Kelley Reviews

[kelleyschorn]

Kelley Reviews: Mama Mia: Here We Go Again!

Last night I went to see Mama Mia: Here we go again! I had low expectations but high hopes. I recently re-watched the original musical and was shocked by how bad the singing was. All but Meryl Streep and Amanda Seyfried were terrible! I mean, I get that they’d wanted big name actors but come on, at least have other people sing for them like in the first high school musical! I could go on and on but this isn’t a review of the first one, it’s a review of the second.

Keeping that first movie in mind during my viewing I was pleasantly surprised. With many new cast members and a healthy spoonful of auto-tune, this movie was miles ahead of the first one. (Though a couple of the original cast members do get some solos that shouldn’t have been allowed to happen, but they were small—I can forgive that). They improved the music but kept the same kitschy feel that the first one had without going too over the top. In other words it stayed on brand. The story itself had some great improvements with some more serious moments between the characters. Pay attention to what is said throughout, especially in the flashback scenes, there’s some important and easily missed foreshadowing that takes place.

Another plus of the movie is the whole past story that is interwoven with the present. The parallels are wonderful and the men who play the young versions of daughters dads are cast perfectly. They’re also not bad to look at.

While yes, there are some weird random plot things that happen, I almost feel that it could have been purposeful due to how many of those there are in movie number one—though I know they weren’t. Despite these things and the cheesiness, I would recommend seeing this movie. In the end there are some truly beautiful, touching moments between the characters that made me a little emotional, which surprised me. It’s a fun watch and thoroughly entertaining throughout!

Beware! This is the SPOILER part of the review! 

What I liked: 

As I said above, I liked the music! Overall I thought the new cast was decently talented enough, especially for a movie from this franchise (if you can call it that). Sophie has always been good and Lily James of course we know from the live action Cinderella, was great. The three young guys were also pretty decent when they were required to sing—they weren’t amazing, but they were passably good for this movie. Even Donna’s two friends seemed to have improved; maybe it was the auto-tune, but, whatever it was they definitely sounded better.

I really liked the story as well. The overall plot felt more real than the last one and I think it even adds to the first movie. In the first one, the pain Donna felt from being betrayed by her lovers felt a little flat to me. It was nice to have it explained. I also loved the fact that Donna was dead—stay with me. At first I was disappointed, but then I came around. It added a huge emotional subplot that made for some really sweet moments between the characters. At the end, when Sophie sees her mother during her son’s baptism I even got a little emotional! Great plot point. very smart move from the writers.

The look. This movie has a very specific aesthetic that I think is beautiful and fun. There’s this one scene in which Sophie and sky sing “One of Us” and they keep going from NY to Greece and the transitions were very creative—almost creative enough to mask how bad Dominic Cooper’s voice was in comparison to Amanda Seyfried. Almost. And the revamped hotel contrasting how the town looked in the past, even to the choreographed dances it all felt cohesive.

The outfits. Especially the ones from the 70s they were awesome! I want those ruffled jeans! I want all of young Donnas outfits.

What I didn’t like:

Alright so there is a lot not to like in this movie if you don’t buy in to the inherent cheesiness and kitschy-ness of Mama Mia. That being said, ignoring all that, there are still problems that could have been addressed to make this movie even better.

The older actors singing. I will say, Rosie and Tanya, played by Julie Walters and Christine Baranski,  greatly improved their singing somehow in this movie. Maybe it’s the auto-tune or maybe they let them sing more seriously in this movie, whatever it was, they sounded better to me in this one. Dominic Cooper and Pierce Brosnan however, had not improved. They actually got worse. And yes they had very minimal singing, but guys! If you knew they were still bad why’d you let them sing??

The horse. When young Donna meets Sam, she is seeking help for this horse that’s been trapped. He helps her out and the horse is sort of there in the rest of the movie but doesn’t really matter overall. And the woman at the end who actually owned the horse and the future hotel, what was she doing?? She basically observed that this random girl had moved into her place and was riding her horse was like “yeah sure that’s fine”? What? I think they should have had her get caught in a storm and stumble into his house for shelter or something like that. The horse worked at the beginning but then the writers were just like, “Crap now we have to incorporate this horse to make it seem relevant.”

Speaking of Sam. I wanted more of him, and not just because I enjoy him. He’s the guy who broke her heart. I needed more scenes of them together—at least one more. Or a montage maybe. Sure their relationship was believable-ish but it did feel like they were fulfilling a checklist of Donna sleeping with all of them. Like okay let’s give just enough background to make it believable that she would do him.

Last thing—I think. Donna’s whole “I’m not that kind of girl” act throughout the movie. It got a little annoying. Especially when she literally had sex with Harry the same day she met him because he was hot, nice, and a virgin. If that doesn’t scream “that type of girl” I don’t know what does! Not that I’m judging Donna but if that’s her character, commit to it. Her actions said one thing and her mouth said another. Even her friends weren’t surprised to see that she had several guys on her hook when they came to visit. If they had committed to her character a bit more, the type who falls in love easily and fast, it would have felt that much more believable.

All that being said, I still loved the movie and had a great time watching it. I recommend it to anyone who loved or just kind of liked the first one. This one is better and highly entertaining. Let me know what you thought of this movie! You can follow me on twitter @alwayskelley and join the conversation!

[kelleyschorn]

#BoostMyBio

My WIP: CHILD OF CHAOS

YA Fantasy

So I’m actually not sure if I’ll be done with my editing in time to participate in Pitch Wars, but I wanted to do this anyway, 1. Because it seems really fun and a cool way to connect with people and 2. Because I haven’t posted on my blog in a really long time. I’ve already made some writer friends following along with the #PWPoePrompts this month which has been a great introduction to the twitter writing community. I feel so honored to have been welcomed into the open arms of fellow creatives who understand that writing is hard and sometimes heartbreaking, our characters are our babies, and that there is no “right way” to write.

Good Luck to everyone who enters Pitch Wars this year! I hope the experience is a good one for all of us! Now without further ado, here’s a little bit about my WIP:

The idea for CHILD OF CHAOS sprang into my mind in the 7th grade after reading the Pendragon series. That series is still one of my favorites even after all these years. In its initial form, COC was my own personal adventure where I was the heroine, I had not one, but TWO guys after me, oh and shapeshifting. I still have that original single subject notebook that I completely filled with my story and I also have the file that came from it—a whopping 20k words! I didn’t finish it at the time but I still find that impressive for my 7th grade self.

Through the years I had a few more attempts, two in high school and two in college, the final of those two being the one that finally stuck. The story has since evolved from where it was all those years ago and it’s been cool to watch the transformation. One of the ideas that stuck from all those years ago was the idea of shapeshifting being an ultimate superpower. I always wondered why everyone chose flying or invisibility as their ideal superpower when shapeshifting gives you fifty powers in one!

As the plot was developing, I was also influenced by the world around me. Specifically the extreme polarization of our country. I had very eye opening conversation my senior year of high school that showed me that, just because I was raised to believe that one side was completely wrong, didn’t mean it was true. As I went to college, I discovered that people always have reasons for believing what they believe, and in their mind, those reasons are good, despite what the opposing side might say. I explore these ideas in my WIP and it has been really interesting to do so.

So here you go:

KAT is a seventeen year old junior in high school who wakes up one night after a party to discover her neighbor and classmate wandering into the woods next to their street. Fearing that he may still be drunk and get into trouble, she runs outside to find him and bring him home. When she catches up with him in the park, she sees him disappear into a glowing portal. On impulse, she follows him through.

LUKA is a general in the rebellions force called Valyr. On a routine mission to take a city, he and his troops are ambushed. During the battle, Luka receives important information regarding the war from a spy. He escapes with the information but accidently winds up in the magic-less realm, Falen. Upon his return home, he’s followed by a girl he met there. Now he’s stuck with her and a war that needs to be won.

ALYX is the son of the tyrant queen Naza and the heir to throne of the kingdom Atyra. He has worked alongside his mother’s advisor’s his whole life, learning what it takes to lead the kingdom. At a pivotal meeting, he is informed of the final task he must fulfil before his mother will step down to allow him to take the throne: infiltrate Valyr and take it down from the inside.

WHY I THINK I’D BE A GOOD MENTEE

Honestly I won’t know until I try it. I think I’d be a good one though because of my dedication to my story. I WANT to be a better writer and learn how to improve my craft. I WANT to get my story published so that I can share it with the world. I have big dreams and I want someone to dream big with me and for me.

I love constructive criticism. I have a degree in architecture which means I spent the last four years of my life learning how to take and apply constructive criticism while still defending my work. I love for the critiquing process to be a conversation in which we both work together to come up with the best results.

ABOUT ME:

I’m Kelley, a 22 year old cat mom from Texas. I just graduated with a Bachelors in Environmental Design (aka architecture) from Texas A&M University (WHOOP!). I will be moving to Kansas in a few weeks to begin working on my masters. I think I’ve always been a writer, but I haven’t always known that. As a kid, I read every book I could get my hands on and today I also love movies. This blog is where I write movie and book reviews, which help me to better analyze my own work.

I’m mostly self-taught when it comes to writing. By that I mean I took a semester creative writing class in high school and then one last semester at A&M. I also mean that I have been reading articles, listening to podcasts, watching Youtube videos, and stalking Pinterest to learn anything and everything I possibly could about writing for the past three years.

I also write poetry and occasionally perform my poems at open mic nights.

Other important things about me: I love cats. I’m Catholic and love my faith. I loveee all the Marvel movies (except for the 2009 Incredible Hulk but we all pretend that never happened anyway).

