The Marvels
There’s nothing really too serious about The Marvels, which is really about three different but special women bonding during a silly space adventure. Their power sets are also a joy to watch even if they don’t make a lick of sense.
★★★1/2
Mild Spoilers
Directed by Nia DaCosta
Written by Megan McDonnell and Elissa Karasik
I’m not going to do a synopsis for this one, but instead I will just point out that there will be two “new” key characters that you wouldn’t know about if you haven’t seen Wandavision or Ms. Marvel on Disney+. Three, if you also haven’t seen Captain Marvel, which should obviously be mandatory viewing since this is kind of a direct sequel to that one. You don’t really have to watch the other two shows since it’s pretty common for superhero movies to introduce new superheroes anyway. But Ms. Marvel (Iman Vellani) is such a lovable, charming character even in this one that I’d recommend checking out Ms. Marvel as well.
Now, the movie. People are going to go to town on this one, because unfortunately it has issues. The whole movie felt choppy and rushed, like it had been edited to hell. It makes for a breezy, undemanding watch, but I thought it undermined some dramatic moments that could have been great scenes if given enough screen time to permeate. There are also some cosmic pseudo-science nonsenses that glossed over some plot resolutions. In comic books, this is par for the course, but with cynical audiences nowadays, prepare to hear a lot of b****ing and moaning about why it didn’t “make sense”. I was already hearing it from the bros sitting behind me after the movie had ended, who said that the answer was because “they were women.” I mean, bro, why are you here, watching it then? I pity the sole girl in their group who had to pretend-laugh at their mockings. I might as well also mentioned that these idiots were also talking through the first half hour of the movie, which was something I never thought I’d ever come across again after I started going to first-day screenings. Apparently, the morons have finally spilled into my safe space.
I digress. Despite the issues, I thought this was a fun watch. The three leads did a good job, but Vellani was effortlessly the scene stealer. I really enjoyed the cosmic-space stuff - it’s similar to the Guardians of the Galaxy flicks but having to explore new planets makes the MC-Universe feels big. There’s nothing really too serious about The Marvels, which is really about three different but special women bonding during a silly space adventure. Their power sets are also a joy to watch even if they don’t make a lick of sense. It is also a pretty funny movie, especially one major gag of a set piece that everyone is certainly going to talk about a lot and spoil it in no time. (They are two; let’s see if you can guess which one I was actually referring to.) I would recommend it, especially for ardent MCU fans, but also warn that this is truly fluff and not a Marvel entry with huge consequences in the grand scheme of things.
Well, except for the end credits scene, of course.
P.S. Just wanted to point out my surprise of seeing Mohan Kapoor here, who plays Ms Marvel’s father, because he was publicly accused of sexually harassing a minor last December, but I’ve not heard or am able to Google any development on that story. It’s possible that they’ve already finished filming The Marvels and were in post-production when that news broke. I can see how it was difficult to cut him out of the movie if they ever had the intention to, because he was an integral familial figure in Ms Marvel’s life and appears in every scene that featured her family. It’s really odd that things like this kept happening to Marvel of late.
Shazam! Fury of the Gods
If you’re expecting more of the same from Shazam 2, you’re not going to be disappointed.
★★★1/2
Directed by David F. Sandberg
Written by Henry Gayden, Chris Morgan and Bill Parker
Events from the first Shazam movie caused the barrier between two worlds to crumble, and the Daughters of Atlas, goddesses Hespera (Helen Mirren) and Kalypso (Lucy Liu) traverse to the world of Men to exact vengeance on the race that imprisoned them. Standing in their way are Billy Batson (Asher Angel/ Zachary Levi), Freddy Freeman (Jack Dylan Grazer/ Adam Brody) and the Shazam family.
Here we have yet another one of those with the same stupid plot about otherworldly villains who want to destroy the world through yet another one of those conveniently available magical artifacts. Their finale would always be set in a city on the verge of destruction, with the heroes saving it just in the nick of time. If you’re expecting more of the same from Shazam 2, you’re not going to be disappointed.
I was not a huge fan of the first, even though I liked some things about it, so expectations were low going into the sequel. I thought the characters in the first film were interesting, especially Freddy and some of the dramatic moments were really strong, like when Batson reunites with his mother. There are some good albeit brief familial drama here, but the actors sold it really well. I also enjoyed the humour, with quite a number of pop culture-related ones, as well as some self-referential stuff. I appreciated all of that since I found the superhero stuff to be very rote.
