My favorite (and not) movies of 2018

Here included is the list of movies which fall into the dual categories of “favorite (and not),” and “I watched during 2018.”  Criteria also includes being released in 2018, or 2017 if I was too lazy to get to them until later on (and I can remember them well enough to say whether I liked them, and how much).  Order is, as always, ordered.

– My Favorites –

Avengers: Infinity War

I saw Infinity War three times at the theater.  The first was alone, so I could watch without anyone trying to talk to me during the show.  The second was the next day, with my family.  The third was for my son’s birthday.  Each time was great, and I can’t wait to see Avengers: Endgame in just a couple of weeks.

Deadpool 2

I was skeptical, but really liked Deadpool.  I liked Deadpool 2 more.  The focus on “family” was nice, and a-ha’s “Take on Me” is now nearly permanently stuck in my head, which I think everyone can agree is no bad thing.

Incredibles 2

As I recall, this year [2018] each of my children went to one movie with a parent, just the two of us (not counting Infinity War).  Incredibles 2 was the choice of my younger son, and while I don’t think it was as good as the original movie, we both enjoyed it greatly and had fun together.

Mission: Impossible – Fallout

My older son and I went to Fallout together.  I think we originally saw the trailer before Infinity War, and he immediately told me we had to see Fallout.  I am a fan of all of the Mission: Impossible movies except for the second one, and was glad to introduce him to them.  We watched 1, 3, 4, and 5 over the next couple of months, and we both loved Fallout.  When I watch a movie, I will get emotionally involved in the story and appreciate the action, but I don’t generally have physical reactions to, e.g. jump scares or plot reveals, etc.  There were several times in Fallout that had me on the edge of my seat, tensely awaiting the outcome of a scene.  It was probably my favorite entry in the series next to the original installment.

Plus, Superman’s missing mustache!

– Other movies I enjoyed –

Ant-Man and the Wasp

Paul Rudd is just fantastic in everything he is a part of.  That is all.

Black Panther

Black Panther was interesting to me.  It’s a movie that I probably would not have been interested in had it not been part of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, but that I am glad I saw.

Coco

From 2017.  Another pretty great Pixar entry.

Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle

Also from 2017, somewhere near the end.  I liked the original Jumanji as a kid, and I still enjoy watching it from time to time.  I wasn’t really expecting much from Welcome to the Jungle, and was very pleasantly surprised.  I’ll definitely check out the third installment.

Solo: A Star Wars Story

We saw Solo because, well, it’s a Star Wars movie.  And it was better than it had any right to be.

– Movies that made me say, “meh” –

Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom

Jurassic World did not do it for me, and I was surprised at how much money it made at the box office.  The sequel did not do it for me even more.  I love me some Chris Pratt, so there’s that, but the original Jurassic Park will always be my favorite.

– Movies that made me say, “Why on earth did I watch this?” –

This category is empty this year.  I’m either getting lazier or more discerning.

– 2018 movies I haven’t seen yet that I hope are good, or at least not terrible (except that it’s April now and I’ve actually seen them but I’m still going to pretend I did this in January or whatever OK?) –

Aquaman

The current DCEU has had 3 terrible movies, 1 generally OK one, and 1 really good one.  I wonder where Aquaman will fall.  I hope at least generally OK.

Ralph Breaks the Internet

Wreck-It Ralph was a fun movie, and the sequel looks fun, as well.

Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse

This is getting great reviews, and as a Spidey fan I really should have seen it by now.  Alas.

Venom

I really don’t have any hope for this movie, but I got the disc from Netflix, so I guess I’ll get to it soon enough.

2018 Goals Update

How well did I do with my 2018 goals?  I’m going to say pretty terribly.  This was just kind of a crap year for that sort of thing, but I persevere with my reporting nonetheless.

Books to Read

Yeah, no.  Complete failure here.  2018 was supposed to be the year.  It was not.

TV Seasons to Watch

Haven’t seen before:

3 point something out of 5.  The Flintstones, as ever, remains unwatched, and I made it through 9 of 11 seasons of Cheers.

Have seen before, but haven’t yet watched my BDs/DVDs:

Let’s say 1.5/3.  I did Justice League Unlimited and one season of Mad About You.  I got a couple of seasons of NYPD Blue for Christmas so I’m going to try for those in 2019, along with the last season of MAY.

