THE OPTIMIST - MOVIE REVIEWS

      The highly anticipated follow up to the immensely popular Deadpool has arrived, and does so with all the pizazz you would expect. Deadpool changed the movie-making game in a lot of ways. As a character, he’s a bit unconventional with his fourth-wall breaking and acute awareness of his reality as a comic book character. However, with the ingenious pairing of Ryan Reynolds and the audacity of Marvel, Deadpool has become more than what he’s previously been. Instantly an icon, Deadpool has found his niche as the self-righteous barometer that pokes fun at the seriousness we give every other comic book movie. From the films to the marketing, this has become a franchise worth the price of admission. Those who have followed the marketing campaign for this film, in particular, have seen what a tremendous job they’ve done at amping things up to eleven this go-around. In the case of Deadpool 2 , the film doubles down on everything: the jokes, the fourth-wall breaking,...

     Okay. It’s been a week since the opening of Avengers: Infinity War . In that span of time I have seen the film three times, and every showing has been vital in the processing of the film. It has taken me a while to figure out how to approach a review for what is truly a one-of-a-kind cinematic experience. No other movie in history that I can think of has attempted to do what this movie has done. Marvel has practically serialized their cinematic universe, with interweaving story threads that almost give each individual movie an episodic feel. It’s as if the MCU is one giant TV show, and each movie serves as an epic episode, pushing the narrative towards a turning point that will shape that universe in the future. Infinity War is in every way the season finale. The genius of this movie, of its creators, and the crews that worked on it, will go down in history for playing such a huge narrative step forward within the lore of cinematic storytelling. I believe, as of...