The Marvels review: Just a bit marvellous

So, 2023 is the year I finally started to get bored of the MCU, and I haven’t religiously watched it all as it drops. I still haven’t watched Secret Invasion or the second season of Loki. I think the increasing amount of bad or lackluster content coming out, and the loss of connectivity and direction in the franchise has made it a lot less fun to follow. It feels more like a chore. So when I eventually realized that The Marvels was coming out I decided I should give it a try, but go in with lowered expectations…

The plot

Destiny’s other children

After Kree leader Dar-Benn opens up unstable wormholes to save her dying planet, Captain Marvels powers become entangled with those of Ms. Marvel and Monica Rambeau. With the three women randomly switching places every time they use their powers; they must work together to stop Dar-Ben from ripping the universe apart.

I really enjoyed the concept of them switching places, it’s something new we haven’t seen before from this kind of film and they had a lot of fun with it, especially in the beginning. The rest of the movie was pretty standard in terms of plot; go to a place fight the villain, go to a new place learn some things. Without the entanglement plot there wouldn’t have been anything particularly interesting about this film so at least they kept it fresh in some way.

The characters

What’s she marveling at?

In all honesty, when I saw Captain Marvel (2019) I wasn’t blown away by the character. I thought she was cool and it was exciting to see a female character be so powerful, but personality-wise she came across as a bit bland and uninteresting. A lot of people have unfairly tried to claim this is because Brie Larson can’t act, but if you’ve seen Room (2015) you know that’s not true so I think it was just down to the writing. In this movie I feel like they made her a little more fun and relatable than last time, probably building on what didn’t work before.

There’s also the issue of Carol’s sexuality, which has long been a source of speculation with fans hoping she could be confirmed as gay on screen. Now they don’t go so far as to actually confirm it in this movie but they do strongly hint at it in at least one scene. It’s strong enough to show they are acknowledging it but still disappointingly easy for them to edit out for any countries that might threaten to ban the film for its connotations. As a gay person that just gives me the ick.

Kahn you belive it?

By far the best character in the movie is Kamala Kahn aka Ms Marvel. Though I didn’t particularly rate her show on Disney+ last year, due to its weak story and bad pacing, I did instantly fall in love with Kamala and her family (who are also a big part of this film) so was the most excited to see them again, and they didn’t disappoint. The infectious energy that Kamala brings into the room is just really entertaining because you’re witnessing a fan meet their hero. But it’s not just her fangirling the whole movie, she actually has a lot to bring to the team power-wise, and the emerging mentor/student relationship between her and Carol is intriguing to watch.

Of course, it was also great to see Monica back from Wandavision – still my favourite MCU show – with the powers she gained on that show now fully formed. I’m not sure we learned all that much about her as a character than we already knew unfortunately, she mostly just served as part of Carol’s character arc, but they have definitely built up somewhere for her to go in the future.

The villain

She’s totally hammered

The most disappointing thing about this movie was by far its villain Dar-Benn. I think Zawe Ashton did the best she could, but the material wasn’t there. I found her motivation quite interesting, wanting to save her homeland from annihilation, which made her somewhat sympathetic. However, her actions often didn’t live up to that setup and she just reverted to a villain doing villainous things. She came across as very generic, not bringing anything unique visually or characteristically to the MCU. She’s a villain that I think will be easily forgotten as the years go by.

The Universe

It’s important to do some morning stretches

One thing about a movie set in a giant shared universe is that it has to bring something new to expand on that world. I’m not sure they totally succeeded in that regard. This was a space movie so they visited a lot of planets, but few of them were very unique to this movie despite looking quite nice. The best bit of world-building they did was with the musical planet Aladna, where their language is song. Was this concept a bit silly, yes a little, but after Thor: Love and Thunder, I won’t complain too much about a short musical section even if I didn’t love it. This planet however had the best production and costume design of the movie, with lots of bright colours that popped on screen and physical sets that really make a difference when you’re used to seeing people walk around in CGI.

In terms of the interconnected world of the MCU, this is actually the most connected it’s felt in a long time. Since Avengers: Endgame (2019) every MCU project has felt very separate with very little crossover and there’s been very little clarity on where the wider story is headed. This is part of what has made it less fun to keep up with the story, as the investment doesn’t seem as worthwhile. This movie is the most connected the world has felt in a while, bringing characters together from movies and 2 shows and building on some new crossovers down the line.

The future

When you see the box office for this film…

Going into this movie with low expectations did help me enjoy this movie more than I would have if I had gone expecting a top-tier film. It’s entertaining and has some fun moments but it didn’t wow me, so it’s very middle of the road in terms of rankings.

At this point, Marvel can’t afford to have a movie like that, when people like me are already beginning to lose interest. I’ve already given up on the shows. How long before I give up on the movies too?

The ending of this film gave me some hope that if they have a plan and they focus on making higher-quality material they can breathe some life back into this franchise, but it may already be too late…

Guardians of the Galaxy Vol 3 review: A very satisfying end

It’s been a long time coming! Through firings and rehirings and making DC movies instead, James Gunn has finally finished the Guardians of the Galaxy trilogy he kicked off for the MCU way back in 2014. But in an Era where Marvel fatigue is setting in and projects are dipping in quality, has he managed to keep the franchise at the high standard he set for it or has it come to a whimpering end?

Plot

The new uniforms weren’t as comfy as they expected

After an attack by Adam Warlock (sent by the evil genetic scientist The High Evolutionary) leaves Rocket close to death, the guardians must find the key to his mysterious genetics to save his life. We also discover Rocket’s origins as a creation by The High Evolutionary during his quest to create a more perfect world filled with perfect beings.

Whereas the previous two Guardians films focused on Peter Quill’s backstory and character development, I like that they decided to branch out and focus on one of the other guardians this time (even though Quill is very much still the main character). This was especially exciting because Rocket’s life had really been a mystery up until this point, so it gave us something to build from while keeping things feeling new and fresh. We also get a few revelations that tie this new story back up to the previous entries as well as new character choices that together serve to bring the trilogy to a satisfying close.

Characters

All the characters are consistent with how we came to know them in the previous 2 movies, so there are no real major changes in characterization abate from one character who I’ll get to.

Turns out Gamora’s not a cat person

As problematic as Chris Pratt may be to some people with his ultra-religious and conservative private life, I cannot deny that he continues to just be really good at movies, with both this and Super Mario back-to-back and Jurassic World last year, being super enjoyable for me. As I said, despite this being a movie about Rockets, Quill/ Star Lord is still the main character as Rocket does spend a lot of the movie unconscious. And rightfully so because as a lead he brings such charisma and humanity to the team. I also didn’t like the way that they kind of made fun of Star Lord and infantilised him a bit in the last Avengers, movie so it was nice to see him as a more 3-dimensional character once more.

The big change in character was with Gamora, as she was technically a different character. After the original Gamora was killed in Avengers: Infinity War and an alternative timeline brought in a new Gamora that never joined the Guardians in Avengers: Endgame, we have to follow this new Gamora as she finds her place in a team that remembers her in a way she doesn’t know herself. I’ve always loved Zoe Saldana in this role, and while I loved her as the old Gamora, I really appreciated what she brought to this new, more aggressive version of the character, and she managed to differentiate the two with her performance. They also could have very easily found a way to just reboot her memories and bring back the old version but I appreciate that they didn’t do that and committed to her new journey as this character.

