Tag: Marvel

Review: Thunderbolts*

Has it really been three months since the last Marvel Cinematic Universe film? My word, how time flies. Ok, commenting on the frequency—and declining quality—of the MCU has practically become an internet pastime, a kind of doom-scrolling for Letterboxd. Yet there’s reason to get excited about THUNDERBOLTS*, a film that wears your skepticism right there in that deliberately placed asterisk.

While Disney has been seeding hints of this team-up since The Falcon and the Winter Soldier and Black Widow, the film’s origins stretch back to 2014, when Guardians of the Galaxy director James Gunn first spoke about developing it. Of course, he’s since gone on to make The Suicide Squad, DC’s analogue for this band of misfits. Still, THUNDERBOLTS* carries a similar vibe to Guardians, if only because there are no real expectations riding on it.

Reeling from the events of the last few years, Yelena Belova (Florence Pugh) is adrift, suffering from severe ennui while working under Valentina Allegra de Fontaine (Julia Louis-Dreyfus), a high-ranking CIA official with a black-ops hustle on the side. When junior senator Bucky Barnes (Sebastian Stan) arrives in Washington, it coincides with Valentina facing impeachment over her extra-governmental activities.

In a desperate move to tie up her loose ends, Valentina sets a trap for Yelena, U.S. Agent John Walker (Wyatt Russell), Ghost (Hannah John-Kamen), and Taskmaster (Olga Kurylenko). But the plan backfires, and the unlikely crew instead teams up with a mysterious man named Bob (Lewis Pullman) and Yelena’s blustering father, Red Guardian (David Harbour), to stop the emergence of a deadly new threat.

Having grown used to bombastic, world-ending crossover plots, it’s surprising (and refreshing) just how compact, intimate, and funny Eric Pearson and Joanna Carlo’s script is. The first half of the film unfolds almost entirely within a secret bunker—a closed-circuit playground that gives the characters room to breathe, bicker, and bond.

When the action does break out, it’s tight, focused, and—save for a city-shaking climax—largely grounded. A desert highway chase plays like a dry, cool Terminator-style set piece, with Marvel seemingly letting director Jake Schreier veer away from the usual house style. Even when he’s pulled back into familiar territory, the film quickly pivots toward a visual interiority that lets these damaged characters work through their trauma in ways that are both inventive and recognisable.

And that may be the biggest surprise of all: this is a blockbuster franchise film that dares to focus on heroes healing themselves. Without giving too much away, the third act introduces a literal darkness that also works as a metaphor for depression and self-worth.. If we’re continuing the Guardians comparison, this is a misfit crew discovering their strength through unity.

Pugh finally steps into the leading-hero role we always knew she’d claim, and Russell gets a redemption arc as a flawed but well-meaning soldier. Still, it’s Harbour who steals scenes with his in-character enthusiasm, even when met with rolling eyes from the team around him.

If the MCU has been stuck looking backwards—a habit Deadpool & Wolverine and Captain America: Brave New World haven’t shaken—rest assured, THUNDERBOLTS* makes it clear it has its eyes on the future. If there’s a glance in the rear-view mirror, it’s not to remind us how fun these films used to be, it makes the case for how they still can be.

2025 | USA | DIRECTOR: Jake Schreier | WRITERS: Eric Pearson, Joanna Calo | CAST: Florence Pugh, Sebastian Stan, Wyatt Russell, Olga Kurylenko, Lewis Pullman, Geraldine Viswanathan, David Harbour, Hannah John-Kamen, Julia Louis-Dreyfus | DISTRIBUTOR: Disney | RUNNING TIME: 127 minutes | RELEASE DATE: 1 May 2025 (Australia), 2 May 2025 (USA)

April 30, 2025
Review: Kraven the Hunter

You have to give them top marks for trying. The Sony Spider-Man Universe (or SSU if you prefer) has often struggled with cohesion, largely due to the notable absence of Spider-Man and a lack of unity across its films. Yet after Morbius, Madame Web, and a trilogy of Venom films, director J. C. Chandor’s KRAVEN THE HUNTER makes an earnest attempt to track down any life left in the concept. As it turns out, there’s still a little bit of fun to be had.

It’s surprising that it’s taken so long to get to Kraven as a screen character. First introduced in Amazing Spider-Man #15 in August 1964 (a detail referenced in Kraven’s prisoner number 0864), he remains one of Spider-Man’s oldest and most iconic foes. His seminal appearance in the Kraven’s Last Hunt storyline of 1987 is still considered one of the greatest Spider-Man arcs ever written.

Yet, save for a few nods to familiar characters and a passing mention of the Daily Bugle, none of that classic lore is present here. KRAVEN THE HUNTER (Aaron Taylor-Johnson) bursts onto the screen with a prison assassination sequence designed to showcase his animalistic powers and basic modus operandi. Only after this action-heavy introduction does the film pivot into a surprisingly lengthy flashback to reveal his origin story.

