Martial-arts master Shang-Chi confronts the past he thought he left behind when he’s drawn into the web of the mysterious Ten Rings organization.
Shang-Chi was definitely a surprise for me, from the trailers they really played this like your typical MCU origin story that was going to just sort of exist and that would be the end of it. That is not the case with Shang-Chi in fact it does far far more than just being an origin story! The cast does quite an incredible job Simu Liu, Tony Leung Chiu-wai, Meng’ er Zhang and Michelle Yeoh especially! Speaking of which Tony Leung Chiu-wai is great as the villain which is Mandarin. He’s one of the better MCU villains that actually got development although it could have been a bit more. The action scenes are what really make this movie, particularly the combat which a ton of scenes use martial arts. One scene in particular (if you have seen it you will immediately know which one I’m talking about) is truly beautiful, the filming, the acting and marital arts. It all adds into that scene to truly make it standout and turn it into something the MCU really hasn’t done before, Shang-Chi also does have a lot of heart as well as there are some very touching moments between the characters. Writing wise the first two acts in particular are very strong, some of the best of phase four in the MCU so far. The flaws come in with the final act which while it’s definitely not bad, it feels a little bit rushed at times and sort of falls apart in a lot of moments. The CGI has it’s weird moments where it’s quite great while in others it doesn’t look so great. But overall Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings was a huge surprise for me, director Destin Daniel Cretton did a very solid job with this film! Definitely check it out!
Shang-Chi and the legend of the Ten Rings is now in theaters!
The government sends the most dangerous supervillains in the world — Bloodsport, Peacemaker, King Shark, Harley Quinn and others — to the remote, enemy-infused island of Corto Maltese. Armed with high-tech weapons, they trek through the dangerous jungle on a search-and-destroy mission, with only Col. Rick Flag on the ground to make them behave.
Before I start talking about The Suicide Squad I’m just going to warn you right now that it’s going to be next to impossible (at least for me) to talk about this film in great detail (or any detail for that matter without making my review sound boring) without including some spoilers. Don’t worry I’m going to include when the spoilers are and when they end so you skip around the review, thank you for understanding on to the review! So The Suicide Squad is directing by James Gunn who previously did the two Guardians Of The Galaxy films both of which I consider some of the best of the MCU (heck GOTG 2 is my favorite of the MCU) so I was pretty excited for The Suicide Squad….and this really surpassed my expectations, right from the beginning SPOILER ALERT the film kind of does a Scream type element in this case with Michael Rooker and his character Savant who you would expect to live but he dies very quickly along with some other characters! SPOILER ENDS so let’s talk about performances and a few characters, well for starters Viola Davis does such a fantastic job as always like in the 2016 movie Viola Davis absolutely kills it as Amanda Walker, casting her back in the role was such a smart move and her character shines even more in this film. Margot Robbie as Harley Quinn like Viola Davis as Amanda Walker have become the equivalent of Hugh Jackman as Logan, Robert Downey Jr as Iron Man and Ryan Reynolds as Deadpool where you can’t see anyone else doing those roles. Margot Robbie completely owns the character at this point and she does just as amazing in this film as she has in the other movies, she’s also given a script that really makes Harley Quinn really interesting and quite hilarious as well! Joel Kinnaman as Rick Flag is quite incredible, his character is a lot of fun and truly one of my favorite parts of film SPOILER AHEAD his death I thought was the most impactful of the film, it’s an effective death that I was honestly not expecting at all. SPOILER ENDS John Cena as Peacmaker I wasn’t too sure how that was going to go but he really did an excellent job, he brought a lot to the character between a lot of hilarious moments and the serious moments that are quite brutal as well. Peacemaker is the complete opposite of Rick Flag which I found quite interesting it being a Ying and Yang type thing. Sylvester Stallone as King Shark is just a lot of fun and has some of the most hysterical moments sure there wasn’t a lot of development but did there really need to be? It’s a shark that says “nom nom” before eating people giving us some fantastic kills and gore throughout the film! Daniela Melchior as Ratcatcher 2 was a surprise for me, see a lot of the marketing didn’t focus on her character yet she was a lot of the heart of the film, I’ll get more into that when I get into more of the writing (I promise we are almost done with the characters and performances, I told you on Twitter I had a lot to say now didn’t I?) she gets some really strong character development that is actually quite meaningful and really cares for her teammates (oh and Sebastian the Rat is quite fantastic as well.) Finally I saved the best for last…Idris Elba as Bloodsport, whoever made this casting decision deserves a raise because