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Saturday, December 22, 2018

Film Review - Aqua-Man








If I told you a movie reminded me of a mash up between the original "Clash of the Titans" and "Flash Gordon" , you might assume the movie would be awesome, perhaps even more so if you knew that those were two of my favorite movies as a child. I am sure if I was a child that many things about "Aqua Man" would have worked for me. But I think the stories of Aqua-man that I played out in the bathtub with my action figures as a child made more sense than some of the stabs at bringing the myths of Atlantis to screen. When it comes to DC characters Aqua-man is in my top 10. So it's not that I thinking he is just the guy who talks to fish. While I was not convinced with Jason Momoa's performance in Justice League, I was open to giving him a second chance, and this time around it actually might have been worse.

Momoa has some big guns with tired and true acting chops to work off of namely Nicole Kidman and Willem DaFoe. This did not help, nor can I imagine these actors who had to have spent the bulk of the shoot in front if a green screen could take this seriously. The only thing they had going for them were the costumes which did not rely on cgi as much as some DC movies. Mera might have been the most convincing character, Black Manta cane across stiff and really served little purpose for being in the movie to begin with. Ocean Master was two dimensional at best. With "Guardians of the Galaxy" we were taken into a wildly exaggerated worlds with characters who did not take them selves seriously. Here they did take them selves seriously making the more absurd moment wackier.

The plot was pretty much cut and paste  all 80s fantasy movies. You ruined my family so I am going to go on a quest to redeem both them and my self. The big fight scenes also borrowed from other movies and here is where some of the Flash Gordon memories factored in. The movie went south fast and struggled to bring in even just the kind of comic  book level action that could keep my interest , by time we got to yet another DC climax where the producers one again just wanted to throw the rest of the budget into cgi and give it less heart than the boss battle at the end of a video game. This was also a problem with Wonder Woman. I can say "Wonder Woman "at least just fell apart at the end , but at least made you feel something about the characters. By the time I forced my self to watch the ending of this movie, I could have cared less as the stakes could not have been any lower. DC's next chance of pulling it together on the movie front will most likely be "Shazam".

Sunday, August 26, 2018

Marvel Fall of 2018







Ok trying to not go as long without weighing in on what's going on with Marvel, and by that I don't mean Thanos snapping, I mean what really matters the comics. I'll start with my favorite character and go from there. With Banner is back with his own series. Cho Hulk is relegated to the pages of Champions, and at this point almost feels like he is filling the gap for Doc Sampson. If I was writing for Hulk, Sampson is the first character I would bring back. Also what ever happened with Skaar Any ways lets look at what goes down here. This was the first comic I considered buying a physical copy of. Most of you should know the Hulk is my favorite comic book character and I have been reading him for 35 years. They get credit for reaching back into the Hulk's history to pull more obscure characters from. I am also excited at the real Defenders having a comeback, not this Luke Cage Netflix shit. Namor, the Surfer and Strange. Speaking of Dr. Strange is he one the same planet Black Panther is? Aside from the dwarf in his comics both books are on this Star Wars like kick that feels awkward in both cases, more so with Black Panther as it feels like something I have already seen in Captain America, at least with Dr. Strange magic makes it more interesting.

Spider-man seems like he is getting fucked up again. Bringing this other Peter Parker in is a mistake, Why is he fighting Sentinels ? Spider-geddon will hopefully kill off all the other Spider-people, I am good with just Jessica Drew, Silk, Peter and Miles. With Miles it's only because with the animated movie he is going anywhere. On the street level I am having a hard time caring about anyone else. Old Man Logan is currently occupying the best Daredevil story line that Matt Murdock is not in. Which works cus all the color coordinate X books dont have room for him. Red might be the best of the bunch. Not that the story-line is anything to really applaud for or make me want to read more , but it is more focused than the others. While we are on unfocused the Avengers vs Celestials thing is reading like Justice League. It also proves that Ghost Rider is out of place. I like that Alpha Flight are popping up all over the place , but they just need their own book. It's also sad that the first issue of West Coast Avengers was as bad as it was, Gwenpool alone could ruin a book, so when Hawkeye is the best you have go there is trouble , the book is too much about jokes, if Tigra shrinks down and joins the team to replace Gwenpool their might be hope.