I like to use my writing to explore things about the world and in my own life. I also have anxiety. I’m mentioning that because mental health is a serious and important issue and it is one that I like to explore with my writing. In a way, my writing helps me to understand my own mental health better and I hope that my writing will be able to help my readers as well.

[kelleyschorn]

Kelley Reviews: The Hazel Wood

Can we take a moment to appreciate that amazing cover? Seriously, it’s beautiful!!

This book was recommended to me by my cousin a few months ago. I went out the next day and bought the hardcover from Walmart and put it on the shelf in my room where it say for another month and a half until I took it with me on my family’s weekend vacation to Galveston. Though the book started off a bit slow, I soon became wrapped up in both its characters and mysteries. I’ve been reading mainly through Audible for about a year now and this book was the perfect reintroduction to physical reading. Audio books are great, don’t get me wrong, they allow me to read on the go, but physical books require full emersion and this book was the perfect choice for that.

The Hazel Wood, written by Melissa Albert, follows a seventeen year old girl named Alice who has lived on the road with her mom her whole life running from the bad luck that seems to follow them everywhere they go. When they finally settle down in New York, Alice and her mom, Ella, think that the bad luck has ended. For a while, it seems as if they’re right, until one day Ella is kidnapped by something Alice can’t explain and she has to face the facts that the fairytales that made her grandmother famous may not be as fictional as she’d once thought. Teaming up with one of her classmates, Finch, who happens to be a super-fan of her grandmother’s stories, Alice embarks on a journey to find her mother and the truth once and for all.

The language used in this book is beautifully descriptive. It finds the balance between giving the reader amazing imagery while not bogging down the pacing of the story. The way she brought these dark fairy tales to life had me reading late into the night and closing my closet door before bed! This book was creepy in all the right ways. The story keeps you guessing too, to the point where I thought I had it figured out and then—BAM plot twist, okay never mind I have no idea what’s going to happen next!

I loved that this book was a novel but I would also totally read a spin-off if Albert were to release an anthology of all the full stories from the Hinterland. I loved how dark these stories were and I wanted more!

Overall I liked this book a lot and found it to be a total page-turner toward the end. I would definitely recommend this book to anyone out there looking for a great fast read.

WARNING: The next part of this review is more in depth, where I will talk about specific elements of the story that did and did not work for me. It contains SPOILERS. If you have not read this book yet PLEASE LEAVE and come back to join the conversation once you’ve read it.

WHAT WORKED

The concept. Sure, the fairtales are actually real thing has been done before, but it hasn’t been done like this. Melissa Albert found a way to turn this age old idea into something that felt fresh and new. I loved Alice was a stolen story and I really loved the idea of the Spinner and that she was the creator of the stories. I think this concept spoke to me in a special way because I am a writer too. The thing is, the idea of the Spinner could have become cheesy so easily but she pulled it off so well that it was just awesome.

The theme. The theme of choosing your own fate and exercising your free will over someone else’s preconceived ideas for your life was very powerful and very present throughout the story. The moment that solidified and clarified the theme for me was towards the end when, in response to Alice’s question as to why the mysterious red headed man would help her, he responds, “because I’m not just a part of someone else’s story.” (That is a paraphrase because I lent the book to a friend, but you get the idea) After that moment everything that had happened in the book was given new life as I was able to recognize the clear motivations behind the characters.

Brief conspiracy theory about the theme: I do not know at all if this is true, this is just what I was thinking as I read the story. My thoughts are that there is some spiritual symbolism in this theme, that the Spinner represents God and her stories are God’s plans for people. She believes that people should decide their own fates not anyone else. (I personally don’t view God in this way but this is what I felt the theme was going for and I appreciate it for what it is: a statement on how the author views the world.) I may be off on this so Melissa, if you read this and I’m wrong, I’m sorry to have misinterpreted you.

The writing. I mentioned this above and so I’ll be brief here, but the writing was very good. Again, beautiful and haunting imagery made this story come to life vividly in my head and, being someone who typically doesn’t like a lot of description, I found that she had the perfect balance of description and story.

The plot twists. Did not see Finch’s “death” coming at all. In fact, I thought I had the story figured out (and was bored with what I thought it was going to be) and when that happened I literally gaped. Great twist. Loved that. Alice being a stolen character from the Hinterland, and the red headed man being from her story, loved that also. I liked that he and Ella had been love before and the tie in that Alice always thought he was her dad. The revelation of the Spinner, I know this wasn’t necessarily a twist, but to me it felt like one because it reoriented how I understood the world of the story. Again I loved the Spinner and thought she was a brilliant idea.

The fairytales. These stories and their characters are so cool! As I said above, I want more! These stories and their various elements that we got to see are what creeped me out so much that I had to shut my closet door at night! I LOVED them. And I really want Melissa Albert to release all of the stories on their own as a companion book or something. I wonder though, if she really does have all of those other stories fully written and realized or if she just came up with cool intriguing names for the other ones. Honestly I could see it both ways. One of the things that bothered me though is that we never found out the ending to Alice’s original story, I get why, the reasoning given in the book is very believable, but I do wonder if the author herself just never figured it out—I highly doubt this but I do wonder about it. The story alludes to the fact that the end is not pretty and I still want to know what it was.

WHAT DIDN’T WORK

Some logical things about the fairytales. Some parts of the book made it seem like the Story characters were stuck in their stories, couldn’t leave, and never varied. But then we had Twice-Killed-Katherine and her cabbie friend running all around the real world causing mischief and we find out that the doors caused by the stolen stories caused problems with them leaving the Hinterland and causing trouble in our world. Maybe the stealing of the stories broke them a little bit and gave them the ability to leave their stories? But then wouldn’t their story freeze like Alice’s every time someone left? Why did the Spinner not have an issue with these incidents? Also how the heck did the redheaded man leave to find Alice those times if the rest of the people in her story were frozen at the beginning? Wouldn’t he have been frozen too?

The characters. I felt that the characters were okay. I saw that she was trying to make Finch want to be in the Hinterland for real because his life wasn’t that great but we more saw the chip on his shoulder about being rich. His character was so happy and “everything is fine” that his betrayal of Alice and ultimate goal to go to the Hinterland felt a tad bit disjointed. Alice herself had to grow on me but at the same time, I really liked how the author made her not want to need people. There were some really well-done moments to do with that particular characteristic. I wish she would have foreshadowed the fact that Alice’s anger had a reason behind it. We find out at the end that she’d still had some of the ice in her left over from her story which I thought was a really neat detail and I think it would have been an even stronger moment in the story if there had been some more ground laid for that revelation.

The beginning. The beginning was a bit jarring for me because it felt like an info dump of Alice’s background. That being said, Alice’s background and how she grew up becomes crucial to the story but I still would have liked maybe a prologue showing them feeling from some bad luck? Which I think was sort of there at the very beginning and then, like she had, more flashbacks about how she grew up.

Overall, I really did love this story. I’m excited to see what Melissa Albert writes next and still hope that she’ll release more of those amazingly dark fairytales in the future!

What did you think of The Hazel Wood? Do you agree with points or is there something I missed? Join the conversation and let me know!

[kelleyschorn]

Kelley Reviews: Forever Fantasy Online

Honestly I’m behind still on my movie reviews but I finished this book last week (read by the talented Josh Hurley courtesy of Audible) and I could not stop thinking about it! This book is the first in a series and written by one of my current favorite authors, Rachel Aaron and her husband, Travis Bach. Can I just say, RELATIONSHIP GOALS. This story to me felt like Sword Art Online but different and better! It follows two siblings, Tina and James, as they play their favorite virtual reality game: Forever Fantasy Online, or FFO as they refer to it in the book.

Both siblings use the game to escape their not-so-ideal actual realities. Tina is a college student, working hard to stave off loans and James is the failure older brother who blew through both of their college funds and now works multiple jobs. The game makes them feel more alive, until they get stuck there. Here is where Rachel and Travis’ mastery of wielding a full cast of memorable characters really began to shine.

Tina is stuck in a hard side of the world filled with monsters to fight and surrounded by less than competent fighters with which to fight them, but that doesn’t stop her from being the in-game leader she’s been playing for the past few years. Tina is an amazing leader and, for me, it was really really cool to read about a strong female warrior leader who wasn’t annoyingly bossy, was competent, and above all strong. Though James’ timeline was my favorite to read, Tina was my favorite POV character because of all her amazing qualities.

James ended up on the opposite side of the world stuck in the savannah inhabited by cat-people. The reason James’ storyline was my favorite was because, though his situation was still dire, it was less immediate life or death like Tina’s and I got to see more of the world and learn more about the true nature of their situation through his eyes. Shout out slash special mention of my favorite side character: Arbati. (Forgive me if I spelled this wrong, I listened to the audiobook so I’m taking a guess here). The head warrior had such a strong personality and character arc in this book and I loved every minute of it.

When I first started reading this, I reached out to Rachel to ask if she and Travis had split up the writing by character—I asked this because, at first, James reminded me a lot of Rachel’s character, Julius from her Heartstikers series—however, Rachel informed me that they both wrote both characters. That shows the true talent of both of those people right there. I tore through this book. I tore through this book in two and a half days. And that CLIFF HANGER oh my gosh! All I can say is that I am so thankful they are fast writers! According to their websites the next one comes out Fall of 2018! Ya’ll rock!

Overall I would definitely recommend this book. I devoured it and the pace was nonstop, there were no lulls, no real “stopping points” which made it so hard to put down! Also for sure check out Rachel’s Heartstrikers series because it is also absolutely amazing and devourable.

WARNING: The rest of this review contains HELLA SPOILERS in which I discuss more in depth what did and didn’t work for me in this book so if you haven’t read this book PLEASE LEAVE.

