Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania an extended TV episode.

Ant-Man and the Wasp find themselves exploring the Quantum Realm, interacting with strange new creatures and embarking on an adventure that pushes them beyond the limits of what they thought was possible.

Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania is the newest installment of the Marvel Cinematic Universe and is the introduction to Phase Five. Phase Four was the very definition of a mixed bag leading towards the bad side (Wakanda Forever, Loki and a few others are exceptions.) so this was definitely the chance to start the new phase off strong…that did not happen unfortunately.

To be absolutely fair I do think Quantumania is a bit better than some of what phase four had to offer and it is definitely better than the last Ant-Man movie (Ant-Man and The Wasp), but that honestly does not mean much when it suffers a very common problem that a lot of the MCU has been facing lately. Before we get into that there are the positives.

Like everyone has said and will continue to say Jonathan Majors easily steals the show as Kang, he plays such a strong villain and puts his powerhouse acting ability into the role which leads to some quite fantastic moments, similarly Michelle Pfeiffer does a fantastic job here as well, she plays Janet Van Dyne who is actually decently written here, granted there are some scenes where had the writing been so much stronger the character could have improved. But from what was shown it wasn’t too bad, Pfeiffer and Majors are truly at their best when they share the screen together and are able to combine their talent.

Lastly there’s the father and daughter relationship that Scott Lang (Paul Rudd) and Cassie Lang (Kathryn Newton) that while does come off a bit basic at times, it’s mainly due to Paul Rudd and Kathryn Newton being so likable as performers that really makes it work, because Cassie Lang as a character was just not exactly well written at all here. But as I said Newton takes what she’s given and makes the most of it.

Unfortunately everything else is a complete and total mess that just about sums up the main issues currently going on with the MCU, first off the movie is just the usual MCU formula again. Rather than tell a story the movie focuses on introducing the main villain of the new phase Kang, which while is nice it sacrifices writing, storytelling, character development and much more. Most of the other characters are given almost nothing to do especially Hope and Hank who are largely given a backseat this time around.

MODOK is unfortunately not used well at all, he only really serves as a sort of example I’ve used in the past with a lot of MCU films and that’s “the Dragon Ball Z movie henchmen effect) which basically means he’s given a few scenes and then gets written out of the movie. Darren Cross (played by Corey Stoll) makes a return from the first Ant-Man, what’s shocking is somehow this movie manages to make Cross even less interesting to the point where him as Yellowjacket was more investing than him as MODOK. But what really hurts MODOK is the stuff the movie decides to do with him towards the end, it’s the usual MCU humor that flat out makes very little sense given Darren Cross’s personality and the story.

Lastly Quantumania just doesn’t risk any stakes, which I imagine is going to be a huge problem with this phase given that it’s about the Multiverse. Which if you aren’t going to risk any stakes or do something out of the ordinary at least try and build interesting characters and story elements, which is what this movie really lacked. The Star Wars similarities are painfully obvious and really don’t serve any point other than for someone to point and say “hey isn’t this like Star Wars?”

Overall Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania is basically an extended TV episode, it’s main purpose is to introduce the main villain which as I said Majors is one of the best parts. But doing just that sacrifices just about everything else.

Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania is available in theaters.

4/10 D+

The Guardians Of The Galaxy Holiday Special is a very festive close to Phase Four.

The Guardians are on a mission to make Christmas unforgettable for Quill and head to Earth in search of the perfect present.

The Guardians Of The Galaxy Holiday Special is the final part of phase four in the Marvel Cinematic Universe and it definitely ends it on a high note. It keeps a lot of the humor of what made the two Guardians Of The Galaxy movies so hilarious in the first place as well building a bit more development for the characters as well, it’s a very festive special that truly is heartwarming and is the very definition of a holiday special. It mainly focuses on Drax and Mantis which Dave Bautista and Pom Klementieff really do a fantastic job here, the interactions they have with the people they come across plus Kevin Bacon is truly hilarious and pretty cleverly written as well. James Gunn nails down the music extremely well, like the rest of the special it’s very festive and has an incredible amount of charm to it as well. The underlying story of Star Lord loving and missing Christmas is a genuinely emotional and really strong one that add some really great animation as well. Overall there might not be a whole lot to The Guardians Of The Galaxy Holiday Special but it’s very well made, written and has a lot of charm to it that you can’t help but love.