Raised under the oppressive rule of his father, the ruthless crime lord Nikolai Kravinoff (a bass-voiced Russell Crowe), young Sergei (Levi Miller) is gravely injured by a lion during a hunting expedition with his father and timid half-brother, Dimitri. Sergei’s life is saved by a mysterious potion administered by Calypso, a young girl who also imbues him with extraordinary powers. Estranged from his family as he grows into the titular hunter, Sergei is thrust back into familial chaos when adult Dimitri (Fred Hechinger) is kidnapped by Rhino (Alessandro Nivola), a former associate of Nikolai now transformed with impenetrable skin. Enlisting the help of the adult Calypso (Ariana DeBose), Sergei embarks on a mission to rescue his brother.

As you can probably tell from that lengthy plot description, KRAVEN THE HUNTER throws a lot at the storyboard. Leaping between locations—from Northern Ghana to Far Eastern Russia, London to Northern Turkey and back again—there’s a constant sense of motion and chaos. Yet at its core, Richard Wenk, Art Marcum, and Matt Holloway’s script works best when it focuses on its dual themes of familial drama and Kraven’s identity as “nature’s perfect predator.”

That said, in the wake of the Black Panther films, this throwback to the “last of the white hunters” archetype feels positively retrograde. If you took a drink every time Aaron Taylor-Johnson solemnly intones “I am a hunter,” you’d be tipsy by the midpoint and likely miss the conclusion entirely. Rhino’s villainous motivation—being dismissed due to a physical weakness until he becomes an enhanced human—feels like a direct lift of Matt Smith’s Lucien in Morbius.

In that vein, Chandor uses every inch of the US R-rating to embrace the dark, brooding tone of “serious” comic book films. From heads caught in bear traps to men eviscerated by swinging logs that would put the Ewoks to shame, KRAVEN THE HUNTER doesn’t hold back. Kraven is depicted as an animalistic force, and the parkour-inspired action sequences would have made him a formidable screen adversary for Peter Parker. However, the big showdown with Rhino, while visually striking, feels anticlimactic, wrapping up in minutes after an extended lead-up.

Between this and Venom: The Last Dance’s fizzled finale, we might be witnessing the curtain call of the SSU—if it can even be said to have properly begun. KRAVEN THE HUNTER has its moments and might have worked as a standalone movie. Yet, with its nods to other characters and a rushed setup for future players who may never see the screen, it feels like a hunter caught in its own traps.

2024 | USA | DIRECTOR: J. C. Chandor | WRITERS: Richard Wenk, Art Marcum, and Matt Holloway (Based on the Marvel Comics character) | CAST: Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Ariana DeBose, Fred Hechinger, Alessandro Nivola, Christopher Abbott, Russell Crowe | DISTRIBUTOR: Sony Pictures Releasing | RUNNING TIME: 127 minutes | RELEASE DATE: 12 December 2024 (Australia), 13 December 2024 (USA)

December 12, 2024
Review: Deadpool and Wolverine

Before you even crack the lid on this third Deadpool film, a much-anticipated union between the Fox and Marvel Cinematic Universes, you already know it represents the best and worst of Disney’s recent excesses. Still, as Deadpool literally flogs the desecrated corpse of Logan to the strains of NSYNC, it’s hard not to kick back and have fun with it all.

Given that Wade Wilson/Deadpool (Ryan Reynolds) has always been fully cognisant of life beyond the fourth wall, it’s no surprise that references to the 2019 Fox/Disney merger begins during the Marvel Studios ident. In universe, Deadpool’s unsuccessful attempt to join the Avengers on Earth-616 has left him aimless but content in his native pocket of the film world.

All that changes when the Time Variance Authority (TVA) scoops up the motor-mouthed merc and informs him that due to the death of ‘anchor being’ Wolverine (Hugh Jackman), his timeline has been scheduled for an accelerated demise. Instead of burning out and fading away, Deadpool looks for a way to restore his world by scooping up a reluctant Logan from another timeline.

If you’ve not kept up with the Disney+ series (particularly Loki) or are unfamiliar with life outside the MCU, you might find yourself mildly out of step with some of the references and in-jokes. Of course, you wouldn’t be the core audience either. Deadpool’s stock-in-trade has always been throwing out references faster than the Gilmore Girls. There’s an early montage that throws away nods to the comics (from John Byrne and Chris Claremont/Marc Silvestri art) to the Bryan Singer X-Men films so fast that you’ll get whiplash. (The medical condition and not the Iron Man villain of the same name).

As the film eventually settles into the story proper, a lengthy battle in the Wasteland with Xavier’s hitherto unseen sister Cassandra Nova (Emma Corin), those references only intensify. Here no cow is left sacred, eviscerating characters we’ve grown to love, nodding to both Reynold’s wife Blake Lively and even Jackman’s divorce. Blood flies as fast the f-bombs as the titular characters scrap over the literal ruins of the 20th Century Fox logo. This is precisely the ‘madness’ that was missing from Doctor Strange’s journey through the Multiverse.

