Category: action/adventure

Try saying “babbling, bumbling band of baboons” five times fast

Goblet of Fire

This films brings further recognizable names to the cast; David Tennant (the Tenth Doctor, voices Scrooge McDuck in the updated DuckTales cartoon, and voices Spitelout [Snotlout’s father] in the How to Train Your Dragon series and currently stars opposite Michael Sheen in Good Omens [no, I have not watched it yet]) as Barty Crouch Jr, Robert Pattinson (before he starred as Edward Cullen in Twilight) as Cedric Diggory, Brenan Gleeson [he’s father to Domhnall Gleeson, who we will see in later films as Bill Weasley] as Alastor “Mad-Eye” Moody, Miranda Richardson (she’s appeared in Young Victoria, was the queen in the first Prince and Me movie, Madam Giry in Phantom of the Opera and Queen Mab/Lady of the Lake in Merlin [with Sam Neill and Helena Bonham Carter]) as Rita Skeeter, and Ralph Fiennes (the new M in James Bond, the Duke in The Duchess, and voiced Rameses in Prince of Egypt) as Lord Voldemort.

This is one of the first books that I awaited the midnight release of the novel; I believe my mother pre-ordered it.  We drove to the bookstore to get it and when we got home, I spent the next day and a half reading it.  And was good for nothing else.  When the movie came out, it also had a midnight release that I attended with one of my best friends.  The story opens on the Riddle House, which is very creepy, partly due to something strange and horrible that happened fifty years prior, when the maid found the three Riddles dead.  Now, they were unpopular and rude, and their son, Tom was the worst.  But there wasn’t a mark on their bodies, so the police couldn’t convict anyone, namely the gardener, Frank Bryce, of the crime.  Now, Frank ventures up to the house in the middle of the night, seeing lights on.  He comes across intruders, who speak of “Wormtail,” “Quidditch World Cup,” and “Muggles.”  Wormtail is arguing that something can be “done without Harry Potter.”  His Lord responds, “I have my reasons for using the boy…and I will use no other.  I have waited thirteen years.  A few more months will make no difference.  As for the protection surrounding the boy, I believe my plan will be effective (pg. 10).”  “One more death and our path to Harry Potter is clear (pg.10).”  A gigantic snake slithers into the room, which in the movie also contains Barty Crouch Jr, and Lord Voldemort is informed that Frank is outside the door.  He calls the old Muggle in and soon the man is dead.  “Two hundred miles away, the boy called Harry Potter woke with a start (pg. 15).” 

We know that this is Voldemort and Wormtail planning Harry’s death and when Harry wakes his scar is burning.  He’s understandably a bit upset and ponders who can speak to.  The Dursleys are out.  He debates if he should mention it to his friends, but dismisses the idea.  He needs someone like a parent; “an adult wizard whose advice he could ask without feeling stupid, someone who cared about him, who had experience with Dark Magic (pg. 22).”  The answer is simple and obvious: Sirius.  He can be forgiven for not instantly thinking of his godfather, since he didn’t even know he existed until two months prior and is still on the run.  Which made it “doubly hard to return to the Dursleys knowing that he had so nearly escaped them for ever (pg. 23).”

Don’t ask why, but I remembered that Harry hid snacks in his room in the book, after Dudley got placed on a diet, and all of Harry’s friends send food to ensure he didn’t starve.  Harry is then invited by the Weasleys to attend the Quidditch World Cup.  Molly sent a well-intention letter through the Muggle post, but the Dursleys did not appreciate the extra stamps or her familiar tone.  Ron sends a note with his owl, and Harry manages to convince the Dursleys to allow him to attend.  It was a battle for Vernon, between his two most fundamental instincts, to make Harry happy, which he has struggled against for thirteen years, and getting rid of Harry two weeks early and he hates having Harry in the house (pg. 31).  Mentioning Sirius helps sway them.  Arthur arrives, via the fireplace (which the Dursleys boarded up after the mass of acceptance letters arrived four years previously), with Ron and the twins.  The very brief visit does not end well when Dudley tries one of the magical treats that the twins dropped, on purpose.  This is all left out of the movie; Harry wakes at the Burrow

At the Burrow, Harry meets the eldest two Weasley boys; Bill and Charlie.  Bill works for Gringotts, but looks extremely cool, and Charlie works in Romania with dragons (they do not appear in the movie).  The twins are working on Weasleys Wizarding Wheezes, a joke shop, though Molly does not approve.  The Wizarding World receives some worldbuilding [which I take note of as an aspiring fantasy author] and we learn about Portkeys, Apparation, and other wizarding families, along with formally meeting Amos and Cedric Diggory.  The Weasleys, along with Harry and Hermione, sleep in a tent that is larger on the inside.  In the film, Harry remarks, “I love magic.”  They are guests of the minister in his box, along with the Malfoys, and meet Winky, Barty Crouch’s house-elf.  Percy works for Mr. Crouch at the Ministry.  And Harry watches his first professional Quidditch match; Ireland, vs Bulgaria, with their star Seeker, Viktor Krum.  Fred and George’s bet is correct, that Ireland wins the match, but Krum catches the Snitch.  The Ireland has superior Chasers and run the score up, so Krum catches the Snitch before they’re completely embarrassed.  Ron is impressed by Krum.  In the film, they are not in the box, but rather the top level of the stadium, nor do they meet Winky.  She’s cut completely from the film, as is Ludo Bagman (which honestly makes sense; he’s a side plot that doesn’t add much to the main plot).

The evening festivities are interrupted by screams and people fleeing with Death Eaters, followers of Voldemort, show up and Muggle bait, and cause mayhem.  Arthur goes to help the Ministry and sends the kids into the forest.  Harry, Ron, and Hermione get cut off from the rest and Harry loses his wand.  In the film, Harry stumbles and gets knocked out in the chaos of people fleeing.  Later, they hear a spell cast and a skull appears in the sky.  The Ministry arrives quickly and discovers the trio at the scene, but they can’t find who cast it.  Then, they come across Winky.  Hermione is appalled when Crouch dismisses the elf.  Arhtur fills Harry in on the meaning of what went on.  The sign in the sky was the Dark Mark, and it was cast wherever Voldemort and his followers killed and it spread terror throughout the wizarding community.

The younger kids are sent back to Hogwarts.  Hermione learns that the largest number of house elves in any dwelling in Britain work at Hogwarts, so she starts a campaign to get them wages and such, ignoring that the elves seem happy with their lot.  Dumbledore introduces a new Defense Against the Dark Arts professor, Alastor Moody, better known as “Mad-Eye” Moody, and announces that Hogwarts will host the Triwizard Tournament.  It is a friendly competition between the three largest European schools of wizardry; Hogwarts, Beauxbatons, and Durmstrang (which have already been mentioned in the story by other characters; further worldbuilding).  It is also a way to establish ties between young witches and wizards of different nations; each school will have a champion chosen to compete.  The delegations will arrive at Halloween.  The prize is the Triwizard Cup, glory for the school, and a thousand Galleons.  This year, they are putting in place an age restriction; one must be seventeen in order to compete.  The twins are upset; they’re only a few months away from their birthday.

Moody makes an impression on Hogwarts.  He turns Malfoy into a ferret for attacking Harry, to later be told off by Professor McGonagall that teachers are not supposed to use Transfiguration as punishment.  Then he shows the fourth-year students the three Unforgivable Curses, which the Ministry of Magic would disapprove of.  The first is the Imperius Curse, which allows a wizard or witch total control of their victim.  The second is the Cruciatous Curse, or pain curse.  Neville is shown to react badly to seeing this in the movie, Hermione calls out to Professor Moody to stop it.  And the third is the killing curse, “Avada Kedavara.”  Only one person is known to have survived the last curse, Harry. Moody promotes constant vigilance.  Ron remarks in the movie that Moody is brilliant; a bit demented and terrifying to be in the same room as him.  Their conversation trails off when they come across Neville.  Moody comes along and leads the other boy to his office.

Harry gets a response from Sirius; he’s flying north immediately.  This news is the latest in a series of strange rumors, and Dumbledore is reading signs.  Harry worries his godfather will be caught.  He tries to tell Sirius not to come, but Sirius persists.  Harry discovers in Defenses Against the Dark Arts class that he can throw off the Imperius Curse.

Durmstrang and their headmaster, Igor Karkaroff arrives in a ship on the Black Lake and Beauxbatons arrives in a flying carriage with their headmistress, Madame Olympe Maxime.  There is a welcoming feast and the tournament is explained further.  There will be three tasks that test the champions’ magical prowess, their daring, powers of deduction, and ability to cope with danger.  The Goblet of Fire is brought out; it will be the impartial selector.  Students are warned again that entering into the tournament is a binding magical contract.  Fred and George attempt to beat Dumbledore’s age line, and get beards for their troubles.

In the film, the schools are shown arriving at the start of the semester, not a couple months in.  Beauxbatons is shown as all-female and Durmstrang is shown as all-male (I do like the music that plays behind their entrance), and they show off a bit of magic with their entrances.

Ultimately, Viktor Krum is chosen as the Durmstrang champion, Fleur Delacour from Beauxbatons, and Cedric Diggory from Hogwarts.  However, the Goblet of Fire spits out another name: Harry Potter.  He tries to hide in the film when his name is called, but Hermione pushes him forward.  And everyone calls out the difference between the book and the movie with how Dumbledore asks Harry if he put his name in the Goblet of Fire.  In the book, it is stated he does so calmly.  In the movie, he’s more aggressive, but honestly, it’s not as crazy as we remember it.  It’s shown to be born of worry and he’s also trying to get to Harry before the other headmasters arrive.  Harry’s pushed back into some items; but the scene doesn’t jar us out of watching to story progress.  Harry did not put his name in the Goblet of Fire, he did not ask anyone else to put his name in and in both cases, Dumbledore readily believes him.  But Crouch persists that it is a binding contract; Harry will have to compete.  It is Moody in the film that points out whoever is behind it managed to hoodwink a very powerful magical artifact.  Harry and the other champions learn that they will not be told what the first task will entail.  It is to test their daring and courage in the face of the unknown.  They will be armed only with their wand and they are not permitted to ask or accept any help.

There is an added scene in the film with McGonagall, Snape, and Moody in Dumbledore’s office.  Minerva tells Dumbledore “don’t let Potter compete.”  First the Dark Mark, now this.  But Dumbledore abides by Crouch’s rules.  Minerva shoots back, when has that ever stopped Dumbledore before?  Snape agrees that this can be no mere coincidence, but they should let events unfold for the time being.  McGonagall disapproves of offering Harry as bait; he’s a boy, not a piece of meat.  Albus agrees with Severus, then asks Alastor to keep an eye on Harry.

The school turns on Harry, thinking he just wanted glory and to steal the spotlight from Cedric.  Worse, Ron doesn’t even believe Harry.  This is a major fight between the friends.  Harry doesn’t want enteral glory.  (And the movie audience is a bit shocked, at least the younger members of the audience, to hear Ron tell Harry to “Piss off.”)   Luckily, Hermione stands beside Harry and urges him to write Sirius.  Malfoy and Harry get into an argument and cast spells at each other, hitting Goyle and Hermione.  Hermione has to go to the hospital wing to have her teeth put to right (this bit does not appear in the film).

We’re introduced to Rita Skeeter as a reporter for the Daily Prophet at the Weighing of the Wands, and she dedicates most of her article to made-up stuff about Harry, courtesy of her Quick Quotes Quill, which does nothing to endear him to his schoolmates.  This must all stem from his traumatic past and may be a cry for attention, or a death wish.  In the film, when Harry remarks that they are sitting in a broom cupboard, Rita bites back that he should feel right at home [ok, low blow lady.]  Hagrid wants to meet up with Harry one evening, though in the film, this message passes through Ron to Hermione to Harry, amidst other people; it’s very confusing, and Hermione does not like being treated as an owl just because the boys refuse to speak to each other.  Hagrid brings Madame Maxime along, Harry hidden under his cloak…and shows them dragons that have been brought in for the first task, still insisting they are misunderstood creatures.  Harry races back to meet with Sirius in the fireplace of the Gryffindor Tower.  He’s interrupted by Ron and they have another argument.  Harry also decides to pull Cedric aside and tell him about the dragons. 

It’s here in the film that Draco approaches Harry, saying his father and he have a bet on Harry not lasting long in the tournament.  Harry retorts “I don’t give a damn what your father thinks.  He’s vile and cruel, and you’re just pathetic.”  When Draco pulls his wand, Moody turns him into a ferret, and yes, it’s hilarious.  McGonagall doesn’t approve; “What are you doing?”  “Teaching.”  “Is that a student?”  “Technically, it’s a ferret.”   She returns Draco to his usual self.  Draco pulls out the line “my father will hear about this!” but that doesn’t faze Moody.  McGonagall steps in again and reprimands Moody for using Transfiguration.  Harry and everyone else laughs, even Cedric and his buddies.  Moody pulls Harry aside and advises him to play to his strengths in the competition, and use a simple spell to get what he needs.  (In the film, he more directly pulls the answer from Harry to fly.)  Harry turns to Hermione to teach him the Summoning Charm.

Harry summons his Firebolt to fly against the Hungarian Horntail and capture a golden egg (Hermione shouts “your wand, Harry!  Your wand!” In the movie).  There’s more to the flight in the movie, with the Hungarian Horntail breaking free from its chain and taking the confrontation to the rooftops of the castle.  Harry takes a tumble near one of the bridges and the dragon falls, but he manages to make it back to the ring and get the egg.  Ron finally comes around that someone must have put Harry’s name in the Goblet.  The boys make up, and the rest of the school, after seeing what Harry had to face, finally side with Harry.  Our protagonist is happy with Ron be his side, having survived the first task and he’s got three whole months before the second.  When he goes to solve the clue in the egg, he finds out that it screeches.

On a fun side note, Hermione finds her way into the kitchen and shows Harry that Dobby is now working at Hogwarts.  He’s a free elf and has Dumbledore paying him one Galleon a week and he has a one day off a month, and he’s happy.  Unlike Winky, who misses Mr. Crouch.  Again, none of this appears in the film.

McGonagall next announces the Yule Ball, where everyone can socialize with their foreign guests.  Dress robes will be required and the champions and their partners are to open the ball with dancing.  She even instructs the Gryffindors in the movies, stating that the Yule Ball is an evening of “well-mannered frivolity.”  “The House of Godric Gryffindor has commanded the respect of the wizard world for nearly ten centuries.  I will not have you, in the course of a single evening, besmirching that name by behaving like a babbling, bumbling band of baboons.”  (Maggie Smith is great!)  She calls Ron up to demonstrate and he’s nervous about putting his hand on her waist.  Neville is the first lad to step forward to learn and we see him practicing later.

Harry and Ron struggle to ask a girl to the ball, bemoaning that they travel in packs.  Though Harry gets asked by a few and is shocked and nervously says no.  In the film, he remarks he’d rather face the dragon again.  There’s also an incredible scene with Alan Rickman in the movie, taking place in study hall, where the boys are remarking their lack of dates.  Snape picks on duo, ignoring the fact that others are talking, smacking Ron and Harry over the head with a notebook, then forcing their heads down.  Actually, he’d really like to ask out Cho Chang, but hasn’t plucked up the courage.  When he finally manages to talk to Cho, he finds out that she’s already doing with Cedric (which changes Harry’s opinion on his schoolmate a little).  She’s very kind in the film, admitting that she is truthfully sorry she can’t go with Harry since she’s already agreed to someone else; she doesn’t who at this point in the film.  Ron attempts to ask Fleur Delacour and finds out that Neville tried to ask out Hermione, but she’s already going with someone, though Ron does not believe it.  He even asks Hermione and is told the same thing.  “Just because it’s taken you three years to notice Ron, doesn’t mean no one else has spotted I’m a girl (pg. 400)!”  And Ron still doesn’t believe her.  Ginny ends up going with Neville, so Harry finds Parvati Patil, who arranges for her twin sister, Padma, to go with Ron.  Harry feels that the ball is more trouble than it’s worth.

The night of the Yule Ball, Roger Davis accompanies Fleur, Cedric takes Cho, and Krum takes Hermione.  Ron is not pleased.  Hermione looks lovely in her gown (yes, it’s pink compared to blue in the film, but still pretty.  I had my hair arranged like hers from prom.)  Harry and Ron are rude and ignore their dates, who gleefully hang out with Beauxbatons boys.  Neville impresses everyone with his waltzing.  Harry is not great (admittedly, Daniel only had a few days to rehearse that bit compared to everyone else, but Harry isn’t supposed to be good anyway).  And there is rock’n’roll in the wizarding world with Do the Hippogriff.  In the book, the two boys wander outside and notice Karkaroff speaking to Snape, and Hagrid speaking to Madame Maxime and overhear him mention he’s a half-giant.  The night ends with another argument between Ron and Hermione: “next time there’s a ball, ask me before someone else does and not as a last resort (pg.432)!”  Hermione had been enjoying a nice evening with Krum, and now Ron has spoiled everything.  She’s left crying on the stairs in the movie.  Harry’s night doesn’t end well either, with another dream about the graveyard.

When classes start back up, another Skeeter article runs, revealing Hagrid as a half-giant and calling him out for his dangerous classes.  Next time he sees Skeeter, he shouts at her, and Hermione manages to get riled up.  Hermione’s worried about Harry and the next task, remarking that the “tasks are designed to test you, in the most brutal way, they’re almost cruel.”

Cedric repays Harry’s tip on the dragon by suggesting he take a bath with his egg in the prefect’s bathroom.  Harry finally sets his pride aside and does so, only to be interrupted by Moaning Myrtle.  Who does suggest he put the egg in the water, and flirt with him. He finally hears the clue and figures out that the voices that cannot be heard above ground means merepeople: “Come seek us where our voices sound.  We cannot sing above the ground.  An hour long you’ll have to look.  To recover what we took.”  On his way back to his dorm, Harry stumbles across Moody and Snape.  Moody manages to help Harry, though discovers the map and asks to borrow it.  Harry then has to find a way to breathe underwater.  Dobby comes through at the last minute with gillyweed.  Again, since Dobby is cut out of the film, Neville is brought in to help Harry.  Each champion must retrieve someone from the bottom of the Black Lake within an hour.  Ron is Harry’s hostage, Hermione is Krum’s, Cho for Cedric, and Fleur’s little sister.  Harry actually is the first to get to the hostages and wants to make sure everyone is rescued.  Krum, who partially transfigured into a shark, and Cedric, who used a Bubblehead Charm, arrive and leave.  When Fleur does not, Harry grabs the young girl and kicks to the surface with both hostages.  The judges score him well for his actions.  Harry earns the respect of Fleur for saving her sister, and even Ron gets a kiss since he helped.  The third task will take place at the end of June.

