Category Archives: MCU

Spoiler Free Movie Review: Spider-Man: No Way Home

 

The theatrical Box Office this past weekend returned to pre-pandemic levels when Spider-Man: No Way Home, scored an amazing 250 million dollar opening weekend.

The third in the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s Spider-Man franchise the film follows directly on the heels of the previous installment, Spider-Man: Far From Home, with Mysterio’s post-death revenge of revealing to the world at large that high-schooler Peter Parker is Spider-Man and framing him for the attacks, death, and destruction from that installment. Wisely the filmmakers do not spend a lot of time on the legal consequences of this aspect of the revenge. After all we are not there to see legal filing and debates, though what they do give the audience is satisfying for dedicated MCU fans.

What they do give us is Peter attempting to manage and fumbling the crisis of his revealed and, to many, reviled identity. The trailers reveal Peter’s partnership with Doctor Strange and the appearance of multi-verse villains providing fan services by tipping the MCU’s hat towards the previous incarnations of this beloved hero, but the real focus of the film is Peter, MJ, and Ned, their deep friendship, and their difficult transition from adolescents to adults as they leave high school and prepare for college while navigating their new and terrible celebrity.

The MCU has spent three films and a bit letting us see Peter Parker as a teenager, a high school student, as the original comic book did instead of quickly dispensing with that aspect of the character. Now that era has ended and this story does so respectfully giving that transition the gravitas it requires.

Spider-man: No Way Home, not only presents in the third film the MCU’s utterance of the famous ‘power and responsibility’ but also the thematic foundation that doing the right things nearly always comes with a cost and what separates good from great is the willingness to bear that cost personally.

There are cameos and nods opening up the MCU and the mid-credit and end credit buttons delineate the division between the MCU and the Sony-verse of Spider-man adjacent characters, but also set up the next MCU film Doctor Strange and The Multiverse of Madness directed by the man who kicked off our love of the cinematic Spider-man with the original film back in 2002.

Spider-Man: No Way Home is currently in theatrical release only.

Share

Eternals

 

The Marvel Cinematic Universe returned to solely theatrical distribution this weekend with the release of the Kirby inspired, grand cosmically themed movie Eternals. Sadly, Eternals is the MCU’s first unqualified miss of an entry into their massively successful and expanding set of shared stories.

Boasting a roster of ten powered cosmic beings the Eternals were dispatched to Earth at the dawn of human civilization to protect humanity from extraterrestrial monstrosities Deviants that feed on intelligent lifeforms. Having extinguished the deviant threat in the 16th century the Eternals now mission-less scattered around the globe only to be surprised by the return of their ancient foe a heralding a greater threat and a darker truth about their mission.

The reasons why Eternals did not work for me falls into three major elements.

1) Too many major characters. With the limited scope of a feature film, even one with a running time of just over two and half hours, it is very difficult to have that many characters with their own arcs and issues. I found the plotlines that were emotionally resonate for me sidelined and given only cursory attention. There was only a surface treatment of interesting characters and as such only surface emotional engagement.

2) Too much mythology for a single story. Eternals opens with a block of text giving the audience backstory on the situation, then several times stops for more extended blocks of exposition revising the history and lore of the story. Again, and again narrative moment is killed in the name of exposition.

3) Spectacle over story. Eternals has several large set-piece special effects battles, each more massive in scale than the previous but flash/bang doesn’t create emotional meaning. Whose yet there are times when the filmmakers simply cheat the audience. Presenting one thing as reality directly contradicting a few moments later for the sake of a ‘reveal.’ In the theaters I sat in none of the moments evoked much of an audience response.

Despite an engaging and talented cast Eternals fails to deliver on a story that can make audiences care about the events on the screen. It is a tale full of sound and fury signifying nothing.

Share

My Latest YouTube Fascinations

 

There are lots of crappy YouTube channels pouring poison and lies into a public discourse but there are also loads of content that is educational and fun and belonging to the latter category are some of the channels I’ve discovered doing ‘reaction’ videos. These are people who are watching movies and television, usually for the first time, and reacting to the unfolding story. I’ve discovered three channels that for quite different reasons I find fun and relaxing to watch. These are presented in no particular order.

Natalie Gold A young women who works in the film industry Natalie’s videos provide the most reaction of my three favorite channels. She screams, laughs, and cries very easily but also given her vocation she has a sharp eye for performance, and artistic choices.