Sure, it all culminates in the kind of intertextual multiverse hopping hijinks (or “Marvel Sparkle Circles” in Deadpool’s parlance) that have awed and frustrated audiences over Phases Four and Five of this ongoing saga. There is an absolute melee of a bloody scrap split over two worlds that throws more in-jokes against the wall than an entire animated series. Yet even when it’s straight riffing on things we’ve seen a hundred times before, there’s still room for a few surprises in the name of fanservice.

Is DEADPOOL & WOLVERINE a course correction for the narratively flailing MCU? No, it isn’t—and it doesn’t aspire to be. This film is a self-aware buddy comedy and a love letter to the eclectic blend of Fox and Marvel films that began in the late 1990s and early 2000s. It culminates in a cheeky yet heartfelt montage over the end credits. At the very least, it serves as a reminder of the joy found in (mostly) self-contained universes and, with any luck, offers a glimpse of where the series might lead us next. Let’s fucking go.

2024 | USA | DIRECTOR: Shawn Levy | WRITERS: Ryan Reynolds, Rhett Reese, Paul Wernick, Zeb Wells and Shawn Levy | CAST: Ryan Reynolds, Hugh Jackman, Emma Corrin, Morena Baccarin, Rob Delaney | DISTRIBUTOR: Disney | RUNNING TIME: 128 minutes | RELEASE DATE: 26 July 2024 (USA), 25 July 2024 (Australia)

July 26, 2024
Review: The Marvels

“So,” remarks Captain Marvel (Brie Larson). “We’re literally herding cats.” It’s probably a thought that’s crossed the mind of many Marvel faithful as they tried to cram in all of the Disney+ series, feature films and mixed media spin-offs required to keep up with the MCU. Indeed, to fully step into the world of THE MARVELS, you need to be at least a little au fait with Captain Marvel along with TV’s WandaVision and Ms. Marvel.

It’s the latter that serves as the immediate entry point for this feature, picking up not long after New Jersey’s teen hero Kamala Khan (Iman Vellani) – aka Ms. Marvel – unexpectedly swaps places with her hero Captain Marvel. It’s not just the two of them either, with the now adult Monica Rambeau (Teyonah Parris) completing the triptych.

The malady is being caused by Kree warrior Dar-Benn (Zawe Ashton), whose attempts to restore her homeworld, find Kamala’s magic wrist band and get revenge on Captain Marvel drives the narrative. Together with a spacebound Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson), presumably fresh off his adventures in Secret Invasion, they attempt to figure out how to fix all the things.

THE MARVELS was reportedly subject to some judicious cutting while in post-production hell, and it’s evident in the final product. Filled with messy flashbacks that attempt to recap multiple series and films, and at least one odd cameo who disappears moments after they arrive, the film spends the first half of the film chaotically cutting between characters. It’s here we also spot evidence of the strain the FX companies are under as well, especially during some of those daytime flight sequences.

Director Nia DaCosta had previously conquered the unenviable task of reworking horror classic Candyman, but here she has to wrangle characters from three separate entities. Ms. Marvel’s distinctive style, with animated cutaways and overlays, gives the film energy from the start. Indeed, the scenes that work the best in THE MARVELS are with Kamala’s family. Yet all of these competing styles never quite gel, ostensibly imploding in on themselves during a full-blown musical sequence that feels like it has stepped out of Thor: Love and Thunder. This is not a film we ever hoped to invoke again.

In this melange of Marvels, there is one consistent element: the ill-defined villain. While Ashton’s Kree warrior does have a clear motivation, there’s little to no hope of her character ever stepping beyond the surface level. So, we inevitably come down to two (or more) similarly powered characters digitally rag-dolling their way across the cosmos. Yes, it manages to stick the landing by the skin of its teeth, but only just.

By the time we get to the pre- and mid-credits sequences, we have more fuel to the theory that MCU films are now just extended trailers for the film that comes next. (Remember that time they made a movie around a Harry Styles tease?). THE MARVELS certainly opens the door for more adventures, but the cracks aren’t just showing in the MCU but getting wider.

2023 | USA | DIRECTOR: Nia DaCosta | WRITERS: Nia DaCosta, Megan McDonnell, Elissa Karasik | CAST: Brie Larson, Teyonah Parris, Iman Vellani, Zawe Ashton, Gary Lewis, Park Seo-joon, Zenobia Shroff, Mohan Kapur, Saagar Shaikh, Samuel L. Jackson | DISTRIBUTOR: Disney | RUNNING TIME: 105 minutes | RELEASE DATE: 9 November 2023 (AUS), 10 November 2023 (USA)

November 9, 2023
Review: Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse

Ok, so let’s do this one more time.

His name is Spider-Man and he’s been in pop culture since the 1960s. He’s been a comic book character, animated, on live action television, in blockbusters, rebooted, crossed over, and traveler of the Multiverse on more than one occasion. Five years ago, Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse landed and gave us one of the most startlingly original takes on both animation and hero stories in years. His name is Miles Morales, but he is far from being the only Spider-Man.

