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Asuka-Fan
Location: San Francisco
Occupation: Software Engineer
Sexual Orientation: 100% straight heterosexual
Favorite current TV Shows (in alphabetical order):
The Amazing Race
Arrow
The Flash
Legends of Tomorrow
Supergirl
Favorite Sports Teams:
MLB - San Francisco Giants
NBA - Los Angeles Lakers and Golden State Warriors
NFL - Dallas Cowboys
Favorite Playmates:
1. Cristy Thom - Miss February 1991
2. Lisa Welch - Miss September 1980
3. Martha Thomsen - Miss May 1980
4. Kelly Monaco - Miss April 1997
5. Lisa Marie Scott - Miss February 1995
Ratings
Most Recently Rated
Reviews
Avengers: Infinity War (2018)
OK but not great movie - 4 out of 10
Pros:
1. It took 19 movies, but for the 1st time ever MCU finally has a villain who isn't awful or lame. A "former" MCU fan (who has been invited to never come back to this forum) used to say MCU is better than DC because MCU always makes the heroes the main character while DC makes the villain the main character. Well, Infinity War takes a page out of DC's playbook and makes the villain the main character and it's the 1st time in 19 movies that the villain of an MCU movie isn't awful or lame.
2. Loki repeating Tony Stark's line from the 1st Avengers movie ("We have a Hulk") and then Thanos proceeding to give Hulk such a severe beatdown that Hulk turned into a 1000-pound coward and was too scared to show up for the rest of the movie.
3. Loki finally getting killed. Loki ("I'm evil because I was adopted and Daddy Odin loved Thor more than me") has always been an awful, lame, and useless villain.
Cons:
1. This movie was a big mess, constantly jumping all over the place from 1 location to another.
2. Drax claiming to be "invisible". Stupid scene that added nothing to the movie.
3. MCU ripping off The Illiad with Thanos sacrificing his daughter to get the soul stone.
4. Too many MCU characters were ready and willing to put half the universe at risk for their own selfish needs:
a. Starlord - threw a hissy fit and helped Thanos to break free
b. Doctor Strange - gave Thanos the time stone (which Thanos used to reverse time and get the mind stone from Vision's forehead later) just to save Iron Man and sacrifice half the universe; also knew which of the 14 million possible paths was the only path to defeat Thanos but took that secret to the grave and let Thanos kill half the universe rather than tell anyone else the winning path (MCU fans made the dumb excuse that telling others the winning path would bias their decisions. Of course, it's supposed to bias their decisions - so they can make the right decisions to defeat Thanos! If you're given the correct answers to a test BEFORE the test, of course you're going to write down those correct answers when you take the test. Who would be so stupid to NOT write down the correct answers if they're given the correct answers BEFORE the test?)
c. Scarlet Witch - made an entire country fight Thanos just so she can keep her robot sex toy
5. Spider-Sense not working properly again as Spider-Man gets ambished and taken hostage by a guy with no superpowers.
6. An ending that will probably be reversed in Avengers 4, resulting in this movie having no stakes and basically being a waste of 2 and 1/2 hours since 90% of what happened in this movie will have been reversed in Avengers 4. Also, why is there even a need for Avengers 4? If Strange can use the time stone to see how to defeat Thanos, then Thanos should be able to do the same thing and see which is the only possible way he could be defeated and prevent that from ever happening. So it should now be impossible to defeat Thanos and there's no need for an Avengers 4 since it's now impossible for the Avengers to win.
Black Panther (2018)
Over-hyped and over-rated; movie makes no sense at all
After 3 straight comedies (GotG2, SMH, and Ragna-joke), MCU tried to copy DCEU by making a serious movie. But if Black Panther is supposed to be a serious movie, then Black Panther is a HUGE FAIL because Black Panther doesn't make any sense at all.