Another Skeeter article runs; this time calling Hermione out for being associated with both Harry and Viktor Krum.  Sirius has arrived in Hogsmeade and is hiding out.  Harry, Ron, and Hermione go to visit him.  Sirius tells Harry he is fulfilling his duty as godfather and keeping an eye on him.  He passes himself off as a loveable stray, Snuffles.  He’s not fond of Crouch and says “if you want to know what a man’s like, take a good look at how he treats his inferiors, not his equals (pg. 525).”  Crouch was the one who sent Sirius to Azkaban without a trial.  He fought violence with violence and authorized the use of Unforgivable Curses against suspects.  “I would say he became as ruthless and cruel as many on the Dark Side (pg. 527).”  Crouch’s rise to fame was derailed when his son, Barty Crouch Jr, was found with Death Eaters.  He sent his son to Azkaban, where the boy died.  They already know Karkaroff was a Death Eater; as for Snape, he was part of a group of Slytherins who turned out to be Death Eaters, though Sirius never heard of Snape being accused.  Sadly, this face-to-face meeting was cut from the film.  The only time that Sirius actually appears is as a face in the fireplace.

It’s a good thing there won’t be a Quidditch Cup this year, because they’ve taken over the field to grow a maze for the third task, which will be filled with obstacles for the champions.  As the champions walk back to the castle, Krum pulls Harry aside to ask about Hermione.  Harry is quick to assure the Bulgarian that he and Hermione are only friends.  Then they’re set on by Crouch, who is very confused, managing to get across that he needs to see Dumbledore, something about Voldemort and Harry is his fault.  When Harry gets back, Krum has been attacked and Moody has to go searching for Crouch.  This happens a bit differently in the movie, but the same result.  Harry now dreams of Voldemort and Wormtail in Divination class.  He decides it’s time to go to Dumbledore, where he’s instructed to wait in Dumbledore’s office.  He spies a stone basin with silver light.  He prods the surface with his wand (magic has taught him that much at least), and falls into a memory, where the younger Dumbledore can’t hear him.  There’s a trial, where Karkaroff names other Death Eaters, including Snape, whom Dumbledore has already testified turn spy for the Light Side.  None of the other names do any good.  Four more Death Eaters are led in, charged with torturing Frank and Alice Longbottom (Neville’s parents).  One is Crouch’s son, whom shouts for his father, but he’s sent to Azkaban. 

The trials are condensed into one in the film, with Karkaroff naming Barty Crouch Jr as a Death Eater.  The young man is in attendance and is taken into custody.  He’s already showing his madness here, yelling at his father, with a telltale flicker of his tongue.

Dumbledore pulls Harry out and they talk about the memories, warning “curiosity is not a crime, Harry.  But you should exercise caution.”  Harry explains that his scar has been hurting and Dumbledore theorizes that it hurts when Voldemort is near or feeling particularly hateful.  The two are connected by the curse that failed.  Leaving, Harry thinks that “it all came back to Voldemort…he was the one who had torn those families apart, who had ruined all these lives (pg. 607).”  In the film, Harry asks Dumbledore whether his dreams are really happening.  The old wizard’s response is to tell the teen, it is unwise to linger on them and best to cast them aside (not helpful).

In preparation for the third task, the trio practice hexes (even with McGonagall’s permission after she gets tired of walking in on them).  Sirius sends along guidance; his primary concern is keeping Harry safe.  Voldemort can’t touch him while under Dumbledore’s protection.

The champions are informed that professors will be patrolling the outside of the maze (with a fun little Hogwarts March tune), should any run into difficulty and wish to be recues, they are to send up red sparks.  Once in the maze, the lack of obstacles unnerves Harry.  He manages to save Cedric from Krum, then runs into a sphinx [which I was disappointed was not in the movie.  And the phrasing makes me wonder if it was influenced at all by Tolkien’s cave scene].  Harry saves Cedric from a spider [luckily not in the film; I am not fond of spiders.  Instead, the walls of the maze are more alive and will try to crush the champions], though Cedric is closer to the Cup.  Cedric argues that Harry should take the Cup; he’s saved him twice in the maze.  Harry compromises; they should both take it; it’ll still be a Hogwarts win.

The boys find out upon touching the Cup that it’s a Portkey and they’re brought to a graveyard.  Harry’s scar explodes with pain; “it was agony such as he had never felt in all his life (pg. 637).”  A voice calls out “kill the spare” and Cedric dies in a flash of green.  Harry is tied to Tom Riddle’s headstone by Wormtail.  There’s also a cauldron, in to which Wormtail dumps a diminutive form.  Then he incants, “bone of the father, unknowingly given, you will renew your son!  Flesh of the servant, willingly given, you will revive your master.  Blood of the enemy, forcibly taken, you will resurrect your foe.”  The flesh of the servant in Wormtail’s hand, and the blood of the enemy is taken from Harry. 

A man emerges with a “face that had haunted his [Harry’s] nightmares for three years.  Whiter than a skull, with wide, livid scarlet eyes and a nose that was flat as a snake’s with slits for nostrils…Lord Voldemort had risen again (pg. 643).”  [Ralph’s blue eyes are used in the film so his performance would not be impeded, and it was felt that the blue eyes actually made Voldemort creepier.]  Voldemort touches Wormtail’s tattoo of the Dark Mark and Harry’s scar erupts in pain again.  Death Eaters arrive.  Voldemort ponders aloud how many will be brave enough to return.  How many will be foolish enough to stay away.  To his followers, he asks why none of them tried to seek their Lord out.  Perhaps they believed that Dumbledore’s power was greater.  He wants thirteen years’ worth of repayment from them.  He rewards Wormtail with a silver hand.  He points to an empty spot, where three Death Eaters are missing; one who is too cowardly to return; he will pay.  One has left forever and will thus be killed, and one is his most faithful servant and has already reentered service to his lord.

With Harry’s blood in his body, it now negates the protection Lily’s sacrifice had on Harry.  Voldemort can touch him now.  Again, Harry’s scar feels like it will split in pain.  Voldemort mocks those who believed this boy ever truly defeated him.  “I, who have gone further than anybody along the path that leads to immortality.  You know my goal – to conquer death.  And now, I was tested, and it appeared that one or more of my experiments had worked…for I had not been killed (pg. 653).”  In his resurrection ritual, he wanted Harry’s blood, the “blood of the one who had stripped me of power thirteen years ago…for the lingering protection his mother once gave him would then reside in my veins too (pg. 657).”  Harry was better protected than even he knows.  But Voldemort’s faithful servant entered Harry into the Triwizard Tournament.

Now he uses Crucio on Harry.  Further pain than Harry’s ever felt.  Voldemort continues speaking; Harry escaped the first time by luck and now the Dark Lord will prove his power by killing Harry.  He will be allowed to fight, so no doubt will be left on who is stronger.  “Bow to death, Harry,” he commands.  “Harry did not bow.  He was not going to let Voldemort play with him before killing him…he was not going to give him that satisfaction (pg.660).”

The speech is changed a little in movie, but it’s just as good: “I’m going to kill you, Harry Potter.  I’m going to destroy you.  After tonight, noe one will ever again question my powers.  After tonight, if they speak of you, they’ll speak only of how you begged for death.  And I, being a merciful Lord, obliged.”  “I want you to look at me when I kill you!  I want to see the light leave your eyes!”

“And now you face me, like a man…straight-backed and proud, the way your father died (pg. 660),” Voldemort taunts Harry.  He shoots Crucio and Imperio at Harry, but the teen doges the next spell, with reflexes born of Quidditch training.  Harry finally shoots Expelliarmus against Voldemort’s Avada Kedavara.  Their red and green beams meet and connects.  Harry instinctively knows he mustn’t break the connection.  A bead of light floats between the two wands and Harry manages to force to Voldemort’s.  Cedric’s form emerges from the wand, then an old man, finally Lily and James Potter.  They can give Harry some time in order to get to the Portkey, and Cedric asks Harry to take his body back.  At their command, Harry breaks away and runs, summoning the Cup to him, and grabs Cedric.

[I almost hate to admit it, but I like the…it’s not quite banter, because there’s no humor, but Voldemort is well written in this spot.  Yes, he’s mocking Harry and he’s treating Harry like a teenager; he refers to him as a boy occasionally, but the dialogue would also work against an adult.]

When he lands in front of the maze at Hogwarts, he manages to inform Dumbledore that Voldemort is back, though he won’t let go of Cedric.  Dumbledore manages to pick Harry up, there is screaming erupting in the stands, and sobs.  People talk over each other and Harry is rather out of it.  In the movie, it’s more heart-rending.  Harry’s sobbing while he tells Dumbledore “he’s back, Voldemort’s back,” and he couldn’t leave Cedric, not there.  Dumbledore calms Harry, “you’re both home.”  Fleur screams when she sees Cedric’s dead and Fudge tells McGonagall and Snape to keep the crowd back.  Snape even steps to Dumbledore’s side.  Amos makes his way to the front and sobs when he sees it’s his son, his boy.  Arthur Weasley is behind him and Ron and Hermione start to make their way forward to see Harry.  And Harry hasn’t stopped crying.

Moody takes Harry back to the castle and Harry starts explaining.  Moody knows there’s a Death Eater at Hogwarts and they put Harry’s name in the Goblet, though it wasn’t Karkaroff.  He fled.  Then, in his office, Moody admits that he was the one who did it and asks Harry if Voldemort forgave the Death Eaters who didn’t try to find the Dark Lord.  It was Moody who cast the Dark Mark at the Quidditch World Cup and he hates the Death Eaters who walked free; he wants them punished and tortured.  During the Tournament, Moody frightened off every person who might hurt or prevent Harry from winning, though he had to be careful not to tip his hand.  He grouses he had to contend with Harry’s stupidity, such as planting the book on underwater plants with Longbottom early in the year.  Harry has a “steak of pride and independence that might have ruined it all (pg. 677).”  In the maze, Moody stunned Fleur and put the Imperius Curse on Krum to finish off Cedric.

None of this is making sense to Harry.  Moody continues; the Dark Lord will reward him when he kills Harry.  He will be honored beyond all other Death Eaters, Voldemort’s closest supporter, closer than a son.  He and the Dark Lord have much in common; disappointing fathers that they were named for, and they both had to kill their fathers to ensure the rise of the Dark Order.  At this point, Moody is stunned by Dumbledore, alongside Snape and McGonagall.  Harry now understands why Dumbledore is the only wizard Voldemort fears.  He looks more terrible than ever, with cold fury in every line of his ancient face.  “A sense of power radiated from Dumbledore as though he were giving off burning heat (pg. 679).”

Dumbledore has Harry stay, so he will understand, which is the first step to acceptance, “and only with acceptance can there be recovery (pg.680).”  Harry “needs to know who has put him through the ordeal he has suffered tonight, and why (pg. 680).”  [This is when we still like and trust Dumbledore.]  This man before Harry is not Alastor Moody; Harry has never known the real Moody.  The real Moody “would not have removed you from my sight after what happened tonight (pg. 680).”  [It’s good to know that there are good adults who would have looked after Harry in a traumatic situation.]  With that action, Dumbledore knew something was wrong and followed ‘Moody.’  The headmaster has Snape use his truth potion (Veritaserum) on the man; he also sends McGonagall to fetch a black dock from Hagrid’s and take it to the headmaster’s office.  In the film, the cut on Harry’s arm almost echoes the Dark Mark, though opposite arms, best seen when Dumbledore compares it to Crouch Jr’s tattoo.

Dumbledore continues his investigation; in the seventh compartment of the trunk is the real Alastor Moody.  The flask that the man has been carrying is filled with Polyjuice Potion; it’s a well-known fact that the real Alastor only drinks from his flask.  The imposter is really Barty Crouch Jr.  His mother saved him from Azkaban and died in his place, but his father kept him hidden away at home, concealed and controlled, with only Winky to care for him.  The secret got out to Bertha Jorkins, a Ministry employee, whom Crouch Sr put under a Memory Charm.  When she wandered across Voldemort’s path, he broke that Charm, got his information, then killed her [this whole bit was left out of the movie; again, it would have dragged the story to put in all the side plots].  Crouch Jr was actually at the Quidditch World Cup, in the box with Harry and the Weasleys, under an Invisibility Cloak alongside Winky.  He’d been growing stronger, fighting his father’s magical control, and saw the opportunity to steal a wizard’s wand – Harry’s.  When Crouch Jr heard the Death Eaters, the ones who had escaped Azkaban, he used the stolen wand to cast the Dark Mark.  When the Ministry sent stunners into the woods, he was caught and finding Winky at the scene, his father knew what happened.  Voldemort comes to the Crouch home, frees Jr and puts Sr under the Imperius Curse.  That is why Percy Weasley took on many of Crouch Sr’s responsibilities [also not seen in the movie].  Voldemort tasks Barty Crouch Jr as his servant at Hogwarts, impersonating Alastor Moody.  When Harry met Crouch Sr acting oddly, it was after the old man had escaped; Crouch Jr had been hiding out, and killed his father while Harry went for help, then circled back around as Moody and pretended to look for Crouch Sr.  It was also Crouch Jr who turned the Triwizard Cup into a Portkey.

Testimony over, Dumbledore takes Harry to his office, where Sirius is waiting.  Harry would rather not think about the memories he has of this night.  Dumbledore understands Harry’s feelings and if it would help to put them off in an enchanted sleep, he would do it.  But “numbing the pain for a while will make it worse when you finally feel it (pg. 695).”  Harry has already been brave beyond Dumbledore’s expectation; the old man is asking for a little more courage from the teen.  Harry recounts the events in the graveyard.  For a moment, when he mentions that his mother’s blood protection is over, Harry thinks he sees “a gleam of something like triumph in Dumbledore’s eyes (pg. 696).”  Dumbledore explains that when Harry’s and Voldemort’s wands connected, it was Priori Incantatem, along with the fact that their wands share a core, a tailfeather from Fawkes.  When a wand meets its brother, it will not work properly against each other when forced to battle.  One will force the other wand to regurgitate spells in reverse order.

Now, Dumbledore will take Harry to the hospital wing to get some peaceful sleep; Sirius may stay with him as Padfoot.  “You have shown bravery equal to those who died fighting Voldemort at the height of his powers.  You have shouldered a grown wizard’s burden and found yourself equal to it (pg. 699).”  Waiting for him in the hospital wing are the Weasleys and Hermione.  Dumbledore informs them not to ask Harry any questions that night.  Later, Harry is woken to angry voices.  Fudge refuses to believe that Voldemort is back and took care of Crouch Jr before he could testify again.  Fudge no longer believes Harry’s word, listening to Skeeter’s gossip that he’s mentally disturbed.  He fears the news will start a panic that will destabilize everything.  Dumbledore argues for the Minister to see sense; “you are blinded…by the love of the office you hold, Cornelius!  You place too much importance, and you always have done, on the so-called purity of blood!  You fail to recognize that it matters not what someone is born, but what they grow to be (pg. 708)!”  [And this is why we liked Rowling, until recently.]  If Fudge will take steps now, he will be remembered as brave and the greatest Minister of Magic.  “Fail to act – and history will remember you as the man who stepped aside and allowed Voldemort a second chance to destroy the world we have tried to rebuild (pg. 708)!”

In response, Fudge calls Dumbledore man and insane.  This is a parting of ways.  Snape even shows his Dark Mark, that it’s grown darker all year, but Fudge refuses to see reason.  He leaves.  Dumbledore asks Molly and Arthur for help.  Then he has Sirius resume his normal form and face Snape.  He will ask for a lack of open hostility between the two rivals; they are on the same side.  He tasks Sirius to gather Lupin and the old crowd.  Harry already misses his godfather’s presence by his side.  Snape in turn, is ready for what Dumbledore will asks.  He leaves.  Left alone with the Weasleys, Molly offers Harry a hug.  And the poor boy has no memory of being hugged like by a mother.

This is all left out of the film, sadly.

When Harry awakes again, he meets with Cedric’s parents, who do not blame Harry.  Harry tries offering them the winnings, but they won’t take it.  Harry doesn’t want it.  There is a memorial service for Cedric.  “Cedric Diggory was…exceptionally hard-working, infinitely fair-minded, and most importantly, a fierce, fierce friend.”  Dumbledore announces that Cedric was murdered by Voldemort; the Ministry of Magic does not want him to tell, but that would be an insult to Cedric’s memory.  He advocates, “in light of Lord Voldemort’s return, we are only as strong as we are united, as weak as we are divided.  Lord Voldemort’s gift for spreading discord and enmity is very great.  We can fight it only by showing an equally strong bond of friendship and trust (ph. 723).” 

The movie puts it: “while we may come from different places and speak in different tongues, our hearts beat as one” [which the world would do well to remember].  “In light of recent events, the bonds of friendship we made this year will be more important than ever.”  Remember that, and Cedric Diggory will not have died in vain.  And remember the young man that was brave, kind, honest, and true to the very end.  After the service, Dumbledore visits Harry in his dorm.  “O put you in terrible danger this year, Harry.  I’m sorry” [it’s nice he apologized.]  Harry does ask about seeing his parents, but Dumbledore doesn’t bring up the shared wand cores.  Instead, Dumbledore says “dark and difficult times lay ahead.  Soon we must all face the choice between what is right and what is easy.  But remember this.  You have friends here.  You are not alone.”

Krum asks Hermione to write to him.  Fleur and her sister kiss Ron farewell.  Ron asks “do you ever think we’ll just have a quiet year at Hogwarts?”  Both Hermione and Harry answer no.  “Oh well, what’s life without a few dragons?”

There’s some good news on the train ride home.  Rita Skeeter won’t be writing any more terrible articles for a while; Hermione figured out how she had been able to get private information.  She’s an unregistered Animagus; a beetle.  Hermione managed to catch her the night in the hospital wing and is keeping her in a jar.  Malfoy and his cronies try to start a fight, but the twins join the trio in hexing the Slytherins, then tossing them in another compartment.  Harry gives the twins his winnings as they exit the train, telling them to use it for their joke shop.  Oh, and maybe get Ron some new dress robes.  This is also left out of the film.

I have to admit, this book and movie were better than I remember them being.  There are some excellently written passages, and the movie dialogue is just as good.  Yes, the book drags on and the movie rightly cut side plots that didn’t really aid the main plot.  I mean, I don’t like the teen drama, but I also didn’t like teen drama when I was a teenager.  The plot has matured, alongside the characters.  Events and happenings are getting darker.

I will say, there is a fanfiction story that I highly recommend that is an alternate universe following the end of Prisoner of Azkaban and follows the plotline of Goblet of Fire.  It’s A Marauder’s Plan by CatsAreCool.  It is one of the best written Harry Potter fanfictions I’ve read, and my favorite thing is Sirius is in it way more.  So, I definitely recommend you read it (it’s one of those that you wish was actual canon).

Up Next: Order of the Phoenix

“Fear of a name only increases fear of the thing itself.”

Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets

Harry and his friends are back for another year at Hogwarts.  Our main cast is still young and are joined by Mark Williams (he’s Rory Willaims’ father in Doctor Who, made other appearances in BBC shows, as well as Billy in Stardust, Wabash in Shakespeare in Love, and Horace in the live action 101 Dalmatians) as Mr. Arthur Weasley, Jason Isaacs (he voiced the Inquisitor in Star Wars Rebels and Zhao in Avatar: The Last Airbender) as Mr. Lucius Malfoy, and the voice of Toby Jones (most recently he was Basil Shaw in Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny, Arnim Zola in the MCU, and voiced Owl in Christopher Robin.  He was Culverton Smith in an episode of Sherlock, appeared in the Hunger Games movies, Doctor Who, Amazing Grace, and Snow White and the Huntsman, as well as the royal page in Ever After) as Dobby.  Kenneth Branagh (he is now Hercule Poirot in the recent Agatha Christie movies [which he also directed]: A Haunting in Venice, Death on the Nile, and Murder on the Orient Express.  He was Cherevin in Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit with Chris Pine [he also directed], and is very famous for his acting and directing work in productions of Shakespeare, notably Hamlet and Henry V.  We’ve also noted he’s directed the live action Cinderella film and the first Thor film of the MCU) is Gilderoy Lockhart and Miriam Margoyles (she was in an episode of Merlin, and was the voice of the Matchmaker in Disney’s animated Mulan, as well as the grandmother in Balto) is Professor Sprout.