Everyone else was just as entertaining as ever. The only thing I didn’t enjoy was the new design of Groot. While I eventually got used to it, I still don’t like how cartoony he looked, almost an action figure, which I think is a particular creative choice, but not one I personally liked.

Villains

Gotta hand it to him, he gets to the point

The High Evolutionary (Chukwudi Iwuji) was horrible! But I mean that in a good way. He was a character with not an ounce of empathy or goodness in him, who committed unspeakable acts through the course of this film. I think in a time where most movie villains have a little bit of empathy or relatable (which does usually make them interesting), it’s good to also have one that is just truly awful, because that makes him scary. He was also wildly emotional, which made his reactions and therefore his actions escalate, which upped the tension as the movie progressed.

One of the secondary villains of the film was Adam Warlock (Will Poulter), a character that people have been wanting to see in the MCU for years. As a character, I think he was well done. He had basically just been born, as he was just created by Ayesha and the High Evolutionary, so he had this childlike naivety that created great comedy that really fits in with Guardians’ sensibilities. But he was also really powerful and a genuine threat. I think he was sadly underutilized here though. He really didn’t serve a purpose outside of inciting the initial conflict, and then he just kind of stuck around for the rest of the movie doing not much. It felt like he was there because he’s supposed to be an important character, rather than actually being important to this story. But the silver lining is this is Marvel, where everyone comes back in other projects. So I’m sure there’ll be more time to get to know him properly and have him be a part of his own story later on.

Tone

I know why the caged Rocket sings

This movie was very dark! While the last two Guardians films had deep emotional moments, they were overall very light hearted and fun; so I think it will come as a surprise to people just how dark it is. Now don’t get me wrong there is a lot of comedy and silly moments, it’s not a complete 180, but it goes very heavy on some quite harrowing imagery, particularly around the theme of animal cruelty. There’s one scene in particular that left me thoroughly shaken.

After Thor: Love and Thunder and other recent comedies like She-Hulk left me feeling disinterested in an MCU that wasn’t taking itself seriously, I obviously much prefer this approach. Because James Gunn managed to balance out his more typical silly comedy stylings with a more deep meaningful story, something Taika Waititi did not manage to do with Thor. The only issue I see is rewatchability, as I already see people saying it was too sad for them to go back and sit through it again, no matter how good they thought the film was.

Soundtrack

Spitting fire on the tracks

I’m the previous 2 Guardians films, the soundtrack has been a huge selling point and was sort of a character in its own right. The soundtracks stuck rigidly to 70s music played through cassette that the characters themselves were hearing along with the audience, which gave a unique twist to the sci-fi genre. I think it’s safe to say that it’s a key ingredient of what made this brand so popular in the first place.

In this movie however, they switch to a Zune mp3 player which played songs spanning up to the 2000s. While a lot of the songs are great, I think having that range did lose a little bit of the franchise’s identity and I didn’t feel like they all blended in as seamlessly with the action on screen as previous films had, apart from a couple of exceptions.

This was of course James Gunn’s last Guardians of the Galaxy movie, so it was very much set up to be an ending, which it ends up being, quite satisfyingly so. Despite this, the door is very much left open for the Guardians to return, as everything is always left with Marvel. Of course, if they do return it will be with a new lineup as a lot of this cast have stated that they don’t want to come back.

I would like to see the Guardians come back in some capacity in the future, but I think they should hit pause a bit to give this film some time to breathe as a conclusion to the trilogy. Then they can come back with a fresh creative team behind them to take them in a new direction.

Ant Man and The Wasp Quantumania Review: A Mini Meh

The MCU is back for another year of blockbuster superhero movies, but it seems as if they’re not starting off on the right foot.

I didn’t get to see Ant Man and The Wasp: Quantumania right away, so I had already been exposed to the resoundingly negative reviews it was receiving upon release. So, upon going in with relatively low expectations, here’s what I thought:

Plot

The green screen is green screening!

The movie follows Ant Man (Paul Rudd) and his relationship with his daughter Cassie (Catherine Newton), who’s life he missed 5 years of as we saw in Endgame. When Cassie builds a device to communicate with the quantum realm (a small universe that exists extremely small within our own) they are accidentally, along with The Wasp (Evangeline Lily), Janet (Michelle Pfeiffer) and Hank Pym (Michael Douglas), shrunk down into the realm. They must then face off against Kang the Conqueror (Jonathan Majors), the sinister ruler who was a secret history with Janet.

This Ant Man movie is a drastic departure from the previous 2 in the trilogy, which were low-stakes heist films that took place around San Francisco. This action-adventure take is somewhat of an upgrade, but at the same time feels kind of like a different set of movies. Personally, I did miss the quaintness of the older movies, but I understand that they wanted to do something bigger (or smaller as the case may be) for what’s probably the last one.

Characters

The star of this movie is, of course, Paul Rudd as Ant Man, who is just one of the most likable actors out there. What makes him a good hero, particularly in this villain, is that he’s not driven to be one by ego, or by some grand commitment to justice like other superheroes. He’s someone who just fell into it, and he’s just a normal guy who wants to be a good person, and wants to protect and guide his daughter. He’s relatable as an everyman in a way that other heroes aren’t, and it also helps that he’s pretty funny too.

One day, an Ant suit for each colour of the rainbow!

Speaking of his daughter, I liked Catherine Newton as the new, older Cassie (even if it meant unceremoniously dumping the last actress who played her). She was this idealistic teenager who wants to be a hero, but they didn’t go too far with it and make her annoying with it. She was the right amount of realistic character-wise, apart from the fact that she was suddenly this brilliant scientific kind that she never was in the other movies. But then again she was about 8 years old back then. I also didn’t love that she had exactly the same powers as her dad and her step-mum, even if she had trouble using them to begin with. We don’t really need three ant people in the MCU, especially in one movie. If they’re going to use her again, I would like to see them make her unique in some way if they can.

What really bothers me is that the movie is Ant Man and the Wasp in name only, because The Wasp has no storyline of her own. She’s there, and she does important things for the plot, but the story has nothing to do with her. She has no journey or development. Her mum holds more importance to the story than she does. I understand that with an ensemble cast, some characters are gonna have more emphasis than others, but if you’re the titular character, it really should be your movie.

Villain

Due to his multiversal existence, we were already introduced to kang in another form in the Loki series. However, this was our first big screen, deep dive into him as the new major villain of the MCU, and it was delicious.

Taking villain tips from The Lion King

Johnathan Majors was such a compelling force on screen. He was so menacing yet intriguing at the same time. Most of the time he spoke very quietly and calmly but had this aura about him that just put you on edge.

I was concerned about the fact that they chose to give us our first major experience with who is ultimately the new Thanos, in an Ant Man movie. My worry was that the silly tone of the movie would bleed into him as a villain, but it didn’t at all. The only real issue I had with him was that his powers were really badly defined. He seemed to be able to do whatever the script needed him to be able to do. There was a point, for example, when he had the power to freeze one of the main characters in time, but then he never used that ability later on when it would have helped him out.

World

The All Night Rave Realm

When I first saw the trailer for this film I thought it looked really similar to Guardians of the Galaxy in it world building; with bright colours and whacky alien creatures. That bothered me, because I don’t want every marvel film to bleed into each other and become samey, because then where’s the fun in having different movies in the same universe.