Sentry got my hopes up in the first issue but devolves into what is dreams in another reality and what is real, they throw a fight with Iron-Man on the cover of the third issue and Iron Man is not even in the book. This supporting cast of other Sentries that are not real is getting too much focus, Why did Misty Knight get sent in to law down the law to Reynolds who could kill her with a sneeze did not make much sense either. Last but not least in fake covers is the lingering build to bring back the Fantastic Four. That first issue was a tease. Hopefully this won't get too drawn out. I think Dr. Doom has become more convoluted, when if you go back to the first Secret Wars series he is the premiere villain as he should be. Just cause they cant get him right in the movies is not an excuse to screw him up now. So there is some hope they can get things right by the end of the year, at this point things are too close to call. Thor is once again a mess , the art might have worked for Weirdworld , but not the book is hard to read. 

Monday, July 9, 2018

Film Review : Ant Man & Wasp






After the girl Thor I am sure it's easy to think I don't like female superheroes if you haven't been a regular reader and know that many of my favorite marvel character are women...She-Hulk, Tigra, Ilsa Bloodstone, Angela. Satanna and Wasp. In fact I was more excited to see her onscreen than Ant-Man. I liked the first movie as it didn't take it self too seriously, but was pretty true to the character. I thought Marvel had already screwed the pooch , by no having Hank and Janet as part of the original team which did not include Black Widow and Hawkeye, so from that point we are totally off canon \, but that's what we have been dealing with. So the original Janet got lost in the sub-atomic universe and Scott is on house arrest when the movie picks up.

Ghost who is now a girl, has the main goal of self preservation and is competing against some gangsters trying to steal Pym's tech. I think they missed an opportunity here to make the gangsters,characters from the comics.It could have been villains like Boomerang, Blizzard, Constrictor , Grizzly ...I can name them all day, but you see where I am going here. There is really no point in Marvel ever making new characters for the movies. Th action sequences are highly entertaining, though the fight choreography is beginning to get stale as all the hand to hand is beginning to feel the same. Wasp does the same flying head scissors as Black Widow, at least have each character use a different style of martial arts.

I do like how they jerk the rug out from under you at the end to tie it into Infinity War, that certainly places Ant-man in a position to reach our "decease" heroes in a unique way. Since this is a path Dr. Strange has already traveled, he would be the link to Ant-man, and the tech exists to bring Ant-man back, can Stark and Banner figure it out, that is if Banner is not a Skrull, or perhaps he is and that is what he is trying to learn for himself. Overall I think Wasp came close to stealing the show, but Rudd is stayed true to his character so continues to make him likable. If you didn't see the first movie it's ok you can jump in and figure it out as they recap in a way.

Monday, May 28, 2018

Film Review : Deadpool 2




The sequel to the quirky mutants anti-super hero film, is more of a super hero film and it continues to make fun of that fact. The problem this self aware fourth wall breaker faces is the shock of being different only works once. I think the inclusion of Cable , Domino, Juggernaut and hell even Shatterstar, makes this feel more like it's placed in the Marvel Universe. When I walked out of this movie I realized I could not remember who the bad guy was in the first movie and in this film the bad guy is even more unimpressive. Deadpool faces a problem similar to guys like Black Panther, Luke Cage and Iron Fist have, a shallow rogues gallery. Deadpool does have enough of a personality to carry a movie where the other heroes mentioned are less fleshed out and somewhat stiff.  This in turn makes the tension dulled. There is now sense of urgency as we are hoping a kid who is not even cool enough for the New Mutants doesn't go off the rails.















