New Avengers: Endgame Footage Shown at CinemaCon

Perhaps my expectations for Disney's CinemaCon presentation were too high, because I was definitely disappointed when it was all said and done. Despite its acquisition of 20th Century Fox and all the movies that come along with it, the Mouse House came up short in Las Vegas despite unveiling new scenes from Avengers: Endgame and The Lion King. That's because everyone was hoping for a sneak peek at Star Wars: Episode IX, but alas, it was not to be. With Star Wars Celebration right around the corner, you can expect Disney to reveal the Episode IX title and first footage in Chicago next week, so let's talk about what they did show, shall we?

We were treated to a new scene from Endgame where Captain Marvel joins the squad. She's all like, "I'm off to kill Thanos," and everyone is like, whoa there, slow down, we've gotta find out where he is and make a plan. War Machine tells her, "hey, new girl, we're all about that superhero life." Rocket brings up some digital hologram of the universe thing and Nebula finds Thanos on some unnamed distant planet, saying, "it looks like he's used the stones again." Then Thor emerges and his weapon whizzes past Captain Marvel's head (it looks like a deluxe version of his hammer) and he basically says she's cool by him. Then Captain America is like, "let's go get that son of a bitch!" Cut to the gang, including Black Widow and Hulk, on Rocket's ship, and he asks who has been to outer space before. We get a show of hands, and Rocket warns everyone, especially Captain America, not to puke on his ship. They do some traveling at warp speed, and that's pretty much it. If you can believe it... I wasn't impressed. This clip did very little for me besides reinforce my belief that Captain Marvel is a boring character who I don't enjoy spending time with. That doesn't make me a sexist, because I like Black Widow and Nebula just fine. I just don't find Carol Danvers all that fun. Sue me.

the-lion-king-image-4 — Image via Disney

The Lion King scene was much, much better, and frankly, the clear highlight of Disney's presentation. We saw young Simba waking up his father, Mufasa, a little too early in the morning. Lions like to sleep, remember? Mufasa tells Sarabi, "he's your son before sunrise." But then he gives in to the persistent little guy, who just wants to "patrol" the kingdom with his old "man." Mufasa explains to him that "everything the light touches" is part of their kingdom, but a king's time as ruler rises and sets, just like the sun. Eventually, Mufasa's time as king will set, and Simba's time will rise. Simba is feeling good about his lot in life. 'You mean this is all ours?' Mufasa tells him that the kingdom belongs to no one, but it is his job to protect it. All this time, Mufasa's mane is blowing in the wind, and it looks absolutely gorgeous, if a little too windy, like the animators were trying to flex or something. Then we saw a brief scene with John Oliver's Zazu, who engages in a bit of playful wrestling with Simba ("cheetahs never prosper!") and that's it. Listen, I loved Jon Favreau's take on The Jungle Book, and what he and his team have appear to have accomplished here is, somehow, even more impressive. This film should give Disney a license to print money this summer, and that's before we even get to the soundtrack featuring Beyonce and Donald Glover.

Unfortunately, the same cannon be said for Guy Ritchie's Aladdin, which quite frankly, looks like an unholy abomination of CGI. We were "treated" to the scene where Aladdin rubs the magic lamp and unleashes Will Smith's Genie, who then launches into an updated version of "Friend Like Me," complete with beat-boxing. The scene was obnoxious, the visuals were garish, and I wouldn't go see this movie even if Smith granted me three wishes. I don't know whether it will flop or perform in line with Disney's expectations, but I don't really care either way because I'm not a stockholder.

maleficent-angelina-jolie — Image via Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures

Things didn't get much better with the first trailer for Maleficent: Mistress of Evil, which is not a very good title. Disney's Sean Bailey talked about making the quintessential modern version of classic fairy tales like Beauty and the Beast, Cinderella, The Jungle Book and Dumbo, but are any of those films modern? Remember when there was an onslaught of Shakespeare adaptations masquerading as teen movies, a la 10 Things I Hate About You. I'd love to see a Disney fairy tale adapted like that. All of these live-action fairy tales look and feel pretty much the same, which is why I didn't even bother to see the first Maleficent. The sequel, by the way, examines whether Maleficent is "good enough" to be Aurora's mother. See, Prince Phillip asks Aurora (Elle Fanning) to marry him in the sequel, which prompts a meeting with the Queen, played by Michelle Pfeiffer. She's a smart woman, which makes her a formidable opponent for Maleficent, but the truth is that this trailer was way too focused on royal politics, and ultimately, I didn't care one iota. This is a franchise for young girls... not me. But hey, if it paved the way for Angelina Jolie to star in a Marvel movie from the director of The Rider, maybe it was all worth it?

