Cinema Civilian

*This review will contain spoilers for Incredibles 2. 14 years ago, The Incredibles amazed us with a compelling story of family and self-identity set in a superhero universe. After viewing the film, I couldn't wait for the sequel. Now, we finally have it, and it is fantastic. Incredibles 2 takes a similar relationship to its predecessor as Toy Story 2 did, with a secondary lead facing several of the same ideas in the first film. In The Incredibles, Bob constantly sneaks around his wife to continue to be a hero, and now Helen is the one doing hero work while Bob watches the kids. This role reversal works incredibly well, and leads to some fascinating development for everyone involved. Furthermore, Helen even saves a speeding train, a direct homage to the opening of the first film. One major strength of this film is the recognition and respect for the original film. We see "archival footage" on the news using footage from the interviews at the beginning of the firs...

*This review will contain spoilers for Avengers: Infinity War Ten years ago, an idea began which sought to create a massive cinematic universe capable of holding its audience... And now, that journey begins to come to a real head. Avengers: Infinity War is the culmination of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, which has now spanned an entire decade. While the universe has its weaker films, Marvel has managed to create an intriguing, and self-sustaining storyline throughout all the entries. And now, we can all sit back and watch the sun rise over a grateful Earth as the Avengers, now joined with almost every hero in the MCU, defeat the Mad Titan once and for all, right? Well, as those of you who have seen the film by now, this was definitely NOT what happened. This is one of the first Superhero films I have actually seen where the good guys actually lose. While many expected this, we may not have anticipated the full scale of what would happen at the end of this film. While it i...

*This review contains Major Spoilers for Star Wars: The Last Jedi I remember watching the closing moments of The Force Awakens, and I was really hyped for the next installment, as Luke was going to return to the screen. The trailer's foreboding dialogue had me intrigued by the thought of where they might be going... Would Rey turn to the dark side?... Has Luke turned dark?... Who is Snook, and how does he fit in the the overall story? And then I saw this film... And it wasn't at all what I expected it to be. While the film itself captures the style of the cinematic series, it runs into some significant challenges with its story, and what should have been significant moments got crossed out in favor of a side story that wasn't necessary. This film has too many self-contained stories that don't have much interconnection. This isn't necessarily a bad thing, unless the side stories take up time that should be given to more prominent problems. I was excited t...

*This review will contain spoilers for Jigsaw **This review will discuss scenes of intense fictional violence. Reader discretion advised. Before I actually begin this review, I find it important to note that I, in fact, enjoyed this film. I was super excited to see this franchise return, and it was a good journey. With that being said, there are definitely major issues with this film. And with that, let's begin... Ten years ago, the team behind the Saw franchise disbanded, stating that they would not return to the franchise unless they had a story to tell... Now, they are back to tell the story... That makes absolutely no sense! While the film delivers what Saw fans desire (creatively diabolical games, a creative twist, and a creepy puppet), the film fails to actually do what it wanted to. The film simply fails in following the lore of the franchise. Let me explain... The franchise follows John Kramer, who, after losing his unborn child and being diagnosed with ter...

*This review will contain spoilers for Thor: Ragnarok I remember seeing the trailer for this for the first time: Thor losing his hammer, and his hair, and ultimately having to fight Hulk. It looked amazing... The film does not disappoint. Here is another great example of a film in a cinematic universe that doesn't rely on the rest of the world. When Thor returns home after the battle with Ultron, he goes to prevent Ragnarok, the prophesied destruction of his home-world. Finding the entity responsible, and promptly defeating him, Thor returns home to find Loki, disguised as Odin, has been running Asgard. Thor exposes Loki, and demands to be taken to his father. After a comedic run-in with Doctor Strange, they find Odin just in time to say their good-byes, as Odin moves to the next life... And the chaos begins... Hela, the godess of Death, arrives to claim her place as queen of Asgard. She seeks to resume the world's history of conquest and destruction. Naturally, ...

*This article, and the resulting series, will contain spoilers for 13 Reasons Why . **This article, and the resulting series, will discuss topics of Sexual Assault, Sexual Harassment, and Suicide. Reader Discretion is advised. "Hey. It's Hannah" These were the opening words of the tapes in 13 Reasons Why , which I reviewed last year ( Read the Review ). Many people don't notice an important comment in this intro though: "Don't adjust your radio, or whatever you are hearing this on." This implies that Hannah intended for the tapes to go public. She expected the listeners to fail. Or did she ever want them to remain a secret... I thought about this about a week back, but never had a reason to discuss this idea. Until I saw this on Twitter the other day: This got me thinking again: If the main point was Hannah's ultimate suicide, why would that warrant a second season? Granted, it could be focused on the lawsuits filed by ...

*This review will contain spoilers for Cars 3 Some of you may know by now that I enjoyed the first cars movie, even enough that I placed in the number 10 slot on my Top 10 PIXAR Films list . The same could not be said for the sequel, which tried to change character focuses and genres, resulting in an overly complicated film, one that is arguably the worst film PIXAR has released to date. Because of this, I was rather concerned when I heard the announcement of Cars 3 . I was worried that the film would be one of two things: 1. a re-skin of the original film in order to regain support for the franchise, or 2. something completely different from the last two films, in another bold change that would wreck the franchise even more. Boy was I wrong... While the film does return to the basic story of Lightning McQueen trying to win the big race, it changes the tone and morals in an alarmingly deep direction. Let me explain... When McQueen wrecks at the beginning of t...