this is one of the best performances so far this year. Idris Elba delivers so much into the film from being hilarious to a ton of character development through his past and his bond with his teammates Idris Elba truly knows how to lead a film and this just proves it even more. Plus his character is an overall badass who gives us some great kills and gore, the bit of the beginning of the film with Storm Reid sets a perfect tone for his character someone who can be full of humor but also be very serious at the same time. Now let’s get into the writing, as I said earlier Ratcatcher 2 is a lot of the heart of the film, it’s mostly due to the writing which blends a lot of comedy, action and the character development moments extremely well. They are all given certain moments to shine in the film, one moment you have some comedic bits with King Shark or Harley Quinn, other moments you will have action moments with most of the main characters that lead to some fantastic stunts, a clear camera that doesn’t shake every 25 seconds and some fantastic kills and gore lastly you will have the character development moments like with Ratchatcher 2, Bloodsport and a few others! It’s a fantastic blend that has not worked well for a lot of films, but works here perfectly which leads me to James Gunn’s direction. James Gunn really knows how to take the source material and make it his own, he’s shown that with the GOTG films and he’s once again shown it here, he creates an atmosphere of fun elements, character development elements and really brings you into the experience. It’s truly quite amazing how much Gunn packs into the film 2 hours and 12 minutes may seem long but it’s truly not with the film’s pacing. It’s one of those films that doesn’t even feel like it’s 2 hours, mostly due to so much going on that it keeps you invested thinking “who’s going to make it out alive.” Overall The Suicide Squad is a fantastic film and hands down one of my favorite films of 2021, I can easily see why a lot of people have been calling this “one of the best comic book films” because it does everything it’s supposed to and adds so much more into it! I highly recommend seeing this one!
The Suicide Squad is now available in Theaters and On HBO Max!
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+
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!
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!
Rewind to the 1980s as Wonder Woman’s next big screen adventure finds her facing two all-new foes: Max Lord and The Cheetah.
I think the biggest question that should be asked here is “What the hell happened?” Wonder Woman (2017) I thought was a very strong film and for awhile was my favorite of the DCEU (until Birds Of Prey came but Wonder Woman is still my second favorite) I was very open to the idea of a sequel but that’s until the trailer hit where I knew they were going to go a completely different route from the first film. Way more cartoonish and removes a lot of the silent and strong character moments that the first movie had. I’ll start with what I liked, by far the best thing this movie has going for it is the score. Hans Zimmer did quite a great job with it and the music does match certain scenes. There’s a few action scenes I liked while not exactly great they were fine enough to have fun with, Kristen Wiig I thought actually did her best with what she had to work with (even though her performance was honestly not good) Pedro Pascal at least seems like he’s having fun with role, he’s not good don’t get me wrong the role does not match him at all. But at least he’s trying his best….everything else is just very disappointing. The first 10 minutes really suckers you into believing that you are going to be getting something similar to the first film but that’s not the case. Gal Gadot just did not do a good job here, I’m not exactly sure what happened in between the first movie and now but the difference is very noticeable, Gal Gadot just doesn’t bring the strength she had in the first film. There were nowhere near the amount of strong emotional moments that helped the first movie, a lot of it felt bare minimum character moments that don’t really don’t add to anything. Kristen Wiig as I said before I thought was fine enough…that’s until she turned into Cheetah, I understand they had to throw a well known villain into the film. But good lord Wiig’s transformation to Cheetah appeared at the last 15-20 minutes of the film, it really felt like an afterthought like it wasn’t even planned to be in the movie but someone said “we need to throw in a well known villain” writing wise there is absolutely nothing here that brings anything new to the table, it’s the same typical comic book movie writing that’s been done to death. The writing lacks character growth, no real progression or anything memorable. I almost forgot to mention Chris Pine who looked like he did not want to be on set, sure there were moments when Pine and Gadot had some chemistry together but those were very far and few in between. I really wanted to like Wonder Woman 1984 I really did, but there was way too much sticking out like a sore thumb that can’t be just ignored. This is what happens when comic book movies do the absolute bare minimum and don’t try to do anything else.
Five young mutants, just discovering their abilities while held in a secret facility against their will, fight to escape their past sins and save themselves.