Reynolds is pretty comfortable now in this role. Brolin also slides into the techno virus of Cable pretty easily. When it comes to Domino I think this was a missed opportunity. Deadpool himself calls her a black Black Widow, which is how this character comes across. I got the ironic easter egg in the fact she landed on an inflatable panda bear who looks more like Domino than she did in this movie. Domino's scenes came across as just something that looks good to get the blood pumping to dub step. Of course people are raving saying she should get her own movie or one she teams up with Deadpool. There is little chemistry between her and Reynolds. Half of their interaction is over a head set and most of the time she in wandering off doing her own thing. In an X-Force movie it could work, but left to her own the problems that Deadpool has would be multiplied.

Some of the film's strongest performance came from CGI'ed characters Colossus and Juggernaut. With the rest of the returning cast going overboard to compensate for us having seem them before. The winks at the audience trying to hard. Deadpool's trademark crazed banter with himself continued to have charm of it's own, though when taking more blatant pop culture references wore at you by the end of the film where it culminated into almost Wizard of Oz level melodrama. I get that this movie is stupid fun almost to the point now of being like one of the "Airplane" films. It is like laughing at fart jokes, though those are almost more high brow than this movie at times. It was fun, and though Deadpool didn't die another movie might find them going to the well too many times. This is supported by the films 66% drop it's second week. Deadpool might have avoided one bomb, the future might be an uglier one time travel can't save him from.


Saturday, April 28, 2018

Film Review-Avengers Infinity War




 This is the ten year culmination of what we have been building up to. For some actors this means they have become very comfortable in their roles.With many of the actors contracts running up we knew going into this things were going to change, which translates to characters were going to die. Before we get into the meat of things in that regard, which can't be the elephant in the room because I think it is what gave audiences the strongest reactions, lets address that is what we are going to talk about at some point. So rather than shouting spoilers and being overly sensitive to your needs in that regard the fact of the matter is if you waited ten years for this and still haven't seen the movie by the time you are reading this, then it was much of a priority to you in the first place so who cares what gets spoiled or not.

Here I weigh things heavily against the comics, since this is a comic book blog not a movie blog. They pulled from various incarnations of the Infinity Gauntlet Saga. Obviously since the Black Order is a more recent invention. There were big difference in the story due to the fact people like Sliver Surfer and Adam Warlock are not involved. Mar-vell is coming and being played by Jude Law, but that is not where we are when we get to this film. The first device they use is having Thanos first whip up on Thor , Hulk and Loki to establish what kind of threat he is. This is the only real appearance of the Hulk as Banner is impotent to become him in this regard for the bulk of the movie also meaning they faked us out with fake trailers since the scene with the Hulk running behind them on Wakanda never happens.

The stars of this movie are really Thor, Dr. Strange and Scarlet Witch. Iron - Man has some moments but like Thanos says he does a lot of work for just a drop of blood. Spider -man is out powered holding his own better against the Black Order than Thanos. The Guardians of the Galaxy have some great moments with Thor and Mantis is more fleshed out. What what do Captain America and Black Widow do? Less than Vision thats for sure. Black Panther reaffirms the fact when he is not the sole super hero in the room, he falls back to being next to useless. He did very little in this movie and nothing against Thanos. In fact it was Thor who rescued Wakanda. Wakanda for ever held less weight as it was more "Wakanda for the next twenty minutes" or "Wakanda until we need a Nordic god to save us". Captain America did not do much more , but contributed more when it came time to throw down , being able to hold his own against Proxima Midnight, when both Black Widow and Shuri were getting their butts kicked by her later.

