"Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D." Season 3

When last left our heroes, Simmons wass gone. Again. This time, Fitz is bending over backwards to bring her back from the distant planet Simmons was sent to. The magical monolith is a portal. And it was billions of years old. It was meant to bring back an ancient being that transcends itself into another human being. Sounds familiar. More on that WAY later.
Let's the Inhuman/X-Men nail on the head even harder. A third party is creating a cure for the Inhumans. That is until the head of the group, who is also Coulson's new flame, gets cut down. Coulson gets revenge on Ward, but it literally comes back to haunt him. The ancient being took possession of Ward's body and follows them back to the portal. He amasses what's left of Hydra, kills Gideon Malick, that you completely forgot about (psst, he's from The Avengers), and creates an army of discount Dark Elves using Daisy's blood. Everything comes to a head once again with someone wanting to destroy S.H.I.E.L.D. and someone having to sacrifice themselves because they were destined to. But hey, at least Fitz and Simmons are still together.
This season had some promising adventures. Simmons manages to get back from the distant planet by measuring the stars. May's ex turned into the love child of Alice Cooper and the demon from Legend. Daisy gets visions from a homeless man that involves her boyfriend. That last one, this show managed to make you feel for a secondary character nobody loves, and DAMN IT! It worked! That's more than what Agent Tripplett got. That's more than what Alash Cooper got. That's more than what Bobbi and Hunter got, and they didn't even die. They were forced to retire because they claimed they no affiliation with any agency when they were caught, and S.H.I.E.L.D. had to allow it so they don't get killed. but the fact that they don't get killed let's you know that they'll be back. They didn't show up again this season, but maybe next season, when we've forgotten about them.
The show felt a little bad last season for being too loud about its tie-in to the movies. So, this season it was subtle again. There was a mention of Ant-Man and one episode opened up after Captain America: Civil War.
This season was a little more focused rather than all over the place, like last season, which is a good thing. Coulson and Company seem to be pulling it together, even if it got off on a rough start.
Towards the end, it did start trailing off a bit. Possessed Ward there sways the Inhumans to do his bidding, including Daisy. Ward also buys an abandoned town in Wyoming where Discount James Cameron, trying to be an Englishman who speaks with a Scottish accent, recreates the experiment that was worked on him. Time out. He's not a god? What a big letdown. Then when Lincoln sacrifices himself and traps Ward on the Quinjet in space, Ward kind of accepts it. <sighs> Whatever.
Then Daisy freaks out about the death of Lincoln and goes on a Quaking spree destroying infrastructure. But then Coulson and Company were tailing her until they lose her in an alley, and Coulson says "call the Director." Wait, what? Coulson's not the director anymore? Who is? Initially, I thought of May. May would be a good director. Then after hours of thought, what if Daisy leads a double life? She's Director Daisy Johnson by day, and Quake by night. Then I thought, Oh God, it's General Talbot, the most patriotic man since General Kimsey in Armageddon. I'm still waiting for Talbot to be Hydra.

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Aired: September 29, 2015 – May 17, 2016
Rating: TV-14
Stars: Clark Gregg, Ming-Na Wen, Brett Dalton, Chloe Bennet, Iain De Caestecker, Elizabeth Henstridge, Nick Blood, Adrianne Palicki, Luke Mitchell, Henry Simmons
Directors: Vincent Misiano, Kevin Tancharoen, Garry A. Brown, Ron Underwood, Jesse Bochco, Dwight Little, David Solomon, Kate Woods, John Terlesky, Michael Zinberg, Wendey Stanzler, Elodie Keene, Billy Gierhart
Rotten Tomatoes Score: 100% Certified Fresh
IMDb Score: 8.6/10 (Average)

Awards
Saturn Awards

• Best Superhero Adaptation Series - Nominated

(Click here to view more awards for "Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D." Season 3.)

