April

Marvel/Disney probably thinks it has April on lock down with its Avenger's Endgame release, but there are other interesting movies coming out this month.

When DC started with their film franchise they wanted to distance themselves from Marvel as much as possible. Not just in content but in tone. Marvel films were lighthearted and funny, so DC was going to do dark and serious. Problem is they went too dark and the bleakness of Batman v Superman, a massive tent pole for their franchise, was not getting the rave reviews they hoped for. So, to appease the masses, they tried to inject a bit of humor in their next couple films, but Suicide Squad and Justice League just didn't come together. Then Wonder Woman and Aquaman came out. They were fun, colorful, adventurous, the humor worked and they were very personal stories and avoided the now Marvel movie custom of being a puzzle piece in a much bigger story - which DC had tried earlier and it did not work out. Now with the release of Shazam!, it seems they have truly distanced themselves from their grim film origins, going back to the Superman-destroys-the-city-and-cares-not-for-civilian-casualties of 2013's Man of Steel. Shazam! tells the story of young Billy Batson, who is granted powers by a wizard to grow to a full size adult (played by Zachary Levi, who appeared in a couple Thor movies and seems to be born to play a man-child) and harness superpowers when he yells the word 'Shazam!' The movie focuses on him learning just what his powers are and how he is to use them when a supervillain presents himself - which Batson finds more exciting than threatening at first. The film looks like a lighthearted good time and a reminder that DC comics is more than a couple guys grieving over their deceased parents.

Throughout the 80's and during the early 90's, if a horror or thriller film was being produced there was a good chance it was based on a Stephen  King story. Then there was a bit of a drop off in the early 00's, but now we are witnessing a resurgence. After It was a massive success companies, including Netflix, started producing movies based on Stephen King stories. Much like the 80's and 90's stuff it was a mixed bag, but expectations are high for the remake of Pet Semetary. The misspelling is on purpose, as it's about a pet cemetery where kids would congregate and when a new family moves in and their cat dies, the father of the family buries the cat and when it returns he learns he should have listened to the old local who informs him, "sometimes, dead is better." The trailer for this is extremely spooky and while it may not be a faithful adaptation to the original film or book (and really, that's fine as long as it's good) the response from early reviews are that it is a great horror movie.

After 1989's Batman studios spent the next decade trying to replicate that success, usually just reverting back to Batman. There were a few hits like The Crow, Men In Black, The Mask and Blade and several unique failures like Tank Girl, Barb Wire, Steel and all Crow sequels. Batman and Robin killed the Batman franchise for a while also turning studios off from producing big comic book movies until 2000's X-Men, which followed a similar trend of 89' Batman where many comic book movies went into production and some were hits and some were misses. One of the hits was 2004's Hellboy, about a demon raised by a secret government organization dedicated to stopping evil in it's many, and monstrous, forms. He had massive horns on his head that he shaved down so he would look more human and his right hand was larger and seemed to be made for smashing. 15 years later Hellboy is still pretty popular and now we're getting a reboot with one time character-actor now charming Stranger Thing's lead David Harbour donning the Hellboy headpiece and massive right hand. It looks fun but from what I'm seeing it doesn't look all that different from the del Toro/Perlman ones. The tone and action looks just the same but that not a bad thing, it could still be good.

So far each animated film that I've seen from Laika Entertainment has been great. ParaNorman, The Boxtrolls, Kubo and the Two Strings and Coraline are all beautifully made films where all the time and effort behind the scenes is up there on screen. They are delightful stories with fun characters and sometimes can be genuinely affecting and scary - rare for a kid’s movie. Missing Link is their latest and looks to be up to par with the rest. When an explorer (voiced by Hugh Jackman) finds a Sasquatch like creature named Susan (voiced by Zach Galifianakis) in America, he helps the creature travel to the legendary Shangri-La and locate the yeti who Susan believes are his last living relatives. These stories tend to include a deep emotional family element, so expect some water works from a movie about a giant hairy creature voiced by the guy from The Hangover.

(say in radio announcer voice) Last we saw in The Avengers: Infinity War Thanos is now the most powerful being in the universe and things are not going well for the defenders of Earth! It's been 11 years and 20 movies since Samuel L. Jackson's Nick Fury welcomed Robert Downey Jr's Tony Stark into The Avenger's. Since then we've been introduced to heroes played by Brie Larson, Paul Rudd, Scarlett Johansson, Don Cheadle, Vin Diesel, Bradley Cooper, Elizabeth Olsen, Mark Ruffalo and 3 guys named Chris - among many others. They are all joining forces to avenge those who perished during the Infinity War, where half of all life was vaporized in instant when Josh Brolin's Thanos snapped his fingers. If you haven't been following - there are these magical stones called Infinity Stones, previous entries have dealt with characters trying to locate them and now the bad guy has them all and he's super powerful. They have a plan to avenge and maybe save the world and it's all part of the Avengers: Endgame. This is a big deal.