My Review of The Marvels (2023)

 

Written by Nia DaCosta And Megan McDonnell And Elissa Karasik

Directed by Nia DaCosta

Kamala: "Oh my God. We're a team?"

Monica: "Oh, no, no, no. We're not a team."

Carol: "We're not a team."

2023 has seen the MCU take something of a critical battering. No longer have hey a safety net and like the DCEU, they're in a position now where critics are falling over themselves to tear down the very thing they've spent too long propping up.

I bring this up because The Marvels itself really does seem to be on the receiving end more than any Phase 5 project so far. Is this film really that bad? Actually, no, it's not but there are legitimate criticisms that shouldn't be ignored about the movie or the MCU in general moving forward.

If you've already seen WandaVision and Ms. Marvel a lot of this will be easier to follow. If not, it generally brings you up to speed as Carol Danvers aka Captain Marvel (Brie Larson) finds herself teaming up with Monica Rambeau (Teyonah Parris) and Kamala Khan aka Ms. Marvel (Iman Vellani). These three ladies themselves are this movie's biggest strength.

Thanks to a quantum entanglement due to their respective light related powers (that also caused switching places), Carol, Monica and Kamala have a hell of a time getting used to one another at first while banding together as shit goes down. There's some great scenes with Carol and Monica going over past traumas while Kamala's general fangirl moments are nicely timed.

As a team, the three ladies are a delight with natural chemistry between them. Unfortunately for a great team, they're saddled with one of the worst villains the MCU has committed to the big screen to date. Enter, Dar-Benn (Zawe Ashton) and add her to the list of poorly thought out baddies in this franchise.

To be fair, Zawe Ashton does try her best but Dar-Benn is such a thankless role and on paper, she should've been an instant hit. She had a decent motivation in her resentment towards Carol (calling her the Annihilator certainly struck a nerve) and even had the second bangle while wanting Kamala's but she's poorly handled from start to finish that not even her defeat is satisfying to watch.

As for the rest of the movie, Samuel L. Jackson was on better form here than compared to his Disney+ show while Kamala's family are entertaining being thrown into the mix. There's some great scenes involving the Flerken while Monica's outcome definitely set up an interesting plot but will it be enough to save the movie's box office? Likely not tbh.

- Carol had a marriage of convenience with a handsome prince named Yan (Park Seo-joon). His planet gave us a musical sequence and Carol a Disney Princess look.

- King Valkyrie (Tessa Thompson) popped up to help Carol with Skrull refugees after Dar-Benn destroyed their sanctuary.

- Last scene had Kamala recruit Kate Bishop (Hailee Steinfeld) for a new team while also mentioning Cassie Lang (Kathryn Newton).

- Post credit scene saw Monica in a parallel universe where she met a superhero version of Maria (Lashanna Lynch) and Beast (Kelsey Grammer).

- Standout music: I'm obviously picking Beastie Boys Intergalactic because the way it was used was great.

- Chronology: Present day New Jersey as well as the S.A.B.E.R. ship, as well as Hala, Tarnax and Aladna. 

The Marvels isn't quite the disaster area some critics want it to be, in terms of quality but nor was it the slam dunk that it should've been either. At worst, it's an average that coasts on the chemistry of its main team but falters with a very weak villain and script respectively. 

Rating: 7 out of 10 

My Review of Doctor Strange In The Multiverse Of Madness (2022)

 

Written by Michael Waldron

Directed by Sam Raimi

Wanda (to Strange): "You break the rules and become a hero. I do the same and I become the enemy. That doesn't seem fair."

Ah, yes, the double standards of what can and can't be done with the laws of magic. Are both Stephen Strange (Benedict Cumberbatch) and Wanda Maximoff (Elizbeth Olsen) both in the wrong for their meddling of magic? Well, the obvious answer would be yes and this movie definitely explores the consequences of recent magical decisions the pair have made.

For Wanda, she's been in an exile of sorts since the events of Westview but since the finale of her own Disney+ show she also became the Scarlet Witch and found herself in possession of the Darkhold. That possession hasn't done wonders for her sense of judgement either as she had a singular mission in mind for this movie and anyone unfortunate enough to get in her way didn't stand a chance.

