I mean, everyone knew Robert Redford, and Robert Redford movies. I mean, everyone. Even me. I am so not-into the Hollywood motion picture thing, as a whole, that usually the number of Oscar Best Picture nominations I’ve seen can be counted on the thumbs of one foot.
And even I’ve heard of Robert Redford.
In fact, the crazy thing about Robert Redford, for me, is that every time I’ve turned around since his passing was announced, I’ve been reminded of yet another film — oh, yeah, that had Robert Redford in it, too!
An amazing CV, that man.
Robert Redford: 20 Essential Movies
Robert Redford’s best roles, from ‘The Candidate’ to ‘Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid,’ ‘All the President’s Men,’ ‘The Way We Were,’ and more.
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www.rollingstone.com
The Rolling Stone article linked there tosses in 20 significant / “essential” movies from his corpus, and, no surprise, I’ve seen a few (**), I’ve heard of more (*), and I’ve never heard of a surprising number.
The Chase (1966) Barefoot in the Park (1968)* Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969)** Downhill Racer (1969) The Candidate (1972)* The Hot Rock (1972) Jeremiah Johnson (1972)* The Sting (1973)** The Way We Were (1973)* The Great Gatsby (1974)** Three Days of the Condor (1975)* All the President’s Men (1976)** The Electric Horseman (1979)** The Natural (1984)* Out of Africa (1985)** Legal Eagles (1986)* Indecent Proposal (1993)* The Horse Whisperer (1998* All Is Lost (2013) The Old Man and the Gun (2018)
One of those, The Sting, is on my Ten Movies on a Desert Island (with Electricity and a Blu-Ray Player) list. It was near the end of Redford’s “boyish” phase — his Johnny Hookier is still getting by on that big smile and fake golly, ma’am charm — but he plays an integral role in the amazing ensemble cast.
It’s the opposite story with Butch Cassidy — the film itself feels too iconoclastically 60s/70s, defying or poking fun at all the cowboy film tropes a bit too hard. It succeeds because Redford and Newman (and Ross) are such charming characters.
It’s worth noting that Out of Africa was the first movie I ever bought on video-tape (VHS, for the record), back in the days before I realized I shouldn’t buy sweeping, moving dramas, no matter how sweeping and moving they were, because I was unlikely ever to rewatch them.
Handsome. Charming. Boyish. Tousled. Magnetic. Casual. Impish. Gravitas. All those words keep getting tossed around about Redford, and the fact is, they can all be legitimately tagged on him. Remarkable.
I could comment more on a number of others form that RS list, but I’d like to put in my own word on a couple of Redford appearances that I know him from. And, yes, they lean on the geeky side:
The Twilight Zone, 03×13 “Nothing in the Dark” (1962) — And, yes, this is TV, not movies, but it still tracks. Redford plays a minor but essential role here as a beat cop whose shooting and mortal injuries are the only thing that can stir an agoraphobic old lady (oldies film star Gladys Cooper), who’s terrified that her apartment building home is being torn down, to reach out of her shell and reclaim her humanity. It’s a George Clayton Johnson TZ, so plenty of maudlin feel-good in there, but it’s also deeply moving, and Redford plays his part to a tee.
He also looks so damned young, which is part of the point.
Captain America: The Winter Soldier (2014) — Dismissed as a “cameo” by Rolling Stone, Redford’s Alexander Pierce calls on all his charm and gravitas to play the charismatic “World Council” coordinator and (spoilers) covert Hydra agent who’s spearheading the paranoid plot that Cap et al. have to thwart.
I mean, it’s not Citizen Kane, but in Redford’s hands the role and heel turn is far more central and interesting than it would have been in a more generic actor’s hands.
Sneakers (1992) — Another desert island list nominee, Sneakers is a dramedy caper flick, starring a Robert Redford who’s supposed to be looking his age playing Martin Bishop, head of a ragtag private security firm that’s hired to do “sneaks” into corporations to test their physical and (ooh!) computer security. Redford gets to work his light comedy chops here, while also taking on the serious part of a man realizing he’s frittered much of his life away, never having gotten past (emotionally or legally) his college prankster past, which is now seriously catching up with him. It’s a great ensemble cast again, with Redford at the heart of it, and I’ve watched it more times than I can count.
Anyway, that was a lot more time than I thought I’d spend thinking about Redford’s passing
Thank you, sir, for many hours, past and future, of entertainment. You were a star.
This has been an amazing month for super-hero movies
(NO SPOILERS)
4.2 Acting 5.0 Production 4.5 Story 4.5 OVERALL with a ♥
Fantastic Four: First Steps is just about everything I could have hoped for from an FF movie. I am an admitted soft touch for super-hero flicks, but this is one of the first such films in a long time (if we exclude the equally-but-differently excellent “Superman”) where my arguments don’t have a lot of, “Yeah, that part was weak, but it was more than made up for by this part that I thought was spiffy.”
Story
Gotta start here first, because this movie excels in setting up the retro-future 60s comic book world of Earth 826 (which number has special meaning), and then keeps the plot running strong, fast, and in a reasonable (within comic book logic) direction.
The setup is almost too much — too much fun and love with a world where the Jetsons was just a preview and the FF have been the world’s only super-heroes (and diplomats, and genius scientists, and space-faring celebrities, etc.) for four years. I wouldn’t cut out a minute of that, but it felt just on the edge of over-indulgent.
But it’s all (mostly) for setting up how things are going to work, what the logical premises of this world are.
When a run time for FF:FS was announced, it was one of the longest Marvel movies to date, but when the final run time was given, it turned out to be one of the shortest (at 1:55). I will be curious to learn what got cut to make it that, but, as someone who almost always wants more, I felt like this movie was just the right length. Bravo that.
It’s also worth noting that, save for an end-credits scene (there’s only one, mid-credits), this movie is completely separate from the MCU. And that works, too, especially knowing that, sooner or later, there will be a significant cross-over.
That brings up a a side question of tone. My family pointed out their major critique of the MCU for some years has been too much throwing around of one action scene after another, many of them doing less to advance the plot than to satisfy some suit’s need for MOAR ACTION. FF:FS has action scenes, sure, but it also has a lot of talky scenes, and emotional scenes, and fun scenes, and more talky scenes. The movie, ultimately is less about the action, or even the BBEG threat, but about this family and the things they do together (which do include action against the BBEG, but aren’t limited to that).
It will be interesting to see how those somewhat opposing creative currents ultimately mix.
Acting
Being a movie about people and relationships, the quality of the actors (and the writing and directing done for them) becomes more important. And, frankly, the acting here is a good tick above competent, and the writing and direction support that. This could have easily turned into “The Reed & Sue Show,” or gotten side-tracked on one character’s problems, but everyone gets multiple moments to shine (and do so).
Vanessa Kirby plays a passionate and powerful Sue Storm. Pedro Pascal’s Reed Richards is intellectually brilliant and emotionally troubled. Joseph Quinn gives us a irrepressible (but not annoyingly so) Johnny Storm. And Ebon Moss-Bachrach, even working through a CG character on-screen, plays a compassionate and sympathetic Ben Grimm.
And I use the characters’ names deliberately here, as the movie rarely refers to any of the Four by their “super-hero” names (only Reed’s “Mr. Fantastic” gets a prominent call-out). That further helps ground the movie, making it about people, not about masked monikers.
It’s also worth a note, both story and acting-wise, that while everything isn’t sweetness and light and familial love for the entire film, the movie never takes a serious dip into what could be very dark aspects for all these creatures. There’s plenty of emotion, but little trauma / body-horror / emotional fracturing plot elements that have popped up in the FF comics over the decades, and that’s quite appropriate for this film. This is a film about light in the face of darkness, not the darkness itself.
Most of the other actors involved have substantially more bit parts, with the exception of Julia Garner’s Shalla-Bal who, between run time and silvery CGI, still can’t give us more than the bare bones of her character. But everyone (including some lovely cameos) does a fine job supporting our core cast. As they should.
Production
In terms of setting, the movie is beautiful, and evocative of Kirbyesque mid-60s weirdness, googie architecture gone wild, and a world that (super-villains aside) it would be a blast to live in. All this is rendered lovingly, with a ton of practical effects blurring seamlessly with the CG. The movie just looks gorgeous.
A critical part of that texture is music, and Michael Giacchino gives us, to nobody’s surprise, an amazing soundtrack, combining the period feel with action with just, well, a fantastic vibe. Delightful.
For the specific special effects, they are very, very nice. Reed realistically stretches (and uses that stretching). Sue’s invisibility and force fields are nicely done. Johnny’s flame-on effect looks really good. And Ben himself looks and acts and moves quite well and believably. Galactus himself looks and moves just right. And the Silver Surfer’s silver surfing is exquisite.
Surely there was something you didn’t like, Dave!
If I have to pick nits, I think the Silver Surfer story line needed at least one more scene. Galactus is a bit too much of a dick. And, no, Ben, the beard looks stupid.
Net-Net
Having Superman and Fantastic Four: First Steps come out within weeks of each other is an embarrassment of riches. Both feel fresh, hopeful, and encouraging for both their universes and for us comic book movie fans.
There’s a lot the two films have in common — trying to start off already-known characters as unencumbered by the past as possible being number one, and the decision to start in media res of their careers rather than obsess on origin stories is number two. Maybe number three would be dealing with the fickleness of adoring fans (and, to go with them, vicious critics) is. And feebleminded accusations of “wokeness” are, sadly but inevitably number four.
But there are differences, too. Superman focuses on just one guy (with personal relationships, to be sure) trying to make it through; FF:FS focuses on family and how they stand together to make it through. Superman‘s tale is more grounded on Earth, so to speak, despite its protagonist’s extraterrestrial origin; its villain is a narcissistic and xenophobic billionaire genius whose designs on power aren’t laudable, but are pretty likely to leave most of Earth’s population alive and possibly even (if he can focus on doing positive things) better off. The FF are instead dealing with a truly cosmic threat, even when that threat touches ground in New York City, and the stakes for them are huge, personally and planetarially.
