#black widow review

[rudrjobdesk]

Black Widow Review: एवेंजर्स की सबसे फेवरेट कैरेक्टर की सबसे कमज़ोर कहानी - ब्लैक विडो

Black Widow Review: एवेंजर्स की सबसे फेवरेट कैरेक्टर की सबसे कमज़ोर कहानी – ब्लैक विडो

सुपर हीरो फिल्मों की एक बात बड़ी अच्छी लगती है कि उनके सुपर हीरो बनने की कहानी में सभी को बड़ा मज़ा आता है. पीटर पार्कर (Peter Parker) को रेडियोएक्टिव स्पाइडर के काटने से स्पाइडरमैन (Spiderman) बनने का मौका मिलता है, क्रिप्टोनाईट की वजह से क्लार्क केंट को सुपरमैन बनने का मौका मिलता है और अपने माता पिता की हत्या होते देख कर जुर्म से बदला लेने के लिए ब्रूस वेन अपने आपको बैटमैन के रूप में प्रस्तुत…

[jwilliams051197]

Just watched episode 3 of What If Season 2, and it was such a delightful little Christmas episode. Just so many fun holiday moments with the Avengers in this one. Happy turning into a Hulk was so unexpected, but I love all the jokes that came out of it (especially Justin Hammer calling him "Hulk Hogan," which to be honest, he's a better Hulk Hogan than the real life one). So many fun references to Die Hard, too, while also twisting it just enough to not feel stale. Just a fun holiday episode that will probably become tradition to watch year after year for me.

8/10

[nancywheeeler]

look i am delighted marvel is finally in the find out stage after they fucked around and completely over-saturated the market but i can't help noticing it is always, always, always the female-led projects bearing the brunt of the criticism and just left out to dry by disney

[unpassive-viewer]

Black Widow v. The Marvels

Black Widow and The Marvels are both insulated MCU films - they have very little crossover with other MCU characters, and make use of mostly close ups and small sets. Despite their similarities, Black Widow accomplished this so much better than The Marvels. The cinematography was better, the scriptwriting was better, you actually sort of got to know the villain, the fight choreography was better, and as bad as the CG in Black Widow was, it was still better than The Marvels. Disney is absolutely kneecapping their new projects.

[dispatchdcu]

White Widow #1 Review

White Widow #1 Review #whitewidow #blackwidow #MARVEL #marvelcomics #comics #comicbooks #news #mcu #art #info #NCBD #previews #reviews

Writer: Sarah Gailey Art:  Alessandro Miracolo Colors: Matt Milla Letters: VC’s Travis Lanham Publisher:  Marvel Comics Price: $4.99 Release Date: November 1st, 2023 Yelena Belova, Black Widow’s sister and a master assassin, starts a new life in the small town of Idylhaven in White Widow #1.   As she tries to find the perfect coffee shop and get information on her neighbors, she comes into…

[doctorofmagic]

Strange #6 Review

In which a writer (Jed <3) has finally addressed Wong’s problematic portrayal and we’re very grateful for it.

I’ll repost the very first page because there are two things I want to address here.

First is, Wong's father is called Hamir. But Wong is a surname, not a first name, so it’s possible that Wong is a family name in this context. Besides, there’s a non-616 reference to Wong’s first name in Marvel Adventures Super Heroes #9, in which is revealed to be Jason. This is not canon in 616 but I'd love that as much as I’d love his long hair to be a thing.

Second is the fact that FINALLY someone addressed the problematic narrative of servitude that I’ve been talking about for ages. And even though Stephen refused to be called master, it doesn't exempt 60 years of bad writing, especially knowing Wong is a POC. His entire life was shaped by it and I cannot stress how problematic it is for both representation AND his subjectivity as well.

Wong doesn’t blame Hamir, but it’s still a systematic problem and unfortunately it hasn’t been properly vanquished from the Sorcerer Supreme’s lore. It just pains me that, even though I’m aware that Wong loves Stephen, I’m not comfortable with the idea that his life is centered around the Sorcerer Supreme (same goes for Clea and Stephen btw). This is why I loved the fact that he moved in v4 and decided to start his life anew. I keep saying this every week but I’ll always vouch for Wong to have his own mantle outside Stephen’s lore.

Now, back to the chapter. We’re finally introduced to Flickering Jenny and I regret ever loving her at first sight because she’s not good news, as seen at the end of the chapter.

Off-topic but this panel of Bats has so much meme potential, I can’t!!

Okay, another detail is how Wong’s guilt works here. Because he also feels responsible for his Stranges...

And so Wong wants his memory back. Of course, Jenny would give twisted advice because it interests her that Wong stays in the dark. But he’s not happy about it and so he calls Black Widow to seek some tactical advice.

Important: Natasha is a dog person!

Natasha doesn’t know much about what they’re up against but she can tell that the cartel is after the Sorcerer Supreme because she’s preventing them from controlling territories.