To start Wanda does have a sympathetic motivation in the sense that all she wanted to do was to reunite with her sons, Tommy (Jett Klyne) and Billy (Julian Hilliard) but in order to do, not only did Wanda need to travel to the Multiverse for her goal, but she needed to absorb the power of dimension hopping America Chavez (Xochitl Gomez) in order to do so, this putting her in direct conflict with both Strange and the actual, Sorcerer Supreme Wong (Benedict Wong) and the more the latter two oppose Wanda, the less reasonable she became as a result.

Seeing Wanda in full villain mode and make no mistake, she's absolutely the villain of the piece was fascinating to see unfold. Elizabeth Olsen definitely didn't hold back as Wanda resorted to every trick in the Darkhold and a creepy temple in order to achieve her goal and if you didn't know this was a Sam Raimi movie beforehand, you definitely did as soon as Wanda started piling the bodies in a bid to get to America Chavez.

A part of me was surprised with how dark Wanda truly went in the movie because while she rightly pointed Strange's hypocrisy, it certainly took until the last minute and thanks to America to truly see the error of her ways. Will we see Wanda again after the events of this movie? I have no doubt but it's certainly going to take a lot to get her back on the lunchbox after her antics in this one.

As for Stephen himself, it wasn't that long ago he had helped cause havoc with the Multiverse himself and here when he wasn't attending the wedding of ex-girlfriend Christine Palmer (Rachel McAdams), he found himself taking on the tole of protector of America Chavez (someone who hasn't met more than one Strange) and trying to reason with Wanda before trying to track down the antithesis of the Darkhold.

Strange's arrogance was something the movie needed to challenge and it did it here rather nicely. Yes, we had Wanda calling him out on his own hypocrisy as we did with the variants of Christine and Mordo (Chiwetel Ejiofor) but it really the Illuminati scene comprising of variants of Professor X (Patrick Stewart), Reed Richards (John Krasinski), Black Bolt (Anson Mount), Captain Carter (Hayley Atwell) and Captain Marvel (Lashanna Lynch)that truly highlighted the dangers of a Strange unchecked. 

Benedict Cumberbatch definitely brought his A game to this movie and seeing some of the Strange variants was a delight to behold. With Stephen gaining closure over his failed romance with Christine, bringing about the end of Wanda's reign of terror and mentoring America, this movie covered a lot of needed ground with the character. Not to mention the fact that his own dabbling with the Darkhold will clearly have it's own consequences down the line.

- Being a Sam Raimi movie, of course Bruce Campbell made an appearance as a pizza ball vendor who cam afoul of one of Strange's more pettier of spells. It wore off in the post credit scene.

- The mid credit scene introduced Charlize Theron as Clea while reminding audiences that Strange will be getting a third movie.

- America is the only version with no Multiverse equivalent. We also learned that her mothers were lost when she first used her powers by accident.

- Spider-Man was referenced by Strange and Wong but America had no idea who he was. 

-  We did briefly get to see Shuma-Growth, but due to a right issue, the character was renamed Gargantos.

- Chronology: Not long after the events of WandaVision and Spider-Man: No Way Home. 

Doctor Strange In The Multiverse Of Madness might not have been loaded with the maximum amount of cameos that I think we were all guilty of setting ourselves up for,but at the same time, the ones we got actually worked and the focus on both Stephen and Wanda made the movie all the more better to watch. Both Benedict Cumberbatch and Elizabeth Olsen knocked it out of the park here and Sam Raimi gave the MCU a much needed shake up in terms of what can be done with this franchise. I hope this won't be the past time we see his talents here.

Rating: 9 out of 10

Long Live The Scarlet Witch

It's time for another brief look at some of the shows I've been watching over the last while.

Batwoman: Season 2 continues to be rather solid but not spectacular so far with the latest episodes. Here we briefly get to meet Amygdala, learn or basically be drip fed Alice and Ocean's connection to one another as well as Safiyah doing nothing of note in the background and there's also Ryan losing her girlfriend again, suffering from Kryptonite poisoning and getting closer to Luke and Mary while Sophie and Jacob look for a purpose. It's okay stuff but it's largely treading water.

Schitt's Creek: I watched the fourth season over the course of three days and I think it might be my favourite season yet. It's amazing that for a show I was hesitant to watch that I cannot get enough of it and now I'm doing my best to savour the last two seasons because I don't want it to end at all. This season had the brilliance of David and Patrick as a couple, Stevie and Johnny running the motel, Moira helping Jocelyn to give birth, Roland still be an amusing thorn for Johnny and some genuinely affecting character growth for Alexis and Ted. Then to top it all, the finale is now one of the best Christmas episodes I've ever seen in my life. 

