Monday Movie Minute: Avatar, Avengers: Endgame, Comic-Con Trailers

AVATAR, AVENGERS, COMIC-CON

Comic-Con and Veronica Mars Season 4 kept me out of the theaters this weekend, but there’s still a ton of Movie news to talk about today! Monday Movie Minute: Avatar, Avengers: Endgame, Comic-Con Trailers are covered on the No-Guilt Fangirls Podcast. 

 

The No-Guilt Fangirls Podcast Monday Movie Minute: Avatar, Avengers: Endgame, Comic-Con Trailers

It’s Monday- so we’re back to talk about the movies we saw. Thanks for joining the No-Guilt Monday Movie Minute for July 22, 2019. And as always: what happened at the box office.

This week we’re talking Avengers: Endgame beating Avatar, Why Avatar is a bad movie- and that Lion King is a better movie, Comic-Con trailers including Top Gun Maverick, IT Chapter 2, Cats & Jay and Silent Bob Reboot.

Marvel Comic-Con Panel News Including Phase 4: https://noguiltfangirl.com/marvel-panel-san-diego-comic-con/

Trailers From San Diego Comic-Con: https://noguiltfangirl.com/all-the-trailers-from-2019-san-diego-comic-con/

Plus Two podcast suggestions: if you’re looking for more female voices in this genre of movie and tv discussions you should pop over and listen to:

Stinger TV and Movie Podcast with Shannon and Fadra https://stingeruniverse.com/

And Anomaly Geek Girl Podcast & Blog – anomaly is a sci-fi/fantasy podcast, founded by Jen and Angela in 2007. http://www.anomalypodcast.com/ 

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Monday Movie Minute Partial Transcript

NOTE: This is totally unedited, but I know some folks like to read vs listen or for the hearing impaired who would still like the content. Hope this helps for those that need it!

Hey, y’all Welcome to the no guilt fangirls podcast. I’m Patty holiday, your head fangirl in charge. And this is the Monday movie minute for July 22.

Every Monday we talk about the movies that came out what we saw last week what’s happening at the box office basically anything movie related, sometimes it can be short and sweet. Sometimes we throwback with old movies that we talked about. Sometimes it’s all about the hot new stuff that is landing either in the theaters or promising to come. You know, it’s kind of like that box of chocolates. You never know what you’re going to get around here on Monday movie minute. Something like that. I don’t know.

Alright, so this week, I did not make it to the movie theater as much as I hoped. I planned on going to see crawl I had finally talked myself into the farewell which is the Awkwafina movie, which I mentioned before I’m dying to see it did open in a theater near me. So that’s on my list. didn’t make it.

The Lion King 2nd Watch Review

I also wanted to see the Lion King again. I did go through the Lion King again. And I will tell you this, that’s a real quick wrap up to my lion king coverage.

The second time around, I enjoyed it a lot more. So if you listen to that first review, and you’re like a she hated it, maybe I shouldn’t go see I you know what, guys, I have to walk that back just a little bit. The things that were distracting to me. And that’s kind of my bottom line answer to why didn’t like the linking Is it the visuals really were more distracting than I think they were meant to be? I was able to put it aside and to let it go and to just enjoy it the second time around and I did. I enjoyed it much more this time around. So take that for what it’s worth.

Veronica Mars Season 4

But anyway, that was the only movie I saw in the theater, partially to blame is because Comic Con coverage was dropping left and right. And honestly, I spent all weekend long, kind of glued to Twitter. And following along all the excitement at Comic-Con there in San Diego.

And then, in addition to that Comic-Con dropped on us, the Veronica Mars season for it dropped a week early and I had to binge it. I had to binge it. So I sat and watched that all day. I think it was Friday, Friday night into the night I had to stay and watch erotica. And there’s a lot.

Guys, there’s a lot to unpack here.

And there’s a lot to talk about with Veronica Mars season four. And we’re going to do that. Not today. But we are going to do that. Because if you are watching that show as well. I know you got feelings. I know you got that. And we’ll get there we’re going to get there. All right.

All of those were it was really good things was good reasons to keep me out of the movie theater. But you know it did it kept me out of the movie theater, so I don’t have anything super new to talk about their however.

This week we are going to talk about things like the fact that Avengers Avengers, yes, finally beat avatar worldwide. It is now the number one box office record holder worldwide.

