An endless army of shadow demons seeks to destroy all realities. What mysterious force drives them; and do Monitor and Supergirl’s secrets threaten to crush the heroes’ last defense?
Justice League: Crisis on Infinite Earths Part Two is directed by Jeff Wamester who previously directed Justice League: Crisis on Infinite Earths Part One (2024), Justice League Warworld (2023), Legion Of Super-Heroes (2023), Green Lantern: Beware My Power (2022) and Justice Society: World War II (2021).
Justice League: Crisis on Infinite Earths Part Two serves as the second part of the eighth and final installment of the Tomorrowverse, a lot of what I said about part one can be applied here. What’s baffling here is part two is a step down from part one which was already a poor opening to the trilogy.
There is a few fine enough action scenes and much like the first part the voice acting is serviceable, but they are so far in between that it ultimately doesn’t matter. We are yet again shown characters who we haven’t been able to really connect with since the Tomorrowverse is ending in the next and final part. One problem throughout the movie that becomes very noticeable is it really can’t decide who our main protagonist should be between Jensen Ackle’s Batman, Darren Criss’s Superman or Meg Donnelly’s Supergirl the movie constantly jumps back and forth between subplots with none of the characters actually getting any real time to shine.
It’s not just the main characters either, the side characters get no real development here either, which is baffling considering how many heroes and villains the movie has access to. The whole movie really seems like it’s not interested in exploring these characters (outside of some very cliched backstories) and if the movie isn’t interested why should the viewer?
I really don’t know what else I can say without repeating my issues that I had with the first part. Part two somehow ends up being far more messy, disjointed and lacking than part one. At least part one had some good moments with The Flash and at the very least attempted to try and say something, part two is as if somebody put something together at the very last second and called it a day. Will this trilogy end on a high note? Guess we will wait and see with part three which is expected to come out later this year.
Justice League: Crisis on Infinite Earths Part Two is available on all VOD platforms.
Cassandra Webb is a New York City paramedic who starts to show signs of clairvoyance. Forced to confront revelations about her past, she must protect three young women from a mysterious adversary who wants them dead.
Madame Web is directed by S.J. Clarkson which is her directorial debut. Madame Web is also the fourth film in Sony’s Spider-Man Universe.
I’m going to cut right to the chase, Madame Web is a terrible movie. Every single part of what could go horribly wrong in a movie goes horribly wrong to the point where it becomes such a fascinating mess that is truly unbelievable. It’s as if one of those terrible superhero movies from the early 2000s found a time machine and landed in 2024.
I’ll start with what becomes noticeable almost immediately when watching…the acting. Granted Sydney Sweeney actually nails down some of the lines in a campy way that’s genuinely hilarious, but everyone else is either half asleep while reading their lines or wants to collect their paycheck and call it a day.
Dakota Johnson who has shown to be quite talented in a lot of roles such as Peanut Butter Falcon (2019), Our Friend (2019), The Lost Daughter (2021), Suspiria (2018) and a few others gives such a dull performance, which is mainly due to how lazy the script from S.J. Clarkson, Claire Parker, Burk Sharpless and Matt Sazama really is. There’s absolutely baffling lines such as Madame Web directly saying to Young Uncle Ben “what you don’t wanna get shot in Queens.”
We learn absolutely nothing about Cassandra or any of the three spider-women which consists of Julia Cornwell (played by Sydney Sweeney) Anya Corazon (played by Isabela Merced) and Mattie Franklin (played by Celeste O’Connor) they also barely get to do any fun spider-woman actions, instead we are given a prequel on how they get their powers rather than spending time with them learning to use them. Then you have the villain of the movie Ezekiel Sims who’s played by Tahar Rahim, who not only gives a terrible performance but Sims ends up being one of the most forgettable villains in any of these superhero movies. It’s actually quite baffling how terrible the dialogue between Johnson and Rahim really is, how nobody in the writing room said “wait hold on a second” when reading this is insane.