The Flash: The first two episodes of the show's seventh season and it's definitely off to an okay start. There's still the need to finish off the Eva/Iris/Mirrorverse plot, along with original Wells return and figuring out what to do with everyone else this season. The Thinker style version of Barry in the second episode was a highlight but other than that, not too much has stood put so far.

WandaVision: The moment has come and it was certainly prepared for. After nine episodes, Wanda embraced her destiny, became the Scarlet Witch, found an appropriate way to punish Agatha Harkness, let go of Vision, her kids and Westview and it was satisfying. As was the continued presence of  Jimmy Woo and Darcy Lewis and Monica getting her own origin story for something else along with the mid and post credit scenes. The only less satisfying bits were Hayward being a one dimensional character and the Quicksilver thing but other than that, this series is easily a Top 5 MCU property for me.

• Michelle Gomez will be a regular in the third season of Doom Patrol, taking on the role of Madame Rouge.
• Grey's Anatomy may be ending with it's seventeenth season.
• Chloe Bennett, Dove Cameron and Yana Perrault will be the live action Powerpuff Girls for the upcoming CW series.
• Aya Cash, Ben Cook and Jake Picking have also signed up for Showtime anthology series, The First Lady along with Viola Davis, Michelle Pfeiffer and Gillian Anderson.
• Special's upcoming second season on Netflix will also be it's final season.
• Annie Murphy has joined the cast of Russian Doll for it's second season.
• Supergirl will return for it's sixth season from March 30th while Superman And Lois goes on a break until May 18th.
• Josh Holloway will reunite with JJ Abrams for the upcoming HBO Max series, Duster.
• Katrina Law has bagged a recurring role on the current season of NCIS.
• America Ferrera will return for the series finale of Superstore.

Oh, Brother, You Don't Look The Same

A bit unusual for me but two TV Jumble blogs this month and here is the second one ...

Batwoman: The show took a two week break before coming back with a nice enough character piece that gave Ryan an old enemy to confront, a young boy's life to save and an ex-girlfriend to reconnect with. The same ex who also seems to be involved with Ocean, that guy that Safiyah wants Alice to kill who also has a romantic past with Alice to boot. On top of that, there's more hints of Black Mask coming, Jacob actually can work with a new Batwoman while Sophie, Mary and Luke all have different ways to deal with Kate's absence.

Bridgerton: I've finally finished the series and needless to say, I will be coming back for seconds. The second half of the season certainly put Simon and Daphne through the gamut while Eloise's hunt for Lady Whistledown surprisingly led to the latter's identity being revealed a lot earlier than expected. There was also the social downfall of the Featheringtons, a near scandal for Colin, Anthony reassessing his priorities and Benedict embarking on his own sexual escapades though sadly not with Henry. Maybe next season.

Chilling Adventures Of Sabrina: I have to admit that while I liked the final season enough for the most part, there's no denying that it felt very rushed for it's own good. The Eldritch Terrors were often easily dispatched off and Sabrina and Nick's own 'happy ending'  was a questionable way to end the series. I did like the return of the original Hilda and Zelda from the 90s series and the show certainly had fun with the two Sabrinas angle but overall, this was hastily ended series.

Schitt's Creek: Finishing up the second half of the third season, I really have come to love this series and these batch of episodes were some of the best yet. The introduction of Noah Reid's Patrick has certainly been a great addition to the series and while I'm surprised they didn't hold off a little before David and Patrick got to share their big kiss, I can see why so many love this couple. Now it's time to move on to the fourth season.

WandaVision: These last two episodes have been quite the adventure for the show. Is Wanda really controlling everything? SWORD think so. Both Norm and Agnes have implied to Vision that she is and anyone who has threatened Wanda's newly created world has paid for it. However it does feel like someone else has been pulling the strings and the return of Pietro with a new face definitely raises more questions too along with Wanda and Vision's rapidly aging kids. Along with the brilliant trio of Monica, Jimmy and Darcy, things really are heating up now.

• Pedro Pascal and Bella Ramsay have been cast in the lead roles for HBO's upcoming adaptation of The Last Of Us.
• JJ Abrams and HBO Max will be doing a reboot of  Constantine with a BIPOC lead. Guy Bolton will be head writer for the series.
• CBS will be ending both Mom and NCIS: New Orleans with their current seasons.
• The CW have passed on the Wonder Girl pilot but will go ahead with Naomi.
• Alan Cumming will make a guest appearance on Prodigal Son.
• The Flight Attendant will air on Sky1 from March 19th.
• Jamie Chung has landed a role on the upcoming revival of Dexter.
• Simone Ashley will play Kate Sharma, who will be the love interest for Anthony in the second season of Bridgerton.
• Brooklyn Nine Nine will also be ending with it's eighth season.
• Angus Macfadyen has been cast as Jor El for Superman And Lois.