Dr. Strange should have had Thanos on the ropes midway into the movie. Scarlet Witch was able to hold him back with one hand. As a bad guy Thanos was one of the better ones to grace the screen. Not as clever as Loki, but more complex than he was in the comics. The only two complaints that are coming from the movie are the end. Who died and the general ignorance of people going into it not realizing this was only the first half, The Black Panther death got under the skins of some. Mot only did he get killed at the box office by this movie , but he got killed on screen. I think this took the gas out of the hype machine, I would prefer to have lost Scarlet Witch, Spider-man and Dr. Strange, but if that's how things went , it defied my expectations, so I am fine with it if this is a permanent death. I'll lend my theories on how they could work around this in the future in another entry, but right now this is what we got. I think Dr. Strange and Scarlet Witch certainly went out on a high note. Sure I could have used more Hulk. but they are juggling lots of pawns and I am fine with the Hulk not being in it at all as he is more of a loner , but oh well. This is one of the better Marvel movies for sure.

Tuesday, March 20, 2018

Jessica Jones Season 2





It is not only wishful thinking for the Comic Book Resources review to call the second season of Jessica Jones a gift to women , but warped thinking. While there is echoes of the #metoo phenomena in the story line the directors insist this was a coincidence and it had been made way before that. So that leaves us with a heavily female  cast who are addicts, alcoholics, whores, backstabbers, murderers  and the worst of humanity be it male or female. Jones herself was made less likable. He angst worked well in the first season and alright in the train wreck that was Defenders. The best thing about this season might have been Whizzer or the wink to the Ringleader, though both resembled their comic personas little. Aside from that even Foggy Nelson didn't make it feel that rooted in the Marvel Universe. The reason for this is also the main crux of this season's bad guy.

The first season stood out as it was the first time we had really seen a villain with this kind of power set. Not only was Killgrave charismatic in ways Micheal B Jordan's praised villain failed at , but aside from Loki, we had not seen one this devious. Here they pulled one out of their ass that doesn't even exist rather than pulling from the deep treasure trove of the comics. We got her mom. Whose powers were just amplified version of Jessica's falling back to the mirror image cliche the movies are stuck in. If they wanted to do that they could have at least used Titania. Speaking of a gift to women, having a mom with no qualms about beating the shit out of her daughter is certainly something for women to aspire to. But she was on the top of the worst humans list.  This is not a bad place to be for a villain, but , it would have been more interesting if Jessica had gone in to see a court ordered shrink and it turned out to be Moonstone.They could have stuck with the weapon x like we got our powers all the wrong way theme and worked in Jessica Drew. Drew getting her start as a villain could have worked.

Then there is still no Hell-Cat when this season would have made the most sense. Walker also became less likable this season. The story much like that of Luke Cage felt like it was stretched thin over the course of the 13 episodes and that they ran out of things to say midway into it. The ghost of Killgrave was a neat touch that disappeared . I think the fact Jessica Jones was never meant to be a headliner shows in this season as they milked the character for everything  she is worth when not in the Avengers or with Luke Cage. Black Panther's directors should take not of this going into a sequel as they blew their wad on the first movie as well. This season was still a little better than the first season of Luke Cage or Iron Fist, but then you are saying of all the rotten fruit this one is drawing the least flies.

Marvel 2018 first Quarter







I has taken me some time to get this done as comics have been less than inspiring except for the return of the Hulk in No Surrender and the news that Sentry is getting his own book again.  So here is a look at some of the books from the first quarter. Marvel is beginning to do a lot better in 2018, here is a look at some titles of not mostly for better the worst one was ...Black Panther 169

Complaints about the legacy numbering systems is it shows white character like Captain America are at 697 issues where Black Panther is at 169, well when you are a supporting character in your own book it probably means you are a better supporting character than a lead, which is why his movie doesn't bode well. He started as a supporting character in Fantastic Four. The 169th issue finds the focus on his two lesbian body guards. He gets one panel and yet another comic where the cover has nothing to do with what is inside. If you were to spend 3.00 on this in a comic book store you should be pissed.

Captain Marvel 168

This was almost as bad as Black Panther, space opera that was a jumble, we had Sasquatch shooting guns like Chewbacca. The Alpha Flight is getting butchered as her side kicks. Carol is lost and this book lacks direction.

