Category: My Favorite Franchises

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Character Posters

30 – Black Panther: Wakanda Forever

So, coming off of one of my least favorite MCU films, which I still liked, the filmmakers had the difficult task of completely reimagining the lead role.  The tragic death of Chadwick Boseman was a great loss, not only to the MCU, but the world.  And I think they handled it beautifully and respectfully.  They honored the actor by not simply replacing him with another actor.  They re-wrote the story, acknowledging the death of the character, as well as Boseman, making the way in which those who loved him dealt with the loss one of the major themes of the movie.  It was wonderful and sad, and brings a tear to my eye just watching it.  I grieve right along with the characters in the story.

But then they doubled down on the theme of loss and grief by killing off Queen Rmanda, played by Angela Basset, who I love every time I see her in a movie.  She is such a great actress, and while her character’s death was powerful and emotional, I am sad she is no longer a part of the franchise.  And who has to endure all this loss more than anyone?  Shuri, awesomely played by Letitia Wright.  She did such a fantastic job!  And I think that when she took on the role of Wakanda’s protector, the Black Panther, she really stepped up to the plate.  But I also liked the way in which she did it.  When you watch her in the exciting action sequences, you can tell that though she has the super strength, she is not as experienced a fighter as T’Challa.  She barely survives her final fight with Namor.

And speaking of Namor, he is portrayed as a villain, of sorts, but not really.  He is the leader of the under-water kingdom of Talokan.  They are a people of water-breathing, blue-skinned warriors who also have vibranium, and have developed a society completely set apart from all surface dwellers.  But the need to keep their society secret is what drove Namor and his people to acts of terrorism.  Once humans had learned how to detect the rare metal, it would only be a matter of time before Talokan was found.   And I liked that Namor was different than the people he ruled.  Due to the conditions of his birth, he didn’t have blue skin, and he also had wings on his ankles, giving him the ability to fly, just like in the comic books.  And he hated humans, too.

And the final new major player in the narrative was the young college student that invented the vibranium detector, Riri Williams, played by Dominique Thorn.  Riri is supposed to be like Tony Stark intelligent, and has built her own technologically advanced Iron-Man-like suit of armor.  But again, I liked that they didn’t over-do it on her suit’s abilities.  She wasn’t as insanely powered up as Iron-Man was, but given time, it would be believable if she got there.

And of course, I loved that they didn’t ignore the other characters that returned from the first Black Panther movie.  Characters like Okoye, Nakia, M’Baku, and Everett Ross all had their own story lines that developed their characters.  Even Killmonger had a great scene, And they weren’t just there.  They had things to do to move the story along, and they all had to deal with the loss of King T’Challa.  And they were joined by a few new characters that were really cool.  For example, we meet a few more members of the all-female special forces of Wakanda, the Dora Milaje, like Ayo, and her lover, Aneka, played by Florence Kasumba and Michaela Coel,.  And the dangerous character of Valentina Fontaine, played by Julia Louis-Dreyfus was great.

I have to say, one of my favorite parts of the movie was Namor.  I loved that they based the culture of Talokan after Aztek.  It gave them a fresh and unique look that was just really cool.  And Tenoch Huerta Mejia was pretty captivating on the screen.  He really sold the part and though he was often portrayed as the bad guy, I don’t think he was.  A lack of communication and mistakes were made on both sides of the conflict, and it was easy to see his side of it.

Top 10 Favorite Parts

1. T’Challa’s funeral.  Ramonda’s too, for that matter.  Very respectfully done.
2. Namor’s raid on the U.S. Navy vessel.
3. The first meeting between Namor, Ramonda, and Shuri on the beach at night.
4. The escape from Riri’s workshop and the fight on the bridge between Okoye and Attuma
5. Shuri’s private meeting with Namor in Talokan.  It is where I really learned to like the character of Namor.
6. Namor’s attack on Wakanda and Ramonda’s death was a thrilling spectacle.
7. Shuri cracks the secret of replicating the heart-shaped herb, all of which Killmonger burned in the first movie.
8. Shuri’s meeting with Killmonger on the Ancestral Plane
9. The epic battle on the Wakandan ship in the Atlantic Ocean, and Ironheart fighting Namor in the sky.
10. The final fight between Namor and Black Panther on the beach.  Shuri really kicks butt!

