Black Panther Shines

Marvel has done it again. They have released another original standalone movie that rocks.

Black Panther takes us to Africa to the country of Wakanda, site of an ancient meteor strike that left a material so strong, it could be used to build amazing technology.

Prince T'Challa, first introduced in Civil War two years ago, returns to save his country from new threats while working to protect their secrets.

The result is an action-packed adventure, good plot lines, and even a few emotional moments mixed with some fun African music.

And my favorite part: the other Avengers do not show up at all throughout the whole movie! They're only mentioned in passing. So, I was able to enjoy this standalone in its entirety without annoying cameo appearances.

What was there not to like? Perhaps there are a couple of large plot holes, but that should be expected. The CGI was pretty awesome, though I may have noticed a few flaws. My 12-year-old daughter reports that the bit rate was slow enough to catch. I thought I noticed the same in a couple of scenes where a moving object seemed to skip across the screen, but then again, it could have been a not-so-great projector at our theater. And there was one scene where I could have sworn T'Challa's necklace was floating over/in front of his outfit. (Was his outfit largely green-screened? Or green-suited?)

Yeah, that was the most I could come up with. Go catch this movie while it's in the theater. We went to go see it the 2nd Saturday and it was still packed. There was a lot of clapping at the end of the movie.

The Movie List - 2013

Here is my movie list for 2013.

---

Top 10:

Gravity
The Book Thief
Oblivion
Hunger Games, The: Catching Fire
Star Trek: Into Darkness
Ender's Game
12 Years a Slave
Secret Life of Walter Mitty, The
Man of Steel

Warm Bodies

---

The rest in alphabetical order:

Captain Phillips

Croods, The

Despicable Me 2
Epic

Frozen

G. I. Joe: Retaliation (why can't I remember this one?)

Her

Hobbit, The: The Desolation of Smaug (yuck)

Host, The

Iron Man 3

Monsters University

Now You See Me

Oz the Great and Powerful

R.I.P.D. (I think I saw this one)

Thor: The Dark World

Turbo
World War Z

The Movie List - 2014

Here is my list for 2014 -- subject to change should I watch more movies.

---

Top 10:

Interstellar
Selma
Edge of Tomorrow

LEGO Movie, The

Guardians of the Galaxy
Hunger Games, The: Mockingjay -- Part 1
Signal, The
Imitation Game, The
Theory of Everything, The

X-Men: Days of Future Past

---

The rest in alphabetical order:

Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day
Big Hero 6
Boxtrolls, The

Captain America: The Winter Soldier

Divergent

Earth to Echo

Giver, The

God's Not Dead (Ugh)

Grand Budapest Hotel, The

Hobbit, The: The Battle of the Five Armies (Not as bad as I thought)

How To Train Your Dragon 2

Into the Woods

Maleficent

Maze Runner, The

Monuments Men, The

Mr. Peabody & Sherman
Night at the Museum: Secret of the Tomb

Non-Stop

Snowpiercer

Transcendence

The Movie List - 2015

Here is my list for 2015 -- subject to change should I watch more movies.

---

Top 20:

Peanuts Movie, The
Martian, The
Star Wars: The Force Awakens (7)
Ex Machina
Cinderella
Mad Max: Fury Road
Ant-Man
Mission: Impossible -- Rogue Nation
Spectre

Inside Out

---

And the rest (in alphabetical order):

Age of Adaline, The

Avengers: Age of Ultron

Cobbler, The

Daddy's Home
Divergent Series, The: Insurgent (I think I fell asleep.)

Good Dinosaur, The

Goosebumps

Hotel Transylvania 2

Hunger Games, The: Mockingjay -- Part 2
Jupiter Ascending

Jurassic World
Minions

Pan

Paul Blart: Mall Cop 2

Pixels (Okay -- I liked it.)
Poltergeist
Second Best Exotic Marigold Hotel, The

Self/less

Shaun the Sheep Movie
SpongeBob Movie, The: Sponge Out of Water

Terminator Genisys (Why did they do this to me?)

Tomorrowland (I think I enjoyed this one more than most did.)

The Movie List - 2016

I've decided to continue my movie list idea back to 2010, which is the beginning of my blog. Today you get the 2016 list. And just like I said with 2017, if I see any further movies, I will adjust the list accordingly, only ranking the top 10 and separately listing the rejects. If I did a review, you can click the link to check it out.

Arrival
Passengers
Doctor Strange
Rogue One: A Star Wars Story
Star Trek Beyond

Batman: The Killing Joke
Kubo and the Two Strings

X-Men: Apocalypse
Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice
Moana

---

Didn't make the cut -- though I enjoyed most of these and despised at least one (in alphabetical order):

10 Cloverfield Lane

Alice Through the Looking Glass (ugh)
Angry Birds Movie, The (actually watchable)
BFG, The

Captain America: Civil War
Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon: Sword of Destiny (it had so much potential and -- nope)

Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them

Finding Dory

Finest Hours, The (much better than I had expected)

Founder, The (some fun learning -- mostly true, but biased)

Hidden Figures (would be higher if it were actually historically accurate)

Ice Age: Collision Course

Independence Day: Resurgence
Jason Bourne

Jungle Book, The
Kung Fu Panda 3

Magnificent Seven, The

Masterminds

Pete's Dragon
Risen
Secret Life of Pets, The

Suicide Squad (what? I liked it.)

Sully
Trolls

Warcraft (lots of good scenes but not strung together well)
Zootopia