"The Umbrella Academy" Season 1

Umm, is this the reason why I can't find the X-Men franchise on Netflix and I had to raid my local library for them? I know it's a completely different franchise, but underneath the...well...umbrella, they are the same franchise. An aging man runs a school for gifted youngsters, one of which her powers were far greater than he anticipated so he shut her away to "protect her." The only thing this franchise did differently was saving the powered individual rather than killing her.
With that aside, WHAT A SHOW! I mean HOLY SH*T! In just ten episodes, you learn to feel for seven very different people who were forced to be a family because some white-haired weirdo said so. Luther is a big burly man who wants to feel important. Diego is a vigilante who wants to fight for truth, justice, and the American way. Allison is a controlling whisperer who wants to have her own voice rather than be used. Klaus is a Sixth Senser just wants the pain to go away. Number Five is a teleporter who wants to feel trusted that he would do the right thing. Ben is dead, but I'm sure wanted to be heard. And Vanya is a shut-in violinist who wants to be equal to her siblings.
But let's take it from the top. All 7, out of 43, children were all born simultaneously on October 1, 1989, despite none of the mothers ever being pregnant with them. Then some crazy recluse scours the globe to adopt as many as he can to form the Professor Hargreeves School of Gifted Young...er, I mean...the Umbrella Academy, and he got the seven. Over the years, he trained them to hone their powers except for Vanya, who was told that she was ordinary. Never in their thirty years of living did it occur to them that she was born the same day as the rest of the Umbrella Academy and possess no powers. Well, to be fair, their enemy was born the same day as them, and the only power he has was festering hate inside him.
On February 15, 2019, the reclusive professor died, bringing all the children, now adults who've gone their separate ways, home for the funeral. The funeral starts a chain reaction of events. Number Five, who went missing at thirteen, returns home from a time jump. However, Five is not thirteen anymore, even though his body says so. He has been stuck in the future for 45 years; he's now 58, he has a drinking problem and he's in love with a department store mannequin. And he's not the only one. Mary J. Blige and the guy from Mindhunter are after him. Five (will someone give him a name?) is trying to stop an impending apocalypse that is caused by, you guessed it, Vanya.
Ellen Page jumps from Kitty Pryde to Jean Grey in this series as she struggles to come to her own without her family. Before the series started, Vanya wrote her autobiography spilling secrets about the academy. The rest of the family hate her for that, so she tends to stay away. Nearly every conversation she has with them winds up with her leaving or offending the others because she was never part of the family. But when a shy aspiring violinist shows up at her door for lessons, she begins to take an interest. Together, they bond over their own reclusiveness and how they aren't lonely with each other. However, he has other plans. Harold Jenkins, or in this show Leonard Peabody, was the other kid born on the same day as the Umbrella Academy. He idolized them and wished to be a part of them. He almost got the chance when the reclusive billionaire humiliated him in public. So he goes home and destroys all his comic books and toys, and he kills his abusive drunk father and serves twelve years in jail. Now that he's out he plans to undo the Umbrella Academy once and for all with the help of Vanya, who would use her newfound powers of resonating sounds and make shockwaves to cause the apocalypse.
The rest of the Academy band together to stop Vanya from causing the apocalypse, and they sort of do it. They stop Vanya, but the apocalypse happens anyway. Thinking quick, Five decides to time jump with the Academy to the past to prevent the apocalypse from ever happening.
That sounds like it should be a stand-alone movie or at least a start to a film franchise, but the show went the extra mile to connect with all the characters. Klaus is the comic relief, obviously, with his constant drug abuse and standing on the sidelines while the others fight. But when he transports to the A Shau Valley, in Vietnam 1968, he changes dramatically from a happy, cynical junkie to a dark, broken soldier. He also experiences love and loss during his time with fellow soldier Dave. They met in a night club near their base, and it nearly kills Klaus when Dave gets shot on the front lines and dies in his arms. Luther and Allison struggle with their relationship, which I haven't felt this weird since Clueless. In Clueless, they were stepsiblings but they were related through their mother. Ew. Here, it's sort of more okay since they aren't related at all. Allison has just out of a divorce and losing custody of her child because she used her power to control her. Luther was sent to the moon after a botched job caused him to have monkey blood coursing in his veins to save him, resulting in being a 'roided out ape with a tiny Luther head. Together, they struggle to rekindle the puppy love they once had as children, and I'm somehow okay with that. Diego's vigilante style brings a complicated relationship with a cop who wants to do everything by the books. Their relationship never got to blossom from what we see because she gets gunned down by Mindhunter and MJB, but we see that they sort of care for each other because she decided to trust his off-the-books instinct and he decided to trust her by-the-books approach towards the endgame.
Mindhunter and MJB are two time-jumping, um, government officials? They and Five are part of a secret agency that controls all events that happened or will happen. This is where the show takes a hard left turn into What the F*ck as we dive down the rabbit hole about the government controlling time and space and history and events. Five is now allegedly responsible for the assassination of President Kennedy because he fired the mysterious fatal shot. However, this sort of makes more sense than anything I've ever seen involving time travel. I guess the writers really had to think about how to make it simple for us to understand, especially since it's the key to the Academy's survival. Some parts don't make any sense, however, like when do they really age? Five is a 58-year-old man that is trapped in his 13-year-old body. Does that mean, unless something changes, he'd die at 35 because when he's an 80-year-old man? And how do they age? Five is going through puberty again. This is more of a season 2 question but when they fix everything and all is right with the world, will they go back to aging normally or will they all perish at a young age?
I lost track, the two people I mentioned above have an existential crisis, especially when Mindhunter develops a relationship with the local doughnut lady. They struggle with the fact that they live meaningless lives killing people in history, never settling in one place, never having a life of their own. They even struggle with a task sent by Five to kill one another, but they decide not to instead.
The show plays with our emotions a lot from comedy to tragedy to confusion to dislike to like again. One minute, you're like, "What the hell? This show sucks," and the next you're laughing your ass off and not wanting them to stop. What helps is it's got a killer soundtrack, no pun intended, where they're playing Queen's "Don't Stop Me Now" while Mindhunter and MJB shoot up a department store, and have Klaus' ice cream truck tinkle "Ride of the Valkyrie" while he and Diego race to rescue Five and Luther. Speaking of that last part, I never liked "Happy Together". Ever. (dodging a lamp) But I approve of its use in the fight against Mindhunter and MJB while the Academy gets away. By the way, the soundtrack is available on Spotify.
There are two things that were exceptionally weird, one of which I hope they explain in season 2. Pogo is their monkey butler. I want to know who is Pogo really and how come he could speak. Did Professor Hargreeves create a serum that allows him to speak? The other thing is the environment around them. It's 2019, but as you look around where they live, no one owns a cell phone. Payphones litter the streets. TVs are bulky wooden boxes rather than giant plasma screens. There are no computers, not even in corporate offices. Everything is in hard files. No one is tweeting or Instagramming. The cars look as if they haven't left the eighties. Did all time stop from moving forward when the Academy was born? The date kept going but pop culture didn't appear to evolve. Is George Bush still president? Perhaps not; he died just recently, but what if he stopped aging?
Every member of the Academy agreed at one point or another that Hargreeves was the worst father ever. This season didn't really give us a chance as to why he did things he did like locking Vanya away or sending Luther to the Moon. That is something they will have to explore in Season 2.
Things to consider for season 2, are you listening? Give Five a name, work out how this time and aging thing works, give Pogo an origin story, and make Hargreeves somehow justifiable in his actions.

