Avengers: Doomsday Trailer And Other MCU Bits

Every once in a while I do cover Marvel related stuff on this blog and over the last few weeks, there's been one thing in particular that's been looming. Of course I'm talking about Avengers: Doomsday. 

In the last few weeks, the Russos have been teasing about their choice in charactera being spotlighted in a series of trailers. The characters have included some of the X-Men, the Fantastic Four, Steve Rogers (Chris Evans), Thor (Chris Hemsworth) and Black Panther (Letitia Wright). For a movie that's not due out for another eleven months, it's pretty early.

The trailers themselves have been decent enough. Not revealing anything too major but raising enough curiosity as to why these characters are drawn into whatever chaos that will be caused by Doctor Doom (Robert Downey Jr.). When the first proper trailer gets released in a few months, it'll undoubtedly break the internet.

However there's still eleven months to go and closer to time we've got a few things on Disney+ to watch first. There's the imminent arrival of Wonder Man, with Yahya Abdul-Mateen II in the title role. All eight episodes of that will drop from January 27th. Also on Disney+ through the year will be the second seasons of both Daredevil: Born Again and X-Men '97, a special presentation for The Punisher and the upcoming Vision Quest. Oh and on July 31st in theatres there's also Spider-Man: Brand New Day. Overall, a pretty solid year for Marvel fans.

Avengers: Doomsday will be in theatres from December 18th 2026.

My Review of Deadpool & Wolverine (2024)

 

Written by Ryan Reynolds And Rhett Reese And Paul Wernick And Zeb Wells And Shawn Levy

Directed by Shawn Levy

Deadpool: "This is what I'm talking about: big slow-motion action sequence, who knows if you live or die? Let's fucking go!"

Wolverine: "Let's fucking go."

The most anticipated movie of 2024 and after getting myself reacquainted with the first two movies, I was hyped to see this one. Really hyped and it was a meeting that I didn't know I needed but one I was glad to see play out. Of course I'm talking about Deadpool (Ryan Reynolds) and Wolverine (Hugh Jackman) finally meeting up.

Of course, it doesn't happen straight away in the movie. First, there was our katana wielding mercenary for hire killing off a bunch of TVA agents while actively looking for Wolverine and boy, didn't Deadpool seriously want to hook up with the cantankerous Canadian. There's even a scene where a bartender would ask if the two were going to fight or fuck. Spoiler alert: they don't but don't let that put you off.

By the time Deadpool finds the right/worst Wolverine in the Multiverse for a mission needed to save his world from dying, the rather toffee nosed Mr Paradox (Matthew Macfayden) decided to send the pair into the void. Let's just say he had a world controlling scheme he didn't want the pair to interfere with.

The void, shamelessly ripping off Mad Max and being gleeful in refetencing that did introduce main villain Cassandra Nova (Emma Corrin). She's Professor X's twin, enjoys toying with whatever the TVA dump into the Void when she's not feeding Alioth and like the rest of us, she does have a limit to the amount of chatter from Deadpool. 

The best thing about the Void would be the fact that it's primarily a Multiverse dumping ground. You might get Chris Evans briefly reprising his role as Johnny Storm but other cameos are better served. Even Aaron Stanford's Pyro had some decent screen time, in spite of being a resentful subordinate to Nova. Betraying her though didn't end well for him.

The best cameos of course are the ones with Laura/X23 (Dafne Keen), Elektra (Jennifer Garner), Blade (Wesley Snipes) and Gambit (Channing Tatum). I enjoyed all four characters having to work with Deadpool and Wolverine and Laura especially got one hell of an emotional scene with Logan that paid off later in the movie.

Of course when we weren't going through multiple versions of Wolverine, there was multiple versions of Deadpool to contend with. They're all entertaining but Mary Puppins/Dogpool was my favourite of the bunch and I would've been happy had we gotten more screen time with her. She was also the only version that every Deadpool (and Wolverine) seemed to like. Best new MCU character? Definitely yes.

As for Deadpool and Wolverine, the chemistry between both Ryan Reynolds and Hugh Jackman was off the fucking charts. Every moment, regardless of context worked beautifully and while the villains and resolution to main threat were a bit slap dash, I think most will let that slide and just embrace the sheer insanity of these two characters working together.

- The credit scenes really did seem like a solid goodbye to the FOX Marvel Universe. There was a lot of jokes at FOX's expense.

- Cameos from Blake Lively and Nathan Fillion as Lady Deadpool and Deadpool worked fine. I even liked Henry Cavill's brief scene as a Wolverine variant to boot.

