Category Archives: Marvel
Eternals
Eternals 2021
I’m not entirely sure if this is going to stick, but my New Year’s resolution for 2026 is to try and watch some more superhero movies and write reviews on this site. I’m currently trying to catch up through the various MCU movies that I have missed over the past few years, as the most recent MCU content that I’ve watched are right here on this site, Quantumania and Deadpool and Wolverine. On the TV side of things I watched just a couple episodes of Secret Invasion and Agatha All Along, nothing specifically against either of those shows, just never got around to watching any more. But anyway, I decided to go back to the earliest MCU movie that I’ve missed which was Eternals. Similar to the Marvels, I hadn’t heard a lot of good things about this movie with many people at the time saying that it was MCU’s first big misstep. Personally, I enjoyed this movie quite a bit and thought it was a different perspective on superheroes. I also didn’t care that it generally stayed out of the way from the rest of the connected universe and just told its own story.
Read the rest of this entryThe Marvels
The Marvels 2023
It’s been nearly a year and a half since my last review on this site and even though I’m writing this on New Year’s Eve, I’m not here to make any New Year’s resolutions about writing more often on this site. It’s not going anywhere anytime soon, I like having this site here even though I’m not updating it on anywhere near a regular basis. But when I take the time to watch a superhero movie, I like having the option to write about it here and the truth is, I actually haven’t really sat down to watch a new-to-me superhero movie in nearly a year and a half. I did attempt to watch this movie several months ago, but I wasn’t able to make it more than a couple minutes in before getting distracted by life and the people in my household. There was also a slight bit of trepidation as I knew that this wasn’t a very well regarded movie in the Marvel canon, but I still had hopes that I would find enjoyment in watching it. And I’m glad that I finally made time to watch this because I was a fan of the Ms Marvel show, Captain Marvel’s movie, and WandaVision where Captain Rambeau gained her powers even though I could never remember what her code name ended up, and it was never decided on within this movie either. I had an absolute blast watching this movie, I laughed many times throughout the runtime and often quite hard. It was fun and funny, and I’m disappointed by how much hate it got on its release.
Read the rest of this entry
Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania
Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania 2023
I’m doing what I can to keep this blog alive. It took an extra week but I did go out to the theaters to see the latest MCU movie and I have a few opinions. Even though this was the worst critically performing movie after the Eternals (which I still haven’t seen but plan to… eventually) it has a high audience score so I was fairly certain I would still enjoy it. I did, though there were a few issues that bothered me after the fact, but not while watching the movie. I think some of the character complaints were valid and the ending was a little weak but the visuals were fantastic and the humor has its own little niche that’s similar to Guardians of the Galaxy while still having its own tone unique to Ant-Man and Peyton Reed despite the rocky start. Like with many of the middle MCU films where it’s a superhero film crossed with another unique genre, this still gives us something new with a revolution story mixed with a sci-fi twist. I thought it was a fun continuation of the Ant-Man character and I hope we get some more down the line. And as with every new movie reviewed here, I will be diving into spoiler territory beyond this point so you have been warned.
Read the rest of this entry
Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special
Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special 2022
While I haven’t gotten the chance to see the new Black Panther movie I did manage to see the latest Marvel Special Presentation after Werewolf by Night. I still think these are long and varied enough to be considered mini-movies rather than short films or a TV anthology series and this one was a lot of fun so I wanted to write about it. This is a much smaller story and very much Christmas focused but there is one big character reveal that was a deleted scene in Guardians of the Galaxy vol. 2 that’s not all that surprising, but was surprisingly heartfelt. Music also plays a large part as it often does in the Guardians of the Galaxy films but this also includes a couple songs that the characters are singing themselves which brings it one step closer to a full musical. And while there’s not a whole lot to spoil in this holiday centered special there is that one reveal that will be discussed further in this review so here is your warning.
Read the rest of this entry
Werewolf by Night
Once again it’s been a bit since I added something here but I managed to watch the first Marvel Special Presentation on Disney+ and while it’s only 55 minutes long, at this point I’m considering it a TV movie rather than a TV episode as there are likely more of these special presentations coming. As long as they’re longer than 40 minutes, I will likely continue to include them here as long as my subscription to Disney+ holds. This is the directorial debut of Michael Giacchino and he really comes out swinging with a visually interesting look and the MCU introductions of several lesser known characters. The mostly black and white with splashes of color really give this “special presentation” a different feel along with an excuse to add some additional gore that wouldn’t have been allowed in full color. Overall, I really enjoyed it though since this is a new release here’s my obligatory warning for spoilers ahead.
Read the rest of this entry
Thor: Love and Thunder
Thor: Love and Thunder 2022
It’s time for yet another new Marvel movie and while I did manage to get out to see this movie opening weekend, I haven’t had a chance to sit down and write about it until now. I did however speak my thoughts on a recent Lambcast so you can hear more of my opinion along with 4 other Lamb members. I went into this movie hearing a fair mix of things, several people compared it negatively against Ragnarok so I wasn’t entirely sure what I was going to get into. For the most part, I loved this film in a similar manner as Ragnarok and while I do see the complaints, they didn’t detract from the film too much for me. Not only that, but I felt like this had a much better emotional throughline for several of the characters. And since this is a new release, I’m always compelled to issue a spoiler warning and there are several things to spoil that have been left out of the trailers so be warned.