Regardless, both are solid entertainment. I recommend both films whole-heartedly. Hopefully both are signs of good things to come.
A good set of trailers is like a great hors d’oeuvre!
I write down the trailers we saw so you don’t have to!
Well, it would be kind of weird if you wrote down the movie trailers we saw. Just saying.
Project Hail Mary — Ryan Gosling vehicle from the novel by Andy Weir (The Martian). Looks like it has much the same techie gravitas that The Martian had, but with a bit more Ryan Gosling humor and a bit more weirdness. That said, after the trailer, I feel like we’ve seen much of the film. I might watch this on streaming. Or an international airplane ride.
The Naked Gun — I knew Frank Drebbin. I grew up reciting lines from Frank Drebbin. You, Liam Neeson, are no Frank Drebbin. Okay, I guess you’re supposed to be Frank Drebbin, Jr., which makes me feel very old. Anyway, I’m not sure if it’s fondness for the old, or the attempt to update the zany Police Squad humor for a new generation, but the trailer just didn’t click for me. The lack of Abrahams/Zuckers involvement may not have helped.
The Bad Guys 2— Huh. Does this mean I have to watch The Bad Guys 1? Actually, I’m a sucker for a caper film, so this might go on the “international flight” list.
Fantastic Four: First Steps — Well, I already knew I was going to this one (tickets pre-bought). I’m a little worried that they are showing too much in the current trailer (plot-wise and punchline-wise), a classic complaint about movie ads these days. But I’m still liking what I see. Except maybe for Ben’s beard (!?!).
Caught Stealing — Um … this one didn’t strike me as particularly appropriate for the crowd at Superman, which involved a lot of adults, but also quote a few kids. I mean, it’s being tagged as a “dark comedy” but also a “psychological thriller” and, based on the trailer, a pretty violent example of both. Not my cuppa, but also not what I’d want my 10-year-old watching.
Time for an interlude. How about a commercial … advertising for … the Navy SEALs? Apparently they’re recruiting.
One Battle After Another — Another one that seemed a bit dark for the Superman audience. Another “dark comedy.”
Wicked 2— Or Wicked: Step Into the Light or Wicked 2: Flying Monkey Boogaloo, or something else inspiring. Looks big and glossy and colorful and even somewhat interesting, and all I could think was, “Jeez, I better watch the first one some time soon.” Will likely be streamed.
Odyssey — Given that I’ve a long love of Greek myths and Homer, and my son was a classics major, that we are going to see this is very much a no-brainer. I can’t see we saw anything spectacular in the trailer, but it certainly has a really cool vibe.
(The trailer we saw is not yet on YouTube.)
Cat in the Hat — I had no idea this was coming out, so … mission accomplished, I guess. I don’t think I’m likely to see it (I’m pretty Old School 2-D when it comes to my Cat), but it doesn’t affect me like fingernails on the chalkboard as the Mike Myers thing did just a few years decades ago.
So a few hits in there, a few things I’m looking forward to in some form. Which is kind of nice.
The latest MCU film hits the notes that past MCU successes have.
3.5 Acting 4.0 Production 4.0 Story 4.0 OVERALL with a ♥
There’s a lot going on in this poster, including some hints about the movie itself.
It’s no secret that the MCU has had some problems the past few years, starting with the slump after Avengers: Endgame and exacerbated by the COVID crisis. I mean, I’ve liked the movies and TV shows that have come out in that period — but I’m a pretty low bar (and I’m also used to comic book universes where everything is not perfect but you stick with titles anyway because you like the characters). I enjoyed (while granting some weaknesses to) Black Widow and The Marvels and Captain America: Brave New World. On TV, I enjoyed Falcon and the Winter Soldier. I even found things of interest in the Secret Wars TV series (though overall I thought it failed in its ambition).
Part of the problem has been finding ways to tell interlaced stories that don’t rely on having seen everything produced to date. Part of it has been trying to capture the magic of the Avengers sequence. Part of it has been writing that was at times less than sterling. And part of it, frankly, is that there is a contingent of very loud people who want Marvel/Disney to fail, for a variety of reasons.
So, all that said, I really enjoyed Thunderbolts*. My wife, who is nothing near the fanboy I am (and puts up with so much) really liked it, too.
The movie publicity really enjoyed leaning into that asterisk.
On one level, this movie is a sequel to Black Widow and Falcon and the Winter Soldier (and maybe a bit of Captain America: Brave New World, at least in reference). That said, I think folks could enjoy this movie without having seen or extensively studied those predecessors: one of the neat tricks the movie does is balance the tightropeof backstory exposition. We learn a lot about the characters during the film, but in ways that feel organic and unforced — no “As you know, Bob, the Winter Soldier was created by Hydra in 1946 …” infodumping.
Being clearly part of the MCU without feeling like you have to have memorized the MCU is critical for a long-running franchise of films; as one character notes, they were in high school when the Battle of New York (the first Avengers film) happened, and given that film came out in 2012, there are a lot of people who similarly struggle with remembering continuity. Thunderbolts* nails it with this one.
The movie also nails the mix between humor and seriousness. One of the touchstones of the early MCU, which carried on for some time, was using humor to dissipate too much seriousness and angst, but also keeping the dramatic stakes high to keep things from devolving into super-hero slapstick. Thunderbolts* manages to do this better than any recent MCU production, never taking itself so seriously as to be an object of derision itself, but always reminding us of the human costs and consequences of the world in which they live.
More leaning into the asterisk.
The acting overall works. The demands here are not great: this isn’t Eliot or Shaw or Woolf writing this stuff. But all our heroes are able to switch between (or combine) being serious and amusingly goofy in a way that feels comfortable and approachable. A lot of what Thunderbolts* is about is heroes dealing with less-than-heroic and less-than-successful pasts, and what guilt and trauma and and failure lack of agency and stress can do to a person. The actors we have here, particularly the PoV character, Florence Pugh as Yelena Belova (the White Widow), handle this well, neither making things too grimdark, nor trivializing important issues.
Outside of the core team, the supporting cast, particularly Julia Louis-Drefuss as Valentina Allegra de Fontaine, are solid. So is Lewis Pullman as “Bob,” in all his incarnations. I don’t expect any Best Actor nominations here, but everything is competent.
Without going into details, the story overall works pretty well, doing from solo mission to building the team to struggling against the odds to struggling against impossible odds. And while this is a comic book movie, not every problem is solved with fists and explosions. In fact, most of the important ones are not.
While the stakes in the film are, from one perspective, dismayingly high, the movie never loses its sight on the personal and ordinary. Where most superhero flicks have some sort of disaster porn of buildings collapsing and screaming crowds below, Thunderbolts* keeps its eyes on those people, making the heroics of the protagonists not just punching bad guys, but saving the innocent, over and over.
I was mostly unspoiled for the movie (an increasingly difficult task), so I was surprised more often than some movie-goers would be (including some of the discussions about Bob and Taskmaster, as well as the climactic reveal at the end). The movie certainly kept me on my toes wondering what would happen next.
Red Guardian’s favorite poster.
From a production standpoint, part of what also makes all this work is that the “powers” involved are relatively subtle, with most of the action being fight choreography. Yes, there is some flying, there are some super-powered fisticuffs, there is some CG-augmented action — but the movie comes across as very grounded and much less interested in Michael Bey-like explosions and more on physical and emotional combat.
Overall, I’m not sure this movie needs to be seen in the theater (let alone in 3-D, if that’s being offered), but it is definitely a good watch, arguably the best thing from the MCU in several years. I expect I will watch it a number more times in the future.
OBLIGATORY END-OF-MOVIE NOTE: There are two credits cut-in scenes, at the usual timestamps (one after the initial flashy credits, one at the very end). Both are entertaining and worth watching, though only the last one (before the lights come up) is of much consequence, albeit being a bit predictable.
I have to say, this is one of my favorite posters for the movie, including that tag line.
We went to see Captain America: Brave New World on its opening Saturday — a key moment for movie studios to advertise upcoming flicks they think that audience will want to come see.
Here are the trailers they fed us (with IMDb links for more info, the trailers themselves, etc.):
Novocaine: Looks like an action-comedy featuring a guy who feels no pain. Which, in real life, is really very dangerous (pain is an important way to keep us from burns and dismemberment), but here is being played for yucks as he tries to rescue his kidnapped girlfriend. I mean, I like Jack Quaid, but this makes me a little queasy.
Warfare: Looks like a gritty, meant-to-be-realistic view of modern warfare, based on the memories of a former Navy SEAL and his time in Iraq. From what I know (which is not a lot), it certainly looks realistic. Which, to my mind, is a great reason not to plan to go see it, because honestly I like my violence a little cartoony.
The Accountant 2: Another in the “cool guy who is a lethal weapon and tackles his job with casual aplomb” genre of films, starring Ben Affleck. I didn’t see the first one, and I don’t see anything here that has me rearing to go and catch the new one, which introduces a “buddy film” vibe by also include the protagonist’s equally-lethal brother.
Sinners: This looks intriguing, lots of interesting visuals, music, FX, period piece (20s-30s) around a pair of black brothers who return to their home town, only to find a Sinister Evil has taken root and etc. etc. I don’t anticipate going to see it because I am not a horror film guy, but it sure looks well done.
Jurassic World: Rebirth: I had no idea the franchise was continuing onward, this time with action hero Scarlett Johansson and all the dinosaurs that the original Jurassic Park deemed “too dangerous” to have at their amusement park. Looks like lots of CG dinosaurs, lots of guns, lots of action and danger and (I suspect) red shirts. Maybe if I ever get caught up with the franchise I’ll watch it on an airplane flight to somewhere.
How To Train Your Dragon: See! Companies other than Disney can ransack their IP to make oodles of money recycling animated features as live-action-except-for-all-the-CG features! What I saw in the trailer looked pretty good — but the original HTTYD looked (and still looks) pretty good so this one goes in the “when it’s streaming somewhere for super-cheap” stack.
