Over the past couple of years I have binge-watched multiple film franchises in anticipation of a new release. Star Wars for The Force Awakens, the DC Extended Universe for Wonder Woman, the Marvel Cinematic Universe for Avengers: Infinity War, and several others. Over the past couple of weeks, I decided it was finally time to binge-watch the entirety of the X-Men film franchise (Wolverine and Deadpool spinoff movies included) for... Dark Phoenix?

Okay, so I was originally gonna watch all of them for Deadpool 2, but I was still feeling the burnout from the MCU. Though in hindsight, this worked out. Because not only did I get to go with the Extended Cut of Deadpool 2, but I got to watch Dark Phoenix fresh off watching every other movie in the series. And my takeaway was... different than a lot of other people's I guess.

( I did not expect to end tonight writing something like this, yet here we are... )

I didn't time this as well as I would've liked, as I have to leave in 20 minutes to catch a train into Manhattan as I write this post. But I just finished rewatching Infinity War for the first time since I've seen it in theaters in preparation for seeing Endgame tonight. I've been blessed in that up until now I've managed to remain unspoiled due to avoiding social media the last couple of days.

I actually spent most of the past decade ignoring the Marvel movies. I grew up on DC so I didn't really have any particular affinity for these characters from my childhood. Though I should say I don't have any particular fondness for the DCEU, so it's not an issue of tribalism as much as passive disinterest. But then Spider-Man: Homecoming, Thor: Ragnarok, and Black Panther came out, and for the first time I really felt the pull to want to actually go out and see a Marvel Cinematic Universe movie. But I'm a completionist at heart, so I knew I had to do this properly. And with Infinity War on the horizon, I set out to watch every film in the MCU.

( Lowkey hoping that Nebula is the one that kills Thanos... )