Next, a gang called The Lost Boys corners Wong and Bats. And I absolutely ADORED THESE PANELS.

They portray Wong’s rage and frustration with such sensibility and depth. He has so many reasons to go wild and I’m just so grateful it was depicted this way because it gives him the layers he deserves as a character. It’s just so infuriating, the fact that Marvel adapts some aspects of the MCU and adds them into the 616 (Agatha looking like her MCU version in Midnight Suns, for starters, but I could go on and on), so why is it so hard to give Wong the proper depth? A better, less problematic characterization that depicts him as his own person, full of layers and sides we don’t know yet? Better yet, his own mantle? MCU!Wong has it all, even though he’s underused. Surely they can do the same in comics!! I’m begging at this point. I’m very grateful for Jed but this is not even the beginning for a character who has been wronged for 60 years!

Anyways, back to the chapter. They’re now heading to the X-Men!

I need to explain this part real quick. I was not expecting Mysterium to be the main conflict between Clea and the mutants. If you read Hellfire Gala (or saw my posts), you know why Clea has reasons to be mad at the mutants. Emma refused resurrecting Stephen, even though he has helped them plenty of times (Jean mentions Extraordinary X-Men, when Stephen and the magic community helped Illyana teleport the school to Limbo, but I could mention the several times Stephen aided Wolverine, Nightcrawler, Xavier and even Emma herself. Also, no need to mention Illyana, right?)

Instead, Jed opted for mentioning Mysterium. For those who don’t read X-Men: Red and/or Guardians of the Galaxy, Mysterium is a new element made by mutants, with antimagic properties. The Guardians and Doom used a giant bullet of said element to defeat Dormammu, the Living Ego. So yep, this is probably a clue, even though I wonder if it will be explored it all, assuming Marvel hinted Fall of X. Besides, it’s odd that magic users such as Illyana and Pixie didn’t mention the issues with Mysterium. But I digress...

Let’s take a look at Wong’s memories.

There are two elements I haven't mentioned yet. One is a reference to The Oath, in which Stephen tries to find a cure for Wong’s cancer. No writer has ever explored Wong’s cancer again, which I find a missed opportunity.

But the second gives me mixed feelings. This is hardly one of my favorite stories, so quick context: Imei was Wong’s promised fiancée, chosen by the order that protects the Sorcerer Supreme. In other words, Wong was forced to create a family so his son would serve the next SS. At some point, he learned how to love her, but she was killed by Salomé before they could get married. Wong blamed Stephen for it and was seduced by a demon called Xaos who used Imei’s shape to deceive him and seek vengeance. Yep... 90′s, am I right?

I don’t like this arc for obvious reasons but well, it was not ignored by Jed. He really went through the last issues of Sorcerer Supreme and for that, I salute him.

Back to the spell, Jean has to go deeper in order to defeat it. As a defense mechanism, it gives Wong his worst memories. And thus, we have the most painful of all, the one that hurt even us readers.

Despite the pain, Wong retrieves his memory, and now he knows what to do.

Back to the Bar With No Doors, he confronts Flickering Jenny, who turns out to be a former agent of S.H.I.E.L.D.’s magic division. The Blasphemy Cartel is W.A.N.D. and they want to assassinate Jenny.

And so, the chapter ends.

I absolutely adored this chapter and I think there should be more like this one starring Wong, or at least exploring his layers. It was good to see Garbett’s art again, although I love both Garbett’s and Marcelo Ferreira’s works.

I don’t know what the Blasphemy Cartel wants yet, but since I’m not familiar with S.H.I.E.L.D., the revelation didn’t hit me that hard.

With that said, I can’t wait for tomorrow’s issue. Clea and Stephen will meet again and it will be SAD (I have sources that told me what’s going to happen so expect ANGST).

See you there!

[themightystacker]

Lego Marvel Black Widow & Captain America Motorcycles set review

[youtwitinmyface]

Superior Spider-Man #6

Written by Dan Slott Drawn by Humberto Ramos Published by Marvel Comics

Here's a retro review of a comic book that was published by in 2013. The premise of this series is that Doctor Octopus had managed to take over Spider-Man's body.

That's right, through some sort of supervillain shenanigans (I wasn't reading that storyline, so I still don't know the exact details, but for the purposes of this review it's irrelevant), he was now in Spider-Man's brain and had all of his memories. And the plot twist is that once this happened, Doc Ock's massive ego made him decide that he was going to prove that he could live Spider-Man's life, both as a superhero and a civilian, better than Spider-Man ever could. And thus this new series was launched as Doc Ock set out to be a superior Spider-Man, get it?