And why I love this and why I hate that avatar had that record for so long. I’m going to get into that I’m going to get into that. Then we’re going to talk a little bit about the news from Comic-Con some of the trailers. I’m not going to go into the Marvel slate because I did that already. If you want to look back at the last most recent podcast, it was the daily ish from Sunday. And I talked about everything that was coming out from Marvel and why it has me hyped. Because it does. It does. Again, no big shock there.

Box Office Recap

But first let’s talk about the box office and what happened.

As expected. The Lion King killed it at the box office. I think it was 185 million, which probably was another record or something. But anyway, the big news here is that Disney defeated their other Disney movies. Yeah, this is the summer of Disney Disney is definitely cleaning up at the box office. Lion King was number one Spider Man far from home was number two. Toy Story was number three. Crawl was number four. Yesterday is number five which I’m thrilled to see that yesterday is still in a top five position. It’s such a sweet movie. It’s such a good movie. If it’s not on your list, please go read my review is on no guilt fangirl calm, or go go go see it anyway, just so you don’t even just trust me on this if you need something light hearted and fun and sweet. And musically beautiful. Go and see yesterday. And then at number six is Stuber. Seven is Aladdin eight is Annabel comes home. Nine is mid summer, and 10 is the secret life of pets, too. And yeah, interesting mix the box office, you know, like half of them are kid movies. And the other half are horror movies. I guess that’s typical, typical summer fair, though. A little bit, a little bit of something there for everyone.

Why The Fangirl Hates Avatar (Because It Sucks)

Alright, so now we’re going to get into Avengers and game. And first of all, I don’t think I’ve pretended otherwise. Or this should come as no surprise to anybody that listens to this podcast. How much I love the Marvel movies and the MC. I am straight up a Marvel fangirl. That is that is my love. That is my favorite that has completely taken over my life at times. So yeah, Marvel. I’m all I’m all in right. Now. I don’t love every second of every movie in the MC you but I do like most of it. And the reason why I love Marvel is probably well, it’s not probably it’s it’s the exact reason why I did not like avatar, it all comes down to the story they tell and the characters they present.

When I saw avatar 10 years ago, it wasn’t a theater. It wasn’t a theater, and people will say oh, well, there’s your first mistake. No, no, I’ve never been somebody that gets super hung up on the visuals of things. I can tell by watching it. You know, I’m a huge TV at home that it’s a beautiful movie that I never doubted I’ve never fought over. I’ve never said anything otherwise. And I still won’t cinematically stunning film, right?

I am no CGI expert. So maybe you could like break it apart and say, Oh, no, there’s all kinds of problems there. Maybe there are I don’t know. But it is beautiful. And I will and I know it was a really, really big deal at the time because it was definitely something that was new and that we hadn’t seen before. So I understand all those purposes I do. My issue with it is is the lasting power of avatar, and that there is none.

So I did not see it in the theaters. The interest just wasn’t there to bother to get a babysitter and to make the effort to go. So I ended up watching avatar while I was on the treadmill, which at the time I was running, I was training for half marathons pretty consistently. And I had a 10 mile run to do with that day. So I pulled out the treadmill. I was like, Hey, this is a long movie. It’s supposed to be amazing. It will completely pull focus away from the stupid miles that I have to do. So I put it on and I watched it.

For comparison’s sake. I usually would throw on something like Star Wars movies, when I wanted to be transported and take my mind off the exercise. Right. So that was usually my go-to was the Star Wars movie. You know, I had high hopes that this would power me through via the story and the effects and just suck me in and I had to see what everybody was talking about and how amazing they all said it was.

And you know, I kind of actually hoped it would be my next Star Wars. Spoiler. It was not, not at all. And I don’t think it’s going to be anybody’s next Star Wars. Or Marvel for that matter.

You know, just to remind people when I go see a movie, I am not like a critic, critic. I’m not like a hardcore. I hate everything except for this one, you know, random line that was beautifully said no, that’s not me, right?

When I go to movies, I want stories that entertain me. I want stories that move me stories that transport through character acting, you know, I do love costumes and special effects. Don’t get me wrong, all that stuff is super important to the experience to me. But I want to connect and I want to connect you know, through these characters and through the story. This movie like the story they tell him that the premise behind it should have been right up my alley I Space Marines people fighting for their way of life, you know, good versus bad. You know, all of that I did I like those ideas. I don’t even believe it has to reinvent the wheel. I don’t believe it has to be you know, particularly new. But in this case, I didn’t feel like it was a new story at all.