The thing is, the landscape has changed in the last couple of years. Multiverses are all the rage now. They are not just a central part of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, but of the DC Extended Universe as well. The live-action Spider-Men have teamed up. Then Everything Everywhere All At Once showed them all up with its Oscar-winning perfection.

So, this sequel comes with some big expectations. The film opens on a downbeat note, as Gwen (voiced by Hailee Steinfeld) is shunned by her father after coming out as Spider-Woman. She is soon whisked into the Multiverse by Miguel O’Hara (Oscar Isaac), a Spider-Man from a future world who leads a secret task force of Spider-People in fixing anomalies caused by the first film.

Back on his Earth, Miles (Shameik Moore) faces the familiar Spider-Man problem of balancing his personal and costumed lives. As his father (Brian Tyree Henry) is about to be promoted to police Captain, Miles is confronted with new villain The Spot (Jason Schwartzman), who has the ability to travel to different dimensions. Miles is inevitably reunited with his old friends, but the experience is not what he’s expecting.

SPIDER-MAN: ACROSS THE SPIDER-VERSE has a big story to tell. Going in and knowing that this is just the first part gives screenwriters Phil Lord, Christopher Miller, and David Callaham time to explore the edges of their Spider-Verse. While I don’t necessarily like the trend of deliberately halved films – the kind we’ve seen from The Hunger Games through Fast X – I also appreciate that they aren’t trying to cram all of this information into a single outing.

This is because the core of this series is still about Miles and Gwen. There are long stretches of the film that focus purely on relationships: the two leads, Miles and his parents, Peter B. Parker (Jake Johnson) and his new baby Mayday. At times, it feels like a much smaller and more intimate movie, certainly more character-driven than its predecessor. Indeed, new faces Jessica Drew/Spider-Woman (Issa Rae), Pavitr Prabhakar/Spider-Man India (Karan Soni) and Hobie Brown/Spider-Punk (Daniel Kaluuya) are so well rounded that they could easily carry their own solo movies.

Of course, none of this stops directors Joaquim Dos Santos, Kemp Powers, and Justin K. Thompson from staging some expansive action sequences. There’s a centrepiece moment where Miles is being chased by hundreds of Spider-People, and it’s exactly the kind of insanity that was missing from Doctor Strange and the Multiverse of Madness. You’ll need multiple viewings, or a pause button on home release, to catch all of the Easter eggs from the comics, animation, and even live action outings. (A favourite of mine was several winking references to the much-maligned Clone Saga of the 1990s comics).

The animation stylistically matches the original, but it has been upped in just about every way. Opening with abstract shapes set to Gwen’s drum beats, it feels like an indirect descendant of Disney’s Fantasia. Gwen’s world is literally painted in broader brushstrokes, while Spider-Punk frequently looks like a series of postmodernist paste-ups ripped out of a black and white newspaper. The way cloth moves on people is so naturalistic that some of the brief live action sequences look artificially constructed in comparison.

It’s almost unfair to judge SPIDER-MAN: ACROSS THE SPIDER-VERSE on its own merits. It throws a lot at us in a relatively small space, and leaves audiences on a deliberately constructed cliffhanger. You might even argue that it’s only half a film. Still, it’s hard to feel anything less than thrilled walking out of this one. Like the best comic books, we can’t wait for the next issue to come out.

2023 | USA | DIRECTOR: Joaquim Dos Santos, Kemp Powers, and Justin K. Thompson | WRITERS: Phil Lord, Christopher Miller, and David Callaham | CAST: Shameik Moore, Hailee Steinfeld, Brian Tyree Henry, Luna Lauren Vélez, Jake Johnson, Jason Schwartzman, Issa Rae, Karan Soni, Daniel Kaluuya, Oscar Isaac | DISTRIBUTOR: Sony Pictures | RUNNING TIME: 140 minutes | RELEASE DATE: 1 June 2023 (AUS), 2 June 2023 (USA)

June 1, 2023
Review: Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3

Was this supposed to happen? Back in 2014, I recall my heart being in my chest as I stepped into an early media screening of the first Guardians of the Galaxy. Having adored the Abnett and Lanning run of the comics, this was one I was looking forward to — but feared the worst. Yet from the moment the Redbone-backed titles dropped, one of the best needle drops in modern cinema history, director James Gunn’s movie owned me hook, line, and sinker.

Cut to almost a decade later and the Guardians are part of the dominant cultural landscape. Following a sequel, several animated spin-offs, cameos galore, a holiday special, and practically carrying Avengers: Infinity War and Endgame, this plucky group of misfits are the beating heart of a multi-billion dollar empire. So, even as we rejoin them at the start of this third headliner outing, we know from the start that we are reaching the end of the road for some of the gang.

For all of the grand cosmic majesty of the series so far, GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY VOL. 3 has one of the more focused plots to date. Peter (Chris Pratt) has drunk himself into a stupor, unable to accept that ‘his’ Gamora (Zoe Saldana) is gone. Yet when Rocket (voiced by Bradley Cooper) is left for dead by the mysterious and powerful Adam (Will Poulter), the Guardians must unlock the key to Rocket’s past in order to save him. This ultimately means seeking out the megalomaniacal High Evolutionary (Chukwudi Iwuji), a kind of intergalactic Dr. Moreau.