It’s also weird that there seems to be two protagonists given almost equal importance, but I felt that Freddy’s character was way more compelling that Batson’s to the point of overshadowing the main star. This time round, Freddy’s pining for new girl in school Annie (Rachel Zegler of West Side Story fame). Although Zegler’s character didn’t have much depth, but Zegler and Grazer had such great chemistry together that I was rooting for them despite how predictable their teen romance got. Batson’s character got really underserved here with yet another routine discover-the-hero-in-you arc that was repetitive, unfocused, and not very interesting.
I was also quite surprised by the action in this one, which looked very well planned and polished, and much larger in scale. I will admit it was a lot of fun watching the six caped superheroes going about saving people. The VFX looked really good. Normally, you could see the transition from a live-action shot to a rubbery CG double, but I think the tech has gotten so impeccable that I can’t really tell anymore. The VFX shots of citywide destruction looked solid, and there were a lot of them. This is an expensive looking show.
It was fun to see Helen Mirren and Lucy Liu play baddies in a comic book flick. Mirren came off a bit better as she was the only one who got the funnier moments, but I thought they both played it a bit too straight. Would have loved to see them ham it up instead as that would have better suited the lighthearted tone of the movie.
Usually, I would have ended the review here by saying that this is an enjoyable but imperfect movie, go watch it and all that, but there’s more. The movie has one unexpected cameo (at least for me; I heard they revealed it in recent trailers - I don’t watch trailers), and two end credits scenes that was surprisingly puzzling to me, since James Gunn announced earlier in February that he was going to set a new trajectory for DC, and that the Snyderverse is no more. I get that they’re putting out the last few Snyderverse films that were already in production or completed before the upheaval, but since you’re not continuing with the Snyderverse, why still leave these scenes in, especially when you could have easily excised them with no impact to the film? There’s even one end credits scene that connects the film directly to one of Gunn’s own DC projects. Does that mean some remnants of the Snyderverse would remain while others are jettisoned? Why even tease these stuff if you’re not going to do anything with them anyway? It’d be real funny to see the WB suits scramble to do an about-turn if Shazam 2 unexpectedly makes massive B.O. money. (It flopped. - Wei from the future.)
Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania
Despite some story directions that didn’t work and some other quality issues, I think it did the job, and there are a few but enough of the good stuff here to at least warrant a watch.
★★★1/2
Mild spoilers
Directed by Peyton Reed
Written by Jeff Loveness
Quantumania is frustrating. Ant-Man has always been about the little guy (even the movie mentioned that repeatedly), but like the big boys he now has to handle a universe-ending threat of his own. (It even tries to ape Aquaman’s gonzo visual aesthetics, likely in an attempt to also achieve a similar box-office result.) But that makes Quantumania feel just like a formulaic Marvel entry instead of the fun “palate cleanser” (a term used by Paul Rudd himself) that many of us are reluctant to admit we needed, even as we griped about how inconsequential the Ant-flicks were.
Other problems:
Too many characters, a very smart villain that started doing stupid things near the end, the sorely-felt absence of Luis and his compadres of X-Con Securities Consultants, and the jettisoning of that wonderfully snappy editing style from the earlier films.
However, all is not lost.
The cast is fantastic. Jonathan Majors is the standout here, and his performance alone is worth the price of admission. Kang is absolutely menacing but also interestingly complex. I was fascinated by the level of gratitude expressed by the supposedly ruthless multiversal conqueror towards his savior, when he had absolutely nothing to gain from doing so, except a tiny sliver of what’s left of his humanity. Pfeiffer was given more to do this time, and her scenes with Majors were electric and made you forget you’re watching a superhero flick. Rudd, Douglas, and Lily are reliably good in spite of the limited material they had to work with.
I also liked that they pitted the main supervillain of the entire Multiversal saga against the most bottom-ranked Avenger, lower than even Hawkeye. This created a palpable sense of danger, where for the first time in the series of Ant-films you don’t feel that any of the characters are safe, by simply having the villain being way out of the heroes’ league by a million fold. There were a few times I thought, “they might actually be doing it.” A major cull to set the path for future Ant-Girl/ Stature/ Stinger Cassie Lang. The stakes in Quantumania certainly felt a lot higher this time round.