Having seen the film, while there is a little bit of overlap, I do feel they did a good job of making the quantum realm feel different from outer space. Everything has this quality of being like a microorganism; the world feels more biological than techno, except for the parts that Kang has overtaken, which gives us that balance between hero and villain.
I don’t have any great desire to go to this world for any other movies, but it was fun enough for one outing.

Tone

Kang has blue balls

The elephant in the room is that I didn’t like Thor: love and thunder because it was way to silly, and on a scale of Thor to Black Panther this was definitely closer to Thor, but it didn’t go all the way. Yes, this movie is quite silly, and there are definitely some characters and moments that were a bit overdone (MODOK is so dumb and I hated it) but I think what saved it was the writing. This movie felt like the jokes and comedic characters were add-ons to a serious story that they were trying to tell, whereas Thor felt like the jokes were more important, and we had to stop every two seconds to tell one and the plot, that could have been really good, was an afterthought.

I just rewatched Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, and I still personally much prefer the more serious tone, to the tone of this film, but that just might be my own taste.

Future

I don’t think this movie deserves to be labelled as one of the worst MCU films. It’s entertaining and creative, it has some fun moments and a great villain. Overall I think it’s fine.

The thing is the MCU can’t afford to be just fine. After the recent swathe of lackluster content coming from the once infallible franchise, people are starting to get tired of it. And I’m afraid I have to include myself in that. They need to start putting out more high-quality movies, or we’ll see the MCU die a slow and painful death, rather than go out on a high.

Black Panther Wakanda Forever Review: Marvel back on their A game!

After a recent string of disappointing or mediocre Marvel projects, I have started to worry that the MCU had lost the luster that it had not too long ago, as it continues to expand. I had a lot of hopes for the sequel to one of my personal favourite marvel movies, Black Panther, but was nervous that it wouldn’t be able to capture the magic of the first film, especially with the tragic loss of its lead actor.

Story

Yassss Queen

After the death of King T’Challa, the Black Panther, Wakanda is left vulnerable as foreign nations try to get their hands on the powerful metal, vibranium for themselves. When America finds deposits of vibranium in the ocean it threatens to expose the secret underwater kingdom of Talokan. Led by their leader, Namor, Talokan blames Wakanda for the world’s eagerness to mine the metal and the threat to their way of life. A conflict between the two nations begins as Wakanda still reels from the loss of its protector.

The narrative is one of the absolute best parts of this movie. In what may seem surprising to some from a superhero movie, the storytelling was very sophisticated. This felt truly like an epic war story. Each side in the conflict, Wakanda, Talokan and America, had clear motives behind their actions. It wasn’t just armies turning up and randomly fighting each other, but there was negotiation and tactics behind their moves. It felt like a real war that you can believe was happening in this fictional world.

Characters

White is the new Black (Panther)

Though the movie has many characters and is more of an ensemble than the first, the main character is undoubtedly Shuri, Princess of Wakanda and tech genius. Shuri became a fan favourite character after the first film with he wit and fun-loving attitude. But here Shuri is older and changed by the sudden death of her older brother, as well as her inability to save him. Letitia Wright has become somewhat of a controversial figure lately, due to some I’ll informed tweets about covid vaccinations, however it is impossible to deny what a phenomenal job she does acting in this film. She portrayed a young woman, totally torn apart and broken from constant loss and it’s glorious and heart-wrenching to watch.

Someone else who is broken by tragedy is Queen Ramonda, played by living legend Angela Bassett. What stands out about her is the regality and stoicism Ramonda maintains as a ruler, despite the immense pain she feels, which of course begins to fracture her relationship with her daughter and others around her. She gets some of the juiciest lines and monologues in the movie which means we get Bassett at her best.

She may destory you

Like the first film, the supporting cast is rounded out with strong black women, with the Dora Milaje, once again led by Okoye (Danai Gurira) and new member Aneka (Michaela Coel). Aneka doesn’t get a whole lot to do because she’s not the most important character in the story, but when she does have a story of her own and I have a feeling we’ll be seeing more of that later.

The other new character is Riri Williams aka Ironheart (Dominique Thorne), who unwittingly plays a major part of the conflict. Having an African-American character interact with all the Wakandan’s added a fun dynamic and it was a really great way to introduce us a character who is going to get her own solo adventures. I think this was also a nice way of tying this film back to the ending of the original, with the promise of Wakanda reaching out and supporting the black community around the world, which builds on the kind of symbol Wakanda has become for people in the real world as well.

Villain

Don’t be fooled by the rocks that he’s got

The major new addition to the Marvel Cinematic Universe from this film is our antagonist, Namor (Tenoch Huerta). He’s a character that people have been wanting to see for a long time, so there was pressure on this film to get him right. In the comics he flip-flops between hero and villain, so I was interested to see how they would make him the villain, but still redeemable enough to be a hero in the future. I think they struck the balance really well, while he was clearly the villain, as he antagonized Wakanda, it didn’t come from a place of pure malice but from eagerness to protect his people. What I liked most about Namor was his characterization. He was hot-headed, impulsive and just a little bit cocky, which made him a good foil for the more proud and honorable royalty coming from Wakanda.

The Talokan people as a whole were also an intimidating group of adversaries for Wakanda as they are the only other nation with access to vibranium of weapons and armour, meaning both sides were evenly matched. Although the Talokan’s did have some extra superhuman abilities that gave them a slight upper hand. This match-up made the conflict just more interesting to watch as you genuinely didn’t know how it was going to resolve itself, all the way up until the very end.

Worldbuilding

One of the best things about the original Black Panther was the way in which it created the country of Wakanda. Blending futuristic technology with traditional African culture made a world that was totally unique and breathtaking to behold, from its architecture to its clothing to its characters. All the goodness from then is right back in the sequel, but this time there was a second kingdom to introduce too.

Hmmm, something smells fishy

Talokan is similar to Wakanda in that it’s based on a culture that was colonized by Europe, but imagines how it would be if it had not been. Rather than African culture, the kingdom and people of Talokan are based upon mesoamerican, particularly Aztec history. I wasn’t particularly impressed with the way the kingdom of Talokan was realized. It was very darkly lit (because it’s deep underwater) so it was hard to make it out, but I was expecting something futuristic, akin to Wakanda but underwater, whereas they seemed to go a more traditional underwear reef type vibe for the world. The Talokans themselves were brilliantly realized, however. Their clothing was clearly South American tribal inspired but with an obvious aquatic twist, such as a headdress that looks like a fishes fins or a helmet akin to a hammerhead shark.

Tone

Black is the new Black (Panther)

Recently it has seemed like the MCU has pivoted more towards light-hearted comedic storytelling, particularly in Thor: Love and Thunder and She Hulk: Attorney at Law, which I have not been a fan of. I have always found that Marvel are at their best when telling a serious and grounded story, with moments of comedy added for levity, rather than the other way around.

As its main focuses are grief and war, this film was more of the latter, which was a refreshing return to form. Setting such a deep tone made the events unfolding feel more important, which made the stakes feel higher and the build to a climax more exciting.

Chadwick

Obviously, the elephant in the room when talking about this film is the tragic passing of Chadwick Boseman in 2020. He was so special to so many people, but not least to the cast and crew of this movie who worked so closely with him on the first.

T’Challa does not appear in this film in any way other than in clips from his previous appearances, however there is barely a moment where the loss is not felt; and that’s not a bad thing. It was clearly the intention of Ryan Coogler to not just kill him off and move on, but to be remembering him constantly, and feeling the legacy the Boseman left behind, both as that character and his real life. It’s powerful stuff, and very emotional.