Millennial Movie Mondays Ashleigh Burton is a millennial whose life has zigged and zagged her past may cultural movie markers and is now experiencing many of these films for the first time. She is funny with a sarcastic sense of humor and willing to take unpopular stands on popular movies. Watching her channel can make someone feel older especially when something that used to be as culturally all-consuming as a Rambo reference is answered with a ‘Huh? What does that refer to?’

Fictionaldarling This young woman doesn’t overtly display her name and approaches her watches and they are often re-watches not first-time viewings, from a decidedly fannish perspective invested in the characters and their relationships.

 

Share

Movie Review: Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings

 

After experimenting releasing major films in both theaters and on ‘Premium Access’ as a method of mitigating restricted audiences due to the pandemic, and inciting a revolt of its artists, Disney has released the 25th Marvel Cinematic Universe feature, Shang-chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings, exclusively for theatrical distribution.

Shang-Chi stars Simu Liu as the titular character, the son of Xu Wenwu, played by Tony Leung, a nearly immortal warlord whose mastery of ten mystical rings grants him fantastic powers and long life. Repelled by his father’s criminal life Shang-chi flees living in secret working as car valet alongside his equally underachieving best friend Katy played by rapper, writer, actress Awkwafina. After his father’s assassins failed to kill Shang-chi his secret of revealed and he along with Katy rush to save Shang-Chi estranged sister before she falls to the killers drawing the pair into a globe spanning mystical adventure that leads Shang-chi in revelation about himself, his heritage, and the meaning of family.

Shang-Chi is a solid entry in the MCU’s ever expanding cannon. It is quite pleasing that the character’s origins have been modified, removing the stain of ‘yellow peril’ and instead centered on a more respectful and accurate portrayal, at least to my under educated eyes, of Chinese culture and tradition. I will leave analysis of the films depiction of Chinese diaspora to those more fully equipped for such examination and restrict my opinions to the movie itself and its place in the MCU.

This film is neither the best nor the worst offering from the franchise’s feature catalog. It is stylish, well produced and directed with solid emotionally grounded performances from the entire cast. It doesn’t fail to have a bit of fun or occasional laugh utilizing the comedic talent of the actors while maintaining a family drama that explores the theme that we are, for both better and ill, the product of our families. A few of characters from other MCU properties make customary and expected appearances but there is one whose inclusion is a genie surprise and thoroughly entertaining. More so if one kept up with Marvel’s studio’s brief experiment run with ‘One Shot’ short films that had been included for a time as bonus material on the home video releases.

Where the film fails to reach the level of the very best Marvel movies are in the areas of the villain’s motivation, which is relatable and character driven but fails to have greater thematic importance such as will Killmonger in Black Panther, and in the a vaguely defined power set for the titular Ten Rings that leads to a climatic battle that at times feels a bit deus ex machina, not so much as to ruin the film’s resolution but enough in my eyes to undercut it. Still the writers and filmmaker avoided tired tropes and cliches such as the villain using the hero’s female friend as hostage, a tactic I would most happily hope to never witness in a film again.

There are two post credit sequences, the first more lighthearted the second more critical to further developments for Shang-chi and his story.

If you have enjoyed the Marvel Cinematic Universe so far then there is every reason to expect that Shang-chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings should provide you with a couple of hours of enjoyment the exact amount dependent upon your precise tastes.

Share

Series Review: Marvel’s What If …?

 

 

Among the Marvel Cinematic Universe programing produced and released on Disney+, WandaVision, The Falcon and The Winter Solider, and Loki, Marvel’s What If …? is the only animated entry. Centered on alternate version of established characters and stories What If …? is anthology series with each episode a stand-alone and unique entry. Episode one explored an alternate universe where Agent Peggy Carter received the Super Solider treatments instead of Steve Rogers and the next episode brought us a version of The Guardians of the Galaxy where T’Challa (The Black Panther) was abducted as a child instead of Peter Quill creating a very different team of heroes that included a reformed Thanos.

I have been mildly entertained by the series so far but it is the third episode that in my opinion is so far the best. Titled What If .. Earth lost its Mightiest Heroes? the episode focuses on Nick Fury, Director of SHIELD, having a very bad week as an unknown force or assassin murders all of his potential recruits for the yet formed Avengers. Where the preceding two episodes drew nearly all of their entertainment value from the novelty of the changes, Captain Carter instead of Captain America the stories were not that engaging nor that challenging. This episode moves with a proper mystery and a central character that engages the viewer as they struggle to find and requisite answer.