The Guardians Of The Galaxy Holiday Special is available on Disney+

8/10 B+

Thor: Love And Thunder…an underutilized mess.

Thor embarks on a journey unlike anything he’s ever faced — a quest for inner peace. However, his retirement gets interrupted by Gorr the God Butcher, a galactic killer who seeks the extinction of the gods.

To say the MCU Phase Four has been divisive would be the understatement of the year, while there have been some really installments that I would actually go as far to say are some of the best of the MCU such as Doctor Strange: And The Multiverse Of Madness, Loki and Spider-Man: No Way Home, there are also ones that completely missed the mark (Black Widow and Eternals) or had a ton of great ideas but settled on playing safe or were just hindered by the 6 episode format (looking at you Moon Knight even though I gave it a 7/10).

Thor: Love and Thunder is truly baffling the way it came out, there was so much here that should have absolutely worked but didn’t for several reasons. I’ll start with what I liked, Natalie Portman who returns as Jane Foster and becomes The Mighty Thor is truly fantastic here. Like in the first Thor films she really captures Jane Foster quite well and absolutely tries her best with the bare bones script she is given, what hurts her character is she isn’t explored nearly enough which is quite odd considering this was supposed to be a huge part of the film. Christian Bale who plays Gorr (or The God Slayer) also gives a strong performance but is the very definition of underutilized, Gorr as a character is very interesting and has a backstory that could have been quite emotional and actually powerful as well. The problem is Gorr is not given enough screentime to make that work, plus his backstory itself is nowhere near as explored as it should have been, Bale goes all out with the role which is just another huge reminder of how good of an actor Bale is. There’s a few fun action scenes here and there but a lot of it feels very empty that goes completely off the rails towards the end in all the wrong ways. Lastly there’s Tessa Thompson as Valkyrie who for some reason gets put into the backseat and just becomes some sidekick, when she does get time to shine she’s really great but Thompson and her character deserved far better than this.

Now for what it is completely wrong with this movie and that’s mostly due to three major things that completely break it. The first being the jokes, while I do understand the criticism of Thor Raganrock having jokes in it at least they worked to an extent and were at least controlled on a tight leash, the jokes in Thor: Love and Thunder are the complete opposite the first half of the movie is filled to the brim of jokes that are painfully unfunny. Even resorting to the screaming goat meme which is from 2012 (went viral in 2013), the first time it might have gotten a chuckle but the film kept doing it over and over again. The biggest problem here is the movie tries to juggle between jokes and serious moments, there’s some okay setups for some emotional scenes but are hindered by poorly written jokes that feel like they should be in an entirely different movie. The second major issue is the writing which can be pretty much summed up as being the definition of bare bones, characters who could be interesting have no character development, plot lines are introduced and abandoned with a snap of a finger and writing that completely prohibits any emotion or depth. Lastly there’s what I hinted at the beginning of this review, this another case of Phase Four having a ton of great ideas but completely wasting them. Particularly with Gorr and Jane Foster, there were many ideas about them that are interesting the movie just completely fails to do anything with them and if the movie does do then it’s barely anything at all, Thor finding out who he really is could be interesting but once again that’s only mentioned a few times throughout the movie but is quickly abandoned. Overall Thor: Love And Thunder is a huge missed opportunity that should have absolutely worked, it’s honestly quite baffling how wrong this went and is just massively disappointing overall.

Thor: Love And Thunder is in theaters.

4/10 D+

Morbius is a terrible installment in Sony’s Spider-Man Universe.

Dangerously ill with a rare blood disorder and determined to save others from the same fate, Dr. Morbius attempts a desperate gamble. While at first it seems to be a radical success, a darkness inside of him is soon unleashed.