I’m so happy with the way this sequel turned out in the face of a seemingly insurmountable tragedy. It was epic, it was emotional and of course, it was entertaining. Most importantly it managed to revive my excitement for a franchise that was beginning to lose my interest. Now I can’t wait to see where these characters and this story goes next.

Thor Love & Thunder review: Silliness ensues

It’s that time again, another movie in the ever-growing and ever-expansive Marvel Cinematic Universe is out. This time it’s the fourth instalment of the Thor Franchise (the first MCU franchise outside of the Avengers to get a 4^th), Thor: Love and Thunder. After the third film took the Thor movies in a new visual and tonal direction, and was very successful, the anticipation for another instalment has been quite high. So how did it come together?

Plot

I Thord i Thor a Thor or two

The plot follows Thor after he joined the Guardians of the Galaxy at the end of Avengers: Endgame. When a mysterious villain, Gorr the God Butcher, starts killing gods, Thor returns to his people in New Asgard to find that his ex, Jane Foster, now possesses his hammer and has the powers of Thor herself. They team up, along with King Valkyrie and Korg, to stop Gorr before he can enact his plan to kill every God in the universe.

The story had a lot going on as it combined two major plots from the comics, Jane becoming Thor and Gorr killing gods. Plus, it had to introduce a bunch of gods and give the guardians of the galaxy something to do for 10 mins before they promptly leave and are never spoken of again. Because there’s so much to get through in only 2 hours, the story does race by very quickly and a lot of development does seem left out. I think with an extra half-hour they could have fleshed out a lot more, particularly with Gorr, but also with Jane.

Tone

Thor swore these were the guys from avatar!

I think the biggest thing to talk about with this film is its tone. It’s a very silly movie. Taika Waititi is well known for being a comedic writer and director so that isn’t a shock at all. Where he introduced a lot of comedy into the Thor movies with Thor: Ragnarok, it feels turned up even further here into a full-on comedy movie.

I’m in two minds about the tone myself. Whereas it was very entertaining because it was so funny, I felt that at some point it became so stupid and took the mick so much that it didn’t feel like anything mattered because it was all just a big joke. I think Ragnarok did a better job of balancing the silliness and the serious, whereas this leaned a little too far in one direction. I don’t think it will be everyone’s cup of tea.

Characters

I have to talk about the not one but two Thors this movie has.

Axe me anything

The original Thor himself has been on an interesting journey through his last few movie appearances. I like that this movie pointed out that pretty much everyone close to him has ended up dying, and it explored how that has affected his journey. Thor is at a place where he feels lost and he doesn’t know what he needs in his life to give him a sense of purpose again.

Like the tone of this movie, Thor has become a very comedic character, which works in part because Chris Hemsworth is a fantastic comedian. However, I’m already seeing a lot of people not liking how much of a jokey character he is now, especially as he used to be much more serious and even recently in Infinity War, and partly in Endgame, he was a lot less comedic. While I enjoy comedic Thor, and clearly so does Hemsworth, I do feel a bit of whiplash between how different he’s depicted in different instalments.

Jane got a hammer!

Natalie Portman is genuinely one of my favourite actresses, so I was very excited to have her come back to marvel as Jane Foster. Even though she didn’t have much to do in her previous movies, I always thought she did a great job in the role, and I thought the relationship between Jane and Thor was pretty strong. Having her suddenly come back after such a long absence meant they had to do a lot of exposition on where she went, but it was handled pretty well.

I’m terms of her own storyline, I appreciated what they did with it. I thought her illness was handled tastefully and it was very poignant. As I said there were a lot of other storylines at play, so I wish we would have been able to get more of a look at janes story and take a deeper dive into it but I’m happy with what we got.

I’m not sure Portman really got the hang of the superhero part of Jane in the movie. She looked really cool and she had a lot of enthusiasm which was very charming. I don’t think her Thor came across as cool or as powerful as the OG Thor, but to be fair she’s up against someone who’s been around a lot longer with the benefit of experience. And it would have been a little unfair for her to outshine the main character of the movie.

Villain

When it 4pm and you haven’t killed any gods yet

Even though as I mentioned he didn’t get a lot of screen time with all the other plot lines going on, I genuinely thought Gorr was a pretty good villain. Every time he was on screen he was really creepy and intimidating.

But I think what made me most appreciate Gorr was that, like Thanos before him, he kind of had a point. Besides the Asgardians, all the gods they showed in this movie were horrid selfish people, who clearly did not care about the people that worshipped them. It made total sense why Gorr would feel betrayed by them and feel they needed to end. Obviously, his extreme methods were what ultimately made him a villain.

If we’d had more gods that were actually good, benevolent rulers then I think the argument for or against religion would have been more nuanced and made the story stronger. But as it is, I’m team ‘Gorr was right’.

MCU

“So when are we getting a Disney+ show?”

A big issue I’m having at the moment is not just with this movie but the Marvel Cinematic Universe as a whole. Recently it’s been feeling a lot less connected than it used to. It feels more like a bunch of different stories happening on their own and not intersecting or leading anywhere. It’s something that was particularly clear with Eternals and with most of the Disney+ shows so far. While it doesn’t change the quality of the stories alone, it does make the wider franchise feel less solid. Do we need to see every movie if they don’t actually contribute to a continuing storyline anymore?

This movie is a particularly good example as there have been two recent stories that deal specifically with gods, Eternals and Moon Knight. As this movie is very involved with gods and features hundreds of gods on screen, they could easily have featured characters from those projects in at least a cameo. That would have given an inkling of how everything is connected and how all these characters could come together eventually. But they didn’t do that and instead, it’s started to feel like there’s no communication between projects, and everyone is just making everything up as they go along.

.

As a movie on its own, I think it’s very entertaining and really funny, but its plot and pacing is a little muddy. As an instalment in a wider franchise, it leaves a lot to be desired in terms of connecting to and moving forward the wider story, with not many major repercussions.

I think it’s definitely an enjoyable watch and I would recommend it to casual viewers and fans (we know hardcore fans will definitely see it anyway) who want to have a good time. As an MCU fan I’m just feeling increasingly feeling like I’m getting less out of my commitment to the franchise.

Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness Review: Umm…..

This is my second marvel review in a week, after Moon Knight ended on Wednesday. But that’s what you get when the MCU has so much content to release and it’s a franchise I just love to discuss.

Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness is our first MCU movie of 2022, so as well as building on the first Doctor Strange, it also has to wet our appetite for what’s to come later in the year. So how did it stack up?

Plot

What’s behind door number 2?

The movie follows Doctor Strange (Benedict Cumberbatch) as he encounters America Chavez (Xochitl Gomez), a young girl from another universe who has the power to travel through the multiverse, however it is a power she can’t control. He must protect America as she is hunted by interdimensional beings and a certain familiar witch, who wish to steal her power to gain access to the multiverse themselves. But America’s uncontrollable powers mean they can end up thrown into a new universe when they don’t expect it.

The multiverse is a concept first introduced into the MCU with Loki last year and then established further in both What If… and Spiderman: No Way Home. An infinite number of universes with different characters is obviously something that gives marvel plenty of freedom to explore, so it’s something they clearly want to make a major plot point going forward, especially with the introduction of America and her multiverse-specific powers.