A trend we will see throughout the series is that Harry starts each new adventure back at the Dursleys for summer break, missing Hogwarts.  This year, so far he has not heard from any of his friends; his school things are locked away.  The Dursleys are preparing for a dinner party and Harry is to “be in my bedroom, making no noise, pretending I’m not there (pg. 6).”  Except, he has an unexpected guest in his bedroom, a creature he finds out is a house-elf, named Dobby, who warns Harry not to return to Hogwarts, there is a “plat to make most terrible things happen (pg. 16).”  Harry insists he will return to the magic school.  It comes out that Dobby has been stopping his mail and he won’t return the letters until Harry promises he won’t go back.  The house-elf takes off running and floats dessert over the guests’ heads, getting Harry in trouble, both with the Ministry of Magic and the Dursleys; “Dobby must do it, for Harry Potter’s own good.”  Vernon takes great delight in putting bars on the window of Harry’s room, ranting he’ll never go back to school or see his friends again.  

Harry is luckily rescued by Ron, Fred, and George Weasley in their father’s flying car and we all get to witness our first magical home, where the dishes wash themselves and knitting needles turn out work by themselves.  Molly is furious with her son, “beds empty, no note, car gone!” but pleased to see Harry.  We meet Arthur Weasley when he returns home from work at the Ministry, the Office of the Misuse of Muggle Artifacts; he only berates his sons when his wife glares at him.  He turns to Harry and eagerly asks “what is the function of a rubber duck?”  Dumbledore even sends Harry’s school list to the Burrow.  Harry accompanies the Weasley family to Diagon Alley for school supplies.  He’s introduced to Floo Powder as a method of travel; he ends up in Knockturn Alley and luckily Hagrid shows up to lead him where he wants to go.  He, the Weasleys, and Hermione run into Draco Malfoy and his father, Lucius, in the bookstore, where they also meet their new Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher, Gilderoy Lockhart.  There’s a scuffle between Lucius and Arthur, then Harry spends the rest of the summer at the Burrow, referring to it as the happiest in his life.

They take Arthur’s car to the train station, but are running late, so Ron and Harry will be the last through.  Except, when they try to get on to the platform, the barrier is sealed.  They reason they’ll wait by the car, then Ron suggests they fly the car to Hogwarts.  There’s an Invisibility Booster, so they shouldn’t be seen, but it malfunctions.  The film shows a more exciting ride, though the big finish is landing on the Whomping Willow at the school and the car getting pummeled.  It ejects the two boys and their things, then drives off into the Forbidden Forest.  Snape gets ahold of them first and informs them they were seen, and put the whole Magical World at risk of being discovered.  If it was up to him, they’d both be on the train home that evening.  However, their fate lies with Professor McGonagall.  They won’t be expelled, yet, but their actions were very serious, so they will both serve detention.

Their first lesson as second years is Herbology, where they repot Mandrakes, which look like babies in the roots, and they scream very loudly.  Neville faints at the sound.  Harry also meets an eager first year, Colin Creevy, who is fascinated with Wizarding photographs and wants some of Harry.  Which leads to Lockhart finding out and attempting to give Harry advice about fame; Harry would rather run away.  Lockhart introduces his class: “be warned!  It is my job to arm you against the foulest creatures known to wizard kind!  You may find yourselves facing your worst fears in this room.  Know only that no harm can befall you whilst I am here.  All I ask is that you remain calm (pg. 101).”  Then he sets loose Cornish Pixies and is ineffective and capturing them again, leaving Harry, Ron, and Hermione to finish the job.

Harry runs into Draco again on the way to Quidditch practice and finds out that Draco is the new Seeker for Slytherin, and his father donated new brooms to the team.  Hermione remarks that all the players on Gryffindor got in on pure talent; no one had to buy their way onto the team.  Draco retorts the no one asked for the opinion of a filthy Mudblood.  Ron tries to stand up for Hermione and tells Draco to eat slugs, but his wand was damaged by the Willow and the spell backfires on Ron, causing him to belch up slugs.  Harry is informed what a Mudblood means (dirty blood, magical child of Muggle parentage), then has to spend his detention with Lockhart. 

As the hours wain on, he hears a strange voice.  But Lockhart doesn’t.  Harry hears it again as he heads to the common room and follows it to discover a pool of water and Mrs. Norris hanging on the wall with the ominous phrase “The Chamber of Secrets has been opened.  Enemies of the Heir, beware” on the wall.  (In the book, this is preceded by Nearly Headless Nick’s Deathday party, but that was omitted in the film).  Harry is discovered at the scene, and Filch wants to condemn him, but Snape actually points out that Harry might just be in the wrong place at the wrong time.  However, what brought him there?  Harry does not admit that he heard a strange voice (Snape instead tries to get Harry off the Quidditch team in the book, but McGonagall sees through that).

Hermione speaks up in class (Transfiguration with McGonagall in the film, History of Magic with Professor Binns in the book) to ask about the Chamber of Secrets.  The students learn a little more about the Founding of Hogwarts by Rowena Ravenclaw, Helga Hufflepuff, Salazar Slytherin, and Godric Gryffindor.  Slytherin wanted to be more selective on who was taught at school, keeping it to pureblood families.  The rest of the Founders disagreed and so legend states that Slytherin built a secret chamber and housed a monster that could rid the school of non-pureblood students.  (Mrs. Norris’ owner, Argus Filch, is shown to be a Squib, a non-magical child of magical parents).  The trio of course decide to investigate and reason that Malfoy is the Heir of Slytherin, with his family history in Slytherin and stance on purebloods.  Hermione figures the best way to question him would be to use Polyjuice Potion, so they could transform into other Slytherin students and find out.  The film doesn’t show that they have to get Most Potente Potions from the Restricted Section; they trick Lockhart into signing a permission form (Hermione is one of the students who is in awe of Lockhart).

Harry faces Draco on the Quidditch field first, Wood telling him “get to that Snitch before Malfoy, or die trying (pg. 167).”  Well, during the game, a Bludger goes rogue and only follows Harry.  Draco calls out “training for the ballet, Potter?” while Harry tries to dodge the heavy ball.  Then it’s a race between the two of them to catch the Snitch.  The Bludger finds it mark and breaks Harry’s arm, but he manages to catch the Snith.  Then Lockhart runs over to help Harry and instead of mending his broken bones, makes them disappear.  Harry ends up in the Hospital Wing to regrow his bones.  Dobby the house-elf appears again and Harry finds out it was the elf who stopped the barrier and set the Bludger to attack him.  We do manage to feel bad alongside Harry when we find out how Dobby is treated, but their conversation is cut short by teachers arriving with a frozen Colin Creevey.  Dumbledore is sure now that the Chamber is indeed open.  But the question is who, not how.  In the film, he admits to McGonagall that the students are in danger and Hogwarts is no longer safe.  [But he doesn’t send them home yet.]

So, the Headmaster allows Lockhart to start a Dueling Club for the school and Snape somehow becomes Lockhart opponent [how did that happen?  Did he volunteer?  Was he asked?  By whom?].  The opponents trade salutes like in a saber duel and Snape manages to teach the students a useful spell: Expelliarmus, and make a fool of Lockhart at the same time.  Lockhart nominates Harry as the next student and Snape brings up Draco Malfoy.  “Scared, Potter?”  “You wish.”  They attempt more than disarming and Draco fires a snake at Harry.  But before the professors can banish it, Harry speaks to it and orders it away from another student.  However, everyone is in shock and a little afraid (look at Snape’s expression in the movie; he was certainly not expecting that and probably brings up a whole host of questions).  Ron questions Harry about the ability and reveals that Harry can speak another language: Parsletongue.  It was an ability Slytherin himself prized.  So now everyone is going to think Harry is the Heir of Slytherin, and many students do.  The Weasley twins try to make a joke of it, but it wears on Harry.  And as Hermione points out, Harry doesn’t know that much about his family in order to dispute it.  Then, another student is attacked, through Nearly Headless Nick.  Dumbledore finally asks Harry if there is anything he’d like to share with the older wizard.  Harry keeps quiet, especially after questioning the Sorting Hat and finding out the Hat still thinks Slytherin would have been a good fit.  He also meets Dumbledore’s phoenix, Fawkes, in the Headmaster’s office.  [I notice a similarity between Fawkes’ theme and the love theme from Attack of the Clones, both written by John Williams and both films came out in 2002.  That is also why a lot of the themes from the first film were reused in this film.]

There are some deleted scenes from the film that show the other students; mainly Hufflepuff, discuss Harry as the Heir of Slytherin.  One surmises that maybe Voldemort went to kill Harry because he didn’t want another Dark Wizard competing against him.  There’s also a beautiful scenic shot of Harry and Hedwig, sitting away from the castle and looking back at it.  Harry asks his companion, “who am I, Hedwig?  What am I?”

The Polyjuice Potion is ready at Christmas; Ron and Harry manage to transform into Crabbe and Goyle, but Hermione can’t join them.  They find their way to Slytherin’s Common Room and talk to Draco.  Luckily, Crabbe and Goyle are already a little dim, so Draco readily tells them again, he doesn’t know who the Heir is; his father won’t tell him.  But the last time, someone died.  Ron and Harry report back to Hermione and find out that the hair she used was cat hair.  She goes to the Hospital Wing to get transformed back.  Harry also finds a book thrown through Myrtle; when he examines it, it’s blank, but it belonged to a T.M. Riddle.  Ron recognizes the name from an award he had to polish, from fifty years ago.  They had discovered the last Chamber of Secrets attacks were fifty years ago.  Harry examines the diary further and attempts writing in it: it writes back.  Tom shows Harry his memory of catching the culprit; Hagrid.  But Harry refuses to believe Hagrid is truly at fault.  Before he can get more information, his room is trashed and the diary is gone.

Harry hears the voices again on the way to a Quidditch match and Hermione heads to the library; “because that’s what Hermione does, when in doubt, go to the library (pg. 255).”  The match is canceled and McGonagall informs Ron and Harry that it was Hermione and another girl who were attacked, holding a mirror.  New rules are set in place and everyone is under a curfew.  Harry drags his dad’s Invisibility Cloak out again and he and Ron sneak down to Hagrid’s.  But they’re not the only ones to show up.  Dumbledore and Cornelius Fudge, the Minister of Magic show up to arrest Hagrid, even though Dumbledore vouches for him.  Then Lucius Malfoy shows up with a letter from the school governors to suspend Dumbledore.  Fudge even protests, but Dumbledore goes peacefully and says in parting “I will only truly have left this school when none here are loyal to me.  You will also find that help will always be given at Hogwarts to those who ask for it (pg. 264).”  Hagrid drops the loud hint that answers lie with following the spiders.

Ron’s not keen on following the spiders into the Forbidden Forest.  And they run into a test of huge spiders [I refuse to watch the scenes in the movie; they creep me out].  But they find out, while this was the pet Hagrid kept in the school, it is not the monster from the Chamber.  Hagrid was innocent.  They still try to eat Harry and Ron, luckily, the old car comes to their rescue and drives them out of the forest.  The two boys also deduce, that if the girl who died was found in the bathroom, it may be Moaning Myrtle.  Their next clue comes from a piece of paper grasped in Hermione’s hand, a page detailing a basilisk; the King of Serpents “of the many fearsome beasts and monsters that roam our land, there is none more curious or more deadly (pg. 290).”  Spiders flee from it and the cry of a rooster is fatal, which is why Hagrid has been finding the roosters dead.  Hermione also wrote “pipes” on the page.  Harry figures it out; it’s a snake, so that’s why only he is hearing it.  It’s slithering through the pipes in the school and no one has died from its gaze because they only saw reflections. 

Before they can act on their knowledge, the school goes into lockdown.  They hide in the teachers’ lounge and discover that Ginny Weasley was taken into the Chamber.  The other professors dispense with Lockhart, claiming he can use his experience he’s written about to rescue the girl (of course, not believing anything of the sort).  Ron and Harry still go to him with their information and find him packing.  They force him to Myrtle’s bathroom, where Harry asks about how she died.  One of the sinks has a carved snake on the faucet and Harry uses Parsletongue to open the Chamber of Secrets.  The boys force Lockhart down.  The man faints at the sight of a snake skin, then tries to wipe their memories.  That’s his actual expertise; he wrote about what other people did and took the credit, but wiped their memories so they couldn’t blab, all so he could become famous.  And he’ll do the same again.  Except, he took Ron’s wand and the spell backfires and also causes a cave in.  Harry goes on alone.

He finds an unconscious Ginny and a very solid looking Tom Riddle, out of the diary.  He reveals that Ginny had been writing in the diary all year, pouring her soul out to an invisible stranger.  Which is exactly what he wanted; he has grown stronger while Ginny has grown weaker and soon, he’ll be alive again and Ginny will be dead.  He also very much wants to talk to Harry; “how is it that you – a skinny boy with no extraordinary magical talent – manage to defeat the greatest wizard of all time (pg. 313)?”  Harry wants to know why Tom is interested in Voldemort, he’s after his time.  Voldemort is Tom’s past, present, and future.  The letters in Tom Marvolo Riddle rearranged create I am Lord Voldemort.  Tom refused to keep the name of his filthy Muggle father, when the blood of Salazar Slytherin runs in his veins.  Dumbledore suspected him in school, so he locked his memories away in the dairy so someone later could finish his work.  Harry corrects Tom that Dumbledore is the greatest wizard of all time.  A strange tune comes to them and Fawkes appears, bringing the Sorting Hat.  Tom is prepared to kill Harry, though notes there are similarities between them; both half-blood, both orphans, both Parslemouths, and they even look a bit alike.  Still, Harry has to die.  He calls forth the basilisk.  Harry goes running, but Fawkes attacks the serpent, blinding it, which allows Harry to now see where the snake is.  He begs the Hat for help, and pulls out a sword.  When the basilisk strikes, Harry stabs it through it’s mouth, but he gets a fang in the arm.  Before Harry can succumb to the wound, Fawkes sheds a few tears.  Phoenix tears have healing properties.  Harry decides to stab the diary with the fang in order to stop Tom.  The memory disappears and Ginny wakes.  Harry gets everyone together and Fawkes flies them out to McGonagall’s office.

Arthur and Molly Weasley are waiting for Ginny.  Arthur tells her off; she should know better than to “trust anything that can think for itself if you can’t see where it keeps its brain (pg. 329)” [and that is Arthur Weasley’s best line].  Dumbledore insists that Ginny will face no punishment; older and wiser wizards have been hoodwinked by Voldemort.  Ron is sent with a letter to get Hagrid back.  Dumbledore also explains that Tom Riddle disappeared after school and travelled far and wide.  He “sank so deeply into the Dark Arts, consorted with the very worst of our kind, that when he resurfaced as Lord Voldemort, he was barely recognizable.  Hardly anyone connected Lord Voldemort with the clever, handsome boy (pg. 329).”  Dumbledore thanks Harry for the loyalty he showed the Headmaster; that was why Fawkes came.  Harry brings up the similarities Tom pointed out between the two boys.  Dumbledore admits that there are similarities, but it is their choices that “show what we truly are, far more than abilities (pg. 333).”  Also, Voldemort managed to transfer some of his powers to Harry the night he attempted to kill him.  Though only a true Gryffindor could have pulled Godric Gryffindor’s sword from the Sorting Hat. 

Lucius Malfoy shows up, with Dobby in tow, demanding why Dumbledore returned.  The older wizard explains that the other governors wrote to him, asking him back, when they found out Arthur Weasley’s daughter was taken.  Seems Lucius threatened to curse their families if they didn’t dismiss Dumbledore in the first place.  Harry figures out that Lucius slipped Ginny the diary the day they ran into each other in Flourish and Blotts.  Harry can’t prove it and Lucius warns him he’ll meet the same sticky end as his parents.  “Let us hope Mr. Potter will always be around to save the day.”  “Don’t worry, I will be.”  He runs after Lucius to return the diary and when the man tosses the disgusting book to Dobby, he doesn’t realize it has one of Harry’s socks in it.  He’s presented Dobby with clothes; Dobby is free!  Lucius tries to attack Harry [possibly starting the Killing Curse], pulling his wand from his cane (like nobles used to with their swords…totally cool!) but Dobby protects Harry Potter.  Harry is grateful, but asks the elf to never try to save his life again.

Everyone who was Petrified is revived.  Hermione rushes to give Harry a hug, then awkwardly shakes hands with Ron.  School exams are cancelled as a treat.  And Hagrid returns to Hogwarts, stopping to thank the trio.  Harry stands and tells the man, “there’s no Hogwarts without you, Hagrid.”  [And I shed a tear watching this, remembering that Robbie Coltrane is no longer with us.]  He hugs the man and Dumbledore is the next to stand and begins clapping [and that actor is no longer with us, either; he passed away before the film premiered].  McGonagall is the next to join in and soon most of the Great Hall is applauding Hagrid (accompanied with the sweeping theme from the ending of the first film).

Next Time: Prisoner of Azkaban

“You’re the head of security and your password is ‘password?'” “I don’t feel good about it either.”

Spider-Man: Far From Home

The main newcomer to the cast is Jake Gyllenhaal (he was Dastan in Prince of Persia: Sands of Time) as Quentin Beck.  After a brief stop in Mexico first to find out about a cyclone with a face on it, where we first see a man with a helmet and cape, the film picks up at Peter’s school, explaining how half the student population had blipped out due to Thanos, then returned five years later, but no older, throwing the school year into chaos.  There’s a cheesy memorial video to Captain America, Black Widow, Vision, and Iron Man (including I will Always Love You by Whitney Houston).  The blip was eight months ago and it is now the last day of school.  Peter and some of his classmates are preparing for a history of science trip to Europe.  But first, Spider-Man needs to make an appearance at a charity event for those displaced by the blip, including May Parker.  He cheerfully does so, though he gets a bit freaked out by questions on if he will be the next Iron Man and is he going to fight aliens if they show up again.  And no, he does not want to talk to Nick Fury and he’s not sure how to feel about Happy apparently dating his aunt.  As Peter puts it, he really needs this vacation.

Peter also has a plan on this vacation to woo MJ and ultimately tell her how he feels, complete with purchasing a glass necklace of her favorite flower and an evening atop the Eiffel Tower.  But it doesn’t quite go according to his wishes and MJ ends up next to newcomer (since he aged while everyone was away), Brad.  Ned also manages to hook up with classmate Betty while on the long flight to Italy.

