Film Review : Spider-man No Way Home

 This phase of the Spider-man trilogy comes to an end in a big way. I have a couple of friends who have not cared for Tom Holand in the role and this movie dismisses such notions in a very vivid manner. It picks up where the previous film left off with Parker's identity being revealed. If you have seen the trailer and have half a brain the plot is not surprise. Nor are there any surprises that are not numbered among the fan theories. Though there are a few theories that do not come to life, this movie does not include Captain Marvel who was rumored to appear and try to hunt Spider Man down. Nor does Miles Morales appear. Kraven the Hunter is also not one of the film's villains.  Dr. Strange is one of the main characters but really only bookends the film, yet this movie is a clear cut set up for his sequel. 

If you did not like the previous Holland movies, I do not think you are going to like this one. Since magic figures in as a key plot point, if you need hyper realism then stick to Bat-man movies.  It feels more like a comic book. Which is the tone these movies should have. They try to fix a few problems the movies have had. It is well paced and two of the major fan's theories do occur and pay off well. It almost made me think if the internet buzz is the new focus group and wonder if Marvel did reshoots for these. I think there is a balance of meeting expectations. The focal point is not his legal disputes though the thought of Spider-man being painted as a more of an anti-hero is present. His relationship with Dr. Strange is pretty comics accurate.  I think the only flaw in the movie this version of MJ.  She worked better in the previous film, but the chemistry is not believable and trying to paint them as a couple in real life is one of the oldest Hollywood tricks in the book, if you need an example of this watch the movie "Hail Caeser" . I give that picture they are trying to paint with them a month or two before that clause in their contract expires. 

Yes, this movie is a huge marketing vehicle. The Marvel brand is out the center. To the point that this is the first time one of the post credit scenes has been a trailer. This is done in a way that works and is not heavy handed until that moment. The movie is a lot of fun, one of the strengths is how it redeem William Dafoe, who has the movies best performance, no that is not a spoiler, he is in the trailer so if you get your feelings hurt by thinking it is, then go fuck yourself.  This movie sets up the next phase of Marvel movies better than anything we have seen so far and is the best of the four Marvel movies released this year.   

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.

Film Review : Thor Ragnarok

The third installment of the Thor movies is the most entertaining of the three, but is that really saying much considering how flawed the first two are. The first well Thor doesn’t have his powers most of the movie, the depowering route means the writers don’t know how to handle the character in their true form. The second movie was better to some extent though we had elves in space ships. The third film is fun , but has major problems. I am a huge Thor fan, I have the Walt Simonson Thor tattooed on me. So the bar is high, but I want to see Thor on screen. I like Chris as Thor, I think the script he has to work with most of the time leaves something to be desired.

Clearly this movie was following a blueprint laid out by the Guardians of the Galaxy films.As it tried to inject more humor into the story. To the point of making the Hulk come across like Drax when he was given something to do aside from smash. Sometimes this worked better than other, using the Hulk in a humorous context worked better on the first Avengers movie , if the Hulk was going to have a sense of humor which he is typically to angry to have one, it should be handled more like it was there. But of the movie’s problems this was actually the mildest one. I can understand on following the comic books frame for frame. When it comes to the actual Norse mythology, the comics have been more faithful to it than others , but have adhered to the basics, aside from obvious faults like turning Jane Foster in a Thor. I get that Valkyrie was not Brunhilde, though I did like the wink to her in the flashback sequence. The problem is Valkrie’s are not sworn to protect Asgard they are sworn to take dead warriors to Valhalla, pretty basic core stuff.

Another big plot fail is the fact Hel is the daughter of Loki, not his sister. OOPS, that pretty much pisses on the point of the movie. Toilet flushing inserted here. So with the basic premise being foolish, let's look at what I liked. Dr Strange being way more powerful was cool to see. I also liked Korg and Meik being included in the wink to the Greg Pak “Planet Hulk” storyline. Funny how it made it into this movie after having Beta Ray Bill replacing the Silver Surfer in the cartoon adaptation. Why Beta Ray Bill wasn’t in the movie I don’t know , while the Hulk is my favorite superhero I would have prefered Beta Ray Bill fighting Thor in the arena if we had to go that route. I thought Hel looked good and Skurge was fairly true to the character. The film leads us up to where Thor and Loki are going to fall into the Infinity War. We already know the Hulk buddies up with Rocket Racoon. So it’s too bad the Thor films never got it right , but at least this one was fun getting it wrong.  