Characters

Since his introduction, Doctor Strange has become one of the most powerful players in the MCU. One of the benefits of magical powers is that they don’t really need to be explained, it’s just magic. This film is very much guilty of Strange being able to conjure or have a spell for basically whatever he needs in the situation, but it’s not egregious and it makes for some great fight sequences.

What I liked about this movie was how it addressed his moral code. In both Avengers: Infinity War and Spiderman: No Way Home, they’ve shown that he is always more concerned with the end goal, and not with the actions he has to take to get there. But here they used the multiverse, and the existence of alternate Doctor Stranges to show him where that mindset could lead him, and allow him to grow as a character. That to me was a very clever use of the multiverse.

America then realised she’d left the oven on in an alternate universe

The major new character in this film is of course America Chavez, and in some ways it is more her movie than it was Strange’s. Her powers are what pulled the plot together, making her somewhat the living MacGuffin of the story. What’s great about America is that here she was just a kid who couldn’t control her powers, she didn’t turn up being strong and badass already. This means we get to go on that journey with her as she comes into her own, in however many movies and shows she turns up in from now on, which is really exciting. As I mentioned, her powers are very specific to this movie, so I’m interested to see how she works with other characters and stories in the future. Are we going to have to jump around the multiverse every time she shows up?

Wanda

If you didn’t know already, Wanda Maximoff (Elizabeth Oslen) has been my favourite character in the MCU for a long time. as well as her being really cool visually and having a great power set, what has always set her apart from other avengers is that she was one foot in villainy, sometimes being more of a foe than a friend, but always remained a good person at heart. This conflict within her made her story so engaging and relatable to anyone who has gone through a lot of pain.

Sleeves are both comfortable and practical when traveling the multiverse

In this movie however, Wanda has gone full villain. This time undeniably evil, as the sinister Scarlet Witch. It was a very big change to her character, that they tried to explain, but I felt like the explanation was a little weak and just served as a reason to excuse the sudden change. It was really hard for me to see this character altered so much, and what didn’t help was that Elizabeth Olsen was for some reason very hammy in her acting. She acted very much like a pantomime villain, rather than the more grounded nature she’s always had in the past.

Putting my feelings aside and being objective, I can say that Scarlet Witch was a good villain. She was extremely powerful and threatening, and above all scary. The things she is capable of and the things she actually does are truly horrifying. I know a lot of people are going to love evil Wanda, but it wasn’t for me. It felt too much like a character assassination for me to really enjoy it, no matter how cool it may have been.

The Multiverse

Strange decided it’s probably time to redecorate

I think my biggest problem with this movie is that it didn’t utilise the multiverse in the way that it could have. The promise of the multiverse was that you can explore countless different realities, meeting lots of new characters and versions of characters you already know, from those different universes. In the film however, while they blow through a bunch of different universes in a short scene, they spend a majority of the time in just 2 different universes (3 if you count the main universe). It felt like a missed opportunity to have a truly crazy multiverse hopping adventure, and more like they wanted all the action to take place in another universe so there would be no real consequences for the MCU. There were also times when the silliness of the other universes was taken a little too far and I (and others around me) found myself laughing AT what was going on in the movie rather than having fun WITH it.

A big part of the hype for this movie was the possibility of crazy cameos from alternate universes, which was only amplified by the way that was pulled off in Spiderman: No Way Home. The cameos are fun and crazy, with some I really didn’t expect. However, they aren’t done the same way as they were in spiderman, and what got me was that all the cameo characters exist within the same universe, which just felt lazy. It was, to me, another missed opportunity to pull characters from all across the multiverse to meet and interact with each other, which they have already done pretty well in What If… on Disney+.

Horror

Apparently, a blood blowout is all the rage now

When this movie was announced, it was said that it would be marvel’s first horror! I don’t think a lot of us expected much from that, as marvel has always been family friendly at its core. Then Sam Raimi was brought on as director and it started to look like maybe that was where it was going. Having seen the movie, I can say that they definitely made an MCU horror film. Now obviously it’s not as horror as horror can be, as it still had to be PG, but they definitely pushed the envelope as far as they could. If I was a kid I would have been scared.

The biggest thing about the horror of this movie is really the violence. More than any other MCU movie to date, they really do not pull the punches on people getting hurt. There are a lot of very gruesome and shocking deaths throughout the movie. Every time I thought I knew where I stood, someone died horribly, and it always took me by surprise. It’s either going to be very cool to people, or they’re going to be upset that they’ve taken their kids to see it.

I think this is really going to be a marmite movie; some people are really going to love it but it won’t be for everyone. I think my personal feelings and expectations really got in the way of me being able to enjoy it. There’s a fine line between this movie being silly & fun and being ridiculous & annoying, and it crossed a little too much into the latter for me. There was so much potential, and so many things that could have been better, that it just became a disappointment.

I know people will want to fiercely defend this movie, and I can respect that. What we got just wasn’t for me, but I’m willing to give it another go in the future.

Moon Knight review: Ambitious Egyptian mind exploration

Marvel is really on a roll this week with a show coming to an end and a movie being released. It’s a lot to talk about and to review, but that’s what I signed up for as a fan of this franchise.

The show coming to an end this week is Moon Knight, the first marvel Disney+ show focused entirely on a brand-new character, soon to be followed by Ms. Marvel next month. Establishing an entirely new corner of this universe on the small screen is a challenge, so did they pull it off?

Plot

The show follows museum gift shop employee, Steven Grant (Oscar Issac), as he discovers that he has an alternate personality known, Marc Spector, who serves the Egyptian moon god Khonshu as his Moon Knight. Marc is on a mission to stop cult leader Arthur Harrow (Ethan Hawke), who plans to release the goddess Amit, so she can judge souls before their death and rid the world of who she deems to be evil.

Because of his multiple personalities, stemming from Dissociative Identity Disorder (DID), Moon Knight is a really unique superhero to adapt. This is why people have been asking marvel to do something with him for a while. Focusing on Marc/Steven’s psyche and his mental health is at the forefront of the storytelling of this series and it is handled very well. It’s another example of marvel using their Disney+ shows as a way to experiment and take risks in a way that they perhaps can’t in their blockbuster movies.

Marc/Steven

Of course, the standout aspect of the show is Oscar Isaac’s performance as both Steven and Marc. It’s terrific how he manages to portray such wildly different personalities without visually changing anything about himself, just using voice and body language.

I think it’s impossible not to fall in love with Steven from the very first episode. He’s charming and sweet and shy, but his loneliness is what makes you just want to give him a big hug. The emptiness in his life is of course coming from the fact that he doesn’t truly know who he is and what his life is. I loved how, as he learns more about Marc and Khonshu, we go on a journey of discovery with Steven and we can see him growing building his confidence.

Marc on the other hand is the typical jaded, mercenary, reluctant hero type, so he’s not as fun to spend time with. However, we do get to see his journey in the reverse of Steven, opening up and becoming softer. You cannot have either personality without the other and that’s a really important part of exploring why DID exists and how it affects helps those people who have it.

Characters

Marc and Steven are of course not the only main characters in the show. We of course also have our villain, Harrow. As villains go, I wasn’t hugely impressed by him. I did like the idea of basing him on a cult leader, and his argument of ridding the world of anyone who has the potential for evil was an interesting philosophical question. However, he felt more like a plot point to get the characters from A to B more than a fully realized character. We never really learned that much about him, and he didn’t have that strong a characterization.