The editing is some of the absolute worst I’ve seen in a blockbuster in quite awhile, I commonly like to mention Taken 3 (2014) as a prime example of garbage editing that ends up being unhinged at one point. Madame Web is on par with Taken 3 on how absolutely baffling the editing really is, it becomes hilarious at one point which is something I have to mention. Madame Web is one of those it’s so bad it’s hilarious movies (kind of) I say kind of because there are some quite dull parts that are a chore to sit through (mostly the middle that drags out for far too long) but a lot of this movie is hilariously awful. I was actually baffled with what I watched and honestly had no words.
Overall Madame Web is something that has to be seen to be believed, it’s a horrendous movie and I would not recommend this to anybody. However if you love bad movies and love laughing at them this might honestly be for you.
Jaime Reyes suddenly finds himself in possession of an ancient relic of alien biotechnology called the Scarab. When the Scarab chooses Jaime to be its symbiotic host, he’s bestowed with an incredible suit of armor that’s capable of extraordinary and unpredictable powers, forever changing his destiny as he becomes the superhero Blue Beetle.
Blue Beetle is the third DCEU film to be released this year and I can at least give the movie this it was better than Shazam: Fury Of The Gods and The Flash…that is still not saying much because Blue Beetle isn’t much better.
What Blue Beetle’s whole concept of family themes is a really strong idea, it’s been done numerous times before in a lot of comic book movies but at least with a handful of scenes Blue Beetle attempts to make the idea it’s own. There’s some genuinely solid performances from Xolo Maridueña, Bruna Marquezine and George Lopez, the heartfelt moments between the members of the family are undeniably beautiful and have so much emotion too them. The film bringing out the heart and family dynamic from the film works so much stronger than the typical comic book movie parts of the film.
Which is unfortunately where the movie lands into generic territory, it doesn’t do anything really exciting with it’s action scenes despite having interesting framing, there’s some neat shots here with some neon lighting but the movie doesn’t do anything with it. They kind of just throw in a handful of generic action scenes and don’t do anything else, combine that with such dull villains that really don’t get any sort of character outside of one or two personality traits and you have a ton of action scenes that are hard for the viewer to cling on to.
I don’t think Blue Beetle is a bad movie it’s just a bit of a disappointment, with every interesting choice the movie makes and actually executes quite well (including some darker moments.) there’s a lot of playing too safe towards the end of the movie, where it starts to morph into the usual below average comic book movie.
After being kidnapped and transported to a strange world, Batman, Superman and Wonder Woman unite to form a resistance and lead the planet to freedom.
Justice League: Warworld is the newest installment to the Tomorrowverse and well it sure is a DC animated movie that most certainly exists.
I hate having to repeat myself over and over again when one of these movies comes out, but once again this yet another DC animated movie that has some decent ideas but executes them in the most forgettable way possible.
The whole premise here is that Wonder Woman is in the old west, Batman is in a primordial Barbarian clan and Superman is in a 1930s mystery, interesting stuff yet the movie barely does anything with these ideas. It goes about as deep as a house tour where the guide just says “this is my living room” and doesn’t say anything else.
I guess the different styles are kind of neat and the voice acting is actually pretty decent, Darren Criss in particular does a solid job as Superman, plus I did enjoy Ike Amadi as Martian Manhunter. But really outside of that there is truly nothing here that is very memorable, granted I do think it’s a lot better than some of the last few installments in the Tomorrowverse. As this one genuinely tries to make it’s ideas work and there’s definitely a lot more effort put into this one.
It’s just mainly the writing that really holds Warworld back from being anything very memorable or having it’s ideas being executed well, the movie doesn’t do nearly as much with it’s characters as it should have. They ultimately feel like action figures being moved along in different scenery rather than actual well written characters.
Overall Justice League: Warworld is definitely one of the better installments of the Tomorrowverse but given the quality of the Tomorrowverse so far that’s really not saying all that much.
Justice League: Warworld is available on all VOD platforms.
Worlds collide when the Flash uses his superpowers to travel back in time to change the events of the past. However, when his attempt to save his family inadvertently alters the future, he becomes trapped in a reality in which General Zod has returned, threatening annihilation. With no other superheroes to turn to, the Flash looks to coax a very different Batman out of retirement and rescue an imprisoned Kryptonian — albeit not the one he’s looking for.