Cast Photos

Character Posters

28 – Doctor Strange: In the Multiverse of Madness

This is the second time I have watched this movie, and I enjoyed it even more this time than I did the first.  It is the first MCU film that has been called a horror film, and was even helmed by the renowned film director, Sam Raimi, the same man who made the Evil Dead trilogy and Drag Me to Hell.  There was some really scary imagery and some overtly frightening story elements that were crazy and awesome!  But it was still an MCU action movie, and that never went away.  And Raimi did a fantastic job, too.  The story was tight, the acting was incredible, especially from Elizabeth Olsen, and the visual effects were phenomenal.  He got so many things right.

First off, there were the characters.  The movie didn’t just use the returning characters of Doctor Strange and the Scarlet Witch.  It developed them.  It brought them to the next phase of their overall arches.  Wanda Maximoff, because of the events that took place in the Disney Plus TV show, WandaVision, actually became the main villain, and it made sense.  After everything that happened to her in the Infinity War Saga, and as her reality altering powers grew, becoming the bad guy almost seemed like the natural progression for the character.  And Doctor Strange, himself, had to start using dark magic in order to fight her, magic that was dangerous to use.  And it changed him in fundamental ways.  The dark stains on his fingers that appeared after he used the Darkhold, and the menacing third eye that appeared on his forehead at the end of the film, are both indications that his soul was being corrupted by touches of evil.

Second, were the horror elements.  The Scarlet Witch was like a demon, bent on murdering an innocent young girl in order to kidnap her children from another Wanda in a different reality, calling the children hers.  That’s some pretty dark stuff.  The scene where she attacks and destroys Kamar-taj had a shot that reminded me of The Ring, where she claws and crawls her way out of the mirror dimension like a monster.  It was very cool!

And we have to talk about the young girl she is trying to abduct and murder, in order to steal her powers.  She is America Chavez, a mutant with the natural ability to travel between dimensions at will.  The first time I saw the movie, I wasn’t that impressed with her character, but this time, I saw her in a different light.  I’d thought she was an underdeveloped character who did a lot of reacting, and not a lot of acting.  But if you think about it, that was exactly the way the character needed to be.  She was not a seasoned superhero like Doctor Strange.  She didn’t have the experience to be able to do much more than run, and keep running, and try to understand a power she couldn’t control.   And she wasn’t the main character, so it was ok.

Then there was the whole fan-service scene, the Illuminati.  They brought in a couple of fan favorites from several different sources like Patrick Stewart as Professor X, Karl Mordo, Haley Atwell as Captain Carter, from the Disney Plus animated What If… series, Captain Marvel, played by Lashana Lynch, instead of Brie Larson, Anson Mount playing Black Bolt from Marvel’s ABC television series Inhumans, and John Krasinski as Reed Richards.  Krasinski was the perfect Reed Richards, if you ask me, but the actor has said he doesn’t want to play the role on a long term basis.  As of this writing, the official MCU’s F4 movie is still six months away, and the role will be taken by Pedro Pascal.  Never thought of Mr. Fantastic as Spanish, but I’m on board.  But not that the Illuminati mattered much.  The Scarlet Witch murders them all in a pretty gruesome fashion.  The shot where she broke Professor X’s neck was pretty horrifically intense.

It is also significant to note that according to Wikipedia, Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness was one of the most expensive films ever made, with a production budget of $350.6 million.  And it was a very successful film, grossing over $955.8 million at the box office.  Obviously they got it right, and I thoroughly enjoyed watching the movie.  Loved it!

Top 10 Favorite Parts

1. Alternate Strange and America fight a demon to reach the Book of Vishanti, but fail.
2. Strange and Wong fight the tentacle eye demon in the streets of New York.
3. Strange’s conversation with Wanda in the Cherry Blossom field, and the revelation that it is a wasteland.  “You break the rules and become a hero.  I do it and I become the enemy.  That doesn’t seem fair.”
4. The Scarlet Witch attacks Kamar-Taj
5. America and Strange escape through the Multiverse.
6. The meeting with the Illuminati.  I really liked Krasinski.
7. Wanda murders the Illuminati and Strange, America and Christine Palmer go after the Book of Vishanti
8. Strange’s encounter with the destroyed universe’s Strange.  I particularly liked the music notes battle.
9. Strange possesses a corpse and is attacked by demons.
10. America convinces the Scarlet Witch that she is a monster, causing her to destroy Mount Wundagore, all Darkholds in all universes, and herself.  But beware the flash of red in the falling mountain.  Is she really dead…?