Movie Review : " Dr. Strange"

My wife will tell you how I have been talking about this movie for the past three years. Dr. Strange stands along side the Hulk and Thor as my favorite Marvel characters. Until Spider-man was announced I was pretty adamant that this was going to be one of the last great Marvel films. Once you see this movie you will begin to question just how great were those other Marvel films. I still feel pretty strongly about the first Captain America and Iron-man, but I would say Dr. Strange is better than those. Perhaps it is because of the freedom the movie has to throw the suspension of disbelief out the window. Magick is not explained away as science like it is in the Thor movies.

My only slight concern with this is magick is not given limits or shown as taxing them in any way once it is mastered. In the original comics this was how it was presented, and there are some Greatest American Hero moments with the Cloak of Levitation. I suppose we also see what happens when you use the dark dimension to supplement your powers. The cast didn't have any weakness either from Strange to Mordo the cast could do no Wong. I do think Wong's role should shift once Strange is the Sorcerer Supreme. I did not catch what they said in the London Sanctum to the character defending it if he was Jericho Drumm or not...Brother Voodoo. I think at wink toward's Clea would have been nice and if I was making a fan boy wish list one of the Acolytes could have been Damien Hellstorm.
Yes, Rachel McAdams is the same character as Rosario Dawson in the Net Flix shows. So that is awkward. See I did not complain about Tilda Swinton's Ancient one cause she is great so take that social justice Ghost Busters.

The effects were the best of any Marvel movie to date, though it looks like they are stepping it up on the trailer to the Guardians of the Galaxy trailer so the bar is high. Were there elements that bring to mind the Matrix and Inception. Yes, but it was not a deal breaker for me, Swinton could have almost asked him to pick the red pill or the blue pill at one point. The action was well paced. The fight scenes were martial arts based, but creative enough though a common theme was lets keep running as we fight. The fight in the astral plane was pretty awesome and one of the movie's high points along with the showdown with the big bad who if you do not know is in the movie I will not utter his name here, but could have used a little more flame on his head, but closer to the comics than Galactus was in Fantastic Four, or Dr. Doom if we are talking about the last movie. No major issues, laughed more than I thought I would it was endearing and you can go into this movie knowing less about the character than you did for Ant-man. Would see it again in theaters if I was bored. I saw it in 3d, which was expensive, but effective.

This Fall in Marvel or the Fall of Marvel?

So I am a little behind in writing this and after starting this blog 6 years ago as my own passion project I have realized how shitty comics have become in the past 6 years and have to dig deeper to find inspiration to write about them . This is a problem if some one loves comics enough to write about them on a consistent basis then who is to blame when they no longer can find the same joy the once had reading them. Not burned out on Marvel's characters as I played the Future Fight game on a daily basis,I am committed  the characters ...I have Thor tattooed on one arm and eventually want to get the Hulk and Dr. Strange. It's the fact Marvel has gotten rid of so many of the core characters to replace them with social justice versions, which might be the plight of what will happen when Disney buys them finally settled into place. No this doesn't mean I am giving up on this blog, I don't give up my inspiration shifted to having to be a voice that says "Marvel you have lost your way, You are fucking up"

 Sure Amazing Spider-man right now is bringing some good moments, but will it fix the Clone debacle or dig a deeper grave with "Dead No More"?   Dr. Strange is also pretty solid and finds Stephen so far as the same character not a female or colored version of the character though the end of Magic thing is getting a little plodding. Sam Wilson Captain America finds Sam having to stoop low enough to take the fight to US Agent in a way that allow him to beat him.This happens to still make the book better than the 5th issue of the Steve Rogers Captain America book. The 9th issue of Captain Marvel finds the Alpha Flight turn on her. The Dr. Strange annual could have been much better than it was and finds Clea's return being very anti-climatic. Web Warriors needs to be put out of it's misery, but it seems to keep going for no known reason. I didn't bother with Squirrel Girl or X-men 92. Cage's first issue is weird almost like a Crumb book and almost bordering on being racist in it's stereotypes, it feels like Mad Magazine parodying a Luke Cage comic.