This is #6 of the new ongoing series and part of a longer overall story arc but, thankfully, Dan Slott writes it as a self-contained story that any reader can follow even if they hadn't read the previous issues, which I hadn't done. I don't recall exactly how I found out about this issue in the first place but I picked it up because I'd somehow heard of the villains who appear in it, and I thought they sounded intriguing. The characters you see on the cover are the duo of Screwball and Jester, a couple of costumed criminals armed with various joke-related weapons like paintball balloons, slingshots, and squirt guns Their modus operandi is that they go around filming themselves "pranking" people in public and uploading the videos online to get hits. But with their software they're able to secretly phish the accounts of everyone who subscribes to their website, and hack all of their credit card and bank info.

I thought that was a clever idea for modern supervillains, as technology advances you'd think more supervillains would be engaging in cybercrime instead of just robbing banks or whatever. In this issue, J. Jonah James, who was the Mayor of New York at the time, is Screwball and Jester's latest victim as they throw a pie in his face and pull his pants down in the middle of a press conference. Jameson is outraged and contacts Spider-Man to track down and apprehend the criminals. So that's the main plot of the issue. There are a couple of subplots. We see that the real Spider-Man is still "alive" sort of. His mind and personality is trapped inside his body, he's unable to control anything, but he can see everything Doc Ock is doing, and can also access Ock's memories, including one flashback of Ock being picked on by a bully when he was a young boy, which is something we see motivates Ock's hatred of people like Screwball and Jester who like to humiliate other people.

Also at this time, Spider-Man was still serving as a member of the Avengers, and in several scenes we see his teammates, Captain America, Wolverine, Spider-Woman, Thor, Black Widow, and Spider-Woman, having a private meeting at Avengers HQ as they discuss Spider-Man's behavior. In recent weeks he's gotten more violent in his treatment of villains, even killing one of them. They don't know about Doc Ock, so they just think Spider-Man is getting out of control. Only Wolverine, no stranger to violence and killing himself, ever speaks to Spider-Man's defense. But they vow to keep a close eye on him.

In his private life, we see that as Peter Parker, Ock has re-enrolled in college to get his PhD. He's also struck up a close friendship, possibly more, with a woman named Anna Maria Marconi, a fellow college student. I can't tell if she's meant to be a Little Person, or just is just really short. But we see her getting made fun of by some other students because of her size, which enrages Ock but Anna Maria takes it in stride. Doc Ock manages to track Screwball and Jester, but when they get the upper hand and mock Spider-Man (all while broadcasting the encounter on their website), Ock snaps and proceeds to brutally beat the crap of both of them, to the horror of the real Spider-Man who can do nothing but watch. I really enjoyed this issue, the characterizations were all spot-on, J. Jonah Jameson is as insufferable as ever, and through captions of Doc Ock's private thoughts, we can see that even as he's trying to be a hero he's still an arrogant egomaniac. And I've also been a fan of Huberto Ramos' artwork and think that Spider-Man is a character that's perfect for his style. Re-reading this issue again after these years makes me think I should probably track down the rest of this series to see what happened next... SUPERIOR SPIDER-MAN #6

[justdealingwithsomeissues]

Another in character best dressed article by Janet... love it... some funny choices here too...

[scarlethoodi]

I only read Audible books so I can’t make actual book content like the cool kids on Booktok, Booktube, etc so I’m putting my 2022 top 10 books here

Dishonorable Mention

You Made A Fool of Death with your Beauty

I fucking hated this book. 2/5 on goodreads. Plot didn’t make sense and the main character pissed me off; never should’ve messed with that man’s daddy (who is also a weirdo). The use of grief was essentially a means to justify the weird plot and say everyone but the main character was wrong. I’m getting mad all over again

10) LilyReads (YouTuber) book club pick that I thought was a romance but I’m glad it wasn’t. In fact I was surprised at the direction it took, but the journey of self discovery was fun in its own messy way

9) I said I wasn’t going to read any white people romance but I’ve seen enough reviews to want to check some out. And I love a good friends to lovers despite what the “haters” say

8) The overall book is okay but the ending is what makes it great. It all started coming together so fast but it perfectly sets up the next book which I can’t wait to get.

Also quick honorable mention: Cinderella is Dead was also a fun read

7) Jake the boy that you are. Did I need that much insight into Sawyer’s mind-no could’ve gone without it. But I’m not mad at it and the contrast between the two of them really made the story what it is.