Cast Photos

Character Posters

27 – Spider-Man: No Way Home

Even though I enjoyed some of the more unpopular MCU movies like Black Widow and The Eternals, unlike many Marvel fans, I understand that maybe Marvel was off its game.  But here with the third movie in the Spider-Man sub-franchise, No Way Home, the quality came back in a big way.  Not only did they deliver a fantastic story, but they were able to neatly tie the larger MCU franchise into the Sony Spiderverse without even breaking a sweat.  It was seamless and completely believable, within the confines of the superhero genre.  Here was our first big introduction to the Multiverse, and it worked beautifully.

We picked up right where the last Spider-Man movie left off.  The world suddenly knows who the webbed hero’s secret identity is, and it not only ruins his life, but the lives of his friends and family.  I love the somewhat realistic path the story takes in that direction.  It follows the progression, or should I say, the conclusion of the romantic relationship between Aunt May and Happy Hogan.  It follows the deepening of the relationship between Peter Parker and MJ.  It gives Ned a chance to have some super-powers.  And through all that, it gives us plenty of fantastic action sequences, which goes without saying.  It is, after all, an MCU Superhero Movie.

But the coolest thing this movie did is rounding up the two Sony Spider-Mans and most of their villains like the Green Goblin, Dr. Octopus, Electro, Sandman, and the Lizard, and the got all the same actors to come back and reprise their roles.  It was incredible enough to see Andrew Garfield and Toby MaGuire show up as variants of Peter Parker, but to get all the best villains back as well was a pretty incredible feat.  And they did it in a way that totally made sense!  And the great thing about it was that the actors from the Sony Spider-Man movies didn’t just show up for little cameos.  They were full-fledged participants in the narrative.  Not only did this movie pay homage and respect to the Sony movies that came before, but they built on the complexities of the various characters and continued their stories.  It was brilliant! 

But they even went a step further.  They gave the villains costume upgrades, and even went so far as to explain the differences.  For example, in the Sony movies, Electro’s powers were blue-based.  But here they changed it to yellow, which is actually more comic-book accurate, and they explained it with just a quick line or two of dialogue.  The energy in the alternate universe felt different to the character and manifested itself in a different way.  Smoothly done!

But not only was there thrilling action, like the climactic battle between the three Spider heroes and the five super villains, but there was also a huge emotional content in the film.  The whole idea of Peter asking Dr. Strange to make all his friends forget about him was actually heartbreaking, if you think about it.  And the scene where Aunt May dies was gut-wrenching.  And here, it was she, and not Uncle Ben, that delivers the great line, “With great power comes great responsibility,” a phrase that has become synonymous with Spider-Man.

For me one of the best parts of the movie was one of my least favorite Spider-Man bad guys, the Green Goblin.  And that is because of Willem Dafoe.  He is such a phenomenal actor!  I’ve never seen him do a bad job in any movie he’s ever been in.  He always gives every performance a thousand percent.  And this movie was no exception.  But he made the Goblin even scarier here than he could in the Sony film.  They took the silly looking mask off his face and allowed us to see Dafoe acting the hell out of his part.  It showed us his conflicted nature, and the true madness of the villain.  The fight in the apartment building between Spider-Man and the Green Goblin was awesome, and ended with the emotional death of Aunt May.  This movie got so many things right, and it is great to see the MCU back on top of its game.

Top 10 Favorite Parts

1. Peter and MJ arrive back at Aunt May’s place and find May and Happy breaking up.
2. Peter goes to see Dr. Strange and the Spell.
3. The Fight on the Bridge and the introduction of Doc Oc.
4. Spider-Man captures Electro with Sandman’s help.
5. The Conversation between all the Super-villains in the Wizard’s Dungeon, where they all realize they were snatched away from dying in their own universes.
6. Spider-Man’s fight with Strange.
7. The Green Goblin reveals his true face and the following fight with Spider-Man.
8. Ned Summons the other two Spider-Mans.  I also loved the scenes where they compare the differences in their powers.
9. The climactic battle with the three Spider-Men and the five villains.
10. Peter says goodbye to his friends, knowing they will forget him forever.

Cast Photos

Character Posters

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.

Cast Photos

Character Posters

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.