My Thought's On. . .
The
Illearth War
Following on from Lord Foul’s Bane, the Illearth War
finds our unwilling hero summoned back to the Land for a second time. But forty
years have passed in the Land, and things have rapidly gone from bad to worse.
Covenant must not only face the consequences of some of his previous actions,
but he’s now expected to help the Lords fight Lord Foul’s army, a horde so
vast, so powerful, that it will crush everything in existence. The only way to avoid utter ruination lies along a
course beset with extreme peril. But who will be willing to pay the ultimate price?
Yet again, Covenant refuses to rise to the occasion as others would want.
The Illearth War. Another outstanding example of how
to write fantasy.
Avengers: Endgame
Those of you who follow my blog will remember how
impressed I was by Avengers – Infinity War, a film of stupendous scale,
special effects and a mind-blowing climax that added a wealth of credibility to
what was once a fading pedigree.
While – in my opinion – Endgame isn’t quite as good, it
maintained sufficient momentum to hang on in there . . . just!
Endgame lets us see how the remaining Avengers are coping
in the aftermath of a cosmic-sized ass kicking: Tony Stark is stuck on a failing spacecraft waiting to
die; Steve Rogers is doing his best to help Black Widow and other members of
the team come to terms with their loss; Thor is drowning his sorrows in New
Asgard; Bruce Banner seems to have transitioned well enough, now co-existing
with his alter ego and doing what he can to get by.
They’re itching for payback. But how can they do that
against a seemingly omnipotent Thanos who – true to his word – is now sitting
back and living the easy life after reducing the population of the galaxy by
one half.
The answer to that question starts to unravel with the
arrival of Carol Danvers (Captain Marvel) who has taken an age to answer Nick
Fury’s summons because of the vast distance she’s had to travel. But now she’s
here?
Let’s just say, her presence was handled rather astutely
– and wisely so. After all, when you include the presence of the ultimate
superhero, bad guys/girls, even ones as powerful as Thanos, don’t get to last
very long. And once Captain Marvel did her job and helped a motley crew of
survivors get their revenge, of sorts, she leaves on another mission, thereby
making way for a credible twist...
...and that’s where thing could have gone drastically
wrong!
I won’t say what that twist is here in case you’ve not
seen the film yet. Needless to say, the impact of Infinity Wars was heightened
because of the Avengers defeat and subsequent carnage. And if they’d managed to
undo all the damage inflicted upon them by the first film, then, shame on
Marvel.
So they reached a compromise; one that just about
squeezes through as passable, despite the sugar rush poignancy of final
farewells in the nick of time.
Again, I apologize for not going into detail. I never
like my reviews to spoil it for those who haven’t seen the film yet.
Overall, it was an extravagant, entertaining, and
visually stunning film that didn’t live up to the benchmark set by its
predecessor. And while it was fun to watch, I felt it a great shame we didn’t
get to see more of Captain Marvel. But if we had, it would have been a very
different and much shorter adventure.