6) Massive trigger warning: Child Abuse

God this book had me on edge and if I think about the ending too much I start to shake. A book about how so many people can fail a little girl and the consequences of it all around how the only person who seems to care being said missing girl’s best friend. I could cry

5) Another LilyReads book club pick and the most fun I had out of them all. Very fun and enjoyable, I loved the narrative of the way it handled body autonomy

4) All children are charming as an adjective, but you’re charming as a verb if that isn’t an amazing quote. This book was a very fun book and surprisingly my very first male focus YA/romance. Henri was a fun character to see the world through and the narrative of him feeling like an outsider surrounding by those rich kids and trying to balance his own goals along with his parents plus dating. Oh Corinne was just the best here, I was practically shaking when the reveal of his betrayal came in. Also bonus points for not pulling a “we’re teens so in love, how can we separate for different colleges?” I wish them all the best

3) I only checked this out cause I saw it on Goodreads so I wasn’t expecting its content. This was an eye opener and a very emotional read that I gladly told my sisters about. Following an elderly immigrant women at sessions in an unemployment office as she tells her life story to you (the unknown presence of the social worker who is only revealed at the end). It makes me wish that community was reveal

2) Was so excited to get a chance at reading this and it definitely met my standards. F the noise (bad reviews), I got one think it makes perfect sense to fight fire with fire. Hell I think Wu Zetian could’ve been a bit more unhinged at some points. And everyone she killed deserved it, hell probably worse. Also answering a possible love triangle with polyamory *chefs kiss* thank you. Will be reading the sequel

Gaslight, Gatekeep, Girl Boss, Get away with Murder

1) Beautiful world building, diverse and interesting characters with great powers to match-when I get my shit together I will be making fanart. Between this and Cemetery Boys Aiden Thomas is definitely one of my favorite authors so the moment I can I will get physical copies of this book. If you love Percy Jackson I do recommend. My favorite book of the year.

This book was so much fun and a overall joy. I love the combination of fantasy and modern elements, the whole gods among us plus the power play/oppression build into the society. Trans representation that acknowledges said fantasy elements so it introduces different aspects of gender presentation. The slow burn of a rivals to friends (to maybe lovers). Each trial had me on edge as you saw the clear difference in Golds who were raised for this vs Teo and Xio, two Jades not on equal grounds. The betrayal that sets up the end and sequel book. I will be there consuming all of it

This concludes my very unserious reviews of my Top 10 book list of 2022. Follow me on Goodreads I guess, I do plan to use it more next year

[theditwicks]

What's your opinion on the MCU?Favorite movie? Worst Movie? I know we usually do pokemon videos but we want to do one discussing Marvel and reading all your comments!

[ordinaryschmuck]

Salutations random people on the internet who are already scrolling past this! I am an Ordinary Schmuck! I write stories and reviews and draw comics and cartoons!

Now that Black Panther: Wakanda Forever has closed out Phase Four, I figured it's time to finally do something I haven't done yet: Discuss the movies in Phase Four. I shared my thoughts on the shows, reviewing them each week quickly but methodically. As for the films, I wanted to talk about them...but never got around to it.

You call it laziness. I call it an unsurety of how to tackle reviewing these movies.

But now, I've decided just how to do it: Share some quick thoughts on how I feel about each film! And before you say anything, this isn't a ranking. I'm going in order from Black Widow to Wakanda Forever, waiting for another day to rank all of Phase Four from worst to best (maybe after my Pixar worst-to-best ranking). And another thing of note? There are only three movies where I've seen it more than once. The rest are based on initial thoughts I vaguely remember from my first viewing. This means that you should take what I say here with a grain of salt, as, odds are, the feelings I have towards these movies will change in the future if and when I rewatch them.

With that said, here are some quick-ish thoughts on the movies of Phase Four:

Black Widow-I forgot I saw Black Widow the day I watched it...That alone should tell you how I feel about it. But for those in the back, this movie is pretty dull. I do like some things. For instance, the family is a ton of fun (even though I'm hearing Spy X Family does the idea better). They have great chemistry with Natasha and each other, and Yelena steals the show as a little sister type of character who can just so happen to snap your neck with very little ease. I particularly love her dynamic with Natasha, with Yelena thinking like an assassin in dealing with a threat and Natasha thinking like an Avenger in not wanting to hurt anybody in the crossfire. It's a lot of fun to watch, and not enough people talk about it.

As for Taskmaster...I heard people hate how they're treated, but I don't know. I wasn't too bothered by them. It works within the story's context, and Taskmaster is pretty cool with their design and fighting style. It's fun watching them fight and picking up which Avenger they pick their moves from. That's what we call "visual storytelling." And if you hate this one version of the character that doesn't erase the other's existence, at least this Taskmaster still has the most essential feature of a superhero or villain: The powers. You can change whatever you want, but the superpowers are what we remember these characters by. Case in point: Why do you think people got upset about Ms. Marvel's powers changing in her TV show?

But that's just the stuff that makes Black Widow semi-enjoyable. What makes it dull? Well, the action is hit-or-miss, and too much of the story is about Natasha reluctantly organizing a family reunion than actually fighting the bad guy. And it's worth it with her family being so much fun, as I've said, but they might be too much fun because the most uninteresting character in Black Widow might be Black Widow. She's still entertaining...sometimes. The problem is that if this is meant to be a proper send-off to her character, the movie fails in that regard if I'm left wanting to see more of her sister than of her. I mean, I guess it's kind of a win with Yelena being a possible new Black Widow, but again, this movie shouldn't be about her. It should be the character that dozens loved to the point where they've been begging for a Black Widow since Iron Man 2. And they got it...but I think it's safe to say it's not what people have been hoping for.

Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings-Quite possibly the most coherent movie of all of Phase Four. I'll leave it to you to decide if that's a good thing...Wait, no, screw that. This movie's amazing!

I honestly don't get why people overlook this one. Sure, the third act blows, some jokes miss more than they hit, and there are some leaps of logic regarding a character despite them being a pretty hilarious callback. With that said, despite its problems, Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings is still one of the best films of Phase Four. It might be pushing it to say it's one of the best of the MCU as a whole, but it's still pretty great, in my opinion. Shang-Chi is a decent lead who has potential as a new face in this universe. His platonic friendship with Katy is cute, and I'm glad they're pushing this more as a friendship, as you don't really get many platonic relationships between men and women in stories. Xu Wenwu is a great villain with an understandable motive that also makes up for Marvel's mishandling of the Mandarin in Iron Man 3. And the action is downright amazing, having some of the most intense and fast-paced fighting in all of the MCU. That last part is also why the third act falls short, as it's another CGI battle when a personal, hand-to-hand combat between actual humans would have been more effective. Still, there's nothing that bad that ruins this movie for me. It's preferable if a story sticks the landing, but if I still had fun most of the time before things went south, I'd still say that's a win.

Eternals-Hey, look! It's the actual worst movie of Phase Four.

Ok...I want to like Eternals. Because, despite the problems, there are some cases where I could see how this could be something phenomenal. Eternals presents a lot of intriguing ideas, a lot of them based on control. Primarily with this question: Should deities, with the powers to do so many things, be allowed to change humanity, even if it would save their lives? That's a question that gets brought up a lot throughout this movie, and it honestly left me thinking about it a little bit. And while the CGI is...not great, Eternals makes up for it with Arishem. You can FEEL the size of this character, and it's just as breathtaking whether it's on the big screen or on your laptop. Trust me, I know.

But those are the only positives, and the negatives highly outweigh them. For instance, this is too big of a story that's shoved into too small of a movie. Two hours and thirty-seven minutes is not enough time to do everything that Eternals sets out to accomplish. You feel that the most when it comes to the characters, as most of them and their relationships feel underdeveloped by the movie's end. When some characters...leave, you don't feel the impact because you barely got to know them. And when characters reunite, it's just as empty because there's hardly an idea of how close they were. To help fill in the gaps, Eternals is forced to cut away from the main story and deliver flashbacks. This sounds like it helps, but it either doesn't provide enough information or provides information that comes much too late. As is, it feels like a movie that should have been split into two, showing us the history the Eternals lived through and their growing bond over generations with one movie and then showing them save the world in the second. I mean, with the quantity over quality motto that Marvel is going through as of late, you'd think they'd be ok showing two movies, one after the other, to make more money. Because while there are small moments that make Eternals worth a watch, this is evidently a film that had the message and ideas first and considered the plot and characters second. Trust me when I say that many people will say that's a poor move for screenwriting.

Spider-Man: No Way Home-Here it is! My favorite movie of Phase Four.

Is it nothing more than fan-pandering for two-in-a-half hours? Yes. Absolutely. But that's not a problem because Spider-Man: No Way Home is fan-pandering done correctly. And for two reasons.

Reason Number One: It's evident that this movie is about honoring the legacy of Spider-Man through his history of films. It brings together the previous two live-action adaptations in a story that's pretty similar to the actual best Spider-Man movie, Spider-Man: Into the Spiderverse, in a way that it has to be a homage.

"It's not a homage."

Well, screw you. I'm saying it's a homage anyway. Because of... the death of the author...and all that other...junk...

...Reason #2!

Despite the fan-pandering, Spider-Man: No Way Home still utilizes it to tell a good story that develops the MCU's Peter Parker. Yeah, it's him fighting other Spider-Mans' (Spider-Men?) versions of his iconic villains, but those same villains present conflict and changes that are key to this Peter Parker. He's never faced anyone who's gone crazy because of science. Just men who went too far with their greed. Y'know. Like actual Spider-Man villains from the comics.

Having him deal with people who clearly need help, both from their physical and mental anguish, forces Peter to be the most empathetic he's ever been, despite it leading to some of the most painful and worst luck he's ever experienced. Then when he meets other characters (you know who), ones who share that pain and the burden Peter faces, they help him through it and steer him away from a darker path. And on top of that, the movie also develops those characters' stories and provides some quality writing through bad decisions made in worse movies. All of this through a film that's non-stop pandering for two-in-a-half hours.

Is it perfect? Hell no. You can nitpick the story to shreds, and the CGI is pretty hit or miss most of the time. Mostly miss. But, also...f**king--When has an MCU movie ever been perfect?! Don't bring up that one example! You know it's not true!