By far the best character besides Marc/Steven is their love interest Layla El-Faouly (May Calamawy). For starters, it’s important that they realized they needed to have at least one Egyptian character in a story about Egypt. But more than what she represents, Layla is just a great character to follow. Because she has a history with only one of the personalities, it’s as much her journey of discovery as it is theirs. We get to know so much about her past and what she wants from life, which makes her more than just a tough lady, she is three-dimensional. I think it’s great for women of Egyptian and of middle eastern descent, to have a character like this to see themselves in, and everyone else can enjoy what she brings to the table too. I can’t wait to see more of her.

Mythology

As well as focusing on mental health, this show serves as a way to explore and introduce ancient Egyptian mythology into the MCU. Ancient Egypt and its belief system is one of the most fascinating periods of history to explore, so it was fun to see that layered onto the superhero genre. The Moon Knight costume itself is a great example of a melding of the two ideas, as it’s the build of a super-suit but with the aesthetics of mummy’s wrapping as and royal jewellery.

The MCU had tackled gods before, with Norse gods in the Thor movies and various other gods in Eternals, so I am a little confused as to how all these different mythologies coexist within the same universe. Perhaps that is something that will be addressed in the upcoming Thor: Love and Thunder which seems to be introducing even more gods into the mix.

There is some discussion of the irony of Marvel making a whole series dedicated to Egypt, only for the country to ban the next Marvel movie due to its LGBTQ+ aspects. The situation is obviously upsetting to me, however, I don’t feel the actions of a government should mean that Egyptian people and those of Egyptian heritage around the world should be denied representation and visibility in our media. The more people are seen and we have that exchange of cultures, the more I truly believe things will start to improve for everyone.

Pacing

I think the problem I have with this show is the number of episodes. Six, roughly 45min episodes, didn’t seem enough to effectively do everything they wanted to do and it threw the pacing way off for me. The beginning was a very steady introduction where not a lot happened, then it picked up the pace and a lot of story started to happen, and finally, it felt to me like it ended very abruptly because they ran out of time.

The issue with pacing is that it didn’t allow for everything to be explored effectively. They obviously wanted to explore Marc’s psyche and DID because that was the main focus of most of the show, and as I said they did it very well. However, because of this, there wasn’t much focus on the Moon Knight, superhero side of things, which is probably why a lot of people wanted to watch in the first place. I also think they didn’t explore the Egyptian mythology as much as they could have if they’d had more breathing room.

Pacing seems to be a recurring issue with marvel’s Disney+ shows. In future, I’d say they either need to commit to making more episodes or try to be less ambitious with the stories they’re trying to tell.

MCU

In terms of connection to the wider universe of the MCU, there is very little reference to the wider universe or story of this franchise. Besides a few water eggs in the background and off-hand remarks, you could easily believe this is a standalone project with no connection at all.

Now obviously this does not make it a bad show, it completely stands and works on its own, but it would be hypocritical of me not to include it as a critique when I did the same for Eternals.

I think what makes it an issue is that this MCU relies so much on fans watching every installment, to follow the story or at least meet the characters that are going to play a part in it. So when something feels like it’s not part of it, it can tend to feel like it’s not important and therefore irrelevant. I think you’ll find a lot of people skipping this show because it doesn’t really tie in, at least not yet.

Future

The show was originally billed as a limited series, meaning there would only be one season. While There’s no doubt that the intention is for moon knight to show up in other marvel stories, as the marvel brand is built for crossover, not being able to revisit the story and characters in another season would be rather unsatisfying. The abrupt ending left a lot of things unexplored within this story, and hints at more things to come. Things were not wrapped up neatly to where you couldn’t go back and do more, as they were in WandaVision for example. I don’t think the things that need exploring could be addressed successfully within another story where Moon knight is not at the forefront.

I can’t say if they will do a season 2 but it felt like they were setting up the possibility. Where we’ll see Moon Knight before then remains to be seen, I can’t really think of another character/world he would work alongside that is already present in the MCU.

Despite its small issues, I do believe this was a successful introduction to the character of Moon Knight and his world. This is evidence that Disney+ could be a viable place to start Marvel stories, rather than just expand on them. What remains to be seen is how many people will watch the shows, as well as all the movies, and whether that will affect their ability to follow the wider story.

Spider-Man No Way Home Review: The Hype was Met!

Marvel is really coming out thick and fast with movies and shows this year, and I wouldn’t blame you for getting bored of hearing about them. But as a fan, I couldn’t not talk about possibly the biggest movie of the year, the latest instalment of the Spider-Man franchise: No Way Home! You probably heard how quickly tickets started to sell out for this movie, but after much back and forth I managed to get tickets for opening night, and it was worth it. But I’ve tried very hard to not spoil anything here!

Plot

Talk about an out of body experience

The story follows on right from the end of Spider-Man: Far From Home, when Mysterio revealed Peter Parker’s identity to the world and implicated him in his murder. Straight away this causes problems for Peter and everyone around him, so he goes to Doctor Strange for help, asking him to cast a spell that will make everyone forget he’s Spider-Man. However, he meddles with eh spell and it goes wrong, instead causing those from across multiple universes who know peter is Spider-Man to appear instead. This leads to villains from other worlds (the older Spider-Man movies) appearing to cause havoc and destruction in Peter’s life.

Off the bat this Spider-Man movie is a lot more different than the previous two installments, due to the fact that the stakes are much higher. The consequence of the universe ripping apart, and having to fight an army of villains makes the film not just more action packed but a lot more dramatic. While there are the usual comedic marvel moments that we all know and most of us love, it’s actually a very emotional film. A lot of really intense stuff happens and by the end nothing is the same as it was when we began with Spider-Man in the MCU.

Spider-Man

Don’t you hate it when Spider-Man starts posing on your car

One of the biggest complaints I’ve seen about the previous two Spider-Man movies is that they relied to heavily on his relationship to the other MCU characters, in particular Iron Man, and didn’t allow him to explore his own character and world. This movie I think did a lot to rectify that. It really felt like a celebration of Spider-Man and his world as people would know and love from both the comics and the previous movie franchises.

The thing is that it also didn’t detach itself too far from the wider MCU and still felt like it was part of the same story and universe, it was just fleshing out it’s own corner and aspect of the world. By the end of the movie I felt the most like Spider-Man is now completely his own thing and will have his own stories to tell rather than piggybacking off other characters.

Villains

A Spider a day keeps the Doc Ock coming back

The major hype about this movie is the inclusion of villains from the previous Spider-Man series of movies, made possible through the multiverse. Nostalgia for the movies we watched as kids definitely plays a factor in making these characters exciting and enjoyable to watch, however I think it’s also a great case of ‘it it ain’t broke don’t fix it’. A lot of these performances were so perfect in those original films, for instance Willam Defoe as Green Goblin and Alfred Molina as Doc Ock, that it seems a shame to recast them when they’ve already been cast excellently. We all see the comparisons and criticisms behind the different versions of Spider-Man. So having those movies exist as parallel universes is a great way to keep what we like from them without trying to fold the whole film into the new world. It also leads to exciting possibilities of who could show up.

The one area I think was a huge missed opportunity was the number of villains. It’s very well known that in the comics Spider-Man’s villains often come together as ‘The Sinister Six’, so when we saw only 5 villains in the trailer, I like many assumed there would be a sixth villain revealed at some point. It turns out 5 is all we got. Now this didn’t make the movie bad at all, as all the villains served their purpose and were very compelling. Even those that I didn’t care for the first time around (I mean Electro). But it does feel like they slightly dropped the ball in terms of bringing that classic team together. But who knows, maybe we will see it another time.

