The Falcon and the Winter Soldier revealed new characters to invest in (Review)
The Falcon and the Winter Soldier was a great episodic experience.
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Spider-Man: Far From Home was such a good movie! (review)
Spider-Man: Far From Home was seriously a great movie. It was on par with, if not better than, Spider-Man: Homecoming. I was engaged during the entire movie. From the student tribute to Iron Man, Captain America, and Black Widow, all the way to the post scene credits, this was an excellent ending to the past 10 years of awesome entertainment that the MCU has provided us.
Some spoilers ahead, no major ones
Peter Parker’s journey from the beginning of the film to the end of the film was very relatable. He mourned Tony Stark through the whole movie and used his school trip as a way to get his mind off things. Peter clearly wanted to regain some sense of normality in his life and dodge the responsibility that Tony bestowed upon him in death.
He tries to express his feelings to MJ, makes up an excuse to Nick Fury for not being able to help fight the elements, and even easily trusts the next father figure he’s introduced to in Quenton Beck.
Peter’s not thinking straight through most of the movie and that’s how he’s taken advantage of. Honestly, Mysterio teaches him a valuable lesson, even though it’s at the expense of a lot of things.
Speaking of Mysterio, Jake Gyllenhaal was excellent in this role! I’m familiar with the Mysterio character, so I already knew he wasn’t really a friend of the Avengers. However, I was almost fooled into thinking Quenton Beck actually wasn’t the con-artist we know him as in the comics and in the animated series.
Watching Quenton Beck turn into Mysterio and finding out his motive was such a good reveal. I never saw it coming. It was really well done. His entire build up was really well done. And the illusion sequences were the best part of the movie.
Samuel L. Jackson as Nick Fury was on point and the surprising reintroduction of J.K Simmons as J. Jonah Jameson was perfectly annoying. If you’ve played Spider-Man (the most recent video game release) you’ll appreciate that the news broadcasts of the Daily Bugle have been incorporated in Spider-Man: Far From Home as well.
Glad to see both J.Jonah Jameson and the Daily Bugle make their way into this iteration of Spider-Man.
Usually, I get a tad annoyed by adding love scenes into action movies. I don’t understand their purpose and sometimes I feel like they draw away from the important happenings going on. But, MJ and Peter were super cute and awkward. This version of Mary Jane is sarcastic and at least tries to hold her own during situations of trouble. So I liked it.
I want to spoil you! That’s how fun and good the movie was. But I won’t. That’s how good it was!
If you haven’t seen Spider-Man: Far From Home, you should definitely make time to. It’s refreshing and the post-credit scenes will make your jaw drop. I’m excited about the next phase of the MCU, even though we have to wait a few years for it to begin.
Opinion: Fantastic Four (2015) in retrospect is a sci-fi horror film
After watching Dark Phoenix, I was not blown away by the story and felt that certain story arcs should have been explored more to help with certain character development. I wrote a full review about it here.
I don’t feel like I was overly critical because I’m a glass half full kind of person. So even though I wasn’t blown away, I’d never say Dark Phoenix was bad. I just figured that the reboot may have been wrong for this point in time.
I mean this is an era of superhero movies that evoke tears! This is an era where people rewatch and rewatch until every easter egg and theory has been explored. Some times, the type of connection that fans have with a film could cause it to be re-released in theaters only one month and some days after the initial release.
Cough cough, Avengers: Endgame.
Dark Phoenix didn’t evoke that.
That being said I decided to go back in time to 2015. To a time when the world saw a reboot of another story about the Fantastic Four.
Previously, in the 2005 version, it was a story about 2 scientists, a researcher, an astronaut, and a pilot journeying into space to experiment with cosmic energy against the better judgment of certain party members. They get caught in a storm that turns them all into superheroes. Right away three out of the four participants use their powers for good, the fourth one eventually comes around and the Fantastic Four save the day while the fifth powerful being goes rogue.
The film was light-hearted enough. No real consequences that interrupted the flow of the world. Plus at the end of the day, the Fantastic Four stood victorious and all was well.
Cool.
Now that we’re up to speed, let’s look at the most recent reboot.
Reviews for Fantastic Four ( 2015) weren’t the best. In fact, if you google the film you’ll see mostly negative reviews. But I watched it for myself four years later and I’ve come to the conclusion that we’ve been thinking about this all wrong.
This isn’t a whimsical story about superheroes. This is a sci-fi horror film!
Think about it.
Five teenagers who are under supervised with chips on their shoulders use their expertise in science to create a portal to an unknown planet. They have no respect for authority, barely get along with each other, and of course, there is a love triangle involved.
The lack of supervision gives them time to set up an exploration of the unknown planet and when they arrive there is an unknown entity waiting to pounce.
Student number one gets crushed by rocks, student number two is burned alive, and student number three is presumed dead after falling off a cliff into an acid lake.
While trying to bring their ship back,, student number four gets infected due toa blowback blast causing her to go into a coma. And student number five seemly gets away without an issue until he realizes that he is permantly deformed.
Student number five flees after the four surviving members of his group are captured by a private sector of the government. Pleagued by guilt due to the cost his friends have paid he leaves them to be experimented on by the government.
Eventually, the student who fell into the acid lake comes back when the adults, who weren’t paying attention in the first place, try to revisit the unknown planet. His skin is charred and he is unrecognizable. He’s seeking revenge. He’s being bent on death and destruction. He is no longer a human and now his only goal is to kill those who left him behind and destroy the earth by sucking it into a black hole.
See doesn’t that sound good?
Granted the end of the movie sees the four other teenage students band together to destroy the threat but, some horror films have happy endings too.
So next time Fantastic Four (2015) is on TV watch it with new eyes and tell me what you think.