The Flash is the fifth superhero film that has come out this year, the genre has definitely had it’s ups and downs. With Guardians Of The Galaxy VOL. 3 and Across The Spider-Verse being fantastic films. While Shazam: Fury Of The Gods and Ant-Man and The Wasp: Quantumania being terrible. The Flash is yet another example of being a complete and total mess.
I’ll start with the positives because surprisingly enough there’s a decent amount that was actually pretty solid, the first half of The Flash I have to say was quite great, while there was terrible dialogue which I’ll get to in a bit. There was at least some level of attempt to try and tell an interesting story about Barry Allen (played by Ezra Miller) and his mother Nora Allen (played by Maribel Verdú), it truly felt like the movie was going to have meaningful character development. There were even touching moments that actually were genuinely filled with heart.
There were a few performances that were pretty solid which are Michael Keaton as Batman and Sasha Calle, it’s great Keaton returning as Batman (even if it’s clearly nostalgia bait) he does the best he can with a very lacking script, it’s mostly his talent as an actor that pushes the performance to the finish line. I will say that the ideas they did with Batman in the film were genuinely interesting they were just not given a whole lot of time despite the movie being 2 hours and 24 minutes. Sasha Calle did not get a whole lot of time but she absolutely made what she could with it. She shows a very different angle to Supergirl we haven’t really seen in a film before, she’s genuinely interesting and she gives quite a strong performance. It’s intimidating and really makes the viewer quickly engaged into her character. Sasha Calle absolutely deserved a far better film and I truly do hope going forward that they consider bringing her back in the future.
Now we get into everything else that really just felt like a complete mess of ideas rolled into a ball and thrown at the nearest wall, the whole multiverse stuff is just not interesting here at all, there’s been talk online about the cameos. Without going on a full rant about them since many people have already said pretty much everything that needs to be said about the topic, I’ll just say this…it’s garbage and the CGI is atrocious (that goes for the big battle scene featuring Zod) how anyone looked at this and gave it the okay is beyond me. Anyway the multiverse stuff includes Zod which leads into one of the main problems with the movie, the Zod stuff is uninteresting and really serves as nothing more then for the movie to say “hey remember this guy well he’s back!!”
This pretty much goes for the last half of the movie as well, which is a shame because there are some genuinely touching moments towards the end that you really wish the movie actually had centered around rather than nostalgia bait and a messy multiverse story. Ezra Miller’s performance is just not anything noteworthy at all outside of the fact Miller plays different variations of Barry Allen. While Miller does make some of the emotional moments work, everything else falls flat unfortunately.
Overall while The Flash isn’t as bad as I expected, it’s most certainly not good either. It’s a complete and total mess that has way too many flaws that take away from the positives.
After reuniting with Gwen Stacy, Brooklyn’s full-time, friendly neighborhood Spider-Man is catapulted across the Multiverse, where he encounters a team of Spider-People charged with protecting its very existence. However, when the heroes clash on how to handle a new threat, Miles finds himself pitted against the other Spiders. He must soon redefine what it means to be a hero so he can save the people he loves most.
Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse is a sequel to the 2018 film Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, a film that was and still is incredibly groundbreaking, it opened a lot of doors and inspired several films that have used a very similar animation style such as The Bad Guys (2022) and Puss In Boots: The Last Wish (2022), it was also quite a fantastic film that grew a huge fanbase very quickly and is often regarded as one of the best comic book films ever made.
Spider-Man Across the Spider-Verse had some huge shoes to fill and not only did it surpass expectations the film is one of those sequels where it could be argued that it’s even better than the first film. For starters the voice acting is once again phenomenal Shameik Moore as Miles Morales is like last time excellent, he completely captures the character and even goes further with him when it comes to character development. There’s so many moments that truly make Miles such an incredible character and why he’s become such a beloved character so quickly. Hailee Steinfeld as Gwen is also excellent here, we get to see more development of her character and the bond between Gwen and Miles is just absolutely beautiful and quite touching as well. It’s the little details of their characters that truly shine in this film, other performances that really standout include Bryan Tree Henry as Jefferson Morales, Luna Lauren Vélez as Rio Morales, Jake Johnson as Peter B. Parker, Jason Schwartzman as The Spot, Daniel Kaluuya as Hobie or Spider Punk and Oscar Isaac as Miguel O’Hara or Spider-Man 2099. All give fantastic performances that contribute something truly special to the film in their own way.
