In Theaters: *** Masters of the Universe (2026)

 This movie really didn't hit it for me, but Skeletor (Jared Leto) is a really bad guy.  He takes over the kingdom imprisoning the king (James Purefoy) and queen (Charlotte Riley) while their son, Adam/He-Man (Nicholas Galitzine) who goes with the sword of power to earth, but loses the sword.  He has great difficulty in getting back.  He first has to find the sword.  After he does, in addition to a monster to get the sword, Teela (Camila Mendes) also comes to save him.  Her father Duncan (Idris Elba) had been captain of the guards, and has become alcoholic after failing to protect the king.  Evil-Lyn (Alison Brie) and Trap Jaw (Sam C. Wilson) are Skeletor's side kicks; while Ram Man (Jon Xue Zhang) and Fisto (Jóhannes Haukur Jóhannesson).  There seems no great theme to this movie other than good vs evil.  If you like fighting you may enjoy this show.  I took Jeremy's boys and they seemed to enjoy it.  

Movie Review: ****^Thor Ragnarok (2017)

Lots of interesting action in this movie, and lots of heroes.  Hela (Cate Blanchett) is back.  She is the oldest daughter of Odin (Anthony Hopkins), and served at his side during Odin's warring period.  However as Odin became more peaceful, and Hela wished to continue warring, she was confined.  Now she is back, and the first thing she does is destroy Thor's hammer and then banish Thor (Chris Hemsworth) and Loki (Tom Hiddleston) to a throw away world.  There Loki takes up politics, and Thor becomes a gladiator and set to face The Hulk (Mark Ruffalo).  The Grandmaster (Jeff Goldblum) of the games likes his champion and makes sure Hulk wins.  But the Hulk takes Thor to his room, where Thor plans his escape with Hulk and Valkyrie (Tessa Thompson) his captor, who is also from Asgard.  They refuse, but he leaves anyway, towards Hulk's space ship to get off the planet.  Hulk follows him.  Hulk has been the Hulk steady for over two years, but in the spacecraft he hears the voice of Natasha Romanoff, and converts to Bruce Banner.  Then Loki and Valkyrie also show up, but they need a better vessel to get through a worm hole, and Loki helps them steal a vessel, but he has turning over Thor on his mind.  This is thwarted, and he is left with the escaping slaves of the planet.  Thor makes it back to Asgard, just in time, as Hela has control, and is about to wrest the sword controlling the bridge from Heimdall (Idris Elba).  This paves the way to a great struggle.  Hela is just too powerful, except for maybe against, Surtur, who according to prophesy will destroy Asgard.
This movie takes a plot change at the end, and desperate measure are needed to rescue the people of Asgard.
Tony and I saw this, and we had a good time.  Loved the action, and the characters, and also the banter between Thor and Hulk.

Marvel Universe

Movie Review: ****Star Trek Beyond (2016)

This is a movie for which you have to be prepared for lots of action.  It really keeps moving.  There is one little twist at the end that I don't want to give up, but the Enterprise faces an unstoppable enemy, bee like ships that all work together as one.  After destroying the Enterprise, they try to capture all the people, but the show never tells why or reveals how many actually die in the attack.  This is because the bee vessels were gathering everyone up and collecting them.  They all end up on the same planet, Spock, and Scottie and Dr. Bones all crashing into the planet, with the goal of rescuing their crew.  Scottie meets a local, at least local now as she has previously shipwrecked on the planet, her father was killed in an escape attempt, and she has been surviving in an Enterprise space ship which has been cloaked.  She is one pretty tough woman, but still scared to go back to the base.
Spock is determined not only to rescue the crew, but specifically Uhura, his girl friend.
This movie is a fast and exciting ride, which doesn't give up until the end.  I didn't take any fantastic theme from the movie, other than sometimes you can get lost in space.  This movie was mostly geared toward entertainment rather than philosophizing.
This movie starred: Chris Pine as Captain Kirk, Zachary Quinto as Commander Spock, Karl Urban as Dr. Bones, Zoe Saldana as Lieutenant Uhura, Simon Pegg as Scotty and Idris Elba as our bad guy, Kroll.  He was some fantastic bad guy.  Scotty, or rather Simon Pegg helped write the script.

Movie Review: ***^The Jungle Book (2016)

The animated version of the Jungle Book was not my favorite Disney movie.  However this presentation was new and very entertaining.  The story did not follow the book, nor the original Disney totally and the changes were well received.  The action can be very intense.  Shere Khan (Idris Elba) is very mean and ruthless.  Mowgli (Neel Sethi) is not totally helpless.  Although he is encouraged to stifle his human creativity, it is this that saves him in the end.  Balou (Bill Murray) adds a breath of fresh air to a movie that would have been too intense without his addition.  Bagheera (Ben Kingsley) provides the stability and wisdom of many years.  It was Bagheera who found Mowgli, and brought him to the wolves.  It is also Bagheera who advises Mowgli to defeat Shere Khan by fighting like a human.  King Louie (Christopher Walken) is probably the scariest character of all.  He is just so big.  However, when your house comes tumbling down it is not good.  Kaa (Scarlett Johansson) the scary snake has an hypnotic quality, as Johansen does in real life.
This movie was enjoyable.  Tony wanted to go so we took him.  I think he enjoyed himself.