Movie Roundup, Speed Run Edition

I've been doing a pretty good job of catching up with my movie-watching lately, if I do say so myself. For me, watching movies is not only fun, but it gives me inspiration for my writing as well, so I consider it part entertainment, part work/research (although, unfortunately, I don't think I can write off my ticket and rental expenses as tax deductions).

Here are my thoughts about some of the ones I've seen since I saw The Force Awakens (four times!) last December. Disclaimer: these are not really reviews, they're just my bullet point observations and reactions. Also, there will be spoilers (you'll notice that I talk about the endings a lot)!

Deadpool

Really enjoyed this one. It was pretty much what I was expecting. Yeah, the plot was mostly vanilla-stock, but it was dressed up in vintage Deadpool-style bloody syrup and bullet sprinkles, which gave it its own flavor. I'm pretty sure that's what the writers and director were going for. Wished it could have gone on a little longer. Ryan Reynolds was born to play this character. Although, I must say that I kind of like the version of Deadpool in the Ultimate Spider-Man cartoon just a little bit better, with how he alternates between the high crazy voice and the low menacing one. Oh, and since this is a family-friendly blog, I will add that this movie is obviously not family-friendly.

Kung Fu Panda 3

Now here's a family-friendly one for ya. It wasn't quite as good as the first two installments of the KFP series, but it was pretty close. Lots of fun, solid story, awesome visuals. The ending was epic, which made me wonder how they're going to top that in the fourth installment.

Inside Out

Okay, so I saw Deadpool and KFP3 in the theater. Now we're moving on to the "I'm finally getting around to watching these" portion of the post. This was another kid-friendly one that I had heard a lot of good things about, so one day I just rented it at home. And it didn't disappoint. I especially liked the ending, where they showed what was going on inside of a cat's head. So very much on point. But yeah, bravo, Pixar.

Ender's Game

I actually liked this movie version better than the book, except for the ending, which I thought could have been played for a little more drama. The Battle Room looked pretty much exactly like how I had envisioned it, which was cool.

Spectre

You know, I don't remember much about this one. Some great scenery, lots of action...I miss Judi Dench as M. The ending sure seemed like they were giving Daniel Craig a happy, ride-into-the-sunset sendoff, which made me think that the rumors of him retiring from the role may be true. If he does, I wonder who the next Bond will be? And where will they go with the franchise now that the supposed overall-umbrella-evil-organization-that-was-controlling-everything-mwuahahaha has been defeated?

Coming up in the next roundup, probably: Captain America: Civil War, X-Men: Apocalypse, Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice (what's with all the colons?), and more!