All New Wolverine 30

The common theme is too many guest stars are crammed into each issue. I hate the way Laura is being drawn.Hopefully this arc is over and the book will get better, as long as they switch artists.

Phoenix Ressurection

Forced to choose between this and the Jean Grey book I chose this one as two books re out of hand. She says good by to the Phoenix force, guess we will see where this goes for better or worse.

Amazing Spider Man - 794

It wasn't the worst issue but Scorpio from the Zodiac is kind of a lame villain. I know Bobbi is Peter's girl friend , but tired of her tagging along all the time. It looks like Norman Osborn is going to become Carnage, well they have had worse ideas and he has already worn an Iron-man suit so we know he likes to play dress up.

the Incredible Hulk 712

The worst Thor vs Hulk ever. The way it was drawn sucked. They were throwing punches behind one another, it was framed in a way that did not make sense. Who ever drew this had never seen a fight before in real life. Story wise well Cho proves he is a pussy by not letting go and letting a Hulk be a Hulk.

Avengers 677

This whole No Surrender story seems like a variation of the original Secret Wars, but on Earth with the Grandmaster taking the Beyonder's role. This issue mainly focuses on Quick Sliver with, Living Lighting, Scarlet Witch and Human Torch as support though the others are in the mix. They throw down with the Black Order which is clearly getting you more familiar with them for the movies to come.

Marvel Two In One 2

I like the fact this book is continuing the story of the Fantastic Four who despite the terrible movies that have been made you feel like you don't realize how much you will miss them til they are gone. With Mole Man and Doom in tow all that is missing is Reed and Sue.

The Falcon 4

The 4th issue of Falcon was better than expected, but he is another hero about to be crowded out by his supporting cast, I love Son of Satan, but if you already had Brother Voodoo then it's getting crowded, Marvel in trying to be PC, inadvertently is racist by assuming if a character is black he knows all other black people and has them on speed dial, just because Brother Voodoo works with one sect of Avengers doesn't mean he is tight with Sam. In fact this was more up Hellstorm's alley so why is Jericho in it at all?


Iron-Man 595

Was not as bad as Black Panther, but wasn't good. The art was better than Black Panther's though. It is basically Marvel trying to undo messes they have made.


Captain America 697

I didn't care for the art , but damn it was well written. Throws in Kraven a the Spider-man villain, which is always a nice touch to see one hero fight another hero's villain. It was done in a way that makes sense in the context of the larger story they are trying to tell here and puts Captain America back where he needs to be.

X-men Blue 20 / X-men Blue Annual 1

Issue 20 finds the stuck in the mess that is time colliding with different dimensions and is a mess. The annual find them trying to rescue the Starjammers from a symbiotic planet but first they fight Venom, Jean takes care of him, though Angel, Ice-man and Beast don't do as well.

Guardians of the Galaxy 150

Adam Warlock is back, the way he is handled makes me think the writer read to much Sand-man , but we shall see, otherwise it's a pretty decent lead in to the next Infinity Event, I am still not totally sold on Ant-man being on board, but this is better than most of I have read from this book recently so I called call it an improvement.

Spider-Man 236

I don't hate Miles. This was not one of his best stories he is in the 616 universe and trying to bolster him by giving him variations of Spider-Man villains with a few real ones thrown in is not doing him any favors. Why can't he have his own bad guys? The whole dad thing, seems a little tired and super -retconned.


Sunday, February 18, 2018

The Top 30 Marvel Movies







When Marvel started making movies we were just glad to see these characters on the screen. Now it's a billion dollar hype machine. People need to attach things to these character that just isn't there. Fuck the politics of what Hollywood wants them to  promote on any given day and lets look at how these movies stack up against one another. Ranked on a scale of 1 to 10 in terms of faithfulness to the comics , acting , cinematography these qualities put them where they sit on this list. Since after all those are the most important elements of a movie about super-heroes, story wise they already have it laid out for them.



1-Dr. Strange

Faith-9

Act-10- The best cast yet

Cine-10

29...the best of the bunch.