By now, there’s a little bit of a formula to Marvel films, even with a series as irreverent as this. Yet Gunn takes his time to really get into the backstory of Rocket. He’s on-screen for most of the film, albeit it’s a tiny baby animal version living in a hybrid nightmare that was possibly concocted by Sid from Toy Story. (Start tallying up the merchandising income now). It’s a noticeable grounding of the narrative, even if it is a blockbuster set inside a brightly coloured organic space lab.

After all, it’s been a weird couple of years for the MCU. Where once they could do no wrong with critics and audiences, somewhere between the many Disney+ series and the critical and commercial disappointment of Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania the franchise lost some sheen. Gunn’s script here shares some of those issues, primarily the perpetual problem of a cookie-cutter villain. New characters, especially Adam, simply appear for perfunctory plot-driven purposes.

Gunn isn’t above pushing some emotionally manipulative (or emotionalistic, as Rocket might say) buttons. After all, if you fill a movie with baby animals and children in peril, half of the dramatic heavy lifting is done by kindchenschema. Gunn’s trademark of a memorable soundtrack feels more like an obligation here too, with a series of whiplash inducing tonal changes that ping from Radiohead to Rainbow, with the unlikely (but welcome) inclusions of Spacehog, The Flaming Lips, Faith No More, X, The The, and The Replacements in between.

Nevertheless, it’s such a joy so see a film so consciously exploring its own past and characters. Bolted together by some impressive action set-pieces, ones that loudly crash into frame and disappear just as quickly, blink and you’ll miss countless Easter eggs and details that are designed for the home market. There’s a series of scenes between Kraglin (Sean Gunn) and Cosmo the Space (voiced by Maria Bakalova) that warmed this cynical geek’s heart.

So, with as much fanfare as possible, it feels as though an MCU Phase has come to an end. Not officially, of course, as Phase Five is only just getting started. Yet if the Avengers are Earth’s mightiest heroes, then the Guardians have been the galaxy’s kindest. Whether we see them all together again in this form is to be seen, but at least we all got to share one last dance with them in the cinema. We are Groot.

2023 | USA | DIRECTOR: James Gunn | WRITERS: James Gunn | CAST: Chris Pratt, Zoe Saldaña, Dave Bautista, Karen Gillan, Pom Klementieff, Vin Diesel, Bradley Cooper, Sean Gunn, Chukwudi Iwuji, Will Poulter, Elizabeth Debicki, Maria Bakalova, Sylvester Stallone | DISTRIBUTOR: Disney | RUNNING TIME: 150 minutes | RELEASE DATE: 3 May 2023 (AUS), 5 May 2023 (USA)

May 4, 2023
Review: Black Panther: Wakanda Forever

The sequel to Black Panther certainly had some odds stacked against it. As the final theatrical film in Phase Four of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, it is ostensibly a conclusion, or at least coda, to the disparate threads of the last two years. It was also faced with acknowledging the tragic death of its star Chadwick Boseman at the end of 2020.

Which is where BLACK PANTHER: WAKANDA FOREVER begins, as T’Challa’s genius sister Shuri (Letitia Wright) valiantly struggles to save the Black Panther from a mystery illness. Unable to rescue him, Wakanda enters a period of national mourning, brilliantly realised by returning director Ryan Coogler in a Wakandan dance ceremony that sets the tone for the film.

As the world learns of T’Challa’s passing, stoic queen Ramonda (Angela Bassett) stops at nothing to defend the nation from foreigners seeking to challenge Wakanda. A US task force, using the technology of young college prodigy Riri Williams (Dominique Thorne), finds an underwater source of the rare vibranium metal — but with unexpected consequences.

The surface world earns the ire of the hitherto unseen Talokan people, an underwater civilisation led by the mighty Namor (Tenoch Huerta Mejía). When Talokans kidnap Riri and attack Wakanda, the two nations are on the brink of war. Shuri must decide to embrace her brother’s legacy or allow herself to be consumed by vengeance.

In WAKANDA FOREVER, the cast is king. In the void left by Boseman, the rest of the characters step up to highlight the world of Wakanda. Bassett is unquestionably the MVP, finding a balance between mourning and fiercely ruling. Winston Duke has a larger role to the delight of everyone, and it’s great to see the return of Lupita Nyong’o. As the anti-hero, Tenoch Huerta Mejía is the find of the century, stepping effortlessly into a new take on one of Marvel’s earliest characters. Only Wright seems a little unsure of the direction for her character, although having the mantle suddenly thrust upon her seems appropriate.

Indeed, there’s a lot going on for our heroes — and some of it gets lost in the mix. The expanded look at Wakanda is wonderful, with Coogler finding a good combination of African-inspired motifs, Afro-Futurist technology, and everyday life. Twinned with the Mayan influence and Yucatec Maya languages of the submariner’s Talokan, there’s a firm sense of place when the story sticks to this simple dichotomy.