But even though Spider-Man: No Way Home isn't perfect, it's still a ton of fun and brings out some of the best moments in Spider-Man's movie history. It makes me feel like I can't really complain about the issues when I'm satisfied with the results. And not only is that what makes it my favorite Phase Four movie, but possibly the best live-action Spider-Man movie.

(Note that I said live-action. Spiderverse is still the best. Without a doubt)

Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness-To address the elephant in the room, I will concede in saying Everything Everywhere All At Once is a better multiverse movie than Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness. Granted, I haven't seen it because I save my money for Marvel movies like a dumbass, but I will concede based on everything I've heard from fans who loved it. With that said, Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness is still fun.

It has its fair complaints, don't get me wrong. Ms. America is basically an over-glorified plot device than an actual character, and how she masters her powers is not earned in the slightest. And the villain...Ok, while it's fun to see what's basically a horror movie monster with superpowers act as the movie's main villain, it could have been integrated a lot better. Or maybe not? I don't know. I've been thinking a lot about them and how maybe they're not as awfully written as people think, but that's too long of a conversation for this, so I'll save it for another time. I'll only say I get it when people find it hard to believe how far this villain has fallen, for now.

As for what I love, there are two big things about Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness that makes this an enjoyable time. First of all, there's Doctor Strange himself. People say that the writers sacrificed his character development so Ms. America could be more impressive, and that's...not true. It couldn't be farther from the truth. This movie is about him understanding to not take control of every little situation or making the monumental sacrifice and instead having him learn to have faith in others, not just himself. And he realizes this by seeing how other versions of himself either died or became corrupted due to this arrogance of thinking he can fix everything when that only caused more damage. It's genuinely great stuff, and I honestly don't understand where people are coming from when complaining about how he doesn't develop.

Another thing that makes this movie fun is Sam Raimi. His fingerprints aren't on every scene, but when they allow him to go ham, it is a blast to see. He even tries his best to make this a Marvel horror movie, and while it doesn't work most of the time, there are some semi-spooky stuff and some pretty brutal kills by Marvel's standards. Seriously, I thought Kingpin smashing a guy's head in with a car door was the most gruesome thing to happen in the MCU. Here? Well, let's say it's mindblowing.

Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness could have been a better movie. I will admit to that. But if I came out of the theater feeling like I had a great time watching it and still enjoy it on future rewatches, I don't think that automatically makes it bad. Maybe it's a guilty pleasure or not as awful as some people will claim it is. Either way, I still had fun.

Thor: Love and Thunder-...I mean...I thought it was funny.

Yeah, the reaction you have toward this movie is whether or not you think it's funny. I came to that conclusion when it came to the film's final battle, thinking that if a person doesn't find the absurdity of what's happening now funny, this movie isn't for them.

"Comedy's fine if it doesn't ruin the moment!"

Now, that's a fair complaint. There were moments when I felt like the jokes overstayed their welcome, and it would have been better if Thor: Love and Thunder took itself just a bit more seriously. That might be a problem with Taika Waititi's style because while I loved Thor: Ragnorok as much as the next Marvel nerd, even there, I felt like it could have taken the destruction of Asgard with a bit more groundedness and a little less humor during certain scenes. Here, it's elevated to the nth degree, and I can see why that can bother some people. Now, it wouldn't spoil every moment. Thor making light of how he broke a vending machine is clear that he's trying to make a situation a lot less dreadful. That's a scene where the humor still works, even if it is meant to be taken seriously. However, it doesn't change how the tone can be inconsistent regarding the villain.

Despite how many people say otherwise, Gorr is a great villain. I'll admit he's underutilized, but to say Gorr's awful because of how drastically different he is from the original character in the comics is wrong to me. Gorr's motivation is beyond understandable, and he's genuinely spine-chilling at times. He's easily one of Marvel's darkest villains, but that adds to the problem with the humor. To have such a dark villain be wasted on such a goofy comedy is...frustrating. The tone doesn't match the villain, and it causes the whole thing to feel like a mess.

But, like...I still find it funny.

Yeah, this one's more of a guilty pleasure for me. I think it's funny, and I love the villain, but I don't blame people for hating this one. If they want Thor to be more serious than goofy next time, I won't blame them.

Black Panther: Wakanda Forever-SPOILER-FREE REVIEW! Let me specify that again: This is a SPOILER-FREE REVIEW fresh off my first viewing of the movie. And what a f**king emotional powerhouse!

This is the first movie of Phase Four where it felt like I was being treated as an adult. There are still the same old goofy jokes, but they're nowhere near as frequent as past movies and never felt like it ruins the moment. This was the first time in a while that the central hook of the film was its drama, and it worked every minute, keeping me engaged from beginning to end. It also works well with Shuri. You can feel that she's not herself anymore thanks to T'Challa's death, which is present throughout most of the movie. And it makes a decent connection between her and another character, who I will not name for the sake of spoilers.