Marvel’s What If …? utilizes as voice talent many of the stars from the MCU, Samuel L. Jackson reprising his role as Nick Fury, Clark Gregg as fan favorite Phil Coulson, Tom Hiddleston as Loki, but some of the beloved actors are conspicuous in their absence with the replacement voice talent quite obvious. I do not know animation well enough to say exactly what style the series is produced in but the animation loos great and has a consistent style across episodes.

While I doubt Marvel’s What If …? is likely to become anyone’s favorite element of the vast MCU it does make for a pleasant and enjoyable half-hour of relaxed television viewing.

My SF/Noir Vulcan’s Forge is available from Amazon and all booksellers. The novel is dark, cynical, and packed with movie references,

Share

Quick Hits

 

Just a few unrelated thoughts and observations this morning.

 

COVID-19: Well, this is fucked. We could have been well on the way to controlling the pandemic in the US and then turning our considerable resources to helping the rest of the world, but no, our fascist-adjacent party insists on throwing their tantrum modeled upon their orange god-king and screwing it up for everyone.

 

New Novel: I’ve started act break work on my new novel about alien ‘non-contact.’ I’m hoping within a week to have an outline and to be ready for actual scene writing.

 

Marvel’s What if …: the new series an anthology of animated alternate versions of MCU stories, the premier being what is Agent Carter got the super solider serum instead of Steve. It worked but I wasn’t blown away.

 

 

Share

Series Review LOKI

 

This week Disney+ and Marvel Studios released the final episode of LOKI season one. Some mild spoilers for the history of the MCU through Avenger: Endgame are part of my review.

Loki, adopted brother of Thor and former villain of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, after meeting his fate at the hands of the mad titan Thanos in Avengers: Infinity War, lived on by way of a parallel time stream variant that escaped captivity due to the Avengers time heist to save half the universe in Avengers: Endgame. The series LOKI follows this edition of the character who
has not experienced the character growth from the films Thor: The Dark world or Thor: Ragnarök as he is hunted as a ‘variant’ by the Time Variance Authority the mysterious organization charged with keeping the timeline orderly and proceeding according to plan. Whose plan and why is the central mystery of LOKI as it compresses three feature films worth of character development for Loki into a montage and then challenges the character with a number of variations on himself exploring the question are we fated to be who we are, or can we choose who we are.

LOKI is a series that I could not review until the complete run had been released. It’s central mystery and eventual character development revealed in the final episode are too critical to the piece’s artistic vision. Overall, I think that they writers, directors, and actors, including some surprise and fun guest stars, landed their craft admirably and delivered an entertaining and even occasionally thoughtful series. Not as deep into exploring human emotion and motivation as WandaVision’s examination of the power of grief but a little more subtle and nuanced than The Falcon and The Winter Soldier’s dive into identity and social racism. Revealing one last mystery in its final scene LOKI promises more adventures for the Asgardian with an announced second season.

 

Share

Movie Review: Black Widow

 

This weekend my sweetie-wife and I did something we haven’t done since February of 2020; we went out for Sunday lunch and a movie.

Lunch was open air dining at a seafood place and the movie was the COVID delayed MCU franchise film Black Widow.

Natasha Romanov, AKA The Black Widow, was introduced into the MCU with Iron Man 2 as an agent of SHIELD with her background as a former assassin revealed in marvel’s The Avenger and throughout the twenty plus run of the MCU movies though always displaying strong fan support she remained the only Avenger character without their own stand-alone entry in the series. Now, following the conclusion of star Scarlett Johansson’s run as the character, Marvel Studios has backfilled a film for Natasha with Black Widow.

The film is principally set following the events of Captain America: Civil War which presented the dissolution of the Avengers due to political and personal conflicts between its members.

A fugitive because of her refusal to abide my new international law regarding ‘enhanced’ individuals, Natasha’s plan to lay low and off the grid watching bad Bond movies is shattered when her past as an assassin reemerges and the deadly, abusive, and corrupt organization that created her and a cadre of women with similar skills is revealed to be quite operational. Forced to reunite with fellow undercover operatives from her past Natasha arc confronts her with not only with challenges to global peace and freedom but with her self-image and understanding of exactly who and what she is.

Black Widow is a solid entry into the MCU canon that personally does not score high enough to place it within the top quarter of entries but rather just below that. The story is solid, the acting credible, and the action fast paced and well shot never leaving the viewer confused as to who just did what, a result all too often these days of frenetic editing in other action movies. Setting the story between Civil War and Avengers: Infinity War limited the film’s ability to breath and carve out its own space and it would have been far better for this to have been produced and shot in sequence instead of feeling like an afterthought apology to the character’s fans. Though the movie’s post credit sequence could only have been created and shot following the events of Avengers: Endgame.