Hype

He’s a bit gobby

Due to the nature of the plot and inclusion of characters from old films, along with the expectation of other exciting cameos, this really has been the most hyped up marvel movie since Avengers: Endgame. I’m happy to say that it did not disappoint, and completely lived up to its hype. My expectations for the film were not just met, but were in many ways doubled.

Much like Endgame, I feel like this film was created with the fans in mind first. Making sure it gave them what they would want and be excited about. And when a franchise has this many fans it is an understandable move to do that. When I saw the film, the screen was absolutely packed full of marvel fans (which was a little nerve-racking with omicron about I’ll admit) and the experience of hearing the gasps and the cheers as the movie played out made the experience of seeing it that much more thrilling.

A lot of people like to claim that blockbusters, and Marvel films in general, are soulless and commercial. But I think seeing a movie like this shows that that’s untrue, as the soul of these stories is in the fans. They are movies that cater to bringing together a community and giving people excitement and allowing them to have fun.

 

If you are a fan of Spider-Man, or any of the movies, you are absolutely going to enjoy this movie. It puts fans first and really gives us everything we wanted.

If you’re not into Spider-Man then I’m not sure if it will be as fun but its still a thrilling ride.

The only issue with seeing this film right now is the real world issue of the Omicron Covid variant spreading very rapidly around the UK. If you’re understandably nervous about catching it, then it’s probably best to wait until the screens are going to be less packed, or at the least remember to mask up and get your booster.

Eternals review: Dazzling yet Dull

I never miss any MCU content, I really enjoy the world the story and its characters. Up until now, I think there’s been safety with Marvel that even when they get too formulaic or go for something really different its at least going to be entertaining and fans enjoy it and support it, usually critics too. Eternals is a case of marvel trying something new, with a prestige indie director bringing their techniques in and focussing on a new type of characters. But unlike a majority of MCU films before it, its reaction has been rather negative.

I was of course going the movie anyway, but with this swathe of bad reviews I really needed to see why this is the movie that broke Marvel’s winning streak.

Plot

I believe strike one for the negative reaction to this film is that the plot is very complicated. So much so that there’s a lot I can’t talk about without spoiling the movie.

It was too cold on the beach to go swimming

The bare bones of the plot is that the Eternals are a group of immortal beings sent to earth by the Celestials (gods basically) 7000 years ago to protect humans from the deviants, a race of predatory beasts that attack various planets. After defeating all the deviants on earth, the Eternals split up, yet stayed behind, unable to meddle in any human conflict. Now the deviants have returned along with strange environmental happenings and the Eternals must reunite to stop them and figure out what else is going on.

Because every character, and three whole species are being introduced here for the first time, a lot of this movie has to be spent on set up and exposition. There are 10 Eternals to get to know as well as their relationship to each-other and 7000 years of history. On top of that they are all split up so time has to be spent getting them all back together. Therefore a large portion of the film is spent with the story staying stagnant, interspersed with flashbacks, with very little advancing what is actually happening in the main storyline. If you’re not invested in the characters, this could end up being quite boring and it does end up being a lot less of a thrilling ride that it could be, as many other superhero films are.

Characters

There are 10 Eternals plus a couple of supporting characters, which is a lot to talk about and a lot of them didn’t really have much to do so it’s hard to talk about each individual character.

Classic smell the fart acting

The defacto main character of the film, however, is Sersi (Gemma Chan). Sersi’s whole thing is that she loves earth, she cares very much for humanity and the planet from the very beginning. This compassion makes her a very likable character because it’s easy to route for someone who’s motivation is love and kindness. However as a lead in a superhero movie it comes as a flaw that she is a very passive character, she is more of a thinker than a doer. Sersi doesn’t have a lot of charisma which is fine when she had the other Eternals to bounce of off and interact with her but if she is to be folded into the rest of the MCU and into the avengers as you’d expect, I worry about her fading into the background among all the big personalities that are around. Her power set of transforming matter, while visually beautiful (for example when she transforms a bus into a shower of rose petals) lends itself more to a supporting role rather than a key player in a fight sequence.

The big thing with the characters in Eternals is the diversity of the group. They made it clear that they wanted a diverse a cast as possible for this movie. On one hand it can be seen as trying to force diversity as quickly as possible without giving the characters enough room to develop, which I somewhat agree with. However there are characters that I really appreciated seeing and would like to see more of going forward. In particular I liked Makkari (Lauren Ridloff) who was a deaf character. That’s something I’ve never seen before and I think a lot of deaf and hearing impaired people are gonna appreciate seeing someone like them be a really cool character. While she didn’t get a lot to do, she was sassy and had some great action scenes with her super speed powers.

I also appreciated the character of Phastos (Brian Tyree Henry) who was an openly gay character. While again he didn’t have a lot to do in a crowded film, the thing I appreciated as a gay viewer is that his sexuality wasn’t a throwaway but of tokenism as is usually the case. His relationship with his husband and their son was not only important to his character, but was important to the plot as it grounded the Eternals by showing what they were fighting for.

I also need to shout out to Angelina Jolie for continuing to be a bad bitch in the role of Thena, who honestly had the most interesting side plot as she suffers from a condition where she periodically goes mad and starts attacking the other Eternals.

Visuals

One of the things that became the most notable about this movie in the run up to its release was that it is directed by Chloe Zhao. It’s significant because Zhao just won 2 Oscars, for best picture and best director for Nomadland. The main thing that she’s known for in her directing is her visual style, In particularly the way she uses and shoots environments. This is definitely a strength she brought to this movie.

Boney M were singing about the Eternals all along

It’s a very visually striking movie, because Zhao made sure to use as many shots of real environments as possible. Even when they have to overlay some special effects, they are generally very pretty. I particularly liked a shot that panned over a valley into the ancient hanging gardens of Babylon.

I think the emphasis on nature in this film serves to highlight that it’s not just the humans of earth that the Eternals fall in love with but the planet itself. Emphasizing their need to protect it.

Theme

They worship the Big Red Boi

The general theme of this movie is a rather existential look at the Eternals (I believe as an allegory for angels/gods) and their purpose. It focusses on whether or not their mission not to interfere with human progression is irresponsible or if it allows humans to learn and grow as they should. It builds on the common atheist argument, of if there’s a god why don’t they stop wars from happening. As the movie goes on, more is revealed about the Eternals real purpose on earth, which brings more focus to wether they are good people or whether they can be people at all.

I think this will be a theme that some people will find to be very intellectual and gravitate towards as something that poses such questions. But I believe others will understandably find the subject matter to be a bit heavy and not what they are after. I find myself somewhere between. While I find this theming fascinating and I appreciate the writers for coming up with it, in practice of actually watching the movie, it was a bit of a downer and didn’t make it very fun to watch, which is what we ultimately want marvel movies to be.

MCU

The Eternals cleared out the sunglasses rack

Whether you like the movies or not, the undeniable appeal of the MCU is that Marvel Studios have careful created a world in which all their movies take place and they all connect in some way. What I most enjoy about them is seeing the wider story unfold and how they will all come together and in what way.

So the most disappointing thing about Eternals for me is that it just didn’t feel like it belonged in the same universe. Apart from a little lip service to existing characters and events that could easily be written out and not change anything, none of the characters or events in this movie seemed in any affected or relevant to any of the many that have come before it in this universe.