Have seen before:

I’ll say 3/5.  I got to show Buffy to my daughter for the first time this year, and it was so great (we also watched most of Angel).  NYPD Blue and Pinky and the Brain will be pushed back.

Currently airing/will air this year:

I got all but Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt.  The season was split up, with the last half airing in January 2019, so I’ll watch it all then.

Movies to Watch

From last year [2017]:

1/1.  This is probably the only category where I scored 100%.

From previous years, already seen or not:

(An impressive?) 23/24, only missing The Incredibles.

New this year:

Of those that count (the two non-Deadpool X-Men entries were pushed back to 2019), 9/13.  Aquaman, Spider-Man, Ralph Breaks the Internet, and Venom have to wait till 2019.

BDs/DVDs I [try to] watch at least once a year:

This category was a pretty big failure, at 7/24.  Generally I watch most of these during October, November, and December, but this year we had a) our family room not really movie-friendly for a good part of those months, as we were are redoing the flooring in it and our kitchen, and b) were mostly focused on Buffy and Angel, I only got to a few essentials, i.e. The Lord of the Rings, Scott Pilgrim, and (500) Days of Summer in December, with the Avengers movies earlier in the year before watching Infinity War.  My current plan is to watch the remaining films in January 2019, and watch the complete list again the the final months of the year.

BDs/DVDs I [try to] watch at least once every other year:

Here I fared better, only missing Star Trek and Star Trek Into Darkness.

BDs/DVDs I haven’t watched since 2014 or before:

I’m not sure if I even dare count.  There were 97 films in this category, and I watched 27, I think.  I tried to watch Ernest in the Army, but my DVD is no longer playable, apparently.  This will make for somewhat of a longer list in 2019.

Video Games to Play

First-time Plays:

I started all of these, and would consider having “finished” all but LEGO Marvel Super Heroes 2 (maybe I finished the main story? I don’t think so, though).  There’s still a lot of post-story content to do in Hyrule Warriors, and I probably have a lot of trophies left to earn in Mario Kart.  There’s some odds and ends left in Super Mario Odyssey, I’m sure, and I still need to fight the final boss in Spirit Tracks, I think.

Replays:

I definitely replayed The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild once I got a Nintendo Switch.  I did just about everything, including collecting all 900 Korok seeds.  I’m itching to play it again in 2019, though I’m not sure if I will try it in Master Mode or replay normal mode (I already did Master Mode in my 3rd playthrough on Wii U, and it was hard).

Other

Yeah, right.

Media update January – December 2018

January

Movies

  • Atlantis: The Lost Empire
  • The Aristocats
  • Bolt
  • Ernest Goes to Camp
  • Ernest Goes to Jail
  • The Great Muppet Caper
  • Home on the Range
  • Oliver & Company
  • Sleeping Beauty

TV

  • Brooklyn Nine-Nine – 11 episodes
  • Cheers – 19 episodes
  • Dollhouse – 26 episodes
  • Inhumans – 8 episodes
  • Justice League – 6 episodes
  • Major Crimes – 13 episodes
  • The Punisher – 13 episodes
  • Star Trek: The Next Generation – 3 episodes

Video Games

  • Super Mario Odyssey

February

Movies

  • The Avengers
  • Batman: Gotham by Gaslight
  • Black Panther
  • Brother Bear
  • Captain America: The First Avenger
  • Home Alone
  • Home Alone 2: Lost in New York
  • The Incredible Hulk
  • Iron Man
  • Iron Man 2
  • Iron Man 3
  • The Island
  • Thor
  • Thor: The Dark World

TV

  • Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. – 10 episodes
  • Cheers – 53 episodes
  • Justice League – 6 episodes
  • Star Trek: The Next Generation – 1 episode

Video Games

  • The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild

March

Movies

  • Ant-Man
  • Avengers: Age of Ultron
  • Captain America: Civil War
  • Captain America: The Winter Soldier
  • Coco
  • Doctor Strange
  • Ernest Rides Again
  • Guardians of the Galaxy
  • Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2′
  • Thor: Ragnarok
  • Spider-Man: Homecoming
  • Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace
  • Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones
  • Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith

TV

  • Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. – 2 episodes
  • The Big Bang Theory – 6 episodes
  • Brooklyn Nine-Nine – 1 episode
  • Cheers – 28 episodes
  • Jessica Jones – 11 episodes
  • Justice League – 3 episodes
  • Star Trek: Discovery – 15 episodes