WHAT WORKED

The concept. I have to say I was very worried when I first read the description of this book because it sounded like the exact plot of Sword Art Online (an anime), but it so isn’t. The concept that somehow this “virtual world” was a real world and that all of the NPC’s (Non Player Characters) were stuck in the game is so original and, when I figured that out in the book, so mind blowing! Because the concept was so strong the plot was even stronger. Both of them fighting for their lives and for a world that they don’t belong to and yet they feel like they do because they’ve spent a good portion of their lives in it. So good.

The characters and themes. I raved about them already above but, once again, I love TINA. She is so strong and such a good leader. I also love that she is a giant 800 pound rock lady. AKA a female main character who isn’t the societal definition of beauty—I don’t know if they did that on purpose but I appreciated that. I also really liked NicoBaby and SilentBlade. I love Nico’s personality a lot, again with the distinct characters and Rachel and Travis just knocking them out of the park! Seriously can’t gush enough about how much I love their characters. SB is such a little mystery ninja and I can’t wait to learn the answers to all the questions that were set up about him in this first book. Is he a forty year old man with as many cats? Is he a celebrity? Honestly I don’t know what they’re going to do here since we don’t really know anyone else important in Tina’s life from the outside (yet). So either he’ll be someone shocking, like a girl instead of a guy, or a forty year old cat-man, or he’ll be someone shocking from her real life that we find out about later, those are my predictions anyways. I loved every single character in James’ storyline. Every. Single. One. Arbati was so fun to watch change. One of my favorite moments with him was when James when to see him in the wagon on the way back to the clans and he broke down about how many times he had died. That was such a powerful moment and it made my heart ache for him. Speaking about theme, I loved how you can really tell what is important to these writers by the themes in this story (and in Heartstrikers).  They fight racism through James with Arbati and the Knolls (Nolls? Again, audiobook, I’m so sorry). They also show the power of diplomacy and the use of words to open understanding rather than violence. And with Tina they showed that if you use enough force, people can and will be motivated to save their own lives!

Honorable mentions that I won’t get into or else this review would be hella long: The intricate and creative settings. The fact that the villain has a (glimpse of a) heart. The super cool magic system. The super cool way that the rules of the game intertwined with reality once they were stuck.

WHAT DIDN’T WORK

The characters. Just some minor things because as I said before, these characters have captured my heart! James reminded me A LOT of Julius from the Heartstrikers series. His voice and the way he thought, the way he values diplomacy over violence, were very similar and even to the fact that he is considered to be a failure by his family. I will say though, he gives a lot less diplomatic speeches than Julius did which is the one thing I didn’t care for about Julius so that’s a plus. Don’t get me wrong, I still love James, it’s just that the similarities were there and I couldn’t help but make the connection.

The timeline. This threw me off. I’m not sure if it was because, in listening to most of this book while at work (hehe) I might have missed an explanation, or if it just wasn’t there but the game characters claim to have been stuck in this game for 80 years. The book never mentions how long FFO has been out in Tina and James’ world, or if it does, it’s at the beginning when we don’t know that that detail is important to remember, but I feel like it hasn’t been out for 80 years. Maybe it was 8 years and every one year in “our world” equals 10 years in the “game world”? Neither Tina nor James point out the strangeness of this and there isn’t a conversation about it. Again, I could have missed it because of the whole Audiobook at work thing so let me know if this is the case.

The SB Tina ship. This mostly works for me. Mostly. I think that a lot of it was told rather than shown and that more showing of their chemistry, especially maybe in some more reaction scenes (if we think of scenes as action/reaction) when there is less imminent death then that might help in the next book. Also I’m so worried about how the heck will they get together when they are no longer attracted to each other?? (This isn’t a part that didn’t work it’s just a worry that I have in general, I really liked that detail a lot actually.)

OVERALL: I loved this book! I can’t stop recommending both it and Heartstrikers to everyone I know and I can’t wait to see what happens next! Their writing inspires me to write more and write better. I know this review was a little long but I couldn’t help it!

Next up: Incredibles2 and maybe I’ll review It by Stephen King and maybe I’ll see Jurassic world even though I hated the last one and I know this one will be bad. We’ll see.

[kelleyschorn]

Kelley Reviews: Tag (Spoiler Edition)

*If you’ve already read my non spoiler review of this movie, skip to after the SPOILERS sign!

Quick word about the movie poster I chose for this review: It’s not my favorite one because this one kind of makes the movie look stupid but I went with image resolution over image content.

That being said, I was hooked on this movie since I first saw the trailer. The concept was original and it even had the added interest of it being based on a true story, “we’re not kidding”. So many things drew me to this movie from the plot to the fantastic trailer and then there’s the amazing cast. Tag is a comedy inspired by a real group of ten friends who have been playing the game of tag since high school. There is a great video on youtube that gives a more in depth look at the real story that you can find right here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d8C-VFbP-JQ

Because this reality acts as more of a writing prompt than a fully realized story, the writers for Tag exercised their own creative liberties when telling the story inspired by this amazing group of friends. There are hundreds of potential stories that could come from this prompt and I think the writers were smart to pare down the cast from ten to five so as to make a story that was more easily grasped. The movie centers on Ed Helms’ character, Hoagie, and his goal of finally tagging their impossible-to-catch friend Jerry, appropriately played by Hawkeye—I mean Jeremy Renner. Lately I’ve been a bit put off by comedies that rely heavily on jokes centering on sex and hoping that this will convince the audience that the crappy plot is worth overlooking for the crass punch lines. That being said, movies like Game Night and Tag have been a breath of fresh air in comparison. While both do have similar jokes throughout, they also have a good plot to stand on making room for situational humor to shine through.

While some critics disliked Tag, saying that it lacked the fun loving essence of the true tale it draws from, I would say that those critics missed the point of the movie. Without giving anything away, I would say that this movie exemplifies the importance of staying young, even when you get older. It does a great job of portraying the realities of keeping up with old friends and the fact that, while you may not see them as often as you did in high school, when you get together, it’s like no time has passed. Not only does Tag give you all of those warm and fuzzy things, but it also delivers them in a hilarious way! I saw this movie with my mom and sister and we were dying laughing throughout. The all-star cast definitely helped with this as well as the quality of the story itself.

The plot was kind of all over the place with some seemingly pointless subplots and some downright unbelievable moments but overall, I would say that this is a solid comedy and it stands out among others in its genre.

WHAT WORKED

The cast. What an awesome cast for a comedy am I right? I love Ed Helms because the Office (duh). I love Jake Johnson because I know him from New Girl. And I love Jeremy Renner because he is Hawkeye and he basically plays Hawkeye in this movie and I was all for it. Of course I also love Rashida Jones and I felt that she was a bit underused in this movie. If a less talented cast had been chosen, I would not have liked this movie nearly as much as I did. I especially feel that Ed Helms did an exceptional job seeing as how his role required more seriousness than his fellow cast members.

The plot. Yes there were issues with the plot, but what worked for me was the direction they chose to take the story in. Also the fact that they chose a direction in the first place. Like I said above, the original story acts as writing prompt and I think that that is pretty cool. This is what the writers came up with based on that prompt and I or you or anyone else would have come up with something completely different. They had to create a fully fleshed out story from that one tiny prompt! Writing is so cool! Ok nerd-out over. Anyways what worked for me about the plot were the more serious” themes of friendship and the importance of staying young, even when you get old. Despite it being a comedy, I found these themes, and the implementation of them touching. Also the twist at the end was unexpected and pulled off really well by Ed Helms. I didn’t believe it at first but once I knew it was real, it added so much depth and clarity to the story. Again, props to you Ed for pulling that character off so well. I also loved how they included a lot of the real life epic tags from the source inspiration seamlessly into the plot—the tagging at the funeral, the dressing up as an old lady.

The characters. The characters for me is where the comedic elements in this movie really shined. Such a wide range of characters for some epically hilarious interactions. I loved Hoagie signing up to be a janitor despite his “PHD in veterinary science and a flourishing practice” (I’m paraphrasing but you get it). Randy and all of his weed jokes were great and the scene where he’s smoking in the basement with his friends reminded me of That 70’s Show. Jerry was made even more funny to me because he was played by Jeremy Renner. I could totally see Hawkeye being all about this and being this hardcore in the Marvel Universe. (I know I said the nerd moment was over but I lied—sorry!) Hannibal Buress had some funny moments as Sable but some of them fell flat. I felt like his character lacked some of the cohesion the other’s had, like they couldn’t really decide what comedic angle they wanted to go with him so with his tragic back story some of the jokes just felt a bit awkward.

The funny. A lot of the jokes came from the absurdity of their situation and I loved that! They didn’t have to rely heavily on cheap sexual jokes (the adult version of fart jokes) to be funny. The premise and the characters themselves created hilarious scenarios for the viewer’s entertainment.

Small highlight to the parts where they show the gang as kids and how this game started and then it shows them as adults driving next to those kids as a transition—that part was genius!

WHAT DIDN’T WORK

The plot. Ok so here’s my issue, some of these subplots just didn’t really add anything to the movie for me. The Randy Vs. Callahan romance subplot. This was unnecessary. I do love Rashida Jones but this did not add anything to main plot other than (maybe) some more characterization of the characters. I don’t think it was needed and I don’t think it added anything significant to the plot other than a distraction for those characters that causes them to miss Jerry and that could have been done by a lot of other things, (Randy could have gotten too high, Callahan could have been distracted by flirting with the reporter). The other subplot that I have some issues with is the reporter. She was literally only there as an interpreter for the audience so that we would know what was going on. She never really advances the plot and doesn’t ever cause any sort of drama with the group. She’s static and could have been used better. I’m not saying that it wasn’t a clever way to clue the audience in, but I think they could have paired her with Callahan as a romantic interest (I shipped it) to at least give her some sort of importance. Or as a more extreme fix, I would have taken her out altogether and had one of the guys, maybe Hoagie, narrate and explain various things throughout—though I’m more in favor of the love interest thing because she did bring some comedic elements of just not knowing what’s going on.