Read the rest of this entry
Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness
Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness 2022
I keep telling myself that I’m not going to let this site lay fallow, and yet this is the second big release after The Batman that I’ve sat on. Of course not nearly as much as I’ve sat on The Batman as I still haven’t blocked out the three hour block of time to watch that at home on HBO Max. I managed to see this film in theaters on the second Sunday of release which as of writing this first paragraph was over a week ago. Meanwhile, I am hard at work on season 3 of It’s Time to Rewind and my new musical show Lyrical Innuendo. Despite all of this, I did enjoy the film. One of the biggest complaints that I had heard about the movie before I saw it was that it was “too Sam Raimi”. And while I can understand that argument, that’s honestly what I enjoyed the most about this film. It was that Sam Raimi horror with a little bit of comedy sensibility that permeated throughout the entire film along with some of that Spider-Man 2 pathos that helped endear us to the often self-important Doctor Strange. The new characters were nice, the Easter Eggs were occasionally surprising and I will be discussing them in the main portion of the review so if you somehow haven’t heard about them by now, you will be spoiled if you keep reading.
Read the rest of this entry
Morbius
Morbius 2022
I’m honestly a little surprised that the first theatrical movie that I watched in 2022 was this one. Not only that, but it was this one despite the fact that the critically and fan acclaimed The Batman came out just a couple weeks ago and I let that one pass me by. It was for a couple reasons, one is that we do have an infant in the house so getting out to the theater is a little more difficult, even moreso for a nearly three hour movie. It was a little less guilt-inducing to pop out of the house by myself to watch a film that my wife had zero interest in that only ran for about 90 minutes. And I’m saying all of this because of how maligned this film was even years before release. It didn’t help that it was more or less supposed to come out sometime around 2020, was delayed six separate times and only half of those were delays due to covid. The trailers, the delays, and just starring Jared Leto himself were all plenty of potential turn-offs. But despite all of those, the movie still made a middling amount in the box office. Which by all accounts is more or less what the studio was expecting as it’s not an MCU movie or even a big name Spider-Man character. With all of this anti-hype surrounding the movie, I went in with fairly low expectations, and I must admit that I enjoyed my visit to the theater. I can’t sit here and call this film a good movie, but it hit some personal high marks and the low marks didn’t get too deep under my skin. And as is the case with new release movies, I will be discussing the story and end credits scene so beyond lays spoilers.
Read the rest of this entry
Spider-Man: No Way Home
Spider-Man: No Way Home 2021
I ended up missing the past couple movie releases due to the arrival of a little bundle of joy that’s taken up much of my time lately. But I just couldn’t miss out on the latest Spider-Man movie especially with the multiverse aspect coming into play. And I’m very glad that I was able to see it as soon as I did. I’m not big on the anti-spoiler culture that has permeated a lot of the nerd fandom lately, I was just excited to see it as soon as possible. Plus I signed up for the latest Lambcast discussing this and every other Spider-Man film so I had an extra reason to see it. I’ve enjoyed every Spider-Man movie to some degree or another with my least favorite: Amazing Spider-Man 2 still being ranked as a fun-but-very-flawed film so I was happy to see them all come together in this film. There was plenty of fanservice to be had, but for the most part, it was all done with a degree of reverence, plus it all made sense to further the story or the characters. There were some more changes to this MCU Spider-Man timeline to help differentiate Tom Holland’s Peter Parker even more from the others than they already have but I loved this entry in this long-running and varied franchise. And as there are plenty of spoiler fanservice elements, beyond this paragraph will definitely be spoilers.
Read the rest of this entry
Shang-Chi
Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings 2021
This is only just the start of the squeezed MCU timeline as this is the second of four MCU films coming out this year that started with Black Widow just a couple months ago, Eternals in a couple more months, and Spider-Man: Far From Home to end out the year. Many of these MCU films are generally split down the middle more or less. Half of the film follows a more or less typical Marvel movie format with light comedy mixed throughout and a big end battle filled with explosions. The other half of the film gets to branch out into many different genres like spy thriller, war movie, sci-fi comedy, what have you. This does that to a certain extent, but it feels like the split was closer to 70-30 in favor of a martial arts/Wuxia film and I am all on board for that shift. After Black Widow’s moderate disappointment in that it followed the Marvel format a little too much, I absolutely loved every minute of this film from his audience surrogate friend slash potential love interest to the sympathetic villain to the fantastic-yet-still-unique CGI-filled climactic final battle sequence. And as this is a new release, as with all my reviews there may be spoilers ahead so if you want to go in fresh be warned.
Read the rest of this entry
Flights, Tights, and Movie Nights 