To Ruse Is To Confuse

I know, it's been over a month since my last TV Jumble blog but here's some of the shows I have been catching up on in the last few weeks.

Batwoman: Season 2 of this show has gotten off to a surprisingly strong start with managing to seam on Javicia Leslie's Ryan Wilder as the new Batwoman but at the same time not completely abandoning the idea that maybe one day Kate Kane will return to Gotham. The first three episodes not only saw Luke and Mary guide Ryan on her new role but also had both Jacob and Sophie aware of Kate's former identity, resolved the Tommy as Bruce plot very speedily and had Alice coax Safiyah out of hiding while giving us an entertaining version of Victor Zsasz. That's good work for only three episodes so far.

Bridgerton: Shonda Rhimes has spent the last fifteen years giving ABC many a glossy hit and it was only a matter of time before she moved to Netflix and would wind up giving them one of their biggest shows. I'm halfway through the first season of this soapy period drama and while  there are times, it can feel a bit silly, it's massively enjoyable with the ruse between Simon and Daphne causing more problems than solutions, the writings of Lady Whistledown being akin to Gossip Girl but there are some entertaining characters like Benedict, Eloise, Penelope, Lady Danbury and Queen Charlotte to watch here.

Chilling Adventures Of Sabrina: It's the final season and the Eldritch Terrors along with Faustus (who has long since worn out his welcome) are among us. In the first half of this last season, we've seen Sabrina (x2) and the gang come up against terrors such as Uninvited, Weird and Perverse with the Void also getting closer and closer. We've had seen Hilda get married, Caliban try to get rid pf Lilith and Adam, Roz find out she's a witch and Nick declaring end game for himself and Sabrina. Let's see what the remaining four have to offer.

Schitt's Creek: I'm halfway through the third season and I'm loving this show so much at the moment that I don't want it to end. So far I've seen both David and Stevie the gorgeous himbo Jake and was a little sad to see him go. Still, at least David and Stevie got businesses to run, the latter with Johnny, Alexis went back to school, Moira decided not to do another horror movie and Ted became a thirst trap for a few minutes.

WandaVision: Disney+ have had an excellent time with a certain Pedro Pascal show doing impressive numbers for them, so after an 18 month absence, it was time for the MCU to come back swinging with the first of many shoes they have lined up for the next few years. Four episodes in and this series has mixed wonderful sitcom tropes with an underlying darkness to come out as the Multiverse so being set up, Wanda's grief has made a fantasy dream/imminent nightmare for herself and Vision, while SWORD has roped in Monica Rambeau, Darcy Lewis and Jimmy Woo into the mix to fix things. This is definitely one of the best things that the MCU and set the bar for the other shows to come.

• Superman And Lois will premiere on the CW from February 23rd. It will be now 15 episodes instead of 13 as originally planned.
• The CW have already renewed 12 shows including Riverdale, Charmed, Walker, Batwoman, Legends Of Tomorrow as well as The Flash.
• American Horror Story's tenth season has begun filming and Sarah Paulson has teased a different hair colour and cool name for the character she will play this season.
• Marilyn Manson's scenes from American Gods have been removed.
• The Stabler spin off is titled Law And Order: Organised Crime.
• Disney+ now plan to do a series set in Wakanda, expanding the Black Panther side of the MCU.
• Tian Richards will play Tom Swift for the upcoming Nancy Drew spin off on the CW.
• HBO Max will release all of It's A Sin from February 18th. The miniseries has pulled in over 6.5 million for Channel 4 and All4.
• The remaining episodes of The Walking Dead will air February 28th onwards.
• Azie Tesfai will write an episode for the finale season of Supergirl.