The scene at the wedding shower. Specifically the giant traps and the extremes Jerry went through to mess with his friends took me out of the story a bit. I get that it was supposed to funny how absolutely ridiculously into the game these grown men were but some of the jerry stunts pushed it a bit too far for me.

The characters. I already explained my issues with Sable and the reporter but the other characters that didn’t quite work for me were Cheryl (Rashida) and Hoagie’s mom. Hoagie’s mom felt like a lazy character to me. Like the writer’s forgot about her until the end and were like, oh wait, how can we make her funny? Let’s just make her into one of her son’s friends. I thought maybe it would have been funnier to have her be one of those completely unaware types, like all this stuff is happening around her and whenever she finally looks around, it’s all gone. And then Cheryl, her plotline was doomed from the start but as far as that subplot goes, what smart woman in her right mind chooses the unemployed broke pothead living with his dad over smart successful Callahan in a choice between two exes?? Ok rant over. That character had no real purpose in the story, I say cut her out.

While I did have all those issues, I did thoroughly enjoy this movie. I laughed a lot and was fully entertained. I would highly recommend this movie it was a fun one! Unfortunately I do not have a ticket stub to show for this movie because the theater I went to screwed me over! I’m just not going to go to that theater anymore, It’s not worth losing my precious ticket stubs!

Let me know what you think of this review and what you thought of Tag! If you liked this review please share it! Stay tuned for the next one: The Incredibles 2!

[kelleyschorn]

Kelley Reviews: Tag

Quick word about the movie poster I chose for this review: It’s not my favorite one because this one kind of makes the movie look stupid but I went with image resolution over image content.

That being said, I was hooked on this movie since I first saw the trailer. The concept was original and it even had the added interest of it being based on a true story, “we’re not kidding”. So many things drew me to this movie from the plot to the fantastic trailer and then there’s the amazing cast. Tag is a comedy inspired by a real group of ten friends who have been playing the game of tag since high school. There is a great video on youtube that gives a more in depth look at the real story that you can find right here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d8C-VFbP-JQ

Because this reality acts as more of a writing prompt than a fully realized story, the writers for Tag exercised their own creative liberties when telling the story inspired by this amazing group of friends. There are hundreds of potential stories that could come from this prompt and I think the writers were smart to pare down the cast from ten to five so as to make a story that was more easily grasped. The movie centers on Ed Helms’ character, Hoagie, and his goal of finally tagging their impossible-to-catch friend Jerry, appropriately played by Hawkeye—I mean Jeremy Renner. Lately I’ve been a bit put off by comedies that rely heavily on jokes centering on sex and hoping that this will convince the audience that the crappy plot is worth overlooking for the crass punch lines. That being said, movies like Game Night and Tag have been a breath of fresh air in comparison. While both do have similar jokes throughout, they also have a good plot to stand on making room for situational humor to shine through.

While some critics disliked Tag, saying that it lacked the fun loving essence of the true tale it draws from, I would say that those critics missed the point of the movie. Without giving anything away, I would say that this movie exemplifies the importance of staying young, even when you get older. It does a great job of portraying the realities of keeping up with old friends and the fact that, while you may not see them as often as you did in high school, when you get together, it’s like no time has passed. Not only does Tag give you all of those warm and fuzzy things, but it also delivers them in a hilarious way! I saw this movie with my mom and sister and we were dying laughing throughout. The all-star cast definitely helped with this as well as the quality of the story itself.

The plot was kind of all over the place with some seemingly pointless subplots and some downright unbelievable moments but overall, I would say that this is a solid comedy and it stands out among others in its genre. Unfortunately I do not have a ticket stub to show for this movie because the theater I went to screwed me over! I’m just not going to go to that theater anymore, It’s not worth losing my precious ticket stubs!Let me know what you think of this review and what you thought of Tag! If you liked this review please share it! Stay tuned for the next one: The Incredibles 2!

To see a more in depth look at what I thought of this movie, check out my spoilerific review!

[kelleyschorn]

Kelley Reviews: Ocean’s 8

I was really excited to see Ocean’s 8 when it came out. I had been seeing trailers for it for a while and thought it looked like a really cool lady heist movie. I didn’t find out until pretty recently that that it was part of a larger series. The week leading up to the movie’s release I watched Ocean’s 11 and LOVED it! I loved the cast and the cool, effortless confidence of the characters and the cinematography and of course the epic twist at the end pushed this movie onto my list of legendarys. I’ll admit, I did not watch 12 and 13 but I think 11 is all you need in order to get the gist of what this new movie is drawing from. If you haven’t seen any of the previous movies, however, yes you might miss out on some references but overall you won’t be lost.

Ocean’s 8 follow’s Daniel Ocean’s sister, Debbie Ocean, on an epic heist of her own with an all female crew to boot. The movie starts out in the same way as 11 with Debbie’s appeal to be set free from jail and, like Danny, she walks free in the gorgeous outfit she was arrested in. She immediately meets up with her partner in crime (and in life) Lou, aka Rusty, and begins her master plan which she has apparently been thinking about the entire time she was in jail. The rest of the movie follows the general plot of Ocean’s 11 albeit less interesting. It’s a fun movie to see and I would definitely rewatch it. It’s one of those that would be a good movie night movie with loud friends because you don’t have to pay much attention to it but it’s a beautiful movie with a solid plot and an all star cast.

I will say this, if you liked Ocean’s 11, then you will like Ocean’s 8. If you are looking for a new fresh take on an old concept then you may be disappointed.

WARNING: This review contains spoilers of both Ocean’s 8 AND Ocean’s 11!

WHAT WORKED

The cast. Of course I have to mention the cast first and foremost, we’ve got Sandra Bullock playing lead as Debbie Ocean and then we have the rest of them: Cate Blanchett, Rihanna, Helena Bonham Carter, Sarah Paulson, Awkwafina, Mindy Kaling, Dakota Fanning and James Corden. With a cast like this you can bet that the acting was spot on. They all performed the roles that were written for them with ease. I think of course Sandra Bullock was a standout for me as well as Anne Hathaway—that being said, they did have larger roles so they were able to stand out more than the others. I thought that Dakota Fanning and Rihanna could have been used more and overall the writing could have been better. There wasn’t much glaringly wrong with it (see WHAT DIDN’T WORK), but it could have been better.

The aesthetic. The look of the movie was beautiful and no one can argue that. The jewelry and dresses and the elegance of the ball were on point. There was even a fashion show earlier in the movie emphasizing the theme of “the look.” I would say that these flashy elements are so prevalent that they become an unspoken visual theme that radiates throughout the entire movie.

The heist. And by heist I mean the plot—sort of. The heist worked because nothing went wrong. Everything went exactly as Debbie Ocean said it would even down to the “twist” which really didn’t hit me as hard as it could have. Sure Anne Hathaway’s character caught on and just decided to join in with the criminals, because that isn’t glaringly convenient. And sure the one guy who is on to them is a sort of kind of family friend of Debbie and helps them in the end and causes no real tension. Again, the heist worked, it just didn’t work as well in terms of story as it could have.

Enjoyability. Yes this is a made up word. I’m sure all negative five of you who read these are so shook right now. What I mean by “enjoyability” is that I really did like this movie. It was a good movie, the look was on point, the acting was on point, and the story worked fine. It wasn’t a great movie but I saw it with my friends and, like I said, I’d watch it again. A lot of movies that are great are not necessarily re-watchable. Movies like the Revenant, Call Me by Your Name, and Three Billboards are intense movies-GREAT movies, but not movies you’d sit down on a Friday night to casually watch with some microwave popcorn and a glass of wine. Those movies are intense and require a commitment. Movies like Ocean’s 8 however, I could re-watch and enjoy multiple times.

That being said, let’s get into what I didn’t like.

WHAT DIDN’T WORK

This part has more comparison’s to Ocean’s 11 and so spoilers for Ocean’s 11.

The plot. As I said above, the plot could have been livened up more than a little bit. There wasn’t a single point in the movie where I was really scared or worried or on the edge of my seat. Maybe that once scene where Mindy Kaling’s character is working in the bathroom in the kitchen but even then only for a half a second. In Ocean’s 11, because I can’t help but compare, I was truly worried that Danny was putting the whole heist in jeopardy by trying to get his wife back. In this one, the whole revenge sublot was weak and felt like an afterthought. In 11, we got to see the why behind the wife conflict: that she left because he was theif and that was hard for her, that she was now with a man who was an ass and who didn’t appreciate her. With this one, we never truly see Debbie get really hurt or upset or angry about the incident with her ex getting her arrested. This is the man that she threw her life away for and she never lets her guard down so we can see her real emotions.

The characters. I mentioned my issues with Debbie already so I’ll give my two cents on Anne Hathaway’s caricature, I mean character, Daphne Kluger. I was talking to a friend of mine about this and we agree that the writer’s made Daphne “too” ditsy to be taken seriously. Her character felt unrealistic and sort of took me out of the world a bit at some points. One example was when she was with her designer Rose and she almost broke down because she was afraid of not being beautiful but then was instantly fine again after Rose gave her a mini pep talk. Anne should have been one of the original crew because she’s played badass roles before and could have done a great job with it. Or they could have just made her character more believable, more normal. I don’t think she had to be that way in order to fall for Debbie’s plan. A brief word on James Corden. I love James Corden but they gave him such a pointless role. He was the only one who was on to them, who could have brought them down and they made him a family friend who was cool with being bribed. Um, what?