Speaking of the characters, everyone is in top form...Except for maybe Ironheart. She's kind of annoying at times. But Namor? Sweet, Mother of Neptune, NAMOR! They did a great job making him his own intriguing character while still honoring his roots in the comics. They don't even make fun of his winged feet! That absurdity was served to them on a silver platter, and no one took it! And it's a good thing, too, because he's easily the best character in the movie for being written well while never taking too much away from the high emotions of Shuri and the satisfying build-up of the new Black Panther. Go watch it if you haven't already. Trust me, it's easily the best movie of Phase Four.

And I'm glad Phase Four went out on a high note. There were a lot of fun moments, but the highs weren't as frequent as the lows this time around. I'm confident things will get better, as Phase Five already promises a cool movie with Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania and an eighten episode long season of Daredevil: Born Again. I'm already looking forward to what comes next, even if a lot of people are falling out of love with the MCU.

[marklikely]

i really do wonder if we'll see the end of the mcu soon though cause the quality of the movies has undeniably been getting worse, and ive noticed a lot of casual fans (which is what most people i know are, including myself, at least a few years ago when i would have actually considered myself a fan at all) are completely uninvested in phase 4 and havent really liked any of the movies lately. plus with how fast theyre pushing them out, overexposure could lead to a huge backlash soon

[jack-ackles]

i would consider black widow not a bad movie but:

▫️ i didn't wait more than a whole decade, 24 movies and death of natasha romanoff herself for a black widow movie only for mcu to put more focus on family drama where most of the screen space and character arcs was given to yelena or alexei and milena

▫️mcu movies didn't give us much details of black widow's life before the s.h.i.e.l.d (only hints) & poured it all on us in a single movie. [without making it about natasha and it looked more like they were laying base for yelena, alexei and melina's entry in the mcu than giving us a story ABOUT natasha]

▫️i seriously felt like there was so less of natasha in her own fucking movie. they could have given the family time of the romanoffs in a different movie or series, i end up feeling like there was so less of natasha (just like in other avenger movies) in her own movie

▫️the STUNTS? the stunts in the air were so poorly shot i'm sorry for example there is this shot where yelena and natasha are rescuing alexei and natasha is in the air hanging from the chopper it was so cool would've been so cool it they put more focus on scarlet/natasha instead of showing scenery from afar like whyyy would you do that it would've been such a great shot. the same happened in the final scene. they must hate black widow for just casually missing this great shot. mcu could've put all that big money in use.

sorry this is just a rant because i am so fucking disappointed with this movie as a natasha romanoff fan. this would be considered a good movie. and it is. if you weren't watching black widow since a decade and finally got a whole movie in her name only to see a family action drama.

to think they kept postponing this movie for so long😑

[edenhasfeelings]

The Multiverse Saga (1/2)

I gonna need everyone who’s saying MCU Phase 4 was shit to shut the fuck up like actually. It was an experimental phase. It was an intro phase to a new saga. The only projects in my opinion that were actually pretty ass were Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness and She-Hulk. If Phase 1 of the MCU were to come out now as it did back then, people would be saying the same thing. Phase 1 was an intro phase, mostly origin stories. “Phase 1 all pointed to Thanos!”  The Iron Man movies didn’t at all? and we didn’t see Thanos until the very end credit scene of The Avengers. “We didn’t even get to see the big bad in any of these!” Um, maybe if you’re blind or didn’t watch all of the projects like you’re acting like you did. Also, instead of their being a singular greater plot, there are several; Kang and the Multiverse, Intros and Origins, what I’m calling Interdimensionality and Space Stuff, Street Level/Classic Avengers heroes, and introducing Mutants and the X-Men. Let me explain (yes, this is my special interest, leave me alone).

Black Widow The amount of bitch fits I heard about this movie, mostly from cishet white men. This movie felt out of place in Phase 4 because it was supposed to be released earlier than it was. The entirety of Phase 4 was a lot more crammed together because of, well, idk, maybe the fucking GLOBAL PANDEMIC. But it stood on its own as a great movie and a great intro to Yelena. 

Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings An origin story for a new hero, never mind the mind blowing graphics and digital effects, made this a great movie. And here we have a hint at a major plot point, mostly highlighted in the end credit scene with Wong, Bruce Banner, and Captain Marvel. The Ten Rings are the Infinity Stones of this saga. It also fits into the Multiverse/Interdimensional aspects of this Saga by introducing Ta Lo (unsure whether that’s space stuff, multiverse stuff, or both).