Peter does get the necklace for MJ, but then a threat bursts forth from the water.  Peter doesn’t have his suit on him, but he gets civilians to safety, then finds a mask to put on before he offers his help to the man in the helmet who is flying around.  He attempts to save a clock tower and the crowd cheers for the new hero, who Peter’s classmates coin as “Mysterio.”  At the hotel afterwards, Nick Fury finds Peter, and knocks out Ned so the two can speak (though they keep getting interrupted by other trip members).  Fury ultimately brings Peter to an underground mission command, where Peter meets “Mysterio,” who goes by Quentin Beck and claims to be from another Earth [this ties in to comic lines, which I have not read] and Peter is very excited to talk about the possibility of a multiverse [which is the direction Marvel goes in next].  Beck claims that the threats are Elementals, who already destroyed his Earth and SHIELD has evidence to support the other sightings they’ve had.  They figure the next stop for the Fire Elemental is Prague.  Peter really doesn’t want to get involved; he just wants his vacation, and the world could figure out his identity if he appears as Spider-Man in Europe.   He suggests several other Avengers, including Captain Marvel, which Fury barks not to mention her.  Fury then snarks back “you’ve been to space.”  But very well, Peter can go back to his group, with the glasses that Stark left him.

Turns out, Fury “upgrades” Peter’s class trip, so they end up going to Prague.  But Peter still has teenage problems to deal with and accidentally uses the new glasses from Stark to set a drone on the guy who is also interested in MJ.  EDITH is augmented reality and connects to a worldwide security network.  When Peter is forced to see Fury again, the man barks that Peter is not ready, but he still has a job to do.  Beck soothes Peter’s nerves, encouraging that the teen is not a jerk for wanting a normal life, and Peter reflects that it is nice to have somebody to talk about superhero stuff (meaning that he’s not close and hasn’t kept up with the other Avengers, and that’s a bid sad).  But it’s soon time to swing into action, with a new black suit so he’s not “Spider-Man.”  Unfortunately, MJ has followed him, along with Ned and Betty, who get put in danger by the Fire Elemental.  (And he gets coined with the term “Night Monkey,” to further throw off suspicion.)  While Peter is fighting the Elemental, something briefly blocks the Ferris wheel his friends are stuck on.  Beck flies into the Fire Elemental and it evaporates, but for a moment, Peter fears he’s lost another mentor so soon after his last one.

Fury pushes his point that the world still needs the Avengers, and maybe Stark was wrong to trust Peter so much.  Beck takes Peter out for a drink (lemonade, since Peter is sixteen here and not old enough to drink).  And Beck asks what Peter wants.  Peter talks himself into transferring EDITH to Beck, because yes, the world still needs Iron Man, but that doesn’t mean it has to be Peter.  Stark trusted Peter to find the right person and he feels it is Beck.  Peter leaves happy, ready to pursue the rest of his plan with MJ.

Except, Beck is not entirely who said he is.  He’s not from another Earth, he’s a former employee of Stark’s, who got fired for how he wished to use his invention.  He is an expert in holographic and illusion technology (which Tony used and renamed “BARF,” which Tony admitted needed a new name), but Stark’s staff saw instability and the man was fired.  He’s joined forces with other disgruntled Stark employees (like the man Stane yelled at in the first movie) to create this “Mysterio.”  The drones they use are weaponized, so the damage is real, but one could fly right through the Elementals.  And with Mysterio, Beck plans to become the next great superhero.  The team is not impressed that Stark handed over the EDITH tech to a teenager.

Peter manages to go out with MJ that evening and she admits she figured out he’s Spider-Man.  Which Peter tries to deny, until MJ pulls out part of a drone she discovered that the scene of the fight.  Peter works out that the threats are fake and has to own up to yes, he’s Spider-Man, and he needs to go take care of this.

Beck discovers that Peter found out the truth while he’s running a rehearsal and decides he needs to kill the teen.  He intercepts Peter on his way to Fury and uses illusions to mess with Peter.  And in typical villain fashion, tells out hero “you’re making me do this.”  Because if Peter had just gone on with his normal life and not gotten involved, Beck wouldn’t have to hurt him.  “I control the truth,” Beck boasts.  And twists the knife in Peter, mocking “if you were good enough Tony would still be alive.”  Peter thinks he’s out of the illusion when Fury shoots Beck, but that is just another hologram, only broken when Peter gets hit by a train.

The teen lives, managing to collapse into a seat on the train, then passes out.  He wakes up in a jail cell in the Netherlands with several kind men, who even covered him in one of their shits because he looked cold.  Peter breaks the lock on the cell so he can leave (and the other men just close the door back up and stay put; Peter’s also lost the black suit to his guard, who is on the phone with his wife).  He then finds another kind man who lends him his phone so he can call Happy.  But Peter is so freaked out by the time Happy arrives, that he demands Happy tell him something only he could know.  Peter initiates a hug with the man, who then patches Peter up.  Peter blames himself for what is going on, then immediately apologizes for yelling at Happy.  He admits he misses Tony; “everywhere I go, I see his face, and the whole world is asking who’s going to be the next Iron Man and I don’t know if that’s me.”  Happy agrees that Peter is not the next Iron Man; no one can live up to Iron Man, not even Tony himself.  He was a mess and second-guessed everything, except for Peter.  “I don’t think Tony would have done what he did if he didn’t know that you were going to be here after he was gone.”  [This is my favorite scene of the film; and don’t you just want to pull Peter into a hug?] 

Then Happy asks Peter what is he going to do.  Peter’s going to kick his ass.  Well, first he has to find his friends, using Happy’s phone because Beck is tracking his (we know he’s on his way to London), and thanks to Flash, so does Peter.  Happy’s jet is well-equipped and there’s a section in the back that is a mini-Stark lab and Peter can rebuild his suit.  Happy (and us) notices that Peter is very reminiscent of his mentor right now.  Happy even turns on the music: AC/DC Back in Black (a call-back to the very first Iron Man movie), to which Peter replies, “I love Led Zepplin!”  [Peter, darling, that is not Led Zepplin.]

MJ shuts down Brad when he tries to bring up how weird Peter has been acting and everyone sides with her.  Beck continues his illusion to Fury, but Happy also manages to get a message to the man about “appearances are not everything,” so the paranoid man is more on his guard.  He drops Peter off in a new suit and goes after Peter’s friend.  Beck begins his assault on London and blows up Happy’s plane, so they have to take cover in the Tower of London.  Peter heads into the drone swarm and starts webbing them so he can shoot electricity through them and disable them.  Hill even gets a shot off at one, protecting Fury.  Beck then sends the drones after Peter (reminder, this teen is already wounded), but Spider-Man makes his way up to Beck (and kind of reminds you of Cap, with a shield and swinging something like a hammer) and punches him, which temporarily shuts down the drones.  His “spidey-sense” warns him that Beck is not down like he thought, but he stops the gun shot.  He takes the glasses off Beck (unfortunately, he’s taken his mask off at this point) and shuts down the drones.  Beck collapses and Peter asks EDITH if the illusion is over.  Yes (but we’re not actually sure if Beck is truly dead).  Peter reunites with MJ on the ground and the couple gets their first kiss.

The field trip returns home (there is a deleted scene where MJ and Peter sleep against each other and it is very heartwarming), Betty and Ned have amicably broken up, and there is another deleted scene where May tells Peter he’ll grow into Tony’s glasses.  Peter takes MJ on a swing through New York City (not something she wants to do again).  But Beck’s team gets the final word, having leaked a video to the Daily Bugle (a controversial news website) spinning that Spider-Man is the bad guy and revealing his identity as Peter Parker.  At the very end of the credits, it is revealed that Fury has been Talos this whole trip; the real Fury is in space.

The twist at the end does explain why Fury has been hard on Peter the whole movie, since it’s actually Talos and he doesn’t quite know how to mentor this teen superhero.  Because otherwise, Fury comes off as a jerk.  Beck is certainly a jerk; all Peter wanted was to trust someone, have someone continue to help him on the hero path.  And Beck just manipulates him.  I adore Peter in this film again.  He’s following the path of a lot of other superheroes; having to balance a personal life separate from the superhero gig.  We root for Peter to have normal teenage experiences, getting together with MJ, annoyed with Brad moving in, but cheering where MJ does not show interest in him.  Does Peter do some embarrassing things?  Yes, but that kind of comes with the teen territory.  And I adore Happy stepping into the role as mentor; he points out that Tony was his best friend, so who else to help guide his protégé?  Though, we do have to ask why the other Avengers left Peter alone.  Everyone separated after Tony’s death (we see what some of them get up to in later series and movies), but seriously, as Peter points out, why is no one else responding to these devastating natural disasters, just this new guy?

Behind the scene irony is that as a Brit, Tom Holland was very close to home when they filmed in England.  And Tom Holland and Zendaya are a real-life couple now.  I have not yet watched No Way Home, but it is on my list, once it is on Disney +.

Up Next: A wrap-up to the Marvel Cinematic Universe, then on to some of my other favorite series, starting with Harry Potter (I’ll put up another post about this soon, but I will say that you are under no obligation to read any of the films I review if you personally dislike them)

“Part of the journey is the end”

Endgame

This is the longest of the MCU movies and was the first film to reach over a billion dollars during its opening weekend in theatres.  It also became one of the highest grossing films of all time.  And if Infinity War had almost everyone in it, this one has even more.

It opens with Clint practicing with his daughter, Lila (you can see the ankle monitor on his leg, like Scott had), with the two boys playing and getting ready for lunch.  Clint turns for a second and when he turns back, Lila is gone.  Then everyone else; picking up with the snap from Infinity War.

We find Tony and Nebula on the Guardians’ ship.  They are trying to limp home to Earth, but now the engines have failed and oxygen is running low.  Tony leaves a recording for Pepper, if she even survived the snap; he’s wounded and knows he’s dying, but he was hoping to pull off one last surprise.  He lays down and we see Nebula make him comfortable.  But a bright light soon fills the screen; Captain Marvel has found them and brings them home to the Avengers compound, to be greeted by Steve, Natasha, Rhodey, Bruce, Thor, Rocket, and Pepper.  Steve is the first to reach Tony.  “I couldn’t stop him,” Tony admits.  “Neither could I,” Steve tells him.  Then Tony stops; “I lost the kid.”  “Tony, we lost,” Steve tries to help with Tony’s guilt.  Then Pepper comes over and is very happy to see Tony alive.

Tony is very thin, sitting with what’s left of the Avengers as they discuss what is going on, reviewing the list of everyone they know to be gone with the snap.  But when Steve asks for any information, Tony gets upset.  He warned them that Thanos was coming years ago and had built Ultron originally to put a suit of armor around the world, but he got backlash.  And because of the rift between Tony and Steve, Steve was not there when Tony needed him (and Tony doesn’t know that Steve showed up and there was a battle in Wakanda).  Tony would rather talk to Carol, since she’s new blood, but passes out in front of Steve.

So Carol decides she’ll give killing Thanos a try (and considering how she handled Ronan and the other Kree, she stands a good chance).  Thor also wants a shot at Thanos again, since he wasn’t able to stop the Titan before.  Nebula knows where to find Thanos.  The rest of the Avengers find the garden and attack; the plan is to use the stones to bring everyone back.  Thanos’ entire side is now charred.  But they discover that he used the stones to destroy them; they’re gone.  Thor cuts off his head.  And the Avengers have to…move on.

Five years pass; Steve is holding a support session, encouraging others to move on with life.  Then we see a van in lock up shake; the equipment in the back lights up and Scott emerges.  Once he gets free, he has to discover what happened.  He finds memorial stones put up and desperately searches for Cassie’s name, instead finding his own.  So he goes the last place he saw her and Cassie is indeed still alive, but five years older and now a teenager.  She’s surprised to see her father alive, but this gives Scott an idea.  He finds the Avengers compound, mainly manned by Natasha while the others are out on missions.  Rhodey brings up that Clint has been out and about and not really a part of them, but Natasha still wants updates (and we actually see her on the verge of a breakdown when she has a minute alone; proving she’s not unflappable).

Scott suggests that quantum physics may hold the answer; what was five years to the rest of the world was five hours to Scott in the Quantum Realm.  So, since time moves differently, maybe they can enter the Quantum Realm at one time in history, but leave it at another time; translation: time travel.  Steve suggests they need another brain to weigh in on this; they drive out to Tony’s house.  His last five years have been better; he has a four-year-old daughter, Morgan [who is adorable and plays with her mother’s helmet; and Tony is totally sweet with her.]  So Tony is not keen to risk his second chance.

So they go to find Bruce, who has fused with the Hulk and is now big and kind of green, but retains his ability to speak academically.  While it’s outside his area of expertise, they persuade him to give it a try.  And the first try…has some issues; Scott jumps in ages, becoming a teenager, an old man, and a baby, before returning to himself.

In the meantime, Tony found a picture of himself and Peter (from behind the scenes) and decides to try a few simulations and comes across one that works.  But he tells Pepper, he could set the work aside.  She knows he won’t be able to rest if he does that.  So he heads to the compound and returns the shield to Steve, or else Morgan was going to turn it into a sled.  He makes it abundantly clear that he has some ideas, but they can’t jeopardize what he has now.  The rest of the team is assembled.

Bruce and Rocket head to New Asgard in Norway to find Thor, who has let himself go, wallowing from his failure.  Rocket lures him with the promise of beer.  Natasha goes after Clint, finding him in Toyoko, executing criminals.  Scott cautions everyone that they only have enough Pym Particles for one round trip each, and ultimately one test, which Clint volunteers for, even after Bruce tries to set everyone straight on time travel (and I don’t get the science myself, so I’m not going to try to explain it).  It works; Clint lands at his home and hears his children arguing, but he’s brought back before he can see them, though he’s got the baseball glove in his hand.

So, the theory and practice work.  Now, they need a plan to retrieve all the stones, primarily when and where.  It delves into a college cram session, summarizing the history of each stone in relation to who had contact with it, and Natasha finally notes that if they pick the correct year, three stones are in New York.  That’s their jumping off point.  Steve gives them a rousing speech: “Get the stones, get them [people they lost] back.  One round trip each.  No mistakes.  No do-overs…Be careful.  Look out for each other.  This is the fight of our lives.  And we’re going to win.  Whatever it takes.  Good luck.”  (And we even hear the theme return.) 

Bruce lands with Steve, Tony, and Scott in New York City, 2012, during the Chitauri invasion.  Bruce will go to the Sanctum to retrieve the Time Stone.  He meets the Ancient One, who separates him from the Hulk again and speaks to Bruce.  She’s not keen on giving up the stone, explaining that time will then branch out once the stones are removed and the events are changed [this notion returns in Loki].  He finally convinces her when he admits that Stephen Strange gave up the stone.  So maybe, Strange was right about something, so the Ancient One hands the stone to Bruce, after he promises that they will return the stones once they’ve used them.

The other three head to the Avengers Tower to retrieve the Mind Stone in the scepter, and the Space Stone in the Tesseract.  We see more of the aftermath of events.  Steve retrieves the scepter and manages to get it away from Rumlow and his team by whispering “Hail Hydra” in Sitwell’s ear.  But 2012 Steve spots him, thinking he is Loki in disguise (Loki does love to mimic Captain America) and the two fight.  Older Steve even has to deal with his younger self quipping “I can do this all day.”  “Yeah, I know,” the older version sighs.  When the younger Steve has the older Steve in a headlock, older Steve whispers “Bucky’s alive,” to shock his younger self into letting go.  Then he knocks him out, and has to agree with Scott and Tony, that his ass is America’s ass.

At the same time, Tony has Scott trigger a heart attack in Tony’s younger self in order to create a distraction to get the case with the Tesseract.  That bit goes fine.  But Hulk finally smashes through the bottom stairs and the case goes flying, with the Tesseract landing at Loki’s feet.  [Which, SPOILER, is how the Loki series starts], Loki picks up the Tesseract and vanishes.  Past Thor is able to restart Tony’s reactor with Mjölnir and save him, huzzah.  But they still have to get the Tesseract.  Scott reminds them that they don’t have the Pym Particles to go back in time again and still get home.  Tony actually has an idea and Steve trusts him enough to go with him.

Thor and Rocket go to Asgard in 2013 during the time when Jane is there with the Aether inside of her, the Reality Stone.  But Thor struggles with being back in Asgard and on the day that his mother dies.  He manages to run into his mother and she realizes he is from the future, and gives him words of wisdom: “Everyone fails at who they are supposed to be.  The measure of a person, of a hero, is how well they succeed at being who they are.”  Thor may be a failure, but that makes him like everyone else.  Thor wants to warn his mother about what will happen to her, but she refuses.  Rocket in the meantime, manages to extract the Aether.  Thor has them wait a moment and holds out his hand.  Mjölnir flies into it.  “I’m still worthy,” he murmurs, with a few tears [so heartwarming.]

Nebula and Rhodey head to Morag to intercept Peter Quill when he gets the Power Stone in 2014, Rhodey simply knocking him out.  However, Past Thanos discovers something is going on because the two Nebulas are connected through their memory files.  Future Nebula is sucked on to Thanos’ ship with her past self, along with Gamora and Thanos.  Thanos accesses her memory and discovers future events, including his death.  Past Nebula will return to the future, portraying her Future self.

Steve and Tony head to Camp Leigh in 1970 (briefly seeing Stan Lee drive by).  Steve will go after the particles, calling Hank’s lab and getting him out.  He ends up hiding for a minute in Director Peggy Carter’s office and glimpses her through the window.  Tony goes down to retrieve the Tesseract and runs into his father, who admits that his wife is pregnant.  Tony, calling himself Howard Potts, gets a few minutes to speak to his father and share advice.  They connect as men who just want the best for their children and wonder if they do the right thing.

Clint and Natasha go to Vormir and meet the Red Skull guardian and face the same dilemma that Thanos faced with Gamora.  Except they both suggest sacrificing themselves.  Clint wants to atone for his actions the past five years and Natasha insists that Clint has a family to return to.  They fight, falling over the edge.  Natasha saves Clint, them pushes herself free, and Clint can’t grab her.  He has the Soul Stone now, but at a great cost.

The team returns and discover the cost.  They all grieve Natasha in their own way, but they have a mission to continue as well.  They place the six stones into an Iron Man gauntlet.  Thor offers to be the one to try it, wanting to atone for his mistakes (and in the midst of the drama, we get the levity of Rhodey saying that Cheez Whiz is flowing in Thor’s veins; honestly, it’s more likely beer, but Thor wants to claim lightning.)  Bruce is the one who takes it and everyone suits up when he tries it.  He succeeds in snapping, but it burns his arm.  There is a brief second that they wonder if they succeeded.  Scott sees something in the window and Clint gets a call from his wife.  But Nebula, the past version, has opened a portal and let Thanos and his ship through.  A rocket hits the compound and causes a massive explosion.

Rhodey, Rocket, and Bruce are trapped and try to save each other.  Clint grabs the gauntlet and keeps it away from some creatures.  On Thanos’s ship, Future Nebula admits to Past Gamora that they did become friends and sisters.  Gamora frees her and declares they should stop Thanos.  And the big three, Thor, Steve, and Tony, all face off against Thanos.  He’s just sitting in the crater he created, waiting for them.  It’s a trap, but their mission is to keep the stones away from Thanos.  Thor summons both Mjölnir and Stormbreaker and declares “let’s kill him properly this time.”