I know it should have been obvious just from the title alone, but I didn’t know the movie was set almost entirely in the quantum realm. I don’t watch trailers, so this was a genuine surprise for me, which worked in favour of the film. The other thing I wasn’t expecting wasn’t the identity of the big star cameo of the film, but that they made the person do something a little more sinister than just the usual jokey schtick cameos are expected to do.
Speaking of cameos, there is another one that seems to be getting mixed opinions, but I thought it was really funny, and the one where the aforementioned has a scene with Cassie Lang got the biggest laugh from me.
All an Ant-Man flick needed to do (for me) was to be entertaining. Despite some story directions that didn’t work and some other quality issues, I think it did the job, and there are a few but enough of the good stuff here to at least warrant a watch. Some of you might disagree, but I think Quantumania has a slight edge over most of the Phase 4 films but not as good as No Way Home or Shang-Chi.
My thoughts on the mid and end credit scenes (SPOILERS):
I thought the Kang variants (army?) were quite goofy. The Empire Spoiler Podcast gang joked that it reminded them of the Eddie Murphy’s films where he played multiple characters. The one with a clip from Loki Season 2 was just a very short teaser that featured Loki, Mobius and Kang in a scene, but doesn’t seem like anything of consequence, or even exciting, other than the fact that it’s coming.
Black Panther: Wakanda Forever
It started off promisingly; it looked like we were getting a character exploration on Shuri, that we get to understand her as a character of her own, what makes her tick and what drives her. But then Marvel has to Marvel…
★★★1/2
Before I proceed with my assessment, there are two things that need to be mentioned.
One, with the passing of Chadwick Boseman, the Black Panther 2 team, led by returning director Ryan Coogler, has an unenviable task of continuing the franchise without their star lead. Should they recast, and if not, how are they going to explain the absence of such a popular character as King T’Challa, the Black Panther? For that, I’m truly grateful of the work and effort they have done here, to honour Boseman in a movie that also needed to be popcorn entertainment.
Two, that many of us are still mourning two years after. Boseman’s friends and colleagues were probably already working on the sequel when it happened. They needed an outlet for their grief, and the film needed to reflect that in some ways, and it did. The tone of the film was more sombre and darker than the first. Grieving fans would also be expecting and appreciative of an acknowledgement of his loss in the film. The film was successful on this part.
These two components should be enough to make a great Black Panther sequel, taking into consideration the circumstances, and it has been for many people. I was saddened by what has happened, and I do feel with the rest of you. The movie is a great tribute to the star, and I am glad that everyone is loving it immensely.
So it might be irksome to hear any criticisms about the film. And I do have a few, despite my admiration and appreciation of what they have attempted to do. Apart from the great craftsmanship and work done by the crew behind the camera, the actors have all done exceptionally in front of it. Angela Bassett, Tenoch Huerta, Danai Gurira, Winston Duke, Lupita Nyong’o, Florence Kasumba and many others did amazing work here. It seemed unfair that Letitia Wright had to shoulder the burden of the lead role and all the expectations and responsibilities that come with it. She is a real champ for pushing herself the way she did in this film.
But I wished Marvel would have given the team more time to come up with a tighter and more coherent story, because the end product felt like a patchwork of mismatching tones and intentions. It started off promisingly; it looked like we were getting a character exploration on Shuri, that we get to understand her as a character of her own, what makes her tick and what drives her. But then Marvel has to Marvel, so several new characters needed to be introduced and set up for future use, including comic book favorite Namor, who even got a lengthy flashback while Shuri only had brief wordless cutscenes from earlier films. Then we have Riri Williams here to promote her upcoming Ironheart series, and the return of (or a dropped-in-out-of-nowhere character if you’ve never seen The Falcon and the Winter Soldier Disney+ series) CIA director Valentina Allegra de Fontaine because they needed people to remember who she was when the Thunderbolts movie rolls out. There are some character moments for Shuri during the Talokan scenes, but it wasn’t enough. She has always been a peripheral character in all the films she has appeared in. Wright and Boseman did a great job establishing their relationships, but it was still surface-level stuff. Shuri desperately needed a Wandavision-like backstory, or like a flashback to her childhood with T’Challa to flesh out her relationship with her brother a little more, so that her grief would be a little more understandable, relatable and impactful when it culminated close to the finale. I find it puzzling that her arc was painted in quick and broad strokes, while the fish guy got more time for nuances.