1. T'Chaka flew his aircraft to a neighborhood in Oakland at the beginning and T'Challa did the same thing at the end. The US government wouldn't just allow a foreign aircraft to fly over US airspace (especially after 9/11) and hover over or land in a US city. So Wakanda violated US airspace.
2. T'Chaka tried to arrest his brother and take him back to Wakanda for execution. Even if his bother did break the law, he's on American soil and T'Chaka has no jurisdiction to arrest him on American soil. T'Chaka would have to request the US government arrest his brother and extradite him to Wakanda. But the reason T'Chaka didn't do that and instead tried to covertly take his brother back to Wakanda for execution is because T'Chaka was afraid his brother would request political asylum from the US government.
3. T'Chaka kills his brother and just leaves without taking his brother's body back and giving him a proper burial. Even if T'Chaka has diplomatic immunity, he just killed someone on American soil so by law he still needs to report that to the US authorities. Instead, T'Chaka just leaves his brother's dead body there for his young son to find. Imagine a young child finding his father's dead body like that!
4. Klaue was arrested on Korean soil. Why the hell would the Korean authorities allow an American CIA agent (basically an American spy) and a Wakanda national to question a suspect arrested on Korean soil?
5. Why would the Korean government allow T'Challa to take a wounded American spy to Wakanda? 1 MCU fan said that South Korea is on friendly terms with the US, but that's irrelevant. He's not only an American citizen but an American CIA agent. The US government might not want a wounded CIA agent transported to a country that Americans aren't even allowed to visit and potentially drugged or tortured to reveal state secrets.
6. Since T'Challa accepted Killonger's challenge and Killmonger defeated T'Challa in combat, Killmonger was the rightful King of Wakanda. So the American CIA agent was basically participating in an illegal coup against the rightful King of Wakanda when he helped T'Challa take back the throne. Shouldn't the rogue CIA agent call Langley first to check if he has permission from POTUS to participate in an illegal coup against the rightful King of a foreign nation and potentially involve the US in a war that POTUS might not want? After all, POTUS might prefer having a former American soldier on the throne of Wakanda.
7. If Wakanda had all that medical technology/process to heal people and save lives, then why did T'Challa just let Killmonger die when T'Challa could've saved him? Because Killmonger didn't want to be in prison? But why would Killmonger be in prison? Killmonger didn't break any of Wakanda's laws. Killmonger was the uncle's real biological son so Killmonger wasn't an imposter. Killmonger challenged T'Challa for the throne, which Killmonger had a legal right to do by Wakandan law, and T'Challa accepted. Killmonger defeated T'Challa in combat so Killmonger was the rightful King of Wakanda according to Wakandan law. And as the rightful King of Wakanda, Killmonger had the legal right by Wakandan law to order his army and his ships to go outside Wakanda and wage war. So what Wakandan law did Killmonger break? Why would Killmonger be put in prison when he didn't break any Wakandan laws? Is it just normal policy that the King of Wakanda can just throw anyone in a Wakandan jail just because they challenged the King?
8. If Wakanda is supposedly the most technologically advanced nation in the world, then why are they still resorting to a medieval and barbaric and savage ritual of choosing a leader by violence and bloodshed and mortal combat? Is no one in Wakanda smart enough to come up with a peaceful way in the 21st century to choose a leader that doesn't involve violence and bloodshed and mortal combat, especially when most of the rest of the world has already done so?
9. If Wakanda wanted their King to prove himself worthy to lead the nation, then why would decide their King by mortal combat? Wouldn't a supposedly technologically advanced nation want to choose a King who is the smartest rather than just choose a King who has the most brute strength?
Black Panther is just another over-hyped and over-rated MCU movie that is full of awful writing.
Justice League (2017)
Best superhero team-up movie ever!
Justice League isn't as great as Wonder Woman (which is ranked as the Best Superhero Movie of All Time and is a serious contender for a Best Picture Oscar nomination), but Justice League is definitely better than all 3 of the MCU movies released this year and is the best superhero team-up movie ever. Justice League has been compared to The Avengers, but Justice League is much better than The Avengers because: 1. Justice League had better team chemistry and team interactions.