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Released On: February 15, 2019
Rating: TV-14
Stars: Ellen Page, Tom Hopper, David Castañeda, Emmy Raver-Lampman, Robert Sheehan, Aidan Gallagher
Directors: Andrew Bernstein, Peter Hoar, Ellen Kuras, Stephen Surjik, Jeremy Webb
Rotten Tomatoes Score: 71%
IMDb Score: 8.9/10 (Average)

"Black Panther" Preview

This is a special preview for the Oscars, which I want to say congratulations for all its award nominations.


I don’t know how to put this. I did not like it. I think it was over exemplified because a black superhero has its own movie. I’m all for diversity, I truly am. I am very glad that there were a number of strong characters in this movie, characters that children can look up to.

Hold up, let’s talk about that. I remember when this movie was playing in theaters, a lot of people were petitioning to screen it for free to young black children. A lot of people were killed in this movie. Okoye had her throat slit open. Zuri was stabbed in the gut. T'Challa kills Killmonger. Sterling K. Brown was speared in the chest by his brother. Gollum shot a man in the back while he was running away. And you thought it was okay to let hundreds of kids watch this?

For the full review, tune in on March 29, 2019.

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Academy Awards

• Best Picture - Nominated
• Best Original Score Ludwig Göransson - Nominated
• Best Original Song "All the Stars" - Nominated
• Best Costume Design Ruth E. Carter - Nominated
• Best Production Design - Hannah Beachler & Jay Hart - Nominated
• Best Sound Editing - Benjamin A. Burt & Steve Boeddeker - Nominated
• Best Sound Mixing - Peter Devlin, Steve Boeddeker & Brandon Proctor - Nominated

"Roma"

It was okay, I guess. I wouldn't go far as to call it the film of the year. It was like a lot of foreign films I've seen.
Cleo is a servant to an upstanding Mexican family in 1970. One day she discovers she is pregnant from when she was with her fellow servant's cousin. When she tells him, he bolts, leaving her all alone with the fear of being fired from her job.
Mrs. Sofi promises that she won't fire her. In fact, she has problems of her own. Her husband went to Quebec to conduct research, and he hasn't been back since. It turns out he had a mistress in town and never left.
Much of the movie is just what Cleo sees throughout a year in her life. She helps the children get ready for school. She constantly sweeps up dog poop. She gets to go with the family she works for to their New Years celebration.
Cleo tries to reconnect with Ferim, the father of her child, and she finds him at his martial arts session where they're being trained by a famous daredevil. The daredevil started with putting his leg on his calf, his arms together over his head, and he was blindfolded the whole time. He says it's rarely feated by athletes. While the students and spectators were trying to do the same, we see that Cleo could easily do that. She finally meets with Fermin, but he threatens to beat the child out of her if she ever came around again.
Later, when Cleo is close to giving birth, she and the Abuela of the family go to look at cribs for the baby when the student protest gets violent outside and moves into the store. One of the protestors was Fermin. Right at that moment, as he runs away, Cleo's water breaks. She and Abuela get stuck in traffic while she suffers from her contractions. When she finally gets to the hospital, she gives birth to a stillborn baby.
Meanwhile, Mrs. Sofi sells the family Galaxy for a smaller car and plans a goodbye trip of the Galaxy. They invite Cleo along as well, and it's a good thing they did. While Mrs. Sofi was prepping the car at the beach, two of the four children were playing in the ocean and get sucked under a rip current. Cleo, who has no idea how to swim, jumps in and pulls them out. Cleo weeps that she wished her baby dead, but they family comforts her and tell her they love her.
They drive home to find all the bookcases gone because the father moved out. Before the whole ocean debacle, Mrs. Sofi tells the kids that she is divorcing the dad, and he's taking his clothes, books, bookcases, anything that was his. So they go home to find the house rearranged and Cleo goes to do laundry.
I have one question. I don't know why this movie is called Roma. There is no indication that connects to the title. According to Wikipedia, the movie is a semi-autobiography based on Alfonso Cuarón and his upbringing in the Colonia Roma district in Mexico City. That makes sense except not many of us understand the geography of Mexico City let alone never been to Mexico City. The people of Mexico City, at least 8 million people, would probably catch that. Maybe the majority of Mexico, maybe a few people scattered across the globe.
I will give it a mention for good cinematography. Director Cuarón really seemed to like the long panning/tracking shots.
The black and white filter was a good choice. To me, it allows us to not be distracted and really see the world around Cleo. It wasn't a bright cheerful world she was living in. Even the marriage that was going on nearby, when the family is sadly eating their ice cream, is a little ironic. They are sad, and boisterous mariachi music is playing in the background with a large group of people dancing.
Fermin not going back to Cleo when she was dangerously pregnant made sense. The father will not always go back to be with the mother. He was especially crazy in this movie with his obsession for martial arts. He is the type of guy who wouldn't ever go to be with the mother of his child; he wants nothing to do with the child. And it doesn't matter because the baby was born dead. He doesn't go see how she is doing after giving birth because he doesn't care. That isn't something we see in American films a lot. If we did, it gets trashed on the Internet, becomes Rotten and forgotten.
So, I guess this movie is better than I thought. It deserves to win Best Picture. Look at the other nominees. We got a biopic that took for-f*cking-ever to make, a film about a friendship that's apparently full of sh*t, a period drama starring Academy Award winner Emma Stone, a Spike Lee joint where Eric Forman is the bad guy, an Adam McKay movie that should win but won't, the Godfather of superhero movies, and Lady Gaga in the worst love story in the history of cinema (If it were any good, it wouldn't have been remade four times). Roma didn't try very hard to get you to like it. It's a Netflix film that's GOOD! After a string of commercial and critical failures (True Confessions of an International Assassin, any movie starring Adam Sandler, Bird Box), suddenly there's a hit that's not a TV show. It's time. They did it. Just give it to 'em.