There was nothing that that grabbed me. And if it’s if it’s technically awesome, but I don’t care about the story or the people then that’s not a good movie to me. That doesn’t do it for me. Okay, I gotta care about someone or something. A lot more than that. Ooh, that was so cool effect. Alright, so that’s, that’s where I stand. Not everybody’s like that. I know, we all watch movies for different reasons. But that’s where I am coming from.

The Lion King Is A Better Movie Than Avatar

So when it comes to avatar, like, I don’t know, everyone’s seen it. But does anyone really remember it? And if you do, you probably can’t say much more than I was just so beautiful. It was just so amazing. Right? Like, that’s, that’s my problem with this kind of to an extent. You know, the same issue that I had with the lanky initially was that I felt like everyone was gonna talk about how beautiful of a movie this was, without admitting the fly to it. But the difference being I did connect to some of those characters, I did enjoy some of that story, I did enjoy some of the changes that they did. So I can say that Lion King is on the same level as avatar.

In fact, I’ll say it Lion King as a better movie than avatar is a much better movie than avatar. There are tons of movies out there that I would watch again before picking up Avatar and I have seen it again. Okay, so I watch it that first time on the treadmill. Then right before the avatar land avatar, Pandora world of avatar opened at Disney World, which, as you know, I am also a very big Disney Parks fangirl.

I was still against it. I was still not interested in it the whole time. Even when they first announced that this was coming. I rolled my eyes big and hard at Disney and going up. Why are you making me like subject to this because it’s a dumb movie.

But I tried. I sat down and I watched that movie again. So that was a couple of years ago to three years ago, I think that Pandora opened, and I watched the movie again, then and since then I’ve seen snippets here and there, just you know, I’ll randomly turn it on just to see. Nope, still nothing. Turn it right back off.

So I have seen it 10 years ago, and then I did see it more recently, I just want to put that out there. You know, the whole wow effects can only get me so far.

Disney: Listen Up. Pandora: The World of Avatar Lacks Story Because the Movie Lacks Story

That’s actually, you know, sidetracking side note Disney. That’s how I also feel about walking into your land. It is again, stunningly beautiful. But the story is what I am there for and i and i have no connection to this story from the movie. And I have no connection to it. When I go to the land. Even riding flight of passage is gorgeous. It’s cool.

But it’s the story that you’re telling while I’m on that ride doesn’t stick with me doesn’t pull me in doesn’t make me want to go to the gift shop and buy anything. Maybe I’m just a bitter avatar hater. I don’t know, I know the Disneyland is actually very successful. So it literally could just be me. I just don’t have that connection. It didn’t connect with me. And that’s one thing that Disney Parks do so well, is they create this connection.

And it is it is just not there, guys, it’s just not there.

My Problems With Avatar the Movie

With it with this movie. Like the whole the whole cast is just meh. Like, you know, I asked this the other day asked this i think i think it was on Twitter, not the other day. This was weeks ago. But you know, who remembers the characters who avatar Tell me one name. And most, I think there was probably you know, 1520 responses. And I think one person maybe two people actually could give the whole entire cast and could give who was in it and their names. You know, did they Google that? I don’t know. But but for the most part, people’s response was Yeah, no, I don’t remember them. I don’t know their names. I don’t you know, they don’t remember they just know kind of the basic generic storyline. And I think that’s a problem too, is if either the acting or the story or the lines they were they were sharing the screen writing whatever the answer is. It’s it’s an it’s a forgettable movie, it is just a forgettable movie, there’s not a single character that that strongly engaged me or that I’m attached to I, yeah, I got nothing, you know, I got nothing guys.

Lack of Pop Culture Staying Power

You know, the other issue with it. I think that you can also see this in things like say a comic con, when you go to a con, a lot of people choose to cosplay and to dress up in whatever pop culture reference moves them. I’ve been to a lot of cons I have been to won’t say a lot, but I’ve been to a handful. So I’ve been maybe 10.

So more than some less than others, right? So but in the 10 that I’ve been to, I have seen one Navi, one blue, avatar inspired character out of all of them. And to me that also something like that it just doesn’t have the pop culture, staying power because these characters were so boring. You know, we just, we just don’t remember their names, their storylines, the dialogue, all of that.