Thanos mocks them that they could not live with their own failure and that brought them back to him.  And he has a new plan; to eliminate all life and remake it.  The three attack, working together.  Tony is the first knocked out.  Then Thor goes after Thanos and gets knocked around.  When Thanos picks up Stormbreaker and is ready to slice Thor, Mjölnir knocks Thanos aside and returns to Steve’s hand.  Thor knew it was possible [and audiences go nuts].  Steve uses hammer and shield against Thanos, but eventually, the hammer is knocked away and Thanos strikes Steve’s shield again and again, chipping it.  Steve is flung away and lays still for a minute.

Inside, Future Nebula tracks down Past Nebula, who tries to get the gauntlet off of Clint.  Past Gamora tries to talk sense in Past Nebula, but her heart is resistant and Future Nebula shoots her before she can hurt anyone else.  Outside, Thanos’s army descends, intent on destroying the planet.  Steve stands up, tightens his shield and is ready to face Thanos again, alone.  Until he hears a voice in his com, Sam, saying “on your left.”  A gold portal open.  Okoye, T’Challa, and Shuri emerge.  Then Falcon flies out.  Other portals open.  Strange emerges with the Guardians and Peter Parker.  Behind them are armies of Wakandans, Asgardians, sorcerers, there’s Bucky and Groot and Wanda and Valkyrie…everyone.  Thor rises.  Pepper lands in front of Tony in her own Iron suit.  Scott emerges from the rubble with Bruce, Rhodey, and Rocket.  The theme returns and Steve calls to everyone “Avengers…Assemble!” (though the “assemble” is softer, but it plays really well) [and again, the crowds in the theatres go nuts!]

The armies clash and our heroes work together.  Peter is reunited with Tony and Tony pulls the kid into a hug [aww!].  Past Gamora saves Quill and he’s so excited for a moment, but she punches him before he can kiss her.  She’s a little disbelieving that she ended up with this guy; as her sister puts it, it was him or a tree.  Clint emerges, still with the gauntlet; they’ve succeeded in bringing the lost people back and now they need to get the stones out of this time.  He’s to head for Scott’s van, but is behind enemy lines.  When he gets knocked down, T’Challa is there to take the gauntlet.  It gets dropped and Thanos starts for it, but Wanda lands in his path.  “You took everything from me,” she growls.  “I don’t even know who you are,” Thanos dismisses.  “You will,” she promises (yeah, she’s back and she’s pissed).  She holds her own against Thanos and he’s in enough trouble that he orders his ship to shoot into the field, not caring for his own troops.  The sorcerers erect shields where they can.  Strange is busy taking care of a flood.

Peter scoops up the gauntlet and activates Instant Kill for the first time.  When he gets overwhelmed, Steve throws Mjölnir, calling out “Queens, head’s up,” and Peter webs to the hammer and flies off.  Pepper grabs him, then Valkyrie.  But the bombardment is too strong.  Until the guns hastily realign to target something incoming.  A bright light tears through the ship.  Carol Danvers has arrived.  She gets the gauntlet from Peter and all the women converge to help her across the battlefield [and it is totally awesome!].  Unfortunately, Thanos destroys the time machine in the van before she can get there.  The blast knocks the gauntlet to the ground and the main three all converge again to try to keep it away from Thanos.  He knocks them aside and grabs the gauntlet, but Carol is right on him.  He manages to get it on, but she spreads his hand.  Not even headbutting fazes her; Thanos has to use the Power Stone to knock her away.

Tony catches Strange’s eye, who holds up one finger.  Tony grabs the gauntlet on Thanos’s hand; he’s knocked back.  Thanos stands, “I am inevitable,” and snaps his fingers.  Nothing happens.  The stones flow onto Tony’s hand; “and I…am…Iron Man” (echoing Tony’s last line from the very first movie).  Tony snaps his fingers.

The army disintegrates.  Thanos sits and ponders what has happened, but he too vanishes.  Rhodey is the first to reach Tony, whose right side is charred.  Peter is next to land, pleading with his mentor, “we won.”  Pepper comes up behind him and passes him off to Rhodey.  She tells her husband, “we’re gonna be okay.  You can rest now.”  And Tony Stark breathes his last, his reactor going out for good [and I still cry over this scene; I’m crying while writing it].  Everyone behind them on the field has tears in their eyes; Steve, Thor.  And Marvel utterly robbed us of a scene they filmed and decided to not keep in, of all the heroes kneeling to Tony, started by Clint, then T’Challa, then Carol and everyone else.

We see Clint reunited with his family, Peter returns to school and greets Ned.  T’Challa is with his mother and sister in Wakanda, Scott and Hope are with Cassie.  We hear Tony speak one last time; he left a message for Morgan, finishing with “I love you 3,000.”  They hold a funeral, with Tony’s original reactor, “Proof that Tony Stark has a Heart,” floating away, and everyone is in attendance.  Happy stands behind Morgan and Pepper, alongside Rhodey.  Steve, then Peter and May, and Thor.  Even Hank and Janet are in attendance, and a grown-up Harley Keener.  The Guardians pay their respects, as do T’Challa, Shuri, and Okoye.  Carol Danvers stands at the back, with Nick Fury.

Clint and Wanda still mourn for Natasha and Vision.  Thor gives the kingship of New Asgard to Valkyrie and decides to go with the Guardians of the Galaxy on an adventure, who are off to find Gamora.  Steve volunteers to return the stones, telling Bucky “don’t do anything stupid while I’m gone,” and they fall back to “how can I, when you’re taking all the stupid with you?”  But Steve doesn’t instantly return.  Instead, he sits by the lake, an elderly man now, and passes the Captain America shield to Sam [and the starting point of Falcon and the Winter Solider].  Steve elected to find Peggy (and possibly start a new timeline, I’m not quite sure), and they finally get their dance.

A great thing they did with the credits is put the original six Avengers at the end of the line-up.  Their theme plays and we get a little montage of their scenes and their signatures, ending with Robert Downey Jr [and audiences applaud].  The final sounds from the film are six strikes of a hammer on an anvil.

This film is a roller coaster of emotions.  There are funny bits, like Rocket telling the Avengers who haven’t been to space to not throw up in his ship.  There are heartwarming moments, like Thor with Frigga and holding Mjolnir, and Tony with Morgan (he has a completely different relationship with her than I’m sure his father had with him, which then makes it more heartwarming to see the two interact later).  And the final battle is what we want in a final battle; the heroes get their moments and I find it empowering that we have the women of Marvel team up.  And Cap said the line!  Admittedly, the writers had to keep Carol away until that moment because she can curb-stomp Thanos and it would be a shorter fight if she had stuck around for more of the storyline.  Her contributions are important; she brings Tony back to Earth in the beginning.  She almost succeeds with keeping the gauntlet away.

Then we have the heart wrenching death of Tony Stark.  And yeah, I still cry because we grew to love this character, and all his flaws, and watch him become a better man and while we know that Robert Downey Jr is still around, it’s the end of an era with no more Iron Man.  And I love seeing the character connections to him; having Rhodey, Pepper, and even Peter with him, and setting Peter close to Pepper and Morgan at the funeral.  And yes, Marvel should have totally left in the kneeling scene (even though it makes me cry more).

The time travel section complicates matters, well, confuses them, but it opens doorways that the MCU continues to explore and it was the way the writers could get themselves out of the corner they managed to put themselves into.  I also do not agree with Steve finding Peggy; well, do I want him happy, yes, but I think he would have had that with Bucky and Sam.  Come on, you reunite two best friends and then tear them apart when they don’t even get to enjoy seeing each other in peace that long.  And I feel it complicates the timeline in ways that make my head hurt.  And it sucks that Vision, Natasha, and Loki were not able to be brought back.  On the one hand, the more realistic stories include loss.  But come on, Loki appears for all of about fifteen minutes between the two final films.  The trade-off I guess is that he got his own show; Vision returns in WandaVision (which was a weird series; and Falcon and the Winter Solider was depressing), and Natasha got her own feature film finally, Black Widow (that sadly, we did not make it through because it was a weird combination of boring in that there were way too many fights and explosions within the first twenty minutes).  Again, it was a roller coaster of emotions.

I’ll delve more into the finale in my wrap up on the MCU after I post Spider-Man: Far From Home

In the meantime, what are your thoughts on Endgame?

“Arm wrestle for the Tesseract?”

Captain Marvel

Captain Marvel is the first female-led solo film in the MCU (and it took them until 2019, after we clamored for a Black Widow story after the first Avengers film in 2012…that they didn’t accomplish until 2021 [and that was confusing enough that I haven’t finished watching it]).  We do have Brie Larson lead as Carol Danvers.  Annette Bening (opposite Michael Douglas [who is Hank Pym in AntMan] in The American President) is the Supreme Intelligence [and Dr. Wendy Lawson].  Jude Law (the younger Albus Dumbledore in the Fantastic Beasts films, Dr. Watson in Guy Ritchie’s Sherlock Holmes movies; he voices Pitch in Rise of the Guardians, and woos us in The Holiday) is Yon-Rogg, with Djimon Hounsou (voice of Drago in How to Train Your Dragon 2) as Korath and Lee Pace (Thranduil in the Hobbit trilogy) briefly returns as Ronan.  Samuel L. Jackson is back as Nick Fury and we also see Clark Gregg back as Agent Coulson.

The film opens in an advanced civilization, on Hala, the capitol of the Kree civilization.  Carol (who goes by Veers at the moment), goes to Yon-Rogg, her commander, for sparring, instead of sleeping.  Because if she sleeps, she’ll dream, and her dreams don’t make sense.  Yon-Rogg urges Carol to let go of her past (which she can’t remember), which is causing her doubt and doubt makes her vulnerable.  He advises that nothing is more dangerous to a warrior than emotion; only when she controls her emotions will she be able to control the power in her hands.  Carol uses the power in her hands to shoot Yon-Rogg back and thus, she has to visit the Supreme Intelligence, the AI leader of the Kree, who will take the image of whom you admire most.  In Carol’s case, it is an older woman, who speaks of the Skrull invasion of the galaxy, that the Kree fight against.  Skrulls are shape-changers and can mimic anyone.  The Supreme Intelligence reminds Carol that her powers were given to her to aid this fight, and they can be taken away as well.  And they are somehow connected to the chip on her neck [and is anyone getting 1984 vibes from some of this?]

Carol goes on a mission with Yon-Rogg and a team to rescue a spy.  Turns out, it’s a trap, and they walk into a Skrull ambush.  Carol is captured and the Skrull start going through her memories.  They find her childhood; boys telling her she’s not fast enough, no strong enough.  But there’s a best friend, and a woman who looks like the Supreme Intelligence.  And something to do with a high-speed engine, and Pegasus.  Carol is able to break free, and even still bound in casings on her hands, she kicks Skrull butt, though she damages the ship in the process.  She again escapes, but crashes to Earth (the Blockbuster gives it away, and setting it in the 1990s), and she is followed by a few Skrull.

Carol manages to contact her team, and Yon-Rogg vows to find her.  In the meantime, Carol meets Agents Coulson and Fury, sent by SHIELD to investigate her crash landing.  Carol manages to save Fury from a Skrull, which proves that she is from outer space, then she pursues one.  Fury drives after her, with Coulson.  Until the real Coulson calls, saying he was left behind, so Fury grapples with the one in his car.  After ditching the train, Carol gets ahold of new clothes and a bike and starts hunting down parts of her memories, like the bar she was at with her best friend.  Fury meets her there, where she’s trying to discover what Pegasus is.  She and Fury team up and find the base where Pegasus is [and again, who is getting Stargate vibes?  Space and the Air Force, underground base, and come on, the bit about a paperclip?]  Fury and Carol get out of custody and search the records, though Fury secretly calls for backup.  Oh, and we find out that badass Nick Fury is a total cat person!

The pair find the file on Dr. Wendy Lawson, mentioned in Carol’s memories, and the person the Skrull are looking for.  There’s a journal full of Kree glyphs, the news that she died in a test flight with another pilot, and a photograph in her file.  The photo shows Wendy, Maria Rambeau, and Carol.  Carol now desperately wants to discover the truth.  Carol calls Yon-Rogg again while Nick goes to meet his backup.  But his boss calls him Nicholas (everyone calls him Fury) and messes up a test Nick gives him [we already know he’s a Skrull after his interaction with his fallen compatriot in the morgue earlier].  The two save each other and Carol flies out of the base with a larger plane; and Goose hitched a ride.

Carol’s plan is to find Maria.  This accident that killed Wendy Lawson occurred six years ago.  Carol arrived on Hala six years ago, near dead, with no memories.  There must be a connection, and Maria will know.  Maria and her daughter, Monica, are surprised to see Carol after all this time, and Monica eagerly goes to find Carol’s things.  Carol asks Maria about the mission.  But they’re interrupted by the Skrull; no, it’s not the neighbor, one snuck into the house and another is keeping Monica busy.  And they’re not too keen on Goose, calling him a Flerken.  The lead Skrull, Talos, asks for Carol’s help decoding coordinates; he has the black box recording.  Listening to it triggers Carol’s memory: she volunteered to fly Wendy’s plane with her, with her new engine.  They’re then attacked by a space craft, and Wendy starts talking about her work and her lab.  Carol manages to get their plane on the ground, and Wendy demands they destroy the engine; it has the power to end wars bigger than Carol knows.  But Wendy is shot before she can follow through, by Yon-Rogg.  Carol follows through and shoots the engine.  That power flows into Carol.  Talos summarizes that Lawson, who went by Mar Vel, found out she was on the wrong side of an unjust war, hence why the Kree were so desperate to stop her.  The Skrull are refugees, who resisted Kree rule.  The Kree then destroyed their planet and began hunting down their people.  The engine that Wendy was creating was to carry the Skrull to a new world, where they could be safe.  That is why they need the coordinates of her lab, to continue her work.

Maria and Carol easily figure out the coordinates, and Talos’s assistant can modify their ship to go into space.  Carol asks Maria to come as a co-pilot and Maria initially refuses, but is persuaded by Monica to go.  Carol also asks Monica to design new colors for her suit; hence why it is the blue, red, and gold.  Yon-Rogg thinks he is meeting with Carol, but discovers a Skrull instead, and realizes that Carol now knows the truth.  So he contacts Ronan to begin an assault on Earth.

Our heroes find the lab and discover that the Tesseract is the core of Wendy’s lightspeed research.  They also discover that there are Skrull refugees on the station, including Talos’s family.  That is when Yon-Rogg arrives.  He and his team capture the Skrull, and force Carol to meet the Supreme Intelligence again.  But Carol fights.  She may only be human, but she recalls every moment in her past when she fell, when someone told her she wasn’t good enough, and she got back up.  She also manages to burn out the chip that controlled her powers.  She resists the blast the Supreme Intelligence throws at her, and breaks from of the control.  Cuffs and bars disappear on her friends, and they all begin working to escape.  Carol meets up with them, gives them the Tesseract; well, Goose swallows it.  Turns out, he really is a Flerken.  She’ll provide a distraction to Yon-Rogg and her old team, allowing time for Maria, Fury, Talos, and company to escape.

With her fully realized powers, Carol kicks butt, though Yon-Rogg and Minn-Erva manage to survive and Minn-Erva goes after the other heroes.  Maria manages some fancy flying and blows Minn-Erva out of the sky.  And that’s when Ronan shows up to begin his assault.  Carol flies up and manages to crash the missiles into each other and then tears through one of Ronan’s ships.  He’s taken aback and orders a retreat; Earth is defended, but he will return for the weapon.  Not the Tesseract, but Carol.

Back on the ground, Yon-Rogg starts yapping, trying to get Carol to fight him without powers.  She’s not playing by his rules anymore, and just blasts him.  “I have nothing to prove to you.”  She drags him back to his ship and sends him back to Hala with a message; Carol will be back to end the war, the lies, all of it.

We find out how Fury’s eye is injured; Fury is playing with Goose, who scratches him; at least he didn’t eat him.  Carol also tells Talos that she will pick up where Wendy ended and help the Skrull find a home.  In the meantime, she gives the Tesseract to Fury for hiding (still inside Goose), and an upgraded pager, so he can contact her in dire emergencies (which is what he was doing at the end of Infinity War).  When Fury returns to SHIELD, Coulson questions him on how he lost his eye, and Fury will neither confirm nor deny the story that has come out.  He also starts outlining the Protector Initiative, but when he looks at the photo of Carol again, he picks up on her call sign and renames it the “Avenger” Initiative.  He will find other heroes out there.

Carol’s line of “Where’s Fury?” ties in with Infinity War and leads right into Endgame (and was filmed in front of a green screen and Brie Larson couldn’t know anything that was going on for fear of spoilers…which is a bad habit Marvel got into as their massive storyline grew).  Cool tidbit; scenes were shot on location at Edwards Air Force base.

It’s a bit jarring, after Infinity War, for this film to jump back about twenty years in the MCU chronology.  And now we have more questions about the Tesseract!  And how exactly does Wendy Lawson fit into everything?  Parts of the story are not well fleshed out, such as do Yon-Rogg genuinely care that Carol becomes her best possible self, or was this all just a long con for him?  It was interesting to bring Ronan into the story, as background to where we see him in Guardians of the Galaxy.  And Goose is hilarious.  The last scene in the credits is him hacking up the Tesseract.

What I like about the film is how Carol kicks butt.  Even before her fully realized powers, she takes on a gang of Skrull with her hands bound.  And even as a human with no powers in her past, she defied any man who told her she couldn’t do something (and sounds like her own father, according to Monica).  She went through training with the Air Force and became a top-notch pilot when few women got the chance.  And I love her line to Yon-Rogg: “I have nothing to prove to you.”  (Can we all give that a cheer).  And I like her banter with Fury, the quips throughout the movie.  Carol is confident in herself, even when she doesn’t have all her memories.

Stan Lee had passed away while this film was being edited, so Marvel Studios put together the special opening logo in honor of him.  His actual last cameo is in Endgame.

Next Time: We are almost at the finish with Avengers: Endgame.  (Far From Home completes the Infinity Sage of the MCU and where we will wrap up this section)

P.S. The MCU also ties-in some elements introduced in this film in WandaVision (SPOILER, in case: Monica is mentioned in the show and we see what happened to her mother)

“Are you going to keep staring at each other until they start shooting at us?”

Ant-Man and the Wasp

This film does take into account the two years that have passed since Civil War.  While it opens with Hank recounting his final mission with his wife to Hope, it comes back to present time.  After Scott survived the Quantum Realm, it gave Hank the idea to look into some of his old plans and he begins a mission to retrieve his wife, Janet (played by Michelle Pfeiffer, whom we’ve seen in Maleficent: Mistress of Evil, Murder on the Orient Express, Hairspray, and Stardust).  Meanwhile, Scott is serving house arrest, though still managing to have a good time with his daughter [which is sweet].