The “big reveal.” Once again, following the predetermined plot set by Ocean’s 11, there had to be a big reveal at the end. This one did not pack nearly as large of a punch as the previous movie. When I watched 11, I was shook by the end when we find out that the video of the vault was prerecorded in Danny’s practice vault. On top of that, he got the girl and did in fact simply walk out of the casino with the stolen cash. Such a good ending! In Ocean’s 8, we *shockingly* find out that, omg, they stole more jewels! I don’t know, this just wasn’t a hugely mind blowing thing. Don’t get me wrong, it was still a good twist, but they could have layered it. They could have made the revenge-on-the-ex-part, part of it somehow or included James Corden in on some aspect of the twist as well.

Like I said before, overall this movie was good, but it could have been great. Especially if they had gone in a fresh new direction that made references to the first one instead of feeling like a knock-off.

Join the conversation and let me know what you thought of Ocean’s 8 by leaving a comment and sharing this review on social media! Stay tuned for my next review: Tag.

[kelleyschorn]

Kelley Reviews: Hereditary

Ok so. This movie is probably the scariest movie I have ever seen. Before this movie, the scariest movie I had ever seen was the Witch so surprise surprise that the creators of that movie also did this one. It’s not that it has a lot of jump scares or anything but there was just something about it that disturbed me to my core and something heavy about it that sat with me long after I had left the theater. I even had to call up my best friend on my drive home because I didn’t want to be alone in my car in the darkness of the drive!

In my last blog, my review of Upgrade, I gave a short synopsis for those of you who hadn’t seen the movie. The problem here is that the trailer is a bit of a misdirection so giving a true synopsis would be a spoiler. What I will say to those of you who haven’t seen this movie yet is that there are some shocking moments paired with a slow but intense build that ends with what can only be described as a terrifying shit show. I will say, if you go to this movie, pay attention to the shadows, to the corners of the screen and to the backgrounds. There are sometimes things there and I’m positive I missed a bunch of them because I only started to notice them at the end. For those of you who love scary movies, this is one of the good ones. To me, a scary movie that disturbs me this much is what the genre’s goal is all about. To make you scared not just because things are jumping out and shocking you, but because it touches on our deepest fears as human beings and reminds us of them in the safe environment of a movie theater. Scary movies remind us of our humanity and, at times, give us one hell of an adrenaline rush.

And now let’s get to the review.

If the giant picture wasn’t clue enough, this is where the SPOILERS start!

WHAT WORKED

Let’s talk about those actors! Honestly, the acting in this movie was incredible! I always appreciate a well-acted scary movie and this one outdid itself with the casting. I didn’t have a problem with a single one of the main characters. Toni Collette did an AMAZING job with her character Annie. Annie goes through so much shit and has been through so much shit already and Toni does an excellent job of portraying this character’s journey—a journey that is tinged with disaster after disaster and ends in an all-out loss of sanity. I also loved Alex Wolff’s performance comes at a close second. Here’s a plot twist: so the trailer leads you to think that the family’s young daughter, Charlie, is the main focus of the movie but it’s actually Alex’s character, Peter, who holds the focus of most of the movie. So much happens to Peter and I think Alex was perfectly cast in this role because he made this character and he was one of the factor’s that made this movie so good. And then of course there is Charlie herself, played by Milly Shapiro who, I am so happy to report, looks so much cuter and nicer and less creepy on her IMDB than she does in that movie. She did an excellent job playing the family’s disturbed daughter and her look all the difference. Also, from a short clip of an interview I say about her, she is a huge horror movie fan and has seen many of them!

The tension. This has been mentioned in a few other reviews but dang this movie was filled with tension! Usually in a scary movie, when a scene goes quiet, that means that a jump scare is imminent, but that moment often never came in Hereditary. This meant that there were no jump scares to ease the tension so the tension just stayed and continued to ramp up and up as the movie went on.

The cinematography. Now I don’t know that many technical things about the making of movies, but I do know that the way Hereditary was shot and edited showed that someone with master level skills much have worked on it. Some highlights include: the shots that parallel Annie’s miniature model art. Some of the scenes are shot in such a way that they almost look like they could also just be scenes from the doll houses Annie creates. Also those shots of the house when it pops from day to night as if someone has just flicked off the light—that was a really cool affect.

The idea for the story itself really worked for me, and by “worked for me” I mean deeply disturbed on some basic human level. Now, I will say this, being Catholic, the demonic aspect of this film terrified me! As you go on in this movie it is slowly revealed that the dead grandmother was a part of some demonic cult and I just don’t mess with that stuff. Nope nope nope. Especially at the very end when they were having their ritual and everything, ugh I just wanted to douse myself in holy water and call it a night. I had to call my best friend on the drive home because I didn’t want to be alone in the dark and then I had to watch the bachelorette before bed so soothe my now disturbed mind.

WHAT DIDN’T WORK

So honestly, not much about this movie did not work for me (double negative—I know I’m sorry). But seriously! The only thing I will say that really stuck out to me was the way the people at the end, the mom included, floated in the air. I’m fine I guess with the floating people aspect because it did lead to some truly scary moments in the film (for example when the mom is kneeling and bashing her head against the entrance to the attic in the ceiling) but for the most part it sort of took away from the horrible real-ness of the movie. I had the same complaint about the Witch as well. I don’t know how they could ground that element in reality, maybe it’s the fact that its completely silent and the effect feels fake? Again, I don’t know the solution to this other than just taking it out altogether.

Overall I would say this movie was absolutely AMAZING and that I never want to see it again. It did it’s job—it reminded me of my humanity and it made me feel deeply intense emotions and that’s really all anyone could ask for from a movie.

Thanks for reading my blog! Join the discussion by commenting on my twitter or any other of my social media platforms. Coming next: Ocean’s 8 and Tag!

[kelleyschorn]

Kelley Reviews: Upgrade

Yet another movie that I saw alone. Keeping up with the latest movies is busy work but for me it’s worth it! There are just so many good movies that come out that I can’t let any slip by my radar! I saw upgrade the day after I saw Adrift and let me tell you, that was quite the change of pace! This action packed, sci-fi revenge movie is fast moving, intense, and has some bad-ass fight scenes. It’s about a man, Grey played by Logan Marshall-Green, who gets into a terrible accident that is not so accidental leaving him a quadriplegic and his wife dead. From there Grey gets an AI implanted him to help him move again. This and the fact that the police investigation seems to be going nowhere, sparks his highly violent revenge mission against those who ruined his life. There are some twists and turns along the way and, like I said before the film is extremely violent and gory. Aside from this the movie was enjoyable and entertaining and kept me on my toes throughout. I definitely recommend this movie, just maybe don’t take along your five year old.

 If you haven’t seen this movie yet, you should probably stop here and come back and join the discussion after!

Without further ado, here’s my in depth look at Upgrade. (In other words, this is where the SPOILERS start).

 WHAT WORKED

 Logan Marshall-Green does a great job portraying a broken man on a revenge mission. I had previously only seen him briefly in Spider-Man Homecoming so I was curious to see how he would handle the lead role and I am happy to report that he performed excellently. Because in the fight scenes, he is literally watching this AI use his body to kick ass his facial expressions or horror and disgust are priceless and add a needed comedic element to these scenes as well. The way he fought too with the jerky precision of a killer robot really sold the concept that he was being controlled by STEM.

 The concept. The concept of this movie was captivating. I loved how effortlessly we were introduced to all the technology. They didn’t have to over explain anything, they just showed us the smart house and the self-driving talking car and we got it. I also liked that it was a grungier future world. Just because technology gets better, doesn’t mean we get cleaner as a whole society! It felt very realistic to how our own world might look in the near future. Fancy self-driving cars and homes that do everything for you and only the wealthy being able to afford such things while others exist more behind the technological heights. For me, the world made me think about things a little bit like how episodes of Black Mirror makes me think about things—but less scary.

 The twist. Well, the double twist. When I found out it was the doctor I wasn’t quite shook, but I didn’t expect it. It wasn’t completely mind blowing but again, I didn’t expect it. And THEN, when we find out it’s not the doctor but STEM. That one really did throw me. The final fight between him and the cop had me at the edge of seat the entire time. The tension was there and I was there for it. At the very end of the movie, the line that is my favorite line from this movie overall was when STEM says through Grey, “He’s in his head where he wants to be. Living in reality is harder…” I admit I don’t remember this line word for word because I saw it over a week ago but if you’ve seen it, you know the line. Earlier in the film, Grey visits a hacker and all around them are these people who live for days and weeks in VR and he asks the hacker why. The hacker responds by saying that line. Something about how reality is harder and more painful than the fake reality. When STEM delivers this line at the end it gives it much more meaning and power. It gave me chills.

 A lot of little details worked for me as well. I loved the look of the car. I loved that Grey was suspicious and resistant of technology because I could see myself being like him in a world like that. The fact that the world was patrolled by drones, again one of those things that to me, doesn’t feel too unrealistic of a next step from where we are.

 WHAT DIDN’T WORK

 So one part of the concept that didn’t quite work for me was that it did feel reminiscent of irobot at the beginning. Normal guy who rejects technology and even has his own car that he can drive himself and doesn’t drive on its own. That sense was quickly wiped away and yes, this thing is a bit nit-picky. Another nit-picky bit I’ll point out is that, while the self-driving car feels so advanced, clean and sophisticated, the arms that are installed to help out Grey after he’s paralyzed, look and feel like those stiff arm robots they have today. I thought those could have had a cleaner look to match the feel of new technology established by the car.