Spider-Woman 's 11th issue finds Jessica Drew confronting Carol Danvers and power set is just not enough to do any damage more than hurt here feelings. Hopefull we will see Danvers get her ass kicked good by someone over the course of this though I have a feeling it won't be Tony Stark. Totally Awesome Hulk finds Black Panther going after Cho. He is using a Wakanda Hulk Buster armor of sorts and tries pulling out every trick in the book, but while it's left hanging thanks to stupid sub-plots with Cho's sister, if Cho can't outsmart T'Challa then this book has proven itself unworthy. Speaking of odd fights the 5th issue of Thunderbolts finds Winter Soldier gunning for Miles Morales. I am not sure how Miles who is a kid can hold his own so well against some one with Bucky's experience. If this was Peter Parker I would get it.The 3rd issue of the Kingpin Civil War issue finds this book heading in a direction that is a better depiction of Punisher than the Punisher's own book making this one of the week's best books. The first issue of the Champions is alright, the chemistry of the team needs some work. The art is un-even, better in some places than others often too cartoonish.

Catching Up with Marvel This Week

Ok...  a week after Dragon-con , things are returning to normal. Thinking back at the Con it seems Dead Pool is the most popular character in the Marvel Universe based off of the sheer volume of merch worn and cosplay. Comic wise we are in a lull as they have taken have taken too long for the throw down that should be the new civil war.

Amazing Spider- Man is full on into "Dead No More' and showed up Prowler's fate and how the new female  Electro comes about, but there was little in the way of actual Peter Parker. Uncanny X-men did not have much going on aside from the introduction of the New Hell-fire club. Introductions has been the them lately as Dare-Devil's 11th issue entangled him with the In-Humans, and also brought in this new serial killer big bad. Squadron- Supreme had them squaring off against Spider-man, who held his own against the team longer than you would suspect. The 12th issue of Silk finds them at the beginning of the end for this series as she is off in the Negative Zone, and away from the back drop that works best for her character. Invincible Iron-Man find the ground work being paved for Victor Von Doom to take over.

The All New All Different Avengers was another book full of prep work for Marvel's agenda to replace every one so Disney will be left holding their mouse dicks, as they continued to introduce this new version of Wasp, even though Janet is not going any where.While it gets points for being both original and a mind fuck the 6th issue of Moon Knight, continues to make things more obtuse. The 11th issue of Dr. Strange re-introduces Baron Mordo and I dod give them props for not feeling the need to make him the black Mordo from the movie coming out in a couple of months. If diversity is not organic than it is just another buzz-word in the agendas of bigger machines moving toward a one world government... and that is not just a Hydra plot.

This Week in Marvel : 2/9/16

Though it wasn't the best nor the worst episode, Agents of Shield returned to shockingly low ratings. While Marvel will redeem themselves with the second season of Daredevil. If Agents of Shield tanks the rest of the season then what does that mean for their network tv deal? Well the first shots of Spider-man in Civil War made the Internet forget about not only Bat-Man Vs Super-man , but Daredevil too. But back to what really matters here and that's comics. After a pretty good week last week, this week it's hit or miss, but they do knock it out of the ball park a couple of times.