So Morbius is finally released after numerous delays and there’s a whole lot to unpack here…and not in a good way. Morbius is another one of Sony’s Spider-Man universe films like Venom and Venom: Let There Be Carnage, for what it’s worth Venom has so sort of grown on me, I still think it’s terrible but there are plenty of so bad it’s hilarious moments to be had. Venom: Let There Be Carnage is flawed but I genuinely liked it mostly because I found it to be far more successful than the first movie in terms of what it wants to be. Morbius however is a complete and total mess from start to finish, the only positive I can give it is Matt Smith who tried his absolute hardest to make the movie entertaining, plus Matt Smith is just one of those actors where no matter how garbage a movie is he will always be a positive. So Jared Leto plays Dr. Michael Morbius who has a rare blood disorder so he tries to find a cure for himself and his life long friend Milo played by Matt Smith. Once he finds the cure it seems to work at first before he becomes the vampire Morbius. So right off the bat (pun absolutely intended) Jared Leto gives yet another terrible performance, I see what they tried to go for here but it just didn’t work at all, Leto isn’t one of those actors who can make a monotone performance into something interesting, the whole blood plot line would be really interesting to follow if the movie slowed down and took a breath plus if the editing wasn’t atrocious. I get the movie is only an hour and 44 minutes long but that’s the problem it feels incredibly rushed almost like an abridged version of Morbius or if someone wrote this as if it was an essay on sparksnote, the side characters serve little to no purpose and are given barely anything to do. Martine Bancroft’s (Adria Arjona) only purpose is to be a love interest for Morbius, Dr. Emil Nicholas (Jared Harris) is basically a mentor figure to Morbius if you can even call him that, Agent Simon Stroud (Tyrese Gibson) is given very little to do outside of being a generic law enforcement character and lastly Agent Rodriguez (Al Madrigal) is basically the comedic relief law enforcement character. Which to be fair Al Madrigal is by far the best of the supporting cast mainly because he actually gives this movie some sort of life, as I said earlier Matt Smith is the only good part about this mess, there’s scenes where he just does his own thing. I also found Milo to be a far more interesting character than Morbius who strangely got more development as well. Morbius also tries to include some horror elements one scene in particular but that falls flat mainly due to it being really nothing special at all, in fact pretty much any given horror film has done that scene far better. The writing by Matt Sazama (The Last Witch Hunter, God’s Of Egypt, Power Rangers (2017) and Dracula Untold) and Burk Sharpless (wrote the same films as Sazama minus The Last Witch Hunter) is atrocious there’s a lot of “jokes” in this movie that are so weirdly put in and the movie wants you to take them seriously as well. The writing feels both way too much yet so little at the same time, it over complicates a simple plot that could have been investing if the layout wasn’t so atrocious. Overall Morbius is a complete and total disaster, it doesn’t have the entertainment value that the Venom movies had and it ironically feels like it was rushed despite being delayed so many times.

Morbius is available in theaters!

1/10 F

Spider-Man No Way Home is a love letter to the entire Spider-Man franchise (Spoiler Review)

With Spider-Man’s identity now revealed, our friendly neighborhood web-slinger is unmasked and no longer able to separate his normal life as Peter Parker from the high stakes of being a superhero. When Peter asks for help from Doctor Strange, the stakes become even more dangerous, forcing him to discover what it truly means to be Spider-Man.

Before I begin I will note that it will be next to impossible to talk about this movie without mentioning spoilers so if you haven’t seen the movie yet I would recommend not reading this review.