Fantastic Four: First Steps: The same trailer as has been running on TV, only up on a great big screen, which looks pretty darned awesome. I am already planning on seeing this, so the trailer just made me re-aware that it’s one of the three MCU films coming out this year.
Thunderbolts*: Again, this trailer has been on TV already, so it’s just getting to see it embiggened. Still looks like fun, with an obvious “Suicide Squad, only in the MCU” vibe to it (and maybe a bit of that old fave, Mystery Men). Already marked on my calendar.
So there you have it — the only films I’m likely to see from that batch of trailers are the two I was already intending to see. Still, I don’t mind being exposed to some things I likely otherwise wouldn’t know about, so there’s that.
A very funny, very actiony, very enjoyable way to wile away a couple of hours. NO SPOILERS.
3.5 Acting 4.5 Production 3.5 Story 4.0 OVERALL with a ♥
We went to see Deadpool & Wolverine on Friday (opening weekend) night. I kind of pushed for it — we’ve enjoyed the DP movies in the past (usually to our surprise), but the rest of the fam didn’t seem enthused — until we were watching it.
Deadpool & Wolverine. Their relationship is … complicated.
I run very hot and cold on Deadpool in the comics. I tend to take my storytelling fairly seriously, and DP — along with “fan favorites” like Ambush Bug and the Impossible Man and Mr Mxyzptlyk and G’nort and even Lobo — are intrinsically silly characters that I usually get tired of pretty quickly.
I’ve also got only a moderate tolerance for Wolverine, as one of these characters who is so over-used it isn’t even funny.
Live action is a little difference, since movies with a given character tend to come out far less frequently. I enjoyed the first couple of Deadpool movies, despite myself, and Hugh Jackman is Wolverine. So I figured … this should probably be worth a go.
And, in fact, this movie is a very, very fun (and bloody) romp through the Marvel Cinematic Universe, tying together narrative lines from the previous Deadpool movies (with plenty of flashbacks and talky-talk for those who don’t remember that far back), things having to do with Wolverine movies (with the same caveats), recent doings in the MCU, and plenty of Fourth Wall commentary about 20th Century Fox, Disney, and whatever else turns out to be funny.
There’s a plot or three here, much more coherent than you might imagine, especially with a zany character like Deadpool, slathered with a Church Spring Picnic-full of Easter Eggs, and much capering about the Marvel multiverse (with plenty of meta commentary). There are even some lengthy serious moments! And character advancement!
But there are really two things about this movie that stand out (speaking broadly and non-spoilery). First, is that it’s fun. Well, unless you dislike F-bombs, and find huge gouts of CG blood disturbing. I was usually smiling, and I was laughing out loud (embarrassingly so) more than once.
And second, it is a HUGE love letter to the 20th Century Fox Marvel movies — various iterations of the Fantastic Four, Daredevil & Elektra, and, of course, the X-Men. With the Disney acquisition of Fox’s movie properties, they are able to — and actually do — some delightful things, even as they fade into the multiverse.
Good times. I look forward to getting this one on Blu-Ray so I can pause a thousand times and point and laugh some more.
I enjoyed myself.
Besties — as much as that might mean for either of them.
The latest MCU film is a disappointing, sloppy jumble. But it’s also a lot of fun in enough places to make it worthwhile.
Seen in the theater this evening in 2-D. Not much SPOILERy, beyond what you can see in the TV ads.
3.5 Acting 3.0 Production 2.5 Story 3.0 OVERALL with a ♥
This movie was always going to be fighting an up-hill battle. Between constant media reports about “super-hero fatigue” from movie-goers, MCU and/or comics fans who have their very strong opinions about who should be allowed in the super-hero club, and people who disdain Marvel (and Disney) on some sort of principle, any MCU film that is less than perfection is going to take a very loud drubbing.
And, yes, this film is definitely less than perfection.
(To be fair, there are a lot of critics, and sites, that have good things to say about the movie. That there is still a very vocal contingent touting this as yet another sign that the MCU is inexorably spiraling into the toilet speaks to me more about the folk saying that than the movie itself.)
You will probably hear, somewhere, the line that “The Marvels is less than the sum of its parts,” and there’s something to be said for that. This is a movie that went through a major restructuring (from a Captain Marvel sequel to this three-fer) and never quite got put back together correctly. It feels like it needed about three more runs through the writers room, honing and focusing a scattergun storyline and smoothing the oddly frantic jerkiness of its pace, while giving decent attention and story and opportunity for its three protagonists.
Its also the shortest MCU film yet, which seems odd for a movie focused on a trio of heroes, and that dichotomy shows in missed (or edited-out) moments that could have made a big difference in the feel of the piece.
At the same time, and I’m going to bold this: The Marvels is a lot of fun, and there were enough positive moments to outweigh the negative ones for both me and my wife (who is far less a Marvel enthusiast than I am). It is at its best when being relatively light-hearted, even a bit silly (net-net, I think the controversial “musical” scene works), but falls flat when giving us overly-melodramatic emotional conflicts or trying to build stakes for the overall villainous plot.
The original film trailer actually captures some of the better tonal moments.
Interestingly, the final trailer plays up the “serious” super-hero side of things:
The Acting (and the Story)
Kamala is living the dream.
Let’s start with those protagonists. Best of the list has to be Iman Vellani as Kamala Khan, doing a bang-up follow-on to her Ms Marvel TV mini-series and leaning whole-heartedly into fan-girling her idol, Captain Marvel. Actress and character both brighten up everything when on-screen, and the substantial inclusion of her family makes it all the more delightful.
Her story seems to be about trying to prove herself, getting validation as a super-hero from her idol, and maybe enduring some sobering-up moments to show it’s not all skittle and beer behind the spandex. Those aspects never quote connected the dots for me — I could see the outlines there, hints and indications, but in the rush to wrap up the film, it never quite gelled.
Carol, please don’t bring your cat to work.
I liked Brie Larson in the original Captain Marvel, a lot more than some folk seem to. She could be a bit strident, but there was justification for it all down the line, and there was no doubt she was a strong character. Here she’s facing a very real tale of dealing with the consequences of her actions, both with her Earth family (Monica in particular) and with her previously-unseen actions toward the Kree.
That tale of consequences should be super-powerful, something that rarely gets highlighted in super-hero fare, and maybe in a solo film it would have been. Instead, it means too often that Carol Danvers came off to my mind as weak and emotional and apologetic far too frequently. Her eventual efforts to Do The Right Thing and Fix the Problems She Created come too late and feel too brief, like checking a box to solve the problem. Maybe, hopefully, there was more left on the virtual cutting room floor.
Not Captain Marvel, Spectrum, or Photon. Just Monica.
Which then brings us to Teyonah Parris as Monica Rambeau. After an initial setup (as a child) in Captain Marvel, and an unexpected heroic power bump in WandaVision, this movie takes that teed-up, defined character and …
… does nothing of substance with her except for a very fun mid-credits scene. Monica comes off too often here as whiny, untrained, entitled, uncertain, and for the most part unpleasant, except when she’s called upon to be the movie’s Voice of Expository SCIENCE, and when she finally gets around to becoming a hero. The character, and actress both deserve better.
Dar-Benn is … not good. Not just morally, but as an antagonist.
Every hero needs a villain, and with three heroes we should have a villain that is three times as good, right. Unfortunately, Zawe Ashton, for all her impressive resume, is directed here as a third-rater Kree leader/villain, Dar-Benn.
Given her background and the situation on Hala, there are a lot of interesting ways you could have done that character. An admirably do-or-die patriot for her people that you could almost appreciate as a noble enemy. Or maybe a victim of madness in the face of her race’s impending death, someone you can feel sorry for and hope that she will be helped.
Instead, she comes off as just a “mean girl,” animated more by petty resentment toward Captain Marvel than a deep-seated philosophical stand or a fiery-hot desperation. Her scheme is crazy to begin with, and turning it into revenge tour on Carol just makes it feel more not-in-a-good-way silly. As such, Dar-Benn ends up weakening every scene she opens her mouth in, and keeps a lot of the “serious” aspects of the film from gathering any weight.
The rest of the supporting cast is workable — some random SABER agents, a handsome prince, a Skrull emperor, and, of course, Samuel L Jackson drawing a tidy paycheck for a very pedestrian Nick Fury rendition.
But, again, as legit as all those disappointing elements are, we still had fun. Keep remembering that.
This and That
The backdrop for all this has problems as well. There are some decent VFX, in my opinion — but also some not-very-good ones as well. The hex-grid hyperspace effect from the Guardians movies is still here, but both more simplified and more oddly tactile than before. Okay, fine.
On the other hand, some of the fixed sets (on the initial planet, on the Kree ship) are pretty disappointing, and feel like visual sacrifices were made to make them convenient locations for big battles.
That said, the fight choreographing with three protagonists — especially against the villain, especially when they are body-location-swapping — is very neatly done. Indeed, the whole quantum entanglement / body-location-swapping thing works far better than it should, to both humorous and action effect (see the Original Trailer, above, for examples).
Music-wise, aside from the Captain Marvel primary theme, and the “musical” scene, the soundtrack varies from mediocre to hackneyed. Laura Karpman has an amazing resume and I liked her work on “What If …?” but here the music is conspicuously, distractingly conventional.
Random other thoughts which I will try to keep not-too-spoily:
* So what exactly is Earth’s tech level these day? Apparently we have full-fledged space stations, with energy-cable space elevators, and instantaneous cross-galactic comm units, and recognized and active hyperspace gates. With no discernable difference to the people of Earth.
* On the other hand, the galaxy (or galactic neighborhood) sure seems awfully small. We have a limited number of hyperspace gates, and no indication that anyone but the Kree, the Skrulls (previously), and Earth are out there using them (or worrying about the problems occurring with them). I realize we weren’t going to see a Guardians cameo, but it makes the playground feel a bit cramped and unambitious.
* As always, very much appreciate that Ms Marvel’s costume aligns in style with her comic book version, and that it is “modest” in a non-frumpy way.
* Monica’s costume was unimaginative at best — though I did enjoy the under-arm sashes that the water people offered her, as a call-back to her original goofy comic book uniform.
