Author: Snugglecub

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26 – The Eternals

Ok, I’ll admit, this wasn’t the best of the MCU movies, but that being said, I still really enjoy watching it.  I liked the characters, even though there wasn’t any real character development.  But the movie tried to introduce ten new superheroes, not to mention side characters, villains, and side villains.  But I really loved the stunning visuals.  The MCU never fails to deliver on that point.  I loved the fantastic and diverse cast of actors, the awesome costumes, the story, the little ways in which it tried to tie to the bit MCU tapestry, and the fantastic action sequences.

So let me just cover the things I didn’t like, and get them out of the way as quickly as possible.  I didn’t like we were given too many shots of the Eternals lining up and posing dramatically, because that didn’t make any sense within the narrative.  It was like she was trying to gratuitously give us a bunch of big money shots when they weren’t really necessary.  Once at the beginning when they first appeared on the screen would have been sufficient.  I don’t like that we had to have the first actual sex scene in the entire franchise.  I think that felt gratuitous, too.  I didn’t like the way we viewers were supposed to care about a hero when they get killed off, even though we weren’t given a chance to get to know them or become attached to them. 

But what I loved far outweighed those few things.  First, based on what little we are given in character development, I liked the new heroes.  They had cool names, cool costumes, cool powers, and a cool purpose in the overall franchise. There was Ajak, Sersi, Ikaris, Kingo, Sprite, Phastos, Makkari, Druig, Gilgamesh, and Thena, played by Selma Hayek, Gemma Chan, Richard Madden, Kumail Nanjiani, Lia McHugh, Brian Tyree Henry, Lauren Ridloff, Barry Keoghan, Don Lee, and Angelina Jolie.  They all did a great job, though Hayek didn’t get enough screen time, if you ask me.  Oh, and in one of the mid-credit scenes, we are introduced to Harry Styles, playing Starfox, who I really liked from the comics.  Now that was perfect casting!

And I liked that they answered the big question everyone was asking before the movie premiered.  We were told that these heroes had all been on Earth for centuries, guiding mankind in its growth as a species of varying civilizations.  So why didn’t they help in the fight against Thanos?  I felt the explanation was an acceptable one.  They are basically servants of the god-like beings, the Celestials, and they were instructed not to interfere in the conflicts of humans, unless Deivants were involved.  They were only instructed to keep the Deviants in check, a job which had been accomplished hundreds of years ago.  Since then, they’ve just been waiting for more instructions and bending the rules once in a while by helping mankind to advance.

I also loved how one of the Eternals, Phastos, was gay.  He was in a relationship with another man and they had a son together.  It was handled respectfully and I thought it was great.  Phastos also happened to be my favorite in terms of his powers.  He was a craftsman/inventor of fantastical machines and technologies.  Of all the Eternals, he was the only one who was able to subdue Ikaris when he turned against his teammates.  Or course, Ikaris was just too powerful, and eventually freed himself.  I also liked the little subp0lot with Thena and how she beat the big bad Devient.  Jolie was pretty awesome in that scene.

But now a giant marble Celestial corpse is sticking out of the Indian Ocean.  I understand that the comics make us of the anomaly, but this movie underperformed at the box office, so the planned sequel was cancelled and no other MCU movie has made reference to the massive head and hand that can supposedly be seen from space.  Also, if the emerging Celestial was that giant, and had been coming from the Earth’s core, even emerging that much would have pretty much destroyed the planet, wouldn’t it?  Or maybe it just wasn’t as big as the movie made it seem.

Top 10 Favorite Parts

1. The Eternals save the villagers from attacking Deviants
2. The fight with the Deviant in London
3. Sersi tells Dane of the history and purpose of the Eternals, and why they didn’t help with Thanos.
4. The meetings with Arishem, first with Ajak, and later with Sersi
5. The meeting where Thena’s Mad Weary sickness is discussed.
6. Meeting Gilgamesh and Thena in the desert.  I really loved the character of Gilgamesh.  The dinner party scene was great.
7. The Fight with the Deviants in the Amazon
8. Phastos and his family.  He was also great in the Hiroshima scene.
9. The Fight against Ikaris and Thena’s confrontation with Kro
10. Sersi kills Tiamut by changing him to marble.

