Loki (2021) Series Review!

Loki, the God of Mischief, steps out of his brother’s shadow to embark on an adventure that takes place after the events of “Avengers: Endgame.”

Loki is the third of the MCU shows on Disney+ and it’s hands down the best one yet, it took me awhile to finally sit down and actually come up with a review for this show due to figuring out what I ultimately felt about this series. Let’s start with the performances which I thought were all really strong, Tom Hiddleston once again does a fantastic job as Loki and arguably the best he’s played Loki in the MCU so far. I personally thought he was on a whole other level here, it’s possibly due to the script that gives Hiddleston a lot to work with and turn much as he can into something truly interesting. Hiddleston’s chemistry with Owen Wilson in particular was a standout whenever the two were on screen together there was bound for jokes that were actually quite great, some interesting back and forth dialogue and some character moments. Speaking of which Owen Wilson does quite a great job here, I’ve always liked Wilson being in more dramatic roles, what’s interesting in this case is how the balance of comedy and drama really works. One doesn’t over due the other both blend very well together and this is the type of series it really works, finally there’s Sophia Di Martino who does quite a fantastic job I’m very excited to see what they do with her character as the MCU goes forward (as well as Season 2 of Loki). She really brings a lot to the show and her chemistry with Hiddleston is top notch, each of the episodes felt different and unique to one another. I will admit the series did take a bit to get going towards the beginning but once it got off the ground it stayed in the sky, the final two episodes in particular are some of the highlights. Everything that it’s been building up to starts to happen and then we finally get to the final minutes of the last episode…which is easily some of the best the MCU has ever done. It has a huge reveal and a “oh crap!” moment that really shows that phase 4 of the MCU has just begun. Loki is what is going to cause some movies that are coming out soon or next year to take place. It’s truly an effective moment that really changes everything. Overall the series itself is quite fantastic, this is definitely something to go into without knowing too much, it’s definitely one of the most interesting parts of the MCU so far!

All the episodes of Loki are now available on Disney+

9/10 A

Black Widow (2021) Movie Review!

Natasha Romanoff confronts the darker parts of her ledger when a dangerous conspiracy with ties to her past arises.

A Black Widow solo movie was an obvious choice to happen at some point….it’s too bad it happened way too late. With that said Black Widow is one of those MCU movies where I lost interest for quite some time until maybe a couple weeks before it’s release when I became interested. Black Widow unfortunately does very little to change up anything in the MCU, I’ll start with what I really liked because I certainly don’t think this is a bad movie by any means. The opening I thought was actually pretty well done combined with the cover of “Smells Like Teen Spirit (which was actually used in the trailer for The Gallows) was pretty great and a very dark atmosphere to it….it’s just a huge shame the rest of the movie couldn’t live up to that. Florence Pugh gives a fantastic performance and is the reason why I would say to check it out if you want. She has so much power in her role and really delivers whenever she’s on screen, she continues to show why she’s one of the best actresses working today. I will give Black Widow this it definitely makes me excited to see Florence Pugh’s future in the MCU. Finally there’s a few action scenes which I liked nothing mind blowing but a lot of fun and then the end credit scene which I won’t spoil but I found it interesting. Now on to the problems I had with Black Widow, for starters the movie itself felt like it was playing way too safe to the point where it starts to dip into below average territory. The pacing was dreadful combine that with the running time that goes by painstakingly slow and it becomes a very uninteresting movie. The writing while it does have it’s moments is really nothing special at all, the biggest problem however is with the villain “Taskmaster” which is another case of the MCU taking a fantastic villain that has so much potential and completely failing. The only way I’m going to be able to talk about this is if I give some slight spoilers so skip if you haven’t seen it! Anyway the reveal of Taskmaster is completely ridiculous it’s a character who had a total of 3 lines in the entire movie, I am all for changing the character however said character must have actual development and build up which isn’t what happened here. It’s the equivalent of Roy Burns being reveled as the killer in Friday The 13th: A New Beginning a character who had a total of one scene (as far as I remember). So seeing this happen in Black Widow is very baffling to be quite honest, finally there’s the rest of the cast which all do a fair job but nothing absolutely spectacular Rachel Weisz I will say other than Florence Pugh is another standout! Overall Black Widow is one of the movies in the MCU that really could have been more, however they went with the safest option. Being safe is not always a bad thing and I get the MCU is going to have it’s not so good movies like any other franchise. However by the end Black Widow only leaves you with being excited for Florence Pugh and not much else.

Black Widow is now in theaters and on Disney Plus Premier Access!

5/10 C

The Falcon And The Winter Soldier (2021) Series Review!

Following the events of ‘Avengers: Endgame,’ Sam Wilson/Falcon and Bucky Barnes/Winter Soldier team up in a global adventure that tests their abilities and their patience.