April

Movies

  • Avengers: Infinity War
  • Cars
  • Cars 2
  • Cars Toons: Mater’s Tall Tales
  • Gone in 60 Seconds
  • The Hitman’s Bodyguard
  • The Hunger Games
  • The Hunger Games: Catching Fire
  • Inception
  • Ingrid Goes West
  • The LEGO Ninjago Movie
  • Live Free or Die Hard
  • Meet the Robinsons
  • Rogue One: A Star Wars Story
  • Star Trek: The Motion Picture
  • Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope
  • Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back
  • Star Wars Episode VI: Return of the Jedi
  • Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens
  • Star Wars Episode VIII: The Last Jedi
  • Suicide Squad: Hell to Pay
  • Treasure Planet
  • UHF

TV

  • Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. – 5 episodes
  • The Big Bang Theory – 4 episodes
  • Brooklyn Nine-Nine – 6 episodes
  • Cheers – 2 episodes
  • Homeland – 10 episodes
  • Jessica Jones – 2 episodes
  • Justice League – 15 episodes
  • Justice League Unlimited – 8 episodes

Video Games

  • The Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks

May

Movies

  • Avengers: Infinity War
  • Batman Ninja
  • Daddy’s Home 2
  • The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 1
  • The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 2
  • Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle
  • Justice League
  • Liar Liar
  • Lilo & Stitch
  • The Lorax
  • Mission: Impossible
  • Mission: Impossible III
  • Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol
  • Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation
  • Muppet Treasure Island
  • Se7en

TV

  • Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. – 5 episodes
  • The Big Bang Theory – 3 episodes
  • Brooklyn Nine-Nine – 4 episodes
  • Cheers – 15 episodes
  • Homeland – 2 episodes
  • Justice League Unlimited – 7 episodes

June

Movies

  • Black Panther
  • The Cat Returns
  • Deadpool
  • Spirited Away
  • Star Trek Beyond
  • Tomb Raider

TV

  • Cheers – 18 episodes

Video Games

  • Hyrule Warriors: Definitive Edition

July

Movies

  • Ant-Man and the Wasp
  • Solo: A Star Wars Story

TV

  • Buffy the Vampire Slayer – 34 episodes
  • Cheers – 10 episodes
  • Mad About You – 10 episodes

August

Movies

  • Deadpool 2
  • The Death of Superman
  • Incredibles 2
  • Logan Lucky
  • Magic Mike
  • Mission: Impossible – Fallout
  • Saludos Amigos
  • The Spy Who Dumped Me

TV

  • Angel – 7 episodes
  • Buffy the Vampire Slayer – 30 episodes
  • Cheers – 2 episodes
  • Justice League Unlimited – 8 episodes
  • Mad About You – 13 episodes

September

Movies

  • Batman & Mr. Freeze: SubZero
  • The Fox and the Hound
  • I Love You, Man
  • Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom
  • A Quiet Place
  • Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan
  • The Three Caballeros

TV

  • Angel – 20 episodes
  • Batman: The Animated Series – 3 episodes
  • Batman Beyond – 1 episode
  • Buffy the Vampire Slayer – 20 episodes
  • Cheers – 4 episodes
  • Iron Fist – 10 episodes
  • Justice League Unlimited – 13 episodes
  • Luke Cage – 13 episodes

October

Movies

  • Adam Sandler: 100% Fresh
  • The Amazing Spider-Man
  • The Amazing Spider-Man 2
  • Ant-Man and the Wasp
  • Avengers: Infinity War
  • Ernest Scared Stupid
  • From Up on Poppy Hill
  • Peter Pan
  • X-Men
  • X2: X-Men United
  • X-Men: The Last Stand
  • X-Men Origins: Wolverine
  • X-Men: First Class

TV

  • Angel – 22 episodes
  • Buffy the Vampire Slayer – 21 episodes
  • Cheers – 45 episodes
  • Daredevil – 13 episodes

November

Movies

  • Much Ado About Nothing

TV

  • Angel – 24 episodes
  • Arrested Development – 58 episodes
  • Buffy the Vampire Slayer – 28 episodes

December

Movies

  • About a Boy
  • (500) Days of Summer
  • The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Rings
  • The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers
  • The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King
  • Love Actually
  • Scott Pilgrim vs. the World