The animation style is truly fascinating, not only has it stepped it up from the last film but it also includes many other different styles as well, which make for some very entertaining scenes. The Spot is truly an interesting villain and although we don’t exactly get a whole lot of information on him, we do get just the right amount to tell how quickly he can go from a villain who’s a laughing stock to quite an intimidating villain that wants destruction. Oscar Isaac does such a fantastic job as Miguel O’Hara he’s intimidating and completely makes the character his own in every single way possible, the interactions between him and Moore are truly some of the very best moments of the film that I truly can’t wait to see more of in the sequel.
The film itself is a huge love letter to the Spider-Man character, there are tons of little references that are quite exciting to see and does it in a way that doesn’t take away from the film’s story, I’ve shared my frustrations in the past about films completely relying on easter eggs, but Into The Spider-Verse does not do that. Sure they are there but the film doesn’t rely on them to tell the story, the film uses them in a way that can both be exciting to viewer while moving the story right along without needing to focus so much on them.
The writing is truly fantastic with a lot character moments and development that help evolve the characters it truly does feel like the next chapter of Miles Morale’s journey, there’s a beautiful balance of humor and serious moments which include some quite fantastic lines from Shameik Moore. The film also ends quite well, while I can see some people having an issue with the way the film wraps up and it could come off as not feeling complete and relying too much on the next film. I don’t actually mind that all too much here, it ends at a quite strong moment that really does a fantastic job of setting up the next film.
Overall Spider-Man: Across The Spider-Verse is a fantastic film that surpasses its predecessor, it takes what was so great and loved about the first film and does even more with it. One of the very best so far this year.
Spider-Man: Across The Spider-Verse is available in theaters.
Still reeling from the loss of Gamora, Peter Quill must rally his team to defend the universe and protect one of their own. If the mission is not completely successful, it could possibly lead to the end of the Guardians as we know them.
Guardians Of The Galaxy Vol. 3 is the latest installment of the Marvel Cinematic Universe and the final film of the Guardians Of The Galaxy trilogy. The discussion about superhero fatigue or the superhero genre itself putting mediocrity or flat out terrible movies is still a very relevant. Especially given with what we got so far this year, Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania outside of a few performances was a horrible start to phase five and Shazam: Fury Of The Gods suffered very identical problems that Quantumania did and just sort of came and went.
However Guardians Of The Galaxy Vol. 3 is what happens when you focus on far more than just building a cinematic universe, random cameos and actually have very interesting themes with strong writing. The Guardians Of The Galaxy films I consider to be the best of the MCU and a lot of it has to do with how beautifully well written the characters are and James Gunn’s direction which are both very present here.
For starters the character’s are once again incredibly well written here, the film completes a lot of the arcs the characters have went through from the last several years, Chris Pratt once again kills it as Peter Quill, while he doesn’t get as much development here as he did in the previous movies he really doesn’t need to. The last film really wrapped up a lot of his story and in this one it tied up some loose ends which does lead to a very emotional touching end for his journey, it’s one that’s been hinted at for awhile and to see him accomplish it is truly satisfying.
Bradley Cooper is at his absolute best here as Rocket as the trailers and information about the film has said, the film takes a look at Rocket’s backstory which is quite dark, that’s one thing I should mention Vol. 3 is the darkest of the trilogy (heck this might be the darkest film of the MCU if we are going to be honest.) the backstory really does a fantastic job of building Rocket’s character, there’s so many emotions and really makes Rocket one of the most interesting characters of the MCU. There’s so much pain and sadness in the many flashbacks that truly do make you cry, Rocket’s backstory is among some of the best the MCU has ever done and it’s truly beautiful to see his arc be completed.
