature was only used in this one scene. I would like to experience it in a film more often, so I can compare the scents, whether they change from scene to scene.

One thing I didn't like was the lights that flashed on the sides of the theatre when there was an explosion or something similar. This was highly annoying.

What about the water? "Endgame" isn't a very wet film, but I experienced it in one of the opening scenes. When Hawkeye killed the Japanese Yakuza boss I felt his blood splashing on my face. That was a nice touch. In a later scene, when it was raining, I felt a few drops of rain on my face. That wasn't enough. I should have walked out of the cinema with my t-shirt dripping wet.

My overall impression is that 4DX is a nice gimmick, but it's not something I like enough to want to do it often. 4DX costs £4.70 more than the normal ticket, and for that price it's really not worth it.

Avengers: Endgame (5 Stars)

This is the 22nd film in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, released in April 2019.

You won't find any spoilers here, so look somewhere else.

Avengers: Infinity War (5 Stars)

This is the 19th film in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, released in April 2018. It's the big film that Marvel has been working up to, ever since "Iron Man" in May 2008. The ten years of planning have  paid off. Despite the big differences from the comics it's an exciting film with the atmosphere of a mega-crossover-event.

I'll only talk about one difference between Thanos in the comics and Thanos in the films. It's a matter of his motivation. In the comics Thanos was in love with Mistress Death, the personification of Death, and he was prepared to do anything to win her love. This led to him killing half of the sentient beings in the universe. In the film Thanos has noble motives. He wants to solve the problem of overpopulation and the resulting poverty by removing half of the universe's population. It might sound twisted, but it's logical. If there isn't enough food to go round the problem can be solved immediately by killing half of the people.

In the comics it's Thanos' love for death that causes him to fail in his ambitions. This makes him a tragic character. In contrast, Thanos in the films is an eco-warrior.

Captain America returns with a beard. It doesn't suit him. He's a traditional old-fashioned sort of guy. The beard makes him look sort of cool. He's not cool.

Black Widow has changed her hair colour. Does this have any significance?

Iron Man looks the same as he always does.

Bruce Banner is unable to turn into the Hulk. That's possibly a mental block, because he was traumatised by spending two years as the Hulk in "Thor: Ragnarok". I would have liked to see the Hulk. If anything, Bruce Banner's futile attempts to become the Hulk are annoying.

Part of the battle is fought in Wakanda, so we see the Black Panther again.

We also see Okoye. Did I ever mention that I find her sexy?

But the film is all about Thanos. By the end of the film we're almost sympathising with him. He gives up the person he loves the most in order to save the universe. He's not quite the same Thanos that we know from the comics, but he's still a fascinating character.

I'll say something about Stan Lee's appearance before you think I've forgotten him. He's the driver of a New York school bus. The children start to panic when they see one of Thanos' space ships hovering over the city. Stan takes it in his stride, saying "Have you never seen a space ship before?"

Success Rate:  + 4.5

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Spider-Man: Homecoming (4 Stars)

This is the 16th film in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, released in July 2017. Let me say straight off, Tom Holland is the best actor to play Spider-Man so far. Tobey Maguire looked more like Peter Parker in the comics, but Tom Holland is the first actor who really looks like a 15-year-old kid. The excitable way he talks fits the role as well. Looking at Tom I can really get a feeling for Peter Parker.

On the other hand, I don't like the high-tech suit he wears in the first half of the film. It's a clone of the Iron Man suit, which is obvious enough since it was designed by Tony Stark. I wonder what his next suit will be like. Come to think of it, I already saw it in "Infinity War", but I didn't pay attention. Wait a few days until I watch it again.

Everyone else in the film is poorly cast. Betty Brant has blonde hair? Liz Allan is dark skinned? Ned Leeds is Hawaiian? Flash Thompson is South American? Aunt May looks sexy? The casting is so bad that I think they did it on purpose just to annoy people. If I just picked random names out of a hat the casting wouldn't be as bad.

At least Stan Lee is Stan Lee, the Watchers' eternal informant. We see him in a nine-second scene looking out of his window to see why a car alarm is going off. His neighbour calls him Gary. I thought at first that the name might be a subtle in-joke, referring either to a character in the Spider-Man comics or one of Marvel's staff members, but I haven't been able to find anything relevant. The best known Gary who worked for Marvel was the writer Gary Friedrich, but he never wrote any Spider-Man stories.

This is what Aunt May should look like.

Not like this. It's just wrong.