- Other appearances included Happy Hogan (Jon Favreux), Sabertooth (Tyler Mane), Hunter B-15 (Wunmi Mosaku), as well as stand ins for Psylocke, Lady Deathstrike, Callisto, Azazael, Toad and Bullseye.

- Between movies, Wade and Vanessa (Morena Baccarin) broke up but seemed to be getting back together again. 

- Standout music: N-Sync's Bye Bye Bye, Eric Carmen's Make Me Lose Control and of course, Madonna's Like A Prayer.

- Chronology: Six years since the events of Deadpool 2. It's also Earth-10005.

Deadpool & Wolverine undoubtedly will be the most fun you'll have with a movie this year. I'm not saying it's the best movie or even best MCU movie but it's the most fun you'll have with a movie for this year. Ryan Reynolds and Hugh Jackman more than delivered with this one.

Rating: 9 out of 10 

My Review of Deadpool 2 (2018)

 

Written by Reese Rhett And Paul Wernick And Ryan Reynolds 

Directed by David Leitch

Cable: "I use a device to slide through time. The longer I travel, the harder it is to control. I got two charges: one to get me here, one to get me home."

Deadpool: "Well... that's just lazy writing."

Hot off the success of the first movie, Ryan Reynolds was definitely eager to prove that he wasn't a flash in the pan with the superhero lark. Would this movie prove him, right? Yeah, it did. 

Of course, it's a movie that also decided to do one of the most loathed comic book tropes as well. Yup, poor Vanessa (Morena Baccarin) got fridged. Actually she got shot and killed early into the movie and her death put Deadpool (Ryan Reynolds) into something of a funk.

Trying to get him out the funk was Colossus (Stefan Kapičić) along with Negasonic Teenage Warhead (Briana Hildebrand) and the latter's girlfriend Yukio (Shioli Kutsuna). They thought involving him in a mission to contain teenage mutant Firefist (Julian Dennison) would be a good idea. Instead it went awry and both Deadpool and Firefist ended up in prison. 

It was in prison that Deadpool and Firefist could've bonded but between time travelling killer Cable (Josh Brolin) trying to murder Firefist and Deadpool being a dick to the struggling teenager, the kid ended up being a bigger threat than Wade expected. So !uch of a threat that a team needed to be assembled.

The team in question comprised of characters like Domino (Zazie Beetz), Bedlam (Terry Crews), Shatterstar (Lewis Tan), Vanisher (Brad Pitt), Zeitgeist (Bill Skarsgard) and Peter Wisdom (Rob Delaney). They made up a variation of X Force but they're mostly there to be killed off. Except for Doino, who really did have luck on her side and was essentially the female lead of the group. 

Of course the movie also had Deadpool and Cable eventually working together with Domino, Colossus, Negasonic Teenage Warhead, Yukio and Dopinder (Karan Soni) to try and prevent Firefist from getting revenge on his evil Headmaster (Eddie Marsan), along with Juggernaut (Reynolds). It's another bloody battle but one with a positive outcome in regards to the overall outcome with Firefist. Two movies in and maybe, Wade Wilson has it in him to be a superhero after all.

- Thanks to time travel, Vanessa's death was ultimately reversed with other characters like Shatterstar and Peter being spared too.

- The credit sequences had Deadpool killing off his previous movie incarnation to a bemused Wolverine (Hugh Jackman), preventing Ryan Reynolds from doing Green Lantern and visiting baby Hitler.

- Dopinder's developed quite a bloodlust between movies. He even got an impressive kill towards the end of this one. It was nice to see Weasel (T.J. Miller) and Blind Al (Leslie Uggams) again. 

- Yup, there was some brief cameos from Professor X (James McAvoy), Beast (Nicholas Hoult), Cyclops (Tye Sheridan), Storm (Alexandra Shipp), Quicksilver (Evan Peters) and Nightcrawler (Kofi Smit-McPhee) in this movie.

- Standout music Celine Dion's Ashes, Pat Benatar's We Belong and AC/DC's Thunderstruck.

- Chronology: It's been two years since the events of the first movie.

Deadpool 2 does feel like Reynolds took everything people loved about the first movie, upped the ante a tad and made sure not to change too much as a sequel. It's as good as the first movie with a great slew of new characters to play around with. It also moved things along a little on the LGBT front with some allusion to Deadpool's pansexuality along with the Negasonic/Yukio romance.