Anyway, so for all of that being said, That’s why I don’t like avatar, right. That’s why it has kind of stuck with me and been annoying to me that it was in this number one position and that it was at such an untouchable position. People kept saying it was never going to be taken down. It was going to be the number one movie of all time for forever and ever and ever. And I was like, You know what, that that needs to be given to somebody who earned it on on a different level than just really great timing with you know, the whole 3d thing coming out and IMAX and, and all of that.

So I just felt like avatar didn’t earn it as an overall body of work, right yet. I do believe that absolutely. 1,000% Avengers endgame does. Guys, I saw it five times in a theater and I recognize that might be excessive, but I saw it five times in a theater. And I wept. No joke. That kind of weeping. gasping the fifth time. The fifth time it got me that hardcore. So that’s what I’m talking about. That’s why I am completely there with Avengers and game taking over avatar why I support this. And don’t come at me with that. Well, when you factor in inflation you know it …. We ain’t going there. We’re not gonna talk about that. We’re just talking about the root the sheer raw number right now.

And yeah, well done. Marvel. Well done. Avengers, and I’m super excited and proud to be part of that because I did I did shell out a lot of money. But it was worth it every single time I felt it was worth it. Never once was I like this movie again. I have to see it. No, it was all wanted to see it.

This isn’t a bash James Cameron – he has four avatar sequels coming out people for will it by the time all those come out? Will I be singing a different tune? Will things be completely different? Will I be an avatar fan girl? I doubt it. But I think that’s exactly what Disney is counting on when they when they built the land in the park.

They were pre planning they were thinking ahead. I get all of that. I know all of that. And I and I can’t say it’s not smart to do there is absolutely going to be a generation of kids that grow up tied to these movies because they’re coming out like every other year. Starting 2020 I think December 2020. And there’s absolutely a good chance that we are going to be singing a different tune about avatar here shortly. But for here for now. It’s just not mine. It’s just not my thing. All right. So there you have it. I have finally explained why I don’t like avatar. Okay, moving on. One last congrats to end game. Okay, now we’re moving on.