Now there’s not necessarily anything wrong with an MCU movie standing alone, but this movie isn’t exactly exciting enough to be its own thing, and that connection to the wider world could have been what made it that little bit more appealing.

Honestly I don’t think Eternals fully deserves the amount of negativity it’s getting, there are some good things in there with it’s theming, visuals and some likable characters. But I would say it’s at the lower end of the marvel films because its good is outweighed by its overall bland execution, complicated story and the lack of real connection to any of the other films.
I wouldn’t say there’s any reason why you’d need to see it straight away unless you really want to avoid all the spoilers. If it sounds like it would interest you I’d say it’s worth seeing but if you’re not really invested in seeing it it’s worth waiting to watch at home.

Shang-Chi Review: An elevated new step in the MCU

After a year away, the MCU came back this year swinging, by branching out into the new spaces of TV and animation, while also releasing their usual big budget movies. I’ve talked about their Disney+ shows (Like WandaVision and Loki) have been really promising, bringing in new ways of presenting MCU content, and how their return to movies with Black Widow was somewhat lacklustre. So, there was a big worry that the MCU had run out of steam, at least where its movies are concerned, after the big climactic story of Avengers: Endgame (2019). But, the MCU’s newest release, Shang-Chi and The Legend of the Ten Rings, may just show that Marvel Studios has plenty of ideas to keep their gravy train going.

Plot

Someone didn’t get the memo about wearing red!

The plot follows Shang-Chi, who was trained as an assassin by his father Wenwu, a powerful and immortal Chinese warlord, after the death of his beloved mother. As a teenager her fled to San Francisco and a normal life alongside his new best friend Katy. After his pendant, left to him by his mother, is stolen by agents of his father, Shan-Chi must reunite with his estranged sister and face his father once again. He must discover what his father plans to do, while making some new discoveries about his own heritage.

Parental issues and being trained as an assassin is something we’ve seen before, we just saw it in Black Widow, but what I thought made this a different take was its interpretation of the theme of family. Family and honouring ancestry is something that is extremely important to eastern and particularly Chinese cultures, and I like that they took that as the frame of reference to tell this story. Shang-Chi at the beginning of the story is someone who wants to run away from his past and family, but by reuniting with them and returning to his home he gains more power, by embracing the gifts from his mother and his father. I thought it was a really sophisticated way to take those Chinese ideals, and work them into a western superhero narrative.

Characters

This movie had a lot of new characters, in order to full flesh out the world of Shang-Chi and The Ten Rings, so I can’t discuss them all in great detail. I should start by discussing our titular hero Shang-Chi (Simu Liu). I think the benefit of Shang-Chi being such an unknown character before this movie is that Marvel and Liu himself got to basically build this character from the ground up. You can see a lot of Liu’s own cheeky personality within the character, he’s very lovable. However he was also able to convey the pain of the character, you could feel the weight of his past coming down on him as the movie progressed, which made him compelling and somewhat in more of a grey area than a lot of past marvel heroes, as he has the light and dark of his parents inside him.

One should always take their child on a murder mission!

Speaking of his parents, I have to talk about the villain of the film, Shang-Chi’s father Wenwu (Tony Leung). What I loved about this villain is that his motivations are so different from what we expect from a superhero villain. He starts the movie as the formulaic power hungry conqueror, but by the time we meet him in real time his motivations for doing the bad things he does come from a place of love and devotion to family. This not only makes him a unique and compelling villain but ties into Shang-Chi’s own struggles with family.

Now, you should know by now that I love a good female character, and this movie has no shortage of them. The main female character is Shang-Chi’s best friend Katy (Awkwafina) who fills both the best friend and comic relief roles. I know that Awkwafina is not everyone’s cup of tea but I’ve always found her very entertaining and she is no different, she gets most of the good MCU one liners, and most of her comedy comes from her hilarious interactions with the new world of magic and assassins she is thrust into. But I like that they also gave Katy her own storyline to follow rather than just leaving her on the side-lines. As a character she goes on a journey of self-discovery where she learns to find her own passion, something that she can do to be a valuable member of the group.

I believe in Xialing supremacy!

Finally, I need to talk about the girlboss herself, Shang-Chi’s sister Xialing (Meng’er Zhang). Her storyline focusses on her, as a girl, not being allowed a seat at the table in The Ten Rings and so going out and become a fighter and a powerful figure by herself. This is a story that’s quite familiar nowadays with female action heroes, but it’s a story that resonates, as women are often undervalued in the east just as they are in the west. The way Zhang plays Xialing, she has a not just grit but also heart, like with her brother you can see the affect her past has had on her. She also has a unique fighting style and weapon that makes her stand out in a crowded film. I think the character is going to be one that a lot of Asian women and Marvel fans will really resonate with and want to see more of, I certainly do.

Action

Obviously, you’re going to expect action from any Marvel superhero movie, but perhaps here more than ever, the action is integral to the world the characters are inhabiting. This is because the fighting in Shang-Chi is heavily routed in Chinese martial arts, particularly the styles of Wing Chun, Wushu and Tai Chi. The different styles of fighting actually are integral to telling the story of Shang-Chi as he grapples with his two sides. The Wing Chun represents the aggression of his father and the Tai Chi and Wushu, the grace and the heritage of his mother.

Because of the martial art’s importance to the overall story, there are a lot of fight scenes in this movie, and what I liked is that each seemed to work on its own visual style. The film has been said to have been inspired by many different Chinese martial arts movies, and you can see each fight scene having a frame of reference to that ilk.

Bangles are very in right now

My personal favourite was the fight at the very beginning which took on the Wushu elements from Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, a reference that anyone who’s seen that film would immediately see. What made this scene stand out was partly its setting, with rich nature and vibrant colours, that are really important to that style of fighting, but mostly the way the majesty of the martial art was used to tell the story of the characters completely visually.

Culture

I realize that I’ve talked about good Asian representation a lot lately with movies like Over the Moon and Raya and the Last Dragon, but this speaks to both the importance of Asian box office to Hollywood, and also the power that putting people in front of and behind the camera from that community in focus can make a movie so much better due to its authenticity. And this movie is no exception.

Just like Black Panther before it, which was unapologetically African, Marvel were obviously keen to allow director Destin Daniel Cretton to soak this movie in Chinese culture and lore. Not only does this make people like me who aren’t part of the culture appreciate and learn about it, but it also adds something fresh and new to the MCU. The are places, characters and even creatures that are totally different from what we’ve had before.

I want to learn more about these fox creatures (& cuddle them)

What I particularly liked was the new location of Ta Lo, a new location within the multiverse and home of Shang-Chi’s mother, which is obviously based heavily on Chinese mythology. Not only was it an interesting new location to set some story in, but it was also visually stunning, with the tropical landscape based on China and East Asia and also its beautiful architecture. I hope that this place becomes just as iconic and as popular as Wakanda did, and that we get to visit it in more movies to come. It would be the perfect place for some Avengers to hide out from a threatening villain.

Anyone who is a fan of the MCU is already going to see this movie, so I don’t need to recommend it to them, simply say that is it magnificent.

However, because this film focusses on new characters, new worlds and a new story, it definitely one I can say you will enjoy if you go in blind, not knowing anything about the previous movies in the franchise. It’s a beautiful story, rooted in a cultured that we all could stand to embrace some more at the moment, with great action and gorgeous visuals.

This is a top-tier action movie that I could not recommend more highly!