The team chemistry was much better in Justice League, helped by the fact that the Justice League had 2 younger members (Flash and Cyborg) who were relatively inexperienced. So we saw a couple of good moments when the veterans took the role of mentors to the younger members (i.e. Batman telling Flash to "save one" person first and go from there and later Wonder Woman telling Cyborg to have confidence in his ability to find where Steppenwolf had taken the Mother Boxes). Justice League also had a good scene with Wonder Woman helping to heal Batman's dislocated shoulder after they had that argument. The Avengers didn't have any good moments like that.
2. Justice League had better teamwork.
Batman and Wonder Woman worked together to recruit the rest of the team. Flash helped Wonder Woman with the the falling sword. Aquaman held back the water while Batman, Wonder Woman, and Flash hung on the NightCrawler and Cyborg piloted the NightCrawler up the tunnel. Cyborg and Flash worked together to resurrect Superman. Superman and Flash worked together to save civilians. Wonder Woman used her shield to protect Aquaman from falling rocks. Superman and Cyborg worked together to separate the Mother Boxes. And Superman and Wonder Woman worked together to destroy Steppenwolf's axe.
We saw no teamwork in The Avengers. The rest of the Avengers just stood around while Iron Man single-handedly took the nuclear missile launched by the military into space and used it to destroy the Chitauri mother ship.
3. Justice League had a more formidable villain.
People say Steppenwolf was a weak villain but Steppenwolf was a much better villain than the Chitauri because Steppenwolf was a much more formidable threat than the Chitauri. It took an alliance of the Amazons, Atlanteans, all the tribes of Man, and even the Olympian Gods (including Zeus himself) to defeat Steppenwolf the 1st time. Before Superman arrived, Steppenwolf was tossing the other Justice Leaguers around like they were action figures and was having his way with them. By contrast, the Chitauri had no superpowers and were so weak that they couldn't even hurt or do any damage to the 2 Avengers without superpowers (Black Widow and Hawkeye).
A hero isn't a great hero unless he's challenged and pushed to the limit by a formidable adversary or opponent. Without Darth Vader, Luke Skywalker is just a farmboy and not the Jedi Knight who destroyed the Death Star and helped defeat the Galactic Empire. Steppenwolf was a formidable opponent for the Justice League, but the Chitauri were weak and no challenge at all for the Avengers.
Watching the Justice League battle Steppenwolf is like watching the Golden State Warriors play against the Cleveland Cavaliers. Watching the Avengers against the Chitauri is like watching the Cleveland Cavaliers play against a high school team.
Spider-Man: Homecoming (2017)
Worst movie adaptation of Spider-Man ever
Did the Homecoming writers actually think that pushing together the 2 split halves of the ferry boat would stop the boat from sinking? And why did Iron Man just fly away after pushing the 2 split halves of the ferry boat together, without even checking if any of the passengers might be injured and need to be air-lifted to a hospital? And why were there cars on the Staten Island Ferry? Don't the writers know that cars haven't been allowed on the Staten Island Ferry after 9/11? And why doesn't Spider-Man have Spider-Sense in MCU? When Peter ditched Liz at the Homecoming dance and leaves the building, he gets ambushed outside by 1 of the bad guys. No way that should happen with Spider-Sense. So he definitely doesn't have Spider-Sense in MCU.
Also, the absurdity of the Washington Monument scene. The elevator of the Washington Monument gets blown up by a bomb that the fat kid had. DHS would've interrogated the fat kid about where he got the bomb and the fat kid would've been held in custody until he gave up Peter as the guy who gave him the bomb.