Rating: 8 out of 10 

My Review of Deadpool (2016)

 

Written by Rhett Reese And Paul Wernick

Directed by Tim Miller

Deadpool: "I didn't ask to be super, and I'm no hero. But when you find out your worst enemy is after your best girl, the time has come to be a fucking superhero."

Ah yes, the most irreverent of characters from Marvel. The guy who would likely fuck you as well as kill you but before assaulting your eardrums with a barrage of puns. Yup, it's that guy. Wade Wilson (Ryan Reynolds), otherwise known as Deadpool and this was his origin story.

It's a story being told out of order. In the present day, Deadpool was out for revenge against the man responsible for his healing/mutated face/powers aka Ajax (Ed Skrein). He's also known as Francis Freeman and he's very much the British villain of the piece, backed up by Angel Dust (Gina Carano), who doesn't say much but can pack a punch.

Deadpool's grievance also included the fact that Francis only went and kidnapped Wilson's estranged girlfriend, Vanessa Carlysle (Morena Baccarin). In the comics, Vanessa's a mutant named Copycat. Here she's mostly the wise cracking love interest/escort with Baccarin making the most out of the role.

On a serious note, the actual love story between Wade and Vanessa was actually done really well. There's a playful chemistry between Ryan Reynolds and Morena Baccarin that made it easy to root for Wade and Vanessa to make it as a couple. Of course Wade did let her down by bailing but after the events of this movie, they did get back together.

Going back to the villain of the piece. Ajax was trying to make his own mutants to use for his own nefarious reasons. He's immune to pain and like Angel Dust, he's not too easy to kill off. Saying that though, he still doesn't make it out of the movie alive, so there's that.

As for the rest of the supporting cast, it's a strong bunch of characters. For the human connection you have Wade's best friend/batender Weasel (T.J. Miller), cab driver Dopinder (Karan Soni) and Blind Al (Leslie Uggams). I enjoyed those characters but Deadpool's team up with Colossus (Stefan Kapičić) and Negasonic Teenage Warhead (Brianna Hildebrand) was the best rapport he had in the movie. Yes, the X-Men jokes were heavy handed but highly enjoyable.

- The post credit sequence laid it on thick about Cable being the main draw for the sequel.

- Ryan Reynolds previously played a mouth sewn Wade Wilson in X-Men Origins: Wolverine. Ajax threatened to sew Wade's mouth shut before having him gagged during a certain scene. 

- The opening credits had fun with the placeholder names and giving the plot away.

- Stan Lee and Rob Liefield both had cameo appearances in this movie, along with Nathan Fillion. The latter's scene was cut from the theatrical release.

- Standout music: Juice Newton's Angel In The Morning, Salt-N-Pepa's Shoop and George Michael's Careless Whisper.

- Chronology: There's definitely a fair chunk of time going over the events of the movie and the lead into the present confrontation between Deadpool and Ajax.

Deadpool's a movie that while it lays it thick with the jokes, visual gags, general gore and potty mouth antics, it does have a lot going im it's favour. The breezy storytelling certainly made sure the movie didn't outstay it's welcome and after failing with Hal Jordan, at least Ryan Reynolds can say he made Wade Wilson into his own.

Rating: 8 out of 10 

X-Men '97 - Episodes 6-10 Reviews

The second half of this season certainly upped the ante with the introduction of another major villain, a return of powers and a three part finale.

Episode 6: Lifedeath - Part 2

Remember how the fourth episode was basically two episodes stories smashed into one? Well, there's a continuation of that. Yet again, the Storm story proved to be the best of the bunch as she tooknn Adversary once again and managed to not only defeat Adversary but also regained her powers in a scene that lifted from Man Of Steel. The second story revealed that Professor X was living off world with Lilandra Neramani, only for the latter's sister to disapprove of their impending nuptials. Structurally, it's much better than the previous part with a bit of a follow up on the attack on Genosha. 7/10

Episode 7: Bright Eyes

Now this was a hell of a prelude to the finale. We had Gambit's funeral and Rogue going to extreme measures in her quest for answers by hunting down both Gyrich and Trask. Let's just say that Rogue really let her dark side out while Cable also returned to warn the X-Men about Mister Sinister's next plan. There's also a subplot involving Sunspot coming out as a Mutant to his mother along with the reveal of another Sentinel programme. The biggest reveal though wasn't Magneto being alive but more that he was being held prisoner by Bastion (Theo James) during the very last scene in this one. 8/10

