John Scalzi's take on Avengers: Endgame

It's interesting, and no spoilers, though he isn't discouraging them in comments.

I'm going to copy one paragraph here, because it is what makes the review interesting:

"With that said, “watchable” and “entertaining in the moment” are not precisely the same thing to me as “fun” and “enjoyable.” Watching Endgame to me felt like being on a forced march through a checklist of plot points and character moments, and after a (very short) time I began to be rather conscious of all the scenes that existed not to be an organic moment of story but to be fanservice for a particular character (or set of characters), or to make sure some barely-remembered loose end was tucked in. By the third act and its climactic and overstuffed battle scene, it stopped being clever and started being exhausting. I felt like a kid on vacation being dragged to all the sights on a tour, with no time to really enjoy any of them because look, we’re on a schedule here."

Now, Scalzi was a professional film reviewer and is a professional award-winning writer, so he has a different perspective in to watching films, and everyone has different insights. I thought he has some interesting points, which I can agree with, but the fanboi in me is still sufficiently entertained that I will be seeing it again in the theater and buying the Bluray.

https://whatever.scalzi.com/2019/05/05/review-avengers-endgame/

Coming this week to a theater near you (maybe): Tolkien

I'm serious. Fox Searchlight is releasing a biopic on JRR, it opens today in limited release and widely Thursday/Friday. It covers his early years: his birth in what is now South Africa, his mother taking them to England, his time in World War I. It stops short of the founding of The Oxford Inklings and his subsequent fantasy writing, but it gives you insight into his inspiration.

JRR's family/estate did not participate or condone the production, but neither did they sue to prevent it. Some license was taken, but that's kind of inevitable in such an endeavor. The article has some nice stills and a trailer.

And there's no way it's going to play here. We'll have to wait for streaming or DVD.

https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2019/05/birth-of-middle-earth-tolkien-biopic-explores-beloved-authors-early-years/