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Released On: November 21, 2018
Rating: R
Stars: Yalitza Aparicio, Marin de Tavira
Director: Alfonso Cuarón
Rotten Tomatoes Score: 96% Certified Fresh
IMDb Score: 7.9/10

Awards
Academy Awards

• Best Picture - Nominated
• Best Director Alfonso Cuarón - Winner
• Best Actress Yalitza Aparicio - Nominated
• Best Supporting Actress Marin de Tavira - Nominated
• Best Original Screenplay Alfonso Cuarón - Nominated
• Best Foreign Language Film - Winner
• Best Cinematography Alfonso Cuarón - Winner
• Best Production Design Eugenio Cabellero & Bárbara Enríquez - Nominated
• Best Sound Editing Sergio Díaz & Skip Lievsay - Nominated
• Best Sound Mixing Skip Lievsay, Craig Henighan & José Antonio García - Nominated

Golden Globe Awards

• Best Foreign Language Film - Winner
• Best Director Alfonso Cuarón -Winner
• Best Screenplay Alfonso Cuarón - Nominated

(Click here to view more awards for "Roma".)

"Captain America: Civil War"

Okay, let me do a roll call first; there are too many names and supers now. Iron Man, The Incredible Hulk (still missing), Black Widow, Hawkeye (retired), Thor (gone home), Captain America, Falcon, Scarlet Witch, Ant-Man, Spider-Man, the War Machine, Vision, and Black Panther. Did I miss anybody? Oh, right, the Winter Soldier, who is apparently good now when he is not hearing the ten magic words: Longing, Rusted, Daybreak, Furnace, Nine, Benign, Homecoming, One, Freight C—Winter Soldier Smash! Oops! Mission Report: December 16, 1991.

But okay, whose movie is it? Captain America’s name is in the title, but nearly everyone is in this movie. I think we’re in the tradition of the superhero solo movies having three installments. In that case, you owe the Hulk two movies, still no sign of Hawkeye getting his own movie, but there are talks of Black Widow getting one though.

One job going wrong involves 117 nations to form a restriction, named after the disaster at Sokovia, on the Avengers. This brings Steve Rogers and Tony Stark on opposite ends and forces the rest to pick a side. And that’s the rest of the movie for ya. Seriously.

Oh, yeah, and there’s some unimportant backstory and a recycled plot from Iron Man 2. A survivor from Sokovia avenges the murder of his family by planting seeds into the Avengers family to murder each other. But in case Daniel Brühl has forgotten, many of these heroes can’t die. So this cash grab of a movie is completely useless, and it got us nowhere. All it did was introduce us to Black Panther and a new Spider-Man, and bring Ant-Man into the MCU.

I find it hard to believe that Ant-Man's never made himself a giant before. We didn’t see him do that in his own movie. The closest thing we got was him growing back from subatomic level.

Remember when I said that Iron Man 2 held the biggest secret we have yet to know? The little boy Iron Man saves in the ultimate battle is none other than, ta-da, little Peter Parker, played by Tom Holland no less. While you guys, and Peter himself, are wondering how Tony knew about Peter’s abilities, I have a theory. Since Tony rescued him, he probably kept an eye on him through the years, thus knowing how he got his powers. We have yet to know how Marvel is going to explain that to us. Yeah, yeah, I know that the other Spider-Man franchises are available at my disposal, but I’m focused on the here and now, darn it.

Hawkeye does return for two seconds because the world fell apart. The movie still leaves Tony and Steve divided, which is probably the only redeemable trait this movie has.

I mentioned this in Age of Ultron, and I’ll say it again: where are Jane and Pepper? Despite the line “too expensive” to come to the party, couldn’t they just hire new actors to play them? They did it with Hulk. But, yeah, look where that got us. Another Hulk has exited the franchise.

Scarlet Witch and Vision create this movie’s weird couple, though it’s not official yet. Vision sounds just creepy and charming at the same time while trying to make Scarlet (I’m just gonna call her that. I don’t remember her real name, and it’s stressing me out to type Scarlet Witch every time.) comfortable in her surroundings, even though it’s one step away from being The Silence of the Lambs. Speaking of movie references, T’Chaka’s death seems to be borrowed from The Lion King, but it decided not to own up to it, by not have Daniel Brühl admit to his death.

Technically, it started with the death of Frigga in Thor: The Dark World, but Disney has really taken over and implanting its own tropes into the franchise. I mean the killing of the moms, Frigga, Meredith Quill, and Mary Stark.

