There has been a lot of movie stuff going on this past week but the one that topped it was the debut of the Avengers: Endgame trailer where it smashed the records by hitting 289 million views in 24 hours. There’s the usual round of squeaky wheel complaints about it from all quarters but the bulk of those viewing it are excited. And count me among them as there’s a lot of small and neat moments in it that sets the stage for what’s to come, reinforcing the advancement of time, a great Paul Rudd sequence, and my favorite meme about it so far with:
It’s a long wait until April but we have the Captain Marvel film coming up as well and there’s a whole lot to like with that as well. Marvel continues to roll out its standard trio of trailers in pattern with the first one being more for the hardcore fans and enticing with themes while the second is more story oriented material. The third one kind of wraps things up more and solidifies the villain because, as research has shown, the more clear the villain and their plan in these kinds of movies the more potential audiences connect with it through advertising and are interested in going.
This week was light in terms of new movie pickups as there were only a couple of things on iTunes that hit my price threshold with Juliet, Naked and Blackkklansman. The latter is on my to-watch list but I took in Juliet, Naked quickly because I’ve loved Ethan Hawke since the 90’s with Reality Bites and Before Sunrise among others. It’s a fun little movie based on the Nick Hornby novel that I imagine might touch well with some of the others like High Fidelity in a different way. The big win was the focus on Rose Byrne as the lead as she’s just utterly delightful through and through and the film just made me smile constantly throughout it.
I did a movie night for a couple of great folks who had never seen Nightmare Before Christmas and it was just a treat to see this again. I haven’t seen it in several years and getting to revisit it was a very welcome experience.
Backlist movies are where I spent a lot of my time on the background side of viewing during the week while doing various things. And that was mostly a trek-a-thon as I worked through all the Next Generation films. After going through the TOS works first, I admit to finding myself being kinder to these films than I probably was at the times, especially the weaker ones, because there’s just this charm of character and growth that really clicked for me.
I did, however, circle back and watch Star Trek: The Motion Picture. This one was rough for a lot of reasons as they just didn’t get how to make a project like this and there as fallout from the Star Trek: Phase II TV project cancellation. But what I found in revisiting it is that I really wish we’d get this film remade for the present.
I also watched Hereditary but I really feel like I don’t want to talk about it. I really enjoyed the performances and the whole process of trying to figure out what it is that it wanted to do, the gimmick or trick of it all, but the further it went the more disturbed I felt and then hit the final act of the final act and just yelled at the TV.
Which is why after it finished I went in this direction. I’ve got a sequel to watch which meant it was time to go and watch the original Christmas Prince that I missed before.