It is a shame the 5th and final issue of Black Knight didn't end on a better note. Sure throwing Hydra and Merlin into the same issue was fun, the story seems rushed and there was too many pieces on the board.The first issue of Mockingbird was terrible. The art was ok, but over all lacked action and story. Wasn't that impressed with the Uncanny Avengers take on the whole Standoff thing leading into what will turn to Civil War 2.The art in the 6th issue of Guardians of the Galaxy had decent art, the intent to push it in the right direction was there , but the execution was off. Most of this centered around the writers inability to find the proper voice for the characters making Quill and Kitty seem like they had little to no chemistry together, being on a team much less a relationship. Though the cover says that the 9th issue of Amazing Spider was the start of a brand new story line it seemed like the same old same old that they have been running the past 8 issue with Zodiac. The fact Parker has a rocket ship makes this seem like a cartoon. He even survives a fall from space because he has more gadgets than Bat-man now. This is a problem.

 In other problems the density has shifted on Vision in his 5th issue and the book is going down. It was pretty dull. The art is really slacking as well. In the solidly tepid department Spider-man 2099  wasn't bad in any area, the story just seemed very color by numbers. If the next issue of Red Wolf ...which will be their 5th doesn't get any better it will be the last time I waste a minute of my life on that book, it hasn't been terrible but if we get to 5 issues with nothing really happening and it feeling like a watered down version of Banshee then I'm over it. The 5th issue of Ms. Marvel finds it improving with her golems, but on thing I realized is she really hasn't faced much fire power on her own in terms of bad guys . Weird World 4 is another huge waste of time with even the art getting sloppy. Almost as sloppy as Spider-Gwen


Infinity Entity must be their way to bring Adam Warlock back in time for Guardians of the Galaxy 2, which is fine by me, I find it a little weird  that Jim Starlin would miscalculate his powers so grossly. Other than that it captured the classic Marvel feel.  The only way to save face in the Jane Foster throw down with Odin was for something to happen that distracted Odin and caused him to step away from the fight. This was the death of his wife.So they dodged the bullet while still pushing their agenda "Damn the white male patriarch god, we have girl power".The comments section on the site I read this book makes Thor the most hated book in comics right now. But will Marvel admit to this mistake? or are the too invested in it? I had to stop and re-read Dr. Strange's 6th issue before it clicked with me, but in the end it shows this book continues to rise to the top of Marvel's heap. The end section with the wink to Harry Potter is pretty funny. Agents of Shield rivals Dr. Strange in it's 3rd issue in terms of being the weeks best book. It feels like the best parts of the show, mixed with what we want from the Marvel Universe and helps to set up Civil War 2 in a big way. It brings up some questions like what they fuck is up with that Wolverine, which comes out of left field. Speaking of Wolverine the 6th issue of the all new title is pretty decent ending this arc of her clone saga.

Post- Age of Ultron

You know we are dealing with the same mess we had a few weeks ago, there isn't really anybook I'm finding that entertaing though the Avenger's Enemy Within book was the best of the bunch, Iron-Man being a cosmic character seems like they are reaching, Thor has great art but is an obtuse read that suffers from the time travel plague sweeping across the company as a whole. Can you think of any book where it's not mucked up with time travel, body swtiching or alternate reality? Daredevil is the only one that pops into my head, though the rather underwhelming Thunderbolts counts. The Hulk will end up in some sort of return to the savage land with the Raw Hide Kid showing up and riding dinosaurs so that sounds like another time slip of a mess.

Defenders now has a Wonder=woman knock off, why not make Valkyrie your Wonder-woman kncok off? Then bringing in Neil Gaiman's Angela character to end the Age of Ultron, is Joss Whedon in charge how did we end up with so manny warrior women, not that I havea problem with them, some of my favorite marvel characters are women,...She-hulk, Tigra, Wasp and Scarlet Witch. Why not further develop those?

So we can agree Age of Ultron is a flop, it should have taken place in the Ultimate Universe, so looking ahead we have this Infinity which will be rehash of the Infinity Gauntlet story, bringing Thanos in and ramping up Guardians of the Galaxy for the big screen, we know Captain America,Thor and Spider-man have movies coming out so expect them to be spotlighted.So Captain America should have his other worldly adventures wrapped up by septemeber, according to sollicts the God-slayer thing gets drug out in Thor til August, and Expect Peter Parker to be back by the time the sequel hits. So with Movies and now ..television entertwined with who gets a push, expect more from SHEILD, the rumors of Luke Cage debunked so J August's character will get a push who ever it might be. Then on Marvel's slate it's Ant-man, Dr.Strange and Black Panther, so by the fall the seeds will start being sewn to increase awareness of those characters. Falcon should get more face time since he is in Cap 2, he is already being shocased on the Avengers Assembled Cartoon, Winter Soldier...well he has had his own book and since he is the villain in this then, I don't know. He seems a weird choice for a villian to me.