Dave Bautista as Drax actually goes through quite a lot of development here, he’s shown in the previous films that he really cares about the team, but here you can absolutely see the result of that. It helps that Bautista gives a phenomenal performance and really puts so much heart into the role, it always did seem like he was having a blast playing Drax whenever he was on screen and that shows here.
Karen Gillan as Nebula is yet another highlight performance of the film, while yes Gillan has always killed as Nebula but I would argue she takes the performance to a different level in this one. Not only does her arc complete in this film but it’s such a beautiful end to it as well, especially during one particularly moment at the end that has everyone together, Nebula is by far one of the most developed characters of the MCU and truly one of the most interesting as well.
Chukwudi Iwuji plays the villain High Evolutionary and it’s quite refreshing to see a villain who isn’t sympathetic at all, one of the problems a lot of people have had with some recent MCU villains is they are always either given a sympathetic backstory or make arguments where someone can say “they are right” while yes that’s not necessarily a bad thing, but when you constantly do it film after film (or show) it starts to become very old. High Evolutionary is straight up evil, he wants to commit genocide and torture creatures he sees as “not perfect” Iwuji’s performance is so unhinged that it’s to the point where it’s quite brilliant. Iwuji says that some inspirations for his performance was William Shakespeare and that really shows, he balances a lot of absolutely unhinged moments with some calm and collected moments.
James Gunn’s direction much like the previous two films is absolutely brilliant, there’s a beautiful blend of comedy and dramatic moments that help the film move along at very steady pace. It tells a beautiful story while making some very hilarious jokes, the music is once against fantastic as well. One scene in particular towards the end uses “Dog Days Are Over” by Florence + The Machine and it’s truly a brilliant use of it, the scene really puts a nice closing on an incredible journey we have had with these characters.
Lastly there’s the film itself and it’s everything that the end of a trilogy should be, it completes the many character arcs while introducing a few new elements that add to the overall themes and characters.
I know it may look like I went on a lot about the characters, but that’s honestly the main source of power in the Guardians Of The Galaxy Trilogy…the characters, since 2014 we have been on a journey with these characters that are quite unique when it comes to the writing style, the team is arguably the characters who went through the most development out of all the characters from the Marvel Cinematic Universe. I believe the reason why these characters and films are so fantastic is mainly development, the characters loving each other like a family and the overall charm.
Guardians Of The Galaxy Vol. 3 is the perfect closer to the trilogy and is among one of the very best films so far this year!
Guardians Of The Galaxy Vol. 3 is playing in theaters.
Members of the Justice League are transported to the world of Remnant and find themselves turned into teenagers. The Remnant heroes combine forces with the Justice League to uncover why their planet has been mysteriously altered.
Before I start I want to make it clear that outside of the Tifa Vs Yang episode from Screw Attack’s Death Battle series I have no knowledge of RWBY, with that said let’s talk about Justice League x RWBY: Super Heroes & Huntsmen, Part One.
Look before I come off as an anti-crossover type person I want to make it clear that I’m not, I am all for studios going crazy with ideas that are completely out of the ordinary. Scooby-Doo and Tom and Jerry have been doing that for years and each time it gets a laugh out of me, Justice League and RWBY are the last things I expected to be combined together. I admire the attempt of doing something completely different however that doesn’t make it good.
The voice acting is a mixed bag Natalie Alyn Lind is by far the standout as Wonder Woman, Nat Wolff being the absolute worst as Batman. A lot of the characters on the DC side of things are so far removed from the original characters it’s actually quite baffling, particularly Batman who I would not blame anyone if they thought he was an entirely different character.
There’s some fine enough action scenes and and the animation does have it’s moments, however a lot of the DC character models almost feel like character skins from a video game. Where there’s very little differences with each of them, as far as everything else goes there’s just honestly not a whole lot here. It’s a very traditional good guys vs bad guys story that has nothing really new to add or say.
I definitely don’t think it’s quite as bad as some people have said, but it’s most certainly not anything good either.
Justice League x RWBY: Super Heroes & Huntsmen, Part One is available on all VOD platforms.