Oh, and I forgot. Peggy Carter has been alive since The Winter Soldier, but now she’s dead for real. And do you remember the nurse turned S.H.I.E.L.D. agent? She’s Peggy’s niece! But to make this reveal feel really weird, she and Steve exchange a kiss after she hands him his suit. Does she know that he made out with her aunt? Speaking of making out with aunts, is Tony seriously going to date Aunt May? Where’s the famous Uncle Ben we hear so much about? Is he alive or is he dead? And I kind of sympathize with Peter. I wouldn’t want this billionaire genius playboy philanthropist as my uncle either. (see the Civil War HISHE for that last part.)
I forgot to talk about this in Ant-Man. Well, there's not much to talk about for Ant-Man. It served no purpose but to introduce us to Scott Lang. And he exists in this movie just because. I believe Civil War exists to give our heroes something stupid to fight about so that they would rally together when a bigger threat comes along. And it's close, too. Thanos and the Infinity Stones are getting closer. Hopefully, by the time Thanos does show up, they will work out their differences. Ant-Man may be a bust, but Civil War isn't as bad as we give it credit for. It isn't the greatest movie at this point, but it may have lit the fuse to something bigger. So, I guess this brings the total to 6 wins, 5 losses, and 2 draws.

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Released On: May 6, 2016
Rating: PG-13
Stars: Robert Downey, Jr., Chris Evans, Scarlett Johansson, Sebastian Stan, Anthony Mackie, Elizabeth Olsen, Paul Bettany, Chadwick Boseman, Daniel Brühl, Tom Holland, Jeremy Renner, Paul Rudd 
Director: Anthony Russo, Joe Russo Rotten Tomatoes Score: 91% Certified Fresh
IMDb Score: 7.8/10

Awards
Saturn Awards

• Best Comic-to-Film Motion Picture - Nominated
• Best Director Anthony and Joe Russo - Nominated
• Best Actor Chris Evans - Nominated
• Best Supporting Actor Chadwick Boseman - Nominated
• Best Supporting Actress Scarlett Johansson - Nominated
• Best Performance by a Younger Actor Tom Holland - Winner
• Best Editing Jeffrey Ford & Matthew Schmidt - Nominated
• Best Production Design - Owen Paterson - Nominated

(Click here to view more awards for "Captain America: Civil War")

Videos
Screen Junkies - Honest Trailers - Captain America: The Winter Soldier
How It Should Have Ended - How Captain America: Civil War Should Have Ended
How It Should Have Ended - Captain America: Civil War Alternate HISHE
How It Should Have Ended - Civil War - HISHE Review (SPOILERS)
CinemaSins - Everything Wrong With Captain America: Civil War

"The Crown" Seasons 1 & 2

Watching this show, I was sensing similarities with the PBS show, Victoria. A young princess gets thrust into queendom, everyone tries to take advantage of her, the Queen marries a foreigner nobody loves, an aging Prime Minister the Queen has to let go, the foreigner wants the best for the Crown, and Alex Jennings plays the weird uncle (Victoria: King Leopold I, The Crown: Prince Edward).
The series opens up with the marriage of Princess Elizabeth and Philip, the Duke of Edinburgh. Time speeds up a few years over the next few episodes, showing the births of Prince Charles and Princess Anne, showing their trips to Malta, the Royal Tours, to the death of King George VI, prompting that Princess Elizabeth is now Queen of the Commonwealth.
This opens a new can of worms for everything. Philip wants to treated more fairly. Princess Margaret wants to marry a divorcee. A desperate journalist criticizes the Queen. Margaret marries a rebellious photographer. But none of this is without the Queen knowing.
But being a leader of one of the most powerful nations in the world, it comes with its consequences. To help Philip feel better, the Queen appoints him to Prince. The charter forced Peter Townsend out of the country for two years until Margaret is of the proper age to marry a divorced person without the Crown's permission. But then, Peter marries someone else. The Queen had a sit down with the critic and discussed how to look better for the people, and, in fact, stayed in touch until he died. Margaret turns rebellious with her partying, drinking, and marrying society photographer Antony Armstrong-Jones.
Towards the end of Season 2, Prince Philip sends young Prince Charles to Gordonstoun, the same boarding school he attended. Philip was just as wimpy as Charles, in Philip's mind, when he was young, and the school taught him to be strong, especially after much of his family died in a tragic accident. The same couldn't be said for Charles, though. Doing the Gordonstoun Challenge, Charles was stuck in the river where his security detail found him.
And that's as far as we got.
It's rather helpful that the writer of The Queen is involved in the project. All I know about the Crown, especially with Elizabeth as Queen, is from PBS documentaries and ABC specials, which isn't a lot. This gives us a new insight into how the Crown functions, something not very many people this side of the pond have the luxury to know, my generation especially. I was born three months before Diana was killed. You can only watch some much television about the life and times of the Princess of Wales. The next thing I know is Prince William is married, now Prince Harry. George, Charlotte, and Louis are born. Meghan Markle is pregnant. Watching The Crown allows people like me to see how we got here.
There are some things I have questions about. How much of this show is made up for entertainment? The Crown can't be this exciting. Did Prince Edward really have a viewing party of the Queen's coronation, explaining everything? Was Winston Churchill really standing outside the Queen's drawing room awaiting being fired when the killing smog lifted? Not everything we see on the screen is chronicled from the history of the Crown. Some of it would have to been fabricated to make it interesting. But they have to be careful when they stretch the truth in some cases. We don't want to offend anybody. Especially since this is telling the story of people who are actually still living.
I have one other thing. The fact that Netflix has a net worth of $3.7 billion, and Netflix received $15.79 billion in 2018, why couldn't they use real film and TV footage whenever they are watching the Crown on the news? They had to recreate it themselves. Thinking about it, maybe it would look weird watching Claire Foy watching the Queen on TV. Or Vanessa Kirby watching Princess Margaret. Instead, we have Claire Foy watching Claire Foy and Vanessa Kirby watching Vanessa Kirby.
Overall, I'm very excited for Season 3, especially since we'll see a lot of new faces. I can't wait for November.