Comic-Con Trailers 2019

So Comic Con is Comic Con San Diego happened this weekend. And if you’re a fan of the movies, if you’re a fan of TV and entertainment, which I assume you must be if you’re listening to this podcast, you probably paid somewhat attention to what was going on. There were some huge movie trailers that they pulled out not not as not as many as maybe in past years. But what we got was so pretty cool at maybe they were smart. They dropped them all, I think on Thursday or Friday. And then Saturday was just all about Marvel and what Marvel did in their panel, which people are still talking about. So, you know, Sunday, I don’t even I don’t even think anything super new from the movie aspects was dropped. I will have to go back in and try to look at that because I can’t remember and it was yesterday, but I can’t remember that right now. Anyway, beside Comic Con, the movies, we got Maverick, which was a big huge surprise to the people in the room. Nobody was expecting to see Tom Cruise walk out on stage and not only walk out on stage and talk a little bit about the Top Gun sequel, but also go ahead and give them a little trailer. It was it was it was pretty much a surprise there. And this was at the Paramount Pictures panel at San Diego Comic Con. And they got a trailer they got the trailer and then they were kind enough to throw it quickly online for us. I have also I have a post with all of these trailers if you want to watch them. I will link it in show notes for you know, Gil, fan girl calm. And you can go sit and scroll through each one and see what see what you think.
My first impressions with Top Gun Maverick trailer was that it looks really familiar. In other words, they they let their their they’re throwing some heavy nostalgia on it. For those of us who grew up with Top Gun, they definitely are counting on all of us to show back up in the theater to watch this movie again. And you know, it ain’t mad about it ain’t mad about it. I’ll be there. I’m good with it. But things like the trolling of the football is basically the same trolling of the volleyball that we saw right in the first one, the racing of the Jets on the on his motorcycle, the scene in the bar, you know, high top gun, I see you I see what you’re doing. And don’t worry, I will buy my ticket and I will be there. You know, the first movie is not even actually that good of a movie when it comes to like, script or even the acting. But I still love it. I still watch it. I will watch it again. And I will see this one when it comes out. Alright, the next one that got my attention was it to it chapter two, they threw us another trailer here. And if guys, I’m just gonna tell you, I’m going to put on a diaper and I’m going to go see this one. I’m going to wear that adult diaper because I will probably pee my pants. It looks scary. This. This is the movie franchise that is scaring me. Now. It was terrifying. It chapter two. Looks like it’s going to continue on. So yeah, I’ll be there. I’ll be there. Halloween kills and Halloween ends. How going off the history of last year I think was last year last year Halloween came out. Well, they decided to bring us an entire Halloween trilogy. And you know, hey, Jamie Lee Curtis totally down for this. Not not mad about that at all. There was a walking dead teaser. And I actually didn’t watch this one yet, so I can’t really comment on it. But that’s partially because I don’t watch. I don’t watch the show anymore. It. I watched it when it first came out. I was completely sucked in. And then I stopped sleeping. Because I would have these Walking Dead dreams. And I’m not kidding. I had zombie dreams every single night is that good of a show that it was affecting my life outside of my waking hours. So I had to put a stop to it. I had to do a little self care and put a stop to it. I do pay attention to the walking dead on Twitter because I’m weird like that. I like to watch when it’s happening and see what the fans are saying about it. But I don’t watch the show anymore. So that’s probably why I just kind of skipped over this teaser trailer but apparently there’s a walking dead movie coming out. So hey, there’s that. The big discussion of of Comic Con however, it was the cats
trailer.
Okay, so cats is a musical, which you probably either love or hate. Apparently, I have never seen this one on stage. But people have big feelings towards cats. And they either love it or they hate it. And I feel like this movie is going to be along that same lines. That being said, this movie. Oh my goodness. Yo guys, this is got to see the trailer if you haven’t seen it yet. I gotta warn you once you see you cannot see it. You can’t scrub your eyeballs. It is. Well, let’s just say CGI, just because you can does not mean you should. Okay. Wow, why didn’t they just put them just like they do in costume characters on stage. I don’t know where they felt like they had the CGI option. So they’re going to do it that way. It’s creepy. It’s gross. The means are amazing. So I can’t wait till the movie comes out and the means just get even better. Cuz I love memes. Yeah, that’s so there’s cats and then this one supposed to be December. I think it’s coming off for Christmas of 2020 or 2019 2019. Sorry. Alright. And then the last one I’m gonna talk about is Jay and Silent Bob. Again, just because you can should you look, I grew up with Kevin Kevin Smith. Kevin Smith is you know, my generation the storyteller? Who I do appreciate it Really? I really do. But guys, I’m getting so old. I don’t know if I can sit through a whole movie of the Jay and Silent Bob variety and truly enjoy it again. I’m gonna have to I’m gonna have to put my old lady had aside and just roll with it. Because again, it’s Kevin Smith. I gotta see this. And I gotta see Jay as a dad, to some extent that that does have me intrigued figure there’s a story to tell there. And at the very least, we’re going to come back to story and character. This one’s going to have at least is going to have some characters that you will remember. I am hoping that there’s also a good story in there.

Podcast Suggestions

All right now wanted to throw out two podcasts suggestions. If you are looking for more female voices in the genre of movie and TV discussions. Check out both of these new to me podcast. they’ve both been around for a while, but they are new to me. So I want to give them a little shout out here. The first one is Stinger TV and movie podcast. It’s Shannon and Fadra which are too opinionated fan girls. One epic discussion. You’ll I think you’ll like them.  I actually know Fadra a little bit. And she definitely has opinions. Guys. You want to want to chime in on that one. definitely give them a listen.

The other one that I have fallen in love with is the Anomaly geek girl podcast. They also have a blog. Anomaly is a sci fi fantasy podcast. It was founded by Jen and Angela at way back in 2007. So these are these are some old schoolers. So maybe they’re not new to you. just new to me about their geeky episodes are about books, movies, TV games, Ren fairs, convention reports, that sort of thing. So So take a listen.

All right, y’all. That is all I’ve got for Monday movie minute this week. There is a new podcast episode coming out on Thursday. Topic TBD. I have a couple recorded. I just need to decide what fields are to share. I haven’t quite nailed down the timing of things. But that’s going to be Thursday. Regardless something that there will be something new on Thursday. Don’t forget to subscribe, throw up those five star reviews if you can. It does help other fingers find the show. And it’s always appreciated by me. And I do appreciate when you guys take the time to to do that. And I appreciate you listening. Thanks for being with me.

All right, y’all carry on with the rest of your week. And I hope that you’ll be back to go with me again real soon.