The Falcon and the Winter Soldier is the second MCU Disney Plus series releasing almost right after WandaVision. TFATWS wasn’t one of the series I was incredibly excited for, but the end result I have to say isn’t too bad at all. First a bit about the characters, easily the two show stealers are Sam Wilson (Anthony Mackie) and Bucky (Sebastian Stan) both have incredible chemistry between one another, both Mackie and Stan have a bunch of incredible moments and show how talented they both are as actors. The series does a fantastic job of exploring both their characters and giving them a lot of development, by the end of the series you feel Anthony Mackie’s journey is complete when it comes to taking the mantle as Captain America! As for the everyone else there’s a few noteworthy performances such as Daniel Brühl as Zemo who is easily one of the best parts in a few of the episodes (I’ll get more into each episode in a bit), Wyatt Russell as John Walker who absolutely delivers in episode 4 In particular, Carl Lumbly as Isaiah Bradley and Erin Kellyman as Karli Morgenthau who I don’t think is exactly the best MCU villain but due to Kellyman’s performance she really makes it work and she certainly isn’t bad. She gets more development as the series progress, now let’s talk a little about each episode and how they are and then I’ll wrap this up with a conclusion. The first episode is what you would expect a nice introduction that opens with a pretty neat action scene and gives a basic introduction of what to expect, Sam Wilson’s journey and much more. It’s not anything too crazy but that’s to be expected. Unfortunately episodes 2 and 3 are what puts the series to a complete halt, while there are some positives about the episodes (Zemmo being the best part of episode 3), some action scenes and of course Mackie and Stan’s performances. The rest of episodes 2 and 3 just really do not do much and are just not that interesting, both episodes have nowhere near as many character moments as the rest of the series which is very unfortunate. However that all changes with episode four which is hands down my absolute favorite of the series, it opens up with a very powerful character moment for Bucky and really shows how incredible Sebastian Stan is as an actor. it’s some of the darkest material the MCU has ever done and it was done really well, the atmosphere is thrilling, the writing is incredibly well done and Wyatt Russell as I said before does such a fantastic job in this episode. You really start to see a lot of his character and how he’s a ticking time bomb, which is probably what I would describe this episode as a ticking time bomb! Episode 5 is a wonderful lead up to the final episode, it heavily focuses on a ton of character moments especially for Sam Wilson and his journey to become Captain America. It’s a long episode but an incredibly well written and directed episode that’s a huge highlight of the series. Finally there’s episode 6 which is pretty solid, I don’t think it’s as strong as episode 4 or 5 but it does deliver when it comes to action, finally seeing Sam Wilson as Captain America, tackling a few themes and much more. It heavily sets up for Captain America 4 (which was just announced) and what I can assume a season 2 of the show. Episode 6 did everything it was sent out to do I just wish it could have been a tad longer. Overall the series is solid, it has it’s rough spots that some MCU movies suffer from but when the series gets good it gets really good. There’s so much to love about it and it’s mainly due to Anthony Mackie and Sebastian Stan plus the growth of their characters that make this series worth it!

7/10 B

WandaVision (2021) Series Review!

Wanda Maximoff and Vision – two super-powered beings living their ideal suburban lives – begin to suspect that everything is not as it seems.

WandaVision is the start of Phase 4 of the MCU and it’s a pretty strong start! Going into the series I was pretty excited for it Wanda has always been one of my favorite characters of the MCU so I was very happy to see a show that was going to be centered around her. Elizabeth Olsen completely slays it in her performance here, so much so that I predict she could possibly get nominated for an Emmy she does such an incredible job and truly is Wanda Maximoff. The same can be said for Paul Bettany as Vision he does a magnificent job and really brings out his talent, the chemistry between Olsen and Bettany is terrific and this is the best showcase of it. This series really does a fantastic job of making you care about the two and their chemistry between one another. Other performances such as Kathryn Hahn and Teyonah Parris both do a very solid job in their roles! The writing got better and better as the series went forward, some of the jokes from the first few episodes were definitely a hit or miss some jokes I laughed at and others whatever. I will give WandaVision credit that it did not resort to the bad Marvel humor that’s present in some of the films (Doctor Strange, Thor The Dark World and a few others) as the series reached its end the writing gave us tons of character development for many of the characters and gave us a very solid villain… Agatha Harkness, one of the things going into WandaVision I was a bit concerned about was if the villain was going to be good. But they really hit it out of the park Agatha is a very solid villain that is a lot of fun, she might not be in the ranks of Loki, Ego and a few others, but she is very close. Her backstory is interesting and her motivations make sense! Hayward is not even worth mentioning to be quite honest, Josh Stamberg does a fine job in the role but Tyler Hayward just feels like the equivalent of a henchmen from one of the non canon Dragon Ball Z movies. He’s a very flat character with little to no personality who half the time I forgot existed. One major issue I did have with the finale is what they did with Monica Rambeau they really could have done something so much better with her character and it felt like they were building up to something to do with her character. However that doesn’t stop the finale from being a very solid ending! Overall WandaVision is really great, it’s refreshing to see the MCU do something different and it’s a very solid start to Phase 4!

8/10 B+