TV

  • Angel – 15 episodes
  • Arrested Development – 17 episodes
  • Buffy the Vampire Slayer – 11 episodes

Goals for 2018

Books to Read

  • The Ender Quartet (Ender’s Game, Speaker for the Dead, Xenocide, Children of the Mind)
  • The First Formic War Trilogy (Earth Unaware, Earth Afire, Earth Awakens)
  • As many of the Discworld books as I can, particularly Raising Steam and The Shepherd’s Crown

TV Seasons to Watch

Haven’t seen before:

  • Cheers (seasons 1 – 11)
  • The Flintstones (seasons 2 – 6)
  • Inhumans (season 1)
  • The Punisher (season 1)
  • The Pebbles and Bamm-Bamm Show (season 1)

Have seen before, but haven’t yet watched my BDs/DVDs:

  • Justice League: Unlimited (seasons 1 – 2)
  • Mad About You (seasons 6 – 7)
  • NYPD Blue (seasons 5 – 6)

Have seen before:

  • Buffy the Vampire Slayer (seasons 1 – 7)
  • Dollhouse (seasons 1 – 2)
  • Justice League (season 2)
  • NYPD Blue (seasons 1 – 4, 7 – 12)
  • Pinky and the Brain (volumes 1 – 3)

Currently airing/will air this year:

  • Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (season 5)
  • The Big Bang Theory (the rest of season 11)
  • Brooklyn Nine-Nine (season 5)
  • Daredevil (season 3)
  • Homeland (season 7)
  • Jessica Jones (season 2)
  • Major Crimes (season 6)
  • Star Trek Discovery (season 1)
  • Unbreakble Kimmy Schmidt (season 4)

Movies to Watch

From last year:

  • Coco

From previous years, already seen or not:

  • Cars
  • Cars 2
  • Doctor Strange
  • Guardians of the Galaxy
  • Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2
  • The Incredibles
  • Mission: Impossible
  • Mission: Impossible III
  • Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol
  • Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation
  • Spider-Man: Homecoming
  • Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan
  • Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace
  • Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones
  • Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith
  • Star Wars: Rogue One
  • Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope
  • Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back
  • Star Wars Episode VI: Return of the Jedi
  • Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens
  • Star Wars Episode VIII: The Last Jedi
  • Thor
  • Thor: The Dark World
  • Thor: Ragnarok

New this year:

  • Ant-Man and the Wasp
  • Aquaman
  • Avengers: Infinity War
  • Black Panther
  • Deadpool 2
  • The Incredibles 2
  • Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom
  • Mission: Impossible 6
  • The New Mutants
  • Solo: A Star Wars Story
  • Spider-Man: Into the Spider-verse
  • Tomb Raider
  • Venom
  • Wreck-It Ralph 2
  • X-Men: Dark Phoenix

BDs/DVDs I [try to] watch at least once a year:

  • The Avengers
  • Avengers: Age of Ultron
  • Batman Begins
  • The Dark Knight
  • The Dark Knight Rises
  • The Bourne Identity
  • The Bourne Supremacy
  • The Bourne Ultimatum
  • Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog
  • Firefly
  • Serenity
  • (500) Days of Summer
  • The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring
  • The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers
  • The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King
  • The Matrix
  • The Matrix Reloaded
  • The Matrix Revolutions
  • Scott Pilgrim vs. the World
  • Spider-Man
  • Spider-Man 2
  • Spider-Man 3
  • Superman Returns
  • The Truman Show

BDs/DVDs I [try to] watch at least once every other year:

  • The Amazing Spider-Man
  • The Amazing Spider-Man 2
  • Ant-Man
  • Captain America: The First Avenger
  • Captain America: The Winter Solder
  • Captain America: Civil War
  • Home Alone
  • Home Alone 2: Lost in New York
  • The Incredible Hulk
  • Iron Man
  • Iron Man 2
  • Iron Man 3
  • Love Actually
  • Much Ado About Nothing
  • Star Trek
  • Star Trek Into Darkness
  • Star Trek Beyond

BDs/DVDs I haven’t watched since 2014 or before:

  • About a Boy
  • The Aristocats
  • Atlantis: The Lost Empire
  • Bandits
  • Batman: Assault on Arkham
  • Beauty and the Beast
  • Bolt
  • 007: The Living Daylights
  • 007: License to Kill
  • 007: Goldeneye
  • 007: Tomorrow Never Dies
  • 007: The World Is Not Enough
  • 007: Die Another Day
  • Brother Bear
  • Chain Reaction
  • Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs
  • Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs 2
  • Crazy, Stupid, Love.
  • Dinosaur
  • Easy A
  • Elektra
  • Ernest Goes to Camp
  • Ernest Goes to Jail
  • Ernest in the Army
  • Ernest Riders Again
  • Ernest Scared Stupid
  • 50 First Dates
  • Flight of the Navigator
  • Follow That Bird
  • The Fox and the Hound
  • From Up on Poppy Hill
  • Fun and Fancy Free
  • Gone in 60 Seconds
  • The Great Muppet Caper
  • Hercules
  • Home on the Range
  • Horton Hears a Who!
  • Howl’s Moving Castle
  • How to Train Your Dragon
  • How to Train Your Dragon 2
  • The Hunchback of Notre Dame
  • I Am Legend
  • Inception
  • The Island
  • The Italian Job
  • Jonah: A VeggieTales Movie
  • The Jungle Book
  • Kermit’s Swamp Years
  • Kiki’s Delivery Service
  • Knight and Day
  • The LEGO Movie
  • Liar Liar
  • Lilo & Stitch
  • The Lion King
  • Live Free or Die Hard
  • The Lorax
  • The Majestic
  • Mary Poppins
  • Meet the Robinsons
  • Les Miserables
  • The Muppet Movie
  • The Muppets
  • Muppets Most Wanted
  • Muppet Treasure Island
  • National Treasure
  • National Treasure 2: Book of Secrets
  • Oliver & Company
  • Peter Pan
  • Phineas and Ferb: Across the Second Dimension
  • Piglet’s Big Movie
  • Pom Poko
  • Pooh’s Grand Adventure: The Search for Christopher Robin
  • Pooh’s Heffalump Movie
  • The Princess Bride
  • Princess Mononoke
  • Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves
  • Salt
  • Sleeping Beauty
  • The Sorcerer’s Apprentice
  • Speed Racer
  • Star Trek: The Motion Picture
  • Star Trek III: The Search for Spock
  • Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home
  • Star Trek V: The Final Frontier
  • Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country
  • Stranger Than Fiction
  • Super Mario Bros.
  • Tarzan
  • The Three Musketeers
  • Toy Story
  • Toy Story 2
  • Toy Story 3
  • The Transformers: The Movie
  • Treasure Planet
  • UHF
  • The Wind Rises
  • Wreck-It Ralph

Video Games to Play

First-time Plays:

  • Hyrule Warriors: Definitive Edition
  • The Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks
  • LEGO Marvel Super Heroes 2
  • Mario Kart 8 Deluxe
  • Super Mario Odyssey

Replays:

  • The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild

Other

  • More poetism commentaries
  • More “Greatest Talks, Etc.” entries

Stuff not from my 2017 goals

Not included here are movies found in my 2017 favorites list.

TV

Hadn’t seen before:

  • Breaking Bad (seasons 1 – 5)
  • The Office (UK) (series 1 – 2)
  • Sherlock (series 1 – 4)
  • Wet Hot American Summer: Ten Years Later (season 1)

Had seen before:

  • Batman: The Animated Series (all of it)
  • Superman: The Animated Series (all of it)

One night at the beginning of August, I decided try a new show.  Vaguely remembering having heard good things, I first watched the pilot of Sons of Anarchy.  It did not engage me, so I then watched the pilot of Breaking Bad.  It did, and I watched two more episodes that night.  Then I watched the rest of the series during the remainder of the month, with a short break for The Defenders.  It was a fantastic show, though quite dark and not for everyone.  Walter White’s slow descent and then abrupt transformation into almost pure evil was something to see.  One of the things that stood out to me the most was watching Raymod Cruz play the terrifyingly crazy Tuco Salmanca, after having seen him play one of my favorite good characters for about 10 years on The Closer and Major Crimes.

Before Breaking Bad, I decided to finally become cool and watch Sherlock, which I greatly enjoyed.  Because Martin Freeman is so fantastic, I followed that with the original UK version of The Office, of which he was by far (by far) my favorite part.