Then DHS would've investigated Peter and would've been suspicious as to why Peter at the last minute decided to re-join the Academic Decathlon after quitting the team earlier and travel with the team to Washington, D.C. only to skip out on the Decathlon competition and the skip out on the team's trip to the Washington Monument on the same day that his best friend blows up an elevator in the Washington Monument using a bomb that Peter gave him. And DHS would've gotten a warrant to search Aunt May's apartment.
Just more bad writing, as is usually the case in MCU movies.
In addition to the bad writing, SMH's shallow and uninspiring portrayal of Spider-Man's motivations make SMH the worst movie adaptation of Spider-Man ever. Without outright mentioning Uncle Ben's death, Peter being Spider-Man is reduced to a simple show-off. There's nothing driving him other than wanting to look cool and impress Tony Stark - and that's a shallow reason which betrays his true comic origins.
Superman is shown by Jor-El how he can unite the human and Kryptonian species and bring hope to Earth. Batman is driven by the death of his parents and vows to do everything in his power to stop crime in Gotham. Wonder Woman feels that it's her duty to end war and bring peace to Mankind.
Those are noble reasons which are inspiring. Spider-Man is in 1 of the 4 most iconic comic-book superheroes along with Superman, Batman, and Wonder Woman. But his motivation for being Spider-Man in Homecoming isn't because he believes he has a "great responsibility" to use his powers for good (as he learned from his failure to prevent Uncle Ben's death when he could've) but simply because he's hoping to get a reply from Happy Hogan.
Jessica Jones (2015)
BORING AND CRAPPY! Watching paint dry is more interesting than this crap!
Out of the 4 Netflix series, Daredevil, Luke Cage, and Iron Fist weren't bad. But Jessica Jones was boring and crappy and is the absolute worst comic-book series ever produced. Jessica Jones was so boring and crappy that I almost stopped watching halfway through the pilot episode. But I thought it would only be fair to give Jessica Jones a chance by watching the entire pilot to see if it got better in the 2nd half of the pilot. But it didn't get better at all so I stopped watching after the pilot episode because watching paint dry would've been more interesting than watching Jessica Jones.
Captain America: Civil War (2016)
Another awful MCU movie; BvS is a much better movie!
1st, Civil War is basically a copy of BvS. A government building gets blown up by a bomb, killing a prominent government official. A villain manipulating heroes into fighting.
2nd, too many characters just popping up without any reason at all and just shoehorned into the movie - Ant-Man/Giant Man - Black Panther - Hawkeye (was retired, now suddenly abandons the girlfriend and kids to come back and help a fugitive escape from the authorities) - The Annoying Spider-Kid (more annoying than Jar Jar Binks in The Phantom Menace; did more talking than fighting)
3rd, after all the buildup about a disagreement over the issues of collateral damage and government oversight of the heroes, those issues were completely trivialized by a "big fight" that was nothing more than a friendly sparring contest with bad one-liners thrown in: "Are we still going to be friends after this?" "We haven't met before?" "Mr Stark. What do I do now?" "You have a METAL arm?" "I'm from Queens. I'm from Brooklyn."
Was the "Civil War" supposed to be a real fight for something they believed in, or just a "Joke-Off" to determine who could deliver the best jokes?
4th, MCU fans had been saying for months that Captain America was justified in opposing government oversight of the heroes because he didn't want the Avengers to be controlled by HYDRA. But it wasn't HYDRA who requested the Sokovia accords. It was the United Nations.
The Avengers had caused massive deaths and destruction so the United Nations wanted oversight of the Avengers. But Captain America didn't want the Avengers to be held responsible and have to answer to the people for the massive deaths and destruction that they caused.
Captain America wanted the Avengers to be the supreme authority (exactly like Hitler, Stalin, and Saddam Hussein made themselves the supreme authority) to make decisions on what's best for the people instead of letting the elected representatives of the people make decisions on what's best for the people (like the way a Democracy works). So basically, Captain America opposes Democracy and favors Tyranny.