Speaking of Villians , the other heroes aside from Dr.Strange have a fairly weak rogues gallery and Black Panther barely has one at all, I mean Klaw? Man-Ape, though I suppose they could take him to the Savage Land or something. Ant-man has ...Ultron, then Egg Head and I suppose any of the masters of evilm I think he would be a good gateway to bring in Vision and Wonder-man. Joss confirmed this week that yes, Scarlet With and Quicksliver will be in the Avengers sequel, I thin this will help phase Rober Downey jr out. I'm fine with an Iron-man less team. They will more than liely follow the books and have the team drop down to Cap, Hawkeye, Scarlet Witch, Quicksliver and bring in Black Panter though Captain Marvel is suppose to show up.

Marvel studios has an aversion to characters keeping their mask on so hows that going to work with Black Panther? Will Dr.Strange be in Blu pajamss? At 45 MArk Ruffalo knows the clock is ticking on him as Banner in a stand alone and just think how bad an Iron-man four without Downey will flop as they are saying the character is enough like James Bond that anyone can play him. How long with the Comic book movie trend last? Regardless Marvel needs to step up to the plate and start writing books that have me looking forward to my weekly comic book store run rather than just me making it out of obligation, because once we reach that level of apathy do you think we will pay for movies?

What Now Marvel

Well I'm going to need to re-read Indestrutible Hulk number one before I make a conclusive view of it. I can however form an opinion Blut other releases, Thor number two shows promise, the God Butcher is a nasty and unlike able enough Villian though one dimensional. However this doesn't keep the book from being a lot of fun, the artwork is some of the better stuff coming out from the Now books and the varied time frames of Thor past, present and future isn't too much of a distraction to lead the book off course.

Next up All New X- men number 2 shows improvements as well the art is nothing to write home about but the interaction between Xmen past and present is entertaining and working out better than I though of not appearing to be cluttered with duplicate mutants.

Ff 1 is a joke I don't find funny, the Madman artist is absurd as the books pacing, the putting the team together thing seems like its weighted down by the comedic elements, sorry to see Jen Walters dragged into this mess.

New Avengers 34- the brother Voodoo possessed Avengers fighting Dr. strange is o.k Damian Hellstrom just showing up well it's consistent for this book but doesn't work in the story however the pay off is all in Dr.Strange reclaiming his place as Sorceror Supreme , it's becoming cleaner the more I read Marvel that Strange is one of ,y favorite CHaracters, sure I don't like when he is pit against Hulk in the past but have I ever liked that from anyone...so Strange needs is own book but it looks like it's just coming in the form of the illuminati type avengers book.

Uncanny X-men number 2- the red Skull gives Scarlet Witch a pep talk she almost buys into, Rogue admits to being a power bottom and the team is set into motion but Thor and Cap. Red Skulls little band of anti mutant mutants doesn't really seem to be much of a threat so it's a good thing he got that brain transplant which means the mutant power is not the person but the organ it resides in ? So mutant organ transplant means it can make you a mutant.

I also read the beginning of Super-man Hel on Earth. So there's this scarred up clone who is more powerful than Super-man , so in the 52 we seem to be inconsistent with what Supermans true power level is at and of it is what they lead up to be that he can lift the earth a couple times over is it really that easy to make being more powerful than him ?

Oh and we have the age of Ultrom to look forward to. I imagine this means Pym, Vision, Janet and Womderman are being set into place to play larger roles , which I'm down for as with wasp , Vision and Scarlet Witch back in play like the glory days of the Marvel universe.