 The other things that didn’t work were the characters. This has been mentioned in a couple of reviews but the characters who were in the movie besides grey were not fully realized. Other characters who could have benefited from being a bit more fleshed out were Aaron, the cop, and Grey’s wife. Especially Grey’s wife. I spent a good chunk of the movie wondering if she had a part in torturing these guys who had murdered her. They touch on the fact that her company was shady and tortured and experimented on these guys and others but Grey always insists upon his wife’s innocence. I kept waiting to find out that she had really been this horrible person who was in on all of that stuff and that was why they killed her but it never came and neither did much clarity on the story of her shady company. Apparently that doesn’t matter because it doesn’t really have much to do with why she was killed in the first place so all in all I think that plotline in general could have been put to better use or scrapped from the movie altogether seeing as they didn’t really take it as far as they could have.

Overall, this movie was great. It had some unexpected twists and that ending was just fantastic. Thank you for reading my blog and I’d love it if you joined the conversation by emailing me, tweeting me, or reaching out through any of my other social media accounts!

 Next to come will be Ocean’s 8 and Hereditary!!!

[kelleyschorn]

Kelley Reviews: Adrift

I saw this movie with my dad at the same theater that didn’t print our ticket stubs for Solo so this time I went through the box office with our online tickets and had them print them out for me—I just love my little movie souvenirs! I got a small popcorn with layered butter (because movie popcorn is just part of the experience) and let me tell you, this guy who made my popcorn DRENCHED the entire bag with butter. It was practically inedible. I only ate about a fourth of it before I had to give up and call it quits. My dad ate the rest and after the movie was over, when I was carrying the bag out to the trash, I felt something dripping onto my leg. I thought, that’s weird, my water bottle can’t be leaking can it? I looked down to see a big streak of popcorn butter on my leg. Not cool.

Anyways, I saw this movie on opening weekend and I went in with fairly high expectations. I’d been seeing the trailer fairly frequently in other movies I’d gone too and it always gave me that sinking feeling in the pit of my stomach every time I saw that giant wave about to crash into their little boat. I was fully expecting a harrowing tale of survival, romance, and resilience and, for the most part, I was not disappointed. I’m a fan of both Shailene Woodley and Sam Clafin and I thought that both of them gave excellent performances and the stellar acting definitely added some bonus points to this movie overall.

Hint: This is where the spoilers start.

WHAT WORKED

As I just said, the acting in this movie was great. Sure there were a few other characters with speaking parts but Shailene and Sam really carried the movie. I thought their chemistry was good and honestly, if they had had worse actors I don’t think the romantic part would have been as believable. I mean they met, fell in love, and decided to be trapped on a boat together all within about six months and the snippets of their relationship that we did get to see in the movie didn’t give a very convincing view of their relationship. However, like I said, because of the acting and the way that they pulled off their onscreen chemistry, made this element a success.

That twist! Yall. That twist at the end had me actually crying—tears streaming down my face crying, (though silently of course because I was in a movie and because my dad was next to me). And I totally did not see it coming! I thought it was a clever diversion when they had her hallucinate a boat driving by them. That solidified his existence in my mind. Now I will say, one of my friends said that she knew from the very beginning what the twist was going to be so maybe the foreshadowing was a bit heavy? Maybe I’m bad at predicting things? But I totally did not see that one coming and once it happened it was waterworks for me.

Speaking of waterworks I’ll just say that the emotional factor was also on it’s A game. Like almost too much. Once he disappeared it was as if the writers were like, “ok, we’ve just stabbed them in the heart, now let’s twist the knife around.” From her going back to his boat and then looking at all those pictures and reminiscing on all of their happy memories and then just the scene of her sobbing in her dead fiancé’s handmade boat-ugh! And THEN it shows us the real woman that this was based on and how she never stopped sailing and I don’t know about you, but that sent me over the edge. I know I wasn’t the only one—I went into the bathroom after the movie (to wipe off the butter from my leg) and there was this group of girls who had also come out of the movie and one of them just couldn’t stop crying! It was kind of funny and also validated me in my raw emotions.

WHAT DIDN’T WORK

The structure. I got used to the flashbacks eventually but at first they were very jarring. In his review of this movie on youtube,( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AWa6fsiAZ18 ), Chris Stuckmann said it well. He rightly observed that these constant flashbacks destroyed any sense of tension that was created in the survival scenes. I see what they were trying to do and I think that it almost worked but not quite. They were trying to build tension by having both timelines leading into one another and ultimately to the twist. The problem, in my opinion, with what they did was in the flashback scenes they were trying to establish their relationship as well as lead up to the disaster. There was so much tension in the survival scenes and then little to no tension in most of the flashbacks so that element ended up falling flat.

Other than that, however, this movie was a success in my book. It made me cry, it made me feel things, and for two-ish hours I was invested in that story. I still cannot fathom how the real life Tami could bare to sale again after that experience. If that had happened to me, I would have moved to the middle of America and stayed away from the ocean at all costs. Hers is a true story of resilience and I highly recommend it.

[kelleyschorn]

Kelley Reviews: Solo: A Star Wars Story

If I’m being honest, I had mixed feelings going into this movie. The trailer was great. The art was great. But it wasn’t Harrison Ford. When I heard they were making a movie about Han’s early years I thought they were crazy. I thought that, in both the trailer and the posters, his hair looked terrible. I thought no one could fill Ford’s shoes and do Han like he could. In a way, I was right. But Alden Ehrenreich wasn’t trying to portray the Han Solo from a New Hope, he was playing Han Solo, the kid who hasn’t experienced life yet, and I think he did a damn good job.

And his hair actually did look good after all.

Warning: this review contains SPOILERS!!!

WHAT WORKED

The cast. Come on now the acting in this movie was absolutely incredible especially Alden! I will say this, in the week leading up to The Last Jedi, my best friend and I watched every single Star Wars movie and after seeing Solo, I rewatched A New Hope. That being said, I think Alden’s portrayal of Han was spot on. He gave us a young and inexperienced Han who has never been heartbroken or truly betrayed. This was the story that built the basis of who Han Solo is in episode IV. Donald Glover also did an amazing job at playing the young Lando. I thought this view of the character felt like an expansion to what I already knew. When we first meet Lando in Empire he comes across as an already full fledged, rounded character. Seeing his part in Solo’s coming of age is like seeing that added back story that we didn’t even know we wanted. I ate it up and I’m sure the rest of the audience did as well. Woody Harrelson as Becket was a brilliant cast choice. I love him as an actor and I love what he brought to this movie. In a way, this is almost a repeat character for him, the disappointing father figure/mentor was the same archetype he played as Haymitch from the Hunger Games. Though this movie’s tone and setting were so completely different that it didn’t feel like a repeat at all. He was the perfect formative person with flawed morals to influence Han.

Chewie. For some reason, when I saw the trailer, I thought that Han would meet Chewbacca on whatever planet Wookies come from. What really happened was much more creative. The fact that the empire had a Wookie prisoner as “a beast” and would feed prisoners and deserters to him gives us a little information on how Wookies are seen in this world. Before this movie, I thought that they were seen the same as any other intelligent alien race but this movie leads me to believe that their brute strength and strange language maybe gives them a monstrous stereotype among the other races. Props to Alden for his scene where he speaks Wookie. That was one of my favorite Han and Chewie moments! One thing I thought was a bit lame was the moment that leads Han to give his bestie his infamous nickname. “Chewbacca? I’m not saying that every time.” I thought this was lazy and a bit lame on the writers’ part. He should have just called him that offhand one day. That’s how nicknames really happen. In a universe where people interact with aliens who have weird long names on the reg, this just didn’t make much sense.

The writing. The writing for me had some great things that worked and it also had some things that didn’t quite work. What worked however, worked really well. I loved that at the beginning of the story, when Han is about to set off on his next great adventure, the only thing of value he’s got is his stolen vial of coaxium and at the very end of the movie, as he’s leaving to go on his next adventure he carries with him yet another single vial of coaxium. Love that! And let’s not forget the Kessel Run. How epic is that that they decide to tell us that story that Han’s always bragging about in the original trilogy?? Brilliant. And that whole scene where he flew the actual run was so well done and had me on the edge of my seat the whole time. I thought for sure that that coaxium was going to blow them out of that universe. Also, for those of you who haven’t seen A New Hope recently, I’ll point out that at the end of Solo he brags that he made the Kessel Run in 12 parsecs and Chewie says something so which Han replies, “Not if you round down.” In A New Hope, he first brags about it saying that he flew the Kessel run in less than 12 parsecs. Looks like as time goes on he keeps rounding down.

Some people have said that they had an issue with Han’s romance in the movie but I liked it for what it did for the plot. We had to see Han as he was before: happy and a bit naïve about the universe he lives in and in love with a person who changes while he stays the same, which in turn is another cause for his own eventual change.

WHAT DIDN’T WORK

So one of the things that didn’t work for me was the timeline. Nothing particularly wrong with it but for the fact that Han runs a grand total of two smuggling missions with Beckett and somehow has become the more jaded man he is by the end of the movie. I wish they had given us a montage, showing him running multiple missions with becket between the first one and the Kessel Run and shown some glimpses of teaching moments during this time. Even just to give Han the actual believable amount of time to learn from the Beckett the lesson’s he claimed to have learned by the end. I just think that two missions is way too short of a time to have a real lasting impact on Han. He was working for the empire for much longer and that supposedly hasn’t affected him as much as two short missions with Beckett has?