2-Captain America Winter Solider

Faithful-9

Act- 9

cine- 9

27

This movie had the most heart Marvel has committed to film so far



3-Iron Man

faith-8

Act-9

cine 9

26

Kicked off the concept of a shared universe. Rober Downey jr, became Stark.

4-Captain America

faith -9

Act- 8

Cine-9

26




5- Captain America Civil War

Faith - 7

Act-9

cine-9

25

The most heroes they have had on screen up until this point, Spider-man and Ant-man stole the show.


6-Blade

Faith 8

Act- 8

Cine- 9

25...Black Panther might have been created by some white men in 62 making him the first black Marvel hero, but Blade was the first black hero to hit the big screen. If he is not a hero then neither is Bat-man. Some classic scenes in the movie that was really well done considering when it came out.

7-Incredible Hulk


Faith - 8

Act- 9... thanks to Ed Norton

Cine-8

Norton is probably the best Banner yet.



8-Guardians of the Galaxy

Faith -8

Act- 8

Cine 9

25... Groot and Rocket stole the show.

9-Deadpool

Faith-7

Act- 8

Cine- 9

24...Rated r super hero movies became a thing, tone was better than their faithfulness or lack of to the books



10-Logan

Faith- 6

Act - 8

Cine -8

24...Gritty in all the right ways even though it never touches the Old Man Logan Story.




11-Punisher War Zone


Faith - 9

Act- 7

Cine- 8

24...as violent as it should be.



10- Spider-Man 2

Faith - 8

Act-8

Cine- 8

24- Molina's Dr. Octopus was great and Mcguire got comfortable with the role.

11- the Avengers

Faith - 6

Act- 9

cine-8

23- Their chemistry worked despite the cgi vomited ending that became an unfortunate super-hero staple.





12-Spider-Man Homecoming

Faith 7

Act-8

Cine 8

Thankfully spared another origin story, Holland is the best of the three Spider-men


13- X-men First Class

Faith -6

Act- 8

Cine- 8

22...guess they didn't know who was actually in the first class, it was the most fun I had in an X-men movie up to this point.



14-Iron-Man 3

Faith - 5

Act-9...thanks to Robert Downey jr

Cine 8

22...the movies villains were a little weak, but Downey pulled it together.


15-Amazing Spider Man

Faith - 8

Act- 7

Cine-7

22...too soon for a reboot, the mask came off way too much.

16-Blade 2

Faith -  8

Act-6

Cine - 7

22...still fun, they should have ended it here and not made the third movie


17-Guardians of the Galaxy 2

Faith - 5

Act-8

Cine 8

21...Mantis was a Pokemon and it was way too goofy.

17- Avengers Age of Ultron

Faith - 4

Act- 8

Cine-8

20...at least we got Vision and Scarlet Witch though way too far from the source material.

18-Ant-man

Faith 4

Act-8

Cine 8

20...This should have been Pym,

19-Iron - Man 2

Faith - 4

Act-8

Cine-8

20...not sure what didn't work about this movie, maybe it way when Whip Lash got armor.

20-Spider-man

Faith-8

Act-6

Cine-6

20...why was the Green Goblin a Power Ranger?

21-Thor the Dark World

Faith - 3

Act-8

Cine - 8

19...why were elves in space ships?



22-Thor

Faith - 4

Act-7

Cine-7

18...He didn't have his powers half the movie and they were too apologetic about him being a god not an alien.



24- Amazing Spider man 2

Faith-5

Act- 6

Cine- 7

18...Electro was terrible

25-Black Panther

Faith- 6

Act-5

Cine - 6

17...the acting was terrible with accents that came and went scene to scene, supporting cast was either wooden or acted like teenagers, we are too far into this to have cgi of this low quality.

26- Fantastic four 2 rise of Sliver Surfer

Faith - 4

Act-5

Cine- 7

16...might have been better if Galactus was not a purple cloud.