Michael Keaton plays the Vulture, only two years after playing the title role in "Birdman". John Malkovich would have been the Vulture if Sam Raimi had been allowed to make "Spider-Man 4". He knew about casting. Even though Michael Keaton is a very different Vulture, nothing like the character in the comics, I like the way he's portrayed in the film. Deep down he's not a bad guy. He wants to make a living, and he also cares for his employees. More than anything he loves his family, and he'll kill anyone who tries to harm them.

To justify his chosen career of selling illegal weapons, the Vulture holds a small speech. It's not enough to convince Spider-Man not to fight him, but it makes him pause to think.

"Those people, Pete, those people up there, the rich and the powerful, they do whatever they want. Guys like us, like you and me, they don't care about us. We build their roads and we fight their wars, but they don't care about us. We have to pick up after them. We have to eat their table scraps. That's how it is. I know you know what I'm talking about, Peter".

Yes, Peter Parker knows exactly what he's talking about. In the comics he struggled with poverty, having hardly enough money to pay for his Aunt May's medical bills. That was in the 1960's. Things are worse today. I know that people blame Donald Trump for modern American poverty, but that's not where the blame lies. Things have been going wrong in America for 10 years, maybe longer. The people up there are getting richer, while the guys like us are getting poorer.

Success Rate:  + 3.0

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Iron Man 3 (4½ Stars)

This is the seventh film in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, released in May 2013. The sixth film, "The Avengers", was the end of the first phase of the MCU. All the main characters were introduced in the first phase. Now there are new films about each of these characters, except for the Hulk. His solo film was the only financial failure in the MCU so far.

Stan Lee plays a cameo as a judge in a beauty contest. We only see him for 2½ seconds, but he seems to be overly excited by one of the contestants. I wonder what's so special about her. Maybe he reacts the same way to all of the girls? I've never been a big fan of beauty contests. The girls considered beautiful are always too thin for me. They're not as bad as the anorexic models who do silly walks at fashion shows, but they rarely have the big breasts and the big butts that I prefer.

As far as actresses go, Ai Shinozaki is the most beautiful woman I know. She has a perfect hourglass figure. Curiously, she's said in interviews that she doesn't consider herself attractive. Women are weird. Some women, anyway. They look at themselves in the mirror and see flaws, but the men who look at them just say Wow! If Stan Lee had seen her in the beauty contest he would have been too excited to hold up his score card.

I've been promising my readers an Ai Shinozaki gallery for more than a year. Here's another photo to keep you happy until I finally keep my promise.

"Iron Man 3" introduces the Mandarin, Iron Man's deadliest foe from the comics. Unfortunately, he's only a fake Mandarin, an actor hired by AIM to be the face of global terrorism. That was a big disappointment to me when I first saw the film in the cinema. I've gotten over it now, after hearing that the real Mandarin will appear in a future Iron Man film.

What makes the fake Mandarin even more tragic in my eyes is the fact that the actor Ben Kingsley looks perfect as the Mandarin. He looks just like the comic book character. Who can possibly be chosen to play the real Mandarin?

What's remarkable about "Iron Man 3" is that Tony Stark spends more than half of the film doing battle without his suit. There's a 45 minute sequence in the middle when his suit is damaged after AIM destroys his house, and there's about 20 minutes at the end of the film in which the Iron Man suits fly around under remote control while Tony chases the AIM leader Aldrich Killian with a gun. This emphasises that the real hero is the man himself, not the Iron Man suit.

For most of the film Tony Stark is suffering from anxiety attacks after flying through a portal into a far distant galaxy at the end of "The Avengers". This is rounded off by an unusual after credits scene in which Tony Stark is talking to Bruce Banner as if he were a psychiatrist.

Success Rate:  + 4.1

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I've been adding my little box with links to Amazon since 2016, but I've recently noticed problems when I click on them. Some links are broken, because the products I've linked to are no longer on sale. Even worse, some DVDs are out of print and are only available from Amazon Marketplace sellers for exaggerated prices. For instance, the Blu-ray disc that I recommended from Amazon.com in my last review of "Iron Man 3" now costs $49.99. Ouch! The triple pack of Iron Man 1–3 in the box for this review is only $24.99. Much better. I can't go back and change the links of old reviews, but I recommend that my readers check prices before they buy.

I've started to take more time to watch the television series I'm interested in. Until further notice I'm going to watch a maximum of one film each day, with the exception of film festivals. I'll use my additional time to watch one or move television episodes each day. Yesterday I watched six episodes of "Supergirl", today I watched three episodes of "Agents of SHIELD". It's a long-standing problem with me and television series. There's so much that I want to watch, but since I give films priority I have so little time.