I could be wrong about this. I was wrong about films like The Batman, The Dark Knight, and a few others, where my feelings changed for the better upon second viewing. But as it stands right now, and as much as I appreciate the work of these wonderful people who poured their hearts into this film, the movie still felt bloated and uneven at least to me, and I wished they had tightened the story a little more, and find a more coherent way to inject in all the future project tie-ins, if that is even possible.
But of course, the real burning question on everybody’s mind is:
Is Black Panther: Wakanda Forever better than Thor: Love and Thunder?
Yes.
And thus ends Phase IV of the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
The Batman (2022)
A huge lesson I learned from my theatrical experience of The Batman is not to watch a movie when you’re tired. I came out of the show not too enamoured by the film, even though I did acknowledge that it had many good scenes and performances. Somehow, they didn’t coalesce into a good movie in my fatigued eyes. Many weeks later, I managed to re-watch it on a 4K Blu-Ray, and I finally realized I couldn’t be more wrong.
★★★★★
Mild spoilers
A huge lesson I learned from my theatrical experience of “The Batman” is not to watch a movie when you’re tired. I came out of the show not too enamored by the film, even though I did acknowledge that it had many good scenes and performances. Somehow, they didn’t coalesce into a good movie in my fatigued eyes. Many weeks later, I managed to re-watch it on a 4K Blu-Ray, and I finally realized I couldn’t be more wrong. It went from “meh” to one of my top films of the year!
As a reboot of the Batman film franchise, “The Batman” had to do something to differentiate itself from past reiterations. Roughly there had been four: goofy (West), Burtonesque, campy (Schumacher), and realistic (Nolan). They decided to give what fans have been clamoring for all these years and made this one a detective story. More precisely, a horror-tinged, serial killer detective story. It references Seven a lot; from the glisteningly grimy, rotting aesthetics of its rain-soaked world, to its crime-fighting pairing of an angsty white young man and a cool-headed older black detective with a divine voice. Said older detective even has a scene where he reads a disturbing passage from a serial killer’s journal. There’s even a scene with a head in a box. The pair are in pursuit of a serial killer known only as The Riddler, who leaves cryptic clues in each crime scene that allude to a grander purpose. Yep, it’s practically a remake of Seven!
The cast ranges from interesting to great. Colin Farrell’s Penguin was the biggest worry for me because he had to perform under a lot of latex and fat suit, but he turned out the best, most charismatic performance in the entire movie, and is easily the best onscreen Penguin by far. Zoë Kravitz had the enormous pressure of several preceding iconic Catwoman performances, but she successfully made the role her own. I also liked Jeffrey Wright’s pre-Commish Lieutenant Gordon reacting to everything like a blue-collar cop would. I didn’t think Andy Serkis’ Alfred worked on first viewing, but on subsequent re-watches I finally appreciated his nuanced take, which felt jarring because I got too used to the larger-than-life roles he usually does. And then we have Robert Pattinson. I thought his Batman/Bruce Wayne worked and I kind of liked it. Amusingly, no one seemed to notice that he was still doing his Edward Sullen man-of-few-slow-spoken-words thing. He was almost as pale-looking, and there’s even a moment where he cringes away from sunlight. Batman as an almost literal vampire is actually rather clever, but forgive me if this was already done a hundred times in the comic books. I thought John Turturro’s Carmine Falcone was an unusual casting choice but he was effectively creepy. Peter Sarsgaard was great but he has a pretty small role. Paul Dano as The Riddler was reliably great to a point, but I’ll get back to this later.
Great direction and creative choices from Matt Reeves, who I shouldn’t have doubted after really liking his Cloverfield and the “of the Apes” films. I think he only managed an ok mystery-detective story here, but as serial killer thrillers go, it’s pretty good. His visual sense? Even better! Handling of the actor’s performances? Exquisite. I was shocked at how short his filmography was when I Googled for all of his films. Hope he gets a lot more work moving forward.
My apologies to Michael Giacchino too, whom I once chastised in the comments sections for ripping off Star Wars’ The Imperial March for Batman’s theme (which funnily the IMDb trivia section for The Batman actually acknowledges) but there were other wonderful themes throughout the film too. The wailing violins gave them a pretty obvious horror vibe. They also reminded me of the brilliant Bram Stoker’s Dracula score by Wojciech Kilar. My favorite is definitely Catwoman’s theme, which first appears in the “Don’t be Voyeur With Me” track.