27-Daredevil

Faith- 6

Act- 4

Cine-6

16-acting was as stiff as Affleck looked in that suit.

28-Punisher


faith-6

Act-5

Cine   - 4 

15...I tried really hard to like it when it came out.

29-Spider-man 3

faith-3

Act-4

Cine -7

14...Venom was horrible

                                           

30- Man-Thing

Faith 4

Act4

cine 3

Worse than the second Swamp Thing , but we did get titties for this b-horror movies right from the jump.





Saturday, February 17, 2018

The Truth About Black Panther- (an unpaid film review)





This movie has a lot of hype around it. Marvel wants to break into a demographic with what you would be led to believe is their first black led film...if you have forgotten about Blade. They want you to this is as important as "Roots" and "Chaka Zulu" combined but it is more like "the Lion King" meets "James Bond". It is not as terrible as I feared, but it's not great either. Social media might even try to tell you it's racist to not kiss this movie's ass, so if you are into below average cgi, accents that come and go at random and every action movie plot cliche then believe the reviews the studios have paid for.Before you shout conspiracy, I personally been paid to write positive reviews for albums by record labels, and movie studios have much more money than record labels.

Black Panther got his start as part of the supporting cast of the Fantastic Four. He was a Bat-man of the jungle. His book has been cancelled more often than not due to the fact he works better as part of a team than on his own, and even this movie conveys that. When he appeared in Civil War, I thought Boseman was a little small to be Black Panther and when he appears shirtless on screen this fact is further hammered home. Boseman looks like he did yoga to prepare for the role rather than hit the gym. He seems unsure of himself as king, and the biggest disservice it does to the character is having him rely on his supporting cast for his tech rather than have him at the level of intelligence he possesses in the comics. Seems racist to me, but this is just one of the movies many flaws.

Klaw is well acted by Serkis, but nothing like the character in the comics, who most importantly doesn't die. He is not a pink energy monster, which might have been more interesting. I think he is also a better bad guy than Jordan who appears to be just another black guy with a chip on his shoulder a stereotype Hollywood has already gotten enough mileage out of. They are trying to tell you that he has a slant other Marvel villains have not had. A bastard who is shut out from his birth right and wants to claim the throne? Loki did that better. Man-Ape is also a villain who is wishy washy  in his motives and I can't see giving in to help Wakanda.

The strong females are just as two dimensional as the Amazons in Wonder Woman. Most get confusing because it becomes hard to tell who is who if not for their hairdos, most act like teenagers and it seemed like T'Challa was kissing his sister at the end , until she pops back up when they go to California. Also the end scene with Bucky was meh and overall the movie did not feel connected to the larger Marvel universe. Why didn't it come up in Killmonger's big plant to take over the world with black power that he would have to get through the Avengers to do so and judging by the fire power in the big fight at the end of the movie Wakanda would't stand a chance against them. The Hulk vs Man-ape and the kissing rhinos...no contest. Iron-man vs Wakanda tech...no contest. Thor could have put an end to all that real quick.

They pretty much blew their wad with this one unless Nekra is the bad guy for the next film or they bring in the Fantastic Four and Dr.Doom, because Black Panther's rouges gallery is pretty limited. Just like the character himself. The depth of the rogues gallery should bring out different sides of the character... Spider-man is a good example here. Black Panther was more fleshed out in the comics than here. The last 30 minute began to put me to sleep which was the supposed climax, the fight vs Killmonger in the mine seemed like it was retread from any sci-fi  action movie you might name and the space ships were pitiful. The big sweeping shots and afro-heritage scenes came across the most Lion King,  I am glad I did not pay to see this and while it was not as bad as I feared, it feel short of Ant-man by a few degrees. It was better than Cat-woman or Steel, so there is that.  Sure more racial issues are touched on than other Marvel films, unless you count the Hulk being discriminated against for being angry while green, I looked at it in terms of here does it stack against the comics and here does it stack against other Marvel films.