Wet Hot American Summer came right after Breaking Bad, I having seen the original film and Netflix series in 2015.  It was as funny as its predecessors.

I got Justice League Unlimted on Blu-ray for Christmas two years ago, and it’s been sitting, still shrink-wrapped, awaiting me to watch it.  I wanted to finally get to it (I haven’t yet, but soon), and I used it as an excuse to rewatch Batman: TAS and Superman: TAS, the former being amazing and the latter being pretty great itself.  I then watched the first season of Justice League (the good, but weaker, of the two), and am eagerly awaiting the last episodes of season 2, because I love them.

Movies

Hadn’t seen before:

  • The Big Short
  • Burn After Reading
  • The D Train
  • The Fundamentals of Caring
  • Ghost in the Shell
  • The House
  • Justice League Dark
  • Mean Girls
  • Teen Titans: The Judas Contract
  • Underworld

Had seen before:

  • Batman: Mask of the Phantasm
  • Batman & Mr. Freeze: Sub Zero
  • Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice
  • Blazing Saddles
  • Dawn of the Planet of the Apes
  • Get Smart
  • Frozen
  • Hook
  • Mulan
  • Rise of the Planet of the Apes
  • Superbad
  • Tropic Thunder

I remember when Mean Girls came out, and I had no interest in watching it.  Then a few years later, I learned that it had been written by Tina Fey, who is completely awesome, and I wanted to watch it, but never got around to it.  I finally watched it on Netflix a few months ago, and it was great.

The last time I saw Blazing Saddles was probably when my wife and I were dating, or first married.  It’s hard to put into words just how much of a comedic genius Mel Brooks is.

I’d seen both Dawn and Rise of the Planet of the Apes, but didn’t really remember anything about them other than that I had enjoyed them, and so I rewatched them before War for the Planet of the Apes.  Both were really good.  One thing that stuck out to me, especially in Dawn, was how in a couple of shots I could see hints of Gollum in Caesar’s face.  It makes sense, since they’re both played by Andy Serkis, but it really stuck out to me because they were both motion capture performances.  My wife noticed it, too, but couldn’t put her finger on why Caeasar looked familiar, because she didn’t know Andy Serkis played him.

It had been probably since close to Superbad came out that I had seen it, and it was another one that I rewatched on Netflix in the late summer–as I recall, it was a few days before it was scheduled to leave Netflix so I made it a point to watch it while I had the chance.  (It went to Amazon Prime right afterward, which I also subscribe to, but I digress.)  I am an unapologetic fan of Michael Cera, Emma Stone is also one of my favorites, and Jonah Hill isn’t too bad, either.  It was crazy funny, and it made me a little nostalgic for the high school days, though my high school days were nothing like those depicted in the movie.

It had also been probably since Tropic Thunder came out that I had seen it, so I also rewatched it on Netflix.  So funny.  Robert Downey, Jr. just kills it.

I watched Underworld because my wife likes the film series.  I made it through the first one, and they are not my thing.

I was not a fan of Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice.  For some reason, I decided to give it another shot, in the form of its Ultimate Edition, before re-watching Wonder Woman when it came out on Blu-ray.  I still am not fan, but for some different reasons.

  • The first time, the portrayal of Lex Luthor bugged me.  The second time, not so much.
  • I liked that Jimmy Olsen was named in the Ultimate Edition.  I didn’t like that he was unceremoniously killed off.
  • The setup for the framing of Superman in the beginning was much clearer, so that’s a plus.
  • Bruce’s nightmare was even longer and still felt out of place.
  • I disliked Batman more this time around, which makes me sad.  I get that we’re seeing a version of him that has been through a lot, but just… ugh.
  • Some of the extensions portrayed Superman a little better, like when he was shown helping victims after the explosion at the senate hearing.
  • On the flip side, how dumb are you, Superman?  What prevents you from explaining to Bruce, right off the bat, that Lex has kidnapped Martha Kent?  Just fly up a bit, or something, so he can’t reach you.  I really hated the stupid forced fight that could have been 110% avoided.
  • “Save Martha” is still completely, unfathomably awful.  Batman is not a whiny baby who freaks out when his mother’s name is mentioned.  And guess what?  It would have been completely unnecessary, had Superman just said, “Hold up for 10 seconds, Bruce, let me explain what’s going on with Lex here.”