Phase Four when it comes to film has been rough. Shang-Chi as I said in my review is an incredibly solid film up until the third act, Eternals was incredibly disappointing and Black Widow was just there. So I was really hoping Spider-Man No Way Home would come out and wow me…and that it most certainly did. So starting off let’s discuss characters and performances, Tom Holland as Spider-Man is still fantastic. He truly puts everything he has in this film and it delivers in every single way possible, Zendaya’s character Michelle gets far more development than she has in the other films which is something that I’m glad they did. Granted it was one of the more predictable aspects (not in a bad way) like of course she was going to get more development it’s the third Spider-Man film in the MCU. She completely grows as a character and doesn’t feel like she’s being shoved off to the sidelines, I really don’t have anything interesting to say about Doctor Strange, Benedict Cumberbatch once again does the role really well and doesn’t over stay the welcome. Finally let’s talk about the villains plus Tobey Maguire’s and Andrew Garfield’s Peter Parker/Spider-Man and how they are used plus compliment this giant film. I’ll start with the one who got the least development which was The Lizard honestly he’s about the same as he was in The Amazing Spider-Man, there really isn’t a whole lot to his character and that was really to be expected. Next up is Electro and Sandman who I both feel are around the same level when it comes to development, for one thing Jamie Foxx is far better as Electro here than he was in Amazing Spider-Man 2. A nice reference to Sandman’s character growth in Spider-Man 3 is shown during a scene where he teams up with Tom Holland’s Spider-Man to fight Electro (although he does become somewhat evil again but we will get to that.) Lastly there’s Andrew Garfield’s Spider-Man, Tobey Maguire’s Spider-Man, Green Goblin and Doc Ock. Who all have an incredible amount of development, Alfred Molina once again is perfect as Doc Ock and although he isn’t a huge part of the film. I truly love what they did with his character, once again the film acts as a continuation to Spider-Man 2 with his character. He was a man corrupted by his inventions deep down he wasn’t demonic like the next character The Green Goblin. Willem Dafoe truly owns the role of The Green Goblin I truly can’t picture anyone else in the role, the film does such a good job showing how evil he really is and shows why he is the most threatening of the villains. He has all the villains besides Doc Ock go completely mad and attack, the strongest parts of the writing come in when Tobey Maguire and Andrew Garfield come in. Not only do we get to see both of them again but we get to hear how they are doing, what’s changed and so on. The film acts as a continuation to their stories, even the little conversations end up meaning quite a lot. One important rule when it comes to a team up sort of element is to never have one part of the certain team or character overshadow the other. And I feel No Way Home does a fantastic job of doing that, Tobey, Andrew and Tom’s version of Spider-Man feel equal one doesn’t feel far stronger than the other. The jokes in the film are actually quite fantastic, there was a lot of charm put into them that I can’t help but smile at. The ending is truly hard hitting and definitely one of the more emotional moments that have happened in the MCU thus far, it’s hard hitting change that has this sense of moving on from memories. Overall Spider-Man No Way Home is a huge celebration of Spider-Man it’s a fantastic film that’s hands down one of the best the MCU has to offer!

Spider-Man No Way Home is available in Theaters!

10/10 A+

Hawkeye is strong series with fantastic characters!

Former Avenger Clint Barton has a seemingly simple mission: get back to his family for Christmas. Possible? Maybe with the help of Kate Bishop, a 22-year-old archer with dreams of becoming a Super Hero. The two are forced to work together when a presence from Barton’s past threatens to derail far more than the festive spirit.

Hawkeye is the fifth Disney+ Marvel series, it explores Jeremy Renner’s character Clint Barton or Hawkeye which does a fantastic job of doing exactly that. It’s the first time where I actually cared for Barton as a character something that has been completely missing for years, we also get some new characters which leads to one of the best casting choices the MCU has done thus far…Hailee Steinfeld as Kate Bishop. I’ve always loved Hailee Steinfeld as an actress and she always brings in a fantastic performance and here is no exception, she completely nails it as Kate Bishop. From the humor, mannerisms and wanting to be a hero she does a perfect job, what’s even better is when Florence Pugh as Yelena enters the series. I had my problems with Black Widow and is definitely one of the weakest parts of Phase four so far, however Pugh’s performance as Yelena was the main positive and here is no different. Pugh and Steinfeld both work incredibly well together, sure when they are both in different scenes they are already fantastic but when put together they truly give some of the best moments in the series and some of the best of Phase four thus far. It also helps that Yelena is given character development which was definitely needed after Black Widow, Alaqua Cox as Echo was another huge highlight of the series, what’s even better is Cox is a deaf actress who playing a deaf character. Echo is given a solid backstory that has a lot of questions but that remains to be seen in her own series she will be getting (hopefully comes out soon!) lastly there’s Vincent D’Onofrio who reprises his role as Kingpin, although he’s not in the series that much when he does finally appear the build up is incredibly worth it, it’s some of the best build up I’ve seen from the MCU in quite some time and truly feels earned. The writing this time around is actually really great, where as lot of the MCU films and some of the series have a huge problem with balancing the humor and serious moments. Hawkeye actually manages to balance the two really well, there’s a lot of character moments for Renner, Hailee Steinfeld, Florence Pugh and Alaqua Cox that are very effective and push the characters forward. The humor is actually quite well done it’s genuinely surprising given how bad Marvel humor can really be, but here there’s genuine charm put into it. Overall Hawkeye is an incredibly strong series that really makes you excited for what’s to come next for Kate Bishop, Hawkeye, Yelena and Echo, I truly hope the future shows follow in the footsteps of Hawkeye because this was great!