* My problem with the “musical” scene was not its existence, but that the music was very Earth-conventional in chords and other musical structures. It didn’t feel intriguingly alien, it felt pedestrian Bollywood.
* Whatever happened to the water planet? Sorry, no time to consider that planetary ecological disaster, too bad, so sad.
* Nice to see Valkyrie’s too-brief cameo, but not only it feel way too much like almost-literal deus ex machina to solve a plot issue, but it was a solution to a plot issue that might have made a very big difference in a recent MCU TV show. Crikey.
* I loved the flerkin stuff. All the flerkin stuff. Kamala and the flerkin. Nick and the flerkin. Flerkins in space. So much fun. (Okay, all maybe except the question of why Carol flies through space, into danger, with Goose on her shoulder; it seemed more plot-driven than logical.)
* My wife suggested that SABER’s Employee Assistance Program was going to get a lot of heavy demand for the next few years.
* WTF happened to the other bangle at the end? No, seriously. Horrifying continuity gaffe or a last-minute edit of a cut scene that didn’t get explained (or CGed) in the final edition.
* Man, I sure hope we don’t have a new invasive species problem here on Earth.
Bottom Line
This movie feels like it suffered from too-choppy writing, even with the highly publicized reshoots, exacerbated by a far shorter run time than it deserved.
As a result, character development and coherent plotting, not to mention the opportunity to take a breath from constant planet-hopping, were all in short supply.
It still has plenty of good moments, though, and I don’t mind the somewhat light-hearted, even whimsical nature of much of the film. Not taking itself too seriously was honestly not a bad thing; the movie’s weaknesses came up when it tried to be more serious and started dropping things all over the place.
I can see watching this movie again, though not at theater prices. Maybe on Blu-Ray when it comes out.
Would you like to know more?
A previous version of this review appeared on Letterboxd.
A more-than-worthy successor to the first film, full of fun, drama, and spectacle.
I won’t talk specifics, but this is a sequel that is at least an equal of the first film, possibly its superior.
By having a commitment to a third film, the creative team could lean into richness of characterization, and creating a cast with depth and texture. Presumably the production was all of a continuum (the third film comes out next year), and that allowed some powerful development to be teed up and fulfilled.
Visually, the film is stunning, playing with color, texture, medium, style, focus and orientation. The animation is amazing in its variety and quality, truly cinematic in everything from quiet dialogue scenes to crazy four-dimensional action sequences.
Writing-wise, the story arguably more complex than Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse — again, leaning into having two films to follow up from that first film. But the through-lines are strong — growth, autonomy, destiny, truth, lies, identity. All the primary characters (and there are several) face challenges and conflicts, sometimes with each other. The dive into Spider-Man lore and creating a meta-narrative out of is brilliant.
At the same time, as serious as things get (and they do get damned serious), there is also a tremendous amount of fun, playing with a vast array of Spider-folk (many from canon, many invented for the purpose), as well as others people and places. That contrast between fun and wonder and gut-wrenching drama makes this a pretty special movie, even without its merits as animation or as a super-hero tale.
The music isn’t necessarily my personal cuppa, but it works with the imagery and the action. The voice talent, as with the first film, is top-notch.
All in all, I couldn’t ask for anything better, other than that “To Be Continued” at the end.
This review first appeared, in an earlier form, on Dropbox.
Because the trailers are sometimes half the fun. (Though the movie was definitely a lot of fun.)
Trailers that were showing before our Friday-of-opening-weekend showing of GotG3.
Elemental – A charming-looking Disney film about anthropomorphic figures who live in a fascinating city and society that resembles our own, but cunningly adapted to the traits of its denizens, who must learn to live in harmony and perhaps, even, love. Which, if it sounds a lot like Zootopia, that’s the reaction I have every time I see the trailer, which is cute, but not enough to really motivate me.
The Flash– You might be confused if you thought this was a Batman movie at first. Or … multiple Batmans. Batmen. Or maybe Superman, er, Superwoman. Fighting Zod. Oh, yeah, the Flash is in there, too, and supposedly it’s his movie. Oh, and there’s a bunch of Flashpoint stuff in here, too, the series that really screwed up the DCU and the Flash, and which Warner Bros. hopes will unscrew-up the DCEU, or whatever they are calling their movies these days. Also, Flashpoint was done on the Flash TV series, and a number of DC animated movies, and can we please move on from this storyline? Unlikely to go to this, even without considering the Ezra Miller drama.
Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes – I’m not sure who thought the idea of a HG prequel was a good one, and whether they are any more clueless than whoever thought this was a title that would attract an audience. This is the movie I am least likely to see this year.
Fast X – If this were a series I watched, I would probably be highly interested in it. As it is not, I am not. At all.
Dune, Part 2 – I have heard plenty of admiring things about the first one, except that it all seemed to be a setup for the second one. So maybe once the dust settles on the second one, I’ll do a Dune-a-thon weekend with the two new movies, the classic Lynch, and the Syfy mini-series. Or maybe not.
Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny – I am seriously jonesing (ha!) to see this. Yes, I was burned by the The Kingdom of the Glass Skull (which, to be fair, had a much better title than this one), but the Indy series is clearly in a “odd movies good, even movies bad” cycle, so we should be due for a final hit.
The Marvels – The most predictable trailer for the set (hello, MCU!), but, y’know, I am so there for this. I like the three title characters, I like the quantum entanglement that gives them an immediate problem to resolve, and I like that we don’t know much more than that right now. Plus I want this to succeed to spite the fanboiz who hate these three characters for a variety of disturbing reasons.
(NO SPOILERS) A fun, frenetic, somewhat frightening finish to the GotG saga.
The Series in Review
GotG 1 was about a band of misfits thrown together by chance to form a family. There was humor, and there was banter, and there was some crazy space stuff, and there were some dark moments, too, but it was a great intro.
GotG 2 was about challenging that family, re-defining it, expanding it. But it was also about cranking up the already-high level of humor to 12, and going bananas with the special effects. It had some serious threads, too (salute to Yondu), but it was overall pretty frothy.
(Insert a few other appearances here and there — holiday specials, cameos in other MCU movies, and so forth. Fun, but relatively shallow, leaning into the tropes, music, the mayhem, and the humor. )
GotG 3 … brings us back to the first installment in a good blend of tone. It’s dark in a lot of places, especially toward the beginning, to the point of being sort of even grim in tone. I would hesitate to bring a kid to this one, and people sensitive to body horror should probably steer clear.
Repeating that note: this is NOT kid-friendly.
The violence, suffering, and (I’ll use the word with consideration) atrocities that are shown or hinted at, and the level of (cartoon) violence in some of the battles, are very intense for an MCU film.
But it’s not gratuitously not-kid-friendly
A lot of the more gut-wrenching stuff is setting the stakes, teeing up the villain and one of our hero’s reactions toward him. That ties into a theme here: paying off past outstanding threads, some going all the way back to the beginning of Vol. 1 (Quill’s flight from his Earth family, and the tight-lipped secrets of Rocket’s origins), others being shaped neatly for the other characters.
It’s not always comfortable to watch, but it serves the narrative.
By the end, after trial, travail, confronting old ghosts and getting ready to confront new ones, we reach a satisfying set of reasons as to why this is the final volume of the Guardians, at least as we know them. Stories are wrapped up — or, if not wrapped up, set on new courses, some of which we may never see, others of which … who knows?
Heroes need a villain
The MCU hasn’t always done well with villains, and GotG as a series is an example of that. Vol. 1’s Ronan (Lee Pace) was a grim non-entity (and a lackey at that). Vol. 2’s Ego was, with the rest of the movie, equal parts humor and jerk.
The main heavy here is (I doubt this is a spoiler) the High Evolutionary, a self-created mad genius of great power and greater ambition to produce perfection in living things. What that looks like, what he’s willing to do, re-do, discard, try again, etc., makes him in his own way a deeper, darker adversary than your Thanos or your Ultron (or Ego, for that matter), perhaps because in some ways his motivation reverberates off of too many of humanity’s own darker moments.
But it also tees up a bunch of Marvel backstory fun, including places and groups that the High Evolutionary of the comics is associated with (i.e., Easter Eggs a-plenty here). The HE of Marvel Comics has always been a mix as a villain — very much the “everyone is a hero of his own story” and more of a bad guy because of his dispassionate pursuit of perfection than because of twirling mustachios. The HE here (Chukwudi Iwuji) plays up the zeal and ego a lot more, and it works pretty darned well.
Indeed, all the actors play their roles well, in parts great and small. There are no real weak links in this ensemble. And I have to give a big shout-out to Bradley Cooper, whose voice work for Rocket is a key to so much here, and carries so much of the (superbly animated) character.
The Special Effects
Fun and detailed and much more transparent, in many ways, than in Vol. 1 and 2. Practical, makeup (a world record in prosthetics), and CGI all blend together delightfully and such that I really stopped noticing it, even with creatures and characters that were a mixture or were all-CG.
We watched in the theater in 2D. There was stuff that I’m sure was very cool in 3D, but it wasn’t necessary to pay the extra money or headache.
The Music
The film score was done by John Murphy, replacing Tyler Bates from Vol. 1-2. The ever-present pop songs seem to have trended a bit more modern (though there are still some good rock classics in there).
Openings and Closings
The Marvel Studios opening sequence is a tribute to the GotG, rather than the current standard. It’s nicely done.
There are two credits scenes, at the usual spots. Both are worth watching for their own reasons (esp. since the credits themselves are a nicely done scrap book of photos — from the movies and not — of the characters we’ve come to know and love over the series.
A few minor bits of glee
1. After getting just a passing glimpse in the Collector’s collection, I am so glad to see Cosmo the Space Dog getting some decent screen time.
2. Rocket learning his secret origin — not just the origin that he remembered but never wanted to talk about (and with reason), but the origin behind that — was delightful, esp. in its payoff.