Another thing that didn’t work for me was Darth Maul. Why is he alive? Where did he come from? Wasn’t he cut in half?? From the research I did, Darth Maul is supposedly resurrected in the animated series and plays a major role. My problem with this is that I thought that with the release of these newer Star Wars movies that all of the animated plotlines and books would be nullified. The lack of explanation bothers me as I’m sure it has bothered other movie only fans. I’ve heard that the point as also to set up for another Solo movie as well as more offshoot movies including potentially, an Obi Wan stand-alone which I will not complain about.

Overall I loved this movie. I definetly want to see it again while it’s in theaters especially because the theater I saw it at did not give me a ticket stub! I’m still salty about that yall. Thanks for reading and please feel free to email me or DM me on Twitter and join the conversation! I’m eager to know your thoughts on the movie as well. Stay tuned for my next two reviews: Upgrade and Adrift. Saw both of those this weekend and I’m so excited to let you know what I thought of them!

[kelleyschorn]

Kelley Reviews: Rewinder

Rewinder by Brett Battles

Narrated by Vikas Adam  *if I spell a character’s name wrong it’s because I listened to it and did not read the physical book*

Welcome to the first book review of my blog! I just finished listening to this book on Audible and I can’t wait to let you know what I thought of it! I’ll be doing this review in the same way as my movie reviews by talking about what I think worked, what didn’t work, and what I would have done differently/ and or what my predictions are for future parts. There are SPOILERS in this review. I don’t think it completely ruins the book but there are some major SPOILERS. You’ve been warned.

I came to this book after finishing Rachel Aaron’s Heartstriker series (I may do a review of that in the near future), and I LOVED the narration done by Vikas Adam. I needed more. After doing some research and chatting with him briefly on Twitter I decided to go with Rewinder. It was a major change of pace from Heartstrikers and now that I’ve reached the end, here are my thoughts.

WHAT WORKED

The concept was so cool for this series. The whole question of, what if we’d lost the revolutionary war? I’m not sure what kind of extensive research Battles did on this subject but it felt like a very possible iteration of the world under these circumstances. The social cast system, cars being called carriages, gas is petrol and all the British city names. I’m not sure about how accurate the slow of technological advancement was but based on the culture of greed mentioned in the book I could believe it.

What I liked about the characters was that each one, specifically Marie, Lidia, and Denny had distinct personalities. Denny was polite and his quiet in-the-background personality fit a person from that social class. Lydia on the other hand was more outspoken and overly confident in herself because she was from a better class. The fact that Denny was the top of his group could have felt cliché but Battles did a good job showing how hard Denny worked for his knowledge and how passionate he was about history so it felt natural. I do wish I’d gotten more of Marie, I loved what I saw of her character in this book and would love to see more! From what happens in the last chapter I think that just might happen.

The time travel. I’m not quite sure how to describe this, but the way that the time travel parts made me feel when I was reading/listening to it was really cool. Especially the part where Denny is interacting with the point in time that changes everything, both the first time, and the subsequent times. It made my head spin a bit to think about it but not in an unpleasant way. The way he explained it could be called a tad bit lazy, the whole, “Marie told me not to think about it too hard or it would make me crazy” thing but I bought it and it worked for me. Ultimately I thought all of the time travel elements were pretty cool and well executed.

The pacing. The pacing of this story was really nice because things just kept happening. I liked that it started small with Denny finding the newspaper, and then ramped up and ramped up until boom the fate of their known world rests in Denny’s hands. It was a good build and I was there for it.

That end scene though! Just that one part where we maybe possible but maybe not see Marie and older Denny walking on the pier. The implications of that made me SO EXCITED!

The narration, which to those of you who don’t do audible you can skip this part but Vikas Adam is my new favorite narrator and I found this series because I wanted to hear more of him. He makes the characters come to life and each person has a different voice and even accent! Props to you Vikas for another job well done.

The cover. As a designer I’ve gotta give props to a great cover. The colors are great—I’m always a fan of a nice red pop. The art is beautiful and I love the font. Especially the fact that the last R in Rewinder is backwards, that is a fantastic detail!

WHAT DIDN’T WORK

The companions. I needed more from this part of the concept. Sure they are useful for taking away the painful element of time travel and sure they do a good job of leading Denny to Iffy but other than that they just feel like a means to an end. I wished they’d had one other important tie in to make them that much more meaningful to the overall story.

Iffy. More specifically, the Iffy and Denny romance. I just didn’t buy it. And the fact that within a few days they were kissing and bonding and so “in love” that Denny would sacrifice a whole world for her just bothered me. Same reason why the first Thor movie bothered me, they did the same thing with that romance. Sure she and Denny were connected through the companionship thing with the chaser and they share a couple of emotional moments but still. Their relationship escalated so quickly that it ended up feeling unrealistic. Iffy herself is a decent character. Again, the whole weird romance thing throws it all a bit off for me.

Denny’s family is a bit of a cliché with the dead good family and the abusive/indifferent living family. Not too much of an issue but it did make his choice to not keep his old world conveniently easier. Going off of this, Denny’s last ditch sister rescue at the end felt somewhat random to me. Based on the foreshadowing and all the mention of his mother’s grave it would have fit better if he’d rescued his mom. This also wasn’t too huge of an issue for me but I could see that if he’d talked more about his sister in those instances it would have been a better set up.

WHAT I’D DO / WHAT’S NEXT

So addressing some of the things I had issues with I want to give my own ideas on how I would have changed it. So I touched on it a bit before but I would give the whole companion idea its own plotline. The companions get the worst end of the time travel job-they have to sit there and take the pain in silent acceptance while the rewinders get all the glory. I really thought that when they said at the beginning that some rewinders get the ability to communicate with their companions that something was being set up. So maybe create some kind of conflict or even friendship between Denny and Palmer. Maybe the companions start a revolt and that becomes a thing. Maybe Palmer hears something important and secret during one of Denny’s jumps and it causes problems for him.

With the whole Iffy romance thing I really did not like that she was the main reason Denny made his decision. I get that it was also based on our world being better and freer but from reading the book it really felt like it was at least 85% because of Iffy. I would switch that. I think Battles was trying to go for that in the first place so I would say he needed to give a lot more explanation and comparison form Denny’s POV about what’s different that is good. Yes he kind of shows us this when Denny first arrives in our world and when he’s traveling around with Iffy but I wanted it to be stronger. Instead again, the emphasis was placed on the romance and that reasoning just felt weak to me.

As for what’s next, I can honestly say I’m not one hundred percent sure. As I mentioned earlier, we see possibly Marie and older Denny walking along the pier which maybe will tie into the next one but may also be the ultimate end of series at the end of book three. (That would be pretty cool). Aside from that and the fact that Lidia is sort of still out there and will probably turn up again, the end felt like an end. There weren’t a ton of unanswered questions left so it will be interesting to see how book two goes. That being said I think I’m going to be taking a serious look at my books to read list and try to re-prioritize because there are just so many! So I may read the rest of this series at some point but maybe not immediately.

Overall it was a good book I’m glad to have read it. Brett Battles is obviously talented and very creative and if you ever read this I truly did enjoy it. I’m doing these reviews because their fun to do but also in the hopes that it will help me to improve my own writing so that I’ll be able to publish my own book someday. If you liked this review give it a share and if you’ve read this book I’d love to hear your thoughts on the book! Do you agree with me? Do you disagree? I want to know! Hit me up on twitter or send me an email or leave a comment!

Next on the list of reviews coming is Solo: A Star Wars Story. Get pumped!!!

[kelleyschorn]

Kelley Reviews: Deadpool2

Hello and welcome to my second official review! I will be doing both book and movie reviews on this blog as well as maybe an occasional website or album review. The style in which I will be reviewing is basically what I think worked, what didn’t work, and how I think they could have done better and/or theories about the sequel if said work is part of a series. With that being said there will be SPOILERS present in this review!!! If you haven’t seen this movie, please go see it first, then come back! So without further ado, here is what I thought of Deadpool2.

I’ve been looking forward to Deadpool2 since I saw the first one back in 2016. The first Deadpool broke boundaries, the fourth wall, and had me doubled over laughing throughout. I was curious going into this one if Deadpool would become a one trick pony but I was glad to find that that wasn’t the case. I finally got around to seeing this movie on Thursday and because it was a Thursday and very last minute I ended up seeing it alone. While I still had a great experience of the movie (AND had a whole row to myself!) I would not recommend it. This is a movie best seen with best friends.

WHAT WORKED

Let’s talk about that intro! Yeah they killed off his girlfriend in the very beginning but they did it in such a way that made if feel natural to the story and not random or forced. I think that if they had started us off in their apartment with the exchange of gifts and the start a family talk and then her dying, it would have felt contrived. Because they did the full circle flashback starting and ending with him exploding himself in the apartment with the added montage of him hunting down and killing baddies, the whole thing was a perfectly complete introduction into the story. Not to mention the James Bond parody that followed was so funny!

The fact that it was “a family movie”. While you could say that the first movie was equally a comedy and a superhero action film, I would say that the more emotional strains in DP2 took a bit more of a role than the comedy this time around. This worked though because it let the character become something more than he was in the first one and character growth is always a plus. One of my favorite serious moments from the movie was when Wade was telling Colossus that one of the guys who killed Vanessa got away, meaning himself.

Russel was also one of my favorite’s. His personality makes the character. The way that he is both super confident in himself and yet endearingly awkward with an added side of anger management issues makes this kid is a good match for Deadpool onscreen.

Domino was my other favorite for the movie. Her powers make for some cool moments and make her hands down the most useful (and only other living member besides Deadpool) of XForce. Though I will say that her “cosmic reason” for being there was a little lacking for me. The fact that she grew up in the Mutant Reeducation Center worked with her whole “lucky conincidence” power but then she goes in and gets the children out in a bus. The Center doesn’t get burned down or destroyed however and the rest of the team could have liberated the young mutants after their showdown with Russel and Juggernaut. Aside from that, Domino was a good character.