Yet the film loses focus the second it steps away from these worlds. As CIA Agent Everett K. Ross (Martin Freeman) desperately tries to misdirect US authorities in order to aid the Wakandans, director Valentina Allegra de Fontaine (Julia Louis-Dreyfus) has her own agenda for control. The inevitability of Riri building her own suit is telegraphed from the start, and frankly cool to see on-screen, but one wonders if it adds anything to this story. There’s so much going on, it may have worked better as a series.

Of course, these are the set-ups for the Disney+ series and other films. After all, the seeds are planted here for the Ironheart and as-yet-untitled Wakanda series, along with the theatrical releases of Armor Wars and Thunderbolts. Indeed, this has been par for the course with Phase Four releases, many of which have focused on next steps rather than the task at hand. Thankfully, Coogler’s character-based drama is a little more grounded than this.

Which is probably why Marvel chose to not end WAKANDA FOREVER with a glimpse of the future, as they’d already given us plenty of hints of what was coming. There’s a mid-credits coda that’s largely been seen as a tribute to Boseman, but it’s also one that allows some space for the emotion of the moment. It allows the cast and audience to come full circle on the mourning period for both the actor and the character.

On a technical level, WAKANDA FOREVER is a mixed bag. Ludwig Göransson’s stirring score is mixed with a banging soundtrack that mixes the likes of Rihanna with terrific tunes from South Africa, Mexico and Nigeria. As one would expect, the special effects are top-notch, and the climactic battles are immersive and gripping. Yet there’s also the Marvel tradition of some fairly ordinary photography in between, perhaps showing cinematographer Autumn Durald Arkapaw’s limited experience with blockbusters. (There are also some shots that I swear were out of focus, but I am willing to blame this on the cinema projection).

On one hand, BLACK PANTHER: WAKANDA FOREVER is the kind of film that Phase Four has needed all along. It contains familiar characters, an expansion of an existing world, while introducing a major character for the future of the franchise. Yet, like Shuri taking on the Black Panther mantle, it is still finding its feet. It will be interesting to see where this timeline branches off to next.

2022 | USA | DIRECTOR: Ryan Coogler | WRITERS: Ryan Coogler, Joe Robert Cole | CAST: Letitia Wright, Lupita Nyong’o, Danai Gurira, Winston Duke, Florence Kasumba, Dominique Thorne, Michaela Coel, Tenoch Huerta Mejía, Martin Freeman, Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Angela Bassett | DISTRIBUTOR: Disney | RUNNING TIME: 161 minutes | RELEASE DATE: 10 November 2022 (AUS), 11 November 2022 (USA)

November 14, 2022
Review: Thor – Love and Thunder

Let me tell you the story of the space viking, Thor Odinson. When he was first introduced as a Phase One member of the soon-to-be-formed Avengers, he was a character ripe for parody. Kenneth Branagh touched on this briefly, but it wasn’t until Taika Waititi’s Thor: Ragnarok that Disney/Marvel owned the inherent silliness in the God of Thunder.

This irreverent approach to the material is still evident from the start of THOR: LOVE AND THUNDER, Waititi’s first official follow-up by way of Avengers: Infinity War and Avengers: Endgame. Following a dark intro in which the grieving Gorr (Christian Bale) vows to slay all gods, we first encounter Thor (Chris Hemsworth) working off his ‘dad bod’ and fighting alongside the Guardians of the Galaxy.

Yet this only gets the film so far, stumbling through a cameo-filled first act and a series of storybook flashbacks that immediately make us question who the audience is supposed to be. Back on Earth, former flame Jane Foster (Natalie Portman) is diagnosed with inoperable cancer, but finds hope when the hammer Mjölnir chooses Jane to be the Mighty Thor. So the Thors in stereo team-up to fight Gorr, even as Jane slowly loses her mortal strength in the process.

There’s lot of fun to be had with this concept, but the tone swings faster than Thor’s Hammer, stitched together on innuendo and so many Guns n’ Roses tunes. As a central villain, Gorr is a good choice, overcoming Marvel’s ‘weak villain’ problem that has plagued the series for some time. Bale gives it his all, seemingly transforming physically every time we see him. Still, the film seems less concerned with his antics than the group of children he has abducted. Indeed, there’s an interesting psychological parallel between the death of Gorr’s child and his abduction of Asgardian children, but the film doesn’t even consider this a plot point worth pursuing.

A centrepiece sequence in which Thor meets Zeus (Russel Crowe with a scenery chewing Greek accent) and loses his clothes is the kind of high camp we expected based on Ragnarok. However, it too is a bright light in a loose and chaotic narrative. Case in point, only moments later, all the colour is literally drained from the film for a dark journey into a shadow realm. THOR: LOVE AND THUNDER is not so much a movie but a series of scenes.