Still, this was a fun film and well worth the time to get out and see it in a theater.

Share

Fixing Zemo’s Retcon

 

 

Recently in the Disney+ MCU show The Falcon and The Winter Solider the villain from Captain America: Civil War, Helmut Zemo, returned as a reoccurring character.

Civil War presented Zemo as secret police/security officer from the fictional nation of Sokovia that had been devastated by the event of Avengers: Age of Ultron and seeking revenge upon the Avengers for the death of his wife and family.

TFaTWS returned Zemo closer to his comic book version letting the audience know that he was wealthy, an aristocrat and held the title of Baron.

Many people have felt that this directly contradicts the earlier presentation of Zemo breaking the MCU’s continuity.

This is an easy fix to make both Zemo’s seamlessly into one coherent character.

Zemo as a young man met and fell hopelessly in love with a woman a low social standing. His tradition  bound aristocratic family refused to accept a person of ‘low birth’ into their arms and Zemo walked away from his wealth, his privileges, and his family to be with his love. Starting a family of his own and building his own life and losing all that in the Avengers’ war on Ultron. Grief and revenge drove him to the event of Civil War and after cooling his heels in prison and basking the publicly fractured Avengers he reunited with his family and the Bucky brought him into the current crisis.

You may now use this as your ‘head canon.’

Share

WandaVision’s Warts

 

The Disney +’s initial excursion into Marvel Cinematic Universe based television has completed its first foray with the series finale of WandaVision the complicated and comedic continuation of the storylines for Wanda Maximoff and Vision beyond Infinity War and Endgame.

The series has garnered praise, fandom, and even a hit song and you can count me amongst its fans but the piece is also not without its flaws and missteps. So, with no restraint on spoilers let me illuminate some of the show not quite on target aspects.

Spoiler Region Ahead

To begin, the entire first episode is superfluous. A person could tune into episode two and not have missed anything at all critical to understand the arc of the series. While some have praised the comedic writing of that first episode it did not work for me so it has three strikes against it, 1) it is unnecessary 2) it is not funny, and 3) it has no stakes. Taking place in effectively a dream the problems presented in that initial episode have no weight. Before someone pops up and says that at that point, we didn’t know thew nature of the Hex or even its existence we didknow that Vision was dead and that Wanda is not a character from a 50s sit-com so the audience is already aware of the unreality of the events they are only unaware of the cause. It is dream storyline and those are very difficult to create with any sense of stakes, danger, or loss.

The progression of the sit-coms through the decades is unmotivated.

With each episode of WandaVision the sit-com dreamworld advances to mirror the stylistic nature of the next decade of television. While many of the homages to classic periods of tv were spot on in tone and look that changes themselves were unmotivated. The character’s watching from outside the Hex commented and questioned this aspect establishing it as a plot mystery that is never explained or resolved. While Wanda as a child adored American sit-coms of many decades it is never detailed why her own never fixed into a particular mode.

Wanda’s abuse of the people of Westview is dismissed far too lightly.

In the resolution of plot, it is revealed that unlike her assumptions that the residents of Westview have happy contented lives in her fantasy world they are actually in perpetual pain and their dreams are infused with Wanda’s nightmares. Wanda’s idyllic world had been a literal hell for everyone around her. It is true that Wanda never intended for that, Wanda never intended for any of it the creation of the Hex and its television inspired reality was a product of her unchained chaotic magic and overwhelming grief but when Wanda does release the spell, restoring the town while once again killing her love Vision the story’s emphasis is on Wanda’s loss and ‘sacrifice’ without and hint that Wanda feels any actual guilt over the agony she has forced others to endure for weeks. This was dismissed too glibly, and it undercuts the grief that series so well explored.

Much of these issues that I had could have been resolved at the script stage. I think an interesting possible approach would to have had each decade of sit-com fail Wanda’s escapism in some manner, double points if it fails in a manner that inherent to the nature of the programing and values of the time it was reflecting so that the decades changes as Wanda keeps, without being aware of it, running from her pain. Doing this in episode one would have set up the underpinnings of the entire series and kept that pilot from being essentially pointless.

Now, with all that said, I am still a fan of the series and have enjoyed watching it multiple times.

Share