Nerd in the 'Noke

Black Panther (2018), PG-13, 2h 14min - Until recently, I had very little working knowledge of Black Panther's comic book history.  I have always been aware of the character, but was not familiar with his non-Avengers exploits.  Considering his fifty two year history (created in 1966 by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby), I have still only scratched the surface.  However, the material that I read leading up to this film's release is highly regarded - Christopher Priest's run from the late '90s and the beginning of Ta-Nahesi Coates' current run on the title (review to come) - both heavily influencing what we see on the big screen.  Despite my prior lack of familiarity with T'Challa's history, this film recently topped my Most Anticipated Films of 2018 list and it didn't disappoint! We were first introduced to T'Challa/Black Panther (Chadwick Boseman) in 2016's Captain America: Civil War, when we learned the basics of the character: he is the King of ...

Star Wars: The Last Jedi (2017), PG-13, 2hr 32min - It's almost hard to believe that it has already been two years since we saw the return of Star Wars to theaters by way of Episode VII: The Force Awakens .  I suppose that is partially due to the fact that we got Rogue One - the first Star Wars anthology film - last year which helped pass the time.  This holiday weekend will be The Last Jedi's second weekend in theaters and it is already making quite a bit of noise at the box office.  At some point over the past year or so, they seem to have dropped "Episode VIII" from The Last Jedi's official title.  I'm not sure when or why that happened, but I'll likely refer to this film by both names throughout this review. The Last Jedi picks up pretty much where The Force Awakens ended, with Rey (Daisy Ridley) having located Luke Skywalker's (Mark Hamill) whereabouts and with the rest of the Rebel fleet fleeing the The First Order after having destroyed Sta...

War for the Planet of the Apes (2017), PG-13, 2h 20min - My apologies, between not getting to this movie until last Sunday, having family in town this weekend, and getting distracted by all of the SDCC news from the last couple of days, I'm just now getting around to working on my review for War for the Planet of the Apes.  War is the final installment of the reboot/prequel trilogy that began with 2011's Rise of the Planet of the Apes and continued with 2014's Dawn of the Planet of the Apes . Quick disclaimer right up front: as this is the last part of a trilogy, the continuity is tightly tied to the two preceding films.  If you haven't seen those, be sure to make time to watch them first, otherwise the impact of this film will be severely diluted.  Also, as the name implies, there is a good bit of war related violence, particularly involving apes.  If you're an animal lover like my wife, you probably want to steer clear completely.  For everyone else, let'...

Dawn of the Planet of the Apes (2014), PG-13, 130 minutes -  As I began writing this review, I was surprised when I realized that I had never reviewed 2011's Rise of the Planet of the Apes. So here it is in short: I really enjoyed Rise. I felt as though it worked well as either a prequel to the original franchise or as a franchise reboot (which is the route actually being taken by these newer films). Dawn of the Planet of the Apes is a direct follow up, beginning with a prologue filling in the events immediately following the end credit sequence of Rise when the infected neighbor had a nose bleed at the airport, beginning the global spread of the 'simian flu' virus caused by ALZ-113.  We then jump ahead about ten years to a time when the majority of humanity has died as a result of the flu. The ape population led by Caesar (Andy Serkis) out of San Francisco has flourished in the wild. They've begun building their own civilization and their intelligence continues ...

The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey (2012), PG-13, 169 minutes  - After The Lord of The Rings: The Return of the King came out in 2003, the question soon became 'when would The Hobbit be adapted?'. Legal/contractual issues then made the world wonder if The Hobbit would ever be made at all.  Once that situation got sorted out, Jackson was going to produce while Guillermo del Toro was set to direct.  It took so long to get things off the ground, del Toro moved on to other projects and The Hobbit was left up in the air again.  Finally Jackson decided to take another trip through Middle Earth, the universe that he so perfectly brought to life with the Lord of the Rings trilogy.  It only took nine years, but the first part of Jackson's vision of J.R.R. Tokien's The Hobbit is finally here. An Unexpected Journey follows a young Bilbo Baggins (Martin Freeman), an unassuming hobbit that is very much a homebody.  Gandalf (Ian McKellen) pays him a visit and unbe...