A few minor quibbles
1. I’ve follow Adam Warlock’s career from the beginning (as the cosmic “HIM”) to his Roy Thomas Counter-Earth Christ-figure days, to becoming another Jim Starlin cosmically wise / clever / menacing type. Will Poulter’s rendition here is pretty much nothing like any of those, which is kind of a pity — but the character does line up well both with his Vol. 2 origins and with the general theme of the Guardians.
2. I love the Guardians comic-style uniforms, and to the extent that they have been trying to be an organized force to protect the galaxy, sure, makes sense. That said, they do seem to come out of nowhere during the film.
Overall
I was a bit worried about Vol. 3 continuing the trends from Vol. 2 (make it louder! make it funnier! make it more psychodelic!), but James Gunn has made a movie that is both a great wrap for the saga, send-off for our characters, and a good film in its own right. Bravo.
So here’s the bad news: Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania (AMWQ) is not one of the best Marvel movies of all time.
But, and unlike the early press and folk who are beginning to enjoy piling on Marvel, it is not one of the worse.
Instead, it falls pretty square in the middle: entertaining without influencing the genre; pretty but sometimes too in love with its own prettiness; some humor that works, some that doesn’t quite; too much of some things, too little of others; decent integration with the MCU; a great villain but too many faceless mooks getting killed; some nice personality moments but a rocky plot; etc.
If I had to compare it, I’d say Guardians of the Galaxy 2, or Shang-Chi, or maybe Captain Marvel. Good, not great. But not bad.
Plot
So take first a reminder that the Ant-Man franchise has always been — well, not lighter, but not pompous or overly serious. Drama occurs, but plenty of humorous moments, too. AMWQ doesn’t balance this quite as neatly as the earlier two installments, but it has its moments, and it helps explain why the aside vignettes during action scenes feel to me like they largely work here, where they would have to be a lot fewer and shorter in a more conventional MCU film.
There’s a lot going on in this film: The Lang/Pym extended family is five all by itself, and that doesn’t account for a ton of secondary players, a major villain with lots of backstory, a significant side villain, multiple rescue missions and guilt trips, a big battle, and a gorgeous world to explore.
There’s about 15% too much stuff here, which ends up somewhat short-changing some of the characters and some of the “family matters” arc that it starts out with. As it stands, there are some occurrences in the film that seem to reference stuff that isn’t there in the release any more. It makes matters a bit rocky in places when you try to catch a breath and consider what’s going on.
Further, from a suspension-of-disbelief stance, there are odd scaling issues. Kang has amassed a massive army, sure, but nothing he could actually conquer the universe with, given his opposition (and, well, the sheer size of the universe). Conversely, it does seem like he has an army in at least the hundreds of thousands, given the size of his fortress complex — and there’s no indication that the doughty refugee / rebel alliance has anywhere near the numbers to take that on, even with the assistance they receive. Kang’s forces are simultaneously too small and too large to be believable (ironic in a tale of super-heroes who shrink or grow huge).
In short, the plotline for AMWQ does not hold up under close scrutiny any more than the physics and biology do. Just go with the flow.
Acting
We saw it in 2D and it was fine.
The main players all do a decent job amidst the flurry. Michael Douglas feels a bit more relaxed, having gotten all the shoutiness out of his system in the previous two films. Michelle Pfeiffer makes up for it by being positively grim and driven. Paul Rudd is his normal amiable self, still the grounded, sane guy amidst a bunch of zanies (though, sadly, we get no more of his San Francisco buddies). He’s become a bit more of a parent/worry-wart than before, but it feels in character.
Kathryn Newton, taking over as Scott’s daughter Cassie, fills the role well, and the movie provides support for what one hopes will be an eventual Young Avengers movie. Evangeline Lilly gets something of the short end of the stick here — she’s present, and she does stuff, but her character arc is pretty flat.
Everyone is express rave reviews for Jonathan Majors as Kang the Conqueror, and they are well-deserved. Majors plays the alternately world-weary, egomaniacal, manipulative, and frustrated-beyond-all-understanding super-villain in a way that makes him a top-tier MCU antagonist. He picks up and seamlessly expands on the multiversal metaplot of the MCU from his variant in the first season of “Loki” without dropping a beat. Majors makes us mostly hate, kind of fear, but also occasionally sympathize with Kang, no easy feat.
I applaud the job he’s done here. He’s a great catch for Marvel, and a great lynchpin for the whole “Kang Legacy” focus of the upcoming MCU phase(s).
Beyond all that, there are, as you may have heard, some unexpected cameos. They worked well, even the one I most worried about.
Production
AMWQ is visually stunning, and that’s almost a problem. The early time in the Quantum Realm harkened back strongly to Disney’s unjustly lambasted Strange World, only a lot more photo-realistic and, therefore, a lot more distracting. When everything looks amazing, nothing looks amazing, if you will.
But besides that, the imagination and execution of the alien wonders of the Quantum Realm (and a coherent look for the dark blot that is Kang’s presence) are impeccably done, as are the shrinking/growing being done by Team Lang/Pym.
A nit to pick: everyone who had one of those quick-deploy helmets (Scott, Hope, Cassie, Kang, and MODOK) spends way too much time with it off when it should just stay on (complete with zippy deployment / undeployment). Yes, I realize that’s a conscious decision to let the actors’ faces be visible to emote but the masks on to more easily stunt / CG the action, and perhaps it was even the right decision, but it also happened with such frequency as to create a distraction.
Comic Bookiness
Underutilized helmets
Most of the focus here has to go on Kang, whose costuming and make-up are as exquisite as Jonathan Majors’ portrayal. The only thing missing are his gigantic inter-changeable super-future-guns.
Tip of the hat to the renditions of other Kang-related characters, recast into the framework of the MCU from their original form.
Another tip to the way the MCU has pulled in elements of Marvel’s Microverse to make its Quantum Realm, both conceptually and in the form of characters like Jantorra.
The MODOK character looked pretty cool, though almost entirely divorced, besides his final appearance, from the comic book version in identity and personality. Still, it was a better revision than, say, “Black Widow”‘s Taskmaster, and infinitely superior to choosing a near-nameless mook to be the obligatory lieutenant / hatchet man.
In Sum
Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania poster – the kitchen sink visual approach, which you could accuse the movie of taking, too.
I’ve no regrets springing for movie tickets. I’m not sure if it’s in 3-D anywhere; 2-D was just fine.
There are the standard mid-credits and post-credit scenes. They are worth staying for, just for their MCU tie-ins.
The headlines for early reviews of the movie have been brutal, but if you look at them carefully, they are largely coming from critics who think anything superheroic of coming from Disney/Marvel is commercial hackery from the get-go, and are therefore happy to point out every cinematic flaw in detail without going into the basic popcorn enjoyment of the thing.
For viewer ratings, we’re getting a grade of “B,” which isn’t a sign to me of “Marvel fatigue” or the demise of super-hero films, but of the end of the amazing 15-year cinematic honeymoon the public has had with the MCU. A “B” is an accurate, but quite respectable grade. That this is somehow a wildly embarrassing flop seems greatly exaggerated.
I enjoyed going to AMWQ. I expect I will this film again at home. ‘Nuff said.
A movie that allayed fears and more than fulfilled expectations.
With the untimely death of Chadwick Boseman in 2020, MCU fans were unsure what would happen next. Would Boseman be replaced by another actor playing T’Challa? If not, would we just get some sort of mawkish memorial at the beginning — or, worse, mawkish, weepy memorials all the way through, “That’s what T’Challa would have wanted …” — or maybe, without Boseman, we’d get something that was just vapidly action-oriented without the depths he would have wanted.
“Black Panther: Wakanda Forever” is none of those things.
It is a movie suffused with grief, with people dealing with the untimely loss of a loved one, a leader, a geopolitical figure. A lot of that “dealing with” leads to errors in judgment that lead to further complications, but the dominoes that tumble by all of that that feel logical and realistic. As much as the viewer wants to yell at the people making bad decisions, much is because we understand where those people are coming from and sympathize, even as we want to grab them by the shoulders and shake them.
There are a ton of features to admire about the movie. Wakanda remains a remarkable society, with a complex polity and a realm as complex as their highly advanced technology, and the internal politics of Wakanda are themselves a significant factor in the action. But it’s brilliantly done that Wakanda is also a vulnerable society — not through simple brute force (as in “Avengers: Infinity War”) but through applied tactics against the strengths of the opponent (this is true both for the Atlanteans attacking Wakanda as well as Wakanda’s counter-attack).
Namor’s people and their profound grounding in Meso-American heritage is a delightful expansion of their pulp fantasy origins in the comics. While one can pick nits at their tech / lack of tech, they (and Namor) are delightfully rich.
(And I give a thousand points of credit for the film’s leaning into Namor’s ankle wings, calling them out explicitly and making them part of the plot. The most ridiculous thing about Namor’s character, and they went with it. Bravo.)
The movie actually makes sense (in terms of cascading bad judgments) in creating the conflict between Atlantis (okay, Talokan) and Wakanda, and uses the relative powers of both nations in imaginative and believable ways.
And there is a mid-movie cameo that was both unexpected and completely believable — and which drove forward Shuri’s evolution as a character.
The weakest parts of the movie relate to events outside of the Wakanda-Talokan conflict. The shenanigans related to Everett Ross and Val de Fontaine were all amusing, but felt like an add-on. And, sadly, Riri/Ironheart never quite fit into the emotional heart of the movie, despite being a significant part of the physical action. She’s a prop, more than a character here, and as a character she deserves much more.
But, again, that’s because this movie is really about grief, fear, dealing with T’Chala’s death — and the mistakes and misjudgments that stem from that. That grief is palpable, in both the drama and the meta (the Chadwick Boseman-focused Marvel intro sequence), and that is infused beautifully into the entire narrative, and into, ultimately, Shuri’s character arc.
This is a much more sophisticated tale than most MCU entries, because it is more about internal conflict than external, about finding one’s place in the world vs. blowing up the bad guys, and because so many characters are proceeding along parallel arcs that lead to conflict, and so many plausible ways that conflict can play out. And, at the end, we have no true resolutions, but anticipations, potentials, and possibilities.