Now, the quibbles. Let’s come back to Dano, who always puts out fine work, until he went a little too Jim Carrey. I know the character has been telegraphed very early on as an unabashed exhibitionist, but what he did in one pivotal scene was borderline comical, and he was supposed to be frightening. Another one: “savior” Batman is a nice idea, because he certainly needed to do more than just beat up criminals, but the Gotham Reeves and his team created was so utterly nihilistic that this optimistic development in Batman’s character felt a little out of place. Lastly, I need to mention that special cameo at the end. Though tastefully done, it still reeked of interference by studio heads too eager to mimic Marvel’s M.O. of planting sequel baits, which wasn’t needed here at all. Why make a superhero movie entirely in your own style, then throw in stuff to remind your audiences about your biggest competitor?
Overall, for one of the most oft-rebooted superhero franchises, I’m glad to say that they managed to pull it off yet again. It’s a visual feast with great performances that I have been enjoyably re-watching with no signs of fatigue yet. For that, I think it’s only right that I give it a 5-star rating, even though it’s not a perfect film. I acknowledge that I was incorrect with my negative assessments in past comments, but one that I’m more than happy to be very wrong about.
Thor: Love & Thunder
To the initiated, Thor: Love and Thunder is the direct response to the enthusiasm over Ragnarok’s revision of the Thor sub-franchise, meaning more Flash Gordon-esque goofy, irreverent humour and Thor behaving like a buffoon while saving the universe.
★★★1/2
Directed by Taika Waititi
Written by Taika Waititi and Jennifer Kaytin Robinson
We are already way past the point by a few movies where making a synopsis for a Marvel film would inevitably spoil any other Marvel film that came before that you haven’t seen. I will only say that this one takes place after Avengers: Endgame (2019, #22 film/show) and not Thor: Ragnarok (2017, #17 film/show). And I don’t think a synopsis like “after the defeat of Thanos, god of thunder Thor goes on adventures with the Guardians of the Galaxy to find new purpose in his life after seceding his throne to Valkyrie, but returns to New Asgard to find a reconstructed Mjolnir in the hands of a new master, ex-girlfriend Jane Foster” is going to be of help to any newcomers. Yes, the MCU has literally become homework.
To the initiated, Thor: Love and Thunder is the direct response to the enthusiasm over Ragnarok’s revision of the Thor sub-franchise, meaning more Flash Gordon-esque goofy, irreverent humour and Thor behaving like a buffoon while saving the universe. I wasn’t a fan of that in Ragnarok; it was enjoyable and refreshing, but I’ve always preferred the space regal drama. So it’s amusing to now see people complaining online about the very thing they enjoyed and wanted more of from Ragnarok and wanting Thor to go back to the Branagh version, which they also once said was boring or going stale. Personally, I still think this is the right direction for Thor since there really isn’t a more compelling direction that they could go with the character that will appeal to mass audiences. The other inevitable move would be to end the run of films and put Thor on the bench with the other reserves like Hulk and Hawkeye.
Love and Thunder is still a fun and funny film. I won’t deny I didn’t have a few LOL moments, especially with a pair of animals and an unexpected (to me) cameo from an actor I’ve always liked. Christian Bale was great as Gor the God Butcher albeit underused, unsurprisingly. There are touching moments, and even cleverness in parts. Nice to see Natalie Portman return to do something more than just ogle at Hemsworth’s pecs.
Some complaints. The plot felt pretty inconsequential, especially when you are made to feel unsympathetic towards the beings who are under threat in this story. Some people complained about the story being a “fetch quest” akin to Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker. Many movies have been fetch quests, and I have no issues with that plot contrivance, except when it feels like an afterthought. There’s a difference between characters being motivated to advance to Point B, and simply being told to go to Point B for no compelling reason other than because the story needs to progress.
That said, I don’t think the sky is falling on the MCU. The Marvel movies have always been entertainment for mass audiences that occasionally elevates above expectations in terms of storytelling and acting performances. Unfortunately, Love and Thunder isn’t one of those occasions, but it is still an expectedly enjoyable outing.
Originally published on my Facebook page, here.