Then he has a dream about the Quantum Realm and sees Janet and a young Hope playing hide and seek.  So he calls Hank.  It’s Hope who drugs and kidnaps Scott (they put an ant in his place to keep the ankle monitor happy).  She and Hank are still upset that Scott took the suit to Germany, but more upset that he didn’t tell them.  But they need what is in Scott’s head in order to calculate a location on Janet.  While Hope goes to get their last component, she encounters a fighter in a white suit who can phase through objects.  The strange opponent is able to steal the shrunk down lab, so they go to an old friend of Hank’s, Bill Foster, for help (played by Laurence Fishburne, probably most famous for Morpheus in The Matrix series).  They are able to find the lab, but also discover that the person is the disappearing suit is a young woman named Ava, who is being helped by Foster.  Ava’s father was another former colleague of Hank’s from SHIELD, but when he tried to build a Quantum Tunnell, it failed.  Young Ava went back; her parents were killed, but she now phases all the time.  SHIELD decided to use her and trained her to become a stealth operative.  Ava and Bill now want to extract quantum energy in order to stabilize Ava.  Hank and Hope fear that will kill Janet, so they get the lab back.

Once the trio attempts the find the location, Janet takes over Scott in order to help (it’s very sweet how she helps, but funny since it’s Scott whose holding their hands and such).  They are successful, but they only have two hours.  Until they find out that the feds are after them and Scott.  Ava, the Ghost, once again gets the lab, and Scott narrowly returns home in order to not break his house arrest.  Cassie is a good-hearted girl and supports her father and urges him to go rescue Hank and Hope when they’re captured by the feds.  They manage to get into the lab and Hank volunteers to go after Janet; Hope and Scott will be needed on the outside in order to fight off all the other interested parties.  Janet manages to find Hank in the Quantum Realm and they begin their return.  But Ava has the lab again and goes to start the extraction.  Bill urges her to wait and ask Janet for help (Hank has already promised Bill his help).  Hope and Scott arrive (after Hope saves Scott after he passes out from growing too large) and hold off Ava long enough for Hank and Janet to return.

It’s a tearful reunion between mother and daughter, then Janet helps stabilize Ava.  Bill and Ava go on the run, but the rest of the heroes get happy endings.  The security consulting business that Scott started gets better business after his associates help capture the bad guys.  Scott gets his anklet off and immediately goes to see Cassie (and her parents are being much kinder to Scott).  Janet and Hank set up house again.  The mid-credits scene sets up Infinity War; Scott goes into the Quantum Realm to collect particles to further help Ava.  But he’s trapped once Janet, Hank, and Hope dissolve from the snap.

I found it to be a fairly enjoyable movie, though I think they put in too many characters who want the lab, since there’s this other guy who has a mole in the FBI, but is also working for someone who wants the tech.  The villain of the film is just misguided.  I’m glad things worked out, but honestly, the movie could have ended halfway through.  I loved Scott’s interactions with his daughter.  And while Hank and Hope don’t immediately like Scott again, they work it out with everyone saving everyone else.  Hope even kisses Scott after she saves him.  They use a lot more shrinking and growing sequences in this film.  (And giant ants are still creepy).

Next Time: Captain Marvel

“Earth is closed today!”

Avengers: Infinity War

This starts bringing together all the other Marvel franchises; almost everyone is back from the previous eighteen movies that span ten years (the Marvel Studios logo even highlights the “I-O” as “10”.)  The film does jump around a lot, since it’s picking up and weaving a bunch of different storylines, to get everyone together. Spoilers will not be marked because I figure most everyone has seen this movie by now.  It opens with a distress call from the Asgardian refugee ship [voiced by Thor director, Kenneth Branagh], which is being attacked by Thanos, picking up from the end of Ragnarök.  Heimdall is injured, most of the people are dead, which one of the henchmen says they should be glad to be part of the titan’s plan.  We see Thanos already has one of the Infinity Stones, the purple Power stone, placed in a glove as he grabs Thor.  He then speaks to Loki and bargains, the Tesseract, or his brother’s head.  Loki initially tells the titan “kill away,” but after a minute he cannot stand his brother’s screams and shouts “all right, stop!”  Thor says they don’t have the Tesseract, but Loki had actually managed to sneak it out of the vault before Asgard was destroyed.  As Loki hands Thanos the Tesseract, he tells Thor, “I assure you brother, the sun will shine on us again.”  He then tells Thanos, “we have a Hulk” [a callback to the first Avengers movie].  Hulk takes on Thanos, but Thanos is able to get strikes in and knock the Hulk to the ground.  Heimdall then calls upon his powers one last time to call the Bifrost and send Hulk away.  He’s stabbed for his actions, which upsets Thor, who is then bound in metal.

Thanos adds the blue Space stone to his gauntlet and Loki offers to be a guide to Earth, to retrieve two more stones.  He calls himself a prince of Asgard, and Odinson (looking right at Thor) as he pledges his undying fidelity to Thanos.  Then tries to stab the titan.  Thanos grabs the god of mischief by his neck and slowly crushes it, though Loki gets out “you will never be a god,” before his neck is broken and he’s thrown to the ground; “no resurrections this time (reference to the two times we had thought Loki had died in previous Thor films, only to still be alive due to tricks).”  Thor has been gagged, so we cannot fully hear his cries (though we are crying [but never fear, Loki returns in his own show, with the second season coming soon]…not that we knew that when our hearts are stomped on).  Thanos uses the two stones to vanish, leaving Thor to cry over his brother.

Heimdall had sent Hulk to New York City; where he crashes into the Sanctum and transforms back into Bruce Banner in order to warn Dr. Stephen Strange of Thanos’ arrival.  Tony is also in New York, with Pepper, mentioning he had a dream that they had a child.  He’s interrupted by Strange and Bruce, then taken to the Sanctum, where Wong summarizes the Infinity Stones for Tony.  Tony and Strange argue about the Time Stone, but they also have to find Vision and the Mind Stone.  Tony has to admit to Bruce that the Avengers split up and Tony and Steve Rogers are not speaking at the moment.  Bruce insists that Tony call Steve, and he goes to, but picks up on trouble outside.

One of the ships has descended, intent on acquiring the Time Stone.  Strange and Wong are ready to fight and Tony’s jogging suit can transform into an Iron Man suit (he has retained an arc reactor, even though he’s had surgery…a slight point of contention with Pepper we saw earlier), but Bruce is unable to transform into the Hulk.  Tony sends him out of the fight.  At the same time, Peter Parker is on a field trip and senses danger.  Ned’s idea of a distraction is to simply yell “we’re all gonna die!” to a bus of kids (driven by Stan Lee), but it allows Peter a chance to slide out a window.  He swings into action and Tony summarizes the problem as the bad guy is from space and “he came here to steal a necklace from a wizard.”  Tony then sends Peter after Strange once he’s been captured; his cape tries to save him, but Strange is still taken aboard the spaceship (his buddy is abandoned somewhere by Wong).  Peter hangs on, and Tony zips after the ship, sending the Iron Spider suit to catch Peter.  Tony then tries to send Peter home, but the little spider hangs on and sneaks aboard the ship.  Tony is able to tell Pepper that he’s on the ship and he may not be home real quick.  Bruce picks up the phone to call Steve.

The Guardians of the Galaxy are the ones to respond to the Asgardian distress signal.  Thor drops onto their ship and he’s not dead yet.  (Drax and Gamora admire his muscles, which makes Quill self-conscious and it’s embarrassing to watch him attempt to imitate Thor).  Thor figures that Thanos will be heading to Knowhere to retrieve the red Reality stone from the Collector, where he had it hidden after the events of Dark World.  But Thor also needs to go to Nidavellir [which in Norse mythology, the realm of the Dwarves, and in the MCU, is one of the Nine Realms], to retrieve a Thanos-killing weapon.  Rocket decides to go with Thor, taking Groot with them; while Drax, Gamora, and Mantis will go with Quill to Knowhere, trying to beat Thanos there.

Meanwhile (because a lot of this is happening simultaneously in the timeline), Wanda and Vision are in Scotland, trying to get time together.  But they see the attack on New York on the news, and Tony’s disappearance and Vision wants to go help.  But they’re attacked by more of Thanos’ henchmen, intent on getting the Mind Stone.  One manages to stab Vision and weaken him and Wanda does her best to hold them off.  Luckily, Steve shows up, along with Sam and Natasha, who help beat off the alien team.  Steve tells them to go home.

Gamora has a flashback to the day Thanos came to her planet, killing half the population, but he adopted Gamora during the fray, showing her how to balance a knife and hiding the violence from her.  She still has the dagger and goes to Quill, asking him to promise to kill her if Thanos gets ahold of her.  She has information that Thanos wants, but he doesn’t know she has.  She extracts the promise from Quill and they share a kissed, watched by Drax.  At first, they think Knowhere is abandoned and witness Thanos threaten the Collector.  Gamora attacks Thanos, even going so far as to stab him.  But turns out, Thanos now has the Reality stone and it was all an illusion.  Thanos is touched by Gamora’s emotions, since she cried after supposedly killing him, and he captures her.  Gamora reminds Quill of his promise and it takes a minute, but he is prepared to shoot her.  But Thanos turns the shot into bubbles and disappears with Gamora.

“Home” is still the Avengers compound for Steve, where Rhodey is dealing with Secretary Ross.  Ross is not impressed with Steve’s appearance, but Captain America is not looking for forgiveness and he’s way past asking for permission.  “Earth has just lost its best defender [referring to Tony],” and they’re here to fight.  Ross wants Rhodey to arrest Steve and his fugitive buddies, but Rhodey shuts down the call and begins planning with the team.  Vision suggests they destroy the Mind stone and feels that Wanda’s powers can do it, but she refuses and Steve won’t trade lives.  Bruce suggests that there may be a way to separate the stone from Vision and keep Vision alive, but he can’t do it.  Steve knows somewhere.

Wakanda is preparing for a fight and T’Challa goes to Bucky; the White Wolf has rested long enough.  Bucky asks “where’s the fight?” when he sees a new vibranium arm.  “On its way,” T’Challa responds.

Tony is not pleased to discover that Peter is still on the spaceship, but they come up with a plan to rescue Strange, sucking the henchman out into space.  Then Tony and Strange argue (again) whether they should return to Earth or not [faceoff between two Sherlocks, oh boy], Tony suggesting that going towards Thanos buys them an element of surprise.  Strange warns Tony that if it comes between saving the Time Stone, or saving Tony or Peter, he will let them die.  Tony quickly dubs Peter an official Avenger [and I’m not sure how happy Peter is about that at the moment; he knows that everything going on is dangerous right now, but there’s still pride there, that Tony trusts him.]

Thanos has brought Gamora back to his ship, commenting that Gamora used to help Thanos with his vision.  She retorts that she has always hated him; she was his prisoner.  She insists that she does not know where the orange Soul stone is.  But Thanos reveals he’s torturing Nebula and knows, from Nebula’s memory files, that Gamora found the Soul stone and burnt the map.  Gamora eventually can’t take her screams any longer and admits that she found the Soul stone; it’s on Vormir.

Thor, along with Rocket and Groot arrive at Nidavellir, only to find that the forge has gone cold.  There is one dwarf left, Eitri (played by Peter Dinklage, whom we know as Tyrion Lannister from Game of Thrones, Trask from Days of Future Past and Trumpkin in Prince Caspian), who made the gauntlet for Thanos in order to hopefully spare the other dwarves (and angry that Asgard did not protect them).  Thanos killed them anyway and hobbled Eitri’s hands.  But Thor offers to help Eitri; they need a weapon.  There’s one mold left, for an axe Eitri will name Stormbreaker, which in theory can summon Bifrost.

At the same time, Nebula escapes Thanos’ ship and calls for the Guardians to meet on Titan.  Strange, Peter, and Tony have landed there and meet the Guardians, who attack, thinking they are servants of Thanos.  Quill is ready to shoot Peter and Tony is ready to shoot Drax; Quill demanding “where is Gamora?” while Tony retorts “who is Gamora?”  They roundabout figure out they’re all from Earth and all against Thanos (though Quill’s not sure who the Avengers are), and hey, they all know Thor.  Tony wants to make a plan, focusing on getting the gauntlet off Thanos and Strange uses the Time stone to examine possible futures.  He sees over fourteen million; sadly, they only win one.

Gamora takes Thanos to Vormir, where they encounter the Red Skull (not played by Hugo Weaving, but the actor does an excellent mimicry of his voice), who was banished to guide others to a treasure he cannot possess.  He informs them of the sacrifice that is required to acquire the Soul stone; a soul for a soul.  Meaning Thanos must sacrifice that which he loves in order to gain the stone.  Gamora laughs at first, thinking Thanos is sunk; he loves nothing.  But he is crying, because he knows he must kill Gamora and he actually cared for her a little.  She struggles, trying to stab herself first, but Thanos throws her over the edge and gains the Soul stone.  All that are left are the Mind stone and the Time stone.

Part of the Avengers have arrived in Wakanda, where Shuri can begin to extract the Mind stone (and proving that she is smarter than Bruce and Tony).  Wanda will guard them, then destroy the stone once it is out.  The arrival of the Avengers is not what Okoye expected when T’Challa was going to open Wakanda; she thought of the Olympics, or at least a Starbucks.  But Steve is happy to see Bucky.  When the army arrives and strikes the dome, T’Challa orders someone to get Steve a shield.  Bruce wears the Hulkbuster suit since Hulk continues to refuse to come out.

Thor enlists Rocket’s help (whom he keeps calling a rabbit) in order to restart the rings and awaken the heart of a dying star so the metal will melt.  They succeed with the rings, but the iris is broken and won’t remain open.  Thor offers to hold the iris open.  Eitri warns him that it will kill him.  “Only if I die,” Thor retorts.  He manages to withstand the star’s light long enough, but collapses from the burns.  He needs the axe, or he’ll dye, Eitri realizes and Groot grows a handle for the axe from his arm.  Thor is restored (and proves he’s a god, because who else could do all that?).

The battle in Wakanda begins and the heroes soon realize they have to open the dome a little in order to keep the battle focused on them and away from Vision.  [And it is great to see M’Baku next to T’Challa and the chants get everyone pumped up.]  It may be the end of Wakanda, but it will be a noble end.  With a cry of “Wakanda forever!” our heroes charge, T’Challa and Steve soon in the lead.  They make a great effort, but numbers are against them.  They soon are overpowered, but Thor arrives in a flash, bringing lightning (and the theme music).  “Bring me Thanos!” he cries and crashes into the fray.

Meanwhile, Thanos is on Titan and discusses matters with Strange, which is really a distraction for the team to get into place.  Nebula arrives and gets a few shots at Thanos.  They manage to get ahold of Thanos and Mantis puts him under, while Tony and Peter work on getting the glove off.  But Quill demands to know where Gamora is, Tony urging him to not engage.  They realize that Gamora is dead and Quill punches Thanos, which wakes him up.  Peter almost has the gauntlet off, but Thanos regains it and Peter has to go catch the Guardians as they’re flung away.  Thanos drops a moon on Tony, then faces off against Strange, powers versus powers.  He grabs the necklace off Strange, but breaking only reveals that it is a fake.  He throws Strange aside and Tony flies back into the fight.  Thanos actually respects Tony (not enough to keep him from stabbing the man) and comments that when half the people of the world survive, he hopes they will remember Tony.  Strange asks Thanos to stop.  He’ll give him the stone in order to spare Tony.  Tony shakes his head, but Thanos gains the green Time stone.  Quill attacks, and Thanos leaves.  “We’re in the endgame now,” Strange remarks.

Bucky and Rocket team up briefly, Rocket remarking he either wants Bucky’s gun, or arm.  Steve and Thor manage to greet each other, but the machines eventually break the dome.  Wanda flies down to help, allowing one of the henchmen the chance to attack Shuri.  She defends herself, but Vision has to join the fight and is taken out the window.  There is a wonderful team up between Natasha, Wanda, and Okoye [and all the ladies cheer, because girl power!]  There’s a bit of hope.  Until…Thanos arrives in Wakanda and uses the stones against the Avengers’ attack.  Vision realizes they have to destroy the Mind stone and begs Wanda until she agrees.  She manages to do so, and even hold off Thanos.  But he uses the Time stone to bring Vision back and rip the stone from his head.  Steve even gets in to keep Thanos’ hand apart, but he’s thrown to the side.  Thor brings his axe down into Thanos’ chest, remarking, “I told you you’d die for that,” vengeance for Heimdall, Loki, and his people.  Well, Thanos’ responds, “you should have gone for the head,” and snaps his fingers.  His hand is charred, but he disappears.

Bucky is the first to disintegrate, then T’Challa, Groot, Wanda, then Sam.  On Titan, Mantia, Drax, and Quill all disintegrate.  Strange tells Tony “there was no other way.”  Peter stumbles to Tony, commenting “I don’t feel so good,” (his spidey-sense warning him).  Tony catches him as the teen mumbles “I don’t want to go.”  And his parting words to his mentor are “I’m sorry.”  [And the Russos crush our hearts!]

Maria Hill and Fury are the last we see disappear in the stinger, while they’re starting to react to the battle in Wakanda.  Fury manages to send something on a pager and all we see is a star symbol appear.

A big deal is made through the bonus features that Infinity War and Endgame were filmed back-to-back over one year.  Which is admittedly a lot of work, not discounting that, but you’re also speaking to people who have watched Lord of the Rings and Hobbit and those took longer to film and had extensive pick-up shooting (we’ll get more into that when I cover those films).  So, we’re impressed, but not blown away.

They also mentioned that the conflict between heroes can be entertaining; and they have a point at times.  Like when Tony and his group face off with Quill and the Guardians; we the audience know they’re all good guys, but they’ve never met, until they realize they all know Thor.  But like in Civil War, we honestly just want all our favorite heroes to get along.  So many times, the heroes were so close to a solution.  So many times, if they had just executed a plan earlier, they would have succeeded.  And they would have, if they were together.

And I get that was the directors’ idea; separate them so that they’re at their lowest point when their greatest threat comes along and it makes an interesting story, but if they had communicated better, then some heartache would have been saved (like the audience’s…cause now we don’t trust you).

We’ll delve more into the results of this film when the story picks back up in Endgame.

Up Next: Ant-Man and Wasp  (which, I have to admit, I have never watched before)

“Guns…so primitive!” Says the woman with a spear

Black Panther

We’ve already been introduced to some of the characters in Civil War, but now we see T’Challa’s home of Wakanda.  Chadwick Boseman is back as T’Challa, joined by Michael B. Jordan (like Chris Evans, he played Johnny Storm in a Fantastic Four film, then came to Marvel and made a bigger hit) as Erik Killmonger, Lupita Nyong’o (she voices Maz in the squeal Star Wars trilogy) as Nakia, Danai Gurira as Okoye, Daniel Kaluuya as W’Kabi, Winston Duke as M’Baku, Sterling K. Brown (he’s appeared in JAG, NCIS and Castle, but he’s also Gordon Walker from early seasons of Supernatural) as N’Jobu, Letitia Wright as Shuri, Angela Bassett as Ramonda, Forest Whitaker (his resume goes back to the 80’s; where he was part of the North and South miniseries [based on the books by John Jakes]; and recently, he’s Saw Guerra in the newer Star Wars universe) as Zuri.  Some other familiar faces are Andy Serkis (Smeagol/Gollum from Hobbit and Lord of the Rings) as Ulysses Klaue, Martin Freeman (Bilbo Baggins in Hobbit, Watson in BBC’s Sherlock) as Everett Ross, David Lee (Krstic in Get Smart, he makes an appearance in several episodes of NCIS: LA, an episode of Castle, and is Moriarty in The Librarians) as Limbani,

The film starts with the “story of home,” a father telling his son how a meteorite of vibranium landed in Africa; the region was later settled by five tribes and called “Wakanda.”  But the tribes fought until the Panther Goddess Bast gave one noble warrior an herb which heightened his strength and he became the Black Panther.  Four tribes agreed to live in peace; the fifth, the Jabari, went to live in the mountains.  The Black Panther is the protector of Wakanda.  The country isolates itself from the world in order to keep the vibranium and its resulting technology safe.