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Released On: November 4, 2016 (Season 1), December 8, 2017 (Season 2)

Rating: TV-MA

Stars: Claire Foy, Matt Smith, Vanessa Kirby, Eileen Atkins, Jared Harris, John Lithgow, Jeremy Northam, Victoria Hamilton, Ben Miles, Greg Wise, Alex Jennings, Lia Williams, Anton Lesser, Matthew Goode

Directors: Stephen Daldry, Philip Martin, Julian Jarrold, Benjamin Caron, Philippa Lowthorpe

Rotten Tomatoes Score: 90% Certified Fresh (Season 1), 91% Certified Fresh (Season 2)

IMDb Score: 8.7/10 (Season 1 Average), 8.7/10 (Season 2 Average)

Awards

Season 1

• Golden Globe Awards
• Best Television Series Drama - Winner
• Best Actress Television Series Drama Claire Foy - Winner
• Best Supporting Actor Series, Miniseries or Television Film John Lithgow - Nominated
• Primetime Emmy Awards
• Outstanding Drama Series - Nominated
• Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series Claire Foy - Nominated
• Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Drama Series John Lithgow - Winner
• Outstanding Directing for a Drama Series Stephen Daldry - Nominated
• Outstanding Writing for a Drama Series Peter Morgan - Nominated

Season 2

• Golden Globe Awards
• Best Television Series Drama - Nominated
• Best Actress Television Series Drama Claire Foy - Nominated
• Primetime Emmy Awards
• Outstanding Drama Series - Nominated
• Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series Claire Foy - Winner
• Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series Matt Smith - Nominated
• Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Drama Series Vanessa Kirby - Nominated
• Outstanding Directing for a Drama Series Stephen Daldry - Winner
• Outstanding Writing for a Drama Series Peter Morgan - Nominated

(Click here to view more awards for "The Crown".)

"X-Men: The Last Stand"

Let's just say that this franchise wrapped up a lot faster than Harry Potter did.
I mean let's think about this. Professor X's school is Hogwarts, Charles Xavier is death resembles a lot like Dumbledore's, and like Professor Snape who killed Dumbledore, Jean Grey had to be killed for the sake of humanity.
Lord Voldemort...err...I mean Magneto...has built himself an army of newborns...err...I mean mutants...as they come together to fight against a scientist who has developed a cure to suppress the so-called X gene that allows a person to mutate and develop powers. This especially starts when the scientist's son has been able to develop wings.
On top of all that this conclusion is a mess. An absolute mess. There were too many characters to keep track of, the plot had so many holes it looks as if Jean Grey may have dismantled it herself. Cyclops returned to the dam where Jean died, and discovered that she's alive. they embrace and kiss, but she consumes him and kills him. Professor X calls her a class 5 mutant, which is what exactly? Since when were there classes of mutations? In the first X-Men, Professor X did mention that some powers were so great and powerful that the person can be a danger to everyone and themselves. I guess this includes Jean. Eventually, Logan confronts Jean as she tries to destroy him the same way she killed Professor X, hold that thought for a minute, but he helps snap Jean back to reality, and he kills her.
At the same time, Hank McCoy, a. k. a. Beast, a mutant ambassador to the President's cabinet, stabs the cure he was against into Magneto, causing him to lose all his power. Then President is all fine and dandy, the world is saved, the world is happy, the mutants can go to Hogwarts...err I mean Professor X's school. Wolverine saves the world.
I know this is really short, but there is nothing else to talk about. This movie sucks. What happened to Bryan Singer? I would like to kick Brett Ratner in the nuts over this movie.
I forgot; Professor X died. In the post-credits scene, a doctor enters the room, where it turns out she is treating Charles Xavier! WHAT THE HELL? WE SAW HIM EXPLODE. It even sobered up Magneto. That's how bad it was. All this time he seemed okay with killing Professor X, but it came to actually kill him he's not okay with it. But back to Professor X's resurrection. HOW? HOW IS THAT POSSIBLE?

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Released On: May 26, 2006
Rating: PG-13
Stars: Hugh Jackman, Halle Berry, Patrick Stewart, Ian McKellen, Famke Janssen

Rotten Tomatoes Score: 58%

IMDb Score: 6.7/10

Awards

Saturn Awards

• Best Supporting Actress Famke Janssen - Winner
• Best Science Fiction Film - Nominated
• Best Supporting Actor Kelsey Grammer - Nominated
• Best Music John Powell - Nominated
• Best Costume Judianna Makovsky - Nominated
• Best Special Effects John Bruno, Eric Saindon, Craig Lyn - Nominated

(Click here to view more awards for "X-Men: The Last Stand.")

Videos

CinemaSins - Everything Wrong With X-Men: The Last Stand in 9 Minutes or Less

Screen Junkies - Honest Trailers - The X-Men Trilogy

"Ant-Man"

What if you take the origin story of Iron Man, mix in a dash of Captain America: The First Avenger, pepper in the guy from Wall Street, bake it at 350 for an hour and serve it with the brother from Clueless? You get Ant-Man.