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25 – Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings

This was a really great movie that introduced a whole bunch of awesome new characters and brought back a few old ones.  It was based off the comic book character of the same name, but was modernized for the MCU.  It was great to have a mostly Asian cast, the only non-Asian actors being Ben Kingsley, returning as Trevor Slattery, and Florien Munteanu as Razor Fist.  Shang-Chi absolutely lived up the high standards of the MCU.  It had a big epic story with a lot of intense fast paced action.  There was a bit of light humor, and drama that resulted in self-discovery and empowerment.  Very Disney, actually.

First of all we get Simu Liu as our lead character, Shang Chi.  He is handsome, obviously very fit, and clearly trained in martial arts, which is this movie’s main mode of action.  I remember during the 80s when old foreign Kung-Fu movies had a resurgence in popularity.  My brothers couldn’t get enough of them.  Then there was another renaissance for the genre when Jackie Chan was discovered by American audiences.  Chan had a style that was all his own, making prodigious use of the set and whatever physical props happen to be at hand to create a new kind of Martial Arts film action that had some inherent humor and a bit of whimsy.  Liu was up to the challenge and was exciting to watch.  The fight on the speeding bus is a perfect example of this.

But here, we are given a modern, big budget, high profile film that combines both styles, creating some great fantasy actions sequences.  It has become the standard for the MCU to rely heavily on CGI for its visual effects, and this movie is no exception.  But as I’ve said before, when the effects have this level of realism, I don’t mind.  It looks great on the big screen.  There were a number of fantastical creatures that were completely animated, from the cute little faceless animal, Morris, to the giant evil dragon, The Dweller in Darkness, a soul-consuming demon.  And of course, there was the beautiful white Great Protector Dragon 

And there were several members of the cast, besides the lead, who I really loved.  First of all there was Michelle Yeoh, who I have loved ever since I first saw her in Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon.  She is always awesome, no matter what film or TV show I see her in.  But I also really loved the main bad guy-Shang-Chi’s father, Tony Leung, who I would swear, I’ve seen in some other film, though, I can’t remember which, even after reviewing his filmography.  He did a great job with the drama as well as the action.  Now, I have to admit, the first time I watched this movie, I couldn’t stand the character of Katy, played by the actress/rapper, Awkwafina.  I felt she was annoying, and I couldn’t stand her voice, which always sounded like she was on the verge of laryngitis.  But I have since warmed to both the character and the actress.  Meng’er Zhang played Chang-Chi’s sister, Xu Xialing, a young girl who was the victim of misogyny from her father, but who rose to create an empire of her own, eventually taking over the crime-based Ten Rings Organization from him.  Never-mind that Shang-Chi ended up with the actual rings.

One thing in the movie that I always roll my eyes at is the part where Michelle Yeoh is telling Shang-Chi and his friends the history of Ta Lo, and there is an elaborate wooden diorama depicting the story.  Really?  Someone spent all that time in-universe, carving all that, just so the audience would have something to look at while Ying-Nan offered up a monologue of exposition.  That was silly.  They did the same thing in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol 2 on Ego.  But other than that, the visuals in this movie made full use of that beautiful Chinese aesthetic that is both spiritual and dramatic, that has a sense of history, of fantasy, and of mysticism that are just captivating.  It is apparent in their architecture, their clothing, their movements, in their fighting, and in their attitudes.  I love watching this movie.  It is lush and colorful in such a gorgeous way.  And what fantasy lover doesn’t get excited over a battle between two dragons?

Top 10 Favorite Parts

1. The friendly skirmish where Xu Wenwu and Ying Li meet and fall in love.  Beautifully filmed.
2. The fight on the bus, and the introduction of Razor Fist
3. The cage matches between Wong and The Abomination, and between Shang-Chi and Xu Xialing
4. The fight on the bamboo scaffolding.
5. The whole scene with the water-map.  Great visual effects.
6. The race through the bamboo forest to reach Ta Lo
7. The double flashback sequence of the death of Ying Li and Xu Wenwu’s revenge on the assassins.
8. The thrilling battle between Shang-Chi and his father in front of the interdimensional Gate, and the dramatic death of Xu Wenwu.
9. The final fight between Shang-Chi and the Dweller in Darkness, and how Katy enables Shang-Chi’s victory with a perfectly aimed arrow.
10. Shang-Chi and Katy return home and are summoned by Wong to join the bigger MCU roster of heroes.