5th, plenty of plot holes and lazy, contrived writing. Tony Stark had called Secretary of State Ross to evacuate the airport prior to the big fight. So Ross knew before the big fight that the Captain America and the Bucky were planning to hijack a plane at that airport.
So why didn't Ross just have military fighter jets hovering in the sky nearby in case they succeed in hijacking a plane? There's already a "shoot on sight" order for Bucky so if they succeed in hijacking a plane, then the military fighter jets can just fly in and either shoot at their plane to force them to land or shoot down their plane.
Since Captain America and Bucky can't fly on their own, their powers are useless when they're inside a plane being fired upon by military fighter jets. And their plane wouldn't be able to evade military fighter jets. But the script needed Captain America and Bucky to escape so that it could set up the final fight between Iron Man and Captain America.
Also, the 1st half of the movie is all about Tony Stark trying to get all the Avengers to sign the Sokovia Accords, which state that the Avengers would operate only when approved by a UN panel. Then in the 2nd half of the movie, Tony recruits Peter Parker to join his team even though Peter is a minor and wouldn't be able to sign a legal document and thus wouldn't be approved by the UN panel to operate under the Sokovia Accords.
Another egregious error is that the whole movie set up Bucky as the killer of Iron Man's parents, thus setting up the main conflict in the movie, but why would there be video footage of their accident on some random back road in 1991? And how did whomever filmed the video footage know to place the camera at that EXACT spot where their car crashed, and not a mile ahead or a mile behind where the car crashed?
If there was video footage, then wouldn't Iron Man or Jarvis or even Ultron have stumbled across it by now? Tony hacked classified government networks in seconds in Iron Man 2, hacked Shield in The Avengers and has apparently been watching Peter Parker on a regular basis. Seems like he would have found video footage of his parents' deaths a long time ago.
And better yet, how could the coroner rule their deaths an accident when the ligature marks around Maria Stark's neck and the fist imprints in Howard Stark's face would have been immediately evident in the autopsy? Was the coroner just incompetent?
Also, Tony Stark believed his parents died in an accident and never suspected foul play at all. So how did Zemo know that their "accident" from 25 years ago was actually foul play? How did Zemo know there was video footage from 25 years ago of Tony's parents being murdered and how did Zemo find that footage when Tony never knew about or found that same footage?
Tony Stark was more angry at Steve Rogers because Steve knew but didn't tell him. So how did Zemo know that Steve knew the "accident" 25 years ago was actually foul play?
Those are massive pills we're asked to swallow that exist only because they conveniently set up the final conflict between Iron Man and Captain America. Now that's some mighty contrived writing.
6th, another forgettable MCU villain. Zemo was about as invisible in Civil War as Luke Skywalker was in The Force Awakens.
7th, critics and haters of BvS complained about how Lex knew Superman is Clark Kent and how Superman knew Batman is Bruce Wayne, but there was no explanation at all for how Tony Stark knew Spider-Man is a high school kid in Queens.
Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice (2016)
Best Comic-Book Movie Ever!
First, the negatives:
1. Jesse Eisenberg / Lex Luthor. This was the one casting decision that I didn't like. And after seeing the movie, I still don't like it. This version of Lex Luthor just didn't work for me.
2. The Knightmare sequence. The Knightmare just suddenly came out of nowhere; it wasn't clear what triggered the Knightmare; and it didn't seem to be explained or referenced afterward.
Now the positives:
1. Gal Gadot / Wonder Woman. Many people didn't like the casting of Gal Gadot as Wonder Woman when it was announced, but I liked it. I thought Henry Cavill and Ben Affleck had good performances, but Gal Gadot was definitely one of the best things about the movie. Avengers director Joss Whedon was hired to make a Wonder Woman movie in 2007, but failed to do so. BvS director Zack Snyder not only brought Wonder Woman to the big screen for the 1st time ever, but also made Wonder Woman a real bad-ass warrior. We see Wonder Woman use her bracelets, her shield, her sword, and her magic lasso. I can't wait to see the Wonder Woman movie in 2017.