Hawkeye is available on Disney+

9/10 A

Most Anticipated Films Of December 2021!

Well we are here! The final month of 2021, what a year it has been! We have seen fantastic films that I’m excited to talk about when I do my top 100 best films of the year and we have seen terrible movies that I’ll be talking about with my top 100 worst films of the year. But before all that let’s talk December 2021! It’s a month that is filled with very interesting releases that I’m quite excited to see, since the format I did last time was successful and a lot of people loved it I will be sticking with that. Name the movie and release date then move on to the next movie. There’s only so many times I can say “I’m super excited for this movie” or “I saw the trailer and I’m hyped” until it becomes redundant. So here’s the list folks!

20. Mother/Android – December 17th (Hulu)

19. Silent Night – December 3rd (VOD)

18. Swan Song – December 17th (Apple TV+)

17. Shaun The Sheep: The Flight Before Christmas – December 3rd (Netflix)

16. Being The Ricardos – December 10th (Theater) and December 21st (Amazon Prime Video)

15. The Unforgivable – December 10th (Netflix)

14. Spider-Man No Way Home – December 17th (Theater)

13. Bendetta – December 3rd (Theater) and December 21st (VOD)

12. Flee – December 3rd (Theaters)

11. The Hand Of God – December 3rd (Theater) and December 15th (Netflix)

10. The Novice – December 17th (VOD)

9. Red Rocket – December 10th (Theaters)

8. Matrix Resurrections – December 22nd (Theaters and HBO Max)

7. The Lost Daughter – December 17th (Theater) and December 31st (Netflix)

6. Don’t Look Up – December 10th (Theater) and December 24th (Netflix)

5. Memoria – December 26th (Theaters)

4. The Tragedy Of MacBeth – December 25th (Theater) and January 14th (Apple TV+)

3. The Power Of The Dog – December 1st (Netflix)

2. Nightmare Alley – December 17th (Theaters)

1. Licorice Pizza – December 25th (Theaters)

And there you have it! I will be making a list of films I need to watch and review before I finalize my best and worst list very soon! Some 2021 films are going to be releasing in 2022 as usual so it will be a wait. But I promise you the lists will be worth it as I’m going to make things more interesting!

Most Anticipated Films Of November 2021!

Hey everyone! I once again apologize for the lack of posts, last week I was a bit busy plus the week itself outside of Friday really didn’t give me anything to review. However I will be posting reviews tomorrow, Wednesday and I’ll squeeze in some more as well! November has a lot to offer, though I will admit November is mixed with a lot of great stuff with the bad. I’m sadly not going to count The Power Of The Dog, The Unforgivable or Licorice Pizza since none of which are getting released wide this month. I’m going to try and keep this short so it can be nice and digestible for everyone!

18. The Deep House – November 5th (EPIX and I believe VOD platforms)

17. Beans – November 5th (VOD)

16. 7 Prisoners – November 11th (Netflix)

15. Bruised – November 24th (Netflix)

14. Mark, Mary + Some Other People (Saw this at SXSW) – November 5th (VOD)

13. The Harder They Fall – November 3rd (Netflix)

12. The Beta Test – November 5th (VOD)

11. A Christmas Gift From Bob – November 5th (Theater) and November 9th (VOD)

10. Cusp (Saw this at Sundance) – November 26th (ShowTime)

9. The Electrical Life Of Louis Wain – November 5th (Amazon Prime Video)

8. Tick Tick Boom – November 12th (Theater) and November 19th (Netflix)

7. Belfast – November 12th (Theater)

6. Eternals November 5th (Theater)

5. The Humans November 24th (Theaters and ShowTime)

4. Violet (Saw this one back at SXSW) – November 9th (VOD)

3. House Of Gucci – November 24th (Theater)

2. C’mon C’mon – November 19th (Theater)

1. Spencer – November 5th (Theater)

Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings is both compelling and a solid addition to the MCU!

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!

8/10 B+

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