Eternals If Marvel kept consistently making movies in the same exact way with the same exact directors, people would be bitching about how nothing changes. But them adding a new director and film style sent everyone into an outcry about how out of place it is and shitty. I had a couple of problems with this movie, the main one being the awkward extended sex scene in a Marvel movie, but overall I thought it was a really cool and interesting way to introduce Black Knight and this new element of the Space MCU genre. Also, I loved Makkari and Druig  This movie also got a lot of hate because of Phastos having a husband and 2 second gay kiss scene that occurred. “They’re poisoning our children and forcing things down our throat!” some people cried in ignorance. So the awkward unnecessary straight sex scene was perfectly ok, but the 2 second gay kiss wasn’t? As other representation goes, the POC representation was phenomenal, as well as Makkari being deaf and using sign language.

Spider-Man: No Way Home This movie is self-explanatory. I don’t think anyone had a problem with this movie and if they did, then why. It literally fit right into the theme of the Multiverse Saga in the most mind-blowing, perfect way I didn’t actually expect them to attempt, was a wonderful closing to the MCU Spider-Man trilogy, and also gave a perfect explanation as to why we wouldn’t be seeing Spider-Man as much anymore (thanks Sony). Also a mild set up to Multiverse of Madness.

 Doctor Strange In The Multiverse of Madness Ok, I will die mad about how shitty this movie was. I was severely disappointed. I’ve not seen this movie getting as much criticism as it deserves, but people will rail on all the other female directed movies. Sam Raimi was not the man for this movie. They peddled it as “the MCU’s first horror movie”, but The New Mutants did a better job of superhero horror than this did. The special effects were unusually shit (and ik that quality suffers because of how Marvel is run and their artists are treated), but it was unusually bad. The “horror” aspect was weak jump-scares and overused horror tropes (Wanda coming out of the mirror all bendy, for example). Speaking of Wanda, they absolutely butchered her character and story in my opinion. We don’t see her corruption at all, we just see the end credits scene of WandaVision and now all of a sudden she’s evil. The “Wanda turns evil to get her kids that never existed back” was so much more compelling and fucked up in the comics. Her killing herself at the end felt really gross in my opinion. “There is no way possible to get my kids back so let me just kill myself.” They crammed way too much plot in, and the emotional scenes fell flat. Despite their plot cramming, they didn’t deliver the “mind-bending multiverse” aspects that were promised. And while killing off Black Bolt and Reed Richards in 5 seconds was yes, a terrifying display of her abilities, it completely undermined the power of this crossover and the respective formidability and intelligence of these characters. The last scene of the movie was weird and made no sense, and the end credit scene felt out of place and thrown in there just to introduce Clea. It leaves audiences with no specific adventure or movie to look forward to, just that something is going to happen. The MCU timeline being dubbed as Dimension 616 pissed me off, because, hello, main comic time-stream is 616, the MCU has to be different. Also, one more thing, at the end of the first Doctor Strange, they made it seem like main timeline Karl Mordo was going to be the next villain, but instead we got this weird Multiverse version of him. On a more positive note, the whole Monica Rambeau as Captain Marvel, fancast John Krasinski playing Reed Richards, live action Captain Carter, and Professor Charles fucking Xavier was really, really cool. Professor Xavier’s presence was the first hint at the Mutant storyline, and the whole thing obviously prioritized the Multiverse Saga. It was also a great intro for America Chavez, and I loved that they didn’t at all try to erase the queerness of her character. 

Thor: Love and Thunder Phenomenal. A work of art. Taika Waititi hit it out of the ballpark once again with the same hilarious vibes as Thor: Ragnarok. This was very clearly a Space MCU  movie, as most all of Thor’s movies have been.  I especially loved the comic accuracy of Jane Foster’s Might Thor, and the ending her character deserved. Getting to see Heimdall in Valhalla was awesome. Gorr was a truly fearsome villain that we hadn’t seen in awhile, and he really made you feel for him, especially at the end. His character redemption made perfect sense. Love’s presence in the end was a little confusing to me, as she is a solely MCU character, but I am excited to see what they do with her character.  The representation hit home for me with Valkyrie being King, her blatant bisexuality, Korg’s comic accurate homosexuality, Heimdall’s son being seemingly transgender, and, something I noticed but didn’t see mentioned by anyone, was that Meik’s pronouns had changed from Ragnarok and Endgame.

Black Panther: Wakanda Forever “They shouldn’t have given the Black Panther title to Shuri! They’re turning all the men into women to be woke!” Shut the fuck up please and thank you and pick up a goddamn comic book. Aside from No Way Home, this was the best fucking MCU Phase 4 movie, and is up there with the best MCU movies ever in my opinion. It was raw, and emotional, and gorgeously cinematic in every way possible. Surprisingly, we get a tie in to our Street Level/Classic Avengers characters by the presence of Valentina de Fontaine, who had only previously appeared in the The Falcon and The Winter Soldier and Hawkeye. This was also a set up for Mutants. Namor states that he is mutated and different from his people, hence why he is more powerful, has different physical quirks, is essentially immortal, and is treated like a god amongst them.

I will be going into more detail about the TV shows and specials later in another post.

[heeracha]

-