2. The Batman vs Superman fight. Not just the fight, but seeing Batman's meticulous and brilliant planning prior to the fight. And then the fight itself was one of the best mano a mano fights in comic-book movie (CBM) history. Batman's brilliant strategic moves during the fight demonstrate why Batman is the best strategist among superheroes and is always prepared (unlike dumb-ass Tony Stark who was so dumb in Iron Man 3 that he not only went on TV and announced his home address to the whole world so that the bad guys could attack his home, but also wasn't prepared for the attack from the bad guys and also didn't warn his girlfriend to stay away from the house so that she wouldn't get in danger when the bad guys fire a missile at his house).
3. Doomsday. A hero isn't much of a hero unless there's a formidable villain to challenge the hero and push the hero to the limit. Without Darth Vader, Luke Skywalker is just a farmer and not a Jedi Knight who helped defeat the Galactic Empire. Without Medusa and the Kraken, Perseus doesn't get a constellation named after him. A good hero needs a formidable villain to challenge him/her and push him/her to the limit.
As I mentioned in the negatives above, this version of Lex Luthor just didn't work for me. But Doomsday was a great villain because he's one of the most formidable villains in CBM history. That's what makes DC/WB movies in general far superior to Marvel Studios movies. Marvel Studios movies don't have any formidable villains. When watching The Avengers and Avengers: Age of Ultron, I never felt that the weak Chitauri (who had no superpowers at all) or even Ultron and his army of robots were ever any danger to the Avengers. But when watching BvS, Doomsday was clearly a danger to the Trinity. In The Avengers, all it took was 1 nuclear missile fired by a U.S. military jet to defeat 100s of Chitauri. Doomsday was hit with a nuclear missile and still couldn't be stopped!
4. The Trinity. The scene of the Trinity, 3 of the 4 most popular and most iconic superheroes in American comics history, standing together side-by-side ready for battle is the most iconic shot ever in a CBM. Even though I've seen that scene many times in the trailers, it was still awesome to see it happening for the 1st time in the movie. And that scene got 1 of the loudest applause in the theater.
5. The Flash, Aquaman, and Cyborg cameos. Unlike the stupid and useless Stan Lee cameos or the lame post-credit scenes that have no purpose other than to tease the next movie in Marvel Studios movies, Zack Snyder cleverly integrated the Flash, Aquaman, and Cyborg cameos into BvS in a way that not only made sense but also didn't clutter up the movie (like many detractors had claimed it would). It was a brilliant way by Snyder to set up the Justice League without resorting to a lame post-credit scene.
6. When Superman was asked by Senator Finch to appear at the hearing, he does so voluntarily even though they had no power to force him to do so (just like he had voluntarily surrendered himself to the U.S. military in Man of Steel even though they had no power to force him to). That demonstrates once again that Superman respects the authority of the people and is willing to answer to the people.
Overall:
The critics who gave BvS a low rating definitely got it wrong. Despite its flaws, BvS is still definitely better than any of the Marvel Studios movies that most critics always get an orgasm over. BvS presents a thought-provoking analysis of justice, absolute power, accountability, and the actions of and reaction to superheroes in a real-world environment. The 1st CBM I ever saw was Superman: The Movie in 1978. Since then, I've seen over 50 CBMs and I have to say that BvS is 1 of the best CBMs ever made.
After seeing BvS, I can understand why many critics gave the movie a low rating. Those critics are used to seeing the light-hearted, kiddie movies that Marvel Studios makes and aren't used to seeing CBMs that are mature and thought-provoking. Basically, Marvel Studios movies are like live-action cartoons (similar to The Flintstones or Scooby-Doo movies) while BvS is like a live-action graphic novel. Zack Snyder effectively took parts of The Dark Knight Returns and The Death of Superman stories from the comics and brought them to life on the big screen.