Very much like real life. Which makes this a particular gem in the MCU.
ProTip: There is only one mid-credits scene. But it’s excellent. But when it’s done, you can head for the exit.
Some fine, fun, comic book action and self-mockery, but never really finding it’s spot.
Spoilers for She-Hulk ep. 9
Watched the S.1 finale for She-Hulk tonight. As mentioned before, at length, I love this character, and I really looked forward to an MCU comedy that capture that light-hearted, highly meta, but underlying dramatic creation I’ve come to love.
Ultimately, I got something that didn’t lean into its 4th Wall meta until the finale, then did so to excess, while at the same time trying to be a rom-com lawyer show, with a zany cast and so many situations to be comedic about.
And, fundamentally, I’m not a standard sitcom kind of guy. And this felt soooooo standard.
The talent was solid. The writing wasn’t.
So, bottom line, I was disappointed by She-Hulk, but it was moderately entertaining, and I appreciated its willingness to drag in big and little MCU characters. There was humor I did like, but so much must popped rather than banged.
I’m reluctant to get too critical, because there’s been from pre-Episode 1, a contingent of “Ugh, strong woman bad, can’t we get more Punisher?” viewers out there. Many of whom then morphed into “How dare Matt Murdock smile, let alone sleep with a skank like Jen?” crew. And, I assume, those same folk were cheering for the Intelligentsia at the early climax of the show, and actively wishing that Zack Snyder were directing this.
And none of that has any resemblance to my reasons for being a skosh disappointed. Even though I don’t regret having spent any time watching the series.
I thought the rather heavy-handed “K.E.V.I.N.” sequence was … well, yeah, heavy-handed. It should have been funnier, and it wasn’t, and it was frustrating.
I’d love to see She-Hulk come back in the MCU. Despite the solo aspects, Jen can work in a straight drama, too. And I’d be happy to see an S.2 of She-Hulk, maybe with a different writing vision.
Jen Walters — and She-Hulk — are great characters. Here’s to more of them, better executed, in the MCU.
I wanted to enjoy the current She-Hulk series on Disney+ a lot, boiling down to two reasons:
Always fun.
I really like the character in the comics, esp. in incarnations where there’s humor involved (i.e., starting with John Byrne’s famous run). I wanted something that captured that fun.
There was a lot of early criticism of the show, far too much of which boiled down to “Powerful female character? Ugh! Gimme more Punisher!” The first episode’s monologue about the problems/risks that women professionals have — a sentiment that every woman professional I’ve talked with about it agreed with — were met with scorn and derision and disbelief from much the same criticizing audience. I wanted this show to be a real hit just to show those yahoos off.
Unfortunately, we’ve ended up with a show that is … okay. Not horrible. Not great. The humor, including the fourth wall bits, feels kind of awkward, with maybe one good laugh an episode. The action sequences are so-so. The CG feels definitely budget. The courtroom bits are mostly more mildly funny humor. The characters are walking bundles of tropes. The storylines are kind of silly and clunky.
As I said to my wife last week, if this were a non-super-hero show, or even a non-MCU show, I would probably have stopped watching by now.
Should be fun!
I’m not sure where the problem is. The actors, including star Tatiana Maslany, seem like they should be good. Writing? Directly? Something is just not clicking, leaving me with an amusing, but not uproarious, interesting but not gripping, legal dramedy in spandex.
Worse, at a time when the MCU really needs to be stocking up its bag of heroes for the next Phase, the so-so nature of She-Hulk makes her being part of that action less and less likely.
Here’s hoping they pull something big out of the bag in the last 4 of 9 episodes. If not … well, I don’t regret the time I’ve spent watching it, but I don’t see myself watching it again.
Taika Waititi continues his droll, irreverent take on gods and super-heroes. Which is kind of a problem.
There’s much to enjoy in Taika Waititi’s new MCU movie, Thor: Blood & Thunder (a/k/a Thor 4). It’s visually brilliant, at the very least, and Waititi carries on with some success his droll fun-poking of the literary realm of gods and superheroes from the previous installment, Thor: Ragnarok (a/k/a Thor 3).
That is part of my problem with this film. While Waititi has mostly avoided the most common sin of sequels (taking what worked the first time and focusing solely on that, dialed up to 12), he isn’t completely immune to it. Thor 4 is too in love with its titular character being an unaware parody of a hero, bold and brash and unaware of any of the people around him or the consequences of his actions, juggling ex-girlfriends and ex-weapons with equal ineptness.
My wife — who was not enthused about going to “another Jane Foster movie” — pointed out something important afterward. Thor, as a character, is always about growth and maturity. In Thor 1, Thor learns to be worthy as a leader, not a selfish little boy. In Thor 2, he figures out how to be in a relationship. In Thor 3 (by Waititi!), he learns to be a king. In the Avengers films, he learns about teamwork and, ultimately, about accepting his own limitations.
The problem is that few of those lessons are allowed to take and carry on to the next film. The Thor of Thor 3 spends much of his time being a self-centered oaf, but the death of his father, and of his comrades, and the need to save the people of Asgard, drive him to new heights. Even the traumas of the Infinity War saga on the Avengers side of things, and the goofiness of his time with the Guardians, don’t explain the irresponsible dolt that he starts out as in Thor 4 and, for the most part, remains.
Thor 4 is centered on two sagas from the comics. The first — created by Jason Aaron and artist Esad Ribic — is the saga of Gorr, the God Butcher, a man who is let down by his people’s gods and who gets the power to punish them — and, as a new cause, all the layabout deities who take and take but never actually come through when asked for help in return. This is a remarkably dark saga in the comics, touching on personal relationships with the divine and theodicy, the profound question of why bad things happen to good people in a cosmos supposedly ruled by all-good, all-power divine power.
For the most part, though, Waititi plays it for wry laughs, and for what kind of cool special effects battles can be devised around Gorr’s use of the necrosword and shadows. Gorr ends up with sort of a Tim Burton style of scariness, a bogey-man rather than an existential terror, but the tragedy of his life, and of the actions he takes, and even of Thor facing the idea of times when he didn’t live up to the needs of his own followers — it’s all largely lost for the vast majority of the movie, book-ended by the introduction sequence and the sweet but too-late what-you-really-want message at the end.
The other original storyline here (also created by Jason Aaron) is the saga of Jane Foster as Thor–how she takes up that mantle, and what it means to be splitting her life between uber-powerful god-hero and chemo-weakened mortal cancer patient — especially when it becomes clear that all the Asgardian hi-jinx are neutralizing the chemo (but not the cancer), meaning that, at length, Jane Foster the human will be no more, leaving only Jane Foster the Thor — and what does that actually mean for her?
Jane’s story gets a bit more play here than Gorr’s — modified for the much different situation in the MCU — but it’s again blunted by the need to keep everything quirky and amusing, for Jane to be trying to figure out her catch phrase, for Jane to deal with her ex-boyfriend, the other Thor. The cancer, for most of the center of the movie, is merely a convenient way for her to be weakened at inopportune times. And Natalie Portman’s make-up never makes her look more than a little bit ill.
We end up spending far too much time in this film in humorous set pieces, all of them fun, but all of them consuming ruinous amounts of run time. The stage players of New Asgard (now become a cruise line stop), giving us minutes of recap of just a portion of Thor 3. Endless exposition or commentary by Korg (voiced by Waititi). The Gorr-justifying insouciance of Omnipotence City. Thor doing something or another in an oafish, thoughtless, laughable fashion.
It’s almost all of it funny and played successfully for laughs, but in the end it feels more like a series of really successful SNL skits poking fun at Thor than at a movie actually about him (and Jane, and Valkyrie, and Korg, and a bunch of kids, and Gorr, too). The film spends too much time not taking its subject seriously, aside from those bookend scenes, and so it’s hard to take it seriously when it actually does try to engage our sympathies at the end, with Jane making decisions about her fate, and Gorr doing the same, and Thor learning what’s really important in life (until, one presumes, next movie, when he’ll quite possibly be back to being a goofball).
With goats, of course.
Chris Hemsworth plays Thor well as far as he’s given to do so. He has the heroic and the goofy down pat (and should, after nine film outings), and I just wish he got to do more of the dramatic moments we’ve seen him in from the beginning of the saga. Natalie Portman’s more a mixed bag. Her rom-com moments feel weird and awkward, but she makes a fine hero. Christian Bale’s Gorr does well with what he’s given, shining in both his initial and final scenes, but hampered too much in-between, relegated to a kinda-scary action villain living in the shadows.
To be fair, it’s not all — or even mostly — actually bad. The make-up is amazing. There are some stunning set pieces (Omnipotence City and the small moon they battle on stand out), visually rich and gorgeous, and (while we didn’t) possibly worth the cost of a 3D showing. And, honestly, the very ending of the film was one of the most satisfying MCU endings in quite a while. (The two mid/end credit scenes weren’t bad, either.) Beyond that, like I said, Waititi’s irreverent humor, and how it translates to the screen, aided by some decent acting talent, works on its own terms.
And, just to say it, we loved the goats.
The goats are GOATs
And, net-net, I enjoyed Thor 4, especially scene by scene. It’s in its overall tone and structure that things didn’t quite gel for me. I will absolutely watch it again in the future, but for the moment I’m left feeling a bit unsatisfied, as if a promised banquet turned out to be all beautifully-baked sweets, and I had been hoping for some juicy steak.
A distinctively comic-booky film, in mostly good ways.
(No significant spoilers.)
When I got out of this movie, I tweeted, “This is the comic-bookiest movie I have ever seen. Both in (mostly) good and bad ways.” And, the next day, that’s still true.
Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness is a very (shall we say) strange movie. It is filled with arguably too many characters, but the important ones all get a fair amount of screen time and agency. It is filled with horror (none of it too horrific), and mind-altering multidimensional madness (which is all delightful), but remains at heart a super-hero film. It is filled with cameos and fan service, but those are present as lovely icing on a rich cake, less a distraction and more of the overall flavor.