Well what did you expect…for this to be actually good? New Mutants the last X-Men movie made only by 20th Century Fox, it was originally supposed to release back in 2018. New Mutants constantly got delayed for almost 3 years when it finally came out this year. The only positive I can give New Mutants are Anya Taylor Joy, Masisie Williams and Blu Hunt’s performances were they anything groundbreaking? Absolutely not but they were far better than anything else in this gigantic mess, first off let’s talk about the writing….what a complete disaster. First off the writing feels like something straight out of some edgy fanfiction, with some racist jokes, a sexual abuse joke and tons of poorly written lines it’s enough to make you want to hit your head against a wall. The “horror” aspect in this movie is complete bull crap, it’s very clear Josh Boone or any of the writers don’t know how to write horror, this is a kindergarteners understanding of what horror is. Just because you add a few jumpscares and make the screen dark doesn’t mean it’s a horror movie. It’s one of the worst attempts I’ve seen in quite awhile. Speaking of Josh Boone let’s talk about how he whitewashed two characters in the movie, I’m sure you have heard the controversy so I won’t go on about it, but I feel like it needs to be mentioned because it goes to show that none of the writers or Josh Boone knew what they were doing. Oh yeah and they actually spelled the creator of the New Mutants comic’s name wrong too so that’s an extra slap to the face. Then there’s the pacing and the story itself which I honestly can’t believe they thought this would work. Almost all of the movie is the main characters sitting around doing nothing until the main villain (which by the way is very predictable who it is, all you need to do is watch the first couple minutes of the movie and you will know who it is) appears. That is literally the whole entire movie, nothing engaging, nothing interesting just garbage. Overall New Mutants is garbage and definitely one of the worst X-Men movies, it may not be as bad as Dark Phoenix or X-Men Origins Wolverine but that is really not saying much…
The assassin Deathstroke tries to save his family from the wrath of H.I.V.E. and the murderous Jackal.
Solid enough DC animated movie, Deathstroke is one of my favorite characters and I’m pretty happy with the end result. While the animation isn’t that great and the final act does fall apart, the rest of the movie is a lot of fun. There’s plenty of gore for people hoping there are some great kills, the action scenes are very strong and actually have some great detail to them. It’s pretty fast paced and gets to the point rather quickly which is very refreshing to see, I do wish the movie built more development on some of the other characters, there’s a lot of characters who are just there and never get seen again. A major thing this movie benefits from is how it looks like a comic book and that really is it’s strong point. Overall a very solid movie that I recommend giving a watch.
A covert team of immortal mercenaries are suddenly exposed and must now fight to keep their identity a secret just as an unexpected new member is discovered.
The Old Guard really surprised me, from the trailer it looked like a very fun action movie. What I didn’t expect is for the movie to be much more then that. Maybe it’s because Gina Prince-Bythewood was the director which she did Beyond The Lights (which is fantastic) first off I’ll get the obvious out of the way Charlize Theron once again proves she’s a queen of action movies as well as being an incredible actress. Her character is pretty well developed and the moments where they focus on her character are quite great. The other standout is definitely Kiki Layne, she does a really great job in her role and brings a whole lot to the table. Directing wise Bythewood focused action as well moments to develop the characters, there’s a very nice balance between the two where one of them doesn’t over match the other. The action scenes are extremely well as well as the soundtrack that is very surprising. The soundtrack compliments the movie very well and fits each scene throughout the movie, and the action scenes have a great sense of style to them. Overall The Old Guard is definitely one of the standouts so far this year, I can definitely see this movie becoming a cult classic within the next couple years. I’m down for a sequel to see what’s in store next.
In 1800s England, a well meaning but selfish young woman meddles in the love lives of her friends. Emma has a lot of good things going for it, first off the acting is pretty solid all around especially Anya Taylor-Joy and Mia Goth both do a fantastic job. The writing is very solid that gives quite a few great scenes, the costume design is very well done it matches the time period it’s going for. Lastly the movie does have some pretty interesting scenes towards the end that are quite great, I think my main issue with this movie was it wasn’t as strong as it could have been. It does feel like at times this movie does hold back from being even better, plus I don’t think it’s going to be something that’s going to stick to a lot of people. Especially when the year goes on and more films come out, for what the movie is it’s very solid. But it’s not something to go crazy over.
7/10 B What if baby Kal-El’s rocket landed, not in Kansas, but in the Soviet Union? That is the premise of this Elseworld’s tale from DC Comics. Superman Red Son is a huge example of a movie that knows how to have fun and not take itself ultra seriously, it’s pretty much an alternate universe Superman works under Joseph Stalin, Batman is a villain, Lois Lane and Lex Luther are married. The movie is insane but that’s just what’s so good about it, the animation is quite great with some really well done action scenes. Does the movie take a bit to get going? Absolutely but that does not take away from what this movie gave, plus I also like how much different this movie is from the other DCAU movies. The writing is solid in a lot of areas and the character development is pretty decent. It might not be everyone’s cup of tea but if it does peak your interest I recommend giving it a try.
Jerome Reviews... 