Newly released convict Scott Lang would do anything to see his daughter, including steal to most advanced suit ever created. Then this already barely exciting heist becomes even less exciting when Hank Pym, creator of the Ant-Man suit, allowed Scott to steal it in the first place, completely riding on the chance that Scott would even steal it at all. Hank offers him a chance to become the Ant-Man and be the hero his daughter thinks he is. Having to deal with the cop boyfriend kicking him out of the birthday party, Scott accepts the chance.

Scott spends the movie learning how to shrink and grow, martial arts, and communicating to ants. The ants play a vital role throughout the film. They presented the suit to Scott while he was in jail, they helped him infiltrate the Avengers’ storage facility, and they helped deploy charges to take down Pym Tech. This is all important because back in 1989, when thoughts were short and hair was long, S.H.I.E.L.D. was attempting to recreate Pym’s technology, causing Pym to leave S.H.I.E.L.D. and set up shop in San Francisco. He picked Obadiah Stane, Jr. as his assistant, who decides to Steve Jobs his ass when Pym refused to spill the secrets of the Ant-Man tech.

When Obie Junior unveiled his own technology, dubbed the Yellowjacket, Scott is in the middle of the third most infuriating Ocean’s Eleven plan, taking down the Yellowjacket the same way Iron Man took out Obadiah, only Maggie didn’t fry him.

The special effects were good but the action was lackluster. The biggest action was blowing up a Thomas the tank engine toy and crushing a house with it. The rest was a just a slapping b*tch fest, and no one won.

I was a little disappointed that Michael Peña was in a role this silly. Makes you respect Ocean and his Eleven even more. And T.I. probably took his role because nobody said T.I. aloud in ten years. Bobby from Third Watch has been losing his charm the last few years as playing crappy bad guys in crappier movies. He wasn’t the bad guy in this movie, but I didn’t like him anyway, even when he helps Scott stay out of jail. The Russian guy was the only relatable character in this movie. Sam Wilson was also only in this movie to help you remember who he is. In fact, that reminds me of how they almost botched the plan not because of Scott introducing himself to Falcon, but because Hank Pym brooded so hard he didn’t keep tabs on a 25-year-old warehouse being upgraded.

Another thing that should be mentioned: Hank and the ants. How does Hank even know about Scott? Sure, he saw him in the paper and he did a background check, but what made him think he could take on a cat burglar to be his minion? Do the ants like having Gordon Gekko as their master? Do they like Josh Lucas? There’s got to be at least one or two ants that want to venture out on their own. Also, the last time we saw this many bugs crawling around Indiana Jones was involved and they tried to eat him.

Oh, let’s not forget about the love interest. A recycled plot borrowed from The Incredible Hulk, Hank’s daughter plays the bug, pun intended and keeping tabs on Obie’s rise to power. She and Scott have no chemistry that we know of and I got to side with Hank on this. Shoot me again. They talked once in the car and the rest is in the kickboxing montage.

The end credits scenes show a hint at potential sequel and Hank finally letting his daughter be a hero like her mother. The other looked like a deleted scene from the upcoming Civil War. It was incoherent.

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Released On: July 17, 2015
Rating: PG-13
Stars: Paul Rudd, Michael Douglas, Evangeline Lily, Corey Stoll
Director: Peyton Reed Rotten Tomatoes Score: 82% Certified Fresh
IMDb Score: 7.3/10

Awards
Saturn Awards

• Best Comic-to-Film Motion Picture - Winner
• Best Supporting Actor Michael Douglas - Nominated
• Best Supporting Actress Evangeline Lily - Nominated
• Best Actor Paul Rudd - Nominated
• Best Film Director Peyton Reed - Nominated
• Best Film Editing Dan Lebental & Colby Parker, Jr. - Nominated

(Click here to view more awards for "Ant-Man".)

Videos
How It Should Have Ended - How Ant-Man Should Have Ended
Screen Junkies - Honest Trailers - Ant-Man
CinemaSins - Everything Wrong With Ant-Man in 19 Minutes or Less

"Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D." Season 2

So, Raina was after the Obelisk because she sought answers to the power it possessed. Hydra wanted it for world domination. Coulson and Company want it to keep it from falling in the wrong hands. Couslon's obession with the alien writing that he keeps doing is linked to the Obelisk. Skye continues to search for her parents. Her dad had the Obelisk. The Obelisk enhanced powers in Skye and Raina. Their powers brought in the discount X-Men, which led Skye to her parents. A separate S.H.I.E.L.D. squad is in the shadows wanting Coulson to step aside. Simmons posed as a Hydra agent before getting saved by Bobbi, a higher ranking Hydra agent that is actually a member of the real S.H.I.E.L.D. Skye's mother wants to kill all humans for Mutant, err I mean, Inhuman injustice. Does any of this make sense?

Slowing rebuilding from the ashes, Coulson and the Gang continue to clean up Hydra while recruiting new agents. This season brings in Hunter, Hartley, and Reinhardt, three mercenaries for hire until the latter two get killed. Mack, a mechanic, makes his entrance by asking for a peek under the hood of Lola, Coulson's car. Simmons, however, makes her exit off camera by leaving for reasons unknown. Fitz, alone and broken from his trauma, continues to have conversations with her in his head.