Let's talk about Fox, shall we? For starters, the Fox-Disney merger never felt more real than it did this afternoon, when Disney’s intro reel cut from Die Hard’s John McClane to Mary Poppins. What a world, folks! After that, Disney ran a Fox Searchlight reel, and all I can say is THANK GOD they’re keeping that studio around, because it is vital to the overall health of the industry. We saw a graphic of Disney's release schedule, which is very, very crowded now, and that schedule included the logo for Josh Boone's The New Mutants. Again, Disney inherited that movie from Fox, which means it inherited the film's August release date. Of course, reshoots haven't even happened, so as far as I know, the film remains unfinished. I don't even know if the visual effects are done. So while New Mutants is, technically on the release schedule, that could change tomorrow for all we know. It obviously would've been suspicious if Disney put up the graphic and it didn't include New Mutants. Here's the other thing I've heard -- as of last week, Disney chief Alan Horn hadn't even seen New Mutants, so it's not like Disney is keeping its fate a secret, because a decision on what to do with the film hasn't even been made yet! It would've been nice if Disney had announced its intentions though. A little clarity never hurt anyone.

dark-phoenix-aliens-explained — Image via 20th Century Fox

We did, however, get to see a new trailer for X-Men: Dark Phoenix, which was described as the "end" of the current iteration of the franchise. Jessica Chastain's mystery villain tells Jean Grey (Sophie Turner) that this "power has decimated everything in its path, until you." Or something to that effect. Jean starts being bad, and yet, it feels good. She's getting a taste for villainy. When Magneto (Michael Fassbender) warns her to knock it off, she asks "are you threatening me?" and then warns him, "that would be a bad idea" before dismantling his cute little helmet. I'm torn on this one. I'm actually a fan of the X-Men franchise, and the stakes seem pretty high here -- this film is going to have a body count -- but I've also been burned by several recent installments, so Dark Phoenix could go either way in my mind.

The same can also be said for James Mangold's Ford v. Ferrari starring Matt Damon and Christian Bale. The film looks good, but kinda stiff. I don't know, it felt like something was missing there. Fox's Emma Watts called the movie "a triumph," so clearly the studio has a lot of faith in it, and I'll admit that the racing scenes look fantastic, but a race to build a car is different than an actual race, which feels like an afterthought here. Again, this looks good, but not quite great.

stuber-dave-bautista-kumail-nanjiani-car — Image via 20th Century Fox

What does look great is Fox's Kumail Nanjiani-Dave Bautista action-comedy Stuber. Watts said that the film examines competing ideas of masculinity and explores what it takes to be a hero, but lamented that she could only show the green-band trailer rather than the red-band cut, which features a lot more violence and cursing -- two of my favorite things, mind you. Still, even though we saw a neutered trailer, there were still plenty of big laughs, and I think Stuber looks like a surefire hit this summer.

Disney closed its presentation by screening the first 17 minutes of Pixar's Toy Story 4, but I didn't stay for that footage, because I'm not a sadist. Seriously. I saw the first Toy Story when I was 11 years old and have invested 24 years of my life in this franchise, so if you think I'm going to spoil the first act for myself and watch the first 17 minutes out of context, you're crazy. Then I'd have to watch those 17 minutes again when the film comes out in June, and what if that threw off my entire viewing experience? I'm not going to risk that, even for the traffic that would come with an elaborate description of that footage.

Disney didn't show anything from James Cameron's Avatar sequel or Frozen 2, let alone Fox's live-action/CG hybrid Call of the Wild, Brad Pitt's space movie Ad Astra, or Joe Wright's Woman in the Window starring Amy Adams. Those feel like missed opportunities to me, especially Ad Astra, which should really be ready by now. The studio did reaffirm its intention to further exploit the Alien and Planet of the Apes franchises, so cross your fingers and maybe we'll get a crossover! Sigh...