An ancient evil awakens and only Bruce Wayne can save 1920s Gotham City.
As far as recent DC Animated movies go, Batman: The Doom That Came To Gotham is certainly one of the better ones, at the very least this one has more going on other than being a huge Saturday morning cartoon.
The main premise here is that it’s a Lovecraft inspired Batman story, which is quite interesting and for the most part the movie does it quite well. The characters are different from how they are usually portrayed and they fit the Lovecraft style well, there are moments where some characters most definitely needed a ton more development (more on that in a bit) but I will say they got the aesthetic and the actions of the characters down decent enough.
The animation much like the characters matches the Lovecraft style the movie is going for, again there are a few hiccups and the animation can come off as just serviceable as well. But it definitely gets the job the done and at the very least has more character to it than a lot of the other recent DC Animated movies.
Story is where this movie mainly falls especially during the final act of the movie and parts of the second act, there is way too much going on and you can really see how quickly the movie loses focus. As I hinted at earlier character development is a huge issue here, they introduce way too many characters and only about 3 of them get development. At the very least the voice cast does a solid job of making the characters very entertaining and fun to listen to, there’s some genuinely great moments that mainly work due to how committed the voice cast really are.
Batman: The Doom That Came To Gotham is very flawed but for the most part it’s decently made, it’s not something I don’t think I’ll ever go back to but at the very least this was a solid attempt at trying something much different.
Batman: The Doom That Came To Gotham is available on all VOD platforms.
Bestowed with the powers of the gods, Billy Batson and his fellow foster kids are still learning how to juggle teenage life with their adult superhero alter egos. When a vengeful trio of ancient gods arrives on Earth in search of the magic stolen from them long ago, Shazam and his allies get thrust into a battle for their superpowers, their lives, and the fate of the world.
Shazam! Fury Of The Gods is a sequel to Shazam which came out in 2019, I actually really liked Shazam, it was a charming movie that a lot of solid jokes and I really like the whole family element in it as well. At first I was decently excited for Fury Of The Gods but after awhile as trailers and more information about the movie came out, I couldn’t help but feel something was missing from the first movie. But the trailers from the first Shazam didn’t completely sell me so maybe I would be surprised once again? That did not happen here unfortunately.
I’ll start with what worked because there were a few parts of Fury Of Gods that were genuinely great. The performances from Rachel Zegler, Lucy Liu and Helen Mirren were all very solid. They played their characters quite well and were actually far better than the villain from the first movie. There’s one scene at the beginning that captures the whole family element quite well and that’s the Holding Out For A Hero scene, which is genuinely a lot of fun and the use of the song is quite great (you can honestly never go wrong with that song). There’s some other action scenes that are decently fun but that’s really all there is to them.
And that’s sadly where it ends for me, everything else ranges from being embarrassingly bad to very below average, for a movie that is supposedly about magic it most certainly lacks in it. It’s a huge step down from the first one outside of making the villains much more memorable, the family elements are nowhere near as strong as they were in the first one. Sure the other characters get to do a few things here but when the third act comes around they are completely sidelined. The character development is also incredibly lacking as well, there’s very surface level development that doesn’t give the viewer enough information about the family at all, instead it’s just small character traits that are very one note.
The humor has such a downgrade, while the first movie’s humor wasn’t exactly perfect. There were moments where there were genuinely funny jokes that were charming. Fury Of The Gods doesn’t have that, a lot of it is just poor writing that tries to come off as a joke and even resorts to a Skittles product placement that is just baffling (it really comes out of absolute nowhere, I mean sure Skittles appeared in one scene before but it still makes no sense), a lot of the magic that made the first one so charming is just not here. There’s also a cameo that is towards the end of the movie, I’m not going to say who it is. All I will say is that it it’s horrible, it’s the very definition of forced and is only there to get claps and fingers pointing at the screen.
Shazam! Fury Of The Gods is a very frustrating movie, it had potential to be really solid and take what the first one did really well and do it even better. Unfortunately that’s not the case here, instead you are left with a forgettable comic book movie that does very little to stand out and is a huge step down from it’s predecessor.
Jerome Reviews... 