Then we go to Oakland, California in 1992.  A younger King T’Chaka visits two young men, one of whom is his younger brother, N’Jobu.  His tidings are not glad; T’Chaka has discovered that N’Jobu is responsible for helping Kalue steal vibranium.  The man that N’Jobu thought as James is actually Zuri and was sent to keep an eye on N’Jobu and informed the king of his brother’s treachery.  T’Chaka demands that N’Jobu returns home to face the council.

Now, we’re in present day, only a week after the events of Civil War, the news anchor reporting on the death of King T’Chaka and regards Wakanda as a third world country, incredibly poor and a country that does not engage in international trade or accept help.  But T’Challa is working on a mission in Nigeria, rescuing kidnapped women, including Nakia.  Okoye is there to help when he freezes in front of Nakia…turns out, they have a history as a couple.  Nakia wants to continue with her undercover mission, but T’Challa requests her presence at his coronation.  The three return home to Wakanda, panning over the scenery and the jungle actually camouflages a high-tech capital.  The country is a mix of technology and traditional culture, we discover.  T’Challa is greeted by his mother, Ramonda, and sister, Shuri.  (The two joke as traditional siblings and I love it).

Quick diversion to a museum in London, where Erik speaks to a curator and points out a Wakandan artifact.  He’s also poisoned her and Ulysses and Limbani are the medics who respond and shoot the guards so they can make off with the hidden vibranium.

The coronation ceremony is stunning, with a waterfall stopped so the people, arrayed in bright colors, can watch.  Ritual combat is a factor, where tribes are allowed to challenge the heir apparent to the throne.  The four typical tribes will not challenge, but the Jabari arrive and their leader, M’Baku challenges T’Challa, after calling out Shuri as a child in charge of the technology who scoffs at tradition.  (Well, she did just complain about the corset).  He gets a wound landed on T’Challa, but T’Challa is encouraged by his mother “show him who you are!” and pins M’Baku at the edge of the waterfall and gets him to yield.  His opponent has fought with honor and his people still need him.  T’Challa is declared king; “Wakanda forever!” 

Since the powers of the Black Panther were stripped for the contest, he goes through another ceremony to bring the power back.  He also visits the Ancestral Plane, where T’Challa gets to speak to his father again.  T’Chaka hugs his son and assures him he is ready both to rule, and to continue on without his father.  T’Challa asks his father for advice on how best to protect Wakanda and be a great king like T’Chaka.  His father’s response is for him to surround himself with people he trusts.  T’Challa is a good man with a good heart, and it is hard for a good man to be king.

We see T’Challa’s first steps as king.  He wants Nakia to stay, but she likes her missions.  She also encourages T’Challa that Wakanda should be sharing what it has with the rest of the world and helping others, more than they do.  But T’Challa worries that they will lose their way of life.  Next, T’Challa speaks to his friend with the Border Tribe, W’Kabi [who is married to Okoye, general of the Dora Milaje guards].  W’Kabi is willing to go out into the world with his men and clean it up, but inviting refugees into Wakanda just turns Wakanda into the rest of the world.  T’Challa declares that waging war on others has never been their way.  But his first business as king is to bring Klaue to justice.  T’Challa will go with Nakia and Okoye and bring Klaue back for justice.

The interlude in the lab with Shuri is hilarious.  She is easily as brilliant as Tony Stark, but not above recording her brother getting through across the room by her tech.  T’Challa’s mission tangles into a CIA mission with Everett Ross, and the Wakandan warriors are excellent in a fight, but they end up having to chase Klaue in cars.  Still spectacular, but T’Challa can’t kill him in front of everyone.  Ross goes to question Klaue [and it’s a revisit of the scene between Gollum and Bilbo in the cave; Andy’s laugh is back], though he comes out questioning the Wakandans.  Until Klaue’s team comes back to rescue him.  Erik then kills the two spare and goes after Klaue, telling him his next stop is Wakanda.  He’ll make it through because he has the lip tattoo.

In the commotion, Ross took a bullet meant for Nakia, hitting him in the spine.  T’Challa declares they will take him with them, back to Wakanda.  He can’t let him die, knowing they have the ability to save him.  Shuri remarks to her brother, “another broken white boy for us to fix,” but she is able to save him.  Ross is impressed with their tech once he’s awake, but he’s also thrown into the events that follow Erik showing up in Wakanda.  Ross also knows Erik from his work with US black ops.

T’Challa has gone to Zuri with questions; he recognizes the ring that Erik wore while recusing Klaue.  T’Challa remembers his uncle, but never knew what happened; he makes Zuri tell him the truth.  Zuri admits that N’Jobu had helped steal the vibranium so that weapons would be placed in the hands of people to throw off their oppressors.  When N’Jobu drew a weapon on Zuri, T’Chaka killed his brother.  They left; leaving N’Jobu’s son.  T’Challa is horrified, and goes to speak with Nakia.  He’s questioning his father now, and fears he created a worse monster.  Nakia advises “only you get to decide what kinds of king you are going to be.”  They are called to the throne room, where Erik has arrived, having brought a dead Klaue to the border.  W’Kabi is now more upset, since his friend was not able to deliver his promise, but this outsider who bears a Wakanda tattoo, was able to deliver the murderer.

Erik wants the throne so that Wakanda can help liberate his people.  T’Challa once again urges that they are not the ones to wage war on the world.  Erik challenges T’Challa, and as his cousin, he has that right.  T’Challa accepts, though he would rather they find another way to settle Erik’s dispute.  Erik is just hungry to kill T’Challa, blaming him for Erik’s lot in life.  Zuri even steps into the duel, taking the blame for N’Jobu’s death (and breaking tradition) in order to save T’Challa.  Erik just kills him as well.  T’Challa blindly attacks and Erik is able to throw him over the waterfall, to everyone’s horror.  Nakia pulls Ramonda and Shuri away.  Later, she tries to persuade Okoye to leave, but Okoye will remain loyal to the throne, whoever sits on it, even if she doesn’t like it.  Nakia is able to steal one of the purple herbs after Erik orders them all burned so there can be no other Black Panther.  He further declares to the council that by arming the oppressed people, “the sun will never set on the Wakandan empire.”  And W’Kabi agrees; the time has come to either be the conquerors or the conquered.

Meanwhile, Nakia, Shuri, Ramonda, and Ross make their way to the Jabari, with the plan to offer the herb to M’Baku in order to fight Erik.  [This part is sadder in hindsight, since Chadwick passed away in 2020.]  But M’Baku reveals that T’Challa is not fully dead and they have him.  Ramonda administers the herb and T’Challa visits his father again.  But he’s now upset that T’Chaka left behind Erik as a child.  And he rebukes his ancestors: “You were wrong – all of you were wrong – to turn you backs on the rest of the world!  We let the fear of discovery stop us from doing what is right.  No more!”  When he wakes, Ramonda and Shuri refuse to leave, though he gets M’Baku to agree that his mother would be safe with the Jabari.  He also tries to get M’Baku to lend his army, but M’Baku doesn’t quite trust that he and T’Challa are on the same side all of a sudden.

T’Challa shows up in the Black Panther suit as Erik starts to send the weapons out.  The Border tribe attacks (their blankets act as shields) and W’Kabi calls upon their giant rhinos.  The Dora Milaje begin to attack Erik and help T’Challa against the Border tribe.  Shuri and Nakia join the fight and take on Erik.  Shuri has Ross pilot her remote system to take out the ships before they leave Wakanda.  T’Challa is almost pinned by the Border tribe, but then sees Erik go after Shuri, and breaks free.  Now he takes on Erik on Shuri’s train, where the stabilizers will neutralize the vibranium in their suits.  When the Dora Milaje are almost pinned, the Jabari enter the fray.  W’Kabi and Okoye face off, Okoye willing to kill W’Kabi if it will protect Wakanda.

The duel between T’Challa and Erik ends when T’Challa stabs Erik.  Erik finally witnesses the beauty that his father spoke of with Wakanda and T’Challa helps him see a sunset.  T’Challa offers to heal Erik, but Erik won’t live as a prisoner.

There is some happiness with the end of the movie; Nakia and T’Challa share a kiss when T’Challa offers Nakia a way to both stay in Wakanda and continue her mission.  He takes Shuri to California and shows her where he will start an Outreach Center, starting in the apartment where their father killed their uncle.  Shuri will oversee the science exchange and Nakia will oversee the social aspect.  Then T’Challa appears before the UN, pledging to share knowledge and resources.  The final stinger shows that Bucky has been recovering in Wakanda, working with Shuri (and now known as the White Wolf).

Not that I am really in a position to weigh in on some of the cultural aspects brought up in this film as I am not a member of that culture; but I will agree with T’Challa’s statement to Erik towards the end that he was becoming that which he hated.  Erik’s phrase from the throne room, about the “sun never setting on the empire,” that is typically attributed to the British empire between the eighteenth and twentieth centuries; the height of colonialism.  (Heck, even Shuri joked and called Everett Ross a colonizer.)  The Brits took over a lot of land and became overlords to a lot of different people; notably India and swaths of Africa.  It was a phrase that meant the empire was so vast that somewhere, it was always daylight.  And for Erik to now want Wakanda in that position?  As much as Erik may have argued against the notion; he learned well from his training and has more American notions that T’Challa, who was raised in Wakanda.  But he is the one to bring Wakanda into the future and balance between tradition and progress.

That is why we should follow his advice in his speech to the United Nations: “We will work to be an example of how we, as brothers and sisters on this earth, should treat each other.  Now, more than ever, the illusions of division threaten our very existence.  We all know the truth: more connects us than separates us.  But in times of crisis the wise build bridges, while the foolish build barriers.  We must find a way to look after one another, as if we were one single tribe.”  (We still need to do this, five years later.)

Overall, I like this movie.  T’Challa is a well-rounded character; he does not automatically assume that he is right, and will make changes if he discovers something is wrong.  He was more interested in helping Erik than outright stopping him, until he proved too dangerous.  He was angrier with his father for abandoning a child than his uncle’s treachery.  He wanted to bring Klaue back to Wakanda for justice, but also recognizes the give-and-take of diplomacy.  Shuri great and I love the sibling banter.  Nakia and Okoye are strong, independent women who kick butt.  And come on, the fact that the guards to the monarch of Wakanda are all female, elite warriors…we need more of that.  If you ever get a chance, watch the director’s introduction to the film.  Also, the language spoken in the film, Xhosa, is an actual South Africa dialect.

Up Next: Avengers: Infinity War

I’ve put my little note at the end, hoping that you were able to just jump back into the summary.  Work has settled down a little, though I appreciated the chance to do some research for my fantasy series, an ever-continuing process.  I certainly intend to complete the Marvel movies through the end of “Phase 3;” essentially the results of Endgame.  I still have other topics to blog about afterwards, getting into some of my favorite fandoms.  I also want to spend a little more time delving into what I truly love about those fandoms; books, movies, etcetera.  So it may take a little longer between posts and I’m even considering when I finish to go back and delve deeper into topics I’ve already covered.  Alas, it will also depend on my work/life balance, as ever.  But thank you for your continue reading and I hope you continue to enjoy!  Let me know if you ever have insights into the movies I’ve posted.

“You’re late.” “And you’re missing an eye.”

Thor: Ragnarök

The third solo Thor film; the title is part of actual Norse mythology, though Marvel has it occur a bit different than what tradition has passed down.  There is a new villain in Hela (played by Cate Blanchett; Galadriel in Lord of the Rings and Hobbit, as well as the voice of Valka in the latter two How to Train Your Dragon movies.  She’s the stepmother in Kenneth Branagh’s Cinderella, involved in Ocean’s Eight, played Elizabeth I twice, and Marion in Ridley Scott’s Robin Hood).  Jeff Goldblum is another antagonist in the Grandmaster, and Karl Urban is Skurge (Éomer in Lord of the Rings, Dr. McCoy in the alternate universe Star Trek movies, and apparently a stormtrooper in Rise of Skywalker.)  [We’ll cover more on the fact that Marvel has chosen a lot of Middle Earth actors to be in their universe in the wrap-up post.] 

This film starts a little differently, with Thor voicing over a summary, saying he’s saved Earth a couple times and is now a hero.  And he’s been searching the cosmos for the Infinity Stones.  And that is how he ended up in a cage, from which he drops and dangles and spins in front of Surtur, who is destined to destroy Asgard in Ragnarök.  Thor has been concerned about Ragnarök, with the nature of his dreams lately; so if he takes the crown off Surtur’s head, it can never be put in the Eternal Flame and thus Ragnarök will be averted.  But Surtur warns Thor that Ragnarök has already begun and Odin is not on Asgard.  There is nothing Thor can do to stop it.  He still holds his hand out for Mjölnir and smashes through the demons (cue Immigrant Song).  He calls for Heimdall after he takes the crown off Surtur, but he doesn’t get a response, so he has to dodge a dragon (of some sort [could be a reference to the Midgard serpent of Norse legend]).  Turns out, Heimdall is not at the Bifrost, there’s a new guy, Skurge, who is too busy showing off to ladies to hear Thor.  He does eventually answer, after Thor slays the dragon.  Heimdall is a fugitive, after being declared a traitor to the crown.  Thor flies off to confront “Odin,” and Skurge runs behind him. 

There’s a new statue of Loki and Thor discovers a play being performed about Loki’s sacrifice (with Luke Hemsworth [Chris’s older brother; a cousin of theirs is a college girl in the film] portraying Thor, Matt Damon portraying Loki, and Sam Neill portraying Odin).  When Thor addresses “Odin,” he remarks “Oh shit,” then babbles that the Asgardians wanted to honor Loki.  Thor then holds on to Odin, swinging Mjölnir, then threatens that nothing with stop the hammer from returning to his hand, “not even your face, brother.”  “Odin” shouts he yields and transforms into Loki [we already knew Odin was Loki from the last scene of Dark World].  Skurge finally shows up, but Loki’s already annoyed; his new lackey had one job, and didn’t do it well.

Thor now demands to know where Odin is.  Loki knows.  He’s on Earth.  At the Shady Acre Senior Home…that is currently being demolished when the brothers visit.  Loki doesn’t know where Odin currently is, making a crack that he’s not a witch.  Then Loki disappears and Thor finds a card, directing him to Bleeker St; where Thor meets Dr. Stephen Strange; “Earth has wizards now?”  Strange keeps an eye on threats to Earth, including Loki, but all Thor and Loki want is to find Odin.  Strange can help with that (and also show off his magic to Thor [there’s an interesting post on the different ways Loki and Strange utilize magic, being pro-Loki]), and opens a portal for Thor.  He needs his “umbrella” first, which crashes into several things on its way to Thor, and Loki.  Who has been “falling for thirty minutes!”  Strange sends the brothers to Norway.

Odin is sitting calmly, waiting for his sons.  It admittedly took time for his to shake off Loki’s magic, but now, Odin misses his wife.  He knows his time draws near, and he has to warn Thor and Loki that they have a sister, whom he exiled for her violent appetite.  She is the goddess of death, and Odin’s first born.  She draws her power from Asgard and if she resides there, it will be limitless.  He also counsels his sons to remember this place they all saw each other.  Then he turns to gold dust and floats away.

A storm begins brewing and Thor and Loki are ready to fight again, until Hela emerges.  Their clothes transform when they approach her.  She first tells them to kneel.  To which Loki demands, “I beg your pardon?”  [How dare she steal his line.]  Thor throws Mjölnir, which Hela crushes.  The brothers try to make it to Asgard, but Hela attacks them while in transit and throws them out.  When Hela arrives at the Bifrost, she instantly stabs Volstagg and Fandral for moving against her.  Skurge just wants to survive, so she takes him with her.

Thor lands on Sakaar, in a rubbish heap.  A crew try to take him prisoner, but another woman comes along and claims him instead, with a little shocking device (she’s also a little drunk).  Thor meets the Grandmaster and hears about his contest of champions.  If Thor wants his freedom, he has to defeat the Grandmaster’s contender.  Loki is also in the background and the brothers bicker a little; Loki was thrown out first and landed before Thor, but managed to befriend the Grandmaster instead of be trapped.  Loki later visits his brother in the prison, while Thor holds a quiet, private memorial for Odin, which Loki joins.   Though it’s just an illusion; Thor can easily throw rocks through Loki lied to both of them.  Yet, when Thor argues he wants to return to Asgard, Loki insists that Hela is stronger.  They could wait a while, and make their own way off Sakaar and go anywhere.  Thor finally reviews Loki’s actions; he faked his death, stripped Odin of his powers and stole the throne, left Odin on Earth, to die, which released the goddess of death.  And that is only the past two days.  Loki warns his brother that anyone who faces the Grandmaster’s contender perishes; and he’s bet heavily against Thor. 

[Let’s stop and consider a few things for a moment, since Loki is one of my favorite characters: He joined in the memorial for Odin; he still considers Odin to be his father, as much as he sneeringly denies it at times.  He is genuinely concerned for his brother going against Hela.  He claims Hela as “our sister.”  His voice rises when he tells Thor he doesn’t stand a chance.  So, as much as Loki argues to the contrary; he’s still Thor’s brother, he’s still Odin’s son.  And, as Hela pointed out, Loki picked up some of Odin’s mannerism, offering to come to a deal.  And supposedly, the Asgardians didn’t notice a difference in Loki ruling as Odin.]

Meanwhile, in Asgard, Hela greets the guards and claims her right to rule as Odin’s firstborn.  The guards attack and she has fun slaying them all; Hogun being the last one standing.  While Hela and Skurge are busy outside the palace, Heimdall steals his sword from Bifrost (preventing Hela from rampaging the cosmos).  Inside the palace, Hela reveals that Odin covered up the history he had with Hela; how they won the Nine Realms by spilling buckets of blood.  But when Hela grew too ambitious, Odin locked her away.  Below the palace, the dead guards are buried and she uses the Eternal Flame to revive them, along with the gigantic wolf, Fenris [who does play a part in the traditional Ragnarök myth].

Thor is sent to face the Grandmaster’s contender and Korg, his rock buddy in prison, points out that the woman who caught Thor is an Asgardian.  Thor recognizes her as a Valkyrie, due to a tattoo, and tries to ask for her help.  She dismisses him.  Thor then has to face a haircut from Stan Lee, and enters the ring.  Turns out, the champion is Hulk.  Thor is ecstatic; “he’s a friend from work.”  Loki is decidedly not.  But Thor cannot reason with the Banner portion, he cannot use tricks to calm him down.  So they pummel each other, Hulk even smashing Thor like he did Loki in New York, which Loki gleefully shouts “that’s how it feels!” [and the funniest part of the movie].  This triggers lightning to come out of Thor and the ante is upped.  And just when Thor is ready to finish Hulk, the Grandmaster shocks Thor and he passes out.