SDCC 2019 - Marvel Cinematic Universe: Phase 4 Announcement (Spoilers Included)

They sat out SDCC last year and this year upon their return, Marvel decided to go big with the announcement of five movies and five streaming shows on upcoming service, Disney+

So, here's a look of what we can actually expect in the next two years from the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

Black Widow: Due for release on May 1st 2020, this prequel movie will see Scarlett Johansson reprise her role as Natasha Romanov in a movie that is rumoured to be set during the events of Captain America: Civil War and Avengers: Infinity War. Joining Johansson here will be David Harbour as Alexei Shostakov / Red Guardian, Florence Pugh as Yelena Belova, O. T. Fagbenle as Rick Mason, Rachel Weisz as Melina/Iron Maiden as well as Ray Winstone in an undisclosed role. The main antagonist for this movie will be Taskmaster. Filming for this movie started in May.

Eternals: Due for released on November 6th 2020, this movie will focus on a space battle between the titular group and their enemies, the Deviants. Rounding off the cast for this movie are Angelina Jolie as Thena, Richard Madden as Ikaris, Kumail Nanjiani as Kingo, Lauren Ridloff as Makkari, Brian Tyree Henry as Phastos, Salma Hayek as Ajak, the leader of the Eternals, Lia McHugh as Sprite and Don Lee as Gilgamesh. There's still some more casting for this movie to be confirmed but filming will begin in September in London for this one.

Shang-Chi And The Legend Of The Ten Rings: Due for a February 12th 2021 release, this movie had been fast tracked by Kevin Feige since December 2018 and we now know that the title character will be played by Simu Liu with Tony Leung Chiu-wai portraying the Mandarin and Awkwafina also cast in a role in the film. Filming for this movie will take place in Australia within the next few months.

Doctor Strange In The Multiverse Of Madness: Due for a May 7th 2021 release, Benedict Cumberbatch's surgeon turned magical superhero will be getting a second solo outing and this time he'll be backed up by Elizabeth Olsen's Scarlet Witch as Nightmare has been confirmed as the main antagonist for this movie. This movie will also be tied into Olsen's upcoming Disney+ series, WandaVision, the latter which will stream prior to this movie's release.

Thor: Love And Thunder: Due for a November 5th 2021 release, I think we were all shocked earlier last week to find out that Chris Hemsworth was getting a fourth solo movie and with director Taika Waititi returning following the success of Thor: Ragnorak, this movie will not only see Thor reunite with Tessa Thompson's Valkyrie as the latter looks for a queen but in a major surprise, Natalie Portman will not only reprise her role as Jane Foster but she'll also be playing Lady Thor for good measure too. Between finally confirming Valkyrie's bisexuality and giving us Lady Thor, this movie isn't messing about.

Elsewhere, there was another surprise announcement of Mahershala Ali being confirmed as Blade for an upcoming movie while sequels for Black Panther, Guardians Of The Galaxy and Captain Marvel were confirmed with hints of mutants eventually making it into the main cinematic movies. However the fourth phase will seemingly be about the five above movies I mentioned and five upcoming television series, leading to this bit.

With Disney+ due to debut in the next few months, MCU fans will have a big incentive to watch the five upcoming series they're planning as these series will tie into the main cinematic universe in a fairly big way. First up will be The Falcon And The Winter Soldier with both Anthony Mackie and Sebastian Stan reprising their respective roles with Emily VanCamp and Daniel Brühl set to reprise their roles as Sharon Carter and Baron Helmut Zemo from August 2020. Then it'll be WandaVision, focusing on the relationship with Olsen's Scarlet Witch and Paul Bettany's Vision while Teyonah Parris will appear as an adult version of Monica Rambeau while Loki will see Tom Hiddleston's mischievous trickster in a post Avengers: Endgame timeline. Both those series will debut in early 2021. After that, we've got What If…?, an animated anthology series with Jeffrey Wright voicing the Watcher and several familiar characters appearing in rather different circumstances, with a mid 2021 date being earmarked for it's release. The last series then will be Hawkeye with Jeremy Renner reprising the title role but also handing it over to Kate Bishop. This show will debut in late 2021.

Meanwhile it's also been confirmed that Marvel's Agents Of SHIELD will end after seven seasons. The show currently into it's sixth season, airing on both ABC and E4 respectively will be the most successful of Marvel live action show in spite of it often being ignored by the MCU itself (although Clark Gregg did recently play Agent Coulson in Captain Marvel). I stopped watching the show a few seasons back but it's incredible that the show lasted as long as it did. I also think that following it's imminent demise, the only Marvel shows we'll be getting for the foreseeable future will be on Disney+

So that's the next two years for the MCU sorted then. What were the most exciting announcements for you? Which movie or streaming shows are you most eager to see? Was there something you wish had been announced but wasn't?