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24 – Black Widow

I remember the first time I saw Black Widow.  It was in the theater, and it was one of the first movie’s I’d seen after the end of my self-isolation because of the Pandemic.  It was really exciting to be able to go back out in public again.  It was a great action-packed movie, but it felt like it was a bit of a let-down.  It was not as fantastically super-powered as the previous entries in the franchise.  There were no gods from Asgard, and no magic wielding monks who could teleport across the globe.  And because they dialed the story back to a more down-to-earth narrative, it felt separate from the main tapestry of the MCU, like it didn’t quite fit with what had come before.  It definitely felt like a transition into a new era.  It was a whole new tapestry that was still somehow connected to the big tapestry of the previous twenty-three movies.

Black Widow was an awesome character who had made the ultimate sacrifice to save the entire universe in Endgame.  She had no super-human powers beyond her kick-ass fighting skills and a few tech gadgets like a face-changing espionage device, or a surprise miniature grappling hook.  And for her character, that had always been enough.  That, and her brains.  She was super intelligent.  The story was a prequel that took place just after the events of Captain America: Civil War, meaning that she was still an Avenger, though she was on the run from the law.

The more times I see this movie, the better I like it.  The story was cool, and we are introduced to several great characters, some of whom are still prominent in the MCU today.  We got great characters like Natasha Romanoff’s sister, Yelena Belova, awesomely played by Florence Pugh.  Though they were not blood related, they were siblings in a family of Russian undercover agents who were stealing intel from S.H.I.E.L.D.  Their mother was a Red Room Black Widow assassin, and the father was the Russian attempt to replicate the super-soldier abilities of Captain America, the Red Guardian.  Dreykov was a good enough villain, though he didn’t do much.  Same with Taskmaster, though she looked good in her costume and mask.  I liked her powers of fighting mimicry, though, I wish they would have developed her more.

I particularly loved David Harbour as Alexei Shostakov.  He has obvious super strength and durability, but is not big on brains.  He is just so charismatic.  And I really loved Yelena Belova.  There was definitely a bond between her and Natasha, though there is also a certain amount of sibling rivalry that was explored in a sensitive way.  And she is just as skilled a fighter as her Avenger sister.  And who am I kidding?  I also loved Rachel Weisz as the mother, Melina Vostokoff.  She was intelligent and kicked ass with the best of them. 

And as usual, the action sequences were thrilling and over-the-top.  There were fantastic fight scenes, and the idea of impossible technology that we’ve already seen in the MCU, things like the flying fortress, the Red Room, where all the Black Widow assassins are trained.  There was a secret serum in gaseous form that could release a Widow from the mind control of Dreykov, the master of the Red Room, and engineered pheromones that could prevent any Widow from harming him.  All stuff that only exists in the comic book world that is the MCU. 

But if I had a single complaint, it’s that the whole point of the Black Widow assassins is that they are not endowed with super-powers.  The Red Guardian, yes, but not the Widows.  Then someone tell me how Natasha can fall from the top of a seven or eight story building, banging into fire-escape railings and AC ducts on the way down, and land in a crumpled heap on the ground without dying?  Natasha seems to be able to take a ridiculous amount of serious, life threatening injury, and then shrug it all off without little more than bruises.  So maybe she does have a bit of superpower, that of unearthly durability.  I always have to roll my eye at that one.

Top 10 Favorite Parts

1. The family’s daring escape from the US.  I loved when the dad jumped on the wing of the plane as it took off, and was still firing his gun at the pursuers.
2. Natasha’s first fight with Taskmaster on the bridge
3. Natasha and Yelena are reunited.  I loved their sibling banter… and their fast-paced fight.
4. The girls’ daring escape through the streets of Budapest.
5. Alexei’s arm-wrestling scene in the prison.  “Oh no!  Hahaha.  That guy think he going to beat me.”  Also, the entire prison-break sequence!  The avalanche! 
6. Natasha, Yelena, and Alexei are reunited with Melina. and the family banter around the table.
7. The family infiltrates the Red Room and the reveal that Melina and Natasha had switched places.
8. Melina finds a way to destroy the Red Room fortress making it blow up and fall from the sky.
9. Yelena kills Dreykov by destroying his aircraft and sacrificing herself in the process, but Black Widow saves her as they fall.
10. Natasha reconciles with Yelena and the rest of the family in the aftermath of the destruction of the Red Room.