By the time we get to the last act, it feels like the script was still being was cobbled together after production had started, throwing elements against the walls and seeing which of the four quadrants they stick to. There are times when literal deus ex machinas are tacked on to give it some of that Endgame climax magic. Characters neglected since the beginning are suddenly remembered, and it feels on balace as though whole swathes of story have been cut out.

The real crime is not knowing what to do with Tessa Thompson, who is left to literally watch romantic events unfold or sidelined entirely because nobody quite knew where to fit her into the story. When she does appear, we’re reminded of the commanding presence she had in the previous films. Here we can’t help but feel like she is being set-up for a spin-off series.

Which is perhaps where THOR: LOVE AND THUNDER stumbles the most, arriving as it does in a sea of Disney/Marvel content on screens of all size. As one of three feature films — and as many Disney+ series — in 2022 alone, it certainly brings the big-budget thrills one would expect from a theatrical outing. As just another piece in the content puzzle, one can’t help but feel that this is the kind of narrative Disney could have peppered out over a mini-series on their streaming service with a few tweaks.

As is the way with serialised storytelling, we are assured that Thor will return. Mid and post-credits sequences hint at the future, and — following Eternals and Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness — seem to be where Marvel make all their major casting announcements too. Here’s hoping that wherever Thor Odinsson lands next, it lands with the force of a lightning strike. For now, it feels like the distant rumble of a storm that’s passed.

2022 | USA | DIRECTOR: Taika Waititi | WRITERS: Taika Waititi, Jennifer Kaytin Robinson | CAST: Chris Hemsworth, Natalie Portman, Christian Bale, Tessa Thompson, Jaimie Alexander, Taika Waititi, Russell Crowe | DISTRIBUTOR: Disney | RUNNING TIME: 119 minutes | RELEASE DATE: 7 July 2022 (AUS)

July 10, 2022
Review: Doctor Strange and the Multiverse of Madness

There’s a lot to celebrate in Doctor Strange’s second solo outing — if anything in the Marvel Cinematic Universe can truly be said to be ‘solo’ at this point. Not only does it mark the return of some long absent characters, it’s a triumphant return of director Sam Raimi to our theatres after almost a decade away.

In fact, it’s hard to believe, but there have been 14 films and half a dozen limited series in the MCU since the first Doctor Strange. It’s not as though the Sorcerer Supreme has been absent, playing pivotal roles in the Avengers movies and Spider-Man: No Way Home. Yet it speaks to how complex that universe has become over the last six years, and how the Multiverse has become a central storytelling pillar.

Which is a long way of saying that DOCTOR STRANGE AND THE MULTIVERSE OF MADNESS is not just a sequel to its titular predecessor. It’s a link in a chain that stretches from bargaining with Dormammu through the WandaVision, What If…? and Loki series. Like the most recent Spider-Man film, it acknowledges a cinema audience who have been following Marvel on screen for over two decades — but more on that later.

Raimi’s film opens with another Strange in another time and place, where he and teenager America Chavez (Xochitl Gomez) are being chased by a mysterious force. As one Strange falls, Chavez is pulled into a more familiar New York, where our Doctor Stephen Strange (Benedict Cumberbatch) is attending the wedding of old flame Christine Palmer (Rachel McAdams).

After battling a giant creature from another realm, Strange and Sorcerer Supreme Wong (Benedict Wong) learn that Chavez has the ability to inadvertently travel the Multiverse. Suspecting that there are witchy origins to the attacking creatures, Strange seeks the counsel of old ally Wanda Maximoff (Elizabeth Olsen) before setting off on an adventure across the Multiverse to stop the surprising Big Bad.

You may have already seen alleged leaks and spoilers about some of the people they encounter along the way, and it would be a heartless review to spoil any of them for you here. (Suffice it to say: this fan was serviced). Yet this was only a very minor beat in a much bigger story, one that is more interested in exploring the perimeters of its own world.

Which is where the talents of Sam Raimi come in. Lurking just under the surface of this bombastic special effects movie is a true piece of Gothic horror, the kind that Raimi has been perfecting since the late 1970s. There is an initial emphasis on special effects wizardry, yet as soon as the running starts, it’s classic Raimi horror. Rapid cutting between doors, eyes, arms, mirrors and point of view shots are signatures straight from the Evil Dead series. Without giving too much away, it all builds to an expressive zombie moment that is equal parts Marvel and Army of Darkness.

In between, there’s some wonderfully inventive set-pieces that make the most of both director and composer Danny Elfman. Case in point is a fight between alternate versions of Strange where musical notes become the weapons. It’s so batty that it just works. Even the interstitial moments are impressive, including a mind-boggling effect of tumbling through layers of the Multiverse, ones that sits somewhere between the art of Steve Ditko and the animated Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse. The whole thing lasts seconds but leaves an indelible mark.

