Is Blade Marvel's Next Oscar Movie?

     Kevin Feig, president of Marvel Studios, recently announced the Phase 4 plans for their Marvel Cinematic Universe after Avengers: Endgame at this year's Comic Con. For the next two years we are in for some great movies including a Scarlet Witch and Doctor Strange movie (Wandavision), a What If movie that explores the what if scenarios in the Marvel universe that has become a popular side-series in Marvel comics, and a Thor movie which gave us a pleasant surprise with not only Natalie Portman returning from a long hiatus from the MCU as Thor's love interest Jane Foster, but she will become the new Thor.
     Again, it was like superhero movie Christmas, but that wasn't the only big news we got. As part of their Phase 5 movies, Marvel will be working on a long anticipated Blade movie along with a new Blade, Mahershala Ali. Ali being helmed as Marvel's residential vampire slayer is an interesting choice moreso than your regular news of an actor deciding to don tights for a superhero movie for Marvel and DC. This could be a inkling that Marvel could have their eye on the prize, literally. Oscar gold if you want to be technical.
     Apparently making box office billions is not enough for studios anymore as it seems like any superhero movie comes out will generate a ton of money. It seems that with Black Panther, Spider-Man: Into the Spiderverse, and now with the Oscar buzz behind the upcoming Joker movie with Joaquin Phoenix, superhero movies are dipping their toes in the Oscar pool. Ali is a two time Oscar winner, grabbing two awards for Moonlight and last year's The Green Book. Is Marvel's plan is for Ali to not only slay Vampires in the Blade reboot, but to slay the Academy Awards as well? 
     I know what you're probably thinking. How could a movie about a dude slaying vampires be an Oscar contender? Well, if you read the comics you would know that there is a lot of story there and attaching the right directors and producers, along with an amazing team could open up a lot of creative and opportunity for this movie to be the comic book darling of the Oscars, a la Black Panther which got the same treatment with its ensemble in front and behind the camera. It would also be a shame to squander Ali's acting ability by having a two time Academy Award winner doing anything short of masterful work. What are your thoughts?

Avengers: Infinity War - Did It Suck?

     Marvel's biggest movie is here! By biggest, I mean just that as it is the largest cast featuring everyone and their momma who has been a major player in the Marvel cinematic universe ever since it has begun. We've been literally front and center in theaters watching Marvel connect the dots and set everything up for the events in this movie. With all the major Marvel players in this movie, will it truly be the epic superhero movie experience Marvel wants to boast that it is or are we looking at Justice League 2.0? Will Avengers: Infinity War suck?
     So, the whole plot of the movie is Thanos, who's appearance in the Marvel movie have been here and there building up to this moment, is after six power stones which if he does have all six he will destroy half of all life in the universe. It's up to practically everyone who's been in every movie in the MCU to stop them. Epic, right? It was totally epic in every sense. Epic fights, epic heroic moments, and in the case of both Chrises, Evans and Hemsworth, epic beards. So the movie is basically the superhero version of American Graffiti... Wait, some of you may not get that. It's the superhero version of Pulp Fiction in that most of the movie is pretty much everyone breaking off in different group like the second half of a Scooby Doo episode and doing different sub plots in order to stop Thanos.
     Everything is woven beautiful in the sense that it's almost like watching mini movies of each Marvel film. You would not think that Marvel would successfully mix the episodic aspect of movies like Black Panther and Guardians with the continuing drama-ness of Captain America and Thor but they did it well. When the Guardians of the Galaxy show up you get straight up comedy, which matching them up with Thor and Hemsworth's comedic presence was genius. You got the same chemistry Spider-Man and Iron Man had together in Homecoming. And that and the stuff you usually got in your standard Captain America/Avengers movie. Everything melds well together and everyone plays their part well, they had all 10+ years to do that so no shock.
     Along with all the epicness of the movie you get a lot of drama. Oh, boy do you get a ton of it. From Thanos' backstory and his interaction with Gamora. The movie's highlight was the substory of Gamora and Thanos. Not much has backstory has been done to Gamora in the Guardian films but they are brought out in the forefront with her being warlord daddy's little girl. As for Thanos, this film is another continuation of the simpathetic villian, like Killmonger in Black Panther and Vulture in Homecoming to name a few, who is doing some pretty bad things for their version of the greater good. This time killing half the universe to throw things into balance instead of doing all of this to get bf points with Death like in the comics.
     You're gonna need tissues for this movie. From Gamora's backstory and connection to Thanos, the relationship with Scarlet Witch and Vision, and probably the most emotional part of the movie: the ending. The ending had balls. I'm not going to spoil it for you but it's true, some heroes do not make it. It wasn't your standard superhero endings that even though something tragic happened it gives you a message of hope.

Final Verdict
     So, did Avengers: Infinity War suck? NOPE! As Marvel's big superhero movie starring everybody it did not. It was more like a celebration of all the movies that Marvel has done in the past years all blended together smoothly. You have all the custom movie tricks and the cookie cutterness of Marvel movies, but they don't seem so cookie cuttery. You get all the good, and then some. The ending was a big bonus as it gives you a bit of intelligence that was needed. As shocking and sad as it was it was beautiful and genius, leaving you wanting to know how will not only the MCU will deal with all that happened but what Marvel themselves will do to fix it. How do I rate it? It gets 4 infinity stones out of five.