Benedict Cumberbatch is back as Doctor Strange, who’s casually mastered magic enough since his 2016 movie to use it for casual costume changes, and to tie his tie. Cumberbatch actually gets to play multidimensional variants of himself — all very nicely done, and all leading to the character learning something about himself and having a nice, if not profound, character arc to go with it tale.
Elizabeth Olson is back as Wanda Maximoff, the Scarlet Witch (the actress pretty much flew from the set of “WandaVision” to begin shooting the movie). The character fits a bit awkwardly into role of super-villain, being driven by tragic circumstances, dreams of alternate universes where she actually has her kids, and, of course, temptations from the fell magic of the Darkhold. It’s kind of hard to feel sorry for her when she acts so violently and callously as time goes by. The final confrontation with her is fitting, but doesn’t quite make the whole thing work as a needed redemption arc.
So you could have had a fine film with just those two having at it, but there are three other major characters vying for useful screen time and making good use of it. Benedict Wong gets a solid work-out as Sorcerer Supreme Wong. He’s not the star of the movie (I would totally watch a Wong movie), but he gets a lot of screen time and great action sequences, and his banter is top notch. Rachel McAdams returns as Christine Palmer, a stronger far more successful second act for an MCU hero’s love interest than most others we’ve gotten.
And, of course, Xochitl Gomez plays neophyte power-house America Chavez, and deftly manages to dodge most of the snarky teen tropes, avoiding being too much of a damsel in distress, but also not instantly rising up as a super-hero. The movie is all around her, but not necessarily about her, and I want that latter movie as a follow-up. Nicely done, even if Saudi Arabia had the vapors over some very innocuous references to the comics canon background that she has two mothers (and wears an LGBTQ flag pin on her jacket).
And even after that we could point to significant appearances by folk like Chiwetel Ejiofor as Mordo (playing a Mordo in very different circumstances but very true to the character’s previous portrayal), and a host of cameos that will get any fanboi squeeing (my personal favorite being Rintrah, but that’s just me).
The plot is non-linear to the point of, well, madness, with the party being split (and the various splits given plenty of air time) multiple times. And while there are cast-of-zillions CG battles in places, a lot of that gets done in odd places in the movie, leaving the finale to be a much more nicely integrated combo of super-slugfest and very personal conflict.
The movie also wraps up on some very satisfying but unexpected notes. The Stephen-Christine thing is resolved, but not in an overly obvious way. The fate of America Chavez is left in a neat holding pattern for future MCU use. And, for that matter, so is Wanda’s fate; the multiverse being, of course, vast.
As well, we also tee up another (huzzah) DS movie, with some quick final-scene + mid-credits fun. (Yes, there are two credits shots, as usual for MCU movies. I’m not sure the final one is worth busting your bladder for, but if you can wait for it, it’s amusing, and quite appropriate for a Sam Raimi-directed effort.)
Danny Elfman’s music is fine, and perhaps even appropriate for such a tripped-out film. He does reference a few times (too few, for my taste) Michael Giacchino’s DS theme (I do love leitmotifs and musical continuity), but his original contributions fit the tone.
As to the overall film, written by Michael Waldron and directed by Sam Raimi … well, the “Multiverse of Madness” epithet is correct. Things get zany, and there are plenty of references back to old horror movie tropes to keep things tonally shaken up. There’s a real effort to keep the magic battle bits from too much like standard super-hero energy blast work. That includes one battle relatively late in the film that is delightful, different, and really very weird.
The end result is something phantasmagorical, as much mood piece as story, and that makes it both distinctive amongst its fellow super-hero films and, perhaps, a bit weaker. A movie like this could be approached with “What cool Doctor Strange story could we tell?” or with “How do we show off the multiverse?” The film tends to tip a bit toward the latter, though it does a decent job all-around, better than I might have expected.
Even though it was executed with technical excellence (as one expects from the MCU), it’s not just about that excellence. The difference in what it does, the seriousness with which it take its multiversal venues, and the quirky aspects of everything it gives us and how it directorially goes about it, will make it a much more memorable outing than some other technically excellent but more conventional super-flicks. I think it will end up a cult classic in the genre.
Because it is, in fact, the comic-bookiest film I’ve ever seen. It sacrifices some depth and story for visual and conceptual effects and craziness. But it does so in a way that stands out. Steve Ditko, who originated the visuals of Doctor Strange, would, I think, be very pleased. Overall, I like, and will absolutely be watching it again.
On rewatch, I liked this 6-ep series even better than the first time around.
Perhaps because I could stop oohing and aahing at all the fun stuff and pay attention to the story.
Loki titles
Loki has always been one of the best villains in the MCU, precisely because he’s been one of the most approachable and relatable. Cynical and sly, but also desperate for approval. Vain, but fragile. Casual betrayer but also, in his eyes, always the betrayed. Apparently self-possessed and confident, but constantly failing through his own hubris — and, perhaps, his own desire to fail, knowing himself unworthy. Petty, cruel, but largely because only by being mean does he earn what he thinks is respect.
Over the course of his mainstream MCU career — Thor, Avengers, Thor 2 (where he was pretty much the only part worth watching), Thor 3, and a few brief moments of Infinity Wars, we saw him at his most maniacal, and also his most vulnerable. It wasn’t quite a redemption arc, but it came close.
Loki’s nearly the only thing in “Thor: The Dark World” worth watching.
All of which made him a perfect candidate for a new Disney+ limited series last year, especially putting him into a situation where his power was was restrained, the threat to his life was real, and his ego would be taking multiple shots (and temptations).
Even with an ending that gets a bit more complicated than it needed to be (but setting up one aspect of the Multiverse, not to mention next big baddy Kang), Loki is a lovely romp through muddied morality. Is Loki a hero or a villain? (Yes.) Is the Time Variance Authority a good thing or a bad thing? (Good. No, bad. No, good. Maybe bad?) Is Loki capable of growth and change, of even, perhaps, love? Or is he just looking out for Number One and engaging in multiversal narcissism? (Maybe, to all of the above.)
A lot of folk were very “Ew” over this. I loved their relationship because it was clearly never, ever going to work.
The production resisted until the final couple of episodes the temptation to set up too many Easter Egg hunts. As a result, the Loki series still had appeal for both the trivia nerds and the casual MCU viewer. I thought it did its job solidly on both counts, not to mention setting up an eventual second series. Pretty much all the actors hit their marks well, with Tom Hiddleston easily taking on being the star of the show. Plus the music was great, and the production design delightful.
Bravos all around. I look forward to the next season.
An earlier version originally published on Letterboxd.
Tom Holland SM films have been about growing up. This one’s even more so.
Spider-Man: No Way Home is a complicated film, on one level. There are multiple fight sequences, as well as a lot of talking sequences, some big passages of time, some thorny conundrums that get handwaved aside, and some others that last until the bitter end.
The last SM movie ended with Peter Parker being outed by Alex Jones fill-in J Jonah Jameson both as Spider-Man and (thanks to villainous shenanigans) as the murderer of Mysterio and the wreaker of havoc across London.
The movie manages to quickly get past that, but it also has impacts through the entire film. Even though the cliche of “wanted by the police” isn’t lingered over, the repercussions of the event continue to last, leaving Peter’s life a never-ending media circus. But, as we’ve had hammered home over the years since the last SM film, public belief doesn’t necessarily align with truth, meaning that even when Peter is exonerated, he remains under attack by JJJ and by a substantial portion of the general population.
Worse, the biggest villain fought against by our her for the first quarter of the movie is the college admission process, and MIT decides that all the excitement means they will take a pass not just on Peter’s application, but on his girlfriend MJ’s and his bestie Ned’s. Which in turn leads Peter to go to Doctor Strange to see if the Sorcerer Supreme can set things aright.
He does not, but in the process the universe is broken, and beings from other worlds start to shift into ours, in particular some arch-enemies of previous Sony Spiderverse films.
It’s all a glorious muddle, yet the narrative through-line is maintained amidst various super-battles, with Peter trying to take care of his friends and family … and learning that great Spider-Man lesson not yet uttered in this go-around.
Ultimately, SMNWH is a story about growing up, of coming of age — not solely because Tom Holland is becoming a more mature actor in appearance, but also (to not be meta) not just in personal courage and heroism (Peter has already demonstrated that). This is a movie about that moment of maturity when one learns to extend the application of one’s virtue beyond just a circle of friends and family. That includes the willingness to lose everything in order to save others, even those who might not deserve it.
Throw in a great soundtrack by Michael Giacchino, some really nicely done SFX (including battles of CG figures that look more and more realistic), a variety of cameos from elsewhere in the Multiverse, and a ton of witty banter and general geekery, and it’s a delightful capstone to the Tom Holland trilogy of Spider-Man films.
(So, of course, they’ve announced a fourth film. We’ll see what they do with it.)
P.S. There are two post-credit scenes, one to placate Sony, one to placate Marvel. Neither are great, but worth waiting for unless you really, really need to pee.
Not a lot of theater-going, but an MCU rewatch helped the numbers
While I managed to get back into the theaters for part of 2020, overall film watching still took a hit from normal. This was the year that we got much more into streaming, though we still maintain a healthy DVD/Blu-Ray collection. For 2021, I recorded in Letterboxd:
44 movies watched.
14 movies watched for the first time.
3 movies watched in a movie theater.
30 movies rewatched.
40 movies liked. ❤
24 movies (re)watched from the Marvel Cinematic Universe
So MCU flicks made up over half the movies watched, both rewatches and new releases.
Highest Ranking movies watched:
5.0 – Fellowship of the Ring
4.5 – Howl’s Moving Castle
4.5 – The Avengers
4.5 – Captain America: Winter Soldier
4.5 – The Death of Stalin
4.5 – Sneakers
4.5 – Black Panther
4.5 – Ant-Man and the Wasp
4.5 – Ice Station Zebra
Lowest Ranking:
3.0 – Iron Man 3
3.0 – Thunder Force
3.0 – Aquaman
3.0 – Conan the Barbarian
Month with the Most Movies Seen: April (8)
Months without Movies: February, August
While imperfect, the questions raised and the focus on people, not powers, impressed me
No Spoilers, Sweetie
So, bottom line: I liked Eternals.