Episode 8: Tolerance Is Extinction - Part 1

Ending this season with a three part finale was certainly a wise choice on Beau DeMayo's part. This first segment alone certainly kicked things off chaotically with Cyclops, Jean and Cable travelling back in time to uncover Bastion's backstory just as the latter used Sentinels to blow up the school and attack mutants. Magneto getting free however created even more problems as he resorted to his own methods to stop the Sentinels. With Wolverine voicing the obvious concerns of war, Xavier also returned to Earth. 8/10

Episode 9: Tolerance Is Extinction - Part 2 

The middle segment and things certainly intensified here. Throwing in some fan pleasing cameos from other Marvel characters to one side, the highlight in this part was the battle of wits between Xavier and Magneto with the latter making it clear he had tired of Xavier's nonsense. This episode also had the groups splitting into Magneto's team with Rogue and Sunspot and then everyone else. We also had Beast and Forge working together to create a disadvantage for Bastion and the Sentinels. 8/10

Episode 10: Tolerance Is Extinction - Part 3

The final part and what a way to end this season. A reunited X-Men team, new costumes, differences put aside and the defeats of both Mr Sinister and Bastion along with a restored to power Earth. It was a hell of a time during this three part finale but there were so many satisfying moments that played throughout this event, including a surprise resolution to the series finale of Spider-Man: The Animated Series. However the cliffhanger involved our main characters being scattered in different time periods and the predicted return of a certain character that was killed earlier this season. Let's just say the second season can't come soon enough. 9/10

Season 2 of X-Men '97 will premiere on Disney+, likely in early 2025.

X-Men '97 - Episodes 1-5 Reviews

I had been waiting for the whole first season to wrap up on Disney+ to do this and then I had other things to review. However, here's the first of two blogs that I am writing about this sequel series to the popular animated series from the 1990s.

Episode 1: To Me, My X-Men

Essentially this picked up from where the series finale of X-Men: The Animated Series left off. Charles Xavier is dead and it's Cyclops who has taken over the team. Oh and him and Jean Grey are expecting a child, Morph has settled back into being Wolverine's best friend and there's the introduction of Sunspot. On top of that, there's the return of Bolivar Trask and the Sentinels as well as the Master Mold supercomputer. Add in some horrible visions for Jean and Magneto stepping out of the woodwork to confirm he's taking over the school and you've got a great opening episode. 8/10

Episode 2: Mutant Liberation Begins

Magneto taking centre stage in this second episode only felt right after the way the first one ended. Not surprisingly, most of the X-Men aren't exactly keen on having him around as their leader and it's extra complicated for Rogue with hints of a romantic past between. Magneto's return also delayed Cyclops and Jean from leaving the team but not the birth of their son, Nathan. There was also the subplot of Magneto's trial at the UN Headquarters while Storm bore the brunt of the X-Cutioner and lost her powers. The episode did largely telegraph Storm's fate but it still came as a shock. 8/10

Episode 3: Fire Made Flesh 

Something of a spookier episode, I really loved that this one skewered fully into it's horror setting. We did the Dark Phoenix plot with Jean Grey that the next step was of course the Madelyne Pryor/Goblin Queen and at the behest of the returned Mister Sinister, its executed rather well. You've got a complicated triangle of sorts between Jean, Scott and Madelyne as well as Bishop being tasked with sending Nathan into the future in order to save. I also liked that the episode didn't pull away from Storm either. She might have left the team and gone back to her home but the arrival of Forge certainly helped with this subplot. 8/10

Episode 4: Motendo/Lifedeath - Part 1 

After three incredibly strong episodes, the season hit a bum note with this one. I didn't mind the focus on Jubilee and Sunspot but I just didn't care enough for the return of Mojo and the video game plot that nearly killed both Jubilee and Sunspot. Still though, their relationship did pick up, so it wasn't too much of a time waster. Better handled was Storm and Forge working together and the arrival of Adversary at the end. I genuinely thought that plot should've had the most focus on this one. It certainly would've improved the episode. 6/10

Episode 5: Remember It

Well, this might be one of the best episodes from any television show ever. Certainly one of the best episodes of a show airing in 2024. Gambit hadn't too much to do this season and while he wasn't a fan of Rogue and Magneto's growing connection, he certainly got one hell of a heroic sacrifice. The attack on Genosha, following the former being accepted by the UN was devastating. Rogue's pain over losing both Gambit and Magneto was heartbreaking. Then there was the Wolverine/Jean/Cyclops/Madelyne quadrangle, the return of Cable along with revealing the character's real identity (it's Nathan) and this episode didn't let up for a moment. 10/10

The next blog will cover Lifedeath - Part 2, Bright Eyes and Tolerance Is Extinction Parts 1-3.