Deadpool himself was of course on point. Ryan Reynolds was born for this role and I love his ability to make fun of himself as Deadpool—like when he goes and shoots himself as the OG deadpool in Woverine and when he shoots himself as he holds the script for the green lantern (that was the best, green lantern was SO BAD).

The jokes of course were great as was expected. My favorites include: the bit where Wade has baby legs, every time he and Yukio see each other, every scene with blind Al, and of course, Peter.

WHAT DIDN’T WORK

XForce didn’t work for me as well as I wanted it to. They hyped it up so much in the trailers and then in the movie itself, all of those characters—including Peter!!—are almost immediately killed off. That was a bit disappointing albeit funny. I do wish they would have done a bit more with them though it was hilarious that they made Brad Pitt the Vanisher. I found out that he had originally auditioned for the role of Cable but because of his schedule couldn’t do it.

The other thing that was kind of weird was the fact that, since Deadpool goes back and saves Vanessa, wouldn’t that mean that the whole movie would cease to exist? Do we ignore that paradox because it’s Deadpool and Deadpool can do what he wants? Probably.

Other than that and the fact that some of the jokes fell flat and the movie as a whole wasn’t as funny as the first one, there wasn’t much fundamentally wrong with this movie. It was good, I enjoyed it, and I can’t wait to see what they do with the character next.

WHAT’S NEXT

In an interview, Ryan Reynolds said that he’s not so sure if a Deadpool3 would work since the only way it has worked so far is take everything away from him, which they have now done twice, albeit, in two very different ways. Reynolds said, “If you’re going to do another Deadpool solo film, you’ve got to get that budget down to nothing and just swing for the fences, and break all kinds of weird barriers, and do stuff that no one else can do.”

With that being said, there is an XForce movie slated and according to my research, Deadpool will be joined by Cable, Domino, and Shatterstar. I find that last one a bit hard to believe since DP didn’t seem to save him in the end scene. I hope that we get to see more of Russel, Colossus and Negasonic Teenage Warhead (and Yukio) but we’ll have to wait and see about that.

I’d love to hear from you what you thought of Deadpool2 and what you think is to come of Wade and XForce in future movies. Leave a comment, shoot me and email, or hit me up on twitter to join the conversation!

[kelleyschorn]

Kelley Reviews: Avengers Infinity War

Hello and welcome to my first official review! I will be doing both book and movie reviews on this blog as well as maybe an occasional website or album review. The style in which I will be reviewing is basically what I think worked, what didn’t work, and how I think they could have done better and/or theories about the sequel if said work is part of a series. With that being said, there will be SPOILERS in this review!!! If you haven’t seen the movie, see it, then come back. So without further ado, here is what I thought of Avengers: Infinity War.

Getting right into it, this movie was highly anticipated by the world and by me. My friends and I drove an hour away to see it on opening night because it was sold out in College Station and had been sold out for weeks (before it was even released!). So I will say that I am a bit biased because I love Marvel movies and have seen and loved every single one of them (with obvious exceptions like the 2008 Incredible Hulk, but, seeing as they don’t even use the same actor we can all take a blind eye to that mess). All this being said, let’s get in to the fun part of this review—what I liked about it.

WHAT WORKED

Character. Character, character, character. This has always been one of Marvel’s strengths and they did not disappoint. Building on every little detail from they’re previous works; they had an amazing cast of heroes lined up for this movie. I’ve got to admit that going in, my expectations were that this movie would be a complete mess due to how many characters they would have to juggle, but I was pleasantly surprised by how masterfully they handled their humungous cast. I liked that they did groupings, similar to how Stranger Things S2 strengthened its characters with groupings, and similar to what Marvel did in Civil War. They paired up characters we haven’t seen together before to give us a new view of them then we’ve seen previously. For instance, we finally get to see Dr. Strange interact with some of the main crew aside from his cameo in Ragnarok. Pairing his narcissistic personality with the equally hotheaded Tony Stark and then throwing Peter Parker into the mix to give Tony something to care about was a great move. Also I feel like Tony Stark as a character is the strongest person. So much has happened to him from the first iron man, so much pain and loss that I feel a bit stressed out every time something new is added onto that. Admittedly, the Thor and Rocket pairing could have been a bit better but it was still entertaining nonetheless.

I’ll also take a brief moment to recognize and appreciate Thanos. Marvel has been criticized in the past for having weak villains but the writers put extra care into giving us Thanos’ back story and motivation as to why he is the way he is. Again the genius of Marvel, because we already know all of the heroes and they need no big long-winded introduction, we get to spend that time on Thanos, which I think was the right move. Speaking of the right move, fun fact: the reason Thanos wanted to destroy half the universe in the comics was so that he could impress and get with a sexy skeletal persona of death. The storyline they made up for him in the movie was much less random and more believable so good job on that Marvel!

I also loved the way that they set everything up as being two years after Civil War and all that has happened to the team since then. The tension with Tony not wanting to call Steve and then seeing how the rest of the Avengers have all still been working together across the world despite everything that happened. I want to set aside a brief moment to appreciate the relationship we see between Wanda and Vision. I shipped them so hard in Civil War and I freaked out when I saw their scene together at the start of the movie. Good job Marvel, I appreciated that.

Another thing that really worked for me were their transitions and the plot. I know that plot is a pretty vague and all-encompassing term to use but I’ll explain. A quick word on the transitions, they were simple, words on the screen about which location we were entering. Short and sweet and it got the point across without interrupting the story—I’d say that’s a success. Now we’ll talk about the plot. When I say that the plot worked what I mean is that Marvel’s writers successfully balanced a huge cast of well-established characters, the introduction of a villain we’ve only seen glimpses of, and multiple new locations all without confusing the viewer and, in my opinion, every element was pulled off well. I’ll make this comparison. The Last Jedi, which came out last December, also had a large cast of characters and a lot was attempted with the plot: (Soft Spoilers ahead, skip this bit if you haven’t seen TLJ!) the Finn and Rose side adventure and love connection, the Kylo and Rey force connection, the Rey and Luke relationship, the growth arc for Poe, the final battle at the end. A lot happened and it felt rushed confusing and jumbled in a lot of the movie. In contrast, with just as many plot elements and more characters, Marvel managed to create a seamless story with great transitions.

WHAT DIDN’T WORK

Thor’s eye. If you saw Ragnarok (which I hope you did if you saw Infinity War), you obviously saw Thor’s eye get dramatically slashed out by Cate Blanchett aka Hela in the epic brother sister showdown at the end of the movie. At the start of Infinity War, we see Thor rocking his Odin-like eyepatch only to be quickly replaced with a new glass eye given to him by rocket. Why. Why would Marvel even go through the trouble of taking out his eye in the first place? I thought the new haircut and eye patch were a good look for him personally and the glass eye felt like a huge and useless copout. Speaking of Ragnarok, where was Tessa Thompson the Valkyrie? And Corg for that matter? They fly off with the rest of Asgard at the end and aren’t seen or heard from in Infinity war. Are we to assume that they died with the rest of the Asgardians in Thanos’ attack? After some digging, I found that Joe Russo, one of Infinity War’s co-directors, said that Valkyrie escaped with the other Asgardians on escape pods during the attack. It is likely that in the next Avengers movie, we will find out more about this.

Bruce Banner. Something weird was obviously up with the Hulk in this movie and to me that spells foreshadowing for the next movie. That I didn’t so much have a problem with, the thing that bothered me about Banner in this movie were some of his lines. Specifically the scene with him and Shuri. I get that she is supposed to look like this super genius with her advanced Wakandan knowledge but even in Black Panther it was hard to buy. Putting her up against Banner, who has been proven to be hella smart in previous movies and trying to make him seem dumb just fell flat came off as cringe-worthy and unbelievable.

Finally, the deaths. Suffice it to say—I’m not worried. It’s public knowledge that both Spiderman, the Black Panther, and the Guardians of the Galaxy have more movies lined up for the future. It is also known that Chris Evan’s has said that he is officially stepping down as Captain America after the next Avengers. So as far as who died, it might have been more effective to kill off some of the heroes who have been around a while. Make us sweat a little. For those reasons, the deaths were less effective for me emotionally because I didn’t believe them. Although I will say that when Peter Parker died, that shit was sad!

WHAT’S NEXT?

We already know that we are in for a Captain Marvel Introduction based on the end scene and I also predict that the Hulk is going to have an important role in the next movie given that he refused to come out of Banner in this one and we still don’t know why. Shuri, who we don’t really see what happened to her after she’s thrown from her lab, might become an interim Black Panther in her brother’s stead—this apparently happens pretty often in the comics. Black Widow also survived and I’m hoping that the writers will touch on her and Banner’s previous romance in the next movie. Honestly I think it will come down to Dr. Strange. Yes he disintegrated but remember he did say that there was only one way that everything would turn out alright—this has got to be the way. Maybe at the end of the next movie we will come back to when Strange was sitting on the rock with the time stone and this whole thing was his vision of how Thanos won but was ultimately defeated and then he opens his eyes and is like “alright, let’s do this.” Sort of like a Twilight Breaking Dawn part two kind of ending.

 Overall, I loved this movie. Marvel’s writers never cease to surprise and amaze me. It was epic throughout the entire movie and I cannot wait to see the next one. Thanks for checking out my blog. I’d love to hear your take on the movie and what you think will happen in the next Avengers! Leave a comment, email me, or hit me up on twitter to join the conversation and let me know what you thought of Avengers Infinity War!