Writer Michael Waldron, who penned and created the Loki series, is also interested in interrogating these characters a little more. Picking at the edges of the first film, Waldron ponders what becomes of an ambiguous relationship when interrupted by the Blip. Indeed, McAdams gets more meaningful screentime in this sequel than the first, solidifying her reputation as the go-to love interest for time travellers. Strange himself is more tortured, being forced to ponder aspects of himself as they literally pop up before him. Of course, for the many lovers of WandaVision, Waldron continues to explore Wanda’s emotional fragility, making good on the promise of the final moments of the season finale.

Those going in expecting a Multiversal mash-up filled with relentless cameos and winks at the audience may be disappointed, as this is not what this film is about. DOCTOR STRANGE AND THE MULTIVERSE OF MADNESS is unique in the pantheon of recent MCU outings in that it is not wholly about setting up something else. Yes, it leads us down a pathway for future films, but one gets the sense that this was a sandbox everybody wanted to play in whether we were watching or not.

2022 | USA | DIRECTOR: Sam Raimi | WRITERS: Michael Waldron | CAST: Benedict Cumberbatch, Elizabeth Olsen, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Benedict Wong, Xochitl Gomez, Michael Stuhlbarg, Rachel McAdams | DISTRIBUTOR: Disney | RUNNING TIME: 126 minutes | RELEASE DATE: 4 May 2022 (AUS), 6 May 2022 (US)

May 4, 2022
Review: Black Widow

Natasha Romanoff was dead: to begin with. There was no doubt whatever about that. The register of her departure was signed, sealed and delivered in one of many climactic moments in Avengers: Endgame. Yet with a solo film having been in the works since at least 2012, the Marvel Cinematic Universe would not be complete without one (possibly) final outing for Black Widow.

In the grand tradition of recent MCU flicks, it opens in 1995 — around the time Captain Marvel was crashing into the roof of a Los Angeles Blockbuster. Soviet spies Alexei Shostakov (David Harbour) and Melina Vostokoff (Rachel Weisz) have to suddenly leave their small town American home, and after a dramatic chase land a plane in Cuba. Their ‘daughters’ Natasha and Yelena are carted off to the Red Room for kick-ass Widow training.

Following montage set to Malia J’s cover of ‘Smells Like Teen Spirit,’ the film proper picks up 21 years later after the events of Captain America: Civil War, with the adult Natasha (Scarlett Johansson) now on the run. Jetting off to various safe houses in the old country, she runs into her ‘sister’ Yelena (Florence Pugh) — and runs afoul of the highly-skilled masked Taskmaster. With a MacGuffin of a red mist that deprograms mind-controlled Widows, the would-be sisters seek their former ‘parents’ in order to find and kill the mastermind Dreykov (Ray Winstone).

BLACK WIDOW is a film of two halves. In the comparatively gentler paced first half, we see more of Cate Shortland’s signature storytelling. The filmmaker that brought us emotionally packed coming-of-age stories (Joy, Somersault) and the delicate and impressionistic portrait of a young woman impacted by wartime regimes (Lore) is present here. At its best, where the makeshift family gently mocks and challenges each other, there’s a real human drama at play. Part of me wanted to just remain here, pondering whether scriptwriter Eric Pearson’s TV background made this an ideal candidate for a Disney+ series about the heroes running about Europe and hiding from the bad guys. Then again, The Falcon and the Winter Soldier already kind of did that.

Yet its the second part where the previsualised action set-pieces take over that slides the film firmly back into MCU territory. Largely taking place on an aerial base — because it wouldn’t be an MCU film without a big object falling from the sky in the finale — there is some seriously badass action here. Yes, it still comes down to hand-to-hand combat between two foes, and with some staging vaguely reminiscent of the Guardians of the Galaxy finale. That doesn’t mean it isn’t a hell of a ride on the way down, combining midair explosions with Lorne Balfe’s bombastic score to great effect.

Johansson clearly slips comfortably into the titular role, turning up to strap on the spandex and pleather for a seventh time. Harbour, playing a now out-of-shape Russian super soldier, serves up some serious Mr. Incredible realness while trying to fit into his old Red Guardian outfit. It’s unquestionably Pugh who emerges as the new action star though, and one can only hope that Weisz returns in some form in later series outings.

If BLACK WIDOW had landed in its original May 2020 release date, it would have launched Phase 4 of the MCU over a year ago. Yet arriving now in the wake of the endless Disney+ content cycle — which has told more complex stories across WandaVision, The Falcon and the Winter Soldier and Loki — it simply becomes a lower-stakes bit of grist for the mill. Indeed, the obligatory post-credits sequence almost makes the preceding two hours a set-up for a different series due later this year. Or it’s simply a last hurrah with a fan-favourite character, one where we get to see her evolve a little beyond her Avengers teammates and conclusively learn the origin story of her vest.

2021 | USA | DIRECTOR: Cate Shortland | WRITER: Eric Pearson | CAST: Scarlett Johansson, Florence Pugh, David Harbour, O-T Fagbenle, Olga Kurylenko, William Hurt, Ray Winstone, Rachel Weisz | DISTRIBUTOR: Disney | RUNNING TIME: 138 minutes | RELEASE DATE: 9 July 2021 (US/Disney+)

July 10, 2021