Not get-the-tatoo loved it, though there there were parts that I loved. But I had a very fine time for my money in the theater, and have no regrets over time or money.
The Good
For my money, this is one of the most thoughtful, and thought-provoking, films in the MCU. While other super-hero tales have given us moral quandaries, they’ve often been pretty binary “hero’s choices” — do I save X or Y; do I meet my date or stop the bank robbery; do I stomp the bad guy or save the falling plane?
The issues the Eternals deal with are existential ones, with questions of loyalty and love, of purpose, of destiny and pre-destiny, duty, of sacrifice, of service to God, service to humanity, service to family (or families).
While there are structural and other aspects of the film that blunt some of those questions, they are very real, and they get dealt with in different (sometimes very different) ways by different characters.
Remember how Captain America: Civil War felt a bit facile in how it teed up the superhero vs superhero conflict? This movie doesn’t. The decisions made (and sometimes regretted) are organic to the characters and their situations. This movie will always have a special place for me because of that.
This film has plenty of action and adventure, but for the most part it avoids two overdone cliches in MCU movies:
disaster porn of cities turned into rubble in the course of super-hero villain battles
giant climactic battles of Our Hero(es) vs hordes of CGI villains.
Or, y’know, both
While there is a Major Threat to Humanity that gets dealt with, ultimately the final conflicts in the film are driven not how many CGI baddies can we pew-pew to pieces, but by those moral questions above, and how the characters reacted to them.
This is a movie primarily about people, not a movie about powers.
The movie is visually lovely, both in terms of a global span of settings, and regarding some set pieces that were truly awe-inspiring.
Also on the visual side of things, given their common origins (if differing specialties), I appreciated the common motifs in their powers and technology. There was sufficient commonality to understand the ties between the characters, but enough distinction to appreciate their differences.
Thena gets all the flashy stuff, but all the Eternals’ tech / power expresses in these gold threads and circles
“I did not see that coming,” I thought to myself a good half-dozen times in the film. There are a lot of unexpected twists, most of them quite good. It is a much less linear film than a lot of the MCU.
People emote in this film. People emote a lot. Strong men cry. So do strong women. I am sure that really bugged some of the folk decrying this film, but, again, people not powers.
The Not-So-Good
This movie ramps up very slowly, and ramps down very slowly.
We get a lot of exposition starting off, lots and lots, with tons of flashbacks spanning human history, and then, once we start getting some stakes going, it takes a loooong time to get the band back together.
The individual pieces are done well, and it’s understandable the amount of time things take, given the scope of what we’re addressing, but it feels slow; I was really wondering at points how they were going to end all this, given the time they were taking setting it up. (That they were able to run to 2:37 is a big reason for this — and, since I usually complain about films being cut too short, I suppose I shouldn’t complain much here.)
(My wife, on the other hand, thought it was all well-handled to provide info on all the characters involved. So there’s that.)
On the tail end, we have a long set of denouements, many of them very talkie, some of them very hand-wavy in terms of addressing loose ends. I don’t know what I would necessarily cut there, but I was feeling a bit impatient.
In-between, being something brand-new in the MCU (and, honestly, brand-new in general, as much of this doesn’t follow anything related to Jack Kirby’s Eternals) ends up requiring several pallets of exposition to be dropped in at various times, especially as the protagonists learn things that have been hidden from them or that contrast with earlier infodumps. While interesting, and individually handled decently, it sometimes made things drag.
There are two mid/post-credit scenes, for those wondering if you need to run to the bathroom. Unfortunately, those feel very tacked on, and introduce three MCU characters for future consumption. I was not a fan of any of the introductions, to be honest. I’ll talk more about them in post-spoilers days.
While the Eternals cast is more diverse, the Celestials all kind of looked alike.
Kirby’s Celestials
As a side note, my wife noted that it was really awkward when the various Eternals hug each other, because their shoulder pads always get in the way.
The Okay
This movie has a huge ensemble — ten members of the Eternals, plus supporting players. It’s impossible to give them all equal time, let alone the time each deserves.
That said, the movie does a decent job of it. There’s a distinct narrative focus on Sersi, with narrative rings circling around her, getting their various turns. While I could use a lot more of practically everyone, most of the characters do get moments in the sun that help us to know them and appreciate them.
Rather understated, don’t you think?
As noted, this is not Jack Kirby’s Eternals, but core themes — the Van Danikenesque space gods and super-heroic basis for myths, the names and themes of the individuals, etc. — remain in place. Frankly, I’m fine with that. Kirby’s imagination was amazing, but his writing was full of bombast makes Shakespeare feel subdued.
FWIW, I don’t think Kirby would have had a problem with this film. Indeed, I think it would have inspired him to write a dozen new crazy comics.
The actual origins of the Eternals was significantly shifted from the comics, something I felt disappointment about when it got shoved in my face during the initial screen text. But what was devised in its place successfully drove the rest of the plot, so I’m good with it..
Another non-Kirby aspect I’m fine with is the diversity of the cast. As reference, here’s how they looked back in the day:
Makkari, Thena, Kro, Sersi, Ikarus’ girlfriend Margo, and Ikarus.
Lots of pasty-white (except for the one Deviant there). The same was true for pretty much all the main Eternals cast in Kirby’s day. Most of them men, too, except Thena and Sersi.
Whereas the movie gives us lots of strong women who aren’t dressed in bathing suits. Lots of races and ethnicities, as would be appropriate for beings set forth to interact with the breadth of humanity. Even (gasp) non-het sexual orientation.
None of it felt forced, or weird, or clashing with the original in context of the story. Yet sooooo many fanbois are outraged by these changes. Wonder why?
(In my opinion, if it pisses off Russia and the Middle East, that’s probably a good thing.)
This is the true kick-off of the Cosmic phase of the MCU, as show in both the very nature of this film and its tales of the Celestials and their shenanigans, and in how things wrap up at the end (esp. that first in-credits sequence). We’ve touched a bit on that theme previously, with Captain Marvel and the Guardians of the Galaxy film, but I expect to see a lot more starscapes in the MCU future.
Just a reminder that the “Knowhere” space outpost in GotG is the *head of a Celestial* that is being *mined from within.* Yeesh.
That said, this movie felt oddly detached from the MCU, and its few connections felt a bit forced. It really was very much a stand-alone film, with a couple of exceptions (one of which ended up a significant feature of someone’s motivations). To be sure, my wife, not a Marvel fan, thought that was fine, eliminating the “Oh, you won’t get this if you don’t read the comics or rewatch the movies a dozen times.”
That occurring-in-a vacuum did feel a little strange to me at times, but I also largely didn’t miss it.
Net-Net
I think this movie got a lot of early dumping upon for a few reasons:
Too many film critics dislike the popularity of super-hero films in general, and the MCU (egads! Disney!) in particular. Throw in an Academy-award winning director “slumming,” and their reaction is going to be particularly harsh.
For the fanboi crowd, Eternals is too feeling, too morally complex, and too willing to resolve problems in ways that don’t involve fisticuffs and pew-pews. (It may also have too many strong women and too much diversity for some of their tastes.)
For me, I found those all to be strengths. I mean, I like a good rock-em sock-em, comics-faithful, simplistic-redemption-arc film as much as the next person (I maintain that the original Iron Man is one of the best supers films ever).
But this film was also refreshing, in not providing easy answers, or even easy-to-judge characters. Each of the Eternals faces difficult decisions in the movie, makes (or chooses to dodge, or changes their mind on) those decisions, and doesn’t always get it right, because big, difficult, moral decisions rarely end up with a big red or green light next to them to immediately let you know you made the right one.
It sometimes takes a long time to learn you picked a Zonk behind Curtain Number 3.
Eternals is by no means a perfect move. It is (if unavoidably) verbose in its setup, and dragging in its wrap-up. It handles some elements clumsily. Some characters got a short shrift. Some of it feels melodramatic at times (though Kirby would probably smile at those elements).
But it’s a good film, a great kickoff to bigger things in the MCU and maybe some more sophisticated directions, and I’m really curious as to what happens next.
One of those, The Sting, is on my Ten Movies on a Desert Island (with Electricity and a Blu-Ray Player) list. It was near the end of Redford’s “boyish” phase — his Johnny Hookier is still getting by on that big smile and fake golly, ma’am charm — but he plays an integral role in the amazing ensemble cast.
It’s worth noting that Out of Africa was the first movie I ever bought on video-tape (VHS, for the record), back in the days before I realized I shouldn’t buy sweeping, moving dramas, no matter how sweeping and moving they were, because I was unlikely ever to rewatch them.
The Twilight Zone, 03×13 “Nothing in the Dark” (1962) — And, yes, this is TV, not movies, but it still tracks. Redford plays a minor but essential role here as a beat cop whose shooting and mortal injuries are the only thing that can stir an agoraphobic old lady (oldies film star Gladys Cooper), who’s terrified that her apartment building home is being torn down, to reach out of her shell and reclaim her humanity. It’s a George Clayton Johnson TZ, so plenty of maudlin feel-good in there, but it’s also deeply moving, and Redford plays his part to a tee.
Captain America: The Winter Soldier (2014) — Dismissed as a “cameo” by Rolling Stone, Redford’s Alexander Pierce calls on all his charm and gravitas to play the charismatic “World Council” coordinator and (spoilers) covert Hydra agent who’s spearheading the paranoid plot that Cap et al. have to thwart.
Sneakers (1992) — Another desert island list nominee, Sneakers is a dramedy caper flick, starring a Robert Redford who’s supposed to be looking his age playing Martin Bishop, head of a ragtag private security firm that’s hired to do “sneaks” into corporations to test their physical and (ooh!) computer security. Redford gets to work his light comedy chops here, while also taking on the serious part of a man realizing he’s frittered much of his life away, never having gotten past (emotionally or legally) his college prankster past, which is now seriously catching up with him. It’s a great ensemble cast again, with Redford at the heart of it, and I’ve watched it more times than I can count.