But he wakes up in Hulk’s chambers (briefly shirtless, I think that’s a rule) and tries to pick up their friendship.  He realizes that Hulk came to Sakaar in the Quinjet and that is a way off.  But Hulk wants to stay.  Thor manages to contact Heimdall and check on the situation in Asgard.  The people hide from Hela.  Heimdall suggests Thor go through the big doorway to get off the planet.  Hulk is friends with Valkyrie and Thor attempts to recruit her, but Valkyrie wants nothing to do with Hela.  She’s happy to drink and forget.  Thor manages to get out and to the Quinjet, but the Hulk destroys it when he wants Thor to stay.  Triggering a video from Black Widow brings Banner back, who is concerned he stayed as the Hulk for two years.  If that happens again, Banner may not come back.

The Grandmaster sends Loki and Valkyrie to find Thor and Hulk, though after a brief fight, in which Loki also discovers who Valkyrie is, they team up with Thor and Banner to get off Sakaar, through the largest portal.  Loki can help them get a ship.  Thor and Loki fight together, and Loki suggests he goes separate ways from Thor.  And Thor agrees; at one point, he thought the world of Loki, but Loki keeps betraying him, and their paths diverged long ago.  He still suggests they do “get help.”  Loki does not want to do “get help.”  They do “get help” and Thor throws Loki at the guards.  Loki attempts to betray Thor, but Thor is a step ahead this time, and slaps a shocker on Loki.  Korg and his revolution eventually free Loki, who takes a larger transport to follow Thor.  Thor steals one of the Grandmaster’s ships and Valkyrie helps clear their path off planet.

Hela and Skurge are threatening the people, who are trying to make it to the Bifrost with Heimdall, but an army is behind them and Fenris is in front of them.  Thor sits on the throne to draw Hela to him.  He even tries to bond with Hela, that Odin’s solutions to problem was to either cover it up, or cast it out.  But Thor is wise enough to know he cannot trust Hela; he’d love for someone else to take the thrown, but she’s just the worst.  In the ensuing fight, Hela slices out one of Thor’s eyes, so now he looks like Odin.

Meanwhile, Valkyrie starts to clear a path for the Asgardians.  Bruce turns into the Hulk and takes on Fenris (after smooshing into the rainbow bridge as Bruce first).  A transport ship arrives for the people, Loki proudly declaring “your savior is here!”  Heimdall knew Loki would show up, and Loki joins him against the army.

Thor is losing the fight against Hela and she taunts him, “what were you the god of again?”  Thor has a vision of Odin, who counsels him that Mjölnir was only a way for Thor to focus and control his power.  And Asgard is the people, not a place.  Thor fears he is not as strong as Odin; not, Odin tells him, Thor is stronger.  This triggers lightning from Thor again and he blasts his sister (notice the pride on Loki’s face), and a repeat of the Immigrant Song.  And a totally epic image of Thor smashing through the ranks with lightning.  The heroes still struggle and Hela tries to stop the transport ship.  Skurge jumps out from where he was hiding to take on the army, but Hela spears him.

Thor realizes the only way they can defeat Hela is to destroy Asgard; she’ll lose her power.  They have to trigger Ragnarök.  He sends Loki (whom he knew would show up) to the vault to put Surtur’s crown in the Eternal Flame.  The devil-like creature is happy to smash, though Hulk tries to take him on and Thor has to call him back.  Hela rallies for a moment, but Surtur still smashes her.  Sadly, the planet is destroyed, but the people survive.  And Loki is there to stand beside his brother (and we hope they did hug).  Loki is not sure about returning to Earth, but Thor feels everything will work out fine.  There is an ominously huge ship that appears in front of them.

I find this film funnier than several of the other Marvel movies. It’s an appropriate amount of humor; Love and Thunder just tried too hard.   Thor is more off the cuff and even Loki is more relaxed.  We continue to see more of a sibling relationship between Thor and Loki, like throwing things at each other, anticipating each other’s moves.  And playing Led Zepplin’s Immigrant Song makes it badass; and the lyrics match well, as my father pointed out: “We come from the land of ice and snow/From the midnight sun where the hot springs flow/The hammer of the god/Will drive our ships to new lands/To fight the horde, sing and cry/Valhalla, I am coming.”

We also witness two kickass female characters…with absolutely no love interests!  Hela reveals in being the goddess of death [Cate Blanchett is plain awesome].  Valkyrie doesn’t take crap from anyone.

I’ve recently started my research on Norse mythology, with a course from Wondrium, that covered the basics of their legends and clearly stated that Marvel got the legend wrong.  It was fairly interesting, though I intend to follow up with some books I already own (including the tome by Neil Gaiman).

At the time of writing this blog, sadly Ray Stevenson, the actor who portrays Volstagg [among other roles, such as Porthos in the 2011 Three Musketeers] passed away on May 21st.

I am incredibly busy for the next month, so Black Panther will be a while coming (but it will come).  In the meantime, who are your favorite MCU characters?

“Yeah, a kid who can stop a bus with my bare hands.”

Spider-Man: Homecoming

Still a part of Sony Pictures, but they collaborated to bring Spider-Man into the MCU.  Tom Holland [approved by Stan Lee] is the newest actor to take on the lead role.  Jon Favreau as Happy Hogan makes an appearance, as does Robert Downey Jr. as Tony Stark.  Zendaya (Greatest Showman) is Michelle, or more commonly called, MJ.  Michael Keaton (Batman in the 1989 film [and it looks like he is reprising that role in the upcoming Flash film]) is Adrian Toomes, AKA the Vulture.  Donald Glover (who we saw as a young Lando Calrissian in the Solo movie), makes an appearance as Aaron Davis.  And if the principal looks familiar, that is Kenneth Choi, who played Jim Morita, one of the Howling Commandos in First Avenger; now he’s Principal Morita, a descendant of Jim.  (Fun side note, Jennifer Connelly voices the Karen A.I in the spider-suit; she is married to Paul Bettany, whom we know in the MCU as JARVIS, in the first few Iron Man suits.  It is also noted that “Homecoming” has many connotations as a title; obviously it is the dance that occurs in the film, then there’s coming home from Berlin, and finally, a homecoming for the Spider-Man character to the MCU.)

We throwback a little to the end of the first Avengers film and a crew is cleaning up the aftermath of the invasion.  They are interrupted by a government agency, the Department of Damage Control, in conjunction with Tony Stark, so Toomes looses the contract and is thus out a fair bit of money.  He and his crew decide to keep the last load of exotic materials they forgot to turn over.  They create gadgets out of them and prepare to change their worlds.  This continues for eight years to bring us to the present day; Toomes now flies around picking up scrap from the Damage Control as the Vulture, with a flying suit.

In Spider-Man’s case, we start with his appearance in Civil War; he makes a behind the scenes video for himself and receives a new suit from Tony.  Then Tony is dropping Peter back off at home, counting this as an internship as an alibi, and tells Peter to keep the suit.  No, there are no missions planned for Peter anytime soon, but keep doing the little stuff and keep in contact with Happy, Tony tells him.  And in a very Tony Stark fashion, also tells the teen “Just don’t do anything I would do.  And definitely don’t do anything I wouldn’t do.”  And so, Peter blows up Happy’s phone, checking in for two months, asking about any new missions and reporting on stopping bike thieves and little old ladies.

We also meet Peter Parker’s friends; Ned, who he builds Lego Death Stars with; there’s MJ, who watches them; Peter also has a crush on Liz.  Sadly, Flash is a bully and doesn’t believe that Peter actually has an internship with Tony Stark.  Peter is also part of the academic decathlon at Midtown Science and Technology school (which showcases Howard Stark, Abraham Erskine, and Bruce Banner in the background), but he’s trying to drop out of nationals since he feels he needs availability in case Tony calls.  MJ points out he’s dropped out of band and robotics club already (she’s just observant, she swears).

Then, Peter comes upon bank robbers with high-tech gear.  He’s got the banter down, but one of the ray guns slices through the bank and across the street, to the bodega that Peter visits during the day.  He rushes over to save the owner and his cat, but now Spider-Man is going to be on the lookout for those weapons.  Peter sneaks home, still in his suit because the garbage bin his bookbag was webbed to was taken away.  He crawls up the wall and through the window, and only discovers Ned when he turns around.  He makes his friend swear not to tell anyone; he doesn’t want to worry his Aunt May.  So now Ned wants to help Peter as Spider-Man, be his “guy in the chair.”

When the boys find out that Liz has a crush on Spider-Man (in gym class, where they show Captain America videos mandated by the state), Ned blurts out that Peter knows Spider-Man through the Stark Internship.  This gains them an invitation to Liz’s party (and we find out she’s a senior, compared to their sophomore status), with Flash cracking that Peter should bring Spider-Man.  Peter’s not comfortable using Spider-Man like that and when he suits up, he discovers lights coming from a weapons deal.  He breaks it up, then tries to follow the bad guys…and we discover that Spider-Man is not meant for the suburbs; there aren’t a lot of tall buildings for his webs to latch on to and for him to swing around.  So he gets dragged around by the van, until the Vulture swoops down and grabs him.  Then he drops him in a lake.  Luckily, the suit has a parachute, but Peter still struggles in the water.  Another suit dives in and pulls him out; it’s Iron Man.  Well, his suit; Tony’s somewhere more exotic.  He does lecture Peter (while showing off there’s a heater in Spider’s suit) and breaks out the classic “because I said so!” line.  Peter should leave the weapons and guys in suits alone; there are other people to handle that (but not the Avengers).  Peter should stay closer to the ground, help the little guy, and be the friendly neighborhood Spider-Man.  Peter points out that Tony thought he was ready for the big leagues by taking him up against Captain America.  To which Tony retorts, that if Cap had wanted to really hurt Peter, he would have [so Tony was counting on Steve not wanting to hurt his friends; at that point, Steve wouldn’t go for the kill…Tony still gets called out for his decision in the fandom].  His parting words to Peter are, if Peter comes across these weapons again, call Happy (who is also busy packing up the Avengers tower and moving everything to the new facility upstate).

On his way home, Peter finds part of the weapon that was shot at him and takes it with him.  Then beats on it with a hammer during shop class, trying to get the power source out.  Ned happily helps with that part.  Meanwhile, Toomes intended for his merchandise to be moved under the radar and not draw the attention of the cops or the Avengers, but now they’re being shot out in the open by an idiot.  Who accidently ends up dead.  There’s talk of a big job, but Toomes wants to hold off yet.  He sends some guys out to track down the missing weapon piece, so Peter spots them at the school.  He puts a tracker on them and finds them heading to Maryland.  It just so happens that Nationals for the academic decathlon are held in Washington D.C.  He gets back on the trip and in his hotel room, has Ned help him pull the tracker out of his suit so Happy and Tony don’t know what he’s doing.  He also has Ned turn off the “Training Wheel Protocol,” giving him more access to the suit.  Including its own A.I. voice, whom he names Karen.  Ned doesn’t think this is all a good idea, but Peter convinces him, then sneaks out to follow the crooks (there’s a deleted scene that shows the school bus passing the Triskelion mess that is still being cleaned up, and MJ comments on the situation; the Avengers are creating a lot of messes that Damage Control is cleaning up and so the crooks have a steady supply of parts they can steal).

Peter does interrupt the Vulture grabbing a load, but gets stuck in the truck, which is then parked in a secure warehouse.  It does allow him time to run a refresher course on his new web capabilities, but he gets bored soon and works on breaking out of the warehouse; especially when he finds out the core of the weapon he found, that he passed along to Ned for safekeeping, is explosive.  Peter misses the decathlon, yet Midtown wins thanks to MJ.  The team heads to the Washington Monument to celebrate and the scanners activate the core, which goes off in the elevator.  Spider-Man races to the scene and scales the building, having to crash through a window near the top, then web the elevator.  It still falls, but he manages to stop it.  He has to grab Liz at the last second, but once she’s safe, he drops.

Meanwhile, the Vulture and his crew are not happy with Spider-Man appearing and breaking up their business.  So, Toomes plans to kill Spider-Man (though he has to be grateful that Spider-Man saved his daughter in DC).

In typical teenage fashion, Peter is riding the high from his rescue and plans to skip out on school so he can continue to be Spider-Man and join the Avengers, but he’s caught by the principal and is in trouble for missing Nationals.  They show another cheesy Captain America video during detention, but Peter leaves when Steve poses “what would Captain America do?”  He gathers web fluid from under the lockers and works on hunting down the crooks.  He tries interrogating the guy he saved from the deal, who turns out to be helpful, but also comments that Peter has to get better at that part of the job; he sounds young and not intimidating.  Peter heads to the Staten Island Ferry to break up the next deal and hangs up on Tony when Stark calls to acknowledge a job well down in DC.  Then the FBI shows up to break up the operation, but Peter still goes after the Vulture.  Webbing one of the guns ends up cutting the ferry in two.  (Vulture has a point when he says Spider-Man is messing with things he doesn’t understand.)  Peter tries to web it back together, even holding the two pieces himself.  Luckily, Iron Man shows up and pushes it together and seals it back up.  It is actually Tony in the suit and he is furious.  When Peter protests that the adults need to listen to him, Tony points out he did; that’s why the FBI was there.  Peter just wanted to be like Tony; and Tony wanted him to be better.  Tony doesn’t want anything to happen to Peter and for that to be on his conscience; so he takes the suit.  Peter protests he’s nothing without the suit.  Then he shouldn’t have it, Tony tells him.

When Peter returns home, May is worried sick.  She knows he’s been cutting class and school and the decathlon.  She knows he’s sneaking out and begs him to talk to her.  She then comforts him when he quietly tells her he lost the Stark Internship.  At school, the principal gives him another chance; Peter’s a good kid.  And he’s on his best behavior now.  He hangs out with Ned and they complete the Lego Death Star.  He apologizes to Liz about decathlon and manages to ask her to homecoming.  May eagerly helps him prepare.

When Peter arrives to pick Liz up for the dance, he sees Toomes and recognizes him.  He’s distracted as they drive to the dance, and the chatting leads Toomes to realizing that Peter is Spider-Man.  He has a conversation with the boy (with a gun in his hand) in front of the school.  In return for Spider-Man saving Liz, Toomes is offering Peter the chance to walk away from taking down Vulture and his crew.  But if Peter persists, Toomes will go after Peter’s family.  Peter makes his decision as he walks into the dance.  He apologizes to Liz, then dashes down the hall.  He pulls out his old suit from under the lockers, but is met by one of the crew outside.  Ned comes along and helpfully subdues the guy, saving Spider-Man.  Peter has Ned call Happy, who is busy with the last steps of moving stuff out of the Avengers Tower (including Cap’s new shield and a magic belt for Thor).  Happy hangs up on Ned.  Peter steals Flash’s car to follow Toomes to a warehouse (he stashed his phone in the car for Ned to track; Ned is thrilled to be Peter’s “guy in the chair”…until he gets caught, then claims he was watching porn).  Toomes attempts talking to Peter again, claiming that guys like Tony Stark don’t understand what it’s like for guys like Toomes and Peter.  In reality, it’s a distraction, waiting for his wings to arrive.  They cut through support columns, which brings the warehouse crashing down onto Peter.

Peter freaks out [and all you want to do is wrap him in a hug] and calls out for help.  He sees his reflection mixed with the mask and recalls Tony’s words, that if he’s nothing without the suit, then he doesn’t deserve the suit.  His resolve strengthens and he lifts the rubble off him [one of my favorite parts].  He gets out in time to catch a ride with the Vulture, who has decided to do the big job, involving a high-altitude seal.  He attaches to the plane, which is autopiloted, and opens a doorway.  Toomes is thrilled with the hull, but Spider-Man breaks the seal.  And Vulture goes after Spider-Man.  The plane looses two engines in their fight, and then Peter has to steer the plane from crashing into a tower.  They crash onto a beach and Vulture goes after Spider-Man again.  Until he spots arc reactors and tries to take off with them.  Peter notices that his wings are sparking and tries to warn Toomes.  When a fire erupts, Peter gets up and drags Toomes out [another favorite part].  He webs Toomes to the gear and leaves another note for Happy, who saw the explosion.

Peter apologizes to Liz again, as she’s leaving school; she just hopes he works out what’s going on.  Happy picks Peter up from decathlon and takes him upstate to meet with Tony.  Tony commends Peter again for his actions and offers him an official place with the Avengers.  Peter considers it for a minute, then turns it down; he’d rather stay a friendly neighborhood Spider-Man for now.  Tony’s impressed, but then Pepper comes out, wanting to know what their announcement is going to be.  Happy has been carrying around a diamond ring since 2008 and throws it to Tony.  Pepper’s not too mad.  At home, Tony left the suit for Peter again and he eagerly puts it back on.  Except May is standing in the background now.  In the credits, we see Toomes approached by another criminal, who wants to know Spider-Man’s identity.  Toomes claims that if he knew who was under the mask, they’d be dead already.  [Yet we shouldn’t commend Toomes too much because he did knowingly attempt to kill a fifteen-year-old, who also happens to be a classmate of his daughter’s.]  And at the very end, is another Captain America video on patience, that sometimes we wait so long for something that ends up being disappointing…no, there is not clue as to the next video and Cap just wants to know how many more PSA’s he has to make.

To be fair, several characters can take part of the blame for actions in the film.  Tony recruited Peter to help fight against several superheroes, but didn’t lay ground rules for Peter after.  Peter himself tries to handle big problems on his own in an effort to prove himself to Tony.  Happy is dismissive of Peter’s calls, but then, Peter did send him a lot of messages, but adults didn’t listen to the teenager when he really had something important to say.  At the end of the day, we still root for Peter because he has honest, good intentions; he desperately wants to help.  He’s just fifteen.  He does show maturity throughout the film; he’s willing to apologize when he can, he’s not keen on being Spider-Man at a party, remarking to Ned that Spider-Man is not there for party tricks.

This movie got me interested in the MCU again, because after the last couple, my interest was waning.  But Tom Holland and thus Spider-Man is adorable, in that way that you want to hug someone and protect them [admittedly, I am not very familiar with the other Spider-Man movies, though I’ve watched the Tobey Maguire ones once; but they seem more serious, while Tom’s is that dorky kid that I relate to.]  I also appreciate Tom’s background in dance (he was Billy Elliot on the West End) and the fact that he can do all those flips on his own; he did most of the stuntwork where possible as well.

This is a well-developed story, showing consequences for actions and gives the villain a motive; though again, he did try to kill a fifteen-year-old, well aware of who he was.  Property was damaged, but only one person died and they were a bad guy and Spider-Man was not the one to kill him.  A low-level criminal even respects Spider-Man for blindly offering to get shot instead of him.  Teenagers are played by teenagers and act like teenager, with appropriate embarrassment.

And at the end, we just want to watch Tony mentor Peter and Peter eventually join the Avengers and become part of a family.  There are several fanfiction stories I found after watching this movie, but I am saving my recommendations for a big Marvel round-up post after the last movie.

Up Next: Some more fun with Thor: Ragnarök