Skye continues her search for her parents, and she makes headway this season because her thought-dead father resurfaces to rebuild his family. More details are unveiled from her mysterious past, but it's not enough to satisfy. The village allegedly destroyed was a Hydra base. Skye's mother was a special enhanced human being who didn't age. A Hydra scientist, Agent Carter put away, had cut her open and extracted everything he could out of her and dumped her body. He was able to de-age himself and continue the Red Skull's work. Skye's father found her, vowed revenge, and destroyed the base. But now he wants to reconnect. Especially after Skye went through the mysterious mist, emitted from the Obelisk, that allows her to tap into the vibrations of...everything. I guess? 

This calls the attention of the Inhumans. Nothing says company dispute like "I'm gonna make my own X-Men with blackjack and hookers." Let's see: a secret organization of gifted youngsters run by an aging individual with a tele-power and a crippling side effect that he overcame. Yep, that's X-Men alright. And guess what? Skye's mom is alive. And she wants to keep her baby safe. Aww, blech.

Meanwhile, S.H.I.E.L.D. has its own problems. Simmons left to pose has a Hydra agent to gather intel, which lasts a mere three episodes before she's been made. While running, she encounters the scary ass second-in-command leader with two guards, and the leader took out the guards. Turns out she's a S.H.I.E.L.D. agent too. But that's not the only thing she's hiding. On the day S.H.I.E.L.D. fell, Bobbi was among a group of individuals, alongside Mack, Hartley, and led by the origami dude from Blade Runner. They were trapped on a helicarrier awaiting death until they got the upper hand and swore to rebuild S.H.I.E.L.D. The problem is, though, Nick Fury appointed Coulson as the new director. They felt Fury was hiding secrets from S.H.I.E.L.D. and Coulson was doing the same. So they recreate the day they almost died to get Coulson to cooperate. Coulson did indeed hide secrets on Theta Protocol, which was to green light Avengers: Age of Ultron. Speaking of which, did you guys see We're Back! An Avengers Story? 'Cause the show certainly did, and it hates you if you didn't.
Grant Ward was locked in their basement until he was sent to be transferred when his brother requested him. Between the two, there was no knowing who was telling the truth. But it doesn't matter because the brother is dead. Grant meets up with Agent 33, a S.H.I.E.L.D. agent kidnapped by Hydra. She became cursed with a Nanomask burned into her face with the likeness of Agent May. Together they scour globe to find closure when all they needed was Bobbi. She was responsible, posing as a Hydra agent, for the torture inflicted on her.
Everything comes to head and an epic showdown across three fronts. Skye's mother is all about never forgive, never forget, and plans to destroy S.H.I.E.L.D. with the Kyber crystals that create the most of Terregenesis. While she's sucking the life out of Skye in a Rogue kind of way, and Skye trying to force her away, Dad comes in and crushes the mother. Coulson, Fitz, and Mack trap Discount Charles Xavier and clobber him until he teleports into Fitz's rod. He drops a Kyber crystal, and Coulson catches it, losing an arm in the process. May and Hunter go to rescue Bobbi. 33, now her face fixed, engages in May's face only to be plugged by Grant. Bobbi gets shot too, saving Hunter.
Everything is fine and dandy now. Coulson is recovering from losing his arm, Bobbi is recovering from being shot, Skye's dad's memory is wiped and now runs a vet clinic, and Skye is in charge of the Gifted Index with intentions on keeping it anonymous.
Fitz and Simmons struggled throughout the season with betrayal and lies, but they finally got together to discuss dinner. Simmons accepted before getting sucked in by the mysterious rock in the helicarrier's hold.
This season kind of fell short on villains like the second installments often do. It seemed at one time that the writers were just making sh*t up as they went along. But some of it still manage to create shock and awe. There were times when I thought Bobbi was really Hydra, and then Mack was in on it too. We almost got a surprise that General Talbot, in the U.S. Government, was Hydra. You know they say about yelling the loudest. But alas, he was not.
The Inhumans were a complete mess. There was no helping them. I can't believe Marvel even tried to give them their own movie. Or show. In IMAX. You wonder why they suck? Their narrow mindedness. Skye's mother did make a point, however, that Gonzalez would dare compare his scars to hers. She was dissected on. He just broke his leg. But her stupidity and uncaring ways is the downfall of the Inhumans.
Grant is still on the run, and now he's acquiring his own team to go after S.H.I.E.L.D. for the death of Agent 33, even though it really was his fault. Grant is a really complex man. One minute he could kill without batting an eye. The next his heart is out on his sleeve. There's no knowing what to expect to happen. That goes with everyone. With Simmons now gone, S.H.I.E.L.D.'s problems may be far from over.

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Aired: September 23, 2014 – May 12, 2015
Rating: TV-14
Stars: Clark Gregg, Ming-Na Wen, Brett Dalton, Chloe Bennet, Iain De Caestecker, Elizabeth Henstridge, Nick Blood, Adrianne Palicki, Henry Simmons
Directors: Vincent Misiano, Jesse Bochco, Bobby Roth, Kevin Tancharoen, Holly Dale, Ron Underwood, Milan Cheylov, Billy Gierhart, Michael Zinberg, Roxann Dawson, David Solomon, Kevin Hooks, Garry A. Brown, Karen Gaviola

Rotten Tomatoes Score: 91% Certified Fresh
IMDb Score: 8.6/10 (Average)

Awards

Primetime Creative Emmy Awards

• Outstanding Visual Effects "The Dirty Half Dozen" - Nominated

(Click here to view more awards for "Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D." Season 2.)